[0:00] [Music]

[0:56] very voted

[1:09] [Music]

[1:46] um

[1:57] [Music]

[2:06] the shoulder the

[3:06] is

[3:08] [Music]

[3:30] oh

[3:44] so actually

[3:49] [Music]

[3:59] good um everyone i would like to call

[4:01] this connected city council meeting from monday november the 15th

[4:05] to order i will go straight from the

[4:07] finance mr paul ordered finance committee the first

[4:12] item is downtown connecticut assessment

[4:14] district for mr selango

[4:23] hi good evening everybody uh james lingo

[4:25] with the downtown connecticut

[4:27] corporation and um

[4:30] it's nice to be back in this room i

[4:31] don't think i've been in here for two

[4:32] years so good to see everybody in person

[4:37] you should have your budget that came in

[4:39] uh in the packet

[4:41] so

[4:43] our 2022 budget represents

[4:47] i guess getting a lot more back to

[4:49] normal after a few years of

[4:53] challenging times for everybody my

[4:55] budget last year was paired back a bit

[4:58] because we certainly couldn't do all the

[5:00] things that we normally would do with

[5:02] all the essential things but this year

[5:04] we're really looking at 2022 is being uh

[5:14] the first page um as you recall and i'll remind you that

[5:19] um you know we give you the entire budget of the

[5:23] downtown connecticut corporation

[5:25] so you can see how everything fits into

[5:27] context

[5:29] the first page you have here is

[5:32] what the city council will prove is the

[5:34] um

[5:35] the total amount of the

[5:37] assessment that goes towards the

[5:39] cost of our operations so

[5:42] back in 20

[5:44] end of 2019

[5:45] when i stood here

[5:47] we explained how

[5:48] with the expansion of our district

[5:52] 2020

[5:53] where we started operating in little

[5:55] italy uh the stretch of erie from union

[5:58] to

[5:59] knox street and then also the lower part

[6:01] of broadway to the highway

[6:03] that we had a strategy to help

[6:06] pay for the expansion that we were going

[6:08] to be um

[6:11] incrementally adding to the assessment

[6:13] until we got to

[6:15] a point where we could be a little bit

[6:17] more balanced we did not do that last

[6:19] year because of pandemic we decided it

[6:21] was

[6:22] proven that everybody was going through

[6:23] but

[6:24] starting for 2022 as you can see we've

[6:27] we're getting back to that strategy so

[6:29] you see the increase the proposed

[6:31] increase in the assessment on that page

[6:34] and along with that there's the

[6:37] small increase in the base participation

[6:39] fee

[6:40] from 295 to 350 million which is less

[6:43] than

[6:44] two dollars a month

[6:47] and then on the second page is the full

[6:50] dsisd budget

[6:53] showing

[6:54] uh

[6:55] both income and expenses and

[6:57] as the council is like to see in

[6:59] previous years year over year 2022 and

[7:03] how it compares against

[7:05] 2021.

