Common Council - Regular Meeting

that fence down and put it back up. And personally, I think that's shameful. I did a lot of research. I contacted attorneys through a friend of mine who's a real estate agent out of the community. And she put me in touch with a group of attorneys who do code and zoning disputes. I sent him all of the information and he was shocked. First of all, he said it went through 10 people and was signed off on by the city clerk, the zoning enforcer and the code enforcement. And couldn't believe when I contacted the code enforcer, it wasn't to have an argument, but it was to try to resolve it. But apparently that wasn't the case for him. He was rude and said that their mistake was not the city's problem. that it never should have been approved. It never should have been signed off on, but there was nothing that we could do about it. The attorney that I group that I contacted said that it was probably true because the city attorney is covered expense wise by the city insurance. So it would cost us a lot of money to fight it. Although we would probably win it would, we would gain nothing financially by that. So I did my own research on the city of Cortland COVID enforcement. And part of that was zoning reviews. So it's part of the responsibility. We did everything we were told to do. We went before the zoning board. In fact, one of the members of the zoning board told us that we might want to move the fence in a little bit closer because the plows come around and it could damage the fence. So we did that. The fence was outlined with orange ink. It was inspected. It was improved. I have the approval of the final inspection by somebody called Tobin, who said pass. That's all it was. It was just a pass. I have the building permit. I have everything. And they incurred a great expense, and they couldn't fight it because they had to move. So shame on the zoning board. Shame on the home enforcer. I mean, I might just as well have put the fence up and not bothered. And I'm sure if that happened to me, it's happened to other people. And the expense for people to fight this is really not prohibitive. So people just go ahead and say, well, we'll have to take it down. I think it's unfair to them. And I think there needs to be something done about it. And I think the city should do the right thing. I think they should reimburse them for that expense. Now, I know you're not going to, but you should. It's the right thing to do. So that's what I have to say. I give all of the paperwork.

If you don't mind me, I'll make sure copies are given.

Yeah, I'm sorry. My thing jammed. I was going to make 11.

Believe it or not, I just want to clarify that this is not the same Tobin that did the inspection. That is a different mystery.

No, I realize that. That was made clear.

Yeah, okay.

But I do want to say that the code enforcer, and I told the attorney group that I spoke with, said this was my fault. that the survey was wrong. Well, two surveys were submitted. There's only one there, but two were submitted, the one we had and an updated one. And the lawyers that I spoke with said it's ridiculous because the purpose of going through the zoning board and code enforcement is to make sure that there's not encroachments, that everything is followed for the protection of the city, the state, and the homeowner. So that's what I got to say.

Great, I understood. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Thank you.

Your contact information. I have everything here.

I can give you my number.

I wouldn't say it over mine. If you don't mind, come up there and write it on here. Oh, sure.

Patrick's phone number is on here. We want to put it. Actually, Patrick or something.

Okay. This is just my, I did a little AI search. So I was well informed. We're going to make copies.

Yeah. The phone number should really be up here, Debbie, but. Yeah, okay. That's going to go to other people. I apologize. Thank you very much.

All right.

Thank you. There's another, isn't there another? Yeah, this was yours, right? Yes, Brian, that one on time. That was on the packet.

That's all. Got everything? All right, thank you.

Diane Shuler.

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Council. I'm a native of Cortland, and growing up here, I remember a welcoming community. A community that hosted fresh air kids in the summer, foreign exchange students from Rotary International, and year-round park activities, including free Red Cross learn-to-swim lessons at Wigwire Pool, open to any youth. not just city residents. But in very recent years, Portland's administration has seemed to pull away that welcome mat of old. There are still many open-hearted and welcoming city residents here, but they're coming up against an unwelcome attitude emanating from city hall. Recently, I was issued a persona non grata notice from the city administration and police chief. Persona non grata is a Latin term meaning an unwelcome person. The notice was utterly unwarranted, but I had to file suit with the Portland County Supreme Court to have the notice nullified. And as directed by Judge McBride, the city is to reimburse me my court fees, unfortunately, at taxpayer expense, no less. I was formally given notice by the city administration and police that I was unwelcome here in my hometown. Others have also been targeted as unwelcomed. to harassment and selective code violations. Specifically, unhoused persons have been rousted out of city parks and banned from accessing public spaces. Instead of offering help, the city has decided the solution is to push people in need out of sight, exclude them from public view, so we're not reminded of our own failing and obligations to help others. But the city administration has used other tactics to make folks feel less than welcome too. Main Street is a prime example. Back-end parking is an ongoing problem for many. Surveillance cameras installed without initial public notice have a chilling effect on my desire to frequent downtown. And now, the threat of paid parking requirements and more on-street parking restrictions make it even less likely that I'll want to shop on Main Street. Notably, the city's year-round nightly street parking prohibition from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. should absolutely be rescinded. It is an age-old relic of racist, sundown town tactics used to criminalize poverty and target people of color. Additionally, it actually incentivizes drunk driving, since people who frequent the bars may choose to drive home impaired rather than risk a parking fine or tow. It should have no place in a welcoming community. Also, the pending approval of city murals and artwork even on private property, threatens to have a stifling effect on free speech. How does this create a welcoming atmosphere? How does this entice business to come back to Portland or families to make Portland their home? I am asking the Common Council to rein in these exclusionary, prejudicial, and non-grata practices. Do not blindly rubber stamp every initiative of the mayor without first engaging the public. and not just at Common Council for a bare few minutes before a meeting. All Council members should establish regular monthly ward meetings to hear from us, we the people. Above all, Council, please commit to prioritizing making Cortland a more engaging, welcoming community for everyone. At the entry streets to Cortland, on Broughton Avenue, Clinton Avenue Extension, and Homer Avenue, there are signs that read, City of Cortland, Welcome Home. Please help to make that ring true. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

