Common Council - Regular Meeting

I could get everybody's good evening. Thank you all for coming. We have a special guest here tonight. Uh very exciting weekend for these young ladies and gentlemen that are part of this great team. Uh want to bring this full circle, right? Um you know, I I I think Mr. Jackson has some detail, but u when Marty Mack was mayor, we had uh won our the first New York State Championship when I was coaching a team. I had coach for the uh Portland youth hockey team as well and we won the state first state champion ever and was congratulated by the mayor then. So now we thought aprico to recognize this team and thank them for their achievement this weekend. Uh this weekend this 12U team has done I think first I talked to Aaron the coach from uh at Red Jug at a a funeral for one of his vehicles that took off at a sad time and uh he said he said I got the team this year. I think I got it. He didn't jinx it just for He did jinx it. We know that for now, but he said, "I think I got it." So, I did go to a game and watch the game at when you were home before he went away. And I said, "They got it. They can do it." And, uh, great coaching staff, you know, uh, coach Aaron Gray is the head coach. We certainly recognize him. Paul Quinland, he's another protege. I coached Paul, not on the championship team that year, but I don't know. Did we ever win Paul?

Runner. Runner. Okay. that year after a couple years after and it's great to see them giving back to the sport. Of course, Mark Jackson, uh, you know, he was the, uh, just for you, you know, you're the winning goal scorer, I believe, at that game after that horrific slashing penalty because I did watch the game on

I did watch that streaming and I was like, what? So, it's you're good. You redeemed yourself, but Mark, Coach Jackson, was the goal scorer for that game, too. And it was a tight game. He said, "Just bury up in the corner." Very similar. It was like deja vu. kind of like the Olympics kind of that all came around that whole full cycle uh to do that. So, it was kind of cool and Mr. Jackson's in the corner and buried that home. Great stuff. Mike Hudson, Todd Vanlon, is Todd here? Didn't see him. Okay. Sean Dagel and Jacob Culture. Did I say that right? And we had Julie and I was a manager and Melissa Quinland was the scheduler. So without all you parents stepping up, getting there, making an investment. I know it's expensive. You have an expensive weekend to get home late, right? Sunday night, I'm sure. Uh and all those meals out and supporting these young uh men and women to make their achievements. Uh it would be good. So Aaron Gray, if you could come up as a head coach and we'll make sure you get this proclamation. Andy wants to uh and the proclamation reads, "Whereas the city of Portland proudly celebrates the excellent excellence in competition and sportsmanship of the Portland Flames 12 new hockey team which captured the 2025 2026 New York State Tier 3 Hockey Championship in a thrilling 3-2 overtime. I forgot to mention it was overtime. They pulled it off. unsurprising didn't get buried on a pilot victory on March 1st. Whereas team completed extraordinary 2025 26 season with a record 475 and one. That's a lot of games your parents

and maintain a ma maintained a perfect undefeated record in tournament play securing the prestigious titles of Miracle Holidays Classic in Lake Placid and the Rochester Presidential Powerpool. Whereas this championship success is a testament of the talent, teamwork and discipline of players Rose Jackson, Patrick Quinnland, Cohen Hudson, Wyatt Ny.

Say it again. poet Houdan, uh, Wyatt Ny, Bennett Cook, uh, James Perks, Gavin Gray, Joseph Tekken, Reese Young, Garrett Vanlon, Case Anthony, Max Hanrath, say that right? Yeah.

Owen Dagel, Zaden Dron, Drono, and Mason Johnson. Whereas a team's character and success has been shaped by the instruction of mentoring head coach Aaron Gray, assistants Paul Quinland, Mark Jackson, Mike Hudson, Todd Van, John Dagel, and Jacob Culture. Team support from all the parents and all the managers, but the city of Courtland congratulates and gives special recognition to the Courtland Flame 12U team for winning the New York State Tier three championship and their competitive spirit, teamwork, and sportsmanship in which we take great pride. So with that we'll make sure that you give that

Benny Cook exploring two goals I think right Two goals. Yes. Top scorer of the of the tournament. Of the tournament. Yeah. He had two good goals. That was awesome. Was waiting for that hatrick. Owen day.

You made some great saves. This is the goalie. The last line of defense and you really made it happen. Thank you for that.

Come on Z. Oh yeah. goal scorer extraordinaire penalty sl

max. Quiet Rose. Nice nice defensive play. Got the puck in the zone really well on defense. Jimmy Pac-Man.

Joey here. And last but not least, Reese want to come up real quick. Any coaches come up and we can line up here and get a couple pictures.

Spread out right here. Spread out this way so your parents can get a chance. background.

Oh yeah. All right. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. Go right out. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you everybody.

Thank you. when the public comment starts when comes up. Thank you. Thanks guys.

Yeah, thank you. Good seeing you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Great excitement for sure.

All right, we'll move on to the public hearing. It's 6:14 March 3rd. Public hearing number one regarding a renewal of franchise agreement with Spectrum provider of cable services in the city of Portland. Anybody here to speak to that going twice public hearing number one regarding renewal franchise agreement with Spectre as provider cable services in the city of Portland. Last call. Public hearing number one regarding renewal of franchise agreement with Spectrum as provider of cable services in the city of Portland. Hearing none, we'll close the public hearing and follow order, please.

Council member Tolman here. Council member Sllamon here. Council member Panelloo is reported absent. Council member Lane here. Council member Conlin here. Council member Carpenter here. Council member Beckwith present. Council member Michaels

here. The rise of the flag of the United States of America to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. We have three to speak to privilege of the four mind that might

Good evening council. I'm here to speak on agenda item number five and number six. Those are both bond resolutions. Um my main worry is we are at money uh we have negative money. Okay. Um the bond resolution for the Yaman Beach uh the 4.7 million um is a wonderful thing. It's wonderful that we got the swims grant from New York State. However, we have to come up with another additional just shy of a million dollars and that's going to come out of straight debt. Okay. I think the city grows a little bit ja of debt right now. Number two, speaking on the what is going to the downtown core project and I can only assume that that means the additional funding for the DRRI. So I've got a prepared statement on that. The city finds itself in a very precarious financial position. Last month the new finance director stated we were likely to finish 2025 on a $2.5 million debt. Uh, according to the AFR, a report submitted to the state by the city of Portland, we finished 2024 with only $18,000 in the general fund. One can only assume two just two plus two there. Uh, we're now dealing with a $2.4 million debt in our general fund. Okay. Um, and I'm happy to be proven wrong on any of this. Uh taking a closer look at expenses yet to be reported in 2025 as of our last finance report uh from the former finance director. I'm led to believe that we may actually be closer to $6 million a $6 million deficit in 2025. And again, I'm happy I've got that report with me if anybody has any questions. I'm glad to go over that with you and show you why I believe what I believe. This can under can only mean a few things. One, vendors are not getting paid. And as you all noticed at a previous meeting, we had a vendor come in here and state he was not getting paid. Number two, we might be looking at

account transfers to cover the shortfall. We don't have enough money to cover the shortfall in any fund. Number three, we're looking on taking we're looking at taking on debt like a 7.9 million the 7.9 million requested by the DRRi bond resolution. Let's be clear, the DRRI is over. The money has been spent. Why on earth would we be taking out more debt for a completed project? Well, I'll throw out a hypothesis. The general fund is tapped. It's been overspent. And this bond would cover the tracks of an outofc control city spending problem while saddling us with devastating debt. The city made massive mistakes with our money and does not want this to come to light. Please do not approve another dollar of debt until we have our fiscal house in order. That means both of these resolutions, that means any additional debt. I I beg you, we're on the cliff here. And I've been saying this to y'all for some of you. If you read your email, I've been saying this to you for three years. This resolution should be supported with a DRRi project budget. It should show all the revenues and all the expenses in that DRRI project and should show exactly what the $7.9 million is going to. Until then, I'm left to assume this bond resolution is merely a cover up for gross overspending on unapproved and unplanned expenses most unrelated to the original vision of the DRRI. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for your considerations. Thank you. Um, mayor, thank you. You usually give good explanation, but the end of the meetings and reading the

agenda, you know, I I had questions on Noah's comments shed some light on them. But on uh resolution 6, seven, and 8, um the bond resolution for the downtown floor, I wasn't sure exactly what the downtown chlorine including. Um on item number seven, amending the sewer from the budget. I remember that in the old days there was um uh a digtor to to digest dairy way and uh and make gas and generate electricity from that. I just wanted to see if that's still what what that is. Okay. And uh number eight, amending the budget to allocate funds for park and recreation vehicle. I looked down the list. I didn't see any vehicle. So I was confused. So, thank you for that.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Portland City Common Council, I hope what I have to say results in some happy news. In January of 2025, Mayor Scott Steve kindly showed me the blueprints for transitional housing, also known as 247 shelter 365 days a year, uh, for which he had received a grant through the common council I received and which he described to me as including 40 rooms with shared baths, kitchen, living room, and an MSW um, uh, social work uh, to uh, help find housing and other services for the unhoused, the homeless, the newly called placeless by a January 226 book that just came out entitled Placeless. And it's a wonderful book. It's at the Courtland Free Library if you would like to see it when I return it today. And um it he he has solutions for homelessness, unhoused people, placeless as he called them. So I I'd recommend it to you. An article on the shelter appeared in the Portland Standard on January 14th last year 2025. On August 26, 2025 at a pizza meet and greet um the unhoused forum I organized to which the community was invited with great success. We had a lot of people come out and uh a lot of people eating pizza. I find pizza is a drawer and I always get good pizza. Okay. uh Mayor's at that uh uh Mayor Scott Speed and one of your council members, let's see, um attended and he told us that ground had broken for the transitional housing shelter. Um Mayor Steve and I had earlier led a forum on the unhoused at which citizens

and for the first time unhoused people had the opportunity to speak and they did. They're very thankful for the new gray space and the one that we had last year and for SOS also providing space out of the cold in the mornings until uh a few weeks ago that um we had a report from the mayor on uh but they also have suggestions and want you to know what it's like to be unhoused especially when it's 10 degrees below. So what I gave you is a handout is their comments at a pizza Friday in September in which um they were asked invited to write down their thoughts, suggestions, hopes, etc. And so you have a one-page hand out on that. If you have a moment to read, I think you might find it informative. Um okay. Um we were invited to speak, the mayor and I, at the Sunni Portland campus by the president, Eric, uh Betterbound on May 4th. Council member Pat Lane and other community leaders attended and um in October on my pizza Fridays because they go without food for 16 hours on Fridays. So there's a a sandwich usually it's a sandwich at loss and fishes there only two suppers a week and even then they need donations for more food. So the owous are subsisting on one meal a day which is often a sandwich or hot dogs. So on Fridays because of that I was bringing pizza. There was no food offered until recently and that's also a sandwich on Sundays. So the last two years I've been making hot stews and stuff on Sundays and bringing it after church. U often we're outside of the library. So anyway, um in October, um I took the Unhouse to various agencies who were happy to have us and they spoke to them about what

services they offer. And the Unhouse didn't know about this and they even took notes when we were at the career works. Did you know that if you get a job, if you're in dire straits, you can get steeltoed shoes through the career works once you prove you have a job. And for many of these jobs, they just don't have the clothing or the steel Holtz stone uh shoes uh and that they need and this is just a wonderful service that they just never heard of before. And the first month they get a bus pass. Um I've also been trying to get used bikes for them and uh they really appreciate that because many of the unhoused do work. They just don't have a place to live. Anyway, many of you know this already, but excuse me. Um, and we uh we also in invited several others to to go speak to them. For example, Portland County Mental Health. They actually came to us in the park. Dr. Carl Schmidt did and he spoke to the unhoused and he handed out bracelets in 988 for suicide but other things too whenever you're in need. And I just thought that was wonderful. I'm almost done.

