i like to call the city council caucus meeting to order we have two public hearings tonight and then we'll move on to the original consideration if the clerk read i know number one and number one original consideration in order and section two ten dash eight and section two ten dash fourteen and chapters one thirty eight section one thirty eight dash forty and section one thirty eight eighty one of the administrative code of the city of schenectady relative to rental certificates this is been discussed in committee he numerous times  number two i don't number two an ordinance changing the zoning district four fifteen zero to crane street to see to mixed use commercial introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing on april twenty second two thousand and thirteen at seven p m at council chambers room two zero zero nine schenectady city hall one o five j street schenectady new york it was discussed in committee without objection on consent item number don't number three an ordinance for the rezoning of part of five fifteen kings road from our one single family residential to our three multifamily residential introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing held on monday april twenty second twenty thirteen seven p m a council chambers room two or nine schenectady city hall one o five j street schenectady new york discussed in committee without objection on consent item number four i don't number for a resolution calling for a public hearing relative to the abandonment of streets in the woodlawn preserve to be held on monday april twenty second two thousand and thirteen at seven p city code to include a provision for towing fees and fee schedules introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing held on monday april twenty second two thousand and thirteen at seven p m at yes let's let's do the amendment right now so that would be changing when we approve this in committee mr alexander was going to be on the board of assessment review for a five year term so the amendment is to appoint her to the unexpired term so her term would end then in september thirtieth one thousand or twenty fourteen is their second to the amendment agreement with color city auctions for the marketing and sell of certain real property owned by the city of schenectady discussed in committee without objection on consent item number eight i don't number eight a resolution authorizing the transfer of title of two one zero four then franken avenue consisting of parcel number s p l number thirty nine point two eight dash one dash two one point one two habitat for humanity of schenectady county also discussed in committee without objection on consent and number nine i don't number nine a resolution confirming the appointment of randolph magoo and robin gregor to disconnect to the civilian police review board this is also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number ten i don't number ten a resolution approving a waiver of interest on fees owed to the city of schenectady by  discussed in committee without objection on consent item number eleven i don't number eleven contract and supply a resolution authorizing an agreement with north east or incorporated for the maintenance of the schenectady municipal golf course inadvertently had the wrong resume when we approved it in committee last week so this is making a correction for that so would somebody move this to the jenna came as porterfield second by mr all in favor i and then move or god you have created us in your image to reflect your date's your cypre your nature would be reflected in every discussion and every decision and every thought and word it takes place the seed and let it be reflected in true charity and patience and love of one another in this place for every decision that needs to be made for every discussion that takes place they were member that each one for every discussion of buildings properties dollars and cents appointments everyone involved people individuals lives to each interact with one another so lord give wisdom and discernment to make good and just assertions as benefit the wealthy or of all the people of the city and particularly for those impacted by the matters before business tonight or be present here in god the thoughts and words and actions of all concerned this we ask jesus to name and marketeers to these states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for a right we have two public hearings tonight the first is an ordinance to amend chapter one sixty five to include the addition of new green city categories jason plank is the only one who signed up to speak to this that accounts from there we've been asking for the last four years to have i persons with disabilities added into with the senior category also two is about four years ago we had also had an agreement to bring the id card that you need for the parks and rex from the main building because it's not accessible up to the city clerk's office and it still has not been done so and i'm hoping that we can be able to resolve that issue and bring the id cards because when you need him for the golf course personally disability would not be able to access the main bill because it's totally not accessible in a ramp would have cost almost about ten to twelve thousand so they opted for the lower cost by moving the id cards over to the city clerk's office some hoping that both of these issues will be able to care for this thank you thank you said i have no one else signed up some to clear this public hearing closed and we'll move on to the second one which is the twenty thirteen consolidated plans proposed allocation of two million eight hundred one thousand two hundred forty eight dollars in federal housing and urban development funding christopher low good evening everybody thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight my name is chris lowe and i'm the executive director with cornel cooperative extension in schenectady county located on not terrorists we have been a recipient of c d g funds in the past it's been a great funding source for us and we certainly appreciate the city's generosity in the past i'm not here tonight to speak in support of an application from our organization but i am here to speak a little bit about the application from the community loan fund for the capital district establishment of a schenectady satellite office for the community loan fund for the capital district will increase access to services of the community loan fund including small business loans residential mortgages home repair lo as well as educational opportunities for our residents the community loan fund has a very strong record of lending in schenectady county that has led to the creation of jobs and we hope the establishment of an office here in schenectady city will enable more of our residents to partake of