General Services, Health and Environment Committee - Regular Meeting

Are we Are we on? Okay. Uh welcome everyone uh to the Monday, January 5th uh meeting of the Albony Common Council. This is our caucus and work session that we have prior to our regular meeting. Um with that, I would ask Mr. Gimenez, please call the role. Adams Anane Valerin here. Brody

here. Frell here. Flynn here. Ooey present. Johnson present. Jones present. Keegan here. Lumpin present. Powell present. Robinson is absent. Williamson present. And Zaber Present

13 present, one absent. We're also joined by council president Kelly Kimbro, city clerk Shinka Jackson, cooperation council Robert McGee, research council Robert Wter, legislative director Brian Aimenez, junior policy analyst Alyssa Kamara, and junior legis junior legislative aid Carly Johnson, and ninth W intern Ariana Castella. We're also joined by Chris Ellis, deputy mayor, Miriam Dixon, a pointee to the commission or as commissioner of administrative services, Kendall Dembi, deputy commissioner of administrative services, Liz Maria Penn, I believe, uh, director of intergovernmental affairs in the office of the mayor, and John Riley as well as the mayor. Sorry,

Jack, you were you were hiding there. Okay, thank you. We have a quorum. So, just running through the agenda. Um, this is this is our organizational meeting. Uh, during which we, you know, establish the clerk. I I'll just go through the agenda actually. Um, so starting out, we'll we'll do the selection of the agenda, excuse me, of the clerk. Um, which we do by um resolution which is in your packet. Um after um the clerk appointment, we'll follow that up with the president promp election. Um, after we do the president promp election, I guess I could probably just hand everything over to

Yes. At that stage, um, after the president prom is elected, the then they take over those duties.

Thank you. And so, yeah, and then just continuing through on the agenda, we have the majority leader appointment after that. We'll work through that. Then, uh, committee assignments. We're not going to get through that tonight, but, um, we'll we'll touch on it. Uh, we will adopt our rules, procedure, establish our official newspaper, and then uh, we have a commissioner appointments, consideration. We have a a couple of uh, folks from the administration here that would like to just just to say hello. It's not question and answer, and we're not into that process yet. They're just going to introduce themselves and, you know, tell us a little bit about themselves. So, yeah. Actually, you know what? Now is a good time. Uh, who who we starting with?

Um, we can start with uh Deputy Mayor Chris Ellis. And uh just to just note as the deputy mayor is joining us um the committee assignments are not done tonight yet. We're just establishing the committees. We will be collecting from everyone their preferences for committees and that will come later. Thank you Mr. Ellison. We're just looking for a brief introduction. Tell us a little bit about yourself and and uh Say hello.

Chris Ellis. Um,

Chris Ellis, Capital Region, Albany resident for the past 22 years, wife, two kids, Ral Avenue, proud member of the Second Ward, represented by Council Member Johnson. Um, began my career in the Ways and Means Committee, New York State. traversed many positions in New York State, then went to New York City or worked for New York City here in Albany, ran the mayor's Albany office, did some lobbying, and now I am transitioning into the role of deputy mayor here soon.

Yes. Okay. Thank you for that, sir. looking forward to working with you and uh yeah, we go looking forward to serving the people of Albany and executing the agenda of the mayor. Thank you all for your consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. Um next person is Miam Dixon. Um, good. Oh, this is evening. Good evening, everybody. Um, I am Miriam Dixon and, um, you probably can tell from the accent, I am not from Albany, New York. I am actually, uh, raised in Kansas City. I have relocated to the Capitol District. Um, I guess it's been about 10 years now. Uh, This is actually my third time working for the city of Albany. Uh I started my career here uh when Mayor Shin was the treasurer. I was the payroll manager for the city of Albany. Um I returned home for a short stint and came back when she was elected as the mayor and at that time I served as the HR director uh for several years. And then I um transitioned out and worked for the city of Saratoga Springs followed by a six-year stent with the New York State teachers retirement system. Um in my time there I served as the chief administrative officer for u the teachers retirement system. Um and I am now serving uh in the role here as the commissioner of administrative services. So overseeing um many of the departments that I was working with in my last time here. So I look forward to uh working with all of you as we go through a number of things that you'll see uh from the departments in my area.

Okay. Thank you. Welcome back. Look forward to working with you again.

Thank you. Next is Kendall Dimpy. Good evening everyone. My name is Kendall Dembi and I am the deputy commissioner of the administrative services. Actually I am going to be reloc relocating here to Albany. I am from Delaware and I I come from a different different background, healthcare, higher education and I am looking forward to working with each and every one of you and the ALB team here. Okay, thank you. Nice to meet you.

Look forward to working with you.

