right i'm going to call this the meeting of the schenectady city council caucus to order for february twenty fourth twenty fourteen we'd have one public hearing tonight if the clerk would read that public airing number one regarding proposed legislation deleting obsolete boards and commissions from the schenectady city code all right and then we'll move into original consideration kirkwood reading item number one i don't number one and ordinance re appropriating the two thousand and fourteen budget with regards to of service this is discussed in the finance committee without objection on consent item number two i don't number two an ordinance amending the administrative code of the city of schenectady introduced only with the resolution calling for a public hearing regarding a proposed change to tap chapter two fifty five of the city code concerning water meters also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number three i am number three an ordinance amending the administrative code of the city of schenectady introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding setting rates and fees for the miscible golf course by resolution discussed in committee without objection on consent i don't number for i don't number for an ordinance amending the administrative code of the city of schenectady introduce only with a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding a proposed ordinance prohibiting the seller of single cigarettes also discussed in committee without objection on consent ok item number six i don't number six a resolution amending resolution twenty fourteen dash three one to reflect the proper settlement amount discussed in committee without objection on consent item number seven iron number seven a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a boulevard supplemental agreement relative to erie boulevard discussed in committee without objection on consent item number eight i don't number eight a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into towing agreements with qualified towing contractors and discussed in committee without objection on consent i remember nine of number nine a resolution authorizing the sale of nine for six through nine five force the street discussed in claims committee without eleven i am number eleven a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a tax or sherry four to five three stage street also discussed in claims that objection on consent item number twelve i don't number twelve a resolution settling remember sixteen our number sixteen a resolution supporting a proposed new york state bill to amend the new york state education law discussed in committee without objection on consent item number seventeen i don't number seventeen resolution presented in it in the go along with the presentation that they will be making so the same is present will be that ok item number nineteen i remember nineteen a resolution recognizing february as american heart help i remember twenty a resolution accepting title to various properties from the schenectady urban renewal agency again discussed tonight in claims without objection on consent and i remember twenty one a resolution authorizing the transfer of title of parcels of real property also discussed in claims this evening without objection on consent there's nothing else to come before the city council caucus on it to entertain a motion to a resolutions but the first one i would like to present is this this is a continuation of our monthly review of the economic strengths which enrich the city of schenectady tonight we welcome alice medicine founded in one thousand nine hundred five under the name of schenectady free dispensary which is located at four o eight union street alice medicine is a schenectady institution which at one time included a three year nursing program located right here in city hall according to the american hospital association our nation's hospitals employ five point three million people represent the second largest source of private sector employment spend approximately three hundred twenty billion on goods and services from other businesses and account for nearly two trillion in economic activity today alice medicine is a four hundred thirty eight bed community and teaching health care system serving new york's capital region with four campuses including alice hospital ellis health center bellevue women's center and the medical center of clifton park plus five additional service locations with more than thirty three hundred employees and more than seven hundred members on the medical staff alice madison provides a lifetime of care for patients according to a press release which issued by alice medicine they did january thirty first twenty fourteen for alice medicine primary care practices have received national recognition for their patient centered coordinated model of care alice primary care offices in clifton park glenville and schenectady both mcclellan and not street locations have earned level three patient centered medical home status which is the highest status available achievable by the national committee for quality assurance in the same press release ellis president and c e o james connelly said in this age of health care reform it's imperative that providers and patients work more closely than ever before to ensure the highest quality most cost effective care possible with us tonight representing alice medicine is paul melton executive vice president and chief operations officer for alice medicine please join me in welcoming mr millet mr nelson mandela's medicine thank you for being here thank you so thank you for having me as you said i'm and i'm the chief operating officer of alice i have ten minutes to go through roughly fourteen slides so i'll be quick i'll give you a sense of the economic impact to  city of schenectady in a little bit to the surrounding area because he's going to help me here with a slide so let's go the next slide you know the next one so this is gives you a sense of how long ellis has been here all this has been around for one hundred  thirty years thereabouts and you can see our second hospital is actually where we are right now from eight hundred ninety three to nine hundred six this picture here represents where i was hospital was and since then we've been up on the main picture there is you see where we are in the city of schenectady that's our main campus that's where most of the employees are and that's where most of the patient care is taken care of next time this gives you an idea of our primary care service area when we do a survey to see where most of the patients come from could be many of you in this room you can see most of them come from the center of  schenectady you've mentioned a couple i think of the key points here there is a value metric that the state of new york puts on hospitals and we scored very well in fact we were the seventh best value in the state of new york that looks like quality metrics and cost metrics as measured by our own business we're a three hundred seventy million dollar organization our average employee is in the range of about seventy five to eighty thousand dollars as their compensation and benefit package we do pay a significant amount of taxes in the community have a slide that comes up that will show you that it's over a hundred million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars excuse