their services so i ask you to consider their application and to fund them if possible thanks very much thank you jason thank madam president city council mer i have said for the last ten years the city needs to have an affirmative action plan for person with disabilities and minorities that live in the city the marin a staff has done appropriated to community don't block grant monies to ensure that personal have a meaningful access to all programs activities and services of said grant the last six years the city in the county of so had a contract to handle the affirmative action services for which has not lived up to the contract requirements and it failed to assure equal access to these grants the city still has not done an economic disparity study to help assure to access to jobs and to the federal state grants programs the city still has not done a fordable inaccessible plan for access to homes or rental units in the city nor implemented procedures public hearing on those in house funds every draftee of the five year plan needs to be done to address the reallocation by the city of these funds federal contracts that have been assured of access for both personal disabilities minors for jobs  in our local papers confirmed that the firm of action managers failed to do or job in requiring that the contractors for the year ebola part was meeting in the affirmative action requirements for which over thirteen million dollars the federal money was used a letter to the editor was sent into our local paper sent there was a need for accessible for affordable home modifications i e ramps and widening of doors as such a city has not even looked into this problem in conclusion the firman of actual contract needs to be reviewed and the goals must be bad and not to be allowed to be overlooked to the point of just attending meetings after meetings of getting nothing done we need to look at the meetings the job's goals and how comes within the city to help with getting person with disabilities minorities who are afforded an opportunity to apply and receive a job based on their own qualifications to have an stead in economic disparity study done so that the goals can be produced and set forth responsibilities of meeting these goals of both affordable and accessible housing and jobs within the city thank you very much thank you pepper mare thank you for the opportunity my name's ellie pepper i live in the city of schenectady thank you for the opportunity comment on the consolidated plan i'd like to comment on funding for housing counseling at better neighborhoods  also known as b and i as many of you already know i managed the housing counseling program at the end i for five and a half years b and i as a how to prove housing counseling program that provides one on one pre purchase counseling post purchase counseling and foreclosure prevention counseling through counseling and education they assist first time home buyers by ensuring that they are fully prepared for homeownership receive the most affordable mortgage praja product and afford the pitfalls that have forced many homeowners into foreclosure be an eye in pla homeownership advisers that are highly trained and certified by a neighbor works america pre purchase counseling and education they participate in ongoing training through neighbor works america to maintain that certification currently i work for the empire justice center as the regional coordinator for the northeast and hudson valley region under the new york state attorney general's homeownership protection program across new york state i see the effects of the afore foreclosure crisis one thing that is abundantly clear homeowners that participate in pre purchased education and counseling since two thousand and five are not the ones in danger of losing their home just last month neighbor works america published a study that found homeowners are one third less likely to fall behind ninety days or more on their mortgage after receiving pre purchase counseling provided by neighbor works network organizations this applies equally to first time home buyers and repeat buyers according to the homeownership preservation foundation a study done in two thousand and five by william c at gaar of the joint center for housing st harvard a foreclosure could impose direct costs on local government agencies holding more than thirty four thousand dollars it's more important than ever for the prevention of foreclosure to stop abandonment and vacant buildings in the city last year sixty thousand dollars was included in the consolidated plan for housing counseling unfortunately only a little more than thirty thousand of that is accessible to b n i the remainder of the unused funds are home dollars which can only be used to cover the specific project related costs this means be and i can only draw those funds when a council client purchases a home that was rehabbed or built with home dollars and they can only draw for the time spent with the actual buyer not all the potential buyers of that property who were ultimately not mortgage or ball or who changed their minds to purchase a different house this year the total proposed is forty ten thousand which is home dollars that can only be used as just described i urge you to increase the amount of non home funds in support of this cost effective important program thank you thank you it's always a challenging time i want to thank you for the half of the application that we put in for the summer lunch program for the continuation of support it's great to work in partnership with the city and also support the work that's in the plan for the other parks that enhance all the programs and some of the parks this summer so i appreciate the continuing partnership on that secondly want to as was indicated the paper askers consideration of continuing and support for the security deposit program that we have there was a hiatus in the program because we are transitioning from the human rights commission to the committee action program but now the program is a full operation and working in partnership with the emergency food and shelter funds which is a great help during this particular time of year we anticipate the funds will be expended by the end of june and so if there are not reallocated there will be no phones at this time next year so i ask your consideration  third want to talk about the catalyst or communal unfun is as minda kidded i have known about the loan phone for many years and it's a very strong operation some of us have talked on and off over the years about having some kind of satellite office here and now it seems a peculiar appropriate time because the s l d c little mini corporation is not operating at this point and so there is a real need for the kind of work at the loan fund they have gotten partnership in other in kind  support and for a very