Record

• Elected Erie County Clerk in a November 2017 special election; re-elected in 2018 (50.6 percent) and 2022 (54.4 percent)²⁵.
• Member of the New York State Assembly, 2012 to 2017, and of the Buffalo Common Council for the South District, 2006 to 2012; ran unsuccessfully against Mayor Byron Brown in the 2009 Democratic primary³⁵.
• Erie County Comptroller audits of his office: a June 30, 2023 audit of the Registrar Division's 2022 revenues reported cash discrepancies, a lack of management oversight of financial records, pistol permit fees waived without legal authority, and other internal control findings⁶; an August 2023 follow-up analysis confirmed cash discrepancies totaling 114,715.75 dollars from January 2022 through June 2023 and altered deposit reports, and the Sheriff's Office opened a criminal investigation⁷; the Clerk's Office's September 20, 2023 written response accepted some findings, called others false, and said new policies and procedures had been put in place⁸. A February 2024 Comptroller audit of the office's 2022 mortgage tax collection reported undistributed balances and reporting errors⁹.
• The investigation that followed the 2023 audit ended with a former deputy clerk in the Registrar Division pleading guilty and being sentenced on January 21, 2025 to one and one third to four years in prison for stealing 320,159.33 dollars from the office between April 2019 and June 2023, with restitution ordered¹⁰.