[Music]
very voted
[Music]
um
[Music]
the shoulder the
is
[Music]
oh
so actually
[Music]
good um everyone i would like to call
this connected city council meeting from monday november the 15th
to order i will go straight from the
finance mr paul ordered finance committee the first
item is downtown connecticut assessment
district for mr selango
hi good evening everybody uh james lingo
with the downtown connecticut
corporation and um
it's nice to be back in this room i
don't think i've been in here for two
years so good to see everybody in person
you should have your budget that came in
uh in the packet
so
our 2022 budget represents
i guess getting a lot more back to
normal after a few years of
challenging times for everybody my
budget last year was paired back a bit
because we certainly couldn't do all the
things that we normally would do with
all the essential things but this year
we're really looking at 2022 is being uh
the first page um as you recall and i'll remind you that
um you know we give you the entire budget of the
downtown connecticut corporation
so you can see how everything fits into
context
the first page you have here is
what the city council will prove is the
um
the total amount of the
assessment that goes towards the
cost of our operations so
back in 20
end of 2019
when i stood here
we explained how
with the expansion of our district
2020
where we started operating in little
italy uh the stretch of erie from union
to
knox street and then also the lower part
of broadway to the highway
that we had a strategy to help
pay for the expansion that we were going
to be um
incrementally adding to the assessment
until we got to
a point where we could be a little bit
more balanced we did not do that last
year because of pandemic we decided it
was
proven that everybody was going through
but
starting for 2022 as you can see we've
we're getting back to that strategy so
you see the increase the proposed
increase in the assessment on that page
and along with that there's the
small increase in the base participation
fee
from 295 to 350 million which is less
than
two dollars a month
and then on the second page is the full
dsisd budget
showing
uh
both income and expenses and
as the council is like to see in
previous years year over year 2022 and
how it compares against
2021.
are there any questions
as a um of you know coping and
everything that happened and cutting
back a little bit did you do the
reduction in services
not so much in the the outside
maintenance program
we didn't we had some
plans to bring in some part-time
seasonal you know some of it happened
some of it didn't but that program get
running probably what the biggest
uh reductions were were in the
promotional side of things
because we couldn't do our wing lock and
we couldn't do things that would bring a
lot of people together to gather we
couldn't do our building block party
things of that nature so
and then there's other things that we do
that are pretty popular like our
visitor guide for downtown that we
produce and yeah there were so many
unknowns with that but we
what's reflected in the budget is sort
of bringing
all of those back again and
getting
back up to speed and hopefully
doing a little bit more
next is the upper union street bid with
everyone um chris dicocco from upper
union street business improvement
district
uh we are a much simpler version than
the downtown
district
but we like to think we're pretty
important up there we do a lot of good
things and we're we're grateful to be
part of the city and and contributing
back
um
our assessment
um you'll see at the top line we've paired back what we've done but
what we used to do
we've focused and targeted more on
promoting the street through some tv
some print ad
promotional items updating the website
and then really i'm focused on keeping
the street
clean and
pretty enough beautification
and and really
trying to keep things
looking nice and with the city's code
enforcement and uh metroplex help at
times to help kind of target some spots
that that could need some help going in
and helping the uh the
helping encourage
some of the the building owners to take
care of their properties and make it look nice and and keep that
excited
beautification promotion that's what
we've done we actually coveted uh turned
out to be uh okay for us because we had
already not planned on doing our big
festival because a lot of work and you
weren't yielding the returns that we had
hoped they would
so we had already planned those out of
last year
and then we wouldn't have been able to
do it anyway so we were kind of grateful
we we timed the the coconut market
pretty well in terms of festivals
if you could say that
are there any questions
i hold this second
thank you thank you
next is the city council as act as lead
agency and be a negative declaration to
the seeker mr ferrari
thank you
council president council uh mayor um
you know actually we have uh two uh two
requests um for the same project as at
us as a lead agency and for the seeker
and also the orders for the uh
construction water walls i'd like to
bring up uh our ogs manager uh paula
fonda who leads the water soar and mike
miller explained uh uh what what
these uh ordinances are about
did you understand you're a charming
person so um
to get us on the list for potential
grant money uh from new york state efc
there is a deadline for this as a next
week
but it does allow the city to
potentially
receive up to six million dollars in
grant for this project
