Common Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to open the Planning and Development Committee for August 3rd of 2026. Can I please have a roll call?

Councilor Lautensack?

Here.

Councilor Thompson? Here. Councilor Fitzgibbons? Here.

At this time, I would like for a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting of July 20th of 2026. Can I have a motion? Councilor Thompson? Councilor Lautensack?

Councilor Lonczak?

Yes.

Councilor Thompson? Yes. Councilor Fitzgibbons?

Yes. I see no old business to attend to at this time. New business authorizations. Number one, the zoning and planning office requests that the common council for the proposed change zone from the property known as 37 West Cayuga Street from a TN1 traditional neighborhood to a TD traditional downtown to the planning board for an advisory opinion pursuant of section 280-94C of the zoning ordinance.

Good evening.

Good evening.

So the zoning change that's in front of you today, I passed out kind of an aerial view of the property. There's three properties that all adjoin each other. One has an address of Second Street, the other two of West Cayuga Street on the corner of West Second and Cayuga. They're all currently owned by one person. There's a purchase offer in on all three properties currently. The... Property on the corner is traditional downtown. The property just north of that with the second street address is also traditional downtown in our zoning code. And the one going up the hill on Cougar Street between second and third that adjoins those is TN1. The purchaser has an agreement for all three properties and wants to be able to merge all three properties together and build a big residence there for himself downtown. He does want to have the option to put an apartment in there to help with the income. That's the advantage of going to traditional downtown because that allows for two family. Also traditional downtown, the setbacks are zero as opposed to traditional neighborhood one, which are very restrictive, especially in an area like that would allow him to build a much bigger house. He's a local businessman that owns a lot of property and he loves downtown. He wants to build a big house there. That's the reason for the ask of the zone change.

Council? Council, turn.

So would there be parking that would be, if there is an apartment or something along those lines, is there going to be parking for that?

So single-family residence would require two spots. If he puts another unit in there, it will require four spots. So that'll be all part of the process, depending on whether or not he decides to put the apartment in there. He's undecided right now. He just wants to have the option to do that. So at the time, if the zone change goes through, his offer on the properties is contingent on the zone change going through. Otherwise, he can't build the house that he wants to build there. So if the zone change goes through when he goes forward to do to pull the building permit is when he'll need to decide if he's going to put another unit in there and at that time he'll have to meet the requirements for the parking. Absolutely. Yeah, it's three. It's if you look at that area, it's huge.

Council Thompson.

And to clarify anything that he or she ends up doing would require them to go through the planning board.

Correct, correct. So it's going to require planning board action, likely zoning board action as well. So through this process, you'll have a public hearing, and then the public would be notified when he decides what he's doing. Okay, great. So this is just the first step in the process. Correct. And just to clarify, the zone change process, as we've seen a couple of them in front of us, it's about... Two and a half to three month process because it bounces back and forth between you folks and planning board multiple times Then there's a public hearing in there.

So you you will see this multiple times before it is finalized Well his offer stand all the way through or will he closed prior to the final I

he will not close until after because if he in in all honesty if the zone change doesn't go through that's the out on buying the property is that it's contingent on that because then it won't allow him to build the size house that he wants to build downtown sure any other questions

is the side it sounds to me like it's going to be a fairly large building is that going to be far enough i know there's no variances or there's no setbacks but is that going to be far enough where the neighbors aren't going to be impacted by by the structure correct correct so there'll be no impact on neighbors okay that is correct can i get a motion councillor fitzgibbon's counselor

Councilor Lonczak? Yes. Councilor Thompson? Yes. Councilor Fitzgibbons? Yes.

Item number two, the renewable energy systems for extension. Good evening.

Good evening. Before we start on this, just a fun fact about the property we just talked about. That was the site of the Welland Hotel back in the day. And to talk about interference with the neighbors, that was at least a four, maybe five-story hotel. So any permanent structure, residential, I think would be an improvement to the neighborhood. Tonight, what we're talking about is an extension of Local Law 1 of 2025. Previous council adopted this local law, which established a moratorium on certain renewable energy systems. It went into effect on August 21st of last year, and it involves really any type of renewable energy system, solar, wind, biomass. In particular, what we were really kind of focusing on was the battery energy storage systems. These generally complement a renewable project, but they're large battery energy storage facilities. Technology has improved over the years. If you go online, you can look at lots of videos of these things blowing up and getting out of control. And so that has kind of informed our decision making and the public's decision making. A lot of people don't like them, right? They don't like data centers, they don't like any of these renewable projects. But the reality is the state of New York has established some goals that communities and power companies are charged with. trying to meet, and one of them is the use of renewable energy in more abundance over the next several decades. One way to do that is through a battery energy storage system, which collects, it's a battery, right? So it collects electricity, it stores it until the community and the grid needs it to heat the house in the winter or cool it down in the summer, right? So really, really hot days, really, really cold days, or when there's just a demand for energy. So these battery energy storage systems are popping up all over the state. Oswego New York is not immune to the companies that are looking to develop these, but in order to get out ahead of the companies and what they're looking to do. We adopted a resolution and a local law last year just to put a hold on it. It's not a permanent hold, it can't be under New York State law. But it was for a one year period so that we could study and put together regulations to best cite these storage facilities in zones that make sense and try to limit them or eliminate them in other zones that don't make sense, like high density residential neighborhoods. We have a committee. Most of the members are in this room right now. We've been working diligently over the last 11 months or so. But we're running out of time, and we want to make sure that we do this right. The local law built in an additional six months of extension if it's needed. And tonight, I'm informing you that the committee believes it's needed. This is not, again, an attempt to just delay We want to, and we're close to having regulations that make sense for SWGO residents and taxpayers, but we need a little bit more time. How much time? The local law allows for a six-month extension. We're suggesting that we take all of that. We may not need it all, and if we don't need it all, we'll adopt a local law and the regulations for renewable energy systems and battery energy storage in particular. And when that's in effect, this moratorium goes away. So worst case scenario, it would extend through February of next year, but our internal goal is to try to get this done sometime in the last quarter of this year. So that's the ask. The local law builds in an extension. It doesn't require another public hearing or a new local law. It simply requires a resolution of this board. So that's the ask. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? If not, oh.

