please rise for the pledge of allegiance which will be led by council member brian followed by a moment of silence sitting in for me and i'm it's just good to be back and see the public here listening to the activities of the council and i did miss being here i did watch you on t v though so it was good to have that process up and running so that might be able to continue to share in the operations of the council so with that we're going to begin with we're public comment period each member of the public has up to five minutes to speak on a subject of their choice tonight and i believe five speakers signed up to speak so we're going to answer the clerk please call the first speaker mr marlin anderson good evening members of the public members of the council as you are aware well my name is marlon anderson from the west so neighborhood i've come forward on two issues the first issue i'll be brief and that is the up tending vote on the parking situation i do commend the council on coming forward and and setting up a plan regarding the parking situation i have grave doubts regarding the parking plan and the permit situation in the fifty's and things of that nature but as that is something that we're going to have to see as ongoing process and view as an ongoing process i do anticipate having to be tweet but that is something that you have to address in the future i don't consider it a very pressing or an important matter for this city at this time what i am coming for to address i have been monitoring what is very important to the city the efforts regarding the restructuring of the wards as a cause for voting and things of that nature and i understand there's been a major debate as to the mayor's appointee to the committee efforts first let me say i do understand the side of the council on one aspect that aspect being that people who reside in the city and who are directly affected by the process should have a hand in addressing that process that is cut and dry and waiting stuff that can't be argued with what can we argue with and what should be strongly addressed is politics for politics sake and his ability again i am strongly aghast when i hear comments in re comments in the media of people are concerned that they can't work with someone this whole building the purpose for this building is to be able to work with each other despite your differences despite whether you'd be republican or democrat despite whether you be episcopalian or catholic that is the purpose of democracy to be able to work together again as one of the main problems in a city when people get the attitude that i can't work with this person because i don't like his style or his attitude that denies this valuable resources that we have in the community in manpower and intelligence things of that nature and we cannot afford in this city with the problems that we have to take death plaster when it comes to any one w i do agree with the council's position on that it should be the people who work in the city who are directly affected eyes can see no valid argument that could or should be may for someone who has the experience in issue and that should be the priority in this building right now to make sure we get a fair and open process that doesn't denied representation are diluted to representation of certain areas of th city and i myself will continue to march to the process and make sure that it is fair and open and balanced but we don't need politics the usual because that continues to be a problem in this city so hopefully we can resolve this and resolve it in a manner a basement like manner again this is the whole purpose of this building to be able to work together so they need to i don't need to i don't want to read about that i hear about the any more that we don't want to work with some i because you feel you can work with them that's the whole purpose of democracy to work together different factions working together before i leave i'm also going to leave this flyer with the clerk at the council and i'm hoping not she will provide it to all council members particularly to members that are in one hundred eighty assembly district and i hope that you will provide this information to your constituents because it's very important to your information from the clerk circulated among your constituents and for yourself and i hope to see you next wednesday thank you and have a pleasant evening madam president members of the council thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is danny again and i'm president of the school board the city of albany i'm here tonight to respond to several inquiries i've received from council members  regarding the classes the school district provides for english language learners over the age of twenty one i'm proud to report that there are more than forty languages spoken in the albany public schools the district provides english as a second language to all students who need it for many years we've also offered e s l and ged classes to adults however over the last four years we've lost over ten million dollars annually and stated in these times of constricted budgets the board must carefully consider how every dollar and every hour of staff time is deployed on our core mission of serving k through twelve students on may fifteenth our community voted overwhelmingly to authorize the sale of the adult learning center building you all know our financial condition the sale of this building is part of our ongoing effort to rightsize the school district and put excess property to more productive use the board has been considering the consolidation of the services under both his leadership as far back as one nine hundred ninety five we are now combining our efforts with both is to continue their lead on adult yes all classes in albany currently we have one tenth of their enrollment the state education department as recommended that we work with both is to provide the service based on their far larger enrollment are declining in e s l adult roland and their higher quality programs many urban districts including binghamton for example have made similar decisions for similar reasons both uses agreed to accept as many of our students as possible and we've offered space in our buildings as necessary i think this is a good example of fiscally responsible intergovernmental cooperation i will provide a list to the clerk of the site