Common Council - Regular Meeting

couple times. We are live. Okay. Calling to order committee of the whole May 5th, 2026, [clears throat] resolutions. Resolution 45.6186, [clears throat] resolution adopting the minutes from the last common council meeting. Old woman Collins [clears throat] questions, changes. Okay. Thank you. Resolution 2526187, resolution authorizing interfund loan for postal projects water.

Okay. What we're doing here, we're going to borrow money an inter fund loan of up to 50,000 is going to be requested and then when we get reimbursed from the state, then we're going to put it back in here. But in the meantime, just to move this along, we're gonna borrow the money. Okay? And then when we'll put it back where we borrowed it once we get reimbured from the state. Okay. Any other questions?

Okay. Resolution 2526-188, resolution setting a public hearing for the adoption of the city of Amsterdam comprehensive plan. All woman. Uh we will have the city of Am has entertaken the effort to update its 2023 comprehensive plan to identify key goals and strategies. Pretty good growth and economic get some rain tonight. You want to say speak on this? Good morning. Good morning.

Sure. I mean so we're getting to the end of our comprehensive plan process. Um our feedback has generally been positive. There's a few minor grammatical errors that we need [laughter] to address. and we're going to swap on some of the pictures that are old and outdated. Other than that, the response has gotten positive, so there's not any material changes we intend to make from the draft plans, unless there's certainly anything here that anybody has questions about. Any questions? Nope. Um, the public hearing is scheduled for May 19th, 2026 at 5 [cough and clears throat] p.m. in the council chambers. Okay. Thank you. [laughter]

Sorry. Resolution 2526-189. Call the woman collections. [laughter] Um, ordinance D of 2026 to be known as ordinance number four of 2026 if adopted. An ordinance modifying section 73-4A9 of the Amsterdam City Code so as to prohibit dogs in certain areas of public parks and recreational areas. Ultimate holiday.

Yes. So I guess in a nutshell um whether leash or unleashed baseball, soccer, softball fields, basketball, tennis, pickleball courts, golf, putting green, splash pads, etc. So all these recreation areas, there will be no longer uh dogs will no longer be allowed to go on them. Um and I also see here even if it's on a leash, the leash shall not exceed 8 feet in length. So that's what I understand in a nutshell. Chief, is there anything that we can add to that that you would like? That covers it. The leash part is just that's just reiterating another portion of that's already in the leash law that we have. Okay.

But this is this is highly specific based on feedback we got from the recreation committee and the leagues that operate within the parks and the recreation areas. This was a big problem. So there was some response to that. Yes. Damage and things like that. And if they called you there wasn't anything.

Yeah. because mainly of people that not they don't clean up after their dog and it's you know not so this way totally prohibits the dog being on the field at any time no matter what and there's and also with the splash pads you know we we want to limit where kids and dogs are going to meet face to face and being that we have more splash pads they're they're very popular we want to stop that before we have an issue and it's also in line with many other municipalities who have similar codes

cool thank our city and a lot of volunteer groups spend a lot of time on those fields. They work very very hard to keep them in great shape and you know to have people let their dogs do what they do on those fields is really it's a it's a disgrace. It's it's something that shouldn't happen. So this is time the time has come for something like this.

Thank you. Anyone else questions? Okay. There will be a public hearing at 5:40 on May 19th, 26 for ordinance date. Okay. Local law A of 2025 to be known as local law 1 of 2026 is adopted. is an introduction a local law extending a temporary mortorium moratorum

moratorum of the submission and processing of building permits certificates of occupancy certificates of use and land use approvals for industrial solar and battery energy storage systems in the city of Amsterdam. It was sponsored by Alderman Carpenter. He's not able to make it today. So Alderman Holidayiday. Yes. which is a continuation of the moratorum that we already have in place with the uh ground mounted solar panels. Anyone um Tony or mayor have anything to add? Extend the consequence extending the moratorum through January. Thank you. And uh we need a public hearing. Public hearing. That's all I have to say.

Okay. Public hearing has been scheduled for 5:45 on May 19th. I thought [clears throat] when we we passed this the first time though, it was supposed to not take six months. The first moratorum we did for six months. Uh this I think it's been here for seven January. Isn't the first moratorum already expired? No moratoriums have to expire on June 2nd. It's going to expire. It's going to expire on June. I think it's June 2nd. So you want to extend it now to January? But I thought we were going to have like the legislation to update it.

We don't have it ready to go though. We there's not been any committee meeting about it or anything that's been scheduled to the best of my knowledge. Uh and that's why I would recommended that we extend the moratorum. I'm not even aware of maybe that's for [clears throat] we can always get it done before the moratorum expires. Correct. I Right. She sure could. Okay. Yeah. I thought we had that. I thought Grant had the language. Chief, he did um make some changes and submit them. I don't know if he's had the Tony's had time to review them. Yeah, you you had those, right? I I have them.

But as long as as far as Grant making changes, yes, he did. And he submitted them to Tony. I don't believe any council members have. I don't know if you guys I discussed them with Anthony already. I mean I right you and I discussed this right D

I I don't think it would be prudent for me to share one man's opinion that being my opinion about what should happen because I don't speak for the city uh I that's why I do think that ultimately the best way to proceed there be for there to be a committee and that committee to make recommendations to the common council and then for the common council to ultimately act on those recommendations. That's my best thought as to how I think we should proceed uh with respect to this issue. But that's my only my opinion and I've been observing um this issue how it's been handled in other communities and I see controversy. I see some questions about it and some uncertainties and um it's like um I I don't like to be the first one to jump into the ocean without knowing if there's sharks in there. So, I'm kind of just waiting to see how things shake out a little bit more, but there's nothing to stop us from um continuing to study the issue and continuing to observe what's going on with the technology. Uh and that's kind of how I'm playing it.

[laughter] That's the end of our agenda. Mayor, that's it. That's the end of our the um you can go into Mike Clark's engineering report if you'd like. What would you like to evening everybody? Good evening.

We're set to begin uh the initial streets in the paving program. I don't know which streets they're going to be yet. Uh we looked at several a dozen or more today um and began the mark out. So, uh, I expect that I expect the contract to mobilize probably within two weeks, perhaps less. Um, but in within a two week window. Uh, the, uh, now one of those streets, uh, I believe is a bought a piece of it within the park. Um, which brings me to another item, the Crescent A Bridge. Um, the target uh the target date for open to traffic has been basically pushed up a month. Um, the in our favor. Uh, so it's expected to open traffic on June 18th, right? which I think the Mohawks start or Rob mentioned them starting very early in June.

