right we have one public hearing tonight i was the clerk would read that public hearing regarding a proposed ordinance to amend chapter two thirty day two of the code of the city of schenectady related to the consolidation of residential lots and as i said that is one public hearing then for final consideration of the kirkby number one for final consideration in ordinance amending chapter one forty four of the administrative code of the city of schenectady relative to a dog numeration fe i know mr erickson is going to ask us to hold that but the reality is all this is doing is setting a fee it's not getting into who are hiring we could potentially hire people on contracts as opposed to making the city employees so i think that's something to be discussed in the future but for right now this is just to  ok all right so if there's no objection then that is item number two i don't number two an ordinance establishing zoning regulations pertaining to halfway houses it's been discussed in numerous meetings without objections on consent item number three item number three for original consideration an ordinance amending article for subsurface spaces of streets of chapter two twenty eight of the code of the city of schenectady streets and sidewalks and chapter one thirty eight building plumbing and electrical standards introduced only with a resolution calling for a public airing relative to proposed legislation regulating vaults within the city right of ways that objection on consent item number four item number four resolution calling for a public airing concerning housing and community development needs for the federal consolidated plan c d b j discussed in committee without objection on consent don't number five item number five a resolution authorizing the sale of parcel number thirty nine point seven one dash three d s three seven to metroplex also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number six  item number six a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a claim filed on behalf of the schenectady police department with gekko discussed in claims committee without objection on consent item number seven item number seven a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to settle a claim by george brinson also discussed in claims without objection on consent item number eight item number eight a resolution appointing richard hominick to the city of schenectady civilian police review board discussed in committee without objection on consent item number nine item number nine a resolution recognizing the american made movie event this week taken out of order mrs parker is going to present that an item number ten item number ten a resolution honoring denise brucker that will also be taken out of order and i will present that one and then we have two additional items item number eleven a resolution authorizing the transfer of title of thirteen thirty five states tree discussed in claims committee tonight without objection on consent and item number twelve item number twelve a resolution authorizing the transfer of title of four fifty nine i will now call the city council meeting to order for january thirteenth two thousand and fourteen let me begin by welcoming john huda veron to the table and then if you would please stand for the invocation by reverend james bookout a rich christian dear heavenly father as i address this group in prayer help me to pray as you prayed with love and compassion over the elders and leaders of jerusalem your blessid city these people are my people my brothers and sisters that i grew up with we all are here tonight and we want your best for our city thank you for our city's leaders continue to give them the wisdom of god to make the difficult challenges of this generation thank you for the wonderful work you're doing here in the city of schenectady lord i break every curse every bondage every hex and every spell every hindering spirit that has tried to sabotage this city's destiny we declare the bondage is over business is over companies over families be broken send angels to guard our city gates from allowing evil to come into our city keep every secret sin out bless the courthouse and empty the crack houses we break the spirit of poverty and we declare that new technical start up companies are coming back to schenectady that people are coming out of debt that people are going to get down payments on their homes lord we are going to start acting like we are financially blessed we are not broke defeated dumb or helpless that's a lie and as a city we are prospered give us a new love language bring forgiveness to hearts from old hurts and wounds we want our kids back who've dropped out of school giving up on life give us a break through in the heavens spirit the living got we know the best days for our city start tonight right now and we know and believe that you heard our prayer and we declare that there is a breakthrough here tonight as we take place in our situations over this city and we ask this all in the name of our savior the lord jesus christ a min i  right is this is the first council meeting for the year two thousand and fourteen we're going to begin with the mayor with his state of the city speech to welcome everyone here great to see so many smiling faces in the positive attitude in this community the good evening council president carrying members of the city council thank you for the opportunity to talk to you tonight in recap some of the things that we've done in the last year and outline some of our goals and objectives for two thousand and fourteen put on a pair of glasses because the aging process is catching up with me but i want to thank my wife caroline for being here tonight joining us in how she tolerates the late night phone calls and some of the demands of the schedule by brother gregory who's been a long time supporter and just makes things easier when i welcome strong leadership and this can actually county legislature it is a group that is now geared toward results we look forward to working together and i'm proud of our friendship and proud of the relationship the city has with  the county and look to continue to build that so anthony thank you for being here tonight ed cocksure former city council member member of the board of education larry springer superintendent schools com chuck steiner the president of the chamber of schenectady county thank you chuck for being here tonight john roth from highbridge development one of those people who's had vision and to see the opportunity within this community david buke of the gillespie corporation david began i thank you and your team for the continued efforts that you make that you have made and you make every day to make this community better your restoration you know his sense of humor his tenacity again to solve problems ray i'm just proud to have you as a friend part of this community and you just make everyone's job so much easier tele the rising star here univariate of but just a good man here in schenectady and so we're proud to have it tonight the representatives of angelo santa barbara philips tech center representing the men and women who do the day to day work here in the city of schenectady thank you for joining us of thank you going to be one here and those who are able to watch this in all our city council meetings at home the open open stage media open stage media is a model of public access bringing a level of transparency to this government that other communities envy two thousand and thirteen was generally a good year we saw the continuation of development in our downtown with the completion of the new seven million dollar headquarters for trans finder new medicines new emergency room war entire hermes music seventh tell us italian pastry and browns archery to name a few we were fortunate to obtain five million dollars to the governor's regional economic development council consolidated of ard one of the a largest awards in the state with the help from our state legislators we were able to restore the tax exempt status of thirteen churches which allowed their congregations to continue to do the good work they do for schenectady we continued our monthly open house program working with the city school district realtors and bankers to show the opportunity for homeownership within our community we instituted health care reforms which schenectady county helped negotiate as part of our sales tax agreement and i thank chris gardner for doing that the c s c a benefit plan the canadian drugs and our medicare advantage plans are saving us about three million dollars a year the financial condition of the city of schenectady continues to be stable we will have a modest surplus from the two thousand and thirteen budget the city has managed within the constraints of the two percent tax cap set by the state and twenty thirteen began using capital projects reserve reserves which will move schenectady toward a page as you go approach for funding some of our capital needs after review of existing band proof seeds conducted during two thousand and thirteen as well as the use of capital projects reserves that we created at the end of two thousand and twelve the two thousand and fourteen capital budget that is thirty five percent less than that of two thousand and thirteen capital budget this helps improve the city's liquidity by reducing the amount of debt we are an overall i anticipate the two thousand and thirteen general fund balance will have increased the proximately one point four million since two thousand and eleven and additionally to improve our budget flexibility we increase the amount of our fund balance designated as unassigned from seventy six thousand dollars in two thousand and eleven to three point seven million dollars in two thousand and twelve and approximately ninety eight percent increase and i anticipate we close out the books in two thousand and thirteen the unassigned fund balance will closely mirror that of the two thousand and twelve amount our enhanced in house collection efforts resulted in forty two percent of the two thousand and twelve property tax liens being paid and reduced the number of properties with liens by a little over forty nine percent this year will be able to accept payments on line which will clearly makes connect the more user friendly and hopefully will encourage people to pay in a more timely fashion in two thousand and thirteen continued the trend to reduce our part one crimes the most serious crimes we've seen a reduction of just over thirteen percent in the last two years proactive policing produced just under a thirty percent decrease in our car larcenies active warrants really reduced by twenty percent our utilization of data driven policing is showing results and as we become more sophisticated in our data collection and better integrated in our analysis with both cord and code enforcement these efforts should continue approximate twenty four month period they generated around one thousand calls for service i met with the owners of each of these establishments along with the public safety commissioner the chief of police fire chief in the building inspector i told each of them that we wanted them to be successful businesses we wanted to work with them and to help them in any way we could but if they continued to create a problem environment of nuisance nuisance calls fights stabbings shootings and even homicides i wanted them out of business even with our efforts to work with them the underlying problems continued today every one of these places is out of business in this is a better and safer community  compliment the public safety command staff the men and women of the police department and fire departments in our code operations and our friends in the state liquor authority for a job well done over the last several years we've seen a proliferation neighborhood stores many are great places run by good people who bring convenience and values to our neighborhood however there are some that don't instead they foster an environment of drug activity by stolen merchandise in their accounting is creative it best and they clearly have a negative impact on our neighborhoods i've directed the public safety commissioner in the police chief to put in place a proactive plan to deal with these businesses modeled after our efforts of dealing with the problem bars i along with the public safety commissioner the police chief the fire chief the building inspector and other appropriate city staff will be meeting with these owners we want them to be successful we want them to make money and they should add value to our neighborhoods but if they don't play by the rules i want him out of business and i feel confident that next year i will be able to report back to you that we have made significant improvements in the quality of our neighborhood stores in this community regionally recognize fire department responded to just under fifteen thousand calls for service in two thousand and thirteen these men and women of this department continue to amaze me with their ability to contain major fires  minimize damage to adjacent buildings our arrest rate in arson cases currently about forty percent in this community where the national average is about seven percent they're doing a good job of fire suppression good caus origin investigations and they're holding accountable those individuals who are intentionally starting fires more than sixty percent of our calls for service in the fire department are emergency medical calls this is the type of call continues to grow in that we need to look for ways to better manage or manage our response to a large percentage of these calls these are calls that come from individuals that have medical conditions or situations that does not need the full deployment of paramedics an ambulance transportation to an emergency room this is a problem that i will assign to our new fire chief in the next few months we must work together with our health care community to look for ways to better educate individuals on the appropriate service providers that they should turn to and i do want to thank god chief del rocco who is unable to be here tonight for his exemplary service for this community and wish him and his family only the best as he retires from th fire department in the next few weeks are golf course had a very successful