Thank you. Next is Liz Min. Good evening, uh, President Kimbo. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak. um Liz Maria Penn um excited to serve uh with the mayor of Pleers um and support her uh priorities and agenda um as director of intergovernmental affairs. Um a little bit about me uh my family is from the Capitol region. I've uh spent a lot of my time learning here as a student um being trained here. Had my first job here. um and I have spent a majority of my time um serving this country um for the last 10 years. I have uh worked um for national organizations including the Democratic National Committee. Um I have also worked at uh um service employees international union um supporting the public services division and then um over the last two and a half years served in the Biden Harris administration um at Peace Corps which was extremely fun. Um but then also to at the White House in the office of political strategy and outreach. Um my last position was um on the Harris Walls campaign and from there um I am excited to bring my skills and experience to this position and working with each and every member of this council. So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Um we're also going to hear from John Riley and Neesa Little John. Good evening, President Kimber. Congratulations. Thank you so much, city clerk Jackson. Council members, congratulations to the new uh members of the common council and to the returning members. Congratulations on another term. John Riley Jr. I am the council and policy director in the office of the mayor. Uh I join the mayor's office from the private sector. I was working at an international law firm in Boston, Massachusetts before returning to the capital region and working in a capital region based law firm. Uh I've been fortunate enough to know many of you um and I look forward to getting to know the individuals who I've not yet had the pleasure of meeting. Uh good luck this year and looking forward to the collaboration ahead. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Congratulations to the new members. Um my name is Nessa Little John. I am the chief of staff to our new mayor. Um proudly grew up in Alby's second ward. currently a resident of the six ward. Um happy to have gotten to know many of you um in my work in Albany um and in the state legislature and excited to keep working with you. Thank you.

Thank you. Great. So that's it. Thank you, Madame Mayor. You a simple quite a diverse team there. Uh look forward to working with all of you uh in the in the coming months and years. So, thank you.

Um, I know that uh Garrett Chuff, the head of CPRB, is here this evening along with the CPRB member and um it might be a good time for us to get an update, especially in light of the recent news attention on the CPB. Yes. U Mr. Sha and I know if Mr. Der if you want to participate you you're more than welcome to.

Good evening everyone. So first I want to congratulate congratulate you all on your electoral victories. Um [clears throat] as member Frell said I am the program director for the CPRB. The updates I can provide you is we recently received proposals and responses to our request for outside legal counsel. I'm in the process of reviewing those. I will be submitting those to members later this week so members can review and potentially move forward with resolving our outside counsel issue. In addition to that, I believe all the members in this body are aware related to the recent news coverage of the background checks and issues related to potential qualifications of members. The background checks are currently actively underway. Um I received an update earlier today from Madame Clerk that one of the members background check appears to be almost complete. The others are going forward. We are tenatively scheduled to nominate board officers at our meeting Thursday this week. If those nominations do go forward as planned, we will have elections in February at our February meeting. Um, I don't have it. Yes,

I just wanted to clarify something. So, will the background checks be done before that vote?

I don't believe they will be done before that vote just given the timing because we're on a Monday. The vote will the vote will potent sorry the background checks probably will not be completed by nomination on Thursday. There is a possibility they will be completed by vote on in February. Um, but I do not know. I also am aware that we have two vacant seats that need employees from the current new mayor and I'm hoping to I reached out to her staff this afternoon hoping to work with them to get those two seats filled as quickly as possible so we can have a full complement of members on the board to help spread the workload and potentially weigh in on officer elections. Is there just out of c just because I think a majority of members do value of course um it's important to have a diverse membership at the CPRB um and quite from my perspective having someone that has perhaps served um been arrested or have gone through that process I don't think that is a bad thing with the CPB but I do I think being fully aware of that is important. Ideally, members would disclose their background. Um, but also I do think the due diligence of making sure the background check is complete before um, which we've talked about moving forward, ensuring that there was a hiccup with this last time um, and obviously the time before. Um, but I am curious about is there a reason why leadership elections are happening before the board is fully appointed and before background checks are complete?

There's no specific reason other than my objective is to get the board up and running as fast as possible. And some of the aspects of board membership or direction are handled by the officers, not the program director. That makes that does make sense. Is it I guess my question to you is is it something that you feel just because we've had and the press that we've gotten it is I've always said that when the press reports something that has happened it is it is something that has happened. Um, but it does seem like just optics wise it might be a good idea to wait until that um the background checks are back before just because membership could also make a decision a more educated decision based on that as well. No, I and I don't disagree with that sentiment and that's something that I will relay to the members, but at the end of the day, this body has made clear to me that the membership is driving the board for the most part. So, I will make that suggestion. I do think that there is, especially if we can get the full board seated before our February meeting, I think it's not a bad idea to pause nominations. Um, our bylaws do require a two-meating process. So, we have to nominate in one meeting and elect in a following meeting. Um, and since we do not have any officers, we can't call a special or emergency meeting because that's only virtue of authority of the chair. Um, but I do think a background check is valuable, especially in light of all of the qualifications to be a member of the board beyond solely being a resident of the city and not being an employee of the police department or employee of the city. Right? There is a responsibility for having a reputation of fairness, integrity, and responsibility to be a member of this board. And I think a back a full

background check on every member will give greater insight to the membership as well as to this body on the makeup and the constituency of that membership.

