again i would like to call the city council caucus meeting to order for may twenty eighth twenty fourteen if the clerk would read the first item on the agenda item number one under original consideration an ordinance amending chapter two forty eight of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding parking large vehicles on city streets and traduce only with the resolution calling for a public hearing regarding changes to chapter two forty eight of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding parking large vehicles on city streets i discussed in committee without objection consent item number two i remember to an ordinance amending the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding parking meters introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding changes to the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding parking meters discussed in committee without objection on consent item number three i'm number three an ordinance amending administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding commercial building inspections and traduce only with a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding changes to the admin if it of code of the city of schenectady regarding commercial building inspections discussed in committee without objection on consent item number four and number four in ordinance amending chapter two ten of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding rental certificates introduced only with a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding changes to chapter two ten of the administrative code of the city of schenectady regarding rental certificates and without objection on consent item number five i don't number five a resolution authorizing the acceptance of the give twenty fourteen grant without objection on consent item number six i don't number six a resolution issuing a negative declaration for the erie boulevard and not street intersection construction project without objection on consent i am number seven i don't number seven a resolution declaring the city of schenectady to be the lead agency for the erie boulevard and nazri intersection construction project without objection on consent item number eight elsie harrington and luke grasso as senior citizens of the year i understand they could not be here tonight so we'll just put this on the consent of genocide without objection non consent ok and then number thirteen i'm number thirteen a resolution honoring the service  and sacrifice of our nation's men and women in uniform and proclaiming schenectady as a purple heart city this will be taken out of order mr cocksure will present this right if there anything else to come before the city invocation so i'm just going to ask that you rise to just a moment of silence right i'm going to ask bill frank the director of the schenectady county veterans agency to lead us in the pledge of allegiance king present tonight we have another of our economic strength presentations as you may remember the november the city council kicked off an initiative which includes a monthly review the economic strengths which enrich the city of schenectady this review includes presentations by an array of economic contributors including locally based corporations and industry area business representing small and family owned businesses and other economic sectors from health care to service to education and non profits these presentations highlight the economic impact these local businesses are organizations have on schenectady economy including generated income number of local jobs innovation and production along with a review of the history and future planning of the business tonight the city council is excited to announce we have austin fisher and jennifer jennings from the schenectady green market to produce and as part of the series schenectady green market is a place to find fresh local produce an artisan goods gather and socialize and reconnect ourselves with our community and our environment the market envisions a future in which it is an integral part of downtown's cultural landscape connecting farm and city in a way that creates a responsible sustainable food system schenectady green market is a grassroots organization representing a cross section of schenectady including entrepreneurs artists farmers public officials activists and ordinary citizens schenectady green market brings thousands of people to downtown schenectady on a weekly basis local stores are adding sunday hours and seeing sales and activity greater than expected during the summer vendors bushels of fresh produce and other food products to local organizations including the city mission and the regional food bank of northeastern new york please join me in welcoming austin fisher and jennifer jennings representing the schenectady green market so that the market started over five years ago two thousand it really going into our sixth year we celebrated our fifth year anniversary last november very exciting to all of us who were involved right from the  go a little hard to believe it was that long ago but things have been going very well no i have no signs of letting it right from the beginning this is a grassroots organization started by community members just interested in having a connecting farmer city in a way that creates a responsible sustainable and for me system so that's our goal that's our vision every organisation has a mission that was ours when i put this together it occurred to me that we could suddenly envision that future and i truly believe that we've actually accomplished that now that that is a reality so i think we're pleased to have accomplished that but but it's an ongoing effort it will continue right it so what do we do how do we promise that mission we do that through running a farmer's market a quick what do you think of first and foremost inside boxers which run from six months from november to pro and then outdoors without their season just began recently on is right around city hall and that runs from me through october we also have a number of other the markets as as we are there are different types of green markets they're not all the same there are different approaches different requirements and so on where producer on the market what that means is you have to make or produce what you sell at the market