Common Council - Special Meeting

one for everybody out there.

We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. I will note, since we have some members of the public, I will just paraphrase our emergency evacuation notice. In the event of an emergency, you are to use one of the two exits, the door that most of you came in or the door that is over my left shoulder. You were to wait at Green Street on the same side of the street. Do not cross green unless it is strictly necessary. In the event of emergencies, for those with restricted mobility, please move to our stairwells and first responders will arrive to aid you. In the event of other emergencies, you will be notified how to proceed at that time. If possible, if you are possibly able to lend assistance to others, please do so as you are your own best advocate. With that, we will move. Any additions, deletions to the agenda? Seeing none. I will just take a quick opportunity to remind the residents of the fourth ward that the application process to fill that vacant seat previously held by Mr. Keel is, thank you, Ms. Clerk, by Mr. Keel, that application process closes on Friday at the end of business. So if you live in the fourth ward and you would like to represent your community for a year until the next election, please send your application in. The review committee will begin interviewing individuals once those applications are finalized. With that, we have a couple of public hearings first. More prefatory comments from me than is normally warranted, but I know there's a lot of new faces here. I'm going to open up two different public hearings. The public hearings, we're calling people up who are specifically here to talk about the things on the public hearing, which I know that many of you are not. Someone will always come up and then be flabbergasted when they mean to go to public comment, so don't worry. I will let you know when public comment is, but that is not the thing we're doing first. May I have a motion to open the 2027 Sidewalk Improvement District Assessment Roll? Mr. Shapiro opens that public hearing, seconded by Mr. Defendini. All those in favor of opening the public hearing, that carries unanimously. Deputy Clerk, do we have any speakers for the Sidewalk District Assessment Roll public hearing? Thank you, Deputy Clerk. May I have a motion to close the public hearing? Mr. Defendini, Ms. Matos, all those in favor of closing the public hearing, that carries unanimously. I'd like to also look for entertain a motion to open a public hearing related to the property disposition amendment to 205 West State Street that is moved by Mr. Shapiro and seconded by Mr. DeFendini. All those in favor of opening that public hearing, that carries unanimously. Deputy Clerk, do we have any speakers signed up for that public hearing? Thank you, Deputy Clerk. May I have a motion to close the public hearing? Moved by Mr. DeFendini, seconded by Ms. Matos. All those in favor of closing the public hearing? that carries unanimously thank you for letting me get my death of stalin reference in for the meeting we will now turn to public comment if you haven't seen that movie it is phenomenal um we have three speakers there are of course 30 minutes allotted is there anybody here who thinks they're here for public comment and has not given a card to the deputy clerk Going once, going twice. Once I start calling folks up, we cannot enter the queue. Okay. First is Patricia. Is it pronounced Dut? Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Thank you. My name is Patricia Dutt. I live in the town of Ithaca. I want to talk about the Elm Street PUD and also thank Common Council members who came out to West Hill several weeks ago. I'd like to clear up some of the walkability issues presented at the August 19th meeting, misconceptions held by the first two speakers who incidentally do not live on West Hill. Walkability. There's no better way to connect with neighbors and create community cohesiveness. According to WalkSource, criteria for a walkable city includes having schools and workplaces close enough so that most residents can walk to them from their homes. So that's schools and work, and those are the two things I want to talk about. First of all, there is no grade school on West Hill. There has not been a grade school here since 1983. In 1983, the grade school became Lehman Alternative Community School, or LACS. LACS enrollment is around 250 students, grades 6 to 12, and is not a significant school for anyone on West Hill. It's a citywide school, city and townwide school. When I moved to West Hill in 1998, my three kids were bused to Cayuga Heights, Boynton Middle School, and Ithaca High School. Events at the school meant a car, especially with three young kids. Another walkability requirement is jobs that you can walk to. One gentleman at the August meeting mentioned two major employers on West Hill. Scratch my head. Who? Well, one must be LACS. When I checked the LACS website, I found one vacancy. Getting a job with the school district is no small thing. And I know this because I was a teacher for several years. And I know that those teachers hold on to those jobs. So what was the other employer? It must be the hospital. The hospital is three miles away alongside a highway. I have biked there, but it is dangerous. I would never bike that route during rush hour or at night. West Hill has been sparsely populated likely because it has no neighborhood school. The other reason is that Ithaca's big employers, Cornell University and Ithaca College are not on West Hill. For most people on West Hill, the car is their primary and often sole means of transportation to and from work and sometimes to and from school. walkable neighborhood needs a walkable sidewalk into the city it has been mentioned that lower elm street sidewalk is not ada compliant to be ada compliant no slope should be greater than five percent on the lower part of elm street the slope is almost ten percent to walk up and down elm street you are either dedicated and robust or poor and can't afford the bus very much that is your time you may submit the rest of your comments in writing

My next speaker is Zach Wood.

Thank you for listening.

Mr. Wynn, you have three minutes once you begin. Order.

Real quick aside, I've ridden down. Your time, just so you know. Okay, I got that. Ridden down the hill from both the hospital and everywhere on West Hill. And every time I do that, I know I'm taking my life into my hands. So it is dangerous. And I sent you an email earlier today I would like to read. The city's official Facebook account recently posted a promotional notice for a book talk featuring a political advocacy action kit published by People for the American Way with its president, former Mayor Svante Merrick as the speaker. After I raised the issue, the post was deleted. I view the removal as acknowledgement the post was improper. Official city social media is a public resource that must remain limited to neutral municipal business, not the promotion of third party advocacy products or events. This incident is particularly concerning given the documented history of conflicts of interest and blurred lines between the city, former Mayor Merrick, and People for the American Way during reimagining public safety. I am asking for a clear explanation of how this occurred and what steps will prevent it from happening again. Who authorized or directed the posting of this content on the city's official Facebook page? What review process, if any, exists for content on official city social media accounts before it is published? Why was a promotional post for a third party advocacy organization's product and related event considered appropriate for the city's official channels? Given the prior ethics concerns involving Mr. Merrick, the city and People for the American Way, is there any ongoing coordination or communication between city staff and Mr. Merrick or his organization regarding the use of official city platforms or resources? What does this incident indicate about the internal standards and training regarding the proper separation between official city communications and third party advocacy interests? Will the city issue clear written guidelines distinguishing neutral community notices from promotional or advocacy content? And will those guidelines be made public? I nor anyone should be able to say the city of Ithaca acted improperly or unethically. Please find out what happened and see that it does not happen again. Thank you, Mr. Wynn.

My next speaker is Dr. Miranda Pagan. Welcome, Dr. Pagan. You have three minutes once you begin.

