like to call the schenectady city council to order for this evening mr clerk would you please read the first item on the agenda item number one for original consideration a local law proposed changes to article six of the city charter to conform collection of unpaid taxes with the political new york state law with a resolution calling for a public airing on monday february twenty seventh two thousand and twelve at seven p m at council chambers room two zero zero nine schenectady city hall ok this is calling for a public hearing next council meeting  by council member radio i was in favor ok number two i don't number two in ordinance for a proposed bond ordinance authorizing issuance of two million eight hundred fifteen thousand dollars aggregate principal amount serial bonds of the city of schenectady to finance the reconstruction of storm water and wastewater infrastructure with a resolution calling for a public airing on monday february twenty seventh two thousand and twelve at seven p m at council chambers room two zero zero nine schenectady ok again this resolution is calling for the public hearing on the twenty seventh of february capital budget ok again this was discussed in committee of a motion to move the consent agenda by council member king seconded by council member erickson all those in favor number four moved the consent agenda number five number five a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a claim by markland against the city again discussed in claims would by council member eriksson seconded by council member king in favor of this going on the consent agenda say i number six summer six a resolution authorizing the transfer of title to vacant lot at sixteen twenty i need a second please council member ready thank you this move to the consent agenda number seven item number seven a resolution extending the moratorium on the acceptance and or approval of site plans zoning variances or special by council member king are those in favor number eight moved the consent agenda number nine number nine a resolution recognizing and honoring the accomplishments of susie walsh the two thousand and eleven schenectady school district teacher of the year consent agenda number ten number ten a resolution recognizing martin luther king jr day in the city of schenectady ok that's moved by council member present second by council member  favor ok this is the on the consent agenda and also will be taken out of order ms presell will read this number eleven number eleven a resolution recognizing and commending the historic achievements of african americans in declaring february two thousand and twelve black history month moved by councilman presell and seconded by council member erickson are those in favor that will also be taken out of order also read by council present those in favor of number fourteen going on the consented genda signify by saying i will cain number fourteen moves the consent agenda is there anything else to come before the ca so thirteen i am number thirteen in item number fourteen in able both the roll call anything else to come before the caucus to see that and see nothing and i would move as for a motion to  twelve to order in we could please all rise for the invocation father we just thank you for this day and we thank you lord for your faithfulness we thank you for the privilege we have to come together and discuss the things of our city lord you know the issues you know the ins and outs we thank you lord that you have leaders here sitting around this table the council mr mayor the president lord we thank you for these leaders we pray your blessing upon them we pray that you would guide all that said and done this evening lord that it would bring honor to you lord we know that you weigh the issues of our hearts and so  present ourselves to you this evening that you would be lifted up in our midst even as we discuss the business of this day and of the city thank you lord in jesus name we pray a man like t brian right of the human rights commission to lead us in the pledge of allegiance competitive situation we had this year we were able to save i think there's a little over a thousand dollars in the cost reduction just by getting competitive bids so i just want to point that out it was a good win by all means not a huge mover hood in terms of dollars that are seething ceremonial resolutions and the first resolution is recognizing and honoring the accomplishments of susie walsh the two thousand and one scanty school district teacher of the year she was recognized at a very nice gathering at the stockade in by the educational foundation and we're happy she could be here tonight and you have the floor ok where as susie walsh a ninth grade english teacher in the edison school of math science and technology at schenectady high school was named the two thousand and eleven schenectady city school district teacher of the year and where as miss walsh began teaching in the district in two thousand and one and serves as a math science technology house ninth grade team leader working diligently to help create a new format for the freshman at the high school embracing a collaborative approach to teaching and embracing new strategies and technology that can be incorporated into her lessons and whereas miss walsh has served in an array of leadership roles in the district including being the director of the schenectady teachers center a member of the professional development plan committee and the curriculum coordination council and a professional development facilitator for the two thousand and seven two thousand and eight school year and again in two thousand and eleven now therefore be it resolved that the council of the city of schenectady pauses in its deliberations to reflect upon and commend the selfless service and commitment of miss susie walsh  dedication to education has greatly enhanced the lives and development of countless young people of the city and on behalf of a grateful city expresses appreciation for her dedicated service and many achievements i move adoption of the resolution and second by council member eric all those in favor congratulations wild you very much i do have to say that one of the best parts of my job is being proud of schenectady and everything that we do schenectady high is probably one of them most underrated but most overwhelming place it's  a wonderful place we