Message From the President

By Mark Koziel, Buffalo Chapter President

As you may know, Buffalo now has a Control Board trying to help sort out the city’s financial problems. The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority (BFSA) is chaired by our friend and colleague, Tom Baker. If you’ve followed the story, you know that this has been a difficult process on both sides. Politics fuel tempers, and it’s been a lot of he said-she said between the county and the city.

The Board of the Buffalo Chapter and the Buffalo Chapter of the Financial Executives Institute (FEI) have thought of a way that we may help. The City of Buffalo and the BFSA have an overwhelming amount of information and misinformation to sort out. Because both also have a very limited staff, they need our help.

 We are looking to establish a committee that would be independent of the city and the BFSA which could assist with financial analysis. We wouldn’t render opinions or perform audit work, but merely offer help to both sides in sorting out the information.  We would be apolitical, if you will. Our thought is to ask for volunteers, especially retirees, who may have some time and are looking to keep busy. Buffalo desperately needs our help to move this process along. Anyone with a love for where they live who wants to help make a difference, please contact me at the number or e-mail listed below.

 We’d like to establish this committee as quickly as possible. If you know of someone you would like to “nominate,” please forward their information to me and we’ll try to recruit them.

Now on to other things! In September, I was fortunate to attend the Young CPAs happy hour. It brought back memories of our very first Young CPAs happy hour, coordinated by Diane Wiktorowski, five years ago. That was the springboard for the Young CPAs Committee in Buffalo and really for the start of my involvement with the Buffalo Chapter.

I’ve been to quite a few young CPA events over the last five years and, for the first time, something strange happened: I knew only a handful of people at the event. I attribute this to one of two things. The first theory is I’m getting way too old to be hanging out at Young CPA events. The second theory is that there are a lot of fresh new faces getting involved. I’d like to think it’s the latter. It was great to see the support from a variety of firms and companies. We’d like to see that continue, so make sure you encourage your newer team members to get involved.

Lastly, it’s November and the 50th annual Tax Institute is just around the corner on Dec. 11 and 12. More information is available in this section and on our webpage on the State Society website. Be sure to check it out, and help us make the 50th our best yet!

Mark Koziel can be reached at 716-316-7329 or markkoziel@adelphia.net