In July 2015, The Buffalo News obtained a recording of Joseph Mascia talking to Paul Christopher, a former employer. Christopher secretly taped his conversation with Mascia while they were riding in a car together. In the recording, Mascia used racial slurs eight times in reference to black local and state politicians. He mentioned Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Council President Darius G. Pridgen, Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority Executive Director Dawn Sanders-Garrett. Mascia apologized for the slurs, saying it was out of character for him. "I can’t believe a person who is a friend would make a tape like that. … But I have no excuses. I should not have said those things," he said. Despite pressure to drop out of the council race, Mascia said he still intended to run. Mascia's campaign manager, Katrinna Martin, who is black, said, "Joe needs to make special amends and personal apologies to every political person he mentions there," but that she "continue[s] to stand up for him because he stands up for the poor and minority people who live in public housing." In August, Mayor Byron Brown suspended Masica from his position on the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, saying that he violated the authority's Personnel Policy and Code of Ethics. Mascia said he planned to challenge the suspension. “ You know who can remove me? The people. If they decide next May that they don't want to have me as a commissioner they can elect someone else. But until that happens I'm going to stay and I feel I can't be removed as a commissioner and we're going to file our papers out objection to what they've done. ” —Joe Mascia