and it was a real thrill i just want to say as a city court judge i've been there now for twenty four years lot has changed in the city court i was becoming a much more user friendly using an adversarial system see a system where we're there to help people and point them in the right direction there's a close drug court the domestic violence court the alternative to is it cars ration for young people and all of those things have come together and there's been really a privilege and i want to say thank you to my colleagues because it's very heavy cord when i first started i think we had about seventy thousand cases and i think we're up to  very young people coming to court and they come to court and you know the lawyers or their legal advocates but these kids and young kids fifteen sixteen seventeen they need an advocate and a lot of these kids don't come to court with anyone asks a kid who is with you to date they turn around look in the courtroom there's nobody there used to be that a parent would come and in this day and age of course there are many single parents trying to raise a focus their services for them so as you can see there's been a lot happening in twenty four years in the city court and i have been a part of it and i'm very happy and i also  with the clerk would be the first item on the agenda item number one for original consideration an ordinance to abandon streets in the cheltenham avenue landfill and in the area between cal bergen steinmetz parks introduced only with a resolution calling for a public airing on monday january twenty eighth two thousand and thirteen at seven p m at council chambers room two zero zero nine schenectady city hall one zero five j street schenectady new york this was discussed in committee item number three a resolution designating the survey area for the northside neighborhood again discussed in committee without objection on consent item number four a resolution authorizing the settlement o claim by rod harris board in the amount of six hundred ninety six dollars and seventeen cents dentist uscan claims committee without objection on consent and item number if there is nothing else to come before the city council eighty seconds it all in favor i then i will declare the city council meeting for monday january fourteenth open and since we have already had the invocation in the pledge of allegiance in the roll call i'm going to move right into the regular agenda which is to public hearings the first public hearing was on the abandonment of a portion of oregon ave i have only one person signed up for that and that's jason plank a city council mare about three or four years ago we had the this issue came back up again and aware that they were trying to sell the property to developers on organ avenue what i'm hoping for is that this letter station will comply with the original intent of oregon avenue of just canceling the st that's it will also meet the twenty twenty guidelines of the plan that that was originally done that we offered to close that street and make sure that that we could expand out the golf course so i'm just hoping that the letter station that goes forward today isn't any sidelines that will allow the ministration bears administration to go forward to to sell the land to private developers that we keep this is park land councilman allen several years ago when this came up said yes it is park land and that there is title and deeds that have specified that it is touch and both corporate council has those and it's also an economic development and i believe there's one copy in the city clerk's office there's a little blue binder that i put together about nine years ago on the property in titles of central park itself so i'm hearing number two which is the housing and community development needs for two thousand and thirteen as part of the consolidated plan citizen participation process and i have five people signed up to speak on the first to sh excuse me mr mayor president king clerk thorne council members reverend well thank you for the opportunity to speak we will be as pleasant neighborhood association putting in our cover letter with our two thousand and thirteen consolidated plan application items which i am going to discuss but i have one item that i want beyond that and i want to announce that we have a business the mom pleasant business merchants association meeting which their first meeting will be january twenty fourth we're kicking that off at maggie's restaurant on crane street seven thirty inviting all business proprietors all those interested in the redevelopment of crane str i will be going around and delivering flyers i'll be emailing phone calling and other announcements will take place regarding this then as far as twenty thirteen consolidated plan president ha from the mount pleasant neighborhood association has asked that i do reiterate that we do need community policing on crane street that there is paving that needs to be completed from out tomorrow and the lower end of crane street sidewalks are needed especially in front of a state equipment i do know that most sidewalks are the responsibility of a property owner we are talking with including them in our business merchants association so there will be a dialogue about that i also do want to make a comment that john horton is here and he's looking to get something going for pets on crane street would like to put on record that we would like to see a veterinarian come forward and find a spot on crane street there's a lot of animals in mt pleasant and i know they would get a lot of business and he's taking care of cats right now we need yes pca in addition to that i want to thank all of the council members who have helped us all the city officials who have been meeting with us and we are trying to work together with you to try to make my pleasant something to be proud of