[7:07] are there any questions

[7:15] as a um of you know coping and

[7:17] everything that happened and cutting

[7:19] back a little bit did you do the

[7:20] reduction in services

[7:22] not so much in the the outside

[7:24] maintenance program

[7:26] we didn't we had some

[7:29] plans to bring in some part-time

[7:30] seasonal you know some of it happened

[7:32] some of it didn't but that program get

[7:34] running probably what the biggest

[7:36] uh reductions were were in the

[7:39] promotional side of things

[7:40] because we couldn't do our wing lock and

[7:42] we couldn't do things that would bring a

[7:44] lot of people together to gather we

[7:46] couldn't do our building block party

[7:48] things of that nature so

[7:50] and then there's other things that we do

[7:52] that are pretty popular like our

[7:54] visitor guide for downtown that we

[7:56] produce and yeah there were so many

[7:58] unknowns with that but we

[8:01] what's reflected in the budget is sort

[8:02] of bringing

[8:03] all of those back again and

[8:06] getting

[8:07] back up to speed and hopefully

[8:09] doing a little bit more

[8:18] next is the upper union street bid with

[8:26] everyone um chris dicocco from upper

[8:28] union street business improvement

[8:30] district

[8:31] uh we are a much simpler version than

[8:34] the downtown

[8:36] district

[8:37] but we like to think we're pretty

[8:39] important up there we do a lot of good

[8:40] things and we're we're grateful to be

[8:42] part of the city and and contributing

[8:44] back

[8:45] um

[8:46] our assessment

[8:48] um you'll see at the top line we've paired back what we've done but

[8:54] what we used to do

[8:55] we've focused and targeted more on

[8:59] promoting the street through some tv

[9:02] some print ad

[9:03] promotional items updating the website

[9:06] and then really i'm focused on keeping

[9:08] the street

[9:10] clean and

[9:12] pretty enough beautification

[9:14] and and really

[9:16] trying to keep things

[9:18] looking nice and with the city's code

[9:20] enforcement and uh metroplex help at

[9:24] times to help kind of target some spots

[9:26] that that could need some help going in

[9:28] and helping the uh the

[9:31] helping encourage

[9:33] some of the the building owners to take

[9:35] care of their properties and make it look nice and and keep that

[9:39] excited

[9:40] beautification promotion that's what

[9:43] we've done we actually coveted uh turned

[9:45] out to be uh okay for us because we had

[9:49] already not planned on doing our big

[9:51] festival because a lot of work and you

[9:54] weren't yielding the returns that we had

[9:56] hoped they would

[9:58] so we had already planned those out of

[10:00] last year

[10:02] and then we wouldn't have been able to

[10:03] do it anyway so we were kind of grateful

[10:05] we we timed the the coconut market

[10:08] pretty well in terms of festivals

[10:11] if you could say that

[10:13] are there any questions

[10:15] i hold this second

[10:18] thank you thank you

[10:20] next is the city council as act as lead

[10:23] agency and be a negative declaration to

[10:26] the seeker mr ferrari

[10:32] thank you

[10:33] council president council uh mayor um

[10:37] you know actually we have uh two uh two

[10:39] requests um for the same project as at

[10:42] us as a lead agency and for the seeker

[10:45] and also the orders for the uh

[10:47] construction water walls i'd like to

[10:49] bring up uh our ogs manager uh paula

[10:52] fonda who leads the water soar and mike

[10:55] miller explained uh uh what what

[10:59] these uh ordinances are about

[11:09] did you understand you're a charming

[11:10] person so um

[11:18] to get us on the list for potential

[11:21] grant money uh from new york state efc

[11:25] there is a deadline for this as a next

[11:27] week

[11:28] but it does allow the city to

[11:30] potentially

[11:32] receive up to six million dollars in

[11:34] grant for this project

[11:36] also the other things that we see is the

[11:38] ability to get low-interest loans or no

[11:41] interest loans

[11:43] really it's an application to get us on

[11:45] the list

[11:46] um

[11:48] the welfield's you know survival project

[11:51] originally into mobile fields so

[11:52] consider the 12 walls

[11:54] approximately 70 years old

[11:56] four wells have been out of service for

[11:58] years now

[12:00] every year you know you do our well

[12:02] replacement program um you rehab our

[12:04] wells but they are getting to a point

[12:07] where we have to do some you know some

[12:09] work and look at putting in new wells

[12:12] and if we can get

[12:14] white said you know

[12:16] 60 on the dollar 60 cents on a dollar to

[12:19] other sources

[12:20] we'd like to apply for this potential

[12:22] brand but mike can explain to mark

[12:24] mike's been very successful with us on

[12:26] other projects with the pump station

[12:28] with efc and giving us some grants there

[12:31] uh and of course maine so um cha's done

[12:34] a great help to the city and um you know

[12:36] finding some money and some

[12:37] opportunities for grants and low

[12:39] interest and rolling his homes for us so

[12:41] thanks paul

[12:42] yeah some of you may recall as part of

[12:44] the force main work and the pump station

[12:46] work we've helped the city secure over

[12:48] 20 millions of 20 million dollars in

[12:50] regard to those projects so when paul

[12:52] asked us to do a preliminary review of

[12:55] the wells and

[12:58] supporting facilities out at the well

[13:00] field

[13:01] we looked at the program we went in we

[13:03] did a comprehensive look at all the

[13:05] assets at the facility

[13:07] and we sat down and we made some

[13:09] recommendations working with the city in

[13:11] terms of where you were as paul said

[13:14] it's an 80 year old well field as you

[13:16] can imagine a lot of the facilities that

[13:18] kind of run uh towards the end of their

[13:21] uh

[13:22] their service life

[13:24] so we're looking to invest some money or

[13:26] paul was looking to invest some money in

[13:28] the well field and bring it back up to

[13:30] speed

[13:31] and up to you know really building in

[13:33] that resiliency and that redundancy that quite frankly the state expects in

