The way the City of Buffalo governs itself is under the microscope as the city’s charter revision commission met for the first time, Monday.
The 13-member commission – appointed by Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, members of the Common Council and city comptroller – is tasked with reviewing Buffalo’s charter. It’s a massive legal document which dictates how city government must work, how leaders are chosen and what powers they have.
City officials engaged Craig Bucki and Emma Murphy of law firm Phillips Lytle to brief members on their responsibilities.
“It's a big document, about 470 pages by my count, and you can leave parts of it unchanged. You can decide to fiddle with the whole thing,” Bucki told the commission. “It's really up to you as commissioners in your best judgment, in terms of what it is that you'd like to propose to be adopted as an updated charter for the City of Buffalo.”
The city was first governed by a state-issued charter before adopting its own in 1928. But it hasn’t undergone a full review since 1999.
To put that into context, Cher’s “Believe” topped Billboard’s Top 100 Hot Singles list that year, “Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace” was the top grossing movie in the U.S. and Bill Clinton was president.
Put simply, times have changed.
“Every few years it’s a good idea to dust off the book, take a look at it and see if it’s keeping up with modern times,” said Laurence Rubin, a commission member and municipal lawyer who recently helped update the Erie County administrative code and the city charter for Niagara Falls.
The review was prompted by former Mayor Byron Brown’s early departure in October. According to the charter, the council president becomes acting mayor, so Chris Scanlon did just that, vacating his South District council seat and whittling the council down to eight voting members. With no clear guidance for this situation, the council voted to create a charter revision commission.
Public referendum and deadline
Any proposed changes to the charter must be approved by voters through a public referendum, which commissioners plan to place on the November 2026 general election ballot.
To meet that deadline, suggested changes must be submitted by Aug. 4, 2026, according to Bucki, though he suggested submitting early to pre-empt any processes the county board of elections may have.
That 11-month timeline was a factor in another discussion point – whether the commission should follow the state’s open meetings law, which requires most meetings held by public bodies be open to the public, ensuring transparency. Commission member Steven Polowitz, an attorney, had concerns.
“We got less than a year to do this work, and there's a lot of work to do. And if we're subject to open meetings law for every occurrence that open meetings law requires, then I don't see how we get this work done,” he said.
Bucki told the commission they do not have to follow that law since they are not a public body. But Peter Reese, another member of the commission who is also an attorney, pushed back, saying he would “have real concerns” if it was not followed.
Ultimately, the issue was left unresolved. The only decision made during the meeting was to schedule the next one for Monday, August 11 at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