modest amount of twenty thousand dollars really looking at making at least six business loans for residential or home repair loans at least for commuter vell been loans nonprofit groups meeting with at least fifty seventy residents provide information technical assistance and starting a small business helping create or retain eight jobs and securing new socially concerned investors so it really seems a very modest one time investment that has a great payoff and before you are just some of the work they do that you may be familiar with but i certainly recommend them highly against a challenging environment the budget is never what wallet expect but i would hope that  there could be a way to to secure support for the loan fund the cycle thank you for consideration thank you mark chairs and respectfully request and hope that the counsel law signs off on that request we it's especially appreciated given the challenging and financial situation which we find ourselves one thing we want to be clear about is that we do not view this funding or any funding received as a gift rather we review it we view it as an investment by the city which carries with it the responsibility to use it to improve the city in some way how do we put in to do that we plan to do that by living up  mission statement which reads as follows himmel to hill arts center exists to ensure the healthy development and academic success of you by promoting their involvement in the visual performing and english language arts as well as a unique perspective on african and african american art what this means simply is that we're going to strengthen our existing culturally based arts programs which people are very familiar with the african drumming dancing and still drumming we're going to be expanding our visual arts program towards that  end we've recently received some invaluable assistance from you in colleges kennedy center including the services of several union college student volunteers in fact one will be introducing our students to a new concept called visual thinking strategies and i'll give you hand out when i'm done we'll also be expanding our music program we recently hosted the first of several workshops in partnership with the blues network of the capital district and we will be rolling out a band program in the fall and it's going to be led by a well respected musical educator in the with respect to the english language arts which we recently added to our mission we will be implementing a literacy program sometime between fall and year of two thousand and fourteen and we did that for two simple reasons first you cannot participate in or fully appreciate the arts without a good grasp a really good grasp of the english language moreover if you look at all of the information in the media regarding test scores there is certainly a need there and how far in closing i'd just like to say while we are great grateful for his help them lending will foster job creation neighborhood revitalization new group new private money will be coming into schenectady i encourage you to include the loan fund proposal in the final consolidated plan budget thank you thank you good evening my name is chuck steiner president of the chamber of schenectady county and i'm speaking on behalf of our more than one thousand business members here in schenectady county the chamber is an enthusiastic of mer mccarthy's efforts to invest in our neighborhood through his housing initiatives and we embrace his plans for the future we also strongly believe in the merit of bringing the community loan fund program to schenectady as we stated in our support letter for the c d b g grant application to community loan fund is a nonprofit financial institution with a community development mission it pools capital from socially concerned donors and investors to facilitate positive social and economic change throughout the capital region including the city as connectivity its investors enjoy one hundred percent repayment rate as a witness economic activities delivering impressive social returns to community loan fund has requested very modest funding to assist in an opening of a part time satellite office here in the city to facilitate more proactive delivery of its lending products training and technical assistance to the city residents and community based groups metroplex has agreed to assist in the efforts by offering rent free space the twenty thousand dollars requested by the community loan fund will leverage more than four hundred thousand dollars in services and funding for city residents and businesses the organization is schenectady county including six residential mortgages and home repair loans their organization has leverage more than twenty point five million dollars in schenectady county and provided training a technical assistance to hundreds of our residents has made up smid start up an expansion loans to small businesses non profits providing community services in affordable housing and individuals for home ownership or repair they primarily serve again women minority and low to moderate income populations we realize a city councils have many difficult decisions to make on the c b d grants however if you decide that there's not enough money available to full fun the vailable of this program it still has great merit and we as a city in the community look forward good evening mayor city council fellow city residents my name is linda kelleher i'm a property owner tax payer reson of the city neighborhood associations have in the past as this year been encouraged by the city to apply for city b g funding while continually being passed over for wars many of this request are have been based on issues or projects identified in the city's twenty twenty plan the bellevue preservation association's requesting funds to rehab the two tenants course and fairview park resurfacing the courts replacing perimeter fencing and marking one court for tennis and the other for a pickle ball in addition this so she is asking for supplemental funding to assure the opening of hill hurst pool and continue the programs  twelve under the supervision of the girls and boys club this o'shea should requesting funds for a new sign that was received recently named george what westinghouse and bellevue veterans park as approved by the council on a different but important issue jobs continue to be concern to the residents the city in its own twenty ten twenty fourteen consolidate plan specifies that the city schenectady will concentrate its anti property strategy on economic development  on job creation that will be available to end a vigil having poverty level income yet the city's goals for jobs and unemployment have not been met according to the two thousand and eleven caper the caper is the performance report the city prepares to show how the money was spent we can only assume