City Council - Regular Meeting

Can you hear us, Sam? welcome everybody this is binghamton city council business meeting it is wednesday july 29 2026 it is 6 0 5 pm i'd like to call the meeting to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance madam clerk can we do a roll call please

Councilmember Murray? Present. Councilmember Middleton is absent. Councilmember Cavanaugh? Present. Councilmember Hotchkiss? Present. Councilmember Medvedsky? Present. Councilmember Rathmell? Present. Council President Dundon?

Present. Thank you. Can I get a motion to accept the last meeting's minutes, please?

I'll make a motion.

I have a motion. Do I have a second?

I second.

Any discussion on that? Hearing none, are all in favor for the approval of the minutes? Aye. Any reports from committees or councils or like the Environmental Commission?

Yeah. So on behalf of the MPA committee, Chairwoman Middleton asked me to just give a quick report. So we did have a MPA committee meeting on July 23rd to discuss flock. We had three speakers. Quincy Blair from policing project at NYU law a flock representative and our police chief Ryan and Captain Flanders We had Discussions with each of those three, there was three of us there in attendance for that meeting, asking questions about the current policies within the police department, asking the policing project rep about different types of legislation that can be done to restrict uses, and figuring out different ways to handle particularly license plate readers, and questions towards our flock representative about how they function as an organization. We are going to continue the discussions. I think we basically ended on my comment that basically we had focused on how we could restrict the use of cameras and trying to understand what the current policies are, but that we still need to have conversations about alternatives and whether or not we want alternatives, et cetera, et cetera. So we still have a lot to dig into and we're working on that and still taking comment from folks. I'm guessing there's at least probably a couple of people here that are planning to make public comments again tonight, so we'll continue to take feedback. I know my next steps will be reaching out. I have a long list of stakeholders to try and make sure that I'm getting the full perspective, and that's the... update on that. The other portion of our MPA committee meeting was a discussion regarding honoring Major Barnett through renaming. Our deputy clerk put forward the idea of council having a process for doing honorary street renamings as a way to honor special members. It's something that might be sustainable, affordable, highly visible, et cetera. So that discussion was kicked off as well. The Environmental Ecotoxicology Committee meeting will be on July 30th at noon, and they're going to be discussing stadium fireworks and PFAS. That's what I have.

So I'll add that the Reimagining Center City group, which is not a formal committee of this council, but has been advancing some community engagement efforts related to Center City, includes leaders from the NAACP, Trinity AME Zion, the library, Phelps Mansion, Vines, the Urban League, the school district, Astor D. Rice, and a few others. We have met twice since our last business meeting on the 15th, and our final business meeting Our last meeting was focused on planning towards a public presentation regarding the survey outcomes. As a reminder, that group put together a survey that was conducted throughout the month of June at events and programming in Center City. We also distributed it door to door and talked with residents about neighborhood needs, neighbor interests, services and amenities etc so that public presentation of the survey responses is scheduled for Thursday August 13th it'll be 6 to 8 p.m. at the Phelps Mansion Museum does anyone else have anything they want to report from a committee or Commission we just had an Employees Committee meeting right before this just mention it hearing none we'll move on madam clerk do we have any public hearings we have to set

public hearings to set no public hearings tonight so we'll move on to public comment residents wishing to submit public comment may do so electronically by emailing their comments prior to 1 p.m. on the day of the meeting to clerk at city of Binghamton gov or in person during the meeting anybody who would like to come down and speak at public comment come on down the other two chairs are kind of waiting for on deck and double deck and please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton Hi, please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

Hi there. I know nobody likes to go first. I definitely don't want to. My name's Jasmine. I used to live in Binghamton and I frequent Binghamton several days out of the week. I'm here in front of you yet again to urge you to denounce Block and other ALPRs. We need to cancel the contract by August 8th. These cameras are a huge violation of my Fourth Amendment rights. AI-powered surveillance allows for little to no accountability when these models make mistakes. These systems cannot guarantee my safety, but they can surely guarantee invasion of my privacy, mapping out my life 30 days at a time. i'm a law-abiding citizen just like you uh eight people nine people um that's uh sit here before me um there is no need for police to track my every move 30 days is too much time for data to collect it should be honestly no more than 30 minutes If my or sorry, three minutes, if my license plate isn't already on the police's hot list, there's no reason why the police should be able to track me and my car every day for the past 30 days, all the way back dating to from today, June 29th. We know that police around the country have been abusing this unwarranted access to our data. What's to stop them from putting me on their hot list today? Just because I personally did not like that Captain Flanders, for example, during the Flock Committee was asking for an extension of the already too long 30 days of data retention. Thinking of this makes me feel very unsafe in my own community. I'm sure you can hear the tremble in my voice. Another thing that was mentioned during the committee on Thursday, these cameras should not have been mounted on city property. On my drive here, for example, on Flora Avenue intersecting Main Street, I believe there are two cameras mounted on city poles and connected to city power. um please please we do not we need to read binghamton a flock and other license plate readers and implement the 12 common sense safeguards that i presented to you over a month ago thank you for your time thank you so much hi please state your name and if you live or work in the city of binghamton

uh hi my name is rich mcgrew and i live a block east of here uh in binghamton uh hello rebecca thank you for your support on removing alprs hi hadassah thank you for considering things carefully good to see you nate glad you are with us hi michael pleasure to meet you good evening robert thank you for asking incisive meetings at the committee meeting Hello, Carla. Nice to meet you. And thank you to Kenya who's not here for listening to us. I live in a public housing complex downtown walking distance from here. The Binghamton Housing Authority owns and runs it. Their headquarters is there. Your city government oversees it. It has a nice courtyard with a fence with gates for security to protect residents. The gates are supposed to require a key to get in. The gate near my apartment has been broken for almost a year. Anyone can get in off the street. Dangerous criminals and people with serious problems can get in and it can cause more problems for everyone. There's a surveillance camera pointed at the gate in the fence that's supposed to catch any vandalism of people who break the lock. It didn't work. People broke the lock and it is still broken and nobody knows who did it. The camera did not get enough to identify the person who did it. That happened multiple times. In fact, the lock repeatedly being broken by vandals and the cameras failing to identify who did it. Fix the lock, get rid of flock. Last week, I found this guy who wandered into the courtyard through the broken gate with the broken lock. He just got out of Binghamton General Hospital. He had things on his wrists from the hospital. One said fall risk and the other was a bracelet with his name and info. He was completely out of it. They had him drugged up on prescription drugs. He was delirious, and he passed out unconscious on a bench in front of my apartment for two hours. He had a walker, and he could barely move, and one of his wrists said fall risk. It was about 90 degrees out, and it feels like temperature was around 100. He could have gotten heat exhaustion or heat stroke just out of the hospital. He somehow walked several blocks on the walker binghamton general hospital on the south side all the way to the courtyard of my apartment complex on the east side including crossing a bridge while delirious and sick and injured under the influence of prescription drugs that made him have no idea what was going on and it was extremely hot and he could have died for instance by falling over or from the heat i spoke with him to ascertain the situation and found out he lived in johnson city then drove him safely home because i do not want some random guy off the street dying in front of my apartment I saved this guy's life because nobody else was doing anything. Now, what is more effective for public safety? Fixing the lock on the gate to get into the courtyard to keep people like random people like that out or putting cameras everywhere that do not even do anything fix the lock get rid of flock also people like him deserve proper follow-up care and should not be abandoned like that and should not be released from the hospital when they can barely even walk and are clearly out of it and the weather is hazardous love thy neighbor to quote jesus it is a matter of funding priorities for the city government on public safety try funding what actually works instead of wasting money on the cameras that couldn't even catch

