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Council committee for Monday April 3rd
2023
um the first item on the agenda is a
presentation here McCartney thank you
madam president
Mr motivaran had sent an email back in
February I questioned the
debt collector from the assessment
office who staffed at a house
where they prevented some work done I
thought it would just be good to review
what the building
inspector does what the assessor does
the respective roles in terms of how
some of the information is handled and
processed and again some of the things
are a little more complex than what most
people think of and there's not
sometimes easy conclusions for it but in
that email it raises the implications of
these discrimination and I assure you
that does not happen
May the staff and if it is in any shape
form or manner happening it will not
tolerate it and with that I'd turn it
over your name to start the presentation
so mayor we have uh I do have um I got
that video as welcome so from so the
rest of the complex Concepts can they
see the video sure
oh
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Thomas
we have two out of the three screenings
it's just it's just that one
all right
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thank you
is that the best article we've got I'm
sorry over here
basically the exchange of the
conversation and she went there and
asked if she could do an inspection of
the property
um and she was following up on permits
that's kind of part of the process and
part of what I'll talk about today
um and she asked if you do an inspection
and we do that and then homeowner has
the right to say not they don't want us
in our in their property and that's why
she just was explaining that it's in
that benefit for us to be able to see it
yeah you need to come on over mind okay
I'm sorry it's okay
um so it's in the best interest of a
property owner to go to allow us to see
the property because there's something
in a phrasing called extraordinary
assumptions and if we see that the
outside of a property is done we make
the assumption that inside is gone as
well and so it all leads into Data
accuracy and um
and or the appraisal process evaluation
process so when we're able to go out and
take accurate measurements and take a
look at properties to see the bedroom
town the bathroom count and the
condition of the property it gives us a
better sense of how to Value the
property and what what properties to use
as a comparison and so that's kind of
the that builds everything that we do
and then I'll talk a little bit more
about it but not even I just we wanted
to say thank you for allowing us the
opportunity to come in and talk to you
guys about the process because I think
as City Council Members it's really
important for you all to be able to help
us dispel myths and misconceptions that property owners have in the city
about how we do this process and about
the things that we're really looking for
when we go out also the scope of work
that we're looking at when we go out to
do an inspection so we have an agenda we're going to talk
a little bit about ourselves
and give you some background in us and
then talk about some facts and
statistics in each other offices then
I'll give Naim the microphone and he can
talk a little bit about the building
department
I will follow up with more about the
assessment department and then we'll do
a wrap up and offer you guys the
opportunity for any questions that you
might have
what's up
[Applause]
um so I'm Molly McIlroy the assessor
here I'm starting my ninth year in May I
feel like I've had several careers
before I even got to this point I was a
financial analyst for a little while I
was a director of residential life at
Union but I finished up my MBA and then
had an opportunity to come here and work
in the city as the assessor city has put
a lot of time and effort into educating
me and you know getting me to some some
places that I can now feel more
comfortable doing a position I am a New
York state appraiser I have a state
certification as an assessor and I'm a
member of the New York State assessors
Association and also an executive board
member for the Albany Schenectady
assessors Association and in that comes
a lot of training comes a lot of
continuing education that I'm required
to do not only for my appraiser license
but also for the assessor certification
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code enforcement officer from this job
so it's four and a half years we'll be
in the city for about five years now in
June I'm gonna be five years for me here
as a code enforcement officer
or a certificate holder
I have been a uh still am a resident for
Schenectady since 2003 I do have my
electrical license that's just things I
went and pursued afterwards just so I
can still make myself and be a little
better and be a little better at the job
I have construction background
um
lead certified ocean certified those
kind of things and and then these were
not requirements for the city they were
just things that I wanted to do for
something
um you can't really dispute facts and
numbers so I wanted to give a little bit
of information we have 19
965 Parcels in the city industrial
commercial vacant land and residential
we have a total assessed value of just
shy of four billion dollars and we have
a total taxable value of about 2.5
billion
um we processed between January 2021 and
December 2022 we processed
3657 sales in the city and I have one important thing I wanted to point
out is that 538 of those sales were over
200 000 and those are Residential
Properties and one thing that's very
interesting about that is that those
properties are all over the city it
doesn't matter the neighborhood they're
in it doesn't north south east west they
are the common denominators
the common denominator is that those
properties were renovated so they were
completely flipped from Bare Bones to
absolutely gorgeous I mean properties
that are just I got to move into them
anytime anytime and so it just shows
that things are really going well here
in the city of Schenectady we processed
for the 2022 assessment rule we
processed 9144 exemption applications
anywhere from senior low-income student
non-profit exemption applications and
then the grievance period we have since
I've been here we've gone from a total
of 453 grievance applications submitted
to last year we only had 44. yeah I'd
like to take some credit in that but a
lot of it has to do with the market how
well the Market's doing
um but I think
we we have a very transparent office and
we really try to listen to people when
they come in we try to make accurate
valuations of property and really try to
focus heating is fair and Equitable as
we can across the city
I just did a um
revenue of what was generated last year
from the billing department the total
amount of inspection we did was about 6
700 permits issue 2500. notice a
violation it was a a year we did do a
lot of notice evaluation we had a lot of
City sail from Exposition issue which
that I I do like that number being that
high because it showed that there was a
lot of cdcl property so when the city
sells a property they pay that 500 and
they can get their apartment to be
waived this VIN number I'm hoping that
can go up this year if it should have
more City on Broadway sold
do a lot of rental inspections or permit
fees was pretty high last year 1.5
million
um we have a lot of admin fees for
closer violations building registry fee
complaints
we have we also do the certificate of
use public assembly and we have other
inspections like um
public amusements outdoor cafes those
other things so we have a total roughly
a little two million dollars generated
last year now the reason why I
the revenue that we generated there is
breaking down the fees where we're
getting that money from for the permit
so when people are pulling Apartments it
brings money back into the city that
money can go back out to the city so
it's a whole process so that's that's
just the main reason why I decided to
just put my alarms
okay so at the building department this
is called photographics
we try our best to improve our public
health safety for every octane we look
at the building as a whole and we've
been building and everyone who occupies
it not just people who are visiting or
people who are living in there we do our
best to educate our residents on our
city code policies procedure and making
sure everybody's on the same page doing
the right thing we perform a lot of fire
safety inspection life safety
inspections and construction inspections
you do them as required
we try to deliver a standard we adhere
to a cold and we try to stay
professional and unbiased with everyone
we work on
so over the years our performance
process has gotten simpler we're trying
to make it easier we now have it where
you can apply for permits online in
person same as always but the online
aspect we started about two years ago
and we have been getting a lot of
positive feedback
that's a screenshot of the city's
website if you can click one more show
that's the Performing application to do
permits online our typical process takes
about five or seven days for review all
depends on the scope of work sometimes
it takes longer it has control between
different departments for review and of
course
oh and one more thing I'll mention about
the permits all the permits have a
description of the school report that is
important for us to know what's being
done on the property doing interior work
exterior work deck siding we would like
that in the description
there are multiple inspections on the
products for example I have here where
is to have the foundation the framing
inspection the final inspection the roof
fire roofing inspections with multiple
inspection that's involved on multiple
different projects
whenever we do inspections we take
detailed notes and we take photos of
every inspection that information gets
uploaded into municity the system that
we use as accessible by all the other
departments
this is one thing that we don't like
doing what happens is when you don't
hold permits you can get started
now stop recorders are issue two ways if
we catch people working without permits
or we find them doing they did work
without the code or if they're working
outside the scope of that description of
the program that they originally applied
for
now we we don't go out and go for it and
a lot of our sub workers come from
reports from the public
it's we find it when we go into an
inspection or while we're just driving
back into CCP point of doing some work
we try to tell people to pull your
permits because as you can see here it's
500 is the fee and then all the permit
fee doubles after that so our simple
roof permit for example will cost you
700 instead of 100.
