somebody introduces it take a vote yep and i know oh yeah should we have an update i've got crowd drowns out voice but i could be right yeah yep a little breakfast saturday if anybody's interested in going one for you one for marion breakfast in the morning awesome okay i'd like to call to order the health and recreation committee do we need a motion to recess no we're going to do the committee then we're going to go right to the council meeting okay health and recreation committee the first item on the agenda for the golf course tree removal sure if i could address that they previously asked the council to award a bid for removal of some trees at the golf course the bidder that the city had attempted to award the contract to was unable to obtain good bond sufficient credibility for the city and so i'm asking the council now to go back to the list of bidders we would go to the second lowest bidder and appreciate the council's consideration in this special meeting because this is somewhat time sensitive or maybe hard to imagine today the frost will eventually go out of the ground and that they want to be able to course while the frost is still in the ground so it minimizes the potential for any damage for moving the trucks across the fairways or grounds are there any questions yes mr kosher thank you so the one that was going to receive this was the ria wickes is that who it is that's who it is yes yeah and their bid is nearly double what the other bid was and we're still comfortable going with that here it is under our original estimates but it is again the first one was a very good price they're not able to meet the terms and conditions with the package and so we go on to the next highest bidder correct which is under our original estimate but higher than what we were going to go with do we have any other questions i'll entertain a motion second second all those in favor aye okay is there anything else coming for health and recreation if not entertain a motion to adjourn here there's nothing else okay i need a second i'll second all those in favor aye we're adjourned all right i'm going to call order the special city council meeting for this evening if the clerk would call the role mr mutabaron excused mr ferrari present mr riggy here ms porterfield here miss parrasso present mr kosher here ms king present and if the clerk would also read the notice of the meeting and proof of service notice of meeting dating friday february 27th to the council an emergency city council meeting has been requested for monday march 2nd to accept the bid and award the contract for golf course tree removal dno tree service who was awarded the contract on january 26th has been unable to secure a performance bond for the contract the awarding of a new contract is time sensitive for the listed reasons the time period contractors must honor their pricing is expiring number two the contractor needs to be ready to go soon as possible a new resolution will be introduced at monday night's committee meeting and needs to be acted upon at a special council meeting on the same night chuck thorn city clerk proof of service comes from email tracking recipient ed kosher delivered two hundred and twenty seven two thousand and fifteen at one thousand one hundred and fourteen am john ferrari delivered two hundred and twenty seven fifteen one thousand one hundred and fourteen am john mutabaron delivered two hundred and twenty seven fifteen one thousand one hundred and fourteen am lisa parrasso delivered two hundred and twenty seven two thousand and fifteen one thousand one hundred and fourteen am marion porterfield delivered two hundred and twenty seven fifteen one thousand one hundred and fourteen am peggy king delivered two hundred and twenty seven fifteen one thousand one hundred and fourteen am vincent riggy delivered two hundred and twenty seven two thousand and fifteen one thousand one hundred and fourteen am okay so at this point i would entertain a motion to approve the resolution to award the bid and contract for the golf course tree removal to wickes arborists mr kosher smooths it ms porterfield seconds it any discussion if not all in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed okay motion is carried so there's nothing else to come before the special city council meeting i'll entertain a motion to adjourn i'll make the motion okay mr kosher second by ms porterfield all in favor aye all right we are adjourned the next item on the agenda i did not put in a committee mr kosher and i've had some conversation about reinstituting the intergovernmental relations committee this is a committee that still exists it was active for many years it went inactive a number of years ago and now with i think everything going on in terms of the governor's expectations that we're going to be looking at consolidation and all of that mr kosher thought it would be appropriate to maybe get it really active again so mr kosher do you want to speak to this yeah if i can again i think it's a very important committee again as ms king spoke with all the incentives that are out there and regulations regarding the governor's budget and the tax stamp and so on and with my previous experience as a county legislator and sharing the shared services committee with schenectady county i just think it's a very important committee that we reestablish and bring it back to light because there is so many great things happening here in the city and the county and i would just like to make sure that we as a city council have a seat at that table and we can continue to work with the county local businesses including the school districts and municipal housing authority as well which is another entity that we want to make sure we bring into this so i appreciate the presence of concern and i just hope that we can move on with this committee forward thoughts comments ms porterfield does it make sense i know that it was a standing committee at least in our city code does it make