i'm going to call the city council caucus meeting to order for november tenth two thousand and fourteen the clerk would read the first item on the agenda i don't number one under original consideration an ordinance amending chapter one ninety two the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding the sale of tobacco products introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding changes to chapter one ninety two of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding the sale of tobacco products to take place on november twenty fourth two thousand and fourteen right discussed in committee without objection on consent i don't number two i number two an ordinance amending chapter two sixty four and one eighty three of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding convenience stores and second hand cellphone stores introduce only with a resolution calling for a public hearing to amend chapter one eighty three of the code of the city of schenectady as it relates to convenience stores and second hand cell phone stores and chapter two sixty four of the code of the city of schenectady as it defines convenience stores and secondhand cellphone stores also discussed in committee without objection on consent i remember three the number three a resolution authorizing the execution of a collaborative marketing agreement between the city of schenectady and c s c a union and without objection on consent item number four a number for a resolution calling for a public hearing in relation to approving the tw fourteen downtown schenectady assessment district the s a d budget and we will get this budget on monday i believe so again calling for a public hearing without objection on consent i don't number five i don't number five a resolution authoriz avenue twelve fifty one broadway and eleven twenty one states street also discussed in claims that objection i consent item number seven i don't number seven a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a tax or sherry for sixteen twelve recognizing schenectady firefighter alex knowlton as schenectady county's paramedic of the year so also be taken out of order and will be presented eleven i'm number eleven under contract and supply a resolution awarding the bid and contract to furnish an install chiller tower at the city of schenectady police department five thirty one liberty street to try county refrigeration inc right discussed in committee without objection on consent item number twelve i remember twelve a resolution awarding the bid and contract for snow and ice control plowing and hauling snow twenty fourteen dash fifteen to carver construction company incorporated also now call the city council meeting to order from monday november tenth twenty fourteen we do not have their minister with us today i saw just ask you to rise what is have a moment of silence right and i'll ask bob becker and our veterans to lead us in the pledge of allegiance mr motive and miss king present all right rees noted already we have three out of order resolutions the first is a resolution recognizing all veterans and in observance of veterans out there yeah i was and i was asked to remind everyone that today is the two hundred thirty ninth birthday of the marine corps mr marine bob barker told me to make sure i do that or he's going to give me want to tease you have the floor like a resolution of recognition of all veterans in and servants of veteran's day where there are currently upwards of twenty five million living veterans see united states and seven hundred seventy six over forty eight million americans have served in the military and where as the tradition of recognizing the service of the men and women of our armed forces can be traced to the commemoration of armistice day november eleventh one thousand nine hundred nineteen the date which marked the end of world war one and whereas president dwight d eisenhower sought to expand the significance of this commemoration to include those sacrifices incurred in intervening military conflicts by designating recognition of those sacrifices in renaming heartlessness day and whereas the american public celebrated this new holiday no one has veteran's day on november eleventh one thousand nine hundred fifty four and that's continued to recognize this day of remembrance annually whereas the city of schenectady recognizes that has we paid tribute to our veterans courageous men and women who have served to continue to serve at home and abroad no sir morning or parade can fully repay the debt we owe these brave few and where as a city knowing the gesture to be small in comparison to the decisions made by our armed service members were sure to join in the national commemoration of veterans day two thousand and fourteen now there for a beer resolve that the mayor and city council do hereby pas in their deliberations to proclaim that november eleventh two thousand and fourteen has veterans day in the city of schenectady and to humbly extend our gratitude to those who secure the guarantee of safety and freedom both at home and abroad and i'm sure i move this if you see it better and say thank you to him because they do such a great job for this great nation bars thank you very much thank you all right our second out of order resolution is recognizing a member twentieth twenty fourteen is the date of the great american smoke you have the floor they could have a resolution recognizing november twentieth two thousand and fourteen as the date of the great american smokeout whereas tobacco use is still the leading cause of preventable disease throughout new york states and where is the decision to quit smoking is the single most important step a smoker can make traduced their risk of cancer and improve their health and what