MAYORAL CANDIDATE SAM HERBERT OFFERING "A CHOICE AND A NEW VOICE" IN MAYORAL RACE ASKING BUFFALO CITIZENS TO  PUT HIM OVER TOP IN BID TO GET ON PRIMARY BALLOT

Would you like to see Buffalo voters given the opportunity to vote for "A Choice and a New Voice" in this year's race for Mayor? If so, you can personally make this happen by signing a Sam Herbert for Mayor petition. All you have to do is to call 847-0410 and Sam will make sure he or one of his campaign workers gets a petition form to you.

"First of all, I want to thank the over 75 people who came to my home at 105 Struass on my 60th birthday on June 30 to participate in my petition signing party," Herbert says. "Also, I want to thank all the people of Buffalo for the warmth and kindness they have shown me as I've travelled around the city getting my petitions signed. I am asking the residents of Buffalo to help me give our citizens 'A Choice and a New Voice' in the race for this high office. With the help of God and the good people of this city, we will all succeed in making the City of Buffalo a better place in which to live for everyone." 

DEMOCRATIC MAYORAL CANDIDATE PLEDGED NON-POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION INCLUDING COMMISSIONERS WHO "DELIVER SERVICES, NOT POLITICS"

Democratic mayoral challenger and South District Common Council Member Mickey Kearns stood on the steps of City Hall at noon on Monday to accuse the current administraton of attempting to "bully and muscle" Civil Service workers into laboring on behalf of the Mayor's re-election campaign. His press conference came in the wake of a front page Buffalo News story in Monday's edition which cited e-mails sent out by Community Services Commissioner Tanya Perrin-Johnson to city employees. In the e-mails, Perrin-Johnson is quoted urging her department's employees to work "minimally eight hours per week" on Mayor Brown's re-election campaign. 

"I am standing here in front of a symbol of the civil service to defend our hard working civil service employees from being bullied and muscled into working on any political campaign," he declared. "The e-mails sent out by Commissioner Perrin-Johnson are clearly coercive. The Mayor should discipline her for sending them. Our civil service employees here at City Hall are here to work to support their families and to serve the people of the City of Buffalo. They are not here to be forced to spend their free time working on any politician's campaign."

STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL ANDREW CUOMO REGARDING LIEUTENANT
GOVERNOR APPOINTMENT PROPOSAL...ATTORNEY GENERAL QUOTES CONSTITUTION, LAW  TO DECLARE IT'S NOT LEGAL WITHOUT AMENDMENT

"The State Constitution explicitly prescribes what occurs when there is
a vacancy in the Office of Lieutenant Governor.  In such circumstance,
article 4, § 6 states that “the temporary president of the senate
shall perform all the duties of the lieutenant-governor during such
vacancy . . . .”          

Article 4, § 1 of the Constitution expressly provides that “the
lieutenant-governor shall be chosen at the same time, and for the same
term” as the Governor.  The Legislature did not authorize a Governor
to bypass this provision of the Constitution and fill a vacancy in the
Office of Lieutenant Governor pursuant to Public Officers Law § 43.
That statute, which provides for Gubernatorial appointment to fill
certain vacancies,  applies only when there is “no provision of law
for filling the same”.  With respect to the Lieutenant Governor,
however, the Constitution leaves no gap concerning a vacancy in that
office - article 4, § 6 expressly addresses that circumstance.

BUFFALO/GRAND ISLAND ASSEMBLYMEMBER STILL "WORKING HARD" WHILE SENATE IMPASSE CONTINUES ON FOUR MAJOR PRIORITIES INCLUDING SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, NIXING AUTHORITY EXECUTIVE BONUESES

As the NYS Senate leadership impasse goes on unabated, Buffalo/Grand Island Assemblymember Sam Hoyt is reminding his colleagues in Albany's upper house that continued gridlock is simply not a viable option in an exclusive interview with NewWNYPolitics.

"My Senate colleagues have got to understand that they have GOT to resolve this leadership crisis," the Assemblymember insists. "They are being paid to pass legislation just like members of the Assembly are. We in the Assembly are busy doing our jobs ever day. There are just too many important bills pending that need our attention in areas such as education, economic development, and aid to local government that need to be dealt with. It is simply not an option for them to allow this to go on indefinitely."

