City Council

CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL MEETING CITY COUNCIL ROOM TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2008 6:30 P.M. PRESENT: Scott Johnson, Mayor John Franck, Commissioner of Accounts Ken Ivins, Commissioner of Finance Ron Kim, Commissioner of DPS Anthony Scirocco, Commissioner of DPW PRESENT: Matthew Veitch, Supervisor Joanne Yepsen, Supervisor STAFF PRESENT: Michele Boxley, Deputy Commissioner, Accounts Patrick Design, Deputy Commissioner, DPW Eileen Finneran, Deputy Commissioner, DPS Kate Jarosh, Deputy Commissioner, Finance Shauna Sutton, Deputy Mayor Joe Scala, City Attorney RECORDING OF PROCEEDING The proceedings of this meeting were taped for the benefit of the secretary. Because the minutes are not a verbatim record of the proceedings, the minutes are not a word-for-word transcript. PUBLIC HEARINGS Amend Chapter 225-69 of the City Code – Speed Limit on Geyser Road Mayor Scott Johnson opened the public hearing on amending Chapter 225-69 of the City Code at 6:35 p.m. Commissioner Kim advised we are lowering the speed limit on Geyser Road from Milton to Rte 50. Ken Williams of 9 Briarwood Drive stated he fully supports reducing the speed limit. On his way to council, he passed 3 bicyclers and a kid on a skateboard. There isn’t a time when he is on Geyser Road that he doesn’t encounter pedestrians, kids on bikes and kids on skateboards. In terms of safety there have been a lot of accidents on that section of the road recently. He is aware that the Council received notification from Molly Gagne, the former president of the neighborhood association as well as the current president of the neighborhood association, and himself as the Vice President of his neighborhood association all support reducing the speed limit for safety reasons. Harry Ungeheuer of 3 Hayes Drive stated he supports the speed limit reduction. A mile and a half long Geyser Road has an elementary school, City park, 2 unsignaled pedestrian crosswalks and CDTA stops warrant the reduction of the speed limit. Mayor Johnson closed the public hearing at 6:45 p.m. City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Stop Sign Ordinance – Audry Lane and Victoria Lane Mayor Scott Johnson opened the public hearing on the Stop Sign Ordinance for Audry Lane and Victoria Lane at 6:45 p.m. Commissioner Kim advised this is an amendment to the code, that if passed, it will allow Public Safety to put stop signs at the corners of Excelsior Spring Avenue and Audry Lane and Victoria Lane for a four way stop. John Wagner of Excelsior Spring Avenue at the corner of Excelsior Spring and Victoria intersection where the proposed stop sign is being put. He has a bedroom being used by an elderly relative and can only envision the constant stopping and starting. He thinks it terrific that the road is paved and the bridge is fixed and handles all the traffic going through there. His question is do we need stop signs there to slow the traffic down? It is a difficult curve people can’t see, all he can envision is a tremendous amount of trauma with all that stopping and starting. He is wondering if it is necessary to have the stop signs right there. You’ve got slow down and reduce speed limit signs, why do you need a stop sign at that particular intersection? There’s no traffic coming in of great volume from either road coming in to Excelsior Spring. Hardly anyone uses Victoria Lane and Audry Lane. Why do we need stop signs there? Commissioner Kim responded that stop signs aren’t used to slow the traffic down, but very often do the reverse. It’s put there to stop the traffic. The sign will stop the people from cruising through the intersection. It is to make people stop, look, then proceed. Mr. Wagner responded with there are at least a half a dozen signs from Lake Avenue on and it looks like you are reducing the speed limit from 30 mph to 15 mph. Now you are completely trying to stop it when you have no intersection traffic there. Commissioner Kim advised that when something of this nature is done, it is usually from a community request. Then the City has their traffic people go out, they look at the records to determine what has happened there in the past to determine if it makes sense to do that. In this case, our traffic expert said this is a place where there is increased traffic. Mr. Wagner asked what is the history of accidents at this intersection. Commissioner Kim advised he could get that information. Commissioner Kim asked to keep the public hearing open and present the information requested at the next City Council meeting. Mayor Johnson closed the public hearing at 6:53 p.m. Amend Chapter 231-48 of the City Code – Water Connection Fee Use Mayor Scott Johnson opened the public hearing on amending Chapter 231-48 of the City Code at 6:53 p.m. Tony Izzo explained the proposal is based upon a 1999 piece of legislation. The pre-amble discussed what the money could be put towards that was collected for water connection fees. The proposal is to use the money for more than just the expansion of the water system. The language in the pre-amble pretty much does that. As long as there is an impact to the system by new users, the money can be used, it is an appropriate purpose. The question is do you need that amendment, do you have the use that you are looking for already in the pre-amble? Also, there were a couple questions regarding lawsuits that occurred in the late ‘90’s. What affect if any do they have on the legislation? We couldn’t find the lawsuits readily in our files, but we do know where they are and should have them in a couple of weeks. Page 2 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 No one spoke. Mayor Johnson closed the public hearing at 7:05 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Johnson called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD Mayor Johnson said the public comment period is limited to a total of 15 minutes and individuals are limited to two minutes each according to the rules approved in February of 2004 by the City Council. Mayor Johnson opened the public comment period. John Krause of 227 Grand Avenue stated he appreciated Commissioner Ivins presentation at the last City Council and keeping the tax payers informed. The current VLT shortfall mentioned in the presentation should be taken from the $4.1 million surplus. $1.1 million of that $4.1 million surplus came from an overpayment of VLT funds in 2007. He feels the underpayment should be taken from the overpayment of a prior year. He feels the cost to redirect the recreation center bond money for other uses is misleading and overstated. The bonding cost for the $8 million for the public safety was mention, but he wonders what the bonding cost will be for the $4.3 million on the recreation center. This should have been mentioned for a true comparison. In addition the operating costs may be too low. What are the hours of operation for the recreation center, where are the people going to come from or are they on the current payroll, or are they going to be new hires. He suggested the moving costs and set up costs for the public safety facility could be handled by our own people in the Department of Public Works. He also asked Commissioner Franck what will the new amount of increase in the assessment base will be for 2009? David Bronner of 5 Royal Henry Court stated State Court of Appeals dated July 31 regarding McTygue. He wanted to make some points concerning the Supreme Court Appellate decision rendered on the 31st of July. This is a case that goes back to when Commissioner McTygue decided he was going to park a truck on Martin Avenue to ensure KenMar Construction could not construct on a lot to which they had a building permit. He read from the following from the court document: “we find the petitioner has sufficiently pleaded a lack of legal justification for the respondent’s action”. In fact there is some evidence among other things McTygue together with his brother, that would be William McTygue, had unilaterally decided to prevent development of lot 4 regardless of the planning board’s approval of a building permit. It further goes on to say that they agreed that the petitioner’s punitive damage claims against the municipal respondent should have been dismissed; which Judge Nolan had done in the first case. They go on to say that the extent the petitioner sets a claim for such damages against McTygue individually a viable punitive damages claim has been stated. You will have to make a decision on this we are on the hook for compensatory damages. He understands that Ken Mar is looking for $500,000 in compensatory damages is what was reported in the Times Union last week. They also said that they are going to punitively sue Commissioner Thomas McTygue. My point would be that he and his brother William who is still the Director of Public Works in the City, still on the payroll were the individuals who perpetrated this illegal action. They abused their power, they