was going to call the city council caucus meeting to order for august tenth two thousand and fifteen if the clerk would read the first item on the agenda i number one under final consideration an ordinance amending chapter thirty six of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding elections discussed in committee without objection on consent item number two i don't number two under original consideration an ordinance amending chapter one thirty eight regarding waiving of building permit fees introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing for the proposed ordinance on august twenty fourth two thousand and fifteen discussed in committee without objection and consent and a number three or number three an ordinance amending code of the city of schenectady to designate woodlawn preserve a ing the mayor of the city of schenectady to enter into a contract for trans finder and zone are again discussed in city development and without objection on consent i don't number five i don't number five a resolution accepting the transfer of a twenty one eastern ave from sarah discussed in committee without objection on consent item number six and a number six a resolution authorizing the issuance of a revokable permit number five ninety five to firestone one fifty one bar and restaurant to place two signs on the building located at one fifty one lafayette street and discussed in committee without objection consent item number seven number seven a resolution authorizing the issuance of revokable permit number five ninety six to the committee without objection on consent item number nine i don't number nine a resolution authorizing the sale of nine twenty nine albany st discussed in committee without objection on consent item number ten and number ten a resolution authoriz ok ok i don't number thirteen the number thirteen resolution authorizing the sale of a twenty one and a twenty three eastern avenue to the capitol region land being discussed in committee without objection on consent item number fourteen a number fourteen a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a contract dispute with below water north american operating services l l c discussed in claims without objection on consent item number fifteen a number fifteen a resolution author property damage claim with pamela elaborate also discussed in claims without objection and consent at number seventeen or number seventeen a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a tax or sherry case for ten thirty three waverly pla and twelve eighty four glenwood boulevard also discussed in claims without objection on consent i don't number eighteen i don't number eighteen a resolution supporting the reauthorization of the export import bank of the united states of america presentation and i don't number twenty the number twenty a resolution recognizing michael per this will also be taken out of order ms porterfield will present item number twenty one the number twenty one a resolution number twenty two number twenty two under contract and supplier resolution awarding the contract for the purchase of city of schenectady police station translucent skylight system replacement to mid state industries ltd in the amount of one call the city council caucus or city council meeting to order and i ask you to rise for a moment of silence reverend emanuel adams was scheduled to do the invocation to nine and as many of you know he passed away just a few weeks ago so again if we could just have a moment of silence  has many many projects in the works including armin's residents are senior housing and not closing comments and hopefully some new residents to come so lou is very busy and i'm happy to take the helm here at the y continue that great work but i want to just throw out a couple  phrases to you before i start i want you to consider two things social responsibility thank you munity impact that is what we're about the wind ca we have many many things that we do we're more than just a gym but the social responsibility component it runs deeply throughout all the work that we do so just to give you a few highlights we do have approximately fifty two hundred members which is a great number a great number here in this community we operate many many classes over sixty five  classes a week and we offer a lot of specific programming specifically for groups and specific demographics that are challenge so at our elderly population we offer classes for folks that suffer from physical or mental disabilities we work very hard with our community and our community partners to make sure that we serve again the community that needs us one of the benchmarks of y m c a work is that we serve the community that we have so if you think about the capital district a which is our association of which were a part one of ten branches in this region we all serve very different communities and i've learned as a two year newcomer to schenectady that what happens in schenectady doesn't always mean that that can happen in our y m c a in bethlehem or intro but we're very different and we have to serve our needs so we've been approached at the schenectady y m c a to provide these types of classes for folks to suffer from different challenges and we meet that need in our community we focus specifically on youth programming as well things that our community ask for boxing double dutch or robotics which is very unique in the y m c a world karate class called mini warriors lots of things that we offer that our community ask us to provide we are very proud of our off site wellness program and you see several of our primary groups listed there but also hospital we worked with for several years on their programming we recently expanded into the community of pleasant and offer classes there as well and we also serve our men's residence just down the road on broadway we offer classes there and all of our many afterschool sites so there's a lot of work that we do we write we recognize that our space while beautiful and new is limited in capacity and we know that to impact this community again with our socially responsible work we have to get out we have to be out in the community and offer our classes where they're needed so that means getting outside those four walls just across the street and getting out to where we need to serve scholarship dollars you know we are not for profit so we do have an annual campaign each year and we raise money as they go directly to our scholarship campaign that campaign services those in need so if someone comes to the y membership programming childcare camp and they cannot afford that we have a scholarship program and those dollars we fund that scholarship and what we provide in our community you can see some estimated numbers there we have estimated  this community approximately three hundred sixty thousand dollars exists in need programming that we can serve in communities with camp child care programming we raised in two thousand and fourteen about one hundred thousand we know that we have to make that up so we look for other sources grants other dollars places that we can make that clearly the need here is greater than the dollars we can raise so we want to improve that and i hope in the next year that we can do that we offer again thinking social responsibility if you'll play with my theme just a little bit more here we offer several programs that were incredibly proud of the black and latino achievers program is steeped in history around the united states and also in the capital region that we're proud of that program here we focus was connected to high school and we're growing that program and hitting the youth involved in the why they get memberships they learn to prepare for post high school education of any sort whether it's military whether it's a tech school whatever they want to do we want to help them take that next step and serve their community you think government program very similar focus on the albany general simply the folks get in there the kids get to work with the legislators and they get to actually see a bill progress through those are just a couple examples of what we offer to try to help educate our youth and again serve that community schenectady high school has reached out to us they want our assistance these are programs that we can help volunteer opportunities abound and we have many many community partners i think you're familiar with the community please basketball league been in the news over the last few weeks we're proud partner of that with the schenectady foundation and also with the police department so we just finished the championship game yesterday and very proud of how that finished up childcare huge for us huge for us we have to day cares that we offer that or a trace right to the schenectady y m c a those locations are in scotia north colony ironically which is a little out of our zone but we also oversee that big thing for us is our school