Common Council, Informal Meeting

1. 0:40Beautiful. Council calling to order April 20th, 2026 6 p.m. Um, we have uh one presentation this evening. Um, before we get to that, meeting minutes have been placed on file. Department reports have been received from DPW and HPD. Um, we will follow up with youth department. We received an oral presentation but we need to receive their written report and also senior department. Um before we go into the forcement
2. 1:43committees uh we have a presentation from Brad Tito from um power market. Those of you who were here last year you may recall he gave us a presentation and so uh Brad we're going to hand this over to you. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, so my name is Brad Tito. I'm the director of community energy at Power Market. Thank you, Council President Morris, and members of the Common Council. I appreciate the opportunity to join you this evening. And because some of you may recall this concept from our earlier discussion, I'm going to keep my remarks super brief and just focus on what's in front of you tonight. Uh, what we're proposing is a straightforward standalone community solar outreach effort for Hudson residents. So, Power Market is a New York-based community solar provider. We've partnered with dozens of New York municipalities from Kingston to Beacon, Udica, Olter County, Alb County to name just a few to deliver these community solar savings to residents. So, this is a voluntary state regulated program that
3. 2:47allows residents to receive savings on their electricity bills through credits applied directly by National Grid. And there's no financial risk whatsoever. We're offering guaranteed savings. There's no change to their electricity supplier and residents can opt out at any time. Again, it's purely voluntary. And for the city, the structure is intentionally simple. There's no budget impact or cost and minimal staff burden. Power market would manage outreach, enrollment, and customer support. The city's role is limited to reviewing outreach materials in advance of distribution. And so the resolution and memorandum of understanding which I believe the council president has shared with you are designed to outline roles and responsibilities and it's pretty straightforward. I think you'll find that it's a win-win for the city and we look forward to getting this off the ground in the next few weeks. So with that I'm happy to answer any questions and I appreciate your time and consideration. >> I I think Brad if you go over a little more what the what's covered in the memorandum of understanding. I don't
4. 3:50believe that we circulated that to the full council. >> Yes. So, >> just just go over how the process works uh because we have three new council members who did not see your presentation last last year. >> Okay. Sure. So uh the way it works is is basically theou would outline the roles and responsibilities of power market and the city with respect to implementing a community campaign uh where power market would manage all the public awareness aspects. We would uh we would have you consider sending a letter from the mayor. that would be something that we would prepare and the and pay for in terms of the postage and the preparation of that. Uh from the residents perspective, they would receive this in the mail. Uh if they liked the opportunity, they'd go to their computer and they'd enroll online through a city branded uh uh portal. We'd handle all the
5. 4:53enrollment. If they had any questions, uh we'd enroll them into this community solar program. And once the project is up and operational, that's when the savings would begin for residents. Um, and when we do this, we typically get between two and six% of all the households within the municipality to participate. So for Hudson, that would be approximately a hundred or so residents. And as I as I recall, Brad, last year, the source of the solar um this does not involve uh installing solar panels in Hudson. You have uh solar uh well sources throughout the state. Do you want to talk a little about that? >> Yeah, that's correct. There's no installation of any solar panels on anybody's home or business in Hudson. we are simply connecting their utility account to projects that are being built in national grid territory somewhere. We have uh available capacity in a project in um in in Onida County. Uh and uh we have other projects. We actually manage
6. 6:01something like 350 projects across New York State. Uh so we would work with you and we would talk about the projects that we could assign to this program but they would be saving 10% up to 10% for the residents uh through those opportunities. >> Any questions from council members? >> I have a quick question. Um would this program benefit people that may already have solar on their roof? because you know >> I remember this >> I'm trying to answer this question. Um yeah cuz uh you know those those usually don't cover 100% of the utilization. So figure >> Yeah. So there's a New York state regulation that says that you can only benefit from one form of distributed solar at a time. So unfortunately if you already have solar panels on your roof, you are not eligible to participate in this program. Um I'm not clear about the role of the common council that at all. It sounds
7. 7:04like it's a commercial between them and individual. >> It's primarily uh to authorize the mayor to enter into a agreement with them. So we have anou that I apologize I did not circulate but uh the council would authorize the mayor to enter into an agreement. That's all. What exactly are you approving? >> Excuse me. >> What exactly are you authorizing the mayor to do that? >> To enter into a a memorandum of agreement with this with this company with far market. Uh and then they would work with the city to uh advertise to communicate to reach out to uh residents and do the enrollment and get people into the system and then they could participate. You can disenroll at any time. Uh but we once we authorized the city to enter into the agreement, we don't have any other engagement. >> All right. Mayor's office
8. 8:06>> at the mayor's office. Yes. >> Okay. To make sure that >> Yeah. No, it's true. >> It does seem like it's primarily a commercial transaction between them and individual customer. So whether the city really had should have any role in that is somewhat questionable. >> I'm sorry. I said whether the city should have any role in in facilitating commercial transactions between the vendor and individual customers. >> Brad, can can you speak to uh the city engagement with your organization uh in the in the municipalities where you're currently active? >> Yeah. So many of the municipalities in New York State, they they recognize the importance of expanding access to clean renewable energy because this is a state uh regulated program designed specifically to provide residents with these savings and the fact that uh the city is in a position where by uh through various outreach channels it could get large percentages of the of the population to participate. Many
9. 9:09communities have found that it's in their public interest to choose to participate in in something like this. There's also credit that the city can earn through the climate smart communities program at the state level. Um and all of this is done at no cost uh but with significant benefits in including what could amount to tens of thousands of dollars in savings to your residents. I'd certainly >> Brad in other municipalities did it go through the mayor and get passed or did it go through the common council? >> Yeah, so we always almost always uh enter into anou that would allow these programs to proceed. It's it's essentially the council um authorizing the use of the city's letterhead and seal for the use of uh in in promoting the the program. Um, and and so that's really what you're authorizing more than anything else. >> Any other questions? I have a problem.
