City of Binghamton, NY City Council Meetings, 23 Mar 2022

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From YouTube: 2022.03.23 City Council Business Meeting

Description

Chapters
00:00:00 Call to Order
00:02:30 Public Hearing RL22-72
00:08:40 Introductory Ordinance 22-43
00:10:50 Permanent Ordinance 22-41
00:14:10 Introductory Ordinance 22-46
00:14:44 Introductory Ordinance 22-47
00:15:25 Introductory Ordinance 22-48
00:15:54 Introductory Ordinance 22-49
00:16:20 Introductory Ordinance 22-50
00:16:43 Introductory Ordinance 22-51
00:17:06 Introductory Ordinance 22-52
00:17:29 Introductory Ordinance 22-53
00:18:03 Introductory Ordinance 22-54
00:18:30 Introductory Ordinance 22-55
00:19:00 Introductory Ordinance 22-56
00:19:30 Introductory Ordinance 22-26
00:20:30 Local Law 22-01
00:24:24 Introductory Ordinance 22-45
00:27:20 Communications from Council Members

A

Start moving for a minute.

B

B

Made the mistake of leaving the house this morning with just a sweater and I want no jacket and I paid that's.

A

B

Yeah I paid for it over the course of the day.

A

This could be a little cooler during the day, as today went on.

B

C

Okay, welcome everyone to the city council business meeting for wednesday march 23 2022. Please stand for the pledge allegiance.

C

Thank you. Everyone, uh real quick before we do our roll call, as we've done um at the uh for you looking in from zoom land um right to left on your screen. We have council member friedman, our clerk lee rogers um me fillstron, our corporate council uh sharon and councilman joe burns. So we're all down here. So, um mr clerk, would you roll call for us? Please.

D

Yes, okay, councilman scoring president councilwoman rosnetti president councilwoman riley, president councilwoman friedman present councilman burns, president councilman scanlon president and president strong president. That's all seven here.

C

Thank you. um Now we have the approval of minutes. uh Councilwoman resonati.

E

Thank you, uh mr president, I'd like to make a motion to prove the minutes for from the march 9 2022 business meeting and the march 14 2022 special business meeting.

B

Second, mr president,.

F

G

C

Okay, thank you for that. um We will move on to our public hearing for tonight. uh Mr clerk, can you announce the public hearing and tell everyone how they can participate? Please.

D

Yes, so tonight's public hearing, we've won public hearing and the city of binghamton will now hold a public hearing regarding rl 22-72, entitled a local law amending the code to reduce permissible grass and weed height from 10 inches to 8 inches and, if you'd like to participate in the public hearing tonight, you do so by clicking the raise hand button on zoom and leaving it raised. We will call on you one by one.

H

D

D

And while we're waiting on that, we did have two messages that were sent in. I can read those now. The first one here is from kathy staples.

D

She lives in the city of binghamton and she stated homeless, folks, kids without food, substandard housing, nope, it's the grass- and that was the end of her comment and then the other comment we received is from dorian zaka who lives in the city of binghamton.

D

Who said, I think we have bigger fish fish to fry honestly and that code needs to direct the attention to things other than two more inches of grass and those are all the comments we receive again. If you'd like to comment on the public hearing tonight, please click the raised hand, button.

C

Give it just a few more seconds, then we'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

B

Mr president, see no discussion remitted I'll, make a motion to close the public hearing.

F

Okay, all in favor, aye.

G

C

Okay, thank you. We will uh now move on to the public comment uh section of our uh agenda. Mr cleric, will you uh uh announce our public comment and tell everybody how they can participate in public comment.

D

Yes, so now the city council will hold a public comment section here if you'd like to participate in public comment. Please click the raise hand, button and leave it raised on zoom, and we will give you five minutes. Please state your full name and if you live or work in the city of binghamton.

D

Again, if you'd like to participate in public comment tonight, please click the raise hand button on zoom and leave it raised and we will allow you to speak.

B

Mr president, public comments submitted and no one on the attendee list uh with a hand raised I'll make emotional follows on the comment.

C

Okay, we will close public comment now. Thank you, councilman scringey, um okay, we will move on in our agenda. We have uh second legislation introductory ordinance, 22-43, uh considering finance councilman's gringi.

B

Thank you, mr president, I stand and ask for unanimous consideration of introductory ordinance 22-43 an ordinance to amend the 2022 budget to allocate american rescue plan act, funds for demolition of vacant and abandoned properties.