What about a constitutional amendment that would prevent such an Albany imbroglio from ever happening again?

CHEEKTOWAGA 4TH PARADE FULL OF POLKA AND POLITICS...GLASCOTT, ROGOWSKI, JAWOROWICZ WELL RECEIVED...A CHALLENGER EXPLAINS HER REASONS FOR RUNNING

Saturday's latest annual Cheektowaga 4th of July Parade was a spirited affair, full of polka and politics. Cheektowaga Town Board Members Jim Rogowski and Stan Kaznowski walked in front of a truck carrying the polka band, "Focus," that was brightly festooned with the words "We Support Polonia."

"We put that message on there because we are Polish ourselves and we do support the Polish people in Cheektowaga just as we honor all ethnic heritages," Councilman Rogowski explained. "We continue to work hard to keep taxes down while maintaining needed services for our people."

Not far away, fellow Town Board Member Pat Jaworowicz was honoring her long association with the Cheektowaga Police by marching with the parade's law enforcement contingent, including Democratic Erie County Sheriff nominee and Cheektowaga Police Captain John Glascott.

"I wanted to march with our police officers because I have worked so closely with them as chairperson of the Town Board's Public Safety Committee for so long and because I think they're the best," she pointed out. "I feel very honored to walk with them today and every day, including our own Captain Glascott, who I think will make an excellent Erie County Sheriff. I think it's time for a change in our Sheriff's Dept.

Captain Glascott talked about the recent decisicion of the NYS Health Dept. to remove health related services at the Holding Center from the control of the Erie County Sheriff because of reports of incompetence.

HIGHLY RESPECTED CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER DAVID JAY SAYS IT IS "DUTY OF EVERY ATTORNEY" TO FIGHT BILL OF RIGHTS VIOLATIONS..."AFTER ALL, WE TOOK AN OATH!"

Why did highly respected WNY constitutional lawyer David Jay take the case of Syaed Ali, a Buffalo information technology entrepreneur whose family home was raided by Buffalo Police last Nov. 7 while he was detained for over seven hours, apparently so he could be asked about his political associations?

"Because this case cries out to be heard," Jay replies. "This was an obscene abuse of power in which a citizen's  home was raided and he was detained without any evidence of wrong doing, without a legal search warrant and without any arrest warrant whatsoever. If these guys have read the constitution, they must have read it backwards. This kind of thing has been going on during the entire 40 years that I've been practicing and I know it was going on for hundreds of years before that. Politicians will always go after people they think are causing them problems and try to stop them using any means at hand even if the Constitution is being violated. It becomes an obsession. A politician's first job is to get re-elected. That's all they care about. In this case, I have no idea why they chose this particular person to attack."

COUNTY LEGISLATURE UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES REDUCING

SIZE OF THE LEGISLATURE TO 13 MEMBERS FROM 15

The Erie County Legislature unanimously voted to reduce the size of the Legislature to 13 members from 15 and increase the length of terms to four years from two at its July 2 session.

The 14-0 approval of this local law reducing the size of the Legislature and lengthening the terms of office will go before the voters of Erie County in November, unless the administration vetoes this reduction effort.

The local law was sponsored by County Legislature Chair Lynn M. Marinelli, Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte, Government Affairs Committee Chair Legislator Barbara Miler-Williams and Legislators Betty Jean Grant, Michele M. Iannello, Kathy Konst, Daniel M. Kozub, Thomas J. Mazur, Robert B. Reynolds Jr. and Timothy M. Wroblewski.

TOWN BOARD MEMBER JAWOROWICZ...A FRIEND OF THE CHEEKTOWAGA POLICE...A FIGHTER FOR TAXPAYERS

First recruited to enter the political world by her brother-in-law, former County Legislator Richard Slisz, Pat Jaworowicz has taken advantage of the opportunity to become a career long champion for the people of Cheektowaga. During her years as a Town Board Member at the corner of Broadway and Union, she has taken her greatest pride in her service as chairperson of the Cheektowaga Council's Public Safety Committee.

"As the Chair of our Public Safety Committee, I have worked very closely with our Cheektowaga Police and I am very proud of what they have been able to accomplish for our citizens," she says. "I have always believed that public safety is the most important duty of any elected official. If the streets aren't safe and secure for all of our people, there is nothing else government can do for them. In the case of the Town of Cheektkowaga, our police force hasn't done a good job, they've done a superb job and I'm very proud of that."

WNY COMMUNITY ACTIVIST ASKS SENATORS TO DO PEOPLE'S BUSINESS...END POLITICS OF "STATUS QUO"

WNY businessman and community leader Eddie Egriu is asking both Democrats and Republicans in the NYS Senate to "stop the petty bickering" and get back to doing "the people's business."

"I have been spending a lot of time talking with average people during my travels around the area as a businesssman," Egriu reports. "What people are telling me is that they want their state senators to do the job they were elected to do and forget about which party is running things and which one is in the opposition and work together to get needed bills passed. The impasse that currently exists in our state senate is proving to be disasterous for our school districts and for funding for health care and other major priorities. We can't afford to suffer layoffs in our educational system that will result in less educational opportunities for our citizens. Our Senators are totally mired in the status quo with no real change in sight."

INFORMED SOURCE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF BUFFALO NEWS STORY BY MATT GRYTA RE THE SYAED ALI CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS LAWSUIT RECENTLY FILED BY ATTORNEY DAVID JAY

One of our more reliable informed sources is reporting that he just doesn't quite know what to make of Buffalo News reporter Matt Gryta's recently posted story about the Syaed Ali lawsuit for constitutional rights violations against the City of Buffalo and two officers.

"The story is interesting but strange because Gryta is acting like the main sticking point related to those infamous and totally false e-mails was that the author was demanding that certain city officials resign," our source points out. "But, by far the most important point connected to them was that they purported to implicate high City Hall potentates of personal wrong doing, without the slightest corroboration, of course. Yet, Gryta completely ignores this aspect of the story. Also, he chooses to bury what should have been the piece's most dramatic content, namely Syaed's accusation that he was grilled by the officers involved about his political associations."

In any case...

"In any case, getting back to the e-mails, the really important fact to keep in mind is that whether the e-mails related to this accusation or that, they were protected speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, in any case, and not subject to criminal penalties, but only civil remedies at most under American law," this source assures us. "If calling for an elected officials' resignation were against the law, half of the South Carolina Legislature would be in jail even as we speak!"

WHILE SOME LAMENT EMBATTLED ELLICOTT COUNCILMAN DAVIS' CONTINUED MEMBERSHIP ON THE COMMON COUNCIL, OUR SOURCE CONTENDS HE IS DOING MOST DAMAGE AS PRESIDENT OF THE CAO...NEWWNYPOLITICS ASSIGNS REPORTER TO GET ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RELATED TO CAO ATTORNEY CONTROVERSY

If the continuing presence of the Ellicott District's City Hall rep, Brian Davis, on the Buffalo Common Council both amazes and outrages you, (not to mention his continued chairmanship of the CC's Police Committee), one source is telling us that you should save your real concern for the fact that he remains President of an extremely well funded Community Action Organization.

"Remember, the CAO gets $35 million a year from the federal government to do what, I'm not sure, and Brian Davis has control of that money," our guy or gal points out. "What is he doing with all of it?...One thing he is doing with it is spending a lot of money on outside lawyers who, in turn, are and have been providing a lot of money in the form of campaign contributions and other help to Councilman Davis and his friends. How many outside lawyers is the CAO paying? How many lawyers do they have on their staff? These are all things you'd have to know to really understand exactly how much money is being wasted and who is benefitting from the spending of all of these taxpayer funds."

Accordingly, NewWNYPolitics has assigned an investigative reporter to get answers to precisely these questions. Stay tuned.

 FULL TEXT OF SYAED ALI LAW SUIT AS FILED BY ATTORNEY DAVID JAY AGAINST BUFFALO POLICE OFFICER, NYS ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE INVESTIGATOR. CITY OF BUFFALO FOR RECOVERY OF PROPERTY, "VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS"

Now that the local media has begun seeking comment from WNY information technology entrepreneur Syaed Ali and his attorney, respected constitutional lawyer David Jay, regarding their pending law suit against the City of Buffalo and two others for "violation of constitutional rights," we are happy to provide the full text of this historic suit to our readers. Our only comment: Wasn't it Thomas Jefferson who said: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!"