like to call to order the city council caucus meeting this evening follow the resolutions ordered item one item one in ordinance amending section two twenty four of the code of the city of schenectady regarding soliciting number two on the on the agenda will be taking off it doesn't require authorization of the city council so we're going to strike that for the residency board number three number three item number three a resolution recognizing the one hundred fifty at the anniversary of st joseph's roman catholic church in the city of schenectady again discussed in committee and we will give that to mr item number four under contract and supply a resolution authorizing the mayor to accept a proposal for one fire aerial vehicle with the necessary related equipment again discussed in committee without objection and consent number fo peer on the consent agenda number five number five a resolution awarding a contract for the service and repair well five day to land christians and company in the amount of seventy one thousand and sixty dollars again this was discussed in the finance committee without objection a point on consent number five appear on the consent agenda number six item number six a resolution approving the award of contracts to various vendors for supplies and equipment totaling one hundred nine thousand seven hundred two dollars but again discussed in committee without objection and consent seeing no objections number six little appear on the consent of gender number seven number seven a resolution awarding contract for the furnishing and installing electrical service upgrades for the erie boulevard project two thousand and twelve to still sing a lecture and in the amount of sixty two thousand five hundred dollars again discussed in committee without objection and consents number seven will peer on the consent agenda in seven a seven day by unanimous consent a resolution calling for a public hearing on monday june twenty fifth two thousand and twelve at seven p m at council chambers room two zero zero nine schenectady city hall one o five j street schenectady revisions to chapter one thirty eight of the code of the city of schenectady regarding the demolition of structurally unsafe buildings ok number seven a without objection colling for a public hearing on june twenty fifth without objection and consent number seven a will also appear on the consent agenda now i will call to order city council meeting for june eleventh can we please rise for the invocation give thanks for all those who give of their time their talents and their energy to serve the needs of the city and we give you things like specially for the people gathered here tonight to make decisions for the benefit of this community we pray for  communications presented to the city council for monday june eleventh two thousand and twelve from the mayor a list of appointments dated six eleven twelve from the commissioner of general services a letter recommending the award o furnishing and installing electrical service upgrades for the erie boulevard project two thousand and twelve to still sing electric gang of rensselaer new york in the amount of sixty two thousand five hundred dollars under general communications f public is welcome ok under the conditions there are no thank you very much for that committee reports any committee reports this evening going once going to ice so right see no committee reports that close the next move in right into privilege of the floor on the legislative agenda and i have no one signed up i think this is a first no one signed up for privilege of the floor on the legislative agenda ok to privilege on the floor on city business and the first person signed up is joe rodriguez mr rodriguez it for her because i promised that i would buy a house someday i wasn't open to buy were disconnected but i did because i was informed by dad from better neighborhood community that was history was going to be paid and we w get some strong drainage and some sidewalks and part of it in the floor and the other part in the spring another thing i'm doing some research on the fact that would fail community was given the grant to renovate the streets to do the street the sidewalks rose restaurant and got the city to do my sidewalk then to be a different story record but i'm just one voice right now but i would be hurt because a street is neglected look at the lot you have on the corner state street and wasted street that you took the first away and you just neglected look at the weeds so high it's like going through a jungle i don't mind if i have to go there to cut it down but the problem is is not my responsibility and we're taxpayers question to be in every meeting unless i'm sick i wasn't here the last time that i was sick but i'm attempt to be here because i take it one day at a time thank you thank you mr rodriguez kevin the streets getting done why can't we get done a lot of people do pay taxes on hamilton hill we just fed up with it i have a petition going out right now to have everybody sorry we need to have someone come out look at our sidewalks and cars all to that's all i got to say thank you good evening mayor city council issues that i want to cover here is the police response time in hamilton hill areas terrible people have to call these five times where the police come out when the kids are out there hurting each other and fighting with each other when you call the respondent that answers the call it's tell you that too busy to help you but you need to email the reports to them the detective to come out and when he schenectady city and county here were a hundred years i had one of my counselors tell me i should write a book i got so many stories i got so many stories that tell and so much to talk about there's no way i could do it in three minutes so i just picked a couple tonight a couple house by the way my son is currently serving in that fairness to him as we speak there was an operation going on in the southern states by the f b i team of justice department called operation tarnished  were just big time investigation going on from virginia all the way down to florida and in gone west a little bit police departments were being dismantled and corrupt police officers were being investigated and removed was removed by did justice department and some were put in jail some were flying in and some committed suicide i spoke a couple years ago when you just same thing here in the north it's not just us connect to the police it's all the way from boston to buffalo and from washington to plattsburgh the police and law enforcement and gustus is out of control my family has been in the fire service and the police service for over one hundred years i got stories and i got dirt on everybody i'm serious about this and i've written a plot typo and i ad down there and i just can't believe i've only been here three months living in the city of spin it in the minister while i had my bicycle stolen three times cell phone stolen three times like to see the same brought up here or get a hold of the district attorney's the state district attorney general and see what get the justice department to do the same thing here in the northeast and start dismantling remove it this thing the year and the house across three or five the wayne avenue is boarded up and the grass is so high somebody came and read in front there are all the rest is growing up out of control i need to be clean thank you thank you ton ellis hospital wasn't hurting anyone or people or again since i hope they never have to use a facility like mine or whether it's in schenectady or any place else i mean this was for people whose children and family were second they were going to stay there i mean it's it's terrible i'm just sorry i just it just upset me and one other thing to make a quick thursday is fly baby so let's not forget it thank you thank you has to be a joke around here and i never could take to it but i missed the mayor before he became mayor was i was saying leave it to the get set and that annoys me and it's happening way too much i don't think you can substantiate a whole lot of what is printed in there as fact about people doing some very serious criminal deeds and but the real reason i wanted to get up here and speak tonight i've been putting this off form months i've been trying this to come up with a figure of what you spent just a month of may but what i was really interested in was some legislation when when you all w sworn in january i noticed that one person wasn't sworn in and i said something to him and it was mr poster and i said how come they didn't swear you in and he said well  swear me in but they had to do it earlier and apparently was because mr van norden although he was still employed to the last day of two thousand and eleven took off and was not able to sun a set of papers that were sung and i think december the eleventh is what i've been able to determine december the fourteenth actually so mr poster was there to sign these papers and it was on restart or restore number three alco industrial site and this concern sixty acres of alco size fifteen dilapidated buildings five hundred sixty thousand square feet and at that time it was said the city is a highly distressed community and then it went on to say simone for four point seven million dollars in previous yesterday i want to say my point here is this was a seriously distressed community i don't know whether it is a name or not i don't know who knows maybe i need to go to emerson day at the set find out how things really are around here but they knew whatever you were surprised with this five million dollar deficit whatever it was they knew in january in december that it was going to hit and i think  summarize please restore funds will be used to support a portion of demolition cost us less as for removal the project partners include police e group max and alco holdings hailed c s a project developer the group real estate development industrial office leasing own to eleven million square feet of space in the capital region for industrial parks and numerous commercial buildings in the city of schenectady i don't know whether we have an industrial park commission but for what it's worth the city will say insure the contribution of at least ten percent match up to four million dollars will be dispersed to guarantee as follows and then it goes on and sure if you want a copy of this paper it's available here and they  three no surprise exciting things are happening in the city of schenectady and also suggest calling so or andre information which i did and i asked them if they lived in schenectady both women said no the articles that have been written about the city's open house tours claim that lawyers are greeted by city and school officials who talk up the benefits of living in schenectady unfortunately after those sunday open house tours the city leaders return to this council chamber on monday nights and vote to hire people who do not live in schenectady case for the new code enforcement advice or the five council members who voted to hire a non grad student for the job were not honest they were not honest when they raised their hands and swore to uphold the law and they were not honest when they explained their vote none of the five told the voters that the new higher lived elsewhere their explanations were nothing more than verbal spittle the words that are spoken here and the policies that are made here simply do not fit officials never address the issues of high taxes they only tell us the city is broke and yet city spending is nonstop for the first six months of this year taxpayers have paid more money on medical insurance for part time council members than was spent all over the previous four years it should not be the budget is your responsibilit city want their tax citizens want their taxes lowered that discounts a primary task to get that budget under control please do it right thank you thank you  permit plan so right now we have a plumber and electrician waiting on hold of the site with our funds whether we can pay them more or what we'll have to do as all the story of the city is decided to foreclose on the building for these taxes and these cesspits other cities first built was with thirty five thousand dollars which i went down to the city and talked water apartment to talk with them about that and they said it was incorrect and i should not be concerned about it so i received some other bills also and i did i wasn't concerned about it only to find out about six months ago or three months ago that you know those assessments were valuable some of them so told the charge right now is not about nine thousand three hundred dollars you did paste about six hundred fifty dollars of that whoever makes in the city to or to consider a minimum going just charge or suzanna rate charges or they get i did provide you with the charges are in and each one god has for me to do so just to some of you i know you hear you're doing your job because you want to do what you want to do in this city so i'm axing you to please consider helping us out please read a letter to look at our hate to see i just want to get a little further explanation regarding this robinson's issue at her home apparently it's clean occasions problem mr harasser spoke to me about this last monday night she emailed me all the appropriate information including the contact information for miss robinson on thursday lieutenant mark or crackers assigned to contact her and he has sent you emails and he has also attempted to contact you by phone number of the number we were given but your mailbox message is saying that it's phone and can accept any messages and we've also sent a police officer up on two occasions last friday and there  you are not available so if you have a moment i'll verify that the e mail address so we have is correct and also the phone number and find out what's the best time to reach out to you we haven't ignored you we i'm sorry well you don't have to come to us we should be coming to you and we're happy to do that so before you leave we'll get something together here but it's strictly a communications from thank you commissioner ok seeing don i'm closing privilege comments from the council whose king odd couple of things i did have the opportunity on sunday to go to the opening of the new alco museum i highly recommend that for any of you who can get erickson got there they have just done an unbelievable job with that i mean you know the history that the model trains they actually have a stimulus simulator where you are actually driving a train which of course i had to try and it just as i said the whole thing is just extremely well done and i just commend all the volunteers who put that together they as i said it's definitely worth a visit they're only open on weekends so what i do encourage people to get over there and  ten a m until three pm so i hope folks look at be able to go there and of course this weekend is also the hamilton hill arts centers juneteenth celebration which begins friday night and runs all day saturday so lots going on this time of year so gradually bellevue preservation for a sold out chicken barbecue on saturday we sold almost two hundred chicken dinners so it's a great fundraiser for them i also want to remind people that tomorrow night at the community college there's going to be a public design workshop for the lower part of state street and so that's from seven to nine p m and stockade hall at as they want to give input it's it's all very welcome mt pleasant neighborhood association is having a flag day celebration in a covered dish potluck dinner and they're going to have a brief meeting after that that's thursday june fourteenth they encourage you to wear your red white and blue mayor if you attend a mat is that faith deliverance tabernacle church which is at ten twenty eight place they'll be discussing community issues and planning summer activities et also want to recognize the fact that they've really come together as a community to clean up their community paint dozens of fire hydrants all on their own just neighbors banding together and helping neighbors to better their own community they painted about a dozen fire hydrants they hope to do many more through labor day so i commend them for that because they're really coming to yeah they're to solve their problems and i respect  that better their neighborhood they have pride in their neighborhood and lastly the hill neighborhood association black party is at the end of the month saturday june thirtieth from noon to six p m and there's music and fun and face painting and more information is available at seven to eight eight four one nine k thank you anyone else who's for fields thank you well there is no first of all there is an article today in the newspaper and it was regarding the grant to help us get city jobs and i think ms robinson talked a little bit about that and it's outstanding that our young people are getting jobs and talking to to the constituents in schenectady residen s lot of people are concerned about the adults getting jobs and so that's one of the things that i hear it so much people you know often talk about i just you know i need to work so i just wanted to it's alleged you know to let the public know that something that i'm looking at that we're working on because there are jobs out there that's why i found those jobs and then there's people that need jobs so somehow we could come together and try to match those people up to jobs i think it's something that can be done and that that should be done so i'm definitely working on that as a group of people in the community have the concerns about that from different communities actually and we're working on on that together so we'll be talking more about that i had the opportunity to go to the bell belleview preservation barbecue and the food it was quite good and while i was there i met a very nice couple who actually live in woodlawn and they had some concerns about the woodlawn preserves so we had an opportunity to talk a lot about that and i will actually they've invited me to stop by and i will stop by but the best thing about it was they had some  concerns in addition to that with their names or debbie and ed they also had some solutions to that so it's always wonderful when people have concerns and also solutions and lastly i just want to relate a story last night i think it was i had some trouble with my car at the gas station i got gas and then it wouldn't start so i'm trying to start trying to start it and it wouldn't start so this young man came over to me and said you know he's tried to explain to me what i was doing wrong with starting my car given it and so you know without being asked he just came over and you know it just makes you feel good that someone just out of the kind of their heart sees somebody else having a problem and just comes over this happened at the store it's on brandywine and albany street so i don't know your name but thank you very much so with that i would say for the next two weeks what we all need to do is do a random act of kindness for someone with that we see that needs help thank you anyone else  k so tonight we had several items in terms of purchasing fire equipment and rebuilding of a well and some supplies and some electrical services and you know i talked to the different folks are involved in each one of these i think you know we're making a lot of good progress in terms of how we manage our particular moment but that being said i think that one of the things we can do to improve to shopping or it's buying it so in that in that regard it is but sometimes trying to make sure that we get the the best deal and the best value is a little more skill involved so i think that consolidating with the county would be a good thing to look into and consider and evaluate to see if they could take over some of the services for the city and in turn we would not have to have you know our staff focusing on the procurement process but doing some other for jobs in the city that the need to get done and also to remove the procurement of the product from the particular department i'm not necessarily a fan of department picturing for their own stuff there needs to be a checks and balances kind of within that whole process so i would like to ask that you know we kind of value weight that and see if consolidation would be appropriate in procurement with the county the second thing i want to talk about the outcome museum is well i went there later in the day and my young toddler had a great time and running around from one thing to the other and he couldn't stand still until they had a little model trains on by and thomas the train went by very slowly and he froze and it was the one moment i was able to stand still so if there's kids out there who like thomas the train i highly recommend the museum it'll it'll entertain them for quite some time and lastly i just wan make another plug for sidewalk matching grant program i think it's something that we really need to consider in this city people come up all the time saying hey i want my sidewalks repaired and and people understand that currently even though in the past the city has has taken the initiative to replace some of the sidewalks and certain neighborhoods right now sidewalks are the homeowners responsibility and most cases a lot of cities are size implement a program where it's a matching grant meaning the home owner pays part of it the city pays for part of it and there's a lot of different ways you know we can do that whether it's a percentage or so a certain amount per linear foot whether it's a fifty fifty mm is a lot of different ways or could be worked out but a situation where the city kind of helps offset some of the cost of the homeowner since everybody benefits i think it's something we should consider as well as all that being said thank you very much anyone else mr mayor madam president just some brief remarks want to thank everyone who came out and helped with the woodland park cleanup and those individuals that assisted some of the volunteers in the city who helped do the landscaping here at city hall and we unveiled the plaque for entering the hundred seventy fifth anniversary of the jury memorial a m e zion church right across the street a significant milestone in the history of that church president ok well i too would like to think those city volunteers and the folks that volunteered out front had a great sirrah monye on saturday with the jury a church hundred seventy five years it's pretty amazing i understand there was a lot of research that went into that want to think so let's focus on that committee for helping it get all together i also would like to congratulate and thank those folks over in mt pleasant who are painting the fire hydrants and really making a serious effort to take their neighborhood back and that certainly reminds me of the people over woodlawn who have made a significant impact in the woodlawn park the amount of volunteers that were up there on saturday and that continue to be there is truly amazing and if you haven't been up in that park in a while you really should take a look at it because the transformation is is really something although we do have to feel that pool interview something with it because other than that