Common Council Community Development Committee·September 8, 2026
Fourteen minutes, two items. The committee backed Anna Falicov for the revived Housing Court Advisory Council (first report due January; hearing Oct. 1), then heard a resident’s Attorney General complaint about Parking Violations Bureau ticketing at West Side repair shops — and told him it cannot make the Commissioner come to the table. Tabled. Seventy older items sat untouched.
The presiding member welcomed the second speaker of the afternoon by name — “haven't seen you for a while” — and the speaker answered in kind: “It's been a long time, Joe.” C. Tarr, whose communication the City Clerk filed as Item 2, Concerns Buffalo Parking Violations Bureau Enforcement Practices, then told the committee he had filed a complaint with the Office of the New York State Attorney General asking for an investigation of the bureau, had hand-delivered a record of “my personal experience, my legacy” to each member, and was alarmed that none of them appeared to have the complaint itself in front of them. Years ago, he said, they all would have had a paper copy. He had also, he said, been scheduled for a different committee and learned by email “less than four hours ago” that the item had been moved to this one.
He read from a cover letter addressed to “Sean and Maria” — the Mayor, Sean Ryan[*], and Maria White[*], whom a council member would later describe as the deputy mayor. The letter is careful in tone: he did not want them to learn of the complaint “from Albany,” did not regard it as “a confrontation with the Ryan administration,” and allowed that the practices he was documenting “may substantially predate your administration.” The substance is less careful. Over several weeks, he said, he had spoken with the owners of two small automotive repair shops on the West Side who described an “aggressive pattern of enforcement” against cars parked at their businesses — not abandoned vehicles but customers' cars awaiting repair, inspection, registration or payment. He listed what he had been told: multiple vehicles ticketed at a single shop; cars cited while on “privately controlled shop property”; enforcement that seemed to turn on whether a car sat on pavement rather than gravel or grass; unregistered, uninspected or unplated cars targeted “despite the fact that the very reason many are at an automotive repair facility is to remedy those very conditions”; fines accumulating against small businesses; and, “most troublingly,” vehicles “removed or impounded from business property without meaningful warning or an opportunity to cure.” One shop, he said, had lost multiple vehicles that way. One owner had heard from colleagues that as many as eight more shops might be getting the same treatment — an estimate Tarr said he had not confirmed.
He was building to the human argument — for many Buffalo families “an older automobile is not a convenience,” it is how the household “literally survives,” and city fines plus towing and storage fees “can transform a manageable automotive repair circumstance into irrecoverable financial events” — when the chair stopped him. “Can you wrap that up?” A council member then made a point of order in all but name: if the items were filed, the Council already has them; “every single council member has access to this exact item”; there was no reason to read the whole thing into the record. Tarr disagreed — “you do not have a copy of this letter, ma'am” — he had filed the AG complaint and a request for assignment to the Legislation Committee, but had “purposely kept this letter private.” The council member offered to have staff copy it for everyone so the committee could “address the crux of your issue in an appropriate time frame, according to the rules of this body,” which allow each speaker three minutes. He accepted.
Then came the exchange that will be remembered. Tarr said his real complaint was that after “decades of acquaintance and friendship” he had heard from neither the Mayor nor White on the subject, and that when the West Side is “punched in the nose,” history says the East Side is being hit harder. A council member who said they represent “both East and West of Main Street” took that up directly. There are “significant issues that I will acknowledge,” the member said, and the Commissioner of Parking, who was in the room, was one of them: ticketing at Buffalo Friday Night Live “since 2022 just because you felt like it,” and “ticketing a hearse” while mourners were inside. “However, what this body cannot do is explain why this administration … has not been responsive to you as a constituent, because he's not responsive to us as council members.” The committee could not compel the Mayor or his deputy to meet with him. “What we can do is say that we've received your complaint. We understand your complaint, and it is on the record.”
