[Music]
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[Music]
yeah
[Music]
yeah
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
e
know
e
[Applause]
for
spe
e
spe
e
whe
that
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e
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mayor do that
after
spe
e
would everyone please take their
seats
e
thank you
so welcome and happy New Year
everyone thank you all for being here
I'd like to call the organizational
meeting of the city of skincity to order
for Tuesday January 2nd
2024 I'd like to ask everyone to rise
for the invocation by Reverend William
ly Hamilton of Friendship Baptist
Church let us
pray gracious God our Father we invoke
your presence into this place on this
occasion that we come with bowed down
heads to lift up those who have been
selected and elected to serve in various
capacities in the city of connecti we
ask your continued blessing upon this
city but we ask your special blessing
upon mayor McCarthy we thank you that it
is the will of the people that he will
continue to serve where he has already
served with great distinction he served
honorably honestly in humility and great
integrity and we ask that you would
continue to lead him as he leads this
great City we ask that you would
continue to Grant him the wisdom the
discern discernment the determination
and courage as he faces the challenges
of the May of skincity we ask your
blessing God upon the council leaders
grant them the wisdom the foresight the
selfless desire to gather and work
together for the betterment of the
citizens of SCCY may they forever be
mindful that it is a privilege to serve
in skty and the citizens
ofcity again we ask your blessing upon
those who have gathered and those who
are in the city of skincity please give
us the spirit to work together in
brotherly love to continue to live
together and in
peace make us
mindful that when one suffers the city
suffers that when one is elevated the
city is elevated God we expect great
things in the city of sky for I have not
seen nor ear has heard nor has it
entered the minds of man what God has
for the city of skincity and those who
continue to serve with Godly wisdom
bless us grant us we pray
amen
I now ask Cadet King Cadet Rosario Cadet
Marx and Cadet rahan of this connec High
School rooc color guards to present the
colors I now call upon fire chief Don
Marino to lead us in the Pledge of
Allegiance
a pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible for liberty and
justice for
all thank
you
and I ask mayor McCarthy to come forward
to take his oath of office his oath will
be administered by The Honorable Matthew
J sanusi everyone please be
seated
thank
you
ra your
repeat I Gary R McCarthy do solemnly
swear I Gary R McCarthy do solemnly
swear that I will support and uphold the
Constitution of the United States that I
will support and uphold the Constitution
of the United States that I will support
and uphold the constitution of the state
of New York that I will uphold the
constitution of the state of New York
and the charter and laws of the city of
SK and the charter and the laws of the
city of skincity and that I will
Faithfully discharge the duties as mayor
of the city of scity and that I will
Faithfully discharge the duties as mayor
of the city of sken to the best of my
ability to the best of my ability so
help me God so help me God
congratulations thank
you
[Applause]
congratulations mayor McCarthy thank you
I now ask M DOR Doro to come forward her
oath will be administered by her
daughters D Donata raphaela and
Gabriella
Doro
Tor Tor swear swear that I
support that I will support the of the
United States of the United States the
Constitution of the state of New York
the constitution of the state of New yor
and the charter of the city of SK and I will
Faithfully discharge the duties and I
Faithfully discharge the duties of the
office of of the office of city council
member SK city council member the city
of in the city of SK according to the
best of my ability according to the best
of my
ability
good evening I stand before you
tonight good evening I stand before you
tonight humbled by the faith you placed
in me I was elected because I had so
many of you absolutely right here in
this room working with me
and we'll continue to need your help
moving forward this is our city but most
importantly it's our home I look forward
to working under mayor McCarthy's
leadership and alongside my city council
members and all the dedicated employees
of the city of
skty I just like to thank my dear
friends John palami Dave balk and Bob
and marielen brem for their guidance
support and Leadership throughout my
campaign I I'd also like to thank so
many of you that walked with me Bill
Masa and his beautiful granddaughter
Clarissa they were by my side almost
constantly I'm grateful to so many of
you especially my amazing daughters
Donata rafhaela and Gabriella for their
encouragement love and support I look
forward to working with each of you for
the next four years thank
[Applause]
you
I would now now like to call Mr Joseph
manini to come
