Common Council - workshop

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to caucus for the Common Council this evening. Will our legislative director call the roll and say who's here, please?

Absolutely. Adams. Present. Anani.

Present. Allen.

Here.

Brody's absent. Farrell. Here. Flynn is absent. Hoey. Present. Johnson? Jones? Present. Keegan?

Here.

Lumpkin? Present. Powell is absent. Robinson? Here. Williamson and Zamer are also absent. We're also joined by Council President Kelly Kimbrough, Senior Assistant Corporation Council Martha Mahoney, Legislative Director Brian Jimenez, Council and Director of Policy Robert Winter, and Policy Analyst Carly Johnson.

Thank you so much. We have a guest this evening that I would love to welcome up. Would you mind coming up and introducing yourself? This is, and I'm terrible with titles, so Reverend Pastor... Charles Gresham, who is leading the mayor's violence prevention task force. So if you can just talk a little bit about, tell us about yourself and how we can support you and how things are going. And we're happy to answer any questions if you have any questions. But the floor is yours.

Thank you. Charles Gresham. There we go. Can you all hear me?

Good evening, everyone. My name is Charles Gresham. I am a youth pastor here in Albany. I serve at the Wilborn Temple First Church of God in Christ, and I'm very thankful for you all giving me space I am very thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the development of violence prevention in a more formalized fashion in our city through the Mayor's Office of Violence Prevention. As you all know, in July I was announced, and since that time I've done a lot of homework having an opportunity to go to many of our neighborhoods, neighborhoods like the South End, Arbor Hill, West Hill, Pine Hills, being able to visit and speak with a lot of our community members. In addition to that, as the chair of the task force, we recently completed our second monthly stakeholder meeting with me kind of leading that out. Where we are today is that we have a lot of really inspired and knowledgeable individuals that are ready to work collectively and collaboratively in this particular conversation. And I'm just very thankful to be a part of the team. The one thing that I would like to say is that I am not a new chapter. I am just a part of the continuation of what's already been happening. We've had so many wonderful community leaders, many of you that were very pivotal to making sure that this opportunity would be available for someone like myself to assist and be a part of the team. A couple of things that I would like to highlight. is we see three P's in what we're doing, presence, prevention, pathways, which is all outlined in the plan that was published around the same time that my role was announced. We see in various parts of our community, whether it's the action of collaboration meetings that have been happening, many community meetings have been happening as it relates to how local communities are rallying around each other to take care of each other. Um, we see, uh, as it relates to safe passage conversations, which are also part of the plan. We recently learned about the LaSalle school and what they're looking to do to provide safe spaces. Um, we are currently working toward building, uh, a larger group around that particular model. understanding that LaSalle is doing some great work, but in other areas of our city, we're trying to see how do we build that model out specifically in localized capacity as well. We've been able to talk with business leaders like we have barbers and many community leaders that are looking to do something similar to what LaSalle is doing. And so that's taken shape. What we look like in the future, we all know that this is going to be a work in progress. However, it is my endeavor to do more formalized listening tours and I was asked what would I like to request I would love to have an opportunity to sit down with each of you in your wards and have listening sessions in your wards to hear what the community thinks of the plan as it has been presented. What can we do to make a very intentional build out of what the plan has articulated? if you all have had an opportunity to review it. It is a culmination of all of the many conversations we've had dating all the way back to Baltimore back in February when we went down there to see what they were doing there. We see all of that written within the plan. When we talk about coordination strategies, when we go back to April, there was a summit called the Faith in the field summit. At that summit, we were able to curate collectively a 90-day coordination plan, which has been in process and in action in various capacities. And so I think now as you all see my face and hello Facebook and all that good stuff, it would be a pleasure to be able to sit down with you all individually as well as to go and visit to your various areas of responsibility and see if we can have more community conversations as it relates to the Office of Violence Prevention Task Force and our plans going forward. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments for me?

Yeah, if there's any questions, Councilmember Keegan.

