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Resident urges change to youth bureau spending; council and attorney discuss confidentiality and records
Summary
A resident urged the council to redirect a $5,400 youth bureau line item toward youth programming and questioned the bureau's structure; the meeting also included a discussion with the city attorney about confidentiality, FOIL/redaction and a newspaper article naming a former employee.
During public comment at the City of Tonawanda Common Council meeting, resident Robert Galtke urged the council to eliminate a $5,400 line item for the youth bureau and redirect the funds to youth programs, saying most activities duplicated parks-and-recreation work and characterizing the bureau’s paid positions as patronage.
Galtke said the 2025 budget allocates $5,400 to the youth bureau, “$5,000 of which goes towards salaries for a chair and sector,” and argued the city could merge youth functions into parks and recreation or rebrand the department to deliver programming more effectively. He told the council his research indicated the city does not meet the 20,000-population threshold for state youth-bureau funding and that many nearby municipalities have merged youth functions into recreation departments.
Council members responded: Council member…
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