City Council

March 18, 2013 CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS City Council Pre- Agenda Meeting PRESENT: John Franck, Commissioner of Accounts Michele Madigan, Commissioner of Finance Christian Mathiesen, Commissioner of DPS Anthony Scirocco, Commissioner of DPW Scott Johnson, Mayor STAFF PRESENT: Lynn Bachner, Deputy Commissioner, Finance Sharon Kellner-Chille, Deputy Commissioner, Accounts Eileen Finneran, Deputy Commissioner, DPS Shauna Sutton, Deputy Mayor Matthew Veitch, Supervisor Joanne Yepsen, Supervisor EXCUSED: Tim Cogan, Deputy Commissioner, DPW CALL TO ORDER Mayor Johnson called the meeting to order at 9:38 a.m. PUBLIC HEARINGS Mayor Johnson announced that there are three public hearings scheduled for Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. 2013 CDBG Funding Recommendations Mayor Johnson said the City Council has received a list of the recommendations; the hearing is held to comply with HUD regulations. City Center Polling Districts Commissioner Franck said this is the second public hearing regarding this matter and the vote is on his agenda. Recreation Center Polling District Commissioner Franck said this is the same process as with the City Center; the intent is move the polling place for District 14 from the Ford Center to the Recreation Facility because there is better parking and the facilities are better. There will be another public hearing held on April 2 followed by a vote at that meeting and if it goes through he will send a letter to the County Election Board and they will decide whether to change the polling place. It is the same procedure for the City Center polling place and the Recreation Center polling place. Commissioner Franck said they would work with the Recreation Department so they will be ready to meet with the Election Inspectors City Council Preliminary Agenda Meeting March 18, 2013 PRESENTATIONS 2012 Ambulance Report Commissioner Mathiesen said he will be making a presentation on the Ambulance program for 2012. EXECUTIVE SESSION There is no Executive Session scheduled. CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approval of 2/19/2013 City Council Minutes 2. Approval of 03/04/2013 Pre-Agenda Minutes 3. Approval of Budget Transfers-Regular 4. Approve Payroll 03/08/2013 $444,966.64 5. Approve Payroll 03/15/2013 $392,186.19 6. Approve Warrant: 2013 Mid - 13MWMar1 $131,634.07 7. Approve Warrant: 2013 Reg -13MAR2 $1,810.00 8. Approve Warrant: 2013 REG-13MAR3 $3,377056.38 No comments, revisions or additions on the above. MAYOR’S DEPARTMENT 1. Presentation: Comprehensive Plan Committee Update Mayor Johnson said this is a report on where we stand and where he hopes we can go with this. 2. Announcement: Recreation Announcements- Spring, Camp and Summer Programs John Hirliman, Recreation Director said he will be announcing registration information, programs and other information. 3. Set Public Hearing: Amend the 2013 Capital Budget Mayor Johnson said the 2013 capital budget is being amended to include the money received from the Saratoga Springs City School District for the maintenance of the East and West Side recreation fields; this is done annually, the money goes toward capital improvements on the fields. 4. Discussion and Vote: Economic Development Revolving Loan – Black Diamond Caterers Bradley Birge, Director of the Office of Planning and Economic Development said they have received an application from Michael and Heidi Hoyt who own the Black Diamond Caterers on Putnam Street. The City’s Economic and Development Loan program is one of the efforts of the City’s Community Development Office. The loan program was originally set up to assist businesses, small businesses who create jobs predominantly for persons of low to moderate income. The requirements are that for every $25,000 loaned at least one full time equivalent position is created. They have requested a loan on the amount of $25,000 to expand their catering business and to begin a market restaurant operation over at the old Polacsek building. He explained that the terms are consistent with the most recent ones the City has approved, 5% fixed interest loan for a 7-year term and the applicants are committed to at least one full time equivalent position to be created but we hope and expect many more to be created because they have identified up to 9 possible jobs. Commissioner John Franck said this type of loan is often a last resort for when an applicant cannot get conventional financing. Bradley Birge said this is a blended loan with some of their own funds committed and they are also working with the Saratoga Economic Development Corporation small business Page 2 of 7 City Council Preliminary Agenda Meeting March 18, 2013 administration program. He said the City is assisting them with their full package. The funds for this program originally came from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and they are revolving funds so that as payments are made, the money is put back out to the community to be loaned again. Mayor Johnson explained that it did not seem appropriate to upload the financial statements but they will be happy to furnish a copy to Commissioner Franck for his review. ACCOUNT’S DEPARTMENT 1. Discussion: Memorandum of Support – S1000 and A682 Commissioner Franck explained that he is bringing this up again for vote at the next City council meeting. This has been done in the past in relation to Sections 581 and 339Y on condominium assessments at this time of the year and there has been full County support and support from the School District on this. He wants to bring a memorandum of support from the City down to Senator Little and the Southern District assembly person. He will also reach out to Hugh Farley and other Senate and Assembly leaders for support again. He said this bill has never reached the floor because the biggest stumbling block has been New York City but the Assessor of New York City has gone forward and is looking to change Section 339Y so this issue has picked up momentum. The city has been ahead of the curve in 2009 and we are now compiling a number or articles; since our lead, there have been hundreds of communities supporting this primarily in the last two years and this mostly due to fund shortages. 