i can't scour all the way
[Applause]
yes i did
you didn't notice
it's a call to order the schenectady
city council committee meeting for
monday march 7th 2022
and um we've had some we have some
absences tonight so we're going to have
we've changed our agenda um let me just
be clear since these are public servants
mr move aaron will not be here this
evening
mr farley
had a family emergency and illness in
the family and miss patrick will have to
leave early so we've changed the agenda
to accommodate the members that are here
and we've moved claims to the beginning
of the agenda otherwise we would not
have a quorum so at this um time
i'll turn over to ms patrick whose share
of claims i'd like to open claims
and i would like to call for a motion to
go into executive session
okay
all right
go back
i'd like to open up the finance
committee the first item on the agenda
is the 2020
to 2022.
uh emergency solutions grant esg cv
mr good evening everyone this is just um
in relation to a contract amendment with
cares of new york and bethesda house and
it's related to the emergency solutions
grant that was awarded through the cares
act it's just a transfer of funding
from the rapid rehousing and homeless
prevention to the street outreach
program so they're requesting to
transfer 25 000
to the street outrage program so this is
just a resolution accepting this
amendment and um
authorizing the mayor is designated to
enter a contract to effectuate the
agreement are there any questions
seeing none have emotion
second all in favor i have a motion to
adjourn
second all in favor
like the open administrative efficiency
the first item on the agenda is the
seeker for barrack street and south
avenue mr yoke
this is the secret determination
for the rezone of approximately 3.91
acres from r2 to the c4 downtown zoning
the the planning commission made a
recommendation
at their last meeting and this is this
first revolution for the city council to
adopt the negative uh seeker deprivation
the determination of non-significance
are there any questions
there was a little bit more opposition
the planning commission that i than i
expected but this was going to be more
simple and straightforward and i don't
know if the council
just
to take that into consideration
as you move forward
i thought this was going to be kind of
simple and straightforward some of the
neighborhood in fact
is not unified in this
undertaking
this part of you so um
do we have information that you know
kind of talks about that any place
uh i don't have the minutes from the
planning commission
[Music]
but it could be made available to the
council
but they they but they had enough they
had the majority that voted it through
is that's why it's back here with us
correct
yes
um
now the one they did so this would be
separate from this rezon record but the
planning commission did recommend
that this in the seaport downtown makes
use that um convenience stores would be
required to obtain a special use permit
so that was kind of one of the
recommendations along with this i think
some of the concerns were just around
that
and just the unknown of what would be
developed in the area um
you know again the reality is that it is
adjacent to the c4 and if the zoning
kind of changes mid block um but yes i'm
aware that there were comments just
around the uncertainty
and the other recommendation from the
planning commission was to for the
consideration of
requiring that convenience stores get a
special use permit
to open
is there any time sensitivity to this
um
not i mean this is just this is
something that's been in alignment with
the comprehensive plan just other things
that we're looking at and the just the
lack of kind of use of the lots there so
there's no immediate time constraint if
you wanted to wait to see
you know something else um
that's possibility my recommendation is
we hold off until we get the minutes of
the planning commission we can look at
those and then
proceed i would agree
so motion to table
second oh favorite
thank you
multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation
plan mr walling
hello
so
every five years the county
updates our regional hazard mitigation
plans effort is led by
ema at the county with all the local
jurisdictions in the county taking place
we have to vote and outline our
objectives goals and
agree on kind of just a general
work plan for not only the city for the
county this plan is then updated we work
with fh hwa
i think it's land on it and then it goes
on to the record we have it and then
we're eligible for federal funding to
actually implement part of the plan one
of the things that we've done is uh we
put a berm around the water wells years
ago we're looking at doing some things
at the wastewater treatment plant there
was a plan at one point maybe put a
generator at city hall it's all
mitigation plans
so that
we are prepared when hazards do come and
we have to evaluate what hazards that we
would have you know so we're not birth
defective
lately even tornadoes we've had
you know power outage we actually
identified trees in the plan
like for the first time because when we
do have these
issues with high winds the trees are the
villain when they take down power then
they cause the issues
so
we put together that plan it is i did
have the link it's a very large way so i
don't know if you had a chance to look
at the link but the link is is there for
