Common Council, Regular Meeting

1. Part 1: opening business and the Wellness Hub presentation
2. 0:12Can I listen? Okay. Um, this is the regular meeting for September 29th, 2026. The common council in non session. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the government. flag of the republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Cler will call the role. Council member Had here. Fernhagen here. Rooney here. Star here. Foster here. Roberts here. Belton here. Bolo here. Here. Moranti here. Present. Um. Uh. And I have a motion to dispense with the minutes of the August 25th regular meeting with the month five.
3. 1:22Motion to dispense. Let me motion. and second as one. Um, all in favor uh and amendments have been posted. Uh, committee department reports have been posted to the city website. Uh, I did not see the department report. I think we still did not look after you could follow up on you. I also want to see your services together. Yep. And we have our reports from all the subcommittees. I think they have been posted in the city website. May I have a motion and second to place committee with house on file? Motion.
4. 2:01Motion. Uh Henry and second is clear. All in favor? I uh we did post a couple of communications to the website. Uh we had one relating to the uh audio quality uh in the room um which has been brought up before. are in the request that we look about during the budget process. Um, but those communications are on fire. Um, may I have a motion and second to place communications on file? Uh, Claire second. Uh, Gary. All in favor? I opposed. So, we're starting this evening with a presentation on the wellness hub and we
5. 2:47have a right and yeah, come come forward. Can we move this microphone? So, here you give us an update on the uh wellness which you can Yes. Great. So I would hand it over to you. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks. Great to have you here. Yeah, I think welcome. Thank you for having me here. Good to see many of you. Um so this is the Columbia County Wellness Hub. Some of you know about the wellness hub. I'm just going to give you a very short
6. 3:24background, but um council president, how long are you budgeting for this because I don't want to take too long. Um what what are you estimating? I can go 10 to 20 minutes. 20 is fine. 20. Okay. You might want to move that mic over to7. I don't think you have to fold it, but like this. How's that? There you go. That way the people online. So, um I don't know if you've heard about about the Columbia County honey wellness house, but um the idea of the wellness hub came from something called
7. 3:59the sequential intercept modeling exercise. And if you go to the next slide, you're directly. Okay. So, some of you may have been around right when we did this. Um, in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered, uh, then Mayor Kamal Johnson wanted to have a response and so we talked about it and I was at that time corporation council and I should take a step back. I'm Cheryl Roberts and I'm um, the director of the Greenberger Center for Social and Criminal Justice. Um, and I was also in 2020 corp counsel.
8. 4:30Um, and when George Floyd was murdered, we decided we would do more than just train the police on how to deal people with mental illness. That we would undertake a sequential intercept model mapping exercise, which looked at the whole county and the gaps um with uh services to what we call a high utilizer population. people with mental illness, substance use disorder and control farming who uh entered the social service system and the criminal justice system often. Um and so we partnered with the county. We did this for 18 months. I wrote a report and they came up with a number of recommendations. One of them was to have what we call a
9. 5:11wellness hub. Go to the next slide. So um we undertook to implement some of the recommendations through a joint public private partnership. So, we work with the county to form a joint task force. Um, the town of Greenport um is working with us because we've we plan to locate the wellness hub in Greenport and I'll tell you more about that in a minute. And then of course the city of Hudson who initiated this whole process. Um and also because the city of Hudson because of the services here
10. 5:41you know does attract um people the some of the high utilizers who come to the city for services that are here social services the hospital and then sometimes they will end up in the park um you know or other places in the city and so the city has has a real interest in in implementing this clinical underset model mapping requirements or recommendations. So the Greenberger Center, just one more. Yeah, the Greenberger Center partner with Repco and Kevin O'Connor who's the president of Repco will be here shortly. Um they
11. 6:13have 40 years of history um developing and operating supportive housing because one of the major recommendations from this bunch model mapping report was housing. you can't be on your medications, you can't be healthy, you can't be, you know, um participating in in a life if you don't have a place to sleep at night, right? So, we partnered with RPCO because they are expert in housing. So, we can go to the next slide, please. So, we were very lucky. The Green Center reached out to um Paul Kuso. He owns that 4acre parcel. He has a bit more of it actually. Um, and I
12. 6:52said, you know, Paul, would you consider donating that parcel to us for the wellness hub? The wellness hub is going to provide, as you're going to see, housing, different types of housing and some supports. And he said, of course, I would do that. That was great except then DEEC implemented um some regulations on wetlands and made most of that site wetland. So, we worked for a year. Um, and if you go to the next slide, uh, Paul and, um, Rick Cummings from Mohart Oil gave us parcel three and
13. 7:23then Paul gave us parcel two, making it more of a 7acre parcel so that we could spread out the development and avoid the wetlands and mitigate. And so we did that for a year and then the regulations for the wetlands were overturned. So we are a year behind but we came up with a really very welldesigned sensitive environmentally sensitive design which we're going to go to next. So yes, would it be okay if I went up there and pointed? Yeah, sure. So um this is the well that site that I told you about. This is the welcome center
14. 8:02and an apartment for a supervisor to be on site 24 hours a day. What the suppression from a mapping exercise found is that we need emergency housing that the hotels and hotels that the county uses are just frankly disaster. And I used to be a bond agent for the public bail fund where the husband started and I would bail out people before bail reform and I would take them to motel where they were isolated, had no food, no access to services. So, this it will provide 30 um 28 units of emergency supported housing, I'm sorry, of emergency housing,
15. 8:38but not just a C in a in a dorm. It will provide um as you're going to see in a moment, each person will have their own bedroom and their own bathroom, and then there'll be a commercial kitchen downstairs. So, it's providing dignity for people who are unhoused. Here we'll have um 35 units of permanent secret housing, one bedroom unit supported 24-hour service and then um this is outdoor space, pavilion space, um think it's pickle ball and master golf course. Um so let's go to the next slide please.
