Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the August 5th meeting of the Ithaca Common Council. We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. Mr. Defendini is out today with a personal conflict and the rest of council is here with the acknowledgement that Mr. Keel has recently vacated his seat effective today, I believe. Information about that vacancy will be made available from through the clerk's office this week and there will be a statutorily prescribed period of time through which people from the fourth ward may apply. And there will be a committee that will review those applications as we've done in previous years for vacant positions on the city council. More to come from the clerk's office. With that, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Ms. Matos.

Does Patrick no longer being a part of council change our vote counts?

No, that's a great question. The body's quorum is still six. That would be true if there were two vacancies as well. A quorum would be six with five or with 10 members as well, but thank you so much. But the quorum is defined by a majority membership of the body as opposed to those present or those currently holding office. So good question. Thank you. Now we got our slight civics lesson out of the way. No adjacent resolution to the agenda. Do I have any municipal officials here? I know the county legislature is meeting. I don't see anyone from the town of Ithaca. So there are no reports from municipal officials, excuse me. May I have a motion to approve the July 8th minutes? Ms. Matos, seconded by Mr. Shapiro. All those in favor of adopting those minutes, that carries unanimously, which tonight is nine votes. uh now we have statements of the public is there anyone in the audience who has filled out a comment card who anticipates speaking and has not yet provided that to the deputy clerk okay uh my first set of speakers is the spencer road neighborhood association and that group of five individuals will be recognized for up to seven minutes for their comment i assume you have stood up so you are tracy uh McEvely, thank you. Welcome. You have seven minutes once you begin.

Thank you. My name is Tracy McEvely, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Spencer Road Neighborhood Association to follow up on our letter from October 15, 2025. So you might remember us visiting them requesting traffic calming measures along Spencer and Stone Quarry Road at the south end of Ithaca. We want to update you on the progress we've seen and reaffirm the needs that remain. As we noted in our original letter, the city reaffirmed its commitment to the Vision Zero initiative in June 2025, which aims for zero traffic related deaths and injuries. We commend this commitment and remain glad to work with the city in that collaborative spirit. We want to start by thanking the city for its continued partnership with our neighborhood. Thank you for your ongoing support. of our biannual neighborhood cleanups and for working with us on previous initiatives to maintain our neighborhood, for installing the traffic barriers at Stone Quarry and Spencer Road. They have made a real difference for the children who play nearby and for pedestrians using the sidewalks in that area, for scheduling the construction plan for speed tables on the 500 and 600 blocks. These are desperately needed and we are looking forward to their implementation. We're grateful for this progress, even though it has been slow in coming. Spencer Road and Stone Quarry Road have a long history of documented safety concerns, including the February 2025 hit and run that injured our neighbor, repeated incidents of vehicles passing stopped school buses, and our own speed monitoring data showing vehicles traveling well above the posted 25 mile per hour limit on a regular basis. as recently as july 2026 multiple speeding incidents were recorded in a span of four days each step the city has taken from the stone quarry barriers to the upcoming speed tables responds directly to our two concerns our neighbors have raised over many months and the past several years and we want that history to be visible as the city continues to plan and budget for this corridor While we've waited for the city to act, we as a neighborhood have done as much as possible as ordinary citizens, more than we should be expected to. Numerous households have posted slow and caution signs while we wait for the city to update signage and add speed tables. For the past two years, our neighborhood has maintained a traffic log. We have considered purchasing ring cams to aid in our documentation. This is more than a neighborhood should have to sustain to feel safe walking, sending our children to bus stops and maintaining day to day activities. looking ahead we ask the city to continue treating spencer road and stone quarry road as a priority with the following needs in mind short term update and add additional signage along the 500 and 600 blocks of spencer road the existing not a through street sign is faded and misplaced improve lighting along the 300 to 600 blocks of spencer road Complete a feasibility study for sidewalks on the 500 and 600 blocks, prioritizing the areas with the lowest visibility for drivers and pedestrians. medium term completion of the speed tables planned for the 500 and 600 blocks we understand the speed tables are slated for installation this year and we're grateful for that commitment however we have reached out to the city multiple times on March 9th April 11th April 16th July 23rd and July 30th to confirm the timeline and exact locations and we still do not have confirmation of where the speed tables will be placed We would appreciate a clear answer on both timeline and location as soon as possible. Complete plan sidewalk project in the 300 block. We have heard the 300 block is in future sidewalk plans. We reached out to the city on July 30, to confirm the timeline and haven't received an answer. Residents in the 300 block report excessive speeding, unsafe conditions for pedestrians and trouble accessing their driveway safely. long term, add sidewalks to the 500 and 600 blocks, we recognize the roadway is narrow in places and the sidewalks may not be feasible on both sides of the street everywhere. But we asked the city to identify where they can be added. We recognize these priorities will need to be weighed against the city's budget and timeline. And we're glad to collaborate with the city with these factors in mind. And we thank you again for your continued attention to the safety of the Spencer Road neighborhood community. We look forward to seeing this progress continue. And I submitted a copy of this with some pictures of the neighborhood as part of the meeting minutes, thank you.

Thank you very much, my next speaker is ready to easily. followed by Teresa all. Welcome reggie you have three minutes, once you begin okay.

I'm speaking on behalf of the West Hill community members concerned with the proposed PUD on the woodland on Lower Elm Street. My understanding is that a revised PUD proposal will come before Common Council on August 19 and that the proposal will only be made available to the public on Friday, August 14. We request two things from Common Council. One, table the PUD proposal at the August 19 meeting because the public will only have had five days to review and respond to it. Now I have a question if you approve the pod proposal on August 19 does that mean it is accepted and subsequent Community input can only address elements of its implementation. that's a question.

Council may not respond until after we've done. Council may not respond until we've heard all public comment.

Okay. If the answer is yes, then once you have tabled the proposal, we further urge you to recognize the West Hill community for a special presentation before council as described in the council rules of procedure. The developers have already had a chance to present their information. The residents need equal time to present our concerns. There are significant factors to consider when assessing whether or not this PUD is best for the health and welfare of the community, fully compliant with a comprehensive plan, and if it can bring long-term benefit to the West Hill neighborhood and nearby LACS school. Another question, have you each walked up Elm Street and examined the area in question? I would urge you to do that. We are prepared to argue that this development would generate a hazardous traffic situation and a threat to pedestrians and students and bicyclists on Elm Street where the outlet to the apartments is to be located. We will present information showing that the loss of the Elm Street woodland will significantly diminish carbon capture while increasing stormwater runoff and erosion. As well, the cooling and air pollution mitigation would be lost as would habitat and biodiversity. I'll conclude with a significant discovery we made in our research. Over the last decade, the city has issued guidance on preserving green space and mitigating CO2 emissions, but building housing has been the priority. We ask that you keep this balance in mind when making a decision about the PUD. Thank you.

Thank you very much. My next speaker is Teresa Ault. Followed by James Smith.

I'm Teresa Ault of 206 Eddy Street, College Town. Let me again remind Mayor and Council of a housing-related matter that you do not seem to be addressing. It is the very anti-environmental external property maintenance regulations that require grass and weeds to be cut short. This in and of itself is bad for the ability of our yards to sequester carbon naturally and also bad for pollinators. Moreover, it drives landlords and homeowners to use gas driven mowers and weed whackers to cut short plants that should be allowed to grow. The exhaust pollutes the air. Repealing this legislation would probably cut the burden of external property maintenance in half, leaving only problems of sidewalks obstructed by snow and ice in winter or hedge branches in warm weather. The building division inspector who does external property maintenance could probably be put to work about half time inspecting hazardous building code violations. The only cost would be the training. I have sent you all a more detailed email on July 9th. If you can't find it, I can resend it to whoever needs it.

Thank you very much. My next speaker is James Smith, followed by Nya. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Jim Smith. I've been a paramedic here in Ithaca for eight years. Patrick Kuhl resigned. I worked with Patrick, and three minutes really isn't enough to cover his ethical lapses. But what I want to focus on is what I consider the long-term damage that he has done to the city. He was crucial in unionizing Bangs Ambulance. The union vote was probably decided by six Cornell students that he chauffeured down to vote that had worked at Bangs for less than four months. so he had said they could have a contract in 10 days now three years and then he departed as usual just like with the city now three years later they have a contract so the end of last month I received an email from the Union that either i could join the union or pay agency fees otherwise i will be fired under the contract and i've worked here for eight years and i love my job i don't have to work i just enjoy it i've been doing when i started here 60 hour weeks because we are so short of paramedics in this area um the president and the vice president of uh The bank's ambulance workers united accused the bank's family of unethical practices in their negotiation. This is a wonderful family. They diminished themselves by making that accusation. And it's posted in a bunk room on a union board that I have to look at every day. the bangs family again is dealing with a disrespectful student uh vice president diana cooper who was not here to watch tim bangs run around trying to get ppe at the start of covet and keep his ambulances in service for our community um they diminish themselves by uh making that type of accusation um i was a proud union member of fire uh union i will not be joining this union um i uh just cannot associate myself with people like that. They have come up with a contract. It's many city council people here supported this unionization effort. The contract is 1.3% a year for three years that won't even keep pace with inflation. Hopefully you will keep The ones that voted or supported the union will keep our taxes increased at 1.3%. It's gonna be very difficult to attract paramedics. It is really the worst situation I've seen since I've been here. It soon may be as easy to get an ALS ambulance as it is a cup of Starbucks coffee in Ithaca. Thank you for your time. I just wanted to inform you about this, but it is not good. Thanks.