educate wonderful students and we change lives forever so thank you very much  legislative items number ten and number eleven which number one number ten is a resolution of recognizing martin luther king day in the city of schenectady and the second resolution both presented by council member presell is a resolution recognizing and commending historic achievements of african americans and declaring february two thousand and twelve black history month we've asked the individuals from the human rights commission who work so hard every year to vote on the martin luther king day celebration to come up and join us as we read these resolutions thank you i just want everyone to know these are two separate and distinct resolutions both having significance and importance so bear with me because you're going to be hearing my voice for a little while but both are well worthy of the time spent so this is a resolution recognizing martin luther king day in the city of schenectady where as reverend dr martin luther king jr was born january fifteenth one thousand and twenty nine was a baptist minister and became a civil rights activist early in his career and where as in one nine hundred fifty five dr king led the mud alabama bus boycott to protest the arrest of rosa parks and the segregation of the bus system  which is recognized as the first great non violent civil rights demonstration of contemporary times in the united states and was an impetus for the one nine hundred fifty six supreme court decision holding laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional and whereas on august twenty eighth one thousand nine hundred sixty three dr king led the march on washington d c the largest rally of the civil rights movement during which from the steps of the lincoln memorial and before a crowd of more than two hundred thousand doctors livered his famous i have a dream speech one of the classic orations in american history and where as in the face of hatred and violence d king preached a doctrine of nonviolence and civil disobedience to combat segregation discrimination and racial injustice and believed that people have the moral capacity to care for other people and whereas in hundred sixty four at the age of thirty five dr king became the youngest man to be awarded the nobel peace prize in recognition for his exemplary work in whereas dr king also instrumental in the passage of tennessee where he was preparing to lead sanitation workers in a protest against low wages in intolerable working conditions and where as dr king was the leading civil rights advocate of his time spear heading the civil rights movement in the united states during the one nine hundred fifty s and one nine hundred sixty s and earning worldwide recognition as an eloquent and articulate spokesperson for equality now there ford be it resolved that the mayor and the city council observe martin luther king day martin luther king jr day in the city of schenectady pledge to advance the legacy of dr martin luther king jr and encourage the residents of the city of schenectady to rededicate themselves to dr king's message of human right of the city and county your rights are protected and so we and this year in years beyond we want to work with you as a community we want to be your voice we want to be your advocates and we want to come to all your neighborhood association meetings who want to come to organization and let you know we are here to support you we are here to do the work of you so thank you for honoring us councilman council member rucker and all the council for all you have done for us and we want to be a is there any one additional you'd like bring up for the commemoration like history month i just don't know if there's anybody so this is a resolution recognizing in commending the historic achievements of african americans and declaring february twelfth black history month where as in or about the year sixteen nineteen a judge ship delivered twenty kidnapped africans to the settlement at the british colonies of jamestown virginia and thereafter over the course of more than two hundred years slavery was allowed to spread unimpeded throughout the american colonies and then the united states objecting and under serving excuse me an undeserving grace to a life of inhumane subservience in inequality forcing innocent men women and children to endure lives characterized by hardship and brutality and depriving those so in slaves the promise of a very truth is deemed self evident at the founding of this great nation that all men and women are created equal that all are endowed by god with those cherished in on a legal rights for which our founding fathers fought to rid this continent of tyranny life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and whereas although the union victory in the civil war gave freedom for some four million slaves that better and costly war between our nation's northern and southern states we set our african american brothers and sisters on a course to face further indignity in the form of the hatred and bigotry borne of a wounded nation and from which arose additional challenges and deprivations and whereas ignoring the suffering and injustice perpetuated upon them the african american citizens of this nation persevered in their quest to achieve the equality they so justly deserve and have contributed in equal measure to the advancement of humanity in the betterment of human condition leaving their legacy for future generations through contributions in agriculture education literature and writing in philosophy philosophy government and politics in serve in service to our nation's military in all scientific disciplines in music dance in the arts in ass legs in space exploration and in every conceivable field of human endeavor in service and where as the city of scarcity shares proudly in the long  unrealized dream of its african american citizens through the accomplishments of its own african american community past and present and where as well we acknowledge that our fight against bigotry hatred discrimination and unjust and is far from ended we now pause to reflect upon the achievements and contributions of our fellow african americans a race of men and women that endured adversity and patients and courage a race of men and women who fought and died with the nation's nonetheless and in unison proclaim with all americans of