10. 10:13>> I have to check with Andy about that. Okay. >> City seal or any official city documentation, seals, endorsements for commercial things. someone wanted to talk about. >> Um, something I heard that I'm gonna talk about later and that I heard here that might be helpful to us is we are a climate smart community >> and uh some of the grants that I'm working on with FLA one is a climate smart community grant and um having this could make us again look more favorable for that type of thing. That's all coming from. So Brad, it's my understanding that you do not have direct consumer contracts that this is something a state program where you work with municipalities. Correct. >> Uh well, we we do the the customer will end up uh signing an agreement to participate in the program. Uh but but as far as commercial agreements, I mean, we're not asking the council to uh to
11. 11:16opine on that at all. Uh it's it this is something that's been done hundreds of times in other municipalities throughout the state. Uh it again it's just viewed as something that's in the public interest to to to to participate in. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Yeah. say if it's a state sanctioned program and it's involves climate um you know credits for climate smart and stuff that's probably >> it's a state it's state to my to my knowledge there are no direct uh our market to consumer arrangements that do not allow municip >> but it it goes yeah I apologize for not sending the mu out to everybody we went through this last October I think >> Josh Coleman is working on from the CAC. So, he's the person we can speak to better than I can even. Yeah. >> Yeah. And I'll get everything out to everybody um tomorrow and maybe we can we will discuss with Joel, maybe we can
12. 12:18vote on this next week. >> Okay. And if Josh wants to ask some questions. >> All right. Thank you very much, Brad. >> Thank you. Now we have reports from committees or to begin with safety. >> Sure. We had a great time. Um uh what well we had can I have that thing back that we just gave you the maybe you already gave it back. Anyhow, we uh we had a long discussion um about traffic really stop signs, street lights potentially um with the uh right on red law um local law potential that the mayor wanted to look at. Um, and we talked about the traffic situation
13. 13:22uh due to the detour and then ended with a presentation from some of the neighbors in the fourth ward around the pocketbook factory that are displeased with um their quality of life being impacted by the operation of that new business. um and it was presented and uh as a petition and we have it on file. I think there are 36 um residents that signed it and four were in attendance >> and that was circulated to all of you as a communication and it is posted on our website. >> So what are next steps for you on um the uh red turn on red? uh the right turn on red. We just had a discussion. Um I I think it's >> initially I was very much against it, but for the last couple weeks um driving
14. 14:25around pretending we had a law that said no right on red. I personally driving slower and I felt every intersection was honestly a little bit safer. And I don't really like that I'm saying that, but because I was against it completely, but just as a personal view, obviously I'm not a um any professional that knows traffic um data, but uh the chief was for it. Um the mayor's data that he disseminated to us, us all pointed to um an increase in pedestrian safety by over 80%. So, I kind of think it's a no-brainer. Um, but that's for us to discuss. >> So, are are you ready to send that to the legal? >> No, we still need to discuss and we had to figure out what location and what is the >> Oh, not on location. >> I mean, what street and what line? >> No, we were talking about a complete in the entire city, not just the individual
15. 15:28lights. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, we're not ready yet. >> Yeah. So did you discuss uh third because uh the traffic that we talk about the two third street it's like uh >> third street at the moment if people don't turn right on red third state >> uh not not >> also also union >> that's a completely valid point and we're not there yet that is the input that we're still hoping to gather in >> from the community and then give it to, you know, us >> the mayor. We have not gotten any statistics from like for accidents or traffic volume back up yet. >> So, we're still just easing in. >> Yeah. One possibility on par is um changing the timing of the lights. Yeah, that is definitely a >> it's a very short like when you're
16. 16:31crossing Union. >> Yeah, but that third street is different because used to be like I think we change I mean they changed it like three years ago because it used to be all green at one point and people was racing that time you know like >> try to cross the from Union Street to state street. So that's why there is kind of different for it set up. >> So that that's the one intersection that needs some thought. So I'm not any intersection. >> Yeah. >> Anything else you want to share with us? >> Um I don't think so. >> Okay. >> I think I'm good. >> Yeah. Um have we have any discussion about maybe with the one-way streets? I understand it's like probably not much any talks about any discussions about maybe making the oneway sign bigger or larger or more like >> Well, we definitely I I think to your
17. 17:34point, we definitely need to put some um uh one-way signs or do not enter signs on the majority of the alleys on oneway streets. I and maybe alternate or change one of the like the oneway street that was discussed that um on North 7th since it becomes two-way and then it's one way and two-way again. >> Um speaking to Jason's points about the oneways around the park. So I think it all is kind of inter >> interwoven a little bit with that kind of stuff. But the signage was discussed and the the chief asked Rob to put those out in the next round of signs. So I'm assuming since the weather is breaking, I think we start that what? May 1st painting and sign. >> Mhm. >> Um putting signs up. So my hope is yes that that happens. And my apologies if you just stepped from me, but in terms of like uh bicycles and ebikes and scooters and
18. 18:38things like that, we have not >> going down the wrong way. >> Legal committee is trying to put together uh new regulations about that, but they should not be going the wrong way in the first place. And so we have there were three prongs to that that we said we would do. and one was education which was going to be I thought through safety because that's safety with the police department. Uh enforcement also is through safety with the police department and legal is going to work on um updating our code our our um uh ordinances to uh put in place requirements for helmets and that kind of thing. >> Electric bikes probably That's actually very difficult because there there are three classes >> and they all look the same actually. So it's better to just address uh ebikes. >> Okay. >> Uh and also scooters because we have nothing about scooters. >> So legal is that's next on our do to
19. 19:42work on but the educational piece and the enforcement needs to be tackled in in safety. I think Dominic you had some uh materials relating to educational health for safety and what we had talked about before we started the the committee structure was going into the schools going into um community centers uh going to the youth department and doing a an educational campaign around >> let's give it to the chief and see if she'll put something together >> or we'll give her >> Captain Miller was Captain Miller was very much um engaged I think on the subject of safety. >> Okay. Uh any updates from infrastructure? >> Uh yeah, I'll start with no restaurant as well. um that you know involves us a little bit as we kind of indicated we started down the road of well where where would we do those turns on red you know then we by the time we finish
20. 20:46talking for five minutes yeah it's just simpler to just do it citywide and um I think afterwards I talked to May Margaret about the lights are only 30 seconds in our city and um the weights are not long so our our committee He also um kind of concurred with what Henry just said. Um during Ros's report um something that people may have heard about uh was an issue on Reservoir Road in Tcons to our water reservoir. Um the situation there is that the city of Hudson owned both sides of a road, a dirt road that is a bit of a local cut through. It's not a wellused road. Um and there's a failing culvert on that road. We do not own the culverts. We do not own the road. Um we are a taxpayer in the city. We own about $4 million worth of excess
21. 21:51property. So we we pay or the town pays taxes. So um if the product wants to fix the culver they can fix the culver um but rout's feeling like product isn't all that interested in the upkeep of that road and at some point may offer risk to buy. Yeah. So he he knows like that's how that shows and then settle. >> Yeah. Also Rob said like we access on the both side we don't need the car but >> yeah we don't >> and and right now that road is accessible. It's closed. >> Oh accessessible. I think >> it's you can't go all the way through. they have closed because you cannot pass over the cupboard. >> And so that this came up um with uh some residents from actually and they also had issues around uh
22. 22:55>> it's used by some locals. >> Excuse me. >> It's used by some local that road. Yeah. Um I their impression was that the city owned the cupboard, but Rob has told that that's not correct. >> We don't own it. Um so there there were also concerns about a property that is adjacent to the reservoir which is uh in our code there cannot be uh debris or garbage within x number of feet of the reservoir and this is not in compliance and my response on this came up while Rob was away actually um that say code enforcement and technology needs to address that because we don't have any authority over code. >> I don't think that was in the letter either. I think the letter was specifically >> the letter was specifically covered there but the building was brought up to me as an issue because actually per our
