Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A lot of post-blizzard and emergency preparedness discussion continued to transpire during Buffalo Common Council's Community Development Committee session on Tuesday, most of which included replacing outdated emergency equipment and the potential appointing of an Emergency Management Coordinator for the city.
The first item that warranted extensive discussion was Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski's letter to the Mayor which was comprised of many questions and concerns citizens have for various city departments in regards to blizzard response and emergency preparedness.
Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo was in attendance for the meeting and answered some of the pressing questions mostly regarding replacing very old fire equipment and addressing the need for an Emergency Management Coordinator.
"I was really pleased that the Fire Commissioner took it upon himself to come to Community Development today to really respond to the inquiry into the questions that we had in the letter and it was refreshing for him to also hear from the opposite side, which is really, the fire Union, but also a lot of council members in regards to emergency coordination during the Blizzard of 2022," said Councilman Nowakowski.
Councilman Nowakowski asked Commissioner Renaldo when the last time the Buffalo Fire Department had a emergency management coordinator, to which Renaldo replied it was several years back. There were two people who specifically that held that position, paid via grant, and then when the grant went away, the position was then obtained by fire commissioner via city charter, which meant Renaldo assumed the role during the blizzard of '22.
Nowakowski pointed out the current situation could be a conflict of interest. "The emergency management coordinator could be in conflict with a commissioner in the sense of, where they would be reporting to or who they would be reporting to, because during an emergency response, the emergency coordinator would be coordinating commissioners and everybody, so it would really be somebody that would have to be able to pull everyone together."
All nine councilmembers appear to be in consensus that there needs to be an autonomous emergency management coordination. "These events transpire very quickly and you need a centralized figure to organize and coordinate efforts in response and the idea of an emergency management coordinator is one that I think we need to take serious, serious consideration into, I would urge the administration to put forth something to the council where we can create this position," Councilmember Chris Scanlon said Tuesday morning.
The committee also raised questions for Renaldo regarding the extremely dated fire equipment, which could prove difficult for firefighters who are safely and effectively trying to do their jobs, especially in emergency situations. "The age of the fleet and of apparatus has affected our safety and the safety of the citizens and has made it difficult to accomplish our main mission of fire suppression," said Vinny Ventresca, Buffalo Professional Firefighters Union President.
"The equipment is old. We need to be preventative, we need to be proactive, we can't continue to be reactive," Councilmember Chris Scanlon says.
Going forward, the council is still going to continue to find a way to implement a proper emergency coordinator position in a timely manner as well as amend an already approved capital budget to use the American Rescue Plan money to purchase new equipment.
"The next steps really are Thursday for the Corporation Counsel to opine if the Common Council can amend the already past capital budget and to see if we can add more equipment in their budget moving forward for this year," Councilman Nowakowski says.