forward his oath will be administered by
the urban wise men and executive
director of community fathers Mr Walter
[Applause]
Simkins
hi Joseph man hi Jose who Solly swear that I will support the
Constitution of the United States that I
will support the Constitution of the
United States the Constitution of the
state of New York the constitution of
the state of New York and the charter of
the city of scity and the charter of the
city city connected and that I will
Faithfully discharge and I Faithfully
discharge the office the duties of
office of connect city council member of
connect city council member in and for
the city of SKC in andity conect
according to the best of my ability
EXC I'll I'll I'll be quick but there's
so many people I'd love to acknowledge
I'll try to get to that but I chose Mr
Simpkins I've known Walter for so so
long and be becoming a member of the
council feels like coming home for me um
I served this community for close to 30
years in probation and social services
and did a lot of wonderful work with so
many partners uh the police department
your nonprofit agencies Social Services
the judges I've really gotten to know so
many people and seeing so many of you
here now is is a blessing to me and one
thing Walter said to me was was really
stuck to me it's probably the best
compliment I could ever have is he says
Joe I've known you how many years um and
you haven't changed your heart's always
in the right place you always want to
make a difference in the communities
here and I really respect that and uh
Walter and I got to spend a week in the
Bronx when I left the city and took a
job as a commissioner down uh to look at
a good Community program and I really
got to know him there as well um so I'm
really grateful I I want to thank my
campaign manager Maxine barage
I met um through a meeting and how she
was supportive I um I had a lot of
losses during Co both my parents my
brother and his wife passed away this
year uh well last year and it was very
difficult and there were times I had my
some of my own health issues and I did I
wanted to drop out and her Relentless
and ruthless compassion to keep me going
and say Joe you still have a lot to
offer and her strategies really made a
difference um Mariam um and dman who
approached me and John and asked me to
run um cuz I know I know them all from
the city and um I took that
on being accepted by the Democratic
party the mayor um Dorene Carmel getting
to know everyone Carl I got to sat next
to during the debate thoughtful and and
straight it's been a great experience
um my brother Chris my daughter Marielle
her boyfriend St Andrew how are you Chris mom dad and and and Don were
looking at we did it um so I'm looking
forward to serve in this community I I'm so blessed to see so many friendly
faces I'm really looking to get to work
with every member of of this of this
Council and and our public servants as
well thank
you
I now call on Miss Carmel Patrick her
oath will be administered by The
Honorable Vincent
versachi
[Music]
I say your name I caral Patrick do Solly
swear do solemnly swear that I will
support that I will support the
Constitution of the United States the
Constitution of the United States
New York of the state of New York the
city Charter of the city the city
Charter of the city of and I will
Faithfully discharge and I will
Faithfully discharge the duties of the
office the duties of the
office City Council of SK City Council
in and for in and for the city of SK the
city of SK according to the best of my
ability to of my
ab
congratul
[Applause]
well hello
everyone I'm honored to have been
elected for a second term on the conc
city council thank you to everyone who
came out to to vote which is such an
important right that we have here in our
country and I think we we see that all
the time more and more as Time Marches
On and everyone that supported our
Democratic team I'd like to thank meline
Thorne my campaign manager for her
advice and guidance this year and Eileen
handlan my treasurer for being so
attentive to every detail and keeping us
running smoothly thank you as well to my
best bfff Terry scales roller who
stepped in for my husband tonight to
hold my parents' Bible for my swearing
in it meant a lot to me to have her here
to do so as well as to have her husband
Bill roller with me tonight and of
course thank you to judge Versace it was
an honor to be sworn in by you for a
second time many of you know that I had
to unexpectedly schedule a knee
replacement right in the middle of
campaign season thank you to the entire
campaign team who went door too
addressed postcards delivered lawn signs
and more your support meant so much to
me me and I won't forget your kindness
finally I can't thank my husband Bill
Patrick enough he couldn't be with us
tonight he's away teaching this week
besides taking care of me after my
surgery which was no small task that
when I was able to go door too in the
last several weeks of the campaign Bill
drove around following us so that I
wouldn't have far to go when my knee got
too tired to keep on walking I'm so
grateful for his love and his care to my
