Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Uh welcome to the November 5th meeting of the Ethic Common Council. We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. Uh first, uh since there's a ton of folks in the gallery, please allow me to just read the emergency evacuation notice. Uh in case of an emergency, we are to take one of two exits. the door that most of you came through uh or the door over my left shoulder here. We are to head west towards the corner of South Kuga and Green, please do not cross the street. Those with restricted mobility, in the event of an emergency, it is best to move to one of the stairwells and first responders will arrive to aid you. Uh in the event of other emergencies, you'll be notified at that time. Um we want everyone to be aware of their surroundings and offer help when it is not to your own detriment as you are your own best advocate. uh with re agenda review. Are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Seeing none from anyone else, you will note that there is one uh printed resolution in front of you uh that I am uh requesting consent for um from the director of sustainability. Uh the agenda item and question just to be considered is city of ICA urges immediate state action to reopen the home energy assistance program, protect vulnerable New Yorkers from utility shut off. This is just a statement resolution that will be a request to the governor's office. Uh it does not of course I am requesting your unanimous consent but absent that I do plan to file this for next week. But just given the urgency of the issue uh and the fact that it is just a statement I am hoping to receive unanimous consent on this item. Is there any dissent? Seeing none, all the person for Britzio, do you have a uh you have a yeah you have an additional agenda potential potential agenda change please?

Do does does the uh trash amendment need to be added?

All of your amendments as we just discussed are in the queue and and and actually strictly speaking that is we are going to be in a budget committee meeting moments after this council meeting which we're currently in is over. So that's thank you. Thank you for that. Uh any further additions or deletions to the agenda from common council? Seeing none, uh next on my agenda will be to invite up uh legislator pillar for an update from the county. Uh I would also just note another uh I do have a proclamation following that uh that is going to just be recognizing uh Veterans Day uh Veterans Week. And so that is going to be a proclamation that is read and presented to Mr. Clarebornne from the county right afterwards. Uh my apologies. I did not give ample notice for that to be reflected in the agenda. Um legislator, floor is yours.

Thank you. Um happy to be here. We are uh we are, by the way, having our meeting tomorrow night. Um usually it was the night before, but it was moved for election day. Um, we will be also be proclaiming Veterans Week um in an off agenda proclamation as well as um Native American Heritage Month and something else that I don't remember. Uh a main thing is we have almost finished our budget process as you probably know. Um we are we had the public hearing. We approved our budget in committee and it is going it will not be on our agenda tomorrow night, but it's going for final approval on our November 18th meeting. Um I anticipate there are likely going to be some small changes, but not large. Um just due to new information and developments between now and then. Um but I don't think it's going to change say like the tax levy dramatically. Right now we're looking at a it's like 3.38 3.3 something in percent increase in the tax levy um which is under our tax cap of which has just uh changed to 3.6%. Um I for my own sanity am not going to stay and watch all your deliberations tonight. Uh but uh please I hope it goes well. Um, I hope it's constructive and I think, uh, just speaking for any of the county officials, it's very hard to integrate our budget processes um, with each other and other entities. But if there's anything that we can do to answer questions, talk like as things come up if needed, please reach out to me or someone. Um, other major thing is emergency shelter. Um, code blue has started. You've

probably seen um code blue meaning the state mandate to provide people emergency shelter. Um no um no vetting beforehand on nights where it's below 32 degrees for the moment. Uh code blue activation is being announced day by day. It is activated tonight um just based on the temperature and the way to access the shelter is either during business hours. So until 4:30 p.m. go to DSS or call the DSS phone number um which is 607-2745030. After 5:00 p.m. uh you have to call the sheriff's non-emergency line at 607-2722444 and they will um route you to uh on call DSS person to call back and connect you to shelter if possible. Um there are also uh just some community members running a um an assistance point for accessing code blue if um something about calling is not accessible to you for any reason. Um so also from 5 to 10 p.m. on code blueue nights you can go to the First Baptist Church and talk to people from the Ithaca Tenants Union to help connect to the shelter. the we are going to have for most of the season um a congregate shelter kind of like last year uh but it will be down on Cherry Street at the old Found building um now that Found has moved up to the business park that is uh it's going to be run by Volunteers of America um our nonprofit partner can't remember if that was announced last time I was here and as of an update a few hours ago we are we they are on track to open that um by

November 24th. And once that happens, that facility will be open just 24/7 and people can just go there. No time restrictions. I think that's all. Thank you, legislator. Any questions or comments from my colleagues for the legislature? Uh Mr. W. Thanks, Veronica, and thank you and congratulations on your re-election. Can you remind me what the county put aside for TCAT? What increase you put aside? I should just uh $500,000. Thank you. Any further questions for the legislature?

Seeing none, and please. Oh, I will say thank I know uh some of you wrote a letter informally indicating your support for the similar uh increase to TCAT and I know that's not binding, but I will say thank you because it did help us uh make a decision on our budget timeline.

Thank you very much. Oh, please hold the prison Brown just remember turn your microphone on, please. Okay. My question is uh so the create I'm calling creative hub. That's my office. No. Um the joint homelessness project that was supposed to happen. Could you give us a little update for the because it's it looks like the plan dissolved. could you kind of let us know what happened and where are y'all working with the city around that?

Um, at the moment either we the county in general is still very open to working with the city on something. Uh, however, simultaneously we have kind of barreled ahead to try to open Code Blue. I mean, it's not even on time, but uh at um as soon as we can. Um I think that I guess I also want to remind people and I'm not sure where we are on these things, but there's sort of two uh homeless shelter projects going on at the county. One is standing up this codeblue shelter very quickly for this year and probably next year. And then the other is the purpose-designed and built um permanent emergency shelter uh which could have other things included into it there. Volunteers of America is also their partner in designing that. Um that the design process is I think very early if even started but uh at least I hope that we can I mean it'll be in the city. it has far far more flexibility uh in what it could be than um code blue this year did and so I hope that we can collaborate somehow on that.

Thank you very much.

Uh next I'm going to read a proclamation uh commemorating Veterans Week and um invite um J.R. Clareborn from the county to provide any additional comments and then I will also be formally presenting this proclamation to him on Tuesday for Veterans Day which is Tuesday. Um so if you'll indulge me [clears throat] uh whereas for two and a half centuries the United States armed forces have stood a steadfast shield of liberty defending our nation's ideals and securing peace at home and abroad. And whereas this year marks the 250th anniversary of the 1775 founding of the United States Army, the United States Navy, and the US Marine Corps, all established by the Continental Congress during the American Revolution. And whereas the men and women of the armed forces, past and present, answer the call of duty in times of war and peace, often at great personal cost, to uphold the freedoms and values that define our society. And whereas we recognize not only those in uniform, but also the families, veterans, and communities who support them, forming the backbone of our nation's defense and resilience. And whereas General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II and later 34th President of the United States, once said, "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak, the timid, a reflection of the resolve required to lead the largest amphibious military operation in history and to preserve liberty in the face of tyranny." And whereas General Coen Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War and the first African-American to serve as the United States Secretary of State, reminded us that the day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. A testament to the trust, communication, and moral responsibility that define effective military leadership. And whereas Admiral Chester W. Nimmits, commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Fleet during World War II, once stated, "God, grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right, even though I think it is hopeless, capturing the perseverance and moral clarity that guided the United States Navy through one of the most pivotal conflicts in history." And whereas General James Mad Dog Mattis, former United States Marine Corps General and Secretary of Defense,

famously advised, "Engage your brain before you engage your weapon." A reminder of the discipline, intellect, and ethical responsibility that define the Marine Corps ethos. And whereas in celebrating this Veterans Day, November 4, [clears throat] excuse me, November 11th, 2025, the city of Itha acknowledges the pride in veterans, active duty service members, military families in the community who honor their contributions with gratitude and respect. And whereas in reaching this milestone, all City of Ithaca residents are invited to reflect on the enduring courage, sacrifice, and commitment of our service members, past and present. And whereas in honoring their sacrifices, achievements, and true warrior spirit, city of Ithaca residents are called upon to switch at least one public facing light bulb to green in observance of operation green light to show visible support of our veteran community during the second full week of November and beyond. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Robert G. Canelmo, mayor of the city of Ithka, commemorate the 250th anniversary of three founding branches of our nation's military. Be it further resolved that I proclaim, recognize, and designate November 9th through 15, 2025 as Veterans Week in the city of Etha, New York, and invite all to reflect on the enduring courage, sacrifice, and commitment of our service members, and also urge all residents to join in honoring their legacy, valor, and unwavering service to our community and our nation. Thank you very much, Mr. Clarebornne. you could just turn your mic on. Sorry. Thank you.

There we go. I don't think I've said here in a long time. So, good evening, council. Good evening.

Uh, thank you very much, mayor. Thank you, council, for the proclamation. Uh, as you know, saying the 250th is a very important milestone and uh definitely something to celebrate and and um in advance of our nation's u cesquisentennial, I think it's called, uh, next year. Uh I just real quickly want to say uh tomorrow after tomorrow at noon actually Aditha College is going to be there uh celebration for Veterans Day. That's going to be noon to one at Fort Hall. And then next week of course is Veterans Day, Veterans Week we're calling it here in Tomkins County. So on Tuesday actually we ask everyone to go to the traditional ceremony held at various places around the county. Uh for here it'll be at Dwit Park. So I'll see you there. Hope to see others of you there. And actually that afternoon we're doing something um with Delta Sigma Theta sorority in conjunction with them that afternoon 1:00 it's uh calling it honoring women veterans dine and discuss where we're going to have clips of the um movie 68 and we're going to talk about that have a panel of women veterans to share their experiences and of course we like feeding people so we'll have lunch there for folks. Um, and the other highlight for that week, there are a few things happening that week, but on Friday will be our first uh ever veterans expo. Again, capitalizing on the 250th anniversary. Uh, we're going to have a lot of uh resources that are available uh to let our military and veterans community and their families uh know that there are a lot of resources that are here available for them. And that's going to be uh 1 2 to 7 o'clock up at the mall in the former Ulta Beauty spot. So, thank you very much for this opportunity. Thank you for uh letting me sharing with me actually that Tomkins County and the city of Vithka does care about its veterans community. I still run into people who don't think um that the community's history here is supportive of veterans and our military community. I've been in this office now for six years and just um this year I heard somebody say that uh people in Ithco would rather burn the flag than

raise the flag and I found that like wait a minute hey I'm right here you know it's like I served in the Navy so um there are people who still um I'm still working to help change that attitude and I appreciate your support here to help us let people know that our military community is uh appreciated. I know the work that we do is not always, but it is done in service of our country and um I'm here to help the people who have already done the work and we're here now trying to honor our veterans. Thank you very much.

Thank you everyone. Um one question I have um I know that there was uh in part the celebration uh for the United States Navy's 250th birthday, there was an there was a planned uh naval concert uh in the community which I know presently has been cancelled because of the government shutdown. Um will you share with council when that is rescheduled? Thank you very much, deputy clerk. Um thank you.

Yes, actually we because of the shutdown, we lost both the uh air force um I think they're called the singing sergeants. They will be here last month and then the like you said the Navy band this month. And so yes, as soon as that gets together, I'll definitely share a word. I know there's a lot of work that was put into getting them there and uh they're even putting out things to help people know that it's going to happen later. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all.

Uh and then just before turning to our regular order of business, I also want to just briefly uh recognize uh as good future stewards of the community in the gallery today, we have all the persons elect Mr. Defendini and Mr. Su uh who will representing the first and third ward respectively. So thank you very much. I also want to acknowledge and thank Mr. Win for uh his candidacy. Uh I think it's important for us to have uh as much community engagement in our elections as possible. So um thank you all for being here. Um with that I will turn to approval of the minutes. May I please have someone move the October 8th minutes? That is older person St. Perez. May I have a second? Seconded by Alder person Mtos. Any comments on the minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting that carries nine to zero with two of our colleagues absent. Um now, so just for the public's edification, what we're going to do is we've got a couple of public hearings. You might be signed up for those. We're going to go through those. If you have public comment, you will. That is also happening. It's just we got a lot of comments lined up in a row. So, uh if I get to the very end and we start voting and you think you're here to speak and you haven't, wave me down. But otherwise, just bear with us. Um may I please have a council member move to open the public hearing for the budget? That is Mr. Keel, seconded by Mr. St. Perez. All those in favor of opening the public hearing on the budget. That carries unanimously. My first speaker on the budget is Terresa Alt. You're all going to get sick of me saying this next part, but I'm going to say it a lot tonight. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin. I'm Teresa Alt of 206 Eddie Street in College Town. I have a complaint about process after looking at the list of

documents under 2026 budget process on the official common council website. I could not find the version of the budget that is currently under consideration. It's good that there is a detailed memo about all the proposed adjustments, but it is not clear what version of the budget these adjustments are being applied to. Nor is it clear what the resulting budget will be. And the memo specifies the reduction, but doesn't say what is the total amount that is being reduced. So, you have positioned yourselves well to be able to tell any member of the public that they don't know what they're talking about. Um, getting into the specifics, I do not appreciate this fetishization of the tax cap. That tax cap was just a political ploy by exgovernor Cuomo to pretend he was giving everybody savings. They aren't always possible. We residents have to pay the taxes that it takes to run the city and keep it safe. until state law can be changed to give municipalities fairer sources of income. Are you postponing expenditures because you believe that state proposals to tax the rich will actually be adopted? It may cost more to fix problems later on. When, for instance, I've said before, when we short change DPW, roads become slick in winter, cars skid

into other cars, more work for the police, maybe overtime. That's not such a bargain. It could get worse if cars slide into pedestrians lawsuits. So, think carefully before cutting what looks like lowhanging fruit.

Thank you very much. My next speaker for the public hearing is Chris Milner. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. You will have three minutes once you begin. I'm Chris Milner from the third ward and um about the budget, it's really uh not too impressive to be honest. Um the state of the city finances are so poor that we still haven't completed a 2022 audit of the budget um and the city finances which is just and you don't even know how much money is in the the balance right now. You don't know if you've got $7 million, $14 million. And yet I see that certain members of common council want to spend additional money on otrs giving money to TCAT just because TCAT came to us with her handout. And I'm trying to tell you that you can't do that. We just don't know if we've got the money for this. Um, my taxes have gone up at a rate of 8.1% annually over the last 5 years. So that's a very high rate of inflation for taxes. I can pay it. I'm fine. But that's higher than Trump's inflation rate. So you're doing something better than Trump with these with the the rate when in you're increasing my taxes. It's okay. I'll pay it. But you're shutting people out of the city who can't. Okay? There's not going to be a middle class in Ithaca much longer. It's going to be people who make below median income and the very wealthy. You're not going to get anybody in between. That's going to lead to the deterioration of the city. And so what I'm trying to tell you is it is not okay to put money into overt

target funding requests. Not now and not next year when things might settle down. It's not okay to give M TCAT additional money. It's not okay to use fund balance when you don't know what you've got in the fund balance and you may not have raises. You may not. Does anyone have any questions? Thanks. Thank you very much. My next speaker is Lee Rogers. Could have swore I saw her earlier. Lee? No. Okay. My next speaker is John Graves, who I do see. Welcome, John. You have three minutes once you begin.

What a difference a year makes. Last year, barely a penny could be removed from the city budget without the sky falling. This year, a $2.1 million accounting era is being removed from the city budget, and the sky is still up. Last year, the 8.1 budget increase was a disaster. This year, it has me questioning if the city manager form of government is right for Ithaca. The city of Bingmpington, which has 13,500 more residents than Ithaca, has already delivered its $110 million city budget that decreases the property tax rate for homeowners by 0.1%. And they did it with a mayor and seven council members. The city of Ithaca, on the other hand, has a city manager, an assistant city manager, a mayor, and 10 council members who are proposing a $112 million city budget that increases the property tax rate for homeowners by someplace around 2.7%. Up until now, I believe that the city's city hall's uncontrollable appetite for spending could be held in check with a focus on fiscal discipline. At this point, however, we are now looking at a 4.3% budget increase over last year's budget, and residents are so when it comes to fiscal discipline controlling the process. Currently, I'm seriously reassessing my lifelong attachment to the city of Ithaca. Something I never thought I'd say.

Thank you. My next speaker is Zachwin. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin. Good evening. Uh I appreciate that you decided to keep the budget within the tax cap. I know the budget is especially tight this year in no small part to the due to the shortfall that was discovered a few weeks ago. If it comes down to a choice of funding TCAT or other projects like the unarmed response unit, I hope that TCAT is prioritized as it is such a crucial mode of transportation for the city and county. The funding is necessary to avoid root cuts that will cause a reduction in ridership and along with it the federal subsidies uh that are make up the bulk of the organization's budget and could potentially trigger a death spiral spiral for the organization. Thank you.

Thank you. My next speaker on the budget hearing is uh Jim Smith. Welcome Jim. As you know, you have three minutes once you begin.

Hi, Jim Smith. IA. Um, coming to these meetings, sometimes you become aware of something that hadn't crossed your mind and I saw the fire department had requested for a lieutenant for the fire marshall's office and that made incredible sense to me. Um, I was working when they had the fire at a stair. You were lucky that it was not a mass casualty event. um the smokes in the stairwell, but three people had to go to the hospital is my understanding. Um the fire marshall's office is responsible for inspecting all these buildings. Usually you go in once a year and do it on the Asteria. You almost need to do it uh every day. Um we go there, I go on their EMS calls all the time. You'll see door emergency fire doors propped open, stuffs like that. um if there's anything that you're going to spend extra money on or you can find a way to fund this. I haven't talked to the fire department about it, but it makes eminent sense. You know, all the complaints about the asteri um a lot of times you say, "Well, there's nothing we can do." Well, this is something you can do to ensure the safety of the residents in those highrises, the stere and the art house and that um Ithaca's fire marshals office is much smaller than Bigmpington, but you probably have a lot more larger occupancy uh buildings. So, if you can find a way to do this, it seems like a priority. Thank you.