you can bring other people's  we also complement all of those saleable products with a wide music their children's activities educational programs community programs on and then among other things what i personally like most about the market is just a place to sort of gather socialize you always see people there i've never been to the market where i am bumped into a number of people i know and so we we feel that's very important ok we also our goal is a certain entire community not my particular sector in any form whether it's economic or otherwise on so we try and make our of our market accessible to the entire community among other things we accept high electronic benefits food stamps on to encourage those folks to our least make the market accessible for those as well we have been very successful in that were our sales over the last several years be increased by fifty fifty plus percent we also make a lot of food donations or left over products at the market that makes this happen would be a board of directors there are roughly twenty of us that barry's over time we've we're slowly shrinking the more down because what makes our board a little different than some others is we're not only the board but we're also the volunteers we run the market all the time and in the early days we did everything we had no paid staff and we were we were the market i were slowly changing that timothy jennifer coming on board i we also have a full time market manager which which is jennifer jennings right here started with us about a year ago and that's worked out very well we're pleased to have backers lot more feel very good about is making these connections working together with these organizations and i think their own satisfaction so you know you think of a farmer's market and many times you think of well he's a bunch of people that like eat healthy they want local food so  so forth you don't really think of it as an economic engine well the reality is it is a very very significant economic engine so i can read my own slides on midis well it's a little too small to be me you know we average about twenty five hundred customers every week every sunday over the course of the earth vary from indoor outdoor about twenty five customers if you do the math that in the five years we've been in existence natural rapidly in people you're a million people many of which most of which i would say would not have come to downtown connecting our sunday so this is a big big number and we're very pleased that that some relatively conservative estimates on how much revenue that generates about two and a half million dollars so that's also quite a quite a substantial figure we've also heard that been in existence for five plus years now i'm not as long as some of the other markets we've already been voted the second most popular market in the capital district second to the troy market which is a far more established market so again i don't compliment we don't view the other markets as competition a striking i difference and that's all attributed to green market we're also a business incubator we have a number of vendors first time businesses they see begin a business they begin to ask the market selling something and many of them have gone on to other things are selling their products in the co op quantify but clearly that the more you can find a community together make people feel good about their community has long term payoff for you so in my opinion if you look dollar for dollar in terms of the the investment that's been made in terms of public dollars into this lot both economically and community both wise and racking up i'm so you know what our future plans are while we're still working on that but that primary goal is going to continue with our same mission same same plan use educate folks about about local farmers and products internally we want to ensure that we have long term sustainability as an organization so we have to we have to work towards that we're well on the way there i'm mindset is that we will recognize where the farmers markets are doing but our goal is not that to mirror them our goal is not to is not to follow what they're doing but really decide what we want to do impossible either way i'm just things that i have not been to me for change chamber rather had the good news the words luncheon the mayor was not able to attend so i attended in his behalf and we were presented with the good news line award for the schenectady homes program so except on behalf of the city staff and all the partners that have made that possible and we continue to grow and try and make homeownership and real estate opportunities more available and get people to realize that there are opportunities here in the city so thank you for going on my behalf you're very welcome ok we have one out of order resolution recognizing purple heart city and again if you haven't been following the the papers the county just a couple weeks ago declared itself a purple heart county and mr frank is in the very next office next to me and i support how can we get involved and and again honor the men and women from the the if i may where as an august seventh seventeen eighty two commander in chief general george washington established a badge of military merit the precursor to the modern day purple heart for singular mature action and it's the oldest military decoration in use today and whereas the citizens of the city of schenectady have great admiration and the utmost gratitude for the men and women who have selfishly served their country in the armed forces and whereas veterans have paid the high price of freedom by leaving their families and communities and placing themselves in harm's way for the good of all and their contributions and sacrifices have been vital in maintaining the way of life enjoyed by all americans and whereas the citizens of our country have received a purple heart medal as a result of being wounded while engaged in combat with enemy force construed as a singular material act of essential service and more as a city council to proclaim schenectady as a purple heart city thereby honoring the service and the sacrifice of our nation's men and women in uniform who have been wounded or killed by the enemy while serving to protect our freedoms now therefore be commander of post in ninety two in this community we