City of Binghamton, NY City Council Meetings, 27 Feb 2023

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From YouTube: 2023.02.27 City Council Work Session

Description

CONTENTS
00:00 Call to Order
01:20 RL23-44
03:00 RL23-46
09:00 RL23-47
12:30 RL23-52
17:40 RL23-45, 54 – 56
27:30 RL23-57
28:30 RL23-48 – 51
39:25 Discussion (New RL Forms)
50:50 Pending Legislation

A

B

Mean we good evening, everyone thank you for joining us for the city of Binghamton, City Council work session, 27th of February, 223, 6 p.m, city, council chambers. Please stand for the pledge.

A

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we stand. One nation under God individually, Liberty.

B

Clerk will call the roll Madam Clerk.

C

Councilwoman rosinetti present councilwoman Riley council member Friedman present uh councilman Burns is absent. Councilman strong.

D

Present councilman.

C

Scanlon and president scramji.

A

C

That's six here, one absent Burns. Thank.

B

You, madam Clerk, that being said: let's Jump Right In uh at this time, Alaska DPW, commissioner Dan Merkel for a discussion on RL 23-44 to amend the general fund for salt and sand.

E

Hi everybody obviously Danny's, not here I'm, Phil and I, say my name is Josh paluti I'm, a filling in as the first Deputy right now. Thank you, Josh appreciate it. Well, here's your sir. uh Our RL is to move some funds for salt and sand. Last year we went over budget by 115.

E

and we're going to take that from the overtime from last year to cover.

B

It thank you, Josh, colleagues, any discussion.

F

Councilwoman Friedman.

G

Thank you, president scrungy um hello, Josh I didn't catch your last name.

E

My name is Joshua palludi.

G

Okay, uh thanks for being here so um I every time the salt and sand comes up. I feel like we ask, is this the last: will this cover it, and the answer is always yes and then there's always more rl's requesting more money for salt and fan. So can you just like help us understand what's going on here? What additional request is coming in this.

E

Is just a little bit that was left over for 2022 to close the books, so this is the end of it. It closes out 2022 for the same install. Do.

G

You pinky promise me.

E

I think he promised you. This will be the end of it. Okay,.

G

E

G

Okay, all right, thank you.

B

Thank you councilwoman, any other discussion, seeing none Josh. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate you. At this time, I will ask uh executive assistant to the mayor, Megan Hyman, to come and speak on behalf of Dr Burling for RL 23-46, an RL to amend the city of Binghamton historic guidelines as it relates to signage good evening Megan. How are you good? Thank you for being here. The floor is yours,.

H

Okay, I'm presenting this tonight for the planning department, Julia and Teo family issues, so, um okay, RL, 22, I'm, sorry, RL 23-46.

H

uh This is the update. The city's historic design guidelines as they relate um to internally lit signs. It's basically an update to the language uh to make to give Claude the flexibility to decide these things on a case-by-case basis and on the second page right after the RL, it goes into detail on what that language update would be.

F

Thank you, Megan Council, any discussion, councilwoman thank.

G

You president sperungi Hi Megan. How are you good, Lumber good? How are you good thanks? um Can you give us an example of um a case when this type of change would have been useful sure.

H

So this uh this was actually sparked by the signage at the restaurant. That's going into the train station uh actually in your district council member, um the planning department, it's my understanding reached out to uh shippo for guidance on that um and the sentiment was that that's a sign that um could have and should have probably been approved that fit within most historic guidelines, um but we had this barrier within the language that Claude uses to review. So this is an update kind of based on that guidance from shippo. So.

G

Just to make sure that I'm understanding this correctly, the sign that did the the sign is on the restaurant right now, that's correct, okay, and so this was a sign that maybe ought to have been approved, but wasn't and therefore is uh maybe not consistent with the character of a historic building am I understanding that correctly it's.

H

A sign that should have gone to Claude for approval, and my understanding is that it will be going before quad I see. Okay, all.

G

Right, thank you. You're welcome. Thank.

