Common Council - Regular Meeting

All right, so you said in the meeting that you did not need a red line version for the tree commission except that there actually is a law change because they have permanent authority in the charter. So we're going to take that away.

We can't. We would have to do that to the charter, which would mean we would have to get it on the ballot, and it would have to be approved by voters.

I mean, it's in the code. Yeah.

I think it's the duties are in the charter.

Duties are not spelled out in the charter. It's just overbroad. You are in charge of trees. I'm still fine with it.

I'll still sit with the I'm fine with it as without having a red line version. And you can tell me. You can come back at me. You found this little piece here bothering you.

I'm doing pretty good. There you go. That Mary, she beat me up.

It's like this.

Like, when Matea's little, and even now, she's very easygoing, until you get to a point, like, where she hits a wall. Like, it's absolutely nuts. Like, I don't know where that is. Right, I better do this.

Because he would try to avoid it.

Good evening, everyone.

John's not here either. Well, no.

Good evening. So we will open our first, our public hearing, which is at 725. The public hearing is for a local law to amend the city code chapter 220 concerning zoning to permit farm stands in certain zoning districts. Allison and Claudia are both here. If either of you want to talk to the council about this.

Okay. So this law, this proposed law, came to be through two residents' requests for zoning amendment change to add a definition of farm stand to allow it in some residential zoning districts. This code is modeled after one that works in the city of Saratoga Springs. So it's something that it's a proven law, but basically it would allow someone who wanted to sell incidental goods, flowers, vegetables, other value added items from a temporary stand in front of their house in I believe it's residential districts for no more than 90 days per calendar year they would get a permit from the city and it would allow them to you know conduct this business. We have seen it throughout the city which is sort of our response as there you know we could have code enforcement distribute violations to those people, but it seems to be something that's working within the community, and it fits within our residential districts, the size that they are right now. So we just thought that having a permit would allow the city to understand what's going on, regulate what is sold, and keep all of, and still provide this opportunity for people. I will say that if this law has been endorsed by the Planning and Development Committee, it was reviewed by the Planning Board. However, I made an error and provided them with an older version of it. So they were not able to provide a recommendation for this meeting. So they'll review it at their next meeting, which is the first Wednesday of September. So then it'll come back to you all to review.

OK, Alison, I'd just like to make a comment. One of those constituents is in the second ward, and she complimented your office for what you did to make that happen.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Anyone else have questions or concerns? OK, thank you.

Yeah, we have also the Planning and Development Committee has reported on this before when we've been covering our committee reports. So there's been an engaged public process with this as has been the norm under this administration.

So it sounds like based on what Allison has shared and Claudia's input that the planning board would like another opportunity to look at the updated version so that they can give us a recommendation as well. So if it works for everyone, the best thing is probably just to leave the public hearing open until the next session. meeting does that make sense yeah everyone comfortable with that okay so we don't have to take any action we'll just leave it open correct yeah okay all right so at this time i will open the regular common council meeting for august 11th 2026 and the first item is the pledge of allegiance led by councilman lapham i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america So we have a guest here to speak with us and I'll invite sheriff Lafar to come up Sheriff Lafar asked to be added to the agenda to address you so I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you. Good evening I appreciate you having me tonight I came really just to ask for a reset. There's been some conversation that's generated a little bit of energy that really isn't the most positive. And I wanted to first introduce myself. I know several of you, but also offer to have you contact me anytime you have an issue or question or concern with your sheriff's office. I think most of you know we recently hired a police officer from the city of Glens Falls. and we did so within the parameter of the timeframe that would allow for reimbursement for training. It seems as though I may have disrespected the mayor and the city council with the way that I conducted business, but I just wanted to share that I had a conversation with the chief, the chief at the time, and before we did so, I knew and I know, and I'm not here to challenge or ask you not to seek reimbursement from the county, that the executive law provides for that reimbursement. Having the conversation with the chief, and I learned now that the chief does not have the ability to waive the reimbursement to the city, I assumed that we were on good grounds and we made the hire. In hindsight, if I were to have it to do all over again, I would have waited and not made that hire. I will say to all of you that I do not actively recruit any of your police officers, but if we have police officers who seek employment with the sheriff's office and they are suitable, we're not going to turn them away, much like the City of Glens Falls Police Department. I know your PD recruits, and it's just the nature of private sector, public sector employment that we're seeking the best candidates, and sometimes they come from other agencies. But again, we're mindful of the hardships. I just had my budget meeting with the Board of Supervisors today and we're all struggling. So I know and I understand that it creates a hardship. It's a big expense to train a young officer. And when you finally get them trained and they get their feet underneath them and they leave to go to another agency, that's tough. And it's tough for us, it happens everywhere. In the meeting that we recently had with the mayor, the mayor made a statement to me because when I asked for a meeting, there wasn't a conversation. There was a written demand that wasn't sent to me. It was sent to the Board of Supervisors, and the demand was sent with a warning that if we didn't make reimbursement, there would be a lawsuit. And it just didn't sit well with me. I don't think that that's being very neighborly, but it is what it is. The mayor explained it, and I understand that you're seeking the reimbursement. I wanted to have the conversation, but what the mayor said in that meeting, it really rang true with me and it shifted my perspective. Because my thought process was the sheriff's office does a great deal. The city of Glens Falls is part of Warren County and we do a great deal for your residents. But she said, why should we pay more? The town of Queensbury doesn't pay more. The town of Lake George doesn't pay more. Why should the city of Glens Falls be expected to pay more? And she's right. And I apologize for even bringing that up in a conversation because you shouldn't be expected to pay more. And you're not going to pay more. We will be making that reimbursement. On a side note, there was recently an article that was written to the Chronicle, a letter by Mr. Brock, and in that, this is a topic of discussion that comes up quite often. It's happened a number of times since I've been sheriff, talking about duplication of payments for police services, the Sheriff's Office, the City of Blount Falls Police Department. And really, you've got an expert with Claudia Bramer. I've explained this to her in detail a number of times when she was on the board. She understands it, I believe, quite intimately. But there's a misconception with the sheriff's office. The police officers are just one small component of our sheriff's office. We have a correctional facility. We have a communication center. We're required to provide civil process. It's a pretty large organization, quite complex. I don't know if the number's true. I wouldn't even know how to calculate it, but let's just say that Mr. Brock is accurate in that the city pays $1.5 million to the sheriff's office for services. If that's the case, 41% of our budget goes to the correctional facility. So 41% of that, about $600,000 of that one point million is going to the population that we serve in our correctional facility. And as of yesterday, we had 103 people housed. 51 of those were cases from the city of Glens Falls. So I think that's a significant population that's coming right out of the city. So that's service that's provided by the amazing staff that oversees our correctional facility. In our emergency communications center, When we're at minimum staffing, there is never a time, the lowest that we can drop is three communications officers. Regardless of a natural disaster, what's occurring, and of those three, there's an officer that handles the Warren County Sheriff's Office, headquarters and dispatch, there's an officer that handles 911, fire and EMS, and there's an officer that does nothing but handle emergency calls, non-emergency calls, telephone calls for the city of Glens Falls. The full coverage factor for that officer to be in there 24-7 is about a half a million dollars. So between the correctional facility and the communications center, you're at about 1.1 million dollars before you even start looking at police services. And then the other component that I mentioned, the civil process, we have a civil office with a sergeant, two officers, and two support staff. Just the personnel expenses alone to run that civil office are about a half a million dollars a year. And I would say with great confidence that probably about a third of the process, evictions, garnishments, income executions, things of that nature, occur within the city of Glens Falls. So I understand your concerns about the duplication, but I wanted to stand before you and let you know that it's far more than just police services, that our sheriff's office is your sheriff's office, that we are very responsive to you, that if there ever is a time that you need something from us, or you have a question or a concern or a thought, I'll give you my cell phone number right now. I'm always available. I welcome a call and I'd welcome a healthy conversation. And most importantly, to you, Mayor, to the City Council, I just, I wanted to have a reset and make sure that you know, from me to you, that we are always going to be good neighbors of the city and excellent partners with your Glens Falls City Police Department. And if you don't have any questions, I will. Yes.

