and then we're going to have the three from budget discussed in committee without objection on consent item number two item number two an ordinance amending chapter sixty eight of the administrative code of the city of schenectady housing standards review board discussed numerous times in committee without objection on consent item number three item number three under original consideration a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding an ordinance to amend chapter eighty six of enter into a contract with the department of state and enter municipal agreement with the cities of troy amsterdam and blubbers a bill in a contract with the center for technology and government discussed in committee without objection on consent i don't number authorizing the mayor to enter into a supplemental agreement number four with quote harbor and associates l l p discussed in committee without objection on consent item number seven item number seven a resolution authorizing the implementation and funding o federal aid and state marcelli program aid eligibility cost also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number eight item number eight a resolution authorizing the waiver of interest and penalties for the knights of st john discussed in committee without objection on consent item number nine item number nine a resolution to accept three properties from sarah again discussed in committee without objection on consent item number ten item number ten a resolution authorizing the sale of thirteen twenty five seventh avenue discussed in committee without objection on consent item number eleven item number eleven a resolution authorizing the sale of thirty henry strait also discussed in committee without objection on consent and a member city lane from twenty five twenty two campbell avenue also discussed in committee without objection on consent i don't number fourteen item number fourteen a reservoir a resolution confirming the appointment of to the city of schenectady planning commission discussed in committee without objection on consent item number fifteen item number fifteen a resolution confirming the appointment of horace perryman to the city of schenectady civilian police review board also discus committee without objection on consent item number sixteen item number sixteen a resolution authorizing the transfer of four city owned properties to the capital region land bank also discussed in committee without objection on consent and three items that were and ask you to rise we do not have a clergy person with us so if we just have a moment of silence thank you all this councilwoman porterfield to lead us in the pledge of allegiance present ok we do i believe you have a special presentation tonight very good we are having some technical difficulties earlier i'd like to introduce prof say he is with the schenectady county visitor's agency and for schenectady and i'm really delighted to be the person that tells the story based on all the hard work that you folks have done i wasn't born here or raised here but i'm fortunate to work here and i have an interesting perspective on the revitalization of schenectady as you here in schenectady we think that there's been a needed an opportunity to tell that story of the attractions the things that are making your city a wonderful place to certainly work but also live and so we produced is a brief three minute video which thankfully the technical aspects of them worked out and i wanted to share that with you and it's really a collection of the destinations the attractions the things but more importantly in the thing i didn't want you folks to miss as we saw this was the theme behind this i think the reputation that schenectady has in the greater region may not follow up to the reality of it quite honestly when people outside this area think of schenectady we don't think that that matches the amazing things that are happening here and so it was our hope to leverage that surprise gap and basically say do you think you know schenectady think again and so what we're showing here are really just that humility of a set of things that just make it a fabulous destination so without any more i will push play on this and it's about three minutes long communications presented to the city council for monday may twenty seventh two thousand and fifteen under the category of official from the mayor a list of appointments dated may twenty seventh two thousand and fifteen under general there are none under petitions there are no thank you for health and recreation i just want to report that the recreation advisory commission has completed its inventory of all the parts you know deciding what needs to happen in various parks but people still have things that they want to see th the mayor and the city council for us to take further action so expect that we should be seeing something in the next couple of weeks thank you very good thank you  so from the finance committee last monday we were reviewed our annual independent audit and for the second year in a row there were no findings no material findings in the audit so that  wonderful our report so one of the main points of the audit is we have some reserves so due to those reserves adequate reserves did request an amendment to the two thousand and fifteen budget and  that will position us to fully pay two thousand and fifteen retirement estimates as opposed to amortizing which is really wonderful news because we certainly don't want to incur any more debt than we need to so the result of that of course in the last couple of years is that standard and poor's has upgraded our boundaries to an essay and given us a stable outlook and additionally in two thousand and fifteen moody's investor services affirmed that the city's general obligation rating they it removed the negative outlook so all all good news again in that they definitely referenced the city's improved financial position favorable sales tax trend and strong fiscal management so i think we've all done a lot of work to that end and i'm  proud of the audit and where our position stands financially in the city and i i commend all of my colleagues and the mayor also we all work together to get to this place and then as far as the government operations committee go i really thank all of my colleagues because we worked hard on creating the housing stay there recreating the hauser's housing standards review board a lot of discussion a lot of thoughtful consideration and i think we all came to a point where we can all be comfortable with the