Hi, everyone. I am here in support of the GIAC pod. I read the pod application and this project would be a great opportunity for engaging with and supporting our community. Research has shown that social isolation and loneliness are linked to higher health risks, including death. The CDC website shows that about one in three adults in the United States reports feeling lonely and that about one in four adults lack social and emotional support. I was excited to see that the whole GIAC proposal is centered on providing programs and services that directly benefit the community, including skill building and job trainings for young adults, as well as a community space for people to enjoy and celebrate their culture. I am also here to talk in support of the Lower Elm Street Pod. I am a homeowner in Elm Street and I support the development of market rate apartments. I would love to build more affordable housing, but we need to have more taxable housing to cover the tax abatements that are required for building affordable housing. I am against the entrance of the part to Elm Street and would appreciate that the developers consider an entrance on Chestnut Street instead to increase the pedestrian safety on West Hill. I would also like to see a race crosswalks on Lower Elm Street, create an always stop on the Chestnut and Elm Street, as well as like building sidewalks all the way from West Village to Upper Elm Street. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. And our final speaker this evening is John King. Welcome, Mr. King. You have three minutes. Why don't you begin?

Good evening, everyone. I'm here to talk about two quick subjects. The first is the amendment to the city's fire code enforcement and the increase of fines for fire code violations strongly in favor of this. Right now, our fire department's hands have been tied by a weak enforcement regimen that does not allow them to adequately go after irresponsible property owners and keep our citizens safe. This is an excellent start. I am worried that we're tying our own hands a little bit here, though. I see that we are capping the maximum fine at $500 per day. The state in executive law allows us to go up to $1,000 per day if a violation continues after a lawful order is given. I don't think we should be preconceiving enforcement authority. That's not to say I think we should start off by hitting someone with $1,000 every day as soon as there's a violation. We should consider gradiating this. Minor violations, if fixed quickly, should see no penalty, but violations that are considered immediately hazardous, which is a code used in the, or imminently hazardous, which is a term used in the fire code, that go unresolved for any significant period of time should see rapidly escalating fines this is something we already do in our own enforcement against housing standards in section 210 86 of our city code and it's contemplated by the executive law specifically when talking about municipal penalties which can increase when unenforced let's not preconceived any ground let's let the fire chief determine when these violations are severe enough to warrant greater enforcement But on the whole, great start, and I'm very, very pleased to see you all taking this on. We need better enforcement, as evidenced by the catastrophe at Astari, which left hundreds of people homeless for two weeks in the middle of the winter. The second thing I'm here to talk about is the PUD for GIAC, strongly in support. GIAC is an amazing agency. It is a cornerstone of this community, provides remarkable services for so many children here. And I think the opportunities, the stability and the activity it provides are a significant part of why we have such a thriving community. Cannot speak highly enough of GIAC. And this putt, it's not a huge increase here. We're talking about a building that right now, according to the city's own property records, has 62% lot coverage. They're going up to 65%. talking about a zone that r2a right now i believe r2a that allows 35 feet the average roof height of the new building is 36 feet we're not talking something that's egregious or out of scale if anything i'd actually like to see them go higher they mentioned in their own memo programs they would have liked to do in the past such as a black box theater such as an arcade i think those are great we need more spaces for teenagers to be allowed to exist in public because they've been driven from nearly every other aspect of our public space. And frankly, putting a black box theater and an arcade in a building that's already going to host this cafe and educational program, it couldn't be better. The only thing I can see wrong with this is the idea that anyone could oppose it and that they don't go bigger. GIAC's an amazing institution. I urge you all to please support them. And I urge GIAC to please consider doing everything that they want to with that parcel because our children in this community deserve what GIAC has to offer for them. So please support that. Please support GIAC.

Thank you, Mr. King. uh that concludes our speakers for the evening we'll turn to our next uh special order of business um may i have someone please summarize and move the amendment to the iura uh dda for the 205 west state street parcel please I will move this. This is essentially, this is a project that's been in the works for a long time to support the development of INHS's Volusi project named after, of course, our late prominent board member. It also is going to provide 50, four units of permanently affordable senior housing and a first floor daycare in the child care desert that is known as ithaca new york um this is an adjustment to the sale price uh because it is necessary for the deal to pencil out a lot of the financing in this project is in place and of course kate de la garza the head of inhs is here to answer any questions that folks may have as well as uh nels bone who is the uh staff lead of the iura uh so i move this seconded by mr shapiro uh questions they are available to answer them if you have them and they're necessary for your vote seeing none all those in favor of approving this that carries unanimously thank you this is now no longer a special meeting of common council we're going to go into a committee agenda so nothing else that we vote on this evening will enter into law tonight all of the votes will be you either moving things to the voting agenda for october meeting or consent agenda so if they're if you're worried that i've never seen some of these things before that is okay they're not going into law tonight this was a special item that was time sensitive

with that may i some please summarize and move uh the noise permit fees and uh fees ordinance uh mr trumbull yeah um this resolution um is establishing uh noise ordinance permit fee um with an adjustment uh because in the past it hasn't been established in code um i think that's basically the synopsis

Thank you, Mr. Trumbull. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. DeFendini. I'll just see if there's any questions that folks have for the city attorney's office or the clerk's office. Or Dice, excuse me. Seeing none. You don't have to. Ms. Fabrizio. It was like a very like, I will if nobody will.

No, no, I... Just to clarify, there isn't any fee that's attached to this. There's no recommendation of a fee on this. Is that correct?

Correct. So as you rightly note, the issue here is that it was hitherto designated in city code via ordinance. And as one of my colleagues last year noted, we might want to update our fees more regularly. And this enables us to set those by resolution going forward, which, as counsel knows, but maybe not the public, really lowers the barrier to changing things. Right. Resolutions, of course, have way fewer requirements.

so so it does not have a static fee but council then may enact fees by resolution from time to time thank you for that clarification so i guess my only comment would be um that i hope that when we do that we look at cost recovery uh with regard to this so actually figuring out how much time our staff spend on various size events and trying to recover as much of that as possible i will uh

do my normal vamping by letting the active state manager know he's about to get called on. But I am sure what he's going to say is that it is the administration's plan as part of future budgets to build that review on an annual basis now that we're providing more flexibility to the administration.

Mr. Recchio. Thank you. We have been discussing fees and right-sizing them across several different factors, including cost recovery when Appropriate as part of this budget process and will in future budget processes as well with hundreds of fees across our departments. And so not every one of them can have that thorough level of review in each year, but we are targeting fees over time and you'll have that information as part of this and future budget processes yep.

With that. With that all those in favor of approving the new ordinance. That carries unanimously. Now may I have someone please summarize and move the new fee structure resolution? Mr. DeFendini.

