i call the city council caucus meeting to order for december twenty eighth twenty fifteen we have one public hearing tonight if the clerk will be that public air number one regarding incorporating eight ten arch street into arch tax exempt status to out of the box family worship tabernacle at eight seventy albany straight for two thousand and eleven and two thousand and thirteen discussed in committee without objection on consent item number four item number four an ordinance regarding property assessed clean energy finance introduced only with a resolution calling for a public airing on january eleventh two thousand and sixteen discussed in committee without objection on consent item number five item number five a resolution nine albany street discussed in committee without objection on consent item number seven item number seven a resolution authorizing the sale of twenty three twenty one fairly straight discuss the committee without objection on consent item number eight supporter field all in favor we are adjourned i want i'll call the city council meeting to order from monday december twenty eighth twenty fifteen and ask you to rise for the invocation  you join me in the spirit of prayer hall the one as we gather together at the end of the year seeking to complete our business and make space for new ideas in the new year we offer together our gratitude for taking in the leadership that she has given to this council and to this city we recognize the difficult decisions she has faced and the great she has brought with all that she does we ask for your continued wisdom and blessings both on peggy and on the council may those who face the next set of difficult decisions also find grace and meeting them may all those who work for the good of this city be careful and patient in their words and their actions may the work that is done here tonight be useful for the common good of all who live work and schenectady millennial counsel to the boys and girls club so mr ferrars if you would like to take the lead there little wonderful madam president mare and foal city council members it is a great opportunity for me to present to you a few members of the schenectady millennial council who have diligently worked hard to find in different modes of making the city a better place and i'd like to turn it over to the council chair elizabeth macaulay who will be presenting this on a good evening madam president man the party city council  i would like to present this check to the boys and girls club of schenectady for one thousand two hundred forty five dollars that we raise with a pub crawl that we had put all put together back in november i'm going to hand the mike over to one of our cold ice chairs kelly maher who is going to talk a little bit about the success of the pub crawl and hopes of doing it again in the future it's winchester now kelly winchester i married yes a couple of months ago a group of eight awesome young  young folks got together and we organized a pub crawl it was a lot of work but it was very well worth it about one hundred fifty a community members came out and supported local pubs and also the boys and girls club which actually used to work for it was a lot of fun doing it and look for future events that's all for the evening but yes i think first i want to thank you guys wholeheartedly i think everyone knows how hard it is for nonprofits these days to go out raise money when someone comes unsolicited and says we want to raise money for you it's a miracle in a lot of ways believe me because we have to fight and scrape for everything and for it to come from the millennial if you guys are going to be running the show sooner than you think you're going to be in charge of everything so it's good to see that you have your philanthropic eyes on already and we look forward to see what you can do in the future thank you very much ok we have two out of order resolutions the first is for support of the muslim community saw a supporter feel to get up get up there president you have a four thank you this is a resolution recognizing the muslim community in the city of schenectady and what i'd like to say first of all that this resolution became as a result of an e mail that was hawg riverstone and recognizing all that is going on in the world regarding the muslim community thought that would be just appropriate that we do that we do this resolution to so show solidarity with our must come muslim population here in the city of schenectady whereas the regional muslim population in this area is over ten thousand including immigrants from several nations and says it's born here in the united states and whereas those who practice practice the muslim faith are in trouble members our community beginning with the children who attends connect the schools in the adults represented in all professions and whereas given the recent attacks in paris france and stand for san bernardino california alleged to have been conducted by religious outliers in the there's been a measurable but unjustified increase in the fear of muslims nationwide and whereas that fear has led to incidents of violence and hatred directed towards muslims with the council on islamic american relations that it has received more ports of acts of islamic phobic violence threats intimidation and discrimination targeting american muslims or those perceived to be muslim and islamic institution since the paris paris attacks than during any other limited period of time since the nine eleven terror attacks and whereas as americans we must always remember the terrible consequences that arise when a society singles out and blames an entire group of people based on their race religion culture create sexual orientation or gender identity for the actions of a small segment of that population such as when the united states placed its own citizens in term and determined camps during the world war two during world war two therefore be resolved that the mayor gary are