the entire county the city just has an
extra
um but i didn't want to provide it to
these
several hundred pages that would be
printed
so
um this is a good bedtime reading
tonight yeah
well is there any questions on it this
is something that's required for the
city to be able to receive federal
funding
are there any questions
have a motion
second second all in favor all right
thank you next is to authorize the mayor
to go into agreement with metroplex for
the
mohawk harbor dock project grant
yep
so
several years ago
actually metroplex made mr dillon here
working with the blessing group and the
city
completed and was successfully awarded a
cfa for the construction of a large
vessel dock and trail along the mohawk
river
as you may be aware mohawk harbor
currently has a harbor but the harbor
typically has a limitation of roughly 40
feet in length for boats i know that
sometimes they get a little bit larger
than 40 in there however the boats that
traverse between uh say chicago and new
york city some of them can be upwards of
over 100 feet
these boats will not fit there
so the idea is that we would be able to
capture this as a tourist destination
also use this as possibly something for
recreational boating and also what is
the term commercial where we would have
a maybe a larger vessel like a dutch
apple or something where we can actually
do cruises and this is all possible
using this
part of that is public access to the
dock
so that the public can use it for
working at kayaking fishing general access to the dock
and we're looking to incorporate it
directly into the alko heritage trail
which goes along the river
so to do this we put out an rfp last
year we received two proposals we
selected a team of
waterfront solutions in mj engineering
we entered into a contract with them
late last year
part of that was working out this
agreement here between the city and
metroplex due to the complexities and
the in the design and getting the
agreements together
we have just started surveying a project
we have geotech lined up because these
docks are going to require footings to
anchor them to the river
so we don't have any plans we don't have
anything i know that there was some
conversation about renderings or renderings they were used
as part of the grant application they're
you know they're nice to look at but
they're not really representative of
what we're doing because we don't know
what we're doing
so
this agreement here
is to cover those design costs that we
talked about that was part of the thing
that
the discrepancy was
our original estimate
had a design cost that was slightly less
metroplex agreed to cover that
difference which is what we're talking
about here so that we can move forward
there is no city costs um this is paid
for by the cfa this metroplex share and
then the local share is actually being
covered by the gillessy group through a
partnership
so um so that our local share is
actually uh nothing
so that's what this agreement was for i
know i've got a chance to look through
it i don't know
you did a great job as always chris i
just uh
you know we have uh
we have the biggest waterfront project
in upstate new york and mobile carver
it's a huge success dr brian stratton he
trumpets it all the time it's
the biggest most successful waterfront
project
and for so many years skanky was cut off
from our waterfront i grew up here of
course alco playing close at 69. gary
talks about elvis all the time right for
50 years and sat there rusting and no
one could recreate no one could connect
to the river we've connected to the
river again we have a marina people rent
kayaks and boats there they can dock
their boats there they go to restaurants
they go to the casinos and two hotels
we really didn't have a dock for as
chris said a large tour boats could tie
up prior to covid we had some real
interest from some of these boats they
call them loopers they go around to
chicago off the mississippi and that
would be really exciting to bring you
know some tourism dollars but also for
people here that want to go out on the
river and fish go out and launch their
own kayak or canoe set a renting one at
the marina it's really for the people to
be able to go out and and also like the
ski teams are really excited about it
the other groups that want to recreate
the river
we really thank the galessi group for
providing over 300 thousand dollars that
would have otherwise been the city's
match
we had a little bit of a overage on the
design costs that's where metroplex is
putting in 75k the rest is funded by a
state grant no cost to the city
except for chris's time uh and he's been
great well i think the mayor because we
actually had secretary of state rosada
rosado come out and torah and gary's
really made a plea for this for this
grant to be awarded and that really made
a critical difference in getting the
grant so we're really excited about this
a couple of questions came in we did
some answers for you and sent those
around but it's
we're really at early stage this year
it'll be a year of design work there'll
be public input sessions
as part of the contract and hopefully we
build this next year
and connect our community back to the
waterfront
in a way we've really never had before
so we're really excited about this
appreciate the council
moving forward to accept 75 000 from
metroplex are there any questions
no gladly except 75.
second on paper
thank you
next is the authorize the mayor to go
into an agreement with metroplex for
pedestrian safety action
more comfortable
so what this is another agreement with
metroplex i actually was here i believe
two weeks ago maybe four talking about
the psat and there was a question about
uh the shares and we talked when i said
i believe the metroplex share was
between 200 and 300 so this is it is
300. so what this is is that the psat is
a federally a 100 eligible project
however due to the location of it being
around city hall and the combined
efforts of metroplex in the city to do a
two-way j in front of the post office we
thought that we would want to do that
all and the same project at the same
time instead of two contractors two
things so
it was decided that the
share would be split between metroplex
and the city um the local share is
approximately six hundred thousand
dollars three hundred of it uh
to the city three hundred to metroplex
was a disagreement so at the end of that
project we will have upgraded pedestrian
signals around uh two-way j from the
post office and then decorative
crosswalks and pedestrian refuge areas
are any questions this park field so
we've already had we ever had the funds
already uh allocated for this yeah 300
000.
yeah our funds are allocated correct yes
we have
yeah
we have all of our paying funds i manage
those we have we have more than enough
money to cover this and our paving
program okay yeah we were in good shape
and then metroplex of course is in good
shape so we're we're ready to go this
contract is actually already going to
award the calendar uh of course we've
already had meetings they're looking to
start you know the beginning of the
spring so this is just accepting of
accepting someone okay okay
anything else
kind of a motion
second call
thank you
next is to authorize the issue as a
revocable permit to unique lounge for a
sign
this is our local permit unique cloud is
on duane avenue it was it has been
historically a bar and restaurant
i believe they have an owner's name
same owner
i believe that's what it is and so what
we're looking is we're vocal current for
the sign that overhangs it right away
and the on
i believe this property is still owned
by the city uh the city council
previously authorized a um
an option agreement
uh for princess rollins on this so in
order for her to exercise that option
she needs to
get all of her ducks in a row before we
transfer the property so this is part of
that
okay
any other questions oh so we didn't
she's not owning it yet then not yet but
she's trying to get everything that was
part of the option was that she had to
um
get certain approvals before we transfer
to her property
have a motion
second
favorite thank you
next is a ceremonial resolution for
saint patrick's day mr williams uh
thanks for mr paul
uh the investments of irish americans in
the city of sanectity and also
throughout the country is
something that does not need any
discussion
i am very excited to work on this
project
i know
trying to get the proper words to say me
being a proud um african-american
definitely supporting
the legislation last month was was
something that was near my heart but
that definitely exceeds beyond
my specific race so i'm excited to take
into consideration the proposed
resolution that was submitted by mr owen
wilson i had the opportunity to attend
their last meeting at the hibernian
they're a group of and passionate and uh
motivated individuals
that they had a uh
i think it was a
cabbage dinner or something like that or
not a fish didn't fish any fish thing
but
staying on task uh definitely excited i
want to make sure the resolution that we
do pass forward as a council is a
message that we can adopt as the city of
schenectady so i've already had
discussions with mr wilson uh there will
be some adjustments uh i can forward
those out to the council members for
their consideration but unless there are
any questions
i think we'll do a motion um
and
we'll assume everything's be okay we'll
wait till we get this but do a motion to
move it along and then
if there's some issue with the second
all in favor
thank you
uh next is your planning commission
appointments mr carter
[Music]
can uh some vacancies on the city
planning commission
submitted
two names for your consideration today
uh diary
tall or junior and colin
evers
that's the council's favorite
consideration
any questions
no i just um
do a statement um so i'm glad to see
that the um planning commission is
getting more members because they were
you know there were people leaving
unfortunately we had someone pass away
so
they do important work so i'm glad to
see that we
are filling those seats so i would
definitely uh make that motion have a
second second all in favor aye thank you
next is the advisory committee on our
funding is portfolio okay so just to to
kind of give an update of where we were
um at our last meeting we um we asked
for people to submit their names and at
this point and we still have a week to
go there are 24 people who have
submitted their names which is really
not a bad that's a bad number um
i sent out uh because we may have to based on what the correct
you know recommendation or may have to
cut it down so i sent out um an email
with um
the draft
application so i did get some um
responses to that and just uh so you
know we really um i would like to
any final edits by tomorrow so we can
actually put together the final document
and be ready because we have said that
on the 14th all names need to be to sam
so um i think that by the 15th we should
be in a position that we can actually
email out all of the um
the applications
i know there was a suggestion to put it
on the city website however we're
targeting specific people and i don't
want people to get the impression that
if it's on the city website that they
still have an opportunity to
um to to
apply because that's not what we what we
agreed on so um that's where we are and