My next speaker is Nya, followed by Tom Stern. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

My name is Queen Nya. I'm an artist, mother, and a member of this community. I wanted to share a poem tonight because sometimes numbers, paperwork, decisions can make us forget that behind every issue are real people with real stories. Real struggles, real hopes. This piece is about resilience, about what happens when people go through storms, but still find a way to keep growing. I hope as you listen, you think about people in your community who are fighting to be seen, heard, and valued. This is called Still I Bloom. Have you ever smiled so no one knew you were struggling or been called too much simply because you refuse to become less? I write this for people who had to rebuild themselves while the world kept moving. I write for parents, survivors, dreamers, and anyone who's ever wondered if their voice mattered. If anything, I say tonight, this poem reminds me of, I hope this poem reminds you of your own story. And then if it does, then this belongs to you too. I still bloom they told me they were endings funny I learned they were introductions to the versions of me that could carry three little hearts 1000 pieces still find room for one more dream i've called i've been called too loud too emotional too much. but too much is just another name. For someone who refused to disappear, I write because silence never paid my rent, never healed my scars, never tucked in my children. So I choose words, words that bruise, words that bloom, words that remind me I was never meant to fit in someone else's definition of enough. I'm proud because, not because life has been easy, But because every time I tried to fold, every time it tried to fold me in half, I became a paper plane and somehow I still flew. So tonight, if you ever felt broken, borrow a piece of my hope. I'll borrow a piece of yours because healing isn't a solo performance. It's a community poem, one voice than another until The room remembers we are never alone. Also, I want to say this, Mr. Mayor, you sent in an email on July 28th regarding Foster's eviction. It'd be great to hear back from you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. My next speaker is Tom Stern, followed by George McGonigal. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

I'm here tonight to plead with you to intervene on Nya Foster's behalf to prevent her family's eviction in just nine days by INHS. Nya has been a tenant with INHS for six years, and she's not one of those, quote, problem tenants. She's never faced eviction before. She's never had issues with back rent. Earlier this year, Naya had to request an emergency transfer from her apartment because she and her family had to flee to a New York City shelter to escape domestic violence. When her abuser was sentenced and jailed, Naya felt it was safe to return to the apartment. But INHS took the position that because Naya signed an emergency transfer, she gave up all her rights to the apartment. And they proceeded with an eviction, which was granted by the county court in late July. Technically, it's called an ejectment. You know, just two years ago, the city passed good cause eviction whose moral underpinnings are that every tenant has a right to stay housed unless exceptional circumstances say otherwise. It's hard to understand why fleeing domestic violence is an extenuating circumstance. Naya could not secure legal representation, so she had to resort to self-representation. Unfortunately, like the 90% of people who go pro se in court, she got ruled against. However, this isn't just a matter of losing a case in court. Naya may lose her Section 8 in September, and many of you know that losing Section 8 creates a terrible downward spiral for low income families without a home. And there is also a danger of losing custody of our children as well. You know, the city does plenty of business with INHS and because time is short for NIA, my language will be blunt. Please exercise your influence with INHS to have them withdraw their petition for ejectment ejectment and engage in a negotiated settlement with NIA. We all know community leaders have spent countless hours discussing ways to help the unhoused and have often been exasperated by their efforts. Now here is a tangible thing you can do to prevent one family's homelessness. Most of you probably know the old saying, if you can save one life, you save the world. Thank you.

Thank you very much. My next speaker is George McGonigal, followed by Ariel Jackson. Welcome, older person emeritus. You have three minutes once you begin.

Hello, everybody. Good to see you. I won't need much time. I want to talk about the Elm Street development. I'm going to ask you, this is a request. Please, every single one of you, go there and look at that property. Don't just look at a diagram that the developer has written or the architect has drawn up. It's very steep. Elm Street is very, very narrow. And it's very busy with pedestrians and commuters and school buses. There's no room for a sidewalk on the west side, on the uphill side. The only place for a driveway is very, very steep. But I'll let you look at it yourselves. But please do look at it. Thank you.

Thank you, my next speaker is Ariel Jackson, followed by is it to the Mooney.

Welcome buddy you have three minutes, once you begin, believe it or not, I hate this I don't know I can do public speaking anywhere, but this I don't know why, so my name is Ariel Jackson, I am here. For myself, but I am the working group chair, one of the working group chairs for the Charter revision Commission for the city and I kind of just wanted to give. Where i'm at right it's been a couple of months now stuff is kind of taking a pause. I have a lot of big feelings about this. But I think it's really important in the service of the community to be pretty blunt about the timeline and the facts. So I have included some quotes from fellow Commissioners if we get to that the end, but. We should have met on July 28 and we did not because we have fallen below the required quorum no new Members have been appointed. We were created by the more mayoral appointment under New York state homeroom law section 36 a with enthusiastic support of supportive Council. They there are legal requirements once this is established it's a very unique situation. one of which is for the mayor, to quote, any vacancy in the membership of the commission or its officers shall be filled by the mayor. He's kind of the only dude in the situation, so lots of fun there. The city attorney's office advised the mayor of his legal requirement, and the response was that he was weighing his options. In reply to the full commission, when asked about a lack of appointments, the reply was, given the failure of the group to execute its charge, I will not be appointing any further commissioners, commission members. I would encourage you guys in the Community to take a look at the list of Members for the Commission. We consisted of five more five members of former members of Council one legislator and various Community organizers and leaders of nonprofits and that's not even me because i'm not that remarkable. Just name a few so at our June meeting we voted to take advantage of our full appointment ability, which was in November 2027. We were appointed in January and we're expected to complete work extensive line by line analysis of the Charter by the early to middle of August. As of May 22nd, we had compiled 87 directives to be reviewed and voted on. 27 had already passed. Nearly half of those came out of my working group. We worked on simple things like the layout structure to make it easier to read and to the lack of the seated board of public works, which takes up a surprisingly large amount of the charter, like a solid third of the city charter is this requirement. which the lack of that board and the lack of the ability for citizens to come and appeal decisions or to communicate directly, based on our research, cost us a couple hundred thousand dollars over the last few years because that was not in place. What we were about to discuss was the power of the city mayor, the city manager, and Common Council in that dynamic. I lay all this out to be to be clear that, despite rumors and innuendos from the administration, we are not is functional, we are, however, set up that is your time, thank you, Mr Mr comments and writing.

My next speaker is to the Mooney, followed by zach when. And apologies if I said your name incorrectly.

Hello, I am Tula Mooney. I'll keep this very short. I have started with the Ithaca Tenants Union, and I've heard a lot of stories. I've been helping NIA or Shania, as you all know. And the more tenants from the city that have come to me, I've had a lot more women come to me to tell me that when they were fleeing domestic violence in Ithaca, they did have threat to lose custody of her children and as a neighbor of naya I live within like 10 minutes of her. When there is a housing service provider that is taking my neighbors children, I have a lot of. questions, and I ask for a lot more transparency with a relationship with the municipal city and with high NHS so that other tenants and people of Ithaca can figure out what's really going on, so that we can keep families together in their houses, thank you.

Thank you, my next speaker is that when followed by our final speaker and Sullivan.

Good evening. Nan Rohrer's recent presentation to the Just Cause Committee discussed the results of the downtown Ithaca Alliances survey, with several respondents mentioning the lack of bus service after 8 p.m. for their employees being a major issue. The only bus route with this 8 p.m. cutoff is the Route 14, and before the fall TCAT schedule is set in stone, I would like to ask the mayor, and the city manager and council person Matos, as well as Defendini if he were here, as well as council person Nguyen, who I believe is on the board of the TCAT, to please advocate for the restoration of the 9 and 10 p.m. Route 14 trips, which have been absent since 2020. An entire half of the town is cut off from bus service after 8 p.m., the half of town with the most low-income people. Please try and get the 9 and 10 p.m. Rupert team trips back this fall. Yesterday at the legislature meeting, the reduction of the 2027 Code Blue funding from New York State by $1.2 million to about 800,000 and change from this year's 2.1 million was discussed. With it being stated, this will have a major impact on the response to homelessness here locally. The recent point in time study indicating a drop in homelessness is pretty clearly not the case. There is an encampment right on Route 13 by the bridge near Wegmans behind a dumpster next to the inlet with a rotating cast of individuals panhandling at the stoplight. It has been there for several weeks at least. I've sent you a photograph from this afternoon. as well as one from the evening of the 28th when I witnessed IPD approaching the camp and doing something there. There's been a similar situation unfolding just around the corner from City Hall on Cuga and Green in front of the former liquor store. With the building now condemned, the site has turned into a place for people to panhandle, drink, and use drugs. I sent you a picture I recently took of the debris that you can often see on the corner. I've witnessed the entire sidewalk filled with people drinking and smoking weed with the shopkeepers telling me he had been threatened and called slurs. I asked him to come here to speak about what is going on in front of his store, and he told me there was no point because you would not listen to him. There will be snow on the ground in four months, and I'm told there are up to 35 people living in the exception zone. Combined with the cuts to Medicaid and the change to a treatment-first model, I believe the city and county need to radically reassess their combined approach to the issue of homelessness. Consider creating a program to return people to their places of origin if they wish to return home. I understand the city's desire not to criminalize homelessness. There are a lot of things that could be done to improve outcomes for people that do not involve the police. And what is being done now amounts to enabling people's drug addiction. Mayor, I emailed you on the August 17 2025 expressing a desire to be part of the Charter review committee and I still would like to be a part of that, if you reappoint people I think there should be at least one republican maybe not me, but also someone who's opposed to the fluoridation issue. People talk about diversity, all the time, but does that extend to diversity of opinion and philosophy, and I think it should thank you.

