Tobe forced out as head of city's Department of Economic Development
A day before he was sworn in as mayor, Byron W. Brown was showered with praise for tapping Richard M. Tobe to head Buffalo’s revamped Department of Economic Development, Permits and Inspections.
The man who had led economic development during the Dennis T. Gorski’s tenure as county executive, served on Buffalo’s control board and spent a dozen years as a staffer in the Assembly would have the experience and passion to help set the city on the right course, Tobe’s admirers said.
Two and a half years later, Brown faces widespread criticism for forcing Tobe to quit. After more than a year of rumblings about his departure, Tobe announced Monday that he will step down on Independence Day.
Brown had requested Tobe’s resignation Friday.
“He told me he had a reorganization plan and that it would work better without me,” Tobe said. A defensive mayor refused to criticize Tobe’s performance, repeatedly crediting him for doing “good work.”
“It’s not anything that he did that was wrong. It’s that I want to see more things done,” Brown said, confirming that he intends to revamp the department for the second time in less than three years.
Local developers were careful not to openly blast Brown’s decision, but some clearly had concerns.
“That’s a real disappointment,” Carl Montante, president of Uniland Development Co., said of Tobe’s ouster.
Moments earlier Monday, Montante had joined Brown outside the former Dulski Federal Office Building at 200 Delaware Ave. Developers are spending $78 million to turn the 16-story structure into a complex that will include an Embassy Suites Hotel, office space and luxury condominiums. Montante described the project as enormously complex.
“It was Rich Tobe who almost single-handedly was able to address many of the issues we have that relate to the regulatory approval of a mixed-use project,” Montante said.
Local developer Dennis Penman said he would “never second guess” the mayor’s personnel decisions, but he praised Tobe’s track record. Penman, former chairman of the Erie County Industrial Development Agency and the current vice chairman of the Buffalo Urban Development Corp., said Tobe has “exemplary” skills.
“I respect him as a consummate government professional,” Penman said.
Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, said he believes the mayor has made a huge mistake in dismissing Tobe.
“When it comes to honesty, when it comes integrity, when it comes to professionalism, there is no one person at City Hall who can hold a candle to Rich Tobe,” Hoyt said Monday.
Hoyt said he views Tobe’s ouster as part of a troubling trend in Brown’s administration.
“There is clearly a pattern of people with professional credentials and an independent streak who seem to be let go by this administration or exiled until they leave,” Hoyt said.
He was referring to the March firing of Robert F. Leach as city technology chief and the February resignation of Leonard
A. Matarese as human resources commissioner.
Ironically, one of Brown’s most acerbic critics defended Tobe’s firing. Developer Carl P. Paladino assailed Tobe’s tenure, accusing him of micromanaging, playing favorites and refusing to communicate.
“It took them two years to figure out this guy couldn’t do his job,” Paladino said. “He’s not a manager type of person. He’s more of a theorist. He belongs in a think tank someplace.”
During Brown’s first 18 months in office, Tobe was among the mayor’s closest advisers and was spotted in the mayor’s suite of offices several times a day.
But relations cooled considerably in the past year. Insiders said Tobe’s personal interactions with Brown in the past several months were confined largely to public events and periodic meetings of the city’s accountability panel.
Tobe was widely known to have strained relations with First Deputy Mayor Steven M. Casey, Brown’s most influential adviser. Some of their exchanges during televised CitiStat meetings were testy.
But Tobe would not discuss his relationship with Brown or his Cabinet members.
“Every large organization has these types of issues. Good organizations have a way to get beyond them,” was all Tobe would say.
Brown became visibly angry when he was asked if Casey had anything to do with Tobe’s ouster. The mayor claimed it was “absolutely nonsense” to suggest that Tobe and Casey had a strained relationship.
Brown refused to divulge how he will revamp the economic development unit, and he bristled when a reporter reminded him that he reorganized the unit only 29 months earlier.
“I’m not going to apologize for reorganizing. We think there are more things that can be done. We think they can be done quicker and better, and we’re moving in a direction to be able to do that,” he said.
Deputy Commissioner James Comerford will head the department until the mayor announces formal appointments. In February, Brown hired Brian Reilly as Buffalo’s chief economic development officer. Reilly previously ran Cleveland’s Economic Development Department.
Brown’s nominee to succeed Tobe will require Council confirmation.
Delaware Council Member Michael J. LoCurto, chairman of the Community Development Committee, criticized Tobe’s termination, calling it another example of someone being banished for not following “scripts” penned by the administration.
South Council Member Michael P. Kearns, chairman of the Finance Committee, described himself as “baffled” by Tobe’s ouster, calling him one of the hardest working commissioners. His successor better have solutions to the growing problem of decaying neighborhoods, Kearns said.
“We have our head in the sand. We have a housing crisis in this city,” he added.
Tobe said he was proud of what his department accomplished, even as the unit coped with what he views as a severe staff shortage. Tobe said inspectors have been able to handle housing complaints faster despite increasing workloads. He also cited intensified efforts to tear down decaying structures, acquire shovel-ready sites and help spur development.
“We have seen record investment in both the public and private sectors, have acquired or are acquiring over 400 acres of former brownfields and have faced and overcome many of the problems of the past that prevented Buffalo from moving forward,” he said.
