Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the common council meeting for February 10th, 2026. The first item is the pledge of allegiance led by to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay, the first item on our agenda is public comment. Would anyone from the public like to address council? My name is Kate Bruce and I live here in Hall and it's so nice to see new council members here, new mayor. It's really great. Um, I have two things. One, I simply want to pass around an invitation from the uh regional immigration collaborative. They're organizing or have organized an interfaith program on u migrant rights and how you welcome the stranger. It's particularly important because Glenn's Falls is a community that for two centuries immigrants came here from many many different countries and they built this wonderful city hometown USA. So come to it. I'll pass it around and others.

Thank you.

The the other is a more serious issue and then I'm going to ask you as elected officials representing everyone in this community to make a statement. um not necessarily this evening because it requires some information and knowledge about um immigrants, but um I've worked with migrants for 50 years from all over the world. Um my parents were migrants. I know what it's like to be new to a community. And then I finally in my old age moved to Lens Falls and wow, that's really to a new community. So, it's hard at any point in a person's life to become a member of the family living in hometown USA. And I know that means a great deal to everyone here. And I hope that you will take that feeling about welcoming the stranger to heart because what I want to ask you is to issue to study and issue a public declaration that the city of Luns Falls will welcome everyone whether you were here legally or illegally to prevent ICE from coming into this city to use police, local police to go after people who have moved here permanently or temporarily. They are our brothers and sisters. It's very important to do that. And um I'll just pass this around which lists some of the key issues that other local communities in New York State and the

state itself are considering in terms of statements that can be issued. You have a great deal of power. all of you in this community and right now everyone everyone is at risk of losing a friend, a neighbor, a co-orker, someone that they've known for a long time or just a few weeks. It matters. It really does. So, I'll pass this around and I ask that you consider it and at some point issue a public declaration that everyone everyone is welcome in Hometown USA. Is there anyone else who would like to address the council? Okay, we'll move on to committee reports. So um the first committee report will be uh we will be meeting um next Wednesday at 5:30 I don't have but this next Wednesday I'm sorry 5:30 will be the

planning develop There we go. Great. New day. Okay. Audit and finance committee meeting with me. Met yesterday at 5:30. We had um everybody showed up. It was a great time. Um went through a lot of the goals and uh things that we want to accomplish over the next four years. We got a little bit of a start before and I can see like what went through trying to issue a fundamental policy setting up and whatnot. So, thank you. We're going to be very busy.

Okay. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Um the labor personnel committee will hold its organizational meeting on Tuesday, February 24th at 6:30 p.m. in the mayor's conference room. Thank you. Yes. Policy committee council

policy committee policy committee met today at 5:00 p.m. review several policy and state items and then move them to the next stage in our process which is background research and appropriation of concept memorandum. Um the process itself is going to be uh also needed to streamline. We also held some brief conceptual policy discussion on those items. Uh this will continue as an ongoing process and I appreciate the engagement from the mayor's office staff and committee members. Thank you. Thank you L.

Uh thank you mayor. Uh the uh technology committee met on Thursday last week. Uh we discussed a few different things. We've decided that we'll have meetings regular cadence, monthly cadence and uh supplemental as necessary. Um on the first Thursday of each month um we uh looked into several topics that were uh investigated further. One of them is looking uh Microsoft Teams as a method to um provide more information for um our constituents and also to uh provide us with information that we can use for uh meeting minutes and also for just getting better documentation into the hands of our constituents. Um we have one of our committee members is uh going to follow up with our IT supplier and another is going to look into what other communities are doing on the topic. Um we're also looking into the May policy which I know was something you are very interested in. Um, I'm going to uh reach out to um u Nikcom for guidance on that and also just kind of uh get a feel for what other communities are doing as well. Um, we talked about some UNUNICE issues um that um we wanted to dig into UNUNICE a little bit more to see if we can get some help with that and um you know just

get a better understanding of that. Um and uh I think that covers what we uh covered in the topics there. I'll be sending out meeting minutes and I'll cop you off the council. Uh with that, thank you, Councilman. Um our first quality of life committee will usually going to be every third Monday at 5:00 p.m. the second floor, but because next Monday is President's Day, a holiday, our first meeting is going to be next Tuesday 5 p.m.

