Common Council - Regular Meeting

Everybody, it's 7:25 and I'm calling to order the public hearing of the proposed local law to amend chapter 177 sewers and water 177-37 lateral installation fees to amend paragraph E regarding for residential, commercial, and industrial users. This change has been posted and is spelled out on the agenda and we will take public comment. I also invited our water to be here if anyone has any questions.

Um, so Bill, would you explain to me the lateral? I understand what a lateral is, but tell me what this Okay. Um, committee member mayor and members of the council. Uh, this represents uh consistency in verbiage. Under our typing fees, we already have this in, but under the ordinance it wasn't. So, uh, a contract calls out on it saying, well, city has. Well, according to our fee schedule, uh, the city may provide these services depending on how busy we are. um years and years ago I guess our staff was larger probably a dozen 13 people now we have a so we really have the ability to perform this so uh the customer shall pay the community inspection fees and shall have work performed by contractors separate the city the lateral um from the home to the curb line is the home the curve line to the connection the street is the city from the water from from the main to the curb is the city from the curb into the house is the home.

Okay. And and the reason for my question so in other words this is to pay for the connection from the curb to wherever the line is in the street. Yes. It's a ting fee. So if it's a new facility or uh there's a new commercial property they're going to run the line. The only thing that would require the city uh if we don't have the time is the uh permitted fee the inspection fee and then we'll inspect it once the contract does but that will allow contract to take the street.

Yes. So, we did not plan to vote on this tonight, but it's a good time if anyone has any additional questions or comments.

I know that sent me an email address questions. So, I have some answers to those because we're not reply to all tax. It would apply at all times. We should each tapping on a case by case basis. Uh we look at the age of the water and sewer lines, the history of the property to determine if that should be replaced. We're looking at some taps that we have now for buildings that date back to 1936. So we don't think they're probably in great shape. So rather than a new uh commercial property or new building put up and then we going back two weeks of people living there, we have to take the street because we have rather place one time. So um that's where we're looking with that. That's how we approach each property. I just want to ask so the city would give that or the owner of the property

the owner of the property pay for new further questions about a left for the public hearing. Anybody has any comments or questions? A

lot of people online. Okay, I will close the public hearing and I will now call the regular meeting of the halls condom council January 13, 2026 to order. If you are able, please stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance led by Councilwoman. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for its one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. At this time, I'd like to open the floor to public comment. Is there anyone from the public would like to address this?

No one from the public. Um, I do have a note from one of my constituents, Lisa Grab from Franklin Street. She wanted to note for employees of the Glow Foundation and the hospital if um if they park between the Hudson app and Ro Street on South Street, they do get free parking on their badge in the parking garage. So to potentially make it safer, especially during the winter, um the the winter um snow that sort of makes that tiny corridor hard to pass through. Um that might um that might make it easier um for travelers. Um, and also I am drafting a letter emails to the house hospital foundation to potentially inquire if they'd be interested in buying that pond land right next to the house foundation because would maybe turn into a park or something. This would be appropriate for older new business. That would be okay. I'll move along with the

Okay. At this time we would normally do committee reports and we are just uh getting active with our new committees for this year. I I Are there any outstanding committees reports from previous activity that anyone has? Okay. Then um I will say a few words about committees when I get to old and new business. But for now, let's move on to our consent agenda. So we have seven items on the consent agenda. Items 5.1 to 5.4 and items 6.1 to 6.3. Does any council member wish to pull any item for discussion?

I'd like to So then at this time I would like to take a I would like to ask for a motion to approve the other items on the consent agenda. So that would be 5.1 through 5.4, 6.1, and 6.3. Would anyone like to make that motion? Second.

Okay. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion car

um for six points for the um the appointment to the board of assessment. Yes. Um the uh person who's put forward is also a county supervisor and I my concern is that there's like a representation of that person's vote on city matters and wondering if it would be more appropriate to find somebody from the general community.

Is she a reappoint? currently wish to continue to serve. Okay. So your concern is that he's also a county supervisor and so you're concerned that he has say that again over over uh uh over inflated uh voice for city matters. Okay. Um is there anything in our code or you know on the spot that's that speaks to how supervisors serving on board.

Okay. I'm happy to table that while we look into it and and consider the matter um if that's what your request that would satisfy. Um,

I just would like to know what the best practices are for building out boards when we have people who are being uh already in a role of um representing the city especially on the council council and on the city of supervisor. I know common council members can't but there's as far as I know there haven't been anything about happy to look into it. So I think there's a motion to table on the floor from council L. Okay. Off the table at large.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And I will get some information for you for the next meeting. Appreciate that. Okay. We have one item on our regular agenda and that is item 7.1 which is resolution to lease and finance a back combination machine for the water and sewer department. Um again I've asked our water superintendent Biller if anyone has any questions about this question. Hello again. Um, I did receive uh an email from Council L. Okay. He had several concerns. Okay.

First, uh, is it being leased? Language makes it sound that way. It's a lease to own sitting loan truck day one. The finance will have a lean in place on the truck until paid off. Basically, it's a loan. What is the replacement schedule? I would like to replace it once the lease is paid. Um, We get great traded value back to 6 years. It should be just before um truck starts to experience larger repair issues, cost and down time. Uh the back truck we have now is 9 years old and has major cost of repairs and down time over the last year. If we trade the new vehicle after six years, we likely get roughly 250,000 or a little more the new vehicles trading values much greater. What are the methods of every day? Start in house versus contracting out cost and timing. Uh the day rate for a vehicle is $4,4500. I just talked to Ken about their day rates and that's what they said.

Well, now how does that compare to financing for uh six years on $600,000? It's a much much greater to do that. Uh we're looking at three and a half day probably using three and a half to four days a week, eight hours a day just 48 weeks and it's it's it's an extra time for one year. So um not only that we have emergency after hours the costs are higher and um even if the contract is available to do the work who is trained to operate in an operation set all eight members in the field are trained to use this vehicle's holes in vacuum system only four members are capable of driving it because it requires a CO that's why we bought the smaller unit for half hours. So any any one of our crew members can use that to be on to take care of only small emergency how much is expected to to be used? How much was the current used? Um utilize this vehicle almost daily. We clean the sewer lines and manuals uh for all sewer and water line repairs. helps locate pipes before additional damage is done by the excavator and provides a quicker repair for these emergencies. Uh we use cleaning tanks in the wastewater treatment plant. Uh we cleaning the overflows in and outlets of the reservoirs. Uh cleaning and maintaining the pump stations, the smaller pump station. We can pump the station down repairs prevented backups.

So I think that addresses all those questions in his email and forgive questions. First question is, is there any chance of leasing it to a community if they need it? Is there anything we could trust if we have um program something like that we can another? Not not normally. Yeah, I mean probably if fellow community has an emergency and we have the availability utilize our vehicle, we will uh beneficial use because if we have the same problem, we ask communities to help us.

Okay. And is there a warranty on this machine? Yes, there's a set of warranties. I'm good with gas. There's a 12 month warranty, a 5year warranty on improve tank and a 10 year warranty on water tanks. Sounds good.

So, just like back of the envelope, Matt, you said it was about $4,000 to lease it out um from a from a private contractor. And if you go like 5 days times 50 weeks and you get 250 and that is like about four for you know 4,000 a day. How are we doing that? Cuz if I go if I go you see $4,000 a day times let's just use three and a half days times weeks. Just use 50. That's 700,000.

Yeah. And Okay. Um

Yeah. Yeah. I got messed up. cover us for emergency like if it was miraculously still emergency we have like uh any logs of when it's been used. Do we currently keep any of that? I'm sure we have lots. She's almost there. As I said, we we had insurance afterwards to shut down.

Yeah. I mean, we had that blood gramer. It was there all day and all night. And unfortunately, because the age doesn't have recirculation, so it kept freezing up. So, we had to take it out for an hour, bring it back. And that's what caused us to take so long to do that repair. The new systems have heated systems and they have recirculation so that the water doesn't freeze and that's part of this package. Although we do hear from residents on the street thanking your crew and the department for their work. So

I thank them all the time for the you know out there in you know 20° weather in water in holes and soaking wet. Yes. I just want to read it and um the um all the data from the English that the old machine was like still $100,000. So right now still maintain

well right now. Initially we only were going to get 70,000. Then we did one of those costly repairs. So I will accept a motion on resolution 7.1. Would anyone want to take a second? Okay. All in favor?

Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. So at this time it will be old business. As a follow resolution stop enforcement like to and everything for their prompt and helpful responses as well as guidance and helping to determine who might have information you're looking for. At this time, implementation approval of the new local law by the state. Once approval is received, the city will proceed appropriate signage to occur this.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Um, I received a message from uh Mike Davis uh who has properties at 38 and 11 South and uh he was looking for some uh kind of uh firmed up responses on uh when Elm Street might be opened up again. He talked to the project manager with Bachio about a very vague very long and out like two years uh as a response. Um they're currently and I brought this up previously um with the previous mayor that the u signage for a um a sidewalk detour is was not really helpful in point people to find street after street or had been may have been moved so that it's back there but his problem is that or his question is, is it possible to get pedestrian accommodations that are more close? So down either along Elm Street to South Street instead of all the way back through Pine and around. And as an alternative, I was thinking, could we open up the pedestrian or put the signage up for pedestrian pass through the market center area which is open for farmers market. Um there is an alleyway in through there that people could navigate around uh to get back to their place. Um so uh and also uh he was saying that when uh tractor trailers coming through. They

actually use this parking spot to kind of angle their way into the project site. So, it would be helpful if they could kind of facilitate um accessibility for pedestrians, which I'm sure is part of the agreement to shut down the street in the sidewalks in the first place that the city is provide or is hoping the contractor to provide uh useful accessible sidewalks as a detour. So, you're not talking about new uh sidewalk closures, but existing

ones. Okay. Um I I guess what I would do is is speak with Jeremy. Yeah. City engineer and ask, you know, get some input on your your questions. If you send me an email, just I did. Me? You did? Okay. I was at the state of the state in Albany today. I haven't all today. It was yesterday that this came up. All right. I wasn't expecting you to have pretty good, but I was out of the office for a while today. So, I will take a look at that and I'll see if I can get some answers to your question.

Councilman in terms of relates to the council and the commands. I sent a followup email to the parks and trails to see if um to see if they approve my application for the top trail. So hopefully I get approval make sure the council so that we can now go to uh just a reminder that this subday it will be celebrating MLK and uh we'll be starting here at city hall at 3:00 where the mayor will address us and um then we'll march to city hall I going to um please sing off those in Christ Church. 4:00 the program will sharply start at 4:00. Um we have a as usual we have the children doing it. Um this um it's been real successful. We have a real big surprise this year. I can't wait. I don't want to spill. I want everybody to come and see. It's really great. I'm going to say that it's really great. So come out um this Sunday, Christ Church 4:00 will be the program. We'll march from here at 3:00 from City Hall. So we look forward to seeing you there. Thank you. And I I received an invitation from the NAACP that was addressed to all the council members for this. So I can pass it around anyone. Hi.

Thank you. Um, it's more of a question than anything that's kind of interesting because it involves Mike Cadis. So, Mike Cadis also owns some property over here on Glenn Street and it's within the second board. already called me on the telephone and he was concerned about the condition of the alleyway that's in between pharmacy restaurant and it runs down behind the back of karate and then eventually exit onto the parking lot next to city hall and um his concerns was um his concern were multiple things um and and he owns a small piece of property there um and those things consisted of um restaurant exhaust fans that were leaking vegetable oil or fruit cooking oil because they hadn't been serviced properly or hadn't been serviced. Uh there were large amounts of uh cooking oil that was stored in plastic 55gallon drums. I think that's a violation of fire code. I could be wrong. Um there uh is right now probably a stack of 20 wooden pallets that's probably somewhere in the city of 10 to 15 ft tall. Um I can tell you this. I spent part of my career in the fire service and it's a fire waiting to happen and it's in a part of our downtown but you can't see you can't even see some of it from looking in the alley. Um, so I was doing some research. I want to thank Emily because she helped me with this today to see how we were handling this. Remember this is city property. That alleyway is owned by the city. How we handle requests for in this case restaurants who want to use that alleyway for

dumpsters or cooking oils or whatever it may be. And so I looked into the b the restaurants that seem to be problem this incred and how we handle it at the present time of this is that they request an encroachment from them pay you $40 and and and in water there's no inspection by the city that I can find um although on one of these encroachment permits it actually shows where there's supposed to be three inspection and they're not but my question is this and maybe this will be something for the city attorney to Should encroachment permits be what we're using when we're leasing space on city property? And and if and if so in in getting involved in this, there was almost between the fire inspector and the building inspector about who had that responsibility, who was supposed to take care of them. So, since you kind of dug into this a little bit, I think everybody over there cuz I stopped to talk to some people, you know, is concerned. They don't want to lose their ability to store garbage outside their buildings. Uh, that's something that I think that the city really in time is going to need to wrap their hand around it because it's a big issue, especially if you don't own property other than the building. But I didn't know where to go with this, whether to give this to the city attorney to research. I know we have a new policy committee whether it should go before them. Um but there is some concern and like I say I'd like to add

Thank you for bringing that up. Do you know if Mr. or if you have tried to work with building or within our

and they both and they were confident and to be very very honest with you it's gone from this type of situation first day Mike Cis and I walked back in through there couldn't walk back in there for starters was very plugged up um we found um restaurant employees in the back of those buildings in that alleyway smoking and there was totes overflowing garbage. There was 20 pallets stacked up in the air. There were 55gallon drums of oil all over the place. It would just scare any person if you took a look at it. They both took a look at it and actually got it pretty cleaned up right now with the exception of all the pallets and everything. I think they really focused more on the leaking oil coming out of the Mac restaurant fans. But I think in the long haul, if you ever want to see the the most amazing mis match of buildings and how they all line up over there, like I say, if things can get hidden, people can be in there and not be seen and you can get a fire started now where we're putting apartments over commercial buildings in the downtown area that concerns about that. So, I think it's something that we should be moving into. And I don't know whether we should be leasing city property under something that has no specification on it whatsoever about what the responsibility is attorney to look into that but it also might be appropriate for policy as well. So thank you.

Thank you. Yes. And permit to um at any point in time council has the right to revokement permit. So at least just if there were to be a position where you know you no longer feel that you have this for instance this right here is the permit for there's nothing on it that basically says other that they can keep some dumpsters out there a year. So what would be the violation? What would be the thing that you said that we should pull that encroachment permit for a violation? The violation of what? Say they can't have dumpster.

If you give them for $40 at least for that property for a year, right? But you can revoke at any time. That's what I'm saying. At any time the council can say you can't have that there anymore. Right. But all I'm saying to you is I think if the council is about to take that action, they better have a reason why they're doing that.

And everybody's opinion being different. I'm not saying this is something that listen, it is something that's important because they have a situation over right now that I hope is safe to the downtown community. But I do think that we ought to look into how these approach permits operate because I don't know that they should be the same if you're doing potatoes and chairs on the side. Is there a mechanism for inspection?

Well, you know what? It's interesting, Dean, because there's a there's a part on here where it lists that there's going to be free inspection with no dates, no time to be done any other month. It was never it's never it just says they in this case right here they were paid $210 and it explains how much space they were for $40 we can't afford to send something to itensive

I would downtown 30 years ago we got $30 a parking spot for restaurants who wanted to rent a month who wanted to put in their dumpsters and as we get more restaurants I think I talked to Jeff Flag a little bit about this. You have to think about that because like I say and I'm concerned over there because it's all tucked in. So

given the increasing risk of fishing and electronic fraud target or whatever the relevant department is to advise what cyber security or fraud liability insurance covers also internal policies processes you can Chapter Chapter

our favorite thing this time of year uh criticisms that I've received for snow removal. I'll be kind of forwarding something along just that I received something today from somebody in mind and I'm sure everybody else has too. Um, this one was I could see this one the DBW is plowing snow into sidewalk across the street. So, it's like could the um could the plowing uh map be adjusted in that particular But there's a overall thing too and we discussed this with you on Saturday is that the people who are doing the best job of learning snow as it falls are often in a position of having hard sidewalks to cross because of the melting and refreezing that we're happening now. Um so I just ask our uh constituents and our residents to be patient. It will you know be like every other winter. Um there's DPW is doing as it's doing a good job. Um but it's really challenging conditions as we all can see. I came in here with some Thank you.

I guess I want to comment on my street. Uh I lived actually on used to live at 16 street above the apartment there and thank you for bringing that to the attention because it's been an issue for a very long time and hopefully this business is safe. It is pretty. Yeah.

Yes. I could talk about what we said. my uh my plan to email the council foundation to um to hopefully get to purchase that place to regry and and cousin. So hopefully they can add more property spaces for uh their workers and make it so people don't have to work on the side streets creating that new corridor and that that property is one that hasn't ever been cleared. So

there's that I think there is progress with vacant land right for buildings and codes to sort of force them whoever owns them empty land to to plow in the winter. There's a couple different things. We have a vacant property law, which is one thing you might be referencing, but we also have a snow removal law that we passed a couple years ago there um that is back out to bid to find someone to do that work. Yes. So those are probably hopefully not that area will be clear for drivers and streets and others.

Okay. So I have a couple things as I mentioned. I went to the state of the state today in Albany. Um the governor outlined a focus on affordability, child care expansion, and regulatory regulatory reform for housing. So, she had this initiative called let them build and we'll see um you know what the what that actually looks like when the state budget comes out which which should be later this month but it should include detailed numbers on local aid, child care funding, infrastructure programs, housing incentives um and if those could directly affect city planning. So, we'll be keeping an eye on on that as we move forward. Um, I also wanted to take a minute to talk about committees. So, as Councilman Landry mentioned, we'll have a couple new committees. Um, and I've spoken with all the council people so far except for council who I'll be meeting with you tomorrow to talk about committee assignments. So, we are adding a policy committee to the common council and this is important so that we can review things just as you brought up and and other um internal and external policies that need to be considered. Um and that would be chaired by Councilwoman Rice. And then we'll have an audit and finance committee chaired by Councilman Donahue that um is something that we've all been wanting for a while and we've already discussed some priorities and we'll be looking to get that going as soon as possible. The technology committee will continue with council Malcolm. The personnel committee will continue being chaired by Councilman Landry. We'll have a planning and development committee chaired by council woman at large Gooden and a quality of life committee chaired by Sean Paladino. And that will uh look at recreation sustainability and um even code issues

and like building and codes issues and things like that. Um, I wanted to also take a moment to mention the agenda that you have in front of you. So, I want to thank uh Steve Thirstston for his work on this and also Emily and Megan for your contributions to this and Taylor. Um, so we worked really hard to make an agenda structure that was user friendly and I hope it was for all of you. I don't know if anyone had any feedback, but we wanted to make sure we had page numbers and things like that. it was very easy to find the information. We're also working very hard to make sure that any resolution that comes to the agenda has the appropriate backup. Um so, you know, we won't be putting any items on the agenda unless we have um what we consider to be thorough information. So, that's a priority of ours going forward. Um if anyone has any feedback or or questions about any of this, I'd be happy to hear it. But I think it's 412 tonight. Any any thoughts or questions?

It was much easier to uh reference the supporting material in this format and I reached out to Steve to say

okay. Um, I wanted to mention the Martin Luther King Day celebration. Council good did that and I thank you for organizing that. That's always a fun event. I love the singing part that happens at the end for people to know me well. I really like to sing. You don't have the best voice, you know, can't hear me specifically and I'm very fun. So, I hope to see all of you there. Um, I want to thank everybody who really helped pull off our um, first meeting together which was all of our swearing in ceremony. We had to do a last minute adjustment. Turns out it was a good thing because I don't think we would have fit everybody in this room the way it is now. Um so again, Emily and Megan and Steve did a ton of work to um get prepare the space. I want to thank all of the students who came and participated, the Boy Scouts, the singers, the students who weren't there but filled out the survey and the ones that came and spoke to us. I met with Mrs. Stewart from the high school this week and she is looking to have her spring uh public policy class work on forming a student cabinet that will be advisory towards us hopefully. So, they're going to be working on a proposal um throughout the the semester and then they will bring it to us for consideration and I think it'll be nice to to bring uh youth involvement to the council. So, that's All I have for you. If there's nothing else, I'll take a motion to adjurnn.

So, all in favor? Thank you. We are