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[4:24] thank you

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[11:10] Council committee for Monday April 3rd

[11:14] 2023

[11:16] um the first item on the agenda is a

[11:18] presentation here McCartney thank you

[11:22] madam president

[11:23] Mr motivaran had sent an email back in

[11:27] February I questioned the

[11:31] debt collector from the assessment

[11:35] office who staffed at a house

[11:37] where they prevented some work done I

[11:40] thought it would just be good to review

[11:43] what the building

[11:45] inspector does what the assessor does

[11:48] the respective roles in terms of how

[11:51] some of the information is handled and

[11:53] processed and again some of the things

[11:56] are a little more complex than what most

[12:00] people think of and there's not

[12:02] sometimes easy conclusions for it but in

[12:07] that email it raises the implications of

[12:10] these discrimination and I assure you

[12:14] that does not happen

[12:16] May the staff and if it is in any shape

[12:19] form or manner happening it will not

[12:21] tolerate it and with that I'd turn it

[12:23] over your name to start the presentation

[12:27] so mayor we have uh I do have um I got

[12:30] that video as welcome so from so the

[12:32] rest of the complex Concepts can they

[12:34] see the video sure

[12:42] oh

[12:47] [Music]

[12:59] Thomas

[13:03] we have two out of the three screenings

[13:08] it's just it's just that one

[13:33] all right

[13:45] [Music]

[14:14] thank you

[14:18] is that the best article we've got I'm

[14:20] sorry over here

[14:23] basically the exchange of the

[14:25] conversation and she went there and

[14:27] asked if she could do an inspection of

[14:29] the property

[14:30] um and she was following up on permits

[14:32] that's kind of part of the process and

[14:34] part of what I'll talk about today

[14:36] um and she asked if you do an inspection

[14:38] and we do that and then homeowner has

[14:40] the right to say not they don't want us

[14:42] in our in their property and that's why

[14:43] she just was explaining that it's in

[14:45] that benefit for us to be able to see it

[14:47] yeah you need to come on over mind okay

[14:49] I'm sorry it's okay

[15:00] um so it's in the best interest of a

[15:02] property owner to go to allow us to see

[15:04] the property because there's something

[15:06] in a phrasing called extraordinary

[15:08] assumptions and if we see that the

[15:10] outside of a property is done we make

[15:12] the assumption that inside is gone as

[15:14] well and so it all leads into Data

[15:16] accuracy and um

[15:18] and or the appraisal process evaluation

[15:21] process so when we're able to go out and

[15:24] take accurate measurements and take a

[15:26] look at properties to see the bedroom

[15:27] town the bathroom count and the

[15:29] condition of the property it gives us a

[15:32] better sense of how to Value the

[15:33] property and what what properties to use

[15:35] as a comparison and so that's kind of

[15:38] the that builds everything that we do

[15:41] and then I'll talk a little bit more

[15:44] about it but not even I just we wanted

[15:46] to say thank you for allowing us the

[15:48] opportunity to come in and talk to you

[15:50] guys about the process because I think

[15:51] as City Council Members it's really

[15:53] important for you all to be able to help

[15:56] us dispel myths and misconceptions that property owners have in the city

[16:01] about how we do this process and about

[16:04] the things that we're really looking for

[16:05] when we go out also the scope of work

[16:08] that we're looking at when we go out to

[16:10] do an inspection so we have an agenda we're going to talk

[16:15] a little bit about ourselves

[16:17] and give you some background in us and

[16:20] then talk about some facts and

[16:21] statistics in each other offices then

[16:24] I'll give Naim the microphone and he can

[16:26] talk a little bit about the building

[16:27] department

[16:28] I will follow up with more about the

[16:30] assessment department and then we'll do

[16:32] a wrap up and offer you guys the

[16:34] opportunity for any questions that you

[16:35] might have

[16:38] what's up

[16:42] [Applause]

[16:43] um so I'm Molly McIlroy the assessor

[16:45] here I'm starting my ninth year in May I

[16:51] feel like I've had several careers

[16:53] before I even got to this point I was a

[16:55] financial analyst for a little while I

[16:57] was a director of residential life at

[16:58] Union but I finished up my MBA and then

[17:02] had an opportunity to come here and work

[17:04] in the city as the assessor city has put

[17:07] a lot of time and effort into educating

[17:09] me and you know getting me to some some

[17:12] places that I can now feel more

[17:14] comfortable doing a position I am a New

[17:17] York state appraiser I have a state

[17:20] certification as an assessor and I'm a

[17:23] member of the New York State assessors

[17:24] Association and also an executive board

[17:26] member for the Albany Schenectady

[17:28] assessors Association and in that comes

[17:31] a lot of training comes a lot of

[17:33] continuing education that I'm required

[17:35] to do not only for my appraiser license

[17:37] but also for the assessor certification

[17:41] [Music]

[17:51] code enforcement officer from this job

[17:54] so it's four and a half years we'll be

[17:57] in the city for about five years now in

[17:59] June I'm gonna be five years for me here

[18:01] as a code enforcement officer

[18:04] or a certificate holder

[18:06] I have been a uh still am a resident for

[18:10] Schenectady since 2003 I do have my

[18:14] electrical license that's just things I

[18:17] went and pursued afterwards just so I

[18:20] can still make myself and be a little

[18:22] better and be a little better at the job

[18:24] I have construction background

[18:27] um

[18:27] lead certified ocean certified those

[18:30] kind of things and and then these were

[18:32] not requirements for the city they were

[18:34] just things that I wanted to do for

[18:36] something

[18:42] um you can't really dispute facts and

[18:45] numbers so I wanted to give a little bit

[18:46] of information we have 19

[18:49] 965 Parcels in the city industrial

[18:52] commercial vacant land and residential

[18:56] we have a total assessed value of just

[18:59] shy of four billion dollars and we have

[19:02] a total taxable value of about 2.5

[19:05] billion

[19:07] um we processed between January 2021 and

[19:10] December 2022 we processed

[19:12] 3657 sales in the city and I have one important thing I wanted to point

[19:17] out is that 538 of those sales were over

[19:20] 200 000 and those are Residential

[19:22] Properties and one thing that's very

[19:24] interesting about that is that those

[19:27] properties are all over the city it

[19:28] doesn't matter the neighborhood they're

[19:29] in it doesn't north south east west they

[19:32] are the common denominators

[19:36] the common denominator is that those

[19:38] properties were renovated so they were

[19:41] completely flipped from Bare Bones to

[19:44] absolutely gorgeous I mean properties

[19:46] that are just I got to move into them

[19:48] anytime anytime and so it just shows

[19:51] that things are really going well here

[19:53] in the city of Schenectady we processed

[19:55] for the 2022 assessment rule we

[19:57] processed 9144 exemption applications

[20:01] anywhere from senior low-income student

[20:04] non-profit exemption applications and

[20:07] then the grievance period we have since

[20:10] I've been here we've gone from a total

[20:12] of 453 grievance applications submitted

[20:15] to last year we only had 44. yeah I'd

[20:18] like to take some credit in that but a

[20:20] lot of it has to do with the market how

[20:22] well the Market's doing

[20:23] um but I think

[20:25] we we have a very transparent office and

[20:29] we really try to listen to people when

[20:30] they come in we try to make accurate

[20:33] valuations of property and really try to

[20:36] focus heating is fair and Equitable as

[20:38] we can across the city

[20:47] I just did a um

[20:52] revenue of what was generated last year

[20:54] from the billing department the total

[20:57] amount of inspection we did was about 6

[20:58] 700 permits issue 2500. notice a

[21:02] violation it was a a year we did do a

[21:05] lot of notice evaluation we had a lot of

[21:07] City sail from Exposition issue which

[21:09] that I I do like that number being that

[21:13] high because it showed that there was a

[21:15] lot of cdcl property so when the city

[21:18] sells a property they pay that 500 and

[21:20] they can get their apartment to be

[21:21] waived this VIN number I'm hoping that

[21:24] can go up this year if it should have

[21:27] more City on Broadway sold

[21:29] do a lot of rental inspections or permit

[21:34] fees was pretty high last year 1.5

[21:36] million

[21:38] um we have a lot of admin fees for

[21:41] closer violations building registry fee

[21:46] complaints

[21:48] we have we also do the certificate of

[21:51] use public assembly and we have other

[21:53] inspections like um

[21:56] public amusements outdoor cafes those

[21:59] other things so we have a total roughly

[22:01] a little two million dollars generated

[22:03] last year now the reason why I

[22:07] the revenue that we generated there is

[22:10] breaking down the fees where we're

[22:12] getting that money from for the permit

[22:14] so when people are pulling Apartments it

[22:17] brings money back into the city that

[22:19] money can go back out to the city so

[22:21] it's a whole process so that's that's

[22:24] just the main reason why I decided to

[22:27] just put my alarms

[22:37] okay so at the building department this

[22:41] is called photographics

[22:44] we try our best to improve our public

[22:48] health safety for every octane we look

[22:52] at the building as a whole and we've

[22:54] been building and everyone who occupies

[22:56] it not just people who are visiting or

[22:57] people who are living in there we do our

[23:00] best to educate our residents on our

[23:03] city code policies procedure and making

[23:05] sure everybody's on the same page doing

[23:07] the right thing we perform a lot of fire

[23:09] safety inspection life safety

[23:11] inspections and construction inspections

[23:14] you do them as required

[23:16] we try to deliver a standard we adhere

[23:20] to a cold and we try to stay

[23:22] professional and unbiased with everyone

[23:24] we work on

[23:28] so over the years our performance

[23:31] process has gotten simpler we're trying

[23:34] to make it easier we now have it where

[23:36] you can apply for permits online in

[23:38] person same as always but the online

[23:40] aspect we started about two years ago

[23:42] and we have been getting a lot of

[23:44] positive feedback

[23:47] that's a screenshot of the city's

[23:49] website if you can click one more show

[23:55] that's the Performing application to do

[23:58] permits online our typical process takes

[24:01] about five or seven days for review all

[24:03] depends on the scope of work sometimes

[24:05] it takes longer it has control between

[24:07] different departments for review and of

[24:09] course

[24:12] oh and one more thing I'll mention about

[24:14] the permits all the permits have a

[24:17] description of the school report that is

[24:20] important for us to know what's being

[24:22] done on the property doing interior work

[24:24] exterior work deck siding we would like

[24:26] that in the description

[24:29] there are multiple inspections on the

[24:31] products for example I have here where

[24:34] is to have the foundation the framing

[24:36] inspection the final inspection the roof

[24:40] fire roofing inspections with multiple

[24:43] inspection that's involved on multiple

[24:46] different projects

[24:48] whenever we do inspections we take

[24:50] detailed notes and we take photos of

[24:52] every inspection that information gets

[24:55] uploaded into municity the system that

[24:57] we use as accessible by all the other

[24:59] departments

[25:03] this is one thing that we don't like

[25:06] doing what happens is when you don't

[25:08] hold permits you can get started

[25:11] now stop recorders are issue two ways if

[25:14] we catch people working without permits

[25:16] or we find them doing they did work

[25:18] without the code or if they're working

[25:20] outside the scope of that description of

[25:22] the program that they originally applied

[25:24] for

[25:25] now we we don't go out and go for it and

[25:31] a lot of our sub workers come from

[25:34] reports from the public

[25:36] it's we find it when we go into an

[25:39] inspection or while we're just driving

[25:40] back into CCP point of doing some work

[25:44] we try to tell people to pull your

[25:47] permits because as you can see here it's

[25:49] 500 is the fee and then all the permit

[25:52] fee doubles after that so our simple

[25:55] roof permit for example will cost you

[25:57] 700 instead of 100.

