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so
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i'd like to call the city caucus meeting
to order for monday august 22nd 2022.
we have 15 items for original
consideration
please read item number one for final consideration
an ordinance to amend section
87-6.1 of the code of the city of
schenectady
mr bellamy
roll call
that'll be a roll call though
item number two under original
consideration an ordinance or
authorizing the issuance of the bond for
the construction reconstruction
installation of improvement at and
in connection with the rice road water
treatment plant discussing committee
with objection and on consent item
number three item number three for
original consideration a resolution
appropriating the american rescue plan
act funds and authorizing the mayor to
enter into agreement
division of homeland security and
emergency services to secure grant
funding discuss the committee without
consent
item number
six item number six for
original consideration a resolution
authorized in the mayor to enter into an
agreement with axon enterprise
incorporated for the purpose of
purchasing the axon officer safety plan
discuss the committee with objection on
consent item number seven item number
seven for original consideration a
resolution calling for a public hearing
to support
an application by metroplex for restore
new york grant through empire state
development
discuss the committee with objections on
consent item number eight item number
eight for original consideration a
resolution accepting the 2021 assistant
to firefighters grant and authorizing
purchase of radios discussing committee
with objection on consent item number
nine for original
consideration a resolution authorized
the mayor or his designee to enter into
an agreement with wnb golf carts
incorporated for the lease of 62 lithium
power golf carts and 60 gps systems at
the schenectady municipal golf course
discuss the committee with objection on
consent item number 10 item number 10
for original consideration a resolution
authorizing the sale of 552 crane street
for five thousand dollars
discuss the committee with objection on
consent item number eleven item number
11 for original consideration a
resolution authorized in the sale of 820
strong street for 40 thousand dollars
discussing without without objection on
consent item number 12. item number 12
for original consideration a resolution
authorizes authorizing the sale of 854
albany street for fifteen thousand
dollars
discussing committee with objection on
consent and number thirteen item number
thirteen for original consideration a
resolution authorizing the sale of a
vacant lot at 1834 watt street for five
thousand dollars discussing committee
with objection on consent item number
fourteen item number fourteen for
original consideration a resolution
authorizing the sale of 1838 watt street
for twenty eight thousand dollars
discuss the committee with objection on
consent item number 15. item number 15
for original consideration resolution
authorizing the issuance of revocable
permit number 673 to john riley for a
sign and awning that will encroach the
city's right of way at 235 237 union
street
discussing committee without checking
with objectional consent
we have two items for roll call vote
if the clerk would please read item
number one for final consideration
an ordinance to amend section
87-6.1 of the code of the city of
schenectady i need a motion to move this
okay all right
so
okay all right if there's nothing more
to come before the city council caucus i
ask for a motion to adjourn
all in favor
aye
i'd like to call the city council
meeting to order for monday august 22nd
2022
and i'd like to follow the reverend
ronald hunt for the prayer and
invocation
good evening it's great to see such an
amazing turnout from the city tonight
who am i and what is the purpose of an
invocation
my name is ronald hunt and i'm a
practicing minister in schenectady with
a specialty in weddings i serve people
of all faiths including none
there was concern at the last city
council meeting so i wanted to share
this
while it is an honor to
bless
public meetings i am not compensated nor
have i referred to a god of any religion
at a government meeting
the act of in
invoking or calling upon a group to a
higher purpose for civility and active
listening has been my goal in these
short talks
it was also mentioned by speakers that
their religion is never represented
i'm sure if your iman or rabbi was so
inclined they could be easily added to
the list i won't mind doing fewer
let us reflect for a moment
first let me say thank you on behalf of
all who are gathered here today
thank you for the ability to be involved
in useful work and for the honor of
bearing appropriate responsibilities
thanks as well for the freedom to share
and listen to information and counsel
from your constituents which includes
the freedom to respectfully disagree
with many branches of government yet we
have the right to seek our redress
whether it's here at a peaceful protest
or especially the voting booth
in ancient books it is said that
citizens ought to obey their government
authorities since those very authorities
were established to promote peace order
and justice
in present times sometimes it seems
things seem a bit more complex therefore
i pray for our city council
our mayor and also everybody present
um
i'm asking that everyone graciously
grant them wisdom to govern amid the
conflicting interests and issues of our
times
a sense of the welfare and true needs of
our people a keem thirst for justice and
rightness
confidence in what is good and fitting
the ability to work together in harmony
