be number one i don't number one under final consideration an ordinance regarding the affirmative action advisory board has been discussed numerous times without objection on consent item number two i don't number two under original consideration a resolution calling for a public hearing relative to propose revisions to chapter two four eight of the code of the city of schenectady regarding parking meters again discussed in committee without objection on consent item number three number three a resolution authorizing the change in the zoning of ten nine zero dash eleven zero two crane st discussed in committee without objection on consent and then before i don't number for a resolution requesting review and recommendation of potential changes to the zoning code relative to casinos and gaming i am going to pull this from the agenda had numerous phone conversations today with a few called glossy group and he feels there is not an urgency to moving this forward at this point in time when we don't even have a formal proposal so we will it did come through committee but we will hold this for a future meeting and i also want the entire  business today so we will hold that one ok item number five and number five a resolution authorizing the settlement of a claim by diaz radix discussed in committee without objection on consent and number six i number six by two six two seven broadway l l c discussed in claims without objection on consent item number eight i don't number it's a resolution authorizing the settlement of a tax or shareef filed by two six two seven broadway l l c regarding a twenty seven lincoln i have also discussed in claims without objection on consent item number nine i don't number nine a resolution declaring a proposed wastewater engineering study as a type two action and not subject to review under the new york state environmental quality review act discussed in committee without objections on consent item number ten i'm number ten a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a agreement with new york state environmental facilities corp discussed in committee without objection on consent item number eleven m number eleven a resolution authorizing the commissioner of finance to deposit and increase the capital budget code that will be does it needed specifically for the chips fund by the amount of one million two hundred seventy five thousand and thirty five dollars and zero cents and discussed in committee without objection on consent i don't number twelve i don't number twelve a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with for the operation of the question bush pool with the boys and girls club without objection on consent and number eleven thirteen thirteen i don't number thirteen a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with for the operation of the front street pool this is with the y w c a without objection on consent and number enter into an agreement for the operation of the her school same situation without objection on consent i remember sixteen i remember sixteen a resolution declaring april to be jazz appreciation month in the city of schenectady this will be taken out of order in his presence will present that number seventeen number seventeen a resolution recognizing the filmmaker prints sprog the sauce will be taken out of order ms porterfield will present that ok number eighteen number eighteen a resolution recognizing deacon holmes from the mount all of that church this will be presented at a later time so without objection on consent item number nineteen i don't number nineteen a resolution recognizing deacon surpass chemical company inc for liquid chlorine discussed in committee without objection on consent number twenty one i don't number twenty one a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract for hop in place asphalt recycling discussed in committee without objection on consent number twenty two i don't number twenty two a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract with empire paving of schenectady discussed in committee without objection on consent number twenty three i don't know were twenty three a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract for construction at the water treatment plant also discussed in committee without objection on consent e not in number twenty four should be twenty five or twenty five since may under original consideration a resolution authorizing the transfer of title of parcels of real property discussed in claims committee tonight without objection on consent and then  item number twenty six and number twenty six a resolution accepting title to various properties from the schenectady urban renewal agency also discussed in claims tonight without objection and consent if there's nothing else to come before the city council caucus meeting i risking present right tonight we're going to start the meeting with another one of our presentations regarding economic strengths and you may remember in november the city council kicked off an initiative which includes a monthly review of the economic strengths which enrich the city of schenectady this review includes presentations by an array of economic contributors including locally based corporations and industry area business districts representing small and family owned businesses and other economic sectors from health care to service to education and non profits these presentations highlight the economic impact these local businesses are organizations have on schenectady as economy including generated income number of local jobs  innovation and production along with a review of the history and future planning of the business tonight the city council's excited to announce that we have mon a goal of vice president of public relations and consumer services for price chopper on hand to present as part of the series price chopper also known as the gold corporation exist to help people feed and care for themselves and their families as noted on the company's website we are an innovative retailer of products and services and recognize that consistently satisfying our customers is key to our success price chopper is committed to their customers teammates and shareholders and is planning to offer their customers the same personalized service that was introduced over seventy five years ago in addition to being the official spokesperson for price chopper monopole of combines her mother for the arts music and theater by working those passions into helping to drive store activities and community engagement please join me in welcoming mon you it's an opportunity that we very much appreciate to celebrate our schenectady in routes price chopper the goal of corp our mission much of which the chairwoman just said the goal of corporation exists to help people feed and care for themselves and their families we are innovative merchandiser of products and services and recognize that helping to fulfill the expectations of those who rely on us customers teammates community and shareholders is our key to our success and our sustainable growth in health is truly contingent upon the satisfaction of the people who we serve we are in fact a home grown company we are american owned we are family managed and we are now in our fourth generation and we consider ourselves a family in business as opposed to being a family business and the emphasis there is that our decisions are made in the best interests of the business always happen but the story began quite some time ago when my great grandfather louis cole of the first lead arrived here in schenectady from russia in one thousand nine hundred eighty first open a lunchroom and then a dairy store and eventually a wholesale grocery in one nine hundred twenty two  and that was a warehouse of sorts at that point in time shortly before his very premature death in one nine hundred thirty emerged the goal of wholesale foods with another wholesaler so that his sons ben and bill could have a solid future but ben  bill they were pioneers and they ended up gathering all of the ideas and concepts that they could and they open the area's first self service supermarket in upstate new york the public service market and green island so where did the name central markets that some of you may remember come from well the next two stores ended up closer to yes central park and that's where the name central markets originated from and that in fact was the name of the chain until the early seventy's had fun searching for old photos of our schenectady stores the bellevue branch so ben and bill my great uncle and my grandfather they were all about service and supporting the community and innovation a few of the concepts that they're best remembered for are the four h grower producer programs that encouraged local farmers by offering to buy back the best of their crop they started the empire state red label program that established the egg industry in new york state got tired of buying eggs from elsewhere they also began the s an h green stamp program here that was considered to be the original customer loyalty reward program and they helped to form the food marketing institute which is the national organization around food marketing that still exist to this day next came lewis and neal but progress during the ben and bill era let's see i just read through those thank you we can switch to the next one louison meal as ben and bill sons they really grew up in the business see under louis and neil in the early seventy's is when central markets became one of the first supermarkets in the nation to be open twenty four hours a day and central markets gave way to price chopper in hundred seventy two one nine hundred seventy three by the turn of the century under louis and neal the size of the chain had quadrupled some of you may remember the old eastern parkway store that since been rebuilt across the street from what was the community center for some time in the original is turned part way store and this store for those of you who go back a little further you may remember that it was an original train station in schenectady and there are still photos of that train station and that you could see where the tracks existed in the back room of the store which was jammed feel to before it became price  i remember working in that store actually and trying to move heavy pallets of juice across those cracks in the back floor that used to kind of expand every winter because the train tracks had been there it was ok and of course the twenty four hour signs that was shortly after we went twenty four hours a day and that was the original plan bill store on the other side of course of schenectady county ellen lewis now this is the price chopper supercenter on eastern parkway amidst construction and that's the store that exists there today and the ribbon cutting for that where are we today we've got one hundred thirty three stores in six different northeastern states and twenty two thousand very valued teammates who collectively own more than forty seven percent of the company's privately held stock and that is quite unusual to have a privately held company that shares that much of its holding with its teammates we're very proud of that and you may remember that we celebrated our eightieth anniversary back in twenty twelve this is where those stores exist all over the map but the fact of the matter is our heart and soul right here in schenectady new york we now have a new main office building the original was an eery boulevard way back when and then when the store chain grew to about twenty five under ben and bill we built a large warehouse in rotterdam that was christened in one thousand nine hundred sixty one and just about fo years ago we were proud