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I'd like to call to order the city C
council conf meeting for January 8th
2024 we have two items for original
consideration if the clerk would please
read item number
one
number
resol
transp Federal and appropriating funds
foran Street Bridge rehab rehabilitation
New York State Department of
Transportation pin number
17623 discussed in committee with
objection on consent item number two for original
consideration a resolution recognizing
the contrition of 518 elevated and
recognized in January as National
mentoring month this item will be taken
out of order and presented by councilman
Williams if there's nothing more to come
before the city council caucus I ask for
a motion to
adjourn all those in
favor I'd like to call for the city
council meeting for Monday January 8th
2024 and I'd like to call on Riven Amari
to do the
invitation
Dr Martin Luther King whose birthday we
celebrate in the coming weeks is quoted
to have said as
ear
the
nonviolence of the
Beloved
many hopes and aspirations of the
community that led struggles for civil
rights for all our square a project of
the commission of religion and race of
the United Methodist Church identifies
25 traits of the Beloved Community First
suggested by Dr Arthur Wright As We
Gather in prayer this evening there are
five of those traits I'd like to
highlight to encourage the legislative
and governance leadership of this body
for our beloveds concy the Beloved
Community is expressed in the following
ways one exhibits personal authenticity
true respect and validation of others
two recognition and affirmation not
eradication of difference three builds
increasing levels of trust and works to
avoid fear of difference and others four
focuses energy on removing evil forces
not destroying persons and five promotes
human rights and works to create a
non-racist society would you join me in
prayer omniscient everpresent and all
powerful source of goodness We Gather
this evening asking that you bestow on
these your children your gifts of Peace
wisdom fellowship and strength we pray
that these values of Beloved Community
those who inspired in Josiah Roy Martin
Luther King and Arthur Wright will
continue to inspire our work and
Leadership with this community Inspire
us all I pray and Inspire these your
children the president of the council
and the council members the mayor and
everyone who labors to govern the
municipality with with your presence and
as Paul the Apostle encouraged the
church in Philippi this your servants
may be encouraged if anything is
excellent and if anything is admirable
focus on all your thoughts on these
things all that is true all that is Holy
all that is just all that is pure all
that is lovely and all that is worthy of
Praise may it be so in the name of
everything that is Holy good and
righteous amen amen thank you Reverend
I'd like to call on councilman Miss
Mancini to Alle in the
pledge I pledge
aliice thank
you if the clerk could please complete
the Roll
Call
Mr muon Mr
Toro Mr Farley is
absent Mr
Williams Miss
Patrick M Mancini here and Miss
Porterfield
here we have one out of order resolution
recognizing the contributions of 518
elevated and I'd like to call on
councilman Williams to present this
resolution
those of us those are here to accept it
please join us behind the
rail come behind the rail on the other
side yes thank
you I beg your pardon oh of course yes I
thought you were coming to be
a
I have the floor you have the floor sir
all right before I begin with this
resolution I would just like to outline
that I am a a direct recipient of
mentorship and although not this program
to definitely the generosity of a
community of individuals that felt it in
their best interest to impart some
wisdom on a young individual like myself
so I'm very honored to you presenting
this
today so today a resolution recognizing
the contributions of 518 elevated and
recognizing January as National Mentor
mentoring month whereas 518 elevated was
founded in 1997 as Capital Region
sponsor a scholar in Alban New York and
whereas 518 elevated now covers all of
the counties that Encompass the capital
region of New York and has graduated
over 350 people through its program and
who have earned a post-secondary degree
and whereas 518 elevated is now known
for its specialized programs mentoring
professional guidance and academic and
financial support for qualifying
participants in the Capitol region and
whereas by assembling a network of
Business Leaders educational Advocates
and dedicated volunteers promising youth
are provided opportunities and access to
higher education that may be otherwise
unid unavailable and whereas 518
elevated has promoted mentoring through
its partway Pathways to college program
engaging members of the community to
participate and share networks knowledge
and expertise with with students from
across the region and whereas January is
known as National mentoring month an
annual campaign dedicated to raising
awareness about the power and impact of
mentoring and to recognize and honor the
contributions of mentors now therefore
be it resolved that the conc city
council and Mayor Gary R McCarthy do
hereby pause in their deliberation to
recognize 518 elevated staff and
volunteers for their continued
dedication to providing Equitable
educational opportunities to St students
and work ready adults in the capital
region including skty and applaud 510
elevated for its accomplishments in the
city and county of skty and the capitol
region and I'd like to move a resolution
I need a second please second all those
in favor I congratulations to
passes I didn't know I get to say
anything thank you very very much um the
work that we do is a testament you know
as he said um mentoring brings students
opportunities exposure and networks that
they may not get otherwise so we're
happy to continue that in the city of
SKC and Beyond and thank you for
recognizing um us and the volunteers and
the organization we are honored thank
you thank
you and I'd also like to um thank our
director of development Miss Alexandria
Carver for bringing this to our
attention so we could pass so we could
have this
resolution any need approval of the
minutes for uh December 26th and January
2nd
2024 second by Mr Williams all those in
favor I ask the clerk to please read any
Communications and
petitions Communications presented to
the city council for Monday January 8th
2024 under official from the mayor a
list of appointments dated January 8th
2024 under General from Thomas Kennedy
SKC GOP chair and email regarding a
closed meeting held by the Council on
December 28 2023 at 5:30 stating that
this meeting was a violation of the New
York State opens meeting law and under
petitions there were
none thank you I call on city council
members for any committee
reports this time we have privilege of
the floor um related to the legislative
agenda and I have no one signed up to
speak so I declare the public comment on
the legislative agenda
closed as for approval of the
legislative consent agenda need a motion
Miss Patrick second by Mr muin all in
favor
I we'll now have privilege of the floor
related to the to General City business
and again I have no one signed up to
speak so if there's someone here that
doesn't know the process and wanted to
speak okay all right then um if you
would just come to the
microphone and we would need to state
your name and I need to let you know
that you have three minutes to speak uh good good uh actually good night my
name is Andre Gerard uh some people know
me as AKA uh triple
OG um I am uh the founder the CEO as as
well as the executive director of a
business called gang affiliated
nonviolent guidance over here in
skincity um I'm making a diligent effort
um to give back to the community of
which once I I was um part of
Destruction um at 51 years old uh my
calling is to reduce violence um I am
very active in the community they know
me um I haven't I have issues with find
financing uh my business I have been
recently attacked by um you know um the
sheriff department they decided to take
away the community
Unity um you know I I purchased a
community Unity truck to help you know
um provide food you know and uh hats and
shirts you know to to the community that
I'm reducing violence in and uh I have a
lot of support but I noticed that I get
I'm loved and I'm hated you know I I
just and then I I don't know or I'm not
properly um I would say um I know
there's money and there's resources that
would be much happy that I am taking uh
a leading role in uh reducing violence
in conc and when I say violence I am
promoting hugs no slugs and you know I
had just have a way of you know
interacting with the youth when they see
gang affiliated nonviolent guidance I
mean they just they just come to me and
just explain to me the things that is
going on I have stopped a lot of murders
violence uh stabbings I can tell you
that there's a lot of domestic violence
in connecti and all I am striving to do
is my part and um my name is Andre
Gerard um I am rightwing working class I
am GOP my business other business is
called uh black Republican movement
ww.com you can go and lo log on and find
out more about black Republican
movement.com here in skan in the
518 um uh I I'm just grateful to be able
to uh you know do cookouts and reach out
to the people out here in skincity who
are homeless who are veterans uh who are
going through issues with addiction and
stuff like that I just I'm out in the
streets and I also have secular
knowledge on a different level so it's
just you know I just know how to uh
interact with the people I just that you
know um it's just terrible what's going
on it's a very crisis is a terrible
crisis of violence in uh skan and uh if
it's not addressed properly um it's
going to end up like another you know
Albany or you know Troy and hopefully uh
you know um I can help with you know get
some resources to reach out to the youth
because you know when they don't have
activities on recreational things to uh
participate and they just uh you know
find you know themselves in
trouble thank
you Elizabeth
Walsh good evening all my my name is
Elizabeth Walsh I reside in The Stockade
neighborhood I come before you today not
only as a resident of The Stockade
neighborhood but also as a planner who's
committed to advocating for walkable
vibrant neighborhoods and climate
resilient regions where everyone can
Thrive a little over a year ago I moved
here from Denver Colorado where I taught
Community Development at the University
of Colorado University of Denver this is
the first time in 25 years of living in
urban neighborhoods that I've not been
able to safely walk bike or take a bus
to meet all of my we basic
needs uh thankfully with your
collaborative leadership with uh all
sorts of public sector Civic and private
Partners uh and your strategic
Investments a future of Transit oriented
sustainable development is on the
horizon thank you for all you have done
in collaboration with County officials
to support Transit oriented development
one of the key priorities from the scnc
2020 comprehensive
plan
um pardon me
which was adopted in 2008 it's been so
exciting to see the Gateway Mobility Pub
the Region's first major M multimodal
Transportation Hub adopted at State and
Church Streets now it's easier than ever
for SKC residents and visitors to
conveniently and comfortably access A
diversity of Mobility options including
access to over 10 major bus lines as
well as a bike and scooter share program
and parking for electric vehicles and
personal bikes now people can get get
off a bus hop on to a bike and access
all of what downtown SKC has to offer
well the new Gateway Mobility Hub is
really exciting it's also important to
remember that activating multimodal
Mobility hubs like these requires a
larger Equitable Transit oriented
development strategy people are only
free from dependence on automobiles
where they can easily access all their
basic weekly needs near Transit stops
for instance commuters are much more
likely to use a bus when they know that
they can make a quick stop at the
grocery store before they hat back and
the bus at the end of the day to go home
surely that's one of the many reasons
that the 20120 comprehensive plans
implementation strategy recommended to
make it a priority to quote identify
locations and complete a feasibility
study for an inner city grocery store
although we all know that downtown skd
has not had a downtown grocery store in
20 years more than 20 years it's
important to recognize that City staff
and elected leaders have been really diligent in moving that plan
forward there have been several
completed uh feasibility analyses that
reveal that a grocery store located very
close to the mobility Hub is not only
feasible but would also significantly
contribute to our local economy and to
the Community Health of surrounding
neighborhoods thankfully we also know
that there's tremendous momentum under
the way thanks to the Thousand Members
Plus of the Electric City Co-Op and you
all for investing in the co-op a million
dollar of arpa money along with the 3
million committed from the county the
other great news is that the county of
SKC now owns an impressive assemblage of
parcels oh that's time yes you can
finish your sentence but then I need you
to summarize and an impressive
assemblage of parcels immediately next
to the Gateway Mobility Hub um which is
an unparalleled opportunity to
collaborate to attract the uses that can
really support Equitable Transit
oriented development
thanks thank
you I have no one else signed up to
speak so I declare the public comment of
City business
closed any miscellaneous business of the
council Mr
Williams uh good evening thank you
although we haven't experienced a lot of
snow I thought it was important to just
take a moment uh to appreciate the uh
Investments uh that have been made um
yesterday there was a lot of that was uh
present within our city and I want to
remind the residents that it wasn't a
coincidence that our roadways and
streets were paved in most instances
Equitable fashion I wanted to take a
moment to I think it's easier to
criticize uh sometime so I wanted to
deliberately take a moment to just
appreciate the uh investment uh that our
office of General Services makes to
ensure that our roadways are always uh
clean and drivable for our residents um
but I also wanted to identify that as as
I was putting out trash out front of my
house today uh regardless of the weather
conditions heat rail heat rain hail or
snow um our uh sanitation department uh
does an exceptional job with removing
all of that and uh I know during our
budget season uh we definitely
deliberated at length about how to fund
that resource but I think it's safe to
say at no point do we undervalue uh that resources ability to meet the needs
of our growing city uh to both uh our uh
Street um plowing efforts during our
winter seasons and also to our
sanitation department I sincerely wanted
to just say thank you for the hard work
I think we're do another snowfall either
today or tomorrow uh so everyone please
be safe uh and also intentionally if you
live around a school zone please make
sure you are cleaning your Pathways uh
in a lot of instances there are um
families that are transiting into
schools uh by foot and what makes it
more difficult during our seasonal
weathers is having ice or unpaid
walkways so although it might be in
consideration to yourself please make
sure you are not inhibiting um or or uh
putting in place any more obstacles that
are preventing our younger uh students
from reaching and getting a formal
education daily thank you thank
you
mayor thank you Madame President uh and
followup to uh councilor member Williams
uh had the uh snowstorm got through that
pretty good the forecast for tomorrow has uh some snow starting in
the afternoon changing to rain there may
be an inch or two so it could be
significant but they're also
forecasting uh wind gusts that may
approach 50 mil an hour so there's a
chance for trees to come down power
lines to come down and we just have
people be cognizant of that and be
cautious always treat a utility line as
it being a live electric line and if you
do lose power see down uh telephone poll
trees or anything to make sure you call
National Grid or
911 thank you madam president thank you
mayor I'd like to thank everyone that
came out this evening to um make their
concerns uh known to the city council
and um I also want to thank all the city
council members I I think we're off to a
good start and welcome to Mr manini and
thank you for leading the pledge today
so um you know I'm looking forward to
all the work that we'll be able to do
collectively and collaboratively with
the mayor for the city of scetti so I'm
excited about
2024 just want to remind everyone that
next Monday is Martin Luther King is
Martin Luther King day is observed so we
will not be having our committee meeting
on that Monday but instead on Tuesday so
Monday's a holiday so would and there's
a few observations around the capital
region for those of you who want to take
out the time to um to do that and let's
just as we um celebrate Martin P King's
birthday let us just remember what he
stood for and that it's not just a day
to observe but absolutely to believe in
what he preached in terms of um working
together and the Beloved Community thank
you very much and with that I'd ask for
a motion to
adjourn I move by move by Mr Williams
second by Mr Mancini all those in favor
I we're adjourned have a good
evening oh I kept them longer than they
wanted to
stay
you're not us a chance