The City of Buffalo has less than 10 days before losing approximately $19 million of American Rescue Plan funds, unless the common council and mayor agree on how to use the funds or where they should go. However, after already promising the money to a variety of organizations around the city, many of those organizations have received very little to none of that money, and nobody, even the Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton Pope has any idea why it has been such a struggle to get these funds distributed.
"Honestly, I can't tell you how we got to this point. I don't know where the onus belongs. I know in my office, I don't put it on the staff. I have to carry it," said Halton Pope.
Majority Leader Halton Pope further went on to speculate that certain organizations submitted incomplete applications, and could be a possible reason they have not received the funds. However, Executive Director for the Partnership of the Public Good Andrea O Súilleabháin tells WBFO the application process was a mess from the start.
"The city process was so disorganized that they did not provide to nonprofits, here are 12 documents you need to submit to get this funding. It was constantly a run around. 12 months in here's a new requirement you've never heard of. 13 months in now you need to provide auto insurance even though your nonprofit doesn't own a vehicle.
Súilleabháin went on further to blame the former mayor's administration Byron Brown and the Common Council's lack of urgency as to why the city is now in this position.
"Like so many parts of city finance, I think there's a lot of shared responsibility. Byron Brown's administration absolutely botched the handling of this funding. That's why we filed a federal complaint over it. That being said, Common Council has asked over and over for information, and they could have pushed the emergency button a lot sooner."
Common Council plans to meet today at 11am to figure out how and where to properly distribute the remaining American Rescue Plan funds. They have officially until December 31st to decide.