year we had to practically twenty eight thousand rounds of open golf and with league play our total was about fifty thousand rounds of golf the condition of the course remained one of the best in the area the transition to a new pro met daily went very well matt has done an exceptional job of projecting a positive and friendly and great community image at schenectady muni i want to thank the golf advisory committee chaired by don cloud for the work they have done soon we will present to the city council a recommendation for a consultant to start the drainage and irrigation improvements in the implementation of the courses long range plan i would remind everyone that money spent at the golf course does not affect the general fund the course of course is self financing and our golfers pay for it our office of general services last year we continued our focus on the rehabilitation of street surface in our city we paid about six and a half miles of st we started the rehab of lower state street and we almost completed the reconstruction of erie boulevard the top code of blacktop and landscaping will be done first thing in the spring our waste water treatment plant under the leadership of director of water and wastewater paula fund continues to be a model of municipal efficiency it operated last year with one hundred percent regulatory compliance and since we brought the plant back under full city control we have had from our neighbors that i believe the first time that's happened in history of the plant in we save at that plant about twenty five to twenty nine thousand dollars a month where we are generating electricity a co gen facility there in as we close out the books this year will be approximately two hundred ninety thousand dollars credit that will take for revenue coming in for septic and sludge treatment at the facility not the most sexy topic but it's bottom line revenue that would not have been available to this city had we continued with a private vendor  one of the areas that we have talked about that we as a community need to improve is our recycling commissioner carlson and i have had conversations about helping redesign somewhere or recycling brochures with chris riley and chuck contoured joining us tonight here in the front from from creating why media karl has some experience with different recycling projects and thought that that  community wide project needed to have a youth component chris and his team came up what i thought was a clear and simple message to start a new recycling campaign it starts with me and if you look at the graphics they're a little bit  humorous to look at it and but as we talked about it the rules the goals the benefits of recycling are fairly simple to understand it's something that a fifth or sixth grader gets if we thought about it most of the things that we do are not that complicated if you construction on your home you need a building permit if you own a dog you need a license if you own a house you need to pay taxes if you park in front of a meter you need to put money in it if a fifth or sixth grader can understand this it's a message that we must get to the rest the rest of our residents in the city so i say it starts with me tonight next week it will be the city council then who knows we'll go across the state across the country solving all these municipal problems but it started with me in creating media why here tonight so i thank you guys for your help and looking forward to an exciting undertaking project homeownership made easy in schenectady so it kind of the umbrella title that i've put to a number of our programs that we have in my goal is to make homeownership not only buying a home but a lifetime of ownership easy and cost effective to create real value in the city of schenectady distress property now our community still remains our biggest challenge two and a half years ago when i assumed disposition all of our records in code enforcement were manual paper files our chief building inspector eric schilling and his staff have done a great job implementing the landlord registration program in the vacant building inventory in through their efforts our code citations are up over ninety five percent this continues to send a message that we're going to work with people who are willing to work with us to improve their property but those that don't i want him in court and i want to held accountable for their inaction we've been fortunate to have so many community partners step forward to help in creative ways to help markets connect these housing potential to middle class homeowners we first had key bank come forward in the fall of two thousand and eleven with a very aggressive mortgage package the daily gazette was an early supporter of our efforts who's here tonight again one of the people stepped up the plate trying to solve problems trying to make things happen we had in bt bank citizens bank prospect lending trust go bank and other financial institutions step up and offer to work with home buyers in our community we've had a broad group of realtors prevention manner homes realty usa coldwell banker i semi joke that it's easier to list the companies who are not helping with our home program than the ones that are but have been aggressively marketing the property in schenectady and i thank them for their help last year we held a very successful realtor day that brought approximately two hundred realtors in bankers to hear about housing opportunities economic development activities and initiatives in the city in the school district we again will hold this event this year and i want to thank mary della sandro from prevent chill manner homes from who headed up this effort and thank you mary it's clearly changed the mind of many people about schenectady as image and i do want to thank larry spring superintendent of city school district for his partnership and help the school district has provided over the past year larry clearly has a more difficult job than i do in his success will have a greater impact on home values than the initiatives that we're doing here at city hall so if larry asked for your he please help him in any way you can send that message back to our state legislators because some of the things are a little bit controversial but they have an effect dramatically on the quality of life in this immunity in our tax rate tonight i'm pleased to announce  who is the team coordinator for union graduate college home school capstone project brian gallagher molly mcelroy and janet tracey over the next few months this team working with city staff in our community partners will evaluate the many aspects and facets of our homes project looking to see what works what needs improvement and put in place a formal business plan that will enable us to better market and articulate the housing opportunities in the city of schenectady conclusion i want to thank again everyone for coming out tonight i want to thank our great city staff bill winkler director of operations commissioner general services carlson finance commissioner deborah di genova public safety commissioner wayne bennett or fire chief michael dell rocco police chief brian kilcullen for the job