Common Council - Regular Meeting

I mean, they did send me here to babysit him, but you know, All right. If I get everybody's attention, I'd like to move to open up this meeting. Can I get a second on that? All right. Let's go. We'll get it.

All right. The first thing we're at is this is from Councilman Colassa. It's a local law entitled registration and posting of owner and manager information and designation of agent. We have uh Aren't we going through uh the committee or the premeating packet? Well, we'll get that next. Well, we already did the committee meeting last night. All right. With So, honestly, if we can stop here, we have um council. We have councilman um I mean councelor Chico here today from the city of Udica and you'd like to discuss this? Sure. Go ahead. Whatever your preferences do now, we can do it later. Are we on ordinance 15 and 15 and 16? The derelict and the vacant housing registry.

There's no ordinance on it or anything like that. Are we going to put one on there or anything or Well, I asked uh I asked if uh Mr. Chico could be here tonight because you were you wrote with the derelch property and the vacant housing vacant property one. Uh so those are ordinances 15 and 16 in our committee packet towards the end.

So So I'm pretty sure that Mr. Chico has worked on this um for quite some time. Um, there's also the ordinance number four. If you go back to yesterday's meeting, it's four, 16, and I believe the other one was 15. So, 4, 15, and 16 are what we're working on right now. So, it's ordinance adding article section 2-26 of the code of ordinance, vacant registry. And then it goes into talk about the same section, which is labeled Derk Properties. And then the last one is the ordinance um amending the same court of ordinances found inside about unsafe properties. So the biggest concern that they had yesterday was is the monetary amount for what you charge what you were charging for vacant properties or derelict properties

according to yesterday's meeting. I actually if I can expand I had a lot of the questions from yesterday. So yes, it is that. But would you rather pitch it first and then I ask the question or do you want to just jump in with a question that I had on the der properties?

We can do it either way. I think I'm comfortable uh either way. I guess I'll start with a preliminary statement. Um obviously we've taken a long hard look at the previous vacant property statute that was on the books. I've spoken with the administration. I've talked to Marcus extensively on this and obviously I'm the one who's in city court on the codes issues every day. Um, and I think it was clear based on what we had on the books before that we needed a change to more effectively put this out there to make the city look better to be perfectly honest with you because you know we're having a lot of issues with codes compliance and you know to to address Sam's point one of the things In looking at the prior vacant property registry, I think the fees that were in there were a bit draconian. They're they were kind of harsh because there wasn't a delineation really that was not subjective on vacant properties that had that were in code compliance. Right. you can uh somebody can have a vacant property that is not in violation of the code and I think the way that it was written previously they were still getting heavily penalized for that. Now, you know, we could go down a rabbit hole for a while and discuss all of the problems with it, but I think if it was ever challenged, it it the fees probably would have been considered disproportionate. Um, even with the prior language that

they could reduce them by 50%. Um, you know, I think the goal would be to take out the subjectiveness of whether somebody belongs on one of these registries or not. And just because a property is vacant doesn't really make it derelict. And that's why we separated them. Um, you know, when you look at the neighborhoods in the city and the problems that we have with the codes violations, a lot of them are rampant recidivists who they just don't take care of their property. And I think creating separating the two from a vacant registry to a derelic registry and a vacant registry is going to hopefully curb some of those things where we don't have the um broken window theory type situation where you have garbage strewn all over and then okay so there's garbage now somebody's not cleaning up this or they're allowing a porch to fall down. Really quickly, does anybody have their microphones on because it's echoing? If you have it on, please turn it off because I' i've been having a lot of complaints about people with their microphones on. So, please make sure that they're off so everybody can

also about to chime in anyway with so thank thank you for that. Uh, one of the concerns I have, so with the derelic property, I'm just trying to understand obviously within three citation, if you get three citations that aren't corrected for each one you get, you end up going to court and the judge decides, right? Unless you decide to fix it. the the the way that the statute is written is if you get three notice and orders to remediate your property over the course of 12 months and that's going to be three separate notice and orders but on each individual situation that you are going to court correct like for every code

not necessarily the majority of the time yes if you don't comply you're going to get a ticket and you're going to end up in court in front of me but you know our codes officers they do an excellent job in that they handle um as much as they can without going to court. You know, they have um so these are people who wouldn't qualify for court, but that we slap on this uh it's not that they don't qualify for court. There's the the people that go to court. My understanding is, and this is working with our codes officers, that every opportunity has been exhausted.

Sure. without them complying or you know there's what I found in city court is that there's a lot of people who basically just thumb their nose at the codes officers and say I don't have to do that right so those are the people who end up in court now are there a large number of people that our codes officers deal with and they work with there are certain people that have limitations whether it be monetary whether it be physical, um they work with them. Those those aren't the people that are being targeted by this. It's the people that are consistently letting their properties fall by the wayside.

And I understand uh the goal here. I just I get confused when uh it just seems like when we are doing fines to this extent that a judge should be involved and I don't understand how we can just find somebody by thousands of dollars with this and not but I think that falls under the nuisance abatement not just the derelic property or the vacant registry like there are other components of the actual law that you can go after them. This just helps you. I mean can you kind of explain that what the difference is? I mean, we have all different components of our code, but I think when you look at our actual code and how we can enforce it and what we do, I think it changes when you're looking at maybe a nuisance property or a vacant registry that as much. It's like how does this stand?

Sorry, Mark. I just want to jump in just because this happens a lot. Whenever you institute a fine that is separate, which is clear in the Derk property, there is an appeals process. You can challenge it internally. It's the same with any of our systems. It's the same with the ATV hearings. There's an appeals process. So even if you're not going through the courts, there's an opportunity to contest the yes charges and what is being instituted, you know, against you. So

if and and if you'll notice in in both statutes, there is a clear appeals process that is delineated in both. Now to address what Sam said, in my mind, the nuisance abatement um legislation that we have is separate and apart for this. I the way I view it is that the nuisance abatement is something that is probably on a greater level than what we're dealing with here. Now, when we're talking about neighborhood blight or the um recoupment of services or the wasting of services on properties because we have to go abate them. We have to clean up property. We have an inordinate amount of first responder calls whether it be police or fire. Um that's what the the derelict property is is to address. It's more of a mechanism to

basically yes to to deter people from being non-compliant with our statute. How does charging them again and more intense when they aren't using their if they don't have the resources to already fix their properties like how does do we see results from that of then they're considering to okay now I'll do it now that it's another thousand

I I think it's that's a great question and you know the only answer that I can give you is socioeconomic status doesn't negate your requirement to follow the And you know when there are people who may not be able to afford to fix their porch, you know, there are numerous resources out there that and I see it in city court every day. People can get grants to fix their porch. There's there's other community organizations that will help them. And if this is just one isolated incident, say you have a porch that you can't fix, that's not going to qualify as a der property because that's one violation, not three. So we're talking about people who are, you know, it takes effort to get on to this.

Can I ask a code's question? So if there is like a porch that can't be fixed, is the railing and the steps and like the roofs all separate parts or is it just a porch? Nope. It it has to be separate violations. So, if someone comes to your house, uh, a codes officer, and they write you a notice and order and it has seven violations on it under this statute, that's considered one. It's not three separate, or it's not seven separate. So, that's, you know, we're not, the goal here is to not penalize people who can't fix their property. It the goal is to incentivize people to not be derelictked. Thus, the name.