I'll ask. So these systems are probably lithium, right?

Yes, primarily lithium, lithium ion, lithium, I don't know all the components, Chief Conzone can probably talk a little more intelligently about them, but I can share that the technology, I am aware of this through some of my training and the Chief again can speak more authoritative on it, The technology's advanced to the point where the risk of fire and runaway fires has been significantly reduced. They compartmentalize these storage facilities so that if one battery catches on fire, it's contained in a separate compartment, doesn't affect the others. The previous technology was all kind of lumped together, and if one caught on fire, it would catch the other, and the whole thing would go up. And that's You want to do a deep dive on the internet, you can spend a couple hours looking at these things. But yes, hopefully that answered your question.

OK. Thank you.

Any other questions? Can I get a motion? Councillor Fitzgibbons, Councillor Thompson.

Councillor Lonczak?

Yes.

Councillor Thompson? Yes. Councillor Fitzgibbons? Yes.

Is there any additional business that we need to attend to? If not, I would like to get a motion for closing the planning and development meeting. Councilor Fitzgibbons, Councilor Thompson.

Councilor Lonsak? Yes. Councilor Thompson? Yes. Councilor Fitzgibbons? Yes.

At this time, I'd like to open the Physical Services Committee meeting for August 3rd, 2026. Could I have a roll call, please?

Councillor Meyer?

Here.

Councillor Plunkett? Here. Councillor Ashland? Here. Councillor Kennedy?

Here.

Could I have a motion to approve the minutes of the July 20th, 2026 meeting? Councillor Plunkett, Councillor Ashland. Roll call, please.

Councillor Meyer?

Yes.

Councillor Plunkett? Yes. Councillor Ashland? Yes. Councillor Kennedy?

Yes. We have one item under old business, the first item. The Office of Economic Development received a request for use of public space from Colin Seeley of the Oswego County OASAS to host the Community Health Outreach Fair on August 26th, 2026 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Good evening, counselors. I just wanted to reach out to introduce myself in case you aren't familiar with East Vigo County Prevention Coalition. I know you're all familiar with Lisa Latim who works with the Suicide Prevention Coalition who was here a few weeks back. We are working on setting up this event as part of our initiatives for the Cultural Humility Subcommittee we're working on. As we have seen concerns with the amount of populations aren't able to get access to health care services that they're in need of in terms of like cancer screenings, um, disability services and such. So one of the efforts we decided to work on was setting up this community health outreach fair as an option for people to go. And we are ideally wanting to have it set up in bright back as a center in the community. as well as an option for people that speak non-English languages. That was one of the other big barriers of people accessing services for prevention and intervention, especially relating to substance use and abuse, is due to the language barrier. So one of the things we want to work on with this event is to have our materials translated into different languages. For example, Spanish and Russian is one that we already have our materials translated into. as well as having an American Sign Language interpreter to help out any individuals to talk with any of the vendors at the event. We also want to highlight some of the major components of the community's culture, so we are interested in having some places like the CNY Arts Center attend. as well as the Shabbat of Oswego attend. And we wanted to do this because we wanted to combine the parts of prevention work with the parts of cultural humility to ultimately have an event where people that may not be able to access these services on their own can have a place they can go to. And another barrier that we wanted to address was frequently with childcare, especially if people have a lot of kids, they might not have a big support system. So one of the things we're going to have all the vendors do is each of them is going to bring an activity for the kids to play with while the parents can work on focusing on getting the services set up that they're interested in. So currently we have about 13 vendors that are interested in the idea of attending the event with roughly about, we're anticipating about 25 to 30 or so in attendance in total. And we were just thinking Brightbeck would be the best place to do it. It's one of the big cultural center points in the community. And we thought with the space, it'd be a great way to have some outside activities, so like cornhole and other activities.

Any questions?

Councilor Kennedy. Is this the first year you've done this? That's correct, yes. Okay. And then how would you, sorry, advertising, like how does that get out?

How do you let people know about it? So we currently have a flyer already set up for the event. We haven't distributed it yet pending the approval for the location. But we've been giving it out to the people who have agreed to the program already. And we're just telling them to hold off on promoting the event. But we're going to have them post sites on socials. I'm going to print out the flyers to distribute them throughout the community, places like the libraries, potentially the parks where accessible, as well as some of the local stores. That way we can get the word out as well as our socials.

And you are, just so you're aware, you know that this doesn't get approved until next Monday, correct? That's correct, yeah. Okay, I just want to make sure you're right. Okay, thank you.

Any other questions? Everybody good? Okay. Could I have a motion, please? Councillor Plunkett, Councillor Ashland. Roll call, please.

Councillor Meyer?

Yes.

Councillor Plunkett? Yes. Councillor Ashland? Yes. Councillor Kennedy? Yes.

