i remember to item number two a resolution calling for a public airing on monday nov fourteenth two thousand and eleven at seven p m at council chambers room two zero zero nine schenectady city hall one hundred five j street a review of the appear on the consent agenda item number three item number three a resolution calling for a public airing on monday nov fourteenth two thousand and eleven at seven p m at council chambers room two or nine schenectady city zero five j street increasing the minimum penalty in chapter one section fourteen point one of the code of the city of schenectady and imposing mandatory surcharges for code violation convictions in discus committee five a resolution authorizing a contract for engineering services to conduct in an evaluation for the for protection of the water treatment plant and wells to claw farber and associates been discussed in committee a motion moved by council member king to the second secondly mr erickson own favorite item five appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying i and you oppose item five appear on the consent to genda item six the settlement of a tax or sherry concerning seventeen twenty five union street entertain a motion move by mr erickson second accounts member brooker all in favor of item eight appearing on the consent agenda signify by saying resolution honoring our american vets take that out of order in i remember eleven item number eleven a resolution recognizing and pirlo as the two thousand and eleven woman of the year of the schenectady business and professional women's club and would present that tonight or to be consent agenda item number twelve item number twelve a resolution an amendment to a resolution number two thousand and eleven c s thirteen which awarded hudson river construction company inc a contract with the city of schenectady for the two thousand and eleven paid in program to now include part want to pay wastewater treatment plant improvements in the amount of twenty five thousand dollars for a revised total amount of one million six hundred thirty thousand seven hundred ninety five dollars and sixty five cents in a technical amendment to the paving move by council member blanchard to have a second secondly mr della salla all in favor of twelve a period on the consent agenda signify by saying item twelve a item twelve a resolution supporting the new coat drive benefiting capital region flood victims in this point i would entertain a motion to for unanimous consent to move invocation people we ask your blessings on the elections that take place around the world for people in northern africa casting votes for the next for the first time preparing to exercise democracy we pray for the elections of our country we pray for civil and deep discussions of the issues before us we pray for the elections of all people of good character we pray for the deliberations of this body may  the court call the roll please mr al mr mccarthy present out of order tonight the first one so i mean number two would  mr president it's my honor tonight to present a resolution honoring our american veterans and as i do so i certainly am very pleased to see we have some of our veterans and american heroes with us this evening i'd like to call up and if there's any other veterans in the audience that would like to come up and be part of this presentation i would welcome you to come up at this moment thank you gentlemen for being with us tonight we also have introduce yourself and gentleman pleasure to have all of you here tonight mr president i'd like to read the resolution on the floor whereas it was the soldier that fought for us so that we could enjoy freedom of the press freedom of speech freedom of religion the right to privacy in our homes the right to vote the right to demonstrate and to fight for justice the right to trial by jury the right to legal counsel when accused the rights of due process an equal protection of the law in the host of other fundamental rights essential to liberty which we enjoy and have to come to appreciate as americans and whereas it is the soldier who proudly salutes the flag who serves beneath that flag in conflict in whose coffin we draped in honor with the flag and whereas in times of conflict as well as in times of peace our servicemen and women have and continue to defend our shores from attack and ensure our freedoms our way of life our prosperities in our very lives and whereas these and where as each year on the inverse or the armistice ending what was then hopefully known as the war to end ah whirls wars we pause to recognize the sacrifice of the millions of american patriots our veterans who inspired the call to duty and who acknowledge their service to this grateful nation and where as we still believe today that the blessings of liberty require constant vigilance and sacrifice and where as every man woman and child in this great nation owes a debt of gratitude to those who have served their country so south closely and where as the observance of veterans day is an appropriate time for all citizens to express their gratitude to those who gave so much for their fellow citizens now therefore be it resolved that the acting mayor and city council of the city of schenectady pass in their deliberations to remember and honor our veterans into colleton its citizens to express their gratitude our veterans for the gift of freedom they have given to all of us and be it further resolved that connectivity ins are called upon to recognize that churns through out ceremonies in appropriate activities not only today but throughout the year in further resolve that all that trains a recent conflicts nat's gayness interact and throughout the world are encouraged to contact the scanty county veterans agency and the york state division of veterans affairs for support and securing the benefits thank you gentlemen we really appreciate you being here and thank you for all you've done for our country project this is a resolution supporting it the new coat drive benefiting capital region flood victims as president i'll read the resolution where as sondra stevens of sonorous fine jewelry sixteen twenty four upper union street schenectady is spearheading the hurricane irene a flood victims coat drive and is inviting donation of new codes and will accept donations from