Jan 8, 2002

I have reported on city hall misconduct for about a dozen years . . .and have been prosecuted 11 times for doing so. . It is troubling that few in Buffalo (or elsewhere) ever learn about a destructive city hall culture which winks at illegal misconduct in a "worst governed city" ("Governing" Journal, Feb. 2000).

Ironically, one of the most read sections of small neighborhood papers, which rarely include any real news, is the "police blotter". In contrast, I have been arrested by 13 cops in city hall for my 'police blotter'.

'. I was dragged to jail in handcuffs the day my critique of then councilman, cop-on-leave Robert Quintana was published in ARTVOICE (Oct 22, 1998). Quintana's mother-daughter live-in aides had followed me into a stairwell, where Millie Castro kicked me, declaring "Leave my Daughter alone!" , & then called 911 declaring "Huge fight!" The Mayor's cop-driver, who was escorting me from the building, disappeared as waves of cops arrived. And, thanks to an ever-willing DA Frank Clark & his "Quality of Life Crimes" prosecutor Mike Drmacich (who prosecuted me all 11 times) the mother-daughter aides got a "protective order" against me.

Having written for the Challenger, ALT Press, ARTVOICE, & Buffalo Beat/Blue Dog Press (where I was billed "the most dangerous man in Buffalo politics"), I am now 'banned' from so-called "alternative" media as "too dangerous" (costly?) to print. Indeed, Council President Pitts, who fostered many of the attacks on my First Amendment Rights, is a hero of ALT Press, whose last issue (Dec. 14) had a &Mac184; page smiling Pitts declaring he reads every ALT cover-to-cover. (hopefully that endorsement didn't do ALT in! Due Jan 4, the new ALT hasn't come out)

Tolerable Levels of Perjury?

The need to focus on "City Hall Crime" is heightened by the return of former Masten District Councilman Byron Brown's chief-of-staff Emerson Barr, who moved to California right after he committed perjury in late 1999.

Quintana had menacingly followed me from Coppola's office into Brown's office & punched me in the face on December 8, 2000, the day after City Court Judge LoTempio gave me a 'protective order' against Quintana's 'crime family'. Quintana ordered Barr not to call security as I requested ( to be escorted safely from the building; Quintana had repeatedly followed me in the past)). As Barr & Quintana's aide Yvette Corredor tried to protect me, Quintana forced himself past them & punched me in the face. Later both Brown & Barr strongly resisted "getting involved" by signing a statement, but Barr finally did so. But contradicting his truthful statement, he denied in court that anything happened. He immediately left town, & Quintana & his family-staff held a fund raiser for Brown at his "family compound" (that was before his subsequent high profile assault of fiance'Millie Castro, of course)

Barr has suddenly been very visible in the Masten & Ellicott District offices for the past week. When I attempted to address concerns about his perjury on Monday, he responded "Don't talk to me!"

Silence about perjury is not an option because it is still unsafe for me to enter the Council Staff office, where Quintana's ex-fiancé Millie Castro works. She facilitated the filing of about 30 false complaints to police & District Attorney (each a Class A Misdemeanor) and made three death threat phone calls to Dolores Sheehan, who tried to find witnesses to my being beaten & robbed of my bicycle opposite Quintana's house as I left after visiting a Quintana neighbor & activist Ann Angello on July 13, 1999. As I waited at a store after calling 911 for help, Quintana called police alleging I had 'stalked' his live-in aide, daughter of Millie, Maria Padilla (who has also left town). When police arrived to find me bleeding an hour later, I was jailed, stripped naked because "crazy' per Quintana, released on probation 17 hours later. I had to hire a lawyer for $1500 to get the utterly false charges dismissed. My bicycle is still missing. (Drmacich subsequently admitted having a witness confirming my account of the assault).

It is also unsafe for me to enter Council Staff Offices because Chief-of-staff Donna Davis (in her second personal bankruptcy) & Castro-colleague Jacqueline Rushton (convicted of petition fraud when a Erie County Legislative aide 10 years ago) have fully supported Castro's misconduct. And, obviously, so has Council President Pitts, who did nothing as Quintana & Castro waged a 'war of terror' to keep me off the 14th floor of City Hall.

The return of Barr, who reportedly has a Ph. D in political science & should know how dangerous perjury can be, seriously raises the risk of crime in City Hall.

Missing Records, Computer theft, Changed locks . . .and DUBIOUS MOVES

The Common Council costs about $6 million a year to run, but efficient & accountable it is not. Both the Ellicott & Fillmore Districts were left with no records for the new occupants, Brian Davis & David Franczyk. Worse still, there are 2 missing computers and a printer in the Ellicott Office, as its former occupant, cop-on-leave & Sheriff candidate Barbara Williams, who voluntarily surrendered her office, should be expected to be above the usual excuses tied to acrimonious campaigns. That is part of the missing Fillmore records problem; Karen Ellington was convinced that her opponents were breaking into her office, resulting in repeated-changing of locks.

Compounding the cost &confusion, the Masten Office moved next-door to the Fillmore Office, as Fillmore was moved in reverse. In a near bankrupt city, shouldn't such frivilous moves be "cut"?

But a question in a generously staffed Council should be . . . Why don't "Council Staff" inventory equipment at each transition, as well as insure that district records are responsibly passed on?

It should be about GOVERNANCE, NOT POLITICS.

Farina & Fraud

I made another trip on December 7 to 849 Delaware, apartment 401, where Tony Farina "moved" 22 hours after I filed a request that his voting registration be voided because of his non-residency. Living in North Tonawanda (Niagara County in his longtime home, he has long lied that he lived in a free room at 521 Lafayette, where landlord Gerhardt Yaskow flatly declared, "He does not live here."

The doorbell at 849 Delaware of the one bedroom apartment is labeled "Parenti". Farina is registered to vote there, but Parenti, who is Assembly Speaker Silver's "WNY Representative" (to do what we have no clue) is registered to vote at Dem. Boss Steve Pigeon's waterfront condo (75 Ojibwa) where he has apparently lived for about two years until recently. Asked about Farina, the building manager smiled knowingly & firmly stated, "He does not live here".

Confronting Farina with the manager's statement, he was again elusive. He would now answer he left his wife and feigned outrage when I asked to see sleeping arrangements in the one bedroom apartment. I had earlier satirically asked whether he "caught" homosexuality, working for a so-called 'gay Mafia' as he and Gary Parenti are both apparently straight. Why Parenti has lived with Pigeon And what he does in Buffalo as Silver's aide, is another question needing answers.

Clearly Farina believes it is OK to lie about his residency and OK to vote from a non-existent residence. Working as a "media spin doctor" in a Comptroller's Office riddled with incompetence & dishonesty, it focuses how much trouble the city is in. The long overdue financial report of FY 2000-01 ending June 30 is allegedly now ready for publication. But Nanula has so badly lost credibility that he was not even publicly recognized when he attended the Council inauguration. And Farina's new insistence that the report of 60,000 miles (campaigning downstate) on Nanula's leased vehicle is untrue, is unbelievable without proof. He lies about where he lives. He votes from a fraudulent address. When does he tell the truth? Nanula has a equally troubling tradition of lying. Or of using his money to buy anything he wants. When is Nanula honest? Or competent? Nobody knows.

Richard Kern, MSW, Rev. Jan. 9, 02

WEBSITE: www.kernwatch.com email: Kernwatch@AOL.com