even when there is honest disagreement
personal peace in their lives and joy in
their tasks
i do pray non-denominationally
for the agenda set before them today
please give assurance of what would
please you their constituents and what
would benefit those who live and work in
and around our beloved city of
schenectady thank you i'd like to call on matt daley
to please the pledge of allegiance
one nation
thank you
if the clerk would please complete the
roll call
mr mutaviran
mr toro
mr farley
mr williams
ms patrick
mr palomini miss porterfield here
and asked for approval for the minutes
of august 8
2022
moved by mr williams second by most of
mr modibaran all in favor
aye
and ask the clerk to please read
communications and petitions
communications presented to city council
for monday august 22nd 2022 under
official there were none
under general from heather hutchinson an
email stating her frustration
with the lack of process transparency
for the designation of the arpa funds
and disappointment with the
appropriations for large development and
tourism projects
it will not benefit city residents in
the short term
from patricia greenwood an email
regarding illegal dumping on the corner
of manhattan and seneca street from kg
conley a letter to city council
regarding the sidewalks on van rankin
avenue and the need for parking
enforcement under petitions there were
none
thank you
i'll call on council
committee reports from council members
okay
next on our agenda is the privilege of
the floor related to the legislative
agenda
before we um actually have people come
to speak there is a statement i'd like
to make because i want to clarify some
things that have been
miscommunicated
first of all we have not allocated all
the arpa funds
transparency has been a huge topic in
conversation
we started this process with tours
community surveys and recruiting a team
of residents to review applications
to my recollection there has not been
that level of public inclusion on city
funding in the past
the most reviews on any application was
three
no application was viewed by five to six
people as reported
there is a constant mention of 70 plus
applications that seems to imply there
are all community applications when in
fact the applications from smaller cbo's
was closer to 40 with remainder from the
city or larger organizations or groups
all community applications which
qualified according to the department of
development were reviewed by the
department of development
the advisory committee and at least five
council members
that is more eyes than are normally are
involved in the review process
this was a new process so it was a bumpy
process much like the sidewalk program
being inclusive in our decision making
was an ask from the community and we
worked to make that happen
change is hard
but to quote
peter drucker if you want something new
you have to stop doing something old
the goal of having it the goal of having
an advisory committee was to have a more
participatory process and including
people in the process which is the
government
did the did it fully work the way you
intended no there were some people who
could not fulfill their commitment
however that does not mean that we
disregard the people who did provide
feedback
for those members of this elected body
who are criticizing the process they
were part of the process deciding not to
participate in a constructive way
when you believe you have an idea to
improve the process
not only and to only offer criticism is
a decision
our recommendations on tonight's agenda
are to fund larger projects which are we
expect will benefit many city residents
and to bring revenue into the city
we also recommended fully funding small
organizations who usually get just
enough to keep them from drowning
organizations working with youth in
marginalized communities and that
address food security and housing
i expect the opposition from a political
group that has been the biggest critic
because we are supporting certain groups
that are not valued from their viewpoint
however
that will not stop us from governing
through a lens of balance and equity
efficiency is doing the thing right
effective effectiveness is doing the
right thing
i still believe in having community
input on what happens in the city we
just have to figure out the best way to
encourage that participation
and once again to
quote peter drucker
the greatest danger in times of
turbulence is not the turbulence
is it is to act with yesterday's logic
at this time i have 20 people signed up
to speak on the legislative agenda
the first person is sarah gregory
i just want to remind those of you who
are not familiar with the process it is
uh we have you have three minutes
and you will hear a timer go off at the
end of your three minutes thank you mr
gregory hi my name is sarah gregory i'm
on the board of the capital region
aquatic center and i want to thank the
city council and the mayor for
continuing to support the project and i
just wanted to speak briefly on the
community
benefits that will come with the capital
region aquatic center
we will be a monday through sunday seven
day a week
place for the
citizens of schenectady to come and swim
and be active the health and wellness
we'll have adult fitness we will have
learn to swim
one of our the one that's most important to us is
the learn to swim because 50 percent of
the u.s population doesn't know how to
swim
um
drowning is the second leading cause of
death for
children ages 1-14
um
that has got lots of statistics here um
and we've learned that
we found they've found that one month of
formal swim lessons decreases your
chance of drowning by 80 and that's kids
and adults
a lot of the reason kids don't know how
to swim is because their parents don't
know how to swim and are afraid of the
water so um one of our missions is
to teach every second grader in the
schenectady city school district to swim
by providing transportation and lessons
at the aquatic center providing
swimsuits and goggles that's all done
thank you that's all done through
foundations and grants that are
nationwide that and so that would be
provided free of charge this second
graders of um the city of schenectady
um also it will bring
monday as i said monday through sunday it won't close
down you hear a lot about the events
that are going to be there and the
people it's going to bring to the area
but the way this is designed is that
those those events won't prevent the
citizens of schenectady from coming
there seven days a week
there's the drowning prevention swimming
is a lifelong activity it's very it's no
to low impact so it's going to be
for people of all ages from infants to
seniors all levels of abilities that
will teach infants
and kids to swim adults to swim we've
talked to many organizations um that you
know the
insurance companies they really are
trying to focus on health now and one of
the best ways to get
people healthy and active is in the
water but they can't find space we have
a lot of pools but they're all built for
union college schenectady high school
the wise they have to do their they have
to get their constituents in there and
so this center will have the ability with
all those different there's three
they're four different pools to offer
something for everyone no matter their
age ability
and also i've already talked about the
grants for the learn to swim there are
grants also for memberships there are
grants then for the aquatic teams
if kids then decide they want to be a
swimmer or a diver or water polo
it's really for the
city of schenectady and its residents
it's not just for the visitors that are
going to come and use the pool thank you
sheila rivera
good evening
everyone rivera i'm on the governance
committee for miracle on correct street
and i just wanted to take an opportunity
to
thank
the city council
for
acknowledging and recognizing
the importance of the carver community
center and what reopening it would mean
to the community
for acknowledging the void that was left
when the doors closed
i'd like to thank you for acknowledging
the support that we've received in the
community from the different community
based organizations such as
the honest way food court
the first
reformed church
the unitarian universalist society
stewards
precision industrial maintenance and so
many
other
cbo's
i'd like to thank you for acknowledging
the work
that the board
has done in the past seven years
and
for appreciating that the board is not
comprised of a bunch of professionals in
construction and fundraising
but just everyday people who have 95
jobs but we came together with a common
goal
okay
and just a love for our city in our
community
so
we've taken on these new roles and we've
learned new skills
because that's what we needed to do
okay
thank you for appreciating the fact that
while there have been delays and and we
know kobit was a big one not just for
this project but for many other projects
um that we have not stopped working
okay we're there every saturday from 10
to two during the warmer months where we
can get in there we have volunteers that
come in um so the work hasn't stopped
and finally i just want to thank you
for
your support your faith and your
patience
um
just know
that
you know we're committee committed fully
committed um to this project and to the
community
um and i would like to challenge anyone
that has doubts or doesn't believe in
the cause or
has questions come on down on a
and just feel the energy
look at all the people that are there
um
working together the camaraderie
and
we'll make you a believer
thank you
good evening and thank you for this
opportunity members of the city council president porterfield and mayor
mccarthy
we do appreciate your service to the
city
i first want to thank the council for
embracing our shared concern about a
growing issue lack of access for food
for city residents in particular access
to healthy food
many of us have been working with great
passion and intelligence and in a
collaborative fashion to address this
issue and to have the support of the
council and the mayor is essential if we
are to solve this
and the only way to do that is to
understand the root causes
and then act collectively for a greater
impact
the six hundred 000 proposal from the
foundation which would have been which
will be leveraged by another 1.7 million
dollars
um
uh is to establish a healthy and
equitable
food council i uh emphasize the word
equitable thereby creating a one
schenectady approach one planning and
coordination body for the city and the
county that would be representative of
all stakeholders in the food system
including consumers
collect data to better understand the
root causes
establish priorities and strategies for
investment in new programs and processes
coordinate the work of
many food system partners for optimal
impact
drive investment from
both arpa funds the schenectady
foundation's funding and other donors
into the highest priority
programs and those that have
demonstrated grace level of
effectiveness
and finally that we continue to assess
outcomes and progress and adjust our
strategy going forward that we have some
flexibility in how we do this
um we assure you and i wanted to make
sure
this point tonight that in fact
collaboration and coordination has been
happening
we had no choice as particularly when
covet first hit
and this city the people of the city
organizations the city came together
like never before and we were already a
collaborative city um and there was no
choice but to do everything together and
that spirit of of collaboration and
coordination has continued
onward um even though we're still in
technically in pandemic mode i guess
and we will continue that spirit of
cooperation
the healthy and equitable food council
will be inclusive
and it will build bridges across sectors
and providers to achieve better outcomes
as we all know arpa funding is a
one-time opportunity let's ensure that
we effectively leverage our collective
resources for lasting impact
on one of the city's greatest needs
thank you
matt bailey
good evening everybody fellow mr mayor
mr porterfield council members ladies
and gentlemen
my name is matthew daley i'm the head
golf professional at schenectady
municipal golf course
i certainly don't envy the task that's
in front of you but i applaud your
efforts because i know that your your
task is daunting
when it comes to
our parks and recreation specifically
when you talk about the baseball field
the basketball courts the swimming pool
the tennis the parks
and our great golf course
those are essential to any health and
well-being of any municipality
so i truly want to thank you for
considering us as part of those
fundamental upgrades
because you're not just investing in
today but you are certainly investing in
the future of the city
and i would like to leave you with one
quote from mr arnold palmer the late
great honor palmer who said
golf is deceptively simple and endlessly
complicated
it satisfies the soul
frustrates the intellect
it is at the same time rewarding and
maddening and it is without a doubt the
greatest game mankind has ever created
thank you very much thank you
chairman of the
municipal golf course advisory committee
i'm here tonight on behalf of the
committee to thank the council and the
mayor
and the city
for
our hopeful hopefully new irrigation
system which is
solely needed thank you very much
thank you
denise rivera
good evening council members good
evening
council president and mayor my name is
bernice rivera and i know i wear
multiple hats in the community i put my
glasses on
but tonight i'm wearing the head of a
community member an abuela or
grandmother and member of the wisdom
committee members who help provide
guidance to the miracle and craig street
executive cabinet i fully support
funding our craig street community
center this center will provide our
youth and families with a variety of
services programs and will assist in
building partnerships within our city
the center is potentially a community
hub to empower our emerging leaders and
families to develop and nurture their
full selves which will not only benefit
the individual but will collectively
benefit our city thank you for
consideration thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you
good evening everyone i am carol lupo i
am a resident and a retired
teacher and basketball coach from
schenectady city school district
i am here
as well to speak in favor of supporting
the funding to miracle on craig street
our city does not have enough community
venues to support positive healthy
activities
for much needed youth and community
programming
this is an opportunity to fund
restoration and development of community
services which previously existed at
carver community center from 1969 to
2013.
before carver closed i ran a tuesday
night all girls basketball program at
carver to introduce and engage girls in
basketball
i was fortunate to be joined by several
of my former players
from this community who played and
encouraged the young girls to get
involved in sports
the players knew or were related to many of the
participants
making it an organic community-based
program
everyone benefited from the experience
this
was one single great example of how a
community venue could provide
opportunity to this under served
neighborhood
it is imperative to have safe
accessible venues for people to access
and find supportive programming to help
guide their lives
programs embedded in their neighborhood
where they feel comfortable is key to
gaining access to such programming
the renovation project would be a
positive step in providing an accessible
community venue able to address
social and emotional challenges of
today's world
by providing wellness programs in the
heart of hamilton hill
thank you
dr deidre butler
hi good afternoon or evening to
everybody my name is dr deidra hill
butler
i'm a 20-plus year resident uh of
schenectady member of duree and a member
of a few of the committees that are
speaking
um here tonight and um i'm reading a
letter on behalf of my pastor the
reverend nicole
jean simone formerly reverend harris
nicole harris
she was recently married last month or
yeah last month
greetings mayor mccarthy
president porterfield and the members of
the city council
i wish to express that the dury
community foundation
is looking forward to working with the
city's office of affirmative action in a
collaborative effort to impact our
community in a positive way
i know that our organization in
partnership with the empowerment center
will be able to provide hope and
resources on hamilton hill
when i was appointed as the pastor of
durie amy zion church or dairy memorial
amy zion church
in july of 2019 i found a church with
strong leg with a strong legacy
and willing workers
as the first african-american church in
the city that has been in existence
for 185 years
the work this church has done over the
years is insurmountable
yet we desire to do more even more
therefore in early 2020 we started the
duree community foundation
the mission of our organization is to
aid families and individuals in need
within the city of schenectady and
surrounding areas
we aim to support self-sufficiency by
providing training and supplemental
services that will deliver
fundamental needs
this mission will be met by providing
services such as transitional housing
job training life skill courses and
tutoring programs
together with durie's involvement in the
community and
my 15 year my 15 plus years of
experience in the nonprofit sector we
will
we are well able and up to the task of
engaging those in need in our community
i have worked with non-profit agencies
such as the community development
institute in denver colorado and
lakewood economic action program in new
jersey working with these organizations
allowed me to assist in managing sizable
grants over two million dollars each
i thank you for entrusting us
with the arpa funds that will support
our collaborative effort to provide job
training small business assistance and
more for our community we have a
comprehensive plan that will put
funding to effective use and we look
forward to reporting a pause the
positive outcomes to you in the future
thank you thank you
[Music]
all right protocol's been established so
hello council members
it's not easy to
stand up here after pastor nicky's words
coming out of my wife's mouth
so i'm just going to say that um from um
we've been up here for 21 years and joe
allen i'm the late joe allen with a good
friend of mine and we always talked
about um job training on hamilton hill
and in schenectady as a whole and it's
just never happened so
i say that to say that with this funding
should we get it it's a great thing and
it'll just be the beginning of
a blessed relationship with georgie and
the community and that's what ministry
is about
thank you thank you
[Music]
good evening refers to president
porterfield mayor mccarthy and the
entire council
on behalf of the board of directors and
the staff
and our youth of safe think of
schenectady i sincerely thank the
council
for considering
awarding
arpa funding to our agency
my name is neddy crossman i'm the
president of the board
of directors and i'm here joyfully
to let you know that we're thrilled to
be considered
and deeply grateful that you are
remembering safe inc we're a tiny little
agency sitting inconspicuously on albany
street we've been here 36 years plugging
away at servicing homeless youth that
come through our doors looking for
emergency and needing emergency homing
home
shelter clothing
and often many of those are victims of
self of sex trafficking you may know
this but i'll i'll mention it anyways
connectivity geographically is located
in our state and becomes and is a
streaming hub
for all sorts of trafficking
just think about how we locate it from
new york city the canadian pathway
west and east unfortunately that is our
legacy
we at saving find ourselves competing
for funding
against more widely known organizations
and often youth homelessness gets kind
of swept under the whole general term
homelessness but youth homelessness has
a whole variety of needs that are you
are that are unique
so it's so encouraging to us that the
council is recognizing youth at risk
due to homeless stature statuses and due
to their vulnerability to being
trafficked i wish it were not the
situation but it is the situation and it
is a real issue
here with me tonight is our newly
appointed executive director jenny
hudman i think she is the next speaker
so she'll be able to share a little more
insight into what i call our little gem
of an agency sitting quietly here in
schenectady but still working for 36
years thank you for your attention thank
you
so as the new executive director of safe
inc i want to thank you for approving
the arpa funds for our agency as a small
grassroots non-profit we appreciate all
the community and the council support
we are now we are the only certified
youth shelter in schenectady county
we're also the only youth shelter in
upstate new york that can house a minor
with their child last year we housed a
17 year old with her newborn she would
have no other place to go
we were the quarantine ship the covet
quarantine shelter for miners which
meant that if there was a positive covid
client in our bill
which meant that sorry
we had a cova client and positive client
in our building that had to quarantine
for two weeks they were being
hand-delivered meals and offered
activities to accommodate them so they
would keep themselves in the community
safe
our staff put themselves and their
families at risk to do so and your
support for our staff retention means so
much to us
let me tell you something else about our
amazing staff
they worked all through covent 24 hours
a day seven days a week every holiday
every snowstorm most of our shelter
staff are working two or three jobs our
team works for us because they're
devoted to being part of our team that
serves at-risk youth in schenectady in
2021 we served over a hundred runaway
and homeless youth including those that
have been human trafficked between the
ages of 14 and 20. we also served eight
between the ages of zero and two there's
been a steady increase in youth surf
since the beginning of the pandemic
cove greatly affected our shelter and
others some shelters had to close
permanently and others had to adjust
their open hours due to staffing
shortages due to our staffing shortages
we have been unable to open all of our
available beds and we're limited to only
half capacity
turning away youth in need which we then
have to refer out of county
breaks breaks my team's heart
also due to staffing shortages after a
covet outbreak we had to actually close
the shelter for the first and only time
it's in its entire operation since 1985.
we were able to make it through these
difficult times our hope is to become
fully staffed next year to be able to
enable us to serve more youth being the
only youth shelter opportunity in
schenectady makes our services unique
and we're thankful to the community and
the council for your continued support
[Applause]
thank you it's christine kowalczyk
walden i've been in schenectady for over
30 years and i have never come to a city
council meeting before i looked it up on
the web because
something occurred in my neighborhood
and i
could not believe it
i live near union and mcclellan where
there's a gas station and funeral home
that's been demolished for the new
stewards development
and on july 26th there was a hard-hated
man
observed in the middle of the
intersection measuring whatever
but then at 3 am
on july 27th
all heck broke out
lights were there there were flatbed
trailers
jackhammering started with no warning to
the community at all
people were told different stories one
person who called the police at the time
and went out there was told that it was
cdta emergency
and that was the cause
i had called the police the day after
the morning after the non-emergency
number and i was told that it had
something to do with the sewer system
in any event there was a whole lot of
overtime spent
between 3am and 5am
multiple jackhammering people were
yelling out their windows to no avail we
had no warning
and i'm asking that emergencies like
that when they occur that you treat them
like snow emergencies where the police
you at least spend 10 or 15 minutes
going through the community
with the bullhorn saying there's some
kind of emergency that needs to be taken
care of you give people an opportunity
to move their vehicles to be tot that
rather than be towed what about your
constituents who are taxpayers and our
veterans with ptsd
what about your constituents who have
rescue pets and have
terrible reactions let alone people
who've made it through covid and the war
in ukraine and all of this to be 3 a.m
to have jackhammering for two hours
sustained
that's that's just
how do you treat people like that with
no warning
that's why i'm here i had a brother who
was a veteran i think we should think
about these things before we just do
them i understand emergencies i
understand they happen we need to fix
them but you need to think about the
people too
that's all thank you
wake up
hi hi i'm ray fought
i'm the president of the bellevue
preservation
incorporated neighborhood group
and
i've heard a lot from previous speakers
about the carver community center
and all the good things that have come
and
i agree that's it's good but
what about
the rest of the city
uh the parks
bellevue for instance
i've lived here for 30 years and the
parks have deteriorated over that time
the tennis courts are useless
the pool is broken
nothing's going on
long ago well before the pandemic
i approached
the schenectady foundation with a plan
to work in hillhurst
and that wasn't approved and i was told
well don't worry about it you're going
to get money from the county we're going
to take care of you
but nothing
then the pandemic
and now there's more meetings and more
meetings
but still nothing is done
and uh i heard that there was a
proposal from councilman palomini
to fund the parks in the city for seven
million dollars to cover
most all the parks in this city
but the only park we hear about is jerry
burrell
and i think it's really unfair that
other neighborhoods don't get the same
consideration
thank you
daniel stone
uh hi i wanted to um i mostly wanted to
come here basically to praise the work
i've seen from miracle on craig street
um and
with renovating the carver center i've
had the opportunity
for the
probably for most of fall last year
being there most saturdays and doing um
basically helping to tear the place
apart as a part of putting it back
together
my experience with the carver center
started when um
was basically between um 2006 to 2013
when i
worked at
project safe at 1344 albany street
and safehouse is a place that definitely
punches above its weight in terms of its
uh in terms of the services uh it
provides for the funding it's always had
that was my experience
um
and i remember it being an absolutely
invaluable
resource to the kids there not only to
the young people in hamilton hill
and
i was lucky enough to work with one of
the last um
believe john terry was the last
executive director of carver before um
uh before the roof caved in in 2013
and um
he had a great vision for that place
that he was never able to put through um
because
there was a lack of funding even before
the building became uninhabitable and
unusable
and um
i'm so glad to see that miracle on craig
street has got ambitions as big as his
and even bigger
and wants to do something that uh that
hamilton hill definitely needs so thank you thank you
[Applause]
i really don't know uh if
the allocation of the money
is already been approved i i don't know
about that
but uh
i was more concerned about
the
reports about
the
uh
the city council not being clear about
the process
to allocate all of these monies
however
even though
we already have thanks to
mr arnold chad arno that published the
list the resume of the spending
the root of the problem
the process the clarity of the process
it remains
for example
uh salahuska while soon as once
proposed
that the new members of the city council
have a fast track
knowledge about how the government works
but he was accused by you
of racist being racist
and
don't have
the lack of respect
passing resolutions
or adopting resolutions about the
juneteen celebration
adopting resolutions about
their residency requirements adopting
resolutions about the speed limit that
doesn't require
too much
knowledge about how the government works
i can do that
antoni can do that pv voters can do that
so
i the problem remains and i wanted to
propose to mr andrew or
to the city clerk
to still give these people these new
members
a fast track
on knowledge of how the government works
for example
sure enough
a couple of days later
a new member of the city council
my men here he had to be rema reminded
by you
that
the paper that he having his hands
it was called resolution
he was honoring somebody but he don't
know that he had a resolution in his
hand
later
he have to be reminded by you again
that he had to ask to second the motion
it was an embarrassing thing
and this embarrassing thing it will
continue because listen
like i told you i don't know if you
already approved these monies
but
managing or administrating this amount
of money millions and millions of
dollars it requires some knowledge
and i wanted to propose you that
don't be so fast to approve all of these
programs take your time nobody's going
to criticize you
thank you very much thank you
[Music]
yeah i think the programs have been
passed in 1988 it was mayor johnson that
proved
that all
employees should live in the city
and our
department of
public works he was
exempted from because he lived in
glenville but he lived next door to his
mother and we all miss him dreadfully
and city of
albany's enjoying his employment at this
time
so anyway
and but then
for what happened to tina it's
inexcusable
next thing i wanted to refer to
is number three
the allotments from
arpa
i went every last thursday of the month
they give food away
and so i went uh and they do it at nine
o'clock don't start before nine
so i went out there it was about eight
o'clock in the morning
and uh
my surprise
going
into
scap or whatever you call the food center there
i counted 70 cars
and about a hundred pedestrians waiting
until nine o'clock
on my way back
to my place
it had
increased to 90 cars
beautiful cars i could tell my car 22
years old
it had increased to 22 cars that were
backed up to brandywine and it was still
8 30.
so
i don't know what's going to happen
who's going to sound the alarm that this
emergency is over
but i don't know how you're going to get
rid of over a hundred cars
so
something to think about right now
and
as far as the golf was concerned i
thought they were
had all kinds of money in fact i thought
they had
a savings account of about a hundred
thousand dollars and if they're going to
do all this and it's what they want and
you know i don't know why they want to
do it all with saratoga national so
close by but you do what you want to do
you're going to do it but all i can say
is thank you guys because all the
equipment is yamaha
so
you know have fun
yeah i think that's really and i think
they created a
schenectady municipal golf course icon
for us so i was really pleased about
that
um
so that's for the golf course
i don't think
i am opposed very much opposed to the
axon officers
program
if there's a roll call on anything i
hope it's on that i'm thoroughly opposed
to that
and
thank you i have three more minutes
later i'll see you
okay we'll see you later
jamaica miles
good evening all i'll be talking as
quickly as possible because there are
just so many things to say
in this room we already see how many
different organizations we are blessed
with in the city of schenectady that are
in need because there is a great need in
the city of schenectady whether it's the
miracle on craig street or if it's sicum
or the seat center or any other numbers
that i could possibly list
they are
the blood of us being a better community
they are the economic justice that we
need they are the
support for those that are homeless that
are food insecure petey talked about the
number of cars that there are that is
every single month because the pandemic
only made worse what we are facing here
in this city because the city has
approximately 70 percent of its
residents living in poverty those
numbers based on the united way numbers
that come out every single year that
number is not going to change without
economic investment that is equitable
which is why we talk about jerry burrell
and i don't understand why we are giving
almost 4 million dollars to a golf
course during a drought for their
irrigation system
don't don't eat up my time i appreciate
y'all and while i do know we need to
change the pool at central park i don't
i mean four and a half million dollars i
hope that it will equitably also add
services that others in the community
can use like they have in woodlawn
they've got the weightlifting stuff that
different people could use we had
something like that in central park
before it was taken out it was over by
the um the tennis courts it's gone now
and i'm gonna be blunt black folks used
it and now it's gone
[Music]
more
fairly representative
click very well you'll create programs
that you yourself implement to make sure
thank you for watching
oh
um
i speak in favor
services
to the greatest
is
so i
the words
thank you
because even though this process started
with a november previously
and i just wanted to remind everyone
about them
and several have been more than one
a self-sustaining diagnostic business
style
homework moving forward
and
home repairs programs for homeowners
that's cool
and i think
[Music]
so of course it's going to take some
time to look at applications as widely
as the
over five years
almost
organizations
i thank you so much
and council members thank you for having
me
um
here we go um first thank you for
recommending state center uh this
application
as it means a lot for
young adults who are disproportionately
assessing and impacted by homeless young
adults who do not have a safety net many
who are listening tonight thank you so
much
from the city
and wanted
look
young people that we work with hands-on
education and small classes
um before the message how do we control
this guess when we are the applications
and that application was critical