Thank you. And I think, you know, you touched on the vacant housing. I was more on the side of, you know, our current prices were up, they started at $500, but by year four they went up to 2,000. And when I was looking at Albanese, Skenctity, Ithaca, Bingmpington, they all do kind of follow these. And I think I'm still leaning on just even for the room, not even like debating here, but just leaning towards I think that should be it should be aggressive. We don't have any any incentives to make people uh use their properties which is kind of I mean look at Veric Street right now. We have uh people like taking great care of their properties and doesn't matter how much you do if the rest of the street isn't and they're not incentivized to because it's we allow it. I understand your point and and I think in talking with the administration and talking with Marcus that the focus is on the appearance. We we want the the city to look good. We want people in compliance with the code. Right now, like I said earlier, vacant properties, there's some vacant properties out there that aren't out of code. They cut their grass. If if they needed to be boarded up, they're FEMA boarded and they've been painted the color of the building. And if these people are if they have a legitimate plan for the building or if they are not allowing criminal activity or squatters, I I think the sentiment was that the the fees that we had before were overly harsh and and it was kind of transferred to the people who are actively not taking care of their properties. They deserve the harsh fees, not the people who are taking care of their properties just because they don't have a tenant in

there or they can't get a business to move in or they need to rehab it. Sure. Well, and then I mean there's that, but then you know we have the owners of Popeyes that they've never touched it in 15 years. And so that's where I'm like I you know they they're from San Francisco. They bought the building for $750,000. They they can take harsh. uh the rest of the neighborhood suffers when there I go on the standpoint of it's not just about the the appearance but when you have more people it's actually safer and uh we see more results out of it but that's just uh where I stand on the legislation but thank you you answered a lot of my questions thank you

and m Mr. Chico, can you explain like what does what do we do as a municipality when we're stuck? Like we're at a rock and a hard place on how we can designate somebody through the vacant registry or derelic property like we're trying our best to as a city to make the city look good and and your broken window was was something that I've always appreciated.

What does this do in order to help us as a municipality? I think that's kind of what we have to look at because it's something that we haven't tried before and we need to kind of move forward in doing something because one of the biggest complaints is what codes violations are and what we're doing as a municipality to try and curb that. Now, I that's a great question and I think the the short answer is the goal is to make it more appealing to comply than not because if if I'm faced with a $1,500 increase on my taxes because I have a mixeduse building or a commercial building that is out of compliance. If The bottom line is, you know, we're you have to make it hurt before they comply. Now, it's there's there's many reasons why we would do it because if you look at the number of police calls, the number of fires, the number of incidents that occur at these properties, we're spending an inordinate amount of time, effort, and money on resources that are sent there.

Marcus, if if you don't mind jumping in because Yeah, there's a lot where to jump in. I mean, but I guess where would you jump in? Like, do you see this hurting the municipality in order to try and put this in our call? Um, I mean,

look, we we worked on this for a long time. Um, there's there's pros and cons to everything. It depends on what you want the result to be and and I think that's a legislative choice, right? Like what what you're trying to accomplish. So, problems we have in codes, like one thing is we devote a ton of resources to these buildings, trying to put them in court, researching LLC's. one of our properties are one of our problems is sometimes there's no person to hold accountable because it's an LLC or somebody's out of state and you're not going to serve a warrant in Wisconsin. As bad as your house is, if you live in Wisconsin and you're paying your taxes, the US marshals aren't going to get you to answer for a code violation. So, it's easier to live in the city of Udica than you can go after somebody.

So, actually, we're going after people that live inside our own city. So, so, so establishing residencies, and this is what happened when we talked to other municipalities about it. Establishing res um registries allows us to charge for the resources that it's taken us to put into that. Although establishing residency does help us. Yeah, it allows us to charge for the resources that we're putting into that house. It's not we're not penalizing people. We're charging for the resources that we put in.

That's one. The other thing is, you know, you go back and forth and it depends on what you want, but the two registries are are are are meant to deal with the pro deal with the problem holistically, right? And so, like with my officers, a lot of times we'll go look at a property. Um, I think a good example might be, let's say, I I don't want to call anybody else specifically, but I will cliff. I will. Huh? On Brier Cliff,

the one on Brier Cliff, right? Um, we had one on Portal Road before that are that are houses that are in good conditions. Bank banks pay them, banks maintain them, banks cut the grass until somebody breaks into them. So that's why there's a vacant fee there. Or a place like the new Century building, which might not have any code violations. Like if you go there and look from the outside, it's boarded, it's there, right? So that's where vacant um registry hits that building. C can I ask you one question? Remember the state hit a registry and I know that that helped with us in some component. Could you can you explain how the state's registry kind of helped us and finding out where people were or did it help us or did it not help us? So, I mean that's

the state helps us identify some responsible officers and some LLC's and then we had a zombie property thing. Basically, when we have properties that are difficult to enforce codes on that we really have no answer for is when there's dead people, right? The person's dead. We got to wait for the taxes to catch up to the property. There's out of state people. There's LLC's that we can unravel. Sometimes we can unravel them. You got to think deep. Um, right.

Well, and I'll just jump in real quick on that. Within the last, say, three to four years, the state has enacted a law that you can't have a faceless LLC. When you file your TP and your RP, you have to have an addendum that has the members of the LLC. And when we when we copy deeds uh or we stamp deeds here and they take copies of that, we should have that information. But the the fourth part is the fourth part is banks that don't take title and pay the taxes. That's the biggest that's the biggest thing because if somebody forecloses on um council, you had a question. Is this going to follow on with the question? like what we did on on Brier Cliff for years, but the more and more we kept

adding to their taxes, the bank finally gave the bank thought it was in a virtual and that's what we try to do now. That's why it's difference between the vacant and the der property. So why you kind of going to have that because you're not going to go after a vacant property that the the bank owns and designate them just as a der property. No, it's a vacant property. You don't want to charge them as much as anybody else is. Well, but but sometimes though, just to correct you,

go after them just as bad. No, but so I want to go after him just as bad because sometimes the bank properties like they'll keep it nice, right? That's what happened on Brier Cliff. They kept it nice. It was in a nice neighborhood. They were cutting the grass, right? And then somebody broke in and now I got to deal with the fallout, you know? And so like to us it's like they both serve a purpose. I don't you know they both and thank you for that. So we should pass them both. Whether you should pass them both or not is a legislative decision. I'm just telling you it's not going to stop it though, right? Because it's just out of control. We were just talking about it earlier.

The litter, everything. It's just it's overwhelming. We were on Court Street Saturday for the sixth time. One of the officers got bit by the dog that we threw them out of that building that they don't belong there and they just come right back and they do what they have to do. And my concerns which we're which we're addressing like I don't want to my concerns is it's a it's a lot of administrative load for my department right which we're addressing with the mayor. We talked about it with Mark Chico. So everybody's got to have realistic expectations here when it comes to implementation because these are difficult things. They're not as easy as it sounds. You snap your finger tomorrow we're able to go full board.

And Marcus I think if it was as easy as it was you wouldn't have some of the same properties flowing from one administration to the other for for centuries. I mean, look at look at look at actually the new Century Building. And I think that that's a perfect example, you know? I mean, you seriously see and my mom works downtown, so I you know, I get pictures all the time and how I could help her in cleaning up properties, but you will clean it up and the next day it'll look the same. The next day it'll look that's not fair. And so, so, but I'm saying implementing registries requires us to prove the things. It requires us to send officers there every day. 40 50% of my officers time is on buildings like this, right?