outcome maybe not everyone getting exactly what they wanted but a good positive outcome so i look forward to the mayor's point and thank you thank you any other committee reports all right if not we'll move on to privilege of the floor related to the legislative agenda i have for people signed up to speak influence and change tonight we asked the city council to vote no on the housing standards review board revision as currently proposed as it stands the revision does not provide this board the necessary structure and backbone to assure a balanced and reasonable forum for code violation disputes we feel that there needs to be a more definite effective purpose held out along with specific guidelines stating how this board will function the following points have been primates and should be specified in writing one how the public is informed of the available process two factors determining what cases might be eligible for a hearing and review three rules of the application and for possible expectations and results we concur and i want to emphasize and the prize however this health and safety issues should be flagged and require proper and expeditious handling the board application process and determination should be set up to reflect any urgency of this nature several times to pad during the past public coun sessions on this topic it has been stated that an appeals process is built in exactly where is that written does the word appeal appear anywhere in the notice the violation recipients of code letters ha expressed concerns about the strong intimidating language and what seems to be unreasonable find fees and or time frames dictated the knowledge of the ability to appeal to this board would provide some sense of relief knowing that there might be a neutral listening ear with possible help in determining a fair resolution we would like to cite for examples of cases for board review case number one a landlord received a violation regarding bed bugs because he already knew of the problem he had begun treatment of the situation through an exterminator prior to the date on the violation he provided documentation showing the remediation process and compliance in the upcoming weeks despite his time and effort circumstances and missteps by code process landlord to have to go to court anyway and deal with more loss of work time plus more aggravation and two letters from code in may of two thousand and fourteen one was a notice of violation for not having rental certificates for his property and the other was needed for porch repairs or for needed porch repairs as the facts played out the re difficult violation was in error because the owner and his wife were the only occupants for the past nine and a half years and the porch issues were something he was in the process of addressing but went through nine days of permanent scheduling challenges with code to just to satisfy requirements he submitted the following letter to his lawyer seeking advice and expressing upset with contact us in the letter he says the arrogant adversarial and dictorial and wording of this of the letter from cold shocked me and the presumption of guilt took me aback no inspector knocked on the front door and asked are you the owner or do you live upstairs do you read on the bottom floor do you know you need a rental certificate we don't have one on file no basic courtesy or civility i can't believe that's the way that your old deals with people who invest in the city and consistently pay their property taxes the whole experience was insulting to me many thanks for your guidance he says to his lawyer please send me a bill i'll be glad to pay it as opposed to the code bureau's fines fees and charges also of interest are some excerpts from his two page document entitled my code experience he says i was constantly going back and forth between home and the permit office six times in all thank god i'm retired and still driving he says it's no wonder some property owners decide to abandon their houses after a while the code violation fines repair costs and permit he aggravations are worth it  to florida or arizona and forget it he also said the civil service title a code enforcement officer has gone to their heads they act like accusers judges and prosecutors not helpful civil servants and eno final quote i objected to the notices posted on my front doors in their language in the presumption that i was a criminal and on that note we say how you were made to feel often determines how you react and how logically and successfully you can deal with the situation a review board can only be effective and worth having if it can help stimulate encourage and facilitate compliance in the often difficult situations with coat now we have two more cases to follow among which is the eleven thousand dollars when we had mentioned to you in the past thank you thank you ok bonnie treat my name is i live in the city of schenectady for sixteen years fifteen years at one thirty straight you have recommended to the party chairman of this committee has  recommended the appointment of a straight to the planning commission i don't know who this individual is i don't know where two twenty three is the pizza king is to twenty four the building next to it the seneca has been condemned there are no other residences between  people at these meetings at least just one time to let us know who they are all your committees i think should be posted on the internet the police review board and  committees this housing standards review board i think all of them ought to be posted on the internet in the appropriate places and i think it would be more healthy to have at least one member of council recent at each one of these committees if you care more committees than numbers of council people i think you're getting very unhealthy about good government i don't think there's any way for these members to play catch up on the kind of information they've become yes people instead of knowing people so i would recommend that there are several things it's fine to pass a project now but guess what snuck in after the budget of the fire to buildings is going to cost four and a half million dollars they're still working on that and then the erie boulevard project came in underfunded and that's going to be another million and a half dollars things are not looking that terrific  d number eight the resolution of the waiver of interest it's seems to me i'm aware the situation here it's been existence for a long time but this particular issue i think is contrived pilot program