16. 9:12So this is a rendering of it. Welcome center here, emergency housing, permanent housing, pavilion. Okay. And um Ruffo is is uh in the process of giving capital for it. It's about a $42 million project that repo and Free River Center will be bringing to the county. Um next slide. So um Captain, did you did you like do you want to take over this part and talk about it? Yeah. Sorry for being late. Cardinal Conor, CEO of Roco. Um I started in 1988 Hudson River Housing Shelter Met House for Bud Motel and uh you know unfortunately the countyy's
17. 9:58been putting people at motel house um did what we're going to be doing here offer three meals a day case management on-site daycare transportation its own vehicles um it was a more holistic approach with only 19 units but um we um gave way to at Roco to open up Willow Landing in outside town of Olter throughway circle. We're converting a former uh farming and hotel to 82 permanent supportive housing units. We're going to form design. Um we're going to keep a pool convert to salt water. We're going to bcare. We're going to have um a commissary kitchen and then
18. 10:39just a really rich staff that we're going to be able to bring here to the permanent supportive housing. Um 35 one-bedroom units um all adults. Um we already have our Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative funding. So we'll again be able to have 247 staffing uh case management on site. Uh we hope to uh as we have with some of our other projects with win some state grants to receive vehicles so that we can provide some transportation. We like to let people move into those transportation routes uh becomes a little bit organic.
19. 11:13Um so some community space and again all one bedrooms a total of 35 on the permanent house. Not yet. Okay. And also we don't find it's just okay. So be ready to work. The next slide nice, you know, primary room, bedroom, um, one bath, uh, kitchen, dining. We really hope to uh we're going to a wood manufacturer uh in Kingston tomorrow. We'll get Hardy board versus some treated emergency to really get a warm sense of things. But here at the 28 and go to the next uh I think it's
20. 12:00important to say that we're going to have seven pods um um where each person has their own room and their own bathroom. um one person per room, each has their own bathroom. I think that's critically important um dealing with folks who are experiencing homelessness. We will provide professional um staff to provide three meals a day. So again, case management, 247 observation staff u um there'll be community space. Next slide. Um here we're going to have the the dining room. Next slide, please. We have activity space.
21. 12:41Yeah. Activity space. Multi purpose lobby. Maybe the next show is where they go dining for some days. No, we don't have the dining room. Okay. We'll have a dining room. There will be a dining room. Um there'll be a kitchenette where people can go um and and do a little bit themselves, but we're going to have professional meals. Three meals a day, hot meals. Um nutritious. So, and that's the most important thing. What's that? What's that? They get to bring their dog. Oh, yes. Of course. Dogs are very Because that's a big thing. Why people will not come off the streets?
22. 13:08Yeah. There's a there's an article in shelter forces about that as their members of the family. So if you strip away their their family members, it's difficult. Um we're really happy with the architects and and and the design. Um again, trying to create space that uh will really uh accentuate the nature that's here and some of the wetland features, but the wood tones and other things really warm uh and inviting environment. I'll stop. Thank you. So um the welcome center um it'll as I mentioned have the apartment for the supervisor but also have some
23. 13:46space for community you know meetings for yoga for classrooms and small offices for hopefully DSS or county mental health to come and provide some services. I do want to stop here for one second and just because I've heard from folks asking me well is this there's um apparently a planned um some planned services on the church on Green Street right now. how they do code blue housing and I guess recovery kitchen and Kyle Patwald and um the organization that Carl Quinn is with now they're talking about bringing some of the welcome
24. 14:17center services to that church on Green Street because we were not able unfortunately to get enough funding to make the welcome center as big as we would have liked. would still love to get the funding, but um we're still in the design phase, but in the meantime, there's been I guess by those organizations with Recovery Kitchen to locate some of the services on Green Street and h and have maybe more housing for unhoused people. Um they're not associated with us. So, if you have questions about that, I'm just directing
25. 14:49people to them. Um but okay so we can go on and um our next steps are you know we're we just got um a net debt from the green planning board. They told us there's no showstoppers here so we're going to go forward with our site plan approval a couple months hopefully. Um we're finalizing our capital financing was doing that and I remember everything we hope to have in 2027. So, we wanted to thank you and that's congratulations. Um, thank you. That was great. Um, I have one question. Good to see you as well.