And our final speaker this evening is and Sullivan.

This will be quick. I'm Ann Sullivan. It was inspired on my morning walk. I do about three miles every morning. And I do the East Ithaca Trail, which is terrific. So I have to cross the Ithaca Road and Mitchell. Cars are going 35 miles an hour. They're going 45 miles an hour. I'm old. I'm not bold. So I wait for them to pass, but it's simply not safe. I shudder at the thought that in a month, our streets will be filled with hundreds of school kids walking to school.

Here is something I wish you would all read.

It's your promise discussed in the voice on December 1st, 2022 to lower the speed limits to 25. where what have you done nothing here's a love return i wrote to you on boy well i've been busy i had things going on in my life in january 24 saying where are the signs lowering the speed limits um i think i got a note from you noted ducks and when god bless you said you were embarrassed you should be you should all be embarrassed We don't have our signs. I don't mean to single you out. You actually wrote to me, so I thank you for it. But you know the grace. In a month, as I said, our streets will be filled with schoolchildren. We have a city council and a mayor that is filled to do the basic thing, which is put up the signs telling people when they come into our city that the speed limit is 25. My Google Maps. says the speed limit is 30. I checked every main road going into the city. Our speed limit is 30. You guys have done nothing to fix this problem in three and a half years. I'm conscious of streets. My grandson is going to be crossing Cayuga walking to school. The kids in my neighborhood are crossing the Ithaca Road and Mitchell Street. The kids you know up in South Hill are going to be trying to get to South Hill School. It is a disgrace that you haven't done anything about this. You are failing our children, you are failing our pedestrians, and there is no excuse. You said that it would cost $30,000 to get those signs up in this thing. You have spent more than $30,000 and other things paying for new buildings. paying off leases that didn't work out. Maybe it'll be $40,000 now because of inflation. You have to do this and you have to do it before school starts again. You cannot fail our children again. There's no reason for it. sit on the Ithaca Road, sit on Mitchell, see Lincoln Street when the cars go booming up to go to Cornell. We've had people hit. Luckily, we haven't had people killed. In this article, some of you concede the fact that lowering and enforcing the speed limit will do something. Just let me know why haven't you done it?

Thank you very much. All right, that concludes public comment. I'll turn to privilege of the floor. I'll recognize myself first, then I'll take hands from colleagues first to the Spencer Road folks. Thanks for coming today. As some of you may know, I live a few blocks away, so I'm acutely aware of the challenge that you're all facing. Earlier this year, I went out to your intersection in question with our city who is presently now our assistant No, acting assistant director of engineering. And I will tell you, I stood there and I think I stopped counting after I watched 30 cars run the stop sign. It's atrocious. And I know that you're all the persons, I spoke to them immediately after my site visit. I know they did one of their own. The engineering division is currently exploring options around, you know, i'm going to get this probably wrong so maybe we'll get a fuller briefing from them but something something like uh shrubbery and things like this that break up the view lines which has demonstrated uh impact on reducing speeds for drivers uh and i also know that there's exploring more enforcement on the area but again very aware that i believe this was identified as the most we hear a lot about floral avenue which is noted as the second most dangerous intersection in the city this is actually the first so we are acutely aware of this um i will uh perhaps ask maybe at the end because the city manager can't be recognized that privilege of the floor but i might ask him near the end of tonight's meeting uh with the city manager report to just make some comments around traffic calming and traffic safety in general but please know that this is on our radar With respect to the street signs, I don't like to place responsibility on previous administrations. I never do that on the radio. I will say that the administration that was in place when this speed limit law passed, they did not put any funds for these signs in the budget, and that was only discovered in recent years. I want to actually, it's timely, it's timely that we have someone speaking about this today, and I want to thank Comptroller Hrabowski for energizing this effort because i was told during your comments miss sullivan that the signs were ordered today so i'll allow it this time um uh We, of course, did make the change. The way that the city attorney at the time had written it was that it is 25 unless otherwise stated, which is why on the roads where it doesn't have the update yet, it still shows up as 30. But we are moving forward with that. I also want to again thank Acting Assistant Director of Engineering Natalie Model, who is spearheading this effort as well. Both of these are really important. Ms. Sullivan, as someone who drives through there to take my kids to their mom's house, I am very well aware of the high speeds and the dangerous in the particular areas of the city you're talking about, but we want this to be citywide, absolutely. And it is, as I was just informed by the city manager moving forward. Just a quick comment on the Charter Commission. You know, the Charter Commission failed to make any meaningful progress on its charge over its tenure. Members of the Commission publicly and privately expressed that they lacked faith in the ability of the group to complete its work and no major progress was made on key questions before the body. The entire leadership of the Commission has resigned and a full majority of its membership has also stepped down. I don't have confidence that the remaining members are capable of completing this task, especially given that most of the members tasked by the commission to compile an interim report for this July meeting failed to even submit materials to the vice chair when they were supposed to do so. And I do not believe the appointment of new members would solve issues with that body and its composition. I do not believe it's wise to use limited resources in the clerk's office or the city attorney's office, which is currently understaffed. on a project that lacks forward momentum. And the attorney's office actually advised me that while the mayor shall fill vacancies, I am not compelled to do so, especially if the project has failed. Furthermore, the commission no longer represents a diverse and representative cross-section of the city population, as I endeavored to select in its initial formulation. uh while i think we are all committed to revising and modernizing our charter i think it's important that we explore methods for simplifying and clarifying that process in the near future and i know the city attorney's office will be working on uh ways and proposals to bring for us on that uh and then lastly on the estuary uh uh on the um encampment situation um there uh We are working very closely with the county on advocating to New York State to try and secure some additional funding to provide a more year round shelter for our community members. I will. sort of maybe save any further elaboration on that for all the person matos who heads our committee on these issues um but i know that we are acutely aware of the recent uptick uh in our unhoused population as a consequence of the mismanagement of the building next door and uh it is not uh it is it is front of mind to us i had at least three meetings about it today so uh thank you for your advocacy on that uh colleagues mr shapiro

Thank you, and thank you to everyone that came out tonight. I want to just start by acknowledging everything that Naya and the people with her shared. This is the first time I'm hearing anything about that. So I don't know how to comment other than just saying that I hear you. And hopefully people of influence also heard you. And if there's something we can do, I'm sure. I want you to just know you're being heard. Happy to hear there's progress being made on the signs. And you kind of like put that on my radar two and a half years ago. I think I even begged for them to be added to the budget like a month or two ago. So happy to see progress is being made by that. But it also occurred to me that one of the themes of tonight's public comments was traffic safety. There are a lot of comments, different neighborhoods, three different neighborhoods at least. And it made me think about the recent outreach the city's made about sidewalks that the neighborhoods want to see having repaired. And I had some follow-up questions to the city. And what I found out was there is money in the budget to repair some sidewalks, but never to, or at least not currently, to put new sidewalks where other sidewalks don't exist. was disappointing to me to learn but it also just it wasn't also surprising but i just felt like i wanted to say that because as we're entering budget season there's a couple of things that um i'm reminded of um number one was last year when we had that budget shortfall um we found that there was like an absurd amount of money being budgeted for salt every year And we took some of that money back and balanced the budget. There were a few other things that we did as well. But I really just implore the management of the government to really look at those line items with some sophistication. Because I think what you're hearing from folks is that we need traffic safety. calming devices, we need sidewalk repair beyond. I think people are happy that they're seeing each year new sidewalks getting repaired, but I'm sure there are people that want to see them happen with more frequency. So again, I just want to ask the management to really have some sophistication with looking at the line items. But I also just want to ask my colleagues. We all have great ideas for new programs that we want to start, and new programs cost people, and people are expensive. And people come at the cost of materials sometimes. And I don't exactly know where the right line is to draw between services that people provide and things we need to make the city's infrastructure work. There's clearly a fine line between where we want to put our resources but i just uh that's something i'm going to be weighing real heavily this year because i know there's there's programs we want to fund and i also hear from lots of folks about the the safety in our around schools specifically but the traffic in our community so thank you thank you mr shapiro mr trumbull

