[Music]
Heat. Heat.
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Heat. Heat.
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[Applause]
[Music]
Heat.
Hey, Heat.
[Music]
Heat.
[Music]
Hey, Heat.
[Music]
Hey, hey.
Heat. Heat.
[Music]
Hey. Hey. Hey.
[Music]
Heat.
[Music]
Heat.
[Music]
Heat. Heat.
Hey, hey, hey.
[Music]
Heat. Heat.
[Music]
Hey, hey, hey.
[Music]
Heat. Heat.
[Music]
Hey. Hey. Hey.
[Music]
Heat. Heat.
[Music]
Okay.
» I'd like to call to order the city
caucus meeting for Monday, July 14th,
2025.
We have 14 items for original
consideration and one item for
introduction only. If the clerk would
please read the local law being
introduced.
A local law to create article 5 section
210-20 to chapter 210 of disconnectity
city code prohibition of eviction
without good cause.
>> Thank you. If the clerk could please
read item number one.
>> Item number one for final consideration.
An ordinance to amend article 7 trucks
section 248 of the Skenctity city code
to exclude trucks, tractor and tractor
trailer combinations over eight tons on
Kings Road from Albany Street to the
city line.
>> Discussed in committee without objection
on consent. Item number two.
>> Item number two for original
consideration. A resolution calling for
a public hearing to create a local law
for article 5 section 210-20 to chapter
210 of the Skenctity city code
prohibition of eviction without good
cause.
>> Mr. McDar
call for roll call.
>> Roll call on item number two. Item
number three.
>> Item number three for original
consideration. A resolution authorizing
the Department of Finance to make a
second budget amendment to the 2025 golf
course budget.
>> Discussed in committee without objection
on consent. Item number four. Item
number four for original consideration,
a resolution to authorize the mayor or
his designate to enter into supplemental
agreement number one with New York State
Department of Transportation for the
Crane Street Bridge Rehabilitation over
CSX Amtrak, City of Skenctity, New York
State, DOT, pin number 1762.36.
» Discussed in committee without objection
on consent. Item number five. Item
number five for original consideration,
a resolution authorizing a 2025
reallocation related to an agreement
between the city of Skenkity and CSEA
local 1000 AFS CME AFL CIO unit 8501
>> discussed in committee without objection
on consent. Item number six.
>> Item number six for original
consideration. a resolution authorizing
a 2025 budget reallocation related to
the to an agreement between the city of
Skenkity and the International Union of
Operating Engineers, local 158 district
106 operating engineers.
>> Discussed in committee without objection
on consent. Item number seven.
>> Item number seven for original
consideration a resolution authorizing
the mayor to enter into an agreement
with for the city hall parking lot 27
Broadway license. discussed in committee
without objection on consent. Item
number eight.
>> Item number eight for original
consideration, a resolution authorizing
the sale of 652 Sunset Street for
$1,500.
>> Discussed and committed without
objection on consent. Item number nine.
>> Item number nine for original
consideration, a resolution authorizing
the sale of 714 Broadway for $31,000.
>> Discussed in committee without objection
on consent. Item number 10. Item number
10 for original consideration, a
resolution authorizing the redemption
and withdrawal of 2110 Lennox Road from
foreclosure.
>> Discuss in committee without objection
on consent. Item number 11.
>> Item number 11 for original
consideration. A resolution authorizing
the settlement of a tax certary action
by the owner of of property located at
433 State Street.
>> Discussed in committee without on cons
discussing committee on without
objection on consent. Item number 12.
for original
consideration, a resolution authorizing
the settlement of a tax certary action
by the owner of a property located at
450 Dwayne Avenue.
>> Discuss the committee without objection
on consent. Item number 13.
>> Item number 13 for original
consideration, a resolution authorizing
the settlement of a claim by Mount
Pleasant Bakery, Inc. and Joseph Ratano.
>> Discussed in committee without without
objection on consent. And item number
14.
>> Item number 14 for original
consideration. A resolution recognizing
the March for Jesus 20th anniversary
>> discussed in committee without objection
on consent and this will be presented at
their march on July 26th.
» Thank you. If there's nothing further to
come before the city council caucus, I
ask for a motion to adjurnn. Motion by
Mr. Mutar, second by Miss Patrick. All
in favor? I. We are adjourned. I'd like
to call the city council me meeting to
order for Monday, July 14th, 2025.
And I'd like to call on Reverend JC for
the prayer invocation.
» Father, we thank you once again for this
in this place.
We thank you for giving us another day
in this land of the living.
Now we pray for wisdom, Father.
Wisdom to ask the right questions.
Wisdom to get the right answers.
For you are the God of wisdom. Without
that wisdom in display this tonight, oh
God, in this place and we give you
thanks in Jesus name. Amen.
>> Amen. I'd like to call on Harleen
Andress to lead us in the pledge of
allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
stand
with
all.
>> Thank you.
» I'd ask the clerk to please complete the
roll call.
>> Mr. Toro,
>> Mr. Farley,
>> Mr. Mancini
>> here,
>> Mr. Muver.
>> Present.
>> Thank you.
>> Miss Patrick
>> here.
>> Mr. Williams is absent. Miss Porterfield
>> here.
» Thank you. I'd ask for approval of the
minutes for June 23rd, 2025.
>> Moved by Mr. Mudarin, second by Miss
Patrick. All in favor?
>> Thank you. I'd ask the clerk to please
read any communications and petitions.
>> Communications presented to the city
council for Monday, July 14th, 2025.
Under official, there were none. Under
general, there were none. And under
petitions, there were none.
>> Thank you. Calling on council members to
provide any committee reports.
Okay. At this time, we will have
privilege of the floor related to the
legislative agenda. And
I'm going to guess at a number, but it
looks like we have about 23
people signed up to speak.
Okay.
The first person signed up is Justennia
McCully.
Just McCully.
She did submit an online she does we do
have an online submission for this uh
individual.
She wrote, "Nitrous oxide, often sold in
small canisters as galaxy gas or
whippets, is being used by teens and
young adults across the country,
including here in Skenctity. New York
Public Health Law Section 338
3380.
It is unlawful to sell or deliver
nitrous oxide for inhalation purposes
except for lawful medical, dental, or
industrial use. Vendors must have a
legitimate reason for sale and cannot
knowingly sell for recreational
inhalation.
The New York General Business Law 339-H,
retailers must post signs warning
against unlawful use of nitrous oxide.
Failure to do so can result in fines.
I am proposing adopting language to make
the sale of nitrous oxide outside of
grocery stores illegal in Skenctity.
>> Thank you, James Samino.
Good evening.
>> Good evening.
>> I am speaking about good cause eviction.
Now, if it was my choice,
um I would like to see uh code
enforcement have enough uh staffing to
make sure that every apartment in New
York uh state, but Skenctity
specifically, is safe
and habitable by any reasonable
standard. I would also love to see a
fund created so that people with low
income in an emergency would have access
to some way to maintain their residence.
But it's not Christmas and as far as I
can tell, there are no saints here for
miracles.
What we can do very realistically
is do what New York State has already
given us the opportunity to do, which is
pass good cause legislation in
Skenctity.
I just want to toss a few quick stats at
you. um for this is 2022 and it's
according to that infamous communist
organization the United States Census
if you live in the zip code
12307
one in every 6.8 renters faces eviction
12308
one in every 9.5305
one in every 10.2 2 1 2 12304
one in every 8.4
123
one in every 10.6.
Now, if we go to some of the um other
zip codes, Roderdam 12306, one in every
27,
Glennville 1 2302,
one in every 922,
and in Isuna,
one in every 70.
Now,
I agree that landlords should have the
right to protect their buildings, but
here are the rights that landlords still
have under good cause. You can evict
someone for non-payment of rent. You can
evict someone for violation of the lease
as long as you've provided a 10-day
notice to cure. Nuisance behavior,
neglect of property, gross negligence,
still can evict someone for that. Um the
occupation of the of the unit is not um
safe. Failure to give access. Using the
apartment for illegal purposes,
plans for the owner or or close family
member to occupy.
Um no longer going to be a rental.
Tenant refuses uh
to sign a new lease with proper notice.
And the rent increase, of course, is
limited to um 5% plus uh the rate of
inflation
or 10% cap.
As I read through these today, again,
kind of reviewing the good cause law, it
struck me that I can't understand why
someone would oppose
this.
You can still evict someone for all the
reasons you used to be able to. What you
can't do is evict someone randomly. Hey,
I don't like them. I don't like their
attitude.
Well, tough.
There's a process for people to be uh a
lease not renewed or evicted should that
process go forward. So, with all of that
and all these landlord
protections,
>> I need you to summarize.
>> Thank you. I don't understand. I mean,
it just seems like to oppose this is
more of an act of cruelty
>> than it is responsibility.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
Ladies and gentlemen, we do have a full
house. I want to remind speakers that
you do have three minutes and also
please do not boo other speakers.
Everyone has a right to their opinion.
Greatly appreciate that. Thank you.
Can Canyon Ryan?
Hello, my name is Canyon Ryan. I'm the
executive director of United Tenants of
Albany, but we have a vested interest in
the capital region tenants and
especially good cause eviction. Um, what
I've asked the council member to
distribute is a little document that I
wanted to share with everybody. It's a
list of the publicly available
information that I think is relevant to
good cause eviction. The one thing I
wasn't able to get was the amount of
evictions that have been executed. I had
to submit a FOYA to Skenctity County and
that hasn't been responded to yet.
Between 2022 and 2023, Skenctity was the
uh third highest county for evictions
per 100 renters as the former speaker
kind of already acknowledged. Um the
capital region tenants
disproportionately are impacted by the
eviction crisis is demonstrated by Wler
being number one and Albany being tied
for number four, but Skenctity is tied
for number three. Um I've also included
some statistics about evictions for the
major uh zip codes in the area. On the
second page, you'll see the types of
eviction in the city. Um, between 2022
and 2025, we see that holdovers
represent about a fifth of all eviction
proceedings, of which could cause
eviction would likely reduce that
significantly. Um, we also see that the
total number of eviction filings have
gone down. Um, not significantly, but
they have. I just want to note that in
Albany, eviction proceedings have gone
down about 20%, but eviction executions
have actually increased. So there's less
frivolous lawsuits or frivolous eviction
proceedings being taken uh into into the
courts, but there's still an issue here
nonetheless. I also included below this
um oh and sorry. So just to say that
demonstrates that one in every 10
renters across the city face eviction
here in Skenctity. Um next is the fair
market rent between 2020 and 2025 as
well as the area median income between
the same period. What it demonstrates is
that for a one-bedroom and a
two-bedroom, there's been a respective
increase over the last 5 years of a
43.85%
and a 41.08%
for two bedrooms. U meanwhile, the area
median income has only increased 17%,
which demonstrates that over the last 5
years, fair market rents have increased
at a rate of higher than 2:1 um the
tenants average income, which I think is
really remarkable actually um that rents
are outpacing our wages by 2 to1 over
the last 5 years. Um, and they also
included a list of the localities that
have opted into good cause as of April
23rd, 2025, according to DHCR's website.
What you'll find here is that the only
changes uh aside from so two things the
city can change is the maximum fair
market rent and then the definition of a
small landlord. All of these cities have
opted to define a small landlord as
those with one unit anywhere in New York
State within their rental portfolio. And
they've only changed the maximum fair
market rent, which I think is the right
call here. And the reason for that is
because it's very difficult for tenants
to know if they're protected by good
cause eviction if it's not in their
home. If they look upstairs, they know
that there's a renter upstairs, they
know that they're protected. If they
look upstairs and their landlord lives
there, they know that they're not
protected. They're exempt from good
cause eviction. And then on the um the
final two pages, I've just included some
case studies, one from Danker Village uh
and one from Bleecker Terrace where
tenants were facing egregious rent hikes
um and we were able to win good cause
eviction in both of these cases at
different time periods. what's and I
I'll kind of rest my case there. I hope
that this is helpful. Um I heard council
member Mancini say that he wanted to see
more data and I thought that it would be
helpful if I prepared some for you.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you
[Applause]
>> Vivian Zazzley.
Good evening.
I'm here tonight because I'm stoked
about having an opportunity to speak.
Can you hear me? All right.
>> Not really.
>> Yeah.
>> No.
>> Can you take the mask?
I can't
>> I'll take care of it. Young PE people,
please. Thank you.
>> Would you just like to You could leave
your statement with us if you would
like.
>> I don't I have a a notepad. I I can't
take my mask off. I'm
>> If you Okay, ma'am, if you want to. Uh
um ma'am,
>> yes, ma'am. Excuse me. Can Can you let
me do this? I appreciate it. if you
could just go ahead and speak and we'll
try the best if you can get as close to
the mic as you can. Okay.
>> Thank you.
One of my main concerns
is landlords don't need to show that
they have good reason to get rid of a
tenant. So, they're non-renewing tenants
in retaliation for asking for basic
repairs.
I am here to speak for a group of people
that have no voice and get no respect.
For the past 10 years, I lived in the
YW.CA of Skenctity and the stockade.
The assumption is that people who live
in the YW.CA CA are illiterate and
ignorant and that they are old hookers
who can no longer make a living selling
you know what
I have two master's degrees
I taught at Sunni
and I can speak for myself
something happened and my life took a
turn and that's how I ended up at the Y
moved out of the main building because
they're shutting it down
because of it needs repairs.
And I moved into a house in the stockade
for the past two weeks.
My temperature in my house, my I'm on
the top floor of a two apartment house
has been between 85 and 100 degrees.
When I left home this evening at 6:15,
it was 90 degrees.
I have no air conditioner
and I can't open my windows because they
either don't have screens or the screens
are in the windows but they're not in
the grooves.
When I first moved in in November of
2024, I couldn't open the windows
because they were painted shut.
Because the house was built in the
1800s, it's got some peg in it, and
nobody told me how to open the windows
that I could get open.
Now,
I'm in an apartment for over two weeks
since the heat wave started.
between 85 and 100 degrees every day. I
can't open the windows because when I
do, there's no screens and the bees and
the mosquitoes come in and I'm allergic
to them. I'm 65 years old. I have asthma
and have dealt with atrial fibrillation.
When I moved into the apartment in
November of 2024,
I told them that there were problems
with the windows. It's now July. They
still haven't been fixed.
I also requested a peak hole because I I
can't see who comes to the front door or
my apartment door. That was in November
of 2024.
I only got the peak hole a few days ago.
Recently, a man came to the door. He was
wearing a helmet and a yellow reflective
vest, and he wanted to come in and see
my meter. I don't have a meter. I
refused to let him in because I was
alone in the house, and I was scared.
When I called the utility company,
there was no work order for a man to
come into my house.
>> I need you to summarize, please.
My point in coming tonight in summary is
that I have no rights.
I can't I'm living in an unsafe
environment.
I'm paying rent, but my landlords don't
have to do anything. And it's the YW.CA.
They're supposed to be taking care of
women.
And it's not that way at all.
Some of them, the women who live there
are hookers and they are on drugs.
>> I need you to summarize, please.
>> But not everybody is. So what I'm saying
is is please remember not everybody is
worried about their rent being raised
because I'm in rent control and I only
pay onethird of my very small income.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
Ellie Pepper. Ellie Pepper.
Good evening, Mayor, Madame President,
city council members. My name is Ellie
Pepper. I live in the city of Skenctity.
We often hear landlords describe
themselves as small business owners, and
they are. But every other small business
knows that to stay open, you have to
treat your customers well. If a coffee shop gave you burnt coffee or
refused to fix a broken table, you'd
stop going there. Tenants are housing
customers, but unlike other customers,
they can't just walk out the door
because housing is essential and moving
is expensive and disruptive.
That's why some baseline protections are
necessary. Good cause doesn't prevent
landlords from making a fair return. It
just asks them to have a good reason for
ending someone's tenency.
I also want to correct something the
mayor recently said. He claimed he
hasn't heard from anyone who fears
retaliation for requesting repairs.
That's simply not true. Just a couple
weeks ago at the rail, a few people
talked about this very issue. One woman
in particular, who's here again tonight,
spoke about how she has lived in her
apartment for 12 years and always paid
rent on time. When a new owner took over
and neglected maintenance, she asked for
the needed repairs. The response, she
was told she could move if she didn't
like it. That is retaliation, and it's
exactly what good cause is meant to
prevent, and she stood up here and
talked about it.
Finally, I want to raise concern over
the mayor's repeated framing of this
issue as about protecting the middle
class. That may sound neutral, but it's
a dog whistle. It implies that tenants,
especially those in need of protection,
aren't part of the middle class. That
they're somehow other. In reality,
tenants are middle class. They're also
workingass, retired, disabled, parents,
students, and essential workers. And
even if they're not middle class by
income, don't we want a city where
everyone is protected from unfair
treatment, regardless of their
socioeconomic status? This is a moment
to show that we value fairness,
stability, and dignity for all
residents. Please pass good cause
eviction protections. Thank you.
[Applause]
Thank you.
Jamaica Miles.
one copy.
Good evening everyone. Um, I first want
to start off by saying thank you to the
council members that moved this out of
committee, that made sure that good
cause didn't stay in some perpetual
turning cycle of of debate, but did move
it forward is very much appreciated. And
not just that it was moved out of
committee, but that yeah, it's just one
copy of all the petition signatures. I
apologize. Um, but that it's the
strongest possible version of this
legislation that Skinnctity didn't just
cowtow and say we're going to
compromise, but went forward with
finding the most
powerful piece of legislation that we
could in this moment to support
renters in this city. It's a copy of the
petition signatures that have been
collected over the last few weeks. The
total number of signatures happens to be
194 and of those 148 of them in
Skenctity. Some of the comments that
you'll see is John Romano who said
stable housing lowers the crime rate or
Sabrina Henkins I agree things need to
change. These are real people having
real issues. Or Alex Solomon, this would
be a tremendous good cause for the
people of Skenctity. Or Karen Dixon who
said rent is outrageous. Rent don't
match pay. or Lisa Russo. Tenants need
time to find an alternative if things
aren't working out. They need solid,
helpful, free resources and support to
help them understand their rights and
their opinions. I mean, their options
and the support to be able to follow
through. Or Kima Haynes, they also need
to put a cap on how much rent can be
charged up here. These landlords are
living in New York City and charging
rent up here like it's New York City and
people's incomes can't even afford the
rent. Christine Walder, stop outrageous
rent increases for our people of
Skenctity. People should have affordable
places to live if we want skinnity to
thrive. We need a place for all people
to live with dignity and affordable
homes. Or Andrew Tobias Nelson, our
communities thrive with stable housing.
Without a safe place to rest, it is more
difficult to keep a job, to learn in
school, to stay healthy. Affordable
housing makes livable communities for
all of us. For all of us. Or Leanne
Earing, evictions upend lives. Moving
when you can't or don't want to is
traumatizing. People who pay their rent
should not live in fear of losing their
home because of greedy or lazy
landlords. Owning a rental property
doesn't make you a god. You aren't
providing housing. You are extracting
wealth from the working class. Or
Juliana Ratigan. I hope the council sees
this for what it is. A chance to sew
what's best for the a chance to do what
is best for the people of Skenctity
instead of doing what is best for the
personal profit. That's just an example
of the sentiment that has been expressed
for a very long time. I myself stood
here and talked about my own personal
experience in the city of Skenctity,
which apparently fell on some deaf ears
and not recognizing what I shared, the
personal stories I shared of my life in
this city and the number of times I had
to move and the hardship that it caused.
But here we are with this great
opportunity to ensure that we move the
city in the right direction because I
was told this is a new skenctity. So if
this is a new skenctity, then I look
forward to good cause passing
unanimously and supporting the idea of
there being a new skenctity, one that
supports everyone regardless of their
economic base, the neighborhood they
live in, or any other determining factor
that might treat someone as an other.
Thank you.
[Applause]
Thank you, Shimina Bong.
» Good evening. Thank you to the ladies
and gentlemen of the council and for our
city for hosting this. My name is Shima
Bong. Um, I'm coming here to speak on
behalf of the consumer and someone who's
had to navigate the crazy housing market
and the completely disruptive habits of
um, agencies and uh, the processing of
having to do a transfer of housing or to
transition from a stable renter who is
paying their rent on time and being
placed into a position where um where we
referred to and I'll use a quote by um
used by some of the people opposing uh
those people. And I'm just going to read
some of the um the effects of having to
be upended um unfairly as a consumer and
someone and the constituency that I've
had to basically battle homelessness
when it wasn't supposed to be an enemy
of mine.