I'll read the resolves resolved that the common Council hereby adopts a $50 fee for temporary noise permit applications pursuant to section 240 13 D of the ethical city code. Be further resolved the common Council here hereby adopts a $50 filing fee for petitions for noise variants pursuant to section 240 14 of the ethical city code and be a further resolve that these fees should become effective on the effective date of the ordinance. And be it further resolved the city clerk and appropriate city staff are authorized to implement and publish the revised fees I move as written.

Thank you, Mr. Devendini. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Matos. Any discussion on the resolution? Ms. Fabrizio?

Yeah, I guess I would just ask, so this is $50. Is there any sense of how much time, staff time, any of these take? Like, how did we arrive at $50? Is that...

While the acting city manager pulls that up, I'll note, I think this initial resolution is intended to just... what we just did was eliminate the fee and so what this does is sets the fee which is which is the same dollar value it was in the old ordinance but now pursuant to what mr reccio said we can conduct all of that staff analysis and recommend new numbers as as that we get clarity around that that's correct this is just to maintain status quo until such a time as council wants to raise the fee i don't think there's any intent for this to be fifty dollars forever thank you that's exactly what i was gonna say thank you victor All right, all those in favor of this resolution? And this is going to, both of these are going to our October voting meeting. Thank you. Next, could I have someone please summarize and move the 2027 SID assessment roll? Mr. Shapiro.

I will also just cover the resolves. Resolved that the Common Council recommends the proposed 2027 SID budget assessments and schedule of work attached here to and be it further resolved that the Common Council recommends including in the proposed 2027 budget and adopting this 2027 sidewalk improvement district budget

assessments and work plan by local law in concert with the approval of the city's 2027 budget thank you mr shapiro is there a second second by mr difendini any discussion on this all those in favor that carries unanimously thank you uh next may i please have someone summarize and move amendments to city code chapter 181 fire prevention mr trumbull

This ordinance will basically allow for a minimum fine for all violations. Some have a minimum of zero dollars. Removing imprisonment is a potential penalty for certain violations while retaining the possibility of imprisonment for the most serious violations.

Thank you very much, Mr. Trumbull. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. DeFendini. I will just briefly recognize myself to acknowledge a comment from public comment, which is to say that under Section 2 and 3 here, A2 and A3, right, for violations for failure to comply and for misdemeanor violations, the cap is in fact now $1,000 to the speaker's point. What council decides is the upper bound of that is council's prerogative, unless otherwise prescribed by New York State law, but just that they are set to no less than 500 and no more than 1,000 at present of what you're considering. And as the mover noted, as well as the memo from the city attorney's office, the most sort of impactful thing that's happening here is that we're eliminating the ability for there to be $0 fines. Any further discussion on this item? right seeing none all those in favor of moving this to our october meeting that carries unanimously um uh then we also have uh an amendment to section 178 3 of the city code related to extra exterior property maintenance mr sewell please summarize and move uh so this is a change to the language of the um exterior property um maintenance code regarding snow and ice on the sidewalks the current

way it's written currently it could be interpreted to require the city to affirmatively prove that no snow had fallen at the location of alleged violation within the preceding 24 hours this would change the language that the enforcement officials inquiry would be limited to whether snow and or ice were present on the sidewalk at the time of the alleged violation um i believe that's correct that is correct uh mr sewell moves is there a second

seconded by Ms. Schvetz. I'll just, again, briefly recognize myself. I have no idea how we ended up in a position where our existing ordinance put the burden of meteorological proof on the city, but I want to express my gratitude to Mr. Kessler and his office for fixing that, because that seems like a really wild burden of proof to put on ourselves. Any discussion on this?

Mr. Sewell. This is maybe a silly question, but is it possible to make the language not what it is because it's so... The legalese. It's very difficult to parse that.

uh theoretically yes um i tend to uh when i'm doing amendments i try to kind of change as little as possible um but yeah theoretically we could just wipe the entire code section and and reinstitute it in actual english i just the specific term you're using um and i forget what it is now um uh you're kind of proving your point though

uh yeah oh yeah there's a specific term that you relied on that i looked up and i still don't quite understand but it's apparently proven negative or something mr mr sewell are you referring to affirmative defense yes thank you yeah yeah so affirmative defense actually we would want to keep that in there regardless because that's illegal it has legal meaning it means that you can raise it

as a defense but the defense the burden is on the defendant to prove it so so that would be language that we wouldn't keep in just because the courts know what that means yeah i just was yeah that's it thank you but without objection and without a formal resolution of any kind i would say uh temperature taking up the council uh if there's no dissent i think it would be very valuable for uh dice to send out an update about how this will be prosecuted going forward once the changes take effect thank you mr uh Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scoop you, my friend. All right. Any further discussion, Mr. Kirby?

Just because we just did it with some other stuff, we should raise the fees for the penalties for exterior property maintenance. Just want to throw that out there.

yeah and i think that'll be a a larger conversation i think we need to revisit epmo generally but this is sort of a temporary patch on it but i think that will be something that my office will be bringing forward um hopefully in the next couple months we're a little delayed on on our revisiting of the ordinance as a whole but that is still on our work plan mr reggio and then mr butzio mr brizzio

Yeah, I was just going to say, in addition to looking at that, it would be really great to get some data on how many tickets were written, what prosecutions were done. We need to have some data so we know how well we're doing with this. Walkability is a major issue. We have a really big problem with people clearing their sidewalks, whether it's landlords or property owners or renters or whoever. I think we need a huge PR campaign to improve what we're doing. So I also think some data would be really welcome.

Great. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of advancing this to our October meeting, that carries unanimously. All right. With that, I would like to now invite up Mr. Brooks and Dr. O'Donnell for their discussion of the PUD application for West Court Street. Mr. Shapiro.

Yeah, I'm wondering, I serve through my role on city council as a voting member of the board of GIAC. I was going to ask if I should recuse myself, but I am wondering if I could just sit here silently.

That's not permissible. But you can make a determination as to whether you should recuse. But if you're going to like, I mean, you go ahead.

I felt like I got the advice earlier today that it's probably wise for me to recuse myself.

