Common Council, Informal Meeting

1. 1:02bring your booty. Mommy, >> hang on. Please. October 145
2. 2:39Um September 16th, 22nd 2019 have been posted on the city website. Copy committee reports have been posted on the city website as we have a brief presentation at the request of uh Captain of of Captain Miller from offic retired officer Thomas who would like to give a brief presentation about K9 star. Oh sh It's good here. >> Thanks.
3. 3:42This is Sergeant Philly, named after Chris Philly. Sergeant Chris Philly, who died in our police department 112 of 24. Okay. I had Mr. Moranny, if you could pass this around. I have dog treats this now. They're all up. There we go. Sorry. Uh you've been training since March 7th for everything including that's on the certificates here. Uh she's now ending her training in explosives. Uh she got three more cents to uh get into her brain and then uh she's pretty well done. Um what I I'm here for I've never did this before. I train seven
4. 4:45other dogs for sure take police and this is the first time I've ever been here with a dog that I train in front of the common council. So that's pretty neat. Um, she's a non-bighting dog. No aggression at all. She uh she's attracting for human scent, building service for human scent. She's artic whatever the person throws away. She um obedient, let's put it that way. Okay. Um, she is trained to work in a courthouse for children that have to testify and for everything everybody else that is scared to be in there. She's training to lay right next to them and stay with them the whole entire time. She came from Tennessee out of a humane society. Um, uh, I want to get this right so I
5. 5:49say it right. the family of the Lynan family of the city of Hudson donated her to be trained for the Hudson Police Department. And um that's that's basically why I'm here because um I want her to get into the police department so we can pick a handler out because after a while if I keep handling her and training her, she's just going to want me to do it. So I have to have a handler in the police department picked out to handle her. Um, other than that, that's Sergeant Philly that represents Officer Philly and uh, the family wanted it. The Philly family wanted it done. So, they asked me, I went and did it. Everything's for free, plus a vehicle to vote for the city of Hudson Police.
6. 6:55That's why I'm here. Um, >> well, thank you. Any questions for council members? >> Yes. >> Thank you. I, you know, it's very um generous, >> but um we're involved in a budget season now. >> Yeah. >> So, when you say everything's free, what you >> only thing that you would pay for is the food and veterinarian bills for the budget >> and the training. >> No, training is free. >> No, no, no. Downgoing training for the handler, right? The handler is free too. What do you mean? I will do that for free to train the handler because nobody else can train him but me. So this is zero cost other than the maintenance of this animal right here. That's it. That's why I'm doing it for my buddy Chris Philly. >> Thank you. >> I trained Chris Philly before I left for the federal government. >> I You know how I about >> Oh, I'm right. So what I I I wear a different hat here as the purse.
7. 8:00>> Absolutely. >> And the it's not just us, right? It's HPD, the chief, you know, all how how is that conversation going with the chief and and they're receptive to taking on a budget burd burden um for for the additional um what do what do you say vehicle? What kind of vehicle? new vehicle. What kind of deal are we talking? Because I know we when we got rigid, we had to get you know a spectrum vehicle and um you know training down in Florida. So that training doesn't have to be done ongoing. It's just one time >> the training from me but then they have to train once a month according to the state of New York. >> So so we have to we have to spend training for overtime for the officer right to train right. We also have to then >> they have to do it anyway, >> right? >> Why would they have to do it? >> Because the state mandates it. >> Not not the dog, right? I'm saying the officer to handle, right?
8. 9:03the there's going to be extra cost, you know, and the reason I say this, Sean, is is that, you know, we we just got hit a couple weeks ago or a month ago with, you know, an additional cost for most services from the rescues that that's going to really hit our sales, right? So though this is a great idea and and I I love it, you know, and you know, maybe I want it in my backyard, but uh you know, it's it's it's definitely therapeutic. I've seen the rates benefit of rates, but you're talking explos explosive dogs, finding guns, you know, is this a need of the department that we have at this time? Is this a the trend or this is this where we're going with the department? Have you talked to the chief? I discussed it with the chief and the chief and the mayor and the commissioner who I guess resigned and um they said that I would have to do everything and then present myself in front of the council
9. 10:07and I guess if the council deems that is a good idea fine but once rigs is on vacation you have no dog here. Okay. >> Yeah. But but I'm but realistically the council is the first, right? The council is not the case. We don't run each group. >> No. Well, then right. So this is definitely a department bank where you know if we if the budget can handle it if there's a budget you know for it if you know because we got to think three years right with with the expense of of the dog uh and ongoing that bills ongoing expenses >> because you know you know it's very expensive you've been there oh wait you're good you all Sorry. >> Oh, I could keep No, it's I see where you're coming from. But you in literally in a department, you have to have two dogs.
10. 11:09>> One does one thing for drugs and whatever. The other one does the other thing for explosive >> for explosives and whatever. >> Yes. You said the requirement you have to have two dogs. I just >> Well, your dog, one dog's going to go on vacation. You're not going to have Is this required? Well, it's always been required for that. That was fun. Oh, God. >> It's always been required since I've been doing dogs for 40 years. You have If you have one dog, you have zero dogs when they're not around. >> This will confiscate one dog on vacation, one dog is here. and dog food and dog food and veterinarian cost. Thanks and dog food and veterinarian cost. I had four dogs working at one time in the city of Hudson.
11. 12:14One in the schools for entire for drugs for the DARE program. two on patrol and when they went on vacation the other one substituted. >> So the difference is that you're volunteering to do this for free in honor of the police officer. >> That's my Yes. That's why I did it. >> So saying we're saving by you doing it. >> Everything's for free. Plus I'm >> Yeah. >> giving you a vehicle. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I I had a problem. Okay. >> Well, two questions. >> So, like I'm looking at all of these trainings and it was my understanding that uh some training is not compatible with other training. So, if you have a a dog that's a therapy dog, for example, you're not necessarily going to want that dog to also be an explosive dog. >> Yeah, they have. >> So, what So, the question is, what role do you expect this dog to >> whatever role we tell him to do?
12. 13:19>> She's trained. She's all trained. I'm just adding the explosives in case you ever meet it here. You have four locations in the city of Hudson's that's deemed under Homeland Security as very critical. You have no bomb dog here to make sure nothing happens. >> What's happening? >> Well, you you would have to go through the department and ask them. >> State police. We would get st. >> No, I just saying if we needed something ahead of time, >> we would have, you know, between upgrades, between all that stuff, that's that's already to be determined, you know. >> Okay. Since we don't have to make any kind of decision. >> Oh, yeah. >> Can I ask one more question? >> Yeah. Sorry, just one other thing. Um, when she Franklin comes back from leave, I'd really like to get her take on her position with regard to the dogs. That's >> okay. I think she did not. I don't I don't think she asked you to come here,
13. 14:20did she? >> No. Um note. >> No, I did not. >> I did not. I I ask on behalf commissioner B asked when you >> Okay. Sorry. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Okay. We have uh communications. You can see that uh planning board from the veterans a committee and from HP. Let's get to our reports. You're one of the chiefs here, Nick. >> Oh. Oh, you're going to do fire with that uniform. >> Um fire report for the month. We had 30 calls for the month of September. Um a one uh water of incident, two accidents, carbon monoxide incident, uh, two standbys, and 24 false alarms were unintentional. They weren't all false. They were set off to
14. 15:24cooking or something like that, but no fire. Um, and then also as of yesterday, our engine rescue has been sold, the old one. Uh, the new owners picked it up and took it to their new home in Tot. Um, so that's gone. And our new one, which should be here in June or July. >> Did you save your time? >> Yes. >> Was that an arms length transaction? >> I guess no one gets that. Never mind. September is customer service. Anyway, moving right along. Anything else? That's it. Okay. Any questions? >> The public? >> Yeah. How much did you get for the BS? >> How much did you get? >> Uh, I don't remember off the top of my head. It was approved by the council. Um, while >> a while back, >> that's could go towards the purchase of the new. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you, Nick. Uh Calvin, you want to give us our use presentation,
15. 16:27please? >> Hello. Good evening, Mr. Council. Uh so, um here reporting on behalf of the Department of Youth. Uh September came and went pretty uh pretty quickly. Uh but it was filled with fun um and excitement. Uh before you here, you have a breakdown of our sessions. We broke the year into four sessions. Um our our goal with that was to be more intentional with the programming um and increase registration across all three programs. We have K through 2nd, 3rd through 8th in our teen program. And we are certainly uh increasing uh registration across all three groups. Um but again that's just an overview of those sessions as we make our way uh through the year. Um on the next slide uh September we also it was kind of a bittersweet uh moment we had the onboarding of our new um uh youth
16. 17:32commissioner uh Sonia Okun. Uh but that also meant the departure of Maya Reed um that's been with the department for uh more than I want to say roughly five years now. So um you know bittersweet Maya has been a tremendous advocate for the department um has gracefully taken the baton and will continue to to do that work with us. Um on the next slide here uh to the left you have Elaine. She was our student of the month. Um this is Elaine's first year in program with us and she's just been a really tremendous kid. Anytime she shows up, he lights up her room. Um she's probably shouldn't say this, but she's probably one of my favorite a lot of favorite kids as well. Um she's in our third through 8th group. Um and she's just always eager to join any programming that we have. She's very kind and respectful to the staff. She's a joy with her peers. And so Elaine was our student of the month. Um, and next
17. 18:35next to Ela, you have Kayla, uh, Kayla Hotwood. Um, I often call her Kayla Hopewood because she is kind of the the the next generation of the youth department. Uh, she's a kid that came in very shy, very timid, very reserved. Um, and since then, she's very confident. Um, she's established herself as one of the young leaders at the department. Um, and she's she's actually quite funny. Um, and she's always willing to engage and support our youth. So, Kayla Hopwood was our uh staff of the month for September. >> Sounds like a young Calvin I knew at the club. >> Ah, so so y'all listening now. Yeah. Kayla, she's really great. Um, she actually had a sibling uh Lance who is now he's going off to um and he was interning with Lance Wheeler formally. So, generations come through the department and we always look to continue those trends as well. Um, I have some numbers here for you. You know, again, the general gist is that enrollment started off slow. It's
18. 19:38uh it's still increasing, but our numbers are going up week by week. Uh, for our K through 2nd uh program, we started out with about only 13 kids registered, bumped that up to 21. Uh, in our third through 8th program, we started out with about 16 kids registered and we've now bumped that up to 51. And then teen programming. Uh we didn't have any kids who who signed up. Imagine being a teenager. You know, you feel like you can do what you need to do. Um however, we still need parental consent. Um and through the uh through the work of our teen staff, they were able to get uh 23 kids signed up in a relatively short amount of time. Um the newer uh stat there is the writership numbers. We now have busing that's being covered by the county. They help us get our kids home. Uh, week by week, you can you can kind of see the numbers there. In week one, we gave 96 kids a ride. Week two was 98. Week three was 88. Bit of a drop off, but in total for the month, we gave uh 282 rides.