I'm just here to read a letter from one of my neighbors.

in response to or in commenting on the pending parking resolution. This was written to Councilman Sarpenter. Councilman Bill, I'm writing to you as a constituent of Ward 6 and to express my opposition to the proposed changes to the city's parking regulations, specifically the provision that would allow the Common Council to establish paid parking areas, permanent parking areas, and additional parking restrictions by resolution. I understand that the city may need to address specific parking concerns in certain areas, particularly where there are documented issues involving safety, traffic flow, or high demand. However, I'm concerned about granting such broad authority without clearly defined limitations, a demonstrated need, and a requirement for meaningful public input. Before making changes that could significantly affect residents, I believe the city should provide clear evidence supporting the need for these changes. I have not seen a public parking study, resident survey, traffic analysis, or other data demonstrating that these proposed changes are necessary or that they will achieve the intended results. Residents deserve to understand what problem is being addressed, how widespread the problem is, and why these specific solutions are being proposed. I'm especially concerned about how these changes would impact Ward 6. I do not understand what specific problem these proposed road restrictions are intended to solve in our neighborhoods. If there are documented concerns on particular streets, those areas should be evaluated individually rather than creating broad authority that could later be applied citywide. I'm not opposed to addressing legitimate parking concerns when they're supported by evidence and when residents have an opportunity to provide input. However, I am opposed to creating a broad parking system without first demonstrating that another problem exists and that these proposed solutions are the appropriate response. Paid parking and permit systems may make sense in areas where there is a demonstrated need, such as high-demand commercial areas. However, expanding these tools in our clear justification creates the possibility of placing additional financial and logistical burdens on residents. Once authority is granted to establish parking regulations through resolution, future councils would have the ability to make significant changes to parking availability restrictions and fees without the same level of discussion and scrutiny that comes with a more comprehensive public process. I believe changes that directly impact residents' lives, daily lives, deserve transparency, accountability, and meaningful community involvement. I ask that you oppose this proposal as written or work to ensure that additional study, public input, and clear limitations are in place before granting this authority. Thank you for your consideration and for representing the residents of Board 6. Sincerely, Andrea Juretich, President of Farms to Scallions. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Mike Besson.

Thank you all again for the opportunity to speak at the July 7th Common Council meeting and again this evening. I know the previous meetings were dedicated to amending city code and later this evening you'll be voting potentially on adopting new parking regulations. I just want to reiterate what was shared last month on behalf of our campus community at SUNY Portland and that is for the Common Council to consider the impact that these parking changes may have on the community both our neighbors who live here year-round, and especially our students. As mentioned last month, we understand that paid parking on city streets is a complicated issue, and there are no simple solutions. But the proposed plan seems to institute paid parking mostly on the city streets surrounding the university, which places a disproportionate burden on our campus community members, as well as our neighbors, particularly those who are two or three or four. In looking at the parking regulations and considering some of the feedback shared at the July 7th meeting, this is important. I think this is the crux of it. It's unclear what parking-related problem this solves or the data used to inform it, as Mr. Chu just noted. At the July 7th meeting, it was mentioned that drivers regularly block driveways, park all day, ignoring two-hour parking limits. I think all of us would agree that those drivers should be ticketed. but it's unclear how charging people to park will actually fix those problems. As I understand it, a subcommittee has been studying this issue, but it's unclear what benchmarks are being used to measure success for the resources that will be devoted to this. In addition, the proposed enforcement hours, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for most treats align most closely with the university's busiest class schedules, raising concerns about the motivation behind these potential changes. The same can be said for the Sunday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. enforcement along Prospect Terrace. Finally, I would just ask that the Common Council consider the timing of the rollout of implementation. Some students have already started to arrive in Portland and many more will be arriving next week. We believe there are some questions that still need to be answered before changes are implemented. Again, we recognize that the university is an important community partner And we appreciate the city's efforts to address these parking challenges, but we share concerns about their impact and the overall timing of them. We look forward to working collaboratively with the council and the city to find solutions that benefit our entire community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Dr. Nagel?

