and i call the city council caucus meeting to order for september twenty second twenty fourteen we do have one public hearing if the clerk would read that public area number one regarding a moratorium on convenience stores and then we'll move to final consideration of the clerk with the number at number one under final consideration an ordinance to amend chapter one six seven of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding commercial building inspection reporting without objection on consent item number two item number two under original consideration an ordinance accepting the proposed twenty fifteen operating and capital budget introduced only with a resolution calling for a public airing on october fourteenth two thousand and fourteen to receive public comment relative to the proposed twenty fifteen operating budget for the city of schenectady right without objection and consent at number three i don't number three a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to enter into the required suburbs shippey an agreement with the housing trust fund corporation as required in the implementation of the new york state community development block grant disaster recovery program and to authorize the mayor to sign any and all documents required in the implementation of the program straight roll call four three eight third straight in without objection on consent item number six item number six a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a tax or share wherry for twenty thirty seven states st discussed in claims without objection on consent remember seven item number seven a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a tax or surely brought by trust go bank also discussed in claims without objection and consent at number eight item number eight a resolution authorizing the sale of one  number ten item number ten a resolution declaring friday october third through thursday october ninth two thousand and fourteen as manufacturing week in the city of schenectady so also be taken out of order in this present will make that presentation there's is mentioned earlier we have two out of order resolutions the first one is the resolution recognizing the one hundred twentieth anniversary of the publication of the daily disconnected he gives that to closure association purchase of the schenectady because that's a weekly newspaper which then turned into the daily monday through saturday newspaper called the daily is up and whereas in one thousand no to the newspaper despite competition for the presence of other s newspapers the evening star and the union experienced immediate success under the leadership of its first president gerard a smith which allowed for the purchase of the new press and the use of its name and the predecessor  whereas the newspaper has always demonstrated and continues to demonstrate its position as independent voice known variously as an independence and politics the independent voice of the capital region and the locally owned voice of the capital region and whereas in eighty eight the newspaper began a commitment to regional coverage far beyond the city and the county of schenectady new york and whereas the newspaper maintained is worthy of parents not worthy in parents until one thousand nine hundred four when due to a national change in advertising hundred nine the newspaper declared it would henceforth be known as the daily gazette reflecting its commitment to regional coverage and whereas in september one thousand nine hundred ninety the newspaper published its first sunday edition have an earlier that year move its new location at twenty three forty five max and road extension in the city of schenectady and purchased a printing press that allowed for color photographs and whereas in one thousand nine hundred six the newspaper created a presence that has continued to change and expand giving its readers round the clock access to the latest news and whereas an independent and vibrant press is vital to our community and whereas the newspaper has remained independent haven't been a locally owned and fourteen so be declared daily day in the city of schenectady and we thank everyone who's been involved with newspapers publication for their commitment to our great city thank you very much but i look forward to the next one hundred twenty years so thank you very much in supplying the city with jobs in the world with goods and whereas various civic leaders including local business persons educational institutions and nonprofit organizations have come together to engage the community and highlight the opportunities provided by manufacturing and its ability to bolster the local economy and whereas the city wishes to promote modern manufacturing through education and increased public awareness by celebrating the manufacturers in this city there by acknowledging their critical and fundamental importance to the prosperity of the city and whereas the city desires to improve the general public perception of manufacturing to public events including factory tours open houses and areas of area manufacturers and american made movie screening panel discussions and other special events and whereas the city wishes to heartily thank you nic knowledge the interview sions and continuing involvement of manufacturing week schenectady committee members and participating manufacturers and now therefore be it resolved that the mayor of the city council do here by pas in their deliberations to proclaim friday october third through thursday october ninth two thousand and fourteen as manufacturing week in the city of schenectady it wish to thank the many individuals organizations  thank you very much on behalf of the center for economic growth as the capital regions manufacturing extension partnership center manufacturing day is a national movement across the country and we're thrilled to be part of manufacturing week here in schenectady and throughout the region and applaud the mayor and the council and the city of schenectady in the leadership of this committee to truly advance the cause of manufacturing here in the capital region i am project lead the way as a nonprofit foundation with the mission of preparing students for the global economy is excited to be involved in the manufacturing  here in schenectady glenn tables president of s t s steel got involved when chad asked and he's done a great job and we appreciate the city mayor and the city council's help in advancing this good right we have one other special presentation i'm going to invite now mintz to come inside the rail team to make that presentation to the certificate was flown over the capital of the united states by request of congressman paul de kock especially in honor of the great city of schenectady at three quest to find citizens the course he put in including city staff time to ensure an accurate and forceful piece of legislation furthermore until the city council passes legislation permitting in regulating convenience stores a moratorium is needed to prevent any additional convenience stores from opening in the city i have attended the meetings of the plane commission in which this legislation has been presented and discussed i would like to thank the commissioners for listening to the neighborhood association presidents community leaders and concerned residents it's been refreshing for the public to be asked for their input i will radiate the problems of one particular convenience store that continues to play the central state street neighbors so she asian loitering open until the early morning hours litter noise and gambling this story still is still open until one in two o'clock in the morning who needs a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk at two in the morning this store style store owner has to be reminded the his store is in a residential neighborhood and as such he should be a good neighbor the city has the tools to make this happen the city code for operation of business section one eighty three dash nine states that the owner and operator of any business shall maintain good order on about the premises at all times it continues to state that the owner an operator of any business sh also be responsible for removing garbage and ops destructions from the sidewalk and accordance with municipal code requirements and for operating the business so that neither the business or its patrons become a source of disruption to other building tenants or on sidewalks streets or other property and the vicinity of the business the business or its patrons cannot be a source of disruption to other nearby private properties this store is and has been and so has its patrons been a source of disruption to this neighborhoods quality of life and forced the code thank you j good evening mr mir and the presidency council members my name is joseph kelleher with respect to i beg your pardon  i also attended here we go i also attended the planning commission meeting and and applaud the planning commission for what they did no doubt in my mind that these days those countless other residents of our city understand that our city is saturated with these type of businesses were so overcome that we now have new stores coming in as cellphone stores that are selling convenience items just to get that piece of the action so i don't only encourage the city council extends the moratorium but it's also recommended that they extension continue until this agreement is reached that satisfies the people of the city of schenectady playing commission did discover that many of these businesses have no hours of operations listed on their permits the commission is suggested and that these stores close by eleven p m and i would as i mentioned the last time i suggested a little bit more strict hours of operation from five o'clock in the morning in the residential areas until nine o'clock on the weekdays friday and saturday nights until eleven p if they need to if they even need to go that far it's the citizens who are ready and or willing and able to hold these and other businesses accountable to be the good neighbors that we want them to be reach out to us as your citizens as your constituents and the true owners of schenectady and empower us to help build a better school together thank you thank you and now when i was speaking i have declared that public hearing closed when moved to the approval of the minutes from thousand and fourteen under official from the mayor list of appointments dated september twenty second two thousand and fourteen under general there are none under petitions there are non thank you committee reports now ok i will move on then the privilege of the floor related to the legislative agenda i have five people signed up to speak the first is joy all  and i came to code enforcement about an issue regarding the commercial properties along j street only to discover that the files  that i had inquired about i did floyd they hadn't received the foyer over the internet and then they couldn't find the file about the building that i was inquiring about and then when they when i decided to go online about the commercial building they couldn't find any records i've been living in that building for fifteen years now they have nothing with my name on it they know my apartment number they know it's occupied but my name is not attached to anything there so where there were several files that i had seen in years gone by those files are no longer there whether they are still in existence i don't know but it has been put on computer but there is no information there should be information about the residents who is in there and other pieces of been permission i'm sure but what i was looking for i couldn't find so you can make new laws but if you don't keep up the required information it's not going to do anybody any good so that's why i had to say about that i've very disappointed and it just seems newly updated new officials and the only other thing i'm missing from the set genda is with the plethora of retirees some of these employees have been shifted to other locations that i'm i've been told i don't see any new appointments and i don't know whether that's something that fi council and the mayor have overlooked but i sure would like a word of good evening thank you once again with respect to item number two regarding the proposed budget for two thousand and fifteen please remember and your considerations and deliberations that we still have items such as the pensions and the principle in the public's work facility that have been pushed down the road for future leadership to worry about just to make the current administration appear solvent just like any other business the city's corporation it can no longer live beyond it means we are the taxpayers the true owners of this business we can afford more levies or fees on top of what we already provide please remember that as you deliberate over the budget as i took a look through the the genda and saw number six regarding the attacks and also number seven he's or businesses that have been in the city for several years i'm sure but you we've got to and they're being levied with given lower taxes on their properties while we have city residents that have been here all their lives and much much longer whose taxes have quadrupled and we need to give provide them the same benefit if we're going to provide this for businesses these are the people that have lived here and you know when you want them to keep their money here we want them to keep their money here and yet we're taking more money from them and they can barely afford to live in their own homes anymore regarding number three which requests the authorization for the mayor to sign documents to allow the city to enter into agreements with respect to the new york state disaster recovery program the public deserves and has the right to know from our city government that this isn't what this entails a quite often government grants are coupled with unfunded mandates given our  status which that may prove understandable before the city council authorizes this resolution's please they have a responsibility to inform the people of the city of schenectady what they're getting into and full disclosure of what this means for the future thank you oh i'm craig canto president of the edison tech center and i just want to thank you for creating schenectady manufacturing week and to encourage everyone to participate in the many varied free events that we have scheduled thank you ok thank you very much right i have no one else signed up to speak on the legislative agenda so all the clear that portion of the meeting closed and will move to the approval of the legislative agenda m item number three a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to enter into the required sub recipient agreement with the housing trust fund corporation as required in the only implementation of the new york state community development block grant disaster recovery program and to authorize the mayor to sign any and all documents required in the implementation implementation of that program with someone new to this to the agenda and  we've had much discussion on within the council and that is about the north ferry street pump station and for me it provided some clarification in the fact that following first of all let me back up the pump station was actually voted on unanimously by the council in the capital budget last year so the funding is already in place for this pump station where the controversy arose was regarding building a new pump station verses making modifications to the park station that exists and there are various views which is preferred in the mean time the governor and the state have come through and they said following hurricane irene tropical storm lee and super storm sandy they want to not only rebuild things that have been damaged by the storms but actually improve them and you know i've stated my concern in the past that you know one hundred year flood plan is just a one hundred year flood plan anymore are where there has definitely gotten more pronounced are storms are worse i mean i never thought  hurricane could even affect us this far inland and we all know that that's different now so under the umbrella of new york saying this state has looked at the infrastructure for one hundred year flood plans and they want to raise that to five hundred year flood plans and the north ferry street pump station is one of those identified buildings so what we're voting on tonight would actually be that the state would come in and fund the design of this pump station where it needed to be and what needs to be done so new york rising also received review the city's process of soliciting and scoring the proposals that were received when we went to bed and acceptable and approved so i think the last thing to keep in mind is that this pump station was severely affected by the flood damaged by the flood handle sixty five percent from our city and i don't think that's anything we want to take a risk with so i think the state of the governor for paying attention to this i thank him for for bringing me to the point where i feel very confident in this project going forward and i  concern also was whether we built new or whether we renovate what was there and my concern especially came from dollars and cents and what could we as a city of fortune do that so you know we went back and forth and again there were there were some  some engineers who thought we could build new we could repair it would be fine and others thought no we need to build new so i am happy also that the state came through and said ok we'll be able to do this so it doesn't have that effect upon the tax now i realize that all dollars of taxpayer dollars but it doesn't impact the city we're in the point where it could lead to raise of taxes in addition to that i spoke with our engineer our city engineer so he could explain to me why we could not repair this and why it would not you know it it may work but it may not work to the capacity that we would like to see it work so based on his explanation which i don't i'm not going to try to repeat it to you i understood it but he gave you know he explained in such a way that we want him to explain it again i would i would certainly think that something that could be done that i understand and i agree that based on that the way that the pump works it would be better to build it was especially given the fact that the state is supplying the funding for it and it doesn't have the negative impact upon taxpayers they could have conceivably have so based on th mr reagan yes this has been a border contention of whether the should be rebuilt or replaced and since that is the case i found out that at the last stockade meeting i think you were present miss king that the heritage foundation agreed to fund an other study by an independent engineering firm since there seems to be two we replace it or do we fix it i toured the station myself along with mr cocksure it's a pretty solidly built building i mean first we were told that move the foot off the foundation them we're told to move to an inch off the foundation well what i'm wolf i know it's one hundred years old i have a lot more faith in older buildings has this building right here than if we're going to build a new one so that's way feel about i think as far as expediency i think it's it would be faster to rebuild then to replace but as far as tax dollars from us porterfield brought it out there all our tax dollars whether comes from the state the federal or the city will have a direct impact on our taxes going up or down no but i still think we should spend tax money judiciously and i don't think this is one of the things that should be spent on i have no problem with accepting this if we're going to use this to look into and get in on the other our of p has we were talked about before to see if this can be would cost to rebuild and i think it can be rebuilt i think that that building structure itself is find their side beams in there that are which so i don't see this thing being a problem i know where the where the pipes go out there is concern that they could share off well being mechanically inclined i say you make that bigger in the concrete and you put a a foam or some kind of material that would give a little bit of a dead anything can shift i mean that's just the nature of the beast so anyhow with all that being said i don't feel comfortable with this pump station being replaced and with that i don't know mr motive  people are crossing having trouble you got a lotta handicap everywhere in this town and we need to fix up these potholes which is bat august street way up my  it's rough up there it's something's gotta be done before the snow comes in or whatever and eastern i know and not tears just going around the corner in any shape or building as if there's a whole order that needs to be fixed back so something better be done pretty quick before something happens it's bad you know people get hurt losing their jobs that's what happened thank you  the streets to keep anyone else from losing like i have a lot of my pain is suffering my money's gone and now i got these beals that was not my problem i don't ood evening i'm a long time resident of the city of schenectady i also am a wildlife rescue volunteer i'm deeply aggrieved by the delinquent manner by which our a four l citizens are handled by the schenectady police department i wish to be clear it is the p d nathi animal control officers that i am referencing in my experience with the two full time animal control officers i have found them to be caring compassionate and willing to go above and beyond in their efforts to aid orphaned injured and sick wildlife wildlife is important to city residents and the two a ceo's are to be commended for extraordinary efforts to locate assistance for these helpless creatures and also for recognizing that wildlife is important to city residents the shelter issue is just the tip of the iceberg where the police department attitude toward animals is concerned and symptomatic of the overall police department disregard for all animals aside from inadequate sheltering the schenectady police department has a long history of deliberately denying justice to abuse cats and dogs in two thousand and three at approximately two am i notified the schenectady police department that a dog on grant avenue was left on sheltered confined to a small barred crate in a night long downpour unequivocal early in violation of animal cruelty statutes the dog  screamed in how old for hours on end the the police department refuse to respond citing no animal control officer on duty in tw dog on willett street with a large mass protests protruding from the rectum was left unsheltered tied on a three foot rope in the baking sun for about two weeks despite several calls to the police department from concerned neighbors i contacted the police department and was told there was nothing they could do since there were no animal animal control officers on duty for the next forty eight hours last summer i encountered an individual and not terrorists who was attempting to give away a dog it was not his it merely followed him since they had a collar it was most likely someone's pet i turned the dog over to the police department in the cop in the lobby refused to take responsibility for it and despite my objections he turned around and gave the pair away to a complete stranger time constraints prohibit further details on similar incidents that i'm aware of in my communications with commissioner bennett i have found he is either grossly misinformed or simply disingenuous according to commissioner bennett there is nothing that mandates the police to arrest for intimate cruelty i need you to summarize please three times the fact is new york state agriculture and market law section three seventy one unambiguous lee states a police officer must arrest for animal cruelty you my name is vicky salvo schenectady resident small business owner business advisor an account and i've been coming to these meetings and talking with different people for quite a few weeks now as they once impartial third party just listening every one side of the story about schenectady dog holding facility in the city solution for any problems that might exist there first let me say that for me there are just too large of gaps between what the public including dog owners rescue groups an animal lover see happening what the city admits needed or needs work and what the media admits was ever wrong with this facility in short the public knows what's going on or at least they're figuring it out the city admits to some of it in the media in midst even less i worry that the people are not well informed and more transparency would be greatly appreciated secondly the city needs to stop prohibiting the public especially volunteers and rescue groups from entering the facility i've never heard of an animal shelter that you get arrested for visiting without us in there the city's dirty infectious secrets stay hidden and problems only grow in number and inspections like those done by agen markets are only casting a veil of smoke over the real problem but we know better and we will never say never mind we will never walk away from those dogs based on the cities and media's acceptance of poor standards for our fur babies if the a c o zigzagging markets cannot see things like dehydration starvation diarrhea infestations lyme disease pool caked on dogs and other problems causing sores and the mental trauma being inflicted on these dogs then i have no faith in either of their opinions on how well off those dogs are i request that those dogs  examined on a regular basis by trained professionals like a vet who is able to diagnose such ailments thirdly i'd like to know that dogs are prematurely and wrongly being deemed dangerous by what seems to be on qualified persons provoked and chase dogs should not be considered dangerous just because they retaliate against people that get them all worked up and scared in the first place i think the city and the courts need to hire a canine behaviorist to make that call instead of asking law enforcement and the courts to do so because i was stuck in that facility now being walked for many long months but the day dakota got out he licked all of our faces despite more than half of us being strangers to him all our hearts were touched and at the same time saddened because he was put through hell and wrongly accused of being a dangerous dog recovers from all the health problems the city has cost him we continue to support him his family and the bills incurred it's sad that we have to do so is a direct result of the city's actions real quick number four on my list i want to note that disconnected county has already told us they're looking for land slash building to start a county shelter i see no reason why the city is connected he could not work with them on that mission or city and county as a whole need it in summary thank you all for what you've done so far but please know that there's more to do here i hope the city can get a handle on this soon so i can get back to life as usual and get a kid in the hospital needs to be brought to the shop a house to clean clients to take care of trust me i know a tree hugging activist just looking for something to protest every monday night for the rest of my life my name's penny ross i'm here on behalf of the dogs and ready empire rescue as indicated before at one of these meetings we have been plugging along with the city of schenectady dogs for many many months bringing in supplies taking dogs vetting dogs fostering dogs getting dogs new homes out of the city one of the big issues is your proposal here to kota for one two and a half months never was deemed dangerous yet the poor dog never got out of that kennel and then we find out to being fed once a day he ended up sick there's many many dollars of medical costs for him now on the fourteenth it claims in your proposal that you've hired three part time employees while the data quarter was was due to be released last september fifteenth and we were told that we couldn't get them out because there was no officer there after two o'clock so we were going to have to wait till the next day but we brought that to the attention of the of the police department and somebody came down there to let them out so you're claiming you have all these part time officers helping yet we know for a fact there's many many times that nobody is down there the new watering system goes back it's were donated by roddy empire rescue the day that dakota was brought out of there those pockets are not in place i think your proposal was dated  september eighth and we're talking the fifteenth there needs to be something set up for intake i also indicated before i am a shelter worker several years of experience that dogs need to come in and be quarantined there spreading disease by way of them walking through the facility by way of anyone walking in that facility you're claiming that still working with rescues we were a major major part i see and two thousand and fourteen the the expenditures went way way down that was from support of the supplies the food the vetting taking the dogs off of your hands now now we're looked at as being troublemakers you hate us we're not allowed there anymore we'd like to know what rescues you're actually letting in what vets are actually coming in and helping these dogs because it's no longer us and we played a major part in taking care of these dogs were the only voice they have we're not here to cause trouble but you need to set something up specific as an intake the dogs need shots you're have got some dogs on your page you are adopting out within eight days of bringing them in parvo will show seven to ten days these dogs should not be put in anyone's homes eight days after they're getting a distemper shot if that's indeed what you're  johnson my name is carol johnson i'm from albany so i've been here before first let me start by recognizing the improvements that you've already made that the city is connected is already made at the animal control feel syllabi that's located at the sewage plant really and truly made significant progress and to see that progress articulated last week was impressive but we're still here because there's so much that remains to be done and understand from our perspective it's very confusing from the outside sense some of the issues that remain don't seem particularly complicated and we've been talking about this for months now additionally there are so many resources available that are not being used i don't understand why volunteers are not permitted to help yet i dare say dozens of other shelters in this area let alone hundreds across the state have worked out insurance issues the city uses volunteers for other events and activities i don't understand why it's taking months to resolve that issue shots you can get both discounts for vaccines you don't even need to be of that to buy distemper you can buy at large quantities you don't need to be a vet to just to give those shots you can buy flea and tick methods and bulk i don't understand why that's not being given to the animals the p c a is nationally recognized actual say for evaluations that's a formal evaluation given to a dog to assess its temperament it's recognised all over the country it could be used at your training i don't understand why there's not a formal process being used all of these are things that you all have admitted or not actually happening and i don't understand why you have fundraising offers you've had offers for months to fundraise none of those are being used you could partner with rescues and shelters for adoptions without raddy empire rescue i'm a little unclear and there's been no answers about who is helping adopt out these dogs or work with these dogs if mohawk hudson humane society is willing to take dogs and it's cheaper than euthanizing why are they not being used i don't understand there appeared to be confusion last week or an indication at last week's meeting that records were not being kept out of vet care expenses policies and there were questions that couldn't be answer don't understand i don't understand how the city saved sixty thousand dollars between last year and this year i don't understand how that's possible i don't understand how people are suggesting there's no records about what money's being spent or where that savings came from and why that's not being accounted for i don't understand why dogs are still being euthanized and i don't understand why we can't get answers i think from our perspective how would you feel if you were asking somebody questions and nobody can answer those questions how much time would you give somebody to answer a question or to make an improvement think of how much time the city gives people to pay fines to fix code violations to pick up their dog before it's killed months and months have gone by and we still can't get answers i don't understand how you can hear what's been happening be a compassionate human being have the power to stop it and  because obviously the dogs however i'll start from a couple years ago several years ago actually nobody guys i worked here in the employees would call me and tell me about dogs that were picked up by the city is brought over i have a lot of dogs adopted out your finances went way down financed personal told me that because i knew most of the people there however after that happened they sold the business over to a happy  now city now has before they are bringing it to the police station which people from there called me and said the dogs are freezing i went over i checked it out the dogs are cold they are on concrete floors and kennels no blankets is pathetic so i went to corp council complaining as usual i called the mayor's office and i was told well they need to go get a heater you can't buy here for the dogs  so no we don't have any money so my little rescue group went out and bought two rest two heaters put them there so then we blew out the electrical at the at the park and at the garage over there p d so then everybody's mad at me i'm only doing what you guys should have done and house easy animals a cordingly it was the middle of winter so now they're over here and what are they getting they getting concrete floors no good air or no air conditioning when you've had people wanting to donate to you people but instead they're getting nothing and now you want to ship more to albany who want to collect is going to find their dog in albany if they even make it the deemed dangerous they're not being walked appropriately you've got people there judging these dark saying that they're dangerous when they're not even qualified to say that they don't know how to temperament test a dog and not getting vaccines they're not getting flea and tick they're getting sick instead and then die that's but that so you guys got to get together rotterdam's looking for a place to put their dogs you should have a county shelter this will solve the problems we don't want to argue but they like we said we're their voices and we're going to stay here to the voices are heard we can talk to you but we're not getting any answers you know where we're coming from but we have no clue because you certainly alyson and that's what goes on at these meetings we want to talk to you guys across the table that's what needs to be done thank you thank you anthony pr good evening my name is linda keller i reside city on property taxpayer as my husband and i walk along city streets we meet residents listen to their concerns many of them regarding quality of life issues there's a situation at school street in the away eight years ago since then the fence has fallen into disrepair and the brushes of taken over the fence this elderly woman has contacted people from the businesses at the plaza to no avail she's even agreeable to pay half of the cost of a new fence code violations have been issued and since it's cheaper for the business to pay the fines and to take care of the problem the residents live with this deplorable situation of overground brush stockade fence that is in disrepair and patrons of this plaza throwing their garbage over the fence and into the residence backyards most of the residents are long time residents this woman in particular has lived there over seventy years growing up in the same house she lives in today she and her neighbors shouldn't have to take care of or pay for the property of this business something needs to be done and done now there's a code operational business section one eighty three dash nine the one i referred to earlier the code is for any business and force it it is sad that we have to have insisting codes to force people and businesses to be good neighbors just be a good neighbor that is all these residents want from this business to be a good neighbor at responsible business owner thank you thank you s good evening i'm sara michener i'd like to read you a little excerpt from a letter to the editor of the cape may star mwave in cape may new jersey and if you weren't familiar with kate manning they've been under the protection exported eighteen eighty one million pounds of raw cotton and received twenty four million ten years later they exported two hundred forty million pounds of cotton and it brought twenty five million they had a four percent increase in revenue by increasing the amount of pounds exported by two hundred percent not a good deal and lots of farmers got poorer lost their farms farmers an eight hundred sixteen must seem like casino developers in two thousand fourteen if we grow more or if we build more they will come or not millions of people came to reading when we were the original outlet capital of the world now outlets are everywhere and we are trying to reinvent ourselves aquariums were once the rage as convention centers and hockey centers arenas are today cities race to do something different when revenues decrease because of oversaturation it is not long before everyone else does the same thing just like the cotton growers who are in progress themselves by lack of imagination the solution seems to be for the cities to develop uniqueness and quality for the long haul and preserve attractions that are not easy to duplicate maybe that's why cape may will always be attractive since disney can never build a magic kingdom with synthetic with synthetic architecture duplicate the look and feel of such a marvelous community in the meantime developers and the smart money will keep investing in the duplications of dumb things ad nauseum and lemming like they all had to the sea to gather now the original plan for what i like to refer to as the emerald city on the other end of their very boulevard was quite the good and in the event that we don't get this swell new casino maybe we could think about not reinventing ourselves but redefining ourselves and i just want to take a quick minute to remember my dear dear friend fred bart's fred was a man of integrity fred was loyal fred and believe in believed in doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do and i'm sure we'll all miss him he was a man of jet and great generosity in large us and he did not care about getting his name in a donor program he just cared about as i say doing the right thing self he'll be gone he won't be forgotten and i'm sure  i will i'm sure he'll take a break from the poker tournament and have and to come here on monday night watch all over us to make sure that we do the right thing thank you thank you tony  me and everything the father michael holmes and fred barks i mean no foul or holding out well i belong to the night to st john's and i was at an affair and i sat next to him for an hour and we were brought up at the same time to his funeral so he was a man that touched a lot and i'm fred i met him here at the council putting politics aside or anything it was a great man and when people used to come up to the podium here and complain that they didn't have this or didn't have that after they walked out the door to see fred you know up and walk out never thought much of it but one day i was sitting over on this side and the door was open a woman walked out fred followed her called her reached in his pocket took money out and gave it to her i met him one time at price chopper on a sunday morning i said what are you doing here sorrily he says i'm buying food for the sawmill he says to feed to me down there and i found out later that that come out of his pocket to great gentlemen are going to be lost and we're going to miss some in his city thank you thank you good evening and thank you once again as well as mentioned earlier and stated about the home at three school saint we had an opportunity to take  d talk with their resident there and actually surveyed property and saw the deplorable conditions of this fence and how it's been treated over the years or not treated over the years so i took that  opportunity to walk down the street and see some other folks and it turns out that another gentleman who also lives in the same section of the city is a contractor i introduced the two and here the forks got together this gentleman said that he would provide the labor if they could provide the materials it's all about getting people together this woman has pleaded with the city in numerous occasions and here it took me five minutes to get some kind of resolution together but i believe it's shameful embarrassing when people who we elect and those who desire to be elected to uphold than and force the rules break the set of rules in the process what i'm referring to is a code that i recently read about code a two sixty four dash sixty three particle with respect to political signs and posters no where in the code is it allowed that these signs should be allowed in city property or in public property without mentioning names of course there are several at fault who have their signs on city traffic islands in front of city owned properties vacant buildings and even long state  affairs if you drive along state street route seven granville of art and around central park you'll see the signs along with the litter on our public property as citizens taxpayers and rightful owners of these lan's schenectady residents have a right to remove the signs if candidates want them out let them ask permission of the private property owners to be proudly displayed in support i would hope that as our governing body the city council will respectfully enforce this code on a more positive note i also want to mention for manufacturing right here in the city we have tough travel it's been in business with all a made products for numerous years i also want to mention two upcoming events first the american legion riders askin at the will hold the spaghetti dinner to benefit our local veterans october nineteenth two to four p in party on friday october twenty fourth seven to eleven p m at the schenectady veterans home seven thousand union street tickets are twenty five dollars and includes dinner prizes and entertainment thank you thank you bob harvey i'm going to come across a little bit pollyannish i went to the library today i saw the two thousand and thirteen caper and i have a couple pages copied from it about code enforcement analysis they're talking about the number one and two neighborhood revitalization priorities in the twenty twenty plan where increased code enforcement increased community police presence well going on turns out eleven thousand five hundred inspections were done in two thousand and thirteen pretty good so that's possible we'd like to know and i'm speaking for myself and organization about what the follow up is you know how many of those of violations were corrected on long  take is their analysis of that so that i'd be interested in the other thing about community policing i've heard recently from police sources that the bike police are going to be increased they train more officers so if we can get them out on the street as soon as possible that's community policing that's it thank you very much thank a very important person there because he sucks that he was a watchdog on the no abuses or the police department here two weeks ago we had a woman talk here about how the police broke into her home guns drawn r if you go to the we have this record here you ought to go back to that last meeting it's just thirty three minutes and thirty seconds less meeting so every one of i think a to look at that and know that you know it doesn't happen does but happen so the people here and you know people are watching this home and so on they got you tube everyone ought to go to the last meeting the september a part of the problem was he didn't know that they were anonymous so he had bad policeman every looks bad so my recommendation is police know where numbers they got that they had just can't breathe and edges the ought to have numbers football players have three hundred signatures but due to a a perverse process and wackos who get their highs challenging petitions i was thrown off the ballot when that happened i  to reach the young woman who has been taking pictures of all the nice places since schenectady i couldn't get her i wanted her to take pictures of my corner of the street her with those who complain it's with the model citizens who run the city getting back to the gazette article figure income and operates with twelve hundred volunteers that's all free labor how many of you followed through on the financial presentations and went to see the pr really light regarding the how much to charge for special events including wedding it's the weeds around the pond are six feet tall and mark is laying on top of the water while grasses overrun the flower from the der and is laying there on the sidewalk it's still there two months later leslie someone dumped trash on ground boulevard it's still there i since you should miss coleman was brought up again tonight it it's time to clarify it first of all the city police department was not the agency involved there were two agencies that were there neither one was doing the case with the city we always have cops there were no other agencies go in because that's the smart thing to do in case there's an emergency that happens during that operation we had two city police from there they were on the outside not only inside i spoke to miss coleman before she spoke to you i made arrangements for internal affairs to reach out to her they have been in touch with her we have also provided her the maimane contact information for internal affairs complaints with the other two agencies involved but i think it's time to set the record straight thank you thank you ok so now move on to miscellaneous business of the council program for many years in the community he just was a really outstanding person and just did so many things i don't even know how he found time to do them all so i know that he will be greatly missed and a lot of people certainly benefited from his presence within the community myself included and also fred writes hawaii who i didn't know quite as well but what i do remember about him is i used to attend refreshing spring church where pastor george at six was the pastor and i remember that they had a very good friendship and i would always see them together and i think she went to holland with him or something so i just remember how much she loved him and i know the kind of character that she was that he was some somebody really special so my condolences to both  five joy hall comes often talks about people crossing the street and you know making sure that it's safe we had another woman that came to speak about her son losing her son crossing a street so that we know about the danger at the intersections and so that there's initiative a lot of education or a ticketing warning tickets being given to people who are going to work or crossing the street it's walking i received several calls regarding there that people were kind of surprised that they've gotten tickets for that so i think it's important that we do things that improve the quality of life in the city and for everyone i think it's also important that we we talk a little bit about it so people know because people were surprised that you know this had happened and i just explained you know why it was and what was happening but as a city if we could just do an educational piece that goes along with that so people would better understand then so you know i'm not that and obey the rules basically i was talking to someone today who works for an agency and he told me all my i just do it all the time so it's sort of like if there's no traffic look across regardless of the  of what the light says so it should be enforced and if we're enforcing it just an educational p c it says to people this is for public safety this is so that no one else loses a member of their family or loses their life as a result of that but just you know let's just talk about it and you know let people know that we're that we're doing this but it's for that for the good of everyone thank you thank you anyone else i have to make an announcement and i apologize to julia lewis was home recuperating that the mail that i did print now i don't have with me so i'll do this off the top of my head as best i can the last day for the farmers market is going to be this thursday from three thirty till six thirty it's going to be a getaway day for them and they're going to have pumpkins for the kids face painting clown will be there and they're going to have for five dollar for five dollar tokens you get six dollars worth of merchandise which is a good deal so they had another successful year i congratulate them with that it's really done well and it's good for the people of bellevue  thursday october ninth that their annual are their regular meeting at st paul's church on fairview avenue they're going to have eight candidates night so it's basically kind of like a debate forum we've all been involved with that it's good you can go out there and see your candidates i think they're going to coalesce with the mount pleasant neighborhood association for this so that's october night that saint paul's church  the convenience stores that salvia slee a problem some of the things that are going on and i know the councils of the mind to continue with the moratorium but there certainly has to be some things worked out with especially in residential areas come up with with the appropriate plan and on that i had two or three complaints this week about and i know we had this problem and we don't want to be called that work but these basketball hoops in the street it's not good because again it's impeding traffic and what happens says there's a problem on some other avenue a lady message me there last night or this morning and basically becomes confrontational with the people that are trying to drive down the street and there's one in bellevue also it's the same thing and they say get off our street while the streets are for driving cars it's spelled out in new york state traffic law about about that and about people walking in streets and again we go back to quality of life and it is spelled out it's the new york state traffic law that people can be cited for this and as mr porterfield brought out maybe we need an educational process but i think we also need enforce ment and i am happy that saddam has seen that this concept is something that we need but i have to say that i'm very disappointed i sent an e mail to chief  and commissioner bennett on august twenty ninth asking for a meeting to discuss these issues and if a campaign is possible or not possible or anything i have yet to get a response and i'm very very disappointed in that i don't know what else to say i mean here i've been elected to represent the people and trying to represent the people but i need some cooperation to win and to say to get no response tell me dance it's not we can't have that meeting it's not feasible tell me something tell me to go to haiti if you want to tell me something that just not to answer an email from august twenty ninth i don't know what to say about that i'm very very very disappointed that happened that way i don't know what else to say on a personal note i lost two good friends and my spiritual mentor also and father hole going to fred bart's these guys are the perfect example perfect example of the left hand should not be aware what the right hand is doing a perfect example of this for both east meant they never looked for any accolades never looked like that they've done so much for this community we're is just a quick announcement make tap which is a minority contractors technical assistance program which is located eight eighteen albany street is having a seminar and becoming an end which is a workshop for minority or female small business owners and contractors that are interested in the certification process being certified gives you increased access to bidding and jabs opportunities to new york is twenty dollars and what the awards dinner does is to recognize people who have assisted the neighborhood association or contribute to the up to the increase in the quality of life in the neighborhood so one of the main things  going to do in this year is recognize the folks who helped us on the army street corridor to keep it clean and also a couple of individuals who have helped in other ways with the neighborhood association and the neighborhood this year i will be giving part of the proceeds from this fundra to the electric city bike rescue who recently got a recognition here by the city so because of the wonderful work that they're doing and additionally they are they are creating a presence in our community in our neighborhood and we really it was certainly want to be able to support that so i'm sure we'll be making this announcement again because it's october eighteenth but we invite everyone to be to come and have a really good time we did last year we expect to again thank you thank you anyone else missed also want to welcome newsies to town the show is taking here in schenectady that's where they do the prep work get everything fine tune before they kick off their national tour and that brings roughly eighty people  who live in schenectady for approximately a month while the show goes through that preparation and going for the national tour so we thank philip morris and the team proctors who've recruited that made it possible we're going to just adds to the level of excitement to our community i also wanted to just thank the g carr the greater capital area realtors association  they moved very unusual meeting here to schenectady they brought over three hundred realtors here to schenectady again it's that slow process of just helping change the image of the community looking at the positive things here and  getting that message out that there are opportunities for real estate in schenectady and that we want to promote owner occupied residence so thank you madam president thank you and i also share everyone says sympathies for and father hogan and two really wonderful people and i also was something i've been meaning to do the last couple of meetings and i always forget i want to thank all of our citizens who have taken care of the got flowers and gardens on the islands i think the summer they really