26. 15:26Thank you. Um, the I definitely missed one little uh between one little spot when you were talking about your site behind uh the Columbia County Sheriff's or that wherever that is. Yeah, it's near there. It's kind of in in that vicinity. You said it be had been designated wetland and I missed what the outcome of that was. You're still waiting for that. No debate, right? No, it was designated as wetland and then um the rules for overturn. Okay. Because D didn't follow their own rule. Gotcha.
27. 15:57They they are not they are not um you know appealing that. Okay. Thank you. Cheryl, you mentioned the warning set which is not ADA compliant. So how is this going to provide the ADA compliance? How many how many rooms shower and how how is this going to work? It is ADA compliant. What is the everything build? No, I'm talking about the warming center. Is it? So I'm just asking how you the welcome center. The welcome center. No, the warming center. You mentioned the warming center. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned that.
28. 16:29Well, I'm just all I'm saying is that people are asking about it and it's not our project. It's not our project. So I don't can't tell you the details about what's happening on Green Street. I'm just saying that some of the services I'm understanding that we were hoping to have at the welcome center may be going to the Green Street Church, but it's not we're not associated so I can answer questions about it. Okay. And and then you you they're going to be everything's which is great.
29. 16:54Appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. I have two questions. Um, first question is, um, you mentioned that you will have a staff from the Kingston Co that might be able to. Do you guys have intentions on hiring local staff that have already worked with this population? Yeah, absolutely. We're in six counties. U we're in Middletown. We need a large chef in Newberg to certainly be hiring all over. Okay. Absolutely. How soon before the project opens would you post those jobs? like is there trainings that you would all offer in
30. 17:28the community ahead of Yeah, the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative program in particular allows for three months of structure funds um once we get there. So, we're able to hire new staff and um as we're taking applications, we're uh we're really thrilled with our new program director for Little Landing. Um we're hoping to open up and start receiving tennis in the early December before the holidays, but um so probably 3 months in the front will be the time we're looking to hire and bring people on and provide a host of training to the staff.
31. 18:07Thank you. And then the second question was, um, I know these are mostly onebedroom, so they're for single folks, but there's a lot of families. Is the hope that they'll be able to be placed in local shelters as families? I and Bob Gibson probably the best person to talk about this, but I think that the notion is to like have families at the Galvin, you know, motel where there are services there. And I'm not sure what else the county has in mind, but um, absolutely. are trying to take, you know, the single folks here and um
32. 18:36and have more space for families and close the mot. Sher said also you got money to buy vehicles. It's one going to be an accessible vehicle because that's one thing we are missing too is I'm sorry about accessible van wheelchair very successful with the state grant and the world landing. We have two vehicles both are accessible. Great. We have one at Landmark Place accessible and we would love very much to get a vehicle that is uh wheelchair accessible here as well. I'm very familiar with your program staff and do a great job. Thank you.
33. 19:10And one other thing about transportation and and then yeah um is um the county has agreed to extend the you know the bus service to to the hub. So there'll be transportation. Great. And we have a question here from Hi Jason. This may um be related to what you just said is uh given that location we must have thought about pedestrian activity and walking to and from there. Do you want to get your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think um part of why we definitely want to get our own transportation. Um we would like
34. 19:42to discourage you know people walking um to the site. It's not all that convenient and uh but we know people on site uh and I think we'll be running transportation in you know to pick folks up in the city um and and and take people as I said we like to let people tell us where they need to go whether you know they're interested going whether shopping or medical or what have you. So um but uh yeah the uh the location I think we're going to look
35. 20:15to provide as much transportation as possible and uh sort of discourage walking traffic. Kevin, is that transportation also include to employment to to and from employment? Um it can for sure think. Yeah, that's there's some congregated employment opportunities. Um, you know, we got permitted housing. We hope people are uh successful in all kinds of ways including employment. Are there any other questions? Any other council members? Go ahead. I'll be fast. Just to piggyback on Jason's comment. Um, I would strongly encourage you to consider some safeguards for pedestrians because it's close to grocery stores. It's closer to grocery stores than the local shelter is than the center of the city. So people
36. 21:02are used to walking or biking from farther distances. So I'm almost positive that people will be you'll have a lot of foot traffic out there. Yeah. Thank you. I think we will take that suggestion and talk with I think law enforcement, our local transportation services. Uh take a look at maybe some planning ideas about how else we can save other folks, especially because there's limited sidewalks. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions from the council? uh public. So last week I was at the county county government and they cleared a hurdle of 26 units on healing. So it looks like
37. 21:42they've agreed to like the funding for 26 units. I think they're like again single person but that seems like that's moving along with the county. So that's just information left by anyone. Yeah. Any other comments? Did you have a probably Thank you very very much. Thank you so much for having us question. Yeah. Great job. Thank you. Okay. So before we go into our resolutions, um we are going to during the call attorney fin session um to start uh we will we're going to put a time on this of 30 minutes.
