chapter one thirty eight one sixty seven and two hundred ten of the code of the city of schenectady with regard to changes to the penalty structures and definitions of the building housing and the electrical code the housing standards and rental property co amending chapter thirteen of the charter of the city has connected a section c thirteen dash three government under plan c and superseding the provisions of new york second city second class city law section seventy one and seventy four vesting in the city council of the sole and exclusive authority to determine the number of all city officers and employees of each office and department and to fix the salaries compensation and benefits of all city officers and employees consideration a resolution calling for a local law amending jafta thirteen charter of the city is going to activate section see thirteen dash three government under in the city council for a sale and exclusive the authority to determine the number of city officers and employees of each office and department and to fix salaries compensation and benefits of alla city officers and employees is been discussed in committee over a long period of time and had been reviewed really coming out of the episode with our last fire chief most of this is generally accepted to be the current practice where the council adopts a budget which creates the staffing level of the city and what it does is just the limits that what has happened in the past were given the different ma who worked different deals or entered into implied contracts this would clearly shift the responsibility back to the city council which most people believe it's there now to determine the terms and conditions of employment so that because this would be a charter change in you could interpret it to shift the power away from the mayor's office that it would go to the actual voters to make that decision so that after the night's public hearing we would vote on this in this would go on the ballot in november as a charter change the corporation council has any other comments on that  vacant lot to a new home construction and reviewed and discussed in committee any opposed item five appear on the consent agenda item number six a resolution authorizing the city engineer to issue a revokable permit number five sixty three to john appear on the agenda now entertain a motion to move that to the consented genda move by council member carrying a second secular mr erickson all in favor of money appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying i and you opposed nine a will appear on the consent agenda nine b a resolution continue appointments hold over members of the i d f a and designate that serve at the pleasure of the legislative body schenectady had a hybrid form where the members served the pleasure the city council but were defined by terms and also some specific individual served on the idea to make this a little bit cleaner conform more with what the actual state legislation is we had eliminated the terms and so that the members serve at the pleasure of the council were some of the changes we had made this will clear it up and we'll move any question about who's replacing who and that some of the holdovers individuals that it serve before their terms are continuing to serve just where ideas where they enter into projects where there is binding or other things of their sometimes the higher level of review on these boards so this will just conform that and clear up any possible questions or greetings everyone let us pray in conclusion my dear brothers and sisters fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise things that are true noble right pure lovely and honorable put into practice what you learn and receive from the lord both in words and actions and may the god who gives us peace be with us all i also ask you dear father on this homestretch to the tenth anniversary of the nine eleven tragedy to remember those who gave their lives to these horrendous acts of terrorism give comfort to the surviving families and to all who are after ten years are still suffering and missing their loved ones and the city of new york the fields in pennsylvania and the pentagon which still remember we also remember because we lost people from here i ask you to bless this meeting of the city council of the great city of schenectady along with all its habitat it's the council members their families the families of those who live here those who work here those who offer their time talent and treasure for the well being of our fair city for our county for our state or for a country was solar servicemen and women who are protecting our lands far and near and bring them all home safely bred peaceful resolutions of the world conflicts if your name is holy and blessed now and forever more amen i do want to take a moment to invite you all to our annual festival at st georg church on september ninth tenth and eleventh of course we always have great food great entertainment and also on sunday september eleventh that one p m one of the many ceremonies that will be throughout the city  moment of silence and prayer i was in there every day in ground zero counseling rescue workers and every time of shovel of rubble would come up we would look to see if there were any body parts and  we'd read prayers whatever chaplains were a call for these souls that the that god could give them rest and i pray that we never on our lands ever become under a siege an attack again and we don't realize how lucky we are to be where we are and i count our blessings for that thank you  yes those individuals branagh's family to step inside the rail thirty to year two thousand ma graduate from not tears high school with honors then worked with various jobs until one thousand fifty seven when she was hired as a parking meter maid tending the city is going to police department the first african american female employed by the police department and were as well a member of the city police force she obtained a b a degree from empire state college in one nine hundred seventy eight and were as mob retired from the city police department june first one nine hundred ninety one and were as model mots mother lee toland was a strong believer in the community service and passed that example along to model and many her children throughout ma's life span she was active in all phases of her community church affairs following her mother's example and her as model was the first african american to run for the for community use and participated in many other worthwhile causes she loves the gospel music the outdoors camping with family and friends and family gatherings and were as illness forced model to leave family and making a life like lifelong friends now be it therefore resolved that the city council in its deliberations to remember fondly the life and dedicated public service of with sadness the loss of her spirit and enthusiasm for life expressing gratitude on behalf of the city for maude's commitment to public service to community and to the betterment it's an honor to stand before you because my aunt loved schenectady and the hardest thing for her to do was have to leave but she could no longer