[13:37] these systems

[13:39] as you can imagine this is a critical

[13:41] facility this is this is your water

[13:42] supply

[13:43] this is the water supply for not only

[13:45] the entire city your support other

[13:47] adjoining municipalities as well

[13:49] so this is one of the most important

[13:51] assets that this city has

[13:53] so when we develop the program

[13:56] you know one of the things we first do

[13:58] is and try to pair it up with the grant

[14:00] money and for the drinking water

[14:03] the weha funds

[14:05] they're available

[14:07] due to your mean household income you're

[14:09] eligible for these funds not all

[14:11] communities are

[14:13] they're intended to serve

[14:16] environmental justice areas and under

[14:18] underprivileged entities within

[14:20] communities so that's kind of the target

[14:22] audience the state is looking to support

[14:24] with these funding programs

[14:26] of which you qualify

[14:28] so we did go forth and essentially set

[14:31] up a two-phase program for the city

[14:34] which would allow you to go in and apply

[14:36] for vf funding this year and then again

[14:38] next year in support of this program

[14:41] so essentially the way the program works

[14:43] is you get sixty percent on the dollar

[14:46] up to three million three million

[14:48] dollars in a given year

[14:49] so that's why we phased it out the way

[14:51] we did

[14:52] now that being said

[14:54] um as you can imagine

[14:56] uh the state was kind of in limbo they

[14:59] were waiting for the federal

[15:00] infrastructure bill to pass

[15:03] so this program kind of slid a little

[15:05] bit later into the fall than they

[15:06] anticipated

[15:09] they did not actually wait until that

[15:11] pass they got to the point where they

[15:12] had to act

[15:13] and then opened up the window but it was

[15:16] a smaller window and they were looking

[15:17] for people to

[15:19] you know apply by the end of the year so

[15:20] that they could get this funding going

[15:22] because

[15:23] the state's very proud they actually

[15:25] have the largest state revolving fund in

[15:27] the nation

[15:28] they're very proud of that fact

[15:30] they love the fact that they support

[15:32] these water wastewater projects

[15:34] and you got to spend the money in order

[15:36] for the feds to keep getting you

[15:38] so we're trying to help the state spend

[15:40] some money here

[15:42] so that being said there are two

[15:44] ordinances or resolutions that are

[15:46] before us

[15:48] in support of the grant application

[15:50] we have to pass them past the

[15:52] environmental negative negative

[15:54] declaration

[15:56] and then of course we have to pass

[15:58] a bond resolution

[16:00] that talks about the financing of the

[16:01] project

[16:03] so right now the project is listed on

[16:05] the state dependent use plan so we have

[16:09] the option to get financing through that

[16:10] program

[16:12] and

[16:14] the application deadline is actually

[16:18] november 22nd

[16:20] at five o'clock

[16:22] so we are

[16:24] inquiring as to whether there's a way to

[16:25] pass these resolutions prior to that

[16:27] final deadline

[16:29] because we wouldn't want to necessarily

[16:31] get excluded

[16:32] for uh passing a

[16:34] resolution explain to them too is uh uh

[16:38] even though we passed this behind

[16:39] resolution that authorizes us to borrow

[16:42] money but we necessarily drive with our

[16:44] own money because of the

[16:46] you explain that to them too yeah

[16:48] essentially what we're doing this is a grant application and

[16:51] financing application

[16:53] we put forth the applications if we

[16:55] don't receive the grant funding

[16:57] you don't have to move forward uh even

[16:59] if you do receive the grant funding you

[17:02] still don't have to sign a contract to

[17:03] accept that it's just most people do

[17:06] most people when they're handed three

[17:08] million dollars we usually take it and

[17:11] there's two phases of the project and he

[17:12] says three is phase one and phase two

[17:14] for next year which would be the

[17:16] additional three

[17:18] are there any questions

[17:21] just the logistical problem is to get

[17:24] the application in

[17:27] later on today on monday where going

[17:30] with the council wouldn't meet until

[17:32] seven o'clock

[17:34] on monday so looking for your

[17:36] consideration to convene a special

[17:39] meeting

[17:40] to

[17:42] affirmatively act

[17:45] these areas

[17:46] [Music]

[17:49] so what is the overall cost

[17:51] for this project

[17:54] both phases were roughly 12 months and a

[17:56] half a little over 12. the first phase

[17:58] was 7 million that was the installation

[18:00] of three new wells yeah the second phase

[18:04] after their connection would be the

[18:06] upgrade for the chemical system skating

[18:08] system

[18:09] um

[18:10] and the buildings

[18:12] and we did have you know there is an epa

[18:14] report um

[18:16] epa did come in you know they did um

[18:18] look at our chemical feed systems and we

[18:20] did tell them that we were under a

[18:22] review by our consulting engineer to

[18:24] upgrade the system so um

[18:30] you know the system's getting old i mean

[18:32] if you think about it the chemical feed

[18:34] system has not been touched in you know

[18:36] i gotta say

[18:38] 25 years

[18:40] chlorine system the

[18:43] fluoride system so

[18:46] it needs to be upgraded

[18:47] this is our water usability

[18:49] you look around the country with

[18:50] problems coming out west you know with

[18:52] water shortages of water

[19:06] [Music]