mccarthy and city council to hear by applause and their deliberations to recognize the muslim community as integral part of our diverse cultural fabric and therefore we can be a bit further resolve the city recognizes this resolution to you and i apologize for my voice and hopefully i'll get through it without coffee they have the floor you have the floor thank you this is a resolution honoring a healing service to the ultimately retired as associate dean for student development and whereas since arriving in schenectady she has demonstrated her commitment to her new home by her new service on numerous boards including electricity art the downtown schenectady improvement corporation schenectady local development corporation the schenectady day nursery girls inc and the albany schenectady league of arts and human services planning accoun and where as peggy continues her community involvement as a board member for the schenectady symphony and the son in his foundation as well as a volunteer for proctors theater in numerous other organizations and causes anywhere as peggy and before i hand the microphone over to miss king we also have a plaque denoting her years of sixteen years of exemplary service on the city council and there is a quote do not stop thinking of life as an adventure you have no security unless you can live bravely excitingly imaginatively unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence honor roosevelt thank you and i'm actually going to just say thank you right now and also add that it's been an honor and a privilege to serve but i will have some comments that i will make a little bit later on in the meeting so again thank you present to you the key to the city and its inscribed that city of schenectady recognizes and thanks you for your fourteen years of commitment leadership and dedication in the schenectady city council your true asset to the city and we wish you well in your retirement and i'm proud to present that to you tonight just say thank you mayor i edged up thoroughly enjoyed working with the oem over the years both as when you were a council person and now as the mayor so i think you've done a tremendous job right we have one public hearing tonight about incorporating eight ten our street into arch street i have no one signed up to speak so i'm going to hear that public hearing closed will move on to the approval of the minutes for december fourteenth twenty fifteen  ferrari all in favor by communications and petitions on our communications presented to the city council for monday december twenty eighth two thousand and fifteen under official from the mayor a list of appointments dated december twenty eighth two thousand and fifteen under general there are none under petitions there are not thank you do we have any committee reports ok i will move on to privilege of miles away i don't see how they possibly can be awarded this bid and come here bring all their equipment for from that distance and presented the numbers but it just sounds to me like this some kind of contrivance happening here if i do question it and i also question why this is in the capital budget removing the trees i don't get it it doesn't sound like a capital of event to me and maybe they're going to turn the trees and i think tables might have something to do with it but i just don't get that and plus these the contract on this was a hole by hole at the gulf chorus and each precinct patient didn't seem to make sense one hole where the number of trees being removed was saying there was hardly anybody that doesn't know you i don't know how long it'll take to get you off the road a groove your channel seven eighteen with all the other counts of women but that'll be interesting to watch and the last time i record recall that a key to the city was given to anybody was to mrs brucker and she immediately bought a house out of town to make sure that we couldn't bring you back in for service as a soldier at all times so thank you for your service thank you mary maclean i am going to talk about item number two the rose garden and compare it to number twelve for every move all in the case of all item number twelve tonight city council was going to vote to spend one hundred thirty three thousand eight hundred sixty five thousand  way the engineering department ran amok in the goose hill neighborhood this year i certainly do not have confidence in anything they do th in the rose garden it isn't even coming from taxpayer dollars that is how much value council puts on all the grunt work the committee recognized for the work they do in the green house the work involved removal of scribed painting structures at the site repairing glass and the the group does our small or the sitting receives an abundance of free labor from the conscientious citizens of this city and groups such as the rose garden committee should receive the money it needs to maintain the space start putting some of our tax dollars more beautification thank you thank you frank submitted to the united states justice department so restoration they don't know if they're going to do with it i'm just i'm just reporting that every pore of this before number one is the or the rest of the shop vehicle was in place as they tried to break quite a crowd there is nobody is far as i know there's no bottles thrown the police department is there so this is obviously a lighter justify the excesses there which on december first on giving tuesday in proctor's theater we had almost one hundred people donate people came in they walked in they donated money or they called an honor on our phone lines and they donated money and it was on continuing our fundraising efforts and working with partners in the community for programming and shared resources and we look forward to another meeting with the mayor very soon to get updated on where we're at in the proper process of municipal foreclosure so things are looking also think that we should preclude preclude the possibility