Common Council - Regular Meeting

The speaker that will be signed up for that and then they're very very very sorry and then the city of Portland. That's all regarding those on the map and then the city or that will close up all the hearing. So I'm going to be going to close the minutes to the article 11 of the code say we're related are. So I think all of the regarding the proposed amendments to Article 11 of the Coast City of Cortland Related to Parking. Okay, there you go. Welcome back.

Thank you. Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak once again. For those who don't know me, my name is Holly Pizzigotti, and I spoke at the last City Council meeting on behalf of SUNY Cortland Student Government Association as the Vice President. In my last statement, our student government felt the need to stress the importance on the timing of the proposals. how important we felt it was to hold off voting on the proposed possibility for paid parking until students and faculty were back in Portland for the start of the semester. We do understand that by adding paid parking, it would financially aid the city of Portland greatly. From this, it seems as though the council has wanted to move forward with voting on the proposal over the summer. We felt that if it could not wait, students still deserved a voice if the voting was going to take place in our absence. Therefore, the student government took it upon themselves to create a survey to be sent out to students about the parking proposal. Within just the first day of it being sent out, we received over 100 responses. In the end, we received about 300 responses from students, all who are focused on their summer breaks and are not typically checking their email. The response number alone shows how much students do care to share their input on important decisions that not only affect the residents of Cortland, but also themselves who attend the college and see Cortland as their second home. We asked students many different questions. Some of these questions included things like where students typically park and how often, how much weekly stress parking may cause them, if metered parking would increase financial stress and ability to attend classes, and overall if they supported the proposal. Over 90% of students opposed the proposal. Roughly 90% feel it would hinder their abilities to attend classes and about 95% of students agreed it would only cause additional financial stress. One student stated, I avoid parking in the paid lot on campus because I can't afford it. If paid parking on streets became a thing, there is no way I would be able to afford living in Cortland while attending school. Another student felt, implementing metered parking is creating a lack of accessibility for the normal student and person. These are just two personal comments of over 75 personal experiences and opinions that we received. We want to once again emphasize the importance of waiting for students and faculty return to themselves or to campus to be able to personally share these opinions in person and get the chance to speak for themselves. We understand that it would be easier to implement such a proposal before the Semester starts, we also feel that if we were to wait on the vote of the proposal till students return if it were to pass it could be implemented over a break or the end of the first semester. Like we previously have mentioned, the Student Government Association is committed to working collaboratively with the city and Cortland community members to develop effective solutions to address the issues at hand, while also reflecting the needs of all parties are effective. Thank you for your time and consideration on behalf of the Cortland Student Government Executive Board. Thank you.

May I ask here to speak to...

public hearing number two regarding the proposed amendments to article 11 of the code related to parking. I just want to clarify that this is not implementing paid parking. This is implementing the law that we can't change. So there are other rights in the parking. Okay. Does that follow up? I'll leave that open. That's coming to the next meeting. Call the order, please.

Council Member Tobin. Present. Council Member Silliman.

Present.

Council Member Piniello.

Here.

House number late here House member column here House member Carpenter there House member back with her House member Michaels is noted as absent.

All right, you can follow up. I was really glad that we had to say it's.

Well, I think that if this is all liberty, that's a problem.

It's very simple. So the. The. Chief Friedman, I think we had that.

Can you come up to the front, please?

Can I ask if I'd rather try, I hope.

Also go big before you get out.

If you want to present, this is your last council meeting. I want to make sure you count down the days. We have a nice formal plan for the 31st, everybody at 3 o'clock. So make sure everybody's there. Assemblymember Kellis is going to be there, and certainly Senator Webb will be there as well. So they're big fans of yours. It wouldn't come to mind that they'd go here. We respect a lot of people. You can tell by the people in the room. We appreciate everything you've done. So we have a little proclamation we'd like to share with you and give to you. All you get is a watch, right? So that's good. Thank you. In recognition of the exemplary career and steadfast service of Fire Chief Wayne Friedman on the occasion of his retirement, whereas Fire Chief Wayne Friedman has devoted nearly 40 years to the fire service, beginning with the Colorado Fire Volunteer Fire Department in 1987 and serving the Coralville, Tully, and the City of Coralville Fire Department, and whereas he has joined the City of Coralville Fire Department in 2002, was promoted to Assistant Chief in 2010, and appointed fire chief in 2019, demonstrating exceptional leadership, professionalism, dedication throughout his career. And whereas fire chief, as fire chief, he has led the department through the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening emergency response capabilities, securing grant funding, modernizing equipment, and fostered the development of future fire service leaders. And whereas his outstanding contributions have been recognized across New York State through his Executive Fire Officer designation, service of the Board of Directors of New York State Fire Chiefs Association, and selected as the 2026 New York State Career Fire Chief of the Year. And whereas Chief Freeman has served the City of Cortlandt not only as an exemplary administrator and protector, but as a trusted friend, mentor, and leader with approach to every duty with his humility, integrity, and deep love for his community, leaving a long-lasting legacy through the firefighters he mentored and the citizens he faithfully served. Now, therefore, it be resolved that I, the mayor of the city of Cortland, together with the Common Council, extend our deepest gratitude to Chief Wayne Friedman for his lifetime of distinguished public service and wish him and his family continued health, happiness, and fulfillment in his well-earned retirement. Be it for the resolve that the residents of the city of Portland are encouraged to join us in honoring Chief Freeman's walkout on July 31st, and that we celebrate his remarkable career and his legacy.

Thank you. I truly appreciate this. The things that you said here.

The things that people said to me, I mean, I never expected that this would be happening. I just told Kim this weekend that it's starting to become surreal. It's here. So there's many emotions that are going through me right now. But I want to thank the council. I want to thank previous councils. I think the fire department in my tenure has grown a lot. We've faced a lot of challenges. There's been a lot of bumps and bruises, but great things have happened. And, you know, I'm proud of that. I'm very proud of this organization and where it's come from, where it is today, and more importantly, what it will be in the future. There's great people here, and the department's set up to be great in the future. So the best thing I can do is get out of the way because there's great people that are going to keep this going. We don't know what it looks like. I like to think I could predict it, but I can't. Things change so fast and we're doing the best we can. And I'm very proud of the organization as a whole. I thank the council for all the communications. I know the phone calls. or a text in the middle of the night, hey, call me in the morning, just because I think communication was so key for all of us. And when you had a question to call, I think that's a big part of this. Relationships are huge, and I think, you know, things have been very good with that. So, again, I thank you, Mayor. I thank this council. I thank everybody with the fire department and all my other folks that are here. Yeah, it's here, and I'm not sure how to handle it quite yet, so... But again, thank you for everything. And it's been a great run.

So Chief, if you're going to give your command, three solid statements further on as they go forward. Think about it.

I'll get back to you.

I personally can't think of a better one. It's been a long time. It's been exceptional in the city. As a family member, probably all of you guys, I'm going to say this is the best option. We are happy to work with you. I'm Jimmy, too.

All right. Moving on to the meeting. Thank you, everybody, for coming. You're welcome to leave.

You don't want to stay.

All right, public comments. Mr. Broyles. Good evening, Mayor Steve and council members. I'm Steve Broyles. I live in Ward 3 on 6th Avenue.

And I attended with my friend and colleague, Kevin Hess, of 16 Westfield Drive in Board 1. And together, the two of us are USA Pickleball ambassadors for Cortland County. We're here to address some concerns about the pickleball courts at Brandon Park. These courts are a wonderful asset and resource for the city and for the county. Tickleball is a sport with many health benefits. It's inexpensive, it's easy to play, and it's an integral as an integrative social activity. We're concerned that the courts at Randall have not received final asphalt sealant and sports code, as well as repositioning of the embedded post. Our first concern is that without an asphalt sealant and the sports coat, the longevity of the quartz will be diminished. Falling in rainfall, water permeates the asphalt quickly. This erodes the underlying base, contributes to cracking during freeze-thaw cycles, and it removes the glue-like matrix holding the asphalt aggregates together. Second, playing on asphalt quartz punishes the human body Asphalt is solid material with little flexibility. Knees and hips absorb the shock of athletic movements on the court. And some folks now avoid the random course because of joint pain resulting from playing on a hard but flexible surface. Third, the courts are too close together. And when many courts are in use, players and balls frequently move between courts. This is not only a safety issue, but it's also and issue when it comes to sponsoring or hosting sanctioned tournaments. And sanctioned pickleball tournaments at Randall could be an economic boost for the community by providing funding for the youth duo as well as supporting local businesses. We urge the Common Council and the Mayor to fund the completion of the Pickleball Courts We hope that you will protect the longevity of this wonderful resource. And finally, we'd like some clarity on funding. A recent article in the Courtland Standard interviewed a city official who suggested that occupancy tax shortfalls for the reason the courts have not been completed. In contrast, a 2024 Courtland Voice report recognized that funding was appropriated through the American Rescue Plan Act. So thank you for providing better transparency on this issue. Kevin and I would like to share with you signed petitions from PIPA Ballers and as well as a copy of the letter that I have drafted. Okay. So thank you for listening and for taking our concerns seriously.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks.