as well new york state has made significant progress in reducing cigarette smoking nearly two point five million new yorkers continue to smoke and every year thousands of young people under the age of eighteen become new daily smokers and whereas tobacco use across new yorkers more than ten billion dollars in health care costs and a presence that is committed to promoting the health of all the citizens to disseminate of secondhand smoke exposure and the creation of tobacco free areas both indoors and out such as parks playgrounds community housing and then disappear work places and where is the of schenectady welcomes the opportunity to continue to work with the capitalistic to back a free coalition and the american cancer society to reduce the economic medical and personal burden caused by the continued tobacco use therefore the result that the mayor  city council have to hear by policy in their deliberations truckin as nov twentieth two thousand and fourteen as the date of the great american smokeout and to encourage our coworkers family and friends stop the use of nicotine and tobacco in order forms much higher than the average of about seventeen percent so thank you so much for the work that you're doing and they continue to do and i know there are other things that you're looking to do as well in city owned property as well as looking at the tobacco marketing that's in low income neighborhoods that are affecting the kids who are still learning to smoking so thank you so much for this resolution for all the great work that you're doing thank you county and just wanted to share some facts that were considered by the committee when they made their selection some would she have heard before and some of which i'll use again i'm sure we have one hundred twenty person department here in schenectady that equates to approximately twenty thousand calls per year it over ten thousand medical calls annually members are trained in fire suppression para medicine and are also trained in hazardous materials as hazardous materials technicians in specialists the arson division was established in two thousand and ten it has had over forty convictions during that timeframe and that's an eighty six percent solving rate versus a national average which is about six percent fire prevention division works closely with all public and private schools and all community organizations with fire safety and prevention presentations this division also counsels juvenile fire setters and anyone in need of help and with that regard wes q one is the second busiest nonpaying transport medical union in the country i am just bowled over by that in the country it's a busiest piece of fire apparatus in the state truck one is the twentieth twenty third busiest truck company in the country fourth busiest truck company in the state in engine one fourth busiest engine company in the state car twenty two sometimes the words thank you just don't cover it but now we have a resolution recognizing schenectady firefighter alex milton and schenectady county's paramedic of the year whereas the city of schenectady is committed to employing in providing the best possible emergency response teams and whereas that commitment to excellence is best exemplified by the schenectady fire department's recognition is agency of the year and whereas such award should not be considered a simple accolade but  well deserved recognition for the performance of the city's one hundred twenty member force which contains firefighters trained in fire suppression para medicine and the papper handling of hazardous materials and whereas our firefighters are involved in the community through their fire prevention division which works with local schools community organizations to provide information on fire safety and prevention and whereas the praise given to many would not be possible without the outstanding performance of individual members of the department and whereas alex knowlton graduated with a nursing degree in two thousand and two and became a license paramedic in two thousand and ten and later joined schenectady fire department on march fourteenth two thousand and ten and whereas as a thirty three year old devoted  husband loving father to his son alex milton can routinely engages in acts of heroism to abide crucial emergency medical services to the community and where as the most notable excuse me most notably he has performed three cardiac arrest reversals reversals in the field give it gifting life back to one child one adult and one sixteen year old who the hospital released within a matter of days and whereas  lent his considerable knowledge and skills to others on the force by being a rescue in training exercises and as a mentor to new paramedics now therefore be a resolved that the mayor and city council do hereby pas in their deliberations to recognizing came gradually firefighter alex knowlton schenectady county's paramedic of the year and the schenectady fire department awarded the two thousand and fourteen fire agency of the year the city and its residents extend our deepest thank city council thank you this is a tremendous honor i'm just one member of the team all the other paramedics and firefighters and the entire department would be able to do or act similarly in any of these situations i was just lucky enough to be on certain calls that were recognized in this without them we would not be able to do the great work that we do here and i thank you again thank you you again for the good work all of you do right we have no public hearings tonight so i'll move to the approval of the minutes from october twenty seventh twenty fourteen and october thirty first twenty fourteen  engineer recommending the award of the furnish and install chiller tower at the schenectady