for regional consideration an ordinance amending land bank chapter seventy two of the code of the city of schenectady with a resolution calling for a public hearing monday to issue revokable permit number five six seven to keep bang for the handicapped accessible room and coaching on a city right of way at five o two five  number eight appears on the consent of gender number nine resolution recognize march two thousand and twelve as the american red cross month in the city of schenectady o'kane will also be taking the side of water comes member dancers with us here as well tonight wisdom charity and justice that was steadfast purpose to me faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well being of all people through jesus christ our lord like t the pledge of allegiance first is a resolution recognizing march two thousand and twelve as american red cross month in the city of  schenectady i know that you're one of the top responders to our city and it provides relief to citizens specifically in the stockade after we all know we had historic flooding caused by tropical storm lee your volunteers set up a shelter deliver meals and did damage assessment of homes and in addition you've been very active in the city of schenectady unfortunately we've had a number of fires really tragic  actually took a life and impacted the lives of twenty one adults and six children but the red cross provided assistance for food clothing and other disaster related needs so we thank you the bottom community as the count country around the world where as during american red cross month we thank those who contribute to the mission of the red cross whether through time money or blood and we invite others to support the red cross in helping people in need down the street across the country and around the world where the american red cross is synonymous with helping people and has been doing than one hundred and thirty years throughout the past the american red cross launched hundreds of disaster released operations in the united states to help people affected by fire floods hurricanes and tornadoes the american red cross major international disasters including the japan earthquake and tsunami response in the ten ten haiti earthquake response and recovery whereas in the schenectady community the red cross works nearly one hundred years united states presidents have the american people to support the red cross and its humanitarian mission our community depends on the american red cross and because it is not a government agency the red cross depends on the the public to continue its humanitarian work this is especially important in these challenging economic times which impact many people in our community and across the nation mission the red cross mission is helping people to prevent prepare for and respond to emergencies and providing relief to victims of disasters in schenectady and the northeastern new york ok the next resolution that we're going to take out of order is a resolution recognizing the achievements and contributions of irish americans on st patrick's day i'd like to invite folks in the me dancers and while they're coming up here i make announcement about the st patrick's day celebration party with the irish at the hibernian and celtic crossing banquet room at seven hundred forty six states street schenectady on friday march sixteenth and starting at eight pm there will be live entertainment by running the river then on saturday the doors open at noon for lunch corned beef sandwiches will be served all day and they've all got all kinds of entertainment plan a present i'll read the resolution you have the floor ok whereas over thirty million americans can trace of their ancestry to ireland and the irish people where as irish americans have contributed to us culture in a wide variety of fields and performing arts film literature politics sports and religion and whereas march seventeenth is universally recognized annually celebrated as st patrick's day in honor of the patron saint of the irish people and where as the city council and mayor wish to join with irishman everywhere and a sincere wish for peace in all of ireland and the full implementation of the good friday peace accord now therefore be it resolved that saturday march seventeenth tw twelve st patrick's day we celebrated throughout the city of schenectady and further insipidus in all of ireland and in recognition of the contributions of our irish citizens to the success and prosperity of our community state  is it ok what's that thank you very much for being here and for inviting us here i should say we love coming here every year because we have our dance classes right out of the  chapter forty eight of the code of the city schenectady as he lands in the city code of ethics i have one person signed up add volunteers there are some boards service volunteers for the need to be included see interest on the five percent needs to be removed it doesn't matter what percentage it still conflict of interest in a person owning business  any other types of boards any board representing the city needs to be covered under the ethics future employment organization is not defined it should include any and all businesses of profit  city attorney's office not the city clerk's office it should also be sent to the mayor's office forty eight twenty enforcement in penalties any miniscule officer or employee of violates his code may be censured fined suspended or removed from office or employment in any manner provided while answer because of unions using collective bargaining binding arbitration to override this is a provision needs to be added that neither of these or other provisions can override the ethics board's rulings and such as binding complete training on these new ethics rules as world in the past against employers failing to properly train employees on new rules that are passed and then sideline notes there are no provisions for affirmative action for protected class members like minorities for disability it's also adds actually protection just in case if you have if a minor infraction becomes now you have