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Council committee for Monday October 17
2022 and the first committee is finance
Mr midiberian thank you I would like to
call the finance committee Florida and
the first item is the purchase of 0.15
Acres paper Street behind 580 at
Broadway not being used by the city Mr
McCarty
thank you Mr chairman this is a parcel
that the city had entered into a lease
agreement with the adjacent property
owner
uh subsequent to that they never
actually exercised that it was an option
to rent it subsequent to that working
with metroplexies and offer planning the
building and are looking to acquire this
parcel for parking
uh for the expanded business and because
this is a paper Street it would actually
require a an abandonment process and
have our ability to sell it to the
property owner and that Mr Gillen has
detailed most of that out in the
narrative it was presented to the
council and I'm available and Mr Wrong
and Mr Billington who has any specific
questions
any question on this
so does this impact any other businesses
or anything that's being used for in any
way currently
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um
so
um
this is a point so the Metroplex has
brought this for looking at it we have a
figure of the area so the next step is
we will call for public hearing that's
what we're going to do tonight in
Metroplex in the meantime is going to
put together an actual survey with the
meets and balance of the area that was
described in the figure that will be
part of the public hearing I would
believe that maybe the figure wouldn't
be but this figure would be we would
need to know what we're exactly we're
abandoning the size but we have that but
with the meats and balance then we would
abandon that officially after the public
hearing the city would abandon it and
then it would be on who Mr coldview
would then sell that parcel to uh since
multi-stop okay
um thank you multi-step there has to be
a call for a public hearing to abandon
and then separately uh resolution
authorizing the sale once once it's been
abandoned there'll be a section block a
lot identified for this abandoned parcel
and then a resolution authorizing the
sale
I don't know the time table on the
public hearing because we're obviously
with the meets and Bounds in the survey
ready to go for that area that portion
is going to be you don't have it at that
I lost no we don't have we don't have it
yet
I think this was that this was more of a
discussion purpose to make sure that
we're right that's it right so it'll be
a future for public hearing on this
because we need to have the information
for the public so it can be made
available prior to the hearing for the
review
and then even a further step is going to
be after all that has taken place then
the abandoned parcel that is transferred
to the property owner will then be
merged with the existing property from
my office through a lot of adjustments
so there's really quite quite a few
steps but we can get there okay
it's just thank you Chris thank you
mayor thank you council president this
is a a really great company fwf they're
on TV all the time I send my mail there
started in 1899 the company called me up
criticized me it's actually like 1860
something it's looking around they have
uh they're in nine states there are
three thousand employees and they love
the building and it's vacant out you can
buy it create 12 jobs they need a little
more parking there's parking behind the
building but they're they want to buy
this little tiny paper street from the
city 0.15 Acres that the council had
agreed to lease previously to another
company that was looking at the building
and chose not to go forward it's going
to bring contractors and activity to the
city create sales tax it's a great
matchup with Marcella's next door you go
buy a new uh dishwasher you go over and
get your plumbing fixtures right next
door great company great history they're
excited you've come to Schenectady so
we're really trying to get the sense of
the council tonight that your sport this
so the company can go forward get the
copy of a contract and start moving
toward the sale and that's why it's so
important for us to be here tonight and
get your sense get the sense of the
council that we can go through this
multi-step process as the mayor and
Chris and Andrew have outlined we have
to abandon and then we have to have a
public hearing and surveyed property
identify the parcel and then add that
parcel to the 588 Broadway Bar so the 0.15 acres is next to state-owned
property at the end of Van geisley the
state will continue to own that FW Webb
will give them an easement that'll allow
people who want to pull in and turn
around and make guys like to do so so
there's no issues there and also the
state needs that access to get onto the
bridge to do maintenance under the
bridge so it's really the small parcel
the stable retained ownership of the
majority of that cul-de-sac for
turnarounds and other things so we just
appreciate everyone kind of laying out
the welcome mat tonight for FW web to
take over our vacant building and come
to Schenectady thank you
emotions were called for a public
hearings
it can't be done yet because we have to
identify what the public hearing is