Thank you. My next speaker is Matthew Rosenlum. Welcome, Matthew. You have three minutes once you begin.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. I apologize. I filled out a comment card, but this is this is the public comment I intended. So, I'm here to speak on behalf of TCAT and support for the additional $500,000 increase um in the underwriters share. So, as I'm sure all you know, TCAT's funded by three underwriters. The it's like a three-legged stool. The shortest stool sets the the height of the stool. So, if one underwriter comes in low, they all come in low. And we're in a bit of an unprecedented situation. um we have been uh running off um ARPA and Chrissa funds and those have largely evaporated. So we're now in a situation where we have to increase the underwriter share to maintain our service levels. Um essentially the underwriter share stay flat since 2019 while costs have gone up significantly. Nothing costs the same today as it does in 2019, especially in the transportation world where you deal with labor, oil, gasoline, all of those things. So we need this funding to keep our buses in good shape, keep our service on the road. What we are trying to avoid is exactly what the previous commenter said where we do service cuts, that means a reduction in ridership, which means a reduction in operating funds, which means more service cuts, and the system begins to unravel. So we have a very short window to address this problem. And the support of the city with this underwriters ask is is very critical. And this is a service that everyone in the community can use. Um, but it is a service that a lot of people depend on when they're lower income, um, when they're handicapped, when they do can afford a car or can no longer drive. Um, it's, you know, public transit is really an essential service and it's important to invest in it. The economic vitality of the community is tied to it without getting people to um, you know, their employment, places of employment, things like that. Businesses will have to curtail hours. You'll see a drop in sales tax revenue. And if the deficit that TCAT's facing cannot be addressed, it ultimately will essentially come as an assessment on the three underwriters. So if we can't get this budget hole

addressed early, the budget hole gets larger and eventually the asks become larger and if the asks future asks are not successful, then there is this assessment where the deficit of TCAT gets split evenly among the three underwriters, which is a situation no one wants. So I would again really encourage you to support that ask. Thank you very much. And my last speaker for this public hearing is Professor Nick Klein. Thank you for the honorific.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, council members. I am uh Nick Klein. I'm a resident of Fall Creek, resident of city etha. I'm also a professor of city planning at Cornell and uh thanks to your approval, I sit on the board of TCAT along with one of your colleagues and our former mayor who's in the audience. Um, you know, I think the previous speakers have offered really articulate arguments uh on behalf of TCAT and the ask and I've spoken to many of you. I'm happy to speak to others of you about this in detail from my perspective. Um, and I think everything they say is absolutely true um about the risks of uh TCAT for writership in terms of a sort of what we'd call a death spiral where we reduce service, writers decline, writership declines, we reduce service more, writership declines more until we're left with almost nothing running. in addition the fiscal implications for you. I'm sure you all know better than I. Um I will say that you know I've been on um TCAT's board now since February and you know I think from my perspective you know as a professor and someone who studies transportation um it has been really wonderful to be on the board and to see the leadership at TCAT. You know I think we often see um we have complaints. I'm a rider of the bus. You know I have my own complaints about when the bus doesn't show up. I take the 10. Um, and I think I I've been, you know, so impressed with the the leadership at TIA that under um Matthew Rosen Bloom Jones um and Tiffany Walker and just the things that they're doing and the wonderful strides that Tika is taking. I'm sure you've all seen the new buses that are running out there, both the electric and the diesel buses that are running and service has gotten much much better since I've been on there in the 10 months. Um, you know, hiring has improved, fully staffed. We have a union contract that has been done and you know it just is so sad to see this idea that all the gains that we've been making and the investments that you've been putting in there are at risk. You know if we have to do these service cuts it's going to be tremendously hurtful to people to ridership to people who need and rely on

the bus. People have to get to work early who won't have a choice will have to get a car or pay for parking or pay for Uber Lift or call up their friends and family or walk long distances. Um, and so I just urge you to support this ask. Thank you very much. Thank you. With that, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? Uh, Mr. Clemens, you have signed up for public comment, which is not the public hearing for the budget. So, Mr. Clemen, this is not back and forth. I have your card for when we get to public comment, but you have

you have not signed up for that. You have a comment card for public comment. This is my last time. I'm going to address him back and forth. You will be recognized once we get to that. But there is a number of cards in my hand. May we have a motion to close the public hearing. Mr. Keel, seconded by Mr. St. Perez. All those in favor of closing the public hearing. That carries unanimously. Now, may I have a motion to open the public hearing on local law amending section C44 proceedings to collect unpaid taxes? That is Mr. Letterman. That is seconded by Mr. St. Perez. All those in favor of opening that public hearing, that carries unanimously. There are no people signed up for this public hearing. We have a motion to close the public hearing. Moved by all the person Kumar, second by all the person Keel. All those in favor of closing the public hearing. That carries unanimously. Now I'm going to go to comments from the public which can be on anything including the budget. And the first person I have is uh Tracy. Is it Maveli? Mavelly, excuse me. And you are recognized for seven minutes because you are speaking on behalf of six or plus people. So you have no more than seven minutes per our rules of procedure and uh you are time begins as soon as you start speaking.

Thank my name is Tracy McVy and I'm speaking on behalf of the Spencer Road Neighborhood Association to urgently request that the city of Ithaca implement traffic calming measures along Spencer Road and Stone Corey Road. We're here to publicly present this letter with over 20 signatures requesting the planned traffic study is completed immediately and traffic calming measures implemented. We have been contacting the city and requesting traffic calming for over eight years but we still have not seen meaningful action although we are now getting replies to our emails. I'll keep this to the aotted time but we are submitting the full letter to be included in the meeting notes. Spencer Road and Stone Corey Road provide the only scenic way to access Buttermilk Falls from downtown and thus are frequented by many pedestrians and cyclists in the city. These roads are designated urban collectors and are heavily used by drivers commuting to downtown Ithaca or bypassing Route 13 congestion. The safety of Spencer Road and Stone Corey Road affect more than just the residents who live there. Unfortunately, the volume and speed of this traffic have created persistent safety hazards for residents, pedestrians, cyclists, and children in our neighborhood. These conditions culminated in a hit and run on February 15th, 2025, in which our neighbor was struck by a vehicle that fled the scene. To date, the driver of the vehicle has not received any consequences, while the injured party spent over 6 months recovering and has only recently been able to return to work. As recently as June 2025, the city of Ithaca reaffirmed its commitment to the vision zero initiative, which aims for zero traffic related deaths and injuries. In this spirit, we are bringing the following issues to your attention and more, which are detailed in the letter. Drivers regularly drive on the sidewalk at Spencer Road and Stone Quarry Road where the Stone Quarry Apartments are located. Drivers routinely drive onto the sidewalk and drive through the

raised road barrier and ballards meant to prevent traffic meant to between the three and 400 blocks. Children from the Stone Corey Apartments play or walk in this area and pedestrians regularly use this sidewalk which is one of the few sidewalks in our neighborhood. The current situation poses an immediate danger. Kate Deagarza, executive director of IHS. We routinely get feedback from residents and families with young children at Stone Corey Apartments that cars and trucks drive over the sidewalk triangle, seriously endangering pedestrian safety. This is a tragic incident just waiting to happen. Speeds of 40 to 70 mph and persistent failure to stop at stop signs. From the 300 block to the 600 block, vehicles frequently exceed the posted 25 miles per hour and fail to stop at intersections. Speed monitors placed at 333 Spencer Road recorded multiple vehicles traveling between 41 and 46 miles per hour earlier this year. Residents have observed vehicles traveling at speeds as high as 50 to 70 mph on a regular basis in the 5 and 600 block. So we've sorted our own traffic incident log that we maintain as a group and residents documented observations show that the majority of drivers fail to come to a complete stop at the intersection of Stone Corey and Spencer roads as well as the intersection of South Meadow Street and Spencer Road. This has an impact on our daily safety. Children wait for and board buses at Spencer Road and South Meadow Street as well as Spencer Road and Stone Corey Road where many drivers ignore the stop signs and speed through the area at 40 miles per hour or more. One of our residents describes the fear of letting her son walk to the school bus stop amid high speeds, aggressive driving, and a lack of sidewalks. Others report being harassed by drivers and narrowly missed by vehicles swerving around school buses and slower moving traffic. A resident with a baby acknowledges that they are now even more concerned and worry they won't be able

to run out of the way if a car isn't paying attention and doesn't follow the rules. We respectfully urge the city to conduct a formal traffic study on Spencer and Stone Corey roads with the goal of installing traffic calming measures such as additional signage, speed bumps, raised crosswalks, and additional stop signs. Install a removable ballard for emergency vehicles only and signage in front of Stone Corey apartments to prevent cars from routinely driving through the sidewalk areas. Monitor and enforce this posted 25 mileph limit with a police presence, traffic cameras, and citations for speed violations. Spencer Road is a vibrant, long-standing community. It's one of the oldest neighborhoods in Ithaca, one where residents walk, bike, and gather outdoors. The current traffic patterns threaten our safety and quality of life. We urge the city of Ithaca to take immediate steps to calm traffic, repair infrastructure, and make our street safe for all users. As one of our teenage residents stated, "We just want our street to feel like a neighborhood. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter."

Thank you. My next speaker is Emily Thuja. I did have a comment card for Chris Milner, but they left, so unless I am missing them, but they also signed up for the public. Yeah. So, Emily, welcome. Good to see you. As you know, you have three minutes once you begin.

Happy election day to those who are celebrating. Um, so, uh, yes, I'm Emily Thuja. Um, I live on South Hill in Ward 3. Um, and to the uninitiated, um, I'm the one who lobbies to get the city's audits caught up. Um, the $2 million budget shortfall can't have been fun for anybody. And if reading about it in the news wasn't rough enough, the public commentary on it has been um alarmed. Alarmed um to put it lightly, uh trust in the city government is low right now. Uh I truly hope that your resolve is sharpened to get a controller into the finance department expeditiously. I hope the budget includes a salary provision that an attractive and competent candidate would actually accept. Uh if the department had had a head and was fully staffed, maybe the $2 million discrepancy could have been caught sooner or not occurred at all. Uh if the city could get caught up on its financial reporting, the city of Ethica would be a big step closer to regaining its citizens trust.

Thank you. My next speaker is is it um Chin stage. We should not go over there. Well, that's all right. You have three minutes to address us whenever you are ready.

I just want to say just because I'm valid retirement but a couple year before the s change to the milo one milo and now because we every months we every three months we need to pay pay the bill and my one person going my neighbor the two people CM CM bill do the same cause just I know them why they one person call two people see the cost and call the lady she say because minimal like every month like $81 that's very hard for uned retirement yeah doesn't matter here I like just you you have Milo every time I use how much you charge how much now it's minim I don't know I don't ask them why

I'm going to beg council's indulgence and just say can you leave your street address with the deputy clerk my you want my address if you you don't have I don't want you to read it into the microphone so that the whole world knows where you live But just let the deputy clerk know and we will connect you to your alder person. I hope council doesn't object to that. Um my next speaker is Lee Rogers who I also called earlier and she was not here so I'm just going to give her one more chance. Okay. Uh Zach, are you speaking again? Okay. So you have three minutes on you know whatever.

Thank you. Uh good evening. Uh, I'm glad to be able to tell you that there is now a water supply in the exception zone area of the jungle encampments behind Walmart. And on behalf of Mike Morurell, uh, who lives in the exception zone, I want to thank the mayor for listening to his pleas, uh, for this water source and encouraging DPW to make this basic amenity a priority. Uh, a few days ago, I sent you an article and legal document regarding a lawsuit by Downtown Ithaca local development against Fino Group New York regarding conditions at the Asteria as they relate to the downtown Ithaca Conference Center, which has seen its reputation devastated by what is going on. Among other issues you are well aware of like human waste, uh, fires and cockroach infestation is mention of the fact that several deaths have occurred in the building. If I read the lawsuit correctly, the city is paying the rent for the conference center space. And I'm curious if that could serve as leverage in bringing Vino Group into compliance or allowing the city to become party to the lawsuit. With people dying next door to this building on a frequent basis, I think it is necessary to keep the conditions at the Asterian Conference Center at the forefront of your attention. Uh, I again ask you to do whatever is within your power to get things under control and bring the casino into compliance. Uh, I have sent you photos of a homeless encampment that has been established inside the Senica Street bus shelter where someone froze to death last year. As it stands, the inside of the bus shelter is not inviting to everyday travelers trying to use the shelter to stay out of the elements. Uh, I believe there are several people employed for outreach to the homeless, and I hope that some solution for these individuals plight can be found before a hard freeze sets in and that they can be encouraged to avail themselves of code blue. Well, while allowing people to sleep in the bus station does not seem like a long-term solution, if people are going to be allowed to remain living in the bus shelter, it would be worthwhile to consider modifying the heater control so it stays on constantly instead of needing to be triggered every 15 minutes and putting some kind of cover over the openings as well as insulation on the glass. Thank you.

Thank you. My next speaker is James Smith. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Okay. Uh, bravo to Trumansburg and Dryden. Halloween, the EMS system in uh, Ithaca was totally overwhelmed. Uh, they sent their ambulances into the city. Trumanburg's ambulance stayed here almost all night. Uh, transported a gunshot victim to Robert Packard. We benefited from two municipalities that take EMS response seriously. In the meantime, I still have not heard anything from Ms. Mullenoff regarding um the 55 dispatch codes that she promised last spring would be addressed. Um the city manager system is a failure. We have a ma mayor who is a referendum denier. We voted for a diminished role for the mayor yet he is uh been unwilling to relinquish in authority. Um they have been discussing a raise for the mayor. That should go back to the voters if you're going to do that. Um then there's their city manager. Um she I first thought about the statistics when she presented her statistics on IFD calling the um and she showed a 20% increase and I looked at the numbers and I thought it was more Bernie Matt off than Mullenoff. Um either she was indolent, incompetent or uh deliberately wanted to mislead council regarding presenting statistics that could truly inform the public. She doesn't return calls, won't tell us what the audits will be, when they will be done. Uh doesn't tell us how much they're costing, won't inform us of the actual cost of uh the interest rates on the bond rating. We are told the audits aren't done because of COVID, unfilled positions, and the dog ate her homework. It's like watching a chili eating contest. How much will you swallow without throwing up? Um tax increases are the most unsustainable thing facing the city. eliminate the director of sustainability, put her salary towards a

controller that can do the job, and terminate Ms. Molenoff. I can give you 2 million.1 reasons why you should do that. Thank you. My next speaker is former mayor Laura Lewis and chair of TikT. Laura, as you may know better than anybody, you have three minutes once you begin. I seem to recall that.

Thank you very much. Uh, as the mayor indicated, I am speaking tonight as a TCAT board member. I will be reiterating some of the comments that TCAT's general manager, Matthew Rosenlum, made earlier, as well as my colleague on the TCAT board, Nick Klene. Uh, I'm speaking tonight in support of TCAT's request of the city and in fact of all three underwriters, the county, the city, and Cornell for an increased contribution of $500,000. While there are financial strains and uncertainties for all of the underwriters, I believe it is critical to sustain transit as a public service. Getting people to work, medical appointments, school, and shopping. Increasing ridership, which we all want to see, requires dependable, reliable, and for some expanded service in order to increase not only TCAT revenues, but as has been pointed out, city sales tax and access to jobs. Service cuts would have negative impact on all our residents as well as city businesses. TCAT has a need, in fact, a responsibility to maintain a healthy fund balance. As the general manager pointed out, once that fund balance is depleted, it is not replenished. TCAT faces increased costs, labor costs, health care costs, fuel, gas, and electric, an aging facility that was first built in 1992, and uh tariffs. There are uncertainties in federal as well as state support. Staffing levels at TCAT have now been stabilized thanks to TCAT's dedicated and very talented leadership team. TCAT

now has an outstanding general manager, an outstanding HR director, controller, and other staff who have come on board in the last two years since this leadership team has come in place. Now is the time to build upon those strengths and to invest in transit for people who live and work here in our community. Thanks so much for your support. Thank you, Jordan Clemens. You're my next speaker.

Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Hi, good evening. Um, I'm just going to run through some quick points here. Uh, I'm Jordan Clemens, founder of a grassroots revitalization nonprofit called Unbroken Promise Initiative. Some of you all may have known me for uh leading the community through the civil discourse during 2020 per post to George Floyd murder. From there we began um community organizing um uh reimagining public safety uh uh Ithaca um electric transportation access came out of it. Ithaca ETA a plethora of other um West End downtown revitalization initiative which you know influenced the the policy for the city when it comes to downtown revitalization. Um, I say that to say, uh, for the last 5 years, despite me working fist and glove with the mayor's office, which was which has now been eradicated under this, uh, city manager structure, um, UPI has failed to be paid and compensated for all the work and contribution to the city. I've been coming here every year and had to come here at least one year every year despite the fact that I've been in constant communication, constantly in the news, constantly in my community, constantly on meetings, constantly at conferences at the state level, constantly meeting with uh uh the United States um treasury when it came to ARPA to help craft and implement things that made sure that the policy around ARPA was to influence economic disparities within marginal ized communities, etc. And up to this point, UPI has only been compensated for 2 years of under the youth enrichment programming um uh component of the relationship and partnership with the city, not with the most pressing and most significant aspect of the work, which was the addressing um economic uh insecurities

and marginalized and disenfranchised communities. Okay. Another thing is lastly, I want to just um I'll continue to work with the city and continue to be consistent, persistent on that. Uh I'm aware of the the constraints within the budget. However, I've been very very patient with the city while continuing to provide value to ensure that my community had a direction um as well as sharing that direction and that vision with the broader community to ensure our our city was competitive at the state level for resources. And so, you know, I want to continue that work and hopefully that work continues on upward to the federal level. Um, also I just want to clear up for any people who may have misinterpreted the things that were said during my um my panel panel uh when with Gear was here. For those of you who had attended, I never intended to specifically talk to the the city government as far as my relationship or my experience. I've worked with a broad uh across the spectrum of government

and I want to just clear the air that that is your time. That is the day. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Uh, my next speaker is Nicole uh, Daria. Did I pronounce that correctly? Doria, I'm sorry. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Thank you. Um, I'm here as a homeowner on Wood Street and I've lived in Ithaca. I first moved downtown on South Albany Street way back when when you could buy a decent house for $120,000. Uh the past 5 years I've been a solo income home owner with three children, a school teacher for Ithaca City School District until just recently and now a small business owner. It has been a hustle life of working full-time with two side jobs just to make ends meet and no savings. Um I am coming because five years ago as a creative to solution to stay in my home and to keep my kids in Ithaca I became a a homeowner uh Airbnb host and I followed it by the book, paid all my taxes, been very transparent and followed all the rules. Um just to give you uh last year um it added $14,000 to my income which again allows me to stay living here. um and serving my community. Um this past year, I just wanted to give feedback. I've been wanting to do this for months. I just haven't had space in my life to do it. The um new process in place for homer home owner owner occupied Airbnb hosts is really horrendous. Um I went through the f full permitting process. I had to put $4,000 worth of work into my home, which included things like adding a handrail to my basement, which no Airbnb guest ever has access to. So, they inspected my whole home, even though I only Airbnb out the front of my home when my kids are at their dad's house. Um, and I learned that I have, so I've been approved for five years, but the cost to get the permit was $400. Um, and I'm required to pay that every January to renew this permit, even though the

permit is good for five years. I have learned that if you are a long-term renter in this town, you don't have to pay the permit, but it's every five years that you pay the permit. And I really think that's inequitable. My uh role in this community, I bring tourism here. I have a sweet little guide book where I direct all of my residents and I've had 102 stay at my home to all of our local businesses. So, in addition to keeping me here and allowing me to be in this community, I bring people and welcome them into our city, which I think we want. Um, and I just am am imploring you all to take a look at this $400 a year. It might not seem a lot to you all, but it's a tremendous amount to me. and I put $4,000 to get the permit to continue this operation in my home. So, I'm looking at a loss for this year in addition to a $400 fee that long-term renters don't have to do. Um, I when I asked about why this fee existed, I was told that the city uh employs a service to monitor.

Thank you. I'm sorry that is your time, but you may submit the rest of your comments in writing to the common council. Thank you, Professor Klein. I'm assuming you're not speaking again. Yeah, that was an Yep. All right. So, uh that we have no online speakers, correct, deputy clerk? All right. So, with that, that concludes statements from the public. Any comments from council? See all Mr. Shapiro, you're recognized.

Sure. I just want to uh say I appreciate that last comment about the uh challenges with the short-term um um gosh, I just forgot the short-term rental. um um policy that we passed uh early on in in 2024. I've been wondering how that policy has been playing itself out and it's good well I don't know if it's good to hear the feedback you gave but it's good to get feedback nonetheless. Um and I do think uh now that we've been in this um policy for about a year and a half or so there's probably some reason to revisit uh how this how it's working out and I hope that we can do that in the new year. So thanks for bringing that back to my attention.

Mr. Mr. Shapiro, I'll just quickly say if you'd like to write me an email, we can arrange for a briefing on that update. Absolutely. Uh Mr. Keel.

Uh yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I would also uh love to be CCed on that email. Um you know, I've spoken at uh meetings before about how I think that there are some definite changes that need to be made to the Airbnb policy. Um, I think one thing specifically that we've talked about uh for Tiffany and I's district is that, you know, you have massive amounts of housing that is empty for four months of the year. And it seems like a total waste to me that we're not trying to utilize that to bring tourism to our community. Um, and I I totally understand the the reasoning behind uh why we're doing what we're doing. Um, but also I think there's some improvements that can be made and and I look forward to working with the community to figure out where those pain points are and and how we address them. Um, I also wanted to speak briefly on uh those of you who came out to speak on the budget hearing. Thank you for being here. Um, it's really important that your voices are heard. Um, and then um on Spencer Road, um, thank you so much for coming out this evening. Um it was I your your statements legitimately almost brought me to tears. Um because that's just such an oversight in our community. Um and I really hope that the city administration will focus on bringing us forward a plan to address that um and taking immediate action. Um I think for for all the reasons outlined um this is something that we we owe to this community and and really should prioritize. Um so and I also look forward to to reading your whole email when you when you send it. Um, thank you for coming out and if you're staying, I hope you enjoy the evening.