Katie, you got a question once this finishes [clears throat] up. No, and I was just kind of echoing. I think the reason I felt like the vacant housing registry was too low at the 200 to 400 is when they're vacant and people are breaking in or just anything nefarious is happening, we're sending police the fire station sometimes going codes obviously DPW. So, I think as a city it um behooves us to collect those that money back and put it back into the departments that are working overtime on this stuff. That is all I have. Thank you. And and with all due respect, I think that we've re Oh,

go ahead, Joe. Thanks. I just have a question for corporation council on the backend removal from the registry 2-6-417. So the three criteria have to be met before removal property meets the three criteria. Now at that point does the property owner have to affirmatively request to be removed from the list or is it automatic that the city notices that the three criteria have been met and the property is automatically removed from the list? Which one of you which are you referring to? Vacant or derelct? Uh derelct. I apologize. Derelch property removal from registry section 2-6-417.

So if if they comply and you know when you say they have to request it, there's going to be if they're in compliance, they're going to have a codes officer or they're going to contact the codes department to come and inspect the property. Now to be removed from it, you have to um comply with two out of the three violations. They have to be rectified. So that's going to be a I guess a mutual decision between the property owner and the codes department.

So sorry. So the two out of the three I thought that was to be put put on the list but once they're on the list and they you know they're registered it looks like to be removed from the registry there's those three criteria comply with all the violations 12-month period no new violations and payment of all fees if they go through all of those one two three does the property owner have to then go to the city and say hey I've complied with all of these I'm removed or is it happen as a matter of course once the city realizes that all three criteria have been met. You know what I'm saying? Who has

I do I do understand what you're saying and I I do believe that if they have rectified them, they would be removed as a matter of course. So Mark, I don't want to jump over you, but I I think that if if if I just so you know, as long as I'm commissioner and we have these two registries, our officers will check the houses every day to make sure it's still true. I don't want one person to be on the registry a day longer than is legally required to. That's why it takes a lot of resources, guys. And that's why you once you comply, then you get the notification that you've complied. You're off of the registry, right? But I guess if someone requested to be off the registry, then you'd look at their We would look at it still.

Yes. But you you would once they reach their 12-month anniversary, it would certainly have to be re-examined because when you're paying the fee as it's written now, and obviously the council can change it, they can change the fees. They can change the language, but once you pay the fee, you pay the fee. We're not there's there's not a rebate. There's not a pdeium. So you you're assessed the fee for that 12 months. When you get off, you're going to get off. It's a new year. It's a new year at that 12 month. I understand. That's what we discussed. Yeah. So there it would have to be looked at to see if you would have to reertify.

I'm going to give us another five minutes and then I'm going to go back to the answer premeating. So g get your questions out real quick. Well, it's up to you. It's it's we're going to decide if we're going to pull it out. Were there are there other cities that do the derelict registry they can point to that I can look at or I I know vacant housing or vacant property has them and not to put you on the spot. I did I did do some research and off the top of my head I do believe Troy has one. Um because I looked at cities with vacant and derelct. I could get that information for you. Right now I don't want to give you the wrong answer, but I do believe Troy is one of them. Thank you. And some properties will be on both. So you guys understand, right?

So some properties will be on two registries. And and just so you guys also understand, we apply the law like fairly equally to everybody's entitled to equal protection of the law. So, you're going to get calls. I'm on this registry. Well, you had two out of three codes violations, and we put you on because we apply the law.

I mean, I I have enough confidence in you guys to do your job the way you can do it. And like I said, this is an additional tool to help you do that job. If we haven't done something before as a municipality to try and benefit our city, how are we ever going to know what we're going to do if we're sitting here arguing, you know, apples and oranges because I think everybody wants the same thing at the end of the day. Well, you know, and and as part of full disclosure, to expand on what Marcus had said, there we're going to have if this passes, we're going to have to create forms. We're going to have to create a database. There's there is a large amount of work that is going to go go into this that Marcus' people are going to shoulder the burden. Yeah. I'd love to explain. This is a small thing. It's a big thing.

No, it it it really is a big thing. It's an everyday thing. It's an everyday thing, an every week thing. And looking at just the vacant properties and the ter properties, you know, within the first month, we could have 70 to 100 on that list without really even trying. Well, you just said that. So, we tried to get we tried to get an approximation of if if these two things were true, how many would we have in? And we stopped counting because we didn't during our sweep at 234.

Okay. So, so I think that the problem is is that we have we have corporation counsel here. They're here to explain it. What else does anybody need in order to amend this legislation to try and help us out here? Cuz I think that you have the codes department pleading that they need something like this. You have DPW pleading that you need something with us. I'm sure it helps with the police department pleading with something like this and corporation council. So yesterday's discussion, I thought we had a pretty decent discussion um between everybody and the last the only thing that was brought up because I had asked if you had any questions, please let us know so that Mr. Chico can come in with an explanation and the only thing that was explained that we had a problem with was fees. So what else are what else do we need right now in order to help this legislation actually be passed in order to help our city? That's kind of the questions that we need to know in order to move forward.

Katie, did you have a question on that? Yeah. No, it's not a question. It's uh thank you for answering all my other questions, Mr. Chico. But the more I hear this conversation, like this is going to be way more resources and you guys on the coast department are already you're out there every day. But we we've spoken about this. No, I know. But my I'm just finishing that that it's the vacant housing reg. The prices I think are too low and that's my only issue still. It's like I heard the floor here, but I think the resources for the city that's where I I'm for passing these, but I think vacant housing registry just has to be higher. And if not, that's fine. You guys can vote how you want, but I would vote no as it currently stands. Well, Katie, you could put some amendments in if you'd like prior to to voting on it. All right. All right. I'd like to move on now. Thank you.

So, does anybody else if we bring it out of committee? I mean, that's kind of the question, but I would like to to know. I mean, I thought we had a pretty decent discussion yesterday um to try and move forward on this and to see Let me go around. Are are you good with this, B? Very good. Councilman Bire, I don't have any questions here. Okay. Council Kone Venice.

I do have a question. Um, after hearing the um the codes director and the DPW director say and um corporate council say that um there's going to be a lot of work involved in it. Um, you said that, um, I think Troy had something like this. Um, but you don't have the information for it right now, right? Right at my fingertips. No. Yeah. The information like how they implement it and and who who runs it? Yeah. I don't Do we really need it? Do you guys think really think we need that information from Troy to find out what kind of struggles they're having? I do. We're going to have struggles with paperwork and

implementation implementing any new process. I think you're going to have growing pain. That's

answer across the board. It it's just whether the council determines when you weigh the pros and the cons whether this is going to benefit the city. And and from my perspective as the one who drafted this and the one who's in codes every day, the one who drives around the city, I think it is going to benefit the city. You know, is there something that's is it going to be painful to grow into? Sure. But in the long run, it I guess it's your guys job to determine is the pros [clears throat] outweigh the cons or the cons outweigh the pros. Okay. I just want to know before I vote here because um council

I do have then district five you know we do have a lot of houses so okay I'm done sir I just want to reiterate so you definitely think this is going to benefit the city correct okay thank you I have no questions at this time at this time thank you thank you for coming I'd like to thank thank thank uh Mr. Chico for coming in. So, we're going to pull this out tonight and Yeah. Anybody have a problem? If I pull Mr. Chico, if you can please stay until the 7 o'clock hour in case they have any other questions if you possibly can. I would appreciate that. Can I just add you never know cuz we keep going back and forth on one question then something else comes up. So, I would appreciate if you can.