F

You councilwoman any other discussion, councilman Riley.

I

Thank you. How.

H

Are you I'm well, how are.

I

You good good, so I know they're only providing some amendments in terms of generally appropriate and adding some guidance, but without detail. There's a lot of subjectivity that would potentially put the city at risk. For example, say they want a six foot by six foot sign. Is that something that needs to be specified since we are amending what will be acceptable based upon the cause, uh the appointment, so people appointed on the card at that time?.

H

It's it's my understanding, and hopefully someone in the audience can correct me if I'm wrong, but this is updating just a very specific portion of the guideline. So it's specifically as they relate to internally lit signs. Okay, um but there are a whole other Frameworks that relate.

J

And and different provisioning, Cod um recommended on the size and signs among I'm a ex-official member of the cardboard so.

H

I told Pat that I might be phoning a friend.

I

Out on the mic, um so that was that's appreciated because again, when we see a portion of the language being amended without any other guidance as to what else is in there, it again is beholden upon us to ensure that we decrease any subjectivity, because the business owned owners will then hold us accountable if one sign passes and the other doesn't because we're changing the terminology and giving uh complete autonomy to one board that changes over time does that make sense? Okay, thank you. Thank.

A

B

Other discussion seeing none. Thank you very much. This time, I'll ask our head of purchasing it's Bernice Griffiths to.

F

um Yes, councilwoman.

I

Thank you, I forgot now, typically, the business owner would have been alerted to needing the sign reviewed prior to paying for and fixing it to their building.

H

I'm not sure how that process worked, that he should card approval, is is necessary for a sign like that. Okay and.

I

That goes in part of the permitting, so this person is out of order honestly, currently.

K

Yes, um so the sign went before Cod. They realize that well, design is appropriate for the historic district. Our language was outdated in between they went and installed the sign anyways, oh, but it is going to be coming back.

J

To Cod now that it is updated.

I

So is there a penalty for going forward before we amend our language to fit their needs.

J

K

J

E

B

Thank you any other discussion.

B

This time will ask or how to purchasing it's Bernie scribbets, to join us for RL 23-47 additional services at Morabito, Stadium Bernice. How are you thank you for joining us explore? Is yours.

L

So this is an RL for additional architectural and Engineering Services needed for the phase two PDL project at Morabito Stadium. This is with Janice and Anderson.

B

Thank you. Any discussion, councilwoman.

G

Thank you, president guernji Hi Bernice. How are you, how are you good, um okay, so I have a couple of questions on this sure. um The first one is that the um the third to last item involves oh Sports, and my understanding is that our uh potential contract with them was pulled right right and so is this. Does that need to be amended in in any way that's going to go through Janice and Anderson? Okay, so just cross up the O sports right, okay, so they're just not involved.

G

um Okay, there are some items on this list with substantial increases such as um well there. There are two weight room addition: expansion lines on here, one of which is quite substantially increased um and the other one. The flood drainage mitigation plan I mean I, understand that's expensive, but could you explain why some of these are were um not accurately so these.

L

uh Estimated yeah, so these changes came down from Major League Baseball uh after the initial contract, so these are all changes in scope that were required from the New York Mets to do um in the field uh drainage. That's an ongoing issue, there's several different areas that need to be addressed as part of the problems that they're having over there with the water. Okay,.

G

So that makes sense that these requests are coming down from MLB. um Could you clarify the the process that that usually takes in terms of um you know they give us a list of requirements, and then we did we fail to meet those requirements. The requirements changed after we agreed to allocate.

L

Funds they changed afterwards, so the club and Major League Baseball meet about once a week and then any of those changes that come through as part of this project that they say, you're not required to do. They'll come through on the club, the project manager in the city.

G

Interesting, and so is there any as far as you're aware? Is there any um predictability in terms of like how many times they're gonna change the requirements that is going to be like tens of thousands of dollars more.

L

Than original we're towards the end of the project, now it's supposed to be completed by opening day so I, don't think that they'll be much more, but you know that it just depends. I think this is probably pretty close to final okay.

