Anti-poverty funds used by city for BlackBerrys
Devices are assigned to 15 in development agencies
Buffalo, one of the poorest cities in the nation, uses anti-poverty funds to provide BlackBerry communication devices to officials of its two economic-development agencies.
While a handful of their counterparts in Rochester and Syracuse make do with cell phones — and most do without — 15 officials in Buffalo get BlackBerrys, which not only handle mobile phone calls, but allow users to send and receive e-mail, surf the Web and get music downloads.
Buffalo budgeted up to $30,000 last year for the 15 BlackBerrys and three cell phones, part of about $22 million received annually under the Community Development Block Grant program, which is intended to fight blight and poverty. Those using the Black- Berrys and cell phones are employed by the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency and Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp., whose payrolls are partly underwritten by block grant funds.
How does spending anti-poverty money on BlackBerrys — which, along with iPhones are considered the Cadillac of mobile devices — help the poor?
It improves the productivity of city employees, sometimes enabling them to work after hours, said Brian C. Reilly, city commissioner of economic development, permits and inspections.
BlackBerrys are “a standard tool” and “one way to get more productivity,” said Reilly, who is president of Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. and a member of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency board.
Some Common Council members and community activists contend that the practice amounts to a misuse of funds.
“It’s outrageous,” said Delaware Council Member Michael J. LoCurto, who heads the committee that reviews the block grant budget submitted by Mayor Byron W. Brown.
“It’s not the way that money should be spent. We’re the third-poorest city of our size in the nation, and there’s too much [block grant] money spent on administration. That money should be on the street.”
Community activist Rosa A. Gibson agreed.
“That money is needed in the community,” said Gibson, president of the Community Action Information Center.
She said the city should reimburse the program for the BlackBerry and cell phone expenses.
“I am in favor of paying that money back,” she said.
The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which monitors the city’s use of block grant funds, has consistently criticized the city’s use of block grant money to cover administrative operations.
The city has “misused” block grant funds to pay $3.1 million in salaries and benefits of about 80 employees without adequately documenting that they perform tasks eligible for funding through the program, HUD said in a monitoring report released last month.
The report found 19 significant problems with the city’s administration of the program and concluded that “less than 50 percent of every [block grant] dollar spent results in projects that directly benefit low-and moderate-income residents.”
The use of funds for Black- Berrys and cell phones has not been an issue in HUD reports. A spokesman for the department said using block grant money for such devices is permissible, provided that it relates to work eligible for reimbursement under the program.
Reilly said the city, under his direction, studied BlackBerry and cell phone use and found instances where employees worked after hours thanks, in part, to their BlackBerrys. The two city agencies upgraded many employees from cell phones to BlackBerrys in 2006, after Brown took office. Personal use is not permitted.
City officials said that as a result of the study, they have been able to reconfigure service to cut the purchase cost of the devices from $100 to $30 apiece and monthly service charges from $110 to $60.
Fifteen Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency and Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. employees have city-issued Black- Berrys; three others have cell phones. Among those with BlackBerrys are Reilly, two attorneys, an architect and a supervisor of building construction.
While Reilly said BlackBerry use is common among economic- development agencies, a Buffalo News survey of several cities found otherwise.
In Syracuse, for example, no one employed in economic development has a city-issued BlackBerry, and only one person has a cell phone, according to a spokesman for the mayor’s office.
And in Rochester, one employee involved in economic development has a city-issued BlackBerry, a spokesman for the mayor’s office said. Thirteen employees have cell phones, whose bills are paid with city operating funds.
Cleveland issues BlackBerrys to two economic-development employees, a spokesman said. An additional 14 have cell phones. Five employed in community development are assigned BlackBerrys. Federal block grant funds are not used to pay for the devices.
In Milwaukee, which has 160 economic-development employees, compared with 90 in Buffalo, the city has issued nine BlackBerrys, compared with 15 in Buffalo. An additional 23 employees in Milwaukee have cell phones, compared with three in Buffalo. While block grant funds pay a portion of the bill, a spokesman for the Milwaukee mayor said that most of the expense is paid out of the city’s general operating budget.
Michael P. Kearns, who represents South Buffalo on the Common Council, noted that he carries a BlackBerry and said: “I pay for it myself.”
Kearns added: “I don’t think we should be using those poverty funds to pay for those bills.”
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