If I could, Jim, thanks. First of all, thanks for coming this evening.

Yes, sir.

It's been a long time before a sheriff's in real long time since the sheriffs stood before this council. And police protection in the city has been a constant problem. In fact, we were talking tonight at a labor and management committee meeting about how we're going to negotiate a contract which is upcoming with our police department. We can hardly support what we pay right now. Just like you. increases in salaries health insurance is through the roof unfortunately what we end up doing more than anything else is providing and i'm not criticizing our police department instead of excellent service the best service that we can for a real high price and listen mr brock and i i applaud him for putting out the information that he did. I remember him when he sat on the council and he talked that way. I can remember him when he sat on the board of supervisors and he talked that way. And to the citizens of Glens Falls, you can spread the numbers any way you want. You know, I've been sitting and listening to you, and I'm not questioning this at all. I know all those things that you do, and primarily some of them are in the city. But if you were to drive into Lake George Village right now, it would almost look like every Warren County Sheriff's car is there because this huge tourism population that we've got. I don't know how long our police department is sustainable. And I don't want it to get to the day, because I understand the law too, where you say, well, that's all right. We'll just throw our hands up. We'll put a close sign on the door and let the county worry about it. I think that there should be constant discussions going on about pieces of our police department. I'll give you an example. I'm probably not supposed to say this, but it wasn't done in an executive session. A couple of years ago, our police department came to us And, you know, I used to say, Jesus, those guys in the police department, they're living rich. They've got more overtime than they ever want. And you know what? I was wrong. Because they have families. They don't want to work 60 hours a week. And you get burnout. That's why they may be looking at you. They may be deciding to go, you know, there's a full-time opening in Granville or Hudson Falls or we lose jobs. people because of that. So they had said to us, but they withdrew it. They said, we've got to do something for the guys. So one of the things that the union talked about was giving up the third shift, the 11 at night till 7 o'clock in the morning. And so I asked that they provide us with some information. I just want to know two things. What does it cost to have the third shift? What's the average number of calls every month? I was shocked. Absolutely shocked. It cost us $700,000. And I don't think that number was right.

I think it was more than that.

And they tell me they average four calls a night. And in some cases, you know, I was involved in a situation in my neighborhood where I stumbled upon a domestic violence about 10 o'clock one night. I was out for a walk. I called the 911. Said I wanted to report this. Not sure what's going on. Here's where it's at. Within two minutes, a Warren County sheriff was standing in front of that house. And talking to the sheriff, I was an elected official. I said, geez, thanks an awful lot. Our guys were tied up in a domestic violence on the other side of town. And, you know, they just couldn't respond. These guys were working the zone one. They happened to be up on Quaker Road. They came right down. They took care of it. That's good police work. That's police agencies working together to deliver good public safety to the people that they represent every single day. And we shy away from having discussions, and I'm not saying I would never sit here right now and propose that we take the whole police department and lay that on the county. I know what that would entail. I know financially it would be very, very difficult to do. But I think it's a reality in the future, and I think the future is nearer than it was 10 or 20 years ago. So I'm glad to see all the things that you do to help the city and appreciate all of those things. I'm going to tell you something. I admire you. I had close relationships with Fred Lamey and Larry Cleveland and Bud York. And all of those guys were just the best of the best in my world. You sit in that group of people. I want you to know that. I don't say that to flatter you. I say that to you because I think that you're a good administrator. And I hope dialogue can continue between not just the county, but the sheriff's department and our police department so that we can talk about how we all deliver better services to our citizens. So I thank you for coming here to see us tonight. And I'm sorry, too, that there was some misunderstandings here. And I hope we can get those cleaned up. But let's keep the conversation going.

Really, that's why I'm here. And I would welcome any conversations. I will just tell you, I've been doing this for 35 years. You have a solid police department. You have very caring, dedicated officers that work for the city. But again, as an administrator, I know it's a huge expense. And I say to our board of supervisors, all the time. Professional law enforcement services are very expensive, and it's an area where you can't compromise. We are a pillar of tourism, of your community, of your residents, and if that starts to slip, then everything starts to slip, and it's not a slope that you want to start sliding backwards on. Anything that commits to, much like the Mayor with the Chief, I answer to the Board of Supervisors. I would sit at the table, obviously I would have a voice and an opinion and share my thoughts, but those types of decisions would go from the Board of Supervisors to the Mayor to the City Council. But I'd be more than happy to talk.

I have a couple of questions. Thank you for coming to speak with us. I had a few concerns about at the, at the time that the mayor had asked for reimbursement that we are obliged to seek because we answered to taxpayers that you can't go to the chief and say if it's okay with the chief because the chief would have to come to the council and ask for that from the council. So to me that was something that didn't make sense but also From my understanding, the Sheriff's Department had Glens Falls move things from like a lockup that is on the sheriff. Could you please walk me through that decision? Sure.

Naturally, through these, and first off, the sheriff and the county board of supervisors, we are joint employers, so I have some leverage and ability, autonomy, if you will, to make certain decisions when it comes to our budget. Fully meaning to be completely respective, this was a learning curve for me. I did not know that the chief could not make such a decision, that he did not have that level of autonomy. Now I know that that mistake will not happen again. But through these conversations, Naturally, there were some people that were asking me, especially with the nature that this demand was delivered, sure, what is going on? What's happening? Who did you upset? And through those conversations, they were saying, they're asking for $8,000, don't you do a tremendous amount for the City of Glens Falls? Through those conversations, I learned that there was a vehicle in our impound yard that was a piece of evidence for the City of Glens Falls. The vehicle was in the impound yard with the windows down. It had been there for about a month, and it was not anything where a case was created by the Warren County Sheriff's Office. It was nothing that was logged and registered as a piece of evidence for the Warren County Sheriff's Office, and it was in our impound yard. The City of Glens Falls Police Department and the Warren County Sheriff's Office are both accredited police departments. That goes far outside the scope of accreditation. That is not proper in the chain of custody. And being that it had sat there for about 30 days with the windows down, when the owner comes back and is wondering why the interior of their vehicle is damaged and we had nothing to do with it, I didn't want to assume any of that liability. So yes, we asked for...