38. 22:34So that probably those of you who are online um let's check my time here at 6:22. Let's just say we're going to come back at 7. Okay. Um that gives us gives us 49. So you honestly want to say six. No, I don't think do we? Yeah. We could probably We're all beat to death by this, right? Okay. Right. All right. So, uh we will be back online at 6:50. Um and uh sorry. So if the public would please Chinese.
39. Part 2: resolutions, local laws and public comment
40. 0:02you on the line again? Yes. Um so um our first resolution is appointing commissioner of deeds. Um may I have a motion and a second to vote on this resolution? Motion from J second Henry. Uh yes. Hi Ronnie Star. Hi Foster. Hi Roberts. Hi Shelton. Hi Lolo. Hi Cousin. Hi Moranti. Hi Carrie. Okay. Our next resolution um is authorizing the mayor uh to issue an RFP for the 2027 doc management and m and maintenance. And I know that there was some discussion around this. So um questions.
41. 1:11I ask that we table it because the dates on this do not give it any time for um a fair RFP. It's asking for October 30th and that is in 30 days. it doesn't really seem like a reasonable amount of time to give to the public for an RFP. Um, second, I don't think anyone on the committee has seen any financial statements from all the programming from the summer and that was something we wanted to base um to at least have a foundation of knowing what we wanted in this contract for the
42. 1:43for the next year. So if we could just get any numbers, it would just help us in case since we have questions and there is time and this doesn't begin until the spring. Yeah, I think it's like I think March, February, March time frame is when the contract was signed last year. Um I would recommend that we not bring this up to our position that we go back to the mayor with our questions and um I will get you whatever financial reports we have received from uh the current contractor. Uh and then we can just
43. 2:15discuss it next month. Does that work for you? It works for me. Thanks. I had one thing to add that came up through discussion is some of the applicants think have ideas about um they're improving. Correct. Like was there room in this RFP to allow them to have some creative ideas? So the RFP was created by the mayor's office. So I think to that point if we go back to the mayor's office about the RFP itself then you know anybody else with any comments on this
44. 2:50that was my same Jason I want to consider the communication we received yes similar to Jason I just wanted to consider the communication we received okay on this one um our Next is authorizing DPW transfers. Um these are all within department transfers. Um any questions you were due last week. Uh so if I can have a motion development on the condom transfers motion second president Morris. Yes. Council member Hadad. Hi Karnhagen. Hi Ron. Hi Sarah. Hi Foster. Hi Robert. Hi Belton. Hi Bolo. Hi President. Hi Moranti.
45. 3:52Hi uh the next is a resolution authorizing the sale of city Olympia policeman equipment. Um again this can I have a motion and a second to vote on the sale of the motion. Motion second. [clears throat] President Morris. Yes. Council member. Hi Fernhen. Hi Brownie. Hi Starwalk. Hi Foster. Hi Robert. Hi Felton. Hi Marine. Hi K. Uh the next I apologize to the council is a resolution that we received late yesterday uh authorizing a budget transfer from the police department. This is time sensitive. Um as you know with rising gas costs and so forth there that line item was depleted and they
46. 4:49need to transfer funds from uh payroll to lease gas. So uh this was new for you. I don't I think it's very straightforward. Um can I have a motion to vote? President Morris. Hi Kurt Hagen. Hi Ro. Hi Sara. Hi Foster. Hi Roberts. Hi Lola. Hi Cousin. Hi Marian. Hi Eric. Hi. Uh our next resolution um is a resolution uh to deem new property of city of Hudson located on Mil Street as park hunt. Excuse me. I know that needs to be changed. Right. Um because we're not treat um we're simply discussing your opinion. Um
47. 5:48we just said the state clarify or claim I think it's opinion. So with this amendment and I think I need a motion to accept this amendment of the resolution. Um the amendment amendment to the resolution is a resolution to state the opinion of the common council that property of city located down Mil Street um is municipal apartment. That is how the title narrates. Uh so just in essence what this resolution is doing is uh just move to change the title. Oh sorry excuse me. Motion to change the title motion. Motion opinion and second is journey. Uh roll call vote
48. 6:47on the amendment of the president Lawrence. Yes. Council member. Hi. Hi Robbie. Hi Tar. Hi Foster. Hi Roberts. Hi Felton. Hi Boa. Hi Cousin. Hi Moranti. Hi. Okay. So in essence what this resolution is doing is providing a history of the property on monsters uh a history of its usage of how it came to be in the the possession of the city uh current usage and then finally the the purpose of the resolution is uh to state whether there's the opinion of the common council for the mil street site as municipal parkland and we have further resolved that it is the opinion of the common council that conveyance to the