Thank you. And we are so excited to have you joining us here in the city and to have this important work continue and be more formalized. In different parts of the city, and I do think the focus on gun violence and violence happening amongst our younger folks is incredibly important, but as we shift to different communities, the needs around violence prevention also change. So I look forward to having some of those conversations because, for example, my district hate crimes are a larger issue and particularly directed at our Jewish community. And, you know, as you shift down into Park South and the Center Square neighborhood where Councilmember Brody and I sort of touch each other, the community violence problems are really more relegated around our unhoused populations and our behavioral health populations that are really in desperate need of services. I don't want to lose the focus on our young people and I don't, I think that that work is incredibly important and has been so systemic for so long and so tragic for so long. But also just wanted to put a pin in your ear that as we shift to different parts of the city there are also some really significant issues happening that require a slightly different approach, if you will. So, thank you.

Yes, ma'am. And to that point, that's exactly the reason why I wanted to request the opportunity to have audience in your respective areas. Because you are right. The Office of Violence Prevention is the Office of Violence Prevention. And While I do believe that we have to make sure we get a hold on what's happening with our young people, again, I speak as a youth pastor. I'm very concerned about what their future can and will be without a level of intervention and identification of alternative opportunities. In addition to that we do understand that it's the office of violence prevention, which spans so many areas and so being able to have that conversation and being able to see what specific concerns are within our city, it will allow us to think about that as we're planning and building things out. So, thank you.

Council Member Ho, then Council Member Johnson.

Reverend Grecian, that's great. I've been on the stakeholder meetings, and I think we're moving in the right direction. Now, when you brought up about getting the community involvement in each of our different wards, right away, the first thing I thought of is the PTA. I have one school, so should I start looking into finding out when I can get you to come into a PTA meeting? Would that be... that would be amazing yeah and then the other thing is also neighborhood associations um we could try to get you involved in that will you have some kind of like an agenda talk about what you know we talked about the plan so it'll be something like that so we can share that with people who'll be attending uh yes sir that is something that is currently in the works now uh because again we want to make sure we measure twice cut once

And especially when we talk about communication, we want to make sure that we're able to mitigate and minimize as much misinformation as possible. Because again, it's going to take all of us to really get after violence prevention. It's not something that one office or one person can fix. It's really going to have to be neighbor to neighbor. And so the PTA is a phenomenal way to address that population. In addition, the hope was that maybe we could work with some of the neighborhood associations as well as some of our business partners that have also expressed as stakeholders, hey, I want to be a part of this conversation. I would love to be a guest and come in and number one, explain what the Office of Violence Prevention Plan is. What are the three P's that we're talking about again? Presence, what does it mean to be present? Prevention, what is the outcomes from what we're doing and putting together? Pathways, where are those opportunities to divert some of the unfortunate things that are happening in our community. So that's what we're looking at. Thank you. Yes, sir.

So hello, thank you for coming. As I listen to you speak, and you say you want input from, I'm going to speak on behalf of my community, but all of the inner city communities. One of the things that came to my mind is the possibility of you putting it on a video and putting it on Facebook. So that people that are in tune or don't travel to the natural way to receive information can have a chance to really understand what it is about the peas about your mission your goal so then you can get some true honest feedback, but if they only meet you at the meeting. What type of feedback can they give you if they don't have a connection with, you know, the direction that you're trying to take them? So I think that it's not going to be the answer for everybody, but at least it'll touch more people that not doing anything. give the meeting a chance for some fruitful information to transpire. But I look forward to that meeting and we'll be talking soon.