the two thousand and twelve caper due out in the fall show the same dismal results of job creation by the city has been widely publicized and the national economy this small business is the vehicle for job creation the community loan fund or the capital regions requesting twenty thousand dollars for a variety of initiatives that will enable funny of at least six small business loans help fifty city residents with information technical assistance in starting a new business and how create retain jobs in addition the fund has loaned more than thirty three million dollars to six hundred sixty five community and economic development projects in the region i urge you to support the request of the bellevue preservationists association the community loan fund of the capital region thank you it's that that has a track record that makes it worthwhile to support i i invested in that when i lived in albany and years ago and a small investment but you know it's it was targeted and they're very reliable they key in on what businesses small businesses need some money for specific projects and they make it work so you get your money bellevue preservation committee and the other neighborhood associations do need your help with some funding and attention to the programs that we have we're getting better organized now to to represent neighborhoods and to and that there are specific needs and she mentioned several for bellevue and i think of some of the money could go for programs there that would be very official from the mayor a list of appointments dated monday april eighth two thousand and thirteen general from julia louis a reminder that bellevue preservation inc will be meeting thursday april eleventh seven p m at sa will church parish hall nine hundred eleven fairview have got speakers include city court judge matthews and community police officer matthew weekly who will take questions and listening to neighborhood concerns thank you committee reports now ok then we'll move on to privilege of the floor related to the legislative agenda i have for people who have signed up think they're worth at least a brief word of comment one glad to see that color city auctions is involved again the housing process had experience with them some time ago and there are various very solid organization and glad to see they're involved in helping deal with the issues about housing in our community secondly always good to see when their resolutions on churches and tax exempt property i know that the more those can be addressed the better off we all are third  that the civilian review board appointees like to see the two additional appointees as one who was a quote in the article today appreciate the article and proceed to being quoted but i just want to indicate that with the two appointments tonight it gives  some may think that the board does not have a quorum and that's not really the case because at least it's my understanding of working with the board that state law and gets involved and so existing board members who their terms have expired b ever placement yet as i understand it was still be continuing until the time of transition so as i understand it with the members that are there tonight the members are there before the board has enough to get going and i know there are a number of groups ours included that are working hard and getting replacements for times the terms are up and appreciate the support that the board has by the council and by the mayor and and by the police chief and look forward to working on some new initiatives with the board thank you for your consideration thank you and the calendar actually it's more a question i would like to know where the appointments for the board of assessment reviewing the civilian police review board where do they live a city council members good evening mr mayor madam president my name is joe kelleher and i'm a resident of the city of schenectady there are two items that i noticed on the legislative agenda that i just wanted to make a very quick mention of certificates and for the landlords and i understand that you brought that up a committee and i truly appreciate that thank you so much it's i think it's a fantastic idea and will be extremely helpful  to landlords and so everybody understands what to do as far as resolution number nine with the civilian police review board i'm not familiar with the gentleman that has been appointed but i can say  robin granger who is a member of the chamber of commerce the vice president i am familiar with her and her expertise and i think she's a fantastic appointment for the civilian police review board i think should do a fantastic job for it and i certainly give her my full support as well thank you thank you ok jeanne carney good evening madam president mr mayor council members thank you for allowing me to speak to you tonight i'd like to speak to you about the rental certificate ordinance i came to the last meeting because i was very interested in the debate surrounding the rental certificates and i wanted to hear what was being said and a couple of things struck me immediately i heard i heard a lot of landlords having concerns with the amendments and the changes to the ordinance but i didn't really hear much recognition or acknowledgement of all of the work that's gone into making those changes and the changes that are in the ordinance that are really very positive such as landlords having the ability to do minor electrical and plumbing repairs i think that that in the long run is going to end up saving so much money for those landlords and i think it's a great addition and change to the ordinance and i think that some acknowledgment has to be made to all of the people who've worked so hard on this throughout the days weeks and months and come together to make these changes and the other thing that struck me was that there were no tenants here to speak about their concerns are what they like about the changes what they don't like and so after the meeting i decided to go home and do a little investigating and i talked to some friends of mine who are tenants and i asked them about the rental certificates and what were their beliefs what were their thoughts on the overwhelming response i got was that there is such a measure of security knowing that there is this rental certificate in place when they move into a house because they know that it's going to be safe they know it's going to be up to code and it's so very important to the tenants to have that and i think that it's important to keep that in mind as we are moving forward and we are  trying to be inviting and welcoming and having attractive properties for people to move into in our city so that we can progress and move forward  i know that the concerns raised having to do with the i checked on line various other municipalities to see what their fees were and