That's our old business under new business authorization, first item. Councilor Chance-Kennedy requests discussion regarding a request from Sierra Sullivan of the Harborfest Board of Directors inquiring about the donation of a couch to Oswego Harbor Festivals Incorporated. Is there anyone here?

Hi, everybody. So I don't know if a few of you got to visit the new VIP members lounge. And it was so kind of Craig Rabior to get us allowed to use the couch that is no longer in service. It's been sitting out at the cold storage. It's a beautiful red couch, but lots of wear and tear on it. And I was curious about the possibility of having that donated to Harbor Fest. Since then, I've learned that that might be not quite Yeah, that's not how it works. So my request is, would it be possible for us to negotiate a rate so it doesn't have to go to auction and consider that before it goes off and just gets auctioned off?

If I'm not mistaken, I read the email from Kevin. It had to be placed at fair market value, and then we could do something with that. So we'd have to have an appraisal of the furniture, I believe.

In lieu of appraisal, it also suggested that you could do a search of local areas and find out all the different couches and stuff like that that are similar in value. and upon our research we found that it's somewhere in the four to seven hundred dollar range for a seven-year-old couch that that has that and so we're offering something in the middle of that range and I could put it together in writing and send it to you if that's valuable or helpful yeah I would say we'd probably have to have something in writing and then we could table we could table this motion and

get with Kevin and see where we're at legally. Councilor Thompson. Okay.

So this couch right now, if you were to buy it retail, is about $10,000. $5,500.

You can buy it brand new right now.

Well, we have to go through city sources for that. So it's $10,000 to taxpayers. That's not what we paid whenever we bought it, but I think it was $7,000 if I'm not mistaken. I can't remember the numbers. And since then, cushions have been bought for it, which run about 3,000. So there's a good amount of taxpayer money into this couch. I do think it'd be best and fair if it does go to auction, because it does eliminate any potential legal objections to it. And you would be more than welcome to bid on it as well. And whatever the price that lands would be really the fair market value.

Do we know when the auction might be? How would I know or what the process would be?

That is a great question. I don't see Craig here tonight. We could definitely follow up with you with that information.

Okay. Yeah.

If that works.

Councilor Fitzgibbon.

The Comptroller's Office is very respectful.

And I think, you know, as much as we would try to carve an opportunity, it really, that carve gets you to be our thumb on the scale of a good, someone of that art choice. And you've got to be very careful. it was scheduled for auction yeah it was scheduled for auction

Right. Right. Right.

Thank you Thank you, thank you I'd like to second that it was a great weekend for sure and I'll make sure that you get that information. Okay. Thank you so much Item two

The Zoning and Planning Office proceeded to request the use of public space from National Grid for property located at 249 West 5th Street to install a utility pole. Mr. McGann.

Pretty straightforward ask. National Grid needs to install a new pole by 249 West Fifth. If anybody's familiar with that, the Casteldos bought that property formerly Bill's Grocery. Most recently there was a hair salon in there. They came through the boards to get a special permit to turn that commercial space into another rental unit and Very nice site plan where they're going to eliminate a lot of the hard surface and put in green space to bring it to more of a neighborhood look. But in doing so, they also need new electrical service for the property. Heavier gauge wire requires stronger pull than it exists there now. So this is just for a poll to run a new service.

Any questions? Council Fitzgibbons.

A new pole, we have a number of old poles when they put in new poles they don't take out. Is this going to be a brand new pole with an existing pole they're replacing?

Correct, and so actually Kevin and I have been working with National Grid to try, a lot of times what happens when they cut those poles, they cut them off and they leave Verizon or Spectrum on the poles, and we're working with National Grid to try to get these other utility companies to move their lines quicker so that we can get those other poles down sooner, so that we're not seeing six months of

And I understand the changeover. It's just I know constituents who have been given vague answers, like we're just here to put in a new one, leaving behind a fallow bull, cut half off, left with no plan or any expectation they're ever going to address it. This is a great investment. and support it, but there should be a call and response of public space, and they should be also, within reason, working with the other two utilities who share the pole to make the changeover so that neighbors aren't left with the pole. Poles are a necessary component, but having two makes it difficult. Mowing the grass, there's a lot of reasons there are.

Totally agree. We totally agree. And we are trying to push that issue with National Grid so that we don't see them sitting for six months before the other utilities are moved. Same thing, like you said, when they take down those poles, a lot of times they take down now the lights that we've purchased, the street lights. We were finding them laying on the side of the road in yards. We now have them strapping them to the new pole they put up so that we can go back through. with our contractors and put them back up. So we're making progress on it.

I think in all the conversations for new service, I would reinforce that maintaining the network and infrastructure of existing service in a respectful way for all involved. We welcome the opportunity and the improvement to the neighborhood.

No problem. I'd be happy to include you in on emails going forward on that as well. Yes.

Councillor Thompson.

In the drawing, it looks like it's far enough set back where it's not going to block the stop sign. It's a four-way stop, so I just want to make sure we're not. Correct.

It is away from the corner quite a bit.

Okay. Thanks.

Any other questions? Comments? Can I have a motion, please? Councillor Kennedy. Councillor Ashland. Roll call, please.

Councillor Meyer. Yes. Councillor Plunkett. Yes. Councillor Ashland. Yes. Councillor Kennedy.

Yes.

Item three, the Office of Economic Development received a request for use of public space from Susan McBridey to host a West Fifth Street block party on Saturday, August 15th, 2026, starting at 5 PM. Ms. McBridey.