sense to make it part of the existing government ops committee that's certainly a possibility but i guess my thinking is more calling it intergovernmental really to me addresses very specifically what we're trying to do here so i think my own feeling is i think i would like to see it reactivated i understand that about the name but what i'm saying is could we make it government slash intergovernmental is it so different in terms of the government operations that it doesn't make sense to have it all one is it that different that's really basically the question i'm asking other thoughts on this if i may the government operations are really concerning the city services for the most part so i understand what you're saying but i just think this is a very important committee that it's a standalone committee there's just so many opportunities that we have out there that we need to work on and again i just think it's something that we really have to have a separate committee for and i'm just hoping that we can move it forward and continue to work with the county and the school districts and other agencies through this committee other thoughts yeah had you proposed committee members for the committee not at this point but we will be assuming we do reactivate it then we would definitely look at that so if there's no opposition then as i said i would like to reactivate it and we'll kind of see where we go with it and mr mccarthy it's never been abolished it's still on the books right no right yes it's on the books it just hasn't been active yeah okay well in that case then i recommend we reactivate it so and i know several of us attended the meeting that the county held i know mr hughes is here and mr fullman is here to talk a little bit about that if we can we can have them both come up if you don't mind again rory fullman is the county legislator and our fellow legislator here with the city gary hughes rory is the chair of the shared services and in government cooperation with schenectady county and gary of course is the county legislator representing district two so again as ms king had said there was a few of us that went to the forum that was held by the county but i just think it's such an important topic that the few of us that were not able to make it i would just like to give them a very brief overview maybe talk about the timeline and where we go from there so again mr fullman or mr hughes well thank you councilman kosher and it's always in pleasure to meet with the city council we won't take much of your time tonight but as prologue we're all aware that there is increasing pressure on municipalities to reduce their operating costs by finding ways to share services by finding ways to consolidate i think both the city and schenectady county have been very good partners for a number of years kosher and i have worked on a few things we have with other members of the council as well the impetus this year is some changes in the governor's proposed budget in the way that the property tax rebate would be administered and requiring communities to reach certain thresholds in terms of savings i believe we're both in very good shape in that area i know the county is and i believe the city is as well but there are opportunities out there that we can and should explore legislator fullman resides in scotia represents district three which is scotia glenville and niskayuna and chairs the county's intergovernmental cooperation committee we as really the only countywide municipality are in a good position to assist other municipalities when we can to coordinate to facilitate to take part in we have engaged in shared services arrangements that have saved the county money and in some instances we have engaged in services where other municipalities save money and the county has held expenditure neutral and we're certainly open to any and all of those sorts of relationships and we're really just here at chair kosher's request tonight to start a dialogue with that i'd like to introduce my friend and colleague from scotia rory fullman thank you gary thank you too council for having me thank you and gary for initiating me coming down so i chair the county level committee on intergovernmental cooperation just as gary had mentioned the city and the county have a long history of many successes with shared services whether it's the sales tax agreement the salt shed different services being able to be traded back and forth and we've already had a proven track record of saving money with the governor's initiatives we are all well positioned for the upcoming june 1st deadline of having a one proof of a shared services plan on your total budget i believe for you folks that's going to be about three hundred and thirteen thousand or three hundred and thirty thousand proving in years seventeen eighteen and nineteen how you're going to take one off your budget through shared services now obviously the big thing over the past year has been ucc which has been a tremendous success schenectady alone is saving two hundred and forty nine thousand for the year you'll be able to cap that every year under the governor's tax plans so again the county and the city are positioned and so really what we're talking about is just looking forward prior to the ucc coming into formation which really the talk started six eight you talk to some people up to fifteen years ago that those talks were started so what's next is the big question obviously it took a very long time to get the ucc up and running it is now so it's time to look again and to look forward into how we can continue to share services the county itself wasn't a dispatcher we weren't really in the business of having a dispatch center but guess what it's revenue neutral for us it helps every single municipality that came in so it just makes sense to really honestly look at things we had our meeting on the 17th we're having another meeting coming up on the 10th march 10th at one thousand am for supervisors