[19:09] to supply you know the demand here in

[19:12] the city that's human right and we you

[19:14] know we provide those other two

[19:16] communities

[19:17] so we're asking um so we're going to go

[19:19] up to seek six million dollars in grants

[19:22] where is the other 6.5 billion coming

[19:24] from

[19:25] the state revolving fund in theory the

[19:27] drinking water state revolving product

[19:29] would be financed through the

[19:31] srf um unless of course the city

[19:33] determined that they wanted to isn't it

[19:36] today it just passed in new york city

[19:38] he's going to get 17 billion dollars for

[19:39] the clean water act i mean that's

[19:41] something that's going to be opened up

[19:43] too right our infrastructure very

[19:45] appreciated yeah i wonder one of the

[19:46] things to remember we have a very very

[19:49] healthy grant pool right now it's 400

[19:51] million dollars that's allocated for

[19:54] leah funding this year which is

[19:55] tremendous

[19:56] that's why i hate to see you miss an

[19:58] opportunity to go in and just grab your

[20:01] small share of that at 3 million

[20:04] but that being said

[20:07] uh with the federal bill passing

[20:10] we simply don't know what kind of

[20:12] additional favorable terms

[20:15] efc may throw out as part of that that

[20:17] additional funding

[20:19] so you know our advice is to try and get

[20:21] in now

[20:24] there's an opportunity to get zero

[20:26] interest loans things like that through

[20:28] this program because there's gonna be so

[20:30] much money coming into the state

[20:34] are there any other questions

[20:39] all right so then we will take these as

[20:41] a

[20:42] question

[20:44] two separate motions

[20:48] and then we'll discuss the logistics

[20:50] piece after

[20:51] the first one will be emotion for the

[20:55] seeker

[20:57] second all in favor

[21:00] and next is a motion for the bond

[21:03] ordinance

[21:04] second how does it fail

[21:07] and then the logistical part about the

[21:09] meeting

[21:11] um

[21:12] yeah i'll probably 40 percent then we'll

[21:14] schedule something as well and say okay

[21:17] for a slow

[21:18] wednesday

[21:20] friday

[21:21] three years

[21:23] friday except to do the lead turn for

[21:25] the notice yep

[21:30] [Music]

[21:37] we have the flexibility under

[21:39] the law we still have to have a place in

[21:42] the public for the special meeting

[21:45] attendance virtually so i believe it's

[21:47] possible under the change in the law you

[21:50] have to have video it has to be set up

[21:52] and all that they can't escape

[21:56] so it's friday it's friday okay with

[21:58] everyone

[22:00] john

[22:02] 5 30.

[22:06] the grant application is actually due

[22:09] 11 22 at 5.

[22:12] [Music]

[23:06] miraculously

[23:09] [Music]

[23:34] bye

[23:40] and we'll have this done great thank you

[23:42] very much thank you very much thank you

[23:43] very much

[23:44] thank you all right next is the

[23:46] discussion of the uh

[23:48] survey preliminary data here

[23:52] thank you mr chairman i sent around to

[23:55] the council

[23:57] variety

[23:58] summary of the

[24:00] results

[24:01] [Music]

[24:14] yeah we have those copies here

[24:16] [Music]

[24:43] again this is just the uh

[24:46] summary of the survey

[24:48] uh giving people a chance to look at

[24:50] that

[24:51] taking into consideration

[24:54] is

[24:55] part of the deliberations

[24:57] we're also

[24:59] getting ready to put a application

[25:02] form

[25:03] [Music]

[25:05] up online

[25:29] so that we can

[25:30] start to take applications into the

[25:32] money uh

[25:33] categorize them and

[25:37] start the review process if any members

[25:40] of city council if they have uh

[25:42] suggestions or edits to that if you

[25:45] could give it back

[25:46] to me

[25:47] uh

[25:48] the next day or two

[25:50] and then we'll formally get that up

[25:52] online and be able to distribute it to

[25:55] individuals and entities that are

[25:58] interested in

[26:00] applying for

[26:02] america

[26:02] [Music]

[26:05] are there any questions

[26:08] yeah do you have a timeline for this

[26:09] application

[26:10] that is not online yet just no no not in

[26:14] terms of online but like when they

[26:16] should have it back in house we're

[26:17] looking

[26:19] uh to do it by the end of the year so we

[26:21] put up the next few days have it by the

[26:23] end of december 31st and again this is

[26:26] the first phase

[26:28] you know that we're going to get more

[26:29] money in next year so

[26:31] it's a little bit tighter timeline

[26:38] been initially looked at but

[26:40] it's to uh get people thinking about it

[26:43] and starting the process it won't

[26:45] preclude people from doing things in the

[26:47] future but

[26:49] just starting the application process

[26:51] you can see how many people are

[26:53] interested what areas they're interested

[26:55] in

[26:56] and

[26:58] hopefully by the end of the year we will

[26:59] also know

[27:01] like the money that was

[27:03] in the bill that the president signed

[27:05] today

[27:06] for infrastructure just like with the

[27:08] prior topic

[27:10] where

[27:11] some of those things we might have

[27:12] considered are the money for hopefully

[27:14] some other projects will be eligible for

[27:15] this new money that's out there and we

[27:18] would apply for that or qualify for it

[27:20] under the

[27:22] rules that have been adapted

[27:25] for country

[27:28] um i was just wondering

[27:29] in terms of decision making once

[27:31] applications are in is is it in your

[27:34] community or is it just staff

[27:37] it's

[27:38] that's still open okay we looked to

[27:40] review it the council reporter was

[27:42] talking about

[27:44] some community review

[27:47] again there's different types of

[27:49] applications maybe looking for different

[27:52] areas of expertise

[27:54] to submit it to and

[27:56] again get people's ideas thoughts and

[27:59] looking for the overall impact to be the

[28:01] biggest

[28:02] leveraging resources for the community

[28:06] why don't you think you'll have a

[28:09] final report because this is

[28:13] not much i mean it's a lot of data but

[28:16] it's not very well put together so when

[28:18] do you think you'll have a

[28:20] like a finalized report

[28:22] that's at this point that

[28:25] i'm not looking to do

[28:26] [Music]