So the timing of this was after... Glens Falls had asked you to pay the money that you owe the city.

It was.

And so that seems like very picayune timing.

It seems retaliatory. Yes, it does. And that's why I'm standing here before you. And I hope that we can develop some trust. I'm not saying that you need to trust me. I explained it to you clearly. I hope that that makes sense, why we did what we did, how the conversations progressed. and how I came to learn, which I didn't know. I share if I have a mushroom in my office, because oftentimes I'm the last person to learn certain things. And when I learned of this, I'm an assessor for the New York State Accreditation Program, and I know very well what's required of Evidence Enchanted Custody, and I knew we were doing things wrong. Following that, we have since changed our policy. I could share the policy and procedure change that I made subsequent to those same conversations to make sure that that very same instance doesn't occur again. We're not saying that we wouldn't take your evidence or property, that we wouldn't open up Evidence Bay 7 for the detectives to do processing. But if we do, I have to give approval, and a case needs to be created in our Warren County Sheriff's Office, and we need to enter that as a piece of evidence of our Sheriff's Office.

As a law enforcement person, shouldn't you be more understanding of the laws of the municipalities that you serve?

I was more concerned for the victims because if there's a break in the chain of custody and the case gets dismissed.

I mean, I was talking about how you didn't know that you couldn't just go to the chief and make a side arrangement that you needed to come to the common council who hold the checkbook for the city of Glens Falls.

I'm familiar with the executive law. I understand that there is a requirement for reimbursement. Now that, I shouldn't say requirement. There's an expectation that reimbursement could be required, but it doesn't necessarily, it could be waived. I learned that the mayor is the one that waives that.

It would have to be the common council that would waive that.

I apologize, I'm still learning. In our sheriff's office, if that were to happen in the reverse and we had a young adult that wanted to transfer to the city of Glens Falls and it were within that time period, I've stood out in front of our sheriff's office, standing with officers who are transferring to another police department, wishing them well, hoping them much health and success in their next chapter. I'm just telling you, I wouldn't charge the city council that $8,000. I would wish that young officer well, and I could make that decision.

You had to know that this candidate... was working for Glens Falls when you went to ask them, don't you feel that it's unfair for the Sheriff's Department to go and recruit people that one of your component municipalities has recruited and is paying for the training of?

That's exactly what I wanted to share with this city council. I did not go to this young candidate and recruit him. I learned that he wanted to be an employee of our sheriff's office.

But you did go to the chief to say, can we make a side deal here?

A side deal? All I said is if we hire this young man.

Well, you didn't come in front of the council.

I didn't know that I needed to. Like I said, it will not happen again. I wasn't trying to do anything to disrespect you.

It just seems like it is a violation of what fairness is. And that as somebody who is in the office for enforcing law, that this seems very morally confused to me.

Well, I apologize. That's why I'm standing here before you. I understand the law. At any point did I say that we didn't have to make that payment. I would prefer not to have made it, but I understand. I can't challenge. I know what the law says.

So I don't want to interrupt you. Did you have more to say? I did not. Okay. Just for the record, because not everybody probably was aware of the whole process, from the city's perspective, we have a Board of Public Safety that the police department and the fire department report to. I think the person you spoke to was our assistant chief, not our chief at the time. And he reported to the Board of Public Safety that one of our officers who had been trained by us but hadn't been here for that long was hired by the Warren County sheriffs. The Board of Public Safety asked, isn't there a legal remedy for this? Our attorney and the police said, yes, there is. And the law allows that if, I think the law, from my perspective, must exist to protect all of us because as you said, people are allowed to leave. But it's very difficult with police hiring because they take a civil service test, they take a physical test, we have to wait for the civil service results, and we have to do background checks. Sometimes that happens after the academy has already started. When we're down an officer, it means we could incur overtime costs, we're out basically the cost we spent to train and pay this person's salary. There's morale issues because people are stuck and working longer hours. So I think the law exists just because if someone does hire an officer after we've recently trained them, there's a remedy to say, okay, that's fine, just please reimburse us for the training costs because the agency that the officer left will incur overtime costs and things like that. So at that point, I updated the Common Council and told them what happened and the Common Council also said, yes, we should seek that legal remedy to make the city to help mitigate the city's loss. We asked our city attorney to send a letter. I understand it used the word demand. I think demand is a legal term that just is requesting money. It wasn't meant to be aggressive. It was just a legal letter. And then after that, we found out that very shortly after that, the police were contacted and asked for our items to be taken out of lockup And subsequently, we did have a meeting with you and with the county leadership and attorneys from both sides. And at that meeting, there was talk that if the city didn't drop this, the sheriff's office or the county could start charging the city for all the services it provides to recoup the money that we were asking for, at which point I said that, We're not trying to do anything more than just standard business, what the law allows. And the taxpayers that we represent in Glens Falls pay into the Warren County budget at the same rate that taxpayers from all communities pay in. And so when you provide services to us our position is that those services are being funded by our taxpayers And we didn't think it was fair that we would start to be charged when other municipalities weren't so that that's kind of the history here I really appreciate that you're saying that You've rethought it after we had that discussion now. You're saying that you will reimburse the city and And it is 100% our desire to have a good working relationship with the sheriff's office. And we appreciate you coming and rethinking your position on that.

And it was your remarks in that meeting that shifted my perspective. But can I say one more thing? And I can tell... You're not gonna be pleased by it, but I'm gonna be transparent and fully honest. The city of Glens Falls, like I said, they advertise they're actively seeking lateral transfers for the same reason that we would accept a lateral transfer hire. It's somebody that comes into your sheriff's office, your police department, and within four weeks, as opposed to a year and a half, are actively serving the public. You're doing it, you're accepting laterals in the city, they're coming from someplace else, and I will tell you, if we get applications from officers with the City of Glens Falls that are outside this reimbursement period, and they are suitable candidates for hire, we will hire them. And it's not personal, it's not because there's a vendetta, it's not because I'm trying to hurt the City of Glens Falls, it's because we currently have four vacancies that we would like to fill as well. We have the same hardships, different scale, but we're all in this together. But I assure you, I'm not gonna set up a table downstairs, I'm not going to be sending people into your locker room, trying to entice people to come to Warren County. You have great officers, they have a good contract, they have a healthy working environment, that's why they're not transferring. The only reason sometimes people transfer is in this instance, you mentioned Sheriff Fred Lamy, Fred Lamy hired me. This young man is Fred Lamy's grandson, and there's just a family legacy. And for me, it was not nefarious. I was not trying to circumvent the law. I understand the law. I have high moral character, integrity. There's one way for me to do the right, to do things. It's the right way. And in this way, I've learned from it. And that's why I'm here. I'm not shying away from it. I'm not asking you to agree with me. I'm hoping that you understand. And I'm hoping from this moment moving forward, we can have a healthy relationship.

