Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening folks. Welcome to the May 6th meeting of the Ithaca Common Council. We will go ahead and call this meeting to order. I'll note uh older person Moss is excused and older person Keel is absent. We're expected to arrive and as I say that he's walking in the door so he is here. Uh so again, alter person MTOS is excused and everyone else is in attendance. Um since we have a crowd this evening, I'm going to read the emergency evacuation notice. In the case of an emergency, we are to take one of two exits. The door that most of you came through uh or the door over my left shoulder. We are to wait at the trees on the same side of the street on South Cuga and Green. And we are not to cross Green Street unless it's absolutely necessary. those restricted mobility. In the event of an emergency, you were to move to one of the stairwells where first responders will arrive to aid you. Thank you very much, Deputy Clerk. Um, in the event of other emergencies, you will be notified on how to proceed at that time. We want everyone to be aware of the surroundings and offer help when it is not to your own detriment as you are your own best advocate. With that, agenda review. Any additions or deletions to the agenda? Seeing none, uh, Legislator Vincent, happy to invite you up for your municipal report. Thanks for joining us this evening.

If you just to press the button so it lights up green. Thank you.

I'm happy to be here. This is going to be a very quick report. Uh, we've had two, three legislator meetings technically since uh, my last report. Um, we had a special meeting on April 14th where we officially ended our flock contract and also uh, had an executive session. On April 21st, uh we adopted the county's comprehensive emergency management plan. This is a plan that's run by our department of emergency response. Basically outlines the goals that we want them to follow. I believe this document is public on our website. Uh we also approved several grants uh pertaining to events happening in the city of Ithaca. Uh we approved uh $15,000 in America 250 grant funding uh with $3,000 for a project in Steuart Park. uh the White Pine of Peace project by the county historical commission. Uh we also gave $19,000 uh through uh the outdoor uh exploration grants to Friends of Steuart Park as well as $3,000 for the Ithaca Youth Bureau and the Center of Community Transportation uh for bike rentals and Ithaca Bike Share respectively. We've also given $85,000 in tourism advancement grants, which the majority goes to organizations in Ithaca uh and $12,800 uh to Ithaca uh organizations for in community celebration grants. Um on May 5th, we authorized an intermissible agreement between our county and Skyler County uh for public transit. Uh we're going to be running a bus route uh from Skyler County uh to Enfield. uh Kauga Medical and Green Street. Um and just want to give a quick update on our minimum wage study which is going on right now. I announced it at our last uh report. Uh we have uh two more minimum wage convenings. Uh the most important one for you guys is on May 21st. It's for Ithaca workers. Uh I believe that's going to be held in the conference center. Uh the final convening uh will

be for rural workers. Uh but that's still in the planning phase. Uh we've had six convenings held so far and once all those are done the uh Cornell ILR um organization that we've teamed up with uh is going to give us the findings likely in August. Uh and that's all I have to report. Thank you very much legislator. Any questions for the legislator? Uh Mr. Defendini. Hello Adam. Thanks for being here. Um regarding do you know the time specifically of when the workers uh convening for the minimum wage study is? I forget uh the specific time. Okay, no worries. It should be in the afternoon. Understood. And then the uh you mentioned that there have been six uh convenings so far. Yes.

Uh do you happen to know what groups have uh convened at this point? I don't remember all six. I know that we've had Ithaca business owners uh or Ithaca businesses, rural businesses, and uh we recently had one on youth employment. Okay. So uh so like three employer based uh convenings and then we'll have one for uh for workers. Well, two but as I understand I think there have been some employer b employee based ones already. Um like I said I don't remember all the specific ones but we've had six so far planning eight. Got it. Okay. Thank you Mr. Pritzio.

Hi. Thanks Adam. Can you give us just a quick sketch of the uh county's plan for the budget process coming up? Like do you know what any of the beginning deadlines are? Kickoff. And if not, could you send it to us in writing just in case you don't know the answer? I I do not know the answer, but we will be having our first budget retreat on the 12th, so I'll probably have it by then. On the 12th of June. Uh 12th of May. Oh, okay. Yeah, Mr. Trumble. Thanks, Adam. Uh is there any We're online yet about that Skyler County bus? That sounds awesome. um slash when you guys are expecting to try to start it.

The resolution for it I believe talks about very soon. I think uh technically some of the works for this has already been done. The resolution itself actually said that we started on May 1st. Um which I don't believe is correct since we voted on it on May 5th. Um but yeah.

All right. Great. Thanks legislator for joining us. I'll use the prerogative of the fact that this is reports from municipal officials and I believe I am in fact a municipal official. In the event that anyone does not know, thank you half of council for being there. The city of Ithaca has won $10 million for the downtown revitalization initiative, which I am just over the moon, delighted to support our downtown, our commons businesses and moving down the corridor west along uh West MLK uh to Route 13. Uh we are currently in the initial logistical stages of that. uh planning committees and an open call for solicitation will be forthcoming and we anticipate shovels in the ground uh within 12 months for a number of projects that have not yet been determined. So if you are a prospective project sponsor and you were not involved in the application phase, uh you still have an opportunity to get involved. Um and again look to the city for more information. We have a website uh we have a we have a page on the city website with some information about that. But again, uh really excited. Uh thank you to city staff for your diligent work on that uh program and it's about time. Uh with that, I have a couple of proclamations to turn toward. So this is one of the more fun things I get to do if you'll all indulge me. Whereas on September 30th, 2009, longtime friends and professional musicians Jed Ashton, Lee Hamilton, and Elliot Martin opened Northstar Public House at 202 East Fall Street in the city of Ithaca. And whereas Jed, Lee, and Elliot sought to create a comfortable neighborhood hangout for local Ithacans. And whereas the name Northstar pays tribute to Ithaca's role

in the Underground Railroad, the Northstar Polaris being a beacon of freedom towards the North and to Frederick Douglas's anti-slavery newspaper, The Northstar. And whereas Northstar was a leader in farmtotable dining, serving food and beverages from local farms, brewers, and other suppliers. And whereas Northstar's menu was intentionally inclusive in providing vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and omnivorous food choices. And whereas in 2015, Northstar expanded their operations with Casita del Polaris, Northstar House in Spanish, which for 5 years served as a cozy live music venue and cocktail bar that held a wide variety of concerts and other community events. And whereas in the summer of 2020, Northstar turned their outdoor space into the backyard, a safe space extending their beer garden to serve customers during the height of the pandemic that later evolved into a vibrant creekide event space that hosted poetry, music, an evening flea market, and hosted the well- reggarded Babes Burgers food truck. And whereas Northstar under the visionary leadership of their co-founder Jed Ashton became a vital community anchor particularly for people of color in Ithaca and the surrounding region where culture connection and joy were deliberately cultivated. And whereas Northstar had a steadfast commitment to creating a space of comfort, belonging, and affirmation by constantly or excuse me, consistently making room for community gatherings, including weekly flea markets, beverage tastings, organizational retreats, the annual Alana community gathering, First

Fridays, events for business leaders of colors, Cipher Circle, family celebrations, and countless moments of fellowship. demonstrating Northstar's enduring impact as stewards of an inclusive community and cultural belonging. And whereas on the date of their 15th anniversary, state senator Leah Webb bestowed the New York State Empire Award on Northstar, citing their commitment to supporting local farmers, offering fresh organic options, and maintaining an eco-friendly business model. Now therefore be it resolved that I, Robert G. Kintelmo, mayor of the city of Ithaca, do hereby proclaim May 6th, 2026 as Northstar Public House Day in the city of Ithaca and extend the city's deepest gratitude to Jed Ashton, Lee Hamilton, Elliot Martin, and the entire North Side community for 15 years of fellowship, creativity, and care. Thank you. Thank you.

I do have a second proclamation. This one I'm going to summarize. Uh this is a proclamation designating May 16th through 22nd, 2026 as National Safe Boating Week. Uh whereas the open waters call to our sense of adventure, offering moments of peace, joy, and connection with the beauty of nature, families, and friends. And whereas more than 100 million Americans take to the water each year, finding joy, relaxation, and connection with the beauty of nature from coast to coast across our inland waterways. And whereas the National Safe Boating Council, the United States Coast Guard, the National Weather Service, and countless federal, state, and local partners work tirelessly to promote a culture of safety, responsibility, and care for all who enjoy our waters. Uh and whereas National Safe Boating Week is being observed next week uh as the official launch of a year-round effort for the new Coast Guard Auxiliary to raise awareness in Cuga Lake to educate voters and encourage safe practices that protect lives and preserve the joy of boating for generations to come. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Robert Kelmo, mayor of the city of Itha, do hereby proclaim May 16th through 22nd as National Safe Boating Week in the city of Ithaca. And I urge all citizens to honor this week by committing to safe boating habits, sharing safety knowledge, and ensuring that every voyage ends with safe harbor, and smiling faces. Thank you very much to the US Coast Guard Auxiliary for bringing this to us.

And I have one more.

And allow me to first welcome back city attorney Victor Kesler from his paternity leave. Whereas the city attorney is charged with protecting the legal interests of the city, interpreting state and municipal law, and advising the mayor, common council, and the city manager. And whereas city attorney Victor J. Kesler has served the city of Ithaca with great distinction since his appointment on July 10th, 2024 and for three years prior as assistant city attorney. And whereas in that time he has built a strong department of assistant city attorneys who have improved the integrity, fidelity, and efficiency of city operations. And whereas the mayor's young children have from time to time referred to Mr. Kesler as the city turkey. And whereas on January 30th, 2026, city attorney Kesler, his spouse Khloe, and their daughter welcomed a new member of their family. And whereas the mayor and the common council wish to celebrate their new constituent and his return from a well-deserved paternity leave, now therefore be it resolved that I, Robert Gintelmo, mayor of the city of Ithaca, do hereby extend the city's warmest congratulations to the city attorney, his family, and be it further resolved that I bestow upon the newest baby Kesler the honorific title of assistant city turkey. And be it further resolved that I bestow upon uh his other daughter the honorific title of big sister to the assistant city turkey. And be it finally resolved that the city formally requests that baby Kesler sleep well through the night and afford her parents some sorely needed rest. Thank you.

Yeah.

