City Council - Regular Meeting

Councilmember DeLorenzo, present. Councilmember Struber, present. Councilmember McKee, present. I'll also call the remaining members of the Council. Councilmember Spain McLaren, she's absent and wasn't able to make it tonight. Councilmember Favreau, present. And Councilmember Campbell Cohen, present. And Council President Steele, present. Excellent. Okay, before we begin, just wanted to make one quick note for tonight's agenda. The code administration was originally listed for discussion. We will no longer be taking up that topic this evening. And generally, we're going to move into the committee's business. The purpose of tonight's meeting. is to get some updates from the administration on the planning department's leadership and several ongoing planning matters. So with that, I'd like to call up members of the administration who are available.

Member.

Deputy Mayor, good evening.

Good evening.

So we've got a few questions tonight. Sent them ahead of time to you guys so we can make sure we touched on everything and got some accurate answers. And with that, I'll just dive right in. So planning department leadership, what's the current status of the commissioner of the planning position? I'm sorry, commissioner of planning position. And why has it not been filled yet?

Yeah, so good evening, council members. So the current status with it is we continue to actively search. The position is posted. Frankly, we have not received too many applications since the job has been posted. I believe actually one came in, and after trying to get that person in for an interview, they had already secured another position elsewhere. And look, you know, of course, we want to see that position filled. It is something that's always top of mind for us. That being said, we don't want to fill a position just to fill it. We want somebody that's very qualified for that. The prior planning commissioner, Randy Coburn, did a phenomenal job by really zeroing in on being a little bit more from a organizational standpoint with the planning department. I think in past the planning commissioners were always individually very heavily involved in spearheading economic development. A lot of that rolled up into one role. where we had Randy really kind of focusing on a lot of processes, a lot of things that he implemented that are still being utilized by the existing planning department now, although he's semi-departed. I was going to also include that he is the executive director of our IDA, so we still have the benefit of him being here, you know, both. economic development tools of the city, the idea and the LDC do have executive directors. As you know, I'm the executive director of the Troy LDC. Randy is on in a part time capacity through the idea as well. So both of those economic development arms that we've been leaning into and utilizing more under this administration do have our have healthy boards, executive directors, and kind of take on the economic development as a team. We do have a great economic development coordinator, Danae, who does take on a lot. We also... The vision for that, for her role as well, was to try to kind of get more involved on a big theme that you hear often with our administration is boots on the ground. Instead of trying to kind of maybe bring in these larger, massive developments into the city, although we welcome them and we work with everybody. She's been very good on focusing on things like Main Street Grant in Lansingburg. Really trying to... Block by block, how can we benefit, see those blocks benefit from economic development? And the whole team over there does a great job managing the planning boards, zoning boards, economic development, working with applicants and things like that. But I mean, just to go back again to the question, of course, that's a position that we'd really like to see filled. We want that person to be right. And we are actively searching for our planning commissioner.

Since it's been a while, are you guys considering doing anything with maybe the posting or maybe increasing salary allotment or anything like that to attract more offers?

Well, to that, that's something that we could always come to the city council with, especially as we're gearing up to budget time. I do know that, as some of you also may know, especially what we went through with the comptroller search, a lot of these positions, these higher level municipal administration positions, they are becoming like fixed. finding a needle in a haystack a bit. So possibly an increase in pay could potentially help. That's something, of course, we would consider and possibly come to your approval for. Early on, we had a headhunter that found our comptroller. We did engage them in a smaller capacity to try to help us find a planning commissioner that was unsuccessful. We decided to not uh continue to spend on that um as well uh that was a small amount and compared to what was actually paid to to help find our existing comptroller uh that is something maybe we'll we'll look at again too but our personnel department we've had discussions from top to bottom of how can we promote advertise the positions we have here more i mean look you hear the recurring theme you know a lot of our systems are outdated and even the way that you can apply for a job here in the city of troy so i know that our personnel team uh personnel officer personnel director gabrielle mahoney we are definitely looking at the ways how can we better recruit just not high level positions like commissioners but all the positions that we have here available in the city of troy

Okay, excellent. So you mentioned, you know, Denae takes on a lot. Is she taking on responsibilities that the commissioner used to have?

no she doesn't she just can she does a lot in her existing capacity as an economic development coordinator um and also being the secretary to the ldc and the ida boards we did have um in a a structure organizational chart capacity uh there is a day-to-day supervisor over there carolyn scripshak her role has evolved where she is not necessarily just overseeing from a supervisory level the cdbg uh that is part of planning and economic development department, but also overseeing the planning staff. She's also not doing work that the commissioner would be taking on, but making sure that time cards are being signed off, things like that. Like I do for different departments that may at a time be lacking a department head, certain department head level questions will come up to me. I'm very involved in the everyday here, as well as the mayor. So those types of questions go up there. So nobody's necessarily supplementing the commissioner's work. I just think that it's a great team that still continues to do a great job in their existing functions, lack of a planning commissioner. Gotcha.

So so what I'm hearing is basically you and the mayor basically kind of step into the role of planning commissioner. Is that am I getting that wrong?

A little fill that gap a little bit there. Exactly. You know, so I mean.

OK. All right. Well, I'll throw it to the rest of the. Council and committee, does anybody have any questions on this that you'd like to ask?

Chair.

Council President.

So if I'm hearing correctly, the focus under the previous planning commissioner was more internal systems analysis, that kind of. What concerns me is. the outward facing role that is not being met. There were a number of projects in the pipeline, and I'd like to know where they are, what the status of them would be. Could you update us on geothermal, for instance?