they're fairly comparable to what the schenectady fee is and would remain  and so i think that's also important to mention so in conclusion i'd just like to say that i think that this law as amended is a balanced law it balances the competing interests of the landlords and the tenants and it is fair and it is reasonable and i would urge the council to pass it thank you thank you i have no one else signed up songs as this portion of the meeting and we will move to the provably legislative agenda approval of the consent agenda chapter two ten section two ten dash eight and section two turned fourteen and chapter one thirty eight section one thirty eight dash four zero and section one thirty eight dash eight one of the administrative code of the city of schenectady relative to yes thank you i just want to say that as has already been stated a lot of work has gone into this you know we've gone back and forth we held over for a week or or two perhaps in order to make sure that we heard all of the concerns that were coming forth and  we're at a point now i think that we've come up with something that is going to serve the tenants and the residents as and the landlords as well i also just want to stay that way as we've continually stated that this is an ongoing dialogue and as we see things that need to come forth they may be to be looked at we need to amend this that door is not close but we have to begin someplace so we're beginning here and again we'll be working with code enforcement and with the law department to be looking at the other concerns they're brought before us so with that  arthur yeah i think you know we're hearing similar comments from from different folks on this issue this is this is one of those situations where i don't believe there's a perfect solution not a perfect outcome but as a council it is the administration and the organized groups like of all put in tremendous amount of time on this and so i think is terms of legislation goes we've we've worked this one as hard as we can possibly work and  i'm sure that most people would say it's not perfect and of course you know it's business porterfield said gers were always open to ongoing changes you know the checklist has been produced i'm not sure if it's on the website yet but i think eventually i hope it will get to the website some of the privacy concerns that we had been addressed some of the issues have not been addressed and there was a debate over the fee and what's the right price  so i don't think we're ever going to come to an agreement on where some of those things need to be but there are pros and there's cause i think one of the things we need to make sure that as a city we  were careful of in it's something that has been accused at times and sometimes maybe it's been deserved in terms of fair application of this law and that everybody is treated fairly and if there's  any situations people feel that they're not being treated fairly they need to bring it forward in and talk to anybody on the council i'm sure we'll hear the mayor's office will listen and correct any situation or people feel that they're not being evaluated fairly i think that's very important that we do that but all things considered i think this is definitely progress move in the right direction and so i will vote i yes thank you it's been stated by council person porterfield and councilman erickson there's has been a lot of work that's gone into this from both sides and i still have some concerns about the fee which i brought up at committee i'm not saying i didn't see any movement in that this fee and if there was just a slight movement i would feel better about it i still can't get my arms around even in code when somebody gets cited that they pay administrative fee these people are hired by the city to do their jobs in their jobs whether it's to be site somebody for a code violation or do a rental certificate inspection they're on the city payroll so i have a problem with that we're going to charge a fee i'd like to see that fee reduced i was asking for ten dollars just to show some movement there because  cost to doing business which we all agree this is a cost of doing business is going to probably fall back on the tenant when all is said and done you know landlords and anybody in any kind of business can only absorb so much then you have to pass it on so on that i can't get my arms around this fee and no movement at all in the fee maybe on par with everybody else around but you know we have fees and schenectady that aren't on par with other places around so we can argue all sides of that that issue whether it's fair not fair and as consummate erickson pointed out the one thing i don't want to see is anybody being harassed or anything like this there was maybe a little hint and it may be innocuous mr mr burgess being get it got a letter last week and he was one of the vocal people in this and maybe just part of the process but i don't think his property was in those that were  sent the letters to in the first round we'll let that go but we have to keep a close eye and make sure that there's no heavy boots coming down on anybody for speaking out but again what this fee i can't reconcile myself to say i would like to see some movement there so i'm going to vote no on this like this book or i'm going to vote yes and i just like to explain my vote and certainly think my colleagues on the individuals from slick all the people who did come out and speak to this certainly our logic partment who worked tirelessly on this as well as mayors administration codes and codes department i think in terms of  an administrative fee we do have to keep in mind that yes you know those inspectors go out and yes they're paid by the city but there's also support staff that sometimes with certain landlords and or tenants have to send out not one not two but numerous ten fifteen notices out to folks and that does begin to create a cost and i usually think that when administrative fees are attached to something it's not attached that individual who's actually doing the job it's for all of those individuals that are doing the rest of the backups of the department can work that being said i think mr carney put it very eloquently thank you very much and thank you for the research that you did because many times tenants weren't in on this conversation you were able to voice and you know perhaps it wasn't it wasn't the time but i think it's very telling that if landlords as business people which certainly i would think they would want the best tenants possible in their housing to make sure that their investment is a sound one we also have the responsibility of making sure through these laws that tenants feel protected as well many of the fires that we've seen in recent years have been into family homes and they're very expensive to take down and they're very