Uh, Miss Brown,

thanks to everybody who came out and spoke. I want to start with speaking. I totally agree with the whole OTR piece, but um, anyway, we'll be speaking about that soon. Um, and uh, just want to say I'm really really encouraged by the talk about the fire marshall. I think we're really in need. And so then I want to go to this $500,000 for TCAT, which for me is pretty much I I know how it works and they'll wind up getting it. However, I have questions about that. uh you know the person talked about the number 10 bus and that goes every 30 minutes. Um and it talks about you know this whole uh uh people who are uh need this for uh going shopping this that and the other and when I think about the services to those communities that are poor or not I don't see that same type of service that that that Cornell gets that Ithaca College gets all night long all day long those services aren't given it to them. And so when I hear about that, I'm kind of questionable, Bill, and need to have more information. I've been really impressed with the hiring of TCAT. I've never been more impressed than happy sitting at Sica Street and seen about four black women driving buses. That really warmed my heart, right? But when I think about the uses of of uh TCAT asking the city for that much money and then who uses it most maybe we give half or something like that but Cornell at the college and some

of those entities maybe need to pay more. I know it's going to pass of course. Also, um I'm when we sit here and hear about Spencer Road and we're asking for uh 500,000 for TCAT and you try to weigh out where should that money really be going or you know it it's questionable. And so, um, I I I think about that a lot and I, you know, I'm really concerned when I hear Jordan who's been coming here for the last five years, right, and having this same conversation with the work that they're doing in the community, and it's always, well, I'm not going to say always, it's been very um, heartbreaking to watch uh, young black men who I watch grow up in this community, who I uh, um was his afterchool person at Southside. And to see it feels sort of like begging to me trying to understand better about doing this work for five years and only being co paid for two years and understanding clearly uh has been um uncomfortable for me. Uncomfortable because I've watched this young man do the work. I've watched him do the work. And I think as council um I I maybe I don't know I feel like we're missing something or I'm missing something or how how does it work so that we can continue to encourage young black and brown individuals in this community and poor people, rural people, whoever who have the desire to make our communities better and have have and feel comfortable enough to do this. I mean, five years straight at

every council meeting for five years would have got no I'm not that person, but some people would have deterred them and not come back. And I'm hoping we find some way of of um giving community uh community who don't think that they matter reasons to understand that they do matter. It it it's that that's for me. And so those are my comments for the night. But I heard some really good comments from the community from the community. Thank you all for always coming out. Good night,

Mr. Lettoman.

Hello. Thanks everyone for coming out. Um [clears throat] uh just a couple of things. First, thank you J.R. for Veterans Week. Appreciate the work you do. Um thank you to Emily Thuja on your city on the city budget work. I think you were the first person I ever so put together graph the city's net position and I think I told mayor the other day you were my favorite or second favorite public commenter. Um uh thanks to the Spencer Road folks. I'm glad I know we are part of Vision Zero and it's helpful to know about that. Um and then I think just for the public edification, we're going to be doing a budget amendment um about TCAT at the very end of the meeting. It's going be the last uh item on the the budget amendments

if that's so moved. Okay. Well, I'll be moving it. So, um that's all. You're expecting me to predict what's going to happen at this table. I should know better, shouldn't I? Um, uh, but yes, just wanted to mention that. I guess I will be moving that at the end of the meeting. So, thank you. Hold the person hand sharp.

Thanks everyone for coming out. Um, and I wanted to um shout out your comments, Mr. Smith on the fire marshall and the importance of uh fire prevention and the safety of the community. Um and um on Spencer Street uh that's eight years is a long time and um thank you for coming tonight. And uh just given the ward that Duen and I are in, I also want to mention that residents on Aurora Street are also struggling with safety concerns on Aurora Street. So I wanted to say that publicly.

President Fitzio.

Yes. Thank you everybody for coming out. Um I'll start with the with the last one with the as short-term rental issues. I've also heard from somebody um almost the exact same story, somebody in my ward um and the enormous cost that it has been to actually do the required inspections and and changes to the property that also some of them seemed uh very unwarranted. Um, so I would like to see um us come together and now that this policy has been in place, I'd like to see um some staff um maybe get together with council members and we can connect uh the residents so that there they can get some input. We need to figure out a formal way to gather input on this and review it and see what kinds of tweaks need to be made to um to make this better. Um, with regard on the fire codes, I'd like to just reiterate um my request for an update from the department and from the city manager so that the public can finally uh figure out what it is we respond to or don't respond to and how that is meeting um the basic standards that we uh need for this community. Um, wow, Spencer Road. I had no idea this was going on in Spencer Road. Um, I've been on council less than two years, but um, that's long enough. I I can't say that I've heard about that. So, thank you for coming, but we have to do more than say thank you for coming. Um, I guess I'm I'm asking what is going to happen, how staff will convene, um, meet with people, understand the situation, how we begin to move forward and make a plan to address it. Mayor, would you like to address that? If you don't mind, I just um when the folks arrived early, I uh also uh shared I know Tracy had

emailed us. Um I shared the uh form to request a traffic study from the engineering department. They've uh received that and um I'm happy to work as I've communicated via email offline with them to get them what they need.

Thank you so much for doing that. Thank you. Keep at it people on Spencer Road until you get it done. Um and then I just want to address um just basically about about the budget and our need to sort of rein things in. Um uh DPW is something that you know I care about very much very much about road sidewalk safety um everything all related uh to DPW. Um I know that Teresa referred to um one of the cuts that you know has been proposed to help balance the budgets $145,000 I think it is from from DPW um and it was referred to as lowhanging fruit. I don't I don't I don't really see it that way. What I'm thinking is the DPW budget which I just want people to know is $19.4 million. So, uh, that represents a really teeny that's like less than 1% of their budget. You know math better than me. Um, so I think we we all we we can't have everything. We do need to get realistic about about making cuts. I think I think that one I'm going to trust the the administration um on this that uh that's going to help us out uh to fill a hole and um without having dire consequences. So that's all I want to say. Thanks so [clears throat] much.

And lastly, holder persons. Yes. Thank you everyone who um came out tonight. Um and I just wanted to say for the Spencer Road Association um please just keep me in the loop and let me know how I can advocate. I would love to figure out either bringing a memo forward or something in the early uh early next year um for traffic calming overall. It's a really big issue that I hear from constituents in all neighborhoods in Ward One. So, I would love for the administration um to figure out a plan. Um thank you.

Uh and just without repeating anything any of my colleagues said, I will just also note that uh stay tuned. Uh the council will vote I think at our December meeting on a um request to the state legislature for home rule authorization to allow us. We're not going to we don't know where they'll be yet, but to allow us to have authorization for speed and red light cameras, uh which is unfortunately the way that New York State works requires that we get Albany to say it's okay before we do it. But um I think that can tie into these broader concerns about traffic coming there and elsewhere in the city. Um all right council uh we have nothing on consent agenda. So may I please have someone summarize and move ordinance amending Ithaca City co

didn't we add something to consent agenda to cons? Not to consent we just added it to that that's going to come um as member filed at the very end but thank you all the person. Apologies for my that's about right. Um, may I have someone summarize and move the uh uh chapter 146 amendment for electricians? Mr. Letterman, please. I move an ordinance amending chapter 5, article 5 of chapter 146 of the Ithaca city code entitled electricians and my understanding and thanks to Isaac and the attorney's office for drafting this is this would allow the um this is company with local law. This would allow the examining board of electricians to move to the international standard for examine uh examinations.

Thank you, Mr. Letterman. Is there a second? Mr. St. Perez, there was no discussion on this at committee. Any comments? Seeing none, all those in favor? That carries unanimously? Uh, may I have someone summarize and move our amendment to chapter 170, the use of city real property? Mr. Letterman.

I move an ordinance amending Ithaca City Code Chapter 170 entitled use of city real property. Um this in part there were certain this came from and you know Victor interrupt me if I've got this wrong. Um changes that were made at the uh by the state about when collections have to occur. But this also will give us more time to get notice to folks um who are back on their taxes. I know we had that list sent out among us, but that was been a concern in the past about the amount of time and number of notices given. So hopefully this will help remedy that issue. Sorry, just to jump in. Are we on this one said the 170 change or the C4? This is the 170 change.

The 170 change is the uh the license permit renewals one. You're talking about C44, but that was a good description that Thank you. All right. I move Well, I already moved it. I just gave the wrong description. Mr. St. Perez seconds. Uh, any discussion on this item? Those in favor? That carries unanimously? Uh, Mr. Letterman, you want to summarize the amendment to the already taken care of. All right. There we go. Um, I move a local law amending section C44. It's C4. C44 of the Ithaca City Charter entitled proceedings to collect unpaid taxes for the purpose of changing the date on which penalties for delinquent taxes are assessed.

Thank you. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. St. Perez. Any discussion? This is a local law, so we'll go to a roll call vote. All the person Moss. Yes. All the person Brown. All the person win. Hi. All the person H Sharp. Yes. All the person St. Perez. Yay. All the person Shapiro. All the person Keel. Yes. All the person Kumar. Yes. All the person Letterman. Yes. All the person Fitzio. Yes.

And the mayor votes yes. That carries unanimously. Um I am going to request unanimous consent to just handle two other short voting items before we turn to the next item which is the budget. Any objections? Okay. First is just I'm going to move this resolution. Uh I will summarize. Right. This is basically um the home energy assistance program uh provides heating and energy assistance to 1.5 million New Yorkers and it failed to open as scheduled on November the 3rd. Uh we are asking uh Governor Hogal to issue a media uh immediate and statewide moratorium on residential electric gas and combination utility terminations including those under the Long Island Power Authority until this assistance program is fully funded and reopened. Uh we are urging this governor use state funds to restore these benefits so that eligible households may access emergency assistance without delay. We are calling upon the New York State Public Safety, excuse me, public service commission to pause all customer disenrollments from energy affordability programs until this is reinstated, urging the state to work in partnership with utilities, counties, and community organizations to ensure timely outreach, processing, and dispersement of these benefits once reopened. And we are directing the uh city clerk's office to provide copies of this resolution once approved and certified to our various New York State representatives. Is there a second? Mr. Shapiro seconds. Any comments or discussion on this? All those in favor? That carries unanimously? Council, we will also just note I have two appointments uh which you would have been able to access the credentials for these appointees in legislate. Um I have two appointments to the Ithaca Housing Authority Board. One of those is a reappointment and one of those is a new application. These appointments are for 5-year terms that will uh end on October the 17th, 2030. Any questions or discussion on these, Mr. Shapiro?

Yeah, just a quick question. Um, I was initially um appointed to this board as a liaison when we first uh were elected and then the IHA just um had an opinion that someone from our council should not be a liaison to to their board. I'm just curious if Well, two things. I I know that they've tried to be in touch with me through the clerk's office in the past. So, I don't know if I'm officially not a liaison and if there needs to be an action for that, but I'm just curious, has that been clarified? Do we as a council are we responsible to be a liaison on their board? I have an opinion on that, but I think that perhaps you and the city attorney and I could have a brief conversation about this matter.

Fine by me. Thank you. Any uh Mr. Ke? Um, I think I'm Well, I I just first wanted to um I don't see a resume for Lisa Collins in uh the in legislate. I wanted to ask about that. Okay. Um and just as a clarification, was Lisa is Lisa Collins a reappoint? No, this is a new appointment. It is uh the one of one applications we received.

Okay. Um, just to stay uh legislatively consistent, I'm not going to vote for Lisa Collins because I want to make sure that we are treating everybody equally and asking everybody submit uh the required materials. All right. In that case, I will amend this if it's friendly to older person. Shapiro, I'll move these as individual appointments rather than a batch. So, uh, friendly. I second. Yep. Yeah.

Okay. So, all right. Uh with any without any further questions um for Loretta's reappoint all those in favor that carries those opposed in Okay, that carries unanimously. Um now for Lisa Collins, any comments or questions? No, I just agree with Patrick about on Collins. Sure. Okay.

Um All right. All those in favor and those opposed. And that carries 9 to2 with all the persons Brown and Keel against. Uh now we will go to the budget. Um which I believe does need to be moved at this meeting. So Mr. St. Perez moves. I need someone to second the budget. Second by other person Kumar. All right. I have a list of amendments. The first amendment I will sponsor as it is from the administration and I think to clarify one of the public comments earlier. [clears throat] Many of these resolutions amending are substantively similar. So I will read this in its entirety and you will hear us abbreviate them going forward. Whereas the common council is vested with the authority to amend the city budget prior to adoption. And whereas the council seeks to align appropriations with community priorities while maintaining the city manager responsibility for administrative administration and operations. Uh we move to uh accept the administration's proposed adjustment plan which includes [clears throat] various line reductions from DPW uh uh uh totaling $145,000. Various line reductions from IFD which amounts to $10,000. various line reductions from IPD which amounts to $20,950. Various reductions of phones across citywide departments which amounts to $10,450 uh the same for advertising which amounts to $10,000. The technological reserves from the department of information communic and community engagement uh which amounts to $50,000. Uh we also move proposed fee increases recommended in the executive budget to the tune of $117,789. Uh we moved to increase garage rates to $2 $2.25 an hour uh to the tune of approximately $127,000. Uh the implementing street parking on Saturdays to the estimated revenues of

$85,000 and garage parking on Saturdays to the estimated revenues of $110,000. We are lowering our uh expenditures for unemployment insurance by $5,000 uh and workers compensation budgeted contingencies based on actuals for by $123,694 office expenses across various department to the tune of $20,000. Uh the LDC partnership uh amounts have been adjusted upon further review by $107,000. We are moving to uh remove $100,000 from the emergency reserve not to remove it from the reserve to not contribute to the emergency reserve fund by a level of $100,000 the emergency repair fund with the DPW by $400,000. Um and uh we are going to also look at their consideration of assuming a vacancy rate of 5.5% which would uh save the city $247,500 and reduce management increases for the next year to 1% for a a final total of $76,648. Um and so now therefore be it resolved the common council hereby amends the 2026 proposed budget as described above. May I have a second to that motion? moved by uh seconded by older person Hayne Sharp. Discussion. This is again the thing we spent last week talking about. This is just the proposed uh plan. I invite comments. I remind council that we um currently as of this moment I'm speaking have an unbalanced budget and by New York state law we're required to have one. Mr. St. Perez,

this is I I have a comment and also just a clarifying question. Clarifying question. Do we have a budget meeting after this? because I recall us tableabling the budget to a budget meeting after this meeting. Uh this is this is this is part of that meeting. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Um so this is this is the scheduled budget vote which council unless I am about to be shocked. Council is not going to be voting on the budget tonight. number of amendments and then uh we will give the controller a week to reflect any amendments that are made and council will vote on the final budget next Wednesday at our overflow meeting which will be like 4 days before it's due. Yeah, understood. Thank you for the clarification.

Absolutely. Um I want to again express some concern over um the Saturday parking uh anticipated revenues. I'm not confident that it will materialize into what we want it to and I think it might have unanticipated consequences. This said given our current financial state I don't see that we have much of a choice but to authorize it. I just wanted to voice a concern. Thank you all the person. Any further comments on this?

All right. Uh yeah, Mr. Shapiro. Um, I don't like much of this budget amendment plan. I was in the finance committee that helped settle on this budget. Sorry. Um, I don't like most of what's in this budget amendment plan. And I say that as someone who is in the finance uh, commi finance advisory committee that helped discuss this budget amendment plan. Um, I do plan to vote on it tonight because I think we're in a tough bind with our timing and um, and I feel uh, I think that's unfortunate. I um, I think there are lots of ways that we can make other decisions, but I don't those weren't the decisions that were brought before us and um, there just simply wasn't enough time to make different decisions. I agree with Pierre. Um, some of these things are not going to fall into place the way we think they're going to. Um, and some of them, um, we have not had enough time to gather community input. For instance, Saturday parking. Um, I've had heard from a number of constituents about um, taking away money from the emergency um, um, repair fund. Um, I've heard from folks about the management increases. You all have already heard my opinion about that, but I have heard from other folks about that as well. Um, I've heard from folks about most of the lines on this budget and I really wish that there was more time um to go and make different choices and I wish that there were different choices that were given to us to consider. Um, but at this point I don't think that we have those choices in front of us. And I don't think we have the time to really go back and forth and um get unanimous

or a majority of people to agree with different choices. So in uh the spirit of uh trying to do our duty, which is to pass a budget before the 15th of November, um I will plan to vote for this, but I do so very begrudgingly. Miss Brown,

I'm in agreement with David. Um, I am not happy with this at all. I think there's other ways that we could have done, but most importantly, what is my bother is we have audits that have not be done been done. We had an error of 2.1 that was in the papers or whatever. And so, we aren't really sure what's what what we have in there. And so for me, I see places that I I think I could have felt better about, but you know, I'm just But like David, I know that if you can clarify for me, if we don't have this budget passed by the 18th, what do New York State do?

I don't know that off the top of my head, but it is uh I believe the legal term is very bad. Okay. But as David said, and I and I and it it hurts me as a council because a lot of the blame comes on us like we're not doing what we need to do and we didn't do what we should do. And I have to say, maybe not me, but the rest of these young people and others on this council and Margaret work really and David were really really and Kayla, [laughter] everybody, they have done an amazing job of really trying to protect uh city employees and also constituents. I I gotta give them kudos for that. This last year has been some health issues with me and I don't feel I've did my due diligence, but I just want to say I just want to let this community know that this this is a this you two ducks, but this um council has been amazing, right? Amazing. And they have really really put in a lot of works. I tell you by all the ease meals all day, every day. But I and thank you, Rob, for being being there for us, right? But I must say for real, they really work hard. This is it to the community and this is also to the city employees. I'm out.

All right, we'll do a roll call vote on all of these for tracking purposes. Uh all the uh we're not going line by line. I just mean for all the amendments. I don't I'm not yet that upset with everyone. Um all the person ms just for clarification we're voting on the the new the we we are voting to accept or reject the administration stop gap plan. Okay. Yes. All the person Brown. Yes. All the person win. I. All the person Hayne Sharp. Yes. All the person St. Perez. Yay. All the person Shapiro. Yes. All the person Keel. Yes. All the person Kumar. I older person Letterman yes older person Fitzio

yes and the mayor votes yes that carries 110 our next amendment

uh is moved is by me um I am moving to eliminate the capital projects general fund which constitutes the public safety camera upgrades uh three vehicles for IPD and one tractor for the IT youth bureau uh I am moving to eliminate that entirely ly the intent of which is uh my belief that funding short life cycle recurring purchases through short-term debt is fiscally unsound and inconsistent with the best practices municipal capital planning and so um I wish to see us incorporate these things in our operating budgets going forward I so move seconded by Mr. Keel discussion Mr. Um I just want to say that I couldn't agree with you more, Mayor Kammo. Um I think we are dealing with significant uh a significant fiscal crisis obviously this year but generally in the city. Um and from my perspective due to balanced budget requirements, a lot of our challenges right now are coming from the additional interest that we're paying on our short-term debt. Um, and I think in order for us to really I think there's obviously a a place for borrowing. Um, it's a necessary function of city governments. Um, but at the same time, we need to make sure that those things are not recurring borrowing because it just it just adds up and we're seeing that now. We've been seeing that for many years. Um, and so I want to thank you for taking that step tonight and I'm excited to support you on this.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Oh, Mr. Letterman and then Mr. St. Perez.

Yes. I'll just uh second my colleagues uh comments. Um I think I'm glad uh the mayor is taking action here to address our significant um fiscal issues and to stop the sort of uh practice of issuing a lot of short-term uh notes which has gotten us into I think we have $51 million in short-term notes now which represents nearly 50% of our uh operating and capital budget. So, um, I'm glad we are moving in this direction. I wish we could make these expenditures. I hope that they come in the operating budget in future years, but I'm glad we're not issuing more debt. Mrs. Amberez,

could you describe what impact this would have on our bottom line finances outside of the impacts on debt, which I think I understand, uh, what do you mean by finances? I guess I mean, so so is is this just the elimination of this? Is this going to leave us lacking in areas that we would otherwise be spending on? Is this

uh so no so this won't impact the tax rate in any appreciable way. Um this is a this is borrowing, right? And so um I believe our prevailing interest rate last year on bands was about 4 and a.5%. 4 and a.5% of $588,000. Not a significant amount of money. This is more about my personal um desire to see us move away from having short-term debt utilized to pay for uh assets that depreciate quickly or for vehicles. Understood. Thank you, Mr. Shapiro.

