Editor's note: Harper Bishop is no longer associated with PUSH Buffalo. A previous version of this editorial misidentified that association.
The Fruit Belt Community Land Trust is falling apart. Launched in 2018, but dating back several years earlier to neighborhood conversations prompted by the growth of the nearby Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, its supporters must feel more than a little disappointment.
The absolute mess that News business reporter Jonathan D. Epstein recently wrote about must now be left to the New York State Attorney General’s Office, whose responsibilities include overseeing nonprofit organizations. The public that the land trust was supposed to serve will need to await some clarity.
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In the meantime, the infighting and accusations among longtime board members and new ones and interim staff contain enough sparks to qualify for its own daytime drama. But this is real life and the issues of justice and fairness that the land trust set out to tackle still exist, perhaps now more than ever as Buffalo continues its forward development march. It’s a shame the land trust is embroiled in turmoil.
Some of the growing complications among the nonprofit’s new board leadership, its former staff and its founding activists – including those who do not live in the historic Buffalo neighborhood – have come to a boil.
Two staff members, former interim executive director Stephanie J. Simeon and director of operations Brandi Barrett, resigned in anger after the incoming board chair, Dr. Beverly Newkirk, questioned their financial stewardship. Simeon and Barrett both also work for Heart of the City Neighborhoods, which administered the land trust under a consulting contract.
Key members resigned at the same time in protest, among them two board members, Jessie Fisher and Amy Holt.
Such information raises red flags on its own, but the story is even more intense and complicated. Newkirk and her supporters filed a whistleblower complaint against Simeon and Barrett with the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which oversees nonprofits. The complaint questions a number of items, including how Simeon wrote her own paychecks totaling $139,000. It states that the board plans a “necessary and proper” audit of the finances. In total, the board is questioning more than $275,000 in payments authorized by Simeon and Barrett.
These questions must be answered. Until then, Barrett and her backers, led by Harper Bishop, fought back by holding a vote earlier this month by the land trust membership to remove Newkirk, former Chair Elverna Gidney, Dewette Aughtry and Candace Moppins from the board, according to emails. Supporters of Newkirk and Gidney are calling foul.
The story only delves deeper into the thicket, mentioning India Walton, who served as the land trust’s first executive director until she resigned to run for mayor against Byron W. Brown in 2021. The land trust did not hire a new permanent director, opting to contract with Heart of the City Neighborhoods. Simeon is that organization’s executive director and served in such capacity for both organizations. Barrett, who served as board chair for the land trust from July to November 2021 before joining Heart of the City, also works for both entities. The Service Collaborative of Western New York handles the back-office functions.
Got all that?
As to the root of the problem, perhaps a major lack of communication? Understanding? Structure? However it may be characterized, this is a toxic brew that needs to be remedied. Let’s hope the New York State Attorney General’s Office can assist in repairing this promising but broken organization.
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