expensive to maintain afterwards not only that they also cause an eyesore within our neighborhoods so i think this is a very good play and it's one of the first time i've seen the groups come together so rapidly and sensually and as mr erickson said nothing's perfect except maybe for use sometimes we don't really know but i think this is a great measure of being able to work together with community groups with the council and certainly with the administration in order to move our city forward which i think is what everyone wants and as the last conclusion so i'm through with my rambling and i vote yes and i just want to state that he does a number of things in the community and we're really happy that she was the expertise that she brings to this board and to in response to a question i think was asked she was eyes in the stock yes thank you i have the same concerns that i brought up in committee about possible conflicts and it was it was clarified by our corporation consul but again i feel that when people go into this this venue of a well the review board to hear their case they're a little skeptical to start where then i don't think there's no question back on the real estate is a big plus no question about that do you have to have that to sit on an assessment board no but it certainly helps but again just the idea that somebody's selling real estate in the city of schenectady and there sitting on the review board to state whether your grievance is credible or not credible i think there's just a little bit it could be a little air of maybe an impropriety could be thought of by the person so i would really like it's hard for me to believe that we can't get more people coming forward that would like to sit on this board it pays thirty one hundred bucks you know it's not a bad little stipend maybe people don't realize that but it's not a bad bad  pay for showing up at these meetings and to go to class for it so i'd like to reach out to people and tell him please submit your resumes to the clerk or to the city council members will get it to the clerk because i'd like to see other people in a more diverse set of people maybe sitting on the board because a lot of the same people been on there before and again i just nothing personal against mr alessandro on this but i have a problem with a possible conflicts  is an excellent candidate for this board and i can't remember in my past fourteen years ever having someone with such a strong real estate background and as being in the field of education the more education that someone has about a particular subject is always the ultimate that you would want i think she's a great candidate with regards to why people don't come forward i'm not really sure because we talk about it a lot it gets put into the paper it is a time commitment is a commitment of other responsibilities that people have in the city so once someone does come forward with that type of criteria that background and resume i vote yes miss king i totally agree with the speaker and i also vote i so that this madam president city council mer april is also known as fair housing months so that we just want to let you know that for affordable and accessible housing and that april is doesn't need for that month also thirty five years ago the disabled community across the united states walked into each one of the health and him health and education and welfare buildings that secretary cup final was the secretary and did a sit in and for thirty days they sat into the set cisco office building and where a lot of the community people brought in and brought in food under their purse under their blankets whatever it was to help feed the people because they were ordered not to be given any food or water which lead finally to secretary kahn a follow up to signed the nine hundred seventy three movement of having well over a million to two million people become disability advocates and learn to become from d n dependence to independence and i just hope that someday that this body will be able to work towards that goal thank you madam president mr mayor and city council members basically i want to announce events that we have coming up in my pleasant we have our merchants breakfast meeting which will be seven thirty on the eighteenth and we do need reservations for that and we have been getting help with the business and by mr moody veron which i appreciate we have our neighborhood meeting which will be this thursday night at the faith deliverance tabernacle in arse guest speaker will be david battledore on the affordable care act we're going to be removing some dead trees on cranes tree on the nineteenth we're looking for assistance on the twentieth a tentative date to plant new may fourth month pleasant cleanup day and we are looking for volunteers and organizations to come on board with us and saturday june fifteenth is a tour of my home garden tour these schenectady  as it comes closer somewhere between ten thirty and eleven thirty so i will be looking for people to sign on for that i do want to acknowledge that the city has come forward with some community policing in our a vegetable chip factory we have a restaurant diner which is available for people who are looking to expand their restaurant business into another neighborhood we have a vents coming up which are going to be bringing in people who are going to need eateries as well as places to stay overnight reverend book out of the new bridge church is planning conferences and tent revivals and he is expecting that he is going to be bringing  thousand people possibly who are going to need such accommodations we're looking for people to take office in our new the as it merchants organization and we have changed the time to a morning so that those out there listening who haven't been able to come because the shops are open at nine a m to nine p m can now come at seven thirty in the morning have some breakfast with us and learn about the business merchants association of mom sent and i want to thank all of you for your support and anyway thank you thank you joy hall because they've done outstanding work in this town and it's not easy thing to do what they did ny desnoyers i feel about this and we need to work on get these  fixed up and get the lights put up or i had mentioned before it's got to be done because to me speeder is a getting through and you need east trucks to go around all the way especially on broadway not on s  ave because before something happens between vic's luncheonette and pete's auto shop we don't want nothin to happen there because i've seen the trucks come around that corner it's pretty dangerous they thank you once again for allowing me to speak council members i appreciate a couple of things that are happening around the area this past weekend my wife and i have the opportunity to go to the schenectady inner