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Home > Leadership > Mayor > Public Statements/ Speeches > HUD Audit of Buffalo Community Development Block Grant Program

HUD Audit of Buffalo Community Development Block Grant Program

Public Statement
Mayor Byron W. Brown
March 28, 2009

Re:  HUD Audit of Buffalo Community Development Block Grant Program

I am deeply concerned with the HUD Monitoring Report for Buffalo’s Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), which was received by my office on March 13, 2009.

Over the past 30 years, lack of uniform reporting and confusion over eligible usages have been cited repeatedly in Buffalo's administering of the Community Development Block Grant Program. 

These historical issues aside, the city’s Office of Strategic Planning is in the process of preparing its response to the findings cited in the Monitoring Report, which are due back to HUD 45 days from the receipt of the report. As always, the city, or any other municipality, is accorded the opportunity to disagree with and respond to the findings of such a report.

Two weeks ago, I met in Washington, D.C. with Nelson R. Bregon, HUD General Deputy Assistant Secretary and Stanley Gimont, Acting Director, Office of Block Grant Assistance to discuss the CDBG program in Buffalo and other related issues. And this past Friday, I corresponded directly with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, with whom I will have further discussions.

These are issues I take very seriously and in addition to the city’s Office of Strategic Planning’s formal response to HUD, I am demanding a full and immediate accounting for the city personnel responsible for the oversight of this federally funded program. If it is confirmed that any of these findings in the HUD report are the direct result of staff mismanagement, I will take appropriate disciplinary action, including the possibility of termination of employment.

With poverty-related challenges still faced by the City of Buffalo, despite continuing progress in stabilizing the city’s finances and the high level of investment and development, critically important programs like the CDBG must be managed with the highest level of accountability, professionalism, efficiency and effectiveness. Anything less is intolerable.

The HUD audit is a valuable tool in judging where we are and what still needs to be done.  I welcome it and I am committed to working with HUD and other entities on reversing poverty in Buffalo. My administration is serious about making government more transparent and accountable; we will take all of the necessary corrective action on this important issue.