Good evening. I am just returned from overseas and I was very excited to see two new trees planted on South Lane Street. One is in a package, right, for water containing and that's very welcome indeed. And it was really interesting to see that this one new tree that is and well protected from the elements is planted. And I inspected it today and it looks like you have to remove the crate in order to plant the tree. As a former commissioner for the landscape and design commission, we have mentioned for quite some time that crates are not environmentally sound. And so it's really interesting that that wasn't relate to the DPW workers who I also, some of them I informally contacted while they were working on another project and they assured me in May that they would get to it when removing the crates. So I'm pleased with Tom's assistance and the mayor's support. We were able to remove crates from some of the very distressed trees. closer to the intersection to Route 13. And there was about five of them were removed and a new tree was planted without the prohibitive crate. So that was a very good thing indeed. And now we're looking at another nine or 10 crates that need to desperately to be removed. I mean, I see the trunk is impacted by these metal crates. I just visited Potsdam over the weekend. This is not Potsdam, Germany. It's Potsdam, New York. And they have lavish trees, fires of the little crates, you know, in terms of the spaces for their new plantings of trees. And there's no encumbering of metal. And so it would behoove us to follow that fine example. Or skinny atlas, where there's, I know... Omiya is very fond of skinny apples, being a welcoming community to tourists, and I think we should adopt those very environmentally friendly models. And to ensure the life and health of the trees. I also want to say something. I just came back from Albany and heard the SUNY Chancellor comment that one of our distinguished faculty, Dr. Carl Flutter, who won the Distinguished Teaching Award, And he specifically mentioned not her teaching, which is, of course, very fine, but her work, as Brian Tobin knows, with the swimming pool, getting these students involved, our college students, for $1.5 million, fundraising for our beloved Wigwire pool. And so let's think about the positive sides of our students. least of all, of course, our local economy. And again, one could call constitutional law here, 14th Amendment protection, disparate impact on a particular population that needs parking on the hill. And just my final comment would be the Pickleball Park, also very beloved by residents from Striden, as I noted. Why don't we ticket those folks and give them a $2 to $5 fee for their use of our pickleball that is intended for this residence of court. And thank you for your attention.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Just to note, it's not on my reach. If any of you know this, Tom Conner, the alderman of fifth work, has had a ward meeting every month since he took his term of office. It's open to anyone in the community. And we've had people from all different wards attending. So there are some good conversations, ideas, practical ideas come forth. And I would urge anyone to attend. But I'm here to talk about something I brought last summer back, and I'm going to bring it up again this summer. There was a walking tour of the city done by the mayor, code enforcement, police officers, and anyone that wanted to join in. And walking across our ward, and we call it the upper ward and the lower ward, it took two days. In the heat of the summer, it was very, very warm. We were excited to talk to point out to the mayor and code enforcement. Some of the issues that frankly had not been paid attention to and such as invasive reading discuss housing density, unoccupied homes, sewage and drainage to prevent flooding in the upper ward. And also we talked about trees, which is near and dear to my heart as well. I have a beautiful red butt on my property that I may lose. So I get that. We were glad to see a few great trees moved on Main Street a couple of days after that. And I think those trees feel a little bit better right now. Having healthy city planted trees is important to our wellbeing. The Fifth Ward is a place where a lot of walking is done. It's close to Main Street. We no longer have a grocery store, You know, still I see a lot of people walking. My reason for coming tonight is I was told last summer at the fire station that you would be issuing a report about all these words from the mayor's office. And to date, I do not see where we receive that. It's been made public. So I'm going to once again bring it to your attention and ask when the city of Cortland residents can expect your report, Mayor. That's my question. When can we expect the report?

When it's complete, we'll get it out.

When it's completed. Do you have an anticipated date for this? Okay. Well, I'll be asking again. Thank you very much for your time.

Anybody else who wants to speak? All right. We'll move on to... I think everybody received it. As far as if you have any questions.

Do you want me to go through it or you just have a few questions?

Maybe just go through the highlights quickly for the line.

Bonfeller office audit has started. They have started doing interviews so far. We did receive an initial request list and also those have been filled. The 2025 closeout and the ASR update. We are still reviewing and finalizing the 2025 information just to ensure everything's complete and accurate. We are working on reconciling all the accounts and the AFR filing will be completed as we have that. Financed. Our MUNIS update, the implementation of cashiering has been delayed due to hardware issues. So we are receiving credit card payments through Allpay. So we have that up and running. BST, we had a kickoff meeting with BST to discuss the initial request for documentation and access. And we are also working internally on process improvement. issues we found when we were closing out 2025. In the 2026 financial information, there is a budget versus actual through July. And then a report that has expense lines that are over 67% utilized. We are closely monitoring the expense lines, and that will likely require budget modifications and several budget, or several revenue lines. The revenue lines we're monitoring are sales tax, occupancy tax, safety inspection fees, parks and recreational charges, and the pilots. For the financial highlight, we did receive the second-quarter sales tax. This was $1.94 million, which was approximately 10% higher than the first quarter, but we're still budgeted amounts. We did collection of second-quarter water and sewer buildings during July, and we're currently receiving second installment taxes.

Question.

As the same sign that your contract with BST. Yes, we are. Has council been provided that yet? And if not, would we get a copy of that? Yes, absolutely. Do we have an update on developments with hiring a new finance director?

Yeah. There's been a few applicants and the personnel community has been good as well. Nothing. There's a couple that are one that's been set aside to me. That's it. Really good. As well as DBW.

We've definitely started the process.

So, yep. At Mr. Shager's last meeting on July 21st, the projection was that we'd have the AFR submitted that week. We're now obviously past that. Do we have any sense of when we're likely to be able to submit that to the state.

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

Is that something BST is assisting? No. Regarding sales tax, the state has a loss of 6.8%. The county of Portland is down 2.8%. So there's a gap there of 9.6%. Um, Portland is one of only four counties of New York 62 that has seen a decrease in our sales tax. Do we have any sense for what might be causing this trend in Portland and not elsewhere?

That's a tough one. It's not understood for many of them.

When will next steps be taken with BST at the July 21st council meeting? We were told that by the end of August, we would have a good sense for what direction and what scope this would be taking. Are we still on target for that?

Again, the kickoff meeting happened with BST. I should request for documentation. Trying to look on and they're working on getting some of that stuff. So we hope to have, we'll have some information at the next

And when will counsel be able to speak with the representative from BST regarding the scope of the reform and work-wise timeframe and things of that nature?

I don't know that that was, I mean, certainly during report functions, we can bring back questions if anybody has questions when social reports are done and where things are at. I guess, I don't know how that would go as far as who would be doing those. conversations or what those discussions would be in this plan. So they get their feet on the ground, get an understanding of what's going on and get a better view. And I think it would be appropriate once they get that far to have them come into council and make a presentation to everybody where that right now is where to determine.

Casey, any idea? Has the state controller staff defined a purpose for the audit? No.

They told us in an original interview, they were going to go through several guidance that they asked request for. They're going to do interviews with council members, employees, which I think it's all started and go back and then come back to us and tell us what the specifics of their other currently more driven to what this. And they did. They said it's going to take several months.

Yeah.

Who else?

Yeah, question. Back to the AFR, that's the annual financial report for 2025 that's going to get filed. So that doesn't have to be tonight, but can you get us what the sticking points are? I think Chuck had said something about unposted transactions or there are things that are not reconciled. What's keeping it from getting done?

