Outrageous Outrage 2: Lloyd's Taco Truck

34 comments

A couple of weeks ago, Lloyd’s Taco Truck began a Kickstarter program in order to raise enough money to make a down payment on a second truck. They have just under 20 days to go, and are about 1/2 the way there. 

But people have denigrated Lloyd for seeking a “handout”, and expressing disapproval over a for-profit company “begging” for money from people without, e.g., offering a share in the business. 

So, here’s a fact-check. 

1. If you don’t want to participate in the Kickstarter, you don’t have to. No one’s making you. 

2. Kickstarter was created precisely so that for-profit entities can raise funding that they can’t come up with themselves, and can’t get a traditional loan for, so that the path from idea to reality is made easier. 

3. If you click on the prominent link at the top of the Kickstarter page, you discover this self-explanatory text: 

Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Every week, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.

A new form of commerce and patronage. This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project.

All or nothing funding. On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

Each and every project is the independent creation of someone like you. Projects are big and small, serious and whimsical, traditional and experimental. They’re inspiring, entertaining and unbelievably diverse. We hope you agree… Welcome to Kickstarter!

4. So, it’s specifically for creative projects, including food projects, is completely voluntary, and frankly will enable a very good, very popular local food business to expand by one truck and better serve customers. 

5. If you think Lloyd’s has made a lot of money in its first year, what with legal wrangling over city permitting, limited locations to set up, crappy weather during the winter of ’10 – ’11, and occasional truck problems, you’re wrong. It’s a tough slog, and no one’s getting rich. They need twelve grand to buy a new truck and expand – if you like tacos, you may choose to give them money and get a thank you gift in exchange – it’s win-win, as Lloyd’s gets to go more places, and you get to eat more Lloyd’s.  

6. Thousands of for-profit projects exist on Kickstarter, all of which can be subjected to the same criticism as Lloyds, yet there they are.  I mean, do you need a device that will remotely print stuff people tag on Instagram? Probably not,  but if you’d like one, or like to see one on the market, here you go. $100,000 worth of people have donated. 

7. Everyone just relax. It’s a taco truck. I’m a fan, and I’ve participated in the Kickstarter because I’d like there to be another one to patronize. Because the Lloyd’s guys are friends of mine, their food is good, and they’re pioneers of sorts. Other people have pledged money for their own reasons. If you don’t think it’s fair or right, then don’t participate. What I don’t understand is the outrage and, frankly, hatred I’ve seen in many online comments about this program. Even here at Artvoice, the weekly arrow up/arrow down roundup gave Lloyd’s an arrow down because they have the nerve to use an online funding service in exactly the way it’s intended to be used in order to ask fans for money they can’t raise any other way, at least not now. 

8. Lloyd’s isn’t the first local for-profit food-based business to use Kickstarter to help fund its growth and expansion, yet it’s the first to get a barrage of criticism. 

Outrageous Outrage 2: Lloyd’s Taco Truck

34 comments

[kickstarter url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/whereslloyd/lloyd-taco-truck-mission-lloyd-dos width=220]

A couple of weeks ago, Lloyd’s Taco Truck began a Kickstarter program in order to raise enough money to make a down payment on a second truck. They have just under 20 days to go, and are about 1/2 the way there. 

But people have denigrated Lloyd for seeking a “handout”, and expressing disapproval over a for-profit company “begging” for money from people without, e.g., offering a share in the business. 

So, here’s a fact-check. 

1. If you don’t want to participate in the Kickstarter, you don’t have to. No one’s making you. 

2. Kickstarter was created precisely so that for-profit entities can raise funding that they can’t come up with themselves, and can’t get a traditional loan for, so that the path from idea to reality is made easier. 

3. If you click on the prominent link at the top of the Kickstarter page, you discover this self-explanatory text: 

Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Every week, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.

A new form of commerce and patronage. This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project.

All or nothing funding. On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

Each and every project is the independent creation of someone like you. Projects are big and small, serious and whimsical, traditional and experimental. They’re inspiring, entertaining and unbelievably diverse. We hope you agree… Welcome to Kickstarter!

4. So, it’s specifically for creative projects, including food projects, is completely voluntary, and frankly will enable a very good, very popular local food business to expand by one truck and better serve customers. 

