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monday february 22 2022
the first committee is the development
of planning so i'd like to call to order
city development and planning we have
eight items on the agenda first to
revere avenue rezoning ordinance
mr epstein
hey
um so the department is looking for uh
an ordinance to change the zoning of the
beer ad which includes 22 particles from
the r1 single family to the r3
multiplier
it's not a new um rezoning request where
you had the documents we're actually
requesting the final ordinance for the
rezone um
process began in 2020 it's already had
the
lead agency for seeker
negdeck for seeker public common period
public hearing sales and planning
commission reviewed it and passed along
the recommendation as well um but
because of africa covey code signing
fragment
the item would have come back to the
agenda there's a lot of issues we're
just getting back on we're just looking
to finalize the rezoning of the parcels
you'll see there's the map with the 22 parcels highlighted
and then the pdf with the 22 listed by
spl
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all right are there any questions
okay if not they're not entertaining a
motion
second all those in favor all right
thank you
all right the next item is revised green
fees and rates that's necessary golf
course mr wallin
and mr daley all right hi
i thought i'd bring the biggest ones
okay
i'm over here okay
uh so every year matt and i come to you
uh with reprise
uh greens fees and rates for connect
musical golf course uh will you have it
in your packet what we're
proposing for this year we had an
internal meeting ourselves uh finance
commissioner mayor we discussed it we uh
we've discussed it with the golf course
uh committee a little bit
and uh if we like what you see here
we're looking
at a general increase of three dollars
and a 50 increase for
season passes as well as five dollars
for tournaments and then uh we
simplified and actually get into it the
golf pro lesson rates um there were some
rates that just weren't structured the
way that was simplest for us so matt
came up with a cleaner rate for that
along with some increases because they
haven't been raised since i believe you
started which was over nine years ago
so
matt you want to talk about how these
compares just because i know you've been
doing research on that yeah what do you
want me to start with first the first
yeah so
you know we've
pretty much prided our size ourselves
the last few years since i've started
anyway last nine years
and really changing the professionalism
of the golf course
and we've we've become in such high
demand
when we compare our rates to the other
golf courses i think we're very much
undervaluing what we what we have
so our newest competitor which is
stadium golf club and obviously all the
rumors are scrolling around with that
facility
i mean nothing is set in stone if
anything's ever going to go through with
that but in the meantime
i can tell you that their most expensive
rate with to ride
would be 52
which is two dollars more than what we
are charging right now
and then if you move along down the
street to town a colony golf club our
nearest municipal competitor
uh for their residence to ride would be
49 and for a non-resident fifty four
dollars now you compare that to ours
we're charging for a resident to ride
forty dollars
nine dollars less than their resident
fee
uh fifty dollars for a non-resident
which is four dollars less so even with
this green speed increase that puts us
right in line with our other competitors
so it's not like we're going to be price
gouging our customers
uh and getting breed so to speak
and i truly feel that
we are undervaluing ourselves i think
we're a much better facility in terms of
the golf course layout
uh the conditions are in my opinion are
top-notch compared to the others and i
say that because i'm the head
professional there and so you should be
um and then if you move into the next uh
city over to albany capitol hills
they're gonna support golf course now
when coco struck
they didn't open until mid-summer
and when they did finally get their
facility open they made a significant
increase in their grains fees of ten
dollars
so now their most expensive rate
uh is 69 with car okay
so that is nineteen dollars more than
we're charging
i'm not asking for something that's
significant okay
but i do think that it needs to be
addressed and of course you know we're
always looking to do future projects and
so this revenue increase will help for
us
in terms of the season passes
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uh for a non-resident season pass is
currently 1 250
stadium golf club is charging 1 750
so even with our increase
for non-resident will be slightly more
than theirs but for a resident will be
significantly less than theirs
so i hope that kind of puts things in
perspective a little bit
and then if you move into the to the
saratoga county region eagle crest and
van patten
uh just over the rexford bridge not too
far away
there are their new ownership both
facilities so i'm not really sure what
their rate structures are going to be
yet i do know that they were
significantly higher than ours last year
okay
not sure where they're headed
in terms of the next year
and moving forward
does anyone have any questions
so the next item on the agenda is 2022
budget uh golf budget amendment so i
think we're staying for that yes uh
thanks for watching this uh so what we
have is matt and i met over the winter
after the budget had been passed with
our gulf war superintendent
and he uh recommended that approximately
a dozen or more trees come down uh he
actually matched tour of the course with
them that's why i want to say they're in
strategic locations we have a couple of
dead ones at i believe hole 10 that we'd
like to we have some that are blocking
the sunlight that's causing frost burn
on some of our greens
this is not what we did years ago these
are strategically located trees
strategically as
they're not good anymore they've gotten
too big
uh that we like to uh
get three prices on that's why thirty
five thousand we're not looking to make
this a bid it's just a
you know three prices these 10 12 trees
come down but because we didn't put it
in the budget this was not available in
our fees for service line
and um so that's what we wanted to do
was we have the money i spoke with
anthony about it however to be able to
have access to the money because we're
taking it from our reserves we have to
come to you for permission to do that
transfer
are there any questions just a question
so um are you saying that you're not
trying to put it out for a bit
it's it's we're not looking for this
what i'm getting at is uh before you
were here about i think it was about
four years ago five years ago we did a
massive tree project we actually did two
they were over six figures they involved
the consultant they involved bid because
we were over uh thirty five thousand
dollars which requires a bit i just
wanted to tell you as a council that
what we're looking at here is
like flagging a dozen trees that are too
big and having a contractor come in a
dozen so the price is going to be under
the bid threshold so that's the 35 000
that's why we're still going to get
quotes we still
that's where we got the numbers so this
will put us in there we always follow
procurement policy you know we've never
done anything outside of that but we're
not looking for this to be like
a huge project that we've done in the
past
are there any other questions
i'll move this second all those in favor
oh hi thank you very much thank you
now the remaining items all will all be
in executive session for property sales
so at this time i'd like to entertain a
motion for recess
second all those in favor all right
thank you we're recess
it's all toward finance and one item
here is just a reminder
amending
reminder for public hearing on
february 20th with regards to manning
2021 2022
odd annual action plan
let's see if you have any referrals
okay
any other business before finance i have
something um before the meeting we
received the email about the output
meetings
um just so it's your in case you haven't
thought of it i think special media
requires 72 hours notice
and we wouldn't meet those requirements
what's going to call false
well if your problem pockets then you
have a couple issues potentially
all seven of us are democrats so that's
a potential problem and secondly
what you put in the agenda is requiring
decisions to be made and that would
break the
open meeting on
well it was just to discuss those things
those are the things that we're supposed
to discuss and i have been talking to mr
colton about that so we'll work through
whether it can be a caucus or not right
but i did consult our corporation
council on that but what you haven't put
in the email does ask for decisions to
be made and that would require
a regular meeting i would just suggest
we do this at the regular committee
meetings anyway well i think that the
regular committee
i feel strongly that regular committee
meaning this is going to take a lot of
time and will take up a lot of our
community meeting tonight we have a
short one the last time we were here two
and a half hours but the issue is people
are used to opening uh special meetings
used to our meetings on monday night
we want people to participate we want
people to pay attention if we have it on
wednesday thursday or friday night
they're not used to it they're going to
miss the meeting then we'll just have to
announce because we really need to move
forward with this we really really have
to get this going i sent down an email
and some of you
didn't even respond to the first one so
that's because you asked for a special
meet a special meeting requires 72 hours
i asked i sent the email out two weeks
ago
you didn't respond at all in any way
