Everybody, we're gonna start our work session, study session, and I'll start with item nine which is uh ready.

If there's no other uh questions, Katie, are we ready?

Yeah, we're ready.

We can have a microphone.

You can have a microphone up here.

Oh, oh, I don't I didn't realize I can speak, yeah.

Thank you.

Oh here with a mic.

Are we all set?

All right, so once again, welcome everybody.

Uh thank you for joining us.

This is our study session.

Uh I am presenting item number nine.

If there are no questions, it's ready.

No questions.

Okay, moving moving on.

Uh Council Coldwell.

Thank you, Madam President.

Blessings to all today.

I have item number ten.

And if there's no other questions from the fellow counselors, they're already it's ready.

Thank you.

Uh hold on.

Here we go.

Uh Council Montal for Councilor McJeck.

Thank you, President Pan Yagwa.

Councillor Majok has items eleven through twenty-six, and those are all ready to go.

I there was a new schedule um for do we do it or city owned buildings as in there and is it's all good.

Which number I'll set.

What number?

1516.

Oh, okay.

Okay, so we're moving on.

I will take it okay.

Um with that said, we're gonna go to the twenty-seven is ready too.

Sorry.

Okay.

I missed that one.

All right.

Then uh Councillor Aaron Richard.

Number twenty-eight.

I have number twenty-eight and I'm it's ready to go.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor Aaron Rich again.

I have item number twenty-nine that I'm presenting today to be automatically tabled.

Introduced and tabled.

Thank you, Councillor.

Thank you.

Councillor Navi.

Thank you, madam president.

I have items thirty, thirty-one and thirty-two.

If there's no questions or discussions, they are ready.

Go ahead, OK.

Uh councillor counselors, good morning.

I went currently with city planning and sustainability.

31 and 32.

Um there was uh as we discussed last week, there was a third item, a waiver item to work with the firm uh to help us with these applications.

I know that didn't make it on.

I talked to some of you on Friday, it didn't make it on as a waiver item.

I know there's you know, different some different opinions about that item.

Is that able to be is that waiver could that waiver be considered at the next meeting?

Or is the waiver to those folks all in about that the next meeting?

I don't guess what you can do.

Yeah.

So we um can I actually try and uh waive what it's not on this agenda.

It's not on this agenda.

We wanted to know if it is the end of the on the next agenda.

And that's why I say you can talk to them and uh and you guys can you know get into the uh so are you asking let me ask you this.

So without the wait without the waiver of the RFP, are you considering not applying it with 313?

That's exactly right.

And these items may be withdrawn if so.

If that waiver could be considered at the next meeting, then it makes sense to keep these on the agenda and and we could discuss the waiver and this is up to you.

Yeah, it's up to you.

If you want to hold the do you want counselor not be to hold 31 and 32 while we discuss 30 of the other one?

So the problem is that if if if we move that, Jacob is gonna be part of who's writing these grants.

Correct.

That's correct.

And if they're not in the makes, then there's no recent way to write the grants.

Well, how do we how do we so my question behind this is and this is for the um the charger piece, right?

Right.

How as a uh municipality do we lobby for one organization versus other when there's tons of organization?

This is a new way, right?

We got going on across the country.

How do we just pick one corporate one organization and say this is the way we go when we should be fair and equitable to everyone to see who else can do what they do?

We want more businesses and we want more people trying to generate this community to be diverse.

So how did this one just come up about?

This is a group that uh we identified that can do all the work that can provide the expertise, the nuke no cost to the city.

Uh that is unique.

There weren't any vendors in the city.

We had discussed this last week, but ultimately there weren't any city vendors that could provide these services, which a couple counselors asked about, and obviously we all want to prioritize.

Um so this is a New York State vendor that does this work, has a track record, no cost to the city, providing infrastructure that we don't have.

There's no public charging infrastructure, and this is a great opportunity, and it's it's not maybe a perfect opportunity, but it's sure one that I think we should consider.

So it's one thing that's sorry.

Um one thing that Owen is not putting, I think, enough point on is that we can't use anybody.

They have to be already certified by the make ready under national grid in order to be part of it.

Yeah, that's only from national grid.

So my so the the and that was a point that I wanted to make.

I watched last study session, I've been reading up on it.

So my biggest push behind behind this is that we have previously for the last couple of years been talking about RFPs.

We want to put RFPs out.

We want more opportunities.

People email us, they call us all the time, say we're trying to get in.

So for us to say we're already going, it's like lobbying for a company that we say that you're saying this is the only one out of everyone, you're telling me this is the only one.

And you're also saying that New York State is saying we have to have them on there.

We have to apply with a I mean national grid, we have to have a vendor already on there before we even apply.

So you you the the vendor must be approved by the funder.

And so there is a there is a list.

This company's on the list.

All of the other companies that have been that are on that list, none are uh that can do the whole package are not local.

Uh and they all expect to be paid up front.

Uh because very reasonably, if they do not receive the grant, uh they want to make sure that they're paid for.

This is the only company that fits all of those options.

So we're counselor, we're 100% with you on the fact that you know our RFPs are there for the right reason, and there are only special times in which they should be circumvented.

So we already reached out to everybody on the list and ask them, would they be a part of it?

Uh uh counselor.

Being that the the question here to me is that whether you guys are gonna hold the item for the next agenda and you guys discuss all this, or you guys are not gonna do that.

But Katie Katie, hold on, because it's 30 session, let's let's study.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

There is a list.

We have not talked to everybody on the list.

So that's my point.

I I'm I it's not that I think this is a great opportunity, but for us to be in the municipality lobbying for one organization when we have not went through the list and said, hey, who is available?

We want to make sure we're fair and equitable to everyone.

And this is what we heard in a past previous not just this, but other RFPs.

You know, people are like, we never get a chance.

We never get a chance, we never get a chance.

So how do we make it fair and equitable when we don't open a door and say, hey, let's see.

Why can't we write to grant?

We have a phenomenal grant part and then figure out well, we can't do that.

We don't we don't have the expertise to write the grant.

We I I wish we did.

Uh as I said, we don't have this infrastructure.

We're looking to pilot this at no cost and working with a vendor that has done this throughout upstate.

Uh there's no city vendors.

There's a lot of good reasons to do this, and I think you know, finding a reason not to work and and potentially receive over 400,000 of funding to install infrastructure that our constituents, our neighbors want that we don't have um it's a great opportunity, I think that we're that we're missing here.

How long have we had a grant?

How long do we find on the grant, Owen?

Uh last day of the month, uh the Friday the 27th.

How long have we known about this?

Uh since we started talking to them in December.

So this is where we are.

So and I and I'm not trying to, like I said, well, you know, I I think highly of you, I think highly of what, but it's our job to make sure that we're being fair to everyone.

And right now it's been here since December, and now it's February, and we're just hearing about it, and now it's like either we do it or we lose it.

And we've been doing for the last couple years saying, hey, let's talk about things before time, because we really are pushing RFPs, it's important.

Again, completely agree.

Uh this is where uh so when we found out about it, we I have people emailing me saying, hey, uh you know, we've got this great opportunity for you to buy these products off of us and create a shiny town for homeless people.

We get tons of ideas all the time.

We have to have a minute to vet it and see if it's something worth bringing to you.

And at the time that we learned about it, there was a we had no budget for it, b, we had no ability to turn around um and create an RFP process within the amount of time that we had.

And so we brought it to you a couple weeks ago in the email that uh that Owen sent out.

I I'm not I get exactly what the resistance here is, and if this isn't gonna happen, we we can absolutely pull it.

Michael, let me ask you this question.

So from the other potential companies that could you know do this work.

Do they did they offer like this to write the grant with the city at no cost?

Or is there any I mean did they know that there was there was a potential to getting a contract if they did that?

How how did this?

Yes, since there was really about a month or so between when we learned about it and when we shared it with you.

What we the research that Owen and and uh Karina have done is uh on who does the stuff really well, who wins these grants, uh from the approved lists.

And so this is a company that's won 49 out of 50, and because of their success rate, they believe in themselves, and they said we will not ask for money up front.

Uh and with the since we did not have time to RFP, that was not a possibility within from the deadline for when the grant is due and when we've been able to vet this information.

This is this was the best option.

So we brought it to you.

Respect the fact that you you may not want it.

So we didn't have time to RFP because of what?

Because the RFP process takes longer than the window that we had.

Since December, we didn't have any engagement with any other organ, like did we speak to any other ones besides that one?

I'm sorry, I keep jumping ahead of you because not enough lunch.

So when it comes back to this, right?

Did anybody else say, hey, have we had any other conversation with any other vendors besides this one?

We looked at the list that's available and we work directly with this folks.

We've talked to other folks that do this work, um, and there's cost associated with them.

We didn't have any budget up front.

Uh so this is frankly the only vendor that we found that had no upfront cost that we could work with.

So again, there wasn't enough typically we RFP things, that process is normally you know, four to six months by the time you write it and publish it.

And we didn't have time to do this here.

You know, we're we're very sensitive to that.

We typically do that with our professional services, but we don't have an I haven't sorry.

I have another question.

Sure.

Um at the at the expiration of the grant period, my understanding is that the city will own this infrastructure.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

And ballpark, how much money per year would this infrastructure likely get us?

In terms of money.

A very conservative estimate uh appears to be the revenue could be a few hundred dollars a month.

So maybe a few a couple thousand a year.

Okay.

It is revenue positive, it is not huge revenue, but a very conservative estimate of a you know, one that's used would be about that.

And it would be located in a public park accessible to all Syracuse residents.

That's correct.

Owen.

Did you engage with black and black minority on trade unionists?

Did you reach out to Union?

Because they have to be at the table.

And in my opinion, and correct me if I'm wrong.

That's a very important workforce.

And whatever we do business in this city, they have to be at the table.

The voice had to be heard.

So I don't know what the endless had, but that's how I firm.

That's my opinion.

And I had to look out for every constituent in the city, every organization.

So no one is left behind.

And many of those organizations have been left behind.

We've seen that what's going on with the I-81 project.

So that's my feeling.

So were any of them in this discussion?

Counselor, as both the commissioner and I mentioned, we did not, we did not RFP this.

We did not have a competitive bid process.

We didn't have a competitive bid process.

We did not chose.

We didn't engage everyone in this we didn't.

And sometimes opportunities, the the waivers a tool uh where when things are time sensitive.

And and I would also remind you that the work we're doing is for constituents.

Constituents advanced for this.

It's public.

And it's something I think a lot of people are looking for.

So we're looking out for those constituents also.

All those who are not at the table in this discussion will be just engaged in the future for all benefits.

Am I correct?

No.

No, we'll engage everyone.

I need a we can only for this, we can only engage the ones that are on the approved list.

Uh so the funder dictates which companies they have vetted that have the expertise to do it.

So those are the ones that we're that we're looking at.

Because you we you're completely right.

Uh and and that's why Owen and I have stood here and say we fully support the process.

That wasn't an option this time, and that's why we'll we'll withdraw if uh if the council feels that uh you know the that a waiver is not something that you're comfortable with.

So you're saying that we don't have the capability with our grant program and our our outside grant writers to write this grant.

Correct.

Because the uh we do not have any electrical engineers that are specialized in EV chargers to make the calculations that are re uh required part of the submission.

Say that again, I apologize on any of that.

There are technical parts of this submission where you've got to do the calculations that have to do with um the uh just the uh the energy use, uh everything that has to do with experts.

Yeah, and you know, we we don't we've got good grant writers, uh, and we've got great engineers and electricians.

What this is a this is a specialized skill set, and that is not a skill set that we possess within the city.

As as so I'm gonna be clear, I love the fact that we're moving forward into the next generation is needed, but to keep waiving things and not allowing access to all, and we do that frequently here in the city hall, and we've been talking about for the last few years.

Let's not do that because guess what?

We leave a population out and they never get a chance to be at the table, and it's very unfair.

So, yes, as we want it, those same constituents are are not getting a chance to be a part of it, right?

And we're picking based on what we think, because we did not go through the list and say, hey, let's talk to everybody.

Let's we can't have RP, let's just do a uh a meeting and say, hey, this is what we're interested in.

Who on this list could be a part of?

These are our requirements.

We didn't do that.

So I'm really skeptical because it's not fair, and it's almost like you know, we're supposed to be on a playing field, we see open our eyes for everyone, and when we do this, we don't, and we do this often, and we've been doing this for years here, and it was something that we really want to get away from because we want people to realize that we are fair, and we get emails from people all the time to say, how do we get a front door in?

We have opportunity, what do we do, right?

So that's my my spill.

Um we we didn't have this discussion at our our first uh study session, and uh I didn't get my words, I wasn't there.

I mean I know what I'm gonna be very clear because this has been a four-year-old.

But we were we were we were sure that the message was delivered that if that all of these RFPs are gonna be looked at independently one from the other, and waiving the RFB process will not be the norm, but it will be the exception.

So I thought I would like so sorry, go ahead.

This isn't off.

No, no, go ahead.

But to back up what uh commissioner Caldwell's uh counselor caldwell is saying, is there any way?

And again, this would not follow the prescription of a real RFP process, but because this is a selective list, and again, there's only two other Syracuse space addresses on this list right now.

Is there any way to run a small RFP or an open call process in the next week to get this back on the schedule?

I so if we had the time to do an RFP, we we we we would have already.

Uh the the challenge is the RFP process uh with having to uh to write it, uh identify the budget for it because right now we do not have a budget for it, uh, which is another reason that could that not be on the RFP process?

Uh we could.

We could.

Uh we're not coming up with a budget for this, right?

So anyone who would want to write for this process would have to write for the same in the same terms as what the Rochester.

I'm not gonna, so I'm gonna be frank.

I appreciate that.

I'm not gonna hold it back, but this is my my only fear is that once we do this, it continues, right?

And it happened.

And it's not anything against because you know I think I want to back you up completely.

I don't want to wee.

I keep doing this, and then all we get is the same thing.

When we want to be fair and equitable to everyone having an opportunity, and it's not it just happened to be your department, your department is fine, the other department.

I'm talking about it.

But then it's not yes, but let me finish.

Yes.

So um this is a study session.

Okay, go ahead.

So I'm not gonna hold it back.

I just need that the constituents to understand too, because that I get calls, I get emails, people are like, how do we get in the front door?

When the RP is not there, they can't get in, right?

And we want to make sure we we want to show love to everyone.

We want this community to be like, hey, we we want to know what's going on, and when we do that, we just don't know you guys.

We can we can try to so to your point.

Uh we can try to RFP as quickly as possible.

To your point about inclusion, uh, as we just since people do need to be on the list.

And so the people that that we all are concerned about, uh, don't actually have the shot at this right now without being on that list.

Uh what I would say is we can make those contacts.

So as people are reaching out saying, hey, I want to be able to do this.

We are very happy always uh through our business development uh department to say, well, let us help you make those contacts so that you can be positioned to do so because that's that has to happen well before we get to this discussion.

They've got to be on the list in the first place.

But yeah, we're we can we can do our best to turn this around very very quickly.

Uh it may still require a waiver to get on the agenda at the next meeting.

It's too late to get on the agenda for this meeting.

You if you so that so you you want to you will hold these two items into the next agenda and um and they all will be together.

Is that what I'm saying?

Uh no, what I would that's not what's not what I was gonna suggest.

So why does it know you wanted to say that that's uh go ahead, finish.

So what I would suggest is we can move these.

We will attempt to to uh to do this process.

We would need a waiver likely to get on the next agenda with whatever we've got because of the um because of the the short time frame.

Uh we don't know that we're gonna get anybody that would be able to turn this around that quickly, but we'll give it a shot.

Would you be able to get um in here to talk to them, maybe have a committee meeting in between now and the next meeting?

We're we're willing to do whatever.

We're gonna whatever's uh the the council feels is is uh educational and useful.

For me, it's not necessarily the vendor's problem.

I want to fortify what councillor Caldwell was saying.

I think we just don't like it, right?

When it comes to us with this short of a turnaround time, I for good governance we want to RFP and put everything out to bid all the time.

And I'm I'm a fervent believer that we should be putting everything out to bid, but also I don't want to throw away 500,000 worth of infrastructure that's gonna bring revenue to a city that desperately needs it.

But what Rashida was saying is exactly right.

Like we've got to, we can't go down this road now with a brand new council and just suddenly start like waving, waving, waving.

But in this case, I I I don't want to hold it back either.

Like, let's get the infrastructure in.

But in the meantime, Katie, would that be executive session so we can do this or in between meetings?

What Michael is saying basically is that um to keep these as ready and on the next agenda, um, they will communicate.

But if we can discuss it in between meetings, well, we all set.

I mean, it sounds like we're uh yeah, council president.

I uh let's let's keep these on.

Okay.

And then we're gonna hustle like heck, see what we can do.

You know, we we had never wanted to put out an RFP that we didn't think anybody had a shot to apply to, but we'll we'll absolutely see what we can do.

Okay, all right.

Moving on, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, are you all set?

Uh Marty.

Yeah, we're all set.

Thank you.

Okay, Councilor Moore.

Thank you, madam president.

I have items 33 through 38.

If there's no questions, they're ready to go.

Hearing none, uh, counselor Moore and Monto.

Uh Council Moore.

Oh, this is Council Monte.

I just want to make sure that's the other.

You know that they changed the um schedule A for 33 and 34.

The new schedule A in your packet.

Okay.

Because yeah, because the buying council had to look at it all look at review and adjust some things.

Okay.

Thank you.

And y'all pack it there to do that rule.

Okay.

Thank you.

And uh President Hang on I item 39 is ready.

All right.

Uh Councillor Monte for Counselor Williams.

Uh thank you, Councilor Penny.

Counselor Williams has items 40 through 43, and those are also already.

I uh want to make sure that we're noting that item number 40.

Uh the one change to that is that the this is just going to be the contract with no new money.

It's money coming from a previous budget line from last year, not new cash.

Expiration date has changed.

Expiring March 27th.

Uh August, right, Brian?

August.

So short titles wrong, so that's supposed to be August.

Okay.

August.

Okay, that's it.

Are you all set?

Yep.

All right.

Who's taking Councilor Jim Browsers?

I'll take it.

Thank you.

Okay, Councilor.

I'm not a president.

I have Counselor Joe's rouser, items 44 through 50.

They're all ready unless anybody has any concerns or questions.

44 has to be held.

Help.

Okay.

We know that.

Thank you.

Other than that, we're all set.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilor Monto.

Thank you, Councilor Penny Agua.

I have items 51 and 52.

Uh item 51 will be held.

We have some financial questions, Counselor Williams and I.

And 52 will also be held.

Are they both being held then?

Yes, both held.

Okay.

And with that, we came to the uh close of the agenda.

Motion to adjourn.

Um move.

Second.

Second.

Okay.

Thank you.

54.