Mayor Brown: City Hall Will Continue To  Cooperate With Authorities “If Requested to Do So”

At press time there was still no word from authorities about the purpose of last Wednesday’s  dramatic entry into city Hall by the agents from the FBI, IRS and HUD and the subsequent removal of  boxes of information from a city hall office.  

Tuesday Nov 12  Mayor Brown  released a statement to The Challenger, echoing his earlier response  to the news media, that he was only aware  that the search warrant  had been executed, but had no details from  the agencies conducting the search.

“We are aware that a search warrant was executed on November 6th for an office of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.  We have not heard any details from the agencies conducting the search regarding what they were looking for, or the nature of the action,” the statement read. “

“ It would be inappropriate for us to speculate any further into the nature of the action or the manner in which it was conducted. The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency employees cooperated with the federal agency staff that were here and will continue to cooperate if requested to do so.”

The Mayor told news agencies last week that he had not been given any information  about the actions taken by the  agents  who executed search warrants to investigate offices occupied by  the Buffalo Urban Renewal agency (BURA) and the Office of Strategic Planning.

 A source who was interviewed by Spectrum News said investigators were speaking with current and former city employees and looking into allegations of “misappropriation of funds.” 

 BURA has a board that includes mostly government officials, including Mayor Brown, who is the chairperson.