 | This article needs to be updated.(May 2021) |
Buffalo, New York's government is run by a democratically elected mayor and council of nine members.
| This article needs to be updated.(May 2021) |
Buffalo, New York's government is run by a democratically elected mayor and council of nine members.
Buffalo has a Strong mayor–council government. As the chief executive of city government, the mayor oversees the heads of the city's departments, participates in ceremonies, boards and commissions, and serves as the liaison between the city and local cultural institutions. [1] Some agencies, including those for utilities, urban renewal and public housing are state-and-federally funded public benefit-corporations, semi-independent from city government. [2] With its nine districts, the Buffalo Common Council enacts laws, levies taxes, and approves mayoral appointees and the city budget. [3] Darius Pridgen, a pastor, has served as Common Council President since 2014. [4] Generally reflecting the politics of the city's electorate, all nine councilmen are members of the Democratic Party. Buffalo also serves as the seat of Erie County and is within five of the county's eleven legislative districts. [5]
U.S. President Grover Cleveland's short stint as mayor in 1881 grew his stature statewide for opposing local political machines. This would culminate with his party nomination and election as governor in 1883. [6] During the late 1970s, Jimmy Griffin presided over the decline of the city's economy and population while also developing the plans that would later evolve into the city's medical campus, theater district and revitalized waterfront. After Griffin, Anthony Masiello was elected in the early 1990s and faced layoffs, budget cuts, and the state-operated Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, formed to prevent a potential bankruptcy in the early 2000s. [7] [8] Byron Brown, the city's first African American mayor, a Democrat and the longest-serving mayor, has held the office since 2006 and has helped to end the city's long period of declines and hardship, the result showed when Buffalo had its first population gain in 70 years. No Republican has served as mayor since Chester A. Kowal in 1965. [9]
At the state level, Buffalo is within the Eighth Judicial District. Court cases handled at the city level include misdemeanors, violations, housing matters, and claims under $15,000; more severe cases are handled at the county level. [10] Portions of Buffalo are represented by members of the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate. At the federal level, the city comprises the majority of New York's 26th congressional district and has been represented by Democrat Brian Higgins since 2005.
Federal offices in the city include the Buffalo District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers' Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, [11] and the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.
In 2020, the city spent $519 million as it handled the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. [12] The 2021–22 city budget has been proposed at $534.5 million, a 2.3% increase over 2020, supplemented by about $50 million in federal stimulus money. The proposal includes a slight raise for the commercial tax, with a slight decrease in the residential tax to compensate for the pandemic. [13] [14]
Buffalo is the largest of the three cities (Buffalo, Lackawanna, and Tonawanda) within, and is the seat of, Erie County. The municipal government of the City of Buffalo consists of:
| Department | Office Holder | Party |
| Mayor of Buffalo [15] | Byron Brown | D |
| Buffalo Common Council [16] | Rev. Darius G. Pridgen (President) Bryan J. Bollman Mitchell P. Nowakowski Joseph Golombek, Jr. Christopher P. Scanlon (President Pro-Tempore) Joel Feroleto David A. Rivera (Majority Leader) Rasheed Wyatt Ulysses O. Wingo, Sr. | D D D D D D D D D |
| Buffalo Comptroller [17] | Mark J. F. Schroeder | D |
| City Court Judges [18] | Hon. Thomas P. Amodeo (Chief Judge) Hon. Betty Calvo-Torres Hon. Patrick M. Carney Hon. Susan Eagan Hon. Joseph A. Fiorella Hon. Debra Givens Hon. Craig D. Hannah Hon. Barbara Johnson-Lee Hon. Kevin J. Keane Hon. Amy C. Martoche Hon. James A. W. McLeod Hon. JaHarr Pridgen Hon. Robert T. Russell, Jr. Hon. Diane Wray |
