City of Binghamton, NY Community Development Advisory Committee, 18 Jan 2023

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From YouTube: CDAC Department Presentations 2023.01.18

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CONTENTS
0:00:00 Call to Order
0:04:00 Police
0:22:35 Code Enforcement
1:09:00 CDGB Administration

A

Okay good evening it is Wednesday January, 18th 2023. It is 6, 18 p.m, and we will now open the meeting for the cdac beginning with our um attendance, starting with John.

B

A mayoral appointee.

C

Brandy Brown district, three.

D

Justin McGregor secretary District Seven.

E

Kenya Middleton by Vice, chair mayor Point, mayor appointee, Marianne.

A

Callahan First District.

F

Michelle O'loughlin Fifth District.

A

Thank you, we have a quorum, so we can look at the minutes and approve are.

G

E

G

E

A

Okay, two more members have just joined us. Ladies.

F

Maryland Austin District Six.

E

Am I tracking you over there mine.

E

E

Don't Put It Down, cecconi Dawn.

A

District Six, what up Don put it down? I'm sorry, put it down a little put it down closer to you. Yeah then we'll hear you.

F

E

F

A

I mean District 8.

E

I'm, like already thank you.

A

Don can you for, for the sake of the record Don, can you do that again.

E

Dawn cecconi District.

A

Two. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay,.

G

A

So we will move on to the minutes. Does anyone have any changes? Yes, Mr secretary.

D

So I had uh sent an email to Stephen and it didn't get to him. uh It was left in drafts in my phone because my passwords aren't right. I changed my password at the beginning of the year and it wasn't right in my phone, so the email didn't send um for outgoing mail. uh I had questioned about the minutes in regards to the elections.

D

If we wanted to put in the contested part of uh the vice chair, the nominations and stuff and that Vote or if we just want to leave it as it currently is on the officer elections who was elected and who they were nominated by, and that is up I'm asking that as the secretary to the members.

A

Any thoughts I.

F

Think you can just leave it the way it is.

D

Okay, then there we go I submit these minutes. Thank.

A

You, okay, so he submitted. Is there a motion to approve them? I'll make a motion to approve and a second for that.

B

Second, okay,.

A

All in favor say aye aye aye all opposed. Thank you. Okay,.

A

Department presentations- and we are very fortunate because the first one on our list is the police department and we happen to have Captain Bidwell here.

E

H

E

H

Thank you for having me.

I

Just fire away, um or is this a question and answer well.

A

Actually, if you could just give especially for our new members, can you give them a little overview of the program that you are requesting? The funding for absolutely.

I

So, uh like I said, my name is Davido I'm a captain with the Binghamton Police Department I am in charge of crime prevention. I. Do our grants. I also am in charge of the Southern Care crime analysis Center for DCJS in New, York State. uh So one of the programs we do is we do foot and bike overtime, Patrol uh using overtime funds from cbdg to put officers on foot and bike to have interaction with community members and then the other thing we've been for a couple years now is trying to restart.

I

Is uh the civilian police academy which we've done previously years ago before I was in my current role and something I'd like to reprise? So what that is is people you know, community members who would want to learn more about the police department they would, it would be, they usually run eight to ten weeks. We would bring those members into the police department once a week.

I

We would have a class for about three hours where we bring different department heads different Police, Department or different agencies within the Binghamton Police Department, so communion members get to do it like a meet and greet and they get to learn who the police officers are and then learn to different uh different units. The different people that we have working here.

A

F

A

Yeah, um can you tell us how much you are requesting twenty thousand dollars and that would be for both programs all.

I

Three, so yeah. If uh we would be able to do all three programs for.

A

The community policing, yep The Academy.

I

Full Patrol bike, Patrol and then the civilian.

A

Police academy, Patrol and bike Patrol, we kind of want them.

I

A

That's okay. um Are there any questions.

E

G

E

um I know last year, um one of the things was: are the funds used like? Do you guys definitely use the fund like if it if it was awarded to you, do you use it.

I

Yeah, so we've been working off previous years, covet really kind of uh put a stop on a lot of things for us on top of the fact that Manpower, wise we're so short I, mean um I, think we're on the books for 150 or 153 and I think currently we're staffed at 120. and then, furthermore, like for 2022, don't quote me on the exact number but I want to say it's been somewhere around 175 to 190 mandatory forced overtimes.

I

So it's been tough trying to get officers to want to work overtime, but it definitely picked up throughout the year and so much so that we actually had to run a bike school so believe this or not. You have to have a 40-hour school to have officers, learn to ride a bike as crazy as it sounds, but yeah. So we ended up having I think seven or eight additional officers get certified to ride a bike. So then they started picking up the overtime.

I

So, as the year went on once we ran that additional School officers started picking that up and then, when they didn't uh I would try to to fill in some spots and had I actually had the cops called on me a couple times over for myself. Yes,.

A

He did, and I was one of them, which only shows that you have made it very clear that we are very participatory in our in our community and that we can rely on our police yeah.

I

It's uh it's an so for me. Another program so like with those I equate it to like step 10. so with September. It gets us in the community in a non-confrontational way. So it's just people talking to people and I think it's. It only benefits everybody based.

A

On that, can you give us a little bit of a rundown on how the foot and bike patrols actually do work and yeah.

I

So we haven't allowed an allowable area map, so we go off that and then what I will do is I will run a crime analysis to see maybe where more crime is, and we will try to dedicate foot and bike patrols of that area. But we'll also do is we'll take like commute like so we've had several uh people reach out and like hey, we would love to see foot and bike Patrols in our neighborhood, so when possible, if they're in the allowable area, we definitely try to accommodate and.

A

The purpose of the bikes and the and the foot patrols are to give people an opportunity to actually see and talk to their police. It's not necessarily A threatening kind of thing.

I

100 Community interaction so and most people interact with police officers. You know they see them because they're on a call or it's a vehicle and traffic stop or it's a car accident. This just gives us a chance to just have a normal conversation without there being anything behind it. It.

A

Also gives the officers and greater insights into the neighborhoods that are maybe experiencing more problems and.

I

Then I think yes and then, on top of that it just it gives the community they could put a name and face to who they see.

A

Also in the um the school, how do people come to that I mean? How do you sign up so.

I

This would be my first one that I ran uh previous years. They would just put out they would City website or the police Facebook page. They would seek anybody interested. So we've run it two ways. We run it for community members and then we also ran one for uh like youth engagement. So we went into the schools like the big. We went to Binghamton High School, and then we also reached out to I think BCC for any City residents if they were interested in being a cop or learning more about law enforcement.

I

The police department itself, so we would definitely have to come up with a way to I, would probably lean on council members for the certain districts that were allowable. If there was certain people they thought would like to come, and then we would also just put it out. Maybe I would reach out to the news organizations and try to get sign. Ups that way. Yeah Randy.

C

What makes the neighborhood allowable like what.

I

So the the formula that makes it allowable that I don't know I just know: I have a map, that's got a certain area in it and that's the map. I have to stay in.

H

I I can actually address that if you want yes, okay, so or um a service area project with cdbg funds- and this applies to any program that is, that is categorized as a service area project.

H

At least uh 51 of the residents must be low income and um the other thing is that it must be what is considered primarily resident or it's what's residential, so it should be a residential, low income area.

