At the Civil Service Committee, the nominee for Commissioner of the Buffalo Police Department, Alphonso Wright, came to speak. Wright has been Acting Commissioner since the abrupt departure of Joseph Gramaglia in January.

Council Member Rivera asked Wright if he planned to work with the Police Oversight Committee and the Police Advisory Board. The Police Oversight Committee is supposed to meet quarterly. “The former commissioner would call our office and cancel meetings,” said Rivera, explaining the infrequency of any council oversight committee meetings. Wright said he would do his best to attend the meetings. The first scheduled meeting of the Police Oversight Committee is June 1.

Council Member Wyatt said that Buffalo needs an independent civilian review board, especially because the city often has to pay expensive lawsuit settlements for bad police behavior. Wright said he would think about it. The committee recommended that Wright be approved as commissioner.

Next up was Raymour Nosworthy, who the mayor is proposing as the new Commissioner of Administration and Finance (currently Nosworthy is acting commissioner). Nosworthy detailed how he has tried to save money to address Buffalo’s looming deficit; so far, he said, he has managed to find or free up $5.8 million. The committee is recommending to the full council that Nosworthy be approved as commissioner.

In the Finance Committee, Nosworthy came to report that the city will now likely have better finances this year; the $17 million deficit of last quarter has given way, this quarter, to a slight- $1.3 million surplus. This is the result, Nosworthy said, of the one-time infusion of millions in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds, money which had originally been earmarked for community organizations. Going forward, he said, there would be no more “speculative revenues” in the budget—things like a hotel occupancy tax (which did not exist when it was put into last years’ budget) or cannabis revenue (which was over-projected by millions of dollars).

Majority Leader Halton-Pope asked about the city’s use of “outside counsel.” This is when the city hires private law firms in addition to its own legal department. Generally, the city brings in outside counsel when they are dealing with a big claim against the city. These contracts go before the council for approval.

Halton-Pope, Wyatt, and Rivera asked Nosworthy to talk about the ARP payments to community groups and non-profits. They asked the city to find a way to let community groups receive funding and then supply receipts. Right now, the groups must front the money. The council members said that the current process, like the entire ARP funding mechanism, has been cumbersome. “Just give them their money,” said Wyatt. “It’s not our money. It’s their money.” Nosworthy spoke about how important it is for the city to provide adequate oversight of all the funds, but council members pushed back, noting that the city had made it quite easy to release ARP money to itself.

The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) Report showed that its revenue from rent has gone up. BMHA tenants’ rent is always 30% of their household income. The BMHA representative explained that some tenants’ incomes have gone up; that’s why BMHA is making more in rental revenue.

Before breaking into executive session, the Claims Committee spoke with the city’s law department head, Cavette Chambers. Chair Rivera said that the committee wanted to meet with department heads to ask them what they are doing to avoid getting the city into expensive litigation that is costing the city millions–sometimes tens of millions–of dollars a year. Chambers said that if a lawyer was present, they could have these discussions privately, off the public record. Many of these expensive claims come from lawsuits against the BPD. Council Woman Everhart had asked for someone from the police department to appear, but no one came. The committee then approved all the settlements, which totaled nearly a million dollars.

In the Legislation Committee meeting, council members heard residents’ and small-scale developers’ proposals. These included affordable housing units, event venues, a medical plaza, and a doula help center.

The Community Development Committee heard from Kelly St. John about the city’s new Climate Action Plan. With a changing climate, St. John said, “the causes are global, but the impacts are local.” The committee recommended approving the plan, which calls for reducing city-government-created emissions by 40% over the next five years.

The committee moved to table many appointments, including six to the troubled water board.

Community members, environmental advocates, activists, and organizers testified about a proposed ban on wind turbines in Lake Erie. Everyone seemed to disagree on whether this bill was about protecting clean water in the lake or protecting fossil fuel industries. Ultimately, the committee recommended tabling the proposal to tinker with it. They said they would edit the resolution to reflect environmental concerns, though it was unclear how they’d do this.

In the Education Committee, council members heard from a representative of Bus Patrol. The city contracts with Bus Patrol for the school bus stop-arm ticketing program. This program is meant to stop drivers from driving past school buses while they have their stop-arms out (as they pick up or drop off children). If you pass a school bus with its stop-arm out, you’ll get a ticket for $250 or more. The program has produced about 23,000 citations since it began five months ago. Community advocates have complained about the inequitable impact of the large fines on drivers with different incomes, as well as the fact that the schools themselves do not receive any of the revenues.