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First off, to the people who are speaking about Elm Street, I grew up in Ithaca. I used to walk up to Westall all the time. I totally hear where you guys are coming from. And I would go a little further and ask if the people presenting the PUD are watching this. I think that's a great idea to share those to that proposal ahead of time. could do it by email you could do it online but um it would make me feel a little bit better about the vote hearing your guys concerns and i totally get where you're coming from um naya you know great to see you again uh naya's a phenomenal singer she used to come to the deep dive karaoke all the time is such a amazing person um similar to all the person shapiro's comments uh i didn't know about this but would love to try to work with you to advocate however i can um and i'm really sorry you're dealing with that And as to Zach's points about what's going on around the corner, I talked to Sunny and Sing a lot and have been trying to talk with Dominic about trying to deal with some of that stuff. And he has been diligently working alongside to try to figure out a solution for some of the business owners downtown. Some of the things that we work on happens behind closed doors. And I promise I have full faith in Acting City Manager Recchio's ability to handle that. Then just on the last point, kind of echoing All the person Shapiro's points from before the sidewalk improvement program is going on in Ithaca right now it's awesome i've been trying to reach out to constituents to get them tapped in, but if you have a sidewalk that you live near that you walk over every day. that you want to see improved right now reach out to your older people it's as simple as us like forwarding the email to natalie maude um and this is an enthusiastic program that that the city really wants to see take off so if there is a sidewalk right now that you think could be fixed in the city limits please reach out um and also just to kind of echo what the mayor talked about earlier we will be taking applications now to fill my um my former colleague alderperson keel's position so if you live in ward 4 and aren't tapped in yet or you know people that live in ward 4 that aren't tapped in yet please consider getting them to reach out and apply thank you thank you mr trumbull ms matos

Yes, I just want to thank everyone for coming out to speak, especially because there was a fair amount of representation from my ward tonight. So thank you to my constituents. For our West Hill neighbors, thank you again for meeting with me this, or hosting a town hall this past Saturday that allowed me to communicate some of the city's thoughts and directions around the PUD and as well as being able to understand where some of your guys' feelings and the neighborhood's feelings around this development coming into the neighborhood. I look forward to August 19th meeting. Looking forward to your neighborhood organizing and coming out to speak to us regarding this. For the Spencer Road Association, thank you for coming out to speak. I did not get a chance to respond to you, Tracy, before you came to public comment, but it was on my radar to give you an update about the traffic tables. So thank you again. And lastly to Rob, if it's okay, maybe during my chair's report this month, I can give an update regarding the steering situation that you just touched upon. Zach, I owe you a text and a meeting. So I will work on that. Thank you guys.

Mr. Sewell.

Just echo everyone. Thank you all for coming out and sharing your concerns with us. These are... Everyone's already spoken eloquently on a variety of things. These are totally random things. The Charter Commission, it sounds like it's not going to be refilled. So if you could please send what you have done to us so that we could know what changes need to be made. My understanding is not everything needs to be run through a charter commission. Some things in the charter can be made by common council. So if there are recommendations by the body, please get that to us. Zach, I'm not sure about the area you were talking about in terms of the bus service. it may fall under tcats new e-ride service and if it does that's worthwhile looking into that does run until 10 o'clock at night um and that is a service available to people please check it out if you're not familiar with it um and then um Teresa, just because you've brought it up a couple times now, I'll say that. For me, I would not support letting grass grow specifically because my neighbor, we had an abandoned property on our street, and I ended up mowing the lawn because I had time. But the reason is because our neighbors got Lyme disease from it. Um, and so that is not something that I think people are, uh, comfortable with. And last thing, David, I just want to let you know that the, um, we actually have already gone through our assault line for this year. So, although it may have, um, seem like we've been expending a lot, it turns out this last year was a lot of, a lot of snow. So thanks. Mr. Wynn.

I am also appreciative of people coming out to speak i'm really excited about the speed limit science there's no speed with sign on cascadilla street, at least until recently when a rogue resident put up some. tactical urbanism speed limit size on existing posts, but before that there's no indication there's a speed limit all entering cascadilla street where I live, I do want to play out for the pub, though, that. even the next vote that we have is not the final one it still goes to the planning board for a site plan review this environmental review um the next vote is a conceptual plan all right so sorry conceptual approval and the um there's there's more steps that we have to go through before we get to the final approval. You can just Google the Ithaca plan unit development process. There's a city website with a presentation with the video and slides and a text description. Also, the applicant's application is on that same page. and you know i would defend the pud process it's imperfect like what we want is perfect zoning and we don't have it right now but we're working on it a number of us on the zoning advisory commission uh and uh that the consultants that we've hired to do that work are drafting new uh policy right now based on the community survey based on the uh the committee's input but that'll take some time um so i just want to point out though that the putt gives us a little bit more control over how that property is used at some point i mean there's housing that's legalized for it right now under the zoning that i envision i'm hoping for for the city will allow more multi-family development and so I'm hoping for permissive zoning on that lot anyway. It's private property. It will get developed one way or another. The PUD process gives us an opportunity to weigh in on what we want to see on that property and how it gets used. And so it's a tool. It's an imperfect tool. It's a political one. It's a big risk taken by a developer to go through council as opposed to just follow the buy-write rules and get an automatic approval. But it does represent an opportunity in my view.

Mr. Rizzio?

Thank you everybody for coming out and thank you for talking about safety concerns and road concerns. I also am thrilled to hear that we are getting signs, but I don't think signs are the only solution and I really want to see active enforcement by the police department. We have to give some priority to our streets. People don't speed in Cayuga Heights, and it's not because of the signs. It's because you know you're gonna get a ticket. People don't speed in Trumansburg, and again, it's not because their speed limit's 30 miles an hour. Nobody speeds there because you know you're gonna get a ticket. So if our speed limit signs say 15 miles an hour, but we don't have anybody enforcing it, I think we're still going to have a problem. So I make this plea to the chief to organize things in such a way that we can give priority to these areas that we know. We hear repeatedly that there are safety issues in these areas. We must have enforcement by the police department. Okay, next I wanna mention about the sidewalks. Thank you, Robin, for mentioning that. So the city sidewalk program, what we're trying to do right now is prioritize sidewalks, right? So this was changed last year to try to reflect what residents feel and see are sidewalks that really need attention. Instead of just randomly getting a list of sidewalks and then that's what gets done. The people who call during the year, that's how it had been in the past. We tried to make a really concerted effort to do that. Last year, some of us walked around with residents and wards. I don't know if that's the most effective way to do it. I think the easiest way to do it is for everybody to go to see ClickFix online and put in the address. If it spans more than one address, which C-Click Fix won't take more than one address, just put a note in the comments. The city sidewalk manager is being like super attentive to this. There is a deadline and it's August 20th. So I would ask that people really pay attention to that. About Elm Street, I totally hear what you're saying. When the developer was here and made a presentation, I did raise issue about traffic and also about runoff. I think those are really serious, serious issues. I totally support tabling any vote on this. I do not think that good government has developers or anyone coming and making a presentation about something and then there's a vote on it that very day without there being an opportunity for input from the public. It's absurd that we would operate that way. It shouldn't happen for this, it shouldn't happen for anything else that we do. I would say last year with regard to the budget, maybe it was the year before, I've forgotten already, but it was the year before maybe, there was a presentation on the budget and that was the first time that the public had actually seen it. That is not how good government operates and I think with regard to Elm Street, the community needs an opportunity to hear and also to be able to ask questions of the developer before we take any votes on this. So I totally support tabling this. I don't think we should be rushing into this right now. I think there are a lot of concerns. And I know that there is a very big rush to try to provide more housing. But we also need to think about all of the other things that go with this and really need to balance the issues and weigh the good and the bad. Thanks, thanks for coming and I want you to stay involved and ask questions, ask questions of the developer, get organized.

Thank you, Ms. Fabrizio. Seeing no further hands from council, we'll end privilege of the floor and we will turn to our regular business. May I please have someone move the consent agenda? Mr. Shapiro, seconded by Mr. Trumbull, all those in favor of adopting the consent agenda, that carries unanimously.

uh may i ask someone please summarize and move uh item of business 6.1 changes to the special event code mr trumbull um yeah this is uh basically looking to simplify the special um events application process it's an ordinance i'm recommended by scott rijo who handles a lot of the special events code as is and is more or less just kind of simplifying things making it easier for their office is there a second second by ms matos mr sewell

Just a question about the way that it's being changed. It looked like there was a suggestion that there be a change in how much fees are associated, or there could be a change in fees, and then a certain revenue line associated with that. And I'm just wondering, do the fees match additional work that's going to be going in? Where does this where those fee numbers come from?