Hi, how are you folks tonight? So I'm Susan McBride. I live at 15 West 5th Street. And I'm here to represent our block. We're having a block party on the 15th. We've done this, I think this is our seventh year, without any incident. We're requesting the block closure at Van Buren and 5th and Lake and 5th. We would like a waiver of the open container ordinance and a third one. think it was noise ordinance the noise ordinance so we're having a small band there it's a two-piece amplified small amp amplification they'll start a sound check at 5 they'll run from 6 to 9 definitely should be over by 10 at the latest any questions comments motion please councillor Plunkett councillor Ashland roll call please

Councilor Meyer?

Yes.

Councilor Plunkett? Yes. Councilor Ashland? Yes. Councilor Kennedy? Yes.

Item four, the Office of Economic Development received a request for use of public space from Christine Wills to host a glow and flow event on Saturday, August 15th, 2026 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Anyone here to talk on that?

Hi, I'm Kim McPherson. This is Christine Wills. She's afraid to speak, but she's going to speak because this was not my, I didn't initiate this, she did.

I'm very nervous. I don't do this stuff.

I'm supporting her. So what the Glow and Flow event is, it just is like a group of friends getting together, and when she said kayaks, non-motorized, nothing motorized, no motorized vehicles. So kayak canoe boards boards, right there you light them up But when she did was talking to me about that I said you really want to go to the city because it's in the evening It's not during the day and to just surprisingly have a handful of people out in the water We did not want to do that to the city. So we spoke with mr. Conzone He has given us you know, an area to be. We don't have vendors. We don't have a food truck. We don't have our own stuff. The music that you do have would be a boombox. Yeah, a little radio. If. But that's generally that's all it really is. We've noticed that from Rochester to Brewerton, right straight up to Canada, that they have these types of events. So could it be something later on for the city of Oswego? Probably. We'll have a great turnout like I'd be very hard-pressed to say that you'll see me in the water I'll be in the kayak So that's basically all that we're looking to the city just to make sure that we can do something like that That's all so is this gonna be in in the harbor area or okay by the docks by the lighthouse area kids as long as we stay out of the

I just don't want to get run over by one of the cement ships coming in.

So we talked about that. I appreciate them reaching out to us. We're not sure that what they're asking even requires to go through the process, but we appreciate them reaching out to us. So they're going to be behind Brightbeck Park, out of the boating channel. They're going to be at night, so we're going to use that as a good opportunity to get out there at night, do some training, and hang out and make sure everybody's safe.

Excellent. And we appreciate it. Yeah.

Any questions? Council Kennedy.

So for Chief Conzone, so this is, so basically this was just kind of part of what you were going to do anyways, like this isn't going to,

Additional training or like cost or anything we'll probably put it will probably put a boat car on for this at night but it'll be within our overtime budget and Yeah, it's a good opportunity to get out there at night and we have a lot of we have you know thermal imaging cameras to test and you know night vision and Lighting and so we're happy to support it sounds like a great event.

I just want to make sure Okay, gathering, sorry, sorry, sorry.

It could eventually be an event. We'll see how this participation is, and if it turns out good, we could probably work on something, but we haven't sought out sponsorship or anything like that.

Sorry, I misspoke. I apologize. Sorry.

Wishful thinking. Yes, Councilor Tafson. How many people do you expect for this? not like maybe maybe 30 40 30 or 40. it's the first time so i mean it's not public like we didn't put anything out to the public it's just people that we know it sounds fun well it definitely sounds fun and it's definitely different definitely um uses the heart the water around us so that's that's wonderful

I'm not aware.

Not that I know of, no.

So I noticed there's no rain date. Would you like to add a rain date just in case?

Actually, I went in and talked to Maddie. And it was supposed to be the following weekend.

Okay, I didn't see it either, so she didn't say anything to me about it, but okay.

Can we amend that?

So beyond the 22nd would be the rain date? Yes. Okay, yeah, we can amend that. We'll amend the motion when we make it. Any more discussion?

Yeah, just to decide, you know, it sounds like a great event. Being on the water at night is obviously a concern for safety is probably paramount. So, you know, the paddlers, personal flotation devices, the encouragement, obviously, those elements, being on the water in the dark or after, you know, in the twilight, you know, it raises those concerns. While it's not an event, if you could encourage all the behavior that would happen in an event from a safety point of view.

So I said bar doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be going down there and drinking. I know. No, I got that. But I don't think that the group of people would be like that.

I understand. It's just a general observation. Paddle boards sometimes leave the dock without personal flotation devices. It's night. That's required. But whistles are required. There's a lot of safety devices that sometimes get taken for granted. An encouragement for all those things will help to bring a level of safety. for not only that event, but to the community for participants that use that type of recreation.

Yes, we've discussed all that.

Plus, you asked if we could have everybody wear a glow stick on their vest, which I'll provide those. Yeah. Sounds fun.

But you'd be upset if you didn't say it. So I guess if you didn't mention that, you'd probably be sorry that you didn't.

Well, it's better said than not said.

Any other questions? Go ahead.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You were too close.

I have to put that on my calendar.

Any other questions? Grab a motion, please. Councilor Kennedy, Councilor Plunkett. Roll call, please. We have to make a motion to amend this to include the rain date for the 22nd. So we'll do that as an, we'll put the amendment on and vote on that and then vote on the motion. Okay, so can I have a, Okay, Councillor Plunkett, Councillor Ashland, roll call please for the amendment.