We're making sure everything from 2025 is included. Complete mess before we submit it.

Very good. But I think it does have a significant impact in terms of budget planning for 27 because there were some deficits. Chuck predicted the deficit of two and a half to three million. So having an idea of where it's at probably helped us along.

That's why the level of detail is important. We've been finding out, you know, one position wasn't you know, budgeted for and finding out where those issues are. And that's the thoroughness that needs to be done. I want to talk to the Comptroller's Office about that AFR because we were having main anxiety when we did our regional interview about pushing that back. They concurred that it would be more important for us to do it in a detailed form than the word had.

In the general report, the line for cannabis tax collection, that's another one that seems It's not on target, but my understanding is... Sorry?

We only received one payment. We just got the second one this week.

My understanding is that seems to be a hard number to put on. I don't know if that's just us or if that might be consistent with other municipalities.

People may get the state because they're doing it through their canvas board to get it back to us. Sales tax already takes some, but that takes even longer. So we're seeing a delay It's been that way ever since it started. The three quarters have been between $30,000 and $40,000. We just received that yesterday. I don't remember what that amount was. Again, that's on the watch.

Sure. Well, it's good to hear that it's coming in and it's a little bit slow, but it's being managed. There's a couple of budget lines, refunds and prior year expenditures. And that's one of the first ones. There was like 15 grand. Is it possible to get a breakdown of what those are? And again, it doesn't have to be tonight, but. Workers' company.

Workers' company, yeah. It's a workers' company company. So some of you are on workers' comp, but then pay us back for that time. Workers' comp.

Okay. Is that money in and out or is that just money in?

It depends on the location. Let's see, they may have paid their salary and they're famous business companies.

makes it look like revenue, but not knowing if it's an expenditure, if it's money gone out, then it went out last year, there's pay.

Okay, so it was very good.

I had some other, I'll send you an email about some of the questions regarding the ban and the bond debt. And as we know that with the with fee alone there's going to be a substantial payment back in or in december correct yeah and i just when i'm reading through i'm just not sure where what fee alone is compared to some of the other bonds but i think we can probably deal with that better you know anything else anybody else

Mr. Conner, Ms. Lane, anybody else? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Carried.

Yeah, there's been a next door court and there was a little bit of activity about trees and one of the people It was a resident of my ward. We had some communication with, I understand that there's potential for more trees coming through NYSEG. Is that the National Grid?

No.

Well, if it's happening, it would be National Grid, not NYSEG, because it would be power.

I don't want to get confused. I think that one particularly, there was some mistrust there, but some of that was ash tree rewool holes. So we had the organic holes. We put out an RFP, remember I talked about this a couple months ago, a couple days ago. We had an RFP out for the ash tree to put them in and replace. We had zero people wanting to do that. So now we put it back out for bids for the trees and we're looking to install them ourselves as part of that ash tree grant. So that's part of the delay in getting these trees out. That's been, you know, going through the grants, going through the removal. getting stops removed by other people and then getting the trees back in.

Very good. And for council, I had sent the mayor an email last week looking for an update on a couple of things. Part of the corrective action plan from the 2024 audit was there's some other information that we were looking to get. And my hope is that we'll start getting that as part of the regular looking reports. Also, just to express some concern with changes on Clinton with the pesticide. It's not necessarily the best in terms of the approach. And on Main Street, there's still things like the barrel in front of New York Bagel, or I believe there's supposed to be a crosswalk. There are a lot of people, residents returning in the next couple of weeks. And I don't know if there's plans for that, if there's anything else that might be done. I did have a couple of, I had a phone call a couple emails about the parking changes and some concerns there. And I did have a meeting with the representatives from the contractor's office. That's what I ordered for. Thank you.

Okay, so I, too, and actually Pat and Dana Merker and I answered Ward 3 constituents' concerns about replacing trees, and we explained everything and So she was grateful for the explanation. Other than that, Third Ward is doing fine.

I, too, had my meeting with the County Parlor's office. I met with the County Parlor's office also. The trees on Broadway. And now we're just dealing with the sometimes noise from the new dorm that's being built. So that's it for the fourth. We're waiting for the kids to come back.

Scott? Not to be a dead horse, but I also am with the comptroller's audit team the other week. I will not be able to get together a board meeting for the month of August. I'm going to be working on scheduling a date for September this week, and I'll be getting word out on that. The crosswalk from in front of the rock to the Gorham Standard Building is still having issues. And I also had a neighbor ask if we got an update from the Air State Department of Transportation regarding options for crosswalks.

Yes. Yeah, so I had somebody walk all those crosswalks today. So decide which one it is and get specific to which one.

I'll send a picture. I couldn't get us to work this afternoon. I'll share that. I think that was it. Maybe his button's sticking to it.

Yeah, I'm not sure. But we'll look into that one. But I had him specifically do that. We'll make sure they're all working. I appreciate it. The state said they did it, and then we want to make sure. And also, ironically, that was in my mayor's report. I received a letter from the state today that did quantify all of our city lights that are state-owned. And they're going to do it. They couldn't give me a timeline, but they're going to do it as their crew gets allowed to do the delayed. Delayed so that all of our lights in the city will all be the same. So that, you know, and I know this isn't necessarily my fan favorite, but when the light is turned green in which direction, there is a delay to give The the crosswalk people that start so they're not so they can still be seen better that's that's the philosophy of buying that so they didn't agree to those terms and they will be implementing that you know soon as they're cruising around.

yeah that doesn't go with that and I appreciate that thank you.

