Mayor Byron Brown wanted a fleet director.
The Common Council said an emergency management coordinator was more urgent.
After negotiations that lasted until moments before the start of Tuesday's Council meeting, both got what they wanted Tuesday.
“We really kind of had a marathon day where we worked really hard to build a compromise with the administration,” said Fillmore Council Member Mitchell Nowakowski, who was among the Council members who pushed to establish the emergency coordinator position. “They had their priority of a fleet manager, and the Common Council remained strong in their resolve for an emergency management coordinator and we really worked hard … to get this done.”
The Council approved a budget amendment to create a manager position to oversee fleet operations for the fire, police and public works departments. The administration agreed not to fill three other positions to fund the fleet director job at a salary range between $105,000 to $120,000, Council President Darius Pridgen said.
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The plan is a blueprint for counter-responses to active shootings and weather-related emergencies such as floods and snowstorms, as well as other natural and man-made disasters.
The emergency management coordinator position falls under the city’s unfilled homeland security coordinator job title. The typical work activities of the two positions are almost identical to what the Council was looking for in an emergency manager, Nowakowski said. The salary for that position is between $107,000 to $130,000.
The administration will create these positions within the existing city budget, city spokesman Michael DeGeorge said.
Brown said he was “pleased the Council approved these positions.”
“I want a lot of folks to know that the Common Council won, and we got an emergency manager coordinator that’s just going to be under a different fiscal title,” Nowakowski said. “The Common Council does its best work when we’re compromising."
South Council Member Christopher Scanlon also pushed for the emergency coordinator position.
“Whether a national disaster hits or we experience a situation like the terrible (May 14 mass) shooting last year, these emergencies unfold very quickly, and we have to have someone quarterbacking these situations in real time, directing the essential personnel of the departments to where they need to be,” Scanlon said.
“In addition to handling the incidents as they unfold, this person has to be able to prepare for these events; determine, create and execute training; pursue funding and grants ... to make sure that we are able to respond at a moment’s notice to anything that might fall upon the city,” Scanlon said.
Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen talks about the importance of an emergency coordinator at a Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.
Public discussions of the emergency management coordinator and the fleet director started last month as Buffalo officials sorted through the snow-removal problems encountered during the Christmas weekend blizzard and powerful November lake-effect snowstorm.
The new fleet director will help the city be more efficient and judicious by examining repair cycles, equipment life cycles and purchasing equipment, Brown has said.
The emergency coordinator will serve as the city’s liaison with all levels of government and will work with law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, fire services and hazardous materials. The person will coordinate training programs and emergency operation drills, as well as apply for relevant grants and oversee the process for reimbursement claims for the city during emergency operations.
