Are we are we on okay?

Uh welcome everyone uh to the Monday, January 5th uh meeting of the Albany Common Council.

This is our caucus and work session that we have prior to our regular meeting.

Um with that, I would ask Mr.

Jimenez, please call the roll.

Adams.

Anonor.

Ballorin.

Here Brody.

Here.

Here.

Flynn?

Here.

Are we present?

Johnson.

Present.

Jones.

Present.

Keegan.

Here.

Lumpkin.

President.

Powell.

Present.

Robinson is absent.

Williamson.

President.

In favor.

Present.

Thirteen present, one absent.

We're also joined by Council President Kelly Kimberh.

City Clerk Shankwood Jackson.

Research Council Robert Wenner, Legislative Director Brian Amendes, Junior Policy Analyst Alyssa Kamara, and Junior Legislature Junior Legislative Aide, Carly Johnson, and Ninth Ward intern Ariana Costello.

We're also joined by Chris Ellis, Deputy Mayor, Miriam Dixon, appointee to the commission or as commissioner of administrative services, Kendall Demby, Deputy Commissioner of Administrative Services, Liz Maria Penn, I believe, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Office of the Mayor, and John Riley.

As well as the mayor.

Sorry.

Jack, you were you were hiding her there.

Okay, thank you.

We have a quorum.

So just run it through the agenda.

This is this is our organizational meeting.

After the clerk appointment, we'll follow that up with the president pro temp election.

After we do the president pro temp election, I guess I could probably just hand everything over to the yes at that stage.

Um after the president pro time is elected, the then they take over those duties.

Thank you.

And so yeah, and then uh just continuing through any agenda.

We have the majority leader appointment after that.

We'll work through that.

Then uh committee assignment.

We're not going to get through that tonight, but um we'll we'll touch on it.

Uh we will adopt our rules, a procedure, establish our official newspaper, and then uh we have a quick uh commissioner appointments consideration.

We have uh a couple of uh folks from the administration here that would like to just just to say hello, it's not question and answer, and we're not into that process yet.

They're just gonna introduce themselves and you know tell us a little bit about themselves.

So yeah, actually, you know what?

Now's a good time.

Uh who are we starting with?

Um we can start with uh deputy mayor Chris Ellis.

And uh just to come up with as the deputy mayor is joining us.

Um the committee assignments are not done tonight yet.

We're just establishing the committees.

We will be collecting from everyone their preferences for committees, and that will come later.

Thank you, Mr.

Ellison.

We're just looking for a brief int introduction.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and and uh say hello.

Chris Ellis.

Um, Chris Ellis Capital Region Albany resident for the past 22 years, wife, two kids, Roadwood Avenue, proud member of the second war represented by Councilmember Johnson.

Umies committee, New York State, traversed many positions in New York State, then went to New York City or worked for New York City here in Albany and ran the mayor's Albany office, did some lobbying, and now I am transitioning into the role of deputy mayor here soon.

Yes.

Okay.

So thank you for that, sir.

Looking forward to working with you in uh yeah, we'll go looking forward to serving the people of Albany and execute an agenda of the mayor.

Thank you all for your consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um next person is Maryam Dixon.

Um good afternoon.

This is evening.

Good evening, everybody.

Um I am Miriam Dixon, and um you probably can tell from the accent I am not from Albany, New York.

I am actually uh raised in Kansas City.

I have relocated to the Capitol District.

Um I guess it's been about 10 years now.

Uh this is actually my third time working for the city of Albany.

Uh I started my career here when Mayor Shin was the treasurer.

I was the payroll manager for the city of Albany.

Um I returned home for a short stint and came back when she was elected as the mayor, and at that time I served as the HR director uh for several years.

And then I um transitioned out and worked for the City of Saratoga Springs, followed by a six-year stint with the New York State Teachers Retirement System.

Um in my time there, I served as the chief administrative officer for the teachers retirement system.

Um I am now serving uh in the role here as the commissioner of administrative services, so overseeing um many of the departments that I um was working with in my last time here.

So I look forward to uh working with all of you as we go through a number of things that you'll see uh from the departments in my area.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Uh look forward to working with you again.

Thank you.

Next is Kendall Dimby.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Kendall Demby, and I am the Deputy Commissioner of the Administrative Services.

Actually, I am going to be relocated relocating here to Albany.

I am from Delaware.

And I come from a different different backgrounds, healthcare, higher education, and I am looking forward to working with each and every one of you and the Albany's team here.

Okay, thank you.

Nice to meet you.

Look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

Next is Liz Merripin.

Good evening.

Uh President Kimbo.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Um Liz Maria Penn.

Um excited to serve uh with the mayor of Pleasant and support her uh priorities and agenda as director of intergovernmental affairs.

Um, a little bit about me, uh, my family's from the Capitol region.

I've uh spent a lot of my time learning here as a student, um, being trained here, had my first job here, um, and I have spent a majority of my time um serving this country um for the last 10 years.

I have uh worked um for national organizations, including the Democratic National Committee.

Um I have also worked at uh service employees international union um supporting the public services division, and then um over the last two and a half years served in the Biden Harris administration um at Peace Corps, which was extremely fun, um, but then also to at the White House in the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach.

Um my last position was um on the Harris Walls campaign, and from there um I am excited to bring my skills and experience to this position and working with each and every member of this council.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so um, we're also gonna hear from John Riley and Nesta Little John.

Good evening, President Kimborough.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much, City Clerk Jackson.

Council members, congratulations to the new uh members of the common council and to their returning members.

Congratulations on another term.

John Riley Jr.

Uh I am the council and policy director in the office of the mayor.

Uh I join the mayor's office from the private sector.

I was working at an international law firm in Boston, Massachusetts, before returning to the Capitol region and working in a capital region-based law firm.

I've been fortunate enough to know many of you, and I look forward to getting to know the individuals who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting.

Uh good luck this year and looking forward to the collaboration ahead.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Congratulations to the new members.

Um, my name is Nesta Little John.

I am the chief of staff to our new mayor.

Um proudly grew up in Albany's second ward, currently uh resident of the sixth ward.

Um happy to have gotten to know many of you in my work in Albany and in the state legislature, and excited to keep working with you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so that's it.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

You've assembled quite a diverse team there.

Uh look forward to working with all of you in the in the coming months and years.

So thank you.

Um I know that uh Garrett Chaff, the head of CPRB, is here this evening along with the CPRB member, and um it might be a good time for us to get an update, especially in light of the recent news attention on the CPRB.

Yes, um, Mr.

Shaff and if Mr.

Dare, if you want to participate, you you're more than welcome to evening everyone.

So, first I want to congratulate congratulate you all on your electoral victory.

Um as member Farrell said, I am the program director for the CPRB.

The updates I can provide you is we recently received proposals and responses to our request for outside legal council.

I'm in the process of reviewing those.

I will be submitting those to members later this week, so members can review and potentially move forward with resolving our outside council issue.

In addition to that, I believe all the members in this body are aware related to the recent news coverage of the background checks and issues related to potential qualifications of members.

The background checks are currently actively underway.

Um I received an update earlier today from Madam Clerk that one of the members' background check appears to be almost complete.

The others are going forward.

We are tentatively scheduled to nominate board officers at our meeting Thursday this week.

If those nominations do go forward as planned, we will have elections in February at our February meeting.

Um I don't have it, yes.

I just wanted to clarify something.

So will the background checks be done before that vote?

I don't believe they will be done before that vote, just given the timing because we're on a Monday.

The vote will the vote will potentially the background checks probably will not be completed by nomination on Thursday.

There is a possibility they will be completed by vote on in February, um, but I do not know.

And I'm hoping to I reached out to her staff this afternoon, hoping to work with them to get those two seats filled as quickly as possible so we can have a full complement of members on the board to help spread the workload and potentially weigh in on officer elections.

Is there just out of curiosity just because I think a majority of members do value of course it's important to have a diverse membership at the CPRB?

Um and quite from my perspective, having someone that has perhaps served been arrested or have gone through that process.

I don't think that is a bad thing with the CPRB, but I do think being fully aware of that is important.

Ideally, members would disclose their background.

Um, but also I do think the due diligence of making sure the background check is complete before which we've talked about moving forward, ensuring that there was a hiccup with this last time and obviously the time before.

Um but I am curious about is there a reason why leadership elections are happening before the board is fully appointed and before background checks are complete.

There's no specific reason other than my objective is to get the board up and running as fast as possible, and some of the aspects of board membership or direction are handled by the officers, not the program director.

That makes that does make sense.

Is it I guess my question to you is is it something that you feel just because we've had and the press that we've gotten, it is I've always said that when the press reports something that has happened, it is it is something that has happened.

Um but it does seem like just optics-wise, it might be a good idea to wait until that um the background checks are back before just because membership could also make a decision and more educated decision based on that as well.

No, I and I don't disagree with that sentiment, and that's something that I will relay to the members, but at the end of the day, this body has made clear to me that the membership is driving the board for the most part.

So I will make that suggestion.

I do think that there is, especially if we can get the full board seated before our February meeting.

I think it's not a bad idea to pause nominations.

Um our bylaws do require a two-meeting process, so we have to nominate in one meeting and elect in a following meeting.

Um and since we do not have any officers, we can't call a special and emergency meeting because that's only virtue of authority of the chair.

Um, but I do think a background check is a valuable, especially in light of all of the qualifications to be a member of the board beyond solely being a resident of the city and not being an employee of the police department or employee of the city, right?

There is a responsibility for having a reputation of fairness, integrity, and responsibility to be a member of this board.

And I think a back a full background check on every member will give greater insight to the membership as well as to this body on the makeup in the constituency of that membership.

And I should be very clear that I fully support the CPRB making their decisions and directions and things like that.

Um, this is something that uniquely has impacted the council, and um ideally in the future, we will make sure that this is not something that the CPRB will have to navigate because the background checks will be complete before members, um, and we have changed some procedures to ensure that.

Um because we are in this unique situation, I just wanted to kind of share the sentiment that it might be a good idea to pause um one meeting and then you can move forward with leadership, but that way everybody is as if they had gone through the process appropriately.

Yeah, thank you.

And so and oh and so offline, maybe we can have a conversation with the mayor and her folks to see how far off we are with uh adding those additional members to the CPRB.

But we can talk we can talk about that offline.

Thank you, Mr.

Schaff.

Um, I should have started with you, madam mayor, but would you like to address uh so speak about anything before we move forward?

You don't have to, but if the the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr.

Shaff.

I I'm new with this, so I'm I'm working my way through some stuff.

So yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Um since you extended the invitation, I'm not going to turn it down.

I do have home training.

Um, and so I just want to say happy new year to the council.

Um, congratulations to all of the new members.

And also congratulations to the existing members who are continuing on.

I look forward to working with you all as we look to look ahead to move our city forward to transform our city.

I thank many of you for joining us for the um celebratory festivities that we had.

Um it was a good time.

I saw some of you on the dance floor, so I know you got some moves.

Uh but it was a great time, so thank you for being supportive.

I also just want to acknowledge since um we have a few other members of the team here.

Um we have um our communications person who's focused on a lot of the communications with the community.

Uh Robbie, also Robert, known as Robbie to us, is here.

I just want to acknowledge uh Robbie.

Uh you'll see him a lot.

And we also have Sean here, who was our new uh mayor's office fellow from U Albany.

Sean is here, so you'll see the team a lot, but just wanted to acknowledge the two of them.

Thank you so much for having us, and I'm looking forward to working with you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just wanted to note that Councilmember Keegan also just wanted to reintroduce her intern.

Thank you.

I'll be super quick for those of you who are just joining us.

Congratulations on your recent election.

I wanted to take a moment to introduce Ariana Costello.

She is um currently a freshman at the University of Albany and a resident of the eighth ward.

Um she is interning with me for the foreseeable future, working on updates to our complete streets ordinance and adding in a green streets component to that ordinance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Keegan.

So with that, it's uh seven o'clock.

We'll end our did you want to jump in?

I did want to note something else during caucus.

Um it is something that we've been able to speak to members about.

Um, so there is an awareness of it, but I wanted to just note it during caucus before the meeting began.

Um, and that is we've had discussions um and members have agreed with the concept of adding um a position to the leadership team of majority whip.

This position would be someone that would be focused on um really looking at issues with members.

We all represent our wards, um, and all of those wards have unique and individual focus, but we're also all part of a whole and having a member who is hyper focused on the issues that are most important to the different members.

Um, it is something that we do in leadership, but having a member that is just focused on that would be an absolute asset.

It's something that has been lacking.

Um, and also they would fill a role of looking kind of outwardly, helping to um boost our communications, talk about issues, things like that, help our staff kind of target different pieces.

Um, and it was something that with the expansions in the mayor's office and that kind of dynamic concept of making sure that there's different roles filled.

Um, we felt like the leadership team could be bolstered as well.

Um it is something that we will be creating the position tonight, but we will not be voting on that position until our next meeting.

Um so that is something that will happen in the future.

Um so that is just wanted to run that down during caucus.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Farrell.

Okay, so it's 7.02 now, so we'll start our regular uh meeting.

We'll start off with the pledge, followed by a moment of silence.

So please stand with me.

So again, this is our uh Monday, January 5th council meeting.

It's our organizational meeting.

Umenez, please.

Madam Clerk, please call the role.

Adams.

President.

Anani.

Valorant.

Pleasant.

Brody, present.

Farrell.

Flynn.

President.

Hoey.

President Johnson.

President.

Jones.

President.

Keegan.

Here.

Lumpkin.

President.

Powell.

President Robinson.

Williamson.

President.

Zamer.

Present.

Fourteen present, one absent.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay, we will start with Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution one eleven twenty-six R and ask for its introduction and packet and passage.

Let's let's bear with me here.

I didn't realize we had public comment, so can we just back up for a second?

We have three people signed up for public comment, so we'll take them in order and we'll jump back to this.

I withdraw my motion.

Thank you.

All right, our first public speaker is Lil Stokes.

Thanks.

Alex Stokes Contum Pasis, who is the only person in this country still imprisoned for a January 6th incident, but he is also the only person in this country who defended himself and others against an attack made by Proud Boys just up the street from here at East Capitol Park during a stop the steel rally.

Proud boy Dominic wears Becky tased a black counter-protester in the neck.

A melee ensued when card-carrying Proud Boy Douglas M.

Russo did a hockey move as he testified in court and beat a second black man's body into the pavement.

Alex jumped to that man's aid, getting Russo off of him, but injuring Russo in the process.

Proud boy James Warner wears Bicky.

Yes, they are brothers, threw Alex to the ground, fracturing his left wrist and beating him with tactical gloves.

Alex successfully made it up off the ground, but injured Warner's abdomen in order to do so.

None of the Proud Boys, oath keepers, or MAGA enthusiasts present received any consequences.

Alex was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison, one 12-year sentence, and one eight-year sentence to be served consecutively.

He has served three years so far, with his first chance of parole being July 2039.

One may ask, how could this happen?

Well, we believe that Alex was the first in this new wave of punishing and imprisoning journalists.

Alex had a seven-year body of work leading up to January 6th.

He reported on civil rights and human rights events in the Albany area where he was born and raised, uh, was with Heather Heyer as she died in Charlottesville, and won a J20 lawsuit against kettling done by DC police.

I suppose to certain groups of people with certain belief systems, Alex can seem really scary.

Somebody who has a passion for exposing the truth can be viewed as a dangerous person.

And yet, with no previous criminal record, Alex ended up in a max 01 facility close to the Canadian border.

The amount of pain, anguish, agony, and heartache that comes with having a partner, a loved one, a friend in prison, is hard for most to describe.

You learn to live with the loss.

Some days it paralyzes you.

Some days you grow.

It's a choice.

Am I going to let David Sores, Brianne Parlansky Brucado, Marissa Olson, or Judge Roger McDonough ruin me today?

Am I going to let David Sores, Brianne Perlansky Brucado, Marissa Olson, or Judge Roger McDonough ruin me today, or am I going to get up and do something about it?

I have chosen to do a lot about it.

One of these things occurred in 2024.

I went to the Albany Human Rights Committee and asked for help.

Unfortunately, our former mayor was not very helpful with Alex's situation.

There was no follow-up by her or by any other members of the committee.

So tonight, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of January 6th, I'm hoping that current human rights committee members and Mayor appears can follow up with me on that filing.

Down the line, we'll be asking for clemency for Alex, and all of your collaboration would be one major piece in the intricate puzzle of bringing your constituent Alexander Stokes Contempassus home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk Coldwork.

Next speaker.

Next speaker is Tom Ellis.

The fatal fire at 241 Western Avenue in December led me to recall a similar experience I had when I lived on Myrtle Avenue about 40 years ago.

One landlord replaced the two-floor back porch, which a few years later suddenly collapsed to the ground.

Luckily not injuring or killing anybody.

Having lived in Albany most of my life and walked around a lot, I believe some perhaps dozens of back porches on two and three floor houses in Albany are structurally deficient.

And I urge the council to require an independent inspection or an inspection of each multi-floor porch in the city at least once every five years.

Occasionally, many people stand on back porches, especially in the summertime when they're having a party.

Many of these multi-floor back porches are held up by four by four posts, some of which are older than I am.

Some building owners will grumble, but it is in their best interest to have safe porches and ours.

These are beautiful houses, historically significant, and I've admired them since the 1960s when I helped my brother Phil deliver newspapers to them.

And please step up efforts to keep painted the crosswalks in Albany, especially near schools.

Many of the crosswalks in Albany are invisible or nearly invisible.

They're like ghost crosswalks, they're make-believe crosswalks or shadow crosswalks.

Some of them don't get painted, or some of them get painted maybe once every 10 or 15 years, I think, if that often.

Having quality crosswalks makes it safer for pedestrians, people who are riding around in wheelchairs or riding on skateboards to be a lot safer.

And you know, one of our ghost crosswalks is on the corner of Washington Avenue and Allen Street.

And I know that that's a dangerous intersection because I walk through it a lot.

It's dangerous for kids, even when there's a crossing guard there.

So I'd like to have that one repainted in the spring as soon as it can be done.

So thank you all and have a good new year.

Thank you, Mr.

Ellis.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Keith Irish.

Welcome to 2026, all Common Consul members, including five all new members.

One returning member, which I believe is the first time that has ever happened, one shifting position held, which is not the first time, but in consecutive terms is, and the balance of returning members.

That's not good.

For the benefit of the new members, my name is Keith Irish, a lifelong city resident.

I am not a carpetbacker.

Currently, for the last 40 plus years in what is currently known as the ninth ward.

I have I was a prior West Hill area resident for at several addresses and was advised I was born in the South E.

So you can see I have been around the city and know a lot about the city.

As the returning members know, I attend these meetings fairly regularly, as well as many other committee meetings, especially the budget ones, other department meetings, neighborhood association meetings, and other publicly held meetings.

So I am a wealth of knowledge that goes on around with what goes on around the city.