me and we provide four million dollars worth of uncompensated care charity care to the community and roughly five million dollars on what we call loss care for medicare and about six million dollars on sort of an reimbursed our last care for medicaid patients we do a lot of free care in the community addition to a number of screenings for example flu shots that we provide and we're also training the next generation of caregivers we have the voyager school of nursing in our residency program for family medi so we're trying to build for the next generation to take care of all of us in this community the next slide give you a feel for the care we provide to the residents of schenectady you can see we have two hours in schenectady here one on a clown street when i'm not street fifty eight thousand or eighty two percent of the visits into those ers come directly from schenectady and of all of our in patient care you can see roughly sixty five percent of all of our admissions are almost eleven thousand seven hundred missions are from schenectady city residents i do think it's an important point to make a note here that that is you can see in the inpatient care roughly about thirty six percent then of people from outside this community come in to schenectady for care next line so why do patien slides that are services for stroke patients for very attic patients for cardiac patients and neuropathy asians rank has some of the highest in the state of new york so in terms of providing great quality value and cost value we continue to provide good value to the people in this community we're proud police last year by the chamber to receive the corporation of the year so we've had a busy five years as maybe many of you know in putting things together for the l a system so we're pleased to be recognised by our colleagues in the community receive that awar which is the hospice o c a ssion of new york which is our state association puts this information together for us so this is the direct and the end direct economic economic impact for the city so you can see all told here and this would include not only our business but what i call the spin off business so if i go down the street to a small business here and buy pizza or buy something there's a significant spin off effect so roughly we have spun off including our own five thousand plus jobs and over six hundred million dollars into this community and you can see the taxes that are paid income in sales taxes are thirty eight million federal twenty one billion for the state and then eight million dollars locally here so a very significant impact to the city in this community next slide this is our direct impact here what as one of the largest employers in the area and in the city we employ over thirty three hundred people and you can see many of them more than almost fifty six percent of them are residents of schenectady as i said the average payroll in benefit package for the average person is about seventy five thousand dollars so a significant impact that was provide to this to the city for that next slide and i talked about the taxes that we pay the we rent a number of private  private space in the community mostly for physician office practices and you can see the taxes we pay as a result of that total one hundred seventy five thousand dollars much of that is on the mcclelland st campus over us health center and that in the cushing building there next line there's been a lot going on in the community particularly since we merged the three hospitals and so  as health care changes we're working a lot with the communities that are in the city probably more so than we ever had in the past i won't go through each one of these in the interest of time but i think you can you know in the last year our collaboration with hometown health to absorb the free clinic disconnectedly free clinic was important we've done a huge u matter survey to reach out to some of the residents in the community that are most in need and so we're we're providing our services directly sort of building our strategy based on the results of the you matter survey so that we can be sort of ahead of all the changes going on within health care we we want alison we wants connected to be on the forefront and be innovative with all the changes going on in health care and we couldn't do it without all the other providers in the community right now and we're blessed in this community have so many other partners to work with next slide future plans as i mentioned health care is very dynamic  field right now our consolidation of all the services amongst the different campuses the nice tree campus here in schenectady is one of the biggest impacts you can see here with the development of the emergency department so we will consolidate services there by the end of this year and then convert the emergency room on the mcclelland street campus more to urgent care type campus this fulfills all of the requirements of the berger commission that started over six years ago from now you can see in terms of staying modern you know we're upgrading our operating room facilities  invested a fair amount of money and educated staff regarding robotic surgery and over on the mcclelland campus have made a significant investment for dental care for our pediatric residents in the community  as i mentioned this is always important to do by having some expansion outside just the core of the city of schenectady so some of our alliances i mean our own is the medical center of clifton park which actually pulls on many of the residents in the southern saratoga county and brings them down to schenectady for services to the to the main hospital and we are looking at alliances with other health care organizations in the greater capital region as health care changes to align with other providers yet to be named in the future but but this gives you an idea about sort of the significant things that are going to be going on over the next year the e r was a big investment for us it's the one million dollars and you can see a number of construction jobs that were created as part of that one hundred fifty construction jobs in this community the next night i talked about the importance of the future and and training the next sort of round of talent and so we have a family medicine residency program an decided to stay in this community there is a national shortage of family medicine physician so we're blessed to have this training program and we try very hard to keep these very well trained physicians in this community to take care of all of us in addition to the school of nursing the blander school of nursing which we have moved up to the mcallen st campus we have a very high pash rate for these students and as you can see about fifty graduates a year stay in this community and take jobs with and alice many of them stay with us many of them we try to work with our partners so they stay in the community here and next  so that's it i hope i stay till roughly my ten minutes we're here we've been here for under thirty years and i for see us being here for a long time to come with all the changes going on in health care so i thank you for your time we have a second presentation to be made tonight and this is a book presentation by five beta fi and then we'll follow that with the ceremonial resolutions the shannon kelly please come on up oh my name is sheehan in cali and i'm