Common Council - Regular Meeting

or is that call the organizational meeting to order. Um first we'll start um got I got four counselors swore one in and I have to have any other sworn in. So we'll start I don't know who wants to go first. Doesn't matter. I want them all.

Just going fine. Am I taking a picture for you? Is Is that what I'm doing? We're trying to make it I would be honored. It would be good. [snorts] Mayor, you're out of the shot. What's that?

You guys are out of the live stream. Do you want to come back over? that you're right. Although swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. I do solemnly swear I'll support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York

and that I will be able to duty. council to the best of my ability. The best of my ability. Congratulations. Thank you. This is perfect. I Jackie Strat.

I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States domly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York. that I will faithfully discharge the duties of that I will faithfully discharge the duties of counselor of war three counselor of war three of the city of Platsburg New York of the city of Plber New York according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability

congratulations Well, the last time unfortunately you guys didn't believe. Yeah. Did you want to come up and do it? You sure? Yeah. You're more than welcome.

Okay. That's why I didn't ask if she wanted me to take a picture. I knew who they were. Okay. All right. Hi, Jennifer Towns. I, Jennifer Talon, I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and const the Constitution of the State of New York. and the Constitution of the State of New York and I will faithfully discharge the duties of And I will faithfully discharge the duties of counselor for counselor of work for the city of Platburg, New York. of the city of Platburg, New York according to the best of my ability. according to the best of my ability. Great. Congratulations. Thank you.

Don't forget to sign. We can go on with the rest of the meeting. Julie, I swore it in earlier today. Let's go. Thank you very good. Um, at this time I will probably do it. We don't have to do the pledge now. We'll do it now.

We'll do that. We'll do that after. Um, we should do a roll call. Mayor Hughes here. Councelor V here. Councelor Evans here. Councelor Strat here. Councelor Talent here. Councelor Benette here. Councelor Colleen here. At this time um at this time the chair will entertain the nomination to the floor of the petition of mayor promp. I would like to nominate David Monac. I have it first. Um do I have a second counc uh any discussion? Can we talk about what mayor prom is

as part of a discussion if you'd like? I think it's a great choice for David though. I agree. I will add, you know, Julie's done a great job for last year. Like to thank her for doing what she did for the last year and I think David's going to do the same. So, I'm really excited for David as well. Any one of you could fill that position.

Mayor Prom is basically when the mayor is not here, you run the meetings. In a nutshell, that's what it is. Um and um if there's in if he's not available to sign certain forms or something then now Dave will have to sign him which we all know that the mayor is always here. Um and so literally there's nothing else. That's it in a nutshell. There's a small stipen. Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean small it's more for the glory not the money. That's what I'm in it for. Yeah. The glory. The glory. Yeah. The glory, not the money. No. So, any other questions? Yeah.

Is that fair? Um, roll call. Councelor Bond, yes. Councelor Evans, yes. Councilor Stra, yes. Councelor Talon, yes. Councelor Manette, do I recuse myself from this vote? Yes. Does that mean

this time chair will entertain nominations to the floor for the position of clerk of the county council. I would like to nominate Jim Evans. Okay. I have a I have a nomination. Do I have a second? Council, any discussion, please? Can you clarify what the clerk does? Go ahead. Go ahead, Amy. I don't know. I mean, I was there once, but it was nothing. Right. The clerk is I mean, it's a more figurehead. It's the glory. I'll take the glory. Are there any are there any specific duties attached to it? I believe Beth, right? I mean, Beth does most

while you had to sign something as a If we have an executive session, the clerk could lead. We have an executive session, we do take notes. Yeah. Amy's done that a couple times. Okay. But I can you you keep track of the motions and first toss and whatever while we're there. Okay. End of executive session. Got it. But I can honestly say when I was at one did nothing. Okay. Nothing happened. Did nothing. Nothing. But even if you do them, they it's it's they'll help you like they'll say this is the part where you do this. Right. Right. That you keep track so you won't just be expected to know. Okay. Awesome. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Good questions. Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Council stretch. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Council Manette. Yes. Councelor Colleen. Yes. Good hearing. Yay.

Item number three, establishment and composition of council and department liaison committees. We're not going to read the whole thing because motion awaits. Do you need that? You can make you can make Jim do it. Yeah. All right. I will entertain a motion for this resolution. Moved by councelor Adam, second council man. Discussion. I have a question. Okay. Um just to clarify, there's one counselor who's in charge of each of these committees and then they report out to the other counselors. Residents will be at the meeting. I mean, these are going to start at 4:30 during our work session.

Okay. So it's going to be at the beginning and we're going to try to do the work session at 5. Oh, I got it. Okay. So we have a liaison. So department heads will have somebody they can speak to other than me. So is this like when when you do the climate task force and you say are there any correct? Correct. And we're all going to be portion of each of the committee. So that's going to be the the biggest thing. Right. So, so are you saying that the work of the committee gets done during the council meetings or is it something that happens at a different time and then there's a report out during the council meetings? No, it's going to be during that work session. Okay. And

I don't dictate the meetings. I mean, you guys dictate how many times we meet. I would love to see more meetings, but this is what we have. But I would like to go back to having some sort of a liaison structure. I think it worked really well and we can try this. Okay. If this doesn't work, if we don't like it, I mean, we're not we can adjust as we go. And does this mean that if there's um for instance, somebody has questions about something to do with MLDD that I would they would go to me and I would go to MLDD if I'm the chair of that. Yes. Is that reach out to them?

Right. No. No. We still going to go we're going to go through the same thing we've been doing. You are going to have MLDD is going to be your thing and I want you to be in tune with MLDD and the same with everybody else, you know, and I tried to put try to match all your strong suits with I think um that was pretty fair. I like the way it came out. Like I said, I would like to see another meeting. So, we had more more of a liazison mini meeting, but I'm working within the confines with you all. Okay. So basically the and you have NLD has got your own board. So yours is going to be a little bit different than everybody else too

because you're going to run that meeting during that you know you can run that meeting. So it's all the resolutions are going to come to that MLDD meeting too. Okay. So yours is going to be a little more I I mean actually Yeah. So is there the option of a head of one of these department committees meeting outside of these meetings with that person and then gathering questions from the group and stuff. Yeah. I'm just trying to understand like the expectations of having one of these of being a head of one of the comm aison for a committee. So I can schedule with Richard and Casey any

just like I said just keep me in loop and and we're good. You know what I mean? I want you. I' I've encouraged you all to get in touch with we have some great department heads sitting out here and they they have some they have a lot of knowledge. We spend a lot of money and you should never have a question about what we're doing. So I guess I'm just wondering are we should we plan to meet right? Oh what yeah if they're not committing to meet Right. Right. And you'd have to have members and Right. It'd be a lot more intense.

So we cannot under this structure meet with just our You can counselor can meet with any department. Just be quick. No, I mean I mean I don't know right it's not the committee's meeting something formal sort of what we do during the work. The work session is the world meeting is more the forum portion the work session. Okay. So is it with this structure is it encouraged for a leaison to meet with a department head outside of meetings and make and like have a cadence of those meetings or is this more so

mean that the lison is just the person that talks during the work session? If you you have questions about especially MLDD we're having a board meeting need to have the answers before we go to that board meeting right yes you're going to get an agenda there's going to be an agenda there's certain things we do you've been to board meet you've been to one of the board meetings right I think a board meeting MLDD board meetings you when it happened once a year I think it's twice as many three times a year I I was actually wasn't there at the last one okay well I mean they're pretty much standard and then But there are questions. I mean there are a lot of things that we cover in those meetings. So yes. No. Yes. I encourage him to get in touch with the MLDD and sit down for those meetings.

Okay. So there should be a cadence of meeting with the committee with the department head outside of the council meetings and then being the resource for that department. Okay. Got it. Just keep the mayor like you said, keep him in the loop. I definitely Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Councelor Bond, yes. Councelor Evans, yes. Councelor Strat, yes. Councelor Talon, yes. Council Reette, yes. Councelor Colleen, yes.

You want to read that? At this time, the chair at the Justin Myers Corporation Council period February 1st, 2026 through January 31st, 2029 and authorizing mayor to enter enter into an agreement to establish terms of the play move by councelor Evans. Is there discussion? I don't believe there's a discussion. I think there should be. [laughter]

Sorry. Well, we didn't appoint it last year for 40 years. That's why we're doing it. Traditionally, we wouldn't be doing this. We made it one year last year for some reason inadvertently and we caught it. So, that's why we're making it for the other three. And we're not changing anything. I mean, it's the same thing we voted on last year. We're just correct. That stands reason. Justin, you're gonna get stuck with us for three years. Yeah. my hand. Yes. Council Evans, yes. Council Strat, yes. Council Talon, yes. Council Manette, yes. Council Colleen, yes. Carrie, item five, appointed a fair housing officer.