stay here and take care of herself and it was emotion dancing i apologize but on behalf of her children thank you thank you thank you thank you this is a resolution recognizing the achievements of the philip scott and who's being inducted into the schenectady school district athletic hall of fame mr president before where as rhonda phillips got a daughter of schenectady will be inducted in the schenectady city school district i think all of fame on september twelfth two thousand and eleven at proctor's theater and where as rhonda philips scott ran the first ten daniel athletic hall of fame arena dinner will be held on september twelfth at proctor's and additional ronda armed farina will also be inducted he was a champion golfer at not terrorists in the one nine hundred thirty s but not terrorist undefeated seasons underfeed seasons into district championships went on to the p g a tour where he set a nine hole record when he shot a twenty eight at the rio grande open it was a p j record for five years and then we're going to celebrate the long history of the crosstown football rivalry of five to ten thousand people it was a real special day in schenectady and we hope to have a fun evening with love video will have the displays tony cristela does a great job with the display so again thank you and thank you for honoring rhonda this evening now be presenting the resolution remembering and honoring the victims of nine eleven and declaring september eleventh two thousand and eleven a day of solemn remembrance for lives lost to terrorist acts and calling for a citywide moment of silence in honor of all american victims of terrorism where as as dawn broke on the morning of september eleventh two thousand and one was going to be walk to blue skies and sun a crisp of autumn in the air and a suggestion of color in the trees in the promise of a bright and hopeful day twin towers of the world trade center in new york city collapsing the landmark towers within two hours destroying nearby buildings damaging others and then a third airliner was propelled into the pentagon killing all innocent passengers in the hijackers but that the hijackers have been thwarted by a gallantry of the passengers in the fourth jet the passengers having sacrificed their own lies fighting for control of the plane and saving the intended targets of that missile crashing the plane into a field in pennsylvania and whereas nearly three thousand innocent lives were lost in the nine eleven attacks that among the two hundred seven hundred fifty three victims who died three hundred forty three of them were firefighters in sixty were police officers from new york city port authority in a private emergency medical technicians and whereas schenectady was among the many communities that felt the attack by al qaeda that day having lost his beloved son michael canty in the attack its formal commission its former police its fellow new yorkers in the aftermath of the nine eleven attack whereas as the dust settles from the destruction fear and loss of that day and countless other days when it is americans have been the targets of unprovoked an unwanted terrorist attacks their resolve  spirit of america has been revitalized by the blood of our patriots sons and daughters exemplified by a scholarship awarded each year by the cantus family in michael's memory advancing the educational aspirations of new generation a true tribute in legacy fitting a son of the city of ingenuity in promise whose life was cut short by the attack in whereas schenectady of the injured by the nine eleven attack remains optimistic that world peace will be realized as it had thr generations and continues in accepting respectful peaceful and inclusive world through community events such as remembers moving toward peace nine eleven interfaith commemoration scheduled for sunday nine eleven at two p m and veterans park now therefore be resolved that this council condemns terrorism and all cowardly acts on innocent civilians expressing its contempt for all who would use violence against innocent humanity to achieve political social economic and religious ands and be it for the resolve the council now dutifully is solidly in most humbling pauses in his deliberations to remember those who perished in nine eleven attack and other terrorist attacks offering a moment of silence in respect to the fallen sons and daughters of the city state and nation and ever mindful of the human loss wrought by terrorism on innocent persons and families throughout this community therefore now be it resolved that september eleventh two thousand and eleven the tenth anniversary of the nine eleven attack is here by declared a day every selection your remembrance for the victims of terrorism in the city of schenectady and urges to observe a moment of silent reflection at one p m to resolution stands adopted well thank you very very much i mean we are truly honored to be honored here tonight and we also we have one of the scholarship winners here with us this is bonnie fitzgerald chill b in her second year at the boston you're three public urines and tonight the court could read the first one an ordinance to amend chapter one thirty eight one sixty seven and two ten of the code of the city is going to be with regard to changes to the penalty structure and definition of building housing one is the test of the quality of water due to old pipes in these old buildings that are being looked at again number two when  regarding any court actions between ten and and and landlords there should be no selling a court hearing to court t v without all parties approval for not just having their rent filled in escrow i have gone for over a month and into the eleventh day of the call owing months before my ceramic bowl was replaced for over a month i did not have the use of a ceramic bowl and code enforcement knew about it they just told me to tell the landlord and i said i had number  the landlord should be held responsible for cleanup costs when it is repeatedly called by other tenants and especially when it appears to be a real estate maneuver  not necessarily to the open public but housing read location schemes do t due to municipal housing vacancies thank you thank you code of the cities can i say with regard to making technical corrections to the the third and local law mending chapter thirteen of the charter of the city of schenectady section c thirteen dash three government under plan c and superseding the provisions of new york second class city law section seventy one and seventy four the sting in the city council of the sole and exclusive authority to determine the number of all city officers and employees of each office and department and to fix the saudis compensation and benefits of office city officers and employees first person to say up  good evening and vents regular twenty one thirty eight campbell avenue in the city what really bothered was a few things that bother me with this but one thing that really bothers me is and i brought this up quite a few years ago in the city council was kind of sticking to it we're  public hearing tonight and it's on the consent agenda there's something that is very wrong with that you have people