Tarr, given the floor again, said he had not heard back from the Attorney General and did not expect to for two or three weeks — the whole state, he said, is “now using the state AG as a backdrop for civic failure, and they are inundated” — and that any outreach from a council member would help. He recalled writing to the AG about the same bureau during the Masiello administration, an effort he said produced a civil-rights investigation, the removal of the bureau's then-director and “a brighter day of reform.” He recalled cars tagged and towed from Oakland Place while parents visited Children's Hospital, and third-shift workers arriving home at 5 a.m. with nowhere legal to park. He said he had read that a union was seeking the parking commissioner's removal and wanted it clear he had “no issue” with the man's employment; he had come hoping to hear the commissioner's own ideas for “dramatic reform.” He did not. The chair recognized the Majority Leader; discussion was closed, and the item was tabled on a 9–0 vote. The commissioner was not called on and did not speak. “If you need to adjourn,” Tarr had said a moment earlier, “I'd be happy to return another time.” Tabling leaves that door open.
In Buffalo, a resident's letter to the Council does not get a vote up or down; it gets a disposition. The committee can receive and file it (noted, no action), send it up with or without a recommendation, or table it. Tabling is the only one of the four that keeps the matter alive in committee: the item stays on the Community Development docket, listed under “Tabled Items” every two weeks, and any member can move to take it up when there is something new — a response from the administration, a letter from the Attorney General, the commissioner at the table. That is what happened Tuesday, and it is why the item's motion reads “Tabled” rather than anything that sounds like a verdict. The practical effect, as the committee itself said, is that the complaint is “on the record.” Nothing in the disposition requires anyone in the administration to answer it. The seventy items already sitting in the same category — several of them the council members' own letters to the administration asking for updates that have not come — are a fair measure of how often the door gets reopened.
The meeting's one act of business came first and took four minutes. Item 1 was the Mayor's certificate appointing Anna Falicov, the city's Director of Adjudication, to the Buffalo City Court Housing Advisory Council. University District Councilmember Rasheed Wyatt used the moment for a grievance list any Buffalo council member could recite: a block club he met two weeks earlier about a resident who “continues to upset the community” after several years of complaints; vacant houses where the city cuts the front lawn and not the back — “what sense does that make?” — and constituents asking, as fees rise, “what is going to be different?” What, he asked, could she do about the cases that have been “ongoing” and leave residents “at a loss”?
Falicov's answer was mostly about what the body is. The Housing Court Advisory Council, she said, is established under the state's 1978 Housing Court Act as a community-based board of 14 members, only two of them government appointees; the rest represent tenant associations, landlords, the Bar Association and housing groups. Its charge is to evaluate how Housing Court functions and to issue a report — the first due in January, with more to follow. It reconvened this past January “for the first time, we think, in over a decade,” held a public hearing in July, and holds its next on October 1 at 6 p.m. at the Merriweather Library. Four of the fourteen seats are open, applications are taken on a rolling basis, and the appointments are ultimately the decision of the Eighth Judicial District[*], not City Hall. “No one has any illusions,” she said, “that housing court is producing the results that we need for our residents.” Her own interest, she said, is the working relationship between the Bureau of Adjudication — the city's administrative-hearing arm, which she runs — and Housing Court, and how the two enforce the code “in tandem.” Asked whether the Council would get the report, she said yes: “We'd be glad to file a report here.” Halton-Pope moved to recommend approval, Wyatt seconded, and the record shows all nine members in favor.
Buffalo enforces its housing and property code through two doors, and Falicov sits at one of them. Housing Court is a part of Buffalo City Court, a state court with a judge, where the city brings criminal-level code cases against owners and can order repairs, fines or, in extreme cases, jail. The Bureau of Adjudication is a city office — not a court — that holds administrative hearings on code and quality-of-life tickets and imposes civil fines, faster and with a lower burden of proof. The Housing Court Advisory Council was written into state law in 1978 to give the community a formal voice in how the court door works; its recent dormancy is why Falicov could say it had not met in more than ten years. Her appointment puts the head of the administrative door on the board that evaluates the judicial one, which is the “in tandem” she described. The report due in January will be the first public assessment of Buffalo Housing Court from this body in a generation.