now until hollowing deliver to sonorous fine jewelry or any schenectady county or amsterdam first niagara bank and whereas the co drive needs new coats of all sizes for all ages as the need is that grade and where as fry hoppers has donated a thousand dollars worth of coats judy decker of proctor's and her husband dropped off twenty two coats the local steamfitter sheehan has pledged three hundred dollars worth of codes and ellis medicine is participating with a parallel drive at ellis medicine from nov fourth to nov eighteenth now therefore be it resolved that the acting mayor and city council encourages all city residents and businesses to participate in this community support program by making donations of new codes of all sizes and ages to assist those suffering from the effects of tropical storms irene and lee and be it further resolved that the acting mayor and city council commend sondra stevens for her community minded spirit in organizing the co driver and to fry hoffer's judy decker and her husband the local steam thank you very much honorable mayor wonderful council members i just want to say that my son and i we didn't know what to do when this happened our marines went down there for them to bring some toys and we were able to see the devastation desperate need so we contacted him and ellis medicine and a wonderful woman called suzanne hearts from hearts cleaners and she was able to clean more than one hundred use codes and then we thought well if we all give up a launch if we give up a lotto ticket if we get up getting our nails done we could buy a coke and that's what's happened from a ninety two year old woman coming friday with two codes that she was a wisp of a woman to judy decker who went to kohl's and bought twenty two coats to first nagra to ellis medicine it's just the beginning we've extended this to november eighteenth and the reason being is that my first call on thursday was from rufe by this area middleburg you know what they said three sondra can you get us three hundred codes that isn't for economy that isn't scary it's mind boggling and without our community we can't do this i'm just the vessel with my wonderful son and my friend peter dorgan and were asking you to please from now until november eighteenth stop by with a new coat any size it wasn't just the toddlers it was a farmer that had the same boots for a week that was looking for a pair of shoes true story so we'll take zero to triple x will take bluing in between and you can come to first snag a bank if you're so inclined you can go to alice madison they'll be a box their employees come out to support this wonderful wonderful at that and without you we couldn't do it god bless you all thank you thank you thank you sandra for all the good work you do we have to public hearings on tonight the clerk read the first  first public airing on a proposed ordinance to a man chapter two forty eight regulating the use of skateboards and specific locations in the city of schenectady first speaker jerry gr good evening everyone thank you for your time on behalf of the up union street big we propose this change in the ordinance to address on there are growing concerns over the the safety and security of union street and just the time  investment that's going in to the the new fish for within our boundaries we'd like to see this going to school coach changed to reflect something comparable to downtown that will address specifically skateboarding but hopefully as a side effect address all our other concerns thank you very much for your time you have a good evening thank you peter ber thank you very much for your time this evening my name is peter dorgan i am the manager of first nagger bank in the upper union street district i just wanted to share one quick story that just kind of emphasized the need for the skate board regulation in our district  and my particular branch we've had vandalism we had a retaining wall that was partially torn down by the scape waters to help facilitate making jumps through a drive through and they do this while we're open for business and w cars are still driving through the area we feel that they present a hugely significant safety and liability issue for themselves for others and for the businesses thank you thank you sir ga hi i'm here on behalf of the chamber of schenectady county and we would very much support the change in this connectedness blog that will extend the skateboarding ordinance currently in effect in downtown schenectady to the of the union street bit unsupervised youth on skateboards can be hazardous to pedestrians they can cause damage to local businesses and to the streets skate in the business district we have parks and residential areas located nearby that are safer and are available for this kind of recreational encourage the city council to make a change in the ordinance thank you and the director being up means street head and i came tonight to read a communication from danielle from attila who is the manager at parker's bagel bakery i would really like to be here tonight but i have another meeting i don't know if it's possible for you to speak to me but here it is something soon something has to be done soon or people are going to be injured or worse is dangerous for them and the drivers and walkers in the area they are also vandalizing our buildings please urge the city council to pass this ordinance thank you  thank you i just searched the council to accept this ordinance and my life was miserable a few years ago when they were busting up the front of my store on a regular basis and our chief came up a million times and it went away for a little bit now i've confronted them personally i find if you're polite they're polite but there's sometimes groups of thirty or forty you know i support children these kids haven't been rude to me i don't know if maybe down the road we'll have a fundraiser get them off the streets thank you he and his friends don't want to come down to grab a burger or pizza never union street because they feel intimidated by these groups of people they block them you know call them names they do a lot of things so i've had back talk from them you know children i know are being from coming down and using businesses and we don't want to see that so i'd like to see this passed thank you that concludes the