Councillor Meyer?

Yes.

Councillor Plunkett? Yes. Councillor Ashland? Yes. Councillor Kennedy? Yes.

Now can I have a motion for the resolution as amended? Councillor Ashland, Councillor Kennedy, roll call please.

Councillor Meyer?

Yes.

Councillor Plunkett? Yes. Councillor Ashland? Yes. Councillor Kennedy? Yes.

Thank you ladies. Item 5, Mayor Robert A. Cordino received a request for use of public space from Eason Lee to hold a wedding ceremony at Brightbeck Park on Monday, August 10, 2026 at 6 PM. Mr. Lee.

Good evening. So yeah, I'm Eason Lee. I'm getting married with Kayla Volkermore next Monday, August 10 at 5 to 6 p.m. around there. And the setup is from 3 p.m. onward. We are going to get married between the bell and the lake. That's a tree there. That's beautiful. And we're going to do it there. And hoping to make that request from everyone.

So we're talking, did you rent the pavilion or just for the wedding or?

Yeah, so the wedding ceremony is only going to be about 24 people. So we're going to be some chairs, an aisle, and we're going to put some designs on the tree. And then we're going to take it all down before 8 PM, 7 PM.

Nice. Excellent. Congratulations. Thank you. Any questions?

I'm going to add a congratulations, too. Sounds awesome.

Thank you, thank you. And I can't wait to cause we got my home too, so that's awesome.

Any other comments, questions? Motion, please. Councillor Plunkett, Councillor Kennedy, roll call, please.

Councillor Meyer? Yes. Councillor Plunkett? Yes. Councillor Ashland? Yes. Councillor Kennedy? Yes.

I see no other business on the agenda. At this time, could I please have a motion to close the meeting? Councillor Ashland, Councillor Plunkett, roll call, please.

Councillor Meyer?

Yes.

Councillor Plunkett? Yes. Councillor Ashland? Yes. Councillor Kennedy?

Yes. At this time, I'd like to call the order of the Administrative Services Committee. Clerk, please call the roll.

Councillor Plunkett?

Yes.

Councillor Meyer? Yes. Councillor Fitzgibbons?

Here. Councillor Lonsak?

Here. Councillor Ashland?

Here. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the July 6th, 2026 committee meeting, please? Councillor Lonsak, Councillor Meyer?

Councillor Plunkett? Yes. Councillor Meyer?

Yes.

Councillor Fitzgibbons? Yes. Councillor Lonsak? Yes. Councillor Ashland?

Yes. Is there any old business? If not, let's move on to new business item one under authorization. The engineering office requests authorization for the mayor to sign supplemental request number two with JMT of New York incorporated in the amount of $30,278.60 for additional professional services regarding the Riverwalk West Bridge Street to West Utica Street project. Ms. City Engineer?

Yes, hello. I am here requesting some additional services or additional funds for services that have already been completed. This project has seen council a number of times. There were 11 change orders, 10 change orders. It was originally a project started in 2022 to repair the Riverwalk. At one point, they were doing construction, and an excavator fell through the concrete sidewalk. So that portion of the work was stopped. But just the example of that shows you how many unknowns were found during this project. So they came back to the city a number of times. We did some redesigns, new retaining walls. A lot of new design work was done while the contractor and the construction inspection agency was in the field. Unfortunately, as they were closing out this project at the end of 2024, JMT as a company got a new software system and managed to scramble a bunch of files and their storage system was all a mess. So it took them some time to come back with all of the data that was required to close out the project. at that time they came back and the amount of time that they spent that you see that they attached from January of 2025 through that spring was all the closeout work the final inspections punch list dealing with the contractor to identify change order costs and such things like that. So those are the services that they have already provided and are just requesting that we add our overall budget to 430. I don't have that number. It went from 405 to 435, I believe was what it was. Thank you. to finish our payment to that company for their services.

Any questions? Councilor Meyer?

You said the excavator fell through the sidewalk? Yes, it did. Was it due to, I mean, like river erosion from underneath? Correct. And it weakened the concrete?

So, not only in that area are there tunnels and culverts that pass under First Street and into the river. There were original arches that were not determined there in the first place and when the retaining wall at the edge of the river and the slab for the concrete sidewalk were originally attached. And they cut them to do repair. And the slab then had no bearing underneath it and fell down. Thankfully, not all the way down into the river. They were able to get a crane in there and get them out. But obviously, that area has been off limits for some time now.

Is that in the area where the railroad went through? There were tunnels going down Utica Street underneath.

It's right behind the post office.

Okay.

So right in that area where those arches are typically found.

Okay. Councilor Fitzgerald. No, go ahead.

What was the time between the rendering of the services and the restoration of their files when they figured they made a mistake or lost their data?

So they didn't ever lose their data. They just weren't able to print the reporting that we were required.

How long did it take from the time they provided the services and they asked us for the money?

I don't have a good estimate of that. I know that the bill we received most recently was April 7th of 2026. I don't know if there was a bill prior to that. I couldn't, I don't have one.

That reflected that we were short paying them $30,000.

Correct. I believe that Jeff was aware that a final bill was coming from them for that work. Yes, correct. When they were closing out the project in December of 24, they were aware that there was going to be more hours to come. And they were told to simply provide us with XYZ and the hours that they spent and that he would propose that to counsel for payment. That's the date on the bill that I see.

So you didn't see it? When did you see it?