That's great, thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate that very much.

All right.

Thank you.

And now we will open up the meeting to public comment, if anyone from the public would like to address the council. Okay, seeing no public comment, I will move on to committee reports. Councilwoman at-large Gooden.

The next planning and development meeting will be August 20th at five o'clock in downstairs second floor Mayor's Conference Room.

Thank you. Councilman Donahue.

Thank you, Mayor. The Audit and Finance Committee met yesterday at 5.30 in the Mayor's Conference Room. We reviewed the audit. We'd like to thank Carrie Lambert for her dedication to that. When we, as a group, we looked at out of 185, we looked at 79, approximately 79 invoices. We also had a presentation by new fire chief Craig Baskew on EMS fees that have currently not been even looked at in the past four or five years. So we made a positive recommendation to bring our fees up to the local municipalities, what they're charging approximately. And then we had a brief chat and conversation with the controller, Wendy Baird, about how things are just coming. And, you know, we're super supportive of all the work the controller's office is doing and got to make sure the books are in order. So that was the crux of the meeting. And our next meeting is Monday, 8-24-26, 5-30, Mayor's Conference Room. Thank you.

Councilman Landry.

Thank you, Mayor. The Labor Management Personnel Committee met this evening at 5 o'clock. Our meeting focused exclusively on preparing for the upcoming Glens Falls Firefighter Union Local 2230, the negotiations for their 2027 through 2029, I think, or 30. This was also an in-service for our HR director to get more familiar with government negotiations. And our fire chief who has come forward with some things now that he sits on the management side that he sees maybe needs to be changed in the fire department. Nothing big. not things that require a financial commitment of any kind by the city, but just the way things are done. And I thought that they were well taken. So our next meeting will be on the 25th of August at 5 p.m.

Thank you. Councilman Rice.

Good evening. The Policy Committee met on August 11th this afternoon. I want to give a brief update on that. The committee deliberated, excuse me, the committee completed deliberation on the Tree Commission Powers and Duties Policy, and we're going to transmit that to City Attorney Bassford for drafting. I may have already done that, actually. I want to recognize Councilman Ben Laugham for his contributions throughout this process, particularly his thoughtful engagement on matters of scope that helped sharpen the final framework. I also want to thank City Attorney Bassford for her patience and guidance on the legal questions that informed our work on this and other items. On the encroachment policy, we made good progress on the remaining open questions, and that item is close to being ready for transmittal as well. The committee also voted to advance a new item, which is the ACH transfers and online banking policy as a formal intake item. We also, so I sent that to the audit and finance committee for your input and recommendations. We opened a discussion on creating an inventory of charter modernization items. On the mandatory policies front, most of the deadlines that I gave the department heads and committee chairs have now or will soon pass. We'll be following up with each of them to make sure that work is moving, and I will be reporting back to the committee on those responses at our next meeting, which is on August 25th. Thank you.

Councilman Latham.

The Technology Committee met on August 6th at 5 p.m. on the second floor. We went over the court system, technology issues that we had at the last meeting and they seem to be a go. So that seems to be resolved. We discussed the technology roadmap and lifecycle management, kind of tying in some of those things into the budget process. We discussed cybersecurity initiatives. We have a couple of things that are looking for some resolution, including a NIST-based data security and privacy assessment, and getting the contract together for using CrowdStrike as our endpoint detection and response service. We discussed mandatory policies as council member Rice just was referring to. So for the mandatory ones for technology are the cybersecurity incident and ransom payment reporting, including the 72-hour breach reporting, 24-hour ransom notification, and 30-day follow-up reporting, an incident response policy with a runbook-style approach, and annual cyber awareness training for staff. which we do have in place right now, but just to make sure that we have all those mentioned in the policies. We also discussed some best practice policies, which we will move on after having completed the mandatory policies. We brought up the idea of a data center moratorium. However, the committee felt that the New York State moratorium covers us for that, at least for this time. And some follow-up items were just to strengthen governance and compliance, to build a long-term technology replacement roadmap. improving technology reliability in public meetings, establishing formal onboarding, offboarding, and security policies, and planning future modernization efforts, including website improvements and infrastructure upgrades. The next meeting will be on Thursday, September 3rd at 5 p.m. Thank you.

Thank you. Does anyone want to make Councilman Palladino's report?

I wasn't forwarded any kind of notes. Okay. At our last meeting, maybe we can... Yeah, we can kind of go off on that. Our last meeting, I think we finalized the tax, the occupancy tax. Occupancy tax. The occupancy tax awards, yeah. And we also heard from an immigration rights advocate. Was there anything else?

I'm trying to think off the top of my head. I believe it was just occupancy tax. Yeah, we had them come in and speak.

And then so next time we're going to be discussing the permanent parking to some extent with the residents.

And that's Monday the 17th.

And it'll be Monday. Monday at 5 o'clock, yes.

Monday, this coming Monday? Yes, it's coming Monday. Monday the 17th at 5 o'clock.

Okay, great.

Thank you. So now we will go to the consent agenda. Is there anything from the consent agenda that you would like to pull for discussion? Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, the consent agenda is approved. Now we will go to our regular agenda. So the first item is a resolution to set a public hearing for comprehensive plan adoption. I'll invite our planning and zoning director, Alison Gaddy, back up.

Great. So it's been a couple months since our consultants were here to give us a presentation on the product that they had developed for the city. Since then, the mayor and I have met with them, and we did a sort of soft handoff of their final draft version. And internally, we've made some updates that we felt reflected what we heard from not only the public, but also some of the city staff that wasn't consulted during the planning process. I have provided you with an updated summary of the plan with some of the updated goals that were developed. There are a little more focused on the priorities of the city and the residents, as well as department heads and ongoing projects that we would like to advance within the timeframe of this comprehensive plan, which is five to 10 years. In general, most of the, another thing that was changed was the length of the plan. That was sort of the biggest feedback and the most obvious change in the plan. All of that data that was provided within the document will be provided as an appendix, so it will still be available. It just makes the document a little easier to read and absorb from an implementation standpoint. But just to reiterate, this plan was created with a lot of public input. There was a comprehensive plan committee created. I believe each of you appointed a member. And that committee worked with the consultants to really drive this process. But on top of that, there was community outreach. There were stakeholder and focus groups interviews. There was a community-wide survey in which 438 people responded to, which is, in my experience, very good. Two public workshops were held throughout the process. About a little under 100 people came to each of those. And there was also pop-up events and online engagement. During the public comment period a few months ago, we received over 100 comments. Some of those were from the Comprehensive Plan Committee, but others were from the public, and we worked really hard to kind of incorporate all of those into this edit and make sure that they really reflected what the goals of the community were. I am putting the final touches on this, just making sure everything's right. I will have it available for you tomorrow. It will also be posted online so that it can be reviewed by the community. And during that time, I will also welcome any comments for updates. But my hope is that this plan reflects what we need it to reflect to create the community in the next five to 10 years that we all would like to see. and that barring any large objections, it can be adopted by the Common Council next meeting. After that, we can go on to implementing it. Another note is that a zoning code update is a recommendation of this plan, and it has been applied for through the New York State Department of State, the same agency that funded this plan. There is a caveat that there is a deadline for this plan to be adopted. of September 4th for us to remain eligible for that project. That's not saying that if something is gravely wrong with this, we will adopt it, but I hope that it is, I believe that it is ready to be adopted and I hope you feel the same, so.