All right. Now that all the fun stuff's out of the way, um can I have a motion to accept the meeting minutes? Mr. uh Shapiro? So moved. Uh seconded by Mr. Su. All those in favor of accepting the minutes. That carries unanimously. Uh before public comment, we have a special presentation on the Senica Street garage. And I know that Director Nicholas will be uh joining up. She here she is. Um I think just as by way of preparatory comments for turning it over to the city manager and the director of planning. Um, again, we are celebrating the accomplishment of the downtown revitalization initiative. We are very excited to continue to invest in our downtown. And while circumstances have absolutely uh forced a difficult situation upon us with respect to the Senica Street garage, uh the city is committed to recognizing the need to uh bring down that structure and redevelop the parcel for alternative use. Uh that in a more economic produ economically productive way. uh that will also incorporate uh parking concerns uh for the downtown uh to support its further development. So, I'll turn it over to Mr. Rekio and then uh Miss Nicholas for their comments on the current status and someformational updates.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Um I think it's really important to reiterate um as clearly as I can that the garage closure that is currently temporary but will be moving forward um to be a permanent closure is primarily due to safety reasons. Um we have experienced significant concrete spalling that's where the freeze thaw cycles of water uh within concrete especially water with rebar will actually force that concrete to break apart in warmer weather. um that is particularly impactful for parking garage type structures. Uh structures that are made to be outdoors. You know, it's there's there's no enclosed areas other than some office space on the first floor. Um so no heating, cooling or other climate control activities. Um and so the concrete has been outside for you know about 50ome years that that garage has been open. The typical life cycle of a garage is around that 50-year mark, which we have met. Um, I think when it comes to looking at what it would take to repair the safety of the garage, I want to be clear about uh what that activity would cost the city and the impact that that would have. And so we are we were currently already in process of addressing one unsafe condition within the garage that was bound to cost up to several hundred,000, but we were ready to make that uh um make those repairs and that was moving forward with bidding uh for an engineering firm that was in an elevator shaft. Um it was no immediate safety risk to someone, but it was something that needed to be addressed within a 3 to six month time frame and we were prepared to do so. So that work was ongoing. Additionally, we had um an engineering report that showed that unsafe condition uh showed an additional as it related to the structural integrity of the garage. Um several million additional dollars that would need to be invested in order to extend the useful life of the garage. Um so,

city staff have already pre-spalling issue I described been um deeply considering how best to move forward with the garage, what investments could be made, etc. The spalling um issue and the falling concrete made us make the decision quite quickly. Uh most of the concrete spalling issue that we saw is on the south side of the garage on the uh concrete panels. That south side of the garage is the most highly trafficked area of the garage both for cars entering and exiting. There are some of that most significant spalling um was right above where those cars go in and out and would have uh significant effects potentially if it if it fell onto a moving vehicle as well as the pedestrian traffic on that side of Senica Street with the Senica Street garage. Um and so when we looked at it from the full picture in the emergency situation and then following um in uh to support you know the safety of our residents, pedestrians and drivers um it is not uh feasible to open the garage at this time. What we are going to be uh doing uh in the short term before the garage is uh deconstructed so that we can get the bus stop open as soon as possible which is a goal of the cities. Uh what we are doing is we are actually having a firm remove several of the concrete panels that will impact the structural integrity of the garage. So if that doesn't allow us to reopen the garage um the other structural issues uh still exist. We'll be removing several of the um spalling concrete panels off of the south side of the garage so that we can reopen that sidewalk as soon as we are able to. We are hoping to have a timeline uh available for our community partners and for you know folks who use that sidewalk and TCAT um by the end of this week. I imagine it' be several more weeks uh in order to get the contractor here to do the removal of those panels. Um it is complex work. It's a complex

site um and we still have some concerns about concrete falling. So we need to keep that um closed at this time. So we are working to uh have those um those removed. And then the the last piece that I'll mention, unless um I think I think this is um all the detail before Lisa, this the last thing that I'll mention is I recognize that there are um concerns around where the bus stop currently is temporarily while that uh part of Senica Street um is unable to host a bus stop due to the sidewalk being closed. Um, and so we are looking at all of the different options that exist on that Senica Street uh side where we may be able to move a bus stop at a potentially less impactful area. And we're also working with TCAT on how they might be able to make um adjustments to the drop off location to best um best serve the needs of many community members who use every square foot of our downtown. And I want to make sure that um that we follow through on that commitment. So, our um our engineering staff and our streets and facilities team is looking at those alternative locations in concert with TCAT. Um I wish there was a more immediate fix to this, but it really is stemming from um the safety issues and how long it takes to make those adjustments to the garage in order to provide um a safe location along the street for pedestrians. What uh Lisa, our director of planning and development, is here to talk about today is specifically related to the process for uh redevelopment of such a site. So, the Senica Street garage is a city-owned parcel, and as I mentioned, due to the safety concerns and the potential significant investment that would be required by the city in order to get that garage to just have a few years of life extended to it. Um, we're, you know, suggesting that council consider a redevelopment of that site as a economic development opportunity. Um, higher higher and better use is is certainly um

possible. That site's been talked about for a long time and I think that uh Lisa will be able to give you the full rundown of details. But after Lisa gives you some updates, I'm happy to try and answer any other questions I can related to safety um or the other details of the garage that I shared. Thank you very much, Mr. Rekio, Miss Nicholas.

Thank you. All right, I'm just going to share. Thank you for your time tonight. Um so I'm going to give you a high level to present. I'm going to give you a highlevel um uh overview of the process for redeveloping the garage. The intention would be to return That's not very um the intent the intention would be this is better, right? Uh the intention would be Yep. The intention would be to return with more detail and analysis at a future meeting and to help assist you walk through these steps. So, the timeline and tasks that I've laid out here assume that the city will work with the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency to structure a real estate development deal that will ultimately convey the property to a developer under conditions that council will set early on in the process. Um, the city has successfully used this method or some close uh version of it multiple times over the years to redevelop city property. The most recent was the redevelopment of the Senate of the Green Street garage to consolidate parking into the center and to develop the conference center and the residence. But it's also been used for the Marriott Hotel. If you are not aware of this was is on a form tiny piece of formerly city-owned property and that was used for that were also the the Kauga Street garage and the two apartment buildings the one right behind it um and the the one on Green Street

and Ethan had a piece of city property. This process was used for that and a version of this process was recently used for the conveyance of the the former fire station on college app. So we've we've organized this process into three phases. First is establishing a framework and funding. Second is project development and third is approvals. Council has a role in each of these areas. Um the first uh establishing funding and the framework and funding. This is where council would state where what they have what expectations they have for the redevelopment of the site. I have listed some of them on the bottom here. These are some that have been used in other sites but some s specific to the site. You may have others but we would return and talk to you about that. And under the first uh phase of the process, which we expect to take about eight months, council would also enter into an agreement with the urban renewal agency to convey the property and uh structure what is called a disposition and development agreement and take care of things like, you know, declaring the site surplus property, um authorizing funding for various activities, and um the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency would finally vote to accept the transfer the property and structure such a deal and that would close out the fundamental you know the the foundational part. Then we would enter into project development. In this phase uh staff would take uh council's expectations for the site and craft them into an RFP which we would release and ultimately select um a developer that met most closely your uh your expectations. And then the IRA would enter into exclusive negotiations with

the whoever was awarded that RFP. Um and then they would begin to negotiate a devel a DDA with the developer again based on council's expectations. Um council at the end of this process could have a public hearing uh to review the DDA, but they wouldn't approve it till the final part of the process. We expect the third the second part of the process to also take about eight months. Um during the approval during the approval phase of this process the IRA approves the DDA common council can approve deny or modify it. they have the jur the the ability up to the end to make changes and once council has approved or modified it and not denied it. Uh the IO can execute that development agreement with the developer. Um this gives the developer the opportunity then to start municipal approvals. They would go to the planning board. they would get site plan approval and once that has been achieved uh they and they have documented that they have the financing for the project u IRA would be able to transfer the property and they would be able to pull uh building permits. As you can see we expect each phase of this to take approximately eight months. So once we start it would be about 24 months before it would be possible to start construction. Now there could be things that happen during this process that would um delay make delay. We would try to do it as efficiently as possible and remove any barriers but um it we expect it to take about 25 minutes. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Any questions from council? Miss Fitzio, I have I have questions but I think they're maybe more for Dominic. Do you want me to wait on those or um I will let you know. Why don't you ask them and I'll let you know if they're um I I wanted to know I wanted to sort of go back a little bit because I know I missed the very last meeting, but I don't think that um you're not going to talk about anything that happened in executive session for a meeting that you were not here for.

No, I I understand that. But that's why that's why I want to say um we seem to be at a conclusion um that it doesn't seem like was publicly discussed. So, I just wanted to go back a little bit and just ask, Dominic, you said that um the elevator was going to cost several hundred,000 and the additional work would also be several million dollars. And did you have a was there a time frame that was like given for how long it would take to make those kinds of temporary repairs and how long they would last?

We were in the process of preparing for addressing the initial unsafe condition, which is the one in the elevator shaft. tonight. I I don't see anyone from DPW here. Adam had an emergency uh at home today, so he had to uh leave the office, but it's possible he'll uh arrive a little bit later and can help if there's any other detail, but um I'm going to give you the best to the best of my knowledge what I can share. So, the city has an ongoing capital project open for the Senica Street garage repairs that has been uh existing for decades. and that capital project gets funded and money is used depending on the issues at the time. We have spent many millions of dollars keeping this garage up and running over the past decade, few decades. Um I don't have in front of me every uh work order that's been done in that garage. We are required I believe it is under state law uh to have that building um assessed by engineers every I believe it is three years. We do it we do the assessments with the independent engineering firm more frequently uh because we want to make sure that that garage is able to be safely occupied and so that we know as soon as we'd need to know about issues that may cost us several million dollars. So we want to be really prepared because that capital project is not funded to the tune at this particular time is not funded to the tune of several million. It's possible we could we could work to get the answer of what that is, but we don't have the full picture of what would be in that capital project in order to make the secondary level repairs to the structure. We would have come back to council for that second level repairs. We weren't prepared to do so because we needed to move forward on the engineer on the um shaft and get additional engineering uh work. We were due for additional uh work there. So, there was nothing to bring forward publicly to council about those issues yet. We were uh working to

um get a contract signed with the firm that would be fixing the elevator shaft. Um so that was in uh process. We were then planning also for public information around a number of uh parking spaces. I believe it could be up to uh 100 parking spaces that were going to have to be offline during the period of that elevator shaft uh repair as well. Um and so we were planning for what would ultimately um result in additional, you know, temporary closures with the shaft and public information around it. That uh that work was being planned while this occurred. I hope that helps answer a little bit about how the capital project works and how um we're looking at multi-million dollar repairs that we know we need to make. We just weren't ready to ask for the funds for them because it wasn't as timely as that immediate repair that we had money already available for.

Right. Yeah. No thanks. What I what I was trying to understand though is um after the part of the building fell, there was an engineering firm that that came in and did some kind of evaluation. And that is correct. And so I'm just wondering, did the city actually get an evaluation and an opinion about what would need to be done, how much it would cost, how long it would take, and how long it would last? That short-term evaluation was particularly related to the issues um at hand around

pre-existing conditions. uh pre-existing conditions particularly related to that concrete spalling uh that I referenced. Um and so most of the structural analysis that we do is related to the structure of the garage. Um it certainly is we've addressed we've addressed some of the spalling in the past, but it is now at a level that is um far beyond what it's been in the past.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean I I understand that it seems a decision has been made that that it's beyond um putting more money into, but I'm just uh wonder, you know, I'm just sort of trying to get the information. It doesn't sound like we actually got that projection like what it would cost. Like say the decision was not to take it down and I'm not saying I'm not taking a position, but I'm just putting it out there. Say the position was not to take it down right now because we have that will be the elimination of many hundreds of spaces and we have a downtown business community that's that's reliant on these spaces and this has became an emergency situation right we don't have solution for how how to how to manage the loss of those spaces yet. So say the decision was to not take it down but to do a repair. Do we actually know what that would cost? How long it would take to do it and how long a repair would last?

What I know at this time, without DPW being able to provide the full breakdown of details, is that at least $2.1 million based just on the engineering reports we already had in hand need to be made. 200,000 of that needed to be made immediately. An additional 1.9 needed to be made relatively soon. I would say within the next year. So, we would have been coming to you for what I believe is $1.9 million to add to that capital fund, which would likely have been something we would have had to do short-term uh borrowing for. And that is something that uh would be the first phase of the dollar amount. The second phase um around what we learned from that newer engineering report uh that was an emergency report that came to assess safety. I do not know if that resulted off the top of my head um in dollar amounts that were in front of us. I would need to consult DPW staff for that answer. I'll just also interject and say again as a reminder, I know you covered this in your preliminary comments, but we are we are 15 years beyond the end of the useful life of the garage with other garage repairs and constructions that were done in the interim in anticipation of this garage coming offline. And council, as the director just made clear, has the prerogative to uh require there be some parking utilization in a future redevelopment of the site, which in my estimation is a better use of taxpayer money um than again several million dollars to stand up a garage that will have to come down in the very near term irrespective of anything else.

Yeah. No, I understand that. And I don't think anyone's arguing that or would argue that the um that facility is not is not uh going to be able to withhold itself for very much longer. Um the issue that I just have is this seems like a decision has been made without a sort of you know public participation in any way. So that's that's my concern. And also um just trying to figure out like how do we manage the the parking loss which which has obviously I mean a huge impact on our downtown which we are working very hard to to try to keep as vigorous as possible and and grow as much as possible.

On the decision-making front I want to be as clear as possible. The decision is made squarely in support of safety of our community members. Um and so keeping that uh you know garage closed at this stage with the potential falling concrete and some of these other issues, elevator shaft and otherwise um is to make sure that we don't have serious uh grave injury related to a city-owned property. Um and that has uh many many folks um have have assessed that internally at the city. So, I just want to reiterate that the decision-m from my end is squarely around um where it relates to safety and then the best use of our financial resources um related to it that we currently have on hand. And when it comes to how we're able to absorb the additional parking demand, we do have two other downtown garages. Yes, I have absolutely seen um additional street parking um around downtown being more full of vehicles during the day and on the weekends to uh account for the um loss of the Senica Street garage. Um but across those two other garages, yes, the Green Street garage gets full, nearly full or or quite full many days of each week. Um that garage is full of activity and it is um it is absorbing a big portion of the loss of the Senica garage. I have yet to see a report of the Kiuga Street garage across from the hotel etha being totally full. Now I also recognize that garages and parking is very much a convenience business and people want to park as closely as possible to where their end destination is. And I think that what we're going to have to do as a community in the interim is make sure we're moving some of the pieces of the regular parkers around to free up space so that things can be most convenient, but also recognize we may have to make a short-term convenience sacrifice in order to maximize our long-term success for that parcel. And I I know that that's a challenge. Believe me, I parked in College Town today. Didn't park where I wanted to. It was

not convenient. Um and I was think I've been thinking about parking and these and these issues all day knowing these questions uh would arise. But that's how I look at it. I think we do have the ability to absorb most if not all of the parking demand downtown, but I also recognize that we need to ensure convenience for the frequent users of downtown and in support of our downtown business community.

Yeah, from the information that we've received started to receive from the business community, it doesn't seem like they're convinced that the other uh alternative parking garages would be able to manage um what we need. So I think really clearly we need to figure out identify quickly um alternative spaces and need to get that TCAT stop you know immediately away from like one of our anchor uh businesses downtown. Um, so I I would be very I I hope that we can get the actual numbers on the Cougar Street garage as quickly as possible because I I do see this as um just like a it could present a real crisis for um for our businesses um that are there and that were built here with the understanding that there would be that would there would be parking to support their their customers who support our economy. So the reason that I tried to go backwards a little bit about this is is just like probably the you know this is the best solution but I just I feel like I would have liked to have known what the other alternatives were what they you know so that maybe we would have had more time to to plan and figure this out instead of being in emergency sort of crisis mode.

Mr. Keel.

Thank you Mr. mayor and thank you uh Dominic and uh Director Nicholas for for coming tonight and presenting on this very important issue. Um I'm very happy with the work the city has done so far. I think there are obviously still things that uh we need to work out uh both with communication to local businesses, communication to tourists and other people coming downtown to find parking. Um and also to obviously the folks who are now impacted by the movement of the bus stop. Um, that said, I I I am very confident in the city's ability to manage uh falling concrete onto the sidewalk uh which has the potential to kill people. Um, so thank you for doing the work that you're doing and I appreciate you taking the necessary precautions to make sure you keep our community safe.

Mr. Soul, I thought you had a hand. I'll just go ahead and speak and say that um I would recommend that the city manager not pull up numbers for a decision we've already made. I feel like that would not be uh a good use of his time. Thank you, Mr. W. So, question for the mayor. Do you have a mechanism in mind for the 11 of us to agree on a a preferred path forward?

I do. Uh what I'm going to do is uh establish a small uh group of staff uh and the two older persons who represent the area impacted. Um I think you're familiar with who those individuals are. One of them is you and the other one is sitting right next to you. Uh and we are going to uh work on ideiating over what the possible future uh project components we'd like to see would look like. We will bring that to council for their input and sign off. We will transmit that to the IURA for the public's edification. I am also the chair of the IUR. There are third well normally there's four other members we're recruiting if anyone wants to join um uh and then they will of course follow the process that director Nicholas outlined if there is a question addressed to the chair or the city manager not a colleague you may be recognized

um I would I think that it's important to get the numbers for the capacity even though understood we will we that point has been made absolutely we're not going to debate Right. Yeah, you've made that point. The other person's expressed a separate point. Both of those points are out in the ether. We are going to move on. Right. Thank you. So, yep. Any further questions about the garage? All right. Thank you for uh Mr. Kirby. Stop. But do we have a timeline on when we might be able to get the bus stop?

I'm just reading some emails. We have we have a lot going back and forth uh right now with our engineering team. So um I'm hoping to have an answer by the end of this week. Uh that's I think the best I can do at this moment. Question on that. I just have a question. How did we arrive at a permanent decision? Again I would recommend you to the meeting that you were not here for and the executive session that you were not here for. Thank you all the person. We are going to be moving on. Uh next is a uh next is our statement from the public.

So um we will go ahead and uh recognize we have 13 speakers plus one online. Uh I've seen a I'm seeing a lot of new faces. So I'm going to be a little bit more uh uh descriptive in how how we do this. Uh because there is under 20 people. Everyone gets three minutes. You'll be invited up by name. You have three minutes once you begin speaking. In the event that you run over, especially if this is like your first time, it happens. You may submit the rest of your comments in writing. I am bound by our rules to not give you any additional time. So, you have three minutes. And I will say Danica Wilcox is first, followed by Kip Wilcox. And as I said, and you'll hear me say this a lot tonight, thank you for joining us. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin. And thank you, Mr. S. Make sure the microphone is on.

Okay. Um, thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns. I'm going to talk quickly because I only have three minutes um, regarding the movement of the Senica Street bus stop to the space directly in front of Moosewood Restaurant in the Dwit Mall on Senica Street. I'm currently the second generation owner of Moosewood. My mother is here as well as part of the original collective. Um, I understand that there's a structural issue. Many of you have heard from me about what my specific issues are already. Um this these are the issues we are already experiencing a lot of negative um impact. We have not been able to open our terrace which is 25% of our annual income revenue 25%. So every day that we're closed, even when it's bad weather, people come and want to sit outside if they have dogs, etc. So we've all we're we're losing money every day that we can't have it open. Um the reason that we can't have it open is because of the fumes. Um the buses are about 20 feet away from our patio and um the impact is extreme. Um, and if this situation continues for another month and we can't be open on the patio for graduation, which is literally like our lifeblood for May, um, after losing money all winter, um, we will really be in a tight spot, like literally just because we have to be closed that weekend, not including all the the days and weekends leading up until then. Um I um you know the buses are blocking the visibility of the restaurant and there's no parking which is a big issue. The poultry parking that there was in front of the restaurant is gone which is affecting takeout orders. People can't

come and just easily run in and pick up their food and also elderly guests that use that entrance. Um, and we've we're fielding complaints about it literally full-time every day, including a lot of issues with the way that the TECAT has managed the setup of the temporary bus stop. There's no garbage. So, the garbage is all winding up on our terrace and we are cleaning it up. There's no place to sit. There's no shelter. Um, we have patio awnings and other awnings that people are gathering under. They are smoking under them. I'm in the hospitality business. I'm having to kick people off of the terrace saying, "You can't smoke in here. You can't sit in here." Like, that is absolutely not my job. That's the city's job to do that. And um I've had negligible response from the city there. I've been told it's an evolving situation. There's been absolutely no solution offered to us. We were not um told about it to begin with.

Thank you. It is your time. And that's it. My next speaker is Kip Wilcox followed by Samuel Slooff.

Good evening. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. You have three minutes. Why don't you begin? My name is Kip Wilcox and I'm a former member of the Moosewood Collective and I for 40 years and I thought I would just give you a little background because many of you were not here when Moosewood was open in 1973 and more than 50 years ago. Moosewood has always been an anchor downtown business and draws from visitors corn from Cornell and IC students, faculty, alumni, local residents, and many people veer off Route 90 to come south to go to Moosewood for dinner or lunch. I kid you not. Moosewood is famous across the US and abroad. Moosewood's appeal has always and continues to be its contribution to local sustainable culture of restaurants, farms, breweries, wineries, distilleries, and local food produ products. Its original owner workers shared profits and made decisions collectively. We have published 14 cookbooks, several of which have won awards. And now Moosewood is continuing with this legacy to contribute, support, and extend goodwill in our community and is an and is important. It's an important segue or bridge to all the downtown businesses who have not been here as long as Moosewood has. These next few weeks are the beginning of the high season when Moosewood opens its doors to the outside seating on the patio. The restaurant will welcome families of

students graduating from Ithaca College and Cornell and tourists will begin to arrive. And I must say that many of these families who are coming for graduation have made reservations and would like to sit on the patio. The um we right now the current bus situation is creating a scenario that is not safe for outdoor dining and not pleasant and also not safe for the residents of the Dwit building, not safe for the employees and not safe for um the the people who work there. We would like to see a winwin situation for the restaurant and the transportation system that works for all. So I leave you with this information and hope that you will work on this ASAP because I see graduation is next weekend.

Thank you very much. My next speaker is Samuel Solof followed by Marggo Brin. Good evening. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

All right. Good evening. Thank you. Uh hello. My name is Sam Soloff. Uh I'm a college town resident, a recent graduate of the Cornell Masters of Regional Planning, City and Regional Planning Program, and I currently work as a transportation planner in the private sector. I'm also a concerned taxpayer and Ithaca renter. And I'm commenting in support of redeveloping the Senica Street garage into mixeduse development without parking. Uh, Ithaca has enough sufficient parking supply and this land is far too valuable to dedicate to cars. The city of Ithaca website recently acknowledged that the Commons has adequate parking supply after the closure of the Senica Street garage. The 2021 to 2022 state of downtown report published by the downtown Ithaca counted over 2,000 parking spaces in downtown Ithaca. Between garages and street parking, visitors to the Commons already have ample options. If employee parking is a concern, it can be addressed through agreements with private lot owners or paid permit programs. I'm confident that the hypothetical cost of these initiatives is significantly less than building a new parking garage. Not only is a new parking garage unnecessary, it is actively harmful. Parking subsidizes driving at the expense of development and consumes land that could be housing. Given Ithaca's acute housing crisis, prioritizing parking over housing on one of the most central parcels in the city is the wrong call. The Senica Street site sits at the heart of both downtown and the TCAT bus network, which is ideal for car-free living. Future development here should not only not be a parking garage but have no parking whatsoever as this better facilitates groundf flooror retail and housing. I'd particularly encourage the development of a larger grocery store than the current um excuse me uh grocery store that we have in the commons at the ground level of a mixeduse development. Uh right now in my opinion the most complete options for essentials and Ithaca are Wegman's and Walmart. Uh but unfortunately these stores are anchored in suburban strip mall corridors that are served by wholly infrequent uh and inconvenient bus routes. Uh this is the reason that I brought my car to Ithaca. If it wasn't for that I would not have brought my car to Ithaca and I pay $500 a semester for parking in college town because I need

to get to these stores. Um, a full service grocery store at this location would make carfree life much more convenient for residents of College Town, downtown Ithaca, and Fall Creek, and enable a comprehensive urban living experience that the residents of these neighborhoods have been asking for, I believe, for decades. Uh, I also hope that any redevelopment still provides space for warmth and shelter for those who are waiting for the buses. Uh, I hope the city can minimize public subsidy uh for this uh redevelopment, but a some sort of grocery store or some sort of general store could be a community development that warrants uh some sort of public investment. Uh to address parking concerns, the city should instead reform how it prices existing garages and existing on street parking. When San Francisco implemented demand responsive parking, they found that sales tax revenues rose by 35% in pilot areas compared to over under 20% elsewhere in the city. Average meter rates fell 4% in city- owned garages fell 12% and reported parking search time dropped by 43%. A demand responsive parking policy can generate increased revenue and parking availability for both the city and businesses on the commons. I strongly encourage the Itha common council to make the fiscally and environmentally responsible decision to sell the parking garage to a developer on the

Thank you. That is your time. Appreciate it. You may submit the rest of your comments in writing. My next speaker My next speaker is Marggo Brin followed by Dean Zervos. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. You have three minutes once you begin.