23. 23:59code um that's a compliance issue and I think potentially we could have had our code enforcement talk to up to is the one that we start from >> um usually um the topic of the very hour Andre Farm came up. It was found to be a water main break of gasket. This should have lasted a very long time and lasted less than 10 years. And that was the leak that was causing the damage. Um they're doing a great job repairing it. Check the sewer main along there. also found some switches along the sewer main cleared those blockages. Um I heard it just like today on Hudson H that they're estimating May 15th reopening >> um give or take but that was about um
24. 25:05getting half which gets started to be made. Uh rest of the things were more kind of typical small things that uh DPW were working on. Oh, the the national grid thing which is I guess is on our docket tonight. Um the payment of >> the uh 105,000. >> Yeah. >> Oh, and I guess it's all there's a way that's all been covered with >> Well, no >> changing. >> No, there's we have a resolution right now. We can talk about >> but Rob explained it which somewhat complicated in my in my mind but uh he he felt like he wrote an amount that just in the future um under we developed a budget each year we need about $100,000 a year to cover >> um cost associated with the street like going
25. 26:06>> yeah that was a raw deal when we signed into that 20 years ago. Yeah. Um, then since we've done a huge budget items from uh BPW, I brought an email to Rob after asking him to summarize and he did summarize about national grid used to average about $200,000 a year. That'll be $100,000 a year for for the lighting. um does not know how much the underhill repair is going to be, but that's going to be uh fun from state touring roots and chips money and it's just going to be less paving no paving those city shoots will be done this year anywhere else. Um because also a lot of money have been uh allocated to the garbage yard. Um this last one it was discussed repairs
26. 27:11needed for the sewer plant an estimate of 337,000 not an immediate need but it needs to be worked into the next budget from 2027 budget and there will be an increase in the sewer fund that will I mean that will be included and then yes we made a change to the snow removal budget mostly covered it. There's 330 controllers left in the budget and anything that happens through the rest rest of the year December will need it to kind of >> a few of these things came up to bring it up to you guys. Um and then the the only other thing we discussed was uh we did discuss the the grants for um infrastructure improvements to a couple around the seven street park and that city intersection. >> So we have two resolutions tonight >> that are related to this. So we will we
27. 28:14can talk about those when we get the resolution. >> We talk about that at the meeting. That's it. Anything else? Um service. >> Yes. So some uh few points uh for the senior center um there's still no commissioner. So there's still no report being given. So I've been calling uh Reagan just sort of updates on you know what's going on. Uh right now it's basically the Zumba is goes on. um a couple times a week and the county program is doing most of their programming uh after after the county leaves. Most people leave unless it's a drop in uh program. They leave at I think at 1:00. Uh so um I did draft and put together a survey and passed along to the committee. Basically a transportation survey. Um my goal is to get that all printed um by the end of this week. It was five basic questions
28. 29:18on transportation. Uh the goal is to distribute it down uh at Bliss Towers, Providence Hall, and the Terrace. Um hopefully uh some of the committee man members are going to, you know, team up and we're going to take an action, go down there and and ask people, you know, these these questions so we can get it right back. I think um you know what we can do is if we don't we can leave some surveys there we can number them so there's no duplicates of um you know of getting you know same you know five people answering you know you know by different the same people answering the surveys um so that's that's ser that's the seniors you know services not again there's not really much going on citywide not even city it's basically county activities Uh so the youth department um so there's a couple of things. So um this spring they're they're moving from winter to spring focus basically on
29. 30:23getting Opio ready for camp. They we're going to do interviews um the week of the school break. Uh they have 30 applicants for counselors and 20 applicants uh for lifeguards. Uh the big uh component and the committee really wants to find out and really push this is where is uh the conversation about uh the assistant youth director. I know there um there's a vacant position uh that you know maybe can be eliminated and use that position for the assistant uh the director position. I know the podcast has go to the BEA uh but the there's some urgency beyond f you know filling that position one that position is the camp director uh so the the last possible Calvin said June 1st but that doesn't really give time you know do interviews or whatever so I I think the sooner the better that we can figure out how we can fund any additional um salary
30. 31:26for this musician uh the better if we do this in May. I think that'd be better. I don't know. Again, I know there's conversations going on with Calvin and the mayor on how to uh fund this position. Uh so that's one of the, you know, big items that the committee really wants to push forward, especially if there's money in the budget. We eliminate that remended that's not build. Uh you know, push that to the salary of a of a assistant director. And the other thing is that camp's going to be offering a pre before um and after camp five 8 to 9 uh kind of like for it's a pilot program for parents so they can drop their kids off a little early and they can pick up a little late to try to correspond to an 8 to4 schedule. Uh the fee would be uh $50 a week per child uh 25 hours any additional child. Um there is some funding that Kevin said he might be able to tap in for supplemental uh for
31. 32:29families to be able to afford uh you know the the fee. Um so that's you know that's really um the meat of it. The big thing is the um funding that assistant director position as soon as possible. So I don't know again I don't know Margaret if you're you know if it's came to the VA yet. What >> there there? know the BA has not had any discussion, but I would follow up with Heather in the M. >> Okay. Yeah, because I said, you know, it there's I mean, if we can get this done and ironed out by May, so we can get it the position's there. There's a job description. It is a civil service position. So, anyone who is put in that position uh is provisional until they uh pass the test or or high enough on the test. Uh when it's called, they can be called in a year, can be called in three years. there's there's no way to lgraph when civil service calls for that uh test. So it is it would be a provisional uh appointment and it is a supervised
32. 33:32position where right now palen's the only supervisor um of staff. Uh so it it is a really essential position especially for uh care. So, um I think that's basically the the gist of >> Have there been any discussion of a seasonal camp director position rather than an assistant director >> a seasonal? >> Yeah, >> I mean I know that I know in the past they did that. Um I don't know if there's been a conversation. I think because of nature of that position and the opportunity to have a vacant position um you know you know I don't I probably I'm assuming that position that's vacant is probably 35 to 40,000 I imagine because it is full-time position so it would be adding whatever you know to supplement whatever the assistant director position would be coming in so I think we're not going to have a better opportunity with that position being vacant um to fund this position at least maybe 75% that's already in the budget. So I I
33. 34:36think that um having a part-time athlete um again they had it in the past seasonal >> well that's that's what I'm saying season well a camp director I'm talking about which that's what they be called uh so there's qualifications that that needs would be like a four a full four year director because that is s the camp director is certified through department of health as the person um qualified to run the camp. Um, you know, because of the safety regulations. Uh, so in the past, I think it was almost 10 to 12,000 >> for that seasonal position. So my my thought is it if if if it's 10 or 12,000, right, for a seasonal, but we have $40,000 sitting there at for a full-time decision, they're going to need that, you know, assistant director moving forward. So, I I think doing this now is better than going to try to find a part-time director for the parent um
34. 35:41because of the nature of the time that that that it'll take and um where it's going to lead to, you know, you know, the fourth September school year. So um I mean I again I I don't know what the number looks like but I think that this is position we have an opportunity to fill without hitting the budget fund balance hard with the existing salary being uh available you know for that position to basically eliminate the recommended position which is a full-time position and move those funds into funding the assistant director position. >> Any comments? Right. Gary dear. Okay. >> And just to add to it, since you brought my name up, it Yeah. We think that it's really important that uh the powers that be addressed this uh position that seem to have been a casual discussion up until that point in time. >> Okay. >> I'll follow up with treasur. Any comments from council members,
