to call to order the script the city council caucus for december twenty seventh two thousand and eleven we have two public hearings and tonight the clerk would read the first resolution item number one a resolution authorizing the mayor to award one the one year stop loss insurance bid to hi mark an increase the stop loss specific deductible in the reviewed  committee recommended by the finance committee would entertain a motion to move this to the consent agenda by council member broker a second second by mr della salla all in favor signify by saying any opposed item one will appear on the consent agenda item number two item number two or resolution authorizing re appropriation in the two thousand and twelve budget in recommended of the finance committee entertain a motion to move this to the consent agenda cults member blanchard second by mr erickson all in favor of item two appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying i and he opposed item two will appear on the consent agenda item number three item number three a resolution demanding a contract between the city of schenectady and t wilson and associates alse say in this is just finishing up the work restructuring the codes agenda signify by saying i any opposed item three here on the consent agenda item number four item number four resolution adopting her the hurricane irene and tropical storm lee assessment re blanchard second but council member king and we don't believe we have anybody that like qualify for this but if they're going to buy that thinks they do that they will be able to avail themselves of the change that's been granted by the state in fence and perform minor vegetative maintenance after much discussion and negotiation is recommended a committee entertain a motion move by council member brucker by council member king all in favor of item six appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying i any oppose item six will appear on the consent agenda item number seven item number seven a resolution adopting the woodlawn opposed item seven will appear on the consent agenda signify by saying i and he opposed him nine will appear on the consent agenda item number ten item number ten a resolution authorizing the city to enter into an agreement with offender watch to provide a software solution for the management of resident registered sex offenders move by a council member record of the consent agenda seconded by council member king owned favor vitam ten appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying member king all in favor of item thirteen appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying i any opposed item thirteen will appear on the consent agenda i remember fourteen item number fourteen a resolution authoriz attacks or show where it concerning twelve zero one not street entertain a motion to move it to the consent agenda favor of item fifteen appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying i and he opposed it in fifteen will appear on the consent agenda item fifteen a and fifteen a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to execute a grant application for the lead hazard reduction funding in this is just the authorization to all in favor of fifteen a appearing on the agenda tonight signify by saying i and the opposed and i would now entertain a motion to move fifteen a to the consent to genda move by council member fifteen bay a resolution authorizing the city council to change the date of the first committee meeting for two thousand and twelve to wednesday january fourth two thousand and twelve and again this is we're going to do organizational meeting for public information on tuesday january third here in this chamber and that's being done to begin to save a little bit of money where we won't be opening the building over the weekend and then this is rescheduling the committee meeting for the following evening which will occur in room one ten entertain a motion to move this to the agenda tonight for unanimous consent move by council member blanchard seconded by mr erickson all in favor fifteen be appearing on the agenda tonight signify by saying i and he oppose fifteen b will appear on the agenda and will now entertain a motion to move fifteen b to the consent to genda fifteen b will appear on the consented going to take a look it's entertain a motion to move fifteen c and fifteen d to the agenda tonight secondly mr erickson all in favor of fifteen c and fifteen the period on the agenda tonight signify by saying i appear on the agenda and these are ceremonial zero in favor signify by saying i he opposed the caucuses adjourned i will now call to order the schenectady city council meeting for december twenty seventh two thousand and eleven yes that we all rise for the invocation thank you mare like mccarthy that evening to everyone i hope everyone had a very wonderful holiday and i pray that we have a more blasted and prosperous two thousand and twelve i do want to take a moment to think of going council members for wonderful work they've done since i've been here i have the utmost respect getting to know you all i congratulate mayor lect mccarthy a kit i want to just say mair but we gotta follow protocol and i can't wait till next week so finally i won't be sitting next to an empty chair here i want to take a quote from a st paul's letter to titus for my little quote a biblical quote and it says remind your people to follow the laws and authority figures obey them and be ready to do good in every way tell them not to speak evil of anyone but be peaceful and friendly and always showing gentle attitude toward everyone and from there we'll just do a prayer have only father in usa with of me you can do nothing in faith we embrace your words all lord and worship your goodness help us to complete the work that we are both to begin this evening of your glory in the name of the father and son of the holy spirit now and forever to the ages of ages amen thank you father call upon joseph ellen to lead us in the pledge of allegiance the clerk called the roll please as i'm very happy to read the resolution honoring thom tillis solace for his four years of service tom if you would join me and i know your wife cheryl is here if you would like her to come up and invite you to come  ok mr president read the resolution where as thomas a dell a solid