G

All right, thank you for that clarification.

B

Thank you any other discussion seeing none. Thank you. Bernice very much this time, I'd like to ask uh Megan Hyman the executive assistant to the mayor to join us again for RL 23-52 or else to amend the 2023 General. No RL, 23-53 52 sorry amend the 2023 general fund for salary adjustments. My apologies Megan.

H

Okay, hello, again: okay, RL 2352, um as president's granji stated, this is an ordinance to amend the 2023 general fund budget. If you recall from during the budget process, when we create the budget each year, we recognize that there will be a certain number of unfilled positions for period of time for periods of time during that budget year.

H

um We reflect that in the salary adjustment budget line that's referenced in this RL, so this is to transfer those unused salary funds from the on-filled positions to essentially make good on that one hundred thousand dollars uh that we budget into um uh the annual budget during the budget process.

F

Thank you. Any discussion, councilwoman Freeman.

G

Thank you, president scramji, um so Megan that explanation makes sense to me, but I will say: I'm surprised that there's exactly one hundred thousand dollars. Can you tell me how much was like sort of finagle to make it fit, or did there actually happen to be one hundred thousand dollars in the line so.

H

I think that this is um it's essentially a housekeeping item at this time, so we're at the point now at this time of the year, with all of these salaries that they've added up to 100 000. So that's when we would make this transfer if that makes sense. Okay,.

G

And this is, this is for 2023.

H

It's the 2023 budget. Yes,.

G

Right: okay, yeah.

H

And so this would become effective, uh March, 18th um and you'll and like the different of vacancies right, so those are sort of. What's uh what's moved to make that 100, 000 right.

G

Okay, thank you sure.

F

Thank you, councilwoman.

I

Thank you, council, president, hello again, so we we definitely similar to the question my fellow council member mentioned. There are three different line items three different rates for police officers. So we're are you staying um and we know we have more vacancies than what's presented here on this document. So, for example, we have ten thousand dollars for one line of police officer. So what how are we selecting which lines to pull from because so what so two questions?

I

The ten thousand dollars is what level officer compared to the nine thousand and the five thousand or, if they're, all the same. How are we able to pull more because they all have the oh, the start dates from one one to three. Ten are the same for the ten thousand and the nine thousand. But if we look down at the five thousand, it's from February it's one month.

H

So I'm not sure how each of these were selected, but um essentially what I was trying to say to council member Friedman is because it. The housekeeping item like this is that this is something that was done during the budget process last fall, uh knowing that we would have a certain number of vacant positions um that one hundred thousand dollars is budgeted in. So this is just um sort of making so.

I

We just cushioned it and now we're removing the cushion that was built in.

H

um It's not it's not a cushion, it reflects what we know will be vacant positions if that makes sense.

I

Okay, but and and it's prorated, based upon the position type.

H

So it's a one hundred thousand dollars flat and that in that budget line, that's on the RL the salary adjustments. um So these combined make up that 100 000. How.

I

So it was just arbitrarily divided amongst the vacant positions.

H

How they were selected- I, don't know each of these here, just that they total 100.

I

So it so someone in the one of our constituents could not look at this and say one is the level three police officer. That's unfilled, compared to a first-year officer, unfield based upon the rates that they see here. That's not necessarily correct or.

H

How they should that's not outlined here, okay, yeah, thank.

I

You so much sure.

B

Thank you any other discussion. Thank you, Megan very much Megan. Are you filling in for Kent or.

H

um No, so um that RL from Kent could be asked to be held off just removed from the agenda he might revisit at the next work session. Okay,.

B

B

Okay, I'll remove that from the agenda at this time.

H

B

Thank you Megan. uh At this time, uh I'd ask Pat McGuinness, uh head of parks department to join us good evening Pat. How are you good? How about you good to see you um RL 23-45 modified the general fund and golf fund.

K

Yep 23.45 is to close out the 22 golf fund um to move some money around um for that to close out at the end of the year. uh The big reason: why is we never got the bar and restaurant going as expected? um Bardant open till very late in the season in the restaurant didn't open it all. So we're expecting to not see this next year with that being a hundred percent ready to go when the weather turns.