19. 20:46Um, uh, this here is, uh, um, uh, Josiah and King Sai. They're actually siblings. Again, just kind of speaking to that legacy that we have at the department. Um, we hire students ages 14 to 18 to gain, you know, job training and, uh, you know, learn what it what it means to become a professional. We also have our internship program this year that is also in collaboration with the county again with a similar uh similar goal of training up our young folks in our community. We see it as a win-win for those interns to develop kind of those soft skills and the foundation of being a successful uh youth worker. Um here this is just a snapshot of um our message board. It's um it's our welcoming board to the students. Let them know what to expect not only for the day but for the week. Any upcoming field trips or events that we may have going on in the community. Um it's a really um artsy interactive way to
20. 21:51engage with the kids. We often have um a riddle on the board as well. Um and yeah, they always they kind of just look forward to those updates uh on that message board. Um here is our K through 2 uh program. A lot of this we I mentioned at last month's meeting and this is just kind of follow up on those programs. Okay. So, we can go to the next slide. And this is a listing of the programming for our third through 8th uh uh group as well. And then going to the next slide. These are some of the photos from those uh workshops. Uh this is hip hop. This was um a class that we weren't sure if we were going to be able to make happen, but we're very fortunate enough to make it happen. Uh Lindsay uh makes her way to Hudson coming from Malaysia to uh do a hip hop dance program with our youth and it's really been a success um especially amongst uh amongst our young girls.
21. 22:53Uh here we have Joan. Joan is with us through the school of Columbia. She does um a variety of art uh activities with our youth. Uh and this is a continued program that we've been doing for roughly uh say three years now. Here we have drumming. Uh it's paired with the literacy component. Uh Elena Mo Elena Mosley spearheads this initiative. Um they're either at the youth center or we find space at Hudson Hall. Again, that's just an example of a collaboration that we do with other organizations where we continue to work with Blestiff after school circus. They are um you know a favorite in the community. Uh, and I I think I would say the capstone for some of our kids is learning these skill sets with circus and then being able to showcase them in the community at the different events that you might see them at. And some more photos there. Circus. And so this is our K through 2 uh
22. 23:57programming. Um, again, they are at the library on the second floor. This is Juliana. She comes in once a month to do a literacy program with our youth. As you can see, I think uh sometime the uh the instructors probably have more fun than than our youth. U but this this was a story about the uh the rainbow fish. So again, a literacy kind of activity component there. Some more photos. This is um this is an interesting photo. Um so these portraits were done roughly 20 25 years ago. They've been showcased at um Spark uh more recently. and some of our uh paper through second kids they were able to identify uh people in these portraits which again I think is it speaks to the camaraderie the community the legacy that we try to uphold at the
23. 24:59department and it's you know it's very fun to kind of play the name game on like oh you know do you know this person do you know that person this is uh Mr. Ray, he um he does a literacy activity component with our youth as well. Uh the story here was the uh wash be in the sea. Um and so that was paired with a a fun kind of messy activity as well. And so I think that's in the upcoming uh upcoming photos here. Yeah, those are just some additional photos. at the library which that transition has has really gone really well. No no no issues there. Uh so this is just some messaging from uh Mr. Terrone Hedgecraft. He has our third program and this is pretty pretty much an overview of the uh program highlights some of the
24. 26:00activities they enjoy playing. Uh we're also in uh now October setting up the this place. It'll be decorative to reflect um the the the fall season. And then uh team programming. This is some messaging from uh J Sean aka Chu. Uh Chu is our team programming supervisor. And essentially, you know, he's reporting that our teams enjoy just having a space that they can call their own. It's a safe haven for them. Uh, a lot of lot of the athletes come get some gym time. It's also a social opportunity and uh a lot of lot of game play takes place as well. We also um attended some uh events in the community this past month. One one was uh the meet the teacher night on September 24th and we also attended uh homecoming uh which I believe is in the next um oh sorry I have a little bit um uh we also attended
25. 27:05homecoming which I'll make a reference to um next but with this next slide. Thanks Logan. Um I may report more detail on this at the next meeting, but just wanted to mention that this past Sunday there was the uh um barbecue fundraiser at Oakdale. I think it went really really well. Uh it was a strong turnout, uh good music, food, uh there was a bonfire, uh really really great um exposure to Oakdale and what it can be. And so we're really looking to see how we can uh continue this momentum. This is uh this is uh some of the staff attending the homecoming game where um Keith Robinson was uh chosen by his peers as the uh homecoming king. Uh we kind of see Keith as one of our own. He does a lot of refereeing and coaching with us whether it be soccer or basketball. We also got to take a picture with the blue hawk who is also a
26. 28:08former employee um at Oakdale camp uh cashier. Uh these are just uh reporting back on our soccer league which uh next uh this Saturday is our final day of soccer um that has gone on for the past uh six weeks. It's really been a tremendous success um not only um because of the numbers but just the involvement and engagement from volunteers, coaches, parents. Um it's it's really a a community effort and then some more photos there and just you know just a look ahead. Um, so we are wrapping up YDBL or uh YDSL and we are gearing up for youth basketball YDBL. And so those registrations are available on our website. And again, we're always looking to involve volunteers who want to support um sports or just in general at the department. Um October 21st, there
27. 29:15is a Hudson Youth Town Hall taking place at the library from 5:30 to 8. Um essentially the theme is to uh it's a it's a potluck uh meeting. So we intend to feed people. Um but uh essentially it's an opportunity to have a discussion about our youth and Hudson um and what we want their future to look like. And then on the 15th of November, we are hosting our harvest festival as well as a youth center um open house. Uh we didn't want to um compete with the school that is having their kind of open house this week and so we've shifted we shifted ours to November 15th. Um and I'll be sure to send more details and invites to the council. And you know again these are our um ways of contacting us whether it be social media or our website. And that does conclude the youth center.
