Common Council - Regular Meeting

And whereas more than just a beautiful piece of fabric, it was a profound declaration of the new nation's fervency for freedom, ideals of justice and equality, and courage and readiness to sacrifice. And whereas in a heartfelt tribute to our flag and the ideals, it champions the Cortland American Legion Auxiliary Unit 489, American Legion Post 489, and Elks Lodge 748, proudly celebrate Flag Day by raising Old Glory. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Scott Steeve, Mayor of the City of Portland, hereby proclaim June 14th through the 20th, 2026 as Flag Week in the City of Portland and urge residents and businesses to display the flag of the United States of America this week and throughout the year. And further, that the flag may ever remind and encourage us to honor the legacy and heroism and sacrifice made to secure and advance the blessings of liberty, and further, that it unite us in belief in the worth and dignity of the individual, the principles of liberty, justice, and equality under the law, and inspire us always for the enduring promise of America. Thank you.

Just real quick, I had the honor of being here the other night.

I do the same for affirmation. It's a good turn up. I appreciate it.

That is great. Ronald Reagan wrote a nice one about that. If anybody gets a chance to read that, that's really good. Okay, we've got to get a motion to accept the proclamation. So moved. So moved. All those in favor?

Aye.

Public comments. Is anybody here assigned to public comments? Good point. All right. Finance report. Mr. Shager.

Start off with 24 audit. When I sent out my document on Thursday, a little short on that, we were working on getting everything finalized and sent that out to everybody yesterday. 24 audit has been completed. But when I say the 24, I'm talking about the 24 fiscal audit. There's a single audit, which is a little bit different. It's a federal thing that we've still got to finalize and fill that out. but that's minor to the first part of this process. I pushed the auditor to get the financial audit because that's what we needed. This 24 audit has been filed with New York State OSC office. It's been filed with the restructuring board along with an application. It's been filed with Moody's and it's been filed with Lafayette. Our deaf people are going to send it out to the people they need to send it out to also. I did set up a meeting. I, working with the auditors, I tried to get him to give me a time when he can come in here to review the whole audit with everybody. And he gave me three days next week and we put Tuesday, knowing that that was a Tuesday that we usually meet. So that's what we did with that. Um, and the mayor's called a special meeting for next Tuesday. Um, for him to come in and go over the audit with you and ask it or answer any questions you may have. 25 close out. Um, now that we've got the 24 audit, the first step is to take all the entries we get from them that he may put that in. And then we could work on finalizing the 25, um, financials and getting the AFR done. 26 budget in the package, which I, sorry, I didn't send it. I had it done last Tuesday to send out. I forgot to send it to Jade. I sent it out to you this morning in error. I wish I got it out to you Thursday, but it has all the 25 versus 26 datas that you've been getting for the last couple of months. And on the next to last page of that report is all the ones that are, I'll say over the budget, not over budget, but like, has that potential going over budget with comments made by each department, whether it's police, fire, DPW, water, sewer. There's comments in there from last month to this month. There's one item that was added. All the other ones were pretty stagnant. On a positive note, we talked about the amount of money that we're going to be short on the revenue side. The state did pass their budget, including in there is an additional roughly $500,000 of state aid coming to the village or to the city to offset that a little bit. Expenses as a whole look like they're in line. There may be a couple of ones that are maybe a little bit higher, but as a whole, I feel comfortable with the expenses and the department's doing a good job of managing those. It's the revenue lines that that we've talked about in the past that are problematic. Other financial information in the package set up this morning is the health insurance HRA report. When we did the budget last year, we budgeted $1,149,000 as HRA expenses, what we anticipated. Year to date, we're at 573,000, which is 49.85%. For five months, that may seem pretty high, but as I said before, the HRA, we anticipate that being hit harder in the beginning rather than at the end. On the flip side, that was sort of what I would consider good news to the city is on the claims that the insurance company has paid, they paid $657,000. Compared to what we budgeted, that's only 21%. So I expect those numbers to pick up once we're still getting the HRAs and claims going in as it goes up. But as of right now, that's a, I think a positive number. And, um, hopefully that continues that path. Um, out of the, there's been one member that both the individual and family, um, thresholds have been met. So, um, that's also a pretty good thing. The Wafia paperwork, uh, I got some of that in today. We're in the process of getting that all signed and documented. I'll get the bond tomorrow from the bond attorney. I'll get that signed and sent out to Washington to get that all processed. They need it by the 23rd to get this thing all closed by July 1st. With that, I gave the person that gave us a ban back in May the 20-day notice. that band will be paid out to 16, whatever we get 16 million, we're at $78,972. I think it is. It's going to be paid out on July 7th. I believe that's all I have here. I don't know if anyone else has any questions. Yeah.

Next week I'm going to be out of town. Can I get contact information for somebody from Ansaro to follow up with? Sure. Very good. And we had a department head who resigned. I'd like to see the cash out in terms of what they were paid.

Do we do that every month? Yeah, that's what that form was just sent out. So that's what this form is. That's for that individual? No, this is all the payouts for May. So we do this every lags a month because we get to the end of May and then we'll do the end of June. Every month they're sent out. There's no difference. They're all there.

Very good. Will the meeting next week's meeting be open?

Yes.

We can actually watch it. I've got some questions. Okay. If you want to send me those questions, I can forward them so I'm going to answer those questions.

That might be helpful to have some of those questions for everybody to hear. So I'm going to share them. Yeah.

Yeah, very good. And actually, I would suggest this. If you guys have questions for him, if you send them to me, I would forward them to him so at least he can be more prepared. I mean, if you're going to ask him a question, he may not have the answer in front of him, but if he has it, it's time he can be prepared for it.

Another question in terms of process. So 24, you talked about 25. So same firm we've talked about that they will possibly do the 25 audit. They will be the 25 audits, what they said they would do. Very good.

And then at some point, looking to hire somebody for the 26 audit, I think we should go out to RFP after the same, the latter part of this year. We'll go out to an RFP and evaluate who's interested in doing it, what the cost is, and what do they have to offer.

Very good. And then Do you want to hazard a guess where we might be at at the end of this year, now that 24 is in and you've made some predictions in terms of numbers for 25 and 26?

At this point, Brian, I'd prefer not to. I mean, I think 25 still has some question marks involved in it. 26, I could see actually 26 with a lot of different things going on that loss gets eliminated. That's a possibility. I'm not guaranteeing anything, but There's things out there that are being worked on that could have a real positive effect for the city.

That's nice to hear some optimism. Before you were thinking it could take as many as five years.

To get all the money back, yes. But we're looking at a loss of about a million dollars this year. There is a road that that could go positive this year. Okay, there's things that have to happen. Okay. Okay, but they're not on the table yet. Things that have been working on need to get done. And I hope it's a paid role, so I haven't had a pothole.

Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you. I have a motion to receive a file, please. So moved. Mr. Backlash, Mr. Sloan. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? There we go. Um, Mayor's reports. So, um, obviously we've got a lot of things moving on. We had a lot going on. I won't bore everybody with all the level of detail that we went into in the past. Um, you know, we have DPW that ended on Friday. So we're covering that position. Uh, and, um, over there in the morning, we're dealing with getting there. They seem to be running great, great team over there. They're doing well. Um, and, um, those positions advertised, obviously. And we have some possible good interest that is on alert. So we're working on those to make that happen. So that would be good. The other things that were appended to was the Fire Academy graduation in Mount Thornton Falls. Of course, last week, we all were able to go to the Gene Freedman's wonderful New York State thing. It was a great turnout, a lot of fun. very proud of Chief, and they love him up there for sure, as we do here. We started our new transition plan with Plan First and ABS transition. We moved them out of our IT and moved the other group in, so that's been going on. That process went pretty seamless, I think, overall. The department heads that we had involved, it's been going well. I was able to attend the eSports up in Syracuse, or I'm sorry, at the school for the their end of year graduation party. And I tell you, the good takeaway from there was that I felt really good about is for many years, and I think your teachers would probably echo that a lot of times the kids say, I can't wait to get out of here. Or, you know, you know, I can't, you know, I can't wait to graduate. And some of the kids I was talking to, it's like, what year are you in? It's a junior. I only have one more year. This is so depressing and sad. So it was really kind of neat. The other part that was neat is a lot of kids are in that group that typically you would maybe see in public community concern because they'd be very quiet with their head down and shy. But it was great to see them interact. It's a great program, I'll tell you. It's great to see that side. I appreciate the invite from John and her and this group up there. They're very successful too, by the way. So we're losing a lot of kids to sports to some of that, but I think it's a good interaction and really they're learning the same lessons that some of the sports do. The Sound of Memory grand reopening of the Country Music Park is also outside of the city, but a lot of great things are happening out there. So there's a lot of great concerts just about every weekend. So if you get a chance to do that, follow on to that. CRT kicked off their season. I was able to go to that last week for the first time. never let you down. So much fun. Great night out to be able to get to do that. The McGraw Spring Day of Caring was able to help with that in a united way over in McGraw. We have a Sukkot project meetings regarding all the Pavey projects and trying to work out some of the level of detail and how we're going to handle the Court Street and our sidewalks out here. So more to come on that. Randall Middle School's Evidence Day of Learning. Again, great program that I was able to meet a couple of police officers there. Our community police officer were a great help to make some of these kids or parents can't get out during the day. And because they're working or otherwise, they don't have the support to be able to have that. And it was great to be able to support those kids and be part of their day. And it was great. It was a lot of fun and a lot. And then I did a book reading with St. Mary's Kids School. And that's my favorite book to read for them. And that's always fun to get their reactions and their responses, especially one named Hux, so he was an interesting. What's your favorite book? It's called The Very Silly Mayor. It's about a mayor who made some unique ideas to make his police department dress like clowns, fire department put out fires with peanut butter, and so there's good lessons there. They had a lot of fun with it, but when asked what was the lesson out of that, Hux made the statement that the mayor doesn't listen to the department has. I'm not sure if I'm taking home or not, but I'm so interested in that.

Sorry to note that here's the... That's funny. The department has an art house.

That's funny. Don't forget that. Honestly, I think you came up with that. I'm sorry. It was very interesting to see that. With that, I think we'll change it to be out there. I don't know why. But it's a lot of fun. So that was my couple of weeks. So if anybody has any questions, maybe a topic I didn't hit, because that will go before we're done.

Thank you. A couple of things. DPW, I understand we had the resignation in terms of superintendent. There's been some discussion in terms of it. I have been curious in terms of what we're doing and how we're doing it. And along with that, who is in charge of who we contact? Are we just calling the DPW number when we have questions? Because there's been, I've had questions about snow grinding, the paving that is planned. And there were some issues last year with the paving that it sounds like are being corrected this year. And we want to hopefully avoid some of the same mistakes. And also some questions in terms of parts of the pickleball courts and whether or not that's getting the top coat. So in terms of DPW, where are we at? What are we doing in terms of the process?

Yeah, so again, everybody's encouraged to file their complaints via the website. There's a spot on there to click on to be able to do that. That does a couple things for us. It helps track timelines on when things are being addressed or what are the issues and what they are. And they're reviewed weekly, and I'll continue with those review meetings with the to supervisors that are inside that group that are doing the day-to-day and have been doing the day-to-day. So none of that will change, none of those aspects. The pinball courts, that's Youth Bureau. The other issues as far as the streets being paved, we're making sure other groups are overseeing that. We met with the engineering group that we've done in the past to look at some of that stuff and oversight some of the ideas that they came down graciously and gave their time to be able to handle that and be able to look at those items and they're helping shoot the grades on some of the drainage issues that we have out here to truly kind of manage that the way they're proper. But yeah, and again, I think everybody has Mr. Cross's number if you have something in emergency that needs to be directed. If you don't, we'll make sure we get that to everybody. If you have direct contact, if you guys had something that was more safety internet, and again, always 911 too, and they'll make sure that that chain of command is reached out to as well.

And then hiring process, do you have a timeline of what we're doing?

We have a, so like we met with the DPW commission, they will review the candidates. Once we get a list of candidates, they can list up to three candidates to present for me to, for that appointment that we bring to council. So we put that out and we're based on how many replies we get, and the quality of those replies, they have to go through the civil service. Civil service has to approve their qualifications, make sure everything is copacetic there. Once those are done, they forward it to us, and then we will make those appropriate accommodations to start the interview process. So not soon enough is the answer, but I would expect July. End of July before we get all the other times to get in.

Very good. Park's been around and about, and they're doing a great job in terms of having them out and accessible. Splash pad, having a bathroom open is really appreciated by people from the public. And back to Chief Friedman, we had three firefighters attend a meeting to talk about using an AED. They were very informative, very professional, very personable, represented the department and the city very well. I was actually up at the high school for their awards a couple weeks ago, and it was very nice, very well done. A lot of excellent graduates coming out of our school system. That's my report.

It's always fun to see how those kids get those awards, and some of them get three or four. I don't know how they keep up with that and get to those grades, but it's good. Hey, Michelle.

Second Ward is so quiet, we can hear the three-way hum at night, which is a novelty, a summer novelty that we love. Anyway, I was really surprised and delighted to see that the parting gift of some of our fall and winter and spring neighbors of shoes over the telephone wires were taken down without my having to say anything about it. I didn't report it. I didn't complain about it. Usually it takes a few times. of me coming back and saying, could you please take them down? And I mean, there were a mess of them, and I just put off dealing with it. And lo and behold, they were taken down. And I thanked Mr. Weiss, and he said, you know, yesterday was my last day, but I'll let him know. So that's super, really appreciated. There is one more pair that I spotted, and I will report that on the website. Thank you, Mayor. That's it for the second word.

Thank you.

Third board, I just heard tonight that there's an issue about ducklings, which we'll hear more about. But other than that, everything is good in the third board right now.

