Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz had blisternig words for Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown Wednesday, taking the mayor and community by surprise with the attack.
The blast from the Rath Building to City Hall is reverberating locally, of course, but with the national spotlight on Buffalo in the wake of the deadly and devastating Buffalo Blizzard, will the rift make national headlines?
One WBEN political analyst thinks not.
In his harsh narrative, which came at the end of his storm briefing Wednesday, Poloncarz suggested the county take over complete snow removal operations for major storms in the future. "I think it's apparent it's time for that to happen," he said, and added. "Storm after storm after storm after storm, the city is unfortunately the last to be open and that shouldn't be the case."
WBEN then asked Brown about the attack, which occurred only moments before Brown began his briefing, and he said it took him completely off guard. "I'm just going to chalk it up to someone feeling that pressure and crumbling under it," said Brown.
Ken Kruly of Politics and Stuff says Poloncarz's remarks could be the product of being days into a crisis. "I think everybody involved in the leadership of the dealing with the storm was just tired and frustrated. And I think that that explains a lot of what may be going on at the moment," says Kruly. He does note both Poloncarz and Brown will have to work together in the cleanup effort. "But it does appear that the city has dropped the ball in a number of cases with the storm. And the county executive is trying to get everything taken care of. So there's some frustration and it bubbles up into the public," adds Kruly.
Kruly doesn't know if there will be long lasting consequences from this. "I don't expect that it's going to result in an all out war," believes Kruly. "I think that they're just going to have to realize that they have to set aside some things." He says the city still needs to be cleaned up, unlike good parts of the suburban areas. He notes there's some work to do which the county has stepped in to do.
Kruly says he wouldn't be surprised if the national media took hold of this angle. "We certainly have gotten a lot of attention nationally, out of the story," but Kruly believes it's unlikely because of the 24 hour news cycle. He notes a major storm brewing and already underway in the western part of the country. Kruly believes the national media will shift to that.
