first item on the agenda a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to enter into an agreement with schenectady county relative to the appointment of certain members of the city of schenectady fire department as investigators in the office of the district attorney ok i assume this was discussed in committee without objection and consent that will go on the consent of gender number two number two a resolution approving the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages in central park and veterans park for summer two thousand and twelve discussed in committee without objection and consent that will appear on the consent of gender number three a resolution  authorizing the city of schenectady to fifteen love capital region youth tennis foundation inc to revitalize tennis courts at michigan avenue and in the city of schenectady again discussed in committee without objection our consent number fo a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract with the us department of justice edward byrne memorial justice assistance grant program discussed in committee without objection on consent number five item number five a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract with the new york state division of homeland security and emergency services office of counterterrorism to secure grant funding discussed in committee without objection and consent number six item number six a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to enter into a retainer agreement with girvan in for la without objection and consent number eight item number eight a resolution authorizing the settlement of tax or she wary concerning the property located at one thirty three clinton street and outside plant discussed in committee without objection on consent number nine will can appear on the consent agenda number ten and nine number number nine a resolution authorizing the settlement of tax or sherry concerning the property resolution authorizing the settlement of tax or she wary concerning the property located at four five one manchester road in the city of schenectady without objection and consent number eleven number eleven a resolution authorizing the settlement of tax or sure wherry concerning the property located at five three six lang street in the city of schenectady discussed in committee without objection on consent number twelve number twelve a resolution authoriz settlement of tax or sure wary concerning the property located at six fifty mcclelland straight discussed in committee without objection on consent number thirteen number thirteen had a typographical error in the first paragraph of the copy that was distributed it reads twelve zero two fifth avenue that was another property the typographical error has been corrected and it reflects the same as the summary but number thirteen is a resolution authorizing the settlement of tax or she wary concerning the property located at ten forty eight glenwood boulevard in the city of schenectady ok discussed in committee without objection on consent number fourteen number fourteen a resolution authorizing the settlement of tax or she wary concerning the property located at eleven fourteen fourth avenue in the city of schenectady without objection on consents number fifteen a resolution authorizing the settlement of tax or sure where it concerning the property located at twelve o two fifth avenue in the city of schenectady again discussed in committee without objection number sixteen will appear on the consent of gender number seventeen number seventeen a resolution authorizing the settlement of the tax or sure wary concerning properties located at fourteen twenty eight park would boulevard and eight fifty four union story discussed in committee without objection  consent number seventeen a resolution authorizing the settlement of a tax or she wary concerning the property located at ten seventeen chrysler avenue in the city of schenectady number seventeen was discussed in committee without objection and consent number eight number eighteen a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to reimburse american tax funding l l c for a delinquent tax elaine again discussed in committee construction administrative services for steinmetz park renovations as per new york state office of parks and recreation and historic preservation grant pending reimbursement number nineteen was discussed in committee without objection on consent number nineteen will appear on the consent agenda number twenty number twenty a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with synthesis l l p for the professional architectural and engineering services for  steinmetz park renovations as per new york state office of parks and recreation and historic preservation grant in the amount of fifty nine thousand nine hundred ninety dollars ok discussed in committee without objection on consent number twenty one number twenty one a resolution awarding a contract for the pro provision of engineering services for combined sewer systems inspection and permitting services to  into twenty one will be a roll call number twenty two twenty two is going to be out of order twenty three and twenty four i'm going to twenty two union college men's hockey team on its outstanding historic season ok will be taking that out of order and mr erickson will be reading that number twenty three there were twenty three a resolution designating friday april twenty seventh two thousand and twelve as arbor day in the city of schenectady ok again that will be out of order that will be read by council member per as though he and twenty four number twenty four a resolution recognizing the hundred tenth anniversary of number ten twenty five under contract and supply a resolution authorizing the purchase of fertilizers pesticides and turf supplies for the municipal golf course ok again discussed in committee without objection on consent and for twenty five will appear on the consent of gender number twenty six number twenty six a resolution awarding