to call the city council caucus meeting to order for october fifteenth two thousand and thirteen obviously tonight we do have the public hearing relative to the twenty fourteen budget but then if we could go into the items for am number one for final consideration in ordinance amending chapter two forty eight of the administrative code of the city of schenectady this is been discussed in committee can you elaborate on  the topic is  k the ordinance is amending the meter rates the mayor or his or her designees or authorized to determine the duration times and rate of operations of meters and asking any parking spot and section number two not withstanding subsection one the mayor his designee would declare that a special event is that in place and authorize a rate for up to ten dollars per event right and i am going to be for this back to committee clearly have gotten a lot of input from people and we need to have some more discussion and clarify i think there's a lot of misinformation out there and as i said i want to stick at this back committee to clarify everything and then hopefully we can move forward after that  number two item number two for original consideration an ordinance to amend chapter two sixty four of the code of the city of schenectady introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding the zoning change increasing archery density site review requirements for monday october twenty eighth at seven p m this was discussed in committee without objection on consent item number three item number three committee without objection on consent item number four item number four a resolution appointing flora roma now ski to the schenectady civilian police review board also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number five item number five a resolution authorizing the city is connected to settle a claim by metlife james k mylan discussed in committee without objection on consent item number six item number six a resolution authorizing the settlement discussed in committee without objection on consent i don't number eight item number eight a resolution correcting resolution two thirteen twenty thirteen dash two forty five also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number nine item number nine a resolution authorizing the settlement of attacks or she wary concerning fourteen forty one broadway discussed in claims that objection on consent item number ten item number ten a resolution authorizing the settlement of attacks concerning five zero one five zero seven union straight also discussed in claims without objection on consent item number eleven item number eleven a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle also discussed in claims without objection on consent item number twelve item number twelve a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a claim by mary lou do again discussed in claims that objection on consent item number thirteen fourteen a resolution authorizing the settlement of attacks are surely concerning sixteen fifty two crane straight also discussed in claims without objection on consent item number fifteen item number fifteen a resolution authorizing the settlement of cancer awareness month and this is sent that will also be taken out of order i don't i'm a twenty one item number twenty one a resolution declaring october to be domestic violence awareness month this will also be taken out of order mr group on girls this will also be out of order in this porterfield will present that ok twenty four item number twenty four a resolution honoring friendship baptist church this will be presented at a separate event without objection on item number twenty six also under contract and supplier resolution authorizing the award of the contract for the waiver st called replacement also discussed in committee without objection on consent and item number twenty seven item number twenty seven for original consideration or resolution honoring frank merck and merck and products this was discussed in an earlier committee meeting this present is anyone here from frank market products all right  if not without objection on consent ok yeah all right is there anything else to come before the city council caucus if not title to entertain a motion to adjourn history seconded by is all in let us pray almighty never living god we pray for numbers for lists of numbers that we call budgets help them to embody the values of cities and counties families around kitchen tables help us to understand the priorities that are here we pray for the budget of the united states of america we pray that we would understand how these numbers represent our values and how we care for the least of us be with all of us as we figure out the priorities of what it means to live the common knowledge all this we ask in your holy name amen all right i'm going to ask diane those principles to this day believing that a new mystical movement is not necessary to produce efficient buildings and whereas johnson along with michael is a man's go and james graham founded  most notable projects including an award winning earth sheltered residence as well as the department of transportation building in downtown schenectady which received the u s green building council leed certified silver level green building designation and whereas the john sunni sea has retired which is why we are celebrating this evening from synthesis he is currently working as a consultant establishing a satellite office in  schenectady along with gary mayor gary r mccarthy here by pass in its deliberations to congratulate and sank his retirement and wish him the very best in his future endeavors thank you  truly surprised i didn't think anyone noticed all the hard work we did but thank you for noticing one of the things that i want to just let everyone know really is when someone tells you that you can't do something twenty five years ago they told us we could not revitalize downtown i'm documenting names because i can remember who was twenty five years ago but people did say you couldn't do it connected he will not happen and if you walk downtown now it's a good city now i live in new york and i live in schenectady and so when i'm here thank god we were able to change it and make it a city or else we'd probably move but we've decided to stay here and we also have a place in new york so just it takes tremendous perseverance and unfortunately with cities and urban design it takes time so for example that project in the to keep which is that's at least three years we've been waiting to to even sign an agreement we don't even have that project yet officially so you know it's just takes a long time and you have to stick with it and i know that the tendency in america is for quick fixes because i mean it has to do with the whole system we have four year terms you know people want to get things done if you want to i understand that but sometimes it has to go over twenty five years so really that's all i have to say is just persevered thank you thank you john  right the next out of order item is item number twenty which is the resolution declaring october to be breast cancer awareness month this is madam president i know we have some representatives here that are following and representing the national breast cancer awareness and i'd like to call them up and ask them to come up and share with me this solution ya'll in the pink shirts back there members of our skanky fire department who have been very instrumental in really trying to bring awareness to this disease and keeping it alive and keeping it well i just happened to be on route seven today and something happened over there and i saw one of the city firemen wearing the pink shirt there's so many women in our community in our city that are affected as well as their family by this horrible disease and it's so nice to see that we have representatives from the city who have taken it upon themselves to really take a stand and really make a stand and to see this outside on a daily basis is just incredible and it warms the hearts of the many of those people that not only are survivors but those of those who are becoming survivors themselves having just been diagnosed so was that madam chair that to read the resolution you have the floor whereas the month of october has been designated as national breast cancer awareness month and whereas national breast cancer awareness month is dedicated to