[Music]
to order for monday april 18th
and our first committee is claims
yes i'd like thank you i'd like to open
the claims on
the claims meeting
and i'd like to uh we have two claims on
the on the docket and one of them is
going to
uh include our outside counsel so i'd
like to uh call for a motion to go into
executive session
is there's
a second you're thinking i'm
okay so we're gonna go into executive
session
oh
[Music]
true
all right um next on the agenda we have
a presentation by all of us it's going
to be on the results of the black
freedom project community safety survey
so i'd like to invite to make miles and
shawnee to come up
and uh all council members should
actually
oops
microphones fire microphones yes it
should be rubbed right yep
all council members should actually have
a copy of the survey
so
yes um and actually we have two other
documents to share with you all that
we're gonna talk about going to just
take the beach and then pass it around
oh
good evening
and uh thank you for the opportunity to
be able to share this information with
you
um
it is their community safety survey that
we conducted
we appreciate the opportunity to share
with all of you as we have shared with
others
um
as i think most people in this room know
young um were both born and raised here
in the city of schenectady and we
founded our organization all of us in
the city of schenectady
what you might not know is actually our
organizational bishop which is to
support and strengthen marginalized
communities in the fight for black
liberation
and an end to all forms of racism
oppression and exploitation and doing so
through uniting people across socially
created divisions
we understand the importance of
collective work therefore we have been
intentional
to develop relationships with other
groups and organizations locally and
across the state
as such all of us as a member of the
black freedom project the black media
project is a coalition of black
organizers and black focused
organizations across new york state
also known as bfp
last native project together with the
public science project research team
developed this community survey to
understand what we as black new yorkers
believe keeps us safe and what
investments institutions programs and
policies would positively impact our
communities
all of us knows how important a survey
dedicating to illuminating the
perspectives of black and african
american participants is
black viewpoints have historically been
excluded or underrepresented in most
research studies
research intentionally focused on the
black community makes a unique and
important contribution to discussions
and planning regarding safety and
allocation of resources in the city of
schenectady
this survey also is about community
engagement next slide
yeah so
as you see on the screen we let people
know where to serve will be on specific
dates within the community as well as
spend time walking in our community our
ground game focused primarily on the
hamilton hill and mount pleasant
neighborhoods we met because we met
people where they were at whether
walking down the street at home or at
local stores and shops throughout the
community we share digital flyers on our
social media platform and paper ones
that community events and political
organizations and institutions
listed on this slide as you see up there
are locations of partners we worked with
to reach black people within our
community our focus was places of known
community gatherings barbershops
libraries food pantries community
centers etc meeting people where they
were at was not just about physical
location but also about giving the
access and support needed for
participating in the survey some folks
were
comfortable taking surveying on tablets
or laptops other preferred hard copy the
survey was administered by ourselves and
some trained volunteers next slide
please
the survey results are based on 305
black residents in the city of
schenectady identified by zip code
while there were many different
demographics collected within the survey
this is the breakdown by age the largest
number of respondents as you can see on
the screen were between the ages of 36
and 45 but there was representation
between ages of 16 and up
the one other respondent
is an individual that even though they
originally identified as being at least
16 years old
indicated a number that was it was
outside the parameters
one of the handouts you all received was
the list of the other types of
demographics that were collected in the
survey
and it shows not just the questions
asked but the inclusiveness of the
options for answers as well as the
opportunity for individuals to choose
not to answer next slide please
the very first question which we see
here was to confirm that the individual
was at least 16 years old and that they
identify with black
being black does not mean that you do
not identify with any other race or
ethnicity and individuals included if
they did indeed identify with other
races or ethnicities
we'll quickly go through the next four
slides that are the questions the
participants were asked and there were
questions regarding investments current
institutions and policies
current institutions and practices and
policies next slide
they were first asked about the
allocation of money next slide
what safety means and looks like for
people in the black community next life
prioritization of policies they were
given a list of policies and they were
able to choose each policy was in a high
priority a medium priority a low
priority a policy they didn't want it
off or something they were not sure of
and also the opportunity to describe
their answers what was it they did or
didn't like about that policy next slide
as you all saw this previously this is
the list of those policies that were
included in the survey next slide
all right so the results of those
questions are nets so included are both
quantitative and qualitative data now
again this was to understand what safe
healthy and thriving communities mean to
the black community
three buckets if you will are investment
current institutions and practices and
policies next slide please
all right so here we have a city budget
so when asked to imagine themselves
being in charge of the city budget and
responsible for reducing a safe and
driving community on average schenectady
residents that participate in the survey
prioritize long-term housing for all and
expanding access to healthy food and
hunger prevention services next slide
please
the next three which are all very close
in allocation are quality physical and
mental health care for all high quality
public schools and living wage jobs for
people all education levels the constant
presence of police and police quit and
receive the lowest amount of funding
next slide please
jails prisons and detention centers now
when asked about jail's prison attention
centers the great's response was to move
away from imprisonment and toward
diversity programs such as mentoring
programs associative justice programs
and job programs
yeah no it should have been the next
time after this this is where we stayed
oh yeah
okay so yeah
i'm going to tell you to skip three
slides ahead
there it is that's all right yeah okay
so on slides 15-17 75 percent of
respondents will prefer a greater
emphasis on community-based violence
prevention programs that move away from
police presence
or responses as relates to preventing
and responding alignments
the next question asked about emergency
response in the community 66 are
responsible for a greater emphasis on
first responders through emergencies
that are unarmed and without threat of
arrest
next slide
one more
there we go
um
very hard to read on the screen
but also in your packets this is the
policy breakdown where they were able to
decide high priority medium priority low
priority etc etc as was mentioned
they were able to choose a different one
for each policy for each policy they
indicated if it were
which priority applied to them
when prioritizing policies
more jobs for all levels of education
with good benefits that pay enough to
support a family was a high priority for
85 percent of participants as was more
food and nutritional assistance programs
to address hunger
a high priority for 84 of participants
where affordable housing not shelters
for families and individuals who become
homeless and more money for public
schools so that they have the space
staff and resources they need to support
all their students
what we saw in the policies were similar
to the allocation of resources next
slide
we've included a sample a small sample
of the comments and written responses
for three of the policies that were
listed next slide
yeah here we have a slightest about
affordable housing not sheltered for
families and individuals who become
homeless now these are what folks have
worked on to indicate some ideas about
what they meant
as you see on the screen
folks like there are a lot of homeless
people in the city
having a safe environment to call home
is so important for our community
every person is entitled to clean safe
living situation
the rent is too damn high rent has
skyrocketed and is outrageous are part
of the comments from the community and
what they were thinking
next slide
it's important to note that none of the
comments were altered in any way
they are reported as they were written
they weren't changed for grammar or
spelling or context however it was
written that's what they wrote um that's
how we recorded it and so for this
particular policy it was to remove all
forms of policing from public schools
and replaced with school counselors
psychologists behavioral specialists and
trauma therapists
again this is a sampling of what was
seen within the survey
not enough attention is given to the
mental impact police presence has in
schools
in my experience police presence hasn't
affected school a lot
youth need to have someone listen to
them and not judge that they will
automatically be violent
there's any number of examples that are
in this slide that you all had
previously
and that we collected as part of this
survey next slide
so this is a larger police presence in
the community on public transportation