I'll solve for time while Dom's pulling it up. So actually last year during the budget process, there was a directive to change the fee structure to do separate fees for small, medium and large events. And that does reflect a difference in the amount of work, you know, a small event and Scott's nodding vigorously. it doesn't require that much time to process the permit whereas something like apple fest requires you know a tremendous amount of time so this is just to try and uh make the legislation more adequately capture the amount of staff resources that are dedicated to the different scales of event okay that's sufficient that's god i'm i'm not also sure that everyone on council has met you so why don't you come on up and you can you can field some of these questions because i see some other hands so i'll turn to all the person kirby and then all the person fabrizio

I did want to get a sense, because I don't think in what was sent to us, I didn't see what the actual, it was pretty, it gave you guys some leeway as to what small, medium, large, Can you just expand on that a little bit? Sure.

Yeah. So, um, the, the new format moving forward would be to basically qualify small, maybe enlarged based off of the size and scope of the event. How many city resources and permits are required of that event? So, the more permits, um, currently right now, um, the list contains use of city parks, um, city property, noise, permits, assembly, parade permits. Street closures, vending, and alcohol. This would expand it to include building permits for temporary structures like staging that's brought in, fencing, large-scale tents that are over 400 square feet. It would also include the Ithaca Fire Department's outdoor assembly event operation permit. The current assembly parade permit is managed through Ithaca Police Department, and that only covers events on city property, public property. The Ithaca Fire permit covers public and private events as well.

Mr Brazil hi nice to meet you um I just wanted to ask with regard to like large events as a large student events that do require. Quite a lot of staff time and repeated checks by say the fire department and other places, do you feel that this is at all reflective of like the amount of city money that we do, I mean money that we spend. on these things i mean i'm not i'm not looking i'm not expecting that we're going to get like 100 like cost recovery but i am concerned um about like very large student events of which i think we have many um i don't know exactly how many hours of staff time they require but i think it's i know that it's repeated um visits by fire department and other officials and i just want to know how that's been taken into account if there's a better way to recoup some of our expenses with regard to those

Sure, so the events are all unique case by case. Each event brings its own challenges. The hope with these changes is that we more standardized and make the process transparent so that. we're, like you said, we're never going to recoup all of the resources that go into these, but by having the standard requests, safety plans, event layout diagrams, certificates of insurance, and making those standard, that the event organizers will have a better idea about what they're getting into when they come into the process. We are keeping, the proposal is to keep small events at the standard fee, which is currently $100 and then escalating the events that require more city resources. Currently, a lot of the events that I think you're referencing actually didn't qualify as a special event. So that's why we're hoping to add these two permit requirements. Those had been getting through the process through a simple noise permit, which has no fee attached to it currently. Hopefully it will in the future. And then the building permit and the fire operating permit. So the hope is that these changes will capture those events and at least capture them at the minimum fee structure that we're establishing. Potentially, though, again, as the event's more complex, the fee raises.

City Council Chambers, I would like to see a proposal that includes large student events actually cover way more of the costs and I. City Council Chambers, Thank you for for finding a loophole like that that those events are going into nose noise ordinance noise violations and we're not even getting anything recouped that's crazy, but I would like to see a proposal that actually takes into account how many hours of time of city staff time it takes to actually do those. I i'm not sure I mean do they fall into the $500 category or the $200 category.

It would depend on the the activations how many permits that they're requiring so if they're having the large scale gathering they're building a stage fencing having amplified sound vending alcohol, it would be the medium or large event based on their scale and scope.

And how many hours of staff time would you approximate that would take, including the fire inspections and all of that.

I CAN'T SPEAK TO THE FIRE INSPECTIONS. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WOULD BE BETTER ABOUT THAT. I CAN SPEAK TO MY DEPARTMENT. YOU KNOW, WE REVIEW THESE EVENT SAFETY PLANS. WE REVIEW THEIR LAYOUT DIAGRAMS. WE ASK FOR A LONGER LEAD TIME SO THAT IF THERE ARE ISSUES, WE CAN ADDRESS THOSE WITH THE APPLICANTS. BUT IT'S REALLY A CASE-BY-CASE, YOU KNOW, LIKE THE MAYOR SAID, THE APPLE HARVEST FESTIVAL, OR VICTOR SAID, THE APPLE HARVEST FESTIVAL, THOSE LARGE-SCALE FESTIVALS VERSUS, YOU KNOW, A STUDENT EVENT. THEY'RE APPLES AND ORANGES. It really depends, but the hope is the hope is, though, that with these reoccurring institutions that are holding similar events, the safety plan that is on file and approved the one the first time can simply be updated to reflect changes for the new events. So if they're having reoccurring events or a series, those plans should look mostly the same and it would free up staff time internally. We would still review them, obviously, but we wouldn't be starting from ground one every time.

Thank you. Ms. Matos and Mr. Trumbull.

Um, I just wanted to say thank you to Scott and, um, your department for creating a very efficient and streamlined process for special event permitting. I actually interact with Scott a lot, um, with my day job. Um, and I think throughout the years it's definitely been easier. Um, and as one, as someone who's using this system, I know what to expect every year. Um, and I think also these, the prices listed are reasonable for the work done. Mr. Trumbull.

Yeah, similar to Kayla's comment or Alderperson Matos' comments. I've been working with Scott on the College Town Community Concert Series. His office is such an amazing support system to lean on. I totally agree with your points, Margaret, but also have full confidence in Scott's ability to kind of figure out how to streamline this and do a more efficient, but ideally more financially beneficial system. So thank you for bringing this forward. And I look forward to seeing what you continue to cook up.

All right, with that, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of adopting the new ordinance? That carries unanimously. Thanks, Scott.

Thanks, everyone. Appreciate you.

Our next item of business is 6.2, the pretreatment agreement between the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility and Cougar Heights. Mr. Trumbull, would you like to summarize and move?

yeah this is authorizing the execution of the pre-treatment agreement between the city of Ithaca the town of Ithaca the town of Dryden basically reaffirming the ownership status and that basically allowing the acting city manager to execute the agreement that has been diligently worked on by all parties involved

Is there a second? Second by Mr. Kirby. I know Scott Gibson is online to answer any questions on this. And then Robin is, of course, one of our representatives on the SJC. Any comments or questions? Seeing none. All those in favor? That carries unanimously. And Mr. Trumbull, would you like to do the plant to plant agreement? 6.3. Yep.

yeah so similarly here, we are executing a plant plant wastewater agreement and substantially the same status that it has been already with the village of Kuga Heights in the village of Lansing as well as the current one here in Ithaca basically reaffirming. When we need to allow them to tap into our services and vice versa, thank you, Mr trumbles or second second by Mr Kirby any discussion on this.

Seeing none. All those in favor? And that carries unanimously. May I simply summarize and move item 7.1, the update to the acting department head compensation policy that we requested from the attorney's office last month? Mr. Sewell.

So resolution updating procedures governing compensation for acting department heads authorizes the city manager to waive the 30-day waiting period for additional compensation when a deputy department head serves as acting department head during a vacancy with funding provided from the vacant department head position. I believe it also allows for someone who's been in a acting position for a year to have the possibility for receiving a step, if I read that correctly.

Thank you, Mr. Sewell. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Schwetz. Any comments or questions on this, Mr. Shapiro?

Sure, this seems reasonable. I'm just curious if anyone knew what the rationale was for having a 30-day waiting period for only the deputy directors.

I actually know this one. At the time, you know, it's part of a deputy director's, you know, job to step in when the director is absent. Normally that comes up, someone's on vacation, somebody's on sick leave. So we didn't want to mess with that. And it was just, I don't think it was fully, frankly, this is, as I drafted the last one too, I don't think we fully thought through the idea that somebody could be in that acting role for a long-term period. Right. So while we didn't want to mess with the fact that somebody wouldn't get full pay bump for like a two week vacation, it wasn't considered at the time for the differential between a deputy department head and somebody else appointed to that role for a for a long term vacancy. Well, it was less eloquent than I normally would be, but that's a thank you for bearing with me.

OK, well, quick follow up then. So then if a. Department head is on medical leave for whatever reason for four weeks or longer it doesn't even matter, for the example. We. We sometimes appoint acting directors, while they're on leave.

yeah typically they'll act in their stead so they're sometimes isn't quite the formal like this is an absolute designation of an acting department head. in a formal manner for some of those shorter periods of time. We have, you know, employee department heads who will go on vacation and the person will make some level of decisions in their stead, but not with the full, like I have the entire authority of the department, because they might wait until that person's back. So it's a little more fluid than that sometimes. But we have had people out for medical leave for exactly four weeks in the past, you know, year or so and had the scenario where we had a deputy department head

I'm going to just quickly recognize myself, which is what we would be doing with this resolution is authorizing the city manager to waive this, not requiring them. I would contend, and I think Mr. Sewell would agree with me, that that discretion should be left to the city manager with, if it were to be abused, counsel to hold the city manager accountable rather than requiring counsel at a voting meeting to authorize a waiver in the event that a department head resign and we anticipate a search and so absolutely i think to the older person's point there is a level of uh discretion and judgment that are that are needed here um and i think that the personally my my view is the appropriate control of that would be council's oversight of their employee as opposed to a blanket policy that prevents the pay in those extenuating circumstances

Okay, I guess I would just ask the acting city manager, as he's done so excellently in the past, just please be transparent with us. If this happens retroactively, just let us know so we can have a way of evaluating that decision-making.

