16 hours Ago
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The City of Buffalo is moving forward with plans to use money from American rescue plan funds that were meant for several programs and initiatives to fill budget gaps.
According to city officials, more than $19 million will be transferred to the revenue replacement line, while $11 million will go towards water infrastructure updates in the City of Buffalo. The Buffalo Common Council voted 5-3 vote on Monday. The vote comes after several weeks of back and forth debates.
Representatives from administration of acting mayor Chris Scanlon were on hand to answer questions, but councilmembers expressed frustration with the answers they heard. Acting finance commissioner Ray Nosworthy repeatedly said that the main goal Monday was not to give the money back to the federal government. Niagara district councilmember David Rivera grilled the acting finance commissioner about the lack of transparency over the audit conducted by Drescher and Malecki.
They never received any information from that informal review of the program. Masten district councilmember Zeneta Everhart said she felt ashamed of the whole thing, particularly trying to reconcile Buffalo Water using $11 million that was intended for residential water bill relief and instead used for capital projects. "And as a citizen, I am ashamed of the city of Buffalo.
I am ashamed. I am ashamed," Everhart said. "I am ashamed at the leadership at everything, all this nonsense that they put together.
I am heartbroken." University district councilmember Rasheed N.C.
Wyatt was one of the councilmembers that voted against the amendment. He said, "I can't be part of this continued mess." Wyatt is one of the many voices calling for an investigation into the way the rescue plan program was rolled out.
"I hope the controller will take us up on this offer," Wyatt said. "I'm assuming that there were other groups that actually asked for a federal investigation before we put for something for the only my own sentiment that I wish we did this earlier. " The three members that voted against the plan were the Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope and Rivera and Wyatt.
According to the council, the key amendments adopted during the meeting Monday include: Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video.