28. 30:17>> Thank you Calvin. >> Any questions from council members? >> Is Tuesday going to be videotaped? We have a formal meeting time is going to be videotaped or anything so we can see that works. >> I think we can make it happen. >> Yeah we can we can >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just to see what you know what actually afterwards. >> Yeah, it's a good idea. >> A recap. I did ask for that idea. >> You can make that happen. >> Very good. Anyone else? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next up, Captain Miller, please report. I don't mean to confine my background. It's okay. I'm going to use your space. >> Why don't you leave me like the dog get broken? >> I don't make any guarantees. >> So, I'm just going to share the uh
29. 31:20reports for September for the police department. Our mandatory section 9 reporting to the council. We had zero um use of force defensive actions. So that's good. We also had 30 arrests with 42 total charges for September. We only had four emotionally disturbed person calls and we had zero um drug overdoses or suspected drug overdoses and zero Narcan incidents and zero OD deaths which are good. our body worn camera report from our supervisors. Everything appeared normal. Nothing to report on that. Also, for our quarter three traffic report that the commissioner usually um does. I completed because he's out. Um we issued for quarter 3 traffic from July 1st to September 30th. HPD issued 236 traffic tickets during that line. I also completed a parking enforcement
30. 32:25report because you guys wanted to know how many tickets we were were issued. So for se September it was 2,218 tickets were parking tickets were issued. Um out of that amount 1,462 were paid. Uh 756 out of that was not paid and we booted six vehicles. >> Does it say what the violations are like handicapped parking? >> I No, I didn't. I just um just made it real simple. If you guys want to get more involved with that report, just tell me if you want more of that. I just kind of put down what you guys asked for last last meeting. >> So, just a couple things to report for September for the Hudson City School District. Uh the superintendent of schools, HPD, Chief Franklin, and our DA put out a report. In the beginning of the school year, we had four incidences involving juveniles making serious threats to the school involving like shootings and that that kind of weapons type of tour. So,
31. 33:29we had or I had the detective division each case, go through each one, go through the county attorney, the DA's office. No arrests were made, but each case was handled. Um, we also went to the Supreme Court with the matters. So, we took it very seriously. They put out a joint letter with it. So, it should have went out to all the parents just to make aware, you know, that that stuff is serious. We take it serious and we dealt with it. Hopefully, we because we dealt with it. Hopefully, we won't have any more for the school year. U HP, as you all probably know, I just have some notes here. The HPD Commissioner Bower resigned on October 3rd. You guys were given a copy of his resignation letter. Uh, Officer Kevin Kaiser was promoted from patrol to the rank of detective on October 6th. So, we're happy for that because now our detectives division is full staffed. Also, for the ebike stuff, we did a lot offormational training and stuff. Senior
32. 34:33Sergeant Nick Hodes what is in charge of that. So, we had a what he did, he reached out to the state. So, we were able to get pamphlets about the safety and the laws that he's been giving out to different events. Uh, recently we went to the fireman's home. They had a event called the Dalmatian day and Sergeant Edelman was there giving out information and and giving information to people on ebikes and the safety of it. Also, Sergeant Hodes will be attending the MC Smith uh trunk trunk retreat event on October 24th, and we will be doing the same there. >> September basketball game next week. Is it next week? >> Can you hand out basketball game? >> Yeah, I'll look into that. We didn't plan it, but let let me look into that for staffing. And September 21st, we had a child passenger safety seat check and event at our local fire department up on Seventh Street. And that is all I have to report. >> Thanks for your questions. Yes. >> So as you know legal committee is looking at the bike and uh hospital safety when we like three approaches.
33. 35:38One is education and so forth. Uh also looking at changing our ordinance and then enforcement. So we have seen like more presence in terms of of police policing. Um, have you at this point have you just been giving people warnings or whatever when you see, you know, someone or what? >> Yeah. So, the Lieutenant Kazer, who is our patrol commander, put out an email to the guys to make sure, you know, make it a priority to stop these individuals that they see and they have been um >> and doing that into in addition to the application. So, yeah, both. >> So, I'll give you an invitation of our next legal committee meeting. It would be great if you could come because we've divied up the tasks into I think Dominic you were doing education special. So if we could coordinate so that we're all working in the same direction that would be great and I'll send you notification. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Yes. >> So I'd like to know about the booting. How many uh parking uh tickets do you need? Uh does anyone have to have in
34. 36:42order to get >> I'm not the parking uh division they know that number. I don't know off the top of my head because I don't >> but it's not like with one or two. >> No. >> Yeah. It's somewhere like Yeah. six, five or six. [Music] >> It's usually pretty serious when they're getting to the point where they're booting a car on the street. >> Questions. Okay. Um, with booting, you'll see there's a resolution first night um allowing us to boot um during the night. The hope with that is is that that increases our boots uh during the night. The city purchased two uh boots years and years ago that are currently a DPW. Uh I check them. Um, so while guys were out writing parking tickets, um, if they come across a motorable vehicle, instead of waking up a tow truck driver at 3 4:00 in the morning and writing wrongsiders, um, this is to be able have those guys put it on and then they can go about their business. They don't have to sit there and wait for a tow truck driver to come in for a half an hour, you know, whatever they need. And it's
35. 37:44also going to create revenue now for the parking bureau. um where before we weren't getting any of the bullying that all went to the tow agencies. Um we're still going to have the tow agencies boot during the day while our guys are busier um handling police related matters at night on just right parking tickets. That was the point. We we're going to start with the two boots that we had. If it goes good and we see that we might need more um because we're now getting that being able to do it um we'll address that when it comes. And the hope is as well um that new technology that we're hoping to get um come January is also going to increase uh that being in the form of license plate readers for every uh patrol vehicle which is also an in-car camera and then it doubles as as a license plate reader. So, it'll increase the transparency uh for the police department with um you know, being able to see not just the body camera from the
36. 38:46officer, but from the vehicle. And then we'll be able to put bootable vehicles into that same system. So, it will read every single license plate on the street. If it's bootable, we can stop. If it's parked, we boot it. If it's moving, gives us a reason to say stop, pay your parking tickets. If they pay them, we don't have to boot it. Um but hopefully that'll continue to generate uh the revenue. So we're hoping that come January um we can implement that program as well. So >> thank you. >> Anyone else? >> This I should have asked this during the fire report. Um this came up a while back about fireworks. Um we were talking about maybe doing some educational thing ahead of time for we're talking about July 4th, >> right? >> Apparently over the weekend there were fireworks again in the city. Uh, and I'm wondering why any >> Yeah, that was that was that was sanctioned. >> Good. Um, they have a permit. They pay for the fire department to be there. >> That's part of their mass gathering. I think this was probably the fifth or sixth one that's been done. Um, but that
37. 39:49was at the basilica and that was sanctioned by the department. >> That was my question. Thank you very much. You're >> welcome. >> Okay. Thank you, Captain. Uh he are you there to jump report? >> Uh yes I am. Let me just share my screen. Okay. Can everybody see that? Okay. I cannot hear anybody. Are you frozen? >> No, we can hear you. >> Okay, great. Okay, so same usual stuff. Uh building permits and fees. We continued to be uh substantially uh under budget on both plumbing and building permits. Um, obviously there were a number of
38. 40:51projects that we thought would be further along than they were, uh, including one at least which has now dropped off, uh, which is the second Galvan apartment building. Um, there's a number of, uh, projects, uh, still awaiting various formats in the planning board. Um, so I think it's highly unlikely at this point we're going to make those numbers this year, unfortunately. Um, parking revenues, we're actually looking pretty good. If you look at them overall, we're at about 67% of the year, uh, eight out of, uh, 12 months through this data is all through August. And we're at 68% uh, versus budget of our total revenue. And you can see it's relatively consistent across all a little higher on the parking ticket and uh parking and other permits fronts, a little lower on onoff streetet parking, but overall that number is looking solid or that category is looking pretty solid. Um sales cannabis and mortgage and lodging tax. Um again,
39. 41:58uh we're only two out of four of sales tax, but we're looking like we're trending pretty close to making our our 2025 budget number. So that's great. uh lodging taxes we've discussed um is uh considerably lower than we would like to see partially because again some of the um new businesses that we were anticipating being open have not opened yet although the pocketbook factory I believe is taking reservations as of now so that should start generating some uh money um but also because of some of the changes we put in place we did see a pretty significant decrease in the amount of uh registered uh short-term rental folks so that's clearly impacting ing that number as well. Uh we've talked about cannabis last month. There's nothing new to add to that. Um we will just have to wait and see what the next uh payout or two comes into place, but right now it's looking like we're going to be a little not a little we're going to be short on on that as well versus budget mortgage tax. Again, it's one of two payments. We really never know uh what each semiannual payment is going to be. So it looks low now, but we could