Nice t-shirt.

Oh, thanks. I guess we're the first time I've talked to him. Mr. Vasta, do you want to say anything? No, I'm good. Okay. Chief Nichols.

Good evening, Jim Nichols. I live on Bridgeview Avenue in Corbinville, which is an extension of Bridgeview Avenue in the city of Portland. I've spoken before. I also attended the APW Commission. And what we're asking is that our street be recognized as a city street with appropriate signage regarding speed, parking, and heavy vehicles using Ridgeview Avenue for commercial purposes. In the city, there is a limit on weight. City streets have no more than five tons. We believe there are vehicles using this Avenue that exceed five tons. And we'd like to stop to that. So again, we're asking that the council and the DPW consider appropriate signage for the street. If you take a minute and you look at Madison, Groton Avenue and the other streets, they're all properly posted regarding traffic patterns in the city of Coral. Thank you.

Anybody else for public comments? We'll close the public comments section. I just want to respond to the question that was asked about the funding. The original pickleball courts were designed that way with communication with the local pickleball players. It was funded by the American Act to put the pickleball courts in. It was never planned on coding it. at any time that it came up after the Catholic back. So in the President's Buzzard Presentation Council this year, it's presented by the Youth Bureau Director and then the Finance Director to fund the coding brought up that that was wanted out of the occupancy tax. The occupancy tax got to a slow start because it was only at 1% and went to 3% after the first quarter. So we're still, I don't, There is RFPs out for the coding now. We don't know where that's going to come, and if there's enough money to be paid for that. And then the Youth Bureau, there's two projects that were planned out and being paid out of that, was the basketball courts, and now, Andrea? Bouldering. Bouldering, sorry. Bouldering and that. So then, based on the funding that the Youth Bureau Commission will determine, which one will happen if it's short. So that's where that comment came from, and that's what it's stating.

I just add to that. I know there's some conversation going around to find some information out. The original contractor, the grant money for that hippo ball cork was completely used up. So there was no extra money to seal it. And I also know that what I don't know about the practice seal it. There's not very many companies around to do it. So it's hard to find somebody. So probably the answer to the RFP is probably going to get one and that's what we're going to get stuck with because I guess it's a special product. I don't even think Sukkot does it.

There's companies out of Syracuse.

It's like a whole different product. We are certainly, I believe, I swear on it, I guess I should say that hopefully we can come up with the money to get it done this year. We don't want to lose it either, for sure.

If there is a desire for that, spread the courts out and structure it somehow. That should be determined before.

We don't have to get that wrong.

That's the first I'm hearing of that. No, certainly. But we're trying to do it recreationally for everybody to be able to use. And I see that over there, last year, there was courts fall and fall. So it's always good to see that. So if there's a way to make it adjustable, I guess we better have that man move.

We'll be in touch.

We'll be in touch. OK. Thank you for that. All right, so we'll move from that to the finance report. Mr. Shager.

Okay. So that was the 24 audit. As everybody knows, that's completed. We still have a single audit that we're still working through with the auditors, and hopefully that gets done within the next month. So to me, that part that we needed to get done was done, and hopefully we can close that out. 25, we're working on the AFR. Many of the same issues that we incurred in 24, although probably not as bad, there's still all the issues of getting everything reconciled. And when I say reconciled, we're talking about cash, receivables, payables, due to, due from, things of that nature. And until we get caught up, we're still going to have those headings. Once we get caught up, hopefully we stay on it month to month and can go forward. But until then, That's a problem that the city has. Later on in this meeting, I know there's a resolution to bring in an accounting firm to assist us in getting there. There's a document that is attached to some of the things I gave you before the meeting. I believe they will help us get from A to B. And I think it would be well spent money for the city. The 26 budget, as I said, since I got here, the original budget looked like we were gonna have a million dollar deficit due to different revenues being overstated. In the new state budget, we have 500,000 roughly coming in an additional state aid that we didn't budget for. If we go ahead with the tax collection change next year, which occurs at the end of this year, which the county is here to talk a little bit about that later, between those two items, I think that will assist us in making 26 a positive fund balance for the month, for the year. Those two items alone should help us instead of having a deficit, help us get to a positive situation. I think both of those will be both beneficial to the city moving forward. You've got to remember, when we do the tax collection, we're making the school a whole other year. We're making the county whole. And in our cash situation, we just don't have the funds to do that today. So this will be a big help from that standpoint. It's also helping us recognize all of our tax revenue in a given year. The future years, say in 27, if we fill out $12 million in taxes, we will have that $12 million by the end of, I think, August. In the future, it'll be by the end of May. In the past, we've had to wait a year and a half later to get all that money back, as well as making other people home in between.

If we've got it all, because some people are doing it bad. Yes. Right.

Uh-oh. In the package that Andy sent out to you, it was all the different budget versus actuals for June from 25 versus 26. There were a couple of line items that were over budget or going to be over budget. I think there's three resolutions. There are two resolutions in there to clean those up. Other financials, the repeat loan, as I said before, We've been closed out. We've paid off the ban that we were borrowing the money against. There is a headache that goes along with that due to the closing, the timeliness of that. We're going to have to make an interest payment on the rufia loan that was not budgeted in December, it's December 1st, and that's roughly like 72, $73,000. That'll come out of the water and sewer fund. It won't come out of the general fund. Someone in my office will come down with a resolution later on how to pay for that. Health insurance. I dropped you off a document here. The first page is basically what we get from the consortium. Year-to-date, we've spent out of our HRA account roughly $665,000. Our budget amount is $1,150,000. So we're at about 57%. That's not a bad situation. Hopefully, as we go further down the line, less and less HRA money gets spent. So far, we have inactive employees. We have one individual that has hit his maximum in network deduction, three families, and in the retirees, we have one family that has hit their out-of-pocket in network deduction. I also sent out another sheet, something that I've created. This is not a report that I came up with. It's a report that Excel has given me in other locations that I've worked, and they call it a triangle report. And basically it shows how money is being spent in the health insurance field. On the page I sent out to you here, if you go to the first page or the second page, this is basically the active medical payments made on HRA. So basically if we have an active employee who went to a doctor or a hospital, this is the claims that we paid on our HRA. So if you look at it vertically in the month of April, we paid a total of $70,427. $29,563 of that was related to visits that occurred in April. $37,055 from March, $3,136 from February, and $673 from January. So basically, you can see how it takes a few months to roll out. Mm-hmm. If you look at it horizontally in April, go far to the right, there's $52,210. That is the amount of money spent on the HRA that's related to someone going to the doctor's office in April. And $29,000 of it was paid out in April, $20,865 was paid out in May, and $1,782 was paid out in June. What that's basically telling you is that on our medical claims, after two months, we have about 95% of our claims in here on average, okay? So when you're looking at this report, it's not all there. Like when you look at the total 383,000, that's a total as of June, but you should probably add about 50 to $60,000 on top of that to say, this is what it's gonna be through June as a whole. Okay. I'm supplying this report to Scott and some other people down in the office so that as they leave, they can keep this. And as it spills out over the time period, it'll become a lot clearer to everybody of what's going on in the medical scenario. That was on our HRA. The next page, and I think this is important, but not important because we're not just based off of the city's claims. Being a consortium, we're related to everybody's claims, okay? But if you look at this report here, this is medical claims for retirees. So this is retirees that the consortium paid the claims for. They had already paid whatever HRA we had to do. This is what they had to pay to the doctors or hospitals. So if you look at April, they paid out $89,868. Only 2,769 of it was in April. March was 63,132. They paid back 115 in February, and they also paid an additional $24,082. So when you're looking at an HRA, you see our payouts going in like a two-month period. The claims is a longer period of time, four or five months. So if you look going... Horizontal in March, they paid out $2,700 in March, $63,000 in April, $96,000 in May that's related to April claims, or to March claims, and then all $38,000 in June. So in the month of March, it was $162,000 that they paid in claims. So the run out is probably a month or two longer for claims than it is for HRAs. When you look at, I didn't make a copy of this. It's in the report that I sent you. If you look at just the pharmaceutical charges, basically after two months, we got about 100% of all the pharmaceutical bills in through our HRN. I won't go into the last page, but this is both the HRA claims as a whole. For the first six months, it's basically $1.5 million. If you correlate that out, for the whole year, it's about 3 million. We budget at 4.6 million, okay? That doesn't mean we're gonna be under budget because we're paying premiums, but hopefully the HRA numbers stay low, the claims numbers continue to stay low, and our cost of paying premiums in the future don't go up. And we'll never say they go down, but hopefully they don't go up. And lastly, with this being my last meeting here, I want to thank everybody for their help and support. And I try to be helpful as much as I could here to help put the city of Portland back into going in the right direction. I can tell you, dealing in the 27 budget, I think there's going to have to be a lot of hard decisions that everyone in this table is going to have to make to make this happen. a good budget, something that the taxpayers can afford. And I think everything, going through it with the mayor, everything has to be looked at and is on the table. I will tell you that when you're sitting here in October, it's not always going to be fun and pretty, but I think everyone's going to have to make some hard decisions, starting with the mayor. He's already going through it, but it's going to need the support of everybody to get the budget back in the situation it needs to be going forward. I think it's possible. I'm not saying it's not, but it's not going to be easy decisions.