again and we just want to continue coming to your city council letting you know our issues we know you're listening thank you mayor for meeting with the liaison group and i want to thank you very much  a president city council mer we've had this discussion year after year and now where we keep having the public here in the same time we issue out they are this is needs this is the second half of the community a block grant this is the outside money inside money we don't even have a public hearing like we're supposed to and that deals at the time of the budget which deals with coping force mctee from it of action office and so forth on the affirmative action side the person is not even doing their job i mean we had a report in the newspaper that the erie bowl of the demon have affirmative action requirements for both minorities and person with disabilities we still do not have a court of nation between the affirmative firmat of action officer and our disability coordinator which is a my view so we we need to dust off the shelf of the five year consolidated plan that was done in two thousand and ten in may that you guys approved by and it was basically you guys approved it and then the marriage changed changed it and then it didn't come back for final approval from the city council in the senate office these are just some of the things that are happening with him on that saw that we need to have a and that's what this hearing is supposed to be done it's supposed be done in november because you can issue out the art be in january so how could how could we happen even how the public hearing to discuss the dialogue of how we're going to issue out the r p s you know if you want to set aside half of that money up to that c b d to go to jobs then you need to be able to say that that's what you want but that's not what's happening and then every april you start running around with your heads cut off of saying well this organization got lost this much this one did this and all this stuff you know you need to have an actual plan of how you post about a point a to point b and you know these public hearings need to be gone in a methodical to direction of exactly how you're supposed to go enforcement of six hundred eight hundred thousand dollars and it is paying staff salaries is not solving the problem we need to actually take a look at the actual full amount of the three of the over two and a half million dollars with the community block grant money where we're actually going to put it and then we also need to take a look at how are we doing sidewalks curb cuts and so forth how are we trying to do those kinds of things how are we gaining access to our businesses and so forth so hopefully that we can be able to start the nonsense and start moving forward in an actual developing an actual plan of how we can use the screen on the block grant money thank you thank you mayor mccarthy city council members for the opportunity tonight to speak about community needs for funding under the two thousand and thirteen consolidated plan some testifying tonight is a member of the hamilton hill neighborhood association and in addition to being a member dissociation i've been a volunteer at better neighborhoods to the past six years so i have a pretty good idea of some of the issues that the agency in the community both face hamilton when they were association began a survey of neighborhood residents in october of last year result showed that residents have returned about crime the need for more police presence and the need for activities for teens these needs noted by the residents are also reflected the consolidated plan implemented as it was published in the january seventh daily gazette under the neighborhood section there is an investor result target that calls for seven community officers on patrol in target neighborhoods under the family a new section there is an investor target results of calls for neighborhood based activities for five hundred youth force compared to sixty two percent citywide with unemployment in the tract at an astonishing twenty seven percent compared to five point eight percent in the city there is information that the problem is not lack of  the lack of an effective way to connect unemployed residents with the many available jobs in the region this need also is reflected in the jobs and employment outcomes sought saying that anyone who is able to work is employed or engaged in other productive activity other needs citywide are funding for ramps for the disabled so they can remain in their homes and for home improvement moneys for low and moderate income citizens who can afford to make needed repairs one thing i notice in the neighborhood am right now in line with one two three zero nine neighborhood association and the schenectady united neighborhoods and we want to draw your attention to the needs of the different commercial districts in the city if they're not now being given full attention you know and i'm metroplex working with the city there are some main corridors in the city that get a lot of help and have picked up and get grants and loans and so on but there's other sections of the city as you know like the crane street business district and along broadway bellevue invent drank in hanoi of any street that need more attention from city government and city council to pick up those properties and make them be respectful and dignified in our city and what we're doing as neighborhood associations trying to work with the merchants in those areas particularly grange street right now you've heard from sharon schmidt of a meeting of merchants and neighbors that's what we're trying to do is is develop a concerted effort to pick up properties and they tend better looking districts and and we hope city will be aware of this and try to do the things it can do with the merchants and with metroplex streets