whatever race and creed our common commitment to the world as a bell shattering the darkness of the past bringing out to all people the promise of freedom and all that men and women in all nations may one day proclaim in the immortal words of dr king that they are they too are free at last free at last thank god almighty we are free at last now therefore be it reason that the mayor of schenectady in this city council of the city schenectady declare february two thousand and twelve black history month in the city of schenectady and celebrate the many achievements of african americans thank you carol thank you to our mayor and our city council president and all members of the city council i just want to say real quick that the way a civilization improves upon itself is by the contributions of this bring to the table we're all part of one community on the one creator and we needed to know that the way our civilization has expanded itself is because of the contributions of soul let us continue to embrace diversity let us continue to recognize the contributions that we all have made and let us continue to grow as one  to read or to to offer certificates of appreciation to the woodlawn association last month they did a wonderful wonderful dinner with i think they far surpass the amount of people that they thought they were going to have in common and it couldn't have been done it was certainly without the individuals that volunteered their hard work without the businesses that volunteered and participated in donated the food in the goods and everything that contributed to make the night such a wonderful night that it was and also the businesses that are continuing to work with the neighborhood association to participate in the donation jars one of the goals of this group is to redivide allies and rejuvenating woodlawn park and so with that they work so very very hard the volunteers that are here this evening business members who would ask you please to come up and be presented with your certificates this group has worked very hard and this this issue is something that's involved the community also parks are very important and that's actually what brought me to the city council for the first time when i started coming to city council meetings was a park issue in my neighborhood and i commend this grope and spear offers for spearheading this because it's very important in our communities to have a good vibrant park system and he's going to work in this group is working to rehabilitate a park that's my kind of left to seed in they want to bring it back so everybody can use and i think that's a great thing so spira let you read the names of your volunteers will hand the awards well thank you first off i want to think the city council for recognizing our group we're coming up on one year in april since we initially kicked off working back it would lawn park and getting it back up to snuff so so thank you again to the city council before i read off the  and we want to think the members of the city council who attended that evening as well as the mayor members of the county legislature as well as congressman paul paul tongo who arrived and as well as some local leaders in schenectady so without joe hudson i'm sorry joe hodson colette robinson sit brown peters willis carol gilman and sam camp one of our other youth volunteers again thank you for all the business is rob mark target we look forward to working with you as we move forward and in particular the health and recreation committee as we look forward to working with them to move forward in presenting a proposal to city council to for the city to enter into and agree a contract with an architectural firms that we can move forward and get a plan in place and also secure some grants and funding down the road to thank you again much appreciated thank you all very much thank you council member nice job ok i think those are out of order proclamations now move back to communications and petitions under official communications presented to the city council for monday february thirteenth two thousand and twelve from the mayor a list of appointments dated feb thirteenth two thousand and twelve from the director of water and waste water a letter recommending the award of the hydro for select acid to the lowest responsible bed made by thatcher company of new york in the amount of fifty two thousand dollars from the director of water and waste water a letter recommending the award of  gas to the lowest responsible bed made by j c i jones chemicals inc of sarasota florida in the amount of eighteen thousand two hundred fifty dollars from the director of water and waste water a letter recommending the purchase of ortho phosphate corrosion inhibitor to the lowest responsible bid made by e s c environmental ank of glenville new york in the amount of sixty one thousand two hundred dollars under general there are none no communications and there are no petitions kate thank you very much now move on to privilege of the floor on the legislative agenda and the first person signed up for to speak on the legislative came together because it's not something that we feel that we need in our community so we support the extension of this resolution to take a closer look at what needs to happen i'm not saying those services are needed but have saturation a certain neighborhood is of great concern to us so we support the extension of this to further say that we are very much interested in economic development so economic development projects that bring money into the community supply jobs for the community and support and grow the community that way it's certainly something we'd like to see happen in the community in the community thank you very much you i have no one else signed up for the legislative agenda or privilege of the floor ok we're going to move to passage of the consent agenda and it looks like there's two items number thirt fourteen day a resolution approving the acceptance of a dearborn avenue parcel in the woodlawn preserve mr reagan with one i understand the concerns on this property and i understand mrs brokers concern on this property and there are valid concerns but i think in the long run this is the most cost effective way to deal with this piece of property s blanchard was broker i'm voting no because the way this resolution was in the way this was presented to us was the owner of this parcel of land offered to donate the parcel of land to the city however there are some outstanding taxes and there's also some closing costs that are involved with the city acquiring this donation so as a result of that i don't see it as a donation i do see it as a last of tax revenue i'll be it not a very large piece of tax revenue however i would not like to see the city get into the the habit for lack of better word in accepting properties or parcels of properties from individuals who may just decide they don't want to pay taxes on it anymore and offer up this property to deceive schenectady now that being said i will i will say that this parcel that we're talking about is contiguous to the woodlawn reserve and so many feel that  a good use of property as adding to a piece of the woodlawn preserve i just object more to the way it was done and presented to his as a donation whereas the city actually is going to have to spend some money in closing costs in pac back taxes in order to acquire this property so therefore all vote no however the motion carries six yeses and one no thank you five five that's right it's the mystery person that's sitting over there i forgot them there don't worry to be filled so ok i think that's it for the consent agenda and just other than those two items may have a motion to approve the consent agenda moved by council member king seconded by council member radio all those in favor i think you can send agenda without those two items ok next move to privilege of the floor and city business and the first individual signed up is donald  this we all pledged allegiance to liberty and justice and justice doesn't apply to everybody and you know here we are we have police that commit crimes like i'm sure you guys run away but she chairs was arrested in two thousand and eleven for falsifying documents i'm not sure what the findings will be of it but anyway people realize that i go to foil i fill out these documents i spend ridiculous amounts of money to obtain these documents i'm trying to find out how much money taxpayers are paying for defense attorneys for lawsuits that are brought  d and you know the thing is these guys get arrested for things in there not being held accountable the d a cuts the slaps hands you know and we had mayor stratton saying let's show this officer leniency i forget which officer was a couple years ago and it's just crazy these guys are wanting rampid abusing our kids and it creates a higher resentment for authority a lot of these kids and you know young adults an educated like to a certain degree in a thing is like they're not setting a good example you know and i don't want you guys  lulled into was false sense of security because it took it took you know our african american like you know residents and citizens of america years and years to do something that was so simple something that is just very conceivable you should be able to recognize it and be able to move diligently shouldn't have to take one hundred something years to get equal rights or opportunities so i think the same should apply to justice all right and i have definitive definitive evidence that is unequivocal like  impossible to project and i think that not only i mean i would be willing to pardon the police who stripped me naked pepper sprayed me left me the sid in a cell like for hours mocking my cries making fun of my penis i'm sorry excuse me i know there's some people in here but this is will stuff and you know i brought claims against the city and i'm going to win i'm going to win by who's paying the brunt of it taxpayers i don't want to do it but that's the only way to get some sort of remedy to get these guys off my back i'm going to trial i've got proof of officers literally purging themselves on the stands are they going to be held accountable no and did they porter maliciously yes they're trying to get me put in jail to basically get me off their back because i'm spearheading and i'm spending my own personal money and my family's money you know to try to get some documents to prove that this stuff going on i have a bunch of d v d s you name it of this stuff happening and we got mr gary mccarthy and on you know corporation counsel and all these people that are elected officials put in place to ensure justice and make sure that we are not taking his jokes and we are jokes they look at us like steaks on the table and he has been on the look i should thank you but but they basically are summarize it the thing is i want gary mccarthy held accountable i want the people that basically covered for these guys and made sure i can see i'm wrapping it up in that i'm not going to go over fifteen but here's the thing i think they should go to jail for basically obstructing justice right up thank is but there are times going to be awesome because i'm not going to forget thank you ok kevin chairs hold your applause to the end please thank you some garbage you know like cable the wood and then the kids killed around the neighborhood i was wonder if the city council and can look at that and do something about that the garbage plants you know in schenectady arrive by you know i have a tail and look at what's going on code enforcement know when you see garbage around i mean that certainly would be helpful or call mr olson and give them the location that would be very helpful and let your friends neighbors know that as well because we want the same thing you joe thanks  good evening my name is lori robinson doing some research in this community in regards to the trash collection policy you guys are trying to enforce concerning the landlords i'm concerned about how that's going to affect the community at large to force this upon the landlords because if we paying rent especially in hampton where we pay rent to these landlords we should be held responsible for not to be able to have until these four place nor trash collection for our place because landlords for used to pay their taxes we work hard we struggle hard and we need to be recognized as as parlous community and be able to have our needs met too ok so take that to consideration when you make in the piece was when you're deciding upon who should get penalized because we're going to get penalized we don't own the properties here we have people to come from other cap countries that come to this city and own properties all we do is right so we're for mining