Alison, just a quick question. So are you saying that the September 4th drop dead date, if you want to call it that, that will allow us then to move forward with the zoning component?

Yes.

So we haven't moved forward with that yet?

It actually has been applied for. But to remain eligible for that funding, this plan needs to be adopted by that date. And then that funding award is announced either in December or January.

So we're going to have to vote on this next council meeting. Yes. Okay. So it has.

No, we're voting on it today.

No. The request today is to set the public hearing for adoption for the next meeting. Okay. So between now and then, the next two weeks, it will be available for public review. We've already held two public hearings for this plan. Again, this isn't a substantially different plan. It just looks a little different. So but still again available for public comment between now and and the next meeting for any updates and if any updates are made I will Highlight those and distribute accordingly I'd really like to commend Allison for all of her work on this when we had the first version of the draft when that draft was made we really didn't have a planner skill set in-house and I

We felt confident that we didn't want to rush adoption previously. We wanted to make sure that we got everyone's comments. So it was quite a lot of work to sift through all of those comments to make the plan concise and readable and easy to use. And Allison also submitted the consolidated funding application for us to update our zoning code. So thank you very much for all your work.

Thank you. Yes.

Nice job.

Okay. Then would you like to vote on these individually is there anything you'd like to pull or should I go through them? And then we vote all together Okay So the next item is a resolution to sell property at 42 Mason Street I believe you've all received updated documents. We have the applicant here if anybody has any questions and If no one has questions, we'll move forward. The next item is a resolution to amend the City Code, Chapter 196, Article 3. That is for senior citizens tax exemption. So we held a public hearing on this at the last meeting, and what we're doing is expanding the income thresholds for senior citizens who are eligible for a tax break, basically. And the Audit and Finance Committee worked with our assessor to review this. The next item is a resolution to amend local law chapter 196, seven persons with disabilities and limited income, very similar to the last resolution, but for a different population. We also held a public hearing on that last time. The next resolution.

Mayor, can I ask a question?

Okay. All right. Sorry.

Go ahead. Three and four that you just went over. Yes. I'm not against them. I think they're wonderful.

Yes.

But do we know what that's going to cost us?

Yeah. Do you want to talk about this, Councilman Donahue?

I mean, it's...

probably looking anywhere between 150, I think it was like 100 and 150,000 potential loss, but you know.

The only reason I asked that is in the audit and finance committee meeting, because I happened to stumble upon a note. We did an expense, we did, I don't know if it was an exemption change or age change for senior citizens last year. And our assessor told us at that point in time, don't forget it starts in 2027. And I haven't been able to find it. Ben and I were talking about that. It could be $170,000 there. So all of them, just from a standpoint, they're great and they're wonderful and all the people that get it deserve it. It also needs that scrutiny.

Yes, it does. When the assessor came to me with this proposal, our income thresholds were significantly lower than our peers, than the county, than other places. And it seemed to me like a fair thing for us to consider to help our senior citizens and those with disabilities. But I wanted it to go through the committee process as all of our things do.

So it went to- I actually brought this up last year when I was door knocking because one of my constituents said that we should get those in alignment with what the county was doing. I spoke to you about it, and I spoke to the previous.

I do remember that you had made some comments when we were both council members, right? But as mayor, the department had brought it to me. I asked for it to go to the committee. that you're on, right? So the committee reviewed it, and you felt that although it is a financial sacrifice for the city, it was the right thing to do. And so that's where we are. Thank you. Uh-huh. Resolution 4.5 is a duplication. It was listed already on the other agenda. And that's just, again, we already voted on it, but it was just cleaning up the code to reflect some of the small changes we made, like changing the time limit from 15 minutes to 30 minutes in front of City Hall and other small changes like that. The next resolution is to transfer funds from the timber sale. So as everybody knows, we had a timber sale on our water treatment lands, and now we're just transferring that money that was made from that. The next resolution is to appoint a full-time city attorney. So you'll see in the backup materials for this that, I mean, as we are all learning this year, there are quite a lot of things that we are trying to clean up and mitigate that could use an attorney's scrutiny. The council committees have been asking our attorney to attend. The department heads have been leaning on her. I have. and the city has always had a as far as as long as I remember like a Part-time attorney and I don't know that we're making the best decisions when we do that So I met with our controller to see what are all the things we're spending money outsourcing to you know piecemeal for legal and It turns out that Taylor's actually already taken on a big chunk of that like all the labor And then there were some other small things that she will also do. So we are able to bring her on full time at a cost savings of about $25,000 when we add up all of the other expenses we had been paying with her salary now. So that's what the proposal is. Does anyone have any questions for us or for me?

I think it's a wonderful idea. She's done a wonderful job.

Thank you. Well, thank you. Yeah.

I think it's great. It also possibly removes the possibility of conflicts of interest.

Yeah. Okay. So that is it. Is there a resolution to approve?

There's one more resolution. Isn't there for a monthly $500 stipend? Oh.

I know what you're referring to. Sorry, it's not on the copy. I don't, unless I skipped over it, I didn't see it. What number is it?

It's four and then it's like eight.

Eight, four, eight does not exist on this. No, that was the last one, Mayor.

I don't think it did. No. Do you have the language so I can read it? I apologize. Yeah, is it?

Yeah, it's just missing the document.

Thank you. Just so we all know what we're talking about.

So this is on the agenda that's published though, right? You just didn't print it. Okay, so yeah. So this is publicly noticed. All we're doing here is we're taking work that a full-time person was doing. They are unable to perform those duties at this time. We are transferring all that work to a current employee that we already have and providing them a very modest bonus to take on all of that extra work. We've spoken to the union about this, and there's no concerns. So that's all that we're doing here. Does anyone have any questions or concerns about that?

Okay, so it's... My biggest concern was that we were going to skip it. We were what?

Going to skip it. Thank you for pointing that out. A resolution authorizing the approval and issuance of a monthly stipend. Okay, with that, would anyone like to make a motion to approve the regular agenda?

