i'm going to call the city council caucus meeting to order for aug eleventh twenty fourteen if the clerk would read the first item on the agenda item number one under original consideration an ordinance re appropriating the two thousand and fourteen budget with regard to the development of the department of development this was discussed in committee without a checks and i'm consent item number two i don't number two a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a supplemental agreement relative to erie boulevard authorizing the implementation and funding in the first instance one hundred percent of the federal aid and state marshy ele program aid eligible costs of a transportation federal aid project and appropriat funds therefore also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number three i don't number three a resolution recognizing august sixteenth and seventeenth two thousand and fourteen as the host harvest festival to be held and then we have one item for unanimous consent i'm number three a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding changes to chapter one eighty six of the code regarding steinman's park fees i would entertain a motion to move that to the agenda as far as i'm second and see they have with him one of the signs that we've seen up throughout the city of schenectady and they are now more in science so they're perfectly legal and not contrary to the political science we're seeing out there so if i may present i'd like to offer this resolution for thank you it's a resolution recognizing august sixteenth or seventeenth as the polish harvest festival to be held at the st albert church and recognizing the polish experience in schenectady whereas records indicate that by one nine hundred twenty the polish community of schenectady had grown to become the third largest polish population in the state of new york having started with john lansing's of russkie settling in schenectady in seventy ninety two and by the way he was a member of the first graduating class of union college and imposing church which sixteen hundred seats was erected in lansing street in one thousand eleven and whereas sand over church was and remains an inviting parish with a congregation consisting of fifty percent polish americans and fifty percent of the schenectady and capital regions melting pot and where as a sin church will be hosting the twenty ninth annual polish harvest festival on aug sixteenth and seventeenth and whereas october is a polish american heritage month now therefore be resolved that the mayor and the city council recognize and commend church and his congregation and express gratitude for their contribution to disconnect the community and polish american day in the city of schenectady on august sixteenth and seventeen thank you all right we have no public hearings tonight so i moved to approval of the minutes of july twenty eighth twenty second were to field all in favor communications and petitions communications thank you you know any other committee reports ok then we'll move to privileges floor related to the legislative agenda i have one person signed up to speak in that day i've made complaints about this before i know you're going to get a whole lot from the state federal government and the state so you think it's a given however there is supposed to be such a thing as equal what you people would and maybe on a month in a month i was told i needed hundreds and thousands of dollars and not only that even if i had that amount they were all except being issuing bonds to groups now i haven't made one here factual or not it's been told the myth that there are groups in formulate being assembled in schenectady of venture new venture capitalists and you have and it called to see group c corp because it's one hundred it's one hundred people with a certain amount of money that they put suspicion for any sense of community togetherness and so i'm just appointed and i'm speaking about today thank you thank you i have no one else signed up so i'm going to clear this portion of the meeting close we will about the dog situation i'm hoping you all read the article in the skim it is that to try to clear up a lot of the misconceptions i'm just going to read a couple of pieces of that we had two local animal advocates toured the shelter with police friday to take a look at the conditions for themselves libby post executive director of the state animal protective federation said she saw no signs of cruel treatment she said i think that's adequate she was quoted and added that it was built precisely to standard set forth and state agricultural markets laws she did ask the city to consider adding on to the shelter by building outdoor runs and the city is considering doing that and they are working with brad shear who is the executive director of the mohawk hudson humane society who also toured the facility and he's going to pop provide technical assistance on building the outdoor runs she also was quoted as saying they're doing what they need to do to keep dogs safe and healthy  also was quoted that there are a lot of allegations that are being spread around but there's no proof and the lieutenant mccracken said the camels are always clean once a day and four times a week they are cleaned twice a day  pointed out that the shelter was built with five foot tall cinderblock walls between each can all to minimize the spread minimize the spread of disease and that they can also three feet wide and fourteen feet long which are larger than some of the local dog boarding facilities  i know two of our council members went and visited this area mr reagan mr cocksure i'm just going to ask the them to comment briefly on what your observations were down the dogs were barking but they were fairly calm but i do think since all these all this these issues have come to light about certain things that are happening there i think we can certainly do better probably to make this facility a better place and a better place for the strays that are brought in i would like to see and i asked to put it on the our committee agenda for next week to discuss this ways that we can certainly partner with rescue groups that are willing to volunteer and come in if the dogs can be walked and i think that should be done that that's sort of certainly an issue steve capper result