a contract for the purchase of sodium hypochlorite bulk liquid chlorine for the utilities and facilities two thousand and twelve pool season to surpass chemical lank in the amount of twenty one thousand one hundred forty four dollars ok also discussed in committee without objection and consent number twenty six appears on the consent genda anything else to come before disconnect seeing non i will close the caucus in open up the city council meeting for april twenty third two thousand and twelve ask to everyone rise to the invocation dr rever you let us pray lord each day is a new day and we can start again lord with a need to listen more closely and work more diligently and be more open to what each of us have to say and we pray lord that our beloved city of schenectady for those who struggle struggle to even exist and we pray for them lord we pray for our city council they go to do the business of the city and we ask that you guide them and direct them and as always lord we pray for our police department and fire department heep them safe while at the same time may they use sound judgment as they make their decisions we need to always pray for our children of schenectady some need only our prayers while others need the adults that are willing to work with them and we thank you lord thank you for our community mentors who help the students the lord as always we pray for our country for all of our leaders may we always work to bring peace and justice both to our community in our city here lord we ask you now to bless this time and use it for brucker president ok we have three resolutions that are out of order the cvs named first resolution the c v is honoring the union college men's hockey team and its outstanding in historic season dutchman made the frozen four as national semifinalists for the first time in program history and whereas the dutchman have won the cleary cup for the second straight year as e c ac hockey regular season champions and whereas the dutchman have won the program's first ever white lock up for the e c a c hockey men's championship in one and an n c a a regional for the first time in program history and where as head coach rick bennett won the e c ac hockey coach of the year award and was a finalist for the spencer penrose award for the national or for the n c a a division one coach of the year and where a soft more goaltender troy gross neck was a finalist  for the hobey baker award presented to the no nation's top division one player in men's college hockey and whereas soft more goaltender troy gross neck first team junior forward jeremy welsh second team and soft more defenseman matt brodie second team were named a h c a all americans with their naming being the most ever in a single season in program history and whereas the team matched a program record for wins and a twenty six eight seven had the best single season winning percentage in program history and whereas the team played the first outdoor game in isi a c hockey history beating harvard two zero at fenway park in front of the largest crowd ever to see union college play hockey game therefore be a result that the city council and the mayor of the city is connected to here by paus carries congratulations a resolution a resolution designating friday april twenty seventh two thousand and twelve as arbor day in the city of schenectady whereas arbor day was first observed in eight hundred seventy two with the planting of more than a million trees in nebraska whereas arbor day is now observed throughout the nation and the world as a special day set aside for the planting of trees and where as trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind  water cutting heat and cooling costs moderating the temperature clean the air absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes feel for our fires and countless other wood products and where as trees in our city increase property value and beautifier community and trees in the rain forest help keep our earth cool and trees are a source of beauty and shade and woodlands a source of respite and renewal and whereas the city of schenectady supports retreat each year in its tree planting projects therefore be it resolved that the mayor of the mayor and the city council of the city of schenectady do hereby proclaim friday april twenty seventh as arbor day in the city of schenectady and urge all plant eight hundred bear root trees in front yards two hundred large caliber trees in islands and parks and these trees are selected situated planted in cared for by the homeowners and volunteers actually this past weekend we planted fifty trees using three crews that included our o t students from the high school union students and youth belles and we actually have two more plantings this week one in mont pleasant one and aids village so we're here tonight to receive the resolution to thank you for the at and for your support thank you you're welcome we thank you for the work that you do the oldest daycare center in schenectady county and among the longest continually operating day care centers in the city of new york and where as connected in our day nursery was founded in one thousand to in response to a child welfare study revealing that many children were locked in their homes or running the streets while their mothers worked and whereas over the years while services have changed as new needs emerged it's connected danish has never strayed from its original mission to provide a special place where even the youngest child feel safe and has the opportunity to grow it's a learn in a learning in a caring environment and whereas as a pioneer in the daycare field sdn has been innovative in learning programs and in fit in early childhood care before and after school care educational parenting programs engaging in collaborative services with capital district beginnings in providing professional therapist to bolster skills such as language and speech and integrated the same within classroom activities and whereas it is fully licensed by the state of new york office of children and family services operating with a professional staff of fourteen full time employees credential an early childhood education and whereas sdn helps families improve their income potential by providing quality affordable daycare through the use of a sliding fee schedule making it economically feasible for parents to acquire work experience and skills and or to advance their formal celebrating this important milestone in history and wish their organization continued success i'd like to move the resolution ok there's good moves is there a second second by mr all those in favor i resolution carries for the staff the board of managers and the children i'd like to thank the city council for this honor we do as part of ourselves for having one hundred ten readers come into our building and retire children mayor mccarthy had kicked off our program we've had the pleasure of having councilman in next week i believe that we're having councilman porterfield come in so if anyone's interested in reading to our children we'd love to have you you can just contact the nearest c d seven four six three one nine and again thank you for this honor thank you and happy anniversary ok looks like we have four public hearings scheduled for this evening first public hearing is regarding revisions to sixty seven of the code of the city of schenectady regarding vacant buildings i have one person signed up for this hearing this james oxford mr oxford ramifications are as for abandoned properties but i do know that we need to consider having them removed or renovated but i hope the council makes the right decision to have something done about them thank you thank you mr oxford and i hope that if you do see people around those buildings where they shouldn't be you would certainly notify the police department thank you sir i have no one signed up for this public hearing seeing no one else signed up i will declare that public hearing when sixty seven closed number two second public hearing is regarding the abandonment of daniel's every new in the city of schenectady first went to new york state second class cities law chapter one hundred one again i have no one signed up for this public hearing seeing no one here to speak i will close that public hearing as well number three revisions to chapter one fifty six their seven point one and chapter one twenty one dash four of the code of the city of schenectady regarding open fires again no one signed up for this public hearing seeing none i will declare that public hearing closed number four is a regards lee banded mint of egg mystery in the city of schenectady person went to new york second class city law section one  no one signed up for this public hearing number four against public hearing will be declared closed communications and petitions communications presented to the city council for monday april twenty third two thousand and twelve under the category of official from the memo from the mayor a list of appointments dated april twenty third two thousand and twelve from the commissioner of general services a letter recommending the award of fertilizers pesticides and turf suppliers for the municipal golf course to the lowest better from the commissioner of general services a letter recommending the award of sodium hypochlorite build liquid chlorine for the utilities and facilities two thousand and twelve pool season to lowest better under the category of general a letter from the bellevue preservation announcing their may meeting to be held on thursday may tenth at seven p m at st paul's a pistol church there are no petitions ok we'll move on to committee reports are there any committee reports from the council ok see no committee reports i will declare committee reports closed next is privilege of the floor on the legislative agenda good evening my name is mary maclean i live in the city i'm going to talk about number three and number nineteen with regard to number three this is one of the best items that i have ever seen on a city council agenda with this program fourteen hundred ad brous children are going to learn how to play tennis and the only cost to the city is the removal of tree trunks and to resurface the ground they use the tennis foundation will do the rest of the foundation applauded for its efforts someone cares enough to teach the young folks a new skill i hope this is the beginning a many programs to come i would like to see volunteers come forward to teach other forms of recreation to the youth in our community things like playing bridge tap dancing interests and hobbies all good indoor activities and skills that are not taught in the schools i often think of my own childhood my family lived in the city my siblings and i had it all near our home was a community center owned and operated by the methodist churches of south jersey every day after school we would go there for classes her fashionables would come from the suburbs to teach the classes one day would be piano lessons another dog a sewing classes another day theater arts it every day was something to and it was possible because people cared enough to teach a life time skills to children and the children made the effort to learn this tennis program is a good idea and let's do more now with regard to number nineteen i don't think encumbering snowplowing budget funds is a good idea how many council members would handle their own household funds in the same way the north east caught a break this year it was a mild winter the money's not used for snow plowing and removeable should be set aside as a cash reserve and not used for construction boris mr breaking needs remind everybody about number four the deadline is may the fourteenth so there won't be any sudden and use minutes or possibly lose your life number six i was just wondering if this law firm was who they reside in schenectady county i know they've done work for the police department before and have served  in criminal cases just curious for as well as to whether or not they reside in the city and it may not be a good idea to have somebody locally for that but still life i just lack the knowledge on it and then number twenty i am very confused about this because this was a project with the support of  york state office of parks and recreation the city contract and the amount of four hundred fifty thousand dollars was a twenty five percent match and then kind services twenty five percent of four hundred fifty thousand to me was more like one hundred eleven thousand and the total project was six hundred thousand but instead now it's been reduced to fifty nine thousand nine hundred ninety which changes the total is nowheres near twenty five percent match of the four hundred fifty thousand so i wonder about that i saw a variance using these original figures of thirty nine thousand dollars which is just that's a lot of money and so i was just wondering about that and maybe the council or the led to such councillors  can do something about explaining that thank you very much thank you i have no one signed up for the rest of the legislative agenda so i will move on to our consent agenda item number eighteen a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to reimburse american tax funding l l c for a delinquent tax  project i think the dire straits that the city is in financially adds to this and this is another problem that we had with the department heads from a previous administration again we had tax lien sold that should have been sold we keep going back to the same thing the same thing with the not for profits it's the same deal so now we have to come up with five thousand dollars to pay for this and another mistake that has been made so what that i'm going to vote no on this cycle ok thank you  simply just so people understand you know what this is is a number of years back ilene was sold to american tax funding piers incorrectly or maybe we shouldn't have done it they at the time they gave us money for it and now we want to buy it back and so there's maybe some incidental surcharges and things that go along with it it's a non amount of money when considering the size of the project for  number twenty one a resolution awarding a contract for the provision of engineering services for combined sewer system inspection and permitting services yes again it's come to my attention of the consuls attention that there's a a city engineering firm that has been asked and for years to enter into any of these contracts or submit a bed to me these contracts and when we have spe in the city that are taxpayers of the city and they're not being asked to to bid on projects in the city and this person is saying they're very capable of doing this work i think it's wrong i think it's something that we shouldn't be doing and so with that i in explaining my vote bids go out and i certainly would encourage anyone from the city from city firms we want city firms to bid on these projects but if we don't receive a bid we're not going to be able to award it to them you move on to the floor concerning city business first person signed up is joy hall all the students to get across that street because of g e traffic and all the kinds of traffic it really came to be pretty tied up and we need to all the speed are still so something's got to be done pretty quick before something else happens we don't want nothing else to happen bad after that one incident down on er that's three hundred sixty thousand is quite a difference if i invested in anything and i was told i was going to get a million dollars my gosh that's why be looking for not three hundred sixty thousand i'm not saying it was a bad decision but i think things should be figured out better than that was that's a big far cry from what the citizens of this city were told they were going to get and i think these things are going on too often now i asked for money many months now why the fire chief a twenty thousand dollar salary increase you don't know it to me you all were the decisions of this city to come up and tell us why you give a man a twenty thousand dollar salary increase a year now i also hear rumors that an individual from the recycling program got a ten thousand dollar salary increase and that forms get a five thousand dollars read crease i'm not sure this is true but for a city that is nearly bankrupt and you can do this now for four years the whole state the whole country's been in a downturn don't spawn people robel in poverty there's more people in the food pantries than ever and we're spending money like we have everything just to give away program you can make additions and i'm vicious dogs you can make a decision on the cars going on to the city or going home in the first place thirty five or more cars i don't believe it's necessary i think it's terrible you've had two committees already and now the third one trying to figure out why cars are taken home the tree trimming the god what did you do in your city before you had the truck if a street was blocked off it's blocked off many streets are blocked off your every year paving fires and now because a tree falls you have to have the power company there sure people there everybody has to be around you can't take care of the gushing manhole cover the city you should have hired six or eight people to get this caught up you can't drive around a city without it the man will cover that's recessed a great mom and there you go ahead want to pull money on everything else you've given everybody of salary increase how do you do this i'm tony you're the taxpayer and policy from some of these auctions believe me this is a far cry on what's going on here and i almost think we need an audit an investigation into this whereabouts if you people don't know what's going on general services can go and buy the sand and salt for next year and you people don't vote on it we don't know how much is being spent you don't know when budgets this is a shame what's going on you don't know how much you want to spend for the chemicals for the park i know i only got thirty seconds but this is terrible we need to have people look into this and if you can't do it then you've got to hire somebody or get somebody else in office that can do  i received a letter this week somebody wants some money from me and they are a if there charitable cultural and educational nonprofit that depends on your gifts and support to bring exciting shows well i can never figure out whether the proctor what the procter is whether it's not for profit or it's for you know  gimme gimme gimme all the time and it's getting better well i don't i'm not going to go any further on that oh i know is that one time i did the city for information regarding sac t v when it was up for sale because when it was up for sale we were taken on a tour and the building was absolutely  e you just couldn't believe it went five six of a building was a trap a fire trap a trap to fall into there were just any number of scenarios one could come up with and i was there was one area that myself and two other gentleman would not even go down the stairs we didn't even one touch the exposed light fixture it was a bowl is what it was they wouldn't even touch any of that so i said i've fulfilled the city and i know ok here it is i wouldn't be able to find it the city for all code enforcement investigations inspections and anything from code enforcement and you know this is after getting the acceptance letter we've received your letter and it's going to take us a huge amount of time and we'll get back to you whenever we have the information i got it back in no time there were no records existing in response to my request i'm tired i lived there for five years and i invested my life savings on the property that the assessed and then the six thousand five hundred dollars where everybody else's taxes i broke i understand the city struggling and i respect that and i'm not afraid to pay my fish taxes but to pay nine hundred ninety nine dollars that's going to make this equally this rounded out get a fire truck to come down here because it's got to be a if something goes well towards the end of that street ok the truck is not going to make it i am so fed up james oxford i would also like to say that we in mt pleasant would like to see more action on the business district or in the business district we have a city property in the middle of crane history feels now building has a lot of people refer to her and that building i just went but today has trash piled up into the front door she has a wonderful plan to she's going to discos thank you again had district languishing for quite a while longer a couple of organizations we are in the process of forming another one with four dedicated members we understand the city does not have a lot of money and we're looking for the city to guide us we're also going to be meeting with ray gillan of metroplex on may third looking for guidance what do we need to do in order to help get some funding we are seeking out a grant writer pleasant has a lot of empty buildings we have a lot of graffiti we have lot of drug dealers we watch them actually come out of our doors out of their doors and meet cars curbs service for drugs we've had shootings on our block we've had knifings when we hear a boom and we're not sure if it's a firecracker or it's a gun i have a idea that i proposed to our organization it's called neighbor helping neighbor to try to get neighbors who might be able to afford to help another neighbor buy some paint and actually painted over their graff perhaps paid a fence perhaps at a garden i've got a garden in the yard in the house across the street from me i've offered to clean a house for the neighbor on the street and to paint their fence it will involve getting approval of landlords or property owners and cooperation of tenants i will give this to the committee here to look over help guide us we don't know if we need your approval when we direct someone to help take graffiti off of a street sign to perhaps paint over it we don't know what procedure we need to go through for that so we're really humbly coming to you  metroplex find out what we need to do to start getting some funding for money which is an dire need we do understand that other communities have been able to get funding through expansion of businesses such as know we're trying to find ideas to bring people to mount pleasant and one of the speakers here today are talking about teaching children how to do things gave us a little confirmation on some ideas we have about possibly opening a little story perhaps a music school something where people could donate their time and we're looking to find out from the city what we could do to obtain buildings for such things very cheaply or with some kind of incentives for first or second years we really are looking for your guidance and how can we help get out of the dumps thank you thank you and we do have a meeting coming up council service announcements to reiterate bellevue preservation meeting is thursday may tenth seven p m st paul the episcopal church guest speaker will be me but as a member  applications for the annual neighborhood grab sale june second and third are now available at broadway launch and new england cafe or by calling diane three seven zero three two three six and tickets for the chicken barbecue which is the human rights commission it's a presentation and discussion based on a study entitled the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system on people of color in the capital region keynote speakers dr alice green this will take place on wednesday april twenty fifth two thousand and twelve from six to eight p m it's in the stockade room at the community college admission is free and a special performance by two deep entertainment who have had the actual pleasure to see their wonderful for more information that's three seven seven two nine eight two just a little clarification and the encumbering of the plowing funds it's actually exactly what the plan was to put them aside for some additional cash flow if we need it because we recognize that we didn't need to utilize all of our plowing funds this year and the fifty nine thousand and change over sixty thousand dollars is actually a loan that will be repaid by a grant so as opposed to going out to borrow that funding we are lending it to ourselves in till it chair i'm going to read i was asked to read this there's going to be a fundraiser to support st john the evangelist school that is closing and there's a group of people that want to try to keep it open so this can be a fundraiser wednesday may second from six to eight p m one nine hundred thirty curry road r s v p and the phone numbers two four eight two zero seven four two four eight two zero seven four in the e mail is city that's too bad i'm guy like i'm glad the people came down and spoke tonight and we could see the problems that we have in our neighborhoods and all important as and again i'm going to ask that we have to put together a comprehensive plan as a city council to address these problems in our neighborhoods in matter and obviously it doesn't but some people feel that a dos and it does sometimes if you're in a poor neighborhood they don't feel they're getting the attention that some other neighborhoods are getting and people are paying their taxes they want the same kind of protection and the same kind of services and whether it's a perception or not it doesn't matter that's what how they feel things are going in these poor neighborhoods they need more help than the more affluent neighborhoods actually because they're going down the hill they've been faster going down that road so it's something we have to keep in mind and i really i'm willing to work with anyone to get some kind of plan together to t to address this and it has to be addressed because we want people to live in the city of schenectady that's the only way we can raise our tax base there's no other way and to do that we have to have safe and clean neighborhood so keep going over this over and over again we have to clean the streets up it's very important that we do this and until we do this things aren't going to change and i said this before and it was some people don't like it but i can't help it you have to weed that garden before you can plant expect things to grow and that's what you have to do so until we change that there's a lot of things that are going to change in our neighborhoods i'm afraid we have serious financial problems we have serious problems with our assessment roll we have some serious problems going on i would really like to see us adopt for the rest of this year an austerity budget to go through i think we should have a hiring freeze for sure we should have i know harry you're speaking to things well i'm voting against a lot of these things spending money because i'm one that doesn't like to spend money even if we have a coming back there's nothing for certain when money's going to come back there's nothing for certain we have to borrow money because we have cash flow problems these are serious just issues that we have we're not addressing that message consul i don't know what else to do you know i'm a single person here i don't know what else to do i'm asking this my ideas what i think we should go so i don't know what else to do i'm in a minority here i realize that but as the minority leader i'm going to ask and i'm going to ask the public to join me because that's what i'm going to need we need help that's what we need there's no question minute president a couple things i wanted to talk about tonight first a mystery a thank you for for volunteering or saying that you want to participate you know i'm available to talk about your ideas i know that we talked  about areas to cut a while back you said that you submitted them i was going around looking for some of these ideas i never got anything from you maybe the last email you talk about it or call me or something we could we can propose those well i did i did so you know i think we're well aware of all the issues we have when it comes up to creative solutions and ideas in there isn't if there was an easy solution like hey let's just stop spending money it would be great let's do it right but you know things like the park we're going to renovate the parks and it's been great if we didn't spend the sixty thousand dollars but then we would be complaining that our parks aren't maintained and everything costs money so i think you know i am always available to meet with any of the council members i've reached out to you many times in i'm always willing to listen and i think all of us are willing to sit together and brainstorm for creative solutions so i want to make sure that you are aware that you know my door is always open and i will reach out to you as well a couple of things that i kind of made notes here recycling we know of love the financial issues we have there's never the ten million dollar solution that just falls in our lap as often as we like but little things like recycling if everybody in the city is going to be recycled to what they should  we would be saving a lot quite a bit of money hundreds of thousands of dollars a boards of a million dollars if everyone in the city just recycled similar to what people know suburbs and it's just a matter of education and people taking the time to do it right and so if you're out and about you notice your neighbors are put the recycling bins out and you can kindly make a suggestion i encourage the mayor if there's anything we can do i know recycling is the law i believe in so if we can enforce it if there's friendly notices that the guys can put on cans to say hey we haven't seen a recycling bin for a few weeks i think that might help i again want to comment the tennis group fifteen love for their efforts to rebuild the park tennis courts i believe that they are on a fund raising mission to put that money together with their organization so anybody who feels that it's a worthy cause i do is well you know contacting that group to make a contribution is probably a good idea and they're going to be looking to to put together the money to do all this stuff steinmetz park renovation i think it's a great a great thing for our community i know even years ago before i was even involved in politics in running for city council i went to plenty of neighborhood meetings where they wanted to fix up this and i think for many many years people had ideas and things and it's great to see this thing finally moving forward and so  we're improving infrastructure and it's a good idea a good idea and i'm glad to see that things are finally moving and lastly the auto policy we've been talking about of who drives vehicles home and where the vehicles can go inside the city outside the city right avenue is this the council makes it a law or whether it's a policy on the mayor's apart i'm not really concerned procedurally which way it happens just the fact that the policy gets implemented and so i encourage that we move forward with that as well i think it's a good first of all i'd like to i think everyone that attended my off the ceremony on friday appreciate everyone being here and everyone that participated in that i'd also like to clarify a caption under the picture that was in the g e ralph boyd is that my father reverend diana fletcher is my mother so they're reprint that i was really happy to hear the a woman that came down to tate to talk about building community and how we can work neighbor to neighbor i think that's really important and you know it's going to take some time as a city for us to get there but is i believe in susan participation so as citizens we can do that and i agree with you mr rigby that we do have to work in all the neighborhoods and to do some things to make it to make our city the place that we all want to live and that a place that we all want to be proud of i believe in community building and that's one of the things that i will be talking a lot about and i feel like there's things that we can do on a regular basis every citizen in the city is going at him do that whether we lived next door or in the new different neighborhood so every couple weeks i'll just be suggesting something that will be community building and since we just finished earth day and we got a resolution today for arbor day for the next two weeks before while three weeks before next meeting everyone in the city can participate by planting flowers or trees and also litter is a major problem in our city so if we see litter let's pick up the litter let's make this connect to the livable place that we really wanted to be thank you office so that it's working in conjunction with the water apartment with other departments including the police and fire department we a year ago started the neighborhood by neighborhood  review and it's really every parcel in the city is going to get to eventually it's not something that happens overnight and it's something i've told the staff that i don't want as happened in the past where we do things for quick headlines that it is a systematic thurl in going process again started it of a little less than a year ago we're starting to see some of the results from that we've gone through we've given what i'll call the polite notices some people have complied with that some people big nora that we've given the more formal notices some people have complied with that some people still ignore it and we've given the final step notice where we bring people to court some people comply with that some people still ignored those people that ignored it and we saw last week the police department went out and we started to arrest them we're sending that message out that we are not going to tolerate that but we are working with people to fix up their properties to invest in it and we're doing the negative side of it and at moloch's for it i apologize for if we have a building on crane street that has l in front of it we'll try and get somebody up there tomorrow to clean that up because i want city properties to be held to the same standards that we expect our residents in property owners to maintain their said carl fella teco is here who's doing the prosecutions in city court we're sending that message out that we're being tough and on the other side of it we've worked with n b t bank with key banc and other financial institutions t package we're calling key to the city we're promoting home ownership it's owner occupied housing i want the message to go out that we are a city where families can choose to live people can buy property here  treat it as a good investment people in the past have looked at schenectady where it was an investment that something that is not going to change overnight but we're going to do that again in a i'm going systematic and methodical way and we're seeing results from it people are coming here we're working with the school district kathy lois the president of the school board is with us tonight in the audience i have working with the daily gazette working in the banking community terror's to market schenectady and we're going to look to continue to expand that we're going to do foreclosures we're going to look to put in place the rehab of housing we've been acted the land bank legislation we're hoping that the state will grant that designation sometime next month scheduled to review it you know the council put in place the vacant building registry that we are doing these things an incremental and systematic manner it's not going to happen overnight but can't just have people just stand up and criticise saying that we are doing things where there isn't a plan in place we are moving in a manner that people are going to see results and  long term we're not looking for cheap headlines that's not my style or you get results not but so is saying it will be done without controversy but we're going to move along so that people are proud of it in the long term and the wastewater treatment plant you know mr brant keeps bringing up million dollars that's the long term