Last week. So it went to our purchasing office. And he is the person that normally pays bills that come through him. And he said, we need to propose this to council. So here I am.

We worked for the same goal. Of course, yeah. And so I just wondered if we did work 10 months ago, and they couldn't keep track of it, and then it really percolates back to your attention. I did reach out to JMT and spoke with them directly this morning. Were you comfortable with the explanation?

I was comfortable with the explanation of the work that they said they performed during that time. I spoke with not only the head of the department, but the gentleman who was their on-site rep. Do I know that that's the work they did? No, I was not here. But this was the explanation that they gave me. And he walked through a timeline of all of the work that was provided, the dates that everything happened. He was very knowledgeable on all the work that was done, including the company that did all of the design work and change orders and things like that.

Any other questions from the council? Questions or comments from the audience? Matt, can I get a motion, please? Councilor Meyer? Councilor Lonsack?

Councilor Plunkett? Yes. Councilor Meyer? Yes. Councilor Fitzgibbons? Yes. Councilor Lonsack?

Yes.

Councilor Ashland?

Yes.

Item 200, authorization. The engineering office requests authorization for the city chamberlain to complete a budget amendment in the amount of $46,000 to the high dam utilities account to cover the new PSC monthly customer charge.

Sure. This is information that we received about a month ago that High Dam is now being classified under a different designation with National Grid. It has to do with the fact that we produce power and we put it out at a certain, we transfer it to a specific transmission line And therefore, we are charged the same way as it comes into the building. And that is their new policy. that means that there is this almost five thousand dollar monthly charge to be one of these providers in order to accept power into the powerhouse for lights air conditioning etc since this has come up we have been working with national grid and trying to get everything set up with our nyserda contracts so that we are selling energy at a better rate which will make this offset some of this cost in the future we have done a lot of conversation trying to figure out why suddenly this is changed but we haven't really gotten a solid answer except that this is the class you are in and this is what it costs so we are asking to amend our budget to account for that

Anyone have any questions?

I do. It sounds like extortion.

I mean, it really does. I mean, what does it do to the bottom line of the high demand? And would the same thing apply to the energy and power facility who, if they don't sell power to the factory next door, it should go to the grid? Does the same apply to them? And why wouldn't it?

I think that that would be a very good question for them. I believe that there was a specific designation that we were given that is for a standalone hydroelectric generators under SC3A classification. So that. somewhere in their law means they can charge us this. Do you have something to add?

I can shed a little bit more light on this. This is a directive from the Public Service Commission that established new tariff rates for particular generating facilities across the state. The city's high dam fits the new classification that our city educator just mentioned. And with that comes a new higher tariff rate, right? So we went from roughly $1,500 now to $5,100 per month, and that's why the request is being made. That having been said, and this touched on with the new NYSERDA contract and the power purchase agreement with the state of New York. towards a very large amount of money the city of Oswego is poised to receive over the course of the many years that we entered into a power purchase agreement. Does it sit well? Is it great? Is it extortion? I wouldn't go that far. It was set by the Public Service Commission. But the benefit to the city of Oswego in having its own high end and Producing power and selling power on the rec open market is a substantially greater benefit to the city than this increase in tariff. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney.

Mr. Becker, any questions, comments? I'm a little confused about this . Do we own it?

Yes, we do.

Are you sure?

we are paying for our power to the to the plant and that's what we are being charged for so how i understand that sorry so we're paying our own power we pay for power to run the facility and then we sell the power that we make back to them

Boy, oh boy, that's quite the contract, that thing. I'm loving this. It's interesting.

Maybe once we get our battery energy storage solution, we could build one. The city could build one.

No, we're not doing that. You've missed out on this thing for the last 30 years. Yeah, no one's blaming you. You spent quite the middle of this thing.

Of course.

Oh, I understand.

Have a ball, because I'll tell you, that thing has been in controversy for 40 years.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

Well, and two, I'm not a taxpayer, and I wish I was, because I've really been on it.

I'm sorry. I did ask if they could put the power directly to my house first.

I tried that too.

And I was told no.

I tried that too.

But I do know that we are working very hard to produce energy, produce good energy, a lot of energy, and get paid for it as best we can.

All I want to see is the city of Oswego and the handout paid. Get National Grid, especially them,

Great. Thank you. Councilor Lonsack.

I don't know if this question's for it, but is this a flat rate tariff, or is this dependent upon how much energy they use?

I believe it was flat.

I believe it is flat rate. It's just a new classification that requires a... an increased amount. The $5,100 a month is spread out over 12 months. That's why they would ask for $46,000, right? So that rate is flat. Whether it gets increased annually by the Public Service Commission, I can't answer that. But what you are being asked to authorize tonight is an increase for $46,000, which is $51,000.

And when we are fully up with I've been running yes, yeah Do we have any estimates on what we'll be producing?

Yes, we do and I believe that they have been Given to you.

Is there any way we can bump it up another? 46,000 over a couple of years since national grid was some kind of

When you look at the spreadsheets and the graphs, yes, there's potential to be making millions of dollars on this site.

Net positive.

Yes, net positive.

Counselor Thompson. So just to clarify, sounds like our hands are tied, because it's the Public Service Commission that's- Unfortunately, yes, I'm not providing you with any information you want to hear.

I'm telling you our bill went from $200 to $400, or whatever the case may be, same as everybody else at National Grid.

So this is something that we can't choose not to pay, we have to pay. It's not up. Thank you.

If we want to continue to make energy, we have to pay this.