[26:00] so a good practice that we tell people

[26:02] and the public is just ask Paul's ask or

[26:06] do you need a program

[26:13] at the end of every projects homeowners

[26:16] would be able to obtain a certificate of

[26:20] completion that's only issued when that

[26:24] permit is closed up we're not going to

[26:26] issue if there's open permits related to

[26:28] that project

[26:30] a certificate of occupancy is issued

[26:33] professor at the final inspection we

[26:35] have seen over the years buyers sellers

[26:38] Banks insurance companies they have been

[26:40] requesting to see if

[26:42] we have a certificate of occupancy or if

[26:45] permits were pulled for certain projects

[26:47] that's being done

[26:49] people are getting smarter now they're

[26:51] seeing a brand new house they want to

[26:53] make sure that everything was fixed

[26:55] apart and I say if you're paying to get

[26:58] a job done it can be done correctly be

[27:01] happy with that

[27:03] um

[27:04] yeah that's that's it for me with the um

[27:09] all right so I just want to give you

[27:11] just some brief information about

[27:13] um our department so assessment is not

[27:16] an exact science

[27:17] um I've found it's you know some days

[27:19] it's it's really fun and some days it's

[27:22] really challenging I mean as is any job

[27:25] um there was a former Supreme Court

[27:27] Justice Cardozo

[27:29] um had said at one point that the task

[27:31] of the assessor is to find the least

[27:32] erroneous answer to an unsolvable

[27:34] problem and I do I mean I find that as a

[27:38] challenge every day that there's no you

[27:40] could put 10 assessors appraisers in a

[27:43] room and each one of them is going to

[27:44] give you a different opinion of value

[27:45] and that's exactly what it is it's an

[27:48] opinion of that

[27:49] so you know my my role as the assessor

[27:52] is to Value property within the city

[27:54] limits to produce a fair and Equitable

[27:57] tax rule or assessment role which then

[27:59] leads into the tax rules I focus mostly

[28:02] on Commercial valuation though I review

[28:04] the appraisers

[28:06] appraisals of residential property I

[28:09] basically managed and and administer the

[28:12] programs and processes and day-to-day

[28:14] stuff in the office but there's a lot of

[28:16] you know minutia that goes on that's

[28:22] fills the day with other things and

[28:25] fires and emergencies and this and that

[28:26] so

[28:28] um they have the rest of the staff which

[28:30] a real property analyst focuses on our

[28:33] exemption process

[28:35] um she also takes all the Deeds that we

[28:36] get from the county and make sure the

[28:38] transfers of ownership are correct in

[28:40] our system a real property appraiser

[28:42] focuses on valuation of residential

[28:44] property and then I I review her

[28:47] appraisals

[28:49] um we look at not only you know what a

[28:51] property is compared to a smaller number

[28:54] of properties but also what does it look

[28:56] like in comparison to the properties

[28:57] within the neighborhoods does it match

[28:59] up are we too far out of line because we

[29:02] do attempt to make everything fair and

[29:05] Equitable when looking at valuation our

[29:08] data collector as you had seen earlier

[29:10] she really is exactly that goes out into

[29:12] the field she's our main field person

[29:14] she focuses on collecting as accurate of

[29:17] the data in each property all over the

[29:20] City commercial residential doesn't

[29:23] matter what it is because we're not the

[29:25] only office that uses that data we get

[29:27] calls from the fire department we get

[29:29] calls from the police department we get

[29:31] calls from the codes office every day

[29:33] we're working together to try and make

[29:35] sure that everything is as accurate as

[29:37] possible

[29:39] and then a real property clerk is the

[29:41] face of the office she sits at the front

[29:43] desk she greets everybody she's kind of

[29:45] the glue that holds us all together

[29:47] because she the one who's when somebody

[29:49] comes in she figures out what they need

[29:52] to feed whether they need to actually be

[29:53] in our office or if they need to see

[29:55] somebody else in the building

[29:57] and it's just in a lot of different

[29:59] things she assessing it with foil she

[30:01] does some filing which is not glamorous

[30:03] but it's absolutely necessary so that we

[30:05] know where things are in the office

[30:07] but everybody just kind of pitches in

[30:10] different times of the year we all go to

[30:12] the front desk we all talk to Property

[30:14] Owners we all answer the phone so

[30:16] everybody kind of pitches in that way

[30:19] that's just a little bit we have an assessment

[30:26] December kind of calendar

[30:29] I don't have to go through all of those

[30:30] but some of the things evaluation date

[30:32] is an important piece taxable status day

[30:34] that's the day that we kind of take a

[30:36] snapshot of how properties exist in the

[30:38] city

[30:39] the tentative assessment role that's any

[30:41] evaluation changes that happen they come

[30:43] out in the tenant assessment role May

[30:45] 1st and then grievance period follows

[30:48] that from May 1st to the fourth Tuesday

[30:50] of May very random but that's what real

[30:53] property tax law dictated so our final

[30:56] assessment rule gets put out on July 1st

[30:58] the school tax roll information goes to

[31:01] the school district's middle of July and

[31:04] then we send the city tax roll to the

[31:06] tax department here in December

[31:10] thanks

[31:12] um so there's a lot of there's a lot of

[31:14] things that are interesting in our

[31:15] office one of them is Equalization rate

[31:17] it's it uses or it helps determine debt

[31:21] limits it helps determine

[31:23] um sales tax revenue helps to turn

[31:25] funding for school districts it helps to

[31:29] it helps as a comparison for

[31:31] municipalities across the state but it's

[31:34] a really hard thing to explain we're

[31:36] required each year to send sales to the

[31:39] state and then we go through the process

[31:40] of determining what our Equalization

[31:43] rate is um and I'm up here I've put the

[31:45] last 10 years worth of Equalization rate

[31:47] and I started in 2014 and we were at a

[31:50] high of 123 percent we've gone now we've

[31:55] dropped 44 to 79 is what our

[31:58] Equalization rate will be this year and

[32:00] I put the 2013 number up there because

[32:02] the jump from 2013 to 2014 was pretty

[32:06] excessive and one of the important

[32:08] things that we do is analyze sales in

[32:10] our office to make sure we're sending

[32:13] our sales to the state and they show

[32:16] that the state is only going to use the

[32:17] ones that are arms like sales so buy a

[32:20] willing buyer and a willing seller it

[32:23] jumped 15 and and when it's when you get

[32:26] a Equalization rate of 123 percent

[32:30] we're saying that if property is worth a

[32:32] hundred thousand dollars in the market

[32:33] they would actually be taxed on 123 000.