I just want to add one last thing. So, I've been looking at this for quite a few years. Obviously, I have a list of 65 vacant properties and I just want to pitch one more time. We can do this $200 to $400 situation. all these 65 properties. If we did the old pricing, we'd bring in $106,000 on vacant housing reg properties. If we do this pricing, we'd bring in $13,000. It becomes a quite a significant difference. So, can can I check in on that, please, Councilwoman? The the purpose of this is it's not a revenue generator. If if we were to even remotely indicate that it's a revenue generator, then this becomes unconstitutional. Well, it's revenue whether it's 13,000 or 100,000. It's

I'm not saying I don't consider revenue profit. Okay. But it I would argue that that's the wrong way to look at it. It's not about how much we're taking in. It's about gaining compliance in whether we what we are having is deterring people from continually violating the but this $100,000 difference is going to come out of the taxpayers's pockets instead of the properties. And that's where no because it what what it does is

that that difference will be made up by lesser police calls, lesser fire calls, the need for DPW to not go there and cut the grass or pick up garbage or evade it. That's that's the purpose of this. I thought we were saying the money portion is it takes a backseat to the goal because in in looking at the case law and looking at everything that's happened surrounding this if we were to look at this purely as a a monetary function we would then be unconstitutionally violating people.

Then why does the derelic properties for non-residential buildings go up to $4,000? So why doesn't that apply that way? Those are people that are actively doing things to to to violate the law. Just because you're vacant doesn't mean you are breaking the code,

right? We we can say we don't as a city, we don't want vacant properties because vacant properties, zombie properties, whatever they may be at any section, they are still unappealing. But you can still have a vacant property and not be out of code. So I I think penalizing those people for taking care of their property at a at a higher level or at the same level as the people who don't take care of their property, one is not fair to our citizens and two is probably unconstitutional. But why would why wouldn't you want to higher fees? Because so if you have a vacant house,

Mr. Mr. Oh, now you're going to let him talk. If I'm living next to someone with a vacant house, it lowers my my, you know, the property value. It really does. It gets them like my buddy on Sunnyside Drive. They're in compliance. That house has been vacant for 15 years. It lowers his property value. Okay, they mow the lawn. It's boarded up, but it it's dilapitated. If he tries to sell his house and there's no reason for it to be vacant for 15 years, force them to sell the house. A vacant registry doesn't solve that problem. But hammering with the fees codes and they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. This doesn't help that.

But if if it's not out of codes compliance, what are they doing wrong? Like, you know, at personally, you could have an opinion about that, but we have to look at it under the law. in and the we have to follow the laws that are on the books. I could have a personal feeling about a vacant house next to me. You could have a personal feeling, but if it doesn't violate the law, we can't penalize them inordinately. Thank you, Marc. I got we got to move on. I just want to say one thing one more thing said. Go ahead.

I get what you're saying, but Marcus and I talk about it. Eerie Street, Court Street, Lennox Sav, we can go on and on. We're there five, six times a month for the same stuff. All right. So, you're seeing your neighbor not having his grass cut and you want to go after him. Go after these people that don't live here [clears throat] where we have to go there. We have to call UPD to have them go and throw people out of a house that's fored. It's just ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And nobody sees what we're doing there. And we're worried about people that are not cutting their grass next to you. It's not It's not fair. He knows, right? Am I arguing? I How much time do we I It's just

All right. We I have the We'll talk about it another month when everybody complains that we don't do our job. Exactly. That's the point of it. That's the point of it. And this has been a committee. Right. Sam, come on. All right. First one. Thank you so much. All right. First one is ENA transfer for fiscal year 2025. Proposed ordinance number one. Everybody good with that? Yes. Any issues? Nope. All right, that's good. Next one. Ordinance authorizes sale of five Utica Police Department vehicles.

It's actually 10. Um UPD sent them to me. Again, standard. Um they're looking to get rid of a number of um 10 vehicle. Yeah. Um that just is an error, but uh they're looking to get rid of a number of vehicles. We have to strike that by the way. Change that to 10. Well, there's still Well, you just got to change the title. All right, we good on that. Everybody good? I I you think Stephanie was mid explanation? It's fine. All right, next one is uh ordinance extending moratorum on battery storage facilities in the city of Udica. We had a committee meeting on this. You ready to move on this

everybody? Okay, we're going to move on that then. All right, next one. An ordinance established minimum public access hours for restroom facilities in city park. Good with this? No. So, this right here, I think we should put this in committee. Can we have a presentation from opportunity to talk on it or no? It's in pre-committee. So, I think you introduce it to committee and then we can have an actually have a discussion. what I think we should do on this. Can I speak on this very quickly? I think if anyone Joe's got the floor and then I got you and then I'll speak.

Yeah. So, the only thing this is this is a great idea in a perfect world except we don't live in a perfect world. So, I would like to see this in committee. Number one, I believe the main two parks they're talking about are in my district that I was never consulted on. So, um I've been a council person for seven years. I've had numerous uh complaints about Proctor Park. I've never had one complaint about the bathrooms not being open. Now, am I for the bathrooms being open at a certain time? When the police chief, when the DPW commissioner, parks commissioner, codes people tell me there's a safe way to do it, I'm all for doing that. So, I think we should put this down and have a meeting like we had last night, talk about it, and go with it. Okay? Because I don't think we need

Oh, yeah. I don't think we need to have needles where kids you we all know what's going to happen here. Okay. I don't care if it's opening up the floor debate on this. Nobody's talking to you. I have the floor right now. I don't think you should. Well, it's too bad what you think. Stop. Stop. Stop. Point of order.

I'm g I had the floor and I'm for the legislation. Just prove it that it's supposed to be right. That's all I asked for. I didn't say don't do it. Okay. Why does everything have to be so hostile? I'm agreeing with the girl. Okay. I want to hear it. I want to know how it's going to be safe. I want to know who's going to place it. Who's going to take charge? Is there something wrong with that? Asking that. Uh, Councilman, would [laughter] you like to say something? Yes. Thank you. Um, I do hear your concerns. Councilwoman, excuse me.

Okay. [laughter] I'm a girl. Um, so it this was this I know that understand that you haven't heard about it, but this was something that I did hear a lot on and and and you can obviously see too I I did put something up there and people had they would like to see the bathrooms open. This isn't a luxury. This is an amenity. I did make the legislation flexible so that we could do four to eight hours and kind of like have departments kind of work on what may be the best time to open and close it. Um, so I do think it's something that we can work with. I did reach out to deep um part um to Mark. I did reach out to Chief Williams and I did talk to them about it as well. Their concerns are vandalism. Those are things. Those are not things that we shouldn't talk about, but they aren't things that we don't do it and ignore it because of those things. I think that we can try to work something out where we can have these parks open. Um there we have seniors who use the parks. We have children use the parks and they have to go into the woods or go home. Um if you go into the parks, there's toilet paper in there. There's other things in there. I I don't think this is something we should not open. I think that we should consider it and we have people here right now that can answer those questions.

Well, well, Heather, right now we don't we don't have unanimous I think that Joe, I got it. I got it. I I think it's a wonderful piece of legislation. I think we have some people on this council that would like to discuss it a little more. Y and so we'll have a a committee meeting on that. And thank you for your legislation. Thank you.

All right. Next one is uh DNA transfer fiscal year 2025 uh proposed ordinance number five. Anybody like to speak on that at all or are we good? All right, moving it. A lot of a lot of going on there. Next one. Councilman Lamemed and Testa result common council approves the following appointment commissioner de for Olivia K. Dixon. I think they're both county employees in the next two appointments. I have no problem approving those. You're good with them? Yeah.

