Throughout the reapportionment process, Our City Action Buffalo contended the districts should be more inclusive and racially balanced and that the public should have been given more time to review the proposals and offer feedback.
In their State Supreme Court lawsuit, the petitioners said Buffalo's reapportionment process "failed to meet the basic requirements of the law necessitating this court's intervention."
While "even the best-run process for determining representational districts can create discontent," according to their lawsuit, "... it should be the rule of law — not the fiat of an entrenched few — that creates the playing field for democracy in the City of Buffalo."
The nine city voters named as respondents in the lawsuit come from four city Council districts, four from the Niagara, three from Fillmore and one each from Ellicott and North.
Named as defendants are the Buffalo Common Council, Mayor Byron W. Brown and the Erie County Board of Elections.
By law, the city must redraw its councilmanic district boundaries every decade to reflect population changes in the city. Each district must be approximately equal in population.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Buffalo's population grew for the first time in 70 years to 278,349 from 261,275 in 2010.
Our City Action Buffalo, the lead petitioner in the lawsuit, is a nonprofit, grassroots political organization. It "works to identify, nurture, and promote local leadership focused on counteracting legacies of systemic oppression and promoting housing and environmental justice" in Buffalo and throughout Western in the City of Buffalo and Western New York."
The University Block Club Coalition, another petitioner, is a nonprofit group representing residents and block clubs in Buffalo's University District.
During the wrangling over the redistricting process, Our City Action Buffalo offered its own redrawn map for consideration, arguing that the one initially presented by the city's reapportionment commission did not take into account neighborhoods or promote racial fairness. The political action group's proposal called for eliminating the Fillmore District and increasing the size of the Ellicott District, while creating a new Elmwood-Allentown District.
In their lawsuit, they charged the city with engaging "significant departures from the laws governing the redistricting process" that resulted in "negative effects that create unique and specific injuries to each petitioner that can only be remedied by the relief requested through this action."
They are asking the court to annul the city's approved redistricting map that was signed into law by Brown on Aug. 15, and allow for an alternate set of district boundaries to be created from a process that is more fair.
A city spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Common Council President Darius G. Pridgen defended the redrawn Council map last summer when the Common Council approved it, saying, "I think the Council has done everything legally to not only respect the law but its citizens."
(c)2022 The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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