original consideration and resolution banning any portion of union street right of way continuous with sixteen zero two sixteen zero zero four sixteen zero six and sixteen zero eight union new year as we try to make a place that is peaceful and joyful and brings justice for all this we ask in your holy name  of the two thousand and twelve consolidated plans citizens participation process actually made a mistake there's actually two public hearings but we're going to go with the first public hearing in first person signed up is city council president city council baron mccarthy to have a public hearing about the our if people process an issue that on the same day is not responsible not respectful to the community that you must serve and seek advice into how to implement the plan according  regulations i have said for the last ten years that the city needs to have an affirmative action plan a person with disabilities and minorities that live in the city the merit of staff is not appropriated the community will block grant monies to ensure that person with disabilities have a meaningful access to all programs activities and services to of said grant for the last five years the city in the county has had a contract to handle affirmative action services which has not lived up to the contract requirements and failed to assure equal access to these grounds the thousand nine hundred supreme court decision to maximize community integration of persons with disabilities the city of schenectady person with disabilities are living in poverty four times higher than their non disabled in the state rates only three times with new york state unemployment rates sits at seventy percent is too high a schenectady county dead last in new york state county so not having a plan to help is poor planning misappropriation said grounds also not following the five year plan which was adopted in tw ten is not appropriate for which collaboration with the community must be done to help achieve those goals set forth in the five year plan in conclusion the community on the client tract needs to be reviewed the goals must be met and not allowed to be overlooked to the point of just going through the motions of getting something done on the paper thank you very much thank you mr plank the next speaker signed up is ted ward city beach great comes i know you put it no you put it in a paper in and it you know is publicized there but as far as the public in the community having some input in dialogue with it i think they need to continue to start the process and hopefully with good evening ellie pepper and the assistant director of better neighborhoods incorporated i thank you for the opportunity to comment on c b c funding as the assistant director better neighborhoods i would like to take a moment to come and housing counseling services we provide her homeownership center a homeownership center that provides access to safe fordable housing in schenectady we build newly constructed homes rehabilitate existing structures and sister pension home buyers and current homeowners through one on one pre purchase counseling post purchase counseling and for closure prevention counseling we've been able to provide these services for years supported in part through c d g funds for the current funding year you increased our funding to make up for significant loss and hot housing counseling funds we appreciate your support of this vital and important program these funds allo leverage more than two point six million in local state federal and private funds to support our mission our primary goal is to enable low moderate income residents to own and occupy housing in the target areas we serve from january two thousand and nine through november two thousand eleven the b and i housing counseling staff conducted one on one home or ship counseling to more than seven hundred fifty potential and current homeowners counseling sessions for potential home buyers includes all aspects of the home buying process the most important aspect of the sessions is the extensive discussions that focus on what a potential home buyer can afford counselors review all costs associated with homeownership consider also aspects of the household budget and ensure that the client receives the best most affordable mortgage counselors will discourage home ownership until a client is truly in a position to afford the home over the long term sustenance for current homeowners and mortgage default or for closure include an extensive review of their household budget correspondence with their lender service or coordination with legal services when necessary an ongoing budget and credit counseling sessions calculate to a perk cost of six hundred six dollars from january two thousand and nine through november two thousand and eleven housing counselors assisted seventy first time home buyers complete just in schenectady these home buyers invest total of approximately five point five million in the local real estate real estate market during the last fiscal year fifty three percent of the homes purchased by our clients were previously non or interactive provide the cost of providing this most needed of services to the community had significant valu creating educated homeowners and restoring homes to the tax base in addition to being a stabilizing influence on a real estate market and a cornerstone of the tax base in schenectady or interactive pincer significant assets when it comes to building strong communities homeownership counseling educates potential homeowners so that their american dream does not turn into a nightmare according to the homeownership preservation foundation a study done in two thousand and five by william c after of the joint center for