City Council - Special Meeting

We good to go? We'll call this meeting to order. It is 6.06 on Wednesday, June, July 1st, thanks, Fred. Why don't we kick off with Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, clerk, could you please call the roll? Councilmember Murray? Present. Councilmember Middleton is absent. Councilmember Cavanaugh? Present. Councilmember Hotchkiss? Present. Councilmember Matavetsky? Present. Councilmember Dunn is absent. Majority Leader Rathmell?

Present, thank you. Okay, this is a special business meeting, so our public comments section will be related solely to the agenda items on our special business meeting. I'll go ahead and open up for public comment. Any resident wishing to share public comment related to the HUD FY52 budget may come down and share their statements. You'll have five minutes and if you could please start by saying your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

Oh, gotcha, sorry. Hi, good evening, everyone. I'd like to thank the CDBG for allowing us the opportunity to speak here today. Once again, back here in front of you guys again to talk a little bit about American Legion Post 80, which is, like I said, desperate need, continuously desperate need of a lot of things. just wanted to share that uh we appreciate everything that this uh committee have done for us uh in the last few months actually last year it's been great and outstanding we've accomplished a lot a lot of the fundings that you guys gave us were right into the building it happened real quickly and god knows a lot of people walking in the building saying hey this is great to have this no more leakage no more this and definitely appreciate that um As everyone, if you've been to post-80, we're in an area which is, I call it a little bit of a disadvantage area, but we're still holding our own, and we're still focusing toward the community. And this is with the veterans and anyone else volunteering in the area to do what we can to help the people that's needed. Like I said, we were blessed enough to be able to work with the Salvation Army. Salvation Army now is in their building. Thank God for that blessing. It worked out pretty well. But we'll continue to work in the community and basically see what we have. pushing in the right direction. But some of the things, like I said before, let's get back to the deal. We have some issues that we're looking at, we have to focus on. I want to share a little bit of that with my, what I'm dealing with, but I want Paul to basically sit down and talk about it a little bit more, because he's the gentleman that's done an outstanding job, a super, super job, dealing with the American Legion and staying focused on the things that's got to be taken care of. Paul, would you talk to everyone, please?

Thanks, Mos. My name is Paul Castione. I'm associated with American Legion, Binghamton Post 80 at 76 Main Street. And I'd like to say welcome to Carla. Congratulations on your role. Congrats. And I know you weren't here last year when the council was gracious in funding two thirds of our roof, well one third of our roof, we funded one third, and there's a final one third of the roof that needs to be completed this year. And so we requested funding for the completion of that. But I just wanna put it in context. So there's three projects that are critical for us to complete. This year, we can remediate some of it to next year. I hope this isn't confusing, but what I'm trying to say is there's three projects that need to be done by the end of next year, and we feel like two of the three need to be done this year in order for us to be able to be responsible and complete all three projects by the end of next year so our focus really is in a request for funding one of these three projects the post itself is is prepared to fund um one of the projects so the three projects are the the um final phase of the roof replacement So the major part of the roof, the funding required is $69,400. The post is prepared to pay for the remediation of six small roofs, so the 4,500. So we're requesting the 69-4 from the council as option one. Option two, we have two rooftop AC units. They're large units that are currently inoperable. One is a unit that cools the main hall. Another one that just broke down within the last month or so that cools the upper room. The impact, you can see the impact that I put for each of those two projects, but that second project, option two, is a total of 33,000 to fund the AC units. Now we can remediate each one of those two for this year. So the phase three roof replacement, we can remediate it by doing preventative maintenance on the roof just this year, but it would have to be done by next year. And we can remediate the AC units this year by hobbling along. We bought two large fans for those rooms. We think that giving discounts to our community members who use those rooms we think we could hobble through the rest of this summer but again by next year they need to be replaced so to be responsible leaders responsible for this this gem in Binghamton we're asking the City Council to partner with us on one of those two projects again option one is the replacement of the roof the main part of the roof 69 400 option two to replace the two ac units at 33 000 and the again the post is prepared to continue its investment of um we've already spent 8 000 so far this year and are prepared to spend 28 500. you'll notice The 28,500 is a combination of the 24,000 on the committed projects with the 4,500 on the six small roofs. So we're looking to partner this year with city council and we thank you for your consideration and I'll just add, A couple more points around the impact. We have affordable rents for community activities that are going on. So the summer rate that we have ranges from $175 to $300 for room rentals. So it's, as far as I can tell, that's the most affordable room rentals for large spaces in Binghamton. And the kinds of folks who use our space are the Philippine American Association and the Lowation Community are two that regularly use our space for their community activities. Last time we were here, last year, you suggested that we apply for other grants. We have. We applied for the Tioga Downs Foundation. We didn't get it. We applied for the county small grant. We're waiting to hear on that. And we're pursuing additional grants from the New York Parks for the historical grant associated with the building. And just a final point, we are supportive of community in lots of different ways. Mo's talked about the Salvation Army. I'll mention that Celebration of Life for the Knights Inn victims are going to be held at the post-80. And we're also committed to supporting youth with a partnership with Scouting America.