Thank you. So, next we'll move on to our consent consent agenda. We have 16 items on the consent agenda and we have one um item on the regular agenda. Is there anything that anyone would like to pull for discussion from the consent agenda?

No.

Okay. I have one item I wanted to um briefly discuss in your consent agenda. There is um some manual payments from the controllers's office that are in there and I was able to quickly stop into the finance committee meeting. Um we're engaging in some training overall in the city on how we uh put payments through. And so we did talk about this in a department head meeting and um the council I'm hoping if everyone gets on the same page we can start to make this smoother going forward. So if you look at our charter the common council has the power to audit all accounts meaning we should or you all should be approving most payments before they're made. Right? Um, the warrant has payments that need to be approved by you and then they get paid out. The manual payments are payments that have already been paid by the time you see them. So, the only real items that should usually be on the manual payments are fixed salaries and benefits, debt service, utilities, and contracts lasting over a year. So, we're working to move in the direction of making sure that that's the case. I wanted to point out that there are a couple items on this on these manual payments that um don't fit that description. And again, um we're working to phase that out. And as everyone gets trained, that'll be the case. So um there was one for I'll just give you an example. There was one manual payment that was a tax payment. That's a routine payment that police should normally pay on the warrant. So, um, just wanted to point that out. But otherwise, um, those have already been paid and there's no problem with improving it. We're going to continue to improve the process going forward. With that, um, seeing nothing

else that you want to pull for discussion, would anyone like to make a motion to approve the consent agendry and council? Thank you. All right. There is one item on the regular agenda that I wanted to pull out to discuss. I did get a question ahead of time from Councilman Paladino. Um there's a there's a contract in here between the city and 333 Glenn Street Associates which is a uh contract to provide parking to Finagio which is something that you know we agreed to do. The issue is that this contract was signed in the last administration and the um 333 Blunt Street had been asking the city for a payment for the contract, but the contract never went through council. So, that's why we're approving that tonight even though it was signed back in the last administration because we can't issue a payment until the council approves this contract. So, I just wanted to explain why it's coming through now. Does anyone have any questions or concerns? Yes. Just have a quick point of order. Do we need to vote on that motion for the consent agenda before we talk about the regular agenda?

You're right. We just in favor

you're right. You're right. I just just to be um to wrap things up, we had a first, we had a second. Um all in favor? Any opposed? Okay, motions pass. Um, now back to the regular agenda. Is there any any further discussion on that item? Um, is is it my understanding the 333 Glenn Street is behind their tax payments to the city that has been the long-standing issue. Yes. Okay. So, this this contract was signed by the previous mayor.

Um, and the time at this point for negotiating that contract has has passed. You could choose not to approve it and we could try again. But the problem is that um there are already tenants moving into that building and asking for parking taxes. So just paying money to some3. No, no, this is Tony that again. Oh, I this is for the Baconio building that we agreed to provide parking for. Oh, for the building. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. And And what I'm saying is that the PE they're already asking for, but the city couldn't pay it until the council approved it.

I get it. So, the previous administration entered into the contract, but it never went through the council. So, I'm correcting that so that we can make those payments. Okay. Thank you. All right. Would anyone like to motion question. So all of this is for the people buildings on South Street. It won't be for city res. That's not what this particular item. They'll we agree to provide a certain amount of parking spots too. Um that's what this is. That was agreed

last term. This though is again a contract that was entered in to provide those spots that never went through the council. So I have to put it through the council now even though it was approved last term. That's what that's what we're doing here. Okay. Um would anyone like to make a motion to approve? So move second. Um all in favor I. Any opposed?

