Okay, we're gonna get started, everybody.

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the June 1st, 2026 Planning, Economic Development, and Land Use Committee meeting.

My name is Deborah Zamer.

I chair the committee.

We are joined by committee members Tom Hoy, Arthur Lumpkin, Alfredo Ballorin, and Council members, Rachel Powell, and Jack Flynn.

We're also joined by legislative staff, Carly Johnson, Brian Jimenez, Robert Wenner, and Commissioner Sergio Penunzio, Commissioner of DGS.

Thank you for being here also for questions.

We are the first thing.

Did we have any public comment?

Okay.

No public comment.

So we'll get right to the topic of our discussion, which is resolution 3952 26R from Councilmember Powell, a resolution of the Common Council declaring itself to be lead agency for the state environmental quality review of the Rap Road Transfer Station Project, declaring such action to be a type one action and making a negative declaration as to the environmental impact of such action.

So, Councilmember Powell, would you like to speak on this and maybe introduce who we have to discuss it?

Um, if that's within your peer view.

Sure.

Um, so uh I am the sponsor of this resolution as a landfill and the transfer station, um, the proposed transfer station would occur in the 12th ward, which is my district.

Um, there was a very comprehensive report that I think was sent to all of you earlier related to environmental impact study that was done by CHA.

Um, the RCHA partners are here to talk about that tonight and present their findings.

Um, I've previously met with them.

It's a very comprehensive report, so I hope committee members had an opportunity to take a look at it.

Um, so I will um turn it over to all of you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Councilmember Powell.

Yes, please, would you mind introducing yourselves and where you're from and your relationship to this particular discussion?

Absolutely, thank you.

Good evening, chair members of the committee.

My name is Nicholas Ward Willis.

I'm an attorney with Keenan Bean, and our firm is being retained as special land use and environmental counsel to the corporation's council's office and to the city for the overview and um permitting of the transfer station at RAP Road.

And with me tonight are Chris Einstein and Jason Gorman of CHA, who have been the long-term planning and engineering advisors to the city of Albany concerning the landfill and the planning for the closure of a landfill and then eventual construction and operation of a waste transfer station adjacent to the landfill.

And as council member uh Powell mentioned, CHA and my office have been working with staff and with various um what are called interested and involved agencies, other um agencies who issue permits to prepare for the permitting of the uh transfer station.

And so tonight we're going to go through and provide you with an overview of the examination of the potential environmental issues and what was done, what was examined, and our findings on that.

And we're tonight asking the committee to refer to the full council, a resolution finding that there are no significant adverse environmental impacts from the construction of the transfer station adjacent to the existing landfill.

And to uh reach that conclusion, CHA has undertaken a comprehensive study, as you have seen with the materials presented to you, over 500 pages of traffic analysis, review of the habitat, utilities, odor, noise, the full suite of environmental issues that New York State law requires mandates that this city council review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

And for that process to start, the city council declared itself a lead agency, and you took that step back in December when you told the other agencies, such as DEC, who would have to issue a permit for the transfer station to operate, that the city council felt it had the expertise, the skills, and the knowledge to act as the lead agency to review if there were any significant adverse environmental impacts from the construction and operation of the transfer station.

So that resolution was adopted in December.

Notice was sent to adjacent municipalities who are interested agencies, as well as a number of other involved and interested agencies.

Some comments were received, but no one objected to the city council being the lead agency.

We had previously provided DEC with a permit application, which they have been reviewing.

DEC acquiesced and agreed that the city was in the best position to review the impacts from its construction and operation.

And so since the declaration of its intent to be lead agency in January, the 30-day period has passed.

No one has objected.

So when you adopt this resolution tonight, you're declaring that you are the lead agency.

You're taking that last step.

That then allows you as a lead agency to make the determination of significance, which is binding upon all the other agencies because it would be pointless to have separate independent reviews.

So your decisions are very important, and other agencies are relying upon it.

And so tonight I'm going to ask Chris and Jason to walk us through what was done on the city's behalf to examine those potential significant environmental impacts.

And I can assure you that the materials before you are very comprehensive and comply in every respect with DEC's regulations.

And the next step, should you adopt a resolution tonight, will be a copy of a finding statement, will be published in the environmental notice bulletin, which is DEC's official publication, circulated to be involved in interested agencies, and particularly to DEC, so that DEC can declare the application for the transfer station permit to be complete, and then they'll then ask for any public comments on that permit application, and then hopefully they'll grant the permit, and then we can begin the uh permitting uh bidding up work and starting construction in the late fall or early winter of next year.

So if there are no questions on the process, I'm then going to ask Chris and Jason to start us off on discussions of what was done with those examinations of the environmental topics.

Uh I will start with an overview of the project itself, um the need for it, the transfer station design and the uh planned operations.

That you make sure you speak into the mic because that's that's how the people out in the cyber sphere is that.

Yeah, thanks.

You have to get closer than it then feels comfortable.

I'll start again.

Uh I'm gonna review the project purpose and need and talk a little bit about the transfer station design and the planned operations at the new facility.

And I'll hand it to Chris who will go through the studies that were completed.

So the proposed uh transfer station is located uh just adjacent to the landfill property to the uh east or northeast in the property which we call the Simons property.

It's 502, 504, and 506 Rap Road.

Um the landfill is reaching its capacity in the fall of 2027, and the current permit that we have with the New York State uh Department of Conservation does not allow expansion of the landfill.

Um this city's Department of General Services did an excellent job extending the life of the landfill, but unfortunately, at in the fall of next year uh we are at capacity and uh no longer be able to receive any waste.

Uh the city of Albany's um south waste management plan identified the transfer station of saddle waste from the capital region as a long-term solution uh for solid waste management once the landfill closed.

Um this uh property was uh adjacent to the landfill was considered uh based on the costs and or excuse me.

Construction of the transfer station on the landfill property itself uh was considered, but due to cost and space, it's prohibited.

Uh, there's a significant amount of costs associated with existing utilities that would need to be relocated uh to support the transfer station at that location, and uh there's just not enough room to support the five size of the facility that's needed.

Uh so the city um identified the Simons property adjacent to the landfill as the preferred location for the transfer station, and this property was also identified in 2009 uh to support the landfill expansion, so it has been reviewed in the past uh to support sell waste management uh for the city.

The property meets the needs for the transfer station, and uh the terms of the sale with the property owner have been agreed upon.

So that the property uh is three separate parcels, as I said 502, 504, and 506 Rap Road.

Uh the planned construction date is October of 2026, uh, which coincides with uh an eight-month construction period to meet the end of the landfill life in the fall of 2027, and it's planned to receive 500 tons a day uh for transfer for off-site disposal at a permitted facility.

Uh we will utilize the existing landfill entrance.

Uh here the here's a uh drawing of the proposed facility.

As I said, we're gonna utilize the landfill entrance uh for the entrance into the new facility.

It's going to be approximately 26,000 square feet uh to support uh 500 tons a day for transfer off-site.

Uh the facility will also include a scale house and scales for um weighing of the incoming and outgoing waste.

Uh here's an elevation view of the proposed facility.

It'll have a minimum interior height of 40 feet, uh, number of uh doors uh to support the incoming and outgoing traffic, and it's gonna be tiered uh with a lower level so the waste that's deposited on the upper floor will be pushed into trailers on the lower level for off-site disposal.

Uh here's a depiction of the proposed scale house that's gonna be loaded located just east of the larger uh transfer station building to support incoming and outgoing traffic.

So any questions regarding the transfer station facility or operations.

Councilmember Hoey, committee member thank you.

Um I was curious.

The you know it seems like a lot.

500,000 pounds of garbage every day, that's half a million pounds.

That's 500 tons, right?

It's a thousand pounds tonight seems like a lot.

Now, is this just gonna be for residential use?

Um, or is this gonna be are commercial entities gonna be able to use this transfer station?

The facility is gonna support the answers community, so it's the pickups from the residents from the within the answers community itself.

The landfill currently accepts just over 400 tons a day currently, and it's just the Albany and associated answers community.

But um there is commercial dump.

I mean, you know, I'm a contractor or something, I can go and dump there.

I have to pay for it from what I understood.

This city does support currently supports uh commercial um waste, but not a significant amount.

Um that's how they were able to extend the life of the facility by cutting back and only receiving correct uh most of the um answers communities waste.

So this new facility are they gonna accept some commercial or no?

That is not the intent currently, it's just to uh receive answers waste.

And 500 tons a day is the facility design, and like I said, we're currently at 400 tons a day, so we're gonna be under that 500 day.

Oh, yeah.

It seems like a lot, and you know, as a society, we should try to cut back on our waste.

I mean, believe me, I'm trying to recycle and stuff like that at home, like you know, uh uh compost and stuff.

Thank you so much.

We're also joined by committee member Sergio Adams.

Councilmember Adams, you have a question.

Uh good evening.

Thank you for your presentation.

Um, I just had some questions uh in regards to like the environmental concerns as you outlined in regards to the noise and order coming from the area.

Can you uh speak to kind of how you plan to control the noise and order coming from the facility?

Can I just intervene?

Is that that's upcoming in your presentation?

Yeah, we have it is but we haven't quite gotten there yet.

Yeah.

If you is that okay, Councilmember Adams?

I I could answer the noise and owner questions.

Yeah, so it's a um the fill facility will be enclosed.

Uh so the noise would actually be less than the current operations at the landfill.

Uh, there's less equipment that's utilize, the equipment's and will be in the transfer station building itself.

And for odors, um the waste will be disposed of on the floor of the transfer station, put in trailers, and then um dispose of off-site.

So there's no anticipation of leaving uh waste within those trailers for more than uh a day or two at the most.

So we don't anticipate any odors associated with the waste.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fallarin.

Thank you, sure.

Uh so you you mentioned that we've secured the property on 2022 and 206 profit votes, so that's been closed on at this point.

I know that was a big issue here last year.

Right, Councilman, when we were here in December, there was some discussion about the acquisition of the property.

We did not secure it an agreement at that time, and the city council authorized um security for eminent domain.

Since that time, we've had further discussions, exchange of appraisals, and we've reached an agreement on a purchase price of $750,000 for the property, and um contracts were being signed, and we anticipate a closing by the beginning of July, and then the individuals will stay there until the end of sometime in September before vacating.

So they'll they'll be able to so they'll have to vacate one end of July or closing in July, beginning of July, and then they'll stay in possession until uh sometime in September.

I believe by they'll be out by the end of that month.

And you need to build and you start building in September.

We're going to start building in October.

In October, okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, thanks.

Please continue.

Okay.

All right.

So what you have in front of you is a uh full environmental assessment form for seeker.

And if you look at uh part two of the full EAF, you will note that there are a full there's a full list of environmental issues that are typically addressed uh under seeker, and we have addressed all of those issues.

They are all documented within the uh environmental assessment form, and particularly what we refer to as the expanded EAF or the part three documentation.

Um what I want to do tonight, however, is focus only on those issues, key issues that um were potential for some significant environmental impacts and how we resolve those issues, address those issues, investigated those issues.

So that's what I'm gonna focus on here.

Uh what I'll do is go through each topic.

Uh I think it may make sense to maybe stop after each topic and ask for questions.

Does that work?

Okay, very good.

That's that's what we'll do then.

Um the first issue is land use and zoning.

So what we have in this area is is a residential property.

It is the last residential property adjacent to the landfill itself.

And uh as a result, it's it's it's not a uh compatible use for landfill operations, and in fact, this part uh this property is located immediately adjacent to the landfill operations.

Um so it it is the active part of the landfill which will continue to be there even after the landfill is closed.

So the landfill must be uh monitored and maintained, uh and so those operations will need to continue to be there.

So from a land use perspective, it's it's a good choice uh not to have this residential property here anymore.

And um, and as I will show you in a minute, there's uh there are no other residential properties in the vicinity of the landfill any longer.

Uh so it's also an ideal location because of its proximity to the landfill operations.

So the staffing is there, the maintenance uh services are all there, and the utilities that are going to be necessary for uh this facility, although they will need to be upgraded to some extent, they are present.

So it is really uh uh an optimal location, not to mention the fact that we're using the same access road for the landfill.

So I think that's very important as well.

We're not putting traffic, additional traffic in other parts of the city.

So um, and as I mentioned, really it's just an extension of the city's solid waste management operations.

In addition, I would mention that uh during the uh environmental impact evaluation for the eastern expansion of the landfill.

So it's always been intended for that use, as it turned out, we didn't need to use it.

We didn't need to have the expenses of moving all the facilities over there at that time, and so therefore it was not uh acquired at that time.

But it was always intended for that use, it's been evaluated for that use, uh, and I think it just makes sense for this project.

Are there any questions on land use?

Uh this the this area you've seen before, but it's excuse me.

That's okay.

Um Councilmember Flynn.

Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry.

We're also joined by President Pro Temp Jenny Farrell.

I just want to make sure for the record the county planning board or the town of county is not involved in this whole process.

That's correct.

Until before the city.

Thank you.

And my question is about energy use, but is that in an upcoming slide?

Energy, yeah.

That's uh uh well you I can wait until you deal with that.

Or yeah, we can talk about it now because it's not something that I've we've identified as.

I think I just wanted to I wanted to just express publicly make sure because I I mean I did read the reports.

Um is there gonna be is is or do you anticipate there's gonna be actually uh less energy used for the transfer station than with the landfill as far as electricity is concerned?

Was there any there was a there were some there was some findings about the electricity that was going to be utilized for the space?

