The Civil Service Committee heard from a city resident, Matt Austin, about civil service policy. Austin said that the city employs people as provisional workers long after they should be considered permanent employees, and this infringes on their rights as workers. Committee Chair Rasheed Wyatt encouraged him to file a complaint with the NYS Department of Human Rights, and Chair Wyatt said that the committee would bring someone in from Human Resources to address the committee as well.

Once again, the acting mayor’s deputy mayor did not come talk to the committee, though the committee did receive his resume. Wyatt charged President Pro Tempore Bryan Bollman with arranging for the deputy mayor to finally come meet the committee.

Most of the discussion in the Finance Committee was around a new plan for the former Braymiller’s site near the downtown library. Commissioner of Administration and Finance Raymour Nosworthy came to speak, along with Yvonne Bailey, Director of Real Estate, and Police Commissioner Gramaglia, about the acting mayor’s new plan to move a police precinct station there for the year while the B district building undergoes renovations. The lease would be $1 for a year.

Majority Leader Halton-Pope was skeptical that the property had room for the dozens of cars the police department uses, and she suggested that one of the district’s unused school buildings would work instead. Council Member Wyatt proposed the offices at the HSBC, the Buffalo News building, and the Main Place Mall.

Commissioner Gramaglia said that these spaces would not be adequate, because they don’t have showers or a place to store weapons. He assured the council that the Braymiller’s space would be just right; they would use the loading dock for parking, the freezer and refrigerator spaces as locker rooms, and the dry goods area and upstairs kitchen as offices. The police would not, he assured them, even need the part of the building that had been a grocery; they would just put up “some 2x4s and some drywall that doesn’t even need to be finished.” They would also install surveillance cameras on poles outside.

Council Member Wyatt said that he mistrusted this plan. So much effort had gone into getting a much-needed grocery store there, he noted, so why was it now going to suddenly become a police station? Majority Leader Halton-Pope agreed, saying that when her constituent complain, “I’m the one that’s got to wear this.” The public can not readily access the city’s mayoral or administrative offices, she noted—only the council members’ offices.

Gregg Szymanski from the Comptroller’s office reported on the interest the city had earned by holding the American Rescue Plan funds and paying them out very slowly. The city got about $16 million in interest, he said, which went straight into the city’s general fund. He also mentioned the ARP spending investigation his office was undertaking, to get a thorough understanding of the awarding and distribution of COVID relief funds.

Jason Shell, Commissioner of Assessment and Taxation, came to speak about a plan to renew the city’s in rem property auction, where foreclosed properties are sold off. In 2019, the city started a new system for managing the profits from the auction, making it harder for former homeowners to reclaim any profits from the sale of their home (“surplus funds”). Members of the public and the common council complained about this new process, and the Supreme Court ultimately declared that it’s unconstitutional for municipalities to withhold surplus funds from former homeowners. However, in 2020, the city put its annual auction on pause due to COVID-19, and they haven’t had an auction since. Commissioner Shell said that the city needs to purchase software to conduct the auction, but there is only one company with software that will work with Buffalo’s computerized property records.  So, the city is looking to buy from that company without a competitive bidding process.

Council Member Wyatt said that no one had informed the council about resuming the in rem auction. Readers should note that in the past, Delaware District Representative Joel Feroleto had pledged to force a halt to the auction until the surplus fund process was fixed. Shell said that the city was going to revert to the pre-2019 process of distributing surplus funds. The city would send the surplus funds to the county, and residents would apply to the county to get their funds. Majority Leader Halton-Pope asked whether the funds the city was still withholding from 2019 would be returned, but the commissioner said he didn’t know.

The Legislation Committee recommended that the full council approve Council Member Golombek’s resolution to oppose the placement of any wind turbines in Lake Erie. There was no discussion of this resolution by council members or public speakers.

The plan by Family Promise to construct a new shelter for homeless families on East Ferry encountered a mixture of support and opposition. A resident spoke about her own homelessness and the importance of having a shelter like this. Some pastors and an employee spoke about the importance of this organization: Family Promise is unusual among emergency shelters in that it takes in whole families.  It is also the only emergency shelter in the city that accepts women, children, and boys over the age of 16. Several nearby residents spoke up against the location, which they felt would hurt their home values and introduce problems and danger into the neighborhood, particularly at the hands of domestic abusers. The committee tabled the matter until January 14th and Council Woman Everhart said that she planned to hold a community meeting to bring the parties together.

The Community Development Committee did not have any pressing items on its agenda, so they adjourned to prepare for the special session about American Rescue Plan funds.