individuals who signed up to speak on public hearing number one the clerk read it with your number two number two a proposed local law to partially exam cold war veterans with a primary residence in the city of schenectady from general municipal taxes john honor the cold war veterans when did this honor those who are bored to combat veterans why not giving us the exemptions that were included in the city tax base when the garbage tax and other fees are taken out of the city tax base i'm all for you honoring us cold war veterans and all that but if there are only thirty still very dissidents that are cold war veteran how many of the resident tax payers are there from world war two that are left i like the mole that answer and how much would it cost to be rectified the injustice that was done we were war two combat veterans had all kinds of benefits well it whatever benefits we had different governments honored us even including the schenectady city county asking you and i think that al increases in taxes that you propose should be all lumped together not just when the paper reports it or we only got over one percent tax increase when actually when you take all the fees and whatnot that you're increasing every year you may have a six or seven percent tax increase than from the previous year well i hope you can do something for us in the let us know how many were war two veteran you do it come up and i've been i've been after this for two and a half three years and if you notice when they brought the veterans up i stood in the back like the bible says for someone coming after me that i'm not worthy of tying his sandals these were people that came before me that i'm not worthy of time in their pools they liberated all these countries their new second world war the cold war veteran  and kept his country's liberated kept a communist on the other side where they had appeared we've got a like she's coming up in a couple weeks you could thank all these veterans that were here to cold war veteran for keeping the communist out of our way i mean we didn't fire bullets but we had them we had the demolition in case they did cross over we were there to help so i wish this would go through you know i've been fighting this for two and a half years thank you ave i think all of the cold war vets all tony the tip of the hat to tony's been working hard for this and finally got it it's good but john merson e x certainly brings up a good point i've said this for years you know one thing about faeces it's not example for seniors or veterans you know a guy like john he gave a big part of his life he left the g e for three years and when he came back to d g he had a start where he was the other guys that were still there they moved up the ladder and john didn't so he gave three years of his life in lost promotions you know for work with that so i think we have to rethink our fee schedule so i understand why it's a fee but again we have veterans that gave their lives for us gave me the right to speak here before you tonight and i think it's important that their thought of when it comes to living you know their lives out in peace and be able to afford to pay taxes so he made a very good point and it's something i certainly have been on to for quite a few years there's no exemptions for veterans for seniors and i think something that has to be i want to subsidize that i don't like pay more taxes but to subsidize what these fellows did for us i think is very important thank you jason play jason plank says connected to bob said he had to go to meeting at seven thirty but he has support nine and retired as the seven as a united states master sergeant for the united states air force and the vietnam that definitely this would help those individuals and we should be looking at a complete broad base communications and petitions we don't have any minutes to communications presented to the city council for monday october twenty fourth two thousand and eleven under official from the mayor a list of appointments dated october twenty fourth two thousand and eleven under general non and there are no petitions the finance committee two items regarding the budget number one after our meeting earlier today before this meeting we have agreed to include retreats connectedly in the twenty twelve budget at a rate of ten thousand dollars we're going to move some money from another line into that line the plan is departments working that out to be no effect on the net budget but we are going to fund retreats connectedly and  other piece of news is that on friday oct twenty eighth at five o'clock we will adopt the budget in its national session and room one ten downstairs thank you the stadium tennis courts and there and in need of some rehabilitating an order to keep him viable as far as being used so i talked to carlos and and he said that he put in for a grant i don't know if they got it or they didn't get it but what you're probably hearing more about it but that that's a an outstanding stadium and if you think back on what it was used for and when i was using some of the outstanding tennis that needs to be on the east coast of this country and some of the people that play there went on to do bigger and better things and we're looking forward to revitalize revitalizing that that facilitate so that we can bring back some of the top flight tennis players in the world and we're looking forward to getting a grant but if not smiling for the rehabilitation of the tennis stadium and to provide permanent cd music haven is going in for the next round of funding we wouldn't learn about that until it think next spring would be the normal time that the state would make a decision on that really committee reports on the community don't block one for the out of house and one for the end house and you know the explanation of the c b days it was not a good next to the nation and that needs to be done also too is that the county fellow feel just the ways and means committee person made a comment last wednesday that the county has for the third straight year is on target of receiving about for over four million dollars additional revenue above the eighty three and a half that was agreed on in the following monday in order to even get it passed you know if you use the old agreement and everything else to keep the city's