You're okay. Okay. All right. So, Councilman Orange put in. Well, we need a second. So, do you want you want to review the motion? This is for the parking. Okay. Correct. So, we're going to do a roll call. Okay. Okay. What do we have to pay them? But I will buy a degree. So, do you want to change? Yes.

Okay. And Councilman Dam. Yes. Councilman Landry. No. Okay. Councilman Rice. Yes. Council. Yes. And Councilman? Yes. All right. Motion passes. At this time, we'll go to business.

Okay. Um the guess we file the center of all business. Um 56 Wall Street is starting to become a bit of a problem again with trash piling up on the back. I just received an email along with the Willington codes today from the neighbor on the other side that's it's really starting to pile up again. I know we took them to court under the last council. So, okay. I I don't I don't remember the specifics of their agreement, but might need to be looked at again soon. Okay. Thank you for letting me know that this resurfaced and we will look into it. Yeah, it better than two hours ago.

Okay. Thank you, Councilman. Sure. Thank you. Um, I was wondering if I could get an update on the proposal being done at the intersection of Glenn and Sherman Avenue. I think when we approve the Scrooge store there, I don't think the city had the money at the time, but Scrooge did make a commitment maybe $150,000 or something. That intersection is unbelievable during the daytime and and at commute time there's It's back up short. So, I just wanted to make sure that was still on course.

Yes. I don't have a date for you, but I have been talking to our city engineer about that topic and um I when I get more information, I will provide it to you. It hasn't been documented. Great. Thank you. Yes.

Um the other thing was is is to just kind of um give you continuation of the work addressing the serious building codes violation we found in the alley over by the city on Bridge Street. street in the city hall parking lot. Uh the mayor pulled together a committee um brought off city department head as they're involved in the reported problems of the meeting Thursday, February 5th about the city fire chief um from the police department buildings and codes um if I didn't forget. We discussed the problem at hand which is the encroion permits and the violations that are in that alleyway um by the people who hold them. Um we discussed uh you know having the fire chief in the buildings and codes officer go over there and when we were with them after the meeting we took a look and every time we take a look at it it's worse. So uh it was decided the meeting that a second meeting will be held and the mayor said you can call together the stakeholders property owners that are involved in that piece of property. We actually found when we did that another piece of property that we own. We had somebody over there that's a private property in there that had actually fenced in their area and while they were at it they fenced in a big piece of art. So that's got to be addressed as well. But we'll be having a second meeting which is good with those stakeholders.

Um the the u individual or the uh party that put up the fence did did they did you pull a fence permit for them? I didn't because they told me they were in the they said they didn't bring this. What it is is it's the next generation of a family that owns the building. The previous generation had fenced it all in and they thought it was all theirs. They recently came forward to me and said, "Oh, by the way, we found out that's not our property and taking that fence out." I don't know whether they or not. That's a good question. But um I think the fact that it's being addressed is what was the date of the site? I'm sorry. was the date of the second meeting.

Uh we haven't was here or we announcing that to old business. No business. Old business. Council.

Um I I just wanted to amend my uh committee report because I noticed a couple more notes. Um the uh one of the things was our uh we need to update our cyber security policy. Um so um and I need to present um uh the third board uh uh my third board colleague with the uh whisk uh for uh the policy committee because that was policy. Um and uh we are in the process because of the change of administrations of bringing forward the orbital fire proposal for enhanced uh cyber security. Um uh Dan and I have seen the proposal we're good with it. I just want Sean to get up to speed with it. And I wanted to include uh councelor Barge Gooden um with it as well because she was at the meeting that we had on Thursday. And also that uh I'm looking into a bring your own device policy which is standard for large organizations um to see what uh would be best practices so that I can um make a recommendation to my committee. Um and that is it. Okay, thank you. Old business councilman. I just want to make out about the very heartwarming and hopeful again tragedy um Alice Ready Miguel that occurred um last two summers ago. Um I met Carrie Waters and a whole bunch of nurses around the house hospital. is very uplifting and it shows that this community really does care about um everybody um as Katie

mentioned. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to a large office. Um, I just was uh wondering how is everything going? Um, now with the with uh our new with your new positions in your office, how is that transition with uh Steve and Chip from the transition them taking over?

