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Oversight committee sets date for public to discuss Buffalo Bills' community investment

The Community Benefits Oversight Committee has scheduled its first public hearing for Dec. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at a location yet to be determined.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — After nine months with limited public input, the committee tasked with overseeing how the Buffalo Bills invest in Western New York as part of their publicly funded stadium project has set a date to change that.

The Community Benefits Oversight Committee has scheduled its first public hearing for Dec. 10 at 5:30 p.m., but the location is to be determined. 

"It's a give and take and it will be the first time that we'll have that opportunity to do so, so I'm looking forward to that and sharing what we have been doing as the community benefits oversight committee," said Chairman Reverend Mark Blue.

The purpose of the meeting will be for committee members to gather information and attendees to do the same.

Bills' representatives will provide an update on construction and share their 2023 community investment report. Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn about concession opportunities and how to apply for a piece of the $3 million annual investment guaranteed in the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).

"The space and the place where we get the feedback from the community on what are the priorities, what are the community vulnerabilities... that's vital for us because we want to hear straight from the community," said Vice President of Stadium Relations Penny Semaia.

The public will also learn about the various hiring quotas the Bills organization has been tasked with carrying out for the number of women, minority, and veteran-owned businesses involved in the project.

The numbers presented Tuesday were unchanged from their October meeting, at which Semaia said the project was already meeting, if not exceeding, the state's quotas. He said the next hiring update would be different, however, and detail who was awarded contracts in the final bid package.

As for construction, Semaia shared that the upper and lower concourses of the new stadium have had concrete poured around the entire 360-degree ring. The focus now, he said, is installing the canopy sections that will hang over the field.

Tuesday's meeting ended once again with the committee tabling a resolution proposed in October to right-size contracts and put certain project reporting requirements into writing rather than rely on a "good faith" agreement with the Bills organization, as is the current case.

Bills' reps said they wanted to further discuss the resolution with a county attorney before signing off on it to make sure the wording was "true to the wording of the CBA."

Several committee members expressed concern that an application to apply for funds hasn't been created nor a deadline set for. Those members requested those efforts be expedited noting the public hearing is only a month away.

"Our community will have not only the transparency that we want to make sure they have, the opportunity to address any needs and concerns that may be there," Chairman Blue said.

Credit: WGRZ.com

The Bills did share how many businesses within a 100-mile radius of the stadium have participated in the project broken down by contract amount.

While members were pleased to see the information Chairman Blue and others requested that the Bills include a list of the businesses along with the total number, as well as categories for smaller contracts down to $50,000, $25,000, and $10,000.

The committee concluded that their next priority will be getting the word out about their Dec. 10 public hearing.

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