to open our new main office right at four sixty one not street in downtown schenectady it's a lead certified gold building sustainable building and it was constructed on a brownfield that had been abandoned  for many many years serve rotterdam distribution complex which now that our main office has moved has the room to grow so that it can provide for the growth and health of the company today in terms of our schenectady stores we've got the one on eastern parkway if spoken of commons course glenville and rotterdam lynell to mine ave our employment numbers in schenectady alone are twenty five fifty nine in the county and specifically in the city of schenectady one thousand plus teammates of ours are working here in the city of schenectady as far as our community relations and philanthropy something near and dear to us since the very beginning when ben and bill lay that foundation we are committed to supporting efforts that help youth seniors education diversity and inclusion health and human services culture in the arts emergency response and even activity as in sporting activities community connectivity is very important to us and that means that when ellis hospital does a community needs assessment we figure out how we can be a part of that health wellness and nutrition are very important the  impact project that we just want to work for nationally that help with diabetes in the hamilton hill area gave us another opportunity to help our own community here at home and of course when the city came calling as they do for good events and opportunities with the american made movie we were happy to be there as well it's about connectivity in the community for good our core values as an american owned and privately held and managed company we hold ourselves to the following core values all of our decisions begin and end with our customers in mind we treat our teammates with respect and value their individuality and share our successes with them we value our reputation and we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards of personal integrity and business ethics we are socially aware and environmentally responsible company and we look to nourish the communities that we serve and the people who live in them as for our future well we're going to remain committed to our mission and vision and core values we're going to look for opportunities both for organic growth from the ground up or new store growth the acquisition we will bolster and diversify our corporate social responsibility and always always be looking to evolve and reinvent ourselves you've seen the public service market to central markets evolve to price chopper and now you may have seen and or heard about market bistro our newest which also gives some idea as to where in the future we may be heading with new ideas and new concepts stores meeting trends and needs of consumers that is what it's about  next generation of stores are right around the corner and you will be the first in this area to see them because this is our home town three generations after a seed was planted by louis lead golub and we're still proud to call schenectady home thank you thank you mom and thanks to your family for the commitment to schenectady all right we have two out of order resolutions the first is recognizing april is jazz appreciation month this p come right back behind the rio here right over here alice i have my plate my bathing problem under control good so it's my honor to ask for the floor for this resolution as a former jazz club owner from back way back in  two and as a former member of the board for a place for jazz and just in recognition and celebration of the robust jazz community and the amount of jazz you know venue through our history the vandyke now the stockade in you know a place for jazz which brings national acts to the city of schenectady and just lats to celebrate so although we have a somewhat  broad brushstroke of jazz to celebrate in our resolution the specifics of how they have you know impact it's going to be i think is really important to saw ask you for the floor you have a thank you this is a resolution recognizing april as jazz appreciate appreciation month in the city of schenectady where as jazz is in a regional american art form that affirms the noblest aspirations of our national character individual discipline perseverance and innovation and whereas jazz has produced some of america's leading creative artists and ranks as one of america's greatest exports to the world and whereas jazz has inspired dancers choreographers poets novelists filmmakers classical composers and all types of musicians and the arts education an appreciation for contributions for all american art forms is fundamental to the people of the city of schenectady and whereas the schenectady amsterdam musical union local eighty five dash one thirty three of the american federation of musicians was chartered on august fourteenth nine hundred and has represented professional musicians in schenectady county continuously for one hundred and forty eighteen years a f m local eighty five dash one thirty three's mission is to further the performance of live professional music in our local community and keep live music live union musicians perform at events such as jazz appreciation month jazz on jay schenectady summer night and regularly at proctor's theater and numerous other schenectady venues and whereas the city of schenectady recognizes the outstanding work of jazz artists educators and into this in the impact this american art form has made on our way of life now therefore be a reason that april of two thousand and fourteen is designated jazz appreciation month in the city of schenectady and urge everyone to take the time to enjoy this great american form of as a representative for a place for jazz for the board we've been here since one thousand nine hundred seven we're very proud that we're part of schenectady and the community that we bring people from all over the capital district to come here and listen to music that are part of an education system and a cultural awareness system for performance in the arts and jazz so thank you for the opportunity and for your support i thank you again president you have four thank you first of all i just want to say that i'm really pleased i know this young man i met him when he first came to school and started attending church with his grandmother and i attended the same church and to see where he is today and i know that he's been to massachusetts to speak based on the work that he's done and impacted the lives of a lot of young people that we see with here tonight and thank you all for coming as well so we have a resolution for you today recognize a resolution recognize the filmmaker prin whereas prince is an independent filmmaker and the artistic director of revolution studios a youth center program at schenectady high school that fosters its create expression and serves as a safe haven for high school students and we're at best life a feature length film about life death hope pain the forces that shape teenagers and emphasize the need to go beyond the walls of school to help them was conceived performed and scored by schenectady high school students the movie was shot with only four pieces of equipment and whereas the idea for the film fest life originated with the students when sprog as he is called gave them some beats he produces and suggested they write raps over them the result is a complex hitting film ensemble that the fives it's amateur beginning and where sprog is quoted as saying a fast life in revolution studios have offered much healing students who were previously troubled and on the fast track to failure have discovered a passion and purpose through this program students have become serious about their studies and their goals as they graduate from high school and make plans for college and where as this marks the one year anniversary of the big screen prem individual with skills and talents through and through positive encouragement sprints brad has helped many teenagers turn their lives around he is described as awesome not only a teacher an older brother and the student stated aside from teaching he gives advice on life now therefore be it resolved that the city council and the mayor of the city of schenectady pause in their deliberations to recognize prince brought and revolution studios for the caring commitment and dedication to young people in the city of schenectady and helping them prepare for a bright future madam president let's move the resolution right there second all in favor  thanks first off i would like to just think god for just his many blessings and i would just like to thank the schenectady city council and i would like to personally thank you for this opportunity and the city of schenectady and i would like to thank my beloved students my little new mission to address the issue of teenage pregnancy and and revolution studios we plan on being around and really trying to make impact in our community and which are helping with your support we need joe and we just want to say thank you and thank you again for having us here garmin and these students are young producers and actors and actresses and they work hard on this project and they account working hard on this new project as well and and i just hope that they just continue on this endeavor to right we have to public hearings tonight the first is regarding the proposed twenty four consolidated plan i have thirteen people signed up to speak the first is jason  we've conducted the public hearing on the same day the r f p went out this needs to stop we need to be able to have an actual sit down of actually where this money is going to go out this is the fifteen percent to the front of the house money this is the money that goes to the different organizations and to them within the community we had a five year consolidate plan that i'm dealt with that you're supposed to do jobs and we haven't dealt with anything dealing with jobs whatsoever and we need to really figure eight this piece and by having the public airing without having any and put within the r f p that's no good in october we have asked every year you're supposed to have a public hearing on the back of the house money the back of house money is the money that is paid to the staff like the affirmative action office in this office they have completely failed and dealing with affirmative action within this county and within the city you know we need to be able to put in goals and put in guidelines of how we're going to able to do this also to is there's a hundred thousand dollars that was done back in two thousand and ten that was recaptured and it's been playing ping pong between the code enforcement and snap without having any kind of direction of where that money is actually going to be and you know we need to sit down and actually look at what's going on within thirteen months we've got to have a five year consolidated plan it's due to next up where is the public hearings on these how is this going to be conducted we need to have a plan that's going forward and there is nothing there and  action was installed in january one of two thousand and seven which ac tanzania year later she retired and then and july first we put america to ski on july the fourteenth two thousand and eight here it is almost nearly six years later and we've gotten zero results out of that office and you know we need to be able to move forward and to be able to help and you know we need to take a look at a broad hand we need to dust off the pages from the five year consolidate plan we need to know what's direction is i mean every year you guys come back says well we want to have input