we need  hi how's everybody doing tonight i want to talk about the school system how these children are being arrested in the school system especially african american children and other school districts that's not happening unit that's definitely not happening when those children who are doing something that's not wrong they are they are taken home to their parents and they are not reprimanded as gravely a the children in this connected high school high school system are being reprimanded especially african american children and there was an apt there was a case where a young lady was in a studio and she was african american she was caught doing drugs with other children and the children told her you're going to go to jail but we're not that nice to change our children we do love our children we care about how to we want to see i want you to get a good education and go into the school system have the a to go into the school system and handcuff i would children is not fair these children if anything should get community service but not should be reprimanded oh should be arrested  for small infractions the blog i think that that needs to change i'm hoping that you're going to think about changing that and making it better for the children in this community and also for the adults as well because when you have agencies such as section eight that are doing dirty things like that to the people that are on their system that's nothing either we need to talk to the d a and have him to recognize when he should be arrested and when he should not be a rest from people for these small infractions of the law thank you thank you here's because we need jobs and contractors need to be able to get employment employed so we can give out somebody jobs to their community and as i travel around schenectady i see a lot of contractor jobs popping up all over the place but yet i don't see too many contractors from the area maybe white or black and on this is something that i feel has to change is not fear that a lot of people are coming from out of town and getting these jobs that is we're losing twice with that not only are they taking the jobs from us but they also taken the money with them which is not being brought back into our local benefit or residents of schenectady will continue to speak out in a council in two osce committee reza have a lease a fish a can obtain an opportunity to work i thank you for your opportunity and bringing this matter and being able to be the voice for myself as well as people to a community  night to be here to talk about the contributions of african americans to america in general but i'm here to talk about the affirmative action office here in the city and county i feel like their hands are being for some reason they're not able to provide the necessary employment information to our citizenry so to condense it a little quickly i took untie them the you is for understand we need jobs the end is for now is the time to provide jobs the key is for the essence of the time the is for the individuals are here are now prepared to work the easy is everyone qualified needs an opportunit work the t turnaround the negative unemployment numbers in the city b h is the history is yours to make tonight he is even though we haven't worked together we can start tonight let's the am finally is to make schenectady a city that is  beacon of economic hope for all thank you love my name is treasurer clay and i own project hope and i live in schenectady county i am a taxpaying member of this community and i have been working with this community for the betterment of the people for about five years today i'm here before you as a community leader and activist i sit on the be stakeholders and i work with the c p p today i represent the minority contractors and members of the going to community who need jobs we can't seem to get any work i encourage the members of this council i implore you to use your authority your position to help towards the betterment of the minority community and going to the county it is obvious to everyone here today that there are not enough jobs in the county we are in a crisis we need more job opportunities we need growth in the one two three  seven hamilton hill area which is the main reason we receive government grant money for lower income families families have reached poverty levels and yet we continue to build downtown and according to statistics we employ ninety two percent white and only a mere five percent black employed in schenectady county i am asking that you encourage business owners to uphold the law which cause to which cause affirmative action to be put in place the declaration of independence states all men are created equal and we need to employ our own and makes going to the county equal opportunity community it's time for change how is it that ninety ninety two percent of the people working in schenectady are why and only five percent are black it shows of lack of effectiveness in all offices in fact staggering and alarming the hands of justice is fairness and righteousness as of right now the scales are extremely unbalanced when there is an economic barriers such as this one to one group it creates problems that have become evident to everyone just as sure as i stand here today it is time for change the margin is too wide downtown employees many whites while in hamilton he'll be refused to build our create jobs are better the communities are working class people which increases the crime rates we should not have to commit crimes to feed our children they educate they cut education programs while they continue to build prisons i'm asking for equality i'm asking for just unfair treatment i'm asking that minorities be considered for a job they're qualified for and that we all be held accountable in every office i'm asking that minorities be allowed to earn an income a living so that we can be a better part of working classes citizens in schenectady county and taxpayers so that taxes can go back into our community we have several minority contractors here today who are qualified capable willing and able to do the work yet they were when it came to the mon to build the metroplex they weren't even considered are notified when monies came in yet we hire outside schenectady county to our disadvantage we need to uphold the constitution in the civil rights of others that  men are created equal