Michael. i'll buy the second part of it able to the. Participator over to the board trust this one has been a great successful. that and then everybody that put it all together. And I know Mr. Dragan did a lot. Well, well intended. You can make it. Try to make one if you can. Somebody mentioned the kids do start coming back. So it's going to be a little adjusted in the next few weekends. And some patients. And I have not yet had the time to order my appointment this Friday at 2.30.

Thank you, Mr. Lawrence.

Just a few things. Last Thursday night, we had the event at Game and Park. We got in the health fair, casted in the park, as well as the movie on the beach. Excellent night, excellent turnout. Many kudos go out to the Deputy Director of Youth Bureau for pulling this off. We had an event that was postponed, so they double-teamed the concert that night, and it was a great success. And we're also talking about trying to do something better next year. That's already in the works. We've already had some discussions already. Code-related issue regarding homeless, that has been forwarded along. We'll see anything happening at this point with that. We had three constituent complaints regarding A neighbor that was kind of out of line faced with summons. The event was actually everybody calmed everybody down and that was kind of that. But a lot of neighbors were up in arms because we have so many officers that sometimes respond to these types of disputes between neighbors. please never know what they're going to bump into, but that was handled very excellently and everybody is happy with the turnout. I just want to thank those for being patient and getting that resolved. That's all I have for my report. Thank you.

Thank you. I just want to bounce off that. Chief Kerr, we had a class, was that last week? Probably the week before now. But just all the mental health training that all the police officers go to, I think, was heavily attended by campus police, sheriff, and our own officers, taught by our own officer and the mental health director of mental health in the county. And it's tremendous. And Chief Pereira has implemented that program. It's a great asset to everybody to make sure that they have that, because they are the first responders to dealing with all that. So we appreciate that. We're also excited that they've They partnered with the fire department in doing hangers and hot dogs at the beach event with the concert with our local Molly and the Ringwals, which are two firefighters, Molly Reagan, as well as T. Bennett, who's also tied to the fire department, daughter works there. And they're all local people that kicked that off and did that concert. And it was just a phenomenal night weather and then followed by moving on the beach with the police union and the fire union. made hamburgers and hot dogs for everybody to eat at a really cheap price and it was very beneficial and everybody had a great time there and really didn't get any calls or complaints about the noise or parking over there. So everything went really well. We're excited about that. Porch Fest, again, what great talents we have in music. Just want to see that, see the youth there and see what we're bringing there. It's great to have that in our community. The pool closed last week, so that's all done. The kids are going back to school. Our local kids are going back to college, so we lose our lifeguards. So unfortunately, I have to do that. As the press release talked about, we have a security grant for the water and sewer security systems. PST auditors, a lot going on. We're short-staffed in just about every department right now, and especially downstairs in my office. Jay's gone still, and we're trying to make everything work. The street paving and repairs, ADA ramps, we've done 32 ADA ramps. I think catch basins are up to 40, something like that. So we'll get all of these other roads that are up to date and really making those improvements that are really well. So those have been performing well. We had one rain out day that we got majority of the street, like literally 25 feet to go. But unfortunately, the weather doesn't always work, but everybody's been really patient and understanding and pleasant about it. So we appreciate that. With that, I think that's all I have to do. I'm here to be fine. Dependence of minutes. So can we get a motion to accept the minutes as presented? So back up, Mr. Michaels, any questions? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Very good. Resolutions. Agenda item number one, adopt parking regulations. But you'll see in your packet before the existing resolution, see a packet updated just to clarify colored documents. And so hopefully there's some typos and some items that need to be clarified that went through there and Mr. Drew put some time in that after it's probably been damaged. So your vote for the resolution we're going to be discussing is the one that's amended with the type of legislation to use.

Resolved that the City of Cortland Supplemental Parking Regulations Annex Tier 2 be in the same hereby are adopted and implemented by the City of Cortland Common Council effective August 19, 2026. And be it further resolved that the Common Council establishes a rate of $2 per hour for registered session parking within the on-street paid hourly zone, Harrington Avenue, Dill Street, James Street, Earl Street, Pleasant Street, Prospect Terrace, Sands Street, Tompkins Street, Water Street, and York Street established in the supplemental parking regulations and be it further resolved that the $2 per hour rate for parking within the on-street paid hourly zone is hereby added to the city of Cortland schedule of fees, fines, and penalties as adopted by resolution number 130 of 2026. And that the city clerk is authorized and directed to update the schedule as such and be it further resolved that to promote transparency and ensure convenient public access, the city clerk shall post set regulations and rate information on the homepage of the city website under the prominent heading parking information at the attached hyperlink and other locations where it can be readily found by the public.

I'll move it. Now I'll get a second. Any questions or discussion?

I think at the meeting we had back in June, when this first came up, I'd asked our assembly representative a question regarding how their fees are distributed. $25 of that goes to administration, but I was waiting for an answer of where the other 50 goes. Do we resolve that, sir? I believe you had asked for about a $50 fee, is that right? That you saw on the college's website.

I believe it's a college fee.

$75 for parking. Yeah, so I checked with... Some, well, I'm sorry, you said we charge $50 for what?

No, $25 for the administration fees. And I'll wait for an answer with the other $50.

So we have a $50 in research, and we have a $50 college fee that students are charged for among their fees for the year. It's a SUNY-wide requirement. And it helps fund our state-operated expenses just in the same way that tuition would. So I mean, it's the educational experience. So it's a SUNY-wide requirement that that $50 college fee goes towards. I know there were other questions posed about the potential of the student government to use their mandatory activity fee to help pay for municipal services, SUNY regulations. We're unable to transfer those funds to municipalities. So the university, if we were to charge a fee, we would need approval from the SUNY system. So, okay. And I know you'd ask that question.

I don't think I answered that question, but.

It was a good question. There were a few questions that were posed. Yes. Last meeting, so I just wanted to answer those.