Thank you, Chuck. You've been a great asset. Bonds and bands, the knowledge that we've learned from that, and Randall, too, you've educated us a lot on that. It's simply a breath of fresh air, and we're going to miss you, I'm sure. I hate to say that. Yeah, no, I said I wanted it.

Thank you. I don't know if anybody has any questions. So you're talking about bands and the bonds, and we talked last week at the Finance Committee meeting, not to put you on the spot, but with the loan, you say it was not budgeted, but there was a fair amount in terms of what we were carrying over for the bands and for the bonds previously. So if everything was budgeted for in terms of 26, And now that money was shifted from a ban to the WFIA loan. Was that money not initially, was that ban initially not budgeted for?

No, I think what would happen here is that in the 26 budget, the ban money for payment was budgeted. And I think in the whole line, we may have been over what was budgeted by X amount of dollars. I can't remember what it was, maybe 52,000 or something. We already did a, I think a, budget amendment on that. But even if that had been closed in April, you still would have had to make a bond payment six months later. That was on the budget. So it didn't matter whether it happened in April or June, you're going to have to make that six-month payment later. So this $72,000 was just missed when that budget was put together. I understand how it was missed because I don't think the thought process was there going through this whole thing. But it was the I understand why it was missed, but it had nothing to do with whether we closed this ban in April. If we closed it in April, we'd have to make the payment in June. I mean, in October. Because we closed on it in June, we'd have to make the payment in December. Because on all bonds, you have to make two payments a year, an interest payment and then an interest and principal payment.

So the payment For the ban that was initialed, what you're saying is that payment wasn't expected until 27, but because it was converted to the Wafia loan, that payment becomes due this fall. Yes. Okay.

Yes, that's correct. And I think when Beth was doing the thing, she was just thinking about the ban and not necessarily thinking about it being a bond in April and just missed it. And I can understand that. I think it's a legitimate mistake that someone could make.

Okay, but for the public, we're going to pay more earlier. Well, we're going to pay earlier, but the overall sum is not necessarily more because what was owed on the band was a higher percentage rate than the fee alone, correct? That's correct. So we're going to be paying some this fall that otherwise there would have been a larger number next month.

No, if we close this earlier, I think that's what you're trying to get. If we close this in April, we would have still had to make that $72,000 payment in October, not December. It would have been two months earlier. That's the only difference. When she was doing the budget, she didn't have a bond or amortization schedule out there for 26 for the little vehicle.

Are we going to have time for anything else?

Any other questions? Debt service numbers for next year, last year, last week. Last week, if it was possible to run something for us so we have an idea of what you just explained, we want to avoid that. And there's some concerns in terms of staffing and not having somebody in your position. As we're going through the budget process, what predictors will be for things like debt, health care, retirement costs?

I will try to answer. I have a bond chart, but I can say it's just so long. But they've got to figure out how to get the currency and make sense of it. Okay. I've looked at it. All the payments are already funded in the report.

We're going to have to change that.

Yeah, because in the financials, there's some debt service that it looks like we're not caught up on in terms of payments for this year. And knowing what the payments are going to be for next year is going to be crucial. I'm not sure what he's talking about himself. In the finance report toward the end?

That's what Scott would have mentioned to you yesterday. Which one? About it being posted. Oh, I had trouble with that. It's one of the things about having to get, if you read the auditor things, they're getting things in the system in real time. Okay? It's not being posted in real time. Okay? And that's why it's not there.

So some of the debt service has been paid, but it's just not in the report that we received. in real time. That's the problem. Okay. And one more question. I'm not sure where it would go to, but the 24 audit, the city needs to formulate the response, correct? Has there been any motion on that yet?

It didn't get responded to. Didn't respond to the question? Yeah. Yeah. So where they made a statement, we made a comment below it responding to the statement.

I'll go back and read. Thank you. But that is the city's response. Yes. Very good.

Anybody else? Okay. So we're going to have a motion to receive a file. It's still moving as it was. Mr. Carpenter? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So real quick, some good news. First responders camps tomorrow and Thursday, 11.30 is the landing of the helicopter. I know that's been an issue previously. People got all nervous about the helicopter coming in. They circle around a few times. So anticipate that tomorrow, 11.30, whether anything. Tuesday, next Tuesday at 10.30 is the last of Arts and Parks books at Courthouse Park. And let's see, summer trips are continuing on and camp will resume next week. ATI has their AEA celebration Saturday at 10 a.m. So that's very educational to get there. The Cortland High School reunion is this weekend. It starts Friday the 24th. They have a car show starting 1 to 3 and a Main Street concert will also be that Friday night. And then they have Black Street party. So it's all the Cortland High reunions. They're trying to put all the years together to do it. That's one. So their RFPs are out for gaming, for engineering, for gaming. RFPs out for football courts. We discussed that. We're reviewing the cost for the basketball courts and Randall will probably go out to read it as well as we received the bids again for the demolition over here and that received them and they're much more reasonable. So we'll begin reviewing them and get it done off the camera yesterday.

Just clarify that it's got demolition for Brown House? Brown House, yeah, sorry.

So I attended a goodwill ribbon cutting. So we worked hard to get them here. I think it's a good asset to our community if it's our needs and everybody's needs. So we're excited to have them here. Working with developers and possible users for Parker School. Department of Labor is doing a roundtable next week. The head of the Department of Labor is coming in to have the roundhouse table. We're hosting that at Parker School. And then as far as DBW, so In your packets and so there's extra copies here for the media if anybody wants to understand the process so they're doing some. Asphalt processing and I asked to come to write this document up so that people get an understanding, so you can make people understand how that works, but these roads are doing what they call. The cold process what they're doing and they're starting August 3 and they're going to be doing those roads follow in two days you'll see the process, you can follow through the process. The following after the millet two days later, they can do the base, you know, and you can see they come back in and they touch the road actually four times by the time we're done. So then I'll come into around the 17th and put that last code next year, they'll come in and after I think settles and make sure it looks good, they'll put the top color on that. And those are the streets of Harris, Joy, Chestnut, Evergreen, Harmon, Circle, Cherry, and Elizabeth. and Harris, Joy, Chestnut, everybody, Arden Circle, Cherry, and Elizabeth. We just said Copeland. Copeland? Yeah. And then on August 13th, they'll start doing Pendleton, River, Central, and possibly Court Street. We've got to do some great, great construction on Court Street. That will be the hot asphalt. It'll be handled a typical way, but they'll mill it and turn around and paint it the next day. So they're going to turn around and do that with River Street's a pretty big lift, so that might be a couple. And then in the fall, we'll address Homer and some of the other streets that we discussed earlier. So that would be in the early September, will be those. Superintendents, again, awaiting applications for those, so we're looking at those. But between the flooding, the air quality, and the storms, it's been continuous, work to try to get these roads prepped. And we just never, it's unprecedented times as far as, you know, that we had to shut down the park one day, the pool and outdoors activities, because it got past the level of our thresholds. And I guess that's not what I have.