Sounds wacky to me. Somebody get ready to hold him down because this is going to be long. Fourth board. May 27th, I attended a cold meeting. The 30th, I went to the firefighter's dinner up at the the college, and it was great. Speedway. If you have tried to go into the Speedway on Tompkins Street from, well, either side, really, but Broadway, the potholes were this deep. I mean, you could lose your car in it. And so whenever I went in, I would always tell Sparky, the manager, that you know, there's a problem. And I heard from people in the ward that there was a problem. And he said he had contacted corporate many times and they didn't do anything. So I said, well, would it help if I called? And so he gave me the number for corporate and I called and the man said, what's the store number? Well, I don't know what the store number is. I said it was on Broadway and Hockett Street in Portland. And he listened to my spiel about how dangerous it was. And then he said, can you hold on for a second? And I said, sure. I'm still left elsewhere. And I held on and then there was a dial tone. Yeah. I thought, well, you know, things happen. You're switching lines. You know, it happens. So I tried to call back. And he had blocked my number. Yeah. I have not been that angry in a very long time. I wish you didn't come see me. So I was furious. I tried a couple times to call them back. And... to no avail. So I jumped in the car and I walked into his office and I let him know how upset I was and he took care of it and called them and explained how important it was. You know, it was a safety issue and Gave them until Friday, right? Gave them until that Friday. This was a Monday. Gave them until that Friday to fix it. And it's all fixed.

Yay.

And it was all fixed by that Friday. So don't mess with me. I know people. I might not be able to do it myself. And then Friday, June 5th, my neighbors across the street were walking downtown and they walked behind Shea and behind Newbig and then down the hill. And they said behind Newbig and Shea, there was a mother duckling or mother duck sitting on a grate, very upset. And nine of her babies had fallen into the grate. And you can picture it, you know, the mom's walking along and all of a sudden it's like, whoop, and they all, all nine of them ended up down there. She was not happy. I called the mayor. He came over. He came over, called the fire department. The chief came with his wife. They were there. Shortly after that, a couple of the guys showed up in a pickup truck and they moved the grate and they were all down there and got underneath of the ladder. So then they called, we had a fire truck up there. And so one of the guys went down and handed up nine ducklings into the bucket. And then we went and, you did, you took the bucket over to the mom who was still upset. And mom came running to the babies and they all lined up. And she yelled at him all the way down to the water. So yes, that was that was the happy ethic. Thank you. And thank the chief. Yeah. That was the second time that week that the same group was on duty, they had to go save the ducks. So

You're going to have a surprise for them in some way. Yes. Not a doctor. Yeah. So things are...

Quieter in the fifth board as well with the students outside. So my neighbors who are happy about the break from the noise over the weekend, I was doing flyers for my board meeting that I had yesterday over both your part. There's a good turnout and good discussion about some issues going on in the board. I had a lot of questions about the street paving schedule and where things stood with that. Do we have that now or is that?

I just met with them. The dates that the streets are going to be paved is in August. That'll be all. So I'll follow up with you on that.

I appreciate it. There's a lot of concern with the crosswalks on Main Street. It's been an ongoing concern. There's one crosswalk in particular from out front of the clock tower building, the rock, to the Portland Standard building that I've rated before. can't cross in that direction, the button is completely jammed. So I mentioned that to DVW as well, but there has not been a fix yet. There's also a question about the creek, the name of it I'm not sure, by Sunnyfield and Fox Hollow up there.

There's a preview of your theme back. Go back please.

absolutely okay yeah i'll let you say that but that okay there were some concerns there and uh and there's uncertainty about who's supposed to be maintaining that stretch um there's some littering issues and i think there may be an issue with some uh ball and trees and things like that so i had some neighbors raised that as a concern um There's also a lot of, especially up in that neck of the woods, issues with some of the housing authority properties, issues with noise, and disputes requires police response. So I will be reaching out to housing authority on that. I appreciate the police department's help there. I know there's only so much you folks can do. And that does it for the fifth floor.

I think the response we were in quick is DOT, we're working on the crossbound, the circuit board, and we're still, there's a part circuit board that went on this. Those are still an issue. We're waiting for those. And I had put a call in myself to make sure that both of those have happened. Okay. Just yesterday when I found out they weren't done. We'll look into perfection.

And does that include the one in front of the clock tower building? That's correct. Okay. I think that was just a matter of the button itself. That's not placed.

They were supposed to bring both of that down. Okay. And those parts are supposed to be here. So I'll follow up with that date, time when I get that figured out. And then as far as the housing authority, it'd be nice to get police reports on activity from anything we have in code and issues that we have before we address them and see if it is a nuisance, if it's a continued nuisance property or a perceived nuisance. It'd be nice to get those clear. So I'd ask the chief for those, please. Okay, sorry.

That was well worth the speech. Just real quick. Obviously, I attended the St. Anthony's Festival, which I've always had since I've been in the city. It's a great event. If you guys ever get a chance to have that on the attendance, it was phenomenal. Pat did mention I was able to attend the fire department's dinner. It was great. You guys are missing out on it. Ate wings and crap, as usual. And also, you know, you haven't even retired yet. You didn't come down and do your duties down at St. Anthony. Maybe next time. You'll have more time. All in all, that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Marcus. Just a few things. I attended the Memorial Day ceremony at the Courthouse Park. It wasn't well advertised and There was just a handful, actually less than 50 that actually showed up that day, which was a little surprise. Hopefully, whoever planned that event will do a better job next year. Touch of Chuck, that was a great turnout, even though the weather was a little iffy that day. I mean, I asked some of the people that were there, especially our deputy fire chief, and he said that he thought it was about 3,000 showed up. So it was a great family event and it was very well. Getting bigger every year. Thank you for that. Yes, great turn. Also, I also rode along with the mayor and police chief to the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs. We had an individual that was well-deserved and recognized during that day. And Chief Friedman, It was certainly a well-event that I was glad I was able to attend. And the family that was gathered for that photograph was overwhelming. And the individual that was standing there by the steps, he made a comment about all the people that were coming up for the photograph. And I said, well, he's got a large family. He said, I wish I had a family that large. So it was a really nice event. Tonight I received a call from a constituent regarding issues at the Grace House. I did manage to sit down with the police chief just before the meeting tonight. And my next step is to catch up with the mayor at some point to get an idea of how we're going to handle things over there. And Now, Mr. Tobin also brought up pickleball courts. If you all recall, the Finance Committee asked each department to make cuts this year to the budgets. So guess what was cut? Resurfacing. So if you come up with $36,000, let me know, and we'll get it done. And that's all I have for the meeting tonight. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

clarification, that was not a recommendation from the committee. That's not the way I understood it.

Anybody else from the committee? No, not yet. No, you asked the department to make some considerations regarding the budgets. For 2027?

Well, some of them started this year. Well, that was not supposed to be the case from my understanding. Well, we had a

And it should see that we may have a previous council meeting over one because I have nothing to do with that finance committee, nothing to do with that. Okay.