sometimes for both these adult ged and e s l services and please bear in mind that this list may expand if needed but i want to assure the council that the board fully understands the importance importance of this work which is why we're working to make sure these critical services continue thank you very much for allowing me to speak the new york i am also a small business owner a business owner of an op ed in our building five ninety six manning boulevard so in spite of not living in the city i also have active interest live in the city raise my daughters in this city and i have committed to making this city as well as many places a decent and welcoming place for all citizens i have a long record of voting and civil rights activism in the city i come tonight i was six in anticipation of the resolution understand it was true and i'm actually pleased important that that is the case i know that the matter can be taken up in a much more civil manner in vain and s efforts to as i say not consider that because i think that we don't want to go down the path of a what amounts like a bill of attainder because really it's more a procedural issue out of fear and concern and these things are nothing new in america were the more or less the famous people who died in the cause of voting in civil rights and let me say this there were some tens of thousands and if you annualize that back to slavery part of if not hundreds of thousands new york state mississippi pennsylvania who left their communities because the rights and freedoms of their fellow american citizens in the south were bridge and they were  part of freedom summer and other initiatives that basically were they are pushing voting in civil rights albany is in its third albany county that is in its third litigation over the issue of voting in civil rights in fact the county has hired perhaps one of the most interesting conservative experts ronald keith gaddy of the southern politics center at the university of oklahoma who is part of a coalition of conservative thinkers who believe that the sixty five voting rights act is no longer necessary and they are part of an effort to roll back a lot of the voting rights act and on top of that we can talk about hiring trends and statistics within the city but i set that aside i come to support the effort to do it right roading rights act definitely has a lot of trepidation and fear many of you have community of interest your elected leaders and voting rights basically and the reapportionment process acts you to set aside your current districts and approached a city like a blank slate so that you can have one person one vote that's the first constitutional requirement the second requirement is compliance with the sixty five voting rights act making sure that those people of color minorities have also majority districts when practicable and possible and what that means it's huge shifts and then the third interest and priority is that of community of interest and so when we talk about our communities that we know i understand the fears and the concerns but the real issue is one person one vote compliance with the constitution and the second is compliance with the law the voting rights act of sixty five it be one thing if albany could do this naturally without prodding and as they say in pushing when i say prodding and pushing it's basically saying here's what the law says here's what the constitution here's what rulings have been done and here's what practices and procedures are at the end the day the common council has to entertain a law  for to become and i think that to the extent that you go forward with your best foot forward with the backs decks pretty soon i think that that's a good thing the city is fortunate in my residence here in the capital region i'm probably one of the few voting rights experts of color in upstate new york the case of barbara hill the albany county is the national standard by which they define majority minority you google are will be albany you'll find that stat is one of the things that it's used all around the country to this day so you know these things have been won long before battles that we were a part of not to mention our work is on the front page of the new york law review when we won that particular case so the experts his expertise is not within question i think the issue is that of stretching and allowing our city to be fully representative of all the residents with it and i know that that's at the core principles that many of you have so with that like i said i will be working i have spent my father's day working with members of the black and latino community we're forming a group and i'm helping a lot of them on educating them on the process so we will be aggressively working in educating people at a grassroots level but be that as it may i would prefer to do it at the table but if not at the table then i will as i say advise politely and as they advocate for those interests that have long been set aside so with that i want to say i want to thank you i want to thank the mayor most importantly for all of all because i can tell you this much because one of the concerns is the strong nature of my advocacy does nobody that has been beat up more might be have been advocating for residents in this city and he had the courage to put my name in submission and i want to say that that takes courage and trust and at some mark of leadership i want to thank him for putting forth my name and i hope that some of you find the courage to not use the law as a shield to cover here that you are advocating for the best dish picks in the best representation for all all banking's we got  that i appreciate this opportunity and i'll be happy to provide i'm thinking about over the course of the summer while the weather is good i may just go out with my stopwatch and time a bunch of intersections and provide a report to the traffic department or whoever if they don't have the time to do it i'll provide the document and maybe i'll provide it to the times union to you know it's an issue needs to be addressed thank you very much thank you very much for your comments  job was to be an eighty eight ordinator for another state and i wanted to look to inform albany of the issues involved with mary's concerns and to let you know that she's not the only person that has these concerns there are many people in the city who are disabled they have similar experiences throughout the city and each individual who is disabled under title tool of the a t f is entitle to file a two hundred fifty thousand dollar complaint and it would be in the best interest of the city to do a review to see whether or not the city is excessive with the disabled and whether or not your e t a ordinator is doing what's appropriate to see that you're meeting the standards for crossing the street that your bus drivers are telling people to move to the back of the bus so that disabled people can sit in the front of the bus so that the curb cuts are being maintained things of there are very basic so that parking spaces are relatively maintained i question how a bus stop it's just dying to pick up wheelchairs can be allowed to be a parking space and i don't know how a city ordinance can be allowed for that to be on the books and i think the jury da coordinator should be looking at that and talking to your attorneys and i think that some time and individual in a wheelchair will file a complaint to collect the money i'm not threatening to file any complaints but people are entitled to do that as a council you really should look at that that's money that's not mary saying she's going to do it  that's not me saying i'm going to do it but it is liability i just wanted to bring that to your attention thank you thank you very much thank you madam president the public safety committee will be meeting tomorrow tuesday the nineteenth at five thirty p m we'll be discussing issues having to do with the citizens please review board and  inordinate authorizing and directing the grant of a permanent easement to one seventy four north alley one seventy two north allen st over on and under a portion of the city right of way of lincoln avenue in the city of santa thirteen affirmative resolution passes mister resolve that the following persons be in here by our appointed commissioner of deeds for the city of albany new york by the time and in the summer thirty first twenty miles and waive the reading of the names thank jonnie antonio before i get off point here for the book that date the city parks did opening up to be at the house being tables and chairs letting us you know leave the terror share for the city to pick up and also working on conflicts of the sort of fields everything was straightened out and they did a wonderful job and next year i am hopeful that the city will spots of this event as a city event of the city to have so many immigrants and refugees that are living in our city i and to go back things as a second language the need it is needed especially for adults there's people coming here from many different countries and so many countries are coming from actually don't have a written language it is all spoken word and not only do they have to learn english he right they've never had a right before and just to get a feeling for the same with an english as a second language class last friday it's like main library and i just give you an idea of how many people are these all adults the people they're from burma colombia on the adults can get there and also the other concern is that they are in places where refugees and immigrants can get to them since many many most of these people and i don't cause i know already having to navigate in a city  in an area where they don't speak the language and learn the transportation system and to have them you know have and main areas where it is very easily accessible by by bus so walking a book by seventy a lot a lot of people are bicycling to  learning a language other children are having a hard time many of them are starting to drop out when they go into high school age because are so frustrated by not being able to read to take the exams or know the language well enough and  it really is a big issue getting bigger you may not see it there but it's like you said if you saw the number of people there when they can park saturday afternoon you would have been amazed by how many people there are that thousand dollars of increase in revenue as well as two million dollar reduction in spending in it and we return more money to an anticipated to the general fund the other thing i'd like to say is that again last year we started down this path and it seemed to work pretty good i urge all the committee chairs to start to meet with their department heads and find out what discussions are going on with administration where they are with budgets wh anticipated expenditures and purchases that and binding we may be looking for next year so come october that we've truly been a partners no surprises when the mayor's budgets announced in october that we have a pretty good feel of what's going on with debt in the last thing is  in regards to outdoor burning is that season again it's not outlawed in the city of albany but we do have requirements we must have twenty five feet in all areas from any wooden structures would greatly limits it to very few areas that are acceptable for this in albany if you have a constituent and please are mine and the call the four three eight four thousand non emergency number and ask for the fire department to be sent not the police but the fire department there they'll go there and inform the people of the rules and put the fire out or have them put the fire out so that we don't have any houses burning f i just want to add that with dominic said the refugee day was on saturday but also for the first time the juneteenth celebration was held saturday in washington park and this was a celebration that has traditionally been held on a large street or at the r v or community center and for the first year for the first time it was held in washington park and really afforded a different venue for this activity and we just hope that as the years go on that it will continue to grow i think there was some miscommunication lot of people didn't know that it was taking place in washington park but that's a celebration that we have been very project was taking place at the same time as the refugee celebration and linkin park so i think that next year we have to make sure we coordinate these things so that people across the city have an opportunity to take advantage of all the activities that are being planned not only by the city so that we can all celebrate who we are and what we bring to the capital district and to the capital city of