around the city and the schools and et
cetera we see other comments from our
community
um no police presence they do too much
harm
it's good and bad which is important
that's actually a really important point
right there so out of all the folks that
we gave the survey to there were folks
that landed on different sides of
talking about whether or not they wanted
the police in the community or not but
what we did notice a really good
takeaway was that no matter who was on
that survey on average everyone could
all prioritize all these other things as
being important to safety uh in their
community um so that's really important
so you get to see someone here saying
good and bad um and you know well
coordinated not more so not that it's
about you know not having this at all
but that they need to be well glory and
they're addressing nature when they can
next slide
so what are the next steps
we spent weeks talking to community
members being really intentional about
where we went
from november through january the
research the information that we
gathered and then went to the research
team in new york city they compiled the
data and sent it back to us
and when we started the survey we made a
commitment to share the results back out
with the community as well as other
stakeholders
as an example we presented the results
to the police chief representatives from
each of his departments
as part of the continuing research that
we are doing we are facilitating
data-driven focus groups we actually
held our first one on april 7th
back at sikkim and we'll continue to go
back to the locations where we started
we'll go back to
city michigan go back to the seat center
we'll go back to the libraries in both
hamilton hill and mount pleasant because
those were the two major focuses of our
area
that's it so we'll take any questions
but we look forward to the opportunity
to be able to continue to share with you
the false ideas concerns from community
members supporting you and your mission
to move forward policies and resources
that represent the interest of the
residents you serve
it's really important and that last
piece that i wrote there is about a
community engagement how often are their
who we're talking to and the
conversation we're able to bring back to
you all over suppressing the needs of
the community it's not
been seen at least in my you know it's
my time here that there's been surveys
like this and the type of engagement
necessary to really
hear from the community in the ways that
actually have an impact
any questions
so i wanted to first thank you both of
you for the efforts and investments you
made into this survey
as a person that took this uh and
identified as a cisgender male who was a
black schenectadian it was a mouthful
in no way did i interpret oh your
presentation has an all-encompassing
gauge of all things affecting every
single black person within this
community how i internalized your words
was more or less as a guide to help us
define some areas that we could
potentially address and have more of a
pulse towards towards directing our
efforts
so with that there are a number of steps
that are being being taken at this
moment throughout the city
what is the frequency of this survey to
potentially grade the efforts that are
undertaken
i mean that's part of our future
planning right the the work that i
particularly have been doing for more
than 10 years is to be a constant
presence in this city that i was born
and raised in
to talk to community members and find
out what's going on
education and and safety are two of our
main priorities as an organization um
and so
it is a bit of cyclical work right um to
have these conversations find out what
the community is saying and what's in
their best interest based on their their
needs on the lived experiences and as
well as the data that we've seen from
across the nation
bring it back and then go have
continuing conversations those focus
groups so
if there are particular things that we
see arise we're then able to continue to
work with the research team and create
other surveys and have conversations um
they've been a wonderful resource and
they continue to support the work
and i'll just i'll add to the you know
one of the things that's an issue with
addressing um
things in the community is the
consistency in which we're actually
speaking with our community members and
engaging them enough and what the issues
are happening that we don't do it enough
um for more opportunities to do that but
actually um one of the cars that we have
is coming back with the information that
we gathered in our community um through
community focus groups we already had
one um at sycamore another one
electricity bar and the libraries just
so that like so one of the things that
does is allow us one to like uh
um give to the community the words that
are from that community like we're going
to put flowers up for people that take a
survey to come back out here kind of
these are results of that um and it's
important to do that right so that we're
engaged and that we act as a community
that we're not we're not in this by
ourselves right one of the things i tell
a lot of people is that when you step
outside of your house um you walk onto
that sidewalk you go to a store like
this belongs to you this is your city um
it's a collective ownership but it
belongs to all the same have some say so
how this thing goes for you and having
fun something we didn't mention that i
think is important and we should have is
that when we go back out to share this
information
everyone is welcome to come
so when we were back at sikkim it wasn't
just individuals that took the survey
there were other individuals in the room
there were also individuals that took
the survey and could speak from their
personal experience taking the survey
and then hearing those results but there
were other community partners as well
bob carroll from the skype foundation
was there
tom from sicko was there so those
partners being able to be part of that
conversation as we share the information
back out and then hearing their
responses because we have that as well
we have those um responses for
what they said at that meeting which i
believe is the other um
yeah
i have a question so you identified some
things and what immediately came to my
mind was about jobs and that was an
important thing so
since that was identified as such a high
priority what steps are you actually
taking to address that
with other groups or however however
you're facilitating that i mean when it
comes to policies right there there are
some very broad things listed
and so part of those focus groups is
then identifying down where do these
community members see a potential for
that to be addressed
because one of the wonderful things
about going out and talking to the
community is that they are filled with
ideas
they have the answers to the problems
it's just that no one's ever asked them
so as part of these focus groups it's
okay so if we say jobs what does that
mean but is
that focus group
pulling in on that particular issue we
were at sikkim so a lot of conversation
around food as well as housing
some of the other conversations that
have been had about jobs is how do we
create support
for people to move into careers as a
pathway
your favorite example is um whenever we
have construction here in the city how
are we ensuring that our own residents
are actually getting those jobs and that
money stays here in the community how
can we foster that what does that look
like in addition to that like we've had
a conversation with folks with cnn
workforce initiative um and other like
um
uh the map program already something i
spoke about here about and it's in the
map program is a multi-architectural
pre-apprenticeship program and it just
meets people in the community where
they're at as far as i understand what
the construction trades it's a stipend
six month program learning the basis of
construction and another four month
disciplinary program on whatever whether
it's uh roofing or electrical work or
whatever um that's stipend and then
there's a partnership with the union
that gets them jobs working on
initiatives in the community to help
revitalize it so those are the
conversations we're having and we'd love
to see actually have again it's
connected so we're doing our work there
to bring those type of ideas here and
just have that conversation into the
community
any other questions
well thank you very much for coming in
for sharing this information and if the
public wanted to see this is this a
public document that people can access
to so we haven't yet posted it online um
we're trying to figure out what's the best way the most accessible way to
do that dropping it in the google drive
isn't always necessarily
best fit right now
we were able to share it out
electronically i had to fix a couple
typos so
it's coming
and
if anyone is interested and want to copy
they can email us
free gmail.com
well thank you very much for coming
appreciate it
i would like to call the public safety
committee to order we have one item on
the agenda today that is the school
community engagement officer and that
will be presented by either chief
quicker or ac and or right
okay
um
all right
microphone
no no but staying as close to this one
as you can
alright over here
okay well good evening and thank you for
having me um i put together a powerpoint
presentation
i have chief whipple with me and i also
have sergeant lin here with me also
and if any members of the council has
questions
but
we're here to talk about community
engagement officer which is a
truly a partnership between the school
district
and the and the police department
now
it's important to start off with
new york state governor's executive
order 203 which was
brought to us two years ago by governor
cuomo
and the recommendations uh derived from
the collaboration that was held in
response to that executive order which
was then ratified by the city council on
may 22 march 22nd of 2021
signed by mayor mccarthy on march 31st
and submitted to the state included
two recommendations that were that really embodied community
engagement and those were the creation
of a community engagement officer
uh unit of officers that received
