i have number one under original consideration bond order ordinance dated march twenty seventh twenty seventeen authorizing the issuance of not to exceed seven million five hundred forty three thousand two hundred ninety eight dollars aggregate principal amount of serial bonds of the city of schenectady new york person went to the local finance law to finance a portion of the twenty seventeen capital plan this is discussed in committee without objection and c to item number two an ordinance approving the continuation of current bond anticipation notes for an additional year in the issuance of certain bonds and bands discussed in committee without objection consent  acceptance for a grant from new york state division of criminal justice services for police protective equipment in this is discussed in committee without objection on consent i member five item number five under original consideration authorizing the mayor or has designated to enter into a supplemental agreement number four with new york state department of transportation or the early boulevard j street not street and front street roundabout pin number one seven five resolution to restore the tax exempt status for first unitarian society and schenectady hindu temple and this is discussed in committee without objection and consent item of fourteen item number fourteen a resolution confirming the appointment of mark legislative service by sen you farley and this will be presented at a dinner in sen farley's honor but this is discussed a committee and will go on he consented gender without objection and we have one item under contracted supply very and all those in favor i we are journeyed i will now call the city council meeting to order for monday march twenty seventh two thousand and seventeen and i will ask you to we have two out of order items this evening ask mr hu to veer into presenting the ceremony resolution recognizing the twenty fifth anniversary of the says the house and i understand we have sharon cola i'm sorry resolution recognizing the twenty fifth anniversary of the house whereas in two thousand and seventeen an interfaith ministry that serves the local homeless community and our city most vulnerable this organization also working to educate the community regarding the needs of its most vulnerable citizens and award to create opportunities to sort of the disadvantaged while celebrating diversity and we are as  mayor mccarthy council president members of the city council on behalf of kim marie sheppard executive director of the festa house we thank you for this recognition as a program director i can tell you we see a varied segment of the population daily and their needs are special we are very grateful to the city of schenectady and to other agencies within this fine community for all the support we receive are devoted staff volunteers and  members thank you for this red recognition and now i'd like to introduce the board president reg moss or thank you it is truly are a wall when the family and  appreciate the recognition here today we're going to celebrate this twenty five year anniversary throughout the course of the year and we're going to start next tuesday with an open house that we invite the public to come to work the syllabi that's next tuesday between four and seven there is a need and the dedication of our staff and the volunteers certainly do all they can to satisfy that need or do the best they can to impact on that need and the collaboration with other organizations  be presenting a resolution that was passed in the last cycle and it recognizes national crime victims rights we children please come forward aleutian recognizing crime victims rights week where as according to the united states bureau of justice statistics over five million individuals were the victim of a crime of two thousand and sixteen and where as each year the department of justice is office for victims of crying beach communities throughout the country and their annual observances of national crime victims week by promoting victim's rights and honoring crime victims and those on their behalf and where as in two thousand and seventeen national crime victims rights will be observed from april second to april eighth with the theme strength resilience justice a theme that underscores the importance of multi disciplinary responses in building the capacity of individuals service providers and communities to respond to crime and to support the ongoing healing of victims and survivors and where as events are being held locally including the twentieth anniversary of the ceremony of remembrance for homicide victims and the award winning rose garden at schenectady central park on april fifth two thousand and seventeen at no one now therefore be resolved that the mayor gary r mccarthy and the city council dude hereby pause in their deliberations to recognize the week of april second two thousand and seventeen as national crime victims rights awareness week and to encourage as residents to help raise awareness apolo victims rights this is already been adopted so would like to hear from these advocates for crime victims thank you very much bar where it happened and came to the city council and worked with the parks director to get a section of the rose garden dedicated to the homicide victims and twenty years later we're still here unfortunately it's growing the numbers are growing but we have continued support in the city of schenectady the city council the mare for twenty years never has that ever wavered and we thank you so much for that everybody needs to know how important is it we have your support i want to introduce we have patricia joya who is she's our former chapter leader for parents for murdered children in little barges our latest member board member of the group we are recognizing people who are hoping that everyone shows up it's open to the public and we're really there to support the families and friends who have lost people to homicide and we'll have organizations there to provide support and i want to thank everyone very much i appreciate it  seventh two thousand and seventeen from chris wallace city engineer dated march twenty seventh two thousand and seventeen a letter recommending the contract for animal street improvements be awarded to callahan industries and under general there are no under petitions  committee reports is still going on this mayor as presented as far as i am concerned a corrupt budget i think it is very flawed the night within a month after he gave the state of the city budget i received a bill from time warner cable from adding a surcharge i i am objecting to this budget i am objecting to is a new issue upon if you don't mind miss president because of these flaw character of this these reports and my time warner cable budget has increased to thirteen months now i have among it's probably eight years now since i called the police about a theft in the backyard i have called these police i don't know how many times more than seven and they have yet to respond to any of my calls and yet they keep getting grants for more equipment when they are making some of them was at the top overtime mining makers in the council and now they have to have new lockers we pay for their time their overtime their vehicles their laundry and now they can't even live with the lockers a have already has or own locker what is so precious that they have to put in they have a locker we relieves them of so many responsibilities when they are not responding to their own responsibility i had someone could let me in my apartment for his dementia he would not leave the front door i couldn't get in i called checked the chief of the fire department and he said in a case like that if you want to pull the alarm on the fire alarm we will respond to it and we will not charge you and within six months every single one of these fire alarms has been shut down for a minute they don't exist anymore and as far as the says the house when they went up on that when they started their new program i have no one else signed it to speak so i will declare this portion of the meeting close and i will entertain a motion to approve the legislative agenda moved by mr cocksure second move to privilege of the floor regarding general city business i currently have twenty six people signed up to speak if this is the first time you're coming to the council meeting to speak you do need to sign up so is there anyone who hasn't signed up that wishes to speak this evening ok and also because we have a lot of speakers i'll ask that you give the speaker the full floor and hold your applause intel after the person has finished because we really want to hear every  that will not be allowed in this room schenectady nine hundred fifty one was raised in the g e plot and attended first reformed church both the city of schenectady and a few public schools i raise my kids in scotia my youngest son was just down the street from here now throughout the years i have seen a steady battle between two schenectady s one schenectady was the one painted to me which i believed in as a youth when i volunteered in the mornings at georget ejects refreshing springs daycare cent when i went to the programs my mother helped start a freedom forum when i marched in civil rights marches here in the city and when i watched the city accept and welcome a wave of his family's that schenectady is always try to reach out and make welcome those in need whether that need was rooted rooted in poverty discrimination illness or a lack of knowledge you're familiar with local laws customs or behaviors that's the schenectady i hope will think about the other schenectady has always been present as well it's the schenectady that shuns the residents of hamilton hill out of fear and ignorance it's disconnectedly that seeks to punish him blame those who are in need and fears that easing their road to a better life somehow disrespects or negates their own path right now we live in a time of fear fear that causes us to rush to conclusions about people who are not the same as we are a person who is different particularly those with brown or black skin are who are struggling with the english language this is an uncommon thing in history the idea of sanctuary began in ancient times and has been used repeatedly and positively to provide breathing space in this kind of time an opportunity for contemplation and informed judgment where fear and prejudice threaten to overwhelm justice the vast majority of immigrants both legal and illegal still come to our nation for opportunity often a job that many of us are not willing are not able to do they contribute they do not take away they come to unite with wives and husbands they come to work for opportunities that our companies provide they come to escape drug car tels climate change and war and the journey is never easy whether they come legally or illegally i'm asking you to open your hearts grant the sprit thing space that is essential in theirs in these times  there's no evidence and the research is that illegal immigrants are taking jobs or committing crimes that threaten our fireplace they're not drawing from our tax base our dream of draining limited resources larger they're giving more than they get so i ask you to please consider this community and the community you want to represent and vote for a skin activity that's essential  the evening now in private mr mayor city council my name's suzanne gold and i'm a city resident who supports sanctuary city my family and i have lived in the city since one nine hundred eighty five and as a diverse schenectady was is even more so today schenectady is a beautifully woven fabric of multi cultures religions colors languages genders stories and more our city has welcomed people with open arms giving a place to live without fear for themselves and their children skin schenectady has been a haven in the past and we need schenectady be a safe place for everyone including our immigrant citizens to live  stated in our constitution immigrants have come to this country throughout its history and to our city to better their lives many have come for all that america has promised would be waiting fear is what's waiting these days something i can't quite imagine i want our undocumented friends and the rest continue feeling safe calling nine one one feeling safe obtaining restraining orders feeling safe talking with the police when they are victims or witnesses to our police department is here to protect our residents and how can they accomplish their jobs when part of our population may be fearful of police contact that does not help our city and does not help these residents who may need police assistance our police department has a huge job and i don't want to see its duties diluted yes i want our police to uphold the law no i don't want them checking immigration status or detaining people only because of their status there is too much else for our city that they need to focus on all citizens of schenectady are entitled to the same constitutional rights and to be treated equally we all have stories of how we came to america some of us are immigrants some are first generation some are second generation and sometimes i fear as we get more generations between family refugees such as my grandparents and today some people forget how desperate our ancestors were for freedom for my grandparents to be free it is precious and people will do most anything to protect their families to survive take major risks to have a better life some of us become numb to the international news watching where people are fleeing from when you really take him what's in front of you bring  home and think about the community that you represent sanctuary isn't a change it's a commitment to maintaining the status quo and resisting the federal government's attempt to change our good community practicing in teaching contemplative practices for the last twenty years one of my barry favorite quotes is by jack kornfield an american mindfulness teacher he says the mind breaks things into a million pieces but the heart makes them whole and i'm here tonight talking to you from my heart imploring you to consider having a conversation about sanctuary city a public conversation  again in a spiritual context we can really divide things into two big groups fear and love in so when there is a lot of fear and justifiably sell the world is a scary place we cultivate courage we access a fierce love and it's