Obviously it's not it wasn't something significant if it doesn't uh pop out in your memory.

Um the the only energy used would the only energy use for the transfer station would be the lighting and the computers and and scale.

So okay.

Then it's it sounds like there's no significant there.

There, I mean if you consider the fact that there's a lot of equipment used at the landfill uh to uh deposit the waste to um move the waste to uh you know any number of activities that need to occur when the landfill is uh is oper as a wet landfill is operational, the those will no longer be needed.

So we didn't do any kind of balance in terms of uh energy balance between the two.

Um that was not evaluated, but um, but there certainly is less energy in in certain circumstances.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council uh councilmember Hoey.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I just got a first question.

Does the council do we have to rezone this?

Will the council have to do something to get you know because you did say it was residential.

Should we get that rid of that at some point?

Well, I think if there's a if it's designated for public use, right?

So then we don't need to rezone.

That's correct.

So what we've discussed with corporation council's office is using what's called the Monroe County decision, which allows uh the um zoning determination of a planning commissioner to make a determination that it's being used for a public use and do the balancing test to ensure that when you bounce zoning versus the benefits of a public from having the solid waste transfer station, that the zoning then rezoning is not necessary, nor are zoning approvals necessary.

And as Chris mentioned, it is a residential use, but it's the last one and it's next to the land.

So I understand.

But I appreciate the question.

Yes.

I didn't want to leave it on the books if it could cause problems in the future.

But thank you for I didn't know that.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Um, so this map which you've seen before just uh again shows you the fact that there are no residential uses other than this property in the vicinity.

Um the barn uh building that you see to the um northeast a little bit there is actually DEC owned property that was the old horse farm property uh which now has uh partly being used for restoration, partly being used by DEC.

So there are no residential uses around this, and as you can also see is the as I mentioned the landfill operations which are immediately adjacent to this um parcel.

Okay.

So moving on to threaten endangered species.

So this was um an issue of of concern because we are in the pine bush in terms of the study area.

Um, and as you may be aware, there's an ongoing restoration project which which we are involved with that was part of the mitigation for the eastern expansion, which will eventually include uh the landfill itself will be restored to pine bush habitat.

So the first thing that you do is do a desktop review of both the federal and the state resources for the potential for threatened endangered species being present on your project site.

And so going through that process, we identified the species that you see here.

So obviously that did raise concern to DEC.

And then the last is the monarch butterfly, which is another species which is proposed to be listed as federally threatened.

So those are the species that we uh that we were working with at the federal level at the well, I guess I will just say first, based on on these, uh we did perform a habitat assessment of the project site.

Um the biologists that performed that assessment are the same biologists who have been doing uh the restoration and monitoring work at the landfill in the pine bush, and so we are very familiar with the pine bush species.

Um we do a lot of work um in evaluating habitat for bats as well.

So very qualified individuals that performed this habitat assessment, and the results of that, which are part of the document documentation, is that um there's no habitat present uh for either the monarch or the carner blue butterfly.

So essentially there is no pine bluish or pine barons habitat present on the project site itself.

It is a residential property, it's been significantly changed in terms of the ecology from what it originally was, and is uh just not suitable habitat for those species.

In terms of the bats, there are trees on the site, and so uh, and and some very large ones, uh some with appropriate roosting habitat for the bats.

So there is a potential for the bats to be present.

The way that that gets addressed is that uh clearing of the trees on the on the site is done during the winter hibernation period.

So the bats are simply not present on the site, and so the trees can be safely taken down without any impact to the bats.

You have a question, Councilmember Fallard.

Yep.

So I I mean I just had a quick question.

So if the bats are hibernating, doesn't that mean they're in the trees?

Oh well, they've been out at the treaties.

We we don't know if there's any bats present on the site.

There may be bats, there may be non-listed bats present on the site.

Um the protocols are typically if you can do what we call time of year tree cutting restrictions, so cutting those trees in the um in the winter time basically.

Um that is sufficient to not have a direct impact on the bats because at that period at that point in time, the bats are in their hibernaculas, so typically caves and those types of old mines and caves and those types of things.

They're not in the trees.

Okay, so that's so they're not in the trees.

That's the case.

They will not be in the trees during winter.

No.

We're not burning them a lot.

No.

No, we will not.

Okay.

That's not good.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, right.

Uh I'm sorry, you you think they're fine with this project as it is probably further away from the pine bush, or will they be here in a few weeks advocating against this?

Um I I don't there is no habitat present on site.

So and I I guess I I guess we can jump into, I was gonna talk about the state species, but we did have a field meeting with DEC biologists to um review the habitat and to um make sure that they were comfortable with the results of our habitat assessment, and they were.

They determined that there is no habitat present on site.

There is a 200-foot buffer that's associated with um occupied habitat.

There is occupied habitat to both the north and to the east of this site.

However, um they consider a 200-foot buffer around those areas being occupied if they contain uh nectar species.

So the species that the the uh the butterflies would use and and uh the site simply is there are no nectar species on the site.

The site is uh for the most part forested or what we refer to as scrub shrub community, which is not the community that supports those types of species.

So as a result of that, as a result of DEC seeing these conditions, they then concluded that there is no habitat.

They concluded that they will not require any species-specific surveys, and they concluded that they will not require any permits from us from that.

And we were hoping to have the actual letter stating that from DC, but in lieu of that, we did get them to issue a uh email, which essentially uh documents that you I appreciate the answer.

Okay, Councilmember Ballard.

Thank you, Sheriff.

And just a follow-up to Councilmember Fling's question.

Uh, did you get an opportunity to also reach out to any of the advocates directly to see what their thoughts are on?

I'm thinking save the pine pine view um, you know, any of them directly, because I know they were very vocal uh about this at the end of the process uh when we were looking at at uh at this issue last year.

Uh so if if there's a weight, I'm not sure if you've already reached out to them uh to try to address those issues uh in the forefront.

Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't hear it the door was open and I didn't hear.

So is my microphone?

Which group are you concerned about the mic is the same?

Save the pine view.

Save the pine bush?

Yeah, save the pine views.

They came last time.

I think in the beginning, I think you did mention that you have the comments.

Yeah, yeah.

So we have aware of their comments, and we uh as I as I said before, there's no there is no habitat present on this site, so there is no way that these species can be impacted, nor can we take their habitat from them as a result of developing this site.

So um in in my opinion, there is no impact here, and as DEC noted, they feel the same way.

And just to your point, Councilmember, you're correct.

The Pine Bush, Save a Pine Bush Group did offer comments back in December.

We took those comments because we had a transcript and we provided those to CHA so they were informed of those comments and CHA reviewed and considered those, had the site visit with DEC and reached the conclusion as uh Mr.

Einstein mentioned that there's not a concern that this project will have an impact on that habitat.

So I I guess my question was, and I apologize if I wasn't clear.

So was there any direct contact with that organization to try to speak to them directly about their concerns?

We have not had direct contact with them, no.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, please continue.

I'm just I'm also just uh conscious of the time.

I just want us to be aware that we have a 6 30 uh meeting directly after this.

Okay.

So um we've we've talked about a lot about the habit the pine bush uh habitat, which is primarily what the state um is focused on in terms of their list of threatened endangered species.

Um the the primary species of that are uh protected uh that they were concerned with is uh the first uh butterfly to the left there, which is a frosted elfin.

Uh the second obviously is the kind of blue butterfly.

The bird you see there is uh uh is a um oh goodness.

Redheaded woodpecker.

Sorry.

Thank you.

I wanted to say woody woodpecker.

That's where I was going in my mind.

Um and then the the last species is the um inland barons buckmoth.

So those two species um the woodpecker and the buck moth are listed as special concern, which have some level of protection under the state.

Um the the habitat for again for all of these species is is not present.

We have buck moths that we have identified.

They like uh scrub oak uh areas, and we certainly do have that habitat within our uh restoration area and other areas in the pine bush, and we have documented them, but the habitat is simply not present on the site.

The redheaded woodpecker actually did show up uh in the pine bush several years ago, quite caused quite a stir for the birding community and uh and and was present for maybe a few weeks.

We thought maybe it was going to be a breeding pair, and then we have not seen them since.

So they are a rare species.

I didn't mean to sorry, I thought you were moving on.

Um the biologist from the New York State DC also confirmed these species were not present, that their habitat was not present on this.

They were not yes, their their primary concern was for the presence of the carner blue butterfly and the frosted elfant because that is the habitat that's located adjacent to it.

Okay.

They were not concerned about any of these other species.

There are also several rare species that are not protected, not listed in the pine bush that depend on that the same type of habitat, but again, that habitat is not present here, so we simply will not impact any of these species.

So I think we've gone over this.

Uh you know, the the pitch pine scrub oak barrens is a significant natural community.

It occurs adjacent to the project site.

It is not how this site is designated.

That is not it is a residential property, and as I mentioned before, it's been significantly disturbed by residential uses.

Okay.

Cultural resources.

So we did an investigation.

Uh the this whole area is uh uh sensitive for archaeological resources, particularly what we refer to as pre-contact.

We used to refer to it as prehistoric archaeological resources, and they did find a small archaeological site present.

Um this was actually discovered uh many years ago as part of the review for the original EIS that was done for the eastern expansion, and at that time it was intended to avoid the site, but under the current project, we uh were not able to avoid it from the perspective of being over it and and needing that area.

However, uh the state environmental or the state uh historic preservation office reviewed the cultural resources surveys and did offer uh another option to preserve the site, which is called encapsulation.

And because we need a lot of fill on this site to bring it up in elevation, uh we will be above this site.

We will not impact this site, and so as a result of that, um, and providing several iterations of the plans for uh SHIPO's review, they concurred that encapsulation would be uh sufficient for this site.

So that that is our intent, and as a result, there will be no impact to this uh site.

Any questions on that?

Okay.

Noise and odors.

So um, in light of the time we have, I think Jason addressed this issue pretty well.

The uh operations are going to be within the building.

Uh thinking about noise levels, so uh the way the the uh landfill operates right now, you have heavy machinery occurring at the top of the landfill.

That's creating quite a bit of noise.

And that will, as soon as the landfill is uh no longer operational, we will not have that noise.

All that uh all that's occurring will be occurring primarily within the facility itself.

The majority of these operations are going to be within the enclosure, and um so we really don't see any issues associated with noise or odors.

Any further questions on that?

Okay.

Health and safety.

So we did prepare a phase one environmental site assessment, which involves literature review, database review for hazardous materials, as well as a site visit.

And no resources are no environmental concerns were identified on the project site.

But the project itself, because there's because we're going to primarily put fill on the site, there's very little opportunity to intersect with the groundwater table during construction.

And so therefore there would really be no opportunity for contact with contaminated if indeed there were any contaminated uh contaminated groundwater associated with it.

The uh yeah, we talked about the so the last item that I wanted to emphasize is the fact again, we're eliminating this residential use.

So there will be no opportunity for uh new residents to move into this location, and which in our opinion uh is is a you know safety concern.

Um so eliminating that residential use would um eliminate those those types of concerns.

Any questions on that?

I believe.

Oh, transportation.

I thought I had the last one.

All right, so um, so the uh all the truck traffic currently and in the future will come from the Washington Ave Extension and Wrap Road intersection.

So all of that's coming from the throughway and other areas uh from the city, et cetera.

But it all comes from that direction to uh wrap road and that short distance from uh wrap road to the entrance to the landfill.

So those uh traffic patterns are not going to change at all.

During operation of the transfer station, there will be a maximum of 95 vehicles per day for the purposes of evaluating the impacts.

It was assumed that all those vehicles would be trucks.

So this is basically the same volume of traffic that's currently coming to the landfill uh under its reduced uh uh that's the right term capacity or not waste disposal.

Yeah, thank you.

So under full under the full operations back in 2008 when we were evaluating the eastern expansion, that the traffic uh volumes were somewhere in the vicinity of the 125 to 150 vehicles per day.

So that's going to reduce significantly.

Um and then based on our evaluation of the intersection uh of Washington Avenue Rap Road, the conditions there will not change from the current conditions.

They will operate at an overall uh level of service of D, which is considered acceptable.

Any questions on that?

Just a quick question.

When you say 95 vehicles, are you talking about 95 trips a day?

Are you talking about actually 95 different vehicles?

You know what I'm saying?

Um that would be true, that would be asking.

Yeah, yes.

No, I understand what you're saying.

Thank you.

Yes.

Okay.

I think that's it.

You know, we've we've just come to uh the EAF brings us to this uh conclusion that we we do not have any significant uh environmental impacts associated with the transfer station.

Again, the removal of the residential use will eliminate the last potential and incompatible use.

And uh so parts two and three of the EAF are provide the documentation to support uh consideration of a negative declaration.

Councilmember Howie.

Thank you.

Um Chair.

I you know would be helpful for us because you you talked about it during your presentation that the landfill itself is gonna be like returned to the lot to to the wild and the area around probably around it too.

What would be helpful for us is when the people do come in and start you know talking about saving the pine bush to know how many acres, you know, we're gonna have this building.

I'm not sure the acreage there, but I'd like to know what are we so yeah, we're taking this, we're gonna have a transfer station, but what are we gonna put back to the wild?

And that could be our argument when people you know people get really restoration plan itself uh is a 250-acre restoration plan.

So about a hundred acres is the landfill footprint.

That is just beginning to uh we're working on the um the old the GAL.

Uh we're working on restoring that now, and um, but eventually that hundred acres will be restored.