Thank you. I I appreciate the motion and the effort that you're putting in to to help us reduce our our debt. Um I'm just curious, the chief is in the audience today. Would we be permitted to um invite him up to speak to the three police cars that we will not be purchasing if this passes? Absolutely. Uh Chief, you're welcome up if you'd like to comment. Um I can also riff on what I talked to uh Mr. Depay about today when I saw him. Either or for me just to the microphone chief if you don't mind just so he blends in so well. Chief, thank you for joining us. Thank you.

Yeah. So, specifically on the vehicles uh with the otrs, I mean, this was a method at some point that how the vehicles were funded. Uh I know there's been conversation in the past and including them within the budget. Uh I don't fully understand why the the way they've been done, but the fact that they're coming out obviously presents challenges. Uh, I know the last time vehicles were not funded, I was told, was 2013 and we're just now getting caught up. Uh, so it's something that, you know, obviously doesn't doesn't go away. Officers need to get around the city to to call us. If I may, I would also just say, and I invite, you know, I've spoken to the chief about this privately, um, you know, I think if as vehicles need urgent replacement, they want to bring a prospective budget amendment before council next year, we have a better sense of, uh, city finances and further completed audits and budget um, and fund balance. Um, I'd be open to considering uh, paying for them directly, but my my my personal position on this is again, I don't I don't want to borrow for this. All the person ms. Yeah, I just wanted to say that um I agree and we'll be voting in favor for this amendment. Um I've always had my own personal issues with borrowing for police vehicles every year. So, thank you for bringing this forward.

Miss Fitzio,

I'm just curious, what is the replacement cycle like? How many miles or how many years, how many vehicles do we have? Just to give us some sense of what we're talking about. A number of those uh questions I do not have answers for at this time but you know typically most vehicles are running 247 7 days a week. So you know within three to four years uh one one of the uh programs that we're using now Fleetio actually helps with the management of those vehicles ensuring that they're updated they get their tuneups they get their maintenance which extends the life of vehicles and then our vehicles we don't run until they're done. they actually get uh go to auction at a certain point and that goes back to the the general fund.

Do you know approximately how many we have? I off the top of my head, I' I'd be I'd be guessing. Yeah. But we I do appreciate, you know, the the uh the mayor's openness to, you know, approaching this as, you know, we have more information in the coming year um and, you know, identifying vehicles specifically they're at at their end and uh life cycle.

Mr. W. Well, I think there's an opportunity too for fleet management to to really study the things that Margaret is is talking about and uh we have and I you know, so I'm complicit in this over the past 10 years of being on council of of approving these year after year. Um so this is an opportunity to kind of do an experiment as to see what happens when you go beyond what we've been used to in the replacement cycle as cars have gotten more reliable. So I encourage IPD to to collect as much data as it can over the next year. I see you, Mr. Leman. I want to just make sure that no one who hasn't spoken yet. Go ahead.

Uh yes, and I would just say, you know, I support making sure that we you know maintain the fleet. Um and uh you know, I'm I'll be uh not able to vote on this in a couple of weeks time. Um but I think it would make sense. I'm sure there's a point maybe next year where we'll realize what's more cost effective going to auction with these or buying new ones. So maybe, you know, makes sense to have that point and then go there. Although, you know, I wish we could spend the money now. Um, and I would have if we had more room with the tax cap. Uh, but I'm glad we're ending the practice of the sort of short-term borrowing. All right, with that, I'll go to a roll call vote. Uh, all the person Moss, yes. All the person Brown. All the person Noin, yes. All the person H Sharp, yes. All the person St. Perez.

Hi. All the person Shapiro. Yes. All the person Keel. Yes. All the person Kumar. Hi. All the person Letterman. Yes. Alder person Fitzio. Yes. And the mayor votes yes. That carries 110. Thank you, Chief. Um, my next amendment that I have is a motion from alderperson St. Perez to provide $15,000 from the general fund to me available to Tomkins County Public Library for the purpose of making Sunday hours available and supporting communitywide efforts of the Tomkins County Public Library. Is that a sufficient summary of your motion? Is that so moved? Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Win discussion.

Would you like to speak in favor of the motion, please? Um I'd just like to note that um this is part of a collaborative effort to provide Sunday hours that uh we pitch into. So does the town of Itha and Tomkins County. Um these Sunday hours provide I I believe commercial stimulus on some Sundays making you know coming down into the city of Ithaca more viable for various folks. Um, additionally, like the I mean the library does an incredible amount of things in our community, provides numerous services, and I see this as a very costefficient way to support those services uh on days when they would not otherwise be available. I mean, it's warm in the winters. Um, it provides children's programming. It has a maker space now which is also available to the public.

It's cool as hell indeed. My my point here in being this is a very low cost, very high reward. Mr. Shapiro, I'm just curious if if you'll allow me to ask a question to Pierre. Um, but where did the number come from? Was this the was there a submission that the town and the city and the county received? So, this this uh joint agreement on on how to approach this has been going on for several years. I am not 100% on this, but my understanding is that the idea originated from the library.

I can also add a little bit of color to that. I know that was funded uh last year, I believe. I can't call on them to speak from the gallery, but I think Mayor Lewis can nod her head and say that at least for the two years of her administration, this was funded. So, we're looking at at least five years. Mr. Keel, um, thank you, Mr. St. Perez, for bringing this forward. Um, I really support the mission of the library and also I I understand its impact uh that it has on our community. Um that said, I am very aware of the situation with the budget this year and also our continually increasing uh property tax burden. Um and so I'm not going to be supporting this tonight and I really thank you for for bringing it forward. Um, and I hope that in future years when we have a better understanding of our finances um, and hopefully have some more uh, tax growth through development that we will be able to continue funding initiatives like this,

Mr. Britzio.

Well, I'm going to surprise you. I I do support this um, and I support it this year. What I what I think is why isn't the county funding the county library fully and meeting all of its needs? And so I I really would like to make an appeal to um the city reps who are on the county board to uh speak up for us because I'm going to remind everybody once again, we already pay county taxes to the library. It's a small amount of money. It's a huge amount of service that it offers. I think even though we are short on cash, I'm hoping that um we have a little bit left and I think this is a good good way to spend it. I think that the residents of our community would want this even in these really bad times. So, thank you.

Any further discussion on this item? All right, we'll go to a vote. All the person Matoss, yes. All the person Brown, yes. All the person win. All the person Hayne Sharp, yes. All the person St. Perez, yay. All the person Shapiro yes. All the person Keel no. All the person Kumar I. All the person Letterman yes. All the person Feritzio. Yes. And the mayor votes yes. That carries 10 to one with Mr. Keel against. My next amendment is uh moved by Mr. Wyn. Uh this is an amendment to implement city uh I'm city manager. Sorry. Is is there any way you can indicate where you want the funding to come from?

This uh uh requested from the general fund, right? So, no 15. You just did 15,000, but is that fund balance? Is it tax increase? Is it that like you didn't say how you were going to cover the 15,000? This is uh not uh this is out of the tax rate presumably the differential. The differential. Okay. I just need we just need to know. So when we're putting it together, we can pull it from the right place.

Absolutely. Thank you very much. Um Oh, yes. Sorry. Uh Miss Wyn has a motion to uh create a Steuart Park parking program to implement a city and town resident parking pass at $5 annually with the estimated revenue of $45,000 and $2 per hour for non-resident that is non city and nontown of Ithaca resident parking. um approximately $292,000 per year. The funding source here being additional fee revenue. Purpose and intent is to reduce city subsidy of car storage, encourage al encourage alternative transportation options and raise funds for the maintenance of Steuart Park. Is that a correct summary of your motion, sir? It is.

Is that so moved? Yes. And is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Keel. Discussion. Mr. W.

Um so use the administration's estimates from the fee study. You know, I'm not attached to these numbers. I do have some I mean, the the note does says say that it would be a pilot, a seasonal pilot, and I you know, there there are factors that um the administration would need to study, such as I would have a personal priority, for example. um $2 an hour is consistent with what we are proposing for parking throughout the city, but it would be um unfortunate if that rate resulted in, you know, I think it cost $8 to park at a state park for the day. Um so it'd be unfortunate if that added up to to more than that to to spend a day at Steuart Park with your family. So there's there's nuance. Again, that just took these numbers from um uh from the estimate given by [clears throat] the the fee study. I also don't love doing this. Um my preference is to keep parks as accessible and free as possible. Um but my intention was to reinvest this into the park um through another otr that's upcoming which is to um provide some some funds to uh friends of Steuart Park and um with discussions over some otrs that Margaret is proposing potentially uh backfill funding for um something that she is proposing to remove. Um, so, uh, to reiterate, I that I'm not loving this, but it does kind of fit with our goals for alternative transportation, for not subsidizing car storage, um, and finding additional revenue sources to meet the needs of of the asset um, and which is in this case, Steuart Park, and it needs a lot of love.

Uh, Mr. Letterman and Mr. Brazilio.

Um I certainly am glad that we're increasing parking fees uh downtown and sort of adopting the practice of our peer cities of doing so on Saturday. Um I think I would normally in a normal budget cycle sort of readily sort of reject us and say want to keep the park uh free and raise raise this uh revenue especially with the TCAT situation. Uh that being said, I just um while I appreciate the desire to to sort of raise the funds, I just think um the park is really different from downtown is then it's not accessible by public transit. It is not really accessible to walk there and there will just be a certain segment of the community who uses it right now who won't use it if they have to pay for parking. Um, and I think it's such a tremendous resource we invest in and I want to make sure we keep it as low access as possible. So, I will not be voting for this amendment.

Uh, my next speaker is Miss Fbritzio.

Yeah. Thank you, Duen, for thinking about funding like a sustainable funding stream for the park. You know, this is something that's very dear to me. I'm a mega supporter of Steuart Park and I think uh it has huge potential that's untapped. Um I I cannot support this though because I think that we need uh you know I see this and I've said it a million times. It is a regional resource. It's like one of our most treasured regional resources and I think it needs regional funding. So when I've been talking about that I haven't been thinking that we were then going to add another fee to um Ithaca users for the park. I'm I'm thinking ultimately um that maybe there would be some kind of um compensation from users who are outside of the city. Um I'm hoping ultimately for some county funds to be directed in this way. So th those are the kinds of things I'm thinking about for Steuart Park. I also uh while I also, you know, again do appreciate your effort. I think that this would be such a big change for our community that for us to implement this as an amendment in the budget process would really um shortcut I think what needs to be a much broader community conversation so that we could gather input from people. Um, I think this would go over very um poorly and um I do want to figure out how we come up with better streams for Stewart Park because I don't think that only city taxpayers basically are funding Stewart Park right now and I I don't think that's the correct uh sustainable model for it. But I think this um this needs more study and discussion, committee input and and you know conversations with broader partners, other municipalities in the county. So I I will not be able to support it.

Next speaker is Miss Hayne Sharp.

Um thank you Denon for thinking about you know thinking about how to raise revenue ultimately to support Steuart Park. I don't support this. I think ultimately um I agree with Margaret and with Clyde. I think parks are public good and um I think you know given it's hard to get there by by the bus. I mean at least there is a bus stop there and you can but it's not easy. And there are a lot of people who use that for camps um in the summer there. Um there's a rowing club there. I don't need to go. But also I just I have concerns about the cost in both um the infrastructure needed for parking. What that how would that would take away from these projected revenue amounts and also um you know what are the impacts of all these violations? How are we going to monitor all of that? Um, so I basically I think it just raises a lot of equity issues for me and um I love Steuart Park. I just don't think people should have to pay to park there. Thank you.

Uh, Mr. Keel, Miss Kumar, and then Miss Brown.

Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, yeah, I um I I am going to support this amendment tonight. Don, thank you for bringing it forward. Um I do I I think I have a a couple thoughts. The first is that um just because there's the possibility that Steuart Park will have paid parking doesn't mean that other areas which are accessible to Steuart Park uh via the trail system um like for example the farmers market parking lot um will have paid parking. And so I think that in this situation, you're kind of creating a hierarchy of needs and and saying if you want to go to Steuart Park and you're outside this community, you just have slightly less access to it if you don't want to pay for it. Um I think we're seeing increasing costs with Steuart Park. You know, we have multiple budget amendments uh this year for for a new a new staff member. Um there are increasing costs associated with the additional infrastructure uh that was put in last year. Um, and I want to make sure that we're able to keep Steuart Park in good condition for people to use. Um, and I think that at some point comes uh comes with trade-offs. Um, especially for people in surrounding communities who are not paying for Steuart Park currently through their taxes. Um, one concern I do have with this proposal is the ability for city residents to access these permits and these passes. Um, from my experience and through talking with my constituents, it's incredibly difficult to access many of the things that the city of Ithaca says it's says it offers. Um, and so if we move forward with this, which I which I hope we we will, I'm hoping that as the administration um thinks about implementing it implementing it, uh, they make sure that it is super easy for city residents to access uh, access those services um, and that that permit. Um, I mean in in my mind I think that

could be as easy as like a website through the city's website where you just type in your name and your address. Um, and you know go through go through a form which gets sent through email immediately or something. Um, I just think it would be a huge hassle if you had to go through a protracted process for um for getting one of these permits and then no one would ever do it and then we've just completely destroyed the point of doing this in the first place. Um, so I will be supporting this tonight. I think it's important that we're thinking about these things and that we're also able to fund additional services which would help improve the park. Miss Kumar.

Uh yeah, I've definitely gone back and forth on this particular amendment. Um I am a very vocal proponent that we should be uh increasing um parking fees across the city. Um, but also, um, you know, and I I actually think going off a little bit about what my, uh, previous colleague who just spoke said, um, I mean, first of all, I I just think that it should maybe be a longer process. Um, I understand that we're facing, um, you know, a tight budget. Um and and I understand the urge to to pass it now, but both because of like the amount um that it would be needed to be like publicized to the community as well as you know um some of the things that my colleagues have said in terms of you know post pandemic we all probably put a much higher value on public outdoor space. Um and it really is I think um a uh a great um service to this community. um it is further out um and you know uh harder to to access um without a car. Um and I also think that like in comparison to raising parking prices downtown or the parking garages which frankly I think we should go even further with than we already are. Um it's uh not only adding a new um you know fee but it's um you know it's not really as supported by precedent. Um, a lot of, uh, areas in this, a lot of cities in this area, uh, already charge, you know, higher for parking in their garages. They already charge for Saturdays. Um, adding on to that just feels like less of an impact to the community than um, this one. And I just think that um although I would support something like this um you know in the future if I uh had the opportunity to vote on it um I just think that it should be um a longer process um to make sure that it's targeted and that um we're getting the most out of it with the least impact to the community.

Brown.

Hi. I will be voting for this because I feel if we're talking about um charging more for a weekend, the garage and different things, then how fair is that to not f we have somewhere in which we can get more money. Friends of Steuart Park is always asking for more money and this might be a way to help uh lessen their ask. So, I I'll be voting for this and and I'm someone who I mean, Steuart Park was something that really excited me when I moved here 30ome years ago and the work that they've done on it has made it even greater. But I do feel like um going out to my out Lancing and different things like that. I don't mind paying the extra money because it's worth it.

All the person saying PZ I've been struggling with this one. You know, my my first memory is looking out over Steuart Park. Um, and I've just been thinking about all of the times through my life that had the had there been a a payment requirement to to park at Steuart Park, I probably wouldn't have ended up there. And it ends up two a lot of times over my lifetime in Ithaca. And I I just I I can't support it. I understand that we have financial need, but I I think it hits accessibility especially for our our young people uh to a degree that is difficult to justify. I have myself next and then old person for Pritzio. Uh mine is just a very brief comment. You're on the list as well. Um um Oh, okay. Uh lost my train of thought there. Sorry. Um I'm notionally supportive of not providing free parking and free car storage. Uh for the reasons that my colleagues have also said though about access and the walkability into the region in general, I'm a little bit reluctant. Um Mr. uh Lion is in the audience and um I think maybe as a transportation scholar it might be good for council a future council to invite transportation experts to come and weigh in on a policy change like this more substantively. Um I'd be happy to support something that was um developed a little bit further in the future. Uh but I don't think I can bring myself to do so tonight. Uh Miss Fitzio and then Mr. Shapiro.

Yeah, I I would echo that. I would be happy to consider something that doesn't put an extra fee on city residents who are already paying extraordinarily high taxes, right? And who are already supporting the the park maximally. Um, I don't think that we could I'm actually like really surprised that this has any traction at all because it seems like um this is this would be a very big shift for people um in this community and to not have any community input on this um it troubles me. I feel would be really uncomfortable with that. And then I also just want to echo um some of what Chris said. We don't have the infrastructure in place to do this in our garages um or in Steuart Park. And I think ultimately we need some kind of study to really modernize what we have so that we we could collect fees um you know automatically. We need like an easy pass and we need something I mean Denon did you say $45,000 was your projection? That was just for the $15 per year residential permits. And there was also per year residential permit plus

the 292,000 on top of that,

right? So then you have to subtract from that uh staffing uh to be able to collect that kind of thing. And I just think um this would need way more development. And I would hate to see us like rush into um into this. And also, I mean, to put another $15 fee on people in the city, I know it's doesn't sound like a huge amount of money, but people feel like burdened. I mean, it's really, really expensive to live here. And we keep the cost of living is not going down. And if we learned anything from yesterday's elections, we should be thinking what were the issues, affordability and cost of living. Um, so I support finding, you know, again, like a a permanent sort of funding stream for Steuart Park that's outside of city residents.

Mr. Shapiro,

um, do you want to go first? Is your bill or your resolution? Um, thanks for bringing this forward. I didn't think I was going to feel like I supported, but I the more we talk about it, the more I'm feeling like I'm going to vote in support of this. Um I do think that um you know, we've heard from a couple of people on the council right now that love the park and we've certainly over the last two budget years heards from over a hundred people who have just emailed us telling us how much they love the park and how much they're in need of more funds. And I appreciate that you put forward an idea that can help them have a sustainable source of funds. Um, it's not an easy pill to swallow, but for me, not it's not an easy pill to swallow having to park on Saturdays. And I don't care about paying for parking. I just worry that we're doing these things to Margaret's point without really gathering a lot of community input. And I'd feel more comfortable with all of our parking plans right now if we were starting them in June and taking some time to talk to the community a little bit more. Um, I don't plan on offering a a friendly or not friendly amendment to this. I think I will support it because I do think Steuart Park needs sustainable funding and everyone talks about the treasure that it is and I think we need to figure out ways to continue to invest in that treasure. So, uh, thank you, Duen.

Uh, thank you for all that feedback. I I hear you all. uh cuz I was on the [clears throat] fence myself and I think it was um I also in particular hear the need for a more nuanced approach to doing it. So, I filed the the amendment process, which is like an up or down thing. I didn't really change the resolution very much. My, you know, if we were to actually do this, for what it's worth, um, you know, kind of going off of the the word pilot that was in the in the recommendation, I would encourage, you know, the administration to, uh, come up with a plan. Um, you know, to Patrick's point, I would like to see really easy, uh, sign up. So, we already use, you know, the the way the parking enforcement is done now is with license plate readers. And so, in my ideal universe, going off Patrick's suggestion, go on a website, you put your um you register your car, and either you're charged nominal fee or nothing. I mean, I'd be okay with residents paying nothing as well. Um, and then either use park mobile or at most the cost of a setting putting one kiosk in in the park. Um, that said, again, I'm very empathetic to the the arguments made against it. Um, I'm going to continue to vote for this with the mind that we wouldn't do exactly what's on the spreadsheet, you know, without any detail like that we would figure that out in a council driven process over the next year. Um, I point out too that it's not that unusual. Myers Park in Lancing does charge for parking. They don't charge their residents and it's a $7 flat fee. And again, so we can adjust this however we feel is appropriate. Um, but I just want to thank my colleagues for for their thoughts.