they do every day the city council in my administration has been tasked with answering the question what makes a good  thriving community we've answered by proposing housing initiatives in revitalization efforts striving to exemplify responsible in transparent government making sure our public safety operations a responsive and effective and agreeing to make sound investments in our city's infrastructure working with our school district to improve the education of our children continue to build on the success of our thriving unified economic development team by creating new partnerships recruit new investments both large and small in addition to supporting our already established businesses and community organizations as you look around our city you can see the results of our efforts it is truly an exciting time for the city of schenectady however our work is not nearly done so i thank you for your past support look forward to working with you this year as we continue to make schenectady a better place to work visit and call home thank you present we have two out of order resolutions and i'm going to start with the american made movie event and this is so please at our city of schenectady is taking an interest in this american made movie especially with the emphasis lately for those of you don't know i work in the area of workforce development and advance your facts come a long way has become a very large part of the community a very large part of workforce development and it's so important to get the word out that manufacturing is certainly not the manufacturing that we knew of even ten years ago so madam president you have a floor whereas on january twenty first two thousand fourteen has been declared as the date of the american made movie event to be held at proctor's g e theater and hosted by the city of schenectady and whereas on january twenty first two thousand and fourteen spectate he is in residence of the greater capital region are encouraged to participate in this important community event and where as the american made movie event will feature a screening of the new document here american made movie starting at six thirty and will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by jack are nikki and whereas the panel discussions starting at eight w business council of new york state dr quentin public president of scanty county community college president of gathers granola representing entrepreneurs and an entrepreneur right here in the city is schenectady i m add where as in take a city event are only five dollars they're available at the proctors box office in line with many adventists expenses being paid for by the generous contributions of area sponsors and stakeholders and whereas this is so important net proceeds from the a that will benefit a one time scholarship for youth build participant who will be pursuing a manufacturing technology program at schenectady county community college now therefore be it resolved that the city of schenectady just hereby proclaim january twenty one two thousand and fourteen as the american made movie of that day and the city of schenectady in further be it resolved that the city council encourages  in supporting this event and helping to make it a success and all the details are noted in the tri fold and i have plenty of them here there's also more information that would like to get tickets or getting more information but i first i'd just like to introduce some of the guests that i brought here with warm welcome very warmly by the chamber of commerce as well as many of the other businesses here in schenectady gathers is a maker of artisan granola as we sell in eleven states and we're expanding pretty rapidly and the majority of our workforce is based right here in schenectady and we're going to be attending many of the career fairs at union and schenectady county community college in order to hire more people and really become more of a more tied to schenectady and economic development so thank you  all working to pass the test assessing secondary completion and moving on to additional career goals hopefully one that will be related to manufacturing in america so thank you right our second out of order resolution is a resolution honoring denise brecker song going to ask this president come up and take the chair here i come down to present her commitment to public service is reflected in career choices that include schenectady county job training agency schenectady county district attorney's office rockefeller college schenectady municipal housing and currently schenectady county community college where she is the administrator of the trade act adjustment community college grant and whereas miss record was first elected to the schenectady city council in one nine hundred ninety seven and in recognition of her leadership ability was elected as council president in two thousand and one and in two thousand and twelve and where as her passion for public safety has been demonstrated through her membership on the public safety committee during her entire tenure with the city council and her serving is chair of that committee for seven years and where as her zeal to improve the standard of living in our community through meaningful employment has driven her to work in the areas of professional development and workforce development and where as ms brokers desire to improve the standing in our community standard of living in our community is further evidence by her membership on the regional board of the continuing education association of new york her co chairing of the new york state department of labor healthcare workforce development subcommittee and as former chair of the schenectady industrial development agency now therefore be it resolved that the city council and the mayor pause in their deliberations to thank denise brecker for her tireless service to the schenectady community to honor her for her dedication and to wish her the best in the schenectady city council with a quote from teddy roosevelt far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing peggy said i started my career here in one nine hundred ninety seven took office in one nine hundred ninety eight and that was with the help of friends and family and many dedicated volunteers a very very proud to have been a part of the ongoing redevelopment and really recreate of the city of schenectady and brought to his by city staff administration volunteers and the work of an entire city council and certainly as i heard the mayor state of the city tonight i also have to add certainly with metroplex but certainly with the business people who came to schenectady who believed in this city of schenectady and invested in themselves personally as well as financially i can't thank you enough one thousand nine hundred ninety seven or ninety ninety eight when i took office downtown schenectady and other businesses within the city of schenectady it looked a lot different than it does right now  the movement of trance finder the paul mitchell school has made in many of the other businesses and restaurants have certainly brought the city of schenectady alive and i'm so happy when i see people who have