specialized training in the areas of
harm reduction in addition to community
health initiative training
building a model
within community policing where these
officers will work to reduce the
negative consequences of using drugs
while understanding that an individual
may not immediately stop
that model was really specifically
towards creating a unit that would go
out and focus on harm reduction within
our community but then number 18 of the
recommendations was to expand our
community policing efforts
on the staff department to allow for
community policing unit that will build
neighborhood collaborations to build
trust solve problems and reduce crime
so that was put into the recommendations
so why do we need police in schools
that's why we're here today talking
um many members of our community have
asked that question i want to start off
by saying that on any given day
population of scentsy high school
is approximately 2 800 students and
staff
in illinois middle school that number is
approximately 780
mount pleasant 870 steinmetz 315 central
park middle school 800 and that's just
those schools right there
so concentrated populations
of any of this size anywhere within the
city
would always be met with a threat
assessment from the police department
and we're talking about internal and
external sources of that kind of
population all coming together
now the city of santa fe school district
has had a history of police related
issues
that have been a concern to the police
department leadership
over the last few years and i brought
those issues to
former superintendent larry sprang
and most recently uh superintendent
annabal
the concerns we had were that the staff
had been discouraged from contacting the
police
this is feedback we got directly from
the staff
teachers administrators support workers
there were incidents that were not
reported to the police assaults that
occurred in the school
past assault disclosures
threats
menacing
students coming into the school with
weapons
not being reported
investigations that were of criminal
nature
i'm sorry investigations that involved
that of a crime
that were the investigations were
started and completed
prior to reporting it to the police
fights
in
or near the schools
lunchtime
sergeant linear can expand more on that
but lunchtime many fights in the schools
um and then in the neighboring community
outside of the school
and not specifically the high school but
other schools like oneida and mount
pleasant middle school
persons with mental health disorder in
the school district
um not always having local crisis unit
within the school
available to be utilized
trespassing
of suspended students excel students
parents of students coming into the
school
trespassers with no affiliation like
students from other schools
and then other and then students leaving
school grounds
um and engaging
in an activity outside the school
district that would receive that would
prompt people to call the police
it's important to note that many of
these concerns almost all of them
were noted and brought to us before our
global pandemic of 2020 and when the
pandemic hit in school shut down it kind
of
hit pause for us
so
i had a report generated and everything
that was going to go to superintendent
spring and then the pandemic had
but when the same pattern emerged in the
first two months of this school year
2021
i called for a meeting with
superintendent solaire
and he brought his leadership staff in
so we could discuss this issue
and that is when a partnership was
formed
to see
the
partnership was formed to solve what was
seen as a safety crisis that was
developing within the school district
so the concept that we came up with that
we agreed that police were needed to
help solve the safety uh crisis that was
developing
but we would need to meet and look at
what that would look like what our role
will be in the schools
so the leadership of the school district
and the leadership of the police
department we collaborated on many
meetings to discuss the needs of the
school district community
we conceptualized the community
engagement model
the one that i just explained to you
that was derived out of the executive
order 203
and what was needed within the school
district itself
that police officers would have to be
specially trained
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and that we would want to make sure that
we
not only provided them the training that
teachers and administrators in the
school district were getting but that
we're also going to reach out to
industry leaders
in the school resource officer training
field and get them the training also
so a true partnership form meeting with
mayor mccarthy and superintendent
solaire
it was agreed upon that the school
district
that officers in the school benefited
the city
and school district equally so the cost
of the program should be shared equally
one of my uh one of my requirements for
this to happen was accountability
we recognize that um
nobody wants to be placed you know
in our perfect world police aren't even
needed
um and that the presence of the police
officers may make some students
uncomfortable
and to get past that
we're going to build trust we're going
to be
really focused on building trucks
i'm sorry building
trust
officers need to be held accountable to
meet the needs of the student population
and deliver that
consistent level of service to the
population over time
to accomplish this consistent
supervision would be necessary to
accelerate that trust building that's
why i asked for a
um a sergeant to be well i i required a
sergeant be placed
in the school district
pilot program to start off
so the plan
this is a map of the city that's
connected with all the schools
and the plan that we came up with was
two officers in the high school
you just got to hit the buttons
to also in high school
and then the other school dish the
schools that we were really focused on
were the two the four middle schools
mount pleasant middle school not
pleasant valley middle school is
not named correctly that's an elementary
school so we were focused on those
middle schools
and then we didn't want to forget the
elementary schools
there's a whole bunch of them
so
taking all the schools into account
again the plan really was came down to
that we would want a sergeant to oversee
this whole program
we would put two officers in the high
school because the population was 2800
we would then place one officer that
would be
assigned to
oneida middle school and central park
middle school one officer for both
schools go back and forth and be there
to meet the needs of the community as
needed
one officer from mount pleasant middle
school and
steinbeck's career leadership academy
and washington irving that will
basically meet the needs of those three
there
and
[Music]
the sergeant would be a floater to float
between them as needed and then we would
have
one officer that would go
to float between all of the elementary
schools
and that's how we got to the number of
six
the cost of 100 000 plus benefits
that was the number that was used to
calculate the share of expense and the
easy math is
sharing 100 dollars that's 50 000
for the school 50 000 for the city
but
as the years go on and raise it in cost
increase approximate raises we built in
a two percent increase so
year two would be a hundred and two
thousand
fifty percent of each fifty one thousand
year three
two percent on top of that so year three
would be fifty two thousand twenty each
now this agreement maintains that all
over time associated with working in
schools
such as
varsity uh games
dances things like that
paid 100 by the district which is our
current arrangement so those those
numbers were simply just for staffing
during school days
so that's the cost so what's the benefit
that i see
is building the building of bonds
between students and officers and what they do they lead to they lead to
an improved sense of safety
inside the school outside the school we
want students and staff and faculty to
feel safe in
it school benefit by having improved
interaction with police officers for
students they will become familiar with
police officers you'll feel comfortable
going up to them whether it's
inside school or outside the school
they'll have a better understanding of
them by the mutual respect
i personally have experienced
cases where
back when we had school resource
officers they got to know the student
body so well it paid dividends years
into the future i'd be out on calls
where situations were tense and those
officers that were school resource
officers were able to go in there and
comp things down simply because they
knew the person
that was possibly being problematic or
they knew one of the complaints and they
were able to uh ease tension so
that familiarity to me is one of the
biggest benefits
and it's an investment that
goes into the future you know
students that are 10 years old now will
know police officers the rest of their
lives
students who trust officers will bring
problems to them that they have for
justice guidance for counseling
that's another important piece is that
we want access to the police department
to be there for for the students if they
need it they don't feel comfortable
giving it at home or being able to call
and get police officers
and and then the last benefit really is
for the school
to reduce reduce need for for police
being called to the schools
they um
they get priority service in the schools
what the benefit for the school is for
the for the city
we're going to have
problems
dealt with
before they become bigger
nip it in the mud
be able to address things before they
turn into a police call
and
basically pay it forward within the
school
system itself as far as taking care of
themselves policing themselves
we started we recognized the lead in
september
and october that's when our discussion
phase was we implemented this program in
november you'll see the calls for
service were
11217 those two months respectfully
they the pilot program starts they drop
down to 68 they go up to 89 57 61.80 so
there is a reduction in the calls for
service that originated from the school
district with the implementation of the