All right, we'll go to point of clarification. So, is this proposing that city residents would would pay in addition to a $15 registration fee? Would also pay for parking or not pay for parking? Uh, no, they would not pay for parking and I'm open to eliminating the $15 altogether. Uh, I include it because it was part of the the recommendation, but you know. So then is the is the um are you really looking at a program that would charge parking $2 an hour for non- city residents?

That's right. But to reiterate a point I made before, I would hate for it to exceed the cost of like our state parks. And so I agree with all of you who have said this does require, you know, some nuance and study. I'm going to just interject and say um respectfully again think it's a really good idea to move in this direction. I think it's just clear that there's a number of questions that we are not going to be able to answer before the budget gets enacted next week. And so, um, you're welcome to continue asking, but I just don't think that we're going to have the answers because Is there a way that I can pull it off the floor? Well, we could just go to a vote. All the persons, yes. All the person Brown,

yes. Oh my all the person win. Hi. All the person uh h Sharp no. All the person Sam Perez nay. All the person uh Shapiro yes. All the person Keel yes. All the person Kumar nay. All the person Letterman no. All the person Fitzio. The rare 55 everybody. And the mayor votes no. The suspense. Um just read the list of names of who voted how so I can put it in the sheet. I thought you were doing that because I stopped doing that. Um, uh, the eyes were older persons Moss, Brown, Win, Shapiro, and Keel.

Okay. Uh, moving on. Uh, Mr. when you have a motion to increase appropriation uh out of the general fund out of the tax levy andor differential um to improve the maintenance and sustainability of Steuart Park infrastructure um at the tune of $50,000. Is that correct summary of your motion? Uh specifically to friends of Steuart Park. Yes. Yes. And is that so moved? Yes. Is there a second? Second by all the person mottos brief

uh the the friends Stewart Park and their supporters have already made their case pretty well. They are incredibly good at bringing in millions of dollars. They have a very ambitious plan for a museum and cafe uh that will bring in even more visitors and and revenue. And so I feel like it's really the least we can do is to give this this little pittance um in a very similar way that the community housing development fund works where the amounts that we grant can't build even a single unit of housing. But what it does is it signals to to grant funders that there is local uh municipal support. And so I uh support this.

I'm going to not so subtly remind council that we have 11 additional amendments after this one before discussion begins. All the person from Britzia are you recognized?

Yeah. Um I am very appreciative of Friends of Stewart Park and I I recognize the great contributions that they've made to the park over many years. Unfortunately, many of um their projects, they don't come with an endowment. So actually there's very significant cost for the city to like take care of the splash pad and take care of the new bathrooms and and then there's all of the other expenses of taking care of the park. And I think it's really important for um for everybody to recognize how much the city does support Steuart Park. Um there is also um that it didn't go through as an as an overtarget request. It went through um with the city manager's the city manager put it in her budget for an a person there was a vacant position um in DPW. It's been vacant for a year and a half that was captured and brought over to Stewart Park uh to be working supervisor for Steuart Park. So we have made significant contribution that was a whole salary full-time salary. We have made that additional contribution to Steuart Park for this year. This is a really tight budget year and I think that um once again this really speaks to the fact that we need funding beyond the city for a regional park and I think that um that's where the friends of Steuart Park need to be uh raising raising funds from the county and other and other places. So once again, yes, I appreciate everything, but it all all that stuff comes with an ongoing price tag that the city uh is required to come up with, and it's a lot of money. And I think that that's uh we're doing a really good contribution. We're doing I think as much as we can right now,

please. Um, I'm I'm a little amazed because uh we just voted against some monies that could have been put into helping Steuart Park, right? That is that's just so amazing. And now we're asking for money to help Friends of Stewart Park, right? And I am confident in their fundraising skills. I don't doubt for a minute that they can get that $50,000 quick. Right. And we are talking about a budget that we're not even confident about. So I will vote against this.

Mr. Shapiro. Yeah. Just maybe a quick point of clarification. The funding source is no longer via Steuart Park parking revenue. So where do we anticipate the funding coming from? tax rate and general fund is what I summarized it as. Oh, I'm sorry if I missed that. That's okay.

Okay. um you know, other other folks that could have been on the council maybe can correct me if I'm wrong, but um my feeling about this 50,000 and and the 50,000 before this um from last year, um was that a prior council um committed to this money as part of a project to uh No, this isn't part of a prior commitment. I thought it was I thought I heard that explained during public comments last year and that maybe I'm misremembering. [snorts] Um, this was a part of a splash pad project that the city was aware of. The city never committed to or authorized this overrun. I'm okay for right now. Thank you, Mr. Ke.

Um, yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I told myself I would vote for this if we voted for the parking increases because I think it's important we're deciding where our revenues are going to come from uh before we commit to more revenues or more expenditures. Um, and so I will not be voting for this tonight. Go to a vote. Go to a vote. Uh, all the person MOS no. All the person no. All the person yes. All the person Hayne Sharp. All the person H Perez nay. All the person Shapiro no. All the person Keel no. All the person Kumar nay. All the person Letterman no. All the person Fitzio

no. The mayor votes yes. That fails two to nine with all the person win and the mayor in favor.

Uh next. All the person mottos. you have a and I would urge council to look at the email that went out uh from the all the person about this because there is a number of budget line tweaks but uh functionally all the person you are uh out of a desire to protect aging infrastructure and continue existing level of maintenance of effort you are proposing to modify several budget lines within DPW that balances to a net increase after line item changes of $8,000 to the department's budget. That sounds right. So, yes. Yes. Hope it's I hope it's exactly right.

Yeah. Adding Yes. After the changes are made, it it looks like Yes. about an $8,000 increase would or Yeah. We would like to I would like to add $8,000 to the DPW department. Is is there a second first? Is there a second? Second by the person Brown. Uh point of privilege where which email there's a number of emails related to DP. the email that I sent on Oh, it's from you, not Kayla. Correct. When I sent out the draft amendments uh on Monday, Sunday, who knows? I'm constantly doing stuff. Um, Friday I sent it. Who knows? Saturday afternoon. One of the one of the days that has happened since I've been working on your amendment lists. Um, there

It's okay. Okay. There is I'm going to just for edifica. So there is a propos I'm just going to read this in its entirety because it's confusing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know cuz I because cuz the way it's formatted in the amendment is I can I can I got it. I got it. You got it. budget line refer to your budget books but it's but there it's a proposed statistically if you refer to the screenshot that yes I have that up but at Debson it it has the names

but I don't have that up right now older person Moss has changed line A1620-5475 from $25,000 to 30,000 line A5010 10-5475 from 7,000 to 12,000. Line A5010-5483 from 62,000 6200, excuse me, to 11,200. Line A 5111-5220 from 15,000 to 15,000. No change. I'm going to skip the next one because there's no change to that either. uh line A511-5484 from 140,000 less 15,000 to 125,000 line A33115435 140,000 add 10,000 to 150,000 line A4 I'm sorry line A5411-543 35 117,000 less 17,000 to 100,000 line A711-5435 10,000 increase by 10,000 to 20,000 line A5651-5476 25,000 25,000 no change line A5 651-5 5225 proposed increase by 5,000 to 5,000. I do not know off the top of my head what that is in cross reference to. So I'm going to recognize the all the person.

Okay. So yeah. So the first couple lines are adding $5,000 to a few property uh maintenance lines. I want to say I for I want to say like park and forestry is one and I forgot the other one. Um then there's construction supplies and equipment that are going toward that would be like the 500 I think the $5,000 increases as well that are for the roads lines. Um the two decreases that I um was looking at would be roads salt and cinders over the last two three years. Looks like we've haven't spent over 100,000. So I just brought that down to 100,000. And then the second line that I decreased by 17,000 was for contracts for the commons. Um, and then the last line that I increased from zero to 5,000 is just for other equipment and just making sure that, you know, DPW has some padding just in case there is a equipment that they're not expecting that they need to purchase within the next upcoming year. What I really tried to do was um look at the reductions that the administration recommended um and I think more fairly distribute um based on my opinion on priority maintenance of infrastructures like roads things like that. Um so yeah

I'll recognize myself first and all the person for Britzio. Um I sort of generally support the notion of us providing DPW with the resources that they need. Um for my part for the amount of money that this net increases. Also recognizing that we authorize red lines of accounts uh justifications when individual line items run over. I am perhaps embarrassed to admit but frankly slightly too confused to support this amendment in its form. Um I would certainly as I said to the chief uh if the DBW superintendent if they want to come forward and say they need additional funding next year I'm happy to do a mid-year budget amendment. Um, but uh I happen to know like one of these lines for example around the equipment like we know that the uh city managers at the commons crew recently just purchased a vehicle that they no longer need to now purchase because they so so for my part I I like 100% support the intent of this. Um I'd rather deal with changes of this magnitude as they arise for council's consideration. Hold the person for Britzio. Yeah, I would also say that um you know I question like pretty much everything, right? But I I totally like I trust the city manager has worked this out with the department heads um that they've we asked them to make some cuts, right? And they they know the ins and outs, the nitty-gritty of the departments. I don't feel that we know that as we don't we don't know how much buffer they need for this or that. That is I'm totally fine with like relying on them to do that. Um, I also just want to like remind people once again that the DPW budget is $19.4 million. So, um, I I just don't think that we need to do this. I I think I I'm fine to go with what the city manager and the department head um has come up with.

Mr. Keel. Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, Kayla. I'm going to support this tonight. Um, I think it's important that we're signaling the community that we're thinking about these things. Um I um trust the city manager's numbers on this stuff. Um but also as far as any departments go, I think DPW is one that needs to be well funded and I appreciate uh the intent behind this and and um I will stand behind you on it. Any additional speakers? I do have the all the person all the person same press

just for clarity given that we we do allow departments to do the redline funding uh stuff is is there any meaningful functional difference between this and just funding DPW for an extra $8,000 from a financial perspective the answer is solidly yes um but for an more elaborate um interrogation of accounting practices and what authorizations the controller needs to balance those lines. I would defer to her and I'm not going to put her on the spot. I'm just going to defer to her. Um is there anything you'd like to add? Not at this time.

Understood. Uh all the person mage recognized. Yeah, thank you. Um though I do understand there is like a whole red uh you know red line transfer process or whatever. I think we should be proactive about that and you know try to think before thinking in the lines and how like our budget lines and our expenses for the year. Um though I do appreciate the the wiggle room it does give us. Um also I will like to say that my original thought process behind this was funding the full $145,000 to DPW with the intent of defunding two vacant IPD positions. So after speaking to the mayor, this was sort of my middle ground. Um so yeah, Brown, please.

Um hello. I support this for one because I've watched you work closely with DPW. So I don't question your ask because I've watched and I know that you're doing this because you feel this is important. However, I agree with you, but I think no one will be willing to say, "Let's get rid of two IPD positions cuz that's not the way people see it as clearly." But I see DPW as making sure our our city is safe. So, thank you for bringing this forward,

Mr. St. Perez. Um given that this is a deviation from what the administration asked for, I just how much extra accounting are if these numbers are off are we inflicting upon our our financeier team? Again, I won't put Wendy on the spot, but I will just say like I don't I wouldn't I wouldn't think uh I would imagine that the probability of needing to make red line edits at at a sort of interval of time doesn't change meaningfully based on what some of these individual lines are. We're talking about again net a positive $8,000.

Understood. Thank you. Mhm. [clears throat] And Okay. Uh, all the person Moss, yes. All the person Brown, all the person win, yes. All the person Hayne Sharp, no. All the person St. Perez, no. All the person Shapiro, no. All the person Keel, yes. All the person Kumar, uh, yes. All the person, Letterman, no. All the person, Fbritzio, no.

Twice in a row. Uh, and the mayor votes. Um, yeah, it's a net it's a net $8,000. No meaningful accounting impact. I'll vote yes. Carries. Thank you. Um, was that I don't even know if that was positive or negative. Like it's positive 8,000. Um, positive meaning in add Yes. And are you adding $8,000 to the budget or taking $8,000 away? It is an additional ad.

Can you please send your amendment text to the administration and the deputy clerk? The administration didn't get any of these amendments at all. So, it would be helpful if maybe we could see them so we could be as helpful as possible as you're going through this process. This is one of the two that was new from Yes. from uh the pre the first iteration of amendments. Um Mr. Letterman,

uh I would make a request. Would it be possible to move the TCAT vote up a bit earlier because we have folks who are waiting to present and talk answer our questions about that and at the rate we're moving I think we could keep them here quite a while. I am going to given given that the remaining amendments are all from one sponsor uh with the exception of TCAT. I will turn to that sponsor and see if she is willing to wait uh until after TCAT. There are eight of them. I I mean I would I just don't know that I think it might be significant to do these other this under other funding first. Mark me is lives lives an hour away sit and wait here

the all the the all the yeah the excuse me all the person you made a request request been denied thank you very much uh our next amendment is from all the person for Britzio it is a proposal to decrease the administration's proposed increase of trash tags from $6 from $5 to six so the older person is proposing to reduce it back to five. This is projected to add $125,000 to the deficit. Is that a correct summary of your motion? That is correct. Is it moved? That's it is moved. Is there a second?

Seeing Oh, okay. You don't have to believe it or not. No, we Yeah, we don't have to. We don't have to talk for 25 minutes about something you're not going to vote for. But um but no, it's been seconded by all the person Brown. All right. Very brief summary. Uh all the person Fitzio.

Um this is to decrease uh the project to take away the projected increase from raising the fee of our trash tags from $5 to $6. Um so basically uh you know garbage is getting rid of garbage is not optional. Like going to the golf course might be optional. Um, it is pretty heavily subsidized by the actual, it is paid for, I should say, by the actual fees that we already collect at five dollars per tag. Um, if you are a family and you are not able to do food composting or you are not able to do as much recycling as other people might do, maybe you use more packaged products, you you might actually have two bags of garbage or so a week that you need to get rid of. I am a mega compost food composter and recycler, but I recognize that not everybody um is able to do that and I do see this fee. Um which might sound small as potentially adding another $500 a year onto what a household needs to pay to to live in the city. And again, I would just remind people that all of the uh election everywhere in the country has been about affordability and lowering the cost of living. And when you're looking at, you know, your health share, health care insurance premium that just went up $250 a month, um, your nice egg gouging, um, you know, and everything else that's just so super expensive right now. I don't and you pay the kinds of taxes that we pay, which are pretty extraordinary. Um, I just don't see how we could justify doing this. the amount of money that we're subsidizing the golf course is I believe like more than this would be. So I I really think we need to keep this as it is. I I do support having some kind of fee. Um I initially thought maybe we wouldn't

person may I bunch of very helpful. We have a lot of questions on this. all the person kill.

Um, as as my colleagues know and some of the members of the public may know, my my new motto for the year and for 2026 is that is that we have to stand on business. Uh, and and this is this is a perfect example of that. You know, we are facing a budget shortfall of $2.1 million. Uh, the administration has pulled it together to figure out how we're going to fill that hole and stand to the tax gap. This is one of the things they decided to do. I think it's a solid move. Uh, I've told Margaret on the phone uh this at least six times. Um, and uh I'm gonna be voting against this. Mi, Mr. Letterman,

um, I I'm my motto for 2026 is going to be more courtesy. I'm going to move to suspend the rules and h go to immediate consideration of the TCAP budget amendment and then resume to older person Frizzio's amendment and that's seconded by Mr. Keel. Uh, all those in favor of suspending the rules. I don't even know what this means. Suspend the rules and he gets to talk. No, no, no. We go do TCAT first because Matt is Rosenloom's waiting here. Are you Do you want to have like five more unnecessary votes? I'll vote with what everyone wants. It just doesn't make sense to me how that those in favor

have to come forward. Those opposed to Can I explain what this would

Your motion failed. Well, I didn't explain that. Everyone was confused. All right. I am I move that we suspend the rules to have the TCAT budget vote considered before all the other pending amendments so that Matthew here from TCAT can answer our questions and not have to wait until we deliberate on everything else. Did we just move it up in the agenda? Those in favor, real hands in the sky. Thank you. Those opposed. That carries 8 to three with the mayor, older person Brown, and older person Fitzio against.

All the person, I agree with you, but you're out of order. Uh Matt and Laura, you're welcome up to the table. all the person um Letterman um Keel seconded it. Uh what do you move? I'm gonna move I guess I should ask oral older person win. Do you want to move this? You're on the board. Okay. I'm going to move and I think we're some sort of amendment thing here. um an increase to TCAT's I mean a move to encumber $300,000 to accommodate a potential increase in the city's annual contribution to TCAT. What's your source? Uh encumbering fund balance.

Thank you. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. W. Questions for anyone on TCAT? Mr. Keel. Uh thank you for being here. Um and thank you for staying to this hour. Um, my first question is related to the impact of us funding it at 300,000 versus 500,000. I would like to know what routes will be cut, if routes will be cut because of this. And I would also like to know the impact that not funding this at all would have uh both for my continued edification as well as for that of the public.

So, not funding at all would be disastrous and would have significant cuts systemwide. Um, reduction in hours, possibly even reduction of days of the week that TCAT operates. Um, that would be pretty cataclysmic. Um, now the ask is as strong, it's like a three-legged stool. You know, the ask is as strong as the weakest link. So, you know, Cornell is proposing a much lower number right now at $31,000. So, I I think that um in the grand scheme of things, $300,000, we could find ways to push off the worst cuts at least through 2026. and that we still have a big problem in 2028, but I think we could really avoid some of the catastrophic cuts with a $300,000 number and I'm hopeful that, you know, with strong support from the city, um, Cornell will come to their senses.

Just quick interjection, I'm going to just clarify since the older person made a motion that isn't, um, how we do things. I assume what you meant was that you wanted to move this out of the fund balance into restricted contingency in the fund balance. You just stole it off the top of my head there and I'm assuming that that's the same motion that all the person win meant a second.

Okay. Glad my understanding was correct. Mr. Keel, you're still recognized. Um my second question is um and this has come up a lot with constituents of mine um as I've been talking to them about uh the increases that TCAT needs is TCAT has some crazy amount of money in their fund balance like 51% of the total budget that TCAT operates under. I'm under the impression that there is good reason for that and I would really love for you for the public right now to

Yeah, thank you very much. It's actually not a crazy number when you break it down. So we need to maintain around 6 months of um operating funds for situations such as the federal government shuts down and we do not get um federal payments. You know that never happens. Um so the other thing is that we get paid on a reimbursement basis for our capital projects. The cost of vehicles has gotten very expensive. Those electric buses are over a million dollars per vehicle. We had six of them. So our fund balance right now is around $8 million in cash. So waiting to get reimbursed, which can take some time because it has to go through the federal government and then through the county government that on a on a six bus order, that's $6 million. So you need that fund balance to carry out critical capital projects. And once and we are planning to deplete the fund balance even if we were successful with the full ask. We are not um trying to grow that fund balance. It will become depleted and that will become a problem for capital projects in future years. we are using that to keep this ask small as possible. Um I think that the other issue is you know the fund balance doesn't come back you know we're not going to get a grant to rebuild our fund balance. Um that was through ARPA and Chrissa and you know the the problem is if we burn through that fund balance very quickly then we're left in a very catastrophic fiscal situation. And if uh thank you for the questions. If I could just add that there are also unanticipated expenses that TCAT faces. I mentioned earlier the aging facility. There is also at the moment there are 10 of the older TCAT buses that need new engines in order to extend their uh life their service. And there are things that come up that cannot necessarily be anticipated. And that is why it is

critical to maintain a reasonable fund balance.

I'm just going to recognize myself quickly and then I have a number of folks on the list. Um, as uh the general manager just stated, Cornell's ask Cornell's offer was approximately $31,000. Um the city will encumber up to as per the all the persons in restricted contingency $300,000. Uh no amount of money we outlay can exceed what as they have said the lowest underwriter is willing to do. I personally view this as a show of good faith and support for TCAT, but I find it extremely unlikely that that full amount will be drawn down. Mr. Shapiro, you're next.