Councillor Kennedy.

Question, and correct me if I'm wrong, but were we still working on the fourth, I believe, like generator that's supposed to generate electricity for the high dam?

We currently have the ability to run three of our turbines, three generators out of four. Unit one is still in rework and we've been working with Siemens trying to get the pieces we need fixed, repaired, replaced, and get that up and running as soon as we can.

Do you have an estimate on when that could be so we could make more power?

We're working on it. Yeah. Our hope is by the end of the year, but I'm not making any promises. We have not ordered a part. And some of these parts have 14 to 23 weeks of lead time, plus shipping back and forth. And installation, I think, was an 8 to 10 week process. it does take time and we're trying to get the city the best prices that we can so we're negotiating pretty much daily thank you anybody else yes mr walker when did you first hear that the public service commission was going to up that or national grade that's my question i don't know

to me just how it seems and it doesn't sit well with me, is if they just came out with what works with this, it just doesn't sit well. I mean, the approval when you affect people first, no. So I don't know exactly when the Public Service Commission order came down and when anyone in the city received notice of that, but this is affecting people first.

I should add, however, that the power purchase agreement that the mayor negotiated with the state of New York and

class one payments, the state is making that retroactive and apply it to the city of Oswego so that we'll be receiving income from our energy production. Ironically. But again, the amount that the city is going to be receiving and producing its power is exponentially greater than the new tariff amount. No, I don't think anyone is doubting what the net yield is. It's just, you know what I'm saying, like everyone's dealing with affordability rather if you're a person, locality, whatever, and then all of a sudden you take the next turn and someone, you know, you get a punch in the gut and you go, oh yeah, you gotta pay this too. This is how I see that. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Can I get a motion, please? Councilor Lonsack, Councilor Meyer.

Councilor Plunkett? Yes. Councilor Meyer? Yes. Councilor Fitzgibbons? Yes. Councilor Lonsack? Yes. Councilor Ashland? Yes.

Thank you, Liz. No problem. That's it for authorizations. Anybody have anything else? Yeah, I have some new business.

Councilor Fitzgibbons? Yes. Thank you. First, I'd like to preface my comments. From the charter, it speaks of the council shall determine the rules of its own proceeding. And then follow that with, for discussion, I'd like to talk about giving an opportunity for the public to engage the legislative branch. open session of 15 minutes prior to commencing our committee meeting. The goal of that would be have greater accountability to our residents, transparency for the process that we have, become better informed as citizens come forward. create legitimacy for the legislative initiatives and outcomes we're hoping to achieve. This is on the front side of our legislative process. And that's acknowledging the fact that the council meetings have an opportunity for public comment. I appreciate that. That's after this conversation has happened, this dialogue has occurred, the legislative formation of our next step has been asked. At the front side of this is another opportunity that I think the gateway for conversation, the gateway for engagement for the citizens of our community would be valuable. I believe that we all know, and we all as engaged counselors, are being touched and reached by citizens all the time. By phone, by email, by personal contact in the grocery stores and in the community. But I think that the greater good is served by having an opportunity for the public to have dialogue with us. So from my point of view, I would like to have us collectively consider And have that in the public discussion of whether we think that's a positive addition to the legislative process. And it's okay if as fellow legislators you choose not to accept that. That's up to you. I know what I will, I will vote for listening to people all the time. And if the dad's 15 minutes to our day, two times a month, I'm okay with that. So I guess how do we form that into a legislative agenda to allow for us to modify our rules? Because again, remembering what our charter says, the council shall determine the rules of its own proceedings. So if someone wants to tell me why that doesn't become our opportunity to make a change, and I'm not talking about, I'm not looking to. I'm looking to improve the process to which we go. So that's my new agenda item. So how that then comes forward in the conversation among my peers, I put it out there. And we'll see where the conversation goes from there. Yeah? Councilor Meyer?

Councilor Fitzgibbons and I did have this conversation. I did check with NICOM. I got their call back today. And they were in agreement that we could do 15 minutes if we so chose. So it's not anything, there's no legalities involved. If we wanted to put in a 15-minute public session or public speaking, they were in favor of that. They said it was okay for us to do. So that's just something to put in the back of your minds when you're considering this.

Councilor Thompson?

Yeah, so could I just suggest that this gets tabled and put on the agenda because the public wasn't notified about this item. And we're talking about public participation, right, and transparency. And it's not really transparent to do it right off the floor, I don't think. So I would suggest give it two weeks or maybe four because we're definitely in the budget month. Allow the public to be able to come and speak on it. Public input is very important, right, on anything that we discuss. As well as perhaps get our city attorney's input on the process and procedure that would have to occur in order to make such a change. I do suggest that we also take into consideration people that come to the meeting for items on the agenda um be consider of their time as well so like if we do end up proceeding with a public session i don't think it has to be in the beginning i think it could be at the end so that way we're considerate of the public's time that are just coming here to speak to item department heads that might have other obligations that where their windows short and they're just coming to speak but i think it's important to give notice to the public about this topic since it definitely impacts them

councillor Kennedy

So, taking us for another two weeks, fine, but the only time I would say, you know, moving this forward, it's about what we're assuming on the participant, on the stakeholder contribution to the city. So, you know, getting back onto the council of states, council president.

is a prime opportunity for other people to see what's on the agenda, because they're up on the table to say, hey, I don't know what this is, and I think this explains to people, and whatever.

This is the time I feel like a public session would be more appropriate for that kind of comment, because my time for the council will come before I talk about it, before I make a decision For the most part, there is discussion, obviously.

