Last year, the state of New York agreed to give $850 million taxpayer dollars to the Buffalo Bills to build a $1.7 billion dollar stadium. Because New York taxpayers are giving so much to this project, rules were put in place that stated when the stadium was being built, “36% of construction contracts” were to be given to businesses owned by minorities, women, and service disabled veterans. When the team started building the stadium, some city and state officials wondered whether the team would “live up to their promise to be inclusive” as it stated in the agreement.
“The Bills are required to make and document a “good faith effort” to achieve, at minimum, an overall participation goal of 30% for minority- and women-owned businesses – 15% each – and a 6% goal for service-disabled veteran-owned businesses” – Buffalo News, 01/26/24
The state, therefore, created a Stadium Community Inclusion Task Force. The group would include “community business owners, associations, and advocates for minority businesses”. This group would help the stadium construction company and county chairman by putting a plan together that communicated with nearby businesses and “identify(ed) local consultants” and “help them prepare to bid on sub-contracts”. The task force would make sure that the Bills and its general contractor, Gilbane Turner, were living up to their promise to be inclusive in the building of the $1.7 billion stadium. The initial leader of this group even told the Buffalo News that even this would be the first time that there was “really oversight”.
When the group started, numerous local businesses mentioned to the task force that they were concerned about the construction companies’ previous outreach, confused about the application website, and worried about how “cumbersome” the prequalification process would be. It sounds like this group has many things to do. In addition to addressing the above issues, the task force still had to elect a chairman, draft a letter asking for the latest minority business numbers, and “review a draft proposal on best practices to include small businesses in the development phase of the stadium”.
Right before the first meeting was scheduled to be held, several citizens and businesses told a local news station that they had questions that needed answers. One slight issue. After starting the first meeting with a prayer and roll call, the meeting was cancelled. Why?
“Eight of the 11 task force members were there Monday evening — many of whom were not pleased that news crews were in attendance with the public…An aide for (task force leader) Baskins told us the committee was not comfortable moving forward with the news media in attendance” — WIVB.com, 10/24/23
Wait, what? They didn’t feel comfortable with news crews there? This group was formed to make sure that the $850 million of taxpayer dollars are spent correctly. Why would the news crews being at this meeting stop the task force from accomplishing this goal?
One local leader has another excuse for why the first meeting was stopped:
“Newly formed committees often need some time for the members to get to know each other before conducting official business.” — Erie County Legislator April Baskins, WIVB.com, 10/24/23
Yeah, you just can’t get these things done unless you know how many kids the other task force member has at his/her home. Maybe they should go on vacation together and really get to know them and their families. Then they can truly get stuff done! When a local news station asked the task force members to say anything on the record, they declined. What makes this frustrating is just how bad this makes the task force look. It comes off like they are hiding some things that they want to stay concealed. Are the job reports by the company accurate? Did someone promise something that wasn’t realistic on either side? I am not saying any of these things happened, but when you act like they did, it does make you question their true motives.
Then, even though the task force had been together for just a few months, the task force was disbanded. As the Buffalo News noted, “Just as it was getting going, the New Stadium Community Inclusion Task Force is being disbanded”. Why? According to Erie County Legislator Chair Baskins, “many of its responsibilities overlapped with that of the Community Benefits Oversight Committee”. When Baskins had concerns about the project last week, she called the construction company and was told by them that they were meeting their goals of the agreement. Therefore, the task force was closed. That must have been one hell of a phone call. Especially when you consider how Baskins in the previous few months had gone around the state claiming the importance of this task force.
The task force had not even finished gathering their data and analysis, which was supposed to be presented to the State legislature. Instead, the only real accomplishment for this group came in November of last year. The task force sent two letters that asked the construction company to share its recent hiring reports, so the task force could review how many local businesses had been awarded contracts. But according to Baskins, the task force had “served its purpose”.
Now, the task force is being replaced by a group called the Community Benefits Oversight Committee (CBOC). The CBOC just met last week for the first time and are tasked to mostly continuing the so-called goals of the original task force. The CBOC will be led by the owner of a local project management company called Developments by JEM. How will the company work with CBOC? According to the JEM owner, the CBOC “is still working out exactly how it will work with her firm” and her work on this group will “have a lasting impact beyond the time it takes to build the stadium”. Well, that makes me feel better. Good to see that the city and state have been thorough about any conflict of interest.
What exactly is the difference between the two groups?
“The main difference in the two entities is that the Bills are represented with three appointees on the nine-person Community Benefits Oversight Committee, while the task force was composed of community business owners, associations, and advocates for minority businesses (NAACP, Independent Contractors Guild of WNY & Buffalo Black Chamber of Commerce) reporting directly to the Legislature” — Buffalo News, 02/27/24
So the difference is that in the first group, the Bills couldn’t directly control the agenda and outcome. In this new group, the Bills can pick three members and likely can dictate what happens in their reports. When the first group was announced, the construction company was not happy about having anyone look over their shoulder. As one local leader told the Buffalo News, the original task force was “met with some resistance from Gilbane-Turner (construction company)”. I haven’t seen any resistance to the new task force. I wonder why?
This new group must have so much work to do. I bet they meet every day! Not quite. Presently, there is no public notice of when their next meeting is will be held. Even though this new oversight committee claims that their meetings are public, I wouldn’t count on them giving any more transparency than the previous task force.