Yeah, thanks for um I've been really happy with how things have been going in terms of our um our agendas um which Steve is doing and um also a lot of the I don't know if you follow all of our social media and are notifying me. We've been really trying to stay on top of all of those things. Um so I I've been happy with that process. I think it's going well. I don't know if there is concerns about anything. Well, I do have a concern. Sure. because I have been trying to uh make appointment and I haven't been able to get through. I haven't left messages and I'm having a really hard time. I'm starting to take it personal. So, um it's

when you I've been I've been calling I know Chip's been sick and that's been an issue. Okay. I'm sorry that you're having that experience. um Chip has been out for several days sick and that might be why I think I sent you all um an email a while ago indicating that there's there's a different email you can use to directly reach me. Um so definitely um use that if you are not getting the answer from that is um I don't believe that'll be a normal occurrence. He's been out for a few days. So I apologize for that. I I found that.

Yeah. Okay. Um I know we had a recurring appointment set up and then the first appointment there must have been a miscommunication because you didn't come Oh, okay. Okay. That's what I'm saying. Several Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. It was blessed to meet with you. I think I've met with multiple people who made appointments. Yeah. So, okay. Absolutely. I will make sure to um I'll just reach out to you directly because I think ship is still Okay. All right. And you can always reach out to me directly. You have my phone number.

You can always reach out to me directly. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. All right. Um new business. Councilman D. Council. Thank you, Mayor F. Just one quick question. In your technology committee, are you guys looking at AC procedures? What happened? I don't even know if the city has them. I I don't know exactly what it mean by

an AC is where there is it's transferred directly electronically from the city or county to a bank account. And what happened at the county is is somebody went in maliciously and said, we want to send to this factory. Well, that's not really a technology issue per se. That's more of a purchasing and uh finance. Yeah. Finance. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's technology adjacent, but you know, they're using they're explaining,

you know, uh the use of technology to do it, but it's kind of really wrapped up in finance. Thank you very much. Um but it's a good a good note to make too. Um so for a second there may I understand you received no bids for contractors to do emergency sidewalk snow removal from properties are in violation of the city's sidewalk remover. So is that request still?

Yes. So I've been trying to on top of this because they don't want it to fall by the wayside. So, because we've now put out two requests with no responses, we can now direct solicit. So, I've asked um DPW to reach out to people directly and see if there's interest and that's where we are now. But we we had to go through two bidding process before we were allowed to do that. The next thing has to do with snow to um so I was wondering what the priority is what priority has given to removing snow piles in front of downtown businesses. Now, the reason I asked that is this. That on the weekend of January 30th through February 1st, there were three hockey games in downtown West Falls that drew approximately 14,000 people down there. and and I went to two of those games and I watched people walk in the road because you couldn't get out of the car and businesses don't travel all the way to the front to get into the sidewalk there and they were therefore walking along the edge of cars to get to the corner to get on. Um, and you know, one of the things that I think is important, I'm not really sure what it is, but it is setting some priorities and I think that needs to be looked at. I'm not saying every time it snows we need to leave the top. we have a major snowfall. I do know that this DPW because I've watched it did a good job cleaning the parking lots and that's important too. Um, but I think we should have a discussion on that because in order to have a successful downtown uh community and a vibrant business district, they have to make it convenient for people to come. So, I would hope that maybe we'd have that discussion with DPW at some point in time to make sure that that's in and that sometimes we maybe go a little ahead of schedule because we have 14,000

people coming. Same thing that we do when basketball is here. Basketball's here, little extra effort is put down and we've got major events or large groups of people come. I I did have a discussion about this um at the bid meeting that I attended last month with the downtown business owners and I also um have started discussions with this with PPW but I agree we need to to further flush out a plan specific but um it is something that and the bid sent out a reminder to all the business owners after that meeting and we're kind of thinking we have to tackle it from both ends. you have to be on top of the silver bay, right? So,