5. If you think Lloyd’s has made a lot of money in its first year, what with legal wrangling over city permitting, limited locations to set up, crappy weather during the winter of ’10 – ’11, and occasional truck problems, you’re wrong. It’s a tough slog, and no one’s getting rich. They need twelve grand to buy a new truck and expand – if you like tacos, you may choose to give them money and get a thank you gift in exchange – it’s win-win, as Lloyd’s gets to go more places, and you get to eat more Lloyd’s.  

6. Thousands of for-profit projects exist on Kickstarter, all of which can be subjected to the same criticism as Lloyds, yet there they are.  I mean, do you need a device that will remotely print stuff people tag on Instagram? Probably not,  but if you’d like one, or like to see one on the market, here you go. $100,000 worth of people have donated. 

7. Everyone just relax. It’s a taco truck. I’m a fan, and I’ve participated in the Kickstarter because I’d like there to be another one to patronize. Because the Lloyd’s guys are friends of mine, their food is good, and they’re pioneers of sorts. Other people have pledged money for their own reasons. If you don’t think it’s fair or right, then don’t participate. What I don’t understand is the outrage and, frankly, hatred I’ve seen in many online comments about this program. Even here at Artvoice, the weekly arrow up/arrow down roundup gave Lloyd’s an arrow down because they have the nerve to use an online funding service in exactly the way it’s intended to be used in order to ask fans for money they can’t raise any other way, at least not now. 

8. Lloyd’s isn’t the first local for-profit food-based business to use Kickstarter to help fund its growth and expansion, yet it’s the first to get a barrage of criticism. 

Outrageous Outrage, Part 1: Joseph Kony

7 comments

So, admit you probably never heard of Kony until the other day. It’s ok – even you guys who think it’s tantamount to neo-colonial paternalism for us to suddenly care about Kony and Uganda – you, too, can admit that, although you probably heard of Kony‘s army, you probably weren’t aware of his name. 

As it turns out, Kony probably isn’t in Uganda at all, and Uganda’s political and economic situation, like that of much of sub-Saharan western Africa, is dictatorship in economic crisis, where AIDS is rampant and kids suffer from mysterious diseases that go unaddressed and untreated.  Uganda doesn’t exactly have a history of great leadership, and apart from perhaps hearing of the Lord’s Resistance Army in recent years, the only thing you likely associate that country with is Idi Amin, and he fled to Saudi in the late 70s – another Ugandan who terrorized his own people and was never brought to justice. 

And Invisible Children – articles have been released questioning their finances, their earnestness, their methodology, the content of their video, and their tchotchkization of a very serious issue. 

I acknowledge all of that. I won’t be sending Invisible Children $30 for a t-shirt or for stickers, and won’t participate in yet another bit of activism-by-bracelet. 

However, isn’t it a good thing what they did? Isn’t it a good thing that now, suddenly, this week, you’ve heard of Joseph Kony and know who he is? What he did to kids, to his country? I think it is.  We can nitpick over the content of the video, its historic and political accuracy, its oversimplification of a complicated issue. We can denigrate the pretense of earnest Westerners suddenly caring about African causes, but in the end, knowledge is better than ignorance. 

Especially because Joseph Kony has been indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in the Hague. You might not be aware of that, or that court, because the United States is not a signatory to the treaty that created the court, is not a participant in that court, and is not subject to its jurisdiction. As a result, the United States has very little moral or legal authority to do very much at all vis-a-vis that court about Kony’s alleged crimes.

And that’s another thing –  a little bit of knowledge and “awareness” about the fact that a general war crimes tribunal exists in the Netherlands, and the United States has nothing to do with it, because if we did, the usual suspects – Birchers and their fellow travelers – would complain about everything from the UN, loss of sovereignty, New World Order, black helicopters, and all that other pseudo-informed, paranoiac, irrational rejection of thousands of years’ worth treatymaking and law. 

In the end, as flawed as the Invisible Children group and methods may be, you’ve now heard of a really bad guy, who is a wanted fugitive and indicted war criminal.  And if you click on this link, you’ll see the entire roster of Ugandan indictees at the International Criminal Court, and all of them should be brought to justice.  But if you want to see Kony’s warrant of arrest, here it is. It’s been pending since 2005.  Sure, the situation in Uganda is now different from how it was then, and there are other bad people doing bad things in Uganda. But with Kony 2012, now you have an excuse to read and learn all about it. But for that video, you’d still be sitting there not knowing a thing about it, or caring. 

Now, you do. 