Yeah. that would be appropriate but you can also just like walk on the youtube okay because the idea is okay well the idea behind having someone leave the table is they can't be like glowering at someone and not that you would do that but like uh so you can't be you know subtly influencing the proceedings by by being in the room okay well seeing that this is the last agenda item i'm going to recuse myself that way please do have a good night may i offer a few kickoff comments yeah i'll turn it over to mr reccio for some preliminary comments

Just very briefly, this is on the agenda as a discussion item today, I think that it's incumbent upon the city to have a little bit more time to consider this particular pod because ultimately. This project will become a city owned asset, so I think there's an additional layer of thinking that I just want to encourage Council to have here, we are looking at the pod but we're also thinking about this project in the context of a future city asset it's currently a. As a capital project associated with it, that was required for a portion of the match and i'm happy to chime in with some questions. Um, as is Travis related to city, um, overlap and operational impacts and what what we know and what what else is to be gleaned in the future. So it's kind of a 2 tracks moving at the same time. You can look at the piece because that's a standalone item. But please, I'd encourage you to consider it in the context of being a city owned asset as well, because it ultimately will be while it's not today.

I do see Mister Trumbull's hand before I recognize I will just say if it's a if it's a clarification comment or question on what Mister Recchio said please otherwise let's just let them present first but you recognize.

I think it is I'm just going to bring it up because they mentioned the looming deadlines of October 26th and December 12th. So are you saying taking our time as far as still trying to make those deadlines or.

I can provide a little bit more on the deadlines as the conversation proceeds in the future. And we do still have some outstanding questions on the deadlines and some extensions that we're working on in the background. So there's no hard and fast information fully to provide, but we can talk about that a little bit more after the presentation. All right.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Brooks and Dr. O'Donnell.

Can I just clarify, I'm not a doctor of any kind, so if- Professor O'Donnell, excuse me. Just plain old architect. That's all. Go ahead.

Good evening. So we're here to present about jack we have a slideshow that will walk you through the project why and support into the Community why it's important to jack city. The plans for the building and then i'll share some numbers and answer questions, how does that sound.

terrific all right, can you see it. it's behind you, but yes.

So as many of you know, GIAC has been operating the hospitality employment training program for about 15, 16 years now. Our team program for many years has operated a catering program. We were in New Orleans. We were going to New Orleans back during the rebuilding after Katrina. And there was a restaurant there called Cafe Reconcile. And the whole idea behind the restaurant was it was created to give young people who are struggling an opportunity to get into the hospitality industry and kind of work their way through the restaurant business and then get placed at different restaurants in New Orleans for a long time employment. We had thought way back then that this would eventually be a great opportunity to bring to Ithaca, especially since we were already dabbling in the catering business and fast forward till now. We've done HTTP. We've done the catering business. We had this opportunity to buy this building and provide those type of programmings in-house at this place. And that's really what it is. It's a workforce training center. It's an opportunity for teenagers to have another place to go and to learn, for people that are returning to the community, for them to have an opportunity to work in the field. in that particular community with the apartments that are located now behind GIAC through Ithaca Neighborhood Housing. There's a lot of new people in that community. So it brings a lot of value to the area, both through what it can do for young people and into the community. It's been a restaurant kind of sort of for 60 years. I guess when we got it, we found out they never had a permit to do so, but they were doing it. And everybody was going there on Fridays, especially for the Friday fish fries. So it's been a restaurant. It's been a cultural center. It's been something in the community that people have utilized for over 60 years. So here we are trying to improve it, add some opportunities for young people, hard to employ people. And I think it'll be an outstanding opportunity. The other part of it is that eventually when it's done and we open up and we start operations, it is a place that will create revenue. And so things like maintenance workers paying the staff that are actually the young people that are working in the program, utilities, the goal is to have all that covered by the business that the facility does. And then hopefully there will be enough money to actually put back into programming. and be able to build out programming that way rather than have to ask the city for money all the time. So we think it's a win-win situation. At the end of the day, it's an opportunity to cover costs and to create revenue for the programs. I mean, job training, I don't know what more I could say. I should bring my friend up here in the plaid shirt. He did a wonderful job talking about the program. The. It fits into the character of the Community it fits into the needs of the Community. It just is an extension of what we already do and as providing opportunities in the Community for people in the Community.

Shall I take over?

Yeah.

Okay. So I'm Caroline O'Donnell. I'm one of two architects working on the project. The other is Iris Ma, who's here. I'm sure everyone knows this site. It's on the corner of Court and Plain. And it's really a building, as Travis explained, that has been kind of center of the community for a very long time, for decades. And we see it as a kind of hinge point between the residential neighborhood and the programs of GIAC. It was this thriving cafe up until, what do we know, around 2020?

2020 is when I believe when we bought it.

and we're hoping that it can be again. Right now it's in, for any of you who have walked past recently, it's in quite a serious state of disrepair. And so what we're hoping is to kind of maintain the iconic quality, especially the color, the red color of the Red & White Cafe, as well as a kind of articulation that is in dialogue with the neighborhood. So I'll just walk through the plan really quickly. The intention is to keep this on the ground floor the CAFE pretty similar to how you know it, if you had the opportunity to ever. have some fish and chips there. So opening up a little more to the corner, but basically the cafe in the front and the kitchen in the middle, and then the teaching kitchen along Plain Street opening up on that side. And then a bar on the west side of services, so stairs, accessible bathrooms, elevator, and things like that that go along all three levels. Then in the center and that that bar of services again the same thing offices, a medium assembly space and in the front. Open seating, as well as an herb garden for the the trainees to work with and then on the top a large flexible assembly space that really takes advantage of the view over the park. On the east side has skylights to maximize its being at the very top of the building and then a director's office suite in the on the court street side and then at the top. The skylights North facing solar panels South facing and that articulated roof line that I mentioned. So this is the elevation that you might have seen in the submitted documents, this is a long elevation on plain street we did for tonight add color so that you can see how that might have a sense of how that might feel. And we also added color to the second elevation on court street. And then the other elevations that's the rear elevation you can see they're much quieter much less going on on the north and west side. So the two main views that you would see are on the left from the corner of Court and Blaine where the traffic lights are, and then the other corner from further down Plain Street. So the PUD, of course, is requesting a change of use from what is a residential zoning to the uses stated here, small assembly, professional office, restaurant, retail and service, and commercial facility. Interesting, and thank you to our friends for speaking about the project earlier. it's interesting to compare the allowed zoning to the existing red and white cafe which we have is 55 but you said is 62.

The king you're not recognized.

Sorry, but we believe we believe it could be sixty two, and we're proposing sixty five. As you can see here, the it's pretty interesting comparison. The proposed corner is very similar to how the red and white cafe currently is there's more generosity on the west side where that building is is encroaching very very close doesn't seem to have any setback on its site so we're giving an extra kind of buffer there and then trying to maximize the site on the north side the height as has been mentioned the allowable height is 35 the building we're proposing is 36 we're asking for 40 Just for that flexibility as we go through the building approvals, we could need additional height for something like venting of the kitchen. And then we are not proposing, given that this is a city building walkable area and we're not proposing additional staffing, because the staff already sit in jack we're not proposing any additional parking and. We're proposing that as, as has been the case in the red and white cafe when it was operating that the loading is from the street. And I think that's it. We're happy to take questions and thanks for your time.