Some might say I'm a jack of all trades and master of none, but that would be incorrect, as I know things from sources that I cannot tell, nor would, and there are topics that I know more than the persons holding positions in those positions.

Government transparency is a current buzz phrase that should be in all of your hearts for what you do in these console positions.

The public is not as stupid as you think.

Or why did they why did they not do this on that subject?

And I tell them if you have that you have to speak up, especially at these council meetings and keep an open ear when notices when timely are released.

Some have, some haven't.

I do not refer, I do not prefer sitting here either, but it is what it is.

But whatever committees you hope to be assigned to that you are versed in what that committee does, why they do what gets done, and express your voice in the current on the current subject or legislation before you and not be a silent majority sitting in your chair doing lip service.

It is okay to vote no on something your residents told you to vote no on, even if you are the only one.

A learning curve for sure.

Another buzz phrase is community media.

Some of you might know it by the years old term of public access television.

Here in Albany, for the uninformed, it is generally referred to as Channel Albany on spectrum cable television channels, which really is three channels, 1301 for the public or P, 1302 for education or E, and 1303 for government or G, hence the term PEG channels.

Here in Albany, they are so underutilized by you, your associates, city departments, city agencies, city boards, and of course the public at large, it is terrible.

Most of this is due to a lack of inadequate funding and improper staffing and a lack of promotional materials.

People appointed to an oversight board that do not care, nor in some cases do not even know the benefits of community media across the spectrum, pun intended.

I am a wealth of knowledge that if you do not already know, should know.

Wait a minute.

Yeah, okay.

I'm sorry.

I'm a wealth of knowledge that if you do not already know, should know, and I would be happy to find time to discuss the issues with you on a one-on-one basis, so you, the new members will wonder why these underfunded utilization issues were existed for so long.

Just over the last few years that have been less and less original in-house programs created for the production in the production studio, that you probably have no idea where it is.

Because of understaffing and what staff there is not caring and having several other priorities.

Time restrictions here limit my ability to discuss in detail and leave it to be that government transparency and community media should be working hand in hand for the citizens of Albany to be better informed, equated, and know how they can create free speech programming for other citizens to hear and see.

You as council members should have your own shows as well.

As well as the current corner office administration, where the last one avoided the issue like a plague.

Thank you, Mr.

Irish.

Thank you.

May I walk give this to you.

Okay, and with uh Mr.

Irish finishing, we're all uh public comment is closed.

Okay, so jumping back uh Ms.

Farrell.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

I move to add resolution one eleven twenty-six R to the agenda by majority consent.

Thank you.

Second, Mr.

Flynn, all in favor.

Aye.

Okay.

MC passes.

Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution one eleven twenty-six R and ask for its introduction and passage.

Thank you, Ms.

Farrell.

Madam Clerk, please.

Yes, sorry.

Thank you.

A resolution reappointing Shinequa Jackson as city clerk of the City of Albany.

Okay.

Ms.

Farrell.

Discussion?

Vote position.

Um I am incredibly pleased to it is absolutely fortunate that we have Shanika Jackson as our clerk.

She served as deputy clerk.

Um and then served in the interim role for some time as we tried to look for someone, and we realized that we could not possibly find anyone as great as the person that was currently serving in the position.

We're incredibly lucky to have her.

She continues to push the bounds of what the clerk's office does, what she does, and what our staff does.

And I'm very proud to carry this and also to vote yes.

Um and I hope everyone will join me.

Thank you.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none.

Clerk, please call a roll.

Adams.

Yes, please.

Anani?

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Balleran.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Brody.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Farrell.

Yes.

Flynn.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Howie.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes.

Jones.

Yes.

Keegan.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Lumpkin.

Yes.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Williamson.

Yes.

Zamer.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

14 in the affirmative.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Look forward to working with you in the future.

You as well, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so on to our next item on the agenda.

I would uh entertain nominations for President Pro Temp.

Mr.

Rani.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, I'd like to nominate uh Jimmy Fowell for president pro temp of the Albany Comic Council.

Second.

Second.

Any other nomination?

No.

Okay.

See a non-nominations are closed.

Okay.

All right.

So I guess you can call the vote.

I don't Adams.

I don't think we um Yeah, we I think we just vote.

Okay.

One second.

Yes, okay.

With that, uh, all in favor of Ms.

Farrell's nomination.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

All opposed?

Okay, all right.

Yeah, it looks like it passes.

Thank you, Ms.

Farrell.

So with that, I'll I'll get out of your way.

Um thank you, Mr.

President, and I would like to thank deeply each of my colleagues.

It is an honor to serve with every single member that has been on this board, and I look forward to serving with every member here.

Um I'm here to be with you.

I care a great deal about the city, and I believe in the council and the work that we do, and I think we can do great things together, and um I'm here with anything that you need at any point.

So please um you all have my number, or if not, you will momentarily looking at you, Mr.

Jones.