C

Okay, we have a second.

C

Council member friedman go ahead.

I

Thank you, president strong, um so I held this over last meeting because it was uh expedited and something was brought up in the public comment uh section about this, and I felt that I didn't. I hadn't had enough time to um get a gauge on how my constituents felt about using this money, and it turns out that the feedback that I got was uh positive, so people felt okay with it.

I

So um I thank you for uh allowing the full two weeks to hold this over and I do feel like I've sufficiently uh received feedback on this.

B

C

You any other questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22. call the question, mr president,.

C

Okay, can you do a roll call for.

D

Yes, councilman scoring hi councilwoman resident eddie.

G

D

Councilwoman riley.

G

D

Councilwoman friedman.

G

D

Councilman burns aye, councilman, scanlon, hi and president strong hi, that's 7i, zero nays.

C

Okay, we uh in between uh second and first, we have a reconsideration.

C

We're going to change things up a little bit council member friedman has volunteered to read these uh motions into the record, so I said that she could do that so council member treatment.

I

I would like to make a motion to reconsider permanent ordnance ordinance 22-41 passed at the march 9th business meeting.

B

F

uh All in favor aye.

G

C

Okay, go ahead all.

I

Right, I'd like to make a motion to amend permanent ordinance 22-41 to one change, the new rate of pay from twenty one dollars and fifty cents to twenty one dollars and fifty seven cents.

I

Two amend the total annual increase, increasing the total from seven thousand five hundred and sixteen dollars to seven thousand six hundred and sixty six dollars.

I

Three amend the total transfer or decrease the health insurance line from seven hundred and twenty dollars to eight hundred and seventy dollars and four amend the total transfer to increase personal services stores keeper from seven hundred and twenty dollars to eight hundred and seventy dollars.

B

C

Okay, all in favor of uh that motion.

G

C

Hi anyone opposed okay. Thank you. Go ahead.

I

I'd like to make a motion to approve permanent ordinance 22-41 as amended. Second.

C

Any questions or comments on this reconsideration call the question. Mr president, thank you, uh mr clark. Can you roll call for us please.

D

Yes, okay, councilman scrungey, aye, councilwoman, renaissance.

E

D

Councilwoman riley aye councilwoman friedman, aye councilman burns hi, councilman scanlan.

A

D

And president strong hi, that's 7i zero nays.

C

Okay, thank you uh now proceed to our agenda first reading, um mr mr, mr president,.

B

Go ahead from point of information, your microphone, sir, is uh scratching and cutting out quite a bit. It's difficult to hear what you're saying I apologize.

C

Thank you is that better, yes, sir okay, thanks for letting me know that we appreciate it, we can't can't tell that down here. So thank you for that. um So we will go to our preferred agenda. uh Mr clerk, will you uh uh walk us through that? uh Each item president's.

I

Phone, could I please pull an item from the preferred.

C

Oh, I'm sorry yep. I did not ask that um yes, which would what would you like to pull I'd.

I

Like to pull local law 22-01 from the preferred agenda, please.

C

Anything else when anybody else, like anything else, pulled from the preferred agenda.

C

Okay, uh mr clerk proceed with the preferred agenda as uh amended or adjusted.

D

Okay, so the first item on tonight's preferred agenda is introductory ordinance 22-46 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022 insurance fund to increase revenue and expenses for damage to the state street garage entry. Lane equipment.

C

Any questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-46.

C

D

Please proceed okay. Next, we have introductory ordinance 22-47 inserted in the planning committee, and this is an ordinance to extend permanent ordinance 20-49 to temporarily amend or waive chapter 327 rights of way use of article 2 outdoor cafe, permits chapter 410, zoning, section, 410-45 categories of review and the fee schedule for site plan review for outdoor seating.

C

Any questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-47.

C

Okay, please proceed.

D

Next, we have introductory ordinance 22-48 considered in the finance committee, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022 personnel and civil service budget to provide a responsibility adjustment to the program assistant due to staff vacancy.

C

Any questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-48.

C

D

Please proceed next. We have introductory ordinance 22-49 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022 mayor budget to allocate our funds toward a community food pantry.

C

Any questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-49.

C

D

Please proceed next. We have introductory ordinance 22-50 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022 parks budget to alaka arpa funds for two new labor positions.

C

Questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-50.

C

D

Please proceed next. We have introductory ordinance 22-51 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022 code enforcement budget to allocate arpa funds for a new code inspector.