also the other things that we see is the
ability to get low-interest loans or no
interest loans
really it's an application to get us on
the list
um
the welfield's you know survival project
originally into mobile fields so
consider the 12 walls
approximately 70 years old
four wells have been out of service for
years now
every year you know you do our well
replacement program um you rehab our
wells but they are getting to a point
where we have to do some you know some
work and look at putting in new wells
and if we can get
white said you know
60 on the dollar 60 cents on a dollar to
other sources
we'd like to apply for this potential
brand but mike can explain to mark
mike's been very successful with us on
other projects with the pump station
with efc and giving us some grants there
uh and of course maine so um cha's done
a great help to the city and um you know
finding some money and some
opportunities for grants and low
interest and rolling his homes for us so
thanks paul
yeah some of you may recall as part of
the force main work and the pump station
work we've helped the city secure over
20 millions of 20 million dollars in
regard to those projects so when paul
asked us to do a preliminary review of
the wells and
supporting facilities out at the well
field
we looked at the program we went in we
did a comprehensive look at all the
assets at the facility
and we sat down and we made some
recommendations working with the city in
terms of where you were as paul said
it's an 80 year old well field as you
can imagine a lot of the facilities that
kind of run uh towards the end of their
uh
their service life
so we're looking to invest some money or
paul was looking to invest some money in
the well field and bring it back up to
speed
and up to you know really building in
that resiliency and that redundancy that quite frankly the state expects in
these systems
as you can imagine this is a critical
facility this is this is your water
supply
this is the water supply for not only
the entire city your support other
adjoining municipalities as well
so this is one of the most important
assets that this city has
so when we develop the program
you know one of the things we first do
is and try to pair it up with the grant
money and for the drinking water
the weha funds
they're available
due to your mean household income you're
eligible for these funds not all
communities are
they're intended to serve
environmental justice areas and under
underprivileged entities within
communities so that's kind of the target
audience the state is looking to support
with these funding programs
of which you qualify
so we did go forth and essentially set
up a two-phase program for the city
which would allow you to go in and apply
for vf funding this year and then again
next year in support of this program
so essentially the way the program works
is you get sixty percent on the dollar
up to three million three million
dollars in a given year
so that's why we phased it out the way
we did
now that being said
um as you can imagine
uh the state was kind of in limbo they
were waiting for the federal
infrastructure bill to pass
so this program kind of slid a little
bit later into the fall than they
anticipated
they did not actually wait until that
pass they got to the point where they
had to act
and then opened up the window but it was
a smaller window and they were looking
for people to
you know apply by the end of the year so
that they could get this funding going
because
the state's very proud they actually
have the largest state revolving fund in
the nation
they're very proud of that fact
they love the fact that they support
these water wastewater projects
and you got to spend the money in order
for the feds to keep getting you
so we're trying to help the state spend
some money here
so that being said there are two
ordinances or resolutions that are
before us
in support of the grant application
we have to pass them past the
environmental negative negative
declaration
and then of course we have to pass
a bond resolution
that talks about the financing of the
project
so right now the project is listed on
the state dependent use plan so we have
the option to get financing through that
program
and
the application deadline is actually
november 22nd
at five o'clock
so we are
inquiring as to whether there's a way to
pass these resolutions prior to that
final deadline
because we wouldn't want to necessarily
get excluded
for uh passing a
resolution explain to them too is uh uh
even though we passed this behind
resolution that authorizes us to borrow
money but we necessarily drive with our
own money because of the
you explain that to them too yeah
essentially what we're doing this is a grant application and
financing application
we put forth the applications if we
don't receive the grant funding
you don't have to move forward uh even
if you do receive the grant funding you
still don't have to sign a contract to
accept that it's just most people do
most people when they're handed three
million dollars we usually take it and
there's two phases of the project and he
says three is phase one and phase two
for next year which would be the
additional three
are there any questions
just the logistical problem is to get
the application in
later on today on monday where going
with the council wouldn't meet until
seven o'clock
on monday so looking for your
consideration to convene a special
meeting
to
affirmatively act
these areas
[Music]
so what is the overall cost
for this project