35. 36:44questions? Any public comment? um finance. You want to talk about >> Sure. >> Um finance met on last Thursday. We discussed we had the van funding um application which went out last month. We received I believe I said I want to say like 13 or so >> uh uh applicants. Um we awarded the applicants the same as we did last year who applied with the exception of the um fasting which received an extra $200 and the new applicant for the Hudson area library for the walking tour which received $1,000. Otherwise everything you receive same as live stream. Um there's a couple of open item questions uh such a post in the open studios which is just submitted uh part of their application uh the their ADA
36. 37:48compliant component of their event uh to be asked for grant funding. Um we cannot support anything which is not ADA compliant. So um the Hudson Mile was not given any funding as well as that group called CAP. Um and uh the total amount as of right now is 23,500 out of 30,000 within the >> 25 to make the Hudson open studio recommendation on the 1500 um it would be 25 extra it's uh allocated go back into this fund balance for >> HPV. Maybe right. So >> yeah. >> So the um you all have received I believe the Excel spreadsheet and you've received all of the actual applications the documentation of what each of these
37. 38:50events is. So, um, take a look next week, uh, if when we're voting to approve if you have any questions, any revisions that you want to make. Um, that would be the time to do it. But you have all of the material that we had reviewed. And so, the decision on the actual portion would be >> yes, >> it was rumored that Hudson Miles was asked to move earlier in the day. Should they do that? uh Hudson Mer and uh police department and the mayor had multiple meetings and uh they were asked to move uh I don't I wasn't in the meeting so I don't know the exact time that they were asked to move to uh they were also asked to consider a different location rather than coming down Warren uh there was a lot of concern from the businesses from last year because of the timing of it um they lost a lot of revenue The restaurants in particular were very hard hit and the issue with the mile is that unlike the parades
38. 39:55which started the park uh because it blocks all Warren Street all the way up uh there's no way to go from the north side of town to the south side town to cross Warren and people coming into town had really basically to turn back because they couldn't get through. Um it's also uh unlike the parades when as the parade last break person steps off the police start opening up the streets. That's not how this works. So it's longer in terms of temporal and uh considerably more and so that time was not going to work for >> but they never worked something out. >> They did not. No, it has this as as of as of now the uh permit has been rejected. >> You had a question. >> In case you hadn't known, I was going to say it had been rejected, but they didn't want to move the time. I think >> they were willing to move it a little,
39. 40:59but not they did were not willing to meet the city's needs. >> Yeah. And the community members in the commercial district of Warren Street, uh, also in the the restaurants were a little upset that 5:00 p.m. closing a street from 5 to 7 in the summer when you'd have 16 Saturdays to make >> Yes. Sorry. 26 Yeah, you have 26 days of weekend to make your um your money uh for the summer. It was not feasible to lose a full night of dinner service. And that was their their complaints that I was hearing at least. >> Uh yes, I heard the same and also I remember it last year. Um and the other businesses were also employed. But the main the main issue was that it's very very difficult to navigate the city if you can't even cross over at the park. >> I heard a rumor that they worked something out. No, >> they didn't. Yeah. A question. um the the organizations that were um that
40. 42:06applied, did any of them ask for any extra money other I mean from last year and and >> pretty much everybody asked for $5,000 which is the max >> the Oh, the max. Okay. >> Yes. Um but uh we allocate >> I missed the don the dipping of that. That was I missed the day you guys had the the finance meeting. I think there were two that didn't ask for. >> But yes, the foundations >> asked for 800 last year and a thousand this year. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> They they always ask they're always very honest. >> Any other questions from council? Any public comment? >> Question. Um we had a $30,000. So, are we holding some of the funds for >> Yeah. Because even though some of these events do provide some funding for cleanup, which they're supposed to do, which we put actually put into the >> to the thing, it doesn't cover the actual cost.
41. 43:08>> So, anything we have left over, we feel it would be wise to send it back to DPW and HPD. >> I think that makes sense. Any public comment? Anything else with finance? >> No. No hands. >> Okay. >> So, legal. Um >> Oh, you do have one hand. >> Excuse me. >> You have one hand. >> Okay. Go ahead, >> Bill. Did you have a comment? >> Yeah. Can you hear me? >> Can you hear me? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. There's that echo again. Oh my goodness. Um, >> turn your radio down. >> Is this is this time to make general comments or just about what was spoken about? >> This is the time if you have any comments or questions from what the finance uh committee report. >> Oh yeah. >> C can you give like a general idea of how good the finances are in in the
42. 44:11city? Well, this the the committee report is a report on last month's activity and the main activity of the finance committee last month was to review uh the grant applications for events over the summer um which has reported on. >> Does the finance committee get involved in the general um you know well-being of the city of Hudson financially? >> Yes, it does. Do you what do you have a specific question? >> Yeah. Can they give it a grade? >> Like where are we where are we standing? >> I do not right now cannot do that. That's a very big >> Heather Campbell's online, isn't she? >> That's all I'll ask. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other public comments? Okay. Uh legal committee. So, some of the stuff that you're going to see this evening is what we worked on in legal committee this month. Uh, one of our discussions was around the uh proposed
43. 45:16law to clarify section 32517.1. Um, we decided, this was our second month, we had decided to keep it in committee to continue to review. Uh, but we were at a point where we felt that it needed to go to the full council for discussion. So that is on our agenda for this evening. Um this is the uh issue it was started at last October. The council voted it down. Um a revised uh clarification to the law was submitted by community member uh focusing on 2009 data and that's what we have in front of us this evening. So that was something we decided to just bring to the full council for discussion. So we will have that this evening. Um we also looked at um contracts for EV charger uh uh contract renewal. This is for servicing uh the EV chargers uh license agreement policy with Hudson
44. 46:18Paddles for the mayor. Um and we looked also at uh changing their procurement policy. We have been asked to make a couple of changes. one to the BEA thresholds, one to procurement, and then there's another one relating to health benefits. And as we looked at that, we decided that we should we could do all three at the same time. So, that will be coming to you next month. Um, excuse me. Uh Jenny presented a some some uh ideas around a parking program whereby new developments uh without sufficient parking for all units. This is residential primarily uh would pay a fee in lie of parking and those monies would go towards um establishing a parking fund for potentially creating a parking garage. uh she is going to continue to work on that. So uh she will be bringing back
45. 47:20more information on that next month. She's looking at other municipalities that do uh similar programs. Um so that's upcoming. Um and we we did talk I have notes from Jason regarding the uh residential parking issues. Um, the other new business that came up was a request to take a look at the sidewalk law and to see if there can be some amendments to that law to look at um, uh, urgent targeted repair uh, given how long it is going to take for the whole program to be completed. So, we are going to take a look at that next month, look at the law itself, see if there are any revisions that potentially be made um to speed up uh repair in some of the more urgent areas and incentivize relevance to um take advantage of getting a credit by actually repairing urgently needed repair on sidewalks. Um that was pretty
46. 48:24much our meeting this month. Did I miss anything? Anyone else? Okay. >> General question. Committees. >> Since I I get to think about I was bringing forward the law clarification. What would be the guidance for committee to should a committee get to the point of a recommendation like we I think we decided we bring it here for discussion here. >> I'm sorry. And what's the question? like what what should a committee be expected to do? Were >> they well >> what what you have the output you have here from the legal committee are resolutions that we put together for the council to vote on uh if we work on and the legal committee put together the law for reducing the speed limit and so forth. So that's the output that we have from legal. Um, with regard to the sidewalk law, I will look at that and we'll discuss in committee and we have some suggestions on ways that it could be changed which will be brought here.