pilot program which was just simply two
officers
so our request before you now would be
as part of our police reform and
reinvention collaborative
texas county police department and the
city school district wish to enter into
an agreement for the police department
to provide up to six officers five
officers and one sergeant as community
engagement officers assigned to the
designated city schools
this uh this agreement would take the
effect july 1st and run through june
30th 2023
it is for a total of six officers but
our phase one would be
to add
three officers immediately
and then at the beginning of 2023
september of 23
to add those additional three officers
we had to do this to get them properly
trained i can't just take six officers
out of my staffing that i currently have
and we would request that
for the 2022 budget that i add those
three positions
that is a budget neutral
um request
because the amount of money that we
would receive
from the school district should cover
the cost of the officers going to the
police academy to replace the officers
that are in schools
and then we would be making this another
an additional request for the three in
our 23 2023 budget request
that is your comment
thank you and we will uh open it up to
any questions at this time
thank you and thank you ac
um
i think it's appropriate to hear from
our resource officer that's here uh if
unless there any objections would you
mind coming up to the front and talking
about a typical day
it's briefly summarizing i imagine it
came from that
so so the days vary based on the needs
of the district um
uh early on i mean me and officer rivera
usually sign in the kids that are in
school late and then it's responding on
a neat basis so
um
you know we have to keep in mind there's
17
uh different schools within the district
so you know they could be initial uh you
know child major disclosure at mount
pleasant middle school or
howe elementary um they range between
you know we've had threats written on
the wall specifics as it relates to
um you know
whether they say they're gonna
cause harm at uh on a circle at a
certain school at a certain time so you
know
it it varies i mean i've talked to
staff members about
the eviction process
and
again it just depends on the day
good thank you
are there any questions from my fellow
council members mr mutaver
chief you you mentioned uh this one
question i was gonna mention that money
the reimbursement receipt you're gonna
receive from the school will turn back
into hiring additional uh staffing so
that would be incremental as you are
putting stuff into the school district
you're going to use that reimbursement
to hire additional staff or you are even
going to do that one time next year
the additional
fighter
the
we would put the more senior officers in
the school and we would hire officers
train them those officers that would
then go on the street and staff our our
streets are typically the lower paid
ones until they get the seniority and
they rise up step so
the uh the model that we have built out
which is that the that they're sharing
the cost of the officer we're giving
them
you know it covers a lot a large amount of the
cost of the officer that is replacing
them with also that's why it's
considered budget neutral this this year
and
when you build it up maybe
10 years from now it's a different
conversation but for right now
it's um you know
it it does it there's not a heavy lift
from the department from uh from finance
end
so the cost that you quoted here is the
senior officer
pretty much yeah
yes
and you also mentioned that you will be
hiring senior officer into the school
district
my one of my concerns is that um
when you can be hiring senior officer in
the contract it says
recommendation of the pba the mayor and
you i would also like to see the officer
who has experience dealing with youth
you know several years over the course
of being a police department we consider
placement here
yeah the the way our system works is
that
we have a seniority system with a police
department for for the control level so
when a job opens up we bid it for for
senior and the senior bidder gets the
opportunity to interview
so
um
so through that process
we we find out who the most senior
person is and then we take a look at
them and interview them and if we don't
feel that they're the right fit then we
move on to the next one you know we have
that discussion and then we have the
additional layer of sending them before
the school board
administration the school administration
to
um for them to give approval also
so i'd like to follow up on that so um i
know that you said because i read here
that you do result in collective
bargaining which is clearly seniority
etc but um are there instances or some
things that you do that are merit based
positions
um and because i share mr muda baron's
um concern with that we want officers
who i mean it takes a certain amount of
temperament it takes a certain
temperament to work with young people
on a day-to-day basis um so is there a
possibility that there can be a
merit-based system so that officers are
chosen as opposed to
um
just doing it by seniority because
frankly looking at looking at it from
eight to four is is a pretty nice shift
and in the schools so um and maybe i
make it sound easier than it really is
but it's it's a shift that people may
bid on words as opposed to being out in
the street so
um you know i go back to is is merit
based an opportunity for pete for um
this as opposed to
just based on seniority
we have some jobs in our department that
are merit-based those were derived
through
the negotiation process with the pba
i think that before we um i'll refer to the mayor on this before
we go too deep into that conversation it
might be something more for
executive session to discuss
than do it publicly
i would agree with the chief even though
the pba has been
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a partner in this in terms of discussion
trying to get the right people there
and you know you saw from the chart you
have to understand we're putting police
in the schools
every day now
those are calls for service they aren't
just stopping there randomly it's
somebody's dialing 9-1-1 reaching out to
the police department we're sending a
car
so this allows officers to be assigned
to
the school district so they're building
a better rapport a more functional
knowledge of who the leadership is
within
each individual building and then also
rapport with the students
and i think it's a better way to respond
to those calls and you saw
it's still preliminary data but we had
two
fairly active ones when the
officers are assigned there you see that
start to drop in the earlier months on
that chart you have to remember covet is
there so that the baseline is skewed
but
i think just going forward
it's better to have these officers there
than having somebody
who would be randomly dispatched there
based on the configuration that we use
in the street
where you can't always guarantee
the officer with the training
unique to the school is going to go
there
and it's an evolutionary model
it's
one that
i think is going to pay off
good dividends it's part of the reform
package
and the dialogue has been
one that i'll call just dynamic so we're
looking at how do you do it better how
do you engage
students how do we better
serve the public as a whole
and
if we can drop those calls down to zero
would be the ideal
end game
but yes there are some components where
you get into an executive session
if the council would like to do that or
just follow up discussions
uh depending on what specific questions
there are i do have oh sorry i haven't
had further questions so currently you
have two officers in the schools yes
just two and were they chosen for
through the collective bargaining system
they were the senior bidders
so other people been but they were the
highest okay um
and also when when we did the reform and
reinvention which this came out of that
were community engagement officers were
the was the intent for them to be in
school was that the intent when we when
that piece of the legislation the plan
was passed no okay no um it was um it
was part of the process of sitting down
with the superintendent and his
leadership staff and we started talking
about our reinforcement reinvention
collaborative and the idea behind the
community engagement officer and he
really liked that idea that's why we
chose the name rather than school
resource officer
is that um you know we knew that we
wanted to engage more with the community
he knew that he wanted us there
for a variety of different reasons
and we just felt that it it it really
it wasn't exact fit but it was a fit
there
and and just to go back to the officers
um and and
them getting the job through the
seniority process
i like to tell i like to say that it's
my job it's chief whipple's job
to make sure that every officer working
for us is going to be
regardless of how they get the job
appropriate to go into the police
department go into the schools like i
don't want to just find that diamond in
the rough police officer going to
schools i want every single one of my
officers that works the street to be
acceptable to go into the schools and
that's what that's what we work for
every day
um
in terms of the training that the
officers um i believe that there's like
a more comprehensive training that the
safety team undergoes
can you talk a little bit about that
process in terms of some of the topics
and presenters that that meet with
the team
um and do the training
i mean the training that's above and
beyond
you know the police training
um
i'm not i'm not very familiar with this
sergeant might be i'll help out a little
bit with it i know that there's an
organization called nasro national
association of resource officers it's a
basic school
resource officer training we do plan on
sending our officers there to that
training
and i know that there's other training
that has been put on by the school
district and by the school safety
director jeff russo that they've already
gone to
um and they're invited to
it was the therapeutic crisis
intervention um that was you know given
by their put on that their staff at the