Um Cornell should be embarrassed by themselves. Um, but I do have a question. Um, I'm assuming, or maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong, I shouldn't assume, but your ask this year of 500,000 or or whatever we consider, is this the same ask that we'll get next year and and in subsequent years? Actually, the ask would be larger if this becomes unsuccessful because the budget gap continues to grow.

But this is like a minimum like you need a half a million from all all three folks and then next year you'll need something like that or more. Um if we were successful with the halfm million dollar ask that would likely become you know the new baseline and the uh future asks would then be smaller and much more predictable. If we're unsuccessful with the ask the future ask larger and less predictable and there always is that risk of the deficit or losses being split three ways. Um and by some budget projections by 2028 those losses are in multi-millions. Um, last question. Um, I've lived in a co-op before, so I'm a little familiar with the term assessment, but I've never heard it used in the way you've used it, um, earlier in your comments. If you're in a deficit, you would I mean, if I didn't pay my assessment in a condo, I might be evicted or kicked out. Can you explain what you meant when you use the word? So essentially under the transportation agreement which the city's obviously a signatory of um you know when we run a deficit um or what in the term in the in the transportation agreement is a loss um TCAT can't hold debt. So at the end of every year that loss gets split three ways among equally among each underwriter. And what we're trying to do is avoid a situation where that that loss is split three ways because it threatens the very existence of the cooperative structure that TCAT's on. Then you you know partners look at are is it even worth remaining in this this structure. So there's a lot of things that we can do with this ask that will help avoid that and we essentially have to grow our way out. We cannot cut our way out. That's the death spiral. We have to gain more riders. We have to gain more STOA revenue and we have a small window here to correct the trajectory with maintaining service levels and maintaining the fiscal health of TCAT but it's a very you know narrow window and if we're unsuccessful you

know it leads to this this kind of death spiral of cuts and future loss of revenues. Okay. So, just to be extra clear, but I I think I heard you right. The assessment that comes when there are losses is contractual language that all the parties have signed into. That is correct. Thank you. Uh, Miss Mtos, you're next. Um, yeah. I was just wondering if we can like request um for the city attorney to like um brief us on like what would it mean if like TCAT if they like came to a deficit and like what our responsibilities are as a city. Um, if essentially TCAP was no longer to exist,

we can request that. I'm going to suspect that the city attorney will uh say it depends and then he'll give us a briefing maybe later. I don't have that uh information at my fingertips, but I'd be happy if that's what council wants. I'd be happy to look into it. Yeah, it depends. Awesome. Thank you. Uh, Miss Ritzio, you're next.

Wow. It sounds like we're already in the death spiral. I I really think that um I think we have an unsustainable system right now unfortunately and I think that the ask is amounts to putting a band-aid on a very large wound. And I'm very worried about being asked next year for more millions of dollars. And I also just want to remind people again that city taxpayers are paying already for TCAT twice as county taxpayers and as city taxpayers. I think that um if if TCAT is going to say this would be disastrous then please um give us the numbers figure let's figure out like what is a more sustainable system. I actually think that what we need to do is um the $100,000 that Cornell has as part of the like in addition to theou that is for um study about things of mutual interest. I think it would be great to try to get, you know, we haven't used any of that money yet, so there probably like three years of that worth, right? To h to get some experts um to work with you. I know you have a huge expertise in this as well and figure out how do we make a more sustainable system because honestly I don't think what we do with like these really big buses um in small cities, you know, using a lot of fuel. Um I just don't think that we are in I don't think we're in as green as we should be and we're not in the future about transportation. I I think this is really totally an unsustainable system and I think this is only going to get worse and worse and worse. Um, and I don't see how we can ask people to to fund this and in a couple years come up with millions and millions of more dollars uh to to do what is not what is really see

looks to me like a failing system. So the cuts would have to be you know should be made very carefully. But I I think I asked for um for you know wrership numbers and those kinds of things on lines. I mean I think it's easy to say it would be disastrous but I think we have to deal with the financial reality of of what we have here and that it's an un unworkable system right now. So I'm I'm not willing to support this. Can I provide counsel with a little bit more information because I took something for granted? Once I correctly understood the motion that the older person was moving and seconding, um it occurred to me that uh when something is put into restricted contingency that requires that council then vote to release those funds before they can be spent. And I think that looking at the time and knowing that how we feel in general, I think that maybe we should talk about what level of TCAT funding we are willing to put forward as a ceiling. uh as the next council will need to vote to release these funds once we get Cornell to move up from their abysmally low, embarrassing uh unhelpful uh austerity-minded uh insulting, parasitic offer of $31,000. But that's just my take. Uh Mr. Letterman, you're next. And then Mr. Keel and then Mr. St. Perez.

Well, I'll I'll make a uh motion at the end of this. Um although with fewer adjectives attached. Um uh what I will say just a couple of things uh that TCAT's general manager and board chair won't brag about but I think that they should. Um one we all talk about sort of trimming around here. Uh they've reduced if I understand correctly the number of administrative staff there and have built a very strong staff. At the same time, they've had a new labor contract with the 2300 unit that allows them to be fully staffed in terms of mechanics and drivers. That is highly unusual for our peer transportation agencies uh in the southern tier and means that I think in September TCAT ran was it 20,000 trips with only a hundred of them being cancelled?

We ran um Yeah, that's correct. Yeah.

All right. All right, I won't I won't get down to the final digit there. Um, just some other suggestions. I think right TCAT's on track to break uh 3 million riders for the first time since the pandemic. We have a lot of and I'm sure Dunin can answer all this too, but um there's a lot of transit demand here. People want to take the bus. It's a great option. I use the bus pretty much every day. Um people rely on it. It's a huge lifeblood of the our economy downtown. Um it's critical to making sure people can get to work. Um, and uh, it is a it's also something that the city has committed to as a long-term investment dec more than three decades ago now. And I'd also say that uh, there are no other good options. The only reason this works is because more than 60% of TCAT's money comes from money that's normally intended for counties. Um, and so this is kind of the right this is the model that works. Um, TCATs run an exceptionally slim operation. They move three million people a year for about $20 million. Um, that's like the best return on investment I can imagine we have. Um, we're moving, we got six new all electric buses on the road now. Um, new fair payment systems. Tap to pay is active now on all on all routes. So, you can pay with your phone or tapping a credit card which is easing in a barrier to access. Um, it's a great system. I think we should invest in it. Um, also note this number hasn't gone up since 2019. Um, and I don't know about all of you, but I think things aren't the same price as they were in 2019. Um, and the alternative I would also say before I make a motion and then I'll I'll shut up here is is more expensive. Um, it's a world where we have declining ridership. So, we have lower revenue from the state, we have lower revenue at the fairbox. Um, and it means we're looking at absorbing more unexpected losses. Uh, which I think nobody wants. Um, and so I think the best path forward is to be proactive and put the money in for this. And in accordance with that,

I'm going to move that we would set $500,000 to the restricted uh into restricted contingency from from the into from the fund balance into restricted contingency. So you're amending your own motion. I'm moving to amend my own motion

and that's seconded by Mr. St. Perez. Um, okay. So that's Let me let me again just clarify something for the deputy clerk's sake. I think Never mind. I was going to I was going to say I think you're suggesting that you uni you you're suggesting you're requesting for unanimous consent to withdraw the first and then put forward a second, but I suspect you won't get unanimous consent. So I won't ask that. Uh so okay, the motion on the table to to amend the main motion by a level of uh five 500,000 instead of um 300. Uh next on the list is Mr. deal.

I just wanted to Well, that actually was going to make that same motion. So, um but I also just want to clarify that the first amendment was from the differential and this is from No, they were both. Okay, good. Thank you. Uh Mr. St. Perez, I was going to make the same amendment. Uh Miss Brown, first I need to understand, are we asking for you're asking for 500,000 Now, the older person is moving to take to set aside $500,000 from the fund balance to match $500,000 from the county and $500,000 from Cornell to provide TCAT with stop gap funding.

Right. So, my question was um and I think Clyde answered it. How long has this been a commitment from the city? It's been a commitment from the city since the city um dissolved their transit system to form TCAT. And when the city ran its own transit system, they were also paying taxes for Tom Tran as well. So yeah, this this issue of of double taxation, which I think it's important to know the city gets by far the line share the service um is not unique to TCAT. This existed prior to TCAT. Excuse me. I didn't finish. Um what what are the three part who are the three partners? The city, the county, and Cornell University.

Okay. So if Cornell universities and you may find something funny. I don't find none of this funny cuz I'm someone in this city who have not seen uh many people from the city riding the bus as much as I seen Cornell riding the bus. But we hold the burden and has been holding it for a very long time. That's not funny to me. Might be to you. Y'all can afford it. We stay Germaine, please.

Um, once again, I'm Phoebe. Who you asking me? My name? Oh, I thought I heard my name. So, I ain't finished yet. And okay, so Cornell is playing is only going to pay 31,000 towards this. But aren't their partner? That's the current offer or that what what they've communicated to us. And that again that 31,000 becomes what everyone all three partners would pay because it's the lowest offer is the one that everyone pays. Okay. So the $500,000 that's being asked for. So now I'm confused again

to all the person the way that the way that negotiations among the underwriters will determine okay what amount we all commit to fund. The county has set aside half a million dollars per TCAT's request. The alder person is suggesting we set aside half a million dollars. Cornell again, let me see if I can remember all those adjectives in an insulting, insufficient, uh,

selfish, myopic. Um, they only offered 31,000. If that is where they stay, we will set aside half a million. We will spend 31,000 and the remaining funds will be will be taken from the fund balance and returned back to the fund balance. Okay? So, the city will only take on a cost that is the lowest number that any underwriter commits to.

Okay? Because I'm I'm saying if we can ask for 500,000, we got a man that's been coming here five years, not asking for half of that much with a contract with the city. So, I just don't want us to forget that when we Kiki Ken.

Mr. Shapiro, you're next. Um, thank you. Um, I'm going to vote in support of this. Um, I've been, uh, for a number of reasons. Um, I think, uh, one of them has been just generally just being impressed with the leadership of TCAT and the few times that the leadership has been here. Um, it's been helpful to make a decision. So, thank you. Um, also thank you. there was a constituent off the topic, but like someone kept saying Tom Train last week and I had no idea what that was. So, thank you. [clears throat] I thought they were just having a moment. Um um I also want to say that um I one of the reasons I'm supporting I appreciate that we you know we heard early on you spoke about the HR leadership you had and we've heard for the second year in a row now from Miss Phoebe how impressed she is with the diversity and the and the people that are employed by TCAD. So I want to say I appreciate that. And I also just as someone that used to work in Newfield and used to work at Second Wind Cottages where almost everybody there depended on the TCAT bus and it was an hour a day. It was starting at 8 and ending at 5 and that was if you're lucky. Um that makes me worried thinking about not just those 18 folks but everywhere in Newfield the town and other places where TCAD has limited ridership. um if that got even reduced even more um I can see that as being very problematic and um even though I'm one of the people that will always require a car parking spot, I like to drive. I have a car and I'll continue to like to drive. Um I appreciate that I'm not, you know, always the majority in that opinion and that public transportation is something that communities need to thrive. Um, so I'll continue to hope that with this

money and with future allocations that we'll be kind of being asked to that we'll also be responsive to some of the things that Phoebe said and we're making sure that the rides that we're um that we're keeping um or the the rides that we're keeping um the routes that we're keeping, excuse me, um that they do not just serve Cornell, especially when you think about um what they're willing to anti-up right now. I think we should be remembering that when we're thinking about what rides or routes need to be cut because certainly um this is a service that's for Tomkins County. It's for the city of Ithaca and it's not just for Cornell. Um so I appreciate that.

Quickly address one of those points um which is we've we've doubled service on the west side of Ithaca with the reintroduction of Route 14s. We got a lot of feedback about a year ago. So we have um significantly expanded service. Um and then additionally we will be launching the Ithaca electric transportation access project that will be next year which will again provide a mobility as a service um to primarily the west side and the lower income areas which will drastically reduce um some of the mobility barriers faced by those communities um and the historic inequities and I think that that project is 100% funded or not 100% but it's primarily funded by a NAERTA a grant. So

all the person So you know we are working to address um the underserved areas and we are um you know myself and our planning and scheduling manager Trevor we are very attuned to making sure that there is an equitable balance of service across our service area. The challenge is balancing that with productivity. And you know, the number one complaint I get is about full buses, not late buses, not missing buses, but it's about full buses and overcrowding. So, you know, that's we're we're trying to to balance the service and address all of this demand that we can't meet at the same time. All the person for Britzio,

you know, um I [clears throat] lived here for several years without a car and one of the best things about living in Ithaca has been that I can walk everywhere. um or I used to ride my bike. Um, I just don't see this system as sustainable and I see this ask a big a really big ringing of an alarm like we are this is not and I just going to use the word business recog you know I'm using it loosely right but this is a failing I think we're I think we have a failing enterprise I'll use enterprise as the word and I I guess what I'm wondering is it looks like we need to do some like we need to figure out like how do we support alternative transportation and public transportation in a community this size in a way that we can afford it and what we can do and I really worry that you're going to come back to us next year. I know that um you said we have to increase wrership. Um I have a couple questions around this. um how much wrership like what are the projections for being able to break even next year so that you don't come to us and say we need millions of dollars. What kind of wrership increase are we looking at?

An increase of approximately 15%. The September numbers were an 8% increase year-over-year. So we're we're halfway there. We need to keep pushing. we're making all the right decisions. To suggest that the system's failing when we're having record postcoid ridership, I think is is not accurate.

Well, I say I say that it's failing because you're you're talking about needing more and more money to be able to to make this up. And Cornell, who is a partner, is not willing to do that, right? And I just want to say one thing. Um, you said, well, the city has the lion share of service. And I've heard this before. I've heard this from from the county. I don't think that's a fair characterization because the lion share are are buses that are servicing Cornell and and that is very different from servicing the entire Ithaca city community. And I do take really seriously that we are paying very significantly for this twice and it's just unsustainable. I would like to see uh projections like five five-year projections about what we're talking about because I think this really needs to be factored into long-term planning for the city. Right. This is a this is a very significant hit for us. Um I'd like to see root numbers, writership numbers. Um and yeah, and ideas like what are we going to do to be able to increase writership? like how realistic is it that we would be able to make with the budget that we have be able to make that work? I would like to see all of that.

So that information was presented at our underwriters budget presentation um earlier, you know, a month or so ago and we can support you. Thank you so much.

A problem. All the person win. Also want to thank David and the mayor for calling Cornell's contribution what it is which is shameful and embarrassing. This is the strongest leadership team I've seen at TCAT and you know we've had crisis after crisis over well before co and each of those leaders has made some contributions but this is like the first time in a decade that we are nearly fully staffed. Uh we're in growth mode. it the when speaking with TAD management the the word they use a lot is momentum and like we're in a place now where if we lose that momentum it'll be potentially very damaging to the organization. Um so Matt and and Clyde have already covered a lot of the stuff. So I I just appreciate too that that my colleagues, most of them have signed on to support to show in in solidarity with Cornell, I'm sorry, with the county [clears throat] against Cornell to demonstrate the value of of this to our community.

Mr. St. So I think the reality and and you know I have been skeptical of TCAT in the past but like the reality is that we do not have an alternative. Cornell theoretically could afford to start up their own new bus system. They could defect. They shouldn't. I I think that that would cost them, you know, between 10 and $20 million a year to operate. And that's not including all of the capital to purchase 30 buses and build a garage. Um I I don't see them having that capital right now.

Well, in that case, even more so, at least right now, we certainly desperately need TCAT, and underfunding it in the past has has not worked. Um, it serves massive community needs and it's one of the few ways that we get Cornell to to meaningfully contribute funds into our our community. Now, do I love that the cost of getting Cornell to contribute $3 into the community in this way is roughly $4 of city taxpayer money plus $3 contributed from the rest of the county. No, like those aren't ideal numbers, but it is better than nothing and it is realistically the best deal that we currently have on the table.

Hold the person in Brown.

Okay, here I go. First of all, I'd like to say um and I understand when you say this, this is all we got. I remember my people boycotting for months. didn't have no bus at all. No different can happen here. Right? So, it's not like we don't have a choice. If the city of Ithaca, if the people in the city of Ithaca decides not to ride the bus at all, I mean, it's not a lot of money that you do give from the city, but it will stop y'all in your tracks, too. So we are a resource. Another question is um I also have another question because if I'm not mistaken I remember Jordan Clemens be a part of helping to get that Naerta grant and had a lot of plans around there. I don't know what happened with that. So do you have any u and and thank you David you did change my mind. I am gonna vote for this. So, thank you. But I have those questions. What happened with Jordan? I also have I'm not from a a place of there's nothing we can do as city residents, right? I'm not I don't come from that place. I've seen people look like me who have come from some real dark places and we're where we're at. So we're also what you need and that is very important when you look at what Cornell's uh willing to contribute. So contrary to what's being said here, I know I can get on the ground and make happen. Excuse my language, but anyway, what I'm

saying is that um I know um most people on this here is saying they are in agreement for this and thank you Rob for helping me better understand because these funds are unrestrictive and if if Cornell don't go up with what they're giving up, we won't give up but the same amount. So, thank you. I was going to call for a vote, please.

Uh, just another note on Cornell. They have consistently misunderstood TCAD's financials. Um, so Matthew has given us an overview of how the fund balance works. Um, they either willfully or incompetently misunderstand it constantly. I want to add too that TAT has is making a sacrifice there. We are pulling $1.7 million out of fund balance for for next year. So, it's not like we're not tapping it at all. Might be maybe there's like a university they could go to to get educated on how fund balances work. Um, all right. We're going to vote. All the person Moss, yes. All the person Brown, yes. All the person win. Hi.

All the person Hayne Sharp. Yes. All the person St. Perez. Yay. All the person Shapiro. Yes. All the person Akquil. Yes. All the person Kumar. All the person Letterman. Yes. All the person Fabitzio. No. And the mayor votes yes. That passes 10 to one. Thank you. Was that on the amendment of the whole thing?

Yes. I I know. But I just was thanking them for because I don't I'd be you know I was going to say I'd be shocked if this next part failed, but I have met you guys before. So you're right. Maybe I should hold myself on the amend. So that was the amendment to amend the main motion. This is the amendment to actually fund TE to actually put the monies into restricted contingency from the fund balance. All the person Moss. Yes. All the person Brown. So I I would that's a separate issue. I can follow up with you offline about that. I'm I'm more than happy to. Yes. All the person win. Hi. All the person sharp. Yes. St. Perez.

Shapiro. Yes. Yes. Kumar. Hi. Letterman. Yes. Britzio. No. Votes. Yes. 10. 10 to one. Thank you for real this time. Thanks for coming. [laughter]

All right. Dave. Um, picking up where I left off. So, we are in the middle of an amendment. The deputy clerk has a question for me. Yes, we are in the middle of the garbage tag amendment. Yeah, ne I got the mayor hammer. Next time someone wants to um you recognize same press. I will actually withhold this until the end of discussion of this amendment. Ah, got it. Right. The old Pierre special. Um, anybody else for discussion on Yes.

Um, I just was wondering being that we voted to not increase the tax cap, uh, what the older person's um, I guess I or maybe this is for I don't know who this is for, but since we since we didn't vote to increase tax cap and this would be removing aboutund 125,000 from our budget, what happens if this was to pass? because that gives us no wiggle room for any other other amendments and or what we've passed already. Conditional on no further reductions. Uh that is pretty darn close to true. Um I don't know the exact we put in 15,000 and 8,000 so far. Right.

Correct. And only have like $127,000. I thought it was 150 something. Oh, I might be wrong then. Um does the city manager have a new number for us? Mhm. Well, again, some of these amendments were the ones that were not I can't recall if this a I see your hand. Um uh uh I I can't recall which of these amendments were submitted in the first round before the So, so the administration's only received amendments from council members that had been submitted for the first scheduled meeting, not any new ones. So, I don't remember if this is new or not. If it's not, then we do have those figures. If it is it's not

it's not new then then we should have um uh whatever yeah whatever the differential is less I don't have it in front of me that's 23,000 and then an additional 125 if this passes right right so just to just to remind people since we were cut off one second um give us a second actually because I I know it's in the city manager memorandum Um,

yeah, we're trash. Fill up the trash.