And the next one is uh Mia L. McKinnon Jimnz. And the next one. Okay. Then next one's proposed proposed ordinance number eight. Uh ENA transfer. Take a peek. We fine with that everyone? Yes. Okay. Moving it forward. One more. Yeah, we have one more. It didn't print. So, he's going. All right, we got one second and then we'll move on to the uh to the rest we have here.

Well, while we're waiting on that. All right. Is everybody okay with this vacant building registry and the aderic building to move it forward? I'll go around Katie. Yeah, we can't do it like that. Um if anybody wants to bring it out tonight, I think the sentiment's there, but Okay. So, we're going to bring it out. Okay. I Yeah, I've already Kate, if you want to make it if you want to bring an amendment to the floor prior to the vote, you can. So, for sure. All right. Thank you,

Mr. Chico. Again, thank you for the work that you put in. I know you've been working on it for quite some time. The The only other thing that I wanted to bring up, and I I had talked to Mr. Chico about this earlier was the um there was one more piece in there. What is what are you telling him? Can you say it on the floor? Oh, okay. I mean, it's just very

So, uh, the legislation that's being handed out right now is another ENA piece and we were just accepting the money from the bond. Okay. Last one is ENA transfer proposal ordinance number nine. Any issue on this? All right, we're moving it. All right, Sam, this local law registration posting of owner manager information. So, that one I'm okay with keeping in committee as long as we're doing the Derick property and the vegan registry. The last one that I wanted to kind of add in Let me go through it.

Wait, wait, wait. Time out. This is the one that's still in committee that kind of got pushed to the wayside with 15 and 16 was proposed ordinance number four and that was the determination of unsafe buildings notice to repair demolish. Um added section C if there are persons found inside upon proper evidence of corporation council which allows emergency access to the building with property inside. It gives the city the right to resolve the issue if deemed in an immediate e immediate emergency. Um that was something that we had talked about. All right. Right now I'm on number let me go through these. All right. Don't interrupt me. Rescend and replace uh proposal ordinance number two. I have no idea, Jack. The rest of the stuff's already in committee, so you don't have to go through it. We went through it. So, we're not going to pull anything out. That's

We went through it yesterday. I was here. I apologize. All right. So, now you could talk in this one now. Are we pulling out? I don't know. You just told me to stop talking. I thought we talked about everything in committee yesterday. See, now we're at four now. Go ahead. Would you like to Sure. Okay. I'm gonna I'm not going to have you jump all over. So, Jack, we didn't jump all over, but we had a a whole entire Go ahead. discussion yesterday in committee for the past hour and a half that we've actually been here. All right.

Um, the last component was ordinance number four. Um, and that just added a a a component into our actual code of ordinances that deems to help corporation council help with what they need to in in some aspects of it. And I had talked to um Mr. Chico in regards to that and it's up to you. I mean that's that's the whole thing. I know we had a long discussion on this and

I'm okay with what whatever you decide to do if you think that the derelick and vacant registry actually helps with that. Well, I think again it we're not talking about apples to apples here when when we have an exigent circumstance and that's something that is probably not in the purview of an emergency that's decided by the corporation council. I think our department andor our fire department they're in a much better position to deter to determine what Correct. Chief,

you know, if if there is an immediate danger of a loss of life, injury, uh, a building collapse, those are things that, um, you know, I'm going to talk out of both sides of my mouth and say I'm a lawyer, but sometimes you don't have to listen and sometimes you don't have to involve lawyers. This went with the nuisance abatement component in that that part of it as well. So, like I said, I just wanted to have a quick discussion with you. I talked about it with you earlier today. I'm okay either way as long as we can give us some leg to stand on if we need to.

It's not an easy factual answer because there's a lot of different situations that we deal with. And whether it's a building that's imminently going to come down in the next 15 minutes or building that's going to come down in the next 15 days, there's time to talk about it. But putting the way that it's written and putting the onus on our office to do that I don't think is the best option. So the other component was that was that the public safety commissioner could have deemed that through the corporation council's office. So that's why I didn't know if you needed that as an additional component and I'm okay with with taking that piece of legislation out. And and

so can I ask you this like when we're talking about this is this about removing people building is this from building. So it's if if they find somebody in a building and there's not an immediate danger that corporation council makes a determination based on that fact through the public safety commissioner. That's how that was originally thought through. Yes. It shouldn't go through our office. It shouldn't go through our office. And that's okay. And that's and that's what I that's a conversation I had with the public safety commissioner that originally he and me. Oh, are you are you looking to pull this or put it I'm actually having a discussion it very very briefly. I mean we have them here. I have no problem. I can't discuss mine.

Well, because this has actually been in this has been in this has been in committee. So this is but Beers could speak on All right. Let's let's not have an argument here. Listen, if I'll just say this, if anyone wants to talk outside, wants to talk privately, we I'd be more than willing to talk about it. I just don't think that that's you know, in the scenario that you just described, if it's not an emergency, we're not going in and cleaning out people because we're also our UPD officers are not a private security, right? No. Yeah. 100%. Understandable.

If if there's just people in there, these land owners, and again, this may be my opinion, not subscribed to everyone, but our officers have a hard I'm doing their job now. Yeah. Like they don't need to be security guards. And that was and that was an ordinance that went through the commission of codes and stuff like that that if the corporation council deemed it was emergency that they could do something like that and I have no problem having a further discussion on that. We had that conversation yesterday. So I'm going to leave this in in committee and I'm going to move on. No, it's still in it's in committee. Right. I said leave it in committee. Right. But we had a conversation yesterday. Number three, ordinance establish a district-wide garage sale initiative. Did you guys discuss we were going to pull this out or not?

No. We had a discussion with everything in committee and I think we're okay leaving everything else in. All right. Is there anything else in here anybody would like to pull out? No. The only thing I want to make sure because I wasn't sure I wasn't clear on this and maybe I missed it. If you guys pass the registries today, are you going to repeal the other registry? Because if they're both on the books, then I feel like enforcing one without the other is So my question that was I thought I thought that amended it or if the proposed amends the the one that that was my only question. And then it actually there was a couple components in it that remember when we first passed it that led you into the whole they didn't know who was doing it off they amended that to to where it was so we didn't have to actually repeal it. Okay.

So u Councilman Bar Council Bark would you like to call a a committee meeting for the uh the parks uh toilets uh in the next Would you like to give us a time when you want to do it? Councilwoman Wookski this is your legislation. Do you have any recommendations for date and time? Wednesdays are my best day.

I'd like to close this meeting. All right. Oh, hang on one second. There's something to the second. I apologize for lack of air. What's going on? Oh, we have pictures in May. closing this meeting 5:00 p.m. It's required. Okay.

Second zoning requires

will come to order. City clerk will call the role.

Burmaster, Betar, Carone, Irvin, Beatus, Wazooi, Klasimota, Lametico, Jerusi, Alberta. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence for the deceased members of the common council to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation and justice for all. Is there a motion and a second to dispense the reading of minutes from the previous meeting?

Motion. Second. Thank you. Public comment period allows three minutes per speaker. Our first speaker, Francis Brown. Francis County Council has provided you a copy of section 3244 public comment period. Are you in agreement with the rule? Yep. Thank you.

