[0:01] foreign
[0:04] [Music]
[1:02] thank you
[1:04] [Music]
[1:06] foreign
[1:08] [Music]
[1:40] I don't know
[1:57] anymore
[1:58] [Music]
[2:21] thank you
[2:25] [Music]
[2:43] again
[2:49] everybody
[2:59] else
[3:13] [Music]
[3:38] um yeah I don't know if I should
[3:40] probably
[3:40] [Music]
[3:41] Michelle do did you want to uh be posted
[3:47] to the city website or something you
[3:51] could do that you could it's gonna it's
[3:52] live right now okay yeah it's up to you
[3:55] I mean you can do it after or whatever
[3:58] okay
[4:01] so do you want me to just send how do
[4:03] you want me to just uh send you the link
[4:06] or how do you want to do it
[4:09] oh you actually put it on the website or
[4:12] yeah or on the Facebook or whatever you want to do yeah it doesn't
[4:16] matter whenever you want to do it it'll
[4:18] be on the osm Facebook page the link or
[4:21] YouTube
[4:22] um
[4:24] it's so we're live streaming now but I
[4:28] have like a slate that runs and then
[4:30] once it does I'll take
[4:41] [Music]
[4:51] foreign
[4:52] [Music]
[5:39] Philadelphia
[5:51] designers
[6:00] you want to just check right here in the
[6:02] office to make sure it clicks over
[6:07] oh okay cool yeah I'm streaming I'm
[6:10] streaming now
[6:18] all right thanks man yep
[6:36] see you
[6:38] [Music]
[6:40] again
[6:41] [Music]
[7:20] um
[7:56] foreign
[8:29] shut up
[8:56] I want to thank everyone for uh
[8:59] coming out this afternoon and having the
[9:01] opportunity to formally present to the
[9:04] city council uh the proposed 2024 city
[9:09] of Schenectady operating budget
[9:12] uh again I want to thank council
[9:15] president Porterfield the members of the
[9:17] city council for your being here and
[9:21] look forward to working with you on the
[9:24] formal adoption of our operating budget
[9:27] uh thank you to our department heads and
[9:30] all the city employees for the work in
[9:32] preparation of this budget and the work
[9:35] they do on behalf of the residents of
[9:37] this city every day specifically want to
[9:40] acknowledge and thank Anthony Ferrari
[9:42] Derek gukamuk and Liz Nelson from the
[9:45] finance department and the time and
[9:47] effort that they've put in this Michelle
[9:49] Carr Brendan Savage and John coluccio
[9:53] who's running a slideshow and will make
[9:56] me look semi-good in this presentation
[10:01] I want to thank our partners that enable
[10:05] projects and initiatives to happen in
[10:07] our city that makes us stronger makes us
[10:10] more vibrant and adds a level of
[10:13] excitement to Schenectady
[10:15] you know we have a number of projects
[10:17] that are underway or will be in 2024.
[10:21] the upper left is the housing project on
[10:23] Crane Street
[10:25] the lower left is the Block House at
[10:27] frog alley the SI group moved to Mohawk
[10:30] Harbor Old World Provisions has moved to
[10:34] Broadway the center photo is showing a
[10:37] rendering of the rehab the old wedgeway
[10:39] building it's state and Erie Armory
[10:42] Studio has been host to the van Gogh
[10:45] exhibit which brought approximately 130
[10:49] 000 people to the city of Schenectady
[10:52] uh this will be pre replaced in this uh
[10:55] coming roughly month by an exhibit on
[10:59] Monet
[11:00] uh in GE Verona announced a 50 million
[11:04] dollar investment recently in the
[11:06] production facilities for wind turbines
[11:09] here in the city of Schenectady
[11:11] we continue to develop affordable
[11:13] housing the North Side village the rehab
[11:17] of the old Elmer Avenue School the Old
[11:20] Saint Mary's rectory or just to name a
[11:23] few we have completed or have underway a
[11:29] quarter of a billion dollars worth of
[11:32] affordable housing projects in the city
[11:35] of Schenectady and I want to thank Ray
[11:37] Gillen for joining us today that
[11:41] partnership with Metroplex our
[11:43] relationship with the county the
[11:45] business Community is really unique in
[11:48] terms of how we come together and how we
[11:50] provide services and actually make
[11:52] things happen within this community
[11:56] uh the construction continues at the new
[11:58] Central Park Pool again that will be
[12:02] completed next year and I hope everybody
[12:04] will be joining us as we cut the ribbon
[12:06] there and bring a facility that
[12:09] complements the Investments that we've
[12:11] made in the a diamond and music Haven
[12:14] the partnership with the Rose Garden
[12:16] committee
[12:18] there are things that are happening
[12:20] there all the time an exciting Adventure
[12:24] last week we did a ribbon cutting at the
[12:27] new pickleball courts in Hillhurst Park
[12:30] in the new tennis courts across the
[12:33] street in Fairview Park are also open
[12:37] Monday we announced a 500 thousand
[12:40] dollar Grant from assemblyman Angelo
[12:43] Santa Barbara for the rehab of the
[12:45] Central Park casino and I've included in
[12:49] the budget I've submitted the council
[12:50] today and a request for an additional
[12:53] 250 thousand dollars in our capital
[12:55] budget to make sure that we are able to
[12:58] complete the projected work on that
[13:01] facility
[13:04] again I'm going to
[13:06] step off a little bit and spend some
[13:08] time on cyber security
[13:12] we need to defend the city of
[13:14] Schenectady against cyber crime and
[13:16] cyber security is everyone's job and
[13:19] while this really represents a
[13:21] relatively small portion of the budget
[13:24] we pay about thirty thousand dollars for
[13:27] insurance uh
[13:30] malicious cyber actors aren't making the
[13:34] same holiday plans as you and I uh
[13:38] recent history tells us that they look
[13:40] at these events and times
[13:43] to uh
[13:47] engage in persistent acts that are big
[13:51] and small look to disrupt our critical
[13:53] networks and systems where they're
[13:55] really operating around the world and we
[13:58] have to be cognizant of that every day
[14:02] and so while we're
[14:05] looking at some of the city operations
[14:07] as members of the media here individuals
[14:11] that are here part of the message when
[14:12] you leave here today is you have to be
[14:14] cognizant of it every day and spread the
[14:17] words to your family and friends and
[14:18] some of the quick points are slow down
[14:22] scammers often create a sense of urgency
[14:25] so that they can bypass your better
[14:28] instincts take your time and ask
[14:30] questions to avoid being rushed into a
[14:33] bad situation do not click on links or
[14:36] attachments from senders that you do not
[14:39] recognize
[14:41] spot check do your research to double
[14:44] check the details you're getting if you
[14:47] get an unexpected phone call just hang
[14:51] up if you get an unexpected email about
[14:54] your bank account then please verify by
[14:57] calling the bank and make sure it's
[14:59] legitimate do your spot check a red flag
[15:03] or something fishy if you
[15:05] spot a red flag or something fishy about
[15:07] an email verify the suspicious email
[15:11] with a sender through a phone or some
[15:13] other mechanism
[15:15] and don't send money stop and don't send
[15:19] money no reputable person or agency will
[15:22] ever demand payment on the spot
[15:25] often scammers tell you to go off and
[15:27] buy gift cards that are meant only to be
[15:30] given as a gift not as payment under the
[15:33] threat and so if you get these type of
[15:36] requests or things don't hesitate to
[15:39] call the police department or reach out
[15:41] to some family member or somebody that
[15:45] you trust
[15:46] to avoid these just tragic set of
[15:49] circumstances that all that happen all
[15:51] too often
[15:54] this slide Recaps the larger projected
[15:58] changes in our revenue and I look
[16:01] forward to going over these numbers in
[16:03] Greater detail when the council holds
[16:05] its budget review sessions and I won't
[16:08] get into that tonight or today
[16:13] again this slide talks about our arpa
[16:16] funds uh that this will be our last time
[16:21] to use arpa money for the general fund
[16:24] in no arpa funds will be available for
[16:28] 2025 and this depending on the final
[16:31] numbers we adopt and work with I creates
[16:34] approximately a 7.4 million dollar issue
[16:39] that we're going to have to deal with in
[16:41] future years
[16:44] this in the next slide recap projected
[16:46] adjustments and expenses and again if
[16:49] you look forward to going over with the
[16:52] council and department heads in Greater
[16:54] detail as we get into the budget review
[16:56] sessions
[16:58] the next one I have is I'm projecting in
[17:02] this budget uh four million dollars in
[17:05] sales through our homes program and
[17:09] we've had a remarkable track record in
[17:13] creating uh home ownership opportunities
[17:15] for individuals within the community
[17:17] some of those have gone up and down
[17:20] covid we had a general Trend up covid
[17:23] slowed things down we couldn't do
[17:25] foreclosures that is now back in process
[17:30] we've taken a little over a hundred
[17:33] houses
[17:34] that we have in the pipeline for sale
[17:37] and I these numbers show that our
[17:40] current Revenue in 2023 is down a little
[17:43] bit I expect that to be up around a
[17:45] million dollars when we close out the
[17:47] year for homes that we have in the
[17:50] pipeline and again appreciate the city
[17:52] council working with staff as we go
[17:54] through that process
[17:55] and some of those purchases we know are
[17:58] a little bit more complicated and there
[18:00] are options that we weigh and try and
[18:02] get the best value for the city as a
[18:05] whole
[18:06] again this Recaps property sales
[18:10] historically it also looks at it
[18:13] geographically one of our esri mapping
[18:17] systems it shows that this is not
[18:22] targeted to any one area in the city but
[18:25] really across the whole city where we've
[18:28] had foreclosures we've worked to with
[18:32] our Realtors Bankers other real estate
[18:33] professionals to Market home ownership
[18:37] in investment opportunities
[18:40] within the city of Schenectady
[18:43] the next two slides this slide and the
[18:46] other ones recap the departmental budget
[18:49] summaries I'm not going to spend time
[18:52] going through each one you know Public
[18:55] Safety is a major expense major concern
[18:59] I compliment Chief Clifford and the
[19:02] staff in the police department
[19:04] our crime in the city of Schenectady is
[19:08] down approximately 33 percent
[19:11] when you compare it to the 2022 numbers
[19:15] if you do the five-year average which we
[19:18] normally do to level it out so it takes
[19:22] away from the anomalies that may occur
[19:24] in any one year our numbers are up about
[19:27] 2.1 percent you wonder how does that
[19:30] happen
[19:31] and again it was the phenomenon where
[19:33] Covent where our general Trend in crime
[19:37] and other things were heading in the
[19:39] right direction covid
[19:42] stopped everything
[19:43] there wasn't any commercial activity
[19:45] there wasn't
[19:47] we didn't sell houses we weren't doing
[19:49] foreclosures people were staying in
[19:51] their houses so crime dropped
[19:54] really down to almost nothing in some
[19:56] cases but when you then take the year
[19:59] after covet as we started to come back
[20:01] it looks like crime went up dramatically
[20:04] but it really didn't it's when you do
[20:07] the averages it Compares it against that
[20:10] one year it looks abnormally low or it
[20:13] looks abnormally high so we have to sort
[20:16] through those and do an appropriate
[20:18] analytic review so that we're telling
[20:21] the real story of what's happening and