aged child care if you think about what that is that's before and after care at our local schools you see the list of the eleven sites there we serve over eight hundred children annually we get out into those areas and we offer programming at the schools and we want to help those children have a safe environment and post school so th can learn and grow again listening to our community being socially responsible and getting out there and having impact summer camps are a big big thing that word stream we're proud of and we're winding those up right now few weeks left no one i want to mention you see the list  the camps that we have that were extremely proud of our very real park camp and that camp is grant funded we use dollars to fund that it's no cost to the families who come and we provide education arts and crafts physical activity field trip all day long from nine to four for kids that need to come to that camp and we are very proud of that service we hope to expand you see a note there for twenty sixteen we hope to expand that no cost camp into the mount pleasant neighborhood again we've been asked by that neighborhood to assist we want to provide impact that we're going to find those dollars before summer of two thousand and sixteen to make that can't happen another area you may not be familiar with as if you think about the y m c a again not just just the basketball gym offer what we call our chronic health initiatives this is a national national base for the y m c a but these are just some samplings of our highlighted programs live strong at the y m c a we operate twelve week no cost program for cancer survivors simply had to be a cancer survivor to be into the program and have medical clearance we offer personal training in a small group setting at no cost so that of course is grant and donor funded diabetes prevention program again very proud of that it helps develop and create lifestyle changes and choices for folks that are susceptible to type two diabetes so again serving our community in partnership with ellis hospital and other local agencies pedaling for parkinson's and our parkinson's wellness recovery program to newer programs the capital district  actually leads the nation in the number of parkinson's patients that come through our pedaling for parkinson's program which is a very cool fact if you think about that we have hundreds of parkinson's patients who come through all of our branches in the capitol region and here in schenectady you suffer from parkinson's and you have medical clearance you join us in a cycling class that's been evidence based proof that it helps decrease the symptoms of parkinson's the tremors shakes the things that those folks suffer from along those same lines are wellness recovery programs serves not only parkinson's patients but anyone with a neurological issue of any sort still multiple sclerosis for example or ala gehrig's disease so we focus again no cause we work  been there and seen that and we're very proud of lou's work to make that happen serving those adult men and providing them with a safe location where they can receive treatment medical treatment food shelter all the things that they need to be treated  filling that gap again it may surprise you as a model nationally for this type of work so we have two things that we're very proud of at the y m c a here that we're leading the nation in one is the parkinson's work that we offer the classes and also the second is our residents program so very proud of those efforts and that's sort of an overview of where we are again i wanted to focus on social responsibility and let you know that we do a little more than just play basketball across the street so very e city supports the passionately mayor we're very grateful very thankful for all you do for us thank you thank you very much quarter field to go to the center stage here name and has gone on to do wonderful things and is back here now sharing her passion her gift and all that she's done with folks is connecting as i understand it the first visit to this but you'll be back again ok so at this time i'd like to offer this resolution a resolution recognizing the achievements of nine whereas i am a is a nationally known inspirational speaker and woman of many accomplishments and where as well born in henderson north universal power of thought belief and perception and whereas a devoted mother and grandmother along with her husband and co author i have written a children's book that tells a story of people and empowering message of self compassion favor and also missed i had the opportunity to read out loud and it was just very extremely inspiring and the young people loved it and it was just it was a great time and even if you were older person there and they when they especially when they d here in schenectady where i grew up and learned all of my wonderful principles that is to build lived and it is endless possibilities for all of us in the united states of america which are very proud  of the mayor for and for mr porterfield for coming and thank you for all of your warm thoughts this will not be the last time but our message is clear that you can do anything you would love to do in this world but it starts from your perception of yourself compassion which is love we believe that you are the most important person in this world that you affect everyone in this world by what you do so the more that work kinder to ourselves we can be kinder to other people and what my intention here is to give back to the community they gave me my education and my outlook on life so i love schenectady and love all the people here i am dedicated to coming back and for me to inspire and light a fire and i am the fire of everyone that i come in contact with that i want them to believe in themselves and unlimited possibilities i thank you so much for allowing me to come home and to get this resolution and our live show much family i'm so excited thank you thank you thank you if i can ever be of any service to anyone if you have anyone that does not believe in them themselves and their endless possibilities to believe in themselves in their dreams let them go on my email and give me an e mail and i will certainly be very clear yes she can but it is determined and it is based on your power of choice you choose wisely and you will build a foundation under you that will have unlimited possibilities so thank you so much thank you present you have before well actually that was a wonderful segue because michael is a shining example of what you can do to overcome when life's life delivers things that aren't the best that if you pursue your dreams if you believe in yourself and you get a little support from folks the community what you what can happen in your life michael will tell hopefully tell us a little bit about his story but i thought it was really important that michael be able to come today and for us to present him as the resolution because we so many negative things about what happens to young people in the community so it's important when positive things happen from with young people who as michael describes it are from me at risk background i'm not sure how i feel about the term overall but anyway it's out there so experience persistent hardship from an early age that pushed him to desperate measures tested his resilience and ultimately shaped him into the youth advocate he is today and where as michael was raised in a poverty stricken neighborhood in bronx new york  found himself in gage being involved in gang life to survive after dropping out of high school and finishing a stint in juvenile detention center he resolved to turn his life around and whereas at age eighteen michael relocated to schenectady new york and unrolled and used a bill to connect to a nine month program designed to engage at risk low income young people ages eighteen to twenty four the need to complete their high school education and receive career training and whereas through youth build michael receive the support he needed to awaken his potential he developed his leadership skills and recruited other students to part spitz participate with him in numerous service projects throughout the city and whereas this summer mike was one of three out of work and out of school youth chosen to climb aboard accomplishments recognize him for overcoming adversity in his life and wish him well in his endeavors to earn a college degree further develop his purpose and share his story with others that are present i'd like t m he definitely has shown his leadership skills and it's going to go on to do great things i definitely believe that our i'm very nervous but i want to say durndest road trip the happiness the dude who has stories about interviewed him and but yet for the most part i was given the opportunity to do a lot of great things and working with the quote unquote at risk youth but yeah ome some looking to take upon that job offer as well as  