At the state level, Buffalo is represented in the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly by:
The city is set in one United States House of Representatives Congressional district:
As of October 2015 the Buffalo city government was led by: [19]
| Department | Commissioner | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administration, Finance, Policy and Urban Affairs | Donna Estrich | Commissioner of Administration, Finance, Policy and Urban Affairs | |
| Assessment and Taxation Department | Martin F. Kennedy | Commissioner, Department of Assessment and Taxation | |
| Audit & Control | Mark J. F. Schroeder | Buffalo City Comptroller | |
| Board of Education | James Sampson Theresa Harris-Tigg Jason M. McCarthy Sharon Belton-Cottman Patti Bowers Pierce Mary Ruth Kapsiak Carl Paladino (REMOVED 8/17/17) Larry Quinn Barbara Seals Nevergold Ameer Dunston | President Vice President of Student Achievement Vice President of Executive Affairs Student Board Member | West District Representative East District Representative North District Representative Ferry District Representative Member-at-Large Central District Representative Park District Representative Member-at-Large Member-at-Large |
| Buffalo Arts Commission | Catherine Gillespie David Granville Donald J. Siuta James Cooper Thomas Chestnut Kathleen Rooney Susana Tejada Joanna Angie Gerald Mead James Pappas Catherine Linder Spencer Ted Pietrzak Elisabeth Clarkson | Chair | Mayoral Appointee Mayoral Appointee Mayoral Appointee Mayoral Appointee Mayoral Appointee Mayoral Appointee Mayoral Appointee Common Council Appointee Common Council Appointee Common Council Appointee Common Council Appointee Common Council Appointee Honorary Commissioner |
| Buffalo Police Department | Daniel Derenda | Commissioner | |
| Buffalo Sewer Authority | For the 28th year in a row GFOA issues Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to Buffalo Sewer Authority. [20] | ||
| Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency (BURA) | Byron W. Brown Darius Pridgen Christopher P. Scanlon Brendan Mehaffy Timothy Ball Donna Estrich Joseph Golombek, Jr. Dominick Bonifacio | Chairman Council President Councilmember E.D. of the City's Strategic Planning Corporation Counsel Commissioner of Administration & Finance North District Councilmember | |
| Buffalo Water Authority | Oluwole McFoy William Sunderlin Gerald E. Kelly Michael Finn | Chairperson Vice Chairperson Board Member Board Member | |
| Citizen Services | Oswaldo Mestre | Director of Citizen Services | |
| Office of City Clerk | Gerald Chwalinski | Department Head | |
| Civil Service | |||
| Commission on Citizens' Rights and Community Relations | Crystal J. Rodriguez Kenneth Simmons Sherrill W. Colston John Calvin Davis Dana Floriano David Granville Sheila Wallace Gary Wilson Zaw Win | Department Head Interim Chairperson Board Member Board Member Board Member Board Member Board Member Board Member Board Member | |
| Community Services and Recreational Programming | Otis Barker | Deputy Commissioner | |
| Emergency Management Services | Garnell W. Whitfield, Jr. | Commissioner | |
| Buffalo Fire Department | Garnell W. Whitfield, Jr. | Commissioner | |
| Human Resources | Gladys Herndon-Hill | Commissioner | |
| Law Department | Timothy A. Ball | Corporation Counsel | |
| Management Information Systems | Kenneth M. Barnes | Chief information officer | |
| Office of Senior Services | |||
| Office of Strategic Planning | Brendan R. Mehaffy | Executive Director | |
| Parking Department | Kevin Helfer | Commissioner | |
| Permit and Inspection Services | James Comerford, Jr. | Commissioner | |
| Public Works, Parks & Streets | Steven Stepniak | Commissioner | |
| Real Estate | Christie Nelson | Director of Real Estate | |
| Telecommunications, Utilities and Franchises | T. Tarapacki | ||
Buffalo has a rich and infamous history with presidential politics. Two presidents hail from Buffalo: Millard Fillmore (13th President) and Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th President).
In 1910, the city had a Common Council and a Board of Alderman. The alderman were elected from 25 wards to form the Board of Alderman. The board had 23 committees. The Common Council consisted of 8 elected councilors. In addition to the mayor, the voters elected the following executive branch officials, corporate counsel, superintendent of education, overseer of the poor, commissioner of public works, the comptroller, treasurer and the three assessor of the Board of Assessors. The comptroller and treasurer were both members of the Board of Finance. The mayor appointed the members of the boards of fire commissioners (of which the mayor is a member), police, school examiners, jubilee water commissioner, pluming and water commissioners and the board of trustees for the Grosvernor Library and the commissioners on the civil service and playground commissions. The mayor also appointed the health commissioner, superintendent of markets, examiner of street engines, inspector of steam boilers, harbor master and oil inspector. The board of health consisted of the mayor, health commissioner and commissioner of public works. Along with his two mayoral appointed directors, the mayor, superintendent of education and another official serves as directors of public library. The city had seven all ex officio boards on which the mayor served on all but the back tax commission, which consisted of the comptroller, counsel and an assessor. [21]
Buffalo is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River on the Canada–United States border. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the second-most populous city in New York state after New York City, and the 81st-most populous city in the U.S. Buffalo and the city of Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 1.2 million in 2020, making it the 49th-largest metro area in the U.S.
Erie County is a county along the shore of Lake Erie in western New York State. As of the 2020 census, the population was 954,236. The county seat is Buffalo, which makes up about 28% of the county's population. Both the county and Lake Erie were named for the regional Iroquoian language-speaking Erie tribe of Native Americans, who lived in the area before 1654. They were later pushed out by the more powerful Iroquoian nations tribes. The county is part of the Western New York region of the state.
The administrative divisions of New York are the various units of government that provide local services in the American state of New York. The state is divided into boroughs, counties, cities, towns, and villages. They are municipal corporations, chartered (created) by the New York State Legislature, as under the New York State Constitution the only body that can create governmental units is the state. All of them have their own governments, sometimes with no paid employees, that provide local services. Centers of population that are not incorporated and have no government or local services are designated hamlets. Whether a municipality is defined as a borough, city, town, or village is determined not by population or land area, but rather on the form of government selected by the residents and approved by the New York State Legislature. Each type of local government is granted specific home rule powers by the New York State Constitution. There are still occasional changes as a village becomes a city, or a village dissolves, each of which requires legislative action. New York also has various corporate entities that provide local services and have their own administrative structures (governments), such as school and fire districts. These are not found in all counties.
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Byron William Brown II is an American politician who served as the 62nd mayor of Buffalo, New York from 2006 until his resignation in 2024. He was the city's first African-American mayor and longest-serving mayor of Buffalo. He previously served Western New York as a member of the New York State Senate and Buffalo Common Council. He is the first African-American politician elected to the New York State Senate to represent a district outside New York City and the first member of any minority race to represent a majority-white New York State Senate district. He announced in a September press conference that he would resign as mayor of Buffalo sometime in October. Brown's resignation took effect on October 15, 2024, with Christopher Scanlon serving as acting mayor until the next mayoral election in 2025.
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Daniel Newton Lockwood was an American lawyer, politician from New York, and the 18th District Attorney of Erie County, New York. He served a total of three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1877 to 1879, then again from 1891 to 1895.
Mark J. F. Schroeder is an American politician who currently serves as the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
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Michael P. "Mickey" Kearns is an American politician who serves as Clerk of Erie County, New York. Kearns previously represented the 142nd New York State Assembly District, which spans South Buffalo, half of the city of Lackawanna, West Seneca and Orchard Park, from 2012 to 2017; he has also served on the Buffalo Common Council. Kearns was elected Erie County Clerk in a 2017 special election.
The 2017 Buffalo mayoral election was held on November 7, 2017. Incumbent three-term Democratic mayor Byron Brown won re-election to a fourth term.
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The 2021 Buffalo mayoral election was held on November 2, 2021. Democratic Mayor Byron Brown won his fifth term in office as a write-in candidate. Brown's victory marked the first time since 1985 that Buffalo did not elect the Democratic nominee for mayor.
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India B. Walton is an American political activist and nurse. She defeated incumbent Mayor Byron Brown in the Democratic Party primary for the 2021 election for mayor of Buffalo, New York, before losing to Brown in the general election, where he ran as a write-in candidate.
Who was the last Republican elected mayor? The answer, for those needing help on the cocktail party circuit, is Chester Kowal, in 1961. Since then the Republican Party in Buffalo has largely proven irrelevant.
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