properties to the city of schenectady discussed in committee without objection on consent item number three item number three a resolution authorizing the sale of thirty two eagle story discussed in committee without objection on consent item  favor i am number nine under contract and supply item number nine a resolution order awarding the bid in contract for demolition and debris removal to cristo demolition inc discus committee without objection on consent nothing else come before the city council caucus meeting i'll ask for a motion to adjourn mr ferrari seconded by ms porterfield all those in favor i we are  i will now call the city council meeting to order for monday february twenty second two thousand and sixteen and i will ask that you rise for the invocation let us be here as one and gather our hearts and minds in unity and community calling each of us to our personal faith to our personal belief of how we are to be in this immensely diverse world may we be here with joy for each other may we be here with love humility compassion and respect as we welcome the presence of all that is the divine source known by so many names yet called by th still small voice within our hearts may we be here to toil together seeing the divine presence within each of us within each task we set ourselves to accomplish to see evening then we gather in unity and community and sacred and holy one is to serve each other and to serve up a love city may we be blessed with love and harmony toward all as we gather here this evening may we welcome and cherish diverse voices thoughts opinions and feedback remembering the divine presence within each voice maybe lift our hearts in gratitude and welcome the plurality of boyce's of points of truth that form and inform the whole may our intent be always with a clear heart toward doing good work to represent fairly and well everyone who is in trusted their faith and confidence in us to do so bless us father mother god all that is as we embrace the tasks before us that we debate and discuss with respect and come to speak with one voice made all who we represent and serve be blessed by you our creator regardless of opinion circumstance station or cause knowing your wisdom comes through us may we be blessed to allow it to come forth from within us they will be guided by that wisdom to act forthrightly for the highest good of all we ask the source of all that is to bring peace and justice and unity to our community to bring harmony to our many voices to convey a pot of so creator your great love for all creation as we discharge our duties in this evening may we know the joy of partaking in your creation bless us that we find the path through our struggles and loss bless us that we may be one heart one community in peace and love and harmony and joy may our hearts and spirits be filled with your love hope blessid creator in all our words and deeds both here and as we go about our every day lives to present that academic all district team whereas you need college senior ryan well plea has been named to the two thousand and fifteen sixteen college sports information directors of america co sajda academic all district team for the n w a division a in the fall term and worse he was averaging seven point two points per game and five point eight rebounds per game and where has he is there at all twenty games for the dutchman and is also averaging twenty eight point two minutes per game and whereas ryan's has scored a career hard high twenty two points vs at the cup on december tenth and further games of twelve rebounds this season and whereas he's the team's representative on the student athletic advisory committee guerrier mccarthy and the city council do hereby pause in their deliberations to recognize ryan i dislocated of being named to the two thousand and fifteen sixteen academic all district team for the n w a division three men's basketball going to present  faces and to know that the city is running smoothly and i just can't that you know again thank you communications presented to the city council for monday february twenty second two thousand and sixteen under official from the mayor list of appointments dated february twenty second two thousand and sixteen from david frank director of operations a letter recommending the contract award of demolition and debris removal of select properties to cristo demolition under general there are non under petitions there are no committee reports mr president and no once again i'm a proud arise and hope for the support of judicial properties one of thirty two eagle street and the sale of twenty three thirty four campbell avenue two again on are occupied folks here in the city of schenectady with a a the contract as we mentioned to chris the demolition once again for some properties of that now we do we've taken last week but we're actually going to be knocking them down very shortly as well properties are in it all seven m and st five twenty six summit avenue five forty eight summit avenue five fifty one and five fifty two summit avenue and two sixteen duane ave and then we have a new demolition company christo who won the bid at three hundred twenty nine thousand dollars and i was told that these are the same folks who did the demolition with the glendale home with us going to be counted so they have some great service in back of them but again we're talking about the demolition of blight properties here in the city i think is one way that again the mayor and the city council we continue to look to i do not have anyone signed up to speak this evening so seeing that i have no one signed up i will declare the portion of the meeting closed and i'll entertain a motion to approve the legislative agenda  sorry moved by mr cocksure seconded by mr ferrari all those in favor i the president city council mer one of the questions that came back about three weeks ago was from city staff and stating that they don't have to comply with affirmative action because it doesn't stay under section one way it loans if you actually go back to the actual law itself it says you have to comply with affirmative action with the tightest rights act and also any other federal rights act just because it doesn't happen on the form doesn't mean that you're ok you still have to comply it's federal funding you still have to make sure all programs activities and services are available and you have to do it you also have a city requirement of apprenticeship program you're totally totally ignoring it and then second of all you're paying a hundred thousand dollars a community level block grant money out to have to repay that along under communal block grant it says how were you able to do diversity and affirmative action on that hundred thousand dollars and to some of our other areas of the city we've got all this new investment why not heck are we in the position that we are in and that's one of the things you've got to look at almost four weeks ago you had claimed all hell what great  center city was but you didn't tell the whole truth of what center city is over two and a half million dollars worth of federal grant money went into that property you have the school destroyed and the community college paying over one thousand dollars a square foot plus you know three dollars a square foot wasn't