coming up to speak at this public hearing and obviously you're going to pass it no matter what they say we could fill this place with two hundred thousand people and you're still going to vote it it's not right in the council did stick by that for quite a while but now we're back to our old tricks again it's not right it's not with democracy is about a public hearing is supposed to be so you can hear what the public has to say and then digest it and then you can put it on your consent agenda that is just absolutely wrong about the issue itself this cries for not a piecemeal piece of of reform but we need charter reform we've been talking about this for years and years i was involved in the early ninety's when we had a charter revision going out with mr hankey and that kind of died on the vine but we need it we shouldn't be going piecemeal with this stuff this been going on for years and years ever since we went from a ceremonial mayor to a strong mayor where the city manager is crossed out mayor was written then it's no good it doesn't work so instead of doing things piecemeal we should be calling for a referendum on charter revision and putting a charter revision panel together that's what's needed not this i mean the problem we're having right now unfortunately yes we have a city council but at what i would any political diversity that's where we're having a real problem right now i mean that's obvious what it is that's not anyone's fault but that's just the way it worked out so since we don't have that we're going to change it this way then we may change it back the other way let's just do charter reform and get it over with once and for all that's what we need and we all know that we need that nobody can deny that instead of doing get one little piece at a time let's get it over with and get a dawn and get it done we need it we need it badly we started in the early ninety's let's finish it now let's go ahead with that because that is something that we cannot keep going forward with all these little things that pop up all along the day and i hope you listen to me and i understand are going to vote on anyhow and that's absolutely wrong so let's go with democracy for want to thank you council president city council one of the things that is totally wrong with this is that we don't even have an executive branch currently right now that position is completely open and has been open since april there was nothing wrong with it because it was just a short period but now you're trying to put something through that the executive branch is not even here to even question or what's going on we've been asking for policies and procedures and those policy procedures having been done and what you're trying to do now is that you're trying to take away the power from the mare and actually say ok mer we're going to pay ninety six thousand dollars to show up for ninety five and do nothing because that's basically what you're doing with this because you're saying mehr we're not going to tell you how many are not going to let you tell us how many employees you need how much they're going to get paid or even how to discipline them because that's basically what it says here because you're set in terms of setting everything across the board you went from a city manager in one hundred seventy one to a mare and to a city council that's called the executive branch and a legislative branch you completely separated the two and what tonight what you're doing tonight if you're bringing combining both of those back together so why should we even have a mare why should we pay this person ninety six thousand dollars you know what we need is that the city council needs to ask the executive branch to come forward through its human resources director to list exactly the job descriptions the job qualifications and the salaries that's of the human resource director it's not the job of the city council to determine that it is the job of the human resource which is why you hire a human resource disability civil rights laws that say once that's all done then it comes back to the city council for final approval that's the process and tonight what you're doing is you're eliminating all that process and you're saying we're stand up and it's totally unconstitutional whether you become mayor this time around kerry or the next american down the road i'm hoping that there will turn around come back and declare this section completely unconstitutional and throw it out because it is and what city with funding and i know i'm running short but i'm just saying this is that tonight you're trying to grab all the power and that's not the way to do it against this local law and frank as you know has a good sense of history and he asked me to remind you about the referendum that established the independent strong mayor council to form a government and that referendum was carried by the potence of the city is connected by an overwhelming majority but the opponents weren't happy with that result so they brought back a second referendum and that referendum carried the city voters lot more votes than the first rough surrender so the people have spoken and frank feels that by bringing in this local law or legislation where really this respecting the wishes of the public and we also have a situation where this this is at the markers and democracy you have checks and balances and what is happening here tonight fly in the face of our democratic traditions so we ask you to please reconsider  hello i'm robert horry i live on seven o two plymouth out on you in schenectady and good evening to your council members and mr mccarthy i was first say that i am only representing myself no other organization other body no other neighborhood i agree with much of what has just been said the first three speakers about this local law charter revision i believe the problems that you may have had with compensation of managers could well be handled in the present structure so i question the timing of this proposal in the middle of the election campaign charter revision is always serious and should take some time to be considered this is quick this is fishy is what i think which means political motivation is what i'm most afraid of in a lot gets decided by the senate genders by caucus meetings by meetings that the public can attend so this is going to end up with a machine types situation and i don't want to call it that but it just sounds really fishy last thing i want to say is that there's a movie being filmed in schenectady called the place beyond the pines this revision is sounding like we should be called the place beyond the bed roger i reside at ten ninety eight on road the acting mayor prezza city council career politician has a number of occasions accuse me of being an experienced politician i am leader not a career politician and given the state of politics in schenectady albeit washington i proudly wear the label of inexperience politician the proposal to amend the charter in the midst of a political campaign may be crafty politics but it is horrible policy and since i will always say what i believe to be true even if it is bad politics i want to state my reasons since the one nine hundred