was said he would be able to provide air conditioning for that building if we could talk about that and if he were in the building give a spur say is the problem where the building is sighted maybe we should look since we have a lot of empty buildings in the city of schenectady maybe we should look to relocate that so one volunteers can come in and they can come in on a regular basis and interact with the animals that are propped there the main thing i think in my eyes says talks that have to be adjudicated you know if there's court cases the dogs have to be held until the court case of the pending court cases is adjudicated but strays that come in and we certainly want to see that they either get to their owners or found number one and number two we want to be sure that we can place these animals so they don't just become a dog that may be euthanized at some point because no one wants them i know i talked to the mayor saturday and he said we do have a new reader order so we can scan if a dog has a chip bat it will be up to scan that and i think that's are also a real important issue because that's the easiest way i believe to find out if a pet belongs to someone then there's other there software programs i would really like to see o console work to make this facility a better place it is mandated that we with that we have this place and i think it's incumbent on us to make it the best place that we can make it and i think when all's said and done there's some good that's going to come out of all of this because i think we can work and work again really partner with these groups and i think mr pollster if we can work if there's waivers needed if we can work on that i think there may be something on the table and work with that so groups can come in and interact with the dogs because our two animal control officers they can't really handle that and not only that if we have that they'd be out on the world more to go instead of doing that work so i think there's this is a really could be a good thing i know much much of the food and i saw that there was a pallet of food and that's donated by roddy rescue and some rescue groups so that's amazing you know so we have people that are willing to step forward and help help with this at no cost to the city should we look maybe to partner with the county at some point and have a county one pound maybe maybe that's something to do but i think we have to keep this conversation open and does so we can make this a much better place when animals are brought in so we can play all these fears that are out there and some of them they mate there may be some i'm not going to say they're all unfounded because sometimes things happen i always look at things are you know there's this this there's something in the middle so i think it's incumbent on us to make this the best place that we can make it since it is mandated that we when we have strays we bring them into our facility and i think we can certainly make it better we have people waiting willing and able to jump on board and help and i think that's the big we have to brace that this partnership is major and they can certainly add a lot to the city so that's what i observed that night when i went to see it it goes from my observation my feelings are not we think we can make this better ok thank you just because you're rescued another one from folks in newburgh so we're very familiar with the process we're very much loving our pets loving our dogs and i mean they are certainly our family and i certainly understand the needs and concerns of all the people that are with us here this evening i never thought though can visit enjoy the facility and we did a twelve fifteen so we had a forty five minute break before from the time i call the time i got there and i can assure as mr ricky did the place was spotless there were the seven kennels there we had three dogs in the in the facility but as i told some the folks outside you can literally eat off of the floors i was very impressed now whether or not they had forty minutes to clean the place up i don't know because the crack and pulled up after i did but  folks here they actually donated all the food there they had to be several hundred pounds of food there there's actually a washer and dryer their facilities for the and however i take it in light of the concerns that we've had here and this has been an issue for many many years  and throughout the series connectivity just to see that the folks that are here this this evening i think are really cause for it begging for us as a council to perhaps put a committee together working with these folks let's work together as we've done with the rose garden as we've done with woodland park as we've done with many of our facilities here the tennis courts and let's hear their needs and concerns and work with the council through the mayor's office through our mr posters office and of course through schenectady p d i think and perhaps even a partnership with the s p ca right down in the county as well there are a national organization they certainly know how to treat the animals now would not just talking dogs we're talking all animals including cats and there were no cats there i don't know where we do with our cats if something is found but i had the do have one ordered so that is very very good in the commission but i really hope we can follow up on that because i think that's a very important piece of this whole thing because the dog gets away usually not going to get away with collar he's going to come off of the leash he's going take off without his collar and we're going to find the dogs but i think the chip is an important piece and that is why when we rescued the dog was a rescue dog they put that microchip in there so that they're easily able to contact the owner of course we have a license as well to chuck dorn and so i am license i have license dog always av the that's important you know that's another piece of the puzzle so that when they are after you know brought to the shelter they're able to easily identify with the license but again and really want to sit i'm looking forward to hearing the needs of concerns of our community  received many e mails as all of us have from the council and the accusations and talk that was out there you know i really do i believe ever saw in a lot of i