Below the two new items, the committee's docket carried 70 tabled entries — 69 distinct matters, since Halton-Pope's letter on living conditions in BMHA-managed facilities (MT 25-1981) appears twice under separate docket numbers. None was called; the record logs each as “Tabled” with no vote cast. Read together they are a map of what Buffalo's council members have asked the administration about and not yet resolved. Housing dominates: Halton-Pope's five letters on BMHA, Belmont Housing's voucher program, and properties run by Cornerstone Management and Corvus Property Management, plus her resolution directing a public hearing on “critical housing issues”; Everhart's letters to BMHA and Belmont and two requests for updates on the Proactive Rental Inspection program, alongside a Commissioner's Report on the same program filed in 2023 (MT 23-348) that has never left the shelf; Rivera's letter on landlord retaliation; Wyatt's on the University Heights Lofts and a letter to the BMHA board; Golombek's constituent file on the housing crisis; and Everhart's Bridge to Ownership initiative. Property and development make up the next tier: Nowakowski's requests on 596 South Park, 294 Louisiana Street, the foreclosure of 377 Main Street (MT 23-1972), the reuse of the city's vacant Rite Aids, the Middle Main project and Sinatra's Canalside parcel; the former Wonder Bread factory; the In Rem 174 delinquent-tax list; a report of sale at 247 Loepere Street; and five lease extensions, filed in 2023, for community centers run by the Community Action Organization at 2777 Bailey Avenue and the Seneca Babcock organizations at 24 Ludington, 1168 Seneca, 2050 and 2057 Genesee.
The rest is the miscellany a committee accumulates: the 2025–26 City Snow Plan and Wyatt's request on winter fleet and equipment; the Disability Advisory Committee's report; Golombek's opposition to Lake Erie wind turbines; two menthol-tobacco items; three resolutions from Everhart, Wyatt and Halton-Pope to establish a Drive Forward program for youth involved in car theft, a Buffalo Youth Council and support for the CABY-WDI program; a request for an update on the Buffalo Parking Authority and the sale of city-owned garages — the one tabled item that touches Tuesday's parking discussion, filed in 2025 and not mentioned; Bollman's call for an investigation in the case of Amanda Thompson and his letter on Geiter Done's impact on Seneca Babcock; the Council's unanimous call for an investigation into the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam; a proposal to dedicate City Hall office space to the 5/14 Memorial Foundation; Nowakowski and Rivera's request to name a loop in the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park for Mary McLean Wilson; and a 2023 request from Wyatt to find a site for a new DPW facility. The oldest matter tracking number on the list is MT 23-348; the newest is MT 26-1281. Four communications from residents — on the animal shelter, menthol, Rosalia Street parking and Ciminelli's Waterfront Village — are among them, each filed under the writer's name as the Clerk received it.
Built from the city's recorded vote record (items list) and the summary minutes, cross-checked against the tape. All nine council members were present; both recorded votes were 9–0 with no nays or abstentions. Docket numbers are the city's (26-000xxx); “MT” numbers are the Clerk's matter-tracking numbers. Mover on every motion per the record: Halton-Pope; seconder: Wyatt. Timecodes are recording positions.
Opened for discussion on a motion at 1:34; Falicov, Director of Adjudication, answered Wyatt's questions on the Advisory Council's mandate (1978 Housing Court Act; 14 members; first report due January; hearing October 1, Merriweather Library, 6 p.m.; four open seats) and agreed to file its report with the Council. Motion to close discussion, then motion to approve, each seconded by Wyatt on tape. Record: moved Halton-Pope, seconded Wyatt; ayes Golombek, Everhart, Halton-Pope, Wyatt, Feroleto, Bollman, Nowakowski, Rivera, Scanlon.
Opened “briefly” at 5:35. Tarr spoke for about four and a half minutes before being asked to wrap up; a council member disputed his reading of the letter into the record and offered copies; a second council member acknowledged “significant issues” with the Commissioner of Parking but said the committee could not compel the administration to respond; Tarr spoke again on history and reform. Motion to close discussion (tape: seconded by Bollman), then motion to table (tape: seconded by Rivera). The record logs both the tabling and Item 1 as moved by Halton-Pope and seconded by Wyatt with nine ayes; the tape names Rivera as the seconder on the tabling motion. The written record is used for the row; the discrepancy is noted here and in the Editor's Note. Flagged as the meeting's substantive discussion and for the record/tape conflict.