And I should be very clear that I fully support the CPRB making their decisions and directions and things like that. Um this is something that uniquely has impacted the council and um ideally in the future we will make sure that this is not something that the CPRB will have to navigate because the background checks will be complete before members um and we have changed some procedures to ensure that. Um but because we are in this unique situation, I just wanted to kind of share the sentiment that it might be a good idea to pause um one meeting and then you can move forward with leadership, but that way everybody is as if they had gone through the process appropriately.

Yeah. Thank you. And so and and so offline maybe we can have a conversation with the mayor and her folks to see how far we are with uh adding those additional members to the CPRB, but we can talk we can talk about that offline. Thank you, Mr. Sha. Um I should have started with you, Madame Mayor, but would you like to address us or speak about anything before we move forward?

You don't have to, but the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Sha. I'm new at this, so I'm I'm working my way through some stuff. So, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, Council President. Um, since you extended the invitation, I'm not going to turn it down. I do have home training. Um, and so I just want to say happy new year to the council. Um, congratulations to all of the new members. And also congratulations to the existing members um who are continuing on. I look forward to working with you all um as we look to look ahead to move our city forward to transform our city. I thank many of you for joining us for the um celebratory festivities that we had. Um it was a good time. I saw some of you on the dance floor so I know you got some moves. Uh but it was a great time. So, thank you for being supportive. I also just want to acknowledge since um we have a few other members of the team here um we have um our communications person who's focused on a lot of the communications with the community. Uh Robbie, also Robert, known as Robbie to us, is here. I just want to acknowledge uh Robbie. uh you'll see him a lot. And we also have Shawn here who was our new uh mayor's office fellow from U Albany. Shawn is here. So, you'll see the team a lot, but just wanted to acknowledge the two of them. Thank you so much for having us and I'm looking forward to working with you.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I just wanted to note that council member Keegan also just wanted to reintroduce her intern. Thank you. I'll be super quick. For those of you who are just joining us, congratulations on your recent election. I wanted to take a moment to introduce Ariana Costello. She is um currently a freshman at the University of Albany and a resident of the ETH ward. um she is interning with me um for the foreseeable future working on updates to our complete streets ordinance and adding in a green streets component to that ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Key. So, with that, it's uh 7 o'clock. We'll end our Did you want to jump in?

I did want to note something else during caucus. um it is something that we've been able to speak to members about um so there is an awareness of it but I wanted to just note it during caucus before the meeting began um and that is we've had discussions um and members have agreed with the concept of adding um a position to the leadership team of majority ority whip. This position would be someone that would be focused on um really looking at issues with members. We all represent our wards um and all of those wards have unique and individual focus, but we're also all part of a whole. And having a member who is hyperfocused on the issues that are most important to the different members, um it is something that we do in leadership, but having member that is just focused on that would be an absolute asset. It's something that has been lacking. Um and also they would fill a role of looking kind of outwardly helping to um boost our communications, talk about issues, things like that, help our staff kind of target different pieces. Um, and it was something that with the expansions in the mayor's office and that kind of dynamic concept of making sure that there's different roles filled, um, we felt like the leadership team could be bolstered as well. Um, it is something that we will be creating the position tonight, but we will not be voting on that position until our next meeting. Um, so that is something that will happen in the future. Um,

so that is just wanted to run that down during caucus. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss F. Okay, so it's 7:02 now. So we'll start our regular uh meeting. We'll start off with the pledge followed by a moment of silence. So please stand with me. So again, this is our uh Monday, January 5th council meeting. It's our organizational meeting. Mr. Gimenez, please.

Madame Clerk, please call the vote. Adams, present. Anani, Valerin, Brody, present. Flynn present. Present. Johnson present. Jones present. Keegan here. Lumpin present. Powell present. Robinson. Williamson present. Zamer present. 14 present one absent.

Thank you madam clerk. Okay, we will start with Miss Frell. Thank you, Mr. President. I notice resolution 1 1126R and ask for its introduction and packet and passage. Let's Let's do Let me bear with me here. I didn't realize we had public comment. So, can we just back up for a second? We have three people signed up for public comment. So, we'll take them in order and we'll jump back to this. I withdraw my motion.