C

Any questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-51.

D

Okay, please proceed next. We have introductory ordinance 22-52 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022 law budget to allocate arpa funds for a new assistant corporation council prosecutor position.

C

Any questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-52.

C

D

Please proceed next. We have introductory ordinance 22-53 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend chapter 124-39.a.

D

Personnel policies of the code of the city of binghamton to remove the administrative assistant to the department of public works from the eight hour standard workday and to reduce the annual salary. According.

C

Questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-53.

D

Okay, please proceed next. We have introductory ordinance 22-54 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend permanent ordinance, 22-36 and amend the 2021 binghamton john city joint sewage board budget to adjust the appropriations to baf legal services.

C

Questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-54.

D

Okay, please proceed next. We have introductory ordinance 22-55 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022, binghamton johnson city, joint sewage board budget to add a revenue line and several expense lines for rehab work at the wastewater treatment facilities.

C

Questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-55.

C

Please proceed.

D

Next, we have introductory ordinance 22-56 considered in finance, and this is an ordinance to amend the 2022 binghamton johnson city joint sewage board budget, to increase the appropriations for professional services for cleanup and media removal.

C

Questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-56.

C

D

Proceed and the last item on tonight's preferred agenda is introductory resolution 22-26 considered in finance, and this is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with outreach ministries, showers of hope for use of arpa funds.

C

Any questions or comments on introductory resolution, 22-26.

B

Motion will approve, as amended. Mr president,.

H

C

Okay, can you do a roll call for us on the preferred agenda.

D

uh Councilman scrunchie aye councilwoman reznetti, aye, councilwoman, riley, aye, councilwoman friedman, aye councilman burns.

G

D

Councilman scanlon.

A

D

And president strong hi, that's 7i018.

C

Okay, thank you for that. We will now move on to our non-preferred agenda and first up we have local law 22-01 considered in rules special studies, councilwoman residenti.

E

Thank you. Mr president, I asked for unanimous consideration for local law 22-01 a local law amending the code of the city of binghamton, chapter 265-13, minimum exterior and interior requirements in code, 265-14 vacant building registry maintenance regarding more restrictive grass and weed height for the city of binghamton residents.

E

C

Questions or comments on local law, 22-01, council member friedman go ahead.

I

Thank you, president stron. uh I I pulled this from the preferred agenda because I solicited feedback um from my constituents about this, and I received a surprising amount of feedback against amending this law, and the reasons that were given were that um my my constituents felt the that this is not necessarily a a useful or efficient place to put um more restrictions or energy from the code department, um because there there are other more more pressing things rather than uh being more.

I

um You know quickly, responsive to the height of the grass. I know that when mayor cram presented this uh this proposal, he made the point that if the height of the grass is lower, it will more quickly trigger a response from code, which I think is a good point.

I

But I think also that um you know we've been talking a lot about our our code, discussions about how you know what how we can um use code more efficiently, and I I think that I'm hopeful that when we um do have the municipal and public affairs committee meeting that hopefully we'll be able to come up with solutions that prevent tall grass from existing in the first place, so that code would not.

I

We wouldn't have to use so many code resources overall to to cut the grass and that you know we would prevent the problem from happening in the first place. So this is a situation where um my constituents are against this. They don't they don't like this, so um they did elect me to represent their views on city council. So, therefore, that's why I will not be voting in support of this.

C

Okay, thank you uh any other questions or comments on local law. 22.01.

C

Call the question, mr president, thank you uh roll call. This report.

D

Okay, councilman scoring aye councilwoman reznetti.

G

D

Councilwoman riley.

E

D

Councilwoman friedman, nay councilman burns aye, councilman, scanlon.

A

D

And president strong hi, so that's five eyes: two nays riley and friedman.

C

Okay, thank you. We will move on to introductory ordinance, 22-45 considered in planning, and there are also secret motions with this introductory ordinance. Councilman scanlon.

A

Thank you, mr president. I stand next to unanimous consideration for integrative awareness, 22-45.

A

Second order authorizing the sale of 43 shelby street. To sarah walker, then I'll read a secret now most should declare city council as lead agency under seeker.

B

F

All in favor aye.

A

Issue a negative declaration under seeker for the following reasons: this is an abandoned lot in the residential area. The purchaser owns the adjusted property of 45 shelburne street.