Okay. Resolve that Mark Hamilton take the oath of office within 30 days. Wait a minute. Please ask with a copy of this resolution to be given to the code inspector's office, city clerk's office, and then New York State Office of Community. Do I have a motion? Move by councelor Evans. Second, councelor Bond. Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Strat. Is there discussion about this? No. This is the naming Mark Hamilton as the um it's they do this every every year. This the um plastic he runs about 5,000. Okay.

Yes. Councelor Stra said yes. Councelor Tal. Yes. Councelor Reette. Yes. Councelor Colleen.

Yes. Item one, proposed resolutions fixing the dates of the regular meeting of the common council to be held the first and third Thursday of every month at 5:30 p.m. in the common council chambers for the period January 8th, 2026 and terminating December 31st, 2026, except when deemed necessary. Executive sessions will be held in the mayor's office. Quarterly MLDD board meetings will be held on the 5th Thursday of the month at 4:30 p.m. the 2026 schedule is attached and made part of the minutes of this meeting. Moved by councelor on second councelor Evans. Any discussion? So this is a shift in time. It's like today.

Yeah. Today is the uh second Thursday. So essentially this is covering debate as well. Right. Essentially I mean it started today. Yeah. We couldn't have the first week went on. Oh yeah, I didn't want to. Beth didn't want to come in on the first. So any other discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Scratch. Yes. Counc. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Councelor Collins. Yes. Item two, propose resolution designating the Presto Republican of the official newspaper of the city of Platsburg.

Motion by councelor Oh, you got county. I'm sorry. I didn't counselor. Uh, any discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond, yes. Councelor Evans, yes. Councelor Stra, yes. Councelor Talon, yes. Councelor Manette, yes. Councelor Colleen, yes. Gary, item three, proposed resolution designating the community bank Margaret Street branch as the official depository of all city parks. Moved by councelor Evans second. Councelor colleague discussion. Is that where they currently are? Yes,

Richard. We went to RP last year last year. Okay. Any other discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Counc. Yes. Councelor Stretch. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Council Manette. Yes. Councilor Colleen. Yes. Period. Item four, proposed resolution adopting the present investment policy for the period January 1, 2026 ending December 31st, 2026 unless otherwise amended. By council Evans second council discussion

is this for retirement Richard? No, this is okay. followed. Okay. Thank you. That's fine. And by the way, that bank agreement I said last year referring to.

Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Council Evans. Yes. Councelor Stack. Yes. Council Talent. Yes. Council Met. Yes. Council. Yes. Item number five. Resolve that the rules for 2026 PD cards hereby accepted adopted by the common council as follows. Moved by councelor Bond. Second, council manette discussion. I bet should read these. I'm sorry. Y

um any any discussion? Oh yeah, just um could we discuss the part about the public comment changes? That's very important, please. Um okay. So um at the beginning of the meeting the public comment is going to be only for items on the agenda. The agenda for that evening and then there will be another public comment section towards the very end of the meeting for anybody who wishes to speak on any topic whatsoever. Correct. So this is different than what people know but it's like giving a a second public comment section. So yeah everybody nobody will be annoying this opportunity. Okay. Very good. just we're trying to, you know, we have an agenda for the evening. Yep.

We'll get through our agenda and then we can let the uh any other comments come in at the end. And this is a positive thing because um if people wanted to speak on an agenda item, they could just come and speak on it and then take off. Yeah. It's not to limit any public comment by any way, shape, or form. It's just to streamline their meetings a little. Any other discussion? Is this a change in the item that says council members can ask questions of the speaker during or after remarks? No, I've done it a couple times. You just what I've done. This is my personal I said, "Mayor, would you mind if I

so and so question?" That's it. I thought for some reason supposed to address the person. We we tend not to because it's not a good spot sometimes to be in Sarah. Go ahead. The speakers, right? But the counselors are allowed to address the speaker if they request it. Okay. Yeah, that was there last year. That has none of the wording has changed in this. The only thing we've changed this year, Beth, I believe, are the public comments, right? The only thing we changed. We just move some to the front, some to the back, and the other. Okay. No other discussion. Roll call. Councelor Bond.