And um, and I'm always here, and I will also be reaching out with you.

So next we have the majority leader appointment, Mr.

President.

Yes.

Okay, so uh my who am I recognizing to make a nomination?

Ms.

Keegan.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'd like to recommend Alfredo Ballarin for the position of majority leader.

Okay, it's nomination.

Any other nominee?

Mr.

Adams?

I'd like to make a nomination as well.

Can we need a second for his right?

Okay.

You have the second.

Oh, you want to make a nomination?

Right, yeah, that's what the second for uh we need a second for Mr.

Balor, correct?

Right.

We have a second.

I'll second.

Did we get it?

I'll second.

Okay.

Council.

And then Mr.

Adams.

Thank you, Mr.

President, make a nomination for Councilman Derrick Johnson for majority leader.

Second.

Okay.

Any other nominations?

No.

With that, nominations are closed with just those two.

Um in nomination.

One second.

All right, since we started with um Mr.

Ballowin, we'll start with a discussion.

Sure.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, and and thank you.

Once I would thank thanking all of the members uh who uh I've had an opportunity to talk to all of you over the last uh two weeks, uh and I appreciate the time that you've given me.

I appreciate your insight, uh and I appreciated the stories that we've shared.

Uh so thank you.

Um I uh I say that the processes has made me uh more uh understanding of all the members that we have here.

So thank you for that.

Uh for those who who are new to our body, um let me tell you a little bit of why I put my name forward uh for this position.

Um I have been someone that has uh not been afraid of difficult situations.

I have not been afraid of difficult conversations.

I have not been afraid of uh putting myself out there uh to try to mediate these difficult conversations.

Um I've never uh tried to go around or uh not uh talk about.

Uh I'm I'm old school in my way of thinking.

The best way to deal with something is to deal with it directly uh and address it directly.

Uh and I have done that, but I've also done it with an understanding that all of my colleagues have different experiences, different perspectives, uh different uh responsibilities.

Uh and just because we don't agree on one topic or another, it doesn't mean that we can't find agreement on future issues.

So I've always worked with that mentality of you we there's more that brings us together and divides us, one, and all of us are here to try to make our city a better place.

Uh and with that understanding is what I've I've uh how I've led those conversations over the years.

So I I bring these skills of being able to uh handle difficult conversations.

I bring these skills of being able to bring people together.

I bring these skills of uh not trying to avoid these conversations to the table for for you as the members to feel if these are the skills that you want in someone that's looking to be in your leadership, um, and someone that's going to be in meetings that are going to get difficult, and someone that's going to be in meetings that there's going to be conflict.

If someone that's going to be in meetings when we have challenges in front of us as a city and as a council.

So those are the skills that I have before you.

I want to say I uh I have nothing but good things to say about all of my members that I've worked with for over the last few years, uh, and I am proud to have worked with all of you, and I look forward.

I look forward to all the good work we have to get done uh beyond today.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Ballard.

Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm Derek Johnson.

I'm the Second War um Councilman, as many of you um may know.

Um I reached out to some of the new members, and I didn't get the opportunity um to talk to them.

And you know, um, I hope that you can hear me.

I said all of the change that is happening in Albany.

Why would I or you want to see council leadership remain the same?

After the past couple of years, one should expect for there to be change.

That's what I would represent change to the normal style of conducting business that this leadership has made me stand up here tonight and promise in my words that you will always that I will always stand for the people and the members.

I deserve to be part of the conversations as the lower wards which need a stronger present at the table.

The second ward has been active in the change that has come so far in this new year, so let's keep that energy going and support me to be your next majority leader working to address the things that were shared by the few members that I did um have a chance to um speak to.

The one problem the the one promise that I can always um keep is that each member of this body is the is the equal regardless of title, and one of the things that you will not hear from me in leadership is I think because one of the things is I'm not representing just me in that conversation or sitting at the table.

I think that um many of you in the last eight years never have gotten a chance to see who I am outside of making noise in a situation where all I could do was make noise.

Um those that don't know me, I'm a former college um basketball player, and one of the um roles that I play was point guard.

A point guard knows where everybody is supposed to be, and uh one of the things that I would like to bring to uh this this council is putting people in committees where your strengths are so that these committees can serve the communities and the capacities that they were set up.

I look forward to working with the new administration because I believe it's a new time in Albany, and um as as the only person that would be uh a native Albanian in um leadership from top to bottom, I think is um um equally important to have an Albany person who has experience when times were better around uh here to help that conversation get back there.

So I'm asking for your support tonight, not because I've been everybody's best friend, because when I come up in here, I bring the same type of passion each and every night for a group of people that have been overlooked for a long time.

So to expect me to be happy in my words with the business, the way business has been conducted in the past, it's a marvel that I even want to be in that um conversation.

But I tell you this, I bring uh energy to um this business.

People call me at six o'clock in the morning as late as 11 o'clock at night, and I never shy away from calls.