into where this on fifteen percent of this money and what organizations are going where and it's the same old thing and you come right back to the same paying and it's just rubber stamped rubber stamped and that's exactly what happens and we need to stop with the cycle when the only way we're going to do it is to be able to sit down and conduct these public hearings we actually need a thank you thank you  ascii everyone should have good thank you very much for having me here this morning the same evening everyone should have received a copy of our put together a petition or hastily put together petition it's a very positive  bolts the acts and the execution of the master plan for the park which has been long neglected and overlooked the four thousand dollars in seed money is critical to the operation and management  park it will allow one to two people to be employed for evenings per week or four days per week and four evenings and that'll be about eighteen hours a week and that person will also be responsible for maintaining a clean and healthy environment in and around the bath house in the park itself as well as scheduling for the rentals of the pavilion in the bath house of the spring our goal of self support the park is making a resurgence and it's our hope to bring it back to its fullest potential but that won't be had that won't happen unless we have everyone full and total support for this funding and we also have this is very shameless but we also have a very urgent need for tables and chairs for our summer programs at the park as well as a stove and a refrigerator and if anybody has any scratches and dents around it are very usable we'd love to have them to supply the kitchen and in closing i'd like to say that if you have any doubt that this four thousand dollars is necessary i'd like to ask each and every one of you to kindly think back to your childhood or your adolescence or your adult years or to ask a relative about their memories of fullest extent in the park and in closing we will be having an open house for the first time showing is showcasing the bath house in the pavilion may seventeenth at eleven o'clock in the morning it's a saturday and everyone is welcome to attend you'll get the you get the chefs tour thank you very much thank you interested joy i just wanted to reiterate what my good leader has just said about the park i stopped over there today and it's just a great place there were children on the swing their mothers you know they're with them very content very good place to have their children play and i just hope that you will support this because i think it's the right thing to do the right thing for our neighborhood and thank you very much thank you right to manny farley i pronounce that right  value as to how we spend our money as a lifelong schenectady resident i grew up in hamilton our center and it has exposed me to things that i probably would never have a chance to see just two weekends ago at the country boys and girls club i hosted a family community unity day we fed over two hundred people a local barber shop that's next barber shop on state street they gave way over fifty free haircuts it was a beautiful day in the members of the community came out and supported it because that's what we need to do the arts center act is acts as a staple in our community and we need to support that thank you thank you good evening i'm sharon harder and i've lived in the city of schenectady for more than thirty years and i very much appreciate this opportunity to talk about the use of federal funds through the consolidated plan process i'm employed part time by the schenectady inner city ministry and i also serve on the hamilton hill arts centers board of directors both of these organizations have address the needs of some of our city's most vulnerable citizens for over forty five years i'm behalf of sick and i want to first know that we at six am appreciate the city's continuing support for our free summer much program and that to bodies in the public parks i think most of you know that last year we served on was fifty five thousand lunches and this year we'll probably hit sixty thousand on the other hand we're disappointed to see that our request for a security deposit program has not been recommended for funding this allocation would have supported a revolving loan fund for security deposit for nonpublic assistance households and this is a real need in our city and on behalf of the hamilton hill arts center and i want to say that we very much appreciate the city's recommendation of continued funding these funds will be used for a project our reach our out of school time programming for school aged children project our reach provides an average of thirty children a day with educational programming six days a week year round project our reach addresses the following community needs children and you need a safe creative culturally supportive place to go during the unsupervised hours after school and in the summer children youth also need adults who support pro social activities and positive peer groups and low income working parents need easily accessible cre child care after school and during the summer on a final no i want to ask that you reconsider the hamilton  hill arts center is request for thirty thousand dollars for energy efficiency renovations this is a one time request and would have a significant impact on the operating costs of this organization thank you madam council president and council members and linda mcfarland the executive director of the community loan fund we've recently opened our satellite office in schenectady in the hamilton hill area i'd like to break down what we do into three categories one is we loan money to low income individuals for residential purchase or home repair we offer loans to minority and women don't businesses quite often low income as well and we loan money to nonprofit organizations that service those individuals in the communities that are in need the second thing that we do is we offer training and technical assistance we offer that to individuals who are interested in opening a business or may have a small business and need some assistance our eight week business training courses being held in schenectady starting this saturday in our office we're very pleased to be doing that and we offer a variety of workshops and one on one counseling the third thing that we do which is brings me to why i'm presenting to you today is we raised all of our funds through investments donations and grants we have pledged a loan fund has pledged to loan one point nine million dollars in schenectady through twenty sixteen so over the next three years four hundred thousand dollars and twenty fourteen seven hundred fifty thousand in two thousand and fifteen another seven hundred fifty thousand and twenty sixteen and as much as i like to talk about numbers the real measure here is the impact dollars will have in schenectady we anticipate that through twenty sixteen those dollars will bring sixty two units of affordable housing either new or maintained housing fifty seven jobs either created or retained an additional fifteen loans to minority and women don't businesses we like to measure that impact that's what makes a difference but we also have applied for a grant a federal grant that is a matching funds grant so our request to you in the budget of forty thousand dollars may actually turn into eighty thousand dollars for us to turn around and use for lending or technical assistance in schenectady that's very powerful i'd like to think you mayor mccarthy and to council members for including the community long fund in your budget thank you members of the city council it's good to see a lot of you haven't seen in a while i'm kareem dean i'm the president of the board of directors of the hamilton hill arts center and you've heard a lot of the  testimony from carter and also mr farley two of our board members so i'll try to not to go over that but to say a couple of other things for some i'm also a member of the electric city i live here in schenectady and on behalf of the board of directors our executive director on me a cooper and our staff i want to thank the city for its recommendation for the hamilton a large center to receive continued funding through the cd beachy grant program the funds as sharon said will be used for our project outreach which is a free after school and summer drop in arts program for kids between the ages of five and eighteen now we all know the problems in in the city of schenectady particularly the hamilton hill unveil neighborhoods based on census data which shows poverty rates for families and children five to seventeen living in the one two three  which is where our agency is located zip code as being sixty three sixty four point three percent according to the to own a one nine to two twelve american community survey their selected economic characteristics the figure is almost double the citywide rate for the same demographic almost four times the comparable rate for the county and more than three times the comparable rate for new york state  in saying that i just wanted to say that we as the hamilton hill art center are in the community we are in census track to ten o two and we've been there for forty five years we continue to provide exceptional arts and programming year round and most of our in individuals benefit from the on site programming there although income people there are also multi ethnic pluralistic and where a safe haven for them to come to in a community that's in flux what another thing is that our mission is to provide african and african american arts and culture of the diaspora to all who come to our doors our project outreach program art reach has provided our core program for over twenty five years and we have expanded on it with a new orleans style bat brass band that would instructors are who also from the school district perform  throughout the capital district and i'm sure it would only sixteen seconds so i'll end by saying this we've seen a major increase in our clientele because of the fact that one of our neighbors is now out of business we are now exponentially increasing our people and we'd like to ask that's more funds could be added to that requests and last but not least the arts deep in our understanding of the human spirit it extends our capacity to comprehend the lives of others it allows us to imagine a moral just and human world through the diversity of feeling their variety of forms the multiplicity of inspiration the arts make our culture richer and more so it is the white house because in the past under written the cost of the operating for the front straight pool as a nonprofit agency we just don't have the funds at this time so the support is and thank you for this opportunity to speak to you tonight about the consolidated plan and in particular about the distribution of community development block grants in this time of increased need in our community and decreased funding across the board in this community and across our country it is crucial i believe that we distribute our funds in a way that supports non profits that serve our children and those in our community who are most in need rather than in some cases things like code enforcement and demolition specifically i strongly urge you to reconsider your request of the hamilton hill arts center reallocating funds for the renovation of the hamilton hill arts center would allow them to be more energy efficient in turn more cost efficient and more able to serve children who live in low low income neighborhoods and are raised in low income families and also encourage you to reconsider succumbs request for it's going to be inner