But, you know, just many of these things are where they actually got them, so I would say having that additional input, you know, doesn't stop me.

And I realize that, you know, a lot of people have commitments, and that's understandable, but this is how government works. It's very slow at working and tabling things. Councilor Thompson.

I like to respond to Councilor Kennedy's points. The public is allowed to speak on action items. We actually just witnessed that tonight multiple times from the audience. We do not restrict that. The public is always welcome to come in and provide their input. It's actually encouraged. That is actually the appropriate place to talk about items that are on the agenda. Now, during public session, we just listen. We don't actually respond. So they're two different things. So either they're coming to speak on agenda items, which they currently could do. So we're not solving a problem that exists, because there's no issue there. Or we're just adding a public session just to give them another forum to speak. But again, we're not supposed to respond during public session. We're there to listen. So it's two different things. So I don't think we should be creating an issue just to push a item forward. There needs to be justification. It needs to be clear, cut and dry. And I think it needs to be on the agenda. That's why I think it needs to be tabled, so that way the public has proper notice. because doing it off the floor like this is not fair to the public. Thank you.

Councillor Meyer.

Well, my comment was we brought this up off the floor for discussion, which that's what we're doing now. Should we decide to go forward with it, then put it on the agenda for a couple of weeks, make a motion. That way the public has a chance to see it. It'll be publicized. They can come make comments. And I think that was, if we're looking for all fairness all around, I think that that would be a good way to do this. Seeing as how this, it came up off the floor, it's a good topic for discussion. I think it's, I think it could be useful. However, more discussion needed, and we can discuss that tonight. If we feel that it should go farther, then we could always put it on the agenda for two weeks and see where it goes then. More discussion then, maybe get some public input, and then we could vote on a resolution to go farther.

I got a comment. This is just for future reference. Somebody sent me a link that one of my fellow counselors had posted something about this online, that this was already a done deal. And I had a few calls from some constituents that wondered why we were doing things behind their back without explaining to them or were we all gathering and making decisions that weren't brought up on the floor or were on the agenda or on authorization. My seven years as a councilman, this has never happened before. I don't really appreciate people making decisions for me before I can vote or at least look into voting. And for future reference, I hope this doesn't happen again. I'm not going to name any names. Councilor Fitzgibbons?

I would be supportive of tabling this and having it out for consideration two weeks from now, if that's fair. Could I see- Also in fairness, no, two weeks. It would be two weeks for the next council committee cycle, I believe. But in all fairness, I had submitted this as an agenda item two days ago and asked for it to be included in the agenda. And in the 11 years of operating the council, I don't know anybody seeing an agenda item removed from the agenda because it should have been on the agenda. So there was no nefarious activity. There was a resolution, a discussion item that was put out there. that was summarily pulled away from public discussion and internally discussed among the administration of the city and not put out for public consideration, that's unfair to the public. And I appreciate the comments on making inferences that the cake is being baked privately. We're making decisions without public discussion. And that's sacred for the process we do. But also it's sacred putting things into the public forum for consideration and not having them removed. So two weeks, I think it's fair. We'll have it out, it'll be published, the opportunity for public discussion.

And you can vote against it.

That's the power of your position.

I just wanted to put that out for future reference, Councilor Fitzgibbons, that's all.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

But it's in context. It's in a greater context. This didn't secretly percolate in my mind. This is what's out there for discussion. And it should have been out there notified in a way that we all, including the public, were fully informed.

Councilor Kennedy.

Thank you, Council President. I just wanted to make sure that again, we're all aware that as Councilor Fitzgibbons had said, this is part of our charter that we have opportunity to frame how our conduct is conducted. And so it is part of that. So I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page and that we don't get any kind of feedback or pushback from that. So thank you.

Councilor Thompson. I'd like to just say, let's not rush it, first of all. Two weeks from now, we should be focused on the budget. And I think that should be our number one focus. So to give it fair consideration, I think we should wait for the second committee meeting, so in four weeks. if you want to add it back to the agenda. I think in two weeks, I think we're going to be overwhelmed with the budget, and that should be our focus. That's what our taxpayers expect at this point. I know you may disagree with me, but right now our focus should be the budget the next couple weeks.

What I would say is, I'm frustrated. I appreciate the four weeks. I don't think that we're going to live and die on four weeks. Folks are fine. Collegially, we all need to work together. We all need to look each other in the eye and try to do the right thing for our constituents. And that's what we're trying to do. And we can disagree in a manner, but I trust everyone here is trying to do the right thing. I know that. So four weeks. I can see that, four weeks. I'm okay with that. Good. Motion to table for four weeks, aye. Aye.

I think four weeks is an odd meeting. I don't want that. The fifth Monday.

So the five weeks? Five weeks. OK.

I don't think I can make a motion. I'll motion it.

Deferring to...

Yes.

Since this was for discussion, do we need a motion? No. We don't need a motion. All we've got to do is put it on the agenda.

We would like to see this, at least for public discussion, out there two meetings from now. Is that fair? Yes.

I believe that's the day after Labor Day. It would be September 7th or 8th or something like that. I think that's the date.

Does anyone have any other statements or comments? Can I get a motion to adjourn please? Councilor Meyer?

Councilor Longsack? Councilor Plunkett? Yes. Councilor Meyer?

Yes.

Councilor Fitzgibbons? Yes. Councilor Longsack?

No.

Councilor Ashley?

Yes.