because it was a special meeting but you
didn't even say when the time frame
could be so we couldn't even schedule
meetings because only two people
responded so we couldn't even thursday
evening
no that was today's meeting no was the
response was on a thursday evening the
first meeting was asking for times and
you didn't respond i think so and so
only two
and it said thursday night or friday
which wouldn't have met the requirement
for the 72 hours we hadn't even
scheduled we were asking for times i'll
say again and you didn't respond with
any time most of you didn't two people
responded with times i was waiting till
now because i also wanted to suggest
that we knew it during a committee
meeting when it was a public meeting but you didn't respond in any way not
even that but you just said you didn't
even say that i'd like to discuss it so
numbers i can't
know anything if you don't respond to
the emails
so well so that's my recommendation well
do it in a committee meeting well i
think that we i think that's going to
take a lot more time and it's going to
just be a really and what we have to do
that we have to get this committee done
but we can have a discussion certainly
it's not up to me entirely but i don't
think that with something we should rush
through and because we have so many
other things on our agenda as it is and
if people don't mind being here until
nine or ten o'clock at night then i'm
done because i'm not i'm not i'm fine
with being here however long it takes
but i don't want us to rush through it
so and i'll just ask again if i send out
an email some type of response would be
uh just courteous to at least say
yes no
whatever your response is but to not
respond at all
i i can't figure out what you're
thinking
well the thinking was you asked for a
special meeting you were even quoted in
the newspaper asking for a special
meeting that requires 72 hours but you
didn't even respond and so we don't have
to go round and round about that
well i i suggest we have a regular
committee meeting so people can pay
attention well it's a discussion that'll
be made by by the majority of the
council but i i think that we need to
you know definitely get it done
regardless and answering emails is it
important
yes mr toro can i just ask um kylie
mr coleman since you were married been
talking marion's been talking so what is
the deal can we have a meeting
can you have a caucus meeting right a
caucus or a special meeting does it need
the 72 hours i mean well a caucus
meeting is not
subject to the open meetings law
a special meaning would require
notice in advance of the public um as
much notice as we can provide
so
there are two separate things or
actually three separate things
council is all made up of one political
party you cannot caucus
so it becomes a a very fact intensive um
you know proposition to do a caucus
meeting um
so what is your suggestion do we do it
at one of our council meetings i'm not i
mean that's really up to the council i
can't tell you what to do i can just
advise you on the legalities of it just
one journey
so we can discuss calling social media i
just think that we the amount of time
it's going to take and wanting to have
staff here it's you know we definitely
need to get move forward and like i said
this is the second email one went out
two weeks ago with response from only
two
of five people six people
so
we'll discuss it further
we have not scheduled a meeting no we
have not okay so therefore then we
couldn't be
in any in any violation everything
because we have not scheduled the
meeting right the first request was
what's available and two people and you
know who you are so i don't have to call
you names answered and everyone else
didn't say anything so
um good point and clearly okay
i don't we we've waited long enough and
i was trying to get this moving people
weren't responding and to
say that while i was waiting for
immediate response
uh you know
it just when someone sends an email it's
a courtesy to respondents on some level
so
we will discuss um
how we you know if we need to do there
or if we need to do it here i'm open to
either but i just want to say that if it
takes whatever amount of time people
should be prepared to stay and to do
that
okay so do we want to discuss here now since
it was brought up here can finally have
the special meeting or we go into the
regular we can do it at 5 30 monday so
uh then we'll have to be in time for
seven so i'm open to that but i don't
know what that looks like for other
people that's a good idea to do it
before
let me monday's meeting
the next committee meeting
and that will just be that idea that
will just be to like organize the
committee as i said email things like
that i'm sorry i think we'll be able to
do it again so
i'm certainly open to and we can get the
noting meeting notice out and certainly
hope it's a meeting at 5 30 this coming
monday one and a half hours one and a
half hours
can we do five
months
5 30.
like starting one day
5 30 monday is fine
we'll be okay okay so we'll meet 5 30
monday
and uh miss myku can send out the
meeting numbers
any other businesses for finance
second all in favor
like to call health and recreation to
order um there's only one item on the
agenda
and that is uh just uh that i'd like to
put in for a ceremonial resolution
honoring women's history month which is
the month of march and i think we've
done this
uh ever you know in the past so
that's all i'd like to
do do i ask for a resolution
yeah
so can i get a motion for that
in a second
sorry
i didn't read my notebook
okay so all in favor
aye okay and so okay the motion to
adjourn
second second okay all in favor
okay
that's
it okay i'd like to call the government
operations to order um two we have two
items on the agenda uh for discussion on
the yellow dot program that's marion
porterfield
okay
um president
thank you mr allen so i just wanted to
um bring this to your attention i heard
i uh got a phone call from a constituent
about something called the yellow dot
program i frankly was not familiar with
it but i did look into it so the yellow
that program first of all is through the
new york state association sheriff's
association
and what it does is that um i'll just
pass it around so you guys can actually
see what these are
thank you
so what the yellow dot program is that
you you have the yellow dot and and just
heat the paper and um
the you put a dot on your car
using the usually driver's window
and i won't want this back though
just so you know those are my personal
ones i like this bag um
and so you put a dot on your on the
window of your car and then so the um
and then this this piece of purpose
completed
and puts is in your glove compartment so
any first responder when they see the
yellow dot on your vehicle know that
your medical information is there in
your glove compartment
at your home you put it on the door
and the your this the information the
card goes in the freezer so they don't
have to look around and they draw a
special drawer it's in the freezer of
your home and then they know that your
medical information is there
so the program has been going on with
the sheriff's department locally since
2012
however um there hasn't really been a
lot of advertisement and marketing for
it in a number of years so when i found
out about it especially right now we're
in covid and people are doing
telemedicine all that it just seemed
ideal that we should do a little bit
more marketing um around it and getting
information out to people so they could
know that this is available and then
making sure that all first responders
are involved as well uh the mayor and i
had a meeting today with um the fire
department chief at the fire department
the police department and um the
sheriff's department who actually it's
under their purview this particular
thing so we're working on pulling
something together where we um roll the
program out again
and um in addition to that that we um
make sure these are available and we
have like each each entity will have
them it will have it on their website a
link to actually get these because you
don't get these from the fire department
that aren't local you could if they had
them but you actually send away for them
so we want to make sure that we also
have a supply of them
uh locally and that people actually know
that the program exists um because it's
you know really an i think a really
outstanding program
and something that people should know
about and utilize and so
um we're we're having discussions
whether this will be county right
because
it's new york state sheriff's
association so we're having discussions
about that but definitely to roll that
out and to make sure that people are
informed about it
so i just wanted to bring that forward
and let the council know that it's being
worked on
and we'll you know then hopefully the
next few weeks be able to actually do a
rollout where we're actually putting
information out there
yes yes mayor did you want to add
anything to that
uh no i think you've covered it
so
that's it i just wanted you all to know
i think it's an outstanding program and probably underutilized at this time
so let's make sure that uh
we uh utilize it so
yeah i write about it when you i'm sorry
when you had it on the agenda a couple
weeks ago
i went in and read about it and it does
look like a very good program so it's
already actually been underway with our
share so it's been with our sheriff's
department they did something in 2012.