49. 7:47Mil Street site for nonpart purposes may constitute an alienation of municipal parking requiring direct and specific authorization by New York State. So, um, comments, discussion, anything from the council? Yeah, I have a go ahead. Um, I think in my opinion, I think this resolution clarifying this is inappropriate at this time because there's ongoing litigation that's already going to decide whether it is park lender. the city went into an agreement with a developer saying that we want affordable housing there. Sure, we were misinformed. Um, things were
50. 8:36left out and I personally have regrets that it didn't go the correct way. But I think it's on the city that you know it's beneficial to the city to leave this to the courts rather than you know trying to make a decision now like um I think it sets a bad precedence. Um we many many people in the city as well as in the council are saying that we need housing and um if this is just it sets a bad precedence for any developers in my opinion if they're going to come in and
51. 9:17try to develop in a very small city there isn't really many places to expand to. I don't I don't think it's beneficial for us. I think it's beneficial for us to wait to let the court decide and then our recourse of how things went about. I think we can go on about that. Um that if that makes any sense. Thank you. Yeah. Uh Johnny um I think we can have an opinion regarding Well, you're you're welcome to have an opinion. I in my opinion and and and I think that's what this does is to to
52. 9:54show that we all have an opinion about whether or not this is parkland and because we have said in every single document that's been floating around that it's been referred to as parkland I think it's parkland. any other comments from the council that do [clears throat] um that is just an opinion. Okay. And even if we weren't in this lawsuit, um my opinion would still be the same of what's in the resolution as someone that grew up down there, utilized it, worked for the youth department, seen
53. 10:37everything that's in this resolution come to fruition. also that you know grant money and everything you know came in and developed a lot of that area it's not like that property was stagnant and not being used right so I it's if someone was to ask me yes my opinion is this is what it was used for we had playgrounds down there we had yes it was totally recreation it it should be recreation and I think we're limited in this city of Hudson to have recreational um and now with a new connection with it's only going to get better with a new connection with the conservatory with
54. 11:21the Empire trail pass right this is something that needs to be embraced and grown and I think uh since it's an opinion uh that would be my opinion I I was involved in a lot of this things that are actually um referenced here uh I played soccer there I played cricket there because the city pushed us there. They promised that they would develop it and actually actually got worse. There was lighting actually was removed. Fencing was actually removed. So, in my opinion, it was stagnant. The community that used to play soccer there actually moved to school district
55. 11:57property because we argued that it was actually a horrible place to play soccer. It was mosquito was it was wet. Um it just wasn't ideal. I I agree with you. the city needs parkland but I don't think that even like I don't think the city has actually maintained it as a parkland unit it was mowed but that was sorry um I believe that this should be parkland I believe that this project would move forward without the of the mil street residents um if there was or
56. 12:29the common council this project was uh put out there for the other for the residents of Mil Street for the other residents a difficult we would have uh we would have we would have known number one and we would have made better decisions and I know this is a this project will be a disaster actually in a flood plan and I think that we're only looking at more problems down the line you know but essentially what we're doing here is simply expressing our opinion on and we I think you have something to say um yes I do believe that our opinion as
57. 13:07park land just makes the a little bit more evidence before October 9th. Um, and I do agree that it has well agree I think it has been parkling for a while but I also don't think the agreement that we have agreed upon is the agreement that was placed before us. True. And this time, this developer has owned other parcels in town for I think over 3 years now. And they haven't done anything. There has been uh as far as we know no sorry [laughter] [clears throat] to come back to you.