Yes, sir. And I love social media. Social media is a great place to have unfiltered feedback. And so I know that we are looking at building out our social media presence because, again, it's going to take time. We want to make sure that everyone knows our five W's. In addition to that, we need unfiltered feedback. And I think social media is a great avenue for that. So thanks for that suggestion, sir, and recommendation.

um councilman bernani and i would know you obviously know this councilmember johnson is not just an important member in the south end but he also professionally works with children and knows not just gibbon and myers well but a lot of other schools so he will be a tremendous treasure trove of information councilman bernani thank you first i just want to welcome you um from day one uh you just spent just

your vision and your forward-looking and just meeting the public has been a breath of fresh air. And as you know, I represent Pine Hills neighborhood and parts of the Pine Hills was, you know, formerly known as the college neighborhoods. And now it's become the young people neighborhood as we having kids from all the way from 11, all the way to 18, just roaming the streets, particularly after midnight. So I look forward to working with you really figure out our approach, sound approach, and just making sure that we're on the same page in meeting the residents, particularly our neighborhood association. They're very engaged. We have some leaders that are very involved in the community. So I just wanted to welcome you and just look forward to continuing our partnership. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Thank you for that.

If there are no other questions, thank you so much for coming in this evening and for taking this incredibly important, but sometimes I'm sure challenging role on. We really appreciate it. And I know every council member, including the ones that are not here today, look forward to working with you and doing everything we can to support you. So we're here anyway. We or anybody in our staff can help. We absolutely want to. Thank you.

Thank you, and I'll continue to keep you all in my prayers. Y'all have a blessed night.

Thank you so much. So we'll run through the agenda quickly, then we've got a few announcements to make. All of our local laws will be held. um in ordinances held we will be taking up should it pass through the law buildings and code committee meeting on wednesday uh next wednesday sorry um we'll be taking up ordinance 158126 from councilmember ballerin um and that changes the um the fees related to domestic partnerships uh and we can discuss that more if that should that pass through committee but if that passes through the committee then we will be voting on that next in resolutions introduced from councilmember keegan resolution 95 9126r celebrating september 7th as labor day is that something everybody would like to co-sponsor we'll all be co-sponsoring that would you like to say anything on that councilmember keegan no i can i can speak at our meeting here and councilmember baller and i did not give you the opportunity to speak on that but i figured still going through committee so um next from councilmember baller and resolution 96 9126 are a resolution recognizing hispanic heritage month and celebrating the heritage and culture of latinos in the united states and the immense contributions of latinos to the united states um would everybody like to be a co-sponsor on this Yes. Excellent. Do you want to say anything on this, Councilmember Falleron? Next from me, Resolution 97-9126R, a resolution of the Common Council recognizing September as Suicide Awareness Month in the City of Albany. Would everybody like to be co-sponsors on that? Yes, excellent. And in resolutions held, we'll be discussing resolution 888126R, appointing Chester Bennett to the Albany Parking Authority. We'll be voting on that. From Councilmember Adams, resolution 908226R, Reappointing Jonathan Nix as a member of the Commission on Monuments and Public Art. We will be voting on that. Did you want to say anything on that, Council Member Adams?

Not so much, but the interview that we just had with him went out of committee really well. So I'm hoping at our next meeting that other council members will be in support of filling the seat. Thank you.

Um, next from council member Keegan resolution 91 82 26 are, um, resolution reappointing Judy to Shay as a member of the board of assessment review. That was that passed through the finance committee meeting and we'll be voting on that. Did you want to say anything on that?

Only that council member or former council member, Doche, did come in for an interview. She's been a valued member of the board for those listening in who don't understand. It's a tricky board to fill because the board members do have to be available full time for one month every year, which is very difficult to do unless you have folks who are retired. It's also a very technical position and requires training and certification for the board members. Councilmember Doshay came in. She provided an excellent interview, and she was the resolution pass-through committee with positive recommendation. She was originally going to also be available on the 10th, but she now has to travel to New York City to babysit her grandkids, so she will not be there for the meeting if anybody has follow-up questions for her. But she did say council members are welcome to reach out to her individually, and she's happy to speak with them between now and the 10th.

Excellent. Thank you so much.

that's our next meeting

We will be... Council Member Keegan, did you say you did not want us to vote on that?

