[0:03] [Music]
[0:43] he's supposed to be here
[1:11] meeting for tuesday september 7th 2021
[1:15] and i just would like to apologize for
[1:17] the delay with the technical issues but
[1:19] we're now back tonight
[1:21] and this evening we're fortunate to have
[1:23] this connect the school district
[1:25] superintendent annabelle solar junior
[1:27] with us and his cabinet
[1:30] and we are fortunate to have him full
[1:32] presentation to talk about the school
[1:34] district and the services that is being
[1:38] conducted at the school district so i'd
[1:39] like to invite them so it comes up my
[1:41] presentation thanks for everything
[1:43] uh will you sit standing here
[1:46] okay
[1:51] [Music]
[1:56] well first of all thank you for having
[1:57] me i did have my mask so many students
[1:59] and families watching i was prepared uh
[2:01] but uh here the rules are a little
[2:02] different so
[2:03] since i'm vaccinated i'm gonna be an
[2:05] option um so i first want to thank the
[2:08] city council for allowing me to come and
[2:10] speak i'll try to be brief but i've
[2:12] learned early in my career that two
[2:14] people you don't give a microphone to
[2:15] and that's pastor and superintendent so
[2:17] i just want to learn um
[2:20] you know in all seriousness uh
[2:22] grateful to be here and hopefully this
[2:23] is the start of a uh very much a
[2:25] collaborative effort between the city
[2:27] school district and the uh city council
[2:30] and the mayor's office um and those
[2:32] individuals in the room so i'm gonna
[2:33] jump on uh next slide
[2:35] so i always start out everything i do in
[2:37] the district with kind of our uh our
[2:39] vision our tagline and our values i
[2:41] think these things as an organization
[2:43] guide us they should ground us i'm just
[2:45] sharing them to you i'm not going to
[2:46] read them to you here but the three
[2:48] things that i think are the most
[2:49] important as an organization are our
[2:51] values and that's focused on equity
[2:53] collaboration and learning that's kind
[2:55] of our three major pillars
[2:57] and that's going to see that evidence
[2:58] and everything we do as an organization
[3:01] next slide
[3:03] um we have a strategy plan that was
[3:05] started prior to my arrival um but i'm
[3:07] of the belief that you don't
[3:09] throw everything out just because you
[3:11] have new leadership uh there's a lot of
[3:12] work done here a lot of stakeholder
[3:14] voice a lot of community voice a lot of
[3:16] staff members are part of it and our
[3:18] strategic plan is around four pillars
[3:20] there's going to be some similarity to
[3:22] those values so they're going to be one
[3:23] is not student and graduate success
[3:25] another one is on passionate people
[3:28] another one is on partnerships with
[3:29] families and community and the last one
[3:31] is on efficient systems and equilibrium
[3:34] resources again i'm not going to read to
[3:36] you but all the stuff is on our website
[3:37] and i can make a copy of you available i
[3:40] didn't send it to the city council
[3:41] president
[3:42] next up
[3:44] this is uh my got my kind of entry plan
[3:46] into the community into the district
[3:48] into the work here in schenectady this
[3:50] is available online but i just wanted to
[3:51] share with city council so you kind of
[3:53] have an idea of kind of my focus and my
[3:55] charge um i do want to point out this is
[3:57] week eight of me in the district um so
[4:00] i'm still in phase one where i'm looking
[4:02] i'm listening i'm learning um but
[4:04] unfortunately as a superintendent you
[4:06] have to do kind of the other phases even
[4:08] though you're looking at listening
[4:09] because you know we're trying to open up
[4:10] schools uh come thursday so we're also
[4:13] making some decisions making some
[4:14] changes
[4:15] bringing freshman talent to the district
[4:17] hiring new teachers to the community but
[4:20] i want to focus on kind of four
[4:21] different areas there there's district
[4:23] community staff and students as my focus
[4:26] and so as i look listen and learn i'm
[4:28] engaging with each of those uh pieces of
[4:31] the circle um i have kind of like
[4:33] smaller subgroups listed around them i
[4:36] have my goals listed there for you to
[4:37] see so my first goal is to return to
[4:39] full in-person learning
[4:41] i
[4:42] came into a district that had not
[4:44] brought students back since march 13
[4:47] 2020. in most cases people had choice
[4:50] whether or not they had to come back
[4:51] last year so what did that translate
[4:53] into less than 50 percent of your kids
[4:55] came back
[4:57] and so to me
[4:58] that
[4:59] you know the borderline criminal in my
[5:01] mind because we had kids who haven't
[5:03] seen a caring adult in almost two years
[5:06] and we were okay with it
[5:08] and so one of the first things that i'm
[5:10] not okay with is continuing their
[5:12] practice so we want to bring uh students
[5:14] back to be with amazing teachers
[5:16] principals uh school support staff uh to
[5:19] full on personal learning so we are
[5:21] doing it come through that's our opening
[5:23] day so if uh anybody who's watching uh
[5:26] please please make sure you help people
[5:28] get to school on time on thursday we'll
[5:30] be excited to see them back
[5:31] again the only dress requirement we have
[5:33] is a mask obviously along with their
[5:35] regular school clubs
[5:37] also want to focus on graduation rates
[5:39] college readiness which is uh that's our
[5:41] business teaching and learning
[5:43] we're about outcomes for kids graduating
[5:45] within four years getting them ready for
[5:46] college ready so they're ready for
[5:48] college and obviously they're ready for
[5:50] career
[5:51] uh increasing student attendance is
[5:52] another big one because of the pandemic
[5:54] because of remote learning we know kids
[5:56] didn't engage we know screens didn't
[5:58] turn on for many of our kids that's a
[6:00] conversation we gotta have we gotta be
[6:01] okay with having it
[6:03] remote learning
[6:05] creates some additional barriers one of
[6:06] them was student attendance student
[6:08] engagement
[6:09] because we can't always ensure that
[6:10] there's a a parent or an adult to make
[6:13] sure a kid logs in that maybe that
[6:15] parent or adult has to work and we can't
[6:17] you know fault our families for that so
[6:19] again that's why we got to bring them in
[6:21] so we can attack this chronic
[6:22] absenteeism that we have in
[6:24] the most common in early settings and
[6:26] then the last one and probably i think
[6:27] the most important one is i have to
[6:30] guide a community that needs some
[6:33] healing you know obviously there was the
[6:35] car chair from previous leadership um
[6:37] and i need to reunite the district and
[6:39] the community
[6:40] you know this is the first time from my
[6:42] understanding that a superintendent has
[6:43] spoken to city council which blew my
[6:46] mind when it has
[6:47] city council president moon america to
[6:49] come speak he was like really
[6:51] he was like thrilled so um you know i
[6:53] have to rebuild confidence in our
[6:55] district in the schools and our staff
[6:58] and our programs
[6:59] and i think again if we're really all
[7:01] going in the same direction we're doing
[7:02] great things and the last thing is in
[7:04] 2025 the goal would be that we're a
[7:06] district in good standing what that
[7:07] means is we don't have any schools on
[7:09] any nautilus we're not in receivership
[7:11] none persistently dangerous none low
[7:14] performing so we you know i have my
[7:16] charge and
[7:17] you know that mirrors my contract so the
[7:19] goal is the year by year floor i should
[7:21] be in good standing if not i don't
[7:22] expect to be renewed
[7:26] next one
[7:28] so i'm coming to you to share my three
[7:30] commitments that i've shared with
[7:31] administrators i'll be sharing them with
[7:32] teachers tomorrow when we open up to our
[7:34] teachers and i get to address all of our
[7:35] staff uh one is i'm gonna commit to work
[7:38] hard every day for this community for
[7:39] this district always for the betterment
[7:41] of our district never about myself but
[7:43] for the kids for the opportunities for
[7:44] families and for those who live in
[7:46] cities connecting
[7:48] i'm always going to commit to being
[7:49] transparent
[7:50] that does come with
[7:52] some consequences sometimes you may not
[7:55] get the answer you were looking for
[7:57] that goes for families that goes for
[7:59] staff that goes through my leadership
[8:00] team and that goes for the community as
[8:02] a whole
[8:03] but i will always try to tell you why
[8:05] give you some background give you an
[8:07] understanding um and so
[8:09] i'm going to commit to transparency and
[8:12] my last one is i'm going to always work
[8:13] and be from a support model meaning that
[8:15] i know i cannot do this work alone or in
[8:18] isolation so i'm always going to have to