Hello everybody. Um, so I'm here to talk about uh the health threats to conventional uh golf courses, particularly the one near the near uh Stewart Park. And I've always had a concern about these uh huge lawns which are an ecological desert um where few native creatures can live and um partly because uh grass doesn't it's a single species so it doesn't support much life but also because of the pesticides in use. But I became more concerned when I read a New York Times article that said there's a 2.5 something like that increase in um particularly in Parkinson's disease if for people who live in a one to three mile radius of of the golf course and that's a lot of people here. Um uh I don't think any recreational uh uh benefit outweighs the harm to uh the health of humans. They didn't specifically talk about children, but my guess is that it it affects children as well. Um and I'd like to propose that the uh city either um get the golf course to go organic. There are many examples of of that around. Uh I understand that Cornell has a plan for that although I think that I don't know if the Cornell uh golf course uses that. I know they use Paracquet has been specifically connected to Parkinson's disease and I know Cornell does use that. I don't know what you could do about that but if if you can it would be good. Um, and I would love either for it to convert to um to organic use or or

convert to another use because I don't know how many uh people that's another thing that I I don't know. I tried to get in touch with the um manager there and haven't succeeded yet. Uh, I'd be curious to know how many individuals use that golf course and I would love for it to be used for uh, native trees and bushes and also multi-use like camping and biking and the like. Okay, thanks very much. Thank you. My next speaker is Dean Zervos, followed by Terresa Alt. Welcome Dean. You have three minutes. Why don't you begin?

Welcome. Hi, my name is Dean Zervos and I've had the pleasure of owning Simeons on the Commons for the last 19 years. Um, can't tell you how vital that parking garage is. It's already starting to cause our business trouble with cancellation reservations because people when they come downtown, they just can't find a spot to go and they keep on circling and circling. with the loss of that um parking garage, it's really starting to trickle in and the way it looks like it's going to be two years before you even start digging. That's an unacceptable time frame for something to be start the project. I know you have to do some work to get the right plan, but the project has been kicked down the road for years and years and now it's finally laid on our doorstep where we have to have something ready to go and they got to get something in the ground, start doing some stuff before two years starts because to build it's another two years now. We're almost probably at five years because nothing ever finishes on time. Um, it's been a struggle here. We've had to deal with the redoing of the commons which been great. we've had to redo with our accident that happened and now we have to do with other things that continues to happen in the restaurant business. Um the Commons has been very slow. There basically is no lunch on the Commons anymore. Um the El House and Realy the only two that really do it and Asian cuisine. There's not much going on down there because there's not a lot of foot traffic down there anymore because people can't get there because there's no parking. A lot of the businesses on the Commons have are vacant right now. We all know that problem that we're trying to solve that one also. But if we keep on shutting off parking, it's going to cause even more problems and there's going to be a lot of business shutting down. Um, whatever spaces we can open up in the um Green Street garage, there's a bunch there's a row where there's all uh city trucks. It's 10 spots. Let's get them opened up. Let's move some things around. see what lots we could open up on the commons that our government for um guests to park in that we could say because

there's 10 spots right at the end of the garage right over there. There's a little thing over there. So, let's see what we can open up to do that and everything else. Um I appreciate all that you're doing, but we got to get this done faster than two years to start the project. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dean. My next speaker is Terresa Al followed by Zachary Win. Welcome, Teresa. As you know, you have three minutes once you begin.

I'm Teresa Alt, 206 Eddie Street, College Town. Uh, let me once again cheer for allowing planned unit developments, puds, anywhere in the city. I know the intention is to be able to build more housing sooner, and that is definitely needed. Go for it. The resolution about making city legislative records more easily available sounds good, though AI has a way of making a mess. I guess oversight is the most important word in the resolution. Um, I'm hearing just now people complaining about lack of parking. I think they have forgotten that people can walk and that walking is good for you. I can attest to that. Um the city manager says in his report that there is sufficient public parking even without the Senica Street garage. So perhaps the structure could be replaced by one that has an intercity bus terminal at ground level. Guess what? Fewer people may feel the need to have a car in the city. And above the bus terminal, affordable housing.

Thank you, Teresa. My next speaker is Zachary Wyn, followed by uh Brian Carden. Welcome, Zach. You have three minutes. Why don't you begin?

Good evening. Uh, I anticipate your ratifying the renewed Tomkins Ithaca SRT agreement and drug task force cooperation agreement tonight and I believe they will be beneficial. Jonathan Glennon, the third and final person charged in Thomas Thomas Wrath's death, was sentenced to 25 years last week. Thomas's kidnapping from the jungle torture and eventual murder is one of the worst things to ever happen in this community and should not be forgotten. Thomas was living in the jungle due to his methamphetamine addiction, a drug that also played a role in his disappearance and death. I mentioned the meth issue during your last meeting. From what I've been able to find out, the county has no specific e effort to address the meth issue apart from law enforcement activity. Members of council, please ask the county health department to outline their strategy for combating meth abuse. Uh, is there one, as there is with opioids? I believe methamphetamine is at the root of many issues plaguing the community, including chronic homelessness, crime, and the frequent concerns surrounding activity at the Asterie. There was another fire at the Asteri today, an overdose overdose that occurred a few days ago and the building continues to be the site of other disturbances. The dist these disturbances disturbances also often unfold on the commons. A recent Ithaca voice article titled is is the Ithaca Commons at a crossroads has Chief Kelly saying that the department has not seen evidence that issues centered at the have spilled over into the commons. Do any of you believe that? Numerous DIA members have sat where I am sitting and said the exact opposite. The Commons is very much at a crossroads with the Senica Street garage going offline. Terrible timing for businesses as summer begins. Hearing it is permanent and will take years to rebuild is awful news. This is going to kill business downtown. The goal should be to raise that building and have a new garage up in a year. Donald Trump could pull that off. Why can't Ithaca? With $10 million grant from New York State to revitalize downtown is wonderful news. I believe the planning process and development proposals should seriously consider reopening the commons to traffic, presuming the pres preserving the portion containing the Bernie Milton Pavilion from Senica to the reestablished State Street around the fountain. Far from destroying the

commons, this would revitalize the entire area, bring large volumes of people while allowing buses to go straight up the Aurora Street Bridge to IC or up State Street to campus while still allowing arrivals and departures on Green. Downtown Ithaca also has a well-earned negative reputation due to frequent car break-ins and thefts at the other parking garages. Uh the theft theft of NASCAR driver Tony Brager's luggage last summer, which made international news, is a prime example of the reputational harm the community has undergone. Uh, I believe uh addressing the issues downtown requires taking a uh serious look at uh the uh I had a whole bunch of other stuff. The roadblocks are not cool. They've been going on for years. Some of you have participated in them. A lot of you agree with what they're doing. I don't think you'd feel the same way if it was someone you didn't politically agree with shutting down the road. And it's one of the other reasons people don't come downtown. They get stuck in their cars during a rainstorm while the police stand there and do nothing.

It's wrong. Thank you very much. My next speaker is Brian Carden followed by John King.

Welcome. Thank you for joining us. You have three minutes once you begin. Excuse me.

Uh thanks for uh your time tonight. Um I wanted to thank you for cancing the flock contract uh several weeks ago. I really appreciate it. that uh is the beginning of the end of a civil rights uh fiasco. Um, and I say the beginning of the end because it's not over. The cameras are still up. And uh I don't know what Flock has told you about the cameras, if they've told you that they're deactivated or not, but it doesn't really matter. You can't tell by looking at them whether they're recording or not. You can't tell by what Flock says whether they're recording or not. I would direct your attention to Evston, Illinois, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Eugene, Oregon. all communities that in the last year cancelled their contracts and then later found out that the cameras were still recording after the contract had been cancelled. So I I don't think there's any really any way to tell whether they're recording or not unless they are gone. And I as far as I know they're still there. I don't think any have been taken down. Uh so uh I think this is a particularly urgent. Yesterday um the director of ICE threatened to send a surge of ICE agents into New York. So I would really appreciate it if they were gone by then. the data that has already been recorded will probably be sold forever by Flock. The analytical products as per the contract belong to Flock and uh two the two years I think it's been about two years they were recording in Ithaca. It was plenty of time for them to establish a pattern of life for everyone in this room and everyone in Ithaca um and that will that damage is already done but I I encourage you to stem the damage get the cameras down. So what specifically am I asking? Uh the as far as I know, the last I heard, Flock was told to get the cameras down as soon as practical, which I think to a Flock executive means never um until someone makes them. So I encourage you to set a hard deadline for when they must be down. Keep the public informed about what your what the deadline is, what you what the what you've said, what Flock has said. Um and then if they're not down by the deadline, just remove them just the same way you would you would remove them. You would remove something that I put on a municipal poll without authorization. Um, don't let

them just keep the cameras up recording us forever, please. Um, uh, and then for the future, you don't have to go through this again. I don't know if, uh, anyone's planning on more surveillance technology in Ithaca. If that is part of the plan, I urge you to or even if it isn't yet, to adopt the ACLU's model legislation, CCOPS, which uh is a framework for a community to make an informed decision about surveillance instead of just leaving it to the police to decide to accept a grant and then bam, we have surveillance for two years. So, please do that. Uh please let us know what's going on. Please take the cameras down as soon as possible. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. My next speaker is John King, followed by Jason Shank. Welcome, John. You have three minutes once you begin.

Good evening, everyone. I'm here to also speak in support of redeveloping the Synica Street garage. Um, just for personal evidence, I've come downtown twice today during a busy day when I was running around. The first time I came into the Cuga Street garage, there was immediately parking available as soon as I turned the corner onto the first floor. The second time for this meeting, I was able to find parking within a block of here. It really has not been that difficult even on fairly busy nights for me. I think people expect the convenience of being able to park directly on the commons um directly next to it, but there's fairly significant costs to that kind of supposedly convenient parking. Uh there's an excellent book by Donald Shupe called the high cost of free parking. He has a wealth of information in there, but among other thing he find among other things he finds that roughly 30% of traffic in downtown areas is people circling for parking. And as we know, the second highest general line item in Ithaca's budget is transportation after only public safety, coming in at $20.7 million a year, not even counting the debt service we have on having to fund capital projects through bond issuance. Once you start to add that $1.05 million per year just on the the Kyuga Street garage itself, this quickly becomes a very significant part of our budget. And we talk about the problem of downtown restaurants suffering. Frankly, what is driving a lack of business is the cost of living. People cannot easily afford to eat out. Discretionary income has been battered by the last several years. And no small part of that in this city is the significant tax burden that we pay. And of that tax burden, the second highest proportion of that of any of the broad categories of city spending is going to transportation. There are study after study after study that demonstrate that public parking, on street parking, garage parking, nearly never pay for themselves. On street parking costs between $800 and $1,000 per year to maintain, not counting the significant traffic impact on our roads, pollution, noise, the general degradation of our downtown environment. Structured parking in a northeast environment when you have

to deal with freeze thaw cycles and our severe weather, the erosion of uh salt on the structural membranes cost as much as $5,000 per year per space. And with a $12 per day maximum in our garages, that does not cover it. What we need is more developed space that really creates an asset for the community. Among other things um that I might recommend would be a a nice centralized bus terminal. Um as of right now, Ithaca has the highest share of commuters who walk to work of any metropolitan statistical area in the entire country. We are dramatically higher than most small metropolitan areas or transit rider share as well. We are already leading the way and far ahead of most cities when they're just starting to catch up on this kind of policy and urban frame. And we might as well lean into the things where we have advantages, where we're already ahead of the curve, double down on being the most walkable city in America, and stop committing to 50 years of failed carcentric urban planning policy. Thank you.