The the the lands to the north have all been restored.

We're monitoring those.

We're getting to the end of those monitoring period, and uh you know, in in positioning ourselves to turn that over to the Albany or to the uh yeah to the Albany Pine Bush Commission that will take management.

So with the project itself for the transfer station, how many acres we talk in?

3.4.

Mr.

Miller.

Oh, got it.

Thank you.

Okay, I didn't see it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So 3.4 acres for the transfer station and another couple of acres that are associated with the maintenance and uh so there's some next uh thing.

So when people do come in, we can explain that to them.

Thank you.

That's a great point, Councilmember Howie.

Any other questions?

Councilmember Ballarin.

Thank you, Sheriff.

Um as part of the restoration, are we also going to put in new trees and other greeneries that would, you know, so this these you know like the long EO bats, that's on the endangent, you know, anyway we can make it easier for them to grow and expand.

You know, I'm a wild crat fan, so uh, you know, the way we can do make it least damage and create more opportunities for you know these animals to have fine new homes.

So um one of the things that we have to avoid is creating habitat out there.

And if you um if you take a look at the um the email that was sent around, they discuss that fact that what we don't want to do is create any uh native habitat that would bring the corner blue butterflies closer to the project site into the project site.

So that's very important.

That's something that DEC is specifically looking for, um, and I would imagine will be you know part of their um comments on the the Part 360 application.

But um the the other thing that we're going to do by request of the Pine Bush Commission is to remove some of the trees that are there's a lot of trees on this property that are not native and that are detrimental to the pine bush habitat, uh black locust being one of them, it's a clonal species, so it shoots out rhizomes and they pop up all over the place.

And so what we intend to do is um take all of those trees down as part of this project.

There some of them are not within the project area or within the footprint that we would need to remove those trees, but we're gonna do that in order to enhance those areas to ensure that those species are not causing impacts to the surrounding area.

So, really what this is about is preserving the integrity of the surrounding areas that have been restored.

Thank you.

I appreciate that information.

Thank you.

Uh we're also joined by Councilmember Lomenzo Jones.

Any other questions at this time?

Um I'd like to say if if you have it, it's the the reports and the that we received are dense.

Um I do encourage my colleagues, if you are able to find the time to look through it because it's um it was very reassuring to me to see how thorough the review was and um that the consistent no significant impact was even more reassuring.

Um I I appreciate the thoroughness of your presentation today.

Um Commissioner Pananzio, is there anything that you would like to add?

No, I want to but come speak, come speak into a microphone, please.

You can come you can sit next to us together, sir.

I just want to uh I just want to thank the uh committee for hearing our presentation.

Uh I want to thank CHA.

Plenty of ticks in our legs, uh, just to make sure there was no habitat.

And the whole idea is that if there's no habitat, there's no reason for this endangered species to be there.

Um so uh I'm satisfied, and when I got the email from the DEC saying they're satisfied as well.

Um I want to thank the CHA for doing a very thorough job.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

And yes, I would ask um, I think in this this email from the DEC, they said that they will follow up with an official letter, uh, which I just asked that we get so that it can be added to the public record.

Um if there are no further questions.

I will say I said I'll say council members.

For the time that I wasn't here, I was streaming, and Council Member Howie, your question about zoning immunity.

We are exploring our options as Nick had mentioned.

So we're on it.

You're welcome.

So you concur with what was said.

Good.

Thank you.

Um Council Member Howley.

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion that um we pass resolution thirty nine fifty-two sixty-two R out of committee with a positive recommendation.

Do I have a second?

Council Member Lumpkin seconds.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed.

Any abstentions?

Okay.

Uh resolution thirty-nine fifty-two twenty-six R passes out of planning committee unanimously with a positive recommendation.

Thank you so much, everybody.

Thanks for your time.

Uh, do I have a motion to adjourn?

Second.

Meeting adjourned.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh are we recording?

Great.

Um, if Carly, would you mind calling the role?

Adams?

Adams is here somewhere, so I'll mark him as here.

Anane.

Also here somewhere.

In the building.

He's in the building.

Ballerant is also here somewhere.

In the big room.

Brody?

Farrell.

Here.

Flynn.

Here.

Howie.

Here.

Johnson.

Not here yet.

Jones?

Here.

Keegan?

Here.

Lumpkin.

Present.

Powell.

Is also here somewhere.

Right.

We're all here in a moment.

Uh Robinson.

Absolutely.

Here.

And Seymour.

Here.

That's potentially 13 here.

We are also joined by Council President Kelly Kimbrough.

And we have here with us um senior assistant corporation counsel, Martha Mahoney.

Council of the Council, uh uh Robert Wenner, myself, junior uh uh policy analyst Carly Johnson.

We also have program director of the community police review board here, Garrett Shaft, and um Braylon Cordonez, who is the current confidential secretary from C GRB.

Thank you.

Oh, and Ms.

Robinson is joined us.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So we we have several groups to come in to speak to caucus this evening, so I'm going to go through the agenda very quickly, and then um we will welcome them up.

Um for uh local laws introduced uh from myself, local law K of twenty twenty-six.

Um this is about uh public data and open data that will be referred to law buildings and codes.

Um then we'll be moving to resolutions introduced.

Um, from Council Member Ballorin, resolution fifty-one sixty-one twenty-six R.

This is a resolution of the common council recognizing June as Caribbean American Heritage Month in the City of Albany.

Could I get a show of hands for people that are is this a we will all be co-sponsoring?

Great.

Um, from Councilmember Keegan, resolution fifty-two sixty-one twenty-six R, a resolution uh recognizing and celebrating June as LGBTQ plus Pride Month in the City of Albany.

Uh people interested in co-sponsoring.

That is an all play.

From Council Member Anane, resolution fifty-three sixty-one twenty-six R.

From Councilmember Anane, resolution 536126R, a resolution declaring June 5th to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day and proclaiming June 2026 as National Gun Violence Prevention Month in the City of Albany.

Could I get a show of hands for people interested in co-sponsoring?

This is another all play.

Thank you so much.

From Councilmember Howie, resolution 546126R, a resolution uh pointing Lillian Garland as a member of the CPRB.

Um Ms.

Garland is actually here if you wouldn't mind coming up and we can ask a few questions.

Good evening, councilman and councilwomen.

Thank you for having me tonight.

Thank you so much for your willingness to serve on this important board.

Um do any council members have any questions for Ms.

Garland?

Councilmember Ballaran.

Thank you.

Uh come Council President Plate.

Uh can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to serve on the board for the members who maybe didn't get an opportunity to uh see your interview.

To serve on the board.

Yes, just a little bit about yourself and why you want to serve on the board.

Well, um I've served on an ACPAC board.

I also serve on the alert board.

So being on those boards, I have a lot of communications, engagement with police officers on every different level from the FBI to the state police.

So I know what it takes to engage police officers.

I think I know what it takes to what community policing should look like to me.

Um I think that um I would be a good fit.

Um I have lots of community background.

If you look at my resume, you'll find out.

I have over 20 years of community engagement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um we really appreciate your willingness to serve.

And um it's as I said, an important board.

And I'm very well aware I I served with you when I was on the school, even before I was on the school board on different committees.

So I know how long you've been involved in the committee.

We're not gonna talk about how long ago that was because we both look fabulous.

But um, but just really appreciate your continual willingness to be part of our community and and not just talk the talk, but really put the effort and walk the walk.

Thank you.

Um we'll continue on with uh if you're welcome to have a seat in the audience again.

Um next we have from council member Zamer resolution 556126R.

It's a reappointment to the Peg Access Board, which will go to planning.

Um Councilmember Powell, resolution 566126R.

This will be um we have it on the active calendar.

We're actually just going to introduce it and hold it.

Um councilmember Powell wanted to get a little bit more information to see if it needed amendments before moving forward.

So we will just introduce and hold it.

Um did you want to say anything on that, Councilmember Powell?

Um, from Councilmember Keegan, resolution 576126R.

Um, a resolution approving an amendment to the financing agreement by and among the Albany Water Board, City of Albany, and Albany Municipal Water Authority relating to certain capital projects.

Um that is going to we'll be voting on that this evening, and we have some people from the water board to come up and talk about it.

So if you'd like to come up, that would be great.

Oh, turn on, turn on microphone.

And uh uh just to give a little background since 2009 when there were new regulations for dam safety.

The uh water board's been working on uh evaluation of dams and uh doing improvements and two of the dams that uh are high-hazard dams that needed improvements or basic creek reservoir dam and the Rensselaer Lake, uh, which is also known as six mile uh waterworks on Fuller Road.

Both of those projects have gone through long, long uh periods of studies and uh alternative analysis.

Both of those projects have gone through long long uh periods of studies and uh alternative analysis and uh and then finally uh there were bond resolutions and an amendment to the financing uh agreement previously, but the uh in the meantime we've uh time has gone by and uh we have new estimates of construction costs and we wanted to amend the bond uh bond resolution and the financing agreement uh to reflect the new uh new estimates plus uh EFC, which is uh drinking water revolving fund is one of our sources of funding.

Uh that they now now require higher amounts of contingency on projects, which uh of course is uh pretty good idea given the the current state of our uh price escalations.

So we have two and a half million dollars for each of these projects as DEC grants that were recently uh announced, and we're we're still in the process of securing those grants, but the bond resolutions and the financing agreements are based on the total project costs, um, but the uh actual financing for each one is gonna be two and a half million dollars less.

Um so uh basically this is an amendment to uh to the financing agreement, and the finance authority will do an amended bond resolution, and uh that will help us go forward with our financing.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Simford.

Do we have any questions on this?

Okay, we are expecting to vote and pass this this evening, so we appreciate you coming in.

Um next from Councilmember Ballorin, resolution 586126R, a resolution of the common council calling on the New York State Legislature to pass Senate bill S4659C and Assembly Bill A4877C to establish the rest act before the end of session.

Councilmember Ballarin, did you want to say anything on this?

I'll be brief.

Uh this is an issue we've been working on uh been uh somewhat engaged in since 2019.

Uh the main changes here uh would eliminate the vacancy study uh to move forward with uh went to a stabilization.

So this is just asking the uh state uh legislative state leaders to continue their conversations uh to uh give more flexibilities to municipalities uh to choose if they want to move forward in that path on that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much and uh quick note um I've had outreach from the public that if we could all focus on projecting and speaking into our microphones, um it's difficult to hear, and someday we will be able to upgrade the equipment.

But right now we have the equipment that we have, so if everyone can focus on projecting, that would be helpful.

And council member Balloran, this was not about you specifically, but you did remind me of it in that moment.

So next, Councilmember Zamer, resolution 5961 26R.

Um, that is a reappointment to the PEC Access Board, which will also go to planning.

Then resolutions held.

We have from Councilmember Powell resolution 3952 26R, a resolution on um the being the lead agency for the negative the CICRA negative environmental impact, which is a good thing, not um uh for the transfer station that did pass through planning tonight unanimously with a positive recommendation.

Um I know that we still have uh Commissioner Peninsio if there are any questions on that, or if Councilmember Powell, if you or Councilmember Zamer is chair, wanted to say anything on it, you're welcome to uh uh thank you President Pro Tem.

Um just briefly planning our planning committee that we just had.

Uh we got a very a really thorough presentation.

Uh we all I think all the the full council should have the reports uh about from the CECR review, which is thorough and reassuring, so I encourage you to take a look.

There were no the summary is there were no uh significant concerns through the multitude of different state uh different areas of environmental impact that they studied.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

And then a quick note we were supposed to have an MC this evening.

We are not doing the MC, it is not something that is needed.

Um and we have someone that is well known in our chamber here, uh Jake Eiling, who used to be um our who's now in the other building but used to be our uh research council.

Not great with titles tonight.

Um we appreciate you coming.

Um I also know Councilmember Zamer wanted to say a few things, and then I believe that um Garrett Shaf wanted to make an introduction.

Thank you.

Just um just briefly, I wanted to, in case we, you know, I I anticipate uh either tonight or in the future getting um public comment about the the Kenwood um data center story that's out that's been out there, the public is rightfully concerned.

Um, but I just want to make sure we knew what stage this is at, which as far as we're concerned is nowhere.

Um, and just what would have to happen in order for that very unlikely scenario to happen of a data center being built there.

Just to be clear, there would be two significant pieces of legislation that would have to pass through this body.

One to rezone in order to rezone the area in order to accommodate this new proposed use, and the other would be to change the approved use category.

Two, they seem similar, but there's distinct pieces of legislation that would I think be very unlikely to pass in this body.

Um so there's nothing imminent that's going to happen, even if that were very unlikely to happen, there are many other hurdles that would have to be addressed.

Not to mention whether or not the planning department themselves thinks that this is even uh an appropriate use, which is also very unlikely.

So I just I understand how much fear there is out there, and we've had a lot of outreach.

So I just wanted to make sure that we here in the council, the members, um, know the facts of this, that there are so many steps that would have to take place that we would be would have to go along with, which again is very unlikely.

So just wanted to get that out there.

Councilmember Johnson.

Thank you.

Just um following off, could we make a statement about that?

Because um that article has been generating a lot of uh calls and and interests and uh people's uh concerns have gotten heightened, and I think it it would only make sense to um make a statement like that if if they have to go through that many loops.

Um and it because it sounds like it's um something to the residents.

It sounds like it has an arm, a leg and heads, and that may not be the case.

So I can't see that being harmful for us just to issue a um preliminary statement regarding the um data center because it's a huge conversation right now.