here with my sorority sisters margaret harvey and julie panky we are members of private affair i the first women so we're fraternity sorry some people we call it a fraternity of others called a sorority founded on april twenty eighth eight hundred sixty seven we are a part of the schenectady along the club of private a five which has been in existence for over eighty five years there are also there's also  leave collegiate members of the paternity at rensselaer polytechnic institute so they we're happy to bring with us a representation of the five hundred books that are nonprofit branch of our national fraternity sent to the schenectady county youth bureau reading has been an important part of our fraternity history last year we celebrated one hundred years of philanthropic service related to reading and literacy from the earliest days o beta five settlement school and gatlinburg tennessee to the books we are distributing today i mean if i across the u s and canada are impacting people's lives through reading it is hard to believe but  statistics from the national assessment of adult literacy indicate that only one in four children will grow up in today's society being functionally illiterate with a story of one campaign embarking on a new goal of impacting one million lives through reading by our one hundred fiftieth anniversary in twenty seventeen so with these five hundred bucks which are given with financial help from the literacy fund i foundation and our corporate sponsor first book we are giving the youth of schenectady an invitation to numerous possibilities through reading if you are interested in learning more about  and its signature literacy project related cheve i can tell you a little bit more after tonight's meeting you can check out our website may defy dot org or you can stop by the green market this sunday inside proctors from ten to two we will be at the children's table collecting books for the bridge christian church at schenectady which is a non denominational church in hamilton hill and if you bring children along we will also be celebrating our fraternities national national day service and dr seuss's birthday with coloring projects and making bookmark will be served and touched by these books they are certainly going to be grateful utilized this past summer for the past eight summers we've been in the youth bill has had a program called page by page it's a summer reading program that we utilize at all or summer this donation we have every single park and every single section the city covered and again we have the euro thank you very much  presentation to make on behalf of the city council at a time when only five state universities admitted women in with the twelve founders having the vision to form the first secret society for women pattered after men's groups of the time and whereas by snow that's a typo i beta distinguishes itself in the fraternity and sorority world by leading the way in being one of the founding members of the national conference and by being the first to organize a national philanthropic project being the first to form an alumni department and being the first to establish an alumni advisory committee for each collegiate chapter whereas i continues to encourage women to reach their personal goals through perseverance skill and friendship to develop women of intellect and integrity to cultivate leadership abilities and to enrich lives through community service and whereas collegiate membership in beta fi and the resulting relationships help members adjust to college life by providing a sense of belonging mutual support and leadership development and where as and or not as members are part of a network of sisterhood and friendship with more than two hundred thousand worldwide members now therefore it be resolved that the favor i thank you thank you again all right our second ceremonial resolution is a resolution for black history month as the sporting field to go to i'd like to invite those are here on behalf of black history month please come inside the rail madam president you have for a ceremony resolution recognizing black history month whereas beginning around sixteen nineteen when a dutch ship brought twenty africans ashore at the british colony of jamestown virginia slavery spread quickly through the american colonies resulting in an estimated six to seven million slaves being imported to new world during the eighteenth century alone and whereas although the union victory in the civil war gave more gave some four million slaves their three them african americans were on course to face additional significant challenges including lynching segregation and the nihil of basic fundamental rights and whereas in spite of these injustices african americans made and continue to make significant contributions in several fields as reflected in the writings of the boys in the music of duke ellington and the resolve of great athletes the likes of jackie robinson and visionary such as frederick douglass harriet tubman and dr martin luther king jr and in the example resurface of unsung heroes of black regiments of yesteryear and whereas by recognizing specifically for several famous first by african americans including rhodes rebels u s senator carol moseley braun female u s senator joseph rainey u s representative thurgood marshall supreme court justice general colin powell and condi rice u s secretaries of state marc our chairs chief of police for the city of schenectady david paterson governor of new york state eric holder attorney general and the election of joseph allen as the first african american elected to the schenectady city council we recognize the continued fulfillment of civil rights leaders dr king that everyone should be judged by the content of their character and whereas the city of schenectady shares p that through the a complement accomplishments of its own african american community past and present exemplified in the creation of an african free school in the eighteenth thirties for the education of schenectady his children of color and the subsequent use of the facility as a well known station on the underground railroad and the establishment of the first african american church in the city eight hundred thirty seven by reverend isaac and the service of jared katz and a black civil war veteran who where is the election in reelection of president barack obama as the forty fourth president of the united states as the nation's first african american president mark the crowning moment and significant milestone in an african american history in its diversity and its a bounding contribution to the economic educational political artistic literary scientific and technological advances of the united states now therefore be resolved that the mayor  thank you behalf of the african american community we want to thank each year the city takes time to recognize the contributions of african americans during black history month and we really appreciate it and we also appreciate the fact that the city is been instrumental in helping us document historical places in the city of schenectady in may we're going to be designating not changing a street name but designating a portion of st harriet tubman way and that's because of the support of the city council and we really appreciate it thank you thank you thank you i'd like to also thank to your city for all of the contributions and for the rich culture that here a lot of people don't realize are rich the culture is and what we sheet that has african american first in the city of schenectady from the sixteen hundreds to courier ok again thank you very  right and our third out of order resolution is celebrating february heart health month mr reagan is going to present that and mr millet milton from ellis is going to come up and receive it history for the ceremonial resolution recognizing february has american heart health month where as more than two thousand one hundred fifty americans die of cardiovascular disease each day approximately one death every forty seconds and whereas heart disease claims more lives each year than all forms of cancer combined whereas cardiovascular diseases the disease with direct and indirect costs estimated to be three hundred  twelve point six billion dollars per year and whereas the research is clear that there are preventive strategies as well as community based radke's that can increase survival rates from cardiovascular disease and whereas the valuable contributions of health professionals including the medical staff who make up the cardiac care team and other health heart health programs have medicine perform a spectrum of lifesaving services each and every day and where as making the right of the cardiac team primarily the cardiac surgeons and the cardiologists in the community and all the cardiac nurses that take care of all of us that may have cardiac disease i want to thank you for this i also actually would want to thank jane golub who we've partnered with a lot of help us to really focus on heart disease in women heart disease heart disease presents itself differently for women than it does for men and we've partnered with them to to focus on this in this community so it is the number one killer for women and we're focusing on a lot of the prevent of work to take care of the women in this community with heart disease thank you very much thank you again all right that concludes the ceremonial resolutions will now move on to our one public hearing which is dealing with legislation proposed legislation which would lead obsolete boards and commissions from the schenectady city code i have three people signed up to speak the first is their city clerk checked on in the coming months will be systematically looking at the city code and identifying dated or obsolete sections of the code to update it the ordinance we're proposing tonight to lead several boards or commissions that have either been replaced or are no longer functional the boards are the dairy advisory committee the environmental conservation kemp commission the police objective review committee which was replaced by the civilian police board tuesday in the park and colonial fest divil advisory committee and the central park stage committee thank you you thank jason plank board meets monthly discuss policy issues if you serve a cation applications review boundary amendments regional projects and oversees the operation of the empire zones that your checks and balances to make sure the metroplex doing its job your overseeing these projects room works with jobs etc and appointment service organization hamilton hill has a close relationship with a partner labor one stop center to help find employment opportunities for minorities own and women owned business enterprises additionally metroplex development authority is developing a certification of any of these if they don't meet the pilot programs as part of the zone annual report to the state board will summarize the results of the any reviews any case which business are being recommended producer vacation the empire zones will certify business that needs a fifteen to one benefit ratio cost ratio with the exception of manufacturing business made a ten to one ratio so for every ten dollars invested one dollar misspeak given back to the people in ten dollars must be given back to people for one dollar they put in that's what it's supposed to be when acquisition of existing businesses occur the existing employees will not be considered as new jobs for the purpose of determining local again the democratic party for the last ten years said we can sixty seven hundred jobs they haven't it's all been tra jobs and exactly right here they're not supposed to count those count those added jobs then we go into any business wishing to be certified threshold required by the district which takes locals not to have any property and this board needs to be re vamped needs to be put back into place so we can understand how these pilots are actually being put through what is the cost benefit analysis where is these pilots are they creating the thank you thank you members and mayor's office for the opportunity to speak tonight about the economic development don't administrative board the economic development program is now called the empire's own program the purpose of the board is to monitor evaluate coordinate all economic development zone benefits on behalf of the town of when will the benefits provided by the economic zone program include reduction in utility costs investment tax credits against the corporate franchise tax investment tax credits additional employment at the facility to apply a business must agree to a list of all opening for jobs and training programs a local job office service of the department of labor targeted for the jobs must be listed for targeted individuals that include low income designations are still required to report annually to the zone administrative board reporting requirements include that the business has met projections set forth in the application and explanation as to why not total existing full time equivalent jobs program are meeting their goals thank you thank you tricky tonight the city council is going to support a bill sponsored by senator farley and co sponsored by sen kay sick and this is a this bill s sixty to eighty two and it will amend the education law in relation to authorizing the option of assigning community service as an alternative to suspension of students or in conjunction there rob saul of students misbehave if this bill goes through hopefully  well the school district will have the option of all soul with a suspension to also order community service which i think is a good thing and maybe we can start getting things in line a little bit so i five people signed up to speak on the first is harry brand him and i have nothing up you'll be against him what i feel is wrong is the way this lecture is going to take place we had people run in november for office and not considered for the city council from any party the democratic party recommended mr coulter the mayor of recommended mr cocksure and the city council is all behind it we need some young people we need some two ideas mr closure was already on the city council and what's happened we've got the same old olds up here and no change no new ideas no inspiration for the city i don't know what he's going to come with but i sure hope it's a bagful because we needed here it's a shame it's up really a shame it's a wonderful thing to belong to any party any organisation but sometimes you have to have your own back home and stand up for your own thoughts and rights and i don't see it happening here and it's a shame i belong to many organisations in my time and i can guarantee you that none of them swayed me when it came time to fall