I do believe that Oneonta charges students a fee for city services.

I don't know about Oneonta, but I can...

So it is possible.

I know we've met with the president about this, and they're looking into it. So I think we should let that process go.

I just know we're unable to use the mandatory activity fee that students are charged to on campus. We're unable to use those funds for municipal services. That's a SUNY recommendation.

And I also know SUNY Albany charges its students parking fees. We do charge parking fees as well. Through the Albany. They charge SUNY Albany students parking fees.

OK.

Okay.

Anybody else have any questions?

Thanks for taking the time.

Questions, discussions? What's the price tag for the software that we're going to be using the app to actually do the marketing? That's pre-existing. We're not this office. There's So I've got a couple of concerns.

There's multiple pieces here. There's the parking in and around the college. The question of how that will be implemented, I've got some strong concerns because one, The city rolled out the changes to the Groton Avenue parking lot. There were some changes implemented, and then there were some changes made after that. And even still currently, if you're looking at it from Groton Avenue, the third row, there's a couple of light poles. There's parking on the left and the right of those light poles, but there's no signage. So if you don't know if you can park there, you don't know. And then to the left, there's resident-only parking. And then there's business permit and two-hour parking on the outside. But we've got it. that are not signed and we don't know. Going through that process, parking in that lot frequently, I think we need to be upfront in terms of communicating and making sure that information is out there before anything happens and not knowing the rollout gives me strong reservations. Additionally, there's changes to a fair number of residential streets and that's where the calls from my ward came from. So I did talk to people outside of my ward who had concerns. But there are people inside my work, so this is not related to that parking around the college and there's changes to parking where there hasn't been. So there's going to be a limitation in terms of parking where that has not been before. Earlier, we heard a constituent talk about what does this problem solve? And that was the point that was made to me on the phone was I don't see a problem on my street. So why is there a change? Well, what problem are we fixing that doesn't currently exist? Additionally, and it's not the first time, but there are some misspellings and there are some errors. Names of streets like Pomeroy, Haskell, Owego, Melvin Avenue, and I believe, I'm not sure, it talks about the east side. And I think it's odd numbers, but I believe the even numbers are on the east side. Alvina, it talks about going from the west end all the way to Homer Avenue. However, we closed Alvina, and I think it was about number 28. So that's owned by the hospital from there down. So I've got some concern. I think we need to go back, and this needs to be revised and corrected before we're approving something this significant. There are two parts of Alvina.

That crosses over.

I think if you look at the 10 million, every one of the changes you just mentioned has been made in the laws proposed. All those corrections have been made. And the issue on the parking on Groton Avenue, if you look in the proposed legislation, it creates a blue-green zone. which means that those areas could be used for either business or two-hour parking. When did you make those changes? I announced it at the beginning of the meeting. You announced it at the beginning of the meeting. They were put out today. They were put out today. Some of them were put out. I know I was working some today.

So we heard it was misidentified as Sweetwood. It was Sweetwood.

I mean, getting legislation and voting on it that day when it's several pages is, I have a hard time with it. The changes were made today and we're voting on this today.

The changes were correcting spelling. There were not changes in anything substantive to the regulations.

Spelling errors, street versus Ave, that kind of thing.

What's the time frame for implementation?

Chief, I had to get the signage up. So PPW scheduled for the signage. And after that, we're going to start with a warning system. A warning nurse should be able to do it in a few weeks. Get people, you know, after something's done, get into the application and register. At least a month, you don't have to wait until it's actually posted.

Yeah, there's others. discussions or considerations or ideas or thoughts to be researched. Certainly, you know, it's warranted to people that look at it that way. That's what's so desired. I don't want to, you know, there's something missing, but I'd like to direct the chief in some kind of area that, you know, the committee had put it together and looked at it. I know some people are on the committee that's here. And so then maybe they can answer some of the questions as to how we're you know, if there's something more that needs to be done or corrected or cleared up, let's give a direction of what that can be, what that would look like.

Have we hired for the second parking enforcement officer? I know the department was advertising for it. The second parking enforcement officer, have we hired for that yet?

We did introduce last week, but we're going to offer to somebody probably.

From the feedback I'm hearing, I'm of the opinion it may be worthwhile to postpone this to inform the public as to what we're attempting to accomplish here. I think there's a lot of confusion, and I think attempting to do this as these SUNY students are coming back to town could create some issues. I also think it would be beneficial to have a hearing with them back in town so we can receive their input. So I would appreciate it if we could table the vote. I don't know how others feel, but that's my view.

Okay, committee's been working on this for several months now. Well, from the feedback I'm hearing from

folks in town. I don't think there's a good sense in terms of what we are attempting to accomplish here. And I think a little more time would allow us to do some work on those.

And I'm okay, and I agree with that in the sense that it is education, but what process would be helpful to make that happen? And just looking for inputs, we can make sure the time is out there so that everybody can understand what's missing or what the intent is.

I think another hearing would be beneficial in addition to even give me time to discuss it at my next board meeting. I'm happy to help get information out there, but I think currently there's a lot of misnomers going on in terms of what we're attempting to accomplish.

So college kids are coming back. So we table it. Excuse me. So then we're into September before any further action would take place. So the college kids are already back. So we're just delaying a decision.

I mean, to get input from the college kids, we already know that they're not going to want to come.

I also think it would be easier to convey what we're attempting to do here to the students when they are in town.

And the student government vice president was here twice. Right. And I believe she understood completely what it was and voiced her opinion very well.

I'm of the view that just for transparency and engagement's sake, it would be beneficial to give students the opportunity to speak if there's some clock.