so a good practice that we tell people
and the public is just ask Paul's ask or
do you need a program
at the end of every projects homeowners
would be able to obtain a certificate of
completion that's only issued when that
permit is closed up we're not going to
issue if there's open permits related to
that project
a certificate of occupancy is issued
professor at the final inspection we
have seen over the years buyers sellers
Banks insurance companies they have been
requesting to see if
we have a certificate of occupancy or if
permits were pulled for certain projects
that's being done
people are getting smarter now they're
seeing a brand new house they want to
make sure that everything was fixed
apart and I say if you're paying to get
a job done it can be done correctly be
happy with that
um
yeah that's that's it for me with the um
all right so I just want to give you
just some brief information about
um our department so assessment is not
an exact science
um I've found it's you know some days
it's it's really fun and some days it's
really challenging I mean as is any job
um there was a former Supreme Court
Justice Cardozo
um had said at one point that the task
of the assessor is to find the least
erroneous answer to an unsolvable
problem and I do I mean I find that as a
challenge every day that there's no you
could put 10 assessors appraisers in a
room and each one of them is going to
give you a different opinion of value
and that's exactly what it is it's an
opinion of that
so you know my my role as the assessor
is to Value property within the city
limits to produce a fair and Equitable
tax rule or assessment role which then
leads into the tax rules I focus mostly
on Commercial valuation though I review
the appraisers
appraisals of residential property I
basically managed and and administer the
programs and processes and day-to-day
stuff in the office but there's a lot of
you know minutia that goes on that's
fills the day with other things and
fires and emergencies and this and that
so
um they have the rest of the staff which
a real property analyst focuses on our
exemption process
um she also takes all the Deeds that we
get from the county and make sure the
transfers of ownership are correct in
our system a real property appraiser
focuses on valuation of residential
property and then I I review her
appraisals
um we look at not only you know what a
property is compared to a smaller number
of properties but also what does it look
like in comparison to the properties
within the neighborhoods does it match
up are we too far out of line because we
do attempt to make everything fair and
Equitable when looking at valuation our
data collector as you had seen earlier
she really is exactly that goes out into
the field she's our main field person
she focuses on collecting as accurate of
the data in each property all over the
City commercial residential doesn't
matter what it is because we're not the
only office that uses that data we get
calls from the fire department we get
calls from the police department we get
calls from the codes office every day
we're working together to try and make
sure that everything is as accurate as
possible
and then a real property clerk is the
face of the office she sits at the front
desk she greets everybody she's kind of
the glue that holds us all together
because she the one who's when somebody
comes in she figures out what they need
to feed whether they need to actually be
in our office or if they need to see
somebody else in the building
and it's just in a lot of different
things she assessing it with foil she
does some filing which is not glamorous
but it's absolutely necessary so that we
know where things are in the office
but everybody just kind of pitches in
different times of the year we all go to
the front desk we all talk to Property
Owners we all answer the phone so
everybody kind of pitches in that way
that's just a little bit we have an assessment
December kind of calendar
I don't have to go through all of those
but some of the things evaluation date
is an important piece taxable status day
that's the day that we kind of take a
snapshot of how properties exist in the
city
the tentative assessment role that's any
evaluation changes that happen they come
out in the tenant assessment role May
1st and then grievance period follows
that from May 1st to the fourth Tuesday
of May very random but that's what real
property tax law dictated so our final
assessment rule gets put out on July 1st
the school tax roll information goes to
the school district's middle of July and
then we send the city tax roll to the
tax department here in December
thanks
um so there's a lot of there's a lot of
things that are interesting in our
office one of them is Equalization rate
it's it uses or it helps determine debt
limits it helps determine
um sales tax revenue helps to turn
funding for school districts it helps to
it helps as a comparison for
municipalities across the state but it's
a really hard thing to explain we're
required each year to send sales to the
state and then we go through the process
of determining what our Equalization
rate is um and I'm up here I've put the
last 10 years worth of Equalization rate
and I started in 2014 and we were at a
high of 123 percent we've gone now we've
dropped 44 to 79 is what our
Equalization rate will be this year and
I put the 2013 number up there because
the jump from 2013 to 2014 was pretty
excessive and one of the important
things that we do is analyze sales in
our office to make sure we're sending
our sales to the state and they show
that the state is only going to use the
ones that are arms like sales so buy a
willing buyer and a willing seller it
jumped 15 and and when it's when you get
a Equalization rate of 123 percent
we're saying that if property is worth a
hundred thousand dollars in the market
they would actually be taxed on 123 000.