H

So the issue is that the police patrol routes are very large, so they Encompass not just residential zones but also commercial and industrial areas as well. So what we ended up doing was we ran it through GIS. We basically said for your percentage, low income, multiplied by your percentage of area, that's residential. If that's 51 percent, we will qualify it and at the end of the day we came up with three zones. If you want to talk about those specific zones.

I

Yeah, so the three zones are going to be what so our car posts we have two car posts on the South Side 204 203. So 204 is one of the posts, that's allowable, so it's going to be everything from Mill, Street East to the City Line and then, when you look at uh our car post, two 202 and 209, so it's going to be your West Side from the river to Laura, lab Main, Street to Riverside Drive and that encompasses both 202 and 209's post.

C

What about Noma so.

I

Yes, that would fall into the area, so north of Maine is also so all that will extend to the train tracks from Maine to the train track, so north of Maine would definitely be included. Okay,.

C

I'm asking because I'm a resident there yep I do not drive and I, don't see, cops walking around or on bikes. And yes,.

I

So I could tell you that last year, that 209 post was definitely one of the areas that we did foot and bike patrols, but I could also tell you that foot and bike patrols are it's a limited amount of money, so you, unless it's a beautiful day and I, was able to find somebody to come in and do the overtime which it got better as the summer went on towards yet, but at the beginning of the summer our individuals that were who were able to write as silliest sounds were able to ride a bike uh either their shifts that they work it didn't work out for when so the chief will say.

I

Okay, we could do foot and bike Patrols four to ten at that point in time, all our officers that were eligible to ride bikes actually worked the afternoon shift. So then we had to re-change it. We had to certify some new people and then once that happened, we were able to get some out. Okay,.

C

um I mean I I'm sure you know that we have additional uh housing being built and we're going to have more neighbors and yeah.

I

So it is one of the three so when, when it does, when the when the the nicer weather comes, you will see putting bike patrols over there. Thank.

A

You you're very welcome Captain Pitbull. Would you would? Would you say that you know uh piggybacking on what Brandy's talking about it's a great program, but it lacks funding and it also you you're, having a problem being understaffed, so these two contribute very greatly to what you can do, even if we are to give you this money right, 100.

I

So Staffing is a big it's one of the most important issues that we've faced for the last couple years is so like I, said: I think we're at one I think we're staffed for 153, but I know that as it stands right now, I think we're 25 officers short uh for patrol shifts, but there are still so as long as the hours are flexible and the funding is, there I think you're going to see officers that are going to pick it up.

A

So hopefully this is a program that can grow John.

B

Hello, how are you good, I I, have a question about uh I understand that I in your current role, you haven't been part of the Citizen Police Academy. What has uh the enrollment been in the past.

I

I, looked at the previous couple classes, I would say the classes were anywhere between 30 and 45 and and when how long ago was that the last one I believe that was run was 2016.. Okay,.

B

Now, given given the the classes, I mean, are you going to be able to staff those classes with uh the Staffing Porters that you have.

I

Yeah so uh I oversee a couple departments and then so I I would just force people to come in for for that portion. So I could tell you that for something like that, uh so you one week, you're gonna get SWAT team, so the SWAT guys are going to come in there's, never an issue fill in that kind of overtime and then you'll get detectives so detectives. We actually have overlapping detective ships, so we could pull them off the afternoon. Crime prevention are is my unit, so crime analysis is also my unit. Grant.

I

Writing is also my so I'll I would see to it, though, but that's um that's one of those things where it's it's a very enjoyable overtime, because it's just it's a nice, easy environment, it's great interaction and everybody, it Smiles sure and good conversation. No.

B

No, that that affects those you know 30 40 people who choose to go, go in there and learn more about the police department. It also affects I, guess the people at high schools or BCC who are exploring yep and helps you guys with recruitment. How does it help the greater City to have a Citizen, Police Academy, so.

I

I think on a on a city level, I think it just gives the city residents a better understanding of what the police department is, what they do and who the members are, especially for the the residents that get to it 10. and so we've been trying to fund it. For years, I've written doj grants I've written DCJS grants trying to get a sustainable, 11 or funding level. So we could run multiple classes a year, just keep it going.

I

So where you run a class every three years, you have all these people who put in for it and want to attend it. But then we just don't have the funding to keep it going. Foreign.

H

I just have one because I have to kind of be here to like Wrangle everything make sure it fits in the cdbg and eligible box, so for the police academy to be funded under cdbg funds that usually needs to be a client, a low low income, client based or low-income service area. Based for it to be service area based. You would either need to do the academy in that service area or somehow Target that area with sort of invitations to the police academy.

H

I've tried this with HUD saying this whole City's LMI, and it is, but they said no so, for example, the way I do the police or sorry the police. The um the Rangers program, I split the city into two segments. Both segments are low income yep, regardless of, however, you do that you would still have to do one or the other. The other option is for people that that come in they might fill a form out.

H

I, don't know if you do that already for the Academy they can just put their address, and then it could be a little affidavit statement out. Underneath that says, I am or I am not below this level of income, and then they just sign off on that with potential risk of fraud if they're lying. But it's it's not a big deal, but it's like it's. You have to be creative in that, so I don't know which works better for you, I, don't know if you do them here or if you do them on site.

H

So that's kind of the thing, because it's it's not that they live in a low income area unless you're doing it as a service area right. It's that they're they're low income or you are doing that service, Force particular area yep. So.

I

I definitely think before. If the funding was approved, I think we would sit down and figure out what would be the best route, because I think we would want to host it here. So we I mean we we do the tours here. We could take them around. We could show them the equipment. We could take them into the indoor range uh we could show them all. The everybody was.

H

Never been in the range everybody wanted to.

I

Swat, cars and all the cool equipment, like with the big flashing lights and all the guns that go bang but uh like the center in itself, is another one where so a lot of people don't know this, but in Binghamton Binghamton has one of 10 crime analysis centers in New, York state.

I

You have Binghamton Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany, Rochester, Malone, Long Island, and is that done and we're open in 11th in New, York city, so I think Binghamton is very fortunate to have something that very few other areas in New York state have which brings funding along with it, but not only that it it's 21st century policing, so we could analyze crime trends for the police department. We could tell we we built dashboards for supervisors, so they can see okay well in the last three weeks. Where have the burglaries occurred? What times have they occurred?

I

What car posts were they occurring? So the police department can allocate resources to where the crime needs to go so I I just think. That's a neat portion to bring people in so they can see these kinds of things. Foreign.

A

It actually sounds like something you could piggyback onto and go into neighborhoods like the Nova and and actually recruit people. So it sounds like something that we can actually build on. Yeah.

I

So I I go to Every community meeting that I'm ever invited to as I mean, as you know, yes uh and I just started so like the East Side just started up a neighborhood assembly, so South Side I've been to so I'll come anywhere. This.

A

Is good to know.

I

If you bake cookies- and you have snacks- makes it even easier, but.

G

C

Do you have a card I absolutely do yes,.

F

E

A

Question: okay,.

F

A

F

I'm, sorry: okay, go ahead, um so you these last eight to ten weeks. So do you do it just one time a year or are they? You know concurrent session so.

I

For for this, for this funding year, we would plan on one time but say the over the bike and walk in overtime say we weren't able to use all that up, and there was enough left over to do a second civilian police account. Then I would do a second one to use up the funding.