have kurt fun laugher who's the commander of post ten or one in scotia and we have a veteran with whom i'm very familiar with unit and finally we have the new lee was appointed or elected appointed right appointed legislative chairman all of the military order of purple heart who is just back from afghanistan and i'd like to present matt with this resolution and if you do accept it on behalf of all the purple heart recipients in  schenectady the city of schenectady so communications presented to the city council for wednesday may twenty eighth two thousand and fourteen under official from the mayor a list of appointments dated may twenty eight twenty four team under general there are none under petitions there are none ok thank  i will move on to committee reports do we have any committee reports ok moving on we'll go to privileges the floor related to the legislative agenda i have two people signed up to speak the first presented one item that cannot be up to up to debate is where the city on it is asking saying they complied with all federal contracts and as we know that the federal contracts or another it's either you are planets or you're not appliance and you're not i'm hoping that the city council will be able to take a look at this within the report and the city council members to have the us that the kiosks will be convenient and economical for whom if the kiosks are installed i will have to pay to pick up my mail at the post office every day so will more than a thousand other people there are that many or more are grendel post office boxes and all those ranchers w have to will be of active if the chaos aren't all done in the city not the legislators who will vote on the issue if i have to pay to pick up my mail as a resell of this administration's decision to install chaos then i suggest that the mayor pay a rental fee for to park his car outside this building were a space this product for that purpose secondly chaos will mean a new line item in the city budget because chaos will seven people signed up the first is jason and voice your opinion on the two is i believe that the information that you guys are going to be posted is on june the fourth that's next wednesday it should be posted a lot earlier than out and should  basically what it is just that and also believe that the city should not and i'll go in more detail in two weeks when the public hearing should not be involved at all the other one as  in the next following years is that to twenty percent by the city up everything in twenty percent solve it that way rob reduces the cost and it won't put the manpower will help reduce the manpower so every five years a section b dime so hopefully that will help you with a least a little bit of how to fund this and how to be able to move this thing forward in a positive direction the other piece was the community will block grants and that was it's the board just going to have this wages garnished so to say that they are not responsible for the grant is totally wrong so the advice they were given they should have been recused themselves and it's all over the entire community go block grant another board member said all my past it again it was an engineer act piece that person should have been recused themselves from voting because they are indirectly benefitting from that the impression that somebody will do something and i am very thankful for that i was told today that that to city council member is looking into the issue of the corner store category of retreat and failure i'm here to just point out that this corner stores a negative thing in our area and it's by a mystery and if you don't believe me and i hope not good evening mary mccarthy president king city council members my nan sharon luncheonette president the ma pleasant neighborhood association we wish to publicly thank some of the fifty helpers who braved the raindrops on mount pleasant cleanup day on may third special thanks to fire chief ray senegal and fireman john della rocco and assistant police chief jack fellow jr who filled the pickup with debris jack fellow jr and henry small's the bucket brigade who delivered sand filled cigarette disposal home depot pails to crane street merchants to the officers who monitored the work sites the traffic division for the digital caution sign thanks to police chief brian kilcullen general services floyd slater and randy forrest who stopped to think us for our work it was  park but no missing president the guy and he's american association her daughter department for risking their lives for our protection thanks john would've been for nominating me for the honor of a human resource commission volunteer award i'm humbled and i'm challenged to serve the under served thank you thank you right so i want a law made mr mayor council president council members my name is muhammad hodges and i live in schenectady i'm here to talk about a casino proposal a few minutes ago to the gentleman here from the green market was present was talking about  economic and other impacts of the green market and i cannot believe that the city council is looking into approving this in such a hurry with i was seriously looking at the impact on the city and the health and well being of th businesses like restaurants bars hotels and theaters studies have found that no evidence at most local casinos that it will attract tourist dollars unlike last vegas most casinos go as are locals there was a gentleman two weeks ago talking about this issue governor cuomo in order to study and they were talking about local casinos attracting just local all residents to play not really the tourist and spending tourist dollars  it would be it would be the local who spend their hard earned money and social security checks a casino would have serious impact of social impact on the city's residents including problem gambling bankruptcies crime traffic gridlock parking problems and notable economists have stated that gambling is one of the least productive productive economic activities imaginable but moving money from once one set of pockets and putting into another obviously are moving money from the poor putting into the richest pocket without producing any any concrete any can any anything country as part of the equation or the exchange he also said this if a six concerning city casino throughout the united states show