(BUFFALO) – During a hearing held in City Hall to discuss public investment and involvement in the revitalization of the Inner Harbor at the Canal Side site, members of the Canal Side Community Alliance told Buffalo Lawmakers late yesterday that “a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) is a proven and sensible way to ensure public dollars produce public goods.”

Following appeals from the growing Canal Side Community Alliance for the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) to meet with community groups to discuss a CBA for the Canal Side project - and a report released last month by the Public Accountability Initiative questioning the actual effects Bass Pro has on luring other businesses and job creation - the Common Council brought the debate to Council Chambers for a “healthy dialogue” on the project in the interests of exploring ways to improve the project and create an appealing waterfront for the entire community

In March, the Common Council voted overwhelmingly to halt the critical transfer of 13 valuable acres of city-controlled waterfront property to the ECHDC until a CBA could be negotiated with community groups.  A CBA is a legally-binding agreement that would include quality standards for development and ensure tax payer money is protected.  Despite the Common Council’s call for CBA to be negotiated by community groups and the ECHDC that is agreeable to all parties involved, the ECHDC has refused to enter into negotiations.

The Canal Side Community Alliance, which consists of more than 40 local organizations, has called on the State’s Harbor Development Corporation to meet with community representatives to negotiate a CBA that could include: quality jobs, environmentally-friendly design and operations, local, independent businesses, mixed-income housing, a building and site design appropriate to the location, and targeted hiring objectives for construction and permanent jobs.

Members of the diverse Canal Side Community Alliance - including representatives from PUSH Buffalo, Hispanics United and the Buffalo Urban League - all spoke at the public hearing for the need for high-quality development standards for the Canal Side project. 

“Given the massive public investment in the Canal Side project and the growing public concern that the development will fail to deliver a return on that investment, the State’s Harbor Corporation needs to work with the Canal Side Community Alliance to reach an agreement that guarantees public money will not be wasted and the project will benefit the community,” Coalition for Economic Development Executive Director Allison Duwe said at the hearing.

Duane Diggs, VOICE-Buffalo Executive Board Member, also spoke at the hearing, saying: “We believe it’s important that a project that will shape the use and appearance of our waterway should have public input, especially when public money is used to finance that project.  As a community we want a partnership with decision-makers to create a project that will work for our community and produce good jobs, train people for jobs and provide transportation for workers to those jobs from within and around the City of Buffalo.”

“A Community Benefit Agreement is a proven and sensible way to ensure that public dollars produce public goods,” Maxine Murphy, member of PUSH-Buffalo, told city lawmakers.  “CBAs have worked in several other cities and can certainly work in Buffalo.”  

The Canal Side Community Alliance continues to call on the ECHDC to meet with community groups to discuss ways they can collaborate to protect the public’s investment in the Canal Side project.  To date, the ECHDC as refused to meet with the Canal Side Community Alliance.  

Editor’s Note: In May, WNYLaborToday.com published the following story on the Canal Side Project:

(BUFFALO) - Unless the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. agrees to a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) for the Buffalo Waterfront's Canal Side Project - which calls for enforcement of sustainable Living Wages - its a good bet a 13-acre parcel of land that's vital to the project will not be handed over to the development group, City Councilman Michael LoCurto and representatives of the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ) tell WNYLaborToday.com.

The so-named Canal Side Community Alliance - which consists of numerous local community, Faith-based and Labor-oriented organizations, including CEJ, PUSH Buffalo and the Buffalo Urban League - is supporting a CBA for the high-profile, $150 million project that will finally transform Buffalo's Waterfront into what many have hoped for and envisioned for decades. 

However, Erie Canal Harbor Development Chairman Jordan Levy has publicly gone on the record that he will not agree to inclusion of a so-called and government-supported Living Wage provision in any agreement, which those involved community groups say must be included within the CBA in order for the Buffalo Community to gain maximum benefit.

"(The City of Buffalo Common Council has) passed a resolution that calls for no transfer of the land unless there's a negotiated CBA," Councilman LoCurto tells WNYLaborToday.com, adding, "(The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp.) is not willing to sit down and negotiate a fair deal.  They've been completely unresponsive.  They've stopped returning phone calls and they haven't answered any of our letters.  It's like they want to take the ball and go home.  But this is not just some guy (receiving public/taxpayer benefits) who is going to build a pizzeria.  With it being a one-hundred-and-fifty-million project that will receive thirty-five-million in benefits, this project that has got to benefit 'all,' and there should be benefit to all.  None of these (developers) who are involved in this project have gotten their money taking anything less than what they wanted, and that's exactly what they want from the City of Buffalo."

The Canal Side Project could create as many as 1,400 jobs, and the more than 50 involved community groups that are supporting a CBA say it must provide more than low-wage jobs.  Therefore, the CBA would: Mandate Living Wages to be paid to employees of all businesses with more than 20 employees; Mandate/Support local hiring goals for both Minorities and Women; Include Quality Job Standards and Green Design requirements; and provide support for local and independent businesses with 75% of commercial space reserved for local businesses and special consideration given for Women and Minority-Owned Businesses.

CEJ Representatives Andy Reynolds and Micaela Shapiro-Shellaby met with WNYLaborToday.com late last week to provide an update on the Canal Side Community Alliance's efforts, as well as address the hard stance that both Levy and the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. have taken on the proposed Canal Side Project CBA.

"Jordan (Levy) has taken this on and there's been push-back from the board, which won't agree to meet (with the community group).  However, the project cannot proceed without the twelve acres and the Common Council unanimously voted on March sixteenth to block the land transfer.  I don't see (the project) moving forward if there is no access to the waterfront," Shapiro-Shellaby said.

Reynolds, meanwhile, calls Levy a "venture capitalist" who feels those within the Canal Side Community Alliance are "muscling him" into something he personally does not want.

"It's his business to buy properties cheap and wait until times change.  He owns property in Chelsea (in New York City) and in California.  That's how he's made his money.  The CBA is the centerpiece, and there seems to be some fear (coming from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp.).  We're asking questions they don't have answers for and they don't like it.  They're shocked by the 'audacity' of those in the community who are standing up.  When we ask what the public is getting out of this project, all you get is vague answers.  The CBA spells everything out and makes it clear (what the community will receive and not just what Bass Pro, Benderson Development and the other corporate entities involved in the project will gain from it)," he said.

With the transfer of the 13 acres being held up, CEJ Representatives Shapiro-Shellaby and Reynolds say the Canal Side Community Alliance has been given this opportunity to expand its effort to educate the general public and taxpayers to what is really going on behind the scenes and attempt to convince all of the need for and benefits of a CBA on the Canal Side Project.

"It gives us time to educate the general public to what this is all about and what they'll get out of it.  There's substantial public investment in this project.  Our position has always been to sit down with the developer and negotiate a CBA that's feasible and fair for all.  It's critical that there's a return on that public investment," Reynolds said.