New York Coalition For Open Government President Paul Wolf issued a press release regarding what he calls the “illegal formation of the Citizens Salary Review Commission.”
Wolf said he would be speaking before the Buffalo Common Council Finance Committee this morning to discuss the issue.
His press release follows in its entirety:
On Tuesday May 23rd, at 10:00 am, as President of the New York Coalition For Open Government, I will be speaking before the Buffalo Common Council Finance Committee, regarding the illegal formation of the Citizens Salary Review Commission.
Last month the Common Council violated the City Charter by exceeding their authority in voting to create a Citizens Salary Review Commission to consider providing pay raises for city elected officials. The only body that has the authority pursuant to the City Charter to appoint members to the Salary Review Commission is the Board of Review, which consists of the Mayor, City Comptroller and Council President.
In order to appoint members to the Commission the Board of Review has to hold a public meeting to discuss and make their appointments. It seems that no such meeting of the Board of Review occurred. This appears to be confirmed by a quote Mayor Brown made to a news reporter when asked about the Commission, the Mayor stated: “I’m concerned about raises. I haven’t requested a raise, I had absolutely no involvement in that whatsoever.”
If the Board of Review met but not in public that would be a violation of the Open Meetings Law and a basis for making appointments to the Commission null and void.
In the rush to meet the required May 1st deadline, the Council took it upon themselves to approve appointments to the Salary Review Commission on April 18th, without the authority to do so. The Council vote on April 18th additionally violated the Council Rules of Order, as when Councilmember Golombek objected to the late filed item being considered which requires unanimous consent to do so, the Council voted on the item anyways. Once an objection is made to a late filed item according to the Council rules the item cannot be discussed.
After the Council’s illegal vote on April 18th the Council doubled down and did it again by voting on April 25th to remove and replace several members of the Commission. The City Charter requires that no more than six members of the Salary Review Commission can be members of the same political party. Amazingly, eight of the nine members appointed by the Council on April 18th were registered Democrats. In an effort to correct the party affiliation violation, the Council called a special meeting just hours before the last meeting held by the Commission on April 25th. Only the Board of Review has the power to appoint Commission members and as far as I know the Board of Review did not hold a public meeting between April 18th and April 25th to remove and replace members of the Commission. In the rush to increase their pay, the Council handled appointments to the Salary Review Commission, very differently then they did in 2019. In 2019, the Board of Review actually met and submitted Certificates of Appointments signed by the Mayor, City Comptroller and Council President to the Council as a communication from the Mayor. In 2019, the Council did not vote on appointments to the Salary Review Commission. That same process was not followed this year.
There was clearly a rush to get Council pay raises done and in doing so multiple mistakes were made. As the Salary Review Commission was created by a process that violated the City Charter no action should be taken on the recommendations made by the Commission. Instead of having a Court declare the formation of the Commission as being null and void, the Council should take it upon themselves to recognize that mistakes were made and to not move forward with acting upon the flawed pay raise recommendations made by the Commission.
Paul Wolf, Esq.
President
New York Coalition For Open Government