really can't believe everyone but i certainly want to go to find out from the bottom of their hearts what their feelings are and i think as a counsel every one of us on this whether we are animal owners or not certainly of the concerns of that all our community has i think we want to work together on this and again i look forward to hearing everybody here of this evening as well i think thank you ok rescue i speak from experience with regard to this facility have had the opportunity to go inside and stood behind beside hudson and others as they were tiresomely to help try to help the dogs that are kept there but as someone of that lives in schenectady  and i know what they go through when they're picked up by animal control i'm also an owner of a extremely grumpy karen terrier he's not a pit bull he's not a rottweiler he's a little scrappy and he's miserable he would not do well and i can only would most definitely be deemed vicious and not adoptable if he ever got loose i do know i do everything in my power to keep it from being that way he never is left unattended he's never done it without a leash in public but accidents happen and he's actually microchips as well it's when these accidents happen that we rely on our city services to be available we expect that our dogs if our dog is found picked up by animal control that they will be brought to a safe place where we can be reunited we expect they will they will be cared for humanely while they're held there we expect that there is a number to call or web site we can go to to see if our dogs have been found i printed this today this is this going to the animal control website it's completely blank there's not a phone number there's not anything on there to tell you what to do if you've lost your combing it my dog has lost one of my combing the neighborhood hanging up flyers posting on social media my dog is sitting in a kennel scared probably had to use a catch pole on him because he's going to bite he's going to growl he's got very little human interaction there's no air conditioning there's no one trying to find out we belongs to and he's surrounded by other dogs who possibly have a virus or disease if he's hurt when he comes in he suffers they don't bring dogs to the vet my and my efforts to find him and i do not lead me to that little secret place over an anthony street within five days he's taken off most likely with a catch pole and euthanized that's my dog it could be your dog any dog in a city schenectady can go from loss to dead within a week for those who don't have owners looking for on the ones that have already been abused neglected or abandoned their chances of survival after being up picked up by animal control is slim at best they actually have a better chance on the streets the conditions that these are your kept in while they wait for certain death is the worst part they the care they receive is not adequate or humane borders on illegal depending on the day no one here tonight except some expects a five star hotel but we do accept that they receive basic care fresh air clean cage fresh food and water medical attention we expect these things happen every day regardless if somebody is off or if it's a holiday we expect these things happen with other every breed whether it's a pit bull or yorkie and whether animal control and wild animal control seizes a dog that's been neglected and abuse leaving them in that condition for the five days is just this criminal be summarized sure we're not here to start a war we're here to bring these problems to your attention or for a viable affordable solutions we want to work with the city and hamilton troll to make the system work something that we good evening my name is carol johnson i do not live in the city of schenectady but because i live in the capital district spend money regularly in schenectady visit friends here attended church here in schenectady i consider myself to be a member of this community i grew up with a my family's lived in this area for over one hundred years i grew up with a grandmother who told me stories about what's connected it was like in its heyday there is so much rich history and beauty here and so much effort has been made towards revitalization to restore the city to its once former glory we've come so far and yet i submit that the facility that you all saw when you went on your tour and the press and other people saw it when they went on their tours not the facility that you would have seen have you shown up unexpectedly just weeks ago it's been said that integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching what does it say that when no one was watching something terrible began happening in the city some of the most vulnerable members of the community animals entrusted to your care at a time when only you could care for them began being subject to her ific and inhumane treatment despite what some in the city of said daily food and water is not a luxury medical care is not a luxury safety is not a luxury and i submit that when you're locked in a building left in your own ways without food or water or medical care for even one day with no likelihood of being reunited with your family you're not safe when your family has just days to locate you without any information about how to do so and if they're unable to do so you're killed you're not safe and when you're kept from anyone who would provide you with humane care or relocation or rescue you're not safe what we all would want for ourselves and our loved ones is at the end of our lives we die peacefully i submit that when a dog is subject to the treatment that so many have received in the city's holding facility and when euthanized without a sedative if their blood for human profit they have not only not died peacefully they've suffered during their remaining days it shouldn't matter whether it was one dog or ten or a hundred dogs one dog is one dog too many they could any pet that you once loved and search your heart and tell us that you would willingly let that them spend one day in this facility that the city's been operating as it's been operated think of losing them forever and never know what became of them think of them terrified alone suffering only to die a way that no animal should die in a civilized society despite the denial that many in city government now