city ministries request for the security deposit program which is a very small request of only six thousand dollars which helps families get back on their feet in times of great need these and other programs that address housing and jobs and education and children's needs would be i think more true to the intent for community development block grants thank you thank you good evening for thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak my name is joe keller and i'm a resident of the city man of president city council i've had the opportunity to take a look over the proposed consolidated plan and  have been hearing some really wonderful things about not only the possibility of creating jobs and allowing people to stay in their homes items like the y m c a the hamilton hill arts center our parks and our pools to invest in the youth and the people here in the city of schenectady is truly a benefit that will help us all along and to invest in this the community allow it to grow one of the things i did have an opportunity to take a look at though and to stop from printing out the ninety some odd pages that we had i put it up on my my tablet here and i noticed that on one of the pages there's a price of four hundred twenty six thousand dollars going to the engineering department for street rehabilitation for only one and a half miles from only half a mile of roads now i did some research  calls and at only one hundred twenty five dollars per square foot for one whole mile of road that would only cost about two hundred thousand dollars for milling and paving so to get a half a mile out of one for a four hundred twenty five thousand dollars for twenty six thousand dollars seems like an awful high price so i hope that the city council will take a look and reconsider some of the funds that are going out to these and make sure that the the prices in the monies that we're going out to these are being used properly the city council has a responsibility to the people of the city of s a financial responsibility and to be held accountable to them these are our funds these funds belong to us and that's where they need to go to we need to have full disclosure and i hope he gets what you provide thank you thank you a city resident thank you for this opportunity to speak on proposing saw your plan this budget always has difficult choices as you well know we are still in very challenging fiscal times i don't envy you the tradeoffs and difficult choices you need to make want to make some brief comments on succumbs to applications and comments on several other areas in terms of summer lunch program all of us involved with summer lunch program which will be here very soon appreciate the city's continuing partnership to support hunger feeding hungry children for too many years the first meal of the day for some it is the only meal with your help last year we provided help with almost fifty thousand fifty five thousand lunches for planning and more sites for this year and with your help we can keep moving in that direction well i'm talking about summer launch i would be remiss at this point if i did not ask the council members personally to consider coming together on a single day to provide lunch we operate with volunteer teams are most sites we provide the lunch you provide the service i ask you to consider a day when you could do this as a team during the usual lunch hour people have to work with you on the terms of our a secure deposit program and also apply for a small occasion as was mentioned last year no it was not funded because we were told there were remaining funds will use those up last year and help twenty five families get into housing who were previously homeless we run in partnership with gap we did what was requested now we are told that the only security deposit recommended are through with us to house however is you likely know bethesda house works primarily was single individuals not families i ask your reconsideration to see a way whether through us or through scam for funding for security purposes for homeless families more rapidly a family can be housed at or being homeless the more likely is their success this is not duplications because d s s only provides for families on d s s the most landlords do not accept the d s s security agreement although this housing market has its challenges landlords still mostly require a cash deposit prior to entry scamps request for a home funding was not recommended for any funding if not our program perhaps a scout program could provide comparable security deposits assistance very short time ask reconsideration of the arts center in terms of their application for energy assistance thank you for the support for the commune loan fund which we had talked about last year i'm concerned that support for affordable housing providers be an i in the land trust or at the same level because of funding cuts both operate on reduced schedule us courtesy to strengthen its partnership with the two groups agree on what is required for home funding for operating support i urge you just carefully scrutinize areas in which individual items and allocations shown any increase is only fair because so many are the same as last year the ones that show an increase stick out as important review them to saturday taking down derelict homes if the city is looking for just demolition funds i recommend the council allocate was proposed for paving to be put in a demolition  time is up please that finish statement before you like ok thank you thank you i'm charles becker i'm the president of the board of the local habitat for humanity geoff clark is unfortunately not able to come tonight i wanted to thank the city council and the mare and the city employees for supporting habitat over the years and reinforced the need for the funding that's been provided to help build new houses and houses more middle and low income families in the especially in the north side of the  city habitat provides thousands of tens of thousands of hours of volunteer time to build these houses we need to help and acquiring the land and demolishing the buildings that are there and building a new neighborhood and thank you again thank you james slack from better neighborhoods madam good evening madam chairman members of the council my name is james black an assistant director for better neighborhoods speaking here on behalf of my boss appear at august i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight regarding the consolidated plan and funding for better neighborhoods as part of this i want to express support for the community of housing improvements agencies in the city we view habitat for humanity the community local land trust and in particular the community loan fund as important partners in our work of improving both the quality of life and the quality of housing in our city we strongly support their efforts on here in the city and we value them as partners and trusted supporters in particular we think the community loan fund has done a wonderful job of supporting us of providing technical assistance to better neighborhoods and helping us build our homes here in the city as you may know b and i is this year commemorating its forty seventh year of service and its mission of improving schenectady one home at a time during that forty six years of work and i has built or rebuilt hundreds of homes in the city making better neighborhoods one of the city's largest private developers during that period we have also counseled thousands of residents regarding either purchasing a home or preventing foreclosure of a home during this year we have currently four homes under construction and five on the market for sale to our clients all of whom are residents of modest means this year so far we have also counseled over one hundred families regarding their housing needs in the consolidated plan budget we requested about three hundred thousand dollars to perform three basic tasks one rehabbing housing for clients who through illness or injury would otherwise have to leave their homes to the continued function of housing counseling and three to support our administrative function regrettably as you've heard many times tonight there's not enough money to go around and better neighborhoods been allocated or key to to have only about target two thirds of the funds that we have requested we believe we can provide and accomplish more housing improvements for households of low and moderate income through higher funding levels and we believe we perform these services in a very efficient and economically manner finally i want to thank you and emphasize that we look forward to our continued partnership with the city and other community partners to solve the city's housing problems thank you and all and thank with ten seconds to s that's all right i have no one else signed up to speak for this public hearing so i'm going to have a hearing close we will move on to the second public hearing regarding a moratorium on convenience stores robert harvey me honorable ladies and gentlemen my name's bob harvey i live on plymouth avenue in schenectady i'm the president of sun which stands for schenectady united neighborhoods the coalition of ten of schenectady neighborhoods our members have expressed concerns about both the political ration and the saturation of convenience stores in schenectady and the accelerating number of episodes calling for needed police response also so many convenience store owners do provide the benefits of old fashioned corner stores there are a number of them that it to track from the quality of life in the area whether from literally left near the store front or from loiters hang out or arguments leading to violence or just a trashy look in their parents son supports the concept of a temporary moratorium and issuing permits for business new permits for business for additional co stores so that more data can be collected and analyzed while also supporting efforts by cota forcers city police forces and the fire department inspectors to address present problems thank you thank you corner and i think it was two or three years ago that the planning committee came down on that venture what has disturbed me about this was that the da touts new business puts corrupt corner stores on notice i think that was really uncalled for to charge them with being corrupt to charge any of them without being with being corrupt if they're corrupt they are out of business because the police have caught them and done their job we have been through this with drug stores nobody called them corrupt when they wanted a moratorium an unspoken mor atorium we have food stores now food wars nobody knows where to go to anymore to save money and you can burn well we're having food wars nobody is calling  all own corner stores so i think you ought to be careful what you say to people cereal pluralism is the breakfast of champions thank you  are gas station i should say and it was programmed that he should be doing it now from what i understand i haven't gotten the plans on it yet he is coming back again we have nothing against the store well being and we need a market and our area someplace but the thing about it is we have three other coming and stores in our section we need something out of baker ally and a convenient store and we were really appreciate if we could be recognized this time and realize if you people would realize what we're going through with the gathering and the gangs and the kids like that one lady said you shouldn't be pointing fingers but when you're witnessing makes it worse thank you thank thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is judy wright meyer and i'm the director of the capital district to back a free