Certainly, if you want to learn more about the Ugandan situation, now you have a wonderful excuse to do so. But I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive – that you have to completely immerse and inform yourself in the Ugandan political situation to credibly be able to care about the apprehension of Joseph Kony. However, what you can do – and should do – is contact your federal representatives and demand that the United States sign and ratify the Treaty of Rome, and become a full participating member in the International Criminal Court (which is independent and not under UN auspices), and that we do everything we can to help bring war criminals to justice, at home and abroad. 

 

Save Trico!

17 comments

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?q=TRICO&hl=en&sll=25.884381,-97.544839&sspn=0.009884,0.018239&hq=TRICO&t=m&layer=c&cbll=25.884093,-97.553432&panoid=F4yuVkVebuUjKYQtOIvNig&cbp=13,190.91,,0,2.96&ie=UTF8&hnear=&source=embed&ll=25.880626,-97.553444&spn=0.012124,0.027466&z=15&output=svembed&w=640&h=314]

Too late.

Endorsements Matter!

One comment

You know, not for nothing, but those endorsements from Sarah Palin and Carl Paladino did just amazing things for Newt Gingrich and his campaign!

 

http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/chart/us-pres-12-2?f=%7B%22t%22%3A%7B%22Internet%22%3A1%7D%2C%22p%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22c%22%3A%7B%224e8b71050a30d83b5587c255%22%3A1%2C%224e8b71050a30d83b5587b922%22%3A1%2C%224e8b71050a30d83b5587b814%22%3A1%7D%2C%22w%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22m%22%3Anull%7D&left=0&right=99999999999999

Not the Whitey Tape

5 comments

Back in 1990, students and faculty at Harvard Law School protested and “went on strike” over the denial of tenure to an African American female professor, and the treatment of professor Derrick Bell, and the lack of faculty diversity at the school.  The editor of the Harvard Law Review at the time was Barack Obama, and he spoke at a rally on Bell’s behalf.  Frontline aired the footage in 2008, and Buzzfeed re-posted it yesterday as newly discovered. Typically, the domestic right-wing media claims that everyone involved – Buzzfeed, WGBH, Frontline, Obama, the Bilderbergs, the European Central Bank, Mossad, and the Tooth Fairy – have edited the tape to omit the part where Obama praises Stalin, dons a swastika, and publicly announces the murder of dead agent provocateur Andrew Breitbart. 

What it actually shows is a smart young guy who is already making his bones as a leader of people while still in school.  Pretty impressive stuff, and Obama’s role in that long-forgotten controversy was quite conciliatory – not at all confrontational or radical, as his haters would have you believe. 

http://www-tc.pbs.org/s3/pbs.videoportal-prod.cdn/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf

Watch Obama Speaks at Harvard Law in ’90 on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Also, because it’s going to bear repeating, Obama’s speech in support of Bell’s fight against his own employer’s administration on behalf of faculty diversity does not mean that Obama somehow assumes responsibility for every view, theory, and opinion that Bell espoused or promoted as an academic.

Wednesday War 'n Politics

15 comments

1. Congratulations to Mitt Romney, who won a couple of states in last night’s Super Tuesday. He appears to have become, at long last, the Republican’s nominee to take on Barack Obama in November. Santorum won a handful of states, and Gingrich won Georgia, which is enough to keep them around and just demolishing Romney day in and day out, but they don’t really have anywhere to go.

2. Incidentally, did you know that the Paladinoist / Palinist wing of the tea party club here in WNY held a Presidential straw poll of its own? Although Romney is very likely to win the New York primary, our plucky band of angry local wingnuts picked Rick Santorum.

3. The debate over what is to become with the Trico building is going to be the big development/preservation fight for the first half of this year. It’s already getting going, as an earlier post will attest. What’s unique about this particular battle is that most people agree that the Trico building is an historically significant landmark, and also that the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is something that’s great for the community and the source of a great many good jobs, and of a knowledge-based future Buffalo industry. It’s going to be a tough battle because it’ll be particularly hard for anyone to demonize or belittle anyone else. It’s also yet another ad hoc battle that we’re so used to, which pits people against each other, creates loads of rancor, and is generally sad and discouraging, regardless of who wins. While I recognize the historic importance of Trico, and the importance of its former factory, I also recognize that Trico is long gone, headquartered in Michigan, and making blades in Brownsville and Matamoros. The building is, to me, subjectively hideous – an eyesore, and refurbishing a former factory – regardless of how historically important – into a medical research facility is impractical, and something the BNMC simply doesn’t want to do. They want a 21st century facility, not a 19th century facility. This is before we even get to the environmental cleanup that any adaptive reuse would entail. My sympathies default to people, jobs, and the future.