I never shy away from the difficult conversations.

One of my concerns is I've never been allowed to be a part of the conversation, and that's why I feel that it's a need for me to be able to be sitting at that table representing um the the uh city of Albany in a fine fashion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

Um we've heard from the two nominees.

Anyone else have any comments for discussion?

Okay, if not, um Mr.

Warner.

Good evening, everybody.

Um, for anyone that I haven't had the chance to meet yet, I'm Robert Wenner, I'm the research council uh for the common council here.

Just wanted to clarify the procedure here because it it is important that each member votes yes for at most one of the two candidates that are up.

Um we're not able to have two majority leaders.

Um in a moment, President Kimbrough is going to call for a vote on one of the two candidates.

You can vote yes or no on that candidate.

If that candidate receives a majority, that'll be the end of proceedings, they'll be named majority leader.

If they do not receive a majority of votes, then we will have a vote on the second candidate.

If that candidate also does not receive a majority of votes, we'll return to nominations.

Um President Kimberly.

Thank you, Mr.

Winter.

So with that, we'll uh entertain the votes and the order that they were.

So we'll go through Mr.

Baller and we'll go to Mr.

John.

Okay.

We'll start with um Councilmember Ballerman.

Vote for majority leader for him.

Adams.

No.

Anani.

No.

Ballorin.

Yes.

Brody.

Yes.

Farrell.

Yes.

Lynn?

Yes.

Hoey.

No.

Johnson.

No.

Jones.

No.

Keegan.

Yes.

Lumpkin?

Yes.

Powell.

Yes.

Robinson.

He's not here, I'm sorry.

Williamson.

Yes.

Zamer.

Yes.

Nine, yes.

Five, no.

Next is a vote for council member Johnson.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

At this point, but because that's a majority.

Eight would have been the majority, so it was nine.

So with that, the closed the nominations, Mr.

Ballarin has the majority of the votes.

So we're good.

Um Mr.

Ballorin, you're the majority leader.

You want to take over, Ms.

Farrell.

You want me to yes, Mr.

President.

Um next, we will have our the establishment of committees, I believe it is, which I will note is not yet committee assignments.

Okay, all right.

So we don't we don't have those, so we'll we'll move on for that and table until we can get together uh the list.

And do we get those uh the sheets out with uh with uh the committee requests for we haven't so we'll have to we'll have to get those out for folks um and then uh moving on to the adoption of rules for rules of procedure thank you, Mr.

President.

I the rules of procedure have been updated.

Um I would love it if Mr.

Jimenez could just quickly go through what those updates have been.

A lot of them are procedural to kind of update us to um a more modern way of doing things, uh, particularly in the process moving to Robert's rules from Mason's rules, but I would love it if Mr.

Jimenez, who has taken the leadership on updating them, wouldn't mind going through quickly.

Yeah, as mentioned, the largest change was the switch to Roberts.

Um we figured it uh council members would be a little more familiar with Roberts given potentially other committee board assignments that they've had.

Uh largely the rules procedure were reorganized.

Um just to make things a little bit clearer.

The 2019 version had a lot of different powers in different areas.

Uh a lot of that was consult consolidated for each of the various officer positions.

And we might need to update the motion section a little bit given the change to Roberts.

But beyond that, uh oh on uh previously the Office of Corporation Council had been the primary location where legislation has been drafted.

Um given changes over the last couple of years.

We've made sure that that's pulled into the office of the common council, our research council, ourselves.

We uh we built up a body that can be able to handle the uh production of legislation.

Uh and let's see.

There's also the creation of the majority whip.

Uh that would also be part of the rules procedure.

And uh I believe that's largely it.

Um we can probably go uh everybody should have received a copy of the rules of procedure, and we're always welcome to uh anybody's welcome to ask us questions about regarding them.

Thank you, Mr.

Jimenez.

Um with that I move that the council adopts this updated version of the Albany County Common Council rules of procedure.

Second all those in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

I'm not supposed to say yeah.

I gotta get out.

Old habits are that hard.

So with that, uh the motion passes.

We we adopted the rules of procedure with the updates.

Uh Mr.

Arrow?

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I move that the Times Union be our official newspaper designation, as I believe it is the only daily newspaper in the city of Albany.

Although Metroland is up and coming until that day, I think we still need to do the Albany Times Union.

Second question.

Okay.

Okay, so uh all of us got a second from Mr.

Howie.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

Motion passes.

Times union is our official newspaper yet again.

Ms.

Farrell.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

I believe all other items are held as we have already talked to our commissioner appointments.

Um that is something that we do have a specific process with.

Um they will be actually resolutions that are introduced and will go through committee.

Um, so the committees will have an opportunity to ask questions of the um different commissioners, and um, and then we will vote on them.

We do have a timeline for that, but we are well within that timeline.

Um I don't believe the timeline's triggered yet.

