floor basically the last week of the meeting we had two items we were going to looking for more information on and we decided to recess come back if we had information talking to the committee members we decided that we would finance committee is closed and the two items that are on the agenda for this evening i want to say eighteen and nineteen will go back to committee ok thank you ok i called to order the city council caucus meeting for july ninth two thousand and twelve and asked the clerk to read the agenda item number one a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady fire department to submit a grant application to the federal emergency management assistance for funding to replace aging turnout here ok this is only number two a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady fire department to submit a grant application to frame a for funding to replace aging self contained breathing apparatus ok again discussed in committee without objection on consent number two will appear on consent number three number three a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to enter into a memorandum of agreement for the purpose of establishing a centralized dispatch system in schenectady county again discussed in committee without objection this will appear on consents number four number four a resolution supporting a grant application to new york state for avail park mixed use trail again discussed in committee without objection on consent number four will appear on the consent of janda number five number five a resolution supporting grant application to new york state for liberty park improvements without objection on consent number five will appear on the consent agenda number six number six a resolution supporting a grant application to new york state for reconstruction or repair of the schenectady waste water treatment plant again discussed in committee without objection number six will appear on the consented genda number seven number seven a resolution supporting a grant application to new york state for a collaborative regional code enforcement repositor put together the application but the actual grant application will be submitted by the sudden center for technology and government ok but it would be it be on behalf of the city yes to be on our behalf and behalf of the three  well as the city ok it's been moved is there a second second by council reporter field i was in favor number seven stands amended and without objection on consent number  to execute a quick claim deed for the property located at three to five states street in the city of schenectady again this was discussed in committee without objection on consent number nine will appear on the consent agenda number ten number ten  resolution authorizing proctors that are to serve alcoholic beverages at the zope a circus event without objection on consent number ten mil appear on the consent agenda number eleven number eleven a resolution authorizing the settlement of attack search or wary concerning the property located at twelve zero on not street suite one hundred two in the city of schenectady again without objection on consent number eleven will appear on the consent agenda number twelve  resolution authorizing the settlement of attacks or sure wary concerning the property located at twelve zero one not street suite three o three in the city of schenectady without any objections as will appear on the consent agenda number thirteen number thirteen a resolution authorizing the settlement of attack search or wary concerning the property located at twelve zero one not street suite three o four in the city of schenectady k without objection number thirteen will appear on consent agenda number four number fourteen a resolution authorizing the settlement of a tax or sure where it concerning the property located at twelve zero one not street suite three o five in the city of schenectady number fourteen without objection on consent will appear on the consent agenda number fifteen number fifteen under contract and supply a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with joe johnson equipment for the purchase of one trackless municipal tractor in the amount of one hundred fourteen thousand eight hundred dollars roll call number fifteen number sixteen number sixteen a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to enter into a contract with still single like direct for the rehabilitation of the washington avenue stormwater pump station without objection number sixteen will  challenge of raising the fall of the of light for all who call schenectady their home bless those who serve in our police and fire departments keep them safe from harm lord let us cry out in unity allow the men as we embrace the rich diversity of voices in schenectady we are thankful for all the voices that praise you and rejoice that your love extends across all the barriers of our differences may your light shine upon us and your love bring meaning to our lives may you be gracious to us and lead us in the ways of peace for it is in you that we place ok we have four public hearings this evening  public hearing number one amending proposed changes to regarding amending proposed changes to chapter one ninety four of the code of the city of schenectady regulating the activities of street vendors in the city of schenectady sides of permits that we need and where we can park and what where we can basically operate this truck the first group of people and zoning said we can park anywhere as long as we follow the street laws the police said the same thing just double check we heard something was that thursday that we do need special permits outside of our our health permits so special parking permits for the truck so now we thought we'd come here and find out ok anyone else forgetting to sign up for number one ok seeing no other people signed up i'll declare that closed and move on to public hearing number two public here number two rating the composition and mission of the energy advisory board whe ok i have no one signed up for number two i declare that close public hearing number three public area number three amending proposed changes to chapter one forty four of the of the city of schenectady to add additional requirements for dog owners with convictions of blues and or dangerous dogs within one year in the city of schenectady again i have no one signed up to speak at this public hearing i will declar close number for public i had been a long time resident of schenectady and i still own property in the city of schenectady and i would like very much to speak on the changes to the police  i have comments on the new legislation proposed for the s r c p big i am a former member of this board and have to continue quarrel can be reduced to five for the transaction of business for ninety three dash three there is a slight change in the organizations that can write command appointments to the mayor and these organizations should recommend an additional canaday as a standby this is very good and added to ninety three dash five true members oh no no two members shall be related and in the proposals that is explained and the people on the review board really feel this is very important ninety three dash six in addition to a there is now a member may be appointed to two consecutive terms the member may not be reappointed to membership for at least one year from the end of the last term in august and i i personally i should have stated at the beginning that i am not speaking as a spokesperson for the board these are my own personal opinions however the board members wanted an advisory committee to be established this was in the original legislation but never was implemented the council and lawyer mr full let it call are not in favor of it and i think there should be more explanation of this what i would like to see if all an advisory committee never comes out is really this and it should have taken a long time ago there are three members of the council's public safety committee each should take the turn and sit him on the review board each month on the ever changing needs of the citizens the police review board does a wonderful child digesting and i say digesting that just reading digesting the cases each month where have you been in the past thank you very much no other speaker signed up will close number four number five public your number five regarding amending proposed changes to chapter one six one of the code of the city of schenectady regarding the trish place that curbside for pickup by the city of schenectady mary maclan baskets to the flea to the green market i also live a song for apartments and there's a frequent changeover of ten sleeve there are things on the landlord this left putting the things up one day there was a beautiful violin sitting on the garbage cans i went over  picked it up and brought it to one of the flea market renters a man who bought it runs a music program for teenagers who are recovering from drug addiction as he left with his violin and he said to me it was going to a good home on another occasion it had started to snow from my kitchen window i could see this beautiful picture pastel colors in a gold frame i went and took it from the garbage can and that my convenience i brought it to another flea market the man who brought it was from michigan and he said he was going to hang those bread and breakfast hotel a councilman has said he does not want anyone going through his cut garbage who knew he'd said there are better pickings elsewhere something else surface that is very interesting with this issue it's citizens to learn that the section of ground between the sidewalk and curb belongs to the city so where's the city when it's times to shovel snow cut grass sweed or water does the city claim the property only when it suits them and we also learn that the city sells our stuff and receive to earn a living i doubt they had better call coverage paid for by taxpayers does council really want to take away someone's livelihood regardless of what is done on this issue i won't pay attention to council for monday july ninth two thousand and twelve from the way or from the mayor a list of appointments dated july ninth two thousand and twelve from the commissioner of general services a letter recommending the award of purchase of one cabin chassis with air compressor and dump body to h l gauge sales in the amount of one hundred twenty nine thousand eight hundred fifty dollars from the commissioner of general services a letter recommending the award the purchase of one gage sales and the amount of fifty seven thousand nine hundred eighty dollars from the commissioner of general services a letter remember recommending the award of purchase of one trackless municipal tractor with diesel engine to joe johnson equipment in the amount of one hundred fourteen thousand eight hundred dollars under general category there are no communications under petitions there are no move on to privilege of the floor on the legislative agenda of two people signed up tony seventeen years ago those original efforts resulted in a system of peace saps or public safety answering points one each in the city of schenectady glenville scotia rather than misc you know in the new york state police covering two ways broken princetown subsequent to the county centralized this bad system was last inhibition by the county fire advisory board made up of firefighting officials from throughout the county back in two thousand and five as the project began almost seven years ago our desire was to answer two main questions number one would the project improve the delivery of emergency dispatch services get the county and number two would essential this bad system allow us to save taxpayers money i am very pleased to report to this evening that the answer to both of these us well through the years the project provides us with an opportunity to make it even better the current fragmented communication system directly affects public safety because no one dispatch center knows all of the information in an emergency situation you take a high speed chase from rhodium through schenectady into glenville three different centers would be involved in dispatching police units each with partial knowledge of the resources available and the relevant facts one central location knows precisely where all the vehicles are their current status and all the relevant facts central dispatch is good for public safety as for the cost savings aspect of this project we have worked diligently with our counterparts at the local level effort model the model has never been used before in new york state and was instrumental as going to the county receiving a million dollar grant from the new york state department of state for that project and that million dollars was a seven million dollars pot statewide so we're very fortunate the state funding has been augmented by significant contributions from is going to the county that include a hundred sixty thousand dollars and matching funds for two grants five hundred ninety thousand and dedicated i want surcharge money corrections three hundred sixty thousand equipment not covered by the grant one hundred forty three thousand in transitional funding for staffing and one hundred forty thousand dollars every year for twenty years to offset the capital construction at least cost of a new facility combined this represents an over four million dollar investment in our public safety future the resolution before you this evening presents two different scenarios one is with the town of glenville and one is without both so both of these scenarios are included in the same resolution it is our fervent hope that the town of glendale participates but that decision is theirs to make and they should make it with the next several weeks not to minimize the significant improvements to public safety already articulated under the full participation model using two thousand and eleven dollars our conservative estimate of savings to the sea of schenectady will be one hundred ninety five thousand eight hundred ninety two dollars during the first year of operation less without full participation of all of our municipalities in addition we hope to use this project as a platform for other shared services and tax savings initiatives as we move forward with this major success behind us behind us this is the most significant change to public safety in schenectady county for as long as i have been here since the advent of nine one one in closing i'd like to personally thank mayor mccarthy first on wavering support on this initiative as well as council president these brucker and the members of the city council who have consistently and patiently worked through what at times has been a difficult and tenuous process to get us to this crucial point it is no exaggeration to state that this is a matter of life and and it was beautiful enough it was out of place there were new green flying around there were no baskets there everything was planted beautifully it probably was the best looking park around here and i didn't see any canyons bottles or anything of that nature but suddenly because they want to close the street there and have the residen from the dormitory cross at the corner all of a sudden i would over there the other day and it's awful it is the worst looking site i have ever seen it is just awful i don't appreciate your civics and one thing the children at the schoolyard do learn is how to act like politicians very early an age and they think they can write a grant and they've proven that i didn't stand up for the dog issue but i did notice i think albany intro i like these dogs that look like m but schenectady likes pit bull it is a seasonal occurrence here and the police department troopers i think they just hired a new canine f here the energy advisory committee i didn't see any of it but i've been wondering why they ever disbanded to begin with their meetings weren't kept with the clerk they were not posted on the boards and you know they were held randomly at all ok chanson some places you couldn't even hear i don't think holding a meeting in the  apostrophe is a proper place and so now i hear is just a whim of the mayor to do something and there are no names being presented over what they're going to table very long several years actually and the target area are the employee union college there i think over something like sixty percent of the community union college is  ok have no one else signed up to speak the legislative agenda so i will move to approve all of the consent agenda but before we do that we have to roll calls hundred fourteen thousand eight hundred dollars thank you yes we had this in committee and when we had a committee i just thought we could talk to take a look at how we could perhaps do some contracting with small businesses to do this it's a sizable amount of money that would be spending and based on last year not having snow i'm only looking at last year and if we bought this we would have the sitting there if we didn't have a lot of snow this year the other thing i would like to have seen is a cost analysis between whether buying this piece of equipment or perhaps contracting this out to small businesses to get this work done and which would have been better so i really would like to have seen that for us to take a look at that at least for it you know to see what the other possibilities have could have been and then just dish into that my understanding is there was just one bid on this piece of equipment so i vote no on this thank you any one else here you know it is true we got one bid on this trackless equipment here and so i did a little research online to try to find out because it's a unique piece of equipment the state of minnesota i believe it was their state bid price published online and it was from about two years ago and they had the list of the price of the product along with all the available attachments that run it and when i added up what we're getting compared to that considering it's two years older the entire project were within like fifteen hundred dollars total price of what they paid two years ago so with that i'm more comfortable saying ok we're at least paying a reasonable price however you know i like to see multiple prices in the other thing is that one of the question we did talk about in committee was trading in the used equipment to reduce the price of the new equipment and i know that mr olson was out last week and so he may not have gotten that question or you know the inquiry but i'm not sure if it's too late to at least consider that or at least make sure that the the money that we would get in a trade gets you know recognized someplace and so that's that's one thing i want to make sure but when i look at how we do this a piece of equipment it clears the snow from municipal properties a lot of downtown you know in front of city hall things like that and for one hundred fourteen amount of snow i think it's worthwhile so for that i will vote in favor yes on this thank you yes thank you i agree with marion on this issue i still am trying to get in my mind how we're going to clear i know we're concerned about seven hundred properties that we may obtain through foreclosure and how we're going to do this one piece of equipment a one man we're going to clear all this property i think we're going to wear this machine out long before it's useful time i think we're going to have to outsource clearing these walks in municipal properties anyhow and i would like to see us get more use out of the one that we now have going to be fixed going to not be fixed and all we're hearing that can't get parts i'm wondering what are making that schedule is on these machines of they're being properly maintained i've had a snowblower so i got rid of at night that was running a couple years way out of for thirty years you maintain your equipment the city's honor financial crunch here we keep forgetting about the one million dollars one point one million we rolled to the county a few months ago it's our job to start plugging these gaps even though something is made may have be in an operating budget doesn't mean we have to spend the money and i'm going to just stay consistent in things that are not contractual or claims  driven i'm going to have a problem voting yes on expenditure of money when we have equipment that we i think we can still use and we can also outsource if need be and that's depending on the snow that we get last year we had a light snow fall this year we may have a heavy snow fall rehabilitation of the washington have a new storm water pump station on this item here with it we went back and forth on this for a while this is for the washington avenue storm water pump station and i know very little about pump stations in the way the water was flowing and all that kind of stuff but i sat down with carlos in a group of guys from the sewer department and his crew who went to the maps to show me where the water is flowing and you know still not a groundwater expert like that but i think that  the understanding of how this works what area covers that there was some debate in terms of what area this was covering i think it's important that we you know if the good of the water of the river gets up to a certain level we need to protect this area and so in that regard i will vote yes yes as mr erickson has said this was on the agenda of a couple weeks ago i unfortunately did not getting the additional information regarding that so based on what i know from what i knew before i would maine voting no way as my original vote was as i said when this was first brought up weeks ago i just feel with the focus now on the redevelopment of that spot that part of the city you know with the student housing the new bus station and all of that i think we need to do everything possible to protect that area from flooding so i thought i you again i'm going to stay consistent with what i said a little earlier this is three hundred sixty thousand dollars this station has been down for two years we went through the hurricanes last year with that down and not saying it's not needed i still like the idea about hiring an outside firm for a couple thousand dollars to give us at least the council another evaluation on this has nothing to do with our in house recommendations but the mayor did say would be told that so that's his prerogative but i still think that's the way to go or spend a three sixty what spending two thousand more at this point so until i know for sure that this is exactly needed has saying i'm going to vote no on th his broker would you respect my colleagues i think mr olson and mr fonda made them so i was very available and we discussed this a lot and we saw what happened to the stockade area neighborhood or with any of the other city residents in the city is connected to risk any type of poisons or p c vs being plugged into either our water system or anyone else's water system so that being said i'll vote yes council member present all those in favor i thank you consent agenda passes next is privilege of the floor on city business and the first person i have signed is mr rodriguez sure and i know for fact that they don't come on the street i know for a fact that in two thousand and nine my mother in law courts the street was a house that was assessed as seventy thousand dollars but you can't take i'm just going to take a wild guess maybe five thousand dollars to do some some curb i mean need at least a street to ask for you've got to recycle as for why can we let me try to do something positive via reading know that there was mismanagement of the money when they did build community understand that and again i am no mass and war is to hope street so we can have a better quality of life i think you all funding for listening to thank you mr cheers lori robinson and i live here to city hall street i got two things i want to talk about the first thing i want to bring up is about when i found this out from the fire department and able to move away after six years of service that is how the current p b a contractor reads for the other members of the schenectady police force give the citizens all the details this time mr mayor no repeats of the farce that debacle no one knew anything and the man walked away with the seventy four thousand dollars of taxpayer dollars the mayor also said he plans to reorganize the police force will he who earns the highest hourly wage is the first person to be asked to work the over time if he doesn't want to work the highest wage earner gets asked and so forth down the line the skyline of over the top expenditures keep our taxes in the case of our police force those people will be the rookie policeman young men with small children who can use the extra money given over time work to the lowest wage earners well save the city a lot of money lasley council member so i asked chief cherice to help with the litter problem the ma slaving i have a seven point plan that addresses the problem i was also passed over for more for members who now said here so i'm not going to let you pick my brain you figure i think we're all having our brains pig and i've got a section here because it's too much going on here and there are too many contradictions connected he's known for loving secrets and therefore i decided i just need a brown bag and every time he died a level goes up pot i'm going to blow up that bag and then smash it and then maybe things will be better for me but i have just i'm calling this fascinating rhythms along with the passage of the  person to falsely claim orally or in writing to have been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by congress for the armed forces of the united states exit here alber as an elected member of the board of directors of a water district in southern california said as a public meeting in two thousand and seven that he had received the medal of honor somebody took it to core and on thursday six just just majority of the supreme court agreed with the appeals court ruling that the law was overly broad and posed a threat to first amendment right so this gentleman retains his friday to go and declare himself a receiver of the congressional medal of honor i don't like to suggest things but you know you never can tell what happens in schenectady then now that obama care has passed now we can this is another editorial to the new york times now we can direct our energy to perhaps a greater moral imperative for providing high quality health care at a price that will not bankrupt the nation those of us on the front lines of designing and delivering the new health model whose hallmarks are coordination standardization of care elimination of waste and improvement of clinical outcomes can now a very high side of relief and on the a more on the moral imperative and this person does point out that the high cost of administrating health plans this was sent to the times by senior vice president university of massachusetts memorial health care in worcester massachusetts so he can't get his rather anxious to get away from their health plan and get on with what's available to the  and there is a lady who describes all the things of us very knowledgeable and she is a doctor and she says we do not have to look far pro way to do this our medicare program can be expanded to provide care for all if congress won't do it new york state can lead the one with its own single payer bill new york could show the nation how to end the disgrace of allowing so many of the ninety nine percent to suffer and die for lack of health care this is signed by dr elizabeth r rosenthal his voice thank you happens to be the number one state come in committing fraud with all forms of medical  so wake up doctor i don't think you'll get much of an audience thank you i've no one else signed up for which of the four so i want to miscellaneous think adding one more is a good thing you did not mention what type of food to be selling and i did ask you when you come back after you get your license and you get a truck up come back and tell us what you're having your truck with and it's a good idea and i'm just happy to hear that product and you know it is not going to be easy and you know there will be some difficult challenges but i think that overall to a great idea and i think we should do more things like that so i encourage consolidation in ways that are when when  we had a couple items on the agenda night where we purchased equipment and it was the trackless tractor the auction avenue stormwater we had some things we talked about in committee that we didn't pass to council to vote on because we felt as a committee that there was more things that we needed to find out but as we can see from the way the vote turned out tonight this is democracy is way supposed to happen right we don't all agree on everything the way it works out these are tough decisions or large sums of money and regardless of which way the vote falls i think it's it's good that we're having a lot of discussion and open debate on it so again i think that's wonderful  lastly there was an issue of some discussion about the police chief's position the mayor and said that he's going to keep it vacant intil has he find somebody that resides in the city i encourage america continues to keep to mark your calendar for that also bellevue meets on july twelfth as well so just a heads up on that i also want to express my pleasure in the fact that we're moving forward with central dispatch is a long time coming our dispatch people in schenectady the city were very very hard and sometimes extremely long hours and i think this is going to help defray some of the costs associated for us and also give our dispatch people a little more quality of life so that's a wonderful thing couple little points of clarification and again as president broker said with all due respect to my colleagues but actively sought answers to our questions and when we asked those questions an inordinate amount of time was made for us and questions where our answers were offered to our questions as many times as we little clarification about the snow we mobile equipment i think we're talking about two separate items here the properties aren't are not first and foremost what this equipment is purchased for this is a safety issue this is school crosswalks this is bridges this is essential pathways in our city in front of municipal buildings in such i know that d s i see at one time contracted out certain care of sidewalks and parking lots and unfortunately that wasn't always done in a timely manner and as we have discussed the city of schenectady is very fish in every moving snow and i think for the safety of our public this piece of equipment is essential i can also see as entertaining the notion that when we do take on those properties of also contracting out work but i think in this particular case we owe it to our residents and the safety of our residents to make sure that dab is done in a timely manner and done correctly thank you  thank you madam president since we're going to talk about things that were voted i will go back to the snow across walks we were told at least i was that one of the reasons was to take care of the seven hundred properties so maybe i'm hearing through different ears  and they have to be clear that city property is the same as my club or anybody else's property here it has to be cleared of a timely fashion also if we take possession of it so we'll just make that clear i'm still not and i still think we're going to have to use outsource this thing but we'll get off of that the couple here with the food truck that it's a great idea unfortunately we had a consumer protection department in the city at one time and they could have answered all the questions too bad that's when richard gunn your retired we didn't choose to replace him that's a very that the farm was really needed for things like that he could be able to tell them where the vans were not to vent because when i had issues with of ice cream trucks you know he was the guy to handle that at one time so now i believe it comes under the purview of the lot of apartment block or the clerks department or they all have plenty to do it was so maybe in the future we could think of maybe reinstating that department or having someone work say you know you get phone calls a lot of people complaining about city services and whatnot james clay works on the garbage trucks and he's a person i've got a call to the hospital over and over again so certainly they recognize the right that these minor all your life issues need to the big problems that we have that we have trash strewn all over the place now i dread because there was something on facebook about people walking the streets i get calls all the time about th other members of the task force did meet they did do the revisions to our policy i have been in correspondence with the police department and i'm waiting for an e mail from them synopsize in the changes so that i can report them to the cash in the business so we did that one business we're working with someone in the stockade to do that at another business so we can support these independently old neighborhood based businesses a lot of them are businesses that people don't maybe know about or they don't get a lot of exposure so it's an opportunity for people to come to other neighborhoods or to come in their own neighborhood and to support small neighborhood businesses so again thank you for everyone that attended on the twenty ninth and will announce when the next one's going to be the young lady something with the community empowerment partnership group that has been an ongoing effort that we have been doing the meeting took place prior to the incident because we know the importance of the having a relationship between the police and the community and so the  empowerment partnership continues to do that and we'll see continue to do that and convene other meetings so you know one of the things that we need to do in building community is learning from new in different angles and that's what this does and has done and all parties walked away with a better understanding of how each these each other so it was a good effort and a good meeting and you know when you feed people it's always good anyway but people want to weigh had a better understanding some relationships were built we'll continue to do that so i just wanted to mention that president just mr again the building on broadway it's one of the many buildings that we're following up there is an insurance policy in place there the owner has been taken some interesting positions in the process that the matter is in court and again we're trying to resolve it with the minimal financial impact to the city but again that's part of the long range plan of just systematically working through these and each building or each site has a complicated history and it takes time and effort to do it i just tell a staff that we're going to methodically go through it it's not necessarily happiness quick as we would like but  it will happen eventually going the city did update its best that by all its policy internally last year we were one of the second cities in the numbers the two city in the state in terms of implementing that in terms of a statewide policy for employees working so i don't know specifically if it's something question is what the city's doing internally or there's been going committee that is working in terms of criminal justice in our response to domestic violence  reports really countywide so that we can follow up on that whatever way you would like again courage everybody to stay cool and enjoy the summer in this great city