40. 43:02still make that number. Um we won't know until uh very close to the end of the year unfortunately. Um in ter of financial reportings, we are still continuing to work on the 2024 audit uh because we had to do both the regular audit and a single federal audit and a single DOT audit. Um we ended up um obviously taking a little longer than we had hoped. Uh the single federal audit was supposed to be filed by September uh 30th. the auditors were not able to make that happen. But I've communicated with um OCR and explained to them the issue and um the auditors have guaranteed to me and I have guaranteed in turn to OCR that uh we will have that uh the SIFA which is a single expenditure federal audit um delivered to them no later than the end of this month. So it will only be a month late which is um you know not ideal but certainly not traumatic. um and have already heard back from them saying that they'll let me know if they have any other issues. Um operational uh again, you know, as you know, we've transferred over all of
41. 44:04the different uh tech packages regarding accounting. So tax collection, the finance package, which is the general le and the water and sewer billing thing. We are still trying to work through all of that. Um some things are much better. Uh some things are kind of shocking because it was supposed to be everything we had and more and we're finding out in many cases it's not everything we had and sometimes less. Um we're having various uh various levels of success depending on who we're working with in getting some of the uh what we would consider even basic things uh to be added into the software package. Um, you know, I think a basic example is we have people come in all the time and we have, you know, um, people from title search companies and lawyers from closings and they want a basic statement of what's owed on a property that doesn't actually exist or didn't actually exist until about 3 days ago. Don't know why. Hard to believe that it didn't, but these are
42. 45:08the kinds of things that we're dealing with. Second thing that we're dealing with is in New York State according to New York State reporting which you will be you'll see both in the AFR which is what we file with New York State and in the audited financial statements you'll see that there is not a thing called retain earnings or or you know you don't make money in New York it gets rolled into the fund balance at the end of the year. The new software doesn't do that. So at this point I am physically required to go in download all of this information and then do manual adjustments to approximately 25 different funds just to get the numbers in the format they need to be in order to provide them to both New York State in their reporting system and to our auditors. It's clearly not ideal. So we are um basically begging them to see if they can modify that for us. Um we did talk a little bit before about how um there was a fair amount of time uh spent uh very unproductively in that they tried to implement
43. 46:12utility billing before they implied the general ledger. It didn't work because they didn't have the basic things set up. They charged us for all the hours anyway. Um I have gone through all of the invoices. I've determined how much time they and my office spent uh as well as uh DBW uh staff in going through basically what was you know ultimately failed uh setup and implementation and I have made a request for them to give us a credit back on that. We will see how that goes. Um depending on how it goes, you know, we may try and escalate it a little bit with the attorney, but right now we're hoping that that is not the case. Uh, as you all know, we're in the process of the 2026 budget. We have all the departmental requests. We've started the departmental BEA's reviews. They're all on the city calendar. Um, for those of you that aren't familiar with process, I just laid it out quickly here. The BEA has to provide the proposed budget to the council on or before November 10th. Then the mayor has to call a special meeting to present the
44. 47:14budget to the council. It's the only thing that can be done during that meeting. Then there's a public hearing called by the mayor. we all have to be there, all the department heads, and it's obviously the opportunity for the public to come and comment on what they see. Um, and then there'll be a special meeting called by the common council to consider and vote on the budget. Uh, the council can reduce the budget, but it cannot increase the budget during that process at least. Um, and if it's not voted on within 20 days of the first meeting, it becomes accepted by default. Um, that's never happened, at least not in the time I've been here, but just technically that's what it is. uh lodging tax. Again, we're um the money's coming in. I recorded it up earlier. We're still having some issues uh on their reporting function because that software was upgraded as well. Um not necessarily by our request. Um, so now that hopefully some of the other financial package and and tax collection and utility billing software is at least now operational, we can get back to the lodging taxing and see if we can focus
45. 48:16on that getting improved back to what we need it to be. uh foreclosures. Uh there was a resolution for a uh alternative uh installment agreement placed on your desks at the last meeting for 10% down and 36-month pay versus 25 and 24. Um so we are of course waiting to see how you decide you vote on that. Um Michelle Tulo actually in the meantime coordinated meeting with representatives from Galving Housing Resources. So we all met and sat together. They do sort of foreclosure counseling. They usually do it more associated with bank mortgages and less with delinquent taxes, but they uh they wanted to be involved. So, they're both going we're going to provide them with a list of the uh people who are still on the uh list. They are going to proactively send them a letter basically saying, "Hey, we know you're having some issues. We offer free foreclosure counseling and guidance." Um so, they're going to do that. Um once we know um if the alternative installment
46. 49:21agreement has been approved by the council, we are going to issue a second demand letter. Uh so that'll be after the uh formal meeting this month obviously um which will include both the letter but also more specifics about the available either installment agreement or installment agreements um as well as a brochure that Galvan Housing Resources is going to provide us. So, we're really trying to provide everybody with, you know, tools that they can use to make the best determination and decision for the situation they're in. And I think the um I think the housing resources consulting will be uh for for the people that choose to take it, I think will be very valuable because they don't just look at it as let's figure it out how you can, you know, come up with this money because they're also very pragmatic and says, well, if you can't figure out how to come up with this money, what are other alternatives? Um, so again, that's we're calling it a second demand letter that's just being issued by the attorney. Um, right now we are down to 80 parcels um with
47. 50:25outstanding about $3.2 million in taxes. We've redeemed uh 68 properties, about $850,000. It's a little bit more because those were based on um the original amounts in the um original list. So there was obviously a couple more months of penalties give or take in that number, but uh 46% of properties, but only 23% of dollars. So clearly some of the really big ones that we've all been looking at have not responded in any way, shape, or form, but at least two or three uh properties that owed in the low six figures did come in and did get themselves off the list. So that's great. um after we issue that list, we're going to give them x amount of time, and then we're going to actually start uh ordering title searches, which is an expense that gets added to the property. So, that has, you know, an impact. Um and then we'll also finalize and file the list with the county clerk. Uh and begin the official proceedings of of going through the legal process and all of the communications that are required and the notifications. Um,
48. 51:28in terms of resolutions, uh, I believe, uh, that, uh, Crystal Pek is working on a resolution to for the sale of 98 Paddic Place. You guys know that that has been around for years and years and we foreclosed on it. Then there was bankruptcy. Then there was COVID, then the guy wouldn't get out. Then the sheriff's office had so much work they couldn't evict him for a while. It is now empty. It has been secured. Uh obviously we want to uh sell the property and ideally we want to sell it sooner rather than later. Uh if for no other reason than we don't want to have to incur the cost to winterize the house and protect it uh during the winter season. Um I guess the the question aside from do you want to sell it, the other question that the council will be, you know, wanting to think about is do we sell it by auction or do we sell it by private sale? um private sale obviously we'd have to go out we'd have to pay for an appraisal then we'd have to figure out how to get the word out that that property is available for an
49. 52:32auction you don't have to get the appraisal you still have to get the word out that a property is going to be auctioned off um so um I imagine you'll be having that conversation next week um two other resolutions uh one super weird one it's it's you're going to a budget transfer for 2024. Um, which is very odd, but the reason why is because the auditors found a this is in the sewer fund specifically. They found um an invoice that uh should have been charged back to 2024. It was missed. It was not. It was too high to uh what they call pass. If it's under a certain amount, they can just say, "Yeah, it's not ideal, but it doesn't really impact. It's about $17,000. Uh the account that it should accurately be charged back to in 2024 didn't have enough money to cover it, but there is enough money in other places in the sewer budget to cover it. So, it'll be a
50. 53:33simple straightforward transfer. But I just want to explain that because obviously doing a budget transfer, you know, almost a year after the year's been closed is not usual. Uh the other the other one uh that you're going to see uh which I will have you know in the next day or two. So I'm sorry I didn't have them for tonight but I will have them well before uh next Tuesday's meeting is just a budget amendment uh for the LOAP which is the uh service award program for the firefighters. We got the um basically the the invoice for the 2025 cost and it exceeded what we had actually budgeted by about$7,000. Um that means it pretty much exceeded what we had been uh experiencing by about 7,000 because it had been pretty flat up until this point. Um so that I believe is all I have. Oh no, I don't. I'm sorry. Sidewalk Improvement District um successfully added to the assessment role. We have touched base with the uh the software company to determine how
51. 54:36they're going to be added to the bill and then once they're added to the bill, how it's going to be recorded and captured in the GLS that get paid. Um there are some open questions and I'm frankly not sure who's supposed to make these decisions, whether it's me or whether the council should revisit the law in the very near future. But the first thing is um when should that fee be paid? when it gets put on the tax bill. And I'll give you an I'll give you examples. So, city and county taxes, it's four quarters. Uh, sorry, city taxes are four quarters. County is every other quarter. The water sewer, the water re levy is the first or the second quarter. The sewer re levy is the first or the second quarter. So, those are all codified. Um, so at some point we're going in the very near future we're going to have to determine when that SID fee what due date they should have for that SID fee. Uh, the second issue is when is the SID fund supposed to recognize the revenues? So