moved to administration but certainly as a unit as a team which i see all of you being part of and i really thank you very much for that you make us all look good i'd also like to say i've had this is the privilege to serve with many dedicated public servants and some of them are here tonight some of them are frank rizzio that i served with on the council tom della salla ed cocksure certainly barbara plan sured and judge field the past city clerks care own free aloe and eileen versace and certainly our present city clerk chuck thorn and deputy church clerk chad you make our job a lot easier i know some try we drive you crazy but that's part of the job one of the most important lessons i learned because people had asked me when i was leaving oh you know tell me about your accomplishments what have you done what are the things that you have accomplished and at the risk of sounding overly humble which people who know me know that i'm probably not i think it comes from teamwork it truly does i've had a lot of time to reflect on this we closed on our house back in august and were unable to move into it until two weeks ago but during that time you know you start to think about well i'm going to have to say something at the and one of my just say what if i accomplish and i think it all comes from being as i said being part of a team being able to work with other people who may not share the same idea as you do and really trying to figure out what is the best idea is it my idea is it your idea how do we figure out how do we come to consensus  the consensus part is usually the most difficult or sometimes knowing the right thing is also the most difficult thing to do or the most difficult thing to come to a conclusion with i would like to think that my many years  council have taught me that at least my strength is in building and maintaining relationships and in order to do that many times you do reach across the aisle and you do reach out to people that maybe whose ideas in the first star weren't your ideas but were able to come to a consensus or have someone convince you differently and i think you become much strongly convinced when that's the case in terms of support from other people within the city is schenectady or supporters of really this entire city of schenectady certainly many people who know me know that my father was a city fireman for many many years in the city as schenectady so certainly my support of his going to fire apartment has been ongoing but i have to tell you it was an easy lift they're one of the most professional departments not just in our state not just in our city but i would really go so far as to say in nation and i'm sure there's many people beyond me that would back me up on that their dedication to the residents to the city is schenectady into the entire city is demonstrated on a daily basis you know another job in our public safety are the dispatchers of the city is schenectady they're on the front lines of some of the worst calls anyone could ever receive they hear about accidents they hear about the house they hear about tragedies of the city first and have to maintain a calm demeanor and get individuals that help in the assistance they need which brings me to our for our police department our schenectady police department has come a very long way from the days of indictments and oversights by the department of justice under the leadership of commissioner bennett chief kilcullen system chiefs and certainly those patrol people the boots on the ground we say thank you too because the level of professionalism and the lack of complaints in the lawsuits that we see coming through us at the city council has certainly been a significant change and we thank you for that the entire city staff the ones that pick up our garbage the ones that plow streets in the middle of the night they're out there with water breaks and much more things that we never hear about because it's their job and they do it well and it's one thing i've learned while i was in public service is that usually you don't hear about the jobs that are being done well i usually hear about when someone doesn't do a job well and that spends a couple days in the paper so when you do a good job many times you don't get recognized for it and i certainly want to recognize the entire city staff when you walk into this building at night and you see how beautiful it is it doesn't happen on its own our maintenance staff are fantastic i can't say enough about the dedication of the staff and the city's connected and lastly our neighborhood organizations they are the bedrock of our community these unpaid devoted workers have transformed many of their neighborhoods in contributed greatly to our community one shining example and one very near and dear to my heart because it's where my family and i spent many summers is up in the woodland park this park was abandoned for many years leaving a swimming pool full of garbage and looking like a disaster waiting to happen but with the commitment of neighbors this eyesore has been transformed into a beautiful park and serves as a site where many of our community heroes are other community volunteers i have passed on have also been honored many things happening in bellevue in mt pleasant the north side upper union st helena vale neighborhoods in all the neighborhoods the city is schenectady they've all done a wonderful job to try to bring our city to the place where it needs to be a most importantly though i want to thank my family my friends and most importantly my husband clefts love you dearly for the ability to do my job as a council member and for the support that you've given me so i wash my wish my council members the very best and i look forward to seeing the city continue to move in a positive direction mr mayor there you're over there and i thank you for all the support and friendship you've given me over the years with that i say goodbye good luck to everyone and thank you for listening chair denise i wasn't quite sure what to give you just a reminder of your years of service but i thought the most appropriate thing would be the key to the city case you ever change your mind to get back  yes it does but just for her commitment to public service is legendary long and impressive she is renowned for her loyalty tenacity independence and determination to fight for her conviction in passions the occasion the consistent see applies as a common sense in compassionate attitude to everything she fights for no matter how unpopular it was the city of schenectady would like to thank denise parker for a multitude of exemplary years of service and i'm proud to present to you the key to the city in this thirteenth  all right we have one public hearing tonight regarding a proposed ordinance to mention after two thirty dash to the code of the city of schenectady related to consolidation of residential lots i have no one signed up so i'm going to declare that public hearing closed will move on to communications of petitions presented to the city council for monday january thirteenth two thousand and fourteen under official from the mayor a list of appointments dated january thirteenth two thousand