We haven't received the paperwork.

Oh, well, once we get the paperwork, then a timeline is triggered.

So the timeline is, and I believe it's 45 days once we get the paperwork that we need to go through our process.

Um, and then if we don't go through our process in that time frame, then they will automatically be appointed.

But within 45 days, we should be able to um meet with them and uh in a public meeting and ask questions.

Yes, and we and we want to stay on top of that.

And we've in the past we've kind of bumped up against timelines and stuff, so we'll clearly map out uh those interviews and discussions that we'll be having with them and um which means we gotta get the committees together to kind of help with that.

And if we're moving to the miscellaneous section, which is not we don't have just for new council members, we don't have our normal outline that we would normally have because it is our first organizational meeting, but at this stage we do usually have a miscellaneous section where we're able to say any council member can kind of talk about any one thing.

Um I just quickly wanted to note um we'll be sending out information on the committees and um a request for preferences for all council members tomorrow if we can get that by Thursday, Friday at the very latest, so that we can put that together and move forward.

Um ideally we like to have um give everybody their first preferences, and wherever they have the most experience, it makes a lot of sense to utilize um the resources that we have within the council, but it's also incredibly important to make sure that every committee has a geographical representation.

So we want some we want committees to make sure that they are representing the entire city and not any one section of the city.

So there's different considerations with it, but um your input is incredibly valuable.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Mr.

President.

Um this is a miscellaneous uh one of the things I wanted to talk to the new members about is uh email.

Uh when I first started, I was like all independent.

I'm gonna use my own personal email till my it got foiled.

And um if you get foiled and and it can happen at any time, you and you're using your personal email, you have to open up your whole email for every email in there can be looked at.

So I encourage everybody to use the city's email system because then you know our attorney uh you know Robert can look at it and put it out.

Any type and I would limit it to city business, but I strongly strongly recommend it.

I saw the list came out, and um a lot of people still have their personal emails, but again, I strongly recommend it.

And the other thing is um I set up a group, it's called CC group, and all you gotta do if you want to send an email to the whole council, you type in CC group, and it'll send to everybody.

I have to update it, but I was hoping that people would use the city email system before I go in.

Um and then the other thing I want to talk about with email is um we really can't discuss business like legislation or anything in the email.

It can be informative, but we can't have the back and forth because then we're we're breaking um the rule the open meetings law.

And uh we'll be going to classes and you're gonna hear a lot more about it.

And uh, but the reason I'm focusing on uh email, I've been in IT for 38 years at the University of Albany, so I just wanted to let you know as far as email, that would be the best way to go.

Thank you.

We're gonna go to Mr.

Ballard, but we're right now, Mr.

Winter, since he's gonna talk about what Mr.

I appreciate.

Right before you do, I'm sorry to interject.

Um for the new members, your your city of Albany emails will be established this week, and you'll get confirmation from me of those what your city email address will be.

So moving forward, we will request that you use that email address for all council business.

Mr.

Winner?

I I appreciate teen that up, uh, Councilmember Howie.

I just wanted to note for uh all new members and also for returning members any questions that anyone has on any of the laws that we're gonna be interacting with here, whether that's FOIL, Freedom of Information Law, or the open meetings law is going to come up a lot, uh, even if the question is what is the open meetings law?

Tell me about it.

Uh come any time, you can come by the office, you can call, text, email, and uh more than happy to run through any questions anyone has to make sure that we're all on the same page about best way to comply with state law and also the city code.

And I I will add at the orientation on Thursday, um, we'll also be running through all of this.

So for orientation, we um I received notice of a few members not being able to attend on Thursday.

So we're going to move it to next week right after caucus.

That way everyone is here and we can conduct the orientation um all at the same time.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Ballarin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to take a second and just thank everybody uh for their support um uh and uh for the trust.

I also want to thank uh councilmember Johnson uh for putting your name out there uh and and doing the work.

Uh this is not an easy process for anyone uh who's gone through it uh and I appreciate uh to want you to know uh councilman Johnson.

I appreciate you putting yourself out there uh doing the work and I appreciate your voice and your contribution uh to this body uh over the last eight years.

Uh so I just wanted to say that uh I also want to say um as someone who won my first primary by 21 votes.

Uh I know that the work that's out there to make sure that all uh all those you are responsible for uh hear your voice uh and that you work for them.

Um I want my second primary by 71 per 79 percent.

So uh I'll take that as a uh uh key that I can I can do that well.

And I'm gonna start by doing something I probably shouldn't do.

Uh making sure everyone has my cell phone.

If you haven't, if you don't have it already.

Um I think you do, but I'll just put it out there.

518-209-6922.

Uh feel free to call me anytime.

And again, thank you to everybody.

Uh and thank you again, Councilmember Johnson.

Um, you know, and uh you are very much appreciated.

Okay, anyone else for miscellaneous?

If not, Ms.

Farrell.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.