52. 55:40you know and the two basic options are do they get it as it's received? So, as we collect it and we collect it every month at the end of the month, do we then say, "Okay, let's move it out of the general fund or or or let's move it into the SID fund or do we say that, hey, we build $300,000 of SIV funds. We're going to make SID whole as the beginning of the year and then we're just going to select it as we go on, which is what we do for the water sewer relev." But obviously that has a negative impact on cash flow for the general fund. Um and then the last thing is we also need to determine a payback schedule for the interfund loan which is what allowed the SID uh to kick off without actually having any revenue. Um my understanding is the revenue estimate is going to be about $300,000 a year. So if we assumed even a three-year payback, which is, you know, kind of long, that that's still half of the revenue. So that's obviously going to impact how much revenue is left to actually do sidewalk improvements during the period
53. 56:45of time that the loan is being paid back. And then obviously once the loan is paid back, the revenue is is 100% to SID. Um the only other sort of new news is that um we do have a date to close on the EFC financing which is for the first phase of that major sewer uh project. So the first phase alone is a $66 million project which is um looking like it's going to net to about $15 million because of grants. But even $15 million, I just want to give people an FYI. We're talking, you know, a couple years from now probably. I don't think we're going to start in 2026 collecting for this, but we might want to start to ramp it up. The debt service is going to be over a half a million dollars a year. And you have to put that in perspective with right now total sewer revenue is only $1.5 million a year. So, that's going to be a big um a big expense that's going to have to be covered. Um, so I just
54. 57:48want people to sort of be aware of that now because obviously that's going to impact uh water sewer bill rates and leeate rates and other things like that and that's all going to have to be figured out. >> Um uh on the plus side uh we did file the application for the sewer debt exclusion. Um it was received, it was acknowledged, the public notice happened and the affidavit of the public notice has been forwarded to uh EFC as of today. Uh so that's proceeding well and that's important because basically it allows the city to borrow it. It it sounds exactly what it is when we're looking at there's a constitutional debt limit. You're only allowed to borrow so much money relative to basically how much revenue you bring in. What this does is it lets it lets us say, "Hey, we don't have to count the sewer debt toward that." So, it gives us more flexibility in our borrowing. So, it's actually pretty important. Um, and that's it. Uh, this last part of foreclosure proceedings, I think I just
55. 58:50didn't delete um because it's a an older version of what I covered earlier. So, apologies for that. And that's it. Council members, Vicki, >> historically, does the city um make more uh money selling uh a foreclosed property uh via um auctioning or um with um privately? >> We haven't sold enough properties in my time for me to be able to answer that. uh you you you know unless somebody's really jonesing for the property I would say probably an auction can an auction because it it generates you know competitive bidding >> so Heather when when you say though revenues only we can get back the taxes any penalties and anything up above goes to the homeowner correct >> that is correct as of 2023 yep oh I did have ap propo not of this topic but just because I'm thinking about it. Um, I
56. 59:52believe for the firetruck, I believe we got $225,000 for it. And just as a reminder, there was a resolution that authorized the sale that also indicated that those funds would be set aside to put against the cost of the ladder truck that we're assuming we're going to get in 2026. So, it's just a little followup on that. members public. >> Okay. Rob, are you with us? >> Thank you. >> Yes, I Yes, I am. So, let me do my feature here. Where the hell they go? All right. What's going on? All right, we're going to share the
57. 1:00:58window 2000. Okay, you all be happy to hear we have a DPW double feature tonight. Uh I was away during September. So uh right now we're going to recap what was presented back in September. Um uh Sepage revenue was $55,000 in July. Um the installation of the new bar screen at the headworks of the sewer plant was put online. There's new control systems, electrical connections made. There's a new actuator which is what you're seeing there that basically tells um it's like a automatic for like a hose. It tells the hose when to turn on and when to turn off when flow is needed and when it's not needed. Um this is an electronic connection box. It looks like you would see in anybody's house or whatever. Uh obviously it's not acceptable in a u in a headworks building because we operate under different rules and codes. The principal issue is that it's uh everything has to be explosion proof and because it means
58. 1:02:01these have to be sealed with gaskets and special fittings. So that way there's no chance of a spark because there's an explosion um risk with sewage. Part of it is because somebody could dump something illegally in there like a petroleum product. The other part is a natural breakdown process of um sewage creates hydrogen, phosphine, hydrogen, sulfide and methane which are all explosive. So um that was switched out and ready to go. The barc screen operational, you can see that this was the old one was all jammed up with grit. Uh that is what comes from the inside of our collection system when we have heavy rains. Uh with the barc screen up and running, the gr is where it's supposed to be, not at the bottom of the pit, but in the dumpster to be hauled off. We um this is uh next to the sewer plant. This is um one of the outfalls that goes along the the fence line by the Fugar. It's been repaired a couple times. The
59. 1:03:03seals come apart again, creating this massive void. Um so we just have to replace sections of pipe. Before we do that, we were required to get a a wetland general permit from DEEC. So, we have to go through that process first. Uh the fire department was uh able to assist us with locating the actual outfall out in the Hudson River. So, you the buoy I believe is where the diver is and it's somewhere between this uh buoy and the and the bridge is where they the trestle is where they located it, marked it for us, and we were able to provide that information to DEEC. Uh and that's all going to be taken into consideration with our upgraded Speedies permit. Um that's been in uh ongoing for about a decade or so. Uh we did have our annual inspection of the sewer plant and there's our overall rating as satisfactory. Uh moving to water, you know, there was an issue of a overdos of polymer in one of the filters. It created uh basically a restriction and uh which created an
60. 1:04:07increase in pressure and blew one of the fittings off. Uh you know the fitting was replaced. It shows you what kind of pressure is there. Uh you know the polymer was cleaned out. U everything was put back in working order. All set. Uh you all can remember there was a a fire on Warren Street back in uh August or September. I don't remember which one. And um you know one of the things that we do is you know we want to make sure that all the hydrants are operational. So here you've got 7th and Warren um Mrs. Park uh across from uh Prison Alley. Uh number 14 is by the old acriman's building at the corner of 8th. So, you know, these are all, you know, all the hydrants are operational. The one down here by Park and Warren was tagged by our u our good friends and neighbors at the Athens fire department. Uh we had to have the water department there to shut the hydrant down so that way they could remove their um I believe it's some kind of an adapter. And uh I asked one of the firefighters cuz I know
61. 1:05:10next to nothing about Firematics about this water coming out the front of the truck. and they said that that's a a relief I guess because the tank is full. So, uh you know, water for the hoses and too much for the trucks. Uh that's that's the way we like it at the water department. The because we had done hydrant flushing a week before. A lot of times when there's a an incident like this, you'll see a lot of complaints of people with discolored water just because it's so much volume, it's so quick a time, it's so localized will create disturbances. Uh but because we did flushing the week before, we had zero complaints uh following the following the event. Um sewer repair on uh Fifth and Long Alley and just you know a lot of maintenance going on, a lot of uh storm related damage getting getting fixed. So that's the final restoration there. Uh we had a similar one down on down in the lower Cherry Alley and when we were there um excavating it we found
62. 1:06:16u a buried tank. It was a thousandgalon fuel tank and so here's the stone sewer that we were there to fix. And this is the fuel tank. Now, you know, there is a section of fuel tanks in the charter, and it it references, you know, honor before September 1st of 1928. So, you know, there's never been a a a tank that was installed in the city right away in my tenure, and I doubt it's been for a very, very many, many years. But the tanks are still there, abandoned. Um, you know, unlike most sections of the code that say the abodding uh neighbor, this section says whoever the uh permittee was, and we have no there's no records of any permitted underground storage tanks or fuel tanks. So, uh, you know, we've been down this road with DEEC before. You know, we can say, you know, we don't want to do it. It's not our tank. We didn't use it. And DEEC can say, that's great. They issue us a consent order
63. 1:07:18with or without fines and we're compelled to do it anyway. So in this instance, we bring a crew in who does the dismantling of the tank, pumps out any of the material. Um we have a special contractor that we put any of the contaminated soil in and that gets hauled off. We had Crawford there to do all the monitoring and prepare the close out. So when it's all said and done, this is going to be a probably a $20,000 cleanup. you know, we'll, you know, there'll be a transfer uh this month to cover those bills, but uh this is what happens. You know, it's in the roadway. DEEC says it's your road, your property, it's your problem. And uh so it's it's over with. It's uh it's all taken care of now. So, there was a thing from DEC about some algo blooms and uh you know, there was a article in the the paper about it. These are just these are water chestnuts. I just want to make sure that we understood what we're talking about. I'm not sure what this kind of flamm is that's here. But algolooms are brightly colored. So, u they're very distinct and