i don't think it's an accident the two members of the council that are interested in having the conversation happen to be women and i think that whether or not you biological mother you know that there's love and compassion sometimes is easier to access so i thank you for that in the opposite of courage would be cowardice and that's a kind of closing the heart  to people in need and there's a sort of belief that there's a limited amount of safety and a limited amount of resources and so we are going to close up and almost create like a human shield you know for the people who are really suffering so i believe that until we are all free none of us will be free i also believe that the privilege that i have enjoyed while at the same time i worry about sending my thirteen year old to school to college i worry about my retirement and still consider myself a very privileged person and i'm also consciously aware that my privilege was built on other people's oppression and now i have an up or to a responsibility to try to advocate for people this fortunate  attorney i was going to talk about the people that i've come across during my tenure as an attorney who are undocumented who are victims of violence themselves and who won't come forward but i think that the people who are speaking and who have been speaking to you now for the last eight weeks have have appropriately covered that so what i will say being an attorney is that i am trained to hone in on the problem and what i see is the problem right now is that our elected officials are failing to conduct a public discussion about sanctuary cities and i see that we have elected you and you are choosing not to do that and that may be a way for you to avoid a public conversation about a very obviously passionate and timely issue but what i will say is that not discussing this issue is making a choice and the choice has been made not to have the conversation because as far as i can tell there are only two council members willing to discuss this so the assumption is that the remainder of the council members do not support a sanctuary city and that will be noted in the public record with the lack of conversation so everyone in this room is aware and knowing when they go back to the polls where their council member stand thank good evening members of the counseling mayor mccarthy my name is kevin nelson and i'm a resident of schenectady where in an environment today where members of our government are seeking to polarize us and seeking to make us fear another group of people and to develop anger towards them one of the great leaders of the jewish tradition over the past two millenia he was challenge to explain the torah while someone was standing on one l from my tradition jesus said something similar he said it a little bit as an inverse love your neighbor as yourself and then he went on to give an example of what that means and he told a beings how to be human interesting leading attorney general jeff sessions is also a united methodist we seem to come from different streams of thought we face a choice as this happened throughout history a group been identified as the other is being something different from the rest of us as being a threat to those of us who are thought to be true americans we've heard this tonight effectively you know we're being told that we should hate and fear these other people sessions is going so far as to threaten to use the power of his office to coerce us into doing so but these operators are our neighbors they are part of our community they are part of us and we shouldn't let ourselves be threatened and intimidated we are stronger when we stand together as a my name is stephanie i'm a resident of bellevue and one of the things that's very important to me as a good community member is shopping small and local which is why i'm very proud to have our locals connect the green market i think it's a huge asset to our community i shop there oh most every sunday if not every sunday for the vast majority of my groceries and part of that means that migrant workers are doing a lot of the work that brings me my groceries matter and i reached out to four of you who have not expressed anything and i'd like to thank mr pollin many for quickly returning my call i'm sad to say i didn't hear anything back from the three others two of which are up for reelection this  year and when mr polly many and i spoke we talked about how our police are too busy to do the work of ice and that is so true ours and the officers have too much to do to do the work of ice but it's happening elsewhere and i'm sure those officers are no less busy than ours and in order to make all of our communities members feel free of fear i think that we should all do all we can legally symbolically morally to do it prayerfully in any way possible that we can show love and support to all of our community members but especially those that are most vulnerable i think it is especially important as good citizens as good community members and can we do it see supporting together yes we can conviction and an invocation invitation the context fear and self protection are always present we know they're usually kept in balance because of the goodness within people that creates an affirming and accepting and a caring environment with a fulfilling place for everyone however recent months the president and other leaders have willfully whipped up reticent residual fear and intentionally fanned the fires of fictitious names ideas to produce blind controllable along they have stalked and co opted the actual suffering of good people just support their dash to power and their call for self satisfaction people have been led to believe that if they will follow along her will be relieved and life's stresses will be  personal example these leaders have called forth hatred i tack and divisiveness against good honest gifted people who are contributing to the well being of all many who are the objects of this hatred find themselves in conditions not of their own making beyond their control and confronted with devastating results the conviction human dignity our greatest value our words the poisoning of the environment with cause to fear and hatred and divisive seeks intentionally to obliterate the gift of inner goodness in people under a covering darkness it attempts to take away that which defines all of us dr martin luther king jr understood darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that my conviction is that those who will support each other with trust and love can go deeply below the surface darkness to the inner goodness in themselves and others there we receive the path of light and of love with which we can change our focus from i suffering of those who are the target of hatred i do need you to summarize mr i am my invitation in face of any threat of retaliation i invite each and all of you to join me and going to the deep inner places of our own personal lives where the good stuff exists from that inner saying surely i invite you to make the healing sound vigorish choice to keep open an ongoing discussion of sanctuary city within the agenda of the city council of schenectady until the final decision is a joyous yes maybe we be a clear expression