yes, thank you. Um, and and last but not least, and it's definitely not least, um, I'd like to welcome, they're about to move. Scratch Kitchen's going to move out of 21 Ridge Street, which I think is wonderful. Uh, they have a good following. They had a business here in downtown West Falls in the past. They're down on M Street, just a little out of the downtown area right now. So, I think they'll be a great addition. and they'll also join us in our discussion about where to put trash containers for restaurants, especially in the rear streets. Thanks.

Okay, new business council recently contacted me concerns about what they thought might be a water issue after noticing a significant crack in their roadway. Um, this was at the east side of my woods. Uh, so the water and sewer construction crew responded immediately and while I was still chatting with this concision, they went out to the site. They spoke directly to the homeowner, confirmed that it was just a locally crack issue. So, I just want to thank the war construction crew for their quick response and for taking this time to explain the situation to the residents so quickly.

Thank you. Well, have you passed that on to Bill Norton so that you can tell the staff? Yes. Okay, perfect. It's always nice to give them the positive feedback because we we get both. Yes. Yes. Good. Um, new business, Councilman L.

Uh, thank you, Mayor. I was just uh curious if we could reach out to the various departments and just kind of get a baseline of what existing policies that we have that might help with our uh uh policy making committee to know what we have uh ahead of time even if it's just coming in as a trickle. Um that would be helpful for us. I think that um Councilman Rice as the chair of the committee is welcome to do that or one of the committee members if you choose that someone else does that work. But yeah, that seems like a good uh strategy.

Is there a whole email list like is like their department heads at city of fault that will go to all of them? Yes. Cool. Yeah. I'll I'll make sure that you have it. Thank you. Yep. Okay. This is Councilman. I just want to highlight that this Saturday is Valentine's Day and all of the local restaurants um downtown have some lovely uh Valentine's Day venues and um there's probably going to be snow. So, um just make sure everyone gets plenty of time and parks a little far away so they can walk around and enjoy the Valentine's Day facilities.

And and the day before is Valentine's Day. Thank you.

I have a few things I wanted to update the council on. Um first of all, I want to thank you all for your work to um get a new committee structure started to organize to find dates to meet on a regular basis. I really appreciate that. Um and I think you're going to do very good work. It sounds like you're off to a good start. So, thank you. Um, I wanted to talk to you about the occupancy tax that the city um gets from the county. So, my goal, uh, I had a meeting with Heather Bagshaw, who's the tourism director of the county, and Amy Collins, who's our tourism director, and, um, the county uses an application portal for people to submit applications asking for occupancy tax funds. And so we're going to try to work together to pilot um the municipality kind of piggybacking on that portal and so that we can have it too. So when we find out what we get for occupancy tax funding, we'll open up that portal so that people who wish to apply for funding can use that. In the past um those decisions were um sometimes just made with a a few people and I want it to be a more democratic process. that will open up that though that that portal people can apply and then the council will be able to vote on who gets that funding. So I wanted to let you know that that's in the works. Um, I also wanted to tell you, uh, Council Member Vander knows because we had a discussion about this, but I am working to try to create to free up our officers to be able to have foot patrols um, again in the city, uh, at least one dedicated officer to our downtown area. And of course, that's not easy to do um, with staffing levels. And one of the barriers that I'm um learning about is that right now if if there's somebody who's

