As you may have gathered in the last week or so, the Buffalo Police Reorganization Commission—charged by the Common Council with reviewing the structure of our police department—has some vacancies to fill.

The last time a thorough review of police operations was performed was 1991. Police Commissioner Dan Derenda, during his confirmation hearings, suggested that he ranked among the cops who thought that some of the changes that resulted from that review ought to be reversed.

The arrest of Ricky Allen, the commission’s initial chair, on cocaine trafficking charges presented the Brown administration a golden opportunity to discredit the commission, which was empaneled by the mayor’s political rivals on the Common Council. Prior to Allen’s arrest, the mayor had refused to name any members to the commission, nor would he explain his opposition. After Allen’s arrest, he said he was concerned about some of the people named to the commission by members of Council. Mike DeGeorge, the mayor’s spokesman, made clear the administration’s hostility to any effort to review police operations when he said, “Council member Kearns is covering up for the commission he created and the mistake he made by trying to blame others,” in response to Kearns lashing out at Derenda over his comments in regard to the commission.

Allen was named by one of the mayor’s allies, University District Councilwoman Bonnie Russell. Russell’s other appointment, Linwood Roberts, resigned at Russell’s request before Allen’s arrest. Following Allen’s arrest, a a host of other commission members resigned.

All of this made for good news copy, but a simple fact remains: Periodic, citizen-led reviews of government agencies are good things. There is always the danger that they will be driven by politics or, as in this case, become fodder for the trivial wars politicians fight with each other. If you think a commission like this is a good idea, maybe you ought to sign up and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Any Buffalo resident is eligible. The first step is to visit Buffalo Police headquarters at Franklin and Church, present picture ID, and request a background check, which takes a few minutes and costs $10. Then send a letter of interest to your district councilman, along with your background check.

The commission has one year to present its recommendations to city government.

Bills QB Trent Edwards

From his perch high above Elmwood Avenue, Dave Staba writes:

Over the past decade, as the Buffalo Bills endured a parade of quarterbacks and coaches, you could always be sure of this much:

In the most critical of moments against quality opponents, something would go horribly wrong.

In the closing moments, the defense would passively allow the enemy quarterback to work his way methodically downfield, unable to get within swatting distance of him or his receivers until the other guys were celebrating in Buffalo’s end zone.

The Bills’ own attempts at late-game dramatics would end with an interception, sack or fumble. Or, just to shake things up, a sack and a fumble.

And, on those rare occasions when the offense and defense each performed their late-game duties with competence, you could look forward to a special-teams fiasco either mundanely procedural (watching the other team, lacking timeouts, manage to get off a decisive field goal as time expires) or historically surreal (watching the opponent execute a cross-field throw of questionable legality to produce a touchdown as time expires. In a freaking playoff game).

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Peter Reese makes an interesting comment on Bruce Fisher’s article about sprawl in this week’s AV:

I actually think the local school districts which come with towns are the biggest part of the problem. They facilitate white flight to these little cocoon communities. If you look at Jefferson County which contains Louisville you will find that the secret behind their regional success is the fact that they always had one county-wide school district. When they got hit with the inevitable segregation lawsuit, there was no Elma, Alden or Orchard Park to flee to. They were stuck with the issues of poverty and racism. Apparently they decided to deal with their problems, rather than running from them.

What are the chances that we will have a single Erie County school district in the next 100 years?

Is that possible? Is it a good idea?

The 2009 Toyota Corolla
In this week’s You Auto Know, AV columnist Jim Corbran takes a look at the redesigned Toyota Corolla, and talks about the long history of this old standard in America.

Read it here.