The Civil Service Committee recommended approval for a handful of city hires, including two for the police department. The BPD will get an anti-violence coordinator. This is a new position funded by New York State to combat gun violence. Carmen Menza will step into this position.
 
The committee got notice that the Office of Strategic Planning hired a policy coordinator. With positions like this one in the mayoral branch, the council is notified of hires, but the council doesn’t get to approve or disapprove of them.
 
Finance Committee members heard from Delano Dowell of the Comptroller’s office. Dowell described a new policy for the city’s discretionary funds. This is a pot of funding that council members can give out to improve quality of life in their districts. In 2024-2025, each district has $200,000. The new policy defines who can receive money from each council member’s district budget and how those funds must be documented.
 
Pressed about whether the comptroller has the power to make decisions about council funds, Dowell said, “This is policy, not legislation.” That wasn’t enough to satisfy committee members, though. They pushed back on everything from who’s eligible for funds to who gets to tell other elected officials what to do. “I’m not going to turn over my discretion to the comptroller’s office,” said Niagara District Representative David Rivera. Committee Chair Mitch Nowakowski and Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope echoed this frustration. Even President Pro Tempore Bryan Bollman gently added that "each district has unique situations."
 
Alan Gerstman, from the Buffalo Arts Commission, came to speak to the committee about funding for arts and cultural organizations. There were many misperceptions at the meeting, on all sides. At PPG, we’ve worked on arts funding issues for many years. In brief, here’s how city arts funding works:

• There is a budget line for arts, cultural, and anti-violence organizations. Every year, the Arts Commission requests that the mayor and council put those funds in the budget—$400,000 for the past few years. Every year, the city includes this money in the budget. Yet, every year, the city fails to spend most of the funds. An arts advisory board is supposed to create an application process and award the money. But for many years, the mayor, council, and Arts Commission haven’t put the advisory board together. This means that most of the money doesn’t get awarded at all.
• There is a separate budget line of $60,000 in the budget that helps fund a public art job at the AKG Art Museum.
• The city is allowed to spend up to 3% of its total budget on “grants in aid.” Arts funding counts as “grants in aid.” This means that the city could spend up to $18.7 million on arts funding.
• There’s a law that says any city-funded capital project over $1 million must spend at least 1% of the project’s cost on public art. This happens sometimes, but not all the time. 

Committee members also discussed fees that Buffalo residents pay for things like water, garbage, and sewer. For many years, the city kept these fees the same. While residents likely appreciated the steady fees, most folks in City Hall agree this was a bad policy. Instead of raising the fees slowly over time, the city must now raise them a lot all at once. The extra money will help pay for repairs that were delayed and the rising cost of services.
 
Administration and Finance Commissioner Raymour Nosworthy reminded listeners that Buffalo continues to charge very low user fee rates compared to other cities. The committee wants someone from the executive’s branch to make a comprehensive fee list for residents. That way, residents can see how much they can expect to pay. The council members tabled the item until they could get more information.
 
The Legislation Committee recommended approval for an amended Living Wage Ordinance in the city. This is the law that raises the minimum wage the city and its contractors pay to keep pace with the cost of life here. The committee thanked PPG co-founder Sam Magavern for his work to keep the ordinance up to date.
 
Central Terminal Neighborhood Association representative Chris Hawley spoke in favor of rezoning 379 Paderewski Drive (near the Central Terminal) to allow construction of a $5 million shooting range for the BPD. Police, he said, assured the group that this would be a good fit for the neighborhood, and he and his neighbors felt that this would be a beneficial use for the property. Two other speakers opposed the rezoning, saying that it was not appropriate to transform what had been a community center into a firearm training center. They objected to procedural oversights and the high cost of construction. Instead of building something new, the BPD could continue to rent space in Cheektowaga. Ultimately, the council members sent the proposal to the next full council meeting “without recommendation.” This means that they aren’t expressing an opinion on whether it should be approved or denied until next week.
 
Representatives from the Office of Strategic Planning spoke to the Community Development Committee about a recent proposal to partner with non-profit organizations to rehab foreclosed homes and sell them to low-income households. Director Nadine Marrero pointed out that since the city has paused its In Rem auctions (where they sell off houses and properties the city is foreclosing on), Buffalo no longer has many houses. Though the city owns many vacant lots, it only has four vacant houses—three of which are already under contract. Buffalo already has a partnership with an agency that does exactly these rehabs: the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corporation (BENLIC). BENLIC is the county’s land bank, and it constructs and rehabs houses.
 
Council Member Nowakowski was angry that the police Behavioral Health Team (BHT) did not show up to speak to the meeting, despite having been asked. A resident of his district spoke about the mental health and drug crises ravaging his neighborhood as well as victims themselves. People need houses and help, the resident said. “We need larger parties to get involved and help,” echoed another resident. Nowakowski said that he would call the police commissioner and add this to the growing list of items for the Police Oversight Committee. The committee agreed.