and we're getting too many pilot programs this is not paid taxes paid in lieu of interest is for us please summarize you know what program is about what we're getting into this is not payment taxes ok thank you very much right i have no one else signed up for city colleges or regarding city business i w seven people signed up to speak the first is anthony two thousand and thirteen and in two thousand and thirteen the hotel paid zero on property taxes paid zero and pilots now i don't know where the hundred seventy thousand is coming up with if that's maybe two thousand and fourteen or two thousand and fifteen but we don't are not privileged with that information when we're talking about tax assessment we need a reassessment in the whole entire city the developers and the contractors and i'm up in the major corporations are getting the lower suspects between twenty five to fifty percent we just had a grievance yesterday when a homeowner goes in there most of them are either being denied or they're getting their five or ten percent they're not getting these big huge bonuses of twenty five to fifty percent off that you've been doing for the last three years on the climbs in executive session we're not even understanding the the r of what's happening if you're saying that the assessment is fifty they need a fifty percent reduction the whole entire city needs a fifty percent reduction so i mean you know when we're looking at this stuff and also two is under the economic development zone you're supposed to have all pilot supposed to be reported to the city on april first that's part of your economic development council which you haven't even convene in the last ten years but it's on the books it's part of the reason why metroplex put together and the only reports that you have on this committee is in two thousand and five and two thousand and seven but that's what the whole key is to let us know what the economic benefits of these pilots were the jobs i mean were rated as the highest unemployment rate out of the whole entire m s a area what you claim that you have sixty seven hundred jobs to created in the last ten years where are those jobs where are they they're not existence because the paper just reported to almost three weeks ago when of dollars of federal and state money and county money and city money and we can't prove the doctors don't exist and then you turn around and give an assessment to a downtown property that you're pr that hey this is all what look all the money that we put in here and say no it's the suspect is lower the whole idea behind giving pilots is that the assessment will go up and that whole entire block of four hundred street you've given well over one hundred million if not plus so how can the person there sit not say the assessment is not good hopefully we can have it or address me on the assessment thanks thank you joy hall house connected and i tell you we've got issues of people turning the arrows not on people turning the wrong way on one way streets we're guy put signs up or do something to bottle thank you mohamed our communities and to be exact is four point one million dollars from the state and also the mayor accused me of spreading some misinformation well mr mayor i'm not spreading incorrect information the fact remains that we don't have any signed host community agreement with with russ three gaming other cities and town have signed agreement and they are receiving a yearly payment from the casino developers to mitigate the adverse impact of the casinos and to pay the additional burden for city infrastructure police fire ambulance services and to mitigate gambling addiction and other social problems that new york state law never stopped the town of tire in seneca county new york from signing an elaborate agreement the fo page agreement with the casino developer of the county population less than a thousand people will be getting at least for me and dollars four million dollars a year from the casino development to address the direct and the indirect impact in addition to the funds the town is getting from the state in addition to the funding it's getting brightest from the state by the statues of new york state schenectady is only getting its funds from the four million dollars from the state and nothing else because there's no additional agreement that was signed with the casino develop furthermore the schenectady council voted to allocate the entire amount four point one million dollars to property tax matter he did that last year around june twenty fourth so we are not getting more than the town of tire new york and we are not getting an additional money any additional money to address the casino negative and averse impact mr mayor i believe that he never asked  gaming for a community agreement because if you did you would be getting something from brush rate rust free gaming is giving money away every where the company goes and open a casino but not schenectady mr mayor can you please demand and sign an agreement from me and i good evening my name is mary maclean i live in the city the city has a document called the comprehensive plan it costs the taxpayers a lot of money to put together and  chapter it calls for beautification as of goal for every neighborhood does the city consider how project bill would apply in neighborhood after a job is finished the city is now working on mine spree that's a half baked job it was better to have left it the way it was rather than to spend all that money just a patch it up there's nothing beautiful about it i think somebody needs to reconsider and go back and do it right another item about four months ago i  reported to this council that r c negatives every day at the corner of my street no one call to say show me what you mean tonight i'm going to spell it out for you five years ago when i started to play on the island garden there was a light pole in the middle of the plot the city had to do some mor on the island the pole was in the way so it was taken down and place on the side of the road it has remained there for five years i reported the situation to a council member and gave the number of the polls as far as i know you're still paying for the usage two weeks ago when the it still with those so you met showing that two and a half years ago on the fourteen hundred block of not street the square was dumped with concrete and never covered over the concrete is still showing it's not the same as the asphalt on the street last item the monstrosity at the corner of notch street and wendell am here to