that there are three in three to five years almost to a jobs a loss for every one job created by the casino business and the social fabric of the city schenectady city council should not vote on the proposed casino thank you thank you mar i was not able to attend the last several council meeting where they could be me and stores item was listed on the agenda no reunion store should be allowed to operate like the one on the corner of notch training and rand rank and avenue the grounds are filthy we are allowed to grow three feet high it's not a pretty sight on the souther item i was scrawled on this issue that has to do with cutting out stars and outer an american flag has  been retired and i first learned of the practice about a year and a half ago when one of the t v stations did a story on it i was surprised then and i'm still puzzled by it now outside i understand why etiquette cutting up the american flyer after it has been retired i several times to draw attention to the practice of cutting out stars from retired five x since this forum it has been used for such advocacy i and the shows are parried to thank you thank you i have no one else signed up for a privilege of the floor be guarding city business there that portion of the meeting closed it will move to miscellaneous business that the council has on the pro side there's a lot of dollars that are being put out there to say hey here's an incentive and you know the numbers that we were told was about six million dollars in city revenue  just and gambling revenue of sorts that would come from the state and one i think of that as if that's that's a big chunk of money if that was applied to tax levy reduction that could cut city taxes by eighteen percent or so give or take and i think that's pretty significant you know the city serves saratoga county as so the lowest taxes in the area because they use their their revenue from their gambling quite wisely and  i see all the times you know it's pretty easy for a government to make six million dollars disappear relatively quickly with with not maybe six gun dollars worth of impact that the residents would feel so i think that anything we do if we consider this and at this point haven't made a decision i'm still kind of weighing those pros and cons we did make sure that we have something in place that would assure that we're using the revenue in a responsible way and if it goes into the general fund i might be to the same amount of money however a lot of the risk is born in the city right so if there's a downside were short a receive it whether it's traffic issues whether it's crime issues infrastructure requirements  those are things that city taxpayers bear you had half the revenue of this would go to the county so i'd like to see how the count tends to to shift spend their share of this and if some of that would be spent investing in the or would be spent investing in the towns and how that money would be spent something i'd want to know more about sales tax we had our new agreement we have sharing of sales tax and there'd be a quite a bit of sales tax although i don't necessarily have an estimate at this point how much sales tax would be brought in from the casino program but the sharing agreement we have with a county believe is the county would get a majority of the in now if i think the city gets maybe fifteen percent of the total take on sales tax it would be shared with a bully but since one hundred percent of the revenue of this casino would be generated in the city we would get a minority share of that and again the county  would it would receive a majority share of that so i would like to think that we might get some type of a rider done them to that agreement that would allow the city to kind of take up bigger share of the sales tax  if that dollar amount would lower as the years went by and so so some of the concerns that want to make sure that we have an opportunity here that if we did it right we could make a huge impact to the community with something like this but if we didn't plan wisely then it could be squandered so at this point those are the pros of the dollars generally where i focus on and so my things i think about terms of tax payers so things that we still need to figure out you know where is the money how much is it what kind of estimates do we have how do we spend it what we do with it and i think important if we do consider some like this that the after and that was quick this is been something we've been thinking about for quite a while i met with the operators of the proposed operators of course you know it was last week they were in town so i did have a chance to meet with them seem like very professional individuals  you know i think they run a scene you know my impression is that they would run a very nice you know good operation but businessmen who are tied to the community and they talked a lot about their involvement in sponsor different events and stuff so i think in was one of her winners and she is actually a resident of a king's way and believe it or not that the young lady is one hundred three years old and so i guess she does have some reason not to be here this evening but she certainly extends her best i know they had a nice ceremony at the  thank you very much for the two resolutions and for those great folks i'm proud to be coming here today i snuck over to the high school and of course is the time of the year where brother all the schools throughout the the county are recognizing the young men and women now the juniors and seniors and we had a an opportunity of a seed name the would run ever so she should get a partnership with the scanty fire department and we present a fifteen hundred dollars scholarship to a young lady who is a senior at schenectady high school was wishing to pursue to congratulate them as well and the family just a reminder that unions annual you care day is this sunday it's a wonderful thing and so that sponsored by the union college students and it's this sunday a june first from the twelve to three at the field also on their campus and it's a free carnival for the kids and families everybody's welcome they have pizza and ice cream cotton candy the bouncy house and their games activities and they also do tours of the campus facilities as well so it's a just another great partnership now that we have with