Our City Action Buffalo, Inc. v. Common Council of Buffalo
| Decision Date | 19 December 2022 |
| Docket Number | Index No. 812652/2022 |
| Parties | OUR CITY ACTION BUFFALO, INC., University District Block Club Coalition, Inc., James Anderson, Nathan Feist, Harper Bishop, Brigidann Rauch, Shirley Sarmiento Cassandra Eubanks, Joann Mecca, Iris Mortellaro and Luz Velez, Petitioners, v. COMMON COUNCIL OF the CITY OF BUFFALO, and Honorable Byron Brown, in his official capacity as Mayor of the City of Buffalo and the City of Buffalo, as successor-in-interest of the Citizens Advisory Commission on Reapportionment, and the Erie County Board of Elections, Respondents. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court |
180 N.Y.S.3d 871
OUR CITY ACTION BUFFALO, INC., University District Block Club Coalition, Inc., James Anderson, Nathan Feist, Harper Bishop, Brigidann Rauch, Shirley Sarmiento Cassandra Eubanks, Joann Mecca, Iris Mortellaro and Luz Velez, Petitioners,
v.
COMMON COUNCIL OF the CITY OF BUFFALO, and Honorable Byron Brown, in his official capacity as Mayor of the City of Buffalo and the City of Buffalo, as successor-in-interest of the Citizens Advisory Commission on Reapportionment, and the Erie County Board of Elections, Respondents.
Index No. 812652/2022
Supreme Court, Erie County, New York.
Decided on December 19, 2022
THE LAW OFFICE OF STEPHANIE A. ADAMS, PLLC, Stephanie Ann Adams, Esq., Of Counsel, Attorneys for Petitioners
ADAM L. BOJAK, Attorney, Adam L. Bojak, Esq., of Counsel, Attorneys for Petitioners
PHILLIPS LYTLE LLP, Craig R. Bucki, Esq., Of Counsel, Steven Briggs Salcedo, Of Counsel, Attorneys for Respondents, Common Council of the City of Buffalo, Honorable Byron Brown and City of Buffalo
CITY OF BUFFALO DEPARTMENT OF LAW, Carin S. Gordon, Esq., Of Counsel, Attorneys for Respondents, Common Council of the City of Buffalo, Honorable Byron Brown and City of Buffalo
COUNTY OF ERIE DEPARTMENT OF LAW, Jeremy Christopher Toth, Esq., Of Counsel, Attorneys for Respondent, Erie County Board of Elections
Timothy J. Walker, J.
Petitioners commenced this Article 78 Proceeding (Doc. 1) seeking the following relief: "that this Court temporarily and permanently enjoin any further action by Respondents based on the district boundaries created by the 2022 Process; that the legislation signed into law by Respondent Mayor on August 15, 2022 and duly submitted to the New York Department of State for publication as required by law (attached as "B") be annulled; that the creation of an alternate set of district boundaries derived from a compliant process be directed; that said process will abide by the requirements of the Open Meetings Law."
Respondents Common Council of the City of Buffalo ("Common Council"), Honorable Byron Brown ("Mayor"), and City of Buffalo ("City," collectively with the Common Council and Mayor, "City Respondents") oppose the application and seek dismissal of the Verified Petition.
By way of brief background, the City's elected representatives enacted a Common Council District Map during the summer of 2022 ("Map"). Petitioners seek to invalidate the Map, notwithstanding that they had ample opportunity to participate in the redistricting process.
For the reasons that follow, the requested relief is denied and the Verified Petition is dismissed.
A. The City's Redistricting Process.
Every ten years, cities and states throughout the United States redraw their legislative-district maps in response to the decennial Census. In Buffalo, the redistricting process for Common Council (the City's legislature) districts consists of several stages that are described in the City's Charter. First, the City solicits nominations of Buffalo residents to serve on a Citizens Advisory Commission on Reapportionment ("Citizens Commission") (Charter § 18-12). The Common Council then selects five (5) individuals (whether nominated or not) to serve on the Citizens Commission, and the Mayor selects four (4) (Id. ) The Citizens Commission, after holding at least one public hearing, submits "recommendations to the [Common Council] concerning the number of district and at-large council seats and a plan for dividing the city into districts for the election of [Common Council] members" (Id. § 18-13).
