The Civil Service Committee began with a fiery discussion about Deputy Mayor Brian Gould.  Gould once again did not provide his resume to the council and did not appear before the committee, despite being asked to do so. This is not a requirement for Gould’s position. However, some of the council members see it as a matter of common courtesy and professionalism. “This council is being disrespected again,” said Chair Rasheed Wyatt. “Nothing will move in [the Civil Service Committee] until that person comes before us.” However, Majority Leader Halton-Pope, President Pro Temp Bollman, and Council Member Rivera expressed concern about the many different job approvals that could be delayed, ranging from mayoral appointments to truck drivers. Ultimately, they decided to send items back to the full council “without recommendation,” which will not hold them up.

Representatives from Frontline Arts Buffalo came to speak to the Finance Committee about the difficulties they’ve faced in getting their American Rescue Plan (ARP) contracts completed. Brian Brown from Ujima Theatre Company said that Ujima staff had spent two years and hundreds of hours filling the city’s requests and pushing for answers, only to now be told that they had run out of time to sign their contract.

Council Member Rivera said that the delays were unacceptable. “It’s called the American Rescue Plan. Can you imagine needing to be rescued, and it takes three years to get rescued?” he asked. “You would have been dead by now.”

Council members also alluded to the newest, final ARP budget plan, which they had received from the acting mayor. The mayor’s proposal is to do what many community organizations have long feared: sweep money, much of it already promised, away from their programs and into the general city budget. Millions of dollars will be taken away from frontline arts organizations, home inspection initiatives, job training, public health programs, community centers, parks, and road maintenance. For example, a staggering $11 million—originally intended to help households that owed water bill payments—is being removed from the plan and used for the city’s general budget instead.

The council can approve of this amended budget with a majority of votes. Or, if four members vote no, they can reject the amendment. This would force the city—the administration and the common council—to develop a new plan for spending the remaining money.

Hovering over this process are two threats:
1) Any uncontracted money will have to be returned to the federal government. The mayor’s administration is claiming that because federal processes are so slow and convoluted, the city must use the money for revenue replacement.
2) The money that was supposed to be spent on water bill arrears has, in fact, already been spent by the Water Board on something else. If the budget is not rewritten to retroactively allow this reallocation, the city will be liable for having lied to the federal government about how it used the funds.

The council members decided to push the decision until next week’s meetings.

Committee members also discussed a request from the Parking Department to contract with Umojo for data collection about traffic and parking space availability and use. Eventually, the conversation came around to how this data might be used by other departments, like the police. Because of concern over this possibility, the committee sent it on to the full council “without recommendation,” because they want more information about the program.

The committee recommended that the council approve another contract, this one for the police to use the services of Dataminr to sift through online materials for information. For more information about Dataminr, check out last week’s summary.

In the Legislation Committee, community and council members continued to talk about short-term rentals (STRs). Last week, the council passed a partial moratorium on these air-bnb-type establishments. This legislation was aimed in particular at owners who do not live in the City of Buffalo and folks who want to start these STRs in historic neighborhoods or areas with tight rental markets. The council intends to use the next few months to come up with policy for these businesses.

The agenda for the Community Development Committee only had one item. It was about the expansion of internet access throughout the city. Council members stressed the importance of this expansion, and the Verizon company representative agreed, telling them to “keep pushing.”