Thank you, John. My next speaker is Jason Shank, followed by Emily Fuja. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Good evening everyone. Um my name is Jason Shank. I'm the uh current owner of the DWIT mall uh for the last eight years. Um and uh I wanted to follow up on what uh Danica and and her mother Kit spoke about the relocation of the um uh the bus stops to in front of our building. Um, kind of on a side note, congratulations on the $10 million uh that downtown Etha received. I just wanted to point out for the record that that is for the State Street Corridor and does not include uh what is a block away a pretty important building to downtown Etha as far as I know. Does not include you're agreeing. I'm sorry. Um but I don't want to take any more time. Um and and I think it's great the Northstar public house received accommodation, but that is because they had to close. I I hope that 6 months from now, a year from now, we're not doing the same thing for Moosewood. Um where the buses are stopping now is a tremendous impact on their business. Their patio, as as Danica spoke about, is a large part of their business. The buses are right next to it. There are people sitting on their patio. for people um sheltering from the rain because TCAD has not provided any shelter any any seats for elderly or disabled people to to use. There isn't space for that on the sidewalk. You could do that on on Buffalo Street between Kyuga and Tyogga. That's all city-owned property as well as a park could be there. You could be using the hour bus stop um that's that's used by one or two buses uh a day to have at least one of the TCAT buses stop there and have the rest of them stop short of the DWIP mall. The impact on our building is really substantial and and I have expressed that in a in a couple of emails to a number of you. I've received almost no answer. Dominic replied gave us a a short response and I appreciate

that. The head of TCAT um replied and a bit of a snarky response. that said they couldn't predict that the building would be um have falling concrete. We we didn't ask that that be predicted. We asked that that we be notified in advance if at all possible when when the the relocation was happening. Um we haven't gotten really any responses. I've heard a bit more tonight and I appreciate that and we appreciate the need that that the br bus riders need to ride those buses. It's a tremendous part of many people's lives. I don't see why this has to impact our building, our tenants. Our tenants have so much more noise, so much more fumes there. In in a lot of cases, the building has turned out to have a lot of elderly tenants, elderly and in many cases very vulnerable. They now have to deal with so much more noise, so much more fumes, people again smoking under their windows. It it it really is impacting our building in a tremendous way. And I I really would urge you to consider what you can look at even if it's a temporary basis which could turn into months and months to to figure out why this does not have to happen in front of the duet mall. Thank you very much.

Thank you. My next speaker is Emily Thuja followed by I believe our last in-person speaker Alice Starmer. I believe Josh Dolan left. Welcome Emily. You have three minutes once you begin.

Thanks. Um, I am here with my usual topic, um, with a twist. Uh, so fun fact, yours truly is a wee bit Irish. Um, I'm taking my first trip to the old sod at the end of the month. Um, I have an ancestor from Limmerch, so I'm going to engage in my usual topic in the form of a limmer tonight. There once was a Fingerlake city whose finances sadly weren't pretty. Council said we'll win plaudits if we wrap up these audits, but Thuja will be practically giddy. Thanks. Hell yeah. Alice Starmer is our final speaker. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Oh jeez. Sorry. Thank you for this opportunity to address the council and community. My name is Alice Starmer and I represent the Hilton Garden Inn. Um we are actually the smallest hotel of the downtown properties. We have 104 guest rooms and two meeting spaces. Um our our hotel is a shared use building. Uh we have um companies such as Cornell, um Morgan Stanley and Ursa Space. Um uh I lost my space. Uh we typically enjoy near capacity in occupancy from early May until mid November. Um most of our weekends are completely sold out. Um one important way in which we are able to remain competitive with our neighboring hotels is the fact that we validate parking. We as such we are contracted with the city for 104 designated designated parking spots at the Senica Street lot which our guests as well as our employees and the people in the building have come to expect and certainly appreciate. Guest satisfaction is imperative in the hospitality industry and we strive to maintain the high standards that our guests are accustomed to. As you know, hotel guests pay both city and occupancy taxes, which help greatly to fund a variety of city and county programs. The closure of the Senica Street garage has resulted in a multitude of negative guest experiences. Though we are appreciative of the city's extension of our validation services to the Green Street garage, it has been with a great amount of confusion and negative

feedback, including but not limited to guests going into the garage and traveling to the top and having to come back down because the garage is full. Um, I would suggest maybe the parking lot attendant telling people the garage is full before they let a line of people go up. Um, another thing that has become quite um, concerning is that we sometimes have guests coming to the hotel late at night. If I were coming to downtown Ithaca at 10, 11, 12:00 at night, I wouldn't want to be walking from the Green Street parking lot having to come over to the hotel. It's it's very difficult. Um, we would like to know the city's plan for both short-term and long-term parking solutions, including a timeline of expectations, most importantly during any redevelopment of the Senica lot. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Our final speaker is online, I think, uh, Nan Roar, CEO of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance. I'll let the deputy clerk admit her to the meeting. While she joins, I'll note that new city controller Carissa Reblowski is also on the Zoom tonight. Welcome, Cararissa. We're delighted to have you. Hi, Nan. You have three minutes once you begin.

Thank you, Mayor Kent Tamil and Common Counsel for the opportunity to speak this evening. I'll be brief. My name is Nam Ruer. As many of you already know, I am CEO of the downtown Ithaca Alliance, the 22 block business improvement district, which represents 160 plus property owners, hundreds of businesses, thousands of residents, and millions of visitors. I want to start off tonight by saying I feel the passion on all aspects of this conversation and I appreci appreciate everyone's dedication to ensuring that what we see in downtown whether it's parking or a specific site development or overall business and safety. I really appreciate the feedback and enjoy hearing how people experienced it downtown. So please do feel free to come meet with us and further share how you would like to be part of our solutions that we're actively pursuing this evening. You've heard that the Senica Street garage has for decades been a major part of downtown Ithaca's functionality. Whether for those visiting hotels, restaurants, and retailers, employees going to offices or event attendees, functional parking is imperative to conducting business and ensuring downtown is an economically viable center of commerce. The DIA on behalf of our downtown stakeholders is here to offer to the city our partnership and assistance in determining next steps for this key site and to ensure that interim parking solutions are found. The garage sits on a key corner, a nearly full block site in downtown. To have it not in a productive use is a detriment to both the look and the feel of and the economic vitality of downtown. I want to stress the importance of ensuring the future use of this site actively engages the street front while providing the mixed uses necessary in a downtown. Developments of this size do take years to complete. It's the plain and simple nature of the beast. In the interim, we will face challenges to activate this important block in downtown, and we all will need to be working together to keep

the site clean, green, welcoming, and engaging during the multi-year development process. We are happy to help work on that effort. You've heard about the stress the closure of Senica Street Garage has placed upon downtown businesses of all types as well as the assumption that there is sufficient parking for both the future and interim usages. It is imperative we take an actionoriented approach that focuses on the following. We have to understand the current and future needs of parking. We have to do that with accurate data and understanding of those needs including using the latest technologies and being realistic about our capabilities. And we need the analysis and subsequent recommendations to be completed by parking and transportation professionals. We need to have open and clear communication with our business owners. And while we wait for the next iteration of this site, we need to provide well-managed and maintained public parking locations that are well signed, easily accessible, and userfriendly. And make sure that we share that information broadly. We represent our stakeholders and look forward to working with you on this.

Well timed, Nan. Thanks so much for joining us remotely.

All right, that concludes public comment. We will now turn to privilege of the floor. I'll just take a brief moment to recognize myself first and respond to a few of the comments to Mr. Soof. Uh we have a number of openings in the planning department if you want to leave the private sector. Uh um to to uh Mr. Shank, um your property is in fact within the DRRi boundary. I would recommend that you and any interested property owner take a look at the map available on the city website. Uh the dwit mall is well included within that. Those projects are all eligible for capital and they will be all reviewed by a local planning committee uh that I am in the process of establishing. Uh with respect to the folks who came out to speak about uh the bus and parking situation in general, I hope that you all feel uh somewhat more informed by Mr. Rekio's update. We are working strongly or strongly what the hell am I talking about? We are working seriously on trying to address this issue. We recognize it's got acute impacts on businesses downtown. Um, and I know that there's a little bit of friction between uh who is responsible uh between the city and TCAT, but again, we're all trying to work amicably towards a solution on that. And with respect to the folks who are here to talk about the redevelopment of that Senica Street parcel, again, we are all, I think, really excited to turn that into a higher, more productive use. Um recognizing again that the uh I think to the point of uh Mr. Sokov the uh the and Mr. King the the tax burden is uh pretty high and that is a very uh attractive tax parcel for private development that is not um municipal parking. Uh so I think I've addressed all of the Oh, and Miss Duja loved your uh loved your limmerick. Thank you very much. I hope you have a lovely trip to Ireland. Uh to my colleagues, I'll now turn to recognize you. Mr. Shapiro, you're first. Um, thank you. I appreciated uh hearing so many of the comments today. So,

thanks for everyone that came out. Um, should I share a quick story? Um, I'm a transplant here from Brooklyn, maybe 15 years ago. I don't remember at this point, but um, but the first time my mom came to visit, we went straight to Moosewood because the other part about growing up in Brooklyn is we had a kitchen filled with Moosewood cookbooks. Um so um I would just urge us to do everything in our power to protect that business. That is uh as they said, it's not just a a treasure in Ithaca. It's a treasure in this country. It's it's known around the world. Um and we should do everything we can to protect that and every other business that came here to speak as well. I I know the parking is is problematic, but uh especially uh seeing how that bus is is impacting that business and impacting certainly the people that live um uh above the business as well. I would just really urge the city to do whatever is in our power to um to rectify that immediately. Um I have two other comments. Mr. King, every time you come to speak, I feel like I'm in school. Thank you. Um, I don't know if you're on a committee. I don't know if you're looking to run for office, but you should do all of those things. Um, I really appreciate your input. Um, the other gentleman that was new here, I appreciated, uh, hearing your perspective as well. I love sitting here and learning from the people that come from the crowd. So, keep coming crowd. Um, I really appreciate it. Um, the last thing I just wanted to say and I I wish I had the foresight to know that we were going to be repres recognizing boat safety week because I'm sure my colleagues who um were very supportive of the nurses and um and Kyuga or at CMC unionizing. I'm sure they would be very supportive of knowing that from May 6 through May 12th is National Nurses Week. So if you know a

nurse, I live with one. My wife is a great nurse um herself, but if you know a nurse and you see her or him in the next week or so or they um please say thank you um because they deserve all the credit for the work that they do. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shapiro. I'll briefly break the rules to let you know that Mr. King is the newest member of the city zoning advisory commission. Uh Mr. Trumbull, you're next.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um thank you everyone too spoke uh to your guys' points. I totally agree especially u representing college town. I don't own a car. Getting to the grocery stores is maddening. Having a grocery store downtown would be one of the coolest uses we could ever think there. I mean, I love GreenStar, but something just a little larger um would be amazing. And similarly, you know, there it is really hard to take the bus to that kind of connective corridor over on like the Walmart Wegman side. So, totally feel you. Um I think she left, but to the woman who was talking about Newman, um I'd never heard about that Parkinson's study. I did just look it up and the guy does cautiously mention that it's observational so he can't establish causality. That does seem like a real concern. That said, Newman is built on a very um dangerous landfill with a lot of old industrial waste back from the gun factory and things like that, making it essentially pretty much like almost undevelopable. So like a golf course there is actually kind of maintaining green space that otherwise probably wouldn't have much use. Um and as someone who does golf there, it is definitely used very regularly. Um, so you know, I think that is an amazing point about the Parkinson's link and something scary and I would love to look at, you know, organic pesticide things, but I do think that people use it plenty.