and some of that was due to no there
wasn't an assessor during the time when
we would send the sales between 2013 and
2014. so there is some there's some you
know importance to us looking at the
sales and doing the sales analysis that
we do in our office so now look at 79
and we're saying the same house that is
worth a hundred thousand dollars on the
market they're only paying being taxed
on Seventy nine thousand which is great
for homeowners great for property owners
except for us we're losing out on 21 in
value when we look at revaluating so
really the optimal place to be is 100 so
that you're you're saying that you're
taxing a property on what it's actually
worth in the market and what someone
could get when they sold the property
the important things
so there's five sections of our
assessment rule the first section is the
taxable portion of the role and that's
where most of the majority of our
properties so that 2.5 billion that I
talked about earlier that's where you
find most of the value there's rule
sections five six and seven which
contain properties that are
infrastructure their telecommunications
railroads and then we have our holy
exempt role which is our role section
eight and I bring this up because we
have 38 of our property and sit that's
wholly exact that's the challenge of
being in a big city whether you're
providing the services to all of the
surrounding municipalities we have
hospitals we have educational facilities
more educational facilities we have the
county seat you know so we have County
buildings we have a lot of things that
we don't have quite the challenge that
the city of Albany has but we do have
some challenges so the work that we do
is really important and going out and
looking at different the progress of
different properties and the develop
throughout the city and making sure
we're able to capture that um in the
assessed value that that's really what
we are here for because if we kept the
assessed value the same every year if
everything stayed the same and the city
tax levy went up that means we have to
raise taxes so tax rates go up if we're
doing the work that we're doing we're
going out we're looking at new
properties we're looking at properties
that are flipped and we're making
accurate valuations of those properties
and we're still either spending the same
or spending less that's how you all can
reduce the number of taxes that people
pay in the city so it's it's it's a huge
process it's a it's a difficult process
but it's so so important to the work
that happens in the city and being able
to provide all the other services and
things that we want to do
all right so getting to the process here
there's three ways we engage with the
Public Public requests for inspection
permits and informal meeting requests
the public Professor inspection anyone
can come in and ask for us to come out
and take a look at their property most
of the time it's to make sure data is
accurate informal meeting requests
someone can come in and ask to have a
meeting with me and talk about their
assessed value I usually like to make
sure that they've done their homework
and they have they have an appraisal or
there's some kind of valuation
instrument that shows that they
understand what it is they're asking
um and then the permit process so when
nines Office is done with the work that
they do that's when we go out to take a
look at the changes and properties if
you walk down any Street in the city
there's so much development going on and
it's fantastic but we need to make sure
that we are capturing that information
um you know every day I hear from our
plumbing inspector or the electrical
inspector that we have a property that
was newly built and we don't have we
have it as vacant lands so those are the
things that we're really looking for
when we go out into the field
um
so if we determine that evaluation
change is necessary we do there's three
different ways sales comparison method
where we're looking at different sales
throughout the city
that's generally used just for
Residential Properties we do income
capitalization which is where we're how
we value commercial properties and then
we look at cost for more specialty
properties like for instance the casino
that was valued using the cost method
because the real guts of a casino are
the machines and everything but that's
personal property so we don't place a
value on that stuff
so we go through those that process and
if they're if a value change is
necessary then we have we are legally
required to send out valuation change
notices as I make a change in our system
it spits out a letter and we send those
letters out to to Property Owners so
that starts the process of grievance and
it gives them the opportunity to comment
into our office and the I think one of
the really fortunate things about the
assessment process is that we have many different options for appeals for
folks to appeal the work that we do in
our office you know the first part of
that is what's called a correction of
Errors that's something that I can do
once I put out the tentative assessment
role I can't make any changes but unless
a court order or through the grievance
process but the correction on errors
gives me the opportunity to make some
minor level changes somebody we forgot
an exemption on someone's property or
they had torn down their garage and we
didn't we weren't able to capture that
so they were letting us know so we to
make that correction the bigger the
bigger pieces our administrative review
and judicial review administrative
review is the grievance process it's the
board of assessment review folks can
submit applications and then they go and
they can either go to the board and have
a meeting or they can
just submit the application the board
removes every application that's
submitted whether or not the property
owner goes to agreements to the previous
day
um they make their deliberations and
then let us know what changes in
property value to put into our system
and then the step after that is judicial
review which gives folks another
opportunity through the first part is
small claims that's they can go up to
the county file with the county and then
a hearing officer is assigned to the
case and the hearing officer will sit
down with both of us and the property
owner we will give our sides talk about
why we believe our values are correct
and the hearing officer makes the
decision
[Music]
and then the second piece to that is a
article 7 tax certiary proceeding which
does require an attorney it can be a bit
of an expense it's the only option for
commercial properties I know I'm sure
you've all had us you know had text or
shared conversations in here and
sometimes the impact of those is is
pretty big on the city
but it's the opportunity for a property
owner to appeal that process and to
prove why they think that their property
is a little value
um
so which I think that's yeah okay so
just want to be able to give you a
little bit of an opportunity to
understand
um in a little more depth of the work
that we do why our offices here
um and that we're really we're going out
and we're looking at all properties that
would be on all permits now when I say
those 19 000 properties in the city
there's only five of us in the office
and we only have one field person so if
we get to 300 properties a year that's
pretty good in terms of you know and so
I know that I've heard people say well
my property was done two years ago and
you're just getting to it now and
unfortunately I mean that's just the
kind of the nature of the work
um but we want to again say thank you
and also offering anyone in the room the
opportunity if you want to do a
ride-along with any of our our field
people just so you can see some of the
challenges that we Face going out into
the field
and or just see what the process looks
like from you know from the other side
and have a better understanding of it
that way so now just give you guys the
opportunity to ask any questions or
comments
anything like that
um first of all I thank you for giving
the this really good overview and
sometimes people just don't understand
the process so having the public know
what the process is and also educating
us so we can answer some questions
certainly not all questions so I
appreciate that
um so specifically so you only have one
data collected that's one of my
questions yeah okay yeah I mean
sometimes I go out in the field or my um
the appraisal will go out to the field
but the the whole point of the data
collector is to be the one that will
have the field to capture that
information so that person doesn't make
it I what we saw was that someone they
just showed at their house they don't
make an appointment like to go there so
that the owner knows that they're coming
yeah sometimes they do if they have the
information the problem is that permits
aren't often taken by the homeowner
sometimes they're taken by a contractor
sometimes it's months after the work was
done and we don't we don't keep we don't
have phone numbers in our office we just
have addresses so sometimes it's just
going up and knocking on a door and
saying can we do an inspection if we
can't find another way to get in touch
with someone if we're lucky then we get
that information or they you know they
come into the office and ask us to come
in and look at the property but nine
times out of ten it's it's worth you
know looking at so many different data
sources trying to to sometimes it's a
real estate agent too because the pro
the property is in the process of being
