This week's summary focuses on the Regular Meeting and a Special Finance Committee Meeting. The Regular Meeting is the Common Council's primary meeting, where they make official decisions on issues. The Special Finance Committee Meeting focused on the City of Buffalo’s snow removal plan.

During the Regular Meeting, Terry Alford spoke about the importance of the African-American Heritage Corridor on Michigan Street and recognized the board members that made this happen. The African-American Heritage Corridor serves as a tourist destination for people to visit and learn about national and international history. The Common Council fully supports the proclamation to recognize Michigan Avenue as the African-American Heritage Corridor.

Council Member Scanlon filed a motion to return meetings to the Council Chambers that received an objection. This motion is not being enforced at the time. The Council approved four market lease agreements for businesses. However, the body denied the sale of 51 Northumberland but approved all change orders for the Public Works Department. Ten food licenses and permits received approval.

The Common Council held a Special Finance Committee Meeting on February 9 to invite public comment and collect ideas to improve the City of Buffalo's snow removal plan. The meeting was held on Zoom and lasted nearly two hours.

In addition to Finance Committee members Wyatt, Bollman, Nowakowski, and Rivera, Council Members Golombek, Feroleto, and Scanlon were also in attendance. Although Council Member Wingo serves on the Finance Committee, he was not in attendance, nor was Council President Pridgen. Michael Finn, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Works (DPW) was also present, along with Henry Jackson, the City's Deputy Commissioner for Streets and Sanitation, and Wilmer Olivencia, the Director of Street Sanitation.

Finance Committee Chair Wyatt emphasized the committee hosted the public meeting because funds will need to be allocated to cover snow removal improvements. Wyatt specifically highlighted the intention of implementing a GPS tracking system for snowplows to allow both residents and the city to track plows in real-time and collect data to inform efficiency planning.

DPW Commissioner Finn provided a brief statement addressing the city's current snow removal plan. He highlighted the high volume of snow, the lack of snowmelt, and residents' non-compliance with alternate side parking rules as the key challenges during our most recent storm. He also acknowledged that the current plan is modeled on an average snowfall of 10 inches, which was significantly less than our recent accumulations. Commissioner Finn shared that the main priorities when it snows are to clear the city's primary and secondary roadways as it's snowing and to provide at least a single pass on all residential streets within 24 hours. 

After the first single-pass, typically, the plan is to return to all streets to cover the alternate sides of the road over the next several days. When it snows on the weekends when alternate side parking is not in effect, the goal is to clear the center of residential blocks and clear one side of the street on Monday and the other on Thursday when the alternate side parking switches.

Residents who submitted their names before the meeting could speak for public comment. Many were highly critical and accusatory, and several offered their thanks to the Common Council for taking steps toward improving the city's snow plan. Others provided constructive suggestions for the city to consider in improving snow removal.

The main complaints and criticisms throughout the meeting included:

• The slow pace and inadequate amount of plowing of streets across Buffalo. According to speakers, some streets took over a week to clear;
• The need not only for plowing, but also snow removal. Snow accumulations make street visibility poor, block pedestrian paths, block driveways, and obstruct bus shelters;
• A lack of cleared sidewalks, and the risk this poses to people with mobility issues and to those who rely on public transit;
• A lack of cleared bus and transit shelters;
• Concerns about which neighborhoods received (and did not) plowing and perception of significant inequity in distributing the city's snow removal resources;
• Inconsistent ticketing of people who violate alternate side parking rules;
• Plows not plowing to the curb even when there are no cars parked;
• Some neighborhoods being plowed too much and plowing in residents' driveways;
• Closing street parking on major roads from November through April clogging residential side streets;
• A lack of clear bike accessible paths;
• Fire hydrants not cleared;
• Poor communication with residents on parking rules and steps the city is taking to address issues; and
• The need for a snow removal plan for when we get more than the average snowfall of 10 inches (not currently in place)

The main suggestions throughout the meeting included:

• Doubling down on ticketing residents who violate alternate side parking rules to encourage compliance, with others arguing against punitive ticketing and encouraging better communications about parking rules with residents and increasing free off-street parking ahead of anticipated storms to keep the streets clearer for plows;
• Council Member Wyatt sharing a discussion with the City's Department of Permits and Inspections to ticket property owners for not clearing their sidewalks;
  The City of Buffalo investing in paying contractors to shovel uncleared sidewalks and bill property owners;
• The City contracting with and paying citizens to clear sidewalks and bus shelters. Alternatively, the City of Buffalo could extend programs like the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program to year-round for youth to receive compensation for clearing snow;
  Declaring a state of emergency to mobilize additional snow removal resources such as the National Guard;
• Creating a municipal sidewalk snow removal plan that identifies areas with the greatest needs based on traffic flow, transit stops, and proximity to needed services. This could be piloted in smaller zones;
• Improving the communications strategy for connecting with residents on parking rules, parking alternatives ahead of storms, available snow removal resources for people who need assistance, etc. A multi-pronged communications strategy is needed; and
• Diversifying the network of snow removal contractors to help with snow plowing and removal.

At the close of the meeting, Council Member Golombek, Community Development Committee Chair, reiterated the importance of investing in the GPS tracking system for plows and shared that the cost would likely be about $45,000 for the city to implement it. He suggested an overall investment of $500,000 to $1 million would likely be necessary for making the needed improvements to the city's overall snow removal plan. This is a priority for the Council's budgeting process in May.

Need more than just a summary? Contact us at info@ppgbuffalo.org, or find full meeting information and schedules here: http://buffalony.iqm2.com/Citizens/Default.aspx