Rich, I don't want to interrupt you, but could you speak a little bit closer to the mic? I was just notified that the mics aren't picking up your language. Oh, sorry. No, you're totally fine.

OK, thank you. Try finding what actually works instead of wasting money on the cameras that couldn't even catch whoever broke the lock in the first place. Imagine if the guy who wandered in was not weak and sickly, but strong and powerful and had a gun or something. The cameras didn't even do anything. They don't keep people out. They're useless. But did anyone else besides me actually help the guy? Did anyone respond to the cameras all over the courtyard in my apartment complex, what they call on camera? No. He was there for two hours. They didn't do anything. Why do we even waste money on these useless cameras? When an unhoused guy was beaten to death out in public in broad daylight, did anyone see it on camera and go there to respond and stop it and save him? No. Also, the lock on the gate is still broken. Fix it already. The Binghamton Housing Authority doesn't have the money. Give them the money. Take it from the flock contract. This happened just a block east of here. I can show you all sometime if you want a guided tour. It takes like five minutes to walk there from here, although today is a bad day to show you because it's too rainy. Fix the lock. Get rid of flock. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

welcome please state your name and if you'll ever work in the city of Binghamton hello my name is Eric Bussey and I used to live in the city and I work here now I am just here to kind of I guess throw my two cents in here about the flock contract it has been a an issue that has been become more I guess Relevant in my life the the more I start to notice the sheer amount of cameras again, I felt a lot of Comments that were mentioned at the at the meeting with the flock rep. There's a large emphasis on Talking about the community of these cameras and how they are just within our community and they assist with community policing as well as a large emphasis on these sorts of controls that that we have within our community for them meanwhile what we are seeing nationwide is that these cameras represent quite honestly a large untested ground of mass surveillance I mean I'm sure that a lot of people have seen the the kind of I guess like large title that's been going around in the news that 83,000 cameras were used to track a woman from the state of Texas for having an abortion. In that case, that is not a community banding together to solve any sort of crime. That is a technology running rampant and allowed to track a woman across state lines into and delving into her personal medical history. Yeah, I just wanted to throw in my two cents and just say that I do not support the FLOC contract, and I urge you guys to drop it entirely, not just with FLOC, but with other ALPRs as well. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Welcome. Please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

Hi, my name's Linda Gleason, and I'm not a good public speaker, so I wrote everything down, and hopefully you can understand it. I just want to say that I support the blue in anything that corrects crime, and I appreciate that I could still use my First Amendment rights.

The Fourth Amendment exists for a reason.

It was written to protect Americans from unreasonable government searches and place limits on the government's ability to monitor people's private lives without proper legal justification. Privacy isn't about having something to hide. It's about limiting government power, which is exactly what the Constitution designed it to be. Here are just a few examples of abuse. Innocent people have been misidentified wrongly and detained and charged for tickets or crimes they didn't commit. Women being tracked for seeking healthcare for reproductive services across lines. Creating a mass surveillance network has been used by ICE in federal immigration processes. Has been used to surveil protesters and monitor individuals. You can be tracked across state lines and country. Now you can also add accessories and they're working with drones and follow people with facial recognition. And then there's many other devices. Between flat cameras, data centers, which are really surveillance systems being set up to collect all sorts of data on people, smartphones, 2027 vehicle car surveillance technology that's being mandated equals total surveillance on our country and our personal lives. Block cameras have been found at bike paths, nature trails, public parks, entrances to state parks, gyms, recreation centers, children's gymnastic rooms, reproductive clinic schools, and preschools. It's not plate tracking, it's people tracking. We will be like China in the near future, and that's a really scary thought. So my question, if you don't renew, please don't renew the flock contract, which would also include the many other Quora, Motorola Solutions, Axon, Rucker, Leonardo, et cetera. So I know I'm nervous as heck, but I just wanted to, I've done a lot of research, and it's really a slippery slope into our freedoms. We are in America, and I don't wanna be like China. Thank you, thank you.

Thank you so much, and you did a wonderful job. Does anybody else like to come down and speak during public comment? Welcome, please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

Yes, my name is William John Parsons, Jr. I was born in Binghamton in Binghamton General Hospital in 73, and I've worked for Catholic Charities, Achieve, and have been a committee board member for the county. I served on the mental health subcommittee for eight years and two years as chair. It's been a long time since I've been here. But between Peter Benedum stabbing, the shooting in front of the West Side Burger King, or shooting in front of Burger King, stabbing in front of Burger King, shooting on the West Side, and the hotel fire, residents, like the disabled, whether it be physical or mental, or drug abusers who need help and direction, need housing, free meals, and access to healthcare so that they may better their lives. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Welcome, please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

Hi, my name is Jordan Wilson. I live and work in the city of Binghamton. I want to keep my comments pretty short. Honestly, I find this entire concept of flock, access, Motorola, AI-powered, ALPRs absolutely disgusting and dystopian. I drive a silver Toyota RAV4. What is stopping a witness from giving the police a terrible description of something the police giving a terrible description to the flock system and dragging me into their search because they decided to simply look up silver toyota rav4 around this time and i happen to drive by along with a hundred other silver toyota rav4s absolutely nothing what is stopping this data from being collected and disseminated to anyone who wants to buy it at this point they're not selling it will that ever change It's yet to be seen. What happens when they partner with other companies where they're technically not selling it? They're now partnered. Or what happens when they're bought out by a larger corporation that is involved in larger dragnet operations from acquiring that information? Absolutely nothing, and it's disgusting. Thank you so much.

Hello. Please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

I'm Ellen Miller. I'm in Binghamton a lot, but I live in Endicott. My name is Ellen Miller. I live in Endicott, but I'm in Binghamton a lot. I did live in the first ward for seven years. There's not a lot that I can say that hasn't already been said, but I want to rhetorically ask you all, is this the kind of world that you want to live in? People talk about people doxing people. This information is not just going to be out there about us. It's going to be all of us. And I think that's something that people that are able to make the rules should be thinking about. I know that you're all limited as far as stopping this. I understand that. But yeah, I just, I do, I think that people need to realize it's not gonna be happening to other people. It's gonna be happening to all of us. That's really all I wanted to say. And thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you so much. Is there anybody else who would like to come down and speak during public comment?

Hello.

Hello, please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

my name is danielle herman and i live and work in the city of binghamton so good evening thank you for taking the time to hear public comments i'm here because i believe renewing the i'm sorry renewing any taxpayer-funded program should require clear evidence that is accomplishing what it is intended to do. This isn't about whether technology can ever help law enforcement, it's about whether the program has demonstrated enough value in our community to justify the continued spending. Before renewing this contract, I think residents deserve answers to a few basic questions. How many crimes have these cameras directly helped solve? How many arrests or successful prosecutions resulted? How many stolen vehicles were actually recovered because of the system? What is the total annual cost to taxpayers? Who has access to the data? Who... how long is the data retained how or what safeguards exist to prevent misuse or unauthorized access these aren't anti-police questions they're accountability questions when government asks taxpayers to continue funding a program it should be able to demonstrate measurable results not simply assuming they're there If the program is working as intended, the data should support renewing it. If that information isn't available, I believe it's reasonable to delay renewal until the public has had an opportunity to review the evidence. Transparency builds trust. Accountability builds confidence. I respectfully ask the council to ensure this decision is based on measurable outcomes, clear oversights, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Is there anybody else who would like to come down and make public comment? Seeing none, before I have the clerk read in the public comments that were written, oh.

Hello again.

Hello, please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton. I'm Brad Pacalis.

I don't live in Binghamton. However, I live in Windsor, so I'm here a lot. I really don't have much to say today. I feel like I've said a lot of that already. One thought that's just coming to mind as I'm hearing people here is just about data privacy. We all kind of confuse what that means. You know, data privacy is not so much about like not participating in digital world. It's about knowing that your data is not going to be used against you in the now, you know, future tense in the long term. Do we trust that our data that's being collected is gonna be used in a way that could harm us in the long run? I think that's what a lot of people fear here. I know I do. I've had a lot of experience with surveillance and its harms. So I may be coming from that perspective. However, I do understand that there's a responsible surveillance. Hence why that group that we're doing here is called SUS, Southern Interior United for Responsible Surveillance. I try to think ahead on this issue. I'm thinking about it, you know? And I have overwhelmingly seen so much... Unity over this issue. It's unbelievable how many people are coming out and speaking their piece on this. Even my day-to-day conversations. It's like organizing itself, really. No matter what discipline or way of thinking that you have, you know. I was a truck driver. They started rolling out surveillance in the trucks, right? And I was working for Maine's. I'm not exactly a huge fan of Maine's. They're not around any longer. I'm okay with that. But I was just thinking about Boy, they're going to put a little camera right up in that corner and watch me as I do all these illegal ass actions that I have to do to keep the safety of the public, like going over several lanes or turning around in a strange situation. You have to do that as a commercial driver. So I may be, you know, on the left, but I do have that perspective, I feel, that widespread perspective on this issue. And that's why I love this issue, because I'm so frustrated with all of us so pitted against one another on so many of these issues we really do unify on when we really fundamentally understand what we're talking about. You know what I mean? We did a post, and I know that this is, we're making a specific direction, If we had flock cameras, would the Boston Tea Party have occurred? Who has the power here? Where's the power? That's what we're talking about. We're talking about power. So if it's your power right now, it doesn't mean it's gonna be your power in the future. That's what we're all talking about. That's why we're all concerned. And we have a right to be concerned on this, because history has shown us that we should. I guess I wasn't gonna talk too long, but I guess I did anyway. I'm going to stop now. I do have other thoughts, but you can always contact me. I love to talk to all the people. I hope you're all well. Nice to see you, Carla. Nice to meet you, Michael. Yes, nice to meet you. I'd love to sit down and talk with you. I think we all would. Absolutely. That's all. Thank you so much.

Good evening, please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Binghamton.

My name is Liam Burns. I've lived and worked in the city of Binghamton forever before I was born. And the flock camera thing is actually kind of interesting. I don't know if a lot of people know that, but anytime that you are in public outdoors, you have no legal right to not be recorded, which is crazy. But that is law. So there's a nuance there that people should probably understand. And the reason why they're probably not charging people with stuff that they recorded is because if they litigate against it, they would likely lose because the cameras are probably illegal. Like if it was brought into like an appellate court or something, if it was actually litigated. So I think people need to probably better understand what the actual laws are before they i'm against it let me just say that i think they're absolutely ridiculous i didn't even know that they existed until like two weeks ago but um anyways uh so i am the controlling member of 81 court street llc i'm here regarding the 81 court street New York Main Street downtown anchor proposal I would like to start by thanking everyone that I've been in contact with Rebecca Nate Hadassah Robert Carla I don't think I think did we speak okay we kind of briefly we emailed back and forth Jared know that he's your biggest fan and and everyone else who has put work into this proposal over the past several days we have taken what could have been a disagreement and turned it into a productive conversation about how to create more affordable housing while keeping the project financially viable With that, I've committed to three residential units out of nine at 50% AMI, which is what I think Nate and Rebecca's goal, well, maybe not total goal, but it's a fair compromise. I think that we both agree on that. And the remaining six would be 90% AMI which is New York Main Street grants things so it's still within the range of affordable housing Tioga has reviewed those numbers it works the funding actually works as is but you probably know this as well, you don't really know what you're getting into until you start tearing down some walls. And so there's some unknowns there and Rebecca has, gracefully introduced me to a whole world of financing and funding that I never even knew existed. And so I appreciate that. And that very well may need to come into fruition once we actually hammer down these final numbers. Because as of right now, it's walking through with a contractor and trying to figure out Like, what's behind that wall? I have no idea. You know what I mean? It's impossible to tell unless you have some sort of flock camera.