[28:28] any additional review on that mr council

[28:30] asked me to

[28:32] which might be hinting at you

[28:34] i'm gonna send you an email asking for

[28:36] everyone or do you have a report

[28:38] do you have a question well actually um

[28:41] it's kind of i was going to ask

[28:46] because i think we've heard of these

[28:48] that people really want to be a part of

[28:49] the process and i don't think you have

[28:51] to concern yourself about people waiting

[28:53] for people to start thinking about this

[28:54] people are already thinking about this

[28:56] they're always trying to

[29:00] i think it's uh really important that uh

[29:03] since this is a one-time thing we think

[29:05] that we get the community but you know

[29:07] this you know it's a lot of money and

[29:09] it's going to impact our city so

[29:11] have folks that you know have the skill

[29:13] set and i think that's part of it as

[29:14] well but to have a community but

[29:17] it's part of it um and i'm not a survey

[29:20] expert i don't know who you are but i

[29:23] was going back through my notes from all

[29:24] the community meetings

[29:26] while i was also reviewing the survey

[29:28] and

[29:29] while there's

[29:31] some

[29:32] before

[29:34] overlap between what we had and what we

[29:36] heard at the painting meetings and

[29:39] what folks said in this survey there's

[29:40] like 196 people that responded to the

[29:43] survey it would be sort of interesting i

[29:46] didn't have time today i was going to

[29:47] try to type up some notes from the

[29:48] various community meetings um and get

[29:50] them out to everybody i didn't get a

[29:52] chance but um

[29:54] i think that would be kind of an

[29:55] interesting overview as well

[29:58] to look at

[29:59] while we look at the survey results is

[30:01] to also look at and i'm sure other

[30:03] people took notes and have impressions

[30:05] as well from the beauty

[30:12] so how much money do we have left to

[30:14] spend i know that we had some other

[30:16] funds that we need to do things for the

[30:17] city so at this point in time

[30:20] do you have that number i thought mr

[30:21] ferrari but i think he got out

[30:24] he is left

[30:26] uh

[30:29] some of that still will be determined by

[30:31] the city council what we use for revenue

[30:34] replacement some of those internal uses

[30:37] of it

[30:38] the budget for 2022 uses

[30:43] 4.3 million

[30:48] again

[30:49] so

[30:50] i don't have an exact dollar on that

[30:53] and

[30:54] it's one of the things that look to work

[30:56] with the council over

[30:58] the next few weeks to narrow that down

[31:02] and

[31:04] do we want to say

[31:07] there's going to be targeted

[31:09] pools of money are we going to use it

[31:10] for housing are we going to use it for

[31:14] small businesses

[31:16] and uh

[31:17] you know being come to some agreement on

[31:19] that so that uh people would know how

[31:22] much money is in a certain category when

[31:25] they're doing the applications

[31:27] yeah

[31:28] just don't have it

[31:34] [Music]

[31:45] the public safety

[31:47] we have one item there and financial

[31:49] europe

[31:50] state holding a security grant

[32:10] application was submitted to homeland

[32:11] security it's an annual grant that we

[32:14] apply for

[32:15] collaborative grant between albany city

[32:18] of albany city troy city's county

[32:20] counties evolving wrestler

[32:22] and uh

[32:24] um kind of legislation application for

[32:26] at the right time because there's a

[32:27] budget on it i can find any item that

[32:29] you'd like but this year is a 203

[32:32] 670

[32:34] grant um

[32:35] for the cities country

[32:37] so again broken down these categories

[32:40] are broken down because there's national

[32:42] priorities this is especially true fema

[32:44] the money comes from homeland security

[32:51] any question

[32:53] you're not

[33:03] any other business for public safety

[33:05] second all in favor aye thank you uh

[33:09] call to order city development and

[33:10] planning there are four items on the

[33:12] agenda

[33:15] okay

[33:18] so the first item

[33:24] actually well give them a minute so i'm

[33:26] going to just jump down to number four

[33:28] for the ceremony resolutions connect the

[33:31] belmont pop warner

[33:32] um i asked this to be put on the agenda

[33:34] these young people have been working

[33:36] really hard and playing hard and have

[33:38] been successful they

[33:39] won

[33:40] what was it called the um super bowl the

[33:42] local super bowl two years running and

[33:44] now they're in a competition to go

[33:46] statewide so i thought it would just be

[33:47] great to be able to

[33:49] give them a resolution to recognize what

[33:51] they're doing and to just kind of like

[33:53] put them before the public because

[33:54] they're doing a great job and we have

[33:56] talked so much about youth and

[33:57] activities for you so this is a good

[33:59] time to to recognize the young people

[34:03] so

[34:04] okay

[34:25] simply beautiful it's a sign i believe

[34:26] it used to be the former cast cafe on

[34:28] pedestrian j street

[34:30] the sign

[34:31] uh

[34:32] overhangs right away is typical it has a

[34:35] similar typical look as the signs do on

[34:37] pedestrian j street it's been through

[34:39] planning and there's been no issues so

[34:41] looking forward to vote

[34:44] any questions

[34:46] second

[34:52] [Music]

