The Civil Service Committee meeting began with a discussion about Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s pick for Deputy Mayor, Brian Gould. Appointing new advisors and assistants is typical for a new elected official, and in this case, Scanlon also intends to restructure the mayor’s office to reduce expenses. Committee Chair Rasheed Wyatt and Niagara District Representative David Rivera asked to see a resume and asked that Gould come talk to council members “about his ideas and visions, and what he proposes to do.” 

The Finance committee returned to a discussion of the city’s assistance to Braymiller’s downtown market. Council Member Wyatt expressed dismay that public money went to support the still-struggling business. “Things are not recovering,” explained Lisa Hicks from the Office of Strategic Planning. In the wake of the COVID pandemic, fewer people come downtown; many workplaces remain only partially in-person, a change that may be permanent. Committee Chair Mitch Nowakowski agreed, saying “You can’t get anyone from my generation without a few days working from home,” he said.

The committee went into executive (private) session to hear from the city’s law department about what Chris Scanlon will be paid. We think this may be a violation of New York’s Open Meetings law since it did not concern sensitive matters or ongoing litigation—only an interpretation of the city charter. Council concluded that though Scanlon is still actually council president (at $100,000 a year), one duty of which is serving as Acting Mayor, he will instead be paid a new mayoral salary of $178,519.

In the Legislation committee, developers addressed their plans for a 5 story, 275-unit building at the site of the old Voelker’s Bowling building, at Amherst and Elmwood streets. A majority of the units will be dedicated to affordable housing. Some close neighbors and local business owners said that while they supported redevelopment there, including creating more places people can afford to live, the scale of the project would be damaging for the neighborhood and for tenants as well. The development team responded that because this would be mixed income, so it would have a different “socio-economic demographic” than public housing, and therefore avoid “a concentration of poverty.”

Council Member Mitch Nowakowski spoke heatedly about the lack of a comprehensive plan for dealing with non-owner-occupied short term rental units (STRs). Discussion of these air-bnb-type permits now consumes a substantial part of legislation committee meetings, as well as the time of many council members.

This led into a discussion of a resolution to issue a moratorium on non-owner-occupied short term rentals. One of the main problems, explained Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope, is that when apartments and houses become STRs, there are fewer rentals and purchases available for Buffalonians. “I have people coming to my office with stacks of applications to start air bnbs,” said Council Woman Zeneta Everhart. “Stacks. That is a lot of apartments being taken away from the residents of Buffalo.” The resolution was tabled so council members could clean up the language, and it will be revisited in a future meeting.

In the Community Development committee, council members heard about plans to bring professional soccer, and a new stadium, to Buffalo. Proponents said they were still deciding on a site for the stadium, and may or may not request public funding. A resolution supporting this was tabled.