you you you you Good afternoon and welcome to the May 6, 2025 Committee of the whole session. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Sir, may I remain the server? Present. Council Member Lopez. Present. Council Member Tarantino. Here. Council Member Peters. Here. Council Member Ossale. Here. Council Member Kaye. Here. And Council Member Starr. Here. So thank you so much. As I noted, welcome to this month's committee of the whole session meeting. Oh, let's hope it earlier in the month, but no less jabby and fun. Our first item on the agenda is a presentation by the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center regarding air study results. Raya Salter is an attorney policy expert and founder of the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center. She's a recognized leader in the field of environmental law and climate equity, and she's joining us to share insights into her organization's initiative, Air of Truth, unmasking poor air quality for environmental justice. A public education and advocacy effort focused on air quality and environmental justice across Westchester County, including here in New Shell. It draws on the hyper-local data from New York State's recent community air monitoring study to identify and communicate the impacts of air pollution and overburdened communities. Miss Salter and her organization also support the city's eco-embasitor summary use employment program and that initiative's stewardship of New Yorkshire's coastal resources. I will say many of us had a chance to go to the high school with the presentation that you did with our students and their art teacher and their science teacher to see how you go with an advocacy art with our high school students and environmental justice using real data. And I know we were all really moved when we saw the presentation and thought it would be a great idea to have you present here more formally and some more members of the community can access to your amazing presentation. So thank you for joining us this evening. I will scoot over and thank you to City Manager for committing this use of time to share this important information. Thank you so much Mayor and I want to thank each and every one of you for your leadership on climate, your support of these initiatives. We had hope to have students here to also be advocates, but the schedule didn't line up. So sorry about that. Instead, you will get the Professor Solter comes with her deck. And I'm always happy to show up with a deck. And really just really excited to talk to you, not just about our air truth, our local air truth air quality advocacy program, but about the seeds of this, how this really has come from the New York State Initiative, what we're doing, and also what the opportunities are for the city to take advantage of these programs to potentially get more money to improve our air quality. And just prioritize air quality in general as a public health concern. So our mayor told you a bit about me. Thank you very much. I'm an attorney. My organization is the Energy Justice Law Policy Center and we are based here in New Rochelle. We do local advocacy state and also federal advocacy. And we're really trying to figure out how can we develop clean and green infrastructure in an equitable and community informed way? So today I'd like to talk a little bit about our climate act because that's where a lot of this comes from. Then what's happening in New Rochelle specifically on air monitoring and then we get to that piece of how what the opportunities are for the city to engage in air pollution mitigation. So this starts as many things do with our 2019 climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which is New York State's landmark 2019 climate law. There's a lot of things that happen in the Climate Act and I will show up with the deck on any part of them and talk to you about it anytime you like, individually or as a group. But today we'll talk a little bit about the Justice Framework, some of you have heard this before. But the law required the state to identify quote-unquote, disadvantaged communities. Communities that have been held the brunt of legacy pollution and face climate vulnerability. And it also acknowledged that lot of baddest due to historical factors, redlining, etc. So the law required that those communities be identified and that 40% of state climate funding go to benefit these disadvantaged communities or frontline communities. It also required that the Department of Environmental Conservation do air quality monitoring in these in a pilot these pilot air monitoring in select disadvantaged communities. I say this air quality because nobody wants to be called a disadvantaged community but that's the term of art that's in the statute. We say frontline or just priority. So that is where this air quality framework became from. And so this project began in 2022. Mount Vernon and Yagers were selected for this air monitoring. I'm proud to say my organization successfully advocated for New Rochelle to be included in this pilot air monitoring. So this happened. It's in 10 communities across the state, including Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon, Yodra's and New Rochelle. And they had cars with sensors drive blocked by block to gather information on air pollution and air pollution sources. So that happened in 2022 and 2023. And the state collected a lot of data about it. What did they find? Well really the big takeaway is that it was just a bit large. We actually have bad air quality. Folks don't know that the American Law Association gives all of Westchester an F-grade for air quality. But there are disparities within that and it won't surprise folks that the real culprit is I-95 and the pollution that comes from I-95. In addition, there are additional other sources we have. A waste incinerator in peak scale, we have some cement factories, so there are additional sources. So you see here, and this is where our students in Miss Gland are environmental scientists can talk about PM 2.5, you know, what are the impacts to communities that have them? But the state also overlaid those focus spots with community assets. So I can share the link. I encourage folks to go on. You can see that it identifies where are our public housing, where are residential areas, where are childcare facilities, where our hospitals that are also co-located in these pollution hotspots. So what have we been doing about it? Since that time, we've partnered with the state who gave us sort of a preview of this data to use in community education. So this is where this air of truth program was born. We have students at the high school who were studying this data in their environmental science class. I think I got some pictures. We did a bus tour just last week where we you know went around to some of the places where this pollution was concentrated. We also have had community meetings. I'll actually share a quote from one of our students, Mindy. And she was talking, and this is her analysis of some of the pollution along the highways. A more long term solution would be eliminating diesel trucks altogether and replacing them with something more sustainable, but that's really difficult. What's happening now and what's more realistic is the link project. If you look around where Highway Ns and I-95 Connects, there are almost no trees, no protection, no barrier between residents and the highway and it's dangerous for pedestrians. So the students are learning about what the community-based solutions are. What I want folks to get about this trajectory from the climate law to the work we're doing is that our effort is to work with communities and the state and our local officials just like yourselves to advocate through the state process because what it is supposed to lead to is what they call community mitigation plans. So by statute they are required to come up with plans to mitigate bad air quality and those