sold so we don't know who the owner is
going to be
that's you know that's kind of it's a
challenge
um and I know nobody wants to see
someone coming up there
um you know their their their driveway
and going in and um you know looking at
their property but sometimes that's the
only way and again those those folks
have the opportunity to say no they
don't want um they don't want an
inspection and that's fine and then we
just leave
and the grievance period is like three
weeks yeah yeah and some sometimes it
seems it feels longer but it's um yeah
it's the it's from May 1st until the
fourth Tuesday I think
um then I have a question for applying
so I I know like this one maybe I love
you for you with building inspector um
but there was a time when they were
talking about having iPads going out
into the field so do your do they
currently have iPads where they can just
like put the information in and put it
right back in the office
so as soon as an inspection is completed
the notes the photos it's all uploaded
into the system
and I and you also talked about
educating residents of the city so is
there a printed information like if
someone could wanted the information
about how the process works down there
is there something they can come in and
pick up we have
um checklists that we can give out for example rental inspection we do have
checklists that we give out we have um
layouts of smoke alarms where they need
to be inside your building and I am in
the process of working on a more
in-depth checklists for construction if
you're deck what's the requirement for
Tech those kind of things so that's what
the educating process comes in play is
that we have half of it we're just we
gotta we gotta and change with the
culture become a cold chain you gotta
hope they cool yeah so what we have is a
little bit outdated so we're in the
process of updating this right and
really my final question is
um the violations is there what's the
follow-up process to that so if someone
gets a violation What is the following
process so when somebody receives this
violation they have the comply by date
now they have until that day to comply
with the violation that they're in so
we go into an inspection the day after
that compliance because they have up
until the midnight of that day so like
on the first you have until the the
first so the second we do a
re-inspection if the complaint if the
violation is not corrected
we would proceed to issue in tickets or
if the owner submits a request for an
extension we review that and if it's
granted we will grant them a reasonable
amount of time depends on what type is
so the different violations have
different dates yes most of it is 30
days
sorry I just wanted to make one more
comment when I mentioned scope of work
um and I I glossed over it a little bit
to the scope of work but we don't go out
and do inspections for every permit
that's out there I mean if somebody's
fitting in your roof it really doesn't
change the value much in terms of like
for our someone's getting a new boiler
they're doing maintenance general
maintenance items those don't require us
because there's just no reason for us to
do that we look at full scale
Renovations of a home you know I mean
from top to bottom the property was
changed inside outside if there's
obvious signs of a change of the
property that's that's kind of so that's
another misconception that folks have is
that we're out every time that there's a
change and that doesn't we just we
couldn't do it we have to we have to
focus on something so we focus on those
large scale changes that really do
change the value
okay yeah I'm glad uh the mayor is
bringing forward to some discussion in
regards to the video the video was sent
to me sometime in February I didn't get
a response so I'm glad that we're
discussing it here because I have
another video also I can send it on to
you but I didn't get a response so my
question to follow is uh how the two
agents the two offices can go into each
other you're going out on an inspection
as you mentioned you're closing it out
you're taking pictures
everything whatsoever so does your
office access to this information they
can rely to someone on that information
to get their
sure
yes unfortunately we didn't have a data
collector for close to a year so we're
trying to play catch-up right now on a
lot of things that they've already
closed out
through this process 9 and I did talk
and we we also sat down earlier in the
year with the new code officers in my
office we're hoping to have the data
collector go out into the field when
they do the final inspections so that
everybody's there at the same time
um and that we can work together a
little more on that it makes sense for
us to do it since they're doing
um you know the certificate of occupancy
or a certificate of um completion
um so I'm hoping that we're able to do
that and obviously we only have one
person so it's going to have to be we're
going to have to pick and choose when we
when we're able to do that but we really
you know we want our offices to work a
lot closer together
be able to you know share some things
that we find in the in the city
concerning everything
was closed out they have this organic
occupancy why someone else coming from
another department trying to do almost
the same
uh I know it's already the same but
trying to get your numbers in when they
already closed up for me to give their
own occupancy they don't collect the
same data that we do
um but our data feeds into their system
so if data is not accurate they're not
working with the most accurate stuff too
so we collect a different set of data
than they do which is why it's important
for us to be able to get out and like I
said our data is used by other offices
in the city Fire Department the police
department yeah I've had several
conversations with Chief Marino about a
property and well they were under the
impression it was this or they went into
a property and there were walls put up
there are legal walls put up in the
property and what they thought the
layout of the property was was not
accurate and so when we're able to go in
and capture that information and take
the photos that we take because
sometimes they're you know I mean
depending on again the scope of work
there's different inspections that
they're doing
um and so it's just I I don't really
have an answer for you other than saying
that we just collect different sets of
data and so there's stuff that we
there's some things that were also
required by the state that then we then
have to send that information about so
it's
um you know I like I said we really
would like to try to be able to do that
all at one time
um and we you know we do have access and
we do look at their photos and we do
look but sometimes we have questions
um and we really want to make sure again
accuracy of data is just super important
what is the outcome in regards to that
video of course and deny the entry what
what's your office well we look you know
so for instance there was a permit
pulled for that property back in 2019
and it wasn't closed out so we worked
together
um but that's what we're looking to see
was the work completed is the work still
going on is there you know is there
something that we need to let them know
about because she was on the street
because there's another property right
down the street that had a permit as
well and so it's not it's not just
simply like we're picking choosing and
driving down the road there's there's
actual reasons why we're going to look
at property most of the time it's
through permits sometimes it's because
of a sale and we see the property and it
looks vastly different than it did
um what in our information that we have
so
she really I mean that's it's hard she
was really just doing her job and you
know I mean she was asking she respected
the fact that the person didn't want her
to go inside the property and she
laughed
well I
like to sometimes we just we don't have
all the information sometimes it was a
on the permit it was a contractor
sometimes it's a real estate agent who
contacts us because they're in the
process of trying to sell a home so it's
not we don't sometimes we don't know who
we're sending a letter to
the address but but what I'm saying is
most the time these are properties that
are in the process of being sold
I understand what you're saying I just
there's there's a lot more to it you
know I think that I would be happy to have
more of a conversation with you
um to explain yeah I will because a lot
I'm getting a lot of calls so I need to
get more information so I can pass it on
so I can well I I appreciate that you've
been able to work with me in the past
and you've contacted me I haven't heard
from you yet about this so well at that
level I send it directly to the mayor to
address it um
we've talked about other things before
you've come to me so um
because the complaint I'm receiving is
that this people are feeling that they
are sick love and I can appreciate that
but at that level I'm getting those
complaints they're being singled out if
because they have permanence
completed and why is somebody else
really have to do another thing because
we have a job to do as well yeah you
know I mean it's again collecting a
different different set of data you know
but I would appreciate if you feel free
to reach out to me I like to have you
know an open Office so that we you know
I want to have open communication I want
to be able to explain these things as
they come up and not you know not when
it's happening you know months later and
try to give a good explanation