Yes. So, and just to back off, just to, you know, get into this part of it as well. Actually, again, even with when the existing or the prior planning commissioner was enrolled, Randy, you know, it's been clear this mayor, the administration has taken approach of leaning into the Troy LDC approach. more than it ever has been before. And I think that that model has been working, talking about projects that might not be moving forward. Frankly, we're seeing a lot more projects move forward, things that people have been talking about for years. We're seeing One Monument Square starting to move forward. We're starting to see, again, the new city hall that not only serves as an economic development boost for the corridor, but our permanent house for our government and saving funding. Again, even some with the Lansingburg Firehouse, Station One. I know that people might look at that as a nuts and bolts place for our firefighters to operate on when they deserve that, but that will serve as an economic development catalyst as well. We've had success with achieving different grants like the Main Street Grant in Lansingburg. We've also, through my office in coordination with Gabrielle Mahoney, have administered a lot of those ARPA funds that tie into some economic development too. Specific probably will get into geothermal, which keep in mind, has been primarily driven by the LDC even before this administration's been here too. So the lack of a planning commissioner doesn't really affect that at all. One of the things going into, and it was on the council members' questions, but it's kind of tied into your question, geothermal, some projects like, say, DRI projects, those projects weren't, Some of them maybe had a survey or a study done, and we've continued to try to move that ball forward in regard to the geothermal project. Just for some background on some folks that might not be familiar with it. The city of Troy received. is going through a pilot program that's a collaboration between National Grid, the City of Troy, and the Troy LDC. This has been primarily funded by a NYSERDA grant that was awarded to the city several years ago. Um, what the grant was for was to see what a shared utility would look like. So, the municipality working with the utility provider, that would be national grid in our case here and seeing how that partnership could actually. could work in providing this geothermal, the geothermal utility. And that's where the LDC kind of came into its role of getting involved into that. That project we did under the existing LDC in this administration, we did secure a phase one approval through the PSC, the Public Service Commission. That was an approval that was basically a check in to see how the feasibility and planning part of that project was done. The LDC engaged CHA, which did various studies, load capacity studies throughout the downtown. Again, to give a little bit more background, when we talk about the geothermal project, we talk about it, really it would be a loop that's kind of from the Troy Library to Monument Square area. Originally, it was... It was thought that 16 or so buildings could actually tie into this. That doesn't necessarily mean that some of them have, are willing to or not. Some of them also recently, like the Troy Music Hall, plan to tie in if it continues to move forward. So once we cleared that phase one hurdle, then it really got into, okay, what is... what is the relationship between National Grid, the LDC, and the City of Troy. The original plan was going to be that the Troy LDC would really own, basically own a portion of the utility. That would also be dependent on securing different easements from the City of Troy. The bore field is going to be located in Riverfront Park. There was also an energy center. That's a small building that would be right to the left of one monument square to try to picture that if some of you are familiar with where the old staircase was going down to the park. It's in that area as well. And then really what took. It took quite a while of back and forth between the LDC and National Grid was really how do we iron out a thermal fee that gets relayed to the off-takers that make sure that not only that the LDC, really therefore the city of Troy, is really kind of has a safety net that we can manage manage this system the ldc is obviously an economic development tool that's staffed by part-time folks it's not like we have the staff that could service that there's the city of troy staff too but you're talking about a unique thing when you're talking about thermal energy and things like that um so not only did those thoughts arise but We really, between the back and forth between National Grid, really wanting to make sure that they were covered. Because again, this was a pilot program, kind of a pioneering effort. It's not that geothermal is a new thing, but a shared utility, that is a newer thing. And the nuance of that, frankly, kind of continued. We would continue to run into a roadblock a little bit. So the decision was finally made. and in consulting with the PSC, NYSERDA, our consultants that instead of the Troy LDC really actually owning a huge chunk of that utility, we could still use the LTC to facilitate it, but that national grid would really take the lead of building the building, taking the construction over to still achieve the energy-saving goal that's really spurred the grant and the project, while making sure that the City of Troy, the LDC, is not going to be left with something that they can't necessarily manage. The example that I'd use often in a lot of our meetings is at 2 a.m. when something happens, who's getting that phone call if it's the LDC's to manage? Am I going down there to fix it? So that's where we started to lean into this model that the city of Troy can still benefit off of it, not only just with securing the off-takers, the energy savings that come with geothermal, But making sure from an infrastructure standpoint in the construction project standpoint that we're not that we're not left with kind of this utility. We're not left with the liability of fixing certain parts of the infrastructure. National grid will be another thing worth noting since it is a pilot program. National Grid pretty much is beholden to it for five years. Not that anybody would want to envision that, but if it doesn't work and everybody walks away again, is the city of Troy, is the LDC left with this? So all those thoughts really started to come into play, and that's why we pivoted to the new model. So the current status of that, there's... That is exactly where it should be. We should be proud that it made it to the PSC for a phase two consideration. Other pilot programs across the state did not. Troy's did. And I do think that that's because of the team at the Troy LDC and its consultants and other partners like National Grid. So that's currently been with the PSC now for many months. We're really just kind of in a holding pattern waiting for them to give a go, no go. But that's where we're at right now.

Thank you.

If I can jump into the Riverwalk too, I know that was one of your questions that kind of goes along with projects that were in the works. We can roll right into that if anybody has any other questions. Sorry if, yeah, that's up for you all to.

No, all good.

Keep it rolling. Okay. Let's do this. So as some of you may know, part of the DRI, the Downtown Revitalization Initiative that was awarded by New York State several years back, there's multiple projects in there that we're really looking to take on and dive back into here. over the next coming months. One of them is going to be the Riverwalk Trail. This is a continuation basically from the back of our parking lot here, considered J Street, all the way up to Hoosick Street. This would continue the Riverwalk. So far, what was done, there was A plan developed by LaBella. Again, this was several years ago. That plan was developed by LaBella. Some surveying was done as well. Some easement thoughts because it would be going against some private property like the First Columbia property as well. All of some of those functions have been completed, although they need to be refreshed. And we actually do have a meeting in the coming weeks with LaBella to talk about refreshing that estimate. I am looking forward to, not looking forward to seeing what the updated cost is now, it being several years later. It originally was coming in somewhere around six point, I believe it was $6.3 million. DRI, we were awarded $3 million. We then, again, through our economic development team, over in planning did go did apply for some pro housing funding and did receive another million dollars a million dollars for that that put us up to a total of four we also did apply for a grants through the northern borders program unfortunately that was not received so that on a on a on the current estimate leaves us with a $2.3 million gap. I'm sure that is not going to come back at 6.3 when we refresh the costs of that. And then that's going to result in us, once we formulate that plan, really coming to the council with that plan. I'm looking for a bonding authorization. We continue to apply for different grant funding, although it's already funded by almost $4 million. So we're gonna keep trying to go after that grant funding But we are getting to the point that we have to start spending and utilizing these DRI funds. We don't want to get to that point where any of those could be forfeited. We're nowhere near that, but that time can come. We don't want to see that. So it is something that we would need to come to all of you for approval. It does seem like it's... pretty favorably looked at in general. I do think just from my own experiences pulling in out of this building every day for the past two and a half years, people really do utilize our Riverwalk. Talk about another economic development boost. Folks that are coming in, staying at the hotel next door, walking back and forth, staff here utilizes it on their breaks just to enjoy the river. um and i'm sure many of you have been to other communities that's a real draw you know and the fact that we have that stretch of the beautiful historic hudson river um to to continue that and there's always the vision of extending it as much north and south as we possibly can um i know council member in your original questions i think you were a little curious of when do we see it eventually get to lance lansingburg You know, I think we've always continued to envision that hopefully when we see more development towards the price chopper and maybe we can build off of there. But, you know, to have a continuous river rock or a pretty much of a trail of sorts that you can get through the whole entire river is definitely a goal. I think it's no secret this mayor loves the Hudson River. So. That is something that we continue to look at through DRI, that we would be coming to the council with a plan and looking for a little bit more funding. But again, that's an example of where a lack of a planning commissioner, although I do, Randy was, I believe, involved a little bit with Denae early on, on securing some of those funds. We're still applying for grants. We're still going after funding that we do have out there. constantly. We did recently another one of the awards through DRI was for wayfinding. I know this came up, I believe, in another meeting that I had mentioned that we're looking to take on a comprehensive look at our parking infrastructure here, not only the tangible infrastructure, but how we go about parking. That wayfinding will help a little bit as well. That's another thing that the original plan That was created for the city. I want to say back then it came up to about a little over a million dollars. We have roughly $400,000 to spend with that. That being said, the $400,000 is definitely a great way to start a phase one really in our downtown to start guiding folks to where it might be good to park for the farmer's market, where New City Hall is, where points of interests are. We had a really great conversation, Danae and I, about a week or two ago, With Tangram, that is the company that's facilitating that. Talking about other opportunities, how can we be smarter with it? Can we build in that folks can hit a QR code and get directions to different shops and things? So those are all conversations we're having and looking forward to see that. I really... I know not a lot of people get excited about wayfinding. I really do. I feel that it's a problem Troy has had for a long time. And I think if we guided people in the right place that they would maybe come here a little bit often. They'd enjoy the city a little bit more. Another project through DRI that you all are seeing that's in progress is American Theater. That's on its way on time to be open for next year. So a lot of stuff is still getting done with the DRI, but I know the Riverwalk Wayfinding, those are two top priorities that we're looking to dive back into here towards the end of the year going into next.

Deputy Mayor, just so I can visualize this, when do those, the $3 million in DRI funding, do you know when those expire?