city council colle colleagues I believe
we are all here for one reason to make
sure that we are serving our City's
residents well keeping that goal in mind
I look forward to collaborating with you
all and with mayor McCarthy to keep
skc's progress moving forward thank you
[Applause]
again
and I call on Mr Carl Williams his oath
will be administered by The Honorable
Maran
[Applause]
Porterfield
[Music]
you Solly swear you solemnly swear that
I will support the Constitution of the
United States that I'll support the
Constitution of the United States the
Constitution of the state of New York
the constitution of the state of New
York the charter of the city of SKC the
charter of the city and I will
Faithfully discharge the duties and I
Faithfully discharge the duties of
office of Sky City council member office
of Sky City Council in for the city of
SKC and for the city of skty according
to the best of my ability according to
the best of my ability so help me God so
help
[Applause]
me
uh thank you so much uh firstly to the
voters who came out to support me uh it
definitely is a a weird uh uh
understanding to accept just that so
many people like I could not even count
on my hands just elected to see me
continue to do this good work that we
are uh challenged to do day in and day
out uh I wanted to take a moment to just
singularly thank my wife Michaela and
our two daughters zah M Malia uh for uh
attending this journey with me that I
have proactively uh decided our family
to go on truly um serving as a council
member is not something that I'm able to
do by myself as you've seen I wear a lot
of different roles the one that I
prominently wear the the proudest is
that of father and husband uh definitely
to my daughters who've only known me as
a council member I hope that that
they'll truly understand the capacity of
the work that I elect to do with my
colleagues uh I definitely proactively
look forward to serving collaboratively
with the the Tage of the mayor uh to
make sure that we can best serve the the
members of our community uh but
ultimately I cannot stand here tonight I
do not stand here tonight uh without
knowing that our household is truly in
good hands with my wife so truly thank
you uh for making this journey more
tolerable uh and I definitely know there
are a lot of trying nights there have
been some long meetings Jo that they
there some long
meetings But ultimately uh understanding
to the the to the words of Miss uh Doro
and Miss Carmel uh definitely being in
the right hearts and minds and
understanding that these roles that we serve to do voluntarily uh it is is a
responsibility that we need to take
further fervently and and confidently um
so definitely I think my message for
2024 is I I confidently stand here
looking to to proactively address the
issues and needs of our community uh and
definitely doing that in in a unified
and collaborative and cohesive front so
thank you uh I know we've said a lot of
words over the last few years and now
it's time for Action so thank
you I will now take the roll call for
the connected city council Mr
Toro Mr
Farley Mr manini pres Mr M Baron pres
Miss Patrick here miss Porterfield here
Mr Williams here and now ask for a
motion appointing a city council
president Mr
Toro thank you is there a second on the
motion second motion
okay
are there any
discussions I will now put the motion to
appoint Miss Maran Porterfield as city
council president to vote Mr
Toro
yes Mr Farley yes Mr Mancini yes Mr muin
yes Miss Patrick yes Miss Porterfield
yes Mr Williams
yes the motion carries unanimous ly
naming Miss Porterfield as council
[Applause]
president thank you and first of all I
would like to thank God for the
opportunity to be here another year
there are some people who we lost in
2023
so before I start my remarks I just ask
for we all to give a a moment of silence
and to remember those that we lost in
2023 thank you first of all I'd like to
say happy New Year to everyone and thank
you for being here this evening I'd like
to congratulate the mayor on being
elected to a new term and to all the
council members who were reelected as
well as welc M welcoming Mr manini to
his first term on the city
council with every new year be comes an
opportunity to start aresh and so we as
a council now have that
opportunity we can reflect on the things
that we accomplished in 2023 and there
may be some who think that we didn't
accomplish a lot but in fact if you look
at our record you'll see that we agreed
on more than we disagreed on because we
just have to talk about the elephant in
the room
but we and one of the things I just want
to note something that we did that is
probably has not happened here before
but has happened in other communities is
our participatory budgeting where we
allowed residents of the city to
determine how we spent the arpa funds
that were going to come in it wasn't a
smooth ride but it was a ride where we
learned some lessons and then people who
don't normally benefit from the money
that comes through the city were able to
benefit and to do things within their