city ministries of food pantry a benefit breakfast which was put on by the schenectady rotary club over at the ancient order of hibernian it's a fantastic event they really did a fantastic job over there they took very good care of us my wife had her one little pancake and i ate the works but there was if the food was really great that it took really good care of us we really appreciated it and it was nice to see so many people go out to be as type of events speaking of these types of events that benefit our community  as i mentioned the last time i was in excuse me i'm a member of the american legion specifically the niskayuna post at ten ninety two seeing as that's the only active home for veterans of veteran home in the in the area for legionnaires every saturday morning they have a breakfast their breakfast is five dollars for a huge huge plate of food it goes on from eight o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock in the morning ten thirty in the morning and every saturday and in fact that this weekend they asked me to cook so please please if you decide to come out i'm doing my best really  in as much they have stars for our troops which is where folks came in and bring in retired flags the flag of stars are cut out they use the i'm the usually the three foot by five foot embroidered flags those stars are cut out and they're put in small pouches and i apologize and bring anyone with me to show you but they use the embroidered flags because when they give these flags these stars rather to military members whether an active veteran an active member of the service or a veteran they can put them in their pocket and know that that star once hung in the flag in their spin supported them in support of our country and they can feel it there when they reach inside their pocket we're going to be doing that over at the american legion on thursday the eighteenth along with a potluck and if anybody would like to drop off flags or or donate something to that of to help with that it's truly appreciated the t wo other things i want to mention very quickly as i see only have thirty seconds left this connect the united neighborhoods does have a facebook page all the events that you've heard about that's the neighborhoods put on a make sure get posted on that they book page when they send it over to me people can find a stick schenectady united neighborhoods on facebook and get those events and also i understand that you matter schenectady has been doing a fantastic job and they've met over fifty percent of their goals so far and i want to accredit them and give them all the accolades that they deserve thank you thank you mary mclean he does is a success with the release of the movie he has helped put schenectady on the map in a very positive way i for one look forward to just a couple of things i want to remind people that open burning in the city is actually illegal i know that we had some legislation come before the council last year that amended some of the language with regard to open burning but it still is illegal to have open burning in the city of schenectady so even contained fires and fire pits are not allowed we're also in a very very dry period right now there's been brush fires you know in neighboring counties so certainly charcoal cooking gas is all fine make sure that grills are not on your porch we've had several houses burned down just in the past year from girls being on people's porches so just a little reminder about that i also want to tell people that got this question a lot i worked in the green market this sunday my manager shift and lot of questions about what is market going outside so the mark goes outside  be funding it's a very big decision that the council makes and often when we have public hearings people don't utilize the time to come out and weigh in so i really appreciate the amount of people that came out and and would like to see that for all of our public hearings getting back to the the amendments that were passed tonight i agree with my colleagues i don't think it's a perfect solution for everyone but i think it's a fair solution i can say that i have been talking with slick before they were really even slick it was about ten people than his library before i was even elected official and what they've done  grow and i've been very supportive of them meeting after meeting is wonderful and i do want to point out one thing because i know they'd certainly didn't get everything they asked for but they got some things i don't think they were expecting to get either but my experience with talking to mr shelling after a meeting that i tended months ago the plumbing and electrical repairs came up in that meeting and i talked to eric about it just assuming that the answer was going to be no and he was like let's talk about it what does it look like so i think mr schilling is very willing to keep the talk open i know there's been some undercurrent that once this is pastor has passed now once this is passed that's  don but i don't think that's the truth i had a very lengthy discussion with a gentleman the other night about the fees related to when a certificate needs every inspection do you know they have a certificate in place but yet somebody calls and you know maybe the fire alarm is missing or the smoke detector is missing because the tenant has removed it and i think we need to look at that feel a little bit and start to talk about what that looks like but i i'm most excited about is that mr schilling is really open and i think this sets a benchmark and now we're open to move forward with recognizing our landlords that are reputable landlords and giving them a different  recognition and more concessions so i think this is a good first step we'll continue to move forward and leslie i have been talking with legal for several months about reinstating the housing standard review board and those changes are in place and that legislation is more or less ready to bring to the council for discussion but i just wanted to bite off one bite at a time so that's just another thing that we've heard another thing that we're willing to put in place we had a lot of  rd appointments to go through now that those have passed we will be looking at at that only putting out on the agenda for monday so just a little update there thank you thank you gloves and if you have anything you know stick with a mail and order some pick up trash it's always a good thing to start cleaning up the neighborhood so he could support i think it's from eight thirty to twelve us what mike is planning on so to be a good thing can have to offer us with a golf course that is truly a great asset that we have here in schenectady the you know municipal golf course so it's good i'm glad they're going to top ten and that's always good to bring some revenue went to the city city he was the first