So there's not necessarily an expiration on it, although from my understanding, we, especially with all that economic development activity we currently have in the city of Troy, like One Monument Square, and the fact that there are neighbors downstairs and we run into them for coffee. We're constantly in communications with Empire State Development and talking about that. And we did have a conversation that the state wants to see these DRI funds starting to get spent. Not necessarily there's a specific expiration, but it's definitely not only is it valuable money we want to put to use, but again, we want to get that out to the door before anybody does start talking about a change in it as well. I know the state, which is crazy to think about, they're almost getting to the point where a lot of the downtowns have received DRI fundings now. And I've heard multiple things of, do they change the program up? Does Troy consider possibly going for a round two if it's still open? Which of course that we'd go after that if that's the case. There's programs that are a little bit smaller, but similar in scale like New York Forward. So again, we're always trying to stay up to date on all the new funding sources out there from New York State, but there's no exact expiration date on that now like ARPA.

Gotcha. Okay. Understood. Um, any other questions on the riverfront bike lane walkway? Okay. Can we move on to the South Troy industrial road, uh, project please.

So in your interest is the South train, the actual, the road project right back there. So, um, phase two really was actually has been closed out and completed for, for the most part. Um, that was, uh, last year. Um, Some of the things that you might, what ended up happening, as we know that there's the salt pile located down in the end section towards Adams Street on the South Troy Industrial Road. At the time when we came into office, American Rock Salt, who's the owner of The salt down there was actually suing the city of Troy. This was a dispute over where the road was going to be ultimately take away the rail system that goes right into the American rock salt. area where that's contained right now. That would obviously make their business, they wouldn't have been able to ship rock salt. That could have had a huge impediment on their business. At the same time, we were engaging, talking about the opportunities that are on the southern end of our industrial waterfront. And those are things that you're hearing swirling about now. Another project that the Troy LDC has been heavily engaged in for two and a half years is the old King Fuel site. So again, a little background for some folks. We're all familiar or used to be familiar with the old winky face driving over the bridge back in the day. I actually wish that would come back. I feel like it would be cool, but Anyways, so that area, um, that has been undergoing a national grid cleanup for several years. Um, we're finally getting to the end, the last phase of that, that that should actually be wrapped up here, uh, within the coming months, something that for folks that have been around for a bit, it feels like they've been doing this cleanup for decades. So the fact that that's finally wrapping up down there, this provides an opportunity on that end of the river. Um, and this is where early on, um, moving the salt pile down to that section of the river getting American rock salt to drop their lawsuit against the city of Troy and what we did was we agreed that we would not continue the South Troy Industrial Road basically past where American rock salt is which is almost in obviously on the industrial part but kind of in the middle of Adams Street and Monroe um that road it doesn't really hinder any um industrial traffic because the american rock salt is the last one on that road um as it is so all the truck traffic still gets directed towards the southern end to get closer to the menands bridge so it didn't hinder that that's why we were comfortable with doing that and the thought was that ultimately when um american rock salt moves we start developing industrial uses more on the southern end of our of our industrial area on the river that then opens up that northern portion for housing maybe some commercial space retail whatever it may be and the thought will be that at that time somebody comes in and says i want to build a condos here or whatever the use might be it's such a small piece of road that was discontinued That developer can take that on or that can be thought of in coalition with whatever development occurs down there, you know, over the coming years as we see that full vision come to fruition along the industrial riverfront.

Excellent. Okay. I have no questions. Does anyone on the committee or the council have questions? Council Member Campbell-Cohen.

Thank you, Chair. With regards to the South Troy portion of this discussion, one thing folks in the neighborhood are actually really excited about with this, and overwhelmingly it is enthusiasm from people in the neighborhood in spite of industrial movement, which I think most people are a little bit cagey about. or skeptical about.

One thing that- Skeptics in South Shore?

Believe it or not, yes. But one thing that people are really excited about is getting that multi-use path that was discussed in the L2C package there. um and i know in the past we've talked about what's going on with the uncle sam um trail um i just wanted to double back because it is this is a few years off probably from being in place is striping on first street um something that we're going to be able to do to to have that sort of functionality for bicyclists um in the meantime

Yeah, I think that I know the striping, I believe, is an issue that you've raised up before, too, to continue to have that connection. Again, that's definitely something that we're looking at and that we want to be able to provide. I know that there was some concerns a little bit of the way that was previously designed and the kind of I know I sometimes it looks like it created another drive lane for for some vehicles. I know that that's some different feedback that's been heard. But no, we want to across the whole entire city encourage any other type of not just vehicular traffic, but pedestrian and cyclist safety. So that's definitely something that we're looking at.

OK, thank you. And it's no. No secret, but I would be very enthusiastic to see that done, especially because it's going to be a ways away before we have this kind of infrastructure in place through the multi-use trail. And it's very challenging for people to get to school.

Yeah, no, I understand that. And I think, too, part of it, a couple of things, as you all know, when we look into our annual infrastructure improvement program every year, we try to see what can we tee up for future years? What can we do portions of? you know what do we have to wait for in a lot of that area unfortunately with some of the stuff not unfortunately fortunate for you know national grid infrastructure improvements but parts of it have been ripped up now for the past a couple years on and off we're starting to see that finally slow down uh not that that's happened directly on the portion you're talking about on 4th street but that kind of affects our decision making when we mobilize to pave or to stripe or anything like that. That being said, we're getting towards the end, if not end of that. So I think that's where we're gonna start looking down there a bit more. We do have our lead pipe program that has just started in parts of South Troy, Hill Street area and things too. We do have the two contractors up and working now in the South and the North end of it. But yeah, no, I think two things that should be would be considered, not only when we think of that type of traffic that you're talking about, but also knowing that even if it might be two or three years off, how do we tee up maybe that better connection kind of from the east side of our city going down to that? I'm just thinking the Uncle Sam Trail kind of trying to get through all there, too. But that's stuff that we're always looking at and considering.

Perfect. Thank you.

No other questions? Okay. If that's it, I will entertain a motion to adjourn the planning committee meeting.

Motion.

Second. Motion from Council Member Schuber. Second from Council Member McKee. With that, we will close the meeting. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

We will probably take a short break to reconfigure the room for the public forum. But we will be back as soon as possible. We'll get underway. I would ask that everyone join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, please. 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. WANT TO WELCOME EVERYONE TONIGHT TO THE TROY CITY COUNCIL FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING. I WILL AT THIS POINT TAKE THE ROLE. COUNCILMEMBER DE LA RENZO. PRESENT. COUNCILMEMBER STRUBER. PRESENT. COUNCILMEMBER SPAIN MCCLAREN IS ABSENT. COUNCILMEMBER MCKEE. PRESENT. COUNCILMEMBER FAVREAU. PRESENT. COUNCILMEMBER CAMPBELL COHEN. PRESENT. AND COUNCIL PRESIDENT STEELE, ALSO PRESENT. This evening we have two local laws on our agenda. One is introductory. One is one we've been talking about for quite some time. We have one ordinance and two resolutions. The agendas were placed in the rear of the chambers. So I hope that you've availed yourself of them. At this point in the evening, we have a public forum on agenda items only. So I would ask that you keep your remarks only on these items and that you speak no more than five minutes. I understand there are some folks joining us by Zoom, and I would ask them if they are interested in addressing us during the public forum to please use the raise your hand feature on Zoom. So at this time, is there anyone who wishes to speak to the council as part of the agenda-only public forum?