As most of you know, when I come to this podium to speak about the facts, the folder I bring carries most of the documents to back up what I have to say. Just because I did not have the privilege to go to an upscale school does not mean that I'm not educated. Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was self-educated? The way I'm reading the citizens participation plan is to encourage all citizens to participate in those in prominently low to moderate income neighborhoods to participate in the development of the city's 5-year consolation plan. a consolidation plan and annual action plan. All aspects of the community development block program, the home investment and others shall be conducted in an open manner with free access to all interested parties like myself. Therefore, threatening me with trespass for asking questions and making complaints is not just unconstitutional, but illegal even at the local level with the passing of proposed resolution number three of 2026. Look how they just sold part of MLK Park for $100. like some rundown lot within the p the plan passed on March 18, 2026, including the neighborhood association meeting, including Numa that blocked me via social media because Bowman does not like my opinion that North Utica gets special treatment more than the lower income neighborhoods. Example, putting green waste in the street, not at the curb or the abupment. Look how fast he received his spoil request. And I'm still waiting on

requests from October. When proposed rule number 11, rules of order, come forward, I suggest rewarding 3-2-44 C to 5 minutes per speaker and D4 rewarded or removed for it is unconstitutional as I pointed out in the Sullivan case. Also a no hat rule to to me disrespecting to me it's disrespectful to wear a hat in the chambers of any kind. Also congratulations to the 11th member of the common council John Smith. Thank you.

Thank you Francis. Our next speaker, Howard Potter, Howard, common councils provide you a copy of section 3244, public comment period. Are you in agreement? Thank you, Howard.

Um, so Howard Potter, one of the owners of AP Master Images, uh, behind on Water Street, uh, past few years, I've emailed all the council members. I don't know if we need to have a uh special meeting or not, but over the past couple years, it keeps getting worse back there from the trash. And you know, Mark, DPW's been back there. They've been busting their butt. Honestly, I seen them a few weeks ago. There was four or five man crew back there picking up. But I don't believe it's our city's problem. It's our land that we lease to other people. And my staff of 25 is going out and they're seeing grown adults peeing next to their vehicle. So, we need portaotties. There's no trash cans in that parking lot. There's no cameras. There's no barriers. And if you look at the edge of the paving that was just done what, maybe five years ago, it's already cracking because people are parking in the ravine. They're not parking in the parking spaces because there's not enough Well, they're they're parking the parking spaces, but there's there's overflow. So, they park in the streets and then they're trespassing onto our property, making it our problem. It should not be our problem. We're a we're a taxpaying business that gives 110% every day. It should not be made our problem. I'm told call the police. Why should I have to burden them with another call when it could be prevented by creating more parking? How have we offered to help? Well, we reached out to the county a few years ago. We reached out to city hall. We have an extra parcel that we've been trying to develop for 10 years now, and we've had multiple contacts with urban renewal about it. Right. We were willing to give the city and the county easement to put in a drainage pipe where that ditch is and then pave over the top of it. That would gain another 50 to 70 cars of parking right there off the streets. It's a common sense approach. It's safe. It works. Then to find out that there's a 32 million coming back there, we have never taken a pilot program from this city. We pay our taxes. Even if we're late, we pay our

taxes, right? We make sure if the city's laid on bills, we don't charge fees. We pay it forward 110%. We hold numerous events back there over the years to raise money for different community organizations. Why is it so hard to get city hall to listen and sit down and have a constructive conversation? We're about to make another threequarters of a million dollar investment. Our payroll is 1.2 million a year. This is what you guys ask for is businesses to come here, thrive, work with us. That's all we're asking for. We're not here to be stubborn or pain in the butt, but I shouldn't have to put up 14, 20, 30 no trespassing signs. Pay for permits for no trespassing signs to protect our property. Not only that, I want people to understand one one quick thing. The people we're having the problem with don't live here. It's not our kids. It's not our adults. It's people traveling here from other areas. Their kids are in my parking lot midday harassing my customers and being disrespectful. It's not our local neighborhood kids, but they'll get the blame. It's the adults not adulting, not managing.

Howard, you're going to have to finish. All right. Sorry. But needless to say, I would really implore that we have a private meeting because it's also one of the reasons why we backed out of a land deal. Thank you. Thank you. We do not have a guest speaker. No communication from the mayor. Report of city officers. We'll start with Stephanie Deorgio, Corporation Council. Nothing to report. Thank you. Mark Chico, Corporation Council. Unless there's any further questions, I have nothing to report. Thank you. Police Chief Mark Williams.

We're in the process of hiring police officers. Um, like every other city in New York State and across the nation, we are facing challenges when it comes to recruiting. We used to typically about 10 years ago see about between 300 to 500 candidates per uh per test sign up. That has since dwindled down to the last time we offered the test to 125 people and then it starts getting much shorter after that. Out of the 125 what we saw only half showed up to actually take the written examination. When we called some of the people to find out why they didn't show up, I found out something interesting. They are signing up a lot of these people just to satisfy unemployment with no intention of becoming a police officer or taking our test. So then we get half of that total 60. We give a physical agility test. Half of them show up. So now we're down to about 30 candidates for possibly as many as 15 positions we have to fill. Now we do backgrounds. We do polygraph testing. We do interviews. And that number dwindles. So, I've got to fill roughly uh 19 positions in the near future, I only have seven candidates. Even if I offer each one of those seven candidates an opportunity to get a conditional offer employment, historically, I'll probably end up only four because three will fail the medical or the psychological testing. So, it's becoming a challenge. We are using some of the best practices for recruiting. The problem is the tool of candidates is just not there. Uh I'm a little concerned going into the summer months because it's our busy months, more activity that we see. And uh I'm going to be roughly down between 22 to 24 officers. That includes officers that are out long-term injured. And on top of that, I'm going to have some major events I'm going to have to cover. Boiler maker, Fourth of July, the tunnels for towers race, just to name a few. Uh, like always, we will do our best to make sure that we uh collaborate

with other law enforcement agencies to see if they can help us, but they are short-handed, too. So, I just want to make you aware that we are going to have some challenges. We may have to cut some services going forward. Um, and uh, we're going to do our very best to make sure that, you know, we provide the best pleasing to our community members here in here. Thank you, Chief. Chief Brian Thomas, Urban Renewal. Nothing to report. Mark Sakalowski, DPW Commissioner. Yeah, I just like to welcome my new secretary, Christine Kesi, to the DPW. Welcome to the zoo. And also, I'd like to welcome back Chief Williams to the table. It's nice to see him. It's all I got. Thank you, Marcus Phillips. Yeah.

Commissioner of Coats.

Mark stole my thunder. Um, super. It's a It's one of the biggest honor. It's a huge honor to sit here with the chief and um I'm glad to see you back, Chief. Um, all I wanted to say is is this this time of year, when spring comes, um, our code department works really hard, you know, when it comes to patrols and the things you guys are talking about, whether it's litter on the ground. Um, you know, there's five officers that cover the whole city and and and they do their best and I try to make sure they do their best and and we're one of the only departments that puts gives other departments work. I always feel real bad when you make parks in big DPW clean up situations you wouldn't believe. They're boarding buildings and they don't know if people are are inside the house. They got to clear the house. Um people's safety can be at risk and and city workers just work every day and it's what we're supposed to do. It's what we're going to get paid to do. We don't want credit. Police um walk through those sites, fire departments to make sure that they're safe so that we can go in there and and you know with the public, we can take any call that you give us. We can take any email that you give us, but we're not going to see everything. So, if there's something that you don't feel like we got to, please call our office, make a report, and we're going to do our best to address it. And I just want to thank Mark, and I want to thank Mark, and I want to thank Scott and um and everybody that's helping us and and Mark Chico, right? So, three Marks um try to get some of these problems under control this spring like they do every spring.