both phases were roughly 12 months and a
half a little over 12. the first phase
was 7 million that was the installation
of three new wells yeah the second phase
after their connection would be the
upgrade for the chemical system skating
system
um
and the buildings
and we did have you know there is an epa
report um
epa did come in you know they did um
look at our chemical feed systems and we
did tell them that we were under a
review by our consulting engineer to
upgrade the system so um
you know the system's getting old i mean
if you think about it the chemical feed
system has not been touched in you know
i gotta say
25 years
chlorine system the
fluoride system so
it needs to be upgraded
this is our water usability
you look around the country with
problems coming out west you know with
water shortages of water
[Music]
to supply you know the demand here in
the city that's human right and we you
know we provide those other two
communities
so we're asking um so we're going to go
up to seek six million dollars in grants
where is the other 6.5 billion coming
from
the state revolving fund in theory the
drinking water state revolving product
would be financed through the
srf um unless of course the city
determined that they wanted to isn't it
today it just passed in new york city
he's going to get 17 billion dollars for
the clean water act i mean that's
something that's going to be opened up
too right our infrastructure very
appreciated yeah i wonder one of the
things to remember we have a very very
healthy grant pool right now it's 400
million dollars that's allocated for
leah funding this year which is
tremendous
that's why i hate to see you miss an
opportunity to go in and just grab your
small share of that at 3 million
but that being said
uh with the federal bill passing
we simply don't know what kind of
additional favorable terms
efc may throw out as part of that that
additional funding
so you know our advice is to try and get
in now
there's an opportunity to get zero
interest loans things like that through
this program because there's gonna be so
much money coming into the state
are there any other questions
all right so then we will take these as
a
question
two separate motions
and then we'll discuss the logistics
piece after
the first one will be emotion for the
seeker
second all in favor
and next is a motion for the bond
ordinance
second how does it fail
and then the logistical part about the
meeting
um
yeah i'll probably 40 percent then we'll
schedule something as well and say okay
for a slow
wednesday
friday
three years
friday except to do the lead turn for
the notice yep
[Music]
we have the flexibility under
the law we still have to have a place in
the public for the special meeting
attendance virtually so i believe it's
possible under the change in the law you
have to have video it has to be set up
and all that they can't escape
so it's friday it's friday okay with
everyone
john
5 30.
the grant application is actually due
11 22 at 5.
[Music]
miraculously
[Music]
bye
and we'll have this done great thank you
very much thank you very much thank you
very much
thank you all right next is the
discussion of the uh
survey preliminary data here
thank you mr chairman i sent around to
the council
variety
summary of the
results
[Music]
yeah we have those copies here
[Music]
again this is just the uh
summary of the survey
uh giving people a chance to look at
that
taking into consideration
is
part of the deliberations
we're also
getting ready to put a application
form
[Music]
up online
so that we can
start to take applications into the
money uh
categorize them and
start the review process if any members
of city council if they have uh
suggestions or edits to that if you
could give it back
to me
uh
the next day or two
and then we'll formally get that up
online and be able to distribute it to
individuals and entities that are
interested in
applying for
america
[Music]
are there any questions
yeah do you have a timeline for this
application
that is not online yet just no no not in
terms of online but like when they
should have it back in house we're
looking
uh to do it by the end of the year so we
put up the next few days have it by the
end of december 31st and again this is
the first phase
you know that we're going to get more
money in next year so
it's a little bit tighter timeline
been initially looked at but
it's to uh get people thinking about it
and starting the process it won't
preclude people from doing things in the
future but
just starting the application process
you can see how many people are
interested what areas they're interested
in
and
hopefully by the end of the year we will
also know
like the money that was
in the bill that the president signed
today
for infrastructure just like with the
prior topic
where
some of those things we might have
considered are the money for hopefully
some other projects will be eligible for
this new money that's out there and we
would apply for that or qualify for it
under the
rules that have been adapted
for country
um i was just wondering
in terms of decision making once
applications are in is is it in your
community or is it just staff
it's
that's still open okay we looked to
review it the council reporter was
talking about
some community review
again there's different types of
applications maybe looking for different
areas of expertise
to submit it to and
again get people's ideas thoughts and
looking for the overall impact to be the
biggest
leveraging resources for the community
