Last summer, the Buffalo Common Council voted 5-3 to raise salaries for themselves, the mayor, board of education members and the city comptroller.
Now, a government transparency group is asking a judge to void those raises.
In a petition filed in State Supreme Court last week, the New York Coalition for Open Government argued that city officials repeatedly violated city and state law to illegally approve pay raises that would cost taxpayers an additional $200,000 per year.
“We haven’t taken a position on whether the amount of the raises is appropriate or not, but we do take the position that following the city charter matters, following the council rules matters, following the Open Meetings Law matters,” Paul Wolf, the president of the Coalition for Open Government and counsel in the case, said. “While we all would love to raise our own pay, you’ve at least got to follow the law and the rules when doing so.”
The coalition’s petition alleges that:
- The Common Council appointed a “Salary Review Commission” to study pay raises in violation of the city charter, which gives that power exclusively to the city’s Board of Review — made up of the mayor, the Common Council president and the comptroller. (The Board of Review never met to discuss the issue, according to records obtained by the Coalition for Open Government.)
- The Common Council didn’t include the resolution to create a Salary Review Commission in their agenda before the start of their meeting, which “kept the public and the news media in the dark regarding the councilmembers’ interest in increasing their salaries.”
- The Common Council violated its own procedures to approve the Salary Review Commission. North District Councilmember Joseph Golombek objected to filing the measure late, which should’ve stopped the Council from creating the commission.
- The Common Council amended the commission’s membership after the commission had already met, which violated the city charter.
- The Salary Review Commission — which held three meetings in six days — violated the state’s Open Meetings Law by not providing the public with remote access to meetings and by “failing to conspicuously post public notices regarding their meetings.”
- The Salary Review Commission held an executive session with “no legal basis,” forcing the only member of the public in attendance, a WIVB reporter, out of the meeting.
“I’ve never seen government operate so fast,” Wolf said. “The public was not aware, had no input, no ability to express their thoughts or opinions about this.”
Under the city charter, the Salary Review Commission must report its findings by May 1, and raises for elected officials can only go into effect the year after Common Council elections, which were held this year.
The Common Council approved the creation of a Salary Review Commission on April 18, 2023. The commission held meetings on April 21, April 24 and April 25 in order to submit a report by May 1. Had they failed to do so, elected officials’ salaries would’ve remained the same until after the next round of Common Council elections.
“A pay raise for elected officials enacted with so many violations of procedures and laws should not be allowed to stand,” the coalition’s petition reads. “The public deserves better than self-interested politicians who ignore the rules for their own benefit.”
The Coalition for Open Government asked the court to hear its case on Jan. 10, just over a week before the first paychecks of the year are issued to city employees on Jan. 18. Wolf says their court date was moved to Feb. 28, meaning those pay raises will go into effect in the interim.
The pay raises approved by the Common Council are as follows:
- Mayor: $20,019 raise, bringing annual salary to $178,519
- Council members: $9,472 raise, bringing annual salary to $84,472
- Comptroller: $15,093 raise, bringing annual salary to $134,593
- Board of Education members: $13,000 raise, bringing annual salary to $28,000