If you don't mind if I respond, yeah, I think that that's that's a great idea.

I think we should definitely do it.

I mean this is we can also maybe consider or discuss something either in strong or I mean uh a resolution um requiring more time to consider this.

I don't like to use the word moratorium, but you know, something maybe we need to come up with something stronger, like a like a resolution to reassure um the public.

Councilmember Keegan.

I just also wanted to note that while it's not possible at the Kenwood site, we also don't have much in the way that would prohibit development in some of our industrial or light industrial zones.

So I think that that is also something that we just like we were discussing with the lithium battery storage situation that we need to consider getting on top of that and trying to figure out what the best and most appropriate guidance for municipalities on having guardrails in place for these types of proposals because while this is coming to Kenwood, who knows, you know, what could potentially be proposed for a site like Central Warehouse, which again this is a the project that's being proposed would be on the large scale size for data centers.

It would be one of the largest in the country ultimately when it's completed.

Um I think the other thing that we really should consider, particularly in the Albany area is that we have some of the best water in the country.

Um it's incredibly important that we do everything that we can to per like preserve the the sanctity of those resources, especially as we move forward in this era of climate change.

Um because that's not necessarily a resource that's going to be accessible throughout the planet.

So Councilman Bernani.

Uh thank you, and thank you so much for bringing it up again.

It's been receiving a lot of attention no matter where you live in the city of Albany.

Um I think that um coming up with a statement is uh is uh uh great recommendation, and I can work with staff and leadership to send something to all council members that we could put out there.

Thank you.

And uh Councilmember Zamers, and especially since as chair of planning, it's if you are interested in doing a resolution, it might be a good idea to have something that actually goes to committee.

Absolutely that it wouldn't even necessarily be something that we pass immediately, but to allow a more public discussion might be a helpful thing.

Great.

We'll do.

I will now turn it over to Garrett.

Good evening, everyone.

I just wanted to take a minute to um introduce you to the newest employee of the community police for you board, Bray Lynn Cordonas, and she's got a she would like to introduce herself to the whole body.

Thank you.

Hello, good evening.

Um my name is Braylene Cordonas, and I'm the recently joined, I recently joined C VRB as the confidential secretary.

And so I look forward to uh serving the residents of Albany, assisting its board on its mission and helping promote transparency, accountability, and meaningful community engagement.

And so I just want to say thank you for the opportunity, and I'm looking forward to working alongside every one of you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming in.

I I don't know that anybody would have any questions, but if anybody has any anything that's anything they'd like to ask or say, um feel free to raise your hands.

And if not, we really appreciate you coming to work with the CPRB and in the City of Albany and uh look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

And Ms.

Garland, I have a quick question for you.

You can ahead.

You can stay there.

You can just I would you like us to take your resolution out of order so we take it towards the beginning of the meeting?

I'm not sure if you want to stay for it.

Um, but it's so council president.

If we can, since she's here, if we can take that at the beginning of the meeting and then she can see it pass.

Thank you.

You want to go before uh public comment?

Before come public comment, yeah.

Um so uh we have uh five minutes.

Is anybody have anything else?

All right, well, in five minutes we will reconvene for council meeting.

Oh, I'm sorry, Councilmember Hoey.

Yeah, real fast.

I just want to let everybody know there was uh a few of us at uh swearing in uh last week.

We have 21 new police recruits.

Um and I was very impressed with the diversity, and uh we also have 10 uh peace officers that were uh actually uh sworn in and they start right away.

And we had one transfer officer, I think he came from Manands.

So on the public safety uh side with having uh enough police officers, we're starting to make some kind of progress.

So I just want to make everybody aware.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We will reconvene in four minutes.

So we're not doing that.

So I figured I would have a good one.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna use that.

I'm just going to use the number of technical times.

Seats.

Thank you and welcome to our Monday, June first of council meeting.

Madam Clerk, please call the role.

Adams.

Anani.

I know he is here, so must have stepped out.

Ballorin.

Here.

Brody.

Present.

Farrell.

Here.

Flynn.

Howie.

Present.

Johnson.

Johnson.

Jones.

Present.

Keegan.

Here.

Lumpkin.

Present.

Powell.

Present.

Robinson.

Here.

Williamson.

Zamer.

Here.

Fifteen present.

Thank you.

I feel like this mic is on whisper.

Okay.

So uh we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.

Thank you.

Let me see it.

Okay, we'll we'll start with uh Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh would like to take resolution 5461 26R out of order.

Or I move to take resolution 5461 26R out of order.

Thank you.

Uh can I get a second?

Second.

All is in favor.

Say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Um Mr.

Howie.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I um I notice resolution 5461 26R and ask for its uh passage via roll call vote.

Thank you, Mr.

Hoey.

Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the common council appoints a lily Lillian Garland as a member of the community police review board.

Discussion.

Mr.

Howie.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um Lillian Garland uh came before the public safety committee, um, interviewed, and um was passed out unanimously uh with a positive recommendation.

And I hope uh my fellow council members will vote for her tonight.

Further Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I would just like to say what uh about Ms.

Garland, she has a uh deep rooted commitment to our city.

Um she's a person that you can call and she'll tell you that you can call on her, and when you call on her, she'll be there to respond.

So um I was excited to see that um she's gonna be joining the board, and you know, um I'm excited to see uh what this uh board produces.

I think it was a great choice.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Robinson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I I have the pleasure of sitting on the public safety committee, and I was present during the interviewing process with Miss Lillian Garland.

Um, you know, she had her conversation was definitely deeply deeply deeply rooted in knowing and understanding what happens in the community, you know what I'm saying, would she live and where she you know I'm saying majority where she'd be serving where um there may be police um um complaints as far as misconduct.

Um I know that it was certain conversations that because of of a statement that was made, uh you know, that that draw that Jews some of the council members, you know, the um have concerns about her appointment, you know.

But I can assure you that you know she clearly understands you know what it means where you know when when things is in in litigation, high important it is for her to have that integrity and integrity and make sure that um is not out of context, you know, on on any level.

Um also you know, you know, I serve the community where she lives, and um I've been in politics for the last 12 uh years or more, and she is on the front line of you know of community uh um concerns, you know, rather than dealing with the seniors, rather dealing with um youth and development.

Um she's just always there, like my colleague um Councilman Johnson has said, and um I do um you know ask that this full body, you know what I'm saying, pass her, and I'm saying, you know, our man unanimously um so that she can um saying get to work and continue to do the great work that she has been doing, you know, saying over the years in the community.

Thank you.

Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I also just wanted to note something that I said in caucus that um I've been fortunate to know Ms.

Garland for many years and have also served with her on different committees.

I've known her completely through community involvement, but she also has some great experience when it comes to um community and specifically police as being a member of ACPAC and other things that she mentioned earlier.

So I'm uh very pleased that she's willing to be part of the CPRB, and I look forward to um co-sponsoring this.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Anani.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, I just want to share um my support for uh the appointment of Lynn Garland as a member of the community police review board.

Uh as many of you know, we've had some challenging times the past couple of months, but we are in a brighter place uh due to some of the new members and also our staff on the CPRB board.

And I believe that this is such a great addition uh to really get us where we need to be.

Um the residents of Albany voted in support of the CPRB existence, and we just want to just commend all the individuals that are interested in serving on such an important board.

Um for me, it goes no surprise.

Uh the Garland sisters have been given back to the city for a very long time, and this is just another example of that great work.

So just want to commend Lillian Garland for putting her hat out there, and I fully support this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Nani.

Anyone else?

Okay.

Seeing none um Madam Clerk, please go.

Adams.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Anani.

Balloran.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Brody.

Yes.

Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Flynn.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Hoey.

Yes.

Johnson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Jones.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Keegan.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Lumpkin.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Robinson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Williamson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Zamar.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

15 in the affirmative.

Motion passes.

Welcome, Miss Garland.

Okay, thank you.

So back to our regularly scheduled program.

We will start our public comment period.

Uh, due to the number of speakers.

We are going to do three minutes per speaker.

Um you sit uh you give us your name and address, and uh there's a timer on the table.

Mind the timer once it's yellow, you'll have a minute left.

When the red light comes on, please stop talking.

Madam Clerk, please call the first speaker.

Our first speaker is Tolani.

All right, good evening to the council president.

The day is majority leader and the council members.

My name is Talani Elumari, and today I am acting as the NAACP Health Commun Health Committee Chair, and I have two events to share with the public as well as uh as the council body.

The first event is the NAACP Freedom Luncheon.

Now, at a time where voting rights are under attack, racial disparities are widening, and hard fought civil raw protections are challenged across the country.

Um we cannot afford to be silenced, divided, or complacent.

The work of the N the Albany NAACP remains critical today, as it did in 1935 when we had our first meeting at Israel AME Church.

Um our communities are facing barriers to equitable education, equino excuse me, economic opportunity and health care act as access and full participation in our democracy.

This fight for justice is not history, but it's happening right now.

So we're asking for our community leaders, businesses, and allies to support the NAACP biennial freedom lunch, freedom fun lunch on Sunday, June 7th, 2026 at the Dual Ath Dunes at 2 p.m.

Our guest speaker is Sheriff Jacqueline Salvatore of Columbia County.

She is the first black woman ever elected to be in that county, and I believe she might be the first in the state.

Um we are also honoring um Israel AME Church being one of our first partners in the um city of Albany.

So I do have flyers available.

Um and I will give those out to everyone or however I can and to the people in the room.

I will also share the flyers with as well.

Now for the second hat, first off, first happy pride month, happy Caribbean Heritage Month, and why I'm here.

Happy Men's Health Awareness Month.

So this month, the NAACP is hosting a series of events that will tackle men's health, mind, body, and soul.

So we have five events starting June 16th, where we're going to discuss carrying the weight, is going to be a panel discussion, discussing stressors, traumas, emotional health and well-being, and spiritual health and well-being.

And our moderator for the event is Donna Plears, EBB, and we have other special guests that will be on that panel as well.

That event will be held at Love Albany Center, 8K Street.

We also have our Father's Day community gathering where we'll celebrate the Fathers at Macedonia Baptist Church.

We'll have our know our numbers during our general meeting where we'll discuss how do we get access to how we get access to free health care.

As well as oh, I have some time left, 10 minutes.

The time is up.

Time is up.

Okay, well I have flyers to give out for those events.

I hope to see you all at those events.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the next speaker.

Our next speaker is Canyon Ryan.

Who can I get my name is Kenyon Ryan?

I reside at 25 North Pine Ave, and I'm the executive director of United Tenants of Albany.

And I'm here for three reasons.

One on the data center, not a good idea.

Very unpopular with most everybody, and I think you know there's some good discussion about this earlier.

This is not a UTA position, but um just a me position, though I do think housing would be a great use of that land.

Um but that's neither here nor there.

I'm sure there will be more discussions about that in the future.

Um I wanted to talk about two things primarily.

Uh, first, we have a bunch of tenants here from Thurlow Terrace, tenant union, uh, otherwise known as Thurlow Terror.

Um they've been trying to compel the landlord to meet with their union in good faith.

Uh we did participate in some brief negotiations, um, but they refuse to address the quality of life issues beyond some staff changes, which are important, um, but they're not actually participating in changing the conditions of the apartments, which are really what mobilized these tenants to get active, come together and build a majority, supermajority tenant union.

So that's very important, and you'll hear much more about that tonight, I'm sure.

Uh, I'm also here to talk about the resolution in support of the REST Act, uh, which otherwise is known as the Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants Act.

This is a bill at the state level that would make it easier for the city of Albany and other municipalities in upstate and Long Island to opt into rent stabilization.

Uh for members who have been here for a while, you likely remember that the city in 2019 uh passed a resolution to opt into the emergency tenant protection act, rent stabilization released an RFP, no bids, COVID released another RFP, said okay, this RFP thing's not working, let's get good cause eviction.

Great idea.

Um but when we did in 2024 finally complete our vacancy study, we found that the city did not have a vacancy rate that qualified it for the emergency tenant protection act.

So rest makes it easier for municipality to opt into rent stabilization by uh eskewing the uh vacancy study being the only means of opting into rent stabilization instead, allowing a municipality to consider publicly available data, such as things that you would equate with the housing crisis, like the homelessness rate, supply of affordable housing, demand for affordable housing, rent to rent burden ratio, which we know is almost the majority of tenants and the quarter of tenants are severely rent burdened, spending more than 50% of their monthly income on rent alone.

Um so it would allow a city to consider that kind of data rather than spending tens of thousands up to hundreds of thousands to opt into rent stabilization, which is a burden on a city like Albany, which we know is very tax poor.

It also modifies the year built requirement from 1974, the year the ETPA was passed, to 15 years prior to the current date on a rolling basis, thus allowing more tenants to be eligible for rent stabilization and decreases the maximum or minimum allowable unit count per building to be eligible from six to four.

That doesn't mean that the city has to opt in uh at four units or more being eligible for rent stabilization, uh, but it allows it to be more considerate of the housing stock in upstate New York.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is James Gio Cologne.

Good evening.

My name is James Chuckalone.

I live at 33 Trinity Place in the second ward.

I'm a tenant organizer and the co-chair of the Capitol District Democratic Socialists of America.

I've been working with the tenants of Thurlow Terrace since the first flyers for the first organizing meeting went up in September of last year.

Of the seven apartment complexes I've had the pleasure of organizing at the Thurlow Terrace, the Thurlow residents have by far faced the worst conditions and fought the hardest to have their voices listens to.

I've heard truly harrowing reports of abuse of all kinds suffered by these people, members of our community who are already especially vulnerable on account of their age and disabilities.

It's absolutely shameful that our tax dollars are going to a company so completely disinterested in providing even a basic level of care and well-being to our elders.

And while it's a relief that many of the worst actors have recently been removed from the site staff, remaining staff still treats residents with disrespect, and management refuses to bargain in good faith with tenants to begin to resolve their enormous list of issues.

These tenants have taken a significant risk in coming here and speaking out today, as their landlord has already proven to be manipulative and vindictive.

And I hope the council will take their words to heart and will act to protect them and ensure that management returns to the bargaining table and participates in good faith until their situation is duly approved.

Separately, I would be remiss if I did not also speak on the proposed Kenwood Data Center.

I know the council was speaking on this before the general meeting, and I apologize if I'm going over some ground that's already been covered today.

I spoke to a few of you last week to glean what the council's current position on the proposal was likely to be.

And Councilmember Williamson was kind enough to invite me to share with you today a moratorium that I had written based uh in part on similar moratorium that have been passed across the country in the last year and reworked to the best of my abilities to fit the city of Albany.

I'm sure it would require some modifications to align with city norms, but I believe the core content should stand here.

While I and many of the residents I've organized with are in favor of an outright ban on large-scale data centers, it is critical that at the very least a moratorium is put in place such that no data center is built before the council has a chance to thoroughly research the subject and establish the appropriate protections.

In Doa Gayek, Michigan, residents have filed a lawsuit against the owners of the local data center on account of the constant and excessive noise the structure creates, and similar complaints coming with with similar complaints coming from Sterling, Washington.

I don't think I need to chastise the council on this today.

I think public outcry has been strong, and we're already in agreement on the issue.

But I do need you to act quickly in order to give yourselves the proper time to give this very serious issue some very serious consideration, as the private sector is hoping they can sneak it before sneak in before you've had the chance to realize what they're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Audrey Lemon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Audrey Lambert, and the reason why I'm here today, because I feel like some members of the um the council is very crooked, and a reason then on the third ward.

Um my aunt has been living, was living on Sheridan for many years.

She was not just uh um lived there, but she owned a church, she owned in a faith, and she had plenty of housing that she housed people in too.

She did a great work.

So they named the street after her.

And she was recognizing everything else.

So not too long ago, well, this week, um, they wanted to, someone told me they was gonna rename the street, Mother Lumpkin's Way.

So I went to them and asked, what do Mother Lumpkin have to do with Sheridan Avenue, even South Hawk Street?

She has no works there.

And I so I went to the common leader, Lumpkin, and I asked them, and you it ain't nothing I can do about it.

He was very nasty.

His attitude was disgusting.

And I feel like this.

How is it she don't have no work?

She lives on Pennsylvania Avenue.

I told him she lives on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Put your mother's name up on Pennsylvania and why come down here on Sheridan Avenue.

So he got nasty.

Instead of him having a decent conversation because he's a person of the community, he was disgustingly nasty.

And so when things that happened with that, it went along after that was all said and done.

It's a conflict of interest.

So if it's a conflict of interest, why did it go through?

And why did the comments say that was okay?

So you I need to know the rules here so anybody can put their name on any block without any works or anything.

And when I approached him, he was nasty with a disgusting attitude.

And I and for that, I think that if y'all gonna they got need to be very careful who they put on the common council as supposed to be leading a ward or anything.

Because if your attitude is not right, you have no business on it.

And I and they should not even have a record or anything sitting on a common council and then got a nerve to be nasty.

You're not on the community to represent your family and yourself.

If you're in it for that, you don't need to be on the common council or anything.

So, and if you want to honor your mother, and I and and let's be clear, I have nothing against Mother Lumpur.

She's a good lady, she's doing a lot of work, but on Sheridan Avenue, they should have honored her where she lived at, not down on Sheridan after she can get.

And then he wanna have this big old parade and everything for her until he found out the city told him, uh you got to pay for it.

I guess that went through because the traffic, nobody they didn't block the street or anything, and he showed and come up with no money.

It's one thing to talk a talk, but you gotta walk a talk.

And I and it's disgusting how you got people.

Your time is up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mae Saunders.

She's not gonna come to the mic.

We'll grab the microphone to bring to her.

Yes, okay.

I'm May Saunders, and I live at two Thurlow Terrace.

Sorry.

Um is not so good at two Thurlow Terrace.

The drug dealers have taken over, the drug users, the crankfits march in and out.

I play cards in the community room.

All the action starts around 11 o'clock at night.

They have we have addicts that live in the building, which has brought this traffic to our building.

So I'm here asking for help.

I'm I'm going to be 83 in one month.

I want peace.

I want heat in my apartment.

I don't want mice running over my feet.

I don't want drug addicts living next door to them.

I don't want drug dealers in my building.

Um it's getting out of here.

So we have asked the owners to do something about it.

Um, I don't think they want the type of the job.

Now I hear that somebody was getting evicted that due to the drugs.

So I'm hoping that the owners will start to listen to us.

Um basically life is just not good there.

And since we started the union, of course, you know, they tried to make us suffer.

They gave us no heat when it was six degrees.

We had to sleep in the jeans and stuff to stay warm that night.

The building is half of seniors that we take blood thinners and stuff.

We already phone.

Um tenant, they're gonna send a heat electric heater to her.

She gotta pay the bill for that.

You're supposed to be giving us right reheat.

Our rent money pays for all of these items.

It pays for exterminator.

They will tell you that, oh, we send the exterminator every month, but he comes in with a little box for eggs.

I got mice, I gotta buy mice baits and put down in front of my stove and stuff.

I shouldn't have to live like that.

And I don't want to take up any more time, but thank you for listening to me.

Thank you, Miss Saunders.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Herman Johnson.

Can you hear me?

Or do I need a oh, I don't know the how to uh address the assembly like we do in church.

Who do we who do you give honor to?

But anyhow, I just want to let me speak to you about uh Thurlow Terrace.

I've been there through 23 years.

I've had seven different administrators.

I've had financial troubles, disrespect, and and the thievery.

It's not flesh and blood we're talking about here.

We're talking about respect of living place, and then when you get to a certain age, my brothers and sisters that are here will attest to me uh about what I'm gonna say, but I don't want to elaborate on what is really happening, and all that you heard is true.

So I've been told that uh I've had drills stolen from my place.

I've had my uh administrator tell me uh uh hey, you're paying the top rent, but even if someone is paying $200 a month, you don't have no say about what I have to say.

Is that disrespect when I don't have nothing to say?

I'm very reluctant to name two of the people who that were leak that are leaving now, are very important people that should shouldn't really be there.

What I think is they should have a clean clean sweep of the building and start anew, you know.

But we're not fortunate.

We're left with a lot of toxic stuff, so we'll probably be back here again if this is not approved about the luck that's still at Thurlow Terrace that's sad.

It's uh uh the gentleman said terrible terror's terrace, it's Harold's terrace as well.

So to this is my first rodeo, so I'm a little nervous about this, but uh I hope you understand what I'm trying to express that it is bad.

It is really bad.

And we've had people, some of you uh that are here were elected by Thurlow Terrace, and we're proud of those people that we elected.

Why can't we get a return?

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Richard Johnson.

Richard.

I'm not here to talk about Durlo Terrace.

I'm here to talk about the landlords and why we are paying outrageous prices for our apartments.

I got mice in my apartment, I got roaches in the apartment.

And I still gotta pay my rent every month.

If you can state your name makes sense, man.

Excuse me, sir.

You state your name.

Oh, my name is Richard Johnson.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And um now they got a revitalization program downtown where I get woke up to uh bulldozers and all kinds of stuff all hours of the day, man.

No sleep down there.

I don't know if this is something that that I'm supposed to live with, but I don't want to live with it, man.

But I can't afford to move nowhere else.

So I gotta stay there, but now me and the cat are doing overtime.

The cat works at night, I work in the daytime.

It's crazy, man.

The cat the cat gotta be the exterminator because the landlord don't want to do his job.

I don't know.

I'm just looking for a simple resolution to this problem, man.

That's all I can ask for is a simple resolution to this problem.

How do we get the landlord to do what they're supposed to do?

I shouldn't have to go to the corner store on a fixed income and buy uh mice and and and and roach spray and all of that stuff, man.

That should be the landlord's responsibility, not mine.

So I don't know, man.

It seems like every time I come, the problems are bigger.

Instead of going away, they just keep growing.

That's all I got.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is uh Liz Sanchez.

Hi, my name is Liz Sanchez.

I'm one of the tenants at Thurlow Terrace.

I'm sorry.

Um I'm still going.

I I moved to Thurlow Terrace to be close to um my disabled son 14 years ago.

My my son just passed uh in February, so but my main reason for speaking at this meeting is the conditions of Durlow Terrace.

You would think that for senior citizens you would have a better place to live in.

But it's not so, at least not in Thurlow Terrace.

I've thought of moving, but as again, being that my son was close by at 400 Hudson, I remained.

But what has been going on and displays between the robberies, the robberies that are performed by people living there, not let not so much living there, but the workers itself, because there's a there's only three people in that building that have master keys.

Now it's down to two.

One of them, he's out now.

I said I found out that you're in my apartment one more time, or that you open up my apartment without no cost, they're gonna find a dead Carlos on the fifth floor.

Of course, I didn't mean it, but it's scared of him enough that he didn't come back.

I don't mean any harm for anybody, but I'm just pissed that I have to live with so many drug dealers or people that feel that because they hire a felon and they give him a master key that he has the right to watch when the people are going out to appointments or hanging out and the community room so he could go into their apartments and steal whatever little money they may have or their food.

I don't have to hang out in the community center to hear all this.

I have gone to a I'm glad for that we have a union union rep.

I used to belong to Teamsters, so I know how good it is to be a union member.

But the bottom line is that something has got to be done.

I know one the executive director has told the fifth, and they opted another one.

But the maintenance man that they have now, and even though I'm afraid because we have no security cameras facing our apartment buildings.

We need to have security cameras.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Douglas Gillett Gillian.

Hi, uh, my name is Douglas Gilliam, and I've been living where I am now at two Thurlow Terrace for about 20 years.

Actually, 20 years and four or five months, something like that.

And I seen a lot of things go on.

And it's sad because the things that I see go on, I get no help.

People ignore you, things like that, especially newcoming people.

I seen people come in, move out, um, have certain incidences with certain uh other ones there, and people die and pass on.

Some have problems, some cause problems.

Okay.

So there's times when I'm trying to remain my own apartment, do things like I supposed to do, follow ordinances, but I shouldn't have to come to where I had to break up situations.

It shouldn't be where I have to worry about apartment issues and things like that.

I got robbed for $600, two windsor chairs and a vacuum cleaner.

I reported the vacuum cleaner being used, but as I know it wouldn't do any good because in the office, their policy is under who hired them.

They cannot get involved in any police matter.

And I don't have proof to argue about a vacuum cleaner, no more than $600, although I know the one that done that.

And I don't want to use the name because I have no proof.

I didn't have no cameras or anything at that time, and I had to have been about at least four years ago, four or five years ago.

And the sad thing about it, all of that I don't care about.

But why can't the ones that are either working there, and it's no mystery for that fact that they just don't clean up on her act and change.

And then I notice as Lucas comes in that works here, I can say this because I spoke to him, and he's the one that decides who moves in.

But they give, they don't allow him to have stronger screening.

The police screening is two years, then it jumps to five years.

But what gets me, you have people that'll move in, pretend that they're moving in, but the ones that are really filing for that apartment have something worked out with the one they have filing it for them, which is strange.

Because once they get their apartment, then the real crazy one moves in, and nobody knows what's going on.

Nobody knows nothing.

That's the sad thing about it.

And then I talked to the woman from Schenectady that has something to do with the uh CEOs of the building.

I brought up about well, if you can't afford cameras or nothing, well, hang up mirrors.

Mirrors don't cost much of nothing.

So then I try to make another suggestion about that to her when she was at the building, then she kind of like looked at it like it doesn't mean nothing.

Well, there goes your mirror idea, Doug.

And I'm thinking, well, why answer me in that?

Um common sense, you know, and you can't really talk to them because they're at a defense against you.

People that either own the building and they regulate it through the office, they don't see what's going on, they're not living there, they're not there, they're not there when they're doing the screening as far as the five-year amendment here, people moving in, and it still goes on today.

Thank you, Steve.

And I there's only to have mirrors when the power goes out.

Time is up.

All right, I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Bevin Francis.

Good evening.

It's nice to see you up there, Kelly.

Um, my name is Bevin Francis, and I'm the lead organizer with United Tenants of Albany, and I'm here tonight on behalf of the Thurlow Terrace Tenant Union and the residents who are fighting for safe, dignified housing and the right to be heard.

And I'm here tonight on behalf of the Thurlow Terrace Tenant Union and the residents who are fighting for safe, dignified housing and the right to be heard.

It is a damn shame that these seniors have to refer to their home as Thurlow Terror, and that is what they call it.

Over the past several months, tenants at Thurlow Terrace have come together to form a union because they are facing ongoing problems in their building, and they felt that they had no other choice.

They have organized democratically, presented their concerns collectively, and built a a majority, a supermajority tenant union out of you know 150 units in that building.

And they have repeatedly attempted to engage ownership and management and good faith.

Unfortunately, that good faith has not been returned.