4. The Valenti/Brocuglio dynamic duo is back in / still in WNY, depending on whom we’re talking about, and their residential landlord got shafted at Eden court in her eviction effort. The former owners of Valenti’s restaurant have until the end of March to move out of their home, and Judge Zittel did not order a judgment for back rent dating to December.

5. I remember watching the Little Rascals after school when I was a kid, those little unsupervised, depression-era scamps were often tussling with the truant officer. Perhaps it’s time that school districts with big absentee problems revisit this idea.

6. There was a lot of hubbub yesterday about a map released by a special master appointed by a federal judge to try and resolve the ongoing fight over congressional redistricting in New York. Locally, the issue was the fact that both Brian Higgins and Kathy Hochul reside within the redrawn 27th district. Suffice it to say, the court’s map is not in any way final, but it will be the default map should the parties be unable to come to a separate agreement. It happens every time, and acts as a catalyst to move negotiations forward. What does seem likely, however, is that Louise Slaughter’s district will be re-drawn to return her influence to the Rochester area only, and out of the Buffalo metro. NYS Judicial Redistricting Map

7. Ron Paul has won a whopping 47 delegates during this primary season. The margin of Romney’s lead over Santorum in the delegate race is more than 200 delegates. Why the hell is he still in the Presidential race?

8. In response to news that the government is looking to get rid of over 800 jobs at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve base, Republican Congressional candidate David Bellavia tweeted this:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/DavidBellavia/status/177124836504645633″]

Well, not really. I received a press release that Schumer, Gillibrand, Hochul, Slaughter, and Higgins jointly released, reading as follows:

“We call on the Air Force to reverse this decision and to identify a new mission for the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station. As a united delegation, along with the support of Governor Cuomo, we will continue to fight to protect this base, the positions it supports, and the thousands of Western New Yorkers that rely on its services.

“The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station is an essential part of our nation’s military force, and we will not rest in the effort to find a new mission.”

Furthermore, Republicans are usually very, very opposed to things like government stimulus of the economy and government employment vs. private sector employment. Somehow, those principles get thrown out the window whenever we’re talking about military spending. The truth is, the air base has a stimulative effect on the regional economy, and losing it diminish that. Also, it’s false to suggest that the local delegation isn’t working to keep that stimulus spending here.

9. Barack Obama is going to have an easy time running on his international affairs record, and sought yesterday to calm the rhetoric coming mostly from the right, agitating for a new war in the Persian Gulf, this time against Iran. Speaking of the unemployed Santorum, Gingrich, and Romney:

The president was withering in his retort. “Those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities,” Mr. Obama said. “They’re not commander in chief. When I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, I’m reminded of the costs involved in war” — for those who go into combat, for national security and for the economy. “This is not a game,” he added. “And there’s nothing casual about it.”

“If some of these folks think that it’s time to launch a war, they should say so, and they should explain to the American people exactly why they would do that and what the consequences would be,” he said.

We need another war like we need another 2008 global financial meltdown. But not to be outdone, Senator John McCain suggested that we ought to bomb Syria due to the political and humanitarian crisis being created by the fascist Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on a months-long popular uprising. It may soon become time for military intervention in Syria, as we took part in in Libya. However, this would need to be a multilateral effort, with the Arab League taking the lead in demanding the intervention. Efforts to do that through the UN Security Council were unsuccessful, due to China’s and Russia’s positions as the permanent member protectors of brutal authoritarian regimes, and the veto that goes with it.

10. Jim Heaney interviews former ECHDC / Sabres guy Larry Quinn, who has some choice words for the risible “lighter, faster, cheaper” method of planning for the inner harbor.

Wednesday War ‘n Politics

15 comments

1. Congratulations to Mitt Romney, who won a couple of states in last night’s Super Tuesday. He appears to have become, at long last, the Republican’s nominee to take on Barack Obama in November. Santorum won a handful of states, and Gingrich won Georgia, which is enough to keep them around and just demolishing Romney day in and day out, but they don’t really have anywhere to go.

2. Incidentally, did you know that the Paladinoist / Palinist wing of the tea party club here in WNY held a Presidential straw poll of its own? Although Romney is very likely to win the New York primary, our plucky band of angry local wingnuts picked Rick Santorum.

3. The debate over what is to become with the Trico building is going to be the big development/preservation fight for the first half of this year. It’s already getting going, as an earlier post will attest. What’s unique about this particular battle is that most people agree that the Trico building is an historically significant landmark, and also that the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is something that’s great for the community and the source of a great many good jobs, and of a knowledge-based future Buffalo industry. It’s going to be a tough battle because it’ll be particularly hard for anyone to demonize or belittle anyone else. It’s also yet another ad hoc battle that we’re so used to, which pits people against each other, creates loads of rancor, and is generally sad and discouraging, regardless of who wins. While I recognize the historic importance of Trico, and the importance of its former factory, I also recognize that Trico is long gone, headquartered in Michigan, and making blades in Brownsville and Matamoros. The building is, to me, subjectively hideous – an eyesore, and refurbishing a former factory – regardless of how historically important – into a medical research facility is impractical, and something the BNMC simply doesn’t want to do. They want a 21st century facility, not a 19th century facility. This is before we even get to the environmental cleanup that any adaptive reuse would entail. My sympathies default to people, jobs, and the future.

4. The Valenti/Brocuglio dynamic duo is back in / still in WNY, depending on whom we’re talking about, and their residential landlord got shafted at Eden court in her eviction effort. The former owners of Valenti’s restaurant have until the end of March to move out of their home, and Judge Zittel did not order a judgment for back rent dating to December.

5. I remember watching the Little Rascals after school when I was a kid, those little unsupervised, depression-era scamps were often tussling with the truant officer. Perhaps it’s time that school districts with big absentee problems revisit this idea.

6. There was a lot of hubbub yesterday about a map released by a special master appointed by a federal judge to try and resolve the ongoing fight over congressional redistricting in New York. Locally, the issue was the fact that both Brian Higgins and Kathy Hochul reside within the redrawn 27th district. Suffice it to say, the court’s map is not in any way final, but it will be the default map should the parties be unable to come to a separate agreement. It happens every time, and acts as a catalyst to move negotiations forward. What does seem likely, however, is that Louise Slaughter’s district will be re-drawn to return her influence to the Rochester area only, and out of the Buffalo metro. NYS Judicial Redistricting Maphttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/84287755/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-1bal4g6s16asfdntsxsd

7. Ron Paul has won a whopping 47 delegates during this primary season. The margin of Romney’s lead over Santorum in the delegate race is more than 200 delegates. Why the hell is he still in the Presidential race?

8. In response to news that the government is looking to get rid of over 800 jobs at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve base, Republican Congressional candidate David Bellavia tweeted this:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/DavidBellavia/status/177124836504645633″]

Well, not really. I received a press release that Schumer, Gillibrand, Hochul, Slaughter, and Higgins jointly released, reading as follows:

“We call on the Air Force to reverse this decision and to identify a new mission for the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station. As a united delegation, along with the support of Governor Cuomo, we will continue to fight to protect this base, the positions it supports, and the thousands of Western New Yorkers that rely on its services.

“The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station is an essential part of our nation’s military force, and we will not rest in the effort to find a new mission.”

Furthermore, Republicans are usually very, very opposed to things like government stimulus of the economy and government employment vs. private sector employment. Somehow, those principles get thrown out the window whenever we’re talking about military spending. The truth is, the air base has a stimulative effect on the regional economy, and losing it diminish that. Also, it’s false to suggest that the local delegation isn’t working to keep that stimulus spending here.

9. Barack Obama is going to have an easy time running on his international affairs record, and sought yesterday to calm the rhetoric coming mostly from the right, agitating for a new war in the Persian Gulf, this time against Iran. Speaking of the unemployed Santorum, Gingrich, and Romney:

The president was withering in his retort. “Those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities,” Mr. Obama said. “They’re not commander in chief. When I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, I’m reminded of the costs involved in war” — for those who go into combat, for national security and for the economy. “This is not a game,” he added. “And there’s nothing casual about it.”

“If some of these folks think that it’s time to launch a war, they should say so, and they should explain to the American people exactly why they would do that and what the consequences would be,” he said.

We need another war like we need another 2008 global financial meltdown. But not to be outdone, Senator John McCain suggested that we ought to bomb Syria due to the political and humanitarian crisis being created by the fascist Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on a months-long popular uprising. It may soon become time for military intervention in Syria, as we took part in in Libya. However, this would need to be a multilateral effort, with the Arab League taking the lead in demanding the intervention. Efforts to do that through the UN Security Council were unsuccessful, due to China’s and Russia’s positions as the permanent member protectors of brutal authoritarian regimes, and the veto that goes with it.