another way of solving the problem there is no provision for violation of other i've said before i think something ought to be done about this filling space when there are vacancies it's become too much a part of the way things are done around here and i also think that there is a matter of personal safety for citizens regarding real estate and what i'm talking about is the protection of fear from fear of real estate underwriters around here there's a total disregard of the citizenry when you have a place to be thrilled for a friend every time you turn around try to do anything around here the first thing you do is for other people's money and then when you decide that you want to move somebody around shuffle them around because they may be paid all the time and you decide you want them to be with one of your friends in a different neighborhood and although you can't afford it if you'll just sign the dotted line with section eight your that's the way you do civic purposes is worse can you keep to the public hearing topic please yes i think this of the ethics committee ought to address malware where a customer identification number throws them into a particular kind of skewer hateful form of using their identification and it exists year i don't want to go into into who's doing it but it exists mel where exists and county use in order to be identified you ought to really seek it out where it's i think also somebody it's been brought to the tension about the email addresses  counsel i cannot try but there's a lot more to be said about yours planning on addressing the residency issues for all employees i think you really ought to put the pedal to the floor on this and do something about it ok thank you mr brace talking about it thank you i have no one signed up for a public hearing number one see no one else i would declare that public hearing closed moved on to public hearing number two in relation to an ordinance for a proposed ordinance authorizing the issuance of to me an eight hundred fifteen thousand dollars uyghur principle amount serial bonds of the city of schenectady to the finance to finance their reconstruction of storm water and wastewater infrastructure i have no one signed up for this public hearing so again i'm going to clear closed and i will move on to prove all of the minutes communications presented to the city council for monday march twelfth two thousand and twelve official general a thank you letter from me schenectady veterans world war two korea and rental checks petitions non i'm going to talk about number three a name for your program i fail to understand how the city can continue to make these kinds of expenditures last month council voted to spend fifty nine thousand dollars to put four fluoride in the city's drinking water all but they has never done it or the other surrounding towns stop that five years ago but every year like clockwork schenectady spends the money council voted for it during the last months regular meeting one week later the press reported schenectady is facing layoffs for this meeting a monthly bill thereafter i wonder how well the process will work i think the foil requests will fall through the cracks when i began to fall oil for information i would fill out a form in the clerk's office the staff to me i knew then they were comma dating and the information was forthcoming for some reason the process was stunned over to the law department and that office is now overwhelmed with the increased volume of work how are the other departments going to feel about the added work the city is talking layoffs for me time to solve the essence with oil requests the information needed to bolster position i made on the particular item that us on the council so genda if the information does not arrive in a timely manner the effort is for knowing this plan is for the law department to follow the path of the foil requests so water saved in time for the law office staff i think for oil requests should be dated material and that the time element be part of the equation late information is useless at this time i'd prefer that the city not spend a new money for this my money is so tight thank you thank you strangled tied up or gas had poured in her mouth a box cutter used in the attempted murder the oversight here the da missed that deadline i just want to make sure we don't forget that rufina is not a statistic and she's not a file she's a woman she's a human being and she's dead so now what two thousand and ten the division of criminal justice statistics or criminal justice services released that cystic schenectady was ranked the worst in the state the highest reported mystic violence two thousand and thirty nine incidents two thousand and nine we had one thousand nine hundred ninety two what do we do after these reports what do we do differently with we do to improve things we've had a murder and attempted murder lots of mistakes what are we doing differently this week this  to allied so closely with the criminal justice system that it has secretaries much of its ability to effectively particular system and push for reform so what do you the city council members want for the city and all this what you want for your constituents most people have already forgotten the feeling and my question to you is where you are and if not if not you're to have to be careful because you will be told it is being handled you are going to be told that things are better things will get back to normal it will get quiet and kevin chairs not here lori robertson from robinson have and i wanted to thank karl in his staff and everything else for responding back to the question but the question came back they couldn't find who the person was now i mean you got it at nine thirty in the morning on a friday eerie boulevard in stage and you can't find where your employees are at there's something wrong also to sit reported in the paper you had to workman's comp insurance company walking around watching some of the o t s people a waste trucks and they weren't wearing their shoes they weren't wearing protective clothing the union contract specifically states