and sidewalks and curbs and things like that very important thank you thank you lorraine  the rehab of the building and i want to thank you all the for participating and making sure that took place for us second we found we moved if anybody didn't know we're no longer the basement nine five five state street where an eighteen albany visible that we still want to be viable we have approximately eighteen thousand three hundred sixty three dollars and two cents left on the numbers girl by the way and without consideration of two thousand and thirteen funds for the program our doors may most likely close we did not get any two thousand and twelve c d g grants for the situation or circumstances at that point or are long gone i wanted to put the bug in the councils here in the city that without this program a lot of services go unmet for the minority population even others within the community so we're in a we're serving a very under served population and a very underdeveloped area you know hamilton hill vale central state and part of mount pleasant when metroplex took over the business center you know a skinhead county community business senate we picked up a lot of that slack with the community programs that were then dissolved with the metroplex taking over we we need a great need for a particular demographic population in the city we just want to make the city aware that mactavish still wants to be able to perform these duties and comply with the contract with c t b g funs we want to make sure that they know that we want to remain open but we want to move forward to we had a beautiful grand opening which a couple of council members had a to ended  so that we are now on street of a location we can't be missed nobody can tell us anymore will i that know you exist ed well this is where we want to rely on the city to listen to our needs and this is i'm speaking on behalf of a lot of our participants too not just my board of directors who volunteer their time and their skills but for the people who still need the program and what it's going to need to those in upstate new york we were if we fill that niche we don't want that niche to go overlooked and on that thank you and thank you i have no one else signed up for public hearing number two some declare that public hearing clo communications presented to the city council for monday january fourteenth two thousand and thirteen under the of fishel category from the mayor a list of appointments stated monday january fourteenth two thousand and thirteen under general there are none under d to talk about some of the issues facing the school district and being you know community works together you know anything that affects a school district affects all of us whether you have kids in school or not and he had some interesting data and information he did a lot of research in terms of funding and where the school districts got their funding throughout the state which school just got more which got less i thought it was very interesting that you know we always understand we're under funded but the substantial amount of underfunding that our district gets was was shocking believe it or not so i'd like to invite the superintendent to one of our meetings so he can kind of  through all the data that he churned through in kind of explain in his own words to show how this underfunding affects the entire city affects every taxpayer to such a considerable amount and what we can do what steps we can each do as individuals that might help rectify that that shortfall that we're getting so i think he has some information posted on the school website but i'd like to ask him to come to our meeting and kind of present it to all of us  very valuable ok and we can plan on that maybe one of our first meetings in february ok good thank you and he of the committee reports ok not then we'll move on to privileges the floor belated to the legislative agenda i seven people signed up for that donald birch his first now i'm sorry excuse me i'm off here to go to approval of the legislative agenda i have no one signed up to speak to the legislative agenda so ok this is record second mr erickson all in favor  orden i mean it was my understanding that he intervened and i wasn't allowed to you know give any evidence or anything to any of the you know anybody and nobody's allowed to take evidence from me in the city i mean i'm not sure if i was correct about that i got a letter from of many many of my complaints like for instance i was caught with like i don't like nine grams of silver haze and like five grams of purple haze and awe the officer i actually seen he looked like he got a promotion because he's now a sergeant but nothing was done about that and on you know i got i got the squad car cameras he said mr burgess you have anything on you it was regarding on an arrest that was alternately acquitted you know and almost found not guilty but  brought up i brought up just a simple complaint like that like it doesn't matter he said that i had one small bag of marijuana on me and these guys were practically in the we even the mushroom there like all smelled this in their common in through the other rooms and they're smelling it and you know they're handling it a bag went missing like my ten gram bag or nine gram bag or whatever and by the way i don't smoke marijuana and i'm not trying to pull a clinton like you know a puff but i never inhaled but i really don't smoke it it was a gift you know but i was just going to read if that but anyway what the whole deal with that is that you know al john van norden he intervened so that someone would actually be done you know like as far as the oversight and nothing was done and if if you guys can prove me wrong show me the complaint from june sixteenth which is time stamped and dated received and if you could produce that complaint which i know you can't