african american position in the city and he served the public here everyone for thirty seven years over in union street you know he was just a really really nice man he was one of those down to earth kind of people that you know he was a doctor but you know he never like to help himself in such a high esteem he just was you know interact with many people and certainly will miss him in our community i'd also like to thank all the people that came to down today to talk about the cd and giving their input and i would like to lend my voice of support to the for the community development loan fund it is an organization that i am familiar with that does great work in schenectady and has done before even move into connectivity you know i have to say that i've been part of the meetings that were going on and with what we're trying to do and connecting with the economic development i think they would be a wonderful asset to work with a small business owners to this day small businesses owners still go to the business center looking for assistance on getting their business going so that would just you know that would be the help that they would need there was a question raised about one of the appointments and to the  the police review board and that person also lives in the city when to make it were just want to make sure the people understand that he is a resident of the susan eighty one and was a recommended by the human rights commission also there is something about hill he training called septet which stands for crime prevention through environmental designs and there were many people that were president the mayor and his staff had different people common and resit residents as well as architects and many people from all throughout the city so that together we could work on this particular concept you will be hearing more about it but it's something that as a community everyone can work on together in their own community and work to to bring schenectady even further  up in the lower the crime rate in the wall the things that are necessary to make this a livable place that people want to come and work with all the other programs that we have like just to remind people again as one of my colleagues said that if you would like to be on one of the boards submit your resume to the clerk's office so that we can you can be considered and so that we have a larger pool to look at and lastly i just try to tell people that again that the affirmative action officer will be at our committee meeting on the fifteenth to give a report for those who have been bringing that issue forward thank you thank you you yes just quickly i want to talk to the golf course opening tomorrow yes so that's i think it's really good news and something i wanted to note you know we today tonight we approved the contract for northeast turf which is the company that does a lot of the main it's on the golf course and we had some discussion on the specifications and how we did that and i had some bound to be some changes in the golf course and terms of the watering systems and things like that so i think we might have some additional savings going forward when we make some capital investments there when that does come around several maybe couple years in the future so the other thing we had a public hearing on the fees and we'll have a more discussions in the committee but i think you know just from a basic standpoint we need to make sure that  fees are structured in a way that gives the greatest benefit to citizens of this city and not necessarily people who don't live in a city and we like everybody we want people to come to our golf course and play but i want to make sure that the discounts don he he's interesting character he's done a lot of good things for the city and for our community as a whole with his involvement with the pines movie i was involved last year with the fireball run search for missing a couple of quick things begin vince remind people the whole neighborhood association is going to do a neighborhood cleanup the saturday eight thirty in the morning appreciate the efforts there all the effort pleasant bellevue's doing things woodlawn has done a number of things raising money for the restoration of the park and some cleanup activities there so there's a lot of good things happening here and people have time want to come out on the morning and spend a little bit effort to make your neighborhood better we appreciate that the golf course there was a letter that had gone around questioning the point of drug sales letter misstated mr sales was appointed to the board of assessment review he actually my nominee summoned to the counsel for the golf course  that board by statute requires nine residents to be appointed to it to represent those individuals who play golf who don't live in the city so that letter was distorted it was factually incorrect and just created some confusion mr sales does currently live in boston spa or boston like he is in the process of closing on a house in the city of schenectady so that  he's been impressed with the turnaround here things that are happening here and his role on that board will shift from a nonresident to a resident in the very near future and for mr regalia appreciate your consideration last year i will tell you that we open the golf course my best drive was opening day i should've stopped after that and it just went downhill throughout the season so i will try and improve upon that this year but i appreciate all the things the council didn't  n slick in their participation in the sun going to skosh and were well want to make the community better want to make the im housing stock better and it's a long term investment a long term commitment of everyone that's here and it's  have to do those incremental things every day to keep working to make things better thank you madam president and i did have one announcement on tuesday april sixteenth we're going to have be hosting a special day for realtors the purpose of this event is to change the misperception of schenectady the city mission ambassadors will be opening the doors swept over proctors where they will be a red carpet the marquee at proctor's in erie boulevard where welcome the realtors in addition different heads of different companies have been invited banks are going to be setting up tables neighborhoods will be setting up storyboards the program watches starting the g e theater with a performance of chorus line from the schenectady high school students and then there will be a number of speakers including the mayor ray killen philip morris and larry spring and then folks will then be have be taken on an escorted bus tour of the city highlight so this is just designed to get the realtors particularly people who may have not been in schenectady in a while to come in and see the good things that are happening