the hand of justice should not be that it equally yoked i am asking that you do what is right the seats that you hold should be earned the authority that you have to be exercised to help the people show us that you make a difference council president and members of the city council my name is bobby willis i am a resident and member of n y community for change i'm here tonight because residents in schenectady new jobs i he what can we do to provide this in the first within the city government according to two thousand and eight two thousand and nine records of the color of people of color excuse me make only eight percent of the city workforce this is unacceptable only seven eighteen percent of the workforce is made up of women those numbers are unacceptable as well the city council the city of schenectady needs to sit with common community groups to develop a plan where we bring in more women more people of color and more residents of schenectady to city jobs metroplex is known as a success story for the city of schenectady but for many metroplex but mission seems to be out of touch with the needs of our community we see monies come in from our taxes everywhere but many of of minority and women contractors do not see this money come their way this needs to change metroplex should be used as a benefit for all schenectady rather residents develop in our communities encourage and force developers hire locally good contractors not from new jersey we have plenty of people in schenectady that are capable in developing these various projects the city to city leaders we x that you sit down with us and work with us to rigs them in how trickery jobs for our citizens scuse me for my thank you thank you  is that over the last eighteen months this city council has given tax breaks through the claims committee of developers and contractors in the city of totaling several millions of dollars and you know if these people are able to hire attorneys and say their assessment is too high and they're able to lower it from six million down to four and a half millions and so forth what will happen if the city at the neighborhood of wo n combines together and file a class action on their claims and lowers their assessment what if and what if hamilton hill does the same thing this city will see a major economic financial problem because the assessments are too high the nother major issue that we've been looking at is jobs the community of a block grant you are mandated to have public hearings on the in house money which includes the affirmative action office the foreman of action office is not even doing their job i mean their job basically said all the way we judge how we get affirmative action for the city employees as by how many people we take the civil service exam i mean that's stupidity i mean you know when you have to give somebody a chance for an opportunity why do you want to sit there i mean some is going to pay fifty bucks for a test they're never going to get it get an interview ok why would they want to take a test to the twenty five fifty dollars worth of the civil service exam cost is going to cost when they're never going to get a chance we need to we need to suspend the rules of civil service exam and start looking at the qualifications and star hiring minorities and the disabled and start diversifying our workforce also too is we have to have an economic disparity study i've been saying this for many many years all your contracts you happen have goals in process how you're going to put people back to work and your economic development class your committee is supposed to post to handle one two three seven given priorities to jobs but you haven't done that in the last eight years you have falsified the records and you've sent to up to with the federal government you could shake your head all you day long i'm waiting for you please take me to court because i'm saying it right directly as a thing i know you have and the federal law says that you must  haven't and that's a fact and it isn't changing anywhere ok i'm asking you we need to start working and we need to start filing for an economic disparity study and we need it so we can look at goals and how to put people back to the i know i just last heard brand a resident taxpayer in cities i was very upset with heart of kokomo because that regarding the ten highest paid employees in the city nine of which were on the police department i feel these salaries are outrageous and some action should be taken by the city council immediately when an employee could make seventy three thousand dollars in overtime something's wrong something's drastically wrong we have people in this city that aren't getting twenty thousand dollars a year for of totally yearly income and we're paying people hundred fifty thousand dollars that's outrageous the salaries these people are getting and then you have the benefits on top of it it's on call for and something definitely has to be done no matter how much you raise the taxes no matter how much you raise the fee will never have enough money in this city are mere sudden example when he came in office he driving his own car i don't think he's building the city for and i hope not because i think it would be a good example for everyone and i feel that this city should discontinue by the end of this month of anyone taking a vehicle home i don't care what their title is we cannot afford and we cannot afford any more tax increases or benefit increases further these people when the city paid nine city employees one million two hundred fifty five thousand one hundred forty two dollars a torrent to my calculations that's wrong nine plus the rest of them that's only the first   now you gave to the city player chief so he's qualified for his job and he's doing a good job but why did you give him twenty thousand dollars salary increase i don't understand it is just in lieu of taking a vehicle home outside the city woodlawn neighborhood association i was very happy to see that we have a person from schenectady high school who spends her time working with us when a lot of people her age not be doing that and when i think about volunteers and i think about the projects that are going on in the city right now i'm led to understand that we have an even greater problem what this lady talked about is a very good point now i don't know a lot about the issue but i would