I feel like... No, I said she just offered to make herself available to speak with council members individually since she's unable to come on the 10th. If folks wish to speak to her about the reappointment legislation or ask her any questions prior to us voting on the 10th. Yes. Sorry, that was unclear.

that is perfect and I think a lot of members are she's pretty known quantity for a lot of members and for any members that are not she is well worth having a conversation with she's super smart and has a lot of knowledge in our leadership meeting with the mayor's office we discussed Briefly discussed budget. They just kind of talked about the process that they've been going through. So the mid-year budget report was an important touchstone for them in their budget process as well. They've had been going through department by department. building the budget and trying to find the first phase was really going department by department and then the second part was trying to find consistencies to see where they can have savings by bringing things together. They're now very focused on revenue and what they can do to bring in additional revenue. and they're also working to make sure that on their end every all the department heads and everything are ready to come before the council for our budget process council members should have gotten an email to meet with the mayor if you have not set that up um check your email and definitely set it up i know the mayor is willing to be flexible to make sure that she's able to meet with every council member but i met with her today and she said that she's had some really great meetings so it seems like those are going well which is excellent we also as people know council member brody and council member anane it was their idea to kind of put together a post on what council has done so far in terms of fiscal responsibility There's been a lot of members have gotten questions on that. So that post is there for people to be able to refer to it. And also the information is there if we want to put something together to send it out publicly, like a press release, something like that in the future. Next, in leadership, we discussed the solid waste management plan. It is a regional plan, so it's not just about the city of Albany. It's something that DEC requires. We do need to give final feedback from the public to DEC by September 15th. So that was sent out in an email. If you've not looked it over, the information is there. The solid waste management plan itself is over 500 pages, so obviously not everyone is expected to read it. You can look through it and provide any feedback, anything like that. Also, the mayor is interested in doing community outreach. So if anybody has a neighborhood association or something like that, that they would like to be part of the conversation or presentation on that, let the mayor's office know. And the mayor is happy to partner with that. The treasurer noted that after Labor Day, they're going to be putting out a press release on an opportunity to pay parking tickets before cars get booted. So that was what was discussed in leadership. Couple of things to flag before I turn it over to council. So the treasurer's office does a thing once a year where they give an opportunity for people to pay their parking tickets. Yeah, like an amnesty. I don't remember the details of it and he didn't go into it, but there will be some sort of amnesty thing that will be released after Labor Day. So we'll get the details of that after Labor Day, but that is something to keep an eye out for if you have anybody in your ward that you know or if you personally have a lot of parking tickets. Councilmember Keegan?

I'll wait until you're done talking about that. I was putting my hand up about the landfill stuff.

Oh. Do you have anything else, Council Member Johnson? Go ahead.

I just thought it was important to touch again on the meeting that we had regarding our long-term waste management plan with DGS. Apparently, they had meetings in February and March of this year that no one was aware of. Originally they closed public comment on the waste management plan in April, but we got an email this week indicating that they would continue to take public comment. So I would just encourage council members to kind of spread the word amongst their constituents because they are willing to sort of adapt the final plan based upon the questions concerns and comments that are coming in from the public I know when we had that meeting they only had like 33 comments which seems very very low for a city of our size and for you know an issue that is going to fiscally impact every household across the city in a major way in the next few years as well as create another at least ten million dollar hole in the city's budget so I just wanted to raise that because this is I think the first public meeting that we've had since since that meeting so that's all thank you very much for more details on that because that is helpful um