Absolutely.

Thank you. That's my intention. Ms. Fabrizio?

Yeah, sorry, just to clarify. So if a director goes on vacation for two weeks, Is the deputy director typically given the extra pay no okay never in such a scenario, so if a director goes like is gone for will give me the scenario when the deputy director would be given.

The extra pay if a director leaves their position and there will be a search our searches for positions such as that yeah. David. tend to be 180 plus days we'd like to keep that shorter, but that is a long period of time to ask someone to serve and knowing that amount of vacancy. David. We would do that so when someone leaves and we're anticipating a search is one item and the second time and we might be a extended. John Potter, Medical leave or something else that we know is going to last beyond the course of a month, I think the 30 day point is a really excuse me good point of time to sort of have as the threshold, I feel like that works well, based on the situations i've seen it rise, I have the motion.

John Potter, i'm going to move to amend. ADDING IN A SECOND TO LAST RESOLVED, AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, THAT THE CITY MANAGER MUST TRANSMIT IN WRITING ANY SUCH WAIVER TO THE COMMON COUNCIL WITHIN FIVE DAYS OF SUCH PROCESS OCCURRING. ANYONE LIKE TO SECOND? MR. SEWELL? ANY DEBATE ON THE MOTION, ON THE AMENDMENT? ALL THOSE IN FAVOR? ALL RIGHT. WE'RE NOW DEBATING THE AMENDED MOTION. MR. SEWELL AND THEN MS. MATOS. I JUST WANT TO SAY I FEEL HEARD. THANKS, ROB.

The question for Victor in the first or I think if victory, the one who wrote this in the first resolved I read that as saying not that you can do this, that after acting in the role of department for 30 days a department deputy department Shelby assigned the lowest salary step. So I don't read that as doing what it's supposed to be, but maybe i'm misreading it and if that's the case it's fine.

Sorry, can you say that one more time?

It just looks like it's requiring someone to... I'm not sure what work that is doing.

The authorized to waive? Yeah. I mean, I think it's certainly intended to permit the city manager to waive the waiting period. If that makes sense.

No, not in the first result. It doesn't. That after acting in the role of department head for 30 days, a deputy department head shall be assigned to the lowest salary set for the department head position. That results in a salary increase for the deputy.

I have diagnosed the issue. There, as supporting material, the previous resolution was attached. You're reading the previous resolution. Got it.

Thank you.

The first resolved of the resolution for this evening is... resolved that the city manager, in consultation with the controller, is authorized to waive the 30-day waiting, or 30-day period for adjusting, et cetera, et cetera. That was correct, yes. Okay. Thank you.

The other thing I wanted to say is that I certainly support the idea of, if this is a form of resolution we already voted on, but the department had been entitled to an annual salary step increase for the acting title, that's great. I am saddened that people would be acting in for an entire year, but I know that that, I know it happens. Thanks. Ms. Matos?

I think, can someone further explain the third resolve for me? I think I understand the basis of it, but I think it's just essentially, I'm just ensuring that if, let's say there's an employee that is making more than its acting position, they're essentially going to just keep that salary, right? Then what's...

because it's the way that it's worded says that if a step is increased in the employee's permanent title results in a higher salary than the employee's current acting department head salary all the person i think this is the same issue where you're looking at the supporting resolution supporting materials for the previous resolution not the one we're debating oh my goodness i'm so sorry great minds um any further debate on the amended motion seeing none all those in favor that carries unanimously And then our final voting item for the evening is, well, resolution for the evening is 7.2, the updated purchasing policy. May someone please summarize and move this? I'll just do it. The controller updated our out-of-date purchasing policy and is also being added as an authorized purchaser and fixing a clerical error. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Kirby.

Mr. Sewell, you're recognized. Thank you. I wanted to suggest an amendment and the amendment is just the last resolved. It would say resolved that the controller's office shall review the manual annually for potential amendments and that the controller's office in consultation with city manager is authorized to make future modifications to the purchasing policy and procedure manual without approval of the common council and that the controller will transmit to common council any policy changes in writing before they take effect. So moved. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Schvetz. Thank you, Hannah. I just want to say this is similar to the employee conduct personnel. This strikes me as merely procedural, and I would like to give the controller room to do that and, for example, make changes in July when we're not here.

I'm gonna recognize myself first, then Mr. Nguyen. I'm conceptually open to this for the same reasons that I eventually was conceptually in alignment with your previous version of this. I think the one thing that I would need before allowing this is to give the controller time to evaluate what that proposal is measured up against vis-a-vis New York State Office of the Comptroller's recommendations about financial controls. So as long as the state doesn't think that that's an inappropriate delegation of authority, I think I could support that. Assuming, and I'm not going to put her on the spot, but assuming she doesn't know that off the top of her head. then I would at this time not be comfortable supporting that only because we just had a state audit for the first time in years and there were a number of financial controls we didn't have in place. And I think with respect to procurement, because there are financial components to it, I would want to be much more diligent. I appreciate the spirit of what the older person is trying to do. Mr. Wynn.

And yet all all that and, on top of that, so my memory is a SIF, but did we not the last time we talked about this say that we would examine. This approach more generally in terms of city hall policies and so again i'm also not opposed to this, but I thought we're going to do like a broader review of whether it was wise to come to Council or not, and so I would want to wait for that to miss mottos.

I think I feel similar to Alderperson Nguyen and the mayor regarding this. And I'm definitely not the type to micromanage. So if it does allow the controller's office to work more efficiently, I would get behind this. But I guess to add on to the mayor's request, if possible, when Clarissa does come back, if maybe if there are some, like if this is feasible, maybe there's some like areas that you might recommend that might give you or that you might like that more or i don't know what i'm trying to say flexible yeah there we go yes with that flexibility and um that would be nice mr fritzio just really quickly i totally agree with the mayor and thank you for bringing that up look at this we're having all kinds of agreements tonight happy august everybody that that recess did us good mr sewell uh

Yeah, and you guys understand the spirit of what I'm trying to do, so that's perfectly fine. I'm happy to withdraw this particular amendment. Also, because I'm not sure if it's legal. I mean, like, that's a great question. And obviously, we don't, I would not, we shouldn't do that. I would say, shoot, I lost my train of thought, so I'm going to stop.

So is that a formal motion of unanimous consent to withdraw? amendment yeah any objections motions withdrawn we have the main motion on the table which is just adopting the new policy any further debate on this seeing none all those in favor of adoption that carries unanimously thank you very much Carissa for updating this Then next we've got an appointment to the community police board, astute readers and the deputy clerk being one of them may note, wait a second, we've appointed three people. And this is one of those weird charter provisions where the mayor's only allowed to appoint three people per year. Unless i'm filling a vacancy we did have a Member resign and they that appointment was filled, so this is the third appointment for the year, this will be the last Community police board. And Adam i'm putting forward Adam Chandler to be appointed with a term ending actually at the end of this year, because it's a it's a mid year vacancy. Any debate seeing none all those in favor. that carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Mr. Recchio, I know we have time. We have we have your report here. I know council will digest it. Is there anything top line that you'd like us to be paying attention to and or sharing with the public?

Yeah, a few things for you. Thank you. We discussed a little. There was much discussion tonight from the public and in privilege of the floor around traffic safety. You know, the city's made some pretty significant and impressive commitments around Vision Zero. And we have quite a few capital projects in the queue to support those developments around traffic safety part of my intention is for you to see some of those things materialize in this year's budget process, including how we structure. Some of our work within the department of public works, so this is sort of getting you excited for when that comes forward because i'm hoping that our. that our budget in every way that we can aligns with those policy priorities that have come from Council, which does include pieces around public works coordination and traffic safety. So we are looking at different ways to make those investments and Some of that you'll probably see in the capital plan proposal, and some of that you will see in the final budget development where you can point directly to the types of investments we'll make. Pat stole my thunder on the SALT issue. It was a very cold winter. We were worried we might have that. We had underspent for several years. That is correct. And then this year we had a very hard winter. So we're hoping that the November, December time this year is not hard and we'll have to right size that salt and cinders line for next year. John Pimentel, few other brief items just today I sent the invitation for our department heads to begin preparing their annual capital project requests for us. John Pimentel, I gave a pretty thorough presentation to comment Council in May of this year related to the broader five year capital planning framework that is another. John Pimentel, capital planning master planning and facilities addressing is another one of the policy priorities. That has come from Council and working on trying to be responsive to those in how we we plan for addressing deferred maintenance and infrastructure within our capital plan so i'm hoping people will have a closer view in on that there's a few other brief notes, I want to make here. One is around the annual paving program scope that has been reduced so the details are within the report that you have. The presentation that you received from the Department of Public Works earlier this year that listed out the 48 city blocks that were to be paved with mostly through an outside contract. The bid that came in was substantially higher than we anticipated it was going to be. And so we are temporarily scaling back the annual paving program to rebid at a more advantageous timeline for the city. And it has been my explicit instruction the department of public works that those bids happen at the sort of industry standard timing likely in the fall leading into the next season and that our paving program begins earlier in the year as early as april rather than june or july i think we've gotten into some practices um that that don't align with best practices based on some uh limited resources or staff turnover or other items that just need immediately to be addressed in the lead up to 2027 so MY HOPE IS THAT WE CAN FULLY MAXIMIZE OUR PLANNING AROUND ROAD REPAVING IN 2027. I THINK YOU'LL SEE A MUCH MORE TRANSPARENT AND CONCERTED EFFORT TOWARD THAT IN THE FUTURE, BUT PEOPLE WILL SEE LESS CITY ROADS PAVED THIS YEAR. THAT MONEY FROM THE CHIPS PROGRAM AND OTHERWISE WILL JUST ROLL OVER TO FUTURE YEARS. DPW WOULD BE MORE HELPFUL IN ANSWERING DEEPER QUESTIONS ON THAT. I JUST THINK IN AN EFFORT OF since we put so much effort earlier this year telling you what roads we're going to pave. We're not going to do all those roads, so it's just going to be a little bit more delayed than we had hoped. And I'm happy to answer any other questions from the report, but those were the top line items I wanted to make sure you heard from me, and then we can talk about the finance report after any of these questions.

Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Brizio, Mr. Shapiro.

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you, Mr Mayor, and thank you, I can see the manager of radio following up on the roots program do we have a timeline yet from hiring to actually deploying. Mayor Mrakas, And then I guess a kind of follow up question have you guys started to think about how dispatch integration with IP D will work or is there, someone kind of taking the lead on that yet excellent questions, thank you coming Council will be receiving.

an update on the development of the ROOTS program in your next meeting, the Committee of the Whole meeting on August 12th. That will have several items in that update. I can give you a few initial notes today. And that is that, yeah, we have received significant interest in the positions we've posted. People are very excited about them. We've been working very closely with community partners and the police department around our training program development and developing policies and procedures. As well as sort of the equipment and office space and other items for the group so those updates will be more thoroughly available next week when it comes to the dispatch. aspect of what you're asking that is a critical function for this program to be worked out during its pilot period. Where we're going to be starting based on the resources that are available is a lot more work in the proactive outreach type effort from the roots program and. handoffs from the police department on scene to the roots team, so it is not currently in the plan, due to not having a sort of supervisory or dispatcher type position integrated into this budget to have 911 or otherwise dispatch this program. What we're doing as a sort of smaller scale pilot investment to help sort of integrate more of that call center type opportunity with this is to do the 211 callback program that we've identified. So part of the budget that we're working on and what you'll hear a little bit of an update about is after a roots staff member is on scene with someone in order to ensure social services follow ups with them, they'll actually be working through a 211 callback program. John Lund, I will say, in terms of most of the emergency response type activities they'll participate in it's going to be sort of an unseen handoff after an IPD officers declaring the scene safe and feeling like integrating with a with a routes officer is the most appropriate next level of that response.

John Lund, yeah with you.

um so with regard to the road work thank you so much for figuring out that we're not really following best practices on with regard to our timing disappointment about this year but what i'm wondering is so i have a couple questions this is the first one um spot fixing patching of roads i mean i know it's not like ideal But we obviously still have a lot of holes in a lot of places that are dangerous for bicyclists, that are dangerous for pedestrians. The crosswalks are in miserable shape in so many places in the city. And I just want to make this plea one more time. City Council Chambers, To have our staff and not our contracted staff, but our city staff well trained and able to fix those potholes at least some kind of temporary fix and i'm so i'm wondering what you're thinking about that.

City Council Chambers, I have a few things for you i've been thinking a lot about this. We. City Council Chambers, In the. City Council Chambers, Annual work plan that I am working on one of the things, one of the concepts that i'm i'm working through is is. The having a a standard that's sort of adopted by the city for what a pothole repair for different aspects of you know we have various different types of potholes. We have funds that are caused by water intrusion ones that are caused by substructures. And ones that are caused by manhole cover divots So those are the three sort of things that come up and we have different approaches to each of them, including based on how. Much traffic goes over the road, how old the road is what is underneath the road, etc, so i'm hoping that our team will work to develop a standard, so that when our crew goes out to fix a pothole. Matt Pinyan, They know what that should look like at the end of that pothole fix and it's not just determined when you're on site, they know what that standard looks like so that's something i'm really hoping that we will integrate so that people can know what to expect for repairs. Matt Pinyan, And our team can do the best work to make sure those repairs are done the second layer is dpw is actively working on. filling several open positions that would constitute a specific pothole crew or identifying a way to do that. It may even be possible to do that through the water and sewer crew charging the general fund to do some of that work. So we're looking at what are the ways we can get people out the door filling potholes on a more frequent basis. And the third piece is this is an area I came into this job not knowing a lot about. I have tried to do everything I can to educate myself and I've been specifically involved in some of the sort of webinars and other things with the cornell local roads program, which is an amazing resource in New York state that we have and i've learned a ton already about potholes and road management, which is informed some of these strategies there so. I can't say we're going to have that pothole you want fixed fixed tomorrow, but I am trying to take this issue seriously because we can definitely do better for our residents in this area.

Thank you so much. Those are all really, really great things to hear. I hope that the training and this reorganization and the actual coming up with the standard procedures can be expedited so we can actually get more potholes fixed like this year, not just next year. I wanted to ask about budget instructions to department heads. Is that something that you can share with Council? I think it would be good for us just to sort of have a heads up and and be able to anticipate like what people are being asked to do.

Yeah, we can follow up with a general sense of what our instruction was in the sort of a detailed overview.

That would be great. Thank you so much. And then the last thing I wanted to ask about is about the bus stop and I was so happy to see the lighting that's that's with the scaffolding right now. And I think you know for for what it is, I think it looks really good. And I appreciate, I know this is tremendous effort. I'm also still extremely sympathetic, as you know, to our downtown anchor business, Moosewood Restaurant, and the difficulties that they are coping with with regard to that bus stop. So I'm just wondering what needs to be done and who's responsible for that and what's the timeline for actually reopening to our old bus stop so that we can get those buses off the block of Seneca Street that they're currently on?

Thank you. Our sidewalks are within days of being reopened around the Seneca Street garage site. There's a few small safety hazards that are being addressed. One thing to note is that when the engineer came to install the Matt Perault, scaffolding they actually identified more areas of the garage that were at risk of falling so it's it's even more. Matt Perault, of a reason to take some of the approach that we have because there are additional concerning areas you'll see additional netting placed up on the concrete. Matt Perault, directly on the garage area, we have prepared to the best of our in our engineers ability the scaffolding to be sort of set up for compliance to accept buses back at that space. T cat has several assessments that they will need to run through in terms of where buses will stop and signage and notification of riders so. We are also awaiting a final sort of It's a letter. I think there's a more formal term for it, but a letter from our engineering firm that gives us the final go ahead and clarifies the ADA accessibility guidance in that area. So I would say I think that we are weeks away from TCAT being able to make their considerations to move back. But they have a whole set that I don't fully understand every layer of what TCAT would have to do to return back to that site. But I think that we're within weeks of them being able to do so. with the city having done everything that needs to be done on our end. They have a lot of writer communication and signage sort of things that they need to work out as next steps.

I would just like to ask that if we can, whatever we can do to expedite this and to ensure that TCAT expedites it, that we need to do it because we are talking about a business that is an economic driver for this community. And I think it's really being negatively impacted. And I feel like TCAT has been dismissive, more dismissive of this than they should be. And I want to see this fixed as soon as possible. And so please do whatever you can to ensure they have what they need so they don't have any excuses for dragging their feet on what needs to be done to reopen there. Thank you. Who set up? Who did the scaffolding and the lighting and all of that? Was that in-house or outside contracting firm?

Our team developed the scope of work for it in a very quick timeline. with something they have not done before. So I'm very proud of our engineering team to have set that up in something that's atypical for a community like ours. But yeah, that was an outside firm that came and did an excellent job. Looks good.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Shapiro.

Should I save finance-related questions? Please. Okay. Well, then just a quick comment or comment slash question. I appreciated your report this month. There was a lot of emphasis on organizational development, which is kind of my language, so I appreciated reading it. My only comment, because we've also, I think, hired, I'm going to forget the exact title, but someone with a title that relates to organizational development. I see a lot of these initiatives as developing or designing. And I just hope you're delegating and directing instead of taking this all on yourself.

I appreciate that. We actually had the director of organizational development lead. HR attorney's office, controller's office and myself through an exercise recently to sort of map out what's taking up all of our time and look through an exercise around what needs to be redesigned, prioritized, delegated and things. So you're issue spotting similar things. And he did a very nice job walking us through that exercise. And we've had some really great opportunities to work through those delegating. I, of course, I'm still working on that myself as well.