even needed to be in that building you have metroplex given the money to the same developer homesteader city and they're still written in that place at over eighteen to one thousand dollars a square foot that's a conflict of interest so i mean where is it at where is all that and then on top of a flaw we had last year and if it wasn't a you had listed for twelve states three or four a one state street which is another one of his properties for tax or you are to lower the assessment on it you're saying this saw great why were you looking assessment we do not have a cost benefit analysis also to this is that the they've already at the mohawk harbor they've already put the foundation in where's the firm out of action nothing from its silent from the from the city council they're supposed to thirty percent project goal and we're not even meet knows these are some of the things that need to be addressed thanks  worked at the alcohol father in law test for old steam engines after they were built my father worked on there for over thirty years in the foundry when he built steam engines and he built tanks the diesel engines so something should be done down there for name in the streets so i think that something should be done to honor yoko down there and another thing is in the paper a week or so ago to granted fifty two apartments on the very boulevard with fifty two parking spaces i mean c'mon now who in god's name ever thought of that the front street you can't park on every boulevard so something should be done just run we have two cars people next door it was on a corner there's four people there's four cars there so i mean people want to rent these apartments are going to be more than one car apartment and another thing is they said that they're going to be coming out on every boulevard that they're not going to be exit ing on front street make sure that there is a barricade or something so people won't sneak out in the back thank you thank you before during and after criminal activity with petitions speakers a council meetings and television news we brought our issues to the public and the city we recognized that d o t also had a say in this issue and that it was not the city alone to make that decision are happy to announce that the great grove park tunnel is now getting closed we appreciate the sign of the barricades and inform pedestrians of the permanent detour there is also the orchard park grant that encompasses demolition of buildings and crane street and second avenue we look forward to revitalizing that park for the many children in that neighborhood who have not had a safe place to play for a long time mr strike misspoke at our last meeting in fully explained what work to be done with the to put the pleasant back in mount pleasant and these projects are giant steps towards that goal mount pleasant neighborhood association looks forward to continue collaboration with the city for the betterment of the mt pleasant neighborhood we appreciate the city madam president mr mair city council good evening i came as i'm here tonight as the representative of a group of clergy members pastors and as well as community leaders who have launched a fight for education in schenectady county have you been made aware of not certain if you have an out but  you know that the schenectady city school district receives only fifty five percent of the school aid based on their foundation formula not certain if you're aware of the fact that if schenectady received eighty two percent of the median level of funding that they're supposed to receive school taxes would be decreased by one third because of this reason our children are suffering they're not getting what they deserve to get and there are many leaders like myself who use wonderfully aware of the fact that there's a major major injustice happening right in our own city we must do something about this and i came tonight to share some information with you certainly we have some important information other people will speak and shares well but we're asking for you to get on board and sadness because this movement is gaining some major groundswell of support and it will be great to have the city leaders of schenectady on board because we may as we bring about a change that is going to happen in your city this is black history month and i believe you would have thought from dr king who says in the end we're remember we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends so please don't remain silent on this matter please speak up please do your part to help us bring about the necessary change that's not in the school district in schenectady county thank you cause on saturday we had open session and assemblyman santa barbara came out and signed the resolution and we've actually been invited to the assembly on this wednesday at twelve thirty while he offered his resolution to the assembly floor so we'll be out there at twelve thirty on this wednesday to be a part of that also march seventh will be having a lobby day in the capitol or we will have a bus meeting at emanuel freedom church and it will be taking a group of people out there to lobby in support of of this cause we're currently we have petitions we're looking to raise fifty thousand signatures so that we can bring some awareness to this have been on board and have supported that so it's excellent we are getting community leaders at this time to make city just them some inspirational videos about some of the things that have gone on in the city bring about some awareness so the city is behind us we strong coalition effort oh there are church leaders or community leaders are very concerned citizens about this very timely issue and there was nothing more important than the idea and nothing more powerful than an idea who time has come very clearly this issue is concerned as time has come it's a critical issue for our community we organize by having a petition drive was mentioned there really is a hope for fifty thousand signatures goal the resolution can also be signed by individuals and i know that you're going to be dealing with this in context of something the dealt with before that's really the dish liefer groups and if any groups that you're involved with want to get to sign for funding and while i let you know we are planning on a school bus going on the seventh we hope there is more than forty four places and you know are available we would obviously need like to know people coming ahead of time so please connect to their website or send us an email join s s d join us as d at g mail dot com that's the email to indicate if you want to come on that day know or welcome a three night albany street plenty of parking and hope to see you there thank you thank you evening at the last council meeting council members acted like the south end of a northbound below that's a quote regarding the sustainable energy program who said anything about the risks on said city employees should not be expected to prepare and store the answer you already know a final item at the last meeting i did not know matthew quavers was being dropped from the planning board  he is a man of faith honesty and integrity a caring son and loving brother who cares all his spare time to the community and  never seeing say drawing him in return matthew is my neighbor everyone should have a neighbor like you there would be peace in the world what you do to matthew was and no one else signed up to speak so i will declare privilege of the floor closest and we'll move on to miscellaneous business of the council that we receive all of our fair share of funding for school because i have two daughters in the school your fight is my fight so we'll do it together just a reminder for march forces coming up homeowners to please take this opportunity to do it and able to get a relief from their school tax also out for the veterans also a reminder to please file your exemption  thank you and i'd also like to think the speakers that came out to talk about the fight for fear fear is with us for our public school system and this began with the with a group of ministers who started out but i'm really happy to see the cause has been taking up taken up by some some young emerging leaders in our community who have caused that forward realizing how important this is and taking up that mantle and there's a lot of people involved but i want to specifically mention martinez who i thought was speaking tonight but he's here but he didn't when rebus into name because they've really taken charge of this and really move forward and are doing a really fabulous job so thank you for the work that you're doing and we really you know you have my support and hopefully we can get support of more people because we talk about what it does in terms of education but we also i also want to remind folks that there's a possibility of lowering taxes the school taxes if we can get that money i think that's important to everyone and also not having proper education leads to a lot of negative things that happen to to our young people one of the things that came about was the fact  we have a very high teen pregnancy rate so i asked prince rob who is doing a documentary how education played a part in that and so he sent me a long e mail about all the statistics and the social impact of not having the proper education one of them was the teen pregnancy rate so having the proper amount of funding for your school system impacts in a lot of ways and so those are things that we really need to keep in mind in to support this effort so thank you again also this weekend there were a lot of things going on this weekend and dr bernard lafayette who is a civil rights leader who actually served with dr martin luther king who was with him in his final hours of his life was here today  speak this week and to speak and i was privileged to be able to to go to that to hear him speak and to see hear the wisdom and just some of the things that that he not a lot but some of the things that he experienced in his role as a civil rights activist the southern christian leadership conference is planning on bringing him back don't have an exact date but hopefully that will happen and when that does happen we can have  of enough so that we can get a really packed house because again it was an opportunity that doesn't really happen that often so it was wonderful to see him here and mr de vere has announced the library opening so hope to see you all there a president's surprise or texting each other on saturday i'm making sure that we've got a resolution to put forth in a couple of weeks i will certainly have you folks come back in a few weeks to present that but again it's very important that we and again this is open to all city residents not just with long folks we certainly encourage other folks from the city and a nearby communities to come down and listen to the good word that the mayor would have and again engage in good strong conversation talking about our community about a block grant funding  wednesday another very important meeting our favorite twenty fourth there's an application technical assistance meeting right here in city hall in room one ten and that's going to be from two to three o'clock so those agencies organizations that are interested and possibly the applications are now online there are cities going to the website and the applications are due on march sixteenth so time is flying and finally we talk about the library we'll all be there for that for that opening as from one to four o'clock please join us for that  scrappy restaurant week going to be having many of these spots this week but just reminder skulk your restaurant green week actually began tonight and it runs through sunday february twenty eighth and of course it's three course meals at participating restaurants for the low price of twenty five dollars it's good to see there's a concerted effort with many people from the community coming forward so the squeaky wheel gets the grease and that's the way to get it done so we'll be behind you all the way just one quick announcement bellevue preservation the great education that you can receive in the city and it's very important that the city get the proper funding that we should be getting so thank you for coming out i'd like to announce the one two three or nine neighborhood association meeting downstate in particular but just to correct that thank you thank you anyone else that leaves you mr mayor thank you madam president pre shared everyone coming up tonight in continuing to articulate that discrepancy that exists in the funding that schenectady gets you know for a long time we've talked about it in terms of municipal wade we've talked about the shortcomings in the aid the school district receives and hopefully this year we're starting to get some traction in attention in albany so that people will wake up there and look to actually bring some equity to the formula that will allow us to do some of the things that we need to do within the school district to improve our neighborhoods and just continue to make this a strong and vibrant community in people have to remember that your tax bill is about twenty percent is collected by the county about thirty percent goes to the city of schenectady to support our operations here police fire garbage collection related things in fifty percent of the tax bill goes to the school district and as it's been pointed out tonight if we had some of that equity in that formula we would see a reduction in that we all know that taxes are high here and so i appreciate the work that's been done look forward to working with you as we continue to articulate that message and hopefully will have a resolution that will make us all proud and allow super tennis schools the teachers our school board to do the things that need to be done here in the community  thank you i too was honored to see dr bernard lafayette on saturday morning and i want to thank the southern christian leadership polish then because it was it was a very very special opportunity really of a piece of amazingly important history standing before us in a very intimate setting and it took a lot of took a lot away from it it was it was a great opportunity i also want to give a little shout out to house southern cuisine restaurant they celebrated the grand opening with a ribbon cutting on february ninth they're located on lafayette street so recommendation to the council and we will then be having a public hearing so if i encourage you to come back in and use privilege of the floor to once again take part in that public hearing