This week's summary focuses on two Common Council meetings: the Caucus Meeting and the Regular Meeting. A Caucus Meeting is where members from a specific political party–in Buffalo's case, the Democratic party–meet to review the agenda for the regular meeting, but official voting on issues does not occur. The Regular Meeting is the Common Council's primary meeting, where they make official decisions on issues.

The only item spoken about during the Caucus Meeting was a Language Access resolution Council Member Rivera raised. As described by Council Member Rivera, this resolution articulates a commitment by the Common Council to "put forth a good faith effort to address the language barriers that many of our constituents face by identifying all the possible ways to make Council information accessible to both non-English speakers and residents who are hard of hearing or deaf." The council member highlighted that the city's population has grown by 16% in recent years, primarily due to an influx of New American communities. He affirmed the Common Council's goal of making its materials and proceedings more accessible to the general public, emphasizing that the Council needs to address language barriers to do so in our community. He also explicitly included language access for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as a part of the resolution. During the Caucus meeting Council Members Pridgen, Bollman, Wyatt, and Nowakowski asked to be co-sponsors of the resolution. 

During the Regular Meeting, the main topics of discussion included a proposal for the City of Buffalo to abandon and sell portions of Frank Lloyd Wright Way and Carroll Street to the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum; the need for a review of the city’s snow removal plan; the Language Access resolution; and the Good Cause Eviction (S3082/A5573) resolution. 

Attorney Robert Knoerr spoke on behalf of the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum regarding the museum's request to have the City of Buffalo abandon and sell portions of Frank Lloyd Wright Way and Carroll Street downtown to the museum. The museum, which the NYS Department of Education chartered and the State of New York owns, seeks to own portions of those streets to be closed off to traffic and used for museum events and activities. The museum would pay market value for the land to the city. The main question that remained unanswered during the meeting was what would happen to the streets should the museum close. It was unclear whether ownership of the streets would revert back to the City of Buffalo or need to go through surrogate's court. The Council sent the item to the Planning Board and Community Development Committee for further review and discussion. 

The Common Council discussed the challenges with snow removal during the last big snowstorm and acknowledged that it took over 72 hours for some streets to be plowed. Council members discussed that one of the main challenges with snow removal is cars parked on both sides of the street. Sometimes, residents–especially New American families–don't know about the parking rules. Other times people can't move their cars because there is no other place to park. The Common Council sent the agenda item related to refining the city's snow removal plan to the Community Development Committee for further review and discussion, and Council Member Golombek will lead this discussion. 

The Council unanimously adopted the Language Access resolution, and Council Member Rivera reiterated the importance of making the Council's proceedings and relevant city information accessible to non-English speaking New American families, as well as to people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. The resolution commits the Common Council to make a "good faith effort" to ensure that information is accessible. The Council requests that the passed resolution be sent to the Office of New Americans, the Office of the Mayor, the International Institute, Journey's End Refugee Services, and WNY Deaf Access. 

There was an animated discussion about a resolution to support the state-level Good Cause Eviction bill (S3082/A5573). Ultimately, the resolution passed by a margin of 5-4, with Council Members Wyatt, Pridgen, Bollman, Nowakowski, and Rivera in support and Council Members Feroleto, Scanlon, Wingo, and Golombek in opposition. The resolution was sent to the Legislation Committee for further discussion in a public forum, even though the resolution of support formally passed the Common Council. 

Council Member Feroleto voiced concerns that no WNY members of the NYS Legislature co-sponsor the bill. He is also uncomfortable with rent control and making it difficult for landlords not to renew lease agreements, two common misconceptions about the bill. PPG's Sarah Wooten, Community Researcher, and Tanvier Peart, Director of Policy Advancement, in addition to partners at PUSH Buffalo, Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), Free the People WNY, and other community tenants spoke in support of Good Cause during last week's Legislation Committee meeting

Council President Pridgen voted in favor of the resolution but acknowledged reservations about the bill as it is written and encouraged discussion on potential revisions. Overall, however, he emphasized the importance of putting protections in place for tenants.

Finally, it is worth a note that the Council sent two items to the Education Committee without additional discussion, including an item relating to Catholic Charities' new Workforce Development and Job Training programs and a request to have the Buffalo Public Schools honor Muslim holidays. 

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