seventy s the charter has served democratic and republican mayors does it need to be changed absolutely i believe though the thoughtful way to change it is through a charter review commission not piecemeal and i would appoint such a commission as mayor the real problems with the proposal are that of the struction and the smoke screen and the distraction and smoke screen or purely political proposed amendment of the structure because it diverts voters attention from the highest taxes in the capital district rising crime and crumbling neighborhoods having failed miserably to address these issues over the years mr mccarthy in this council colleagues clearly want to shift attention to another issue more importantly at least in the context of this fall's election the amendment is a smoke screen if my opponent wins the election he continues to control the council as he has for sixteen years unless the alliance party sweeps for council seats if he loses the election he seeks through this amendment to control the mayor unless we sweep for council seats conspiracy i think so this is a classic case of hedging one's bets we're all outraged by past deals we should also be outraged at people who should be ashamed to run for office now seek to plead ignorance for their past actions or inactions either mr mccarthy knew about the deals made and i clearly think he did or he and his council colleagues should have no rather than seek additional powers they should have the good grace to exit the political stage any parent knows what does not reward bad behavior why then give additional authority to people who fail to exercise the authority they had and now seek to avoid responsibility to do so would be like giving more matches to children who in the past had created the fire by playing with them it makes no sense unless your name is gary mccarthy and you want to hedge your bets and game the system so that you might wid even if you lose success of business in the city i'm also a student of management thi what we're talking about here is putting way before the horse and it makes no sense to have a mayor that does not have the a power to appoint a people and determine paid and bring it to you for the check and balance which a council bring it would be if i can i mean congress appoint the naacp and to the cabinet and with james brody ten forty nine and a on road this i look at this this charter revision from a business standpoint i'm a four i'm a former small business owner i cannot in any shape way or form comprehend how you can hire a mayor or a c e o and turn over a sponsor abilities to a group of part time employees and i ran my business i was in charge i made decisions i was held accountable if you do this charter revision you are hiring a full time mayor there to to do what i believe you folks if you're going to work part time you can do this job if you want to work full time at it fine do it but don't come here and say i'm going to spend and i'm not sure what you spend and time but i'm sure it's not good evening my name is jackie herd i live in the city of schenectady i'm here tonight because i basically feel that this city council would be negligent in performing its duty by having a public hearing on the charter resolution this evening and then voting on the resolution on the same evening this hearing will become a charade and an exercise in futility for the public the public comes to the podium to express its concerns and you the city council will within the same evening vote to pass this resolution my question is why the reason the acting mayor president city council has given for this proposed change in our city charter does not demand attention at this time we all know what happened in the forest and in other cases are elected officials and now we know and now we all know about those details those under the table grimace like the one mentioned by the acting mayor which is being used as an excuse to make this charter change will not happen again our elected officials have been warned by the taxpayers that they will not stand for we have all heard and read the public impress reactions of anger and disapproval of those deals the excuse given for this charter revision is bogus i don't have an exe and an objection to revisiting the city charter and changing it and strengthening it where we as a community find it wanted but using this political motive is not the way to do it a charter commission should be appointed as was mentioned earlier to review the complete charter with public education and info in input from the taxpayers of schenectady it should be done in an open careful and constructive way then presented to the voters for their decision the publication issued by the new york state department of state entitled revising city charters of new york state highly recommends that city charters be revised as a whole document not in dribs and drabs it should not be done piecemeal it should not be done in an in an attempt to convince the taxpayers a meaningful action is being taken when it is not four votes are needed to defeat this resolution therefore actually i was going to call on and this absurdly a no vote against this charter change is a yes vote that will restore public confidence in the process tonight being here obviously we see that his son consented and actually it doesn't appear that you will have this chance to make your own independent votes if it's on the consent consent adjoined and honestly i find it disgusting thank you correctly also is going to do is move it so that we meet the time schedule for the board of elections so this would go on the ballot in november and again that the voters of the city would make the final determination up to the voters whether they want to make the changes or not and again they had broad based community support before and sometimes you get these blips in the road this time i would entertain a motion for communications and petitions has presented to the city council for monday august twenty second two thousand and eleven official from the mayor a list of appointments general the bellevue preservation  mr president i just want to point out two of those watching and attending the meeting tonight that items four and five on the agenda tonight arc the two that are placing parcels being assigned from the city for closure on to individual owners which in a rare piece of good news we're taking eleven parcels and putting them back on the tax rolls and this is something we need to do more of we need to find people willing to invest in these properties and do things with them and it's it's a good thing for all of us and i wanted to make sure people were aware that we're working to make this happen thank you thank you and the other members of council extensive the things that we need to do are regards to air geisha car pass and other additional things one of the good things about it is that we  we do pretty good financially in regards to the golf course it's been a money maker for years and that with the new is not new anymore but like the gulf pro that we have there he's in comes up with different ideas and other plans so we're moving forward and creasing there the revenue over the last several