You are out of time. Oh, I am just okay. Um, we also went to SOS because they didn't know they were there. They're across town and so we found out that they get a million dollars a year almost to find housing. That's their one number one job. Okay. In conclusion, how's that? May I request, Mr. Mayor, that you give us an update on this wonderful grant funded for the transitional housing 247 and the ground already broken as you told me in August 225. Perhaps you could give a brief date update on the shelter progress for everyone during a maral report maybe today. And I I see that the government reporter from the standard is here also. I'm sure she'd be happy to uh speak with you, Sydney. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

I'm sorry. I was waiting for an awful sound. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Anybody else could speak? Mr. action here to talk about taxes. I won't take too long. I hope I made the mistake of not paying my taxes on time, which was yesterday. So, I came today and I paid my taxes first half. I paid the penalty because I was a day late, but I also paid the second half, which I always do. And I also realized that there's a 2 and 12% interest on the second half, even if you pay it ahead of time. I brought this issue up many years ago for the fact that the school district does not charge interest. If you pay the first half, the installment, and if you wait till February to pay the second half, there's no interest. It's not that much and I'm really not so concerned about myself, but the people that are on a fixed income, I think they should get a little bit of a break, especially with taxes going up 15% between the county and the city this year. When I was walking the streets and reading meters, I went in many, many, many houses where there were people who were living on social security strictly alone. And people used to say, well, your water bill is only going up 5%, your gas bill is only going up 5%, your electric bill is only going up 2%. But you put all those onies together that is up to a fairly hefty price. And with the school taxes being what they are, it's almost 20% this year between county taxes, city taxes, and school taxes. I also read Mr. to choose letter to the editor tonight in the paper talking

about the issues that the school district is going to have very shortly using up all of their extra money that they had set aside and there's no extra money set aside anymore. So obviously taxes probably won't be going out there. Like I said my main concern is not for myself. I got a couple part-time jobs. I get a pension. I get social security. But I'm more concerned about the people in the city who live on social security and whatever else they may be able to get to pay these increased taxes every year. And the city taxes I at one time was 4% 5% and it finally ended up at 8%. They said with the county taxes going up 7% it's just a 15% increase just between the county and the city. So I just want to make you aware of that and that there are a lot of people out there who are struggling to pay their tax. I think if you look at the list of people with unpaid taxes in the county, it's probably pretty hefty. So, just for your own information and I thought I'd bring it up tonight. Thank you.

Proclamations. Proclamation number one, declaring March as women's history month, city of Portland.

Resolved that I, Scott C. Mayor of the city of Portland do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Women's History Month in the city of Portland and urge all citizens to recognize and celebrate the contributions and achievements of women in our community and throughout our nation. And we'll second proclamation declaring support for the America 2250th annation in the city of Florida. Resolved by the city, excuse me, resolved by the county council of the city of Portland, New York, that the city of Poland hereby formally endorses and supports the America 250 commemoration, including the efforts of the New York State 220th commemoration commission. Then be it further resolved that a copy of this proclamation shall be transmitted to the New York State 250th commemoration commission, the governor of New York and members of the New York City legislature. Exciting year, 250 years history. All right, go on to the mayor's report. Um on 218 uh attended Portlandville town board meeting in with the village of Homer mayor. Uh they attached the letter from the all three of the mayors from abro and the city asking them to reconsider and withdraw and add back to the mutual aid funding the recreation fund so we didn't have to alienate and separate out um the citizens of Portland and other areas just hate to have to have that happen. So putting a plea into that to try to reinstate that but we're already getting phone calls that were not friendly.

Uh on the 19th uh the uh park and chief scheduled a juke committee had their initial meeting and follow on 220 attended a retirement walk out with officer Ben Lock certainly he'll be miss also on the 20th the polar office speech schedule review committee at meeting as well mayor will be following next week as well um and then attend on the 25th attended the uh chairman's round table at the We discussed taxes and property taxes. New York State was there for property taxes and understanding that property taxes and what we can do to mitigate those and try to keep two bar rates up as far as assess values and how do we assessment every year. So some good information there. And then the 26th the audit and finance committee had their initial meeting and during the meeting next meeting. Um then we talked about the hiker team on the 27th and uh the um attended the on the 28th attended the SBCA did love and pause basket raffle at the elk lodge which raised over $2,100 for that event. A lot of fun and we had a good time doing that for your help there as well. uh upcoming war three meeting I believe is at the waterworks of the tip at six o'clock is that was on our calendar and then on the 6th night the YMCA from 6:00 to 8 practice on Friday at 9:00 a.m. at the Elks. Uh and then from the 13th next month, $7 health coalition annual community counts form at CRT and then here shelter updates. So I just want to talk about that briefly. So, as we all know, the Warning Center opened

up their shelter there and uh there's currently other projects going on um for um other housing assistance needs that Catharities is working on. So not quite sure other than that the project that we are working on over the warming center that was still I assume the ground break opening there but that's uh so we'll continue to try to do everything to work with our non for profits in our unhoused situation and we'll we'll try make work and I appreciate the input of this document. It's always good to I do talk to them frequently, but it's also good to hear get together from a pizza perspective, from their having their comfort food to be able to talk about what issues they really see is in front of them. So, thank you for that.

Uh reports one, I want to thank public works. We had an issue on a dead end with some final being addressed also hole on Homer. Uh, I think it's important to note when people are aware if they're reported, it gives us a better opportunity to replace potholes before they become hazards. Um, also had a resident had a missing tote that got handled uh without me being involved, which is appreciated. Um, did have question in terms of agenda items and Mr. Dwitt, you know, we exchanged emails. Um, there's been two times where I've asked in terms of items to be placed on council agenda and hasn't happened. So, in addition to doing a fair amount of research on city financials and some of the other things, uh we did have that committee meeting last week, but there were some recommendations that I wanted to discuss tonight and I put forwarded to council for different potential resolutions that I'd ask council to consider placing on tonight's agenda.

All four tonight. Well, I think all four are relevant. Yeah. And if we want to break it up, but we need to start making some actions. Okay.

Okay. Um, I have spoken to Brian about those resolutions and I would support having them on the agenda to discuss if we to discuss a situation. I also had a meeting with the head of the phones department was there and was there and the mayor was there when we discussed the the codes and the costs associated with some of them. So that was good. We have follow meeting coming up on Thursday. Um, and it's been pretty quiet. And the second board, the last thing I wanted to add is that the well, the Y MCA in Portland has a free program. You don't have to be a member of the Y for people who are going through or have survived cancer. men, women, all ages. It's available. It's a free 12week membership. Actually, it says adult membership. Um, there would be two to three classes a week. The times are not set. It would be cardiovascular conditioning, strength training, balance and flexibility exercises, fitness and quality of life assessments before and after participation um with YMCA certified instructors helping me every step of the way. So, if you're interested in something like this or if you know somebody who's interested, uh they need at least five minutes to sign up in order to make this happen. Um, I'm very interested.

So, you can email a woman named Liz at livestrong all one word livstrong at iththica ymca.com is this program homesa. So, pass the word along. I'll try and get a flyer put up in the theater's office. Okay, thanks. That's it from the second one. That's like

um quiet in the fourth and I attended a meeting at the firehouse the fire department. Uh I did take a tour of Grace Place. What an amazing facility. It's just they they've thought of everything and and I'm sure it's going to be well received by by the anyone who needs anything that they have. Um I attended the code P meeting uh personnel meeting last Friday and I worked at the SPCA for the love of pause event on Saturday. It was a great time and I want to thank Jade for all the work she did to make make it happen and Stacy as well.

Thank you Mr.

Thank you. So I end up rescheduling my ward meeting that will be this coming Monday uh 39 uh from 6:00 to 7:00 in Bo Park. So I apologize for the inconvenience there. Had a hard time getting word out. So working on getting people aware that that is coming up. Uh we also had a fire over in the fifth ward. Uh so I'd like to thank uh the folks at the fire department for the response and uh thank Chief Reedman for his communicating me on that. I appreciate it. Uh I've been working with code forcemen. Um there's some issues that Ron Reynolds have that Captain Ever communicated with me. They're working on addressing. Um, and then last week, uh, Deputy Police Chief, uh, Q, uh, was kind enough to take the time to, uh, walk me through the AI cameras on Main Street, uh, and some of the functionality there as well as safeguards that they have. So, that was great and I appreciate that. And that just that did attend last. That's it. Mr. Back,

I'm pretty quiet. Just real quick, remember remind everybody about the St. Baldicks. It's Saturday the 14th. You know, last year they broke a record on donations. Fire department generated quite a lot. March 14th at Red J. So just the stories you hear from these young someone's from the family that their kids have passed away and some of them were survivors were still fighting this it's heartwarming. So you get a chance to stop down all the people you're back with who have they contacted who want

um St. Bers.org blog I think it is. If you want to find a sponsor like the fire department or you know throw names out there but John Ragen generates a lot for the organization but there's a lot of people out there that have a website up that you can donate even though it all goes to the St. or anything use their name or we used to have police officers don't cheat our firefighters. I know there firemen have some sites up on there on their website they'll stalk website you can drive into within that you can see teams the PD will have a team

you have to get to both them so fire have a team and then you can support as a team or individual thing we had a fireman last year I forget the gentleman's names he decided he wanted his haircut I think just the time he was there we raised $1,000 count him and getting his haircut. He was moved and he could Mr. Michael.

I also attended Officer Black's uh walk out and uh this year they well this time they actually had fireworks which was a nice touch. Uh did surprise some individuals but others will really appreciate. Uh we also attended the uh parking commission meeting uh last week. Uh we reviewed uh tickets procedures. Uh uh some of the tables that involve the fee structures and at uh some point u we'll have something back the council in the near future. But as of right now, we're just kind of getting our feet wet. And hopefully by the next meeting, we'll know a little bit more attending the town gown meeting um Monday. Uh that was that was well attended as well. A lot going on with our college. Some of the events that will be posted on the city's website those are interested. I also had constituents uh concerns regarding uh the upcoming bond proposals and um was able to answer some of their questions. So that's uh that's all I have to thank you. Thank you. So while we got everybody open here address u some of these um agenda items that will be voted on but um I'm also solicit another person that wants to like to be on the uh audit finance team issues sure there's enough people there be able to do it interest do has seriously should certainly be loosened about health. So when we had the audit finance

committee meeting but you know the idea is to discuss where in level of detail that we won't necessarily do in this in this meeting not to belabor everybody here but to have those discussions and then bring it back to here with the recommendations and those ideas and thoughts to make things better. That's the purpose of that audit finance that we put in that directive. So it would make appropriate sense that we would pull any of those kind of thoughts or ideas that are not already being done or have been done to be able to do that. Now one of the resolution was to uh create an audit and finance committee which we do have and also was to uh add civilians which is up to that finance committee we ought to do that. We can I would like to solicit another person on so that we can make sure we have appropriate attendance and make sure that we get attendance to those meetings and and truly discuss the best how things are moving, where things are going and make sure that it's communicated back in your words to this general body as I'm understanding.

Can you remind us who is on that committee currently? Currently now it's Mr. Tobin, Mr. and Miss Finel and um which you know I think all have great aptitude to be able to do it. I think that's great but I would really like to have another one there so we can end up with just two members there.