and or designee to really come and first decide at what level of the plan are we gonna go in together for june 1st which has to be certified by the ceo and the cfy of each municipality and that's coming up by june 1st and i believe somewhere around may 15th we'll need to know from the city from the towns from the villages what extent we will be coming together for a joint plan but if not that's okay too because again the second purpose of this meeting is looking forward again what can we do next to share these services obviously between group purchasing or looking at public works or whatever we're doing how can we save how can we go forward in the future and work together so again i appreciate everybody having me derek thanks for having me ed thanks for having me my phone is always open anybody has an idea or a comment or wants to talk to me please give me a call thank you any questions or comments and i think ms king another important thing that came out of the meeting that we had was to engage the public as well and perhaps that's something we can work on with the mayor in the future is to have some public meetings regarding shared services and cooperation to get some input from our neighbors from our communities because again it's not just the folks sitting at this table that really have the good ideas sometimes it's the folks that are in the neighborhoods that really can lead us in the right direction on the project in particular savings so again working together i think it's an important piece as well and the ucc is united communications center central dispatch for those of you who are trying to figure out what ucc is and again that was long time coming any other questions of the gentleman and again thank you very very much for coming we appreciate it and we look forward to our continued working relationship with the county all right thank you appreciate it thanks all right thank you okay all right i will now call city development and planning to order we have a number of ceremonial resolutions the first is for the ancient order of hibernians someone propose that okay move by ms porterfield second by mr ferrari all in favor aye aye okay the second one is the ceremonial resolution for the persian film festival yeah my name's not on the agenda but okay i was wondering yeah the film fest's goal is to mark the spring equinox and persian new year and it will run on friday march 20th 21st and 22nd screen over twenty persian films in all genres and i think this is iranians as well as other persians speaking of community afghan several things i can't pronounce india pakistan but i think that this is a really wonderful effort in light of what a diverse community that we live in and we saw that at our last council meeting i just think recognizing the effort for all of us together a local man who teaches at sianna just think it would be nice to heighten awareness of his efforts and maybe bring additional people to the film festival so i want to entertain a motion to approve this okay ms porterfield second by mr ferrari all in favor aye and the third ceremonial resolution is for jennifer lawrence the northeast parent and child well it seems like we're having youth build program here every week and every month but it's a great honor i just found out recently that jennifer lawrence was is our youth build director of the year throughout the entire united states there was over two hundred and fifty applicants that applied and jennifer won the nationwide recognition as executive director of the year for youth build so i think it's certainly a wonderful honor and it's always good to have her back with her students and staff so we expect a lot of folks here for that and i appreciate the support from the council on that resolution okay move it second all in favor aye and women's history month ms porterfield well as we all know it's march it's women's history month so i just thought it was important that we recognize that and have a ceremonial resolution for that so i'll take care of getting the information putting that together okay very good you want to move that mr ferrari second by ms porterfield all in favor aye okay and our vote for permit for bel cibo bistro good evening you see in your packet it's a typical signed revokable permit for bel cibo bistro it's looking to operate at ninety six j street which is across the street on the corner of j n liberty it's a restaurant that's relocating from j street looking to put a sign on the existing overhang as shown in the renderings i really have no issues with it questions move it okay second all in favor aye that was easy thank you there you go any further discussion on the brandywine and state street project and zoning changes we had the public hearing we had two people speak in favor i had another gentleman come up who owns property right in that area come up to me after the meeting and say he's very enthusiastic about it so i think this is probably good to go all right so anyway i'll entertain a motion to approve that okay second all in favor aye okay and last is one hundred and twenty six robinson street but i see that we're going to be holding that for executive session so at this point i'll entertain a motion to recess city development and planning mr ferrari second by ms porterfield all in favor aye aye call to order public service and utilities we're gonna call mr wallen up about the discussion about the possible closing of a pedestrian tunnel thank you mr chairman if i could address that there's a tunnel that runs under ivy that goes from last street over into grout park the tunnel is owned by the state of new york the agreement is it's maintained by the city of schenectady there's been a number of complaints received where it may be fostering criminal activity undesirable people moving back and forth from one side of eight hundred and ninety to the other we've had several requests to actually close it the tunnel now is not in the best of shape can become subject