losing almost two million dollars in revenue and you can parse it all you want with it but it still comes out to be that much and the last over the last three years we probably lost between three to four million dollars in additional sales tax revenue if you go back again i know peggy probably has a lot of then affirmation but council member  field was adamantly opposed to it and voted no on it didn't bother to go along with it and he made a lot of comments about it and i would suggest that you might want to go back and learn some of the things that he had said on that issue we need to be able to come back with all the revenue that we can and give it away is not not a very good deal also two is on the agenda is number nine and so forth on these resolutions where you had the property tax assessments for watch straight and so forth the fordable holocene you reduced it now from nine million one point nine million down to eight point three in four twenty ten twenty allotment down for nine point nine to eight point seven what is the actual net effect cost of the lower assessment how much money are we losing for this entity itself this is part of they are receiving section eight h money they used to are they were still receiving it and you know what kind of a loss what kind of gains are we having so forth it really doesn't tell us what's going on again with the budget we have to be able to take a look at what some  revenues that we have lost due to the county pushing forward and we need to take a look at pulling out the sewer water find employees out from the general fund which is paid for in the property tax put under the sewer waterfront we need to pay pay the garbage people out and put it under the garbage free thank you broadway couple years back and and then we can have a different market on  when the code enforcement was starting off i called up and reported that one of the absentee landlords that owns a t v stall garage next to my house he's like all slum lords they milked the property for all they can get but they don't put anything into it this garage the paint was peeling it was a flying all over it looks like a first class mess so finally i found out by a some people that start working august september and the to the get that well after the few weeks ago i called up because the job looked like it wasn't done like i was told it was going to be done they just scraped off the pain they were going to put a somebodies property do these code inspectors have to inspect the properties from the streets to see if the job is done i don't know what kind of rules they have but it doesn't make any sense that he couldn't go over to the front of he had to go on the street on to michigan avenue and take a look at this and you couldn't even see it from that you can add to the front of the garage because there's a house there's cars parked there but i i go in go on the property there lock been cutting the grass ever since the previous owner most of us that live on sky schuyler street in michigan and we keep our properties up in the nice looking condition and whatnot we don't let him go to heck but when you get a slumlord into a place they just let it go so what you have to do is untie the hands of these if there's some rules that they can't walk on people's property to reinspect the job or it doesn't make sense to me but this is this joe came up and told me that his name was joe and he said that he can't walk on the property to see gotta do it from the street it doesn't make sense so untie the hands of these inspectors give them some give me something that they can really use to you know get after these people that violate the various codes that we have thank you thank you good evening again vince for you campbell haven't you i'm a little concerned about the gazette headline at your meeting you say you can't find anything to cut out of the budget i'm also very concerned about  taking the waste water treatment plant back if that's what we're going to do i think there was a lot of thought that went into when we outsourced that years ago when there was quite a lot of debate on now at this point do we want to upsize our our workforce in schenectady i mean our biggest problem seems to be pension and benefit costs and i know a couple council people think to cover over time we should hire more employees well our pension costs keep going up and up and up that we want to add to that number look i'm very concerned about that because i like to look at the long term ramifications of doing these things instead of short term if we were looking at long term years ago maybe we'll move we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now but we are so i think we have to look down the road some and i'd be very concerned about taking this department back i know there's employees there that aren't happy about it i'm sure that i had a couple call me so is this something we really want to do is this the right thing to do for schenectady i don't know about that because again why are we upsizing when we should be downsizing even through attrition and what whatnot we shouldn't be putting more people since our pension cos of mayor stradley said it's going to be ten million dollars by fourteen or fifteen well why are we adding to that for generations to come we have to think down the road for other people that are going to live in this city and it's very concern and i'm very concerned about that now you have to find something to cut this can't be the perfect budget i don't believe and i haven't seen it yet the perfect budget ever they can't find anything to cut so i think maybe we have to sharpen our pencils a little bit and at least make some kind of move to cut something out of the budget no mr mccarthy since you are the acting mayor and you're on the consul i would like to see you recuse yourself at least from the vote on this budget i think it's the proper thing to do because that's unprecedented as far has presented a budget in voting on the tools so i think that's a good thing to do just one of them a reminder since is the last council meeting before election day please people go out and vote it's very important to share no matter who you vote for i see a lot of apathy on the streets maybe you ran into a two so it's not a good sign that people are of disgusted with the system so i'd