[32:37] and some of that was due to no there

[32:41] wasn't an assessor during the time when

[32:42] we would send the sales between 2013 and

[32:45] 2014. so there is some there's some you

[32:50] know importance to us looking at the

[32:52] sales and doing the sales analysis that

[32:54] we do in our office so now look at 79

[32:57] and we're saying the same house that is

[32:59] worth a hundred thousand dollars on the

[33:01] market they're only paying being taxed

[33:03] on Seventy nine thousand which is great

[33:05] for homeowners great for property owners

[33:07] except for us we're losing out on 21 in

[33:10] value when we look at revaluating so

[33:12] really the optimal place to be is 100 so

[33:15] that you're you're saying that you're

[33:16] taxing a property on what it's actually

[33:18] worth in the market and what someone

[33:20] could get when they sold the property

[33:29] the important things

[33:33] so there's five sections of our

[33:35] assessment rule the first section is the

[33:38] taxable portion of the role and that's

[33:40] where most of the majority of our

[33:42] properties so that 2.5 billion that I

[33:44] talked about earlier that's where you

[33:45] find most of the value there's rule

[33:47] sections five six and seven which

[33:49] contain properties that are

[33:50] infrastructure their telecommunications

[33:53] railroads and then we have our holy

[33:56] exempt role which is our role section

[33:58] eight and I bring this up because we

[34:00] have 38 of our property and sit that's

[34:03] wholly exact that's the challenge of

[34:06] being in a big city whether you're

[34:07] providing the services to all of the

[34:11] surrounding municipalities we have

[34:13] hospitals we have educational facilities

[34:15] more educational facilities we have the

[34:18] county seat you know so we have County

[34:20] buildings we have a lot of things that

[34:22] we don't have quite the challenge that

[34:24] the city of Albany has but we do have

[34:26] some challenges so the work that we do

[34:29] is really important and going out and

[34:31] looking at different the progress of

[34:32] different properties and the develop

[34:33] throughout the city and making sure

[34:36] we're able to capture that um in the

[34:38] assessed value that that's really what

[34:41] we are here for because if we kept the

[34:44] assessed value the same every year if

[34:45] everything stayed the same and the city

[34:47] tax levy went up that means we have to

[34:49] raise taxes so tax rates go up if we're

[34:53] doing the work that we're doing we're

[34:54] going out we're looking at new

[34:55] properties we're looking at properties

[34:57] that are flipped and we're making

[34:58] accurate valuations of those properties

[35:00] and we're still either spending the same

[35:03] or spending less that's how you all can

[35:05] reduce the number of taxes that people

[35:07] pay in the city so it's it's it's a huge

[35:10] process it's a it's a difficult process

[35:12] but it's so so important to the work

[35:14] that happens in the city and being able

[35:16] to provide all the other services and

[35:18] things that we want to do

[35:23] all right so getting to the process here

[35:26] there's three ways we engage with the

[35:27] Public Public requests for inspection

[35:30] permits and informal meeting requests

[35:33] the public Professor inspection anyone

[35:35] can come in and ask for us to come out

[35:37] and take a look at their property most

[35:39] of the time it's to make sure data is

[35:40] accurate informal meeting requests

[35:42] someone can come in and ask to have a

[35:44] meeting with me and talk about their

[35:46] assessed value I usually like to make

[35:49] sure that they've done their homework

[35:50] and they have they have an appraisal or

[35:52] there's some kind of valuation

[35:53] instrument that shows that they

[35:54] understand what it is they're asking

[35:57] um and then the permit process so when

[36:00] nines Office is done with the work that

[36:02] they do that's when we go out to take a

[36:04] look at the changes and properties if

[36:06] you walk down any Street in the city

[36:07] there's so much development going on and

[36:09] it's fantastic but we need to make sure

[36:12] that we are capturing that information

[36:14] um you know every day I hear from our

[36:16] plumbing inspector or the electrical

[36:18] inspector that we have a property that

[36:21] was newly built and we don't have we

[36:23] have it as vacant lands so those are the

[36:25] things that we're really looking for

[36:26] when we go out into the field

[36:29] um

[36:30] so if we determine that evaluation

[36:33] change is necessary we do there's three

[36:35] different ways sales comparison method

[36:37] where we're looking at different sales

[36:39] throughout the city

[36:40] that's generally used just for

[36:42] Residential Properties we do income

[36:45] capitalization which is where we're how

[36:47] we value commercial properties and then

[36:50] we look at cost for more specialty

[36:52] properties like for instance the casino

[36:54] that was valued using the cost method

[36:57] because the real guts of a casino are

[37:00] the machines and everything but that's

[37:02] personal property so we don't place a

[37:04] value on that stuff

[37:07] so we go through those that process and

[37:09] if they're if a value change is

[37:10] necessary then we have we are legally

[37:13] required to send out valuation change

[37:15] notices as I make a change in our system

[37:17] it spits out a letter and we send those

[37:20] letters out to to Property Owners so

[37:22] that starts the process of grievance and

[37:25] it gives them the opportunity to comment

[37:28] into our office and the I think one of

[37:31] the really fortunate things about the

[37:32] assessment process is that we have many different options for appeals for

[37:37] folks to appeal the work that we do in

[37:39] our office you know the first part of

[37:41] that is what's called a correction of

[37:43] Errors that's something that I can do

[37:45] once I put out the tentative assessment

[37:46] role I can't make any changes but unless

[37:50] a court order or through the grievance

[37:52] process but the correction on errors

[37:54] gives me the opportunity to make some

[37:58] minor level changes somebody we forgot

[38:00] an exemption on someone's property or

[38:02] they had torn down their garage and we

[38:04] didn't we weren't able to capture that

[38:06] so they were letting us know so we to

[38:07] make that correction the bigger the

[38:10] bigger pieces our administrative review

[38:12] and judicial review administrative

[38:14] review is the grievance process it's the

[38:16] board of assessment review folks can

[38:18] submit applications and then they go and

[38:21] they can either go to the board and have

[38:23] a meeting or they can

[38:26] just submit the application the board

[38:29] removes every application that's

[38:30] submitted whether or not the property

[38:33] owner goes to agreements to the previous

[38:35] day

[38:36] um they make their deliberations and

[38:39] then let us know what changes in

[38:41] property value to put into our system

[38:43] and then the step after that is judicial

[38:47] review which gives folks another

[38:48] opportunity through the first part is

[38:51] small claims that's they can go up to

[38:54] the county file with the county and then

[38:56] a hearing officer is assigned to the

[38:57] case and the hearing officer will sit

[39:00] down with both of us and the property

[39:02] owner we will give our sides talk about

[39:04] why we believe our values are correct

[39:06] and the hearing officer makes the

[39:08] decision

[39:09] [Music]

[39:10] and then the second piece to that is a

[39:12] article 7 tax certiary proceeding which

[39:15] does require an attorney it can be a bit

[39:17] of an expense it's the only option for

[39:19] commercial properties I know I'm sure

[39:22] you've all had us you know had text or

[39:24] shared conversations in here and

[39:26] sometimes the impact of those is is

[39:28] pretty big on the city

[39:30] but it's the opportunity for a property

[39:32] owner to appeal that process and to

[39:34] prove why they think that their property

[39:36] is a little value

[39:39] um

[39:39] so which I think that's yeah okay so

[39:42] just want to be able to give you a

[39:44] little bit of an opportunity to

[39:46] understand

[39:47] um in a little more depth of the work

[39:50] that we do why our offices here

[39:52] um and that we're really we're going out

[39:54] and we're looking at all properties that

[39:56] would be on all permits now when I say

[39:59] those 19 000 properties in the city

[40:00] there's only five of us in the office

[40:02] and we only have one field person so if

[40:04] we get to 300 properties a year that's

[40:07] pretty good in terms of you know and so

[40:10] I know that I've heard people say well

[40:12] my property was done two years ago and

[40:14] you're just getting to it now and

[40:15] unfortunately I mean that's just the

[40:17] kind of the nature of the work

[40:19] um but we want to again say thank you

[40:22] and also offering anyone in the room the

[40:24] opportunity if you want to do a

[40:26] ride-along with any of our our field

[40:29] people just so you can see some of the

[40:30] challenges that we Face going out into

[40:32] the field

[40:33] and or just see what the process looks

[40:35] like from you know from the other side

[40:37] and have a better understanding of it

[40:39] that way so now just give you guys the

[40:41] opportunity to ask any questions or

[40:43] comments

[40:45] anything like that

[40:49] um first of all I thank you for giving

[40:51] the this really good overview and

[40:52] sometimes people just don't understand

[40:54] the process so having the public know

[40:56] what the process is and also educating

[40:57] us so we can answer some questions

[40:59] certainly not all questions so I

[41:01] appreciate that

[41:03] um so specifically so you only have one

[41:05] data collected that's one of my

[41:07] questions yeah okay yeah I mean

[41:09] sometimes I go out in the field or my um

[41:12] the appraisal will go out to the field

[41:14] but the the whole point of the data

[41:16] collector is to be the one that will

[41:18] have the field to capture that

[41:19] information so that person doesn't make

[41:21] it I what we saw was that someone they

[41:24] just showed at their house they don't

[41:26] make an appointment like to go there so

[41:28] that the owner knows that they're coming

[41:30] yeah sometimes they do if they have the

[41:32] information the problem is that permits

[41:34] aren't often taken by the homeowner

[41:36] sometimes they're taken by a contractor

[41:37] sometimes it's months after the work was

[41:40] done and we don't we don't keep we don't

[41:42] have phone numbers in our office we just

[41:44] have addresses so sometimes it's just

[41:46] going up and knocking on a door and

[41:47] saying can we do an inspection if we

[41:50] can't find another way to get in touch

[41:52] with someone if we're lucky then we get

[41:54] that information or they you know they

[41:56] come into the office and ask us to come

[41:57] in and look at the property but nine

[42:00] times out of ten it's it's worth you

[42:02] know looking at so many different data

[42:04] sources trying to to sometimes it's a

[42:06] real estate agent too because the pro

[42:08] the property is in the process of being

[42:10] sold so we don't know who the owner is

[42:12] going to be

[42:14] that's you know that's kind of it's a

[42:16] challenge

[42:17] um and I know nobody wants to see

[42:20] someone coming up there

[42:22] um you know their their their driveway

[42:24] and going in and um you know looking at

[42:27] their property but sometimes that's the

[42:29] only way and again those those folks

[42:31] have the opportunity to say no they

[42:33] don't want um they don't want an

[42:34] inspection and that's fine and then we

[42:36] just leave

[42:37] and the grievance period is like three

[42:39] weeks yeah yeah and some sometimes it

[42:43] seems it feels longer but it's um yeah

[42:46] it's the it's from May 1st until the

[42:49] fourth Tuesday I think

[42:52] um then I have a question for applying

[42:54] so I I know like this one maybe I love

[42:57] you for you with building inspector um

[42:59] but there was a time when they were

[43:01] talking about having iPads going out

[43:02] into the field so do your do they

[43:04] currently have iPads where they can just

[43:05] like put the information in and put it

[43:07] right back in the office

[43:09] so as soon as an inspection is completed

[43:11] the notes the photos it's all uploaded

[43:13] into the system

[43:14] and I and you also talked about

[43:17] educating residents of the city so is

[43:19] there a printed information like if

[43:21] someone could wanted the information

[43:22] about how the process works down there

[43:24] is there something they can come in and

[43:26] pick up we have

[43:27] um checklists that we can give out for example rental inspection we do have

[43:32] checklists that we give out we have um

[43:34] layouts of smoke alarms where they need

[43:37] to be inside your building and I am in

[43:39] the process of working on a more

[43:40] in-depth checklists for construction if

[43:44] you're deck what's the requirement for

[43:47] Tech those kind of things so that's what

[43:49] the educating process comes in play is

[43:51] that we have half of it we're just we

[43:55] gotta we gotta and change with the

[43:56] culture become a cold chain you gotta

[43:58] hope they cool yeah so what we have is a

[44:00] little bit outdated so we're in the

[44:02] process of updating this right and

[44:03] really my final question is

[44:05] um the violations is there what's the

[44:08] follow-up process to that so if someone

[44:09] gets a violation What is the following

[44:12] process so when somebody receives this

[44:13] violation they have the comply by date

[44:16] now they have until that day to comply

[44:19] with the violation that they're in so

[44:23] we go into an inspection the day after

[44:26] that compliance because they have up

[44:29] until the midnight of that day so like

[44:31] on the first you have until the the

[44:33] first so the second we do a

[44:34] re-inspection if the complaint if the

[44:37] violation is not corrected

[44:39] we would proceed to issue in tickets or

[44:42] if the owner submits a request for an

[44:45] extension we review that and if it's

[44:47] granted we will grant them a reasonable

[44:49] amount of time depends on what type is

[44:52] so the different violations have

[44:53] different dates yes most of it is 30

[44:56] days

[44:59] sorry I just wanted to make one more

[45:02] comment when I mentioned scope of work

[45:05] um and I I glossed over it a little bit

[45:08] to the scope of work but we don't go out

[45:11] and do inspections for every permit

[45:13] that's out there I mean if somebody's

[45:15] fitting in your roof it really doesn't

[45:16] change the value much in terms of like

[45:18] for our someone's getting a new boiler

[45:20] they're doing maintenance general

[45:22] maintenance items those don't require us

[45:24] because there's just no reason for us to

[45:26] do that we look at full scale

[45:29] Renovations of a home you know I mean

[45:31] from top to bottom the property was

[45:34] changed inside outside if there's

[45:37] obvious signs of a change of the

[45:41] property that's that's kind of so that's

[45:43] another misconception that folks have is

[45:45] that we're out every time that there's a

[45:47] change and that doesn't we just we

[45:48] couldn't do it we have to we have to

[45:50] focus on something so we focus on those

[45:52] large scale changes that really do

[45:54] change the value

[46:01] okay yeah I'm glad uh the mayor is

[46:05] bringing forward to some discussion in

[46:07] regards to the video the video was sent

[46:09] to me sometime in February I didn't get

[46:12] a response so I'm glad that we're

[46:13] discussing it here because I have

[46:15] another video also I can send it on to

[46:17] you but I didn't get a response so my

[46:20] question to follow is uh how the two

[46:22] agents the two offices can go into each

[46:24] other you're going out on an inspection

[46:26] as you mentioned you're closing it out

[46:28] you're taking pictures

[46:29] everything whatsoever so does your

[46:33] office access to this information they

[46:36] can rely to someone on that information

[46:39] to get their

[46:40] sure

[46:42] yes unfortunately we didn't have a data

[46:45] collector for close to a year so we're

[46:47] trying to play catch-up right now on a

[46:49] lot of things that they've already

[46:51] closed out

[46:52] through this process 9 and I did talk

[46:54] and we we also sat down earlier in the

[46:57] year with the new code officers in my

[46:59] office we're hoping to have the data

[47:01] collector go out into the field when

[47:03] they do the final inspections so that

[47:05] everybody's there at the same time

[47:07] um and that we can work together a

[47:09] little more on that it makes sense for

[47:12] us to do it since they're doing

[47:14] um you know the certificate of occupancy

[47:16] or a certificate of um completion

[47:20] um so I'm hoping that we're able to do

[47:23] that and obviously we only have one

[47:24] person so it's going to have to be we're

[47:27] going to have to pick and choose when we

[47:29] when we're able to do that but we really

[47:31] you know we want our offices to work a

[47:33] lot closer together

[47:35] be able to you know share some things

[47:38] that we find in the in the city

[47:40] concerning everything

[47:43] was closed out they have this organic

[47:46] occupancy why someone else coming from

[47:49] another department trying to do almost

[47:51] the same

[47:52] uh I know it's already the same but

[47:55] trying to get your numbers in when they

[47:57] already closed up for me to give their

[47:59] own occupancy they don't collect the

[48:01] same data that we do

[48:03] um but our data feeds into their system

[48:06] so if data is not accurate they're not

[48:09] working with the most accurate stuff too

[48:11] so we collect a different set of data

[48:15] than they do which is why it's important

[48:17] for us to be able to get out and like I

[48:19] said our data is used by other offices

[48:21] in the city Fire Department the police

[48:23] department yeah I've had several

[48:25] conversations with Chief Marino about a

[48:28] property and well they were under the

[48:30] impression it was this or they went into

[48:32] a property and there were walls put up

[48:34] there are legal walls put up in the

[48:36] property and what they thought the

[48:37] layout of the property was was not

[48:39] accurate and so when we're able to go in

[48:42] and capture that information and take

[48:44] the photos that we take because

[48:46] sometimes they're you know I mean

[48:48] depending on again the scope of work

[48:49] there's different inspections that

[48:51] they're doing

[48:52] um and so it's just I I don't really

[48:56] have an answer for you other than saying

[48:58] that we just collect different sets of

[49:01] data and so there's stuff that we

[49:03] there's some things that were also

[49:04] required by the state that then we then

[49:06] have to send that information about so

[49:08] it's

[49:10] um you know I like I said we really

[49:12] would like to try to be able to do that

[49:14] all at one time

[49:16] um and we you know we do have access and

[49:17] we do look at their photos and we do

[49:19] look but sometimes we have questions

[49:21] um and we really want to make sure again

[49:22] accuracy of data is just super important

[49:26] what is the outcome in regards to that

[49:28] video of course and deny the entry what

[49:31] what's your office well we look you know

[49:33] so for instance there was a permit

[49:35] pulled for that property back in 2019

[49:37] and it wasn't closed out so we worked

[49:39] together

[49:40] um but that's what we're looking to see

[49:42] was the work completed is the work still

[49:44] going on is there you know is there

[49:46] something that we need to let them know

[49:48] about because she was on the street

[49:50] because there's another property right

[49:51] down the street that had a permit as

[49:54] well and so it's not it's not just

[49:56] simply like we're picking choosing and

[49:58] driving down the road there's there's

[49:59] actual reasons why we're going to look

[50:02] at property most of the time it's

[50:04] through permits sometimes it's because

[50:06] of a sale and we see the property and it

[50:08] looks vastly different than it did

[50:10] um what in our information that we have

[50:14] so

[50:16] she really I mean that's it's hard she

[50:18] was really just doing her job and you

[50:20] know I mean she was asking she respected

[50:22] the fact that the person didn't want her

[50:24] to go inside the property and she

[50:26] laughed

[50:36] well I

[50:38] like to sometimes we just we don't have

[50:40] all the information sometimes it was a

[50:42] on the permit it was a contractor

[50:45] sometimes it's a real estate agent who

[50:46] contacts us because they're in the

[50:48] process of trying to sell a home so it's

[50:50] not we don't sometimes we don't know who

[50:52] we're sending a letter to

[50:54] the address but but what I'm saying is

[50:57] most the time these are properties that

[50:59] are in the process of being sold

[51:03] I understand what you're saying I just

[51:05] there's there's a lot more to it you

[51:07] know I think that I would be happy to have

[51:12] more of a conversation with you

[51:13] um to explain yeah I will because a lot

[51:15] I'm getting a lot of calls so I need to

[51:17] get more information so I can pass it on

[51:18] so I can well I I appreciate that you've

[51:21] been able to work with me in the past

[51:22] and you've contacted me I haven't heard

[51:23] from you yet about this so well at that

[51:26] level I send it directly to the mayor to

[51:28] address it um

[51:29] we've talked about other things before

[51:31] you've come to me so um

[51:33] because the complaint I'm receiving is

[51:36] that this people are feeling that they

[51:38] are sick love and I can appreciate that

[51:40] but at that level I'm getting those

[51:42] complaints they're being singled out if

[51:45] because they have permanence

[51:49] completed and why is somebody else

[51:51] really have to do another thing because

[51:53] we have a job to do as well yeah you

[51:55] know I mean it's again collecting a

[51:56] different different set of data you know

[51:58] but I would appreciate if you feel free

[52:00] to reach out to me I like to have you

[52:02] know an open Office so that we you know

[52:05] I want to have open communication I want

[52:06] to be able to explain these things as

[52:09] they come up and not you know not when

[52:11] it's happening you know months later and

[52:12] try to give a good explanation

[52:14] so I just you know that's all I ask is

[52:17] if there's questions please come to me

[52:20] um we try to we try to be open like that

[52:25] thank you again for being here I

[52:27] understand that military departments are

[52:28] comprised of different roles and

[52:30] responsibilities would you mind just

[52:32] speaking to the current uh experience

[52:34] level or you can answer what amount of

[52:38] time on the job does it take for someone

[52:40] to feel comfortable doing this role that

[52:42] for each of you is very vital to

[52:44] addressing the city that's right

[52:48] um there's training for our the people

[52:51] in our office unfortunately because it's

[52:53] training through the state and the state

[52:56] you know I mean they've cut down on a

[52:57] lot of their training so they there's

[52:59] classes that happen once a year for

[53:02] certain you know the data collector

[53:03] position is not unique to Schenectady

[53:05] it's it's a position that is it's a

[53:07] civil service position it's something

[53:09] that a lot of offices have

[53:11] um there's actually a civil service exam

[53:12] for it and so the current person in the

[53:15] position is is studying for the exam

[53:17] it's going to happen in July or June or

[53:19] July I can't remember there's a data

[53:22] collection manual that comes from the

[53:23] state so there's a lot of reading

[53:26] there's a lot of going out into the

[53:28] field she wasn't just thrown into the

[53:31] field we actually she went out with me

[53:33] she went out with our appraiser to

[53:36] understand data collection and the kinds

[53:38] of information that we're looking for

[53:40] when we go out into the field

[53:41] time

[53:43] so for court officers it takes anywhere

[53:47] from a year to two years for them to

[53:49] fully understand and even that of what

[53:52] needs to be done outside in the um for

[53:55] in the field for inspections it's six

[53:58] months training alone just stay before

[54:00] we can even let them go on inspections

[54:02] we're not allowed to have them in any

[54:03] type of inspections unless they have

[54:05] their New York State Certified court

[54:07] officer training

[54:08] but it depends on the pace right now we

[54:11] have aside from our two supervisors and

[54:14] myself we only have two code officers

[54:17] who's been there for longer than a year

[54:19] we just hired uh four or more other four

[54:22] officers so we're still we're still very

[54:25] short staffed and they're very great so