Thank you very much. I will start keeping a list of colleagues. I'll recognize myself first with, in general, I personally am very supportive of this proposal. I think the type of project that you're proposing is very much in line with what the city wants to foster in terms of community development, as you note in your accompanying memo. as well as keeping a previously activated site active, right? And to say nothing of the obviously further sort of knock-on effects of having further expansion of our workforce training. It is kind of surprising to me, maybe it shouldn't be, that this was never zoned to be a restaurant, but we have the opportunity to rectify that. I think for me, the only question I have is, You know I wouldn't ask this of a normal project, but just like knowing how we operate. Given that this would eventually become city property, I would like to see what the downstream operating impacts are. Because I want to ensure that when we launch a program we're able to support it indefinitely, and I know that you know sort of this is. A LITTLE BIT OF JUST SIGNALING FOR THE WHOLE PUBLIC, MR. BROOKS, I KNOW THAT, YOU KNOW, GIAC IS WORKING ON GETTING THOSE DATA SOLIDIFIED, BUT JUST KIND OF WANT TO GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO TALK A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THAT AND, YOU KNOW, SORT OF WHEN WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO SEE SOME ROUGH PROJECTIONS AROUND THAT VIS-A-VIS THE FINAL APPLICATION AND THE GRANTS THAT WE'RE WAITING ON.

I hope the final projections will be done in the next few weeks. Dominic and I have had several discussions over the last week about staffing. I think that's one of the bigger concerns. There's a few things I can say to help address that. All of the staff that are running programs, all the program staff are currently housed at GIAC right now. They're going to move. They were not going to ask for any funding for increased staff. The gentleman who runs our catering and our kitchen program and all those things is going to move down there. He currently has training somebody to do the operations at GIAC for our meals program. Um, the staff from H E T P are going to move down there. And so the work force training program will continue, but they'll actually have a home to do that work. So programmatically, there's no increase in staff. One of the discussions that Dominic and I have been having is on maintenance and we are trying to find out. I feel that a part-time person can maintain this building and the GRC because Part of the training aspect of the cafe is folks that are working there during the training program are going to learn everything. So maintenance will be done in-house, and then we'll have somebody come over for a few hours each day. And we don't plan on being open more than five days a week. But somebody will come over and do a deep cleaning every day, a maintenance person. But they should also be able to do the GRC as well. probably 75% of that building, maybe 80% is a gym. So it's just one floor and then there's a few offices and spaces. So there is some work that has to be done there, but it's not, it doesn't require a full-time maintenance person. So that's what I see for staffing. The hours for a maintenance person, we're trying to sort that out. It could be more than a part-time, but my goal would be to have it be a part-time person that would serve both. We think there's actually a part-time person on the books for GIAC that we haven't filled yet. We're trying to find out from human resources if that's actually funded or not. So that would be the only position I see that we would be asking funding for. Anything else would be covered by the grant funding for HATP and then the grant funding that we have for our internship program. And then young people that are working there, outside of those funds will get paid from the money that was collected from sales and jobs. It will have solar panels, so that'll bring costs down. Again, when the program is up and running, we don't foresee any increase in cost as far as utilities because it would be paid for from the revenue generated from the program so i hope i answered your question you did thank you and um i i appreciate you also talking a little bit about the revenues because i didn't mean to only focus on operating expenses it would also be very insightful to see what the revenue projections are

understanding that we're looking at best maximizing, as my colleague from the Fifth Ward often says, maximizing a share of cost recovery, right? Because we're running a training enterprise. We also know what restaurant margins are in and of themselves, but having those revenues would be really helpful. I think the only other question I have is actually more for the city attorney's office, which would be, I imagine, I'm not expecting that we would have any of these things solved yet, but just kind of wanted reassurance that whatever appropriate process that would be necessary to allow a commercial activity or a semi-commercial profit-generating enterprise to operating on city property, whatever hoops we'd have to jump through, we're aware of what those are and we can appropriately navigate them.

Yeah, that would be something that we would need to sort of hammer down, but there are ways to do that sort of thing. Like we've got the clubhouse, for example, which operates a, I don't know that I would call it a restaurant at the golf course, but you know there's food there in concessions. We've got the concessions at Cass Park, so there are ways to manage that.

Great. Great. Thank you. And then just I will stop talking. I actually meant to lead with this part, but just both for council's edification and the public's, right? So this is like the very first PUD conversation. I think Council should views this as an opportunity to both signal your relative willingness to entertain the project, but also what information that you would need for a future conversation where a next step advancement would um would be on the table uh lisa is here uh it to answer any specific questions but as she very uh diplomatically reminded me earlier council's had several briefings very recently on how puds work so if you need a refresher she is here to answer the questions but there's no new information mr sewell

I have no difficulty with the pod. I think it makes total sense. It's fine. Where I would get caught up would be on the potential liability for the city in terms of financial costs. And those strike me as two very different conversations. So I'm not quite sure how to square that because you guys gave us a great presentation on the pod, but nothing about financial stuff and you weren't necessarily expected to. So I would say I would have some reservations. I'm still not totally sure what it means for us to take on the liability, like what we're looking at, what the range is, what the possibility, you know, that whole thing. And so that would be the only reservation I have for the project is, you know, what that would be. And I'm not expecting you to answer that question because I don't think that's what you were here for.

I can share a little bit, if that would be helpful. submitted a budget for grant purposes that was done by Edger for 2.5 million. So far, we have 2.6 raised in grant funding from the state of New York through different channels. There's one for 800,000, there's one for 1.3 million, and then there's two $150,000 grants. And the dates for submission and all of that are from October, December, and February. So the initial price that we got or cost for the build out from edger is covered through the grants.

Yeah. My expectation is that we're not wouldn't be investing so much in capital, but in ongoing maintenance. And that's the sort of thing where it's just like, we'll see what those numbers are when they come out. But it would be hard. Like, I would feel dishonest saying I'm comfortable with this if I really don't know what those are. So, but I, the PUD is fine.

Appreciate Mr. Sewell. I have Mr. Defendini next and then Mr. Kirby.

Yeah, I'll come on to say that I'm very supportive of this PUD proposal conceptually, and I think it goes without saying that GX has done incredible work over the years, and I don't think I can put it better than John did during his public comment. I'll just say I've also had the pleasure of interacting with folks in the hospitality training program through my trainings that I've done with you all, and I can see that the preparedness that you provide folks with. It's really valuable. And so this is like definitionally a community benefit. So I'm really looking forward to supporting this. Not contingent on my vote really, but I'm just curious if you have any information pertaining to like what we could expect in terms of like for any youth who are trained through this, if they're going to be employed working at the cafe, if there's going to be any stipends or funding for that, or is this considered like a workforce program that will then get them ready to like seek employment in this business?