like to urge everyone to police these fellas here like john they gave their life for this right so please go out and vote the shia thank you brandt and president is connect the oh what a wonderful group we have representing our city our elected officials you're double dipping your kid paid by the city and he accept money from the union for campaign fund are you representing you tell me you're going to tell the city employees what to do and you're taking campaign funds from the union how you do that you're going to tell them to live in the city you're going to tell me i can't take cars home what are you going to tell him to do i don't understand it how can you take campaign funds from the union that you're supposed to be overseeing and his city employees i think that's terrible personally i think that's horrible i don't understand it we got people who when paid to new city police fire chief twenty thousand dollars for what intuition to his regular bait for not taking the car home is that the reason for giving him twenty thousand dollars then you mean the thirty five forty people that take cars well now there you can appraise them for twenty thousand dollars in value for replacement of a vehicle in maintenance a gay ass is that what you're looking at and you can cut our taxes in the city  said who are you working for i honestly believe that you should all resign i think that's the best thing for our city i know to have you're retiring but i think you should do it this the shame what you're doing here with our city you got no backbone you'll have got the backbone of what issue you didn't fight mr stretton over code for spend what did you do for us the taxpayer how many people in our city would like to have twenty thousand dollars a year for an income and you give the fire chief a twenty thousand dollars grades does that make sense it doesn't to me how can they buy medicine food for seniors here in this city they can't take a how are they going to pay taxes and you can't figure a bag a of where you've got a zero percent increase and then you have our fees which we can't even include in taxes and you're working for us well boy oh boy do we need help and we need lots of help thank you the next day we got a big problem with the housing projects up here the eight day changing heating system but nobody can control the heat in their own apartment anymore it's it's not something about it a place for these kids to be it's got to be done because it's good to be on say for them to see years anybody to be out on the street you can't be no where you've got to watch every minute so we got to do something and we got picks up the sidewalks to go some of the sidewalks of pretty bad that's why people been walking out in a row and ten and may also the affirmative action contract is up at the end of december we should be taking a look at the contract with the foreman of action between the city in the county that should be called for a public on the last of november and monday so we could discuss of some of the goals and the outlines of the affirmative action office you know we need to take a look at how we're going to create jobs for the city and put our own people back to work we've got to be able to start doing that we've got to start looking at the affirmative action within for housing and affordable and accessibility the county still does not have a fair housing co city's and we need to take a look at that we also need to take a look at developing a fifty five b program for hiring persons with disabilities and we need to take a look at a five to three program which is your purchasing requirements for affirmative action for a person disabilities and all wrapped up with by the numbers a little bit of mind boggling numbers for you in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine the united nations declared we had six billion people on this population on october thirty first next week not only being hollowing but also being a catholic holiday all souls day united nations will announce there will be seven billion people on this planet and at a conference of be at about ten thirty announcing that through the united nations out of that seven billion approximately a little over fifty four million individuals with disabilities live here in the united states break it down even further in new york state a little over three point six million live in the state and breaking it down to this county level a little over twenty six thousand that lives in this county and breaking it down to the city a little over fourteen thousand individuals with disabilities hopefully  you'll be able to think how much more elbow room that we've got with seven billion people thank you good evening my name is hollyhocks i'm president of the unitarian church at twelve twenty one wendell avenue in the city as many of you know our church has a one hundred ten year history here in schenectady and in that time we've made significant contributions to the well being of the city and its citizens our members are deeply involved in many community organizations such as the schenectady inner city ministry the salvation army soup kitchen planned parenthood and the center for community justice for about twenty years we have had a project of mentoring children in lincoln elementary school for a number of years now every month we have selected one local relief organization to receive our entire sunday collection on the third sunday of the month we are indeed highly committed to actively supporting our schenectady community we have a long history of continue contributing greatly to its betterment and we want to be in a position to be able to continue to do so during the vast majority of our history the real property owned by our church like that of all religious organizations has been exempt from property taxes recently however due to omissions and changes in policy we've become involved in a real property ordeal that could cause extreme financial hardship if not ruin to our church and we are currently working with officials of the city to try to resolve this matter we believe that the ongoing discussions are making progress we are hopeful that a mutually agreeable resolution can be reached soon we'll be continuing to monitor the situation and the city's response very carefully thank you for your work on this matter