different organizations so thank you to those who submitted
applications thank you to those who um
received funding and and continued with
their project and thank you for those
who took the time and effort to review
some of those applications we really
appreciate it and without our community
it would be difficult to do that the
work that we do the other thing that
happened most recently is having the tax
exemption raised the amount of tax
exemption raised for seniors that is
going to benefit some of the most
vulnerable populations in our city the
seniors and the lower income people but
now we took the opportunity with the
leadership of councilman Williams to
actually to do that and so now those
folks who maybe have been suffering a
little bit because they lost their
exemption because of the rais in Social
Security are now going to be able to
benefit from that again I want to thank
all of the leadership here the police
chief the mayor the fire chief chief
Divine and all the city staff for
continuing to work with us as we go
through um making sure that we run the
city to the best of our ability we
really could not do it without
you the council took some time last week
to sit and reflect on what last year was
like what the last few years were like
and how we would move forward into
2024 and I want to thank you all for
taking the time to do that because the
true measure of character is when you
are willing to have authentic meaningful
conversations accept difficulties and
respon and accept responsibility for
what we've each added to the challenge
that we faced and resolve to overcome
them all and to do better since this is
a council that gives out resolutions a
lot we resolved that we would work
together for the benefit of our
community that we would not let outside
influences make help make um a
difference with us and determine how we
treat each other but that we we work
together because the city and is
counting on us so I thank you all for
that I look forward to working with you
and I thank you for the opportunity
you have given me to again be the
council president and I know that we're
going to have a wonderful year Mr manini
thank you for being a part of this I'm
sure I know that you thought about it
for a while but but thank you for saying
yes nonetheless and for those have
continued to serve and chosen to
continue serve I look forward to working
with you thank you very
[Applause]
much this Porterfield would you please
take the
chair Mr John mutar has been selected to
serve as the majority lead leader for a
term commencing January 2024 until
December
2025 this time I'd like to ask for a
motion for city
clerk motion by Miss Patrick second by
Mr
Mancini all in
favor no Miss Michael has to I'm sorry
has to take a roll call Miss Michael
would you please take the roll call
naming you as city
clerk Mr Toro yes Mr Farley yes Mr
Mancini
yes Mr muan yes Miss Patrick yes Miss
Porterfield yes Mr Williams yes thank
you motion passes unanimously thank
you may I have a motion designate this
The Daily Gazette as the official
publication for the city of skincity
motion motion by Mr manini second by
Miss Patrick all in favor
I
theed okay we'd like to have the
benediction by Reverend Brad
Jones wait excuse me the mayor will do
his state of the city before the
benediction
out I need down
there I was going to take a lot of
pressure off
me that uh want to thank everyone for uh
coming out tonight uh can everybody here
is significant your contributions to the
city and community that we all love and
appreciate uh thank uh Greg Caroline uh
judge sanusi for administering the oath
Classics connect success story product
of City Schools moved out of the area
practice law at a higher level came back
here served at the DA's office was city
court judge and has served this
community's distinction as a county
court judge and so Matt I thank you for
uh your role in uh humbling experience
just administering the oath to me
tonight uh judge Caruso is here uh judge
Versace uh judge Divine who we give a
couple different titles to depending on
what role he's in but uh thank you for
uh your work uh uh Tom Isabella Dave
balk uh forign members of the city
council long distinguished Service uh
thank you for joining us uh father isopo
uh Reverend Hamilton Reverend Jones
again thank you for the work that you do
in your respective uh roles within the
clergy in this
community
uh assemblyman Santa Barbara it's great
to see you uh we always like state
legislators to join us every time if you
could come if you could bring a check
though we appreciate you
more but uh I've had the
opportunity uh my role in the city is to
sit in all three seats here out in the
audience the deis the council seats the
deis looks the most impressive but they
are not the most comfortable seats
they're big they're a little bit awkward
to move around in the city council seats
are really the best seats in this
chamber and unfortunately where the
public sits they are the worst seats
they are I don't think any of the
churches have any that are quite as bad
as these pews that are here and so
taking that into consideration I won't