increasing public knowledge about the importance of early detection of breast cancer by collaborating with several national public service organizations professional organizations and government agencies who work together to ensure that national breast cancer awareness month is heard by thousands of women in their families in whereas the american cancer society estimates in the united states more than two hundred twenty six thousand eight hundred seventy new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women this year in whereas the american cancer society estimates in the united states more than two thousand one hundred ninety new cases of invasive breast cers will be diagnosed in men this year whereas through research and advocacy significant advances have been made in the fight against breast cancer including significant decreases in mortality and whereas the two point nine million breast cancer survivors living in the united states today are testament to courage as well as the importance of promoting awareness about breast cancer providing information funding research following recommended screening guidelines and offering treatment to those who are affected now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and the city council in the city of schenectady declare i yes that protect the city of schenectady every day without question and any complaints or anything and i guess this this is what happens when i show up at the green earlier this was a great grassroots organization that started from one sister to another and has grown globally and our affiliate here in northeastern new york seventy five percent of the money that we get from all our activities fundraising activities stay here in our community and i think that's a great thing for this organization and for their breast cancer awareness promotion and also peaceful acres doing a fifteen thousand dollar grant to do their support of care and yes it's important to get your medical attention and everything done but it's also important to have that support in a lot of people don't have it people don't have families and i am blessed to have a family i am of survivors well so i think those are who are honoring us this this month and i think you really for doing everything that you've done for protecting us awareness for breast cancer and our firefighters are going to be doing some other things we hope to get involved with why w as well but i'll let the firefighters talk about it and one of the things that we've really been inspired by is your foundation and you know we started our own foundation the last two years supporting firefighter cancer specifically in schenectady we were just informed that there's a fourth fire fighter who has been diagnosed with cancer since our inception two years ago so it's something that's really under research specific firefighter cancer so we're finding that both men and women of our career are afflicted with breast cancer you know because the things we're exposed to and the protective gear can only do so much so we look forward to working with other foundations in the city it to grow our own john de shannon really be a bigger community so thank you for being i first talked we were hoping that we'd be able to put a plug in for the race but we definitely will time it right next year the race for the cure was last weekend and there were over a thousand people there great fundraiser and a lot of fun and we saw each other there as well right the next item is item number twenty one a resolution declaring october to be domestic violence awareness month mr erickson  we have folks that are here to receive the  two a resolution declaring october to be italian american heritage month if any of you have to come into city hall there's a beautiful display down come on up and i believe the laura says that your handiwork displayed in the hallway i'm sure it is began their lives in the united states as unskilled manual laborers and have by virtue of determination and a supporter worth ethic advanced to a much higher economic level and where as italian americans are the fourth largest european ethnic group represented in the united states and the united new york state has the greatest population of a talian americans represent of the united states of america and where as the anniversary of christopher columbus historical journey to the americas is celebrated worldwide on october twelfth one thousand nine hundred two including in the state of new york in the city of schenectady and for the year two thousand and thirteen the observation of columbus day occurs on the second monday of the month of october and whereas the city of schenectady probably celebrates the italian american heritage and culture each year during the month of october now therefore that the mayor and city council of the city of schenectady declare october two thousand and thirteen to be a talent american heritage and culture month and the city of schenectady and celebrate the many achievements of italian americans in the city of schenectady  all right and the last out of order resolution is number twenty three year resolution honoring the working group on girls miss porterfield the members of the working group on girls please come behind the madam chair you have the floor thank you a resolution recognizing working group on girls on the occasion of the tenth anniversary whereas the working group on girls w g g a volunteer community school collaboration began ten years ago and so chris is locally and working together to put the spotlight on girls facility to facilitate programs on their behalf and educate the community about their needs challenges opportunities and successes and where as october eleventh two thousand and thirteen was the international day of the girl a day to recognize the league needs and strength of girls everywhere and where as the w g g planning committee consists of representatives from of the various organizations agencies and individuals in schenectady that work with girls and care about girls and whereas the program serves over two hundred girls a year throughout the volunteer work of over seventy community women and the work of the organization of volunteers has recently been recognized with a generous going from schenectady foundation and whereas this year gigi will host its fifth annual girls day out on november thirteenth at the glen sanders mansion where over one hundred fifty city girl seventh grade girls this special day for girls is filled with fun the girls w get to know other girls as allies and not adversaries they will meet women from the community who care about them learn more about healthy choices and relationship skills and participate in various artistic workshops and whereas w provides direct program for girls through the small group discussions of girl circles led by trained community volunteers girls exploring what it means to be a girl friendship and the qualities of that build healthy relationships and healthy choices role models media influence in how they want to present themselves to the world and where else girl circle seem to seek to build girls self esteem and self respect expand their commitment to their education encourage thoughtful decision making and expand their vision of their future options and where as this year eighth grade girls in high school students will attend a showing and discussion of girl rising a film made under the auspices of the united nations about the challenges girls face in other countries and where as this year's program concludes with a celebration dinner it's connected to high school where each girl will invite a woman that they admired to share in recognition of their accomplishments and give appreciation for the puts for the support of the women they have i first of all likely thank you all for coming in for the wonderful work you do and i have to say i'm pleased to be a part of your group been thank you for inviting me in allowing me to be amused to the young girls in the school system in it has made a difference in my life as well so would you like system we want to thank you so much for your recognition and your appreciation of the work that is going on on behalf of girls were we're very excited about it as you said we're going to into our fifth year the the theme this year is change begins with me be the change and so we are excited about it setting up this programming for girls we're as marion said she is a muse and we call our women volunteers who lead the girls circles muses for inspiring and encouraging and supporting girls development and so i'm here to say if anybody is interested in finding out about being a muse i have some information here would be glad to share that so thank you so much we are very appreciative thank you for the work you commissioner you can also do it inside the reality is one of our microphones thank you very much giving council members mayor mccarthy numbers of the public i appreciate you giving us the sapper to india i want to brief you on an initiative that we started the late last summer and we were trying to as a goal address what we saw as the increasing rate of violence in the bars of the city and we particularly identified them in five different establishment we begin with a letter from the mayor to the rioters of these establishments asking them to come to city hall and have a meeting with us to discuss matters of mutual concern  of the five establishment three of the property operators did appear those being dogs tailgate so we had a preliminary meeting with the mayor then chief chairs assistant chief acquire cooperation council and myself where we discussed with them the pattern that where we were seeing in these establishments and the concerns that we had and while the mayor certainly encouraged as i'm sure all the council did the people to have a successful operation there had to be some changes made because things were taking a spiral downward and we identified for them the things that we were seeing these five establishments are responsible for over one thousand police schools starting in january of two thousand and eleven up until a few weeks ago when we closed what turns out actually to be the sixth in the seventh one is still pending we increased to by two but that's a lot of police calls and two of those it's responsible for fifty percent of that one thousand plus calls and that range from homicide down the loud music we then told them if we don't see improvements we're going to have to take more action which we then did with the help of the city departments code enforcement fire department as authority who we work very close with and did many impromptu inspections unannounced with their personnel we then took action against all five of the initial locations as well as two additional ones that we added to the list as we saw additional problems beginning joe's bar on fifth avenue that is now owned by the city through search and they surrendered their license october fourth of two thousand and twelve we had responded there ninety three times many times mutual aid had to be called in for large fights and there was also one homicide in november of two thousand and eleven at that location they have obviously moved all the longer in business the second establishment was raised bar nine twenty one congress street we responded there between january and two thousand and eleven in september of two thousand and thirteen two hundred eighty one times made seven liquor authority referrals everything from gunshots assaults stabbings disorder loud music the liquor authorities settle certain violations with them and then they added thirteen more of their own and the license was revoked on aug eighth of two thousand and responsible for two hundred eighty calls to the police department from january two thousand and eleven until this past january again the same type of pattern of calls many many mutual aid requests for large fights were made seventeen liquor authority referrals on this establishment and of course did our own check with the liquor authority people spontaneously at this at this operation they paid a thousand dollars civil penalty and took a fifteen day suspension initially where were thirteen additional charges were registered against them in january of two thousand and thirteen the liquor authority revoked their license under an emergency suspension provisions and there is currently an ongoing here in the last day for that hearing  excuse me october twenty third which will be next wednesday at which point we feel confident the folder kurth already refused to issue them any kind of permit from the state of new york to operate an alcoholic beverages and they  have to be closed foreclosures been instituted against that location which is sixty nine thousand six hundred eighty four dollars in the rear club not a license to hundreds of state liquor authority that is a private organization and club we arrested the manager for operating a private club without the necessary fees foreclosure has been instituted in the owner of the property advise us he was moving to florida which he did in june of this year doug's tailgate tavern in all fairness to these people when they responded to the informational meeting they advised us they realized they were having a lot of difficulty trying to control the crowd they attributed to the type of music they had in the live music so they decided to change their method of operation to a sports bar and should that not be successful they planned on closing it in december or january which they indeed did for many of you that go by there now you'll see it is reopened as camillo's and it's been very quiet there they surrendered their license on march twenty seventh two thousand and thirteen or occasions she has changed the way they're operating over there she understood the problems but she too despite all the good intent was having the problem of how to control who comes in the door so she's changed the way things are going there and although she is still open they have an open charges with the state liquor authority cases not been settled and they have failed to respond to it september twenty sixth two thousand and thirteen notice from the liquor authority to answer those charges so there are the only one that remains open the door to cases still pending club eleven north broadway when this establishment opened we already realized that there was a connection with another problem bar that was on union street and we talked to the liquor authority about it despite the fact that there were some silent partners here that we objected to look or authorities said they couldn't deed employ them as managers or whatever title they they decided to give them in any event they did give them a special temporary permit they put them on probation and on the twenty fifth november two thousand and twelve two people stabbed during a large fight at that location bobbing over one hundred people s l a requests that our assistance to revoke their license and that was done on november twenty eighth of two thousand and twelve so out of seven six are closed one may be closed very shortly one thousand police calls absolutely incredible and nothing else out there even remotely came close this doesn't count the responses that the fire department of course had to respond every time there's a fight involving an injury or certainly i'm a murder so you can appreciate the price tag that comes with public safety response to these problem locations proud to be able to say through the efforts of a lot of people and a lot of organisations city and state these places are no longer causing our city problems our next initiative which were exploring now is to determine if there's anything we can do with the bo is or stops wherever you like to call them that also results for a lot of different reasons in a lot of police presence we  identify certainly the top five if necessary more of these locations that are occupying so much of the police department and fire departments time we will again invite those people into city hall and sit down and talk to them about again the goal is for you to be successful but there are rules that must be followed in the interest of public safety you have to play the game or things are going to change rapidly some of these issues may not be there or fall when people congregate on the sidewalk in front of their establishment that's a tough call they really don't have the right to shoo them away although we frequently do that at their so that's the next area we're going to look at certainly if any of the problem bars start up again we will start right away on them and run two fronts at the same time but the liquor authority has been a tremendous a partner for us on this and  we're certainly appreciate everything that they've done for us and again you know move on to other things maybe not as large scale a problem and not as violent but nevertheless  terms of general crime reduction strategies as you all know we participate in the new york state sponsored operation impact and there are seventeen counties in new york state that qualify for participation and those seventeen counties account for eighty percent of non new york city crime so we've been doing this for about ten years now and i'm just going through a couple the numbers through for operation pack sites in the current year through september twenty ninth new york city crime  down one percent now in new york city crime is down eight and a half percent for the first seven months of two thousand and thirteen in that same time period we're down twelve point one percent so relative to new york city crime we're down about fifty percent more than then then through the rest of the state now in terms of the operation impact sites in terms of violent crime crime as shooting incidents involving injury when i was down seven percent compared to the signed the same time  last year now it's connected he were down twenty eight point six percent and a lot of this ties in directly with the commission was talking about there a lot there was a lot of violent crime shootings occurring in and around these establishments late at night and because of this initiative in some general crime reduction strategy we've put in place reduce that as i said in this year versus last year same time period down twenty eight point six percent and over compared to our five year average we're down more we're down thirty one point five percent so the violent crimes really come down quite a bit  in terms of our property crimes that we're down thirteen at percent this year versus last year in terms of our first compared to a five year average we're down seventeen point three percent so a recent trends are positive one of the specific strategies we're using we spoke about before is our data driven approach to crime and traffic safety and we're mapping out our crime or mapping out of crashes it's kind of an oversimplification but kind of putting one map over the other and where the hotspots meet we're putting additional resources there to bring down the crime bring down  held here in colony and we're sharing what we're doing with agencies across the state and out of state i got a an e mail from an agency virginia recently to ask a city what we're doing business is doing is across the country and they're kind of using us as kind of a real success story so resources through the state everything we're doing is really dependent upon our ability to analyze the data we're producing but again by the using this strategy we require additional staff hours of analysis so we're able to by putting this strategy into the overall impact strategy well would you repeat the question the question was what constitutes an s l a referral and any sort of instant we we have to respond to at the at the establishment sort of look at thirty violation we'll do a referral to disorder involving its patrons in or around the establishment what will generate a report  violations they have to judy kate there is a built in protections on the rights of the queues so these things tend to languish but i have to say when we went tome and went over all our cases and they asked them for quicker response they said they were very responsive to that and of course some of these cases take the full board in turn sleep board a rule that takes a little longer to put together so yes and just as i said a little while ago mer on the city budget one of the main things is that we're doing the second time around in the city budget is advertising the state pension plan this means that we're not paying our bills and just because you want to get under the tax that doesn't mean that you need to short change yourself also to use for the again the same year after year we're talking about community don't block  of that money and we're not even holding a public hearing we're not even addressing the needs of that in house money i know or the quote unfortunate saying that the money that they were using for the eight hundred thousand dollars that they were using from community don't block it is that they're getting down to where they're just trying to find something wrong with the house and the final thing that was reported in april so where's that money going to go you know and that was that a back and forth of how that money was to be spent was going from one department to another department now it's all over the place the other piece of the puzzle is the affirmative action manager that we hire twenty hours what the senate has been reported several times in the paper that has not done their job we have that should never been dealt thought that is a federally funded project that should have had jobs we need to take a look at this contract we need to know what direction we're going and we need to move forward we've got to be able to put our own people back to work here in schenectady we have one of the highest unemployment rates all around the whole entire area there increase their lowering their employment rate but not here that's the only way you're going to go to bring back quality of life in the neighborhoods is be able to give is only able to get enough money until the middle of november to december and then also they're looking at cutting it even further so what kind of direction are we going to be looking at we also have the out the outside house  let's clarify something where the city residents are the city we pay the bills but we have very little control over how our money is spent here are some of my suggestions regarding the budget stop spending our money stop giving our money away collect what is due to us and use the resources we already have do we really have to purchase did we really have to purchase one thousand parking piazzas to the tune of one hundred thirty thousand dollars now is a city so flush that we can afford paying twelve thousand dollars every year for maintenance  time the marriage syster just the parking rates it cost us the taxpayers one hundred dollars and we are paying forty five dollars each for wireless services stop borrowing money the city administration some council members voted to borrow one point three million dollars against future i'm guarantee c d g funds leaving less money for organizations like neighborhood associations to apply for and get this is not helping our neighborhoods in addition some members voted to give yes give the well to do private developer a half a million dollars to demolish the old d s s building that he bought for a dollar gave a half a million dollars away he should not have received one cent of our taxpayers money additionally start giving our money away through tax incentives or deals with developers what tax deal has been struck with leasing he didn't have to pay taxes on the d s s building that he bought for two years keep in the title of the da idea what a deal working taxpayers sign up for this kind of deal taxpayers don't get deals we just get to pay higher fees and taxes next now on a campaign to collect the two point three million dollars in unpaid fines we could give the company a company to collect this money and even give it a percentage of what is collected and still get at least something something more than what we're getting now i doubt it would cost the city half a million dollars to collect two point four million and if even so we would be getting our money not just given away we need every cent we can get this city really taxpayers hired more code enforcement officers were justification that revenue would be raised to pay their salaries well that additional revenue was never raised so instead of spending an additional twenty two thousand dollars less user code and forcing officers who are already walking the streets to do the dog census revealed the city own prep recalls is needed what vehicles are really necessary for employees to do their job the city that pay taxpayers have to pay the gas insurance made in speeds of these vehicles it is an issue that harry brown has spoken about several times here it is no surprise why people are disgusted trying unsuccessfully to sell their home because of high taxes don't give an unrealistic budget like you did last year you project it eight hundred fifty thousand dollars for overtime for the entire two thousand and fourteen year and we're already at one point four million dollars and september sharpen your pencils taxpayers cannot keep paying you are forcing us out of our homes thank you thank bad when i read the paper a bug these fees that are being added to the garbage fees going up taxes are going up and the mayor said it's the fault of the citizens i've been a citizen in the city for seventy five years my taxes on time the garbage oh i have recyclables i mean why it might be i'm blamed for the taxes going up i mean it was in the papers the citizens fault i'm a citizen why are they blaming us why don't what would happen if all us citizens that are doing the right thing turned around just quit doing the right thing don't pay the taxes don't recycle don't do nothing kind of shape is the city going to be an i know it's not going to happen but everything is brought down on the people that are trained or taxes and do what they should be a couple months ago they had a list on television of i don't know how many people millions of dollars that  old doesn't seem like we could collect any of this stuff i mean it's just not fair to those people and that the taxes should go up the feed should go up and one other thing is how much is in the budget for the garbage i mean there is  there is money in the budget taken out of our taxes for garbage decide to feed i'd like to know how much we are paying for that too thank you thank you gerald pla staff already that program is working and it's not even budgeted to help in making sure anyone who lives in the city that their animals are licensed backs unaided and kept off the streets without a leash do not get the city assessor a pay raise for twenty fourteen and the difference to support this worthwhile endeavor will already be met for the city police and fire to budgets in its october tenth op ed piece because that said the police budget bitch really is another tired joke well no kidding i've known them for twenty five years living here when we the people feel comfortable that we can support the over budget over time then we can give them that amount hopefully no police or fireman or woman will get will game the system to cash for retirement blow pensions are killing any budget that could help the city to rid its neighborhoods of years long along more quality of life issues being addressed according to the governor's office there are ten thousand five hundred governments throughout new york state it's time the city consolidate these departments with neighboring communities in the county consolidation is key in reining in ripoff overtime salaries for retirement hopefully it's not for all those disturbing scenarios we just heard but let me tell you if it is just a game the system it's got to stop it's a process that is being frowned upon more and more in a state civil servants aren't public pay should know better otherwise expect to face ethical charges it was pointed out in today's because that overtime is costing much more than it should cost the city because of a quirk in police policy well we've heard that for how many years to a quirk in police policy just get rid of a quirk a million dollars so six hundred grand here and there do we really know what they're doing for the overtime we did it with mr hamilton he refused when he retired work six days for one year for the position that he took the test and was fired for from the city i don't feel that i should pay more on this one i'm the only resident on my under front street that recycles i've been recycling for over forty years thanks to my dad who taught me so much the mayor says he wants to educate the citizenry to recycle he wants to educate the citizenry to recycle but giving us another tax do so just doesn't make common sense go after the absentee landlords and have them teach their tenants to recycle i've seen many multiple dwellings that look trashed all the time because no one has a clue wonder how to take be left with those who came to this city and all has to offer thank you very time mayor mccarthy city council members president king and residents and citizens parks budget needs to be reconsidered many neighborhood groups and bang vesting hundreds of hours and dollars to bring parks up to par after the park budget was slashed about five years ago they need to have sufficient funds at least to keep the parks maintained along with the neighborhood groups so they do not fall into disrepair again these parks are for our children what are we saying to our children when we let our parks fall into disrepair the city clerk's budget for dog licensing dog numeration need not be question is bringing in revenue increasing dog licensing and reducing the incidence of not knowing whether a dog has had its rabies shot if an innocent resident is walking the city sidewalks and gets bitten pleasant at least where i live in on a home we need more police we need be cops we need cops on bicycles we need to see cops we need to have them in our schools we need to return to having the youth officers in middle schools especially when these things are slighted with a budget then we see the type man's career center respect is that the lowest level i that are witnessed and many people who i speak with also respect for teaches three specked for homeowners respect for police i believe with the presence of more police in the schools and with teaching in the schools for respect we will gain more respect for law and order in our community thank you thank you mary mclean knows that money is not flowing into the city treasury because people do not recycle and if there's a ministration can see that many tack the citizens do spending one hundred twenty thousand dollars in the only fourteen budget to buy new meters and pay monthly rental fees on them the old ones don't cost anything the city should not buy these meters at this time to take the item out of the budget what about fluoride that council budget for take it out not because it is a controversial issue but because other towns in the capital district stop the practice six years ago what about medical coverage for a part time elected officials take it out in two thousand and eleven one person had it now there are three council members receive a salary for their service taxpayers don't owe th anything else on september sixteenth fire chief dollar ata asked counsel to reinstate the position of assistant fire chief he never mentioned his pension his pending retirement for twenty fourteen at the time he said the position was needed to be filled because union personnel currently cover for him when he is not there to take the assistant chief position out of the twenty fourteen budget and renegotiate it after the fire chief just like any and senior officer but the rookie cop does not get any chromosomes from the heavily laden over time table he is the one who should have to financial abuse against the taxpayers stop it thank you there's no one else signed that speaks i'm going to declare the public hearing close we'll move on to approval of the minutes from the september twenty third city council meeting second by the sporting field all in favor communications and petitions communications presented to the city council for monday or tuesday october fifteenth two thousand and thirteen from the mayor list of appointments dated october fifth two thousand and thirteen a letter from paul of director of water and wastewater recommending the waiver st colbert replacement contract be awarded to carver construction a letter from carlson commissioner of department of general services recommending the snow and ice control plowing and hauling snow two thousand and thirteen fourteen contract be awarded to carver construction under the category of general there are none and there are no petitions thank you any committee reports yes i just want to thank the people that have taken the time to feed back on the parking i think as a committee we had more discussion that should have been had about it we're trying to make our best our  best decision but we definitely needed to think about some other aspects this is a good thing this is you know we welcome feedback we have another cycle to go through i'd like to hear from more people so that we can make  president one of the think the folks who came down today and talked on the budget you know this is when the things we do once a year i think it's probably one of the more important things that this council has responsibility for and this is  time where we get the input of all or residence and really evaluate the priorities and we you know we do that in our personal lives in this really a big endeavor and we're talking about millions of dollars we need to understand you know are we spending too much money in some areas or not enough in others and well we never really have enough money to go around at all the things we like it's really important we get to write and so we've been having a lot of discussion i think this year's been  very productive so far we've gone through a lot of our reviews you know department by department going through line and by line item we have a few more evenings to go before we get through and then if we need to more meetings will you know for a follow questions we can pull people in i got a lot of feedback from residents with their come comments and questions we had some people come up tonight with suggestions and i encourage that because this is this is your government this is the people's government and really in need to be their input now you know what i can make everybody happy in terms of what we come up with but hopefully at the end result is kind of a combination or an average of what everybody wants so we're moving forward were we're continuing those things that i appreciate the the effort that everyone the committee in the council has been put forth with that another side note that we've had here is on the agenda tonight i know we had a couple items twenty five and twenty six contracts supply and then we had seven and eight more there were some corrections and sometimes it's hard to tell by just reading the information we put on there exactly what it is now there's a property damage claims that we've been paying so some suggestions have come from our council to the mayor and hopefully we can get a handle on this if it's something circumstance or coincidence i don't know but it's something that we have to examine i believe because it is you know being that we're almost basically self insured property damage claims i think is something that we have to really examine closely and see if we can cut these claims down thank you anyone else ok we'll move on then to privilege of the floor related to the legislative agenda i have five people signed up to speak very mclane start with you  meter rates as i mentioned earlier this evening the city should not buy new meters at this time with no new meters the council need not spend time  christmas time to see the nutcracker and there will be a reading park in ten dollars only scrooge does that thank you thank you twenty five to fifty percent tax re did that bad of a job then the whole entire city needs to be reassessed i mean there are i mean if you got one hundred homes out of hamilton hill and they all put in ten one hundred dollars apiece to hire an attorney they'd win you need to have somebody who's been there for at least five to ten years any good attorney would stand there in court and say how and when was your last tax assessment citywide which one did you did for county which one you did for state the person you want to hire maybe the greatest i don't want you to toss it away and i want you to make it better and i believe that in order for it to be a useful and helpful delegation of authority it must go come with standards and limitations you must know what your goals are and you must let the public in the mayor know what your goals are if your goal is anything other than total mention in maximising of revenues you have to think about how that how you want to do said we want to use variable rates we want to take advantage of modern ideas but we need it to meet a well thought through plan and we need a city council that is willing to say these are our goals these are  good evening everytime the mayor his designee determines to change the rake it cost us taxpayers a hundred dollars in addition is this what we want to welcome or how we want to welcome people to the city it's not only the residents us who is coming to our city the argument that there is free parking in the garage is limited as people tend to park as close to their destination as possible and addition the plan to place parking chaos is a new street where there isn't any parking meters now and few free large parking lots will hurt businesses new street is one of the few business success stories don't mess with it the council should not give the mayor here hi to determine parking fees the council is the people's representation and should not really push the story but be the people's voice thank you thank you right i have no one else signed up to speak on half of it we would get such three and a half million dollars in sales tax revenue that we lost again this year they're on target for about ninety two and a half to almost ninety three million dollars in collected in revenues this year if you take half of that  three that's ten million dollars and take half of that that's five million dollars in sales tax revenue that the city has lost you figure three hundred forty thousand equals one percent property tax study almost ten percent last year and nearly almost eighteen percent for this year that we will lose in sales tax revenue you know i mean ten percent property tax decrease we've got to had an eighteen percent again this year you know we need to take a look at that self executing that it's done on a base on eight years that violates the letter state of powers within the city council the city council changes every four years it goes beyond the four year mark so the city council does have t to go in and cancel the eight year contract based on just that alone and we need to be able to recuperate that money we need to have a full accountability even one even your own finance chairperson back in two thousand and eight said we need to have an actual accountability how much the city takes in and how much much the county takes and you haven't done it and it's here it is five years later and we're losing money completely you know you keep asking for people to pay more well you need to be able to broaden out the tax base you need to be able to be able to collect the money instead of narrowing the tax base also to a system that i want to let people know next tuesday when you're looking at the budget you need to take a look at what other revenue sources that you are able to come through and then be able to see how you through letter station there a little bit and see how you can narrow it and bring it back to fold  good evening i would like to talk about the city sensors position if nick barber who is qualified to do the job assessor is doing the job for a thousand dollars a week that would be fifty two thousand dollars a year and why is insisting on spending eighty thousand dollars for a person who needs to be treat the town to rotterdam pays its assessor a salary of fifty two thousand on a happier note i would like to thank the bellevue in mount pleasant neighborhood associations for holding the meet the candidates night it was well organized and very informative i would like to also think volunteers across the city for playing parks planning flowers persist they are unable to associations keep up the good work remember this community day service on saturday thanks to the police department and other agencies for cleaning up and closing problematic bars which were burdens on our resources however to truly address this issue has to start in the planning and zoning board they have the power to keep these bars the new residential neighborhoods to begin with not allowing these bars to open in the first place prevents the burden these place these bars place on our resources and our quality of life when there are changes in ownerships make it mandatory to appear before these boards there is a try to neighborhood association midi the meeting will be with the one two three zero zero nine eastern avenue and central state street neighborhood associations on october twenty ninth it will be neat city everybody says it's a safe place i can't see where you consider it a safe place when you have things like this going on i mean these days going on through these neighborhoods it's just a dirty shame i mean you want people to come in and buy houses and stuff how is it going to the town house meeting that congressman tom cole held a couple months ago mr ridge he brought up the part about oak street bridge mr taco said that he wanted a meeting his group and whomever to where world remember to see if they could expedite this to get it going faster i want to know has anything been done about this where do we stand we haven't i haven't heard anything about it since that meeting can you keep us up to date what's going on because we live up there and you have to live at the spot where to get a couple extra minutes for the fire department to get know we're not getting any younger thank you thank you mayor city council members president game that since we recently had our wishes and that we have been wanting to have a day of service but harvey our son president is going to united neighborhoods emailed the neighborhood associations that union college was looking for neighborhoods who needed people to help for so for they are john calvin toll annual day of service union college is going to athletic field one to four tenth and webster one to four we also have another group is going to be at orchard park from nine in the morning until one in the afternoon this is a collaborative effort  schenectady city school system and other volunteers who may come out to help us we are looking for donations of water bananas individually bottled water chips pretzels candy bars so if you're coming out to help at any one of these parks bring your donations with you we appreciate them very much we are also looking for tarp and folding tables and we just want to think mayor mccarthy who does intend to attend our event this saturday and we appreciate all of the help from linda color who puts it on the website for this going to united neighborhoods and we're really looking forward to getting vines off the fences that's our main goal we have filled our twelfth dumpster at orchard park as of today we have a dumpster waiting for us at mount pleasant middle full field to fill tomorrow so when we have my neighbors who are watching this the t v c'mon out and help us fill that dumpster tomorrow c'mon now on saturday it's not supposed to rain wear your hat clothes shoes your jeans make sure there were clouds no fancy a do you this or fancy basketball sneakers thank you so very much thank you thanks for all your hard work on this david takalani thank you for letting me have the floor i think you all know that a large number of your constituents are really concerned about the rehabilitation of the western gateway bridge and i'm hoping that this council will do everything it can either to correct the two big important big problems there it or to make sure that our planning department never drops the ball get in and let something this important go unnoticed the two things of course are the cement wall which takes away a core just scenic view and it will take it away for generations it's often the only greenery and water that people from schenectady see as they take a trip to go to scotia to work and what i think people need to know is that the cement wall did not happy and because the contractor has a design build contract in there for him freedom to do whatever he wanted it is the department of transportation that sets up the requirements for each bridge do that would be the same process and that's not what happened but even more important here she required that it be a cement wall inmate of twenty twelve three months before there even was a contract five months before construction started a year before that wall when they have a web site that i found in a few minutes and only a few documents there and our people should have been monitoring bit because have told mr gillon and other people it's impossible that that wouldn't have been said our leaders have to know that something like that is important enough that the public needs to hear about it and if there's no public hearing it's even more important that our leaders let  us that these things are happening the other thing that worries a lot of people is the fact that there are no guard wills between relatively small sidewalks and incredibly fast flowing traffic hope that you'll do what you can the city of pittsfield when she took away their scenic views of a beautiful lake their city council put in the resolution in said please take it down turn left and it's right at the end of the hall my apologies ok i'm sorry that you had said to sit through all this i want to make some comments concerning the graffiti will board what you happened was that city officials were planning a project for the neighborhoods and no one else knew about it the item should have been listed on the committee agenda and citizens given the opportunity to address it i certainly would have joined the other speakers also to let off steam recruited dance instructor and teach them how to dance as the explanation given to the community for the project or in miscellaneous business no one on the council side of the railing has the right to speak more than three minutes the three minutes rule was of councils making it needs to applied to them first before it isn't forced on those who pay their cell brace thank you thank you right i have no one else signed up somebody has portion of the meeting closed it will move to miscellaneous business of the council scenarios seems like the big portion of our public is misinformed in terms of the specifics and i think that for that reason it's important we send it back to committee talk about it some more i'm going to harman and it will be done and having more conversation make sure we all understand the same page but you know i had people contact me saying you've got to be crazy why would you increase parking to ten dollars if i want to come down and grab a slice of pizza you can charge me ten dollars that i don't think that's what we're talking about but nonetheless it's not just as one individual a lot of people were under that impression you know it from the way i understood it it seemed to me that parking the gras proctors events always free parking and i guess the surface lots is always the two hours for free and then you pay for the third and fourth fifth hour and the ten dollar rate that was kind of in discussion wouldn't be for all the time it would be illegal for certain  large events for parking i think only on state street and maybe will some of the side streets but in just that downtown area near proctors you know i think there are pros and cons of thinking of the people we need to bring into this conversation are the business owners restaurant owners retail shops that are along that area some complain that during a proctor's event their parking in front of their business is blocked up to someone who's not going to come inside and so they might be have concerns about they want parking to turn over in front of the retail establishments which is i think a legitimate complaint of legitimate thought other people might like the fact that someone is coming down a parking for their business when they come out of the show maybe they'll go inside and buy something so i think clearly we need a little more discussion on it but i hope that the public is informed properly that for the most part rates are not going to fluctuate i think we talked about a small  allowing the increase of a rate at some point the future but not now by twenty five cents or something like that but the ten dollar figure really only applies to a very small portion meters that are right on state street for the most part so that's how i understood it maybe i'm wrong but you know i think that i don't know if there's anybody here that feels they should charge ten dollars to come down and buy a piece of pizza or a burrito so i'm glad it's going back and look forward to conversations next week about thank you thank you we'd like to attend meetings to actually to share with them the information from the trainings that we receive so we're offering that opportunity for neighborhood associations to have the group come in including the police chief or his who whoever he sends to actually come and talk about that and how neighbors can get the information they need in terms of caring for their property and taking care of the neighborhood all together as we move forward in trying to work on neighborhoods this is just one of the initiatives that are out there so we're putting together a schedule or if people are interested they can contact me and i can bring it to the meeting about having the group come into a presentation at the neighborhood association i'd