we're hoping for a timely resolution thank you thank you j mayor members of the council good evening my name is john rashad ski i'm owner of a small tronics firm in schenectady supplying high tech measurement instruments to customers around the world as much as i take great pride in my role as a business leader providing much needed employment in our community i take equal pride in my membership in the church in wish i were ship the unitarian church here in schenectady i speak to you in my capacity as a member of the finance committee of the church hollyhocks and i come to speak to the city council tonight not just because we share a love and dedication to our church but also because we are committed to the city of schenectady and we truly believe that schenectady benefits from our continued presence of presence of the  arian church and we are great very grateful to you mr mayor and to your administration for engaging actively in discussions with us on our real estate property tax issues we understand that these issues are complex and cannot be solved easily and we are also working with state representatives who have helped us this far in  a partial relief of this tax burden however there remains that now standing liability which frankly is overwhelming it's putting our church finance in a state of paralysis i ask all of you to ponder how your place of worship would fare if faced with an unexpected tax burden amounting to more than half of its annual operating budget so now we are with great gratitude to the mayor in his his actions very optimistic that this issue will be resolved in a truly  but at the same time i must convey as leader as a leader of the church the reactions of the members of our congregation anxiety fear and yes also anger it's truly unfortunate that a widget in that religious institution with such a long history of service in the community should find itself in dispute over payment of real estate taxes we believe that the church should not be in a circumstance and this circumstance and hope that the city leaders will act with a sense of priority and urgency to promptly rectify this matter thank you thank you sir good evening acting mayor city council members my name is linda crandall the property owner reson of the city tonight we'd like to urge you to first adopt the management plan for the woodland preserve although it is limited in the scope due to restrictions imposed by this not to sell the two parcels on colonial avenue that contain d c wetlands i have heard the argument the city does not want to or have the resources to manage these parcels and therefore would like to sell them there have been offers to manage these parcels and other parcels by don written or the author of the management plan who has and continues to have a vested interest in preserving the woodland preserve among other interests expressed regarding the woodland preserve includes a high school student who has organized clean ups in the preserves with friends this student would like to organize monthly clean ups and which students could receive hours to or community service project i continue topic of controversy is the city ordinance passed in one nine hundred sixty nine this ordinance clearly demonstrates the venn city's recognition of the woodlawn preserve as an asset not as a liability as is been treated for so many years the city council should designate the preserve as forever wild and therefore demonstrate that this city council and acting mayor also recognizes the significance of the preserved by continuing to redress this issue and other issues of development time and time again i am just stress that the city council and the acting mayor has not acted on the issues of the adoption of the management plan the forever wild designation of the preserve and the sale of the two parcels and colonial avenue these issues continue to be tabled by the council in the acting mayor week after week month after month it is time for action let's do what should have been done years ago adoption support the management plan submitted to you preserve us forever wild and commit to adding parcels to the preserve to secure and protect environmentally sensitive and significant part of the city in the county of schenectady thank you thank you believing we were told in a newspaper article last week that this council couldn't find any item and all that could be cut and so the taxpayers will get no relief from our press apax us this here i would like to offer a few suggestions as to why this council cannot find anything and some suggestions on how this a body will be able to in the future it is obvious that the council doesn't have enough time to look at the budget this body is dependent on department heads and it is their job to try and get as much as they can in their budgets that is a normal thing to do if there is a finance committee yet everything this year regarding that committee has been to approve whatever the finance director put in front of  the committee has not been on top of the budget so again i ask that this council with the help of the corporation council put together legislation that requires the mayor to submit the budget no later than september first i don't mind repeating myself with this this is something that really is an important thing for the taxpayers in the city and i ask that this council set into place before the end of this year a mechanism by which the council may stay on top of the budget at their committee meetings regarding a city county partnership we've heard from speakers over the years that they are pleased to have a partnership with the city you know we hear little about any partnership with the county the sales tax distribution is such a partnership and it must be considered in the months to come the city's sales tax collection ratio to its distribution has been increased considerably at the same time the taxable property ratio due to tax exemptions has diminished greatly city taxpayers are paying for practice for m v p s garage for movie land for the building that houses a par for the former car company building now g e theater for bombers for center city and for marcellus just to name a few these businesses bring in sales taxes and we are not benefiting from that in any way we pay for streets to be plowed potholes to be fixed rate lighting and public safety we pay for water and sewage that these antibodies use and we pay lacked we need taxpayer relief i cannot stress the importance of that we must form a partnership with the county that will give us relief thank you ro i'm roger hall i live in the city for several months i've been talking about the fact that we are marching sometimes lemming like towards a financial cliff and i've said that anyone who has run any business a ny time has looked for a three to five year plan in the course of the debate that we had last week you said mr mccarthy that there was a five year plan and that plan is required by the controller i've searched the gazette i believe has searched for such a play and i haven't found it so on behalf of myself and the gazette and anyone else in the city it's interested i would love to see the pla the finance commissioner can give you that on the comptroller's website where it's required george shaw my name is george jr i am a retired professor from union college i was born in alice hospital nearly sixty six years ago i was raised and went to school in scotia new york just across the river i used to visit schenectady when i was a young lad walking across the bridge and back and those were glory days i moved back year after going to school graduate school teaching at the university of minnesota for fourteen years minnesota being a mother suppose at high tax state and i moved back to start a geology program at union college i have lived here in the city for thirteen twenty three years paying taxes gladly paying taxes i might say my son attended schenectady high school and graduated and mr della salla was one of his teachers i am proud to be a resident of schenectady i am proud to have the opportunity to help support the city financially through my taxes i am proud of what has happened in schenectady the last seven to ten years where the city has made a significant turnaround and enormous progress in an attempt to return to some of those glory days of yesteryear and i believe the council the acting mayor the former mayor deserve considerable credit for the efforts they've made to make this happen and i would like to personally thank you all for the efforts that you may i think you deserve an occasional more positive statement than what you're likely to get here most of the time finally imparting i did not realize that my colleagues and friends from the first unitarian society of schenectady were going to be here tonight i would simply like to add my words to theirs and indorse the efforts to try to do something about this unfortunate tax situation i'm sure that everyone will act in good faith and we will come to a resolution that will be workable for all and i thank you for the efforts that you've made thank you on some of the things that ya'll are talking about mr pike mentioned something about a fair housing coordinator well i've been expounding for quite some time now about a lot of the problems side been having or i'm living and they include special people that are living that don't have to follow the rules of tenants and as far as code and horsemen are concerned and it's been a real big problem  that somebody next door to me now i'm not a doctor nobody's inform me of anything but her room next to me somehow caught fire and i could smell barbecue fluid  w and it was sometime couple weeks i think after that all transpired because it never was reported to the police department nor the fire department until i think the next business day when the bookstore people walked into their i walked in and smell smoke and that's when they called the fire department and that was two days later but then when i came to city hall and they told me that person is not there anymore well informed yes they are and they still are there and there are other people there and they're in an hour and these people are somehow get again under different rules and then i notice today in my travels the dealer renzo attorney building on not street is also occupied by judge caruso he has a private office there and mohawk opportunities has moved into that building and i know you're all this procter production company it's not just  doesn't just bring shows here the big thing with them is that they're producing company i'm as usual the whole thing comes up about schenectady everything's pearl keel and politics and that's right in there too so i was kind of glad to see this numb thinking well now before they use some of these special people for mohawk opportunities per i have that they're having other people to check it with like a lawyer and the judge mohawk opportunities was on franklin the berkshire group with franklin community develop new york state community development was also is still is on franklin and then there was another group there that dealt with people that were needed financial chemical they needed chemicals you could tell me right well it's a hot it's a real hot blade around here and i really mean a blade because i could lose everything i have in a moment good evening my name is heather digs i'm a schenectady resident and an attorney that specializes in domestic violence and child welfare law this month is domestic violence awareness month and i am here tonight to talk about the seriousness of domestic violence domestic violence is a pattern of course of behaviors used by one partner to establish and maintain power and control over the other partner types of domestic violence include physical emotional verbal sexual and psychological abuse while domestic violence affects heterosexual couples and members of the community over ninety percent of reported d v cases involve female victims one half of women murdered in new york state are murdered by their intimate partners here and schenectady over eighty percent of all nine one one calls to our police department and wild domestic violence so what can we do here in schenectady number one we need to raise awareness we need to offer more employee trainings provide domestic violence education in our schools provide education to domestic violence perpetrators about the impact of their behaviors and launch a public marketing campaign domestic violence survivor is must be aware of the services out there before they can take advantage of them and we also need to provide sensitivity training so survivors