Emotional and mental health, strength,
anxiety,
and this is the impact on children.
interrupted education, loss of routine
insecurity, uh debt and instability,
barriers to future housing, the way that
it impacts your credit or your
credibility when you're trying to
transfer from one unreactive housing uh
providing office to another. So, I feel
that it is unfair to undermine the
importance of the consumers. Um, it
seems obvious that if you were to deny
or uh oppose fair evictions that you
actually um should understand and do
understand that directly causing social
impacts like displacement uh from social
networks, weaken community ties. um it
affects a certain demographic. Um and
those people um where the burden falls
on them to then send applications to
landlords who are not local, who are out
of town to wait for unresponsive
uh processing uh paperwork and uh
including the fees and those of us who
have to deal with time constraints
because of these unreactive actors. I
feel like all that burden found
themselves on top of the consumer. It
would make it obvious that the the
consumer and people who are paying rent,
who are struggling to pay these
mortgages um for landlords that are may
or may not be here, they are the
backbone. They are the backbone of the
city. The consumer is the backbone of
the city. So having a legislation that
lacks any language that protects those
people, it seemed would be obvious that
it's clear um
health risks. Um and in particular being
again one of those consumers who had to
deal with bouncing from health provider
to health provider to find out whether
my son was exposed
to lead when it's the properties that
contain the lead. And again the burden
is on the consumer not to be sick and
not the land the landlord to clear their
house of uh hazardous um materials.
It again it it sheds light that the
consumers bear the burden of this
housing uh this housing market and they
should be protected and that's why you
should pass good evictions
>> for the consumers because they're the
backbone.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
Sean Ratigan.
All right, you can hear me. Um, yeah.
Hi. Uh, good evening. On June 23rd, the
council heard from both sides of this
issue. I was a bit taken back at so many
of those speaking against good cause
eviction using the fears of bad landlord
behavior being used as an argument to
not regulate landlord behavior as good
cause eviction would do so. Several of
the individuals speaking against opting
in were concerned that somehow by
requiring a reason for eviction or
limiting rent hikes to a maximum of 10%
without justifiable reason would push
out landlord good landlords and we'd
only be left with predatory absentee
landlords. This is fear-mongering and
the opposition has offered no data to
back up these claims. I did a little
processing of the tax uh assessment from
2025 and
estimated that at least 11,000 units
would likely be affected by good cause
eviction law. That's over 11,000
individuals and families that passing
this law can benefit. Those 11,000 units
are estimated using the 1,00 the 2,100
one family, 2,900 two family, 300 three
family, and 590 apartment properties
listed in the tax assessment. I
estimated four units for each of the
apartment properties to be conservative,
but that could be way higher than that.
So, that's really not accounting for all
of the large apartment buildings and
complexes in the city because most of
the buildings in the city likely were
built before 2009. And I excluded any
properties where the owner's address
matches the property's address to
account for owner occupied units. So, I
feel 11,000 units is a fairly solid
estimate. So, you have the numbers.
You've read the law. You have heard
tenants tell you how they need these
protections. You've heard about how
concerns of the courts being overwhelmed
will be was has been proven to not be
the case in areas implementing similar
law.
You know that landlords can still evict
tenant tenants who damage property,
cause nuisance and don't pay rent or
otherwise breach breach the lease
agreements. You know that landlords can
still raise the rent beyond 10% for
various reasons in the law. So please
let's build a better skity where tenants
can lay down roots and stay in their
homes. Thanks.
>> Thank you.
[Music]
[Applause]
Thank you, Laurel Barnes.
Good evening, Madame President,
Councilman, Mr. Mayor.
As you remember my last speech here,
I feel it was very powerful and
meaningful.
I have heard from many people
uh a lady that
has a shop down on J Street. Her sister
was kicked out of her apartment and she
had a family all because the landlord
had a relative that needed the
apartment.
You can't tell me that that's not
disgusting cuz it is.
They had no right doing that to her and
her family. She had kids.
I'm still afraid to even talk to my
landlord
for fear he is going to remember what he
said and he's going to kick me out next
year.
And believe me, none of you want to see
that happen because I will not be in a
good way.
I will not.
This is new skenctity.
Why don't you make it a better light
that it will bring people in who want to
stay here and live here
and bring their light to all of us.
And if you don't feel that's fair,
I really don't understand.
You'll be hurting a lot of mentally ill
people who can't take being thrown out
because we don't have the money. I live
off disability.
I make about $15,000 a year. I don't
have a I don't have the good graces of
being able to move. And I like where I
am.
The landlord is just a jerk.
He has no respect for anybody in his
buildings.
Nothing.
And he hardly ever shows up for anything
unless it's a serious emergency.
And he goes over to his gas station at
the Sicko Place, which is right across
from us. He never comes by to check to
see if everything's okay, cuz he doesn't
care. I've got windows that allows bees
to come in and all these other
bugs.
And
you know,
one of the things I think we all want
are better windows so we could keep the
heat in and keep the cool in and not
have to worry about it. I live on the
second floor
and the first two years I was there, I
didn't have an AC.
I lived on ice packs and a fan.
And the landlord, even before this one,
he was a good guy, but he still didn't
care enough.
And I want to leave you with all this
one quote.
Please don't hurt the people that are
part of this city.
Just don't hurt them. The landlords are
still protected. But this is basically
going on the LLC's who are the evil
ones.
Thank you and have a good night. Thank
you.
[Applause]
>> Mohamad Hz.
» Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madame
President, city council member. My name
is Muhammad Hafes and I'm here to speak
as a land connecting landlord.
I'm speaking again is to propose good
cause eviction law because there are
plenty of new apartment that the city
has built for lowincome tenants on
Albany Street, Crane Street, Van Rankin
Avenue that we actually have to compete
against. It's this low rent and a bunch
of other places. For those tenants who
are unhappy with their current landlord,
please move out to one of these control
controlled uh rent apartment that the
city has built or other projects that
are being built right now.
You will be happier in another place.
And for those people who complain about
a screen window, I mean the Home Depot
sells a screen window for 15 $15 that
will protect you. And landlords, I know
a lot of landlords just provide that if
the screen is missing. I had screen
windows that tenants just push out to
put on air conditioners and they don't
bother picking it up from the ground and
then they wind up having no screen
window. We replace it with a $15 screen
window from the Home Depot. So, it's
always a tenants damage that caused
this. For years, the city of Skenkity,
HUD, and banks have been selling homes
for a lot less than the market price.
So, go ahead, try to buy a new house.
Try to get a loan like we did. We
started that way. We started with
applying for a loan to buy a property
and it went on and on. The 5% the 5% or
yearly increase that some of the council
members are talking about. It's way too
low to cover the increase in operating
cost. We have the water, sewer, and
trash collection fee that you have
increased on us. The city has increased
on us. We have the material and supply
costs that quadruple in some cases.
We have insurance premium that increase
for about 30% on average. I know because
I'm in the insurance business. We have
the higher legal cost. We have to hire a
lawyer if we have a corporation or LLC.
We have we have higher legal cost to
evict non-paying and problem tenants.
And the char the retaliation issue they
all talking about
and they all worried about, you know,
being retaliated against. There's a
bunch of other federal and state laws
that protect you from retaliation. Why
add another law? It's useless. There's
no need for it.
If this law passes, I promise you a lot
of the landlords will keep the apartment
vacants until we sell the property. I
promise you I'll keep mine vacant until
I sell my properties. And that's guess
who's going to buy? The absentee
landlord that everyone dislikes in this
town.
We all know that pressing this law
before November election is a
politically motivated issue. While it
may appear to be helping tenants to, you
know, to get their votes,
it will just make it finding affordable
apartment a lot harder for them in the
long run. So, please do not vote for the
good cause eviction loans connector.
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> Thank you, Valerie Triano.
Hi. Uh, good evening, city council
members. I'm here tonight to urge you
all to vote yes on Skenctity opting into
the good cause eviction law. Skenctity
residents desperately need good cause
eviction law protections. According to
the city of Skenctity 2020 through 2024
consolidated 5-year strategic plan
overview in the capital region housing
affordability study by CDRPC. In 2020, a
household in Skenctity would need to
earn at least $44,600
per year. That's $2144
an hour to avoid a two-bedroom rental
unit at fair market rates. However, the
hourly mean wage for a renter in
Skenctity County was only $15.16.
As of 2023, the average hourly wage
needed to afford a one-bedroom apartment
in the capital region, including
Skenctity, was $20.25.
Renters in Skenctity County face rent
deficient
with their hourly wages insufficient to
cover housing cost for both one and
twobedroom apartments. This is not just
a housing issue.
It's a wage gap, a cost of living
crisis, and a public policy failure
allinone. Good cause eviction does not
eliminate a landlord's right to evict.
Landlords will still be able to evict
tenants for non-payment
uh illegal activity, lease violations,
and property damage. They will still be
able to raise rent so long as those
increases are reasonable and based on
actual costs. What this law does do is
protect tenants from unjust evictions,
retaliation, and unaffordable rent
hikes, especially when those tenants are
simply advocating for safe and livable
housing. This is not about punishing
landlords. It's about protecting
residents, particularly those who rent
from small local property owners. In
fact, this law can help preserve local
ownership by preventing corporate
landlords from artificially inflating
rents and pricing out community-based
landlords. At the last meeting, I heard
concerns from landlords suggesting that
if good cause passes, they may
leave units vacant, tighten rental
requirements, or sell their properties
to corporate owners. But let's be clear,
those are choices.
If a landlord responds to fairness with
retaliation, that reflects their values,
not the intent of the law of this law.
I'm sorry. Good cause does not force
anyone's hand. It simply sets a baseline
of decency. So, I urge each of you to
read the good cause eviction law
carefully, set aside disinformation, and
reflect honestly on what this means for
the people's connectity. We need
policies that support stability,
dignity, and affordable
living for all residents. Thank you for
your time and consideration.
Thank you.
[Applause]
Thank you, Joan Justice. Joan Justice.
Good evening,
Madame President, council members, and
Mr. Mayor.
I believe that many residential property
owners are conscientious.
They maintain their properties well, and
they are truly concerned about good
tenant relations.
We don't need good cause eviction
for those
rental property owners.
There are many who are not
conscientious
and interested in good communications
with their tenants.
I also request that you consider that
many business investments
do not involve people's
homes.