make my remarks too long tonight so that
you don't have to uh sit here longer
than you would like to but uh I want to
thank the department heads and the city
staff for the work they do every day for
the residents of our city uh it's really
a great team and it's really producing
significant
results even though the budget process
this year was longer than than any of us
would have liked the tax bills that
we're sending out now reflect a 1 cent
per thousand reduction in the tax rates
for
2024 and what that means is that we have
cut taxes seven out of the last nine
years even though that the slight
increase because of
covid and the uh financial status of the
city is sound our assessed value of
property in the city continues to
steadily rise with a total value this
year of
2.47 billion
dollar uh our garbage collection is one
of the great Services we provide our
residents the adopted budget requires us
to deal with
jackpots that's the slang term used by
staff for people who put out an
excessive amount of trash in front of
their property we must find a formula
that fairly allocates the additional
cost they generate back to those
individuals that uh and locations that
generate it you look at just that one
example there again all too often that
happens here in the
city the rates on the slide uh also came
in actually as we were finishing the
budget coming in from our contractors
and vendors uh Municipal Solid Waste
commonly referred to as
MSW has a over 35% increase from what we
paid last year year in
2023 and
recyclables are going to go up over
125% and you have to remember for the
recyclables we used
to do it basically at a break even Point
some years it would cost us a little bit
some years we'd make a little bit of
money based on the value of the tin
plastic and glass that were the primary
components that were being
recycled now it costs more to do the
recyclables than it does for
MSW and so it's the whole area that we
have to rethink how we approach and how
do we deal with it and this week I'm
going to appoint a working group that
will include council president
Porterfield and public service and
utility chair Doro to review our current
service model with Associated costs and
benefits I'll direct that they provide a
report and recommendation to the city
council and myself for the February 20th
committee meeting of the city council so
that we can enact appropriate
legislation or fee structure to again
hold those individuals accountable that
drive our
costs a significant amount of our cost
and demands for services are driven by
what I label is high needs individuals
and high needs
locations we send code enforcement
police the fire department the Bureau of
service
to locations that social services
medical resources and other community
providers are also being sent to
unfortunately many times one provider
does not know the other is dealing with
that situation or that individual or
family I'm Shifting the responsibility
of director Matt Douglas who has done a
great job with crime analysis and
support of the police department to use
his skill set on a city-wide basis we're
collecting a lot of information and data
and with Mr Douglas's
experience I'm looking to better manage
the city resources and improve our
messaging to the public as we identify
those locations and individuals and work
in a coordinated manner to deal with
them in a truly solution-based
process this outlines some of the work
that Matt has done and it's an ezri
platform again it allows to take data
and use it in a graphical format that is
easily understood by not only the public
but people who are providing services in
evaluating situations that we deal
with in 2020 we saw historic lows in
criminal activity due the co pandemic
unfortunately we've seen a slight uptick
in crime but the numbers need need to be
put into perspective the graph shows the
last 12 years our part one violent crime
is still 22% lower than when I came into
office in 2012 and our property crimes
are 19% lower than
2012 and while we've all experienced
individuals complaining about speeding
within the city and it is an issue that
uh commissioner and chief I assume
you'll be working on when you leave this
meeting
tonight uh
crash data is actually down over 8% over
the last four years so that we're seeing
some of the improvements that we're
doing with traffic control devices some
of the enforcement it is uh producing
results and we would encourage people to
again think about the actions that
you're taking for speeding littering and
some of the other nuisances that uh
drive a lot of the complaints that come
to City Hall
SKC continues to develop and Implement
Innovative and
advancements uh to further enhance
Community accessibility to
information in mid 2023 the SKC police
uh launched the first public facing
dashboard again it was designed by Matt
Douglas and as an ezri uh platform that
can be publicly accessed via the city
website this shows reported part one
crimes in the city of skincity during
the last 28 days uh crime statistics can
be selected by neighborhood or by a
specific type of crime and where we