At the next stage of the process, the Common Council considers the Citizens Commission's proposed map, holds at least one public hearing, and adopts a final map (Id. § 18-14). The map adopted by the Common Council need not adhere to the Citizens Commission's proposed map (Id. ) The Common Council's map is then sent to the Mayor, who must hold another public hearing (Id. § 18-15). After that hearing, the Mayor must "act[ ] on the redistricting plan adopted by the [Common Council]" (Id. ) When the final map becomes law, it is "transmitted to the board of elections" (Id. ).
The Charter sets forth deadlines for the various steps of this process (Id. §§ 18-12 through 18-15). It also defines substantive criteria that the Citizens Commission and the Common Council must consider when formulating their redistricting plans (Id. § 18-16).
B. The Coronavirus Pandemic and the 2020 Census Results.
By law, Census data must be transmitted to the states "within one year after the decennial census date," which is April 1 ( 13 U.S.C. §§ 141(a), (c) ). Due to the coronavirus
pandemic, the applicable Census data first became available on August 12, 2021, more than four (4) months after the statutory deadline (Doc. 27, Par. 3). Between August 1 and August 22, 2021, the City ran an advertisement in The Buffalo News , seeking nominations for the Citizens Commission (Doc. 44-46; R. 378-84) ("R. ___" refers to the Administrative Record for this special proceeding). The Record reflects that no Petitioner submitted a nomination or otherwise applied to serve on the Commission. By January 25, 2022, the Common Council had appointed five (5) members to the Commission, and the Mayor appointed the remaining four (4) members one month later (Doc. 17; Exs. G, H).
The Citizens Commission held four (4) public meetings and a public hearing, as required by the Charter. The Citizens Commission held its first public meeting on April 20, 2022, from 5:40 to 7:10 pm (Doc. 44-46; R. 673-74). The City notified various media outlets of this meeting eight (8) days earlier (Doc 44-46; R. 327-29, 673).
The Commission held a second public meeting on May 4, 2022, from 5:38 to 8:10 pm (R. 675-76). The City notified various media outlets of this meeting one week earlier (R. 330-32). The Citizens Commission held a third public meeting on May 11, 2022, from 5:33 to 6:44 pm (R. 677-78). The City notified the media of the meeting beforehand, on May 4, 2022 (R. 336-38).On May 18, 2022, at 5:34 pm, the Citizens Commission held a public hearing as required by § 18-13 of the Charter (R. 679). The City notified the media of this public hearing twice: on April 28, and again on May 16, 2022 (R. 333-35; 342-45). The first of those two media advisories stated that the hearing would be livestreamed on the Common Council Facebook page, and that members of the public could participate remotely through Zoom (Id. ). Additionally, notice of the hearing was posted on the Common Council's social-media channels four times: twice on May 11, and twice on May 13, 2022 (Doc. 28, Par. 6; R. 688-93). Yet only one member of the public spoke at the hearing: Arthur Robinson, President of a block club in southeast Buffalo (R. 515). He stated on the record, "I've gone over [the] maps and the numbers and I think it's a very good and appropriate map. And I think all the members have done their due diligence on this."
The Citizens Commission held a final public meeting the next day, from 5:36 to 6:38 pm (R. 681-82). It was preceded by a media advisory sent to members of the press on May 11, 2022. (R. 339-41). At the May 19 meeting, the Citizens Commission unanimously finalized its proposed redistricting map, which was filed with the Common Council that day (Doc. 28, ¶ 9; R. 681-82).
C. The Common Council and the Mayor Enact a Redistricting Map.
On May 19, 2022, the City created a webpage dedicated to redistricting (R. 315; Doc. 28, ¶ 8). On June 14, 2022, the City Clerk's Office announced that the Common Council would hold a public redistricting hearing on June 28, 2022 in accordance with § 18-14 of the Charter (Doc. 28, ¶ 9). During the following two (2) weeks, the City advertised the public hearing through various channels: June 14, 2022: Notice published in The Buffalo News. June 15, 2022: Notice published on the Common Council's Facebook and Twitter accounts; Media advisory sent to the local press (R. 316). June 17-22, 2022: Notice published in The Buffalo News (R. 350-54). June 22, 2022: Notice published on the Common Council's Facebook and Twitter accounts; Media advisory sent to the local press (R. 318). June 24, 27, and 28, 2022: Notice published on the Common Council's Facebook and Twitter accounts (R. 319-20);
June 27, 2022: Media advisory sent to the local press (R. 320). The hearing began at 5:00 pm (R. 346-47). Approximately 65 people attended in person, 40 participated remotely through Zoom, and the hearing was livestreamed on Facebook (R. 321, 558). The livestream garnered 42...
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