64. 1:08:24uh you know they could be green, they could be red, they can be any number of colors, but they're usually pretty pretty colorful. Um there was a bit of a Oh, no. We had CSC tree. So, this is a a tree that was from something along the Eerie Canal and about 200 trees were planted. So, one was decided to go up here. Uh there's the locates and site. Um there was a little bit of a kurfuffle online last month about you know the new lawn area by the the streetscape project and uh you know we informed the terrace that you know the per the code section 82-2 you know the butter is responsible to mow the lawn to the curb uh which uh they did and there's no problem and problems solved. Um, as for the flowers and such, it's not included in the code. So, uh, you know, the parks crew of the DBW will be managing the the, uh, flowers and trees and shrubs, um, in,
65. 1:09:28you know, for the foreseeable future. There is Oh, and you know, we've had certainly our issues and our debates with uh, Department of State about, you know, keeping the contract schedules and so forth. of this here. This was this was mulch that was washed out and the parks guys uh went and replaced the mulch. And you know, Glenn Walls was a a round one. We were a round two winner. Glenn Walls was the one of the first awardies was in the first round of awardies. And this is, you know, taken from a South Street project last month. You know, they're they're just breaking ground and doing forum work. So, um, you know, we're a little surprised at why everything is such a big deal for us, you know, being late by a couple of months. Uh, moving on to, uh, the October portion of today's program. So, just on August revenue was $46,870. The, uh, these are aeration tanks, which have been uh, out of service for a
66. 1:10:30number of years, but the they still could be used in the treatment process. They just aren't. Then there was a sizable amount of vegetation was in there. The guys went down, cut it, removed it. Uh and then everything was cleaned out. So that way if we do need it, it it is available. Um we have um the pump station upgrades that took place about 5 years ago. And so DEEC has been honest about whether or not there's any overflows. After a couple of years, there's no uh overflows. So u they basically wanted these overflows cut and cap. So picture three shows the overflow filled with concrete and at picture uh four this is where it was basically a PVC pipe. We put a cap on it and so now uh they can't overflow. So when we do our BMP report for the end of the year we'll be closing to CSOS. Um the greatest way to limit the number of csos is to u eliminate the physical connection altogether. So they'll be removed in uh next year's submission.
67. 1:11:34We also have um water department we had a health state health department inspection and so one of their concerns was that you know calibration of our tubidity meters turbidometers sorry like little mal prop anyway the um so here's uh transfer upgrade turbidometers are basically something that manages the monitors the clarity of the water there's very specific tolerances of how clear it could be and calibration involves you know preset uh control samples that are put in the analyzer and it you know whatever the analyzer sees should match the numbers on the caps and everything was uh was fine with all six of those. Um you know we we have a dry season so even out in the forge uh you know water was barely going over the spillway but you know we're still getting a full pipe of water to the reservoir and water was still going over the reservoir. So, um, it certainly, you know, wasn't optimal conditions, but, you know, there was no point when we were necessarily, uh, in an emergency
68. 1:12:37situation. Uh, we did send our lead copper samples off uh, a couple of months ago. We received the results. The lead copper samples are performed by 20 uh, individual residents throughout the city. Uh, they're each given a sample bottle with specific instructions of how to perform the sample. And what's happened is uh for the lead 18 uh of 20 or 90% of the samples came back non-detect. Uh of the two samples that did have a detection the highest was uh 0002.9. The action level is 0.015. So you know you're basically looking at something that would of the action level. So nowhere that one sample was nowhere near uh where an action level would take place. So that's to be expected because we do corrosion control and uh and inhibition uh in the treatment of the process of the treatment process sorry. Uh for copper we also had uh trace amounts the highest
69. 1:13:40uh amount was onetenth of action level. Um, you know, recently there was a a discussion online about the uh backup water supply and uh the Karuso lease. Just to kind of clarify, you know, the actual uh face value is uh $200,000 a year for the first 30 years. That started in 2005. That goes to 2,34. After that, for the next 10 years, it's $100,000 a year. that will be from 20 um 2020 2035 to 2044. So the face value of it is $7 million. Now you you can debate whether $7 million was enough or not enough. Uh you can certainly consider time value of money and that when the deal was struck that you know the you know a structured payment over time is less than getting the money up front. But you cannot debate the actual uh amount of the transaction. $7 million is the amount and there's really nothing
70. 1:14:43more to talk about on that matter. The um you know and about the backup. So this gives you kind of an aerial of this is the 40 acres. This is our the quarry. um you know they ended up you know it really must have been like mana from heaven when the when this property I mean obviously it wasn't the fact that it was an economic you know uh shock to the system but to have a a body of water that was so close to a pre-existing pump station the pump station was actually built in the 1940s with the intent of either creating more flow from the reservoir uh and or sucking water directly from the clover creek. So, you know, this is is a was an eligible water supply that was relatively close. Um, the issue is that when this was put in place in 1960,69, 1970, we had an open sand filter up at the reservoir. So, the pumps turned on, maybe would make a little fountain in the middle. Maybe it wouldn't, but the reality was it was open-ended. So, there was, you know, if the pumps could do deliver the 3 million gallons per day
71. 1:15:46water with, you know, not affecting anything. The issue is that in 2005 when the new plant came online, the plant is designed to control inflow. It has no way to deal with excess incoming flow. So there's a huge valve that holds back the flow. It's holding back the reservoir right now as we speak. The issue is that these pumps are designed to do 3 million gallons a day and the water that we're drawing is a million to a million4 gallons a day. So it would deliver two to three times the volume needed uh which would then put massive amounts of pressure excuse me on a 100-y old transmission main between spruak road and the plant uh which would undoubtedly burst the the pipe and its fittings. So uh we do have the supply there. I've kind of you know made an analogy that it's you know it's like the a backup water supply without using any vowels. It does provide water theoretically, but in all practicality
72. 1:16:49right now it it doesn't. Um, you know, we would need to do some some serious mechanical upgrades at the pump station. Um, these weren't taken in consider there was a million- dollar upgrade of the pump station during the plant upgrade, but there are some throttling valves, but based on what we know of the pressures, you know, there's going to definitely been more damage than than good. So, um, just kind of like giving you an idea that it is a, uh, source of water, but it's not a very good source. And, you know, in the event that there's an issue at the plant, you know, this doesn't do anything. Or if there's a break in the line by the county highway garage, this doesn't do anything. Um, so we probably need a more comprehensive solution. um to go into DPW. This uh we had some some surging up in the uh Union Street area. And so we brought a camera in. The camera was able to identify pieces of sections that were missing and and and collapses. So, you know, this was the
73. 1:17:51camera. This is actually tile that was from a suction upstream and got washed down in the flows. Uh so we cut that section out, removed all the pieces and replaced it. uh similar issue upstream where it was a massive void. So, we uncovered this uh very old cleanout. Uh I I would assume they would have put a spoon down in there and scooped up God knows what. Uh but it's a 12-in cleanout. And um you know, it had a structure that all had to be demoed at which point then we exposed the the damaged sewer and everything was replaced there. Uh and up by Hudson Avenue, there was that ma massive tree that was there forever. Um the portion of this picture that's not reflective is uh a 10-in diameter root that had come from that tree. So now we have an idea as to why it was so large. It was had a you know a constant supply of um you know fortified water. If you're a tree, it's good. So and this is the repair to that. Uh this
74. 1:18:55I talked about the CAC tree. This is the excavation. the final product and you know just to give you an idea because it's the budget season you know we have to bid salt uh a year in advance so you know the price which was managed through uh office of general services at the state $69 a ton 800 ton is $55,000 we are not you know this is not an invoice um we're not responsible to take all 800 ton we are responsible to take 400 ton of it so that's uh 27,000 uh but the lock in also allows us to go over 100% up to 120 or 130% with only nominal increases but a guaranteed supply. And as far as Perry Street Bridge, um we're doing our closeout paperwork with them. Uh one of the things the council did over the many years was provide money for design review by the railroads. Uh so when the engineers designed it, the railroads had to sign off on it. And we also needed force account money uh which was for the flaggers flagging the trains during
75. 1:19:58construction. We had to give u $375,000 for flaggers, $150,000 for design review. At the end of the project, we still have $199,000 in the flagger force account money and 106,000. So, we are expecting two checks from Amtrak in the amount of $35,000 uh to return what was essentially in an escrow account. Uh my understanding is that since the project started with a $600,000 loan from a capital reserve fund from the council, it it'll probably go back to that. Um and that's it. >> Well, thank you, Rob. Okay, >> council members questions. So good to see you. >> Thank you. >> Do you have any uh insight or or awareness to what's going to happen with the new stewage project and APW and who's running that and when we can
76. 1:21:02expect to see the streets being dug up? If you're talking about the capital project, the $66 million one, >> the first pro, the first project is in we broke it out into two separate projects. The first one is in design right now. >> We it also once we're through the Divi design phase, which will probably be uh early winter. Everything has to go to DEEC for their review and approval. Once that's done and we have their concurrence, then uh we'll put the bid on the streets, which is probably be uh March, Aprilish. Uh we'll put it on the streets cuz it's uh state and federal money requires a minimum of 30 days. Bid opening will probably be April, May with contract to begin in the summer of uh 20 next summer 2026. >> And there I always appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sure. if you like. >> Um, okay. Thank you, Rob. >> Yep.
