For this summary, we will report on the Caucus and Regular meetings. ‘Council Member’ is abbreviated as CM; ‘Council President’ as CP; ‘President Pro Tempore’ as PT; and ‘Majority Leader’ as ML.
 
Council members heard from the Police Commissioner, Joseph Gramaglia, at the Caucus meeting. Gramaglia spoke again about the BPD request to purchase and accept a new Taser contract. This would greatly increase the number and range of Tasers, including providing weapons for school resource officers (SROs), police who work within school buildings. Research has shown that the use of Tasers on juveniles is physically and emotionally more dangerous than for adults.
 
The Council also planned to adopt a resolution, put forth by CM Wyatt, to postpone city In Rem auctions (when Buffalo sells city-owned and foreclosed properties). The pending proposal would demand transparency concerning the auctions’ profits and the failure to reimburse residents whose properties are auctioned off. At the Regular meeting, however, CM Wyatt asked to receive and file the resolution, pending some amendments.
 
The biggest drama in the Regular meeting was a dust-up between council members. CM Nowakowski objected to an item filed by ML Halton-Pope that would direct the Corporation Counsel to amend the city charter language for when a council member steps into the mayor’s office. This scenario is almost certain to happen with CP Chris Scanlon, once Byron Brown leaves for his new job at Off-Track Betting. Nowakowski argued that there was not enough time to read the late filed item, and Halton-Pope countered that it had been on the “pre-caucus agenda.” The underlying question at hand was whether, as had been the rule, a single council member could object to a late filed item, and therefore remove it from the agenda.
 
Ultimately, the item was sent to the legislation committee.  Next week, they will discuss whether the Common Council should be able to change the city charter, and when.
 
Working together, CM Nowakowski and ML Halton-Pope raised the issue of the administrations’ failure to collect fees owed. For example, the city has allowed various contracts to lapse, including the AMR ambulance service; as a result, we are no longer collecting the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year that contract would guarantee in franchising revenue.
 
The council also approved hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements to people, including for police department labor law violations and for a police officer’s reckless driving causing injury.