A

The purchaser has agreed to demolish the unsafe garage, remove the invasive trees and install fencing to use the premises as green space transfer will preserve green space and provide for future maintenance.

A

This transfer is made as part of the city sign lab program. Second,.

A

G

Did our direction.

C

Again, I'm sorry go ahead, you got to do. We have a roll call vote on that motion of secret motion. Please.

D

uh Councilman scarinji hi, councilwoman, eddy aye, councilwoman friedman.

D

Sorry I skipped councilwoman riley councilwoman riley aye and councilwoman friedman, aye councilman burns aye, councilman, scanlon aye and president strong hi. That's seven. Nine zero nays.

A

Introductory earnings 22-45 an ordinance authorized in the sale of 43 shubert street. Sarah walker.

B

C

Any questions or comments on introductory ordinance, 22-45.

C

Call the question, mr president, thank you. um Roll call, um mr clark, please. Okay,.

D

Councilman scoring hi councilwoman reznetti.

G

D

Councilwoman riley aye councilwoman friedman, aye councilman burns aye, councilman scanlon.

A

D

And president strong hi, that's 7i zero nays.

C

Okay, thank you, everyone for going through the legislative agenda tonight. We will now proceed to our communication from council members and tonight we will start in district 7, councilman scanlon. Thank you, mr.

A

President last week I had an opportunity to ride with the binghamton police department, crt program, criminal response team was eye-opening, to say the least, and uh I think these this group of uh young men out there, because they're pulling over cars of people who are driving impaired people who are driving under the influence of narcotics and it makes us safer biggerton when they're pulling these people over.

A

um So I know five out of seven of us have done a ride along those. Those of us who support the binghamton police department, there's two on council who do not, which is obviously the right to do that. But I I don't know I don't know. I don't know how you don't support the maintenance police department. Thank you, mr president,.

C

Thank you, councilman scanlon. We will now proceed to district 1. The first award councilman scrunchie.

B

Thank you, mr president. uh I hope everyone's doing well um just be mindful of the weather changing. I want to really really thank the proactiveness of the dpw and the rhodes department. They've really been getting on potholes, and I also want to thank the code enforcement department.

B

They have just been on top of a number of issues coming right out same day, citations working with homeowners and residents to remedy issues, and I just want to thank them for all their work. For that and uh lastly, um definitely want to give a uh a big shout out to the bpd. uh Definitely have done a ride along on quite a number of occasions, and uh the amount of things that they deal with are pretty unbelievable, so I just want to give a shout out to them as well. Thank you, mr president.

C

Thank you, councilman scringey. We will now proceed to district 2 and councilwoman resonating.

E

Thank you, mr president, um I too did a ride along. I try to do one at least uh once a year with a bpd, and I want to say thank you to the officer I was with this time. I I was actually with a female officer, and that was um just to sort of get a different perspective of um you know the line of work that they're in as women.

E

I do think that we as women are, can do great work, no matter where we are, and I do um hope that there will be more actually um um we'll have a when we have a bigger presentation not only with bpd but also fire, our fire departments and and so forth. So I wanted to say a big thank you uh always always uh a great experience.

E

I was you know, kind of troubled to see how the seats that were she was sitting on. I mean totally ripped and torn just you know old condition of the vehicle and just reminded me of the fact that you know we have to make sure that they have those you know basic needs met, so they can do their job.

E

um It's spring. Happy spring. Everybody, it's not feeling it doesn't feel it uh today, uh there's garbage everywhere. Pretty soon, I'm gonna be starting. My my cleanups that I love to do um make sure please, if you're out there and you see trash pick it up clean up, help your neighbors, whatever we can do to keep our neighborhoods clean and safe and with that have a good night.

C

Thank you, councilwoman resonati. We will now proceed to district 3 and councilwoman riley. Thank.

H

You, council president, I'm going to shift a little bit from the canned narrative that has been shared, but I want to ask that we all pause in reflection, because this past week we memorialized people that were very um important to our city. First, mr xavier cooper, his funeral was saturday. It's the young man in fourth grade that passed of an asthma attack.

H

um The funeral and the the re-pass were both here in the third district and the family um has been a a a business that is a business in our city that we should recognize. No one wants to lose anyone so again, a moment of reflection and my condolences to that family.

H

Secondly, the kavanaugh's- those that know here in the third district, this store right here on the corner, lost the patriarch that launched that business and so again I hope we pause and reflection for that family as well. I'm sending my condolences to both families. I stopped by to leave remarks and tragedy.