B

Thank you Pat any discussion, seeing none RL 23-54 and then the 2023 Parks budget floor is yours.

K

All right, 23 54- this is the first uh um three that you're gonna see today all related to title changes and salary changes based off of the 2000. The new um Blue Collar Teamster contract, which was signed after the budget process, was completed. Otherwise this would have all been done right there and then so. The first one is.

K

We have um nine labor positions right now, um as part of the budget or part of the contract process um agreed to change them to park. Technician positions: um it's a no change in salary on that, um but it tailors the entry-level Parks maintenance position from a labor which is kind of a General Construction general DPW work to a um you, know, parks and grounds specific title which are you can see that in the folder I left you um with the job descriptions, so that is the first one that would be effective. 318-23.

K

um It would, in effect, any of the people in the jobs um we're not taking anyone's job. It's a straight just title change for them.

B

Any questions on rl's, 23-54-55 and 56 again remember they all follow the same rationale with respect to I.

K

I can hit on 55 and 56.

B

Yeah I was going to say if you'd like to hit on a wall once because they again, they all follow the same.

K

Rest, absolutely um so 55 is modify one vacant Meo position to a tree, trimmer position and transform fundsness. This Meo position is one of two we currently have vacant. um We have three memos, such as motor equipment operator.

K

um The job description doesn't really fit any of the work we do in the parks department.

K

um So, as part of this, we are restructuring a bit um which you'll see on the next one we're going to have two tree Crews running, which will help alleviate, which I'm sure you all hear people always want the trees trimmed. So that will help us speed up that process. So this Meo would become a perimeter um and then we're using some of the money.

K

That's been sitting since this person retired to fund the difference in that salary, the last 123.56 it will take two full-time labor positions which we just talked about changing to park tax uh those are vacant, they become they become available in our budget on 4-1. That would take those two positions and one of them would become Forester.

K

The next would become a crew leader. The urban Forester will be heading up the two tree Crews that will be running working on tree work and the crew leader will be running the um newly created positions where we're taking care of the vacant owned properties and code violations that we're mowing. So they will be the effective leaders of those small Crews um after that or after these three um you know we're going to fill these guys are going to move around within our department and I'll be coming back to do a couple more changes.

K

Once these first uh title changes hit at the end of the day, we're going from 28 workers to 28 workers. It creates two new. It gets rid of two of the entry level positions and creates two more titles. So it will, you know, give our own in-house guys a chance to move up.

B

Think about any discussion.

K

It's kind of like a chess board right now, but.

F

Councilwoman Freeman.

G

Thank you, president karenji sir I was trying to formulate my what's your question in my head before I um raised my hand, so um again, I just want to make sure I'm I'm understanding this correctly, because it's confusing yes, um so the the MEO positions are being defunded in their entirety. Is that correct, correct.

K

But they are being refunded. um The first one that you're seeing today is being refunded as a tree trimmer. The next vacant Meo position, which you're not going to see in this session you'll see it once some of these. These ones we're doing today are filled that vacant memo will become a groundskeeper position, um which is a stables to do with the park Tech to labor it's the same rate, but it's a you know, parks and grounds um background and experience versus a public works background and experience.

G

Okay, so- and you said, that's not yet available to us.

K

That will become available once we get these positions sorted out and moved along um as we're expecting to fail internally, um like I can't post the positions till the internal ones open up for me,.

G

Right, okay, understood so the I noticed in RL 56, the part of the MEO salary is being used to um fund the new positions right: Urban, Forester and crew leader.

K

Yes, um sister vacant, um knowing all these changes were coming, I didn't hire those guys immediately. So we could get these changes done. So what we've been? What have been vacant position sitting, how we use the money or going forward? Okay.

G

And so then, the the rest of the funding are just um budget lines that have some extra in order to raise the hourly rate of the urban Forester and the crew leader from what it was. A laborer.