coalition and i'm here to talk about the health impacts of convenience stores and what they do to a community  i think you all are aware that the city of schenectady has a smoking rate of thirty seven percent and just in comparison new york state smoking rate is sixteen percent so the city has more than twice the smoking rate than what the state has a average we also know that smoking rate is dependent on many things one of which is the density of the number of places that sell tobacco so the higher the density of tobacco retailers the more tobacco retailers there are the higher the smoking rate that's been researched and been proven we also know that the amount of marketing of tobacco that young people see the more likely they are to smoke and that marketing is particularly targeted it's been pour disproportionately targeting the vulnerable populations the young the racial ethnic minorities and those with low education and income so those are the kind of the the factors that are leading in part to that high tobacco use rate and then to look at the city of schenectady and how many places sell tobacco in month many of those are convenience stores so in schenectady county there's one hundred eighty six places that sell tobacco so in the whole county hundred eighty six one hundred fifty five of those are in the city so we know that you have more than i didn't do that proportion i'm meant to do that proportion before i get up here but it's a lot you know certainly much more than half of all the places that sell tobacco are in the city so there's things that there's things that we can do municipalities have the right to limit t place and manner of the sale of tobacco they can license they can say that you need to have a license to sell tobacco now you know this is this is connected to the convenience store certainly because most of the convenience stores sell tobacco so you can license them you can limit the number of licenses that are given you can say no licenses will be given to any place within so many feet of a school or you can say no license it you can put a cap on the number of license and there are communities in new york state that have done this the city of binghamton just passed a zoning ordinance that said no tobacco retailers near schools rochester also did a zoning ordinance that said no tobacco retailers no they actually was more about convenience stores and ones that sold alcohol tobacco or gambling or lottery and they couldn't be within five hundred feet of each other so there's precedence and five seconds and i think that's it so if you want more information thank you all in favor of communications and petitions communications present to the city council for monday april twenty eighth two thousand and fourteen under official letter from chris for a while and city engineer recommending the award of the hot and recycling to highway rehabilitation corporation of new york a letter from christopher whalen city engineer recommending the award of the city of schenectady twenty fourteen paving program to empire paving of schenectady a letter from carlson commissioner recommending the award and purchase of sodium hydrochloride bulk liquid chlorine for twenty fourteen cool season to surpass chemical company  albany new york a letter from paul fond director of water and wastewater recommending the award of the twenty four team water source and water treatment plant protection construction project to the lowest bid made by a pot construction company l l c of schenectady new york a letter from paul a fond director of water and wastewater recommending the award of the engineering services for north ferry street pump station replacements of the lowest responsible bid made by m j engineering and land surveying p c of clifton park new york under general a letter from schenectady county council of veterans organization organizations inviting city council members to attend the memorial day service on may twenty sixth twenty fourteen at bell cemetery at ten thirty a m a letter from gold star mothers and schenectady county council of veterans organizations inviting city council members to support their gold star mothers service for part time staff in at simon's park right move on to committee reports and he committee reports this porterfield thank you and you know there's a lot it's on the agenda tonight about the affirmative action advisory board and i've gotten a lot of phone calls about it and the logic different conversations whirling around about not necessarily not necessarily the makeup of the board that there are some concerns about the lesson about some comments that were made at our last committee meeting and i want to really clarify that when in terms of asking for resin resumes we're really specific in terms of who would the different categories that's the legislation asked for which are women minorities hispanic disabled veteran and there was i think those are the five specific categories beyond that we did not we weren't very specific in that and in terms of why we need the affirmative action advisory committee it's a fact it's a statistic that the city of schenectady has a ninety five percent rate of non minorities that work for the city so therefore it's about five percent of minorities and in our pick paving and contract that we get the the  rate in some of our contracts they haven't met it at all and and others are very low so to have a common me that there is not enough mind minorities to that that that applied for it w troubling for me as well as for people that i received phone calls from and essentially what is going on is that the protected class which is affirmative action covers is not being employed or getting contracts within the city so the the purpose of the affirmative action board is to make sure that those protected classes are included in hiring and included in getting the contracts and to minimize the participation of minorities on the board is counterproductive it just doesn't make sense so you know i don't think that we should be able to we should solicit or ask for my applications and resumes from a specific group in order to qualify that my colleague mention he had a problem with that that there the number of non minorities we looked at all the resumes that i received them all and we had outstanding well qualified people people with master's people the m b a s to years agrees some people just a passion for the community and that's all we're asking for is for people to come that we're interested in their work that we're qualified we never asked the question about race and so to have that question brought up was troubling for me and i think that's why i think that was a question about race and that that should not be he said he thought that the board should have a balance and should have diversity so it prompted me to look at all the boards that the city of the connectivity has or has the  have one hundred percent non one hundred percent non minority participation so it's not spread out so maybe that's something else we have we should take a look at so you know diversity inclusion is and inclusion is what we're trying to make happen here so to have a comment to say that we need to to balance the border we have to have not more non minorities basically says that this is a slap in the face of the people who submitted their resumes based on the fact that they were qualified and wanted to be a part of this board and i don't think that we should bring into the fact that we should say well we need a certain people of another race in order to be here that is not what we should be about it's not a anything that has come before this council before and troubles me that it's before this council now we're just talking about protected classes and to say that non minorities are not represented or there aren't enough on a specific board as i said i had problems with that you know and so now we should look at the makeup of all the boards and i have the handle for people for a small look at and that's what we should be considering all of the boards if that's if it's a problem for one board then it's a problem for all of a board but again the purpose of the affirmative action board is to make sure that these protected classes are included and we get our numbers up and improve them where they aren't right now so you know that's really all i have to say on it and we should i think we should move forward with the resumes there are very very qualified twenty three very qualified people ok the mayor says that they're outside the city ok that makes to nineteen so other than that people are extremely qualified and they should be chosen based on their qualifications and nothing beyond actual manager which was to take the disabled community out of the ordinance and i want to thank her very much for her hard work to make sure that that did that discrimination did not occur and that it was put back in  section five zero three regulations which is federal funding of hiring personal disability has been zero in this city and in this county both hud the oil just came out with new regulations and went into effect as of march twenty fourth and that is supposed to be seven percent of all federal funds projects are supposed to be hiring of persons with disabilities we have a major problem within this community of giving money to these contractors and these contractors says well i'm not hiring one because i got to got my career well no if you take on the project for the city then that and you need you have one hundred people to do that job then seven seven of those have to be disabled that are qualified not just because they're disabled but have to be qualified for that for that piece we have to have a job description of both primary and secondary job functions the primary functions can be reasonable combination the i mean the primary cannot be reasonable but the secondary can be made commendations you must have these put into effect and every single year you have and then on top of all minorities we have fifteen percent african american we have five percent aged hispanic and two percent asian we have to mirror close to that piece and we're not even meeting those goals we also have what our governmental jobs we have constantly where the unions have constantly have used social services to deny jobs to minorities and to the disabled i mean it just doesn't make sense the mayor turns around and appoints people temporary and then under union rules assume the sixty days are over with now the now they're considered under union or union houses so now they turn around and if that procedure becomes open a new union rolls those people have first jobs first grabs at it wait a minute you just bypassed affirmative action you bypass the civil if you want to diversify the workforce you're going to have to diversify across the board and i'm hoping that this affirmative action board will start working on jobs i know it i know it's can work on house and work on voting rights and everything else but i think the first conservation should be on jobs thank you thank you o i'm not sure if i can talk you pulled about the casinos can i still make a comment yes ok my name is mary and resettling from east front street east front street is the little neighborhood that's tucked between the project and the start i'm going to start by saying when i heard about the group i was grumbling among about this big organization that i did not like and they were communicating with us and i was very upset then i went to the planning board meeting when they presented conceptual plan and this gentleman got up and spoke and i looked at him and i said this can't be david boyko he's too nice i thought he was a big old grumpy man but he really is a very