first took office as a member of the city council of the city of schenectady on january first two thousand and eight and has served continuously since then and where as during his ten e with the city council he has served as chairman of the finance government operations and administrative efficiencies committees and whereas prior to taking office as a member of the city council thomas a dell us all i had a distinguished career within the city of schenectady school district as an english teacher chair of the english department and the district coordinator of english language arts and library media services and whereas thomas a dallas salo was an adjunct assistant professor at union college and where as thomas a del sol served among many other illustrious positions as a delegate of the american federation of teachers was a member of the national council of teachers of english was a charter member of the committee to store the rose garden in central park was a member of proctor stared her benefactors in the schenectady light opera company and whereas thomas a della salo was previously honored by this council with a community pride award for his work in the schenectady city school district and where yes thomas a dallas sol is a devoted family man an avid reader a collector of rhinoceroses which i did well before a steelers fan no question about that and an ardent supporter schenectady its schools its business and its residents now therefore a bit resolve that the city council and mayor of the city of schenectady do hereby thank thomas a dallas solid for his extraordinary service and commitment to the city of schenectady and be it further resolved that the city council and mayor and all of the people of the city schenectady which trish thomas a dell a solid continued happiness and success mr president i'm with adoption  and we also have a very nice plaque that presented to tom say the schenectady city council two thousand and eight to two thousand and eleven in recognition of four years of exemplary service on the schenectady city council society in every state is a blessing but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one is a quote from thomas paine so tom happy to present that to you as well it's been a privilege to  chance to serve with a good four years decided i want to do more traveling than you can do sitting on a city council so i would not run again but i thank my call on the council i think the two mayors i served under and again thank you voted for give me the opportunity thank you was also served as the majority leader of the council and because of the change this year i was somewhat spent all my time here in the city of schenectady for a brief time but i was going to join us next presentation so i would be relinquish the chair and asked him if you would chair the meeting for a portion fact you could run the rest of the meeting or has requested that his family members if they wish please come up and join him i know his lovely family his daughter some little grandson and son in law and i believe his sister is here as well so we'd love to have you come up and join us on the are sweet moment for all of us were certainly happy for joe that he's going to be able to spend more time down in florida more time on monday night football will certainly be very very miss this is a resolution honoring joe's of allen a k a pop up for his invaluable service to the city of skin and today where's joseph alan first took office as a member of the city council of the city of schenectady on january on hundred ninety six and has served continuously since then whereas during his tenure with the city council he has served to chairman of claims public safety health and rec committees and wears prior to taking office as member of the city council joseph  allen demonstrated a strong commitment to serving the youth of the community through his work with new york state division of youth both as a youth parole worker and as assistant director and where as joseph l allen has served the schenectady community as a human rights council as chair of the used advisory board for carver community center and as a member of the human services planning council and also i found out last week that in one thousand nine hundred sixty six joseph was the first founding member of the better neighborhoods incorporated as well whereas joseph l allen is a devoted family man called papa by his grandson an avid jets fan and a lifelong schenectady res now therefore be it resolved that disconnect to the city council and the mayor of the city schenectady do hereby joseph allen for his extraordinary service and commitment to the city of schenectady be it further resolved that the city council and the members of the city of schenectady who are supportive of me over the years this is a blessing of my expectations in regards to this recognition house with my all my family showing up and so santa claus is real good to all of us and the lord is blessing us and keeping us and if it wasn't for the lord on our side where would we be so what can i say other than that everybody can be great because anybody can serve you don't have to have a college degree to serve you don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love and that's by dr martin luther king found it very appropriate especially a little bit more joy and i first ran together sixteen years ago and it's always been a pleasure to work with him and just the trend of sense of stability an inspiration for th that the highest honor of the city to an individual is for the mayor to name that individual and so joseph it's a pleasure it's an honor a true friend and a great community leader thank you needed and i thank the mayor and i appreciate it and it's a been a pleasure to serve you know after having gone to college gotten a masters degree it's been a pleasure to serve i got my i got my degree in history and government and sociology and the sociology thing was just fantastic but they got to be born and raised in this great country and to live in this great city i mean we've had our ups and downs here in schenectady we're back on our way up we are back on our way up so that's great as far as  as gary was saying before we all ran together years going back sixteen years ago it was gary mccarthy sean o'brien they bowed and i can't remember who the other ones were but it was fun it was good and it was a pleasure for us to move forward and do some of things that need to be done here in the city as connected so we're on our way up and i was listening to decker decker on channel or sixteen and he's always talking about schenectady is dead schenectady is dead he's dead and i'm thinkin she says he ever come over here disconnected i mean we are not dead but how much we have how much alive we are here in the city is connected and it's been a pleasure to serve and if i guess if i had met for the lord on my side where would i be and ever hadn't been for the lord all our sides where would we be so thank you for all these these plaques and recognitions it's been standing pleasure to serve and i'm still looking forward to serving on the choir at dairy and on the trusty board at dirty and so that will keep me busy but i'm also looking forward to going to florida to spend some time soaking up some vitamin d and i'm looking forward to that and i will be doing that off and on and this time i'll be stand a little longer because i used to go down on a on a tuesday morning and get back for the following monday so i wouldn't miss a council meeting and i did miss a few but not very many in the sixteen years thanks again to everybody i appreciate it i appreciate my family showing up i appreciate the brothers of st paul showing up there they've been a plus and on my side and i see some other members of my church here so it's good to see it because one of my former basketball players back param and we played a lot of basketball together over the years so that was fun and great so when i appointed philip morris a patroon some people did some research on it in apparently in going back several hundred years that that designation in titles you now to like sixteen miles of riverfront in so many hundred acres of property so if you step down to the finance department tomorrow that they'll take care of that we have to public hearings and tonight the clerk read the first one first public here first public hearing a proposed ordinance to add chapter seventy two to the code of the city of schenectady to create a land ba the can't match which just happened it was wonderful i have a question about the format of a public area can the council answer questions no no ok well i have the questions anyway i believe the land bank ideas a very good one for schenectady in terms of getting rid of the corrupted properties eyesores cetera et cetera and having the money to take care of that one of the questions was the other counties that will be involved read the land no thought about what will this cost and that's something we need to consider otherwise i'm very much in support thank you thank you mr strickland is in the back of the chamber who might be able to answer so many more specific according to a june eleventh two thousand and eleven article in the business review the city of schenectady has an estimated seven hundred vacant houses a situation that hurts property values and vice criminals and as a fire hazard as a resident live in i'm living  ave i have seen firsthand the damage a vacant property can do to a neighborhood there are currently at least two vacant properties on my street alone the grass grows long leaves gone rake trash cumulate on the front yard sidewalks go on shoveled in the winter the longer there are vacant the more obvious it is to anyone driving or walking by that the property is not lived in this drags down property values and bites vandalism and causes what once was a beautiful home to fall into complete disrepair i am therefore in support of  utilization corporation regarding the local ordinance that would create this corporation i want to comment on the appointment of board members and possible collaboration with surrounding counties article sixteen of the not for profit corporation law outlines the rules for selecting lending board members there are few regulations around who can be a member but none that state members need to have experience in real estate development or banking in order to participate the proposal coordinate states the board members will be either a member employee or  contractor of the appointing agency or a community leader with appropriate experience in the aforementioned areas community leader does not necessarily mean community resident please consider clarifying that those on the board be residents of the county i also suggest that you consider having at least one board member who is a resident of the city of schenectady and that said residency be the only requirement since the majority of residents in schenectady county are not real estate agents or bankers or developers it would ensure the majority of us living in the city where the largest share of vacant properties in the county are have a voice on the board this is not prohibited by article sixteen of the not for profit corporation law finally i hope a collaboration with other counties is being seriously considered given that only five land bank programs will be granted across the state this year a joint effort with two or more surrounding counties would likely make the application more competitive and therefore more likely to be approved thank you thank you jeff edwards a land bank can play an important role in our neighborhoods the schenectady land back with channel revenues to the sale of foreclosed homes into improving salable homes and demolishing homes that are beyond repair this would improve the value of the existing homes in two important ways first with fewer homes in the vicinity one would  be that homes that homes in the vicinity of vacant homes would not be losing their value the previous speaker spoke eloquently about the effect of vacant homes around  neighboring memory properties but also it would decrease if it's successful in demolishing unsellable homes it could decrease the number of homes increasing the value of homes throughout schenectady so this would improve the value of physics is so finally most important the ability of a second i q land bank to demolish foreclosed vacant homes would eliminate these homes from being available as drug dens and the center of undesirable activity this would make our neighborhood neighborhoods safer for families and our children like the school board who has been short sighted in their fears that a land bank will cost them