BUFFALO INTEGRITY FIRST: ETHICS AND TRANSPARENCY

Buffalonians deserve an effective, ethical, and honest city government. After decades of the same leadership, we need to bring change to the City of Buffalo. That change must include stronger measures to root out corruption, increase transparency, and restore public integrity to city government.

We have seen troubling headlines coming out of Buffalo City Hall for far too long. Some recent examples:

Investigative Post has reported that Acting Mayor Scanlon sent out an invitation to a political fundraiser that used the official mayoral office in City Hall as a return address, a clear violation of state law.
The same outlet later reported that Acting Mayor Scanlon used the official City of Buffalo website to promote his political campaign’s social media accounts, another clear violation of state law.
Scanlon appointed a deputy mayor who is moonlighting as a lobbyist, with clients before city authorities. Scanlon appointed PR Consultant and lobbyist Brian Gould as deputy mayor in October 2024. In February 2025, media reports revealed that Gould continued to moonlight as a consultant while working for the City. A 2025 disclosure filed with the State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government shows Gould was one of his firm’s three lobbyists for Arcadis Of New York Inc., and that one of the bodies Arcadis intended to lobby was the Buffalo Sewer Authority. The Buffalo Sewer Authority is essentially an extension of the mayor’s office, as the mayor appoints the board. Scanlon recently appointed Gould as a member of the Buffalo Sewer Authority board.
Scanlon has turned public service into a family business. Five siblings work for the City of Buffalo, including Brian and Patrick (firefighters), Michael (foreman for DPW), John and Kara (dispatchers). Scanlon even hired his brother Patrick as an intern in 2014, despite the obvious conflict of interest. His wife serves as a City of Buffalo bingo inspector.

As Mayor, Sean will hold himself and members of his administration to the highest ethical standards, and work every day to ensure City Hall is more transparent to the people of the City of Buffalo. Sean is running on a platform of cleaning up City Hall by putting forward common-sense reforms to ensure transparency in the Mayor’s Office, reform the City Ethics Board, ban nepotism and outside employment for top city officials, reform City contracting, and overhaul the City of Buffalo’s FOIA request and appeals process. Buffalo deserves leadership that is ethical and transparent, and Sean will put forward comprehensive public integrity reforms to deliver the change that Buffalo needs.

Reform The City Ethics Board

The current rules governing the City of Buffalo ethics board are in need of reform. Investigative Post reported that the board was essentially defunct from 2020 to 2022 because they could not reach a quorum. As Mayor, Sean will work to put new rules in place to increase transparency and prevent conflicts of interest. He will work to prohibit appointments to the board by persons who have made substantial political donations to members of the Board of Ethics Nominating Committee, and will work to strengthen the rules of the board to ensure it meets regularly and is always fully staffed.

Establish New Transparency Measures

As Mayor, Sean will lead by example by ensuring that his administration is open and honest with the public. Sean will regularly release his public schedule on the City of Buffalo website, and will launch a review of the City of Buffalo’s Open Data online portal to ensure the public and the media are provided with up-to-date and accurate information from the City. Sean will also revamp rules to ensure all employees are receiving comprehensive ethics training on an annual basis.

Ban Nepotism and Outside Employment for Top City Officials

Sean will personally commit to not hiring members of his family for positions funded by the City of Buffalo – and propose new city legislation to prohibit the hiring of family members within the same department or agency. In addition, to prevent the “Brian Gould Problem,” as Mayor, Sean will prohibit top City officials (including Deputy Mayors) from having significant outside employment. Finally, Sean will work with the common council to put forward a plan to place limits on political contributions from city employees.

Reform City Contracting

The City of Buffalo works with outside contractors to provide various city services and functions. Sean wants to ensure that the contracting process has the proper procedures in place to ensure integrity, protect taxpayer dollars, and prevent corruption. When the City of Buffalo spends taxpayer dollars on public construction - on our public buildings and especially our roads - residents should know that money is being spent responsibly with quality firms who provide quality results. We do the residents of the City of Buffalo a disservice by handing out construction contracts to companies that have a track record of shoddy work, poor performance, dangerous working conditions, or wage theft. The City of Buffalo needs the legal tools to ensure we’re doing business with firms who won’t cut corners and will do the job the right way.

As Mayor, Sean will work to protect taxpayer dollars by passing a responsible bidder law just as Erie County has done, and institute a policy to prevent political donations from bidders who have an active application before the City of Buffalo. Additionally, Sean will ensure apprenticeship standards are being met. The City of Buffalo’s apprenticeship law is meant to ensure responsible contractors provide training opportunities to our next generation of construction workers. For young city residents, these opportunities can be on-ramps to family-supporting careers. But those opportunities are squandered when the City fails to enforce the law. Sean will ensure the City of Buffalo is not rewarding contractors who violate the law with millions of dollars in new contracts.

Overhaul FOIA Request and Appeals Process

The City of Buffalo’s FOIA Request and Appeals process allows for endless delays, which prevents important information from being disclosed in a timely manner. As Mayor, Sean will work with the City Council and the Department of Law to put forward new transparency requirements for the FOIA process to ensure that requests are being responded to appropriately. Sean will require the City of Buffalo to acknowledge receipt of online FOIA requests within 24 hours of submission, and include the name, email, and telephone number of the individual responding to the FOIA request. Additionally, FOIA requests will typically be responded to within 5 business days; if additional time is required beyond the initial 5 business days, the individual responding to the request will notify the requester of the anticipated delivery time.