because it helps us bring in the
teachers
[Music]
and be able to do what
get them good jobs and work and benefit
our community
um emerging workers
um i hear a lot about emerging workers
and a lot about companies
so i know people are ready for work
you know people are very
on monday
friday afternoon
11 young people
last thing i really want to talk about
very soon
people who
thank you
we have two items
foreign
um
right
um
in a few um maybe we need to revisit
this together
um
foreign
anymore
[Music]
not only everyone
foreign
and
here in the city
to unite ourselves
as far as
every morning
before we just started putting money out
there
so what i'm going to say right now
as much
so at this point
i am
okay
foreign
okay
um
[Music]
when you want to talk about your
community
okay
i want to thank everyone for coming out
tonight and i want to thank everybody
reviewing
in
so i know how difficult it is to prepare
for each application
and i know how difficult it is
that follows the broader community
and i think we all need that
i think we all took a look at those
applications as well
um
i have to say that i would have gone
further
is recording
amanda park project that will walk
forward into this process
um
[Music]
but that will also look at other aspects
of central time including those that
related to the tennis courts
project
especially with those i know in belgium
have been waiting for several years for
some of those things to be done i hope
that we do continue to vote for those
projects
all of these projects including the golf
project
all contribute to the health and
wellness of the people within our
communities
people may grow up about the golf
project so let me tell you that this
project um the golf course itself but to
many many people people in our city i
don't
but what i hear from people about our
golf course is that it rivals boards of
private country clubs that people have
to pay a lot of money to belong to in
our case we serve
um you know many of us have interacted
with those kids um and i think that's
really important
that we're trying to look at all
you know how these cloud reach
opportunities work for all the dreams i
also supported these qualities
i think the aquatic center will tell me
to do a lot not just
and honestly i think this is an
important thing that's going to
contribute to economic development in
the city but also it's going to affect
seniors
like the therapy system including people
with disabilities
um there are a lot of reasons for that
in this foreign joining me and i hope
that i hope that they're successful and
i'm glad that um
private funders and public funders in
that project
i also feel i also want to say that i'm
still that we're supporting the baseball
program
if you look closely at these classes and
programs that we're funding you'll see
that there's youth involvement with
every single aspect of each of these
programs
uh we're constantly getting called
hopefully we're following up on your
request and trying to get people out to
the places where the problem is and i'm
thrilled and proud of the staff
who have been doing a great job
i also
really feel that the food security
issues that we are going to be funding
are also important and one aspect of
that i'm very pleased to see the
tennessee foundation is having this one
you have to take a long time
[Music]
um
yes to everything that came forward last
week i don't feel that we weren't
transformed
consider all the money at once with all
the applications at once
instead
the political supporters of my
colleagues got paid off
that doesn't mean they wouldn't have
gotten among them in the first place
and
until
we needed to consider all the
applications too
and knowledge of shadows over some very
london organizations
seven million dollars was proposed to
close they included five hundred
thousand for hillary's comparisons
250
neighborhoods that haven't seen any sort
of contestants in the coming
because
we want to open the application once
again
in order to have another messed up
process which you've admitted has been
messed up and anytime there's some sort
of disagreement
oh they're not participating in this
process
or you know you're not being part of the
process
[Music]
you can see and hear what we've done
applications that should have been
confirmed
and money has now been used first before
we even considered it
that's not fair
this is just a ridiculous process and
yes matters
because
we have applications out there
because
about
how
i hope
um
if
um
oh
um
[Music]
i'm going to talk about how art can tell
okay
economic
and
was
um
for god
there are too many
if
they are 53 million
if
thank you
all right
um
tonight
childhood um
thank you
is
okay
thank you
for the time
um
across the nation i look forward to the
community
and organizations
is
people thank you um i wanted to uh
first of all talk about the time that
memory damage happened a couple of
saturdays ago
i was so excited to volunteer there for
the afternoon that saturday um there's
just so many community groups that came
together to serve
all of the folks it was an amazing
population of people who children and
families have showed up at that family
day so i'd like to
thank um
especially county legislator rachel
ruizo and ceo of nike and
um
i also wanted to
um but it's been really fun to go and uh
be around all the kids and watch um what
i think kind of competitive course um
that has been happening uh week after
week and with that this week
um
but anyway those are great events that
also supports the relationship between
our police officers and the community
technologies
watching everybody getting to know each
other so um
one more opportunity is not a medical
transcript
so i encourage you to take a look at
that as well
i appreciate all the work done for the
interns people volunteer has done to
really matter
that um in this fight
uh
um
thank you