H

No one wants to lose anyone, so I just wanted to highlight that, but this week as we watch the judiciary, hearings of katanji brown jackson, I am thankful because I'm reminded particularly as we think of the quote by sarah haggai, that mediocre and civility is not commonplace in legislative meetings, but I thank her for maintaining her composure and being a model of how to behave when things don't always go as they should.

H

So I thank you guys tonight and that concludes my report.

C

Thank you, councilwoman riley. uh We now proceed to district four and councilwoman friedman.

I

Thank you. President. Strong today is my last day of my 20s and I feel the need to publicly announce.

G

I

It's my birthday tomorrow, a big milestone one! So uh I'm excited about that, and um there was one thing that I wanted to highlight: that's going on in district four uh next week next wednesday. Actually a week from today, greater good grocery is having a free produce day, which is they host that every the last wednesday of every month.

I

So um it's sponsored by m t bank and I'll just read um straight from this post that they made so families will receive one bag of produce per two family members with a maximum of four bags per family, and you do not need to have all family members present at 10 a.m, to 12 p.m, noon, um they're, giving away 250 bags and then at 4 pm to 6 p.m. They will be giving away another 250 more bags of produce while supplies last.

I

If you haven't had a chance to go to greater good grocery, I highly recommend it it's conveniently located on the north side and they have some outrageously low prices on things. um I think they were having an ice cream sale. You can get like a pint of fancy ice cream for one dollar. As an example of like one particular product that that stuck out to me, so um everyone is eligible well also, everyone is eligible for free produce day.

I

You don't have to show any type of um paperwork or anything like that, and also everyone is eligible to shop there. I know there was some misinformation a little while ago that was circulating, that they um only accept food stamps, or you know things like that, but anybody is welcome to shop there and in fact, the more business that they have the longer they can stay open and the more products they are. um They will be able to acquire. So I I can't say enough good things about greater good grocery.

I

I hope that they are a staple that remains, and that concludes my comments. Thank you.

C

Thank you, councilwoman friedman. We will now move to district 5 and councilman burns.

J

Thank you, mr president.

J

The uh couple of things it is springtime and the potholes are appearing.

J

So if you have a big pothole on your street, you can contact me and I'll do my best to take care of it and any other problems that the winter. Now that the snow is gone, any other problems that you might see on your street. uh I would like to give a shout out to the water department. They had big problems on the south side. Yesterday they had fixed some uh old infrastructure and there was a lot of streets that went without water for the day and they uh they fixed that up uh really nicely.

J

I happen to live on that one of those streets um also, uh next week, the south side neighborhood assembly we're starting a new sort of a way of doing things there, where uh bill from the district, six on the south side and myself so it'll be district, five and six. uh It's basically south siders come and meet your council members and uh give your questions.

J

They want to concentrate on code and uh we're going to uh go over what we've been discussing here uh at city council and I'm urging everybody to come. If you have any questions, come and see us and it'll be great to get out of the house and great to see people's faces again, and so that's it for my side of town thanks very much.

C

Thank you on council councilman burns uh yeah just I was gonna mention that too next wednesday, but I mean anybody's welcome, um come we're that feeds into the really the comments I wanted to make was about code.

C

In essence, um we are going to be talking with the south side neighborhood people on on wednesday, and then we are planning on having an mpa committee meeting on april 4th um this time we are uh that's the night of our work sessions, so this time we're going to adjourn we'll, probably pick a time a ballpark time, but most likely it'll be advertised as after the work session.

C

So this time we will gavel the work session closed and then we will gavel in the mpa committee um and that will be a discussion about uh the code issues and uh and then you know, like I said, councilman burns and I will probably have some feedback as well from our south side. Folks from the 30th um and I'll just mention that you know the first meeting of this year. We talked about addressing code things and we're moving in that direction.

C

I think there's a lot more things that we can discuss than than what we talked about earlier, but I would say that you know, depending on how you look at you, have to start somewhere, it's the first time we passed legislation and over two years regarding this issue that we've been talking about for two years. So to me, I'm excited that we are not just talking about it now we are actually moving on these things and um and yeah. We have a lot more issues to talk about than grass site, but you have to start.

C

You have to start somewhere. um So I'm glad that we're moving on that. I'm looking forward to the conversations with our group with councilman burns on the 30th and following that up with the conversations with the committee and all of you on the fourth uh with that, I will take a motion to adjourn.

J