express the events going on in this facility have been known to many even many members of government but they all turned a blind eye for many reasons he's not a dog person she can't believe it's as bad as she hears they don't want to make waves well shame on them for letting this continue and now we all know and shame on us if we let it go on for one more day it's also been said that the greatness of a nation is it's more and it's moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated how great can we be as a city and how much could we have progressed if as a community the met the way this dogs have been treated in the city is the barometer by which our humanity is measured p there is no way to make right what's happened those dogs are gone forever and they've lost their families forever that cannot be undone the only thing that we can do going forward and that i ask of you is to make a personal commitment to night that this and tonight at a minimum operate right thank you we live in the city of schenectady i'm a lifelong resident proud member of schenectady also an animal advocate thank you everyone i'm so happy to hear of the good reports i wanted to share a story husband and i went to the sewage treatment plant to try to find the dog we didn't we weren't able to get any so we called animal control they came down and their van and i had pictures of the dog i was describing the dog  was the person that surrendered the dog the day and the time and even had officers name and it was just two days before and there were no records of the dog and they said the dog was not they said he was not inside the building and they said even if the dog was inside the building we were not able to adopt the dog i didn't understand that because we were ready to take the dog home with her to sign waivers because he was a pit bull and they didn't want to give us the dog and we place that i would i want my dog to be n and i just really feel for all the dogs that go there because it seemed like it was more of a trap and kill and set of the shelter so i thank you guys so much that you are concerned about that as much as we are and you're going to make a difference and my husband and i were on board we want to help and we want to support this new shelter that's going to happen thank you thank you and ira hi my name is penny ross i live in hebron men i'm a volunteer with the rocky empire rescue out of saratoga i've personally been working with the schenectady a c o since last june or july i have a lot of experience and shelter work and this place by far is not a shelter by any means it's stark it's damp i have been there nine o'clock in the morning i have been there at five o'clock at night i have been there at nine o'clock at night at any given time the dog dishes the water dishes  over there's urine and feces all over the floor i've always had to bring it to the attention the dogs can't live like this it needs to be clean we're told there's not enough people to me on the place they're in there once a day there's been dogs that have come in the contacted us because they're stray hold is up so as a rescue we even my other shelter that i was in we jump in to try to grab a dog to try to find a home and we're told well it's a vacation day well can't somebody meet u know we're all on vacation you have to wait till tomorrow we'll who speeding the animals there's nobody there today we've six months ago myself and the president met with the chief of police both animal control officers we set up a meeting we offered our services we will sign waivers we all have to sign waivers in this rescue if we're hurt that's our responsibility but we love the animals and that's something we're going to take a chance to do so now six months down the road we're we're getting blame for making allegations it's not allegations you poppin that that facility that the sewage treatment plant any time of the day without notice it is not clean there is nothing in those dishes for those animals and when the sick ones come in you don't know what dog is coming in from where it has parvo it has kennel cough it has heartworm immediately when that dog walks in the door it should be given a seven in one shot so it does have anything it can't transfer you need disinfectants for you parvo and is a is a main killer of dogs and it lasted the ground for ten years so if you're out walking through the grass or concrete and there's germs every time you walk into that facility you are bringing those germs throughout the place it needs to be disinfected they need medical treatment they need to get the shots right off the get go in there very very an expense of we have all offered our services there we just want the darks to be treated like they do in their home they're probably scared to death and never been in a kennel before now they're in there with all strange dogs as if you walked into a place with a bunch of strangers you don't know what to do they're not aggressive they're scared they're not able to be taken out if they growl that's it you have to understand dogs in order to be able to treat them like they should be treated and not just left in there with with nothing no human contact no walking no nothing it's really sad and they're not allegations we have video we have pictures of every time we have been in the place a multitude i don't know if you people really realize how many dogs we've rescued  facility but it was every friday night was a meeting down there and we were summarize we just want these dogs to get started be treating like they should be treated and not left in the cold damp facility with no human contact we're all willing to volunteer for free good evening mr mr mayor and council men and women my name is brenda jean and i am a volunteer and forester for roddy empire rescue i speak from the heart on this matter as i have been involved with your a c o s in the holding facility since january of this year i gotta say i was shocked to hear and see what i was walking into ready empire rescues received numerous calls from about the dog or other that needed rescue or otherwise be euthanized due to the fact that there are no qualified or certified staff members to properly do assessments or valuations on these animals which in turn leads me to believe there is not then nor is there now a proper adoption or force or plan in place i personally and currently house and forester one of your dogs from your shelter this is not even a current there is not even a current or last  bulletin on any of your websites to help pet owners to be reunited with their pets if lost including but not limited to the schenectady police department's web site who by cell self admission is running this  every attempt has been made by brody empire rescue and its volunteers to help balance animal welfare with practical and realistic recommendations specific for this facility always with the animals needs in the forefront which should remain the same regardless of the mission of an organisation or the challenges involved in meeting those needs just because the legal definition of animal cruelty tiberi is one thing is always clear that when failure by an individual to provide certain minimum standards of care constitutes animal cruelty the same standards must apply to shelters good intentions or lack of resources should not serve as an excuse for municipalities or to permit or perpetuate animal cruelty operating beyond an organization's capacity for care is an unacceptable practice which brings me now to your take in take process along with that care beginning at intake the separation of animals entering any shelter is essential for proper maintenance of health and welfare which you do not have this is a necessary precaution to protect the health and safety of the animals and the environment of your facility all animals must be vaccinated or prior to intake with core vaccinations which you do not do and back and backs up the fact that your facility does provide even bait does not provide even basic back care as stated as many dogs and to your facility and poor health now nourished stressed or with infestation of parasites and yet they sit there to suffer waiting for seven days of agony to be over to be let out by the heat on caring human hands that put them there only to be euthanized ok please summarize as a compassionate caring community we demand that detailed plan for change be implemented thank you thank you animals are kept in i find it stunning that this administration continues to deny that there are any problems and that he will at the so called shelter i have witnessed dogs that were brought into the hold in horrible condition and left that way with no medical attention to ease their suffering for seven days yet you want to tell me in the paper that proper q properly care for your sick and injured animals i have witnessed kennels with six or seven piles of feces in them and huge puddles  that the dogs are forced to walk and yet you insist that the kennels are cleaned on a regular basis i have been to the hold on a sweltering hot summer day and it is considerably harder inside the building than outside but you claim that the ceiling fans are enough to keep the dogs cool the city's contention that this hold is located in a water treatment facility is laughable let's just call it what it really is it's a sewer treatment just overwhelming from talking to your animal control officers we have learned that the chip scanner is broken and has been for some time undoubtedly causing residents pads to be put to sleep when a working scanner would them with their owners we're also told repeatedly by your animal control officers that the dogs are brought to a veterinary hospital and burn holes to have their blood drained from the blood bank bank and then are put to sleep without the use of a sedative when the stray hold is up this is appalling to me not only as a pet owner but this is appalling to me as a human being who are further advised by your ratios that these dogs are often left the facility for extended periods of time without food or water when n a c o calls in sick or on holidays this is a criminal act of abuse that stated by the new york state agricultural law there is no excuse for any of this to take place in a modern compassionate society especially when numerous people and organizations is offered their help to you to correct the poor conditions at this city that the city is currently providing i would like to mention that without the help of the involved rescue organizations there would be no blankets toys or treats at your facility we the rescue community the residents of the city is schenectady and the residents of the capitol district and beyond would like to demand to know what this administration plans to do to improve the serious shortcomings of the schenectady stray hold and when they ask that a detail plan be put in place immediately thank you for your it was clear that they needed help and that's what we tried to do i'm not going to go on about the conditions and all that stuff is i think you guys have that information from everybody but i do want to tell you that we set up a meeting with lieutenant  and the two animal control officers and chief elbow we sat we talked about the shortcomings of the shelter the things that we could do to try to help you which included i'm getting the food donated getting the toys donated we have people that are willing to donate fencing we have electricians that are willing to come in there install air conditioners we asked for waivers to be signed i work in litigation so i'm aware of an unvaccinated animal we don't know what's happening to this animal as we would all sign waivers my personal attorney for our rescue actually also contacted the city attorney because this has been with him for over four months what we also have is a professional photographer who has offered his time we have a webmaster who has offered their time to run your site we have a behaviorist that is going to go in and do assessments i also so involved with this as well i mean we could raise twenty thirty thousand dollars and maybe put some money up front for some of these dogs to say to a rescue group we do have a pit bull because there's an enormous amount of pit bulls down there and not everybody can have them we have thirteen of them in your program and our program currently that are your dogs rescue groups need money we are an almost four thousand dollars in debt form the last five dogs that we have taken from your facility one with parvovirus two thursdays ago i want to clock in the morning my home phone rang from the  dog that night while it was on its tray hold and hold the in our care so that it could receive medical treatment and not be put to the dogs came with them that night was eight hundred fifty dollars that is now been transferred to companion animal placement program and you have so many rescues that want to help your facility there has been at least four or five that have come down in summary i guess all of this still stands we want to help you we want to help the dogs we don't want to have a confrontation with anybody just have to let us know what it is you want  sundays because they didn't have the help for breaking the contract and then i asked him before springtime i says they're only open two hours a week and i told well it's  grant money and i don't care grant money i haven't heard anything yet why their only if they want to can stay open two hours a week now i want to know why are they close and when they are breaching their contract i just don't understand this it's grant money well it's grant money that's what that pull was built which was grant money was mostly built down by the river but they didn't do it because the floods would have ruined the filtration system so they built it up there so that that's that's what that was over there and one other thing with this explosion we had the other day up in hampton no people said that they smelled gas how come no one was called two days or three days before welcome to police department wasn't called the fire department national grid i don't i just don't understand it that probably could have been avoided thank you thank you i was hoping to be a little more gentile this is not going to work that way for me i think the last time i was here i spoke of that there were seventy citations in the police blotter for schenectady and i told you then that there would be another publication within the week the saying we of now the list of names well showing up it happened in august the fourth came another publication of names from the police blotter eighty seven names the stand him seventy and then eighty seven it's right here and then if that wasn't bad the next day came the police blotter from other communities and then the town of rotterdam i went through that blotter and fourteen of the nineteen schenectady and it's nice for schenectady to be so caring and sharing in a very snide cynical way because you really get kind of sick of it and then in the greatest art form of all really i think it's beautiful i think it's shameful and if somebody can in this age of creative economics somehow this may come back and the city has connected a to make whole not only the school budget and county taxes but to make whole but these other communities have to pay to maintain law and order oh excuse me i don't want to eliminate anything there was another schenectady and keeping with some of the pet lovers use the nation is very painful but you can't just great to find shad and for oid and have it be less i'm having trouble reading the writing here is that claudia reagan off is a cop thank you dollar storage fee plus that when i called the city please they said it was a ball standing tickets while i never knew of any outstanding tickets i was never notified and  because after that storage my truck got repossessed all right i'm still in the city i really went through court and it went against me because i don't know why because the city had no proof of any so i call the law department i don't care i explained that i couldn't mark it up parking lot because i couldn't breathe come to find out i was put in hospital for not that i have to worry of p and parked for days and it's got to be towed there's something wrong here and i think it should be  dirty work he was very squeamish so it doesn't just take it's not it also takes a toll on the workers to do that kind of work i am thinking that perhaps unannounced site  would be the best thing to do probably from an outside agency maybe bringing someone from outside the state now i'm trying to keep this in perspective because slaughterhouses have very few rules for animals that are not cattle i also think though that adoption directly at the sites which would create traffic people could see would also help out and i think that a ticket to the vets that euthanize the animals without painkiller would be inappropriate thing to do i don't understand the bloodletting that that sounds pretty horrific i'm hoping the animal is already dead because done but i think that a vet that euthanize an animal without pain killers should be investigated by the police and i think if the state is not willing to do that then perhaps somebody else needs to step in because i certainly couldn't do that and that is certainly cruel and inhumane but the bottom line is again if we're going to treat animals like this and you may laugh all the serial killers started that way and one more time himmler could not do his own dirty work so it takes a huge toll on those workers to see that every day and then bring in outside investigators or i guarantee someone else will do it thank you thank you and change the topic from the animals in the pool that the place apartment and the six hundred thousand dollars over budget have been here for two years i'd say the police departments better now it has been in the past and you get the assistant district attorney and her prosecutors he's got no evidence so he's got to use trickery and the place you don't need trip he's the croc prosecutor we have many people in our prisons along the prosecutor rather than go through on the prosecutor out of court for that kind of trickery and no you saw so way to avoid this is there's a fairly simple way to avoid just require every police officer to have about not enough money to run the animal shelter was so we've got to focus on the bad apples in the police department one thing and number two you know make sure make sure that they have evidence to support the violations right up rather than they just don't like the looks of someone  i have no one else signed up to speak on city business so i'm going to declare question of the meeting closed it will move to miscellaneous business of the council madam chair i'd like to thank everybody that came down tonight to to shed some more light on this issue because without light being shed will always be in the dark  i think we all heard what was had to say tonight so i think it's