Investigative Post

2 days ago | investigativepost.org | J. Dale Shoemaker

Kleinhans Music Hall. Photo by J. Dale ShoemakerThe Scanlon administration has been talking about unloading city-owned cultural institutions as part of its efforts to shore up Buffalo’s short- and long-term finances. Since taking office, Acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon and his aides have discussed selling Kleinhans Music Hall, perhaps to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the venue’s principal user.

1 week ago | investigativepost.org | J. Dale Shoemaker

Meetings of the Erie and Niagara county IDAs (top) and the Genesee County IDA industrial park (bottom). Across Western New York last year, some 639 companies were allowed to skip out on $91 million in tax payments. In exchange, those companies kept nearly 18,000 people employed. The story doesn’t end there. The companies also paid fees to the industrial development agencies that issued those tax breaks — nearly $22 million in 2024.

1 week ago | investigativepost.org | J. Dale Shoemaker |Robert Creenan |Mark Scheer

Wojtaszek at one of his final Western OTB meetings. Photo by Garrett Looker. Months after leaving his six-figure job as president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., Henry Wojtaszek has landed a new position as a “relicensing attorney” for the Town of Lewiston.

1 week ago | investigativepost.org | Geoff Kelly

The Buffalo Police Department has put five officers on administrative leave as it continues to investigate the department’s response to the incident last April in which Erie County Sheriff Narcotics Chief D.J. Granville hit seven parked cars in his county-owned pickup truck. Police also, on the day the statute of limitations was set to expire, issued citations to Granville for leaving the scene of an accident.

2 weeks ago | investigativepost.org | Geoff Kelly

Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon in City Hall. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’cielActing Mayor Chris Scanlon’s first budget proposal is balanced with $30 million that may not materialize, absent cooperation from lawmakers in Albany. His $622 million spending plan also depends on upticks in the cost, enforcement and collection of city fees and fines that often have fallen short of expectations. Its viability also swings on a dramatic reduction in overtime costs, which in recent years have gone nowhere but up.