Yeah. May 81 game, but they will be open after that.

Um, and that's a good thing if you haven't se if you haven't been down through there yet. It looks a little different than it used to. Uh, also, um, we mentioned before the demolition project is complete. I believe didn't paid out the 95% there's a little bit of retain a little bit of restoration remaining I think um there was as of last week I filter work is still ongoing at the water treatment plant um that uh sanitary sewer improvement at the top of Broadway that's going to begin. Uh I expect within I I expect again within two weeks or less. Um also and I know we've had I had many comments over the last month or so about uh the the block at Guy Park uh division there where National Grid did uh a lot of that gas work to reroute it around. Uh they were they were repaving and I don't know if they were done but they were through one lane. I think they've got more to do tomorrow. Um but I expect that to be 100% restored by tomorrow afternoon. I just wanted to mention too that we've uh our new uh chief operator of wastewater made modifications to our irration process not mechanical just uh what's removing it from what's known as contact stabilization step feed and it re it improved our

removals significantly. we were always in compliance. Um but it dropped them by uh by more than 50%. Which is even better. Um and that bodess well for the future when with the the project [clears throat] in the anticipation that we're going to be able to handle much higher flows than we can now without bypassing which has always been problematic for the plant. Um, bottom line is when that project's done, I expect among other things that we'll be able to handle probably another 7 million gallons a day during a peak weather event. In other words, really wet. Um, in other news, we're if anybody sees that we have uh our office is um trying to get quotes from tree contact tractor contractors. We've had it being spring, we've had a number of complaints or requests for us to look at trees. Are we going to deal with them? Uh many of them, if DPW can deal with them, they certainly will. Some of them require a bucket truck or a crane. When we can, we we get the county involved. Um some but it does make sense for us to have a contractor at least on line where we can call them as needed. So [clears throat] that is out there also.

And those are trees that are on our property or city trees. Yeah. trees that we're responsible for. Like uh every year we have uh calls about trees around the outer fence at the water treatment plant all the way around, you know, because they hug that fence. Some of them are on our side, some of them around homeowner side, the hanging, but um we have we have to clean the golf course and other thing, right? There's some trees that are join that buck right up issues. Yeah. Like veterans. Yes. Okay. that kind of thing. Yeah. And I'll take any questions. Of course. Any questions for the

I have a question. Mike, [clears throat] you opened the bid yesterday for the lots to be cleared. I think a list did last Friday. There was a bid opening for that. Yes, there was. We had three bids. Mike, you didn't I think one four. I'm sorry. Thank you. We haven't reviewed those yet. Have you seen them? I've seen them. I I've seen the numbers. Um, the only thing I haven't done is called it. There's there's a couple of folks on there that we know and there's a a couple of uh folks including the u the law the low bayer that I'm not personally familiar with.

Um, so we need to lower price. All right. Okay. Very good. So I it to the short answer is I still want to call a reference. Okay, that's fine. Um, for the street paving list, do you have an idea when that'll be finalized? I I hope it's finalized right now. Okay.

Um, because we're, you know, we're, like I said, the I expect Signar [clears throat] flag to mobilize inside of two weeks. We met with them for the better part of today and and walked probably a third to half of the streets to do markouts and hit locations and limits of work and um all the stuff you do up front to get ready to go [clears throat] on their end.

Do you have a copy of that for us? I was thinking about with the safe streets group, we were talking about road striping and how that could be included in the paving and I thought we could review our next thing could be to review like what streets were actually paving and if they would be candidates for that or ones that we want to consider. Use this one. That that's the that is the list that the second sheet is just I didn't fit it to the sheet so it spilled over. Okay. That does amazing to us on the second sheet. Those are those are our numbers. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um

any questions for the engineers? Um, I guess we might as well just talk about a few things that I wanted to talk about tonight. May 19th is a big day for Amsterdam. Future of Amsterdam is the vote on the referendum to sell the land at the Cury East Side School. It's 44 acre parcel and we have a developer um who intends who if the land is sale is approved is going to spend $65 million putting single family homes, condominiums, town homes and apartments u at every level uh on that acreage. It would be the biggest private development in our city in 50 years. It's a fantastic it's it has a lot of fantastic benefits for our city. Uh there's also at the same time a budget referendum and they're going to be voting on I believe eight candidates maybe 10 for the board of education now. So it should be a very active race. So we've developed some materials for the council which we are going to be sending you uh digitally which you will share the highlights of what that project is. But basically um you know everything as far as quality of life we do not have house enough housing in this city uh for any demographic and and especially for the demographics this will be serving. Um that will take care of that will certainly go a long way in helping us with that. But revenues this is over a million dollars worth of annual tax revenues for our city school and county. Uh I I don't have to tell you how huge that would be. And the fact that um we have a developer any project is based the success of any project is based upon the quality of the buildings that are going to go in there. And we have a top shelf developer uh who's done this all over the area and is now interested in doing in Amsterdam. So I urge um the council uh to to uh help get the word out on this. We've got people working on it as well, but um it's a

very important vote. May 19th and and and we do encourage everyone to vote yes on that referendum. [snorts] Um today I was at a press conference by from Congressman Paul Tanco uh in Rolier where he announced uh that he had put together a package of 20 community projects uh that he was going to try and get into the federal budget for 2027. Uh, one of those projects is a million-doll grant uh that would help us uh build the department of the DPW garage. Uh, the timing on that grant is that uh there's a process going on right now where um it will have to be uh approved by the House of Representatives and put into their budget. Uh that's a process that goes through committees uh and Congressman Tonko will be advocating for that project through the committees. If it ends up in the House of Representatives budget, uh it then has to get into the Senate's budget. Uh and then the House and Senate have to agree on a unified budget and then the president's going to have to sign that budget and it will only be if the president signs that budget that these projects are approved and we will have a project for DPW. I should also mention that Congressman Tonko has a grant in there for St. Mary's Hospital for an expansion for St. Mary's Hospital. He has a grant in there for the town of Amsterdam sewer extension. He has a grant in there for um the Guy Park Manor project. So we've gotten four four out of the 20 grants are from are from our neck of the woods, our area, which is a you know commenation for our native son, Paul Tonko, who always who always thinks of us and and we're in there. So I got my fingers crossed. But what it will do is it's going to push our timing back on the DPW garage. Uh basically, um we cannot use this money until we get the agreement with the USDA, which would be the agency that would oversee this grant. Uh if all that budget stuff works