Hi, I'm Francis Sweet from D6. On August 20th, when the police presented their findings from their 60-day data collection, it proved nothing. It didn't prove the cameras provided any meaningful information on the scant number of cases that were examined. All I've heard all over Rensselaer County are the same three or four anecdotal cases. The same three or four cases used as anecdotal evidence that the cops need these things. And when they are given the opportunity to provide empirical evidence, they couldn't. Yet this council has changed the law in their favor anyway. Misdemeanors were considered. 48 hours was changed to 72. And the language now proposed provides them with more loopholes. Why? They couldn't even prove that the cameras meaningfully moved cases forward. They couldn't prove there's enough reason to have ALPRs at all. I've been willing to give the benefit of the doubt and to compromise through this whole campaign because Local Law 3 is in and of itself a compromise. I was willing, right up until they couldn't provide data that proved these things in any way helped solve crimes in Troy. We shouldn't be discussing regulating mass surveillance or which vendor is ickier than the others. We should just be getting rid of these altogether. Thank you.

Thank you, Frances.

Hello, my name is Emma Della Pia. I live up on Euclid Avenue and I was just reading through the law and I saw that it was weaker than the last time I read it, that now there's a 72-hour data retention instead of 48. I believe that this law should be as maximally strict as possible on the organizations collecting this information because this information is being held by private entities rather than the local government. These entities are not trustworthy. And we've seen recent news stories come out from around the local area of cops abusing ALPR data. I also saw that the ALPR defined the whole host of images collected. as license plate data, even if it includes other pictures of the car or other things. I think this law should probably be strengthened to outright reject any system that captures more than the plate data. It should be as restrictive as possible on the data collected on the public or else that can be misused. And I agree that flock and any LPR system that captures images like this should be removed from our city streets.

Thank you. Thank you, Emma.

Mm hmm.

Hi, my name is Maya. I live on 24th Street. So in addition to the points already raised, I feel that the presence of these poses a significant threat to... I'm sorry, could you speak right into the mic, please? Thank you. I believe that the use of the ALPR cameras presents a significant threat to the youth and the children of Troy, who have absolutely no... data privacy protection. It's been shown by independent organizations that the ALPRs are in fact collecting facial recognition data and significantly more data than just the license plate information. That means that they're creating a nationally accessible database of all of the children that live here in Troy. And there's absolutely unfettered access to that. We also, in all of these laws presented here, are then choosing to increase the amount of time that surveillance is allowed. And despite the fact that there are some regulations on reporting, there are no consequences outlined for what happens when this is misused. How can we say that we want them to self-report and then have no actual real legislation that holds them accountable? This is weak. Thank you.

Thank you, Maya.

Hello there. My name is Brie Harrington. I'm from District 4. Okay, so first off, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the council for leaving out misdemeanors in the local law free that's coming up. Having in them there would have caused a lot of future issues with opportunities for loopholes and ways to weaken the law over time. One of the most important purposes of this law is to subject investigations to scrutiny where surveillance is concerned. Something the law doesn't touch on is a solution to lack of oversight. It's very important to have a third-party investigation model for any PD. And with the shortcomings displayed in the 60-day report, an outside entity to keep tabs on proper protocol will be crucial if you expect citizens to tolerate any form of surveillance in the future. Without this, having any law is pointless. So that's definitely something our group and citizens will be paying very close attention to. Something troubling is the decision to increase the data retention to 72 hours. It feels like there was never a clear explanation as to why this was necessary. If someone could reiterate why it's important to increase the retention time from 48 hours, that would be appreciated. 70% of the time, Troy PD searched flock within 48 hours of an incident or a crime being committed. Something else important to remember is that Local Law 3 should not be created for flock cameras. Flock needs to go. Flock should have gone in March. As soon as we discovered the contract was unlawfully drawn up. As city council, it is your job and your right to cancel or terminate an unlawful contract. that should have happened in the very beginning. And I think a lot of us are getting very frustrated And we're getting tired of saying the same things over and over again in regards to why Flock is bad. We know Flock is bad. We've had so many bits of evidence that have been coming up even during this year when we've been fighting this in real time that have proven over and over again that Flock is a really rotten company. And they do not have public safety as their priority. We know what their priority is, their business. So I implore you to please remember that this whole point is to get flock out of Troy. That is the point of all of this. Great to have laws for the future, for future tech, right? When flock is finally out, which it better be, it better come out, then whatever comes in to replace it, cool, we'll have this law. And that's great. Another thing we really need to know is how things are moving with the lawsuit. So I know that's a whole other can of worms, but please, hopefully we can get to that too, because the flaw cameras, they need to go. We're getting tired and it should have been done in the beginning. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Brie.

Hi, my name is Heather Crimmins. I live in Lansingburg, and I frankly can't believe that you give us all five minutes to talk. I probably have five minutes worth of problems. So first off, the red line on this law is really disappointing when you throw in words like that an officer reasonably believes that's just a cop out for them so they can do whatever they want. When you add language like related to or involved in a felony, that's another sort of exception that's going to swallow the rule because, again, that's going to be what law enforcement thinks at the moment they decide to search it. There's just no universe in which I'm confident in thinking that's not going to be applied in a way that is racist and classist like all policing. So that sucks. Adding in. Language, the 72 hours is problematic for reasons that people have discussed before. I'm really disappointed in the language about to the extent recorded in existing case management systems about the the auditing capacity, because that, again, is a cop out. It takes away the obligation to get better case management systems in order to get the data and lets the police or flock rely on. We didn't have enough system. We couldn't do it. Right. Which is not acceptable. But that's not really, really my problem. My problem is that, I'm waiting for my phone to unlock so I can get to my comment. There we go. So this law, which would put guardrails on the use of ALPRs in Troy, which is good, is better certainly than allowing law enforcement here and across the entire country completely unfettered access and unconstrained use of unbelievable amounts of passively collected data about the whereabouts and daily habits of just about everyone in or coming through Troy, including, as someone mentioned, a lot of small children. But honestly, this law has become a distraction and a really well-wielded dilatory tactic by the city's administration, right? I think this started as a solid, well-intentioned plan for a stopgap. And it's really been turned into the end goal in itself. And I think that a lot of us, not me, maybe I hate these things, have sort of lost sight of the purpose. And rather than end the Flock contract in March when people here demanded it, the city's elected leaders, including everyone in this room, have sort of gone back and forth with each other and between the residents and you all over the nature and the exact extent of the limits that should be placed in this technology. But most of us agree that they're unnecessary at best, useless given the data that we got last month, and harmful at worst. They're not demonstrably useful at solving or preventing any crimes. And even if they were, the slow erosion of all of our rights and just complete undermining of the Fourth Amendment really isn't worth it. So we spent this time arguing over retention periods and lists of crimes, which I'm glad that's out. That was bad. Thank you. Really, just instead of figuring out how to take the things down. And I feel like, frankly, you've been had. Right. I think the the mayor and the police have have managed to keep the system that they like up a lot longer than it should have been months. Right. And I also don't know why you or we have allowed the police and the mayor to sort of set the premise that we then all operate on that these things are fundamentally useful or good. Right. There's no proof. And they only went up a few years ago. You know, I don't know if anyone else other than me in this room is saying that the police are completely useless in 2015, but I don't think so. I think crimes were solved. Right. So, you know, just to I don't wrap this up too quickly because you did give me five minutes. But I think that now is the time to get out of this contract with Flock. It was illegal when we went into it. It's not that hard to get out of a contract. This is what lawyers are for. We all have one. The city has one. They can figure it out. Just get out. The ALPRs are coming. We are all being surveilled in many, many ways to the extent that it is in your power to minimize the harm that is done to the people who live in Troy. Please, please take those steps. don't allow like the goal of getting something done or a compromise, everyone feels good to get in the way of protecting people who live here. So yeah, take them down.

Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Okay, I'm not seeing...

Good evening council members. My name is Frankie and I'm a resident of Troy. I'd like to convey my disappointment with the council's advancement of local law number three. I understand from section one of the proposed legislation that you believe you're managing to somehow preserve citizens' constitutional rights while simultaneously giving law enforcement access to the tools they want. But I think you're on the wrong side of that fine line you believe you're walking. In the before Flock times, Troy police would have, and I dare say should have, needed probable cause warrants to track a citizen's movements. Now, in the Flock era, they don't need a judicial warrant to track anyone's movements. All they need is a case number. Have we forgotten that being suspected of a crime doesn't make a person guilty of anything? A case number isn't a warrant. A case number doesn't even come close to constituting probable cause. I know what it means to track a suspect. The police have done that on my behalf in the past. I'm grateful for it. But I'm telling you again, the police did that only after obtaining a warrant to track the suspect, after they proved to a judge that there was a legitimate reason to track that person. I've been incredibly supportive of this council. You take public service very seriously, and I really appreciate that, but I honestly think you're getting this wrong. You're compromising the privacy and freedom of every person who enters, exits, and conducts their personal business within the city of Troy. And I hope future hearings on this proposed law will open your eyes to the fact that is not the right direction for Troy or any city in the United States. I do not support local law number three. I oppose it wholeheartedly because I understand that digital drag netting of this kind is at its core unconstitutional. This law is not a compromise. It's complicity in criminalizing the general public, treating us all as though we're guilty until proven innocent. I urge you to pause this legislation and more deeply consider the constitutionality of what you're proposing. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you, Franklin.

We have someone on Zoom who wishes to speak, so we'll allow that person in.

Hi, my name is Riley. I live at the intersection of Hoosick and 22nd Street. I would like to add to what's been said already tonight about ALPRs and FLOC. I am very much against flock being used in the city of Troy. When I am going about my day-to-day business, entering, leaving, or staying within the city limits, I am actively choosing to take routes throughout the city that avoid the flock cameras. I feel so uncomfortable being surveilled like this. It reminds me of 1984. I don't like that the society we have now is a surveillance state and I would hope that the city I call my home would be better than that and would be able to take a stand against flock and its profiteering, as well as to recognize the civil liberties that we have in this country. Thank you. Thank you, Riley.

Hello, good evening, City Council. My name is Echo Goff, and I'm a resident of the 5th District. First, thank you for listening to us and not including misdemeanors into the local law. That was a great move and appreciate listening. I'd like to talk a little bit about why I think it is important that we do have local laws like this while simultaneously working to remove flock cameras. If flock cameras were so incredibly effective in solving crime, Troy PD could have very easily put together an actual package of data backing that. And instead, they gave us very vague numbers that lacked a lot of the real data that you were all asking for. I'm asking that the 72-hour data retention be changed back to the original 48 hours. New Hampshire has three minutes, and they work pretty well with that. We did not receive sufficient audits from Troy PD to ask for more leniency on this law. I'd like to ask as well that there be more stipulations about public oversight and stipulations of public oversight and input before any other future ALPRs are installed. So of course people in power with an extremely powerful tool want to keep it. This comes in to two sections of people. This comes into those who are being surveilled, and the people who are being surveilled are the people funding the surveillance, the taxpayers, all of us, and the people with the power to surveil. It is a huge infringement upon our rights and of course the people in power want the ability to have this powerful tool in place because it feels irreplaceable once you have it. It feels like such a useful, important thing because something that is such a gold standard of tracking comes at an extreme price of our civil liberties. Let's talk worst case scenarios for a second. Let's say a certain federal individual gets voted out and says the election results are false and refuses to leave office. These cameras can easily violate our First Amendment right to association because anyone who disagrees with said outcome, who anyone disagrees with said outcome of people in power could be tracked and documented using these cameras. We have the network feature turned off right now, but there is nothing stopping Flock as a company independently from following a presidential executive order to turn it back on. Because local legislation means nothing to people who do not respect the law. I would have probably said a few years ago that this type of worst case scenario would be over catastrophizing and that it would sound faintly conspiracy theory based. But I think we all know how easy it would be to teeter into this scenario. We already have masked people abducting folks in the street with no regulation and no accountability. If these cameras are up, they will be misused. It's not a matter of if, but when. Thank you for working diligently on this and thank you for listening to us. Have a great evening.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Deirdre Shea, and I live in South Central Troy. A lot has been said already, so I just want to be really specific. I think you all know how I feel about mass surveillance in Troy already, so we don't need to go into that. But I wanted to go into local law number three, Under six, transparency reporting. Five and six, to the extent recorded in existing case management systems. We saw, and many people have already spoken to this, the data from Troy PD was incomplete. There was no way for us to actually, for example, see if an officer was stalking an ex-partner like they were able to see in Albany County. And a lot of that information from the flock side and also from the way that they are recording their cases, they say they just don't have the system set up to get the information that we need to properly audit how useful this technology is for them. Let's hold them to a higher standard than where they're at right now. To the extent recorded in existing case management systems means that they don't have to change anything if they continue to use this technology. technology and i don't think that is an appropriate standard for us to set when we are trying to regulate it and we're trying to over have oversight over it um so i wanted to to say that and then i also wanted to add that um this law is not particularly effective if we do not have public oversight um and that is missing and necessary thank you thank you deirdre

Hello, my name is Jay. I live in Lansingburg. And I want to return to a point that was brought up earlier by Maya, which is that the vlog cameras say that they're only reading license plates, but they're also creating a database of faces. And particularly in the era of generative AI, this is deeply concerning, specifically to me as someone who as a child had photos taken of me and shared. And I have never been able to get the security back of knowing that people have not seen pictures of me that I did not take. that I did not consent to, that portray me in a way that is very vulnerable. And I want to make sure that none of the children of Troy ever have to go through what I went through. And I think it is the city council's job to make sure that we all feel safe, not only in our homes, but in having our body belong to us and our images belong to ourselves. Thank you.

Thank you, Dave.

Hello, my name is Sian. I live in District 3, and this is my first time attending a city council meeting because I found it very important to share that I'm opposed to this law.

I'm opposed to fog cameras being used in this way.

I don't think that they belong in Troy because they are not being truthful about the data that they're collecting. I don't think that it's fair for them to use this data in this way, especially when there's no sort of regulations put in place with how they're using the data. Sorry. Sorry. The fact of the matter is that I feel less safe with them being in our town than I do with them in it. I don't like that they're here. I feel very unsafe. Thank you.

I want to thank you all for your comments. Please know that they were heard. I would just remind you that the council is suing the mayor over the block contract and and while that litigation is pending, our hands are really tied. So it is obviously our hope that the judge will and our argument will prevail and that the contract will be deemed null and void. And then we can move forward to much of what you have all been asking for. At this time, I would Call our attention to local law number three, a local law establishing standards governing the city's use of automatic license plate readers, ALPR systems. Council Member McKee, is there a motion?

Motion.

Council Member Struber? Second. Seconded by Council Member DiLorenzo. Discussion on the local law.

Council Member McKee. I was going to move to amend the local law.

Okay.

But before I do that, I'd like to make a statement. Okay. Thank you all for your comments and for all your support in helping us craft this legislation. This was a mighty effort, which involved input from the Troy community and the Troy PD. And I'd like to thank everyone involved. From the beginning of this process in February, this council has been determined to do two things at once. Allow our police to keep using the ALPR system to solve serious crimes and protect our residents' constitutional right to privacy. Those goals are not in conflict, but only if the law makes them compatible. That is what Local Law 3 does. The Troy public has come to nearly every council meeting since February demanding controls on this system, and they were right to do so. These cameras don't just photograph license plates. Accumulated over time, that data constructs a detailed map of our daily lives. where we work, where we worship, who we visit, when we come and go. Without strict controls, a database like this will be misused. We have seen it happen too many times, most recently in the Albany County Sheriff's Office. That is why this law puts hard limits on when the data can be searched, how long it can be kept, and requires transparency and accountability in how it is used. But I want to speak to something larger because this law is about more than cameras. Over the past 25 years, beginning with the war on terror, we have watched our right to privacy erode slowly, quietly, and worst of all, normally. We've grown used to being watched. What we must never grow used to is this, a private surveillance network spanning the country, tracking the movements of ordinary people who are suspected of nothing, with access sold to the government, Every unfree society in modern history has been built on exactly that capacity, the ability of those in power to watch everyone all the time. Free societies stay free by refusing to let that capacity grow unchecked. We cannot stop technology from evolving, and we shouldn't want to. These tools help solve real crimes and bring real people justice. But the same tools left ungoverned will be turned against the rights of the very people they're meant to protect. The answer is not to look away, and it is not to ban the technology. The answer is what Troy has done. Show up, speak out, and write the rules ourselves with real limits, real transparency. and real accountability. That is what this council together with this community has accomplished. And it is what vigilance looks like. I'm proud to move this law forward.

Thank you.

So I'd like to discuss the amendments or go through the amendments.

You're moving to amend.

I'm moving to amend. Thank you. Under definitions, letter D, we are removing the word federal. And I'll read that sentence. Hot list means a database of license plate numbers and related vehicle identifying information maintained by a New York state or local law enforcement agency. Under permitted uses, Roman numeral I. We have included language, and I'll read the whole letter I. Roman numeral I. To compare captured plate data against hot list data or against specific vehicle plate or identifying information manually entered into the LPR system in connection with an investigation of a vehicle that, and this is the included language, An officer reasonably believes, based upon the facts and circumstances known at the time, is, and we move down then to letter E, is related to or involved in a felony. This is language that replaces what is crossed out, currently being used in the commission of a felony or in escape thereafter. Roman numeral two, we delete it to enforce restrictions on the use of city parking facilities or, and then we moved down and we included a new letter C. It shall be unlawful to operate or utilize any ALPR system whose operation is not fully compliant with the provisions of this act. under Section 4, Restrictions on Transfer of Captured Plate Data, we included Roman numeral IV, to read to the Rensselaer County District Attorney's Office in connection with a criminal prosecution and the District Attorney's Office agrees to not further disclose the data to any other person or agency except pursuant to a court order or as otherwise required by law. Under Section 5, Data Retention, Letter A, we changed the retention period from 48 hours to 72 hours. And in section B, I'll read it. We changed. I'll read it. Notwithstanding subdivision A of this section, capture plate data may be retained beyond and we replaced 48 with 72 hours. Only in the following circumstances and only for as long as the applicable basis for retention continues to apply. Under Roman numeral II, we added language regarding a preservation hold. And it reads, where, based upon the facts and circumstances known at the time and upon a reasonable belief by an officer that the captured plate data may be needed by the city as evidence in an investigation of specific unlawful conduct enumerated in section 3B1, The captured plate data may be preserved for an additional 18 days. In such circumstances, the need must be documented and approved at the supervisory level of the Troy Police Department, and additional extensions are permitted based on documented need and with approval at the command level of the Police Department. Once its preservation is no longer required, such captured plate data shall be deleted as soon as practicable. The previous section, Roman numeral two, we delete it. And that was where the data is captured pursuant to 3B2 parking enforcement until the fine or fee is paid or the enforcement matter is fully and finally adjudicated. That was deleted. And then under section six, transparency and reporting, Roman numeral five, to the extent recorded in existing case management systems, the number of instances in which a hot list match was later determined to be erroneous upon further investigation. And as noted by the speakers, we did add that language at the beginning, to the extent recorded in existing case management systems. And we did the same in Roman numeral six. We started that to the extent recorded in existing case management systems. The number of instances in which a confirmed hot list match or a manual query for captured plate data resulted in an arrest or prosecution categorized by types of crimes. Under Roman numeral 8, the number of instances in which captured plate data was retained for more than, and this is where we changed, replaced 48 hours with 72, broken down by the reason for extended retention under Section 5B, including the number of captured plate data. And that language, including the number of captured plate data, was included. And then we added section C under reporting. I'm sorry, letter C. Within 90 days of this local law taking effect and every 90 days thereafter for the first year of this local law's enactment, the Troy Police Department shall prepare a report to the City Council listing the date, reason, and approval for each preservation hold and each extension. For each expired hold, the report should note whether the data became evidence in an arrest or investigation, and where the data was no longer required, the data was deleted. And that's... basically it. There's some punctuation changes that I will transmit to the clerk.

We have a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Council Member Struber. Are we all clear on the language of the amendment? Any questions? Any discussion on the amendment? Council Member Favreau?

Is there anybody from, I believe I saw Barker in the back from the police department that could answer a question, please? He's there. Hello. Thank you. I just had a really quick question in regards to the retention from 48 to 72 hours. It was a discussion that members of the Public Safety Committee had, if a crime had happened, say, on a Thursday evening or Friday, and it was suspected to be a felony, and from the data that we saw in the chart, most searches happened within the 48 hours. If it happened on a Thursday or Friday, is it waiting, somebody waiting until Monday to come in to do those searches, or are searches happening on weekends as well?

I would say it probably depends on the severity of the offense. If it's an incident that we're calling detectives in, a shooting with injury, critical incidents, then it's likely happening right then. If it's not something that a detective would be called in for and it doesn't get assigned for a day or two, then it would be whatever day it gets assigned. which could be several, like if it's a Thursday night and it gets assigned to a detective, but the detective's off, so the detective's going to pick it up on Monday and make contact with the complainant, whatever it may be, then there's a chance that it's delayed. It's typically done by, as we've discussed, either the detective or a supervisor.

And so if it happens a Thursday night and it's assigned on a Friday and the detective's not in, but they come in on Monday, we're past that 72-hour mark. I'm just trying to think.

The data's gone. The data's gone.

But has the police department thought, I'm just trying to think, if this goes through, would protocols change so that... It's not changed, like that gap's not happening on a serious crime?

We'll certainly have to modify quite a few things. I think the initial obstacle in my mind is the way that the system is configured. You would need to basically just dump all the reads into like a CSV or an Excel document. So you lose some of the searchability other than just strict plate numbers. And then for each of those instances, you're requesting that list of things of why we're doing it. And I think just the timeliness is, I imagine it's not going to be acceptable to you if we're doing that every Thursday or Friday night. But I'm sure we'll have to change a few things based on the conclusion.

Can I, thank you. I'm sorry, you're finished. Council Member McKee. So, If a crime is committed, say, at 5 o'clock Friday, and detectives aren't going to get there until Monday, wouldn't an officer be able to put a preservation hold on that data on the night that the crime was committed? And so you would have this time to then develop an investigation and locate suspects to determine whether or not it was a felony. If you have clear information and reasonable and you make a reasonable decision based on the facts and circumstances at the time that it could be a serious crime, it could be a felony. It's my understanding that you'd be able to put a hold on that data.

