This was the last week for a Regular Common Council meeting before the council’s August break. Next week, there will be committee meetings, and then the whole council will reconvene in September.
 
The council sent some items to committee for further discussion:

• A letter from the Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project – The letter, titled “To make LGBTQ Community safer, consult community, not police,” disagreed with the Acting Mayor’s decision to send more police to Allentown. Acting Mayor Scanlon decided to do this after two gay activists and community leaders, Mickey Harmon and Jordan Celotto, were brutally murdered. Dozens of organizations and individuals had signed on to the letter. They demanded that the city ask community members about what’s needed to make them safer. They also asked the city to make Buffalo a sanctuary city for trans folks. The council sent this letter to the Police Oversight Committee.
• Resolutions calling for greater police accountability – Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope submitted resolutions requesting that the police do the following:
  • make data more accessible
  • use their body cameras as required by law
  • turn over information about their traffic stops
  • give first aid when necessary
  • use only appropriate, proportional force

Halton-Pope also asked the mayor to create a civilian oversight board (Council Member Wyatt has also pushed for this in the past). The council sent these resolutions on to the Police Oversight Committee.
 
The council adopted these items:

• A resolution calling on the city to follow its often-ignored “1% for arts” law – For any capital project over $1 million that receives city funding, the developer must commit 1% of the cost to public art. The resolution calls on the comptroller, the Department of Public Works, and the Arts Commission to enforce this law. This will be discussed in the Finance Committee on Tuesday July 29th.
• A resolution asking the mayor’s office to create a program to prioritize low-income homeownership in the In Rem auction – Organizations would be able to purchase properties below market value. Then, those orgs would fix up and sell those properties to low-income owner occupiers. The hope is to start with 30 properties in one neighborhood. This program is meant to help with rising home prices. This resolution will be discussed at the Community Development Committee meeting on Tuesday July 29th. 

Council members approved these items: 

• $154,000 in contracts for six demolitions – When buildings are unsafe and owners cannot or will not fix them, the city can step in to stabilize or tear them down. Scheduled demolitions include locations throughout the city.
• a contract with the U.S. Army to do repair and improvement work on the Bird Island Wastewater Treatment Plant and on Broderick Park – The Army isn’t complying with New York State’s (and the City of Buffalo’s) civil rights legislation protecting gender identity and expression. However, as a federal agency the Army may be exempt from those requirements.