Just real quick, the Main Street thing this weekend, the part of Main Street getting shut down?

Yes. From, she's coming out, I got to remember this one. Oh, he left. I think it's there in Central or up. jimmy bacao, jimmy bacao, or street to to. jimmy bacao, jimmy bacao, yeah.

jimmy bacao, yeah. jimmy bacao, yeah. jimmy bacao, yeah. jimmy bacao, yeah. jimmy bacao,

Yeah. Coming up on some other, you know, our beach party. And so we're getting all that prepared. So all that state stuff. All right. So ward report.

Thank you. So I did have a message from a resident who's concerned because their escrow payments, well, it's good. See legislator Bischoff here. There was questions in terms of the changes and knowing that Payment gets moved up from February to January, and their concern is that they get their escrow analysis, all that done in December, and then whether or not that's going to be a time crunch. So there are people paying attention and have some concerns. There was an email to everybody on council about the pesticide signs that were on Clinton Avenue and sent an email, looked at a follow-up in terms of, is that the city applying that? And if so, should we be doing that? Part of the grants that we received was, I believe, I can't remember the origin in terms of the grant. It might've been Fish and Wildlife, but there was money to help prevent runoff into the Teotihuacan Yoga, knowing that the Teotihuacan Yoga eventually connects down to the Chesapeake Bay. So whether or not that should be done, I think is a valid question. There was a couple of concerns that came forward at last meeting, and the last one was about 27 budget planning We didn't really get to it, but if we would like to discuss, I'm more than happy if this is the appropriate venue to continue conversation about what we talked in committee or council as a whole wants to pick up the conversation.

What we talked about in the findings.

Some of it will, you know, the RFP, not the RFP, the Accounting and advisory services. I think we're going to end up talking about some of where we're at in terms of the finance department, but next steps and where we're at and what's council's role.

You're the chair of the community, correct? So I advise you, or I'm asking you to bring something positive to us. What's your recommendation? We never get any recommendation. All you bring is the negativity. We're trying to throw people under the bus. You know, Clem Street, that was under your watch. Them flower gardens were a freaking disgrace. It should have never happened. I mean, I'm not, you know, I just, we've been dealing with it. They're full of weeds. People are going to take care of them. They can't take care of them. Back to the finance. Just be positive. Bring stuff to us. I'm not on the committee, and I don't want to be, because I'm not a chalk expert. I think he's done good getting rid of stuff he needs, but We just need to move forward and figure out a solution. That's my, you know, that's all I got to say.

And I have to back you up. I agree. Because it's just constant negativity and no solutions are offered. Nothing. So it's, in a way, it's a waste of time. Hopefully this is our solution. That's our need for it. Solve it up. Right. But it's not coming out of the art.

We can talk about it. But as far as, that's not factual, that it was done to keep things from running out of time. Every one of those outfalls have drains going right to the storm drain that goes through there. They all have outfalls. There were retentions to slow it down, to slow down the waterfalls and hopefully not get as much down there.

And hopefully that was the purpose of the original plan.

But it does go to the river, so that's not factual.

I think the point was, should we be,

I wouldn't qualify it as poison. But it's treated by an expert. And this is done by what was recommended by the EPA had come in. When they had given the grant, we had talked, we had issues. So the original design was flawed. We talked about this last year. It was flawed and it had then floated it, plugged the drains, and created an issue. So then they said, okay, put rocks in it. So we met, let's put down rocks, put it down. Well, then inevitably the silt gets between the rocks, and then the weeds start growing. So they prepare an applicator to address those weeds, because if it doesn't, it's going to ruin what that's designed for, and it's going to kill off the plants that are designed to be in there. Now, again, just by the general part of that neighborhood, there are some people that take care of it, and they look great. But there's some people that don't care and they won't take care of them. And we can't force them to take it. So the recommendation was to address that. But according to our grant documents, we cannot change that. We have to maintain that. And this is an allowable, recommended course of action. Okay. So the city is doing it?

The city's applying this?

We're a contract. Somebody is doing it.

But the city's responsible for it. The city's been doing it. Yes. Okay. And the product that's being used was approved by?

It's an approved EPA.

Yeah. Okay. I think that's. And the unfortunate thing is they had to put down silk tree and that catches everything and everything goes on top of it. It's not coming from below it. Just everything is running in the weeds. I mean, all the original plantings are gone. We got some. We volunteers during the first year, but it's a great concept. It just doesn't work.

All right. Or two to circle back quickly on the finance committee. We have not been, I guess I'm curious for the members who have the council or not on it. What would be helpful in terms of updates on what we discussed in meetings? I don't think we've had a good discussion in terms of how we can communicate and what would be beneficial there. So what would your suggestions?

where we should go, maybe not so much negativity. We live in a negativity world. I'm not a negative person most of the time. It's just solutions. I mean, it's tough. I'm telling you, I'm glad I'm not on it.

Where I'm at on it is it doesn't seem to be, you know, originally we were talking about budget stuff and looking at budget stuff. I said, great, that would be helpful. Have a budget for 2027. That was not finished and dropped off. Then some other issues we've talked about. It just seems like we talk about issues and then we're trying to come up with solutions. Like we talked about PST. If you have a better solution, give me a better solution. If you have a better thing. But we're working every day to try to come up with reasonable healthcare costs, reduce the costs of all that, retirement, employees, levels of employment. And we're doing a bunch of stuff. We're working hard every day to try to do it. Some help would be great. I'm not going to sit, I'm not going to, spent more of my personal time spending that, you know, working four-hour days to try to make all this work out with good team, with people that are there, and not having the level of understanding by the finance committee as of July to understand even what our staffing rules are, to make assumptions about our staffing's accountability or their actions or their competencies. is difficult based on hearing it from past employees maybe, or intervening with other employees that are being interviewed. I really have concerns about where it's going and what it's going for. So in the best interest of the community, we should always be working for that. This board is charged with, as council members are all charged with having the responsibility to make sure it's done. We all sat through the budget hearings together They all need to work out the solutions together. We're all gonna sit down with the 2027 budget together and hopefully in good debate and discussion to make it all work. I can't keep spending time and energy on items and then nothing's happening and nothing's moving forward when I'm trying to move things forward on a daily basis. So again, having solutions is what we're looking for. Not to accentuate what we already know was an issue.

As somebody on that group, personally, I don't feel that it's all about negativity at all. I think that you are at the top of the pyramid, Mayor. You have this big picture. I don't have it in that committee. That's what you share. We ask questions. We asked for clarification. I think that that's an important thing to do, to try and get a handle on the vision that you and Chuck together have come up with. And, you know, I support getting this group in. There's some anxiety about not having about the burden of all of this being back on you like it was for the first year and a half. But in the committee, we understood that there's been great effort to get another finance officer. You can understand why people may be reluctant to step up for such a short period, especially when they know that we've had a lot of issues and difficulties getting our budgets accomplished. Chuck's accomplished a great deal. But as we have these discussions, which can be very uncomfortable because it's hard to look at our collective shortcomings, as we have these conversations, we see that, you know, we hear that Maybe they need more help in the finance department. Maybe it's a personnel thing where we need more people. Or maybe it's about systems and what systems are in place and who's using which systems. And it sounds like the mayor's drilling down on those aspects. You have a lot on your plate. You're a member of different boards. You run the city. You're way more than a part-time mayor. I, for one, have concern that, I mean, I think you're way past, I don't see how you haven't burnt out yet. I just, it's a lot, but if we don't have somebody to step into Chuck's position, we don't. It's just, we don't have somebody right now. And so... I think this accounting firm that we're going to discuss is our best solution for now.

And I think we'll have them draft reports back on what the findings are and share with everybody so nobody feels like they're in the dark. I think that's an important part to the people before that aren't getting a view of it. They're on the same side as what it is. It's good to share that with everybody. Maybe that would be helpful. So we'll move towards that. Right, because if that passes.