[8:19] figure out how i support my principles
[8:21] i'm of the belief that great principles
[8:22] give you great teachers great students
[8:24] who really big schools right so if i do
[8:26] my work at the district level and make
[8:28] sure our principals are supportive
[8:30] they'll make sure our teachers are
[8:31] supported our teachers will make sure
[8:32] our kids are supported and it'll go on
[8:34] and then the other day we'll have a
[8:35] great school this year
[8:38] so if you haven't subscribed i encourage
[8:40] you to subscribe i put out a weekly
[8:42] brief uh our chief communications
[8:44] officer is here um so if you need
[8:46] details or if you have an email like us
[8:48] she can sign you up um she is the
[8:50] mastermind behind us i just help provide
[8:53] content she works her matches makes it
[8:54] look really pretty and then gets it out
[8:57] uh but i encourage you because this is
[8:58] my effort to be transparent it's my
[9:00] opportunity to let you know who i meet
[9:01] with what am i doing with my time right
[9:04] everyone says what's the superintendent
[9:05] doing are we paying this much money
[9:07] what's he doing all the time so this is
[9:08] my hope to show you where i'm at who i'm
[9:10] meeting with what's our focus as a
[9:12] district uh what am i doing and the
[9:14] latest coolest thing is people want to
[9:16] get in the brief right like hey you
[9:17] can't just meet with me i need a picture
[9:19] with you so i can end up in debrief so
[9:21] you may have seen our mayor in the brief
[9:22] uh recently uh two weeks back when we
[9:24] met with him i know our release chief
[9:26] clifford and so i keep doing that not
[9:28] just to show off but to really let the
[9:30] community know that we are having
[9:31] conversations we are collaborating we're
[9:33] trying to figure out different ways and
[9:35] then most importantly we figure out
[9:37] cool ways to highlight our kids and so
[9:39] you'll see in this one we highlighted
[9:41] one of our own students who did an
[9:42] amazing mural at our elementary school
[9:44] so if you get a chance to go to page
[9:46] elementary check it out
[9:50] i found this picture online and you know
[9:52] when you're trying to uh talk about the
[9:54] work and change a very simple symbolic
[9:57] symbolism i'm really going into visuals
[9:58] as a former art teacher i would believe
[10:01] pictures sometimes tell the story better
[10:03] so this picture really stuck with me and
[10:05] what do you see here right you see a sun
[10:07] rising above the electric city right you
[10:10] know and uh next one
[10:12] and so
[10:13] you know in my infinite wisdom i thought
[10:15] of this hashtag that we could use to
[10:17] kind of bag our work so this has been
[10:18] our theme since i've been here for the
[10:20] eight weeks we're going to continue to
[10:21] use this for the year and hopefully
[10:23] beyond
[10:24] and it's schenectady rising so if you're
[10:25] on social media all city councilman i
[10:28] invite you to tweet us
[10:29] and join the movement and
[10:31] it's our commitment to reopen rebuild
[10:34] reignite the district uh with the
[10:36] commitment again to excellence and
[10:37] teaching and learning equity
[10:39] engagement and efficiency
[10:43] and so
[10:44] as a superintendent you tend to think of
[10:46] things in larger systems
[10:47] this is a systems thinking type of
[10:49] diagram
[10:50] i feel from my assessment from the
[10:52] assessment of capital region boces and
[10:54] feedback from meeting with key people in
[10:56] the district board members um that we're
[10:58] at the bottom of this pyramid this
[11:00] compliance repair and upgrade this is
[11:03] kind of how we can not operate right
[11:04] we'll just do the bare minimum make sure
[11:06] we check off the boxes and we'll just
[11:09] repair things when they get broken and
[11:10] we'll upgrade them when they need to be
[11:12] upgraded and if we're going to do this
[11:13] work well as an organization my job
[11:15] would be to move our organization to the
[11:17] top of the pyramid where we're effective
[11:19] or efficient or sustainable and so
[11:21] that's going to take some time so again
[11:22] you notice that 2025 timeline next one thing that i uh did coming in was i
[11:29] reset the organizational structure and
[11:31] so i'm just showing you some of the
[11:33] boxes here um so you have an opportunity
[11:35] to see what we've done it is a little
[11:37] bit different so
[11:39] this is a district of almost 10 000 kids
[11:41] but we didn't have an assistant
[11:42] superintendent or a deputy
[11:43] superintendent which again
[11:45] no judgment but i just didn't understand
[11:47] the logic and so we've changed that
[11:49] dynamic i now have a deputy
[11:51] superintendent joining me and i have
[11:53] assistant superintendents that are going
[11:54] to lead certain silos of the work we
[11:56] have chief information officer chief
[11:58] technology officer and we have
[12:00] some dynamic individuals joining us to
[12:02] be the work of our elementary schools
[12:04] and we're still recruiting for someone
[12:06] to do our secondary school so next time
[12:09] they're in the room some of these
[12:10] individuals so i want to take them
[12:11] because they're new to the organization
[12:13] um so i'm emphasizing some of our new
[12:15] people so if you can just stand by uh
[12:17] say your name and your role and then um
[12:19] if your picture's not up there stand
[12:20] anyway because you're still part of that
[12:22] so our new deputy superintendent uh will
[12:25] be joining us in october she is
[12:26] currently the superintendent of lake
[12:28] george uh which i think is a big win for
[12:30] us is lynn rutner uh she'll be joining
[12:32] us in october towards the end so she's
[12:34] coming on board uh carlos cole dr carlos
[12:37] cotto is our new assistant
[12:38] superintendent for innovation equity and
[12:41] engagement he'll be working on a
[12:42] community schools initiative our
[12:43] migratory skipper initiative athletics
[12:46] uh innovation in terms of anything new
[12:48] and exciting to bring we're going to
[12:49] launch the parent centers so that'll be
[12:51] under his charge dr sean mason is now
[12:53] here he's the african-american gentleman
[12:54] in the middle he's coming up from
[12:55] baltimore so he'll be here tomorrow for
[12:57] the board meeting and he starts next
[12:59] week so he's in transition moving his
[13:01] family to schenectady and they're
[13:02] getting settled uh this is the
[13:04] superintendent for student support
[13:06] services andrea tobe freeman um
[13:09] long-time district employee does
[13:12] everything for special education uh
[13:14] counseling behavior specialist
[13:16] everything on the student support side
[13:17] of the house which is a very big house
[13:19] that i'm learning so thank you andrew
[13:21] and then um
[13:23] he's more familiar than anybody i've
[13:25] ever met in the in the area so far and
[13:27] he's our new executive director of
[13:29] elementary schools he'll be charged with
[13:30] leading all our principals with joe
[13:32] dicaprio which i believe many folks know
[13:34] his father was a long-time uh officer
[13:37] often yeah so everyone knows joe's when
[13:39] i figured it out
[13:40] [Music]
[13:42] or his dad and so joe's joining us uh
[13:44] we're bringing him back home is what we
[13:46] him principal and he left to go work in
[13:47] was tell
[13:50] the neighborhood district but now we're
[13:51] bringing it back home we're excited um
[13:54] we also have our chief uh
[13:56] information and technology officer chris
[13:58] is right now he's manning our he's our
[14:00] human remote over there
[14:02] he's everything in the technology side
[14:04] and last but not least obviously karen
[14:06] corona our chief public information
[14:07] officer and so these are the individuals
[14:09] that make up my team
[14:11] for an organization again 10 000 kids 17
[14:14] 18 campuses
[14:16] and a little bit over 2 000 employees
[14:20] and so i mentioned the word equity
[14:21] earlier and i want to make sure i make
[14:23] this point there's a lot of polarization
[14:25] around the conversation of equity and
[14:28] race theory and things of that nature
[14:30] and what we're focusing on is diversity
[14:31] equity and inclusion and so i always use
[14:34] this graphic because i think it helps
[14:36] people who may not represent certain
[14:38] groups have the conversation and feel
[14:39] safe enough about the conversation
[14:41] versus ostracizing people and so you'll
[14:43] hear us ask these questions who's in the
[14:45] room
[14:46] who are we talking about
[14:48] who's it we're trying to get in the room
[14:50] but can't get into the room to have the
[14:52] conversation
[14:53] and the last but not least it says
[14:55] everyone everyone's ideas been heard and
[14:58] if we approach this work around
[14:59] diversity equity inclusion i think
[15:01] everywhere
[15:02] maybe in the city maybe across other
[15:04] areas i think the conversations can be