to ongoing vandalism where there's been lights there in the entrance ways and so dot had requested that if we were going to close it that we have a public hearing and just get people's input on it internally the staff is making the recommendation we probably should close it police department's perspective and just our inability to keep up the ongoing maintenance and utilization of it over time has dropped dramatically people just aren't going back and forth when grout park was in a fact a middle school city school district probably more traffic there that no longer exists and so asking the council to consider holding a public hearing to just allow people to comment one way or the other if they want to have it open then we review that or if they want to close it we close it in some way that would be acceptable to dot any questions i just think having a public hearing is a really good way to make people aware that we're talking about this and get their input that's been a problem for years that's why i think that building got blown down in grout park the vandals exited through that tunnel it's been a problem for a long time you have any questions so we just need a motion to call for a public hearing okay i move it second all in favor aye aye and next we are going to call mr wallen forward about the bid and contract for the city hall boiler replacement to campetel plumbing and heating hello as you may or may not be aware the boilers at city hall are outdated and in a state of disrepair we've had a consultant come evaluate the boilers we've had some mechanical contractors come and repair the boilers however from all accounts and purposes they are on their last legs we have had the boilers checked for asbestos we do have a little bit but we'll be addressing that we did put out a spec to have the boilers replaced and it was awarded to campetel plumbing we believe that the bid is in good standing and that we would like to move forward with this as soon as possible any questions i'd like to entertain a motion to move this i'll second all in favor aye aye thank you thank you is there anything else that needs to come before public service and utilities i'd like to entertain a motion to close to move second all in favor aye hi i will call to order government operations first bid our favorite topic the abandoned extended parking i said a couple of scenarios to mr falletiso this week one of which was what if we change to read if the car is impeding entry or egress that would be decided by the chief of police that the car could be removed or hardship but mr falletiso didn't like the word hardship he wanted more of a definition of hardship so i'll turn to my colleagues in the next couple of weeks to see if we can get that nailed down my second suggestion was still with the entry or egress but then or if a resident didn't live within two hundred feet of the vehicle because what i thought in this case the owner of the car didn't reside within two hundred feet of the vehicle so that somebody that still park on the street for forty eight hours legally without any issue it would address the issue that mr riggy brought up of garages parking their cars that had been fixed and waiting for the owners to pick them up on residential streets and it hindering other people from parking there but it would still allow people who live there to park for more than forty eight hours so mr falletiso is looking into that he wasn't sure if that was something we could do because it would be kind of similar to what albany did with the residential parking thing but really quite different but some of the same legal like if you reside in this neighborhood kind of thing so still working on it not willing to give up on it we have four council members that want to see a change at least and maybe more support than that if we get to a place of legal good standing and a good solution for all with it being trackable and all of that so we're still working on it stay tuned i'm happy to receive any input from anyone else on this as we go forward but i still think that the way it's written is just not necessarily a good thing for the residents in the city so unless there's any questions or comments on that we'll just move along excellent i also brought up with mr falletiso d the issue of people parking in the driveway not sure there's anything legally that they can change with that because it's a private property which is kind of crazy well i don't understand that if we've written into the code the ninety six hours how can we not change the code we have it it's our code i think it was a matter of who gets to tow the car well now the way it's currently written in d is after ninety six hours you can do something why couldn't we just change the timeframe it doesn't say we can never do anything it says after ninety six hours the person could do something so i'm not sure why why don't you give me a call on that tomorrow and we'll talk about it if there's something that i'm missing that it looks like we can do something with we'll definitely go in that direction and from my review of it if somebody's parking if they abandon the car on somebody else's property and it meets the legal definition of an abandoned vehicle that's actually a misdemeanor so in those cases the police would be obligated to go there and move the vehicle because we have the obligation as a municipality to remove abandoned vehicles but in general if you just and you park in your neighbor's driveway not a nice thing to do really may not give rise to the criminal activity where our police department would get involved and pay for the cost of the tow instead of the homeowner doing it themselves well i think we should take a look at it because d clearly says after ninety six hours you can do something so my recommendation is that being a lot fewer hours so definitely i'd like to talk more about that because it doesn't make sense if you can just park in somebody's driveway and say hey do something it just