I do think it's also important on the point of communicating. There's been multiple occasions where members who are not on the finance committee have mentioned at council meetings things, cuts to the budget that the finance committee was not aware of until that council meeting. So unless the finance committee is communicated with, you don't have the picture to make these decisions. And so I think communication between the finance committee and the rest of the council could approve, but I do think the finance committee is not being communicated with effectively by the mayor's team. And I am frustrated by the fact that some of these things are being revealed in open council meetings, like the pickleball court cuts, and being blamed on the finance committee when those conversations did not happen. It was not something the finance committee pushed for. So there's a communication issue beyond just the finance committee.

We're going to talk about that. So we're going to clear it out Non-faction states, number one. Nobody from my office or anybody from finance told anybody that Pickleball was a crime. Nobody said that. Never once, never stated that. Nobody has had any other conversations. And I think it was a misunderstanding of where that was as well as everybody else figured that was a crime. But it was always funded for that. And you were at that budgeting meeting when it was talked about where it was funded from. But we're not, as we talked about all along, where if there's money not there, we can't go to a project without the money being there. And if we have to, we have to move the money from somewhere else to make that happen. And based on the importance and relevance of everything else we have going, no offense to the pickleballers, that's not going to be necessarily the top priority. But again, it wasn't cocky. Nobody said that. Again, that was a miscommunication. We've never even talked about the pickleball courts at all in any of the finance meetings. Right, to my knowledge, so I don't I don't even know why that happened, but I can't speak to that I don't want to be anybody for that there was a misunderstanding I don't know where they got I don't know where. Mr broils got some of the information that some people were not clear on what it is certainly we put all those into bacon for good reason, but i'm trying to deep. But the point is, you know I can't stop I decided that if somebody makes a mistake i'm not going to let these half truths. go out there because sometimes they get out there and they're not and I just we just let it go and we ignore it and it becomes a big big incident that bigger than what it should be so we're going to address these things as they come up but that is not true that's not you can't globalize that as saying that that's a miscommunication there's no communication as overall to everybody else there's been cuts that nobody knows about I think everybody's in the tune of everything that's going on. We're talking about it publicly as much as we can, probably more than we should, because it's deterring people from anybody who's watching, say, whether these guys vote. It's deterring them from probably coming here. But I'm not trying to hide anything. We're not trying to do anything. I'm just trying to fix the problem. We're just trying to hear the fixed problems that work at it. Chuck's here. He knows the competency of the staff down there. I mean, he can speak to whether or not he doesn't feel that they can go on day to day and things are going to fall apart or things will move forward. If that's a question, that's relevant. But otherwise, I think it's difficult for people to make those decisions based on one off comment or those kind of situations.

I agree about the negativity. That's what we get, is the negativity. It's Is this the solution that your committee came up with?

Because if it is, that's great. We discussed it in our committee and we can discuss it as an agenda. Okay. But it didn't come from your committee. So this wasn't a solution. It was presented during the committee to us. Oh, okay. Yeah. And we wanted to bring it to you because as a committee, I think I can speak. for our committee that we don't want to make unilateral decisions that seem like they should be all of council's decisions.

That's a suggestion. Right. Because it is a suggestion. Right. Which I said, you know, one of my things since I've been in, I'm not the newest guy here, but the reality is that now we have resourced stuff out. It's not going to be any longer. I don't think it's going to cost us more in the long run. We assume those responsibilities. At this company, that's what I'm throwing on the bus, but if they defunct on getting the RFP's in or getting the budget done, guess what? We can hold them liable. We can't hold Chuck liable. He's an employee. Stuff like that. So sometimes resourcing this stuff out, we're probably better off.

Is BST liable for failure to meet city obligations? BST is liable for breach of their contract, whatever they agreed to do by contract for us. And like any other professional firm, whether you're an accountant or an attorney, if you practice incorrectly, you could be subject to a malpractice lawsuit as well. So I have no idea what the contract is going to actually call them to do.

I'd like to drive this conversation. That's nice, too. We're going to have to do that. One last thing there.

It's your award report.

Okay. I think it would help.

I think it would help greatly. if each of us checked our assumptions before we aired them in public. And if you have any kind of grievance or any kind of question, go directly to the person.

That's what we need to do. It would be great to do that. Questions on the agenda items to questions that are not that, it would be great to have people reach out, you know, within the days before instead of... Oh, you say that.

Thank you very much.

If you need education, Well, to wrap up my word report, I had to respond because I did send an email asking about what happened on Clinton. And similar to past emails about a variety of topics, there was no response. And Troy, if you think back, I submitted a document that was like three pages of suggestions. And if you want to call negativity or positivity, you have to look at the cold facts. And we can talk about it, but numbers are the numbers. And over the last three years, We have overspent by over a million each year. Don't get me going, Brian, because Clinton Street was way over. Main Street was way over. Show me the numbers. Because we approved, voted against, but $7.8 million earlier this year to keep the city financially sound. And that was not broken out, what that money was. That had nothing to do with it working. What the projects were. That's nothing to do with it working. Show me the numbers. So you're just wondering. Because our bonds have gone from $17 million The 54 million and our credit rating is dry.

It all started in the regime, Brian.

You're the one who approved those. Are you okay? You're the one who approved all those bonds. All of them? Two, three. Did you run to just keep talking about these things and just keep doing this? Or did you run to help the constituents and do something? Just tell me one thing you've done since January.

You haven't helped a damn thing since you've been on this board again.

It's been since July. It's been since July. What are you doing?

We've been here six months, but we've not made changes the way we need to make changes. I'd say we have. Going back to where you started, you spent 16 months in charge without a finance director, and now we're looking at going back to not having a financial director.

Mr. Mayor, point of order. Mr. Fulbin is engaging in debate during his award report, not delivering the award report. At this point, he needs to deliver award report, not direct comments to individual council members and other council members should not respond to Mr. Jacobin's ward report. It's a ward report. That's all it is. It's not a chance to engage in debate with individual council members, nor for other council members to respond to what he says.

Carry that on to the next meeting as well.

Ward two.

All right. Second ward. DPW came through and picked up the brush from the big storm. It took a while. People were patient, but they were so appreciative. So thank you so much to DPW. And codes took care of some brush that was overgrowing the sidewalk where people couldn't walk on the sidewalk. They had crouched down. And so thank you, codes, for taking care of that. I have not done a great job communicating. I've not done a good job at all communicating with my ward about the zoning changes that are proposed and the parking changes that are proposed. And so I would like to have a ward meeting July 30th at 6 o'clock in Parker School. I have not checked to make sure Parker's available, but I will. Is that time of day again? I'm sorry. 6 o'clock. On the 30th? July 30th. It's a Thursday.

We'll make sure that's available.

Andrew? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And Mayor, I'd love for you to be there so we can explain some of these changes. And the justification for the zoning. I have one person who's wondering why do we need first floor or habitation on Main Street. And I was wondering if that was passed by the historical society. And that's it from the second ward. Third ward, everything's good.

Four. Okay, four. I received an email concerning the same thing I say every meeting, speeding on Tompkins Street. This constituent suggested he said having the police car in the cemetery by the time cars get to the cemetery they've slowed down when they're leaving town by the time they get to the cemetery they've slowed down once they get the speedway either way either direction that's when the speeding takes place And it is, it's the trucks, it's the big trucks, it's the cars, and they're going 45 miles an hour past where it's 30. So I don't know if sitting up by the Red Dragon would help or even in Barry, because sometimes they're in Barry or Joseph or, you know, what are those streets up closer to where the speeding is taking place? Also, Speedway, the manager of Speedway pointed out to me the other day that the flag that was across the street from Speedway, the flagpole was bent and bending. And he said every time he looks at it, it seems to have bent more. And he just didn't want it to fall down because The flag is not supposed to touch the ground. So I called DPW when I got out in the parking lot and I got in the car. And the next time I spoke to the manager, he said, I think DPW took care of that before you got out of the parking lot. So he was very happy. So thank you, DPW, for taking care of that. And that's it from the board.

So I will be having my next award meeting Monday, July 27th at 6 p.m. in Beaudry. So looking forward to that. I had flyers printed off today, so I'll be doing the rounds in the board. Looking forward to more good conversation with neighbors there. And that does it for the fifth.

I'll call it the sixth award. Well said. Thanks. Thank you. All right, so the minutes kind of motion to accept the minutes. You are here. It's like all of their. Presentation sorry about the way. Yeah. Andrea.

The shot and you're coming. Yes, I mean. I'm Kathy. And I'm currently a Quentin County legislator, elected from District 3. I am also the Chair of Finance and Administration for the Quentin County Legislature. I'm joined this evening by my colleague, Ann Marie Herzog, who is the Director of Finance. Our Chair, Kevin Fitch, and our County Administrator, Michael Poncello, send their regards. Unfortunately, they couldn't join us this evening. I'm here to give a little bit more explanation to the very fine presentation that you had last council meeting on the proposal before you for the county to collect city taxes along with the county taxes going forward. And I just like to give you a little background. You may not be aware or may be aware that for the past several years, the county and the city have talked about the city tax collection. And for some time, The county would like to realign the entire county on the same schedule as the rest of the county. So the rest of the county outside of the city actually collect their taxes January through April kind of May. They get some extensions. Okay. And we really, for efficiency and consolidation and general financial management, we really wanted to have those schedules be combined. And so we decided this year that we were going to start collecting our own taxes in the city so we could do that eventually and had a conversation with the city, with the mayor and his staff to see if there was something we could do to do this in a cooperative and collaborative fashion. We were very open to suggestions and we were very open to suggestions as to how to approach it. So one of the thoughts we had, obviously, was that currently, right now, you collect both the city and the county taxes. Basically, just to reverse it. And the county would collect the county and city taxes. We would have a transitional year, which would be for 2017. We would begin to collect the taxes on the same schedule we do now from February to August. The following year, we would begin to collect the taxes January through to April and May. We would also make you whole when the taxes are collected. So right now, you actually make us whole for anyone who doesn't pay their taxes on time. This would now be reversed. We would make you whole. And so therefore, if we were to go forward, we would obviously again, next year's especially schedule, you keep your same schedule. We would make you whole in September. And the following years, when we begin to collect taxes in that January to April schedule, we would make you hold on your achievement. Right, we would also assume all the debt delinquencies that that email out to this point, and we would obviously bear all the costs for pursuing those delinquencies and those collection, we were obviously assume all the costs of collection itself so. We believe that this is a potentially financially sound proposal that allows us to realign our entire county into one tax collection schedule. It also, though, provides an upfront payment, if you will, to the city so that you're made whole at the end of this process. A couple months prior to where you would have been right now, in September, you get most of your taxes eroded. all of your taxes, this would actually accelerate that so you can get all of your benefits in June, all right? So you would obviously begin to be able to collect a higher level of interest because you have all the taxes in hand as of June, right? And you would have none of the costs of administration, nor would you have any of the costs of pursuing public policies. Now we're here also to answer questions, but I also wanted to turn it to Andrea to ask her just anything she'd like to add.

I don't have anything to add, although I do kind of have an answer to your escrow question. The banks are used to having everything ready and prepared by January. So I don't think that's going to be an issue for escrow holders in the city. This is something the banks are already doing.

used to do. They'll start preparing the year ahead.

They're probably already prepared before it even comes out. I mean, they're probably prepared at the end of December because that's their normal schedule.

I'd also like to add that part of changing over to the new schedule is the city preparing a budget by November so that then we can prepare the tax bonus in a timely fashion so that should answer the question that I asked. Okay, we hope that it will. We plan to do a very comprehensive outreach to the public. And I think the mayor's work very closely with us in Hawaii. That's how important it is to do that outreach through a variety of avenues so that people are clear about the expectations for this year and then the changes for the year following. And we hope to make this as seamless a process as possible for the residents. That's the key.

Okay, Kath, I understand what the advantage Advantage to the city. What's the advantage to the county?

Well, a couple of things. We're able now to collect our taxes on the same schedule as the rest of the county. Right now we collect our taxes on a January to May schedule. So we're able to get all of our taxes in a timely fashion too, which obviously increases our interest profile as well. We're able to consolidate our administration So it just makes, it's just an easier, more efficient path for us.

That's the interest, right?

Yeah, right. The interest, yeah.

And it makes sense, but their constituency is ours. So that was the idea of shared services, trying to make that work.

Yeah. Thanks.

Anybody else?

Anybody else have any other questions?

Thanks, Ben. Thank you.

All right, be well. Thank you. Perfect.

Paul has spoken on today, so thank you for sticking around. Agenda item number one, authorizing an inter-municipal agreement between the County of Portland and the City of Portland for collection of real property taxes.

So that the City of Portland Common Council authorizes Mayor Steeve upon review and approval by the Corporation Council to sign the inter-municipal agreement with the County of Portland for real property tax collection. I'll second.

Spinello? Any questions?

So Mr. Lewis, we received the draft of this agreement today, correct? That's correct. So changes, we will get it. Copy, what kind of changes would not be acceptable if we were to vote upon the draft today? So if we're voting today on the draft, what potential changes could take place that we would not be aware of? Or would you bring us back the finalized copies?

I mean, if you heard the presentation last week, you heard the presentation tonight in the county. If anything substantially changed, we would certainly talk to you about it. But any more than when we do a road project or something like that, you approve the project. You don't approve the final contract that's entered into with the general contract. I mean, you're approving the general concept of moving forward with this. and putting the council's stamp behind it. Because as Ms. Bischoff mentioned, one of the things that we're going to have to do over the coming months is there's a number of dates that are set in the city charter that talk about the date the mayor has to give you his budget, the date council has to adopt their budget. Those are going to need to be amended to accommodate the new schedule. Additionally, sometime in the 90s, maybe 96, council made the election to continue collecting taxes. The governor at that point had put forward to basically move it countywide. The city of Cortland elected out of that. Cities had the option to elect out. So we have to repeal that resolution that we adopted. I think it was in the 90s. I've got it on my desk downstairs, but I can't tell you the exact date, but it was a long time ago. Anybody else? I have a couple of quick ones. So I haven't had a chance to finish reading the draft agreement yet. A couple of things that popped out and I may be missing some context. It mentioned an audit for properties before they're assumed by the county and the audit would be the city's responsibility. Is that correct? That's actually a wonderful thing that you pointed out. That's one of the things we're negotiating on. I anticipate us being able to potentially get an agreement that instead of there being an audit, because trying to audit and find a negative is almost impossible, so instead of that, if somebody comes forward with proof, we would have a whole harmless language in the agreement that would say we will indemnify the county if If they've paid us for taxes that we claim are unpaid, then somebody were to come forward with proof, we would have to pay the county.

And that was actually taken out the last meeting you were in court.

I did take care of that. So I don't think the draft that you were given, because that was sent out before the meeting, we don't have a new draft.

I don't necessarily want housing on the first floor of Main Street. And a lot of these properties are on Main Street, you know?

Really? South Main Street, I guess you could say. But nothing on the historic- Nothing on the historic district.

Okay, but there's someone brought in, and there's one on Clayton.

If you turn the corner, the property's on that corner. Okay. And brought to this corner, that whole road is- I'm so sorry, I thought you were going to say.

Oh, great, great, great. Sorry, I'm supposed to be leaving now. Okay.

All right.

I'll be upside down with you. Anybody else? Any other questions?

So, you know, last meeting I had pointed out the concern. There's automotive places. There's a nonprofit here that we didn't talk about. And I just, my concern is whether or not the property owners know that these zoning changes that were happening to their properties. I actually talked to all the owners. Do we have anything in writing about that?

I talked to the owner's person and addressed every one of them and said, did you get the letter? If you have any questions, you understand what it means. We had a long in-depth conversation about it. And specifically, some of them, the places that are in the funeral home, they don't plan on going anywhere. They understand. And they appreciated that value as being an asset to them. To be able to have that availability to be done, to be able to use it that way, if they wanted to sell it that way, was more of a benefit to them. And all of those cases were all part Council Member Tobin.

Nay. Council Member Sullivan.

Aye.

Council Member Piniello.

Aye.

Council Member Lane.

Aye.

Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Carpenter. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye.

Agenda item number three, amend the 2026 adopted general fund budget

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council does hereby amend the 2026 general fund budget as outlined in the accompanying table.

I move it. Second. Ms. Lane, any questions?

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Zillowit.

Aye.

Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane.

Aye.

Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Carpenter. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye.

Agenda item number four, amend the 2026 adopted water fund budget.

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council does hereby amend the 2026 city water fund budget as outlined in the accompanying table.

Motion. So moved. Ms. Sullivan. Ms. Berger. Any questions?

Council Member Tolvan. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Councilmember Piniello. Aye. Councilmember Lane.

Aye.

Councilmember Conlon. Aye. Councilmember Carpenter. Aye. Councilmember Beckwith.

Aye. Agenda item number five, amendment 20.5 of the Sewer Fund.

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council does hereby amend the 2026 City Sewer Fund budget as outlined in the accompanying table.

Mr. Conlon, Mr. Kerr, your question?

Council member Tolman. Aye. Council member Silliman.

Aye.

Council member Piniello.

Aye.

Council member Lane.

Aye.

Council member Cavill. Aye. Council member Carpenter. Aye. Council member Beckwith.

Aye. Agenda item number six, authorize agreement for accounting and the rights of the citizens.

Resolved. The City of Cortland Common Council does hereby amend the 2020... six state general fund budget as recommended by the Director of Administration and Finance in the accompanying table and be it further resolved that the Common Council shall be given monthly reports documenting progress and findings under the hereby authorized agreement.

I move it. Second. Second.

Second. So I just want to give the same kind of discussion with the people that were not in finance to do it. So BST is a consultant firm. This is kind of the daily witness. What they like to do is go in and, you know, fix problems that people have and then to continue on with consulting services that outside of that, and basically give you advice. So if you have a question, I'm not sure where to, appropriate something and fund or try to deal with it. Once they get established, those policies and procedures, once they're established by them and you're following them, reach out to them on the phone and they'll be able to help you to keep everything at activity. So they have extensive municipal accounting backgrounds and they came in and did an interview, met with all of our people and discussed what the generalized overview is. And by then they were available to it. through the initial scope. Ideas that I have, obviously, will be refined as it goes along and as the priorities needed. You know, I allocated $30,000 to Mr. Becker's point earlier as if they aren't following through what we have to do. We can do it. Some of the items we had talked about, completion and filing AFR, that's actually going to be done by the end of this week. By Monday, we'll be sent in. So some of that stuff will be already done. So that's not included in that. So that's where I came up with the $30,000, but we will continue to work with them and continue to have them give detailed reports of where each area where they are and any personnel issues will be dealt with with the personnel committee that they find that we will keep that out of that, but I'll be dealt with the personnel committee. So the personnel committee will get it and then this whole board as a body will get these reports back from them so we can talk about the progress, talk about the issues, painful or not, where the issues lie, what they're working on and what the Uh, trajectory is to fix those specific issue to try to make it as. Not as complicated as it as it is, so they can simplify this and try to make sense of it.

So, if you have any questions on page 3 of the hand at that timeline and goals. Looks like this did take the above 30,000. Fairly easily based on some of these, these figures in the cost. Are we likely to see that?

I don't want to say no, because I would anticipate there's a probability of that happening. It's hard for them to know how much, when they come in and do the initial assessment, get things going, is how much we can help ourselves to work ourselves out of it, how much work we're going to do, how many trips they have to make down to be able to get that clarification. So they're not really sure of the aptitude of our employees, and that's different. for them to do. So they, you know, wanted to go to, you know, numbers that they're, they really don't know. So they're, we're trying to do that, but it's, it's, well, we'll know the progress on how we're making and we'll have to be able to keep a good finger on it. If we don't take it, it's worth that other investment where it needs to ship. I would think after that 30,000 is expended, we have a good handle on what needs to be done because the goal, their goal is to have, so we're up to date on 2026. So we turned the calendar year, we closed 26 folks, We can get all that done and get our audit done and get everything done properly. So that's the primary goal. And then outside of that, rolling into 27, what work needs to be done, we'll have to reevaluate that into next year and hopefully have those answers before the budget is all complete.

This will help us address the bindings in the audit. Thank you. Do we have a sense of whether they're going to come in and impose a new system on our people, or are they going to evaluate what we're doing, see what's working, see what's not working, and just make it more efficient?

They're going to streamline. They're going to streamline all of the, currently now we have numerous news and spreadsheets to AS400, to get everything into news. So there'll be policies that And Munis, there's many modules of Munis that were not, Munis was not programmed properly to do this. So we go back and fix those issues to make sure Munis is accurate to what the documentation and how it should be so that if you make a transaction here, it affects over here and they're going to clean up all of this as well.

So ideally, it's going to work better for the people who are working for us.

Yeah, it'll make it. Perfectly clear what everybody's goals and responsibilities should be.

Yeah.

It should make it a bit easier for everybody else.

Won't add to their burden. I mean, it'll be uncomfortable possibly to have people coming in and asking all these questions. But the goal, our goal as a council is to make things more streamlined and easier for them.

Yeah. and have accurate recording and have accurate statements and documents so you can make the proper decisions.

Is the goal still ideally to hire a finance director if possible this year? Okay.

And then if we do that, we get somebody sooner, then we'll have to figure out that adjustment later too. But I think either way, whether they're here or not here, this should be done. But the money was pulled from that position. If we fill it tomorrow, we're going to have to think go back at it another way to fund it.

And this is a company that Jeff brought to us?

No. It's a company that had made presentations at NICON. Okay.

So you're familiar with them?

I've never worked with them, but I've talked to them a lot since Scott Barham on board. Okay. I mean, they seem like they're real quality people that want to get this done.

I think we're going to go back and do it. Anybody else? So one of the questions that we talked about in the Finance Committee meeting, why there is not an RFP, why we're going with them. Can you share that with everybody?

Just because it's professional services and this is a niche market, there's really nobody else I could find that covers it in this area. And the tires. Time is sensitive. I really... That was the plan in 2025, honestly, was to make sure everything's right, make sure everything was, and the accounting procedures were done right, 2025, that never got reached. And I think the only way to push it out is to get the extra horsepower to get that direction and not try to split that process with a position or workers that we already have here. That's difficult to do.

It's the one concern because we did talk. We didn't have the documents until today, but the conversation last week was up to $30,000 and the estimated cost here, it's going to go past that at some point. The only question is when do we hit that $30,000?

We'll find out. We won't know until they tell us.

I think the plan is the first $10,000 is for them to come in and understand what do they got to do. At that point in time, we should have a better feel, or they should, for what it's going to cost us. What's the time period they got in there? The end of August? Okay, so I would think in the September time period, we should have a good number of what it's going to take to take us out to the end of the year to do it. We've got to fund it until they get there. I think at that point, council and the mayor can make a decision. Is this going to work? What do we need to do? But at least to get to that point for a month of August, you're spending $10,000 of that $30,000 to understand what the issues are.

So items, let's see, the September to October 50 to 75 and 15 to 25.

This will essentially be at the top of the Director of Administration for Finance if we could find them.

That's correct.

So my concern here is we are establishing a potentially longstanding relationship with this company that's going to expend a lot of the city's money at a time when we're already facing difficulties. I would be a lot more comfortable with this if the finance committee had a chance to speak with at least a representative with the ST about this agenda.

Could we, do we have to agree to the whole thing right away or could they come in and do their initial assessment and then talk to us again?

Yeah, that's what Chuck just explained. Put the $30,000 towards it. They can get in and understand it. But while they're here understanding, we can make immediate process changes. They're going to start on this. They're going to open this part of that, doing that. But we have $30,000 up to do that. Then once we get that fully evaluated, we bring it back in. and decide what we're going to do, how much for this and that, and what happens for the next meeting anyway, right? That's why I gave enough time. So the end of August is what their timeline is. But the longer we wait, the longer it's going to be.

So by September 1st only, we know where we got to go. So we need to put the kibosh on now or then or... That's what I'm taking.

Right. We just don't want to be locked into a contract that says $1 million when we got enough.

We're allocating $3,000 towards it. I'll address that.

It was made very clear to them that they have $30,000 to spend until Mars approved. Thank you. I don't understand government.

And Randall was on the phone when I told him, I said, you know, we're going to, come to us and ask for $30,000. If you do $10,000, give us $20,000 to see what we can do. Okay. The second would be more than $30,000 unless everybody here approves it and hears from them.

Beautiful. Thank you for all of that.

And it's good that we're going to continue to look for a director of admin and finance because these authorities are looking at internally what the department, the current employees do. and how they're interacting with the software, and then the reconciliations from 24 to 25 and 25 to 26, but it's not directing or moving things forward in terms of this is taking the numbers and making them work from one year to the next. I agree that we need to continue to seek somebody to be the director of administration and say,

Anybody else? Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman.

Aye.

Council Member Cannello.

Aye.

Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. No. Council Member Carpenter.

Aye. They'll be back. They'll be back, I think. The recording is voting when it gets back. Degenerate number seven confirmed. Appointment of Jessica Smith to the Portland Housing Authority Board.

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council, recognizing the particularized circumstance of this appointment and without prejudice to future residency requirements, hereby confirms the appointment of Jessica Smith to the Portland Housing Authority Board for the remainder of the term ending December 31st, 2030.

So just want to clarify under the circumstances to the court when housing authority was established in the city of court. So according to their state departments, they're supposed to, we want residents from this city to be there. So if we do have an issue within their housing, within the housing district, we can address that with those local residents would know about it and do all that. They also have housing in Homer and some of the other places. So I don't think it's out of stretch to be them to have input too. But we just don't want to set that precedent so the majority is outside of where we have the majority of the high rise next door. So we, but they did, they are having trouble seeking applicants from the city, et cetera. They feel that Ms. Smith would be a great addition to their board. So we respect their wishes and we put this force to council, but I want to make sure it's clear that we've got that. So Mr. Beckwith, can I get your vote on number six? so now we are uh calling the vote for item number seven or fighting number seven the justice council member chauvin hi council member silliman council member panello council member lane hi council member kama hi council member carpenter council member backwoods agenda item number eight who's special event carnets for the pumpkin fest on october 3rd and 4th 25 seconds

Resolved that the City of Cortland Common Council has hereby approved the issuance of permits as described below. The Great Pumpkin Fest, October 3rd and 4th, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Courthouse Park. Special event, sound device, operating, mobile food vendor permits to be issued without fee, street closures, Central Avenue, and Greenbush Street.

So we go back with any questions? Which number is this? I do not know the answer to that. I'm not looking forward to it to come because I'm insulted. Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lay. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Carpenter. Aye.

Council Member Beckwith.

Agenda item number nine, approved special event permits for the Planet Lean Nation fitness pop-up event, July 26, 2026, in Main Street Park.

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council does hereby approve the issuance of permits as described below. Fitness pop-up, August 26, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Main Street parking lot. Permit to be issued special event With a sound device with $25 fee.

Just please note before you get to move it, the date is July 26th. Or July 26th, it's in the agenda. This site that's on, so this July 26th.

July 26th, so it's coming out. Mayor, is it Planet League Nation or is it Project League Nation? I don't think it's Planet. Is it? Are we talking about? Yeah, Roger, Roger.

Just find a plan of business. So just want to clarify, Project Wing Nation is right next to the business. Mr. Beck, do you want to second? Second. Okay, so thank you. Any questions? Will there be samples? You might have to do some push-ups and some jumping jacks.

So at the event, it's more business oriented. It's not a I mean, it would hopefully boost sales for them, but it's not a sales event, correct?

I would assume it's a fitness pop-up, meaning that they have gear there, fitness gear, those kind of things. Those kind of items there, as well as open apps, probably.

Well, they are paying. They are paying.

Council member Tobin. Aye. Council member Sullivan.

Aye.

Council member Piniello. Aye. Council member Lane.

Aye.

Council member Conlon. Aye. Council member Carpenter. Aye. Council member Beckwith.

Aye. Agenda item number 10, approve sound device permit for use at October 10, 2026.

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council hereby approves and authorizes the issuance of a sound device permit with a fee of $25 to the Portland County Republican Committee for use at 46 Greenbush Street on October 10th, 2026, between the hours of noon and 6 p.m., pursuant to Section 193 of the City Administrative Code.

Thank you. Ms. Carpenter, any questions? Yes. What are they doing? What I understand is that sort of worked. like a road, I say road rally, it's not that good, like a big, but they come from other counties and they drive in and they do a speech and then they drive to the next county to suit the gubernatorial candidates and then they get something to do. Okay, oh, okay.

Will there be a dump tank with Democrats in it?

Sounds like you're up for it, Katie. Again, I think it's just everybody stand around, they make a statement, and then they leave. I don't think it's... It's not really a...

So the address is 46 Greenbush. That is the county courthouse, correct? Correct. I thought it was 57. I put it on my Google Maps, and it came up. So is this for the courthouse park, or is this for the courthouse? I don't know.

I don't think it's inside the building. Maybe on the steps. That's what I'm saying.

What kind of... 56th of the jail, right?

So what kind of legal... Does the county need to weigh in? It's the county property. I actually texted my legislator I believe yesterday. I hadn't heard back, but my concern is that it's a county property.

It's public space. It's public space. You can't use it. The sound device permit is the only thing we're permitting.

We're not issuing a special event permit for them to use the county's property. We're issuing a permit for them to use a sound device in that location. Not in their property.

But that's...

They don't own the property. Just like we would issue a sound device if you wanted to have a band in your backyard. But it would be on my property. And it's the county's property. So it's up to the county whether or not they want to let them use it. That has nothing to do with us.

So they have to get to the property, to the county.

And if the county requires them to have a permit or something to use their portion of the ordinance.

I have no idea what they have. We don't need to know.

That's all we're being asked to do.

Yeah. That's all we're doing. I would assume that they talk about the specific details of

It's a party, but it is a Republican thing.

Move it, please.

Council Member Tolbert. Nay. Council Member Stolomit. Aye. Council Member Piniello.

Aye.

Council Member Lane.

Aye.

Council Member Kahnlein. Aye. Council Member Carpenter. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye.

Agenda item number 11, authorize the motion, is that what I said? Absolutely.

Obsolete civil service positions. Resolved, the City of Portland Common Council hereby authorizes the abolition of the civil service positions identified in the table below and authorizes the mayor and the appropriate city officials to complete all necessary filings and notifications required to implement the abolition of such positions.

I'm moving. So doing, as we talked when we did another contractor's CSA that some of these positions and titles had changed. So we need to do these up so that they're all filed with civil service to be as such. I hope that worked for you. Questions?

Can I stand here a minute, please? Oh, okay. Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman.

Aye.

Council Member Piniello.

Aye.

Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Carpenter. Aye. Council Member Beckwith.

Aye. Okay, so we just wanted to talk about this murals and the historic districts. We should really talk about getting a mural citywide discussion as well. Maybe follow some of the same formatting so we have some kind of requirements, but this is what the historic mission has brought back as a draft mural policy of the Story Commission what they would like to see it. As you know, they have to do a little research there and how the process and everything would work. So we're going to put that on for August 4th meeting. So we're going to try to get that in front of everybody. So if they could run into any questions or anything ahead of time. Just real quick stuff. Should we do something else in here other than none of this current history? I think we should look at something overall total.

Right.

But I think we look at these as guidelines and then decide from here, we want to see something different. We want to, I think the girls can be great at some beautiful ones like on the Hollywood and on the other side of the bank. But I think we should get some control because it did not get accepted. That's nice and nice. And I guess arts and then eyes should come out with better policies. I just want to make sure we have that conversation. And then the next thing is we're going to need to go into executive session to update on litigation. There will be no action afterwards, so the media can stay or they won't stay. You can stay to make sure they enter in who comes and comes back. It's my grandmother's birthday. I'm going to sneak out. I know what he's going to say, so if there's anything else, you can bring it back to me. That's a discussion item.

Do we still have a public art commission? We do.

Can they weigh in? I did talk to them about that. We did talk about doing that as part of their process as well. And then going through the historic commission too.

We would have a public hearing in August. For the historic.

For the other one, that was the art commission. We would follow through with that soon.

We need a motion to go to that.

Motion by the session. Michigan. I don't think it doesn't need to be needed or anything. They are what you're saying. They're going to, they're going in there. Oh, just make sure. Yeah.

Andrea.

What is that? Yeah. You know, very good.

We have five.

Right now. Do you have a motion?

Second.

I'll second. Motion to adjourn the meeting for tonight's council. Okay. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

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Aye.