Just a few things to note. The Flag Commission information is out, so please share that. um we are listing for the legislative aid is live now so if any council members are able to participate in the interview panel or interested in that if you could let staff know so that we can put that together flexibility during the day is usually important for that um So please let staff know on that. Governor Hochul's Championing Albany's Potential initiative had its first awards. There's information on that, which is very exciting. I think it's only 18.5 million of it, so there will be more exciting things coming forward with it. I just wanted to note that we've been getting a lot, flock cameras are in the news a lot. I will turn it over to Councilmember Hoey for a moment because they have been discussed in public safety meetings a bit. But we also are putting together a meeting with the chief for anybody that's interested in that and will likely try to figure out something

more publicly to discuss but stay tuned for that for anybody that's interested councilmember Howie yeah thank you um we have discussed flock cameras over the last two years three separate public safety meetings and I But there is a public outcry right now. If you turn on the news, Troy is a good example. There's a lot of stuff going on. I talked to the chief today about it, and I didn't know Florida totally banned the use of flock cameras, which to me was very surprising. But we will be having, because this is a moving target, and flock, the company itself, is doing like a change to their procedures so i think that it's important that as a council that we keep informed and this is a moving target so we will be scheduling a meeting um but like jenny said that we do want to meet with the chief and try to get a rough idea you know what the needs are and you know and it's important but we we do see the crime rate going down whether the flock cameras contribute to that, you know, it's kind of hard to tell, but, um, you know, as part of public safety, we are cognizant of, uh, some of our citizens concerns and we will be looking at it. Thank you.

Um, and I, I will say this is something council member Keegan actually asked what several months, I mean, at the beginning of the year, I think, and, um, Albany is very selective with which data is shared. Uh, we do not share out much data and we do not share it with ice or, um, anyone associated with that. But, um, more details than that. Council member Keegan.

I will say, um, i don't think that the city in terms of its use of of lprs or license plate readers is doing anything that is outrageously awful i know from speaking with the chief that we our contract is is situated in such a way that that data is pretty self-contained within the city of albany and while we do cooperate with other law enforcement departments it is not a system where somebody can just go in and download all the data they need very specific information and need to be inquiring about a very specific thing before we pull that data out for them at the same time I think that And you have a variety of companies that provide that technology. We may have settled upon Flock as the company for our LPRs because they you know, met the parameters under state procurement rules when we put that contract out for bid, but they are not the only company that we could use for LPRs. And part of the issue is what the company has been doing with its data in general nationally in terms of its cooperation, which is not necessarily something that we've seen other companies that are engaged in this kind of technology doing, at least not at the level of flagrancy that we've seen from Flock. From my recollection, and again, my numbers could be a bit off, but we spend an inordinate amount of money on technology in APD. It's about a third of their budget. And that FLOC contract alone, I think, is about $3 million a year, if I remember correctly. so there is something to be said for consideration of divesting from a company from which we do not like the company's behavior and so while i understand the chief's perspective on the importance of that tool as a law enforcement tool and i do also understand that the city has to adhere to certain rules around how it administers and signs contracts based upon best use of tax dollars. At the end of the day, we are still giving an inordinate amount of money, a really good chunk of change to a company that has increasingly made members of our community incredibly upset. So I think that that's also something that we need to include in that conversation around this particular issue. Because it's not a matter of whether the technology is important or how we as a department are using it. It's also a matter of who's making money off of that tool, if that makes any sense to you.

yeah um thank you for that and uh so that the more to come with that obviously this is an ongoing discussion um next i wanted to council member and then i wanted to talk about the rank choice voting process so i'll turn it over to council member