I think it's important to uh have those communications and have different ways to look at it and really kind of talk about you know um where Mr. SH is on addressing the issues where where those are dealt with, the level of detail on whether it's um you know um the short-term problems. I mean, you know, you know, to put it bluntly, it's it's a, you know, it's a big knotted mess and to start breaking apart some of this knot a little bit at a time is going to be an important factor that has to be worked out and strategically working on that as correct. Great to have that input and discussions in a in a manner that's productive and what needs to be resolved. So, approval of minutes. Anybody get a chance to read the minutes? May I have any questions? I have a motion to accept amendment. Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Beckwith, all those in favor?

Opposed? Carried. Resolution number agenda number one. Authorized renewal of franchise agreement inspector at provider of cable services in the city of resolve that the city of Crawling County Council hereby authorizes mayor Steve to execute a non-exclusive franchise agreement with Spectrum Northeast LLC for a 15-year period in consideration of an annual franchise fee in an amount equal to 5% of the company's annual gross revenue. I get a motion. Mr. Colin Dwith or I'm sorry, Mr. Carter here. Mrs. Dewith, any questions?

Okay. Move it, please. Council member Tobin. Hi. Council member Silon. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi. Council member Michaels. Hi.

Agenda item number two. Authorized school resource officer memorandum of understanding with the city with the Courtland large city school district. resolved that the city of Corland Commons Council does hereby authorize Mayor Steve and Police Chief Guerrera enter into a into a memorandum of understanding with the Courtland large city school district to maintain a part-time school resource officer position for a period that shall commence January 1st, 2026 and expire December 31st, 2028. And be it further resolved that consistent with previous agreements, the Portland Large City School District will pay the SRO's full salary of $55,000 and related costs, uh the city police department will provide appropriate training and allow the SRO to utilize a marked patrol vehicle while on duty and the school district will provide fuel base fuel based on SRO related usage.

I got a motion, Miss Lang. Mr. Pal. Um, so this is going up from 35,000 to 55,000. So, um, it used to be there's a max cap that they're going to do 35,000, which is obviously difficult for that time period that they have instead of thousand or 180 days, that's what it is, 180 days that they cover. And this contract will be from six hours a day to seven hours a day. So, they get better coverage. And this will be two SRO's. Uh the current one and Mr. Lock who just retired. Any questions and please? Council member Tolvich.

Hi. Council member Sllohan. Hi. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckliff. Hi. Council member Michaels. Hi. Agenda item number three. authorized collective bargaining agreement with Teamsters Local 317 representing wastewater treatment facility employees.

Resolved that the collective bargaining agreement between the city of Portland and Teamsters Local 317 is hereby approved and ratified and be it further resolved. The mayor Steve and designated city officials are hereby authorized to execute said collective bargaining agreement on behalf of the city of Portland with the teamsters local 317 for a 4-year contractual term dated January 1st 2026 through December 31st 2029 a motion Mr. Buff Mr. car. Any questions? Um, yeah. What has changed since we last had conversation about this?

Uh, Mr. Shagger, uh, financial status of the wastewater budget. Can you give us you talked a little bit about it two weeks ago.

I said two weeks ago that it looks like the 25 U fiscal year was going to have a loss of roughly a4 million dollars. uh in 26 um the funds that were shorted in the budget uh I found uh and it's going to be covered through NAERTA grant money and um I believe can't remember the exact number but it's significantly greater than what uh we need to make up as well as I believe all the increases in the wages was covered in the budget itself. So I I don't see this being a problem uh towards the wastewater budget. Okay. But budget this is retroactive to January 1 and we're currently underwater is what I'm hearing. So, I have a hard time and I'm not sure why council is being put in a position to vote on on an agenda item that we don't have the funding in place now because you're talking about funding that's going to come in later. And I thought our discussion at the last meeting, last time we talked about this was that we needed to make sure that we have money before we're spending it. I don't recall that conversation as such but I remember that the the financing u but there was a meeting I was not here so I don't know if that was discussed at that point but uh I mean it's just like any other budget in line and it's a budgeted um structure and it's budgeted for and it's money to pay for based on that budget. So, we can't um I feel like we can't stop flushing toilets uh and stop our business, our state of business and um this this contract is old and it's dated prior to you know uh co so we lost an employee last week due to salary to

money from this or from this agency itself and from DPW

which again there needs to be guidelines or structure behind what we have. But again, we need to continue. We need to be prudent. We need to be conscientious. We need to pay attention. And we need to be diligent about what we're up against. We're at 10 months to make sure it's right. And kind of we went through line by line on the item in the budget. Mr. Shagger has some adjustments to be made on the budget later on budget resolution budget mod to get those get the budget to the balance to what it is. By any means, we don't think we're out of that woods yet because there was that $2.5 million is due due from. That are some of the issues which again is part of the bond resolution to resolve those cash flows that were planned on being paid for uh according to the plan on the master plan of the three construction projects prior to uh 2021 in 2020 that was planned. So, um, but I I feel like we can't, uh, short these employees and not move our facility in empty so we don't have employees left to be able to do that. So, there is money in that and that's a budget item and so I guess that's it. We I mean we approved every other department's contract and I for one do not want to make wastewater the ugly stepchild that has to pay the price for everybody else.

Certainly not. And we're not asking any one department or employees to pay the price for others. You are. But well, I heard that we were 2.5 million in the hole last year. So maybe there should have been more discussion about some of those contracts last year as well. We're not in a good place and I apologize but I cannot vote for funding something that we don't have the money to fund. May I add something?

Um yeah I just the NAERTA grant was north of $700,000 which is well in excess of any raises that are in this contract the full term of the contract. Additionally I know Mr. man could probably speak to on much more detail than I can. We've seen a significant increase in the funding from receiving DAP and we expect there to be another significant increase later this year. So, I mean, I understand that the city as a whole is in a tight financial situation. It's important to realize that this is not the general fund we're talking about here. This is the wastewater fund. That big 2.5 million number is tied largely to the general fund, not to the wastewater fund. Chuck can correct me if I'm going wrong here.

You're correct. Um, so I mean, we're talking about a, like Chuck said, there was a several hundred,000 deficit last year in wastewater. The revenues are going to be probably a million dollars more than they were last year. So, I mean, I understand, yes, we have problems we need to fix. I I don't think this is one of them that's that's going to fix the city's problem. So, thank you. Before you go, we had asked last time what percentage um of of the salary was going up each time. You didn't have percentages. You had a different um way of figuring that out. Per hour. Yeah. No.

Yeah. Were you were you able to come up with a percentage? Because I think the perception was that it was very generous and that was one of the concerns that during a difficult year that we were being extremely generous. It it was generous in year one because they had fallen significantly behind market rate. Years two, three, and four of the agreement because they wanted to go with a set dollar amount. Basically, we set a 3% raise in each of the outlying years. We made it a pool and then came up with a dollar amount that we could give them. So, I believe if I'm not mistaken, it was 75 cents, a dollar.75. I don't have it in front of me right now. I'm sorry. But we it was provided to council. You have the full contract. Um but but basically if you add up the amounts for all the workers, it comes out to about a 3% change in each of the outlying years. The first year I think was probably closer to six or 7%. Um but they're significantly, like I said, behind um the other ones. And we did provide um to council the comparisons that that Miss Green would have pulled when we were setting up negotiations.

Anybody else? Okay. Move it, please. Council member Tobin. Hi. Council member Silvin. Hi. Council member Lane. I. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi. Council member Michaels. Hi.

Agenda item number four, State Environmental Quality Review Act, seeker declaration or type two action regarding the reconstruction and improvement of the batht resolved by the members of the common council of the city of Portland, New York as follows. One, the common council has determined that the project constitutes a type two action under six of the New York State Code uh rules and regulations section 617.5 C2. um replacement, rehabilitation or reconstruction of a structure or facility in kind on the same site, including upgrading buildings to meet building energy or fire codes as defined in the regulations and no further action under SRA under the SERA act and the regulations is required. Two, this resolution shall take effect immediately.

A motion with Mr. D. Any questions? Who did the seeker? Just I proven the seeker I haven't seen. That super does that that seeker hasn't been done yet, has it? Or has it's a it's a type two action. There's really no no problem in doing it. I'm just Yeah. making sure everybody else knew what was going on with the seekers. So, thank you. Anybody else? Thank member Tobin. Hi, Council Member Sllivan. Hi, Council Member Lane. Hi, Council Member Conlin. Hi, Council Member Carpenter. Hi, Council Member Beckwith. Hi, Council Member Michaels.

Hi.

Agenda item number five, bond resolution for the city of Portland authorizing issuance of 4,76,65 serial bonds to finance the cost of reconstruction improvements of the bath house and pavilions at Env. All right. So, uh, I'd be happy to read the entire, uh, it's all statement if the council would like. Um, but I think that the first two sections probably I get to the substance of it. Uh, be it resolved by the common council of the city of Corland, New York, as follows. Section one, the city of Courtland, New York is hereby authorized to undertake the reconstruction and improvement of the bath house and pavilions at Yayman Beach whether or not including grading or improvement of the site, original furnishings, equipment, machinery, or apparatus required at a maximum estimated cost of $4,796, excuse me, $4,796,965 and to use serial bonds in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed exceed that same amount pursuant to the provisions of the local finance law to finance the estimated cost of the force said specific object or purposes. Section two, it is hereby determined that the maximum estimated cost of the afor specified objects or purposes is $4,796,965. set amount uh is hereby appropriated therefore and the plan for the financing thereof shall consist of the issuance of not to exceed that same amount in serial bonds of the city authorized to be issued pursuant to this resolution and to the local finance law

motion Mr. Beck with Mr. Mr. Shagger, maybe you can explain that the 4.7 is not the total

the 4, let's say 4.8 million is the full cost of the project, the total cost. Uh, looking at some of the old bond resolutions you've done, sometimes our cost associated with this is $900,000 and change. And sometimes we would just borrow the $900,000 and the bond say the total cost is 4.8 would borrow 900. I did this a little different. I'm putting that we could borrow 4.8 8 million total if we wanted to. Uh I'm looking towards only borrowing the 900,000, but if something came about and my concern is uh this runs through DASE, a New York State grant. I've had experience before where DNE does not pay you in a timely basis. I don't want to have the city out $3.9 million and not be able to borrow for them. So if that becomes the case, we can I'd come back to you and say we're going to borrow this other $3.9 million, ask you first and then borrow it. Okay? But the resolution is already in place. It's just a matter of just coming back and confirming with you what we're going to do. Um shortterm in the May borrowing, it would be for all the $900,000 uh up front. Our our portion of the cost that will go longterm at some point down the road

if necessary. part of that in kind where we had some incind costs that we're going to try to do three was we're estimating about $350,000 we can do in kind and demolition and prep work ourselves. So that'll reduce that cost even better. So I think that was addressed I believe to everybody from an email or letter from Miss Pettig from Got a question. Um, we approved this on October 27th, 2025. Why? Why?

You approved a grant to accept a grant for that 3.8 million, saying that the project would be 4.8 and that the city would have $900,000 worth of cost associated with it. There was no way of how's that $900,000 going to be paid. It was mentioned in there that it was going to be a bond ordinance, but a bond ordinance is a legal document that goes into many different forms of government that you need to do. Okay. We we never did that part of it. So, at that time, I believe that because it was done that way on bands, I believe Miss Greenwood believed that you could do the same with that. And

we It's my fault that we didn't know the better. So, this is cleaning that up. So if we don't if we don't accept this now, what are the chances of getting it again or having it still?