[34:56] so as you know we've been working for

[34:58] almost two years now in the replacement

[35:00] of the kings road bridge between the

[35:02] city of connecticut and town rotterdam

[35:04] um due to the increase with the bridge

[35:06] because we're going to be having uh

[35:08] added with on the shoulders or bikes and

[35:11] the sidewalk for pedestrians

[35:13] there's been some right of way necessary

[35:16] to accommodate it um so to do that

[35:18] through this procedure which says

[35:21] domain procedure we need to have a

[35:22] health problem hearing um we're working

[35:24] with both uh mr coldin and rk height and

[35:27] our consultant on this process

[35:38] just

[35:39] some background in terms of damaging

[35:41] domain we initially went out to the

[35:43] property owners to see if they would

[35:46] sell the small pieces of land to the

[35:48] city

[35:51] without getting into too much detail if

[35:53] there was one person who was willing to

[35:55] sell

[35:57] there was one person who has

[35:59] unfortunately passed away the owner the

[36:00] last owner of record which creates an

[36:02] issue um because there's no surrogacy or

[36:05] anything like that and then i think um

[36:08] maybe with the other parcel or two

[36:09] parcels same owner who's unwilling to

[36:12] sell but the only way to obviously

[36:15] accomplish

[36:17] this project is we need to obviously

[36:19] have you know control over that small

[36:21] part and these are called strip takings

[36:24] right they're not

[36:25] properly they're in a small part to make

[36:27] the right of way five to ten feet wider

[36:30] so that we could do the construction

[36:31] that's needed

[36:35] yes

[36:36] so is this just going to be an

[36:37] adjustment for the bee

[36:38] i'm sorry you're just adjusting the v so

[36:41] like there's a survey right that has to

[36:43] be done and i see a splitting of the

[36:45] parcel so we have a new tax map id

[36:48] for those parcels and then we go through

[36:50] the process

[36:52] right

[36:53] so there's no splitting of the deed it's

[36:54] just a

[36:55] tax for like tax map purposes that would

[36:58] have to be splitting the parcels

[37:02] any other questions

[37:06] does the owner know that we're

[37:09] going to probably be going down this

[37:10] path

[37:11] well i i wasn't part of the conversation

[37:14] with the owners um bob did that

[37:17] um

[37:21] you know we

[37:22] essentially what we do is we um

[37:25] determine what the value of the land is

[37:26] that's what a fair market value for that

[37:28] surface is we make the offer to sell it

[37:30] at that fair market value

[37:32] um and you know obviously we can sweeten

[37:35] the pot because

[37:37] it's a task to do a domain right um

[37:41] but if they refuse to sell and we need

[37:43] it for this public purpose

[37:45] um you know they're gonna receive notice

[37:48] it's not as if we just go ahead and take

[37:50] it there's a process involved where they

[37:52] have notice

[37:54] and have the ability to represent

[37:55] themselves or hire you know

[37:57] legal counsel

[37:58] but

[38:00] it's

[38:00] obviously codified

[38:04] and this is not the first week of the

[38:06] process we've been actually doing this

[38:07] for about six months now working with

[38:09] the property owner and trying to get to

[38:11] a state of product so and there have

[38:13] been searching involved to know who the

[38:15] lawful owner is and you know a bunch of

[38:18] backstory before we get to this point

[38:20] here

[38:20] [Music]

