BUFFALO, N.Y. — Finance Commissioner Delano Dowell is the latest high-ranking city hall official to depart in the last week.
According to a statement provided by acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, Dowell submitted his resignation on Monday, effective Dec. 16th.
"I want to thank Delano for his dedicated service to our city and the leadership he has provided during his tenure, "Scanlon said.
Dowell was first appointed in an administrative finance role in 2019, and was appointed commissioner in 2022.
Current director of administration and finance Raymour Nosworthy will fill the role of acting commissioner once Dowell's resignation takes effect.
This comes one week after Howard Grynspan was relieved of his duties, and Brendan Mehaffy submitted his resignation.
Mehaffy was was executive director of the office of strategic planning at city hall. Grynspan was the director of real estate for the city.
"I expected some change up when the acting mayor came into office, and the finance commissioner is one of the most important commissioners we have in City Hall," said Fillmore District councilmember Mitch Nowakowski
Nowakowski is also the chair of the council's finance committee.
"It's really important that when elected officials get into office, they don't bring on people that just tell them what they want to hear, but that are that are truthful," Nowakowski said.
Multiple times, Dowell appeared during Common Council meetings to discuss the finance of the city. Those exchanges between Dowell and councilmembers were often tense, for anyone who paid attention to the back and forth conversations.
"It's been controversial in the sense where the Common Council has taken the charge on where we are at fiscally and trying to hold the administration accountable in getting accurate information, but ultimately being honest about where we are as our finances.,' Nowakowski said.
Several times during 2 On Your Side's interview with the Fillmore District Councilmember, he mentioned honesty when talking about Dowell.
"Are you suggesting the finance commissioner lied to the Common Council about the finances of the city?" 2 On Your Side asked Nowakowski.
"I think that the prior administration, did not want to tell the Common Council on how bad the deficit was," Nowakowski said. "I think that the finance Commissioner worked with what he had and the direction at the pleasure of then Mayor Byron Brown."
Dowell's resignation comes at a time when the city's finances are top of mind for lawmakers. There's a looming budget gap that, depending on who you talk to, ranges between $10M and $40M.
"I'm going to be very frank, because this really gets me pretty, pretty livid," Nowakowski said. "It's pretty easy to point to a large portion of where we have holes in our budget."
Nowakowski points out that, according to the 2024-2025 adopted budget, the city is using $14M from its reserves, and also relying on $25M from the American rescue plan, and budgeted to collect $1.2M worth of cannabis taxes.
"When you add all those up, roughly we're in a $40 million deficit," Nowakowski said. "But it's pretty easy as the Finance Chair to open up a public document to look at what reoccurring revenues that we have and what dollars that we have in the budget that are one shot, revenues that won't return next year."
Recently, the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority told WGRZ that the projected budget deficit was between $10M to $15M.
The administration also approached the BFSA about using the remaining American Rescue Plan funds to fill the budget gaps.
While no plan is set in stone, yet, councilmembers aren't thrilled with the idea.
"We're going to need a public accounting of all the ARP dollars and what's outstanding and what projects are happening."
The ARPA funds aren't the only concern for members of the council.
The committee of the whole, which is just the common council, will meet Tuesday to discuss the capital budget being proposed by acting Mayor Scanlon.
Right now, the administration is asking to borrow $110M for capital projects—an $82 million dollar increase according to the city comptrollers office.
City Comptroller Barbara Miller Williams submitted a letter to the council expressing concerns that the capital budget exceeds the established budget cap of $28M.
"Given the high volume of open projects and the city's current financial condition, I strongly believe that it is fiscally unwise to significantly increase the debt cap at this time," Comptroller Miller Williams said in the letter.
The committee will meet at 11 a.m. Tuesday to discuss the capital budget.