of anyone coming on to the council for the first time and being put in that position i think somebody that's got some experience i really a person that's qualified for it and so i'm missing that and it just happens to be an issue that i've dealt with for another thing i wanted to address as i something else as i mentioned before i think each important committee that mate and they're all important ought to have representation from the council on them and i'm speaking that planning zoning the police task force also it's very important that we have representation from the council on the technology and energy knew what was going on and people that come before you and talk about issues you would be informed by somebody on the council could cut it vice you as to what's happening and a lot of things are happening it's strange to me i have a lot of questions but you know they aren't always welcome and  that exploits people's phobias i know that i live in this i live in the inner city i don't live in the urban areas and they're exploiting phobias and so i don't want to go up particularly hav at the last council meeting a young mother stood waving at this podium she also showed pictures a roach was in her apartment what did the council president do she said i gave you  county therefore the county has the money and the city has yet to pay the principal on the fluster of a new facility point number three when i walked out of the council meeting on december electricity but council can't find money on an electric plug ins point number for the summer council voted to block talk i story seven homes on the street ha shoulders the shoulders are cracked the street was done the shoulders for not consequently half the road is old and high office and that is what i see every day when i open my door to pick up the newspaper no money for straight but plenty for union bonuses point number five council voted to renovate the engineering department allowed the contractor to one stall and expose galvanized heating tunnel across the new ceiling no one would do that in his own but the city did it in my neighborhood i want that monstrosity out of there point number six the new well us hospital sign the city gave the hospital permission to after the election they cause personnel were ordered to keep the closing quiet place and i see folks you're bluffing your way through life thank you thank supposed make left hand turn there is a lot of places they are doing this it's got to stop you are somebody gets hurt and something's got to be done and got to keep these gangs off the streets and make it safe for everybody for the seniors the handicapped the hospitals to and keep keep everything sake because you never know from one day to the next what's go happen i'm just hoping next year is a better year for everybody thank you right i have no one else signed up to speak something to clear this portion of the meeting close and before we move into miscellaneous business of the council i just wanted to make an mispresent thank you i hope everyone had a great holiday season and certainly wish everyone a happy new year but special congratulations to practice bakery because they came out in the news that they are being named new york's finest local bakery by trip advisor's flip key site and only one bakery per state was named so as flea quite an honor i'm sure you'll be seeing some additional press going forward but congratulations to our little hometown bakery that pumps out that bread that people want sent to them you know across the country so that's all i have thank you boucher just like to take this opportunity wish everyone a blessed and happy new year and to thank you for your service mr king you've done a great job you've treated everyone fairly then very professional and i'm you thank you i also want to say well happy new year to everyone hope you're enjoying your holiday season and just really be safe for having our first snow tonight and here i'm kind of looking forward to it  also like to thank you president k for your leadership as council as a member of the council certainly i also if you stream me fair and objective in your leadership and i have learned a lot from you and i wish you all be dangerous so that there were early this morning or tomorrow morning going to work just would caution people to if in fact we do get to freezing rain approach things a little bit slower and allow a little bit more lead time and everyone to be safe and peggy it's has been a pleasure working with you done a great job as council president and council member and i do wish you the best in whatever future endeavors you may choose to pursue you on behalf of the city thank you and i just want to say as i said earlier it's been an honor privilege to have served on the city council for sixteen of the last twenty years it wasn't sixteen years consecutively a little break in there and have been president for the past two plus years it's been an exciting time as well with all the redevelopment of downtown the upcoming mohawk harbor and casino the mayor's new initiatives like the homes program and the building demolition which have finally allowed us to get into the neighborhoods to make improvements i like to feel that i have made contributions to all of those efforts by being a team player and by helping the council to work on his slate and in concert with the mayor the county metroplex the chamber and our state elected officials while i'm happy to be going into retirement there are certainly things i will miss especially working with our wonderful city staff the mayors have assembled a great team over the years and it's been a pleasure to work in partnership with them to move our city forward so thank you thank you to all of you who have supported me over the years i leave feeling proud of all our collective accomplishments i wish the new council all the best as they deal with the many complex issues that will come before them and i wish everyone a very happy twenty