Mayor Byron Brown called Buffalo’s plan for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money a blueprint for solving the city's poverty and public health challenges.
But “the devil is in the details” in terms of how projects will be rolled out, Common Council members said.
So they want a system set up to monitor progress on the projects, including receiving copies of requests for proposals before they are issued by the city. They say they want to see exactly what’s going out to bid, the costs and other project details.
Council members will ask the administration and Department of Public Works to work with them in establishing a tracking system for the requests for proposals.
“I think that it’s so important that people understand that this is the proposal being sent to the federal government, however … the devil is always in the details,” Council President Darius G. Pridgen said. “So how some of these programs roll out is going to be very important. We’ll have to work that out as a council with the administration.”
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The spending plan identifies 26 ways to spend about $330 million in American Rescue Plan money.
The largest portion of the spending, some $107.9 million, would replace revenues the city lost directly or indirectly due to the pandemic.
Other spending includes $20 million to improve at least eight city parks with new playground equipment and other capital improvements; $13 million to forgive the outstanding balances of every household’s water and sewer bills; $5.5 million to provide low-income residents with assistance in clearing outstanding garbage user fee bills; $9 million to establish a community health clinic on Buffalo’s East Side and provide health educational outreach and programming; $9 million to create a Neighborhood Improvement/Cleanup Corps; and $20 million for those in job training programs to cover child care, transportation, clothing, medical costs or other financial burdens that often force residents to end their training before finishing.
The Council adopted the plan Thursday – although its approval wasn't required for the plan to be submitted to the federal government.
Brown was joined by all nine Council members and Rep. Brian Higgins at a press conference after the Council approval.
“Here’s what we should know: All of us have been through hell in the past 18 months,” Higgins said. “People that were already vulnerable, already experiencing fragility took a hard fall, and that’s why this is called a rescue plan. We owe this to our people.”
“Today’s adoption by the Common Council of the city’s American Rescue Plan spending blueprint represents a significant first step in a multi-year process that will help eliminate systemic poverty, close societal gaps, which have developed along racial and geographic lines, and improve the quality of our community’s public health,” Brown said.
Democratic mayoral nominee India B. Walton's campaign said Brown recommended some public safety and anti-violence programs that he dismissed earlier this month when she announced them as part of her platform.
“When we put out this public safety platform a couple of weeks ago … Byron Brown said, ‘She’s dangerous. This would make the city more dangerous. This would make our families unsafe.’ And lo and behold, he’s touting those very same approaches in his statement,” said Jesse Myerson, spokesman for Walton’s campaign.
