The district attorney’s probe of gift-taking at City Hall claimed its second victim Friday when Mayor Byron W. Brown fired a city engineer who recently admitted he accepted trips and other gifts from companies that did business with the city.

On the same day Brown fired Daniel E. Kreuz, the mayor launched plans to create a new integrity office in City Hall, with an $82,000-a-year watchdog who would investigate tips about alleged corruption.

Let me get this straight.  Corrupt city officials get fired and Byron Brown uses this as an excuse to create a new position for an $82,000/year watchdog.  We already have a D.A, a police force and other law enforcement agencies capable of investigating this kind of behavior.  Not only is Brown creating another patronage job, he is decreasing the likelihood of corrupt politicians within City Hall being caught.  I would much rather have an outside agency handle an investigation rather than one of the Mayor’s insiders who’s top priority will be to make the Mayor look good.

Corrupt officials caught and the taxpayers pay the price.

The mayor denied that Kreuz’s termination Friday was spurred by that criticism. It took city legal experts some time to study the charter and the code of ethics, he insisted.

It took the Mayor a good week to fire Kreuz because the city’s legal experts needed to study the issue.  Hello!!!!  Isn’t an expert supposed to know things and be able to make decisions quickly?  It sounds to me more like the city’s incompetent legal staff didn’t know what the hell they were doing OR the Mayor was trying to take care of one of his own.

The Buffalo News: Home: Brown fires Buffalo official caught by free-gifts probe