I do feel threatened about retaliation
because I have asked for proper care of
my appointment apartment and maintenance
even in involving proper ground faults
protections.
This is what I heard.
You play with me and I'll play with you.
Is that possibly a threat of
retaliation? I have to operate under
that concern.
I too am a person who having worked for
pay since I was 14
am now no longer able to work both by
age and by granted full disability
status.
My income is very limited.
I do have access to all the help
available to me and I am very grateful
and I appreciate it.
But I'm here to tell you that there are
some landlords who are so emboldened
by abilities to remove tenants without
good cause
that just this Thursday,
an adjacent property owner, not my
building owner, one who shared a
property line with my building owner,
This is an owneroccupied
building.
One of the partners in this business
that own this building does occupy an
apartment.
Since their arrival for two months, we
have been unable to use our parking lot.
Access has been dei denied regardless of
easement rights.
Parking on other people's property is
taken because this owner occupier allows
guests.
I do I've witnessed it's been encouraged
that such a thing
be allowed. I've heard it and recently
the other property owner adjacent same
building threatened to contact my
building owner to indicate that I was an
issue
because I wanted
less noise after 12 midnight
because I can't go anywhere. I have no
options and I beg you, I am begging you,
protect
us.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
Bridget Savage Spies
Bridget
Hello, my name is Bridget Savage Spees.
Um, I wanted to thank the council for
moving forward with the strongest
possible version of good cause eviction.
Um, we really appreciate it. Um, I
really appreciate you guys giving this
topic the consideration that I think it
deserves. Um, I've heard I heard last
time that the council would like a
little more information on as to the
impacts of good cause. Um, while Sean
spoke to that a little bit, I want to
say that over half of skinnctity is
renters. Um, and 88% of those renters
would be covered by this version of good
cause that you guys have presented. Um,
so with that, the impacts are wide
reaching um, with the potential to
significantly improve the lives of
tenants throughout Skenctity.
Now, it can be hard to track how many
lease non-renewals there are um because
they're not filed with the courts like
an eviction is, but studies by Rand
suggests that there are five and a half
informal evictions, they call them, for
every eviction filed in the court. Um,
further research suggests that children
are more than twice as likely to
experience any type of eviction with the
problem being dramatically worse for
black children.
any type of eviction or housing
instability can be extremely harmful to
those children with a study from NYU
Grossman showing that instability
regardless of the degree if it happens
one time or 10. Um it can lead to worse
health health outcomes later in life. Um
and of course if children need to
transfer schools it's disruptive to
their education socialization.
Displacement impacts um the whole
community, not just those who are
displaced. Um but the community and the
city, the whole city feels the loss when
a community member or a family is forced
to leave.
Telling someone that they need to leave
their home is extremely serious. Um I
heard a property manager at the last
comment period in June say that under
good cause they would have to provide
proof to get a tenant out of their home.
Um and I hope so. Um
it If a decision to remove a tenant or
and their family can be made
unilaterally in silence without
supervision from or oversight from
courts or anyone um then it can and as
we've heard today does go wrong. Um good
cause if nothing else at least brings
that process out into the light. Um it
at least shows us where the problems
are. It determines whether or not a
landlord has a good cause to remove a
tenant or if it is something simply ret
like simple retaliation. Um
while there are laws that prevent
retaliation, they protect tenants after
they've been displaced. Um whereas good
cause prevents that from happening in
the first place. Um, I really urge you
to vote yes on good cause eviction
because I believe that it makes the
fabric of the city stronger and it has
done so for other cities across New York
and I hope it can do so for Skenctity.
So, thank you.
>> Thank you,
[Applause]
» Chris Sue. Chris Sue.
» Hi, my name is Chris. I'd like to speak
on behalf of tenants like myself in
support of good cause eviction. So 17 is
the number of cities and villages that
have already opted into good cause
across the state. Um and good cause is a
state law that's already a compromise
that doesn't punish good landlords while
providing necessary stability
um and uh tenant protections to ensure
stability in people's lives.
Um, good cause eviction should really be
called common sense protections. Clear
guidance on what constitutes good cause
should lead to less backlogs in the
courts and better outcomes for tenants
and landlords. Um, so the limit of 5%
plus CPI for a one-bedroom home, which
is currently um 1,265
according to the HUD for 2025, is $14
per month. That's a allowable rent
increase, which is $1,245
per year. So I I think that's already a
pretty large amount for people um um to
see as um an annual increase and there
are already carveouts to consider
property tax and other tax increases and
expenses for the landlords.
So, I encourage the council to pass the
strongest version of good cause because
there are already these carveouts for
the landlords and um to close the small
landlord loophole of having one unit and
um having the fair market rent at a high
level. Um and in summary, um vote yes to
pass good cause eviction. It'll help the
community grow in the future. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
Holly Loth.
Oh goodness.
Good evening. Um, we've been very
focused so far on who would benefit from
or be harmed by opting into good cause,
but we haven't really talked about who
benefits from the status quo. who gets
the best deal if things stay exactly as
they are. And I think Slick is making
the case that landlords as a group are
the ones who benefit from the status
quo. But I don't think that's true
because I think there's actually a
really big really fundamental divide
among landlords and the status quo
really only protects one subgroup and
it's not the good landlords.
As things stand now, the people getting
the very best deal are the ones who
benefit the most from renters being
unprotected.
The people who benefit the most from the
status quo are the landlords who want to
take advantage of people, whose business
model depends on being able to evict
people for no good reason, whose
business model depends on providing
substandard housing, whose whole
business is just being as horrible as
they can possibly get away with in order
to make a buck. Good landlords. And I'm
confident that lots of the folks in
Slick are good landlords. Good landlords
are not protected by the status quo
because their own standards and ethics
are already imposing stricter limits
than the new law would. If you are
already using eviction only as a last
resort, if you are already worrying
every time you have to raise the rent to
cover your costs. If you're already
making sure that the heat actually works
and the dryer gets fixed in a reasonable
amount of time, then your personal
standards are already higher than the
standards that this law would apply to
you. But decent landlords are competing
in a marketplace with people who do not
have high personal or professional
standards. Decent landlords are
competing in a marketplace with people
who treat tenants like scum and
properties like trash. And I know that
my neighbors in Slick know probably way
better than I do exactly which landlords
I'm talking about. And those are the
landlords who are protected now. Those
are the landlords who will win if
Skenctity chooses not to opt in to to
good cause. And so I would invite my
neighbors who are good landlords, who
know that nobody would describe them as
slum lords to look very closely at
what's actually in the good cause law.
And then to ask yourselves, who exactly
does it benefit for our city to keep
giving slum lords a pass? Thank you.
[Applause]
» I'm not sure the first name, the last
name. Suk Dwan.
» Mr. Mayor Counelors,
good evening.
Good cause eviction would bring more
hardship on landlord.
As it stands,
most tenant
remain in their rented apartment without
paying rent for at least six month. That
is what it stands now.
How are the landlord going to maintain
their property and go on? And if we make
it worse, what would happen?
Many
tenants are deliberately withholding
their rent because they know they can
stay in an apartment for 6 months
without paying any rent and then they go
find another one and the system continue
like that. We observe those pattern.
If the good cause eviction is accepted
by the city of Skenctity,
tenants would abuse the privilege.
Landlord would not be paid their rent.
As a result,
they would not be able to
maintain their property. Skenctity would
once again deteriorated like it used to
be before.
and abandoned building would abong once
again. Thank you.
>> Thank you,
[Applause]
>> Chris Morris.
Look what I got.
» Good evening everyone. Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> This is too high for me.
Don't get old, you get shorter.
» My name is Chris Morris. I'm the founder
and director of Slick
Connectity landlords influencing change.
We are the only organized group of small
landlords, realtors, and property
managers in the city. And our ultimate
goal has always been to provide
education, information, and updated data
on how to properly run properties,
rental properties. That is always
strictly our goal, our main goal. There
are three major factors in the housing
rental equation. First, the rental
property itself.
Second, the owner of the property. and
third, who the owner chooses to live
there.
It should be clear that a much larger
investment is made by that property
owner and taxpayer
when there is a problem with upkeep,
repairs, trash removal, trash removal,
code violations.
It's the owner's responsibility to
comply even if the problem is caused by
the tenant and it's his expense.
Without question, we agree that tenants
should be provided safe, affordable
housing. And of course, that affording
is determined when you're signing your
lease or when you're you're getting on
board with the property before you move
in. So, the stability of the housing
depends largely on the tenants's ability
to coexist within the home and abide by
the terms of a signed rental agreement.
Certainly, the owner is continually
bombarded with rules and regulations and
requirements and spiraling expenses by
both the city and the state and the
material and service providers.
Bottom line, owning and operating a
rental property is a business and should
be understood as such. Property owners
should have the right to determine who
lives and continues to live in their
properties.
We urge the council to hold off on this
good cause and give Slick the
opportunity to get back on track with
that proposed preferred properties
program.
a collaborative that was designed by a
task force of city and Slick officials
which features both a required landlord
and tenant training program and Slick
membership and meeting attendance. In
return, landlords would be recognized as
a preferred properties on a preferred
properties list that would be made
available and recently I heard that that
was something that tenants would be
looking for. Who are the good
properties? Who are the considered good
by the city? and you would be uh that
would be made available to you by the
city. Participants would also be
eligible for some yet to be determined
incentives such as maybe some reduc
reduced price of required rental
certificates. And one last thing, for
some reason I been affected by this. Why
is it that only the tenant seems to be
considered people? For some reason, I
hear people re in regarding to tenants
by themselves and by others as well. It
must be stated that small landlords are
people too. They are hardworking
investors in our city. They have
families. They have hopes and dreams for
their future. And they deserve respect
and work hard to survive and provide.
Thank you.
>> Thank you,
[Applause]
>> Pearl. Ha.
» Could you hear me?
Yes, I could hear you.
>> Good evening,
>> Pearla.
>> Good evening, Madame Chair, council
members and mayor. My name is Pearla.
I'm here to speak to urge you say no to
good cause eviction. First of all, the
vast majority of landlords are
incentivized to keep landlord in their
homes simply because it provides stable
income and avoids very costly vacancies.
Secondly, there are already legal
protections in place for retaliatory
evictions and unsafe housing.
New York State Real Property Law Section
223B
explicitly prohibits retaliatory
evictions.
New York State Real Play Law Section
235B
ensures that landlords must maintain
livable, safe, and sanitary conditions.
Therefore, strengthening enforcement of
current laws makes sense then upending
the tenant and landlord relationship.
Thank you.
>> Thank you,
[Applause]
>> Mina. Badu.
>> Mina bedu.
» Mina.
>> Okay.
Is she still here?
» Okay, Steve Markham.
» Good evening to all. I appreciate your
time and attention here. Uh, my name is
Steve Markham. I am a member of Slick,
but I'm speaking for myself tonight as
well. I am urging you to vote no on the
good cause eviction law. I see this as a
New York City mandate to deal with the
issues that this bill addresses there
and I really have my doubts to its
actual significance in the city of
Skenctity. We now have city codes,
rental inspections with a landlord
registry to help weed out the less than
adequate apartments. There is a landlord
and tenant training available through
SCAP and other entities that oversee our
commitment to provide safe, stable
housing and educate both. Uh, I would
prefer to see the city's plan landlord
registry program have the opportunity to
refine and help remedy the issues rather
than a knee-jerk situation brought to
the attention of the city council by a
paid activist and a group from Albany
wanting us to jump in the boat with
them. I have been a rental home provider
for 25 years in Hamilton Hill. I rent
five apartments out and I've lived in
one for 18 years. Um,
the three two family houses I have were
all previously boarded up, as was most
of the street. The rents I currently
charge are far below the section 8
rental allowances and do not even
compare to New York City rents and
quality of units offered. Such as
tenants need a good, stable, and
affordable place to call home. We need
good, stable tenant to afford us the
capacity to provide, do the necessary
repairs, and come out more ahead than
not. As of last Thursday, I currently
have a water mane leak that is being
addressed. There is no procrastinating
on an issue like this. The price tag
$5,500.
Eviction when necessary is not used
hastily by any landlord as it is an
expensive and timeconsuming prospect.
always leaves us with an enormous
cleanup and rehab afterward. Not to
mention the incredible personal stress
and anxiety and in some cases fear and
actual retaliation.
Not to mention the loss of income while
the cost and time and funding come out
of our pockets and any savings we have
managed to acquire towards maintenance.
Quite a few of our landlords in this
city have followed this recipe. Invested
literally blood, sweat, and tears,
family money, credit card debt, mortgage
debt, pay skinnity city and school taxes
while improving the over 115year-old
housing stock in the existing Skenctity
communities in order to create some form
of wealth and in my case the only
retirement I am looking forward aside
from social security. We have skin in
the game. And lastly, I not I do not
believe a worthy and realistic due
diligence has been performed for the
rate of perceived occurrences that this
new law will impact. Help very few, if
any, and have adverse effects on
potential tenants looking for a place to
call home while quality housing
providers contemplate staying in
business, re-evaluate selling, and
changing course. Should this be passed
by the city council, I would request
that Mayor McCarthy veto it and have the
city council be profess be professional
and do a real study that we can revisit
next year. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
» Last name Husan. Han.
Last name Husan.
Uh, no, that's not you, sir.
>> Nan.
» Good evening.
My name is Fadila Hussein.
[Music]
Good evening.
My name is Fidila Hussein. I'm a small
landlord in Skenctity. And do you know
what landlord need most in their
business? Tenants. We are happy to
provide tenants with safe and decent
housing as proven by the rental
certificate. We want long-term tenants
who will show care and pride in their
units. So why would we want to evict our
tenants? We are not we are not in the
business to do evictions. This is our
last resort to regain possession of our
property. Eviction cost us money, time,
and stress. Both landlord and tenants
have an agreement through a lease. So,
what is good cause eviction? What's the
reason for this proposal? And what is
the benefit? Any violation to the lease
is a good cause for eviction. However,
some violations cannot be proven in
court. Example, if the lease say no pet
and there is obviously pet in the
building, a dog in the building, how can
we prove that the dog moved in? Another
example we face is more people moving
after the lease is agreed upon.
They are seen there over a period of
time. They suble and collect money from
these illegal residents. How can we
prove this is violation to the lease?
Then they destroy the property. I have
seen beds set up in the basement.
Us landlords want to be protected from
these devious and unethical behaviors.
And how do we get these extra names of
these illegal residents?
The sheriff need all the names for a
lockout. This is why good cause eviction
is a threat to landlords.
The authorities making these rules
against us has no idea of our struggles.
They take away our ability to manage our
business. I had a tenant behind four
months in rent. She had a roof leak did
not inform me. The roof cave in and she
called codes. codes issue issue a notice
to vacate. This notice is meaningless
because the tenants still continue to
live there and code does nothing about
this. They don't even enforce their own
notice. How unprofessional and
disrespectful to us. It took nine months
to finally get her out with zero rent
for nine months while I had lawyer fees,
late payments of mortgage, taxes,
insurance, all with penalty. But we
collect late fees. But we cannot collect
late fees in an eviction. They left
almost every this these tenants left
almost everything behind. Caused me to
dispose of it plus repairs the floors,
bathroom, replace kitchen cabinets,
toilet, sink, and refrigerator. This was
only one of my experiences with tenants.
I have had others over the years,
including verbal and physical abuse. How
can we survive like this? I vote no to
good cause eviction. Thank you.
» Tom Kennedy.
» Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council.
Name's Tom Kennedy. I'm a chair of the
Republican party. I stand to oppose this
good cause eviction. I'm not a home. I'm
not a landlord, but I represent many.
Um, I'm going to do a little walk
through of little history for maybe some
people that weren't here as long as some
of us were. There was a time in which we
walked through the city and every other
house was boarded up. uh and uh the gy
people came from New York City, spent
their time, energies, and capital and
basically rebuilt a lot of the city of
Skenctity. Um that's just the truth of
it. Um Mr. Hz, I'd like to I'd like to
repeat his uh testimony because it it
means something. Uh he's lived here.
He's been a part of the community that
has rebuilt Skenctity. Uh so we hear
tonight a lot of different things a lot
of everybody has a lot of stats and a
lot of you know different uh things that
you know let's say you know figures
lying liars figure that's it's an old
saying so we have 11 cities in the city
in in New York state that has this um we
have 944
cities and towns
so um just want to make make that clear
we also have said that um there's no
there's been No um no reports or no
problems. Well, you go to Wall Street
Journal
and I apologize for doing this, but uh
Wall Street Journal
uh June 26, 2025,
New Yorkers vote to make their housing
shortage worse. Well, I I can I can uh
attest that is what's going to happen to
the city of Skenctity. These these these
landlords are going to say it's not
worth it. Uh they we They they've had
tax increases of 3% this year. You guys
know you did it. Um you got garbage fees
that went up. Now I mean these fees and
on top of what Mr. Markham said about
fixing his property and having to do
that, those are real expenses. You can't
walk away from those. So you know their
expenses are going up and so therefore
the rents are going up. Now here's the
other problem that you have is in CSK.
We can't build our way out of the the
housing shortage. Can't do it. So,
they're going to build this huge place
out in St. Clair's. They're going to be
240 apartments. They're all going to be
about 700 to,000 square ft. So, that
means you're going to have one family uh
not even one family in there. They're
basically studio apartments. So, the
studio and those studio apartment,
they're going to be about $2,000 a
piece. Well, what do you think that's
going to do to the housing market or the
rental market? Boom. They're going to go
up. So, I mean, you know, and if you
look in into our all our hotels
downtown, they're all full of DSS
recipients because they can't find
places. So,
I agree with Mr. Markham, Mr. Hz. We've
got to take a pause here before we do
anything that can really do irreparable
harm to the city of of Skenctity. You
guys have that power and I I suggest
that you look at the preferred uh
properties list uh that the mayor is
working on with that with the task
force. That may be a I don't know. I
don't know enough about it. But I uh
thank you madam Porterfield for
indulging me after the time. And uh I
just think that it's time everybody
starts working together here and fixing
this problem because it's going to get
bad very quick if we do something that
not is not good for everybody. Thank
you. Thank you.
[Applause]
Heat.
>> Hey, Hemat.
No. Okay, no worries. Um, Mike Dorenzo.
Good evening, mayor, council president,
council members. This is the first time
I've appeared before you. You cannot
hear me. You're going to hear me. Good
evening, mayor, council president,
council members.
There's no good cause to pass this bill.
The tenants already are afforded many
venues to air their grievances. They
have the court system. In many cases, if
qualified, it's free. It's not free to
us.
They can report their agreements as the
code. They can make sure the apartment
has a rental certificate before renting
it.
I don't understand how some people come
here and testify that they've been
evicted many times.
No property owner evicts a good partner.
[Applause]
The goal is to keep a good partner.
I use the term partner because it is
what they are. They are partners.
It is not a one-way street.
The eviction process is long, arduous,
and expensive. Eviction is the last
resort.
Landlords have to follow arduous
procedures.
I no longer interview prospective
partners. I can't ask them have they
been evicted. I can't ask them if they
are felons. I don't know what are the
things I can't ask to protect my
property. So I hire a professional that
costs.
The eviction process is so cumbersome
that I no longer do it.
I've only used the court system once in
30 years, and I have a worthless
judgment for $1,200.
I will sell it to any council member for
$1.
Therefore, I must hire a lawyer
more money.
Don't add another regulation to an
already overburdened business. Don't
make me raise my rent to my good
partners to compensate for the bad. Good
partners don't deserve this. Thank you
for your time.
>> Thank you,
[Applause]
>> Rocky Palmer.
Hi, mayor, council.
>> Hi, mayor, council president, and the
council members. Um, I just want to
address a few things I keep hearing. Um,
there are already already baseline
protections from New York State and the
city. Um,
I heard something about lead levels and
um, apartments. As soon as a lead level
is registered, the county is notified.
They notify the property owner. I'm
speaking from experience.
Um, let's just say they make sure that
the problem is rectified.
Um,
I read all 16 pages
of the of the law
and um,
there's not one sentence about bad
tenants.
the tenants who abuse constantly abuse
the system,
destroy property,
and um make the landlord and ultimately
the good tenants pay more. Not one
sentence, and I don't think I've heard
anybody from the other side bring it up.
And I just find it surprising in all
this law here, there's not one reference
to
dealing with these bad tenants. and we
all have our stories. Uh I would urge
you to vote no. I just think the bottom
line is good cause will allow tenants to
challenge
um an eviction just meaning again longer
court times and just more unpaid rent
and it will just mean higher uh rents
for future tenants. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Okay, this um not uh Chem
last name. It's really hard to to
Chemraj.
» Good evening everyone.
Uh most of my brothers and sisters say
what I had in mind but it have good and
bad in all. You have good tenants, you
have good landlords. They are slum lards
too and they're bad tenants too.
For example, I know in a guy right
through my street where I live. He
didn't had rent for 6 months. He had to
go through all the eviction process to
get the guy out. lose six months rent
plus they throw the garbage out on the
street and obviously we got to pay to
remove the garbage because the city of
Sket passed that. So I'm just trying to
say no.
All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
Raymond Player.
» Raymond Player.
First of all, I don't know enough about
all this good cause, bad cause stuff,
but I hear everybody's story and I just
feel like there's a lot of division and
it needs to come to an agreement because
at the end of the day, everyone's going
to lose. I don't care what anybody says
because like you said, you fighting
against them building apartments. They
building apartments every day. So, your
property doesn't really even matter. So,
And that's what I'm saying. So there's
Hello. So it's just a lot of stuff where
if y'all don't come to an agreement,
it's going to be a lose-lose situation
for everybody. And and that's all I
could say is I can't pick no sides. I
hear the story, but it's no
it's just bad. It's already bad, you
know, and that's the main point of the
whole thing. So if y'all don't get it
together, then everybody's going to
move. There's people that got money that
live here and don't like the
neighborhood. Not because the landlord,
not because the tenant, because of
everything else that's failing. And a
lot of the issues is coming from the
city that nobody's addressing with the
city. So they taking out on each other.
So they fighting each other. They
causing a riff with each other. They got
to live next door to each other. But
their main problem is with the city. So
until they start addressing things with
the city, then they always going to have
this problem. They always going to have
this riff. They're always going to have
this beef. They always going to feel
like they can't do enough and somebody
else going to do enough. While y'all
arguing and complaining, somebody else
is building and somebody else is moving
in and somebody going to continue to
move in. Just like all these apartments
that's coming. So everybody's getting
older and nobody's getting younger. So
your retirement is easily going out the
window. Everything that you're holding
on to is easily going out the window. I
don't speak for everybody. I speak for
myself. I speak how I see things. I'm
not following no crowd because what
worked for him is not going to work for
me. how he treats somebody is not how I
treat somebody. I'm not following nobody
but myself. So,
you know, everybody got groups,
coalitions, committees, but it's all
failing because no one's fighting the
real fight are the people they need to
fight with.
Thank you,
» Dan Benian.
» Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor.
Uh, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Dan
Bennison. I'm an attorney here in
Skenctity. I've been practicing in
eviction court for more than 11 years. I
know both sides because in my first
three years I worked for legal aid on
the tenant side. After I got sick and
tired of politics, I got out and I
started on my own. Now I work for
landlords. So I know both sides both uh side of the stories. Now uh my
prior interlocator had a very good
point.
uh in in the current situation okay uh
if we are keep fighting each other will
be a lose lose situation everybody will
lose and let me tell you why because
right now the good cause eviction
doesn't what does for sure it will make
harder for a tenant to be evicted that's
true but the other point of the story
the other side of the story is that also
this good cause eviction will make
harder for a tenant to get in. Why?
Because nobody's stupid. Uh all these
increased costs which are due to uh
increase in time frame that you have to
evict the tenant, increase in lawyer
fee, all these costs will be passed on
the tenant. It's exactly like minimum wage per economy. They ask for
$15 minimum wage. All those increase are
passed by the to the consumers because
all the products were increased. The
same will happen here. So for now on I
believe everything is fair and we have
three great judges here and uh this
court can be named uh a fair uh moderate
liberal court. Uh I have been practicing
in this court like I said for uh at
least seven years even more and I have
not heard uh any of these judges to deny
a retaliation claim. Always when the
tenant claims retaliation, there's
always a hearing. And good side of the
story is this court is not congested by
like Albany court. I practice in Albany
court as well. And people said it's not
congested. Oh yes, I tell you as a fact.
If you ask for a trial in Albany, you
will get a trial in October. Here is
connected. You'll get a trial in 30
days. And all these judges that like it
or not because again uh uh uh you cannot
uh you have to obey what the judge is
telling you to do. Like it or not the
judge is giving you a decision right
there on the spot. They don't take 60
more days to render a decision. And of
course all these 60 days and all these
three, four, five months the tenants are
not paying rent and of course the
landlords are prejudiced and this
creates friction.
uh friction which cannot be easily
repaired and also what this good cause
eviction does it takes away our ability
to have friendly settlements. Why?
Okay. So I'll be short. Uh I I I urge
the committee to vote no on this uh uh
law because again it damages both sides.
So that's it. Thank you so much for your
attention.
Colin McName Colin McNamer.
Hello again, folks. I've learned a lot
tonight, including that I'm a paid
activist. So, if someone has my check,
please send it to my home. I would
appreciate it.
All right. I just want to emphasize just
how little we're asking for here. I
really can't emphasize this enough.
Earlier today uh we heard a stat I
believe Sean it was I believe it was my
friend Sean had it here that of no sorry
it was Ellie we have uh about oneif of
evictions in this court are holdover
evictions okay so that's 20% which means
80% are non-payments there might be a
very small percentage of illegal
activity evictions which are a separate
category but probably close to 80% are
non-payments
what's really not affected by good cause
eviction y'all
non-payment evictions only if it is a
massive rent hike. Presuming that that's
not happening, if it's just a person who
just fell behind on rent and honestly
not affected by good cause eviction.
That is a number one of good cause to
evict a tenant. I also heard earlier
today that there's not a word about bad
tenants in the good cause eviction law.
There are so many words about bad
tenants in the good cause eviction law.
You can find them helpfully categorized
under RPL 216, grounds for eviction.
There are 10 categories that are grounds
for eviction of tenants. They start with
the obvious ones like non-payment of
rent, like destruction of the property,
like illegal activity in the property,
and they move down to the more kind of
weird and arcane ones like removing the
property from the rental market or
choosing to demolish the entire
building. There are so many things about
bad tenants in the good cause eviction
law. If you have a bad tenant, if you
have a tenant who's not paying rent, you
can get them out. This does not affect
you.
» We are asking for very, very little of
you. I was not one of the people who was
incredibly thrilled when good cause
eviction passed at the state level
because it wasn't the bill that we
wanted. It is laced with compromise. The
bill in front of you, the bill that you
are voting on is a product of tortured
negotiation and compromise at the state
level. That's why it contains so many
exemptions. That's why it has a
relatively extensive
uh listing of grounds for eviction.
This will affect a relatively very
vanishingly small number of evictions in
the city of Skenctity. But for those
ones that it affects, it will save their
lives. It will keep people from being
evicted for literally no reason simply
because the landlord felt it like it. I
have I I know landlord lawyers. I go I'm
against them all the time. I too
practice in this court. I was against
Mr. Benzian the other day. I know I know
how it looks in here and I can tell you
I had a landlord lawyer a friend of
mine, a man I respect and consider a
friend. He told me the other day, Colin,
there's no such thing as a as a no cause
eviction. Every eviction has a cause
behind it. Every even these no cause
holdovers, which is what would be
effective. There's always a reason.
Well, then say it and put it in the
court papers. We're not asking that much
of you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Applause]
I have I have no one else signed up to
speak, so I declare the public comment
on the legislative agenda closed.
This time ask for approval of the
legislative consent agenda.
>> Moved by Mr. Mutiver, second by Mr.
Farley. All's in favor.
>> I. All right. We do have a roll call. We
have one resolution for roll call this
evening and the clerk would please read
item number two.
» Item number two for original
conservation.
>> Oh, yeah. Go ahead.
A resolution calling for a public
hearing to create a local law for
article 5, section 210-20
to chapter 210 of the Skenctity city
code, prohibition of eviction without
good cause.
I need a motion.
for this to move by Mr.
Mutarin, second by Miss Patrick.
Is there any discussion on this item
before the clerk calls the role?
Mr. Farley.
» No.
>> So, I just wanted to uh Madam Chair, um
thank you. I just want to say really
briefly that uh this is this is about uh
the public hearing
um for good cause. Is that correct? Is
that that we're talking? So
>> we're not voting tonight. We're just
asking if it's called for a public
hearing, sir.
>> Absolutely. So I guess I'm surprised
that we are having a roll call um to
talk about just a public hearing. I
think on either side of this issue, and
I think there's a lot more than two
sides, and there's a lot of nuance here,
everyone would agree that a responsive
and responsible governing body would
allow
time to hear voices so we can make a
more informed decision.
So, this is not voting right now for or
against opting in. This is simply about
having a public hearing and allowing the
public to weigh in more extensively on
this issue. And I would I think it's
very telling and quite frankly somewhat
embarrassing that we're having that we
think that that should be something
that's up for debate.
>> Thank you. Any further discussion?
>> Okay. Clerk, please call if the clerk
would please call the role.
>> Mr. Mr. Toro,
>> no.
>> Mr. Farley,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Mancini,
>> no.
>> Mr. Mutu,
>> no.
>> Miss Patrick,
>> Mr. Williams is absent. Miss
Porterfield.
>> Thank you. I'd like to explain my vote.
First of all, as Mr. Farley said, "This
is simply calling for a public hearing,
giving the public an opportunity, all
sides of the public, regardless of which
side of this issue that you're on, an
opportunity to more than one time,
because this is an issue that obviously
is very uh passionate for a lot of
people. So this gives the public and not
only the people that we're accustomed to
hearing from but a people that who don't
normally come here are then become aware
of what's going on and give those
individuals an opportunity to come as
well. Now we know that there well maybe
you don't know there also has to be a
public hearing that the mayor will have
to that will have to be um before the
mayor because that's how a local law is
passed. So there would have been two.
So, this was simply again calling for a
public hearing, giving the folks that we
uh represent to come before us and say
whatever their whatever their position
is on this. It was not this is not to
pass this tonight, but simply to hear
from our constituents, which I I'm not
really clear on why we would not want to
do either. However, we all have a a
position that we we make and um so I
vote yes on passing on having the public
hearing. However, um the motion is
defeated by four to two.
It's only the public hearing motion,
just to be clear, that's defeated young
people tonight. It's only the public
hearing. We still have things to do. The
lake, the local law has been introduced
tonight. Our corporation council
explained what needs how that goes
forward. So, the local law has been
introduced and it has to lay before the
council for a certain certain amount of
time. It does not mean that we have made
a final decision. So I just want you all
to understand how that works.
At this time we'll have privilege of the
floor regarding general city business
and I have seven people signed up to
speak and the first person in is Anthony
Kurada.
Good evening Mr. Mayor city council
madam president.
Now this is just strictly my opinion. As
a lawy citizen I stand with support and
respect all law enforcement officers.
Now
for quite some time
law enforcement has been getting a bad
rep. Even though law enforcement itself
certain brave men and women of law
enforcement there has been instance
where they have overcept the balance of
their job now understand in certain
communities where the individuals in
certain communities the trust issue
that's fine and dandy
law enforcement for six years now has
been trying to rebuild that trust with
certain communities.
Now Friday while you
and your county part there in the county
and any government body
will be
uh public events
that lately prior to that this
government body or any government body I
don't know why certain individuals and
government bodies want to defund the
police
If
you all were to defund the police, they
would not be in certain situations to
deescalate. You would have so dead
social workers. That's where you would
have a set of police officers doing
their job.
I understand the last time you tried to
do the budget, three individuals on this
council said defund the police. Why?
Because you believe lies are perpetrated
by the media. The cop
are brain men, women in law enforcement.
Now, I could be wrong about these
factors, but you can look them up if you
don't believe me. I forget what
percentage it is, but a brave men and
women law enforcement are less than
likely less than likely to pull a
service weapon at people of color and
Hispanic origin. They're less than
likely to pull the service weapon of
someone like me. Okay, those are the
facts. And the also the thing is that
prior to at that event a 14-year-old for
whatever reason was trying to disrupt
that law enforcement were
trying to deescalate the situation. That
individual was trying to resist arrest.
Why? Law enforcement are brave men and
women in law enforcement
have been doing the job will be doing
the job. They're here to protect our
safety from everybody. That's why
Saturday I was dressed just as Chase
from Paw Patrol, the police club at the
Comic Con there at the library. I
respect law enforcement unlike somebody
here who thinks the race that law
enforcement is racist when law
enforcement is not racist. They're just
doing their job.
>> Mr. Kurata, address the chair. Mr.
Kurata,
» watch your step. M listen. That's not
going to happen here.
Crystal Dion.
Crystal
going third time. Crystal.
Okay. Cynthia Farmer.
» Good evening.
Um, Madame President, mayor, and
council,
I've heard a whole lot this this
evening, and um, I'm here to address the
homelessness that's happening on State
Street. It has become a very big
problem. People are sleeping in the bus
um shelters and um people are just
walking around. Our children
um have to walk past that in the morning
when they go to school. And um I just
think that there's something that we
need to do. We got to come up with some
kind of solution for these people to be
sleeping in the shelters. I talked to a
young man, his name is Tony. Um he
didn't have any shoes on his feet and I
said, "Where's your shoes?" He said,
"It's in the bus um shelter. That's
where he sleeps because he was kicked
out of the car house and the Bethesda
house because he talks too loud." Well,
the young man is deaf,
can't hear. So, May Mayor McCarthy, you
got to do something.
>> You have to address the chair.
>> It's um
dress the chair. Oh, okay. You have to
do something about this. You got people
sleeping in the um cemetery.
People pay for their loved ones to be
rested there and you got people laying
and sleeping on top of them. You have
the people bring mattresses
in the bus shelters. They take the
furniture that people put out and then
they take it and put I seen a whole
sectional
in front of the cemetery further up
where people were laying and sleeping
all night.
We have to do something. We got to come
up with a solution. We're building all
these and then you're talking about um
landlords and and the tenants and people
can't afford this young man that I
talked to. He only gets $1,300 a month.
He can't afford any um rent here. We got
to think of something to to do with
these people. They need help. They're
not going to be able to get a job. They
can't. And then I don't understand why
you put the Cara House in the Bethesda
House and they let the people sleep
there and then they put them out in the
morning and then they hang out all day
until they can go back in at night.
So we have to come up with some kind of
solution to remed this problem. I mean I hear the other problems but you know
and I don't understand this new
skenctity thing. Why we have posters all
up and down um 90 and all over here new
skenctity. When did we change our name
from skenctity to new skenctity and we
got all this problem. It's embarrassing
to have all these people running up and
down their sleeping and walking up and
down um State Street. So, thank you.
>> Thank you,
» Jamaica Miles.
I'm going to talk really fast. Y'all
gonna have to just deal with it. Um
because on Friday, July 11th, the
Skenctity police harassed and assaulted
several black children um 14 years old,
injured and restrained on the ground by
multiple officers. This happened in
broad daylight at a city sponsored event
meant for youth and families called
summer night. Yes, I talked about it on
Alive. That sure as hell did happen.
This is not a misunderstanding. This is
not community safety. This is violence.
This is system failing our children
again and again. We will not be silent
because back in May, an officer fired
his weapon at a child who was having a
mental health crisis. there was an
investigation or at least the chief said
there was going to be an investigation.
Ain't nobody heard nothing about the
investigation back in May, but we're
going to just feel okay about what
happened on last Friday. That's not
going to happen. And when we turn
ourselves back to the good cause, thank
you for the honesty on telling people
that they should just get out if they
don't like their apartment that isn't
habitable. And again, any expense that
you have and can justify is allowed.
Both property owners and renters should
be concerned with increases in fees and
taxes in this city. If you are willing
to leave for being held to a standard of
being a good business owner, goodbye.
Tenants holding rent for six months.
You're waited six months. Someone waited
six months before they started the
eviction process. That's um an
interesting business model. Um how to
run rental property is something that
individuals say that they are teaching.
Well, it's not going very well for a
number of the property owners. Those
that are doing right are doing right and
those that are not should be held
accountable. The property owner is
responsible for the property. And if
damage biz is done by the renter, they
have the right to charge the tenant for
those repairs. This doesn't go this
doesn't change under good cause. Who
lives and continues to live in a
property because you rented it to them
and you changed your mind and now you
don't want them to live there, but you
don't have a good cause. Yes, we're
saying that you shouldn't be able to do
that. The idea that we should just let
Slick get on task with training their
property owners and not continue to move
forward this piece of legislation is
lazy and ridiculous. Yet we all want we
all want a preferred property owner
list. I would have loved one for every
year that I had to move out of my
property. No. Nobody said that they were
evicted over and over again. We had to
move because we didn't have quality
apartments to live in. The vast majority
of landlords are incentivized to keep
people in their homes based on what?
Tell me where are your statistics?
Because yes, we did hear a lot of data
and statistics and it seems that some of
the council members are not taking it
seriously and don't believe in credible
messengers or the data that's in front
of them unless it fits their current
narrative. The doubts to the
significance of that data. I'm sorry
that you just don't believe math and
science no matter who puts it forward if
it goes against your beliefs. A landlord
registry program, yes, that absolutely
should happen. It doesn't mean that we
don't move forward with good cause. the
idea that there's a knee-jerk reaction
that is as if this has not been an issue
for years and that there was immense
compromise around good cause and it is
something that's been talked about over
and over again. This is not a knee-jerk
reaction. It is a lastm minute call by
some people who should have done this a
really long time ago. But hey, do you
really want to have another study and
revisit this next year because we're
willing to sacrifice people for another
365 days? You think it's okay to
continue to kick the can and let people
be homeless, to let individuals face
retaliation for our children to be in
the most transient city that one can
imagine? Because that would make you a
really good representative. Why wouldn't
it? The idea that we were not even
willing to have a hearing, you would
deny people the right to be heard. Why?
Because we're going to show up anyways.
Is that what it is? We shouldn't have
some type of formal hearing from
individuals giving them another chance
to be heard on an issue that is good for
the majority of sketity. That is
absolutely and yes, I'm going to say it
deplorable. And with that, may God bless
you and keep you because y'all need
prayer.
>> Thank you,
Valerie.
Triano. Triano. Valerie.
Hello again. I'm just here to sign up to
speak.
Oh god. I'm sorry. I'm I'm kind of
winging this one. Um, so bear with me.
So I'm here to state
shame on Skenctity Police Department for
what they did to a child during summer
night.
Police are supposed to be trained on
nonviolent deescalation. And I last I
checked, I don't think nonviolent
deescalation includes slamming a child
on the ground where they hit their head
on the pavement. And also,
I would like Mayor McCarthy to hold
those officers accountable for
assaulting a minor. These are 14year-old
boys. How would you feel if a man who
had the power to be okay and get away
was shooting somebody with a gun to slam
your 14-year-old child on the ground?
You wouldn't like it, now would you? So,
hold those officers accountable. And
if you don't, just remember, we the
people are the ones who vote you guys
in. and we can kick you out of your
seats.
Keep that in mind. Shame on the police
department and hold those
minor assaulters accountable. And a
grown man should never lay their hands
on a child. Never
hold them accountable.
And to the landlords who keep
complaining today, I'm going to give
them a little piece of advice, which is
pull your boots up with a bootstrap and
get a second or a third job. If you
can't afford all of this, just do what
everybody always tells us people who
complain about being poor, which is get
an actual job and a third or second job.
That's what when my father was
struggling with rent, that's what my
grandmother told him. Stop complaining.
Stop mooching and leeching off of us to
help you pay your rent and get a second
or third job. That's what I've done when
I start started with New York State Tax
and Finance and they you could get no
pay for five weeks because of the
processing. I pulled myself up with the
bootstrap and got a second job and I
worked seven days a week. I worked
during the week for New York State and
then on the weekends I did Instacart. I
pulled myself up by the bootstraps. I
made sure I was getting income in for
those months. That one five weeks I
would not have income coming in. Did I
complain? No. I pulled myself up the
bootstraps. So landlords, get a second
income. Get a second or a third job just
like everybody tells us to do. I heard
your laugh.
Thank you.
>> Thank you,
[Applause]
Shamina Bong.
Shimina Bong, is she still here?
>> Okay, thank you. Terry Robin.
Hi. Um I'm just um I don't know. I I
read the articles in the paper recently
about how this is working in other
cities including Albany, Hudson, New
York City, other places and it seemed as
if there it was working pretty well this
good cause eviction law. Um I didn't
read any what I read in those in the
Gazette was that uh these cities didn't
seem to have any big problems with it.