nice man and  the conceptual plan that they put our neighborhood is very very excited about so we wanted to make sure that you all knew about this too and as for they can see you know most of us are very excited about having the casino come into we're very much for this and i don't know what else to say but it's very exciting it truly is very exciting for our neighborhood thank you good thank you i don't think anybody has any comprehension are not many people have a comprehension how how difficult her job is and how far reaching it this is not as local as  something compatible there and i don't i think i need to be careful who the architect is what it looks like and but they are going to have to remove everything if they're going to use some for some other feature for the stock stockade they're going to have to take everything out of that building and rework it and the city's go the bill for that so that's what happens when you have a nice choice that just get depleted in one way or another it's still up to the public thank you thank you restaurants in the downtown area serving the community and we're really proud to be schenectady and in terms of my impersonal educational qualifications i've got a degree in journalism and a degree in hospitality masters from paralytic and from university i have done a lot of social work with the indian association and that is a growing issue in communities in the area from bangladesh india productive and constructive in the town of scanning to the rich are seeing a tremendous renaissance in terms of development in the twenty four years that i have been here i can recall how we have gone almost three sixty degrees to words a positive change and i think leaders like you have made a big difference in a very humble manner i wish to share a slight task a slight has said that even if you're a minority of one the truth is always the truth and we we shall stand and work for that and thank you all for the opportunity to  the fourteenth amendment nowhere in the order nuance that was drafted for tonight's agenda does the word diversity appear it's all another note items thirteen fourteen fifteen and sixteen i visited all the mail sites last year there are lost opportunities in the program the program should every day before they leave the park and lastly i was told that the democratic candidate running for city council is going door to door telling voters that republicans perfect example city council voted to by caius money we don't have and pay a monthly rental fees on all the parking meters in the city money we don't have because a few people are parking free besides some broken meters fix the meters stop spending taxpayers dollars needlessly thank good evening and thank you once again couple of points on number two marian thank you very much and very good information there about that and especially what you had mentioned about the vets you know we have thousands of veterans coming home from iraq afghanistan who are in desperate need of finding new employment and who need the rehabilitation as well to acclimate them to sit back to civilian life it's a very difficult thing i've been through it myself when i was in the air force my son went through it when he was in in service as a marine and it's been very difficult for him to get up with me because of the action that he's seen but he's doing very well now and i'm so glad to see that and to see the veterans have more opportunities and a chance for opportunity as you affirmative action would truly be a benefit to all of us we owe them a debt that money many of us can never repay as far as the resolution regarding the parking meters i know that this was a point of contention between a lot of folks last year and i know that it was mentioned on several occasions that some money had already been allocated and set aside for some of these meters if i'm not mistaken it be interesting to find out where the current funds are for those meters and i and a point that i made last year which i'd like to stress again with the millions of dollars in on paid parking violations in the meters just taking these in alone would certainly pay for over and above what we would need and that would truly be a benefit to the city to have those extra funds the last thing i wanted to mention about it was also regarding the number five which was taken off the agenda regarding the rezoning for the casinos in the gaming having lived in saratoga for a good portion of my life as i grew up saratoga springs benefited try quite quite highly from the casinos that they have up over that way and from the gaming however there is a lot more than needs to be learned about it for here in schenectady and if it would truly be a benefit to schenectady it would truly be a benefit to have a jobs however we also need to learn a lot more in the public needs to understand more about what it would bring to the community as also regarding the economic impact thank you very much for the opportunity the northridge pump station project was not completed in a fair and objective manner i respectfully requesting that the city council not aware the engineering contract until the proposal review process is impartially of it evaluated and we are granted an interview i've been engineering professional for thirty five years and in the last twenty two years i've been with my gun legionary we have seven experienced professional engineers that have been providing internet services to local communities for twenty four years we have been successfully we successfully completed numerous water and wastewater treatment plants recently completing a waste water treatment plant a manchurian for eleven million dollars than eighteen million dollars worth of upgrades  those improvements in our two thousand and eight engineering report we recommended installation of specialized water waste water pumps that would not be damaged if the pump it were inundated and recommendations that the electrical and controls and generator moved up stairs above the flood levels the city has to proceed with the the new pumps however due to budget constraints at that time we were directed by the city to leave the electrical panels controls and generator in the present location this was a very complicated project and from this we gain specific in depth knowledge of the north korean pump station and during that time i was project engineer as a sign when the twenty eleven flood came the pumps were not damaged even though they were fully submerged there was triple damage because water came in on an inside wall and damaged electrical equipment had it been moved up this ridge and recommended there would be no damage and the plant would not or they were not going out of service the city most recently requested proposals for the replacement of the entire pump station we're keeping relocating those same pumps and controls on the new pump station in response we provided a proposal six proposals to receive the three lawyers for one hundred seventy five thousand r s at two thirty six thousand and the third about three hundred  thirty thousand review committee published these publicly said and recommended that the words of the lowest appear lowest bidder and one seventy five committee representing these three bids to the council as they did  review processes misrepresented misleading as we were executed as we were excluded from an interview even though our fee was the second low the committee chose to interview two firms that fees from ninety four to one hundred eighty four thousand more than ours we were never contacted about our proposal or given an interview to explain what was included we've learned that a rating system was used to dismiss search perience and move us out of position of an interview is purely subjective rating system is open to personal and political bias included an option to move the equipment up at about a third of the cost of the three point five million dollar estimated project because of bird experience and specialize in waste water and specific experience that north ferry we are asking the board to table any the action on the word of this engine and contract until such time as a fair objective and unbiased selection process can be implemented you know fair and transparent manner thank you very much right i have no one else signed up to speak deborah he did not sign up to speak on the watch and i want to say something i didn't get a chance to say at the sign up but i do want to say something i'm deborah member and i wanted to say i totally agree with everything that marion porterfield as an activist in the community and with jason plank and some of the other people have said about affirmative action because if these people are not able to get minorities and women are not able to work then they would be on the rolls of social services and as a community has well stated they don't want these people on the rolls of social services and if you don't want them on the rules of social services and you don't want them to work what do you think going to happen to these people do you want them to perish i think these people have a right as a minority speaking for myself and for others and i'm also disabled so we have a right to work and that's what we and that's what we need to do and we want to be able to help ourselves  this community we need to be able to work and by making sure that the that families are not able to take care of themselves sufficiently is very unfair and unconstitutional and i think that we need to start working better in this community to have people working and doing better in their lives so that they can have the quality of life that everyone else is enjoying thank you thank you you know the fact that this particular firm that came up tonight did in part of the engineering report in two thousand and eight and so you know i may have some concerns and i would like to too i would like to see possibly biased in in some of these r f p acceptance as and i'm not quite sure what's going on but i think it deserves to be looked at again we have a firm that does business their business is in the city of schenectady they're only if a block or so from the pump house and they made a recommendation that they're telling us at the pump house doesn't have to be replaced a viable and generic firm for sure and do we have to spend all this kind of money that's been repro braided already but there's just too many questions here for me and what's going on the mcdonald's they were told when they were a little better on the golf course that that isn't the only thing we're going to go with a slow beds ok now that they're not a lot better now the low bidding seems to take precedence so i think we have to get our act together on how we're going do business but i also think that if we're going to use a point system in evaluating firms that certainly the hometown firm there should be some extra points added for that just like if you're i just feel that at this point i think i think we should look at this again but if it whatever way goes with this fall tonight i'm not sure but for sure i think in the future we have to i know they are of peace process has been explained over and over and over but sometimes when you look at the reviewing stats that were sent to us it just everything is so close i don't even know how you could pick one from the  king i guess i mean i feel that a process was followed we had people who understand this whole situation and they made a recommendation to us and i that that's a firm that has worked move more recently on this project with the flooding recently you know just years so it's clearly going to be a three three vote i will vote i but we will put it back in committee i'm also concerned that we are