doesn't make sense but doesn't someone always have the option to have them towed yeah absolutely on private property yes yes because it's on private property right right our correspondence okay okay and next up housing standard review board all right there was an email sent around with proposed changes as discussed in prior council meetings so everyone had a chance to review that entertain questions or comments it does include the change that we had proposed of having a multiunit property owner on there and outlines the council as it would function for our discussion yes well i just got this this afternoon with the changes so i don't know if there's just a couple of other things i think we really to add in there if we can as regarding the membership and i know we understand that but it must be a city residence that's not in there and i know the mayor always insists that we appoint folks who live in the city but i think that whoever we're appointing must be a resident of city of schenectady and also down where it says chairman two things i saw chairman can we limit the chairship to two years there should be some limit to how long an individual can sit as a chair of a committee at mha it's two years here as council presidents two years what about our speaks indistinctly committees do we have limits on those well that's what i don't know that's why we're in discussion here that's what i was just asking well the term of office limit is two years so if you have to cycle out and be reappointed then you would have to reappoint a chair right i mean does that cover it or i mean we can certainly add that line that's not going to be well is there a problem with somebody being a chair if they're being appointed and then reappointed as the chair by the group again i'm just bringing it up as a suggestion as the chair of the bza for many years i don't know if that's good or bad just because if someone's doing a job that everybody's appreciating why wouldn't you reappoint someone that whose leadership works exactly we've done it here at the city council though mha board limits them to two years everywhere it's just a change of leadership a change of direction but peggy's on her second two year term two year term that's right no no she's not no because i filled denise's oh but the same chair can be reappointed right yeah we don't have anything written to the effect of it's going to change every two years it's just that i had an understanding you don't have to that's all right i will entertain other people's comments but i also agree with mr ferrari if there's leadership in place that's working and building consensus i don't see why that shouldn't continue i'm fine with that i also don't think that we should apply something to one committee that doesn't apply to all committees so if that's the case we would need to take a look at all the committees and what the length of the chair is i'm all right with that yeah and i would think like i think you mentioned earlier if a person is on there for a two year term has to be reappointed then i would think yes you also would have to that would be the opportunity to make a change in leadership if one was needed other comments questions i might ask that you give me the authority to designate a chair for the first appointment the environmental or the energy advisory board reappointed that and then people were questioning they're supposed to elect their chair on their own or who's going to be the chair and so that board is kind of languished so that they're not looking to but put some organizational structure and responsibility as we're looking to ramp it up and get it started initially which makes sense because if you have people that don't know one another how do you decide who chairs it yes ms porterfield so this is really a question so are you just asking when the board initially get started right just should the council move ahead with this we're gonna discuss the names we'll make the appointment i'll designate somebody as the chair for that initial one year or two year term whatever the council want it and then it would revert back to the prerogative of the board yeah i'm comfortable with that but i would like it at a year because after a year the board will know each other enough and if they feel there's a change in leadership it should be their prerogative to be able to change it before a two year term anyone else my only other comment and i'll pass this on is when we're doing things like this to make sure it's gender neutral so chair instead of chairman and he slash she that kind of thing yeah this is an old committee yes other questions or comments now the next step is to call for a public hearing on this so yes if i may in respect to john mutabaron councilor mutabaron who's not here this evening and again i just received this myself is there any way we can hold this for two more weeks just so we can review this and again because he might have some changes that he might want to include or take out of this and then we'd have to have another public hearing or would we not have to have another public hearing because the public hearing is on what we're including in this document as it is correct right but that would be for monday nights two weeks after that and then we can still make changes so that gives us another based on the comments that you have received at the public hearing you might change one thing or the other maybe you make the terms longer maybe you make them shorter as long as councilor mutabaron will be able to insert whatever comments that he wanted and concerns that he had regarding this legislation i think it'll be fine he can speak at the public hearing yes ms porterfield six hundred and eighty three for terms of office where it talks about the members currently serving on the municipal residence board multiple residence board what is that that's this board the old title which to reconstitute so then should that be changed to the name it's going to be right it