BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo's budget hearings are underway as the Buffalo Common Council considers Mayor Byron Brown's proposal outlined in his State of the City Address Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday morning, Buffalo Common Councilmembers heard from various department heads as they consider the Mayor's proposed budget.
"We heard from about half of the departments that we'll hear from so far. We heard from police, fire, public works, the law department, human resources, amongst a couple of others about what they're proposing in their budget. Tomorrow, we'll do the rest of the different departments," Buffalo Common Council president Chris Scanlon said.
Up first on Thursday was the Buffalo Police Commissioner. It's a time for Common Council members to ask questions about policies, procedures, and budget requests and needs.
One big topic Thursday was how to monitor overtime.
"There's an uptick in some of the departments we dealt with today, police in particular because of the new contract that was recently settled. Couple of questions come up about overtime and police, fire, public works. Those are big cost centers for us, so what we can kind of do to curb that spending there, and we'll get into that more in the workshops," Chris Scanlon said. "Both the police and fire commissioner talked about the big problem they have is, like, they are mandated overtime.
Scanlon added: "Things that are contractually obligated, so it's tough for them to deal with, but we talked about injured on duty, specifically with the fire department and making sure that we get those firefighters back to work as quickly as we can and some of the, if they're going to be off long term and possibly if they have injuries that are career ending, I know the commissioner's done a good job of getting us those GRIPS, the retirement incentive program, where we can get them off the city tax role and onto state retirement."
There are more budget hearings Friday morning. Then budget workshops happen next week where they will go line by line.
You can also give your input at the public hearing May 15 at 5 p.m. at Buffalo City Hall or anytime online.
A final vote comes on or before May 22.