You have about a minute left.

Well, what I was going to say was just that... I think that we have come to an agreement. My goal has always been to help downtown Binghamton, help Binghamton in general. My grandfather was the mayor of Binghamton. My father-in-law was the mayor of Binghamton. They ran against each other, and my grandfather lost, but whatever. This is the long con that I'm playing against the Boochies. Let's put that on record. I actually, no, I'm just kidding. But we all want to see. I wrote it down. I'm done. I can't end it with that.

I wrote it down for you.

Oh, okay. But we all want to see downtown restored. And I think that this fits this kind of scope that you guys were looking for. And I think it's a great project. I have a history of actually completing these things, which is important because in Johnston City, there was money that people were awarded grants, didn't complete them, didn't get the money, and then they had to figure out what to do with the money. So completing it, saying you're gonna do something and doing something is completely different things. Execution is key. And I think that I execute. especially if I'm under, you know, pressure, I execute even better. So I hope you guys vote yes. And yeah, let's get rid of these weird cameras everywhere. I think they're weird.

Thank you.

That's my time.

Good evening. Please state your name and if you live or work in the city of Ampton.

Hi there. My name's Travis and, uh, Yeah, now I work here in Binghamton. I'm a social worker, so that's, yeah, thanks. I wasn't expecting to speak today, because pretty much everyone said what I already had been thinking, so I just kind of want to reiterate what everyone else has said about their concerns about mass surveillance in these systems, because it isn't just a matter of them recording us, it's what's done with the recording. It's uploaded into a central database that's accessible by people, in municipalities and jurisdictions far outside of ours. And I think that poses a very big existential threat to all of us. You'd be hard-pressed to think of a single historical example of a state with massive surveillance that hasn't abused it, really. I'm trying to think of an example. I can't think of one. But if you have one, please let me know. And we've already seen some examples of this abuse taking place. I mean, even like those instances of the police using it to stalk their exes, for example. I just think that the centralized power is a bit too much. No one can really be trusted with it. I don't think anyone can responsibly... access data from across the entire country, especially in today's political climate where we see increasing threats against our First Amendment rights, among other things going on in this country from the federal government. And this is just another tool that they can use to suppress us and control us. A lot of these surveillance systems end up being used as a form of control. So that's kind of where I'm coming from with my concern on this issue, and I really implore you to take a stand against ALPRs like some other, several other cities around the country have done so. I really hope that Binghamton gets added to that list, and this is a very important issue for not just me, but virtually everyone I talk to. I can't think of anyone that is really enthusiastic about ALPRs or AI-driven surveillance. This is a very... pressing issue that kind of unites us whether we're on the left right or center um this is very popular stance to take with the people so just know that if you take a stand against it you will be supported you know this is resoundingly popular and for good reason so but before i ramble too long i'll end it there thank you all thank you so much is there anybody else that would like to come down and speak during public comment

nobody okay i want to make a statement before i have um the clerk read into the public comments that were set so when it comes to the renewal of this flock contract city council is looking for any option we have but we don't actually have any power on this You need to be reaching out to the mayor and discussing with the mayor because it's an automatic renewal that automatically goes into effect based on the mayor. So we are looking into every option we can to see what we can do. We've been listening to you guys. I always relate to the old 1984 book. Anytime I see any kind of mass surveillance, but our hands are really kind of tied on this so as we're trying to do everything we can and i want you guys to understand that that we are listening we most of us do agree with you but our hands are kind of tied and we don't know you know helping having your support reach out to the mayor might actually help us get this stopped from moving forward so i just wanted to give that statement so we were all on the same page and everybody understood thank you uh madam or clerk

Mr. President, could I have just one quick second? Go ahead. So just building off of that, we had a resident from Endicott come and speak, and that's, certainly don't mind, welcome. Thank you for coming. I just earnestly am asking, have you been to the Endicott Village Board with these concerns? Because they put 10 of these cameras in in 2023. So just remember that this, all right, very good. So this is a regional, I mean, as you know, it's a nationwide problem, but there's more concerns than just what's hung up in the city of Binghamton.

Is Flock a publicly traded company?

I believe it's privately held.

Since we're making brief comments on that, I do want to add that just because we're aware of the limitations of our authority in not renewing does not mean that we won't be moving to take action to make either recommendations regarding non-renewal or supportive advances toward that. So the request for a redirection and advocacy at the executive level to the mayor is not at all a statement of any consideration of non-action on our part. It's a, you know, our powers combined kind of effort that's going move that forward. I also want to point out that the August 8th deadline that we're looking at for the automatic renewal timeframe for September 8th is a contract that involves just seven cameras. there's an opportunity in front of us to consider comprehensive legislation prior to the renewal of the January contract, which is the guiding terms for the FLOC agreement that can be much more comprehensive in removing or ending or terminating. So we've got time on a comprehensive action but very aware of the limited time frame on the auto renewal next week sorry we don't usually do okay madam clerk can we have all the comments that we're sending to you right into the record please

From Ralph McGrew to the Binghamton New York City Council, I ask you to end your contract with FLOC, surveillance of law abiding people in places where they are allowed to be is completely inappropriate. Joining, using, and contributing to a vast and growing database that can be used and is now used to spy on and oppress individuals and minority groups is just wrong. From Megan Steinle. Hello, my name is Megan Steinle. I live in Castle Creek and work in Binghamton. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts. I watched last Friday's committee meeting and felt that the city police and flock representative were both light on specific data and outcomes. I don't believe they gave us enough evidence that the flock safety is effective for the types of crimes that actually occur in Binghamton, nor that flock safety helps the police go beyond what can reasonably be achieved through existing police resources and investigative practices. There's of course the impact on individual privacy and suspicion of a for-profit company with access to our personal data, but I'm sure many folks will talk about that. What I want to question is the claim that FLOC is necessary for our police force. Specifically in last Friday's council meeting, the Binghamton Police cited investigators are primary users of ALPD data, but does FLOC actually make detectives substantially better at solving the types of cases they investigate in Binghamton? To look into this question, I reviewed the Binghamton Police Department's 2024 annual report, which is the most recent report available on the city's website. According to the report, the detective division handled 1,249 investigations in 2024. They made 321 arrests, supervised 1,607 cases, including juvenile cases, served 163 subpoenas, completed 754 background checks, and oversaw hundreds of registered offenders. These numbers show that detectives are busy, but the report doesn't break down those 1,249 investigations by crime type. We don't know how many involve burglaries, robberies, vehicle thefts, fraud, assaults, or other offenses. Without that information, it's difficult to evaluate how often an automated license plate reader would actually be useful here in the city of Binghamton. I would ask the council to gather this kind of data from the last few years and see what the data says about how many involved in a suspect vehicle, and how many investigations was FLOC actually used, and in how many cases did it directly contribute to an arrest or help clear a case. I would also ask the city police in how many cases did investigators get information from an ALPR that they couldn't reasonably obtain through existing investigative methods like ring footage, witnesses, DNA, cell phone records, existing city cameras, or using through calling on the community response team. The police's annual report stated that the CRT already monitors the city's existing public safety camera system in real time and have made numerous arrests by observing incidents and directing officers. It also notes that the CRT assists detectives with locating suspects and conducting surveillance. What additional capabilities does ALPR provide that those systems cannot? If those questions cannot be answered, it's difficult to evaluate how often an automated license plate reader would actually be useful and therefore difficult to justify continuing the city's contract with Flock or any other ALPD company. I would like to add that should the contract be ended, there needs to be a plan in place to swiftly and effectively disable these devices by the city within 48 hours. Thank you, Megan.