Yeah, thank you. As many of you are aware, there's been two legislation that has to deal with ranked choice voting. Working with President Pro Tem Jenny, we came up with a platform where we've scheduled three meetings for September. The meetings will be September 9th, September 22nd, and September 29th. The topic of discussion will be mostly about the Ranked Choice Voting Petition, should be carefully structured as public as possible to ensure thoughtfulness, transparency, and discussion. The committee will be adopting a hearing format where we invite members of the public to be present and answer questions from members. Because there will be a meeting entirely dedicated to public comment and because the first two meetings are dedicated to education and context of the topic, We will not be holding a spoken public comment period at the first two meetings of this process. If members of the public have comments that they would like to share, they can be submitted to the council prior to the third meeting. They can be submitted those comments in writing and those comments will be included in the meeting materials. So for our first meeting, which will be on September 9th, is to establish the framework of the discussion where council staff will be present on the process of the petition, the timeline, and the Common Council expectation for the process. We're going to discuss what the petition seek to accomplish and the policies implementation of the language at that time. Corp Council will also be present on any larger legal concerns about any of the proposals and other necessary legal consideration. And three, ideally, the Board of Elections, which I also plan on inviting to be present to discuss, implementation of the proposal and the additional resources that they may need and other steps the council must consider prior to voting on either legislation. The second meeting will focus on also holistic discussion of both proposals before the council. This meeting will be separated into two parts to separately discuss each proposal so that both proposals receive fair and full consideration. The meeting can start with a brief factual overview of the two proposals by council staff so that all members and guests can discuss both ranked choice voting itself and the idea of a single unified election. The key community groups will then be invited to discuss the proposal they endorse or oppose, including the petitioners, local party leadership, and any other relevant groups that the committee would like to hear from prior to a vote. We will issue a notice soliciting any groups that are interested in presenting at this meeting, and we will encourage all groups that take an active role in the community to participate. And the third meeting, which is scheduled for September 29th, will be dedicated to public comment and deliberation on a proposal. Now that we have a full background on both, this meeting will be structured around individual public participation. Three minutes will be given to each public comment. Once comments are complete, the remainder of the meeting will be on the actual proposal, any changes or potential next steps. The committee can, if choose, then have additional, have a recommendation, or we can have additional meetings as we move forward. Jenny, if you want to add anything that I missed.

no that was that was great um does anybody have any questions or discussion councilmember adams i'm just trying to get a little clarification understanding not sure if i missed something um there was already one there was originally one proposal that we were already looking at and so now there's a second proposal from someone else on the council

so councilmember flynn has legislation in and then the petition itself the language from the petition itself is the other proposal okay got it understood and those are they're worded differently um and councilmember anani so on the second meeting the goal is to talk about the council member Flynn's legislation and the petition language, but also separate the two concepts up because the petition language has both the removal of the primary and rank choice voting. So kind of separating those two concepts up to say, to talk about positives and negatives of each one separately, well as together because it gets confusing when they're put together and separating the two ideas out and having a full conversation about both of those pieces separately is helpful I'll save the other comments and questions I have for the upcoming meetings then thank you Um, and I, I will say if anybody has obviously the rank choice, the people that did the petition would be on it, it would be part of that second meeting. But if anybody has any recommendations for any groups that they're aware of that will participate, I think council member Nani has been working on, um, some like language to put out to solicit publicly solicit any groups for that. And that would not be individuals, but like a group of people to individuals would be welcome at the last meeting to allow for anybody to just come in and share ideas, but more groups focused in doing more of a presentation format.

So any suggestions with that are very welcome.

Any other questions or discussion? Anything else on that, Council Member Bernanke?

All set. Thank you.

And I know that comes number Johnson has something that he wants to say because you brought up miscellaneous but I will allow him to speak if there's any if anybody else has anything comes from Ricky and you can go after comes number Johnson.