Mr. Ke,

uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you members of the public who came out. Um, I will echo many of the statements of uh, older person Shapiro. Um, Moosewood was also the first place I ate with my mom when I came to Ithaca uh, for the first time. uh she's been a fan of moose since I uh since I was born and as many of your cookbooks. Um um to the parking situation um I am really not supportive of of putting another parking garage there. It as you know I've I've said on the record many times I'm really worried about the cost burden to to Ithaca residents from our tax from our taxes. Um given that a lot of our our uh property in the city of Itha is tax exempt. Um you know each roughly and you know it's not an exact science but roughly each spot of space in a parking garage is cost about $26,000 to develop. Um and it doesn't pay for itself and on top of that the uh the maintenance costs of of getting that done. I am concerned about parking in downtown. Um, I am concerned about uh how we're making sure that we get people downtown to to go to all your wonderful businesses. Um, that said, I I don't think it's a good investment for the city of Ithaca to to put a new parking garage uh where the old one was. Um, I'm open to alternative possibilities. Um, and I certainly would like to see that uh redeveloped into something that really has an impact in in downtown Ithaca and and can support local businesses.

Mr. Su,

I got say the same thing. Thank you everyone. Uh, echo a lot of the same stuff. I also um I my mom and I did not eat at Moosewood. However, um it is it is a tourist attraction actually. People do come here for Moosewood. Um and um I am concerned about the time limit on that. I know that the city's working hard, but it is true that for a lot of places, they're make the majority of their money in the next two weeks and so this needs to be resolved um immediately uh to make sure that they can capture all that because there's a lot of loss over the winter. Um I also want to point out Pat or Robin already mentioned it, there is a grocery store downtown. It's little

uh but but it's in the Dwit Mall, so stop by there. Um, and also, um, I also not in favor of building another parking garage or at least, um, having less parking than there was. My hope would be that the more people that are living downtown, the less they would need to drive anyways. Um, and so you can keep businesses sustainable if there are people who can walk to them and spend money there. Thank you, Mr. Britzio.

Um, thanks everybody who wrote and everybody who came to speak. Um, I moved to Ithaca without a car. Um, and I lived here for almost 5 years before I bought a car. And then when after I did eventually get a car, I still walked every day to work for 40 years. So, I get it about living in a community that's not like car centric, car focused, where we're not investing lots of money in things that mostly benefit cars and car travel. But I also recognize that most people come to Ithaca with a car and that people coming to places like our hotels are coming with a car and that they expect parking and that the Senica Street garage provided over 200 spaces that alone were were servicing um just Hilton and Canopy plus there's all the other all the other businesses. So I guess what I want to say is um we need an alternative plan to accommodate the businesses that we have committed to and the businesses who have committed to us for so many years. Um we need signage in the interim. I think that should have gone up immediately when we closed the parking garage to be able to get people around. We live in a a city um that has you know crazy one-way streets. If you know people who live here know how to do it. people who don't live here don't know how to do it. Um we need to like respect what we're hearing. We do need numbers to understand what our capacity is and isn't. Um we need to get TCAT relocated ASAP. And um just for the record, even if I might be in support of getting rid of the parking garage, it was not publicly discussed that we made a final decision that that's what we were going to do. And I'm not questioning the decision to close the parking garage for immediate safety

concerns. I'm questioning the decision to uh arrive without public discussion at a at a decision to to permanently close this um and without having a a plan for accommodating um where these cars are going to go. They're not all going to just disappear. As much as you know, we would like to see people use fewer cars here in the city. Um that's not going to solve that is not happening in a way that's going to solve all of our problems. So yeah, open meetings law um and public discussion, transparency, those are the things that I that I expected this kind of discussion to go through and I'm disappointed that that's not what happened. I'm not saying I wouldn't have come to the same conclusion. I'm saying we didn't have the discussion.

Mr. in

just real quick as a representative of downtown and a member of the TCAT board and someone who bikes, walks, takes the bus, and drives that we do hear these these concerns um very well. And you know, all those things I just listed, I have a challenging cross um you know, section of of um guess constituencies and patrons from writers to residents to the business owners that I patronize and I love. I'm great friends with someone who works at Moosewood. So, I want everyone to to survive. I mean, just on a selfish level because I patronize these businesses. I want you to stay alive. Um but I just want you to know that we take all these these challenges very very seriously and um and we are working on trying to find some kind of compromise. Um but you know it's not easy you know just for just to represent the writers for a little bit you know they are used to having Senica Street um for you know their whatever daily commute that they need and so it's not super easy to move. Al also the buses have a a prescribed route and so it's not easy to reroute down Buffalo or to move the stop three blocks down and change riders um expectations too dramatically. Um so we're weighing all these different things um from different organizations between you know TCAD and the city. Um but we are taking it seriously. Thanks.

All right, that concludes privilege of the floor. Again, thank you to our public commenters. Uh with that, may I have a motion to move the consent agenda? Mr. Trumbull, seconded by Mr. Shapiro. All those in favor of consent agenda. That carries unanimously, which tonight is 10 to zero. Uh with that, may I have someone please summarize and move the PUD lead agency declaration. Mr. Win, you're recognized. This resolution sets common council as lead agency on the uh environmental assessment. Is there a second? A second by Mr. Kirby. I assume there's no discussion on this. All those in favor of declaring ourselves lead agency. That carried unanimously. I think Mr. Trumbull. Yes.

Unanimously. Uh all right. Now, may I have someone please summarize and move the NEG deck. Mr. Win, this resolution uh declares that there is no environmental impact on uh rising from the PUT expansion. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Defendini. All those in favor? Those opposed? Okay. All the person for Britzio votes against the negative declaration of environmental impact. Um may I have someone please summarize and move the ordinance. Mr. Win, you're recognized. Uh this ordinance um removes the PUD overlay district in favor of allowing PUDS throughout the entire city.

Thank you, Mr. Wyn. Seconded by Mr. Deandini. discussion. Seeing none, let's do a roll call vote for this one since it's fun. Mr. Danini, hi. Mr. Kirby, yes. Mr. W. Hi. Mr. Su, hi. Mr. uh, Shapiro, yes. Mr. Keel, yes. Mr. Trumbull, yes. Mr. Ritzio, no. Miss Fettz, yes.

And the mayor votes yes. That carries nine to one. Congratulations, folks. We now have a citywide PUD overlay. Uh with that, may I please summarize have someone summarize and move the uh retirement standard workday reporting. Our next voting, Mr. Deandini. Uh so this is a uh resolution uh adopting uh standard workday hours for county counselors who submitted uh their hour trackings as it pertains to New York State local retirement uh benefits.

Thank you, Mr. D. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Kirby. Any discussion on this? All those in favor? That carries unanimously. Uh, may I have someone, ideally one of the folks who helped write it, move, summarize, and move the city council code of conduct. Mr. Su, this is the city council code of conduct. It was brought to council two weeks ago for review. Uh, it basically codifies a code of conduct and a procedure for carrying that out. Um, yeah. Do I need to read the results? That's great. Thank you, Mr. Seconded by Mr. Kirby. discussion. Miss Forbitzio, you recognized. Thanks. Um I wanted to make two friendly amendments um to this resolution. May I go ahead with that,

please?

Okay. So, um under appendix B, uh which is on page six under formal investigation, um it says the committee shall ensure the accused council member receives in written notice of the allegations. I would like to replace that with a copy of the complaint, comma, allowing for redactions if necessary. And also appendix B, page seven under council review and hearing. Um, it says currently there shall be no requirement for the complainant to testify or be subjected to cross-examination at a hearing. I wanted to add, unless requested by counsel, the accused or their representative. I think that both of these things just ensure um the rights of the accused as well as the complainant are uh are factored into the equation here and I I do see them as as friendly amendments. I have dis discussed with a number of people hopefully uh everyone still agrees.

Is there a second to that amendment second by Mr. Keel? Um I will recognize myself very briefly. I am more than happy to accept the first proposed amendment. I uh strongly oppose the second one. This is not uh court of law. Um this is about uh in organizational uh discipline and conduct. I move that we split the question. Is there a second? Second by Mishvettes. All those in favor of splitting the question. Those opposed? That carries 9 to1. Uh first one is Miss Ritzio's first amendment which is about the uh redactions uh copy of the Mr. Keel. You recognized? Um Margaret, I'm just uh wondering how you envision the redactions if necessary working in practice.

That was actually um Joe's recommendation. So maybe he wants to answer that. Mr. Kirby,

we did discuss it uh today. The older person's fitio goal was to try and cover as much unknown possibilities as we could. Um, and so in my professional world, we can end up in instances where to protect identities for various reasons, a redaction may become necessary. I don't envision that being a normal occurrence by any stretch of the imagination. Um, but like if there is a confidentiality concern based on, you know, the nature of the complaint or something along those lines, it could be allowed.

Mr. Ke, you still have the floor if there's a followup. Otherwise, I'll recognize Mishvettz.

Um, I will just say that I think I'm supportive of this. I mean, I'm I spoke at the last meeting about my hesitency about the code of conduct and kind of the unknown. So, I appreciate Alder person Forbitio's uh attention to those details. I think it's important for us to have a code of conduct, but at the same time, you know, there have been instances in the past um where there has been ambiguity about um about the process and and obviously this cottifies that, but I'm not convinced that it in its totality will solve those problems and I worry that some of these things might exacerbate them. Um that said, I'm going to support this tonight. Um, but I'm also going to support uh at least Alder person Forbitzio's first amendment. Mets,

I'm curious about how the question of confidentiality would relate to the second amendment. Um, the idea that a council member can require someone to um be cross-examined. That's the one that I had some concerns about because I can envision a situation. Are we allowed to I was going to let her finish but then say that all the person I think that that uh question is best reserved for the second amendment. Okay, got it. That's fine. Um any further comments or questions on the first amendment which is just the copy with redactions? Mr. Su,

I just I I I like simple language. Um, and my assumption is that the uh city attorney would redact information if necessary and we wouldn't actually need to codify that. Um, I'm sort of looking at the city attorney for that. I mean, um, I would actually have a preference to leave the redaction language in just so it's clear that we're authorized to do that and of course my office would assist uh, whatever council committee has stood up to handle these um, with any legal questions about the appropriateness of any redactions, but but I I would like to have that explicit authorization in there. Perfect. Thank you. Any further comments or questions on the first amendment? All those in favor of all the person for Britzio's first amendment. That carries unanimously. Uh discussion on the second. Mish. Fetsz, you're recognized.

Um yeah. So what I was saying is that um I can imagine a situation in which someone uh had a complaint against a council member or someone um and did not feel comfortable being cross-examined um and wanted to remain anonymous. So, I'm not really understanding how um information could be redacted, but then they could be required to um testify and if um yeah, what we could Mr. Kesler,

so typically with an employment type investigation, it's not a trial, right? There's not a a sort of confronting situation where everyone's standing up in open court and saying their peace and you know, in the public. Um, typically the way that investigations look is a complaint is received. Uh, an investigator is designated to investigate the complaint. They'll talk to all of the involved parties, um, gather information and then they'll issue, you know, findings, recommendations based on that. Um, so a I'm not sure exactly what the mechanism cross-examination would would I'm not sure what that would look like. that would be unusual in a sort of quasi employment context which is kind of where these rules are sitting. I'm not sure that answered your question but

Mr. Fitzio and then Mr. Soul.