[38:26] second

[38:27] favorite

[38:28] thank you and the third one supplemental

[38:31] agreement number two

[38:33] uh for the

[38:34] haitian cities connectivity county from

[38:36] roseville to window avenue yes so uh

[38:39] everywhere you guys awarded the calendar

[38:41] not rows of wendell intersection

[38:43] improvements which is currently taking

[38:44] place we forwarded that award on the new

[38:48] york state department of transportation

[38:50] they concurred the award and issued us a

[38:53] federal authorization in the form of the

[38:55] supplemental agreement the supplemental

[38:57] agreement will allow the city to be

[38:58] reimbursed for the construction costs on

[39:01] the project

[39:02] um because this is a federal aid project

[39:04] so as you see right here the i believe

[39:06] it's 400

[39:08] 487 000 of the construction costs are

[39:11] reimbursable

[39:13] so

[39:14] it's it's a reimbursement so you know

[39:16] we're doing some of the work now we're

[39:18] setting the curbs in place actually i

[39:20] was out there today it looks uh starting

[39:22] to starting to take shape you can see it

[39:24] one of the issues that we're having that

[39:25] i brought up before is still supply

[39:27] chain

[39:28] whereas in a lot of those areas that you

[39:30] see we're going to put temporary asphalt

[39:32] in because our signal installers have to

[39:35] come and put in large foundations and

[39:38] new things because we're getting an

[39:39] all-new traffic signal and each traffic

[39:41] signal also have pedestrian

[39:42] accommodations have their own

[39:44] foundations

[39:45] so we're trying to get ahead but the

[39:46] supply chain is a little hard for us but

[39:50] even with the curve in right now it's

[39:51] already made a difference and you're

[39:53] going to be able to cross

[39:55] across the road across the window of the

[39:57] shorter crossing using the median

[39:59] this year which would be nice because

[40:01] we've kind of eliminated that large

[40:02] crossing

[40:04] so

[40:05] you know it's progress but this is the

[40:06] next step so that we can get reimbursed

[40:08] for any costs we've heard and thank you

[40:10] for a long time

[40:36] operations we have three items on the

[40:38] agenda

[40:40] first item on discussion osn broadcast

[40:42] of city council and committee meetings mr

[40:45] pauline

[40:46] so mr schmidt couldn't be here tonight

[40:49] i'm osm so i'll just give some of the

[40:52] information

[40:54] and then

[40:55] i think it's more appropriate to let him

[40:58] speak to these issues so i reached out

[41:01] he recommended reaching out to a company

[41:03] like savvy or eos technologies which is

[41:07] down in area boulevard to update

[41:09] equipment and perform some cable

[41:11] management

[41:13] [Music]

[41:14] he said some specific issues that need

[41:16] to be addressed are the committee board

[41:19] room here needs new audio system

[41:22] and looking at gooseneck mics similar to

[41:25] what's in the console chambers

[41:28] this would help eliminate some of the

[41:29] sounds of the air conditioners and

[41:32] background noises for presentations he

[41:36] would

[41:37] recommend a roll-out podium with a

[41:40] planted mic to centralize audio and keep

[41:43] the presenter centered

[41:45] he says the committee room also needs

[41:47] new wiring back up to the control room

[41:49] behind the console chambers

[41:51] and an additional wire ram for second

[41:55] cameras

[41:57] off florida's all team by the way

[41:59] this would give us give them two angles

[42:02] of video in the committee board room as

[42:04] opposed to just warmth

[42:06] and

[42:07] [Music]

[42:08] city council chambers needs one wire ran

[42:11] and installed back to the control area

[42:13] to feed the third camera

[42:15] and the cordless handheld mics

[42:18] the council uses also need to be

[42:20] replaced

[42:22] it's a lot the internet stream quality

[42:24] stems from a lack of sufficient

[42:26] bandwidth in the room

[42:29] and

[42:30] this has been communicated to our i.t

[42:32] staff

[42:34] and that's the large reason for

[42:37] the stream getting weak and dropping out

[42:41] he says this is

[42:42] this we can address without outside

[42:44] consultation

[42:47] probably a new wired connection ran to

[42:49] the control room which could be

[42:51] installed so he's offered to

[42:55] reach out to the companies

[42:57] so i think that's probably our best

[43:00] approach so we get some idea of

[43:02] cost

[43:04] given that we

[43:05] want to say a year and a half or two ago

[43:08] we put in a chunk of money so that we

[43:11] wouldn't have these issues

[43:12] um so we'll see what this costs

[43:15] and then

[43:16] i'll forward you this information so you

[43:19] all have it and then

[43:21] ask him to try to get some

[43:23] preliminary numbers and exacts and

[43:27] hopefully happen in two weeks

[43:30] so you mentioned a company is there more

[43:32] than one company that you would be

[43:33] looking at so that you know

[43:35] there's two companies

[43:37] savvy and eos okay so

[43:40] this is something i'm sure we have had

[43:42] about today

[43:44] it depends on what you cost

[43:46] a lot of things

[43:50] some of those items pricing around the

[43:52] state contract

[43:55] [Music]