You have about 30 seconds left.

Thank you, Sarah. And making our... Post of it our bowling alley available to students with that. I'm gonna pass it over 30 seconds not much time.

Um, yeah, so Even better, um, so quick off. Sorry. My name is Michael Taylor I represent scouting America for Malino's Boy Scouts here in in Binghamton and in fact all across Broome County Quick question for council of our hotchkiss. Were you out in the community on Saturday by any chance? Leigh Barta Yes. All right. So I ran into the council member out there. I was the one who was doing the axe throwing, actually. And to see these kids and the interaction that they get with our inflatable axe throwing set, you would not believe it. You would think that this is the greatest thing that these kids have ever done. Fun fact, scouting hasn't been in Binghamton for the past five years. I want you to think about how many kids have missed out on the opportunity to throw an ax or cast a fishing pole or go on a hike or wear a backpack or even just go swimming. we looked at post 80 as an opportunity to bring scouting specifically cub scouting back into binghamton these are kids ages five to ten like i said for a lot of these kids this is going to be the first time that they really have a true experience with the outdoors in addition to all the other aspects that scouting brings i don't know if anybody in here was was a scout but uh there we go um you know scout is trustworthy loyal helpful friendly courteous kind obedient cheerful thrifty brave clean and reverent If anybody wants to make an argument that we don't need more of that in this city, I will debate you. But like I said, we will be using Post 80 as our base of operations for expanding Cub Scouting in the Binghamton area. We're really confident in the leadership that they've offered to provide us. And honestly, you know, looking at these things that they're all they're asking for uh we would really love the opportunity to be able to give these kids just the best start in scouting um that they can possibly have in the hopes that they will become the best community members that they can be thank you thank you thank you others who wish to share public comments

So if you'll touch that push button on your mic, the green light should be on.

All right. My name is Sue Ruff. I work at Southern Interior Independence Center.

You may need to pull that mic closer to your mouth. They can be a little finicky.

Okay. Is that a little better? Thank you, yes. Okay. My name is Sue Ruff. I work at Southern Tier Independence Center, which is located here on the east side of Binghamton. And I didn't intend to speak tonight, but I've been reading about the work that you all are doing with the resolution that would help with housing. STIC serves people with all kinds of disabilities, all ages, and we have several programs to try to help people find housing, which is really hard. People are on long waiting lists. Getting supports for people who are trying to transition out of institutions such as nursing facilities is really hard. It's work that we've done for over 40 years and continue to do. And my message to you all, anything that you can do or continue to do to produce or develop accessible and affordable housing is something that's desperately needed, and we see people every day. Whether or not it's people like the ones that lost their places to live in Andwell, Not everybody who was living at the Knights Inn was placed there by DSS. Some of the people who lived there, that's the only place they could find. And if you live on Social Security, you won't get help from DSS because you have an income. But if your income can't come up with $1,500 or more for a studio apartment, then where are you going to go? So STIC has a food pantry. We have a hygiene and a clothing closet. And we run out of food pretty much every month. And we keep refilling it. So I think focusing on the needs of the people in this community is really critical. And I would remind you that about a quarter of the people in this community are people with disabilities. So again, affordable and accessible as much as we possibly can get. And again, thank you for shining a light. appreciate that and I appreciate the report that Rebecca put together a few years ago and when she came to stick to explain it so you've been a long-term advocate for housing and thank you very much for bringing your advocacy forward and in such a public way thank you others for public comment

Should I put two of them? Do you need it in stereo? These ones should be all right. John, You know, I remember the good old days of the HUD hearings when a verbatim transcript had to go to Buffalo, right? So on the one hand, you would have Bucci issuing all these statements, you know, about how successful the city was under his leadership. And then on the other hand, you would have the public comments verbatim on a transcript with a stenographer, and that sort of went away. I wonder why.

These issues are easier to solve than you would believe.

You know, I don't want to use the old word priorities, but that's what it is. And now, Binghamton's sort of like an aged silent screen star without her makeup. See, this is the real Binghamton that we have outside and all around today, right? The students are just a distraction. And we have the wrong, we attracted, for some reason, we attracted the wrong type of investor, speculator, the bottom of the barrel. I don't know how we did it. Ithaca, Syracuse had maybe more successful alumni with a track record that could attract capital. They did a decent job. But we have it, buy it, rent it, and let it rot. That's the motto of these people. And, and, They've been rewarded. They have been rewarded with none other than that huge payment to Isaac Anzarou. Not only here, but in Vestal too. You know, I mean, this is a nightmare. This is a nightmare what's happened. And it's, right now, if you had leadership, you could manage this thing. And you start with a number. you start with a number of housing units that you need. You have to have a number. And once you get that number, then you go from there. And I was just talking outside to two people out there, and $70 million in ARPA money to the Oakdale Commons. I mean, go walk around that mall. It's a skin job. You're inside and you have the remnants of that mall. And let me tell you something, building construction, your guy is not here tonight, but he would, it's very profitable.