I'll make that motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Aye. Okay, we are approved. Now we will go to old business. Old business, Councilwoman at Large Gooden.

No old business, ma'am.

Okay, Councilman Donahue.

Thank you, Mayor. No old business on my part.

Okay, Councilman Landry.

No old business.

Councilman Reif. Old business.

I look forward to hearing from residents at the next Quality of Life Committee meeting on August 17th about the city's changing parking needs. We're in a period of unprecedented development downtown, and it would be a mistake to think that we can just leave things as they are. I'd like to hear what people think what we should be doing, and I'd encourage anyone with ideas to come out and share them.

Thank you. Old business. Councilman Lapham.

I just had a I think I may have brought this up last meeting too, but there was a resident on the east side who was trapped in their house by a dog that has been let loose around 26 Leonard Street. So this is a person who lives next door. Called up the police. The police sent them to animal control. Animal control said, you need to come in the office and fill out paperwork. And this was with a dog in his house. So I talked to... uh, council member, uh, Palladino and said, I was going to kind of pull out all of the dog information that we have, you know, the dog related code, because it's a chapter in our code book. and see if there's anything in there that we can use or what we might need to do to amend it so that if a dog is actually physically in somebody's house, that maybe the police can come to that to get the dog out of the house because he was afraid of being attacked or that we have some mechanism to make sure that in those situations that our animal control is able to send somebody in to intervene. I think it needs to be discussed in a council meeting. There have been several people who have said to me that they've had problems. I know Walnut Street has three dogs that have been repeatedly brought up as being wilding. So we need to have something to kind of look into this issue.

The SPCA who we contract with does investigate all of these things and our attorney works with them to bring cases forward when they agree that there's something going on. But I am not opposed to further discussion and scrutiny of the contracts that we have. I know Emily and Megan directly deal with SPCA and if you have a committee discussion about this, invite them and the SPCA and Taylor can also kind of tell you what it's like on the legal end, working with them to bring cases forward.

Yeah, I just think that the response was more of like, well, there's a dog running around in the street, not a dog has come into my house and trapped me in a room.

I think if any resident of our city feels like they're in danger, they can call the police.

Well, they did.

Okay, well, we'll look into that. Yep. Okay. All right, we will go to new business. Councilwoman at-large Gooden.

No new business, Mayor.

New business, Councilman Dunham.

I have no new business, Mayor.

Councilman Landry.

Thank you, Mayor. This may have been mentioned while I was away, but I'd like to recognize the passing of a longtime friend and community pillar, Amy Barton. Amy was always involved in making our community a better place. Amy followed in her mother's footsteps, Claire, and always put community and family on the same pedestal. She treasured chairing the board at the Crandall Library and seeing that our community had a library second to none. She will definitely be missed by the community, and I send our condolences to her.

Thank you. Councilman Rice.

I want to recognize Cemetery Commissioner Wanda Soizdral for the vision and initiative she's brought to a new project at the cemetery. She's put together a plan for a pollinator garden with birdhouses and bat boxes and a bench near the cemetery pond, building on the existing wildflower garden that's already there. It looks like a genuinely great site for this kind of project, and I want to thank her for stepping up to lead it. I also want to raise something that I think is going to be a growing issue for the city, which is our trees. I think that I'm not alone in noticing the Norway maples behind my house and in my neighborhood are suffering from a blight that is compounded by the dry weather. They are dropping their leaves now. So between the heat, the dry conditions, and various blights, I'm seeing a visible dieback across the city, and I think we're in the middle of a real climate-driven shift in what can survive here. I'd ask residents who notice a problem tree with dry bare branches or obvious decline to use the report a concern feature on the city's website. That gets it into the queue where we can address it when funds and resources allow. I think this is only gonna become more of an issue going forward and I want the city staying ahead of it rather than reacting tree by tree as problems become emergencies.

Thank you.

Thank you and just in case you didn't know the city has a grant for tree maintenance and planting, but it also includes money for an arborist, which we are in the process of bringing on. That arborist will be able to go and look at trees in question. The Tree Commission and our staff have also worked really hard to develop a process to report any tree things that come in through Report a Concern, and we're working, Allison's working on that because she's administering the grant. Jim Liebram from Warren County Water and Soil Conservation district is working with us on that. And am I forgetting anyone else who's involved?

Beyond the environmental aspects of this, I'm just worried when branches are going to be falling on people and cars, you know, and just becoming a danger. Especially Norway maples.

Yeah, I'm really, I mean, DPW does respond to any concerns currently, but we don't employ an arborist. So I'm very glad that we got this grant and we'll be able to have an extra expert set of eyes to go and look at those things.

Mayor, if I could just jump on to what Dan said. And kudos to the DPW. I had three constituents pretty close to my house who had dead trees and they had to be taken out. And they've all come to me and said, we'd like another tree. How do we go about doing that?

So the tree commissioners, I reported on this at the last meeting, but they have split up the wards and they've gone around and they have made a little inventory of where they think there should be more trees. Also, we have a list of every tree that's come down and we will endeavor to replace it unless it came down because it was in a bad spot, like utility lines or something like that. We've already approved the... Is it Grasshopper? Yeah, the Grasshopper contract for the tree planting. The tree commission will be meeting soon and we are going to start the planting process. We talked a lot about making sure that the public was engaged when we did this because in the past, the city had identified places where they wanted to put trees and then gone and planted them, which they can do because it's the public right of way. But we are going to send a letter to people saying, you are getting a new tree. We're going to try to put an X where the tree will be and invite them to let us know if they have concerns. Some people don't want a tree. And it'll just save problems in the future by doing that outreach at the time that we start the process. So that's all. in the works and we've been talking about that at the tree commission. Yep, but if anybody who didn't have a tree taken down or who hasn't already contacted us wants a tree, they can put a request in through the report of concern or that's the best place to do it. Yep, okay. Where were we? Old business.

This is new business. Oh, new business. Thank you. No problem. Today, earlier on, I found out a pregnant constituent fell down in a pothole in Crewe. I went over to take a look at it because I first was thinking that it was in the city streets. but it was in the parking lot. I don't know exactly who to reach out to there. Maybe it's the business to say, maybe you wanna fill in your potholes, but I'm not really sure. When it's not the city property, it's the private land holder, but would I look on the tax map or something? I don't know if anybody has any suggestions.

I think, listen, I owned a parking lot. I think what you need to do is go back to the constituent and say, I followed up, and I took a look at it, and it's on private property where you fell, and you can look it up.

Yeah, the person in question was like, oh, it was my fault because I wasn't paying attention. So it isn't like a litigious sort of situation, but it's just kind of like, look around here. It looks like you got gophers, but gophers don't usually eat asphalt.

The tax map, yeah, that's not a bad place to start, but we'll see who the, you might want to see who the property owner is, and maybe it's just Joe Smough or whatnot, but that'll get you where you need to go.