of the reconciling light and of the unconditional love the do so needed in this time thank you very much for  usage and i live in the city of schenectady and i appreciate this opportunity to speak before you as a long time resident of the city of schenectady i urge all the members of arse city council to discuss and consider giving schenectady a sanctuary city status being a sanctuary city does not mean applying public benefits to undocumented people as some detractors would want us to believe it means allowing law abiding undocumented residents to live among us peacefully without fear that they will be questioned by the schenectady police officers about their immigration status it will prevent schenectady police officers from doing the work of federal immigration agencies to identify apprehend to detain law abiding immigrants documented or undocumented it will give potentially vulnerable people more confidence to contact authorities to report crimes in our streets and community without fear of being turned over to federal authorities for possible deportation our nation is based on the contributions of immigrants of all races creeds and nationalities those living alongside us and contributing peacefully to our community should not live in fear of our police our police force has important work to do and their mission should not be diluted by doing the work of federal agencies as well i establishment i've very involved in schenectady in terms of my life and a lot of the people opposed to sanctuary city or for some misconceptions which i think are worth clarifying the idea of a sanctuary city was initially came forward as a safety issue these cities recognized that they were illegal immigrants who would not talk to the policemen and made it very hard for police to enforce to solve crimes so many cities a number of cities started developing came up with this idea of this will be safer for the city the city will work better if we don't the immigrants of illegal immigrants are afraid that our local policeman old will send them off to the immigration services those cities are in st think about have not gotten rid of their sanctuary oh my god what a mistake it's working they've stayed a sanctuary cities and more and more cities are becoming sanctuary cities this whole state of maryland is considering becoming a sanctuary city it can't be that much of a disaster if these cities are doing it and  been a few cases that have been gloria made big issues of the famous case in san francisco to get people afraid of illegal immigrants oh my god i don't want that kind of person coming in tearing apart my community we're talking like one individual or two there's lots of other criminals around there who are not going to get rid of every white male because of a white male who killed people right so we have to be careful about overreacting to things being presented it way that strikes at our fears and racism good look at the record it looks like it's going fine today we think it was interesting attorney general sessions was giving a presentation and he focused specially on that case in san francisco and is is he's talking to one case he's just appealing to people's racism in fear they're trying to control control this issue of fear something i find interesting is that they are trying to make cities not become center cities or give up their status with these threats of me to ever not give in gra trying to get you to take the money and i want you to stop and think at what case would you not take the money right what point is it this is it would you take money that will make your city worse so if you exam sanctuary city the city status and then recognize hey this might work pretty well you should come to a conclusion well this is right we got this of what the federal government's going to do i don't want your money federal government if it's going to make me do something that's going to make misty a sanctuary city which have already been explained to the council tonight and the past few meetings so let me just review restate a few of the most important ones not only do we have a moral obligation to a protect our undocumented neighbors but it turns out as many people have stated sanctuary cities are better for everyone the most obvious reason being that sanctuary cities are safe for the nonce in sherry cities a recent study by lauren collingwood an assistant professor of political science at university of california riverside shows not only is it the case that sanctuary cities do not produce higher crime rates but they are typically designed to increase trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement and quote as a result of this trust crime reporting off to increases in sanctuary cities even as crime itself goes down since undocumented immigrants are more likely to work with police and local authorities if they trust that they will not be turned over to federal agents or findings or cooperat political scientist from u c s d who found quote on average counties that did not comply with ice request experienced thirty five point five fewer crimes per ten thousand people than those that did and quote he further found that smaller more rural sort of like ours experience the most significant impact from sanctuary policies on their crime rates which were significantly lower wong also found that the economies were stronger than the cities again the positive impact on the rural counties  being even more pronounced undocumented immigrants make up three point five percent of the u s population despite the misinformation that has been circulating about undocumented immigrants it turns out that happen america's undocumented immigrants pay income taxes in some form according to the institute on taxation and economic policy in two thousand and ten undocumented immigrants contributed an estimated ten point six billion dollars in state and local taxes and thirteen billion in social security on this point it is also worth noting that contrary to common perception illegal immigrants don't qualify for public benefits like welfare food stamps and medicaid as these programs require proof of legal immigration status therefore undocumented immigrants are not draining our resources furthermore the cost of using local law enforcement as people have noted do the to do the ice job of ice is extremely costly to the city itself mccarthy was quoted in the designer as saying that quote we're not being asked for ice to go out  be declaring schenectady sanctuary city wouldn't change the way it operates it will change the way in which on documented immigrants interact with our local law enforcement the benefits i've just outlined will not occur without publicly announcing ourselves to be a  legal and illegal something's wrong i just can't understand what it is the legal people the first word out of the mouth was illegal that's against the law samantha fletcher good evening i am a member of the cherokee nation i was born and raised in oklahoma which is indian territory i was lucky enough to move to new york in two thousand and four and two thousand and nine i chose to move my trans racial trans ethnic family to schenectady the reason i chose schenectady is because of the diversity of our city in particular