Also, just one other comment. Thank you for saying that. I appreciated the also section on the mid-year department head check-ins. I do appreciate that you're having check-ins with your department, but more so hearing their feedback about the questions you had about their relationship with council. I almost wish we asked that last year because it would be nice to see a level of improvement. And I think there is a level of improvement, but I think I'm still seeing like there's work to be done because they're talking about improving cautious optimism. It's generally OK. So just, you know, I hear this from, I've heard this over the last couple of years and I've tried to like hold myself to a better standard. I think we've all done that. I think it's reflecting in some better comments that we're hearing here, but I think we all just need to continue to make sure that our city staff and department heads feel like we're supporting them. And I'm just making that kind of pledge to myself, but out loud. Thank you.

And I certainly appreciate the work that you at this table have done with that commitment. So thank you.

Mr. Wynn.

I I don't agree that tcat has been dismissive I think they the board has also been pushing them to do what they can to help out the situation and you know they serve a population of all different abilities and the ADA requirements for just a sidewalk are different from the ones that are for a transit stop you know they have wheelchair users um so I know that Matt and his team are working very hard on this. And we have to be aware, too, that even when they return, they're going to have to leave again when the garage goes down. It won't be safe to stop buses. So this will be a recurring problem. Cities have bus stops all over the place, and it's fine. I don't think we should be any different. It's usually an amenity that other developers beg for, and we can't provide the service, to Zachman's point earlier.

um but I appreciate in the report I know we've talked a ton about Public Works that there's a proposal for a redesign of the department and I'm curious if and when we'll get a glimpse of that the budget is going to be the central place in which that is proposed because we are rapidly working on every aspect of how to do that I would love to be able to give a little additional information ahead of the budget but there's a lot of moving pieces I can't fully commit to everything being in writing before the budget is finalized. But we are taking these pieces really seriously to help serve those public works needs best. And many thanks to Scott Gibson, our acting superintendent, who's really taken that on since stepping into that role and been an excellent support system in developing that plan.

This is just a broader comment about the. Acting city managers communications. The word budget has come up on our listserv recently, and this award is very sensitive to budget. And it's been extremely helpful having a lot of information already accessible the budget kiff cough was excellent it gave us a lot of numbers and. and say here's what the city's looking at. I know the mayor put together the budget priorities that we could share. That was extremely important, so I just want to say it's been really helpful, the clear, accessible communication that's coming from the administration so that we can communicate with our constituents. I think the comparison between, and I hate doing this, but communication coming out of the city and maybe what's coming out of um other places um it's just it's night and day so thank you um with that i'll turn to miss robuski if there's anything that she'd like to highlight in the controllers report before i open it for questions sure

so this is at the end of the finance report but i have to start with it which is that we're very excited that the bonadio group has completed the city's draft 2022 financial statement um by the stated deadline of july 31st we've sent that to the auditors dresser malecki we're going to be meeting with them for a kickoff planning meeting in a couple weeks they'll be driving through ithaca so we'll get to meet them in person and so we're just thrilled and i just want to give a huge thank you to the whole controller's office and chamberlain's office staff because it was a tremendous amount of work to try to keep up with daily operations and also work on this cleanup so thank you to those teams In terms of the details of the finance report, I'm going to go rapid fire through some highlights about the revenue and expenditure updates for this month. One thing I just want to note is that for the property tax receipts, it seems it's normal to be $2 to $3 million behind in terms of late payments, so that's not a concern we have about full attainment of the property tax revenues. We did see the sales and tax bump that we had expected. The sales and use tax from May to June went from 31% to 39%. So even though we're still lagging, we did see that jump. We kind of have September and December jumps as well. And we've talked about in the past that Next year, we'll have kind of year-to-date comparisons for each month, which will make this report more useful. But we're feeling good about that trend going up. For fees, we looked into a number of them. There's more detail in the report. But just to note that we have a number of fees that we know basically don't hit the books until later in the year. And I would say that the main one that we highlight is trying to understand why we're lagging behind on hourly parking and parking permits. And the one thing I know is from looking about how the revenues posted in past years it's never been at a regular clip like we've never seen monthly parking revenue posts so we don't have reason to believe that you know we have regular posts and we're definitely down it could just be an irregularity of how we post that revenue and we're just looking into that more um because that seems to be the most the trend that we're most concerned about um in fees from an expenses standpoint i would just highlight uh that you know overtime is already spent at 65 of the amount that we budgeted this year and i think that'll be part of our 2027 budget discussion is making sure that we're both properly budgeting for overtime and also understanding how to control overtime costs the extent that we can so that i think will be a continued conversation both in managing this expense for 26 as well as budgeting correctly for 27 And we did point out a few of the areas where we are seeing some operating expenses are over spent in terms of being halfway through the year. Something like equipment maintenance, when we have a lot of deferred maintenance, I wouldn't be surprised if we continue to trend up with that. Just like utilities, I think everyone's personal utilities, it's just a large expense. So the fact that we're actually only at 53% of utilities feels better than what it could be. So we'll continue to monitor that as well. And yes, everyone took the announcement about the salt. Yes, we've overspent fully on all the salt. So that was going to be something I said as well. And the only other we had promised in the may report that we would give an update on this debt reduction and conversion plan so i just quickly wanted to point out that we did the exercise where we've looked at all of the 78 bands that are supporting 54 capital projects and we have identified that 37 of those were supported by some level of we were expecting funding to get reimbursed from a grant or another source and for 11 of those there's nothing else for us to collect we're all closed 26 of them do have additional reimbursements to collect and we have identified another 4.4 million that we're actively pursuing to collect and a lot of what's remaining after that we know our active projects and we're on a much better clip again a lot of kudos to Natalie tonight but I will also just give major kudos to Emily as as well as the grant administrator for working on this project to kind of get us up to speed We've also been able to see we have a lot of old capital projects that some of which have cash balances in them that we can close and further use those balances to pay off debt as well. So that's another part of this project. We felt like for next month's report, because we'll be giving the update on all the July financing, that was the best time to create kind of a renewed list of all the debt we have and give more detail. And I'll just say, you know, obviously it's a very busy month for budget formulation, so we need to create that kind of list anyway. I'll try to get you as much detail as possible for the next report, and I'll keep you posted if there's something that needs a little bit more time. By the time we kind of get four weeks from now, the amount of work that we need to do on the budget is substantial. But I'm looking forward to having this level of detail so we can have a really good number for how much we need to budget for debt in 27.

sounds like rapid fire is just kind of your normal mo um anyway now that i have mud on my face from the salt um fiasco it just really reiterates my first point from earlier tonight that i really just hope we have more sophisticated budgeting this year we were like in a room trying to make last minute decisions without really having any detail to how to make those decisions and clearly we now underfunded salt because of that Anyway, I have a question about what happens if we finish the year in a deficit. Last year, for some of the newer colleagues, we talked about redlining, which is the process of moving money from lines that have too much money to lines that have already been spent too much. So I think I explained that right, but I think that's the process of how to move money around. But I'm curious, What happens if we finish, can a city government finish in deficit?

I mean, ultimately, yes. It's not that we have no fund balance. So I think that ultimately we could do a budget adjustment, you know, just in the same way that you approve other mid-year budget amendments to determine whether we wanted to bring in fund balance as a fund source if we needed that to close out the year. It's kind of my short answer. We wouldn't ultimately be in the red. And maybe I was saying, should I keep this number in my back pocket or not? But the good news is that in the 2022 draft financial statements, the fund balance is higher than it was in 21. So that's a good sign.

Well, I meant to start my comments to say congratulations on getting an audit, so thanks for reminding me. But I guess I just wanted to say we committed last year to having a budget within the tax cap. We've done that this year. We've given you instructions to do the same. Those are only words if we finish in a deficit. So I'm a little concerned about our finances today, even though We did just get lots of our property taxes. If you looked at this statement last month, we were in deficit by like $3 million. So now that we got all of our property tax, we're in surplus by whatever amounts a million. But that property tax doesn't come the rest of the year.

And I do think we're very mindful and having this monthly exercise is helpful to help us think about whether or not what communication we might need to give out to departments about spending slowing to the extent that if we ultimately are looking at the revenues and they are slower than we would expect, we don't want to look in November to start to address that.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you for that. And also thank you for digging into the into the bands and figuring out where those reimbursements are. And I'm sure that you're also thinking about developing policies that would ensure that those kinds of things do not happen in the future. So thank you in advance for all of that.

All right with. We do have two executive sessions.

Only because you're giving me a face that says this is not a serious comment, but by all means. Mr. Sewell, take it serious or not. I think hiring a controller was a good investment on the part of this council. So that's that's what I want to say.

We're back, folks. We're back. yeah right all right with that uh we will we have no voting items coming out of executive session so we will thank both the deputy clerk and the members of the public and the press for their uh wonderful attention uh with that i will call for a motion to enter into executive session to discuss personnel yeah i was just trying to figure out but they're they're both personnel uh matos kirby all those in favor unanimous