Despite multiple meetings, ownership has refused to meaningfully negotiate with the union or address many of the concerns raised by the tenants.

Residents report feeling dismissed, disrespected, and ignored, and and terribly afraid.

I'm you've heard it over and over again, they're afraid.

Rather than recognizing the tenant union as a legitimate voice for the people who live in the building, ownership has chosen a path of obstruction and delay.

At the same time, tenants continue to raise concerns about conditions in the building and allegations of misconduct by staff.

I'm talking about I've been in the building.

All right.

We know that ownership thinks that their voices do not matter, but I believe that the city of Albany knows that these tenants' voices matter.

Housing is a human right.

Tenants should not have to fight simply to be treated with respect or to have their concerns taken seriously.

The people of Thurlow Terrace deserve a landlord who be bargains in good faith, responds to complaints, and recognizes that tenants have the right to organize without facing union busting tactics or retaliation.

And tonight I'm asking that this council stand with the tenants of Thurlow Terrace.

We need our elected officials to publicly support the right to organize, demand accountability from their ownership, and to ensure that tenants are treated as partners and decisions that affect their lives and homes.

I also uh would like to state my um support for the rest act resolution.

That's the uh rent emergency stabilization for tenants.

We need rest now.

And finally, I like to close with no data centers anywhere ever.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jerry M.

Jerry M.

Good evening, members.

Uh my name is Jerry Murphy.

I live at Thurlow Terrace.

I've been there since July 2005.

Uh the first owner.

There and no place is perfect.

We all know that.

Uh our first uh I'm not allowed to mention names at all.

Okay.

Uh our first owner, Jack Foley.

Uh somewhat of a uh craggy old stuffy guy.

But uh eventually we were able to work with him.

And he even gave me his personal cell phone number because I had been very involved with management as a resident there uh to keep an eye on things and uh they used to call me the policeman, you know, but I never took any untoward action or anything like that.

I just kept an eye on things in order to help management and the residents.

Uh then uh the building was sold, and I went to every single meeting here in City Hall and in other venues around the city when the new owners uh new owner uh was trying to get all of the approval from the city council and whatever other entities had to approve him.

Uh since then it's been hell on earth.

Uh the management people treat us uh well act like Nazis.

Uh I hate to be as uh you know definitive as that, but they were acting as just like Nazis and trying to control us.

Uh the manager that just left.

uh was trying to get all of the approval from the city council and whatever other entities had to approve him uh since then it's been hell on earth uh the management people treat us uh well act like Nazis uh I hate to be as uh you know definitive as that but they were acting as just like Nazis and trying to control us uh the manager that just left uh they like to call him the executive director but he was nothing more than a um a uh can't think of the word sorry um um bully but nothing but a bully and uh any time that I would go in there and ask for or with a complaint uh he was would totally ignore what I wanted to say and I even uh was told by him that uh I don't have time to ever read these I put them away file them and they'll take care of themselves he would not even uh recognize that we had very serious complaints complaints that you have heard from my fellow residents and I want to give thanks and uh make note to about Bevan and Kenyon on my right and James on my left who have been incredibly helpful in uh helping us to organize the union and giving us incredible support uh throughout this whole effort to uh rectify things under the new owner and his management team which has been even the lawyer uh that he has uh um first her first name is Bridget I don't know what her last name is but she's been just uh as much a bully uh personally to me thank you sir for time is that that's it's three minutes if you have if you have comments you want to give us copies of we can we can take those and hand them out to the council members thank you our last speaker is Torsen Fullard or Fuller excuse me signed up for I think I'm still is your name Kristen or Kirsten can you hear me okay?

Okay thank you.

Thank you for your time today my name's Kirsten I'm the daughter of Jerry and also have power of attorney so I've been very heavily involved in all matters since he's been there but most especially over the last 10 years and um have to say that since the current ownership and management has taken over it is the worst conditions.

I know I'm repeating myself but um I think it's very important for you guys to really take hone of the direction that is over there.

I guarantee that if you guys had any of your family members you would be sitting in our seats right here talking to you.

How through her years there's been zero there's bullying there's berating there's arrogance incompetence and untrustworthy they have been not doing anything in the building there's no heat the the compliance officer is not even complying with the it the rules and the regulations for HUD or for the building crime is rampant there's sales in the hallways and the stairwells the living person living maintenance whatever he is still underfined lets people in some members of the staff have supposedly been asked to leave good riddance however there's still other people that need to be they need to leave there's a la they allow smoking in the apartments which is again against federal and building regulations.

The owner refuses to add cameras for safety and security so the quality of life is zero over there.

Zero I literally go home crying because the fact that I have to leave my dad there and then I go home to heat.

My dad doesn't I sometimes he even comes to my place where he can have heat depending on the situation.

I mean it's really deplorable and disgusting that residents have to put up with this and for so many years.

We have had meetings we have had negotiations we have had meetings with um um lawyers who again my dad said she is a total bully I actually emailed her legal documentation she has yet to respond that's two months ago so she's an obstructionist um here to draw attention to these abusive unacceptable conditions the owner should not be allowed to get involved in ownering any more property he I believe this was the IDA pilot programy for allowing this individual to take ownership of this building he has turned it into I don't even want to say but it's just um really deplorable.

The Kenyans need safety and security.

He needs to go as well as to live in stocker.

You can't just keep half the stack and then try and start over.

We need a clean suite.

Um it really is thank you, ma'am.

Something that I'm putting this all on you now.

You guys, what will you do to help these individuals behind you?

If this was your mother, your father.

Oh, I still have 12 minutes.

No, no.

What?

It's a oh why is it it's time for three minutes.

Thank you for your time.

All right, too hard here.

I've been officiating basketball for over 20 plus years and 15 years at a certified official whom have officiated over thousands of games.

I have the fortunes of officiating at all levels from semi-pro to CYO.

In addition, I traveled and fish and feature in several states all all over um the place.

Upon entering officiating school, I noticed a disproportionate amount of white to black ratio of officials.

At that point, I vowed to myself I would learn this craft and go back to the community and press on this information to empower, inspire, and uh encourage others to take this opportunity to meet new people, see different places, networking while yet earning capital while investing in oneself.

Um however, I have been looking forward to partnering with the city of Auburn for several years now.

Um given given the fact that the Cemetery Albany has city operated leagues, is a unique and idea training ground for up and coming officials getting the proper opportunities to have their craft while yet becoming self-employed and creating earning power for themselves in such an economic climate such as it exists today can be a viable option for young adults.

Furthermore, trainers will get additional training during summer league games and be pair with experienced officials.

So in short, um I've been working with the city.

I put this this is part of my proposal that they asked me for several years ago that I submitted to the parking recreations department, and I never got a response from this response I got was I've been tied up.

So I've worked again in reaching out to the city of Albany, the rip department, and I've been not getting response back or whatever.

And I said to myself, this situation is bigger than one person.

I need to put this before the city.

And what I'm proposing is you already have a summer youth program that gives two things you have.

You give stiphons to these kids, and you have the people.

So I want to give this back to the community.

So I work with junior IBO, I already reached out to them.

They encourage you to work with some of you programs to bring this out.

So you got some of you programs and you got sites.

So what you do is just basically get these kids training, and they have a lifelong skill.

Some of these kids go to college, and this should be an opportunity for a college to make money while they're in college doing rec leagues.

It's kind of endless for them.

And the proponent that I put with it was I have an emotional intelligent curriculum educational component to go with them.

And if it's one place you're gonna learn emotional intelligence, is referee of sports, because you got to have that.

And so another component would also is teaching them life skills about being on time, punctuality, all those things that come with being an official.

So it's a great opportunity for young men and women to get an opportunity to learn a lifelong skill.

And most of the basketball is a heavily prevalent thing in this city.

So it gives them an opportunity to do something they love, and it's a national shortage, and our fellow official Jack knows this, he's an official.

Thank you, Mr.

Foley.

Okay, with that, uh public comment is closed, and now we're to the feedback section.

We'll start with Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And I want to say whoever made that comment about if my mother was living in a thorough, I would have a hell of a problem with it.

And I I got a problem with what you're going through, and as the chair of the housing um committee, um, I think um we just passed um local law H out of committee.

Um probably announcing that a little bit too early, but I just want to say that um I will be making a phone call over there and um possibly uh making a visit over there because that's unacceptable um for our um seniors.

That's unacceptable, unacceptable for anyone.

So, you know, um I I'm hurting, I'm sorry, I'm saddened when I hear these stories.

Um there's no excuse for that.

And um uh and uh through the housing um committee um and working with Canyon and others that care.

Um we and and uh let me not forget my good friend over here who are um fighting and and um dealing with the day-to-day um issues that come up.

Um we have to figure something out because it's not right.

And so I'm uh it's a lot of things that I could say is not proper right now, how I feel just listening to um some of the things that you share.

You shouldn't have to endure that and and um hopefully we can figure this out.

Um you know, uh we have a lot of responsibility, but it's only so much power that we have at the same time.

So my thing is just uh bringing noise and bringing attention to it.

So I don't know how we're gonna uh work work through this, but um through the housing committee, we're gonna do what we can do to to address it.

Uh I give you my word on that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson, Mr.

Anani.

Um, thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, like many of my colleagues, uh, we share your concern.

And first, I just want to thank all of you for coming today, uh, to advocate for yourselves, your families, your neighbors.

Uh organizing is not easy.

It takes courage to speak up, to share your experience, and to work collectively towards a positive change.

Housing is more than just uh a roof over your head.

There's the foundation of stability, health, and economic opportunity.

Every resident deserved to live in their homes in a safe, well-maintained, and treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

Tenants should never have to choose between remaining silent and risking retaliation.

They should be able to raise concerns about maintenance issues, safety conditions, building operations, and quality of life matters without fear.

Open communication and good faith engagement between tenants and property owners, it benefits everyone.

And since COVID, all across this city, whether it's 45 Central, 400, Hudson, 400 Central, or even two Thurlow Terrace.

Some of these management companies have been doing a disservice in our city and have just completely ignored the tenants in these buildings.

And I think that again, as council members, we can't solve everyone's problem.

But we can help our residents help themselves, and we need to do something, particularly as it relates to addressing public safety concerns and the maintenance concerns.

And that's why I'm currently working with staff to introduce legislation that if there's any unit in this city that has 30 units or more, there should be mandatory cameras inside of those buildings.

50 units or more, they should be security guards in those buildings.

And this is not just for Thur, it should be for all buildings in the city of Albany.

And also we'll be introducing resolution asking the management company to negotiate with the tenants of Thurlow Terrace in good faith.

It is unacceptable the conditions that these tenants are going through.

And I also sent a letter last week to building the codes uh our city codes to do a few uh uh a full evaluation of Thurlow Terrace.

Listen, I know sometimes we feel powerless because you think that a small group of people, but don't underestimate what a small group of people could do.

We're gonna stick together, we're gonna work together, and we're gonna pray together, and we're gonna make sure that they treat all of you with the dignity and respect that you deserve.

At the end of the day, they think they're going to prevail and ignore the tenants because they have corporate power.

They don't know that at the end of the day, we are going to prevail because we have people power.

And we're gonna keep on marching, we're gonna keep on agitating, we're gonna keep on sending letters.

We will not rest until they treat all residents, no matter where you live in the city of Albany with the dignity and respect that we deserve.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Anani, Mr.

Howie.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I was kind of bothered by the statement earlier.

I was at Mother Lumpkin's street renaming on Saturday.

It was a beautiful event, well attended by the community.

And you know the story that Mother Lumpkin told about her life and the struggle really inspired me.

I went home and I was like, wow, this this is amazing.

And uh, you know, I did reach out to um my fellow my colleague and told him I said this was a great event, and I appreciate you inviting me to go to it.

I'd like to add though for the public that when we rename a street, it goes to a committee, and that's a chance.

If you have a complaint or you don't think it's deserved, you can come into the committee and talk, and then it gets voted on by the full council.

But to do something after the event's over, I I feel bad for my colleague, and I felt I had to speak up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Hoy.

Mr.

Flynn.

I'd like to thank Torsa for coming.

I didn't even know he was coming to talk about the officials, but thanks for coming.

Um I'll make sure you get in contact with the Commissioner uh Jones and Robinson to discuss those programs that you're talking about.

Thanks.

Mr.

Williamson and then Mr.

Bauer.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Appreciate it.

Um just wanted to um say, Mr.

Torreson, you know, thank you so much for coming, brother.

It's an excellent program.

Um anything I can do as far as that to help you out to for the community.

I'm here.

I just want to let you know that.

Thank you.

Mr.

Ballard.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, I want to just speak on two topics that were talked about.

I want to echo my colleagues' comments.

Uh, Councilman Hoy.

Uh, I appreciate you you stating.

I was also able to attend the event on Saturday, and I just, you know, I I don't think we diminish anybody's work by celebrating everybody's work.

Um, and just to be clear, this is an intercession, an intersection where there's two streets.

So the other the other street sign is still there, it's still honoring the work that was done.

Well uh on the other side uh you honor uh you know the uh Mother Lungan and the community work that was done.

And I think um again, I don't think by honoring two members in the community, you take anything away from anybody else.

Um I can definitely understand that you know um, you know, for those who who may not see that may see feel certain way, but again, both signs are up there for neighbors and community to be proud of.

I also want to take a time and thank everyone who came out today uh to talk about the issues that are going on uh in our city with um tenant and landlords relationships.

Um I I I echo my my colleague Anani's statement, you know.

Uh when people come out and take the leadership role.

I know you have hundreds of people that live in that building, but the fact that you have so many people here today representing the issues of everybody else, uh it makes a statement uh and it does get movement on your concerns, uh, and it does bring these issues to the forefront uh and continue to keep them on the forefront uh in our city's government, in our state government, uh, and on the federal issues because housing is not just a local issue, it is a national issue.

Housing and security is a national issue, it is a state issue, and you you are making sure that it is reminded at the local level uh day in and day out when you come in and speak.

So thank you for that.

Uh, and thank you for taking the time to come here today and uh to United Tenants for the good work that you do uh in our in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President, and I will be brief.

Um I just wanted to note that while I was not able to attend the street renaming.

Um my daughter is in town and it's brief.

Um I have been incredibly inspired by Mother Lumpkin, and I very much appreciate my colleague letting us know her story in this way.

And I and I will note I've been inspired by every single one of our street naming renamings.

I think it's something that is an absolute privilege to be part of, and I think that it is a wonderful thing when we have a corner that we have two incredible people's names on it, and I really appreciate Councilmember Lumpkin bringing that forward and us moving on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional comments from members?

Uh, Mr.

Robinson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to reach out to the residents of Durrow and just want to say to you that you know you are good, you are in good hands with United Tenants.

And I know how difficult it is, you know, for you to stand out front and speak on the injustices that's happened to you in your living conditions.

I know you may be afraid of you know what the landlords can do, but I just ask you to stand strong.

I ask you that don't be um intimidated, you know what I'm saying by you know I'm saying the threats of um being evicted or any other representative cousins stand strong as a unit because those the is as long as y'all stand as one unify one unit um force and um get your message across, you know.

I'm saying that the conditions is horrible and they need to um improve.

Um I know, like I said, I have worked with United Tennis in the past and then forming of um um um um strong um um tenants rights associations and uh you know um I you know I uh you know I will I feel real bad for your um present um um living um situation at this time but this is a first step you know you in the right direction you and you're in good hands stay in the fight and and if you ever need me I'll be there with you thank you thank you okay um just gonna bring to a close the comments from members uh moving on to approval of minutes from a previous meeting do we have Ms.

Farrell thank you Mr.

President I offer the May 18th 2026 meetings for approval and second passage second Mr.

Howie yes second all in favor say I thank you motion passed okay next uh reports of standing committees Mr.

Howie thank you Mr.

President uh public safety committee met on May 20th and uh interviewed uh some candidates and we have submitted uh two candidates for a background check planning economic development and land use committee met uh this evening before caucus to discuss resolution 3952 26 R a resolution um of the common council declaring itself to be lead agency for the secret review of the rap road transfer station project we had a thorough presentation um we have you all have reports uh detailing the environmental findings which was of no there were no significant impacts so we we did uh vote this resolution out of committee with a positive recommendation thank you miss aimer mr johnson thank you the housing and community development committee met on the 24th of may to discuss local law h which passed with a favorable recommendation thank you sir ms ferrelling thank you mr president president uh council operation and ethics committee will be meeting on june fifteenth at six o'clock before our next council meeting we will be discussing local law J of 2026 from council member however thank you thank you the finance taxation and assessment committee will be meeting on June 10th following caucus we will be discussing local law I of 2026 um as well as the answers that were received from the mayor's office and we are hoping to receive additional updates from the mayor's office on the status of the budget thank you any further okay seeing none next on to consideration of local laws uh miss ferrell thank you mr president I notice local law K of 2026 and ask for its introduction thank you madam clerk please read the law a local law amending the code of the city of Albany by adding chapter 75 open data policy adding new requirements that the city must abide by in relation to public recruit records and data Ms.

Farrell thank you Mr.

Um is that on?

Just recognize Mr.

Johnson for purposes of the amendment.

I think this is from today.

Okay.

Mr.

Johnson.

I notice um local law H and I ask for it to be read and voted on.

No, just the amendment for purpose of amendment.

The amendment.

Okay.

All right.

Right?

Can we get a second on the amendment?

All in favor?

Aye.

All right.

We're good.

And now it's got to make it.

Well, it's a law, so it's gonna have to just the amendment.

We're just the amendment.

Yeah.

Okay.

Ms.

Farrell.

Now the rest of the local laws are held.

Thank you.

Okay, on to resolutions.

Who's top?

Mr.

Bowerin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I ask that resolution 51.61 that 26R be uh noticed and uh put for a vote.

Thank you, Mr.

Bower and Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the common council recognizing June 2026 as Caribbean American Heritage Month month in the city of Albany.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Boweron.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm honored to put this forward for a vote today.

Uh with so many different rich cultures and uh different contributions.

So uh I I am honored to be able to put this forward to honor those uh from the Caribbean that uh live in our city, live in our state, live in our nation, uh their contributions to our country, the their contributions to the workforce, their contributions to the arts, the music, and the food.

Um so thank you.

Thank them all for being in our in our community and uh a way to recognize their uh efforts.

Thank you, Mr.

Ballard.

Any further Mr.

Nani?

Yeah, um, just want to stand in solidarity with this resolution.

Um, and uh it's so timely.

I think uh I want to thank Councilmember Ballarin.

I did see on social media that you know there's a group of people that was complaining, particularly as it relates to the city not celebrating uh Caribbean American Heritage Month and whatnot, and um it's great to see that council members are thinking about uh these communities, and hopefully next year we can do some type of celebration for the Caribbean um American uh right here in City Hall where we can bring some Caribbean food and into City Hall.

So I want to thank my colleague for introducing this resolution.

Any further discussion?

We're all co-sponsors, or you're all co-sponsors.

Uh a voice for all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Okay.

Uh next, uh, Councilmember Keegan.

Is it possible to skip for now?

Because Tandra is still on her way from the Troy flag raising.

She hasn't arrived yet.

Okay, we'll loop back.

Swing back to it.

Mr.

Anani.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 5361 26R, and asked for the intro and passage on the roll call thereof.

Thank you, uh, Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Common Council declaring June 5th, 2026 to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day and proclaiming June 2026 as National Gun Violence Prevention Month in the City of Albany.

Discussion.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I rise today to introduce this resolution declaring this month uh National Gun Violence Awareness Month and recognizing June 20 2026 as National Gun Violence Prevention Month here in our city.

Uh we have made some strides, particularly our city has seen and cur um encouraging reductions in shootings and homicides, but violence still continue continues to impact families, neighbors, and our community as a whole.

This resolution is an opportunity to honor those who lives have been lost, support survivors, and reaffirm our commitment to prevention, intervention, and public safety.

Also want to thank my colleagues uh and also the administration to working together to create the office of violence prevention as well.

But again, as the police chief always say one homicide is too many.

And I want to keep our residents, all of us to keep our residents safe and remain one of our highest priorities by recognizing this month.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Any further?

Mr.

Robinson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And I'd like to thank my colleagues for introducing this piece of legislation, a resolution.

And not only having them in their guns and having and being uh ready to use them.

Um and again, I commend the mayor's um administration for um establishing or even not even establishing, but taking on the weight of the violence prevention um task force.

Um I believe that that would be a tool in our toolbox to really address the systemic um um um problem that exists in our community.

Um but again we have to hold our parents accountable.

You know, I believe that the child's first teaching begins at home.

Um I believe that through the war on on drugs, through the um crack academic and crack academic in the 80s, whereas that you know um crack cocaine was um uh uh uh uh 500 to one to pallet cocaine and uh you know it took a lot of fathers out of the homes and um it left the homes, you know what I'm saying, um broken and the and and now the um mothers uh you know was dealing with trauma that still um you know they are what they are um grinding from then you know I'm saying it made the matters worse, you know.

We came and we had you know I'm saying a pandemic, you know, children was out of school, so now choancy played a part, so now they they at home and social media, which is TikTok and other social media platforms to also be held um accountable for the behavior, you know what I'm saying.

That is you know that is you know you know when when something is played over and over again in the child's mind, you know, it it it you know it the psychological is like oh yeah, this is this is what it this is what it is.

This is what this is the norm.

So um we have a lot on our plate, you know, and by recognizing you know I'm saying gun violence um and and and um um this month, I think that was that was great, you know.

I'm saying for my colleague to do.

Um I'm in front of this, I'm head on with this, and I'm just looking forward into the future.

There's gonna be a lot of conversation dealing with you know I'm saying preventive measures, you know, to really you know I'm saying tackle this in our communities to save our children, and I just hope that my colleagues is on board then as they are now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Robinson.

Mr.

Johnson.

Yes, I'll just say February 13th, 1993.

Gun violence changed my family's life forever.

So um thank you for uh bringing this to light.

Um gun violence um is nasty because it not only hurts the um victim that is um directly affected by it, it hurts the family, the community, you know, um it it it goes in many different directions.

So each and every time that um a person um experiences um gun violence in our city, it only makes me think about my loss, and I can only imagine the effect that it's having on others.

Um you know the summer is coming, and um a lot of times that's when those guns get active, and I'm just hoping that you know um we have a concerted effort um to uh be prepared and be um proactive.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

Okay.

Uh every all co-sponsors on this one.

Uh so we'll do a voice vote.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Thank you.

Um to Mrs.

Zamer.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 55.61.26R and ask for its introduction.

Thank you, Madam Clear.

A resolution of the common council reappointing ominique as a member of the public education and government access oversight board.

Thank you, Ms.

Farrell.

That will go to planning.

Thank you.

Moving on.

Ms.

Powell.

Sure.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 5661 26R and ask for its introduction.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Common Council reappointing the honorable judges of the Albany City Court, civil parts, and neutral magistrates for the purposes of hearing hearings conducted in accordance with Section 359-149, warrantless seizures of Article 16, on lawful speed contests, side shows and races of Chapter 359, vehicles and traffic of the Code of the City of Albany.

Thank you, Ms.

Farrell.

That will just be an introduction today.

No, okay.

Thank you.

Okay, next uh Ms.

Keegan.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 576120.26R and ask for its introduction and passage via roll call vote.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Common Council approving the amendment of the finance agreement by and among the Albany, the excuse me, the Albany Water Board, the City of Albany, and the Albany Municipal Water Finance Authority relating to certain capital projects and authorizing the execution and delivery of certain documents by the city in connection with the issuance of obligations by the Albany Municipal Water Finance Authority.

Thank you.

Discussion, Ms.

Keegan.

None.

Okay.

Seeing none.

We'll move right on to uh the vote.

Adams.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Anani?

Yes.

Ballorin.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Brody.

Yes.

Farrell.

Yes.

Flynn.

Yes.

Hoey.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes.

Jones.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Keegan.

Yes.

Lumpkin.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Powell.

Yes.

Robinson.

Yes.

Williamson.

Yes.

Zamer.

Yes.

15 in the affirmative.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

We will stay with Ms.

Keegan.

It looks like Mr.

Brown is here.

We'll go back.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I would like to notice resolution 52.61.26R and ask for its passage.

Introduction and passage.

Thank you, Ms.

Keegan.

Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Common Council recognizing and celebrating June as LGBTQ plus Pride Month in the City of Albany.

Ms.

Keegan, discussion.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just wanted to start out with a quote that Marcia Johnson stated around the time of the stonewall riots.

There is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.

And I think that that is an incredibly powerful statement to think about now in this time, particularly as we are facing such uh incredible backsliding on LGBTQ IA plus rights, particularly the rights and freedoms for those of us who uh identify as trans.

Um I am proud to live in a city and represent a city that got a near-perfect score from the human rights committee when it comes to LGBTQ plus issues.

Um but just because things are going well here in the city of Albany does not mean that we don't have incredible amounts of work to do.

Um there are today 530 anti-gay bills pending across the United States, including five here in the state of New York, and all of those five bills are focused on children and their rights to access sports.

We do have some joy this year though.

We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of BIPOC Pride thanks to the work that has been done by Inter One Voices.

Um we will have a fully joyous celebration here in the city on June 13th and 14th that will last all weekend long.

It's one of my favorite times here in the city of Albany.

Um I just want to end on talking about representation because representation matters.

And Miss Farrell.

And it is oftentimes big shoes to fill, especially being handed down those reins from Richard Conti, who survived so much and brought so much advancement to uh the community here in the city of Albany.

So without further ado, I will turn it over to my colleagues.

Okay.

Any further discussion?

Mr.

Anani.

Yeah, and I'll keep it brief.

Um, as we recognize Pride Month, we celebrate the resilience, contributions and the diversity of our LGBTQ plus neighbors, friends and family members.

Pride is both a celebration of progress and a reminder of the ongoing work to ensure that every person is treated with dignity, respect, and an equal opportunity.

As we observe pride, let us recommit ourselves to treating one another with kindness, respect, compassion.

Let us continue to build a community where differences are celebrated, where all voices are heard, and where every resident knows they belong.

I want to thank my colleague, uh Councilmember Keegan for introducing this resolution and all my uh colleagues for supporting this resolution as well.

Thank you.

Mr.

Ballon.

Thank you.

And I'll I'll be brief.

I just want to take a second and thank all the organizations that have been working on these issues for decades.

Um it has not been easy work, it has been wins and defeats and wins and defeats and wins and wins and then defeats.

Uh but there's still more wins ahead, and I appreciate the work and the steadfulness and the consistentness of coming out time and time again uh when the winds are at your back and when the winds are pulling you and all sorts of to stay focused, stay committed, and remember that everybody deserves to love who they want to love any way they want to love them, and no one should tell them anything but that.