Thank you so much. So we do not have a mayoral veto to review, so we'll move on to second red legislation. It's introductory resolution R26-54, considered in the planning committee, and I will hand it over to Council Member Rathmell.

Thank you, Council President Dundon. I'd like to make a motion to adopt introductory resolution R26-54, a resolution to submit an application for the New York Main Street Downtown Anchor Program.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Discussion, please.

So this resolution was held over from our July 15th meeting. This includes a proposal that originally identified rehabilitation of a currently vacant building 81 Court Street first floor commercial upper floors for residential the initial proposal indicated that the rehab would include six three six to nine units at a 90% AMI. So to translate that, targeting households that are making somewhere between 60 to $65,000 a year. Council pushed back not only on that AMI, but on the target population, which was originally outlined as Binghamton University affiliated residents and downtown professionals. In that conversation, when we reiterated a similar request made during downtown anchor program discussion last year to prioritize and preference in these applications when they're issued to the community. The opportunity to include proposals for affordable development We were told that the numbers would never work that programs like this and developments like this Can only function financially if they are deeply subsidized and so the question from the request for an affordable preference was never made in the proposal and we received applications that included again that 90 percent limit um our holdover was very clear we intended to have a conversation with the identified applicant mr burns who spoke earlier during public comment um to discuss the opportunity to lower that target AMI and drop at least three units down to a 50%. Again, to translate, that means going from units for individuals making 60 to 65 plus to units that are affordable at around $30,000 a year for local residents. Mr., actually, Councilmember Hotchkiss reached out. The two of us met with Mr. Burns. He was extremely willing to discuss how to make it work, how to lower the target AMI. what we could braid together if needed, and we've spent the better part of the last 10 days figuring out exactly how to make that work, multiple conversations. Liam has gone back to the bank a few times. We reached out. Initially, we thought that there might be a funding gap, which wouldn't be uncommon. One of the other things that came into play in this conversation is when lower AMIs are targeted and there's a funding gap to make what's called a pro forma, a projected financial plan, outline work, often other grants have to be braided in. We met with the Assistant Commissioner of New York State Homes and Community Renewal to identify options that could be braided in if needed. So again, multiple conversations, a lot of collaborative effort. Ultimately, the numbers do work for the bank's underwriting process. So again, I want to reiterate, we've been told for years that the numbers would never work for the city to identify a preference that prioritizes more affordable development and that only projects at deep subsidy rates, which would include OTDA, excuse me, Office of Temporary Disability Grants, LIHTC grants, things like that could be used for deeply affordable development. Not only does this project in its updated and amended form add three units of actually affordable housing, again for households making around $30,000 a year, but it it demonstrates a proof of concept that we can continue to use to enhance our development efforts in the city and advocate for affordable units in every single development that goes up. So I want to, just on record, thank Mr. Burns for coming to the table, thank Councilmember Hotchkiss for initiating the conversation, and thank all of you for your support.

Anyone else have anything they'd like to add to the discussion?

Yeah, I can be brief. I don't want to make a habit of this type of last minute change and I hope that we can better align the city's RFP process with the recommendation from Council Member Cavanaugh that we ensure that there's some language in there that identifies affordable housing. Some commitment of affordable housing as a will receive preference So that we're not scrambling last minute that said I am happy that this is Likely moving forward and thank you for your willingness to work with us and help kind of realign your project to some of our goals on council and as a city I'm looking forward to

seeing this move forward and with this as a model for for future projects thank you in case they got lost in the shuffle what we're actually voting on is recommending the state consider giving grant money to this project. So there's gonna be the vote here and then it goes and other people review it, not in the city, none of us. And then from there, we find out if some of that money is coming back. So this is not like a done deal in case people are like, okay, when's the ribbon cutting? That's not what's happening right here.

one of the things that i neglected to mention that was discussed on two weeks ago both in work session and during the business meeting is that there was no effort made during the proposal review process to determine the responsible ownership history of of the applicant of mr burns so nowhere during the review process was their request for a demonstration of compliance with for example the vacant property registration program the city holds That was confirmed by our economic development department director, identified as an oversight in the process, but oversight, or what's the word, overlook? You know what I mean. That oversight is exactly what got us in the situation we were in with Isaac Anzerud. Failing to consider the responsible ownership history of potential developers And Mr. Burns said it in his comments, he has a track record of completing projects like this. So we requested a demonstration of responsible ownership history as well. So Mr. Burns was able to submit documentation proving that he is registered and compliant with the vacant property registration program. He submitted freely aid a summary of recent and historic code violations and their status as resolved. And we also inquired regarding other grant projects, funding that he has received from the state, from local or federal programs. So again, not only the model of the project itself in lowering target affordability, but the process in ensuring responsible ownership. Happy to have been a part.

Anyone else have anything they'd like to add? Basically you two.

all right i'm impressed by the the work that happened and i i guess i was uh maybe a little bit of a negative thinking that it wouldn't happen and feeling a bit proved wrong so i'm just gonna accept that and be public about it well hearing nothing else for the discussion madam clerk can we do the roll call please

Council Member Rathmell. Yes. Council Member Matavetsky. Aye. Council Member Hotchkiss. Aye. Council Member Cavanaugh.

Aye.

Council Member Middleton is absent. Council Member Murray. Aye. Council President Dundon.