why don't you think you'll have a
final report because this is
not much i mean it's a lot of data but
it's not very well put together so when
do you think you'll have a
like a finalized report
that's at this point that
i'm not looking to do
[Music]
any additional review on that mr council
asked me to
which might be hinting at you
i'm gonna send you an email asking for
everyone or do you have a report
do you have a question well actually um
it's kind of i was going to ask
because i think we've heard of these
that people really want to be a part of
the process and i don't think you have
to concern yourself about people waiting
for people to start thinking about this
people are already thinking about this
they're always trying to
i think it's uh really important that uh
since this is a one-time thing we think
that we get the community but you know
this you know it's a lot of money and
it's going to impact our city so
have folks that you know have the skill
set and i think that's part of it as
well but to have a community but
it's part of it um and i'm not a survey
expert i don't know who you are but i
was going back through my notes from all
the community meetings
while i was also reviewing the survey
and
while there's
some
before
overlap between what we had and what we
heard at the painting meetings and
what folks said in this survey there's
like 196 people that responded to the
survey it would be sort of interesting i
didn't have time today i was going to
try to type up some notes from the
various community meetings um and get
them out to everybody i didn't get a
chance but um
i think that would be kind of an
interesting overview as well
to look at
while we look at the survey results is
to also look at and i'm sure other
people took notes and have impressions
as well from the beauty
so how much money do we have left to
spend i know that we had some other
funds that we need to do things for the
city so at this point in time
do you have that number i thought mr
ferrari but i think he got out
he is left
uh
some of that still will be determined by
the city council what we use for revenue
replacement some of those internal uses
of it
the budget for 2022 uses
4.3 million
again
so
i don't have an exact dollar on that
and
it's one of the things that look to work
with the council over
the next few weeks to narrow that down
and
do we want to say
there's going to be targeted
pools of money are we going to use it
for housing are we going to use it for
small businesses
and uh
you know being come to some agreement on
that so that uh people would know how
much money is in a certain category when
they're doing the applications
yeah
just don't have it
[Music]
the public safety
we have one item there and financial
europe
state holding a security grant
application was submitted to homeland
security it's an annual grant that we
apply for
collaborative grant between albany city
of albany city troy city's county
counties evolving wrestler
and uh
um kind of legislation application for
at the right time because there's a
budget on it i can find any item that
you'd like but this year is a 203
670
grant um
for the cities country
so again broken down these categories
are broken down because there's national
priorities this is especially true fema
the money comes from homeland security
any question
you're not
any other business for public safety
second all in favor aye thank you uh
call to order city development and
planning there are four items on the
agenda
okay
so the first item
actually well give them a minute so i'm
going to just jump down to number four
for the ceremony resolutions connect the
belmont pop warner
um i asked this to be put on the agenda
these young people have been working
really hard and playing hard and have
been successful they
won
what was it called the um super bowl the
local super bowl two years running and
now they're in a competition to go
statewide so i thought it would just be
great to be able to
give them a resolution to recognize what
they're doing and to just kind of like
put them before the public because
they're doing a great job and we have
talked so much about youth and
activities for you so this is a good
time to to recognize the young people
so
okay
simply beautiful it's a sign i believe
it used to be the former cast cafe on
pedestrian j street
the sign
uh
overhangs right away is typical it has a
similar typical look as the signs do on
pedestrian j street it's been through
planning and there's been no issues so
looking forward to vote
any questions
second
[Music]
so as you know we've been working for
almost two years now in the replacement
of the kings road bridge between the
city of connecticut and town rotterdam
um due to the increase with the bridge
because we're going to be having uh
added with on the shoulders or bikes and
the sidewalk for pedestrians
there's been some right of way necessary
to accommodate it um so to do that
through this procedure which says
domain procedure we need to have a
health problem hearing um we're working
with both uh mr coldin and rk height and
our consultant on this process
just
some background in terms of damaging
domain we initially went out to the
property owners to see if they would
sell the small pieces of land to the
city
without getting into too much detail if
there was one person who was willing to
sell
there was one person who has
unfortunately passed away the owner the
last owner of record which creates an
issue um because there's no surrogacy or
anything like that and then i think um