Thank you. I know I've been talking about are you many times but Watching Facebook and seeing military vehicles in our neighborhoods, you know, definitely is not a good feeling for me. And I think that if that was the case in other parts of the city, we wouldn't be talking about some of the stuff that we talk about constantly and not to take away from people's passions about what they feel and what they think. But, you know, as you said earlier, I work for the school district and, you know, Friday starts another year of school. And, you know, I just was sitting here thinking, do we have a plan for after school or are we going to let kids get the momentum of that euphoria you feel when you doing things that you're not supposed to be doing? And once they get a taste of it, it's hard to stop it. And so it's been bothersome. Some of the things that I've seen, you know, and some of the videos that I've seen, you know, I'm just thinking about a young girl getting jumped on by 20 other individuals. That's life-changing incidents that impact a person going forward and sometimes where it disrupts a lot of things. And in preparation for what we're trying to do at our school, I just couldn't, could not think about kids bringing city problems into the school building. things that have gone on in the summer and weren't addressed and how they're going to play out in all these schools. So I just know that in the next couple of weeks, we're going to have some conversations and I'm hoping that this conversation is going to be taken serious because if we paying attention, you know, in my nine years in this room, I hear trends, I hear You know, a lot of words, catchy words. And what we're seeing right now, right in front of our face, you know, our kids are, some of them are doing it with their parents, but a lot of them are doing it without their parents' permission. I just don't know what the answer is, but to do nothing and only wait for those military vehicles to pull up in our neighborhoods is helpful, but I don't know if it's going to stop the wave that these young kids are moving with. you know, when I talk, sometimes I see blank faces at some of the things that I'm sharing, but the stuff that's going on out there is alarming, and I would love to have that feeling, you know, because in the city right now, the sheriffs, if the sheriffs wasn't in Albany, I don't know if people would have The piece that they have, I'm not shooting down APD. I'm not taking shots. You feel alone out there when there's 100 or more kids and they're just running and they're doing what they want to do. And then when the police do show up, it's a performance that's replayed out Monday through Friday, Monday, Saturday, and Sunday. And as I said, to sit here and our community not come up here and be outraged, I think that when I speak, when others speak, it's got to come out somewhere. And I've said this many times, until the upper wards come together and start speaking on what's going on in the lower wards, it's not going to get the attention that's needed. And when you start hearing people such as myself crying out saying that we need help, I don't waste my words and we can't continue to be the reactionary city that we have become. We wait until something big happens the wrong way and then we put our minds together. The Albany that I know always was in front of stuff. The Albany that I know always had a pulse on what was going on in our community. And the Albany that I've been trying to work with on the government level, I can't say that that's been the case, what's going on in the inner cities. So I don't mean to hold up. I don't mean to be long-winded, but I'm meaningful and I'm purposeful about what I'm talking about because this situation is getting bigger and it's getting worse. And we got to have these honest conversations and not get bullied by people who only see one side of the conversation. Thank you. And also, lastly, we talk about financial stuff. It was a suggestion made to me, and I'm not saying that this is something that we have to do today, but we should start having talk about the possibility of bringing a budget analyst into the Common Council side so that some of the things that have been happening number-wise to us that we don't have the ability to see could be brought to our attention in a timely manner so that we can have the honest conversation about the budget so we don't get hit later on so the you know when people mention things to me that make sense I think it's only right that we bring it to this room and have a conversation about it and so you know I put it out there as you know whatever direction we're going to go is going to be on us. Thank you.

Thank you come from the king.

so glad that council member johnson brought up finance because that's that's the one thing i wanted to alert everyone to um the comptroller's office did reach out to me directly i received a letter which i asked for staff to send to everyone but everyone also should have received an email which i responded back to today asking if they'd be interested in coming to speak with us during caucus session if they're not available after hours that we try to perhaps set up a virtual meeting with the office around everyone's lunch hour so that those of you who want to participate in that discussion are able to participate in that discussion I know that there were or has been some chatter essentially indicating concerns or raising concerns that the comptroller's office was only going to be speaking with the mayor and that their review was going to be somewhat behind closed doors. That does not seem to be the case. actively and proactively seeking to also come before the council to talk about what they're going to be looking at in their review and solicit our feedback and allow us to raise any concerns that we may have. So I just wanted to give everyone a heads up to check your emails about that. Thank you.

Councilmember Robinson?

Thank you. Councilman Johnson, I want to say to you, you don't need to be discouraged about your colleagues in government not having applause on what's going on in our communities. I am born a product And out of all that, I'd like to say to myself that I'm a success. The piece of legislation that I have on the table is very important that we keep it in council because the conversations that I had Over the months, the one thing was oversight. And to work so hard on a piece of legislation and just turn it over to the mayor's office, I would rather bring my legislation to the floor and let it get voted down. because we need the oversight we need the passion of yourself as well as others that have a pause on the community to have the oversight of the two mentors that would be out in the streets on a friday saturday and sunday night from the hours of twelve o'clock at night to six o'clock in the morning touching our kids that should be in bed waiting to go to school that monday morning okay everything falls uphill to the balance, Vincent task force everything you know is is is not like what we're doing right by implementing this teenage support. Our new program that is going to be just so hard that the Council we got so much going for so that we don't want to be I'm saying I'm saying take the initiative I'm saying to have the oversight as a Council. it's very important that we have an oversight as a council because if we take this legislation and allow it to be um um um administrated you know i'm saying through the mayor's office then you and my concerns is going to be watered down And, um, you know, it's very important. I'm glad that the legislation haven't been rushed through committee. You know what I'm saying? The best thing that could have happened for the legislation not to be rushed through committee, because now to give us a time, it give us, it give us time to go out into the community. and really engage in the community about what is the legislative temp and what results would come from this legislative temp and get the community by. You know, and saying that, you know, we have a town hall meeting on September 10th at the Albany Public Library at 5.30, right, presenting, you know what I'm saying, this audience that we have on the table in council. You know, and I just urge all my colleagues, if they have time, to come out and, you know, observe and give their feedback on, you know, what this legislation can do to help move our community and our youth in that positive direction. By all means, we need help, but we have to start as being a governing body, right? We have an obligation, right, to our constituents and to our city to make sure that we enact laws that's going to benefit and, you know, You know, the Baltimore trip, the violence prevention task force, you know, all this is in the right direction. But if we don't have the community buy-in, if we don't have the community understanding that, listen, you know, we're not enacting these laws and these orderings to harm the community. You know, we are only setting ourself up to make our community a better place. Because in civil unrest, somebody had to have the authority to call emergency curfew. But we put restraints in order that can only be 72 hours, and everything must come to the council for furtherance. But again, I would rather bring my bill to the floor hope for the past, or either have it not pass, than to give something that I know that the work and the council together, you know what I'm saying, that we can make this pilot program a success. Whereas that two years from now, you know, we would be back at the table and instead of having the pilot program, make it a permanent program. And I know that funding is a very important key to success. That's in any initiative. right i also understand that we 22 another 33 in 2027. so the finances is not there right but it's also ways to be creative and i'm saying to go out into the community business owners and have other community members i have businesses buy in and i'm saying to public safety So I don't want the bill to be shot down because the resource is not there. We have to be creative. And we have to have these mentors that will come before council, and all 15 members will be the one to vote on to say, yes, this person already has a blueprint because he worked with the kids in the school district. Or this person worked with the kids here, worked with the kids there. It's us as a council now to put our minds together and say, yeah, this person will be a good fit to represent the council. arm in this initiative so not to be long-winded but again I just want you to know Councilman Johnson that you do have partners in government who do who do feel the way you feel and you know in me as an individual I'm heartfelt about change in my community. I see what's happening every day with our youth younger and younger. You know what I'm saying? Dealing with violence and guns and destruction in our community. And, you know, social media is a lot of things at play here, you know, but, you know, when you have a community that stand up and say enough is enough, and sometimes we have to make tough choices to make things right, then that's where we at in this day and life. You know, we can't just be, you know, just, you know, just patting and being, you know like just if it is not it was it was not a controversy issue. Nobody wants to touch. You know we got to get away from their mindset, but I just want to know councilman I feel your pain and I have the pain to ride along with you. But thank you for your comments September 10 for me public library 5.30.

Thank you. And to note that it is something that our caucus doesn't begin until 6.30, so members could go for a bit if they are able to in other ways. Council Member Holey?

Yeah, because it is September 10th, and I was going to put it on my calendar, but what time of the day is it?

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, because we do have council that night. And that's Yep.

Yeah, yeah. It's okay. Thank you. Yeah, but it's it is ending before council. So. So it council members could go for the first part of it. Certainly. Anything else? With that, could I get a motion to adjourn?

Second.

And have a great night, everyone. Thanks so much.