do that right there shows that they were circumventing my complaints all right so that's a major issue and i want to get back to the minutes that some people don't think is an issue but it is an issue because these are city ministers supposed to be official not a summary it's not called the simmering city summary we're going to summarize everything it's called a minute because it's supposed to transcribe the contents of the substance matter what i said here or right and then when people come in here and talk about things like this of course it's not going to be captured it's not going to be captured on you know whatever i don't know man it's had a brain for bottom line i'm just saying this one complaint right here isn't accounted for along with a whole host of other ones i got to complain of i mean i got a i got a recording of al john been ordered i'm going to cut it out real quick but i got a recording i'll jump in the warden saying that he wouldn't talk to me take any evidence of me stop monopolising the news in the city against itself and basically that was the end of the book and nobody ever dealt with any of my complaints any of them way more serious than a little bit of we thank you jason thank ok matter council president city council mare graduations council president for a year one more year anyway one of the things that that's coming up is in april first every year the city economic development board supposed to happen to correct accountability of the pilot programs and it needs to have the jobs allocations the set asides that  are located two one two three all seven neighborhood and none of this has been done and we need to be able to come back to the actual jobs of how ready are actually producing we've got a new restaurant that's coming in  by the o t b how many jobs are going to be set aside for the one two three zero seven neighborhood yes this is metroplex but that still this city council still has to approve it and we need to have our  representatives on the on metroplex board who approved the idea who approved the this pilot program to make sure the jobs are available that's one of the things that we're lacking in the city is jobs we are the highest out of out of this area out of the capitalistic area where the highest unemployment in the democratic party has said hey we created five thousand new jobs they haven't they've been all transferred jobs from one end of this county the other in from wolf road all the way into here we have actually put our own people back to work and it goes back to the community block grants that we're doing today with the r f p they were supposed to be looking at trying to put jobs and you just heard one other speaker of the hamilton hill area which is the one two three all seven of how high the unemployment rate is when f d r took took office it was nearly thirty three percent unemployment rate and she said it was twenty five percent unemployment rate him up to him so i mean you know when you're when you're comparing apples to apples of what the employment rate is and words that if you want to reduce crime how you do that is by giving somebody a job so they can put a roof over their head put food in her stomach and pay rent and be able to get and be able to be decent in society that's how you lower the crime rate and be able and in order in order to move the homeownership rate  it's about between forty to forty five percent and hamilton hill mt pleasant area hard says we need to be up more in the neighborhood of somewhere around sixty percent to be of us stabilized if we move that homeownership rate to sixty percent what are we going to do with the crime in that area we're going to lower it we don't need to hire more officers what we need to do is be able to make sure somebody has a job so they put a roof of their heads and that's what we need to take a look at and we need to have a credit countability the pilot programs and what kind of direction we're going with this you thank you joe keller good evening mayor mccarthy men of president congratulations to you and esteemed council members thank you for allowing me to speak at the end of last year there was an award to car construction for snow removal and it's my understanding that some questions were made to them by council person porterfield in my my curry to the council is to find out if any of those questions met him porterfield if any of those questions have been answered to you as of yet they have fantastic that's great to know it would be interesting to find out what those answers were we can talk about those possibly in a future meeting in his much i'd like also like to find out with that fifty thousand dollars retainer that they needed to have how much of that has been used so far now my wife and i live over on bradley street and we've heard the plows out on several occasions when all there was only a little bit of snow as of yet now i didn't get an opportunity to see if those were harvard construction plow out over that way but it be interesting to know and do we have figures on how much of that funds have been used or how much of the city funds that were allocated to that have been used so far do we have any numbers on that as of yet this would be something we would have to look up absolutely thank you so much a pretty shit that the one last thing i didn't want to mention is my wife and i had the pleasure to attend the woodlawn park redevelopment committees  last week and we saw several familiar faces a lot of new faces it was a fantastic event the woodlawn park neighborhood association raised a lot of funds and it would be fantastic to see more people out of their respective neighborhood association meetings event and taking ownership of this city so with that we can develop it and make it a better place for all schenectady residents to live thank you so much thank you  brand residents connected