Well, I apologize. All right. Thank you for clearing that up. But if you do come up with $36,000, let me know. Thank you. Um,

Okay. Any questions on this motion to receive file minutes? So any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing. Agenda item number one, set public hearing regarding proposed zoning map amendment in the city of Boston.

Resolved that a public hearing is hereby scheduled for the July 7, 2026 meeting of the Common Council of the City of Cortland. Consider a proposed amendment to the official zoning map involving the zoning of 47 parcels currently classified as central business to residential zoning districts as identified in the proposed amendment documents on file where the city clerk are going to enforce that. Be it further resolved that said public hearing shall be held on July 7th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the County Council Chambers City Hall, 25 Court Street. Be it further resolved that the city clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish notice of said public hearing in the official paper of the city in accordance with applicable provisions of New York State law and the city of court's own ordinance.

I got a motion, please. So none. Slain. Any questions?

Aye. You know, in terms of the process here, the property owners, this has been discussed with all the property owners and have neighbors receive notice as well, because a change from central business to allowing first floor occupancy could increase the number of residents and properties that could change the character of the neighborhood, in particular on streets where there are several properties side by side.

Yes, my understanding is the property, surrounding properties have been notified. I don't know if every landowner would be notified. I'm assuming they would be. Roy's not here. He's on vacation. But that's a good question to ask. But again, it's the, and it's gone through the zoning and planning boards, which are, that's their intent. The zoning board specifically is to make sure it fits that as well as the county, because it affects the county. planning board as well. So I believe all those agencies have reviewed them as well.

Mr. Mayor, the adjoining property owners will all receive notice of the public hearing. They need to receive a postcard notice of the public hearing. So in property owners on both sides, behind it and across the street, all get notice of the proposed change.

And they were notified during the zoning meeting anyways, right? They had to notify them too, right?

There's no public hearing for that. They just review it first. If that's not a public hearing, they just review it to make a recommendation to council. Council holds the public hearing, but someone called the vote change. They will all get notices. And when will those be going out? They have to be out, what is it, the week before the meeting they have to go out? Well, now that it's set, we'll get them out. We know well at it.

Oh, the postcards have been slower than they were years ago. I would be concerned about whether or not people will receive notice in time.

I also have some concerns about now that we're going to be working on the audit and having a special meeting. I want to make sure I had a chance to speak with folks who may be concerned about this. And I don't know if I will be able to do that by July 7th. Okay. depending on when the notices go up. So I'm a little concerned about the time frame.

Set the public hearing and hold the public hearing. Whether or not you vote on it that night is counsel's prerogative. We usually wait. You table the vote.

I usually have a public hearing and we have a meeting afterwards, which gives, so this is giving a full month ahead.

So we give plenty of time. an objection outlined in the code and state law and all of that will be adhered to.

Could you forward that to me just for reference whenever you have a chance?

Sure.

Thank you. Do we know how the properties were selected? Some of them are a little curious in terms of businesses, funeral parlor, how were these properties selected?

I think I don't know. I don't know that. I think that was something that I'm not sure Roy came up with it.

I think Roy went through and tried to make it, because there was some incongruity as to how they were assessed or how they were zoned. So this kind of makes it more congruous. And then the planning commission actually suggested one change because there were two properties that they felt should have been rezoned R4 because they really are R4 right now. So they made that suggestion to add those into it. But I mean, the rest of them, the Planning Commission went through them and they felt they were all reasonable changes. So that's very provocative on it, but House will get a chance to look at it as well.

And again, it's part of that pro-housing. I think this initiative they've asked to have them done pro-housing, that I think was the impetus, but then Roy picks on then I think planning and those guys have made amendments and that I haven't seen on that yet.

So the map was sent out as support. There's quite a bit of it is in the first board. There's a lot on South Main that is directly on South Main, which makes sense because a lot of those are houses anyway. So should a business go, I talked to Roy about it, should a business go out of business and the owner of that building, should that person want to create housing downstairs right now, they can't do it. And it's already in the business district. So there's some on Groton. I believe it's townage on the corner of Groton. They have both corners on the right side of the street. Those, for instance, are part of it. I personally did not have a problem with this. It's just for future development. It doesn't mean that they're going to be turning them into housing right away.

I can't see telling me it's being turned into a house.

It won't extinguish any prior non-conforming use. Some of the uses of the property are non-conforming right now, even as they sit under the current zoning. And it will open it up for other uses. And both in the R4 and R2 district, there are a number of businesses that are allowed by special use permits.

One of the things when we went through the comprehensive plan last time and created it in central business district, you can go off tire, correct? And build more stories than you can in R2 and R4. And some of those properties on Groton, I believe, are zoned in central business with the thought that hopefully somebody would say, okay, we can do more in terms of going up or stories and let some of the other properties as well.

I don't think there's any restrictions on height on any of those. Maybe there's a restriction on height total, but I don't think there's any restriction in those areas for business or that much.

Well, central business versus an R2, R4, and it's going to, if they're houses now, they're going to stay houses. There's less of an opportunity for it to be converted into an apartment building, something that would have more units. we are going through a revision to the comp plan, correct? Right. Would it make more sense for this to be part of that? Because this is a piece of the puzzle.

It makes more sense to, it is part of that, and then I think the next step would be to look at the zoning again. That would be the following. We would put in for a grant for that following, because that makes the most sense to be able to do that. But meanwhile... for current development. Like, for example, I know the one in South Main, there was a fire there and they can't put, you know, the building is not, it could be rehabilitated, but the cost is not really affected to not make the first floor not living space. And if you looked at the housing that's there, everything around it's housing to be there, but it's just a way it's zoned to be able to do that. So to not move that forward, I don't know that that helps or hurts that, For sure, this would all be looked at and could be changed at that next one. But in the interim, just to try to do it as a more general consensus, I think that was the area to be able to make that happen.

Yeah. What's the time frame like on the comprehensive plan? When would that be completed as opposed to doing this now?

It would take, the draft would be out next month, right? At the end of this year. By the end of the year, it'll be done. And then by the time you did the zoning stuff, that's going to take another year or more by the time you get that redone.

If this is a comprehensive plan, what would be the harm in including this? So we have an overarching plan for the city, including how we promote housing, how we focus on commercial properties. If we're doing a comprehensive plan, I think it makes sense to to include this in it.

It will be. And it would be. When you did the rezoning map, you would go back through and go through the rest of them. But that doesn't solve your problems now. Some of these properties want to get moving and get like South Main once and some of those other areas that we're talking about. That gets them moving. So we would just be consistent with the rest of it. I think that's why I grew a little bit with the planning and the zoning board. I wasn't at those meetings, but that's what I'm understanding. based on what Randall's saying now, but the point would be to get these properties that we're sitting on house. How many years ago was that fire chief? Two? Going on two? South Bank? Come on. 2023? Three and a half, four years. We need housing. That's the idea. We need to get housing. We need to get these people adopted to do that. To make that housing on there. I know we can't just say this one's good, but it's against the law. So we have to open it up. So we're just trying to be more realistic. It can be aggressive. Let's move forward.

