A judge has ruled that the city’s comptroller must borrow the full $110 million approved by the Common Council last year in its capital budget.
State Supreme Court Justice Emilio Colaiacovo ruled Wednesday in favor of Mayor Christopher Scanlon and Common Council Member Mitchell Nowakowski in their lawsuit to force City Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams to borrow the full amount, over Miller-Williams’ protests, and her belief that she was empowered by the city charter to override the Common Council and the mayor because she thought the borrowing would be imprudent.
In his ruling, Colaiacovo said there is no clear evidence that Miller-Williams has the authority she claimed, even if she views the plan as irresponsible, as she has argued in public statements and court documents related to the lawsuit.
“This does not override her statutory duty to act on the regular and legally issued resolutions which authorized and directed her to issue the bonds. This is a clear legal directive which she must abide,” Colaiacovo wrote in the decision.
Colaiacovo wrote there is no legal precedent for a city comptroller to intervene in the budget process if they disagree with the decisions of the elected bodies charged with carrying out that process.
“No matter how well-intended the Comptroller is, absent any controlling legal authority empowering her to intervene in the budgetary process, her failure to act in this ministerial duty requires this judgment to compel her to act,” Colaiacovo wrote.
The City of Buffalo’s control board is recommending that the mayor’s office, Buffalo Public Schools leadership and the city Comptroller’s office develop a thorough planning process for capital projects.
Scanlon, in a phone call with The News on Wednesday afternoon, said he is pleased with the decision and hopes to get as much done as possible in what remains of the construction season.
“We’re in a very tight timeline here, and things have been held up for months, and we don’t want this delayed any longer,” he said.
Nowakowski, in a written statement to The News, said he is disappointed that the city will miss out on most of a construction season and that taxpayers had to foot the bill for outside legal counsel, but is pleased with the result.
“This is all because one elected official does not understand the position they were elected to,” Nowakowski said. “Now taxpayers ultimately have to pay for this reaffirmation and learning lesson.”
A member of Miller-Williams’s staff told The News in a text message that they did not have an immediate response to the decision. However, both in court documents and public statements, Miller-Williams has said that she will abide by the court’s decision.
The Comptroller’s Office typically goes to bond for capital budget projects in spring, but did not do so this year as the internal dispute over the capital budget developed. Miller-Williams noted that the borrowing would exceed a debt cap of $28 million set by her office in its five-year debt plan, a figure Scanlon and Council members have repeatedly said is advisory.
The mayor and Council members have maintained that it is their role defined in the city charter to set the capital spending plan, and it is the comptroller’s role to go to the bond market to execute bond sales to fund those capital projects.
The comptroller’s office and its attorneys, in response, have pointed to a clause in the charter that says her office “shall superintend” the finances of the city as giving her the authority to decline to borrow in excess of amounts the Comptroller deems to be irresponsible.
Scanlon said that now that Miller-Williams will begin borrowing, his administration will work to put the money into action quickly.
“This is work that’s going to improve our our city’s infrastructure, our roads, our buildings, things like that, help our cultural institutions,” he said. “So it’s money that we want to get out on the street as quickly as possible.”
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