The candidacy of Don Allen for Ellicott District councilman, buoyed by Lovejoy Councilman’s statement of support last week, died of two wounds this weekend. First, the disclosure in the Buffalo News this weekend that his financial history is sketchy. None of the majority five on the Common Council want to replace the disgraced Brian Davis with someone who appears irresponsible with money.

The second blow was his dismal showing at Saturday’s Ellicott District committee vote, in which Democratic committee members gave a narrow victory to Pastor Darius Pridgen. So goodbye, Don Allen.

Pridgen is a long shot, too, despite his committee endorsement. The majority five are generally opposed to his candidacy, principally because he is considered too close to Mayor Byron Brown. The mayor insists he did not encourage Pridgen to enter the race, and Pridgen insists he will be a rubberstamp for nobody, but the Council majority doesn’t seem to buy that. And at least two of the majority five feel that Saturday’s vote was sufficiently close to give them political cover to chose one of the other candidates who fared well.

Firefighter Bryon McIntyre came in second on Saturday; one committee member could have swung the vote to him. He has the support of South District Councilman Mickey Kearns. The financial irregularities uncovered by the News on McIntyre were relatively minor. He could win when the Council votes to fill the seat, probable Wednesday or Thursday.

Attorney Bill Trezevant is on the periphery now—he didn’t get enough votes on Saturday to make him a serious contender, and his support on the Council is thinner than one might expect, given his resume. Plus he, too, was nailed in Saturday’s News article over past tax problems—perhaps unfairly, since those problems have been resolved.

IThe only candidate whose finances proved impeccable is Buffalo State economist Curtis Haynes, who finished third in the committee voting. Haynes was supported by Champ Eve and (unofficially) by Democratic Party HQ. Last week, a leading member of Grassroots—a Pridgen supporter—allowed that Haynes is an impressive candidate. If the Council majority rejects Pridgen, and if some of them are ambivalent about McIntyre, Haynes may emerge as a compromise candidate whom all five can accept, and in whom their opponents will find little to criticize.

Lovejoy Councilman Rich Fontana and Council President Dave Franczyk, who represents Fillmore, may feel some pressure to vote for Pridgen: Brown’s overwhelming primary victories in their districts last fall bodes ill for their re-elections. Grassroots candidates might kill them, especially if a scorned Pridgen joins in the attack. But Franczyk may not seek re-election in 2011, and Fontana may decide that Eve’s Unity Coalition can help him stave off a Grassroots- or Pridgen-backed challenger. Plus, two years is a long time—the political landscape may change dramatically between now and then.

I’m told that if he’s not selected, Pridgen will certainly run in the fall. McIntyre, too. Haynes? I doubt it.

Word is that Brian Davis will resign claims he is not resigning the Ellicott District Common Council seat this afternoon at one o’clock, after pleading guilty this morning to two criminal charges brought by New York State Police in Judge Thomas Amodeo’s court.

Not a lot of callbacks on this story: Brian Davis isn’t answering his cell phone (his voicemail is full); Davis’s staff isn’t answering their phones, though a friend just strolled by his office and says they’re in there; the troopers have not returned calls.

So who will fill the Ellicott District seat? Word is that Mayor Byron Brown’s camp favors moving Erie County Legislator Barbara Miller-Williams into Davis’s seat, and with Janique Curry filling Miller-Williams’s seat. Attorney Bill Trezevant has had his eye on the seat for some times, as has firefighter Bryon McIntyre, who primaried Davis two years ago.

Under the rule adopted after Mickey Kearns won the South District seat vacated by Jimmy Griffin in 2005, the Common Council must advertise the vacancy, accept resumes, interview qualified candidates in public hearings, then vote in a replacement. In the past, the recommendation of Democratic district committee members was sacrosanct when it came to filling vacant seats, but the Common Council itself has the final say — if the committee members recommend someone the majority doesn’t care for, the Council could vote in someone else.

Champ Eve, son of the the legendary Arthur Eve, controls a substantial number of Democratic committee seats in the Ellicott District, as does Niagara District Councilman David Rivera and a number of others generally opposed to Grassroots, the mayor’s political organization. (Grassroots has some committee seats, too, but was greatly weakened in Ellicott in last year’s election.) So any candidate recommended by the party in Ellicott District is likely to be independent of the mayor. The question is whether that candidate will give the current five-member mjaority voting bloc and six-member super-majority that could ovverride Brown’s veto.

Just in time for the annual haggle over the capital budget.

UPDATE: Oh, right the charges: Jim Heaney of the Buffalo News, who’s been bird-dogging Davis all year, says it was personal use of campaign funds.He also pled guilty to filing incomplete campaign finance disclosure forms.

Davis’s lawyer said in court that the councilman did not intend to resign. I guess we’ll see: Erie County Legislator Butch Holt was removed from office when he ran afoul of the law, under the auspices of New York State’s Public Officers Law. Davis is reportedly  on his way to be fingerprinted and photographed right now. How can he stay in office if Holt had to go?

Erie County DA Frank Sedita will hold a press conference at 2pm.

Two posts below this one, I wrote about a letter filed by Buffalo attorney William F. Trezevant to Buffalo’s Common Council, asking Council President Dave Franczyk to open an ethics investigation into Ellicott District Councilmember Brian Davis—something well within the purview of the Council.

Brian Meyer of the News reported on Trezevant’s letter later this afternoon.

Well, here’s the latest: Trezevant filed the letter last Thursday. The next day, Friday, Davis started working on City Clerk Gerald Chwalinski to get the letter pulled from the public record.

First, Davis’s office sent word to Chwalinski that Davis intended to speak with Trezevant, who Davis said would agree to pull the letter from the record. Someone from Trezevant’s office would come by to confirm and to retrieve the letter.

