| Date: | December 14, 2023 |
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On December 13, 2023, the below article in The Buffalo News covered a public workshop on Buffalo Common Council procedures - such as how to file an item (an issue or concern) with the Council, how to speak to your item in a committee meeting, and more. This workshop was offered by PPG at the Anti-Displacement Summit, organized by Our City Buffalo and many partners.
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Rod Watson | December 13, 2023
Despite the well-known adage about the futility of confronting government, you actually can fight city hall if you know how to go about it.
But how many average citizens have that knowledge?
However small that number – and it’s undoubtedly minuscule, by design – it’s a little bit larger after last weekend’s fifth annual Anti-Displacement Summit put on by Our City Buffalo and a host of partner organizations.
In addition to focusing on gentrification and other forms of displacement, the summit workshops that attracted about 100 people also covered a variety of other means of empowering residents, including a session on “Buffalo Common Council Procedures and How to Take Action.”
That workshop by the Partnership for the Public Good began by addressing a recurring phenomenon good-government groups have long complained about when critiquing Buffalo’s Council: Concerned citizens feel passionate about an issue, do their research and then show up at the Council meeting – only to learn they won’t be allowed to speak.
So PPG worked with Council chiefs of staff to put together a fact sheet on “getting your issue into the Council and moving it forward,” Executive Director Andrea Ó Súilleabháin told a handful of people gathered around a table in Trinity Episcopal Church on Delaware Avenue.
Like most citizens, few of those in the workshop had ever attended a Council session or even watched one online. Yet all wanted, in the words of one, “a bigger picture understanding of how everything fits together” and the Council’s place within the governmental hierarchy. And, most importantly, they wanted to know how to take action and get results.
But it’s hard to win the game if you don’t know how it’s played. That’s why PPG gave a nuts-and-bolts breakdown of the three main types of biweekly Council meetings: the Tuesday committee meetings to delve into topics and hear from interested citizens; the Monday caucus sessions at which members plan how to deal with items and votes are lined up; and the Tuesday formal meeting at which votes are taken.
“All of the public comment happens in the committee meeting,” Ó Súilleabháin said, emphasizing the importance of submitting an item by the deadline – and specifically requesting to speak on it – so that it gets taken up quickly instead of being shunted aside for an extra two weeks because it wasn’t filed on time.
That’s the kind of thing that can frustrate residents and turn engagement into apathy. Which then leads to a lack of accountability and elected officials doing whatever they want. Which leads, in turn, to cynicism and more apathy.
That vicious cycle is what groups like Our City Buffalo, PPG and other participants are trying to break by empowering residents to become active partners in governing their community.
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“I really didn’t know any of this, so I appreciated it,” Molly Gadenz said after the workshop, which PPG also offers in its office or to organizations and block clubs that request it.
“It’s easy to be so removed from politics because you’re busy with your day to day,” said Gadenz, the Western New York Land Conservancy’s outreach coordinator for the Riverline project. “But just hearing how things work has been motivating.”
As tenant council president at the Forge apartments on Broadway, Nicole Johnson was upset when a Council member asked her to call a meeting of the tenants and then the lawmaker didn’t show up.
“I usually get mad when they don’t show up or call back, but now I know why,” said Johnson, who didn’t often attend Council meetings, but after the workshop “will try to attend every one.”
Our City Buffalo, PPG and the other organizations at the summit have been working assiduously for years to cultivate that kind of citizen involvement. As their names imply, the goal is to make residents realize it is their city and that the public good should take precedence over private profit and corporate lobbyists.
But that kind of responsive, accountable government doesn’t just happen. People, using tools like those provided at the summit, have to make it happen.