but um haven't done anything in the last
um almost 10 years so
now we're just wanting to
do it collectively and have more
entities involved and that way
it doesn't get kind of lost in the sauce
you know if everybody has it on their
website and and more people have it um
we have it here at city hall
so that the people are aware of it and
um you know can make sure they take
advantage of it
so
mr parker yes i was just thinking like
um with some of the telemedicine stuff
that we're doing already uh responding
with our i wonder if there's like a uh
almost an electronic way to do this
almost like if people could have a
registry so a phone call comes from
let's say
this household
you know medical history things that
aren't efforts could immediately pop up
on the screen for maybe a dispatch or
something like that maybe something well
i'm sure that could happen um however
this program is something we're just
helping market it's not yeah yeah just
an ongoing education effort that we have
to look at
where you point out most phones today
have what's called an ice function in
case of emergency
a lot of people don't understand that so
that
even though your phone is locked and you
have
its password protected
that emergency
medical people can access that limited
area in your phone that would
talk about your medicine medical history
emergency contact
people and
again this yellow dot is
something that's been around a while and
it does a similar function
uh and so it's how do you just
continually make people aware of it
where we all hope that we never in those
situations where you need the emergency
services and people don't know
some of your background your history but
it does happen and how do you just
prepare people and
enable
first responders to be able to react
appropriately and
size up the situation and provide
again that
correct treatment and diagnosis
any further discussion on this
okay i think bro that's on the agenda is
we're going to talk about our osm
broadcast the city council committee and
follow up
right at our last meeting um
we had discussed you know that there
need to be the mayor said it would need
to be a broader plan but one of the
outcomes of the meeting as i understand
it mr palami said about us purchasing
microphones
so
um as my understanding is they've come
up with a price
what is it
how much about 530
about five thirty but by 530 to purchase
microphone so it's not doesn't fix
everything but it fixes the fact that we
are sharing a microphone the other day
we you know we the council member had to
speak and so
the other counselor had to go get the
microphone bring it over to them so this
would um
alleviate that problem and then you know
still be working on the larger problem
so um
i just wanted to bring that forward that
i guess that's something that we can
just go ahead and do on one or two
oh do we want one or two
is it 530 for two or for each one
it was also an option to have
in the tech department was looking into
that
those crane type microphones so they
would be at each member's
desk
so we were waiting for cost information
on that so i don't know if we
wanted to look into that but the i know
the mayor's office was looking into that
the line had asked for a second the tech
individual for second and third
options of the entire package
but that was something that's being
looked into so if we want the individual
microphones as well
in addition to this or until these are
just instead of oh instead of these
and how long do you know how much and
how long haven't that
have they gotten any have you been able
to get any cost factors yet
estimates
i i'm not aware of the
cost of anybody else's i know this had
sent something
but
let me see if i can find it
so if we if if
it's going to be a long time i i really
think that we should at least have a
couple of microphones that we could use
to share one on each side so that makes
two
because right now it's just
it's cumbersome trying to um you know
for the council members to try to
have a microphone use
i wouldn't think it would take an awful
long time i mean it's just a matter of
seeing if the state has and or if we have to buy it
from a private
veteran
mr williams oh my on the recommendation
would be whatever we decide if we just
have an additional unit as a uh just
backup so we're not having to re-create
this entire conversation but
so since our our last meeting i did
reach out to a superintendent uh uh the
schenectady city school district looking
to see if there's something that and we
can borrow in the interim
uh just you know right now a lot of
people in office are out so um i'll
continue following up just because my
only concern is i don't want to be in a
position where people were having
meetings and people can't hear us right
like it and as we're you know because
there's some processes obviously we have
to follow i want to make sure that we
can
you know people can hear us in the
meantime so
i'll let you guys know i don't know
borrow the microphone until we can yeah
so if we could just find out how much it
would cost to so um
we're talking about the microphone per
person so six of those it's
the ones that we have uh
it's the ones with the the
stick you know them and the microphones
but they're wired so they're not
wireless so like the ones that we're
using up there yeah so the issue
hopefully with the wireless would not be
a problem though because they would be
hired
okay
any other uh discussion around that i
just want to give i want to bring some
circle around so you're going to mr
follow me find out the cost on that b
and we're talking about not doing the two
wireless this is the mean time whichever
way yeah i can get the cost
and assignment
yeah so i think because we really need
to solve this has been it's going down
real fast
we went down from three to one to none
and pretty soon if the last one the one
that we have goes out
together we have to scream out loud
so you can find that out and we can send
out the information so we can make a
decision on that
okay any further discussion on that
okay
i think that's my motion to return so
second all in favor say aye aye
so um i'd like to open claims but i
believe we have to go into executive
session for all of our items on claims
correct so i'll call for a motion to go
into executive session
okay all in favor
okay so we're going to execute
you