2. Discussion and Vote: Move Polling Districts 3,4,8,9 & 25 to the City Center Commissioner Franck said this is the vote on moving the City Center polling place for districts 3,4,8,9 and 25. 3. Award of Bid: Extension of Grave Marking Flags bid to Saratoga Flag Commissioner Franck said this came out of the Mayor’s office and we do this every year. Commissioner Madigan said that it looks as if the extension for the award of bid was signed by the Executive Assistant to the Mayor and should be signed by the Mayor or the Commissioner of Finance. Mayor Johnson said he would look into it. 4. Award of Bid: Traffic Control Signal Design and Engineering to Greenman Pederson Inc. Commissioner Franck said this is from the Department of Public Safety. No comments 5. Award of Bid: Spirit of Life and Spencer Trask – Landscape Restoration/Conservation Plan to Martha Lyon Landscape Architecture, LLC. Commissioner Franck said this is from the Department of Public Works. No comments. 6. Award of Bid: Spirit of Life and Spencer Trask – Structure and Masonry Restoration/ Conservation Plan to Daniel J. Wilson Architects Commissioner Franck said this is also from Public Works. No comments. FINANCE DEPARTMENT 1. Discussion: 2012 4th quarter financial Report Commissioner Madigan said the books closed out the end of February and following that the City has 45 days to submit the annual report for 2012 which will probably come out at the end of April. Page 3 of 7 City Council Preliminary Agenda Meeting March 18, 2013 PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT 1. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for the Mayor to sign a contract with NYS Environmental Conservation – Household Hazardous Waste Commissioner Scirocco said the City held a Household Hazardous Waste Day on October 20, 2012 and this is a contract for reimbursement to the City of 50% of the funds expended to run it. 2. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for Mayor to sign a renewal agreement with Mahoney Notify-Plus Inc. Alarms. Commissioner Scirocco said this is for high water alarms for 23 sewer pump stations. Back in 2010 they had to lay off dispatchers at the garage so they converted from hard wire to radio alarms and saved $8,000 per year. 3. Discussion and Vote: authorization for the Mayor to sign agreement addendum #2 with Greenman-Pedersen Inc.-Ballston Avenue Traffic Improvement Project City Engineer Tim Wales said there are two agreements on the agenda and both are related to traffic improvement on Ballston Avenue. This is an agreement to move the final design forward to get it ready for public bidding. 4. Discussion and Vote: authorization for the Mayor to sign agreement addendum #3 with Greenman-Pedersen Inc-Ballston Avenue Traffic Improvement Project Commissioner Scirocco said this agreement is for right of way acquisitions related to this project and is pretty straightforward. 5. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for the Mayor to sign an agreement addendum with Alpine – Water Treatment Plant Commissioner Scirocco said this is to monitor the air quality during the asbestos abatement procedure. Tim Wales said this is required by New York State. 6. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for the Mayor to sign an agreement addendum with C.T. Male Commissioner Scirocco said this is to monitor the groundwater and explosive gas post closure at the Weibel Avenue Landfill. This is a yearly contract. Tim Wales said this is part of the City’s post closure permit; we are required to do this monitoring and submit an annual report; this is a renewal of the City’s annual contract with CT Male. 7. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for the Mayor to sign an agreement addendum with Lorice Enterprises Commissioner Scirocco said this is for the removal of lead paint in filter number 2 at the Water Treatment Plant. Tim Wales said with this agreement, they are going to remove the lead base paint in filter number 2 which is an outside wall filter and there are additional things that need to be done including heating the wall to be able to repaint it. He said once this is done, we will come back for filters 3 and 4 which will be less money. 8. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for the Mayor to sign change order #3 with Stilsing Electric-Water Treatment Plant Commissioner Scirocco said this is for additional wiring. Tim Wales said this is part of the City’s Water Treatment Plant upgrade. Their engineers came forward with some recommendations for high Page 4 of 7 City Council Preliminary Agenda Meeting March 18, 2013 voltage service modifications. He said because of their water treatment plant upgrades and a new blower there are some higher power requirements so these are safety upgrades required to accommodate that. We want to ensure that the City has 100% capacity to provide water at all times so these are recommended improvements within the water plant project. Commissioner Scirocco added the following item to his agenda: 9. Discussion: City Water No comments PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT 1. Discussion and Vote: Mayor to sign agreement with Empire Ambulance Commissioner Mathiesen said we will discuss this again and hopefully get a vote in the affirmative. 2. Announcement: 2012 DPW annual report Commissioner Mathiesen said the 2012 annual report will be distributed today to the Council and to the public. 3. Discussion: Thanks to all involved in the Skidmore lock down on March 5, 2013 Commissioner Mathiesen said this is in regards to the cooperation they received from Skidmore College Security and Administration and information about the incident. 4. Discussion: Planning Board’s decision on the Saratoga County Mental Health Special Use Permit Commissioner Mathiesen said he wants to make some comments on this Planning Board decision. 5. Discussion: Wilton water sales Commissioner Mathiesen said he seeking to publicly clarify this. He has spoken with Assistant City Attorney Tony Izzo who continues to support the contention that the resolution approved by the Council in October does limit sales of City water to the Town of Wilton to up to 25 units. He is often contacted by people who state that there is not a good limitation there. He thought this would be an opportunity to review some of the things discussed during the presentation by Tim Wales and Commissioner Scirocco back in February regarding the investment in the wells and the purpose for that water. He has been contacted by people with some questions about this so he thought this would be a good time to have this discussion. He said some of this might be covered in the DPW agenda item number 9. He said that Tony Izzo said that it makes sense in the long term to clean up the language in the 1998 agreement, the 2001 agreement and the October 2012 resolution and he is working on that but at this point in time these limitations are in effect; these things should be clarified. Commissioner Mathiesen added the following items to his agenda: 6. Discussion: Follow up to March 5, 2013 Housing Authority Resolution . Commissioner Mathiesen said this is a follow-up to the March 5 resolution regarding removal of Saratoga Housing Authority Board members; there are some issues to address that were brought up at that time. 7. Discussion: Recent Drug Arrests Page 5 of 7 City Council Preliminary Agenda Meeting March 18, 2013 Commissioner Mathiesen said he will thank the police department and other law enforcement agencies for their involvement in this very important drug arrest. 8. Discussion: Lawlessness after 2 AM Commissioner Mathiesen said this is regarding an issue that has been discussed before with the Council. When people arrived at City Hall this morning there were some broken windows and broken glass doors due to an incident that occurred around 4:40 am on Saturday morning and there were 2 policemen injured on the same night around 2:33 am; obviously there continues to be problems downtown and although we have come a long way in dealing with these problems, the issue of people being over-served is not being addressed because there seems to be a continual theme of people being highly intoxicated causing problems and these are not Skidmore College students, they are not City residents or tourists; they are people that come in from surrounding areas causing problems here that the citizens of Saratoga Springs have to pay for, including the overtime involved in trying to keep order in the City at those hours and the policemen are being placed at unnecessary risk on a continuous basis on late Friday and Saturday nights and this needs to stop. The City of Glens Falls is going through the same thing and something needs to be done and the Council needs to keep discussing this. 9. Set Public Hearing: Amend Chapter 225, Article IX, Schedule 225-89, Speed Limits on Meadowbrook Road Commissioner Mathiesen said that we are proposing to increase the speed limit on two sections of Meadowbrook Road from 30 miles per hour to 40 mph because at one point the speed limit was entirely 40 mph on Meadowbrook Road and then it was reduced to 30 mph on the whole road and they are proposing that the speed limit remain at 30 mph on Meadowbrook Road in the highly populated central area but the extensions toward Staffords Bridge Road and at the other end near Union Avenue should be increased to 40 mph. which makes more sense for the type of roadway in that area. SUPERVISORS 1. JOANNE YEPSEN 1. Report on full board meeting resolutions Supervisor Yepsen will report on resolutions voted on at the County Supervisors Board meeting tomorrow. 2. Proposed Department Head appointments Supervisor Yepsen said the Board will consider two appointments, one is for the Director of the Animal Shelter which may be contentious and the other is for the Director of Veteran’s Affairs which should go through easily. She will report on the outcome. 3. New York State Budget Supervisor Yepsen said she will be making some points on the proposed State budget. 2. MATTHEW VEITCH 1. Update: Public Health Committee No Comments 2. Update: Public Safety Committee No Comments 3. Update: Proposed Department appointments No Comments Page 6 of 7 City Council Preliminary Agenda Meeting March 18, 2013 ADJOURN Mayor Scott Johnson adjourned the meeting at 9:58 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Nancy Wagner, Clerk Approved: 4/2/13 Vote: 5 - 0 Page 7 of 7