of course there'll be a cover letter to
go with that application
and um
so i'm just excited to see that people
are
lining up that's great so just an update
um
all right
thank you so i was the person that
suggested putting it on the website but
um
and that's fine i that that's a good
point um but it would be great if we
could make it a fillable pdf so even
when it gets sent back out
to the people that are sending their
names to uh ms maiku that at least would
be easier for them to just fill in the
application instead of having to hand
write it or anything like that
um
i don't know how to do that but i'm
assuming there's someone with it hear
that well we did have a discussion based
on that recommendation and um for those
who can do this syllable pdf that's
great there's some people that cannot as
you said and sometimes with fillable
pdfs when you send them from one
application to the next the information
doesn't exactly gel because i i talked
to ms michael about that because based
on your recommendation so that was the
concern
so that to make sure that the when the
um
that was you know for miss michael who's
going to be receiving all of these that
make sure that the information
translates correctly so um we're
standing out in hard copy we're going to
ask
them to then return to her
we don't want any
more
challenges
you know if somebody's application
doesn't come through properly or
something like that so
um and a lot of people can't do the
fillable pdf you'd be surprised
so that was um that was you know as i
said i discussed with mike miss michael
based on your recommendation and she
also got that as well and that was her
concern since she is the one who will
have to do the work on that okay i know
there were a couple of other questions
still um i
do agree i think if we're going to have
them
um last time we talked about folks
needing to reside in the city of
schenectady i think that should probably
i think that should be right here that
should be a um
put that on there well it would be
actually on the cover letter because
there'll be a cover letter over there so
people know they won't even have to get
to the application and once they reach
the cover letter they'll know this
doesn't apply to me i don't even need to
go any further okay and then i just
really do think that probably asking mr
colton to look at the pieces that are
more sort of legal
um i think would be a good idea in terms
of the language that we put into this
well when i sent out the original email
i specifically asked mr colton to do
that when i sent out the email that all
of you got i specifically said to said
mr andrew could you look at this though
that was in there
i sent uh this afternoon i sent um
proposed provisions to the conflict of
interest statement to ms mikey and
president porterfield for their review
great thank you welcome
thank you and that's the only thing that i had other
than that so little ones little copy
edits
we'll um so we'll incorporate um there
were other members who had some concerns
oh um i'll speak to this one which they
said about hobbies and interests so um
part of it is um from i see this as
developing a volunteer base
uh we made from some of these people who
send in their applications maybe people
that would eventually sit on other
committees that when we have vacancies
because that's another conversation
we're gonna have to have a little bit
down the road in terms return fulfilling
vacancies
so having that information and it could
we could put it as optional which was a
also recommendation one person just put
it as optional
um that kind of gives us a little bit
more about people um we're not you know
trying to you know we don't want to like
hang out with them necessarily or maybe
we do but um but just to have that
information and and most people and that
to me is an easy part to fill out you
know what your hobbies and interests are
and again just to be able to have a base
of people that we can if they don't get
to sit on this committee because it's
conceivable if we get way too many right
now we're at 24 and we talked about 15.
um we could still have those people and
then be able to reach out to them
because based on their interests would
you be interested in sitting on this
committee or that committee so that's
just a way that we don't always have to
start recruiting people and looking for
names when we have vacancies so
that was the thought behind that
my only concern was the last little bit
but i was waiting to see what the final
thing is because i knew it was being
worked out so
otherwise i was relatively okay with you
know there are some typos and whatnot
that's easy to clean up
anything else
mr williams oh so just for clarification
uh it's 24
names in total or is it 24 additional to
the 15 previously
total
and then just a common more or less i
would just recommend having hard copies
available at city hall in case
individuals don't have access to the
internet and then i definitely i don't
want to recommend uh additional actions
if i'm not willing to put myself forward
so if anyone has any issues filling it
out i will volunteer myself to get on
the phone with you and help fell out
just to make sure everyone feels like
they uh
have their voice being considered
i'm not sure that we should probably
offer that from you maybe that should
come from the staff or something
yeah i think that would be
i don't know it just seems like on the
edge there
yeah with a council member don't get it
and just to the earlier point i think if
uh when ms michael gets the name she'll
be sending out the application so if we
have extra hard copies available here
it's the same thing as having it on the
website you know what i mean that um
other people passed the deadline of
march 14th could just pick up the
hard copy so
sorry i've had a very hard kill yeah no
i mean i'm feeling the same way um
so anything further
all right i'd like to go uh have a
motion to go into executive session for
sale properties so
kind of second
favorite