I support that. I do as well. It's up to you guys to vote. We did take one and, you know, have that input. It's great to have it. I mean, I think we've had great representatives from the college. This is a signing point. It's certainly the SGA president. Vice President, I think she is, but they've been great to do that. Certainly, we partner with our college and we simply don't want to seem like we're attacking that portion, but I can understand why that would be understood or assumed. But, you know, We are trying to address issues that have been in that area that's been created by some of that, with some of them, but some residents in that area don't necessarily want it. So I think maybe some more education and conversations you've had, I think maybe more education and conversations wouldn't hurt you. Never hurts. My opinion, it could make this meeting a couple hours long and listen to the comments, but hopefully they'll organize and do it that way, but we recognize that has made that, you know, also have to take care of the rest of the constituency, too. So with that, if somebody wanted to, you know, move to the table to time search, which would be the next meeting, you know, give them enough time.

What's the date for the next September 1st, I believe? I may be input from Student Government Association in terms of Just okaying that time frame would be beneficial. Will we have enough time to get a word out to the students about the hearing?

If we're able to, I think that would be good. Is there a forum that would be a good way to instead of dragging, you know, to be great to have that just have an open dialogue. I would be glad to do it. I'm volunteering to cheat, but I would be glad to go and the other council members who want to go just have a good forum conversation about The whole situation is, as you know, we didn't spend a lot of years, trying to make a good relationship better and we don't we don't want to allocate for sure, and we want to try to be able to do that.

We see their side of the circle and set up with our student government association classes start today for September 1 day so always 31st class for the fall semester it's a little later here in Portland but. Yeah, we can certainly will if there's a forum on campus that folks would like to participate in and we can look to set that up.

All right, so then I'm sorry? Yeah, I would say we can't do it the first time. It's just not practical. It would be great, even staff's input, anybody's input would be great to hear because it really, you know, it's been talked about. I know that coverage hasn't been necessarily clear and understood from media aspect offense but you know I mean so I think but it might I don't think it would hurt to get that general understanding and not feeling we get folks organized with any they might feel like we're going against the town or that's not against each other so I think in that event it really would make sense to you know push back I think If we don't get that, if you could work with me to make that happen, Mike, that'd be great. And then if that's fair with everybody, then we'll accept the motion to table to the 15th, if that works.

I think that makes sense, and I'll motion on that.

Mr. Conlon? Second. Ms. Lang, a second? All in favor of the table to the 16th?

Aye. 14.

Agenda item number two, approve special event permits for St. Mary's School 5K and Color Run Walk, October 3rd.

Resolved that the City of Cortland Common Council hereby approves the issuance of permits by the city clerk as described below. St. Mary's School 5K and Color Run Walk, Saturday, October 3rd, 2026, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Yemen Pub.

Move. Any questions?

Councilmember Tobin. Aye. Councilmember Cannella.

Aye.

Councilmember Lane.

Aye.

Councilmember Conlon. Aye. Councilmember Beckwith.

Aye.

Councilmember Michaels.

Aye. Agenda item number three, repeal resolution number 128, 2026 and authorize abolish creation Reclassification and continuation of certain civil service positions.

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council hereby repeals resolution number 128 of 2026. And be it further resolved, the city's authorized civil service positions shall consist of the following. Jobs is listed on the table. And further resolved that the following civil service position titles be updated to MEO Heavy B. and further resolve that the following civil service positions are hereby abolished. And be it further resolved that the appropriate city officials are hereby authorized and directed to provide the Portland County Personnel Department with notice of the foregoing changes and to take all necessary actions to implement this resolution in accordance with applicable New York State civil service law and rules.

We'll move back with a second. Mr. Mangels, any questions?

All right. So this is something we did a couple of meetings ago and we're making changes to what we had done. Yes.

Yeah, that document, it didn't even make sense. It was abolishing both both lines and it should have been creating a position. It was something that was lost in translation. So we went back to make sure we identified the positions and what the titles were as more specifically as what we wanted to do, then that was pulled that nice and wasn't really clear. And we changed the contract language, the NEO whites and some of the changes in the names and the NEO heavy Bs and A's and some of those titles had been changed and it really wasn't detailed enough or clear enough about abolishing those other positions. We'd only create a bunch of the extra positions that are out, that are there. So we're basically should have been to abolish any other position and then list what positions we have changed. So the first format is probably correct. And then the rest was the ones we should have abolished because it had to be rewritten rather than just put all the other positions. Probably better to put a level of detail in it so everybody would know exactly which positions they are. So we just put the positions that we had the titles for.

All right, so there's some, Positions here, abolishing a position is abolishing a position on paper, correct? It's not actually firing somebody, removing them from their job. What's the negative believing the positions on the books and basically just archiving?

There's no human title to any of these positions.

These are positions that no longer exist within the organized bargaining unit. So since it's bargaining unit work for the city to have these positions still on the books, there'd be no purpose to it because the bargaining unit has agreed to change the title of these positions.

And secondarily, civil service doesn't want us to do that. They may have spent, they may have been cleaning things up for the last couple of years of all these positions that we don't have created. And in a new budget this year, we actually list every position specifically so we can actually see which ones are in. I'm going to get your answer right.

Well, I guess one of my concerns is that we don't currently have a deputy superintendent of public works. And when we do have somebody, their structure, their organization might be different than what we've set up. And if we're abolishing positions, are we going to potentially need to bring those back again? Just because they're not in the union agreement doesn't mean that the union agreement can't be changed. By abolishing them, I think we're adding steps that maybe we don't need to add in the future.

Well, again, the contract that we voted on to negotiate was to eliminate recreation maintenance worker, for example, so that, you know, you could, there's recreation maintenance supervisor, but the regular workers that were all rolled up into the laborers. Maybe Randall can talk about some of those other ones. That'd be good examples to say that that doesn't affect their structure necessarily what their title name is, but it does make a difference in civil service and the union contract.