As listed by the City Clerk (item · docket · title · MT):
3 · 26-000500 · Everhart, Wyatt, Halton-Pope — Establishing the Drive Forward Initiative for Youth Involved in Motor Vehicle Theft · MT 26-1281
4 · 26-000503 · Everhart — Resolution Supporting the CABY-WDI Program · MT 26-1260
5 · 26-000505 · Halton-Pope, Everhart — Resolution Requesting Action at the Former Wonder Bread Factory · MT-1267 (year omitted in the record)
6 · 26-000382 · In Rem 174 List of Delinquent Tax Liens · MT 26-1034
7 · 26-000383 · Golombek — Constituent Concerns, City Pools · MT 26-1160
8 · 26-000385 · Nowakowski — Concerns Regarding 596 South Park · MT 26-1127
9 · 26-000386 · Rivera — City Response to Landlord Retaliation · MT 26-911
10 · 26-000387 · Wyatt, Halton-Pope — Resolution Honoring National Public Works Week · MT 26-925
11 · 26-000389 · Wyatt — Neighborhood Concerns, 216 Merrimac · MT 26-819
12 · 26-000390 · Nowakowski — Expansion of Synchronized Traffic Signal Infrastructure · MT 26-832
13 · 26-000391 · Golombek — Letters Concerning Unsafe Pedestrian Crossing at 255 Great Arrow · MT 26-558
14 · 26-000392 · Halton-Pope — Gold Wynn Property Tenant Complaints · MT 26-573
15 · 26-000393 · Everhart — Departmental Participation in Claims Committee · MT 26-487
16 · 26-000394 · Everhart — Request for Update Regarding PRI · MT 26-488
17 · 26-000396 · Wyatt — Letter to BMHA Housing Board · MT 26-450
18 · 26-000398 · Everhart, Halton-Pope, Wyatt — Establishing the Buffalo Youth Council Initiative · MT 26-430
19 · 26-000399 · Golombek, Feroleto, Halton-Pope & All Councilmembers — Call for Investigation on the Death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam · MT 26-358
20 · 26-000400 · Wyatt — Requesting an Update on Winter Fleet and Equipment · MT 26-280
21 · 26-000402 · Wyatt, Everhart, Halton-Pope — Letter to Corporation Counsel Regarding Menthol Ban · MT 26-278
22 · 26-000403 · Wyatt — Resolution Requesting the Civil Service Appeals Board to be Filled · MT 26-299
23 · 26-000404 · Everhart et al. — Bridge to Ownership Initiative: from Housing Assistance to Generational Stability (Exc. Res.) · MT 26-189
24 · 26-000405 · Nowakowski — Request for Redevelopment at 294 Louisiana Street · MT 26-43
25 · 26-000406 · Everhart — Letter to BMHA and Belmont Regarding Housing Conditions · MT 25-1973
26 · 26-000409 · Halton-Pope — Concerns Re Living Conditions in BMHA-Managed Facilities · MT 25-1981 (also listed as Item 72, 26-000408)
27 · 26-000411 · Halton-Pope — Concerns Re Properties Operated by Cornerstone Management · MT 25-1982
28 · 26-000412 · Halton-Pope — Concerns Re Properties Operated by Corvus Property Management · MT 25-1983
29 · 26-000414 · Halton-Pope — Requesting Information Re Belmont Housing Voucher Program · MT 25-1984
30 · 26-000415 · Halton-Pope — Resolution Directing the Scheduling of a Public Hearing to Address Critical Housing Issues in the City of Buffalo (Exc. Res.) · MT 25-1978
31 · 26-000416 · Report of Sale, Portion of 247 Loepere (EL) · MT 25-1812
32 · 26-000418 · Golombek — Constituent Concerns, Housing Crisis · MT 25-1849
33 · 26-000419 · Halton-Pope — Resolution Requesting Data on DDAs in the City of Buffalo · MT 25-1861
34 · 26-000420 · Halton-Pope — Resolution Requesting Data on PILOT Programs in the City of Buffalo · MT 25-1862
35 · 26-000421 · Everhart — Letter Requesting DPW to Give an Update on Winter Preparedness and Warming Shelters · MT 25-1789
36 · 26-000422 · Everhart — Letter to DPIS Regarding Updates on Proactive Rental Inspection (PRI) Program · MT 25-1710