Yes. Councelor Evan. Yes. Councelor Strat. Yes. Councelor Town. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Councelor Holling. Yes. Carries. Item six, proposed resolution establishing the amount of blanket bonds for city employees at 200,000 and for the city chamber at 500,000. by councelor Manette. Second, councelor Evans discussion. Can we talk about what this means? Sure. Every employee in the city and my position is covered under our insurance policy and in case of misappropriation.

So it's like an insurance policy. It is an insurance. It's part of our insurance coverage. package July 3 years. Okay. So, [clears throat] were to steal 20,000 bucks, we could get it back on company. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Why is it always cases? seems poised by his time. He's the guy. [laughter] Yeah, papa. [laughter]

Got it. Thank you. Used it once inside and hope never to use it again. Hopefully not. Um, any other discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Strat. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Council Manette. Yes. Councelor Colleen. Yes. Period. Item seven. Resolve the establishment of the pre- audit committee of the common council. Moved by councelor Conine. Second. Councelor Bomb. Discussion. Can we talk about what this means? Sure.

Thank you. This is our Thursday our our uh this is our Friday evenings with uh finance. Okay. This is the check in the balance. This is when we go downstairs and sign those POS. Okay. That's the I think Richard, you think that's the safest best way to explain that?

What you're signing right now, right? Signing the payroll, right? Uh have to have three of the vouchers or warrant package. payments and then purchase as well. Uh it's three signatures from counselors and one from the whole district payments and okay so this is just a continuation of what we've already been doing. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. Nothing here is like I said nothing here is is essentially what we did last year too. So, but no, if you've got questions, this is the time to ask them. Um, any other discussion? Roll call. Council Bond. Yes. Council Evans. Yes. Council Strat. Yes. Council Talon. Yes. Council Annette. Yes. Counc. Yes. Um, we'll take a couple minute break and then we'll start. I I swear I just had no we'll take a couple minute break and um we'll adjourn the meeting for now and then uh we'll start up with our work session in a few minutes. Let everybody go to the bathroom. Yes, Jim. You have to motion. What?

You have to motion to adjourn. We have to on this one we did. Oh, we can do it. Are you making a motion? Yes. [laughter] Councelor Tower second. Councelor Evans. Roll call. What if we what to adjourn? Closing adjourning. Yes. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Stra. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Counc. Yes. Counc. Yes. Oh, is this for a brief? We just just a minute or two if anybody has rings since literally all the

session. Call the uh work session call the work session to order. Um anybody have questions for this evening's um agenda? Thought I thought I did. I came in my throats.

Well, I had a lot of questions about the uh the budget adjustments and not a lot of questions. I guess just wanting to make sure that um

that I understood that these adjustments that happen at the year end are like tying it up with actuals and some of these items that I would there and I double check with Richard there's timing issues right so like if you've gotten all the way to the end of the year and haven't spent it some of it gets spent in January so it kind of makes sense when you're looking through it um and some things you prepay and you know you have you have to expense that same thing in January, right? So, it's like it seemed to have made sense um and does make sense when you look at it. I just thought that was useful to know that it's not um

the most important issue about that is we're not supposed to spend money unless we appropriate by budget for it. Okay. So, when it comes down to me and this department is 500,000 over, this one's 250,000 under transfers department, but we still have to get $250,000 for appropriation to say that 56 57 about how well we do with budgeting versus spending on an actual basis. estimated revenues, they're estimated, it doesn't matter,

but appropriations you have to make before you spend. So that's an important piece of that's what this is all about. So these adjustments are made in order to say that we did appropriate funds to make our spending resolutions. And does this tie to the fiveyear plan at all? I feel like sometimes I I bring up the fiveyear plan because about the 25 year 25 budget

and we're doing this as close to the end of the year to the beginning of even though we run out expenses throughout the month of January and things trickle in for at least a month month and a half we didn't know about that. So this is the best estimate we have right now closing up the budget so we won't get an unappropriate spend

right and does it yearover-year I guess how do we do with that plan like how do we do when we we estimate you know you look at the actuals year after year and that five-year plan is guess do we ever revisit it to say this is what we guessed this is this is where we landed or is it sort of not as relevant as just looking at it year to year um We do the fiveyear plan each year, but there's very little bet on how well we did against it year by year. Looking back, you know, to a fiveyear plan, say five years ago, how that year we put it out and say it's a very important document. Here it is. This is what we intend to do. But then it's just scanning the budget,

right? And what we really do measure against is the annual budgeting. How we've done the annual budget in this century. balancing books. What's the point of a fiveyear plan then if we don't? It's a good question. It's a good indication of where we want to be and want to do and I know the numbers are the key piece, but that really shouldn't be the key piece. What should be the key piece is what are we planning to do? And then what's it going to cost us, right? I don't know if we get too much into that because that's a lot of detail about it. What are we going to do with the beach? What are we going to do with the parks? What are we going to do with the roads?

Was there any way to run an analysis to see if the the one the one-year plans are actually uh relevant to the five-year? Sure. We can start looking at measurements on that. Is that is that is it relevant worthwhile? Yeah. Endeavor. You know, it could start to start looking at it to give you a base to work for. Yeah. Then that would make the fiveyear having a fiveyear plan make sense. Yeah. Is it just pie in the sky or does it really materialize the way we want to do it? Right. The closer you get to planning everything you do for a fiveyear period, which I know it's a tough thing to do. Some of you aren't even officer you get to doing.

Grant opportunities come out every so often, too. So, I mean, there's no way to plug in um we get a CDPG that does a huge infrastructure that we're playing. I mean there's so many variables you know at the end of the day couldn't you just plug those in to the to the one year to the to the budget or what happens one year to apply the process to apply and then to be approved or I mean that it it covers the course sometimes a year to two years just to get approved and then to get that Mike I mean some of these grants take how many years to get on the ground I mean get right And that started when that started two years ago.

Yeah. So you're talking, you know, three-year period that before we even get a shovel on the ground on those projects. That's why it makes it so hard to do those five-year plans because, you know, our our our portion is Yeah. do we get that grant or do we not get that grant? And if we do get it, is it an 8020? Is it a 9010? Is it a 7525? There's so many variables. The five-year plan to me is a nice is a great guy. And I think it's a great is it is it the Well, I mean it's it's it's an exercise that we do together. We sit down and we look at all the numbers in the budget. Anytime we do that, I don't think it's a bad thing. No, it's not a bad thing, but you know what I mean? Make it more relevant. Maybe it would be better, but it's I don't know how to make it more relevant,

right? It almost is like one side does not have to equal the other. Like it's important upfront to do it, but there really isn't a good measure to say whether we did well or bad based on the actuals of any given year. I have I have a thing with the five-year plan and I've always been very vocal about it. I think it's I can't really think of a good word right now. Um Mike, do you have something you want to say?

Yeah, I'd like to point something out. This is honestly the city's under you know that we've had three different mayors and all three mayors had different ideas and that's really in different all the faces up here when I first started. Um, and each new council and each new mayor come in with ideas. And that's the other struggle. I know it's not answered, but what Dave wants is having a more and all the mayors and the councils wanted a a clear guide as to okay, we can expect this next year. You know, by year three, four, out of whack and get mayor if I this is the direction I want city going. where the tough part I think is especially with the capital plan the operational budget Richard do that and his office was allowed to get but there's quite a few okay you're apping one tonight which is called the capital expenditure plan which we have to produce document for that 2026 2030 spending and that's what talking about we're talking about and mostly We're talking about tree talk about capital expenditures. That's one. The other one that you talk about we do in June is the operational fiveyear plan for spending. Now that one's tougher than the capital expenditure. The capital spending we know there's certain things we have to do with infrastructure. We have to do with equipment. We have to do with uh improvements for parks and those kind of things. those as long as you have relevant numbers they track pretty closely forward to until the project gets pushed out or delayed. The other one is operational

because that's the one that we watch for each year and then how much work we have to do or how manyations. So, I'm going to go back. I'm going to finish what I was um starting. Um the five-year plan, like you just said, the operational part, I think, is is the only thing word I can think of right now, and I apologize, is worthless. You don't know what's going to happen in two years. You don't know what's going to happen in three years. You don't know what's going to happen in four years. I can't even figure out what my life's going to happen like in a month. How do you know the way the the world is right now? How can you make a plan, an operational plan, when you don't know? You just you don't know. And I I I don't operate it on on on that whole philosophy of plan something out for 5 years. You don't know what's going to happen. I'm not saying don't plan your life out. That's not what I'm saying. It's just like Richard said, it's very difficult to to plan that kind of thing out. So, I don't believe in

