Blah-blah-blah on the mayoral campaign trail

• Share on
• 
• 
• 
• 

Most everyone recognizes that fixing the city’s fiscal problems is job one for whoever is sitting in the mayor’s chair come January 1. There are, however, a lot of other issues that deserve discussion and consideration during the final weeks of the campaign, leading up to the June 24 Democratic primary.

Instead, I’m hearing too much blah-blah-blah.

You’d expect the daily newspaper to provide the most substantive coverage, but I’m disappointed in much of its issues-related coverage that consists of publishing written statements from the candidates rather than reported analysis. Lazy journalism.

Take the issue of police reform.

In its “story,” The Buffalo News posed this question to candidates: “What do you see as the priorities for the department if you were to become mayor and how do you think oversight and accountability for the department should change?”

The only candidates to say something of substance were Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, who said he’s opposed to a civilian review board, and University Common Council Member Rasheed Wyatt and, in more muted tones, Garnell Whitfield Jr., who support one.

Here’s the real issue: The Police Benevolent Association has too much say about how the department is run. 

The union’s hostility to Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia prompted Scanlon to force him out in January, despite a drop in killings and shootings. The PBA’s beef: Gramaglia was too tough a disciplinarian.

Geoff Kelly reported in 2020 that the city’s contract with the PBA “makes it tough to discipline officers accused of misconduct and deprives the police commissioner of management rights that are a given in many other departments.”

Bruce Rushton reported last year that the city probably has the legal authority to fire bad cops without having to submit disciplinary cases to an arbitrator. It would have to go to court to assert that right, given the PBA contract. Byron Brown refused to do so. 

The question needs to be put to our present crop of mayoral candidates, because getting rid of the bad apples, who are now more likely to get promoted than fired, is essential to reforming the department. 

Another police reform issue that’s being ignored during the campaign: focusing police work on crime and off-loading other matters to folks better equipped to handle them.

The New York Times published an op-ed last week that detailed what’s going on elsewhere in the country:

Over the past five years, a movement of local alternative response programs that don’t involve the police has flourished and redefined what the 911 system and municipal emergency response can do. The use of trained alternative responders for situations that don’t require the police would mean safer communities for everyone. The police would focus on serious crimes, and more appropriate responders would deal with mental health crises, fender benders and quality-of-life issues like noise complaints.

By our count, there are now more than 130 alternative response programs operating across the country. Many of these programs respond to complex situations that require specially trained professionals. They are the sorts of interactions that have proved to escalate risk when an armed officer arrives on the scene.

Buffalo has taken a few half-steps, but nothing more. 

There are other issues that warrant discussion. 

The city is about to launch a review of its charter, which guides how city government operates. It has the potential to reform and modernize what is now a politicized, ineffectual bureaucracy that has served the citizenry poorly. Sean Ryan has floated restoring at-large members to the Common Council. Anthony Tyson Thompson has suggested giving city government greater oversight of the school system. The other candidates have been vague.

---

---

Housing is a hot topic — kind of. 

I mean, some of the candidates are talking about it. The buzz phrase is “affordable housing,” but that’s a misnomer. 

To me, affordable housing is within the reach of poor people, and building apartments that can fetch $1,500 a month and more, or houses that sell for $200,000 and more is not affordable to the people who need the help the most.

To the extent housing is being discussed in any detail, or with any eye on affordability, Ryan and Scanlon have touted programs they’ve helped bring to fruition. The other candidates are again vague.

---

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletters

• Email*
• Phone
  This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

---

Little is being said about education. Yeah, I know, the city has an independent school board and city government historically has had little to say, in part because it contributes only $71 million million towards the district’s $1.3 billion budget.

But only a quarter of Buffalo students in the formative early grades read at grade level and so long as our schools graduate so many kids who can’t function in the workplace, we’re screwed as a city.

So, yes, education needs to be an issue.

There are other issues that ought to be discussed in detail, but you get the picture.

Even the discussion on city finances ignores one obvious solution: again placing the city under a hard control board.