77. 1:22:05>> Uh, okay. Okay, we have some resolutions and since I know a lot of you here resolution go to that one first. Logan, can you put up resolution number 13? Can I get a introduction a second resolution on New York State? Council discussion. >> Do we have any information from the controllers's office about uh how those bombs are used? I know Vicki about how the bombs are used, how the money is used. >> Uh do we have any data? I didn't get any information from birth control but I know almost 90 98% of the from when I looked research that 98% of the bond is used towards IDF
78. 1:23:10>> is that information that you could share with us the source of that data might be helpful >> that I looked it up uh back to when the ceasefire was going on I I'll look it up okay >> the resolution the bonds are unrestricted >> excuse me >> the bonds are unrestricted But I'm just curious about um you know there's been a lot of talk about how it's used and so on and I just like to see the information. That's all. >> I made a call to Senator H's office to inquire. they were unfamiliar with this resolution or so I want to know exactly you know what what else is you know being utilized too uh that we could if there's other questionables bonds that we address now rather than six months from now. So, uh, I also have phone calls and to, uh, Senator Jill Brans and Schumer to see exactly where what they could do to trouble down the information of these funds and other funds that are questionable. >> Thank you. Did anyone get back to me?
79. 1:24:13>> You're funny. >> Impressive. I'm just thinking, >> well, I think the government shut down. I don't think they're going to get back to me, but uh, Hi says she'll get back to me. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I think it's around 50% of the uh New York State pension funds goes towards uh the Israeli bonds and uh which is approximately $350 million up to which is a lot. I I I recommend everyone, you know, on top of me calling, everybody else calling should, you know, rattle their cage a little bit that we're, you know, looking at this or for paying attention because $350 million, a lot of a lot of money that could, you know, make or break a decision somewhere. >> I'm pretty sure that's the idea of this resolution. This is going to go to the controller, right? I mean, instead of us, >> each one of us calling, that's the idea, too. It goes to the senators. It goes to controller. It goes to our our
80. 1:25:15congressman. It goes to our governor. Goes to our attorney general, our local senator senator, including one correspondent right that we received the correspondents received via email. They're going to be part of this resolution and packet to be sent. >> If you want us, we're good to >> I think more people the better. So that are paying attention and want the record so we can include the record. Yes. Um I assume plenty of would like to speak to this. Um before I um open the floor, is there anybody who is against this work which here tonight or online? Okay. So, um, assuming that you're more or less speaking to the choir for, uh, why don't you try to perhaps tell us something that's not in the resolution
81. 1:26:19and why we should support it? Is there anybody who wants to speak? Probably. >> Um, hi, my name is Tamara Balapovsky. and I'm a resident of Ward 3 and Hudson. And I stand here tonight with immense sadness at the thought of the hundreds of thousands of dollars of New York State funds that have been loaned to the government of Israel, a government that runs in a part-time system that dehumanizes, tortures, starves, and murders innocent Palestinians. Controller Dapoli manages the New York State Pension Fund, which is one of the top US investors in Israel bonds. These bonds provide unrestricted funds for the Israeli government and military. As of March 2024, the New York State Common Retirement Fund held over $352 million worth of Israel bonds. Israel are loans that go directly to the Israeli Treasury with no guardrails, providing financial support for Israel's apartheid system
82. 1:27:22and ethnic cleansing campaign. The recent ceasefire announcement and exchange of hostages does not change the fact that Israel prime minister is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity or that the UN has classified Israel's actions as genocide. New York State should not support any regime like that, even with a single dollar. In the face of such blatant displays of inhumity, it is up to our local communities to band together and take a stand for humanity. We must stand up for the rights of our neighbors around the world. The controller needs to hear from our community and stop playing politics with our pensions. Dapoli purchased over 100 million in Israel bonds after October 7th, 2023. He needs to halt any further purchases and opt not to reinvest current loans back into Israel. I ask the council to vote yes to pass the resolution calling on the New York State controller to stop purchasing
83. 1:28:24Israel bonds. Thank you, council. >> Thank you. Um I realize push ahead. I misspoke and screwed up my say preaching to the choir and not speaking to the choir. Um that said, anyone else like to speak? Sure. >> As a rabbi and resident of just over the border, a daily visitor to Hudson, I'm writing to ask you to support the proposed resolution. In 1926, my greatgrandfather was sent from Warsaw to Jerusalem to found first of the Gidic community and then the British mandate Palestine. He would later go on to win the Israel Prize for his encyclopedia of biblical commentary. My grandmother was born there. My grandparents fought in the war of independence, the Nagba. My grandfather lost his leg. I was raised in Jewish Zionist schools and have been to Israel Palestine countless times. The genocide of God the last two years had awakened so much of the world to the injustices of Palestine that have been
84. 1:29:26allowed to continue until now on account of a strange soup of colonialism, Holocaust, guilt, white supremacy, Christian Zionism, Jewish exceptionalism, and so forth. The confluence of the Holocaust and the founding of the state of Israel made for an impossible vortex of trauma in time. There was not enough time, will resources to process the enormity of the Holocaust. The Jewish communities of Europe oppressed for thousands of years for the sake of their own safety made a devil's bargain with colonial powers to steal Palestinian land from those who attended its soil for unceasing generations, trading their safety for another group's oppression. The Jewish community is still trapped in fear and trauma and is willing to perpetuate occupation, apartheid, genocide for the sake of this delusional vision of Jewish safety which comes at the expense of brutal horrific violence afflicted on the Palestinian people. Sometimes when a person is so trapped within the nets of their own suffering, they need a friend to pull them out and
85. 1:30:29walk them away from the wreckage. Divesting from Israel bonds is an act of care and compassion towards all people. Palestinians, Jews, and New Yorkers. It says to each of our communities that we long for places of safety not conditional on the circumstances of one's birth by investing our dollars in systems of care and justice near and far. We send a message to everyone that it's possible to create absence of safety not conditioned on oppression. Many of our ancestors did not learn these lessons, nor did they have the resources that we have. greater understanding of systems of oppression and the need to take responsibility for the injustices we perpetuate even from a distance. It's on us to create safer, more inclusive communities for children all over the world. I urge you to vote in favor of the resolution. >> Thank you. Um great comment. Um, you know, resolutions like this were accused by our critics of of virtual sign virtue signaling and such
86. 1:31:32accusations. Let it be clear that this resolution actually speaks to something very directly that we're involved in. Many of us are in this um uh >> planure. Thank you. In a pension plan. So it is practically related people here in anyone else. >> Um my name is Phil Bishop. I'm a resident of the fifth board and um you know we've uh tried to meet with the tried to communicate with him. He did not answer questions or respond. Um I think there were some tens of millions of bonds that were renewed in May but his office would not either confirm or deny whether they were actually renewed. they came up here. So, we cannot get any real information about what his attitudes are of what he's planning. Thank you. Again, as you might not know, since you're not all regulars here, we don't actually vote on this. You're voting on this next week. Um, but I
87. 1:32:35sense that we're going to pass it. Um, but you're welcome back to speak again if there's new developments. Anybody else like to speak? Okay. I mean, I just think wars are things and this is just one example of humanity throughout the world that humanity perpetuates in devastation to one another. So, it would be great if we all weren't part of this. We all part of this endeavor destroy each other and Chris if you want to foil the office you should be able to get that information for >> I think people have >> yeah that's all I have to say I'm just not a fan of war >> in general
88. 1:33:39[Laughter] yes sir Um, I don't have much new to add, but my name is Noah WZ and I'm a resident of the first board. Um, when I learned that the New York City Vent fund is one of the top US invent investors in Israeli bonds, I was disturbed. Um, bonds may sound like a benign financial investment, but in reality, the money act as unrestricted funds for the Israeli government's military. And over the past years, we've seen exactly what this no questions asked funding has led to. Mass displacement, deliberate starvation, nearly half a million people, and ultimately, according to the United Nations, the genocide of the Palestinian people. Um, I'm here out of a sense of common decency, which I hope will be shared by the council members. Um, when Hudson passed a ceasefire resolution last year, I felt proud to be part of a community that had voted its conscience in a cynical political climate. And I think
89. 1:34:44the time has come again for the city of Hudson to be a voice of moral leadership. Um, and so I call on the Hudson uh the representatives of the first ward and the Hudson common council to go in favor of the resolution. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh we have a lot more business to do. Did you want to begin? Oh, but uh you're welcome back. Thank you. Um I guess we'll move along. So the first resolution stay for the real can be fun to play with. Okay. First resolution commission introduction.
