At the Caucus Meeting, council members heard from Delano Dowell, the Deputy Comptroller. The comptroller is meant to be the financial watchdog of the city. Dowell came to talk about a report from the comptroller that disagreed with the city about the city’s finances. Last week, Administration and Finance Commissioner Raymour Nosworthy projected that Buffalo would finish 2024-2025 (the city’s fiscal year goes from July through the following June) with a small deficit of $1.3 million. Dowell said that the comptroller instead foresaw a $7.6 million deficit, a result of smaller than anticipated revenues and greater than expected health care costs. This discrepancy will be discussed further in the Finance Committee.

Council members questioned Nate Marton, Commissioner of Public Works, about the department’s pothole-filling policies. Four work teams are going out every day, Marton said, and on weekend blitzes, 13 crews work. Sometimes a special contractor is required for tricky holes— for example, when streets are paved over old streetcar rails—and some require multiple patches. Last weekend, crews were able to fix over 340 potholes, using 40 tons of cold patch filler.

City Treasurer Michael Seaman, whose department manages collections, spoke about the difficulties of collecting money owed to the city, especially from LLCs that own property and owe fines. As an example, he cited three different absentee landlords; between them, they own 140 properties, and taken together, they owe $1.2 million to Buffalo. Yet, city laws do not allow for an effective means of making them pay. When a landlord ignores an adjudication summons—a notice instructing them to come to court—there are no consequences. Another part of the problem, Seaman explained, was that the city has not had a foreclosure auction (a.k.a. the city’s In Rem auction). “We’re going to have a foreclosure [auction] next year. It will probably be the largest we’ve ever had,” he said. This would give the city leverage and enable it to collect money from people. Administration and Finance is asking to hire a new collections company, RTR Financial Services, which would collect parking and housing fines. The city would pay around 18% in fees for this service.

Nationally, the Trump administration is moving to delegitimize both Black History Month and Women’s History Month, but in Buffalo they are still alive and well. Council Member Rasheed Wyatt began the Regular Meeting by honoring Desron Witherspoon, who bowled a 900—that’s three perfect games in a row, 36 strikes, something only 40 other people in history have ever done, anywhere. Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope recognized Ms. Michelle Barron of Dress for Success, “a beacon of hope for women in the city of Buffalo.”

Council members voted to permit the city to sell bonds to raise $535,000 toward the construction of “Cop City,” the Police Department’s new training facility by the Central Terminal. The site is expected to cost $3.9 million.

They also approved a resolution allowing the city to override, for the 2025-2026 budget year, our limit on tax increases. Currently, they are only permitted to raise taxes 2% per year, unless they grant themselves an exemption. Buffalo overrode this limit substantially last year, with then-mayor Byron Brown proposing a 9% tax increase, which the Common Council eventually lowered to 4.5%. 

The council also moved to approve all the claims against Buffalo, including $650,000 for a man wounded badly by a falling light pole, and several claims against the police.