Aye.

Thank you. That is 6-0.

So we'll be moving on to first red legislation. That's introductory ordinance 026-54 considered in finance. And I'll hand it over to Council Member Cavanaugh.

I'd like the motion to adopt O2654, an ordinance to amend the 2026 DPW budget for over budget items. I have a motion, do I have a second? Second.

Motion and a second, discussion please.

So as Commissioner Poludi discussed on Monday, he's got some lines, particularly in building improvement and maintenance, particularly at the city hall. We had one of our backup generators here with an issue. The frozen pipes in the basement that happened over the winter that we're all well aware of. An air conditioning chiller. problem. And then the other is a health and safety issue over in Central Garage with their fire alarm panel continually malfunctioning and requiring the fire department to go check it out and clear the building. And then also some construction materials for basically Patching material has gone through the roof unsurprisingly So we and had a lot of potholes to patch after the winter. So they're Having a dip into reserves to cover that It's a $70,000 allocation. We're able to take $30,000 out of the Social Security Insurance Reserve that's available and The other 40,000 is coming out of the contingency that we set aside I have dissuaded comptroller's office from dipping into contingency a number of times this year. It is now getting to August and we haven't dipped into it ourselves. So I kind of let this one go without too much protest. But I'm open to hearing other things. But there's not a lot of couch cushions to reach under at the moment.

I, my initial, and I wasn't here for the work session conversation, so couldn't ask a number of questions, but the fund balance exists and exists as a municipal option for emergency needs, whether it's equipment or otherwise, and I am not clear on why a contingency line item that is one of the few line items that the council has the opportunity to allocate would be drained when other funding is available. We typically are told throughout the year that the money doesn't exist and then we get to the end of the year and we're asked to make rearrangements and we're looking at budget changes and I am not willing to accept that there is not 40,000 either existing, and again I'll point to fund balance, that could be accessed that doesn't, I do recognize that the money in our contingency account has not been spent, but we have identified intentions for that spending. And so just because, I mean, we are in the end of August, but that leaves more than a quarter left in the year for us to move the funding the way that it needs to from our account. I don't think DPW dipping into council's contingency makes sense when we have a fund balance available for municipal needs.

I mean, the contingency fund isn't council's contingency fund. It's the contingency fund in the A fund. And it would be customary to use that before talking about dipping into going out of the funds and dipping into balance.

Can you repeat that?

so the contingency line is just a line in the a fund it's not under the council budget in particular um so and it's it's the it's the contingency in built into the budget as a whole um so that we would be i don't think it's unusual to to look to it um and and if If it's council's will to send this back and go looking elsewhere, we'll do that. But again, given the time of year that we're at and the asks, which is unexpected building expenses and maintenance expenses, I think it's not unreasonable to dip into it at this point.

I would like to explore that option to identify what other funding source exists.

Is that a motion to hold over? I'll second.

So we have a motion and a second to hold over. This legislation will get held over. Moving on to introductory ordinance 026-55, considered in finance, and I'll hand it over to Council Member Cavanaugh.

Okay, motion to adopt O2655, an ordinance to amend the 2026 sewer fund budget to eliminate sewer bureau chief and sanitary sewer supervisor. Second. Thank you. So we have a motion and a second, discussion please. So we have a situation where we have a people moving up the chain, and we do not have a, we do not have somebody at the moment that qualifies as Serb bureau chief. They're coming in at the kind of the, position of sanitary service supervisor so we need to reallocate funds to that title and then eventually when the whatever trains or certifications are necessary they will move up to the chief slot spot but we're just need to make this move to allocate for the position we actually have anyone have anything they want to add to the discussion hearing none madam clerk can we do the roll call please

Council member Rathwell. Aye. Council member Matavetsky. Aye. Council member Hotchkiss. Aye. Council member Cavanaugh. Aye. Council member Middleton-Sapson. Council member Murray.

Aye.

Council President Dundon.

Aye.

Thank you, that is six zero.

Moving on to introductory resolution R26-45, considered in planning, and I'll hand it over to Council Member Rathmull.

I just have a question. Is it actually signed out? Because I'm not on the planning committee and there's only two names on the document. Is there another name? It is signed out.

If there's a typo in the packet, I apologize.

Okay, perfect. I just didn't want to cause an awkward situation.

So I do not intend a motion to adopt, but I'll introduce introductory resolution R26-45, a resolution to enter into an agreement with GPI for corridor ID technical support.

I will make the motion to adopt. So we have a motion, do we have a second? I'll second. A motion and a second, discussion please.

So the corridor ID program is administered through the Federal Railroad Administration. This would be $60,000 for the city to begin considerations for a intercity passenger rail planning program and I know other council members can weigh in regarding historical discussions of passenger rail opportunities. My understanding of historic conversations is that the program itself and the potential of intercity passenger rail is not likely a reality or feasible within the city of Binghamton. There may be updated data. concept of spending $60,000 to I Mean we just had this conversation around $40,000 for an emergency municipal repairs the idea of spending $60,000 to hire a third party to look at the feasibility of passenger rail in the city of Binghamton feels like it should be less of a priority than addressing actual transportation currently in our city in the first place is the first thing that comes to mind. But I think there are other real needs that our budget should be allocated for that don't include some future potential intercity passenger rail options that have already proved to not likely be feasible in Binghamton.

I actually have a question because I don't have the budget consistent to memory. What is the H-Line Corporation Council? Capital improvements. So in theory, couldn't capital improvements be used to buy materials and construction and stuff for DPW?

Different funds.

But we couldn't do a transfer because of the different funds. That's why I'm.

No, we could do an inter-fund transfer. Okay.

Yeah. Oh, so there's a city hall, okay.

There is a city hall improvements line under the capital improvements line.

Which then would fall into broken pipes and chillers.

Yes. Again, like, I don't know what's available in that versus what's been spent out of it. I mean, it's already tabled. So we can go talk with Chuck about what's available there.

Well that's where I'm wondering if maybe we could hold this over and see if this money could be utilized for the $40,000 and then that way we could always move from there and not have to touch contingency. So I'm gonna make a motion to hold this over.

I second that.

That way we can do some looking into what balance transfers and stuff we need to do before we spend 60,000 and then take 40,000 out of contingency. So we'll be moving on to introductory.

I mean, can I just make a quick point on this? I think I appreciate everyone's skepticism about the possibility of having passenger rail come to Binghamton and having historical studies demonstrate that there's not economic feasibility. However, with the news that Scranton is moving forward with passenger rail service to New York City, that gives me a little bit of optimism that this could result in something really positive for the area. And I think people do want to see passenger rail service to other areas. So that's why I was planning on supporting it, but it's held over.

