Advocates object, say city isn’t complying with its own laws aimed at protecting children from being poisoned in their homes. A decision is expected within weeks.
Attorneys Matthew Parham, far left, with John Lipsitz, representing groups suing Buffalo, and Assistant Corporation Counsel David Lee, right, representing the city, appear before State Supreme Court Judge Michael Siragusa. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.
The City of Buffalo is asking a judge to toss out a lawsuit accusing the city of failing to enforce a rental inspection law aimed at reducing lead paint in its aging housing stock.
Here’s why the case has no merit, according to the city:
- Buffalo is enforcing its inspections law, known as the Proactive Rental Inspections Program or PRI — just not as quickly as some would like.
- Landlords — not the city — should be held accountable for failing to eliminate environments conducive to child lead poisoning.
- The state’s Green Amendment, which grants the right to a “healthy environment,” lacks key definitions that would prove any sort of guilt on the city’s end for lagging on inspections.
“The commissioner is performing inspections,” Assistant Corporation Counsel David Lee argued in state Supreme Court, referring to Catherine Amdur, commissioner of the city’s Department of Permit and Inspection Services…