maybe with the other parcel or two
parcels same owner who's unwilling to
sell but the only way to obviously
accomplish
this project is we need to obviously
have you know control over that small
part and these are called strip takings
right they're not
properly they're in a small part to make
the right of way five to ten feet wider
so that we could do the construction
that's needed
yes
so is this just going to be an
adjustment for the bee
i'm sorry you're just adjusting the v so
like there's a survey right that has to
be done and i see a splitting of the
parcel so we have a new tax map id
for those parcels and then we go through
the process
right
so there's no splitting of the deed it's
just a
tax for like tax map purposes that would
have to be splitting the parcels
any other questions
does the owner know that we're
going to probably be going down this
path
well i i wasn't part of the conversation
with the owners um bob did that
um
you know we
essentially what we do is we um
determine what the value of the land is
that's what a fair market value for that
surface is we make the offer to sell it
at that fair market value
um and you know obviously we can sweeten
the pot because
it's a task to do a domain right um
but if they refuse to sell and we need
it for this public purpose
um you know they're gonna receive notice
it's not as if we just go ahead and take
it there's a process involved where they
have notice
and have the ability to represent
themselves or hire you know
legal counsel
but
it's
obviously codified
and this is not the first week of the
process we've been actually doing this
for about six months now working with
the property owner and trying to get to
a state of product so and there have
been searching involved to know who the
lawful owner is and you know a bunch of
backstory before we get to this point
here
[Music]
second
favorite
thank you and the third one supplemental
agreement number two
uh for the
haitian cities connectivity county from
roseville to window avenue yes so uh
everywhere you guys awarded the calendar
not rows of wendell intersection
improvements which is currently taking
place we forwarded that award on the new
york state department of transportation
they concurred the award and issued us a
federal authorization in the form of the
supplemental agreement the supplemental
agreement will allow the city to be
reimbursed for the construction costs on
the project
um because this is a federal aid project
so as you see right here the i believe
it's 400
487 000 of the construction costs are
reimbursable
so
it's it's a reimbursement so you know
we're doing some of the work now we're
setting the curbs in place actually i
was out there today it looks uh starting
to starting to take shape you can see it
one of the issues that we're having that
i brought up before is still supply
chain
whereas in a lot of those areas that you
see we're going to put temporary asphalt
in because our signal installers have to
come and put in large foundations and
new things because we're getting an
all-new traffic signal and each traffic
signal also have pedestrian
accommodations have their own
foundations
so we're trying to get ahead but the
supply chain is a little hard for us but
even with the curve in right now it's
already made a difference and you're
going to be able to cross
across the road across the window of the
shorter crossing using the median
this year which would be nice because
we've kind of eliminated that large
crossing
so
you know it's progress but this is the
next step so that we can get reimbursed
for any costs we've heard and thank you
for a long time
operations we have three items on the
agenda
first item on discussion osn broadcast
of city council and committee meetings mr
pauline
so mr schmidt couldn't be here tonight
i'm osm so i'll just give some of the
information
and then
i think it's more appropriate to let him
speak to these issues so i reached out
he recommended reaching out to a company
like savvy or eos technologies which is
down in area boulevard to update
equipment and perform some cable
management
[Music]
he said some specific issues that need
to be addressed are the committee board
room here needs new audio system
and looking at gooseneck mics similar to
what's in the console chambers
this would help eliminate some of the
sounds of the air conditioners and
background noises for presentations he
would
recommend a roll-out podium with a
planted mic to centralize audio and keep
the presenter centered
he says the committee room also needs
new wiring back up to the control room
behind the console chambers
and an additional wire ram for second
cameras
off florida's all team by the way
this would give us give them two angles
of video in the committee board room as
opposed to just warmth
and
[Music]
city council chambers needs one wire ran
and installed back to the control area
to feed the third camera
and the cordless handheld mics
the council uses also need to be
replaced
it's a lot the internet stream quality
stems from a lack of sufficient
bandwidth in the room
and
this has been communicated to our i.t
staff
and that's the large reason for
the stream getting weak and dropping out
he says this is
this we can address without outside
consultation
probably a new wired connection ran to
the control room which could be
installed so he's offered to
reach out to the companies
so i think that's probably our best
approach so we get some idea of
cost
given that we
want to say a year and a half or two ago