it could be more relevant to look at um what we originally bud budgeted for the year and then this final budget adjustment. go to your revised budget and see what the final budget was and compare it, how you started, how you finished, and how those compare and then where the downfalls were, where the upalls were, and kind of look at it like that with the one year instead of breaking it down to five years and saying, oh, how did we did in the past five years? Well, how did we do last year? How did we do year before that? How are we doing this year? Is this number pretty? That's a good point. like at the bottom, you know, looks like it was about 1.3 million off, not off or whatever that much that many adjustments you had to make. Follow me.

Um, at the very end, the very last page, the very last bottom number, the grand total. We need 1,267. No, the 1 million 309 1,27. It's a actual versus revised grandal. His is probably the brand new one. Usually I guess my question is year after year we this is pretty similar to last year when I looked. Y it's very similar like when you look at each year

it's about the same which kind of told me that there are a lot of things like timing like timing issues. This isn't just like a overall budgeting structural problem. It's mostly timing that can be consistently sort of predicted if I understand that right to some degree. timing. Some of these items if you go through the list department budget, they have spent more than they they had as the original budget for appropriations. And we're moving things around with within the entire general fund budget here to make sure that we cover our spending with appropriations as we're supposed to. And this entry, the right hand side shows you $39,000 is the expense We couldn't cover it out of uh let's say savings by appropriating it from the fund balance the $39,000. If if you were talking about the million to 311 all the way to the last that's last year's results that's 2024

that's surplus. Now that's after all this year end adjusting and all final numbers. The next two columns are the budget the revised budget. Next one is the actual the actual still two million shy of balancing but it's because we haven't got a lot of groceries and don't have less sales tax right

some revenues in don't by best appropriation or community appropriations that Nearly 267 is what we have to cover. The balance figure is budget adjustment.

Okay. Thank you. The biggest thing is appropriations in, you know, it's appropriate misappropriations, but the word you hear the actual spent. So we don't want anybody to be accused of misappropriating fun. Right. Good. Satisfied. Any other questions about tonight's agenda?

I would like to request a executive session to speak about the personnel issue and pending litigation. Uh, can I get a motion? Council man. Councelor Evans. Pull. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Yes. Councelor Colle. Yes. Very interesting.

It's great. Want to babysit? Sure. Take a motion to come out of executive session. Councelor Manette. Second. Councelor Vaughn. Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Council. Yes. Councelor Stra. Yes. Councelor Sal. Yes. Council. Yes. Councelor Collie. Yes. All right. We're out of executive session and I'll call in the work session. Are we ready to go?

Chair will be to answer your call. I'll call the regular meeting of the common council January 8th 2026 to order. Please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge alian to the flag and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. Miss Carlin, could you do the role please? Mayor Hughes here. Councelor Bon here. Councelor Evans here. Council Strat here. Council Ken here. Council Manette here. Councelor Colleen here.

Resolve the minutes of the regular meeting of the common council held on December 18th 25 are approved and placed on file along the public records of the city park. Move by councelor talent. Second. Councelor Adams. Roll call. Councelor Bonds. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Strat. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Councelor Con? Yes. Anyone here this evening wishing to make a public comment on tonight's agenda? On agenda items.

On tonight's agenda only. Yes. First. Nobody. You're good. Well said. And I'd like to take a moment just to thank Ron Deriggon, our new area A legislator for coming to the meeting tonight. Thank you. Um, with no other with no public comment, we'll move on.

Council approved the payroll of various terms to the city of Classford for the weeks ending December 24th, 2025 in the amount of $636,264.14 and January 7th, 2026 in the amount of $682,592.98. Council approved the bills by the common council for the weeks ending December 26, 2045 in the amount of 3,834,650.19. January 2nd, 2026 in the amount of $281,18311 and January 9th, 2026 in the amount of $6,629.