It will be readdressed in the comprehensive plan. And the comprehensive plan, as I understand it, before we vote to accept it, will be reviewed by, will be up for review, will be presented So that they can see what's going to be changed and weigh in.

And amendments being made and then adopted. That's why it's to do the same at the end of the year. But meanwhile, we can fix some of the other belated ones that we have and move forward.

And allowing the first floor housing was one of the things the Planning Commission was really most in favor of because first floor housing by its nature is more accessible for folks. So, I mean, opening up some of these spots that could potentially provide more first floor housing they felt was, you know, really in the spirit of the whole parole housing initiative.

As I recall, Brian might be able to add to this. What are we trying to do something similar that first floor had to be a business and anything above that had to be for housing. And that's the only way we were able to get grant assistance.

That's what we did last time, right?

Yes. Yeah. I'm not sure where those boundaries fell. I think we had some kind of a district identified back then. But I don't know. Maybe Brian can add to that. I don't know. Been a while.

I don't know specifically, but so much has changed in government in regards to housing.

Yeah, you might have been on that committee.

No, I'm not on that committee, but you look at what Ithaca's doing, they're building these huge apartment buildings willy-nilly. It's totally changed the look of the city. My sister lives in San Jose, and was complaining to me because her government, city government, decided that they want more housing. So now you can build a unit in your backyard without any setback. And so she's got a two-story unit right up against her fence. Luckily, they can't have a window looking right down into her backyard. And I said, well, she's gone to the zoning meetings.

Just saw a lot of conversions and garages. I mean, it's, you know, there is there is an issue for affordable housing. And this is an opportunity to make some of those open up. So I think we should look at that part of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I guess what I'm trying to say is there may still be grants because things have shifted. I don't know.

But no, I know. Yeah. Yeah. That was back when Brian was mayor that we went through that.

Yeah, I was on the zoning board at the time. And when I went through all the rezoning and all that, you know, there were some areas that were, you know, just wondered, you know, why they were where the map is and, you know, and it's all changed. So we want to change and we want to keep it moving better and go with those changes. And this is one of those steps towards that. But to get some of these properties moving, I think we helped them sit on for four more years. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Anybody else? So again, this is to set the public hearing.

Then we'll have the public hearing next meeting. And then certainly we have more time to evolve our questions and develop ideas and solutions or concerns or suggestions on what ways to look at them or not. And then, like I said, I think some of those will probably never be touched. I think the YW's in there. I mean, I think, you know, I don't see that ever happening. But I don't know. So if But that's the point. If you're home, some of that, you don't see it, but it makes sense if it did. It was vacant after a year, like that house we're talking about that had a fire. If it's vacant after a year, then it reverts to what it could be. And you could make that develop that pretty easily. But it's getting to the point where a lot of these places have spent a lot of money to convert from a two-family to a single-family, let's say on the college hills, and to get them back to a two-family again. It's going to be expensive, but we need to incentivize that so we can get our housing stock back and to what we need to have. So again, I think this is a step towards that. With that, I'll move the, I'll move it. I'm going to throw up your vote, please.

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Piniello.

Aye.

Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number two, set required first public hearing for the proposed fiscal year of 2026 community development block grant program and upcoming funding round to allow public participation in the grant process.

Resolved that a public hearing shall be held prior to the Common Council's scheduled regular meeting at 6 p.m. on July 7, 2026 at City Hall, 25 Court Street to discuss the proposed 2026 Community Development Block Grant Program and upcoming funding round. provide information to the public about the CDBG program, and to allow the public to provide input into the grant process, and be it further resolved that the public notice of such public hearing shall be published in the official newspaper of the City of Cork.

I'll move it.

Is that it?

Mr. Nolan, Mr. Beckwith, anybody have any questions? Council Member Tobin? Aye. Council Member Silliman? Aye. Council Member Piniello? Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Connelly. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Item number three, set public hearing regarding proposed amendments to Article 11 of the Code, City of Harlem.

Resolved that a public hearing shall be held prior to the Council's scheduled regular meeting at 6 p.m. on July 7, 2026 at City Hall. Do you see public comment regarding the proposed amendments to article 11 of the code of the city of Portland pursuant to the proposed changes contained in the supporting documents and be a further resolved that the public knows of such public hearing shall be published in the official newspaper, the city of Portland.

I'm a little bit. No. Miss Lane any questions.

Can we get a little bit more detail for the public about what this entails? Because this did go before the Public Safety Commission, correct? For DPW?

Yeah, this is regarding the changes to the parking laws. Yes, yes. The parking committee proposed the changes that went to DPW Commission and they approved it.

So it was the parking committee that we had internally here and then it went to the commission. They reviewed it on Monday. I think it was last Monday. And then that's awesome.

And if you explain for the public in terms of what those changes are, because there's a document, but a lot of people will not read the documents that are posted on the website. I think some of these are significant.

Yeah, Chief, maybe help me because I know you're in that meeting. I got to recall it without a document in front of me. Just make sure I'm not missing it. So some of the marketing areas that were Oh, yeah. I'll just try to do it often. That'd be harder for me to leave at. Yeah. But some of the areas that were non-parking, that weren't allowed parking streets on some of the side streets in Ward 3 and Ward 4, some of the parking spots along Tonka Street would be allowed to help reduce the pressure of parking on the campus hill. The idea behind it There's been a lot of issues with parking on Pearl and trying to isolate and having areas of parking so they're back from driveways and even have limitations to those areas and also doing paid parking which would be by the hour in those areas to again relieve the pressure off of the campus and some of the, and along the street up by the campus. Some of the reasons for that is that there's some employees that are parking there and taking up transient students parking and which is creating them to spread down farther along the side. So it's a way to control the parking, control the areas of one side of the road being parking. I think it is some of the issues where the roads were narrow I'm trying to think if there's anything else to globally. I mean, that's all. That's what the intent is to do that.

I have a question. It says in here that the council that the city may adopt parking and Wilson rates for any on street parking space on street paid parking spaces shall be created by zone and shall be clearly delineated by signage. So before that would happen, it would come before council and we would vote on it and people would be made aware and they could speak to it if they liked. Because I know that there are people in my neighborhood who are adamant about not having paid parking on the street. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Yes. I mean, that's part of this resolution to have that open public discussion about that. And, you know, it's not, And I don't want to start the panic that's not talking about paid parking for Main Street or any of those areas. Okay. But it does allow council to be able to set those rates and be able to do that if so desired. Okay. So I think that's the right example. Did I cover everything? Anybody else?

Thank you.

That makes sense. Okay.

So that will be placed. Council Member Tolbert. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Councilmember Piniello? Aye. Councilmember Lane? Aye. Councilmember Conlon? Aye. Councilmember Beckwith? Aye. Councilmember Michaels? Aye.