i wanted my kids in schools with people of mixed race different gender identities different sexual orientations schenectady our first all of those things i especially value our community members from other countries are actually call friends people from other countries they offer us different perspectives they offer us different languages we get introduced to other cultures food which everyone likes and most importantly to me different ways of thinking and different ways of conceptualizing problems and solutions i work as a social science research or at suny albany since twenty thirteen i've been working on a study leading a study at social change strategies i have interviewed several lifelong social activists many who have done their activism work in schenectady because of this study i have access to hundreds of documents starting in the one nine hundred forty s to the present these documents show a history of racial and ethnic and immigrant bias in our education system in our labor force and in our housing now that you know where else these documents show they show your predecessors working with community organizers and activists to change laws so i am asking you tonight to do what your predecessors have done to change the laws to change the community and the feeling of the community and to make schenectady a sanctuary city first of all before i forget want to commend the city snow removal i don't know where he's dumped at all but i saw the commissioner of the canal system and he says that little cut in the harbor is not going to influence the water level around here at all creek still rising this i look around his whole lot more women than there are men and is this what women are supposed to do with their lives i see this whole thing as a bunch of favorable noser experimentation program you know we really love having all these experimenters come here frankly i think i know a little too much about the experiment to be in your comfort zone so he's back somebody else and have somebody else is truly i have lived in many states student at high school that complained about he could learn more bad basket weaving some kind of foreign dance this that and every other injuries he could not get a good background in math and science and when the valedictorian of this class was named and he's going to harvard and he and his friends that got together and done a stell production at the high school it was pointed out at this video that this boy was not an american he was from a mixed ethnic family respecting unlike every other community in this county that gets aired on television you will not answer us you have to pay and then us you get your check most of you are double dippers some of i have not found a war that this community has not been willing to reenact it goes on and on and  thank you thank you madam president and the mayor my name is for team a certain i'm a resident of the city of schenectady i'm here today to show my support was connected to becoming a sanctuary city in the past month we have been hearing lots of reports of immigrants being detained and deported fathers and mothers being separated from their children every time i read these headlines and reminded of my great grandfather over one hundred years ago my great grandfather boarded a ship and sail from india to south africa the trip took three weeks upon arrival or shortly thereafter he was told that the authorities would catch up with him because he did not have the right papers he must have panicked because he was soon found dead hanging from a tree he left behind a young wife and three young children my great grandfather was no alone in his search for a better life in seeking an opportunity to provide for his family over the years many men and women made that same journey my own father was also brought to south africa by his mother similar ship when he was just a year old today in our america it concerns me that there are people like my grandfather a grandfather who are living in fear men women children family people hardworking people devoted to their families people whose crime is wanting a better life for their families a chance to lead productive fulfilling lives in a safe environment to provide for their families and have the satisfaction of knowing that their children are getting an education as far as my family is concerned we have stablished ourselves in africa established attending schools and universities and serving the community my father served in city council for eight years as well as on the committees of several nonprofit organizations my extended family now lives on four continents we have business owners teachers professors lawyers doctors community leaders and yes we have a judge in our family i ask the counsel to look at the big picture walk a mile in someone else's shoes take time to listen to our stories our dreams and our hopes be willing to make schenectady a century so that all children can go to school in the morning and be confident that they are safe that their parents  library that every center will become the heart of the mt pleasant community a new car means a new energy and life this is going to make a big difference to many people in the children of our community we hope businesses will once again story we hope families will purchase homes and bring back to my present of long ago homeowners have a vested interest in their community stability is the key this is the start of putting the pleasant back in my closet we thank you we want to look forward to working with you and the community of mt pleasant is very happy and we thank you conference this afternoon he used two crimes possibly the only two they can document of murder perpetrated by the undocumented alien mexican he focused on them to illustrate the kind of illegal immigrants the d o j and i are seeking out to deport murderers rapists and dangerous criminals but those are not the only people that isis targeting around the country isis hanging out in courts in hospitals in school yards to detain decent people who have been here for years even decades parents husbands wives neighbors friends and family i just want to read to you the a response to jeff sessions that was posted on facebook today despite the trumpet quoting despite the trumpet ministrations bluster and threats the federal government cannot force local police into becoming deportation agents and should not try to scare local authorities into taking illegal actions that undermine public safety and subject them to liability police and municipal officials have been sticking by their decisions to do what's best for the safety of their communities and we will continue to stand with them in court to defend those awful chili says thank you during the summer but pretty me everyone i've been a city resident on and off for the last thirty one years i live in the city of schenectady and i'm very proud of progress that we've made over the last few years the financial strength of the city has made strides and with this in mind the slightest can't fathom one would want to be conserving your sanctuary city so actually cities exist because we're their proponents have been able to confuse immigration with illegal aliens rarely will you hear the words sanctuary city and illegal alien in the same breath  or sentence now before anybody gets excited about this my mother was an immigrant we refer to the illegal alien as simply an immigrant but a race is the illegality of their presence to refer to them as simply immigrants is an insult to the immigrant who comes to this country legally establishes themselves legally and enjoys life in this country with all of its challenges and rewards to refer to illegal aliens as law abiding is a little deceptive the mere fact that they are here illegally shows that the broken the law to be an illegal alien is illegal in the second on january twenty fifth  of this year president trump signed an executive order that would cut off certain funds to sanctuary cities these funds consists mainly of homeland security and justice department funds the city has collected these grants in the past even tonight you voted on  as recently as two years ago we received three hundred thousand dollars for camera installation in downtown in two thousand and five hundred fifty five thousand dollars was awarded by homeland security through the county for development of the homeland security consortium that financially flush that we can operate without these monies why in the world would we want to knowingly give up these funds in order to conduct an illegal activity sanctuary cities are illegal to can three t with federal authorities if walking into a landmine why would we want to subject ourselves to this proponents of sanctuary cities status will tell you that if we do not adopt to their thinking we will be ripping families apart gang members are not the casual members of the illegal alien community we are told to tolerate these are dangerous individuals who are following members of m s thirteen into new areas of the country especially in to declare sanctuary cit once a month up at the ancient order of hibernian so there is a swearing in ceremony for new citizens these people are from every corner of the globe who have come here work here assimilated here who take their oath of citizenship to the united states it is one of the most moving ceremonies i have ever attended a sanctuary city a sanctuary city status would be a slap in the face of this process thank you i know i don't live in schenectady i did we moved out quite a while ago obviously i'm a lone wolf here in a big field to change the tide i am my father and mother were immigrants from italy moved here back in the early fifty's but they came here legally and i'm very proud of that i understand both sides of the story but i think what we fail to realize here is that there is legal and there is illegal i have no animosity towards anybody coming to this country but i think there's enough room and there's enough ways to come here and turn it around from illegal to legal i guess that's my point i did come here to say about the say fact that was my initial my initial reaction but listening to the crowd i had to say that i apologize if i took up to what your time and i thank you for your time looks no cause was getting stuck in the middle of the street snowplow came to the plow one time in the mornin and one time in an evening then i go into my house out the long day of shovel and to look at the news to find out storm so i see the city should be more conscious and make affective plans when we have finals on so that we can safely commute back and forth to work because it was just crazy  good evening mare mina president city council members my name and i live in the city of schenectady you have lived here for twenty two years you've heard me speak about sanctuary cities a couple of times already so tonight i'm going to read a quote from a prominent democratic politician what has happened to us in this country if we study our own history we find that we have always been ready to receive the unfortunates from other countries and though this may seem a generous gesture on our part we have profited a thousand fold by what they have brought us it may be that some of these very refugees may make discoveries which will bring us to many of them represent the best brains of the countries from which they come we must not let ourselves be moved by fear in this country we have seen that happen too many times in other countries sometimes i worry about the possibility that we will follow their example those were the words of eleanor roosevelt in and thirty nine in response to the opposition to allow jewish refugees into the united states i once again appeal to this council to consider a resolution declaring the city of schenectady be a sanctuary city or freedom city or any term you find acceptable that makes clear a public statement that our bond horsman officials will not do the work of ice with another quote from eleanor roosevelt the morality of a political party must grow out of the conscience and the participation of the voters there are three city council seats open for election this year and i plan to participate in both my conscience thank you good evening madam president council members mayor mccarthy and other interested parties i know i am here again it's the third time you've been hearing about sanctuary city for the past two months and for the life of me i cannot figure out why you will not entertain of motion and talk about this among your empowering get to an open council meeting i cannot understand with the people who have been coming here over the past two months to speak and on a very eloquently they have brought out so many topics and again i look that time is running out for you to stand up i do not know why you are not going to stand up right now you're looking down at your books do whatever but but you need to stand up just to be on the right side i mean schenectady is a wonderful place to live i will not take that away at all but we you each and every one of you we've elected you to do what we might like to see done and we this is a wonderful place we can come have the privilege of the floor and speak to you we can also call you and some of you have been wonderful in calling back and others have just disregarded a phone call so i'm just closing and i  will your meeting next week your council meeting will find that you will bring the topic of sanctuary city forward and i hope that when we come back two weeks from now to the council meeting we will have from you a good decision and begin thank you but by never fifteen fifty one grand boulevard been there fifty two years even with potholes in front of the front door which the city just built for me  can give you a brief story of what happened to a local person who was put on a plane and sent back to the old country as part of the federal government's policies of what to do this happened sixty eight years ago this was a refugee family came here from kosovo and landed in albany with the help of church council people our church  united methodist and schenectady helped settle them into a house and helped them in a few first few weeks and months this was a good family a mother and father three boys who were then as young kids up early high school and a daughter with a young daughter of her own the boys all went through school the mother in far the word got jobs she bag groceries at the price chopper