Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. This is a regular session of the Rome Common Council. The date is September 9th, 2026, and the time is 7.05 p.m. Mrs. Campbell, please call the roll.

Councillor Sprace.

Present.

Councillor Mortis.

Present.

Councillor Fazio. Present. Councillor Smith.

Here.

Councillor Riley.

Present.

Councillor Dursey.

Present.

Councillor Sparaglia.

Present. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. The invocation will be given by the chair. God of wisdom and understanding, guide our discussions and decisions this evening. May we act with fairness, respect, and sincere desire to serve the common good. Amen.

Amen.

At this point, the meeting is open to the public. You have the opportunity to appear before the council and present your views concerning city affairs. If you wish to speak, please step up to the back microphone, state your name and address, and limit yourself to five minutes. Also, please sign in on the speaker sheet as this will help us with our record. We're ready for our first speaker.

Hello, my name is Aaron Ladd. I'm sure several of you have heard of me at 616 Elm Street. I'm here tonight to address parking concerns, mainly the blocking of sidewalks. IT HAS BEEN AN ONGOING THING SINCE THE SIDEWALKS BASICALLY HAVE FEDERAL FUNDING AND ONE OF THE CATCHES WITH THE FEDERAL FUNDING IS THEY ALSO HAVE TO UPDATE THE SIDEWALK TO ADA COMPLIANCE. And then basically from article one of ADA bylaws, basically states the sidewalk cannot be blocked. It has to be able to be passed by at least a 36 inch wide wheelchair under manual power and not end up having to go around an obstacle and end up in a public roadway. With that information in mind, there is several of the sidewalks throughout the city that are now ADA compliant. And it has come to my attention that the actual enforcement of the blocking on sidewalks is kind of a lax idea. While it is illegal to block the sidewalk under section 1202 vehicle traffic law, it's also in the, according to Joe Giuliano, our ADA representative, it's also in the charter for the city. that the sidewalks are not supposed to be blocked. So my concern is that there's several situations throughout the city in which there's no parking on both sides of the street. It's not really an option for the tenants or the occupants of a household or whatever to park their vehicle on the street. And also apparently not all the landlords are necessarily following the idea that one apartment, one parking spot, they're bringing in several tenants and then the cars just basically pile up wherever they end up. THERE HAVE BEEN, I'LL GIVE YOU A COUPLE EXAMPLES. THERE IS A SET OF VEHICLES THAT IS CONSTANTLY BLOCKING THE SIDEWALKS OVER ON TURIN AND THEY ARE IN THE SITUATION OF THERE IS NO PARKING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROAD AND THE DRIVEWAY THAT WAS PROVIDED BY WD HOUSING IS NOT It could probably fit two cars, but three, no way. Two is gonna be extremely tight. And while that's an inconvenience, it is not an excuse for the individuals to continue to block the public sidewalks. It is my view that everybody, every citizen within the city should have the right to walk down a clear sidewalk and stay off of the public roadways as much as possible. And as I have been informed several times by local Rome PD representatives, they do not have the manpower nor they, as it's been stated, they have better things to do. Uh, my feeling, uh, is that the situation has gotten to the point where this is one of those things where it's a little thing it's been ignored long enough. And all of a sudden this little thing is now turned into a big thing. And so it's time that we start paying attention and actually abiding by the law, because at some point this city will be audited by the state. and come up with solutions to the situation in which vehicles are constantly blocking the sidewalks as far as enforcement, or another possible suggestion that I thought about was for these people that don't really have an option to park on the road due to no parking on both sides, maybe institute a monthly or bi-monthly or six month permit, in which case would be sold to the individual and they would pay to park. uh uh on the road wrap it up please aaron yes uh so in conclusion there are options and i feel that the the city should seriously start exploring uh some of these options and really looking at this problem it's been ignored long enough thank you aaron next speaker please anyone else wishing to speak

Public session is closed. The chair will entertain a motion that the reading of the minutes of the preceding session be dispensed with and that they be approved. So moved. Councilor Smith. Second. And Councilor Riley. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Let's see here. We have no petitions, no communications. So we'll go right to reporter city officials. CPW Commissioner Giuliano.