abused the public trust, they denied property rights insured under the United States constitution to this construction company and we the City of Saratoga Springs, the tax payers of the City should pay no legal fees to defend these two men. As far as I’m concerned and others I have talked to they are on their own in this regard. In the compensatory damage part of this, of course we have to get an attorney and try to defend the City. We ought to try to settle this out of court and settle it for the smallest amount of money we possibly can. The City is in trouble here. Mayor Johnson advised Mr. Bronner he was at 4 minutes. He also told Mr. Bronner if he would like to make further comments to the council, he would be glad to receive them. Mr. Bronner went on to say that William McTygue should resign from his position as Director of Public Works or at least be suspended until this issue has been resolved. Page 3 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Marybeth Delarm of 96 Quevic Drive. She had one comment to make in relation to Commissioner Ivins presentation in regards to the recreation center bond. It is titled the Final Answer in regards to the status of the bond. Several comments have been made that this is inappropriate. As far as she understands, this is not the final answer. Mayor Johnson closed public comment period at 7:18 pm because the fifteen minutes had elapsed. PRESENTATION Re-Enactment of the Civil War in Congress Park Lance Ingmire, a fourth generation Saratogian. I organized the Civil War encampment in Congress Park last year. The event was attended by many Saratogians and by all counts a great success. He is announcing they are going to hold a similar encampment on September 19th – 21st in the park. He has met with Mayor Johnson and Commissioner Scirocco and both have given their full support. I’ve also been in touch with Miss Boxley for the necessary paperwork. This year with the assistance from the Military Museum and Hattie Finch, we are going to raise the awareness of the event to the middle grade students. He will be giving talks at some of the local schools as the event approaches, he will also be speaking at the library on the Civil War at one of the brown bag lunch discussions. Adirondack Trust is assisting with the general community awareness similar as they did last year. He trust that the full support of the City will make this again a wonderful learning experience for the City of Saratoga Springs and the next generation of involved citizens. EXECUTIVE SESSION Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to move to executive session at 7:18 p.m. regarding proposed, pending or current litigation; personal private information of a person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a person or corporation. Council voted by unanimous vote to retain the firm of Harris Beach to defend the City in the on-going investigation of the DEC into matters that began last year involving certain environmental metal matters within the City. There is a need to retain council. The Council will retain Harris Beach at a rate of $250/hour up to a maximum of $10K to assist us in this defense. Ayes - All CONSENT AGENDA Mayor Scott Johnson moved and Commissioner Franck seconded to approve the consent agenda as follows: 1. Appointment of Commissioner of Deeds – Kathleen Canzone 2. Approval of Minutes 8/5/08 3. Approve Budget Amendments 4. Approve Budget Transfers 5. Approve Payroll 8/15/08 $462,564.44 6. Approve Payroll 8/8/08 $473,433.43 7. Approve Warrant 2008 Mid MC1AUG08 $780,705.31 8. Approve Warrant 2008 Regular 2AUG08 $277,903.28 Mayor Johnson had two corrections to the minutes. He suggested that changes be made on consent and then move on to adopting the consent agenda itself. The proposed changes are as follows: Page 4 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 o Page 8, 3rd full paragraph the last line there is a word typed as ‘they’, it should be ‘the’. o Page 10, first paragraph is typed ‘in need of’ and should be ‘been meeting with’. Ayes – All MAYOR’S DEPARTMENT Discussion and Vote: SEQR for Sports Lighting for Geyser Park (08-139) Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to approve the SEQR for sports lighting for Geyser Park. SEQR form was circulated today to all Council which was prepared by the City Attorney to act as the lead agency in this matter. The long form was completed. Resolution entered for a finding of a negative declaration meaning it will have no adverse environmental impact to the community. The resolution is as follows: Resolution of the City Council for the City of Saratoga Springs Adopting SEQRA Findings on Sports Lighting at Geyser Park WHEREAS, the City Council has reviewed the project entitled Sports Lighting at Geyser Park, in accordance with 6 NYCRR Part 617, and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Saratoga Springs identifies this project as an Unlisted Action under State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), with the City as the sole agency directly undertaking or approving the action. The City Council further determines that the project as described is subject to SEQRA and that the preparation of a full Environmental Assessment Form is optional. Utilizing a full Environmental Assessment Form prepared by its engineer, the City Council has conducted a review of the proposed action. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of Saratoga Springs has reviewed and analyzed Parts 1 and 2 of the full EAF, has fully considered the environmental impacts of the Project and hereby determines that the project will not result in any large or important impacts and, therefore, is one which will not have a significant impact on the environment. Further, the City Council of the City of Saratoga Springs hereby determines that a Draft Environmental Impact Statement will not be prepared. A negative declaration is hereby issued for this project and will be maintained in a file readily accessible to the public, as required under SEQRA. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Adopt Policy and Procedure for Leave for Breast & Prostate Cancer Screening (08-140) This matter was litigated with CSEA and more importantly with the State as recently July 21, 2008 approved with an effective date August 20. This is an amendment to the New York State Civil Service Law Section 159-B that mandates this entitlement to City employees. It is important for an employer have written policy and procedures that implement the rights of our employees and how to go about doing certain things. That is what is on the agenda for this evening. This allows City employees up to four hours of paid leave per year for the purpose of obtaining breast or prostate cancer screening. Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Kim seconded to approve the adoption of policy and procedure for leave for breast and prostate cancer. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Zoning Ordinance Article 13 Revision (08-141) Tony Izzo stated the substantive revision is Section 230-13.3. The 2001 Charter changed the Building Inspector’s Department to be placed in the Mayor’s Office rather than the Public Safety Department. There are probably a half dozen corrections from Public Safety to Mayor in the text. The substantive revision is in Section 240-13.3 which adds the line “the Mayor may appoint additional building inspectors or assistant building inspectors on a temporary or permanent basis and shall have authority to designate Page 5 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 which of such additional inspectors shall act in the place of the building inspector when the building inspector is absent or unavailable”. The main paragraph is as is. There is a typo in the ordinance sent out today, it is a Roman numeral typo. In section 1 it is roman numeral XII, it should be roman numeral XIII throughout. Mayor stated revision came to light with Michael Biffer’s retirement and realizing there is a gaping hole in our zoning ordinance that may come back to affect the City adversely in the event that they can’t handle the workload. Somehow over the years it has been overlooked and we decided to rectify that. Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to approve zoning ordinance Article 13 revision. Commissioner Scirocco asked if more building inspectors will be appointed? He stated he didn’t understand what they were doing here. Mayor Johnson explained this revision allows the Mayor to appoint additional building inspectors if needed to serve a specific need. Right now our building inspectors have stepped up to the plate working hard and longer hours to satisfy the on-going demands of the office in terms of reviewing applications and doing inspections, etc. Commissioner Kim wanted to be sure that this is understood to be according to budget allowances. Tony Izzo advised that Commissioner Kim is correct in assuming this is all relative to budget allowances. The line that mentions the Mayor (formerly Commissioner of Public Safety) may appoint additional building inspectors is actually an existing part of the ordinance. That has not changed. Mayor Johnson added that he would have to come back and get council approval in the event that is wasn’t in the budget. Commissioner Scirocco asked if anything was actually amended here. Tony Izzo stated that the change in this proposal is a textural change; Public Safety to Mayor’s Office. There is also the one line about the authority in the Mayor’s office to determine which of the assistant or additional inspectors can act in the building inspector’s place when the building inspector is unavailable. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Easement Agreement for 43 Ash Street (08-142) Tony Izzo informed this is for a residential property at 43 Ash Street. There is a slight overhang of an existing porch into the ‘air’ space above City property. Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to approve the easement for 43 Ash Street. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Resolution authorizing application to the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial for Grant Assistance to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the exploration of the Hudson River (08-143) This is an authorization to allow application of a grant filing up to $50K with no matching funds from the City. Therefore, no cost to the City in event that we get this grant money. It allows us to file for $50K to join in the quadricentennial celebration being planned for next year. This is something that is a collaborative effort with Skidmore College, the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. They will be presenting a major exhibition on this topic next year. None of this money will go to Skidmore College, Skidmore is doing something on their own, but we are trying to collaborate with them to make it a better celebration and have the City be part of it and be a good neighbor of the College as we should be. We Page 6 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 are also looking at the use of the funds to assist us in a second all American celebration for the 4th of July next year that was a great success this year, but could always use a financial boost. Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Franck seconded to approve the resolution to the Hudson –Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial for Grant Assistance to commemorate the 400 th anniversary of the exploration of the Hudson River as follows: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING APPLICATION TO THE HUDSON-FULTON-CHAMPLAIN QUADRICENTENNIAL COMMISSION FOR GRANT ASSISTANCE TO COMMEMORATE THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EXPLORATION OF THE HUDSON RIVER Mayor Scott T. Johnson Commissioner John Franck Commissioner Kenneth Ivins Commissioner Anthony Scirocco Commissioner Ronald Kim WHEREAS, the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission is soliciting grant applications for projects, programs, events and celebrations to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the Hudson and Champlain exploration, and WHEREAS, the City of Saratoga Springs is a Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial community, and WHEREAS, the early 19th Century development of Saratoga Springs and its rise as America’s first great resort were in large part influenced and advanced by the Hudson River, and WHEREAS, the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College will present a major exhibition during the 2009 Quadricentennial year which will highlight historical and contemporary Hudson River art and art objects, and WHEREAS, the City of Saratoga Springs is hosting its annual Saratoga’s All-American Celebration, July 3-5, 2009 in celebration and commemoration of the Hudson Quadricentennial, through Celebration branding and slogan, scheduled events honoring Hudson’s exploration, incorporation of the 400 theme in the All-American Parade, and WHEREAS, the City of Saratoga Springs proposes to collaborate with the Tang Museum, local schools and the City Heritage Area Program and the Visitor Center to sponsor appropriate commemorative events including: museum and cultural exhibits, music and performing arts events, educational and curriculum projects and sporting and outdoor activities, now therefore, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor, as the chief executive officer of the City of Saratoga Springs, is hereby authorized to file an application, in accordance with the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Act, for an amount not to exceed $50,000 with the Hudson-Fulton- Champlain Quadricentennial Commission to assist appropriate commemorative events, with no matching funds required, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Mayor be authorized to collaborate with the Tang Museum, local schools and such other educational and historical facilities and institutions as deemed necessary and appropriate in the development of a community Quadricentennial celebration, and be it further RESOLVED, that upon approval of said request the Mayor be authorized to enter into and execute a state assistance contract with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation for such financial assistance. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Resolution authorizing application to the CDTC for Bicycle/Pedestrian Spot Improvement Program Assistance (08-144) This is an application for grant money to the CDTC for bicycle/pedestrian spot improvement throughout the City. This is something that does have a 20% match requirement from the City. The application is to request $25k, if approved and received, the City will be obligated to spend $5K towards any project. This has great potential for the City because increasingly we have bicycle pedestrian use throughout our City and what we can do to improve the safety conditions as well as the esthetics should be looked into as well as the handicapped issues throughout our City. In particular, some of the curb cuts up and down Broadway may not be to the liking of people that are in a wheelchair or otherwise impeded. We can look at things and try to make an improvement if warranted. Do a review of the City to see where it is best used and divert money toward that end. Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to approve the resolution to authorize the application to the CDTC for Bicycle/Pedestrian Spot Improvement Program Assistance . Page 7 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Commissioner Scirocco asked who will actually facilitate this program? Will this be something Public Works has to facilitate or are we going to contract this out? Mayor Johnson advised that could be determined if we receive the grant money. Commissioner Scirocco advised they work with the Special Assessment district each year and repair sidewalks. People have seen them do that on Broadway. They look at handicapped ramps on Broadway and try to provide the best accessibility for people with certain disabilities. He doesn’t think this covers any issues for disabilities. Mayor Johnson advised it refers to pedestrian improvements and that’s what that would be referring to. It does qualify. He had discussions with the Administrator of Parks and Open Space and believes there could be potential use of the money in that regard. His comments about cuts and curb cuts on Broadway are not to indicate or imply they are deficient but if there is additional money that is not costing anything, there may be a way to improve upon what is there. Commissioner Scirocco asked if there will be a plan formulated or did it have to have a plan with it to support the request? Mayor Johnson stated there are no specifics, just indicating general use to allow the application to be filed. Commissioner Kim asked if it was just for Broadway? Mayor Johnson indicated it was for use throughout the City. Commissioner Kim stated he will support the resolution, but his department wasn’t consulted. He thinks that if you talk to some of his traffic people, and if we were looking just at pedestrian safety, rather than spot improvements, which this resolution seems to do, we would be focused on Broadway as the bulk of pedestrian walking occurs and where improvements are needed. Other cities have vision impaired ramps that tells someone that is vision impaired they are coming to a crosswalk. We don’t have those in our downtown area and certainly a place we’d start. There are a lot things that could have been focused on with this and hopefully we can re-work that if we get that money and his department can be involved. Mayor Johnson agreed that any department that has a role in pedestrian or bicycle safety be involved in any program. The resolution was approved as follows: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING APPLICATION TO THE CAPITAL DISTRICT TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE FOR BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN SPOT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ASSISTANCE Mayor Scott T. Johnson Commissioner John Franck Commissioner Kenneth Ivins Commissioner Anthony Scirocco Commissioner Ronald Kim WHEREAS, the Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) is soliciting grant applications for “Spot Improvements” to bicycle and pedestrian travel environments, and WHEREAS, such Bicycle/Pedestrian Spot Improvement Program is designed to assist small, low cost improvements such as the purchase and installation of bicycle racks, bike trail spot repairs and improvements and construction of short-length “connector” or “spur” sidewalks, WHEREAS, said “spot improvements” are intended to improve bicycle and pedestrian travel opportunities and safety by addressing problems at specific locations such as intersections, short lengths of roadway, or single destinations, Page 8 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 WHEREAS, the City of Saratoga Springs has, as a matter of policy, the goal of reducing traffic congestion, promoting bicycle and pedestrian safety, encouraging alternate forms of transportation, particularly in its Downtown area, and WHEREAS, the City of Saratoga Springs recognizes the inherent benefits of walking and bicycling as alternative forms of urban transportation, including the reduction of congestion, the improvement of air quality and the reduction of parking demand, now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor, as the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Saratoga Springs, is hereby authorized to file an application with the Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) for up to $25,000 to implement appropriate “spot improvements” within the City, and be it further RESOLVED, that upon approval of said proposal, the Commissioner of Finance be authorized and directed to make available from available accounts the required 20% local cash match, not to exceed $5,000. Ayes – All Set Public Hearing: Capital Program Proposal Mayor Johnson advised this is a multi-year capital program being worked on by committee right now. Need to set the public hearing dates prior to its required submission to the Finance Commissioner by September 15th. Mayor Johnson set a public hearing for the Capital Program proposal for Tuesday September 2, 2008 at 6:40 p.m. Mayor Johnson set two additional public hearings outside the context of a council meeting to facilitate those with different schedules so they can attend and be part of the process if they wish. These dates and times were set for Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. in City Hall and Monday, September 8th at 6:00 p.m. in City Hall. The Council is not required to be present for the public hearings. Discussion: Status of Waterfront Park development and timeline A visual presentation (3D) is planned for the next City Council meeting on September 2, 2008. It gives a good idea of what the committee has been working on to date in developing the Waterfront parcel. Mayor Johnson also stated they met with the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation on if there are any archeological issues to be concerned with in the development of this parcel. It is part of the whole process of review that is customarily undertaken on this kind of parcel. So they did that early on in the process to sit down with the representative and chose to involve the representative in the process rather than just go forward doing something than having a response from them. They are working with them that may impact earlier projection on timeline. They hoped to have something mid fall or so to open the park in some fashion for the public. They still haven’t ruled things out in that regard but with the archeological review, which is required, it may just delay things briefly. They hope to keep moving forward on this long overdue project. ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT Discussion and Vote: Award of Bid and Authorization for Mayor to sign Contract with LaCorte for Sports Lighting at Geyser Park (08-145) Upon the recommendation of the Mayors office I move to award the Bid for lighting at Geyser Park to LaCorte Companies Incorporated (second lowest bidder, lowest bidder did not meet minimum requirements) in the amount of $280,768. I further move to authorize the Mayor to sign the contract. Commissioner Franck moved and Ivins seconded to award bid and authorize Mayor to sign contract with LaCorte for sports lighting at Geyser Park. Commissioner Kim received a letter addressed to Joe Scala (City Attorney) and looked at Debbie LaBreche’s response to it. Play Pro was the low bidder on this. He still has some questions why the lowest bidder was disqualified. He just received this, it may have been in his office but was not called to his attention for the agenda meeting. At this point he will abstain from this as he does not know enough. He would like to sit down with Debbie LaBreche. It seems like this individuals letter has some points that he hasn’t reconciled with. Page 9 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Mayor Johnson explained that Commissioner Kim is referring to the memo from Debbie LaBreche’s, who is with the City’s Engineering Office, of July 24, 2008 explaining why the low bid was not accepted. According to her analysis, there were 5 items that disqualified the lowest bidder. The application was incomplete in part, part 2 page 2 was incomplete. Secondly, the statement of bidder qualifications didn’t have required information so that left question of qualifications. Thirdly, the lighting system energy consumption does not appear to meet the specs that was required under the RFP that was sent out. Fourth, the reputation of their lighting system is merely ‘OK’ , according to some various users. Information on the actual electrical contractor who will be doing the work was insufficient. That was basically her analysis that he doesn’t suspect is inaccurate. She reviewed the matters in detail and based on that made the second lowest bidder, LaCorte Companies of Troy the one that is being recommended to receive the bid. Commissioner Kim stated there was a letter his office received August 13th, but he didn’t receive it until yesterday afternoon. It sort of goes through those issues. He is giving the benefit of the doubt of this individual with his response. Commissioner Kim thinks what the respondent is saying that he wasn’t responding to that part because his design was different. His compelling argument is his bid is $36K less and I’m giving a better product – that’s his argument. Commissioner Kim said it was a response to Debbie LaBreche’s memo, so he is going to abstain just because he doesn’t have enough time to sort out the issue. Ayes – 4 Abstention – 1 (Commissioner Kim) Discussion and Vote: Award of Bid Waste Management of New York LLC (08-146) Upon the recommendation of the Department of Public Works, I move to award the bid for Municipal Solid Waste to Waste Management of New York LLC (lowest bidder) in the amount of $104,904.90. Commissioner Franck moved and Scirocco seconded to award bid and authorize Mayor to sign contract with Waste Management of New York LLC for municipal solid waste. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Proposed Settlement of Chauvin Article 7 (08-147) I move to settle the following tax certiory case; Chauvin vs. The City of Saratoga Springs as proposed by counsel and as put forth in the stipulation of settlement. Commissioner Franck moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to settle the tax certiory case of Chauvin vs. The City of Saratoga Springs. Ayes – All Set Public Hearing: Zoning Map Amendment – Gridley Street – Refer to County Planning Board At their August 13, 2008 meeting the Planning Board reviewed the Gridley Street/Jefferson Street Zoning Map Amendment Request to change the zoning designation of lots 1,2,3,14,15,16,17 from Urban Residential-2 (single-family residential) to the Institutional Horse Track related district. The Planning Board issued a favorable advisory opinion on this request and determined that the request is consistent with recently approved zoning map amendments of the surrounding area. Commissioner Franck set a public hearing for September 2, at 6:55p.m. and also upon the recommendation of the planning board he will refer this request to the Saratoga County Planning Board pursuant to General Municipal Law Sect. 239-m. Discussion and Vote: Contract Administration Redraft 2008 (08-148) Page 10 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 The next 3 items on Commissioner Franck’s agenda are updates of current policy that needed to be done to keep current with the new technology, staff changes, and training that have occurred in the Accounts Department. Novus Agenda has changed our contract administration process from a manual, paper system to an electronic one. We have also brought our process more into compliance with NYS policy. Marilyn Rivers is here to answer any questions. Commissioner Franck moved and Mayor Johnson seconded to put in place the contract administration redraft as proposed. Commissioner Ivins stated he assumes by the way this is written that the contract administration protocol, 5, 6, and 7 are blank therefore that means you are taking that out. Marilyn Rivers responded by saying they updated it because it was paper intensive. With the new Novus system, we all simultaneously (Finance, Purchasing, City Attorney, Risk and Safety) get it together and see it together. Commissioner Ivins stated he was just looking at what’s on line and it’s not crossed out. It is just blank now, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are now just blank. That all refers to that, so you will be renumbering 9 – 13. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Procurement Policy Redraft 2008 (08-149) On May 22, 2008 Deputy Commissioner Boxley attended a conference sponsored by the New York State Office of General Services that focused on NYS Procurement policy and RFP procedure. As a result of that conference we have streamlined the procurement policy and incorporated some of the “best practices” in place on a State level. Deputy Boxley or Marilyn Rivers are here to answer any questions. Commissioner Franck moved and Mayor Johnson seconded to put in place the procurement policy redraft as proposed. Marilyn pointed out there is a typographical error on page 6 where it says bid it should say IFB. Just a minor correction and does not affect the document comprehensively. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: RFP and IFB Protocol (08-150) As I stated in the last motion, the NYS Conference on Procurement provided many insights into better ways of managing the RFP and BID process, this last protocol is a result of the conference and will make these processes more streamlined. As an aside we are working with the Finance Department to post all current BID offerings on the City’s website improving the openness and accessibility to BIDs and RFPs. Marilyn Rivers is here again to answer any questions. Commissioner Franck moved and Mayor Johnson seconded to put in place the RFP and IFB protocol as proposed. Ayes – All FINANCE DEPARTMENT Discussion: Update on Recreation Center Bonding Presentation Commissioner Ivins stated due to keeping the presentation short, he was not able to expand on some items as he would have liked. There were also a couple questions tonight that I want to address quickly. One question was how much the bond cost on the recreation center. The recreation center is in that 2007 Page 11 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 bond so that was all the bonds done in 2007 including the recreation center. The current surplus is over $4 million as been stated by the State Comptrollers and auditors and bond council the amounts should be build up not used to cover shortfalls. We should also increase it, not reduce it, to close to a $6 millionlevel . That may even go up as the budget goes up. This will give us money to cover short-term debt. This year we had to borrow and it cost us $22k because we didn’t have the cash flow. Hopefully we will have that as this thing grows. It is also there for true emergencies and just keeping good cash flow. Commissioner Ivins noted that Commissioner Kim asked for a distinction a couple meetings ago between the money for the Waterfront project and the money in the debt service for the VLT. He asked about a budget adjustment for the $442K VLT shortfall. There was no shortfall of income as well because there was no expense; there is no rush for this to happen at this time. We are not out of budget we are not out of balance. Commissioner Ivins does agree that by the end of the year this needs to be addressed. He plans to lump all adjustments at the end of the year. Director McTygue mentioned we are to get $747,000 from the Energy to Ice program and we’re not sure where that can go into debt service. That’s going to be another adjustment. We’re still waiting to see if we are even going to get the money. He hopes to have a better idea in October/November of where things stand. We’ll have a better idea of sales tax. Commissioner Ivins noted that Commissioner Kim also had a question about the SEQR process. Basically Commissioner Kim stated that SEQR can’t be done until the bond is issued. By everything Commissioner Ivins is reading, that is not correct. Any major decision by this Council to move forward on a project will trigger SEQR. Bonding is a major thing, and if we do bond we do automatically trigger SEQR and SEQR must be put in place and moved on. Any major action can do that including the bonding of design money; the deciding of where the site is going to be. So he is going to stand by his plan of action. He believes SEQR should be in the early part of the process and not take place after we bond all the money. Commissioner Kim stated he doesn’t remember talking about the $442K issue. He wasn’t even sure what Commissioner Ivins was talking about. He spoke about the $500K that was put in by council action in 2008 once the budget was approved; to take that money out the City Council had to take another action to do that. His only point is the $500K; which it seems like people are saying we can do whatever we want with; he doesn’t believe so. It sounds to him like they are disagreeing and that Commissioner Ivins has the votes, if he has the votes, why not have the vote and do it right? It seems like a budget was passed that specifically said there is debt service of $500K for the purposes of financing a public safety/municipal building, not to cover any shortfalls. Commissioner Ivins stated it will be addressed and there will be a council vote. The real issue is are we abiding by the Charter? Being we are not out of balance because we don’t have an expense even though we don’t have the income coming in, we do have to address that issue at some point as a council. He doesn’t feel we have to address it now because we don’t have that expense. By the end of the year it does and he was going to lump it in with all the other adjustments we normally make at the end of the year. Commissioner Kim stated his point was there had to be a council vote, no one at this table could just shift the money over. In 2008 a City Council acted to put that money in there. This is the first that it has been explained to him that a vote will be taken at the end of the year or at some point. The issue Commissioner Kim has on SEQR is there is no other Council decision until the bonds are voted. Right now there is a contract to get to final design and to do bid documents. Prior City Council acted to do that. This City Council could ‘renege’ on this contract, it sounds like there are the votes for that. There has to be a significant action and the next significant action is this City Council is to bond or not to bond. We are going forward with the final design as approved by this City Council in that contract. We don’t disagree about the significant action, just about what’s going on next. Commissioner Ivins stated he could argue that bonding the money for the design is a significant action. He could argue that and believes that should have been the case. But it hasn’t been and that was done by the prior administration. Commissioner Kim asked how you have a SEQR at the point where you’re saying we are going to spend some money on design, you don’t know what the building is going to look like, you don’t know any of that. Page 12 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Commissioner Ivins advised a site has already been chosen, that is a major decision. That may change and we can change that. In the next vote we decide this is the site and that’s what we are going to do, that’s where he will make the motion to start forward and call ourselves the lead agency on SEQR. He calls that a major action before we get to the final of bonding. He feels he needs the whole SEQR in front of you to look at to evaluate everything so you understand everything before you make a final decision to spend money. Commissioner Kim asked what is the significant action of the City Council that would trigger that. Commissioner Ivins responded with choosing a site and a design. Commissioner Kim stated he believe that had already been done. Commissioner Ivins stated then in that case SEQR should already be in place. Commissioner Kim state he has no argument with that if that is what the City Council wants to do. He would be happy to bring forward the motion and start the process. Commissioner Ivins stated he is not prepared to put forth the motion to bond until he sees the SEQR. Announcement: North Woods Trail Work Weekend Commissioner Ivins mentioned there is a work weekend on Saturday and Sunday, September 13th and 14th. Anyone interested in coming out to do some work on the North Woods, contact his office. Discussion: City Finances Commissioner Ivins stated June sales taxes are in, slightly below where we were last year but ahead for the year. He’s not real sure what exactly happened here. Track attendance is down double digits, meaning less admissions tax for us. Not sure how that’s going to affect sales tax. Also it is being reported that the $4 million has been put back into the State executive budget for security. That is $4 million headed to municipalities, from the state but we’re not sure what’s going to happen with that. It may or may not affect our City. Commissioner Ivins reminded the Council that the economic picture for next year may get worse. Our tax payers can’t afford these increases, if the taxes go up much more we will see people leaving our City for somewhere they can afford to live. Then we have a bigger problem. The only solution is to keep things in check. He doesn’t see a lot of new revenue coming in, in fact he is envisioning some of our revenue sources may go down. Take a close look at what you have, if you are not making cuts, he will. Discussion and Vote: Correction of Typo on 8/5/08 Consent Agenda Commissioner Ivins moved to add this item to his agenda, Commissioner Franck seconded to add this item to the agenda. Commissioner Ivins advised there was a typo; instead of $457,751 it should have been $457,571. Mayor Johnson asked for a vote to add this to the agenda. Ayes – All Commissioner Ivins made a motion that the payroll amount for 7/25/08 on the 8/5/08 consent agenda be modified from $457,751.86 to $457,571.86, seconded by Commissioner Scirocco. Ayes - All Page 13 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 PUBLIC WORKS DEPARMENT Announcement: Memorial Bricks/Veteran’s Walk of Honor Commissioner Scirocco stated his predecessor started the Veteran’s Walk of Honor program and he wants to make sure we carry this on. Department of Public Works encourages people to place their order in their department before August 29, 2008 in order to have your bricks in place by Veteran’s Day. The bricks are engraved with the Veteran’s name, rank and branch of service. The cost of each brick is $50. Application for the memorial bricks after August 29th will be on a list for installation for the spring of 2009. As of today we have 2, 051 bricks in the walk of honor. You can call City Hall at 587-3550 ext. 555 for additional information. Discussion and Vote: Proposed Pay Rate Increase (08-151) Commissioner Scirocco moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to increase pay rate for employee in Engineering Department. Commissioner Scirocco asked for a pay increase for a part-time engineering tech that has worked for the City since June 2004. An increase of $.75 is proposed. His salary will go from $10.25/hr. to $11/hr. If he worked 40 hours per week, the impact on the DPW budget is $510 for the remainder of the year, which is 17 weeks. The money is in the DPW budget and will be effective 9/1/08. Mayor Johnson asked to go over the math again. Commissioner Scirocco stated employee works different hours each week, some 20, some 32 and some 40. He is a part-time employee; the hours vary depending on the work load. Mayor Johnson asked what the projection of the cost for the remainder of the year was. Commissioner Scirocco stated $510 for the remainder of the year, 17 weeks. He doesn’t get any benefits. He hasn’t received any increases since he has been here. Ayes – All Announcement: Street Paving Commissioner Scirocco announced on September 8th, they will be milling White Street from Regent Street to Nelson Avenue. On September 9th they will be paving White Street from Regent Street to Nelson Avenue. On September 10th and 11th they will be paving Ruggles Road from Iron Drive to the City line. Announcement: Commissioner Scirocco asked if it would be ok to add one item for announcement. As of today, the owners of the Getty Station have complied with court order, the Getty gas station has been leveled. The buildings are gone, the canopy is gone. He commended Public Safety, Commissioner Kim and Kevin Veitch as well as Tony Izzo with their help to get this done. It has been an eyesore for a long time. PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT Discussion and Vote: Accept Donation from State Farm Insurance (08-152) Commissioner Kim moved and Commissioner Scirocco seconded to accept donation from State Farm Insurance for office furniture. Commissioner Kim stated they received four desks, a file cabinet and eight chairs for use in the police department. Ayes – All Page 14 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Discussion and Vote: Amend Chapter 225-69 of the City Code (08-153) Commissioner Kim moved and Commissioner Scirocco seconded to amend Chapter 225-69 of the City Code in regards to the speed limit on Geyser Road. Commissioner Kim stated the code reads as follows: The speed limit is hereby amended for Geyser Road is lowered to 35 mph from NY Route 50 to the City line. Commissioner Kim added that he received several e-mails supporting this initiative. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Amend Chapter 225-77 of the City Code Commissioner Kim stated he will be keeping public hearing open on this issue and will be bringing more information back at the September meeting. Set Public Hearing: Amend Chapter 225-77 of the City Code Commissioner Kim set a public hearing for stop sign at Excelsior Avenue. This is a four way stop at the intersection of Excelsior Avenue and Veterans Way at the request of the VFW at that corner. The public hearing was scheduled for Tuesday September 2, 2008 at 6:35p.m. Announcement: Request to November 2007 High Rock RFP Respondents for Additional Information Regarding Proposals to Build New Public Safety Facility and Parking Garage Commissioner Kim provided background on this item. In November 2007, his office sent out requests for proposals to ask the development committee to consider the possibility of what can be done on High Rock Avenue to build a police station in combination with the courts, a parking garage, and other development ideas. They were throwing out the idea of a comprehensive development of the lot. One of the things that occurred prior to him coming into office, there was a prior committee by Commissioner McTygue to address the issues of High Rock and what they were going to be doing out there. It was his understanding they had 3 proposals. Those proposals were rejected by the Council. He believes the formal rejection of those proposals means they can’t be looked at. Comments were made in the paper that we need to look at this more comprehensively. He has no problems with that on a couple of conditions; that they do not waste tax payers money on the already design contract that we already funded. We spent approximately $50k for the design services up to date. We have a total contract award of $860K to get to the final design of the police station. This is the time if we want to do a comprehensive look at what the City can do back there, the time is now. Commissioner Kim stated he sent a letter to the Mayor, carbon copied all the council members, it came up in discussion last meeting, where he proposed they look at these as a City Council or form a committee. It is his understanding that these (November 2007 RFPs) have not been formally rejected by City Council, that they can be reviewed. His guess is some of the numbers are wrong and need to be updated. His first step was to send a letter to the bidders asking if they would be interested in sitting down and talking to him and anyone else on the City Council about what you proposed. One of them proposed a parking garage with a park on top of it. Another proposes low income housing with the police station, parking garage, etc. Desire on his part was to move this process forward to see if we want to get these people involved. If there is no interest in the City Council, that’s fine, but he felt like since these people spent some time and dollars to put the RFPs together, he felt they should talk to these people first if they are interested. He doesn’t know if they are interested as he has not talked to any of these individuals. This is the first contact he has had with them since 2007. That’s why they put together the letters they sent. He left copies with each council member if they want to review them. His intent is to meet some of the needs of the City Page 15 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Council that want a broader review of it while also avoiding the possibility that they are going to waste a design contract that was previously approved and have commitment to go forward with. Commissioner Franck stated they did rescind the ones from 2005 in 2007. He feels they have no choice but to rescind these based upon Commissioner Kim’s letter because the letter violates section 11.6 and 11.3.8 of our charter. Commissioner Franck read the letter as follows: Dear VENDOR: On