E

I

Many bikes do you have I think right now we have eight likes. We did just buy. uh The mayor bought three new ones last summer, so we definitely have. Do you need more bikes? Is that I think we're good on bikes because there's the chance of actually putting eight people out for a thing we usually try to keep. We always offer it in twos, so they could ride together. uh So I think as of right now, I think we're we're good in the bikes.

A

Any other questions Deb you you've come in. Do you have a question for Captain Bidwell.

J

Getting funding for the Academy we've been working on this for quite some time. um It's a phenomenal program and I would encourage the members of this commission to go it's great and by having it here and also having the residents of the various um Elder senior um communities also helps us qualify Steve for that as well.

A

Great any other questions. Thank you. Captain thank.

I

You thank you. Everybody.

A

And thank you for your service and tell everybody in the police department. We said thanks too.

E

Thank you. Take.

A

Care and I promise not to call the cops on you anymore.

A

There was this car in my neighborhood and I called, and it was him.

G

I think important.

A

Yeah I mean you know, I didn't know who it was and it was in a suspicious part of our neighborhood, so I called and then the policeman called me back and said. Captain did well says to say hi. They have a sense of humor, at least um let the record Deb. Do you want to do you.

J

Wanna Deborah Hogan Merrill appointee. Thank you, chair Deb,.

A

Is now with us, and our next presenter is from the code enforcement department.

K

Good evening, everyone and.

A

Good evening, thanks.

K

For having me I, don't know if you uh had a chance to review the date, I did poured some to to Mr Carson.

A

um For the new members here, sir, could you identify yours? Could you give us your name so.

K

That everybody knows who you are yeah.

K

My name is Christopher schleiter I'm, the director of Building Construction and code enforcement, and um each year I, uh you know complete a uh a program questionnaire, describing the The Code Enforcement office and then do some year-over-year data collection just to keep you up to date uh um where we are and what kind of status we're in as far as providing services in the code enforcement area so did share with Mr Carson some year-over-year data, uh reflecting the amount of work, the code inspectors are doing and the number of complaints that come into the office and try to quantify that in a way, that's meaningful, um looks like you all, have a copy of the questionnaire, but the data sheet that I had looked more like this and it's it's just raw numbers.

K

H

I do apologize, I thought that was just for the salaries I didn't realize. You were doing that for this. Let's.

K

Get ready to run salaries, it's really it's! It's just a cheat sheet for me, but you know if you're curious, we're um you know we're up. uh The number of complaints or requests per service that come into the office is up 20 this year, uh 20 between 21 and 2022., um and since 2020 we're up 70 percent 70..

K

We have 70 more complaints in 2022 than we did in 2021., so um you're very.

G

K

You know when we, when we look at you know how much work each inspector uh is doing on a daily basis, they're um averaging about 10 inspections per day per inspector uh last year. It was uh almost eight, so you know they're doing a lot more with the same amount of resources that we had in 2020.

K

So we're uh you know putting our nose to the grindstone trying to keep things going and uh you know try to keep people from being exposed to hazardous conditions and um making sure that either repairs are made or those individuals are made aware of the Hazardous conditions so that they can relocate and go to safer housing.

E

C

Is is a Code Enforcement only for like, like private housing,.

K

K

um As opposed to like.

C

um Not not like I mean like like: do you do commercial properties as well, or do you just do like where people live.

K

The fire safety inspection program for commercial properties is handled by the fire department unless it's residential, so we consider a large apartment complex depending on who's, defining it commercial and we do do inspections there. We do inspections for Binghamton, Housing, Authority, um Metro faith. We do inspections at Town and Country. Those are large commercial operations, but there are residential units. We do not do inspections at like dicks or biggie tires, or you know,.

C

um So if, if you do an inspection right in the the places like it needs this and that or whatever you guys can identify that right exactly.

K

C

And can you refer the landlords or whoever to like where they can get like services or help to to improve their properties? No.

K

We don't do that.

C

Do you does anybody.

K

We have a housing safety specialist in the planning, department or housing department. However I don't know the program isn't really geared towards landlords, it's more geared towards tenants and the resources available to them should they have to relocate.

C

E

Thank you, yeah, that's I, just had a question so say: if you came out or someone came out to look at a property and you find that it, you know, there's issues at the property. Do you give landlords a certain time to fix it? Yes,.

K

That that's exactly right. We, a a typical um service, would either come in the form of observations made in the field. While patrolling or a specific call that came in uh requiring you know requesting us to take a look at a problem, so it could be a neighbor or a tenant. uh We go out in the field we make observations, determine whether or not it is indeed a code violation, and if it is, we notify the responsible parties in writing.

K

They're, given uh an amount of time to remedy or correct the violation.

K

If that amount of time lapses without Corrections being made, then we have to reevaluate the situation if it's not life safety hazard, if it's a new roof, but we told them about it in January will be reasonable and we'll give them more time, but if it's um a lack of utilities or heat or something that is vital to somebody's safety and well-being, there's no option for giving them more time.

K

At that point, we have to notify the tenants that the conditions they're in are unsafe and we have to you know: let them know that they need to relocate so that they can have safer living conditions.

K

So it's not really a program designed to um invest in neighborhoods or invest in Properties or show people where to get resources to make investments. It's really a stop gap between having some problems that could be fixed and do get fixed or having problems that have gotten so out of control that hazardous conditions were created, and so we just try to stop. uh You know people from being exposed to conditions that could have a very serious impact on their their health, their life, their safety.

A

Do you attribute a lot of the increase in your activity to the fact that our housing stock is aging.

K

I actually think that it had a lot to do with covid. There are very few calls in in 2020., so the numbers are actually returning to pre-covered numbers, um the Aging housing stock. It's you know over two years, isn't really aged. You know a significant amount compared to I mean it's the.

A

House I didn't necessarily mean over the two years. I meant over a period.

K

Of time absolutely have an aging housing stock and um yeah there's been a lot of investment in the properties. There's been a lot of Reinventing the way that the properties are used. We see a lot of rental units now, whereas before we might have seen um more family-based occupancy, but that's that's just the nature, not of just the housing stock, but of the way that we live as Americans.

K

It's very seldom that you find Mom and Dad living downstairs and their son and his new wife living upstairs and sharing a duplex on the West Side, the way they did in the 50s or 60s.

K

That's just not how we function culturally, so that, combined with you, know the the burden of taxes and utilities, and things like that have caused a lot of people to take those two family homes that were once occupied by extended family and turned those into strictly rental units as a way of generating enough income to keep up with the maintenance and also of operating that home.

K

Sometimes the you know the home doesn't bring in enough income and the maintenance is lacking and that's where we get into situations where people are living in conditions that great hazards.

K

So that's the code enforcement office for the Stop gap between not so great and dangerous.

A

And that includes absentee landlords as well.

K

Yeah, it's that's a funny term, because we don't um find that data to support that I know. That's that's a thing.

A

You should come to my neighborhood, sir. We have absentee landlords who live in Florida and New Jersey. Oh.

K

Absolutely yeah: we have.

A

They are buying those duplexes. You just talked about yeah.

K

And there are a lot that are right here in Bingham.

A

Do they comply.

K

That depends some. Do some don't do.

A

You feel you have enough um tools. Do you have a mechanism that um makes compliance a necessity? Do you do because these things go to court? Don't they.

K

A

K

New York State unified court system- that's not us once it leaves our office and goes to court, it's outside of my authority to tell them what to do or how to do.

G

D

How do we sorry go ahead? Debra.

J

If you just and I go to you, okay.

D

um I, how do we know if we have filed a complaint that it's been at least looked at.

K

We don't ever refuse service, because if you filed a complaint that we were absolutely sure was just dreamed up and imagined, we still go and look at it and either determine that. That's the case that the grass isn't really three feet: high, it's 12 inches.

H

K

Or we go and we find that it is three feet high, but we never ever say no to a complaint. I.

D

Filed a complaint um probably of February of last year, yeah about the neighbor's house, where the basement wall was collapsing in off the sidewalk and you can look right down in and that there's a two-story porch above it with six kids in the house and they're now holding the porch up. The tenants have actually just used styrofoam from TV boxes, got at Christmas they've propped it underneath it that's. What's holding up the porch right now and I'm I, just don't know how that passes code well,.

K

You see, but it doesn't and that's my whole point is code- doesn't have a mechanism to pin somebody's arm behind their back and make them do anything. We observe whether or not there's a violation, and if there is, we notify the proper parties. If those parties fail to whether inadvertently or intentionally bring the property into compliance, then it goes to court or the property could get condemned. Unfortunately, what we're seeing now is, despite the fact that we've declared an unfit for habitation and condemns the property. People continue to dwell there and so yeah.

K

That's you know, the choice is when you have a code, violation is fix, it go to court or we can condemn the property, but there there is no mechanism for us to go over there and make the repairs right.

D

Okay, business houses 14 feet from me and I every day, I drive up my driveway now I'm just afraid that that that two-story porch is going to fall off the side of that house.

K

Like it's gotten worse than when you first reported, oh yeah and you're more than welcome to you know, call back and say you know: I really think that this has gotten worse. It's not it's no longer at a level where it could sit on the court docket for six months. It needs immediate attention. I mean if it's that bad, we'll have dpd.

D

Otherwise, there's only one entrance or exit to one of the apartments in.

K

It yeah, you only need one in most cases.

D

Oh, you do okay,.

K

A

Yeah, did you have a question.

J

Hi Chris, hey Doug, a few questions for you in the past and please correct me. If I'm wrong, um your office has been a complaint driven versus like a targeted initiative. Is that still the it's? It's about evaporation.

K

It's about 60 66 33, so there are um 2500 uh complaints last year, but there were 1300 cases that were initiated by the officer being proactive rather than reactive,.

J

Okay, that helps one of the concerns I have because I um assisted a senior is that the programs that they qualify, for example through first word, Action Council, has been a waiting list. Part of it was due to covid and had applied for the grant um and it was able to get into the system and filed, but somehow it was cited.

J

um The other concern I had is that the mayor this summer had announced that there were programs and I'd spoken to Steve about this for like front porch repairs um things to keep seniors in their home, but when they call for that assistance, there's a waiting list and they aren't on it, but yet they're getting a citation. So that's what I, just kind of need to have a little bit better communication is that your seniors are trying to go for the programs that they're eligible for, but there's a waiting list.

J

So um I just wanted to bring that to your attention. If you weren't aware.

K

Of that I, don't really know how the uh the Improvement program works. That's outside of our department, but you know perhaps that's something that should be discussed with planning or housing.

H

That's that's actually a good point. I was just thinking about that. um Something we could possibly do legislatively is once an application comes in. We could work a system to let code enforcement know the only problem with that and I'm sure Chris would think this is the exact same way. Is you don't want people abusing that where someone's just like well as long as I apply.

K

I was thinking more in terms of if they're applying for the program and they can substantiate their claim with documentation from our office saying this really is hazardous. At this point, it's no longer just a wish list. I.

H

Would like to I.

K

Don't know if that's fair to the people have been waiting for four years. You know, but that's if something is hazardous. It certainly, you know, deserves as much expediency as we can provide.

G

K

Yeah well, I think that the effort was to um identify uh the the full um span of the process and and recognize that, in addition to code enforcement efforts being made, sometimes cases hinge on what happens after they leave our office. So if somebody were cited, it's not so bad that it's really gonna be declared is unfit for habitation. But it's not getting fixed in a timely manner. Then we refer to the court system and I. Think that's where mayor cram's program came in.

K

He was saying if we had a prosecutor who wasn't pulled in many different directions and wasn't able really to follow the cases closely. uh You know there would be a lack of sympathy and understanding for the the importance of the court case and by assigning a specifically a housing, Court prosecutor who exclusively works on Housing Court, then that individual would start to recognize the players, the repeat offenders and maybe have a little bit more Sympathy for the tenants or understand the severity of this repetition and the trends that are taking place.

K

And that has an impact on how you prosecute. If you're, not remembering that- and you see somebody in court- who's been there a dozen times, but you don't recognize them because you've been working on so many other projects, you're going to give them the same benefit of the doubt as somebody who's there for the first time, but as a Housing Court prosecutor seeing the same person there 12 times is going to. Maybe you know trigger something in your mind to say: oh, this is not one that we want to take so lightly.

K

If we get to the stage of plea bargaining, maybe I'll be a little bit more heavy, a little more insistent than if it was somebody who you know was an anomaly they've never been to court before and somehow they ended up there, and it was all just a big mistake so that that was I, think the intent and um it takes a while to build up that. That kind of um you know seasoned experience where you're able to make those those judgment calls but I think that's that's been a great asset. uh Moving forward.

K

I hope that it'll start to you know gather some pick up some speed and you know really start to take effect.

J

It's my my final question to you. um As you know, we had one of our first arrests for a landlord that person was just in court about Seventeen hundred dollars um in fines. um How does that particular in other landlords be followed because in very personal, my neighborhood right across the street and down the street?

J

um It's as if he was not in court a week ago? Yeah? Well, that's uh how, because this you know this particular landlord. I'm speaking up, has properties across the city about.

K

160, perhaps yeah and.

J

As as you get, your housing court gets in gear in a well-oiled machine, you're going to be having these type of landlords. So does that mean you have to start the process all over again because you've made it to court and you have to if it's not I assumed it was under review for up to a year. If I read.

K

It in the court system, yeah yeah a lot and well I'll, just point out that the reason that individual was arrested was not because his code violations were so egregious that we decided to arrest him. He was arrested because the New York State, unified court District, told him to appear, and he didn't. Okay, if you don't make a code correction, I'll I'll, give you a ticket to go to court and the judges will take it from there.

K

If you choose not to make a repair I'm, not determining your guilt or innocence or judging how it got that way. I'm just saying it's it's dangerous and it needs to be addressed. The courts, on the other hand, don't think the same way if they tell you to show up- and you don't show up now- you committed a crime which is an arrestable crime, and that's why he was arrested for not appearing when given a criminal summons, to appear in a New York state court. So that really had nothing to do with code.

K

It has nothing to do with the number of properties he owns, how many violations he had. This was all because he was thumbing his nose at the judges and they don't take timely to that. They usually arrest people who do that. Chris.

J

I really appreciate you making that distinction, because myself and a few other neighbors that were talking, we were confused.

G

J

And now that it's code and then it gets passed off onto the court yeah. um So do we contact your office again that there's still an issue yeah well.

K

That there will be issues that that's this individual's business model is, as we can see is, is not one of investment and renewal and renovation. It's it's I, don't know what it is, but it's not.

F

It's that good, it's.

K

Not good, it's.