[54:27] these guys are only recently got

[54:30] certified so we're in the process of

[54:32] training and we'll do the field work and

[54:35] the same

[54:36] work to the system learn what you have

[54:39] to do the process for our office

[54:41] policies knowing where to put the

[54:43] information for other departments can

[54:45] access it

[54:48] thank you and then my second question

[54:50] was uh you talk briefly about the board

[54:52] of Ethics are there any stipulations

[54:54] against assessing or inspecting

[54:56] properties of family members in the city

[55:00] well we try not to have any um

[55:03] any people who are related or have any

[55:06] kind of relationship with the public to

[55:08] inspect on those properties so that's

[55:11] why we have multiple inspectors so we

[55:14] they do signed a conflict of interest

[55:16] document that they cannot inspect those

[55:19] activities

[55:20] and um for us we usually I mean I know

[55:24] in the past we've had things like an mou

[55:26] with another so if there's an assessor

[55:28] in a neighboring area if I had to recuse

[55:31] myself because of knowing someone or

[55:33] knowing something

[55:35] um then I would defer to another

[55:37] assessor

[55:39] um they're all creating families we all

[55:40] work so closely in the county

[55:43] um I mean there have been instances

[55:44] where that was the case where we would

[55:46] defer to

[55:47] um or the um

[55:50] assessor and allow them to to step in

[55:55] um I just wanted to say back to the

[55:59] conversation with Mr mood River and that

[56:00] I think it's really helpful that

[56:03] um you know what if we do get questions

[56:05] from the public or or concerns are

[56:08] raised being able to respond

[56:12] um this has been great to have this

[56:13] presentation first of all

[56:15] um but then secondly I think it is great

[56:18] that we can just call you

[56:19] um and and you know help us out so now

[56:22] we know for example with the concern

[56:24] that you raised

[56:25] um the answer was yeah there's two

[56:27] different sets of data

[56:29] um that that are getting collected so

[56:31] that's why there's people from two

[56:32] different offices coming up so I think

[56:34] that's you know great that we that you

[56:37] are so open to us sitting down with you

[56:40] and coming into the office and learning

[56:43] more thank you and like I said name and

[56:45] I have talked about really wanting to

[56:48] work instead of duplicating our efforts

[56:50] but trying to go out together so that we

[56:54] do get it's what's one time we get the

[56:56] data you know unfortunately just because

[56:58] of the timing of positions being open

[57:00] and I mean we struggled at one point

[57:02] we're in office of five but at one point

[57:03] we only have three people yeah and and

[57:06] you can't allow everybody to have lunch

[57:08] answer phones answer you know questions

[57:10] from the public

[57:12] and also cover the office so it's you

[57:15] know it's been a challenge but you know

[57:17] I think we have a good staff now we've

[57:19] got five people in a world we work

[57:21] really hard

[57:23] um so it's you know I mean that's the

[57:25] best we can we can possibly do

[57:30] so if someone denies you access to

[57:32] inside of their property at that point

[57:35] there's like a registered letter go out

[57:37] or does it just nothing ever happens or

[57:40] um no sometimes there's a valuation

[57:42] that's done

[57:43] um you know if we feel that it's

[57:44] necessary if we look and we're you know

[57:47] we're looking to bring something in

[57:48] alignment with we reduce a lot of

[57:50] assessed values because of property

[57:52] conditions so if somebody will come in

[57:53] and vote when a permit gets closed you

[57:56] know it's we want to get the most

[57:58] accurate data but we have other sources

[58:00] we use MLS the multiple listing service

[58:02] that real estate agents and we catch a

[58:04] lot of things that way

[58:06] um you know and changes in property and

[58:08] documenting you know we document those

[58:10] we use those photos so when we can't

[58:13] it's it's those parts when we can't see

[58:15] the property we can't understand what

[58:18] the scope of work was that's when we

[58:20] generally have to do the inspections

[58:23] did that answer a question okay

[58:27] first I want to say it's a very big job

[58:30] that you're doing and I want to be clear

[58:32] and say that we appreciate the work

[58:33] you're doing

[58:34] um especially you know all the

[58:35] adjustments that you have to make in

[58:37] order to you know provide the service to

[58:39] the city so I know you said you were

[58:40] nervous but you guys gave a lot of great

[58:42] information and and really put things

[58:45] into context so uh I I earlier

[58:49] conversation and I wrote the kind of on

[58:50] the tail end of it all my

[58:52] it seemed like there might have been

[58:53] some

[58:54] people feel like they might be singled

[58:56] out or there might be some level of

[58:57] discrimination happening

[58:59] um and I guess my question is is uh you

[59:03] know

[59:04] how do we know that that's not happening

[59:07] and and I say that in the frame it this

[59:10] way is that a lot of times when you're

[59:12] talking about like systemic inequities

[59:14] or systemic uh discrimination it can be

[59:18] a matter of the process I mean in that

[59:20] institution not necessarily

[59:21] interpersonal meeting that no one from

[59:23] your team is going out saying hey you

[59:24] know what I'm just gonna go make sure

[59:26] that um we had over enforce this group

[59:29] of people or the people living in this

[59:30] neighborhood that you know doesn't

[59:32] necessarily need to be the case however

[59:35] if our way of receiving information or

[59:38] part of the process

[59:40] um leaves it up to

[59:42] um

[59:43] there could be a component in that

[59:45] process that can perpetuate a certain

[59:46] outcome so as a woman's like is there

[59:48] any like um for a black girl that a term

[59:50] like maybe uh Equity audience or best

[59:53] practices that happen in other places or

[59:55] here to ensure that that's not the

[59:56] situation

[59:58] um not that I know of but we don't have

[1:00:00] any anything like any system in place

[1:00:03] that would allow for that um doesn't

[1:00:04] mean we couldn't doesn't mean we

[1:00:06] couldn't come up with some kind of

[1:00:07] creative solution to do that

[1:00:09] um you know I think we're generally what

[1:00:12] we do is pull a perm a report a permit

[1:00:15] report in municity and like I said it

[1:00:18] could be any number of people taking out

[1:00:20] a permit the electrical you know

[1:00:21] whoever's doing your electrical

[1:00:22] whoever's doing your plumbing so we

[1:00:24] don't necessarily know from

[1:00:26] um you know looking at that who owns the

[1:00:28] house or what the it's just the scope of

[1:00:30] work that we're looking at so I don't

[1:00:32] know if there's a way for us to

[1:00:35] build into that report something more

[1:00:37] descriptive some more information so

[1:00:38] that we could track you know I mean what

[1:00:40] properties are we looking at where you

[1:00:42] know

[1:00:43] unfortunately I think we focus in some

[1:00:45] areas where there's more development

[1:00:47] going on in the city so

[1:00:49] I don't you know I don't know how to do

[1:00:51] that I'd love it would be totally open

[1:00:52] for any suggestions any thoughts if you

[1:00:55] wanted to sit down and talk about it

[1:00:56] sometime yeah I was just do we um like

[1:00:59] again this is I'm not like hey let's

[1:01:02] give you more work in

[1:01:08] tension of the question you know I hope

[1:01:10] you see the indirect spear because it's

[1:01:11] definitely I'm wondering like do we

[1:01:13] collect demographic information

[1:01:17] um like uh when we were issuing some

[1:01:20] ticket or something like that is that

[1:01:22] something because I know that that type

[1:01:24] of information gets you know um

[1:01:26] collected in other places and other like

[1:01:28] enforcement agencies do that and I was

[1:01:30] wondering like is there did we collect

[1:01:33] that I have mountains it's an apartment

[1:01:35] it's really it's just like the scope of

[1:01:36] work who's taking the permit out yeah I

[1:01:38] mean like the cost someone's uh you know

[1:01:42] like I know a neighbor of mine was doing

[1:01:45] some work on their house they didn't

[1:01:47] know that they needed to have a permit

[1:01:49] um uh the guys just happen to be out

[1:01:52] there and said hey you need a perfect

[1:01:53] and at that point they worked with him

[1:01:55] helping get it from him was extremely uh

[1:01:58] friendly and professional and helpful

[1:02:00] with him I guess what I'm saying is that

[1:02:02] in these cases is do

[1:02:05] we collect that demographic information

[1:02:07] and show you yeah we don't I don't know

[1:02:11] no we don't so um we don't collect that

[1:02:14] information

[1:02:15] see that if there's a certain area where

[1:02:18] we have more Star Records I guess

[1:02:32] all they do is put their name their

[1:02:34] phone number is however to contact them

[1:02:36] and then um what it is they're looking

[1:02:38] for us to to look at when we go out yeah

[1:02:41] I was just thinking more alongside

[1:02:42] talking about how you know asking the

[1:02:44] right questions to you know because if

[1:02:47] we make you know if these you know our

[1:02:50] statements are that we're trying to be

[1:02:52] Equitable and it seems that we

[1:02:53] definitely are again our convicting the

[1:02:55] job you're doing it's like you know we

[1:02:57] won't know until we know and it's going

[1:02:59] to take a certain amount certain data in

[1:03:00] order for us to really answer that

[1:03:02] question for us to the public so I was

[1:03:03] just yeah it's a really I mean it's a

[1:03:06] good thought I don't know how but again

[1:03:08] it would be happiness a very fair answer

[1:03:10] really but it would be great to I mean I

[1:03:12] think we should always be auditing

[1:03:13] ourselves it doesn't matter what we're

[1:03:15] doing what kind of work we're doing and

[1:03:17] we should always be auditing and looking

[1:03:18] at our processes for how to make them

[1:03:20] better and how to make them sorry no Mr

[1:03:23] Colden I think wants to have a make

[1:03:26] appointment

[1:03:27] and I'll be brief um I know for code

[1:03:30] enforcement sometimes can be very

[1:03:31] difficult to identify who the property

[1:03:33] owner is because many times it's a

[1:03:35] tenant who may be letting a code officer

[1:03:37] in to do an inspection the owner may not

[1:03:39] reside in Schenectady or if donor

[1:03:42] resides in Schenectady may not be there

[1:03:43] when a code officer does an inspection

[1:03:45] because the tenant has control over an

[1:03:47] area when code enforcement goes out when

[1:03:49] code enforcement issues a notice of

[1:03:51] violation

[1:03:52] they will you know send out the notice

[1:03:55] of violation many times a certified mail

[1:03:58] and and first class but they don't

[1:04:00] actually go and physically serve and

[1:04:01] notice the violation so it's hard for

[1:04:03] them to track that information it may be

[1:04:06] that we don't necessarily get that

[1:04:08] information until you know and even then

[1:04:11] we don't get all that information until

[1:04:13] tickets are issued and somebody actually

[1:04:15] comes to court

[1:04:16] um for you know the owner of the

[1:04:18] property so it can be really difficult

[1:04:21] based on the the inter the Limited at

[1:04:24] times interactions that coach Sportsman

[1:04:26] may actually have with the owner

[1:04:28] I guess is there a better is there

[1:04:31] another way to capture that information

[1:04:34] um

[1:04:35] that maybe attach that to one of the

[1:04:37] processes that that we have in place to

[1:04:40] maybe collect that demographic

[1:04:41] information so therefore if something is

[1:04:44] if there is an issue or something like

[1:04:45] that we don't have to then you know kind

[1:04:48] of work backwards to find that

[1:04:49] information now we can kind of look at

[1:04:51] maybe what's existing in our um a city

[1:04:53] database to say and then we can run our

[1:04:55] own numbers and kind of have that

[1:04:56] accountability to check for ourselves

[1:04:58] [Music]

