Common Council - Regular Meeting

Please. Okay. Good evening. This is a regular session of Rome Common Council. The date is November 12th, 2025. The time is 7 p.m. Mr. Seal, please call the role. Councelor Spraus, present. Councelor Mortise, present. Councelor Fazio, present. Councelor Smith, here. Councelor Anderson, present. Councelor Dery, present. Councelor Spr. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The invocation will be offered by President Nash. Lord, may we be guided by wisdom and a deep sense of purpose as we gather to make decisions for the benefit of our community. Let clarity and insight lead us and may we remain steadfast in our commitment to serve with fairness and responsibility. Amen. Amen.

At this time, the meeting is now open to the public. You have the opportunity to appear before the council and present your views concerning city affairs. You wish to speak, please step up to the back microphone, state your name and address, and limit yourself to five minutes. And please sign in on the speaker sheet so they can help with our with our records. We are ready for the first speaker. Good evening everyone. I'm Bobby O'Brien. Tonight I'm speaking on behalf of the Rome Waterways and Trails Advocacy Group, President Nash, Counselor, City Representatives, and members of the community. In regard to resolution 151, we our tag Rome waterways and trails would like to ask the council support in accepting Aelin Jazz Kulka's donation of three bicycle safety signs. The resolution provides the basic information about the signs and the placement of one each at Bellamy Harbor Park directly below the existing bicycle sign and across the street from SFM skate park. One is at Hazelton Park and the third will be at Pinty Field. A copy of the sign was included in the agenda documents and I have one printed out as well if no one got to see the picture. The members of our tag felt it important to provide some background as to how and why this donation came to Rome. Excuse me. The city's community and economic development department was

approached by a girl scout from Whitestown who was completing her gold award project regarding the promotion of bike safety for residents of Onida County and specifically geared toward children. Part of her project included the creation of bike safety signs and she offered to provide three free to local municipalities including Rome. At the August meeting of our tag, Danielle Salisbury from the city's CED department introduced us to Aselin and her mother. Aselin gave us a presentation about her project and we were very impressed with her dedication and detailed information about how the signs were created and the thought process that went into it. It's taken a few months to finally reach the legislation, but we are happily here tonight. In his role as chair of the city's parks, recreation, and youth programs, councelor Spria was asked for his sponsorship of this donation, and we thank you for that, Councelor Spria. We appreciate your time, and both Danielle and I thought it was important that you know about the dedication attached to this particular donation. Thank you.

Thank you, Bobby. Next speaker, please. Is anyone else wishing to speak? Public session. Yep. Say thank you for Okay. Good. Good. Thank you. Uh okay. The chair entertain a motion at the reading of the minutes of the preceding session be dispenseed with it that they be approved.

So move Smith. Second. Council Mortise moved and seconded. There's any discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Carried. Presentation of communications. The Capitol Theater financial report for quarter ended 9:3025 has been received and filed in the city clerk's office. for the city officials, for the councilors, BP,

President Nash, I just wanted to uh advise everybody on the uh parks and recreation um plan, the post advisory committee. There will be a public meeting on Thursday, December 11th at 6 PM here at Rome City Hall. Uh the consultants will present draft recommendations for public feedback. Um Matt, are we holding it up here or down in the community room? Do you know? First floor community room. Okay. Thank you. Again, that's December 11th at 6 PM. I'm sure there'll be something posted in the newspaper about that. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor. uh board of committees. Council Anderson.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to report that the uh finance committee met earlier today um uh for our quarterly review of capital projects. Um and I want to thank my my colleagues uh councilors Dury Spraglia and uh President Nash as well as treasurer Brian Adams. It was a very good discussion. Uh we meet on a quarterly basis to decide what projects can be closed. Um this is uh an exercise that started with um uh an a review by the uh controllers's uh office from the state of New York. Um and it's really been a good tool to help uh make sure that we get all the reimbursement for projects uh that that is coming from various different sources. We might have one project, one capital improvement project and there might be three or four or five different uh financial uh sources behind that project. So it's good that that we meet and actually treasur Adams has has taken it a step further. He meets with the various department heads beforehand um so that we're up to date with all the reimbursement uh that is needed. That was one of the concerns from the controller was that we were we were actively pursuing reimbursement for projects. So, this is a quarterly meeting that we have. Um, as a result, uh, we know of at least two projects that we're going to be closing at the December common council meeting, and there might be more. Uh, Treasure Adams is going to do a little more homework on that. Uh, but that's what we talked about there. We also talked about the year-to-date um expenses and the and the uh budget um

and we had that dialogue as well. So, I want to thank Treasure Adams and uh like I said, more to come in December. Thank you. Thank you, Council Anderson. Anyone else? Onward to resolutions. Resolution number 147 authorizing the creation of a sewer capital project account and an interfund transfer into set account. Move it. Councelor Anderson. Second. Councelor Mortise moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of resolution number 147 say I. I. I. Carry. Resolution number 148. Authorizing an appointment to the board of assessment review for the city of Rome, New York.

Move it. Council Anderson and councelor Smith. We moved and second. There's any discussion. All those in favor of resolution number 148 say I. I.olution carries. Resolution number 149. Authorizing the mayor of the city of Rome to apply for and accept grant funds from the dormatory authority from the state of New York DASNY through the community resiliency economic sustainability and technology program crest for the SFM skate park project in an amount not to exceed $1 million. Move it second. Anderson councelor Mortise moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

I oppose. Resolution number 149 is carried. Resolution number 150 accepting donation presented to the city of Rome $400 by the Rome Lions Club for a movie screening at the Capitol Theater. Move that. Councelor Fazio second. Any discussion? This movie will take place on Black Friday. I'm not sure of the time if anybody knows what time it's going to be. I'm sure Sean will put it in the paper. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppos carried. Resolution number 151 accepting donation presented to the city of Rome $400 by Aelen Juska. Move it. Second.

Second. Councelor Spa and councelor Fazio. Resolution number 151 has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? I'd like to thank say thank you that to her that the council appreciates her donation. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Resolution number 151 is carried. Resolution number 152 authorizing the city clerk to advertise notice of a public hearing concerning the discontinuence of a portion of a paper alley known as Wolf Lane. Move it. Councelor Dery. Second.

Councelor Morris. Moved and seconded. Um any discussion? I think we have to Is this where we got to put the date in there? Yep. I thought they had it out, but I don't. Okay. So, we're going to insert uh the 10th day of December, 2025 at 6:55 p.m. And who would like to make that motion? That amendment. Dursley and Councelor Spalia. The amendment has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion on the amendment? All those in favor say of of the amendment say I.

Opposed? Amendment carries. All those in favor of the resolution as amended say I. Oppose. Deolution 152 as amended is carried. Ordinances. Ordinance number 9830. Authorizing the closing of streets for the annual winter holiday Christmas tree lighting ceremony and the Rome Lightsfest 5K run and walk. Move it. Councelor Faz second. Councelor Smith consent. Mortise and Anderson. Ordinance number 9830 has been moved and seconded. Unanimous consent has been moved and seconded. All those in favor of unanimous consent say I. I. Oppose. Unanimous consent is carried. Any discussion?

Again, this is going to take place on um on Black Friday the 28th from basically 2 to 8 8:00 p.m. All those in favor say I. Oppos. Ordinance number 9830 is carried. Ordrance number 9831 authorizing mayor of the city of Rome to approve the sale of city-owned parcel 304A North J Street to buyer for $2,000. Move it. Councelor Smith second. Councelor Spraia. Unanimous consent. Councelor Anderson second. Councelor Sprace. Warrants number 9831 has been moved and seconded. Unanimous consent has been moved and seconded. All those in favor of unanimous consent say I. I.

Opposed. Unanimous consent is carried. Is there any discussion? Council mortise. President Nash, members of the council. Um, I was just wondering if there was anybody from that department head here tonight. Okay. All right. I apologize just to make sure in case we did. Okay. That was all. Thank you. Okay. I just um this ordinance and the next one refer just so the public knows is is Fireflex is was asking to acquire these properties for for their parking. So it'll be it'll be done right. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Ordinance number 9831 is carried. Order number 9832.

Authorizing mayor of the city of Rome to approve the sale of city owned parcel 428 through 430 West Court Street to buyer for $2,000. Move it. Councelor Smith. Second. Councelor Dyania and councelor Anderson. Orange number 9832 has been moved and seconded. Descent been moved and seconded. All those in favor of unanimous consent say I. Post unanimous consent is carried. So any discussion? All those in favor of ordinance number 9832 say I. Irance number 9832 is carried. Or number 9833 authorizing the acquisition of real property for the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant. Move it. Councelor Anderson. Councelor Spray. Unanimous cons. Councelor Mortise second.

And councelor Spraya. Warrant number 9833 has been moved and seconded. unanimous consent will move and seconded. All those in favor unanimous consent say I oppose unanimous consent carries. Is there any discussion? This this is um part of the whole shopi project uh where we're going to be um purchasing the tuxedo trail the former trail park um trailer lot for this expansion. All those in favor of order number 9833 say I oppos 9833 is carried. Ordinance number 9834 authorizing the discontinuence of a portion of a paper alley behind 1605 and 1607 North George Street known as Wolf Lane.

Move it. Councelor Cersei second councelor Anderson second and councelor Spice number 9834 has been moved and seconded. Unanimous consent has been moved and seconded. All those in favor of unanimous consent say I oppose unanimous consent is carried. If any discussion chair entertain a motion to table brace or some 9834 has a motion to table. All those in favor say I. I oppose ordinance number 9834 is tabled. The chair entertain a motion to remove ordinance number 9822 from the from the table. So move. Councelor Mortise,

councelor Spice. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. Carried. Or number 9822. Approving the annual budget for the year 2026.

Before getting any council discussion, I'd just like to to uh say a few words here. Just want public to know over the years I've been involved in preparing many city budgets as a city treasurer. I felt that every budget that I prepared was lean and responsibly managed. But honestly, looking at this year's budget, it's the leanest I've seen yet. The council's worked diligently and hard to keep spending in check while still maintaining the essential services our residents rely on. It's always a tough balance, but the council remains committed to being fiscally responsible and serving the community with the resources we have. The council did its due diligence. We met several times with department heads, with the mayor, and with the staff, and we really cannot find any significant cuts that would lower the tax rate without affecting the level of service our residents are used to. Therefore, I do not expect there will be any amendments proposed to change the 2026 budget. I'd like to commend City Treasurer Adams and Mayor Lanigan for their efforts in crafting a lean and realistic budget. Any further discussion? Council Spurs.

Thank you, President Nash. Um, just to echo what you said. I mean, I don't know much more on what to say because you kind of hit all the bullet points, but I'd like to thank the department heads and um, Treasure Adams, the administration, and the rest of the council for the time that we've all taken to look over the budget and kind of scrutinize everything. Um, it was tough. I've been on the council many years and um looking at what we're able to modify, add to um it's very limited and you know we we went back and forth with looking at at adjusting a couple things for what to save a penny or two overall but to reduce the services that we would get from the city. you know, things like salt and and thing. We we can't cut things like that because if it's going to affect safety or or um services to our city, um I'm not in favor of doing that. And you know, as hard as our workers in the city work and our staff, um this budget was lean. It was, you know, I there was nothing. and we met several several times and you know as a council and tried to mold it and go back and forth but you know I I feel that we we've done a good job. We've looked at everything. We've asked all the hard questions. All the department heads I know spent a lot of time emailing us back meeting with us and and I think that you know I'm in full support of this budget. Even though there even though there is a tax increase there's there was nothing in there what we can cut that we we could cut. So, um, that's it. Thank you, President.

Thank you, Captain Spece. Anyone else? Counc Anderson.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I agree that the, uh, council has um definitely done its due diligence. Uh, a lot of hard work went into the budget review. Um, when I when I think of the budget review this year, um, if I had to sum it up in a word personally, it would be frustration. Um, when I got on the council 16 years ago, I had two primary goals. There were other goals, but there were two primary goals. And that was one, infrastructure. All right. improving on the in infrastructure uh was a dire need that we needed uh for repair and improvements. At that time we had an 108-y old tunnel that had cement falling in into the water and needed replacing. We needed to upgrade and improve the condition of our water treatment plant and the wastewater treatment plant and the roads and the roads needed impair repairing. Uh, in many respects over the years, we've made significant improvements in several of those areas, and for that, I'm grateful. My second goal in getting on to the council was to help maintain or lower our taxes. Uh, the people of the city of Rome were fed up at that time with the taxes they were paying, city, county, school, never mind state and federal, and people were looking to move outside of Rome where the taxes might not be as high. But when I got on the C common council, I quickly learned that as a council council person, it's very difficult to have a significant impact on the budget. There were several parts of the budget that the council can't touch, such as salaries, overtime, VIC and Medicare, uh to name a few of the very large parts of the budget. And basically, we could only have input on things like equipment,

travel and conferences, and possibly contract services. Also, when I first got on the council, one of my colleagues said, basically, this is the mayor's budget. It's not the council's budget. And I I believe that's true. Uh, and what he was referring to was the limitations that I just mentioned. Furthermore, it gets even more frustrating during the year when you have a budget that is agreed to and then we have budget transfers uh that are done by the board of estimate and the common council has no say in the matter. And that's uh frustrating. Matter of fact, we discussed it at the finance committee meeting this evening. And perhaps this council can rectify that situation in the future. This council spent a great deal of time this year reviewing the budget, hoping to avoid a second straight year of a tax increase. I want to thank each of the department heads for sitting down and reviewing their budget with the council. The dialogue was very insightful as council spice and president Nash have mentioned. Uh I especially want to thank and commend treasurer Brian Adams and Deputy Treasurer Weslott who sat in on each review session with the department heads as well as all their work in preparing the budget. It's definitely not an easy task. This council tried hard to prevent a tax increase. We quickly found out that a simple maneuver of just using the fund balance was not necessarily an option due to the tenative funding in the fund balance such as the tornado relief or some of the other state funding whose status could be changed andor withdrawn. So it's not as easy as dipping into the fund balance creating a zero% tax increase. I personally proposed close to $100,000 in cuts to the budget in an effort to reduce the tax increase. However, I was unable to get the support of my colleagues for the cuts due to the

concern by councilors that they would be cutting services for the people of the city of Rome. I respect the council's opinions in this regard. In addition, in order to approve an amendment to the budget, there would have to be five out of seven counselors agreeing to the amendment. still further. In order to eliminate the tax increase, we would have to had made over $400,000 in cuts in order to get to a 0% tax increase. Um, all of those things together are difficult uh roads to overcome. In reviewing the budget with the mayor, he mentioned revenue opportunities for 2026 such as Chabbani and other economic development opportunities. Hopefully, these revenues opportunities will come to fruition. However, there needs to also be a top priority of controlled spending in 2026 so that we are not faced with the same situation for the 2027 budget. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor. Any further discussion? All those in favor of ordinance number 9822 say I. I. Order number 9822 is carried. The chair obtain a motion to remove ordinance number 9828 from the table. So move. Councelor Anderson second. Council. All those in favor say I. I. Ordinance number 9828. Authorizing mayor of the city of Rome to enter into rehabilitation agreement and approving the sale of a city- owned parcel located at 606 Croin Street for $4,000. Discussion Anderson.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I had tabled this uh legislation at our last meeting. Um wanted to get some more information um regarding the the bid packages. Um and there were three biders for this property. Um, I've spoken to the owner, uh, and got more information from from him as well. Uh, so I feel comfortable that we're ready to move forward with this legislation and I fully support the legislation. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor of ordinance number 9828, say I. I. Oppose. Ordinance number 9828 is carried. The chair a motion to adjurnn. So move. Councelor Smith. Second. Councelor

Spray. All in favor say I. I. We are. Thank you all for coming tonight.