Would this not be a matter for building codes? It's private property.

It's private property.

Right. So I go to the person. Did you want to say anything, Taylor?

I can help you identify who the owner of the lot is and work with. Taylor, you have to speak into it. Sorry.

I can help you identify who the owner of the lot is.

Thank you, Taylor. Okay.

All right. I have a few items I wanted to talk about. So as it sounds like our controller, Wendy, updated you all, we have completed our mid-year budget meetings with every department head. We've gone through everything with a fine-tooth comb. As I reported last time, there were several miscategorizations in the budget, things that were underfunded, all kinds of things like that. We're doing quite a lot of cleanup. The Controller's Office is working around the clock. I very much applaud Wendy and Dylan and Suzanne and all of them for how hard they're working. Our next step is that tomorrow actually there's a munis training. We're training all our department heads because not all of them had access or knew how to use our software. So they're getting that training. We went to a training that Warren County organized and several different entities were part of at SUNY Adirondack. I think you were there, Councilman Lapham. with the state controller's office to talk about budgeting. We're getting a lot of that stuff cleaned up. The department heads have their budgets due to the mayor's office and to Steve. on September 1st, he will then enter their budgets into MUNIS. I will then review and start having department head meetings on their proposed budgets. And then my proposed budget will come out October 1st. And at that point, the council will begin your review of the budget with department heads. In good news, I think Wendy might've told you this, but You know, the city had contracted a couple years ago with 3 Plus 1 Cash Fest, which helps us with investments. And for an unknown reason, we never acted on that. previously, so that was a lot of money and interest that we left on the table. But we corrected that this year, and Wendy's been reporting to me on the money we've made. And in the last period, which is just mid-April to mid-July, we earned $50,000 in interest. So it's just passive income. All we had to do was transfer money from non-interest bearing accounts to ICS accounts that earn interest for the city. So that's really good news. Let's see. You may have seen that Wheel of Braider is closing the place that we take our sludge, basically. And so our water and sewer superintendent, Bill Norton, is working to get some RFPs, get an RFP out so that we can have options. We don't want to wait till the last minute and be price gouged because we waited. At the same time, we've been talking about trying to identify ways to reduce the water content in our sludge because the heavier it is, the more expensive it is to haul away. We are looking into funding to try to get a sludge dryer. If we can do that, we can reduce the water content, make it more affordable to haul, but also there's an intense regional need right now, and we are being contacted by people all over the place who are wanting us to take in their sludge. And so perhaps if we do invest in that dryer and hopefully we find a grant or some low interest, some option to be able to finance that, we do believe we'll be able to recoup that expense through the intake and through the reduction of the city's cost. the city's weight of sludge. So Bill and Chris Miller at the plant and Allison and I have met on that. We've also talked with Barton and Lajudas who did a study on that earlier, and we're going to be trying to move that forward. We'll come back to you with more information.

I just would caution the council that at one point, maybe 20 years ago, sewer department put forward a plan to have an incinerator on site and that was quickly left to be not manageable because of changes in state law. So yeah. So just because something is legal at the moment, we have to keep that in mind that it's always subject to change. That was the only cautionary thing I wanted to say.

It was wildly unpopular back then as well. So it weren't trash plans.

Certainly we'll consider all of that. And the planning and development committee can weigh in whenever we get to the grant application process for that. I wanted to let you know that I, as a council person, I often held community forums. And while I still do them in silos, I go to the senior center every quarter and I have a kind of a community chat. They ask me questions. I just went to the Rotary Club. In the next week or two, I'll be presenting to Kiwanis Club I do miss the opportunity to just have a casual conversation with anybody who wants to come and ask me questions. So I have scheduled my first two forums, which will be at Crandall Public Library in the community room downstairs. The first one will be September 29th. The second one will be January 19th. They will be from 5.30 to 6.30. They will also have a virtual option. I thank the library for working on that with me. And it's not a presentation like a state of the city or anything. It's just a casual, you know, give a few updates, see if people have questions and just an effort to be accessible. So I wanted to let you all know. And you're welcome to attend if you'd like. And then the last thing is that at our next council meeting, which I believe is the 24th, I will be absent. I'm taking my daughter to college. So I will be gone for three days. And I thank Councilwoman at-large Gooden for filling in for me. And I will get all the tears out and come back after that. So... That is all I have. So the last thing is to open back up to public comment. Yes, anyone who'd like can come forward.

Yep. My name is Jim Flynn. I live in Ward 1 on Locust Street. And the discussion about the sewer plant is of interest. I've been working with the folks at Finch to try and reduce the odors from the plant. And apparently a lot of those odors, especially the hydrogen sulfide, rotten eggs, rotten cabbage odor, is coming from the wastewater treatment plant. And specifically, they're extracting water out of the waste stream so that they can reduce it to fiber. and that I'm not sure exactly what's happening because it's been coming back again periodically, the smell, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes early in the morning, depending on weather conditions. So how does this relate to the discussion about the sewage treatment plant? Well, we do get some smell, Dan and I were talking about that on the way in tonight, occasionally from the sewage treatment plant. And after several months of living on Locust Street, I can kind of differentiate the different smells that come from the paper plant, and there are several different kinds of smells there, versus what comes from the sewage treatment plant. And there hasn't been that much from the sewage treatment plant. But what concerns me is that if there's a dryer, an evaporator, is that gonna put that smell into the air? So we're solving one problem, which is to reduce the weight of the sludge But could we be creating another problem with off-gassing from the drying process? And that's just a rhetorical question, but that should be part of, I think, that discussion because it's impacting us in the neighborhood. And I also wanted to just follow up, when I met with the mayor earlier, because of the odors this spring, talked about having a public meeting with the folks at Finch, and I think that's still a good idea. I think we're trying to approach this in a good neighbor, way, but even with the changes with the reduction, hopefully, in the pulp production, the wastewater treatment part is still there, and we're still experiencing those odors from time to time, and they affect our quality of life in the East End and all the good things that are happening there. I'm seeing young families moving in now. And my neighbor, Linda, who's lived on Locust Street for 50 years, said she longs for the day when she could open up her windows at night. And I do, too. So I just hope that we can have that vision that we could all breathe really good air in the whole city. But for those of us in proximity in the East End, it's my hope and vision we can work together to make that happen. Thank you.

Thank you. I would encourage you to come to the Water and Sewer Commission if you'd like to talk to them about any of those concerns. All of our staff and our commissioners will be there, and that's probably the best place to get the most industry-specific answers to your questions, yeah. Okay.

On Mondays.

Yes, come on up.

The acoustics in this room are horrible, absolutely horrible. I'm sitting in the second row and I can barely hear or understand what people are saying, especially if you're not talking in the microphone. But that's just a, I don't know if it can be improved, but it's always been an issue. It was an issue 20 years ago, it's still an issue even though you've got new furniture. So anyway, I hope you'll look into that. That's not why I wanted to address the council. I think your move from a two to three hour parking was amazing. It was terrific. It was a great idea. I'm surprised it took so long for the council to act on that. But I want to commend you for it. However, you turn around and want to charge for parking in lots and increased the fees significantly.