It's very profitable.

So it's not like a grocery store with a 3% margin. And after the project's financed through the IDA and all those favors, what do they do? The state comes in with more money. For what, I don't know. I guess it's just the stuff in your pockets. But it is solvable, and in this life, there's nobody that can absolutely say, that'll never work, or this is guaranteed to work. If you have that mindset, then you're done from the start. So no matter how ridiculous an idea seems to whatever side, if it's one of those polarized things, nobody can say for sure that it's not going to work. But the thing is, the longer it goes, what doesn't work is inertia, and what doesn't work is just, I mean, we've been in the shapes since urban renewal. I mean, this is what it is when a city got too big for its bridges, lost half of its population, and the politicians did the rest, you know. But what I would suggest, and you know it's funny, eminent domain, and I suggested you all start your own local IDA, because quite frankly, who stopped the waste of money on top of the parking ramp? Who stopped it? Not you, the school board did, right? So the school board was the one You have one minute left. The school board was the one that showed, and that was the first time. We all used to have these public hearings the way the EDZ worked, and you had to go around to each taxing authority, and I would do that. But that's the first victory. Let it not be the last. And these people that are homeless right now, they don't fall into any category or they're unable or unwilling to fill out paperwork. They're not a senior, they're not this, they're not that. They're just out of it, they're out of the loop. And that's the kind of people you have to address and you have to do it fast. And if you want to do an eminent domain, there's a whole lot of student housing bedrooms that you can do one. And they, I tell you what, one or two of those operators would be glad, would be glad to get out of the business. So the housing is available. It's just a matter of taking it off of the students, which is oversaturated and putting those bedrooms to use for the residents of the city. Good night.

thanks John any others for public comment clerk did we have any submissions we did not okay we will move on to first read legislation and I will ask councilmember Hotchkiss to take on R26-36. Thank you.

I'd make a motion to adopt introductory resolution R26-36. This is a resolution to authorize the mayor to submit FY52 to HUD and accept funds.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

I had one amendment I would like to try to make. So I'd like to go to the service line, the service page, and I would make a motion to amend the budget by reducing the City of Binghamton Park Rangers fund by $10,000 and increasing the Triple Cities Makerspace Steam for All program by $10,000. That's my amendment.

Would you mind, Council Member Hotchkiss, one more time, the adjustment, the reduction versus the increase?

Yep, that would be a reduction of the City of Binghamton Park Rangers program by $10,000 and taking that $10,000 and increasing the Triple Cities Makerspace Steam for All program by $10,000. So they can make that program happen with $10,000 and I think with the I think we can find it in our own budget during budget season to make sure that that has adequate funding. That's my thinking with that amendment.

Okay, I have a motion for an amendment. As outlined, do I have a second?

I'll second.

Any additional discussion?

I'm fine with supporting Makerspace. The park rangers are used as pool supervisors. They kind of are critical to keeping the pools open and running, so we will need to come up with that money during the budgeting process, I think. But that can be a problem for a few months from now.

Any additional discussion on the motion amendment?

Well, I guess just to remind folks that the Scheme for All program really impacts folks that are not reached by other programs. And I know in some of the youth conversations that we've had that one of the big questions is, who are we not reaching? And my understanding of the Scheme for All program is that it reaches a group that is otherwise not reached through other programming.

Thank you, any additional discussion? Clerk, could you please call the roll on the amendment?

Council Member Matavetsky? Aye. Council Member Hotchkiss? Aye. Council Member Cavanaugh?

Aye.

Council Member Middleton is absent. Council Member Murray? Aye. Council Member Dundon is absent. Majority Leader Rathmell? Aye. That is 5-0, thank you.

Okay, so if we go back to fully proposed budget as identified in the agenda and packet any additional and as amended any additional discussion.

I'd like to motion to amend the capital page. I'd like to remove $77,400 from the demolitions line and add it to the American Legion roof replacement slash HVAC line. This will provide their roof rehab and the smaller air conditioning unit. for the Legion. And I'll expound during discussion if anyone seconds. And that was 77,000? 1,400.

Yes.

So that would leave 220,792 in demolitions. Okay, I have a motion.

Do I have a second? I'll second. Any discussion?

So some folks from the American Legion were here and say their case. This is in my district, so I felt I should... be supportive and motion for it and I hope there's support among the rest of council. The Legion is really becoming a third place. I think we are getting traction from their efforts and boosted by our funding from last year. I think we continue to see great community return on continued investment. You have not only event space that is versatile and inexpensive and accessible for a lot of community groups, but you have the commercial kitchen operation which is helping small entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. great. They've repeatedly reached out and helped out other nonprofit organizations as they discussed with the Salvation Army situation. They really helped the community through that gap period when we did not have a facility downtown and before the new Salvation Army opened on the west side. They are also answering the call for youth programming with a new initiative with the Boy Scouts, I'm sorry, Scouting America now. That's been a piece missing in Binghamton for a while and they are supporting and kind of bringing Scouting back to Binghamton I think is, also answering some of our youth programming need in the city so it's I think it's a lot of bang for our buck and it's something it will continue to pay dividends going forward I can understand that you know we did invest a fair bit of CDBG money last year and this is another big ask but I think they are walking the walk in every way we could ask from an organization so

Thank you, any additional discussion?

I mean, I guess the concern about reducing the demolitions budget, I don't know if you wanna speak to why that line

Well I mean there's a general philosophy. I think it's more hopeful to put some money into constructing and sustaining and growing an organization than tearing stuff down. I mean bite removal has its place. Binghamton has frequently gone down that road. and we will continue to do so. There's still, you know, over $200,000 in demolitions here. We have found other ways to pay for demolitions when we need to in really exigent circumstances. We can dig into our coffers to do it. We can bond for it if need be. And also, with most demolitions, ultimately, we are, we, I won't say most, a fair portion of demolitions where those costs eventually get rolled onto tax bills for these properties and we do get money back when they're eventually foreclosed on and sold. So there are other streams of money coming in for demolitions.

Thank you, any additional discussion?

Clerk, could you please? I was gonna ask, so I'm curious about the selection of two of the projects.

Sure, well I think doing the final phase of the roof and at least getting one of their programming rooms temperature controlled is a fair ask. I think it's prudent to not spring for a major expense. I wish we could, but I want to hold over $200,000 in demolitions. We're giving them a climate-controlled programming space and keeping the water out. I think that's, again, getting a lot of return on this investment.

Thank you.

Any additional? I'm convinced, thank you.

Okay, clerk, could you please call the roll on the amended? Council Member Matavetsky? Aye. Council Member Hotchkiss? Aye. Council Member Cavanaugh?

Aye.

Council Member Murray? Aye. Council Members Middleton and Dundon are absent. Majority Leader Rathmell? Aye. Thank you, that is 5-0.

Okay, returning to the FY52 HUD budget as amended, any additional discussion?

I mean, I know I emailed you all and I'm happy that there's been no amendments to change but I did go and investigate the system at the Discovery Center and I sent sent counsel for the public watching did send counsel photos of the system showing that it is hard to access it's clearly a super super old system and just wanted to highlight that that information was shared with council members

What comes to mind for me, so I'm thrilled that we identified an opportunity to fund a good portion of the projects for the American Legion 80. I fully agree that they are walking the walk in terms of holding space and engaging with the community and they truly warrant the funds this program is intended to support. We received a similar request from the Phelps mansion. They are in this budget currently last year and we had concern about their engagement with Community members with the underserved community in particular I do want to just knowing that under new leadership, and I'm not actually sure of her current title, but leadership at Phelps Mansion have been active and engaged in the Reimagining Center City conversations since that launch. They have committed to partnering with additional community organizations and have committed to opening their space for additional community opportunities. So I think they also have demonstrated a willingness to, if not be that immediately available third space, continue to learn from the community around opportunities they can support. Any additional discussion?

I guess it's a decent time to note. The First Ward Action Council's Home Repair Assistance Program has been pretty consistently funded by CDBG funds. It's been a useful community resource, especially for older folks trying to maintain their homes and maintain presence in their homes. It did not get funded this year because they had not really expended funds from last year. They had some contractor issues, but mainly about the flow of CDBG funds given the federal attitude toward committee programs. They have restarted and are going full tilt and have been turning in a lot of paperwork and making up for lost time. They do anticipate running out of funds before next CDBG funding cycle. Plan will be that as we go through and do some cleanup on previous year CDBG budgets and funds that hopefully we can find some bridge funding for them. I'm sure there'll be other needs that arise in the meantime, but that's just a plan going forward for that particular need. I just wanted to put that on the record.

Thank you, Council Member Kavanaugh. Any additional discussion? Hearing none, clerk, could you please call the roll?

Council Member Ratabetsky? Aye. Council Member Hotchkiss? Aye. Council Member Cavanaugh?

Aye.

Council Member Murray? Aye. Council Members Middleton and Dundon are absent. Majority Leader Rathmell? Aye.

Thank you, that is 5-0. Okay, we are at the end of our special business meeting agenda. I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

We are adjourned.