start to look at high needs individuals
and high needs locations what we're
looking to do is take the talent that we
have in some of our crime analysts in
the planning department across City uh
departments and be able to graphically
represent not only criminal activity but
code enforcement
uh Health Care other issues that may be
arising so that we can tell the story
and then also better focus resources in
a collective manner to solve
them uh we're doing a lot of uh things
in public safety we've uh done Dax
that's datadriven policing septad is
crime prevention through environmental
design there's a whole list of uh things
that uh we've been doing
the one that I'm most proud of and I
think has the most significance is the
Hub model and that's where we take and
send uh fire paramedics police Social
Services mental health professionals
drug and alcohol counselers in a team
format to evaluate and guide individuals
to the appropriate support so that they
may live with dignity and reduce their
needs for police and fire and emergency
room Services there individuals that
having problems within the community
some are homeless uh some are living in
less and desirable
circumstances but we have a coordinated
effort that is going out in really
transforming some of their lives and
making a dramatic difference in the
related Public Safety costs that those
individuals
Drive Patrol finder a product developed
by a local company transfinder who CEO
Tony civella is with us tonight thank
you Mr civella for joining us this
product is fully deployed in the Patrol
Division and it's making our police
officers more effective and accountable
and again it's a platform where it's
connected leading with a local company
putting in place a management system
that leverage police resources and so
I'm thankful that uh Civello and his
team allowed connect to to be part of
that process and we again look forward
to having that not only deployed fully
within SKC but with other communities
across the state and hopefully across
the country so that he'll be able to
hire a few more people here in the city
of
skinc this summer the city of sken and
uh local community organizations hosted
the 518 common Unity cup again uh local
law enforcement Community organizations
participated in a five-week summer
series uh Sports series that kicked off
during National Night Out the fire in
the police department participated in
multiple community events throughout the
year and it just shows our ability to
take law enforcement in uh firefighters
and put them out interact with the
public in non-emergency uh situations so
they build a better rapport with them uh
it breaks down hopefully any barriers
that exist and hopefully also increases
our ability to recruit individuals who
may want to consider either a
firefighting career or Police Services
also within the fire department we have
a drone initiative there we recently
received a grant from the Larry
Foundation which will replace the
descending devices those are equipment
that firefighters wear during interior
attack on working fires if in fact they
become a trap they are able to repel
outside the building uh getting away
from whatever the danger is uh we've had
devices in place for about a decade
these are new more modern ones that will
be more efficient and less bulky for the
uh firefighters out in the street and uh
serving this
community uh the replacement of our
portable radios in the fire department
uh in 2024 is going to be a much needed
upgrade and will go a long way to
improving our tactical operations within
the fire
department uh distressed property is
still one of our big problems uh this is
an example before and after uh just a
few years we've reduced the number of
vacant properties in the city of SKC by
over
50% uh but again it drives our costs for
code enforcement uh police fire and
related expenses and on top of that the
Lost Property Tax uh again it's a still
a large problem for the community now
having said still being a problem our
record is fairly impressive where we've
sold over 800 properties my focus since
I've been mayor is to prioritize the
sale of city-owned properties to create
primarily home ownership opportunities
the sales of these properties have
generated over $14.1 million and again
have put back on the tax rols those
coresponding
houses uh this year Mount Pleasant will
see a $9 million complete streets
project that will include new
streetscapes sidewalks bike Lanes Green
Space and the rehabilitation of the
Craig Street Bridge depal properties the
Mosaic Apartments uh development on
Crane Street will transform several
Parcels of vacant land and buildings in
the Mount Pleasant commercial Corridor
into 60 units of new quality affordable
housing this is the same developer that
did the Joe Allen Apartments on Albany
Street the $120 million Northside
Village is complete and being rented out
Bethesda House's new car house is open
and providing Supportive Housing and
emergency housing for adults
experiencing homelessness
again SKC continues to provide quality
and affordable res uh housing to its
residents the uh $2.3 million Restore
New York award for the wedgeway building
and that was the second largest in this
region and the sixth largest in the
state has enabled the restoration of
this vacant blighted and historically
significant structure in the heart of
downtown to get underway from
Rehabilitation and so it's a major
project that makes a big difference in
our downtown and we're just proud of the
team that put that
together uh this picture is the ribbon
cutting of the new CDTA Mobility Hub on
Lower State
Street this was provided with CDTA and
Senator Schumer lining up some federal
money it provides bus service electric
vehicle charging bicyc IC Le access in
pedestrian
amenities uh we also completed the
sidewalk work on North College Street
and there was drainage issues and Street
improvements on North Center Street in
the improvements to the Brandy Wine
Avenue
uh traffic Corridor will be completed
this
spring we have over $35 million of
ongoing infrastructure projects going
into
2024 The Rice Road water infrastructure
improvements including three new water
wells that will produce an excessive
9,000 gallons per minute which are made
possible with a $3 million water
infrastructure Improvement Grant uh
Improvement act Grant from the New York
State Environmental facilities
Corporation these critical
infrastructure upgrades will help
improve the
efficiency resiliency and sustainability
of our water supply system which not
only serves the residents of this city
but multiple adjacent
municipalities and also for general
information uh the Kings Road Bridge
rehab project we will formally close
that bridge on Monday January 22 it will
create some inconvenience but that will
allow the project to be done in a more
timely manner and actually at an overall
lower cost so we uh appreciate people's
tolerance and that inconvenience where
they're going to be re-rooted uh off
King's
Road the Adaptive use uh reuse of
historic buildings adds character to our
community the Foster and Edison
buildings are great examples of this uh
home to the great Nest restaurant is in
the Foster building the Edison banquet
hall and both projects provide housing
to new people moving into our community
and if you've not stopped by the Armory
Studio to see see the Claude Monae
immersive experience please put that on
your schedule and we have Ray leir one
of the principles from uh the uh Armory
joining us tonight thank you Mr leer for
your
work we continue to see an
increase in the use of our online uh
platform for residents to contact the
city with issues or questions that see
click fix if you don't have it on your
uh phone sign up for it
get it on the city
website and after our second full year
of deployment we're very happy with the
utilization and look to continue promote
its use by our residents is just one
more way to better manage citizens
request identifying problems and
ensuring appropriate followup last year
we successfully closed out over 1500
requests thanks to a car's CV Grant we
were able to expand our public Wi-Fi
deployment into the north side Hamilton
Hill between Seward place and Erie
Boulevard and we will be turning on more
in The Stockade area in the coming weeks
I remind residents of the recent updated
interactive WiFi map on our website to
keep everyone posted and where we
currently have this service there are
over 250 access points currently shown
on the map last year at this time we had
about
115 and uh as we get into the uh spring
months I expect to have over 400 total
uh active sites in the
city uh in the last 30 days our public
WiFi has serviced between 1.9 and 2.9
Million page requests every
day this is allowing our citizens to
obtain news information
and access to things that they need to
keep informed and have them provided
basic knowledge in some cases it's a
total of over 66 million hits happened
in the month of December
alone on the right side you of the slide
you you can see the top destination
categories while I'm talking about the
uh Public Access there's also a par
parallel secure side to that Network
that we use for police fire and
Municipal Services which allows us to be
more efficient have uh greater access to
information and again manage the
resources of the
city uh want to thank all the volunteers
who helped organize the Capital District
Drive electric week in sustainability
fair to celebrate the National Drive
electric week here in the electric city
skty was the largest National Drive
electric week event in the country by
the number of registered participants
for the second year in a row the fair is
one of 215 events held in 22 cities
Nationwide all dedicated to advancing
the cause of Electric Mobility so again
it shows connecties leadership in an
emerging technology in an area that uh
again reflects the history and the
future of this
city we continue to take advantage of
incentives and Partnerships as we build
our infrastructure and expand our
electric
Fleet this chart shows a comparison of
two City Vehicles one vehicle driven an
average of 50 miles a week
produces over
13,000 pounds of carbon
dioxide a similar Electric vehicle