Any um leazison reports? Um yeah. But for you, I got them both now. So, um, so the first leazison report is for the Platsburg Public Library. Um, the first meeting of the library board for 2026 will be on January 27th at 4:30 on the second floor. I'm looking very forward to it. And um, for the city climate task force, our first meeting is expected to be on January 21st at 5:00 on the second floor of the library. So, the library is the place to be. Perfect. Mayor, any other reports?

Mayor, um, I didn't get to do it during the work session. I just had a question to ask Joe. Should I do that now? I don't have a problem with that. Does anybody else No, go ahead. Um, the sidewalk situation, we have an issue with that because I've noticed there's a lot on your your report of sidewalks not being cleared. Okay. Specifically, the question is, do we have a problem with that? Are we having a problem with it? Because that's the first time I've Is it more now than previous is what you're trying to ask. I think

it's pretty typical for this time of year. What happens is we get the report from the police department and so they're the ones that have actually done the patrol and then uh given us the list of what they found in violation and then in turn uh our office's role in that is to send out a violation notice to uh the owner of the property because they've already been found to be in violation. Simultaneously, public works gets that same list and when they have time to go out, if the sidewalk's still not clear, then they clear it and then they put a charge on the property for the act of clearing. So, okay,

there's two things that happen there, you know, you know, three, if you start with the police, uh, then it comes to my office. We're our role is to send out letters of violation. But to answer your question, I don't think it's any worse than any other year. What what kind of happened was that the the storms kind of slowplayed each other. So it wasn't like we got a foot of snow and we all knew it was a yeah event. There were some some storms where they looked like they might be an event but then there wasn't a lot of snow. So there was there's not and if it's not an event there's no action law. So I think how many events have we had this year? We had tactical event.

So he we public works hasn't even declared an actual event and um you know you see the light sometimes and in tandem it works that it's an event but not always. So uh to answer your question I don't believe we have okay a problem and the purpose of this law isn't to have uh clear sidewalks down to the pavement you know to the concrete everywhere in the city. is to have a mechanism to address it with people out of town landlords, people who don't, you know, it's a way for us to be able to get it done because it's impossible to check every side. Yeah. Do it in a tight way. Yeah.

Okay. Miles says few miles. Yeah. Thank you. Sure. Thanks, Joe. I'd like to uh address uh uh Chief Trombbley. Well, you don't have to get up. This I don't have a question or anything. I just want to commend you. My uh my wife noticed you um doing a foot patrol in the city of Platsburg and I just think that's a wonderful thing. Um it's it's something that uh not not a lot of police chiefs do and I think that's a great thing. So, thank you for doing that.

Appreciate it. I wanted [clears throat] to also um just acknowledge Jackie Stewart. Um I read her report and I think I did not understand the extent to which she really is out there doing things for the city of Platsburg for history. And like I I was quite honestly shocked at how much time she spends going to meetings and recording things. And I thought it was pretty great. Really good at it. Unpaid time. Unpaid. Yeah. I mean it's it was pretty impressive. So I was really hoping she was going to be here. Dad, I really was hoping she's going to be because her plans this year are even better. I'm excited to see where she goes this time. No, I am so happy to check.

I did the cemetery walk and that I I mean she knows plats. How do we get to like does she have a a list that she puts out so that we could go to some things like how did you know that that we are going to be putting more stuff on the city? We'll let you guys we'll make sure we include you guys in emails. Yeah, I've never been. I'd love to go for Oh. Item 7.1 authorized budget transfer 2025 closing entry for government fund. Move by councelor second. Councelor Talon. Any discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Stra. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette.

Yes. Councelor Pen. Yes. Carrie. Item 7.2. resolution making appropriations for the fiscal year beginning January 1st, 2026 and ending December 31st, 2026 and levying the property tax for the fiscal year 2026 and adopting a capital program for the years 2026 through 2030 and for levying special assessments for the municipal parking lot and the US oval parking district for the fiscal year 2026. Moved by councelor Evans. Second. Councelor Man. Discussion. Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Stra. Yes. Council. Yes. Council. Yes.

Yes. Car. Item 7.3. Approving 2026 city of Platsburg tax one. Move by councelor. Second councis discussion. Roll call. Councelor Vaughn. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Stra. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Councelor Pauline. Yes. Carried. Item 7.4 authorizing 2026 retainer agreement with Safo and Fernain Calaher Miller Meyer and Zedic Yel LC. Moved by councelor Adams. Second. Councelor Bond. Discussion. This is for the uh labor negotiations.

Yes. It's for Jackie. Any other discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans? Yes. Councelor Strat? Yes. Councelor Talon? Yes. Councelor Manette? No. Councelor Colleen? Yes. Carry. Item 7.5. Authorize mayor to attend Nikon 2026 conferences legislative meetings. Moved by councelor Ken. Second. Councelor Bond. Any discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Strat. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Councelor Colle. Yes. Period. Any new business to come in before the council this evening?

Yes. [clears throat] I would like to say happy belated birthday to Beth Carlin. She turned 25 yesterday. Right. Yay. And I would like to say happy birthday to the mayor because he turned 60 today. 24. Oh, that's right. Damn it. He's close. [laughter] So, happy birthday to the mayor. Y I got We have no reason for an executive session. Wait. Um, sorry. Can we public speak on agenda hasn't come up yet.

It's not there yet. Thank you. Sorry. Now I'm gonna skip it. Mayor, mayor, did you want to announce the next week?

Oh, yeah. Um, we did make uh there's a typo in the uh the handout we had earlier. The uh 2026 meeting scheduled, the next council meeting is Thursday, January 15, not January 22nd as in the call in the uh printout. So, just make sure you know nothing else changed. was just a typo in that 15th. We are meeting next Thursday night, not January 22nd. Now, anyone making wishing to make a public comment on nothing no other uh non non-aggenda item this even want to identify yourself name and address for the record.

Thank you. I'm sorry about that. Um, my name is Jennifer Jwitt and um, I'm from Champlain actually and um, first thing I want to say is um, I want to tell you a very brief story. But do I need to No, I mean I'm not good.

Are you okay? [laughter] I want to tell you a brief story. I just came back from Florida. I was going for two months and I brought my Airstream down there. On the way back, I was stopped boondocking at a at a Cracker Barrel. My heater went out about 3:00 a.m. My temperature dropped in my airirstream till about 19 degrees in a matter of seconds and I was trying to sleep even though I had blankets and all this stuff. I It was frigidly cold and it gave me an idea of what it's like for a dog to be in bedside in the freezing cold. You should try it. You will freeze in no time. Your body core temperature will drop like you can't believe it. just gave me a real even though I knew it was cold. It was very cold, extremely cold. And I got in my truck and took off. I couldn't take it. But I'm here because been almost a year since I last addressed the city council regarding the dog tethering law. And I just want to see what was going on with that because it's really important to a lot of people. And the city of Platsburg is very important. And I know I've talked to Wendell several times. I know you guys are very busy. I know he's very busy. But this is a very important issue. I just want to see what's going on with it. We've had a lot of trouble with the county and everybody knows, a lot of people should know we were banned from speaking at the county just as we had interest, severe interest. We've built packed the chambers three times and then they banned us from addressing the legislature which we don't feel is right. But just because the legislature does that to us and they've gone around telling towns and people not to work with us, I guess destroying our character is how you do it. But I'm a good person. Wendell knows I'm a good person. I'm a major dog lover, animal lover. And while a dog may be able to survive in this freezing cold, four degrees one night, 19°, that's not a life for any animal. And people shouldn't be able to leave their dogs

out like that. I feel the city of Platsburg should should sincerely be setting the example to the entire county, not only for public safety reasons, but for compassion. You know, neighbors don't want to be living beside neighbors with dogs crying all night long. And I guess I just wanted to see what was going on with this. And despite how people feel about me, cuz my reputation's been, excuse me, dragged through the mud over this, they can say whatever they want. I don't really care. I'm a strong person and we'll keep fighting. But, uh, regardless of politics, a strong person should do the right thing and know right from wrong, no matter if it's going to upset somebody, somebody your friend, your neighbor, whoever. This is an important issue. Do I think city count city of Plsburg should be passing this law like immediately and I'm hoping [clears throat] you will. So is there any news on it last was it was that the the mayor or was that the attorney last we heard? I don't know what's going on at all at this point.

I told you this year we will we'll take some time and we'll look at it this year. I told you that and I and I stand by that. Yeah. I just really hope so cuz it is 4° out there most nights and people are still calling me about City Plaz. So, thank you. Anything else before this council this evening? I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Councelor Ed. Second. Councelor Bond. Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Strat. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes, council Annette. Yes, council Pony. Yes.