Yeah. So just to add uh a little bit uh Hannah the under form and filing of complaints it says all complaints shall be submitted in writing signed and dated. They shall include name of council member alleged to have violated rules clear description of the alleged misconduct etc etc. So it says uh under item number three, anonymous complaints shall not be accepted. So people cannot just lodge complaints um anonymously with this process. Um, and I think, you know, if someone is lodging a complaint, um, I think that the accused person should have the opportunity, uh, either they or their representative should have the opportunity to be able to ask the questions and and hear more of the details if if so desired, if it's not, you know, if they need more information than what's been given to them written. And that's what the um that's what this amendment is about. Doesn't say that they have to. It said uh you know unless requested there shall be no requirement.

Mr. Zul. Okay. So that says they have to if they're requested to by council. And I'm strongly against that for the reason that it creates a chilling effect on anyone who may have any concerns or complaints to bring forth about a council member because although they may be willing to do so privately and they do have to write their name on it, people may not want to be publicly because it would be a public uh intervention and they would have to be publicly cross-examined about their experiences and that is just going to prevent people from participating in that. So I'm strongly against it. Mr. Defendiniti,

uh thank you uh for this and I appreciate the conversation we had about this earlier. Um, older personitzio, a question that I have related to the amendment, um, is upon reading it further more closely, um, you know, I think I could theoretically get, you know, in support of of some form of of testifying if like the ethics committee itself or the committee that was tasked with doing this felt that it was necessary to hear this. Um but having it be subject to the accused or their representative just requesting it and then automatically having this go into effect that is something you know upon further reflection I don't feel very uh comfortable with and I'm wondering how you're would feel about something akin to you know strike striking the last couple of words on this and having it more uh reformatted to include to the ethics committee as opposed to just anyone involved essentially in the in the investigation.

Mr. Keel. Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I actually had a question on uh Alder Person Su's comments. Um, if my memory serves correctly, under our current judicial processes for uh senior level staff, um those like quasi judicial hearings are not public. They are public. They are public. So like well I know the statement is public but for example um the thing you're thinking of it's public. Would you would you like to very briefly speak with the city attorney in my office so you can speak freely?

Sure. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. Um Mr. Shapiro.

Sure. Since we're going to be waiting for that anyway, I just thought I'd go on record in saying that uh I don't support any kind of requirement for people to have to come and testify. Um so, Miss Schvettz is next. Um to Elder Person Su's point, I think even if the um complaint was submitted with the name on it, I think that it would be inappropriate to require them to sit in front of the council, including the accused um and address this. Um I think it would be better if it was a request made by the ethics committee. I understand that point, but I think just in general um I don't understand why this would be a requirement. I think if they would like to there is there room for that option for them to come in and testify. Can I ask that question?

I am on the list after all the person for Britzio. So I will but I'm against any requirement to do so. Thank you Mr. Britzio.

I mean we talked about this um earlier. It seems like the the ethics committee is just involved in this initially and then it gets turned over to council and I think that's why Jorge um the ethics committee language wasn't in there. Maybe we misunderstood that. I don't know. We were talking about that. I mean, isn't this like kind of basic sort of due process, like if someone's been accused of something that um I'm looking to the attorney here that um you know, I I'm I'm fine with the e ethics committee being the group that like requests potentially that someone comes in um to speak to answer questions. You know, maybe the word testify is is kind of creepy because this isn't a criminal uh proceeding and a court proceeding. So, you know, call it something else, but I think that uh it's the right of someone who's been accused to be able to uh understand fully and to hear the all of, you know, and for the committee that's going to be making a decision to hear all of the information that needs to be that needs to be put out there. I mean, isn't this like basic sort of due process?

I have myself next and then I'll recognize Mr. Kirby. Um, I think to Mr. S's point. I am deeply concerned about a chilling effect in the ability to require someone like I do not know of an organization an employment organization that allows someone who is filing a grievance against a supervisor or above uh the right to have that person in the sort of hierarchy of power, interview them. If something where if you know if something results in in an ethics censure, right? That is council basically telling you like, "Hey, come on, that was bad officially. Don't do that." If this were to rise to the level of a civil or criminal court, then of course the judicial process would uh sort of pick up where the city as an organization left off. Um, but I think that creating the risk of making staff members feel like they cannot do this without subjecting themselves to a public process is is tantamount to not having an effective policy at all. And I strongly oppose uh such policy. I'll also let Mr. Keel if with respect uh with with the approval of Mr. Kirby. I'll recognize Mr. Keel to to to make his comments now that he's gotten clarity on what he was referring to.

Mr. Keel.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I um the thread I was following is that employment matters are subject to to executive sessions um under New York state law. Um and the very astute wisdom that was given to me by the city attorney is it depends. Uh so so um so um Margaret, I really appreciate this amendment. I I would love to see some form of it maybe be implemented in the future. I think without maybe I missed some important point of discussion uh before while I was talking to city attorney. I would really love to work with you on figuring out a workable solution uh maybe with the ethics committee like alderman defendini suggested. Um but I also want to make sure that we're not uh encouraging public spectacle at the city of Ithaca.

Mr. Kirby, since I am more or less being dragged into this at this point,

to be clear, I was satisfied with the language prior to the amendment. I attempted to assist Alder person Fitzio in crafting the language that she wanted. That said, I am an attorney at the end of the day and I do believe that if you are going to materially accuse me of something that could affect my life, I should be able to ask you about it. Likewise, and this may have been an oversight, if like if I'm accu or if I'm the accused, yes, they should be able to ask me about it in the same vein. Um, I certainly see everybody's points. Uh, it's but attorney brain kicks in. That's if you're gonna accuse me something, I'm gonna I'm not gonna have a big problem asking.

Mr. S, Mr. Shapiro.

Yeah. Just to to the way that this is structured. First, there's a formal investigation, and that might be the part where you'd say you'd want to require people to come and um testify, I guess, is the word. or uh they wouldn't and then the ethics committee would say, "Well, we're just not going to give this much credence because the person's refusing to come talk to us." That's the way I envision this is that the ethics committee is going to make an initial decision on that based on what they hear from the individual. Once that happens, then um the way this is written, there is a public hearing. Um if the committee determines a violation has occurred, the council shall consider the matter at a hearing with a notice meeting. So, it is public and if that's where the cross-examination's happening, then it will be before not just council but all of public and that's where I have a big problem.

Any further discussion on this amendment? Oh, Mr. Defendini, you were next. I'm sorry. You're um another follow-up question and I apologize for being a little slow on the draw on on wrapping my head around this regarding the point specific to to be uh uh requirement for the complainant to testify or be subject to crossexamination. Is is the implication here that the person who is being accused would be the ones who are asking questions of uh of the person who's been sort of compelled to give testimony or would it be up to the folks who are doing the uh conducting the investigation? There's a question for the people. I will recognize Miss Fitzio to answer that. I assume that's up to the people doing the investigation. I I just to go

just to just to address the older person's specific question because if he's done then I will recognize that he still has the floor.

Yeah. And so I a cross-examination I do have a little bit of an issue with. And I think if this was conducted by the investigators, you know, as as someone who I think is is very publicly, you know, I support like an idea of of of getting testimony information for issues pertaining to accusations. Uh and and being able to hear both sides of the story. Um, I I can definitely get behind the committee conducting uh testimony or collecting testimony uh if that's what the the group decides, but I think having the accused uh be in a position to to crossexamine uh the people who are accusing them or people related in that area, that is something I'm a little concerned about. So, as echoing Alder person Keel, I'd be down if if this doesn't move forward and to talk about how we could find fine-tune it uh to to to address that later on down the line.

Mr. Ritzio, yeah, I I was just going to propose that um the language be changed to unless requested by the ethics committee because if you don't do that, it's I mean, you're saying basically, Pat, that the ethics committee could request someone to come and give information. Is that correct? I assume that that's what you were saying. So if No, so wait. So if that's what you're saying, then this doesn't really hold true because this says there shall be no requirement for the complainant to testify or be subjected to cross-examination at a hearing. That's this committee's language. I didn't make that up. Cross talk, please.

There shall be no requirement for the complainant. So someone who's writing this is not expecting that they're going to have to come and talk to people. So if in fact the ethics committee does allow for that then it should be more explicit here. And so I would just add unless requested by the ethics committee and I would like to move that. Uh so you can't amend your amendment while live. Okay.

You could withdraw. But I want to quickly I'm I'm at the point now where I'm going to say this group has worked on this for several months. We got suggested edits after it made its way out of committee the night before we were supposed to vote on it. Let's look at what other I I am firmly against this the more I sit here with it because it is being halfbaked on the floor. If people have a ch if people want to amend it, bring something forward in another couple weeks, but not do not force us to consider something at the last minute when we're the the the city the acting city attorney at the time who is an employment attorney and three members of council, including a a criminal defense attorney, signed off on this. Council unanimously passed this out of committee last week. I am strongly against this and I'd like us to continue moving on business. Mr. Ke who is going to stand on business?

Um I'll I'll reserve my comments for the full uh for the full motion. So the current motion on the table is the one as originally proposed unless the older person asked for unanimous consent to withdraw. Let me make it easy for you and I will ask for unanimous consent to withdraw so that we do not waste any more time on this. I thought this whole thing was a waste of time. Anyway, are there any objections to withdrawing the amendment unanimous consent? No objections, Mr. Keel. that one. The other one already passed.

Um, I just wanted to, you know, Joe, you your comments uh were getting me thinking and I I one of my concerns with this that I haven't really been able to distill is like the fundamental difference between like being a staff member at the city of Ithaca and being an elected official who is like elected by members of the public. uh and then to have your fate determined without being able to make your case uh by your peers who are not necessarily elected by your constituents. Um and I'm happy that we're doing this because currently the only repercussions are removal. Um, but I also have a lot of concerns with and you know I'm not a lawyer and I don't like fully understand how this process would play out like if someone were to go through this but to me it seems like you would get a complaint and please correct me if I'm wrong. Members of the committee, someone would file a complaint, it would go to the ethics committee. They, you know, would decide if they should do an investigation based only on the complainant coming and talking to them. Um, and then if they do an investigation, they'll talk to folks and then it'll go to a public hearing where the person who's accused, the common council member, the elected representative of a district in the city of Ithaca, is not allowed to participate because they have to recuse themselves from the discussion. And then they will make a decision uh without that person being able to publicly defend themselves. And um that feels wrong to me as elected representatives that feels uh like it could be easily abused. Um, and I feel like there should at least be, as we continue looking at this moving down the line, more opportunities for uh for someone to be able to defend themselves um to the public. Um, so thank you,

Mr. Zul.

Yeah, I just I thank you for uh raising those concerns. I do want to point out one other thing about the way this is structured to try to take that into account. We can never be sure that something won't be abused. Um, you want to try to do that and you want to try to build it in here. So the way that this is structured, there's actually three different bodies that are decision makers before any sanction is carried out. So the first thing is you've got the ethics committee that's going to do their review. Then it comes before common council. Common council has to have a twothirds majority in order to actually find uh that something has happened. So it's not a simple majority, it's two-thirds. And there's a reason for that is to make it hard, make it so that it can't be easily abused. And then the sanctioning actually goes to the city attorney putting it to an entirely different independent body and then common council comes back and we approve the sanction. And so there's a lot of steps in there to ensure as best as possible that there's not going to be abuse. It's not going to be perfect, but that's I just want to be clear that that that was a concern that we sort of tried to think through.