years of course weather has a lot to do with it sometimes you have good weather sometimes you don't but one of the things that will eliminate problems in regards to weather is air is the irrigation plant and that's going to be hopefully put into into  trees and doing different things in regards to the golf course so we're looking forward to it and dished up improvements we're looking forward to having our parks and rec meetings with the members of the parks and rec committee so we're moving forward and we're happy about what's being done and what's being planned at the golf course so all of those who play golf make sure you get to the golf course and make sure you to include your concerns and wishes to the members of committee reports now open it up for privilege of the floor dealing with the legislative agenda first speaker's  qualifies mr wilson for this position all i knew was that he owned some commercial properties and straight in one of those was rather propitious when he said pizza king moved into his building kind of training what is this going to be looking for the results that they want at the way schenectady is going to continue to do business i noticed that  you're planning on using using a new unisys system does he know anything about unisys system has i notice jeremy howard is on the oh it's consulted in any of this he certainly doesn't have a system and i just think it's overlooking the public's need for information i just don't are needed and we're being told about that has he ever lived in one of these old old old buildings like i say i think some of them are so old no matter how good your water is things happen inside of buildings and they are nice so i did want to say something about and i think i'll stop there thank you john i mean it's totally disrespectful you know i mean why don't you listen to what people have to say then vote if you're going to vote seven to zero on it then at least give the public a chance like the least you cared but just a moment on to they sent a gentle like that that's totally disrespectful and on top of all you turn around and said oh well the vote is going to take it we all know currently right now the unions vote lock stock and barrel down what's going on ninety five you can count on between ninety two hundred votes out of the ten to thousand that is going down too and that's thanks to the unions and if you take a look at this bill it is power is taken all the employees and put in front of the city council that union workers you know i understand we've got a problem that we've got to have a little bit more out of the next political parties need to be able to be a little more voice but i mean you know the sit there and just tell a city council member oh we're going to put on the agenda and we're going to pass it in the voters get to take it you know when you already know that you've got a lot of the votes from the unions or are you going to vote for for this for this change you know just discontinuous and disheartening to what is actually happening i mean at least have some respect for people to show up here and at least put it on the nine percent to the agenda if you can about some of the nuts and don't show your hand that you're going to do it then the second piece is that you put on tonight was that on the city idea where you're going to make the people serve at the will so that means anybody who disagrees with you at the city idea on a cd ip pilot project or anything to that effect within the next week you can say you're off no questions asked just because they opened their mouth and said that it was the wrong way of going that you could throw him off you know that is totally wrong and totally inappropriate you're taking a city council member even our city chairperson and wasn't really working very well on it but if you're going to take the city council which is that is a function of the city council and you're going to take them  off of that council off of that committee that's totally wrong or where's the checks and balances you're going to put non appointed people on of that council that will dictate the property taxes within the city you know that's totally wrong you're consolidating power and you're in your i mean you're just not given the taxpayers any kind of relief whatsoever and you know you need to have more of a checks and balances and you need to be able to have a more of an openness of what's going on you know i mean i don't understand what the problem is but i like a set you know it's going to pass in november because the unions will help you get it passed thank you good evening my name is mary maclean i live in the city on tonight so i just laid of agenda there are several city properties on sale for councils approval well may start out as good intentions to get city properties back on the tax rolls some times may result in harbel conditions for your constituents recently too such cases were brought to my attention does anyone bother to that the people who buy the city properties i was walking down the street this summer it was a wide street with a large well kept homes on either side of the road then i came upon a smaller house it had no basement and looked out of place i spoke to the person next door he told me the house had been built by habitat for humanity and since the owners moved into the house three years ago the place has been very needed eighteen times needless to say he was a very upset man he also said he would never donate to habitat for humanity again in the other case a family bid on the property located next door to then they were out for the women woman and her family to enjoy her home a home that was in the family for three generations the neighbor told me she cannot entertain gast in her backyard everyone should be able to have peace and tranquility in their lives and not have their quality of life destroyed by someone else's actions more thought needs to be placed on the results of the city's transactions and how the sale of city property will affect other people i'm roger hall i live in the city i thought i had said my piece before but when this was moved to a consent agenda the idea of revising the charter i realized once again that we are finding ourselves in unique situations as a student of government i've always believed in as a lawyer i know govern this post be honest and open this government is neither on this nor open you are supposed to be individuals who think for yourselves when you sit on the council you're acting like puppets and you're laying the acting mayor or member your council be your puppet master it's wrong for six months i've been talking about the need to have a separation of executive and legislative power each week it seems another example comes up of why one should have had it and why if mr mccarthy was going to be the acting mayor he should have stepped down from the council here we have a situation where any mayor worth her or his saw would have opposed what was coming before you today because it was said earlier it should have been done  unified thoughtful way not piecemeal but because the puppetmaster decided to move something to a consent agenda you decided paralysed puppets to go along the fact is that under the new york state constitution and under the us constitution you cannot cite an example of when a person holds both executive and legislative power here in schenectady we're doing something that you cannot find in the iran they were rock in china or russia it's a unique position to be in and i think you all should be ashamed to allow yourself to be in that position floor dealing with the general city business in the first speaker's barber cats people maybe to pick them up whether they're yours or mine or whoever they are they don't belong there i'm not saying i don't even though i see them all over there's a lot of public land that goes on and on it shouldn't be that's just not right so we'll put that aside one thing that's bothering me that i've seen on the o s m website is there's a promo on there when you click on a bow at the top and it's pretty insulting to sack t v i think i don't think that's necessary to demean sac t v and what they've done in the past just the whole thing to me is insulting i watched it and it's basically just throwing one jab at v after another i don't know the ins and outs of sac t v but they certainly provided a service that we needed here in the city of schenectady know whether we're going to say o s m is much better not much better i have reservations about that i mean being home last week because i'm nursing a bad leg two weeks ago i'm watching the meeting and we have public speakers up here speaking and in front of their face comes a garbage schedule is that good production i don't think so i think that's more insulting that c wrong on a scroll at the bottom that doesn't have to be across a person's face while they're speaking at the privilege of the floor i don't see it when the council people are speaking for yourself mr mccarthy so i think that's wrong i think the end of the promo when you side but also we are the clear beautiful picture in front of us is that good production i think that's insulting i think it's trial dish and i don't think we need that sac t v provided a good service for the city of schenectady and  a time of the time of day or night and i see the same thing over and over again we gotta the people that know how to recycle are going to be doing it the people that aren't they're not going to be doing it so it's a simple as that but really that thing should be pulled from the network that thing just smells and it's really not doesn't have much integrity or anything else i think it stinks thank you contracts so therefore we we had at least two of the union contracts that you put through were no jobs layoffs i stood up not even wanted to pass that were even did it that's one of the firefighters contract on their police contract i mean if there is no money i don't know how you can continue to hire somebody if there's no money both of them were done at four and three percent so you're looking at well over six hundred thousand that's at least environment on the two percent property taxes you can raise and then the c s a i think was proximately around another three hundred thousand of the cost so it's about another another one percent so we can look at almost up to a three percent property tax increase you know i mean we need to take a look at what is actually happening and i'm hoping that when you go over the next sixty days you're going to look at the budget i know you've played some games around with not paying the school  district it's money and not paying the county its money all everything's coming down on downhill what i'm hoping is that we'll have an open budget and open discussion of what's going on also too is that this community of a block grant money is got to have an open discussion we've also got to happen or firman of action officer or manager it's got to do her job and creating jobs and gary i know that you and your people have been sending out flyers in that you've created thirty five hundred jobs you have it there transferred from wall throwed transferred to rotterdam transferred from state street to state street and to everywhere else you have been created thirty five hundred jobs and even the new york state is come back and said that we had a seventy percent unemployment rate for a person with disabilities and second county was the worst county in the state and hiring a person with disabilities we don't even have an affirmative action policy for both minorities and person with disabilities in this county when you're going through the budget you need to start looking at it when you're hard police officers it was the most funniest looking picture there were ever in the paper it was seven white officers i'm not one of those minority when troy turned around and hired two of our officers sergeants and lower grades out of our force already and they were  the time thanks to vince i know there's more than four of us watching but you know my complaint is different i'm watching the live interviews with  excellent experts and then they cut it off sharply at six o'clock and start showing reruns of the prom three years ago at the high school that's related to cation so but anyway getting on to something more was planned and to be a holocaust in advance and it was commemorated with the go medal which has never been done  the descending to the stained glass windows is proof of that and it lacks store plaque and it certainly does deserve one and nobody's taken that issue and this is really a big week and i don't like sitting members of holocaust being used for food to supply rallies for part of the white cliffs of dover dover and they are still there although they are mostly anglicized now into their turf they were responsible for the industrial revolution now the only thing that made in england harper married down on broadway i hope she's watching tonight i want to speak about police issues and i missed the last meeting because tuesday i had to be in new york city and i knew i'd be upset so i thought you know two days in a row but you know gary i think we need to change the name of the police department well change the name to the police department not the schenectady police department because schenectady is not in charge of this police department it's a little entity a little fight them unto itself collectively and individually and over the years i've had them tell me call the mayor call the chief call anybody you want that needs to change and something else that needs to change is this training in these academies where we blowed the bar on being able to take a life and i've got some suggestions and by the way we need to have other minds an alternative viewpoint to how these folks do business it shouldn't be left up to the police or the district attorney and a and all these members of the system we need to get people from outside to system to lend their voice as to how policing should be done because they become too brutal and you know one of the things i learned when i was in vietnam the bigger the collared the more brutal and folks let me help you out with something else not everyone  that put on a first cab uniform or police uniform or a fireman so uniform is a hero the uniform does not make the man you need to start thinking about these things so some suggestions police i'd like thing maybe we shouldn't be using handguns maybe we ought to roll up with a rifle with a scope on it so we can at least know where maybe perhaps we're shooting but the point is alternatives and i'm going to jump around a little bit here because like a lot of folks i don't write all this stuff out i make a few notes and i could go on and on about that but i want to touch on a couple other things real quick these cadets the other day i'm coming across the scotia bridge from scotia side into schenectady they're the cadets you would think it was fort schenectady i served at fort dix here they are running with a banner and a police car following them and i'm thinking you know what when you use your police like that you'll never have enough then the other another maybe a week ago i'm coming across the bridge there are three police cars schenectady with one woman being handcuffed and here came a rotter day and police car and i'm thinking again you know folks you'll never have enough police in this city and then i'm watching channel eighteen there's the evidence technician teaching the kids in the high school how to take a footprint a mold of a footprint and i'm think about all the unsolved crime in this city that's what we've got people doing over there take a show one students how to make a mold of so you know i could go on and on but something if you could summer i know members of the city count city is going to this coming council my name is jay sherman i reside at fifteen sixty randolph road on july twenty ninth and july and august the first the city's tree cutting and  removal crew worked on randolph road and i really wish that each member here could have been there with me that those two days and observed this crew at work now i know this is not the most highly paid group in the city employment as a matter of fact i doubt that they maybe what the acting mayor made in overtime in this job last year but this crew was something to behold they gave a great exhibit of municipal employees develop displaying their own individual skills and their team coordination the four men functioned as a single unit they were a group that who required no external supervision each clearly understanding his role in the team's function each fully capable of working on his own they treated my neighbors and myself with courtesy and when necessary when patient were they were very patient in allowing us to have ingress and egress to our driveways when we had to when we had to the four men and i don't know their names but they were really spokesman for what service to the community is all about and i simply want to commend them for their work ethic and let them know that it did not go unnotice very brand presidents connectivity well you've heard many speakers tonight you've heard the audience what are you going to do you've got to change your way of acting your way of performing for our city you're part time employees and you want to run the whole show no go what have you done for our city we have one supermarket in our city price chopper on eastern avenue we don't have a wal mart we don't have a home depot we don't have loads no place for it you got taken property over by for the city goes out you've got to charter you want to change your charter i've talked to you for seventy years about changing the charter first of all we should focus the citizens of this city on the saudis not you people here are the salaries that change i like to see a few more of you resign as i said at the latest meeting and that might help us a lot as a matter of fact there's three four boards i could resign and we have a group of change there's a lot of candidates want to run this year and i think you ought to give  opportunity you've been in office and you haven't served three misses you have not served a citizen from head to toe from front to back you can't control the employees you're all for the police department suppose to protect us we're going to have to pay them deeply you don't use any common sense whatsoever and that's what we need here with all your intelligence with all your  forget that nonsense you've got thirty five cards going home for a while the price of oil the place again saline the citizens can't afford it but you can give it away and that's the way it's been going under this administration thanks a lot i stepped on here east tell my name is your you lewis and i live in bellevue i have some positive things to say although i listen to all the negatives and i have to say that i gree with all the negatives they'll sell my positives have to do with bargee the program said hill her three here were without problems and that's because they had proper supervision and it shows when you have proper supervision you can get something done and there are many people that cooperated the second thing was the bellevue picnic that was august thirteenth the city workers and the fire men and the sheriff's department all the volunteers everybody was just wonderful in helping us make this picnic a success and they they should be thanked for all of their hard work that they do with all the negatives we have is some really good city workers and they're very much interested in what's going and not everybody is that they are we are not making people responsible for their acts it is in the city and it seems as if that has to do with because we don't have proper police protection and what not you have got to make people responsible for their actions they'll be preservation for many years has sponsored debates of all valid candidates which we're doing again this year and i encourage all ballot candidates that are invited to these debates both in september and october to participate because of community needs to know what's going on if there is no debate there really isn't any truth to me answers because there is no same question to each candidate heard good evening minimus jackie heard and i live in schenectady a couple things i agree with what julia said in particular about the bellevue preservation picnic the park workers did do a great job so i won't reiterate what you said but again thank you from all of us remarks i'm going to make right now are going to be slightly different in tone from the ones i uttered a little while ago and basically i want to thank the city council for its awarding of the recognition of the people that you recognize really this evening some of those resolutions that were read were heartfelt and emotional and one in particular i'm glad that you did and that is recognizing rhonda phillips guy i'm a mom doesn't graduate she came along somewhat later than i did i won't tell you how one but she was a wonderful athlete a wonderful woman athlete and has brought a good shining spotlight to the city of schenectady and i'm very very heartened that she's being inducted into the schenectady city school district of what i call a frame while they were receiving the w local schools graduated from unpleasant went to all the election day football games i can tell you you really should go to the induction dinner because it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun but for those of you who don't remember those election day football games were not just an event for mount pleasant and not terrace which then became linton but basically an event for the whole city the students participated along with the athletes of course the teachers and believe it or not if you don't know is again was mentioned earlier the attendance on again those games was anywhere from five hundred five thousand to ten thousand people so event really that the whole city look forward to and read really purchased painted in their sort of evoke memories i remember half of their school roaring pep rally's the football game and it was really wonderful as a proud man pleasant red raider i will say that i remember the red raiders won thirty three games not terrace one eighteen but who's counting barry mclean i often hear the comments from this chamber from that side of the really that good things are happening in the city plex the city is been developed and revitalized council may like to take the credit for it but it is not their responsibility then there is  and proctors the wonderful shows playing to full houses crown spending money in the city people swarming to downtown and so forth it would not surprise me if the success of these projects are being driven by the six figure income earned by these two men i believe it recently was mentioned in this chamber a mr moore's a salary stands at two hundred thousand dollars a year and now one of proctor's workers is running for city council house how's that for packing the house as for mr yellen the last sell requoted for him in the newspaper was listed at approximately one hundred thirty thousand a year one can exercise a lot of energy and drive for that kind of money and yet there is another person who almost works  the two thousand and eleven budget as a result of this mistake there are bonus no art attack weekends in the city this year he now earns a s made possible from a grant for the woodlawn preserve i speak of mr don ratner this man is not driven by a six him i say bravo one well done thank you schenectady for the past sixty years and i think it's one of the longest running activities there has been consecutively going without a parade in the city is getting to me so i'm going to give you some ask the question for them to at least identify that they do they are they are schenectady and live in a city has got it so if they don't if they do good it's not maybe to spend time someplace else the other issue is in regards to a president how he mentioned us being puppets i've never been a puppet i've been his counsel i voted by myself and many occasions and i think by now i've never been a puppet i will always vote how i feel how i think and so for president hello say something that we're all puppets that is not true and yeah i just like to kind of go with what joe is saying in terms of this idea of being puppets i mean we are seven individuals we happen to be one political party but we're seven individuals there many times we don't agree and what we try to do in committee is sit and discuss the issues and we hear both sides i mean here you know mr erickson has certainly disagreed on we've all disagree with certain things so i just feel you know that's just not an accurate statement and i also just mention that those years out there i show but just  discussions in the back you know you know the details behind this all occurred on the committee meetings and so there are three ideas pushed back and forth in there as you know a good debate and discussion of all these things and so i think that it's it's  it's not true at least for me and that's who all speak to also we're going to use compared to china iran and iraq which i thought was a little bit over the top as well and i don't i bend at least china i haven't been to iran or it's working and one of the things that the goal when we started the recycling program and all this effort to go forward with recycling and all the extra promotion is to increase the rate of recycling which saves us money so if  it's if you're seeing a lot of it and it's maybe a little annoying and it sticks in the back your head you're thinking about recycling more than you want to that's that's a good thing that was the intention and the the more that's that's that's fine now we know that you're aware of the i like to think speakers that were here tonight and spoke out about the charter member and again barbara thank you for bringing it to everyone's attention yet again that this is a vote that everyone will have the opportunity to vote  in november i want to say that the reason i believe it's on the ballot so quickly is that so we can get it to board of elections on time so individuals will have in voters and city residents will have the opportunity to vote in to voice their opinion on this that being said some of the comments tonight the only thing i would say about that is i want everyone to keep in mind there are seven members of the city council  there's one mayor elected position and so if you're looking at it in terms of democracy i would have to say we have a lot more democracy on the side of the council in terms of just individuals in opinions that would be looked at it would be talked about with regard to something like this in one of the reasons that this legislation was brought out and was brought to bear was because all of us on the council as well as the residents and city taxpayers of the city of schenectady bear the brunt of deals that were made poorly over the years and we want to make sure not just for the council but for the rest of the taxpayers in the city is schenectady that these types of agreements are made with full disclosure of everyone be it the council be at the mayor and certainly within the city residents of the city is schenectady so thank you thank you mr president i just wanted to correct something that was said from the podium tonight we do have two other supermarkets in the shady all the things and price right and the home depot on watt street in fact in the city is connected so we greek fest to do the tribute to nine eleven it's a great weekend here in the community a lot of people come out to great venues and would encourage everybody to avail themselves of  some quality art entertainment and food you may fee to complain i'm not going to be negative i'm not going to do a pep talk but having these movie people here the last few weeks here in downtown and being undercover neutral party secret in new york state so you know we can make things better and as like a little six year old kid told me once the cross is a plus sign so let's make you know whether we're christians or not let's take our cause as citizens of this city and make it into a plus sign everybody is good opinions good inputs we all live and of course i want my black to be nice i want my city representatives to be on top of things you don't think i hear from my peers council i'll take your place any day guys i swear but we are the best kept secret let's not make it a secret anymore  let's show what we got here because schenectady you know was my youth kid say schenectady could really rap it's up to all of us that's all i have to say thank you and with those kind remarks all entertain a motion to adjourn move by council