going to be but if we don't have the
dimensions on for the public to review
for abandoning it we can't do it just
yet so I think once unless we know
exactly when the public hearing is going
to be but we're going to have to have
the materials for the public so can we
put up all time four weeks as well go
ahead could we move ahead and
the survey is going to be exact even
though we know the parameters now which
the representation that is here would
not deviate from what the survey is
going to show
and so it's not the survey is going to
be a technical
right description where this is a
uh
to the engineer or somebody that
Metroplex could put dimensions on that
so we can if we can put the dimensions
on it that's not a problem it's the you
know
obviously a survey is going to be more
precise but if we have the dimensions
and the general overlay of you know the
area that's going to be abandoned then
we can move it to a public hearing but
we're going to need obviously a bit more
detail than just I think what we have
before us
so it can be moved to a public hearing
as long as we have the information for
the public
so I just want to be clear we're going
to move that have the public hearing
date pushed out a little bit because as
I
was like they're falling that you need
to make sure that all information is
placed so we can call for it but I
suggest that we put it out a little bit
further as opposed to the normal cycle
yes so we make sure we have all the
materials
that's I mean that works is part of this
is for the city clerk to be able to
provide notice uh in advance for the
public
president if you called for the public
here and we have the information you could
amend that call for the public hearing
the date
when it goes out if in fact we don't
have the information which we suggesting
we could move it out probably another
two weeks so in fact we could then have
everything in place and we do have a
fifth Monday so
oh boy yeah so I just wanted to make
sure we were aware of that so if we're
talking about getting the detailed
information and kind of keeping on a
schedule and we have a fifth Monday
because typically it wouldn't be this
public hearing the next committee
meeting we would say a reminder that we
have it so that's actually like five
it's important yeah so we're quite a
ways out so I think we're gonna have
plenty of time especially because of how
important the project is for everyone
how quick that we can do this quick
little boundary so I think that's a
typical schedule yeah I think we're
gonna have fun because we have that
extra week affordable okay all right
thank you all right thank you
okay
so we can move this area to call for
public hearing a little bit
all right thank you thank you
the next item is agreement between the
city and the Schenectady country related
to digital repairs
Schenectady County currently provides
the city with mechanical repair and
preventive maintenance services for City
Vehicles not all vehicles but a good
number of vehicles that we can't do
in-house
the agreement currently between the
county and the city is out of date we've
been working off a technically inspired
agreement under using the same terms
that we've been applying
the proposed agreement which there's a
copy attached to the materials requires
the city to pay
58.72 cents per hour for work completed
that does account for not just the uh
the the waves of those County workers
but also you know the benefit the pro
rata share of the of the benefits that
they make
um there's also a we would be required
to pay for the actual part expense so if
we're you know getting parts installed
on our vehicles we'd be paying just you
know exactly what the County's paying
there's a five percent disposal charge
on a 1.5 percent Vehicles charge and
there's a proportionate share of
overhead expenditures
um Anthony the mayor Paul Lafond and I
met with the county on a number of
occasions to negotiate the terms of this
from a finance perspective
um Anthony is comfortable with the terms
of disagreement
from an operational standpoint all the
fun is comfortable with the terms of
disagreement this agreement
is technically we were trying to date it
to back when the the sales tax agreement
was going to take effect so going back
to December 1st of 2020 and would run
through November 30th 2028 which is the
term of that sales tax agreement and it
will continue on Beyond 2028
um unlocks there's a 30 days notice
that's provided just so that we have
something in effect through that data
for some reason we haven't renegotiated
the terms and gotten approved by council
at that point as I said this has been
negotiated in multiple sessions
it provides a clear concise method
to be frank a fair way of dividing the
city's share of the work that the county
is doing on our behalf so I'm seeking
committee approval of this request for
the full council's consideration of a
resolution approving this agreement
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so how are those things covered I mean
the towing you don't have to explain I I
get that
um but so all the other things like
welding or fabrication those kind of
services that are excluded under this
contract how we're getting that work
done
um I believe the Welding and Fabrication
we do in-house
operator of the general principles about
that for the last 20 years
yeah this is not so this portion of the
contract is not new that is the same
terms that were in there the last time
um you know there were certain things as
they said we negotiated you know to our
advantage
um the exclusion like for example the
golf course contract like we handled
that through our vendor if we can't do
it in-house
um we handle the towing obviously you
know through
um private contractors
um the paint work body work
we do a lot of that through outside
um privates
companies if necessary a lot of that
would happen through our insurance
company if we're having to have body
work done because that would generally
mean that there was a an accident
um
as I mentioned the Welding and
Fabrication we do in-house
and then reporting of accidents that's
something that is required of our staff
if they get into an accident
is there any vendor locally that we do
I've seen police cars at a lot of them
at one time and um at a particular
um garage so are there outside vendors
that are doing workforces as well on
police cars
um I don't know exactly who's doing it
um I know I think in the past we may
have used Auto Solutions at one point
um I I wouldn't be the the resource to
tell you where our police cars are going
if if in fact there's an accident I
believe we may still be using Auto
Solutions in some fashion if there is an
issue but obviously you know we have to
follow the purchasing policy and if it's
the insurance company that comes into
play we go through the insurance company
and that has happened
so if I could just um have a like
listing of where we get the other work
done
you don't have to do it right now you
can just share the list
and they can't afford but all those
Solutions and the place I have a
ball-time roadway to take care of all
the lights the sirens and all the other
stuff but uh and also we have three
places that do body work but and you
know mechanical work is done by the
county court of the city I understand
that so I'm just asking for work other
outside of that if we just have the
listing yeah I heard that you said and I
won't remember at all I didn't write it
all down so
oh that would be helpful
any other question of this item
all in favor all right thank you
the next slide is review of the 2023
budget public hearing I was on 10 11 and
two
I think that's the place full we
continue to have our budget hearing and
second sessions tomorrow third session
and four sessions to follow we'll
continue to review the budget um if we
have to do anything on this items
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I believe it's the first time in modern
history nobody has stood up and
criticized the mayor's budget and
the initial public hearings
we had one speaker and she was in favor
of some things that were in the budget
good work yeah
and there's nothing else before Finance
I have a motion to adjourn she
thank you so there are last committee
meeting we discussed this and all agree
that we would want to move forward with
that since that time I reached out to
our HR department and so they looked
into it and came up with something that
our insurance company may be able to
cover and I just want to keep in mind
this is without cost and
um also I asked all council members if
they had any group and I didn't get
anything except a response by way of uh
council member Toro she uh she had
someone reach out to me so
um and so I had that one and then
additionally there's a New York state
agency again without cost that would be
um have the ability to do it so at this
point in time I'm asking for each of
them to
um put forward what the training would
look like what it would include so we
can make some decisions around that I
understand that we're in our budget
season so don't anticipate us um having
been able to do this in October but I
would hope by November we'd be able to
identify and move forward with that and
cost um what's a factor and we wanted to
make sure that we get quality even even
if we don't pay for it so again our
insurance company
um is looking at doing it free of cost
but again we want to see what they're
offering and also the New York state
agency the other referral was by a
private person who would if there would
be a cost attached to it
so
um I will bring back what we have in the
next committee meeting
um I did have a conversation with a
person I used to volunteer with who now
is the VP for
diversity equity and inclusion at
Leadership Bank and she just sent me her
list
um of uh referrals so I have
um I think there's seven or eight
different groups that she identified
some of them are out of town but I just
printed it today so to bring it to you
tonight
thank you
so I'll look into all those things where
I know some of some of those I'm sorry I
think you probably are know some of the
same
some of those Consultants they've been
doing it for a while so cough also will
be affect yourself right no I know yeah
so I'll bring back to the results of
that and hopefully we can plan something
um at least in November okay
are there any other questions over input
okay
if you're asking for this to be back up
and coming to you next week yes well the
first week of November yeah
any other questions okay
second all in favor aye aye thank you
I'd like to call the order City
development and planning we have uh five
items on the agenda the first one is to
authorize the city Engineers to
investigate the feasibility of
physically establishing the paper Street
known as Revere Avenue in Swan
thank you I'm going to ask it everyone
bear with me on this this is a new uh
thing for me as in my 10 years we have
not looked at the feasibility of
investigating paper Street I would like
to start just by kind of reading what I
wrote here so Revere as new is a paper
streak it's approximately 730 feet long
60 feet wide located between Rosa Road
and Sheridan Avenue the city of
Schenectady is comprised of numerous
paper streets which are established
during the city's expansion while the
majority of the paper streets in the
city have been formally developed there
are several that still exist scattered
throughout the city these paper streets
are owned by the city similar to visibly
constructed public roadways of Arts but
are often undeveloped in wooded areas so
that's what we have with regard to
Revere Avenue the owners of several
properties their team to be exact are
petitioning the city as per section c of the city's Charter to have this
area investigated for establishment as
they only several parcels and that's
right now they are unusable the owners
of the parcel are here they have owned
them as it says in this in their letter
for several years of paying taxes on
them the parcels are without Revere
having to establish landlocked and on
such an unusable
and they're looking for the city council
to authorize myself to investigate the
feasibility of establishing this roadway
so that they may look to develop the
parcels
um do you mind speaking on your behalf
for a second I would appreciate it just
about what we've gone through unless if
you don't feel comfortable with that
um
well you have a a letter that I do right
here in the council housing as well I
just wanted to put a a base for the uh
my name is Brian Carver my wife actually
owns the property uh the property has
been owned by the family her father
started purchasing this property and the
I believe it was the late 50s early 60s
and over that period of time we were
looking at various you know development
projects and what we found is we applied
for a change of uh zoning there because
it was owned a single family which
didn't make that much sense anyways
because it's surrounded by apartment
complexes
so what we did is we were talking you
know we had some people that were
interested in developing the property
and we started taking a look at it and
there's there's some conditions there
that need to be addressed you know that
uh
are really you know federal regulations
and that's why we wanted that we've
asked the city to investigate the
feasibility of installing you know
putting the street in whether it can be
done or whether it can't be done
and just as a history I mean when the property was transferred back
in Germany a while back in around 2010
yeah we did
deal with the assessor at the time and
the problem you know property was
established at a certain value coming to
work best building lots and we're
finding out right now that you know
there are some things that need to be
taken care of the system is indeed they
are actually going to be you know
classified as building lots and that's
why we asked the you know the city to
investigate this and to put the street
in we do have people that are interested
in you know putting the apartments in
there that we were talking about so as this is new as per the city's
Charter we are you know he has
petitioned the city he does
um they I apologize they own
a majority of Frontage on as per the
charger uh and it comes to the city
council the one point I will uh make an
emphasis is why we have the property
owner in the the room with us is as it
comes to feed typically similar to a
sidewalk assessment the costs of what
the city incurs are assessed onto the
property owners via Frontage
um I think in the letter it talks about
these unusable parcels and the property
owners have already spent to date in
excess of a hundred thousand dollars in
taxes so I believe what their request
would be is that the city go forward
with uh
absorbing the costs on the idea that
they have already paid so much money in
excess of the taxes that they have for
you know they haven't gotten anything
they don't have sewer or water or any
kind of access to the parcels they are
paying their taxes and I think that they
would like that so that's something that
the council from a perspective is if we
want to go forward as part of this and
assess the owner here I don't know how
that conversation occurs I don't know if
that's for the law department or how
that actually works but I think that is
um something that they would the
property owners would want to be aware
of how that would work and the costs so
that's why this is more of a kind of a
discussion we have people here and how
we would like to go forward with
something like this
so what are we talking about in terms of
costly I don't have a lot of idea right
now given the size um what we're going
to do I haven't established a project
such as this and we were talking about a
lot of Baseline I don't know if we're
you know possibly a survey to establish
all the limits some flagging out there
which has been previously done a little
bit and then uh you know so we want to
understand there is a great change and
what our options are going forward you
know one of the things that we want to
make sure is just
how possible it is to go forward what
are our options one of the things we
have talked about uh casually as is that
does the road go through the property or
does it have to stop are the lots going
to be most likely merged is a part of
this right away going to be abandoned
like we talked about previously and then
sold for the betterment of the
development there's a lot of there's a
lot that could happen and then at the
end of the day if somehow the
feasibility is that it cannot be
developed then what is that step because
then what we have are numerous private
Parcels is outlined as the tax maps that
are undevelopable and so you know
there's really very limited use of
having a park in that area it's that
kind of conversation then what do we do
and how does the homeowners and their
properties fit into this is you know we
don't have a lot of properties that are
similar where it's numerous properties
that have no access we had situations
like this in Woodlawn by the Woodlawn
preserve and as part of Steve
strickman's kind of last
we did we Consolidated and tried to take
as many and just expand the park but
this isn't adjacent to really any major
Park so it's a little complex in how we
deal with it I'm not saying we can't do
it but
uh part of this I need to you know have
some buying from the council
so the what you're asking us for tonight
is just to be able to have you be able
to move ahead with exploring the
feasibility of how this can happen and
then you'd probably come back to us I
could come back with your costs yeah
like I said this is a new process so if
you are authorizing and you're
comfortable with going down this road uh
I can talk with you know I have numerous
firms on a retainer about getting some
costs about what it would be to do and
then I can bring those costs back to you
and we can discuss that I just wanted to
make sure that
um you know we're being transparent with
the costs and the process and I believe
you know and once again you can speak
more to this if you want as a property
owner right I don't believe the idea is
that this would be assessed to them I
don't know what your investment would be
into the parcels that's kind of what I
invited the property owners this weekend
I never have but typically if this was
you know
1890 we're developing a Street in the
city that they're the owners of that
property all of them were petitioned we
would build the street put in the
utilities sidewalks and just like we
would put them on their tax rolls and
they would pay an assessment for that
work to be done which is very similar to
the sidewalk program gotcha and I'd also
have to work with Mr Colden in them on
the property owners that are not
necessarily adjacent because also as per
the sidewalk assessment if the majority
do sign up it is assessed to those that
even did not sign on so that could be
the case in this situation so there
could be a cost sharing by people that
don't even know that we're having this
conversation right now
just to clarify the threshold under the
city Charter that Mr Wallen identified
as 25 of the
owners 25 of the linear
um
ownership footage ownership so here
we're at I did the calculation that you
have there 58
and Mr Wong I don't know if you know
this I don't recall exactly I believe
there's only one other owner I think all
the other Parcels are owned by one other
individual or you know married a couple
something along those lines
I believe you're right yes there's one
other property
no problem
you know asking Mr Wong to move forward
with you know figuring out more details
and of the feasibility of this and then
coming back to us so I mean we're not committing to whatever the
financial parts of it so we definitely
need to know that
all right well then we're all up to
speed
like anyone else no no I'm gonna
agreement
all right so we'll make that motion
second all in favor
um thank you
uh the next item on the agenda is the
final commission appointments
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um
[Applause]
for a favorable consideration between
the council
any questions
well seconded all in favor
aye nice to see some young young people
getting involved
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the next item on the agenda is the
appointment
um reappointment for the board of
assessment review uh all of you've got
the letter from the county finance
department saying that Mr Williams who
is currently on the board his
uh his term expired on September 30th
and so this is just something to do a
reappointment to that board
any questions
I'll Stand a motion so second all's in
favor
next time on the agenda ceremony we're
actually looking for PD Brothers 55
years of business Mr Helene uh Petey
Brothers has been in business 55 years
and uh it's just a recognition of their
55 years of business as well as Mr
Petey's
philanthropic activities throughout the
community
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