Thank you. We do have a cash report. City of Udica cash report for March 2026 totals 18.244 million received and filed. Petitions remmonstas and appeals. We'll start with first district council member KDL. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh we've had a lot of good discussion the last two nights. So I'm all set uh for my romanes tonight. Thank you. Second district council member Robert Burmaster.

Uh thank you Mr. President. I just want to echo on on on Marcus. You know, I I I drive the neighborhood all the time and I I just can't believe people can't pick up the garbage in their own yard. You know, it's it's sad and and you know, it's springtime and you know, it's it's [clears throat] fresh air. Enjoy it. We had a tough winter. Just pick up your yard. You know, that's all I have tonight. Thank you. I agree. Council member, third district council member, president prom and committee of the whole chair Joseph Bar. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I have nothing tonight. I appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. [clears throat] Fourth district council member Frank Caroneen.

Yes. Um Samantha and myself were lucky enough to have a tour of the police department last week and was totally amazed by the Flock program and all the programs they have and how many crimes they've been able to solve just by these programs. And also, I know I sound like a broken record because I've been saying this for the last two years. Somewhere down the road, we're not going to have policemen. We're just not going to have them. And it it it sounds like it's sooner than down the road right now. And there's things that us as a council are going to have to start thinking about doing. And I got a couple thoughts of I I know our starting pay is ridiculously low compared to the county, the sheriff's, the state police, road police, New Hartford police. We're all way lower. Also, this five years they have to live in the city. I know everybody likes to hire city people, but if you don't get applications from the city and we have to fill positions, we have to think about doing something with that also. And I hope everybody on this council is taking this serious about the shortage of police. Everything else is important, but safety when I ran was the most important thing. And right now, we're not helping the police department at all. And We got to step to the plate, all of us. I mean, we got to help them get their applicants in. We got to maybe raise incentives for the 20-year people to stay. Give them something to have them stay, but we're in trouble. You're not going to be able to go to the grocery store. That's all I got to say.

Thank you, council member. Fifth district council member Vaniser. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, first of all, I'd like to thank Mark Sakalowski. I bothered them two times in a week and with some complaints and they were taken care of like when in one or two days. That was pretty good. Um, the traffic light on Miller and um, South was put up so fast

that I didn't even know it was up there and I drove down there was already up. So, he told me what the problem was and I let the residents know. [clears throat] Secondly, um I didn't call Chief Williams up when I had a problem with something. I called up his um his deputy chief just to see if he was worthy of his position and see how fast he was going to work and he sent somebody out within 30 minutes. So,

I won't be calling you anymore, Chief Williams, cuz he did he did a pretty good job and we got that taken care of. So, thank you for that. Um lastly, um there's a lot of paper, a lot of paper on the ground. I just encourage the residents to please pick up in their yards and sweep or shovel or whatever you're going to do that little 15, 20 feet, 30 feet in front of your um house to make the neighborhoods look better, especially in district five if we can do that. Thank you. Thank you, council member. Sixth district council member Joseph Beatus.

Thanks, Mr. President. Uh Chief, it's great to see you back. It was great to talk to you this afternoon and uh it's always a pleasure. I wish I was in the batters box and you were on the mound so I can hit line drives at you, but I don't think I can do that anymore. So, um

Oh, he could. Tell them, Chief. Tell her, chief. They break my chops. Tell her chief. Um so, first thing I want to talk about is I wish some people had my phone and took some of the phone calls that I take that why aren't we getting anything in North Utica? I hear that North Utica gets special privileges. We're not in uh in the zone where we get the money. Any other money, you know, money went down to South Utica, which is great. I'm glad. But as far as North Utica getting special treatment, I I think we're not getting enough treatment. Um going back to the other topic, I wish we had curbs in North Utica so we can put our uh green waste to the curb. I lived in North Utica. I'm 65. 62 years. And believe me, I've lived in a nice house. I take care of my house. I take a lot of pride. And you don't put your green waste on the grass. You put it between the grass and the roads. Oh, and by the way, we don't have storm drains to block in North Utica. So, if you put the grass, and I've had this discussion with a certain person, if you put the green waste on your grass, when the DPW comes, they're going to pull your grass up. So, we do not do that in North Utica. Um, we put the grass between the grass and the road. And I appreciate everybody in North Utica. Um, for the most part, we take pride in our our uh neighborhoods. We pick our stuff up. I actually have a couple pictures that the last two Mondays I had stuff all over my road um papers and wind and from the wind. I picked it up and that's what every person in the city should be doing on their property and we wouldn't have the problems that we have throughout the city. So, that's all. And then last, I

just want to talk about the Nuna meeting that it's Nuna Nuna, Nuna North Utica Neighborhood Association meeting. It's on 4:27. Uh, Lieutenant Curley will be the guest speaker and um Eileen Brink will be the recycling from the recycling uh coordinator from Herkimer County Solid Waste. So, she will probably tell us uh a lot too. So, um that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, council member. Council member at large, Heather Wazalooki. Nothing for tonight. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Council member at large, minority leader Samantha Kasima.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I want to thank again everybody for coming. I think the big the most important part is everybody's here. Um, that should be a top priority in the city. You see everybody complaining about litter, about grass, about crime. Um, and we have people here at this table willing to help and wanting to help. I had a great conversation with Chief Williams. Thank you for having us. Um I usually do that tour every first of the year. Um when I become a council person and I think it's very important for everybody to do the same. With that said, um after our discussion, I would really like to have a meeting because I think the hard discussion comes after that. Um how are we retaining police officers? What do we what can we do as a council in order to help the police department? Um so one of the things I would like to ask this body is to have a committee meeting. Um I know you set yours at 5:00 um at the following council meeting, but I think that deserves way more time than that. So, if you can possibly next Tuesday um at 6:30 or 6 o'clock, that's something that you can do to come and discuss some of the same issues that we have. Um I would like to call that meeting because I think that the chief of police deserves that time to this body. Um everybody concerned things. So, I really think that we need to thank him and what we can do as a legislative body. police officers. Um, other than that, I think that's it, Mr. President. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member at large, Majority Leader Jack Lamemetico.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to thank everybody for coming today. Uh, one of the things that we're going to be voting on today is the ordinance for Derelic Properties. And Mark, you had mentioned that it it really doesn't matter if you have money or not owning the buildings. You know, you have to fix your buildings. But we do have, like I said, 30% poverty rate in this city. And one of the issues there is that a lot of these people really don't have the money to fix them. And we understand that's that's their problem. One of the things we maybe we could look at down the road is is maybe taking a look at our CDBG money and and how we could maybe, you know, help it to take some of that money, some of the people that can't afford to fix their roofs, maybe to put some money aside for that, uh, and working with that because, uh, it, you know, it's the the building costs nowadays are are astronomical. It's it's getting to the point where I barely could afford to fix my house in certain areas. So, you know, maybe next year when we're taking a look at the budget, we could figure out how we could, you know, put a little money aside for that. Uh, Chief, welcome aboard.

Thank you. Nice to see you again. And, uh, I'd like to thank the DPW and the codes department and all the other departments here that uh, do a great job in the city and without you, we'd have a real mess out there, more than we have now. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, council member. Okay. We have a motion and a second to introduce proposed ordinance number one. Motion second.