November 16, 2007, your firm responded to my Request for Proposal for development of the High Rock Parking Lot. (Please see attached a copy of our RFP). As you may also know, the City is currently under contract to design a new Police Facility for a portion of the High Rock Parking Lot and will continue with this process with a scheduled final decision for sometime in late Fall or early winter of this year. Recently, the city council has expressed some interest in exploring a “comprehensive solution” to the development needs of High Rock Parking Lot and what possibilities exist for “creative financing” of such development. In light of your earlier proposal to the City Council and this renewed interest, I would like to meet with you along with other interested City Council members to discuss your proposal and its current feasibility not only, in light of our ongoing design work, but also given changes in the development environment since late 2007. I will contact you in the next day or so to gauge your interest in further discussions and perhaps schedule a meeting. Commissioner Franck stated the problem he has is the comment in the letter that Commissioner Kim wrote he would like to meet with the vendor along with other interested City Council members to discuss your proposal. First this must go through our department, you can’t individually send this out under section 11.6 under the contract section of the Saratoga Springs City Code; “no contract for public work exceeding $20,000 and no purchase contract exceeding $10,000 shall be made except as herein provided without a published notice inviting bids according to the plans specifications prepared by department having the matter in charge and on file in the office of the Commissioner of Accounts”. This was never on file before this went out. Also, under section 7.3.8 of our Charter, procedures for contract states “the purchasing agent shall use the following procedure relative to the procedure contracts and public work contracts: a.) the Purchasing Agent shall publicly open and read all bids received at the time and place specified in the advertisement for bids; b.) the Purchasing Agent shall be responsible for the issuance of plans and specifications, receipt of mailing fee, deposits, bid bonds, certified checks, contract bonds, and other related action unless otherwise provided by the Council; c.) the Purchasing Agent and, where necessary or appropriate, the City Engineer or any other authorized representative shall review capital project bids to determine the lowest responsible bidder so that a recommendation for award can be made at the next regular meeting of the appropriate department, entity, or the Council; d.) after review by the City Attorney for form and legality, the Purchasing Agent shall arrange for the department negotiating the bid/contract to ensure that contract documents are signed by the appropriate authority. Commissioner Franck went on to explain that under New York State Procurement Guidelines, section IM- 4, “all information concerning the solicitation shall be conveyed in writing to all potential offers”, (not just the ones that responded) “participating in the process including but not limited to answers to offerers’ substantive inquiries, IFB (invitation for bid) clarification and amendments, process rules, and methods of award”. Section M-5 “any changes to the IFB and/or the rules of the procurement shall be communicated, in writing, to each offerer participating in the process”; M-7 “the method of award shall not be altered after opening the bid, with the exception of minor changes and only if the modifications are justified and evidence presented to ensure that the changes would not materially benefit or disadvantage an offerer”. Commissioner Franck said the only thing the law allows you to offer is the opportunity to update pricing. Commissioner Kim state this is all he is asking. Commissioner Franck advised Commissioner Kim that he is asking for more than pricing updates. The law states that any changes shall be communicated in writing to each offerer, not just those who responded, everyone who took the bid or information. The method of award shall not be altered after the opening of the bids with the exception of minor adjustments. Based upon the department’s conversation with New York State and his interpretations….. Page 16 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Commissioner Kim asked who in New York State are we talking to? Commissioner Franck stated he could get the name of the person spoken to at New York State and can get Commissioner Kim copies of the law. Commissioner Kim stated this came from Commissioner Franck’s office in November 2007. These people timely responded. He asked that anytime you do anything with these (RFP) after they timely responded, that we have to go to everybody else who you…… Commissioner Franck responded with unless it is a minor change. Commissioner Kim stated he is not changing anything. They are simply asking are you still interested in this proposal that you’ve done. Commissioner Franck reminded him that he would like to meet with them. Commissioner Kim stated that was the next thing he wanted to address. The first High Rock Committee who had their respondents each here speaking about what they wanted to do at High Rock. How is that different from what he is trying to do? There were council members on that committee. Commissioner Franck stated there were no council members on that committee. The more important part is he shouldn’t have done this. He understands why you are doing this. What Commissioner Franck meant by a comprehensive approach (and he is speaking for himself) is the council members and the supervisors to come up with a comprehensive approach ourselves of what we were looking for. He has gone over all the proposals and thinks there are a lot of good things in the proposals but he thinks some of the original proposals are even better. He thinks there is interest for this, but he thinks a lot of different items need to be looked at. The potential of getting the police station built with things you (Commissioner Kim) would like in it and need, courts, etc. for free or at least the shell being built for free. How many parking spaces do we really have with the retail, condos, courts, etc. going in there? He doesn’t believe 500-600 spaces is going to be enough. Can the parking be below ground or above ground? These are questions he considers comprehensive. Who is going to run the parking lot? Who is going to own it? What are we going to do with the Algonquin lot? Would it be an enhancement for the City to have someone develop that? What do we want; we want parking and a police station and we don’t want it to cost anything to the City or as little as possible. Even if we can build everything you want for the $8 million, what are the tax effects? Hopefully we can generate enough tax revenue that we won’t have to worry about the sales tax or VLT money. Hopefully that tax revenue will cover the bond if we have to even spend everything. Do we have empire zone? Lease back? Commissioner Kim stated all is trying to do is solve a problem. In a private meeting with the Mayor he asked the Mayor if he wanted to talk about the contents of his letter and the 3 specific proposals that he has. There is a design committee that neither the Mayor nor Commissioner Ivins chose anyone for. They still need their representatives. Commissioner Kim emphasized again we have a contract. We spent $50K. If $90k justifies a recreation center than $50K should justify the continued contract that we have. By definition that process has to continue. He don’t believe he’s asked for a pricing issue. He does believe we can sit down and talk. These people in November 2007 were ready to go and nobody on the City Council wanted to pick it up. Now we are going to throw it out the window and start over again. That was the second proposal. He said he would be happy to go and put together an RFP with cooperation of the City Council and get it out there quickly. Commissioner Kim stated the Mayor responded with he didn’t want to talk about it until he decided what he wanted to do and he was doing his own work. Commissioner Kim stated it is clear in the Charter that the Commissioner of Public Safety is responsible for the infrastructure needs of that department. He also doesn’t believe they should be doing back room discussions about this. It should be in front of the public, workshop. There was only one non-public meeting. That was when they wanted to provide us with pricing issues they didn’t want other competitors to know. If the Gazette is correct, the Mayor is having discussions with developers that Commissioner Kim doesn’t know about. When Commissioner Kim asked the Mayor what was going on there was no comment. Commissioner Kim said he’s going to adhere to the details in the laws but there are lots of other things that can happen that he’s not privy to and no one