F

K

It's not anything that code enforcement has control over when people make business decisions to run their business in a certain way and it puts tenants or neighbors In Harm's Way. We can identify those items, bring it to their attention order to remedy, but we can't make them remedy. If they don't remedy, we can condemn the building or we could send it to court.

K

I mean honestly, if you, if you think about it, we're not.

K

Like a lot of law enforcement, we're not the mechanism to make to make anybody do anything. They almost should call us code observers. It.

A

Sounds like you're, the triage you actually did.

K

Yes, we just observe whether or not there is in fact a condition that needs to be addressed.

A

I think we appreciate you clarifying that for us now, because we all know you have a very hard Road, a hoe. um The the neighborhoods we all live in are deteriorating at a rate that.

K

Makes us all sad so is my department well.

A

But I must say that I live in the First Ward and I see your code enforcement car around and I've talked to Mr stento several times and find him very Cooperative. So thank you for those things that you can do. Yes,.

K

Yes and I'll try to clarify you know as best I. Can you know what we can do and what we can I think a lot of times. Frustration with code enforcement is, why aren't there more results? Yeah.

A

K

We're not really in charge of results. I.

G

Think that's I. Don't.

K

Like the guys throw the garbage in the back of their car, we don't have lawn mowers, we don't have paint you know. All we can do is observe conditions and put it in writing and document. It.

A

And because you're, the only person we see.

K

That yeah, with the point of contact.

A

Yes, you are yeah yeah.

K

B

H

I I wanna I wanna jump on this too, and and give you guys some clarification, because we've had some more recent updates too, and it might clarify things so the bottleneck is the court system. It's not necessarily code enforcement itself, code enforcement is doing their job and then, if the next link up the chain is the weak one and that's the problem that being said, code enforcement is essentially a gateway to actually several of our programs.

H

uh One thing right off the bat talking about condemnation of buildings as soon as a building's residential buildings condemned that automatically essentially automatically qualifies someone to take advantage of the homelessness prevention program, which is almost always funded through ESG funds, which you guys handle um the code. Improvements or the rehab programs require code improvements or all code violations to be improved, so it's necessary for code to be identifying those Pro those problems and then those must be addressed. It's entirely possible. A project is too big for the funding.

H

If you get into a a house, that's 400 000 on rehabs, just to fix the code issues we're not going to do it. Unfortunately, it's just too much money when we can help more people with not as many problems, but at the end of the day, the HUD requirements is that all code violations are corrected. After that we can do some minor things like kitchen rehabs stuff, like that, but I like the fact that we're addressing those code issues, because those are health and safety issues.

H

um Third, is I'll jump around here. Third, is not one we're currently funding, but I've heard it enough to let you guys know um you guys have been talking about doing some sort of program to address garbage, so in cases like that, we may very well be able to pull data from code to identify areas where garbage citations of garbage on The, Lawns or too much garbage can be done. We can then identify areas to address those too.

H

So this is how we're able to work with code enforcement to identify the areas, identify the needs and Target them, and this all comes back down to. What can you guys do directly to provide anything to code and, as Chris has pointed out, and then his thing here? They get 250 250 000 now me and Chris and Juliet, and the mayor and a bunch of people have been running around in circles. Trying to address a problem. Hud has had with the past wake code. Enforcement salaries are done because it's a very well-defined method.

H

You have to follow to to get code enforcement. It must be done in a low income area which are defined. It must be for a neighborhood or building that is deteriorated, and that's that was fun uh and number three. We must connect in some way the individuals living in those properties with resources. We have now addressed that we have not yet done the count. The salary calculation but Chris's guys are following this stuff. So we should be able to pull that data. I haven't done it yet for the last quarter.

H

So the way we're doing it is Code Enforcement identifies a property is deteriorated. I will tell you most code violations right off. The bat are going to qualify them as deteriorated the ones that wouldn't would be like I, don't know your cars parked in the beef lawn or you've got ice on the sidewalk or long grass. Those probably won't qualify, but code enforcement. When they do an inspection and correct me, if I'm wrong, they will list every single violation that they can spot as they do it right.

H

So, even though one may not qualify another another thing may qualify this deterior, so we've got an area we find out. We can geocode them to be low. Income code identifies the properties deteriorated, which is not that hard to qualify for in the city of Binghamton. Unfortunately, number three is the resources now I know you guys. uh Most of you know about the little handout we printed I showed you the examples of the handouts.

H

We've been starting to hand out so Chris's guys either hand that out or somehow we get that information into the occupant's hand, doesn't matter if they're, they're, homeowner or renter, we get it into their hands that connects them with resources like the city of Binghamton housing, safety Specialists. It can connect them to homelessness prevention and homelessness Services if they do end up out on the street, and it also connects them with senior home repair program. It connects them with two in one. You can connect them with our rehab program.

H

So that's how we're managing to meet this HUD requirement that code enforcement. Does this and honestly now that we've got everything kind of jumbled around I think it's moving pretty smoothly. We also created um we put through some legislation. That was what a few weeks ago where we took off the find the costs for the permits.

K

For the for the Binghamton Home Improvement program, well,.

H

Technically the way that the code works, it reads: I think it's for any um uh Grant backed program, yeah yeah.

H

So what that allows is when money goes into rehab programs they're they have to they have they have to apply for permits, that's they have to apply for permits, but they don't have to now pay for those permits, and so that just allows us to stretch those funds a little bit further to help address code violations or anything else in the in the rehab and the project rehabbing that it's eligible for we, we may be extending this to other capital projects and provide cdbg funds for because essentially we're just paying ourselves it doesn't the money from the the permits doesn't go into code enforcements coppers.

H

It just goes into the general fund and it goes somewhere else. So why? Just why waste the money in that regard? So um just be aware of that. If that's what's going on so even though Chris is coming here and he's showing you, you know, these are the things we've done, and this is the money for the salaries. There's a reason for all of this.

H

This is Code, Enforcement is almost like a linchpin, I mean I would say between planning my department code, we're the linchpin for quite a well most of the programs and funding and activities for all cdbg, home and ESG projects. So there's that interconnectedness is needed, so just putting that out there. So you guys understand how this works.

H

From your perspective, when you look at how you're going to do salary determination for code enforcement, I do not have yet the numbers for what we think is going to be eligible, but as soon as I can run those calculations I'll, let you know we did a sort of somewhat too early one and we determined it was like 274 000, but I think that was too early in the in the game.

H

But when I run the next numbers, I'll, let you know I'll obviously Chris know, because it's all about reimbursement, Chris and code enforcement, they're paid out of the general fund. The cdbg funding is reimbursing the general fund for eligible expenses, and it's us have been trying to like run around like well hamsters on a wheel, trying to figure out how we make what code enforcement does an eligible activity under cdbg to help offset the taxpayer funding for code enforcement salaries anyway. So that's kind of just how that works with the cdbg program in general.

H

So all right just wanted to point that out. So everyone knows that there's this like this there's a lot going on here. That's maybe not on this piece of paper, so you're aware of everything, but.

K

One thing I will point out before we go is: is that the bottom line for the salaries for 2023 is such that the cdgb funds that are allocated to code enforcement I believe have been on change for quite some time, and there was a time when that portion that came from cdgb made up better than half of of the salary funding for code enforcement. It's it's like 40 now and, as you know, expenses go up and uh you know the cost of employing people continues to rise.

K

Cdgb plays a smaller and smaller role in our overall budget, so um you know I. Thank you very much for all the contributions that it made all the all the good that it has done, but with cdgv being stagnant and everything else going up it. It's. You know as less and less impact on on our ability to to recruit and retain qualified inspectors.

H

And as soon as they have those numbers for the maximum amount, I'll, let you guys know um for all. We know well it'll, be a prediction going forward because they're already allocated the money they're spending now or that we're going to try to spend now, but for next year I might be able to do a calculation Pro. We know it might be 300, it might be 400 000. So when you guys do the budget, you know I do this is the minimum you need to spend on a project, and this is the maximum.

H

That's the maximum I have to calculate. So that's I'll give you that calculation I'll, let Chris know too, uh but I'll get you guys a calculation on that once I can run those numbers and I should be running in the next couple weeks, because I'm a little behind on doing four. Fourth quarter salaries, but I got to get them all done anyway.

F

I just would like to comment. um It seems as though, even if you had a hundred inspectors observers, because you can only do so much there I don't know what the solution is. As far as you identify all these things and then it's out of your hands and then nothing happens because it goes to the court system.

K

In in it, and it's and it's that- and it's so much more than that and I think that's what we all need to understand is the complexity of you know how this works and and how people make choices. So when, when somebody's business model is such that they're, making no Investments at all and I'm not talking about the Bad actors who get arrested, I'm talking about you, know, people who had historically made improvements, but now they're making fewer and fewer improvements, that's their that's their business model.

K

That's saying, based on this rent and this water bill and these taxes now I have less money to to allocate towards maintenance. You can't not pay your water bill and you can't not pay your taxes, but you can put off the new roof for another year and then another year and another year and you could raise rents if everybody was gainfully employed with amazing. You know Intel and Microsoft jobs, but when they're not you know, you're going to get the tenant walk out on you, so I mean there's a huge economic reason.

K

Why you know the housing stock doesn't improve it's because it's just not you know in their business model or or somebody's willing to take that dive and put a whole bunch of money in hoping to recapture that investment at some point. But I think you know, there's players that have been in this long enough. That says I know that's not going to happen so I'm not going to make the investment there's. You know new housing opportunities, uh new housing projects that are going up. Those have really boosted.

K

Neighborhoods we've seen it on Crandall we're seeing it on North and Mather we're seeing you know. First world Action Council. You know making huge gains in the uh in the Noma area, um but that's not to say that you know everybody has the same funding and the same opportunity, and it's not to say that everybody wants to live in a first board, Action, Council home or qualifies to live in a First, Ward, Action Council home. So, there's there's a lot that we have to contend with. That's out of our control.

K

Why landlords make those decisions which eventually creates you know problems that we have to observe in order to remedy uh you know when when they made that decision, the letter from US isn't going to change their mind when they say I'm, paying my taxes first and my water bill. Second and repairs are third, you know it's like trying to get blood from a stone.

K

It's just you know it's not it's not anything that we have control over and taking them into court and charging them money and- and uh you know, finding them guilty of a certain. You know. uh Deficiency also doesn't bring in more money, so I know I would love to pin it all on the courts. But it's not it's a systemic problem, it's much bigger than than just a hundred code officers showing up and pointing out what's wrong that that doesn't you know we do what we can and that's why I said we're a stop.

K

Gap we're not the ones this. If it was all up to code enforcement, everything would be great, but we're not the ones that do that, we're the ones that say you've gone as far as you can without fixing that roof now we're stopping in and saying this is the Line in the Sand. Nobody can live here if you're not going to fix the roof.

K

That's your business decision and whether the courts find you guilty and charge you 500 for not fixing your roof, may not change your mind either, but I'm telling you, if your mind doesn't change either your business model doesn't change or your attitude. You know. After being, fine, doesn't change, then I'm telling you now you can't rent this out anymore and that's what we're there for we're protecting the occupants from living, hazardous conditions.

K

We make observations and if we determine that the deficiency is, is bad enough, that it's creating a safety hazard, a fire hazard, a health hazard. That's when we draw the line in the sand and say well now you got no income. Now you get no income nobody's nobody's living here, and so now they might rethink their business model and a lot of times they sell. Sometimes they, you know, find ways to to make the Improvement just enough to keep it afloat.

K

But if there's a lot of different uh variables and and how housing gets to the condition that's in and we have very little control, the only thing we really control in the end is: is it safe enough to live in if we get there and it's so unsafe that it can't be lived? And then then you would say thank God code was there, because if not, then that person would continue to rent and rent and rent, and so it's told somebody told them not to.

F

I think that just my observation and opinion is that there needs to be in our newspaper and Reporting, and everything I mean there. Just isn't anything in our area, hardly at all local reporting or news. I think that you need to have some sort of a public relations.

F

You need to write letter to the editor or do some feature somehow get the message out exactly what you're saying tonight, because I hear almost I know. I do hear weekly because I'm at Samaritan House on Fayette Street and the conception is that it's called is not doing their job yeah, and you know I think that if there was a broader um scope of just letting the city residents know yeah exactly I think it would go a long way. It.

K

Could help some people I know that there's you know a lot of people that live in a black and white world and it's really easy to put it all on to you know one thing: it was just you know that neighbor or this person- or you know that one Factory that closed or that one you know, condition that that turned and I think that there are the the rest of us or some of us who understand it. You know almost every problem we discuss these days is multi-faceted, we don't have.

K

You know one cause and effect Society. We have multiple things happening all at the same time, but the.

F

The condition that what Binghamton looks like yeah.

G

F

K

That direction yeah. No, it's not, and it's not isolated to Binghamton. It's an Uber in Niagara Falls.

F

Yeah for those that have lifelong residents, it's really sad for us to see if there's no pride in the neighborhoods yeah.

B

F

It's just so deteriorating, it's very discouraging! So it's my soapbox! Sorry, no.

A

That's okay, I.

F

A

You had a comment: yeah.

B

I'm just curious: uh to what extent are your inspectors tied up in the court process when they had that backlog? Are they Dragged In for.

K

These hearing so they're taking yeah one day a week, they're uh they're they're, not in the field, every Wednesday, okay, that's everyone! So really the code inspector working a five-day weekend actually has four days in the field, because every Wednesday we're in court providing testimony um participating in in the um Discovery process, which is where the prosecution gets to ask the defendant. You know whether or not certain conditions still exist um five times out of ten.

K

They swear that everything's done and it's up to the code inspector to say no, that's weird I was just there like an hour ago and uh all of that didn't get done and that that's you know helpful, because when prosecution's in there, if everything was corrected, they might recommend a more lenient punishment. uh So we have to step in and say: that's you know, that's not the case. Here's the more accurate depiction of what's taking place.

B

So it's a lot more than just observing it's observing and then following through time and.

K

Time, yeah there's a lot yeah, there's a lot of documentation that I tell I. Tell my staff at training that the the probably the the most important thing is. Is you know how well you document everything people are obligated to be given um due process, proper notification, you know, files have to be maintained. Photographs have to be labeled, we need to be very accurate about where we are what we saw, who we spoke with and how things have progressed phone conversations that have taken place in emails.

K

All these things, you know really helped tell the story of what transpired so that we don't ever get in the position of saying uh of not giving somebody their due process and we're very meticulous about making sure that everybody is given every opportunity they can to understand what's going on and what their choices are, so that when they fail to do it, it's never a case of ignorance. Oh nobody told me it's it's more a case of you made the choice to not remedy the problem and that is more punishable than somebody who said well.