like to think that when we have a contractor come in for a project that we do not hire contractors from this area once again i do not know the entire issue but if that's true that's because i'm a professional tutor and i must tell you that when you have a family situation where parents are not working you can forget about education because that's the last thing that they're worried about when they bring food home put it on the table you can forget about them going to college but finishing high school they go to school with an angry attitude i'm also a high school sports official i work with brian r because the parents are not working the parents anger transfers to the kids and then the teachers like this wonderful teacher that we honor tonight have to deal with another layer of problems so i would like to think there when there's a  that we hire people from like myself and if that's not the case then i've got a problem as well as a lot of people here so this young woman did a great job speaking tonight and i was going to talk about count on me working with all the neighborhoods in the city because i want to go like these people thank you very much accidents to happen it's gotta stop we gotta do something about it nah we've got somebody gets killed in this town we don't need no more of this stuff to happen good evening my name is mary maclean i live in the city i would like to say something about the issue that has been in the news paper lately and that is the animal protection foundation i wasn't aware of such a group of friends father passed away a couple of years ago the family requested that memorial contributions be sent to the piano i sent in a check ever since i have been bombarded with their junk mail asking for more donation it's the group has a very aggressive marketing operation i live in the city if the group will not accept animals from the city they should be per bed and from soliciting contributions from the residents a dog is a dog a cat is a cat doesn't matter where they were picked up on another issue there are two properties in the city with the same problem the backyard is not large enough for children to play in in one case the homeowner moved away from the problem and the other case the property belonged to the city and city council voted to sell it to a lady who wanted it for daycare center i invite everyone to go and look at that property it is easy to find it is on lower eastern ave across from the school yard as you look at that property picture a mother walking up the stairs carrying a baby a bag of pampers and a purse the nearest yourselves is that a good place for daycare center i don't think it is the moral of the story is the condition getting along does not constitute the welfare of this community thank you reverend ted war with the headline the rates connect the best for workers also soared the latest from the from the actual office which shows that blacks or african american if you will represent only five percent of the entire workforce in the city of schenectady or may first two thousand and eleven give that article with the headline said a few minorities or county payrolls do you know that sixty six of the sixty six minorities that only  bid that comes across to our desks to go out for bid for work to be done in the city i'm begging pleading lobbying everything i can just looking for multiple contractors and so i would encourage anybody minority contractors or any non minority contractors i mean just to bid on these projects that the projects are too big for maybe some of the contractors they could team up with others so you could get a group of different contractors teaming up to bid on on e larger project for my perspective i think that the minority contractors in the city really have a chance to benefit all of us in a greater way by adding competition to these bids that sometimes have no competition and it saddens me when we have one bid and it kills me to vote on it to approve it because we could do better so i want to encourage all the minority contractors out there to bid on these and  one of the things i think would help there's a the governmental procurement is a little different than private businesses in a way they can go around for curing things and so we publish all of our bids in the newspaper and if you don't catch the newspaper that day or that week you may not know about it it is permissible by law for the city is actually or any miss fallacy to have better lists and so if you're a contractor and you want to be notified every time we go out to bid for a certain category of work you should be able to be put on a list and then when that bid comes up the city will notify anybody who calls and says put me in that list the city will notify those people plus put the ad in the paper and i think that would help in the communication of what our bids are out there   made the paper makes every year we have our big list and i understand that some people work long hours and it's hard work and they do a lot of good things but i'm concerned that in some situations there's a limit to how much over time  one individual can do and still be effective at performing their job i work forty hours a week sometimes i work fifty if i was working eighty hour would not be as productive as my first hour and so i think there needs to be some type of limitation that would say you can only work so many hours in a week then we send you home to sleep and so what number that is or how many hours it is i think it's open for discussion but i think we need to keep an eye on that and that might also cut down the amount of overtime that we that we have and lastly i want to again congratulate suzy wallace teacher of the year teachers they got the most important job in our communities without them we'd be in big trouble so again kudos to our teachers thank you schenectady nine one one ai has been announced so this is really just a friendly reminder to the residents are now able to pre register information such as medical conditions room locations medication lissome urgency contacts by simply opening an on line nine one one account this information is then available to first responders during an emergency many times schools or businesses have multiple buildings or floors so nine one one ai technology enables schools and businesses to tie down a fire the location of each phone in their system thereby enabling