under some time constraints this is a really precarious situation we are dealing with that we can't delay this much longer so i'll send it back to committee all right we will now then move on to privilege of the floor regarding city business and i have twelve people signed up for this the first is joe rodriguez the corner dewayne street and brandywine which says something on march twenty fourth and it's still there i mean how do you not take notice i don't understand how no one can take notice of all that garbage we talk about quality of life how do you expect people to respect the neighborhoods if we city itself doesn't care i mean i really don't understand it's really sad i mean somebody was arrested last week for  downtown at the candy wrappers store in downtown to have five trucks come and pick up one candy wrapper but we can't take anything above m v p think about it you go above m v p and you know a whole different the village of schenectady because you seem to worry about downtown more than you do in vail how much in hell and mt it is very simple because i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one that r through this city and takes notice because in the future i'm going to start filming it so i could be like shopping and so next one next one for you guys because you know how to look for the minority bugs bed but epidemic is really harming or defenseless family members there are people that are living with this terrible situation and it's not really being recognized or addressed there are people that are living in summit towers several people in summit towers have had a bed bug and these people are x to get rid of their belongings such as the people forced to sleep on a chair with their legs up on their table and this is harming their health conditions already total health conditions that these people already have these people who are there have to dishes is going down as a matter of fact i have a friend that is a new star and she is there living in a terrible horrible condition and now she's in intensive care because her health conditions have gotten worse because of the bed bug situation she should have not been requested to get better for a bit because now what was she supposed to sleep on why wasn't anybody thinking about the fact that this woman is very ill and needed a place to sleep i think that is absolutely ridiculous ludicrous to tell a person to get rid of their belongings and not provide them with anything else they have been other people that have had bed bugs and they have not had to get rid of their properties i talked to mr so far u who is over environmental health department and he said to me and i would conversation that people do not have to get rid of their properties however landlords are being told to tell their tenants get rid of your stuff and provide them with nothing else these people have to sleep in a situation that is not conducive to their elements and theirs and they are that their health conditions it's not fair ok i just want to make sure that you know that and  damaged by the streets but by the streets not being prepared properly it's horrible people are or things are just not working well but that kind of situation is not broken for us we're damaging our cars our cars are not able to work because of this kind of situation one other thing and i'm done one other thing i'm done the banking situation should not be allowed to continue to ever person has a cosigner the first time with their be ople ok the bank should not be allowed to continue to accept poor cosigner a second time but the same vehicle that should begin to thank you thank you jason  m president city council member pro tem normally wouldn't speak on another speaker because whatever their opinion is their opinion but the facts are totally wrong and that is the supreme court when they ruled on that piece in california on on hispanics it was because the hispanics were more than fifty percent at the college this reason why they did not move or not to receive affirmative action that goes back to a racist and go back to the discriminatory remarks of the foley love case when they started saying  the courts want a quota system affirmative action is not a quota system affirmative action is equalizing the playing field and hispanics within this community have also does have discrimination and they deserve a seat at the table to help to equalize the the field and i mean they represent five percent of this community and they have every right to be on this committee and you know to misquote a supreme court case is totally wrong we're trying to deal something of leveling the playing field and i believe mrs porter field is doing the best job that she can under the circumstances of the discrimination that's been occurring for the last ten years my final cut my comments was on the sexual want to wait long both direction of where that's going to be doing this is money that's going to be paid back by the taxpayers three million dollars half a million dollars is going to a private developer who doesn't have a cost benefit analysis done on the property how much money is he going to make what's his return on investment we don't even know what the figures are we're just going to say oh here's a half million dollars hey take the money and run and that's exactly what we're doing we've done it on center city with two and a half million dollars for the same developer we did it on the clinton street project one million dollars and we're doing five million dollars on the alko project which now i want to put a casino on it and a whole bunch other thinks no affirmative action no firman of housing we have an affordable and a housing problem  that just wrote an article about a month and a half ago that the couple district area we are the worst county in the capital district area on affordable housing we are the worst county in on affordable for rent the average one bedroom apartment in this county is seven hundred and five dollars now i mean the average s s i is a little over eight hundred dollars the average is approximately right around two thousand eleven hundred dollars so seven hundred dollars is going to a one bedroom apartment when it started dressing some of the problems that we've got here and there's such a want to wait needs to go right back to the drawing board and we need to actually take a look at how are going to spend this money and not fergalicious lee just throw it away  i want to speak about mohawk harbor and the rendition that's been proposed that's been show to all of us are the kids that i know it's in flux there are a lot of changes to that but i really think there's been a lot said about water around here and bad drainage particularly in that area and it's connected with the old train system stories where property owners are going to be responsible for their own too expensive to be repaired we're going through too much water due to global warming every it's this flooding all over and i checked on the canal system and the canal system was started in eighteen twenty five and then it was renovated and updated in one thousand nine hundred three that still makes it over a hundred years old during the severe flooding that we've had we've had two to three occasions it doesn't even seem like it's a temporary fix when it comes to everyday living anymore locks eight through the seventeen were closed i believe for a period of three to eight months that's that's a long period of time i don't think we can be making a whole lot of money commercially on the log system recreationally it's a plus it's slayer it will always be a plus and i'm not suggesting that anything be done to alter that however i do think commercially we don't need a lock system anymore in fact it's a dual system federal and state  and i would i think would think that there be an awful lot of jobs could be made in removing those locks and creating a natural flow of water from wherever it comes and it also will give us a clear understanding of what the water situation really is that we're going to have to live with thank you thank you tha good evening commissioner bennett president king city councilman smith and vice president of the most pleasant neighborhood association and we would like to make several announcements saturday mate there is mount pleasant cleanup day and bottom can recycling volunteers will meet at norwood and schuyler avenue tennis court parking lot at eight thirty a m orientation and supplies donation of work gloves trash grabbers waters packages of individually wrapped cookies chips community emergency preparedness night will be held at the faith deliverance cabin apple church at twenty ten twenty a poster and replace speakers are from schenectady county public health services lisa whitman r and b s and public health nurse preparedness program and r n b s and public health nurse medical reserve corps coordinator will speak on what we should do in the event of a catastrophic event in our neighborhood on saturday april twenty six retreat planned at ten trees on norwood having no special things to betsy henry in charge of retreat joe fatality of the city and its crew for delivering trees water in tools very early that morning also thank you to the volunteers in the past several complaints brought by attorney generals in three different states in kentucky from ohio massachusetts also last vegas a similar complaints about the company so  schenectady home or homeowner should think twice about signing up with this company i think the city should look into this matter and perhaps issue a statement or a warning to schenectady property are about buying coverage with this company there's also another company which has a chance of a better reputation that's looking to do business with the city and the way to do it is the approach cities around the states and at no cost to the city they started doing this program was a charge to our property owners so i urge city council member to look into this matter and come up with a suitable program it's really needed and beneficial to property owners the landlord and it's not too difficult to do and i do have some i do have a copy of the letter that's sent by this company to city resident it looks it looks like  did everyone see the notice by the associated press as to what happened in holland on saturdays the dutch donned ridiculous that's unfortunate earlier this evening i said the voters do not win when democrats are in office it's impossible to work a forty hour week attend classes through homework go on out of town drunk that's for primary employer and still give quality time to serve on city council the stories in the gazette last week showed how poorly the city has been run city officials are claiming ignorance they said they did not know what about the or the parking meter hold up but they voted for everything there was only one story with a positive note it told of the good results the police department is having whether the program now in place i suggested the program door in my campaign last year that is more than what the community is getting from last year successful candidate who was promoting jobs she's telling people to take a civil service tass i know where the jobs are but i'm not going to tell her she won the seat now it's time to deliver thank you thank you joe callan her can all do my friend we'll do good evening and thank you once again very quickly just a couple of things that are happening in the area i know that one of the last times that i spoke here at city council i had asked about  proposal to put a bin for collections of retired american flags not only to be properly retired by the american legion post in ninety two an upper union street but also to be used for