i don't know what happened to our residency law it seems like it doesn't exist we appoint a police chief wonderful person well qualified doesn't live in a city and you don't make  the city you don't force these people to give these high paying jobs to live in the city you're back down you can stand on your own two feet what employer here and respects any of you from the mayor to city council they don't have to listen to you they can do as they please i just don't understand it now you have six candidates for the police department to live outside the city there goes our business the law while the law we don't do you do one who do you direct and or are they directing you for you leave a lot to be desired with the citizens of this city i just don't understand how you operate that you can't make this than a function and function properly that you can stand on your own two feet and i don't care if the union de individual who it is and put them in their place look at what these cars going out of town you took five six cars off the road out  they run the city no backbone you can't stand on your own two feet you can't even teach the people in the city council week will you have to have a meeting and out of vote and leave a person off the meeting what respect do you think the citizens have of new people are elected officials to represent us we pay such high taxes in the city is connected with our school taxes and our property taxes it's a disgrace and you're given our money away we've been hard times you didn't free salaries you gave money away you gave a gift to mr pulley known for retiring with city taxpayer money isn't that nice isn't that nice you didn't help the citizens although he didn't paid help the taxpayers out but you gave the money away twenty thousand dollars increase for the police chief a fire chief just in office ten thousand dollars for somebody else over the foster ribble we can't pay to put anything on the principal we're barely make any interest in three years you've got a long ways to go here and you better put your feet on the floor and start doing something for the citizens of this city thank you join that's a safety issue right there we've got to do something because and sidewalks are gonna be fixed down there curbs everywhere in schenectady we can't have this happening all the time before somebody gets fixed so people don't get hurt and they need to move the snow off the sidewalks under the bridges it's it's it's very tough not just fraid somebody is going to get hurt i just wanted to make a few comments about some of the people that attend these meetings because i'm not a part of what they are and i don't want to be included in  i do have a police report and the purpose was i have passed book account with another bank i have to present that account to them before i can make any transaction and somebody was very curious as to what was in there and i have the account card in my purse and they got my purse they saw the pass book account and they got all the information from that account as to what's there it was frustrating first of all it's totally illegal but this was what they wanted so i'm very very upset about that and now they have all the information they are i don't have the right to have and when i left that police department i was i was in tears i said i just want out of here and i said i feel just lucky to be alive after what they did to me and i live so i want you to know that what scapegoat what these people bold people are capable of doing and don't have the right to do that it was just terrible so i will i just want to tell you that i don't know what else to say but it's it's awful it's just unbelievable to me what has happened to me because you just have to know everything well i'm very sorry thank you good evening my name is mary maclean i live in the city the mayor says good things are happening in schenectady the newest council member says good things are happening in schenectady i say anything good happening in schenectady s coming from this side of the railing and not from city hall good and left this administration when jason  fired and council did not give him back his seat he is your constituent point number two filling the police chief position mr cole gallen it's fine vacancy council and the mayor had the opportunity to set aside a great deal of money instead the mayor chose to pander to the unions and coun cares about the city i have often heard council members say we love this city i have never heard a city official say i love my constituents and that's the difference when a person love someone he doesn't give them the shaft taxpayers got shafted with these two appointments there was no rush to fill the police chief position and the police department could have operated without a third assist the police chief for this year council does not have the will to control spending the mayor and council are directly responsible for the city's indebted that's one more item litter there is more litter on the streets since this administration took over then there was in previous years mr mayor a damsel can buy the most beautiful gown to go to the ball and if she shows up with a dirty face she's not going to get in schenectady has a dirty face no business should be allowed to operate in this city if the grounds are littered with trash the right a drug store bought eastern avenue and a clone street is a perfect example i'd like to remind everyone that they have till march first to get in their applications for their exemptions i had to know for the rest of the council you probably did we got some phone calls when tax bills went out and a lot of the problems were people didn't file in time last year for two thousand and thirteen so for two thousand and fourteen make sure you go to the assessor's office this should be up on the screen and file the form that everyone