Thank you. All right. Our first public speaker is Lo Stokes. Thanks, Alex Stokes. Contmpas, who is the only person in this country still imprisoned for a January 6th incident, but he is also the only person in this country who defended himself and others against an attack made by Proud Boys just up the street from here at East Capitol Park during a stop the steel rally. Proud Boy Dominic Becky tased a black counterprotester in the neck. A melee ensued when card carrying Proud Boy Douglas M. Russo did a hockey move as he testified in court and beat a second black man's body into the pavement. Alex jumped to that man's aid, getting Russo off of him but injuring Russo in the process. Proud Boy James Warner, where's Vicki? Yes, they are brothers. Threw Alex to the ground, fracturing his left wrist and beating him with tactical gloves. Alex successfully made it up off the ground, but injured Warner's abdomen in order to do so. None of the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, or MAGA enthusiasts present received any consequences. Alex was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison, one 12-year sentence and one eight-year sentence to be served consecutively. He has served three years

so far, with his first chance of parole being July 2039. One may ask, how could this happen? Well, we believe that Alex was the first in this new wave of punishing and imprisoning journalists. Alex had a seven-year body of work leading up to January 6th. He reported on civil rights and human rights events in the Albany area where he was born and raised. Uh was with Heather Hire as she died in Charlottesville and won a J20 lawsuit against kettling done by DC police. I suppose to certain groups of people with certain belief systems, Alex can seem really scary. Somebody who has a passion for exposing the truth can be viewed as a dangerous person. And yet with no previous criminal record, Alex ended up in a Max 01 facility close to the Canadian border. The amount of pain, anguish, agony, and heartache that comes with having a partner, a loved one, a friend in prison is hard for most to describe. You learn to live with the loss. Some days it paralyzes you. Some days you grow. It's a choice. Am I going to let David Sors, Brienne Perlansky Brucado, Marissa Olsen, or Judge Roger Mcdana ruin me today? Or am I going to get up and do something about it? I have chosen to do a lot about it. One of these things occurred in 2024. I went to the Albany Human Rights Committee and asked for help. I was hoping committee members could facilitate an independent review of the north and south tower cameras, but I also expressed how my main concern was to hold the neo-Nazis who committed hate crimes that day on state property accountable. Unfortunately, our former mayor was not very helpful with Alex's situation. There was no followup by her or by any other members of the committee. I understand all of you on this council want to be on the right side of history and I have a lot of respect for for you guys. Um so tonight on the eve of the fifth anniversary of January 6th, I'm hoping that current human rights

committee members and Mayor Appliers can follow up with me on that filing. Down the line, we'll be asking for clemency for Alex and all of your collaboration would be one major piece in the intricate puzzle of bringing your constituent Alexander Stokes contemposes home. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Cler. Next speaker.

Next speaker is Tom Ellis. Good evening everybody. My name is Tom Ellis. I live in Albany. I'd like to congratulate the new mayor and the new and returning city council members to your jobs and I hope you have an enjoyable and a successful time here on the city council. The fatal fire at 241 Western Avenue in December led me to recall a similar experience I had when I lived on Myrtle Avenue about 40 years ago. One landlord replaced the twofloor back porch which a few years later suddenly collapsed to the ground luckily not injuring or killing anybody. I doubt if he got a building permit or if the city ever inspected the porch. Having lived in Alman most of my life and walked around a lot, I believe some, perhaps dozens of back porches on two and three floor houses in Albany are structurally deficient. And I urge the council to require an independent inspection or an inspection of each multifloor porch in the city at least once every five years. Occasionally, many people stand on back porches, especially in the summertime when they're having a party. Many of these multifloor back porches are held up by 4x4 posts, some of which are older than I am. Some building owners will grumble, but it is in their best interest to have safe porches and ours. On another matter, I urge you to do whatever you can to save the tutor

houses on Holland Avenue from destruction. These are beautiful houses, historically significant, and I've admired them since the 1960s when I helped my brother Phil deliver newspapers to them. And please step up efforts to keep painted the crosswalks in Albany, especially near schools. Many of the crosswalks in Albany are invisible or nearly invisible. They're like ghost crosswalks. They're makebelieve crosswalks or shadow crosswalks. Some of them don't get painted or some of them get painted maybe once every 10 or 15 years I think if that often. Um having quality crosswalks makes it safer for pedestrians, people who are riding around in wheelchairs or riding on skateboards to be a lot safer. And you know, one of our ghost crosswalks is on the corner of Washington Avenue and Allen Street. And I know that that's a dangerous intersection because I walk through it a lot. It's dangerous for kids even when there's a crossing guard there. So I'd like to have that one repainted in the spring as soon as it can be done. So thank you all and have a good new year.

Thank you, Mr. Ellis.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Keith Irish. Welcome to 2026. all common council members including five all new members, one returning member which I believe is the first time that has ever happened. One shifting position held which is not the first time but in consecutive terms is and the balance of returning members.

Excellent. Uh for the benefit of the new members, my name is Keith Irish, a lifelong city resident. I am not a carpet backer. Currently, for the last 40 plus years in what is currently known as the ninth ward. I have I was a prior West Hill area resident for se at several addresses and was advised I was born in the south end. So you can see I have been around the city and know a lot about the city. As the returning members know, I attend these meetings fairly regularly, as well as many other committee meetings, especially the budget ones, other department meetings, neighborhood association meetings, and other publicly held meetings. So, I am a wealth of knowledge that goes on around with what goes on around the city. Some might say I'm a jack of all trades and master of none, but that would be incorrect as I know things from sources that I cannot tell nor would and there are topics that I know more than the persons holding positions in those positions. Government transparency is a current buzz phrase that should be in all of your hearts for what you do in these console positions. The public is not stupid as you think. They just don't speak up or out publicly like I do and have done. I get asked all the time, why did they do that or why did they why did they not do this on that subject? And I tell them if you have that you have to speak up especially at these council meetings and keep an open ear when notices when timely are released. Some have, some haven't. I do not refer I do not prefer sitting here either. But it is what it

is. But whatever committees you hope to be assigned to that you are versed in what that committee does, why they do what gets done and express your voice in the current on the current subject or legislation before you and not be a silent majority sitting in your chair doing lip service. It is okay to vote no on something your residents told you to vote no on, even if you are the only one. A learning curve for sure. Another buzz phrase is community media. Some of you might know it by the years old term of public access television. Here in Albany, for the uninformed, it is generally referred to as channel Abony on Spectrum cable television channels, which really is three channels. 1301 for the public or P, 1302 for education or E, and 1303 for government or G. Hence the term PEG channels. Here in Albany, they are so underutilized by you, your associates, city departments, city agencies, city boards, and of course the public at large. It is terrible. Most of the most of this is due to a lack of inadequate funding and improper staffing and a lack of promotional materials. People appointed to an oversight board that do not care nor in some cases do not even know the benefits of community media across the spectrum. Pun intended. I am a wealth of knowledge that if you do not already know should know. Wait a minute. Yeah. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm a wealth of knowledge that if you do not already know should know and I would be happy to find time to discuss the issues with you on a one-on-one basis. So you the new members

will wonder why these underfunded utilization issues were existed for so long. Just over the last few years, there have been less and less original in-house programs created for the production in the production studio that you probably have no idea where it is because of underst staffing and what staff there is not caring and having several other priorities. Time restrictions here limit my ability to discuss in detail and and leave it to be that government transparency and community media should be working hand inand for the citizens of Albany to be better informed, educated, and know how they can create free speech programming for other citizens to hear and see. You, as council members, should have your own shows as well. as well as the current corner office administration where the last one avoided the issue like a plague.

Thank you, Mr. Irish. Thank you. May I give this to you?

Okay. And with uh Mr. Irish finishing, we're all public comment is closed. Okay. So, jumping back, uh, Miss Frell, uh, thank you, Mr. President. I move to add resolution 1126R to the agenda by majority consent. Thank you. Second, Mr. Flynn. All in favor? I. Okay. She passes. Miss Frell.

Thank you, Mr. President. I notice resolution one 1126R and ask for its introduction and passage. Thank you, Miss Ferrell. Madam clerk, please. A resolution reappointing Chenika Jackson as city clerk of the city of Albany. Okay, Miss Farrell. discussion.

Um I am incredibly pleased to um it is absolutely fortunate that we have Cheni Jackson as our clerk. She served as deputy clerk um and then served in the interim role for some time as we tried to look for someone and we realized that we could not possibly find anyone as great as the person that was currently serving in the position. We're incredibly lucky to have her. She continues to um push the bounds of what the clerk's office does, what she does, and what our staff does. And um I'm very proud to carry this and also to vote yes. Um and I hope everyone will join me.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, click please call. Adams. Yes, please. Anani. Yes. Co-sponsor, please. Co-sponsor as well. Valerant. Yes. Co-sponsor, please. Brody. Yes. Co-sponsor Pharaoh. Yes. Flynn. Yes. Co-sponsor Hoey. Yes. Co-sponsor, please. Johnson. Yes. Jones. Yes. Keegan. Yes. Co-sponsor, please. Lumpin. Yes. Powell. Yes. Co-sponsor, please. Williamson, yes. Zr.

Yes. Co-sponsor, please. 14 in the affirmative. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Look forward to working with you in the future. You as well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, on to our next item on the agenda. I would uh entertain nominations for President Pro. Mr. [clears throat] Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I'd like to nominate uh Jenny Fowl for president promp of the comic council. Second.

Second. Second. Any other nominations? No. Okay. Seeing none, nominations are closed. Okay. All right. So, guess you can call the I don't I don't think we just Yeah, we I think we just vote. Okay, one second.