we put in a chunk of money so that we
wouldn't have these issues
um so we'll see what this costs
and then
i'll forward you this information so you
all have it and then
ask him to try to get some
preliminary numbers and exacts and
hopefully happen in two weeks
so you mentioned a company is there more
than one company that you would be
looking at so that you know
there's two companies
savvy and eos okay so
this is something i'm sure we have had
about today
it depends on what you cost
a lot of things
some of those items pricing around the
state contract
[Music]
and so the next step on this is
have him reach out to the company see if
we can get some numbers and see if he's
available in two weeks hopefully
okay
any other questions
i just got a text message that the
video audio was blacked out
so
um
you were out on vacation but i sent an
email
one of the questions i have is
do the meetings need to be live or not
and
because
this is just an ongoing issue
and i know i get text messages every
meeting
you know
i can't hear anything
i can't see anything
and you know it's hard when you're
trying to pay attention and answer
people in text messaging
i don't have control over the audio
sorry
but
you know that might handle some of it i
don't know
i have an inclination to my answer but i
want to reserve what i'm going to say
because i just want to verify the
information okay um and i'll send an
email out just
answering that question that way it just
gives us all a bunch of options because
it just comes back as a
150 000
uh you know
i'm not sure that's
something that
we might have got to do maybe not so it
just gives us options that's all i'm
looking for i'll give you guys so
thank you
so hopefully you can see i will get that
answer and you can also hear from mr
schmidt and couple weeks
back on the agenda
discussion calling for public hearings
to amend chapter
87 eleven of the calling the city of
schenectady very holidays and this is a
follow-up to discussion
of june 21st regarding juneteenth
so um
i think mr moonvery
we had talked about this earlier about
um
duo teams was
considered considered a federal holiday
now and do we amend our code to reflect that as well
at the last discussion i think we
haven't even asked us to hold on until
all the union contracts have completed
so now it's
contracts are completed the ones that
were pending
and it says that
paid holidays are always recognized by
the city of council and really what we
did was
teams
so you had to see that
under the contracts but
[Music]
so um so this is so what we're asking
now for the council to actually um you
know to amend the city code so that it
reflects that as well
any questions discussion
all those in favor
[Music]
and final item on the agenda discussion
receiving two new council members to
fill vacancies mr munavera
yeah thank you i just placed this on the
agenda just to start a discussion in
terms of a
seating
slashing painting
and i was told this afternoon that we
can actually sit come to memory we have
to appoint
come to number
so i'm not sure where we are at this
point i was i was of the understanding
that
once the result is certified by board
election
this
are the ones that are signed both in the
clerk's office you will automatically
take your seat
and you think i was misinformed
about that until this afternoon
[Music]
13-2 e
what the city charter says is the
council shall appoint a qualified person
to fill such vacancy until the first day
of january following the next general
election city election at which his
successor shall be elected for the full
unexpired term
that is informing me that it's the
council that would appoint somebody
through
december
31st
of this year
and based on the election results
whoever you know won the election would
take their receipt as
the elected
individuals
at that time for the entire term
so it would be up to the council to
appoint whomever the council would like
to appoint into the two vacant
seats
[Music]
i think when we asked samantha uh
previously how we did it when it was
done i think it was for council members
there was a resolution appointing her to
the seat at the time
that my suggestion my what i'm saying
suggestion my
legal opinion is that's what would have
to happen
in this instance as well
and then those members
whoever if it's the folks who are who
won the election they would be taking
their seats
january 1st
as a result of the election
and um but i also understand that we
have to wait until the election is
started
and i know that we're counting today
technically you don't have to wait for
it to be certified to appoint somebody
to the seats
fill up the vacancies
right as long as they're
know if they live in the city of
connecticut
and you know other requirements um you
don't have to wait for it to be
certified like previously before the
election you could have you know the
council would have appointed
people to take the seats now um
honestly
all right so there's nothing preventing
you from appointing somebody to
people to fill the vacancies through the
end of this year
well you know we waited all the time
[Music]
three to the l so um if that's what
we're talking about it's going to be
sometime this week
that we would
do that
mr mary did you have something
i look forward to working with those
individuals
[Music]
okay any other discussion
all right so
could be
continued there anything else to come
before doubling operations
all those in favor
thank you we are done
[Music]
objection
[Music]
i miss though