The I mean being able to get the degree it's a grant that comes into play. Uh these grants are not offered that often. Uh I've also researched this uh found that uh grants of this size uh cities jump on very quickly. Uh we were prepared for something like this. So uh we have a good chance of coming through. A lot of a lot of leg work went into this. Uh some of the other grants that I've seen regarding uh parks and recreation only amount to something like 5,000 maybe 10,000 tops. Uh this is an opportunity that doesn't come that often. And uh to pass this up uh is certainly going to hurt the city as well as uh that park. And as we all know that's that's an aging park. It's not a new park. So, so it needs the work that's proposed uh in this grant

and I mean it needs to be ADA accessible which it isn't right now. That's true. That's true. That that has to be done. Is there a way to express to the state that we are interested in the grant and just that given the current financial situation, the council needs some more time to consider the grant proposal before approving it? You'd have to talk to Andre about that. I couldn't answer that question here. It's it's not like let's make a deal. U they'll just move on to some other city. They're not going to say, "Wow, okay, let's let's let's see how the Portland is going to shake out."

When that resolution was passed, they made that commitment we made to the state that we would fund that how it was going to be funded.

And that that was an important factor. Um again, I think we need to mitigate what that is. And certainly we all don't I don't it's going to take a while just to close out 2025 you know next month but those timelines are going to take past. So the timeline that this has we run out past the time the timeline that this is planned this project is planned to do is uh the demo would begin as soon as the park would close at the end of fall. We demo the buildings. We would get prepped and start doing the some of the retain wall hopefully get the foundation in by the end of the year. bidding needs to start before that obviously. So we need to get to finish those the renderings are in pretty good shape and then uh and then the following spring be able to get everything constructed so it can be in use for next year.

So there's a pipeline to be able to use that people I mean DPW I mean they could do a lot of that's the inind work that we're going to try to mitigate a lot of that.

So this is very important to this area. constituents are very happy with this project. They're very excited about this knowing Foundation is extremely excited about this project, you know, and conversely, you know, I agree, but conversely, they wouldn't be excited if they had a 70% tax increase or, you know, that's all going to be manageable, too. But I think, you know, it has to be uh reasonably looked at. Say what what is that? What would that that look like if you sped out just quick numbers $50,000 a year for 20 year? This would be a 20-year bond, right? This would be a 15 year. But if you got 750,000, divide that by 15, what's that? 60,000 plus interest.

Okay. So, that's what that's the net you would have to crack in those budgets after that to be able to cover that. So, um and again, you know, like like we have to do, we have a lot of work to do. they figure out that 2.5 and be able to get that done and then certainly we need to make ourselves cash solvent which is what the next bond resolution is for. So we have people talking to us about their taxes that are too high and people are worried about the deficit that we have as a city. What do we tell them about where the money to pay back this bond is coming from? Because they don't want it coming out of their pockets anymore. We can't raise taxes this much next year.

Yeah, it's difficult when you're following I think Mr. Beckham Grant mentioned it or somebody Mr. Chu maybe mentioned it. The high the high schools deficit problems as well the same. you know, the county I was looking at that like we assess $11 million on property, the county is 9 million. So, you look at what we're getting and uh so I think uh I think we have to be able to make those tough decisions when it comes to what what we want to do and how we want to manage things and we need to look at the uh 25% where we cover 25% of the whole county tax levy. what can we do more to in working together towards saving those dollars so that those taxpayers aren't paying, you know, nine and 11 million back and forth on those two budget items. So, um you know, ever since uh this has been worked out, you know, we've been diligent working on a plan to try to so we have a long-term plan to resolve those issues. So, um I don't know if I answered your question. What do I tell my people?

Well, I mean, I think um I mean I you know the cost you can't guarantee any costs aren't going to go back to any of them. So the taxes, you know, I mean that's where that's part of our tax at least doing it. But if you had to pay $5 million and if we don't do this now and you have $5 million, that's going to be a bigger cost. That part would go away. You know, I guess you got to look at it that way. I mean, you can't ever look at, you know, you got those significant investments kind of like our fire trucks. We got, you know, a million dollars. We put it, we got to put up $100,000 to get that million dollar. Is that wasn't that a better way of spending that to paying one time for what that is? And we have that need. Yes.

I can see the value of fire trucking. We've done a lot of improvements at Hayan Park and I agree that the bath house is old, but it's still serviceable. I don't know about the um snack shack part of it because nobody's operated that for a few years. Um it just I I think they want to see belt tightening from us.

This is a good project and this is a lot of money from the state. It's a 20% match by the city. The problem is we don't know how we're going to match it. And until Mr. Shagger has more time to work through the financials, I would say it would be premature to approve taking on and I think it's actually closer to a million in terms of the city share. How soon does the state need our answer? Well, it's the bond council that needs the answer. The state has our answer according to them. That's where our motion is going. Yeah.

But it's the bond council that needs to be doing that. I think that has to be done. What the process is we have to borrow the money in May. I have to have everything to them by early April. So basically, you got potentially one week to say yes or no. If it doesn't happen by the next meeting, I cannot put it on to a borrowing thing in the May time period. Okay. Um the actual dollar amount that we're looking at is $900,000 and change, but there's going to be some inind stuff to that. We believe that's going to be closer to 750. I think 700 to 750 is what's going to be our out of pocket cost that we'll have to fund through a bond for the next hidden units. That would be basically 60,000 plus out of the general fund budget going forward in the next 15 years.

Yeah. I also think it's very clear to everybody because this is a bond, we need u two3 six people that are here tonight to vote I think right to vote for um six 2/3 majority of the hole. So whether they're here or not we need to have two/3 majority

okay also know that we have a some bonds are due to expire within the next five years or so. There's one bond that is paid off next year. I don't know the exact number, Tom, that that you asked me about, but there is one being paid off next year. How much do do you know how much we were paying on it on that bond? I I don't know off the top of my head. I was looking up some numbers and I can send that out to everybody, but uh I can actually send you out our bond schedules, our amorization schedule that we have as of today.

Have you How are you feeling about our financial situation right now? You've gotten in the quote.

I got my feet wet quite quickly. Uh I have not looked at all the nitty-gritty details. I've looked at a lot of the higher dollar values. Uh I think what everyone needs to be very cognizant of the problems that we had in the 24 budget and the 25 budget is all related to one revenue line that was budgeted that did not come in. In 24, I think it was $3 million. In 205, it was 2.3 and change. Neither one of those numbers came in. I wasn't here. I didn't create the budget. I don't know what it was for. Okay. I've mentioned this to Brian last time, but that is our difference. Our expenses for the year were under budget in both years. It's let me correct that. In 25, we budgeted for expenses. We spent less than that. our revenue numbers came in significantly less because of mainly that one one line ite there there were some other expenditures though if you look at the 2024 budget personnel costs in at least two departments were over spent by close to a million 300,000 in1 and 61 there there's been issues in terms of the budget it's been more than just over the past year

I'm not going to disagree with you Brian there I know in 25 there was some departments of over budget on the labor But as a whole, I'm looking at the revenue numbers were up mostly due to that one line item and the expenses were under what was budgeted. Now, there's different reasons for that. I mean, we didn't spend all the chips money, okay? So, there's different reasons for that. Okay? But as a whole, uh, that's what really occurred. And if that 2.5 million, I could tie right back to that 2.3 million that did not come down.

So, so you know where the hole is and you've gone through and line by line where to where to find funds can make up the difference. I I've gone through the larger line. Okay. And going forward, we put things in place so that before someone can spend money and I'm not going to say this is going to be 100%. It has to come through a process for approval. Okay? In the past it was after the fact. Okay? I put something using our system so that requisitions come in prior to approval. Okay. Not after the fact.

Yeah. Okay. But are you feeling like we can absorb this?

I think there's going to be I'm going to answer this very honestly. We have to make a lot of hard decisions going forward because we have a $2.5 million deficit to make up. Okay. uh if this is part of that just this is recreational for the people of this city from what I can tell and what people have told me it gets used quite a bit okay it's something that the residents will use okay I don't think you want to take a product that the residents use and take it away from them that's just my opinion okay but um $60,000 how do we find it someplace out of the budget when we go through and start doing that budget in August August and September. That's be some of the hard decisions that the mayor and I and department heads will have to make to bring to you at the next budget.

Okay. Anybody else? Please. Council member Tobin. Nay. Council member Sllon. Hi. Council member Lane. I. Council member Conlin. Nay. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi. Council member Michaels. I. The motion bails for lack of a 2/3 majority. Agenda item number six, bond resolution, city of Portland, New York, authorizing the issuance of additional 7.9 serial bond to finance the cost of pre-construction improvement in the downtown for.

So again, I could read the uh entire resolution if desired, but I will read the portions. I didn't provide the relevant information. Whereas the common council of the city of Corland, New York on October 1st, 2019 adopted bond resolution 254 of 2019 entitled bond resolution of the city of Corland, New York authorizing the issuance of 5,925,000 serial bonds to finance the cost of the downtown core project. Um and uh now therefore be it resolved by the common council of the city of Portland, New York as follows. Section one, the city's hereby authorized to undertake the construction, reconstruction, major repairs, alteration, extensive or enlargement of the necessary works of all kind for the improvement of waterways and drainage or additions there too, including street lights and streetscapes, whether not including buildings, aid net, or incidental there too. lands or rights and lands, original furnishings, equipment, machinery, and apparatus or the replacement of such equipment, machinery, or apparatus at an estimated maximum cost of $13,825,000 consisting of an increase of 7,900,000. Section two, the plan for financing of such new maximum authorized costs of $13,825,000 shall be as follows. A by the issuance of $5,925,000 serial bonds of the city here to four authorized to be issued pursuant to the original resolution and B the issuance of an additional 7.9 million serial bonds of the city authorized to be issued pursuant to this resolution.

Okay. Motion second

same questions as before. I think this one's a little bit different in the sense that it's a cash uh it's replacing the cash that has been spent for doing these projects.

Maybe Mr. show you when I go on to in depth of what was allocated for bonds and what was allocated for cash and uh you know what has put in as a cash flow crisis I think that was brought up early the um the whole project here which is basically Clinton Street Main Street DRRi okay should you all look at one as a whole here I don't know Okay. But the bottom line is we borrowed um $25 million. Uh we we could borrow $25 million to do what was called the water sewer uh storm sewer project. Uh we spent $23.9 basically. We got like 1.8 million left on that. On the DRRi project we uh bonded for I think it was 5.9. Uh we spent 12.2 two. Okay. So, we're over budget by $7.7 million. Okay. Um that is that money was paid out of the general fund, water fund, and sewer fund. So, right now, the capital fund is going to owe those three funds that $7.9 million. uh if you do not uh approve the $7.9 million, then those funds are going to take a hit for whatever their share is of that. Okay? Meaning that that'll be a another deficit added to those funds. This 7.9 was real capital money. Okay? Uh that probably should have came back to this council at some point before. It did not. Okay? That's in my mind water over the dam. This is why we have trouble paying bills, okay? Because this was money that was spent on the projects

will be done. And failure to to pass this uh is going to keep the city from paying bills. I won't say right now, but it's going to be latter part of this year. It's going to be very difficult probably to make a lot of different payments. I won't get into any of that. uh this is basically going to take the 7.9 and allocate it over the next 30 years like it should have been is just like everything else that was done on this project. Okay. Um why it didn't come here, I can't answer that question. Okay. But just keeping it in the funds and not doing it the way it should have been done is only going to be a detriment to the city going forward. And I can't say a small detriment. I think a major detriment. Um, Mr. Michaels asked me a question yesterday like what's our debt look like? Okay, I could tell you having gotten off the phones with Moody's, they do not think our debt long term is bad. They're bad about they're concerned about our short-term debt, not able to make our payments. They look at our short-term debt on our balance sheet and they say, "You don't have the cash to pay that." That's a problem. Okay.

Yeah. If this was to be passed, I'm not telling you that it's going to give us a good rating. Okay? It won't hurt our rating. Okay. If we don't do this, I think it does hurt our rating because all of a sudden they see all these liabilities that we have to make. How are we going to make those payments? What's our rating right now? Excuse me. What's our rating right now? The one that was done in December by Fitch was uh 3Bs. Okay. I'm not sure what Moody's is. Okay.

Um it's not that's not a very good breeding, right? Okay. I'm not sure what Moody's is going to do. uh I need them to close on a wiki loan by March 15th and I'm working with them to try to get that and I owe them a lot of information and depending on how this goes is what I tell them tomorrow. Um the if you look at the total project as a whole and right I after we talked this afternoon uh this total project I think was originally when it was done was supposed to have like $35 million was supposed to be all the water sewer storm sewers for the project get $12 million in grant and end up with $23 million is that what it was looked at something like that. what this is going to end up when we're said and done. Uh we have $16 million on the loan and I think another $3 million um on top of that maybe maybe five don't have all the exact numbers in front of me. So we'll be very close to that number. I I do think when we're all said and done of your original plan of 35 and bringing it down that down to 23, I think we're going to be closer to 25 to 26 million is what we'll have to borrow on that whole project. Uh and that will be broken up between the general fund, the water fund, and the sore fund. Uh not this doesn't all fall back on the general. Okay. The um there's still some money that's calculated in here that has to be paid out. uh to finish up uh the DRRi project. Um just want to make sure I have anything else here.

Did you?

Yeah. One comment to start the uh you said over budget by about 7 million and that's um uh well when when plans were done the 5.5 was the DRRI but we knew the infrastructure work was going to be more than that which is one of the reasons why we saw it and we're fortunate to get the WI loan and if you look back at documentation it shows that there was a portion of the wave fee loan that was to cover infrastructure work on Main Street and And from what I've seen and what I can tell is council, you at one point you were asked to renovate basement on Main Street, but you weren't given a price tag for them. That was an add-on. There was conversation about uh the water service. And while the main might have stayed about the same size, the pipes that run from the main to the properties was increased, I believe, to 4 in to each property, which is a change in the service, and that added up in terms of the changes. That's probably one of the reasons why this took three seasons of construction instead of two. So, there's these additional projects, i.e. the Graten Avenue parking lot that were taken on. And I don't recall looking through the minutes, anything that council approved in terms of what that parking lot was going to cost. So, there's been additional expenditures since the project was begun. And yes, sometimes things are going to run up, but we are not getting any sort of detail about what those expenditures are. So, we're being told 7.9 million. What is that 7.9 million? You want me to start? Yeah. Started from your administration. Okay. The was issued in 2017. You didn't even bother to launch it until this mayor came in that office. By then, your costs have risen by several thousand, several million dollars. You don't put a band-aid on a on a

project and expect your your aging infrastructure to last another 20 years. When you do a project, you want to make sure you do it right the first time, not come back and tear up your streets in 5 years. I've looked at these I've reviewed these basement vaults with DPW and the mayor. These bolts bolts were shot. They were shot. They wouldn't have lasted with the traffic for another five years. Do you you start a project and run out of money and have Main Street torn up for five years until you get another another five million or 7 million to finish it? No. This mayor took the project on and finished it. He did what he's supposed to regarding the water mans. Why why keep the same existing mains when most of these buildings require fire sprinkler systems which cover much more volume of water? You have no concept, Ryan, of construction. And I'm sorry to say it, but I can see why you you let the next administration try to handle this for you.

I think

I think uh I don't think you need comments. But I think the um I think the the valid question on the the cost overruns there was many many things that attributed to it and many things that goes back to even the water project at the waterworks that ran over budget brought nav ran over or uh Clintav ran over budget uh it wasn't funded to go from church street to main street that was additional re cost certainly ground parking lot was additional but it made sense at at the time because they had to change the entrance and uh try to uh alleviate some of that and get some of those uh done at the same time. Uh and then the um on Main Street the designs there was $1.7 million spent in engineering before we even started. And then we had to move the water veins to one side of the street from the other because National Grid vaults run across the other side. the vaults that had to be done. Not only were some of them in rough shape, but we lo we lowered the street level a foot. So by doing that, we I don't know if the impact should be on the land owners to be able to do that. And moreover, there was no time to do it because when I came into office, the um state told me we had to have it done by the end of the year. I said to him, if we have substantial work done by the next year, which we did do, and we had to do it in three years is pretty good time for what that magnitude of that construction. I took abuse from the first tree I tore down from elected officials from that represent the municipality and and bought every step of the way and try to help all those business owners to do that and those land owners to do that. It's my belief and understanding that the the values of those properties have already gone up significantly. uh revenues have gone up for uh sales and we'll have every one of those buildings

occupied you know by probably June. So we have three grand openings coming up and then we have another franchise that we just worked on a deal on. So we've made it a priority not only to manage that project which I remind when I came into office the streets were tore up nice had already started doing the gas lines. we had already come in. The bids weren't even done yet and we were way over. And in in the budget plan to pay for that con that construction, there was $5 million just under $5 million was planned on to pay for as we had cash as cash out of our pocket. And that's part of this $7.9 million that we didn't have. We don't have that cash. We didn't have any of that to be able to handle it. So, we can go on to a lot more details, but I'm I I'm not as interested in pushing on to blame because I don't know how you would ever know that there was no sewer mine sewer main design from Brew to the Cornell Standard or there was no street lights from Brew to the Corn Standard. I don't know that I would have caught that and I have that detail eye that packet of plans is that thick. I don't know that anybody could do that. But there was inherent errors that we had to deal with throughout the whole construction. And you know, I'm disappointed that you know that through different a different different professionals that are hired to make sure that these were bonds and everything was in place and everything was in a chronological order because quite frankly it wasn't my level of detail or understanding. And I believe that that was financed under that complicated plan that was prepared and there was grants that didn't come through. There was uh tap grants that were anticipated that didn't come in. There was many different I'm not going to call them failures because you know a lot of times you put you put together a design you you hope for the best but you can't always know that co's going to come and construction is going to go up that much. Prevailing weights went up

three times in for this project and it went up twice before I even started. So it went up five times from the initial quotes of what that DRRi was. And I I don't know how anybody could ever have predicted that or been able to do that. But but frankly, it gets u you know a bit old that you know if that wasn't managed it could have run a lot worse than it did.

You know I sit back and it's easy to sit in the back seat and slap me in the head and say turn left. But I sit here and I say are there things that I would have done differently? Probably absolutely 100% and it would have been firing that engineering firm right out the door. But I didn't want to send the project backwards. So made that conscious decision and we move forward on the best foot we could and fought them every step of the way and still are fighting for you know design work as simple as this the guys with the street lights that took the old street lights down or saying that they were just in the contract that was just to disconnect the power not actually remove the street lights. So those those continual problems and that's what Chuck was alluding to of those uh destruction fights and battles have been happening ever since day one. We all know the turmoil and uh destruction and attacks that have happened all the way along the way. Uh and you know I sit here and try not to respond to it because it's just negativity. I think we need to accept the positivity of that great vision to make it a two-way street. You know what I mean? Let's accept those as our our willings because I think it's been highly successful. Although some accidents, some situations that we'd like to change differently, but there's even bumpouts that we had put in because those faults were still there. We couldn't get them low enough even with the construction we had. We had to add bumpouts. So I don't know how anybody could ever predict that or everybody would try to do that amongst grotab finishing Clinton and doing that all at the same time and had to finish the waterwork project that was over there that went over over a million dollars. That was a lot smaller project than they are. So I feel like overall that you know we burnt the cash to be able to do that. I I you know I I truly believe and kind of makes sense to me that that 2.4 4 million 2 point was was budgeted in the due d from figured it would get it back just based on some other misunderstandings that there was not understanding on the chips that we later find out. But again, I'm not blaming anybody for that. I take full

responsibility because it's under my watch and it's where it is. But we're committed to make this work and to make things happen. But we have to fix our cash flow issue so we don't have that those cash flow problems that we had before. Well, Mayor, I think we can all agree that Main Street looks great, and I think that there's a a real point of pride in people in their in the city, in their hometown because of how good it looks. So, between administrations, pulled it off, you've carried the ball across the line in a big way. But I don't want to undermine the the foresight to make it happen. That was a big achievement to do it. I want to live it again. I want to live it now. It was an absolute 100% nightmare and certainly don't get paid enough to deal with a massive massive project that that explanation that you just gave was really helpful. really helpful to understand where we went over budget and why and problems that you ran into that I wasn't aware of. That's really helpful. That's information I can use to explain to constituents, right? Um what what sort of work is left to be done?

I mean, the the work to be done to close out the grant is some past payments. Again, we're fighting with probably since look we're having discrepancies to make sure that the value of what we pay for we're getting and you know we're continuing those. So there's a couple open items that are being worked out items of raw stone is that level of detail uh to um making that work but and then the artwork projects have to be completed as well. There's a half a million dollars left to us, dude to us for the DR. Yes.

Reimbursements. Again, the bond amount was for $5 million and that $5 million is not we have to pay that back. We don't get to keep that. That goes back to them. So, that's again where the cash needed to be. And that was a misunderstanding I had too, that I thought we could keep that cash, but can't keep that bond. That was a part of the long-term debt. But that's not why it was designed. So again, trying to pick up those pieces of another whole complicated and I'm going to use the knot scenario. Same thing. Sometimes you got to pull out those whole knots and then you know, I can't guarantee you that I'm not going to have to go through another loop to be able to do it. But that's really what we're up against with these things. And I think is I just want to make sure everybody understands like we're talking, you know, 600 to a million dollars every year. We're passing those bans on is it's a killer. That's that's part of the cash flow. So, we're burning that every time. If we don't pass this one now, we're another $600,000. I'm going to guess just to get through the rest of this year that we have to carry on and carry over to the other ones. Uh and and then and then also, you know, when interviewed with Moody's, that was why they downgraded us last time is our cash flow where we are. Um I don't think any of that's uncurmountable. I don't think 2.5 million is unsurmountable. I don't think any of it uh you know doesn't warrant alert and attentiveness and decisiveness and up tough decisions but I don't think it's unmanageable and not unrealistic based on some of the things we know that are already being achieved and have been achieved in the short couple months that we've already looked at this. So um that's all I have to say.

I I did sit through a lot of these constructions immediately and uh Yeah. To find that uh they're supposed to run uh piping one way to find if there's an 18 in man in the way. How they going to get around it? And the drawings did not show the depth of that. Uh they're hitting they're hitting water manes that on the drawings they weren't even supposed to be there. I mean I could go on and on and on. We never did get to central ad like we like we wanted to uh just because just because you'd be looking at probably what another 3 million

we could we physically couldn't fit the pipe that they designed to do that. So again it was back to some engineering design flaws that we couldn't change and it was we're too far into it. So but again I don't you know I don't know how we could bore those costs on others. If if you're going to do it you do it right. Don't do it at all. is something I've always lived by.

I'm hearing a lot of frustration from folks who know how much they owe to the city in taxes and they know they have to come up with and they look at the council grouping a bunch of new debt and not having a good sense of the long-term decision making we're going to have to make. Mr. J, you acknowledged earlier that with the financial situation, the 2.4 I believe it is, we have to make up, it's going to require the council making difficult decisions. Um, and I guess I'm wondering if it would make more sense for us to table this so we can go back to our constituents when we have a sense for what those difficulti uh decisions are going to be and what decisions we're going to make as a council to address our financial situation before tacking on more debt that I think people from what I'm hearing are having a hard time understanding why we're doing this now. And I think the fact there's so much confusion around this hurts the public perception of the council and the work we do here. And I'd like your response.

First of all, I don't think it's just the council's decision. I think it's going to be the mayor's decision, the council decision, and department heads have to make some hard decisions. How do we get part of that 2.4 million back? It's not going to get back in one year. I guarantee you that. Okay? There's no way you can do that with unless you just cut the fire or police department. You get that 2.4 back. That's that's a fact. um this 7.9 without getting this. Okay, I can't tell you what's going to happen, but I can tell you it won't be good. Okay, if uh Moody's downgrades us, the lithium loan probably doesn't pass. Okay, it's probably out the window. That's $600,000 the first year in interest we have to pay whether we go regular bond or through the loan. Okay, if we I don't know what their rating level is that they'll accept. They've already downgraded it for us to what Fitch had and said that's acceptable. If Moody's downgrades that again that and I'm not saying that this is going to make the difference, okay, because I don't know that everyone's keeping everything close to their chest, okay? Whether it's Ripia or Moody's, okay? When I could tell you that our cash position gets worse, which this will do, okay, that does not help us. Okay. Second of all, this is truly an expense as a capital expense. It's not an expense on the water fund or the sewer fund or the general fund as a one-time expense. That's by not approving this. That's what you're saying. You're going to put $7.9 million in those funds for one year. It wasn't budgeted. It's going to make a deficit worse. I can't tell you any other way.

Would there be harm in tableabling this until we have some more answers for our constituency back? I cannot tell you what 25 is going to be next week. And I can't even tell you that next week is enough to get by movies because they have to have all their information in with you by the 15th. Okay. I'm pushing that to see if I can push it out. Okay. I'm don't have an answer on that. Okay. If you push it out to the next uh meeting, I might be able to do something for the closing of the bonds in uh May. Okay. Because everything has to be on an official statement by early April. But we feel would not may not be enough time to get We feel the answer. We can guarantee. I don't I got to get these numbers right. $100,000 is a percent. So what we determined 75 what's that

was a percent tax increase. Is that right? Is it was it 75? I can't remember. But I guarantee it's about 1% of the property tax. Yeah. So if we raise by 100,000, it's an increase to taxes of 1%. Yes. Right.

So to go, you know, just use those comparisons whether you're looking at the, you know, um, you know, that if you look at a $600,000 that we know it's going to cost, we can guarantee that that 600,000 is going to that's going to add a 6% starting from there. You know what I mean? To try to make make ends work just just to cover that debt payment, but doesn't solve the problem. I'd rather spend that $600,000 and reducing this debt that spend the $600,000 on interest or um and then she have to do a tax increase of 6%. But that would be an argument back to the well it's going to be worse if we don't pass it.

I think so. My personal opinion in many different ways. Okay. The cash flow the problems of trying to manage the cash. I think we run out of cash before the end of the year honestly. Okay. uh if that's the case going to come back here and do some type of deficit financing which is much more expensive. Okay, there's there's a whole gamut of stuff that's associated with this that I don't even can't even tell you what what's going to happen. I mean, we missed some important payments already this year, okay? It's been taken care of, okay? Mostly due to we didn't have the tax bills go out in time, okay? But as soon as that payment got missed, my phone was ringing off the hook from the state. So I I'm just maybe on the bear of bad news, okay? But this is really this is not money that was spent in the general fund uh for a general fund project or cover the police or fires. This was done on this project. Okay? And if it if it was all done properly right, this wouldn't be a conversation today. this would have been passed two, three years ago. Okay, that didn't happen. Okay, here we are today to make it right. Okay, that's what I'm doing. Since I got here, it's been mostly about how do you fix the cash? What's the problem? And this is what everything points to is that we spent this money on water, sewer, and general fund to fund this project as well as the water plant fund. Uh we didn't borrow 1.4 million on that. I think that project came in at 4.4 and we borrowed three million. So there's a million dollars worth of cash that we used elsewhere or from other funds to fund the water plants improvements. So it's a matter of going through all this detail trying to understand what happened and trying to get the mayor understand and what we have to do to fix the problem and make it right. And that's what I believe this is doing. This is making it right. Is it a lot of money? Sure. It's over 30 years. Still a

lot of money, don't get me wrong. But if you look at the scope of the whole project, it's over $30 million. Think probably 35 million. And is the city better for it? I think so. If I talk to residents, if I talk to people down on uh Main Street, everyone's very positive about it. Thank you, John. It won't be when I get another one or two% tax increase. We're going back. I know a lot of people are on a fixed income. I'm also on a fixed income. Uh my wife finally retired fully now at the end of December.

Uh you think I you think it's a pleasure to sit here and increase taxes uh for individuals that may be having a hardship for us? I I don't feel good about it at all. But this is this is something that needs to be done. Let's put this behind us and move forward. Anybody else? Again recognizes two/3 majority. Council member Tobin. Hi. Council member Sllamon. Hi. Council member Lane. I. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi.

Council member Michaels. Hi. Uh. Motion fails on the two no votes.

We need to see where the city's finances are before we can prove large amounts like this just going out the door. City's been in worse situations than this. This is not going out the door.

I remember when I first came on board handing down was having trouble making payroll. he was waiting for sales tax revenue to come in. I remember one year we had to borrow money to make payroll. I'm not quite sure whose administration that was, but I I remember that vividly. So, it's not the first time city's been in dire straits and we pulled out of it. We have a strong community. I I think people would have a lot more peace of mind if we had this point having found the issues in the budget back in January and we had some more answers about going forward how we're planning to tackle where you ended March and I think there's a lot of frustration that I sat here and told you on Thursday what the difference was from what was originally u posted 7.2 to how I got the 2.5. I told you I feel comfortable with the revenues. I don't know 100% about the expenses. Okay, give it 3 million. That's what I think is the worst case. Okay, I said that to you Thursday. If you're going to wait till April, I don't think you're going to get better numbers. Okay, but if you want to be an accountant, come sit in my office and see what I have.

Well, you mentioned just tonight that we're going to have to make some difficult decisions here going forward based on the financial situation. And I think well I think having a conversation about what those difficult decisions are going to be before approving a bunch of new debt would be advising that's going to happen in the budget process unless you're going to go through we went through a budget process this you guys you guys approved it. I wasn't

I voted against the budget because I have concerns with the process and I have ongoing concerns with the city's finances and that's why I voted no. And I think from the constituents I've heard from, there's a lot of frustration about the the dollar values we're sending out the door when everyone knows how much their property taxes have gone up. I I don't think we're communicating to the public. I think we're doing the council and the city disservice uh by not communicating better. Well, according to Chuck, this is now going to make it worse. So, you can tell them that Chuck said earlier he wasn't sure whether or not this week

I I can tell you that cash is going to be tight. Okay. I can't go spend some money that I would normally spend. Now, every dollar that goes out the door is going to have to be scrutinized. And when we have more answers to this, I'd be happy to revisit it, but currently I'm not comfortable supporting. I don't think we can. So, don't it should have been communicated better coming into this. Let's all get in our time machines.

What would you like to have? What would you like to hear? What communications would you like to hear? I mean, we went through in the budget and finance meeting. We were sat through, we discussed where we are, what we're addressing, where everything's at, where we anticipate to go. There's nobody that has their budgets done now and closed out for 2025 at this time yet, but they're still making payments because you're bills in after that. So, we're in we're getting that done. We've talked about getting the 20 24 audit done, getting that documentation up to speed, making sure we have everything for the WEIA and the 16 million. Those are all important processes that need to happen. And you know, we can't punish we're we're you're going to punish the very constituency that you're trying to uh as their as this is their concerns or issues. I fully we all get the same thing. I think everybody has addressed that. But by not putting a long-term debt into a long-term debt and trying to pay for that out of cash that we do not have is not a solution that's going to work short term or long term. And it's going it could affect and I think it we know it won't affect in a negative way if it happens, but we know it's going to affect 16 million. We know it's going to hit us for $666,000 of interest plus any and all other dealings and late fees and problems and phone calls and issues. Quite frankly, you know, um I shouldn't have to deal with that. I shouldn't have had to deal with that. That should have been dealt with. It should have been planned on. It should have been planned. And now Chuck's come in or hired a professional professional coming in to deal with this and giving us his best opinions on how to untie this knot. This is one step phase to do that. Now, we can't give all the answers

to everybody on everything on everybody. But we do know it worst case to go back to your question Katie on the the park serial bond. We do know that, you know, it's a half a percent increase that they would have to pay every year if it stayed at the current rate if assessed values didn't go up and all that. There's a bunch of variations, but we could say that is it worth that? I mean, I think you you would have that conversation. But to say to somebody that you're going to raise their taxes 6% just because we didn't put our debt where we needed to go because you're waiting for some numbers. I mean, we held off for I think three meetings. two to three meetings be held on approving the wastewater treatment contract and no more information nothing more is to be done but it was the right conscious move if it ever happened to get these people taken care of but but to do this you know I mean it's it's just as concerning to me as you know four years ago when I tried to cut $3 million to do something with the health care system I think you I I think it's it's a proven it's just it's a real it's a a huge concern to not do this.

Well, with all due respect, the bond rating for the city's been down a great for the past 5 years. I believe these financial issues are not but that's because our cash flow has gone down. Their bond rating goes has gone down because our cash flow has gone down. Our cash flow has been gone down because we're spending it on construction. We should we that needed to be fixed with those bands and be rolled over to take care of that. So that didn't happen, but instead it was budgeted in a due to due from for $2.5 million, which is where we're being burned now. So I I I can't answer to that. I take responsibility for it. I don't know how I missed it, but it is what it is. And you know, again, but we can't just pile incompetence on top of incompetence.

And that's what I feel at this. Now, here's the fact, okay, come May 15th, I have to pay $5 million, okay, to pay down all the grant money received. Where do you think that's coming from? I I think the city's put itself in a terrible situation financially and the cash flow issue is only one of a number of factors mentioned by Fitch uh in terms of city finances and why our bond rating has taken up. So I think saying blame just on the cash flow issue is not accurate based on the reports. I don't disagree with you but the cash flow is the immediate concern right now. It is a im immediate concern. Past bond reimbursements.

That's what I'm saying. Okay. But bond reimbursements that have come in. Yes. I have to pay back $5 million on May 15th. I have about 12 million in cash. Not to mention what do I owe to the school district? What do I owe to the county of that $12 million? So taxes will go up 6%. and everything else will pile on top of that because we did not pass this.

What what I can tell you is that there's going to be a $600,000 increase in in our um ban next year because of this if we don't get the wrong grant. That's a fact. Okay. So we could look back at today when constituents come to us next tax time and say, "Oh, well there you go. This was 6% of whatever." We don't know. It's We don't know. People be asking for 6%. I think we should just throw that number out here in this public. This is a great number. $600,000. Yeah, that that is a number. That's a fact. That's a fact.

So today is a product too. It's not one day. I mean, the general fund reserves have been decreased each year. The city has been out of budget by seven figures for the last couple years. This is not a last year problem. This has been an ongoing issue. And again, 7.9 million, we need to be more diligent about what is going out the door. And Tom, you said you walked through those basements, you saw they were in rough shape. They're privately owned. And I don't think taxpayers should be paying for those private basements to be renovated. And was council ever given a price tag for what they were? Each each each vault was different. Different size, different construction, but

there was a cost. Were you asked to approve and did you put it on anticipation note for the cost of that upfront? This is not This is us being responsible based upon irresponsible past spending. These vaults weren't inspected until after the project should had started. Yeah, it should have been looked at before and you want to pass away and you want to play that game then that's fine. But again,

the vault vaults are out. They're not in there. Make sure they're clear. They're clear. They're outside of their buildings from the front of that building out. So he could have stopped the project, gone into litigation and or said to every all 15 owners that they have to adjust their vaults and do their get an engineer, get it designed to state DOT specs to make sure that it's it's acceptable the road because we're lowering the road or because your vote we don't feel like your vault's going to be adequate enough to handle the weight. Lowering the road was a foot of the crown, the crown of the road, the middle of the road. The sidewalks were the same height as what they were before

at the doors, but not they fell off after that and they went down from that point on. So they wasn't just there and so and it was more than a foot in the crown, but the whole thing dropped. But then it also had to do with drainage and it also had to do with other areas and variances that are there. So please don't try to school me on what what happened to that project. again if that's that's what your that's your final world then we'll move on and and I I just evolve

what what so Chuck is saying we'll address during the next budget season where we're going to do the big cuts and a lot of that comes from the department heads when they look at their individual budgets. Um, we clearly can't wait that long, right, to to get the cash flow problem under control. So, what what would you need to hear or discuss in order to approve a bond for cash flow? We need a better understanding of where we currently are. And part of that is knowing where the 2025 financials are and having an understanding of, hey, if we're paying for this, how much is that going to cost? So you talked about the with the loan, this additional monies, it is potentially putting more debt on the taxpayers and we should not be moving forward until we know where we're at financially. But what I'm hearing like granted and very valid, what I'm hearing is that we're putting more debt on by not by not getting more cash flow as well. Like we're just digging a deeper and deeper and deeper hole. And I don't want to I don't want to die on that hill. Now I'm on a hill. But I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Um, I want the most expedient solution to the immediate problem.

Chuck, what what was the total amount of the bond that was projected to be total amount of all the bonds that was projected to do these construction? Brian, the total amount 25 + 5, so like 30 31. And where are we going to be at?

12.23. What was that? 3. So it's not a significant difference from where you're at, where it was planned and where we are. Where we are at. Well, I know the Council member Panella isn't able to be here tonight. She's under the weather. But this was a position of the entire membership of the finance committee. She had never been to a meeting. So I don't know when the finance committee has been there. So I don't Well, we've spoken with it and she's conveyed to me that she

but she hasn't got any information from any professionals or staff and we haven't really even talked about this that level of detail and where everything's at. Well, she and myself and I believe uh Mr. Tobin as well had made a motion before this meeting to table the vote on these two resolutions so we could get more clarity. The finance committees also made request for information we haven't heard back on including access to mus and some agenda items. I would be willing to consider switching my vote if the finance committee is able to all introduce resolutions on next council agenda for the information it needs to do its work going forward because today we've not heard back on requests for information.

I'm not looking to be obstructionist here, but I think this is reflective of long-standing issues with city finances and if I'm going to switch my votes to yes, I need to make sure I get the information to address these concerns going forward. Again, when we implemented the finance committee, we had that one meeting that I'm aware of. So, if there's other meetings going on, that's great. It's fine, I guess, but it'd be nice. But that's what you're telling me because you're you're saying a resolution was made from that finance committee. I told them the other member of the finance committee on our conversations.

So, right. So then that other finance committee members then decided that they needed to have access to NEUS which again I think having the professionals in the room and understanding where everything's at understand where that is and what that level is going to be an important factor in doing that accessing is not an easy task and or um there's there's there's more to even getting access to that access to reports nobody's holding up anything that finance committee needs to be engaged and should be educated in this group of what exactly is going We should be having a long discussion in this meeting to try to figure out what what the answers are to those questions and you know uh standing up or doing that. That needs to happen. So let's get meetings scheduled. Let's not cancel them. Let's be there. Let's all three or four or whatever the case might be. Be there. Put together some kind of direction and some kind of resolution. We'll do it. Like if you we need resolution to get information that committee

we haven't received responses to requests. Wait, they're coming from one. They're not coming from that committee. I was at that committee if we those are questions at the committee. I said, "What would you like to see? When would you like to see the next meeting?" Those are issues that we need to do and the professionals and the staff will give what those whatever they need to be able to do that. That's part of working together as a team. But independently, Mary Cla sent an email saying that she would like to have access to Munis. The finance committee wants to have access. They're don't like what's the validity of that? I I as I've mentioned to you privately, I'm willing to make myself available anytime to work on this. So, and I have I have made myself available. I'm trying to get to a compromise here

and we'll give the finance committee anything they need to get what get done, but I'd rather it not be done in a vacuum or a bubble or email or phone calls or however this is happening. I would like to get the real facts, everybody in the room with the professionals in the room to have this conversation. That's all I'm asking. and anything they want or anything that's needed 100% card launch go. Well, I we haven't gotten responses to your request today and I think

this is the first time hearing it was from the finance committee. I I was in it was independent people asking for it. I never heard it was the finance committee and asking for resolutions that have uh agenda items that have the the account numbers and accounts to and from that's been in there. To not exceed has been in there that's still there. we're doing all that and like I don't know if we need a resolution to do that but we need to see that you could call it out it's not here say I'm we discussed this then it's a point of clarity can we since I am new on the council discuss how members go about introducing resolutions for the agenda I think that would be helpful

if the finance committee decides they want to have something if the parking committee decides they want to have something anybody else has something you know Tom's come up and said we need to deal with something for ebikes it makes sense he goes to that department. He discusses it with the department and the fire department, I think, was the one that championed that one, right? And then they move that forward to try to get that to happen. They work with CE with corporation council and everybody works together to make what happens. I mean, this is this is our city. This is what we want to do together as a group, as a as a to make the best for our citizens. And I think steel, sharp, and steel, it's good to have these debates and it's good to have them in public, not be, you know, you know, private me like I I don't we understand the context of what's going on. You have some I

I sent an email back in January asking how do we put agenda? How would a council member put an agenda item on? And I did not receive a response. I was in city hall with Randall. I talked to you the Tuesday before council meeting and the conversation Mr. Dwitt was that you preferred items were given the Tuesday before before close of business. And granted that evening it was after close of business. I sent some items. So, I understand why we may not have been included. Last week, I'd sent an email with these four agenda items. And I did not get a response at all. So, I'm confused about what can any single council member ask to have something put on the agenda or does it have to come from a committee?

Usually, it comes from a department head or the department that it fits or what that makes to happen. So, you are the leads on to audit and finance, correct? I am. Okay. I am a city council representative and this is the city council meeting and I'm under the impression that council members should be able to put items on the agenda. If that is not the case, then let me know. Well, nobody's saying you can't. We're saying at the same time there's there is no precedent for that. And if you look back, nobody has to place an agenda item on. I go back through the minutes during your administration. Tell me if you find that people has to have agenda.

Okay. Well, but and also to be clear, what you provided was a list of assertions, uh, claims. I didn't see anything there that, uh, was in the form or objective of a resolution as you see on the agenda. You know, you you sent me a list of u information that you wanted, assertions, claims, etc., etc. None of that was in the form of a resolution to do something constructive. It was erring agrievances.

I'm I'm not pleased by that last statement that I was submitting things that were not constructive and we can go through. I'm you know what I'm going to post this publicly but the first resolution I asked for was a finance advisory committee three council persons and up to three council members to be appointed by the mayor with approval of the council an ad hoc committee that will meet periodically to review the city's financial status and make recommendations to council and the city has had that in past I think it was valuable you said three council people you said three council people know that you three community. We do talk about that.

We do have that right now with the potential addition of community members who have expertise in this if they if this they decide they want to have help.

So this goes back to Mr. Dwick's assertion that I was apparently casting assersions or not doing things productive. The second one, all agenda items involve revenue costs shall detail the exact amounts or not to exceed for costs. Expenditures will identify which budget lines will cover set costs and revenue will be dedicated to specific budget lines in the resolution. If budget line transfers are required, it will be completed within three business days of council approval. What's the date of this? when I sent the email of this that you're reading from last Tuesday.

So that again that's all that's all done with the exception of posting those transactions.

There's been agenda passed that had costs that costs were not conveyed. And then the fourth resolution, there's a number of bullet points. Uh some of these are things that should be in place. Keeping munis up to date which tragically was not done in the past. Having so budget lines cannot be overrun which would prevent over expenditures and the system can do that but was not happening. Payments by credit cards, purchase cards, purchase racks, cash other to be shared monthly with cancelled. Part of the corrective action plan after the controllers's audit was that credit card statements be shared with council. And it appears that council has not gotten those. Case in point, when I foiled for the mayor's credit card and I found a number of overexpendures and items that were not itemized and the interest rate started at 13%, that credit card went up to 30 something% because there are so many late fees. These are things that council should be getting and have not. There's more here.

None of it was presented in a way that to me uh I recognize as being a resolution to put on the agenda. Um we, you know, I've received a number of communications from you of you know different things. Uh none of it is looked to me like a resolution. Again, I think in that interest of what we want to do productively, try to move things in a positive direction. I think it's I think it's important that if the budget that if that if that finance group decides to point to it, we put some criteria behind it and makes sense and we have good discussion about it and talk about it with staffing levels to that make sure we get the level of detail so that it can't be overridden by one person which was happening. and then over expenditures if that's the case then those things are always great and that's what we want to target for is the most important part is how to get it so it doesn't so it can't happen again that's the most important part did you have something to say

I did and I want to go back to Mr. Conland's point, I'm not sure it was ever really answered. How do we get a resolution on the agenda and I think that was basically your criteria for saying if it was doable, you might change your vote. Yes. In addition to some information requests and things like that, but yes, I appreciate some clarification on that.

I've offered this to every council member and sometimes was part of a broader conversation. So, it may have kind of not been something that was stuck in their head because we're talking about a million different things. I mean, sometimes riding around in a car, sometimes having coffee somewhere. Um, I'm more than happy to help draft resolutions. Um, putting something on the agenda is put on by putting a resolution on the agenda. That's typically the way our council has operated is my understanding. So, it needs to be in the form of a formal resolution. We don't stick six things on there that we'd like to to chew the fat on tonight, uh, so to speak. So, it needs to be in the form of a formal resolution. That being said, they need to be done by Tuesday. If seven council members come in with things they have from their different areas that they want to do on Tuesday, you're not going to get them on Tuesday. Um, you know, so it's going to take me time to draft them and along with everything else. You're welcome to take a crack at it. Some things you want to do a resolution for, you probably can come pretty close to one because the city's probably done seven of them over the past three years. and you're welcome to to give me something and I review it. Other things when when Tom had the issue with the bikes, we met several times. We went through things. We came through with a very voluminous proposal um that went through it. That's been the case with several other areas that we've went through. Um something that's quick and easy, a simple resolution. And the best ways to do that is for it to come out of a committee for the finance committee to say, "Here's three resolutions we'd like to put on um the agenda. We don't do it exactly how the county does. The county, it comes from the commissioner, their committee through the liaison, and they're the ones that actually move it onto the county's agenda." You know, everything from finance would Ryan would be the one that made the motion on. I mean, if you sit at the county, the head of the finance committee is the one who makes the motion for everything financed.

Everything for public safety is, you know, that one. Um, that's not quite the way we do it, but I mean, obviously, if you're the liaison to the police department or fire department, you want that commission on board with it. You'd want that department head on board with it hopefully. Um, so I mean, running it through those channels first. Finance is a little bit different because there is no, now we do have a finance committee. So, you've got the finance committee and and Chuck as the director that you'd want to consult on, but I'm ready, willing, and able to help put resolutions together.

Um, you know, as far as information requests go, there's things that are readily available and things that aren't. Um, you know, we get lots of foil requests all the time from people. um if it's something that's readily available. I mean, I know Chuck has met with a number of the council members and is willing to meet with anybody that wants to meet with him to go through and, you know, put together numbers. I've sat in with I know Brian and and I sat together with Beth and tried to to drill down some numbers. I'm happy to sit in too. Um for me, I used to have to ask Beth to explain things in in regular speak, not a cop. people ask me to stop speaking lawyer speech speak regular speak. So um sometimes it's helpful to have somebody else there to help you say I don't get where you're going. I don't follow that. I'm happy to sit down and do that as well. So um you know we're here to get the information. We're we're here to get it done. Um you know some of the things Brian put forward maybe they're a resolution. Other ones might be recommendations that come from the finance committee that can be done as a recommendation first and then if for some reason the administration chose to ignore that recommendation, maybe you push further with it or maybe you get an answer back that says here why here's why that recommendation doesn't make sense for some reason or how we can tweak it.

I'm happy to hold off and sit down with you Randall and go through and streamline things. Yeah, I I think some of the things have been addressed, other ones, you know, maybe partially addressed. I mean, we have a finance committee now, so we're halfway there at least. I think the mayor has said if there's community members that wanted to be on it, I don't think he's opposed to appointing community members and having council confirm that as well. Um, so I mean, I think some of them are there. I think Chuck, the way Chuck operates, those numbers you're asking for probably are going to be in those things, Chuck.

Yeah. So, I mean, like I said, I think some of those things we're there on should we have been there before probably. Um, but we're there now. Um, other things we may still, you know, we may want to push something forward. And like I said, I'll be happy to sit down with you, with Tom, whatever the group is to come up with those things, get them into a formal resolution if need be, and then let council address it. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. So, do you know exactly what you want the finance committee to have access to? I I think it would be best if the finance committee had a discussion on that rather than me weighing it now, but I do appreciate the willingness to work.

Well, I'm really interested in you overturning your vote, so I want to see if we can get It's got to happen before yesterday. Would you like to make a motion to retire? Yes, I would like to. a motion to reconsider. Can I get a second? Well, we need to call special a special meeting prior to that the closing date. We would have to he's resending his vote. So, we'll So, we have a motion on the floor to recall the vote for agenda item number six. Um all those in favor?

Okay. So, was that done? So, we do the vote count and you can start again at the beginning. Mr. Dur, this is for agenda item number six. Revolution for the city of Portland 7.99. Proceed to the role. Council member Tobin. Hi. Council member Silivan. Hi. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Conwin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi. Council member Michaels. Hi. Thank you. Six yeses. One nay.

Agenda item number seven. Then the 2026 sewer fund budget 500 KW cogen system preventive maintenance propri that the city of P County council does hereby amend the 2026 city sewer fund budget from account uh G1990 5400 contingency with a starting total amount of $100,000 to account G8110541500 professional services with a starting total amount of $110,000 in the amount of $13,636 to remedy the existing shortfall in the professional services account. I have a motion to Michaels. Any questions?

Yeah, just make a quick Oh, sorry. Sorry. Let me just make it real quick though. This is a thing that you passed at the last meeting, I think. Thank you. And uh was the total cost was 123,000 and Joe from the wastewater treatment plant said that at 110,000 he was short somewhere. He was going to had it someplace else in his budget. This is the 13,000. So, this contract is all in one line and it'll be paid on a monthly basis. Anybody else? Mhm. Please. Council member Tobin. Hi, Council Member Sllohan. Hi, Council Member Lane. Hi, Council Member Conlin. Hi, Council Member Carpet. Hi, Council Member Beckwith. Hi, Council Member Michaels.

Hi. Agenda item number eight, amend the 2025 adopted budget to reallocate funds for parks and recreation view.

Resolved that the city of Corland County Council does hereby amend the 2025 city budget as outlined in the accompanying table. uh from account A7110 5260 uh which is operating equipment. I increase that line account by the amount of $69,838 uh for a new total budget amount in that line of $99,963.93. uh for account A710.42665 42665 uh which is sale of equipment line. Increase that account by $8,476 for a new total budget amount of $8,476 and no cents for account uh line A1325.42770 42770 for um help me with the abbreviations, Chuck. um U for operating equipment uh to uh decrease that line amount by $23,24421 for a new budget line amount total of 1 or $114,28647. Account line number A711054500 uh line for tools and equipment. Uh decrease that line by $4,929.13

for a new uh total budget line amount of $10,197.71. Count number A714054 0501 operating equipment decrease that line by $466 no for a new uh line total amount of $24,466 no line A71452 0600 uh inner fund transfer. Uh decrease that line by $32,723.86 86 for a new total budget amount of $34,723 no Michael's I think before we do this we something's not right on this thing I I believe the A1325 line is incorrect too okay we we swapped blue Friday afternoon. So I think we should table this.

Okay. Okay. So we got a motion to table. Michael the table to the table. Say I um any other information they meet on this as long as we're good at the table.

They got to work out the account lines, right? Yeah. Any other questions anybody else have? Andrew, it can be very quickly. Okay. So, we'll table to the next meeting. Uh, agenda item item number nine, amend the 2026 adopted sewer fund budget. Resolve that the city of Portland County Council does hereby amend the 2026 sewer fund budget as outlined in the accompanying table. Uh border count line G906058000000 uh employee benefits line as a description. Increase that line by the amount of $200,000 and it'll have a new total budget amount of $200,000. Account number G00.42133 42133 other income increase that line by $39,000 or a new total budget amount of $39,000. Budget line uh account number G9730600 uh for the bond anticipation note principal. increase that line by $19,000 for a new over budget line amount of $19,000.

I think they just read the table. I think the tables there unless anybody else wants that. I think we got the table that's attached. Yes. Explain this. So number item number 9, 10, and 11 are all related to the differences that we had in the 2026 budget. Okay? Taking care of the $700,000 with the chips money and the line items that were in the budget that weren't budgeted, weren't added to the in the spreadsheet that you guys voted on was not part of that. This is correcting all that. And going through that, one of the things that the first thing I found was that there was no insurance budgeted in the water and sewer fund. So when you look at the sewer fund here, G9060, we're increasing that expense $200,000. Okay, that's actually decreased to $200,000 in the general fund also. And um the band principal was not that $109,000 was not budgeted in the original budget. So this was being added. This $39,000 is being covered by the nera funds that we're getting um through New York State for the uh generator that we talked about earlier. The uh next I'd rather do it all and then what Andy has to do. The next one is the water fund. They're moving over $300,000 in um benefits for health insurance. Uh we're decreasing because we did pass that 7.9 million. That grant money going against that shows us a payown on the ban. So, we don't actually have to appropriate a principal payment against

that. So, I'm using 119,000 there. Uh, I'm going through the water department. We decreased the water samples by 5,000, maintenance contracts by 5,000, operating equipment by 5,000, other functional equipment by 50,000, and other equipment repair by 5,000. And I was stuck at finding any other money for it. There's basically about $1.4 million in fund balance. I'm using $110,000 of fund balance in the water fund to make this whole. Okay. With that, uh the DPW Commissioner Mike and I have gone through this. We're going to scrutinize everything and try to maximize everything we can in the fund balance to get that 110 back at the end of the year.

Okay. And line number 11, taking the $720,000 that was uh in the CHIPS revenue line that we do not believe is accurate, reducing that by 720. We're reducing the benefits by 500,200 from the sewer fund, 300 from the water fund. Uh the next set of items, the increases are the things that were missing on the spreadsheet. uh basically personal services, equipment repair, FICA, so on and so forth. And then you see the other lines that we're decreasing. We're decreasing $56,000 for uh position in the mayor's budget um that became vacant at the end of February. Uh along with the benefits associated with it, we're reducing from the police budget $15,000 for their uniform. uh we didn't approve a new police officer for to go to the academy. So that came out along with the benefits associated with that. Uh in the fire department reducing the training by 5,000, unused holiday time by 10,000 unused vacation uh equipment operations by five and other equipment operations by five. uh professional services. Um Andy's department had uh some money out there for some professional services to do some additional things. We're taking that out of there. And the band principle of 296,000. Now, when you're looking at this, uh you can't just add and subtract because you got to understand what's a revenue and what's an expense. If by decreasing a if you go to the first one in the line decreasing a sales okay for a revenue line item okay that's basically a debit from an accounting side of point if I

inc basically we're reducing what we're going to get okay so it's not going to just add up and subtract like I think you're trying to do here Brian it's not going to balance I'd have to walk you through and go what's a debit what's a credit and show you how it balances Okay. So, I'm using decreases and increases. Okay. If you're an accountant, you understand how that works. That would be helpful. Well, we're not, right? I'm trying to and I I will train you. Okay. That's what it is. So, when you're doing budgeting, you're increasing line or decreasing a line. Okay? You're not doing actual debits and credits.

All right? Right. So, we'll go back to uh agenda item number nine, which is the sewer budget. Can I get a motion? Yeah.

That if everybody has any questions, we'll group nine, 10, 11 together. Can I get a motion to accept grouping those together? Mr. Carpenter, Miss Lane. All those in favor of group them together. All right. carried to grouping uh agenda item number nine which is the amend 2026 adopted surf fund budget. Agenda item number 10 amended 2026 adopted water fund budget and agenda item number 11 amenda 2026 adopt the general fund budget can I get a motion to do that car Mr. Um, any questions? Move, please.

Council member Tobin. Hi. Council member Slloh. Hi. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi. Council member Michaels. Hi. Agenda item number 12. Accept and recognize donations to the meeting. Finally, an easy one.

Resolved that the city of Portland County Council on behalf of Mayor Steven Bureau expresses its gratitude for the generosity of the donors below. And be it further resolved that the common council hereby accepts the donations listed below and appropriates them to account a7010.42706 for you best. Uh, donations from B of India in the amount of $100. Patrick Snider the amount of $100. Classy Kan $250. Elm Tree Golf $100. Red Jug Pub $100. Mr. Alex $100. Bailey Place $100. Birshshire Hathway $100 and Theologic New York PC $100. Also 50. May I get a motion? Mr.

Anybody else? Council member Tobin. Hi. Council member Sullivan. Hi. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. might both sides be. Okay. Does anybody else have anything else to better? Um, yes. I I would be on that finance committee. I'm not sure how much I can add. That is not my forte. I think I'd be learning more than I would be contributing. Always help.

But if you if you guys want me, I would be consistent. I'm back at work, so it would have to be up to those hours. I would love to do that. They're trying to schedule that time now. So maybe the three of you guys could grab some time with Jade real quick and just try to figure out a time that works for everybody. And I was trying to schedule it for a Wednesday, but we got to keep it shut because that's basically one chuck there. But yeah, time in mind that Monday and Mondays are no better than Monday and th Well, Thursdays and summer for me. Mondays,

right? So Wednesday work best and then we were trying to do it like the meeting before. So, Wednesdays before our meeting so we can continue that same cycle and then hopefully you can it would be nice for you guys to give back input to the council of where everything's at. That was the plan. So, if we can make that day work sometime, I know lunch might work. I don't know. I can make work. So, if we can make lunchtime work, maybe. I don't know. I know you had a tough time, but I don't know if that works. So you guys have maybe work work with Jade after if you don't mind.

So we'll put Katie on there so that thanks to the volunteer that we'll move for in favor. Thank you everybody.