stars for our troops and matter of fact i just happen to have one i think it's in my pocket just as these are the where they we cut the flags up and remove the embroidered stars so that we can give them to active and military and veterans to thank them for their service it reads i am a part of our american flag flown over a home in the usa i can no longer fly the sun and wind have caused me to become tattered and torn please carry me as a reminder you  not forgotten so we are looking to get some more of these flags so that we can properly cut them up and distribute them to people of who are in the military all over the country flag day is coming up and will be retiring all of the flags at a street between brandywine and firm and and their meeting at ten o'clock in the mornings at ten o'clock in the morning at the empty lot next to the orchid restaurant at the corner of behind me we bought that house in sixty five and that street has gotten terrible but they were just another ask in an accident up there something need really need to be done with that street and i'm a tell you something i'm not going to have these nightmares because  start ok it's not fair i can live with living there if i know that i don't have to worry about somebody else's child and unless you lose your child like this then maybe you know it doesn't bother you as much but if you lose your child like i lost mine then maybe it would bother you a whole lot more and somebody will actually do something about this and i need to make clarification from the last two times i was here my son was forty five years old not forty seven and i never said anything about state street in a car park in there but what i did say was i would like to have those two right i'm ready to take him down and put up and i thank you i volunteer for it every year with the rotary and it it really is a wonderful experience and it's good to see what a well oiled machine the program is and how many children come through there and how appreciative they are as far as the public my committee just a moment to talk about the bid process i feel as if as a council we were presented with this bid we've spoken tirelessly about the bid process one on one and mr winkler and went through it with a fine tooth comb and we had all of the opportunity in the world to ask questions at the council meeting they explained why they chose the people that they did for the interviews  know that president king sat in on the interviews and i didn't want to take the time and go back and quantify it but you know i think that we have professionals that work for the city that put a lot of hard work and time into making these decisions and i stand by their decision with regard to the downtown garbage certainly we have litter issues in the city and i don't want anyone to think that i am know minimizing those issues i know especially now that snow is melted mr olsen is trying to get around in between filling potholes with the street sweeper to clean things up but i all so think that making statements that are fair is the right way to go as far as downtown schenectady first of all obviously we know seven trucks don't come out to clean one candy wrapper i also want to bring to light the fact that the merchants of the cities  pay the downtown schenectady improvement corporation for clean up services within downtown that is not the city going out there and cleaning that is a service that the the merchants pay through their assessment the d s i see to clean up downtown so i want to make that part very very clear we also have very active neighborhood associations that work tirelessly to clean the garbage around the city the resources i also think it's just fair to be fair when making your statements and complaints and lastly i just want to say that the graffiti program is starting everybody cross your fingers that it's not going to rain first of all because we have a great cleanup in mt pleasant scheduled for saturday and so the graffiti covering efforts will focus in mt pleasant for that day so we have a nice well rounded day of not only cleaning up brush and garbage and all of that painting over that graffiti and some of the buildings that have been identified by the mt pleasant neighborhood association and then you know others that have been identified for the city so i thank you thank you anyone else  porterfield thank you first of all i'd like to congratulate the shelter me and the foundation for suicide prevention on a walk that they did this past weekend while they counted eighty five it looked like over  hundred but i'll go with their number of people that walked the two out of the darkness to bring awareness to the suit to suicide and to help to get rid of the stigma of it so a lot of people waltz was the day a group of people because it's something that touches many people regardless of their ethnicity social economic status all of those things it's just people's lives so this was the first walk it's connected so i want to congratulate the group on on doing that  we did have someone from steinman's park come in ask about the four thousand fund four thousand dollars in funding and i just want to clarify on behalf of mr erickson because he's asked me to do that that his concern was not about the whether it was a good use of money because he agrees that it is but only through the process of what we were doing in terms of the c b c voting in that so he just wanted to make it clear that he very much supports the stand it's part project i received a phone call from  someone regarding the trees are being cut down in certain neighborhoods and the ask is that if the trees are coming down there be notification to the neighbors to make sure that they know that the trees are coming down because based on someone's looking at it they felt that the tree was not diseased but unless you're professional that knows that but at least to notify the neighbors that the trees are coming down and maybe perhaps a schedule of when that's going to happen especially if it's happening and someone's neighborhood mr rodriguez brought up the concern about leather and actually there was a an article in the newspaper about community correct pride begins with cleaning up after ourselves which is something i we with but it takes entirely in the entire community to participate it's about community participation and we all have to work on this i feel bad for as a the city we could work together to start at the level of the city to  send out the message about cleaning up litter but again it's everyone's concerns everyone's problem and if we want to attract people to the city it is something that we issue that we really want to take in take very seriously we've been talking with  some of the neighborhood associations and mr reagan i have talked about even going into the schools and talking to the young people about it and addressing that in the article also mentions trash cans and one of the things that our neighborhood has that the hamilton hill neighborhood association has done was on albany street to go talk to the business owners talk to the residents and about getting trash cans we've been successful in that and so there's been donations made and we're going to work with the city to get those trash cans installed because  talk about it we also have to make an effort to do something about it so that's where the effort starting in we're willing to work with any other neighborhood associations that want to to address this very major concern and i just want to also say thank you to all the people that came out for the cleanup was very successful and will continue to do it until it's no longer required so thank you again anyone else not sure what we can do about it i really don't know and i've told deborah that also but if we can do something about it maybe we should look into it because it is an epidemic there's no question about that that we're living with i talked to mr fo the now that summer's here the ice cream truck apparently they're not aware at least the mr dangling that's coming around the bellevue that they can only vent on certain streets they can vent on major thoroughfares that's a long  rule that we've had just secondary streets and i know for sure he's been bending on campbell avenue quite regularly and the same with the noise that it brings there's been quite a bit of noise which is supposed to be under control and i'm sure law office all be contacting them to make sure that's taken care of the casino i think we'll hear a lot about that before it's either said and done or put to bed finally or whatever is going to happen with it but i have some strong feelings about it but i think everyone should really look at the big picture everything up front looks real good and glorious it's going to bring all this money and all these jobs and but there's a cost for everything and i think we have to look at what it does to inner cities and in my opinion casinos do not belong in inner cities they belong way out there and in the ever onse where there's no residents around whatsoever because there's a lot of things that go on with that and i gotta say i hurt my wife heard congressman taco today and he basically had the same views on this so there was some good editorials in the cio and i did not so we have to look at the whole big picture i do remember being on the other side of the rail ten years ago when we were selling tax f that was the panacea that was going to save the city well guess what we know where we are now with that so we have to look at everything and not just the big golden globe that may be put in front of us just an announcement for bellevue preservation the meeting thursday may eighth seven p m st paul's epistles will church on fairview av their neighborhood garage sale will be saturday and sunday june seventh and eighth for applications call three seven four zero two eight one three seven four zero two where they won the farmer's market will be have a grand opening thursday june twelfth four p m twenty one seventy six broadway that's the corner of ontario street the maranatha ministry's parking lot that was successful last year and they're looking forward to it given a go go there sharon it's everybody's should stop by and shop there because it's it's quite amazing how that thing is when it took off so i'm glad to an outside thank you thank you anyone else commissioner anything from you ok just a couple of quick things for me one he said mention the farmers market the schenectady farmers market lose outside this this coming sunday by city hall so that's a good  so to create a basis for discussion it's no different than the way we get requests and back up for every legislative cycle from department heads and then they have those those reports then become the basis for our  discussions i don't view it as even any differently than if i had a telephone conversation with one of you again just to get your ideas so that when we do meet we've got things laid out what people want us to talk about and then we'll discuss them  also need to mention that we're going to hold a special meeting of government operations committee monday may fifth at five pm in executive session to discuss health and safety recommendations we have had a consultant working with city staff on health and safety issues and he would like to just give us a very brief port you know on what his observations of been so that we can then start to maybe look at some of the issues also our council meeting which is scheduled for tuesday may twenty seventh is going to be held on wednesday may twenty eighth to accommodate the board of assessment review hearings so to so everyone is aware that this happened last year as well and with that i will entertain a motion to a