again it's incumbent on us to do what we can to make this situation much better and i think that can happen so i think we should examine every avenue that there is talk with the police department with a lot apartment with the rescue groups with steve capper result who has a lot of insight on issues like this and to make this this much better place and if the place should be moved maybe that's it should be moved so people can have ready access to so the shelter wherever it may be we do have a lot of city property so i think that is a viable maybe thing for us to look at because i know where it is located right now switch treatment plant you just can't drive in and out of there so if someone does want to go there for whatever reason to do rescue work or volunteer work they can until they call the an a olds are overburdened but we have to lightly i think we may be looking to hire a third but ideally what i would like to see is if we could man whatever facility it is with a person baby budgetary wise maybe we can work something out because that would be the ideal situation of somebody is there to care for the animals to give them food water if the water gets tipped over obviously if somebody isn't there they only go every twelve hours or over twenty four hours or something happens  that part won't work so that would be the ideal situation if we could work that out and have somebody manned the facility on a nine to five basis maybe five days a week at least that they'll be some interaction but human interaction with the dogs and they could answer the phone if somebody lost a dog obviously that would be the first thing and just to make this a better place into something i think we should examine if we if we can do it feasibly  we come up with money for certain things so maybe this isn't that farfetched that we could do this and it would also free up our ac oh so they could be on the road instead of mopping up hands as part of their duties because we do have a lot of dogs in the city of schenectady obviously but they all do deserve no matter what the dog may be accused of they all do deserve to be treated humanely and i think that should be our goal and it's been brought to our attention and again i thank everyone for coming down  here bringing this to our attention and now it's incumbent on us now the ball's in our court as they say so let's see what we do and then let's have a serious discussion with this and as mr crozier said if we need a special committee to look at this we can do this we can look at this as a council as a whole to discuss this and set up meetings with and bring in these people as partners because i think it's very important they have a lot of more expertise than i do i've always known dogs but i don't have as much expertise as t hudson or the people that she's involved with so i think i think now that ron a good path as far as fixing this some of us were on the dark quite honestly about what exactly was going on so with that i think we can fix it i think it's incumbent on us to fix it we all have parts we're not heartless that's for sure so i think this is some we have to work on and i pledge myself to work as hard as i can on that and i'm sure the rest of the council the cages themselves where they you know the water is automatically released in the food is released as well so they won't do the dishes again when i was over there this afternoon i really don't recall if the dishes were filled emptied i was just really you know looking at the entire facility but i think that's something that we will take a look at about the bat because again i think it's certainly important as well but again i took numerous notes i mean i've got several notes here that you know from the adoption from the paperwork you know the contact the she was supposed to be this wednesday and believe it or not our forecast is not twenty percent chance or rain or forty percent but one hundred percent chance of rain on wednesday so to say we've already canceled our picnic for the we're rescheduling it for next wednesday august twentieth at the same of the sites the woodland park so we'll have running the band with us we'll have the kings way serving that the food the hot dogs and chicken and that's come one come all it's a committee is going to sponsor our first ever family movie diets and we're kind of piggybacking but schenectady county we bought a permit through them as well so i have a movie brand new park and despicable me two it's going to be this coming saturday august sixteenth probably around seven forty five eight o'clock but again right at the world lawn park it's absolutely free we ask you to bring your chairs and and probably your bug spray but we'll have some refreshments that will be sold in the proceeds  thank you thank you and i also want to thank everyone that came down tonight to talk about this situation with the animals i always feel that it's important that people who are from a with a situation come to let us know about it to involve community and this obviously is a community of people who left animals so thank you all for your input in for the information that you brought to us and so certainly there are some good ideas that we can consider and implement i would hope because again these are folks who work with animals all on a regular basis so they can give us information that we may not have had so it's unfortunate that it is how it is but it's an opportunity to improve to improve it so thanks again for you even if it doesn't end up being something it's important that we call it what we consider an emergency i have personally had to do that and i can say that when you call them it's not hit one for this and hits you for that it's immediately where is the gas emergency and they will come so it's important that we do that and not only will they come they'll come and follow up i've experienced that personally so it's important that we do this for all of our safety in all of our communities matter where we live i'd like to congratulate mount olivet missionary baptist church for this their tenth anniversary if each one reach one reading program they had the graduation today they had twenty five students they started in two thousand and four and one of the girls that started two thousand  was still here ten years later they started two thousand and four and so ten