58. 13:48I just also would like to share the opinion that the entire council doesn't share this opinion. So, this is a strong assertion um on behalf of the entire council. So, I'm not in support of it. I know that it is used recreationally, but I think similar to Aron saying, it's a process to be played out. It's in court. I feel like, you know, if all of those facts are true, then the court will find that it's Parkland. That's my opinion, and I feel like it represents the
59. 14:17constituents. So, um yeah, I'm open to argument as well. Um, it's an opinion that doesn't carry a lot of weight, but we're waiting into a legal uh uh uh case. Um, and we're not giving it to them. We're not submitting it. This is just us saying it declaratively. So, legal repercussion, it's not it's not us communicating with the courts necessarily, not to Yeah. No, but it is is this the right way to battle? Is this the only recourse we have to battle it? No. By basically what is our possibly hurting our I'm not worried about the uh uh being sued over
60. 15:09this opinion. It's more is it it's is will it weigh against the city? And it sounds like that's what we want. I I simply want to state that um I believe that this is perfect from all of the documents that have been presented from all of the information that we finally gotten. We got all the filings from the court um uh and everything that we have seen from uh from documents provided by the mil streets. Uh looks like parkland to me. That's all. That's simple. I think he doesn't. I think he's popular there too. But yeah, but the purpose of this is not to get
61. 15:54into um you know whether it will have it this impact or that impact. It's simply from my point of view that we should take a position here and I think that's a good point. We have to I think we should take a position because what is being presented is that the municipality and we are we represent the municipality um is uniformly of the opinion uh that it's not because that's the case that is being argued right now and frankly I think that is and I I'm perfectly happy
62. 16:33to say I think Miss Walker I think Mr. Walker and asking us I know I'm saying I think they're they've asked us to have an opinion. Yes. Opinion. Yes, we have. Any other council members got comments or questions? Okay. I just said I think it's a part too because when I came into uh Hudson and we used to go over there and play soccer and everything you know Christian and uh I think it's part of mine. So just Yeah. Do we have hands raised? Yeah, you have Ronald.
63. 17:15Ronald. Okay. Ronald. Well, uh, Matt McGee would like to comment and then I also would like to make a brief comment. Yes. I I believe that it's worthwhile to inform the public and the court that you stand behind following the law and doing what is correct. This is parkland from all that is known and it should go through the procedures that are required to do anything different with it and public deserves to have a council that respects law and procedure and seeks to have it enforced. Thank you.
64. 18:07Thank you. I I would just like to say that that the council has in the past passed resolutions which are in effect representations of the sense of the council. Uh you can do that also in this case. I'd also like to point out that the issue of uh the Mil Street parcel as parkland is not a new one. I believe it was brought up under the previous administration. there's been a lot of discussion of it and its relationship as part of Charles Williams Park and hence park land. So
65. 18:38again, it's not a new issue. And finally, on the question of the mayor's actions uh in extending the contract or amending the contract unilaterally, uh the council, it seems to me, it's clear under the charter has the final authorization on contracts. The mayor may propose the council authorizes. It would have been perfectly all right for the mayor to come to you and say, "I would like you to amend the resolution on the basis of the, you know, effect of current litigation." Uh, had he done that and you had voted in favor of some kind of amendment or extension, that would have been, you know, perfectly
66. 19:19okay. But that isn't what he did. So I think that the council should you know express its opinion in the form of a resolution and and state basically state its opinion as a sense of the council. Thank you. Thank you. On the other hand sorry go ahead. Um, Matt said something important that any any finding by either the court or ourselves that it is Parkland wind does not kill the project. It sends it to the state legislature to determine whether it could be alienated or not.
67. 19:57And that then there authority in that [clears throat] just that would be the resolution not um so just one uh Lloyd you have your hand. Yeah. Lloyd Golden Academy voice of reason on this particular point. I've sat through a lot of the developers proposals and the back and forth and the revisions and uh and uh quite frankly I think Rich Bo's point about it being a disaster. I think the whole project was not well conceived. Building on on plane putting you know 70 70 units there not well conceived and
68. 20:40there are other options. I think that develop would have been better to develop the straight state street lot property first and that would have helped them to move [clears throat] things along but that didn't happen. So again this is not a good project. So to the point about the city engaging and the engagement, so there's a lawsuit. I would recommend more strongly that the common council withdraw from the lawsuit and find out what is the impetus for us being in this lawsuit cuz we're spending how much money on lawyers. And what was the impetus for this lawsuit? Who brought this lawsuit? Mayor, I'm a little confused. I don't think the
69. 21:20common council authorized bringing suit, did it? The lawsuit was brought by the middle street residents against Carney the city the mayor's office the common council. [clears throat] So who was the defendants here? If he's like to read the documents I'll be happy to share with you tomorrow. Do you have any other any other hands raised in the room? Okay. Yeah we have one. Go ahead. I'm think um live on the street and check for why Jack couldn't be here this evening. Um but I just wanted to express how much work he's put into digging through city records to present this
70. 22:01information and how hard he tried and we've all tried to express this sort of simple reality to you all for a very long time now for multiple years. We never wanted to be in this position. Um, for anyone that isn't clear, the nature of the lawsuit in the neighborhood is not such that it prevents anything from being built on that parcel ever. It simply asks for due process, noting that this is in fact municipal parkland. It's been used as such for all of living memory. And if you want to continue with
71. 22:31the project, you would, if we are successful in our suit, you would need to go bring that to the state legislature and say you want to change use of that of that parcel. Um, we really could have avoided a lot of expense and time and distress by having this honestly recognized at the time this project was being planned. And it's not too late to make your voice heard as a council. It would really mean a lot to us uh given that we've been coming up against walls and getting basic reality acknowledged for a very long time.