K

I just didn't know. I'll. Let me know right. Ignorance is not a defense, but we don't even give them. You know the possibility of making that a defense.

A

Yeah and I will say: Mr Schneider that your people have always been. We had the first horde neighborhood watch before covid, your guys would come to every meeting and they would meet the people and they would talk with the people and they would explain what they do and they would listen to complaints and they were wonderful. They really were and I think that was one of the ways. If a community is involved, your people will come out and work with them. Absolutely.

K

G

A

One of the things that we lack in Binghamton- we don't have a. We have a community that complains a lot but doesn't really do anything about it. So it's not your fault.

K

Yeah well, if it's not really fixing the problem, it's a way of understanding what your resources are as a.

A

Lot of people never yeah a lot of people in the neighborhoods who never you know they were putting up with so many things. They began to feel comfortable, contacting your office and having those guys come out.

K

And those guys work hard yeah, so we appreciate it. They come in after hours. We.

A

Did the north side state.

K

Streets Noma, we.

A

Appreciate everything you've told us today and we will also try to be.

G

Ambassadors and.

A

Tell people that it's not all your fault and that we need. We need to do more. um Michelle.

F

Can I just ask you one more quick.

A

Question whose.

F

Responsibility is it for the blight uh the vacant properties, yeah.

K

There's actually one uh designated officer he's a vacant property officer and he uh is incredible: he actually works in the in the housing and planning department he's not really Under the Umbrella of Code Enforcement. uh It's a very specialized position. It requires a lot of research to understand who is responsible to these parties. There's you know multiple lending institutions that that uh hide behind the veil of the former owner. You know somebody were to foreclose on my house. Wells Fargo wouldn't never admit that they now possess and control that house.

K

If you look at Broome, County GIS they'll leave my name on there, and so when you, uh the vacant property officer, is looking for somebody to hold responsible for the conditions. Then you know he's really got to be part. Private investigator, you know part, uh you know attorney to start peeling back the layers and finding out that. Oh look at that. Mr Schneider actually lost the house into foreclosure eight years ago and ever since then it's been Wells. Fargo who's been dropping the ball and not maintaining the property.

K

So he's he's really gifted and he does an incredible job of finding out who the responsible parties are again, so nobody can use the defense. You never told me, I was never notified. You know he gets down to the to the bottom of it and holds those parties responsible.

A

K

So much that's a full-time position.

A

Yes, can we let this poor man go now? Thank.

G

A

E

H

H

Do you need to introduce here, yes,.

A

A

I'll wait until that was done.

G

H

Should probably well.

G

A

Might be some long meetings come up.

E

A

Already started anymore, we have spent I, think we've already done.

H

A

One- and we know where you live- I mean we're here with both all the time. So it's not a big deal.

A

G

E

G

It must be hard to farm.

E

A

Okay, um if I can have your attention, um we've just been informed that Steve is going to do the planning presentation well.

H

Actually, no I'm just doing the admin. The planning it'll have to be scheduled for another day: okay yeah, so I'll just jump to.

B

H

Admin: okay, okay, um so I am no longer the manager of Hud Administration and housing I'm the I'm, not the top. It's like they move, they move HUD, Administration and housing under planning, but I'm still, basically exactly where I was in the exact same position. So um unfortunately, planning is not here tonight, um but I will be handling the hudman and housing stuff um I do apologize. It was late in getting this out to you.

H

I've been busy I'm, always busy I feel like, but um I'm not going to read this verbatim because it's dull and boring. However, I want to point out some some points here um on Part B describing overall budget. That's the budget for normal salaries and all the other weird stuff in the a lines. um I'm. Sorry, if I, okay, I'll jump to those things. uh If anyone doesn't know what the a lines are, the a lines means it's coming out of the general fund. So when they do more budgets for departments, are the general fund?

H

Funds are departments so that that's the a line it's 175 998, but that doesn't include benefits, that's a separate section of a lines, so it should be the one that has a really bad thing that says: HUD in the upper right corner should be like the third or fourth one.

H

If you don't have one I've got a few extra, are you missing? It.

B

H

Right there that one yep okay, so so that's that's Part B, um going to Part D um Define the areas of population be serving how they weren't identified that that just is a standard, HUD um identification of residency requirements. However, I'm gonna go ahead and jump in here related to um what code enforcement was saying.

H

um So you guys understand when it comes to improving the housing stock, it doesn't always have to be sticks. One way you can do it is carrots um anytime. There is a hard fact Federal program, that is providing say, for example, rental assistance.

H

um What that does? Is it forces the the owner of the property of the person is renting at or wants to rent at to bring that unit up to minimum hqs standards? Minimum hqs standards aren't great, but they are a minimum. They are healthy, as in they're not unhealthy, there's not giant holes in the wall. There aren't cracks in the windows. There's not chipping paint for the kids to eat. All of those things meet hqs standards.

H

So, whenever you're funding a program, a housing program, showdo programs, homelessness, prevention or rapid, rehousing programs, anything that involves helping someone get rental assistance or rental units. What that does? Is it forces that unit to meet a minimum threshold of quality um they're, not the best? It's kind of it reminds me that the properties oftentimes will remind me of um uh like Habitat homes, where habitat I believe they still do. This. The homes are bare, I mean I, don't think they put paint on the inside of them.

H

That's up to the person who buys the house, but they're warm they're homes, they're more walls and a roof, and there's no cracks and all that other stuff so understand for any of your any of the programs that you guys are gonna make recommendations on funding anything that involves renters or rental assistance. Those that's what's going to do it! So when you have more of those programs in an area, it can, in theory, raise the quality of the housing stock.

H

So I just want to jump to that and then I'm just going to jump to the budget and I just want to point out, because the budget looks really really weird, so I want to clarify it. So there's the items on the left that my my my department works with.

H

There's the thing that says: 2023 cdbg budget 2023 home budget, so that's what's been budgeted through the existing budget now and the estimated 2024 costs now you're going to want to know why some of those cells are merged together and it's kind of, because all that money kind of gets pulled together.

H

um So when we're looking at the 2023 cdbg budget say for those four positions, those four positions can draw from that money. It's not usually set in stone because the way we do salaries now we do salaries. After the fact we calculate how much HUD eligible time, someone did do an hourly calculation and then do a draw from HUD. Does that make sense everyone?

H

We do the same thing with code enforcement, so I was pointing out how code enforcement salaries they're derived from a much more complex calculation, but for the people and planning the people in my office. Even blbc, um oh I forgot to invite um there.

H

They have to basically prove that what they've done with that time is cdb well yeah, they put it on their timesheets and then we do a calculation, so the money gets divvied up and so we're going to hopefully have a much better estimation um this year, the going forward from because of this. So this is a.

C

H

Recent thing we've been doing, um the 2023 home budget has two positions that it can divvy up. So that's the housing specialist in the housing order. So yes, the housing specialist and the housing coordinator can be funded with home or cdbg.

H

So that's kind of why there's that kind of confusion there and I hope that addresses that issue.