[15:05] more productive
[15:06] versus more polarized right now when you
[15:08] just focus on um other aspects of
[15:11] diversity of inclusion next one
[15:14] so obviously we're in the business of
[15:15] teaching and learning and i just wanted
[15:17] to point this out to the city council we
[15:18] have uh required areas every year to
[15:21] assess our schools uh district
[15:23] comprehensive improvement plan we're
[15:25] required to do some of our schools need
[15:27] improvement we're not going to shy away
[15:28] from that conversation
[15:30] and these are the areas that they focus
[15:31] on leadership and systems curriculum
[15:34] instruction social emotional learning
[15:36] and obviously
[15:37] probably the most important piece is
[15:39] family engagement because we cannot turn
[15:41] our schools around without a reciprocal
[15:43] relationship with our parents and
[15:44] without them helping us kids are only in
[15:46] school about six and a half hours
[15:48] the majority of their 18-hour day they
[15:50] are not in the building so we got to
[15:52] figure out ways that we can support we
[15:54] can create opportunities for extended
[15:55] day
[15:56] after school program and saturday
[15:57] programming but also we're going to need
[15:59] our parents to do some of the things
[16:00] that we do in school like reading to
[16:01] your kids you know things of that nature
[16:04] next one
[16:05] our priorities this year are focused on
[16:08] three kind of major things um
[16:11] culturally relevant and
[16:12] rigorously responsive curriculum uh the
[16:15] same thing with instructional practices
[16:16] culturally relevant and responsive
[16:18] instructional practices so how do our
[16:20] teachers work with our kids when we know
[16:21] they come from a variety of backgrounds
[16:24] and then obviously removing barriers to
[16:25] increase attendance and engagement and
[16:27] so
[16:28] you know remote is a great thing to
[16:30] remove that barrier but it does require
[16:32] uh
[16:33] you know accurate participation you know
[16:36] accurate engagement so i often hear like
[16:38] well that's a way to get attendance it
[16:40] isn't the same when someone's in front
[16:41] of you when someone's on the screen and
[16:43] so i always tell people that it's a
[16:45] different type of engagement
[16:47] next one
[16:49] so uh everyone hears we got a lot of
[16:51] money right hey you got a lot of money
[16:52] industry's got ton of money so
[16:54] all of our money comes with strings just
[16:56] like it does when it gets to the city
[16:57] right when the government gives you
[16:59] money there's strings and people just
[17:00] here total dollar amount so i wanted to
[17:02] show you that we have this american
[17:04] rescue plan that's your ad funds from
[17:06] for the next four years it's about 41
[17:09] million dollars but there's certain
[17:11] things that the money must be
[17:12] allocated in use for so currently we
[17:15] have an extension to the end of the
[17:16] month we are looking at feedback from
[17:18] all of our principals all their billy
[17:21] leadership teams and we're going to put
[17:23] together an itemized kind of plan on how
[17:25] we plan on using this money but i want
[17:27] to emphasize the next slide that this
[17:29] plan was specific it had some strings
[17:31] and some directions it has to be used
[17:34] for non-reoccurring expenses why because
[17:37] the money will run out and what we don't
[17:39] want and what the government doesn't
[17:40] want is to hear that schools can't do
[17:42] certain things and you took money away
[17:43] so they're telling you right off the bat
[17:45] you've got four years to spend this
[17:47] money but you have to focus on
[17:48] non-recurring expenses so i won't read
[17:51] all these to you but just to know that
[17:53] you know maximizing in-person
[17:55] instruction was a reason to use this
[17:57] money meaning they want kids in the
[17:59] building not remote construction the
[18:01] other thing was looking at technology
[18:04] what other forms of technology can we purchase safely returning
[18:07] students in person supporting early
[18:09] childhood we know so much happens in
[18:11] those you know if we're going to be
[18:13] reading by third grade we've got to do a
[18:14] lot of stuff at the pre-k um and even
[18:16] birth really working with families
[18:18] around how do you read the kids early on
[18:20] exposure to vocabulary words
[18:23] sight words things of that nature next
[18:25] one
[18:27] so we're reopening schenectady strong
[18:29] it's been something you guys have been
[18:31] doing since last year something that i'm
[18:33] going to continue to do this year it's a
[18:34] real one's connecting strong and so
[18:36] we're going five days so i don't want
[18:37] anyone to be surprised so if you see
[18:39] your youth out there get your butt to
[18:41] school you're supposed to be in school
[18:42] now everyone's open get a glass and get
[18:44] in school um but we've shared again in
[18:47] an effort to be transparent the document
[18:50] on how to contract tracing works with
[18:51] our department of health disconnecting
[18:53] department of health has been fantastic
[18:55] around this team they've been sharing it
[18:56] so this is how you know if you're close
[18:58] to somebody this is going to quarantine
[19:00] if you're 12 and up again i'm not here
[19:02] to fight personal choice but the
[19:04] vaccine's available you don't want your
[19:05] kid at home consider getting a vaccine
[19:07] because if they're vaccinated they
[19:08] always are allowed to stay even if
[19:10] they're
[19:11] within contact with somebody who is as
[19:13] long as they don't show symptoms so
[19:15] that's a great way to keep your child in
[19:16] school is to consider them
[19:20] the reopening plan is what we shared is
[19:22] a summary of kind of all the key areas
[19:24] and then the chart with the blue
[19:26] yellow orange and red is depending on
[19:28] what zone we are for transmission those
[19:30] are the rules of engagement so if you're
[19:32] allowed to have visitors not have
[19:33] visitors in school how much distance you
[19:35] should have when you eat
[19:37] you know things like that the other
[19:38] thing i want to emphasize is that
[19:39] physical distancing or social distancing
[19:41] is not supposed to be an inhibitor to
[19:44] in-person learning so the
[19:46] kathy hulco's been very creative
[19:48] governor the
[19:50] education commissioner for the country
[19:51] has been very clear uh dr cardona in
[19:54] personal learning um it needs to occur
[19:56] and you can't use social distancing as
[19:58] the excuse why you can't bring everybody
[20:00] back so you do the best you can
[20:02] and that's why we're having masks in
[20:04] schools um when you can't stay you know
[20:07] less than three feet or less than six
[20:08] feet depending on the situation
[20:10] excellent
[20:11] so any questions
[20:24] [Music]
[20:32] appreciate
[20:37] [Music]
[20:47] yeah so we're trying to get back to the
[20:49] way we used to be so all of those things
[20:50] hopefully will be ignited and the people
[20:52] who ran like then she works at mount
[20:54] pleasant people does the girl's day out
[20:56] so i think i met her one of my favorite
[20:58] social workers so yeah
[21:00] so you gotta put that together quick
[21:03] well i just also want to
[21:06] welcome you and i too appreciate the
[21:09] presentation and i really as i mentioned
[21:11] before i think that idea of
[21:13] collaborating
[21:14] is
[21:19] [Music]
[21:42] going to be um and electrical
[21:45] and is there any kind of
[21:49] focus on that
[21:50] possibly um
[22:07] yeah so we currently do have kids go to
[22:08] capital regional season participate
[22:10] there but we also have the science fair
[22:11] radiation academy which has a culinary
[22:14] program as a business pathway so there
[22:16] is some
[22:17] cte in in terms of the district as well
[22:20] um so yeah we have both options that's
[22:22] uh steinmetz is uh creation is right
[22:26] [Music]
[22:31] it's nine to twelve but in in middle
[22:33] school they're supposed to take exposure
[22:34] to technology they get family consumer
[22:36] signs so they are getting exposed to
[22:38] some of those things as well at the
[22:39] middle school level
[22:41] it's not so much cte or in terms of what
[22:44] you're thinking you know starting in the
[22:45] culinary capital again you know
[22:48] i have pretty good money but i didn't
[22:49] really know what i wanted to do in
[22:50] middle school to commit to a pathway so
[22:52] what we do is more of an exploratory
[22:54] option which i think is good yeah
[22:57] so the goal is they they should maybe
[22:59] choose going into 9th grade if they want
[23:01] to start that pathway but most of the
[23:03] pathways start more like 10th or 11th
[23:05] grade because there's 22 credits and we
[23:08] have to get kids ready for the regents
[23:10] exam and get them out so some of that
[23:11] starts in freshman year and then they