driven the same amount of mileage
produces only 2,000 lbs of carbon
dioxide so it shows the dramatic impact
that we can have on our environment and
I appreciate the city council's support
in working with the Departments as we
look to add electric vehicles to the
fleet uh the leader in that of course is
uh Mr da at the golf course who has
converted all the golf carts to electric
vehicles well hopefully the rest of the
city will catch up with you
Matt I appreciate the city council's
early support for the new pool in
Central Park which will be open this
summer it's Tak a little bit longer than
we'd like but uh it's a Class Act it's a
great facility and uh it's a major
project which complements our previous
investment in music Haven the ad diamond
in the ongoing upgrades to our tennis
courts we're happy to have completed
Jerry Burell Park improvements in
2023 the park now has a new Splash Pad
basketball court seating area lighting
and public art this is possible because
of support from the New York State
Department of parks and recreation in
sken county and it complements the
investment made by the city of
sken we have uh the pickle ball and
basketball courts at Hillhurst Park and
the tennis courts at Fairview Park were
completed in
2023 these projects were designed with
the input from the Belleview
preservation Association in the Mohawk
pickle ball league new projects this
year are in Central Park for the
Michigan Avenue in the Central Park in
the Michigan Avenue tennis
courts now I started by saying I
wouldn't make my remarks run too long so
I'm just going to give you a quick
overview here the next slides list over
70 active grants and $84 million that
we're managing to better deliver
services and improve our city and so
even if I just took a minute and one to
would take 84 minutes which I'm not
going to do but I just if you have any
questions on any of these projects
councilman manini who's been here about
a day and a half now is fully briefed on
this and we'll be able to give you a
detailed update on the way out
so so but again these don't happen by
accident it's a lot of people working
together uh really producing results and
this is a beyond the arpa money that we
have so again it's really something that
the staff should be proud of and the
resident should be thankful for in terms
of the results that we're producing
here it seems like uh every week you do
another ribbon cutting for new
businesses or one that is expanding in
and this is a result of our great
unified economic development team led by
Ray Gillan and the Metroplex staff it's
uh really an impressive record that we
have our community organizations and
leaders are consistently recognized for
milestones and significant
accomplishments uh there are always good
things going on and connected with our
many Community Partners something
happening literally every day
here our working together is what enable
us to make so many good things happen I
thank you for the opportunity to
continue to serve as your mayor and look
forward to a productive 2024 as we build
on the impressive record we have in that
we set standards that other communities
look for to follow in our footsteps and
Lady Liberty is back in downtown's
connecties
[Applause]
thank you and enjoy your
[Applause]
evening
thank you mayor I'd ask everyone to
please rise for the
benediction good evening and happy New
Year uh I'm Brad Jones I'm the director
or another name for head pastor at
Christ Church in September I celebrated
my 25th year um as as the recor a pastor
there and it's been my privilege to work
in the community of Hamilton hill our
mission field uh but also in the
greatest skincity area these past
several years my benediction is in two
parts one is a just a brief closing
prayer for the leaders the elected
leaders uh of this city that we've U
recognized this evening uh but the
benediction is actually a blessing on
all the people of God um and I I'm going
to share with you the benediction that
Moses uh passed on to Aaron to to pray
over the people um this is a something
that uh my seven children grew up with
every night before they went to bed my
wife and I would actually sing this
blessing and I'm going to um with uh
apologies to any professional musicians
here I'm going to I'm going to sing that
benediction uh over you so first a brief
prayer almighty God our heavenly father
send down upon those who hold office in
this city of
skincity the spirit of wisdom charity
and
Justice that with steadfast purpose they
may Faithfully serve in their offices to
promote the well-being of all people
through Jesus Christ Our Lord
amen the Lord bless you and keep you the
Lord make his face shine upon you and
give you peace peace and give you peace
forever the Lord be gracious to you the
Lord turn his face toward you and give
you peace and give you peace and give
you peace
[Music]
forever and give you peace and give you peace
forever amen and God
[Applause]
bless council members I need a motion to
adjourn move on Miss Patrick
second by Mr Thank You by Mr M all in
favor council members we meet in
110
[Music]
yeah