the emergency responders to go directly to the location of the emergency where it was where the call was actually placed a nine one one a i services are also available for all wireless cell phone calls that are answered in schenectady county so registration and most importantly it's free registration is required for information to be available to emergency responders and that can be completed at w w w dot nine one one a i dot com w w w dot nine one one a i dot com thank you good important information thank you madam president and all the years i've been coming down here we have the black community comes and they ask for the same thing from us and it hasn't been happening you know and when i hear the  five percent i agree with reverend ward martin luther king resolution we give out a black history resolution well it's certainly isn't representative of the percentage of black people in our community for the higher self we have especially in the city and i agree with with karl that we should be should be that list if it isn't available i hope that the black contractor sign up on the list so they can be made aware when these jobs come up and i think we should take care of our own in this city i believe that in everything there should be it's like to be out of work you know i know what it's like and it's not a good feeling when these people want to work you know but they have to have a place to work so women are hiring contractors and especially we want to make sure that they're following the minority practices i believe and sometimes from what i understand they're not followed so we should be hiring contractors that don't follow those practices and maybe we should encourage these contractors there been a lot of work and a study to look at hiring people from inside the city there's cloakroom some place but we really have to i think you have to work hard or maybe harder to make sure that these people are recognizing their higher they want to work they want to be a part of our community and like i said before it's not a nice feeling to be out of work it's terrible feeling so i want to i want to make sure that we get the message across and we work hard as a consul to make this happen and i think it's very important for coming down tonight i hear your concerns loud and clear just so one side comment from something that was said at the rail tonight the geisha in the chief chairs had been arrested for falsifying documents that he's without any basis if there's any individual who has tried to reestablish the integrity of the police department it's marked chairs  while those of us sitting on the side of the rail sometimes we have to accept criticism may be factual may be absent infection or baseless but i cannot have those allegations go unchallenged about the police chief and it's just completely wrong i would wish everybody a happy via valentine's day tomorrow and a week from tonight it's start schenectady restaurant week so that for  seven nights a number of restaurants in the county will be offering specials for twenty dollars and twelve cents a clever price point that they picked out but i would encourage people to maybe try some of the newer restaurants or maybe stop back at one of the older ones and joist the great cuisine of this community thank you madam president again echoing the remarks of my colleagues in mr mayor that if you want to thank everyone for coming down tonight i would encourage people if you haven't already certainly minority contractors to make use of the the make tap program that's out there there's a lot of money that's given to them i would utilize them and if you feel that you're not being well served by them we would like to know about it but i think they should know about it is well let's try to figure out the solutions to these problems and how we can make things better in terms of jobs for everyone because i don't think there's anyone on this council or anyone in this chamber tonight that wants to see anybody in the city of scanty or anywhere else on employed  makes all of us better people when we're working it helps our families it helps the schools it helps our community and that's what will help make schenectady even a bigger and stronger place to have war people employed spending money in the city is going eighty helping to increase our tax base and helping to decrease those taxes that we're all paying but again i agree with what mr ricky said you know we will certainly work hard but we look towards the individuals who are seeking those jobs wanting to hear from them what exactly specifically are the problems in certainly this is part of the forearm but i'd really like us to have a solid dialogue about this in a forum where we can really tackle a problem we come here tonight we talk about many many different items that come from cities connected a and this really is an issue that deserves its own forum so certainly i would say it again unequivocally that the council's open to this and as much as we can possibly work with you towards helping get this goal of making it easier for people to become employed in the city is schenectady making it more economical and really taking a look at you know our different types of educational systems that are out there because sometimes people need a little bit of a push up in order to make them more employ someone else and let's not you know let's not forget about that we've got a great community college we've got some great programs in place but maybe we need to get together as as a body and kind of put those ideas out there did you know about this no i didn't what about this is a problem i'm having with this is you so let's let's flesh it out and let's work towards that and if you're here tonight and you're interested please let us know because that is something that we can do and something that we can establish to try and get working towards it you know we tonight some of the great work that the woodlawn community did in one of the reasons that they did it is they did it all on their own you know they did it with grassroots with people really coming forward and looking towards putting solutions out there are so let's try and put our heads together and get some solutions and i think there's a lot of great minds in this room tonight in certainly a lot of energy around the economic situation of the city is connected a so we all look forward to working with you