in eastern parkway union college and still they are hard working and very much wanted to make it in america wanted to get on and we helped them out as best we could ok the young man i helped tutor him to learn english in the high school in the library good kid well when he graduated he lived in albany had a girlfriend and was out of the story is he was helping to buy drugs for her you know mr intolerable mistake as an as an alien without a green card  you can't you can't argue against that sort of matter and job so his day came and as i was told they took him they came and took him out of where he worked at the restaurant bar inciter have been made where he would have some help when he got there he would have a place to sustain him self and even a job and so on we weren't supposed to kill people by sending them abroad but this guy was handled so poorly and and and he was sent there with a relative that really wasn't very close charge to rent to live in a back room and he finally got a job as a barber you know baby here you know because of always among the most backwards countries in europe and there still is because the work there going on between serbs and and muslims there and you know  the the upshot of this is we treat people very poorly in this program it was not done as human beings do things for each other that was a loving family they felt so bad that their son made a mistake and got caught up in this and we're all very sorry it happened i believe he survived i heard from the family recently but almost it almost killed him to send  and president members of the council and mayor mccarthy thank you for the opportunity to speak i think we actually all agree on more in points than we disagree we all seem to agree that the federal government needs to fix our immigration laws we all agree that it is better for people to have a legal documented status and i think deep down we all understand that immigrants make our country stronger i know that i would not be living here today or even exist at all i not for immigration because both my parents are descended from immigrants but from different places such as ireland and eastern europe and i'm a mix and that would not be possible if not for immigration so i think we can all say about ourselves that if not for us someone in our family tree was not born here but came to this country either voluntarily or involuntarily today there are many reasons why an immigrant mi without documentation that status though does not make a person a criminal or a danger or undesirable immigrants have built up our country and continue to do so even undocumented  immigrants given the current federal administration and are uncertain times i think it is all the more important that we as a city have some guidelines for local law enforcement to safeguard our immigrant residence it boils down to formally limiting the role of local law enforcement in their compliance with requests from federal agencies such as ice attorney general eric schneiderman has provided a model of action cities can take to limit such involvement from what was  the end of city council meeting last month sounds like these recommended statements having just read through them myself would not actually change what our local police are already doing but it would give guidance for new situations that might arise i think this is important in really hope that the city council will seriously take that into consideration it just might make a real difference down th pamela like to start off by letting everybody know that our church rob bridge church in mount pleasant is going to be participating in april fourteenth holding the cross and something called the cross walk where we're going to go to our multicultural  people in mount pleasant and share our ideas and see if we can get some responses from that and peace in the community is always good interaction is good that's how we get answers and that's how we get results or  if i think if we elected ourselves we would have the best answers but we have people with different values some opinions and all this was good tonight upwards of patterns of also a local sponsor that's going to promote the event and promote some other outings and i dealt with some incidents and with them that because you know i we know my culture i we know what i what my soul this and i'm influenced by others to try to change my opinion  imputing to me because at the end of the day that it's only me that answer so myself but i made some mistakes and that's because i only knew him certain things were not everything and that  is when i had somebody from a different culture that responded in a way that i misinterpreted and they corrected the situation where i could a convicted somebody got them in trouble and that's why i believe in you know cultural from a law enforcement field we had more cultural environment an all expense a business we would have more or less a misinterpretation to the second i want to mention about how these people come up and you know they mean  pages page patience is a virtual there's still time left there's still more decisions being made and more answers that need to be adjusted for a good answer that's harmonious with everybody and i see myself as a promoter i participated in a lot of things you got to participate not ran so i'm getting to the point the thing is that our law enforcement has had basketball tournaments they had involvement  seconds that you talk to somebody ok because that's what matters the most is that i want to i want to close with that and i would like to say that you know every person you know deserves you know a chance and i'm thank you i just want to make a couple of announcements first and foremost the summer youth employment program the applications are out they need to be back by friday april twenty eighth they compete picked up in the county offices i know most of the schools have them  leaving get them on the website so anyone who's in need of any kind in summer youth employment over the summer please stop by and pick up an application in a five there is that there's going to be a benefit for the ring of hope boxing boxing i know this was already said earlier but it was on my notes that april fourth there's a open house that i had as a house from four to seven and on april fifth the rose garden ceremony for the victims rights so that was it  so it's a budget season again and in the past month or so we've passed several resolutions as a council to try to change some of the things that are happening from the state level in particular we didn't actually do a and quite frankly if we want meaningful tax relief we need an increase in pain funding we haven't had an increase in gaming quite a while and in fact in the state it's decreased furthermore we did pass a resolution on unfunded mandates and that's really a top down approach to the government and this really has a major impact on local governments as far as tax taxes go property taxes and i would your school tax a school portion thirty three percent is the city and roughly thirteen fourteen percent is from the county i will also remind people that the city has lowered their property taxes the past two years whereas neither of the other groups have lowered taxes