continuing school and ours because college which is close to mesa california and this is this is weird to see how much i've changed in such a long time but i'm proud of myself and i've had a nd i want to say i want to think schenectady as a whole because all my five years here because i came in twenty times i've only became better than who i was baghdad twelve back consolidation and now i'm in the process of getting it out of the for a lot of my loans went to collections and now i'm in the process of getting it out of the four and i've decided to start a fund raiser for room and board for my trip but orange county i mean orange coast college that fundraiser has been going on for ten days and i've only manage president you have the floor this is a resolution recognizing august fifteenth and sixteenth two thousand and fifteen as the polish harvest festival to be held by the senate albert's church in recognizing the polish experience in schenectady whereas records indicate that by the one nine hundred twenty s the polish community in the city of schenectady had grown to become the third largest polish population in the state of new york having started with john lansing's of risky settling in schenectady in seventeen ninety a new and imposing brick church with sixteen hundred seats was erected on lansing street in one thousand election and western albert's church was and remains an inviting parish but the congregation consisting of fifty percent polish americans and fifty percent of therefore be resolved at the mare and city council recognizing command saying that the church and its congregation and express gratitude for the contribution to the schenectady community and its further result that august fifteenth and sixteenth two thousand and fourteen honor as said at one time schenectady had the third largest polish population buffalo new york city at war this week on the fifty eight and sixteenth its fifteenth and sixteenth we are celebrating our polish heritage it's connected these polish heritage that say that albert's church on the fifteenth starting at two o'clock we have a family fun day and continuous entertainment on sunday the sixteenth is polish american day and at ten thirty we have a harvest mass with bishop edward scharf and burger celebra this is a resolution welcoming dr study model as president of skank city county community college that of president you have the floor thank you whereas city county community college conducted in extensive search for a new president and where as doctors study has extensive experience in administration at community colleges and whereas most recently he held the post of vice president for student affairs and was then promoted to vice president and chief administrative officer of mud county community college west campus in pennsylvania and whereas dr manno was a selected participant for the executive leadership institute sponsored by the league for innovation in the community college in whereas he was outstanding contribution to the human relations and human rights in the area of education by the pennsylvania human relations commission and whereas dr motto has been recognized by his peers were the words in leadership minority student mentoring innovation and human rights whereas dr manas achievements include creating and instituting a broad range of innovative programs in areas such as workforce development minority student mentoring and fundraising and now therefore be it resolved that the mayor in the city council pas in their deliberations to welcome doctor to schenectady as president of schenectady region they'll think of the college as a number one provider for with force development i look forward to working with you and thank you again for this opportunity thank you and welcome we have no other out of order resolutions so we'll move now on to the regular business of the council for those of you who work here for the special presentation or ceremonials when you are welcome to stay for our meeting but please don't feel you have to do that letter from the city engineer christopher wall and recommending the award of cities to the police station translucent skylights system replacement amidst the industries ltd under general there are none of their petitions are not right are there any committee president yes thank you although this wasn't discussed directly under the finance committee i just want to say a couple of words about the agreement that maybe we hadn't asked enough questions or didn't know what we were entering into as the finance committee chair requested direct information the proposed savings and gas alone are somewhere between twenty and twenty five percent and given the current the current usage of what the city has we will easily cover the cost of the first and second year going to ask you to stop for a minute please ask for silence and building thank you sees me thank you that's enough ok in this present so in addition to that i also want to say that i'm extremely pleased that we're doing business locally i think that's very very important transponder has worked with us very closely on price and i don't see where this can't be anything but a win w interesting to look at the exact data for the city as we go forward but i just wanted to clear that up because i do feel at the count the council is very engaged and i certainly know i did my homework i'm sure my colleagues did also so that's for the finance committee meeting our finance committee and then add to the export import bank supporting resolution there were just a couple of things that i wanted to say about that also and i want to refer to my notes because it's not something we deal with directly but i think it's a very very important point for the city of schenectady for those who don't know what the export import bank is it's an independent self sustaining agency that has an eighty year record of supporting us jobs by financing american goods and services overseas its mission is american jobs and retaining them in growing them  jobs like manufacturing jobs right at our own general electric in downtown schenectady small business export certainty and protection to tackle new markets in expand and create jobs and this bank allows them that in the past twenty years the bank has generated nearly seven billion dollars and that quite simply generates money directly for the taxpayers because it helps reduce federal d t also exim they call it counters aggressive foreign competition responsibly manages risk and it does not compete with the private sector in any way actually because this bank has not been reinstated as of july first g e is already in discussion with france for funding that they cannot get from exham because if it's so subsequently if the funding comes from france they want the parts to come from france too so right there we are taking work away from our american workers and this is a big concern and i usually don't go here but i think facts are facts and it's really important to know that there is a conservative faction of republicans that are holding this back that held the vote from even coming to the floor when there was enough support that the bank would have been refunded and that's this vote take place and it really is important because if it's now the cost will likely be tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in america and we can't let that happen it's already actually passed through the u s senate and it was voted with a bipartisan might majority so just although the city of certainly supports this going through for our own fiscal health i'd encourage everyone and leaves our elections hanging out there and i'm hoping that we can fix this also too is a stat tonight if you take a look at some of the there's a couple of them that are housing taxes and these are the same neighborhoods of the same areas sunday when we're taking a look at some of the stuff we need to have a reassessment done within the city and we have offered an alternative which is to divide the city up into five equal parts so that when you're doing a suspect once once every five years and then this will lower the cost and be able to maneuver to be able to bring down the property taxes itself and be able to level the playing had to lose in bellevue and you know space has been taken taken back to taken by the city for back taxes and you're considering to sell it to the stewart corp it is somewhat troubling troubling certainly storks is a good neighbor but i don't think the corner of broad street which is a one way narrow street and broadway is the best place for another store and gas station on that strip of the  expect a large increase in the in and out traffic within about four hundred feet of the traffic right at the sale and approval take place the bellevue corridor will have three convenient stores in gas stations within approximately two clocks of each other on broadway one a broad street and two of the opposite corners of ontario