that the city pays for the shoes pays for these clothing and if people are not even wearing it the countability where is the management watching for these individuals if we're looking to try to cut costs this is one area that we need to start looking at and started dressing it also too is that on when that money came in to the city it was dumped into the general fund there was no special that says this money is for that and if it was set aside for that account would have to come back with the city council so if any of the tax finance money came back for the years twenty ten or twenty eleven the school district can file and you would immediately he would have to pay for that money so i mean where are we going to come up with that four at the two percent property tax basically from last year and you know it's just another backdoor way of doing it and we've got to come up with a solution and hopefully we'll do something by september and actually have an do not turn on green arrows on we've got to do what because too many people get hurt and people can't get across the street in each pocket holes and curbs have g tonight is slitter i have not said much publicly about the litter in the city i was waiting to win a seat on city council and then i was going to pull out all the stops but a couple of speakers spent the issue at the last council meeting so we're this time to take them from the back burner one of the speakers how the similar idea in my mind that i can to help solve the numbers and that in that way there would be less work for all of those who volunteer how many city council members including the mender the mayor picked up litter in the city last month they certainly have a lot of opportunity to do so when walking into this building does anyone ever notice the litter laying around the city hall grounds the grounds are not not cut back last fall rotten leaves and told dried flower stands lined the walkway litter gets caught in the vegetation and prevents anyone from going close whose responsibility is to clean those city properties city maintenance should be a daily occurrence although i can hear the the cried now the city has more important things to do unfortunately because the issue has not been addressed the volume of litter on the streets has quadrupled over the past eight years if we want clean environment responsible people must take up the slack for those who don't care so what's the solution one city while i do where most of the problem participate in daily cleanups not just spring cleaning five says into an official letter to all business owners stress their cooperation for clean city six involve th country in the world let us emanate emulate our forefathers cleanliness thank you thank you pretty clean to me i don't know why he ended up being cited other than the fact that i've complained about the property next door if you're going to punish people for complaining about a nasty situation and then you're going to you're going to retaliate by punishing the landlord how fair is that you should want people to complain when something is out of sorts such as  nastiness in the community you shouldn't retaliate against people for complaining about this kind of issue again also want to talk about education it's terrible that you're not doing anything about this situation that should have been cleared and they should and the smoke should be finished by now it's a darn shame that is still have that situation on the table and you haven't done anything about it and you should have both of them sitting up here we need this in taishan of all the community that is involved in this city and all the communities not represented at this it at the city council we need to do better than what you're doing you're being unfair obama a lot of things that are happening in this city and i think that they should try to change if you want to be if you want the people to be fair you need to be fair yourselves and do fair and honest things in this community to make this community a great community instead of adding it messed up like it is and the other thing i want to complain about i was driving up brandywine going towards eastern avenue and there's no stopping and so there needs to be a chance where you can you know go on in and you know venture out you know what i'm saying so i'm hoping that's going to be fixed too because i complained about that too right thank you thank yous membered tony on the street i disagree rich one hundred percent because when you have people that just drop her garbage out whenever they want to they don't care when they do it and then animals get out and everything else why should i have to go clean up for them when i mean i like to keep the neighborhood clean people across the street last year that were selling their house or put stuff out a week ahead of time the garbage men would come on a thursday say friday they had stuff piled up there on how many times i called the city will do something or do something nothing was ever done and then now they have people running the house because they couldn't sell a guy throws a rug out their houses garbage isn't until next thursday thanks to rug and throws it fence on his lawn so then he waits two or three weeks before he throws it out again i mean i pick bottles up on the street and everything and people want recycling in the alleyway on the back of our house stuff is all over and it's not recycled so i mean believe me i don't think i should have to go pick up four that's my personal opinion and on this situation it was in the paper a week or so ago about the landlords wanting every two years to have their or property check whatever it is someone brought to my attention that if you have to give him a present excuse me permit to rent out property and these people have not paid their taxes don't allow them to rent a property out on europe until they pay their taxes that might be one way that we could catch up on some of my not saying all of them do it but some of them might in another landlord approach me and says i've got someone in my house for twenty years people that i rent to he says i have to have