And in fact, they thought it was working
quite well, which made me feel good
because it does seem to me like it's
only just that you would have to have a
good reason to throw somebody out of
their home. Um, I have been on both
sides. I've been a renter, I've been a
homeowner, and I've been a a landlord.
And by the way, I think that the reason
Well, she's gone now. Um, I think that
if landlords want to be called people,
then they should stop calling themselves
landlords and tenants should be people,
too. So, maybe it should be property
owners and renters as opposed to
landlords and tenants. I don't know. Um,
I think that as a landlord myself of if,
you know, one building with two flats
and built-in tenants that when we bought
the place and we bought it as a favor to
our friend who was trying to sell it and
we had gotten a very lucky thing
happened to us. So, we decided instead
of putting our money into stocks and
bonds, we would buy this place and help
her out. and we kept these tenants and
they're still there and they we haven't
we we've only raised the rent like twice
in 20 years and you know it's just
because we don't really need to get more
money than we're getting. Um and we want
them to stay there because we they're
good tenants and we'd rather not have to
try to find another tenant that we don't
know. So, you know, our objective was
not to get rich. It was just to do
something with this money that we had
been fortunate enough to get. Um, it
just seems like if and and you know,
people that have 20 apartments or 20
buildings or whatever,
you know, they don't need all that. If
they if they really have so many
problems handling all that, then they
should probably scale down and, you
know, work with what they can work with.
Um
we uh
I I lived in apartments where the
landlords continued to raise the rent
every six months in the stockade. This
is many dec you know 30 years ago but it
was like they wouldn't do anything to
fix the problems at all but it would be
like you'd still get a rent raise every
six months and it made no sense to me.
And then I there was another place I
lived downtown Skenctity where the owner
was a pharmacist and he would not
um do anything to raise the temperature
during the winter. We had to we had we
had to show him how there was you know
three inches of snow on the inside of
the windows and we were having to wear
mittens and jackets all the time and and
you know tenants don't usually have much
power that's for sure. So, I don't think
it's a bad thing to give them a little
more dignity, respect, and power and,
you know, equality. I mean, land
landlords
shouldn't just be able to wield all the
power. When you're not rich, it's hard.
When you're poor, it's hard. I also
lived and worked in a homeless shelter,
so I know
>> all about homeless people, too. And they
don't all deserve to be homeless,
believe me. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[Applause]
This is the last one. I have no one else
signed up to speak, so I declare the
public comment of city business closed.
At this time, any miscellaneous business
of council,
Miss Patrick,
thank you. Um, I just wanted to say that
the summer lunch program that the
Sycamore Collaborative has underway is
in full swing. They're already seeing
like a huge increase um in the numbers
of uh people that numbers of children
that they're feeding. Um, so I wanted to
suggest that um there's a list of the
sites obviously um on the Sycamore
Collaborative uh website, but they also
need more volunteers uh to help with the
summer meals program. So I would
encourage people to reach out um
specifically to Carrie Wolf Picod at the
Sycamore Collaborative um if you are
interested in volunteering to help give
out the summer meals. Um Carrie's number
is 518-374-2683
extension 120 over at Sickum. Um and the
meal program is uh at many of our city
parks um at the library and there's a
whole list here that I'd be happy to
share with folks, but you can find it on
the Sycamore uh website as well. Um I
also wanted to mention that last night
was the first concert for Music Haven at
Central Park. It was just unbelievable
how many people uh were there for the
first concert which was uh a wonderful
uh Punjabi uh group called Red Barat.
This Friday is the next concert which is
the Sunnis skenctity faculty jazz combo
with featured guest Neestor Torres. So
that should be an amazing jazz concert
um on Friday evening at Music Haven in
Central Park and that would be at 700
p.m. The concessions open at 6 pm. Um,
also the Skenctity County Food Council.
Um, I'm I'm a member of the advocacy
group for uh the food council. Um, they
are having uh another community
listening session to hear more about
from folks about their hunger issues.
Um, that is Wednesday, July 30th over at
the Electric City Barn at 5 Well,
they're going to serve food as they
always do at 5:30. Um, and then the
program will begin at six o'clock. So
again, that's the Skenctity County Food
Council, and you can find that as well
on on their website. Um, I also wanted
to mention that the library summer
reading club reading program is underway
for both children and adults. It's
called Color Our World this year. Uh
there's really a lot of fun activities
that the library has planned to try to
encourage both children and adults to uh
do a lot of reading this summer. Uh, so
I hope that folks will take advantage of
that and get your bingo card and try to
fill it in by reading uh different kinds
of books and poetry uh this summer. And
that's all I have, Madam President.
Thank you.
>> Thank you,
>> Mr. Farley.
>> Thank you, Madam President. Um, geez,
not really sure where to start. Um
I think um as you know it was important
to me that I was listening really
intently to all sides of the issue.
Again I think there's more than um than
two here. Uh I think it's a far more
nuance than um than people are giving
credit to. But, you know, in my
conversations with landlords, which I've
reached out to Slick multiple times to
say, "Let's sit down and have a
conversation so I could better
understand um your position." Because
the members that I've spoken to that
were members of Slick, we sat down, we
had a meeting, and the question that I
asked them was, "What reason as a
landlord have you evicted someone or
would evict someone that's not on the
list?"
and all of the I believe it's I'm up to
six now, not one landlord has been able
to provide me with a reason that they
would evict a tenant or have evicted
tenant that's not all already allowed on
the list. Um so I understand people's
emotions. Um but the reality are the
facts just don't support what's said.
The facts just don't support what's
being said. Um, I would also just, you
know, for my colleagues on city council,
I think that, um, if we're not careful,
we start to go to a place where
sometimes we oppose things,
legislation based on who who's bringing
it forward more than the the um, uh, the
legislation itself. I say that
gracefully. I don't say that to be
accusatory. I actually say that
gracefully because I don't believe
that we can listen to people, get up
here, be extremely vulnerable, and talk
about their situations and things that
they've experienced and act like this is
not a worthy cause or worthy legislation
to pass. So, I don't think that
and and to that point further, I was
like, why wouldn't we at least want to
have a public hearing? Well, I'm going
to be graceful to say again, I know that
the mayor is required to have a public
hearing, but I also think that it's
difficult to sit here and listen to
people who are coming and saying like,
"Look, this is my reality. This is my
neighbor's reality." And then on the
other side of the issue, even every
landlord that got up here today and
spoke, they didn't give one reason. They
talked about people who are not paying
the rent. It's already in the
legislation. They talked about people
who damaged property. That also is is in
the legislation. So again, it's one of
those issues where the facts don't
support it. So I don't know how someone
can really read through this legislation
and disagree with it that you need to
have a good cause to uproot a family. Um
I'm a little disappointed, but I'm going
to again be graceful gracious to say
there must be something that I'm
missing. And I super invite my
colleagues, I've reached out to to
multiple my colleagues here to explain
to me um why that h what piece of this
I'm missing because I just absolutely
don't get it. Thank you.
>> Thank you,
[Applause]
» Mr.
Thank you. I'd like to thank everyone
that came out this evening and previous
evenings and repeatedly on each each um
uh what they wanted to speak on. I'd
like to just speak right now on um our
city pool. Um so uh I just want to um
let everyone know that there are many swimming lessons available at the
city pool and at the high school. Um
there's uh today I brought my
granddaughter to the high school and
coach Crannle I believe his name is sat
stood there and spoke to every parent
grandparent guardian and child uh before
the 10:30 swim lesson. We don't want to
leave any child behind when it comes to
uh swimming life safety.
So, there's a website that you can sign
up on or Coach Crannle said just bring
your child on over. Uh it's from um um
levels one, two, three, and four where
they're diving off the board. But I want
to encourage everyone to take advantage
of bringing anyone you know. He said,
invite your friends, your family,
anyone. It's so important. There's
lessons from 8:30 in the morning until
3:00 in the afternoon with plenty of
lifeguards there at the Skenctity High
School pool, but also with in our public
pools throughout the city. And I want to
thank um all of us, the Boys and Girls
Club, for making that possible because
it's extremely important for our youth
to know how to swim. Thank you.
>> Thank you,
>> Mayor
Thank you, Madam President. Appreciate
everyone coming out tonight and their
thoughts and opinions on the issues that
are facing us. Uh I believe it's
slightly cooler outside than in this
chamber, so I'll yield any uh time. Back
to the president.
>> Thank you. I'd like to thank everyone
that came out tonight that voiced their
opinion, whichever uh side of the issue
um that you were on. Uh, I think it's
important, I've always said this, that
we hear from our constituents. And I
know that some people say, "Well, not
everyone that was here tonight uh spoke
that spoke is from the city of
Skenctity, but it's also important to
hear from people who are well informed
about the topic so that we make sure
that we get the information necessary
and we're not just um counting on people
who just heard what someone else said."
So having people even if they're from
outside the community, if they're well
informed, have studied the legislation,
etc. I think it's important to hear
those voices as well. We we listen to
other um governmental um we often say we
let's look what another municipality is
doing and that isn't that much
different. Uh in terms of um the this
good housing, good um cause eviction. At
the last meeting, I stated that SCAP I
incorrectly ska stated um Scap's
position. So, I just want to correct
that. It was stated that CAP SC Scap
said they were against good cause and um
but then if you went to the Scap
website, they said they were not taking
any position on it. So, I just wanted to
clarify it was brought to my attention
after I said it. So, now I'm correcting
it. I just als I also want to um just
remind folks that there is also a
housing forum tomorrow at the Skenctity
Public Library. It's the second one that
they've had at 6 pm. So individuals that
want to go um it is really around
housing in the city of Skenctity. So if
you're a Skenctity resident, you want to
attend talk about it, hear different
things, talk about different solutions,
I invite you to all to go there. And
there's one more one thing that was said
at the rail today that I want to
correct. There was a individual that
came that said that three council
members um stated that they wanted to
defund the police. That was not said. So
I just want to clarify that they didn't
give names and I don't know who they're
talking about, but I know that no
council member said defund the police.
So I just want to clear the record on
that. There's often things attributed to
council members saying that they didn't
necessarily say. So if I have the
opportunity to correct that, I will.
That's all I have this evening. So I
entertain a motion to adjurnn. Moved by
Miss Patrick, second by Mr. Mutiveran.
All those in favor? I. We are adjourned.
Have a good evening.
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Hey.
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Heat. Heat.
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Heat.
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Heat.
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Heat. Heat.
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Hey.
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