years later when the young ladies that started with them is still in the program and moving forward so they had their ten year anniversary today congratulations to them and thanking them for what i'd like to thank them for what they do for the community and working with our children lastly i'd just like to offer condolences to linda sweet and her family in the loss of just mother my thoughts and my prayers go out to the family thank you thank you  one six for more information thank you thank you echo the sentiments of my colleagues and i will say that you know it takes a village and personally i was completely unaware that there had been any issues discussion or anything i didn't know that the rescue existed and i think this is a prime example of how crucial communication is if we had entered into this conversation several months ago we'd be much further ahead of the game i know th city strives to do its best at all times i don't think any of us want to see anyone fall victim in any way but sometimes it's a matter of awareness to be the best that we can be and i also think that you know as our neighborhood associations where we turn to them and we say the city can't do all of this on its own you know we can't pick up every piece of litter or whatever and we implore you to bend down and take care of your parks or jump in and work a team i also want to say that we need to seriously talk to the ratty rescue people if they have a list of all of the things their volunteers are willing to do for the city in this time when budgets are tight and we have fiscal  constraints we need all the help we can get to do the best that we can get and if i feel like this group of people it's not their job it's their passion that's all the better for our animals to you know have care and love so i do think that some of the allegations maybe i struggle with some of the allegations but i do think it's an important thing for us to pay attention to and i support going forward and having conversations and even if we're good we can always get better everybody can always get better and move forward so i thank everybody for coming down tonight but i also want to make an example of this that this is why people need to raise their voice to government this is why people need to talk to us kid because this conversation shouldn't be necessarily happening tonight when people had concerns several months ago the council is here to serve the public and to kind of be that  information is right on the city website and i know that i along with my colleagues try to be as responsive as possible so talk to us thank you first of all i want to thank the people who live on page three amazingly patient with the circumstance because when this house exploded it actually imploded debris went out the front and the back as well as to both sides and now there's a vacant lot on either side of this house that at the explosion and the houses adjacent to those vacant lots both had sensually missiles coming through their home so there were a lot of people that were displaced national grid did respond in force and we started to get the the stories about people who had smelled gas there had reported it  as early as the day before yesterday and then it got into even last week some time if you smell gas call nine one one why not the national grid is is is not response of they are but nine one one is twenty four seven this fire department knows how to deal with these situations they have the equipment to immediately monitor the air quality of the location and get people back and waited if need be the simple response time of national grid if it's a non working time is going to be much longer than  fire department it is a deep delta response it is the second highest level of response those are the people you need to call nine one one police fire or medical there's a record of it most importantly despite all the people that said that some said they did not call nine mon on did not call national grid others said they did we had some very very high ranking people from national grid check their records they are adamant that they received no calls regarding gas leaks on page not only sunday but for a week or two before that are nine one one records do not show any indication of a dispatch call for the schenectady fire department for purposes of a gas leak being reported on that street or even close to that street don't assume your neighbor take the time you know to call yourself but call nine one one we'll get national grid there to fire chief will make sure they're there but nine one one is your quickest first responder they packed the gear they know what to do thankfully i can tell you that the search site ended today at five o'clock no victims were found in the rubble and then of course under murphy's law theory about five minutes later national grid did a pressure test on page treat of the entire natural gas line and found another leak in front of three o two page three so we evacuated everybody again between albany street and the site thankfully it wasn't for long they had about nine people there with the equipment they fixed that were back in business and other than the two that may have had some very heavy damage to their homes which we may make some of the area not livable and some livable they were back in business and thanks to a lot of people but particularly the people on page street who are the ones who had to suffer through this no  no gas on and off on and off so my thanks to them but my thanks to the fire department national grid the police the new york state fire urban search and rescue troopers it was a team effort they got the job done but it just goes to show you the city's got the people that can handle it thank you thank you and i also like to commend everyone who was involved with the picnic i got there a little bit late but i got there and it was going strong and i think everybody was having a really good time also a reminder that this thursday is the schenectady day nursery steak and lobster fest at central park at the end it's always a great event it's a wonderful organization and i would just you know if anybody's interested in getting tickets you can go online to the s and is transferring to iowa state university very soon this is his last meeting so i think we want to say thank you very much for your service