Back in April, Mayor Byron W. Brown and County Executive Chris Collins proudly announced they had sealed a new parks-maintenance agreement for the second half of 2009. Under the agreement, the city would give Erie County $3.5 million — in three installments starting July 15 — and county crews would continue to maintain Buffalo’s parks and playgrounds until the end of the year.

In addition, by Aug. 15 Buffalo and Erie County would draft a new deal that would cover 2010 and beyond.

Under the pact, the mayor would not have to ramp up his city Parks Department in the midst of his re-election campaign. However, July 15 has passed without any payment from Buffalo to Erie County.

In fact, about $1.2 million remains past due when unpaid escalation payments from the old deal are taken into consideration. And now Aug. 15 has come and gone without a new parks agreement for 2010.

The city and county negotiators are still talking.

“We continue to meet regularly with the city, and negotiations are ongoing,” said Grant Loomis, a spokesman for Collins. “Both sides are very engaged.” Brown’s spokesman said something similar.

“The most important thing to do is to get an agreement in place,” Peter Cutler said. “If it comes some time after the date they had jointly set, it will. It doesn’t mean an agreement won’t come together.”

But what about the past-due money? Apparently, the wheels of government moved very slowly on that matter.

“We don’t have a contract up here yet,” Tony Farina of the Buffalo comptroller’s office, which sends out payments on behalf of City Hall, said last week. Farina said that since the office had not received a signed copy of the contract from the mayor’s aides — even though Brown and Collins signed the deal months ago — the comptroller’s office could not issue a check. By Friday, however, Farina had obtained a copy and said the July 15 payment should go out this week.

“Obviously we want to honor any agreement we have made,” Farina said.

The county comptroller is glad to hear it. His office sent the city comptroller a copy of the contract.

"We've been working with the Collins administration to collect this money. It has not been easy," Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz said. "We look forward to receiving the payment and the city honoring the agreement."

Back in April, Brown, Collins and their aides said they wanted to seal a new deal by Aug. 15 to meet the planning needs of the Olmsted Parks Conservancy, which takes part in the arrangement, as it cares for Buffalo's Olmsted Parks. Olmsted's president and chief executive, Thomas Herrera-Mishler, could not be reached to comment about the effects of the delay.

The first city-county parks deal was signed in 2004 by then-County Executive Joel A. Giambra and then Mayor Anthony M. Masiello as a way to help City Hall with its serious financial issues.

After only one season, however, some city and county officials had second thoughts. City residents complained about shoddy conditions in smaller parks. Squabbles broke out over which governments should pay for improvements. Poloncarz later concluded that the city was paying far less than what Erie County was spending.

Collins and Brown later opened a new round of discussions to address the problem. They produced the agreement that ends in December.

Copyright 2009, The Buffalo News