Well, you're telling us. So whatever your understanding is, is certainly obviously what we would follow. A few things there. So the earlier point is first, we would be taking it out of the searchable system and just dumping it into an Excel file. So we're at that point limited in the searching by searching through Excel. So we're not necessarily searching for the vehicle identifier. We're not searching for a red Mazda. We're searching against whatever data is in that Excel file and just doing a simple search. control it with the current system with, with flock. If we were to change to a different vendor, maybe there's other ways of archiving, but as flock stands right now, we tell it how many days we want to retain. There's no preservation order within flock to say, you know what? We're normally a 72 hour operation, but for this case, we want seven days or whatever it may be. So we'd be pushing everything to Excel. But then again, we're to the point of, I don't know that the design of this law would be something that you want us every Friday evening saying, well, officer, go to your supervisor because this is something that you believe may be a felony on Monday to hold for a detective. But it's, again, these are the concerns. I guess to extend and to divert a little bit because you brought me up here, I just want to make it clear that we understand that a bulk of the searches are done within 48, 72 hours. A bulk of our arrests are made at the scene. The reason we're opining or arguing for longer terms is because just because a bulk of the victims are known within the first 72 hours does not mean that those other victims are unimportant. And so I recognize the risks and I recognize the need for safeguards and guardrails, but it's not a simple profit and loss statement. It's, if we've heard the same anecdotal stories of the same incidents, just because they happen after 72 hours does not mean those people aren't important. And I know you don't necessarily think they're unimportant, but it's removing that accessibility or that ability. We'll modify the operations to whatever the ultimate authority is. We obviously, it's why we believe it's a constitutional search until if it's told it's unconstitutional, then we don't do unconstitutional searches. We'll work once it's determined what the law may be.

Right. Well, we have to draw the line somewhere. And you do have other tools that you can use to solve crimes.

And hopefully they solve the opportunities that are missed.

Well, we're trying to protect Fourth Amendment rights here as well.

Okay. Are there any other questions for the chief while we have him and he has a mic? Thank you very much, Chief Barker. On the amendment, are there any other comments? Okay, we have an amendment that's been made and seconded it. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? The amendment carries. Now on the amended local law, is there a motion? Motion. You can't. Motion.

Motion.

Councilmember DiLorenzo.

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Campbell-Cohen. Any discussion on the amended resolution?

Chair.

Councilmember Struber.

I want to start by thanking the residents, the experts, and the Troy Police Department for the data, insight, and time that was provided to the Council over the last many months to assist us in forming a thoughtful and appropriate law to govern the use of ALPR technology here in Troy. Gathering, formatting, understanding, comparing, and maintaining data is not simple, but it is necessary to make informed decisions. I know there's a balance to be had between the tools the police use for solving reported crimes, how crimes are prosecuted, and keeping the privacy of the residents of Troy. I also know that a lot of the additional items that residents have mentioned, like oversight, AI controls, and potentially removing the cameras, are their own very distinct items that need to be tackled on their own. After hearing from the police at the last Public Safety Committee meeting, I had doubts surrounding the serious Class A misdemeanors that were presented. I'm not a cop. I have absolutely no idea what's a misdemeanor versus a felony. But in hearing that child endangerment, assault, and sexual abuse were on that list, I wanted some time to look things up. And that is what I did. It did become clear to me that all of these items that are indeed important and need to be investigated, many of them have a felony version in the law already. With the proposed amendments to the local law, no additional allowances should be required for an officer to investigate the serious crimes that have been discussed. I also want to thank Councilmember McKee for spearheading this legislation and doing a lot of the heavy lifting to get us where we are. It was a lot of work, and I know that. I know there's more to be done. We've all talked about it today, but this is a really important step, and I'm grateful to be here.

Thank you. I too want to echo much of what you said. I'm really very proud of this council This is, it was a tough issue. And I think we come out of this not making anyone happy as a result. But we did our work. We did it in a deliberative, thoughtful way. A lot of research. A lot of conversations with our council and with experts in the field. It's not something that we are just arbitrarily changing or implementing. It's been really something that we've thought about. And I cannot say enough of praise for Councilmember McKee and all the work she's done on this. It's been monumental. I'm just really proud. This is the way it's supposed to work. The public brings forth a concern. We listen, we hear, we study, we write, we rewrite, we write again, and we implement. I think we all know the outcome once we pass this in October 1st. I'm sure it will be vetoed. But we have the power to override that veto. And that is the legislative process in a nutshell. And so I want to thank the public, my council members. I think it's a job well done. All in favor on the amended resolution? Aye. Local law number three as amended is adopted unanimously. We have local law number five for introduction only. We'll not be acting on it this evening. It's a local law amending chapter 257 of the Troy City Code by adding a new article. 13 to provide a real property tax exemption for permanently and totally disabled veterans. Council President Steele, Council Member Favreau at the request of the administration. And as I said, this is for introduction only. We're laying it on the table. Moving on to ordinances. Ordinance 45. Ordinance declaring certain city-owned personal property as surplus and directing the Office of the City Comptroller to sell or dispose of the surplus property. Council President Steele, at the request of the administration, is there a motion?

Motion.

Council Member McKee? Second. Seconded by Council Member Favreau. Discussion on the ordinance.

Council President?

Council Member Favreau.

Is there anyone from the administration that can talk about this list really quick? Hi. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. This is a wild list. There's a lot of stuff here. Is it all going to go up for auction? We're going to try. And how is it going to be advertised to the residents?

It goes to Collier City Auction. So they take care of our advertising. They take care of the auctions. They take care of everything for us. And were these...

Purchases made by the city or these purchases? Like, how did we get multiple Nintendo switches?

So a lot of a lot of these things are from the police evidence room that have, you know, they go past so many. uh days that they have to have it or months years i'm not too i'm sure obviously he wouldn't have sent it to me if um it wasn't ready yet so this is stuff that's way beyond their expiration dates and yeah so it's from the evidence room those first few pages and it'll happen this fiscal year The auction?

Yes.

As soon as this goes through, I've already been emailing with Collier City to go through the process. They're going to have to, you know, multiple day thing. They go to wherever everything is and start their process.

Cool.

And then I'm just looking at the items for office equipment. Is that in relation to our move by any chance? Some of those things, yes.

It can be within the city, any type of office equipment that can go.

That's all I had.

Council President?

Council Member Struber?

I was wondering specifically on the cars, do we know how many miles are on each of these?

Some of the cars, depending on which ones you were looking at, some of them have been used for parts. So they were ran over. They have... You know, bad car accidents. They were impounded. So as far as mileage, I'm not exactly sure. But some of them are not even, you know, they're probably going to be sold off for parts. Not so much you're going to get it and drive it around.

Okay. And that's going to be clearly listed in the auction, I assume. Yes. Okay. Because that was unclear to me in reading the list.

Yeah, I know. 2020 Explorer sounds good until, you know, there's nothing left to it.

And then similarly to the question of the Nintendo Switches, there's a lot of equipment in here for, like, homes. Like a roll of insulation that was from the police also?

So the first one, two... Three pages. Was it in your first three pages? Four pages. That's all police evidence room and impound lot things. Okay.

Interesting. I had no idea they would be picking up rolls of insulation. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions for Maria? Thank you very much. You're so welcome. All in favor of the ordinance? Aye. Opposed? Ordinance 45 is adopted unanimously. 6-0. Resolutions. Resolution 87. A resolution commemorating the service of Bishop Dr. Norman P. Macklin by designating the portion of 10th Street between Oakwood Avenue and Hoosick Street as Bishop Dr. Norman R. Macklin Way. Council President Steele at the request of the administration.

Motion.

Council Member Favreau with a second by? Second. Council Member McKee. Discussion? All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? resolution is adopted 6, 0 resolution 92 resolution of the Troy city council scheduling a public hearing on proposed local on number 5 of 2026 amending chapter 2 57 of the Troy city code by adding a new article 13. to provide a real property tax exemption for permanently and totally disabled veterans, Council President Steele, at the request of the administration. Is there a motion? Motion. Council Member Favreau? Second. Seconded by Council Member DiLorenzo. We need to come up with a date for this. Can we do it before the regular? We should do it before... The regular. Perfect. Do we have anything else scheduled for the October 1st? No?

No.

So if we say 645, does that sound good? Okay. So October 1st, 645. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. We have a public hearing resolution adopted 6-0. And that concludes our agenda. I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion.

Council Member Struber, second. Second. By Council Member McKee. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We are adjourned. The Finance Committee is adjourned. Do we want to go right into the special? Yeah. We have a special meeting tonight with one item that is the veto override of local law number four. We have pledged allegiance and we've called the roll. I would entertain anyone who wishes to address the council on local law number four. You're more than welcome to come forward. and speak your piece.

Hello, I want to speak in support of local law number four to repeal and change the section for public emergencies. I think it's an absolute travesty how public emergencies have been abused in the city of Troy in order to uh undermine the will of the public and troy And I think if possible, I heard that there was someone apprehended for cutting down flock cameras. That person should be granted special clemency because if the mayor is able to abuse our city by doing this, they should be able to do that same action against them. It's a complete travesty and it undermines all of our trust in local government. And I do not advocate for vigilantism. I just think it was terrible that that happened, that the mayor was able to come up with a fake emergency and undermine our public will thank you emma right yes just for the record we need your name oh my name is emma i live up on euclid avenue i'm sorry that's all right thank you very much

Good evening again, council members. My name is Frankie and I'm still a resident of Troy. I'd like to express 100% support for overriding the mayor's veto of local law number four. We clearly need this law to stop the mayor and other elected officials from misusing emergency declarations for political purposes. Local law number four is well-crafted, reasonable legislation that makes sense for our city, and I encourage you to override the veto and bring the mayor's absurd six-month fake emergency to an end. Her political charade has gone on long enough. Thank you very much. Thank you, Frankie.

Hi, Council. I have kind of a bad headache, so bear with me. My name is Noelle Dimash, and I proudly live on Oakwood Avenue. I support local law for. I just wanted to do a thought experiment with you guys. So I have spent a lot of time in these meetings listening to folks fantasize about things, fantasize about budgets, about deadlines, about buckets of funding being moved about, but like the luxury apartment complexes popping up downtown, never seem to be full. I spend a lot of hours paying attention to, which is why I feel compelled to do a little fantasizing of my own. And I invite you to join me for my allotted few minutes where I will be fantasizing about what a real mayor, a mayor with integrity and love for her citizens, would say after this decision about curtailing her use of emergency powers in the city. My fellow Trojans, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for participating in our vibrant city government here in Troy. I'm so grateful to have such an active and dedicated constituency who are intelligent and passionate about our city. I would like to thank the City Council for updating our code to reflect the most current New York State standards, and I would like to thank Councilperson Struber for her time and her diligence. As the mayor of a wonderful city, I would like to apologize if my previous actions had made any citizen feel as though I were overstepping. In a time of great unease surrounding the powers of government, I am grateful to be held accountable, and I understand why these changes need to be made. I am happy to follow and uphold my duties bestowed upon me by you, and I both understand and value the voices of my people. I had made decisions I thought were best at the time, and upon self-reflection and the data and information provided to me by the city council, the state of New York, and the voices of my fellow Trojans, I am now able to see that I have erred, and I am sorry. I know how important transparency is, and I will work diligently with my administration to do a better job of showing the public how our government is working for them. I would like to lead an administration that is dignified and honest, and because I know how apologies work, I will be changing the course of my administration and working to be more open and informed. I will work with my team to represent all of the people at Troy, not just those in my party, because local government only works when it belongs to all the residents, not just the well-connected or the wealthy ones. I will immediately cancel the Flock contract and I will not be renewing any private surveillance contract for our city because I understand how important privacy is and I have complete faith and trust in our police to continue solving crime in our city as they always have with their wit and collected evidence. Our police do not need cheap toys pandered by tech bros. They have provided law enforcement in our city with deep pride and success since the 1800s. Troy has always been a great city of change and progress and I'm happy to uphold these traditions with my administration. I am happy to be the kind of elected official that feels no shame when changing her mind after learning something new because part of being a good mayor, a good person really, is to grow and learn in every moment and acknowledge that while you did the best you could at the time, You can do better when you know more and you should. I want the people of Troy to know that I am doing my best and with their help and input, I can do even better. So thank you again, my wonderful constituents for continually driving me to be a better official and working to make Troy a better city. I look forward to our next meeting where I will be sitting in the chamber, listening to all of you and to my city council people who I do believe are in fact, Crushing it. Thank you. Now, now, I know this won't happen. Probably not tonight. And probably not any night soon. But I just wanted to see what it would feel like. Thank you. Thank you.

That is a hard act to follow. Does anyone else wish to address the council in the public forum? Okay. Then moving on, local law number four.

Local law number four, a local law amending the charter of the city of Troy by repealing and replacing section C40 public emergencies to align it with state of New York executive law article 2B regarding emergency declarations. Council member Struber, veto override.

Is there a motion? Motion. Council member Favreau, second. Second. Council member Campbell-Cohen, discussion on the local law. Council President. Council Member DiLorenzo.

I'd just like to thank Council Member Struber for spearheading this local law. And I had a quick remark I wanted to make. So, you know, for the past nine months that we've been here on council, I've heard the mayor repeatedly say in the press that the council simply opposes everything that she does. Local law four is straightforward. It brings Troy's rules governing emergency declarations into alignment with New York state law. And the purpose of this legislation is simply to do that. The mayor vetoed that. And that's why we're here tonight is to override that law. And if that's not the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is.

Thank you.

I echo a lot of Phil's sentiments on this. I think that the mayor's state reasons for opposing this local law are pointlessly combative, contrived, and boring. I don't understand why we have to do this. It's not energizing and is mostly one directional. The sort of vitriol and animus that is directed towards public officials in the city. not symmetrical on both sides here. I think this is a body that is trying to accomplish tasks, not pick fights. And it's just disappointing that we can now expect basically as a matter of ordinary procedure that we are going to have to override a veto. apart from anything else. Yeah, it's just boring. It's a poor use of all of our time. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to comment? I echo what you're saying, Council Member Campbell-Cohen. We seem to be in a pattern of we propose, she opposes. And I really think that's not good government. I think we really need to work better together, and that takes two parties. So I would hope that there might be some change going forward. I'm not going to make a bet on that, but it would be certainly a welcome change. All in favor of local law number four? Aye. Opposed?

Six ayes, zero noes. The veto is overridden and the local law is passed.

That concludes our agenda. At this point, we have a public forum on any items. Doesn't have to be agenda related. Is there someone on? Okay. If anyone on Zoom is interested in speaking, please raise your hand. Use the feature on Zoom to raise your hand and we'll let you in. And Francis, you're up.

Sorry, jumped the gun there for a second. Francis Sweet, still in D6. I know how hard you worked on Local Law 3, Noreen, and I'm really sorry with the way it turned out. I had really high hopes for this, and it's just not quite enough. I'm sorry. I know how hard you worked. Thank you.

Seeing none, any other speakers? No? Okay. I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion.

Council Member Struber, second. Council Member Favreau, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? We are adjourned.