Yes. Okay. With that, uh, all in favor of Miss Frell's nomination, I I I Okay. All oppose. Okay. All right. Yeah, looks like it passes. Thank you, Miss Frell. So, with that, I'll I'll get out of your way.

Um, thank you, Mr. President, and I would like to thank deeply each of my colleagues. It is an honor to serve with every single member that has been on this board, and I look forward to serving with every member here. Um, I'm here to be with you. I care a great deal about the city and I believe in the council and the work that we do and I think we can do great things together and um I'm here with anything that you need at any point. So please um you all have my number or if not you will momentarily looking at you Mr. Jones and um and I'm always here and I will also be reaching out with you. So next we have um the majority leader appointment. Mr. President.

Yes. Okay. So uh who am I recognizing to make a nomination? Miss Keegan. Thank you Mr. President. I'd like to recommend Alfredo Berin for the position of majority leader. Okay nomination. Any other nominate Mr. Adams, I like to make a nomination as well. Do we need a second for his? Right. Okay. You have the second I'm standing Oh, you want to make a nomination, right? Yeah, that's a second for uh

We need a second for Mr. Balor, correct? Right. We have a second. Did we get Did we get it? I'll second. Okay. Then Mr. Adams.

Thank you, Mr. President. Make a nomination for Councilman Derek Johnson for majority leader. Second. Okay. Any other nominations? With that, nominations are closed. those two um in and nomination one second. All right. Since we started with um Mr. Ber start discussion.

Sure. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh and thank you. Want to start with thank thanking all of the members uh who uh I've had an opportunity to talk to all of you over the last uh two weeks. Uh and I appreciate the time that you've given me. I appreciate your insight. Uh and I appreciate uh you know the stories that we've shared. Uh so thank you. I I I say that the process has made me more understanding of all the members that we have here. So thank you for that. Uh for those who who are new to our body, um let me tell you a little bit of why I put my name forward uh for this position. Um I have been someone that has uh not been afraid of difficult situations. I have not been afraid of difficult conversations. I have not been afraid of uh putting myself out there uh to try to mediate these difficult conversations. Um, I've never uh tried to go around or not uh talk about uh I'm I'm old school in my way of thinking. The best way to deal with something is to deal with it directly uh and address it directly. uh and I have done that but I've also done it with an understanding that all of my colleagues have different experiences, different perspectives, uh different uh responsibilities. uh and just because we don't agree on one topic or another, it doesn't mean that uh we can't find agreement on future issues. So, I've always worked with that mentality of

there's more that brings us together than divides us one and all of us are here to try to make our city a better place. uh and with that understanding is what I've I've uh how I've led those conversations over the years. So I I bring these skills of being able to uh handle difficult conversations. I bring these skills of being able to bring people together. I bring these skills of uh not trying to avoid these conversations to the table for for you as the members to feel if these are the skills that you want in someone that's looking to be in your leadership. Um in someone that's going to be in meetings that are going to get difficult and someone that's going to be in meetings that there's going to be conflict. if someone that's going to be in meetings when we have challenges in front of us as a city and as a council. So, those are the skills that I have before you. I want to say I uh I have nothing but good things to say about all of my members that I've worked with for over the last few years. uh and I am proud to have worked with all of you and I look forward I look forward to all the good work we have to get done uh beyond today. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you Mr. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you Mr. President. I'm Derek Johnson. I'm the second war um councilman as many of you may know. Um, I reached out to some of the new members and I didn't get the opportunity um to talk to them and you know um I hope that you can hear me. I said all of the change that is happening in Albany, why would I or you want to see council leadership remain the same? After the past couple of years, one should expect for there to be change. That's what I would represent. change to the normal style of conducting business that this leadership has has made me stand up here tonight and promise in my words that you will always that I will always stand for the people and the members. I deserve to be part of the conversations as the lower wards which need a stronger present at the table. The second ward has been active in the change that has come so far in this new year. So let's keep that energy going and support me to be your next majority leader working to address the things that were shared by the few members that I did um have a chance to um speak to. The one problem the the one promis that I can always um keep is that each member of this body is the is the equal regardless of title. And one of the things that you will not hear from me in leadership is I think because one of the things is I'm not representing just me in that conversation or sitting at the table. I think that um many of you in the last eight years never have gotten a chance to see who I am outside of making