[1:05:00] go ahead

[1:05:03] correct me if I'm wrong but this is

[1:05:05] basically a blind process

[1:05:08] and it's about as Equitable as it can

[1:05:11] get because you don't know who's doing

[1:05:12] it so if you start getting that

[1:05:15] information that's where more problems

[1:05:18] could arise

[1:05:19] by targets that we don't want to have

[1:05:23] so by having a blind process of just

[1:05:26] pulling the permits and we don't know

[1:05:28] who it is

[1:05:30] then that you in essence have a very

[1:05:33] Equitable process

[1:05:34] or

[1:05:37] that's what I was about I was going to

[1:05:39] say exactly the same thing that it's

[1:05:40] almost

[1:05:41] a verse because if we started adding in

[1:05:44] the demographic if we started trying to

[1:05:46] have demographic data then you open the

[1:05:48] door to somebody knocking on our current

[1:05:51] staff but then you could have some

[1:05:53] discrimination that might happen if

[1:05:55] people saw who you know what I'm saying

[1:05:58] so I'm just right there that

[1:06:00] um I was going to say the same thing

[1:06:03] so to my my point was that

[1:06:06] um

[1:06:07] certain demographic uh information is

[1:06:10] backed up with people on a wide range of

[1:06:14] even uh

[1:06:17] even if you're registering for

[1:06:20] um registering on your kid for school or

[1:06:22] something like that you know there's a place where you can get that

[1:06:27] information on voluntarily you can um

[1:06:30] you know self-identify in that space and

[1:06:33] I'm just saying that if again if you're

[1:06:35] talking about systems it's not always

[1:06:36] about that interpersonal piece so it

[1:06:38] doesn't take a person to say hey you

[1:06:41] know what let me go pick on this group

[1:06:43] of people however if you don't have any

[1:06:46] guard rails against that and you're not

[1:06:48] intentional you don't have the

[1:06:49] information then you really don't know

[1:06:51] if we're disproportionately issuing

[1:06:54] um

[1:06:55] tickets to people of a certain subgroup

[1:06:58] if we don't have that information so the

[1:07:00] same reason like how we learned about

[1:07:02] Redline being an issue was because he

[1:07:04] was able to capture demographic

[1:07:06] information of homeowners in what areas

[1:07:09] that they lived in that's what

[1:07:12] gave us the proof to say oh Redline is

[1:07:14] an issue and now here's the data test

[1:07:16] supporter so I would say asking the

[1:07:18] right questions is always a step in the

[1:07:20] right direction and I definitely trust

[1:07:21] Integrity of the team that's in process

[1:07:23] but I think we need to continue to ask

[1:07:25] those questions and if we're doing good

[1:07:28] and we should not be afraid or better

[1:07:30] so I think well for me the information

[1:07:33] that we're capturing has to do with the

[1:07:34] property so we would have to have a very

[1:07:36] good reason to ask people that question

[1:07:38] and people I know people go to different

[1:07:42] agencies and like don't want to even

[1:07:43] answer at the agencies that they have to

[1:07:46] report the data so I I don't um I don't

[1:07:49] know I don't feel it's wise for us to go

[1:07:52] down the road where we're starting to

[1:07:53] ask those kind of questions there needs

[1:07:55] to be where you at people don't want to

[1:07:56] answer I mean and then sometimes when

[1:07:59] you go to your doctor's office and they

[1:08:00] ask you that and and sometimes the

[1:08:02] doctor's office decides for themselves

[1:08:03] if you don't answer so I don't if if our

[1:08:06] goal is to Simply the data that we're

[1:08:09] using to make sure the property is up to

[1:08:10] code Etc

[1:08:12] um I'm not sure how what capturing the

[1:08:14] other data would provide for our goal

[1:08:17] and we have to be clear about that when

[1:08:19] we do that certainly

[1:08:21] um the goal I'm speaking of is

[1:08:22] specifically is that we're talking about

[1:08:25] the feeling that people feel that they

[1:08:26] might be being singled out and there

[1:08:28] might be some level of discrimination in

[1:08:29] the process that's what was raised

[1:08:31] earlier so what I'm saying is that the

[1:08:32] same way

[1:08:34] um larger institutions that we all

[1:08:35] engage with

[1:08:36] um Acts and try to collect that data

[1:08:39] from us

[1:08:40] um I'm saying that if we have that data

[1:08:42] then we'll know instead of just saying

[1:08:44] like hey you know what this is you know we're definitely not you know

[1:08:49] discriminating against anyone for any

[1:08:51] reason and I don't have any reason to

[1:08:54] say that we are I will reiterate that

[1:08:55] again but again it's not always about

[1:08:58] it's personal as it is sometimes

[1:08:59] institutional so it's there a practice

[1:09:02] where um is there a better practice that

[1:09:05] we could involve and I think that it

[1:09:07] could one of those things could be

[1:09:08] collecting that there that's what I'm

[1:09:09] saying I'm hoping maybe all these people

[1:09:11] that were issuing

[1:09:12] um tickets to if we're trying to work

[1:09:14] together or two offices and then we

[1:09:16] don't have to do separate inspections

[1:09:18] I'm you know I mean I'd like to think

[1:09:20] that that will help alleviate some of it

[1:09:22] I'm not saying it's going to go away

[1:09:23] completely I mean it's a it's a valid

[1:09:26] point and you know it's a concern

[1:09:28] certainly is in a city that is widely

[1:09:30] represented by a lot of different kinds

[1:09:32] of people

[1:09:33] um you know I don't but I don't I don't

[1:09:36] have anything that's you know I mean

[1:09:37] that's kind of what it is so but I

[1:09:40] totally up for exploring yeah I'm just

[1:09:43] trying to think of ways that you can

[1:09:44] actually

[1:09:46] demonstrate that through our data system

[1:09:48] and if there's other ways but outside of

[1:09:50] that I'm almost in as well but I just

[1:09:52] think it's an important question to be

[1:09:53] able to answer with some level search I

[1:09:55] mean one way I can say that the building

[1:09:57] department is not singling out or

[1:09:59] targeting people is that we do have

[1:10:01] officers assigned to different districts

[1:10:03] and that gets rotated and the complaints

[1:10:08] that come in on the phone are on like

[1:10:10] for just a quick fix they're also

[1:10:12] assigned by the admins so the admins

[1:10:15] don't know who's putting these uh

[1:10:16] complaints in and they don't know who

[1:10:19] they're just assigning it to an

[1:10:20] available office so multiple officers

[1:10:23] can be dealing with the same property

[1:10:25] over within that year so if the the

[1:10:28] equality is there or people are not

[1:10:30] saying they're seeing love because it's

[1:10:31] they're constantly dealing with

[1:10:33] different inspectors and if people are saying they're being

[1:10:38] targeted I advise anybody just come to

[1:10:40] me if my inspector is giving me a hard

[1:10:42] time first if you feel like they're

[1:10:43] profiling just let let us know because

[1:10:46] we can't solve a problem if we don't

[1:10:49] know there's a problem so that's one way

[1:10:52] I find that

[1:10:54] to help with equality is just have

[1:10:57] different inspectors in different areas

[1:10:59] you you constantly rotate them that way

[1:11:02] you you know

[1:11:04] that's a that's a practice that you're

[1:11:07] sure that you know

[1:11:10] thank you

[1:11:12] unfortunately one person

[1:11:15] a little bit more of a challenge

[1:11:19] Mary wins presentation there's something

[1:11:21] where you want to add to this

[1:11:23] the only thing I'd like to talk about

[1:11:26] but uh to emphasize it because we want

[1:11:30] people to get people building threats

[1:11:33] this is one thing to go to cover because

[1:11:35] this thing talked about Banks now when

[1:11:38] you're selling property when you're

[1:11:39] looking to finance I think a good home

[1:11:41] equity loans they will ask have you got

[1:11:45] a building permit for this work that is

[1:11:47] done is it there and if you don't have

[1:11:50] it it creates problems down the road and

[1:11:53] that what Ramada talked about

[1:11:56] getting the building permit doing the

[1:11:59] work

[1:12:00] generally is not going to increase the

[1:12:02] value of your house

[1:12:04] most of the items that are done come

[1:12:06] under the maintenance category so people

[1:12:08] are fixing things up they're making them

[1:12:10] compliant to what today's standards were

[1:12:13] or less time something was done may have

[1:12:16] been 20 years ago or 30 years ago and I

[1:12:20] want people to see the city staff as

[1:12:22] partners when they're going through this

[1:12:24] to work with people and make them feel

[1:12:27] comfortable in terms of their investment

[1:12:28] that's happening in the city

