Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Officials from the City of Buffalo addressed the Common Council on Tuesday during its Civil Service Committee meeting with an update on preparations ahead of the 2023-24 winter season in Western New York.
Councilmembers were able to ask a number of questions pertaining to several issues ahead of the upcoming winter months with officials like Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo and Public Works Commissioner Nate Marton.
Among the notable items of discussion on Tuesday included the status of the hiring process for a new Emergency Services Manager and Fleet Manager for the City of Buffalo. Both positions were of importance to city administration in response to the blizzard that struck over Christmas Weekend that killed 47 people.
Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo was able to provide the Council an update on the hiring process for the Emergency Services Manager, saying the city has received 16 applications through NEOGOV.
"Out of the 16, there were four that were actually qualified for the position, and we've conducted two interviews thus far. The other two interviews, I can tell you, personally, I think we have one fairly viable candidate," said Renaldo in Council Chambers on Tuesday. "But we have reposted the position, we're just trying to get a larger pool of candidates, of qualified candidates. So we have reposted it, and we're anticipating more interviews and the process to continue. It's such an important position, we want to make sure we find the right fit for it."
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Administration and Finance, Delano Dowell says the hiring process for the Fleet Manager position also remains ongoing.
"We also had 10 applicants that applied for a position: Four qualify, one did not accept the interview. We interviewed two and then one person pulled their name. We also are looking to look at other individuals to fill the position," said Dowell during Tuesday's meeting in Council Chambers. "We did budget for both positions, and we are looking to fill both positions. We want to pull in the most qualified individuals for both these positions, so it's not as if we're not looking to fill the positions. It's a process that's taken longer than expected."
Dowell further adds the city is doing more research to make the right hire, and is looking to do its due diligence when filling both positions to ensure they have the right person for the jobs.
Also discussed on Tuesday was an update on the city's new emergency task force, which was announced by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown back in June. The goal of that task force is to respond better to emergencies in the city, especially in light of the blizzard, and learn lessons from that.
According to Marton, there have already been two meetings at the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library in East Buffalo, with a third meeting set to take place in the near future.
"The task force itself is formed with community members, business community members, partners in government in Erie County, New York State DOT, communication partners, utilities, National Grid. And then community support agencies, FeedMore specifically and a few others, and then members of City Hall leadership and administration team are part of that," said Marton over Zoom to Councilmembers. "We've got a third meeting upcoming, and as part of that meeting, we'll actually have a public announcement or discussion of the outcome of that event. That's where we are currently with the task force."
Commissioner Marton also provided the Council with an update on new equipment and technology that has been purchased to combat snowfall in the City of Buffalo.
"These are verified with purchasing, we've got four plows that were ordered prior to the timeline... they're scheduled to arrive before the end of the year. Right now they're scheduled to be towards the end of December, that would be a great addition if those four trucks come in - those are large city plow trucks," Marton detailed. "We have six additional plow trucks that are going to be on loan to us from the New York State Thruway Authority. We're working through those final details now, we've got two onboard already. Those six are going to be out of the gate for our snow season, and the other four hopefully here as winter begins and we get into it. Those will be helpful."
In terms of future orders, Marton says five major plows are in the purchasing process now, but they wouldn't be available until well into next year. In addition, there's five more plows that are being processed and being bid for at this time.
"We've got some nice additions to the snowplow fleet this year coming with the New York State Thruway [Authority], and then hopefully those plans come in relatively soon. We're gonna push this as hard as we can. And then the future order looks good to bolster the fleet as well," Marton said.
Marton also says the city has been very active with coordination meetings involving the state and Erie County over the last several months.
The Common Council has also requested a complete inventory of snow fighting equipment and other pieces of equipment from Buffalo Fire, Buffalo Police and the Department of Public Works the city has at its disposal in case of a major emergency event.
Also updated on Tuesday before the Council was the new policy procedures dealing with abnormal snowfall events in the City of Buffalo. Marton says it will be more of an operationalized plan looking in a three-tier approach.
"Tier 1 is just general snowfall in-and-around the city, across the city, multiple levels. It's not necessarily an inch amount that is the determination factor, it's the rate of snow and how long the storms are. [Tier] 2 is really a portion of the city gets hit more, but yet, there's general snowfall across the city. And then Tier 3 is that big region, city-wide blizzard effects," Marton detailed. "We're kind of laying it out in a three-tier, which I think is helpful, in terms of how we responded last year, and it provides that clarity and transparency of how we're looking at storms for our residents."
An issue that has been at the forefront of Councilman Bryan Bollman is adequate public warming shelters for residents across the City of Buffalo in case people lose power and need a place to reside and stay safe. Marton says the city's focus needs to be on the six city-owned and operated community centers.
"That's the ones we have to make the push for to be the centers that are go-to facilities for our community," he said. "We've got kind of a three-pronged approach looking at that from a funding perspective. Each generator we're budgeting, initially, is like a $375,000, plus or minus kind of number. So we're looking at it from three different tiers: ARP [American Rescue Plan] funding, CDBG [Community Development Block Grant] funding through HUD [United States Department of Housing and Urban Development], and then even through state resources as well. We've had three separate sets of dialogues on to how to move that forward. And then we'll look to potentially do a state contract procurement process, which will have it go quicker once that funding is in place."
In terms of when the city's Snow Plan will be presented to the Common Council, Marton says the administration is in its final editing phase and will be presented as soon as it is formally finalized.
Also discussed during last week's Common Council meeting was a resolution brought to the Chamber floor regarding the moving up of presenting the city's annual Snow Plan from Nov. 1 of every year to April 1. Marton can understand the Council's request for this matter, and intends to follow through on that once the policy has been amended in the City Charter.
"Certainly I can understand the input needed for budget purposes, specifically. I think that's where the crux of the conversations can come into play, how are we allocating our resources for the next year? Those are important conversations," Marton acknowledged. "The fine-tuning of what the right operational plan is, we can go back-and-forth a little bit, but if there are budget impacts, that's when it makes the most sense to have that conversation."
In addition, Council Majority Leader David Rivera asked both Commissioner Renaldo and Commissioner Marton whether or not they were confident they were better prepared for the upcoming winter season. Both Commissioners replied with a wholehearted, "Yes".
"I feel very strongly that we're much better prepared than we were this time last year from a communication standpoint, from a coordination standpoint, not with just other departments, but with other agencies: County, state and federal agencies. From an equipment and personnel standpoint, yes, I think we're in very good shape compared to this time last year," Renaldo said.
"As a department and I think as a city, going through something that's tragic and as historic as it was provides us opportunities to learn and go forward. We took those as a city department, but I noticed the police and the fire department, those response entities of the city have taken it very seriously, and we are better prepared for those events," Marton added. "Now, that doesn't mean we have 600 pieces of snow removal equipment the city owns that we can mobilize. We still need to rely on municipal agreements and shared services agreements, and cooperative efforts with contractors, the county and the state, and those will continue. But overall, we are better prepared."
More from Tuesday's Civil Service Committee meeting is available in the player below:
