[Music]
I'd like to call the order the SK City
Caucus meeting for Monday December 11th
2023 we have one public hearing this
evening if the clerk would please read
public hearing number one amending the
city of SKC code section 234 4-1 to
modify the annual income amount for the
tax
exemption we have eight items for
original consideration if the clerk
would please read item number one item
number one under final consideration a
resolution approving the 2024 Downtown
special assessment District
budget discuss in committee with
objection on consent item number two for final consideration
the resolution approving the 2024 Upper
Union Street business Improvement
District budget discussed in committee
without objection and with and on
consent item number three for original
consideration a resolution confirming
the appointment of to Thomas bellich
William
Nim to the city of Sky civilian police
review board and Victoria Cooper as
standby alternate for William nman this
item is being pulled and returned to
committee at the request of the director
of operations item number four item
number four for original consideration
resolution amending resolution
2022-23 to modify the time period for
Better Community neighborhoods
Incorporated to secure required
Financial commitments discussed in
committee without objection on consent
item number five item number five for
original consideration a resolution
authorizing the sale of 463 huet Street
for
$58,000 discussed in committee without
objection on consent item number six for original
consideration a resolution authorizing
the sale at 1507 carry Street for
$90,000 this in committee with objection
on consent item number seven item number
seven for original consideration a
resolution authorizing the sale of 3323
McDonald Avenue for $660,000 discussed
in committee without objection on
consent item number eight item number
eight for original consideration a
resolution authorizing the settlement of
a claim by Walter G Fritz discussed in
committee with objection on
consent if there's nothing more to come
before the city C caucus I ask for a
motion to adjourn moveed by Mr Williams
second by Mr mutar all in favor we are
adjourned I'd like to call to order the
city council meeting for Monday December
11
2023 and I'd like to call on Reverend Ki
for the prayer and
invocation Lord during this season of
anticipation expectation and light grant
that we may be found 're prepared to
bring your goodness to all those we
encounter and serve keep our in your
care to protect all those especially
traveling during the holidays ahead amen I'd ask council member Patrick if
she lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the for
stands one nation God indivisible with
liy and justice for
all thank you if the clerk could please
complete the roll
call Mr muon pres Mr Toro pres Mr Farley
here Mr
Williams Miss Patrick here Mr palamini M
Porterfield here thank you you we have
one public hearing this evening we've
just reminded we've uh extended the
public hearing uh portion to four
minutes okay public hearing number one
is amending the city code section 2 34-1
to modify the annual income amount for
the tax
exemption and I have no one signs up to
speak so I declare that public hearing
closed ask for the approval of minute of
minutes for November 20th December 11th
and December
7th moved by Miss Patrick second by Mr
Williams all those in favor I I'd ask
the clerk to read any Communications and
petitions Communications presented to
city council for Monday December 11th
2023 under official there were none
under General from Karen schwind a
letter in favor of amending the city of
SKC code section 234
d1n income amount for the tax
exemption under petitions there were
none thank you ask council members for
any committee reports any committee
reports seeing none this time we'll have
priv privilege of the floor on the
legislative agenda does anyone wish to
speak on the legislative
agenda I have no one else no one signed
up to speak so I declare the public
comment on the legislative agenda
closed I ask for approval approval of
the legislative
agenda motion by Mr M second by Mr
Farley all those in favor I at this time
we'll entertain I beg your
pardon at this time I entertain
privilege of the floor regarding General
City
business I have three people signed up
to speak excuse me four people signed up
to speak and just a reminder that your
time limit will be four minutes three
minutes for this portion and you'll hear
a timer go off when your time is up
first person signed up to speak is jeie
or good evening I'm jie or program
manager for Capital District tobacco
free communities at the last council
meeting my colleagu Shar the results of
the observations we conducted at 31
tobacco retailers in the city of sken
located within 1500 ft of one or more
schools as part of that report we shared
information about the violations of the
state law that we observed specifically
19 retailers were displaying one or more
exterior tobacco ads 16 were selling
flavored cigarettes containing nicotine
several of you expressed concern about
these violations so I thought might be
helpful to share what local enforcement
of tobacco control laws currently looks
like in New York state to legally sell
tobacco and or vape products a retailer
needs to have a cigarette and tobacco
product retail license and or a Vapor
Products license from New York State Tax
and Finance most counties like skincity
conduct compliance checks on all
licensed tobacco and vape retailers
through their local Department of
Health's atupa program atup is an
acronym for the New York State
adolescent tobacco use prevention act
they aim to do two checks of each
retailer every year one to determine if
they're conducting underage sales and
the other to evaluate compliance with
all other state tobacco control laws if
an a Tupa officer observes a violation
of any state law in most circumstances
they will educate the retailer with the
goal of achieving volary compliance they
can also issue a violation notice to the
retailer to appear for independent
hearing
if the violation is sustained either
through a hearing or a stipulation the
tup program May impose impose an
appropriate fine they will also report
the violation to New York State Tax and
Finance and if the retailer holds a
lottery license to New York Lottery the
two agencies with the authority to
suspend or revoke licenses the state
agency may take additional action of
their own but that doesn't mean that
licenses are automatically suspended or
revoked the county atupa program does
not have the direct authority to suspend
or revoke a license nor the authority to
confiscate illegal products in fact the
county Tupa program can only take action
on the tobacco and VAP products that are
on display they don't even have the
authority to look behind the counter or
in back rooms or storage
areas many municipalities across the
state have decided they want more
control over tobacco and vape retailers
Opera in their communities uh they want
to hold them more accountable when they
violate the law and they can the most
common way commities have done this is
through local licensing which they can
impose on a wide variety of sanctions
above and beyond monetary fines for
violations of federal state and local
laws in addition to empowering local
officials to impose more meaningful
consequences violations local licensing
also provides a framework for
municipality to strengthen and expand on
what's in current law for example many
municipalities have taken steps to place
restrictions on where licensed retailers
can be located including whether or not
they're near schools they can place
restrictions on the total number of
licensed retailers in a specific
geographic area or the proximity of
tobacco retailers to one another they
can also Place restrictions on the sale
of menthol cigarettes and flavored
cigars cigaros and smokeless tobacco
products that have particular appeal to
youth now local licensing isn't the only
approach to reduce the impact of tobacco
Marketing address Health Equity but it
has proven to be effective in
communities where it's been in place for
a while I hope this has been helpful to
you thank you thank
you Claudia
Kavanaugh good evening I'm cludia
Kavanaugh president and CEO of black
redneck
LLC my company is geared uh to
Republican voter registration but that's
not why I'm here tonight I'm here
tonight because
I'm not going to be around for a couple
weeks and I wanted to say goodbye to Mr
palamini I'm so sorry that you uh are
leaving the council uh you studying
Force intelligent force and I also want
to call you out um Mr Farley I know
we're not supposed to talk to you but
I'm going to anyway
um during the last Finance meeting you
were making all kinds of statements and
undercurrent about Mr palamini saying
it's it's it's unacceptable that he
speak and and support his his position
on his voting if you want to know what's
really
unacceptable the fact that you were able
to bang this city taxpayers out of a
half a million dollars without having to
account for it at all and if we had a DA
who was on his game you would have to
account for where that money winner
you'd be in
jail Mr poly is a very accomplished
person he has probably forgotten things
you'll never
learn and I think that
if you really want to cut the budget a
little bit more Mr Cen can stay in his
office or go home at 5:00 because he's
probably being paid
overtime yeah you and he you
know add much to miss Kavanaugh no no
personal attacks well okay I'm Sorry
Miss Miss Porterfield it's okay um and for you to try to silence Mr
palamini when he was trying to make a
comment about his the reason why he
voted that that to me is unacceptable
and that's more like Venezuelan style
politics this we still have a
constitution and people have a right to support the reason why they're voting
for a
situation and I I really Mr man I wish
you the best of luck I know whatever you
do whatever Direction you're going to go
in you're going to be wonderful and if
in the future you ever decide to jump
the
aisle the black redneck Corporation will
definitely support you in your efforts
for whatever you want to do if you
decide to run for office in the future
I'm sorry you're leaving and I hope the
new person that's coming on is going to
stand up to this the four uh situation
of Setters that think that they're on
top of the game and for the finance
director to approve a budget that starts
out with a def deficit is unbelievable
to me I I I don't think he went to a
warten School of
Business good luck Mr palamini and um
I'm sure our paths will cross again
thank you Tom
Kennedy
good evening Mr Mayor city council uh I
to forego my usual
pleasantries
um like uh my my sister
uh clodia kav I can't be here for the
next meeting and uh next council meeting
and I didn't want to miss the
opportunity to recognize and thank Mr
pal manyi for his service to the city
for his diligent uh work for the
citizens uh who have
needs um the other day I was at the uh
Belleview little league and the paving
there and what they did with the
Pavilion is going to uh reap benefits
for the kids up there for years to come
and much of that is because of Mr pal
manyi um even beyond that um as the
chair of the the Republican Party um
we're going to have odds at as Democrats
and Republicans and the work and family
party uh that's just the way things are
um but it's refreshing when you have a
politician and a elected leader who can
set aside politics and deal with the
issues and we've always found that to be
with Mr pal
manyi before I leave I just wanted to
also uh send a message from uh our
former mayor who couldn't be here Mr uh
jiny he's down in New York City on
business today I told him I was going to
come tonight and speak
and he said he wanted to remember Mr pal
many's dad who was very proud of his son
um and Mr jinsky recalls U holiday
speaking with Mr Mr palman senior um and
he was always very very proud of his son
and wish he could be here uh he said he
wished that he could be here to see how
his son uh has served the city so with
that um uh we appreciate it U again the
Republican Party appreciates Mr pal many
and we wish him all the all the best in
the future and uh we hope we see him
back here soon thank you thank
you
ran
artist good evening I'm ran arst uh
lifelong connected resident homeowner
and business owner um I don't know can I
just hand you that I'm not for you guys
read just look at the date of that
article that I was in in
2009 and I was in buis this four years
before that it took four years for me to
get any traction going on our minority
partic ipation in this connec
contracts we're at a lull nothing's
happening it started to move I know
Ron's in there now but we're still in
the same position we're not getting the
contracts they're making all kinds of
excuses to not use the
minorities and I've been coming down
here on and off since
2005 asking begging for you guys to do
something about this I see you out there
when you come to my house and you want
my vote I met you on a job Gary I told
you there was a problem and it just goes
on and on there's no way it's even
acceptable to have million dooll
contracts and give a minority $10,000 of
it it just doesn't the numbers don't
work out a lot of us are working in
different
towns and I know you guys are doing like
a budget but I mean it's it's kind of
simple to me we live here we want to
work here we spend our money here these
other
contractors take that money and go to
their
Town what benefit are we getting them
buying a water at at
Stewarts I pay my taxes here I'm proud
to be from
skty and it's if they if I I think about
it as this if you have children because
I remember when I was in
prek you had the fireman's hat to police
policeman's hat to
construction if we as minorities brown
black
whatever if we don't see our kind doing
the work we don't believe it's
obtainable to
us so when you want to start with people
saying that well all they see is the
drug deal around the corner well let's
start with let's seeing the people out
there from their neighborhood with a
job that will give them the incentive
that there's something else to do
it's not just look at the fancy car okay
he can do the same thing but he goes to
work every day and he doesn't have to
worry about the problems it's a win-win
I
feel I just think we all need to do
something about it and I'm just getting
tired of coming down here year after
year saying the same thing about the
same companies and nothing getting done
thank you thank
you I have no one else signed up to
speak so I declare the public comment of
City business
closed miscellaneous business of the
council Mr Palam so the last several
years in particular I've generally eduse
this time of year to go over what we've
accomplished during the year
um so there
um forget that I will really focus on
the number of phone calls and uh text
messages um that I've received over the
past few weeks um very many um I want to
thank all those
individuals um you know they were very
grateful to me um but the reality is
none of that would have been
accomplished without them I look at some
of the things that we've accomplished
together with Steve and Ed at the bellw
Little League um or Hillhurst Park
excuse me um where we worked on that for
five six years and it's come to fruition
finally this year Fair viiew Park as
well and there's more to come there still needs to be The Botch ball
courts as well as the dog park at
Hillhurst um working with Ed and Rob at
Belleview Little League to make sure uh
the kids have have a safe place to play
and they really have a number of
initiatives to um help the kids um
styman Park uh where we put up
um um dog uh dispensers uh so that
people can pick up after their dogs um
and we have projects in the work cell
happen the veterans uh Memorial with uh
Camille and Dave at styons
um I look at some of the things that
we've accomplished at the a diamond
where the uh baseball field with some
others we recognized that the dimensions
weren't appropriate for Collegiate
tournaments made sure that was fixed um
having proper bullpens in the scoreboard
um then we look at some of the things
that we've accomplished in woodlon with
some of the cleanups and accomplishments
with uh some of the the smaller parks
within
woodlon um Hamilton Hill when the uh we'
done several cleanups on SKC Street when
the lights were out on SKC Street showed
up the next day with the mayor's help
with Mr cucho's help the lights were
turned back on um so these are just some
of the
small things that we've accomplished
together the public with myself the
Michigan Avenue Avenue field which has
been quite frankly it's one of the
better Youth Baseball facilities in the
area um including you know probably
around 50 60 miles for sure so all these
things haven't been done while I
appreciate the nice words they're not one person they're working
together with the individuals in our
community and that's an important aspect
um you know working with the the various
neighborhood associations so we've got a
lot accomplished there's more to be done
uh and things will get done uh we still
in Bellvue for example Hillhurst Park
Pool uh needs to be either fixed or
filled in and put with a um Splash Pad
so those are things that that we'll work
on um but those were all together and
that's the key aspect is different
members of the community uh Deedra and
Frank uh the elderly ladies in in
Hamilton Hill that needed help um those
were working together so that was uh I
think some of the more important
accomplishments um in this particular
year um as far as the uh the the other
things that that are happening um one
thing I did want to comment on is with
the school district with the Yates
school with the fields um they should
not sell those fields uh several years
ago a school district was approached uh
there were individuals ready to use the
fields to get them up to Snuff the
school district had the money to be able
to to um repair those facilities and
those could have been great things for
those kids that are over there
particularly in the north side
Village you know giving them
opportunities to have safe uh activities
after school or in the summer um there
were plenty of options to do and the
school district really is doing the
wrong thing in my opinion with this with
this move so thank
you thank you Miss
Patrick uh earlier this evening uh the
mayor
council president Porterfield Miss Doro
myself were all at the uh zone five um
where several uh officers were promoted
uh as well as we had new uh recruits
that received their guns and badges this
evening and uh their families were there
it was a very nice uh ceremony and I
just wanted to congratulate everyone uh
that uh was involved with that tonight
and wish them well and I I want them to
uh hopefully stay safe also this time of
year there's obviously many many
nonprofits in our community um as well
as the school district that are uh
holding different kinds of events to
either bring in food or bring in warm
clothing um ringing Bells at the markets
all this kind of stuff so I just want to
thank all the volunteers that are out
there uh making sure that the holidays
are going to try to be a little bit
brighter for folks that don't have uh as
much as as those of us SE seated here so
uh that's it thank you thank you
Mr
Furley thank you I just wanted to um
Echo um some of what Miss Patrick was
talking about with the local nonprofits
um these are the holiday seasons and
people always get together to give um
and it's a beautiful thing it's a great
energy that's within our city around
this time I just want to caution
everyone as you're doing these things
and as you're helping families um we
live in kind of the information age
which uh really entails a lot of
photographs and things like spreading
across social media um I just want want
to uh just encourage everyone to be
really mindful um and try to as we help
families that are need to do it with a
level of dignity allowing them to
maintain their dignity through the
process meaning that we should be able
to you know nonprofits take picture of
the works that you're doing not
necessarily those who are directly
impacted um there's a lot of stigma
attached to some of these things we just
want to be mindful of that but I greatly
appreciate all the work that's happened
in the community thank you thank
you mayor
thank you madam president again
appreciate everyone who came out tonight
uh had the opportunity as councilwoman
Patrick pointed out uh promote two
sergeants two lieutenants and welcome
eight new
patrolman uh Patrol members who have uh
graduated from the uh zone 5
Academy so that uh again uh police
department is out there doing a great
job and uh uh serving the community well
also encourage people as you're making
some of your choices in the holiday
season remember the venues in skty if
you're doing your shopping going out for
eating or entertaining a lot of great
offerings here within the community uh
some have been around a long time some
are fairly new but take advantage of
them thank you madam president thank you
I'd like to thank everyone out for
coming out tonight to voice to come
voice their opinion and um to give their
um congratulations to our council member
and um thank you Miss Ora for coming to
continually bring us that this
information um I I also as the mayor
said was at zone 5 today so it was great
to see that and everybody was the the old guy they called him the old guy
was 32 everybody was so young so it was
uh so nice to to be able to have uh to
have uh new police officers Jan our
Force you know we've consistently
talking about that we need to up the
force so today we saw nine new officers
join the force so it's glad to be there
um and also just want to wish everyone a
happy holiday season and stay safe
there's nothing further to come I'll ask
for a motion to adjourn mov by Mr Farley
second by Mr muan all those in favor I
we are adjourned have a good
evening
I don't know if you went back