police department contract be awarded to try county refrigeration inc in the amount of sixty two thousand six hundred eighty two dollars and zero cents a letter dated november fifth two thousand and fourteen from christopher wall and city engineer recommending the award of the snow and ice control plowing and hauling snow twenty fourteen that's twenty fifteen contract the awarded to carver construction inc to be charged to expanding church which is a good idea i know we talked about this a lot and i think it's a good thing for the city and it's a good thing for this lamb accent or and it will free up the street for parking for a neighbor so i think this is a good thing and i'm glad that the good evening richard mack raby acard c s c a unit president for the city of schenectady and also supervisor parking foresman for the city police department want to take a moment tonight madam president mr mayor and members of the council to you on behalf of our members for the resolution that you have before you tonight which represents the culmination of many years of discussions and meetings and hard work by a number of people i'm just bringing up the tail end of it here but i'd like to take a moment to recognize my predecessor jimmy nevins also the predecessor corporation counsel i believe there were two that were involved in in the process in addition to mr fellow teco the prior finance commissioner as well as dead digenova and all the people that work with them what you see tonight in this agreement that our votes ratified by ninety five percent by the way represents i think a good step forward for all the hard working members of c s a who have dedicated their work so the citizens of schenectady can enjoy a better environment we're very grateful that the city council is considering this and we look forward to your support and certainly we look forward to working together with you as we move the city forward thank you very much thank you miriam disturbances to our neighbors and the rest of the community around that area in behalf of our entire community the afghan islamic center i would like to tank every one of you for possible thank you very much and i would not take more time if you thank you member of the cons thank you shah the current religious leaders are preacher for the islamic center and i recently moved to the area of schenectady about a year ago and i must say the cooperation that we've seen from the city in the city council and city government elected officials has been amazing given the state of our religion and the media these days in the country it's very tough to find a city such as schenectady work so cooperatively and successfully with muslims in general and i assure you that with this parking lot a deal is not just a parking lot to us to us this is a foundation for us to build in a community and hopefully improve the surrounding area where we see a lot of poverty we see a lot of people struggling and as our church as a religious organization it is our responsibility and our duty to reach out and try to make schenectady a better place for all of us not just for the muslims but for all the citizens of the city so i just like to end by thinking everyone and hope everyone has a good night as well thank you thank you  no ok then i have no one else signed up to speak on the legislative agenda sought to clear that portion of the meeting closed and we will move on to to the approval of the legislative agenda  hello my name is stephanie bando sick and i've been a resident of bellevue for my entire life residing in the home where my grandparents raised my mother i am very concerned about the increased crime and decreased security in my community in addition to cars being rummaged through and a window being broken to steal a purse there is increasing dangerous activity and i want safe neighborhood since i have become a dog owner in september we have encountered numerous loose dogs and when animal control is contacted i receive voicemail when i call the non emergency police they ask if the dog is vicious any loose dog is a serious safety concern and poses a threat to our community we have been approached or followed by a these three dogs including one today on twelfth story and again when animal control was called i received a voicemail and the non emergency dispatch asked if the dog appeared as if that was a condition for response as i was on the phone with communications near the corner of eleventh street and turn around i noticed a young woman holding a dog across the street and within a block of walking away towards my home that dog was close behind us he was still on a leash but the woman was no longer holding it i yelled for her to call her dog and she yelled out to me it's ok before calling her dog roscoe to come back to her it was decidedly not ok with me as this was the second loose dog we encountered within just a few blocks of me in my walk in my neighborhood today additionally in the past few weeks alone i have witnessed three separate instances of ninth street between turner and campbell being used by nonresidents as a stopping point to pick up or drop off drugs the first time i saw an unknown resident lingering near my home i gave him the benefit of the doubt but i watched him get into an unknown car and drive off the second time i saw that same man sitting on the porch of an abandoned property i approached him and informed him that i knew the house was vacant and he wasn't waiting for the residents to come home as i watched the same car pick him up i told him that if i saw him or the car in my neighborhood again i would be calling the police so that they could search it while walking my dog on saturday i saw another unfamiliar car with two unknown occupants idling in front of a second vacant