10. Jim Heaney interviews former ECHDC / Sabres guy Larry Quinn, who has some choice words for the risible “lighter, faster, cheaper” method of planning for the inner harbor.

Kearns Accused of Campaign Finance Illegality

10 comments

Chairwoman of the Tonawanda Democratic Committee Gayle Syposs has filed a formal complaint with the state Board of Election against nominal Republican Assembly candidate and Common Council member Mickey Kearns. 

In her complaint, Syposs makes the following allegations: 

Mr. Kearns is currently an elected member of the Buffalo Common Council. In pursuit of said office, Mr. Kearns maintains a campaign finance committee under the name of “Friends of Michael P. Kearns” (filer ID # C22901). 

 

In addition, Mr. Kearns is the Republican party candidate in the special election for the vacant 145th district seat in the New York State Assembly, scheduled for March 20. For that election, Mr. Kearns has established and maintains a campaign finance account under the name of “Kearns for Western New York” (filer ID # A86775). 

The following specific complaints are made under the sections of the New York State Election Law as detailed below:

  • Mr. Kearns’ campaign committee “Kearns for Western New York,” utilized for election to the New York State Assembly is in violation of Section 14-126 of the Election Law. To wit:
  • The campaign has accepted multiple contributions in excess of the legally prescribed limit for individual and corporate donations for the Special Election. 
    • In his 32 day pre-election campaign filing, the campaign reports that he has accepted no fewer than six contributions from corporate entities in the amount of $5,000.00 each. 
    • One corporation, Red Earth LLC, donated a total of $10,000 on February 3, 2012 – an amount $5,900 in excess of the legal limit.
    • The legal limit for such donations for this special election is $4,100.
    • Accordingly, the campaign has violated section 14-146(2) of the Election Law. 
    • Mr. Kearns has accepted no fewer than five $5,000.00 donations from corporate entities operating from two different business addresses. The acceptance of these donations constitutes a violation of the Election Law as detailed above, but also represents a violation of the spirit of the Election Law, which seeks limits to the amount of influence one corporate entity may have over the political process. The fact that corporate entities operating from one business address (PO Box 25, Gowanda, NY 14070) would contribute $15,000.00 to Mr. Kearns within 10 days’ time raises substantial concerns as to the propriety of such donations.
    • Following an investigation, the state of New York is entitled to seek administrative relief in the form of (i) refunds to the contributor of the amount contributed in overage; and (ii) investigation of the circumstances of the contribution for potential criminal prosecution in accordance with Section 14-126(4) of the Election Law.
  • Mr. Kearns’ campaign for election to the Buffalo Common Council in 2011 is in violation of Section 14-126 of the Election Law. To wit:
    • Candidates for public office in New York State that meet certain fundraising thresholds are required to file campaign finance reports with the New York State Board of Elections at regular intervals. As a candidate for public office on no fewer than three occasions, and as a candidate whose campaign committees have in the past filed reports with the state BOE, it is clear that Mr. Kearns is aware of the requirements of the Election Law with respect to campaign finance disclosure. 
    • In 2011, Mr. Kearns failed to file three (3) consecutive campaign finance disclosure reports with the New York State Board of Elections. These reports are:
      • 32-day pre-General Election report, due on or about October 6, 2011;
      • 11-day pre-General Election report, due on or about October 27, 2011;
      • 27-day post-General Election report, due on or about December 5, 2011.
    • Mr. Kearns’ 2011 campaign is in violation of Section 14-126(1) of the Election Law. Moreover, given that the violation occurred on three consecutive occasions, the campaign filer appears to be in violation of Section 14-126(3), and may thereby be guilty of a misdemeanor. 

Honorable Commissioners, the fair and open conduct of public elections is your charge, and is a responsibility you undoubtedly consider with a tremendous level of importance. Through both his actions and his lack of action, information contained within the New York State Board of Elections’ website for Filer IDs C22901 and A86775 demonstrate prima facie evidence of multiple violations of the Election Law on the part of Michael “Mickey” Kearns and his associated campaign committees. Because of the importance of the conduct of fair and open elections, I ask for the maximum level of civil and criminal relief provided by law. 

 

The election takes place on March 20th.

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