[23:13] kind of walk into a pathway
[23:15] depending on where they are but yes we
[23:16] do leverage capital both so we gotta do
[23:18] that already we gotta get more kids
[23:19] exposed to that um but you know i think
[23:22] for us is we have to show all the
[23:24] pathways and so recently i had to meet
[23:26] with dr
[23:27] um muno over at the community college
[23:30] about how powerful would it be everybody
[23:32] who graduated from schenectady cities
[23:34] with research already had an acceptance
[23:35] letter to the community college and so
[23:37] that we told kids hey you can don't worry so much about this explore
[23:40] these options but also by the way at the
[23:42] end of the day this connective community
[23:44] college has an option for you just in
[23:45] case some of those things don't work out
[23:47] so stay tuned
[23:48] it
[24:00] is
[24:12] yeah i think these opportunities you
[24:13] know i remember the mayor you mentioned
[24:15] that as well
[24:16] you know to public wi-fi he's really
[24:18] ramping up the efforts anything we can
[24:20] collaborate on and i would even say you
[24:22] know maybe some shared services that we
[24:23] could think about departments different
[24:25] things that we do um you know that we
[24:27] can explore i think facility is another
[24:29] thing we got to start talking about you
[24:31] know obviously we have all these
[24:32] buildings that are getting older and
[24:34] older how do we think about
[24:35] projects where we can collaborate
[24:37] whether it's maybe a public library a
[24:39] school
[24:40] maybe a recreational program figure out
[24:43] how we can really get more because
[24:44] school everyone knows how to find a
[24:46] school right and so how do we make our
[24:48] schools more the hub to the community so
[24:50] yeah we're open to all that nice
[24:54] question
[24:56] once again i want to thank you thank you
[24:58] for a wonderful presentation and i hope
[24:59] that we can have this more often no
[25:01] problem right thank you so much
[25:03] thank you
[25:11] we're not gonna be rude
[25:19] remember if you see the students
[25:24] [Music]
[25:39] my brother dated amy
[25:51] [Music]
[26:29] july 1st through june 30th this year the
[26:33] total awards 75 000
[26:42] 354
[26:43] 142
[26:45] this is all for
[26:47] gun violence and gun violence i also
[26:50] attached the budget as you can see right
[26:52] now with us um
[27:32] the police traffic service program brand
[27:35] new york city
[27:36] traffic safety committee
[27:38] yes this is a statement also towards our
[27:41] traffic division this year's three
[27:43] thirty nine thousand four and forty
[27:45] dollars um
[28:01] but again i catch the award that are
[28:03] support experience like
[28:05] questions go back please
[28:10] uh so if you mention that you're one of
[28:12] the things is to reduce aggressive
[28:14] driving behaviors
[28:29] of aggressive driving certain areas will
[28:31] address it um high speeds um from that
[28:33] miracle or at certain times of the day
[28:36] it's people leaning in on traffic trying
[28:38] to kind of get ahead in the next
[28:39] person
[28:41] from the intersections that light turns
[28:43] red standing lower the state-of-the-art
[28:45] intersection entire traffic other ways
[28:47] participating
[28:48] flowing and
[28:50] changing
[28:52] we also use our
[28:54] cameras as much as possible to
[28:56] receive patterns
[29:05] [Music]
[29:25] thank you sir thank you
[29:28] the next item is
[29:43] what we have here is a federal aid
[29:45] project funded through
[29:47] what is called psat protector and safety
[29:50] action plan
[29:51] the work is what was discussed for
[29:54] around the downtown area around city
[29:56] hall liberty street j clinton and
[29:59] clinton franklin also an intersection in
[30:01] the stockade
[30:03] the project is
[30:05] hoping to be awarded the caline
[30:06] industries there is also a city share
[30:09] and a metroplex share
[30:12] it's not specifically mentioned here but
[30:14] we are partnering with metroplex as they
[30:16] have an interest in as part of this
[30:18] project converting j street to two-way
[30:20] firm proposed office so since we were
[30:23] improving the signal there as part of
[30:24] this project we bundled those together
[30:27] and we'll be doing the project so as a
[30:28] conclusion when the signals are all
[30:30] upgraded the measurements are
[30:31] incorporated j street in front of the
[30:33] post office will be two ways
[30:36] the project will start this year however
[30:39] most likely won't conclude next year the
[30:41] state gave us an extension actually all
[30:43] projects under this forum and extension
[30:45] because of supply chain shortages having
[30:48] a very hard time getting the signal
[30:50] actually just the material so we're
[30:53] probably going to be out here starting
[30:55] trying to work around we're coordinating
[30:56] with the farmers market which is a big
[30:58] concern because we're going to be in
[31:00] their areas of work
[31:02] but we're looking to complete the
[31:04] project start this year complete it by
[31:06] june
[31:10] what was your
[31:11] listening picture
[31:14] for the project it was 1.6
[31:26] is
[31:34] so
[31:35] i just put this together so i didn't
[31:37] have time to give it to sam so if you
[31:39] would like to look at it
[31:41] and then
[31:42] discuss it at the next meeting that's
[31:44] perfectly fine
[31:47] it is a package of kind of
[31:49] all the information related to sidewalks
[31:51] so i'll just briefly go through it
[31:53] starts with central parkway on the west
[31:56] the outside of the street
[31:58] then we move on to the
[32:00] even side of the street then i i took
[32:02] some pictures
[32:03] uh with a tape measure
[32:06] just to show um you know we're gonna
[32:08] have to either
[32:09] reconstruct the road and bring it down
[32:11] or go on the private property more
[32:14] because what you'll see is we don't have
[32:16] curb reviews
[32:18] and what happens is
[32:20] this estimate if you were to look at it
[32:22] i would say that i'm making sure we
[32:24] don't repeat mistakes that were made in
[32:26] the past when we did this project the
[32:27] first time so one of the things that
[32:29] you'll see on this estimate that weren't
[32:31] on previous estimates by some of my
[32:33] associates in my department
[32:36] is i've
[32:37] kind of assessed is there a driveway
[32:39] is there a lead walk what's the material
[32:42] that the driveway or the leaf walk are
[32:44] made of because what we were running
[32:45] into the problem of was escalating costs
[32:48] on barnsley and the camp and the reason
[32:50] is we were a little robotic
[32:53] with our estimates saying is we're going
[32:56] to replace the sidewall it's 40 feet but
[32:59] when you replace the sidewalk it's five
[33:01] inches higher and their lead lock is low
[33:03] we were getting complaints when i had to
[33:05] replace my leak walls what about my
[33:06] driveway so now we're putting asphalt
[33:09] so we were doing all these hand work
[33:11] items and the costs were going higher
[33:13] and we were incurring them or were
[33:15] passing them on and there wasn't this
[33:17] i'm not going to say it wasn't
[33:18] transparency it was just that we hadn't
[33:20] dealt so much with a private owner
[33:21] before so i tried to take into account
[33:24] those uh and assess you know you see
[33:26] here where it says alleys on the first
[33:28] page
[33:29] all of these properties do not have
[33:31] driveways onto central park they have an
[33:34] alley in the back they have it out there
[33:36] so you'll notice that the costs vary
[33:38] because we're not going in there with
[33:39] bar mesh
[33:41] so i'm trying to show that same thing if
[33:44] you go to the third page of the pictures
[33:46] from the street view
[33:47] you can see
[33:49] these walkways that lead down he's walk
[33:51] basically down you're probably
[33:53] two inches
[33:55] off so i have to be smarter and i'm not
[33:57] going to say i'm going to have to be
[33:58] smart when we design this and do it
[34:00] because typically what we had done is we
[34:02] would put a four inch curve in
[34:04] and the sidewalk would be here the lead
[34:06] walk would be here and we'd replace it
[34:08] but we would get complaints in public if
[34:10] you remember so people would come back
[34:11] and say now we're getting in public
[34:13] right and it was like okay well this
[34:14] isn't a project to go all the way back
[34:17] on your house this isn't supposed to be
[34:18] you know was supposed to be a sidewalk
[34:20] public works project so we were around
[34:22] this weird line of where we were those
[34:24] projects so then
[34:26] i also put in the resolution that we
[34:28] passed before we showed that you know we
[34:30] subsidized partially became 55-40 and
[34:33] then the last page is the bid document
[34:36] or a summary from the camp when we did
[34:39] get it which showed that the actual
[34:40] price was 83.55
[34:44] and then going back to the first sheet
[34:46] just because it's a little different
[34:47] you'll see that
[34:49] there's two ways that we can kind of
[34:50] look at this there's the totals which
[34:53] vary
[34:54] and there is the cost per foot which
[34:56] varied so that's trying to account for
[34:58] maybe a little asphalt or a leaf off or
[35:00] something different but if we wanted to
[35:02] do it uniformly that's the orangish
[35:05] golden box on the bottom which would be
[35:07] okay we understand that you know let's
[35:09] just uniformly assess it and that's the
[35:11] cost there so
[35:13] you know look over what you have you
[35:14] know we could walk the street if you'd
[35:16] like to um i know that i believe i'm
[35:19] gonna be walking the street with someone
[35:20] on south college street in that country
[35:23] i don't know if it's yourself but
[35:25] they're looking to do a petition there
[35:26] and they like to walk the street because
[35:28] they have some more questions about curb
[35:30] heights and drainage and how it affects
[35:32] other properties you know
[35:34] so it gets a little a little complicated
[35:35] when you start affecting it but
[35:38] this is a i think it's a good start
[35:40] for information
[35:54] i am not looking to go farther i am just
[35:57] acknowledging that there is a potential
[36:00] so what i'm looking to do is
[36:02] if we're going to move forward and i i
[36:05] am encouraging the council to go forward
[36:08] that we do it similar to camp and the
[36:10] city take on a share that is curves and
[36:12] it is a road even though we just paved
[36:14] the road to go back in because what i'm
[36:17] seeing is where i have to go out maybe
[36:20] take some shots and find that maybe
[36:21] instead of a two inch mill i have to go
[36:23] down five because there has to be some
[36:25] happy medium because some places there's
[36:27] four inches occur some places there's
[36:29] one inch
[36:30] and if i go through and i just go
[36:32] robotic which is what we did in the past
[36:34] we're going to end up with a lot of
[36:35] problems and
[36:37] the problem with a project such as this
[36:39] is you are affecting the property
[36:41] ownership pain so when i show up at a
[36:44] job site where you show up to talk
[36:46] everyone may have their little
[36:47] fictitious about
[36:49] what's wrong and a lot of them on the
[36:51] camp came to drainage because we put in
[36:54] this beautiful five and a half inch
[36:56] curve
[36:57] and we didn't look so much at the
[36:58] driveway ten feet back and how it would
[37:01] affect it so you know we we held to our
[37:04] standards a little too much whereas i
[37:06] said that there's certain standards that
[37:08] we can take some leeway with uh that we
[37:10] have to do so that's why i've made sure
[37:12] on this particular one not to repeat
[37:14] that i went out there i took
[37:15] measurements i took some photo just to
[37:17] show you i changed the way this looks
[37:19] it's a little bit more detailed than the
[37:21] past one which if you look at the canvas
[37:23] it was very just concrete
[37:25] so what is what is the actual
[37:28] curve that is supposed to be
[37:31] we like to curve anywhere from four to
[37:33] six inches depending on the surroundings
[37:35] we prefer four to six inches
[37:38] that's a that's a nice set curve you
[37:40] don't if you go lower people start to
[37:41] try to drive up on the curb to four
[37:43] inches it's kind of more of a
[37:49] we're preventative the island also
[37:51] okay
[37:52] so that is going to
[37:55] deter people from parking on the street
[37:58] correct
[37:59] because the curb is going to be too high
[38:02] for someone
[38:07] and we're also going to similar to the
[38:09] cam make sure that we measure and have a
[38:11] uniform
[38:13] somewhere in their own 20 20 to 22 feet
[38:16] to make sure that you can fit a car
[38:18] handsome and and have a traveling some
[38:20] areas of central park but especially
[38:22] that curve
[38:23] they feel very tight so then people
[38:26] just tarping on the sidewall right and
[38:27] you also have to remember too is you can
[38:29] put it there but somebody is so you know
[38:31] inclined you just put your tire over the
[38:34] driveway and then you ride up or you
[38:36] don't have to just
[38:38] i'm just
[38:40] yeah so that's something we're cognizant of
[38:43] because of the curve is does feel narrow
[38:47] and luckily most people i think you can
[38:49] see have driveways but still people like
[38:51] down the road
[38:53] please i just want to
[38:55] clarify something i heard you said so
[38:57] where you're going to encounter
[39:03] the city does pay for hurts yes so this
[39:05] is this is everything that focuses on
[39:07] the property owner right and then
[39:08] there's another component which is the
[39:10] city share which is the pavement and the
[39:12] curbs and we pay for that usually with
[39:14] either a chips fund or a bonded fund
[39:17] that's that's different so that's that's
[39:19] within what we usually have what's that
[39:21] we'll be doing this yes oh no there's
[39:24] similar to the campaign like arduino we
[39:26] could get away with not doing the curves
[39:28] because we had to grasp medium here it's
[39:30] inaccurate we have to do the curves the
[39:32] issue is going to be is to find that
[39:33] happy balance where i'm going to cut the
[39:35] road down so that i'm not raising the
[39:38] curve so high where everybody's going to
[39:41] pond that's where that's where we like i
[39:43] say and on one side if you're familiar
[39:45] with central parkway on one side of
[39:47] central parkway which i believe is the
[39:49] east side
[39:50] if you have a hill
[39:52] so you're great but on the west side you
[39:55] have ferris flat
[39:57] and we have issues with puddling in the
[39:59] alleyway we have issues with puddling so
[40:01] we want to try to mitigate it as best we
[40:03] can so is there
[40:13] but we're talking about more private
[40:14] property issues you know i'm trying not
[40:16] to
[40:17] keep the water on their property to make
[40:19] sure
[40:24] it does
[40:27] get this
[40:38] thank you for this this is a
[40:40] big improvement over what we first do so
[40:43] uh well done and thank you for that
[40:46] and uh secondly just the information
[40:48] easy talk about the stock aid and their
[40:51] positions were turned in today okay um
[40:53] so um
[40:56] i guess the next step is to pass them to
[40:59] uh
[41:01] yeah i mean i still would like to walk
[41:03] with ms rompo i believe she reached out
[41:04] to you or
[41:19] how we can all make it happen to make
[41:20] everybody happy which is difficult
[41:24] i want to thank you for doing this
[41:25] together
[41:27] several weeks let's go that's a
[41:28] wonderful
[41:29] presentation here detail
[41:32] we'll present it
[41:41] and setting up the special assessment
[41:43] history sure there any questions
[41:45] absolutely
[41:59] the next item is not
[42:05] um
[42:42] yesterday afternoon
[42:44] um
[42:46] i think it's extremely important that we
[42:49] continue to
[42:51] support our police department
[42:53] and i find it extremely
[42:56] when there is a city school board member
[43:01] that has
[43:03] taken a stance on defunding the
[43:05] connecticut police department
[43:08] and i think it's
[43:10] important that we continue to support
[43:12] our police department
[43:13] um
[43:14] you know chief secretary
[43:16] tonight
[43:17] presenting the um
[43:19] you know the gun violence
[43:21] you know once again illegal guns in our
[43:24] city streets and around the capital
[43:26] region and the state
[43:28] needs to be addressed um i know there
[43:30] was no support for it but i would once
[43:32] again follow my council
[43:35] of people
[43:36] it's a way to start a conversation
[43:39] something needs to be done
[43:41] to support our police department and
[43:44] i think that you know the gun violence
[43:47] and the fact that we have
[43:50] activists calling for defunding
[43:52] especially an elected official on the
[43:54] city school board
[43:56] i think it's very troubling
[43:58] and it's decisive
[44:00] and
[44:01] it ends up
[44:03] really putting a divide between
[44:06] what
[44:18] and
[44:19] i think it's important that we as a
[44:21] council need to take a stance on
[44:24] supporting our police department and the
[44:26] changes that's cheaper is going forward
[44:29] and
[44:30] you know i think the leadership here is
[44:34] necessary to ensure that we
[44:37] maintain regulations with our police
[44:39] department and our city schools
[44:42] so i
[44:43] am
[44:45] not supportive of
[44:47] his mild stance
[44:59] any other questions
[45:16] and so i think that's where this really
[45:18] belongs and um and thinking that for my
[45:21] time on the council i can't take the
[45:23] time when we were asked to fund
[45:25] something that was part of our forward
[45:26] and he said no we're not doing it i mean
[45:28] often they come