at all so if we really want property tax relief we really need increasing anything and we need reform on state mandates so i would encourage you to call the governor's office his number his office number is four seven four eight three nine zero likewise there's legislation that's being considered to provide a tax benefit tax relief tax credit i should say for music as well as video gaming seem i say what's that got to do is connect  the fact is video game apps and things along those lines as high tech industry which we have a burgeoning economy economic sector here in schenectady  piece for our local economy so i would encourage again people to contact their local legislators to push for this tax credit it could be very meaningful for the city  that it's not like there's not a dialogue when that is being brought out the reality is people are saying when are you going to vote for this so let's make that clear as far as  just not happening here and it's going on the schenectady police are not going around asking people for their immigration status on the street they're not detaining people who have done nothing wrong it's just not happening here  and this notion again that that there's fear is just incorrect i for myself i've been the twenty three countries i've had to i think i'm the only one on the city council has actually lived abroad and i've had to go through immigration stats so in the country i lived in ny i was there as a pseudo diplomat so this notion that we have issues with cultural sensitivity is just wrong if you're talking about comprehensive immigration reform certainly that's something that everybody on this council i believe thinks needs to happen on the federal level that's something that's just needs to be done it's broken but there's also been discussion up refugees versus immigrants refugees have a second stats there's a way to go about being a ref get refugee s that's not the same as something for sanctuary city so there's been a lot of things that just need to be cleared up and you know quite frankly i really the notion that there is bigotry free fear hate crime is council to do this because because of this is just incorrect i mean i've had family members who literally had somebody kill shot in the back of the head and the come tree that they lived in and they came here i mean i penned the countries where kids were picking garbage to find food i've been on the border of the country where literally if i put my foot on the other side it would have been shot and killed so this is not about fear this is about legal versus illegal status and you know there certainly needs to be comprehensive immigration reform no one's arguing that but this notion otherwise you know let's let's be clear what we're talking a d in terms of the funding that also is something that needs to be cleared up there was a statement that says that somebody said that said if who would turn down  grant money to not become sanctuary cities well that's not what it's about it's if you become a sanctuary city you could lose the funding and i know that the eric schneiderman has said it will fight that and the fact is some of that is not constitutional but there are pieces that are constitutional there's been supreme court rulings that find funding can only be would help if it's relevant to the federal interest in the project for example law enforcement grants administered to century age or jurisdictions by the justice department they were already a target under the obama administration in may the department investigated grant recipients based on potential violations of federal status that requires local agencies that share information on inmates with the federal government the supreme court prohibited the federal government from  commandeering the states by forcing them to work with the feds at their own expense by actively and forcing federal laws again this is not happening in schenectady and lastly and terms of the funding several supreme court rulings show that funding could be lost by local communities the n c commandeering doctrine doesn't protect sanctuary cities for public universities because it doesn't apply when congress merely request information for example reno versus condon in two thousand the court unanimously rejected an anti commentary challenge to the drivers for privacy protection act which required states under certain circumstances to close some personal details about license holders the court concluded that because of the d p p requested information he did not require state officials to assist in force in a federal statutes it was consistent with the new york and prince case if owls consistent with the n t can the theory doctrine congress can require state local or university police tell federal agents when they are present in the country illegally a separate constitutional doctrine the anti coercion doctrine likewise won't sh sanctuary's the joc current holds that while congress may impose conditions on receipt of federal funds it cannot coerce states into accepting those conditions there was a case the south south dakota and n f i b versus a bill yes two thousand and twelve that showed that congress can cut off funds if the conditions imposed are relevant to the federal interest in the project and threaten loss of money and it doesn't amount a gun to the head defined by a substantial percentage a proper approach in a box in the twenty percent of state budgets congress could meet the standards many federal programs provide billions to universities and state and local enforcement provided the percentage would help doesn't approach this twenty percent threshold it would be constitutional as with highway funds in south dakota these programs are designed in part to improve safety of campuses in communities that certainly debatable this goal would be furthered by withholding funds from cities and universities that provide sanctuary criminals present in the country illegally such individuals by definition not only are unvetted by the federal government but happen minute crimes while here the constitution is clear that the power to determine deportation policies belongs to the congress so these are some of the things have been said just trying to clarify all sides of the argument certainly there conference this past weekend friday evening there was a speaker there his name is tim wise and the name of the topic of that conference that the conference itself was american that with race denial privilege and who matters it was extremely thought he was a very very powerful speaker and he had a lot to say and all of it really really interesting and really really made you want to think you just look at various sides of what was going on  how people perceive things when it comes to race privilege one of the things that he really started to talk about though he actually talked about what we're talking about tonight and it's about immigrants in america and how he presented that really was in my mind  a way that could be a real conversation starter i want to say thank you to the people that did come out have come out and have you know i want to acknowledge the fact that you you continue to come out because you have something that you'd like us to hear so i i understand