Agenda item number four, approve special events permits for the Arts Off Main Festival on Portland on August 1st, 2026. Is there a motion?

Resolved that the City of Cortland Common Council does hereby approve the issuance of permits as described below for the Cortland Arts Off Main Festival, August 1st, 2026 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Court Street with street closing from Main Street to Church Street, sound device permit without fee. sponsored by Corbin Arts Connect. Be it further resolved, the city clerk shall, as you said, permits condition on fulfillment of applicable state and local code requirements and on approval of by the chief of police for the closure.

All right, we have a motion. We have a second. So the great event. So we're excited to have it here. Who made the motion? Mr. Coleman and Mr. Michaels. And yeah, it's exciting. So the last year, hopefully with the Army Street I think that next year could have been.

All right. Let's add one more, please. Council Member Tolk. Aye. Council Member Sullivan. Aye. Council Member Fenello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number five, approve special event permits for corporate IDA celebration on July 25th, 2027. ADA, I'm sorry.

Result that the City of Cortland Common Council does hereby approve the issuance of permits as described below for the Cortland ADA celebrations sponsored by Access to Independence to be held July 25th, 10 a.m. to 11, or excuse me, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Game and Park. Issuance of the special event permit and sound device permit without fee. Further results, City Clerk shall issue said permits conditioned on fulfillment of applicable state and local code requirements. Motion.

Ms. Lane. Mr. Conlon. Again, it's a great event, great program. Access does a lot for a lot of different people. Can we move it, please?

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Sullivan. Aye. Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels.

Aye. Agenda item number six, approve special events permits from the Courtland High School Alumni Weekend on July 25th, 2016.

Resolved that the City of Courtland Common Council does hereby approve the issuance of special event permits as described below. It's the Courtland High School Alumni Weekend event sponsored by the Alumni Association. July 25th from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Main Street with street closures between Court Street and Tompkins Street. special event permit, sound device permit, but that'll be.

And motion. I'll move it. Now, Ms. Sullivan, hopefully your Cortland High graduates will be there. So you can make a day of it. Go to the ABA festival and go right to the walk down the street to the high school alumni. So there's a great event to put all the high school group years of graduation to the high school together for the first time. They're doing an award ceremony because they're doing work at the school. The award ceremonies are going to be there. So it's pretty exciting to have this downtown for this year.

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number seven, approve sound device permit for use at 23 current ad on June 27th, 2016.

Resolved that the City of Coral County Council hereby approves and authorizes the issuance of a sound device permit with a fee of $25 to Thomas. I apologize, Tom. I stumbled over the last name. Solowski. For use at his residence on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Between the hours of 12 PM and 4 PM. Pursuant to section 193 of the city of Cote.

Nice graduation graduate.

Yes, I got a motion. Please. So, when the questions he only asked before.

uh he asked for less i expanded that to give them i would just tell them you should spend it yeah okay it's the uh quarrel high school modern mania will be performing council member toby hi council member silliman council member panello hi council member lane hi council member conlon hi council member beckwith hi council member michaels hi

Agenda item number eight, authorize agreement with TOMA for administrative and program delivery services relating to CDBG grant for housing rehabilitation.

Resolved at the City of Corwin County Council, hereby authorizing Mayor Steem to execute an agreement with TOMA development consultants for program delivery services as part of the community development grant block grant in the amount of $134,250 to be paid from account CD 8668-5400, the contractual general pursuant to the consultant's response to the request for a proposal pending review and approval by the New York State office of community renewal.

I'll move it. Ms. Piniello, Mr. Solomon, any questions?

Can I move it, please? Council Member Tovar. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels.

Aye. Agenda item number nine, authorize an application for New York's Main Street Anchor Grant Program funding.

Resolved that the City of Portland County Council hereby approves and endorses the submission of an application to the New York State Homes and Community Renewal for funding through the New York, through the 2026 New York Main Street Anchor Grant Program. in an amount not to exceed $500,000 for improvements to the property located at 35 Main Street, and be it further resolved that Mayor Steve or his designate is hereby authorized to execute and submit all applications, certifications, and other documents necessary to carry out the grant application on behalf of the City of Portland.

I have a motion. So, Mr. Tobin, any questions? We know what they're thinking of doing. But for the anchor grant, I don't believe so, not yet. Right?

So we don't know what will happen in terms of what it will be converted to? What improvements could be made?

No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what they're going to do and how.

That's where we're going to have to get the $500,000 and tell them what you're going to be able to do.

Probably got a wish list. I would probably say an architectural firm that figured this out for me, so.

And which property is third by main? Corner of Central and Main. The vault is downstairs, correct? That's about the right property. Yes.

Yeah, I know there was rehab talked on the roof and some other things, but I don't think they had to get all that planned yet for the second block.

We're certainly going to prove this and that and say we have to bring everything else forward anyway. And the plant, I mean, they had to get designed and all that done.

Don't say I thought for anchor grants you had to have some things ready to go. You had to have some plans and had to have some funding that you could show that you could cover additional costs.

And they will. They still have to provide all those documents and all that information to be able to get it, but this is to apply, to allow to apply for that as being the anchor grant. We didn't have another property that was ready to go yet that was ready for the anchor grant that was in the city area, so we decided that we wanted to move something forward. The Corona Standard Building's not quite there, and this would not be enough to cover what that needs to be, and there's some improvements that need to happen. Ideally, we would like to go down to Central Lab and do something for them, get a grant for that too. We've been in discussions to be able to clean up that and do something about it as well. But this would be a start.

Would it be possible to postpone this meeting? I think given the city's finances and the murkiness of what this plan is, I think it would be a sign of good faith to get a little more clarity in terms of how those funds are going to be used.

There is a timeline and there is no cost to the city for doing this program. It's a 100% grant funded. If you don't award it, they'll give it to somebody else to do that. And like you said, they're putting out all the applications. We would just be the master either way if it does get awarded. But it's on them to get the benefit to do that. Like I said, usually there's other projects that are further along development, but they're going to put it all together to make it happen. And that's on them to make that also make a good application. It needs to be renovated on the upstairs floors, and I think that would clean it up. It makes things better. New roof, it's a main staple historic building downtown. We should try to invest in helping them. Anyone else?

No.

Move it please. Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I Council member, I agenda item number 10, Amanda 2026 adopted by. Resolved that the city of Coral County Council does hereby amend the 2026 general fund budget as outlined in the accompanying table. I'll wait reading it and last request.

Okay, any motion?

I'll move it.

Ms. Powell?

Ms. Beckwith? Any questions? I think this is a good move. It's going back to... Yeah, we should do that, for sure.

All right. Move the case.

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Penelope. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels.

Aye. I have number 11, Amendment 2026, Adopted Budget.

Resolved that the City of Coraline County Council does hereby amend the 2026 General Fund Budget as outlined in the accompanying table.

We have a motion, please. So moved. Sit back with Ms. Lane. Any questions? Move the motion.

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Condon. Aye. Council Member Becquith. Aye. Council Member Bunkles. Aye.