[45:30] today but there's no match but they
[45:32] still needed to come before the council
[45:33] and we still supported them and when
[45:35] there has been a match we had supported
[45:37] that so um i
[45:40] am not aware of any petition that has
[45:42] come forward
[45:43] at this point that says we want you to
[45:45] do this and so i'm not really sure
[45:48] what's his response to so that that
[45:50] comes to my
[45:51] question
[45:52] um
[45:53] and in terms of fighting from here
[45:56] specifically you say that a person has
[45:58] the right the first amendment of
[46:00] constitution to protest um and assemble
[46:03] peacefully there's also reading speech
[46:05] that's included in this so
[46:09] i'm not sure if as a council we can take
[46:12] a position
[46:13] against an individual as an individual's
[46:15] name here because they chose to exercise
[46:18] their freedom of speech
[46:20] i don't know how we do that and say we
[46:22] support freedom of speech and
[46:25] we have numerous people that come before
[46:27] the war before the council and the rail
[46:30] i don't think we all agree with
[46:31] everything they say
[46:32] so it becomes the point where we start
[46:34] um to
[46:36] create resolutions because someone said
[46:37] something that we don't agree with
[46:39] i can say from my personal standpoint i
[46:41] support the police do does any group
[46:44] agree on everything absolutely not and
[46:46] that's what's exactly where we really
[46:48] disagree um
[46:50] and
[46:51] so to me to
[46:54] start first of all to choose an
[46:56] individual to call them out and to say
[46:58] because she said this and and just just
[47:01] for the record just be clear any
[47:03] statements you made was prior to
[47:04] becoming a board member was before she
[47:06] was an elected official on the city
[47:08] school board so people heard what she
[47:09] had to say and she's still got the right
[47:11] thing so i just want to make sure that
[47:12] that's very clear and um so
[47:15] i don't think we have the right to to
[47:17] call one person a person out because
[47:20] they exercise their freedom of speech
[47:22] and say hey we know that it's it's in
[47:24] your first amendment rights but because
[47:25] we don't like what you said therefore we
[47:27] have no resolution we have a three
[47:29] elected body who say who supports the
[47:31] constitution are going to put a
[47:33] resolution against you personally
[47:34] because the resolution is therefore
[47:37] being resolved and then there it clearly
[47:39] states that person's name
[47:41] um so
[47:43] um is this language divisive i won't
[47:46] disagree with that there's a lot of
[47:47] language that is divisive uh if this you
[47:50] know this is a slippery slope where
[47:51] people say something we don't like it
[47:52] and then we start saying well we're
[47:53] going to create a resolution that they
[47:54] said that we didn't like i think that's
[47:56] a dangerous path to voting i also think
[47:58] it invites the aclu to come to our
[48:01] council meeting and say how can we do
[48:02] this not only them probably other youths
[48:04] as well so this is uh in my mind more
[48:08] resolution against a person
[48:09] as it is in favor of
[48:12] um a budgetary issue which again i think
[48:15] that's where you know funding goes and
[48:16] that's where we get this aside we on
[48:18] this council it's our role and
[48:20] responsibility to say well
[48:22] the americans are getting the votes and
[48:24] we're just clear about that so we say to
[48:25] the mayor you know we you know do this
[48:28] and not that so i think that you know
[48:31] this belongs in the budget and i have
[48:34] again to just reiterate to the point
[48:36] that i've not seen any specific calls
[48:38] without the police and
[48:41] are we do we really
[48:43] have a right to
[48:45] um
[48:46] let's to say to someone you um exercise
[48:50] your constitutional rights but we're
[48:52] putting out what resolution that say we
[48:54] don't believe what you have to say
[48:56] i think that's
[48:57] not something that we can do as a
[48:59] counselor but something that we actually
[49:00] shouldn't even do
[49:02] so we're talking about funding
[49:04] as opposed to being against an
[49:06] individual because of their speech i
[49:08] think this is two very different things
[49:10] so i know that um what's put on the
[49:13] agenda says becoming the police but this
[49:15] resolution is really not reflecting that
[49:17] at all it really is reflecting that
[49:19] person said something and that person
[49:22] should not have said that and we're
[49:23] saying you shouldn't have said it and
[49:25] we're taking
[49:26] putting a resolution out that says
[49:31] [Music]
[49:36] a few points first of all miss miles did
[49:39] say after she was on on the board of
[49:42] education
[49:44] and it was in the newspaper that she
[49:46] wanted to define the police
[49:48] typically
[49:49] and for longest time the school board
[49:52] and the city council remaining two very
[49:55] distinct bodies
[49:56] and here we have a school board member
[50:00] crossing that line
[50:02] so
[50:02] secondly the resolution itself as i read
[50:06] it is very much about funding the police
[50:09] and not something about a particular
[50:10] individual
[50:12] how i read it was the individual's
[50:14] mention because she is a public official
[50:17] and we have that right to
[50:21] make that distinction
[50:23] third the
[50:25] just as
[50:27] cities have done resolutions to defund
[50:30] the police
[50:31] we can very well do resolutions to fund
[50:33] reports and call against it
[50:36] and
[50:37] if there are weaker questions
[50:39] people can certainly come and speak and
[50:42] have their
[50:44] say at the council meetings
[50:46] and that doesn't take away from their
[50:50] freedom speech so
[50:52] i really don't see any particular issue
[50:54] on this
[50:55] i think it's something that we
[50:58] i would support
[51:00] i understand the issue with funding and
[51:03] we will take that up in october
[51:06] but
[51:07] this uh
[51:09] i think sends a message to our residents
[51:12] who complain about
[51:14] lots of stuff
[51:16] in particular with regards to quality of
[51:19] life issues that the police can deal
[51:21] with
[51:22] and they're understaffed and defunding
[51:25] them certainly
[51:26] and quite frankly to say she said she
[51:29] would like to abolish
[51:31] that doesn't go anywhere i mean
[51:33] everybody knows some of the key pieces
[51:36] to
[51:36] a healthy city is this excellent school
[51:39] district which hopefully we're on the
[51:41] right track
[51:43] a safe community where people want to
[51:45] move
[51:46] and that entails having
[51:48] a police department
[51:50] that
[51:51] is engaged with the community
[51:54] becomes partners with the community and
[51:56] so much of what we've done in the
[51:59] community outreach and the steering
[52:02] programs that we've had with the police
[52:04] reform
[52:05] was related to the police getting out
[52:07] into the community and they can't do
[52:09] that if there's
[52:11] public officials calling for defunding
[52:13] the police
[52:14] so to me it's a real distinction here
[52:17] we have two separate boards that largely
[52:20] stayed in their own
[52:23] areas
[52:25] how i was always told as a member of the
[52:27] city council we don't interfere
[52:30] with the school board we can go to the
[52:32] meetings and we can certainly have our
[52:34] say but that's as a personal
[52:36] uh
[52:38] individual but as a school board
[52:40] remember saying you want to defund the
[52:42] police
[52:43] i'm sorry i
[52:44] disagree with what your concept is and
[52:47] i would support this resolution
[52:54] my appearance when it comes to i don't
[52:55] think any one of us
[53:11] is
[53:37] individual members of the public
[53:40] i don't think really as a possible
[53:42] police department we need our police
[53:44] department
[53:45] we need a police department
[53:47] and we have been providing the necessary
[53:49] funding over the many years i've been in
[53:52] this council and it will continue to
[53:53] happen
[53:54] so having a resolution i don't think
[53:57] it's needed i don't want to do it
[53:59] everybody knows we are probably
[54:02] supporting police departments
[54:03] that they're doing and we thank them
[54:05] every day
[54:08] i mean putting a resolution i don't
[54:09] think it's needed i mean
[54:12] we have a budget to deal with uh at the
[54:14] end of the next month and we'll address
[54:16] all these things and look at how we've
[54:17] been able to
[54:18] maintain the funding and increase the
[54:21] funding
[54:22] providing us a resource to them
[54:25] we can't just go about
[54:26] you know keeping information from the
[54:28] public
[54:29] and doing this thing and it's leading to
[54:30] a dangerous path
[54:35] and so mr probably said it wasn't
[54:36] directed at a specific person but the
[54:40] part that the resolution department says
[54:42] therefore be resolved that this