revenues from the cit payments to the district in the of taxes first up these payments are simply taking money out of one pocket in the city of city taxpayers or putting it in another i don't believe taxpayers care whether the money goes to the city first before it goes to the school districts or the school districts have to raise taxes and collect that money directly secondly improvements in the neighborhood that the language of the land bank could increase property values and  the long term increase the revenues for both the city and the district the school board claims that the city could simply demolish as elaborate dilapidated homes this taken possession of however the city does not have these resources the city and the school district is the health and safety of the city's families and its youth the elimination of these dangerous homes in some cases drugged and will have a much positive effect on the impact of our children from small revenues that the district could extract from the city in lieu of taxes if if a land bank facilitates the actions that are needed to improve our neighborhoods and eliminate threats to the health and safety of our the corporation otherwise known as the land bank for schenectady in every planning document need statement a neighborhood meeting we read and hear about the problem of blight and burned out buildings in the city the federal government has been notoriously short sighted in not making any funds available to locales for the demolition of these structures to develop a strategy for dealing with the situation and for going forward with housing mercial and open space reuse of these parcels i feel that the strategy should be formalized into housing and economic development plans i am and so is ed august the executive director of better neighborhoods where i volunteer in favor of making the land bank a regional effort since only ten land will be allowed in the state with five in the first year this will obviously be saratoga and troy i would like to suggest that we include montgomery county in our proposal the city of amsterdam is only twenty minutes away and is badly blighted i travel route five in that direction often and know there are a lot of commuters  it a natural partner or also called for board members they will be the connectors of the appointed agency or community leaders from the banking finance real estate community economic development or other related fields i would like to suggest a community leader became a community resident agree with pepper on this issue and as the business sector names be left out of the text many times community leaders are already part of the status quo and the status quo around here needs to be opened up this was alluded to in the today's  e article and the lack of transparency in the process surrounding the facade on the f four hundred forty states treat building a resident on the land bank would be a step towards more openness connected he has been very active neighborhood associations they could be a source of land bank appointees thank you so that we have signed up for that public hearing so close to the court could read the second public hearing into section one zero one of the new york state's second class city laws to consider abandoning him for abandoning a portion of the city right of way along union street between lakewood avenue and woodlawn avenue this is a narrow strip that just even out the property lines and the clipboards that were at the rail the public hearing notice for the first public hearing appeared on the top page of both clipboards  so i have nobody who signed up for the second public hearing but i just wanted to open it up if there was anybody who wanted to address the council on this matter in didn't feel they had the opportunity because the way the clipboards were hearing we have minutes from the this meeting december would entertain a motion no to accept the minutes from our december twelfth two thousand and eleven meeting medications presented to the city council for tuesday december twenty seventh two thousand and eleven under the category of official from the mayor a list of appointments dated tuesday december twenty seventh two thousand and eleven under general there are none on and there are no the city development planning committee finally get the support of the woodlawn preserve management plan and i just want to commend everybody who is involved with working that the details of that out we are also calling for a public hearing on the consolidated plants and we are now beginning the whole process this community development block grant process there actually be two public hearings one at carver community center on january fifth at six p m and then one here in  council chambers on january ninth and then we will be having a technical assistance meeting january eleventh applications are due in the department of development feb third so as i said this is the beginning of a lengthy process so  close that and move on to privilege of the floor dealing with the legislative agenda in the first speaker is jason pla are three items i'll go with now item number ten councilman brocker hit it on the nail last week and everybody totally ignored or you know she brought up the issue of if the state and the county is responsible for these individuals and they should be put in some money paying for this software it shouldn't be the city paying for the whole entire share and i think the city council needs to take a look at  idea and bring it back up on the table and i mean the county department probation if these people are on county probation and the county put part of probation is supposed to monitor these people then they should be paying for this service if the state is supposed to be in the state should we help the pain for some of this cost should be borne by the whole entire city councilman brother was right and she was trying to save some money but nobody wanted to listen to her so i'm hoping that that you'll bring it back  up the other one is also there are several issues on tap story and you've lessened the tax assessment by almost nearly two million dollars if not more just tonight we made the washington post along with several other cities and they're talking about the tax assessments of property values are going down and they're going to be hitting really hard in two thousand and twelve twenty thirteen and as more and more of these tax assessments come through and they're coming in lower the revenue that we're bringing in is not going to be there so we're going to need to start addressing this issue of how much more of these tax assessments and how much money we're actually losing how much revenue we're going to be losing there needs to be definitely addressed that because if you're relying on x amount of dollars coming in and your own and these cesspits keep coming in last you're not going to make revenues minus expenses your time a balanced budget on item number eight last year and it's the king said it's going to be like last year on this is the public hearing on the communal block grant you don't issue the r f p the same day you have the public hearing the public hearing the whole idea of the public hearing is help to develop our peak and the art of peace post to be reflectance of your five year consolidated plan that you guys passed back in may of two thousand and ten i mean this you know come for a public hearing an you we don't need to we don't need any comments from you we're going to ship out the earth pete no matter what you want we're going to do whatever we want we don't want to comment and you know we need to have more of a process i mean you didn't even do the process for the in house you required for public airing you didn't do a process for america for the affirmative action contract that was due that's going to be end of this month it's going to be due for next year you've got to reno it without even having adjustments on it or anything  we need to have an open in process for the community block grants thank you  about that situation we had there has been tracking and matter of fact i recall that that article appeared when some mayor some of vishal and scotia had approved the residential the resident of one of these offenders and then they found out about it and didn't like it thought it shouldn't be there so that was the issue behind it and they gave the history of all of this and which the year two thousand had absolutely no sex offenders here at all and then somewhere around two thousand and four they found one and then two thousand and six they found one more and now this is blossom i've  gone to the internet and it's been there all this time to stand why it's being elevated to some new level when the sex offenders are there it just doesn't make any sense to me so i don't see why the state of feds ought to be paying anything just leave it the way it is and it's never free money and so that's what i have to say on that i don't care for the minutes of the meeting were online i have been on line for years but then they went off and they weren't online we weren't given the copy of the minutes then the minutes were not on line but in the last week or so we got pages of verbatim of the speakers and now we're back to no minutes oh you mention them you pass on them but there's no minutes here still not on the internet and i think that's something you schenectady i don't know where they get this ploy with these huge red toll fees when they don't even match what's being offered here i can't go through it high speed internet extra storage covered parking garage and their conditioning ok thank you mary mc good evening my name is mary mcclain i live in the city i would like to address number six i think it is a mistake to change the landscape of this property cold colonial avenue located in the world one section of the city erecting a chain link fence there has no ifs that dick appeal the land should be left as it should be left in this natural vegetative state i looked at the property on more than one occasion i did not see any garbage dump there what i saw was a safe secluded undisturbed area inaccessible to foot traffic clearing the property may draw on welcomed trespassers and invite other on for same problems it concludes the individuals who signed up to speak on the legislative agenda well now entertain a motion to adopt the consent to genda move by mr erickson seconded by council member king all in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying i and he opposed consent agenda stands adopted well turn to privilege of the floor dealing with city business vince ready forrest brought up about the compensation mr pulling all i too i don't know mr mayor you're encouraging volunteer as some of the city from the residents well maybe we have to get it from some of the people are paid to the should have been done before maybe if there was extra work that he was doing it for him to be compensated for but it kind of looks like a cunt thousand dollar going away present to me so that's the way i see it and the same with some of the other races that were passed that com e i can agree with when we're in the financial position that we're in in this city so i have some problems with that but it was my call but we'll see what happens in the future ok now the main reason i'm i'm going to announce tonight that i am going to conduct interviews for this city council vacancy on january tenth in room one town and i hope that the rest of the two thousand and twelve city council will join me in these interviews in a public venue and open to anyone who would like to be considered for this position i'd like them to submit their resumes if they like ahead of time to the clerk's office either by mail e mail or in person i have a resume from one of the the people that would like to be appointed so far and the two people that been mentioned may be the perfect people for this for this position but i think we should open this up to everyone that's the democratic way that's the way it should be this is a public position and the public will get to vote on this in november two thousand and twelve until then it's up to this consul and the consul that i'm going to be part of in two thousand and twelve to keep this an open process and open to everyone there's another person on the privilege of  floor couple weeks ago that showed some interest in this position she should be given the opportunity to be interviewed for this we should just close it down to a certain feel so i have no problem with the two candidates we're talking about so far whatsoever and it could very well be one of those it's get picked but i just think the process should be open and open to