President Nash, members of the Common Council, two issues tonight. Earlier today, I requested to you, President Nash, that you make a tabled motion for Resolution 109. And I'll briefly explain that to the members of the Council and the public so that it's understood. And if there's questions, they can address me directly. Uh, I mean, a couple of weeks ago, I requested this legislation because the city of Rome received the announcement through a Department of Homeland Security representative that the city was awarded 2.3Million dollars in change. For repairs to passenger damn. That were created during hurricane Brad in 2021. I moved to put this legislation on, everything was in place, everything was good, we got it on the agenda. And about 10 days ago, we heard from FEMA that there's still one more hurdle. The review of the Appropriations Board at the FEMA level still has to take place. They're telling me that it could be six to eight weeks for that. So I respectfully ask you to table this resolution 109 on tonight's session. Also to address Mr. Lennon or to make comments on Mr. Lennon's comments that he just made. Mr. Ladd. I'm sorry? Ladd. Mr. Ladd, I'm sorry. A LOT OF THE FACTS THAT HE STATED PER ADA RULES WERE CORRECT. THE CITY DOES RECEIVE FEDERAL MONEY AND WE ARE MANDATED TO MAKE CORRECT ADA CHANGES TO THE PEDESTRIAN WALKS. SO THE CONSTRUCTION SIDE IS THERE. A COUPLE ISSUES THAT HE MENTIONED, A COUPLE CORRECTIONS THAT HE OFFERED, THE CITY WON'T, WE WON'T BE ISSUING ANY SPECIFIC parking permits because we have overnight parking rules between November and April. So that would just kick the can down the road. That wouldn't fix the problem. The city of Rome is not responsible to provide parking to landlords and their tenants. So that's an issue that the landlords have to resolve with the department of public works, the engineering department and the codes department. The codes department can inspect properties and issue citations for lots, parcel lots that have too many vehicles that are parked on grassy areas and not on hard surfaces. So that's an avenue that Mr. Ladd should take up with codes if he has specific addresses that can be inspected. And I will ask you, President Nash, to move Mr. Ladd's comments to their own PD, because the enforcement of those ADA rules and blocking sidewalks, not just ADA, are in our charter. They are in the ADA compliant handbook for the city. So I ask that you move that to Chief James and Commissioner White for further inspection. Thank you.

Anyone else? Board of Councilors and General City Affairs. Mr. Riley.

To touch on Mr. Ladd's comments, Mr. Ladd and I usually text a couple of times a week in regards to parking issues in the city. And it is true as far as I'm sorry, Mr. President, Councilors, I got to get this right. Citizens and visitors. Mr. Ladd and I have talked through text messages several times throughout the week, and I agree with the fact of as far as there's an issue with enforcement, and I'm not saying that it's an issue of Rome PD not wanting to do anything about this. I happen to have a scanner at home and I listened to Rome PD and they are getting crushed every night and every afternoon and every car is getting tied up and they're calling the Sergeant for another call that's coming in. So as far as the enforcement goes, it does go low on the priority list. We all understand that. What I would like is, and I want to be in further talks with the mayor and the chief of staff in regards to, we do have people on a parking staff, uh, that deal with downtown my, my job at downtown. I see them every day walking. The problem with enforcing some of these two-hour parking here and covering a sidewalk and blocking a driveway and things like that is that they don't have transportation to this area. They're on foot. So we need to talk about some type of transportation for that, if that is feasible. Everything costs money. I understand that. But that's something that I talked to Mr. Ladd about, and when I told him I would talk to the mayor about it, I will talk to the mayor about it. So in regards to parking, though, there's issues with Highland Ave that we've addressed in regards to Dentee School, and there's issues with the OPWD as far as the parking goes in regards to the deaf school. It's very packed within that area there. There will be some changes made. Stay patient on that. It's not going on deaf ears. I am taking action on that, and you'll see something in the near future. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Riley. Anyone else for the committees?