[54:44] connecting city council cannot with
[54:46] clear conscience supports the cause of
[54:48] community activist schenectady city
[54:51] school board member jamaica miles stands
[54:53] for defining the police department nor
[54:55] her calls from lobster police department
[54:57] we are specifically talking about the
[55:00] specific person we're not even that we
[55:02] so we say we don't agree with it so
[55:04] therefore we put together a resolution
[55:05] that says and therefore it may be solved
[55:07] that's connected to the countless that's
[55:09] considered such data to be divisive and
[55:11] detrimental to the state and security
[55:13] both are residents and law enforcement
[55:15] officers this is a this is directed at
[55:18] an individual
[55:25] [Applause]
[55:33] and history of all models we had a
[55:34] chance to look at it but um the way i
[55:38] read this is that you put a person's
[55:39] name in here and you're saying you
[55:41] clearly did not support that person
[55:42] because of what she said
[55:44] that's what this is
[55:46] in plain english
[55:47] so that to me is different than nazi
[55:50] funding police again which is a
[55:52] budgetary issue which we'll be
[55:53] discussing in just a couple of months
[55:56] and and so
[55:58] you know as mr mcmahon said as i've said
[56:00] that has
[56:03] [Music]
[56:14] but without a real call to do this i'm
[56:16] not sure what we're answering here
[56:18] or the rel really really what it achieves
[56:26] so um
[56:43] on city store
[56:45] we are trying to build
[56:47] a collaborative environment it's a
[56:48] cooperative environment and we have a
[56:51] board member that is
[57:00] [Music]
[57:11] not thinking about being inclusive
[57:14] and you know it was a great presentation
[57:16] for tonight from the new superintendent
[57:19] and i think
[57:20] you know that needs to be carried
[57:22] forward i know that he's met with the
[57:24] chief
[57:24] i know that you know things are going to
[57:26] move forward in a good manner but i need
[57:29] to understand
[57:31] that it's not a school board member
[57:34] thinking that defunding employees is
[57:37] acceptable we need to support our police
[57:40] we don't need to defund our police and i
[57:42] just think it's wrong that an elected
[57:44] school board member is
[57:47] stating that she wants to
[57:50] have she represents the school
[57:56] [Music]
[58:06] i think that
[58:08] if you feel that way in terms of school
[58:10] work but i think this is a conversation
[58:12] to have and with the superintendent if
[58:14] you feel that way about school whenever
[58:16] or with before the um chair at school
[58:19] i don't think at least the council
[58:20] speaks
[58:23] that we don't like what you said
[58:26] and therefore we're putting the
[58:27] resolution together because there may be
[58:29] things that that uh council members say
[58:31] that people don't and we didn't come
[58:33] back
[58:48] i think we need to
[58:56] i agree we should support our quotes and
[58:58] we do support our focus but on
[59:00] disability where we should not come
[59:02] against an individual because of the
[59:04] statement that they made because they
[59:06] exercised it to the first amendment
[59:07] right that is where i draw them on that
[59:10] we come against an individual that says
[59:12] where does that end
[59:14] somebody support something else that we
[59:15] don't agree with but we don't think it's
[59:17] appropriate we don't think it's
[59:18] currently politically correct
[59:21] so where does it end so
[59:23] supporting police is absolute but going against individuals because of
[59:29] something that they said that we don't
[59:30] agree with and again she is one member
[59:33] of the board so even if she says that
[59:34] the school board member and they had any
[59:36] control over which they don't
[59:38] it's one member
[59:40] we at this table
[59:43] that we do live appropriately in terms
[59:45] of funding our police allocating
[59:47] whatever community resources that are
[59:49] needed all of which was talked about in
[59:50] part of the police reform and
[59:52] reinvention so we put all that in there
[59:54] but we talked about all that so when the
[59:56] budget comes from we have the
[59:57] opportunity to do that because we we
[1:00:00] decided on budget so
[1:00:02] you don't have to say oh we support it
[1:00:04] and we we are against you saying that
[1:00:06] because we can do this alive
[1:00:43] but
[1:00:44] people say what they feel
[1:00:46] and
[1:00:47] if you live in america and you have a
[1:00:49] right to do that
[1:00:51] and as long as you like screaming fire
[1:00:53] in the filing room
[1:01:03] yeah i think we're
[1:01:05] just really missing
[1:01:07] the vote here i mean
[1:01:10] and you have a public official who's
[1:01:13] come out and said that there's nothing
[1:01:15] wrong with taking a stand
[1:01:17] particularly when we've had other
[1:01:19] vendors calling for
[1:01:21] diverting
[1:01:22] budgetary money from the police
[1:01:24] department um while they're abolishing
[1:01:27] things these are all things that are
[1:01:29] then discussed publicly
[1:01:31] in the steering committee meetings
[1:01:33] themselves
[1:01:35] and now we have school board member kong
[1:01:38] to
[1:01:39] defund the police it just doesn't
[1:01:42] vote well for the city
[1:01:44] when we're trying to build relationships
[1:01:48] in this city and purposely is creating
[1:01:51] decisions
[1:01:52] um
[1:01:53] i i think that's why
[1:01:55] the resolution is necessary
[1:01:58] but again that's committed so
[1:02:01] it's too
[1:02:03] immersive so
[1:02:17] people have a right to say what they say
[1:02:19] whether you agree or disagree it's a
[1:02:21] newspaper um
[1:02:23] then you have to know
[1:02:26] but it happens people say things that
[1:02:28] like we disagree with all the time that
[1:02:30] doesn't make facts just because someone
[1:02:32] said it
[1:02:33] again we we're we're targeting one
[1:02:35] person because we don't move this
[1:02:37] person's stand because they are a public
[1:02:39] figure i don't think this is the first
[1:02:41] public figure that's ever said anything
[1:02:42] that we've already done
[1:02:45] so um i just put together a resolution
[1:02:47] to attack someone personally
[1:02:50] i think it's not what this body is
[1:02:53] called to do and if we feel this level
[1:02:55] of disagreement then plus we have to
[1:02:58] visit down and discuss it and talk about
[1:03:00] it and work through it
[1:03:02] with um the individuals that i don't
[1:03:04] know that's even been made an attempt to
[1:03:07] do
[1:03:09] but i think just putting together a
[1:03:10] resolution because we didn't like what
[1:03:12] somebody said things like bring our
[1:03:14] passes
[1:03:29] and
[1:03:30] mr collins like that we
[1:03:32] when we do the budget we
[1:03:34] are the ones
[1:03:36] with the budget we haven't wanted to say
[1:03:38] this department gets this much money
[1:03:40] based on what we want to call it that is
[1:03:42] what happens here
[1:03:45] so because someone says something
[1:03:46] contrary to what we believe in
[1:03:49] or what we're comfortable with
[1:03:51] doesn't change the fact that we still
[1:03:53] get to decide on the question
[1:04:00] and that's where this belongs police
[1:04:03] funding is a legendary issue whose
[1:04:05] department will present their budget
[1:04:07] this is what we need to do our job then
[1:04:09] we'll go through
[1:04:09] [Music]
[1:04:11] you it the mayor will do um you know
[1:04:14] either change whatever it needs to
[1:04:15] change and then basic council will get
[1:04:17] it this is a budgetary issue you can
[1:04:19] deal with this with a budgetary issue
[1:04:21] and i think anyone on this council has
[1:04:22] come forward and said let's discover
[1:04:24] this
[1:04:52] you're asking for a resolution to
[1:04:53] celebrate their 100th anniversary
[1:04:56] in this visiting as a council on the
[1:04:58] city we recognize the contribution
[1:05:00] towards the city
[1:05:20] item on the agenda is the 2021.2
[1:05:24] hud continuum for ymca is dior
[1:05:39] um
[1:06:10] next item on the agenda is a call for
[1:06:13] the public hearing for the 2022 budget
[1:06:15] mr ferrari
[1:06:21] thank you
[1:06:23] as you know the mayor's proposed 22 the
[1:06:26] 2022 budget will be delivered to the
[1:06:28] city council uh honor before october 1st
[1:06:32] and pursuing to uh second class uh
[1:06:34] city's law
[1:06:36] and the charter of the city of
[1:06:37] schenectady
[1:06:39] uh the ordinance to approve and adapt
[1:06:41] the proposed 2022 budget
[1:06:44] needs to be announced by november 1st
[1:06:46] and one of the
[1:06:47] necessary components uh to pass this
[1:06:50] proposed blended is a public hearing so
[1:06:52] we're requesting uh that the
[1:06:55] city council at their uh september 13th
[1:06:57] uh council meeting approve
[1:07:01] of the call for the public meeting to be
[1:07:03] held on october 12th of
[1:07:07] 2021.