ENA transfer fiscal year 202526 be ordained that the controller for the city of Udica is hereby authorized and directed to make the following transfer funds contracted services office expense computer equipment $45,000 explanation tenant income verification expense. Votes, please. Nine is adopted. Okay. Have a motion, a second to introduce proposed ordinance number two. Motion. Motion on there, but we have to make an Yeah, you I'll just read it. I'm just going to read it. Okay, we have a second on that. Second.

Yep. Ordinance authorizing sale of 10 Udica Police Department vehicles. Your votes, please. 90 is adopted. Motion and a second to introduce proposed ordinance number three. Motion

an ordinance extending moratorum battery storage facilities in the city of Udica. Whereas the current zoning law is silent on battery storage facilities within the city of Udica. Whereas the new questions have arisen regarding the installation, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of such entities and the potential impacts on public health and safety. Whereas been determined that the locations of battery storage facilities require further study to consider the potential public health and safety impacts that necessitates the moratorum be enacted that would halt the approval of such entities for a period of time to allow for a study. be ordained. The Commissioner of Urban and Economic Development, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals, Department of Codes, and any other appropriate city agency hall should not issue any permission, permit, variance, or other approval for the development and or establishment of any battery storage facility for an additional period of 90 days, months, concluding on June 15, 2026. Votes, please.

90s adopted. Motion to commit. Yeah. Can we have um We're just going to put u proposed ordinance number four in committee. Motion. Have a second. Second. Anyone opposed? Commit. Do you have a motion, a second to introduce proposed ordinance number five? Motion. Second.

Thank you. ENA transfer fiscal year 202526 be it ordained the controller for the city of Udica is hereby authorized and direct and make the following transfer of funds 3,171,522 CDBG 51st year explanation votes please nine adopted have a motion a second to introduce produce proposed resolution number six. Motion second.

Commissioner of deeds. Be it resolved that the com council does hereby approve the following person eligible for the appointment of commissioner of deeds in and for the city of Udica, New York within the 2-year term ending December 31st, 2026. Olivia K. Dixon, 1312 Sten Street, Udica, New York 13501. County employee votes, please. Nine A's adopted. Motion and a second to introduce proposed resolution number seven. Motion. Thank you.

Commissioner of deeds. Uh common council does hereby approve the following person eligible for appointment for commissioner of deeds of the city of Udica, New York within the 2-year term ending December 31st, 2026. Mia L. Mckennon Jimnz 13 Andab Udica New York 13502. City employee votes please. County. County employee. County employee. Yep. My fault. Nine is adopted. Okay. Have a motion and a second to introduce proposed ordinance number eight. Motion. Thank you.

ENA transfer fiscal year 202526. Be it ordained the controller for the city of Udica is hereby authorized and directed to make the following transfers um for $48,8564. Votes please. Nine is adopted. Okay. Have a motion and a second to introduce proposed ordinance number nine. Motion. Thank you. In a transfer fiscal year 202526 be it ordained that the controller. Mr. President. Yes. Before they make a motion, I would like to I'm going to be voting against this to put it in committee because there was just a couple of things that I had a concern on. Yeah. But we're going to vote on it. But

No, I know. But I'm going to vote it now. So, because it's the first time out, I'm asking for with all due respect to the rest of the council. There was just some things I had to clarify with Judge Garamone on whether or not this how this transfer worked, um, how it was in our actual budget. So, I just want some clarification. Okay. Well, it's going to fail. I'm going to defeat it and I don't want to defeat it. That's why I'm asking for the respect to put it in committee until the judge can clarify some concerns. Can Can I ask what the questions are as long as we have the time? Because this is actually it's for the paving of the bond that we already approved. Yes. because they're still in account lines and I want to make sure that we're actually still approving account lines in our budget that I had some concern with. So, I just want to clarify that everything's there. So,

I'm going to vote vote it down and I don't want to do that. So, I want to give everybody the time until a couple weeks from then. There was just some concerns about put in committee concerns I had with motion to app ordinance 15 from committee uh for the vegan building registry. amendments. So, a motion and a second to pull for the committee. Um, ordinance adding article 12 of chapter 2-6 of the Yuka City Code of Ordinances. Votes, please. Mr. President, I'd just like to qualify my vote.

Yep. Uh, for this uh, you know, obviously we've spoken at length at the prices. Uh, overall though, this is something I'm I've been wanting to see implemented for years, so I'm glad to see it happen. And, uh, I will be voting yes on it uh, even though the prices I think are lower. And hopefully that's something we can revisit in the future if we think it's going well and needs to be. Thank you. Thank you. 9 adopted. Proposed ordinance number 16. We're going to motion second. Yep. Ordinance adding article 12 of chapter 2-6 of the Udica city code of ordinances.

Mr. Mr. President, I'd like to briefly make a motion to amend. It's a procedural amendment. Mr. Peter, can you please explain your procedural amendment? Section 2-6-418 appeal. Subsection two appeals shall be heard by the city's public safety commissioner. The recommended amendment is comma within 120 days of the filing of the notice of amendment. So that satisfies your concern from earlier with the with the way that if something's satisfied then it has to be done in a certain amount of time. Uh this is specific to the appeal to ensure that's what I'm saying. So that satisfied his question from earlier that was okay. I within 120 days you said of the notice of I need a second for the amendment and then the votes

on the on the amendment. Nine to amend. So now uh proposed ordinance number 16, ordinance adding article 12 of chapter 2-6 of the Udica city code of ordinances. Your votes please. 9 adopted. Mr. President, um I'm going to I'm going to ask um council person Klas Mesta that what we just put in committee for the paving is very important. Do you think that we could call a special meeting within a week after you talk to the judge so we can get

I'm okay with that. I sent the judge an email over the weekend. I haven't satisfied that. He I had some concerns that I'm still not satisfied with but I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page as far as adding Are you guys good with that? Because it's very important to circling back if we want to have the committee meeting we were discussing on the same day as a special meeting. Yes. Have that you want to do that like next? If you don't mind, we can actually have the special meeting at 6 and then call for 6:15. I I should have no problem with that as long as I have some questions. Are we talking next Wednesday? Next Tuesday. Next Tuesday. So on May 6th, we are having a committee meeting at 5:00 p.m. No, this is May 5th. No, no, we're saying uh this coming Tuesday. We're going to keep coming this Tuesday. We're keeping that.

Well, I don't know. Yes, you're keeping the May 6th. So May 6th at 5:00 p.m. was for Councilwoman Wlooski's proposed legislation. What we're discussing now is is the 21st, April 21st. Special meeting for the paving. So if you need to call a special meeting at five o'clock, a six o'clock special meeting or excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. 6 o'clock and then a committee meeting at 6:15. Okay. April 21st. Yes. A public safety committee meeting. That's next week. It's Tuesday. Tuesday. Next Tuesday. It's Tuesday for pavement. Well, we got to get that passed. It's very important. We should have passed is right. It's very important.

Very important. Well, she's got questions on it. It's nothing wrong with it. If we all have to sacrifice a little bit to do the right thing with the question because Rocket, with all with all due respect, council president, I have asked those questions and they haven't satisfied my questions. And I sent it over a week and a half ago and I still haven't had answers to the questions that I actually have in regards to those. Okay. Okay. So, April 21st. Yep. Yes. 6:00 for the special meeting, 6:15 for the committee meeting. Okay. Motion to special meeting six o'clock committee meeting 6:15. Okay. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Oh, did you? No. Motion a second to adjurnn. Second.