feel safe coming forward to disclose abuse secondly we need to expand the programs that provide services to domestic violence survivors our program at unity house has been hailed by federal regulators as one of the top programs in the nation we offer a holistic approach to domestic violence services that include shelter counseling financial workshops housing programs and strong police collaboration third we need to stiffen laws for those who perpetrate domestic violence and new york state and for it we need to work collaboratively as a community to combat domestic violence this involves partnerships with political leaders neighbors clergy counselors police courts and various fatherhood initiative every child and every person deserves to feel safe in their own home and in their community former mayor rudy giuliani once said about crime quote it's all about safety and yes i agree it is all about safety and closing i'd like to thank acting mayor gary mccarthy for going purple this year at city hall and i'd also like to commend the council for their recent d v resolution that was passed thank you very sneak in for a make an exception for me kathy lewis i'm a resident of the city and on the school board as mr mccarthy match and good evening as many of you know we have begun our search for a new school superintendent and to that end i'd like to announce that we are holding community meetings beginning tomorrow at three thirty three thirty to five at yates school and at six o'clock to seven thirty at the y m c a downtown here to get community input on this search there are three dates beyond that they are november third november seventh and november ninth and those details are available on the school website in addition to the community meetings that we're holding there will be hard copies of a survey available in key locations around the city such as the library for people to complete that survey and get it back to us and also there is an on line survey on the school district website so we are anxious to have input from the all the stakeholders in the in the city parents  information i want to pass on thank you very much thank you kathy if you want to apply for a federal grant with the city to clone john your goal ski we could probably get the council to do a joint resolution with the school board bills where brooker just announce an announcement mr president regarding which will be coming out on the twenty seventh the announcement but for people who are home watching  for people here this evening the city's canadian would like to observe monday october thirty first how weaned from two to eight p m with the earlier trick or treating provided for younger children as it has been the case in previous years we're asking trick or treaters to conclude their door to door visits prior to eight p m and also all four of our schenectady fire departments will be supplementing halim festivities by handing out candy activity books in fire safety information all four of its locations in those locations are new fifteen fifteen states tree station number three on third avenue in station number four in avenue a and not street so again we're hoping that people will abide by those two to eight p m on october thirty first for hollowing thank you thank you are we working here greetings to everyone from former mayor brian stratton i had the good fortune of being able to go on the block inspection boat tour on friday and it was really interesting to see some of this close up of the you know the numbers of trees that are still in the river the work that still needs to be done but also to see that a lot of progress has been made i also want to congratulate the award winners the honorees from the chamber of commerce at the celebration last week the rising star was paul mitchell the school the renaissance award was the gillespie group mohawk honda and b b l family of companies the community partner was the downtown schenectady improvement corporation award went to trans finder the entrepreneur of the year was lisa duran of le motiv lisa the enterprise of the year was founded more asset management the business executive of the year was dr quentin bullock and the corporation of the year was key bank so they're all certainly deserving honorees i also want to acknowledge that the new arthurs market in the stockade opened today and unfortunately i didn't get over there they were giving out free coffee but  i hope to get there early this week and wish the owners the best of luck with that with a new operation thank you thank you the members of the council status unfortunately the wording the state legislation neglected to include one period of school taxes so there's an old period of school taxes that still included there and there's not an easy way for the  city to deal with that but we're again working with the church to try and resolve that and come up with something that's a solution for everybody at the hindu temple is also one that we're trying to work through they have a cell tower and they're building which is a for profit entity so that no matter if you have the not for profit status for the basic facility  profit cell tower creates some problems with clearing up the tax issues or retroactively granting then tax exempt status for it but i do appreciate the patience of those organizations that the staff is working on it in our state legislators have been trying to come to some consensus and some of these clearly has not moved as fast as we would all like but we are trying to work for a solution that will make people generally happy in comfortable with the outcomes this is the last meeting before the election do encourage people to vote want to thank people for the great campaign get to meet a lot of individuals my opponent to a stepped out of the chamber put would compliment roger on his campaign with death la times whose emotion there's a lot of strong feelings in these things i think everybody wants to do what's best for this community and we're lucky to have talented people who are willing to step forward and run for office and with that i will entertain a motion to adjourn move by mr i take that back we are going to able to entertain a motion to recess to friday the twenty eighth at five p m moved by mr della salla second to mr erickson all in favor signify by saying i any opposed