[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Today is Wednesday, November 9, 2021.
[0:08] Clerk will you call the roll? Thanks, Mayor. Councilor McCaster is excused.
[0:13] Councilor McCormick. Here. Councilor Genantino. Here. Councilor Cuddy. Here. And Mayor Twill. Here.
[0:19] Would you please join us?
[0:24] What do you want?
[0:25] This is the pride of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for our own.
[0:38] If you remain standing for a moment, a sound prayer or reflection.
[0:56] Public announcements?
[0:58] Thanks Mayor.
[1:01] We would like to remind the public that this week on Thursday is Veterans Day.
[1:07] That's one reason why there will not be a City Council meeting.
[1:11] But there will be a Veterans Day community ceremony, 11 a.m.
[1:15] To be held at Veterans Memorial Park at 170 Genesee Street in Auburn.
[1:21] There will be, the event will be an outside event rain or shine.
[1:27] right now the forecast looks pretty good so we encourage everybody to be
[1:32] prepared for the fact that we will be outside for that event. Also upcoming
[1:41] meeting for the City of Auburn zoning board the next zoning board of appeals
[1:48] meeting will be held on Monday November 22nd 2021 at 7 p.m. and that meeting
[1:54] it'll be held here in council chambers.
[1:57] Also the next meeting of the nuisance abatement committee
[2:01] will be next week on November 17th,
[2:03] which is Wednesday, 9 a.m. here in council chambers.
[2:09] And historic resources for review board,
[2:11] as the mayor just mentioned,
[2:12] will be in here a little later this evening at 7 p.m.
[2:16] That's all I had to say.
[2:17] Very good, thank you.
[2:20] Our presentations are proclamations.
[2:23] public to be heard this point we'll open the public to be heard portion of
[2:27] the council meeting residents are asked to state their name and address for the
[2:31] record please keep remarks to three minutes or less and please observe
[2:35] commonly accepted rules of courtesy and decor thank you this time is there
[2:40] anyone desiring to be heard
[2:47] public to be heard meeting minutes are not
[2:52] available this week mr. digger city manager's report please thank you
[2:56] it's pretty short, considering the time we had between the last meeting and this one.
[3:01] Earlier today we had a phone conference as we do pretty much every week with
[3:06] Kuga County and several of our partners related to COVID and
[3:13] certainly there's definitely updates related to the
[3:18] ability to vaccinate children now and also some discussion related to the
[3:24] federal mandate for large employers related to vaccination and testing.
[3:30] So we're working through a few of those things.
[3:32] And as I sit here, I would like to just point out we have April Miles that comes
[3:37] and sits through all of these meetings with us all the time.
[3:40] And she's been a great partner from East Hill Medical.
[3:43] So I just wanted to recognize that we're going to continue our less than
[3:50] abysmal efforts at dealing with the COVID by continuing to support vaccinations in conjunction
[4:00] with the County Health Department and East Hill Medical, an expanded role in testing
[4:08] and EMS support at the various clinics around. So we anticipate our role that has been,
[4:15] that we took on many, many months ago,
[4:18] will continue and actually ramp up in the coming months.
[4:22] And we're happy to do that as well
[4:25] as our administrative folks that continue to help
[4:29] in various ways, whether it's answering phones,
[4:33] doing registrations, and some of our staff
[4:36] are assisting the county with contact tracing as well.
[4:40] So we are busy as we have been through that the ambulance service city ambulance service at this point has got just over a week of experience behind it at this point, it's been going well, it's been a little bit.
[4:58] It's been busy, it's been busy for the folks working there and for our operations director.
[5:06] I believe the ambulance to date has responded to approximately 150 calls for service.
[5:13] It's been extremely busy.
[5:15] They continue to service the hospital in much the same way as had happened previously,
[5:22] doing normal transfers that would typically take place to Syracuse and
[5:27] in Westchester, partner hospitals, but long-distance transfers as far as Buffalo, Albany, and Westchester County right at the moment.
[5:37] So there's definitely a lot of activity going on there.
[5:41] They've provided mutual aid outside of the city on a handful of occasions, as would normally take place,
[5:48] and have done a good job of covering the needs of the city for the last week as well.
[5:55] So, we're doing well and just trying to kind of get everybody in the groove and get on to where it's second nature.
[6:07] That's all I've got, Mayor.
[6:08] Thank you.
[6:12] Reports from members of Council?
[6:16] Councilor?
[6:17] Thank you, Mayor.
[6:18] I just want to mention that Saturday was the annual tree planting.
[6:21] I just want to acknowledge all the volunteers that came out, Mike Talbot and his group, GPW, for their assistance,
[6:28] and certainly Dr. Wal Aitman for heading up the program again this year. Thank you.
[6:34] Thank
[6:36] you very much.
[6:39] Bond orders number seven of 2021, authorizing the issuance of $6.2 million in serial bonds
[6:46] to finance the cost of improvements to the city's water system. This is the first reading only.
[6:56] Bond owners number seven of 2021 for the first reading.
[7:01] be it ordained by the council, the city of Auburn as follows.
[7:04] The city of Auburn is hereby authorized to undertake
[7:07] the acquisition, reconstruction of or addition to the city's
[7:13] water supply or distribution system,
[7:16] including but not limited to upgrades and rehabilitation
[7:18] of the filtration buildings at the water filtration
[7:21] plant, whether or not including buildings, lands
[7:24] or rights and land, original furnishings,
[7:28] equipment, machinery or apparatus or the replacement of such equipment, machinery or apparatus
[7:34] at an estimated maximum cost of $6,200,000 and to issue an aggregate $6,200,000 in serial
[7:42] bonds pursuant to the provisions of the local finance law.
[7:46] It is hereby determined that the maximum estimated cost of the aforesaid specific
[7:58] and the plan for the financing thereof shall consist
[8:01] of the issuance of the $6,200,000 in serial bonds.
[8:05] It is hereby determined that the period
[8:07] of probable usefulness of the aforesaid specific objects
[8:11] or purposes is 40 years pursuant to subdivision one
[8:16] of section 11A of the local finance law.
[8:19] And this is in front of the council tonight
[8:21] for a first reading.
[8:22] And we'll be back next week,
[8:24] Mayor, for the council's consideration.
[8:26] And it is copy that are available online
[8:29] or through your office.
[8:30] Yes.
[8:31] Thank you.
[8:35] Resolution, agreement resolution number 116 of 2021
[8:40] authorizing approving agreements to settle actions
[8:43] relating to opioid crisis and distribute funds
[8:47] pertaining thereto.
[8:49] We have a sponsor.
[8:50] Council President Tenor, Councilor McCormick.
[8:55] Agreement resolution 116 of 2021
[8:58] whereas there is pending matter of the city of Auburn
[9:02] versus Purdue Pharma regarding the opioid addiction crisis
[9:08] in which the city of Auburn is a name plaintiff
[9:11] in the action.
[9:12] And whereas the action is against several defendants,
[9:15] including manufacturers of opioids, distributors
[9:18] of opioids and chain pharmacies.
[9:21] And whereas the action alleges several causes
[9:23] of action against defendants,
[9:25] McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health Incorporated,
[9:29] Amerisaurus Bergen Drug Corporation,
[9:32] PSS World Medical Incorporated,
[9:35] Kinray LLC, Belco Drug Corporation,
[9:39] and American Medical Distributors Incorporated,
[9:42] based on claims that the distributors contributed
[9:45] to the opioid epidemic by failing to comply
[9:49] with their obligations under the Federal
[9:51] Controlled Substances Act,
[9:53] Act and the New York Controlled Substances Act, to implement adequate measures to prevent
[9:59] diversion of the prescription opioids they distributed to pharmacies and others, all of
[10:05] which contributed to a public health crisis in the city of Auburn, and whereas the action
[10:10] alleges several causes of action against defendant Johnson and Johnson, J&J, pursuant
[10:18] to his role as opioid manufacturer which resulted in the same harm visited upon the City of Auburn.
[10:25] Whereas it is in the best interest of the City to resolve these matters with respect
[10:30] to the distributors and J&J without further litigation and enter
[10:35] into the proposed settlement agreements as it shall settle all allegations
[10:40] against the distributors and J&J and avoid protracted litigation.
[10:45] and whereas all of the monies paid under two agreements
[10:49] will be distributed among the various
[10:52] participating political subdivisions
[10:55] according to the New York opioid settlement
[10:57] sharing agreement and whereas in order to fully capture
[11:01] the monies due and only pursuant to the settlement
[11:04] agreements, the city of Auburn must approve
[11:06] the sharing agreement and now therefore be it resolved
[11:09] that the Auburn city council this year
[11:11] by approved the settlement agreements
[11:13] between the city of Auburn and the distributors
[11:16] and J&J respectively, which are attached here to
[11:20] and incorporated herein.
[11:22] Be a further resolve.
[11:24] The Auburn Council does hereby approve the sharing agreement
[11:27] and be a further resolve that the mayor
[11:29] is authorized to sign any and all documents
[11:31] in order to finalize the agreements.
[11:35] Mr. Diger.
[11:38] Assistant Corporations Garland here
[11:40] who work their way through this.
[11:44] any
[11:49] questions yes first I'd like to just a general statement you know this is
[12:00] these companies that are listed basically have caused a lot of pain for so many
[12:11] people so many families not only in Auburn and Cude County but in this
[12:18] nation due to their practices.
[12:24] There is one name that's on here.
[12:28] Is this class action?
[12:30] Does this include Purdue?
[12:32] Is this something else?
[12:34] Are they somehow affiliated with these companies
[12:37] that have been listed?
[12:39] The first page of a legal document
[12:41] that's filed in court of law is referred to as a caption.
[12:45] This particular caption in this Clack's action lawsuit is the most ambitious I've ever seen.
[12:51] There are at least 20 named defendants.
[12:56] The headline, the top defendant, is Purdue Pharma.
[13:00] Okay. All right. I'm sorry. I caught the Maccassean.
[13:04] Okay. All right. Sorry about that.
[13:06] I wasn't clear in drafting the resolution that those...
[13:10] What is in front of council today is a relatively small carve-out from the, again, 20 or so defendants and perhaps it should have made it more clear.
[13:24] No, that's, again, that's my, I caught it on the Kesson.
[13:30] So, but as I was saying, I just thought,
[13:32] I think that, you know,
[13:37] there's gonna,
[13:40] this is something that can help going forward,
[13:45] but this should have never,
[13:47] it should have never got to this point.
[13:50] The oversight or the lack thereof, you know,
[13:54] allow this to happen and you know I just hope that this never happens again or
[14:04] is not allowed to continue to happen so so it's bittersweet but unfortunately we
[14:14] We need to, you know, again, I'm going to support this,
[14:23] but I just wish this never happened to this point.
[14:30] I'll say councilor.
[14:31] I'll second.
[14:32] Councilor Genettino.
[14:33] Thank you, mayor.
[14:34] I'd like to reiterate councilor Cuddy's comments
[14:38] and go a step further.
[14:39] While these individuals and these companies
[14:42] are being held accountable financially,
[14:44] It's unfortunate they're not being held accountable criminally.
[14:48] It's unfortunate that Rockefeller drug laws or something like that don't apply to these corporations.
[14:56] That being said, our participation...
[15:00] In this lawsuit, really is another example of this council, this city staff, doing everything
[15:07] within our power to address this crisis that has affected our community and communities
[15:18] nationwide. It has been mentioned out in the public that we're not doing enough, but I think
[15:24] this is an example of what we can do, and we've tried to do everything within our
[15:29] power. I'm wondering if we can share with the public the amount of the
[15:34] settlement and how much will be coming to the city of Auburn? Well, it's over two
[15:40] different periods of years. The J&J settlement is over, I believe, four years
[15:46] and then the distributors settlement timeframe is over 18 years. Presumably
[15:53] that's based on the size of the corporate entities and their ability to
[15:58] absorb this sort of payout. The total to the city of Auburn will be approximately $280,000.
[16:08] And I think it's important to remember as Councilor Cuddy noted and we discussed that these are
[16:15] just two pieces of a much larger puzzle. So the, you know, it's all important of course
[16:24] But I think the most important thing for Council today is actually agreeing to this sharing,
[16:30] the settlement sharing agreement so that in the future when there are larger settlements
[16:37] that come through, the framework will be set up and we will, of course,
[16:43] this Council be presented with another resolution to settle these particular
[16:48] or lawsuits or pick up pieces of the class action,
[16:52] we'll have the framework set up if the council approves
[16:56] the settlement sharing agreement today.
[16:59] So approximately $280,000 to the city of Auburn
[17:05] will flow pursuant to adoption of this resolution today.
