Demone Smith looked right at home during a recent Common Council meeting, making the rounds, greeting old friends and colleagues.
It was like he never left, and now he’s back.
The former Council member, Erie County legislator and executive director of the city’s employment and training center is now special assistant to city Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams. Smith, who took a pay cut, started his new gig last August, making $95,000 annually.
Miller-Williams, the city’s financial watchdog, also hired another familiar name – MacCaelin Sedita. He’s the son of state Supreme Court Justice Frank A. Sedita III and great-grandson of a former Buffalo mayor. The younger Sedita started last July as Miller-Williams’ executive assistant. He’s also making $95,000.
Sedita’s LinkedIn profile says he is a recent graduate of University at Buffalo Law School. His most recent job was a part-time supervisor at Buffalo RiverWorks until April of this year.
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The comptroller said doling out patronage jobs happens in government, but said that was not what happened in this case.
“I have not had any interaction with Judge Sedita in over 20 years or so,” Miller-Williams said. “I was honored when this young man came before us and he presented his résumé and he was seeking an opportunity to work in our office. He is doing a wonderful job and we are fortunate to have him on board.
“If there’s someone out there that is saying (Sedita was hired) based on who his parents are or are not, that’s their opinion and I have no comment to that,” she added.
The job openings were not publicly posted by the city, said Miller-Williams, because they are exempt positions.
“They’re not civil service positions, but exempt positions are traditionally and historically not posted,” she said.
Because Smith and Sedita are exempt employees, the Common Council also did not have to approve the appointments, said Fillmore Council Member Mitchell Nowakowski.
Smith’s special assistant position and Sedita’s executive assistant job both were budgeted for $94,760 in the current 2023-2024 budget.
Neither position is new, Miller-Williams said. Both have been in the budget prior to her becoming comptroller in April 2019, she said, adding the two jobs are “definitely two separate and distinct positions.”
When asked if others had applied for either position, Miller-Williams said, “I constantly get résumés on a weekly basis. Folks are interested in working in the Department of Audit and Control, in particular in the comptroller’s office. So we get résumés. I encourage everybody constantly, ‘Send me a résumé’ because you never know when an opening is going to occur.”
Members of the Council have not publicly criticized the hirings. Niagara Council Member David Rivera, the majority leader, said he supports Smith.
“I’ve always been impressed by him. On the surface it looks political but in terms of his ability and understanding of finances I trust him” Rivera said.
Smith works closely with the finance side of the comptroller’s department, focusing on the Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports and the Popular Annual Financial Reports. The special assistant also interacts with the Common Council and the Brown administration when it comes to budget-related matters, Miller-Williams said.
Sedita works closely with the administrative side of the comptroller’s office, she said.
“Everything from interacting with other elected officials, governmental entities, etc. That’s what the executive assistant does,” she said.
There are other vacancies in the department that she has been working on filling, Miller-Williams said.
Pay cut
Smith’s salary in the comptroller’s office is lower than the one he earned as executive director of the Buffalo Employment and Training Center (BETC), which connects qualified and job-ready candidates to employment opportunities.
Mayor Byron Brown appointed Smith executive director there in 2015, where his salary was budgeted for $109,148 in this year’s budget.
“As you know, money isn’t everything,” Smith said. “Sometimes it’s job satisfaction and the opportunity to use your skills and the opportunity for advancement as well.”
Smith has an extensive background in politics. To accept the Buffalo Employment and Training Center appointment, Smith had to resign his seat on the Common Council, to which he was unanimously appointed in 2007 by Council members. Later that year, Smith was elected to represent the Masten District. He was the Council’s majority leader.
Before that, Smith represented the 7th District on the Erie County Legislature, to which he was appointed in 2003 and then elected in 2004.
Smith and Miller-Williams were part of the grassroots political group that elected Brown and others.
Smith says he’s “all in” with his new job and pointed to his budgeting and finance background, including the red-and-green budget crisis of 2005 and 2006 that dropped Erie County’s credit rating to near junk-bond status. The county’s finances were destabilized.
“I became chair of the Finance and Management (committee) during the red-and-green budget, so I got a Ph.D. in municipal finance from (then-County Comptroller) Nancy Naples and … Jim Hartmann (Naples’ successor) because we had to sit there and redo the entire county budget which the county is still operating under,” Smith said.
Smith also noted when he was majority leader on the Common Council, he negotiated city budgets on behalf of the Council.
Finance has always been a “knack” of his, Smith said.
Still, Smith has had some campaign finance woes in the past, and one of the judgments against him still has not be rectified.
In 2012, as Common Council majority leader, he ran afoul of state election laws due to lapses by his campaign committee.
Six judgments filed by the state Board of Elections, totaling nearly $3,000, have not been paid. The judgments were taken as penalties for late and missing financial disclosure reports that should have been filed by Smith’s campaign committee and East Buffalo Associates, an unrelated committee supporting candidates for Democratic committee posts, where Smith served as treasurer.
The judgments against Smith’s campaign committee total $1,842, while a single judgment against East Buffalo Associates amounts to $1,121, Investigative Post reported.
Smith said he is negotiating with the state to try to reduce the interest he owes.
“It’s like 10 years ago. I’m ready to pay it. I’m currently in conversation with them in order to give me a final figure and then that will be all taken care of and then be finally in the rearview mirror,” he said.