President Nash, members of the council. The finance committee met two weeks ago before the meeting. I was not here and able to discuss it, but we met. I want to thank Treasurer Adams and my fellow counselors, Councilor Riley and Councilor Spraglia to dealing with a lot of issues that are pretty heady stuff and they're full of numbers and I don't like them. uh but but we're doing a good job we're watching the numbers we're looking carefully everything we're doing in and and we are closing a lot of of bonds here today that you'll see later on but we did meet we spent a good hour going over things we also spent a while talking with our our auditors and And at this point, the auditors gave us favorable remarks on where we are in the process, which speaks to the Treasurer's Department. So while... The budget is tough and inflation is here and things cost ridiculous amount of money. I think Rome is doing our best to hold our own at this point. So I just want everybody to be aware that we're trying to stay on top of it and we're hopefully continuing on a good path. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Dersing. Any other reports or committees? Onward to resolutions. Resolution number 106.

Authorizing the City of Rome treasurer to close capital projects and to make appropriate accounting entries.

Move it.

Councilor Sparaglia and Councilor Riley. Move and second it. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Resolution number 107.

Authorizing creation of capital project account for the Guyer Field splash pad.

Move that. Councilor Fazio and Councilor Riley. Any discussion? Just for the record, it was $925,000 for this project. And CDBG will have two years of $400,000 each. Then there's a Crest grant for the other $125,000. August will be paid. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, carried. Resolution number 108.

Authorizing the Mayor of the City of Rome to accept a New York State Governor's Traffic Safety Committee grant for the Child Passenger Seat Safety Program in an amount not to exceed $1,500. Move it. Second.

Council Sprague and Council Mortis. Move and second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Resolution number 109.

Authorizing the Mayor of the City of Rome to accept grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, NYSDHSES, for repairs at Cassinger Dam, $2,320,514.90. Move by Councilor Spruce. Second.

Second by Councilor Mortis. Any discussion? Councilor Spruce. President Nash, I'd like to...

Move to table this resolution, please.

And we have a second on that. Second. Councilor Martyrs. Moved and seconded. All in favor of tabling resolution number 109? Aye. Opposed? Resolution number 109 has been tabled. Resolution number 110.

A RESOLUTION SUPPLEMENTING BOND ORDINANCE NUMBER 9702 DATED AND DULY ADAPTED ON MAY 22, 2024, AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $14 MILLION BONDS OF THE CITY OF ROME, ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK, TO PAY THE COST OF REHABILITATING CASSINGER DAM.

MOVE IT. COUNCILOR DERSEY. SECOND. COUNCILOR SPRAGIA. MOVED AND SECONDED. ANY DISCUSSION? THIS RESOLUTION IS BASICALLY JUST FOR LEGAL PURPOSES. TO DOT OUR I'S AND CROSS OUR T'S PER BOND COUNCIL. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED? CARRIED. RESOLUTION NUMBER 111.

AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF ROME TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE ROME CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT SRO. MOVED IT.

COUNCIL SPURTIZ. SECOND. COUNCIL MORTIZ. MOVED AND SECONDED. ANY DISCUSSION? ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED? CARRIED. ORDINANCES. ORDINANCE NUMBER 9901.

Authorizing the mayor of the City of Rome to execute lease agreements with Axon Enterprise Inc. of the leasing of police tasers.

So moved.

Council Sparaglia.

Second.

And Councilor Riley. Unanimous consent. Council Mortis. Second. And Councilor Spruce. Ordinance number 9901 has been moved and seconded. Unanimous consent has been moved and seconded. All in favor of unanimous consent say aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous consent is carried. Any discussion? THIS IS FOR BODY CAMS AND TASERS, AND IT'S A FIVE-YEAR AGREEMENT. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED? CARRIED. CHAIR, UNDERTAIN A MOTION TO ADJOURN. SO MOVED. COUNCIL SMITH AND COUNCIL SPRINGS. ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED?

ADJOURNED.

THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING.