anytime you are i'm going to call the city council caucus meeting to order for aug twenty fourth twenty fifteen we have to public hearings tonight of the clerk would be each of those public area number one regarding designating the woodland preserve as a park public area number two regarding amending chapter one thirty eight to waive the building permit fee in certain circumstances and then move on to the regular agenda for final consideration item number one number one for final consideration in ordinance amending chapter thirty six of the administrative code of the city of schenectady elections without objection on consent item number two i don't number two in ordinance amending chapter two forty eight of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding parking ticket payment recovery discussed in committee without objection on consent item number three item number three under original consideration an ordinance amending chapter one fifty one excavations chapter two twenty eight streets and sidewalks introduced only with a resolution calling for a public airing on the above proposed ordinance for seven pm on tuesday september fourteenth two thousand and fifteen discussed in committee without objection on consent  did number four resolution authorizing supplemental agreement number one with new york state department of transportation for design services in connection with the oak street bridge over c s x bridge repair city has connect pin seventeen fifty point three three discussed in committee without objection on consent item number five item number five a resolution authorizing supplemental agreement number one with arion final design services in connection with oak street bridge over c s expert repair city of schenectady pin one seven five five point three three discussed in committee without objection on consent item or six discussed in committee without objection on consent i don't number seven i don't number seven a resolution accepting the transfer of ownership of a portion of fourteen south brandywine avenue eighteen south brandywine avenue and eleven zero one state street to the objection on consent item number nine item number nine a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a property damage claim with a make a a s o rappaport discussed in claims without objection on consent item number item number ten a resolution recognizing buzz media and the miles of smiles committee taken out of order miss present will present that item number eleven item number eleven under contract and supply resolution to accept the bid no ward the contract for the city of schenectady wastewater treatment plant laboratory roof replacement to mid state industries ltd in the amount of eighty four thousand four hundred eighty dollars also discuss committee without objection on consent and then we have four other items that were discussed in city development in planning this evening so i am number twelve item number twelve under original consideration a resolution authorizing the sale of ten thirteen  n a resolution authorizing the sale of sixteen zero five forrester avenue without objection on consent and item number fifteen item number fifteen a resolution authorizing the sale of nine zero nine bridge street without objection on consent there's nothing else to come before the city council caucus on athena motion to adjourn mr cocksure seconded by mr ferrari on favor i write i will now call the city council meeting to order from august twenty fourth twenty fifteen and i ask you to rise to the invocation by reverend arthur butler from full liberty fellowship that you protect each and every one of us we ask you to protect and bless our marriage and council members and do the work of the people we invite you because you are all knowing and you are all giving we ask that you give us what we need tonight to do that work we ask you to give us with to carry it out we ask you to give over it so that we can stand up when we from buzz media to lead us in the pledge of allegiance good evening i'm delighted to be here my name is corey rau i'm a registered nurse i work for the health promotion department n d p health care and i have the pleasure of working with the city of schenectady and the employees to implement year bigger and better and b p is so proud to collaborate with the safety and wellness committee and really underwrite some really great features for this year's fair so what you can expect is that it's a free event for everyone will take place on saturday september twelfth and as you all know this is a destination time with many of bents going on at the same time but we'll be bringing in wellness exhibit and you can count on another great effort from and b p lastly i'd like to tell you that  who what where when how and i think that's it are there any other questions that you may have for me very good thank you so much ok thank you for coming down all right we have one out of order resolution which is recognizing miles of so this is your fifteen minutes of fame right here so i'm just so pleased just from a personal standpoint my colleagues president cain is councilman porterfield can attest to the fact that i was just so emotional that day because to see the streets lined with people showing pride for their community a community that i love so very very dearly we had a services boss ride by proud to be able to offer this resolution madam president you have for thank you this is a resolution recognizing buzz media solutions and the miles of smiles committee where as habitat for humanity of schenectady county an affiliate of habitat for humanity international is a nonprofit organization that works with generous donors and hardworking volunteers to make a positive difference in the lives of working families and where as habitat for humanity and buzz media solutions a full service marketing and communications agency whose headquarters are located right in the heart of downtown schenectady affiliated the miles of smiles campaign a global initiative to spread smiles around the world  and whereas on august twelfth two thousand and fifteen downtown schenectady became home to the first miles of smiles initiative stretching from the n d p headquarters on state street to schenectady county community college on washington avenue and whereas this is a combined effort to raise money from for habitat for humanity of schenectady county but also a community event to promote the many positive apennines taking place in schenectady and where as mayor garry mccarthy members of the city council in new mayor gary mccarthy and the city council here by pozen their deliberations to gradually solutions and the hash tag miles of smiles committee and successful miles of smiles event which all right we have two public hearings tonight kirkwood read the first one mccarthy a member of the city council i'm a member of the woodlawn they were association and we are also affiliated with the woodlawn preserve we've kind of asked the city of if they would consider naming that park as if it becomes a park we are eligible for some funding from other sources plus we will then be eligible for anything that the parks or doesn't move for in the city so we're looking forward to that and hopefully we can can we see that from you for you fellows thank you very much thank you looks like del bernard resided there for at least the last thirty years i also work in woodlawn preserve for the last five years woodland preserve as i'm sure you've been made aware is a hundred fifty or thirty five acres of open pine barren area we have a retention pond we have fish we have animals we have everything else we are looking to have this area designated as a park within the city of schenectady to try and cut down the opportunities for outside entities from building or developing anything in in the area itself i understand there last i knew there were still a number of paper streets in there that were set up at some time in the past when wanted or somebody desired to put developments into there at this time i know of no developments i believe you are looking to consolidate this area into a four major preserve and or be designated as a park when i'm here just to turn around boyce my feelings that i would like i would like to see this as a park within the city of schenectady with all of the amenities that go along with thank you thank you jason thank we had scuba divers cool wind and the hollow of stuff that was brought out of that like it was amazing bathtubs refrigerators and everything but you know this meeting the other evening  chairman king mentioned that there were a lot of issues about this she was very concerned about but the conversation stopped there and i think it would have been a better ways to part time if you had spent some time before this meeting to have a conversation about this because there are some serious issues about people that go into the area and particularly where the jersey barriers supposedly separate the preserve from the railroad track and that they are people are going in there with recreational vehicles and these barriers are not close enough together to keep them from possibly playing games with trying to be faster than running and so there are there are issues i remember the first thing that i came upon much i was out there was but it looked strange to me and fortunately i had on some record and when i picked up it was really bad and it was very fresh and so i think there are issues and discussion would have been in order for the ski concern for the city and its  council and the public that they were there is construction whatever the nature is and that the fee is being waived i remember many years ago when  was getting involved in production of films they used to come before the council and has permission to work the streets naming the streets naming the hours and providing the council with information about what they're going to do to protect public safety and the safety of the production people involved and so again i think where innocent transparency are always necessary and building permits somebody really needs to upgrade the the information to make sure  forms they print them and ask for pieces of information because it's important if it was important when they made the form it's just this important six months a year after down the line and building address and the type of work being done all but all the lines should be filled in and at a level post at a level where they can be rid of the public that is communications and petitions communications presented to the city council her monday august twenty fourth two thousand and fifteen from the mayor a list of appointments dated august twenty fourth two thousand and fifteen a letter from the city engineer christopher wall i'm recommending the war of city cities to obscure back to the wastewater treatment plant laboratory roof replacement to mid state industries ltd day under general there are non under petitions there are none thank you do we have any committee reports as far as  is a little generic for those that might be watching at home with regard to the waiver of the building permit fees this would be it sir stances where damage is done specifically  by the city or due to something that belongs to the city for instance a tree falling from city property and damaging someone's property and so they want to rebuild it and we would then waive the building permit fees although the the agenda is very specific the circumstance in which the fees would be waiver waived is specific i said   everything is free again it's to a two to four pm this saturday in the park and as we all know it's almost time for back to school one of the kids are really really excited their parents are more excited and there's going to be a school school supply giveaway this is being sponsored by citizen action in collaboration with new york state united teachers and disconnect the federation of teachers right now they're collecting supplies there's various locations there's a box right here in city hall in the name in the rotunda where people can drop off things also there's another donation site at the district office of assemblywoman angelo santa barbara which is the center city for thirty three states street also the main now on july thirtieth there was an event that susan actually gave and they gave out certificates to people to get supplies so people can bring those to picket in addition to that folks who didn't get certificates boys day out is participating this  well and there will be supplies for students who or families who didn't get a certificate so again the supply giveaway is on september third park at six pm if anyone has questions they can contact to make a miles and her number is four nine six zero seven nine nine thank you thank you anyone else committee reports all right if not then we will move on to privileges the floor related to the legislative agenda i have two people live in the survey agenda item number one and three number one an ordinance amending chapter thirty six of the a ministration administrative code of the show city of schenectady elections i want to go on record in opposition of them ending chapter thirty six regarding schenectady elections this amendment change miles fishy to me someone is up to no good with this one you want the said dick clark to run a special election if the board of elections refuses to i say absolutely not a men item number three amending chapter one fifty on excavations chapter two twenty eight streets and sidewalks this change is like letting the fonts watch the hen house granted there needs to be a follow up to city projects that are done by outside contractors and according to this amendment the job all fall on the city engineer but where are the checks and balances where the engineering department the they department is mentions such then as us removing screeds and connecting pipes but never addresses the issue of cleanup for the site you can go anywhere in this city where a project was done and you will see some barrels numbers letters etc painted on the ground and left the it should be said you project should look better than it's completely after it's been completed than it did before there are some ice which added to the code before good passes the engineering department needs to clean up what the contractors lay behind thank you t again as i think mark townsend from time to time comes to remind us they come and i would just like commissioner stratton and the erie canal the water comes and goes well it comes pouring supply people here they make their money and then they leave and they take it with them they take it home with them and spend it in their communities i'm glad to see the work that mr walland is doing is really an excellent commissioner i was surprised when he came to make a decision on this number went through a period of time where the chairman of the of the planning committee only wanted signs that were flushed at the building she liked the look it was very no way england this kind of look and many people were didn't applications for signs because they were not willing to do that and i can blade signs that come out from the building and they usually supported by one or two rods and week it amazed me because before the renovations were done  street there are many pictures shown of schenectady in the fifty's and it was just you couldn't hardly see anything for signs and they were all blade signs and it was the look of the fift plates so thank you you thank i have no one else signed up so i'm going to declare this portion of the meeting closed on attain a motion to approve the legislative agenda mr reiki seconded by mr ferrari all in favor i  then we will move to privilege of the floor regarding city business before we start that i want to read a statement i just want to remind everyone that regarding privilege of the floor speakers are requested to limit their comments to three minutes additionally while we welcome everyone's input regardless of the viewpoint being presented we must be respectful of one another everyone must use appropriate language and foul or abusive language will not be tolerated and he speaker failing to follow these requirements is going so jealous into trying to get onto the freedom of foil of information act trying to get the actual jobs in the actual numbers this city has an obligation under its economic development committee to have a cost benefit analysis done every year on all these pilots it hasn't done it for the last eleven years two guys have been in power and for him to be caught in the paper trying to get the number i'm trying to get the numbers together he supposed to give this as the first of april they supposed to bring a report back to the city council we don't even have a cost benefit analysis we have we have one of the largest largest companies the battery plant we've hi my name's brenda nally and i just wanted to invite you guys to do something i wouldn't expect to be able to make decisions from your perspective about anything you do with your job even if you were to send me some information i don't think that i would be adequately prepared to make a decision based on what you do here there's a garden down next to quest and i spend a lot of time down there with the people and it's a great opportunity for you guys to see what type of encouragement and inspiration just teaching young children to take care of something can do in teaching them to work for something and it could be seen as an opportunity or could be seen as a conflict because of what's going on with them land and because it's currently not owned by qwest and there's an issue going on back and forth but i think more importantly it could be seen as an opportunity for schenectady to step up and show the community how much they care and instead of people hearing in the midst of trying to take pride of our community people hearing that schenectady is not for this community garden which is feeding people and also giving young kids important life skills they're hearing this connect is trying to take it away and i just think like wow what a great opportunity for you guys to say you know what we're going to step up and we're going to show the community how much we care and instead of allowing it to be a negative thing take take pride for it and take accountability for and say listen we're going to bend the rules we're going to make this work for you guys because we do care  there are a lot of young kids down there and i was blessed enough to be born in burn holes on a farm i never chose to be born in burn holes on a farm that same spirit we are short in earlier he keep blessed me and my mom was in a crack and my parents taught me how to work for myself and we need to teach these kids that if we want to actually have an impact on the people that are growing up we have to show them that we're for them and encourage them in that way and there's a lot of empty lots there are a lot of empty lots but none of them have a garden growing and none of them are giving away free food and so i want to invite you just to come down and see it for yourself just as i wouldn't expect to be able to make an educated decision on what's going on in your everyday life extend that same gratitude to us and don't expect to be able to make a good decision based on that community garden without coming in just taking a look and i know there's issues with possibly with judy i don't know what it is but for the sake of the kids we can have a huge impact and work together on this so that's what i want to say thank  of the engineering department can anyone here give me a timeline when the file the city made on my street will be cleaned up the situation is getting worse no story should have been done the way my street was handled the city should have worked with the neighbors and all the paving done at the same time though the issue involved seven houses why would the city want private contractors going back into the street to fix the shoulder after the new street was put down w on broadway are high enough to choke a horse the school property is no better have the concrete sidewalk on mcclellan street it's covered with weeds how beautiful is that after and then there are the mayor's pet projects demolishing houses out of the purse couse was demolished on eastern ave to grow three fried high all over the city you aren't doing anything right thank you thank you last person i had signed up  and being able to do anything we've wanted to do and i'm thinking i'd love to have four minutes but you know it's not going to happen but anyway she took up our time and i still haven't had any office hasn't called me back and it reminded me i think the first thing that goes when you get a system of socialism is the foyer process nobody gets information and it's some kind of mysterious congo line and they don't want to explain it and i think that happens around here and people are just being hired but in places and there's no order it's a real hodgepodge in a place that just loves class differentials and it's very annoying it creates chaos and i think the process before it became  talk about economic disparity study i wish you were but want to be around and tell us how many people there's a difference between handicapped and disabled and there are degrees how many people are actually willing to give up that check they get every single week month year whatever it is to get on a job now especially if it's doesn't have any skill level so you know mr volleyball courts that was just put up this past weekend bare and numerous volunteers there so it has sand beach in the back and we've got the volleyball net up there and again play some good volleyball so bring your sneakers a mystery in the rest of us and what will pop a few volleyballs up there so against rain or shine but the weather is looking great so again this wednesday long park i'm sure we've all noticed that all the pools are closed we had a tremendous summer kind of went by very quickly but  especially johnny who works at the the pavilion itself what are score summer camp be a great young man i've had in for the last three or four years and of course the two ski county a job training agency this year they hired nearly four hundred kids throughout the county they were given jobs and we certainly appreciate everything they did but again the pools i have officially closed over the free lunch program is still going on that is running until next friday september fourth there was little article in today's paper i believe it was we want to thank a second of course the numerous volunteers and i know some folks from our city council volunteered a few days at the library but all the summer launch sites will still be open until friday september fourth and i guess they're on goldie reach  seventy thousand lunches serve this year that's up from i believe almost sixty thousand plus last year and good luck to all our students are going to college in the school we are now well empty nesters and my youngest one we just took to soon yes we go on friday and i know what many of our folks here are leaving the area to go to to colleges throughout and of course is going to schools will be opening up wednesday september ninth a little bit later this year with labor day falling behind supplies a very big issue with a lot of our kids they've got a great program we're going to make a miles is heading it up we do have some additional boxes throughout all our county buildings as well the county building at six twenty state street in addition to seven ty seven broadway and around the county offices on one zero six erie boulevard and all three boxes are completely filled with them once already at the county building so we're doing a great job and jamaica miles as we know is a wonderful community  advocate with the citizens action group i can't speak enough about her and what they've been doing but i know she's on facebook so if you can remember her phone numbers just check her out on facebook but again please support our kids with your donations week course we have one right downstairs  and i apologize i think i didn't introduce this section properly it's miscellaneous business of the council as a resident of bellevue i know it's certainly benefits to emergency services and the ability to get to ferrari's restaurant both of those things very very important  we're happy that that is moving forward i'm happy that's moving forward also i just want to say thank you to the southern christian leadership group that organized and brought the residents of hamilton and the city together on saturday night to talk about some of the violence that's been occurring it was a good start intriguing and positive comments and suggestions came out  and i'm looking forward to continuing that momentum but it was yeoman's work to get everyone together and i think it's important that we keep talking and keep moving in a forward direction so thank you for all those efforts thank you good a lot of positive comments were made but i think we have to certainly keep that dialogue going but i think it's important that people realize this isn't just a problem for that particular neighborhood it's a problem for all of schenectady at all the schenectady has to pan together to fix this problem we can't polarize neighborhoods and think that it's just their problems not their problem it's our problem and i think we have to get all the neighborhoods involved w all the elected officials involved we should get our church leaders involved to fix this it's not something that happened overnight i know the mayor brought that up he's absolutely right i spent as much time in that neighborhood as  did in my own neighborhood at bellevue our family business was there for thirty five years so i know that neighborhood very well what it was and what's happened to it same with mom pleasant but i think it's very important that the community band together to fix this problem good because it can be fixed but it's going to take a lot of thought and a lot of communication between different people but i don't think that we should think that it's just their problem it's our problem but schenectady and i think it's very important that we we work towards that the farmer's market in bellevue this thursday from four to seven it's going to go for another couple weeks and l get the correct date but that's going out thank you commitment of a million dollars in state money to go into central park which will enable us to do improvements and renovations at music cave in the a diamond in the central park tennis courts in conjunction with the u s ten where we were looking to do those improvements in that he was really wholeheartedly endorsing that in the importance of providing the recreational opportunities for youth in our community we've tight we've moved for more properties that goes on top of the over forty that we've sold before since mid two thousand and thirteen that's produced over two and a half million dollars going back on the tax rolls you know it is a a program that got started slow begins pain off in a big way where we're bringing back individuals to the neighborhoods we're creating ho opportunities in that we're restoring buildings that we're converting back to homes and that's done in conjunction with our i'm going demolition program where we're backing down the worst of the worst houses in the city in a appreciate the council's cooperation in that the staff and the residents in the city where things don't move quite as quickly as we would like but they are moving in a manner that  i think people are starting to see results and understand the significance of the a coordinated efforts that we're trying to achieve here and it was significant that senator  joined us also last week talking about the homes program and some of the proposed cuts in the congress where they take that program and cut it by ninety percent that provides us with some money  is flexible we work in a consortium with schenectady colony in the city of troy where none of the any one of those individual communities would quite qualify for the money by working together we've formed a partnership that allows us to draw down those home funds and deal with difficult situations and some unique situations that sometimes require a little bit of creative financing to make homeownership opportunity reality so that we again thank the senator for coming in raising the awareness on that and that we look for ways to lobby the congressional delegation and hopefully make sure that those funds are restored and continue into the future as they not only do things just for the city of schenectady but we work with habitat for humanity better neighborhoods county community action program in the community land trust just in the city of schenectady are all partners in that that again provide unique and different scenarios to individuals to create homeownership opportunities in our neighborhood neighborhoods and also this past week are able to announce to new businesses coming into downtown schenectady lottery where wards will be at the biz lab and lower state street in the albany distilling company announced that it will best over seven hundred fifty thousand dollars on a building in the eighth street and then killing them that you know the albany distilling company might not be the best name for schenectady but we'll try and work with them to provide something that will ensure their success and longevity in the community thank you madam president thank you mr cocksure mentioned the second summer lunch program and i know a lot of us have volunteered there and a lot of people in this community have volunteered there and i want to thank all of them but i promised lena who runs this center over at yates village or at that i would say particular thank you to all the site supervisors she runs a really tight ship there and it goes very very smoothly and i'm sure all the other site supervisors do the same thing so again we want to thank you as everyone who's involved with that program also mentioning mr cocksure mention daughter starting college but you didn't mention the fact that she's starting a sophomore but because she was able to take advantage of courses it has c c c before she graduated so i just want to kind of mention that so folks remember that this is an option for our high school students and lastly this next monday is the fifth monday of the month so we will not have committee meetings or council meetings we get the night off and we will reconvene back in september so with that i wanted