street entirely a street intersection one of the old gas stations are at one of the three gas stations the old usa gas station at the corner of ontario street which the city planning commission is considering for a site plan approval this wednesday night to operate a gas station convenience store i also find troubling the potential lessee is a mr patel and he would like to operate a business there and i actually have no opinion as to whether mr patel  would rob would do a good or bad job in the business what i do have a problem with is the fact that the owner of that particular property mr b as been is in significant arrears in his tax payments to the city mr oz baozi one thousand one one hundred fourteen thousand dollars and back taxes it appears that he is allowed to lease his property  brunt payments and with no guarantee that he will start to pay his back taxes or is current taxes that means that mr oz bacon make a profit on his tax delinquent property while the rest of us may continue must continue to pay more than our fair share of taxes to keep the city running i am asking mr feller teco as a city's attorney to look into the situation in the corresponding law and find a way to prevent this tragedy travesty from happening now and in the future this situation is unfair to other taxpaying businesses trying to stay afloat it's unfair to the city and certainly it's unfair did not have money to fix my street properly the city has spent sixteen thousand dollars and matching funds to one stalled plug and a plug in station for two hybrid cars cheap by the way i hope the grant included money to retrain first responders removing an accident victim from a hybrid car is not the same as a regular car army in them budget for this new agenda item thirty six thousand dollars up front plus a monthly expenditure to study data from oddly snow trucks taxpayers are told the purpose of this new expense is six a monthly house so to spend it on gimmicks two months from now according to monday's paper the mayor thinks streets are too expensive to be fixed so he is using taxpayer routes money for the parks i was in the room when the former director taxpayers i do see the possibility of contributions to the twenty fifteen political war chest of counsel really you're serious about us saving money then take out the budget line item that gives medical coverage to part time elected officials currently five members receive the coverage the same members who approve the budget conflicts of interest in this administration's or un prosser the no two item number twenty four thank you plenty for  connected it loves and the thing will work here if you can force everybody to put it there to volunteer and if they came here or won't you just go ahead and put your hand in their pocket i am being a charged one hundred eleven dollars more in my car insurance this year than i was last year soley because they want to put a g p s device on my car i'm not the criminal there have been six acts of vandalism on my car recently putting a g p s device on the victim's car is not going to stop the criminals from doing the x in a camera  it's very defensive i also want to point out that in resolution number sixty seven variances regarding signs of the  the sun for number seven the parker in was done by the department head the paperwork is incomplete does not identify who the owners of the park kor officers are supporting that they did the paperwork for firestone one fifty one and every line is completed we know who's doing the work with the owners are the size of the sign everything that needs to be known about that sign is indicated i hope i'm not there was a lot of there were a couple of things on here that were not covered at the meeting as far as the authorization of export import bank in the united states of america i do support that when i was on the tour for the small business administration last year we went to a tough traveler they have many overseas customers they wrong their product badly their people love to see made to new york as a the only thing stopping them is the terrorist situation they are sitting there on go just waiting for this alphabet and you aren't even the last of the season africa and i know you didn't arrive just yesterday you've been working at this thing for a really long long time in fact the only easy in america i can think artist over time expenditure in this country is the department of corrections ok this for us thank you mr reavis did you want to speak on the agenda or just on general city business ok that'll be coming up shortly so i'll call you on you then i have no unsigned l l signed up to speak on the legislative agenda that portion of the meeting closed we will move to approval of the yes thank you i know i can speak for myself last monday when this came on the agenda it's the church that i drive by every day sometimes twice a day on broadway it's on the corner broadway and i live on thompson so it's one block away from my house very close to me it's been vacant now for more than three years it's a very beautiful and stately church and to see it up for sale was distressing because it's a church it has you know beautiful stained glass windows and it's just it's very stately and it's also right next to a home on broadway and so the way the building is configured it kind of wraps itself around this home so that was of concern to me and led me certainly to want to gather more information when the church closed more than three years ago they nearly thirty eight thousand dollars in taxes to the city as i said it's sat there empty and off the tacky tax rolls for a very long time and one of the things that came up right away was what happens to the beautiful stained glass and the pews and i spoke with mr marshall today who represents stewards and along with stuart's mission they are  absolutely you know agreeable to the deconstruction of the church and working with local nonprofits and also other churches to be able to salvage useful parts of the church should this pla forward there's a couple of components that have to happen before it does and that is the has to come before the planning commission and they also need to come to an agreement with the homeowner so that homeowner wouldn't maintain that home anymore so there is something still up in the air ultimately it's an influx of a tremendous asking price to the city which is course it's not always about money but it also puts the plot of land back on the tax rolls which i think is very very important the current location at the point that they are on in fairview and broadway they will sell and they are absolutely committed in agreeable to bringing that any because it is a gas station now to bring that property up to d e c requirements the last component is the lease the bond fa space in the c v s strip mall and they would like that lease expired which is difficult but ultimately i think the property tax revenue in the revenue to this of the sale of the church would greatly benefit the city and with access on and off at broadway i think it minimises or has the potential to minimize traffic on brot which is a one way street if you're not going  land so personally living a block away i would love to have a store it's a bigger you know stuart's that serves the community better closer to my home so for those reasons and all  right fit for that corner i'm not sure and i think it's incumbent on myself anyhow as a council who wants this passes so the council calls to the planning commission then we don't have a say in it anymore so right now we don't have a say i would like to see more information done on it and i understand that it's a plan a commission's job but right now my trial has to see the best foot possible for that truck to land i'm concerned about that strip mall where bon fair is right now because of c b s moves out of there which they very well may that could be a vacant piece of land and it's not going to be saleable i question that if we're desperate not so this could be something good on one hand and not so good on the other hand we have to look at long term of solutions and i don't know if this is a long term solution for us another offer on it  anywhere near what stuart's was offering it was probably one hundred ten thousand dollars less and that's a major issue of course but it would have stayed as a church and it is a it is a recognized church seventh day adventist so it isn't that it's something that may just come and go out so again are we making the right decision i don't know but i certainly has a concert procyon cannot  say that i'm totally convinced this is the right place for this to be and to free sell it in a grocery planning commission and they buy that house and that's going to happen so i'm not comfortable with that i haven't been comfortable with that since last there's a beautiful building and it's always better church so as far as taxes obviously was i would not it must have