And yeah, exactly. The MEO heavy positions that you'll see we're abolishing, we're abolishing that title position. They're being replaced with new union titles. So the old MEO heavy is now an MEO A or an MEO B, depending on which class of CDL you have. So there's not really, yes, there are a number of positions being abolished, but there are counter positions that are coming in to replace those. Same thing with the rec maintenance workers. Position for position, they're being switched out with a different title that was negotiated with the union to labor. The working foreperson is very similar. Those are all supervisor positions because they're having a role of supervisory level and switching from the foreperson to the supervisor position is a distinction within civil service as to whether it's a labor grade position or a tested position. So, I mean, those are all things that are we're taking into account. Could the next union contract necessitate that further change to these? Absolutely. And to be 100% honest, if CSEA takes the things to the next step they would like to, which is not necessarily a bad thing, which is they weren't ready to do it at this point, it would necessitate that. They would prefer to see all the union positions labor grade and not have them be supervisory tested positions.

and it's kind of something they've been doing statewide, is the highway workers.

Anybody else? Hold it, please.

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Canelo.

Aye.

Council Member Lane.

Aye.

Council Member Conley. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number four, rescind resolution number 128, 2022 authorized MOU with the County of Portland and the City Court space and authorize the termination of MOU regarding the same.

Resolved that the Marathon approval by the Corporation Council for the City of Portland be and hereby is authorized to execute a termination of Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Portland. Be it further resolved that the City of Portland Common Council hereby rescinds Resolution Number 128 of 2022 Authorized Memorandum of Understanding with the county of Cortland or city court space.

Any questions? Mr. Nank? Mr. Michaels? So just to clarify, I'm trying to move the court over to the county office building. And then the state court system decided to take that court space and create another courtroom in that space. And when they did that, They couldn't fit the city court back in there. So then they rescinded that. The county has requested us in cleaning out their books and make sure that everything's on the table. They requested us to rescind this resolution, even though we had no place to put them over there because they did an appellate court. They fitted an appellate court in there. And so we're still here with the city court. So nothing's changing. It's just cleaning out the books. They don't want to get kicked out of the street. They just can't clean out the books in the county, yeah.

So we're sending the potential move. So city court stays here.

We have to provide them court, whether it's here or somewhere else that we have a better idea. We'll certainly take those, but we have to keep them here and we have to provide that. So we have to figure that out. Anybody else?

Councilmember Tobin. Aye. Councilmember Piniello. Aye. Councilmember Lane. Aye. Councilmember Conlon. Aye. Councilmember Beckwith. Aye. Councilmember Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number five, authorized submission of a law enforcement technology grant.

Resolved that the City of Cortland Common Council does hereby authorize the submission of a law enforcement technology grant application and an amount of no more than $250,000 with no local match, and be it further resolved that Mayor Steve or his designee is hereby authorized and directed to file an application for grant funds from the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services and upon approval of grant award to enter into an executive grant agreement with New York State.

I'll move it. Back with any questions?

What technology is this for? Chief? The applications that we have to submit, it's not due until September, but we're working to expand the surveillance camera system that we have downtown from Main Street, then extend it farther north on Main Street, farther south on Main Street, depending on the award that we get from the Southern Municipal Department. That's the only problem. The goal is to expand the system city-wide into all municipal buildings. It's always just depending on how far we can actually extend the system. We're also looking at laser light mirror cameras instead of the emphasis of exits. Not the flat camera system that people hear about. We currently utilize Axon for our body cameras and our car cameras through the LES system. within what we already have and stuff that we already have for those families.

So I recognize the value, but I also believe that there's, we are a regulatory body in terms of things like this. These discussions, I would prefer if they come to council, if we have the opportunity to hear from our constituents in terms of some of this, We are expanding or changing what we're doing regarding surveillance cameras. I think we need discussion. There has been issues nationally with, and Chief, you mentioned FLOP, an article two weeks ago about it being abused by people who had access. And I think we need to have these conversations and we need to be talking about policy and procedure before we're implementing anything new.

Thank you.

We're expanding the system. We have to vary our policies and procedures. That's not changing.

Expansion is a change.

There is a review process.

We could get that. Why don't we send that if you don't mind emailing us so we can see what the review process is of who accesses the cameras. So the current camera system acts on anytime somebody accesses the system, it registers who it is. You have to register who accesses the camera and how long you're on it. what camera they're for.

They have to enter by policy what the complaint number they're searching for. So it's not just a random search. So when we do supervisor review, we'll associate the camera review with, you know, this purposeful review, but we're not using it for various reasons. So I think that information is shared. The way that we share it. Yeah, I believe it's on.

Yeah, but certainly just a refreshing everybody's monitor there and review it. If there's ideas, send it to the police commission. They'll review it. I know they review those quarterly, those monthly, monthly, monthly. So make sure that's not being abused. So, um, and we've had, as you got the cameras, we've been in the city. Yeah.

So good.

The plan is to extend them down south, is that correct? Well, north and south.

We're just not done. Basically, what we said, we want to require the north farther south, move down Central Avenue, and then start, then how much of the award we get, just to start expanding to the municipal parking lots.

Would it be possible to have yourself or someone from the police department speak at an award meeting, get some information out to the public? I'm going to test with you when I have a date for September and being that work. I appreciate it.

Anybody else? Okay.

Council member Tobin. Nay. Council member Piniello.

Aye.

Council member Lane.

Aye.

Council member Codlin. Aye. Council member Backwood. Aye. Council member Michaels.

Aye. Okay. With that, I'll take a motion for adjournment. Motion. Second. So as you stand, Mr. Michael, all the way up there. Hi. Hi. Jerry Decker. Seven times six.