and fourteen under general there are none and there are no petitions thank you just a couple of things first of all i want to talk about the recent release pilot information from metroplex soon to be up on the city website but i think there is sometimes a misperception that pilot agreements don't benefit the city or people aren't paying taxes and just to clear that up thirty eight of the forty seven current pilot projects were actually originally empty buildings and or they were vacant land or tax exempt property and these sites now generate at the time generated minimal or no taxes at all and prior to the economic development projects but now they do and then nine other projects are company expansions and we went from fourteen point one million dollars in payments to local governments in two thousand and thirteen and that's up from nine point two three million in two thousand and twelve so we are increasing on a regular basis and from two thousand and twelve to two thousand and thirteen we actually increased by fifty three percent which is quite significant and i just want to thank our economic development team and also like i said we'll have this information up on our website because i think it's important for people to understand and and have awareness of in addition to that an update on the civilian police review board couple cycles ago i made a promise that i would get it up and running and all of our appointments regarding the entities out in the community are full we're getting commitment and  recommitment from the people that have been appointed we've received six resumes that were sent out to the council today for their input and will be making i hope our appointment the next cycle round and will be going forward with the next police review meeting on its regular date which is wednesday february eleventh so good news and we'll keep plugging away at that that's a good thank you any other committee report if not then we'll move to privilege of the floor related to the legislative agenda i have one person signed up and that are you here ok good evening everybody i just want to say i think it's wonderful that mr richard hamann had volunteered to be the schenectady civilian police review board because certainly he didn't have to do this but i think it's wonderful that he did and he should be asked so i thank him very much ok ok all right so it has been moved and seconded to prove the consent agenda all in favor i opposed it's an agenda is approved i will now move to privileges the floor regarding city business i have nine people signed up the first is jason plank public again this is backwards also too is that in about another thirteen more months we've got to do a five year update on the five year consolidated plan one of the components in the consolidated plan has not been action manager's position we need to be able to take a look at what failures it has complete done a year ago it said that it did not even comply with affirmative action for erie boulevard that was over thirteen million dollars  federal funds went into that and not affirmative action was in compliance so we've lost jobs and so forth also to is this a plan we need to know exactly where the additional sixty eight for the five hundred for the three million dollars grant that you guys are applying for so we need to know some of those items of what's going to happen because that's going to be about a twenty percent reduction across the board for comes out of that fifteen percent  nonprofits are going to lose twenty percent so we need to address some of these issues and put them forward thank you thank you joy hall the next day i got a suggestion to act off what we should do when a snow comes down have one side so they can plow the streets right that's what they need to do crane street and it's these potholes and and they need a salt these hills more a lot everywhere because it's dangerous for somebody took a walk on that ice and fall down in need to clean up the ground down here to no more put like a path or something so people can cross from one side of the street to the other side because that's what needs to be good evening council members there mccarthy for the wonderful inspiring state of the city address it's been five months since i was before you to talk about our wonderful polish festival i'd like to take this brief moment to publicly thank our neighborhood watch especially fred lee and sean allen for the tremendous job they did at our polish american festival and the wonderful job they do every day in our city a sincere thank you for myself to polish american community and the residents of our city thank you neighborhood watch for being there for us thank you  good evening mr mayor council president and members of city council my name spurs and i am chair of the woodland park redevelopment committee a committee of the red line neighborhood association i just want to extend my gratitude and thanks to the  city just this past wednesday we held our third annual z t and me paul dinner fundraiser at the woodlawn reform church and and each year it gets better and better and it grows and grows we've sold more tickets we've raised more money towards the redevelopment efforts of woodlawn park so i think all of the elected officials who came out that night some of which are in this room also from the county government as well so i appreciate that so honest and that the neighborhood leaders from the other neighborhood associations who came out that night as well as the community many of which are in what lawn but also outside of what lawn the work we do couldn't have been done without our dedicated and devoted staff of volunteers so i appreciate that and to the many many businesses who donated product and items for auction raffle which is continually growing and expanding and raises a lot of money for that so i just wanted to say thank you for supporting our efforts over the years and i really appreciate that and we look forward to next years in which you need dinner just just to give you an update with the park and within the last year we've made a lot of progress thanks to the mayor and the city particularly the office of general services and we appreciate that we told the non viable pools we've brought down the fences we've built benches flower beds and just had a dedication in the fall for area of roof of reflexion and we had stuff donated from retreats donated from retreats going to act indian and a lot of improvements to the park that really made it beautiful so we're looking forward to continuing our efforts over that and again thank you to the dedicated staff of the general office of general services appreciate you guys  and i'm just looking forward to head over the next year when some of the things we're working with with the mayor and the city as well as with our volunteers is we want to add a new sign at the entryway to the park also add some are coming in along the way  one of the caught the common area where the major pool was filled and we want to make a common multipurpose area and then this time next year convert that in the winter times for an ice skating rink so we're looking forward to that we're also working in