my property checked every two years i believe when the turnover is they should be checked but also maybe we could catch up on some taxes still and one last thing has anyone checked with the people down in the flood zone that got flooded out this past year if ema is paying them or  hanging onto waiting like go a lot of the other people as anyone checked into that maybe we could light a fire under freeman to get these people going thank you thank  there was a fire on a state street and the channel died in that fire mr iran's his funeral was saturday and i have not seen one  have been thank you mentoring program we've recently partnered with the county and with the mayor's office to put out a recruitment campaign to reach out to both employees and residents of the city of schenectady and beyond the teen empowerment and mentoring program began in january of two thousand and eleven so we've been operating for a little over a year since then we've matched fifty one skin to high school students with caring adult mentors from the community  are students that are on the brink of success they want to have a mentor but there are things that they're struggling with or challenges that they're experiencing in their lives it's a safe space program so students and mentors meet at the high school for four hours a month so it's a pretty small time commitment and most folks find they're able to fit it into very busy schedules mentors and students cook together they exercise together they work on the students academic needs or maybe the research or career or potential colleges so far the good news is we have some data from the students or have been in our program for over six months sixty one percent of the students have increased their grades in math and english and seventy seven percent of the students matched with a mentor are coming to school more often they've decreased their absences by ten percent the bad news i is that we have sixty students who are currently on our waiting list so again these are students who have taken probably about time you know three hours out of their time to meet with us to do an interview to go through a training and are really committed themselves to the program and they're just they're just now waiting for mentors so tomorrow i will be downstairs in the lobby helping that some people stop by and visit to learn more about the program so please help spread the word about that and also i like to provide my contact information if anyone you know would like more information about the program so i can be reached at five one eight three seven four four seven one four extension twenty nine and folks can also visit the boys and girls clubs of schenectady website which is w w w dot  thank you thank you will make sure this this gets up our website as well as on cable access thanks for being down here and thank you for the job that you do  school currently have the summer youth employment applications that are out there for our youngsters who are enrolled currently in schenectady high school for ninth tenth and eleventh graders there are approximately three hundred fifty positions this summer for those kids to be involved and the problem is that the deadline is a march thirtieth applications can be picked up at the high school or at their guidance office but we continue to urge our city high school kids to get involved as a way of again obtaining some great summer job skills and making a few dollars at the same time again this is in cooperation with schedule county job training agency and the department of labor grant that they received for the next couple of years for those folks who are  enroll there are not students that's got the high school there is another application it's available on line or through their individual schools such as a night in middle school mount pleasant or the suburbs minus in indonesia growing and others those have applications available at their guidance office or at the main office those application and i do until april fifteenth and a fortune there's a smaller money pot allocated for those individuals again because of the way the funding streams are blowing courage our students to get involved and again parents are watching students are watching it's a great way of again making some great job skills encourage everybody get out there and read those applications thank m tremors i also think when the ethics committee gets together they are to do something about this muscle government that occurs here i don't need another course in civics i took civics in high school like everyone else but there are certain elements either that weren't explained to me then or have crept into the system since and have produced a muscle government i think the ethics laws when they are made when they are constructed our own clued our elected leaders and employees who think they can  these muscle tactics on us by not acknowledging anything send it to me in writing or email or whatever and then just a lot of times people are always complaining about oils that aren't responded to that also brings up the matter of the websites we have city where we have county website when you try to use them you can't get the information in need that you're requesting and i've had legislators tell me who don't pay any attention to that if you want t answer and then tell give me a direct website to that particular committee so that's happened too many times and i think that needs to be addressed and the next time i come i will bring some foiled information that i did receive from the county that was more than just shocking and i think for the moment i'll end there ok thank you mark jersey misinformation as a result of special interest so what i have here is a statement of concern from the national treasury employees union chapter two eighty the e p a union professionals and it's on studying the facts of florida aged water and she came up with a result that revolved around pre adolescent boys who drank florida water were at a sevenfold increase risk of osteo sar coma and often fatal bone cancer and she relayed this these results to a chester douglas who inexplicably reported that there were no connections to  fluoride in our osteosarcoma and he reported this to the national institute of environmental health sciences and so eventually it came out and there was an investigation and it is the result of special interests weighing facts chester douglas one of being the editor of colgate company's oral health report so well you know in this day and age we have lots of special interest with the banks and this increased risk of disease you know while this information was withheld and so you know with that i would like to go on in and just maybe shed some light upon what really fluoride is in the water because it's not actually the element that you see you know on the periodic table and this is also referring to the anti you facts here goes on to say that this is major concerns environmental concerns the year two thousand and three it starts out roman numeral number one of environmental concerns silicone fluoride in refined industrial waste ninety one percent of americans ingesting artificially floor dated water  mcnamara thank you for allowing me to speak this evening i just have a brief point that basically he has we have we are putting florida into our water and one of our main reasons is that it is actually costing us money it is a toxic waste product from ammonium cleaning and doing fertilizer products but we are once we buy it the schenectady county or schenectady city is actually buying it and then we put it into our water because it's a product it's ok it's no longer a toxic waste a lot of people in the one nine hundred forty s you know we've the belief that the fluoride primary benefit came from the ingestion of fluoride during the tooth for many years it is now acknowledged by the dental research community however that florida's primary benefit comes from topical contact brushing your teeth with it if it all ended not from ingestion as previous was previously assumed it just goes on to it is well recognised that tooth decay rates declined quite dramatically in all western countries in the later half of the twentieth century irrespective of whether the current of the country flora dated its water or not today to pick a rates throughout continental western europe where ninety eight percent the population this is really key who are ninety eight percent of its population does not drink florida water they're too thick a rates are as low as us in the united states where a majority of the population drinks forded water so any of the you know proposal that putting florida in our water is benefiting us as far as tooth decay goes i mean it just goes on and on for studies have reported that it is not decrease but continue or does not i'm sorry does not increase but continues to gree fluorosis especially in its early stages is a difficult disease to diagnose and can be readily confused with various forms of arthritis this and rheumatoid arthritis bone fractures the majority of animals investigating flora its effect on bone strength of found flora to either have no effect or a negative effect on strength in the bones according to the current consensus view of the this is just another quote about how it's used for topical use and not for florida court of the current consensus view of the dental research community for its primary if not sole benefit is to teeth comes from topical application to the exterior surface of teeth so really my key point is i'm not really sure why we are allowing and we are purchasing really i'm sorry that we are purchasing this and putting it into our water system i mean i do not see the benefits to any person here we're talking about cutting costs we are purchasing a toxic waste and putting it into our water system and it is known to cause multiple diseases if not you know it's estrogen building on children our children are going into puberty sooner because of this is no one cause many studies have been done on this so really my key point is i do not understand why we are spending money that we do not have as a city to put something in our water that it has no effect at that i can find any research of any way and if if there is i would like to read it as well as i'm sure the people in here would like to read the benefits of it but as far as the negative effects of it is pretty clear and if you look into it it is you know up in the hundred forty s when they didn't have the scientific research ability that they have today you would get you know the research that they had but now that we know what's going on we've done multiple researchers in multiple countries of europe in the united states and new zealand  that show the benefits are not there so that is pretty much thank you mister down here and no one signed up saying that i will privileges floor comments  really don't even want to see it and then the two gentlemen this book on the fluoride no barbara has brought up before when we when we discuss purchasing the fluoride for the year and you know i'm no expert in fluoride so i wouldn't necessarily say i have any of the answers but there's certainly some good points that were brought up and what occurred to me as these two gentlemen were speaking is that i believe the county has a director of public health or a doctor that we employ in the county level that kind of guides us through i guess public health concerns and i was wondering if maybe we could invite them down to speak or at least provide some put to the council on the current you know their current opinion on fluoride mean sometimes through society we do things because we think they have some benefit and then we find out years later that maybe those benefits aren't what we thought they were you know maybe we could just have somebody weigh in to say it's good for you pronouncing that right of blessed gifts and home decor and downtown interior designer barbara bishop were selected as teacher designers for this year's vanguard designer showcase which is a fundraiser for the auburn a symphony orchestra i also want to comment heard a number of comments over the last number of weeks about domestic violence concerns that we do have a very active county domestic violence task force i know i have started getting minutes of their meetings  and this includes people from the d a s office people from the y w ca it's a very broad representation of organizations and agencies that are really working hard to address this so i don't want people to think that no one is not is doing  nothing that there really is an active group out there working to improve that situation thank you thank you anyone else  first of all like to dress a size six i am accountable for what i do when i miss that one i have to say that man was a hero and i should have been there i can say that and i'm i apologize for that but he certainly in my prayers that's for sure because what he did is something that you read in books all rest in peace mr irons i wish these two young gentleman addressed earlier on this f and barbara i have to go barbara credit because she was right on top of this and i agree with mr erickson that we should certainly be looking into this further because it seems to be an important issue and something that it's not going to send a good and if it could be doing us harm then why are we doing it you know so i think that's really the the gist of that and i think we have to get as much information as we can and then make a decision on based on that information but so far they have from a shit i've been hearing is not too good as far as putting through right in the water in i don't know if i'm a bit older than a lot of people here maybe but there was a movie dr strangelove in  that was my platform when i ran and i would certainly i'd like to edit a s a p mr mayor meet with you and see if we can get some ideas together on some ideas that i have on how so many problems can be addressed i know we have the key to the city when the types of people to live in this city i think we have to clean the city up i don't think that i know that we don't you know as far as litter graffiti these quality of life issue so i will be contacting your office to set up a meeting and we can discuss this because it's certainly very very important so you'll be hearing from me on that i thank everybody for coming  tonight and speaking you know what they had to say and as far as mr geiger and peggy i agree there's the domestic violence is being addressed on the county level but maybe as a console i don't know if we need another task force or not but we still we certainly have to make sure that we're doing all we can do as a body for domestic violence because it's an important important issue  madam president if you could you know if you want to put a committee together i'll be happy to serve on that you know to try to get this thing going and to address these issues and make sure maybe the city is doing everything they can do in their department so i would appreciate city will have its second city wide open house done in conjunction with key banc and credential manor homes which have been the initial partners in the housing you're trying just attract middle class home ownership to the community and b t bank had been part of the early partnership to provide mortgages for first time home buyers and then key came in with a much broader  mortgage package we did it a month ago we were able to on that day they actually sold seven houses so that is significant is having an impact and is pointed out all those little things that we can do to make the city better whether it's with our municipal employees or everybody picking up a little bit of try should we want to try and do that but hopefully only council members will be able to also participate in the eighteenth and  appreciate you coming down here tonight i would certainly and all the rest of the folks who came down here tonight and took time out of their busy schedules to come down and share their thoughts and their concerns with us someone made a comment night about  funds from the city being illegally dispersed to the county i can assure you that there were no funds that were illegally dispersed from the city to the county regarding the taxes i just wanted to clear that up and put some clarification on that i think in in regards to domestic violence and mr geiger i appreciate you being here tonight and i appreciate you bringing these matters to our attention i think it's important that we do have a presence at the domestic violence meetings now i know who's proud i was been to a couple meetings i know mrs king has ben and i think if we could work on a schedule where we could rotate and make sure that we have a council presence there because i agree with you  don't need to reinvent the wheel but what i do think that we also need to do is i'm going to ask the commissioner to ask the chief to provide the council with monthly reports violence incidents that are coming through  not to critique anyone's work but just so not only do we have an idea of what's going on within the county but certainly what's going on within our own city and certainly with these reports they can be discussed at the meeting it will give us something to contribute to these meetings so i would i would ask that we kind of work together to coordinate our schedules to make sure that we do have a presence there i think with all of us we should be able to make most of those meetings and make sure that at least one of us is there and miss blanche i would also ask that since you've done so well with all your for other task force that you do work with these young men and you know let's let's get something going and i'm not trying to give you things to do but she won't say no gentleman and she's really good and you know let's get some people together that also have another side of it so let's investigate the whole thing  but i think that you'll find the administration and the mayor's administration along with the council certainly doesn't want to spend money or invoke harm on any one of us or anybody within the city is going to so certainly we're willing to take a look at that if you're willing to help us do ninety five percent of the legwork call great beautiful and with that i would ask for a motion to adjourn moved by everybody and second