H

The other merge cells come down to where it says: cdbg, homebuyer, rehab program and home rehab program and you'll see over there on estimated 2024 costs the reason I've merged those cells together is because we've been sort of taking from whatever pool needs to be used. Up sooner, you can rehab with home or cdbg they're, essentially, the exact same rules with the way the programs are set up. However, home buyer will almost always be cdbg because it's not worth doing a home uh home buyer program because lots and lots of reasons um it's a pain.

H

It's a it's, a it's a it's a nightmare and tracking and monitoring and reviewing um it's just not worth it and the city can be liable, so we're trying we try to avoid those as much as possible. That being said, we have done that with a recent shuttle project and we might do those going forward with Toto projects so so for the estimated 2020 core costs. I do apologize. These are sort of back of the the pack of the envelope calculations. I did based off the previous salary pool.

H

We do not yet have a good, accurate, true salary calculation of what is technically eligible. We have like a quarter because we've been having to implement this change to address a HUD binding, so as those numbers come along, hopefully in the next year, two years, we'll actually start having definitive. This is how much my salaries was, how much so that were cdbg eligible, um so uh the unknowns is under finance and I.T is because we are in the process of figuring out what they're doing that would meet all the eligibility requirements under the HUD requirements.

H

So it may not be 50. if you'll note I've taken off legal expenses, because legal cannot manage to track the time that they need in a way that makes it so that it meets HUD compliance requirements because legal have 10 million hats each one of them wears and to track. I did 10 minutes on a contract here versus not isn't just not worth it um so the other unknown I have on. There um is the choto projects.

H

We do not have any choto projects identified, yet we are looking to get some and with the home APR, um which hopefully next meeting or two or the second meeting from now um Jason Wright from Chrysalis will be able to do a presentation. I think it's virtual, but you may fly up too on the home APR, which is probably going to be a Toto project or total projects recommendation, and that can be married with our existing churro projects money.

H

So hopefully we get that in time so that you guys can make it an estimation of whether you want to put any of these funds you're working on now into one of those projects to back it up. I put zero dollars for fair housing activities, because we've been kind of behind on getting that fair housing training class which everyone liked. We have um we're looking at getting um Danielle, uh who is the housing safety specialist?

H

She is now the fair housing officer, and so me, and her and Julia have got to sit down and we're going to have her kind of take over that and try to figure out how we want to do this every year, how we want it because we want to do it annually, um so we're still in the process of fixing that um the only other item of note, that's different from previous years is I have a request for twenty thousand dollars for Professional Services for the Consolidated plan, the Consolidated plan will be fiscal year 50, which will be next year that you guys start on That's, The Five-Year Plan.

H

To do that, you need to meet certain things that HUD requires such as studies, Market studies, Gap analysis, uh things such as analysis of impediments to fair housing, those kinds of things, so we need to have basically money in the wallet ready to go at the start of next year to go ahead and start hiring.

H

You know one or two professional agencies to do these. These things that we're going to need to have done to meet HUD requirements for the Consolidated plan. So um our last analysis of impediments to fair housing for the previous plan was not good. I, don't want to go into details for the previous one before that from 10 years ago was pretty good um and that one did Identify. Some issues we were having um I may have brought this up.

H

When I did the data presentation on what we knew, um we do know that um for fair housing at least as of 10 years ago, and it's probably still consistently they. We do have fair housing issues with race being a deciding factor that does occur. We do have um issues with, uh but that's not the big one. The two big ones are.

H

um This um access for um mobily, impaired individuals um or actually I think it requires it applies to any disability. So so, for example, someone who is um hearing impaired um there may be a requirement for them to have a fire alarm, one of those like disco, ball, fire alarms that wakes them up.

H

um So some landlords don't realize this, and this is part why we wanted the fair housings- and this is the last announcements kind of indicated that what we were doing with the fair housing studies, so um they determined that um landlords didn't know but we're just being like Oh you're in a wheelchair. Sorry, uh that's not exactly Fair.

H

um So um in those kinds of situations, especially if an improvement can be done when a reasonable method, you know, grab bars widening of doorways those kinds of things that are not going to cost an arm and a leg um they're still supposed to rent to people. The other one was the issue with children. Many landlords do discriminate, I hate to use the word discriminating. Let's say um limit their rentals to college students. That's actually legal! You can do that.

H

You're, a college student, yes I'll, take it not a college student I, don't care I won't, um but you can't limit it because people have children, any grad. Students have children and there are landlords, saying: oh you've got children. Sorry, that's very, very legal, um just as any of those other ones are, so those were the three top ones. I think the biggest one was the the access one. The second one was the children limitation and the third one were racial issues. So um we will have to do that again with this study.

H

Comp with the year coming up usually only takes a few like a couple months to do one of these, um but hopefully once we have that we'll have better understanding. So that's an example of one of the studies we're going to have to do where I think we're gonna have to do a howling market analysis as well again a couple months. We can hire someone else to do.

H

It doesn't take a huge long period of time to do it, but that will then give you data um as well as the city council, because they will present almost city council, more information on what is actually needed from a calculated, determined survey. You know scientific method. What is missing, what needs to be done to improve these things?

H

So that's the reason I put the 20 000 in there I think that's enough to cover what we're going to need, but, as I said, you need to put that money in the projects for the upcoming year, because in the upcoming year, that's when we start the basically what you guys are going to be doing next year. We have to have that money in the in the bank now or soon. In order to do that. So does anyone have any questions?

H

I, don't want to hold you guys here longer than than possible, but I can answer anything regarding the housing department or the admin. Department I see Deb.

J

Steve I was wondering if the housing attorney would qualify in part or in whole for the legal um I think you could make a case that it's in many of the cdb approved neighborhoods. Then.

G

J

Could be done by address.

H

Yeah the issue it gets complex when you get to like housing issues on what qualifies and what doesn't that's a good idea. I hadn't thought about looking at just the housing.

G

H

Or the I, don't is that the actual title housing lawyer I'm, not sure, there's.

J

A better title.

H

It's got to be a better housing lawyer, just sounds weird, um but yeah um I think it may come down. Well, that's a that's! A really good question and I had not thought of that. Thank you, Jeff. Let me let me do a little bit more research, but that might be a good way we can. We can pull that in um for that, because, typically, when we think of legal, we think of our entire cdbg program, we don't usually think of it for a specific angle of it.

H

But let me let me do some research on that. That might be. That might be something we could do. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions.

E

H

Yeah, so um it was supposed to I thought it was supposed to be Tito, but I think there was some confusion over the things so I've gotten I've got to reschedule um in one of the upcoming meetings, the slot for planning and also I completely forgot to invite Economic Development. So uh just on anime, so I'm gonna have to find spots for both of them um to have them come and do uh get this as well. So.

H

And I'm going to start heading up because I think you guys can get ready to shut.

A

Down I gotta shut it down up there. Okay, I guess, that's it! For today um before we, we entertain a motion to adjourn. Can we do one more round of attendance? Please.

B

John brunza mayoral appointee.

C

Brandy Brown district, three.

D

Justin McGregor secretary District Seven.

E

Kenya Middleton Vice chair mayor pointy, Marianne.

A

Callahan first board.

F

Michelle O'loughlin Fifth District, Marilyn, Austin, Sixth District.

E

Don cecconi District 2.

J

Deborah Hogan maril appointy.

A

And can I have a motion to adjourn.

A

Brandy makes the motion second.

G

A

All in favor aye, who.

H

Was second on that Deborah.

A

Thank you see you in two weeks.

H

7 43 I will stop.