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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]