[17:10] And then again, there's dozens of other defendants
[17:18] named, including Purdue Pharma, which is one of the largest
[17:25] pharmaceutical companies in the world.
[17:27] So we're anticipating, our lawyers have advised us
[17:31] to anticipate that this is the first step among many
[17:36] that we'll be taking in terms of holding
[17:38] these corporate entities accountable.
[17:40] In this resolution, this settlement,
[17:43] is this in addition to the settlement that
[17:47] It was announced for Keating County a couple weeks ago.
[17:50] This is separate and distinct from that.
[17:53] The announcement the Attorney General made
[17:57] was referring to this particular settlement
[18:02] and was structured through with an eye on the settlement
[18:10] sharing agreement.
[18:11] So basically the AG used the same math as this settlement sharing agreement provides when
[18:21] she made her announcement about the money's heading towards Duke County.
[18:26] That's pursuant to the same settlement but it does not include the City of Auburn's
[18:31] settlement which is separate from that.
[18:34] And do these settlements come with stipulations and guidelines on what the money can be
[18:40] spent on?
[18:40] There are certain approved uses. They are voluminous in my opinion. There's a lot
[18:48] of ways that a municipality can decide to, you know, a lot of things the
[18:54] municipality can focus on and then use these funds for some of which I think
[19:00] the City of Auburn is very adept at and ready kind of shovel ready I think.
[19:07] And will there be a follow-up conversation on how we'll be spending those funds?
[19:13] Yeah, so we'll have that.
[19:14] We would want to get the funds in hand before we, and
[19:23] confirm at what rate we'll receive those funds again.
[19:27] The mention of these could be structured over many years, which are going to make
[19:32] the annual impact isn't necessarily going to seem as
[19:36] as impactful as the lump sum amount
[19:41] when it's churned in the disguise too.
[19:44] Thank you.
[19:47] Anyone else?
[19:48] Councilor Galzano?
[19:50] Thank you, Mr. Galzano.
[19:53] No further discussion.
[19:55] Call the roll, please.
[19:57] Council Member Cormor.
[19:58] Aye.
[19:59] Councilor Genetina.
[20:00] Aye.
[20:01] Councilor Cuddy.
[20:02] Yes.
[20:02] Mayor Quill.
[20:03] Aye.
[20:04] Kerry.
[20:09] Other business from the council,
[20:10] So I'm going to jump on an out front today.
[20:16] First of all, I'd like to congratulate
[20:19] Councilor Cuddy on his reelection.
[20:21] We have it somewhat officially, unofficially,
[20:24] but congratulations, Councilor.
[20:26] I'm glad to work with you for a few more years.
[20:29] So thank you.
[20:30] Thank you, Mayor.
[20:31] I'd also like to introduce Councilor-Elect,
[20:34] Ginny Kent, hiding in the back of the room.
[20:36] In those days, they're soon to be over.
[20:39] So congratulations to you.
[20:40] Mr. Dighart said he's gonna have a five-hour
[20:45] meeting after the meeting so you can take notes
[20:48] for the rest of us and we'll get you to start
[20:49] in every room, all right?
[20:51] Welcome aboard.
[20:54] Counselor, is there anything else?
[20:59] Do we have a request for public to be heard, right?
[21:03] Yeah, anything else?
[21:04] Any public to be heard?
[21:05] Is there anyone who's starting to be heard this evening?
[21:09] Very well, no one wants to be heard.
[21:12] Do we have a request for executive session?
[21:15] Nothing from staff mayor.
[21:16] Motion to adjourn before he changes his mind.
[21:22] Mr. Cuddy second by Councilor McCormick.
[21:27] Motion to adjourn at 5.27 p.m. Councilor McCormick.
[21:30] Aye.
[21:31] Councilor Genettino.
[21:32] Aye.
[21:33] Councilor Cuddy.
[21:34] Yes.
[21:34] And Mayor Quill.
[21:35] Aye.
[21:36] Where is your arm?
[21:40] Right here.
[21:41] Right here.
[21:42] So it should be where you left it, right?
[21:45] Right here.
[21:46] Right here.
[21:47] Right here.
[21:47] Right here.
[21:48] Right here.
[21:49] Right here.
[21:59] Right here.
[22:00] Thank you.