90. 1:35:58>> Um personal service. Great. like come down to see your next resolution. >> Uh what is this? >> Oh, this is this makes Justin. So he apparently is this is a reappoint. >> Uh you can give that. >> Yes. The next is uh also back to the improvement project certifying complexity. Seeker type two. Crystal quick explanation of seeker type two perhaps. >> Sure. Type two is um a type of
91. 1:37:01>> We can't hear you very well. >> Hold that thought. Is that better at all? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay, perfect. Um, so a type two action under seeker is one that is already been determined by New York State Legislature. It's in the statute that it will not have the action will not have a significant impact on the environment. So no further review is required. Okay. Thank you. Can I give an introduction to one and the next um resolution uh is a budget amendment to uh apply the grant writing services for the ADA project to the um works um uh >> SIP SIBO improvement. Can I have an introduction? A second
92. 1:38:03one. The next resolution of the department budget transfer. Let's see. We're transferring money from their youth personnel service to their right. Introduction as secondary shot. Welcome. another youth department transfer um Oakdale Park personnel service to to the general youth personnel service. Introduction in a second, please. >> Why is what is this about? >> So, it's coming out of um >> Yeah, I saw some hands. Who were they yoga and those to pay the cease or workers. Okay, >> I'm of course the next resolution
93. 1:39:09um is uh regarding the uh determination of environmental significance under seeker for the adoption of the city's comprehensive plan. An introduction in a second, please and Next resolution authorizes Oh, we can discuss this by looking at introduction. Second verse. This authorizes the sale of paddic place at a public auction to the highest bidder. One um I'll just say that from my experience having done this before the auctions do >> say again >> the auctions do bring us >> so how do we advertise it >> uh we put up everywhere we can include
94. 1:40:15>> and why we're starting with 188 >> because that's the actual amount that is owed >> that's the minimum bid has to cover their taxes owed We can't go any higher. No. >> Goes higher. Heather said we don't get that money. >> Do we have any idea what the what the market value of that house is? >> No, but I think we'll find out. >> We have to do that. >> Appraisal. >> I mean, >> we don't have to do an appraisal unless we're selling it. No, I'm saying to find out the >> I'm just saying does anyone have any sense of how much what it's market >> around 250? I think >> prices up there have been going much higher. >> Yeah. >> I don't know what's the condition. >> Do you know? >> I don't know what's the condition of the house. >> Yeah, I know. >> Do we know? >> There's a house across the street from me that is nearly falling down because it's been abandoned for 5 years. No one will do anything about it, but whatever. That one's going for 350.
95. 1:41:20>> We don't get any of the money down. So >> that that covers our whole point is the only thing we didn't get is that we don't really care what >> Exactly. And Andy Howard will conduct the auction and previously they've been well attended. They they get, you know, they're going in place for the most part. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh let's see next we have reason to adopt the comprehensive plan. Can I have an introduction and a second cha uh after having had the public hearing. This is finally authorizing the discontinuence of Long Alley that property uh over there on state of state and the state of Columbia. You know what else?
96. 1:42:25>> Yeah. >> And well, there was somebody here with a map or >> I think there is a map. We filmed it. I see. >> No, I mean somebody was here with like a big poster on that when I was coming in must have it. >> Yeah, it looked just like the next we'll be voting on I mean we did come to a price agreement and we'll be voting on that I assume next month. The next resolution authoriz to apply vehicle immobilizer vehicles for those who don't know that's a bootine and Jennif. And in the next the resolution from the um police department authorizes towing services within the city of Hudson cycle and didn't we already we already have this on the books? Didn't we vote on this
97. 1:43:27like a year ago? >> Yeah. If I may, you voted on the law that set the tow regulations, but it did not there's a separate resolution that needs to set towe fees, and that was something that was being worked on with the police department. >> Okay, got it. Thank you. And the last resolution um is needed for the CDB >> grant. Oh, no. Yeah, the Hudson know um the designation of a fair housing officer. The mayor has already designated her but this is uh they need a a designation from us. Can I have an introduction in a second? >> So what is she is currently the fair housing >> right? This is the same thing. >> Is this a renewal or >> No, it just has to be done through the council as well. I see. And is there some reason why Michelle couldn't occupy that role? Yeah.
98. 1:44:29>> What is the difference between why do we need an additional fair housing need Michelle is sir? I mean the things are done in >> I think because that was put in as part of the charter the fair housing officer like commissioner >> as she gets a a thousand stipen >> just like a commissioner I believe. >> I see. So, >> and so, so this pre-existed uh child's position for through the grant. >> It's it's Hudson's version of Bill Fischer on the county level. It's Hutton's version of Fair Housing Officer. >> So, what do they do exactly? What is I mean, what's the complaints? I mean what >> complaints about what >> about housing issues in terms of you know rentables and >> un unfair uh you know um landlords rates uh reasonable accommodations um you know evictions uh things like that >> we have them in record for the last year people who contact me about
99. 1:45:33recommendations >> okay so >> I'm just saying I wonder what the complaints are they accessible for the public to see Yeah, I think I probably not because certain things, you know, are protected. Yeah, because that's but I'm not I'm not certain about >> I I just want to see about this could cause uh if if like >> if it goes to court evictions public record only if it goes to court, right? So prior to I don't know if any kind of council from the fair housing officer is open government in terms of assistance until it goes into the public domain like like eviction court or something then it is um open you know for public review you can even go to eviction court uh to watch it. So, but uh until it goes there, I think Teresa and Bill work together. I sit on the board with them. So, we meet um twice twice every two months, I think, on the housing advisory board for the county. So, we go over all the um issues of evictions or or
100. 1:46:37whatever complaints have come through city and c county. So, we sit on the board and try to review how to handle them and approach them. There you have uh who I I know there are hands up but I didn't get anything introduction. >> Sorry. So you couldn't get it. >> Oh, okay. >> No, not this one. one and >> so can I ask one more question? >> So um is there any conflict with having Teresa in this role as well as chair of the planning board? >> Do you see any issue with that? No, there's there isn't because it's not on the just like Randall is on >> and and and also on as a supervisor
101. 1:47:41because those positions in the charter are not designated because Teresa came after the fact. It was never put on the charter that as a chair planning board that you cannot hold another position. some physicians are but that hasn't put updated on the charter where uh they can't it's it's not uh conflict. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Also I'm wondering we used to get reports from adult control officer and wondering whatever happened that because you know I'm hearing some complaints and we for years I don't remember any. We used to get him monthly. >> What? >> Yeah, we see him. >> Absolutely. >> When he first started, >> but the last four years hasn't happened. >> No, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. We used to get him when he first started. He used to call a weekly a monthly report from dog officer and he used to be given to uh >> calls and city clerk. Yeah. Right. And how many tickets were their patrol? I want to follow up on that with our dog
102. 1:48:44office. Anything else from the council from the public? >> Okay. Second. All those in favor say I. Hi. Hello.

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