As Davis Resignation/News Expose Rumors Grow...Question: What Will Happen Next?
Written by Glenn Gramigna, Editor

WITH DAVIS RESIGNATION COMING, BUFFALO NEWS REVELATIONS REPORTEDLY ALSO IMMINENT...PROPERTY ROOM SNAFU IN ALI CASE, YET ANOTHER EMBARASSMENT TO CAPTORS

With speculation rampant from Genesee to Grant St. that troubled Ellicott District Councilman Brian Davis will resign soon, for health and other reasons, with a highly critical Buffalo News expose of his activities in the offing, attention is now turning to what will happen next.

According to our source, the answer could mean a major shift in the City Hall balance of power.

"If Davis resigns, that will in turn trigger a battle royal to pick his successor," he or she predicts. "There would be a big fight anyway, but this one will be even more ferocious because if the anti-Brown faction wins, they would have a 6-3, veto proof majority on the Common Council. That would mean that Brown opponents would be able to pass just about anything they want over the Mayor's objections., something that would constitute an explosive change in how Buffalo is governed."

Could the anti-Brown faction pull it off?

"Quite possibly," says our guy, "because that district is only about one third inner city African-American. It's also one third Hispanic and about one third white. So an anti-Brown Hispanic candidate who could get white votes on the Democratic Party committee that will make the decision could win. On top of that, there's the fact that allies of Chairman Lenihan were the big victors in Dem committee races in the inner city last year. All of this could lead to a victory for a pro Lenihan, anti Mayor Brown successor to Davis quite easily."

A SORRY CHAPTER IN A SORRY SAGA

Moving on to another Buffalo disaster, it seems that when Queen City Police engineered that infamous, Nov. 7, 2008 raid on the family home of WNY info tech businessman Syaed Ali, the list of seized personal items they gave him was all wrong....How do we know that?...Because when the local gendarmes lured Syaed down to Police headquarters recently to pick up "some" of his stuff, they gave him things they have never before admitted taking!

Yet another sorry chapter in the sorry saga of an apparent attempt by someone to get Syaed to incriminate political figures he apparently either doesn't know or hardly knows....Talk about a comedy of errors!

News Davis Story Raises Questions...Orsini's Letter
Written by Glenn Gramigna, Editor

DAVIS INTERVENES FOR DRUG DEALER...BOUNCES A THOUSAND CHECKS, YET REMAINS CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL POLICE COMMITTEE?...ORSINI'S LETTER

Sunday's Buffalo News story on the many bounced checks, tax liens, lawsuits, and election law violations that have crowded the life of Ellicott District Councilmember Brian Davis in recent years raises more question than it answers:

How could a Councilman who intervened to keep a convicted drug dealer out of jail remain as Chairman of the Common Council's Police Oversight Committee?...How can a man who doesn't seem able to handle his own finances honestly be allowed to vote on the City's billion dollar budget?...How is it that we are only finding out about most of these issues now?...And, most important, how many other embarassing City Hall revelations are on the brink of being revealed?

We are hoping answers to all of them will be forthcoming soon.

Moving on to Independent Party matters, clearly the large crowd that attended last week's installation of

Erie County IP officers at Kronie's in Kenmore proves that an attempt by former ECIP Chairman Tony Orsinni didn't totally succeed. Orsini had written a letter to many local politicos, warning that any candidate who attended the affair that installed Sandy Rosenswie as Chair would not get the IP endorsement for any office in 2009. Orsini contends that he will still control such endorsements under the auspices of the IP state committee which he says is still loyal to him.

While it could be argued that a number of 2009 candidates, including most county legislators, didn't show, the event turned out to be a crowded get together, brightened by the presence of political figures such as Democratic Erie County Chairman Len Lenihan, Republican County Sheriff Tim Howard, Supreme Court Justice John O'Donnell, Drug and Veterans Court Judge Robert Russell, Housing Court Judge Henry Nowak, Legislature Chairperson Lynn Marinelli, County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, and former Dem Chairman Steve Pigeon.