BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW — If Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown makes a career change, as many expect, it could happen soon and would lead to a major shakeup in local politics.
It does seem that his interest in leaving City Hall is real as sources close to 7 News Political Analyst Bob McCarthy and myself say conversations are happening about Brown leaving office before his current term is up.
Those conversations date back to earlier this year. In May I asked the mayor about the possibility of leaving before his term ends next year.
"You know I have always run with a plan to fulfill my full term that's my plan right now but we'll see what the future holds," Brown said in May.
Brown would make history by choosing to step down early. He’s already serving an unprecedented fifth term in office.
According to the city charter, should Brown leave, Common Council President Chris Scanlon would become acting mayor.
Me: Are we hearing any potential time frame of when this could happen?
McCarthy: Most of the people that I have heard, and I believe the people that you have talked to also are talking about maybe as early as late this month or September.
We just passed a significant deadline for this potential exit on August 5. If Brown had announced his exit before then, there would have been a special election this November.
With the August 5 deadline behind us, Brown wouldn’t be permanently replaced until next year’s general election with Scanlon serving as acting mayor at the end of next year.
"I don't think it's just a coincidence that this is happening like this," said McCarthy. "Mayor Brown and Council President Scanlon are very close like this. That's after Chris Scanlon delivered South Buffalo in a really big way in the mayor's last election."
While this is playing out, behind-the-scenes sources have told me that two of Scanlon’s staffers have taken jobs with the mayor’s administration. A city spokesperson confirmed one was hired in March, and the other in April…but said this isn’t the first time the administration has hired council staffers.
I reached out for a sit-down interview with Scanlon about all of this. Our schedules didn’t align – but he sent the following statement instead:
"I am aware of the speculation surrounding the tenure of Mayor Brown. As President of the Buffalo Common Council, one of my charter mandated responsibilities is to assume the role of acting mayor in the case of the ‘mayor's resignation, removal, death or permanent inability to discharge the powers and duties of the office of mayor.’
If that day comes, I will meet my responsibilities head on and serve the residents of the City of Buffalo to the best of my ability."
McCarthy: This is not all easy...If this all turns out the way it looks to be turning out, Chris Scanlon has some tough days ahead of him as acting mayor.
Me: He has always had some interest in being the mayor. I mean, what would this do for him? Should he become acting mayor?
McCarthy: I think it would be fulfilling a real ambition that he's always had... He has held the South Council District seat for a long time now that seat was kind of flip-flopping back and forth for a long time, so he's got a real stronghold in one of the most politically important parts of the city, where, don't forget that there's a lot of police officers and firefighters and other city employees that are based in South Buffalo. It's always been a stronghold for city jobs.
As far as Brown’s next steps, McCarthy and I have heard about the possibility of Brown taking a job with Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.
"Which would be a very top-level job running that entire operation, which might be a good way for him to look at post-retirement, as far as pension," McCarthy said.
OTB’s president and CEO Henry Wojtaszek and two top executives are being bought out of their contracts and will be leaving by the end of the year paving the way for new faces to join the public gambling agency.
As this all plays out, NYS and county leaders are calling on the OTB board to rescind the executives' buyouts.
"There has been an application process for the OTB position, and I'm sure there's a lot of other people who would like to have such a lucrative job also...let's keep our eyes on what happens in Batavia at the headquarters OTB for the western region and see what happens. That may dictate a lot of what happens politically in the city of Buffalo," McCarthy said.