been water and sewer to the city so there was never as far as a tax morning property it never was that and there was plenty of places on broadway and as mr burke brought out we have one on broadway that also a city one hundred fourteen thousand dollars and that's going to be making money the owner of that place is going to be making money by leasing it out as a gas station so there's a lot of issues going on here and a story about that for us a little bigger or if they could have bought some more property stewart's couldna relocated there because that's a much better location for this to be in my opinion i've lived in bellevue all my life and i think that's a great place for like this to go no farther than the corner of broad street i have some concerns about it and very very close to the light on broadway hagman so i have many many concerns i can go on and on and i but i am not comfortable voting yes on this so i will vote no thank you emotion carries five to one ok thank you all right we will now move on to privilege of the floor regarding general city business anthony karada the first person madam president city council mer last week we had a report from the front of action manager and some of the comments made by the front of action that are represented she's even worked there for seven years i know one of the city council members tried to get straight answers bot was started every single time one of the things that she had asked for was was there supposed to be a diversified workforce within the city is c it and mrs could use his answer was no that's called a quota that's not what that's not what the councilwoman asked for you are mandated to have a diversified workforce plan and to be able to come out with an articulated plan of exactly how to get to a diversified workforce it's not a quota totally inappropriate another question was was where was the name of the individual for the company she comes back sauced private information and then she comes back in and city council and says no it's already been done what's the name of the company well i have to check with the mayor and i have to check with the county under the opec meeting law bob fr the only time is that you have to be able to prove that it causes irreparable harm there was no your reply harm thing was already done the contract was already approved already paid and everything else the information has to be divulged again she's worked here for seven years she was brought in on july the fourteenth two thousand and eight seven years later and she doesn't even know what the old public mean lois doesn't even know what affirmative action is it's kind of  the other piece is that she's supposed to do quarterly reports for community don't block grants you guys should be receiving those quarterly reports and i was really surprised that she did not bring us you know so those are just some of the things also the bear is going to be released in his budget we're looking at a point seven eight percent property tax increase that's all it can be done unless you do a two thirds override of the property tax increase also to says we have been asking for the last five years to have a community of them a block public hearing on over the two million dollars that is being spent that are done not only for the permit of dollars and we haven't had it and you're required to create a block grants to have the kind of meetings and again the public comments i mean of the public budget is coming in october so this be a perfect opportunity to do those periods thank you thank you downtown and i hope is recovering very nicely hope so thank you you thank y influencing change we would like to review our mission statement with you at this time and it reads as follows slick slick is the landlord of the ad advocate advocacy group excuse me their patients can enter new york representing a large number of area rental properties ranging from single family to large multiple dwellings we share similar concerns and challenges stemming from the years of experience and exposure to the workings and policies of the systems involved with operating rental properties in our community our goal is to effect change in these systems it will not only make them more landlord friendly but will also enhance the tenant quality of life as well in turn these initiatives will develop a more conducive environment for a positive schenectady we focus on each of the following three areas city county government ten advocacy assistance programs and organizations and the court legal system as a cohesive group we approach the leaders of these entities to present them with ideas and proposals that we feel will lead to improvements in the system our monthly meetings our monthly meetings provide information education and tools of the trade through professional presentations workshops and networking we encourage landlords to avail themselves of the knowledge and procedures to help them maintain their properties and survive the ongoing challenges of the randalls we have to size the importance of getting properties in order carefully screening profs prospective tenants instituting a detailed lease monitoring each tenancy and property maintenance to participate in our ongoing efforts to help them succeed in the business of providing much needed desirable housing it's good that to be increased business success will lead to a more positive atmosphere for growth potential and foster future of vestments  good evening marit city council my name is chris morris and the directors like according to our mission statements like strives to provide education and proper procedures and tools for landlords in the business of navigating the challenging path of residential rentals this past becomes increasingly more difficult besides the usual issues of high taxes and greasing maintenance requirements in code costs we have recently been confronted with a dramatic change in our on line service  which used to but no longer provides landlords certain background information so important to the screening process of prospective tenants also the high volume of low cost city owned properties available for investors leaves little room for the landlord who wants to sell his property and get out of the business in schenectady without losing his shirt in addition even when landlords are appropriate procedures apply the due diligence and careful screening they are often challenged again by the of slick we are expressing our growing concern and frustration with the inefficiency and resulting expense in schenectady the action court and a vixen it's considered a last resort mechanism for a landlord to remove it was proven to be unable to handle a wrecked requirements and or repeatedly presents under his eye or a bill behavior or attitude issues the landlord's decision to go this route is out of necessity based on ten facts not provide it is hoped that this often tedious and expensive process will eventually bring closure to a negative situation without too much delay or collateral damage and allow the landlord to regroup and start all over again with his rental property back in two thousand and eleven a certain letter to the editor in the schenectady daily to visit entitled no limit to the abuse of schenectady landlord is required to take actually perpetuated the founding  slick direct quotes from that letter stating quote good taxpaying citizens need to know the absurdity of our court system that is not only enabling bad tenets to continue their aberrant behavior but is costing us lots of money they are represented by do gooder organizations that excuse their poor behavior on quote for years later same issues and more to be continued thank you thank you good evening mayor and city council my name is to continue on their letter here are some of the problems who are experiencing in the court room inconsistency between judge's rulings are not uniform cases are often postponed in then we filmed with a different judge with a different perspective it seems only the landlord is held to the letter of the law but not necessarily the tenant the tenants advocates or legal aides the tenant is often deferred to no matter how serious the infraction we feel there should be more attention and here and to the concept of tenant responsibility and accountability as per their lease signed rental leases are not always honored judges may arbitrarily decide to disallow certain conditions of the lease despite signatures to both the tenant in the way and more landlords are urged to accept payment plans plans are set up to allow tenants an opportunity to pay back rent but often result in current rent and future rent not being paid requiring the a fiction process to start all over again rental certificates are always acknowledged as definitive proof of satisfactory condition of residence at the beginning of the tenancy the required inspection and resulting certificates are supposed to be the landlord's quote protection unquote against certain tenant related issues but that's not all we saw our organization stands for education and change in the rental system only through identifying and highlighting issues can we even hope to foster any steps toward positive change we feel it's important to make our concerns public interop attention and focus on issues in april of two thousand and fourteen we did reach out to each of the schenectady city court judges asking for an opportunity to meet with the judges in whatever format they found acceptable not one response was received to our letter please know that we have attached slick's mission in statement for your review we also wish to inform you that we have circulated the pacific petition for signatures of those in support of our contentions to date we have one hundred sixty five sawing representing one thousand for forty seven units of our rental units these signatures will be kept on file for verification purposes additionally this letter is being distributed to other entities throughout the area such as schenectady city court judges mayor and city council new york state office of court administration and new york state office of judicial conduct we would appreciate your attention and feedback and look forward to any response thank you very much thank you ok that's beth and i'm coming down tonight because this is my last chance to recognize some people that were involved and the historic speech i'm project these three which finish the project in the city by the next time you me i'll be in my new home in florida and it's not schenectady that chased me to florida it's a physical condition in my experience and schenectady has been amazing there are so many people in this town city that are willing to give their time and their money to making this a better place and this is just one of the projects that i've been involved with and this is a nice picture i was given an award at the schenectady heritage foundation  the word ceremony earlier this spring and i just want to know there are so many people you know i'm not the one i mean i honored i offer to be the project manager but so many people made this happen and i really want to recognize them schenectady heritage foundation came out as a partner gloria kissed and really helped out every step of the way union college also came out as early commitment as a partner has a substantial amount of money werner five of us made a very generous donation he's not even a resident in this particular neighborhood that we did  and also in the beginning colleen morays and the d a s i see agreed to be the financially fiscal agent they would collect all of them any and in the beginning i came to the city council and i said could i have the signs that are coming down the union street signs to give away as incentive for people to donate to this project because in the other neighborhoods we had really strong neighborhood associations and it was it was much easier to raise money and for this project the union corridor which runs from phoenix i have to erie bill of ard and the union triangle there is no neighborhood association so i i asked colleen first and then i i polled a few people and even before i hit the ground i had for a six hour project that was sixteen thousand seven hundred dollars i had commitments of seven thousand dollars before i even hit the ground lisa proud so you have helped so much along the way  just being super supportive of me and making the resolution which put me on the put me on the the radar of the people and of the community that we're trying to do this we did get a grant from the schenectady county cia and i went through st john the evangelist father carl you know participated with that jackie craven from the union triangle helped tremendously karen johnson adopted a sign and helped me find places to set up my dog and pony show along with the president and judas and like they helped me i was able to set up a table in the student and educated the children in fire safety it's amazing what the kids learn that talking to them the sheriff's department for the officers who spent the afternoon working with children providing i d s and we especially want to th bellevue volunteers who work hard and want to make the event success again this year certainly without them would never happen so thank you and thank you to them but a word of warning it won't be long before i will call you again for the seventeenth year so thank you thank you jackie donnie birch don't tell me to summarize miss king just save it to the end here's the reality as you took what i can push away from the kids during the hot months and you sold the pool down here in this area to union college and you sold our baseball field to union college and you're closing off our community to union college and you're doing all this stuff are so much talk like a touch on right now i see you winking at me right now we have the s p v sitting here looking at me training like pretty aggressive looks towards me i've got your body you know here's the reality here is the reality i worked with that man with a cane came up and said you know the cynical humor of me laughed at first and i was like oh man this is going to be a nightmare for the transcriptionist but here's the thing you guys don't  record do you and this is not a you sir because i'm totally aligned with what you're saying about due process and i notice that people in front we're not even clapping and we have our mouthpiece here covering his head comes up he's the numbers man talks all this stuff i have a recording of you say give me some pretty bad advice but on here is the crux of what i'm really saying is that we have an inherently cold is a funny mr  i have a recording of you trying to teach me how to defrag the government how to get out of a vaccination mr pinch pennies direct comments to me it doesn't matter because the man is laughing at me and engaging me so don't interrupt me all right i don't want to have to get in a deposition room for a long time so i have a one minute and thirty second little delivery lack of laughter put on if i'm wrong and you weren't trying to defraud the government and help me by coaching me then i invite you to sue me sir so the lady in the yellow she laughed but she will she she can not count on mr felt's eco because he's put here to basically strategically just fight anything that you have to do as well as the freedom of him for act for information act excuse me who cares either way but let me just stop all that shit who cares and i can swear all right but here's the reality ice cream i quit drinking and i'm pretty bored and i left my girlfriend so almost sounded like a fart but here's the reality i'm going to be back and i'm going to deliver such a flawless fluid speech and i literally have done everything and i remember something you said mr picky about your dentist saying fluoride is ok it's not ok it's not ok you can go and check the harvard study it's toxic there's no reason to put it in our water we don't think you care about our teeth that much and i know you're really concerned about that stewart's why did you get rid of the civilian police review board and why are we putting a skylight in schenectady that's one hundred sixty eight thousand dollars i'm really not quite sure what it's about and i know what summarize i've got ten minutes left but i'm going to go five seconds over or ten seconds like i was talking to the commissioner which is a virus and we need to get rid of him like a decision makers and those with a voice caused it to happen they approve the project but neither council members the mayor nor engineering look at it every day right there the projects should have been done to me the goals of the comprehensive plan beautified neighborhoods unfortunately council has turned  city over to the jazz a belt us and they are working twenty four seven to make the city look ridiculous for instance right outside of this well day your political home located on change street new lines were marked off for parking spaces in front of the area where the borough down buildings work torn down one side of the street has french white paint freshly painted parking lines on the other side of the street the lines are wearing bright all at the same time i refused to believe the city didn't have money for pain and man hours to freshen up one of the cit important story last week i want that guardrail and front of ellis hospital out of my neighborhood someone pulled a fast one with that really folks there shouldn't be any room for stupidity in this world thank you thank you on state street and it's been founded by by the late father hogan as well as to the actions in and i've been volunteering for the last years and i just judy is she's she's an incredible woman for doing what she's done for so long and really put her heart and soul she loves these kids so much and so i just to break it down for those who don't know of buses is an organization where really we're trying to help the community be levy the young adults the children that are overlooked those who are you know in a piece of families those who have difficulty at school and just an area for them to go and just to be kids you know after being there you know i help out once a week since over the last year and getting to know it's kids it's incredible you know and we're trying to form programs to develop these these kids to be you know normal citizens and a lot of these kids really have the world against them to start off right off the beginning  and i don't know i don't really have a plan coming up here but kind of just to make my presence known and hopefully to get to know all of you and you know hopefully some of you can even come over down to watched and to see what what we're trying to do some of you may know we were trying to do a a it's called j farm and it's a community farm right next door it used to be an old from what i've heard a drug house that was that was burnt down and create a program for these kids to give them discipline and give them the just the joy of watching something grow and help out in that unfortunately some of it is destroyed by the kids playing in the sprinklers and  but of course you know it's it's not even so much for the produce but it's for the whole program and we're really just trying to help it grow through you know additional e school time and a lot of her food is donated to us but in the off season in the summertime like now when we don't have food judy typically pays for it you know and it's just amazing opportunity for these kids to just get away from  ok thank you i want to talk about i want to ask this council and the mayor to restore the right of public access to the riverfront to the people of schenectady schenectady is not the old mohawk word for second rate city but when this council acted to take away from our zoning code the to waterfront access of the public to go to the river they treated the city and its residents as a second rate the in two thousand and eight this coun knew and the president of the council was mr mccarthy knew that public access meaningful public asses to the riverfront is a major touchstone of all modern urban revitalization and of course it was put in as part of our comprehensive plan and it was that we were proud to have a c three so many waterfront zoning that specifically guarantee to the public no access and enjoyment of the riverfro have the right to walk or run through that bike path there will be no place to sit if you happen to be a member of the public if you're an old person who can't make it all the way across good luck just keep apparently they'll be no place to have a picnic or to bring your girlfriend it will not be public access and what i'm pretty sure the developer and the applicant did not say to you is in pittsburgh and in philadelphia we are proud of the public access we boast about our public access in pittsburgh we have between the rear of the casino in the river a pretty park a really lovely little lamp a theater that is used constantly by the public in philadelphia they have miles and miles of course of riverfront and promenade the sugar house rush street casino has by far the largest promenade public promenade in the city of philadelphia it's two thousand feet long and last summer what's trying to convince this body to take away that right they if you don't if you leave this the way it is blame taken away from the only spot in the city where we could have had increased public access to the river bank if you do not restore their right you will have it be treating your citizens as second rate and somehow the interest of the casino and mohawk harbor ahead of that of your citizens so thank you thank you but ending with a man madam president city council members my name is mohammed hoss and i live in schenectady in the past few weeks we have seen an increase in crime in hamilton here and other city neighborhoods this is all happening and the casino has yet to be built in schenectady what happens what would happen when the casino is built and becomes operational it's almost certain that the crime will go up in schenectady in october twenty twelve the washington post published an article about a study that was done by research groups in the university of georgia and the university of illinois the study found that there will be at least an eight percent increase in crime in the counties that post casinos the crime increase while c each resident in those counties an average of sixty five dollars a year multiply that by the number of residents in this county in schenectady county and we'll have a total of ten point lead in ten point ten point one true million dollars in crime cost increase that's just the cost of an increase in crime because of the casino on june seventeenth of this year a problem gambling event took place in schenectady county community college the mayor was in there no politicians were there because politicians pretend disconnected disconnected it gets you know will have no negative social or other impact on schenectady nevertheless what we have learned from that event is that two to three percent of adults will have gambling problems in any given year at seven hundred fifteen dollars per day per year at the top class will be two point eight million dollars in schenectady county alone we've also learned another another one percent of adults will meet the criteria pathological gamblers pathological gamblers will cost us twelve hundred fifty dollars per adult per year total of one point nine five million dollars a year now at only three numbers and will come up with a fourteen point nine million dollars a year for the cost of increase in crime and probably in gambling alone that's exactly the number i one mayor said we would be collecting in tax revenue from the letter from developer giving of course that we collect a hundred percent of taxes sort of a fortune for a million dollars we are collecting we're barely covered the cost of problem gambling and the increase in crime when when the casino becomes operational now the same question we have we have been asking all along about the casino impact remain on answer first pay for the end of the casino related problem like infrastructure costs engineering c know mass fire department traffic pollution bankruptcy foreclosure divorce child abuse and all of the casino made problems someone who once said that an area doesn't become a mistake until until you  for the mayor's huish casino mistake thank you thank you and i'm still in the city i made a boy request regarding problems i was having at my apartment that i expanded on to the last meeting i finally got a response to my four year i moved into that want to know that i got a tax bill from the state but because i am a two thousand five hundred thirty six dollars over the standard itemized deduction for a single resident of the state in new york i have been in charge fifty six dollars taxes that's for living in a rental property and being somewhere having an income of ten thousand three hundred thirty six dollars here it is if you don't believe me i can't wait till tom gets a copy of this from one of his workers and see how much it's going to cost the state of new york to keep up with this comedy that they're doing this is ridiculous i don't get star exemptions i don't want my home i'm not getting food stamps i'm not getting telephone service you know all those good things and heaven help me if i did it and why today is a it's an awful sight it's terrible it used to be all for men and they started the renovations and when and if they do and open their rents are going to big like nine hundred dollars for one room with bath and maybe a kitchen that that's three times more and mark it's drawing now so what's going to happen is whatever people are paying for rent now will be remained the same and big counted as subsidized rent for a structure the same as what they're in now but it's going to cost some scary times more because it's just not over and that building is not going to be torn down and rebuilt they are going to renovate that and starting rents are nine hundred dollars and this other project that you have it and alton hill this is going to be the same money same subsidized program but now it's in the crime district it doesn't make sense what you're doing here working i'm retired but nobody who's working or mother taking care of kids can get to an eight o'clock on a morning meeting and what did they do at the eight o'clock meeting they started with a public hearing it shouldn't surprise anybody that no one showed up so well what's up with hearing about it was about developing a pilot payment in lieu of taxes for high bridge which is mr planck's organization for the apartment house being built on state street now the state provided money for that apartment house to be built in the range of one million dollars the  twenty year pilot in the us there the report here states that the taxes on that property would be three million nine hundred sixty thousand dollars three million nine hundred sixty thousand dollars but with the pilot it would kill millions for story years twenty two million six hundred forty four three thousand dollars which means a difference of one million three hundred fifteen thousand dollars and he thought about this you say gee what's my taxes  going to be twenty years i don't know my property tax i don't know but there was a calculation made here that the twenty in the twenty years what you're going to lose in taxes one million plus dollars those taxes are what support the schools the cap the well you know what taxes go for but when there's an argument that the taxes are too high you know this is the sort of thing you can't have you can't honor the freedom of information law or the public meeting law and say we held a meeting in a clock in the morning nobody showed up hope and they also announced there would put it in the gazette and that's that's skirting that thing and certainly the of the calculation how did you calculate that it's only one million dollars that's going to be lost for taxes all to act i don't know it's not the purchase price for the land on state street was said by fair market value that's a term of art you know you say we have a piece of land that we're going to sell here is what a qualified bidder for that land it needs to have to show that they are qualified and whoever bids the highest is going to get the land is that relevant yes it is because there's another item on this agenda and the other item outage and opened my way down there is some resale yes i show is that going to be sold through a public statement saying we're selling this property what is the best price please somebody says i got that i got the idea one more thought about this they said they've approved the money to us thank you to the council mayor mccarthy hello can hear how you guys doing this evening i'm coming here as a resident of schenectady i've lived here my entire life and i understand at this time that the auction for carver community center a i speak for a community i've been raised in carver the community's been raising carver as kids we started there in the daycare center we went there through training programs i learned how to cook my first meal in carver we played after school back while the everything right now the community is going through a crisis and there are several individuals that are in the community and we're working to try to find ways to help our individuals in the community we feel like one of the big things that really needs to be done carver community center is a staple our community it provides low income daycare for people for the community it provides a safe place for the kids to play it's basically it's a staple of historical point in our community so i'm here because i want to really speak to the council in the city as a whole and hoping that maybe there's a way it's possible that you that if we can come together i want to be able to postpone auction to give us time for the community to raise the money to save ourselves there are individuals in the community right now who are dedicated and ready to do the work necessary to raise this money unfortunately it came at a time where everybody was kind of caught off guard because there's so many different things going on in the community right now but we feel this project is very important not only to us but to our children it's important to the community as a whole if we lose carver and we used to lose the boys and girls club there's not really a youth program or community center for our kids to play i feel very strongly about this as well as i know there are other residents in the community that been in conversation with i feel very strongly about this as well we are willing to put in whatever work is necessary to save this program i went a little bit on a bit thick thank you i have no one else signed up to speak regarding general city business i'm going to declare that portion of the meeting closed could i just i got distracted by your request to summarize i just had two quick things one was very quickly very good ok the third partner in the project was praised chopper's gold foundation and i wanted to recognize them and also oh it we're leaving but that is a staying open thank you it's as said if you want to speak i've been listening a lot to the scanner so i kind of hear all the calls that are going out there and it's tougher as a resident to say hey i'm not getting the services that i i think i really deserve but you know when you when you take the whole picture and you see what's going on through the dispatch center you know the amount of halls that are going through there you got to understand how you got to wonder how they're getting it all done and great things happening there from there were to bellevue preservation a park full of people everything for free absolutely picture perfect day just fantastic sunday i was lucky enough to  greenmarket all day it was a beautiful day as i posted on facebook robust conversations hearty laughter great music of bountiful harvest of fresh vegetables and just fabulous community is wonderful and from there we went to celebrate music haven in central park after the fantastic news about the one point three million dollars that will be invested in our park  i'm very confused as to what he's referencing in all of my time here in schenectady and i don't know if i'm proud but i was honest to say it is nearing fifty years in november there is never been public access to the waterfront at the alco site now for the first time in my life time there will be a hike and bike trail there will be boat slips there will be the bench is part of the play and so no we don't have to go there will be a straight shot there will be lovely landscaping places to set places to enjoy and not to mention the fact that it retail business so input from our city residents is extremely important as we make our decisions and we definitely take that consideration so i want to thank everyone they came and gave their concerns as well as their their feedback and also want to say that it attended the event that don't necessarily get to attend events or proctors there are a lot of little children there who had a great time who got to see a lot of downtown and maybe that's not something that always happens so it was a good time and i think that w mean that will mean that the families will come down and do more things downtown so it was really a great event and again also the announcement that the mayor and the assemblyman with regard to the renovation central park and in addition to that the other that are taking place the other parks all over the city there are some folks who think well we're spending a lot of money in parks the parks recreation that everybody can do because there's usually not a fee just go there and play in the grass and you know in the playground and all of that so i think it's really beneficial to our city residents that we have here in space there are studies that talk about the importance of green space so that we're at renovating and improving our green space i think it's vitally important to the health of our city thank you thank you or took my early morning walk i went by the park and you would never know anything at all when i'm in there and that i think is a really testament to the volunteers that worked on that because it was spam and spotless  and i can't thank the volunteers enough for doing that and somebody there were so in a van and in park and i don't know what it was i don't think was anything planned maybe just a get together but people were parked all over the grass all over every place where they should have been parked and the place looked like a tornado had it the next day so it's just that some people really respect our parks for what they are and some don't but it just it really struck me how clean fairview park was the next day and you would never know other the stage still being there that anything happened there so bravo to the volunteers in bellevue definitely anyone else  do some major projects in central park up grading the tennis courts restoring a diamond in the improvements to music cave and so it in ads for those things that are good in our community and really we're looking at the long term value where we've been knocking down some of the worst of the worst properties were marketing the community through our homes program in the parks add value in the neighborhoods and so i appreciate you know the work of our recreation advisory committee in the in the council as we've we always like to have more money but we take what we have and of tried to leverage it make the biggest impact and so can thank everyone for coming out tonight in their ideas input and sometimes complimenting sometimes criticizing us but we appreciate