noise in a situation where all I could do was make noise. Um those that don't know me, I'm a former college um basketball player and one of the um roles that I played was point guard. A point guard knows where everybody is supposed to be. And uh one of the things that I would like to bring to uh this this council is putting people in committees where your strengths are so that these committees can serve the communities in the capacities that they were set up. I look forward to working with the new administration because I believe it's a new time in Albany and um as as the only person that would be a a a native Albanian in um leadership from top to bottom, I think is um um equally important to have a Albany person who has experience when times were better around here to help that conversation get back there. So, I'm asking for um your support tonight, not because I've been everybody's best friend, because when I come up in here, I bring the same type of passion each and every night for a group of people that have been overlooked for a long time. So, to expect me to be happy in my words with the business, the way business has been conducted in the past, it's a marvel that I even want to be in that um conversation. But I tell you this, I bring a energy to um this business. People call me at 6 o'clock in the morning, as late as 11 11 o'clock at night. And I never shy away from calls. I never shy away from the difficult conversations. One of my concerns is I never been allowed to be a part of the conversation. And that's why I feel that it's a need for me to be able to be sitting at that table representing um the the the uh city of Albany in a fine fashion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Um, we've heard from the two nominees. Anyone else have any comments for discussion? Okay. If not, um, Mr. Wer, good evening everybody. Um, for anyone that I haven't had the chance to meet yet, I'm Robert Wer. I'm the research council uh for the common council here. Just wanted to clarify the procedure here because it is important that each member votes yes for at most one of the two candidates that are up. U we're not able to have two majority leaders. Um so in a moment, President Kimbro is going to call for a vote on one of the two candidates. You can vote yes or no on that candidate. If that candidate receives a majority, that'll be the end of proceedings. They'll be named majority leader. If they do not receive a majority of votes, then we will have a vote on the second candidate. If that candidate also does not receive a majority of votes, we'll return to nominations. President Kimra.

Thank you, Mr. Winner. So with that, we'll uh entertain the the votes in the order that they'll start with um council member for him. Adams,

no. Anani, no. Valer, yes. Brody, yes. Barl, yes. Flynn, yes. No. Johnson, no. Jones, no. Keegan, yes. Lumpin, yes. Powell, yes. Robinson, he's not here. I'm sorry. Williamson, yes. Zamer,

yes. Nine, yes. Five, no. Next is a vote for council member Johnson. I'm sorry.

At this point, because that's a majority, right? Eight would have been the majority. So, it was nine. So with that nomination, Mr. Bon has the majority of the votes. All right. So we're good. Um Mr. Valerin, you're with the majority leader. You want to take over, Miss Pharaoh? You want me to?

Yes, Mr. President. Um, next we will have our the establishment of committees. I believe it is, which I will note is not yet committee assignments. Okay. All right. So, we don't we don't have those. So, we'll we'll move on for that and table um until we can get together uh the list. And did we get those uh the sheets out with the with uh the committee requests for we haven't. So, we'll have to we'll have to get those out for folks. Um and then uh moving on to the adoption of rules for rules of procedure.

Thank you, Mr. President. I the rules of procedure have been updated. Um I would love it if Mr. Jimenez could just quickly go through what those updates have been. A lot of them are procedural to kind of update us to um a more modern way of doing things. Uh particularly in the process uh moving to Robert's rules from Mason's rules, but I would love it if Mr. Jimenez, who has taken the leadership on updating them, wouldn't mind going through quickly.

Yeah, as mentioned, the largest change was the switch to Roberts. Um, we figured it council members would be a little more familiar with Roberts given potentially other committee board assignments that they've had. Uh, largely the rules procedure were reorganized. Um, just to make things a little bit clearer, the 2019 version had a lot of different powers in different areas. Uh, a lot of that was consol consolidated for each of the various officer positions. Um, there were a couple changes to how the council disciplines reorganized that. Um and we might need to update the motion section a little bit given the change to Roberts. Um but beyond that uh oh uh previously the office of corporation council had been the primary location where legislation been drafted. Um given changes over the last couple of years we've made sure that that's pulled into the office of the common council. our research council, ourselves, we we built up a body that can be able to handle the uh production of legislation. And let's see, there's also the creation of the majority whip. Uh that would also be part of the rules procedure. And I believe that's largely it. Um, we can probably go. Everybody should have received a copy of the rules of procedure and we're always welcome to anybody's welcome to ask us questions regarding them.

Thank you, Mr. Jimenez. Um, with that, I move that the council adopts this updated version of the Albony County Common Council rules of procedure. Second. All those in favor? I I not supposed to say. I I got to get up. Old habits die hard. So with that, uh the the motion passes. We we adopted the rules of procedure with the updates. Merrell.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I move that the Times Union be our official newspaper designation as I believe it is the only daily newspaper in the city of Albany. Although Metroand is up and coming until that day, I think we still need to do the Albany Times Union. Second. Okay. Okay. So, all those got a second for Mr. Hoey. All those in favor? I Okay, motion passes. Times union is our official newspaper yet again. Miss Frell.