out, we're not going to see a budget until probably January of 2027, maybe December of 2027 if if it's good. And then it'll take months for USDA to get the paperwork put together, give us agreements that we would have to sign before we can spend the first penny on that project. So, it's pushing that back. I just wanted everyone to know. I think it's worth waiting for at this time. We will know unfortunately much sooner if we aren't going to be included because we'll be kicked out of the at some some point some way along the line. Uh we'll get a bad phone call that says, "I'm sorry, you're not in it anymore." And we'll we'll think about it at that point in time. But right now, I just wanted you to know the good news and also how that impacts the timing on the DPW garage. Um, what else we got? Five more minutes before we start the regular meeting.

Eight more minutes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Eight more minutes. Um, Louise, [snorts] you want to do the controllers report? I don't have one prepared tonight. [clears throat] Have a We're having an audit present. I was going to let you them speak, but it's I want to get them into the regular council session, so it'll be part of the minutes of the etern. Um, did you give us your budget?

I did. I submitted our I submitted the mayor's budget to the council. They have they have that and I include the budget message that kind of described what the priorities were in that budget. um thanked of course the people who worked very hard with me. The department heads uh the controllers's office of course Louise um to put this budget together. I think it's a great I think it's a very uh it's a it's a good document. I think it provides for uh our city's needs during not just the next 12 months but also sets us up in good position uh for the year beyond that. Um we uh I do have uh three capital projects that we will with the exception of the one I just spoke about that we hope [clears throat] to commence in this coming year. Um and one of them of course is the infrastructure for this project uh for the cury project. So um there's a lot to digest. I know the council will do a good job in reviewing it. Um if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'd be happy to answer them and um work with you in any way that I can. should have I'm looking for suggestions of it for improvements. Uh if you find any mistakes, they're Louis's fault. I'm just kidding. [laughter]

And I am working on the hard copies right now. I know you've all seen the budget electronically. Okay. Compiling those working on it right before this meeting. I'm hoping to have them finish tomorrow. Okay. They have digital copies. Stacy, did you print? They got digital copies, but I'm doing the hard Stacy printed us. [clears throat] Oh, okay. A version. All right. Thanks, Stacy. Can I ask without putting you and you on the spot? When's the public hearing? The 12th. 12th of May is a public hearing, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. And then [clears throat] after that, we're going to schedule budget meeting, right?

I'll pass this out. This [laughter] will be for our meeting so when we get to it, you can start checking when things are available. Very good. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. I'll give you

What time you start looking at your need? You have a copy? Is she gonna be here? Once we have the public hearing, then we'll set this up.

Um, you know, one other thing when we uh when we [laughter] say the pledge of allegiance tonight, I'm going to ask everyone to remain standing uh after the pledge is over. Um we lost a valued valued number of city hall staff this week uh suddenly and tragically. Um Marie Vickmier [clears throat] has been a one one of our first official greeters at city hall. Uh her smile, her her cheerfulness, her willingness to help anyone who needed help that walked into this building. And believe me, there are some people who walk into this building that are tough to help. But Louise never let it bother her. She was a tremendous face for our city government. Uh she was very very good to me. Um she uh spread spread happiness throughout the place and um I'm going to miss I'm going to miss her and I know I know everyone who who appreciates what she did uh is going to miss her terribly. So at the at the u com end of the pledge of allegiance when we open the official meeting I am going to ask everyone to remain standing for a moment of of silence for for Louis's memory. Louise, we thank you for job well done.

Marie Marie Louise, I'm sorry. Marie, I'm still with us. [laughter] You're still with us. That's embarrassing, but you know what I meant. Thank you very much. Okay, let's stand for our pledge. Stand for a moment of silence after [clears throat] I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. [clears throat]

[clears throat] Thank you very much. Anyone else would like to say anything? Spring. Spring fling is this weekend. Yeah. No, I meant Marie, but that's okay. We'll miss out. I will definitely miss this. [clears throat and cough] Okay. So, can we have a roll call? Alderwoman Chris Demar here. Alderman Holidayiday here. Alderwoman Collins here. Alderman Carpenter. Alderman Marticella here. Motion to adopt the agenda.

Okay. Motion to adopt the agenda. We have four resolutions and one ordinance introduction and one local law introduction. Alderwoman Chris Dear. I. Alderman Holiday. Hi. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi.

Um I don't the proclamation that I wanted to bring uh today was not prepared yet. So we're going to skip over the proclamation and go right to communications [clears throat] and presentations. And before we have our new accounting firm uh talk to us about our annual audit, I want to do two Amsterdam tributes. Um these are two uh recognition of people who go above and beyond the call of duty and on behalf of our city and help improve the quality of life. Uh I'm going to start uh with with the first one. Within Bob Cartell's distinguished and extensive resume of volunteerism and public service is his long-standing commitment as sponsor of the city of Amsterdam cleanup day. This annual event has made a lasting impact on our community. Through his tireless efforts and unwavering dedication, the cleanup day has grown each year, bringing more volunteers together, expanding the area's clean and removing increasing amounts of debris from our neighborhoods. His leadership has helped turn a simple effort into a powerful community tradition, inspiring civic pride and collective responsibility while making our city a cleaner, better place for all. Amsterdam therefore salutes Robert Patell for his outstanding record of public service and for his untiring efforts to improve the quality of life in our city. Thank you Robert. The second one, uh, Dove Creek Disc Golf Course at Sassifrass Hollow marked a pride proud milestone on April 18th of 2026 as it hosted its first PDGA sanctioned tournament. An achievement rooted in vision, dedication, and community spirit. This court stands as a testament to Terry Hudson whose leadership and perseverance brought it to life through volunteer labor, generous donations, and the support of Montgomery County. Special

[clears throat] recognition is also due to Chris Wilson, Shan Collins, and Will Cable, whose countless hours of hard work helped build and continue to maintain this exceptional community asset. The city of Amsterdam salutes Terry Husten for bringing the sport of disc golf to our city and for his ongoing efforts to promote both the sport and our city as a goodwill ambassador. Thank you, TERRY. That that if anyone hasn't had the opportunity to just go up and look at the course, it's really an incredible it's it's really a very nice asset for our city and I'm amazed at the number of people who play disc golf. It's it's really a great thing. So, [laughter] All right, without further ado, we're going to go to our uh accounting firm uh presentation for a review of our 2425 audit. Badadio and Company LLP.