the public and open to anyone thank you access festival for the second and third year and i wanted to say thank you very much for your tiresome and your dedication and helping them bring it off those remaining second and third years of the festival and i really appreciated your help in everything else and you know i just glad that you're going to be retiring and traveling it's if when i do get to get the time to travel it's always fun and it's always enjoyable to see the historical nature of our country and what happened and all the goodness it has to offer and then my comments is to councilman allen and i met councilman allen here ten years ago mare's task force on housing and you have been an avid supporter on that issue ever sense we have come to conclusion that it's very difficult for her to receive fordable inaccessible housing in this county in the city but it's still been a goal to try to look for it you've also been an advocate on affirmative action and i thank you very much for when the city council did not want to hear nor did the mayor want to hear you were actually out voicing your opinion to make sure that people would have jobs also you've been an advocate supporter for persons with disabilities as the chair person on parks in iraq you helped put together disability access festool for two thousand and seven two thousand and eight two thousand and nine three great years and i really appreciate all the help and the support that you had really poured into it to try to make it very successful and you know it's a shame that you're retiring but i know it's time for you you said you want to take your time for family and their years are short and you know it's the same thing with my own family my father's just about couple years shorter than you are in the time and i want to enjoy for my father wasn't very happy the first forty years forty five years so you know he's always said that this time is short and and i agree with you and had the florida boy i tell you what you know with the with the weather way it is and everything else i can't blame you in wanting to travel down there during the winter times so i'm saying good luck and graduations and thank you very much and knowing you for the last ten years thank you very much work that you've both done and are an inspiration to me personally i can tell you that from the bottom my heart as we close out two thousand and eleven i'd like to take this opportunity to can gradually mayor elect mccarthy we can get rid of that acting mayor tag thank goodness and along with the returning a new members of the skank the city council in a hard fought election victory last month the city of schenectady finds itself in a unique situation salute to the one that i described when i spoke before you on may ninth after spending hundreds of hours walking to the city and speaking to voters one thing was crystal clear to me work has to be done to revitalize our city neighborhoods as you all are aware that it has continued to make gains which we should all be duly proud now's the time to bring the neighborhoods into better i would also like to take this moment to thank the voters of schenectady election district twenty eight who came out in strong numbers to vote on election day i walked the streets of this district many many times and in other parts of the city talking to people about what really matters to them i had hoped to see that interesting government carry over to the other areas of the city but from seeing the voting results in the county under thirty six percent i was sad to see that number as district twenty committeeman i will continue to take their concerns seriously and i'm grateful to mare like mccarthy first spying to many of their concerns are in the past six months i would also like to speak tonight to my friends they grew up with who are fighting overseas right now joe  that former teens are coming together to demand the city do better not because it is possible but because it is the right thing to do is not forgotten his hometown i'd like to thank some of the city neighborhood associations for sending care packages to joe and his troops and the elections himself but rather on the good of our city and put together a sustained focused effort to help it continue to improve because it will do so may god bless all of you my best wishes to all of you for happy two thousand and twelve congratulations again and i mean that's just absolutely outrageous the proctor has been manby pamby for ever so long with all kinds of money and this is going to the part of the proctor where they're now putting in gold leaf i d gold cost per gallon but to give one hundred thousand dollars in these times for that activity it's just seems inappropriate to me and then they're also giving seventy five thousand to  schenectady community land trust they're giving to glenville extended sewer and water lines which may fit in a p six thousand dollars schenectady development of the alko trail a half million dollars in schenectady job training mean training at community college fourteen thousand dollars they're also giving seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to open the of toilet paper had been thrown into my bath and i was really distressed because i don't know what i do with that treasure and i got to thinking about this governor and what he is suffered christmases past present and future have been a very horrible frightening odyssey for the brit any resident of this country at all having me along on this trip has been disastrous has a blitter raided my life and at this point in my life there's no way he can compensate but i will not thema money for irene this or any of the others i intend for this to be heard in court i don't intend for anybody to ever have to go through this again power for humanity i sincerely view it as a disaster a huge backward step for humanity thank you very much pla recently held an election lo and behold there are snell a vacancy on city council according to reports council wants to appoint a member of a minority to when i attended my first city council meeting now he is a global traveler who miss a city this this meetings to go on junkets for his full time job i can do better than that everything i have was acquired on merit i wouldn't have it any other way thank you the individuals who signed up to speak i would