K

Yes and those are all um currently vacant positions, so they're using the money that hasn't been spent on the salary to on these salaries for upcoming, okay.

G

And so, with the exception of the MEO position, are you still trying to fill the other positions like the Animal control officer, for example, um first Deputy DPW, commissioner, so.

K

Those aren't Parks positions, um but I believe they are still trying to fill them um as they're using money up till 3-3, which is next week. So um obviously they haven't on boarded anyone yet, but they are still trying to fill those.

G

Okay, thank you for explaining that.

F

Thank you, councilman councilwoman, Robin,.

I

Thank you, council, president, hello, again Pat how.

A

Are you good how are.

I

You I know we tried to kind of clear some of this up before the meeting um and thank you to again to council member Friedman for and asking half of my question. However, if we look at the crew leader in urban Forester positions um with the salary increases, this is not enough to cover them for the year correct because it does say one at 56.

I

and one at 52.. So where will the remaining funds come from the.

K

Remaining funds won't be needed because they won't have effective start dates until 4 April 3rd 2023, if we're able to find them. Yes, okay, if this is approved, that would be what the difference is in the listed Sample versus what we're asking to transfer. Okay.

I

B

Thank you any other discussion Pat. Thank you very much. Yeah this time, I will ask from the mayor's office Sarah close to join us for RL 23-50. uh That is the wrong one. Economic Development.

A

Might be nice, but I can read.

B

Economic Development Sarah. Thank you again. Wherever.

C

You tell me to Gio.

B

No, no, no! That's strike two on me tonight. My apologies, more is yours, ma'am I'm, so sorry.

C

C

Approved to approve the purchase of 72 Port Street back to the city from division, 72 llc. At that time we did not put the where the money was actually coming from in that RL. This is just correcting that adding the funding line that the money will actually come from um we're requesting to expedite this, because they're looking to close this Friday, the city will get side control of that parcel back. We just have to have time to cut the check with this new funding line.

F

Excellent. Thank you, sir. Any discussion.

B

Seeing none Sarah. Thank you very much. Thank.

A

You much appreciated.

B

I stumbled on my words because I was trying to say Sarah's from Economic Development I'm. Sorry, um that being said, uh I will ask uh Billy Goodson from the Binghamton Johnson City sewage treatment plant to join us for respective RLS Billy good evening. How are you I'm good? How are you thank you for joining us Billy before you start uh uh two of these RLS I believe from what I'm reading are reflective of 2022.

M

Yeah, the first two are for 20.

B

So they're, okay, so colleagues for everyone on Council, um please be cognizant uh that rl's, 23-48 and 49 have been requested to be expedited because they are related to the 2022 budget so because of closeout purposes. I'm I'm going to allow that so Billy the floor is yours.

M

Thank you. The first one is for an increase to the water line to um pay the city of Binghamton water bill that we received in January to cover. We just finished negotiating with Vestal, and this was the money that was still owed to Binghamton, which put us over budget for this year, so requesting 3568 67 for the water line to be taken from the contingency line.

B

Thank you, Alexander.

F

Discussion, councilwoman Friedman.

G

Thank you, president cringy hi Billy. How are you good? How are you good um so when, when you say that we finish negotiating with Vestal, is that for the future as well, or is that only retroactive for 2022.

M

Going forward we'll be paying basketball instead of City Abington Okay.

G

So what where I'm going with this is that um this was over budget, because we hadn't finished the negotiations, but looking forward, we have a contract in place, and so we probably won't see no need to see okay anymore. All right great. Thank you. You're welcome.

B

Any other discussion, RL 23-49, amend the sewage treatment plan budget for excess budget.

A

Towards yours, bill.

M

Chuck shager comptroller uh physical officer for the treatment plant.

M

Let me know that we were over budget on the reimbursement, Village local systems, cost line and uh requested that it be taken from the reimbursed Village debt Services payment line in the amount of 117 745.38 cents. Thank.

B

You Billy any discussion.