Go ahead. While we're trying to get the load,

can I just wanted to say that, you know, this potentially adds an extra $50 a month or $600 a year to a city uh resident um and obviously gets passed on. You know, it's for renters as well as property owners. And that adds to a minimal water usage. We heard somebody speak about that tonight. That's like another $1,000, $1,200 a a year that people are paying for water, plus the extra $71 for sewer, plus the 13 to $25,000 a year that people are paying in property taxes on top of all of their other things, you know, the health insurance premium, nice egg tariffs, crazy food costs, etc. I I just would ask that we not put one more thing on people. I think there are other place you know there again I just to go back to David's comments earlier um yeah I'm sorry that the cuts that we have you know that these are what we have and that that's all that we have. I think we could have made some deeper cuts that could have helped us better prioritize, but we don't have time to do it. And I just really don't want to lay this extra burden on people.

Mr. Letterman, um I am not going to support this because I'm not a fan of the trash tag system. I think there are certainly more equitable ways of doing it. we should raise revenue um through property taxes. Uh but that being said, um I don't want to blow $125,000 hole in the budget. So I only ask where the heck did the fiscal responsibility go?

I'll recognize myself and just say again, I'm committed privately. I'll commit publicly. You know, I think that the trash tag system isn't great. I'm happy to work with you next year on figuring out how we can incorporate solid waste removal in the general fund rather than putting a per head uh fee assessment on people. Um but for the same reason that I supported a lot of the cost-saving measures um I'm not going to support a uh a cost increasing measure um because of the incredibly tight timeline that we have. So I I appreciate the spirit of what you're trying to do. I support um the spirit again of not putting a perhead cost. I think the trash tag systems got the potential to be bless you

be fairly regressive. Um you know like folks who are you know struggling uh they don't have the luxury to as we've talked about right they don't have the luxury to compost and recycle in the same way and they're they're eating that cost. Um I however just at this time can't support um moving back down when we are uh as razor thin on the tax cap as we currently are. Um any further debate on this? Mr. Shapiro?

I'm just going to be really quickly. Uh I I am not going to support this either. Uh I think the trash tags just to remind everybody um this is a cost recovery model. We're just raising the fees to pay for the expense of removing trash and um there might be better ways to do it as we've all just heard people u discuss but um as it is right now there's the system we have and I'm going to not support this amendment. All right, I'll move to a Mr. St. Press and then I'll move to a vote. I would like to uh just know and appreciate the focus on the cost of living for especially lower income immigrants. All the person Moss no all the person Brown. All the person win no

all the person H sharp no all the person St. Perez. Nay. All the person Shapiro. No. All the person Keel no. All the person Kumar. Nay. All the person Letterman. No. All the person Fitzio. Yes. And the mayor votes. No. That fails 1 to 10. Uh. All the person St. Pres. I move for a fiveminute recess.

Is there a second? Second by person for Britzio. All those in all those in favor of a fiveminute recess. Those opposed. Motion fails. Um, moving on. Maybe this will get you all to be succinct with your comments. Just kidding. April fools. Um, next on the docket is another motion from all the person Fitzio. Uh this is to uh remove uh the funding for a personnel line, the vacant personnel line for the new parks manager uh to the tune of $115,697. Does that accurately describe your motion? All the person is that so moved.

Yes.

And is there a second? Seconded by all the person Letterman uh discussion all the person for Britzio happy to recognize you. So, the idea behind this is this is a a new position and again, as I said before, Steuart Park already got a full-time position, a DPW position. So, this would be an additional position. Um, this by not funding this, we could uh I think better direct this money toward the uh the violence interrupter program and also uh half of the salary for the second mental health clinician with the care program. And I think that both of those are services that have proven their worth and uh they were not included in the city manager's budget. They were they were down there as overtarget requests. Um and I could be saying like, yeah, let's just defund the position and put it into the fund balance, but I think these are both programs that are worthy um of our attention and our and our resources. I think they're working and that we should continue to fund them. Mr. Leman.

Um, I think this is the violence interrupter program will be enormously helpful. I think it's great that we have someone from the community and that our uh talented police chief has worked to make sure this is a reality and partner with Second Wind um to get someone in there who can help uh deescalate situations. Um, and so I just want to make sure we're supportive of that. in this position seems rather costly uh and it seems like a much better use of the money to put it towards the violence uh interrupter program. So that's why I'm so thrilled to support it. All the person Brown,

um I will support this. Uh I don't like the name violent interrupter and I really feel that person could go and apply for uh um community responder to be perfectly honest because we're still waiting for that five years later, right? My hope when I did work with them for this position, the monies didn't come from the city. The money came from gift gap, whatever their name is, came from the state. And that's why I felt it was important and I thought it would give an idea of what out community I mean um unarmed responders would look like or would be in the community. However, if this is if we're going to get rid of a position to put this through, um, that's that's okay with me. My hope is that we see re the ask of people in this community for re-imagining public safety get off the floor so that we can know when we sit and talk about what IPD is doing with the wellness person with the violent interrupter it's not giving us an idea of what we can use outreach person a lot of those positions that we are paying for right could be done with unarmed responders.

Please be gerine to the motion at hand. Thank you. Gerain to the motion is I will support this tremendous. Any further debate? Oh, what impacts uh would this have on the planned uh planned like works in Steuart Park that the administration proposed? I understand that the position would be defunded, but what what on the ground impacts can be anticipated?

I'll recognize them. I want to be clear though that we do give in all of these amendments, we give the administration until November the 12th to give us concrete answers because these amendments, especially postbudget gap, were extremely fluid and I just want to set expectations that we can't expect necessarily the administration will be able to answer any of these individual questions. But very much with that said, I'll recognize the city manager. This would just probably be easier to reiterate all of the information about the parks manager in an email and send it around. It's if you still want to make a modification when you pass the budget next week, that's fine. Understood. Thank you. You were going to vote. Oh, yeah. Let's vote.

Sounds Sounds like you're winning. Don't Don't talk yourself out of it. All the person Matoss. No. All the person Brown. All the person win. No. All the person Hayne Sharp. Yes. All the person St. Perez. All the person St. Perez. All the person Shapiro. Yes. All the person Keel. Yes. All the person Kumar. Nay. All the person Letterman. Yes. All the person Fritzio. Yes. And the mayor votes. Yes.

I don't actually I think it was four to seven A3. So close. All the person for Britzio, you have a motion to move $66,000 out of the remaining differential to fund the uh second care team worker. Yes. Um this would be derived from funds from the general fund with an anticipation of it being out of the differential under the tax cap. That's correct. Um that is correct. So is that so moved? So moved. Is that a second? Seconded by Mr. Letterman. Any debate, Mr. Shapiro? It's just not clear to me with the motion that we just passed and how it relates to this. Did we explicitly give instructions to fund the violence? We did not.

Okay. And we're not doing that. Well, we are doing that here, but you're saying it's through the monies that we just

So there is no there is no like complicated Byzantine multiple nested like money comes from the general fund. And so in in the conversations you're all having, you can say like, "Oh, well, I'll release this $100,000 and then we can use that money, but it all goes to the general fund." So the monies are derived from the general fund. They're also recurring expenses. So we want to make sure it's very clear in our amendments that these are we're committing to new recurring revenues out of the general fund. And while something might be quote unquote redirected from a given amendment to defund or reduce something, those monies ultimately are coming from the general fund. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

I'll just uh make my final comment then. I I I've uh I value the program. I've heard from the chief about the value of the care team and having an additional person. I don't plan on support this uh to support this tonight, but I do uh hope that we can support uh a more cohesive look at what unarmed responders uh an an umbrella um what that looks like. So, thank you. Thank you, uh Mr. Keel. Um I support this um and I also support uh the chief on this. Um I told him this at uh a meeting the other day. Um and I'm excited to vote for it. I'm excited to see us move forward. Uh, Miss Moss.

Um, I am not going to support this amendment and not because um I do not find value in the care team um or the other the violence interrupter. It's more so that um when we're talking about unarmed responders, we're talking about programs that are removed from the police department. And these are programs that are closely if not a part of the police department. Um and I'm looking forward to working with the mayor to figure out um a resolution or a mechanism to bring our roots program our under un under un under un under un under un under un under un under un under un under un underarm responder program forward in the next year. Any further pain sharp

um how do we know how much I mean with the operating differential do we do we know that this will that we have these funds? I'm kind of confused. Can I clarify that? Maybe it's not it's not from the differential. It's from the Steuart Park manager position which actually is in the budget already. It isn't it isn't it isn't from we just we just released those funds to the general. It's this is what I just said to all the person. It's not from that

but it's designated there's money that's in there that's designated for that position. So it would replace that position. the money would be redirected to those two positions. We just sent 116,000 back to the general fund. Yeah, this is less than that. Can I just clarify something though?

We funded a position to fund a parks manager position. So that was actually something that was budget neutral. So I I mean we'd have to go back and do some other number crunching, but the way that it was that was presented in the budget was that it was a substitute one position for the other position. It was the parking operations supervisor position that was defunded to fund the parks manager.

Right. So this would take away position. I I think you'd have to have more clarity and then you would also have to then defund the parking operations position which I don't have the amount exact amount of what that is right now in order to actually find money. Am I making sense? Not completely because there's a this the Steuart Park manager position was included in your budget. Correct. But there wasn't it was I I recognize there's money that was

we just took one position right and put the money into a different position. So if you want to defund the parks manager position the way the budget was presented all that then means is we'll just keep the parking operations position in. So you need to actually move to also remove the parking operations position. Do that. No, because I'm not recognizing that motion. I might later if it's a sincere motion and it's like produced and emailed, but I'm not going to just let you flippantly. We don't even know how much it is.

That just doesn't make sense to me. There's a number on here with that's associated with that $115,697. And I I you know I this thing about budget neutral is not really

let's stay let's stay focus I think that that first question is a very useful and valid point you're raising. Let's address that specifically. There's $115,697 in line A7112. A-7112. So my proposal is to take to defund that and to redirect the money to these two other positions.

That's correct, David. Position is just theory. Then I would like to make a motion to um eliminate the position that that was going to replace. So there's a there's a position in DPW that has been vacant for a year and a half. I mean it just figure out how to how to make it happen. Whatever the mechanics are. No. I mean there's

Well, this is why I wanted complete amendments from everyone by Friday. This was in there. Right now, there is a motion to fund the care team at $66,000. I'm going to just walk us through very basic math for a second. We accepted the administration's stop gap plan, which added $2.4 4 million to the good. We had a $2.1 million deficit. That left us with approximately $300,000. We all good so far? Okay. We've allocated $15,000 to the library, $8,000 to DPW. That is less than $300,000. We don't need to talk about where the 66,000 comes from because as I've said, we are not moving money from position to position. We have a differential that leaves us with like 280,000ish that we could we could we could take 66,000 from to fund and our differential would they would get closer to the tax cap. the tax rate would be higher. But we can have this discussion right now. That is all the person should have a question on this.

At a future point in time, can Margaret put forth an amendment or a resolver the right terminology is to defund the position that is currently on the budget that is also vacant? Yes. So at a outside of the budget cycle, she can do that. Anyone can amend the budget at any time. No, I I wanted this to be part of the budget. I know, but I need a complete amendment to be able to have us vote on it. And if we don't know what the position that you want to defund costs, we can't vote on it. All the person recognized.

I might be able to help you on this one, Margaret. Um, just going off of what David said, couldn't we technically, and I, and I know, mayor, this is not going to be your preference, couldn't we give Margaret the week and then before we vote on the final budget next week, she can bring forward that amendment if the numbers were all together. Council always retains a prerogative to amend legislation, I can let you all know that if any of you bring an amendment forward after tonight, I will be voting against it, irrespective of what it is. I I'm I'm just wondering how did um the city manager come up with like the 115,697 if we don't know what the other position amounts to.

Well, it's not an exact one for one exchange. Like when you're looking at all of the the different positions, there was additional monies that were also collapsed from DPW into it. But the but the point that David made is the easiest way to describe it. All we're saying is the position that we're it is a it is a supposition of a position. It is a proposed position that there was work done on job description. There is a salary range there because there's nobody in it. You have to make an assumption as to what the benefits are. So when we do those assumptions, we put a higher amount for benefit. So if it's something that you're willing to do, well, I will go back and look at what the actual cost of the parking operation supervisor was. And that is something that you could bring forward. But that

Thank you. It's it was unexpected to us that this was happening. So we could have put some numbers together if we knew that this was going to be a thing. I would I would like to do that because um I'm also just not in favor of like funding a new position which is what the parks manager position would be. So is there may you see your way through to make any kind of commitment right now uh to to to get any kind of vote here that would move us forward on this a little bit more until I can get that number. So I think I'm aware that we're currently debating the care team. Yes,

we are currently okay. I'm going to call for a fivem minute recess so that you all stop talking over each other. Seconded by all the person saying Perez. All those in favor of a fivem minute recess. Those opposed all the person kumar against. Carries 101. Robert, it's also

how you do something. Oh, like

I have your

the violence interrupt uh about the care team. Um there are $135,000 left before the city hits the tax cap. $135, $275 is the le is the most recent figure we have here. That is how much money is left before you hit the tax cap, which you legally cannot go over. You are considering whether you are going to take $66,000 from that and fund an additional care person for the county. That motion is already live. That is what we're currently debating. Mr. Letterman.

Um I think the care team from what we've heard from the chief and other folks in the community have come at public comment to speak on it. Uh has been very helpful uh in sort of having a more proactive approach to uh engaging with community and providing resources. Um it seems like a great way of having because it's a partnership with the with the with Tomkins County Whole Health if I have that right. um to have clinicians, one currently one clinician and hope to add a second clinician in the field that would be able to support folks and have more of that proactive instead of just simply reactive approach and getting to know people and doing case management. And from what I've heard, it's been uh incredibly um beneficial. Uh and so I'd like to support having a second person out there so they can increase their case load.

Miss Brown and then Mr. Shapiro.

What behooves me is we keep asking for we need community to be involved and helping in the care team under this team, but we're not hiring the community. We're hiring pieces that are already a part of IPD, which is very and I don't and and and that for me is really hurtful. And I and I and I've gone many times and tried to think about it. I was very involved with the so-called [snorts] violent interrupter. I really don't even like that name. But I was part of that to push to see something that would and they were being paid by the state, not the city to see something that could replicate what we would like what we would like to see happen with the unarmed responders, the roots, which money is already in the budget for. But we're taking we're talking about taking more money to for something that we have money already put reserved or wherever for already. That I think I think what no one can see because we've been indoctrinated throughout history how important it is to have the police protect us. And for some communities that don't feel the same, right? And when police officers and they protect um property, right? So what what I'm saying is I don't want us to lose working with IPD or working next to IPD, but I don't So So what I'm saying is I won't be supporting this,

Mr. Spiro.

Sure. I already said that I won't be supporting this, so I I continue to not support it. Although I do uh appreciate the merits of the program. I just want to remind everyone and I I I was quickly trying to pull it up on my phone, but I don't have it in front of me. I think the original otr request was $132,000 for this. We're approving or we're discussing whether or not we're going to approve 66,000 without having any idea how that other part of that other half of the money is going to fund the other half of this position program. So, it I think it's nice to consider this idea because it it I frankly I think it's a good idea, but we're not supporting it. we're not funding what they're asking for. Um, so again, I I think in a tight year and especially in light of the fact that we're not actually funding what they're asking for, I'm going to continue to not vote yes for this.

I'm recognize myself next and I'm going this will probably be like the last substantive vote justification I give for the evening. Um, I'm not adding every like the idea that we have this differential before we hit the tax cap. I want to be very clear. What that means is instead of a tax rate that is below the tax cap, every dollar that we choose to end uh add right now is raising people's taxes. I'm not doing that right now when there is ambiguity around how much we have before we hit it. but also like certainly under $200,000 left before we hit the the the tax cap. Again, every penny we add to the tax rate is money out of people's pockets. And while I appreciate the um you know the same line of argument around um the trash tag situation for example like I I I I do appreciate how that's hitting people but we're in an enormously tight budget year. We we plugged the hole at the beginning of this meeting. I am sort of comfortable considering very small modifications as we have done for a couple of other things but I think and in the grand scheme of things we are near our credit limit so to speak and I don't support adding anything further to our tax levy chief and others you are welcome to bring well doumented justifications for anything older person Were you recognized? The departments that need additional funding are welcome to bring mid-year budget amendments, but we are not in a position right now to add spending to the budget.

Who's next? Mr. Keel. Um, I absolutely hear your concerns, Mr. Mayor. Um, and I also think that it's important to consider the community benefit when we are adding dollars. And I think that from what I've heard from the chief, um, this is a program that supports the community benefit. And I think as far as people being okay, I think the thing that for me that I've heard from the community is that they it's not about never raising taxes. It's not about it's that they want to pay for things that are useful and that are benefiting the community. And from what I've seen and what the chief has told me, this is absolutely a program that is. And I want to see it continue. I want to see it expanded. Um, that's why I'll be voting for the site.

All the first Brown, I keep hearing people say they heard this from the community. I want to see what community. I seen people that work with IPD come. I have not seen you talk to people in the community. Have you talked to the people who voted for all the person all the person to the motion? Please don't direct your comments at others. Address the chair. to the motion is I'm someone who's on the ground in the streets and I did not hear the same. Thank you. All the president H sharp you're next. Um I am curious given what David uh your point to your point 66 um chief might have an update on this. Yeah,

we've I kind of want to know what that will give you. We we we approached the county about them sharing this with us. Did they agree to that?

Yes, we there's been a conversation with the county. The county is now waiting to see, you know, how we're going to proceed with this. Uh, but there has been documentation and information presented to the council, not just from the police department, but from whole health. Uh, and this has been called older person Brown, you are not recognized. I I mean I've had conversations with a number of com council members and Phoebe you know where I'm at with this like this around reimagine like right now we're having we're working for the same thing but we're arguing about how we're going to get there and the the reality is is we have been for the last many many years IPD has been committed to this for the last two years we've been at the table we've been in the community we've been talking to people in the street. There are people that will not come here regardless that are asking for this. The care team uh supports the whole the whole community uh all different members of the community and they bring resources that nobody else can bring. They have the ability to interact with hospitals, with care providers, with children and family services, with DSS. that several cases where people have been trying to get housing with the DSS and they couldn't because they didn't have their medical records and that presents red tape. It presents a barrier where the care team member has the ability to get those resources to to those people. They I've heard from countless officers how there were people within the community that they received calls for on a regular basis that because of the care team's involvement and because of the behind-the-scenes work that she does, they don't have those calls anymore. People are being deflected from from law enforcement interaction. the last uh year I've had, you know,

been privy to different conversations around uh what the alternative response would look like. I will say within the last month I've had no kind of part of those conversations. I've been cut out of them. And the reality is is that I I do bring some experience, you know, and we all have different experiences we we bring to the table. I've seen things at work and I've seen things I've cases and and and organizations that were presented as part of that uh initial presentation to the council from around the country are models based on the co-respond based on the community alternative response engagement program is the full name the care team. If we want to get to a place where we're able to serve the community like we need to work together, it's not andor, you know, it's it's a

the person Brown absolutely do.

All the person Brown, this is the fourth time I have asked you the the New York State the the DCGS the give program is based on executive order 203. It's based on serving the community, meeting the community where they're at, using evidence-based models to not just address violence, but to uh create environments for healing in a community, support in a community, meet in a community where they're at. Bringing in credible messengers. If you don't like violence interruptors, it's a name. We can change the name. But that work and and the work that he's doing has been very effective. and he's been deflecting calls from us on a regular basis and he was doing it before we got here and could get funding uh to him and we're going to work on getting more funding but for us to work together like that I mean that's what needs to happen mtos

um I'm deciding to withdraw my comments all the person brown aler person Letterman. Um, yep. I just uh I think this is an important program for the community. I appreciate the chiefs and IPD's longstanding willingness to

um I appreciate the chief's willingness to engage with a lot of different constituents and make this happen. Uh and because of the positive feedback I've heard, I'm eager to vote for this. All the person ke I'm just going to make a second effort to remind everyone that like you are almost near the New York State tax cap and that also assumes that there's no other issues that need to be addressed and I appreciate that folks want to fund things and chief you know I support this program but I believe it would be irresponsible for me to vote for something that brings us this close to the tax cap at this time. Moss.