[20:24] in terms of working with the council how
[20:26] do we invest the money that we're going
[20:28] to spend in the most effective way to
[20:30] leverage the resources and while I've
[20:32] just talked about the police department
[20:34] the same thing is with the fire
[20:35] department the office of General
[20:37] services so that we're getting the
[20:40] biggest payback for the taxpayer dollar
[20:42] here
[20:44] uh again those departmental numbers are
[20:48] there and we'll go over it the uh
[20:52] general fund I'm submitting is a little
[20:55] over 111 million dollars this year
[20:59] the assessed value the taxable value
[21:03] within the city of Schenectady continues
[21:05] to increase
[21:07] it shows that our Collective efforts and
[21:10] again I complement Metroplex our
[21:13] partners County government in the work
[21:16] that the men and women who are employees
[21:17] of the city do every day that we're
[21:20] creating real value
[21:24] uh the tax levy
[21:27] again for the last decade his remained
[21:31] fairly stable
[21:32] it's up a little bit down a little bit
[21:35] the budget that I'm submitting to the
[21:38] council today sees a rise of about 1.3
[21:42] percent in the tax levy and that's the
[21:45] amount of total tax dollars that we
[21:47] collect via the property tax
[21:50] uh the budget that I'm proposing would
[21:53] keep the tax rate at
[21:56] 12.98
[21:57] uh per thousand dollars of assessed
[22:01] evaluation and that chart again breaks
[22:04] out where your tax dollars uh go a
[22:08] little under half goes to the school
[22:10] district the city is a little over 30
[22:14] percent and then the county makes up the
[22:17] difference of that
[22:20] uh this chart outlines where the tax
[22:24] rate has been
[22:26] we were
[22:28] much higher in 2015 we had
[22:32] systematically lowered the tax rate uh
[22:36] coveted
[22:37] again shifted everything we saw an
[22:41] increase in 2021
[22:45] 2022 2023 held it
[22:49] stable effect last year when I
[22:52] recommended the budget to you I asked
[22:55] for a tax rate of 12.99
[22:58] which is what the council adopted in the
[23:01] budget and it's when we do that final
[23:03] calculation when the assessed value of
[23:06] the property comes in
[23:08] there's a lot of times there's a little
[23:10] bit of variance in that number because
[23:11] we don't get that information from the
[23:13] county until
[23:15] mid-november after the budget is adapted
[23:19] so our tax rate even though the council
[23:21] adopted at 12.99 last year the effective
[23:24] rate was 12.98 so it went down a little
[23:27] bit because of that growth in assessment
[23:31] in other factors that play into the
[23:33] formula but I'm asking again for the
[23:36] council's consideration to continue that
[23:38] tax rate at 12.98
[23:41] cents
[23:43] the cost of our trash collection and
[23:45] Disposal continue to rise
[23:49] uh and I am asking and believe it'll
[23:52] require a fee increase to keep providing
[23:55] this service at the level we do to our
[23:57] residents I'm submitting for the
[23:59] council's consideration uh increase of a
[24:03] dollar fifty per week uh and keeping our
[24:07] exemption process in place our Municipal
[24:10] service is still very cost competitive
[24:13] with private contractors in our
[24:15] neighboring neighboring communities in
[24:18] suburbs in what this will do is actually
[24:21] bring the revenue closer to actually
[24:24] covering the cost of garbage collection
[24:28] so today the general fund subsidizes
[24:32] garbage collection and looking to
[24:34] equalize that and level that out and
[24:36] again look forward to working with the
[24:39] Council on ways that we could modify
[24:42] that collection build efficiencies into
[24:44] it better educate the public to again
[24:48] appreciate the service we have and
[24:50] continue to deliver it at a manner that
[24:52] they appreciate and shows real value
[24:56] our water and sewer funds looking
[25:01] for a funding at the water level of 9.8
[25:05] million in the sewer fund at
[25:08] 15.7 million dollars
[25:11] we have made major investments in our
[25:14] water and sewer system you know just the
[25:17] force Main and pump station and North
[25:21] ferry
[25:22] the new wells that we're putting in in
[25:25] our water fields in Rotterdam to keep
[25:27] these funds balanced we need small rate
[25:31] increases and I'm asking for rate
[25:34] increases of what would be effectively
[25:37] be slightly under five cents a day in
[25:42] the water fund and approximately 20