i don't know what you have in store for yourselves or for anybody else and if any of  the next mayor i certainly hope not because this city deserves better and i'm serious about that i haven't seen any progress here to show the citizens in this city to be considered considered for anything it's a shame our neighborhoods our streets everything is gone top down town one thing but we don't have a department store we don't have only one supermarket in the city and you want to keep the same old thing experience what have we got for experience how many of you people came down here and really spoke and talked about your neighborhoods and what you want to do to improve the city before you were put on the council i don't remember many of them yes a couple times a few times but no new ideas the same old same old thing and now we're following right back into it again i'm disappointed with you people very disappointed thank you thank you ok jason plank eighty percent of federal money went into the say and affirmative action for both minorities women own and also for personal disabilities did not even happen how can this city council sit here and say yes we  action when you absolutely did not how can you approve this sitting right here you know i mean you know when the even the gazette a year ago had foiled that and even had merit could you give the affirmative action manager even said that there was no affirmative action on erie boulevard whatsoever none and tonight you're trying you're authorizing to receive eighty percent of federal money and you're lying before the federal government  saying that you guys inclined to constantly have given fifty to twenty five to fifty percent again the fifty three state street is going from one point six million to six hundred thousand for years two thousand and nine two thousand and ten five hundred thousand for two hundred twenty eleven and two hundred ninety thousand for years two thousand and twelve and twenty thirteen that's nearly a seventy percent reduction in property taxes that's over a million dollars of lost property tax assessment you know i mean you know if the tax assessment is off that much that we need how do a whole quickly reassessment juris you're giving these developers and contractors huge property tax relief while your part and all the burden on the homeowners of this of this community if every if you're allowing them to give almost nearly this one nearly seventy percent that everyone else in the in  good evening city council madam president my name is joe kill her and i'm a resident of the city of schenectady i want to speak on resolution number five and i want to preface this by saying i know mr  he's a valued community member and a definitely an asset to the woodlawn neighborhood and with respect to mr cocksure as a person however there is a definitive conflict of interest by appointing a county civil servant employed in a managerial position to a city council seat his creates a division of loyalty especially when it comes to issues of business between the city and the county regardless of whether an individual in such a position and capacity recuses themselves of vote they would still have influence on a decision that would impact local business from a county perspective appointing an eighty five thousand dollars per year county employee to a fourteen thousand dollar per year city position is a grave injustice not only to the person but to the people of the city in his much the recent quote in which our city council president has stated republicans need not apply with respect to the vacant seat is contradictory to the diversity that this city's council majority of posts to endorse the statement is clearly a political discrimination and opposes the president's own words of encouraging anyone who is willing able and qualified to apply for any open position while there may be some racial diversity amongst the city council there is definitely a lack of party diversity to provide a true representation of the if he wanted a council seat he should have run for the office spent the money on a campaign and worked to earn it like i did a council election was the city will pay more to play golf in schenectady then the veteran who lives here even though the city is offering discounts to all veterans my husband is a veteran low skill jobs discount to veterans and the discount is the same for all of them boscov's also gives discounts to veterans the discount is the same for america not just their hometowns item number eight applies to telling thieves according to the proposal the city will receive a thirty five dollars k city policeman makes the phone call to the towing company to remove a car from an accident scene in schenectady forget that the policeman is already on duty forgot that the taxpayers paid them a good union wage to night council once to vote to receive thirty five dollars for his services policeman makes a phone call to what telling company to tow will car away from an accident ca voters please understand what is happening to you tonight by the democrats and ask yourselves as this proposal positive i would vote for such a thing thank you  opinion from a new york state department of the exception of finance that relies on a nine hundred seventy seven new york state new york state court of appeal decision which based on two principles number one a town officer may be consider a county officer for the purpose of article eighteen which is a conflict of interest law because of the overlap overlap or identity of interests of the county and the city and tax collection enforcement process number two a city council matter will have considerable role in the preparation of city budget and probably assessment increases collection issue and the sale of cool cross properties to go she has shown the city county contract negotiating the city share of sales tax like joe  just said miss a quarter will have divided loyalties in determining among other things the county share of the property taxes and the city share of the collective sales taxes and that would consequently i affect the county's overall budget and it may  a continuation of his employment with the county mr cordial has already declared that he will be assigned his position as a member of the school of disconnect to the school board as it turned out the new i am a democrat mr cocksure is a democrat i am a proud member of the democratic team that works very hard along with the citizens of the city and people of other parties to move this city in a forward direction holder tonight is being appointed first of all for the legislative health of the city council and having seven votes on the council as well as he's the candidate that the majority of us could agree on in consensus to move this appointment forward which is something that we need to deal so there is the nuts and bolts of it we'll get that out of the way this is the reason i'm voting to support mr cocksure mr cocksure is an active volunteer in our community cares about our community he has provided countless hours of personal time for the betterment of his neighborhood and our community as a whole he has also worked with our youth and is a proven leader in countless activities that surround our you in the betterment there in addition to that he holds history of our city and history of the city council which although i feel new ideas are very very valuable to this council we have four new people within this election cycle the council so i also think that was the next top vote getter as a loser but he was the next top folk at her and that's why he deserved the seat because of that so if we use that logic that my colleagues on the consul used to years ago then it would be joel is very would be the guy that should be appointed tonight but that's changed now that changes i understand the politics i don't belong to a political party but i understand the politics and there's times when i think god that i don't belong to a political party this is democracy we're talking about here now the opinion of the corporation council which it's in the charter we shall appoint someone to the sea there is no time frame whatsoever in that and that part of the charter whatsoever we could discuss this for months we could discuss a fur day we could discuss a for a month where is the open process and this thing only a few people were considered and there's other people that would like to have the seat also i say i said it before i'll say it again it should be up to the people we're talking about democracy there's people that are losing their lives overseas right now for democracy and that's what we have here but democracy is taking a backseat t party politics it's nothing personal with mr cocksure whatsoever nothing about that whatsoever i say let the people decide that's what people go to the polls for but we have a lot of apathy now with this and i can understand why some people throw up their hands say why should we even bother let people decide who they want to see in office where they want to see sit in this seat that's what it should be all about nothing else but i find it interesting again and i'll bring it up again that the argument from two years ago all of sudden change shouldn't be the getter that's kind of interesting i find that interesting a little disingenuous set's way find it so i will for these reasons i am voting no i want to let the people decide who sits here not next not not today in november when they'll have to decide again that's when they should decide and seat this person all right the second roll call is item number thirteen quickly on this this is a property that's being sold but in my opinion we're not following the process that we should be following this person contractor's been working in this house for two or three weeks doing all kinds of work in the house that tonight we're going to pass legislation to transfer the house i don't think this is the right way to do things we're putting the cart before the horse i understand the expediency sometimes of things but there's other ways to do it why are we here voting we're voting on something that's already being worked on and i don't understand that's the part i don't understand can't get my arms around and i'm taken to task by certain individuals department heads for this i'm doing my due diligence has a council member i have a right to ask questions about things and that's my right has the elected official until i'm not elected if i choose to want to get or don't want to get and that's my business until i do that i'm going to do my due diligence and there should be more of that from the city city department heads due diligence i say to get an e mail saying this contractor jumped the gun and thought it was a done deal well who gave him that idea that it was a done deal and it's a putting a furnace in a house that he doesn't even  i don't even know why he would want to do this personally i don't understand this is not good business i wouldn't do it unless i knew i had title to property but if that's the way people want to do business my integrity means too much to me i'm not to be part of that's why i vot for us when no one else carries all right then we will now move to privilege of the floor regarding city business i have seven people signed up to speak first is joe rodriguez totally clean not nothing above usually you have a dozen or so left but these guys did enough standing job especially on the street and i'm sure around the city i notice around concert member who checked into it and they have to give the property owner some time to repair it i can understand that the thing is now is developing the whole you have three of them when you first morrison street then you have three more after that pothole that watery so you do basically driving on the bottom up and down this is one street i come here every time talk about that one street is just one street and i can't see why the city can't find five thousand or ten thousand here one street to the body one street you repaired bank early street a couple years ago that's not heavily travel gleason he had to have that five hundred thousand dollars what's going on here what's going on he's got oil wells in three four different countries states rather than united states he's a multimillionaire and were given five hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money and no paperwork on it according to mare how could you vote on it no paperwork is he paying us back or is he not lousy deal not to little be strictly a lousy deal and that money should be brought back to the city and give it to another organization or contractor he's working down there on broadway in that building down  go across the lane you had of a lift truck down their front two three occasions that i saw in the parked in the street raising two men above the roof level or at least the roof level no slip band just a with all the traffic at the bridge oh never feels how do you allow because it's terrible and with the smoke blowing look at you and you never go you force people to break the law you force people in this city to break the law you have to cross the double solid line to transfer to go up or down that street with the snow conditions i've talked about this for years and nothing's ever been done that should be a priority street or possibly no parking whatsoever the traffic on that street and you have to cross a solid line and that's not the only street look i'm a large street for seniors pay to park oh you could go down and get by there without crossing the solid line and look at the condition of it today so many potholes you can missile what's going on in our city so i say we need some new people we need some new things we don't even take care of our own laws we're forcing people to walk in the streets you got to get going and stop giving our away like ten thousand mr pulling home twenty thousand dollars salary races if the mayor has that authority if some of it should be taken away because it's being abused we are paying that for them people and for their pensions paid one hundred forty thousand dollars and pay a man overtime and give him clothing and pay for his benefits come up let's stop this nonsense thank you jason law school had what was called a special needs planning law day i found a brochure from the and basically we're hoping that the we've been asking for this to happen from the school for the last ten years and they finally did it we're hoping that they will continue to do this next year the special needs trust fund is available london in london on sunday and she was thought to be the world's oldest survivor of the nazi holocaust so we've just now lost piece of history and hopefully under civil rights we will not lose the memories and is a lot of host everywhere it's not just one street or two streets but it's everywhere and the worst thing of it is is this each driver's  on large street it's got to be dog because we don't need nobody else getting hit because i've heard of the case the kate party came and told me i said this is got to stop and it's got to be something has got to be done and nice cars and not stopping a nice people talking on a cell phone driving that's a safety hazard right there that's got to stop too we can't have that going on people driving it and talking on the cell phone that's how accidents happen goddard do something and do something fast good evening once again thank you for allowing me to speak i want to speak about the american legion as i've mentioned before here at the rail i am wartime veteran served during the one nine hundred eighty s during grenada and  sergeant at arms at the american legion post ten ninety two in upper union street and one of the things i wanted to bring to the attention of the city council is more so to make a request one of the things that we do is we retire the flags and you do the appropriate ceremonies and typically it's done on flag day or the flag day weekend one of the things that we'd like to do and that we're currently doing at the niskayuna town hall we have a collection then and we'd like to find out and see if the city council would approve us putting a collection been here at city hall for people to drop off their retired flags so that we can collect them on a regular basis bring them over and retire them properly over at the american legion in as much we going through the ladies auxilary room and office up on the second floor of the hall of the home and by and by the way the american legion home on union street is the only american legion home left in this in the county of schenectady and it's right here in our own very own backyard we found resolution from mayor doocy from decades ago where he honored to american legion on during the month of may and proclaimed that may be month on behalf of the american legion and that's something we look to do like to do again like and bring you more details on a future meeting one of the things that we do have coming up next month is we have a st patrick's day dinner point beef and cabbage for ten dollars that's on sunday march sixteenth at one p m and we'd like to encourage everyone to attend we do want to open it up to the public spat fully or legionnaires and and family and friends of legionnaires in his much we'd also like to encourage our recent military veterans and active military who have cern during in afghanistan and iraq to come and take a look and see what we've done to help make improvements of the american legion and make it more active once again we would like to see more people more activity back in the area in fact at the last meeting we just improved in a miracle legion writers post where we have the motorcycle club of the american legion to help bring more awareness and be out and active in the community as well thank you very much for your time i appreciate it thank you  made with regard to finding more information concerning the five hundred thousand dollars which is included in a loan application the city is making to housing urban development through which will be paid through future community development block grant monies in looking at this from from another perspective what caught my attention is that i didn't know you know what is being done for the city in exchange for the five hundred thousand dollars so i visited a freedom of information request asking for background information and it was denied and it was denied on the basis that there is no such information of this is denied by the mayor mccarthy i subsequently wrote on january thirteenth to mary mccarthy appealing the denial of the information and then the wasn't even responded to you know there it wasn't nothing there's nothing at all and i think that's inappropriate i know that's inappropriate i do think there's a responsibility in giving  five hundred thousand dollars to a private developer to take down a building not street i e the old d s s building the new d s s building is owned by the same developer on broadway there but i did an opinion piece for the gazette which appeared in which the questions that i was hoping to get answered through the foil request are what exactly is a lease going to be doing for the five hundred thousand dollars you know is there and it says that there's fourteen apartments that are going to be something i don't know what and it's a phrase it's used that doesn't have a great deal of meaning as to doesn't mean low income people give it those things the the property itself was sold not to lisi but to the county industrial development agency for two hundred thousand dollars but the two hundred not for profit corporation i e the the idea a to to do this when if he didn't know ahead of time he's going to get the money now it's a different corporation now involved i have copies of the article and a copy of the peel letter i'd a couple of things tonight first the end still ation of the new fire chief and the others i do not think there is any citizen i would has received the more courtesies and services from the city firemen than have been shown to me they have come to my home several times and i have been to the fire station on many occasions all of them show concern for my welfare and i always express my appreciation to then or into this time this fire chief i have sent thank you notes to  attended the viewing for the firemen who was killed in the snowmobile accident and i sent a sympathy card to the department during the installation to look around at all the uniformed men and women and said to myself how wonderful folks if you ever need the city firemen they will give you their past on another no i spend a lot of time attending bimonthly committee meetings i have been going to the meetings for the last six years and learned early on that when certain people show up to make proposals the rest of us are in trouble so i founded your onerous when a council member stood in this chamber and said we listen to the department heads discuss the issue then act on it that's not what i would do if i was sitting in one of those seats i would do my homework first sort out the facts and follow through on the proposals that's what i do now and i'm not a council member for instance of the land is for sale i go to look at the property  required i thought out what the people want on the night the council discussed jack's plates for the house located in the g eight plot a council member said we cannot have people carving out rooms in the historic areas kelso had done a ton work they would have know that i department heads carved out an apartment for a relative in his home in the g e plot folks do your homework or know what i would if i was sitting there thank you i have no one else signed up for privilege of the floor regarding city business to declare that portion of the meeting close before we go to miscellaneous business of the council we did receive a text from mayor mccarthy indicating that mayor in attendance and on whether mayor you're still here and if you are would you just rise and let us recognize you really did he ok i guess he panicked just left a few minutes ago i'm sorry about that but we appreciate his coming i also make one other quick announcement too i was reminded of the economic development zone born