Chwalinski, I’m told, waited to hear from Trezevant or Davis, or for someone to come by the City Clerk’s office. No one called, no one  came.

Trezevant tells me that earlier this week, Davis called Chwalinski personally. He says that Davis assured Chwalinski that Trezevant would authorize him to pull the letter from the record.

Trezevant tells me that Chwalinski called him to check if this were true. Trezevant told him that he’d never spoken to Davis and had no intention of pulling the letter. Rather, he stood by the letter 100 percent.

Indeed, Trezevant is so serious that he’s filed a similar letter with Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita, asking the DA’s office to look into the behavior of Davis and into the case of Syaed Ali.

So here’s that matter: If this is all baseless political maneuvering, as Davis suggested to Brian Meyer this afternoon, why is he so eager to have that letter from Trezevant—a call for action that is now part of the public record—be pulled?

I’ve been waiting for Davis to call me back for three weeks on this stuff. (My notebooks say seven calls to his office.) He hasn’t yet. But at least he’s talking to Brian Meyer at the News.

Trezevant’s letter to DA Sedita follows after the jump.

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Last Thursday, attorney William F. Trezevant filed a letter with Buffalo’s City Clerk, addressed to Common Council President David Franczyk. In the letter, Trezevant formally requested that Franczyk open an investigation into Ellicott District Councilmember Brian Davis. I’ll paste the whole letter at the end, but here’s the gist: Davis’s check-bouncing may be more than just an isolated incident; he may have used his position as a member of Council to intimidate those with whom he cashed bad checks; and he may have inappropriately steered loans and grants toward One Sunset, the restaurant at the center of Davis’s very public bad check scandal.

For all the reasons, he says, Franczyk should conduct an investigation. For good measure, Trezevant tells Franczyk that the Council ought to investigate the Syaed Ali situation, too.

Now, Davis is likely to dismiss Trezevant’s letter as the work of a political opponent—just as he tried to dismiss allegations by Lower West Side deli owners that he had bounced checks in their stores as rumors spread by political opponents.

In any case, it should make for an interesting Common Council meeting on Tuesday.

The letter:

Honorable David A. Franczyk
President of the Common Council
City of Buffalo
1315 City Hall
65 Niagara Square
Buffalo, New York 14202

March 5, 2009

Dear Councilman Franczyk:

On behalf of a number of Buffalo residents, I am writing to request that the Common Council conduct formal hearings regarding certain matters which are described below.  These matters involve allegations of misconduct elected and appointed city officials, and as such any investigation of these matters properly rests with the Common Council.

First, as you may be aware, there have been a series of published reports regarding the private financial dealings of Councilman Davis.  While this is not normally an item that would lend itself to a Common Council hearing, there are additional facts regarding Mr. Davis, that if true, represents abuse of his official capacity.

In this regard, there have been published reports in the local media, (i.e. Artvoice) that Mr. Davis’s activity of passing bad checks to local businesses is not a singularly isolated event involving the restaurant formerly know as One Sunset.

Rather, there have been allegations made and independently confirmed that Mr. Davis has repeatedly engaged in a systematic pattern of bouncing checks at neighborhood corner stores.  When store owners sought to recoup the monies they had provided to Mr. Davis, these store owners were threatened with the closing of either their businesses or those of their relatives.  When threatened in this manner, the store owners chose to abandon their collection efforts.

The point here is clear.  These allegations, if true, constitute a criminal offense.  Moreover, the pattern of criminal activity combined with the threat to use his elected position to single out and punish his victims is an outrageous abuse of public office.  Normally these criminal matters would be investigated by the Buffalo Police Department, but in this case, Mr. Davis sits as the Chair of the Buffalo Police Oversight Committee.  As a result, none of these allegations have been investigated by anyone except the media which has been able to confirm the allegations.  I am requesting that the Council perform an investigation of these issues.

Second, there have been allegations made that Mr. Davis has used public monies for his private enterprises.  To wit, there has been a particularly disturbing assertion that CBDG monies which were designated for the Ellicott District were instead directed to the One Sunset business.  In addition, there is an allegation that BERC monies were also used to assist the One Sunset business, monies that were redirected from other projects.

There is no way to independently ascertain the truth or falsity of these allegations.  Thus, I am requesting that the Council perform an investigation of these issues as well.

Third, as you may know, on November 7, 2008, members of the Buffalo Police Department searched the home of Syaed Ali at his Breckenridge address.  Pursuant to this search, a number of his belongings were confiscated. Subsequent to this search, Buffalo Police Officers questioned Mr. Ali regarding his connection local elected officials, including City of Buffalo Council Members.  It has now been approximately 16 ½ weeks and his property has not been returned, nor have any formal charges been filed against Mr. Ali.  What is particularly troubling is the role of the Buffalo Police Department in this matter.

Under normal circumstances, the Chair of the Buffalo Police Oversight Committee would be charged with conducting just such an investigation.  However, there has been no such hearing inasmuch as Mr. Davis is the Chair of the Committee and is apparently embroiled in his own issues which may or may not be the subject of a Buffalo Police investigation itself.

As a result, the important work of the Common Council regarding serious issues has gone wanting.  There is a distinct and palatable disdain and mistrust with open discussions of a coordinated cover-up of these issues.  The Common Council is the only body with the ability to investigate these matters and I hereby request that the Common Council do so.  In addition, I request that the Common Council remove Mr. Davis as the Chair of the Buffalo Police Oversight Committee given the obvious conflict of interest.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Very truly yours,

William F. Trezevant, Esq.

Cc:     City Clerk
Common Council