To be clear, we didn't add any inventory for parking, for the permit parking. We were just changing the fees to be consistent with the market rate. Market rate where, though? Other towns in upstate New York, we looked at four different ones.

Wow. It surprises me, because my fear is that you'll discourage shopping shoppers to come downtown. I could be wrong. And one of the things I was wondering is, are you concerned with all the apartments going up in the city, particularly on South Street and around, that you're not going to have adequate parking for everybody? Is that an issue?

Yes, typically public comment is not a back and forth. We listen, but I'm happy to answer the question if no one has objections. The city code currently does not require anyone who builds in the downtown commercial district to have parking there. It's not a requirement. Some people do put parking there, but it's not a requirement. And so some of the bigger developments that have gone in have parking, but there's a lot of smaller developments that are growing to increase density and those people are not required to have parking. So we are concerned that, you know, it's a great thing that our city is growing and people want to live here and it's becoming more vibrant, but we need a solution for those people. The clerks, the permits are not new. They have been, the three, the Clinton Avenue lot has been permit only for, since we've had it, it's always only been for permits. The three smaller lots that were in question, 90% of those lots have been sold for permits since at least 2009, is that correct? The clerk's office had been receiving feedback from people that they wanted permits but there were no permits available, there's a waiting list. The clerk's office had also been receiving complaints from people who paid for permits but even though they paid for a permit, they weren't guaranteed a spot because what was happening is because it's open, because they only sold to 90%, the public was still parking there. And so in order to address that, I suggested that we vary the permit times to try to get more people the ability to have a permit. Not everyone needs a 24-hour-a-day permit. Some people might need a night and weekend permit if they live there. like the population we were just discussing. Some people may only want a daytime permit and some people might want 24 hour permit and some people might want day use. So I had asked the clerk's office to search for property comparables and present all of it to the common council audit and finance committee. And I think four council members reviewed that, um, Councilman Palladino was not on that committee, but attended that committee. Councilman Donahue chairs it. And those four council members with the clerks looked at all the property comparables. I think there were four or at least, right? Is that correct? They reviewed the fees and then decided to move that forward to the Common Council. And that's how we got here. At the last meeting, there was quite a lot of input. And so the council voted to send it back to committee. And as the committee members reported, Councilman Palladino will lead that effort. What was the date, 17th?

Yes, it's this Monday.

Yeah, so Monday the 17th, there'll be a meeting and all of the comments will be considered in people's input and then they'll move from there. However, it was only those three small lots that were under consideration for change. The rest of the city, the large lot behind the bullpen, that was not going to paid parking. There were no changes proposed to the Park Street garage. And as you noted, we did extend the time from two to three hours. We also lifted the two-hour parking restriction throughout the entire city. So now if you're, for example, an employee downtown, within a a couple blocks, if not a five-minute walk or less, you can park without having your car towed. So that's kind of, those are the actions that were taken by the Common Council previously, and now the Common Council is going to consider this again and consider all the input.

Thank you.

Yes?

Did I answer your questions?

Yes, you did. You mentioned grasshopper parking. is gonna start planting trees. What type of trees are they planting?

I don't have the list in front of me. There's a long list. The city underwent a tree inventory with Davey Resource Group a few years ago. They went around and inventoried our trees and they gave us a long list of suggestions of trees that would be good to plant in the city. At the time that they did the inventory, the biggest problem was we had too many of the same kind of trees, as you're pointing out, and then they can be susceptible to a pest or an illness or something like that. So we're trying to vary. That's why you see sometimes we plant shorter trees under utility lines and various things like that. But the tree commission looks carefully at that and recommends. But if you'd like a copy of that list, I can... get it to you.

It'd be terrific.

Sure.

I think the city's doing a nice job with the trees. They're getting rid of some of the dead ones, but hopefully they'll do the stump grinding too, because there's nothing worse than having the stumps there and no tree.

We definitely do the stump grinding. We just don't always do it at the same time. They address the problem first and then they go back around and do the stump grinding.

Well, thank you very much.

Yes, thank you. Any other public comment? Yes, come on up.

City Councilman, I'd like to thank you for agreeing to sell me the property at 42 Mason Street.

Would you mind just stating your name for the record?

Oh, I'm sorry. James McMahon. James McMahon. Yes. McMahon Property Solutions, small contractor here in Glens Falls. I would ask one more favor of the council. It being mid-August, I have not a lot of time left. I work full-time on top of having to... do about five dumpsters clean out of this property of old furniture and bedding and clothing. And if you saw any of the pictures that I sent to the mayor, that there's missing windows and doors and roofs. There's a lot to be done to close it up before the winter. And I was wondering, I already have, I have my own insurance as a contractor here in Glens Falls. I also have money already invested in the property when I did the survey to merge the two lots. I was wondering if I could get permission to start the clean out process and just the closing up of the property to the elements since it's been open for over 10 years.

I'd advise the council that that type of arrangement is not altogether uncommon. It could be acceptable to the council. I would suggest, Mr. McMahon, that you agree to hold the city harmless from any damage that occurs or injury that occurs on the property during your access. That would be my suggestion for the council to consider.

Would we want to COI with us as additional insured?

We probably would, yes. So just follow up with Taylor after this meeting and do it. Does the council need to take action at this moment regarding this request?

We can do this as a separate contract, a pre-transfer access agreement. So not necessarily, but if there were a resolution, we could include that as well. So not necessarily, no.

Does the Council wish to take action on this, or would you prefer that Taylor speak with Mr.?

I think if you could get some more, listen, I would support this and thank you for improving properties in the city. If we can accommodate you in some way, I think we should.

I'm not sure what action is necessary. I'm also in favor.

Okay, it sounds like the Council's in favor. You can work out the details with Taylor.

That's fantastic. Thank you so much.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay. With that, I will ask for a motion to go into executive session.

So moved.

Could you tell us? Under Public Officers Law Article 7, Section 105, Subsections 1F. Excuse me. So Sections 105.1 of Public Officers Law Article 7 and Section 105.1 of Public Officers Law Article 7 to discuss matters related to the discipline of a particular employee and proposed sale or acquisition of property where disclosure could substantially publicly affect the value.

Would anyone like to, so moved, is there a second? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, we are in executive session, thank you.

And we will take care of it. Could we go into the downstairs where there's air conditioning? I want to make an amendment to that resolution. We'll go to a room with air conditioning in it.

Yeah, because, you know, all these exact obsessions are ridiculous. We need to start working with her, and all of this is nonsense. It's time somebody said something. I think it's got to be me.

But it's not on brand for like, you know, city attorney. Wow. Showy. Showy. True. Yeah, you're not like a litigation.