is not being a limb unaided that is not on our list so we will now go to slant as this is the council its  in with their infant within six months this house was formally industry pear and foreclosed on the land bank is just a wonderful wonderful tool for our community to be able to use i remember when we were going door to door talking to people about the land bank and helping them understand what it could mean for our community and it's just so refreshing to see that we first of all made the cut because there's very few in this day and also that we're starting to utilize that tool to better our neighborhoods and that's something that's really really important i also want to bring to light a brand new website it's called park schenectady dot com it is a map of all of our downtown parking lots and also events that are going on in news and so in other words if you're coming into proctors for a show or if you're going to schenectady light opera it will show you where the parking lots are located what their best suited for what the closest to and also what costs are involved if there are costs that are attached to that so again it's park schenectady all right now and there are also some absolutely gorgeous pictures of of our downtown and of the fall colors are just beautiful thirdly just kind of an announcement it was a recent article but i want to bring it to the forefront of people's attention it's not going to open  until probably more toward june somewhere between april and june the article said but we have a brand new business opening up at five fifteen state street called puzzles bakery and cafe and they'll be serving sandwiches big good soup and they'll be staffed completely with adults with autism and developmental disabilities and i just think this is just another wonderful thing to add to our downtown these types of businesses just enrich our community and everyone should be involved in the community so i just love this initiative and i want to put it on people's radar finally i'm very excited about the sale of the property and state street we have a brand new family literacy center that's going to be built there and also some retail development and is just a it's a good good another good and positive thing for the city lastly i have let's say tonight i'm starting again to talk about graffiti removal in the city is coming i'm looking for community groups that are willing to adopt a week which would mean they would pick up the supplies and the property lists and meet the probation and go out into the community and guide them through their work that day so please if you're a community group and you want to adopt a week or two weeks or maybe even the whole summer you know it's really too demanding for one group please contact me certainly be reaching out in return thank you thank you anyone else thank you in our public hearing tonight we talked to the legislation for boards or were absolutely in the city code one of the boards that was on that list was the affirmative action advisory board and i just want to let people know that that is not a board that will be deleted and what we are going to do is actually we activate that board the affirmative action advisory board shelby appointed by the chief executive officer with the concurring vote of a majority member of the members of the city council the board concern itself with all aspects of equal opportunity in hiring employment promotion complaint purchasing and contracting we will be look looking for people to to actually be on that board and the board by its very nature is it needs to be a diverse board right the original legislation had nine members were discussing the number of members but i just want to say the groups that need to be represented for those who would like to submit their resume for this women's interest will be on they are hispanic interest minority interests to disability and veterans interest and additionally that we three members would be members at large who are sensitive to problems of intergroup relations and represent various segments of the  city the appointments will be a two to three year term on a staggered basis and we do have a couple of things that we have to work out in terms of that but i want people to start submitting their resumes now so when the board is up ready to be up and running we will have to begin that time will have resumes that we can consider for people who would like to serve on the sport thank you and you can send those to my attention at my city council e mail address thank you thank you city is considering buying i talked about it a month or so ago so it's promising it's a hot asphalt machine which will work much better we'll be able to recycle the yam a site that we peel off streets in the summer time and it's something that should last longer than cold patch so for everybody just reports the potholes when you see them and hopefully we'll have a presentation about of this machine property for us to consider purchasing but it's something i think will give us a better alternative to coal patch for sure the properties that we've been taken over i've taught to build the sake of and clearing i think as we know i mean i have one list here that's just pages and pages of pages of properties and we're taking more but mr ms say cuz put together a plan with city employees with c d p g money that is there for the snap program and the walks are being cleared i think right now it's well over four hundred to four hundred fifty walks and they have been clearing the house and there's going to be more to come because they think in the next wave it could be another four hundred that will be taken so up the deadline as will be this friday the main thing is that enhanced star for seniors that has to be done by this coming friday otherwise you'll lose that exemption and that also goes along with the senior exemptions and we have been talking about this we know there's a problem but the assessment roll is something that isn't that we don't know what's going out there is a problem and we're going to have to look i'm afraid at some point to putting the funds together to fund a reassessment because right now the people that have not grieved they're actually paying a disproportionate share there's no question about that it's not a seventy percent those are all dictated with figures that are brought before us and we do work  executive session because that's the way that has to be because we're discussing different options that we have put before us for that for that lawsuit so it does have something to do with claims and that's why it's there but we are taking everything into consideration but the figures don't lie in these figures are presented to us and it's not an easy decision to make but we have to grant relief when it's so so do it and that's what we have to do but i think at some point we really have to look for another reassessment i hate to say it but there has to be another reassessment done and some of these search that we're going through go back to two thousand and eight two thousand and nine so it's when the reassessment was done and it's just coming to court now so what that  they've been doing with the snow plowing snow removal i know it's not ideal and like you said i know we're getting tons of potholes now but they're doing their best to keep up with things and i just have really appreciated that also will make a note that mr