72. 23:05Thank you. Any other hands around the room? Okay. So, can we have a motion to vote on the resolution? Jenny motion second. And can we have And this is the as council member. Hi. Hi. Sara. Hi Foster. Hi Roberts. Hi. [clears throat] Hi. Thousand. Hi. Cousin. Stain. Moranti. Hi. Karen. Okay. So the next resolution um and these are a couple resolutions but you can not actually be working on it um relates to it's about clause and it really relates to um getting certain records mostly some carne but mostly internally and uh right now um I would recommend that we
73. 24:27not bring this up for a vote this evening uh that we first try to get these records feed by the department um and then if we need to we will return to this. So I prefer not unless any wants to bring it up for I prefer not to bring this up there. Okay. So we're going to pass to the excuse me speak to the session. Um you can speak to it when we bring it up again next month. Yeah. Um okay so next we have uh local laws.
74. 25:09Um the first is the local law amending the chapter amending more than baking buildings. Um may I have a motion and second vote on this local law? We have a second ones. There's a second um roll call. Oh, please. I'm sorry. Yes. Yes. This is a motion to enact the Thank you. President Morris. Yes. Council member. Hi. H. Hi. Hi. S. Hi. Hi. Robert. Hi Felton. Hi Olaf. Hi Cousin. Hi Ry. Hi there. Okay. Um our next is also uh relating to vote enforcement. Um this is a law
75. 26:09relating to 97 of the code of the city buildings. Uh and I have a motion and second to enact this law. Motion. Any motion? Clair and second call. President Morris. Yes. Council member Hadab. Hi. Hi. Rooney. Hi Sber. Hi Foster. Hi Roberts. Hi [clears throat] Felton. Hi Ola. Hi President. Hi Moranti. Hi Harry. Okay. And our last local law is a local law increasing the penalties for certain parking violations. Uh, can I have a motion? Um, Henry second. We have a question in the room. Um, yeah, my name is Brian McCormack. Uh, I
76. 27:07just I don't know if this is the the exact venue or process for this, but I feel like before increasing penalties, the council needs to address some of the concerns that have been raised around the parking meters in general. I don't know if the parking meters are related to the specific um violations that you're talking about, but I will raise that they are monolingually in Spanish. So, they're not accessible to a large portion of the community. And they're also uh at a certain height that makes it almost impossible for certain disabled people to even scan the
77. 27:46code to access the parking meters. and also they assume a certain uh degree of tech literacy just to be able to park. So I think there there are plenty of reasons that we shouldn't be increasing parking violations when people can't even operate the systems that they're supposed to pay in the first place. Okay. So we just we were just getting ready to vote. Um, I take your point. There are a lot of uh penalties here that are not related to the meters and uh I will put your concerns on the
78. 28:22agenda for next month. Um, but I don't think it impacts the this particular issue. So, I'm about to go ahead. It doesn't impact the the particular violations and anyone can appeal the property data and indicate that they could not uh access the system. processing to the page. This is about the This is about the dollar amounts. Okay, let's answer one of those. If you email I know we can fix two of those, the language and the height. If you just email and Lieutenant Dorene, Captain Miller and Chief, they can definitely do the Spanish,
79. 29:03but we will also we would also bring this back to the council next month. Okay. Concerns and thank you for writing it. Yeah. Just one quick. Um, you do know if someone is handicapped, has a placard, they don't need to pay for parking at all. At all. Yes. Anybody with a hand. So, they can park anywhere in the city, metered or not. Uh, and it's free parking for anyone with a plaque. Yeah, you could have a handicap sticker. Not everyone who is disabled is permanently disabled. And if you're temporarily disabled and temporarily in
80. 29:42wheelchairs, applying for a placard may not seem worth it to a lot of people. And it should be accessible to everybody regardless of whether you're temporarily disabled or like fulltime wheelchair. We can change the heights as well. We we're bringing this up at the next council meeting. We will commit to Frankfurt and to we have a roll on to enact the law. Well, I'd said that when I thank you I said three times. Yes, council member. Hi. No, I'm voting against it because there's some fines in there that we're increasing that will directly impact
81. 30:36residents and I'm looking to see this council vote towards a resident parking program. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Who Who did you ask? Brian. Hi, Sar. Oops. Um, hi Foster. Hi, Roberts. I say no. We got too much inflation going on right now. Belin. Hi. Lolo. Hi. Cousin. No. Moranti. Hi. Okay. Uh, I have no old business. I don't know if anybody on the council wants to bring up any I haven't not received anything. Uh, I got an six weeks ago from from the folks who were looking for they are still
82. 31:53uh okay. Um, any new business? Yes. Um it's uh we have some events happening next month. Um one event is the 30th anniversary of historic lesson. And anyone who is just a familiarity with the Tom Bronson House. That is where the 30th anniversary is going to be held on October 10th. It's a Saturday from 11 to 2. It is open to the public. It's a beautiful gem. Yes, it is a fundraiser, but it is open to the public because the public never gets a chance to see it or rather very rarely. And obviously the