Agenda item number 12, amend the 2026 budget.

Resolved that the City of Portland County Council does hereby amend the 2026 general fund budget as outlined in the accompanying table. And be it further resolved that said budget amendment shall not result in any additional cost to the City of Portland as all expenses related to the special patrol officer positions shall continue to be fully reimbursed by the City of Portland School District.

Any other motion please? So moved. Mr. Conlon? Any questions?

Okay, over the loose council member told me I don't remember settlement council member mellow council member lane. I know some other value. I council member back with council member Michaels.

I did. I don't know. Thirteen except canine grant.

Resolved to the city of Coral and common council hereby accepts the grant award. In the amount of $5,000 from the National please start foundation for the purpose or please pay nine added. Be it further resolved that the $10,500 previously expended from account TEO 2101 for the purchase of police K-9 Addie shall serve as the required matching funds for said grant. Be it further resolved that Mayor Steve Orr's designee is hereby authorized to execute any grant award and agreement documents necessary to accept and administer said grant.

Mr. Conlon. Mr. Beckwith. did a great job fundraising chief I think we're just going to like to do that shit for that we've got that word of that brand that's. We can really quest. Tommy bomb to be here on the set of the. Do an introduction. yeah I don't see why not. Definitely so as it means it's all I have a great. Right. Take questions, please.

Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Cannello. Definitely aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye.

Council Member Miper.

Attend item number 14, Authorized FEMA Systems Firefighters Grant Program Regional Radio Applications.

Resolved that the City of Portland Common Council authorizes Mayor Steed to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Virtual Fire District for participation in the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Regional Radio Grant Application, including a required local cost share to the City of Portland in the amount of $19,138.71 from account A3410-540501 And be it further resolved, the Mayor Steve Orr's destiny is hereby authorized to execute any grant, award, and agreement documents upon request of said grant, upon award of such grant.

I got a motion. I'm motioning it. Seconded by Ms. Lane. So, Deputy Chief Reynolds, can you tell us what our best decision is and why we're doing these next three items? Can you give an overview?

So a quick overview is the FEMA radio grant. It's huge for us. We were operating on the radios that came in the original radio stuff back in 2016-ish. They're extremely outdated. We're working with the Virgil Foyer District. This is the most combined grades. Cost us is about $500 because 10K grant rating LLC It was a county discount of $500 and then a rewrite discount of $500. So out of pocket, it's 500. So if awarded, this would be our third attempt at it. It would be huge and save us way more than $500. It's a great break. Next one, the Knox Box. Our infrastructure for Knox is outdated. The software, when our friends at Plan First came in and took a look at our laptops, they fixed them. And we can't access our Knox program anymore because we had one dinosaur laptop left. And that doesn't support the software anymore. So we can still get our keys out of the box. We can still get it in places. But this is actually a target for the fire prevention and life safety grant this year. And with what we're looking to do, actually help commercial businesses and private homeowners who have the NOXs on their property to get that special key there. Then the last one. Thank you. Yeah, so it's all going through 10K there. He, again, retired out as Deputy Chief here, had some great success. Grants have kept us alive. One of the numbers we actually researched when we went in front of the Finance Committee is just over $4.5 million in grants over the past 10 to 15 years for the Fire Department. So it's all great stuff. It's obviously a shot in the dark. You don't know who you're competing against, but As you guys mentioned before, the city's fiscal shape, uh, rent money is definitely a nice idea.

Okay. So I'll go to the first resolution. Uh, somebody else, any questions to that? Okay. Move it, please.

Council Member Tolbert. Aye. Council Member Sullivan. Aye. Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Kalman. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number 15 authorized FEMA fire prevention and safety grant program on vision for Knox Key Vault replacement.

Resolved that the City of Coraline Common Council authorizes the fire chief to apply for and if awarded, accept a FEMA fire prevention safety grant for the replacement of Knox Key Vault units for fire apparatus and staff vehicles in the amount of $46,540, consisting of a federal share of $44,323.81 and a local 5% share of $2,126.19 to be funded from account number A3410-54002 in the department's 2026 operating budget. be it further resolved that Mayor Steevers, as me, is hereby authorized to execute any grant award and agreement documents upon award of said grant.

I'm a little bit.

Mr. Bell, Mr. Fallon, any other questions? Council Member Tolvan. Aye. Council Member Sullivan. Aye. Council Member Mello. Aye. Council Member Lane.

Aye.

Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number 16, authorizing agreement with 10K grant services for grant writing service.

Resolved with the City of Portland County Council, hereby authorizes Mayor Steve Orr's designee to enter into an agreement with 10K grant services for grant writing services related to FEMA grant applications in an amount not to exceed $2,000. And be it further resolved that the cost of said services shall be charged to account A3410-541500 in the 2026 adopted budget.

Mr. Slank, Mr. Conlon, any questions, any more questions? Thank you, Chair Reynolds, I appreciate it.

Council Member Hughes. Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Solomon. Aye. Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Bagwell. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number 17, designation of sole source of energy.

Resolved that the City of Portland County Council hereby designates the vendors identified in the accompanying table as sole source vendors for the specific goods and services described therein and be it further resolved that procurements for the identified goods and services may be made without competitive bidding or quotation requirements when supported by the sole source documentation maintained by the originating department and in accordance with the City procurement policy and be it further resolved that this designation shall apply solely to the goods and services identified in the accompanying table, and shall remain in effect until amended, suspended, or rescinded by the Common Council. A waive reading of that, unless asked.

Okay, motion, please. Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Michaels, if there's any legal questions, Mr. Randall can answer in understanding of this. Does anybody understand Alex's words?

Yeah, so basically, The council is being asked to prove that these providers can be utilized without reviewing and going through other price quotes. And the argument is that each one of these is a sole provider.

They're a sole source, possibly, for those type of services. That's the point. Yes.

Which is not really the case. There's two on here. The first one, it talks about timeliness. urgent nature of required repairs, which I would think that as a city still have a part about that in the event of an emergency. So for my day job, we have to, above a threshold, we have to do the same thing. You have to go and get a get. Sometimes there is only one, but we're still required to go out and approve that that is the only one. So I would encourage us to continue the process of going looking for flows. Because if we do this now, and if a competitor comes into the market, there is no opportunity to pursue that competitor.

Well, obviously, if there's another competitor they want to pursue, we want to do that. This does not isolate against that. It just allows it to be able to make it happen so that the legal recourse of not being able to hit those sources or not being able to have it. So you can't do it every time you're going out and you're not having any luck.

Each of the departments is required to maintain the sole source documentation. So in the event that any vendor was not to become a sole source, they would have to let council know that it would be inappropriate for that to continue to be a sole source. So at that point, council should rescind it. So I mean, most of these, as you go through it, if it's a certain type of equipment that there's a regional vendor that they can be the only ones that are allowed to service that type of equipment. They're clearly a sole source. They're probably never going to change that. Other ones, you could see somebody come into the market that would change that. So that's up to the departments to make sure they're staying in line with that. And if, say, for the first one that Brian mentioned, somebody were to come into the marketplace that could fill that need, that would no longer be a sole source and we'd follow the regular procurement process.