[1:07:12] any questions on this
[1:07:15] paper uh thank you
[1:07:17] next is the update on the request
[1:07:19] funding on the mayor
[1:07:22] just uh
[1:07:36] for
[1:07:37] three four five community meetings with
[1:07:40] counseling for uh
[1:07:43] neighborhood brooks community groups
[1:07:45] to
[1:07:46] look at some of the
[1:07:48] needs that they have
[1:07:50] give us a chance to outline some of the
[1:07:52] options and as we move forward with
[1:07:56] just the
[1:07:58] formal
[1:08:00] alignment of that money to be very
[1:08:02] expensive and hopefully we're going to
[1:08:03] be able to do a coordinated and
[1:08:06] complimentary fashion with the other
[1:08:08] levels of government
[1:08:20] any questions
[1:08:27] like throughout the city of various kids
[1:08:32] [Music]
[1:08:51] some of the criteria to use it to
[1:08:52] replace some of the money that we lost
[1:08:55] we put some staff back in from that and
[1:08:57] then look forward to working with the
[1:08:59] council to come up with that final
[1:09:02] document not only for
[1:09:04] 2022
[1:09:18] to order city development and planning
[1:09:21] we have seven items on the agenda
[1:09:23] um the first two will be a public
[1:09:25] section
[1:09:26] first one uh licensing room with mental
[1:09:28] placement construction south street
[1:09:30] south church street
[1:09:40] as part of the continuing redevelopment
[1:09:42] of
[1:09:43] downtown
[1:09:44] the city in partnership with metroplex
[1:09:47] or vice versa i really want to look at
[1:09:49] it um saw two redevelopment south church
[1:09:52] street between fuller and state street
[1:09:54] i'm sure you're familiar with this area
[1:09:57] if you were to go down the road you can
[1:09:58] definitely tell it's one of the last
[1:10:00] areas to be developed um leaving
[1:10:03] something to be desired we've seen a lot
[1:10:04] of investment as
[1:10:06] in my uh as i said requesting this
[1:10:08] metroplex put in there
[1:10:09] between gary boulevard and state street
[1:10:11] and gateway park for public
[1:10:13] infrastructure and on top of that the
[1:10:15] private infrastructure that we've seen
[1:10:16] tested there
[1:10:18] this is kind of one of the final
[1:10:21] pieces to complete our lower downtown
[1:10:24] development
[1:10:26] so the city and metroplex going forward
[1:10:28] with cooperation with a design and then
[1:10:31] a bid
[1:10:32] the understanding was the city would
[1:10:34] contribute for the roadway and the
[1:10:36] curving while metrobus would take care
[1:10:38] of things such as scccs actually partner
[1:10:41] on this with a parking lot they're also
[1:10:43] helping contribute towards lights and
[1:10:45] sidewalks and things the city usually
[1:10:47] doesn't get involved with so we think this is a good project
[1:10:51] another example of us working in
[1:10:53] partnership with them to get
[1:10:55] progress done it's going to be a
[1:10:56] terrific project it's in coordination
[1:10:59] with we already making the rope in one
[1:11:00] way you know it formally has not been at
[1:11:03] the conclusion of this project and
[1:11:05] during the project will be one way
[1:11:07] it will increase parking it will look
[1:11:10] literally like a million bucks it's
[1:11:12] going to be terrific we're eliminating
[1:11:14] over a dozen utility poles
[1:11:16] most of which were there were
[1:11:17] unnecessary
[1:11:19] defeat infrastructure that hasn't been
[1:11:21] there in years but we are cognizant of
[1:11:23] future development we are leaving two
[1:11:25] polls to make sure that the larger lots
[1:11:27] that currently aren't developing will
[1:11:29] have utilities
[1:11:30] so this is the project as as it is
[1:11:33] i would recommend
[1:11:35] authorizing the mayor to be able to
[1:11:37] enter into the agreement
[1:11:49] um
[1:11:56] there will be a public hearing on next
[1:12:07] uh um evening i'm chuck marshall from
[1:12:09] stewardshops uh we have under contract
[1:12:12] the sunoco at 1501 union
[1:12:14] and the funeral jones general home of
[1:12:16] 1503 union
[1:12:18] however those two are both in the c2
[1:12:21] which allows a convenience store with
[1:12:23] gasoline filling
[1:12:25] 10 20 mm street which is essentially the
[1:12:28] green
[1:12:29] landscape strip between
[1:12:31] the r1
[1:12:33] use
[1:12:34] and the c2 district is
[1:12:35] actually zoned r1 and is not allowed to
[1:12:37] be incorporated in our use so what we're
[1:12:40] here tonight to request
[1:12:42] is rezone of the parcel at 1020
[1:12:46] um palm street
[1:12:59] [Music]
[1:13:03] with um it's rear to the residential
[1:13:06] district
[1:13:07] and put the gas in front
[1:13:13] i just wanted to figure out where we
[1:13:15] were with the planning commission so
[1:13:16] forgive me for that so the planning
[1:13:18] commission issued a favorable
[1:13:19] recommendation i think that there's
[1:13:21] going to be some
[1:13:22] cycling concerns elevation head things
[1:13:24] as there normally is
[1:13:26] i think we've done a pretty good job
[1:13:27] redeveloping stores
[1:13:29] throughout the city um
[1:13:34] is
[1:13:50] so with us is jennifer howard she's
[1:13:51] actually our property manager um and
[1:13:54] she'll be the one at the
[1:13:56] meeting next week so because of the
[1:13:58] tenancy situation we've been unable to
[1:14:01] redevelop
[1:14:03] the upper union street store as we have
[1:14:06] um ben franklin brandywine and broadway
[1:14:09] so what this does is as you look at
[1:14:12] where we are in the city the union
[1:14:14] street
[1:14:15] portal um where
[1:14:17] the upper union street store is it does
[1:14:19] not have a side street traffic that
[1:14:22] matches on the column track
[1:14:24] so here we would see effectively
[1:14:26] 50 more cars than we're currently seeing
[1:14:29] and we do think that that will be a
[1:14:31] longer
[1:14:32] you know that's the longest lasting
[1:14:34] point in the market
[1:14:36] while the upper union street location
[1:14:38] has
[1:14:38] more viability
[1:14:40] both as
[1:14:51] [Music]
[1:15:19] the layout will be effectively the same
[1:15:22] um the side door uh on mcclellan on the
[1:15:25] front door that will face the gas cam
[1:15:29] i just you know one of the things that i
[1:15:31] want to show is just to show you the
[1:15:33] amount of space we're actually talking
[1:15:35] about
[1:15:37] this is the existing parking so
[1:15:40] i'm sorry
[1:15:41] yeah thank you
[1:15:43] we're literally talking about like a
[1:15:45] couple of feet of usable area um our
[1:15:48] real intention is to leave that green
[1:15:50] space area
[1:15:51] between us
[1:15:53] and the residential district that it
[1:15:54] butts it
[1:15:56] these homes don't have windows on the
[1:15:58] back of the residence so one of the
[1:16:00] things we're able to do by
[1:16:02] rezoning this property
[1:16:04] we can keep lights off the back of the
[1:16:07] building
[1:16:08] so effectively the building becomes a
[1:16:10] stream from the
[1:16:12] residential district to the commercial
[1:16:14] district with the majority of commercial
[1:16:16] activity kept to the front
[1:16:28] yes
[1:16:34] any other questions
[1:16:37] so thank you for coming in again
[1:16:39] republican uh
[1:16:45] thank you
[1:17:01] on