awaiting arraignment um the counsel the county has facilities to hold those people but they don't usually take the people in falls. They take them from other parts of the county and there there are office or sheriff's um staff assigned there. What's happening in Glenn's Falls is that the people if if we have it's usually maybe one or two people. If we have one or two people, an officer has to be pulled off the shift to basically sit there with that person. That means that's one less person that we have per shift. So, I have been in conversations with um the county to try to change that so that we can take those people to the county and then return our officer to duty instead of having them just sit there. Um the um Judge Hobs has been helping us in advocating for this. There's a previous memorandum of understanding that had been signed um by previous Sheriff Bud York and previous police chief Tony Leiden. and we're trying to see what we can do to improve that. So, I I I've had conversations with the county about this and I think they're um sounding like they're amenable to working with us. So, I wanted to let you know and I think that would be a good step forward. Um let's see. I speaking of Judge Cobbs, everybody probably saw that he has announced his retirement. So, I want to um congratulate him on a a great career and um I also want to make sure that people know that we will be looking for um resumeumés and interest letters so that we can appoint a new judge. It's my responsibility to appoint a new um city court judge. And I think if we have applicants, what I'd like to do is have the labor committee sit in and um interview those people so that we can make an appointment.

Um, I am excited to announce that we have made an offer to hire a director of planning and zoning and she has accepted our offer. So, Alison Gaddy will be our new director of planning and zoning. She um has been a planner in Saratoga County, in Albany, and at the Lake George Lake Champlain Regional Planning Commission. So, that is um very exciting news. She'll be starting with us on a part-time basis as she wraps up her work and then we'll be starting full-time next month. So, so she'll be writing the grants.

She should be writing most of our grants, helping to um implement the comprehensive plan, helping to uh lead us through the planning and zoning. We're going to be amending our zoning code. Um and also because we're basically separating building codes from planning and zoning, Devon who works in building codes will move to report to and we'll have a whole new department where people can come and if they have a project that they need input on before they take it to the planning board or the zoning board, there'll be staff there to help them with that. So, I'm excited to get that started. Um, I think that's all I have for new business. Is there anyone from the public that would like to address us? Okay. Um, seeing none, I would Oh, actually, you know what? I'm sorry. I forgot one thing. I um I wanted to update you on a concern that was recently raised regarding a proposed new soil treatment operation, not here, but in the nearby community of Fort Edward. Um I'm still gathering information about any potential impacts to Glenn's Falls. Um but they're requesting that I put a comment in to the DEC during the comment period. um regarding this and I don't see any downside to requesting that a public hearing be held in case our residents have any concerns. Um I I did uh see that the superintendent of the Hudson Falls School District put in a comment opposing this and the town of Fort Edward has also done the same thing. I'm not ready to say whether I oppose or not because I haven't researched it, but I do think asking for a public comment period and supporting our neighboring community and seeing if

any of our residents who are could be impacted have anything to say. And before I do that, I wanted to ask the council if you have um any concerns or or thoughts with that. So, I would really just be saying I would like to see a public hearing of her. That's fine. Yeah. sometimes demanding. Okay. All right. So, I'll do that then. Um I'll I'll let you know if I if I hear any more um about that. Could I ask um where should people go um if to get more information? Um um I don't know. I don't want to put you on the spot.

Sean, I can get it to you. It's on the DEC website.

Okay. Deputy City Attorney um Bremer was on that call with me and helped me um research the helped me locate the public comments that have been made before. Um and so that's why I asked her. So she's saying that it's on the TC website. Um okay. At this point, I would like to ask for a motion to move into executive session um for the purposes of discussion of the medical history of a particular person, matters leading to the appointment and promotion of a certain person or person's matters concerning employee discipline. Um and a proposed real estate conveyance when publicity would substantially affect the value of the transaction. Make that motion.

All in favor? I oppose. Do we need to um Yeah. Uh do anything for like when uh we're not going to make a decision or vote on and say like uh when we come out of session to say that so that the clerk can leave say that. Yes. Um we were talking about that before the meeting. So I told Emily she doesn't need to stay because we're not going to take any action. So all we have to do then is say who's making the motion journ. Oh, you're trying to do that ahead of time. Yeah.

We can just do it and we'll record it and then report it to her. Okay. Okay. So at this time we are for executives. Did someone else you want this done right? Yes.