Mayor fires human resources commissioner

By Eileen Buckley

Buffalo, NY – Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has fired the City's Human Resources Commissioner. Brown tells WBFO News he notified Karla Thomas today that she is being terminated.

Thomas has been under fire since an audit revealed that the city overpaid more than $2 million in health insurance premiums for 170-deceased city workers. The Mayor made his decision after he completed a reviewed a critical report of Thomas's work from the City's law department.

"Because it is a personal matter I can't go into a lot of detail, but one of the things that was made clear is that one of the major directives that was issued January to purchase the Social Security Death indexes was not followed, and because that was not accomplished hundreds of thousands of additional taxpayer dollars were lost," said Mayor Brown.

Thomas has four years remaining on a six year contract. She will have the right to appear at a hearing before the Mayor on September 16th.

The Mayor said he is very "disappointed" and "disheartened" by the situaiton.