Okay, good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Monday, July 6th, 2026 meeting of the Planning Economic Development and Land Use Committee of the Albany Common Council.

I'm the chair of the committee, Deborah Zamer.

We're joined by committee members Sergio Adams and Tom Hoey and our legislative staffer, Carly Johnson.

Today we have two resolutions on the agenda to reappoint members of the sustainability commission.

So first we're going to ask Daniel Kirk Davidoff to please come up and take a seat.

I think the mic is on for you.

Hi, welcome.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for your previous service and for your willingness to continue to serve.

As vice chair, I'm wondering if you might be able to give us a brief overview on what the sustainability commission does, has been doing.

Yeah.

If you don't mind.

And introduce yourself as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So yes, I'm Dan Kirk Davidoff.

I'm the vice chair of the Sustainability Commission and have been, oh I guess for about three years.

Before that, I was chair for a couple of years, and before that I was secretary for a couple of years.

I've been on the commission for I think this is six years I've been on it now.

And yeah, during that time, we've performed a bunch of functions.

So at one level we're a clearinghouse for uh members of the administration uh who are members ex officio uh to meet once a month and talk with the sustainability man manager Jason West and his uh his staff about you.

Just so the our folks watching can hear clearly, thank you.

Uh he to me so uh as I was saying uh we we perform a couple of functions.

One of them is to provide a clearing house so that members of the uh of the of the administration can meet with um uh meet together and discuss sustainability topics, including the sustainability manager, Jason West, and his staff.

Uh and then uh it's also you know, we as the community members who are are a majority of the um commission are space to uh provide input and and advice uh from our perspective.

Uh we have a range of people with professional interests in sustainability and the environment on the staff on the on the membership of the commission.

We have uh members uh everyone lives in Albany, we live in different neighborhoods in the city, we bring perspectives that have to do with where we live and our backgrounds uh to those meetings, and we try to prioritize uh things that would be helpful for the city to think about in terms of uh maintaining environmental quality and uh quality of life uh and it within the city.

Uh for myself as a energy weather and climate professional.

Uh I've been really interested in understanding how the city can make the best use of the uh funds that are available because we have we live in a state that has climate policies and uh we have at times lived in a country that had significant climate policies.

Uh and there those represent opportunities for the city to uh make progress for its people in uh you know general context where we're not a particularly rich place uh and we have a lot of challenges and we need whatever resources we can to make our all of our lives better.

Uh also as a you know human being, uh I care about the legacy that we're leaving for our kids, and I think you know, all of us who have the opportunity should be thinking about how to minimize our impact on uh our warming impact on the climate going forward, which means reducing carbon dioxide emissions for the most part, uh as well as other greenhouse gases.

So we have a bunch of uh we have a bunch of subcommittees on the with it that are led by members of the commission that have different levels of uh of activity, um, but even when they're not really functioning as committees with volunteer additional volunteer members within the city, some of them are, some of them less so, uh they they are you know uh i i they're an opportunity for each of us to have some uh specialty and you know think about particular aspects of the problem.

So, you know, for many years now, Tina Lieberman has been heading up the solid waste uh subcommittee.

Um I mean, anyone who knows her knows her level of activity and you know service to the city uh and that's a really active committee, and they staff like just about every city event with people to make you know just make an educational opportunity so that folks who are attending some big big open public activity in the city know that there's a trash bin and a recycling bin and a compost bin and put their put their waste in the right place.

Um but she's also worked, you know, incredibly hard to make opportunities for the city to get resources uh from state and federal grants uh that would enable us to have more uh active uh solid waste uh reduction and and uh composting and recycling activities.

Uh we have um uh Scott Kellogg, who's the head of the um the head of the uh uh urban agricultural committee, and you know, he's also he also runs Raddox, which is an enormous organization on its own that does terrific work uh making you sort of bringing to the people of Albany the opportunity to grow food within the city uh and you know, running the Raddocks uh education center, which gives, you know, a a beautiful living example of how to uh how in an urban context you can raise some animals even and uh and compost and grow stuff in a greenhouse and uh they plant trees all over the city for uh beautification and food and uh and shade.

Uh and Scott and uh I have been uh collaborating with um Stacy Pettigrew uh who's also at Raddox and also at um shoot one of the colleges around here, I forget which one, um, uh working on um uh monitoring temperature within the city in order to understand the impact of street trees on on climate.

So that took a huge amount of work that took a lot of coordination with the city because you know, National Grid is unbelievably fussy about what goes on their power poles, even though we were talking about putting up these little hobo measurement stations.

They're just little battery operated uh thermometer, you know, uh uh hydrometer pressure sensor.

It's about this big and it just straps onto onto the pole, um incapable of doing any kind of harm whatsoever, but we could not get the lawyers from National Grid to sign off on this until we enlisted Gabriela Romero, who you know made the right phone calls and all of a sudden they were willing, you know, it's and we were able able to make that happen.

I guess I'm on the record here and I shouldn't be talking to I mean National Grid has a it uh is you know has a big sustainability program.

They uh they they do all sorts of stuff.

They also, you know, that that is that could be helpful and good for the community, um, and they also have a lot of lawyers and lawyers often see their job as saying no uh to stuff, and that's just a hazard of the occupation, and I I do sympathize.

Um, but this was a good thing, and it took a lot of work to accomplish, but now it's been accomplished, and we have a network of uh temperature monitoring stations all over the city, which is terrific.

Um we are what else is up?

Um uh I I've for a long time been the chair of the energy uh subcommittee, but that's been a bit nominal for the last few years.

I do have a big long membership list uh, but um we've we I fit I felt like we were having a lot of meetings where we talked about what was going on, and that that's helpful, I think.

But what I've been hoping for over the last few years is to transition uh work in uh in that space uh from talking to more action.

So along those lines, I've worked for a number of years with uh Mary Ellen Malia at SUNY Albany on uh spinning up a um uh uh uh energy efficiency volunteer corps, a weatherization volunteer corps, which you know has now been going for several years running, and uh the city has uh taken on a bunch of the work for that.

So the the uh Love Your Block Fellow Um Erin uh Johansson uh what's her name?

Um has uh taken that on on the city side and found uh people who were uh you know uh who would were looking for weatherization help.

Uh I think we covered six or eight houses.

It was probably maybe it was it was more than that.

There were so it was on each of two weekends, so they're probably something like 20-ish with like something like I don't know, 20-ish or more uh volunteer student volunteers plus a few community volunteers joining.

Um you know, this is this is a beginning.

Uh we are uh uh a long way from having a uh uh a green housing stock in the city.

Uh we our city is you know by uh dominantly heated by natural gas um which is still pretty cheap uh and it's gonna it's gonna be a ways until we get to the point where it's gonna uh where we're gonna be able to make you know fast pro progress at a conversion of all those uh all those uh gas heating systems into heat pumps.

But you know, because state policy is now very supportive of heat pumps for new buildings uh and for you know substantive renovations of buildings, we're seeing lots of new uh heat pump, you know, fully heat pump uh heated buildings going up in the city, and when we have major renovations, often that's the technology that's used.

Um but what we're trying to understand is uh low-hanging fruit opportunities for uh conversion to cleaner uh electric heat that is you know both lower, you know, much lower carbon emissions, but also healthier for people in houses that if they're not breathing, you know, the emissions from gas-fired systems both on on stoves and in uh water heaters and um and uh furnaces.

Uh so um I'm I'm I'm doing this a little bit off the top of my head and I'm missing things, and Andre's gonna have a chance to talk about his work when he comes on.

So and I don't want to go on for too long, but I'll say one more thing, which is the I was saving for last the biggest project, which is you know, the city uh last summer began a process of developing a climate action plan with a grant from the state that is now you know well on its way, and uh we all on the commission have been very involved in that and uh have you know uh there are now uh a pretty detailed set of recommendations that are you know being worked through as part of that process, and those fall under categories of greenhouse gas emissions reduction, equity and inclusion, transparency and accountability, and climate resilience, uh which is also you know, as we we've just experienced this heat wave that was pretty substantial here.

Uh, you know, it's interesting.

A lot of places around the world have had these very uh notable uh spectacularly bad heat waves, and we should be aware that all but we haven't really gone through that, right?

So a few years ago you might remember Pacific Northwest had this enormous heat wave and temperatures were up around like 110 in Portland.

Like I I've looked at it, I don't think that was any more unusual there than it would be here.

And we just haven't, you know, had the bad luck to have that thing happen, but we should be aware that it really could, and so making sure that everyone in the city knows where to go if they're you know getting hot and feeling woozy and can't cool down in their homes uh should be a really high priority for public health and safety.

Uh so I'm really glad that we have a climate resilience aspect in this uh and uh I I hope that you know, as we put out recommendations, they'll there'll be opportunities for the common council to weigh in on funding and for looking for ways to get help with that from uh from the state and the federal government.

Um there are a bunch of you know, there's a whole list of focus areas and priorities under this that um where we've talked a lot about energy and buildings, materials and waste, natural systems and green infrastructure, preparedness and resilience and transportation.

Um happy to talk about more or answer any questions about that.

But of course, Jason, who's been in charge of that whole process will also be really happy to give you a detailed briefing about it.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you for that overview.

Really appreciate it, appreciate the work that the commission is doing.

Um it's good to get updates and and get a sense of the many areas um of sustainability that you have, if you all have your hands in and to and to hear of the sort of professional diversity on the commission, that's super important.

That was a question that I had.

Um we are joined by committee member Alfredo Valeran also.

Um thank you for that presentation.

And now we're gonna, if you if you don't mind staying, we're gonna take up resolution 6262 26R, uh focused on your your reappointment.

Um is there anything before I open it up to questions?

Is there anything you want to add about your own personal reappointment or your uh yeah?

I mean, I've I've I've been on here a while.

I I probably shouldn't do it forever, but I feel like we're engaged in some good work, and I'm really happy to uh it's a cause I'm really happy to uh give my time to.

I think I'm excited about uh the climate action plan in development.

I'm really excited about negotiations with National Grid to get us a better sense of who is um uh you know, a better sense of uh uh energy use at a uh a more fine-grained level within the community.

Uh we um we want to be able to target outreach efforts to people whose houses say are particularly inefficient in their heating and cooling and could use weatherization support or might be good candidates for a heat pump.

Uh and it, you know, having spoken with uh some academics around the state who've had uh good luck uh building really detailed building models uh for their cities.

Um I probably shouldn't say exactly which ones, but they'll be in published literature pretty soon if uh if not already.

Uh I think there's a decent chance that we could, with help from uh Cornell and University at Albany uh have a really detailed uh building energy model for the whole city that would uh allow us to understand at a block-to-block level uh where people could really use help uh and where you know resources would be most efficiently spent at uh improving that.

So that's something I care about a lot, looking forward to working on uh and this general uh motion towards doing something serious about uh you know greening our uh electrical use and generation and uh uh reducing our uh emissions uh is is very exciting to me.

So I'd really be happy to serve for another three years.

Great, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions from committee members?

Councilmember Howe.

Yeah, thank you, and thank you, Daniel, for um for serving.

I think you said over six years, so uh this is a very important uh committee, and uh you know really appreciate that you did it.

I do have a concern.

Um I'm gonna be 70 years old and um I'm getting old, I guess.

But I get worried about the heat pumps when you you start talking about you know going totally electric.

And you know what I'm gonna say?

It's the grid.

I'm really worried about the grid.

Um we've had some, you know, with global warming, it's not only the hot summers, it's extreme winters, where you have these wild climate shifts and people don't understand.

But my concern is my own sister lost electricity for two weeks.

What happens if you're heating your house with a heat pump, an electric heat pump, and you're down for two weeks.

Um your pipes are gonna freeze unless you leave the water running.

Uh it's just I don't know if we're ready yet.

You know, and I I know a hundred years ago, Tesla came up with an idea of giving electricity to homes wirelessly, and JP Morgan took care of him, but um, you know, we didn't get that.

But and again, I don't want an answer tonight, but I just wanted to give you my concern as an old timer that I do worry about what do we do when we start putting up new buildings in the rural electric.

So I'll just say briefly, as someone who works on electrical uh uh the the electrical power system professionally, um uh first of all, uh just three quick things.

Um there's there's there's some misconceptions out there about impact of global warming on winter time temperatures.

Winter gets warmer under global warming, the frequency of really cold events gets less.

Um we are having much more hot records than cold records.

There's there's a the these kind of counterintuitive ideas get a little are sticky, like you you read something, oh you know, it's really even though it's getting warmer, it's gonna make the winters colder, and that just seems cool because it's and I I I'm not speaking to you, I'm speaking to all of us.

Everyone, yeah, yeah.

You but the no, but it's it's true that the the thing to bear in mind, and for example, that the state of Texas didn't do a great job bearing in mind is that even though it is getting warmer in general, we still get cold winters.

Um so you have a once in 20 year cold winter, that's gonna put some strains on your system, and if your system isn't ready, then you know, gas lines can freeze and power plants can go down and all sorts of bad stuff can happen, and that led to like three-day blackout and pipes frozen all over the place and so on.

Um so that's that's point number one.

Point number two is uh because we are very dependent on electricity for all sorts of things, it's really important that we have you know adequate resources, that we maintain a grid that's grid stability, uh, and that we're very thoughtful about how we do uh you know maintenance of distribution lines and avoid having trees fall on them, and that's is a huge topic, and I'm you know really happy to talk about it uh whenever whenever you would like.

Um and then you know, it's also worth remembering in terms of heat pumps versus the furnaces that most furnaces have some kind of electrical component to them too.

And uh and if you've got a three-day back blackout, they're not gonna work either.

But it is also the case that if you had like a battery uh backup system that could probably supply enough power to keep your furnace going, but it couldn't keep a heat pump going for three days.

So these are all important things to think about, and I appreciate your interest.

Any other questions from committee members?

Councilmember Ballarin.

Thank you.

Sure, I was just gonna thank you, Dan.

Uh I know you've been very committed to this.

Uh I and I know you've been doing it for many, many years.

Uh so I I do appreciate I remember I think when we first interviewed you, I think it was more than six years ago, but it was quite some time ago.

I was still my first term.

Um, and I've always found you to have great knowledge on on this uh subject.

So uh thank you for your willingness to continue to serve.

Uh I also share some of the concerns my colleague has about the electric grid, and I do hope that that's a much bigger uh uh project that I think the state and the country really has to look at as we start going into this direction, um, just to make sure that everyone is safe.

Um but I do appreciate your insight, your knowledge, and your commitment uh to the city and to uh you know sustainability.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Ballard.

Any other questions from committee members?

Okay, do I have uh I just also before we before we vote, um want to thank you for your service, um your many years of service and um that again your willingness to serve again.

Um we did receive just wanted to make sure you were aware, we did receive uh memo on the um Jason West, a climate action memo to the council.

Was that something were you guys aware of that?

I just wanted to know if that was something that uh commissioned.

No, I'm pretty sure we we we put that in.

Yeah, that's what I mean that's what you were referring to.

Yeah.

Um so I just wanted to I I I just wanted you to know that we all received it um recently.

Good.

Um so with that, do I have a council member Howie?

Yes, I make a motion that we uh pass resolution 6262 26R with a positive recommendation.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Councilmember uh Ballorin second, how we first, all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any abstention, any no's any abstentions?

Okay.

Uh resolution 62.62.26R has been voted out of committee with a unanimous favorable recommendation.

So thank you so much for your time and for your service.

We really appreciate it.

Thanks.

And our voted on the efficient Yes.

Um and our next uh item is resolution 63.62.26R, resolution of the common council reappointing Andre Lake as a member of the Sustainability Commission.

Mr.

Lake, would you mind joining us on the floor?

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here and for serving um in the past and your willingness to continue um your service, if you wouldn't mind briefly um introducing yourself and uh sharing with us your interest in continuing to serve.

Okay, my name is Andre Lake.

Um I've been the citizen of Albany since 2016.

And I've been a part of this uh committee since 2018.

Um during my throughout my time, I first started out years ago I was doing solar energy, and one of the things I noticed is people did not really understand how their national grid bill, how they were building a national grid bill.

So I would spend the first time kind of uh showing them, teaching them how showing them one, these are the what the difference between a delivery charge and a service charge is, and it showed this why you're being charged those two different bills.

Then I would allow then I would tell them this is what solar energy would do for them.

Uh so based off of that, I realize that there has to be a little bit more learning that has to be done with not just electric bills, but also your heating bill.

What do you what can you do in order to lower your elect your heating and electric bills?

Um a lot of the houses that I've been in uh are fortunately have been were pretty drafty, so people did not know exactly how to keep their house warm or the type of windows, what to do to seal your windows, weatherization, and things of that nature.

Um the biggest reason why I joined this committee is to the educational piece.

Um also another thing that I've learned as well.

I'm also a real estate agent, and when I go around to the different that when I'll go around to different uh renters or people that wanted to do homes, they energy efficiency.

Some of them don't understand what that is.

So I'll teach them and showing them how to do that is definitely a huge part of it, and that's why I'm a part want to be a part of this committee, and one thing I want to do as well is have a some sort of relationship with all with the G car, for example, who have who deal with a lot of people who are looking new new home buyer, first-time home buyers, as well as landlords as well, and to kind of educate them and show them that there are programs and incentives that are out there through NYCERTA for energy efficiency and so on and so forth.

That way it could help us in the long run um to get achieve our goals for energy efficiency.

So that's something that I take very very seriously about.

And also the other thing I take serious about as well is um is the equity of uh throughout the whole communities through through going through the different communities.

I realize there's a huge disparity within the different neighborhoods.

I mean, we all see it.

Um, but the biggest thing is how do we get to those homes that are mostly renters, and some of them um some of the landlords are absentee landlords, so how do we get to them?

So by doing working with the different neighborhood associations in those communities definitely helps us out as well, and that's something I want to definitely continue and work on as well for my next for my next few years here as well.

Well, wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you for for that um introduction.

And as a uh a former realtor, I want to I I think the idea of collaborating with GCAR is great, and they I mean you you guys are really on on like the ground level with um homeowners and renters and can do a lot of education and a lot of good there.

So I appreciate that.

Absolutely.

Um any questions from committee members?

Councilmember Ballarin.

Well, I'll hit you with an easy one.

Um first and foremost, thank you again for your many years of service and and thank you for your willingness to work and uh and also uh in your unique position of trying to uh showcase how going green can be uh beneficial to somebody's green in their pocket.

Uh sorry people said uh that your efforts in trying to show how going green can also be beneficial to somebody's green in their pockets because I do think that sometimes some of the hesitation that people have is that they may not be able to afford it or that it may cost more than what they they can currently handle.

Um so I think those are some of the the barriers that people have.

So I appreciate your efforts in trying to educate people uh and uh trying to make it more feasible so for the public to be able to uh actually create and and build more sustainability uh within uh their properties.

Uh so my question is actually a real simple one.

Um, based on your time on the committee, uh, what would you see as potential initiatives that you like to see uh or you look forward to continuing as uh a member of the board?

Very good question.

Um what I would like to definitely see more is more of an interaction between the different communities and the different um neighborhoods in um in the city um as well as um what whether it's us going out there kind of we can act as a liaison between um between the community as well as either the common council or even the mayor, um we could kind of act as a liaison to kind of let them let everyone know hey, this is what's going on, this is what the this is these are the concerns, what can we do and work collaboratively together to help resolve this situation?

So that's one of the things I kind of I'm very big on collaboration throughout all levels of city government government, although I'm not really as versed as you are in this situation, but I definitely feel like this is something I would definitely like to learn more about as well.

Well, thank you.

Hey, you're in here, you're in it one way or the other.

Thank you again.

Perfect.

Um, and uh Councilmember Ballorin, I think you just came up with the the new PR slogan, going green.

Can make your pockets green.

Yeah, interesting.

I like that.

Uh Councilmember Helly.

Yeah, thank you, and thank you, Andre.

Um, I just got to thank you.

Uh really no question, but I know whenever I knock on your door, you and your wife, Serena are always there.

You know, if I have to get something signed, you're there for me.

So thank you, and thank you for your willingness to work for the city.

No, thank you too.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Any other questions from committee members?

Okay, do I have a motion?

Councilmember Adams.

Second by Councilmember Howie.

All in favor.

Aye.

Any nays, any abstentions.

Resolution sixty three, sixty two, twenty six R passes out of committee with a unanimous favorable recommendation.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Lake, for your service and for your continued service.

Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to Caucus.

Um, if someone on staff could go through the rolls or announce who's here, I'd appreciate it.

Adams.

Anonymous.

Ballorin.

Brody.

Here.

Farrell.

Here.

Flynn.

Here.

Howie.

Here.

Johnson.

Jones.

Keegan.

Lumpkin.

Powell.

Robinson.

Williamson.

Here.

Zamer.

Here.

Nine present.

We're also joined by Council President Kelly Kimbrough, City Clerk, Shinkle Jackson, Senior Assistant Corporation Council, Martha Mahoney, Legislative Director Brian Meadows.

Council and Director of Policy, Robert Winner, and Junior Legislative or Junior Policy Analyst Carly Johnson.

Thank you so much.

We'll move through the agenda.

This evening we will be voting on local law I of 2026 from Councilmember Keegan, a local law amending the charter in relation to clarifying and revising requirements related to budget transfers after adoption of the budget.

Councilmember Keegan is not yet here to discuss it.

Um but we've discussed this at the last caucus meeting.

Next we will be amending local law L of 2026 by Councilmember Brody.

That's just an amendment, not a vote.

Then we will be um taking up from Councilmember Ballorin, local law M of 2026, a local law uh amending of the code of the city of Albany in relation to designating an earn end of term date for commission members.

Councilmember Ballorin, did you want to say anything on that?

Um next from Councilmember Hoey, local law N of 2026, a local law of the code of the city of Albany adding a section to provide for an additional exemption for the primary residents of disabled veterans.

Did you want to say anything on that, Councilmember?

Thank you so much.

Um next in ordinances introduced from Councilmember Powell, ordinance twelve seventy-two twenty-six and ordinance uh of the code of city of Albany in relation to allowing the use of pesticides on city property by city employees.

That will go to general services.

Did you want to say anything about the this evening?

The rest of the ordinances will be held.

Um in resolutions introduced from council member Hoey, a resolution of the Common Council celebrating July 4th as Independence Day.

We all still do.

Excellent.

Next from Councilmember Keegan, resolution 7071 26.

A resolution of the Common Council recognizing July as disability pride month.

We all wanted to be co-sponsors at that at Caucus.

Just going to confirm we still all would like to be co-sponsors in that.

Yes, excellent.

Um next from Councilmember Zamer, resolution 7171 26R, resolution of the Common Council supporting the New York State Legislature's Responsible Data Center Development Act.

Did you want to say anything about that at this time?

No, I'll save it for the meeting.

Um next by majority consent from Councilmember Flynn, resolution 72 26 R, a resolution honoring common former common council member John Rosenzwag for his retirement from Albany High after 32 years of service.

We will be taking that out of service or out of not out of service, out of order.

Thank you.

So Mr.

President, we'll take that before public comment.

And in resolutions held, we have several from Councilmember Zemer.

Resolution 556126R.

This is a reappointment to the Peg Access Board.

We have two reappointments to the Peg Access Board.

Resolution 55, 61, 26R, resolution 59, 61, 26R.

We'll be voting on those this evening.

I believe that they were voted on positively this evening.

And then we have two to the sustainability advisory committee, resolution 62, 62, 26R, and resolution 6362 26R.

We'll be voting on those this evening.

Those both went through with a positive recommendation.

So those are reappointments as well.

And we'll be voting from Councilmember Johnson resolution 6562 26R honoring the life and legacy of James Smith and renaming a portion of Franklin in his honor.

Councilmember Johnson said that the family may be here.

So Mr.

President, we might be taking that out of order if we don't mind playing that by ear.

We appreciate it.

Next from Councilmember Robinson, resolution 6662 26R.

Of the Common Council honoring the life and legacy of Daisy Dobbs and renaming a portion of Thornton Street in her honor.

We are voting on that this evening.

Councilmember Robinson, I don't remember if you wanted that out of order or not.

Yes, okay.

So same thing, yes.

We will take that out of order as well.

And ideally, if it's possible to do that before public comment, that would be excellent.

With that is our agenda this evening.

Does anybody we also have commissioner of deeds, I believe.

So Mr.

Ballorin be prepared to read the commissioner of deeds and hold the names.

And I believe that is all the business in the meeting this evening.

Does anybody have anything that they would like to say, Councilmember Flynn?

Can we just get an update from Shaniqua and Rob on the RCD procedures?

Or do we not want to discuss that tonight quickly?

Just where we're at.

I I think that there's not enough time to discuss that.

I I think that I also believe that our council is doing some more legwork on it.

Um so I don't, I mean, if you have an update, you're welcome to say, but I I think that we need more time than 10 minutes.

Thank you.

Anything, but we we will absolutely discuss it at the next caucus.

Um we have a longer stretch of time too.

So if there is nothing else, um we'll turn on the air conditioners for a few minutes before the council meeting, so it can cool it try to cool it down a tiny bit.

Sure, council member Brodie.

Um I just wanted to acknowledge that the mayor has appointed uh Pastor Gresham to the Office of Violence Prevention Coordinator.

Um as you probably all heard, there was a very unfortunate incident uh in the sixth ward that APD has deemed a homicide.

Uh 39-year-old woman was shot to death in her own car in broad daylight on Sunday.

Um, and I would just like to emphasize, I think, at least on my behalf, and hopefully it will be joined by my colleagues, that this kind of senseless violence destroys our community.

It destroys individual families.

Um, and I'm very much looking forward to working with Pastor Gresham to figure out how we move forward uh because events like this cannot happen in any neighborhood in the city of Albany.

I know there's a lot of statistics that say Albany is getting safer, which is great.

So I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the importance of the work that I think we're going to be getting to with that office and with him in the in charge, and very much looking forward to getting to work with him.

So thank you.

The members get back to your seats and we can get started.

Do we have the complete list?

Oh, we're still waiting for sign ups.

Okay, we'll get started with Madam Clerk, please call the role.

Adams.

Anani.

Ballorin.

Brody.

Present.

Farrell.

Here, Flynn.

Here.

Howie.

Present.

Johnson.

Present.

Jones.

Keegan.

Here.

Lumpkin.

Powell.

Robinson.

Here.

Williamson.

Here.

Zamer.

Here.

Thirteen present to absent.

Okay.

Do you have enough to meet?

Um, welcome everyone to the Monday, July sixth meeting of Holden Common Council.

We'll start with Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I move to add to the agenda via majority consent.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Ms.

Farrell.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

I move to take resolution 7272 26R, resolution 65, 62, 26R, and resolution 6662 26R out of order.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Motion passes.

So with that, we will start with Mr.

Flynn.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 7272 26R.

And that's for its introduction and passage.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Please read the resolution.

A resolution of the common council honoring formal council member John H.

Rosenwig for his retirement from Albany High School after 32 years of dedicated service.

Thank you.

Discussion, Mr.

Flynn.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I've known the John and his family for over 40 years.

I'm back in our days in Wessel and Hills.

And when my father died in 1985, his family was very uh supportive of me through the years.

Um I then got to play baseball with John Baberwood and National Little League.

Um has just been a stellar stand-up guy forever.

Uh he's a teacher for Albany High for 25, 30 years.

He was elected before me.

Um I never would run against him, so uh so John, if it wasn't for your personal issues, you'd still be here, I'm sure.

Uh John, you know, it's just ironic today is U.S.

is playing soccer, and John was very involved in our youth program back in the 90s and 2000 with our kids.

So for all these years, uh John has just been a stand-up guy, and um, you know, the mayor couldn't be here today, but she would like to honor John H.

Rhodeswag Day as July 6th.

That the mayor did a proclamation for her, but she couldn't be here on her behalf.

But you know, John for this year, you know, he was able to see Miles' sons graduate.

Um the Knicks won this year, and John is a huge Knicks fan.

But more importantly, uh one of John's best attribute is uh when his wife came down with ALS, he was a he was a parent, he was a father and friend to a lot in the Albany area.

So thank you, John, for all your years of dedication to the City of Albany.

And not only that, but John not only was he like an alumni of Albany High, he was a teacher of Albany High, and his kids went through Albany High.

So all these years, there aren't many teachers that actually live in the state of Albany.

John is one of those, so thank you, John, for all you've done.

Thank you.

Okay, uh further discussion, Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I have been fortunate to know John for many years as well.

Um, and I I think that some of the ways to best know John are his impact on the city and the students that he has prioritized in his career and so dedicatedly served.

Um on the common council, he was a tireless worker, he believed deeply in transparency.

He is the one that brought us the peg board, so Keith Irish should especially be pleased.

Um but he did that in the vein of transparency and always pushed for that, which is something that as a council we still hold dear, and I say that we always stand on the shoulders of the council members that came before us, and certainly when it comes to a lot of the issues that um cared deeply about, we are still we are we're we are able to do what we do because of his legacy.

Um and I will say one of the things that I think are very special for anybody that works with students, um, is to actually see interactions between the you know that person who works with students and those students, and I've had the opportunity to see students from everywhere in the city interact with John, and um you can tell how much he's done for the students.

A lot of times he was working with students that were in some of the most difficult situations, and he really went above and beyond for the students and the students knew it.

Um you could tell it in the interactions how deeply they cared about him, how much they valued who he was and his opinion, and that I think um those are the things that we don't see.

You know, it's hard to really report when you talk about people that work with students, but those are the things it's a lifelong impact.

So while the council service is second to none, I will say your interaction and the way that you've helped so many child hundreds of children in the city of Albany, that is also deeply appreciated.

So it is an absolute honor to um to co-sponsor this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you.

So I just want to say to a um friend, a colleague, you know, you uh blazed the trials that I walked um today.

And um, you know, after being in many meetings with you over the years, one thing that I could always say, you did things with a lot of swag, but you had that in your name anyways.

But I just wanted to say thank you for always being the class act that you have been, and congratulations on your retirement.

Okay.

Mr.

Ballard.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to add to to that, uh, John.

Thank you for your thirty-two years of commitment to our city, to our kids, uh, to making sure that our kids had a role model, uh, a man of honor, a man that showed to example what it was to be a civic leader, what it was to be a good father, what it was to be a good husband.

Uh thank you for being that model uh for our kids, and I do wish you a very long and healthy and joyful retirement.

Well earned and well deserved.

Thank you, Mr.

Ballard.

Mr.

Nani.

Yeah, I want to share with my colleagues.

John I just want to congratulate you.

Um, particularly uh retirement.

Um, you know, as an educator.

It's not easy being a teacher or educator in uh our school district.

It takes a lot of passion and empathy and just really um to have individuals who are doing it to make a difference.

And you have demonstrated that over the past uh thirty some years, and I just want to uh commend you for all your work and the lives that you have changed at um Albany.

So thank you so much for everything.

Thank you, Mr.

Howie.

Yeah, thank you, uh Mr.

President.

John, thank you for hanging on till my son graduated from Albany.

Hi, but you are really good.

Um he talked about you all the time, so congratulations.

Okay, further discussion, seeing none.

Uh Adam Clerk, please call roll.

Adams.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Anani.

Yes, co-sponsor please.

Ballorin.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Brody.

Yes, co-sponsor, please, Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please, Flynn.

Yes.

Howie.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Keegan.

Yes.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Robinson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Williamson.

Yes, cool, Johnson, please.

Zamer.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Thirteen in affirmative.

Motion passes.

Okay.

Uh back to our program.

Moving uh right along, we're on to uh Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you.

I notice resolution sixty-five point sixty-two point twenty-six R and I ask for it to be read and voted on.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson, Madam Clerk.

Please read the resolution.

A resolution of the common council honoring the life and legacy of Reverend James U Smyth, Senior, and renaming a portion of Franklin in his honor.

Thank you.

Discussion.

Mr.

Johnson, sorry about that.

Thank you.

It is an honor to be a part of this um street renaming for a man who single-handedly um took on reading at a time when our community needed, he was um very instrumental in um forming the adult learning center.

And when you think about today, um, how much the adult learning center is helping people, you can only imagine what it did um for people uh many years ago.

Um he took education um very serious.

He f you know, um, the stuff as I said um Wednesday at Caucus, um, when I started doing a little research, I talked to um Percell McDowell, Deacon Purcell McDowell of the brothers, and um when he spoke about the work that the brothers did in the early 70s, he said that the um support that um Pastor Smythe provided that group made it, you know, um possible for them to do some of the things that many people thought was impossible.

So when I was contacted by family member many years ago, I really didn't know much about um Pastor Smythe because his time I was an infant.

Um you don't really take heed of what's going on in the community, you just enjoy it.

And so um I started asking questions, you know, I found out that his impact and one of the things that they said that he was small in stature, but he had a uh you know, a huge presence.

And um today, um, I ask that um everyone um support this.

Uh I'm glad that um we were able to put this together um um so his family um could smell the flowers and and the roses that um their father didn't get the um smell, and I think that that's important when we do um things like this because without the effort of these people that we um are celebrating, they uh contribute to the fabric that uh makes our city the great city that it is.

So it's an honor um and I'm excited about this, and I hope that it puts the smile on the family's faces that that it um they deserve to have.

Thank you.

Okay, further discussion, Mr.

Flynn.

Yeah, I just got on record that the uh general service committee did approve council member Johnson's Adams and Robinson's uh resolutions tonight.

Since we're out of order, I just want to put that on record that they all came out with a favorable recommendation.

Adams.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Ballerant.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Brody, yes, co-sponsor, please.

Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Hoey.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes.

Keegan.

Yes.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please, Robinson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Williamson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Zamer.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Thirteen and affirmative.

Motion passes, I'm not sure.

Okay, uh continuing on Mr.

Robinson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I ask that you read resolution sixty six, sixty-two, twenty-two R, and ask for a vote and passes.

Thank you.

Uh Madam Clerk, please read the resolution.

A resolution of the common council honoring the life and legacy of Daisy Dobbs and renaming a portion of Thornton Street in her honor.

Thank you.

Discussion?

Mr.

Robinson?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

President.

When I got the call from the clerk's office about the Dobbs family, um wanted door street name in honor of their mother.

Um I didn't second guess, you know, sponsoring this bill.

Because growing up in the community, right, I would had the pleasure of being in the same community that this family, you know, um, where she raised this family at.

And in them days, you know, we all was family.

We was able to, you know, I'm saying, go to each other's homes, and you know, our parents would feed, you know, I'm saying us like they was their own.

Um, you know, I have went to school, you know, I'm saying with the sons.

Um, you know, like I say, my family is like an extended family to the Dobbs family.

And you know, the mother, you know, I'm saying, um, you know, she's not here, but her flowers is well deserving.

Um, she was a great pillar within the community, you know.

She opened up a business in the time when businesses was hard, and even when it was hard for her to make bills, when someone who couldn't, you know what I'm saying, afford, you know, was just feeling down in their luck, she knew what a a uh a hair do would do to their emotions and you know saying and to their spirit.

You know what I'm saying?

So she was there.

Um, she was a giver throughout the um community.

She was a very spirited person.

Um, you know, in just the community of Arbor Hill and uh um in the triangle over there on um uh on on Tim, I mean on on um Thornton, where this street naming is um gonna be um I'm honored at.

You know, you had a lot of families that you know worked hard to own homes, you know, and and in my district, you you don't have uh a a triangler of of homeowners that that that care for each other.

Um I know that this resolution is is is is the fitting of the family, and um I'm just happy to be able to be the one to sponsor it and and bring some joy to the family for their mother because um is well deserved, you know, when you have a um a matriarch in our community that that that know what community is, you know, and and just you know, do whatever they can do, you know what I'm saying, to make sure the members of the community can smile and have a better day.

So I thank the Dobbs families for giving me the opportunity, you know what I'm saying, to um bring this resolution um to light and uh congratulations, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Robinson and Mr.

Johnson.

Yes, thank you, and I just would like to add, you know, I didn't have the direct pleasure of dealing with Miss Dobbs on a day-to-day basis like you did, but you know, um her um kids, you know, I had a big brother and one of her sons and um her her younger son, you know, we competed in in many um different uh categories and you know the older sister is somebody that I always looked up and felt so comfortable, you know, their family loved on the community, and you could just show it uh it tells, you know, uh where they got it from when you uh think about and hear some of the things that are shared about their mother, and so it's a blessing to be here just to speak to them and have them in in the in um in the in our presence to share this great honor.

So thank you and I will be supporting this.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

Any further discussion?

Okay, seeing none, Madam Clerk, please call the rule.

Adams.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Anani?

Ballorin.

Yes, co-sponsor, please, Brody.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Flynn.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Keegan.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Robinson.

Yes.

Williamson.

Yes, cool sponsors, please.

Zamer.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Thirteen in the affirmative.

The motion passes on the case.

Okay, we've got one more item.

Uh recog uh Miss Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I move I move that we move resolution sixty four, sixty-two, twenty-six R out of order.

All in favor, say motion passes.

Mr.

Adams.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Like to notice resolution sixty-four, sixty-two, twenty-six R and asked for its introduction.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Passage.

A resolution of the Common Council honoring the life and legacy of Madeline Seal in renaming a portion of Rainbow Street in her honor.

Okay.

Yes, Adams.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, this evening I'm joined here to announce a resolution to the SEAL family.

Um, as a council member, we all enjoy and have the pleasure of uh awarding these resolutions to families to individuals here throughout the city of Albany.

Um a lot of unsung heroes here in the city of stories that we get to hear.

Uh Miss Seal was one of them.

Her son had reached out to me um a few months back and had talked to me and explained to me kind of her history and her story as it relates to our neighborhood and the Delaware Avenue area and the history of Miss Seale.

Um just to highlight uh Miss Steele, she served as a um treasury um clerk here in the city of Albany for 20 plus years.

Um just 20 plus years alone is a testament to her um longevity and care um towards the city.

Um she was also um the creator of the neighborhood watch in Robinson Square back in nineteen ninety-seven.

Um public safety um is something that obviously runs in the family pretty deep because her son is a retired officer here in the city of Albany as well.

So we like to thank and honor her not only for her commitment to the city of Albany, but her service to the city of Albany for all these years.

She had the nickname as the commissioner.

In our ward, we take beautification and taking care of our streets really seriously.

And Ms.

Seal was one of those individuals who really pushed for that.

Having pride in your neighborhood, pride on your street, and leading with integrity.

So her son is here this evening, joined us, and just want to thank the rest of her family for sharing this information with us to allow us to not only award her but give her this recognition that she so deserves.

So thank you, everyone.

I hope you can support this resolution tonight.

Thank you, Mr.

Adams.

Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you.

So you know, it puts a smile on my face.

You know, I'm from South Pearl Street.

You hear me talk about it.

At one time, Miss Ship Miss Sill was a mother on South Pearl Street.

And to come here, you know, sometimes you go to work and you find out about people that you think you know.

I didn't know some of her accomplishments because she was just Miss Still.

You know, um, and so it's an honor to be here today to see the smile on his face, and you know, um it's stuff like this that is the feel good part of what we do.

So I just wanted to say thank you, um Kevin, for um putting us in the position to make you smile.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson, Mr.

Williamson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Just wanted to say congratulations to Kevin, my friend.

Um I knew his mom.

She was very encouraging to me.

Um she always lifts me up.

Um, even when um when things wasn't right, um, she always speak life to me.

And um, I thank her for that.

I thank her for um allow me and my wife to come in her house.

She has such a beautiful home.

You know, such a beautiful home.

But I just wanted to um congratulate Kev and the rest of his family.

You know, I know mom's not here, but she's here in spirit.

But um, I just want to let you know that, you know, congrats, brother.

I love you.

Thank you.

Any further discussions?

Seeing none, Madam Quick, please call the role.

Adams.

Yes.

Anani.

Ballorin.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Brody.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Flynn.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Hoey.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Keegan.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Robinson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Williamson.

Zamer.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

13 in the affirmative.

The motion passes.

We're moving moving on to our public comment.

The meeting.

I'm gonna um I'll start by saying you uh due to the number of speakers.

We'll allot three minutes for each speaker.

Um when you sit down, name and address.

Um if you have comments to make towards members, I ask that you direct them to me.

Um, and during this public comment period, we're receiving comment.

So it's not a back and forth.

It's meant to for us to receive comment from you.

So and remember to be respectful.

So with that, Mr.

Seal.

Yes, thank you.

Mr.

President.

Um, I'm gonna be short and sweet for everybody.

Appreciate the count um common counsel for voting uh for my mom, Derek, John, Sergio, of course, and all of you guys uh who made this possible.

I was sitting over here waiting my turn while this this whole meeting got started.

I got very emotional.

I thought I had to get out of here, honestly.

I just lost my mom in December, and it's pretty raw for me.

Uh I know the guys here who have lost their parents as well.

Um grief is something.

I've never dealt with this in my life.

I'm not a tough guy, but I'm a tough guy.

And I say that whereas though serving my country, serving my community, I did it with pleasure.

And I got that from my mother.

She taught me kindness, as tough as you want to be, you must be kind.

And the things that she's done in this city, I'm originally from Philadelphia.

I've never spent a summer in the city until after I graduated high school.

So I didn't really bond with a lot of my friends here.

And then right after high school, I went to service a little ways after that.

But anyway, what I want to say is everything about me.

I love my dad.

My dad is there too, but it was my mom who I lived with, and she put everything in me.

So for her to retire from downstairs as a treasury uh clerk and helping people with parking tickets all of her career here.

But the things she did in the community were awesome.

My mother would feed anybody.

She wouldn't give you money because she didn't want you to go get something you ain't supposed to have with the money, but she would feed you.

And going and working at the boys' club where we grew up with a couple of my friends here, anyway.

I don't want to get long with it.

I just thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.

And being a 58-year-old man now, you know, all these memories are just pouring into me about my mom.

And to be honored here in this room with a with the a sign and her being from Philadelphia and making it here in Albany is just a testament to who she was.

So I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I appreciate you all.

Thank you.

Back to UK.

Okay, uh, Madam Clerk, please call the next speaker.

Matthew Toomey.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Honorable members.

Uh, my name is Matt Toomey.

Uh I currently live at uh in Delmar.

I spent the first 10 years of my life uh of sorry, my life in Albany, um, over in the mansion neighborhood where we had our first two children, and we now live uh equidistant amount from this proposed uh data facility.

Um I want I think that you'll hear from others uh about the tremendous environmental effects, noise and light pollution, um drain on uh an already taxed uh uh energy grid, and um and just a squandering of our drinking water.

But when I was listening to the first movements here in the chamber, there was a lot of talk about uh the value of educating our children, the value of uh family, and uh of taking care of our communities, and it made me realize that making a change like this is going to affect generations down the line.

So provided that this AI bubble does not burst, we won't be able to put that toothpaste back in the tube as it were.

Uh I was recently uh at the Y and I overheard a couple of teenagers talking, one of whom said, uh I just have to chat GPT, this essay really quick.

All of the research is showing that AI is hurting our children's uh mental development, intellectual development, and the software that is going to that would be housed in this five-acre facility might help, might uh host some software that could help our uh hospitals, for example.

But what it absolutely will be hosting is AI platforms that are advertised for taking jobs and for uh committing unwarranted mass surveillance on the people, everyone who drives by.

So just want to urge you strongly to support this resolution to put a pause on this and not let us go down the road that we're seeing happen in other communities that these monstrosities are being put in on.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Our next speaker is Ian Cummings.

Oh, thank you.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Ian Cummins.

Uh, I live in uh Ward Nine.

Um I wanted to speak on a few topics of concern.

Um, the data center.

Um the data center.

Uh uh there's a lot of people here who you can see who are sharing their opinions and concerns about these data centers.

And uh may my voice be one in the chorus, and may there be a chorus.

Um, but I hope that the words that I bring to you ring salient.

Um to be frank, the cost of utilities and natural resources are already skyrocketing.

The natural resource utilization that a data center bring that does not directly support or benefit our local community, it does not drive jobs, it does not clearly help the people of Albany or our future.

It only draws resources out without reinvigorating it or giving direct benefit.

This gross misuse of resources when I look to the people who help take care of the government who are guardians of this community who call the shots.

And thinking to the future, what future generations will have, and if this data center is to stay and persist and continue to draw resources to look upon the misappropriation of them, uh I can't imagine a greater injustice.

There are some people here that wish to bring forward some uh legislation and ranked choice voting, I think is very reasonable.

Lastly, as was voiced briefly by one of the previous speakers.

There is the concern of the flock and other such ALPR, also known as automatic license plate readers, which surveil the American people, have multiple noted data breeches and opportunities for abuse, stalking, which build profiles, footprints, driving patterns, analyze the contents of our cars in between locations and our general day-to-day lives that are controlled by private companies.

I would suggest that you investigate such a thing.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker is Dennis Kolikowski.

Dennis Kolinkowski.

Okay.

John Cutrow.

My name is John Coutreau.

I live at 727 Madison Avenue, Albany, New York.

And I've been an Albany resident for quite some time.

First I'm here to speak against the uh the data center.

I think we need more than a state or even a local moratorium.

I think we need to be seriously considering a ban.

Because one of the things about moratoriums is that by definition they become lifted.

And you know, you can always lift the ban as well.

But I think we need to be stronger than what this body is saying.

And I'd like to see legislation for banning it in Albany.

Um of the things that I think people have some you know dispute or conversation about is the difference between a data center and an AI center.

And they're really, as you know, as a computer scientist, physicist who's done a lot of information technology, virtual machines are virtual machines.

You can configure them any way you want and also configure how to use the memory.

And if they tend to use the memory for a large model AI, um, and they say, well, we're never going to do that.

I do I do own a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell.

Um because I don't trust that.

Um the other thing that I think uh I'd like to speak about is the uh is a license plate readers and control of the data.

Uh one of the things that I think is really important is that the life cycle of any data should there, I mean, I know they're in use, I know as an investigator, um use them in in cases.

And one thing I'd like to say is that as an investigator, what was a state homicide investigator for years, and um tracing a weapon at one point, um often you kind of cut corners, and I have to I don't want to incriminate myself, but basically you get the job done.

Um, and and sometimes that involves cutting corners around preservation of data.

But I don't think the data should really exist uh for very long at all without a warrant.

In other words, if it evaporates in a few hours, a lot of communities have that happen unless somebody can produce a warrant and says there's now a reason to bring that back, and it has to be you know a probable cause.

Because I think other than that, there is a great temptation to get the job done faster as an investigator or police officer or ice agent.

So I I have a problem with um with just human fallibility and the drive to get the job done.

Thank you, Mr.

Coutreau.

Brian Paz Hernandez.

Hello, members of the Albany Common Council.

My name is Brian Paul Fernandez.

I'm a school teacher and co-leader of the grassroots organization, No Kings Collective Albany.

I'm here tonight to speak in favor of the resolution of the Albany Common Council supporting the New York State legislature's responsible data center development act.

Uh I'm joined tonight by local residents and members of our group who came out tonight to speak in favor of this resolution and against the Kenwood Data Center.

Thank you to the council members that have worked on this resolution, and thank you, Councilmember Zamer, for sponsoring this legislation.

Our state needs to stop building data centers.

They threaten our environment, our water, and our electricity supply, and risk raising our electricity costs.

Unfortunately, Governor Hochel has not signed this legislation, and that is why a resolution that is being considered tonight is so important.

It builds the necessary public pressure on the governor to sign this bill into law.

As you all know, the responsible data center development act places a one-year pause on new environmental permits for data center facilities, while the state studies how data centers affect electricity demand, water use in the environment and local communities.

The study would also include public input and examine long-term costs and benefits of continued development.

The proposed Kenwood Commons edge.

Yeah.

What if the statewide legislation doesn't get signed?

What if there is no moratorium and we're left to deal with the current situations?

Corporations working to curry favor with elected officials in order to have them approve data centers in local communities.

Pass a citywide moratorium.

I also call on the common council to vote against the anticipated request from Guild Ventures to build a hyperscale massive data center in Kenwood.

Whenever that comes up, please vote no.

This data center would consume significant local resources while offering no benefits to Albany residents.

This hyperscale project will extract energy and water from the region without contributing anything to our neighborhood health and welfare and local economic growth.

Guild ventures would make millions of dollars.

We get stuck with the national grid bill.

They would make their investors happy, and our families have to pay up.

They would make the cash rain, and some of us would have to work another shift to pay for an increased electric bill.

So in closing, please pass the resolution being considered tonight, pass a new ban on data centers in Albany and reject any proposal to build a data center in Kenwood.

Thank you.

Alexandra Armaninous.

Hi everyone.

So my name is Alex.

I'm one of the many Albany residents concerned about the already 11 operating data centers across the state, and then 25 additional planned projects that could bring the operating energy capacity throughout the state to over 10,000 megawatts.

And so for context, 10,000 megawatts is enough to power 10 million average American homes for an hour.

So I'm grateful to this council for introducing the resolution to support the New York State Legislature's bill that, if signed by the governor, would impose a one-year moratorium on data centers.

So looking at this PACT room and everybody behind me right now, it's clear that these moratoriums are important to our community because these projects are being developed across the country and across the state without evidence of their environmental economic or social impacts.

Before more projects are considered and given the green light, data centers must be studied and fully understood.

And so that's why I'm you know ultimately here today to talk about that.

I think what this council should consider is um what's already been brought up is that um should be considering a moratorium for um Albany itself and across the Capitol region.

Um there's already uh been such a moratorium that um is moving forward in Hudson, New York, and I think that this is something that would be uh very, very impactful on our community.

Um the the other thing I'm here to talk about specifically is the potential Kenwood data center proposal.

If such a project were to be developed in the capital region, um it would have devastating effects on the environmental uh the environment of the community and the Renslayer community um at large.

The I appreciate uh Councilmember Zemer and Councilmember Keegan for expressing um in the number of articles that I've read that this process is complex and that there are a number of zoning changes and ultimately hoops that would have to be jumped through.

But the fact is that I don't think that we can rely on the current process to really just say that that means that we would not be facing um a project like this if not imminently, you know, maybe at all.

So I do think that the council should be considering um, you know, for the nature of the Kenwood project, but also for other projects that are coming in the future.

Um I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

My name is Henry Phillips.

I'm a resident of Albany.

I'm here to support this resolution.

It's only a year.

I'm also hearing that she wants to sign a six month moratorium.

You know, I think that we even have to be here is ridiculous.

You know, what side of this issue do you want to be on?

Do you want to be on the side that is favoring tech billionaires and corporate interests?

Or do you want to be on the side of the people?

Hearing that the governor wants to do a six-month uh moratorium instead of a year is insane.

Um, you know, the council member members, you're all elected representatives.

What side of this issue do you want to be on?

Um I'm hoping that you'll be on the right side of it.

This Kenwood data center proposal and proposals like it are based on lies or based on a lie.

The lie that it benefits the community, the lie that it won't increase electricity rates, the lie that it's environmental impact is negligible.

These are all lies.

Um everybody that I've spoken to and interacted with and reached out with and advocated towards in the past two months.

Um year moratorium is like the least we can do.

Um I do think that the common council should pass its own moratorium or ban.

I think that would be great.

Um, yeah, um that's really all I have to say, but um, you know, I want Albany.

I mean, look at look at the other moratoriums that have been passed in surrounding places, other places around the country.

Um Albany should be on the right side of this thing, the side of the people, not the tech billionaires.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Madeline Riley.

Madeline Riley.

Hello, my name is Madeline Riley.

I have been a tenant of 84 Willett Street, part of the Willet apartment since September 2021.

In March of this year, tenants of the Willet apartments began organizing with the help of United Tenants of Albany.

By April, we began a car drive to reach every unit and every tenant living in three the three buildings that are attached to each other, 84, 88, and 92.

Our union was coined the Hippie Hotel Tenant Union as an homage to the building's nickname from the 70s when it was a de facto artist's loaf and one of the only places in the city of Albany that would rent to single mothers.

Today, the tenant union holds a 70% supermajority, meaning that 70% of all the unions in units in the building have signed on to be part of the union.

In the past five years, I and many, many of my neighbors have dealt with several condition concerns, including roach and bat problems, leaky ceilings, smoke alarms in common areas that beep for weeks, and much, much more.

In every instance, it takes multiple maintenance requests and phone calls to management to get them to do anything about these concerns.

And oftentimes they don't actually fix the problem, they just put a band-aid on it.

Today we are faced with a safety problem that impacts all tenants across the three buildings.

For months, people who do not live in this building have been following tenants into the building and banging on the main door to be let in by tenants so that they can go up to the fourth floor, where many of us believe that there is drug activity occurring.

Last week, someone went as far as to put a padlock on the main door of our building so that it physically could not be closed.

Once someone finds a way into one of these buildings, they have access to all three buildings by a shared hallway, therefore putting the safety of all 60 plus units and their tenants at risk.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Carol Tyrell.

Good evening.

And I'm following my tenant.

Um, not tenant, my colleague, a neighbor, um, who spoke a little earlier.

I've lived at the willage for over 20 years, and the Willard has been a place that I have considered my sanctuary.

It's the place where I felt safe.

It's a place that when it when I moved in, it was owned by Mr.

Grandlow.

It was personal, it was owned by privately owned, it was owned by Mr.

Grandler.

We had a uh building manager named Paul, we had a maintenance person who lived on the premises with his family who took care of our um of our needs.

If we went away and we had packages, when we came back, those packages were either inside of our apartments or they were held in the office.

Today, what has happened five years, well, ten years later, 20 years later, since Mr.

Grandless sold the building to coal realtors, is that our packages within the past five years have been disappearing.

Um they have not responded to our request for security so that we can feel safe to be in our to be in our um in our buildings and our apartments.

So this has been a real problem.

Coal Realty in the past, I think 10 years has purchased up a number of like historical buildings throughout the Capitol District.

And it feels to me that they need to be held responsible.

What they're doing primarily is increasing our rents so that we're being pushed out of places that we've called home.

Um what's been happening in addition to our packages being stolen recently.

This hasn't happened to me personally, but recently people's um laundry has been stolen from the machines downstairs.

I'd never heard of that before.

But the for me, I was in sensed because I realized that I learned that the management has known the person, the perpetrator, the person who's been stealing our packages all of these years or months or however long, but they have basically refused to respond to us.

They have sent us to the police department, and when we've gone to the police department, they've sent us back to management, and they've basically said, well, the police department is responsible for that.

Apparently, they have security cameras, and they have they have refused to allow us.

I guess they really can't for confidential um reasons, allow us to see these footage, but they have a responsibility for our safety.

I mean, our rents have increased significantly since I've been there.

And they said, Oh, it's been increased so that it's in alignment with the market price, but we should, as tenants of that of the will it should feel safe.

Should feel safe.

Last week I attempted to leave my apartment and I was followed.

I closed the door, and I was followed by this person who doesn't live there, who I don't know.

I mean, down the block, this woman was yelling and screaming at me, calling me out my name, and I'm wondering, you know, what what the hell has happened to the to the will, excuse my um what has happened to the willet?

They have refused to respond to our request to have security on place, and we would really appreciate if our council member you know would read Austin.

The time is up.

Yeah.

Sylvia Bernard.

And I've been there over fifty years, and I'm eighty-eight years old.

And uh I don't really need to go through the specific problems of the willet so much because my friend Carol has just outlined them.

I I had to laugh about the person who stole the package that I had sent for that had two old lady winter nightgowns in it.

I I think that guy was probably kind of disappointed.

But uh I wanted to talk about something a little more general, and I've often heard that in the darkest days of the Albany political machine, you know, like almost a hundred years ago, uh they really stopped building apartment buildings to any extent in the city of Albany because uh voters in apartments are less easy to control, which of course is somewhat true.

Uh the story may be exaggerated, I don't know, but uh but anyway, Albany has they were strongly committed to apartment living, even though it's uh uh a very urban type environment and the capital of the state.

And uh I think in New York City where my uh daughter and son-in-law live, uh many, many people live their lives in rental apartments, so that's not a terrible thing.

It's uh very convenient for a great many people.

And there are other priorities for your money, even if you have a lot of money, like education and travel and so on.

And uh so it it should be an option to live like uh Carol and I are among the longest term uh uh people who live in in the Willet and other apartments downtown have long-term residents too.

And the City of Albany should support apartment dwellers, and it's just that apartments are not just transitional places between college and the suburbs or or between the townhouse of the Beverwick, but they uh should be places that people can live long term and uh uh have the conveniences of apartment living in the state capital of New York.

And uh that takes commitment from the city and people like the city council and uh uh to crack down on the people who own the apartments, especially uh uh outside owners like we have.

Uh and I think uh that's something that the city should work on because the population is now rising again.

Thank you, ma'am for your time.

Thank you for being here for sharing with us.

Yes.

Thank you.

Keith Irish.

Yes, I don't know.

Good evening, Mr.

Irish.

Good evening.

Give me a second, please.

Oh shoot.

I gotta find my document.

Hold on.

I'm sorry.

There we go.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

Let's see, edit on the fly.

Okay.

Good evening, members of the Common Council.

My name is Keith Irish, a lifelong city resident, currently in the ninth ward.

Tonight we have several topics to discuss.

I'm gonna skip one of them.

Sorry.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh okay, I would like to reference a presentation that was made to your planning and economic development and land use committee on the 22nd of June, where only four of you were in attendance.

I'd like to start by saying that the presentation was supposed to be done by the public education government access oversight board, otherwise otherwise known as the Peg Board, but was actually done by the one part-time studio coordinator, which was filled with lies, lies and mistruths from start to finish of past, current, and future issues.

Several residents that watched the meeting, not on the government cable channel, by the way, since it was since it's not even promoted by this body that way, contacted me afterward and said the same thing to me.

This current person also has many other priorities than staffing the studio at the Washington Avenue Library behind three locked doors and is almost never there for the public needs.

Why?

It's obvious that since they are your appointees to the Peg Board, you should want the best possible candidates appointed each time.

After I made similar public comments at the April 6th meeting when this when it was time to vote, two of the planning committee members spoke and frankly basically called me a liar.

Two, I'm here to ask the council to take the next step in passing a daters data center moratorium as well as pressuring the governor to sign the statewide one-year moratorium on data center construction.

These projects offer no benefit to residents.

And I ask that you take the time to learn how you can best help them.

Because while Will It Hippie Hotel Tenant Union is in Ward 6 today, the next one will be in yours.

Thank you.

Jim McVaughan.

Good evening, Council.

My name's Jim MacFawn of the 14th Ward.

I'm here this evening to encourage your consideration of ranked choice voting.

I think it's important to highlight that the petition effort to bring this proposal forward receives signatures from residents in every single ward in the city of Albany.

Support for this conversation is not confined to one neighborhood, one demographic or one political perspective.

It is citywide.

As you consider this legislation, I hope you'll place constituent interests above political interests and evaluate this proposal on its merit.

Follow the data rather than through the lens of party advantage or political calculation.

The people of Albany deserve a voting system that encourages broader participation, more choice, and campaigns that seek to build consensus rather than division.

I respectfully ask that you listen to the voices of your constituents and give this legislation the fair consideration it deserves.

Thank you, sir.

Dorian.

Dorian.

We've got some handouts, some data coming to share with you.

Good evening.

I'm Dorian Solot.

I live in the second ward, and I'm the co-chair of Ranked Choice Voting Albany.

I'm here tonight to talk about the petition our group submitted to the city clerk that we expect will soon be presented to common council for your consideration.

This past Wednesday, Ranked Choice Voting Albany filed over 3,200 signatures of Albany registered voters.

Our petition proposes a single unified November election using ranked choice voting as a change to the Albany City charter.

Several additional volunteer representatives of our group, we are all volunteers, are here tonight to talk about the proposal.

So it's not in response to the election results.

It was already underway.

And the excitement has been building across the city ever since.

Our goals are to improve Albany's elections by making them simpler, shorter, more fair, more representative, and have higher voter participation.

Our proposal is nonpartisan.

It is not intended to try to get one particular type of candidate elected.

It's just about making elections work better.

And one of our speakers coming later will explain some of those charts and data you have in your hands.

So let's start with what is ranked choice voting.

In recent decades, RCV has become increasingly widespread across the country.

Two states, Maine and Alaska, use it statewide.

Forty something other cities, towns, counties are using it in their elections already.

In our own state, New York City has been using it in their primary since 2021.

Earlier this year, Newburgh, New York also adopted ranked choice voting as part of a court mandate to improve representation for minority voters.

Ranked choice voting means that when you go vote, instead of picking just one candidate, you're able to rank multiple candidates in the order that you prefer them.

So on your ballot, you get to mark down this is my first choice, this is my second choice, this is my third choice.

Voters could could uh choose to vote for just one candidate or could rank up to five.

From the voter perspective, this is really easy to understand.

In New York City last year, 96% of voters said that the ranked choice voting ballot was simple to complete.

So on election day, voters mark down their rankings, first choice, second choice, third choice.

When the polls close, the computers look at every voter's first choice votes.

And if one candidate emerges with more than 50% of the votes, then that's the winner, game over just the way it works right now.

But if the first choice votes are counted and no one got a majority, in ranked choice voting, you always need a majority to win.

Then you go to the next step and you identify the candidate with the smallest number of votes.

That candidate gets eliminated.

And for any voter who voted for that person at their first choice, the computer instantly transfers their vote to their second choice.

And then we count again.

And if a candidate now reaches a majority, we have a winner, and if not, we keep repeating that process, eliminating the bottom candidate and transferring until we get a majority.

This is a good thing because it solves the spoiler effect.

It lets voters vote honestly instead of strategically.

It tends to result in the election in more women and more candidates of color.

We'll talk about that later.

And it's very popular.

Voters really like it.

When we talked about it on knocking on people's doors, many, many voters said, I love that.

I want to have it in Albany, or if they'd never heard of it before, they were like, that makes so much sense.

Your time is up.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Alejandro Lopez.

Hello, council.

I am Alejandro Lopez.

I'm a resident of 90 State Street, and I've been an Albany resident for three years.

There are a number of different models for how municipalities use ranked choice voting, and our group spent its first six months discussing and researching and talking to the community.

And over time, what emerged was that there was a lot of interest and support for a model that uses ranked choice voting with a single unified election.

So that would mean that instead of primaries, there would be one big election that happens in November, and all voters would vote in the same day, and all candidates would be on the same ballot.

You can have ranked choice voting without a single unified election, like they do in New York City, but they they really go well together for some reasons that I'll discuss.

We know that this way of voting feels unfamiliar to us here, but it's the way elections are held in Minneapolis, St.

Paul, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Boulder, and many other cities across the U.S.

It's a model that's well established, tested, and highly effective for holding elections.

And there are a number of reasons why it's so popular.

It lets every voter have a vote when it matters.

Right now, the closed Albany primary election that really decides everything, excludes one quarter of registered voters in the city who aren't registered as Democrats or Republicans.

So this model fixes and lets every voter fully participate in democracy.

Two cities that use this model find it that it significantly increases turnout.

Three, it would shorten the length of the election season, and for those that would run for election, it would shift the signature gathering season from the freezing cold to the summertime.

And fourth, it would save the city money hundreds of thousands of dollars each election season.

Now we know that no longer having primaries makes some people nervous.

We get it, primaries are familiar and change can be scary.

We hear this line a lot that political parties should be able to choose their own candidates to run in the general election.

That sounds completely logical, but with ranked choice voting, the political parties can continue to endorse and support their favorite candidates in the general election.

And it would be similar to how it is now, where the party can continue to provide resources to their chosen candidate and work um work to have them be the first choice of the majority of all the voters.

New York State started holding primary elections in 1910, and as far as we can tell, in Albany and every single citywide race since 1910, the winner of the Democratic primary has always won the general election.

So the primary in Albany has really become similar to in New York City, the equivalent of the general election, but a quarter of voters can't participate in it meaningfully.

And then those that are registered Republican, a lot of times there aren't even, there isn't even a primary.

So Albany's general election really becomes an afterthought.

This past November, on many voters' city ballots for nearly every office, there was only one name on the ballot.

So as we talk to voters, we hear them say things like on election day, my vote doesn't matter.

So we're really asking you to think carefully about this change and let the voters decide in November if they want the system.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Charlotte Collette.

Good evening, common counsel.

My name is Charlotte Collett, and I uh live, I'm the other co-chair of ranked choice voting Albany, and I live in the sixth ward.

It's important for us to ask the question: who are the voters currently excluded from Albany elections?

There are a few things we know about them.

Please see exhibit A.

The vast majority of them are unaffiliated voters.

23% of registered voters in Albany did not register with a political party.

After the Democrats, the second largest political party in Albany is voters who have no political party.

Exhibit B shows they're young.

Two-thirds of the unaffiliated voters are between the ages of 18 and 44.

They're more likely to be veterans.

Statewide veterans are more likely to be unaffiliated voters.

Their political preferences align very closely with Albany's registered voters as a whole.

That is to say they have a strong preference for voting for Democrats.

This is an important point to understand.

Take a moment to look at exhibit C, the modeling of the unaffiliated voters.

On the left side, you can see Albany's registered voters as a whole, and you can see how the vast majority of us are in those top two bars, likely Democrat and somewhat likely Democrat.

Then the vast majority have the political leanings, have the political leanings, likely Democrat and somewhat likely Democrat.

They're just like us, except we have the right to vote in the primary decision making process, and they don't.

Please take a look at it at exhibit D.

In Albany, more of the excluded voters live in our majority minority wards than in our predominantly white wards.

That means the voices of a lot of black and brown voters are missing from our elections.

Letting all voters vote when it matters builds power for our minority community in Albany.

We included a map that shows this in exhibit D.

Please see exhibits E and F.

Finally, research shows that both parts of this proposal, ranked choice voting, and all voter elections tend to result in the election of more candidates of color.

At this moment, Albany is doing very well with representation and the election of candidates of color, but that hasn't always been the case, and there are no guarantees for the future.

Adopting this proposal would be a powerful way to help maintain those gains.

In general, cities and states around the country that have adopted these types of election models are doing much better in terms of representation for women and communities of color.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss this data as the ranked choice voting legislation moves through the council process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mika Leslie.

Mika Leslie.

Good evening, everybody.

My name is Micah, and I am a volunteer with the ranked choice voting Albany.

So each of you have constituents, and they live in your ward, except about a quarter of those constituents don't have a voice.

But because of how Alban Albany runs its elections, anyone who isn't party in the party basically gets shut out.

A quarter of Albany voters don't have any real way to make their voice heard when it matters.

There's been a lot of questions about this proposal and what it means for political parties.

And honestly, in places that already use the system, parties are still very much alive, very much active.

They still endorse candidates, they still work with unions and community groups, they still organize and turn out voters.

Actually, what ranked choice vote does is give parties more room to express their preferences.

So maybe they have somebody, we rank everybody A, and you bring this person B.

Just like you know, Zohan and like Brad Landers did in the city.

So the party actually does have a little more voice to give their preferences on who they want.

In our proposal, parties still show up on the ballot.

Voters still can see who belongs to which party, and candidates still can list additional affiliations if they choose to.

Parties can still run whatever process they want.

They could have conventions, caucuses, internal votes, whatever.

Whatever they want to do to decide who they support.

So obviously there shouldn't be any fear that parties won't have any kind of ability to choose their candidates with ranked choice voting.

Because it's not accurate.

So what does this mean for you all?

The petition we submitted last week has been incredibly popular across the entire city.

Over the last 10 months, hold on, let me rephrase that.

This petition we submitted last week has been very popular with your constituents in the entire city.

Over the last 10 months, we've given 45 presentations to all kinds of groups.

And in just the last three months, with a small team of volunteers, we collected 3,000 200 signatures.

And that's 800 more than we needed.

When your constituents signed that petition, what they were actually saying is let us vote on this.

New York State says that people who live in a city should get to choose the election system that the city uses.

Now we know some of you are excited about this proposal, and some of you are still unsure, and that's fine.

Because the decision belongs to the voters.

So when you're deciding yes on this, what you're actually deciding is I'm gonna let my constituents decide for themselves.

Thanks.

I knew I should have a quick Charles Robinson.

Charles Robinson.

Good evening.

My name is Mariana Ashlug, organizing chair for Indivisible Albany.

We are one of the driving forces behind the coalitions for ranked choice voting.

DFLOC 518 and stop Kenwood.

Tonight we are witnessing the damaging impact of a broken systemic model.

Trickle down politics.

Trickle down politics is the belief that power belongs strictly to party insiders and the political establishment.

It's the ideal that a small group at the top gets to decide when or if the public is permitted to be heard or informed.

Trickle down politics is a system explicitly designed to stifle grassroots energy and limit the people's capability to drive change.

Let's look at the outcry against the proposed Kenwood project.

The state legislature already listened to public opposition regarding these massive strains on our health and infrastructure and passed a statewide moratorium that would effectively render the Kenwood proposal moot.

The heavy lifting is done.

Tonight, your constituents don't need top-down hesitation.

We need this common council to stand up, pass the resolution, work towards legislation for a ban, and call upon your constituents to pressure the governor to sign that moratorium in into law.

You have the power.

Let's look at ranked choice voting now.

The people of Albany didn't wait for permission from the political machine.

They went out, did the grueling work of organizing petition signing, and brought an RCV petition right to your door.

They didn't ask you to make the final decision or the final choice for them.

They asked you, and we are asking you, to advance the ballot measures so we can exercise our power at the polls.

Let us have our right to our voice.

Not to act as a bottleneck for the establishment.

Support the moratorium to halt Kenwood, move ranked choice voting measure forward, and let the people, not the party, decide this November and going forward.

Thank you.

And I'll have to leave the details up to the other speakers who you've already heard.

Firstly, I'm here to support the tenants of the Willett Apartment Building.

Over the several months I've been working with these tenants.

They've shown more camaraderie and support for each other than any other building that I've helped organize.

The building's owners have failed to show the same support when it comes to resolving their myriad problems, instead focusing on stripping down the character of a beautiful and historic building in order to make it look like a drab Airbnb.

Tenants are forced to deal with vermin, suspected drug manufacturing, and severe accessibility problems for those with disabilities all by themselves.

And further, these tenants council member has been unresponsive and unwilling to meet with the tenant union to hear about their problems.

This is not the treatment residents should be receiving from their elected officials.

Second, you've heard me talk about it before, and I'd like to once again touch on the proposed data center in the South End.

The statewide moratorium legislation is promising, but Albany must not wait on the governor to sign or veto it to take action to protect its residents.

This council must pass a moratorium to prevent a center from being approved in Albany before this protection can be established statewide.

This resolution of support is not sufficient.

A six-month moratorium would give the council enough time to decide exactly what sort of permanent regulations are needed without allowing a hyperscale center to sneak in beforehand.

Public opinion is clear on this issue, and I urge you not to delay any longer.

Thirdly, on the subject of ranked choice voting, this is an opportunity for Albany to chip away at its de facto one party rule by eliminating the need for strategic voting, improve democratic norms, and bring all of our non-party affiliated neighbors into meaningful participation in the political system.

When drafting the legislation that would introduce this change for the people's consideration, this council must ensure that it protects ballot access by keeping signature requirements where they sit today for Democratic Party primaries.

The current election which decides who is in any given position, and must ensure that, should it be adopted, all our communities are thoroughly educated on the new system.

All three of these issues merit your action.

Protect tenants from being mistreated now, protect your community from AI pollution and surveillance, and protect our democracy while it's being attacked nationally.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Violetta De Rosa.

Good evening, everyone.

I'd like to thank you.

It's a long evening for everyone.

I know we you all have full-time work, and this is your part-time work, as many of you uh behind me as well.

I'm here today to speak out about the proposed data centers.

I want to lend my support to the resolution to support the moratorium.

So I think that should go forward.

Um, what I also think that this council should do, and it's critical to the city of Albany and its future, is to go beyond that, because a moratorium just allows developers to have one year to plan.

We need to go further if we want to protect the citizens of Albany.

What I am asking you to do is not only to oppose the proposed Kenwood data site in any permitting zoning and approval process, I'd also ask you all to introduce or co-sponsor legislation establishing an immediate moratorium on large-scale data center development in Albany.

I would ask you to even go further than that and to support a permanent ban that prohibits large-scale data centers in the city of Albany.

And one thing that I ask, not only for this project, but any project that impacts our communities, is to ensure meaningful community participation, particularly from the South End residents in all future land use and decisions affecting this site.

Why is this bad for Albany?

Community health.

The South End is already the front line of environmental justice.

Residents bear a disproportionate burden from oil train traffic along the Port of Albany corridor, heavy diesel trucks as a source of particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, and toxic air pollutants linked to asthma, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

A large-scale data center would significantly add to diesel backup generator admissions, cooling system discharges, and increased truck traffic to an already overburdened community.

The large-scale data centers among the most resource-intensive industrial facilities in existence.

The Kenwood site proposal raises concerns not only about water consumption, this data center would use millions of gallons of water daily for cooling, straining municipal water systems, a water system that is ranked number one or close to in New York State.

Carbon emissions, despite industry claims of clean energy use, data centers rely heavily on fossil fuel backup power and contribute substantially to regional grid demand.

Noise and light pollution.

If you live next to a data center, that's a full-time job.

Jane Rutter.

Jane.

Good evening, Albany Common Council members and members of the community.

My name is Jane Ruddon, and I first moved to Albany in 1980.

I'm from Brooklyn, but you know, many of us are, and I'll get back to that in a minute.

Full disclosure, I did spend 13 years in suburban Clifton Park, but I came back.

And I'm here tonight to oppose the data center and support the common council in both putting moratorium, but also on taking the lead as far as racial and environmental justice goes in this state and in this country to protect vulnerable communities.

I held two New York State licenses.

And the thing that you hear, and that I've heard in 40 plus years of my career, is oh, this software is going to make your job easier.

It's gonna be better.

Well, I'm skeptical.

Those promises in my career have mostly gone undelivered.

So when I hear proponents of data centers saying, oh, it's going to help the health care system.

I'm like, hmm, maybe it might help some of the CEOs at Albany Med, but I don't think it's going to do much for the line workers that there's an extreme shortage of.

So I'd like to take another minute and talk about rank choice voting, which is in alignment with Albany being more progressive and also being representative of the whole community.

Now the and I want to divert to problems with the data center.

I was born in Brooklyn, and many of you in this room came here from other places.

So I would urge the common council to look for new ways to not track people from moving here, but look for alternatives will encourage people to come.

And thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

That was our last speaker, so we're moving moving on.

Okay, uh on to our comments for members.

Any members have comments in relation to public comment?

No.

No?

Okay, moving right along.

Uh approval of minutes uh from our previous meeting.

You got it?

Do you have any?

We don't.

I not we do.

Yes, we do.

We have we have the June 15th, 2026 minutes for our approval.

Second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Motion passes.

Next, uh reports of standing committees.

Ms.

Keegan.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The finance uh assessment and taxation committee met on July 1st to discuss local law L and local law N, both which passed out of committee.

The positive recommendation.

Local law L will be voted on at our next meeting as it needs an amendment.

We also began discussions around the upcoming budget and discussed the uh budget proposal for uh the common council.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh planning economic development and land use committee met this evening before caucus to and voted out resolution 626 to 26R and resolution 6362 26R, both with unanimous favorable recommendations.

Thank you.

Uh okay.

Moving moving on, um at uh local laws, local laws held.

Uh Ms.

Keegan.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice local law I and ask for its passage rehable call via roll call vote.

Okay, madam quick.

A local law amending the charter of the city of Albany in relation to clarifying and rever revising requirements related to budget transfers after adoption of the budget.

Discussion council member King.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, as discussed in our um caucus last week and throughout the course of many, many finance meetings to date.

Um as part of the fiscal crisis that we faced this year, one of the things that we determined and recognized was that we were not properly following protocols that the council had put in place in 2021.

Um and so one of the first things that we worked on as a committee and as a body was how do we address that to ensure that those early warning signs are still in place and work appropriately going forward, and that is what this legislation does.

Um, and so I I am happy to sponsor this, and I hope to see its passage this evening.

Thank you.

Mr.

Johnson, then Mr.

Robinson.

Again, um the other night I brought up the point of table in this, and I don't think that it was even um considered by a vote.

Um you know, when I went home, I watched the uh well, I played the things over in my head and just hearing um some of the things that um were used as a reason to do this, you know, a pandemic.

You know, um again, what is the need to do this at this point um in time when the discussion um was fruitful in saying that this mayor had nothing to do with the the um the position that the city is in, and um as to my understanding that decisions were made by a small group of people and um the wills um were turning late in December, and only when they hit the hand hit when the um news hit the media, everybody went in um you know um protective mode.

You know, uh we um cause a financial scare in the city.

And I just think that um for uh some of the things that was was shared as to the why we need to put these um things in place when councilwoman councilwoman dos check came in here and said we already had the um measures in place, they just weren't honored, and I've said it over and over again.

I don't like to just be a part of feel good resolutions, you know, um things that we um put out there and and they they never um achieved the goal that stated and and um um proclaimed out loud.

Um I was um thankful to some of the um conversation that um cleared the air as to how we got in this situation and um and and and and I'm comfortable with that, but to go ahead um as as we're doing the right thing.

I just uh uh I just um feel strongly about this, and I'm a person that advocated um along with others for more um restraints and and um oversight uh on some of the things that we were hearing that we really couldn't do anything about um with with the last administration, and so um we were tentative and we were you know um quiet in the in the background about um some of these things were happening.

And I'm a person that advocated um along with others for more um restraints and and um oversight uh on some of the things that we were hearing that we really couldn't do anything about um with with the last administration and so um we were tentative and we were you know um quiet in the in the background about um some of these things were happening I just think that I'm uncomfortable with um the conversation that that has been coming out of this chambers you know um about finances when since we started having this conversation about this resolution things have trained changed drastically but we're still going forward like we're in that um position that we were in in January in the beginning of February so um I will not be supporting this and I would like a response to why we didn't uh when when it was called for a table why it wasn't a vote and um if someone can explain to me why it didn't happen uh um that would be educational for me because it was to my understanding in the past when that came up we we did take a vote thank you okay Mr.

Robinson I echo my colleague um sentiments uh and that's what I my question was just for clarification um when councilman johnson asked for um um this legislation to be table I second it and it wasn't voted on so just for clarification does it have did it have to reach the floor or it could have been voted on at the time when he called for it to be table and he had somebody to second it yeah the tabling would have to occur in the meeting it couldn't be in the clock you're talking about a conversation in caucus right if this happened at last Wednesday's meeting that would uh that would have been a caucus meeting where motions to table and other motions are not generally recognized that would have to happen at a regular meeting of the council like tonight's meeting so is so is if my colleague is calling for it to be tabled now it has a second on the table at that point must it be voted on okay so you're making a motion to table that's what you're asking the question uh okay so yes make your motion and I second that a motion okay all in favor actually gonna have to excuse me have to do a roll call vote so and madam I forgive me uh council president but I also believe that there is an opportunity to discuss the motion on the motion um no no I mean we we operate at the discretion of the president but um in general under Abbott's rules of order there is no opportunity to debate a motion to table a motion um we would go directly into a roll call vote Adams yes Anani yes yes the table no to one forward's it's a yes okay anani no ballorin no brody no far no Flynn no hoe no yes Keegan no Powell no Robinson yes Williamson no Zamer no the motion to table fails okay so we now return to consideration of the original motion okay she any further discussion yes any further discussion actually we stopped at Mr Johnson any further discussion members Mr.

Ballon thank you thank you Mr.

Um I think it's important to emphasize for the public that this is us cleaning up language on something that we voted on in 2021 when this issue came up when the then mayor uh Chian was saying that the council should have no vote on any non-budgeted funding.

At that time, we were talking about the offer funding, but we also had conversations about it, including the fund balance and the uh debt reserves.

What happened in December was that the debt reserved was moved without council authorization.

Okay.

So this is us cleaning up language from bill that we passed in 2021 so that this body would have more say on non-funded dollars that would be used and how they would be determined to be used in the city.

So I want to make sure that it's very clear what we're trying to do is address issues from the last administration, and address policy changes that we brought in during the last administration and cleaning it up because it wasn't followed the way it should have been.

So I I just want to take a moment to give that history of how we got here so that um you know we're on the same track of the history uh of why we're doing what we're doing.

Thank you.

Mr.

Anani.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Um that is no secret.

I support local law I.

Um, this is being on the common council.

I try to be balanced and fair.

There are some times that our support administration or sometimes that we will disagree.

And that is part of being part of the legislative body.

Uh, there are some things that we are going to see out of eye, and there's some things that you're not.

But we ultimately gotta do what's best for our constituents.

Uh local or I it's intended to provide greater clarity regarding our budget transfers.

Uh you know, it's calculated for a purpose of four percent threshold that triggers council oversight.

Um at its core, this legislation about ensuring that city budget and process transparent, consistent, and aligned with the council's oversight responsibilities under the charter.

You know, there's been calls for uh changes, particularly from COP Council saying that if we pass this, that potentially might have to go to referendum.

Um I disagree.

I spoke to our council, um, and not to go to law school, but I know a little bit.

Um I believe that uh you know my colleagues really we dropped the ball last year and we learned, and we cannot do the same thing, expect different results, and it's responsibility of all of us, uh, particularly to make sure that decisions that are being made uh as relates to the taxpayer dollars is fiscally responsible and that there's also fiscal discipline.

I have serious concerns about actions of ENA board and office of treasure of the past year.

Approximately 10 million dollars of debt reserves funds were transferred through ENA process last year without common council involvement.

Additionally, the city's unrestrictive fund balance was drained without council's oversight.

These actions were taken to address the city's 2025 deficit.

New York state law requires that the council approves any transfer of debt reserve funds of this kind, and it will be helpful going forward for this requirement to be codified in local law, and that's what we're doing today.

I believe this bill strengthened transparency, provides greater predictability and budget process, and reinforce the council's oversight role without disturbing a balance of authority established by the charter.

These are important principles regardless who serves as mayor or who serves in this council.

I encourage my colleagues to support this local law so that we can provide greater clarity, strain accountability, and continue to promote a budget process that serves the best interest of the people of our city.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Nani.

Mr.

Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I wanted to note because I think it is an important discussion that when as we're talking about the fiscal crisis that we're in, because although and I full props to Mara Plears for her and her administration for the aggressive way that they that she sought out funding from the state and in this year alone got 24 million additional dollars with another 40 million over two years, which is huge.

We've never had anything like that.

But her administration has also been carefully going through every single line and uncovering a lot of issues that I think led to where we are right now.

They've also instituted a different budget process to make sure that funds are being spent appropriately and that they're able to identify where there can be shared services between departments to further save money.

When we talk about looking at legislation to solve the problems, it is not in response to anything Mara Plears is doing.

So I will be voting yes.

I'm a co-sponsor, and if I was not, I would sponsor it again because I think it is absolutely important that we do what we said we were gonna do five years ago.

Um because if that alarm bell had been in place, maybe Mayor Plears wouldn't be in the situation that she was in when she came in, because it could have been something that was in place.

And I will also say this legislation impacts more deeply the treasurer's office and the auditor's office than it does the mayor's office.

So it's it's also and I think that that's a good thing to talk about too.

I I think we need to when we're talking about fiscal responsibility, we need to talk about it more broadly because I do hear my colleagues, and I want to make sure that we are not as a council saying anything negative about our current mayor.

This is not her crisis.

This is not something she created.

This is something that she's dealing with it, and she's dealing with it incredibly well.

We're lucky to have her.

But I think that we need to be partners with her and make sure that there are belts and suspenders so that she's not in a situation where maybe she would have an employee that would be saying one thing to her without the data to back it up and she would believe it too.

This is a situation where now we will have the data.

Now she will have as we move forward, it enables more eyes and more support so that there isn't somebody in a situation where perhaps you have an employee that's telling you something that may or may not be true.

And I don't I'm not saying that's what happened, but we need to make sure that there are protections in place because we don't know what will happen.

Data will help save us from it, and this law that we enacted in 2021, we should make sure it actually is there because we all expected it to be there and it wasn't for comment.

Okay.

Is that uh please poll?

Adams.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Anani.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Ballerin.

Yes, Brody, yes, co-sponsor, please.

Farrell, yes, Flynn.

2021, we should make sure it actually is there because we all expected it to be there and it wasn't for comment okay is that uh please call the role Adams Yes co-sponsor Anani Yes co-sponsor please Ballorin Yes Brody Yes co-sponsor please Farrell Yes Flynn Yes Hoey Yes Co-sponsor please Johnson no Keegan Yes Powell Yes Co-sponsor please Robinson Williamson Yes Zamer Yes Co-sponsor please Eleven affirmative to no okay the motion passes all right moving on uh Miss Brody for local law L for amendment right your local law Light right you're just for amendment yes Okay I notice local law L of 2026 and offer it as amended Okay All in favor aye any motion passes it's amended All right that was pretty fun okay All right next uh Mr.

Ballarin Thank you Mr.

President I asked the local M be introduced and put forward for a vote clerk thank you Mr.

Bower A local law amending part 36 Commission on Human Rights of Chapter 42 Department and Commissions of the Code of the City of Albany in relation to designating an end of term date for commission members discussion Mr.

Ballarin thank you Mr.

President so this uh clarifies the term date for the members of the uh human rights commission um right now there's uh individuals who ended their term throughout the year some in September some in May some in April this makes it so that everyone will end at the end of December of whatever year was their last year to term uh it makes it easier for them to be organized it makes it easier for them to elect the leadership and it makes it easier for them to organize as an organization uh they support this and it passed through uh committee with unanimous consent any further discussion no please call the roll Adams yes co-sponsor Anani yes co-sponsor please Ballorin yes Brody yes co-sponsor please Farrell yes co-sponsor please Lynn yes co-sponsor Hoey yes co-sponsor please Johnson yes Keegan yes co-sponsor please Powell yes co-sponsor please Robinson yes Williamson yes co-sponsor please zamer yes co-sponsor please 13 in the affirmative motion passes moving on uh mr hoe thank you mr president i notice local law and and ask for its uh vote via roll call thank you madam please read the law a local a local law amending article twelve veteran exemption of chapter 333 taxation of the code of the city of albany by adding a section 333 107 point two to provide for an additional exemption for the primary residents of disabled veterans thank you madam clerk uh discussion mrhoe thank you mr president um as i brought up in three different meetings uh the story about this the state has passed a law um allowing municipalities and towns to allow for veterans exemptions um these exemptions are um there it's certain exemptions certain type of wounds that are uh service uh members have suffered and it's just a good way for our community to thank those who have served this country um by helping them out we did have the um the interim assessor uh mr uh ryan uh i can't think of his last name i'm sorry but um he did give us the financials it's it's minor it's like a a couple of pennies per person uh but it really means a lot and I just hope my colleagues will support it thank you thank you any further discussion uh madam clerk can you please call the roll Adams yes co-sponsor please Anani yes co-sponsor please Ballorin yes co-sponsor please Brody yes co-sponsor please farrell yes co-sponsor please yes co-sponsor please hoey yes johnson yes co-sponsor please keegan yes co-sponsor please poell yes co-sponsor please robinson yes co-sponsor please Williamson yes co-sponsor please zamer yes co-sponsor please 13 affirmative motion passes uh miss farrell the rest of the local laws are held thank you uh on to ordinances introduced miss Powell thank you Mr.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Robinson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Williamson.

Yes, co-ponsors, please.

Zamer.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Third scene affirmative.

Motion passes.

Ms.

Farrell.

The rest of the local laws are held.

Thank you.

On to ordinances introduced.

Ms.

Powell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice ordinance 1272 26 and ask for its introduction.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

An ordinance amending chapter 259.

Pesticides with the code of the city of Albany in relation to allowing the use of pesticides in city properties on city properties by city employees.

Thank you.

Ms.

Farrell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

That will go to the General Services Committee.

Thank you.

Okay, next.

And the rest of the ordinances are held.

Thank you.

Mr.

Holy.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 6971 26R and ask for its um consideration and I'm sorry, as for its vote via uh voice vote.

Okay.

Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Common Council celebrating July 4th, 2026 as Independence Day.

You want to speak on it, Mr.

Howie or uh just real fast that um, you know, when this country was founded 250 years ago, um, it was very things were different back then.

And I think we've improved over the years, over the 250 years.

You know, back then only landowners could vote.

Um we had slaves.

I mean, it was women couldn't vote.

So, I mean, this country has moved along because of democracy, because we can vote, because we can speak up, and I I hope this experiment goes on for another 250 years.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Holy.

Any other no?

Uh since you're all co-sponsors, uh get a voice vote.

All in favor.

Aye.

All right.

Motion passes.

Next, we're on to member Keegan.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 70.71.26R and ask for its passage via voice vote.

Thank you.

Uh a resolution of the common council recognizing July as disability pride month.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, we celebrate July as Disability Pride Month to honor the passage of the American with Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Um the only thing I'm gonna say, because we've been here for a long time and it is incredibly hot this evening, is that um I hope that we can all take a moment this month to really think about how to build an inclusive society for all people regardless of ability, which is far and away beyond what the ADA establishes.

Um it is work that we have tried to do here in the city of Albany and uh work that is so necessary for us to continue to do and focus on.

Um the ADA gives you the right to get through the door.

It gives you the right to get to the door, but it does not give you the right to be able to open the door, and we need to have a society where everyone has a right to be able to open the door.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Further discussions, no?

Okay, all co-sponsors, so we'll do a voice vote.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes.

Okay.

Next, umer.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 717126R and ask for its passage.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Please read.

A resolution of the Albany Common Council support supporting the New York State Legislature's responsible data center uh development act.

Discussion.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

So many of us have heard growing concerns from our constituents over the possibility of a data center being built on the Kenwood site.

Though there's been no proposals submitted to the planning department yet, we do need to be proactive when it comes to data centers, not reactive after it's too late.

This resolution addresses their concerns by lending our full support to the New York State legislation, the responsible data center development act, which places a one-year moratorium on the issuance of permits for large scale data centers, and we do hope the governor will sign it.

This is necessary so that our city has the opportunity to fully assess the impact that these data centers could have on our residential neighborhoods, especially those who have been historically underserved.

The impact on our zoning laws, our energy grid, and our environment.

There's no doubt that data centers are a reality that we are going to have to come to terms with.

They house all of our vast and growing computing needs.

But we have a duty to face this reality responsibly in service to the residents of the City of Albany.

Until then, I hope you all join uh in supporting this resolution.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Zamer.

Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you.

I'm be quick, but uh I'm an educator first, right?

And if we look at what technology is doing to our um kids, it's not making them sharper, it's not making them to the top of the uh is making them lazy and makes them um feel like they don't have to put forth the effort that's needed to be um sharp mentally to uh move and compete in this world.

So um we hear you loud and clear everywhere I go.

Um I think it's like 10 to 1 or more is 10 or more to one against data centers.

So uh we hear you loud and clear.

Thank you for coming and um say no to data centers in Albany, please.

Thank you.

Any further discussion?

Uh Mr.

Ballarin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, I want to thank uh my colleague and I want to thank everyone for coming out here today.

Uh I think uh I appreciate the fact that we're we're uh supporting a statewide um moratorium versus just a citywide moratorium at this time because I think it's an issue that should be looked at and considered statewide of how to do it and how to do it if we're gonna do it, how to do it right.

Uh and just if we do a moratorium here, that maybe keeps our residents uh safe, but doesn't keep the residents across the Hudson safe.

It doesn't keep the residents you know just beyond our borders safe.

Uh and I think it should be a statewide mandate uh meritorium that it is clearly saying we want to make sure that if this is built anywhere, it's done understanding the environmental needs, understanding the uh electrical and grid needs, and understanding the impact that it's going to do to the immediate community.

So again, I appreciate my colleagues' work on this, and I look forward to supporting it.

Adams.

Yes.

Anani.

Yes.

Ballerin.

Yes, please co-sponsor.

Brody.

Yes.

Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Blyn.

Yes, co-sponsor.

Hoey?

Yes.

Johnson.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Keegan.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Powell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Robinson.

Yes.

Williamson.

Zameer.

Yes.

12 in the affirmative.

Motion thank you.

Okay.

Ms.

Zamer.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 556126R.

And ask for its passage.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

A resolution of the Common Council reappointing Omanike Akenyeme as a member of the public education and government access oversight board.

Okay, discussion.

Ms.

Samar, none?

Uh just that uh Miss uh Akineme was uh voted out of committee with a unanimous favorable recommendation.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Madam Clerk, please.

Adams.

No.

Anani?

Yes.

Ballerin?

Yes.

Brody?

Yes.

Farrell?

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Flynn?

Yes.

Hoey?

Yes.

Johnson?

Yes.

Keegan?

Yes.

Powell?

Yes.

Robinson?

No.

Williamson?

Yes.

Zamer.

Yes.

Eleven in the affirmative.

Two no.

Motion passes.

Ms.

Zamer.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I notice resolution 596126R and ask for its passage.

Thank you, Ms.

Zamer.

Hey resolution of the Common Council reappointing Deborah Y.

Brown as a member of the public education and the government access oversight board.

Discussion.

Also, I'll just say that Miss Brown was also voted out of committee with a unanimous favorable recommendation.

Okay.

Madam Okay, Mr.

Ballorin for further discussion.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

For those who may not remember, Miss Brown uh came before us before and we uh voted for and supported her nomination uh just to think about a year and a half ago.

She uh was the president of the NAACP and has been active in our city and uh and and in our community for for many years uh so I am very appreciative of her willingness to continue to serve uh on this board thank you thank you further discussion no madam clerk please call the role Adams no Anani Ballorin Yes Brody Yes Farrell Yes Co-sponsor please Flynn Yes co-sponsor Hoey Yes Co-sponsor please Johnson Yes Keegan Yes Powell Yes Robinson no Williamson Yes Zamer Yes 10 and affirmative 2 notion motion passes uh Miss Zamer thank you Mr.

President I notice resolution 6262 26R and ask for its passage thank you madam Clerks a resolution of the Common Council reappointing Daniel Kirk David Off as a member of the sustainability advisory committee discussion uh Mr.

Kirk David Off was also voted out of committee with a unanimous favorable recommendation thank you further discussion seeing none follow Adams Yes Anani Ballerin Yes uh please co-sponsor Brody Yes co-sponsor please Farrell Yes co-sponsor please Flynn Yes Howie Yes Co-sponsor please Johnson Yes co-sponsor please Keegan Yes Powell Yes Robinson Yes Williamson Yes Co-sponsor please Zamer Yes 13 in the affirmative thank you Mr.

President I notice resolution 6362 26R and ask for its passage a resolution of the Common Council reappointing Andrew Lake excuse me Andre Lake as a member of the Sustainability Advisory Committee Discussion Miss Zamer Thank you Mr.

President Mr.

Further discussion.

Adams.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Anani.

Yes, Ballorin.

Yes.

Co-sponsor, please.

Brody.

Yes.

Farrell.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Flynn.

Yes.

Howie.

Yes, co-sponsor, please.

Johnson.

Yes.

Keegan.

Yes.

How?

Yes.

Robinson.

Yes.

Williamson.

Yes.

Zamer.

Yes.

13A affirmative.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Ms.

Farrell for closing out.

The rest of the resolutions are held.

Thank you.

We also have Commissioner Deeds.

Commissioner Deeds.

Yep.

Mr.

Ballin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I ask the following presence to be hereby appointed to Commissioner of Deeds for the City of Albany, New York for the term ending December 31st, 2026, and the names waived of and the waving of the name reading of the names.

Thank you.

Second.

Can I get a second?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any abstentions?

Okay.

Motion passes.

They're added as commissioners.

Ms.

Farrell.

Motion to adjourn.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, Mr.

Laney speaking.

And this would be quick.

I just wanted to say, as I was listening to the discussion about rank choice voting, right?

I just happened to look around this um this room, and it's many people that's on this council that ran multiple times.

And so like you opened up the door to think that hard work didn't win some of these elections.

You know, we had a uh election la last go around where the mayor was no endorsed candidate for mayor.

Um people got out and they worked hard and they won races.

Um I I just think about um the words and um terms like machine.

You know, um the machine picks a person and they win.

A lot of times, some of the people that were picked by people that were um viewed as the machine, they lost.

If you look at the person that's sitting in um representing us in the uh state, she she wasn't favored the favorite candidate.

She went in there and she fought her way through.

So um sometimes I wish that people put forward put forth the same effort in trying to change stuff as they could to fix things, you know.

Um we're not gonna argue that voter turnout hasn't been um going in the direction that's needed in the city, but sometimes I think um some of the changes that's presented um what make things a little bit more difficult, and I hear um from uh supporters of um ranked choice um voting.

It would be interesting to see, and I know you know who does this, but responsibly, how many people said they weren't interested in it?

And I know that's not important to you, but as people who have to um um listen to both sides, that's important to us.

So I I just um it's a number of things that I feel about ranked choice voting.

I've shared them with some inner in individuals, and I just say that um we we shouldn't be so fast to change something that's changing on its own, because if you look around this body, you don't see the same um faces that you once saw.

And when you look at this body, you don't see the same acts that uh were happening many many years ago.

If you come to a council meeting, you might see an exciting discussion because it's many different types of people sitting at these um desks that feel differently about what's going on in the city, and we are actually in here trying to work on the betterment of the city, and sometimes to a fault because some of us our passion is is strong and and uh we stand on it.

So I I hear, I hear you, um, and and and I just want to say sometimes it's better to fix what what you have.

Um, some of the points that were made, this is a democratic city.

It's been democrats my whole life.

Um that's not gonna change.

I don't see that changing um anytime soon.

So if you want to be part of the conversation, one of the best um conversations to be in is the Democratic conversation in Albany because then you have input on all um steps.

So I just wanted to um say that because like I said, I looked around, and some people that fought to be in this room, and they didn't just fight one fight, they fought multiple fights.

So that shows that if you put the um work in, you can get here without um the blessing of the machine.

Thank you.

Mr.

Robinson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I sit here and I is I I I would like to speak shortly of some residents that poured their life savings into opening up a business in Albany, New York.

Um I'm talking about Mr.

Cohen and his wife.

Um I had just recently had a conversation with Mr.

Coleman, and I can Cowan, I can look in his face and I and I seen the frustration and I seen the hurt and I seen the disappointment where him and his wife took their life savings and tried to open up a business in the city of Albany, and you know, first with the landlord with um having them into a real into a lease with knowing that the property had conditions, um, then on top of that, the newspaper, social media, you know, dragging him and his wife to the mud like they did something wrong.

When the only thing they was trying to do is have a business in the city of Albany.

Then when it got to the point where you know his wife had to come on social media and you know, really stressed and really, you know, put out there, you know, that it was a lot other than just you know I'm saying problems with the building, how um, you know, certain um residents in the neighborhood will call code enforcement, call SLI, call a fire department, you know.

I mean, this couple haven't been in business for three months, you know, have they life savings turned, have they life savings poured into a business and to feel like they didn't get no support from the city, you know, it's like you know, like it like I said, it was even hurting for me to even you know you know sit there and just hear the tears from this man's um um mouth.

And uh I don't know.

I just think that we as a city, you know, we have to really try to protect, you know what I'm saying, those that want to, you know what I'm saying, bring business and try to, you know, um create livelihoods where they can feed their family the the the bee forced out of business, you know what I'm saying, three months out of the operation.

I just you know I I just like want to put on the record that we have to do better as a city.

Thank you.

Further comments?

Okay, seeing none.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

Yep.

All in favor?

Aye, aye.

Aye, yeah.