So thank you to all those organizations because you know, there's I mean, people forget it was just 11 years ago that people couldn't get married if if you were part of the LGDBQ community.

So it wasn't that long ago.

Uh it wasn't that long ago in our country, uh, and that work is still being pushed forward, and there's still hurdles that need to be uh overcome.

Um, but I just want to thank everyone that's worked in the many different organizations that we have in our city.

We're lucky to have these organizations.

We're lucky to make it so that people feel safe and feel welcome in our community, and I just want to make sure they know uh we appreciate their hard work.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Bowen.

Yes, Ms.

Brody.

I just want to say as uh the person who's actually physically sitting in the seat, Rich Conte used to have.

I am uh very aware of big shoes um that we all have to fill, and that um I was really pleased this morning to be able to stand um with him at the Fri at the Pride uh flag raising.

I think it's sort of on the shoulders of the giants of men like him who come before that we all stand.

Um, and I think what um Kandra, you and Deb said um this morning too rings true, and I think it bears repeating here that how we show up for each other every day is a choice, and this city has made a lot of unbelievably affirming choices in how we not only uh support and protect one another, but how we take pride in each other, and that diversity is an attribute, and it's something that brings joy to our lives.

Um, so it is not an accident that we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of BIPOC Pride thanks to Inner Own Voices.

Um the sixth ward is the very proud home of the largest Pride Parade in uh the Northeast outside of Boston and New York.

Again, that's not an accident, that is a choice.

Um we have, as just talking to the parade organizers this morning.

We have record number of people who have uh who are participating in uh the parade.

Um, and that is an incredible outward sign.

Um, and what I think I'm gonna be looking to do, and I I think a lot of all of my colleagues will as well, is carrying that forward in the other 11 months of the year.

Pride is an extraordinary celebration but I think we need to do the hard work every day uh around the clock as well.

So we'll be looking to organizations like Inter Own Voices, the Pride Center, um, and all the incredible advocates uh Rich Conte and others who are still doing this important work in the neighborhood um to keep us honest and keep us informed what we need to be doing um starting July 1st and forward as well so um looking forward to not just uh the pride celebrations but embodying this year round thank you thank you okay with that uh I believe we're you're all co-sponsors on it all in favor say aye aye motion passes congrats uh all see our appreciative okay back at it uh Mr.

Ballorin thank you Mr.

President I uh I asked uh notice resolution fifty eight that sixty one that twenty five are an axe vote to be introduced and move forward for a roll call vote thank you Mr.

Ballerin Madam Clerk a resolution of the Albany Common Council calling on the New York State legislature to pass Senate Bill S forty six fifty nine dash C and Assembly Bill A forty eight seventy seven dash C and establish the New York Rest Act before the end of the twenty twenty six legislative session to ensure rent stabilization discussion Mr.

Ballorin thank you Mr President uh so the state is working on was it is working on looking at the current bill uh the rest act that would make some adjustments to uh the rent stabilization uh state policy uh some of the big adjustments uh that it would eliminate the vacancy study as many of you know we've been on this conversation since tw 2019 since uh then councilwoman Judy Doshe uh introduced uh resolution for us to go out to do a study uh we did a study in uh well everybody knows what happened in twenty twenty uh and then that kind of slowed things down a bit uh with getting uh entities to get involved but we did do a study back in twenty twenty-four uh and the study came back with I think a eight point two eight point three number which is above the five percent threshold which is currently the state's barrier as many of you know my position on this is that the uh system is not designed to uh give you the most accurate information the way it's designed is it is a self-reporting by the property owner um and if the property owner for what any reason gives inaccurate information and it can be proven that it's inaccurate there's only a five hundred dollar fine for that so the risk uh and the incentive uh for miscommunication or mismanagement or just mischief uh is there um so this bill would eliminate the vacancy study and would allow municipalities the flexibility to look at other barriers that will that our city may be facing are we rent burden by uh a good percentage of our city population has our homeless rate increased over the last few years uh and how do we want to have it structured it gives us that flexibility it takes away the

Um so this bill would eliminate the vacancy study and would allow municipalities the flexibility to look at other barriers that will that our city may be facing.

Are we rent burdened by uh a good percentage of our city population?

Has our homeless rate increased over the last few years?

Uh and how do we want to have it structured?

It gives us that flexibility, it takes away the burden on municipalities to pay for a study at a time where all municipalities are trying to save, especially upstate municipalities.

We paid $75,000 for our study.

Um that's a lot, and right now, uh, I don't think we would be in a decision to take that type of expense.

Uh so if that's us not being able to take that expense, uh imagine all the other cities and municipalities that would like to consider this, but don't have the resources uh or the flexibility to be able to fund a vacancy study.

So this resolution is asking the state.

There's I think four days left of session, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe five, to get in the room, get this figured out, because our city and our state wants to have more options, and this is just one more option the city the the state can give local municipalities to try to address this issue, which is like I said it before.

Housing affordability is not just a local issue, it's not just a state issue, it's a national issue, and anything we can do at the local level, uh, we should be looking at.

So I so the bill is to encourage our state lawmakers to give us some more options uh in trying to address this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Johnson.

I just want to say, in the words of uh Jimmy, the rent is too damn high.

McMillan, um, these rents are out of control, and um, you know, I I just say in my own I always use my own um situation.

My rent is almost one up uh three hundred dollars or or you know more, and they haven't done a damn thing to my apartment, and and so I just don't understand how uh it's come to this.

You know, um each year, you know, they they tell you about expenses for um the building, but that doesn't touch inside of your building.

So um, you know, I've told my story many times.

It's 10 Airbnbs in my um building running at at you know, so it's a hotel um, so to speak.

So we are uh trying to take measures and we are making noise, and uh we are bringing attention to the rent is too damn high.

So thank you for uh introducing us and and let's go.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

Mr.

Anani.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

I want to uh commend my colleague for always um the forefront of housing issues, particularly when it comes to our city.

Uh, we've come a long way, particularly with whether it was inclusionary housing, um, good cause of viction and small forms of uh right to counsel.

Um I represent a ward where vast majority of my residents rent apartments, and I hear all too often the challenges of many of my constituents struggling to pay rent.

Uh the data shows it.

Our city has increased number of families paying 50% or more of their household income on rent.

Mind you, the threshold for affordability is 30% of your income.

Uh, we've seen numbers of affordability plummet, rental units plummeted in Albany from 2009 to 20 uh 2024, and we'll show even further drop the past couple of years.

One of the biggest challenges facing is that able to pay rent, let alone hoping that it doesn't increase the following year.

This is an important issue.

I want to thank my colleague for introducing this resolution, and to all the tenants out there, we have your back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

I believe we're no call.

Adams.

Yes.

Anani?

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Ballerin.

Yes.

Brody.

Absane.

Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Flynn.

Yes.

Howie.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Jones.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Keegan.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Lumpkin.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Powell.

Yes.

Robinson.

Yes.

Co-sponsor, please.

Williamson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Zamer.

Yes.

14 in the affirmative.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Moving on, Miss Powell.

Yay.

I'm oh.

Oh, I can't do it.

Miss Ms.

Zamer.

Maybe I need to start highlighting.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 596126R and ask for its introduction.

Thank you, Ms.

Samur, Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Commune Council reappointing Deborah Deborah Y Brown as a member of the Peg Education and Government Access Oversight Board.

Thank you, Miss Farrell.

That will go to planning.

Thank you.

Okay.

Now Ms.

Powell.

We're ready.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 3950 to 26R.

I asked for it to be read and voted on.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Common Council declaring itself to be lead agency for the state environmental quality review of the Rap Roll Transfer Station Project, declaring such action to be a type one action and making a negative declaration as to the environmental impact of such action.

Thank you.

Discussion?

Thank you.

As Councilmember Zamer stated before, um, we had a presentation at planning today related to CHAs as they were the consultants on this matter, their report, um, which was incredibly comprehensive.

I believe everybody has it now.

Several members were present um where they discussed um some of the concerns that were flagged as uh potential issues, um, and there were uh no positive findings.

Um it's very comprehensive.

Um I encourage my colleagues to all review uh such report.

Um this is just uh the next step of this project um to put the transfer station at Rap Road.

Um so there are residential properties there.

Uh we talked about potentially needing to take them by eminent domain, but there is a um there was uh uh deal reached and we don't have to proceed with that.

Um so there are three parcels of land where they're going to put the transfer station, and this is just the next part of the process.

Um again, we're the lead agency, so I think that uh declaring us a lead agency was uh part of uh previous legislation that um uh my predecessor Hyde Clark had passed, um, had sponsored and and the previous councils passed.

So this is just the next step uh in that project to move forward in uh this transfer station.

So Mr.

Flynn.

I just want to say that I know that the uh safe pine bush folks will be here in the next few meetings, and uh but I'm confident that the DEC and uh Clough Harbor did an excellent job in their uh evaluation of the property going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Flynn.

Okay, Madam Clerk, please call the role.

Adams.

Yes, Anani?

Yes, Ballerin, yes, Brody, yes, Farrell, yes, Flynn, yes, Hoey, yes, Johnson, yes, Jones, yes, Keegan, yes, Lumpkin, yes, Powell, yes, Robinson, yes, Williamson, yes, Zamer, yes, 15 in the affirmative.

The motion passes.

Okay.

Ums Farrell.

Motion to adjourn.

No.

Um, the rest of the resolution, like the rest of the res I'm so sorry, the rest of the resolutions are held because we had miscellaneous.

I was like, are we just dumped?

On to miscellaneous unfinished business.

Mr.

Howie?

Yeah, thank you.

Um, I I want to keep everybody in a spinal night, but real fast, um, for 51 years I've worked in a data center, and it hurts me when I hear people saying the Satan of data centers.

There's a time and place for data centers.

I agree with that, and whether we should put it down there, I there's a lot of hurdles to go over.

But I just want to point out that you know, with computers, and we're in this computer age.

I mean, uh, there's cures for cancer, there's all sorts of benefits for the people.

And I mean, they're just to lump every data center together and say it's no good, and we don't want them.

And I just want to add one more thing.

I taught for 15 years at Connectity Community College, and one of my favorite subjects for my students was Moore's Law.

Moore was a gentleman in 1968 worked for Intel and predicted that computer chips would double the memory and shrink in size every 18 months.

So this talk about the electric, 10 years from now, it's gonna be using less electric than than it is now.

But I just had to get it out there because it's my business.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Robinson, and then Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I just like want to take this time out to go on record, and I want to thank the state delegate for what they did to the city of Albany.

I want to thank the mayor and her administration for fighting so hard for that equity funding that's much needed.

Um I think that was definitely something in the words of Sergio Adams that we need to be doing flips right now and moving forward, you know, I'm saying I just can't wait to see, you know, I'm saying how this current administration put us back on a fiscal, you know what I'm saying, balance and move our city forward in the right path.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you.

Um I just uh wanted to uh put it out there.

Um three years ago, I filed uh uh uh a claim against the city of Albany, and it still hasn't been addressed.

And I noticed that um the speedy um moves that they they have made in risk uh uh recently, and I just would like um consistency because you know um I feel violated, you know, as a uh person, and um I'm still waiting to um find the results of and I was told tonight that you know APD is is holding it up, so you know um there needs to be consistency on each um situation, and it shouldn't be fast tracked if it's favorable um for APD, you know.

Um I ain't against APD, but you know, right is right, wrong is wrong.

And so, you know, um I uh I'm calling um again for uh the the situation that I brought to the attention.

Uh I filed the complaint and still haven't heard anything, and um I'm asking for consistency, you know, um not just when they think it's in their favor, they let this stuff um go by um uh as fast as they did.

I'm still waiting.

Um the f you know the only thing that's on my mind that I know um I was violated as a as a person.

Um I was uh attacked for doing what I was supposed to do.

And so I would like um the the uh same attention, you know, and I would like to see consistency.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

Uh Mr.

Ballering Thank you, Mr.

President, and I'll be I'll be quick.

I did just want to echo council member uh Robinson's uh thanks to uh the state leadership, our state delegation, our mayor, uh everyone who worked hard to get us uh this funding, which is not a bailout, but a recognition of the unique position that we are in.

Uh and I'm saying that because when you occupy 50 to 60 percent of somebody's land, then you have some responsibility for the expenses of that city.

So I am extremely thankful.

I am full of gratitude for everyone who worked hard to make sure that uh and and for our state leadership who's who's recognizing that uh and who's putting us uh in in a in a better position.

I am glad to hear that we are going to still keep a very tight budget.

Uh we cannot make the mistakes that we did with APA funding.

Um there's a lot of things that that we were doing in 2018 and 2019 to tighten the budget, and then after COVID, we kind of relax those things.

Uh and it's critical that we we keep the numbers tight and that we work hard to can to make sure that this funding is permanent because it needs to be permanent, and I am great grateful, grateful that we have a three-year window uh to work with these funds and give us some stability, but I it it needs to be clear, it should be permanent.

This is not a bailout.

We you we are not other cities that that uh have full use of our land.

We don't have use of that land across the street, we don't have use of the land uh you know up the block.

Uh we don't have use of land uh in in Harris Harrisman campus.

That is land that if we could use, we could tax, and we probably wouldn't be in the financial situation that we're in.

So again, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, um, because it saved us from having to make some very difficult decisions uh that would not have been fair for our residents and for our city.

So uh thank you, Councilmember Robinson, for bringing that up.

Uh and again, thank you for everyone's hard work on that initiative.

Okay, Ms.

Farrell.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.