know open up to miscellaneous business of the council mayor i suppose this is going to be my final one legislative comment and that is i would like to add my voice is a couple we heard tonight indorsing the the multi county approach of the land bank i'm hoping that our efforts to embrace some of our neighbors that they will come on board with us that it's an important thing to get and there are limited numbers to be awarded i think we have a much better chance of a regional land bank than just a city land bank i hope that can be worked out my final comment of a councilman i want to thank my wife cheryl and my two kids for supporting me in this endeavor i need to thank mark mansfield who served with us for a couple years with me and he was the first person to write me a check when i announced i was going to run and i want to thank mark for that first real support i want to thank gary because his guidance over the last four years helped me be more effective than i ever could have been without it thank you kerry joe denethor peggy barb and carl i want to thank all of you for allowing me to keep my sense of humor over the last four years serving on the council of the i just once again want to acknowledge the service of joe and tom it's been my honor and privilege to a service both of you tom last score years joe twelve out of the last sixteen i think you've does that a tremendous job for the city and i just want to congratulate you on your retirement wish you all the best but thank you for your service and you will be missed and also i want to say happy new year culture member brucker i do want to join my colleagues and wishing congratulations and certainly a heartfelt goodbye and good luck to joe allen tom della salla tommy made a very good point i think over all the years if there was ever any disagreements that we had we certainly worked through all of those i think it was a good friendship you both will you miss not only as council members about certainly as friends as colleagues  as people you could bounce ideas off of will miss will miss all of joe's experiences and all the opportunity to talk about how we used to talk about all the history of schenectady and the people that we knew and people that we saw over the years and people who had passed on and just on and on and on so you'll certainly be missed but i wish both of you the best of luck i know that you'll do well in your retirement from city council you're chomping at the bit both mayor this is ben this has been a wonderful experience to be on the city council there were a lot of ups and downs and mostly ups it was a pleasure to serve the people i was going to it was a pleasure to be involved in all the the things that happen both good and bad and i enjoyed it there was a lot of enjoyment and like i said earlier you know without the lord on my side where would i be and the fact that i was the first african american elected to any position  in government and that was a pleasure and a positive as far as i'm concerned i still would like like to see the the council  more adamant and involved in in government in regards to dealing with department heads and people who are who work for the city i think  the department has in many instances take over our our positions and make decisions that the council should be making and it's something that you would have to work on because once you've got people who who make decisions and they're getting paid basically more than we get paid for sure so they've they i think sometimes they thought that we make more money than the council so we can make the decisions that that we make but i think the the overall aspect of being a city councilman is the fact that you represent the people  department heads i think represent the the opinion probably of the mayor whoever that may or might be but i think you have a heavy load of responsibly out on your shoulders as councilman and i think you need to demand the things that the people want from government and deal with it that way so just because some of the count the department h make more money than you that doesn't count you represent the people and if you represent the people correctly and strongly you want you're going to get the right things done thanks for being part of other other duties that he took on so i'm leaving for the most part and spending more time down in florida because like i said earlier i used to leave on a tuesday and get back on a monday so i wouldn't miss very many council meetings so that was a part of the whole thing so now if i leave and go to florida i don't have to come back get spend my time down there and enjoy myself soak up like a says a vitamin d and maybe do some fishing and just hang it out in florida was one of good friends that i've made down there so i'm looking forward to that and and this has been a blessing and i mention that i keep mentioning it because it's the truth without the lord on my side where would i be thank you very much we expect an occasional postcard any other members of the council just in closing neck going to want to thank joe in time for their service you know those that look back talk about openness in government to this city is very lucky to have those of us that here now in our predecessors these council meetings have been broadcast live for i think it's about thirty five years now you know more recently we've broadcast the comm meetings and because of the changes it o s m joe when you're in florida you can go on the web and watch these meetings of live from there and it's it's a tribute to this community in again people will talk about other perceived things or trying create of other perceptions of this but it is an open government it's one where we have worked together to try and make this community better historically remember times when things were much more polarized and there weren't the accomplishments doesn't mean that we always agree with each other but we have worked to build consensus to build results in it's been a pleasure for me to work with each one of you as i look forward to changing roles slightly here that we're going to continue to do that to make this community proud and build on it and we'll be watching the incoming mail from mr ayling postcards but with that i will entertain a motion to adjourn move by council member tell us solace seconded by mr allen all in favor