partnership with capital district community gardens to add a community garden platform staging area and some things to add to the park for the children so we're looking forward to working with the city over the next year so i appreciate all of your efforts your dedication and support and last denise with appreciation i know i personally will miss your service to the city and your dedication particularly with our initial efforts develop the park you were there when we first started and supported us when we got off the road so i appreciate that and you will be a mess think you and spirit we appreciate all your efforts to you've done a tremendous amount of work on this police review board as you probably know by now that i was on a review board for three years and i had to get off because i moved  going quite well and we had the correct number of people on the board then this last year has just been really difficult to get new people been a quorum and so reports to review and that's kind of a shame for a policeman to give up his time like that and plus the other people who get ca i'm sure she'll get very active there i don't think she'll sit down and just take care of her dogs that are the wish of that thank you all very much thank you lynn mccarthy president king city council members it's a proud day for mom pleasant to have reverend up there it's a proud day for my pleasant to have john murtha there and here we want to thank both of you for all your doing i want to just express thanks for everyone who came out to our first workshop this past thursday night at the faith deliverance tabernacle church we had people representing the boys and girls club someone from the schenectady little league we had pastor bookout jim's jim we had a new fellow oren tucker with the schenectady big basketball club we had  enough people there to network and come up with some ideas for some new programs for the youth in mount pleasant as well as educating them the programs that we already have we also did have members of the police department there and they networked with us also they are in agreement with us that we need programs for our kids and we are all in agreement that we need some improvements in our par was specially want to thank mayor mccarthy for his help with us getting some plans going with improving the orchard park and for residents to know that there are going to be some improvements there that will make you proud of my pleasant again i just want to thank floyd slater for all of his help in our church park and special thoughts are with him this evening i also want to comment on neighborhood watch we did have fred lee there we also had wayne or jim reed was there for a while and our own john horton is a member of neighborhood watch we believe that a neighborhood watch is very useful i'd like to see it expand what we need is volunteers to come forward to go through the background check to attend the police meetings and to  expand this to the point where our says a citizens can feel safe walking in our neighborhood again i want to thank city council members especially for his help in getting no smoking signs up to the  with you and mr erickson has been great getting to know you better and we hope we're going to be working closely with you also thank you so very much thank you angelica morris announcement regarding our upcoming martha martin luther king celebration on sunday january nineteenth at two o'clock we are doing a community rally on the commission is doing some things different we're move in a different direction so at two o'clock we are doing a community rally and that is going to be a filming twenty minute filming the speech of i on the mountaintop that dr martha king did before he was assassinated the two thirty service will start at the first united methodist church with the speaker this year will be dean penelope andrews she is the seventeenth president the first female president of all the law school she is a native south african as well as she worked on the side with nelson mandela so i'm encouraging everyone here to be part of our celebration we have this is this is going to be a twenty eighth year we're looking forward to everyone here to be part of that celebration and to embrace the dream that dr king had our theme this year is what role will you play to bring justice for all and everyone in this room are leaders even if you're a leader in a community if you're a teacher your parents we're all leaders and it is our job and our role to make sure that we protect and respect everyone who writes here in the city of schenectady but now in the city but in the county so i want to thank you for this time and space also i want to thank denise brucker for your time your dedication your service not only to the city but also to our students our students are very important and  only that for me personally i want to say thank you from my time working here in city hall we built that relationship in the friendships i want to say thank you and wish you well and mr mayor thank you for inviting me here to your state of the downtown county library so if you have an information please contact me at three seven seven three eight two three or karen bradley at the library thank you thank you good evening madam president mary mccarthy city council and residence my name is chuck palm and i'm the deputy city clerk and the city clerk chuck thorn asked me to make this public announcement schenectady city code is now available online and on your smartphone search any p c mac linux computer platform and runs on any web browser automatically customizes for optimal viewing on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets specific chapters sections or articles can be bookmark on your web browser for quick access updated ordinance are published alongside the code in a new law section to ensure the most current version of schenectady law is available is also available twenty four team council gend in minutes will be posted in searchable public documents sections the interface is clean clutter free clutter free and highly intuitive the online version is replacing the old blue binders for more information you can contact the city clerk right i have no one else signed up so i'm going to declare this portion of the meeting closed to move to miscellaneous business of the council  o for your service to the city we both go back a long ways you the council me on the other side of the rail but i appreciate you know when i came on the council your service and the way you've brought me and to be part of the consul so thank you very much for your service is appreciated today i know i'm sure a lot of people are as a matter of fact i called our superintendent of streets today and he started laughing when he picked up the phone because it's about potholes they're all over the city this is one of those years where really had terrible weather and then warm weather so when you get that freeze thaw there is can be potholes all over the city is doing their best to keep up with them  it's it's a process that takes a lot of time and kind of in this kind of weather it's tough and it doesn't last and talked to mike's around today he's kind of