[1:12:31] and I mean it's it's a challenging job the last thing we

[1:12:36] want to do is have an adversarial

[1:12:37] relationship with property owners

[1:12:39] because we're not able to then get the

[1:12:41] information we need to do our jobs

[1:12:42] effectively and you know all of this was

[1:12:45] it goes towards the bottom line it gives

[1:12:48] us the opportunity to do more programs

[1:12:50] and spend more and you know find better

[1:12:52] things to do in the city I mean it's

[1:12:54] just it's it's a challenge for everybody

[1:12:56] we don't like it any more than Property

[1:12:58] Owners do so it's just I mean I guess

[1:13:01] kind of in closing

[1:13:03] but again we're always looking to audit

[1:13:05] ourselves do whatever we can to do a

[1:13:07] better job particularly for the property

[1:13:10] owners in the city and I would I would

[1:13:12] say that that that's the reason why

[1:13:14] you're doing such a good job now is

[1:13:15] because you take those reflection points

[1:13:16] seriously so thank you for that

[1:13:19] thank you both for a really great

[1:13:21] presentation and answering all the

[1:13:23] questions desire you appreciate your

[1:13:24] time thank you all right have a good

[1:13:26] evening

[1:13:29] thank you

[1:13:37] I'd like to call to order City

[1:13:38] development and planning we have six

[1:13:40] items on the agenda

[1:13:42] the first item is a reminder of the

[1:13:45] presentation resolution we recognize

[1:13:47] Santa David's Mr palomini

[1:13:50] I think you're out of town they'll be in

[1:13:52] town the presentation okay so on the

[1:13:56] 10th we'll have that presentation uh

[1:13:58] item number two is to authorize the

[1:13:59] mayor to enter in supplemental agreement

[1:14:01] number three the New York State

[1:14:03] Department of Transportation for the

[1:14:05] replacement Kings Road Bridge over CSX

[1:14:08] Amtrak Mr Obama

[1:14:13] hello uh this agreement is a

[1:14:15] supplemental agreement similar to the

[1:14:17] one that we did two weeks ago for a

[1:14:18] different project the supplemental

[1:14:20] agreement authorizes an additional 120

[1:14:23] thousand dollars for right away

[1:14:25] acquisition related to the Kingsburg

[1:14:27] Bridge as Royal as detailed design

[1:14:36] second all those in favor

[1:14:40] of public hearing for the redirection

[1:14:43] I'm a two-way to a one-way

[1:14:46] foreign

[1:14:47] as many of you will probably aware of

[1:14:50] the city in cooperation with Schenectady

[1:14:52] County the CDTA and the Metro tax

[1:14:54] Development Authority is redeveloping

[1:14:56] the corner of South Church Street and

[1:14:59] State Street which used to be a former

[1:15:01] Trailways bus station into a CDTA

[1:15:04] Mobility Hub it's the first Mobility Hub

[1:15:07] in the region it will be essentially a

[1:15:10] larger bus stop however we'll have

[1:15:14] heated sidewalks

[1:15:15] a bathroom for CDTA employee because

[1:15:18] this is one of their layover stations

[1:15:20] and it will be a hub of where they're

[1:15:22] going to unveil things such as ride

[1:15:24] share their bike programs scooters if

[1:15:27] they uh they decide to move forward that

[1:15:29] and they're calling it a Mobility pup

[1:15:31] they're moving away from buildings

[1:15:32] because those just have a lot of

[1:15:34] overhead and they're moving towards

[1:15:35] these more smaller flexible hubs one of

[1:15:38] the things that it is going to require

[1:15:39] though is that the buses are now going

[1:15:42] to not only be on State Street you're

[1:15:43] going to be on South Church Street in a

[1:15:45] pull-off area and the bus cannot go on

[1:15:49] to Erie Boulevard and then use the

[1:15:52] essentially The Jug Handle the buses

[1:15:55] can't use those it's uh it's just part

[1:15:57] of their operations that they're not

[1:15:59] allowed to they want to use Fuller

[1:16:01] Street so that they can get to the

[1:16:02] signal and get up back to State Street

[1:16:06] um analysis of Forestry showed that it

[1:16:07] is very narrow being two-way with the

[1:16:10] parking on it

[1:16:12] um so they're proposing to make it one

[1:16:13] way from South perch to South Ferry so

[1:16:16] that the buses can utilize it

[1:16:18] um the properties on that street have

[1:16:21] essentially been purchased by the county

[1:16:23] the only remaining property owner is uh

[1:16:26] Ray O'Hare who many of us know and he's

[1:16:28] working with them as well so there

[1:16:30] really is really no impact to properties

[1:16:32] on that street and there is ample off

[1:16:36] street parking due to those surface lots

[1:16:38] that are around so I like to call for a

[1:16:41] public hearing to change this from a

[1:16:43] two-way street to a one-way Street any

[1:16:47] questions

[1:16:57] so this is uh the next two or something

[1:17:00] I've been working on with Maurice as you

[1:17:03] know

[1:17:03] I'm going to move a lot of property

[1:17:04] owners and uh Land Development and swaps

[1:17:08] for properties that are the city May own

[1:17:12] that are derelict or unused and this is

[1:17:15] one if you want to just talk about this

[1:17:17] one real quick in your relationship

[1:17:19] so the um currently there's a paper

[1:17:22] street that is underdeveloped that's

[1:17:24] undeveloped that the city currently owns

[1:17:26] and the adjacent neighbor who currently

[1:17:29] has their entrance to their property

[1:17:31] facing that paper street is interested

[1:17:33] in purchasing that it has been

[1:17:35] undeveloped for a number of years and

[1:17:38] apparently they have been interested in

[1:17:40] it for several years as well the other

[1:17:43] neighbor who owns a landlocked parcel if

[1:17:46] that words would have been developed is

[1:17:48] also interested in purchasing a portion

[1:17:50] of that same lot before they if we were

[1:17:53] to abandon it and create it as a lot

[1:17:57] so this is near Lark Street in Bellevue

[1:18:00] no no this is Amelia Street yes it says

[1:18:03] yeah that's located on the yeah um it's

[1:18:08] right by a congressville area or

[1:18:10] Cheltenham landfill almost a border of

[1:18:14] Rotterdam is literally uh like 50 feet

[1:18:16] away Yes actually the second property

[1:18:18] owner his house is technically in

[1:18:20] Rotterdam and then the backyard of this

[1:18:22] property is

[1:18:24] um the one that is adjacent to all right

[1:18:27] so it isn't done you just want to be

[1:18:28] clear

[1:18:46] was another uh small much smaller dead

[1:18:49] end uh I would not call it a paper

[1:18:51] street it's an abandoned Street uh it

[1:18:53] served an area where there was a garage

[1:18:56] however as it was paved as a road it

[1:18:59] became a number one Dumping Ground in

[1:19:02] the city of Schenectady for over a

[1:19:03] decade we did put concrete barriers to

[1:19:06] prevent The Dumping however it did

[1:19:08] continue with bags and things like that

[1:19:10] new property owners have moved into the

[1:19:13] parcel directly adjacent to our church

[1:19:15] with Maurice worked with them on it they

[1:19:18] requested that the parcel has just

[1:19:21] become a huge nuisance because the

[1:19:23] dumping had continued and they requested

[1:19:25] that they purchased the parcel because

[1:19:27] it really only served the garage that

[1:19:29] was on the parcel that they purchased as

[1:19:32] the parcel was between two different you

[1:19:36] know to be fair and Equitable we asked

[1:19:37] both Property Owners I believe the

[1:19:39] property was just purchased On The Other

[1:19:41] Side by a lieutenant a new homeowner

[1:19:43] under older right well yeah so the uh

[1:19:46] the new owner that has the property on

[1:19:48] the other side of the street

[1:19:49] um his property is good is rental units

[1:19:52] and he would like additional uh parking

[1:19:55] to be able to be used for those units as

[1:19:58] well which would bring them uh into

[1:20:00] compliance actually so we're looking on

[1:20:04] this part so we take the take the street

[1:20:06] abandon it essentially cut it in half

[1:20:09] merge it with the two surrounding

[1:20:10] partials so that they can now you know

[1:20:12] maintain and use it it would be awesome

[1:20:14] it would take probably the up and

[1:20:16] go away they'd each have their own and

[1:20:18] then we wouldn't have the issue that

[1:20:19] we're seeing

[1:20:22] as a reminder this uh I I spoke about

[1:20:26] this briefly at one of the committee

[1:20:27] meetings where the two property owners

[1:20:31] are agreeing to pay for everything the

[1:20:34] survey they're going to pay to record

[1:20:37] the Deeds the idea behind it was once

[1:20:39] everything was settled in terms of

[1:20:41] creating abandoning the parcel and then

[1:20:44] creating

[1:20:45] two tax map identified Parcels they

[1:20:50] would pay to record everything the city

[1:20:53] would agree to transfer the property to

[1:20:56] them at a minimal cost

[1:21:15] [Music]

[1:21:17] uh so several weeks ago we put out a our

[1:21:21] annual bid for crack ceiling of city

[1:21:23] streets

[1:21:24] um we put it out for 9 000 gallons of

[1:21:27] crack seal we picked a tentative list of

[1:21:29] the streets that we think we're always

[1:21:30] looking to crack seal roads that have

[1:21:32] been paved within a four-year window as

[1:21:34] there is a balance between crack ceiling

[1:21:37] and you know just going you're not going

[1:21:39] to crack seal the street that's kind of

[1:21:41] too far gone

[1:21:42] um we got three bids uh all from the

[1:21:44] same three bidders that we typically

[1:21:46] have these are the companies that really

[1:21:47] specialize in this uh the low bid was

[1:21:50] Sealcoat USA they were the low bid last

[1:21:53] year we are comfortable working with

[1:21:55] them they're extremely flexible in how

[1:21:58] they do things if they use less on the

[1:22:01] streets then we can add streets or we

[1:22:03] can decide not to we did that last year

[1:22:05] and last year we actually ended up

[1:22:07] adding a couple of more streets because

[1:22:08] we had some time in some budget capacity

[1:22:10] left crack seal is the first line of

[1:22:13] defense in preserving our roads so I

[1:22:16] believe in my letter I talked to council

[1:22:18] president porfield about the city the

[1:22:20] city does have a crack slim Chief

[1:22:23] however you know as we all know the

[1:22:25] between potholes and daily pests and

[1:22:27] labor shortages and things like that we

[1:22:30] just weren't getting the production and

[1:22:31] house as we needed so we started

[1:22:34] Contracting it as we're really starting

[1:22:36] to do you know 10 miles of crack ceiling

[1:22:38] a year which is really what you need to

[1:22:40] do when you have a city this size of

[1:22:41] ours

[1:22:43] and you said you had them both I don't

[1:22:45] stay here looks to the streets yeah I do

[1:22:47] have a list I didn't include it I

[1:22:48] apologize

[1:22:50] so if other people want to know if you

[1:22:53] know where this is going to happen we

[1:22:54] could get a

[1:22:55] um on those streets

[1:22:58] any other questions I'll move it second

[1:23:00] all in favor um anything else

[1:23:13] is inclusion of the new card fees and

[1:23:16] rates of the Schenectady Municipal Golf

[1:23:19] Course that's the wallet so as you

[1:23:22] recall uh several weeks ago I was here

[1:23:23] to talk about the change of car cart

[1:23:26] fees as we were having to complete we

[1:23:28] also increased uh the driving range

[1:23:30] large bucket uh while we were upgrading

[1:23:32] our point of sale service for the year

[1:23:34] we noticed that this format did not

[1:23:37] include a new single Rider fee

[1:23:41] um the single Rider fee was created

[1:23:43] during the covid outbreak where we had a

[1:23:47] lot of people that did not feel

[1:23:48] comfortable riding with other Riders due

[1:23:50] to the separation and you didn't have a

[1:23:52] good way to actually separate two people

[1:23:54] in the cart so we started allowing them

[1:23:56] but to do that we actually were charging

[1:23:58] a premium because we were allowing them

[1:24:00] to ride in their own cart

[1:24:02] um that I don't want to say that rape

[1:24:05] structure there has been unofficially

[1:24:07] left in place since then I mean the

[1:24:09] pandemic is you know I guess over but

[1:24:11] some are still feeling you know the

[1:24:13] effects of it so what we wanted to do

[1:24:15] was make it official I worked with

[1:24:17] Anthony and Matt on this we checked

[1:24:19] other horses that have a similar rate

[1:24:22] structure and what we decided on was a

[1:24:25] four hour premium for nine holes and a

[1:24:28] six dollar premium for 18 holes for

[1:24:30] single Rider and that's what we're

[1:24:32] proposing uh today

[1:24:34] so this is what we charge enjoying the

[1:24:36] pandemic yes it was never codified

[1:24:39] because it was something that we just

[1:24:40] you know we did because people are

[1:24:42] asking so we probably should not have

[1:24:44] done that and I apologize but we caught

[1:24:46] it uh while we were entering it this

[1:24:48] year and we wanted to make sure that we

[1:24:49] brought it forward so we have it so this

[1:24:51] is going to be an official rate of

[1:24:53] course you know Matt is on his

[1:24:54] discretion if you don't have enough

[1:24:55] carts you know it's something where he's

[1:24:58] going to have to to manage it but on a

[1:25:00] typical normal day we should have enough

[1:25:02] riding parts for it

[1:25:05] any other questions concerns

[1:25:10] toilet paper thank you thank you the

[1:25:15] next item is just a reminder for the

[1:25:17] public here regarding the 2023-24

[1:25:19] proposed heart annual election plan and

[1:25:22] this public cable will be held on April

[1:25:24] 10th that's next Monday

[1:25:28] seeing our business support Finance we

[1:25:30] have emotions required all a favor hi

[1:25:34] thank you I'm going to call to order the

[1:25:36] Public Safety Committee the residers on

[1:25:37] the agenda tonight first of which is

[1:25:39] requesting State legislation requiring

[1:25:41] compliance with the city code related to

[1:25:44] rental residential property

[1:25:45] Administration poor eviction proceedings

[1:25:48] now being specified

[1:25:50] thank you Mr chairman uh Albany enacted

[1:25:55] your private Act is a change in state

[1:25:58] law which allowed

[1:26:00] rental

[1:26:02] certificate program to be a condition

[1:26:06] for evictions

[1:26:08] in Schenectady we have the program

[1:26:13] where landlords are supposed to

[1:26:16] register their property we have a good

[1:26:19] number that do they're very compliant

[1:26:21] those tend to be the landlords where we

[1:26:25] do not have problems with

[1:26:27] they maintain their property they take

[1:26:30] care of issues there is still a group of

[1:26:33] landlords who choose not to

[1:26:38] participate in the registration process

[1:26:41] so we don't do the inspections there

[1:26:43] we're not following up on it and we

[1:26:46] don't have good data in terms of how

[1:26:48] many units are out there how many are

[1:26:50] actually being rented

[1:26:52] so what I'm asking the council to do is

[1:26:54] start the process for home rule

[1:26:56] legislation where

[1:26:58] it would mirror albany's that

[1:27:02] a landlord could not start an eviction

[1:27:04] proceeding unless they had participated

[1:27:08] in the registration process and it in

[1:27:12] fact helps both the tenant and the

[1:27:15] landlord depending on what signs you're

[1:27:18] on because there's that Baseline

[1:27:20] inspection that's come in so we've sent

[1:27:22] in staff they've looked at the property

[1:27:25] they've said that it is meeting certain

[1:27:28] standards sometimes we photographed it

[1:27:30] we've documented it and so if there is

[1:27:33] some argument down the road where an

[1:27:36] eviction proceeding is going that

[1:27:39] Baseline gives the court a reference

[1:27:43] point to validate you know is the tenant

[1:27:48] in the wrong is the landlord in the

[1:27:50] wrong to something in between but I also

[1:27:54] think it will get a higher compliance

[1:27:57] from landlords to participate in the

[1:28:01] rental registration program and so I

[1:28:04] would ask the council to uh

[1:28:07] send in the request for that and then we

[1:28:10] would work with the state legislature to

[1:28:12] hopefully get basically what the city of

[1:28:15] Albany got

[1:28:17] life cycle of the cycle just before that

[1:28:21] any questions or comments

[1:28:25] [Music]

[1:28:27] all in favor hi

[1:28:29] and the next item is a reminder the

[1:28:33] missing section 182-16 at this next week

[1:28:36] city code the guardian smoking and city

[1:28:38] parks the public hearing was held on

[1:28:43] March 13th I'm just bring this back

[1:28:47] the last item is additionally a reminder

[1:28:50] of many of the expectation code to add

[1:28:52] Provisions relating to the use of the

[1:28:55] school bus stop on cameras this is a

[1:28:58] reminder that the public hearing will be

[1:29:00] on

[1:29:01] April 10th

[1:29:08] excuse me uh returning back to the

[1:29:10] second reminder can I please get a

[1:29:12] motion if there are any questions or

[1:29:13] comments

[1:29:15] second awesome paper

[1:29:18] thank you again moving on to the third

[1:29:21] reminder I'm ending the school bus stop

[1:29:23] for camera alarms or bus stop arm

[1:29:26] cameras public hearing will be held on

[1:29:28] April 10th 2023.

[1:29:31] there are any other ideas

[1:29:40] operations we have one agenda item and

[1:29:44] we have active boards appointment and

[1:29:46] the Gary parking thank you Mr chairman

[1:29:51] issues that are potentially moving

[1:29:53] before the board of ethics and reviewing

[1:29:56] it through two vacancies

[1:29:58] both individuals who moved out of the

[1:30:01] city and we're no longer eligible to

[1:30:04] serve so what I've submitted to you and

[1:30:08] has to request to reappoint three

[1:30:10] numbers and then he submitted two names

[1:30:13] for your consideration to fill the

[1:30:16] vacancies of the individuals who no

[1:30:19] longer are part of the board

[1:30:25] is there any way we can get a copy the

[1:30:28] backup here is redacted with the

[1:30:30] addresses I would like to see the

[1:30:32] residential address because our city

[1:30:34] code says I think that with Central

[1:30:36] members the membership reside in the

[1:30:39] city of Schenectady and this is redacted

[1:30:41] so I can be able to see the residential

[1:30:43] address

[1:30:45] you haven't emailed well it was emailed

[1:30:48] yeah it was also um

[1:30:50] well it's redacted

[1:30:55] I could send that to you there's

[1:30:59] only one of them where it had their work

[1:31:02] address here in the city of Schenectady

[1:31:04] everyone else had

[1:31:07] uh Schenectady address

[1:31:11] so you have a version with the address

[1:31:13] that I can access now yeah

[1:31:17] they don't have it on me and you're

[1:31:20] raising a question about uh officer

[1:31:22] Dalton he's a resident of the city of

[1:31:25] Schenectady provide for that okay police

[1:31:28] officers by state law

[1:31:30] do not have to disclose their home

[1:31:32] address and have to reference their

[1:31:35] employee employer's address but key is a

[1:31:39] resident the city is connected

[1:31:42] what about the other person

[1:31:45] she is also a resident City

[1:31:54] um yes

[1:32:03] any other questions

[1:32:07] around this

[1:32:09] can all moved the appointment of these

[1:32:12] two these individuals

[1:32:16] um

[1:32:20] no I'm just saying that the thing came

[1:32:24] from father I saw both of them

[1:32:28] oh the the person yes okay

[1:32:33] um I would like to see the address of

[1:32:35] foreign

[1:32:37] could we get that now Sam sure thank you

[1:32:49] Sacramento because

[1:32:55] um

[1:32:57] if you're going to discuss it if you're

[1:32:59] going to look at the address the results

[1:33:03] so at this time I'll I'll entertain a

[1:33:07] motion belong to Executive session

[1:33:10] foreign

[1:33:15] [Music]

[1:33:20] did you want to discuss it well I would

[1:33:23] like to see the address and I guess we

[1:33:25] can discuss their question to ask about

[1:33:26] the address so we might be asking I

[1:33:30] don't know

[1:33:31] sometimes yeah

[1:33:37] yes

[1:34:19] thank you

[1:34:23] foreign

[1:35:12] show this week

[1:35:36] foreign

[1:35:49] [Music]

[1:36:16] okay

[1:36:33] and as we wait for Sam I just kind of

[1:36:35] want to bring to my college attention

[1:36:37] that like because I think this is just

[1:36:39] related in a way that um

[1:36:41] you know collection of certain

[1:36:43] demographic data especially protected

[1:36:45] classes that's how we

[1:36:48] um you know

[1:36:49] really assess ourselves especially like

[1:36:52] that's why we have things like programs

[1:36:54] like firmative action you know what I

[1:36:55] mean all the those uh programs in that

[1:36:58] nature to try to ensure equity and

[1:37:01] equality

[1:37:02] um one of the uh backbones of that

[1:37:06] collecting that demographic data so we

[1:37:08] can always know

[1:37:09] um that we are

[1:37:12] doing our part and going in the right

[1:37:14] direction so just to think like as we

[1:37:16] talk about ethics appointments all these

[1:37:18] things are important now

[1:37:20] anything that we do as a government as a

[1:37:22] city government we need to be asking the

[1:37:24] right questions and looking through a

[1:37:26] lens that will produce equity and if

[1:37:29] we're not intentional about doing that

[1:37:30] then we just leave it up to things being

[1:37:32] done because they've already been done

[1:37:35] that way then we'll certainly going to

[1:37:37] get a similar outcome that raised and I

[1:37:38] know that we

[1:37:40] um well at least most of us really want

[1:37:43] to ensure equity and we want to move to

[1:37:45] a more

[1:37:46] diverse and representative of

[1:37:49] functioning city government so I think

[1:37:51] that's just something to keep in mind we

[1:37:52] don't know unless we ask these questions

[1:37:55] of ourselves

[1:37:58] yes

[1:38:03] I'll make a motion about the exact

[1:38:05] perception sorry

[1:38:09] um

[1:38:21] keep going down there's nothing I see

[1:38:23] other letters after it

[1:38:25] oh they did they redact their addresses

[1:38:27] and everything yeah yeah okay okay

[1:38:34] we'll just we'll get me some Michael

[1:38:37] back and then we can move ahead

[1:38:42] [Music]

[1:38:48] Curtis this has her address on it

[1:38:50] the resume what's the address

[1:39:02] [Music]

[1:39:07] thank you

[1:39:09] foreign

[1:39:21] addresses

[1:39:30] um and say anything on the record

[1:39:32] suggestion for the sake of yeah

[1:39:44] oh

[1:39:48] thank you Sam

[1:39:50] president that was forwarded by the

[1:39:53] charity Ethics Committee that's

[1:39:54] apparently across the line for the

[1:39:58] actual residences it's not in the city

[1:40:00] it's connecting so well withdraw the

[1:40:02] name of uh

[1:40:04] Wendy Lahar

[1:40:08] Okay so

[1:40:11] are you asking me I should just move

[1:40:12] ahead with the one appointment that's

[1:40:14] going inside if you would move ahead

[1:40:16] with the reappointment is three and the

[1:40:18] one new appointment

[1:40:20] the extra consideration and then I will

[1:40:23] get another name to the council in the

[1:40:24] next cycle

[1:40:25] again my further question is does the

[1:40:28] board need all five members in order to

[1:40:30] meet

[1:40:32] he's a foreign

[1:40:48] are you accepting names

[1:40:50] are you accepting recommendations

[1:40:55] those are my questions I just have a

[1:40:57] follow-up I did ask about the two new

[1:40:59] ones I already honors reappointment are

[1:41:01] they all residents was it disconnected

[1:41:03] yes

[1:41:09] so um so we're you know so you're asking

[1:41:12] us to move forward um

[1:41:14] with app with drawing the one name who

[1:41:16] is not a resident is that correct yes Mr

[1:41:19] chairman

[1:41:22] any other questions concerns

[1:41:25] yeah so I will entertain the motion so

[1:41:29] I'll second it um

[1:41:37] hi

[1:41:47] motion to adjourn government operations

[1:41:52] thank you

[1:42:00] [Music]

Schenectady City Council Committee Meeting, April 3, 2023

Transcript