I mean, I'll take the opportunity to build on Councilman Hotchkiss' statements for a moment. The quarter ID program and what grows out of it was an initiative under President Biden and resulted in several steps from where we're at now to the identification and hopefully development of rail up to Scranton. It's true that the current federal administration has not pushed through any new, any new authorizations under that. But to have any hope of competing for the funds, so this is $60,000 to get the study to go after the larger a federal grant to actually do an application through the surface transportation whatever can't remember the full acronym right now so somebody regionally has to get the ball rolling it's a long process I know it's a little bit of a it's definitely a crapshoot but it's it's a major regional transportation goal that somebody has to get the ball rolling on, and I think Binghamton sometimes has to look forward and has to, it's not a moonshot, that's overstating it, but put a little bit of our, development will toward toward You know something it could could pay very long-term dividends for a very small Initial investment. I mean the $60,000 here is not enough to fund a new bus line. It's not enough to Resignal with modern signal that an intersection for Pete's sake it's in the scheme of what we have to deal with it's it's it's a pretty small commitment for a long payoff. And there's regional developments that are being seriously considered that will give passenger rail an even greater opportunity to have regional impact. Suddenly, with Micron and Syracuse 45 minutes away by train is almost a bedroom community. We have to think and plan for the future. This is something, again, personally, I think it's worth taking a stab at.

So I wanna chime in. I can remember when Lackawanna train station was still open and you could actually take a passenger train up through the 80s. My great-grandfather and most of my family, we owned a house next to the train tracks on Montgomery Street for over 125 years and my great-grandfather laid most of the train tracks that are on. still here for the city of Binghamton so I'm all for the trains and I believe that yeah looking towards the future is a nice thing but if we have stuff that we have to fix in-house first then we should allocate the proper money for where it needs to be spent instead of looking towards the future and cutting our nose off the spider face that's just my opinion and we'll move on to the next resolution

Thank you for stating that, and I echo those sentiments. You took the words right out of my mouth. It's not that I don't think that this has the potential to be positive for our city. However, I think that there are immediate and more pressing matters that would require these funds, and so that's where I stand on this.

So we'll move on to introductory resolution R26-52, considered in public works and parks, and I'll hand it over to Council Member Hotchkiss.

Make a motion to adopt introductory resolution are 26 dash 52. This is a resolution to amend agreement number seven, the DECO district streetscape improvements.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second a motion and a second discussion, please.

So Part of the ongoing deco district phase two project they we need to update our contract with Barton and Legatus to For the changing changing work scope because as We heard earlier you don't know what you're getting into until you get into it, and I believe that is what's happening here the only guarantee and construction is everything is subject to change and

Does anybody else have anything they'd like to add to the discussion?

Yeah, I think I had kind of put a hold on this when this came up a couple of months ago. And the project was delayed, and I wanted to dig into the delays a little bit more. With the construction season kind of in full swing, The back reconstruction in particular has really, really stepped up pace and kept the schedule much tighter. And we're looking at a final walkthrough I think next week. So it's taken a while and there's been delays in accommodating. for downtown business situation the downtime, you know busy days down time for the downtown businesses and Some very unexpected things found or not found where they belong underground but it's the project is coming together and Looking to kind of cap this phase off. So Anyway B&L should get their their extra check I guess Anyone else

Hearing none, Madam Clerk, could we do the roll call, please?

Council Member Rathmell? Aye. Council Member Matavetsky? Aye. Council Member Hotchkiss? Aye. Council Member Cavanaugh? Aye. Council Member Murray? Aye. Excuse me, Council Member Middleton is absent. Council President Dundon?

Aye.

Thank you. That is 6-0.

So anyone who's following along with the agenda, there's actually a misprint. The introductory resolution R26-54 was actually second read legislation, so we're skipping to introductory resolution R26-55, also considered in public works and parks, and I'll hand it over to Council Member Hotchkiss.

Make a motion to adopt introductory resolution R26-55. This is a resolution to authorize an agreement with LaBella for South Washington Street pedestrian bridge road grading. We have a motion and a second discussion, please. So this is a, we're having Labella review the Washington Street Bridge. I think the last time it's been done is about 11 years ago, just to, in preparation for the Blues on the Bridge Fest. So we need to make sure that everything is looking up to snuff if we're gonna introduce a lot of folks there. That's all.

Anyone have anything they'd like to add?

We've mentioned many times that it's one of the most used bridges for pedestrians, and the engineering department has said that they're going to be more on top of making sure it's checked frequently going forward so that we don't have these kind of more emergency situations to get it checked out I think you know there's some concern because it was rushed that there wasn't all the you know we haven't talked about like the bidding process in here and all that there was only one company that was available to do it in the time frame that was necessary for this event but hopefully going forward when they get on to like a five-year check cycle that won't be the case

Anyone else? Yeah, I don't think it's necessary to keep mentioning Blues on the Bridge. There's engineering work that should be done and is just overdue, and we're particularly concerned because that's one of the higher use events on the bridge as far as weight, but it shouldn't be that material, I don't think. It just should be part of the schedule and should be done.

If no one else has anything to add, Council Member Hotchkiss.

All right madam clerk could we do the roll call please council member Rathmell aye council member Matavetsky aye council member Hotchkiss aye council member Cavanaugh aye council member Middleton is absent council member Murray aye council president Dundon aye thank you to 6-0 moving on to introductory resolution R26-56 considered in finance and I'll hand it over to council member Cavanaugh

Yes, I'd like to motion to adopt R2656, a resolution authorizing the BLDC to enter into a lease with Curious Kids. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion, please. So this would be authorizing BLDC, who's handling the management of the Binghamton Plaza site, to lease the building there that's housing the Curious Kids daycare to them for, actually, is it a year, Bob, or is it nine months only?

We're doing it for a year.

Okay. For a year, because, I mean, number one, I think it's, we all have the sentiment that the daycare is extremely useful over there and important to the neighborhood, so we wanted to continue undisturbed as long as possible and to give them some time to figure out what their next steps would be and what the city's role should be, so this kind of will keep things in a holding pattern for them now while they figure out some longer-term things.

Anyone else? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, can we do a roll call, please?

Council member Rathmell. Aye. Council member Medvedsky. Aye. Council member Hotchkiss. Aye. Council member Cavanaugh. Aye. Council member Middleton is absent. Council member Murray. Aye. Council President Dundon.