Thank you, Mr. Zul. Any further debate on that, Mr. Kale? Um, thank you for that clarification. Um, one other thought as we're moving forward uh with this proposal. Um, I have long felt it is strange in the city of Itha that we don't have recall elections. Um, and I think there I'm not sure if there's like a New York State reason we can't do that, but I think that there is a possibility that if we're adding additional sanctions uh for common council members um that we should remove the power for us to be able to remove and give that back to the voters so the common council can investigate things. We can't do that. That's New York State law. It is.

Yeah. But thank you. Um, all right. We'll go to a vote. All those in favor of the resolution as amended? Those opposed that carries nine to one. Uh Mr. Keel, hold up here. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I'm moving uh resolution 9.1 DICE and Cornell AI partnership. Um we discussed this in committee last week. Um and I gave a full uh review back then. Since then, the city I've spoken with the city attorney um and we're moving that this forward tonight. Um just again as a quick recap for the public um who are still here as well as those online uh this is the beginning of a process uh to collaborate with the Cornell uh center for AI innovation um to basically feed all of our digitized city records um into a database uh which they can then um using uh OCR optical character recognition um will make all of our public documents searchable by the public and common council members. Um there are more implementation steps that could be considered by common council after our initial kind of conversations with the AI innovation center. Um and a lot of very exciting possibilities um but those are for later down the line. Um and I welcome questions or comments. Thank you Mr. Gil. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Deini. Again to Mr. Gil's point. This was discussed this passed unanimously and the only reason it was not on consent agenda is because we had some technical langu uh I'm sorry non-technical language changes uh that the city attorney's office has effectuated. Any debate? Mr. Su,

this is just a question. Um on Tuesday the um head of DICE sent out an email saying something about trackback and being able to look up legislative things. Does this connect to that or is that something? Yeah. Yeah. And um Allan, I'd love your comments on this too. I think it absolutely does uh connect and um we spoke about this when Alan Chenika and I sat down a couple months ago now. Um but I think they kind of go hand in hand, right? They're all systems designed to increase public transparency to our legislative documents. Um and hopefully this will work well with with the other systems that DICE is implementing.

Any comment from you Alan? Yeah, I I'll briefly just comment on that and thank you all the person Keel for for going into a little the background on that. I would say that is a fair statement that these will work in conjunction with each other for uh the members of the public who hadn't seen this yet. Um trackback is a new feature in our e-code 360. That's our online code portal that makes every ordinance and local law um fully readable dating back to 1997 forward. Um if anyone has spent time in that system and you're looking through the code book or you're trying to see something, you'll you'll get to a section and it says this was amended by ordinance, you know, 2025-1 and it'll give you a date, but it didn't give you the language of the actual change. it just merges that into whatever the existing um code section was. So, it's a little difficult to find out exactly what the change was, what the new language was. This track back feature allows whether you're looking in the code itself or through the list of of laws and ordinances to be able to see those very specific um documents that were not previously included. The ordinance will link back to the code. the code will be able to link to the different ordinances and laws that encompass it over the years. So, that's the new feature that's referenced. Um, in terms of what would happen through this partnership with Cornell, it takes that ability to search those documents, but add, as I understand, at a whole level of smart searching around them. Like right now, you can go in and maybe search for I don't know the word parking garage, but what comes up may or may not be what you're looking for. It's it's a fairly simplistic search mechanism really in order to see how the

law was created or the ordinance was created and how it was changed over the years. The other thing that isn't in encapsulated here is the plethora of resolutions that are passed on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis which are not part of the code um and charter. So this project would try to bring together all the minutes, all the agendas, all the resolutions, which also I should say with the agendas would bring in supporting documentation that really isn't part of the actual items that were voted upon. They're just available at the time and then tend to fade away. So it's very difficult to do historical research or find the information that was provided at the time a law ordinance or resolution was passed. So this project would attempt to pull that all together in a meaningful package, if you will, a a a database specific to the city that would capture past information. If this goes well, continue back in time from the date listed in the resolution and then moving forward hopefully have a mechanism for obviously keeping it up to date because that's what would make this work really well rather than a a oneanddone. It needs to be a living breathing thing that will grow and change with the city over time. So it it definitely has strong potential. How it implements, we won't know until we can start the project, which is what this resolution is going to allow us to do.

Mr. Trumbull. Um, yeah, I'm strongly supportive of this. Uh, I did just want to reply to what you'd brought up earlier, Teresa, in that, um, with these kinds of things, it will be linking directly to, like Allan just pointed out, direct things from agendas, things like that. Um, so I'm bling on the phrase, but you know, like AI hallucinations likely won't be as much of a risk because again it'll be a very, you know, locked in pool of city documents. So it's not like it's going to be randomly googling something in like Ithaca, Michigan or something like that. Um, so you know, and I'm confident in the city staff and Cornell's ability to pull this off smoothly, too. Mr. Gil,

um I think the other thing that I would say um both for my colleagues as well as members of the public um is that this is really kind of um in many ways an experiment that doesn't cost the city anything. Like we don't know how this is going to go. Like this might totally be a flop and like there's too many city documents or it doesn't work well. Um but I'm also excited about the possibility that it does go well. Um and that's why I'm excited to work with the innovation lab too. It's not that we're, you know, contracting, uh, you know, a firm that has this technology already built out and they're going to implement at the city of Ithaca. Like, this is a great partnership with our, uh, local research university um, to try something new and try something that could really improve, uh, public information searching in the city of Ithaca. Is Oh, all the person uh, all the person for Ritzio. Yeah, I just want to say thank you, Patrick, for taking the initiative to do this and uh for tapping into a local resource which too rarely gets tapped into. So, thank you very much.

All those in favor carries unanimously. Uh next, I think I have a couple of appointments. Uh yes, I have a appointment to the community police board. Uh so resolve that uh Bin Lee be appointed to the community police board for a three-year term ending on New Year's Eve 2028. Uh this is an individual who has applied through our normal process. You can see the materials and has also been interviewed uh at my request by the director of the community justice center, Monolita Smiley. Um question, Mr. Mr. Keel.

Um you know, I say this every time it comes up. Uh no resume. I can't vote for it. Um I or at least there's not one on the agenda packet that I saw. Um and so that's how I'm gonna vote. Deputy clerk, there was a resume submitted. Is it not included? If you go into I legislate. Yep. You have to tap on the link because the resumes are attached confidential. They're private. Unless it's got to be through legislate, not the not the city website. I'm in legislate. Okay. Unless he did not maybe he did not submit a resume. I don't

Okay. I don't see a resume in here. Uh this Yeah, I I happen to know this person did submit a resume. Um I don't understand why it was not included, but um but appreciate your point. Um any further debate on this nominee? This board in particular does not have a quorum and it cannot meet. Um, Mr. Su, just a question. Will this reach quorum or no? I don't think it will, right? I think we're still

I think I think we're shy of two. In full in full disclosure, there are two very compelling student applications from Cornell. Um, however, both of those students for this coming summer are not going to be in Ithaca. And so rather than bring to council uh the current two viable candidates we have for you to vote on and then continue to not have a quorum but occupy two of the three appointments I'm allowed to make for the given year. I have held those. I plan to bring them barring anything else uh in the fall when they will be here. Uh and then we will have a quorum. Uh all those in favor of the appointment uh those opposed and that carries 9 to1. And then I think I have appointments reappoints to the Ithaca Landmark Preservation Commission. These are all reappoints for for uh Caitlin Olsen. Um well, you see all the names here. So uh Olsen, Gibian, Finnegan, Smith. Uh any questions on these? These are reappoints, Mr. Keel. Uh I will not be voting for any reappoints to the ILPC.

All right. Uh all those in favor of those reappointments, those opposed. That that that that carries 8 to two. Um very we're going to we're going to defer the majority of Mr. Rekio's report to uh next week. However, uh there's a quick quick update he wants to provide to the public and the council and to Emily Fuja.

Yes. Thank you. I I want to take the moment again to uh welcome Cararissa to the team and and thank her for joining us virtually today. Um I've been um some time to spend with Cararissa today to help get her up to speed in a couple of things. We're working feverishly on the budget kickoff and um I just I'm grateful to have Cararissa here and I want to uh briefly before giving Carissa a moment to say hi really thank uh Wendy for all of her continued work in the acting controller role. Um, and I appreciate uh all that you have uh brought to the city in that role, Wendy. So, thank you. And Cararissa, if you want to just say a couple of quick words for us. Say hi.

Hi, everybody. Uh, it's just been a pleasure to be here tonight. What a great way to kick off my first day is to really get to hear all about what's going on in the city today. And I really look forward to working with all of you and getting to see you all um next week in person. Thanks.

Thank you. And the other substantive update that I have that I wanted to share is we have um selected though not finalized the contract with our firm for the upcoming batch of audits. We received as I mentioned in the last meeting good competitive applications. We completed some interviews and we have an amazing firm that I am uh I will be very excited to uh tell you when we get the ink on the contract exactly the the name of the firm. um but they have hundreds of municipal clients in New York State and um I think we are we are uh on a good path then we had some great Q&A. Thank you Wendy for bringing some excellent questions to those those discussions and interviews. Um and many thanks to the Bonado team for supporting us through this. I think we have um you'll see you know over the next couple of months just some some planning around the longer term financial uh planning for the city as we actually start to get those audits over the finish line. Um, so yes, we'll leave the rest of the city manager updates for the future, but um, you needed to know that we have an audit firm um, in the wings and it is uh, very exciting and I know it's been your priority, so uh, I've made it mine and here we are.

Thank you very much, Mr. Rekio. Again, yes, we will have ample time to discuss next week on the light agenda that we finalized today. Um, with that, we will have three executive sessions. One of them will have a voting item coming out of it. It is going to be hyper brief. We will go into my office for that one. Following that, we will vote and then we will have two more executive sessions where there will not be a voting item. So, um, may I have a motion to enter into executive session to enter to discuss collective bargaining? That's Mr. Trumbull, seconded by Miss Fettz. All those in favor? That carries unanimously.

I bet they are. May I have a motion to exit executive session? Moved by Mr. Trumbull, second by Mr. F. All those in favor? I'm going to do my auction. Mr. Keel, can I have a vote? Carries unanimously. I'm going to do my auctioneer voice. I will give this to the deputy clerk. Uh resolution to amend collective bargaining agreement with the city DPW unit. Whereas the city of Itha and the DPW unit, collective bargaining unit representing the specified titles in the city, the DPW unit are parties to a collective bargaining agreement governing the terms and conditions of employment for DPW unit members. And whereas on the mayor's birthday, uh the parties agreed to August 6th, uh uh the mayor, uh the parties agreed to amend article 12, section six of the agreement to increase the number of unused sick leave days from 75 to 200. Uh whereas on March 4th of this year, the common council approved terms for successor agreement which contained within uh a 2010 uh December 10th, 2025 ten of agreement with the DBW unit. Whereas uh the TA inadvertently did not contain the affformentioned provision whereas the city and DPW entered into a memorandum of understanding incorporating the provision of final ratified version January 1st 2026 to December 31st 2029. The CBA uh where whereas the common council must review and approve the memorandum of agreement before it term may be incorporated in the final CBA now therefore be it resolved that council approves this memorandum of agreement correcting the scribers error oversight. May I have a second? Second by Mr. Demond. All those in favor carries unanimously. Okay, thank you very much to the public and deputy clerk. We can end the broadcast. We will have two executive sessions where we will just be in this room and there are no voting items anticipated. These are justformational. So um may I have a motion to enter into executive session to disea. Uh may I have a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a personnel matter? Mr. Mr. Defendini, Mr. Su, all those in favor. That carries unanimously.