property also on ninth street suspecting another drug deal i watched as a second car pulled up and idled next to it the male passenger from the first car got out and sat in the passenger seat of the second car for a very short time when he emerged he looked at me and said i don't want any trouble i responded that i didn't want any trouble either but i knew he didn't live here and i didn't appreciate him bringing his business into my neighborhood he replied that he wasn't afraid of me just because i had a big dog and i responded it wasn't about having a dog it was about keeping my neighborhood safe as he got back into the first car being driven by a woman he said sweetheart my family is full of cops and i'll shoot your dog in the face i am in no way suggesting that this man was being truthful about having family in law enforcement but i am seriously concerned about the increasingly dangerous state of my neighborhood i am floor you to put your best efforts forward to protecting my community a community that many long term residents are doing our very best to maintain and revitalize many thanks  concern and serious consideration of my request thank you john m that being said liberty park has been occupied by drunks and junkies for some time with the with this problem comes with station harassment and even muggings i have personally been threatened by these people and harassed on more than sure if you go down there  find others however how hard can it possibly be to clean up such a small park if these people there are from the time i get up at eight in the morning till about nine o'clock at night there are still there they stand in traffic begging for money and bothering commuting students they shoot up and drink all day we all know where when they're there and we all know why they are there i would like to see something done about this i have actually brought this up to the police department who with constantly ignored the complaint there i've been not threatened by a man with a gone once and personally i'm sick and tired of it as all ok thank you rachel curtis council members attendance at the kickoff back in july we appreciate the parks and recreation department and getting the parks ready for service we also appreciate the fire and police departments for assisting and serving summer lunch we would also like to think the city for their generous contribution in the form of the community development block grant the five thousand dollars covered approximately eight hundred lunches as you may or may not know the summer lunch program does not operate in a silo partnerships i would like to reference the first photo featured on the front side of your handout for those of you watching at home that shows two young boys eating lunch in one of my previous positions as a family specialist i worked extensively with a young boy who all called josh and he's featured on the left this past spring i was surprised to hear from one of his current service providers who is looking for opportunities for summer youth bus josh and wasn't rolled in a summer program or summer lunch was served i was told glad to find out that he along with his family were doing well not well in the sense that they are not hungry these hamilton hill homeowners even with assistance still struggle every day often times budgeting cuts out food as joshing would say thank god for summer lunch this is one of the many reasons which i won't get into more because i could but that is one of the many reasons the summer lunch program is essential for the well being of our community and your handouts you'll find more in depth statistics but a brief overview in our twentieth season we served over sixty five thousand lunches with six hundred volunteers in forty four days at thirty six sites for next summer we will certainly once again depend upon the city's support we hope the city council along with other city departments can assist us in filling the increased need for volunteers this way you'll have your own special stories to keep and to share in closing i'll leave you with one of my favorite quotations one hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was the kind of house i lived in or the sort of car i drove but the world may be  different because i was important in the life of a child i thank you for your time thank you very much thanks for the good work you do transporters were willing to help relocate any dogs who you know if there's somebody who wants to take the animal in another state or whatever we can make that happen there's no reason for forty dogs a year to be put to sleep unless they're really dangerous dogs and i really don't ok first of all good evening everybody again my name is kim aaron and i'm here to again discuss the dogs first i would like to say and commands the animal control officer who was mohawk cuts and humane society yesterday who just happened to see because i was there as a volunteer in the markets in having my foster adopted and i was quite impressed to see that he did not use a pull to transport of the transport the two strains that he had from his van into the administration building of mohawk cotton as god is going to see that here's the problem that we still have and that i have myself currently the facility is closed due to which we warned about months ago and the comprehensive plan that was laid out if it would have been abided by should have combat it this issue there has been a lack of transparency and the website still is seriously lacking for the few changes that have been made and i do acknowledge there have been changes there are a lot that still needs to be done and as i have sat and thought about this it occurs to me that due to the  facility is closed right now we should keep it closed the dogs are currently being transported to mobile cuts and they're being taken care of they're being properly vetted they're being exercised daily it seems to me that we can continue doing this if this is not a kin serious consideration for the city council in our elected officials then as a taxpayer who pays more than my fair share in taxes as opposed to other people in the areas around us i would like to see the following changes still be made for this facility to remain open dogs still need to be properly vetted owners of the missing dogs need to be contacted volunteers need to be let into the facility to help take care of these animals we already have numerous volunteers who are willing to come on the grounds and walk these dogs and help take care of them these dogs need to be exercised daily keeping a dog pent up in a cage is no way for an animal to live and it's certainly no way to expect that dog to be a good dog want it once it is out of the facility given that experience we now have plenty of time those of us who are animal advocates between now and the next election to get out and help raise money and fundraiser for those officials who want to help us take care of the situation and take us seriously from what i've seen vince really still seems to be the only one who is actively concerned about this and he proposed a meeting that we should all get together and be able to take care of this i hope that we set that up forthwith because i would really like to see this facility stay open or remain closed thank you thank you saved a lot of dogs lives and we appreciate that however the quarantine should be set up a little different where the dogs are quarantined on intake and output with the general population dogs that make it a lot easier on everybody also the web at that web page they're thinking no dogs are coming and i don't understand how come it takes so long to update a web page it's a pretty simple thing and if we can't handle that right what else are we not handling right thank you very much thank you good evening my name is carol johnson i'm not going to stand a parent say we told you so nor will i remind everyone that parvovirus has been mentioned repeatedly as a risk due to improper quarantine procedures failure to medically screen dogs or provide basic mine intake to the schenectady animal control facility for many many months i'll just note that you can continue to ignore the sound advice and information and assistance that has been and continues to be offered to you by many people with experience in this field let's just see how that works out for you you have continued to refuse or help or collaboration despite admitting your ill equipped and ill prepared to run this facility despite admitting that the assistance of rescue such as rowdy empire rescue and many others has saved the city over forty thousand dollars and one year and despite the fact that the city of schenectady like many municipalities have limited resources we will continue to offer help and to speak out about the issues even as you continue to rebuff us and use our and refuse our help but the longer this goes on  stranger it looks who admits that they need help but refuses to accept help from qualified resources excuse me qualified sources what are you waiting for we don't want to minimize the efforts you've made such as posting the found dog so that they could be reunited with their families that someone took a sick dog for medical care which kept the recent parvo exposure from being much much worse and you have made some improvements to the staff and care of the dogs at the facility which we recognize but i respectfully submit that this is not enough and there is still much work to do we are making every effort to ignore the past and the disparaging remarks made about us by your representatives and to move forward for the sake of the community and the sake of schenectady dogs because it's the right thing to do when will you all be ready willing and able to do the right thing for the residents of the city of schenectady and for their dogs thank you thank you thank you mr i repeated you want to speak again ok schenectady it's true there's a lot of vicious dogs around even in a housing project they better do something about that because somebody is going get that or something's going to happen and we need to take care  he put the walk light up over a large street people having trouble getting across the street and a lot of streets need to be fixed and some lobby sidewalks to look and curbs even down here around here to some bad curb in somebody's going to get hurt or something ain't done pretty quick because i see the curbs and stuff every day and see the speeders they speeding and passing people on the left and passed them on the right because in such a big hurry to get around a corner make a left hand turn a can't wait for the like that's not right to shoot right for the like just like everybody else that's ok thank you and again  if we can get to the bottom of that we don't need people threatened because they're trying to keep their neighborhood safe that's not a good thing that's for sure and it's really disturbing that we have a small fraction of schenectady is dictating what common behavior should be for our city it kind of blows the mind and it's not the way things should be but when we allow it to happen that's how things fester into what they are  we have good people living care we don't want to lose these good people i know we don't want to do that and we have to address these problems as they happened they're doing their part they're being watchdogs and doing their part so i would like to see something happen with that about the dog the website with our dogs site not sure why that is an updated if we didn't take any dogs or not but i think it's crucial that we do what they thought website whatever dogs are picked up i don't know if there is a plan that we're following or not but there should be one of dogs picked up of a picture to be taken i mean cell phones take pictures pretty easily and if that can get posted i think it's a good thing baby the city should have a facebook page and that's the easiest way to get things up there but i would point through the whole website you know when taken the time a website because sometimes just a few hours could be crucial in somebody getting their pattern not getting their pet so i think that's an important thing another thing that's come to my attention i think this is almost two weeks ago there was an armed robbery on crane street and and a local business and it was never reported there was no press release done on it or anything like that and kind of confused on how this kind of slipped under the radar over the radar i'm not sure what happened but i know that the employees there are very concerned because i spoke with one of them and i'm not sure exactly why i mean people have a right to know if there's something going on in the neighborhood they have a right to know what's going on in that neighborhood so i'm not sure what to say but there's people with guns w robbed people in the store so that's not a certainly not a good thing to be happening thank you how i'd like to say congratulations mr kosher mr ferrari for winning your seats on the city council i'm i'm happy that the election's over with i'm sure you are too if free the site of relief a lot of things are said turned campaign center and things that are bothersome to me and one of them is one of the flyers that came out with mr  real come down i've been lobbying for that since it burned in two thousand and eight well before i was on the city council so when i see see things like that in my car a truth in advertising in your name is on this and you should be concerned about this also because it's not true that's the bottom line it says mr clinton sure makes things happen one hundred thirty demo supplied to buildings now ed i know you know you don't have anything to do with that but your name is on this now for the party if the party is split i'm addressing you now ok never does this you know now it takes on bridge to that's why i take umbrage to this because it's a bunch of baloney on this thing that's what it is people have a right to know the truth and  wops from some people but this is my neighborhood we're talking about here i want to see this building come down to ten and not top of all this to add insult to injury mr ray killen came up to me that day and said he thinks this is funny he said to me see says we're going to send it to liberia to do the research now isn't that a nice thing to say to a city council person or to anybody who's pushing the dead is that what he's saying i mean i don't even know what to say about this stuff but it's very had a problem with this last year to same thing so if that's what the party is doing now it's republican alliance so it's called ok i do not belong to a political party i was a door spied a republican party and the alliance party that's how i got elected to office i do not belong to a political party so if people want to use this garbage fine you have to live by it or die by it whatever you have to do but to me it's really sad and it's a bad thing to do and i think apologies are in kind of disturbed you know looking at the numbers is less than twenty percent of the folks who actually voted were forty years of age and younger the disturbance to me is that means our young folks are not getting out there to vote we really had to take a look at that how do we get our people involved how do we get into the voting booth and i think that's a very much a big concern there we're going to have as we move forward and i just want to thank the c s c a the men and women of c s c a very very much you know you have the full council support  we represent you well and you represent them well and appreciate to go she in the contract and we certainly appreciate the men and women there employed by the city of schenectady is very important also thank you to succumb to one of the few still here yup the cecum food last summer lunch program i can't say enough about that absolutely wonderful program as the she mentioned we have our score summer camp at central park and just our camp alone we had two hundred youth that participated in that lunch program so that's not even counting the folks that came through our local congressmen and their state an assembly leaders would certainly be glad to work with them because again the numbers are just astounding and we have our seven thousand central park for nearly six thousand at jerry burrell park and the need goes on and on and on so well again thank you  on their behalf also the toys for tots i'm sorry that mr becker at left but of course the big part of the u s marine corps is that the choice for tots campaign and that's actually kicking off right now the boxes are located throughout the city in the  county so please if you see those are the boxes out there just a drop and unwrapped new toy gift or even books books are great as well and the members of the u s marine corps will be picking them up by december eighth so again look for the big had very slanderous fliers as well about myself and mr a ferrari to the point where my wife and children were very upset and to point out the fact that this was out here and that point at the other party as well i believe is a disservice and should be both sides and again i am so glad this is over with because ironically campaign mr ferrari has run a clean campaign and we talk about the issues and that is what we have to deal with here to represent