City officials look to update emergency management plan, increase training

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.

Commissioner William Renaldo will submit a vendor contract next week for the Common Council’s approval to update the 2019 Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan and train Buffalo Fire, Police and Public Works employees in emergency response.

The price tag is $45,000.

The discussion of the emergency management plan comes as Buffalo officials are sorting through the snow-removal problems encountered during the deadly Christmas weekend blizzard and powerful November lake-effect snowstorm.

“The most important piece is it includes the training piece, which includes workshops, which brings all the other city departments into exercises” said Renaldo, who, per the city charter, is the city’s emergency management coordinator.

Renaldo said Buffalo Fire is using the 2019 plan as a guide, including one of its key items: the implementation of four task forces in each corner of the city at fire stations.

The task forces make use of highlifts and plows, either from the city’s Department of Public Works or private contractors, as well as the fire department’s alternate response vehicle and other vehicles provided by the state and, in some cases, the National Guard and police, Renaldo said.

“Those are what made up the task forces, and when a fire call came in or any other type of emergency that we needed to get to, that task forced rolled, and the highlift and the plows would lead the way and get us to where we were going,” he said.

“Aspects of the emergency plan worked very well during the last two storms, including December’s blizzard,” Mayor Byron Brown said.

Rejecting union's assessment, Buffalo fire commissioner says department was well-equipped during blizzard

But a copy of the 2019 plan has been hard to come by, and some Council members said they have asked for it.

Vincent Ventresca, president of Buffalo Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 282, has said he cannot locate the plan, nor is it posted on the city’s website.

Renaldo said one reason the 2019 plan has not been posted was out of concern over the document containing contact information and other personal details, including cell phone numbers, of public safety members, department heads and other officials.

The administration’s plan has been to post the updated Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan on the city’s website after it is finalized, in addition to an analysis of Buffalo’s blizzard response by New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service once it has been completed, Renaldo said.

The city issued a Request for Proposals in January 2022 for a vendor to update the 2019 plan. Responses were due the following August. Five proposals came back, and, after review, one vendor was selected.

Renaldo had planned to submit the recommended vendor to the Council for approval earlier this week, but he pulled that on the advice of Corporation Counsel because the document was lacking the draft contract and accompanying narrative, Renaldo said.

He will file the recommendation next week with all the required documents, he said.

The city’s response to last month's blizzard left room for improvement, officials say. The storm hit Buffalo and other parts of the region with a ferocity not seen in at least 45 years. There have been 47 blizzard-related deaths from the blizzard, all but one in Erie County. Comparatively, 29 deaths were blamed on the infamous Blizzard of '77.

“We’re not pointing fingers at anybody. We’re saying, 'What can we do collectively to be able to respond to disasters and blizzards and hurricanes and floods or terrorism, whatever disaster it is that we’re in a position to respond to?' ” Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera said during the post-blizzard Council meeting. “After all this is done, I’m hopeful that our response will be much better.”

Other measures being considered include hiring a fleet manager to oversee fleet operations for the fire, police and public works departments. A fleet director would help the city more effectively manage the city's vehicles, Brown has said.

The mayor said his administration would conduct a national search to fill the position, which he anticipates having a salary of about $110,000 to $120,000.

Brown said he submitted to the Council a budget amendment to create the fleet manager position.

But some Council members have said they want the city to hire an emergency management coordinator, rather than a fleet manager.

Renaldo said several years back, when he was a captain and battalion chief, the city did have an emergency management coordinator paid for by a grant.

“I believe we had two individuals in that capacity, one followed by another,” Renaldo said. “The grant went away, and after that, an emergency management coordinator was not hired, however, by charter, the commissioner of fire is the emergency management coordinator for the city.”