Aye.

Thank you. That is 6-0.

We'll move on to communications from council, and I will start with Council Member Rathmell tonight.

Thank you, just two things. If you've been following our rollout of the Proactive Rental Housing Inspection Program adopted in May, our community education sessions will be hosted in partnership with the Center for Community Progress. They're a national organization that has advanced proactive code in dozens of communities throughout the US. Their senior fellow, who is the expert, On such implementation will be co-hosting that event Will be on August 20th. That's a Thursday. We'll target one session from 1 to 3 in the afternoon to property owners and those in real estate impacted by the new compliance requirements and and then an evening session from five to seven, targeted to tenants and community members. It'll be held at the Decker Room, so again, Thursday, August 20th, one to three, and five to seven. Tomorrow, council members are convening with 25 at this point, I think the count is up to, but institutional representatives, state agency, leadership, so Office of Mental Health, Office of Temporary Disability Assistance, who oversees DSS, county personnel, state officials, some Boots on the Ground service providers, local foundation leadership, and business owners. We are pursuing a partnership with Community Solutions. Community Solutions, another national organization, they've been leading The way since 2010 within the homeless services sector, since 2010 they have worked with over 170 communities to reduce homelessness measurably and to sustain those reductions and they have housed over 100,000 unhoused residents in the process. The city is convening our first strategic coordination meeting with those partners tomorrow to identify available resources to contribute toward addressing our unsheltered, specifically, encampments throughout the city and the municipal response to rather than sweeping, actually identifying permanent housing options for encampment residents and targeting unsheltered homelessness throughout the city at large. As soon as, so that meeting is, again, strategic conversation, extremely data-focused, systems modeling, cost considerations, but as soon as we have a draft of a strategic implementation plan, we can begin to make that public and socialize it with providers to get toward deploying.

Council Member Manavetsky.

All right.

Looking forward to being there tomorrow. All right. District news. We've got Ross Park Zoo is getting two new Canadian lynxes. So stay tuned for that. Last week was National Zookeepers Week. So thank you to our zookeepers. The Discovery Center, I attended the July pop off the page onto the stage free summer concert series. There are two more in the series, one in August and one in September, their fourth Wednesday from 5.30 to 6.30. There was just a great turnout. One of the things I really was visually appreciating that there were people of different abilities, children, adults, people where it really was like brought a real sense of community and I was very impressed by the event. So hopefully the next two will be as inspiring. Free Admission Day at Discovery Center in Ross Park is August 1st, and I want to pre-thank BPD. I heard that they've already stepped up and reached out proactively to help support the additional traffic. The last Ross Park Zoo Free Admission Day, I believe there was 3,000 people that took advantage of the free admission. So I think it's gonna be a busy day there, but if you like that high energy vibe of a big city feel, that will be a really good day to go and get your free admission at both Discovery Center and Ross Park Zoo. Discovery Center does their monthly free admission night as part of First Friday, with a First Friday art show, and that'll be August 7th from 4 to 6.30 p.m. this saturday is the binghamton bridge pedal it's the 20th of those if you want to learn more i did a little spot with scott riegel on visit bing today on facebook and shared a proclamation from all of city council so thank you all for signing on it's just a really great event where we tour by bike a good portion not all the districts usually the east side maybe doesn't get as much love uh on the on the bike uh trips but and uh my my the revised district five also does not get uh much love um but everybody else's districts at some point has been on the route every year the route changes we stop at different community organizations this year we're going to be hannigan's heroes in the south side instead of MacArthur Park, which we've done as a stop multiple times because there's bathrooms there, to look at the newly moved Veterans Memorial. And then we're gonna be at the Harriet Tubman statue. Tubman Center giving us some chats, getting us to learn a little bit there. The Phelps Mansion. there's a fourth one and I'm going to blank on it right now but basically you're gonna it's a nine mile bike ride around Binghamton through different areas checking out different things learning from different organizations it's a good time I'm really disappointed I have a conflict this year but I've been there many other years and it's always been enjoyable but for the surveillance people they do do a drone video from top of all the bikers because we take over the streets just FYI Southside second Sundays the next one is August 9th and the Binghamton High School juice blenders will be the opening act and wound wound tight round tight I'm not sure, will be the headliner, and that's at 2 p.m. in Southside Commons. Speaking of Southside Commons, I did get the CPTED report. It is in kind of like a confidential type of thing, so council can't share it out, but it's something we've been asking for since October, and we have received it. of this week and I've shared it with council member Rathmel who's district it is as we're trying to think about how to work with the budget process and work with legislation on how to really make optimal use and of the Southside Commons I distributed the site plan to the Southside Neighborhood Assembly. And with the understanding that they're going to send it out to the full membership list to try and get some feedback on the proposed plan from Mr. Pritchard, who presented in work session quite a while back. So wheels keep turning on trying to figure out how we make improvements there. I wanna thank Parks. I saw that after we had those tornado warnings, a lot of trees fell down on the 434 Greenway. It was kind of a mess, and they were pretty quick to jump in and start clearing things away. People do use that as their transit to get to work, just like other people may use the road to drive. So I really appreciated that the city stepped up quickly to clear the path for bike commuters, bike commuters and walkers. And I wanted to say thank you to DPW. I'm seeing a lot of work getting done in the south side, and they've been very responsive to requests for graffiti removal as well. thanks on all of those um and in terms of the feedback that i've been getting from constituents and i want to mention to folks that are coming out that are binghamton residents or work in the city of binghamton that you might consider when you're making public comment stating what this district you live or work in or at least identifying that to us outside of public comment so that we know if we represent you specifically. I've had my count running total now I think is six conversations with constituents on it. Three were opposed and three were in support of additional regulation or restriction. So just As far as I'm aware, only six constituents have reached out, and that was the current spread. It's a low numbers count, can't really, not a good poll, but just to kind of reach out and let you know as a council person how I see the data coming in, and that's where my pot of data is sitting in terms of constituent feedback on that topic. So that is also a call for folks who have opinions on this topic to reach out to me and identify that you are my constituent. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Hotchkiss.

No comments tonight, thanks.

Council Member Cavanaugh. I'm fine, thanks. Council Member Murray.

I'm going to be real quick. I just want to remind First Word residents of the Neighborhood Watch meeting at the First Word Senior Center, second Tuesday of the month at 6.15. The next meeting is going to be August 11th. Thank you.

I don't have anything to communicate tonight, so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Motion and a second.