83. 32:33council is more than welcome to be there and see the uh plans for the future and celebrate historic Hudson's 30th anniversary and hopefully as many in the public can attend as possible. Um because who knows when we'll have time to open it up again. What's the one that's juttered against the correction? It's the one that is entrance is off Harry Howard and it is the back entrance to the correct. It is it is on the historic landmark. It is um it's up for the number I think one of the top nine historic places to be saved
84. 33:04in the country and in a couple of movies and it has been in a number of movies. Um it will be in another movie pretty soon and it's been in the music video last year with Charlie XX. So, the other great event happening that day is in German Town and it is once uh we're they've revived the haunted hay rides and if anybody has done that when they were a kid, it was awesome. It is very inexpensive. It's wonderful for children. It's about a half an hour hay
85. 33:32ride through the park and it is only one day. Um it used to be for I think we had it for probably 30 years when I was living in Germantown as a kid and it was awesome. Um so please tell all the children, you know, bring them. It's a great carnival and October 10th in the evening. October 10th in Germantown at Palentine Park. Do you have anything else from the council? Okay. Um, we have any further public comment? Yes. Go ahead. Yes. Getting your voice of reason favor the tree of peace and originator of shimmer restoration sovereign humanity.
86. 34:09So speaking to Jason's point, it doesn't wear as my radar so much as I deem otherwise very important project, but I'm still very much in favor of the authentic restoration of the I'm sorry, let me start something that I'm in favor of the authentic restoration of the Boston Hudson's railway shop and you're watching Henry. No. Yeah. Thank you. So I have a second point. So military I mean we're engaged in the lawsuit. However we get engaged in this lawsuit. I would love to disentangle from the lawuit. I don't know what would be involved in extracting
87. 34:54in and the expense that this and I registered my disagreement with the project. The third point is completed. [clears throat] I have not heard about or from anyone really that I that I whose information I value would be credible about the tree of peace. I believe it if I my information is correct. It's not available in the cemetery as is commonly thought. I did ask about it last Monday and I was essentially told it was not the business to go ask the mayor. So I asked the mayor and the mayor told me he hadn't heard and we're back. So again I asked what is the status of the tree of
88. 35:43peace because I do I am the savior of the tree of peace and I do consider peace valuable and worthwhile and I wish some people would address it. Have you been to the I have and that's what I'm sorry and that's what led me to go pluck the tree off the cliff because no one was doing anything about it. Hey, Lloyd, your time is up here. Thank you. Um, so, uh, you know, this is October 1st. We're curious where we are with the charter reform because that was something that was tabled last month and uh, I will bring it back to the council. You'll be what? I'm sorry.
89. 36:28I'm sorry. I will bring it back to the council. Um, it's still under discussion. It was table. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Um, I missed last week's meeting, but I watched it on video and the issue with block cameras and camera surveillance in general is obviously very hot right now in Vincent and I want to know what the status is since it wasn't discussed here. What are the next steps of the city? Um as discussed last month about three uh the chief of police and I and the mayor met
90. 37:02and we are developing a plan for uh the Hudson Police Department already follows all of the policies and procedures that uh the legislation sponsored by um Kimchi includes uh but we're going to be working on putting a plan together relating to that. Um I think those safeguards are very important. Um but I we are we have not crafted yet a final statement on how to approach it but we are working on that. Okay. So if the public I'm very concerned about this kind of surveillance and if the public wants to put you know have more input into the
91. 37:40process or you know visibility into the process what should we be doing? I would recommend that you submit an email to uh the chief of police uh to the mayor and to myself. Anything you send to me, I would send to the full council. I I would like you to send it to the full council. Okay. Sometimes it's easier for people. I understand, but I would like to know what the public has to say. Right. But I do understand. Yes. Which is okay. So I have um I just like to tell council members that I reached out to the police and
92. 38:18Lieutenant Pierro gave me a tour of their system. Um it was very enlightening. It was addressed a lot of concerns. Um and I think any of you I don't know the public could do as well but any of the council members would certainly be welcome to take the same advice. But I think part of what we have to do is communicate that information. So I've had also a lot of discussions with police department. I think what we have to do is make sure that the information is communicated to the public as to offices for example which is critical.
93. 38:55Well the the one thing I learned about the data is that absolutely no one else either correct police department has access to the data. Yeah. Two factor authentication rate. No, no one have access they control that by two factor authenticity when the city receives a code that has given to Axon if they want if they do want to shift. Okay. And that's it. Can we have a motion to motion? Second. Our favorite item.

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