I think there's a little bit of all three. So there's levels to this. So we have everybody that works, that goes through the HETP program, they have a paid internship as part of the program. And so folks from HETP would be working in this program. They would have a ready-made job site. So their stipends would come from that grant. We were fortunate enough to have a grant from the Park Foundation. It's a lifetime grant. I can't remember the proper name for it. It's the William Maxwell Internship Program. And so we have X amount of money every year for that program. And then... when we are looking at summertime, we're looking at folks from workforce in the YES program, right? So there's a few different avenues for stipend. And I would say that even the folks that are coming through, depending on the level of engagement, it may just be a training program for a few weeks. And maybe when you're just doing the culinary piece, the idea is to constantly look for grants so that people don't have to give up an opportunity to be part of this. Young people, especially folks that are not in school, we definitely want to create opportunities for them to get paid while they're doing this. So we do have some of that worked out already and look to do more.

Thank you i'll just come on really quickly to say that, again, like in my I do a lot of training in my in my day job and the best. gold standard in terms of training to get people ready to whether it's do the job or you know exercise their rights or be properly safe is to do that job on site to do that training on site and to work with people there so that this isn't like an abstract. J. ethereal thing and so having a space that's really designed with that in mind seems really great and it's because it's a service, I really support the idea of this becoming in the long term, if things align a city assets so i'm really looking forward to see this move forward it's got my support conceptually. J. Kirby.

I just I do want to say I love the concept overall I was really, really happy when it first like started to come out in the news and come to fruition, I think it's the exact sort of. Community building thing that benefits the entire Community and not just a small you know subset so I I think it's great http i've sent. I haven't but a lot of my clients over the years have gone through there that's one of the better programs, I think this whole city has. So very much echoing a lot of my colleagues' comments so far, supporting it conceptually. I do have some of the financial concerns that Alderperson Sewell was addressing, so I would like to see those fleshed out a little more, like you talked a little bit about those grants. I'm going to ask a question, but then I'm going to steamroll right through it. one of you two I'm hoping can answer. But like, so I want to know kind of how set in stone those grants that were referenced are at this point, like, are we just applying for them? And maybe we get a maybe we don't? And how does that kind of play in? And then I noticed you guys set, I think, a $3 million goal. And as you referenced, Mr. Brooks, it was at 2.6. I think so there is some discrepancy there. So You know I want this, I want this I think it's great I remember going to the red and white CAFE to before school, but I was getting candy I wasn't getting fish right. So, like all of that has been huge parts of my life, and I want this to happen, so I think the biggest hang up I could see from anybody here would be the financial question more than anything else, but yeah so. How set in stone are those grant monies at this point.

Well, these are grants that. the governor's office and the speaker of the house, uh, hasty have announced these weren't, um, things that we're hoping to get. These were grants that were awarded to us. And now we have to go through the process to apply and give them all the information to get that funding. So really at the end of the day, um, what, what has to happen now is we have to hit those, those dates. And part of the, the, the process is having the put approved. We can't finish the applications and get the money without the PUD being approved. There's 2.6 through the grants. We're not applying with others to get those grants. Those are awarded to us already. There is, I believe, 100,000 that the Board has raised. So it's 2.7, but 2.6 of it is through grants. And there may be more. I don't have all the information yet from the Board, but I know that the grant letters have already been submitted and received by us for those funds. We just have to go through the process with New York State. So when I say apply form, it's apply to get the funding, not apply to be awarded.

Mr. Recchio.

John Lundquist, I could just clarify a little bit additional around the deadlines that came up earlier, and I think now's a good time to address those. The October deadline that was referenced in that memo is related to the two $150,000 OCFS grants. Those are the ones that we are most likely to get an extension on. So some of the work that is occurring after this meeting and after we sort of suss out what Council's appetite is, is to look at those two grants and the extension that can be achieved there. The New York State BRICS, I forget the acronym for BRICS, the $1.3 million grant, that has a February deadline for the information, and the Speaker of the House $800,000 grant that's the one that the city needed to put up our capital project uh 2025 capital project match of 250 000 toward um is that deadline is December 12th that's the most pressing deadline for December 12th I have some more work to do to find out exactly what needs to be completed by December 12th I don't have the full pick maybe Travis has a little bit more on that right now but i don't have the full picture in front of me of what needs to be done by december 12th but um whether that's related to puds we wouldn't be able to achieve site plan approval by that date so getting a um getting an extension on that is something that we would seek as well but that grant was first announced in 2024 so that's uh had quite a long time that one's the one that i'd be most worried about making sure that we meet in this project the only thing i could say about the 800 000 is

we have to have put approval in order to the December 12th date in order to move forward on that. That's the big one. And I think we actually have to have HUD approval. And if my memory serves me correctly, we have to draw down by December 12th on that money in order for it to stay active. The two $150,000 ones, like Dominic said, those might be able to be extended, The applications are extremely long and if you extend it, you have to redo the application or you can't just keep your information in and it is. horrendous I did one for $20,000 and it was a nightmare, so I can only imagine what the hundred and 50,002 of them look like so.

I guess my other question, then, is if, for some reason. We like let's say we approve the pod and then but, for some reason, the grant falls through I don't really I guess I don't know that that's reasonable does the pod remain.

So the pods do expire after some period of time I forget exactly what the deadline is Lisa can throw a number up in the air is it two years I got it right they expire after two years. Mr ratio.

Thank you for your presentation. So, you know, your objectives are incredible, amazing. I love them. And everyone knows and values your work at GX so much in this community. I do think that for us to really analyze this, we would need to see a detailed business plan. i i'm concerned about this ending up being a you know liability for the city to to take care of to manage to um one with the construction costs soaring as they are um my my question is i have more comments but i just wanted to ask when was the preliminary um construction budget done for this this two point 2.4 i think it is 2.4 million dollars early fall of 25. early fall of 25. So it's possible that it is way more than that already. So it seems like one of the pieces of information that would be helpful would be an updated construction cost. And then I'd like to see a full scale business plan of the, you know, as the mayor or somebody already mentioned, you know, the profit margins on food businesses are very, very small. So I would want to see a realistic business plan for what you think the revenue would be coming in and what the expenses would be going out. I thought just looking at, glancing at your utility, projections that maybe they would be low considering how much bigger the space is than the current space. Probably the same with regard to water. I don't know, I don't remember what the cost was for the recreation center. But I do know that when we did the fire station, fire station was supposed to end up costing the city like, I think it was a million and a half dollars more than what a renovation would cost. And the fire building, fire department building, the new one on East Hill, was over budget by, I think it was like eight or nine million dollars. Like a huge, huge undertaking. So, and just for the public to understand, the $2.4 million and the purchase of the actual building, of the red and white building, was through GIAC Inc., is that correct? So that's the non-profit arm. is again like this is an amazing you know vision and i i love it i think it needs an endowment honestly um in addition to raising whatever the additional money would be to actually do the construction in whatever year this would end up in um i think i think i would like to see giac looking at building an endowment i think there are people so many people in this community with some resources that would be able to contribute in that way. I am concerned about the city taking on more expansion with more projects. GIEC is beautiful, it has a very large footprint as it is, amazing programs, and I know, and I've said this before, I think there's no end to the imagining that you can do for extraordinary programs. Unfortunately, there is an end to what we can provide money for. And we're looking this year already at a five to $6 million budget deficit. The county's looking at a way bigger one than that.

