BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW0 — Some of Buffalo's Common Council members have a problem with the current Erie Basin Marina contract.
The contract for Smith Boys to operate the Erie Basin Marina goes back to 2014 and required the business to pay the city only $1 per year in rent plus 20 percent of its net profit above $80,000.
Smith Boys claimed it never made much money, so it only paid $930 in profit sharing over that entire decade despite gross revenue of around $10 million, according to the City Comptroller.
Council member Mitch Nowakowski — who represents the Fillmore district which includes the marina — looked at prohibiting the city's Department of Public Works not to enter another contract with Smith Boys.
But during a Council committee meeting this Tuesday morning, the city's law department said the council can't order DPW to do that.
So, Nowakowski said he will ask acting mayor Chris Scanlon to look at not extending another year with the current operators saying this agreement is a "terribly written contract" that's well over a decade old and is a "slap in the face to taxpayers."
He and other council members pointed out that the marina should be more active so the city can collect those taxes and provide services to the city.
"And we have to really rework what the future of the marina is within a five-year plan. But this year we cannot. It would be disrespectful to the taxpayers to auto-renew this for one more season. We need to get back to the table. We need more transparency within documents. We have to restructure what the rent payments are," Nowakowski said.
DPW Commissioner Nate Marton was at Tuesday's meeting and agreed that this contract needs to be restructured.
"My goal for a contract and we've been talking about in the department we're looking to probably put an RFP in April would be a long-term contract that would have the operational element but also a capital investment, right? We've got to improve the facilities and right now this is not structured that way," Marton said.
Nowakowski also said the marina needs millions in capital improvements, so the new operator would have to agree to make those changes in a contract because the city can't take on something like this since it's dealing with a fiscal deficit.
Nowakowski said they'll likely re-sign Smith Boys for this summer and get out that request soon to look at other potential operators for summer 2026.