the entire city of schenectady not the that offended but i think i deserve an apology from the other side as well for some of slanderous comments that were made to myself and mr ferrars so it goes both ways and thank you madam president i thank you anyone else spoken first of all you'll have to get that from the other party i don't belong to what the other thing i want to bring up is since this seat is vacant and i just forgot that because i was a little wrapped up what i have to say i think this council should think about appointing mr ferrari a s a p to the c e o i don't think we should wait till january first for him to be seated here since he won it's a vacancy that was left and i have no problem at all i said that when when that seat was fake and so i'd like to see him appointed a s a p hopefully to be on the agenda so we can do that yes and i'm going to put it on the committee agenda next week so i appreciate that as far as  i'm very pleased that you know it was well supported and we move forward from here i also want to recognize because funny enough as it fell the budget process was not really prevalent in our council meetings right although we met every night in room one ten for the my goodness four weeks i believe you know it didn't actually fall the way we had to pass the budget didn't actually follow that if the council meeting but i think it's important to  recognize the work that the council as a whole did i think that first of all the mayor came through with a strong and fair budget but i also think we had collectively a very strong feeling that  we needed to reduce the amount of tax increase and that equated to many many hours of looking at the budget and trying to find safe and fair ways to cut the budget i think we all left something on the table that was important to us that we would have liked to have seen different but the beauty of the process was that we came to an agreement that we could live with and that was safe for our taxpayers and i think that's very important to you know we would all like to see is zero percent tax increase we would all like to actually give some percentage back to our taxpayers but in this fiscal time that wouldn't be prudent and we also need to protect our citizens and our city services and so i think where we are what we came to was a good compromise for all of  us just recognizing everyone's hard work thank you very much anyone else mr mayor thank you madam president this and that section one hundred eight loan it should be clear to everyone that it was a package application that would not have been approved had we not included the building for social services not street again we did not have broad based support one hundred office in buffalo and the actual deal for the commitment the city of schenectady was made by secretary donovan and the hud secretary to me at a meeting in the white house where we that money was lined up and even after that it required the intervention of senator schumer a couple times to make sure that that happened in so the demolition of the property on broadway was the first one we're going to take down another six or eight buildings before the end of the year we're doing the bidding process going forward the environmental remediation that will have to occur and that we're working again with the money that has come from attorney general snyderman through the land bank to make a coordinated effort to deal with the worst blighted property in this community and  his been there too long we're dealing with it in a manner that other communities are looking to us as an example and again if you can't pick and choose what you like and don't like sometimes you have to work again in a comprehensive manner we're doing it so that i just want to emphasize again we're setting an example that other communities are looking at is that only in terms of what we're doing in demolition what we're doing in policing you again just some of those statistics that are cited in the fire department they're doing a lot of work they're doing it in a manner that gives a high level of performance in a work product that we should all be that there was a million one from new york state department transportation through their transportation alternative programs and that's to again do the central park downtown trail application for the public art challenge which is put out by the bloomberg foundation there bloomberg public art challenge it's highly competitive grant in the thought that individual cities applying on their own would really diminish our chance of getting it so i'm talking to the two other mayors who thought if we put together a regional application it would increase our chances of maybe obtaining the funding and also we look that if we didn't get it it would set a that package fourth where there might be things that we could work on collectively in the region again in terms of the creative economy and fostering the growth not only look at what you use doing what's happening at nanotech what's happening up in malta globalfoundries you've got a lot of industrial things here and a solid business growth but where they're looking to attract employees there market is no longer regionally or even within the united states they look to recruit employees globally and so we want to have a community in a region that allows these businesses to attract in people who are talent that are recognized worldwide in that in you know a lot of times in campaigns people take things overly personally but it's a competitive business we ought to be proud of the work that we're doing the record that we've put in place in that look forward to continuing that through the next year thank you madam president thank you and if there's nothing else to come before the city council not a motion