[44:05] and so the next step on this is

[44:09] have him reach out to the company see if

[44:11] we can get some numbers and see if he's

[44:14] available in two weeks hopefully

[44:15] okay

[44:18] any other questions

[44:20] i just got a text message that the

[44:23] video audio was blacked out

[44:29] so

[44:30] um

[44:31] you were out on vacation but i sent an

[44:33] email

[44:34] one of the questions i have is

[44:37] do the meetings need to be live or not

[44:40] and

[44:41] because

[44:42] this is just an ongoing issue

[44:45] and i know i get text messages every

[44:47] meeting

[44:48] you know

[44:49] i can't hear anything

[44:51] i can't see anything

[44:53] and you know it's hard when you're

[44:55] trying to pay attention and answer

[44:57] people in text messaging

[44:59] i don't have control over the audio

[45:01] sorry

[45:02] but

[45:03] you know that might handle some of it i

[45:05] don't know

[45:06] i have an inclination to my answer but i

[45:08] want to reserve what i'm going to say

[45:09] because i just want to verify the

[45:10] information okay um and i'll send an

[45:13] email out just

[45:15] answering that question that way it just

[45:16] gives us all a bunch of options because

[45:19] it just comes back as a

[45:21] 150 000

[45:23] uh you know

[45:25] i'm not sure that's

[45:27] something that

[45:30] we might have got to do maybe not so it

[45:32] just gives us options that's all i'm

[45:33] looking for i'll give you guys so

[45:36] thank you

[45:37] so hopefully you can see i will get that

[45:39] answer and you can also hear from mr

[45:41] schmidt and couple weeks

[45:44] back on the agenda

[45:49] discussion calling for public hearings

[45:51] to amend chapter

[45:53] 87 eleven of the calling the city of

[45:55] schenectady very holidays and this is a

[45:57] follow-up to discussion

[45:58] of june 21st regarding juneteenth

[46:03] so um

[46:04] i think mr moonvery

[46:06] we had talked about this earlier about

[46:08] um

[46:09] duo teams was

[46:11] considered considered a federal holiday

[46:13] now and do we amend our code to reflect that as well

[46:18] at the last discussion i think we

[46:19] haven't even asked us to hold on until

[46:21] all the union contracts have completed

[46:23] so now it's

[46:25] contracts are completed the ones that

[46:27] were pending

[46:28] and it says that

[46:30] paid holidays are always recognized by

[46:32] the city of council and really what we

[46:33] did was

[46:34] teams

[46:35] so you had to see that

[46:38] under the contracts but

[46:40] [Music]

[46:48] so um so this is so what we're asking

[46:51] now for the council to actually um you

[46:53] know to amend the city code so that it

[46:55] reflects that as well

[46:58] any questions discussion

[47:02] all those in favor

[47:03] [Music]

[47:05] and final item on the agenda discussion

[47:07] receiving two new council members to

[47:09] fill vacancies mr munavera

[47:11] yeah thank you i just placed this on the

[47:13] agenda just to start a discussion in

[47:15] terms of a

[47:17] seating

[47:18] slashing painting

[47:20] and i was told this afternoon that we

[47:22] can actually sit come to memory we have

[47:25] to appoint

[47:26] come to number

[47:29] so i'm not sure where we are at this

[47:30] point i was i was of the understanding

[47:32] that

[47:33] once the result is certified by board

[47:35] election

[47:36] this

[47:37] are the ones that are signed both in the

[47:39] clerk's office you will automatically

[47:40] take your seat

[47:42] and you think i was misinformed

[47:44] about that until this afternoon

[47:53] [Music]

[48:03] 13-2 e

[48:07] what the city charter says is the

[48:09] council shall appoint a qualified person

[48:11] to fill such vacancy until the first day

[48:13] of january following the next general

[48:15] election city election at which his

[48:17] successor shall be elected for the full

[48:19] unexpired term

[48:20] that is informing me that it's the

[48:23] council that would appoint somebody

[48:26] through

[48:26] december

[48:28] 31st

[48:29] of this year

[48:31] and based on the election results

[48:34] whoever you know won the election would

[48:37] take their receipt as

[48:39] the elected

[48:40] individuals

[48:42] at that time for the entire term

[48:44] so it would be up to the council to

[48:46] appoint whomever the council would like

[48:49] to appoint into the two vacant

[48:52] seats

[48:52] [Music]

[48:54] i think when we asked samantha uh

[48:56] previously how we did it when it was

[48:59] done i think it was for council members

[49:03] there was a resolution appointing her to

[49:06] the seat at the time

[49:08] that my suggestion my what i'm saying

[49:10] suggestion my

[49:12] legal opinion is that's what would have

[49:13] to happen

[49:15] in this instance as well

[49:17] and then those members

[49:18] whoever if it's the folks who are who

[49:21] won the election they would be taking

[49:22] their seats

[49:24] january 1st

[49:26] as a result of the election

[49:41] and um but i also understand that we

[49:43] have to wait until the election is

[49:44] started

[49:46] and i know that we're counting today

[49:48] technically you don't have to wait for

[49:50] it to be certified to appoint somebody

[49:52] to the seats

[49:53] fill up the vacancies

[49:55] right as long as they're

[49:57] know if they live in the city of

[49:59] connecticut

[50:01] and you know other requirements um you

[50:03] don't have to wait for it to be

[50:05] certified like previously before the

[50:06] election you could have you know the

[50:08] council would have appointed

[50:10] people to take the seats now um

[50:14] honestly

[50:15] all right so there's nothing preventing

[50:17] you from appointing somebody to

[50:19] people to fill the vacancies through the

[50:21] end of this year

[50:22] well you know we waited all the time

[50:27] [Music]

[50:38] three to the l so um if that's what

[50:41] we're talking about it's going to be

[50:42] sometime this week

[50:44] that we would

[50:46] do that

[50:47] mr mary did you have something

[50:49] i look forward to working with those

[50:51] individuals

[50:55] [Music]

[51:16] okay any other discussion

[51:18] all right so

[51:19] could be

[51:20] continued there anything else to come

[51:23] before doubling operations

[51:26] all those in favor

[51:27] thank you we are done

[51:32] [Music]

[51:48] objection

[51:49] [Music]

[52:11] i miss though

Schenectady City Council Committee Meeting November 15th 2021

Transcript