Honorable Byron W. Brown

Mayor of the City of Buffalo

Mayor Byron W. Brown, the 58th Mayor of the City of Buffalo, was reelected to a second four-year term by a landslide victory in September of 2009. Mayor Brown has continued to emphasize increasing accountability and efficiency in City Hall, improving the quality of life for all city residents, and delivering on his commitment to strengthen and expand the city economic development activities Since taking office, Mayor Brown has pursued those three objectives through the initiation of several key programs. He launched a Zero Tolerance Law Enforcement initiative that targets quality of life crimes, along with other criminal activity in the city. He implemented the management accountability CitiStat Buffalo program, which monitors the service delivery activities of city departments on a weekly basis. He also reconfigured the city economic development activities through creation of the Department of Economic Development, Permit and Inspection Services, a change that has provided greater coordination and cooperation in all development activities taking place in the City of Buffalo. A surge of economic development activity has followed Mayor Brown election, including over $4 billion in planned, ongoing or completed development projects occurring throughout the City since 2006. Complementing this economic development activity is the continuing decline in crime in the Queen City.

Prior to his election as Mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown served five years in the New York State Senate. Sworn in on January 1, 2001, he became the first African-American elected to the Senate outside of New York City. He also made history by becoming the first minority member of the New York State Senate to represent a majority white district. Mayor Brown was first elected to represent the Masten District on the Buffalo City Council in 1995. While on the Council, Mayor Brown was called "bright, creative and hardworking," in a Buffalo News survey and was recognized in 1989 by Ebony Magazine as one the ?0 Leaders of the Future.? Mayor Brown is a Silver Life member of the NAACP.