excited about there could be a new process we'll have to investigate this as a co where we would be able to recycle ground the bama site and to make a permanent patch of these holes instead of a cold patch and that would save the city a lot of money and the long run there may be zero up front  cost you know but i think taught me to mike he thinks we could recoup that within two or three years but this way we don't have our city crews wasting their time credit patching or her that's going up within a couple of days that could be gone so this is something exciting some to look forward to but i just want to let all the people know the purser out there if you see standing water in the road don't drive over it has a pretty good chance there's a hole under there you could do some damage to your cars i just just one of those things on that note for the city crews we had a problem at the con hollow factory bridge i believe it was on january sixth just after new years where an expansion joint opened up and i want to thank the city crews for being able to get that bridge back and order again because that was you know we have the oak street bridge has been down and with that bridge down it could cause some real problems that's something that could have been another problem that we had but our city force workforce went in there and they did the job and i'm appreciative for and i'm sure the whole city as you know i know we get a lot of phone calls of all city street crews plowing crews in this everything is a team effort as we know it and to make it a team effort everybody has to get along together and do what they can to make their job a little easier to when the streets are plowed when people throw snow back into the streets that doesn't help the city at all and it's illegal so i know we'll be discussing this i think in the next committee cycle but the crews are doing a good job these guys are out there even on that terrible fire we had on the christmas eve the firemen that a terrific job and awful awful conditions but so did our street guys they had to be out there with the salt and keeping the streets clear so it's all a team effort and we all know that so i just appreciate all the work that they've been doing lastly this friday we had forty seven police recruits graduated from the zone five academy  there's through the academy so this is good news for us and i'm all really looking forward to seeing them come in to the hard job that it is being a police officer in the city of schenectady thank you you've been doing since you got here and i think as mayor and with regards to just taking a different perspective of things road paving you know there's a different process now that we do with road paving and we have crews that are doing some the roads and selves it's just a cost saving process we don't know what we don't do with the other way but we find the right fit for the right job in so things like that thinking in new ways i give you a lot of credit got recycling i know you talked about recycling today and i think that's very important i'm looking forward to seeing with the new slogan a new process has to do with the city and how it starts with me too i think it's great  is the code on the website i think it's huge i think it's something that so many people have been looking for it's so common sense and we finally got it and i think that's going to help a lot of people really be able to navigate and it provides us its customer service its user friendliness when people need to understand what the requirements are what they do or how things functions i think that's wonderful joy hall came up one of our regulars talked about the snow and snow emergencies and what side of the street to park on and very timely concern that she had and i've asked to be put on the committee of cycle next week and i believe we'll have that on the  and the appropriate people from the city staff that could explain when we call a snow emergency when we don't when you're supposed to park on one side of the streets and so we get asked that question quite a bit and i think it's important that we have somebody come in and explain it make sure we understand it and then we're better equipped to communicate it to members of the public so that's that's great and hopefully we'll have some more information many cycle and then we could talk about it at the next council meeting two weeks from now brucker thank you very much your service on this council not the first one to say tonight but it is greatly appreciated it's been really great working with you on budgets on problems on issues  learning how things work and your experience has been very valuable and so sorry to see you go but the best of luck to you thank lilian publicly thank denise because country believes there is no manual on how to be a city council member and you know denise is there to keep me come when i got panicky and cut me down when i got too excited i am and just be my mentor and i really appreciate it she helped my entry into the council to go much smoother for me and i've learned so much and i continue to learn from you every single meeting you ask really thoughtful questions and you have the historic perspective that i think is vital to have and i'm going to miss you terribly and thank you really thank you for all the help that you did give me and navigating through my first couple voluntary income tax assistance program commonly known as vita and vita provides tax return provides free tax return services for individuals who make fifty one thousand dollars or less so in the city of their escape that will providing individuals beginning of the thirty first of january but for businesses because we have a lot of the audience they could start filing theirs on the thirteenth but this may not be a service necessarily that they would use but i think it's important that people know that they can get their tax which tax returns provided it's free of service the volunteers are certified and trained so they can you know it's not just somebody walking off the street doing your taxes they have to say to train and actually pass a test so that service is available to people to be able to save money to him to reinvest their money back into the city the also i would also like to mention that there is the weather is asian program and we'll have more information about that for individuals who are interested both renters and homeowners to be able to get their homes schenectady county legislature who was here and then left and larry springer superintendent of schools has joined us larry i got a couple rounds of applause but when i mentioned journeying there was a standing ovation so sorry you missed that but again larry does a great job with the school district and again would encourage people to do whatever they can to help him because he does have an extremely tough job as we try and work together to make this community better and again i wish everyone the best in two thousand and fourteen and look forward to working with everyone thank you madam president and i just also like to thank everyone for coming and i also want to commend mr olson and his staff i think the weather we've had this last week