Uh, thank you, Mr. President. I believe all other items are held as we have already talked to our commissioner appointments. Um, that is something that we do have a specific process with. Um and they will be actually resolutions that are introduced and will go through committee. Um so the committees will have an opportunity to ask questions of the um different commissioners and um and then we will vote on them. We do have a timeline for that, but we are well within that timeline. Um

I don't believe the timeline's triggered yet. We haven't received the paperwork. Oh, well once we get the paperwork, then a timeline is triggered. So the timeline is and I believe it's 45 days. Um once we get the paperwork that we need to go through our process um and then if we don't go through our process in that time frame, then they will automatically be appointed. But within 45 days, we should be able to um meet with them and in a public meeting and ask questions.

Yes. And and we want to stay on top of that and we've In the past, we've kind of bumped up against timelines and stuff. So, we'll clearly map out uh those interviews and discussions that we'll be having with them. And um which means we got to get the committees together.

And if we're moving to the miscellaneous section, which is not we don't have just for new council members, we don't have our normal outline that we would normally have because it is our first organizational meeting. But at this stage, we do usually have a miscellaneous section where we're able to say any council member can kind of talk about any one thing. Um, I just quickly wanted to note um we'll be sending out information on the committees and um a request for preferences for all council members tomorrow. if we can get that by Thursday, Friday at the very latest so that we can put that together and move forward. Um, ideally we like to have um give everybody their first preferences and wherever they have the most experience. it makes a lot of sense to utilize um the resources that we have within the council, but it's also incredibly important to make sure that every committee has a geographical representation. So, we want some we want committees to make sure that they're representing the entire city and not any one section of the city. So, there's different considerations with it, but um your input is incredibly valuable. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, and this is miscellaneous. Uh, one of the things I wanted to talk to the new members about is, uh, email. Uh, when I first started, I was like all independent. I'm going to use my own personal email till my got foiled. And um if you get foiled and and it can happen at any time you and you're using your personal email, you have to open up your whole email for every email in there can be looked at. So, I encourage everybody to use the city's email system because then, you know, our attorney uh you know, Robert can look at it and put it out any type and I would limit it to city business, but I strongly strongly recommend it. I saw the list came out and um a lot of people still have their personal emails, but again, I strongly recommend it. And the other thing is um I set up a group It's called CC Group and all you got to do if you want to send an email to the whole council, you type in CC group and it'll send to everybody. I have to update it, but I was hoping that people would use the city email system before I go in. Um, and then the other thing I want to talk about with email is um, we really can't discuss business like legislation or anything in email. It can be informative, but we can't have the back and forth because then we're we're breaking um the rule the open meetings law and uh we'll all be going to classes and you're going to hear a lot more about it. And uh but the reason I'm focusing on uh email, I've been in IT for 38 years at the University of Albany. So I just wanted to let you know as far as email that would be the best way to go. Thank you.

We're going to go to Mr. Mr. Bowman, but we're right now Mr. Wy since he's going to talk about what Mr. I appreciate talking about. Right. Before you do, I'm sorry to interject. Um, for the new members, your your city of Albany emails will be established this week and you'll get confirmation from me of those what your city email address will be. So, moving forward, we will request that you use that email address for all council business.

Mr. I I appreciate you teeing that up. Uh, Council Member Hoey, I just wanted to note for uh all new members and also for returning members. Any questions that anyone has on any of the laws that we're going to be interacting with here, whether that's foil, freedom of information law, or the open meetings law is going to come up a lot. Uh, even if the question is, what is the open meetings law? Tell me about it. Uh, come anytime. You can come by the office. you can call, text, email, and more than happy to run through any questions anyone has to make sure that we're all on the same page about best way to comply with state law and also the city code. And I I will add at the orientation on Thursday, um we'll also be running through all of this.

So for orientation, we um I received notice of a few members not being able to attend on Thursday. So, we're going to move it to next week right after caucus. That way, everyone is here and we can conduct the orientation um all at the same time. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Balerin.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to take a second and just thank everybody uh for for their support um and for the trust. I also want to thank Council Member Johnson uh for putting your name out there. uh and doing the work. Uh this is not an easy process for anyone uh who's gone through it. Uh and I appreciate I want you to know, Councilman Johnson, I appreciate you putting yourself out there uh doing the work and I appreciate your voice and your contribution uh to this body over the last eight years. Uh so I just wanted to say that uh I also want to say um as someone who won my first primary by 21 votes uh I know that the work that's out there to make sure that all uh all those you are responsible for uh hear your voice uh and that you work for them. Um I want my second primary by 71 79%. So, I'll take that as a uh a key that I can't I can't do that. Well, and I'm going to start by doing something I probably shouldn't do. Uh making sure everyone has my cell phone if you haven't if you don't have it already. Um I think you do, but I'll just put it out there. 5182096922. Uh feel free to call me anytime. And again, thank you to everybody. Uh and thank you again, Councilman Johnson. um you know and you all are very much appreciated.

Okay. Anyone else for miscellaneous? If not, Mrs. Farrell motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I. We'rejourn.