district um
they take
we completed that with their school
psychologists
one of the school counselors and
a master social worker
and i have another question thank you um
the other
i have a concern that this that the
officers have to float among the schools
as opposed to
officers that might be
assigned to specific schools and i guess
again um
you know have you found that challenging
that you have to be in many different
places on any on any given given day
can you join us up here sorry it looks
like it's going to be a few questions
for you
because then you'll be on the camera the
public seats
yeah and that's what you know the pilot
program right you know with two officers
and in 17 different schools
uh you know made for some busy days you
know addressing the needs at the
different campuses
but you know that's what that's what
we've been tasked with and i think
that's
you know collectively the school
district you know saw the need for
additional um offices to handle that
workload
so
you know
that's how we're handling it now and you
know there's some emergencies that you
know if i was tied up
you know i had to supplement i swear patrol
so i had a question uh pretty simply
just how is success going to be measured
i know that we are answering this at a
point in time as you highlighted in the
presentation where there's a lot of
incidents that are happening in the
school can you just identify some of the
metrics that you're going to look at to
be able to gauge
whether this
program is improving or
not making any substantial benefits to
those
histories
sure sure so
we're going to measure this program like
we do uh you know
how we measure ourselves on a daily
basis um
you know we're going to look at calls
for service that are generated we're
going to look at the number of major
incidents that are happening where we
are needed there
and we're you know we're going to just
speak with the administration about
conducting surveys getting feedback at
the end of the school year i'm hearing
from the school community their thoughts
they're getting feedback um
but quite generally
um you know the the absence of major
issues in the school is really going to
speak volumes and that's what we're
really aiming for
we're in the business to put ourselves
out of business we get to a point where
there's no issues and and uh the
empowerment is there for the school to
police themselves through school
schools security monitors you know i'd
be happy just to leave just as fast as
we're coming in there um so we're there
for a reason
and um you know who knows if it will be
a short-term thing or a long-term thing
but you know we want to make sure that
it's a safe learning environment for
everybody
and that's that's primarily our focus
and then a follow-up uh question to that
is um based on your answer uh if the
priority is safety uh and then the
additional areas that were highlighted
in the
legislative reform to include like
educators and then also
to include educators and also making
sure that the environment is safe and
improving relationships um
i think if the onus has placed too
heavily on the safety element
my question then is how is a community
engagement officer different than a
police officer that's in a school
i was different than a police officer
if more of the illness is placed on
safety absent making sure that they're
taking the appropriate steps to build
those relationships and apply that
community health initiative training
that they we're trained to use uh if
we're not creating that also i think
that that can be very much a missed
opportunity
well
if i think i understand your question
right i'll answer it this way that you
know on a daily basis when police
officers are out in the community
working we are there empowering the community
to police themselves
um and we are simply the uh the agents
of the of the society
to to have the ability to enforce laws
if needed
and and i would see that we are working
the same way in the school district we
are simply there we have the ability to
act if needed but we don't want to act
we want to empower the school safety
officers
the staff we want to have our presence
there be of such that everybody just
does what they're supposed to do and
there's no no threat from the outside of people
coming in there thinking that they can
come in and assault a student
because their children had a
disagreement
the day before
we don't want one student to feel that
they can attack another student and get
away with it we don't want students feel
that they can bring weapons into the
schools and get away with it so we just
simply want our presence that's there to
be the deterrent
at the same time
while we're there we're taking the
opportunity to be educators to be
counselors to have to let the students
have access
to the police
to meet their needs if they have any
thank you and would you be opposed to uh
if the council should decide
i know you mentioned doing annual
feedback surveys with the staff and the
students i think it's our responsibility
as a council to make sure that we're
acting representative of the community's
interests to potentially provide us just
a report and an x amount of months
should we approve that to just gauge how
well that this program is functioning
i would not be opposed to that i i plan
on speaking the superintendent about
that anyways
thank you thank you uh it's perfect so i
think i think when you said that you
were going to um for your evaluation
process it was going to be the school
staff you didn't mention students so i'd
like to know would students be including
that and were students included in this
whole discussion
um
you know in terms of um i know that well
anyway we're students i'll let you
answer we're students included in this
discussion
in terms of um the community engagement
officers in school was there any kind of
focus group among the students
not by the police department but i
believe there was done by the school
superintendent
and um and and that was just a mistake i
would definitely want to get their input
at the end of the school year like what
are your thoughts behind it get get
ideas from them on the program
okay and i did have a question about the
um the training the nasro
but that is specifically training just
for police officers right it's not it's not
well what is it just specific like if
you're going to police in the streets or
does it include um police officers being
in schools
i believe
specifically for
school resource officers that's that
specific training all right is there a
breakdown somewhere of what actually i
know that you meant you spoke it of what
happens in that training and you don't
have to have it right here right now but
um if we have that
yeah
this
is certainly available
i believe it's available they have a
website yes
it's a model that the you know police
officer has an informal counselor like
he said a role model um and that's
what's important for me is you know i
didn't know any police officers growing
up and i think it's important that you
know
uh you see
you know officers that look like them
that
you know come from neighborhoods similar
to theirs etc
so
you know i think it's an opportunity
i know you talk about success but in
terms of recruitment you know years ago
i was tasked with recruitment and i
think it's you know
being a role model for
our youth to be the difference that they want to
see
oh i'm sorry
if i can just add something thank you
i was in some of the conversations
related to this agreement and the
question didn't come up related to
what this quarter field brought up
related to nazareth
the school district indicated that's the
gold standard for training
um there's it's obviously the national
association there's a
state version which actually doesn't
meet
according to the school district the
same criteria that the national um
training provides
and as was indicated there is
information related to it and i have it
available to me too so i can certainly
pass that well
um
yeah justin follow-up is border phila
question
community engagement officer when we
passed the police reform and reinvention
this would primarily target towards the
community and now we're hiring these
officers to compliment what is going on
with the school district
are you going to be hiring additional
officers to go out into the community
and be part of this also
and do you have a target date for that
yeah the the um
the program that we have in the
recommendations uh we have every
intention of building that out we just
haven't gotten
we're not there yet
we are putting the training we're
implementing the training that we
discussed for those officers already
that's being built up
but uh that's that's still in the works
and i will be updating our collaborative
on where we're at with that next week
um you know or coming soon
and um but
we we originally applied for a cops
grant to be able to build that program
out we're not successful we're going to
try again next year so that's the whole
as far as that program goes a lot how
does it meet those needs
would it be safe to say that the
reinforcement we're going to receive
from the school will turn that into
hiring additional staff that can be able
to be community engagement officer that can be
found within the community
as a reimbursement rather than putting
that money into
something else
talk about
whether they're remorseful
well they should just cover the six that
we're going to be
that we will be bringing on
for them
yeah but regardless we're going to hire
these officers
so those are reinforcements that we need
to just return that back into something
additional officer six more officer with
that reimbursement that we're getting
from the school
the right person from the school if the
council chooses to
put more money in the budget but that's
right now the department is lower
staffing level with what i would prefer
what the chief would prefer
so it's the
over the next
12 24 months
try and work that back up
to
what we consider an adequate staffing
level
and part of that charge is to have those
community engagement officers
not only his specific assignments but
every officer that's out on patrols the
chief talks about being able to
handle whatever the call comes up
it's the nature of the department where
some officers end up with a little area
of specialty one way or the other by the
luck of the draw some of the cases that
they end up being assigned or calls they
go to
or their natural proclivity or
educational background where they have
a little bit different
skill set that is more applicable to
some of these but it's that make sure
that everybody
has the level that's able to serve the
needs of the people when they get
the calls and then hopefully as the
calls go down
that you can do more of the community
engagement so that you're talking to
people
you're walking the beat you're having
more of the deterrent effect
and just a smoother engagement
with the public as a whole
yeah my concern is that we don't want to
just leave behind you know i'm not
saying you can leave it you're doing it
it's a good program that we're spreading
in school and community but i'll make
sure that we are addressing
the police reform that was intended for
to have these officers into the
community also at the same time
they will
follow the school and that's the goal
as you know it's always trying to get
the budget
i have to mention it
well i just want to clarify
i and tell me if i'm wrong but i thought
in our 2022 budget
which we had the report already
with the recommendations i thought we
actually already had included money in
this budget for
community engagement officers
and that this is a new program so this
is new money on top of what we already
put into the budget for
adding community engagement officers but
i could be wrong but that was my memory
of this it's
also the nature of hiring the police
we're
told
to pass the civil service test
be able to be hired
we have to send them to training right
so
basically an officer
that first year
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can't be used and so it's been
filling those positions that are in the
budget
and to maintain the level of staffing so
this is
[Music]
a
[Music]
position i think works for everybody's
benefit
even though it might not be considered
to be perfect
oh
yeah so i i just i would like um and i i
it seems like we can't discuss it openly
but i really would like to discuss
um the mayor of base as opposed to just
by seniority i think that's that's an
important you know as we know people
have different ideas about what should
and shouldn't have in schools but i
think it's extremely important that um
we're placing um officers in schools who
you know you know we want to look at
just everything and make sure that it
makes sense if this is what this is
what's going to happen um that there
should be a vetting process and
not just the standard
seniority process
so i would like to have more discussion
about that mr toro
i thought i was under the impression
that
you would interview them and then the
school board as well
would interview the candidates for the
positions in the school correct that's
correct we do interview them however you
know
that interview isn't necessarily to
select them as much as to interview them
to potentially exclude them because the job is big it's theirs and then we
interview them for the right fit if you
feel they're not the right fit then we
speak to them and said you're not the
right fit
and we and then when you who feels the
right fit
would go on to
um
be interviewed by the school board to
make sure they're right fit as well
correct okay my intention will be to
present an officer to the school board
that
i'm confident that they're going to be
fine
but that process is different than the
merit-based it's still by seniority
so that's why i really wanted to discuss
that
okay so i'm in agreement with um just
causing this conversation until we're
able to pick this back up an executive
session
uh so pending any further questions no
you'll have to move into executive
session but we have to hold this in the
data session
now we just need to recess
yeah if you're going to continue
yes
right
second
favorite
all right
unless there are any other topics for
before the committee uh can i get a
motion to adjourn normally
no we just resign
we'll pick it up
i would like to call
and this is a foreign reminder that
calling for public hearing uh cdbg cv
funding to prevent prepare for
and respond for carolina virus and this
is on april 25th
and the second item is also a reminder
for public hearing proposed annual
action plan
public hearing april 25th if there's
nothing else before finance i ask for a
motion to adjourn
second second
all in favor all right all right thank
you
i'd like to call the order city
development and planning we have 13
items on the agenda
um i don't see mr walling
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here
on his way down okay
he should be coming through the door any
minute our first item is to authorize
the issue issuance of a revocable permit
number 668 suganesh hospitality for a
sign that will overhang the cities right
away at 759 state street
i think that's detailed in the it is
what they call it the standard
application but ask the council's
favorable consideration until
mr i want to give the impression we get
by without them but we could
probably handle this one here's the sign
does everyone have an opportunity to
actually look at the information
provided in their packet
yes and so are there any questions
if not i can stand in motion i'll move
it
second all right all those in favor fine
okay um number two to authorize the
mayor or his designated agreement with
the new york state department of state
for the downtown the downtown uh city's
downtown reinvest revitalization
initiative program contract number
c1001884
are you taking this one too man
this is
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part of the uh
dri award and it's government so there's a little bit
of paperwork
and uh
looking for you to move forward on this
but this is
the master contractor thing
it's it's right here
the delay is a little longer
so we're talking about dri contract
number 84. that is correct all right so
what are the questions with contract
number 84 are there any at this moment
anyone have any questions
okay state of motion so moved
second always in favor hi all right item
number three authorize the mayor or his
destiny to intervene with the new york
state department of state for the city's
downtown utilization initiative program
contract number one zero zero one eight five so this is
i can't remember which one is which off
the top of my head i think it's 85
broadway and clinton
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decorative lights on broadway and
clinton where we don't have them to kind
of match what we're doing downtown um
it's the reason that you don't see us
paving broadway right now with the
national grid cuts because we're going
to be coming in there others dri and
doing the same thing so we're going to
do it all at once get the trenching done
get in there and put the lights in so
uh it's a good project this is step one
of
many steps
so you know this is going to be a long
process getting everything done but once
we get these contracts
passed signed authorized out to them
we'll start working on our request for
proposals to actually get designed and
then that will have to go to the state
so
do you know the cost of the project
overall for the lighting the work the budget is
eight years roughly around eight hundred
thousand dollars
oh wow okay yeah the other project the
budget for those is is you know total
projects two million but
we're a little over that butt up
we're probably gonna need to supplement
some of that but that's when we get down
the road with design and you know
because that has the j street connector
in it that has
three projects j street and then there
is city hall and
i don't know
but there's three projects lumped into
the number 884
but this is just for getting the
contracts moving
[Music]
could
these
on broadway
were cover heads that we did replace
with the leds but it's designed to
net
project was only the cobra heads
these are to standardize the light so
they're the decorative ones that you see
in front of city hall and around
the rest of downtown
just to make it more visually attractive
as we uh upgrade the streets and
overall ambiance and downtown wave
fighting
okay weight finding is always a a piece
that they put in there for uh going for
a wavelength program
are there any other questions
second
all those in favor of
thank you
ah and uh item number four our worst
vehicle contract for the cities
of schenectady greenhouse composting
toilet
so um
the city
owns the
greenhouse in central park the friends
of the greenhouse operate it and
maintain it for the most part they
really do a great job
they have an existing
bathroom facility in both the greenhouse
utility building and in the teaching
classroom neither building is ada
accessible so when they have public
events
they don't have an accessible bathroom
we did investigate the feasibility of
making the building and the bathroom ada
accessible the cost of it were
they were high they were actually hiking
you had to build a ramp and open the
doors up and then after they did some
investigating into it then it got into
that's kind of theirs not only their
teaching space but their office space so
then it was do we really want the public
to have access into our office space
because they don't have enough staff to
keep eyes on everybody
and so then they started doing a little
brainstorming and they found this
composting toilet idea which is used at
the pine bush
it is a kit system
the contractor will order the kit from
cliva small term it's a sole source the
kit will come on a truck the contractor
puts it together digs a hole and it is a
self-sustaining composting toilet no
water and no electricity
it actually is going to have a solar
panel and an led light and a fan so the
solar panel will power it to a battery
um it will have a tank underneath it for waste and it'll compost and then
every couple of years if we need to you
know we have the equipment to empty that
um the greenhouse thinks it fits more in
line with their goals and it could be a
teaching item what they're saying is you
know here we have this the whole thing
is compostable right it's about
renewable trying to keep things
sustainable so they think this will be
good and it's a building it's a it's a
fully ada building so let's know that
part yeah
so um
so it was something that you know we
have uh capital set aside to do this and
it's actually probably
a little cheaper than actually modifying
everything to go this route and from
there from their goals so i think it'll
be a good project this is the same
contractor by the way that we recently
awarded the construction of the muni
maintenance building
and that is going on right now so
we've had he's been he's been good he's
working on the maintenance building the
goal is what he's done with that in a
month that he moves over and he does
this
so this cost of 52 000 is the
thank entire cost
great
sounds quite interesting by the way oh
and when it's all done yep come on down
all right i'm moving i'll second it i
was in favor
and we're able to do number one we did
it yeah
so the next item on our agenda is um the
hosting the quarterly meetings outside
of city hall follow-up discussion
mr williams so thank you for feeling i
apologize i wasn't able to brief this
last meeting um but i wanted to
re-engage this discussion to see how
everyone kind of felt i know there was
an article that came on the gazette
regarding this topic
i know when i initially briefed it i
mentioned uh quarterly but it's kind of
developed into wanting it to be based
around a topic after doing research into
the city code the reason why i included
chapter 28 was there's already a
stipulation that allows us to conduct
special meetings that are only based
around um
very defined topics please correct me if
i'm wrong mr coleman but with respect to
us having
conversations throughout the community
similar to this police
or the school ceo's conversation we
could have had this discussion at the
high school where there have been a
number of uh discussions already since
it's already a centralized location for
this this topic but
just wanting to gauge where everyone was
and then potentially highlight some
equipment needs
just so
if interested i can begin just looking
at what available facilities are in the
area to see what our options are to
potentially host uh
a topic discussion this year want to be
realistic don't want to open the door
for too much expectation
i do think this is something that is
easily achievable
if we can just fine-tune what we each
expect from these meetings and uh
provide enough notice in the public
it's free
um let's try to figure out how to look
too thank you for that um i actually
feel i just want to back up to the day
that we had the girls here from the high
school uh to meet with ms porterfield
and ms detour and myself
we got really positive feedback from
that and they met with staff as well
around the city hall and
a comment that the
teacher the coordinator of the program
made afterwards was that
some of the girls didn't even know that
city hall existed
um in their community they had no idea
what this what this was
um
and
uh
i thought then i thought about
the suggestion that you had made in
terms of moving the moving the meetings
around and i really maintain i really
think that it's important for
folks to come here
and and feel
like they're in the seat of democracy in
our city
at the same time i think that all of us
have been going around to a lot of
various neighborhood meetings
um a lot of different topical meetings
there's one coming up soon that is
you know the one community uh the one
schenectady initiative that the
schenectady foundation is doing um so i think that there's a lot of meetings
that we go to where we can solicit
community input and hear community needs
um on a really regular basis sikkem does
different kinds of meetings um so
now on to your suggestion that you just
made doing maybe one meeting a year on
topic
um i think if that was outside of our
regular council
committee and and council meeting if we
kept our regular council committee and
council meetings here
but did add in every so often a topical
meeting like like you're suggesting i
think that's an interesting proposition
to consider but i would want to keep our
counsel and committee meetings here
on a regular basis
so so again it's just being a conduit so
i know absolutely we all attend a number
of neighborhood association meetings
throughout the city um however that
doesn't specifically address every
resident in the in the community so
there's still a portion of of our city
where residents are being missed so i
think there's still benefits to us
hosting
uh
city city council discussions within the public forum
the reason why i included the caveat of
just having our expectation for this
year be one i don't think there's any
reason to be hard-pressed to having
quarterly meetings
right as we're coming out
potentially re-entering a pandemic
and i think placing that expectation
with the council that's still
formulating together when the number of
members are still new i think it's very
grandiose
so for me right now i think if the
intent is to potentially get to having
meetings
frequently throughout the year in the
community i think starting with calendar
year 22 just having the expectation
being with one coming back to the
drawing board seeing how that went and
then potentially reevaluating the
benefits so it was just one to not
kind of hard press tyus to
yeah
it is something that we have heard over
the last year about
campaigning talking to voters people who
are engaged that we need to engage our
community more
of what we're doing in city hall exactly
what the
young lady has been asking
about where is city hall
so we want to take a good idea you're
bringing this up here so that we take
our meetings
to the community when you say one
meeting are you referring to committee
meeting or city council
or should we do both
in the same cycle
so we can currently do a special meeting
um and
at that point it would be outlining what
is needed to have a
habit wow
what is needed to have a meeting in the
public so the expectations with making
sure that we had internet connectivity
or making sure that we had an
appropriate table size that type of
stuff to make sure it wasn't too uh
displaced when we go to a different venue um but absolutely i
would love to potentially get to having more and this is something i
support so what i need for us to work
out the logistics how are we gonna be
able to get live feed from their
internet access and accommodation if we
were to do this outside of city hall
what are what are the things that we
need to put in place
so can we work on that to see how we are
and what the council
you know you know from the council in
terms of what's doing that outside of
city hall
ms williams before having those
discussions i didn't want to prematurely
like start asking as if the council had
already decided uh i'm just one
representative so i feel very strongly
about doing this but i want to make sure
before i start asking smackley high
school hey what are the expectations for
us to be able to request the use of your
auditorium i think it's it's it's
important for me to make sure that we
are all functioning with the same
understanding and that i'm not acting
inappropriately
and you mentioned the high school i'm
just going to mention the boys and girls
club just for mentioning
so i like the idea of having a special
meeting that's and keeping our council
meetings and our community meetings here
right now since we're
um
taking baby steps so having a special
meeting um and having it on a specific
topic and actually um i received some
emails actually from a former council
member who who um mr o'brien who saw
that you know who suggested that back in
january actually that if we're going to
do this maybe we should look at a
special meeting on a particular topic so
i'm very supportive of that uh if we
can you know in the future do our
committee meetings or council meetings
outside i think that's going to take a
lot of organizing
and arranging but i'm certainly open to
doing it at least one and actually if it
works out well i'm open to doing more um
as ms patrick has said that we do have
uh we brought the young ladies here and
they've never seen um
they've never seen uh city hall before
so i think that both things can happen
that we're out in the public and we're
also when we're there inviting people to
actually come to city hall meetings
because currently when people come it's
just because they have an issue i'd love
people to come just to you know to
engage into you know um just to be there
to kind of see how we do our process so
i
think that going out to them would
probably get more people to to begin to
come when we want to get on this council
we certainly show up
to the public on a regular basis for
weeks on end so
i think that you know once we're now
we're all elected we you know coming
back to the community and having a
reform there
is actually um kind of a nice idea and
says to the community we don't only come
um for this time so i think it might be
a good idea
mr palamini we don't need to have a
special meeting to do this first of all
we just can have a town hall
and have people come and discuss what it
is that interests them
furthermore if we have a special meeting
we are bound i'm assuming by
the guidelines of a council meeting
where each individual only has a certain
amount of time to speak
so why not just have informal town halls
where we all show up
let people come and say what they need
to say if you want to form it around a
particular topic that's fine but to have
a special meeting
quote unquote i don't see that as
necessary we can do this already
and the other aspect is if we do these
special meetings what will be the cost
there's got to be a cost associated with
that
and that i think is needed to
have before we even go down that road
but the town halls we can do
so what mr waves said is that he wanted
to make sure there was a consensus that
we would do this before he looked into
what the cost is going to be what
equipment is needed because i think we
do have to
make sure that it's even something we
want to do otherwise
it's just um
yes mr torreira mr williams
exactly what neighborhoods aren't being
represented
by
the local
groups
you say they don't have access to
going to the neighborhood association
meetings are there specific areas that
can't get to a neighborhood meeting
[Music]
so i wasn't saying that individuals
aren't able to become members of
specific neighborhoods i'm saying the
neighborhood associations aren't
all-encompassing of every member and the
community so there are certain members
who just
don't attend organizations and i think
it's important for us to make certain
steps to make sure that they are able to
be
viewers or to have better access so this
is again just
increasing access for people to to see
us and then engage with us so we can
then bring them in to to city hall
because i've heard that frequently where
people don't even know where city hall
even exists
and
your goal is to increase people in
attendance
first of all at a special meeting and
then secondly to get them to come here
yes ms williams
my intent very
candidly is i
it pains me to hear our public forums
have zero comments
and that represents a legislative item i
think it is imperative that we have
continuous input and feedback from the
members of our city and if people aren't
using the current processes that are in
place us taking steps to see what more
we can do to meet them where they are
sure
mayor
in
my uh
years of experience you will
notice
you'll look back and appreciate where
things have run fairly smoothly and
people are all in agreement when you get
the meeting where
everybody comes out and all of a sudden
things have changed so much so it runs
in cycles that
it may be self-correcting that you're
looking to
meet everybody then one day everybody's
just going to show up here
i'll be sick one day
i think that
me i think a good example are the
neighborhood meetings that we did hold
at the mayor hill held that we all
attended um for the awkward process i
mean i think that's pretty much the town
hall
model
um that mr palamani is mentioning um
and i'll just throw out there also that
don't forget about the libraries as well
because they have a lot of the
technology
um and
pretty much we can
as long as we get on schedule uh use
those you know at no cost
um so it would just be the technology
piece um which
and it's nothing new i mean we've done
this in the past um unfortunately
not very well attended
but
we have had these type of events so
to have a town hall or
and get people engaged with a particular
topic or just what's on their mind
this is nothing new for us and
um
it's something that we can do without
having a special meeting
i don't i don't recall as a whole entire
council ever doing that we certainly
took the budget on the road
the budget yeah
okay i don't remember that
we did because i was the chair we set up
the meetings and every time probably
four or five different neighborhoods
and there weren't very many people that came unfortunately
okay
if you do a budget with a tax increase
but i was gonna say that's why it's
important to do these types of
deliberations as a council because
that's a very important idea where i'll
be able to i'm not in no position trying
to have us recreate the wheel i just
want to see it happen
so if we can come together and develop a
framework for how that town hall is
going to happen occur and if we hold
each other accountable to be present
because i think there is power in
numbers and as a council we should be
engaging the city i am not opposed to
just having something that is already
done in the past just making sure we
picked the right topic to improve our exposure
nice
so what are you looking for at this
point in time
i would say if the consensus is shifting
towards having a town hall um
i can formulate some themes
to have the conversation around and if
in the meantime everyone can just come
up with what their individual
expectations for town hall
it's uh
how you envision that being structured
i think
okay
do you want to bring this back up
in two weeks
so in two weeks we just kind of come
back to the table with um what we'd like
to see happen maybe talk about some
topics i'd like to see
um and you'll look at we can talk about
different locations
and of course we don't have to worry
about um concerning ourselves with
making sure that we have the technology
that we need so
all right just it's a classification so
we're still going to be continuing
discussion and having
city council
and
my understanding is we were just really
talking about town halls are you still want to continue the
discussion
outside the home city hall well
i wouldn't be in favor of that so i
don't know i think you were looking for
whether there was consensus among the
board members
around among the council members um
about whether we would be interested in
doing
city council meetings my statement was
that i i would rather hold our city
council meetings in our city council
committee meetings here
um i would be
open to having
topical
meetings in other neighborhoods and
other settings so that's just my my
vote
all right so it's clear that um so let's
just
have a just kind of like just talk this
through so are you still interested in
doing council meetings not necessarily
right now not that one this year but in
the future is that something you're
still interested in doing yes in the
future but if we're able to have one now
the the the town hall discussion to to
see how it's perceived and see how it's
formulated i think it would be more or
less like a test
[Music]
see where we are with it
mr toro
are we going around the food yeah okay
so
i i like carl's idea um you know town
hall
see how that works out and then in the
future i mean if it works out well this
time and we want to discuss it again i
think our meetings belong here in our
government building and
you know but maybe we'll get some more
folks to join us but um i think for now
if we have a town hall and all of a
sudden it seems like there's 40 people
who might want to
um
have us
do a special meeting
something we can bring back to the table
and discuss okay there mr pelham did you
have more input i just think uh our
meeting should be here
this is the center of our city
government it's important for people to
know
where this building is
what it represents it represents
everybody in this city
and it's important to try to get people
here
whether it's kids and maybe we can have
a one day a month where we do tours for
kids or school groups
if the mayor's available
he could
come and see them that would be
something worthwhile to get kids here
and younger people
but i think it's vital
for having government meetings in our
cities
where our city government centered is
important
and if we truly want to hear what people
have to say the town hall concept allows
them
to talk
and for us to be quiet and listen
and
i think that
to me is the
more appropriate way to go
well i think both are acceptable and
we'll just continue to go down this road
um i i understand what you're saying
about this being you know in peop being
the center of government
however the city is also part of the
people that we serve and so meeting them
where they are i think is of equal
importance so
we'll put it on again for two weeks and
just continue these discussions so if
you can bring back your
uh
language in the city code says that
council meetings are to take place at
city hall unless otherwise posted right
with proper notice
i would
say that it doesn't really set out
whether or not you have to do something
by resolution for that purpose
i would for the purposes of um you know
providing notice to the public my
recommendation would be that the council
passed a resolution for that purpose
[Music]
so if we're going to do a special
meeting because it does
give um
how that's done that special meaning
that's clearly covered in the code so
if we're not going to do a special
meeting however or if we're going to
call it a town hall
do we need to what would we need to do
no you wouldn't have to know because
i mean
there's nothing in the code that talks
about town hall meetings right so
anything that were to happen
um you know the
obviously the council can obviously
agree to do it um
if somebody didn't make it
um there's nothing you know in the code
that requires a council person to attend
the town hall
to be frank
as opposed to you know
certain requirements related to
attending regular meetings and
you know meeting actual meetings of the
council the other thing is if you were
to do town hall you couldn't take any
formal action obviously uh as
mr palmer
is to you know listen to what people
have to say it's one of those times when
we would just have to you know you as
council people have to sit there and
just listen to what people say because
you can't take official action
um
because it's not a regularly called
council meeting
excuse me
but they could ask us questions yes
absolutely yeah so it's not like
you would create the format yeah
okay but you couldn't obviously pass a
resolution right right no i just can't
i'll take a formal option yeah okay
all right well let's bring this back
into exciting
and we'll see definitely discussions and
it sounds like we're leaning more
towards town hall but i think at some
point special meaning outside should not
be outside the realm of possibility
any other questions or discussions on
that
no okay
we'll
be back in two weeks with that thank you
mr williams
all right the uh next item on the agenda
is a um
ceremonial resolution for jerry amy zion
church there are going to be 185 years
ago
they're the oldest black church in the
city and their event is on the 29th so
um i'd like to be able to present them
with a
ceremony resolution
so second all those in favor thank you
and the uh
the next item for public is the a
ceremony resolution for arbor day which
is the 29th of april this year we do a
resolution for them every year
we would invite folks from retreat and
whoever else is helping i know community
fathers is involved with um doing some
of the tree planting nowadays so we just
invite folks to city hall to accept that
resolution so moved okay always in favor
hi
okay um
the final four items are for executive
session to discuss property sales
so uh at this time on the same motion to
go in executive session
second all's in favor all right
okay
we're gonna go to the executive session