And they do this stuff in water and sewer. There are some other things, but the majority of this is water and sewer stuff. So when you're talking to a sewer plant, they have a Cummings engine, a little problem. You have to go to a specific vendor. And I'll take part of the blame on this, that I've been pushing them to get quotes. Okay. And this is the better option for them to do. So they just say they have to go to Custard or something. It's still the common supplier, but it speeds up the whole process for them.

Okay.

They're not trying to do anything. Joe was doing everything above board on all this stuff, and Mike was too. We're just trying to get it so it's all documented, what they're doing.

And I'll give you an example. That's something we're living with now, the first one, just because we're picking on it, and we know him, so it's not going to be the dump truck tailgate's not working after it was by a treatment plant, and we can't get the sludge up to the landfill, and the door's not opening. We need to go down to how to repair it. you know, Homer Ironworks or somebody else that's in the community or somewhere else that's close by that can make it so they can do their day-to-day functions. Certainly there's other criteria that could be happening in there, but by the time you get other people that can give estimates and not be able to do that, it would be that many days down. Well, we had an incident with a fire truck, for example, as well, that we couldn't even drive it up to Syracuse to get it looked at for something else, which we ended up doing and still waiting. Isn't that right, Fred? So that gives you, so that's kind of the idea. Anybody else?

Which were the two that were areas of concern? I think you mentioned two that you didn't feel worse. First one and the last one. Okay. And would there be harm in taking those off for now and moving forward with the ones where there aren't objections?

I don't have it. I don't have it. I don't have it.

I don't have it. I don't have it. I would appreciate a little more time to look into it. I wasn't familiar with those two being potential variances from the others. So I'd be happy to move forward if we were to revisit the other two next council meeting. I would have had a chance to review that.

Let me try to answer. Okay. Cause I questioned it too. Okay. Yeah. But the design that we put on all the kids uniforms with the court one, the logo that they have, that was designed by graph tax. Okay. So technically that design, where I understand that they own that design, we couldn't go to another store and get the same design. Okay. But that's why that's the way it is. And it doesn't mean that you can code, that we can design our own things and go to anybody. That's a possibility, but that's how it's being utilized today. If they're just buying t-shirts or something like that without that, that's not part of it. You know, if they're just writing, you know, swim or lifeguard, they don't have to go to them to do it. But when they're using that logo, that's where they have to go.

That makes sense. I do appreciate the clarification there. Yeah. It's a computer program that they have to work to do the employing. And if you go to another source, they'd have to create that program for you. Then you'll have to review what they've done. Then you got to make sure that they spell the wording correct. And, you know, time is of the essence on some of these uniforms.

Well, but if this is something that graph techs developed, then you couldn't go any place else.

Oh, same thing as silk screening. They have the screens already made, so they just, you know, put off 200 T-shirts of wood.

It's their intellectual property, their actual design. Right. So even if you had somebody else who could silk screen it or stitch it, you couldn't have that design because that belongs to them. Right, it's patented, in other words.

Right. Would there be harm in just removing those two slag things? take a little bit of a look at it before these. I'd be happy to vote next council meeting, assuming there aren't any other concerns I come across. So you want to do an amendment to this resolution? I would appreciate it. Is there a reason why that would create an issue?

Again, I just gave you two examples for the first vendor that were immediate needs that we need. Those are two good examples, solid examples that were used in two different areas, and they go to the wastewater, you know, pipe breaks and we have the wells that have three-inch pipes and it's just better to do it. They still have to do prevailing weighting. Still all those criterias have to be done. And those are two of the three only local vendors on the list. So I don't think I don't put a part in the local vendors or not.

Well, why don't we vote on this? And if you want to vote no, go ahead and vote no. that I don't have a problem.

They're good companies. Nobody is saying that they are not. The question is whether or not the city is getting the best price in terms of all those funds.

With that design, we have to go to Gravtex, and it's our one program. And then it seems to me it would be very handy to be able to go on Homer Ironworks. Because those sorts of problems do crop up as emergencies for time-dependent. And do we have another iron? No, there is not.

I think there's two counts. So. That's not even a question. Well, thank you. All right, let's move into this.

Council Member Tolbert. Aye. Council Member Silliman.

Aye.

Council Member Fenello.

Aye.

Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number 18, declare fire department equipment surplus and authorized sale by auction.

Resolved that the Common Council hereby declares the 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe as surplus and grants permission for the fire department to sell the vehicle through Auctions International with any proceeds from the sale being placed in budget account A3410-42665. I know that. Back with questions.

Moving, please.

Council Member Toto. Aye. Council Member Silliman.

Aye.

Council Member Piniello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Pentecost. Aye.

Agenda item number 19, accept and recognize donations to the Youth Bureau.

Resolved that the City of Coral and County Council on behalf of Mayor Steve and the Youth Bureau expresses its gratitude for the generosity of the donors below be it further resolved that the County Council hereby accepts the donations listed below and appropriates them to the accountant for the purposes as made below. Donations from the UAW Local 1326 and the amount of $700 for the Summer Concert Series and a donation from London Hollow Nature Center for $50 to Forge Fest.

Mr. Beckwith, so on. How great is it that mine hollowed a mountain crop that's given to the porch festival?

Yeah, yeah.

Great that is. Thank you, Colette.

Big support for music. This has always been a musical city.

It is. Great talent comes from service. Did you see, by the way, off topic, but did you see there's a county song now that they did for Columbia County?

Really? No, really.

I have to get Jackson for me. There's a song that they just came out with at the Country Music Park. That's for Portland County. It was very inspirational to have both those songs saying how great we have it here. It's really great here. Take time to recognize that.

Mr. Joe. Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman. Aye. Council Member Canelo. Aye. Council Member Lane.

Aye.

Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye.

Agenda item number 20, accept and recognize donations to the police department.

Resolved at the city of Coral County Council on behalf of Mayor Steve and the Police Department expresses its gratitude for the generosity of the donors below. Be it further resolved that the County Council hereby accepts the donations listed below and appropriates them to the accounts and for the purposes designated below. A donation from the Coral County District Attorney's Office in the amount of $1,000 towards the K-9 program.

I'll move it.

I'll take over.

This is, was this truly from the office or the district attorney himself? The office. They give donations.

Individuals.

So. You guys got it from everybody. I don't even, I'm not even leaving. Again, thank you for that.

What's a prover, then you can say it's not a prover.

Okay, move it, please. Council Member Tobin. Aye. Council Member Silliman.

Aye.

Council Member Fenello. Aye. Council Member Lane. Aye. Council Member Conlon. Aye. Council Member Beckwith. Aye. Council Member Michaels. Aye. And lastly, I'll take a motion for adjournment.

Ms. Silliman, Mr. Collin, all those in favor?

Aye. Who else? Don't worry about it.