37 · 26-000423 · Nowakowski — Re-Use of Vacant Rite Aids (five attachments, including an intergovernmental memo and map) · MT 25-1646
38 · 26-000424 · Everhart — Requesting Fire Commissioner Attendance and Report on Fire Hydrant Inspections · MT 25-1575
39 · 26-000425 · Bollman — In the Case of Amanda Thompson: a Call for a Full Investigation and Report · MT 25-1384
40 · 26-000426 · Everhart — Requesting State Guidance on Firearm Restrictions in Private Businesses · MT 25-1239
41 · 26-000427 · Everhart — Resolution to Dedicate Office Space Within Buffalo City Hall to the 5/14 Memorial Foundation, Inc. · MT 25-1238
42 · 26-000428 · Requesting an Update on the Creation of the Buffalo Parking Authority and the Sale of City-Owned Parking Structures · MT 25-1130
43 · 26-000429 · City Snow Plan 2025–2026 · MT 25-539
44 · 26-000430 · Disability Advisory Committee — Report and Recommendations · MT 25-578
45 · 26-000431 · Wyatt — Concerns Regarding Condition of University Heights Lofts · MT 25-425
46 · 26-000434 · Golombek — Opposition to Wind Turbines in Lake Erie · MT 25-101
47 · 26-000435 · BSA Audit Findings Regarding Annual Report · MT 25-83
48 · 26-000436 · Nowakowski, Rivera — Naming RCWJCP Loop to Mary McLean Wilson Trail · MT 25-1648
49 · 26-000437 · Wyatt — Requesting DPW for EV Infrastructure Plan · MT 25-113
50 · 26-000438 · Everhart, Nowakowski — Comprehensive Communication Strategy for Combating Public Dumping · MT 24-2022
51 · 26-000439 · Nowakowski — BENLIC Update for Community Stakeholders · MT 24-2033
52 · 26-000440 · Nowakowski — Audit of City-Owned Properties to Ensure ADA Compliance · MT 24-2002
53 · 26-000441 · P. Reese — Concerns Future of the Buffalo Animal Shelter · MT 24-1863
54 · 26-000442 · Nowakowski — VIA Communication on Middle Main Project · MT 24-1452
55 · 26-000443 · Nowakowski — Letter Requesting Update on Sinatra Development at Canalside · MT 24-1272
56 · 26-000444 · S. Martin — Menthol Tobacco Ban Concerns · MT 24-1065
57 · 26-000445 · Bollman — Addressing the Impact of Geiter Done on the Seneca Babcock Community · MT 24-884
58 · 26-000446 · C. Glinski — Parking Concerns on Rosalia St. · MT 24-876
59 · 26-000447 · Bike Ped Advisory Board — Memorializing NYS Legislature to Pass SAFE Streets Act · MT 24-589
60 · 26-000448 · Halton-Pope — Status Update and Further Action on Ellicott Townhouse Association Management Concerns · MT 24-216
61 · 26-000449 · Halton-Pope — Progress and Future Directions for Fruitbelt Green Space Development Plan · MT 24-213
62 · 26-000450 · Nowakowski — Project Details Request, Old First Ward Community Center Parking Lot · MT 23-2202
63 · 26-000451 · Nowakowski — Pursuing the Foreclosure of 377 Main St. · MT 23-1972
64 · 26-000452 · Extend Lease Agreement, COB and Community Action Organization of WNY, Inc. (Edward Saunders), 2777 Bailey Ave (UN) · MT 23-994
65 · 26-000454 · Extend Lease Agreement, COB and Seneca Babcock Community Association, Inc. (Hennepin Community Center), 24 Ludington (aka 1207 Bailey Ave.) (LO) · MT 23-996
66 · 26-000455 · Extend Lease Agreement, COB and Seneca Babcock Community Organization, Inc. (Seneca Babcock Community Center), 1168 Seneca St (LO) · MT 23-1003
67 · 26-000456 · Extend Lease Agreement, COB and Seneca Babcock Community Organization, Inc. (George K. Arthur Community Center), 2050 Genesee St (LO) · MT 23-1076
68 · 26-000457 · Extend Lease Agreement, COB and Seneca Babcock Community Organization, Inc. (Schiller Park Senior Center), 2057 Genesee St (LO) · MT 23-1002
69 · 26-000458 · K. Fiedler — Ciminelli's West End Development, Waterfront Village · MT 23-1060