You can do whatever you'd like, but that's that's typically where you do it. All right. So, I see some of you had the big documents in front of you, but Louise is gonna pass out a short presentation. You'll you'll thank me later. [laughter] Yeah, I tried to get through it. It's not a lot of fun, I thought.

So, I'm Greg Evans from the Bondo Group. I'm the partner in charge of the audit engagement. Um, like I mentioned, we have a short presentation here. Um, we'll flip right over to part A. This is our uh scope of services [laughter] performed. So, what we did was an audit of your financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025, which as we know you guys are coming up on at the end of your next year. So, one of the one of the hopes is that this audit gets moved up be more timely. Um certainly feedback that we provide those numbers the sooner you get them uh the easier it is to you know obviously make changes. Um the other thing we did was the the single audit which is an audit of your federal awards and we also did an audit of your New York State DO awards. Um we did have a couple management letter comments or best practices. There wasn't much there though honestly and we verbally communicated those to Louise and the staff was really just documenting journal entry review. Um we'd like to see someone sign off as the prepare and someone sign off as the reviewer. It's just part of that internal control process. So all right so moving on to the executive summary. Um, in terms of uh the financial statements, those financial statements are yours. The numbers are yours. Our job is to give an opinion on those numbers. Um, we actually give multiple opinions. Um, and we'll talk a little bit about the different types of financial statements that are in there. But we did give a disclaimer of opinion on the governmental activities, which is the citywide, all of the assets, all the liabilities together. This is consistent with your prior accounting firm. Um,

we'll talk a little about about that when we get to the findings though. Um, not a huge deal though. Everything else we have an unmodified opinion on or a clean opinion on, meaning we believed everything was fairly stated, so that's a good thing. In terms of internal controls, we did have two findings that we'll talk about. Um, one of them related to those fixed assets that I just mentioned. Uh in terms of uh accounting policies, you did implement Gazsby 101 this year, which was related to compensated absences. Really not a big deal there. Uh it's [clears throat] just tracking of leave time that occurs from year to year. Not a lot of change there. Um we did have some audit adjustments which resulted in one of the findings that we'll talk about. Um and there were no um unadjusted misstatements that we passed on. Um really no significant diff difficulties in performing the audit just timing wise of us getting appointed us figuring out exactly you know how the systems work here and again we're going to work on that timing in terms of single audit to that report again your federal awards we had an unmodified opinion on compliance there so no issues in terms of how you spent the money the federal awards and also no um internal control findings there in terms of the New York State DO. Um no, that was an unmodified opinion as well and no findings related to that. So, we're in good shape there. Uh like I mentioned, no findings related to internal controls over compliance, but we do test for compliance and we do look at the internal controls that relate to um the spending of those awards. All right, part C, the key financial

highlight. So, in terms of your financial statements, u your governmentwide financial statements, again, this is all the assets, all the liabilities, both short-term and long-term city kind of lumped together. um the budget that you're reviewing is not reflective of those assets and liabilities again because you pass an annual budget meant to be for the next year. Um I hate to kind of bash my my uh profession but this financial statement is really not that helpful in managing the city. Um the helpful part of it is in the financial is in the footnotes to the financial statements though where you will see um details about long-term debt um other postemployment liabilities or retirey health. So you'll see a lot of information about how those numbers are calculated. Um sometimes it's good to compare those to other cities, but in terms of on an annual basis, you're not really going to use this financial statement for that much. um retirey liabilities, we do have a history of that on pages 54 and 55 in the back of your financial statement. So when we think about those pension liabilities, you want to look at those contributions and again when looking at the budget, um look at those trends, look at the, you know, the economy and how things go. Um bottom line on that financial statement though, it shows a huge deficit. It shows $57 million. So, you kind of like like, "Oh my god, are we broke?" No, you're not broke. Um, a lot of that is that retiree health number, which is about $53 million, which New York State does not allow you to fund, which is a little bit different than your retiree um your pension liabilities, which are funded. So, that's sort of the the short

story about that financial statement and why you have such a huge deficit. Um, okay. So, on to the fund financial statements. And again, these numbers are pretty stale. So, I'm going to go over them at a pretty high level. And we're going to talk about some of those ending balances and what those mean to you in terms of uh how the the GEN fund did for the year. You had a budgeted use of fund balance of about 39,000. So, you were going to dip into that savings account to balance the budget of about 39,000. What actually happened was you increased fund balance by 930,000. So almost a million dollar swing there between what you budgeted and what you actually uh ended up with mostly related to additional state aid. So you did uh receive a little bit more than you had budgeted for. So that's the basic difference there. Um in terms of the other funds, um the garbage fund, the water fund, the recreation fund all had positive variances to budget. Uh sewer came in a little bit below budget in terms of using more um fund balance than you had anticipated. So all in all, your fund balance as a whole went up, which was a good thing. definitely um as a result of both some additional revenues and controlling those expenditures which we'll talk about in a second. Um capital projects fund I always like to point this out too. You do have a deficit there but you also have a ban there a bond anticipation no payable when that's converted from short-term to long-term that will fund that fund and then you will have revenues in there which will wipe out that deficit. So again, just sort of governmental accounting and the way that works. It's a timing

difference, let's call it. Okay. So the next couple pages, I I put some charts to get together just to give you some, you know, kind of historical information about where you've been and where you might be going. Um, in terms of general fund, I like to focus on unassigned and assigned fund balance because that's really what's under your control. Unassigned is the savings account. Um assigned is the amount that you um set aside for next year's budget. So um you could see, you know, going back to the start of the pandemic, you were pretty low on fund balance. So really no savings. Um trending up through 22, 23, 24, and now into 25, you end up with about $10.6 million of fund balance or savings. um which is kind of expected. There was a lot of, you know, additional funding out there. $2 million of ARPA funding came this way. Um most of our local governments would see a similar trend to this. Um not all of them.

Most of them. Sorry for the chuckle there. Something to do with Amsterdam. Um, but part of the reason for that is the ones that ended up with fund balance were spending their extra dollars on projects and not recurring expenses. So, that's sort of the key. We saw we've seen this with a lot of school districts that are now cutting people. Um, [clears throat] they took those additional ARPOut dollars and they were using it to kind of fill a budget gap and it's now going the other way. those dollars aren't there anymore, but the expenses are still there. So, in your particular case, you're still in good shape. Um, when we look at that number, the unassigned fund balance, the state comproller usually recommends that number be 15 to 20% of your annual expenditures. Right now, you're up around 60%. So, very, very healthy fund balance. Um, I'm certainly not recommending you go and spend it all in the next year. Not wise. Um, but the general idea is to have a plan to spend that down to get down to that. I would say 20% is a good number. Um, at that point I think no one's saying you're you're going to be carrying too much B fund balance or overt taxing or have too much savings, but you do need, you know, some some funds on hand for emergencies for sure. Um, and again, as we move on here on the next chart, so the bottom of my chart got cut off. I apologize for that. But again, this is going from 21 to 25. just sort of a history of the general fund revenues and expenditures and how you got to that fund balance number. Um this year, this past year, those expenditures are a little bit inflated

because you move some salaries from the other funds into the gen fund. So that kind of pushed that up. Um below the line, you did have transfers in. So that's why the GEN fund um didn't really go down. But that's just the um the gen fund revenues and expenditure. So next chart um really this is this is sort of the key one that I think you have to pay attention to in terms of the federal aid and state aid. It sort of follows that same um trend line of your fund balance. You know going back to 2021 that was a total of about 7 million. It peaks at about 10 million in 2023 and it's coming back down. So, um, well, I just heard you you may have some federal funding, you know, in the hopper, which is great, but I think in [clears throat] general you have to be a little bit cautious with those federal funds. We already know the ARPA funding's gone away, right? You've spent it all. So, that's $2 million that's, you know, not going to be part of the budget going forward. Other things to think about, sales tax across the state has still been healthy, but certainly the growth uh level has flattened. So relying too much on sales tax is a little bit of a dangerous thing. Um you did pick up a little bit and you know you now have the cannabis tax that was about 200,000 an additional revenue source which is great. Um but again when we think about revenues going away you have to control those that of those expense levels. Very hard to replace those grants and state aid with property taxes. So um really the the thing to do there is to try to control that expense level. Any questions about numbers? I know I threw a little bit at you pretty quickly.

I can go deeper into the that big document if you want me to. I'm not. [laughter] Okay. Can you go to page [clears throat] 14? Yep. On the revenue and expenses. Yes.

We're balanced out here. you're you're balanced out here, but um again bel let's call it below the line, you have general revenues, general expenses, and then you have transfers in. So you did have transfers in from other funds of around I think a million dollars or so that sort of pushed it over. So if you if you balance those out, you were really ahead by n what did I say 930,000. So yeah somewhere around there.

Yeah about 930,000. So again that we transfers in are really inner fun things that happen between let's say you know um well you know the other funds essentially so going forward on this number right here what is your trend expectations going down you say? I I'd say the revenues will I mean you know or at least flatten let's call it that way. So when we think about flattening revenues, you know, we all know that the expenditures are not going to flatten, right? I mean, we maybe they will, but certainly we've seen costs, especially employee benefits and and things along those lines, they they almost always trend upward. So

the reason I'm asking this is what what do we do now going forward? Now you're talking about federal grants, state grants that we had and you don't foresee them coming except you mentioned two things. Sales tax, cannabis tax, am I right? Yes. Just want I want to follow you. That's why. Yeah, absolutely. So the the sales tax I would you know has been strong, right? It's been strong across the state for several years. It's going to be stronger now with the economy sales tax now. Yeah. I mean, we but we've certainly seen that the growth rate is has is has flattened for sure.

So again, if we're we're talking flattening and maybe starting to dip and when all those things together, that's where you have to control those expense levels for sure. Okay. Thank you. Yep. And that's one of the things uh the Church Street the Cury project, you know, it's $400 million worth of annual revenue, property taxes and user fees that is vital to us being able to keep these numbers going in the right direction. Absolutely. Because that's another source of revenue you're talking about that we're not going to have that we depend on. Correct. Right. Thank you.

Any other numbers questions? Okay, we'll just talk about the uh findings real quick on slide 17. So, we did have a finding relative to grant tracking and reconciliations at year end. Um I mentioned that we do that audit of the [clears throat] federal awards. So, what what you have is called the SEFO which is the schedule of expenditure of federal awards. We did make some adjustments to that based on some reconciliations that were done after year end. I will say um you know this is something that absolutely is critical to the audit process because we need good final seafo numbers to be able to plan that single audit. You know, we're sort of regimented uh you know regulated by the federal government. You have to audit the type A programs. Um, so when we're moving those numbers around, it certainly slows the audit down. Now, one of the things I will say, um, I audit three cities. I think I have the same finding in all three cities. And I say that not because to excuse it or whatever. It's a it's a tough thing when you have a lot of grants to be able to go out to departments that exist outside of this building and you know DPW parks uh police and fire. There's a lot of grants happening. Um a lot of the decisions are made outside of Louis's department. So, you know, I think in in one of the instances we had a hard time really nailing down when the expenditure happened and that's going to come from the program people, not necessarily the finance people. So, you know, the basically the finding is, hey, let's let's try to get ahead of this before year end, increase those communications so that we have a solid number at year end. So um [clears throat]

it it was deemed to be a material weakness because we made material entries. So again, county standards dictate that if I propose a um material entry, I'm now part of your internal control process. So that's a material weakness. Yeah. No, we definitely have to clean that up.

Um any questions about that? And then um one last finding again relative to those capital assets. So this is one where you know I talk about that governmentwide financial statement all the assets and liabilities of the city. They really need to be tracked including infrastructure this building [clears throat] any equipment that's purchased. It's meant to be tracked and depreciated. So what does depreciation mean to a city? nothing. Um, hate to tell you, but at the same time, it's a requirement for that particular financial statement. So, that's why this finding is here. That's why the modified opinion is there. Um, I I'm not aware that, you know, your rating agencies or anyone else is going to look at that and say, you know, oh my god, they don't know, you know, where their assets are. That's not the case. It's a It's a case of being able to track the historical cost and record depreciation on it. So, you can hire a company that will go out and do that. They'll set you straight and they'll they'll give you a report and you can just feed off of it going forward if you want this finding to go away. Short of that, it's not something that you're likely to be able to do inhouse. So, again, cost benefit in terms of do you want this finding to go away or is it just

[clears throat] Do we care what the depreciation is? So, um, my hands are tied in terms of reporting it, but did you talk about page 17 yet? Page 17. Yeah.

Yes, we did talk about that. So, that that's the reconciliation of the the grants. Um and and again pulling that information from outside departments, making sure that we balance the uh revenues and expenditures. If you, you know, spent the money that you expect to be reimbursed for, you should be recording the revenue that corresponds to that. So those two should balance out. There were a couple entries I think related to that. So we found some expenditures. So we had to go ahead and book that letter in. So on the assets,

what is the um is it 5,000 10,000 worth of the assets when we start tracking appreciation? Uh Luis, do you know the number? We have a number.

Yeah, we we definitely have a number. I believe it's in the footnotes here. the um actually it's not in there. My my guess it's somewhere around 5 to 10,000 from a federal perspective. The federal government likes you to book um and and inventory everything over 25,000. So that to me is generally a good number to use. Any other questions about the numbers or the audit process?

I'm trying to understand page 18 now. Page 18. [laughter] Yeah. So that was the second finding, right? Yeah. So that that again is the the tracking of fixed assets or capital assets. Um, what do you suggest? I think you I mean if you want it to go away, you hire a company. Um, we got to hire a company. Yeah. They they will come in and do that inventory for you. Don't we have a list of all our assets? We just don't have the depreciation on it. Well, I mean, we have a list of things that were as we purchased them. Yeah, we have stickers. Like I'm looking on a sticker on this fence right here,

but we're talking more like buildings, bridges, and things like that. I mean, in theory, it includes roads. So, got it's everything. Yes. If we were to go bankrupt tomorrow and close the doors and lock it up, what what would we bring in the court to settle up? Right. Which is questionable whether you're going to sell your road or not, but [laughter] how much you going to give me? It's got a bridge to sell you, too. Yes. I'll give you one of these on a list real cheap. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thanks for your time tonight. Thank you. Thank you for all your help.

I can remember in 2020 where we were and where we are now. And we're doing great. I want to thank the council for everything everyone has done to make that happen. It's been a He only started on the 800,000 fund bounce. I wanted to see the one that was 8 million in the whole the other way like two years or when there was no data to do an audit with. Yeah. So, thank you everyone. Luis, thank you. Okay, we are on to

public participation. [laughter] And if you'd like to speak, please come to the podium, state your name and address, and you have a five minute to tell us what John Thomasa chat today. Um, mayor, back uh last year, I mentioned back on Forest Avenue in back of Sleachs where we had the mall. Yes, sir.

Okay. We knocked the building down, which was a good thing. I mentioned about the weeds. The weeds are still there. Whose responsibility is it? It is our responsibility to clean those weeds. I we I we have it on the schedule to do that. It has not been done yet. Okay. Well, you know, if ADA wants to get involved in that and you got the property,

it's our responsibility and we need to get that done. All right. Pointing it out again. Another thing is uh with lawns overall uh last year when uh the lawn cutting season got over with, I'm sure we knocked down a few more buildings. You mentioned about going out for bid. I mentioned I think it was last year that if we put say black top or cement, would wouldn't that be cheaper on the long run? I don't I don't know. I don't think so. But

by the size and etc. certain things cost more to begin with and then we save money uh later on and uh you know obviously then if you go out for bid and here here I don't know if I cut the lawn three or four times already now you're talking about out for bid

and and it's costing us a lot of money for for for for this thing but you know the people don't want these old dilapidated buildings so I mean but but then we got to take care of the lawns and nobody's going to really buy a vacant lot and build a house from scratch anymore because of the because of the costs and things that are involved. And you mentioned yourself about housing uh problems that we have. Probably one of the better things that I thought that we had was down on East Main Street when we knocked the buildings down and they put that uh uh housing complex there, which was which was great, you know, and now you're talking about this uh school or so that uh that uh we should vote on, which seems like a good thing. But it goes on to other things though, too. I mean, we had uh not not only where the mall was, but I mean, we haven't heard too much about the Charmer site anymore. We had people that were were interested in uh uh investing into that land. Uh you know, we had an individual that wanted the building and was wanted to fix up the building. We tore the building down that the grass there is real nice and like that, but it's it's vacant. Uh I worked at Moasco for 5 years. We went through two arson fires after I left. And then uh I think Joe Emanuel was mayor. We knocked down the rest of the buildings. It's been vacant there for 40 years now. I think Joe's involved with ADA if if ADA is not doing that good of a job. Uh maybe we should try to replace some of it. There's no reason for having all this land vacant like this, you know, and uh you know and and which would help. So they got to have some people that have some ideas and uh has some kind of you know funding and and and that can uh say gee this is good good uh good land. I mean there's another thing too there for years we're cutting the grass beautiful grass at the Mohasco site that was 57 Lion Street there. So, I mean, it's uh,

you know, but all this extra, we got to take care of that, you know. So, I mean, I I still think that if we looked at the uh some kind of pavement, if you go over to uh the town of Amsterdam, I saw some nice housing complexes and the housing, they're built on on pavement. So, that way the people they [clears throat] don't have to worry about cutting the lawns or whatever. They have the people come over and plow the town of Amsterdam and plows out. It's it's, you know, not that not that bad. I mean, I think on the long run, you know, we got to try to save some money here and there and see what exactly uh what which is the best. Now, you you also mentioned here about Paul Tonco. I I could be wrong on this. Uh I thought Elise Stefonic was our uh representative here.

No, Paul Paul took Paul got the district back. What was it? Two years ago, I believe. Oh, he got it. Yeah. At least uh was moved onward 21st district. So,

all right. Well, then that that's okay then, I guess. You know, so you know, I didn't I wasn't really totally aware or something. The Republicans aren't doing too good o overall lately, but uh there's other things, too. I've been watching a lot of this stuff. My uh pay um national bridge bill went up $51. Now, we knew it was going to go up. And what cracks me up, mayor, is they said if we went to LED lighting, we would save money. So, the people go to LED lighting and then they say, "Wait a because they're for a profit uh company. Oh, well, we'll get the money back by raising the rates. They were supposed to keep up with the grid constantly. So, you don't you don't do nothing with the grid for 50 years and then come back to the tax to the to your customers and have them pay all this all this money. So, I mean, and we're like I says, we we pay 50% more than any other state. We got one president and yet we got we pay 50% more in New York state than in than in any other state. And that's these utility bills can help drive drive people out. Later on when you do the budgets and stuff and I I brought up about water and like this. I can't drink the water some, but chances are you're probably going to increase the uh the water usage and and and things like that. I asked about meters. We still don't have the meters. we set that aside. So, I mean, there's a lot of things that are going on, but uh I you know, sooner or later this this may not be a city. You know, people are driving people out. You see the all these uh food pantries and stuff. People are really hitting the pits around here. Okay. I guess I that's my five minutes. Okay. Thank you. It was nice to see somebody else speak there like that, you know. It was good, you know.

Although we do appreciate your commentary, sir. Thank you. All right. Okay. Is that it? Anyone else like to speak? Okay. Then we will get on to the agenda. Correct. We have some Did you have something in We have business. New business. I'm sorry. New business. We have resolutions.

Hold on. If I may, I think an issue came up regarding uh electricity supply pricing. Yes. And we're seeking ultimately, and correct me if I'm wrong, please, uh, we're dealing with a volatile market right now. And the long and short of it is is that we ultimately need to lock in a rate. Uh, but our broker needs to be able to move on a the drop of a hat.

The suppliers are not holding any rates like they like they used to. Uh so uh under the circumstances what what is being recommended or what I've recommended is that the council uh give the mayor authority uh so that we can uh uh have our our broker lock in a rate uh and then once that rate is locked in we would follow that up with a resolution ratifying uh the rate. uh uh I think in past practices uh the rate was able to be held for a period of time and then the legislation could follow up or catch up with it so to speak. The climate of the industry right now is such that uh we need to be able to move more on the spot. Am I stating all that correctly, please?

Okay. Uh so if the council is so inclined uh I would ask that someone please bring a motion authorizing the mayor to uh uh uh provide authority to our broker to lock in a rate upon his recommendation. Yes. Could that work against us? Right. Like let's say the rates go down. Are we locked? Yes, it could. Okay. There's no question about it. But that's what we have a broker for. Dan Russo has been our broker for for many years and he's the one who notifies us when he thinks he has a good deal and we we talk about it and we we agree that we bring it in front of the council when we think it's a good deal and right now it's happening so fast Rich I know

you know um it goes from 11 to 12 in a day and there's you know I don't we don't have time to have a council meeting it would probably be a shortterm rate lock in well he I did he did say he wasn't going to lock in for a long period of Six months is the six months, but he has to we have to make a decision sometime in the next three weeks for the pricing to be in effect July 1st. Right. And we budgeted an increase, but you know, that's what we're trying to we're trying to stay within that budgeted increase. I would make that motion. Okay. Did you get that?

Yes. Excuse [laughter] me. You just brought this on. What are we talking about? Sorry. What are What rate are you talking about? I don't have a I don't know the rate. Kilowatt. What we pay? Okay. Electricity. I thought you were asking me specific number. What are we paying right now? Yes. What are we paying? I don't know. I have no idea. Like 10 cents, I think around 10 cents right now. [clears throat] So the broker has come to us saying that he thinks it's a desirable rate right now.

Right now it's in 12. It's in the twelves, I think, was his last number. Right. But he's gone up to 18. And that was my next question. Yeah. Right. So he's thinking that he wants to play the way you know that he's going to tell us. He watches them a lot closer than anybody here does. For sure. Yeah. So tell us how the resolution should read. Pardon? Tell me how the resolution should read. Giving the mayor authority for our broker to lock in a rate with respect to uh electric utility supply pricing. And what number? We can't give. We don't have a number. That's the whole point. Do you want to say not more than because then we're going to come back to you when it's more than and ask you.

I mean that's the problem with like a 30% increase. Well, right. Well, you could say like not to exceed that. We can certainly say that, but that's the purpose of this res the purpose of this resolution is to give me the authority to say yes to and if you guys want to put a top on it. I mean, you can I can't imagine you wanting to lock it in at a higher rate than we would. I mean, yeah, that would work against your own budget. You know, [laughter] you know me. Yeah. But I I no problem with you guys. You know what do you think? I think if we do a cap like a range between

we you can do I'm L if we don't lock in at all we I mean we're just very vulnerable. We're on the we're at the market right? Yeah. So but our our consultant he's he's been doing this for like 20 25 years and he said he's never seen volatility volatility like like message we're seeing right now in this.

You know, I the last couple of times he's come to me, I researched this thing like crazy. I've gone to other areas of the state. I gave Louise information. I gave him information. How come? How come? How come? He's always got an answer. You know, [clears throat] they're buying their power from this. They're doing that over there. Um, so it's it's really we're at his mercy and his expertise. And we've been that way for a while. And uh it's, you know, but like what Chad said, we we didn't save any money. We did we saved over $200,000 on those electric on those new lights, you know, and the mercy of like the state of the world right now. We It's crazy, which becomes more and more geopolitical more so than honest.

It's crazy. And and God knows what's going to happen tomorrow. So, if you want to give me a cap, you can, but you know me, I'm not going to, you know. So, so if we lock in, can we back out of it? Say we lock in at 18. Well, six months later you can we lock in for a period of time and that period of time, you know, he hopefully he comes back with a better rate within that period of time and then we could change it. Yeah. Well, we can't I don't think we can change it for six months, right? But we can lock in at a rate for six months. Is the rate like the average of the week, the average of the month, right? I can't imagine that we would wake up one morning and let's say it's in the world of stocks, it's called buying the dip, right? Like, oh, it's 7%. Let's lock in like Well,

and he's working with a lot of different suppliers, so they all, you know, they're all ch they're competing with each other, too. Yes. Okay. So, can I just ask? You already put the budget in for this, right? I did. Okay. So, I'm going to go with that. You're going to what? I lock in with that one. You put the budget in for that. You already put budget in, right? We're already over that. [laughter] Okay. Say that. We are. [clears throat] We're You budgeted 11. Did you didn't you budget 111 or something or am I wrong? We we put in allowed for a substantial increase with electricity, right? But am I wrong in saying that? It was based I can't remember exactly, but yes, it was based on like a I think ended up being a 15% increase. Okay. And and so

figured out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're not We were there, Jimmy. And No, that's okay. That's all right. If you want to lock in at what we get, I don't know how we figured that out. Kilowatt, do you? What I'm saying is just do we have Dan does all this analysis that he provides me with, right? And you give me that analysis and you give me a budget budget more and we ask, right? Do we need to budget more? That's all. Yeah, we still got to lock into something. You got to lock. Yeah. What's the what's the time frame? That goes back to my question like is do can we wake up on a Monday morning and it's 10, right? Like so it's time of the essence to the point because we don't have any we have to get you convened so to vote on something.

So let's say it's 12% today. Y we reconvene and we come back in a week and a half and it's 14%. If we didn't lock in at 12 and we didn't, you know, we just been kind of beating around the bush and now it's 14. Are we kind of just watching it go like this? Is it on a dayto-day basis? It is. and Danny, can we can we hope for the better and maybe see if we can catch a 10? Well, see, like last week, he approached us about locking in, but the mayor didn't have the authority to lock it in

to to lock in on that date. We had to bring it to to you as a resolution that ready to do to you, it went up. That's what I'm saying. And he's saying, don't lock in at this. Give me some time. But when I'm ready, you got to lock in fast. And we're saying, well, we got to press and do it the opposite way and write it instead of with a cap. If it ever drops below this, lock in. Yes, that's what I'm thinking, too. Can we give you the rubber stamp to like press the button at 10? You said a range. I I'm happy to do whatever you want, but it's going to be Dan. It's going to be their broker tells us. I feel like this I I will I think that we should give him the authority to walk in a rate

because he he's in charge of his budget also and he knows what how that's what I say. So I'm fine. I say it too. Yeah, [clears throat] I say go ahead. So is there any if I may then is there any more discussion to the motion as presented? I drive my car all the way down to E. I like to risk it for the biscuit. You know what I'm saying? So, like if we could catch something on the dip, I want to buy then. But if not, I'm okay with just riding this where it needs to be just to get it done. Just like Can you give me the authority to do this with my wife? Cuz I [laughter] I love that. Good luck. Yeah. Do we need to No, you just did.

Okay. [clears throat] Yeah. Could you please call on the role? Yes. Alderwoman Clamar. Hi. Alderman Holiday. Hi. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi. All right. Thank you very much, council. So, now we are on to the resolutions, right? Okay. Okay. Resolution number 2526-186, resolution adopting minutes from last common council meeting by Alderwoman Collins. [clears throat] Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Quistamar. Hi. Alderman Holiday.

Hi. Resolution number 2526-187 resolution authorizing interfund loan for multiple projects by Alderman Marticello. So move could just read the now therefore policy for them. Now therefore it is hereby resolved that the city of Amsterdam authorizes the following entry to establish temporary interfund loans. Interfund loan number one the general fund is temporarily lending $50,000 to the capital fund for the home program. In our fund loan number two, the general fund is temporarily lending an additional $4,310.74 to the capital fund for the Barkley playground project.

Okay, thank you. So move any questions and we'll be reimbursed and we'll replace this money. Okay, please. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman. Hi. Alderman Holiday. Hi. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Resolution number 2526-188, resolution setting a public hearing for the adoption of the city of Amsterdam comprehensive plan by Alderwoman Collins. Okay. So you can go now. Therefore,

now therefore, be it resolved that the Common Council of the City of Amsterdam shall hold a public hearing on May 19th, 2026 at 5:55 p.m. at the Council Chambers, City Hall, 61 Church Street, Amsterdam, New York, 12010 for the purpose of hearing all persons interested in the adoption of the updated comprehensive plan. And be it be it further resolved that the city clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish notice of said public hearing in the official newspaper of the city of Amsterdam recorder at least 10 days prior to the date of the hearing. So move the roll. Alderwoman Collins. I alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Customar. Hi.

Alderman Holidayiday. Hi. Resolution number 2526-189 resolution approving audit by Alderwoman Collins. So move any questions. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Quistamar. Hi. Alderman Holidayiday. Hi. Ordinance D of 2026 to be known as ordinance number four of 2026 [clears throat] if adopted. Introduction. an ordinance modifying section 73-4A9 of the Amsterdam City Code so as to prohibit dogs in certain areas of public parks and recreational areas by Alderman Holidayiday.

Stacy, just read part one. Part one, legislative intent. Section 73-4A of the Amsterdam City Code codifies pro prohibited acts regarding dogs within the city of Amsterdam with section 73-4A9 pertaining to the restrictions of dogs in parks and designated recreational areas. The purpose of the instant legislation is to prohibit an owner or person in custody or control of a dog shall not cause a dog to be on the playing surface of any baseball, soccer, softball field, basketball, tennis, pickle ball court, ice rink, golf, fairway, putting green, or splash pad located with any recreational or park areas of the city regardless if said dog is leashed or unleashed.

Very good. Great. Questions or comments? Anybody call the ROM? There's a public hearing on this. Introduction. Okay. All right. So, there'll be a public hearing on this on May 19th at 5:40 p.m. Okay. Thank you, Alderman Holiday. There's no Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's just an introduction. All right. Thank you.

Local law a of 2025 to be known as local law 1 of 2026 if adopted. Introduction. A local law extending a temporary moratorum on the submission and processing of building permits, certificates of occupancy, certificates of use and land use approvals for industrial solar and battery energy storage systems in the city of Amsterdam by Alderman Holidayiday. I just read part one again and then Okay.

Part one, legislative intent. The city of Amsterdam by way of local law 2025-1 ratified on December 2nd, 2025 establishes a six-month moratorum on the submission and processing of building permits, certificates of occupancy, certificates of use, and land use approvals for industrial solar and battery energy storage systems in the city of Amsterdam. The legislative intention of the local instant local law is to extend said moratorum through the date of January 5th, 2027. This moratorum will pertain to one any application pertain pertaining to a ground mounted solar panel defined as a solar panel that is directly installed in the ground and is not attached or fixed to an existing structure. Polemounted, shedmounted, or freestanding canopy mounted solar panels shall be considered groundmounted solar panels and any application pertaining to a battery battery energy storage system defined as one or more devices assembled together capable of storing energy in order to supply electrical energy at a future time.

Thank you. So, this public hearing will take place on May 19th at 5:45 p.m. [laughter] That's it. That's all I have. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Quar. Hi. Alderman Holiday. Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Your hand your