so I just you know that's all I ask is
if there's questions please come to me
um we try to we try to be open like that
thank you again for being here I
understand that military departments are
comprised of different roles and
responsibilities would you mind just
speaking to the current uh experience
level or you can answer what amount of
time on the job does it take for someone
to feel comfortable doing this role that
for each of you is very vital to
addressing the city that's right
um there's training for our the people
in our office unfortunately because it's
training through the state and the state
you know I mean they've cut down on a
lot of their training so they there's
classes that happen once a year for
certain you know the data collector
position is not unique to Schenectady
it's it's a position that is it's a
civil service position it's something
that a lot of offices have
um there's actually a civil service exam
for it and so the current person in the
position is is studying for the exam
it's going to happen in July or June or
July I can't remember there's a data
collection manual that comes from the
state so there's a lot of reading
there's a lot of going out into the
field she wasn't just thrown into the
field we actually she went out with me
she went out with our appraiser to
understand data collection and the kinds
of information that we're looking for
when we go out into the field
time
so for court officers it takes anywhere
from a year to two years for them to
fully understand and even that of what
needs to be done outside in the um for
in the field for inspections it's six
months training alone just stay before
we can even let them go on inspections
we're not allowed to have them in any
type of inspections unless they have
their New York State Certified court
officer training
but it depends on the pace right now we
have aside from our two supervisors and
myself we only have two code officers
who's been there for longer than a year
we just hired uh four or more other four
officers so we're still we're still very
short staffed and they're very great so
these guys are only recently got
certified so we're in the process of
training and we'll do the field work and
the same
work to the system learn what you have
to do the process for our office
policies knowing where to put the
information for other departments can
access it
thank you and then my second question
was uh you talk briefly about the board
of Ethics are there any stipulations
against assessing or inspecting
properties of family members in the city
well we try not to have any um
any people who are related or have any
kind of relationship with the public to
inspect on those properties so that's
why we have multiple inspectors so we
they do signed a conflict of interest
document that they cannot inspect those
activities
and um for us we usually I mean I know
in the past we've had things like an mou
with another so if there's an assessor
in a neighboring area if I had to recuse
myself because of knowing someone or
knowing something
um then I would defer to another
assessor
um they're all creating families we all
work so closely in the county
um I mean there have been instances
where that was the case where we would
defer to
um or the um
assessor and allow them to to step in
um I just wanted to say back to the
conversation with Mr mood River and that
I think it's really helpful that
um you know what if we do get questions
from the public or or concerns are
raised being able to respond
um this has been great to have this
presentation first of all
um but then secondly I think it is great
that we can just call you
um and and you know help us out so now
we know for example with the concern
that you raised
um the answer was yeah there's two
different sets of data
um that that are getting collected so
that's why there's people from two
different offices coming up so I think
that's you know great that we that you
are so open to us sitting down with you
and coming into the office and learning
more thank you and like I said name and
I have talked about really wanting to
work instead of duplicating our efforts
but trying to go out together so that we
do get it's what's one time we get the
data you know unfortunately just because
of the timing of positions being open
and I mean we struggled at one point
we're in office of five but at one point
we only have three people yeah and and
you can't allow everybody to have lunch
answer phones answer you know questions
from the public
and also cover the office so it's you
know it's been a challenge but you know
I think we have a good staff now we've
got five people in a world we work
really hard
um so it's you know I mean that's the
best we can we can possibly do
so if someone denies you access to
inside of their property at that point
there's like a registered letter go out
or does it just nothing ever happens or
um no sometimes there's a valuation
that's done
um you know if we feel that it's
necessary if we look and we're you know
we're looking to bring something in
alignment with we reduce a lot of
assessed values because of property
conditions so if somebody will come in
and vote when a permit gets closed you
know it's we want to get the most
accurate data but we have other sources
we use MLS the multiple listing service
that real estate agents and we catch a
lot of things that way
um you know and changes in property and
documenting you know we document those
we use those photos so when we can't
it's it's those parts when we can't see
the property we can't understand what
the scope of work was that's when we
generally have to do the inspections
did that answer a question okay
first I want to say it's a very big job
that you're doing and I want to be clear
and say that we appreciate the work
you're doing
um especially you know all the
adjustments that you have to make in
order to you know provide the service to
the city so I know you said you were
nervous but you guys gave a lot of great
information and and really put things
into context so uh I I earlier
conversation and I wrote the kind of on
the tail end of it all my
it seemed like there might have been
some
people feel like they might be singled
out or there might be some level of
discrimination happening
um and I guess my question is is uh you
know
how do we know that that's not happening
and and I say that in the frame it this
way is that a lot of times when you're
talking about like systemic inequities
or systemic uh discrimination it can be
a matter of the process I mean in that
institution not necessarily
interpersonal meeting that no one from
your team is going out saying hey you
know what I'm just gonna go make sure
that um we had over enforce this group
of people or the people living in this
neighborhood that you know doesn't
necessarily need to be the case however
if our way of receiving information or
part of the process
um leaves it up to
um
there could be a component in that
process that can perpetuate a certain
outcome so as a woman's like is there
any like um for a black girl that a term
like maybe uh Equity audience or best
practices that happen in other places or
here to ensure that that's not the
situation
um not that I know of but we don't have
any anything like any system in place
that would allow for that um doesn't
mean we couldn't doesn't mean we
couldn't come up with some kind of
creative solution to do that
um you know I think we're generally what
we do is pull a perm a report a permit
report in municity and like I said it
could be any number of people taking out
a permit the electrical you know
whoever's doing your electrical
whoever's doing your plumbing so we
don't necessarily know from
um you know looking at that who owns the
house or what the it's just the scope of
work that we're looking at so I don't
know if there's a way for us to
build into that report something more
descriptive some more information so
that we could track you know I mean what
properties are we looking at where you
know
unfortunately I think we focus in some
areas where there's more development
going on in the city so
I don't you know I don't know how to do
that I'd love it would be totally open
for any suggestions any thoughts if you
wanted to sit down and talk about it
sometime yeah I was just do we um like
again this is I'm not like hey let's
give you more work in
tension of the question you know I hope
you see the indirect spear because it's
definitely I'm wondering like do we
collect demographic information
um like uh when we were issuing some
ticket or something like that is that
something because I know that that type
of information gets you know um
collected in other places and other like
enforcement agencies do that and I was
wondering like is there did we collect
that I have mountains it's an apartment
it's really it's just like the scope of
work who's taking the permit out yeah I
mean like the cost someone's uh you know
like I know a neighbor of mine was doing
some work on their house they didn't
know that they needed to have a permit
um uh the guys just happen to be out
there and said hey you need a perfect
and at that point they worked with him
helping get it from him was extremely uh
friendly and professional and helpful
with him I guess what I'm saying is that
in these cases is do
we collect that demographic information
and show you yeah we don't I don't know
no we don't so um we don't collect that
information
see that if there's a certain area where
we have more Star Records I guess
all they do is put their name their
phone number is however to contact them
and then um what it is they're looking
for us to to look at when we go out yeah
I was just thinking more alongside
talking about how you know asking the
right questions to you know because if
we make you know if these you know our
statements are that we're trying to be
Equitable and it seems that we
definitely are again our convicting the
job you're doing it's like you know we
won't know until we know and it's going
to take a certain amount certain data in
order for us to really answer that
question for us to the public so I was
just yeah it's a really I mean it's a
good thought I don't know how but again
it would be happiness a very fair answer
really but it would be great to I mean I
think we should always be auditing
ourselves it doesn't matter what we're
doing what kind of work we're doing and
we should always be auditing and looking
at our processes for how to make them
better and how to make them sorry no Mr
Colden I think wants to have a make
appointment
and I'll be brief um I know for code
enforcement sometimes can be very
difficult to identify who the property
owner is because many times it's a
tenant who may be letting a code officer
in to do an inspection the owner may not
reside in Schenectady or if donor
resides in Schenectady may not be there
when a code officer does an inspection
because the tenant has control over an
area when code enforcement goes out when
code enforcement issues a notice of
violation
they will you know send out the notice
of violation many times a certified mail
and and first class but they don't
actually go and physically serve and
notice the violation so it's hard for
them to track that information it may be
that we don't necessarily get that
information until you know and even then
we don't get all that information until
tickets are issued and somebody actually
comes to court
um for you know the owner of the
property so it can be really difficult
based on the the inter the Limited at
times interactions that coach Sportsman
may actually have with the owner
I guess is there a better is there
another way to capture that information
um
that maybe attach that to one of the
processes that that we have in place to
maybe collect that demographic
information so therefore if something is
if there is an issue or something like
that we don't have to then you know kind
of work backwards to find that
information now we can kind of look at
maybe what's existing in our um a city
database to say and then we can run our
own numbers and kind of have that
accountability to check for ourselves
[Music]
go ahead
correct me if I'm wrong but this is
basically a blind process
and it's about as Equitable as it can
get because you don't know who's doing
it so if you start getting that
information that's where more problems
could arise
by targets that we don't want to have
so by having a blind process of just
pulling the permits and we don't know
who it is
then that you in essence have a very
Equitable process
or
that's what I was about I was going to
say exactly the same thing that it's
almost
a verse because if we started adding in
the demographic if we started trying to
have demographic data then you open the
door to somebody knocking on our current
staff but then you could have some
discrimination that might happen if
people saw who you know what I'm saying
so I'm just right there that
um I was going to say the same thing
so to my my point was that
um
certain demographic uh information is
backed up with people on a wide range of
even uh
even if you're registering for
um registering on your kid for school or
something like that you know there's a place where you can get that
information on voluntarily you can um
you know self-identify in that space and
I'm just saying that if again if you're
talking about systems it's not always
about that interpersonal piece so it
doesn't take a person to say hey you
know what let me go pick on this group
of people however if you don't have any
guard rails against that and you're not
intentional you don't have the
information then you really don't know
if we're disproportionately issuing
um
tickets to people of a certain subgroup
if we don't have that information so the
same reason like how we learned about
Redline being an issue was because he
was able to capture demographic
information of homeowners in what areas
that they lived in that's what
gave us the proof to say oh Redline is
an issue and now here's the data test
supporter so I would say asking the
right questions is always a step in the
right direction and I definitely trust
Integrity of the team that's in process
but I think we need to continue to ask
those questions and if we're doing good
and we should not be afraid or better
so I think well for me the information
that we're capturing has to do with the
property so we would have to have a very
good reason to ask people that question
and people I know people go to different
agencies and like don't want to even
answer at the agencies that they have to
report the data so I I don't um I don't
know I don't feel it's wise for us to go
down the road where we're starting to
ask those kind of questions there needs
to be where you at people don't want to
answer I mean and then sometimes when
you go to your doctor's office and they
ask you that and and sometimes the
doctor's office decides for themselves
if you don't answer so I don't if if our
goal is to Simply the data that we're
using to make sure the property is up to
code Etc
um I'm not sure how what capturing the
other data would provide for our goal
and we have to be clear about that when
we do that certainly
um the goal I'm speaking of is
specifically is that we're talking about
the feeling that people feel that they
might be being singled out and there
might be some level of discrimination in
the process that's what was raised
earlier so what I'm saying is that the
same way
um larger institutions that we all
engage with
um Acts and try to collect that data
from us
um I'm saying that if we have that data
then we'll know instead of just saying
like hey you know what this is you know we're definitely not you know
discriminating against anyone for any
reason and I don't have any reason to
say that we are I will reiterate that
again but again it's not always about
it's personal as it is sometimes
institutional so it's there a practice
where um is there a better practice that
we could involve and I think that it
could one of those things could be
collecting that there that's what I'm
saying I'm hoping maybe all these people
that were issuing
um tickets to if we're trying to work
together or two offices and then we
don't have to do separate inspections
I'm you know I mean I'd like to think
that that will help alleviate some of it
I'm not saying it's going to go away
completely I mean it's a it's a valid
point and you know it's a concern
certainly is in a city that is widely
represented by a lot of different kinds
of people
um you know I don't but I don't I don't
have anything that's you know I mean
that's kind of what it is so but I
totally up for exploring yeah I'm just
trying to think of ways that you can
actually
demonstrate that through our data system
and if there's other ways but outside of
that I'm almost in as well but I just
think it's an important question to be
able to answer with some level search I
mean one way I can say that the building
department is not singling out or
targeting people is that we do have
officers assigned to different districts
and that gets rotated and the complaints
that come in on the phone are on like
for just a quick fix they're also
assigned by the admins so the admins
don't know who's putting these uh
complaints in and they don't know who
they're just assigning it to an
available office so multiple officers
can be dealing with the same property
over within that year so if the the
equality is there or people are not
saying they're seeing love because it's
they're constantly dealing with
different inspectors and if people are saying they're being
targeted I advise anybody just come to
me if my inspector is giving me a hard
time first if you feel like they're
profiling just let let us know because
we can't solve a problem if we don't
know there's a problem so that's one way
I find that
to help with equality is just have
different inspectors in different areas
you you constantly rotate them that way
you you know
that's a that's a practice that you're
sure that you know
thank you
unfortunately one person
a little bit more of a challenge
Mary wins presentation there's something
where you want to add to this
the only thing I'd like to talk about
but uh to emphasize it because we want
people to get people building threats
this is one thing to go to cover because
this thing talked about Banks now when
you're selling property when you're
looking to finance I think a good home
equity loans they will ask have you got
a building permit for this work that is
done is it there and if you don't have
it it creates problems down the road and
that what Ramada talked about
getting the building permit doing the
work
generally is not going to increase the
value of your house
most of the items that are done come
under the maintenance category so people
are fixing things up they're making them
compliant to what today's standards were
or less time something was done may have
been 20 years ago or 30 years ago and I
want people to see the city staff as
partners when they're going through this
to work with people and make them feel
comfortable in terms of their investment