speak i'd also an extended invitation that there is a group trying to form a schenectady green party and we're going to be having a meeting this coming saturday at the a library at one o'clock and we'd certainly cordially invite anybody here to attend that i would also like to call attention to a portion of the metroplex law that specifically refers to this body and i'll read directly from the law in addition to any other report required by this title each board member i'm sorry each board member appointed under the recommendation of a municipality other than the county shall annually deliver in oral and written form or report to the municipality from which such a board members are appointed in the case of the city of schenectady both members there's two one from the mayor one from the new this group both members so appointed shall jointly deliver such report such report shall be presented at a meeting as designated by the city council the report sh describe in detail the projects undertaken by the authority during the past year the monies expended by the authority during the past year and the administrative activities of the authority during the past year at the conclusion of the report the board member or members shall be prepared to answer questions of the mare the town board and or the city council with respect to projects undertaken by the authority during the past year the monies expended and the authority during the past and mistreated activities of the authority during the past year or any other activity of the authority which may have been conducted or which may be proposed for the performance within that that has never happened i don't think and this that that's a responsibility that falls to this body but this body is acting for the residents of the city and its people simply don't know it's becoming more and more difficult to know what's happening in terms of economic development and i'd suggest that that whole economic development orientation has to be rethought in that schenectady is a community of largely two family houses and to keep giving money to developers that doesn't take acknowledge that and just simply tear down the houses through the land banks and government money from the attorney general is a pretty limited sort of the solution but i would implore you to please do call your two representatives of the metroplex board in for a written and oral report thank you very much cooperation agreement with city of schenectady troy amsterdam gloversville regarding shared code enforcement again that is a pilot project i think that needs to be  explained i think there's a malazan around here people just think everything's going to work out if the if nobody makes any noise but there's something here called  mania and the definition of listen mania is over construction construction but there's also gender based over construction and so i'm not going to get into that but you know the guys are really been taken care of first and  for government funds in order to live a subsidized li and i don't know maybe you have plans to bring it people in from other parts of the state or whatever for this kind of living to keep you going to keep that keep the economy moving around here i see that you have no shame about the way you are willing to be creative it is your mantra as long as it's creative if you really have no conscience about how you make money around here there are residents living in slaw the light opera company that's a residence with animals speaker got up here and talked about the slow that made this thing well the slobs got judges and other people cleared the base for them what they did to get started doesn't count and by the way  you know it's horseplay summerize think about what you're doing thank you i have no one else signed up to speak so i'm going to play this portion of the meeting closed it will move to miscellaneous business of thank you i just wanted to say thank you to all the folks who supported the memorial flag display that we had that it is still standing in veterans park it was on for two memorial day observation know that the display will stay up until flag day and if people are still interested they can still get a name for their loved one or someone that they know that served on the flags so thank you again thank you yes i want to say thank you to all the veterans organizations for all the hard work that they did to put two very very meaningful ceremonies together on monday everyone to stop and really think about what memorial day feels work with the flag display was just beautiful and both ceremonies were just so deeply touching and it's so good to see so many people from the community there and likes presentation of the cases i thought was interesting because i thought they were all great examples of exactly how this board will work so i'm not sure where we don't see it because well with this board in place all of those one ten on the meetings are open to the public and i encourage people to attend these meetings thank you thank you anyone else mr mayor thank you madam president fall over very dire predictions where you go before a control board those things have not happened we mapped out four years ago a plan and systematically deal with the finances of this community board the woman seemed to indicate that the appeal process does work internally where she had a problem went to a lot of apartment in the matter was resolved so again i would tell staff all the time i want to use common sense want them to again solve problems not create them and we try and do that in a manner that builds confidence in the job that city employees are doing they're not always perfect and the only way we know about is when it's brought to our attention and elmar it's always good to see you here again every year that i was a member of the metroplex board we did a presentation to the city council it is stalled on an annual basis where the staff is here for metroplex and does a presentation for the council and then also at the county level so whatever the council would like one i'm sure that will get the next one scheduled and do the appropriate update thank you madam president thank you i just like to echo his presence comments about the memorial day ceremonies i thought they were very very particularly nice this year although they've always been good i also want to congratulate brian merriam he really persevered with getting the statues of steinmetz and edison and if you haven't been down there to see them it's really really impressive you get some history with it