B

Seeing none RL 23-50 amend the sewage treatment budget for lump sum payments Billy. Oh my apologies.

A

G

No, no you're, okay, again delayed processing. My question in my head um so to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. This means that we are essentially receiving a hundred and seventeen thousand or we were. We need to take that away or I'm.

A

G

I'm again I'm processing out loud right, so the we were over budget in estimating the amount that we would get reimbursed. Is that correct, correct? Okay? So this is a a budget decrease of a hundred and seventeen thousand right. We need to find that money in from the budget line from.

M

The okay, it's being taken from the reimbursed Village Debt Service payments line; okay and put on the Ramblers Village local systems, cost line. Okay,.

G

So these are both budget lines having to do with reimbursement and we're just shuffling around.

M

Those yeah, so we can end up we're just trying to clean up the budgets for all the lines in 2022, and this one was was one of.

G

Them, okay, so it's.

G

It's all reimbursement, it's just going to the wrong. It currently is budgeted to the wrong place, and so we're we're moving it to the correct budget line. But.

M

It's a I believe it's an expense in it and uh um Revenue, so we're moving them back and forth that we had the money on the one line, we're moving it over to the other one.

G

I, just I want to make sure that I'm understanding where the money is going. Okay, the two the double reimbursement lines- was what tripped me up: yeah. Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

F

Thank you any other discussion, Council warmer up.

I

You again, council president, how are you.

M

Miss Goodson I'm good.

I

um Mine is not really related to this, but I, don't know if you recall, your name was brought up in in a meeting a time or two about um the DPW and audit and the like. Do you remember? Did you hear.

M

um Is this, what is what's it.

I

What they were, they were saying you were responsible for the parts area.

M

I

Yes, okay, so and I can I I can always let you well I'm letting you know that I have some questions: okay and, if you're not able to answer them tonight, that's fine, but I you left before they they pulled up your name and Billy was the one there.

M

I

Of the years yes, and so during your tenure, did you audit the Parts Warehouse the parts department annually? Do you recall doing so.

M

When I moved into the.

A

Purchasing position.

M

B

I made councilwoman, Riley and I appreciate the question: can we can we just keep yeah yeah? Can we just keep the discussion germane to the rl's, a question right now and then Circle back to that? If that's okay, okay, just to get that out of the way um but I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, councilman um any other discussion as it relates to RL 23-49.

B

Anything at all. Again, just general reminder: Dash, 48 and dash 49 for 2022 budget purposes will be expedited uh debt 23-50 and then the budget for lump sum payouts Billy the floor is yours.

M

Okay, um as part of the csca contract um employees, who are members of the the csca hourly employees, um negotiated a 2.5 increase into uh further salary and there's also um a CPI increase for anything above the 2.5 percent.

M

We didn't receive the CPI final numbers until mid-January, so we have to um do a lump sum payment for 2022 in the amount of 11 127 dollars, um which will be taken out from of contingency import towards uh hourly at State retirement and Social Security.

M

Then Greece was a 0.57 percent increase.

B

Thank you, Billy Council, any discussion seeing none move on to 23-51, Amendment sewage treatment, budget for salary adjustments. Billy the floor is yours.

M

This is also related to the CPI increase. When we did the budget, it was at 2.5 percent, so we're we're requesting the increase of the 0.57 percent for the.

B

Those two I think are just companionless.

B

uh Any discussion as it relates to 23-51.

B

Anything at all uh Billy, do you mind Fielding a quick question rally: go ahead.

I

Again for that I forgot about those two pieces of legislation, I thought we were letting Billy go again.

E

I

Can't let you go ever now now that we need you have so much information, but yes, um I'm sure you heard that you were brought up and yes so can you share any information about that process and what was done during your tenure.

M

uh When I started in the purchasing department, I requested a part-time employee to come in and um audit the inventory and get it um so that it was what was in our inventory, reflected what was in uh what's called cartograph.

M

um There were some discrepancies.

I

And just how far back your tenure? How far back, were you in this this bro about.

M

Two and a half years ago, oh.

I

Two and a half yeah.

M

I

Yeah, okay, okay, so there were issues two and a half years ago.

M

When I started.

I

Yeah, okay, yeah all right! Well, thank you for clarifying.

J

I

You were a part of that annual audit or the part-timer did that alone. One.

M

Yes, she she went in and actually did the counts of everything that was in the store room and compared it to what was in cartograph. Okay,.

I

And she did that once during your tenure, she.

M

Did but she maintained it afterwards, she's no longer with the Central garage that that position was eliminated. Okay, thank you.

I

You're welcome for.

M

Answering sure is that it.

B

Thank you, Billy.

M

You're awesome.

B

um Council, does anyone have a paper RL for 23-46.

B

Anybody have that on hand.

B

Okay, I didn't think so. I just want to double check.

B

Okay, so uh let's move forward with the agenda.

B

So if you will uh kindly turn to the last two pages of your packet uh coming on to the very last two pages, with some of the points that I had mentioned at the last business meeting, so I'd like to present you all with the uh template of the new uh RL form, so the reality of it is is We've Ended in We've Ended up. Forgive me in a situation for a number of years, where uh quite honestly, any number of variables that extend from.

B

Attachments to an RL are not received. An insufficient amount of information is not received, as it relates to a particular URL, nothing malicious, but just lost through if you will the operational process. So the goal here is to attempt to centralize on one form, all of the relevant and pertinent information that we need in order to review requests for legislation.

B

uh Some examples would be more specifically pointing out um not just proposed titles, but who the presenter will be uh streamlining the signature process, particularly when there are budget transfers that occur, whether it's the city receiving a new Grant or we, we move or transfer n dollars from budget line X to budget line Y. We often tend to get into situations where a lot of that information can get lost, and so by centralizing this and getting it all into one form.

B

It will allow us to be able to get our agendas out more efficiently.

A

Everything: okay, no you're; okay, no you're.

B

Fine yeah yeah two of the titles on the last one they're very similar to each other yeah. So.

J

I thought it was a duplicate.

B

By noon tomorrow, you will have electronic copies of this and all of your email inboxes, but what I wanted to do was uh give you a heads up that again. uh I had a good conversation with mayor Krim about this uh working with both uh our Clerk and Deputy Clerk, to make sure we're streaming streamlining the process for them, because they really do uh they really go above and beyond, as it relates to getting these agendas ready for us. I think one of the major issues is is again: it's not finger pointing but I think.

B

Sometimes we just get in a situation where uh it can be very easily forgotten that the clerk's office, for all intents and purposes, is really an aggregator of information, at least as it relates to agendas more than anything else. So if we can streamline that uh it allows that to move more efficiently in their office, which means getting the agenda to us earlier, which also means it's time as a function of time. It's more available for public consumption, which I think we all agree is a good idea.

B

So I wanted to present this to all of you and offer you the opportunity for any input. I do recognize. You may want to take some time and look at this, especially with an electronic copy that again, you will get tomorrow in PDF form, but again, I wanted to be transparent. I wanted to be open and upfront and Progressive and get this uh final-ish draft to you to let you know that again, uh working with multiple agencies and departments within City Hall, listening to all of you and taking in your input.

B

Any questions comments, concern discussion.

F

Councilman, what.

I

Is the timeline by which you want feedback on this document?.

B

I would say within a week to to be to be very blunt: I'd actually like to go live with this by beginning of March at the beginning of March next meeting, sorry, tomorrow's March 1st.

I

Wednesday yeah.

B

Two days it's been a little bit of a busy day, Sorry.

I

So, just for my clarification, please why the signature knit the theory on this document. Why was that added so.

B

Corp Council can add a little bit to this as well so they're from a.

B

It's a it's a technicality and I I guess the best way I can answer that question is by illustrating it with an example.

B

So, generally speaking, legislative bodies work through a committee structure right, so we have six standing committees, anything ad hoc that we might create and then anything that might be Salient to something that we appoint, whether it be bltc traffic board.

B

Anything like that due to generally speaking- and this is very common amongst municipalities due to the size of our body- we generally tend to operate with what in legislative government is referred to as a committee of the whole, so um the signatures and again or Council can add anything that might be legally there, as it relates to the city, Charter and stuff like that.

B

But uh in part the mayor's signature of the Comptroller signature and the court council's uh Corporation Council signature is there to kind of move things along comptroller, particularly because most things have some.

I

Not at the bottom, because all the time it now happens.

B

Oh you're, talking about at the top my apologies.

I

You had before I'm not going to question yeah.

B

No questioning.

I

Revisions and why so.

B

That signature.

I

At the top is what I'm inquiring.

B

Yeah, no, that's just literally a print name, signature. Nothing else.

I

It's print name at the top, then a signature.

B

Ideally, ideally I I'm, just gonna share this. My I, ideally I want to move this completely 100 electronic that that's, ideally what I want. My my goal is in working with all my colleagues is to institutionalize that process by the end of the year.

I

So there is no legal precedent or a need for a signature, because we've not had a signature by the author in.

B

The past right right, yeah, um so there's two things with that number one is again just the traditional kind of dynamic of just print name signature, but also I want to make sure that, because another issue that we've come up with from an operational perspective is that we operate on the assumption that when we receive the agenda person a is presenting and then something happens, and sometimes that moves to person B and can be at the last minute. So I want to make sure all of that stuff gets solidified.

I

So then the author of The RL can be different from the applicant presenting RL. So then we would need two different areas for then the authorship versus the presentation sure you could do that.

I

Is that is a significant change and I know when we're submitting rl's I've never needed my signature, but, of course the mayor comptroller for anything.

A

I

Right, that's that's expected, although there may be some confusion as to the term Administration. That's now in that header compared to City Hall offices within because Administration is something different, but we can talk about that outline sure again. I wanted to again highlight this new header that talks about the presenter versus the author and the need for a signature, correct.

F

I

Really nothing that requires such you're just adding it.

B

Yeah I just think it's transparency, accountability, but.

I

If some, if they're doing it in my absence, they would not have had time to sign it because it may have been an emergent change, so it's really. What we care about is the signature of the author, yeah.

B

This yeah that that completely makes sense and and again once hopefully when we move things and get it electronic that doesn't even become a problem at that point. But yes, it's a totally valid point taken. Okay, thank you. Anyone else, councilwoman Freeman.

G

um Thank you, president smirnji. So this is me being particular please, um but I have an aesthetic um critique, Aesthetics.

B

G

Some of the heading on the request for transfer sheet, some of the column headings are centered, and some of them are left Justified and I think it would look better if all of them were one or the.

B

Other yeah no I see that yeah budget yeah. So, for example, on the left hand, side budget line is Center aligned, but on the right hand, side of the form budget line. Title is left aligned. Yes, so yeah.

G

Same thing with with the bottom, so.

B

On the bottom, yes, I see that you're right, yeah, absolutely Center it up. Thank.

A

I

A

B

I

Back to the first page,.

B

I

An eight it's typically seqr I believe.

B

Councilwoman, forgive me again, can you say where you're looking at I apologize.

I

Down towards right above the office use only box. Yes,.

A

I

Secret required there's an a there. Are we amending all of our language to reflect this change? It.

D

This is a way a lawyer would spell it it's s-e-q-r-a, it's the State, Environmental Quality review act so.

I

We're going to see that moving forward on every document, as opposed.

D

To what we see don't have to, but it's not improperative, either people will recognize seqr or scqra I've seen I've seen people use it.

I

For employees right but for consistency, since we can put.

D

A in most places, okay,.

A

I

A

B

Else see nothing Madam clerk, any pending legislation, review release.

C

um All right, so we have 18 on the pending and then four that were expedited, and then we just have the public hearing for the zoning of the stadium, District.

B

Thank you, madam clerk Council. Any discussion or questions for the clerk's office as it relates to pending legislation.

A

Anything at all.

B

Once going twice seeing, none I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

E