that's happening in the city
and I mean it's it's a challenging job the last thing we
want to do is have an adversarial
relationship with property owners
because we're not able to then get the
information we need to do our jobs
effectively and you know all of this was
it goes towards the bottom line it gives
us the opportunity to do more programs
and spend more and you know find better
things to do in the city I mean it's
just it's it's a challenge for everybody
we don't like it any more than Property
Owners do so it's just I mean I guess
kind of in closing
but again we're always looking to audit
ourselves do whatever we can to do a
better job particularly for the property
owners in the city and I would I would
say that that that's the reason why
you're doing such a good job now is
because you take those reflection points
seriously so thank you for that
thank you both for a really great
presentation and answering all the
questions desire you appreciate your
time thank you all right have a good
evening
thank you
I'd like to call to order City
development and planning we have six
items on the agenda
the first item is a reminder of the
presentation resolution we recognize
Santa David's Mr palomini
I think you're out of town they'll be in
town the presentation okay so on the
10th we'll have that presentation uh
item number two is to authorize the
mayor to enter in supplemental agreement
number three the New York State
Department of Transportation for the
replacement Kings Road Bridge over CSX
Amtrak Mr Obama
hello uh this agreement is a
supplemental agreement similar to the
one that we did two weeks ago for a
different project the supplemental
agreement authorizes an additional 120
thousand dollars for right away
acquisition related to the Kingsburg
Bridge as Royal as detailed design
second all those in favor
of public hearing for the redirection
I'm a two-way to a one-way
foreign
as many of you will probably aware of
the city in cooperation with Schenectady
County the CDTA and the Metro tax
Development Authority is redeveloping
the corner of South Church Street and
State Street which used to be a former
Trailways bus station into a CDTA
Mobility Hub it's the first Mobility Hub
in the region it will be essentially a
larger bus stop however we'll have
heated sidewalks
a bathroom for CDTA employee because
this is one of their layover stations
and it will be a hub of where they're
going to unveil things such as ride
share their bike programs scooters if
they uh they decide to move forward that
and they're calling it a Mobility pup
they're moving away from buildings
because those just have a lot of
overhead and they're moving towards
these more smaller flexible hubs one of
the things that it is going to require
though is that the buses are now going
to not only be on State Street you're
going to be on South Church Street in a
pull-off area and the bus cannot go on
to Erie Boulevard and then use the
essentially The Jug Handle the buses
can't use those it's uh it's just part
of their operations that they're not
allowed to they want to use Fuller
Street so that they can get to the
signal and get up back to State Street
um analysis of Forestry showed that it
is very narrow being two-way with the
parking on it
um so they're proposing to make it one
way from South perch to South Ferry so
that the buses can utilize it
um the properties on that street have
essentially been purchased by the county
the only remaining property owner is uh
Ray O'Hare who many of us know and he's
working with them as well so there
really is really no impact to properties
on that street and there is ample off
street parking due to those surface lots
that are around so I like to call for a
public hearing to change this from a
two-way street to a one-way Street any
questions
so this is uh the next two or something
I've been working on with Maurice as you
know
I'm going to move a lot of property
owners and uh Land Development and swaps
for properties that are the city May own
that are derelict or unused and this is
one if you want to just talk about this
one real quick in your relationship
so the um currently there's a paper
street that is underdeveloped that's
undeveloped that the city currently owns
and the adjacent neighbor who currently
has their entrance to their property
facing that paper street is interested
in purchasing that it has been
undeveloped for a number of years and
apparently they have been interested in
it for several years as well the other
neighbor who owns a landlocked parcel if
that words would have been developed is
also interested in purchasing a portion
of that same lot before they if we were
to abandon it and create it as a lot
so this is near Lark Street in Bellevue
no no this is Amelia Street yes it says
yeah that's located on the yeah um it's
right by a congressville area or
Cheltenham landfill almost a border of
Rotterdam is literally uh like 50 feet
away Yes actually the second property
owner his house is technically in
Rotterdam and then the backyard of this
property is
um the one that is adjacent to all right
so it isn't done you just want to be
clear
was another uh small much smaller dead
end uh I would not call it a paper
street it's an abandoned Street uh it
served an area where there was a garage
however as it was paved as a road it
became a number one Dumping Ground in
the city of Schenectady for over a
decade we did put concrete barriers to
prevent The Dumping however it did
continue with bags and things like that
new property owners have moved into the
parcel directly adjacent to our church
with Maurice worked with them on it they
requested that the parcel has just
become a huge nuisance because the
dumping had continued and they requested
that they purchased the parcel because
it really only served the garage that
was on the parcel that they purchased as
the parcel was between two different you
know to be fair and Equitable we asked
both Property Owners I believe the
property was just purchased On The Other
Side by a lieutenant a new homeowner
under older right well yeah so the uh
the new owner that has the property on
the other side of the street
um his property is good is rental units
and he would like additional uh parking
to be able to be used for those units as
well which would bring them uh into
compliance actually so we're looking on
this part so we take the take the street
abandon it essentially cut it in half
merge it with the two surrounding
partials so that they can now you know
maintain and use it it would be awesome
it would take probably the up and
go away they'd each have their own and
then we wouldn't have the issue that
we're seeing
as a reminder this uh I I spoke about
this briefly at one of the committee
meetings where the two property owners
are agreeing to pay for everything the
survey they're going to pay to record
the Deeds the idea behind it was once
everything was settled in terms of
creating abandoning the parcel and then
creating
two tax map identified Parcels they
would pay to record everything the city
would agree to transfer the property to
them at a minimal cost
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uh so several weeks ago we put out a our
annual bid for crack ceiling of city
streets
um we put it out for 9 000 gallons of
crack seal we picked a tentative list of
the streets that we think we're always
looking to crack seal roads that have
been paved within a four-year window as
there is a balance between crack ceiling
and you know just going you're not going
to crack seal the street that's kind of
too far gone
um we got three bids uh all from the
same three bidders that we typically
have these are the companies that really
specialize in this uh the low bid was
Sealcoat USA they were the low bid last
year we are comfortable working with
them they're extremely flexible in how
they do things if they use less on the
streets then we can add streets or we
can decide not to we did that last year
and last year we actually ended up
adding a couple of more streets because
we had some time in some budget capacity
left crack seal is the first line of
defense in preserving our roads so I
believe in my letter I talked to council
president porfield about the city the
city does have a crack slim Chief
however you know as we all know the
between potholes and daily pests and
labor shortages and things like that we
just weren't getting the production and
house as we needed so we started
Contracting it as we're really starting
to do you know 10 miles of crack ceiling
a year which is really what you need to
do when you have a city this size of
ours
and you said you had them both I don't
stay here looks to the streets yeah I do
have a list I didn't include it I
apologize
so if other people want to know if you
know where this is going to happen we
could get a
um on those streets
any other questions I'll move it second
all in favor um anything else
is inclusion of the new card fees and
rates of the Schenectady Municipal Golf
Course that's the wallet so as you
recall uh several weeks ago I was here
to talk about the change of car cart
fees as we were having to complete we
also increased uh the driving range
large bucket uh while we were upgrading
our point of sale service for the year
we noticed that this format did not
include a new single Rider fee
um the single Rider fee was created
during the covid outbreak where we had a
lot of people that did not feel
comfortable riding with other Riders due
to the separation and you didn't have a
good way to actually separate two people
in the cart so we started allowing them
but to do that we actually were charging
a premium because we were allowing them
to ride in their own cart
um that I don't want to say that rape
structure there has been unofficially
left in place since then I mean the
pandemic is you know I guess over but
some are still feeling you know the
effects of it so what we wanted to do
was make it official I worked with
Anthony and Matt on this we checked
other horses that have a similar rate
structure and what we decided on was a
four hour premium for nine holes and a
six dollar premium for 18 holes for
single Rider and that's what we're
proposing uh today
so this is what we charge enjoying the
pandemic yes it was never codified
because it was something that we just
you know we did because people are
asking so we probably should not have
done that and I apologize but we caught
it uh while we were entering it this
year and we wanted to make sure that we
brought it forward so we have it so this
is going to be an official rate of
course you know Matt is on his
discretion if you don't have enough
carts you know it's something where he's
going to have to to manage it but on a
typical normal day we should have enough
riding parts for it
any other questions concerns
toilet paper thank you thank you the
next item is just a reminder for the
public here regarding the 2023-24
proposed heart annual election plan and
this public cable will be held on April
10th that's next Monday
seeing our business support Finance we
have emotions required all a favor hi
thank you I'm going to call to order the
Public Safety Committee the residers on
the agenda tonight first of which is
requesting State legislation requiring
compliance with the city code related to
rental residential property
Administration poor eviction proceedings
now being specified
thank you Mr chairman uh Albany enacted
your private Act is a change in state
law which allowed
rental
certificate program to be a condition
for evictions
in Schenectady we have the program
where landlords are supposed to
register their property we have a good
number that do they're very compliant
those tend to be the landlords where we
do not have problems with
they maintain their property they take
care of issues there is still a group of
landlords who choose not to
participate in the registration process
so we don't do the inspections there
we're not following up on it and we
don't have good data in terms of how
many units are out there how many are
actually being rented
so what I'm asking the council to do is
start the process for home rule
legislation where
it would mirror albany's that
a landlord could not start an eviction
proceeding unless they had participated
in the registration process and it in
fact helps both the tenant and the
landlord depending on what signs you're
on because there's that Baseline
inspection that's come in so we've sent
in staff they've looked at the property
they've said that it is meeting certain
standards sometimes we photographed it
we've documented it and so if there is
some argument down the road where an
eviction proceeding is going that
Baseline gives the court a reference
point to validate you know is the tenant
in the wrong is the landlord in the
wrong to something in between but I also
think it will get a higher compliance
from landlords to participate in the
rental registration program and so I
would ask the council to uh
send in the request for that and then we
would work with the state legislature to
hopefully get basically what the city of
Albany got
life cycle of the cycle just before that
any questions or comments
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all in favor hi
and the next item is a reminder the
missing section 182-16 at this next week
city code the guardian smoking and city
parks the public hearing was held on
March 13th I'm just bring this back
the last item is additionally a reminder
of many of the expectation code to add
Provisions relating to the use of the
school bus stop on cameras this is a
reminder that the public hearing will be
on
April 10th
excuse me uh returning back to the
second reminder can I please get a
motion if there are any questions or
comments
second awesome paper
thank you again moving on to the third
reminder I'm ending the school bus stop
for camera alarms or bus stop arm
cameras public hearing will be held on
April 10th 2023.
there are any other ideas
operations we have one agenda item and
we have active boards appointment and
the Gary parking thank you Mr chairman
issues that are potentially moving
before the board of ethics and reviewing
it through two vacancies
both individuals who moved out of the
city and we're no longer eligible to
serve so what I've submitted to you and
has to request to reappoint three
numbers and then he submitted two names
for your consideration to fill the
vacancies of the individuals who no
longer are part of the board
is there any way we can get a copy the
backup here is redacted with the
addresses I would like to see the
residential address because our city
code says I think that with Central
members the membership reside in the
city of Schenectady and this is redacted
so I can be able to see the residential
address
you haven't emailed well it was emailed
yeah it was also um
well it's redacted
I could send that to you there's
only one of them where it had their work
address here in the city of Schenectady
everyone else had
uh Schenectady address
so you have a version with the address
that I can access now yeah
they don't have it on me and you're
raising a question about uh officer
Dalton he's a resident of the city of
Schenectady provide for that okay police
officers by state law
do not have to disclose their home
address and have to reference their
employee employer's address but key is a
resident the city is connected
what about the other person
she is also a resident City
um yes
any other questions
around this
can all moved the appointment of these
two these individuals
um
no I'm just saying that the thing came
from father I saw both of them
oh the the person yes okay
um I would like to see the address of
foreign
could we get that now Sam sure thank you
Sacramento because
um
if you're going to discuss it if you're
going to look at the address the results
so at this time I'll I'll entertain a
motion belong to Executive session
foreign
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did you want to discuss it well I would
like to see the address and I guess we
can discuss their question to ask about
the address so we might be asking I
don't know
sometimes yeah
yes
thank you
foreign
show this week
foreign
[Music]
okay
and as we wait for Sam I just kind of
want to bring to my college attention
that like because I think this is just
related in a way that um
you know collection of certain
demographic data especially protected
classes that's how we
um you know
really assess ourselves especially like
that's why we have things like programs
like firmative action you know what I
mean all the those uh programs in that
nature to try to ensure equity and
equality
um one of the uh backbones of that
collecting that demographic data so we
can always know
um that we are
doing our part and going in the right
direction so just to think like as we
talk about ethics appointments all these
things are important now
anything that we do as a government as a
city government we need to be asking the
right questions and looking through a
lens that will produce equity and if
we're not intentional about doing that
then we just leave it up to things being
done because they've already been done
that way then we'll certainly going to
get a similar outcome that raised and I
know that we
um well at least most of us really want
to ensure equity and we want to move to
a more
diverse and representative of
functioning city government so I think
that's just something to keep in mind we
don't know unless we ask these questions
of ourselves
yes
I'll make a motion about the exact
perception sorry
um
keep going down there's nothing I see
other letters after it
oh they did they redact their addresses
and everything yeah yeah okay okay
we'll just we'll get me some Michael
back and then we can move ahead
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Curtis this has her address on it
the resume what's the address
[Music]
thank you
foreign
addresses
um and say anything on the record
suggestion for the sake of yeah
oh
thank you Sam
president that was forwarded by the
charity Ethics Committee that's
apparently across the line for the
actual residences it's not in the city
it's connecting so well withdraw the
name of uh
Wendy Lahar
Okay so
are you asking me I should just move
ahead with the one appointment that's
going inside if you would move ahead
with the reappointment is three and the
one new appointment
the extra consideration and then I will
get another name to the council in the
next cycle
again my further question is does the
board need all five members in order to
meet
he's a foreign
are you accepting names
are you accepting recommendations
those are my questions I just have a
follow-up I did ask about the two new
ones I already honors reappointment are
they all residents was it disconnected
yes
so um so we're you know so you're asking
us to move forward um
with app with drawing the one name who
is not a resident is that correct yes Mr
chairman
any other questions concerns
yeah so I will entertain the motion so
I'll second it um
hi
motion to adjourn government operations
thank you
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