70 · 26-000460 · Wyatt — Identifying a Location for a New DPW Facility that Best Suits the Needs of the City · MT 23-616
71 · 26-000464 · Commissioner's Report — Proactive Rental Inspections · MT 23-348
72 · 26-000408 · Halton-Pope — Concerns Re Living Conditions in BMHA-Managed Facilities · MT 25-1981 (duplicate of Item 26)
Seconded by Everhart. Not logged in the items record.
The recording. The city's posted video runs 15.7 minutes; a countdown opens it and the roll call begins at 1:01. Business runs to about 15:32. Timecodes above are recording positions, not clock time. Chamber audio is clean. The transcript is machine-generated and does not label speakers; attributions here rest on the record's mover/seconder entries, on how speakers were addressed on tape, and on content.
Where the record and the tape disagree. The tape has the motion to close discussion on Item 2 “seconded by Mr. Bollman” and the motion to table “seconded by Mr. Rivera”; the city's vote record and summary minutes log the tabling as moved by Halton-Pope and seconded by Wyatt, 9–0. The written record is used in the All Motions row and the difference is noted there. The 70 tabled items carry Halton-Pope and Wyatt as mover and seconder in the record with zero votes logged, which we read as the system's default entry, not a motion; none was mentioned on tape. Items 26 and 72 are the same matter (MT 25-1981) under two docket numbers; Item 5's tracking number is printed “MT-1267” with no year. Adjournment is on tape but not in the record.
Names. Council members are corrected against the verified roster: “Columbic” to Golombek, “Peraletto” to Feroleto, “Bowman” to Bollman. The roll call on tape reads “Boland” twice, in the third and sixth positions; the minutes' roll order places Halton-Pope third and Bollman sixth, and all nine members are recorded present, so the first “Boland” is treated as Halton-Pope. The presiding member is not identified by title on the recording and committee chairs are not printed in the summary minutes; the speaker on Item 2 addressed the chair as “Joe,” and the brief reports that and no more. The council members who spoke on Item 2 are not named on tape and are described by what they said. Anna Falicov is named as the record names her (“A Falicov”; the tape gives the first name). C. Tarr is named as the Clerk filed his communication; the chair addressed him by a first name on tape, which is not used. Names carrying [*] appear only in audio: the Mayor and “Maria White,” as the speaker's letter addressed them; the parking commissioner, whom the speaker called “Mr. Booth”; and the “Eighth Judicial District,” which the tape renders as “East” — Buffalo City Court sits in the Eighth. The two West Side repair-shop owners and the bureau director the speaker said was removed under the Masiello administration are named only on tape and are not named here. The private resident described by Councilmember Wyatt is not identified on tape.
Other checks. The street check found one valid Buffalo street reference (Main Street) and two false positives (“Buffalo City Court,” “Housing Court”); “Oakland” is written as Oakland Place, which is on the city index and is near the former Children’s Hospital the speaker described. The interests watchlist was checked against every sponsor, entity, address and attachment on the 72-item docket; no match. The [*] flag marks a name taken from audio alone with no official document to confirm it; verify against the City Clerk's record before quoting.