47. 49:26The issue with regard which I think you're getting at proposed local law 325. The reason we decided to bring that to the full committee was that we had it in legal for 2 months. um we felt that the issues in that particular uh law were such that it would benefit from a full discussion with the full council rather than having the legal committee put forward recommendations. So we thought that was a a broader type of thing and it would be much better to have the full council weigh in. >> I I don't feel like we talked about like the law that has written brought to us by the president and I don't think we're ready to >> well it and recommend it to be voted on as a as a jury. >> Okay. So last month not this month the month before we did review it and we did discuss it. We decided to take another month and take another it's not we did not feel that we were in a position to make recommendation. So therefore it came it's coming to this committee. The
48. 50:29fact that it is here today does is it's here for discussion does not mean that it will be voted on this month. It means it's here for discussion. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Any comments or questions from the public? Robert. >> Oh, >> if you could just No need to give your name, but u um residents that would be good. >> Um operation night is having an event at city hall family. So I was just apologize to come. Um it's the student council member as well. >> Is this the uh >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. We have that. Thank you very much. >> I think it's new, right? No one
49. 51:33along the operation. Um the event is April 29th and we pick up the students at Hudson High School about 8:30 and give them their t-shirts. We anticipate arriving here by 9:00 uh to start our day and um there is an agenda that happens and the um the brochure that you have really is um all the pictures from the events from last year um you know what's going on. So it's basically um we invite council members and legislators um that cover our county to come um and uh be part of the morning welcome which is really maybe about a half an hour. Anybody who comes we ask them to speak for two minutes just to keep it moving and then we uh move as a group. Students will stop at um right here at the uh clerk's office. We go to the treasures office. Um, we will be calling on you or actually a student will be calling on
50. 52:36you, Council President Mars. I hope that you would be available to meet with a group. A group will meet with city hall. We aim to um uh also meet with any of the council members who are available during the day. We usually might have a group right here and then we move to uh uh HPD. So there's usually a tour there and uh we have a informal lunch where we invite everybody to join us because people have day jobs and they only be able to come out for lunch. Uh and then um after lunch we reconvene here in the counseling room to have a common council meeting. Um and that usually happens about 1:15 and I have to get the students back to Hudson High before the bell rings. So the aim is to give get them back by 2:30. We do do a morning group picture for everybody who can come in the morning for the o opening and welcome. We also do another group picture at the end for those of you who have the time to come back and listen to the MCOM council meeting.
51. 53:39>> Pretty much trying to >> looking forward to it. >> I I do want to add this one thing. the topics that they choose because some of the students have been here for two years come from actual topics that we have heard here at the council meeting um or looking at the articles in the newspaper as well as giving them the opportunity to bring up something that they feel is happening out in the community which may or may not be real. I just want to add that because it's their learning process. I want them excited to speak and we always have a good time and feel welcome. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. >> Go ahead. >> You hear me? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um I have to tell you that there's a horrible echo once again this month. >> You know, it's kind of hard to even talk to hear myself repeating myself and I can't hear anything that's going on in the meeting. I would like to ask this,
52. 54:42>> Bill. Bill, you're logged in twice. That's why you have an echo. >> Pardon me. >> Pardon me. >> You are logged in twice. That is why you have an echo. >> I'd like to know two things if I could. Okay. >> When is somebody from code enforcement going to be involved in the code and infrastructure meetings? And when are we going to have a police commissioner? >> What about >> Did you Did you get that? >> Do you want to answer that? Uh I don't have any information on uh when there will be a uh police commissioner other than the fact that our police chief Franklin is the acting commissioner. So I do not have any other information. >> The mayor is supposed to get that.
53. 55:44>> Thank you. >> Thank can you please? >> Yeah. overheard someone volunteering to the mayor to be saying he was he would welcome the opportunity to be police commissioner. He had been previously police commissioner and that would be one Richard. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh any other public comment? >> Okay. Um so that's our uh let me see where are we here. We've already talked about the communications I think for our res. So our first resolution is uh commissioner appeals. If if anyone has questions as we go through, let me know. Excuse me. communications. uh we I mentioned that we had already
54. 56:47talked sorry I'll highlight it again the the communication that we have here is the box factory uh petition that Henry has talked about um it has gone to the mayor's office um and potentially they will come to next meeting >> I think it would they didn't answer my phone calls so I think it would be I'll ask you and the mayor to send them Okay. All right. Anything else on that? >> No. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Actually, I guess the the the short-term solutions that we discussed at safety, >> right, >> are tied up with the implementation of painting and sign deployment. Um, so unfortunately, we're waiting till May 1st, >> right, >> to see some results. >> Okay. >> Resolations. >> Yeah. >> Okay. If anyone has questions as we go through, let me know. First one is Commissioner Ste. Uh our next resolution is appointing uh
55. 57:53Samchenko to the board of supervisors to represent the city of Hudson uh for Columbia County uh climate smart community task force. Any questions on that? Um our next resolution is um authorizing the renaming of city hall place, excuse me, the new Brener way um to honor the oldest living retired member of the Hudson Police Department. Uh we are hoping that we will have some representation next week at our meeting when we are voting on that. Any questions? >> Streets are double named is that is it just going to not be What what how this works is this is an honorary thing and what you'll see is the street name doesn't change. You'll see it's like a brown sign above the other sign and it is going to be the stretch outside city. >> Okay, >> Margaret. >> Yes, >> Logan. That was me that sent that um to you
56. 58:56the text regarding this uh the law. Um, so I reviewed, you know, the for the application >> and I'm trying to fit >> um where as I love the idea, but I think that more appropriately for Brener would be um a proclamation uh a key to the city. uh the um ability to be our leader at flag day in in a patrol car in front of the council and memorial day. Um, I think that naming this the street, um, to me is a difficult cell. And the reason why I say that is because of what it says in the, you know, the justification. Um, you know, I I get it. He's the oldest
57. 59:59living. I get all that and I really appreciate that. That's why I think that I mean he got proclamations at his birthday from Congress uh from all state and state state I get that but I think that having a day for him where he could represent um us and in praise and key to the city I think that's would be more appropriate in this case and the reason why I say that is I look at the eligibility for street and what we've done in the past right and you you know, our our boundary and our where are we putting our our boundary at, right? So, you know, it cuz I I see in front of me just just three names, right, that pop out. Um, Sergeant Philly as uh you know, a police officer that passed away uh that in a line of duty. Um you know, uh a volunteer firefighter passed away in a line of duty, Markiano. Um and then if you go to the living side
58. 1:01:05of things, um what sticks to my head is is Dick Tracy, Richard Tracy. He brought programs to the city. He gave youth pro um employment. So, you know, when we put those in perspective of street name, um you know, I I think that um the giving him his day, I think that stands to me more powerful. Uh because you know be I don't know an I remember um growing up I mean I remember his brother on divorce vaguely um but I remember uh Pet uh known as Pet you know when there was community policing he took care of his uh mom he was in he was the officer in odds against tomorrow but so where did the guideline Again, I'm I'm it's tough as hell for me because of what number one says, you know, in in terms of
59. 1:02:08naming it for someone living. Um, and I get where the idea comes from. I want to say yes, but I just don't in terms of where what number one where this has to fit into the square, right? So that's that's my only thing about this proposal. If we look at who received it in the past, um there is documentation of you know the you know what was done in our community. We w hours right uh raised great kids did a cultural change during the time to become uh black owners of a business to really represent our community. Um, you know, we have uh Kelly Butterworth where sometimes no matter where you go in the city, you're going to see even today something he did for the city. Um, and you got uh Mayor Mayor Wheeler who during a tough time um you know really represented the city, stayed involved in
60. 1:03:14in the city um even through retirement and things like that. I mean, I know someone who just passed away a year or so ago lived at 102 um that lived on Harry Howard Avenue that she after her after she uh retired from she volunteered most of her time at the library. So where do we go in terms of this process of naming a you know a a street >> and I get that >> you know where where where it's coming from but I think that we need to recognize in a different way a more represented way >> and kind of do it that way rather than >> this way. >> That makes sense Dominic. It is more of a posterous award. >> It doesn't say that though when the law that was passed to put this in place does not actually say that. >> No, it says I mean saying I'm just saying what what was passed.
61. 1:04:16>> Absolutely. >> Was this is in conformance with what was passed >> and as for what is more appropriate, less appropriate. Um, I understand what you're saying, but these nominations come in from family members or supporters and so forth. They don't originate from us. Not the council is saying that's nameless. An application comes in. The mayor uh sponsors it or approves it, whatever. And then um our resolution is to authorize it. So if there are objections, by all means um don't vote in favor of it. uh there's no obligation to uh but it's not for us to say and I agree with you having him as a grand marshall or whatever would be a very nice gesture. I think that's I agree. Um but that's that's not what the his supporters have asked the city to do. And so that's what we're looking at and um uh we'll vote on it next week.
62. 1:05:21Any other comments? We can change these between now and then we make alterations and vote on those alterations. Yeah. Why don't we just make an amendment Dominic with your suggestion and >> Well, we can't amend this because this resolution is to whether or not we are going to authorize the naming of city hall place. >> All right. There's nothing there's nothing that says when we should give a key to the city or how we appoint grandma. the council was never appointed. >> If the family heard that idea and liked that idea Yeah. and communicated that to us, then we'd feel comfortable in rejecting this law in lie of something else. But I wouldn't want to do that until then. >> Yeah, >> I agree with >> Okay. Uh, next resolution is accepting senior center donations. Um, next is approving the firefighter listing civil service award. This is
63. 1:06:26just names of firefighters who have completed their their service the past year. Uh, next is uh authorizing the mayor to execute a license agreement between city of Hudson and Hudson travels. Uh, this is basically the same agreement that uh they have had with the city for some time. There were no changes to that. Uh next resolution is uh to amend uh the 2025 2026 free accounts. This is uh Jason what you're asking about. Uh so based the bottom line here is that $75,000 of this has to come out of the general fund. So there is funding you were asking about you know that it seemed to have all been found etc. But actually 75,000 has to come out of general fund. Um and the explanation that um uh that Rob had provided was that in the BDA process he had in fact asked for what was a
64. 1:07:31reasonable expected amount and uh in the final budget process it was cut back I think to 30,000 uh and so that's why there is insufficient funds in the budget to pay for Yes. >> Uh >> question. >> I have question. >> Yes. >> Many questions. >> I do. >> Why? How did we get here? >> How did we get here? >> Um uh no. I guess my question is does this is this also encompassing the missilling that we were getting? >> That's what this is all about. >> Okay. All right. because it says it's misleading when it doesn't say they screwed up not charging us to the tune of >> $100,000 surprised we made a mistake on the accounts. >> Let I if you don't have the full explanation provided by Rob I can >> I did I but that was doing the spark notes version of it. >> Yeah. Right. But they were gi issuing
65. 1:08:34refunds and adjustments and they were also billing and they weren't billing correctly. Correct. >> And they themselves were delayed on auditing and approving the exchange for their old rights to the new system. >> And so he was estimating what he thought it was going to be by the VA process and then it it well noted the the BEA cut back >> Yeah. >> the approved amount. >> No. Yeah. So yeah. So this is yeah this is how how we are doing >> but then the billing issue was still an issue but not as big as the initiative thought that >> um and just I feel and not anything that not our making but the raw deal that we are getting from now owning these lights is uh very costly. >> Yeah. >> Uh it will be no it's going to be less costly in the long run. Yeah. >> It is actually less costly. Yeah, >> aside from us doing the maintenance now, >> it's still going to be better. >> It's still because we're doing LED
66. 1:09:35lights every half the uh and also there was uh uh fees every month >> for maintenance of right. So now we we also still we have a third party contractor. We still use the city electrician for all these social >> what you're talking about is Rob said we have to move when they put a new couple >> what are we talking about >> which now they're all aging out so we should I guess I'm leading up to we shouldn't be surprised when we see an initial over the next two years or so on maintenance for the new street light remountings because we're all those poles are starting to age out. >> Okay. So I guess yeah it is probably cheaper over time. >> Uh did you have a comment? >> I mean we are the city is saving money by using the L & D. So that is saving hundreds of thousands over time. >> Yeah, >> that's the main reason I think that they switched over.
67. 1:10:37>> Are there any public comments? >> We have one in the room. Um, Nick Zakos, um, I was just wondering how it works with the pulling money from the 2025 budget to pay for this into the 2026 budget. I thought the 2025 budget would ginish or sometimes leftovers, some notet um, carryover funds from previous years that weren't used. The >> the books have not yet been closed. Is Heather online? Yeah. Heather, do you respond to that process of uh funds from 2025 being used? We had we did this last month with something else. Would you want to comment on that? >> Of course. Um because the majority of those costs, so each individual invoice was reviewed depending on the date of the invoice determines when that
68. 1:11:38expenditure needs to be charged. The majority of the costs of the national grid invoices that were not received were in 2025. That is the amount that is being charged to 2025. If we did not charge it back, the auditors would look through the finances and make us charge it back after the fact regardless. So, the fact that we're still able to do it now makes life slightly more easy. And obviously if we have to record the 2025 expenses in the fiscal year 2025 uh the next goal was to see if there were any uh budgetary amounts remaining that could cover that and that is what that uh resolution does. Clearly for the amount that was for the 2026 invoices. Uh we are not far enough in the year of 2026 to know if there's any you know additional funds that could have been transferred. That's why that amount is coming out of fund balance. that answer it, Nick? >> I think so. And but this this will change the the final budget number for 2025. >> Um >> the 2025 numbers have not been finalized yet. So
69. 1:12:40>> there are a number of moving parts and this is just one of them. >> Yeah, the books are still open. Yes, but it will it will change. >> Thank you. >> Next resolution is uh authorizing training for planning board members. Three planning board members completed an hour and a half of training and after that is they are required to do four per year. Uh next resolution authorized mayor to enter into a collection services agreement with T2 systems. We talked about this briefly earlier. Well that was um let me recap. Uh so we have we have in the past been um doing uh recruit recruitment of parking plans and so forth in house. This is an agreement with T2 uh where they will take over doing um reminders when when they're a fine is overdue. They will also then continue to pursue if the payment is
70. 1:13:42still not paid. They're also going back retrospectively to look at on the page uh parking plans that we have. Our practice when we were doing it in house was simply to send one reminder um and which was how we ended up with a build up of unpaid clients. This particular agreement um and I I believe I sent the agreement to everybody to look at. I don't we don't post contracts publicly but if you have any questions just call me. this particular agreement um the company that will do the collection um will directly bill to the individual paying the fine their administrative fee. So there is no cost to the city of engaging in this. If the fine is $20, we will get the $20 and if the administrative fee is five, the person who owes the $20 will pay 25 and the company keeps the administrative fee. But if you have any questions, take a look at the contact and let me know. Um, next resolution
71. 1:14:45is uh this is a hand. >> Sorry, go ahead. >> Heather has her hand. >> Heather. >> Yeah, I maybe I should wait till the end of all the resolutions, but I just wanted to comment on to um the training if there's a cost associated with that. As far as I know, that was not a budgeted expense. Maybe it's in the council budget. Uh I'm not sure. >> And then I believe you had the other one for the um uh not the one you were just discussing, but the one before that for the additional um EV stations. >> We haven't gotten to that one yet. >> Okay. Apologies. >> So the I have not given any information about costs for training. It's free. >> Yeah. Okay. It's free. Uh there is no cost associated with the training. Great. Just checking. >> Yeah. Uh next is a resolution uh selecting uh plug-in
72. 1:15:48station online vendor um POSO as the vendor for additional EV charging stations. So this is uh something where we have to select a vendor and these the proposed locations are uh the city lot on front street and uh the lodge adjacent to the dog park. Um this resolution Heather has language that this is authorized uh to enter into an agreement pending successful grant awards because the cost associated with this is I believe it was like 75 $77,000. The grant we received is 75,000. >> 75,000. And so in order to apply for that grant, we have to have a vendor. >> Yeah. >> So this basically what we're doing here rather is CAC selected this vendor where we can now apply for the grant to get these additional charging stations, but this resolution is pending successful grant awards. That I think that was your question. >> Yeah. Well, I I think I'm getting two things conflated, so for that I
73. 1:16:50apologize. So, Rich, this is different than the $75,000 grant that the city was already awarded. It's yet another $75. >> No, it's >> then weren't we already awarded that grant because we did didn't Weren't we already awarded that grant? Because we did an interfund loan to give you the funds. >> Yes. Yes, we have already been awarded the grant as part of the contract that we now are in the vendor selection process. Yes. >> Okay. This is just a continuation of that project. Yes, it's a continuation of that project. Yes, there is additional money from national grid that we are waiting on to see if we will qualify for that. But first, we have to select the vendor in this point in the contract. Um, and >> Gotcha. Gotcha. >> Vendor goes out to national grid. See if we get national grid money. If we get the national grid money, that gets combined with the grant money for the 75 grand that goes along with the pay for the stations and then the project is implemented. But it is dependent upon whether or not we get the national grant money for the
74. 1:17:52>> Okay. Because because the because the contract is more than the 75 grand of the national grid. Uh sorry, the 75 grand of the original grid. Okay, perfect. Got that. And I think I was also conflating that with the um I assume the upcoming thing about the u current charging stations and the maintenance fee and repairs. So I apologize. We'll get to that one that's coming. That's that's okay. That's different. Are this these level three charges? Uh yes, maybe. Um it depends upon the national bridge make writing line. If uh we will go live for both of them for level two and level three. Uh level two will be across the street from uh the um Amtrak station. So there'd be three level similar to back behind city wall. Three level three level two stations. Um, right now there's a a really long waiting list of other municipalities that want that majority money. So, we may get that money. We may not this
75. 1:18:54year. It might be next year. We don't know. Um, if if not that they also may bring money for both free station, which will be down by Park. So, I do not see us getting both. We will probably get one of the other national money. Thanks. >> Any other public? level two would be the next one, Heather, is the renewal of the charge point contract. So, this one is the contract for 17,000. It's a 5-year contract for servicing uh uh with warranties for the EV charging station. Uh we are still pending information on whether or not this is um a contract that is paid upfront for the 5-year period. Uh we have the mayor has a question into the vendor uh or whether it is something that's paid on an annual basis. Um but basically our contract it
76. 1:19:59has expired and we need to renew it. So you have questions on this. I just want to make sure there's a correspond Yeah. I just want to make sure there's a corresponding budget amendment because as we discussed in our email thread, this was not budgeted for in 2026. So, you can't authorize the contract unless you've appropriated the funds for it. >> Is all that something we can sort out this month? The mayor's uh that's up to that's up to Margaret. Yeah. Okay. I'm still trying to find out what whether it's paid in advance for five years or for one year because I don't know how much to put into the budget line if I don't have the answer to that question. >> Yeah. >> Who knows? >> Okay. Next is something that we have to lose on. Uh this is a resolution um authorizing application for a Hudson
77. 1:21:03River Valley Greenway Grant. And to uh answer the question before you ask it, Heather, there is in fact a funds available and the account number is listed in the resolution. Um so do you want to give a brief uh description of this uh Jason Lal? >> I do. Thank you. Um so been working with um talked about a number of intersections but we've reduced it down to two because the size of the grant it's available and kind of handled um conceptual design two areas. So, the money from uh the Greenway grant would be $10,000 and it requires a 50% match which Margaret was was helpful in finding um from uh the Trump study leftover money that DD Barrett helped us get. And so with the 10,000 there and 10,000 from the Greenway grant, we will
78. 1:22:05pay about $20,000 to do conceptual studies of um we call it the triangle and I think everyone knows what the triangle is. The Austin triangle or where Columbia Street, Prospect Avenue, and Columbia Turnpike all come together. Um and then uh the other is the public square or 7th Street park. Um background on that is the component of the fair. So we're looking to make seven street in that block one way. >> I guess it knocked it down. So, uh, during those the renovation before they wanted to make expand the sidewalks around the park and make seventh street one way in that block and imploded in my head that maybe Park Place should also
79. 1:23:10be one way and we continue the pattern and um, the main purpose of that helping with congestion of trucks leaving Parkplace onto Warren and Puck trucks leaving Warren on the park place. So the trucks that um the truck room would be shifted over to Seventh Street. Then the trucks headed south would have to turn left or could turn left with a light um which I've seen trucks do anyway and I thought it worked out well with that interference. So um this brand greenway grant is due the reason we're voting tonight. The grant is application is due Thursday. Labella is standing by for our answer. mayor will sign a contract tomorrow if we pass this and um in about six weeks we will get a report um that has analyzed traffic patterns recommendations for safety and general kind of broad brush ideas how to and then they parlay this that grant and that work into the community uh climate
80. 1:24:16smart community grants and a safe streets for all grant. So we'll one step at a time. If this works and we like it, we move forward with these other applications in May and July. >> Great. So um questions on this? Any hands raised? >> No. >> Okay. So can I have a And you're going to need to do roll. Can we have a motion to vote on this resolution? >> Motion. Henry is motion. Can we have a second? Who want a second? >> President Morris. >> Yes. >> Hi. >> Burnhagen. >> Yes. >> Rooney. >> Yes. >> Sarah. >> Hi. >> Roberts. >> Hi. >> Absent. Hi. >> Absent. Oranti. Hi.
81. 1:25:22Thank you. >> Okay. Um, next resolution um is authorizing event funding. You have all the material for that. We can follow on that next. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Well, we have to update it with uh the funding for um the resolution itself won't. The spreadsheet will the attachment will correct. >> Um let me put that to one side because you need to give that. Sure. Um next is authorizing the mayor to execute a license agreement between the city of Hudson and the Hudson River Historic Boat uh sailing society. Uh this is outside of the purview of the spoon club. This is in a different uh slip. Um and they do programming uh for residents and visitors to the city. Um so if you have any questions now next week, let me
82. 1:26:27know. We have we have a comment for any com any questions from from council members first. Okay. Go ahead. >> My name is Chris Hnia. I'm here representing the Hudson River is restoration of the sound society. So if you have any questions, >> can you can you just give the council uh some background and information on what this program is? >> Uh some of you may be familiar with with the student Elanor. Uh she's 121 years old this year and we've uh been sailing on the Hudson for four years, five years with her. Uh she's in in the warehouse for repairs this season, so she won't be sailing. Uh we have a loan of a 18 foot cat boat. Uh that's a very traditional looking vessel and she has a very shallow draft that she unlike the owner is able to get into those small clips. And so we thought it would be great to uh have the public exposure and provide uh sailings from their butterfly rather season.
83. 1:27:32>> Yeah. You provide low cost and free access to sailing. >> Absolutely. >> Is a vessel comp compliant? >> Uh no. >> There's no accommodations for somebody to take uh We'd be willing to give it give it a shot. We pass we've helped uh people far into their 90s get on and off the boat. We're trying to be hostage whoever wants to visit. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Uh next is um from the IDA actually. uh just is uh authorizing the mayor to hold a public hearing regarding progress in the administration of CDBG project uh for returning. So this goes back a couple of years ago when this project was beginning. Um they received a grant. Uh part of the requirement of the um grant is that they give an update on
84. 1:28:38progress there. I think they're closing this out at this point, but they need to give a second update to the community um on the progress on this grant and on this project. Any questions? But that will be a mayor's public hearing. The next is um I put this in before. Yeah, this is video conferencing. >> So um >> are we introducing these? >> No, we're not. The process is not introduction. This is everything that we're going to be looking at. And the process next week is that there will be a motion to vote, a second unless we choose not to bring something forward for which is always a possibility. >> Um this next one is about uh video conferencing. So essentially um this is codifying what we currently do. It's defining what we mean by
85. 1:29:41extraordinary circumstances. It is allowing for um work schedule changes. Uh taking if you need to travel for work there provisions for uh two absences relating to that. Um but all it is doing is really setting forth clearly what constitutes extraordinary circumstances. Um so in order to do this uh we need to our our current um uh arrangement was passed by local law. So we are going to be repealing the previous law. I'm doing this by resolution because the New York state law relating to this is get gets revised on a regular basis. It's up to uh expire in um see it's the summer July of this year. It may be renewed, it may be modified, uh it may not be renewed, but by doing it by resolution if we need to
86. 1:30:44make a change, it's easier to make a change. Um do you want to comment on this, Kemp? just that um yeah the the thing is in the local the local law isn't quite what you want. So that has to be revised by by another local law or repeal. That's the only way you can change the post. And since that has to be changed any case, it seems more said they'd have a little more flexibility to replace the one as a resolution change every time. M >> um and you may find that you just want to tweak it that you know certain number of absences you want to increase and decrease or you want to include one other some other factor. It's just a lot easier to look at the alpha when you're just sort of dealing with internal procedures. There's really no reason to necessarily put it in. So simultaneously repealing the local law that has to have a public has to go through the mayor's office as well. But they're going to have to
87. 1:31:46sign a situ. There's also a resolution that's been in place since 2022 that affects other boards and committees other than me authority under and this just leaves that in place. It's a resolution as it is and this is just changing things for the council here. They end up after this with essentially resolution on for the common council and for everybody else and they're easily adjustable. So the companion resolution that goes with this is um local a local well it's not resolution it's a local law to refute provisions. >> One thing that I did notice is that the previous local law mention of banning voting was discussed >> that's because this is defining what constitutes extraordinary circumstances. M. >> So for example, let's say your regular work day, your regular work shift
88. 1:32:51>> means that you will never be here >> because you work nights and you can never attend a common council meeting. >> Uh so that's not an unusual change or anything else. It's just that you cannot attend common council meetings. That would be a problem, right? Um so having somebody who's uh simply unable to fulfill being here to vote on on a an ongoing continuous basis is not extraordinary. So this is just clarifying that. >> Well um clarify previously if you were absent even for an extraordinary circumstances there were certain points where we allow council members to go down to >> Oh yes. I mean, >> am I reading this wrong? Says that >> remember seeing something that said they will not be able to not >> that's I think if they exceed that >> right let them dial in watch. >> Gotcha.
89. 1:33:53>> Right. >> Yeah, that's that's fair. >> Any other questions, comments? Okay, next up is um what we have brought then sent from the legal committee to the full council. Um so this is what uh I talked about a little earlier. Um we have received from a uh community member um who has presented um at least to the legal committee uh a proposal to uh clarify um the code 32517.1 um to refer to the uh level of activity that was going on at the dock in 2009. 9 which is the closest in proximity timewise to 2011.
90. 1:34:56Um in that there is language uh in in the code that speaks to not um not increasing or intensifying uh you know such use effect of the state charter shall not uh nor shall any external evidence of such use be increased by any means whatsoever. So this is basically looking at um the the uh resolution that we had, the local law amendment that we had last year was relying on uh information from 2015 which was from a great man study. uh and this provides research that goes closer to the actual time that uh that the 2011 language was put into the code. Uh the level of activity in 2009 is significantly um higher than than um the the previous uh the thing we looked at last October
91. 1:36:00because the uh property changed hands and Colorado was not yet fully up and running in their activities as of the 2015 data. So what you're seeing here is a uh increased level because this is more likely to be closer to what was actually going on in 2009. So I think that's a a reasonable summary of where we stand. Um so questions Donna is here. Donna submitted this to us uh to provide summary or overview of what this is about. Um, I don't think you've presented this virtual consent before, I think. So, do you want to give a a brief summary? >> Um, I presented four documents to the legal committee. Do you want me to focus on the last one in terms of why use annual
92. 1:37:02limits or or talk about the research I did to determine >> well you know what why why this is why it is important to uh verify the code and why the information that's provided here as clarification is valid information. So um code provision fates that use of the doc shel as uses existed in 2011. So the question is what was the use in 2011? I did a lot of research to determine that and found that the the best available information was a 2010 January 2010 Kraton Manny truck study conducted uh commissioned by OMG who leased the dock at the time from Tulsen and information in that study indicated that what the annual tonnage was activity in the dock um and 27 and a half tons per truck. We could determine how many truck
93. 1:38:06trips or round trips occurred during uh the latest year which was 2009. And this was activity going on at the time that the LWRP was being developed, the draft generic environmental impact statement was being developed. Um so those are the numbers that are included in the in the proposed resolution in terms of limits. 148,000 tons per year and I forget the exact number 5,000 and some round trips per year that relate to over 10,000 truck trips to and from the dock. Okay. Um, a question came up during the committee meeting about why not daily or hourly limits rather than annual limits. And I did research on that and determined that annual limits are the only way that you can um
94. 1:39:12path volume. um daily limits will not allow you to do that because there's so much variability from day to day in dock operations. They don't run trucks every day of the year. Um there's market demand, weather, barge availability, workforce capacity, operating hours. So, a lot of factors um impact the daily activity um or even how many hours they're working, they're running trucks during the day can vary. So the only way you can cap activity if you want to cap it to what existed in 2011 is to determine what is the throughput for the year and the throughput is for example 148,000 tons was the activity in 2009 we have >> so this study was done on city roads not obviously to all roads. So this study was done using city river. So the CRA
95. 1:40:16the crane man January 2010 traffic evaluation the primary purpose of that evaluation was to assess um I'm an engineer so forgiving me for simplistically explaining this but the traffic volume that would be crossing the different intersections on the way from the quarry to the dock and roadway capacity. Um so the intent wasn't to measure volume of truck activity to to and from the dock. Um but there there are two data point or there's a number of data points in that study that um comment on the volume of activity in the dock in 2009 and that is the 148,000 tons of aggregate per year and on average a truck would handle 27 and a half tons per trip to the dock. So that's how we were able to determine the
96. 1:41:19volume of truck activity and tonnage. >> So they're using all right. >> So this is about the dock. >> Yeah. Any other questions? Any hands raised? >> No. >> Okay. Is it the time for us to debate? So well what something I want to do and um we I like to go to attorney client meeting session um sorry >> exactly session >> not exactly >> different thank you just >> um can we close the uh online meeting uh before we do um I'm thinking 15 minutes >> uh so uh for those of you online we should be back within in about 15 minutes. Um if you know if you want to try again try
97. 1:42:22try logging back in again. We still have a couple of items to cover. Um so yeah we could just and yeah we need to close the room but we'll be coming back in uh in about 15 that would just be legal guidance but then if you're going to discuss it among yourselves that should not back out. So that's that's fine. So you won't be returning the regular session perhaps talking about >> No, we have other questions. >> We need top.

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