[25:44] cents a day in the sewer fund these are
[25:48] Big operations they really affect the
[25:50] dramatically the quality of life in our
[25:53] community but we at the same time have
[25:55] to pay for them
[25:58] uh in The Proposal submitting to the
[26:01] council I'm asking for uh 7.4 million
[26:06] dollars in capital budgets again look
[26:09] forward to the opportunity to go through
[26:11] that with you in the department heads
[26:13] and explain where these uh investments
[26:17] will continue to allow us to deliver
[26:19] Services build efficiencies in and again
[26:24] hopefully create overall value for the
[26:28] city of Schenectady detailed that prior
[26:31] Slide the golf fund there's numbers
[26:34] there but that fund is fluid and
[26:37] actually will have zero effect on the
[26:40] overall capital budget and again it's
[26:42] treated as a separate fund
[26:47] that uh
[26:49] just one of the success stories in
[26:52] Schenectady
[26:53] Livingston energy has been a partner a
[26:57] number of projects we've done here
[26:59] they started a few years ago with two
[27:02] employees today they have over a hundred
[27:06] full-time equivalent employees and
[27:09] installed over 2 000 charging stations
[27:12] and they have 5 000 charging stations in
[27:17] the pipeline
[27:18] so they're now in 25 states in Canada it
[27:24] is a robust in growing company and it's
[27:27] just one of the many success stories
[27:29] that we have within the city of
[27:31] Schenectady talked about GE and their 50
[27:33] million dollar investment there are a
[27:36] number of entities like Livingston that
[27:38] again Metroplex has helped bring in and
[27:41] grow that the diversity and the vibrancy
[27:45] of our economic base is really amazing
[27:50] and so Livingston has been a partner in
[27:53] those charging stations but also in
[27:56] promoting the transition to electric
[27:58] vehicles
[28:00] this is National Drive electric week
[28:05] our event on that will be Sunday
[28:09] coinciding with the Schenectady Green
[28:11] Market
[28:13] we've been contenders in that for the
[28:16] last three years last year we were
[28:18] number one in the country in terms of
[28:20] participation
[28:22] we won't know until next week if we're
[28:26] where we finish in this but we are in
[28:29] line again to be number one in the
[28:31] country
[28:32] in this uh Endeavor and so if you're not
[28:35] doing anything Sunday from 10 to 2 stop
[28:39] down to the Green Market and swing by
[28:41] the displays that we'll have out on
[28:43] Liberty Street for the electric vehicle
[28:48] week
[28:50] our Smart City
[28:52] uh
[28:53] deployment continues through the cares
[28:57] project it's providing for 304 access
[29:00] points we've got a 193 wireless access
[29:04] points deployed through the city for
[29:07] Wi-Fi for public use and to support the
[29:10] delivery of city services
[29:12] again if you look at the utilization
[29:15] it's steadily increased
[29:19] we are seeing uh
[29:22] in excessive 2.2 million dollar or yeah
[29:25] I wish it was 2.2 million dollars 2.2
[29:28] million hits a day website visits so
[29:33] people are using this people are seeing
[29:35] the value it's something that again
[29:38] other communities have done very small
[29:40] areas they do business districts they do
[29:43] streets Schenectady we're building it
[29:45] out city-wide again to create value to
[29:49] create equity and improve overall
[29:52] efficiencies within the city
[29:55] uh
[29:57] Thursday night uh had the opportunity it
[30:00] was Wednesday night had the opportunity
[30:02] to
[30:03] participate in the uh 30th anniversary
[30:06] of the center for technology and
[30:08] governments uh Milestone at the
[30:12] University at Albany they're the applied
[30:14] Research Unit there they awarded the
[30:18] city of Schenectady their outstanding
[30:20] partner award for our work together over
[30:22] the last 10 years so again we're getting
[30:26] recognition for the work that we're
[30:30] doing
[30:31] it is humbling
[30:34] from my perspective but again it
[30:37] reflects on the Investments we're making
[30:39] the budgetary decisions that the council
[30:42] has made and it really creates real
[30:45] value within the city of Schenectady
[30:48] and uh with that I again look forward to
[30:52] working with the council in a
[30:55] thorough review as we move forward and
[30:58] adopt a formal budget by the first of
[31:00] November
[31:01] I thank you and everyone enjoy your
[31:04] weekend
[31:06] foreign
[31:18] [Music]