Okay. Okay, I am second guessing my withdrawal. Um, one thing I do want to say is that as we're talking about the police department being for our community of color, all the things I want to say one of the recommendations that came out, the simplest recommendation that came out that the police department could have respond to was simply changing their name from Ithaca Police Department to something along the lines of Ithaca Public Safety Department and did not do that. To me, that shows firsthand that they're not responding to my community of color's needs. Your maintenance, please. Sorry, just had to go on record and say that. Thank you. Okay, we'll call for a vote. All the person ms. No. All the person Brown. All the person win. Yes. All the person Hayne Sharp. Yes. All the person St. Perez. No. All the person Shapiro. No. All the person Keel. All the person Kumar. Uh I. All the person Letterman. Yes. All the person Fitzio. Yes.

All and the mayor votes. No. That carries six to five. Could you What? Who the um I'm just writing this down. David had you vote. He's voted yes. Voted against it. Yeah. If you can't keep up while you're doing it, write it down or just don't do it. Um, so just want to clarify, we now have at most $79,000 of raising people's taxes further before we hit the tax cap. Um, next motion is uh it's not um the next motion is from

the other part of There was the violence inter. I know. Okay. The next motion is from older person for Britzio. It is to increase appropriations to IPD for $45,000 to fund the violence interrupter program. Is that an accurate summary of your motion? It is. Is it so moved? So moved. No. That's what you wrote down in the chart that you're man managing, but it's wrong. Um, is there a second to the older person's motion? Alder person Shapiro seconds. Would you like to introduce your motion? Yes.

Unbelievable.

So, I see all of these things, the care team, the violence interrupter, community outreach worker program, they're all sort of a big umbrella about our um unarmed response that we have within the community. Um, violence interrupter gave us a bunch of data earlier on. Half of their cases, 50 of their cases prevented um, interactions between people of color and the police department. Um, so they had the proposal was for 50. I put in 45. We could put in 40. I could amend it to 40 if that makes it more agreeable to people. We could also look for making some other cut someplace else. We need to come up with some other money.

Old person uh Brown first then Moss withdraw. Okay, Moss. I personally think that uh funding the violence interrupter program without even um it's essentially a copout to our unarmed responder program. That's my personal opinion. So, I will be voting no. Mr. Shapiro,

um I'm not sure that I understand that last comment. So, but I I'll try not to um I think we need to start developing and I think we have to some degree started developing an unarmed response team. I don't see care especially like that because it's a division of the Tomkins County Department of Health, but I do believe it supports unarmed response. So, I just want to sit on both sides of the fence there. But I think with the with the violence interrupter program that probably should have a different name and I think it should be easy to work together and think about names that that more suit the service that we're delivering. Um I think it has it has data that supports how effective it's been. Um and I think we should that should be one of the ways that we support unarmed responses in the community. And I'm happy to consider other ideas as well. I hope as I support this uh men amendment and and if it passes that people will look at some of the other ways maybe one other way that we can cut money. Um because I am uh reluctant to to spend much more but the ways that I voted against not everyone has sided with me. But I will say that like I think this is a lot of value for very little buck. It's a good bang for the buck. I think I phrased that backwards. Um so I I do think this is a good program. I have met with the chief about this and and some of the other programs, but this is the program that really spoke to me as the most valuable and certainly um the uh least investment for that value. So, I appreciate the concept and I hope that we can continue to grow this concept.

All the person Brown,

I am I I have to say I'm I'm a little confused here to hear people constantly talking about saving money, right? And then you talking about spending it when you have a program called roots that already have money put in the budget to do this work that we're ready to give up money for. But like I said, when you go home, look at your white privilege and think about it. Good night. I'm going to comment and just uh note that I've received communication earlier this week from our county colleagues who asked if there was interest and I know the older person uh who was sponsoring these this is her next and final motion uh to add money back to the downtown community outreach worker program. I have no idea what council's disposition on that is. I will let you know. Um, you do not have the money to fund both of these things based on your current votes this evening. Uh, all the parts of Britzia are you recognized?

I was just going to say that I don't know if you could envision like a time when um violence interrupter be was connected with roots, right? And maybe that roots is the umbrella. It's just a piece that's an arm of of that. Well, you just brought up the issue that both of you Thank you. There's money um in the budget. There's encumbered money for roots. There is

$378,500. And and Phoebe, you just said um that there's money available for this. So, I don't I don't know if the reporting line is an issue that it could be like moved over to to be funded through roots, but I would certainly be open to that sort of consolidation. Right. There is a big pot of money there and I think this is it's totally relevant. It's an unarmed response that's serving the community that meets the objectives of roots. All the bars and mottos

I need us to stop saying it meets the objective of of roots when roots roots is the point of roots is for our community of color. This is not target. This is not helping our community of color. Like just just stop. This is literally like Miss Phoebe said your guys' privilege is showing. You're not recognized. Is there going to be debate on the motion at hand from anybody? Mr. Ke, um I'm not going to vote for this. Um I think if we have to choose between one or the other, um I'll discuss the merits of the downtown outreach program and what I feel um why I feel it's really important that we fund that this year. Um I have a lot of uh comments that I would love to say, but I'll try to keep it tight tonight for you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. And you were like, I got to make sure I go ahead. No, no. You were like, all right, if Patrick's not going to do it, I will. Please try to make light.

Chief, um, what impact do you see this not being funded having on safety operations? This is part of our commitment and the community's commitment to reimagine public safety. This is based on a national model out of Chicago uh founded I I mean I won't get into how it was founded and the people that are involved but similar to the uh the snug initiative uh with the New York State with people with lived experience with formerly incarcerated credible messengers deterring violence within a community and because we're a tier 2 city and the work that we're doing is all all violence and so like for an incident the other night where somebody was shot in the foot, we're letting this this person know like, hey, this happened and while the police are doing the investigation uh into that incident, this person's now aware, you know, to try to deter people from retaliation and to deter, you know, bring cooler heads uh to the table uh and prevent further violence. Uh you know, he's also been responding. People call him for fights. people call him when people are disagreeing where the police aren't called and if cooler heads prevail and he's able to, you know, convince people to to walk away uh or talk things out, it works. But if we do get called and law enforcement gets called, we're able to say, "Hey, you know, we got this. We'll handle it." And

I have to interject really quick, chief. Sure. Um I need a motion to extend because it is 10 o'clock in four minutes. Uh and council will auto adjurnn if we don't extend. Uh my motion to extend until 10:30. Max. Hey, that's the motion. Is there a second? Second by all the person win. All those in favor? Those opposed? That carries. All the person Brown. Did you vote one way or another? All the person you voted no. Okay. Uh seven to four. uh chief continue.

So what so short to shorten this or short answer is we're seeing a lot of success in a short amount of time. Now when I was connected with with a nest by by Miss Brown, this was work that he was doing within the community.

Yeah. Yes. And we're able to to pull funding from the state and build this program out. And the intent is to bring more funding to build it out. But we need to think short-term and and sustaining. And this is built again on the same models and the same information that's been presented to the council around an alternative response program. We see the successes. I will say that one important thing to point out and those successes is because there are communities that have done standalone programs without law enforcement, but we all are interacting with the same people in different days and in different ways. And the programs that do succeed are the ones that are in partnership. And it's not about being in a prison to pipeline. It's about reducing incarceration and reducing the effects of the law law enforcement or arrest for all communities. Um, pardon me. Is there grant funding slash would there be grant funding to continue operations as they are right now? Possibly potentially. And and we're looking at now how we can we can move money within the grant. And because of this, this took us a year and a over a year and a half to get to where we are now. we have a working model we can support that we can ask for serious increases in funding in the next give if give give cycle. So the give cycle is July 1st through the end of June. So this is something that we we want to expand out. We we want to bring on another member and I say we this is a this is a program through second wind cottages. Although we provide funding and we're asking for this additional funding it is run by second wind cottages. It is separate from the police department. It is separate from the city government.

Understood. Thank you. All the person brown. Is that a black and brown community? Absolutely not. I'm I'm telling y'all like I I know I'm leaving here and boy I just Anyway, I have rode and I've been around and I've seen who have who Aness has worked with. I want you to give me a list of names and people in this community to make me understand. No, I'm not I'mma leave this alone. Okay? cuz I one thing I know is I'm in the community. Are you?

I don't collect names. We don't have that information. That's that's managed through second. I'm going to call for a vote. Please. I think it's I think it's really important to highlight that the data we were sent earlier this year by the program showed that over 50% of the interactions that the violence interrupter has had in this community which has been significant are of people of color. It is like that is factual data that we were sent. All the person Moss. No. All the person Brown. All the person win. No. All the person Hayne Sharp. No. All the person St. Perez.

Nay. All the person Shapiro. Yes. All the person Keel. No. All the person Kumar. Nay. All the person Letterman. Yes. All the person Fitzio. Yes. The mayor votes no. That fails 3 to 8. Um, all the personitzio, your last amendment is to restore funding to the community outreach worker program. Correct. Is that so moved? So moved. $65,000. Council, if this is approved, there will be less than $15,000 left before we hit the tax cap. Hold on. So the where this money was coming from, it wasn't just adding money onto the to the uh tax cap limit.

I need a second first before you. Second by Mr. Ke, please. Okay. So the idea was to take some money $65,000 from the uh police department overtime budget, which is at I think it was at $880,000. I don't know. Uh we didn't have like any real number on that since 2021, but we have added uh police officer, several police officers since then. So, I was hoping that there we would be able to squeeze the money out of the overtime budget and and direct it toward the community outreach worker program to support uh downtown, which also supports the downtown businesses.

So, procedurally, we would have to have an amendment to defund a line I gave you one. I have gone through every email that I have received from you including four within four hours and they you have in the intent you can still make a motion on the floor but there is not a motion to remove it from their overtime. You just described resolution to amend the proposed budget to eliminate $65,000 from IPD overtime line. I did send this. We talked about it. I sent it. This would be coming out of the personnel line overtime line 51256 $65,000 and it would be redirected to the downtown community outreach worker program.

I try to explain I'm going to try to explain this again in a separate way. They need there need to be two motions. You can you you could right one at a time. They have to go back to the general. It's the same thing that I've been saying all week. So, which of those are you moving first? I will move to eliminate the $65,000 from the police. From the police department overtime budget. So, you are looking to reduce the police department overtime budget by $65,000. Is there a second? Seconded by all the person mottos. Is there make your point in two sentence challenge? Any any any debate one way or another? All the person mottos.

Thank you, Margaret, for bringing this forward. Point Mr. St. Perez. We don't know how much police overtime is. Last police overtime numbers were above budget. All the person ke um we also have redlinining procedures in the city which we brought up earlier today. Um all the person for Britzio that's true Pierre but those numbers were from 2021 and I don't know how many officers have been added since then but it's a significant number so presumably we would need less overtime

all the person mach um yeah and I was going to say um we just had two police officers graduate from the academy the mayor swore in two I think today or yesterday so I think as we're onboarding more police officers we should be hopeful in or we should be looking to reduce our overtime uh budget line. Any further discussion? All the parts in Shapiro,

I'll just say I don't think it's presumable that the overtime budget over the several last several years has decreased. It's probably just increased. It's probably gone over budget every single year. I don't think there's a way to assume one or the other. But I would assume that even if we've had a couple positions filled here and there, the chief or prior chiefs have always used overtime as a way of keeping minimum um safety requirements. So I would assume our overtime budget I would assume our overtime budget will always be at the level or above. I just want to recognize myself and say I think that the um we've had a challenging budget cycle. We are doing the best we can with the information that we have as an entire city. Um, I don't support the idea of shell gaming around different pots of money um, without really critically scrutinizing where we stand And while I have my feelings on whether or not I will support the older person's next motion, I don't think reducing the overtime on paper for the purposes of then blowing past that number and having to cover it later is responsible. It is a it is an accounting trick and it's not a very good one. You can see the quarter behind our ear. Um I will go to a vote on this. All the person Moss

yes. All the person Brown yes. All the person win no. All the person H sharp no. All the person St. Perez nay. All the person Shiro no. All the person Keel yes. All the person Kumar nay. All the person Letterman no. All the person Vitzio yes. And the mayor votes no. That fails 4 to7. All the person Now you are moving the 65,000 for community outreach worker. Yes. I don't have any money to pay for that. The differential monopoly money right now. Are you are you moving it or not? Um you just said we don't have any money.

Yeah, there's $79,275 left. Okay. Yes, I move it then. $65,000 for the community outreach work program. Hold on a second. This is

correction. Okay. So, we So, you're right. I'm sorry. We'll be left with $4,000 left. Um, so moved. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Keel. Can I talk? Okay. Yes, you may. You're recognized. You are recognized.

Oh. Oh, okay. I'm getting sleepy. Um, I have to say I am not voting for this for the simple fact this it amazes me the way that we don't trust community to do this work. The roots program unarmed responders that is a job that they can be doing. Why do we want to spend more money? Right. I keep saying why do we have to pay a uh violent the interrupter when we already have that's that's money in the budget that that person could be get anyway. So let me get Jermaine. I'm not voting for this because there we have money already put aside for people who can do this job. Just as a reminder for everyone, this is path paid for by the county. Um aler person for Britzio and then kelder person ke

um yeah I so um I think that for me this vote is about keeping our obligations to both the county who is looking to us to fund half of this and also to downtown who has been in here numerous times saying we need support from the city downtown like businesses are stalling. because we have people that need help on the commons. And this program is not affiliated with the police and is going downtown and working with local businesses and working with the people on the commons to help out and it's working and we've made this commitment. We made this commitment. They just got the program stood up and now we're going to pull the funding. Um I kind of feel like this probably should have been incorporated in the city manager's original budget. Frankly, uh again, this is a program that we've been we literally just got stowed up with REACH and um when I talked to a member of the REACH uh staff, I don't know how many weeks ago now, they thought that it was in the budget. They actually didn't know that it was an over target request because like there hadn't been any communication or actually I don't know if there had been no communication. Um I shouldn't say that, but they they didn't know that it wasn't in the budget. Um, and I think this is kind of an obligation that we have to fulfill. Um, if I I am also concerned with the $4,000 we have left. I think we need more of a cushion than that. And I would I would support additional cuts elsewhere um to to widen that gap. But I really think this is an important program. I wish that it had come sooner in the agenda because now I feel like we're kind of in an awkward position here. Um but yeah I think we have an obligation upon this

all the person for Britzio for real this time. So the money that um it has been set aside for roots is it possible is there some mechanism by which we can use some of this money for these any of these but you Phoebe you just said why would we pay for it again when there's money in the roots program to pay for it. What I would support is looking very seriously like with a few of my colleagues, like whoever wants to do it, looking seriously at the budget and seeing where we can make some more significant cuts that would help fund. We can't do that. I'm sorry, but we can't. We have days left to pass a budget.

Well, we could do it tomorrow. No, you can't. You can't do this in isol No, no, no. Like, you can't do this in isolation from the administration. like they need an entire week now to go through the voterama and and make sure that we didn't accidentally hit the tax cap. And then if we did, they're going to have to come back and say, "We need you to take some amount of this out of fund balance because council's added things to the budget." Like we we do not have time, and I've said this for months that this was the last possible day to amend the budget. Anyone's welcome to bring forward an amendment, but it should be roundly defeated if it is because we are out of time.

Well, I'm just so confused about this because I wasn't adding to the budget. I was I was taking one position and substituting two things for that and then taking some money from one other line and using that for something else. So, I was not adding to the budget. the city manager has complicated the my understanding of this and that where that position spoken this evening so I don't I don't

speak earlier about the part it all came up with this let's vote on the outreach worker program is it going to be gerine to the outreach worker program it's not going to be a respon it's not going to be Hold on it's not going to be a response to why we can't use Roots money for it right okay then go ahead

my response is and and and I'm sitting here thinking about the reach workers, the outreach workers at REACH, right? And many of them are young people that I know that are doing amazing job and I have to agree with that. What I Well, I have to vote yes for that. Or should I vote yes? But anyway, no, this is the part that I'm saying the reason why I bring up roots is because I that's an organization that can also do that work. Was that Yes, actually it was. Mr. Ke

um I was just going to say and I think this is gerine to the conversation that um I think we should pass this and I will immediately make a motion to remove the staff development line from common counsel for the coming year to give us an extra $8,000 in the buffer. It's not something I want to do. I think we should have access and tools available to professionally develop our abilities, but it is a tight budget year and I think that that's an important thing to consider. Um, I don't know if that'll make people feel Let's go to a vote on this. All those in favor of funding the community outreach worker program at $65,000. All the person Moss, uh, no. All the person Brown, no. Person, yes. All the person H sharp, no. All the person, uh, St. Pres,

no. All the person, Shapiro, no. All the person Keel, yes. All the person, Kumar, no. All the person, Letterman, no. All the personitzio yes

and the mayor votes yes. That fails 7 to four. I'm sorry. It fails four to seven. Um Mr. Keel, I have a I would like a motion to Give me a second to think about this. I would like a motion to refer the budget to the November 12th meeting for a final vote and a motion that authorizes the administration to provide funding from the fund balance as needed to ensure the city does not accidentally run a fowl of the New York State tax cap. I

think that's what would normally what what will happen now is once you're done with this, then we will have the time in between this meeting and when the agenda needs to be posted for the next meeting to go away and put the there's an actual resolution that has the levy and the information and all of that in it. So, you'll see the resolution with all of those pieces in it. you'll get an updated budget summary. Um, we need to go away and reset all we need to reset the fee schedule because of what you passed tonight. Then we need to modify that. So, there's a lot of work we have to do in order to prepare the budget for you for next week, but you'll have that at the same time you get the agenda packet for the meeting.

Terrific. Thank you. Um, want to be clear, I do not want us to spend anything out of the fund balance. we don't need to, but I also recognize how close to the tax cap we are, and I don't want to be in a situation where we cannot pass a budget. Um, and then before we vote on it, we would know if how much the administration has to pull from the fund fund balance. If anything, we will know, as the city manager just said, we will know what the tax rate is, the tax levy is, and if any amount from fund balance is necessary to cover what you've all voted on tonight, you will see that as well. Yeah. Right now, the only thing that I can assume you will see reflected on the fund balance is the $500,000 written that will go into restricted contingency for TCAP, right? Which then, if not spent, really revert back to the fun.

Um, old person, is there something that I can do to help ensure that we don't spend $116,000 on a new park manager position? Just to go back to that, that was the idea for funding violence interrupter and and half of the care position. So all the person Yes, we've removed that position, that unfunded position from the proposed budget.

We now presumably going through with the rest of what you intended need to defund the vacant parking supervisor, parking operations. Um, we may you may request from the administration what that amount of money is and we may amend the budget after the budget is adopted because again we may we we have the authority to amend the budget at any time. We just don't know what that number is right now and so we can't sort of like when you and I discussed like the idea of like more fees for the golf course for certain users like without a number we can't amend the budget and where did the 116 thou then that's a specific

All right so you and I will talk about that we're not going to do that right now because maximum also I'm asking so the motion that I've asked the motion that I've requested right budgets referred to next week for a final vote and request that the administration, which they already said they're going to provide, but request the administration use any amount of fund balance that is necessary to balance the budget um based to reflect the amendments that you all voted on this evening. Who is going to move that? Moss, seconded by Letterman. All those in favor of moving the budget, that carries unanimously. Um okay. Um with that we do not have uh a executive session uh item for this evening. Um and so we will I think next week maybe later. Okay. Uh, we don't have one. I also would like to go home. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Moved by all the person St. Perez, seconded by all the person Hay Sharp. All those in favor of adjourning.