wouldn't really have any effect either way because when this was written there was another board the multiple residence board that already was existing so it's just handling the fact that there are people who are on that board who are then going to be coming on to this one because once it's been dormant that clause wouldn't have any effect we could take it out if you'd like to we should take it out yeah if it doesn't have any effect it doesn't need to be there other questions in terms of membership it states who but will any city staff be part of this board i'm not looking to appoint any city staff they would function in an advisory role okay thank you more questions comments the council had a strong feeling so the way i first consider okay so if i could have a motion to call for a public hearing thank you a second all in favor aye aye okay great one more thing that's not on the agenda that i bring to the committee and that is wednesday night the board of zoning appeals will meet and there are a couple of advertising companies that are seeking a variance they are putting up new billboards and wish to not adhere by the zoning requirement of removing two existing billboards before they put up the one billboard in this particular case there are electronic billboards and i'm bringing this to the council's awareness because i believe that there are other billboard companies also putting up billboards that are adhering to the zoning regulations of removing two and after discussion or questions if we agree as a council i would like to consider that we draft a memo to the board of zoning appeals asking them to please stand by our zoning in that if these companies want to put up a billboard that they remove two others so open for questions and comments on that so prior to the public hearing you want us to there at this hearing on wednesday you want us to draft a recommendation that they stick by that before we even hear what they have to say right i feel like my thing is we have other companies coming in they're adhering to these rules and i think it's a crucial time in our city of growth that we need to be cognizant of what our city looks like especially if we have a lot of electronic billboards going up and we have the zoning changes or these zoning requirements in effect for a reason and i feel strongly that we don't want the city covered in billboards especially with the electronic ones going up yes ms porterfield well i think that there's a reason that we have variances and we allow people to come and make their case so i personally would say we should hear what their case is and what their reasoning is before we would make that recommendation that would be my preference to hear what people have to say as opposed to because we're offering the opportunity to say here if you need a variance come and ask us for it so they're doing that but i think if as a council we say no before they even make their case it just doesn't seem like it's very fair to make that decision before they made their case maybe there are other people that have not asked for them because they don't need that this group feels like they need it for whatever the reason is and certainly i'd like to be able to hear those reasons fair point mr riggy but can the cva vote on that that night to allow the variance absolutely so then maybe we should make a recommendation that if they could hold it for two weeks until we get to see what may be presented that night because otherwise it could be voted on that night so we have no call in it whatsoever another great suggestion so if they could hold it for two weeks instead of granting it that night to hear from us or whatever i don't know what their it's a once a month they meet yes they would hold it for a month okay so they could hold it for a cycle then that way we could weigh in that way otherwise we can't weigh in the deed'll be done right right and point being also that and i respect ms porterfield's point but anyone can go for a variance right anybody can go for a variance so you have some other people that are putting up billboards that may not think they'd get the variance but they're taking a chance on it so but good point other questions or comments yes ms king another thought too is whether to do a letter just saying that unless it's a really unusual request or special situation that they so in other words we're not saying don't award it but just make sure if you're awarding it it's a really special reason or unique need or something to that effect i think doing something like that just kind of sends a message to the board and i think that we should just wait to hear because that kind of whether it's intention whatever the letter says the fact that it comes from the council it kind of sends a message i think we should just be hands off until we hear whatever it is that they're asking for go to the meeting make your comments at the meeting i try to go to most of them right that's what i'm saying right we can do that but then we're not acting as a council we're acting as a single person so i think the discussion was to act as a council and that's only if everybody's in agreement right so let me work with mr thorn on this and if anything we'll just i'll see i'll ask mr strikeman if this is time sensitive in any way and if we draft anything it will be a memo simply asking them to hold their decision until we can review the circumstances i'd be agreeable to asking them to hold the decision yeah yep and i'll put it out to everybody before we actually formally send it to the chair also so that everybody's in agreement if we're acting as one voice so okay anything else to come before government operations ask for a motion to adjourn i'll second all in favor aye call to order claims so moved i'll second it all in favor aye also just say i'm going to pass this around the letter we sent to governor cuomo after the death of his father we've all seen the letter we got but this was also the program from the service