is going to be accountable to. He pulled this off his agenda. He will call these people and say the City Council is not interested. Page 17 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 Commissioner Kim asked Commissioner Franck what the solution is, does he want to walk away from $50K? Commissioner Franck state he never wanted Commissioner Kim to spend the $50K to begin with. He would rather walk away from $50K and save $8 million. Bottom line is we have to do what’s best for not only the Department of Public Safety but the tax payers. Commissioner Kim stated he would happen to work with any member of the Council to build on his original RFP and put it out by the next meeting. We are continuing to do the work of the design. We have a contract, we are obligated to do that. Mayor states that is part of the problem as Commissioner Kim refuses to stop at design until we agree with what should be done with the lot. That has been his position from day 1. The Mayor stated he indicated that to Commissioner Kim publicly, during meetings and privately. But you insist upon designing that facility despite the fact that you don’t have the support for that design and that’s a problem. That’s a condition you set forth in your letter to me as you refer to as being ignored. I am not going to condone you to continue to design that building with taxpayer’s money when you don’t have the support for it. Commissioner Kim stated the picture is painted here that he is spending money that is his decision. He needs to emphasize to the public there was a process, where a bidding process occurred in 2007. We took the lowest bidder. The contract was voted on and a mayor signed that contract, you may not like that mayor because it’s a political opponent, but that was done pursuant to the rules in the charter. That design work start before you became Mayor and now for us to walk away from that contract exposes the City to the obligation to spend money essentially for something we’re not going to get. It seems to him there is a double standard for this Council to say we have to build the recreation center even though we have widespread community opposition, they don’t like the site, we’re probably going to get sued, all the rest we got to do it because we spent all this money but we’re not going to adhere to the same principals when we look at the public safety station, that he would argue (and he thinks most of the public would argue) is a far more pressing need to this City. Mayor Johnson reminded Commissioner Kim that he voted for the recreation center and the bonding of that recreation center. Now he is sitting here changing his mind and that’s your prerogative, but please don’t compare the recreation center with the police station because the recreation center project was approved by the Council, bonded by the Council contrast to your police station that is going forward with the design that you never had the bonding for. Commissioner Kim responded that we can all remember the furious debate, Commissioner Franck is excluded form this, in this City when everyone wanted to get elected and everybody at this table said we should be a police station. Number 1 priority, etc. All of you also as candidates sat in that audience and he believed they were there when they approved the design the design contract, when we approved the budget that put the money in for the $8 million dollars. All of those things were done right in front of you as you sat here and now you are trying to tear it apart. All he can guarantee to the tax payers that this will result in higher cost. We had 8 studies since 1976 that said we should do this, 8 studies were ignored. We spent $30k on the last study he commissioned in 2006 and Tom Curley in 2003 spent $30K. So that’s $60k spent of your money and this City Council hasn’t acted. Every time those studies were finished, they came up with larger numbers in terms of how much we were going to have to spend to do thisproject, to build a police station. I just want the people to understand that these proposals are a free ride. SUPERVISORS Joanne Yepsen Report on August County Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Supervisor Yepsen reported that in addition to the website being improved, they approved today a grant to put all records on line. The Saratoga County Clerks online records system is up and running. Records Page 18 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 dated 1987 through present are available through research. Right now there is a free system but they are considering selling subscriptions to the system in the near future. In addition, we put on the agenda today the approving of the issuance of bonds by the Saratoga County Water Authority. It read whereas the Saratoga County Water Authority proposes to issue its service agreement revenue bonds series 2008 in an aggregate amount not to exceed $45 million dollars. The proceeds of the 2008 bonds will be used to the Authority to finance all or a portion of the cost of acquisition, design, construction and equipping of a public bulk water supply system to serve Saratoga County including a raw water intake structure, a raw pump station, etc., treatment plan, 28 miles underground , water transmission main. The bonding of the $45 million dollars is not something she could pass or vote for in favor of today mainly because they haven’t been rated yet. It’s like asking the tax payers to blindly walk into this and not know what the interest rate was going to be. The US Army Field Band and Soldiers Corps is coming back. The County Board of Supervisors sponsor every year with your county tax payers dollars and we have free tickets. It is going to be September 20th at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). It is a very impressive national band. You can get tickets at the Mayor’s Office, American Legions, and VFWs. Celebrate 400 Grants Opportunity The county has a committee on this subject. It might be helpful if we create a small group on the City level to work with Lew Benton and the Mayor’s Office and the County pulling it all together. She has people who have expressed interest in developing a plan and a budget. The grant money is coming in to Saratoga Springs as the City. $45K we be split with the City of Saratoga Springs and the Town of Saratoga. There are still opportunities for non-profit and municipalities to apply for grant funding. The money is matching. At lot of the current activities that we are already spending money for can apply towards that match as well as staff salaries. Matthew Veitch Update: Economic Development Committee We did a resolution today to refer the development of the Mechanicville rail yards to the federal transportation board for approval to develop that site. They had a presentation from the railroads at the last meeting. It is a great project. They are anticipating 150 jobs with the construction of the new the rail yard as well as 250 additional jobs per year once the railroad is complete. Update: Emergency Radio System Things are moving forward. The towers in Milton at the Sheriff’s office and in Providence are complete. Next will be working on the towers at Mt. McGregor. Update: County Airport We are having issues at the airport recently. The visual slope indicator system, which is lighting that allows the planes fly in at a certain angle, hasn’t been functioning for a while. Trees have been growing in front of the lights. The airport is contracted out to a company, which has been changed this year because of some issues. Working on getting the county to go in and trim the trees and get the lights back up and working. The other issue is security issues. There are individuals trespassing on the site, there are no gates, the gates aren’t locked. We are suggesting that gates are put in. The Public Safety Committee is charged with resolving this issue. Update: Animal Shelter Report A report was received from Dan Butler, who is the head of the animal shelter. For the month of July, 283 animals were brought to the shelter. This is a substantial jump in what they’ve had recently. The animals are being brought in by pet owners and the animals are not in as good of health as they normally are. It is Page 19 of 20 City Council Minutes 8/19/08 suspected this is due to economic times and people can’t afford to bring their animals to the vet. Also, a rabid bat was found by Gick Rd. and Rt. 50. No public health issue with that. Update: County Website The County website went on line today. It is a much improved website from the one they had. It a feature blurb for each town as you refresh the home page. You can get all the counties documents and forms on line. The address is now: www.saratogacountyny.gov. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Franck seconded to adjourn the meeting. Ayes - All. There being no further business, Mayor Johnson adjourned the meeting at 9:27 pm. Respectfully submitted, Lisa Ribis Clerk Approved: 9/2/08 5-0 Page 20 of 20