housing studies at harvard university a foreclosure could impose direct costs on local government agencies told in more than thirty four thousand and indirect cost in nearby property owners in the form of reduced property values and home equity of as much as an additional two hundred twenty thousand especially i need you to summarize yes between january and november of two thousand and eleven we help sixty five home homeowners save their homes using these numbers considering the per client costs we saved local government and homeowners more than twenty five point twenty four point five million with counseling services that cost less than forty thousand dollars over a two year period thank you thank you supporting a live where you work initiative in the housing arena concluding as resources go small in the economy remains shaky we need such concepts and programs the bring those limited resources together i hope you will consider supporting this and many other housing initiatives that work to address really issues and not just the symptoms you sorry couldn't she could not be here this evening i want to share with you just a couple areas in terms of the it's all the plan appreciate the opportunity to be with you this evening well i mostly want to come in and some housing issues i want to thank you and remind you the members on the importance of the support for activities in the city's parks through this process our summer lunch program is only a part of what needs to go on the parks as a support of activities and jerry quackenbush an expansionist imus and hillary spark a very important hope with this if can be maintained and expanded also we all know that the competition for funding now is very severe but i hope that the mayor and the council continue to support the current level of public services activities funding as fully as possible i hope a city would continue to seek for resources for important public safety activities from graham's residence or the limited city b g funding and terms of housing issues i want to thank the mayor and the council for your leadership in improving the code enforcement activities of the city hopefully this will require fewer resources a greater efficiencies i believe however the kota for some is only one part of the picture for improving housing in our community and needs to be combined with other strategies now zain needs are great as you know from last year looking at the two hundred worst houses and unfortunately this list is beyond the two hundred the regular housing needs are so great i hope a city b g funds of city will wind down the green housing initiative in favor of programs for increasing homeownership and demolition in terms of homeownership i was glad to see the mayor's initiative with a realtor is no others for a greater focus on promoting housing sales and some others who welcome the chance to work in partnership on this and particular there was a program idea we talked about last year called live where you work i hope we can make progress on the meetings were focused on the north side or goose hill it was not just because i live there but because it seemed to have the right ingredients for such an effort and affordable housing program potential key employers a mix of owners and renters a good location great potential whether or not with con plan funds i hope the city this could be a city priority i support the land bank concept and legislation i hope the city successful the state should provide resources for demolition if not successful i hope we can work together to see what resources could be made possible for greater demolition ever since the needs are so great finally encourage the city keep and hopefully enhanced funding for housing counseling activities with the nonprofit community as you heard preparation for homeownership is very important greedy and this activity leverage as many other supporters thank you for your consideration thank mission it is provide affordable housing promote homeownership stimulate stimulate economic development and empower the people of the neighborhood it serves better neighborhoods believe there is a need for a housing rehear program in the city to stabilize neighborhoods and preserve our housing stock term business loans primarily for low and moderate income person i hope that the council will take a look at the situation in the report going forward in the new year and i also just want to say that i congratulate those of you who have been elected and re elected and look forward to working with you in the future thank you thank you mr wits ebony belmar now did you want to privilege of the floor ok thank you i have a ok that includes all the speakers for the first public hearing and seeing no other speakers i will declare the public hearing closed hearing making changes to violations and penalty section two sixty four one twenty seven of article twenty eight of the zoning ordinance i have no one signed up for this public hearing so seeing as there is no public speakers i will also declare this public hearing closed thank you we will move ahead now to prove all of the minutes and may have a motion to approve the minutes from the last council meeting moved by council member king is there second to prove all of the minutes seconded by council member all those in favor mansur approved communications and petitions communications the city council for monday january ninth two thousand and twelve official from the mayor and lists of appointments general petition discuss that the government operations committee along with our representative from o s m and there were a variety of opinions but we drill down to is that we will be in going forward in two thousand and twelve as time permits we will be removing the format of putting the garbage schedule up while people are speaking and replacing that with some other information we see it is a valuable opportunity to be able to offer information to the public especially those that are engaged and off to be watching the council meetings on t v we agree that the garbage schedule may not be the best thing and the most useful tool for that area during the council meeting so watch for changes continue to give us feedback i assume since you wrote the letter that you're out there watching tonight so continue to give us feedback and know that where  we're paying attention and making changes thank you council member or anyone else any other committee reports seeing none i will close a section of the committee reports and move on to the floor on the legislative agenda i only have one person signed up in knots joy hall but are you sure you're talking on the legislative agenda i  and during the budget process we issued over two million dollars without even having a public hearing on it so and it you know we need to correlate back to a five year plan that was passed in tw need to start to happen in open discussion of how we're going to spend this money and what kind of direction we're actually going to go the state just came back and said metroplex and the there have been too many authorities and they're also questioning the democrats claim five thousand jobs that were created and you know everybody is is throwing these numbers out here how many jobs are created but nobody can actually tell the truth have an actual accountability of the pilot programs we need to know exactly are they compliance or they are not because they are in order to reese continue to receive their pilot programs they have to create x amount of jobs and this is not transferred jobs transfer from road or transferred to rotterdam over to here these are actual jobs actually actually have to be produced i mean the numbers being thrown out without having any kind of correlation and even the state department of labor has even come back even questioned it and even said that the even though with global foundries and several other things there they're asking made a point zero one percent on a drop in employment so they're going to see a decrease in the schenectady county you know and we also need to have accountability of metroplex the state just came back and said that there were some irregularities on the accounting procedures of metroplex and working with the grants and so forth the city has turned over a lot of its grants over the metroplex and the city needs to take back control of that to make sure that they are actually honoring it because the city can be in trouble also with the grants women are victims of domestic violence one in four women in our community experience rape sex assault in two thousand and ten schenectady had the worst record in the state the highest reported rate of domestic violence of any county in the state including new york city this connect the police department gets five hundred messages of reports every month and sixty of those are repeat offenders people who are already on probation for some offense or another often domestic violence i don't know if you've ever felt a fist slam into your mouth or the side of your head or if you've been dragged across the floor by your hair i don't know if you've been on the floor when curling up when somebody kicked in the stomach or in the head or i don't know if any of you have been the victim of a rape or a sex assault maybe you were in a car on a date and somebody force themselves  grabbed your breast or put their hand up your skirt you know or maybe you were thrown down on the ground and or into a car or on a sofa in your violated you were sick you were scared you're angry you're hurt and you did not want anyone to know you know what your parents to know you don't want your friends to know you didn't want your husband or boyfriend to know you're afraid of getting pregnant and you're afraid you're going to come back and believe me those feelings never go away or we get a lot of kids in our community maybe your fourteen year old girl last night you heard a fist hit flesh and you heard the yelling the screaming the crying you were scared you didn't know what to do you didn't want to hear it you covered your ears next morning you don't want to look at your mom in the face she doesn't want to look you in the face maybe you throw up before going to school and then you go into algebra class or you go in history class and it's probably last thing in the world that you want to do at that point in time this stuff happens in schenectady most days every week every month it's the fault of the abuser but whose responsibility change is yours y most businesses have a business plan sports teams have a game plan but schenectady being the worst in the state we did not develop a comprehensive plan and that is something that you folks can do to change things you know what all we need is one of you i don't need all of you one of you who makes up their mind that they're going to make a difference you make it up in your head you make it up in your heart and we can change things and i'll tell you one of you makes up that makes your mind up to that there's going to be a lot of people out here in the community will be behind you and be your allies thank you gratitude to the city for their assistance with the woodland park and our redevelopment efforts and to promote our our upcoming dinner fundraiser to plan if at the parks redevelopment as many of you may know i represent a group of volunteers who are working to renovate woodland park we've been working on this nish it for the past nine months we post it three park cleanups over the spring and summer and we've recently initiated dop the park program where volunteers will be going through the park and one with rotation to pick up any trash and litter and report any concerns to the group as well as to the city and we've recently kicked off a couple of fund raising initiatives i'll talk to you in a moment about before i do that like to specifically extend some thank  for coming out as well and he was there at one of our park cleanups this past summer as well and peggy came for coming out and seeing the work we're doing in the concerns we have and specifically  mayor mccarthy we'd like to thank him for meeting with us he's had a couple meetings with us to help guide us as we look to work with the city to present a proposal to committee for the parks future redevelopment to that end we've been raising funds to lead to the eventual development of a plan for the park as we work with city to finalize a plan to rebuild the park this will allow our group and the city to seek funds and other funding streams for the parks future redevelopment the two fund raising campaigns we've kicked off where the give some change to make a change campaign where area woodlawn businesses have displayed donations jugs for patrons to donate that's been quite successful it's ending this weekend and our second fund raising campaign is or the one i'm mainly here for is ours the meat ball dinner fundraiser which i think most of you all know about it's being held this wednesday at the woodlawn reform church eight hundred fifty eight state street next to the big bang go haul from five thirty to seven p m will be serving z t with cast biscoe sauce meatballs bread from perkins break bakery salad an assortment of desserts and refreshments and we're also be providing takeout tickets or advance tickets  six dollars but works like quickly selling out of those and there are eight dollars at the door the association meeting will follow we'll have a presentation on our efforts over the past nine months we'll have a local architectural firm talk about the process of entering into a contract down the road and what it would look like to come up with a plan for more information on this we have a facebook page with lawn park desk connected to new york before i finish i'd like to extend another thank you to mayor mccarthy for coming through with us  recently we have big locus trees at the back of the park that were operative from the storms over the summer and fall when he was notified it within two weeks they were cleared and thank you very much mr mayor appreciate that it's just one last thing three iterate the  ball dinner fundraiser this wednesday woodlawn reformed church from five thirty seven thank you for your time and work for working with ya'll say thank you thank you very much are shown artists contractor from schenectady local resident i want to speak about our city contracts again i've been dealing with merriam since i don't talk to the last administration and things have got a little better but there's a lot of things that still aren't right we've got to come up with some type of some type of form where these contractors can't say oh i'm using for instance or saying they're using my company i was sitting in merriam's office water and a contractor who never called me never emailed me never talked to me says oh i'm using c l a and sons really yeah in talk to me mean that means they're not following the used to percentage of jobs over oh i only need them for a day ok so what percentage did you meet you didn't really meet any state has  hire has to go to the state and accept the contract that's what schenectady should use because there's too many things going on they're still trying to play the games the next thing i want to talk about is these emergency contracts and i think this falls on you guys the way you rick it in the contract for emergency jobs emergency job that i was looking into down on  boulevard a maximum row derna gillespie it they were doing some digging down there and it led up to vail cemetery and i think another spot or two in a city and it was called an emergency job  if you're bringing contractors down there to have a meeting to give them the plans to have a bit on the job then go over to bid award a job there's enough time for them to call in a minority and say can you help me out with this project i was actually working for tom for berkeley at the time and he was one of the contractors who were bitten on the job and he came right up to me and said listen if i get this bid would you want to come over here and work with me so there are some that do it and there are some that don't put if you don't know what the emergencies there are it's not required and i think if there's time it should be required  with flooding at first the state didn't have to be easing m b e requirements but somebody realize there's a lot of money involved here and there's a lot of time these people can grasshopper and i want to tell mr dr cole i think he did a marvelous absolutely marvelous job making this grasshopper jump from buckingham palace to a i think that's a first because you're not going to get any answers from these people no matter who comes here you're not going to get the answer but the camera is on you and it may take a while for the sausage to get made but the sausage makers do see it all and they may put it off for a lection time or whatever i feel very confident about that i was the object of a lot of bad stuff for a very long time and they turned it into sausage and they now call it the patriot act and i've been well followed at that as a person of interest for some reason for for a between what the said here what is reported by the police what is reported by the and other agencies i don't see any correlation between what they say and what the truth of the matter really is so as thank you for your comments good luck mr mayor i hope it's better than marion barry good evening my name is mary maclean the city i don't care for the word transparency i think it's over but tonight i'm going to be transparent for thirty two years i have been engaged in the life of the city i cook for the h i b patients at the damien center bake for the homeless kest epithets stackhouse make financial commitments to the second food pantry donate and deliver toiletries to the battered wives shelter bring magazines where they can be used such as hospitals and the y w ca i maintain a nylon garden that graham boulevard and not st i pick up litter and cigarette pods off the city streets i attend neighborhood meetings council meetings committee meetings another i write letters including one that i wrote to union college for there's a pilot for the city there by monthly position states statements for city council presentation i present programs on specialized topics i'm a lector at st john the attack weekend i arranged a christmas party for the boys and girls club in the preschool program i have been a tour guide for the executive mansion in albany a docent for the holocaust exhibit at union college a tour guide at yaddo artist retreat connectivity i volunteer at st clair's gift shop and i make time for god as far as leadership is concerned i been the president of the college of st rose the schenectady chapter and other leadership positions in different organizations i have taught school currently i am a small business owner with a specialty i contract and the patriot act i for you offer information i can make a one hundred percent commitment to this office i want that seat thank you she's a woman that does everything in the community i've been knowing maria me important for you for years and i stand by her in anything she do she started to everybody here tonight on this city council to guys heard of it if you didn't you do now we are a viable organization is trying to unite the guy nice and the west and i should point out to be an active media group here in schenectady represent or at necessity here we are very strong we are like the third minority here in schenectady and as such we need some type of representation for all not only the guy needs but the communities as a whole mr mayor i'm going to make this very short thank you i've seen some changes in hamilton here i lived there built a brand new house there and thank you for what you have done recently and i would like good afternoon mary mccarthy and council members i reside in the one two through a zip code in schenectady my name is angela tatum and i am asking or rather supporting this marian porterfield appointment to the city council marian porterfield is an asset to the city and has been my mentor both professionally and personally i have a master's degree from union graduate college and for the past eight years i have served as the director of the office of community outreach at the county community center at union college in my position i oversee implement service and volunteer programs like big brothers big sisters afterschool educational programs and i direct college students to serve with community based programs and not for profits like bethesda house the city mischief and nursing homes and the like one of the most powerful reasons i chose to work in the service and education sector is because of the outstanding mentorship and encouragement i received as a young person marian porterfield is the one of the most influential role models in my life and as a result i'm following in her footsteps to work live and serve in schenectady counting i first met marion when i joined her girl scout troop as an elementary school student marian and her mother have always loved and believed in this community and they have showed this through word and action but especially action she is a genuine and committed community leader every community about i it's time and marion is a part either behind the scenes or on the front line to damn fortunate to volunteer with marian as a mentor for the schenectady county working group on girls girl circle program where we work with middle and high school students in need of mentorship i collaborate with her on community service initiatives for women and young people like the ethics school project to tragedy it was marion porterfield that called me she brought together many people in the community who worked tirelessly to bring others to the community as stakeholders to ensure that the community is invested and that they owned the issue and the solution i do not know of someone who is more committed to schenectady and in turn loved and respected by the residents of schenectady than marion porterfield thank you thank you kaczynski my name is david kaczynski have been a resident of the city of schenectady for twenty two years for the past ten years i've been an advocate on policy issues related to crime and violence and in the decade prior to that i worked with youth especially homeless and troubled youth and some sense at the front edge of the the efforts to reduce violence and suffering in our community i too come to speak on behalf of marian porterfield as a candidate to fill the vacant seat i think marian has a vision that very much coincides with my own and with many people who think seriously about crime and violence and you know that i schenectady she's worth patiently many times out of the limelight whether she was paid for it or not paid for it in developing a culture of people huge and building stronger caring community i think having an improved police department really helps i congratulate the city and that i think having better leadership at the school district really helps but i think even most important or a key piece of the puzzle of how to create a safer community is to have strong and caring communities and to do that you need to connect people i don't know anyone who does that better than marion porterfield if being a community organizer can qualify you to be president of the united states i think maybe it should qualify you also to be they have a seat on the city council two years ago our city was rocked absolutely rocked by the suicides of four young women in succession all students at the high school since then we have seen a number of young school age men shot some murdered on the streets when those stories are in the headlines there are people who rise up are our minds are opened we see that there's a problem we understand it's a responsibility for all of us to address that problem marion is the person who works tirelessly behind the scenes constantly and trying to develop a stronger more caring community you may have seen in just a couple of weeks ago we put on a program at the high school and middle schools and we're doing two more this week we call it the limits of loyalty and it's about ethics it's about bystander behavior and i think what's most interesting about this program is that it teams up members of law enforcement with credible messengers in the community talking to young people about what it really means to be a citizen what it means to really care about other people in your community that program would not have happened without marion porterfield who helped planet who connected our community group with administrators at the high school to make this possible i respect and admire other candidates that have been mentioned for this seat marion has earned it she deserves it i think she would fulfill it most capably and bring a vision that we have and you know that that really is sorely needed to create a stronger community  nic speakers reverend ted war again congratulations to the mayor and to those who were elected and those who are related to the city council i believe that there is going to be a major difference in the city and scuffs connect the the sheer amount of just advocate from as a hamilton hill and and a great lead an example for others to follow as misstate a mention that she was her she is her mentor you know there are those who talk a good we would say a good game and then the of those who actually get out and do it and do it because they love it they do it because they have compelled to do it and it don't whether they're going to get paid for it or not i believe that marion portal sits on a city council that she's going to change your lives she's going to help  along the way that you're already going and you're going to help her of course but you can actually see someone who's going to put the you know asked that they say put the pedal to the metal and actually get it get it get on the ground level and see that things are done a she's a it and she does she gets things done regardless about you know how others may think of feel about it if she feels in her heart this is the right thing to do for the people unselfishness it would not even be a great word to mention concerning it's time for leadership in this city to become very inclusive we have a community out here that needs to be represented and someone have to step up to the plate marion porter feel has put very hard and others have worked very hard also but since much since i came to schenectady marion has always been in the forefront of trying to get people to become involved and become an asset to it since i've been here many of the initiatives she started i've collaborated with her i was out of the loop for a minute because of the illness and let me just say something just one of the side about a star that we have here in schenectady which is known as hospital and god bless them ok that's all i have to say about that ok they brought me through but any rate what i'd like to say is the fact is that it's so important i sat down with a meeting where it was decided that if certain things happened in port the would be sitting on the council and the leadership of some of the gave their word on this and if you're going to give your word didn't have to uphold your word i think that what happens in our community is we need to institute for community leadership development where we train community people on how to be leaders because what happens is meant many people are left out of the loop because they don't know the mechanism of how did you become involved how do you get elected and then who decides and when people sit down and they can decide in a room or in a back room then what happens to those of us who want to participate so i think that is very important just in terms of how we're going to develop in this twenty first century how we're going to what steps we're going to take in order to be able to bring people who have a desire not a lot of people have desires to be in the political process but those who do someone needs to encourage them and to be able to help them through thank you very much  thank you again may mccarthy and to the council members for the privilege of the floor and vicki her way at city resident local activist like the speakers that preceded me i am up here to talk in support of marian fields can to see the city council over the last few years i have had the pleasure of working with marian and i found her to be a passionate advocate for the citizens of the city of schenectady marin is very well informed on the many complex issues that face us and she is well known and well liked here in town as you from the speakers be and i as a relatively new resident feel that is an extremely important characteristic for a city council member over the last year marian has demonstrated her love for her hometown by working as a volunteer activists the city of resident didn't have time before to commend you and to congratulate you on your elections and for taking office could not be here when you were sworn in but wish you very well in that and congratulate you on their also i am forcing could not be here when the previous two members left the council and all convey some words to them but certainly want to publicly thank both of them for their leadership and joe was here for many years and commend him and his word that he was granted was very well deserved so i'm very glad that that occurred at that time and wish them very well as they go on to other endeavors i simply wanted to add a word of thanks to the police department this evening because i had two occasions at my house where there were two small quality of life crimes that occurred and was just unfortunate thing that happens from time to time but both the police officers who came were very good were very professional the mayor be happy no they came very quickly as he's been working on response time and they both were very thorough in what they did and they just responded very well and so i just thank the commissioner and the chief and the mayor and those a bit of volved in improving response time  improving ways because these kind of smaller things i don't need to say what they were but just say these smaller quality of life things are very important they be addressed and i commend the police department for their very rapid act down that way almost get hit and hurt near a thing else it's gotta stop who got it for a stop to this and put those lights like this post a big because too many people get in her already  we don't need no more of that to happen so this is what we got to do is put those lights up walk lights for there's handicapped and old people all together broadway to that's that's what has to be dot thank you more there mccarthy madam chairwoman council members my name is ave bellmawr i am a homeowner my i reside in woodlawn area i'm also social worker and schenectady city school district and i want to say t friendly i'm not here to speak on behalf of marion porter feel i'm here to speak on behalf of the city of schenectady because i think ultimately it's the city of schenectady who's going to benefit if she's the like that selected to sit in the  in the vacant chair i believe i first met her she was getting her hands thirty cookin and cleaning out the park i'm losing the name on hamilton hill and every time that i've seen jerry burrell every time that i've seen her like you've heard many others say she's work and she's busy she's doing what needs to be done and i could repeat the pieces that david kaczynski has said i work with her on the p which we came to you previously talking about the hamilton family resource center we worked with us in the c p for the past several months due in a number of different things some of which david mentioned she's also angela tatum mentioned the working group on girls where we bring a hundred fifty girls together to make a difference but the peace that it's most important to me is our future our young familiar with fathers take your children to work to school day because whatever it is that she can do that will benefit our young people she is there and willing to do it and while a lot of the work that i have done with her has been on the hamilton hill in the h area there is no other area that she's not willing to work with and willing to step up for i do believe it's important that a minority member be part of the council schenectady is the first area and it should be reflected everywhere including take and i know if others were allowed to speak there will be tons of folks in support of her but i think what's most important is the work that she's done i think it speaks for itself thank you thank you  want to talk about is being a staunch democrat right i didn't become a democrat when i went to college i grew up with a democrat as a young kid my mother talked about the democratic party being a pawn that would look out for the poor people to work important middle class and that the party was all to those people right there with democrats said they were going to raise taxes nine times out of ten they wouldn't raise taxes  said they wouldn't cut a program that was vital to the community not times out of ten they wouldn't cut their programs so i grew up being a low democrat and being a lot to the party right i believe is chopper and i was eight nine cents short on my grocery bill that they would stop the line and i wouldn't be able to take my groceries and so somebody gave me those that eighty nine cents right somebody let me borrow a recall whatever i think we all grew up with to understand it like our work without bond right and that we always need to keep our word because at the end of the day that's all we had and i'm sure your father  party or republicans would have made the same decision if they felt it was in the best interest of skin i need you to summarize so why i'm a supporter mary more support a democratic party doing what's right my name is mary i'm just the affirmative action manager for the cdma county else can make any thank you ma'am for your time i am here to announce the firefighter exam it has been it's been announced for about a week now the exam the deadline is january seventeenth next tuesday and i'm also here to let everyone know about and information session that the fire chief is having  eight four two three three extension four four one seven one you have to dallas fort weiss and the fire chief and his deputies are waiting any and all questions that prospective applicant may have about the exam and i also want to say that you know our fire chief was very graciously agreed to be placed on our posters for the fire department together with two other minorities and the capt i have copies for all of you and i want to encourage any and all residents the minimum the minimum requirement to take the exam is the high school diploma that is the minimum requirement so please if you have ever been interested in becoming a firefighter let's wednesday at the firehouse and speak with the chief and his deputies and they will tell you all the information that you need to join the department thank you thank you that's all the people i have signed up for a privilege of the floor so will now close mary have a motion from someone to approve the consent agenda moved by a council member whereas i was seconded by council member erickson all of those in favor signify by saying thank you thank you for bringing that to my attention ok back now to miscellaneous business from the city council and he wanted to speak mr erickson the second thing you know we've been a number of speakers to talk about the vacancy and i think the dialogue is good we've got a good problem in schenectady and that's we have one seat and we've got multiple people who  are qualified for various reasons to fill that seat so we are fortunate we have we have options and and so you know it's good to let people know how they can participate there are a lot of different ways that people can participate if they're interested in being in the city council there are you know there mr brady is holding has brought the idea of having a public interview that is one way you could always contact your city council members as well you can send guess best interest of somebody is interested to make sure that this six members of the body know who you are and each of us may have different criteria of what we're looking for what's important some of us might i'm a see certain skills some of us want to be might see some certain activities some people might base it on personality type in how they might get along with certain people so there are a lot any criteria can be the selection and i think the best way to know if you're a good fit or if you think you have a chance of getting selected is to contact your council members and talk to them and find out what they're looking for and see if you might be a good fit so i encourage this encourage the dialogue i think the folks that came up and spoke this evening and the people that have mister erickson brought out tomorrow night there will be interviews held in room one ten downstairs starting at six o'clock so one one that's interested please show up will have a sign up sheet there for you to sign up and if you have a resume bring it with you i already have a few and it's good to hear the people that came and support omarion tonight because that certainly gives us an insight on how the public feels and we have a i think we have a it's a it's a big decision that we have to make we are going to do what it takes thousands of volts to do that's going to be in our power for one year and then we'll be up to the voters so i think it's important that it's an open process and that's the only thing i was bringing forward with this to have an open process and anybody that thinks they would like to sit on the city council to come forward and we'll see who the best candidate is how they interview what we feel is a best candidate and it's good like i said that people came and support  tonight because it gives another insight to how people feel so we'll see how people interview with us the way i feel about and we'll see what happens i am not a political person at all i don't belong to any party so i don't have that to get in the way of anything with my decisions i'm going to make a purely i want to see the best person possible sitting in that seat over there i think that's the most important thing and it be mary and then she'll be sitting over there she's the best person that possible so i just want to open up the process and explain that to people now on another note there's some graffiti problems that i had two or three phone calls in the north end of town it's all over the city but in the north end of town on foster avenue mr mayor i'll give you the addresses but i had to phone calls and these people are very upset the one fellow that called me to softer known said that he doesn't want to look out his window at this either house or whatever it is that's tagged he said i pay my taxes this and that it's a great point and again if we want to sell schenectady we're going to have to deal with these quality of life issues that's very very important they've may seem minor but they're not minor for people who live in the city want to live in the city we have to clean the streets up as a fella for hamilton hel brought up we have to do that we have to start the graffiti it's important we have to look back at the safe schenectady safer plan and use that maybe as a model we can modify it this or that but there is a graffiti component in that plan we should look at it we have to have a plan for this and again it's the broken window theory of graffiti stays up there people see it then somebody is going to tag an adjacent house or what not that's how it goes it should be cleaned up in a reasonable mana time and i'm talking about like within a couple of days that's what it should be when something's tagged that should be cleaned up so i would like to for us to address the set some point in the near future because i think it's very important that mr mayor i'll give you the address