I know.

Right. So you add all those things together. Don't do that, by the way. 12% is ridiculous. But you add all that together.

I'll make a deal right now. You get this done and we won't be 12.

So, you know, just be real. We have to be realistic about what we can take on. And I think you guys are, you know, admirably ambitious. We should find other sources, additional sources to help. fund the vision that you have. And I would really, really encourage you to do that, to get us the updated construction costs, to get us a realistic business plan and realistic operational amount that you would need to do something like this. And I think for me, otherwise it's like the cart before the horse on this. So those are the things that we would need.

But there's several things we can't do until we have a PUD approval. which is separate from, I guess, approval to do this. I think there's two things happening at the same time. So we do have an endowment fund, and that is the William Maxwell. That's the word I couldn't remember. It's endowment. So there's some endowment money. There are folks that have asked to do more for this building. I DON'T HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION. I AM TAKING CARE OF THE PROGRAMMING PIECE OF THIS. I'M HERE FOR LESLYN BECAUSE SHE'S NOT ABLE TO ATTEND THIS EVENING. SO THERE'S MORE INFORMATION SHE COULD GIVE IF SHE WAS HERE. Dyson School, through Grand Challenges, did a full, and I'm not sure if Dominic has received it from Leslyn or not, but they did a business plan. So that's been done, and we were going to do a new one next semester because the last one was done in spring of 2025. So we've done that. The other piece about the restaurant business is this isn't a restaurant. There is we're not coming in with business loans to pay. We're not coming in with a mortgage to pay. We're not paying for the person that's running the program, both with Jay or the coordinator nor with the folks from HETP. There's a lot of funding that restaurants have to shell out that we don't have to cover. It changes the business model quite a bit. The utilities, there is coming with solar. It is going to, if not lower the utilities, keep them comparable to what it was before because solar will take care of some of that cost. There is some things built in. seeking more grants seeking more funding it's hard to say to people we don't have the approval from the city to build this yet um please fund us it just is a very hard thing to do so i do understand the difference though between the pud process and the program process so at some point if you all felt that this was too much for the city to take on then a year and a half, two years, the PUD would go away and we would figure out what to do with the building on the GIAC Inc side. But if there's no PUD approved for this, we can't get to that process. And so we, if the PUD was approved and you all decided after you got all the information you were looking for, let's say in November, that this just wasn't something the city could do, then we couldn't move forward. And then the PUD would eventually go away. So, To get us to a place where we can actually obtain the funds apply for more we just we have to get through the process to be able to do that. We had no idea, and we were told a lot of information, assuming that the previous owners had all these permits we wouldn't be here if they had. The permits to do what they were doing, because we would be grandfathered in we didn't know they didn't have any of that they've been operating for so long, nobody would think they never had a permit to operate a kitchen. So. That's kind of what happened. So that's how we got into the place of needing a PUD. So I guess what I'm saying is if you all approved the PUD process, you still have an opportunity not to approve us moving forward programmatically. And that would safeguard the city from getting into an expansion that you all felt like you couldn't afford.

Thank you for saying that. I think that's really important. And I think we would have to hold you to that, right?

You definitely would. I mean, we can't move forward if you say no.

Because I'm also a bit dubious about the staffing needs. And I think that they may be under-projected. And so I think taking a really serious look at, I mean, didn't I see in one of these documents that it was, future staffing needs were not decided. I mean there was something in there that looked like it wasn't just moving people over and everybody who's doing their job now is gonna just stay. I mean there will be additional needs. Let's be realistic, right? So there will be, I think, additional financial needs that need to be really articulated well to understand what we're looking at. Of course, if you have your endowment to cover them, you don't have to worry about what we think.

I'm going to just quickly interject myself here because I think there is a good thread here about the zoning sort of issue relative to the overall project. And as you heard me say, I'm very supportive of the zoning change. And I definitely did get the cart before the horse on the financial side, right? I think those are, as you noted, right, appropriate questions. One thing that I think could be really valuable, I'm not going to put Lisa on the spot right now, but is to have an understanding of, I know we haven't finished the zoning advisory committee's work, but I care very little about what the current zoning is for this area. I care a lot more about what this neighborhood is likely to be impacted or governed by post zoning rewrite and if a lot of these um if we're on the trajectory for a lot of these what would otherwise be variances right to be obviated by a new more inclusive and permissive zoning process then i think it is to the exchange we just heard more of a moot point around the pud approval and we can move that forward more expediently so um Perhaps, Lisa, it might be possible for us to get together, and I know there's also two council members on the Zoning Advisory Committee, but just get some sort of brief opinion from Megan about what is likely to obtain in this area following the city's wholesale zoning rewrite. I'm seeing you nod. Thank you. I'll go back to my list now. Thank you, colleagues, for indulging my digression. Ms. Schvatz, you're next.

Alderperson Devangini already asked the question that I was going to ask about if workers will be paid through stipends or wages. I think that's great. I think we really don't have enough opportunities like that for young people to get into that industry. I also think that we're not trying to make a profit here and the point that you made about the costs that are different than a restaurant, that's really helpful to know. As long as there's already grants and these students and youth are already being funded and they're just being moved over to a better place, I think this is a great idea. So I'm very supportive.

Thank you.

