BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns is defending the recent hiring of a person whom he describes as a “distant relative” to a top position in the clerk’s office.
Kearns is an enrolled Democrat seeking re-election, but without the party's endorsement which went to Melissa Hartman who switched her party enrollment from Republican to Democrat earlier this year.
Kearns will challenge Hartman in the upcoming Democratic Party primary, however, even if he is defeated, he is expected to run in November’s general election with the endorsement of the Republican Party, as he has done previously.
Erie County Democratic Chair Jeremy Zellner, speaking on WBEN radio’s Hardline program, accused Kearns of doing a poor job as county clerk, and then said a recent inquiry under the Freedom of Information Law revealed that a top job in the clerk’s office recently went to a relative of Kearns.
“He has hired his cousin to be the first deputy clerk of Erie County," claimed Zellner. “He took him from somewhere else in county government, gave him a $20,000 pay increase, bypassed everyone in that office, and made him the first deputy clerk."
“This is obviously very political for Mr. Zellner,” said Kearns, who defended the hiring of Kevin Linder, whom he acknowledged was his second cousin.
Kearns claimed that several candidates were considered for the position but that Linder was the best qualified.
“He’s been an attorney for 16 years, served as chief of staff at the Buffalo Common Council working with city lawmakers to develop and implement policy, and then went on to work as an Assistant District Attorney in the office of District Attorney John Flynn,” said Kearns.
Kearns said it was important to get a person with a legal background in the position of the first deputy due to the office seeing an increasing load of real estate transactions and in particular foreclosures, which often involve cash transactions. In addition, New York’s new changes in gun laws will be impacting pistol permits, which is a primary function of the clerk’s office.
“Getting that person getting that person that had both legal experience and government experience was very important," Kearns said. “There is not another person that is more qualified to take that position than Mr. Linder ."
Linder replaces John Fenz, who was also an attorney, as First Deputy Clerk. Fenz left for a job with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.
As for charges of nepotism, Kearns said Zellner should be the last one to complain, noting that the brother of County Executive Mark Poloncarz works at the Board of Elections under the direction of Zellner, who serves as one of the county’s two Elections Commissioners.
Meanwhile, Hartman says she has contacted the County Ethics Board requesting that it investigate the hiring, But Kearns says as far as he knows, under the ethics code, it would be reportable only if Linder was his first cousin, not his second.
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