and if you want fresh vegetables or fresh cheese or fresh one i mean it's a place to go and with that a good segue on june twelfth at bellevue farmer's market is going open for its third season therapy at the corner of thompson and broadway and there and it's it's built picking up steam also which is a good thing it's it'll be at four o'clock in the commissioner of agriculture in my it's richard paul will be cutting the ribbon to begin the two thousand fourteen season so i invite everyone to to show up in and to partake and in that farmer's market because it's very nice now getting down to little city business we're involved in a walking challenge so i've been walking quite a bit then and i'm walking bellevue i have to say that the condition of some of our streets in my time in schenectady and as a driver in schenectady which is over fifty years for this late in the season i haven't seen some of the streets and as horrible condition as they are and i don't really understand why i call in t problems regularly but walking i really get to see it and the area that i walk the two and a half miles or so in the morning it seems like the side streets where they're going into the main street seem to be the worse for street at campbell is awful there's huge walls there take a man at broadway where the broadway launch is horrible arthur street at broadway horrible thompson street up broadway horrible eleanor street cheery and cedar there's ruts and there are holes and there you don't want to hit the road story we have a complaint somebody send an email and i want to check it out it's terrible i myself with my fixed it myself but that's because i have the ability to do that it's probably about a four hundred dollars job i don't know what's happening and i was the first one to defend the city we had a horrible mentor and the plants weren't open yet the plants have  open a long time for almost the first week in june and i don't know what's going on i know one thing if you don't maintain something it's going to get worse that i know no matter what you have i have to maintain my boiler yesterday since we're in the off season if i didn't maintain it i'm going to lose it we're going to make the streets worse we're going to have to mill down into every street eventually if we don't attend to these now because more water migrates into these huge holes i'm not understand what's going on mayor i'll be happy to ride around with you moat we can tree out if somebody says holes that are in the streets it's just beyond comprehension to me that we're this far into the some summer or spring almost into summer a month away from summer and the streets are still in this condition i know carlos and said that we should drive slower we're trying to try small but to navigate we're going to get pulled over for truck and driving because you have to weave in and out i'm glad to see a large street is family meltdown that's going to be fixed congress three pull up the color street the first three blocks up to thirty third avenue it's horrible just horrible i don't know what's going to happen but i'd like to see something done about it that's for sure i'm waiting and waiting and waiting but i'm walking over every day the same polls they're not disappearing i can't believe no other city people are seeing this so i plead that we can get these things taken care of our plate you'll be happy to take a tour with you mayor and  maybe we can identify some of these entry i wish them some of the worst so they can get at least get filled with a patch that's what it's needed so that's my thing for this week and i hope we can get some action out of before there's a lot more damage done to people's they are working through a methodical fashion doing it in a systematic in zone basis if you have specific problems that you think we should address let me know aleck carlson know in the back plant  plane we did have a problem getting one of the water fleet was open earliest and then the other ones who just opened more recently so we appreciate people's patience and are trying to do it again as fast as we can have started work crews on overtime to get it done in as quickly and as efficiently as we can i wanted to welcome back to phantom of the opera which opens tonight it proctors which was the first broadway touring show which came to schenectady when we expanded stage was in the theater in really was instrumental in terms of being an anchor for the turnaround to downtown we get presorted rates and it saves the city roughly four percent on our first class sweaters and wanted to just congratulate the school district we can saw the article in the paper where the tendencies record has dramatically improved and you know i think we have to complement larry spring the team that he has in place for such a dramatic improvement because i think that will show up down the road in terms of graduation rate and it helps change the image of that school district which is really such a key factor in terms of marketing this community and the homes  thank you madam president ok thank you and i just want to congratulate our city engineer christiane sent me an email not too long ago saying that he was informed by the president of the capital district chapter of the new york state society of professional engineers that he  engineer of the year which is a very nice compliment apparently he was nominated by someone i think that's really great i also had a chance to attend the conference this afternoon on our list of this morning this afternoon on behalf of the mayor by it was put on by northern rivers family services and mr cocksure was there also which as  you know it's a combination of what parsons and ne parent and child have done with their kind of i guess you know what they call it a merger or a partnership you know but and it was really addressing kind of some of the issues in terms of funding for social service agencies and progress in terms of you know really finding ways to encourage organizations to either work work closely together to show how they're partnering with other workers ations and doing things and encourage them to be a little more creative and in the way they approach their funding requests so i'll be bringing that to a committee agenda the not too distant future that i will attend and entertain motion to adjourn mr cocksure mr second by mr