Mr. Nguyen. Like a lot of my colleagues, I am very supportive of the concept. I think it's incredible. I was a huge fan of the Red and White Cafe. I will definitely support the PUD if you keep that cute neon sign that says fish fry. And i'm glad we we had this conversation, too, about because I like all the person school and everyone else like i've had this kind of issue trying to separate the pod from the operating, and I am concerned about the operating portion of it, and I know it's very different. But watching Cultivari, for example, not succeed is kind of heartbreaking because I really wanted that program to succeed and to also have a great restaurant to activate that section of South Cayuga that didn't work out. I did have a few questions. there were some I was contacted by some neighbors who are concerned about some things and um I want to ask for example about your plans to it's early yet but if you have any plans or thoughts about mitigating neighborhood impact like um trash storage I noticed in the plans there is like an indoor storage room but like pick up um uh I think you mentioned Ms O'Donnell that you're thinking of venting out the roof so that would definitely mitigate some of the fish fry smell Any comments or thoughts about those issues?

Well, I believe it's around the corner at, when you come up Court Street, the old library place, they have this, the trash is technically inside the building, but it's in this concrete area. So it's not outside to the public and they pull it out for trash day. So we won't have a dumpster. There won't be somebody coming in at four o'clock in the morning, picking up this thing. There'll be large cans. So to be like everybody else in that area, it's either Tuesday or Wednesday morning when they come and get the trash. So that part isn't necessarily an issue. There won't be a dumpster outside, although there has been one outside for over 60 years, right? With somebody coming in at three o'clock in the morning and taking it. But we understand and we wanna be good neighbors to the community. So we hope to alleviate that in the design of the building. And then the other question was about the ventilation. So yeah, the ventilation will go through the roof and out. So that should help with some of that.

I'm sorry if I lost the answer. When Joe asked about the differential between the estimate of $2.6 million and your goal of raising $3 million, is that just a contingency? Or do you have a plan for that gap?

So that is a little harder for me to answer. Dr. Leslie has been focused on the fundraising and the money part. I've been focused on the programming. I do wish you could be here to answer that question. But I do know that She has done an amazing job over the years at finding money for our programs. So I have no doubt that we will figure that piece out. And she may already have figured it. I just can't answer for her because I don't know everything that she has.

And then finally, this is an architect question. I think the sawtooth articulated roof is cool, but do you have any concerns about maintenance leakage, things like that, snowfall?

not if it's built right i mean i think it's a reason to not not do a flat roof in this part of the world um but that's something you know like that kind of detail is something we would get to later but obviously designing thinking about that and the design is important

Well, again I approve the I support the concept i'm actually pretty impressed with the detail at this level of most pods that i've seen so I look forward to getting more info.

My next speaker is Mr trumbull.

Um, yeah, thank you guys so much for coming today. Um, also huge fan of GIAC. I used to get the po boys at the red and white cafe all the time. Um, this is an awesome project that I'd love to support. Um, I guess the one question I have coming from the climate justice sustainability commission is the plan for the building to be all electric. Um, you mentioned like the solar panels and things like that on the top. Um, and I know there's like a lot of contingencies for Ithaca energy code supplements for kitchen specifically, but things like lighting and things like that.

yeah we did we did talk about that and we talked about the building next door actually don't know which direction to point uh that has an all-electric kitchen so even though it might be a shift in the thinking for the chefs we have been discussing all-electric appliances um that's amazing to hear um thank you so much and we're gonna fry the fish and so that will be done uh

In the kitchen that we have at GEAC, we do have gas stoves. But I don't think that the gentleman who runs the program is wedded to having gas, right? The idea is to have the program. So if electric made things better, more affordable, we would just work around. We would work around that. We're not wedded to it. This isn't fine dining. So we would be fine with that.

Thank you guys so much. Seeing no further new hands, Ms. Ferbatale.

Right, thanks. This is like way jumping the gun on this, but since the architect's here, and since Duxon brought up some neighborhood concerns, this is sort of a thing that I have about all buildings in the city. I don't think that we manage it particularly well, and it's probably something that needs to be addressed in our code or whatever but noise mitigation from roof equipment is something that I think we suffer from in a lot of places in the city and any new buildings that happen especially in the hearts of neighborhoods like this is something that I think really needs to be addressed very carefully. So I just put that out there even though that's way ahead of the game.

And this also isn't something that is going to be open from you know, eight o'clock in the morning to 11 o'clock every day. programmatically this would probably be running from 1011 ish 278 in the evening at the latest, so this isn't this wouldn't create this type of environment at night with a noisy restaurant right there in the neighborhood.

Right but just regular HVAC systems and you're going to have air conditioning on you're not going to turn it off and on probably so just that's the kind of thing that I'm that I'm referencing.

Thanks for joining us this evening, I think you got a broadly very supportive. set of comments from Council, I recognize that some of the detail is not going to be able to be finalized on the immediate timeline, but I think, to the extent that you're able to provide. any of the additional information that was asked about, you can definitely work with myself and the administration to get this back on an agenda for future consideration for a sort of nod to advance it to the next stage in a timely fashion. And then I would also make sure, as I had kind of thrown out to the Director of Planning. We'll just make sure that there's some kind of contextual update vis-a-vis what we see the zoning being in this area in the coming months. So thank you very much for joining us.

Absolutely. Thank you for your time.

Councilman entertain a motion to enter into executive session, discuss personnel matter in my office. It'll be brief, but there will be a voting item. Mr. Defendini, Miss Schvatz, all those in favor. That carries unanimously, although deputy clerk unanimously without Mr. Shapiro, who is, I think, gone for the evening. We will be back in a handful of minutes. May I have a motion to exit executive session? Moved by Mr. Trumbull, seconded by Mr. Nguyen. All those in favor? That carries unanimously. I have a resolution to read into the record. Whereas the City of Ithaca and the Ithaca Professional Firefighters Association are parties to a collective bargaining agreement, and whereas Assistant Chief Robert Shepherd is a member of the IPFFA, and whereas the City offered AC Shepherd a promotion to the position of Deputy Fire Chief to be effective immediately, And whereas the fringe benefits for the position of assistant chief are set forth in the aforementioned collective bargaining agreement. And whereas accepting the position of deputy fire chief managerial position would require AC Shepherd to forfeit certain fringe benefits. And whereas the city seeks to incentivize members of the IPP FFA pursue career progression and management without concerns about being disadvantaged in retirement. And whereas AC Shepherd has served the city and Ithaca Fire Department with distinction and the city seeks to memorialize its appreciation of such service and encourage his growth within the department. And whereas AC Shepherd and the city have reached agreement on the disposition of his accrued and accruing sick time and on vacation time, holiday time and compensatory time accumulated before the promotion date to gather the time accumulated. uh so as to incentivize his acceptance of the promotion now therefore be it resolved that the common council approves the disposition of a.c shepard's time accumulated as memorialized in a memorandum of understanding and that the acting city manager be authorized to execute the memorandum of understanding on behalf of the city of ithaca iso move seconded by mr difendini all those in favor that carries unanimously with no further business we are adjourned