should have gotten the mail around october that's an important document and those that are turning sixty five you can fill out the application if you have any questions you can call the assessor's office that name should also be up on the screen and this is just important for people that could use a tax break and if they wonder why it doesn't happen you have to file this when your senior you have to file airily i'd like to thank the police department the person a suspect in custody in the greco murder that was great work great work by the police department by the evidence tax they did a good job and not that that will help the t ragedy at all but it certainly will help for closure for the family if this thing pans out so i'm really glad to see that that happened  i'm going to read an email and it's very disturbing from a department had he was addressing a council person but chose to c c me on this email and i don't know what to say about it but i'm he had to say about me he could have just had a private conversation with the council person but chose not to the level of disappointment i have cannot be measured the level of ignorance that events ricky has demonstrated and the damage to the efforts of months of planning we have put forth to put a program of such innovation in groundbreaking efforts was a completely unacceptable situation this is about the fellow with the homes program just to bring everybody up to speed was there for a background check done on all council members who make decisions on behalf as citizens of the city versus a single contractor would rectify past rebuilding a city single structure in the city well that background check is done when we're elected that's when the background check is done it's done by the voters is done by the press i write to this to you independent of any knowledge of the mayor or anyone else in the administration but i am beside myself with how this was handled by the council and the press and i will struggle to develop a respect for the wisdom that i look toward a body that that has i perform my duties on behalf of the city this is a common and the heat of the moment but it is not overstated with regard to the emotion that i harbor right now simply moving along this not so easy however whoever is available to continue on will be doing so with a blemish if our consul wants to use the press as an open forum to have discussions with my department where the mechanics of city hall i have been desperately misled has to how the two entities are supposed to work together vince did not contact me directly concerning this matter which i did instead took secondhand information an incomplete e mail strings to make his ignorance public this is a very sad of affairs of someone who sits in a position to affect the lives of the citizens i cannot express my disappointment enough and i hope you accept this in the vein it is that it is intended well certainly dead that's for sure with this i in this e mail is this is why he wants to conduct business i emailed mr schilling and he told me this we're not going to have a foreman for back for a forum for back and forth well how i choose to deal with the press is my business and i think i am serving the citizens of schenectady we need transparency in government and i'll just close with a statement from bo woodward of the watergate fame what we should worry about the most i would not i would say not just in the united states but in any country is secret government that's what we'll do democracies in and whoever said it got it right that darkness so if for worried about press we're worried about this it is what it is we were concerned about this person whether this person is ok or not that's beside the point we should have had all the information up front we were concerned that's why we vetted this person misspoke or you were absolutely right asking for a credit check never happened these are things that didn't happen and yet we're we're asked to vote on things without all the information why again i'm tired of it and if a department head wants to take me to task on it he can call me up to the phone rings both ways for direct contact it's as simple as that i'm not going to take this you know he's not going to to my date me mr schilling with with e mails like this you know he can say whatever he wants to me privately with whoever he wants that's his business he wants to see see me so i know i'm going to make it public it's as simple as that that's what my job is and i'm going to continue doing it thank you move forward and that mr eriksson's point with having the superintendent schools in again that we simultaneously should continue that discussion in terms of just the state aid for the city you talk about the position that mr spring is articulating in terms of the shortfall that occurs within the school district again the city of schenectady and they use the reference of city of utica very comparable cities same demographics they get five million dollars more in unrestricted state aid and that's what shows up in the bottom line when you're trying to provide the same level of services of police fire picking up the garbage paving the streets knowing things are tax rate is higher because of that in the incremental increase that's occurred from the city over the last few years and really goes back over a decade has been fairly good it's been the school district that has gone  up really above inflation in that again it goes to the bottom line when people are paying their taxes it kind of blurs in as to whether it's going to the county the city or the school district also you know is that they're writing a check that's too large and so that i look forward to that continued discussion and working with our state legislators to hopefully bring some correction in that formal thank you madam president thank you then we know for the business son