also like to think the street business merchants and  effort this saturday and also on this coming thursday it like to announce that there's going to be a screening of a film called life it was produced by prince bravos from schenectady high school along with some students from high school it's gatherings clambake so what not there but things have changed there's no doubt about it but it goes straight to home the way things have changed in the city but it's good they're getting handle on this and this kind of nonsense that's going on i mean just the cost reasons is unbelievable when you think about the service calls to these places so i'm glad they're getting a handle on it working with the whole a that's a major  move to put a stop to this but this is stuff that is spilling onto the streets it's spilling into our schools this kind of mentality where there's no respect for any kind of law that's on the books has to stop we can't continue going on like this and survive as a city it's just something that we have to address and i'm glad there's now there's plans being put in place but again i wasn't surprised who went on at the middle school because this is what's it you didn't talk back that's the way it is but things obviously have changed but we have to try to get that kind of mentality back and not keep going forward with the way things are there's kind of have to be a limit to what rights people have and that's why in the army you know the sergeant is the boss that's the way it works and there's a reason for that and that's where should be all over sole mayor i would like to continue on with  this fight and getting the smallest of summer control in the city because that leads to everything in the leads to people wanting to live here not wanting to live here solar it's certainly a snowball effect but i commend the police department for getting on the ball with this and getting things started thank you thank you yes so we have completed our second week of give graffiti the brush it's really been a wonderful journey it's been a very labor intensive journey for me every friday night i go to home depot i load up my car i drag on this is it in my house a divvy them all up i drag them back to the car i didn't deliver them on saturday i pick them back up by you know but it's a labor of love and we're figuring out so many ways to make this program sustainable next year is very very i just can't thank the people involved enough the center for juvenile justice the sheriff's office home depot i mean everyone has just worked so hard right along with me also you know the city nuisance officers identifying properties the administrative people getting letters out and i'm very very proud to say that right now we did involve twenty three youth through center for juvenile justice through the use good amount of buildings in we're moving right along with that and you know the volunteers from home depot are coming out and painting right alongside are you and i'll be perfectly frank with you that when i drop off supplies on also deliver them pizza when they finish and it's a remarkable difference they're talking to one another they're engaging with one another they're smiling they're laughing and i think they you know have a sense of accomplishment so baby steps but we're moving in a forward direction instead of just talking about things and i think that's really important like many of our citizens do we heard some great things tonight just back to rehashing the graffiti while again it's not a graffiti while it's a positive expression wall they weren't planned to be put all over this city it was one location that we're going to pilot and try it with interesting lee and off another gentleman brought me a lot of literature from other programs around the united states that are extremely positive and successful and that have reduced a negative graffiti providing a positive place that being said the winner on having some people come to the table and talk about it you know some of our community leaders have done a lot of work in looking into this will look into it again and if we decide to place a wall certainly we would bring the neighborhood into it and make sure that they were comfortable with it too so i just want to put that to bed because nothing is being planned and then sunday october twenty seventh is that how we hustle and that supports the greenhouses right now the greenhouses do not have any funding and they really are crucial to programs for sustainable living like roots  raffle tickets great prizes and so it's a good thing to support so i thank you thank you to allocate a little over two million dollars for the rehabilitation of that bridge we're very close to coming back to the award the design work where we can do the evaluation do the design put the final cost estimates in place and then be able to do the rehabilitation so again that we understand the inconvenience but it is moving in the next but i did manner under the planning process it was i believe five years down the road before that would have gotten consideration in the city engineer was able to maneuver that on a regional basis and we appreciate other communities working with schenectady to allow us to have the funding to deal with that problem and i had gone over and met with the chair of the state liquor authority and just outlined some of the things that we were doing here some of the problems they had been a full partner and very cooperative in it in well the chief in question are here today again it's a broad based effort by all of the city departments and bring to bear all the resources codes is there other city departments in the message i tell people is we want businesses to be successful we want to work with them we want him to add value to the community we want him to be profitable but if they don't play by the rules and they create that negative influence we're going to bring to bear the resources of the city in a coordinated effort that's going to just put him out of business i tell him i don't want him in business if they're going to do the activities that some of them have done and we've had that successful undertaking with the  problem bars and we're now going to move to the corner bodega as a neighborhood stores which tend to foster again a similar type of negative activity there's drug dealing some of them look to buy boosted material from other legitimate retailers and they fought for an atmosphere that i don't want in the city and i want that message to go out loud and clear in the chief has been instrumental in putting that  x words a traffic and other crime data that as we expand that with code enforcement and other ones that it really allows us to be much more effective in terms of our engagement both to help businesses are property on the other side draw the problem entities and the police community review board all go we thank you we welcome flora but i believe i have made my appointment to the board and there are some other ones that are just kicking around so that we can are waiting for those other community groups to make their recommendations soon as i get em i've been forwarding them to the council for approval of the council's been acting in a in expedited manner this  sunday we will again have our monthly open house in the city we're working the sunday with the daily gazette which will open up their headquarters on maxim road part of the theme will be fire prevention and child safety where this is a fire prevention month we want people to again take a little time review their safety plans within their house into we get into the colder months where the furnace is are coming in and people are turning on the heat using more electrical things just be aware of home safety so that we don't have to send the fire department to the homes and the use that building open from ten a m to one p and we're going to have the fire prevention tips the kids safety house and the fire department to be there in the sheriff's department also be available doing child fingerprinting so hopefully people will stop by and then they'll also go out and see some of the homeownership opportunities that exist here in the city of schenectady thank you madam president thank you and just one notice here and we've received some information that one of our citizens is going to turn one hundred years old on tuesday october twenty second so we just want to say very happy birthday to mrs