number the budget figure we had this year i think it was three hundred fifty or four hundred fifty thousand dollars we're going to meet that number it's a  int that we're going to turn around we're going to position it so that it will be a model for also economic development because it services not only the city of schenectady but part of southern saratoga county glenville in  hopefully working with rotterdam that we're doing a lot of good things here and it's not again without controversy there's a lot of financial pressure on the city of schenectady we're not spending money for volitionally you know you're going to get rid of the car get rid of our expenses for the conferences of mayors for the u s conference of mayors and i come i know some of council members want to do that we don't do things ballistically if somebody point something out where things are being expended improperly or in a manner where they shouldn't if you bring it my attention i will stop it but i want to work with everybody who want work with the community we have a lot of good people here a lot of volunteers have come forward to help in want to do things this summer to again build on that do neighborhood cleanups try and do those things that the attention to detail that make people proud to live here in i look forward to input from the community in working with the residents neighborhood groups to make those things happen and president whatever we can do staff and i'm here to make sure it happens thank you thank you mr mayor i couldn't agree more with your comments this is the first time in my memory on my fourteen years on the council that we as a city as a council as the administration have begun to follow a thorough plan and i think we are seeing results of that however it took us a long time in the city of schenectady and more than my would never want to mention how many  years in this city but it took a long time for the decline of the city of schenectady to happen and now we're seeing the results of it and we've seen the results over of the past twenty years and it's going to take a long time to get it back to where it was now will is something ever exactly the way it was before i don't think so but what i am seeing also along with the cooperation of the administration and a solid plan along with our public safety people and i do also want to mention that with regard to any type of raise that the fire chief has gotten he is worth every penny of it and more the city the public safety response that we get from our fire department is second to none and we should keep that in mind that we are not looking to denigrate any of the services that we have here in the city is connected me and in particular with our fire department with the expertise we have with the paramedics and as a result of our aging infrastructure here with the many many houses that we've had here hundred year old homes that are wood structures as we've all been seeing if we're paying attention there have been many fires and many of these gentlemen and women who are out there fighting fires put their lives on the line every single day for us as well as our police officers do in the city of schenectady see to be very careful when we talk about issues of money and what someone is worth or not worth that being said i think to back to our work with the city of schenectady it's comment upon the council it's incumbent upon the administration it's also incumbent upon our residents and many of us that whether we hold public office for all taxpayers here will homeowners here i don't there's anyone in this room in the city of schenectady that works for the city that wants to see our city decline everyone wants a place that we can be proud of and that we can live in and certainly in order to address our tax base we have to make it that way because otherwise all of us who pay taxes are going to suffer the consequences and i would have to say that's probably one of the major reasons that many of us get involved in public service  in terms of working with each other and working together we have to make it very clear with each other that no one here either on the council in the administration or within the city of schenectady acts as an island we all need to do it and we need to work it together now does that happen all the time no absolutely not and that's life and that's the way it is whether it's as a council member as a family member these things happen and you know what controversy is good because it makes this thing but i think if we look at what we've accomplished as a city in terms of the selected and more emphasis putting on code enforcement looking at it neighborhood by neighborhood in a systematic type way it's very similar to the way that we've looked at as a council the cars going home from with the different city employees but we are as a council we are policy makers in so it is incumbent upon of us to make sure that a correct policy goes through that that policy is is followed and that is also in cohesion with the city with what the mayor wants to see for his administration and what we want to see as a population of the city of schenectady in general so i think that we are headed in the right direction i think it's going to take some time and i admit it's frustrating we all get phone calls we all try to help anyone and i know i can speak to anyone on this council right now we get a phone call we return it and we follow through and i think right now that's the best that we could possibly do but we need the input from the city of schenectady in if you see something in your neighborhood that doesn't look it is incumbent in your responsibility as a citizen to report that don't wait until monday night to you come down here please for your sake and for your neighbor sake make sure if you see something you say something so  thank you all for coming down tonight and thank you for all of your comments and with that i would ask for a motion to adjourn oh i'm sorry we have to recess because we have the that we have to recess