strategies can include a lot of things and I'll speak to them in just a moment but that's why we that's why I'm happy to talk to you about it here that's why we talked to them with the students because we want they want input from us the community in terms of what do we wanna see as solutions and we want our community and our public officials in Newer Shell and in Yoggers and in Mount Vernon to be a part of that conversation. So that's what our Ayrtruf program is doing. What are the opportunities for municipal governments? What are the opportunities for a city like Newer Shell? Here's the thing. Newershell, each and every one of you has shown real leadership on climate. It is a really big deal that the green R green Newershell plan aligns with our state climate act. There are significant pieces. I know there are folks who are sitting back here who are also responsible for that. I really want we want to congratulate you for doing that because by aligning our green plans with the Climate Act, we are setting ourselves up for success as we do our climate smart communities as we go for other grant fundings because we're showing that have data evidence based solutions. If we start tracking that now, we're miles ahead of everyone. So as we're looking at these efforts that we're already doing, clean transportation, green infrastructure, air filtration, building decarbonization, urban forestry, zero waste, workforce development. I encourage folks to look at that. These are the solution sets that will also ultimately make a difference on air quality, especially as we think about it in the link project. So let's think about it as both a climate and a public health solution as these programs add up. our if we're doing our greenhouse gas emissions inventory, let's think about the air quality piece as we do that. That's one way. Let's just start thinking about it. I promised you I was on the phone this morning with the state DEC air quality team. They're all so figuring this out. So yes, I mentioned that it was a big step. And so once we've, there are things that we can do, one thing, take into these data sets. Look at these online maps, they made it pretty user friendly. So you can get acquainted with what they're saying about different areas that you're going to recognize, your neighborhood, and other neighborhoods. Understand the disadvantaged communities criteria and how those line up. We've got a lot of data sets that we're collecting already in New Rochelle that we can use as input. So let's think about these things and impact air quality and public health on top of greenhouse gas emissions and resilience as well. Let's implement our climate emergency. Let's get our citizen task force going. The more and earlier we engage folks, the more robust plans that we have. And I know this presentation was a little long. I didn't want to go over, but oh girl, you're doing great. I'm not the first one. You don't want me. I think no one wants a blowhard to eat up your meeting time. So I try and stay under. But I want to emphasize again, I was singing your praises to the state air quality team. Take it, get your flowers. You deserve them. Talk about what Newer Shell is doing. Understand that it's also a public health air quality solution that you're leading on in addition to climate and We're gonna encourage our neighbors and friends to do this work too and I'm excited to show new Michelle as a leader Because now I get to go to the you know Mr. Jenkins and say hey Mr. Jenkins look what new Michelle did This is kind of what you should do and the state is happy to come and and speak to us as well so that I said ends my presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Great. My turn. And also very informative. I'm going to open this logic questions or comments from my colleagues. I suspect I know a couple of hands already that are all just trying to be polite. So I'm going to run the clock and so somebody raises their hand, raise your hand, raise your hand, Okay, after the lawyer, please. I would like to understand how institutions like churches, nonprofits, our library, people that own property, how can they take advantage of some of the opportunities that are at hand from this state? And I don't have another question. I have for equipment like taking charge of their power needs, taking charge of their ventilation, showing up their buildings, what's the potential there? There's tremendous amount of potential. There's a, I'm like the Mogets or in the short answer, there are a lot of programs and I think the city is already working with all of this programs. State of the Westchester has programs, com reenter prices has programs, NIPA has come and given different workshops. And that's something that my organization is also working on. We can always be doing work on community engagement and meeting folks where they are. I know I am happy to do so if there are churches or nonprofits that would be interested in particular, you know, there's kind of a whole value stack, you know, so there's the air quality piece that is really about engaging with the process and showing where there are concerns and what types of solutions you'd like to see. And there are grants that will follow there. And so there's ways to have show leadership in the air quality piece. And for energy, for building D-CARP, there's a value stack there. And I'm delighted to speak to you in more detail or others about those opportunities. Okay. My follow-up was, well, you know, we don't really have a functional federal government right now. So what's our exposure to that and what can we do locally to prepare ourselves for, you know, in that boot, inevitable fluctuations in access to capital? Yeah, no, you're exactly right. So, unfortunately, you know, there's a lot of exposure, and I'm guessing that folks have already started dealing with that. A lot of the modern profits have seen grants frozen, and I wish I could say there was a magic bullet to that, and there's not. Although a lot of nonprofits have come together to sort of ban together and share resources, and if folks are interested in that, I encourage them to hear about these threats in the news and it's scary and there's a lot of coming together in the community around that. And especially in the screen space, there's a lot we can do focusing locally. There, we still have our state programs. We still have our $4 billion bond act. Hopefully we will have a capitan in this program on the state level coming down the pipe. And we also still have our New York Green Bay. So there are still funds and that's something. We're gonna have to talk more about the green banking. I'd love to do that in the meantime. So there's still financing opportunities. There's still grant opportunities in New York State. And I know the city is taking advantage of many of them, but also nonprofits and other works can as well. Thank you. It's tough. Council member K. First one, thank you for the presentation. I'm really looking forward to working in the community. We're obviously not strangers, and I really appreciate you, but I you and my representative actually. And so I really appreciate your input and guidance as we put together a lot of these initiatives and so on the step way better for it. I think you perfectly cute up our next presentation. Absolutely. So that hopefully under-sighted about that and then I have one specific question. Could you speak a little bit about some of the potential mitigation measures and also one thing that's important out for is oftentimes the city doesn't own the land where we might want to implement some of these measures. And so what can we do to get around those obstacles? You know, that's a next slide question. It's literally talking to the state this morning about, you know, let's do the solution sets look like. And they really are the things that we are already focused on. You know, we need great transportation, the link projects and the plans for the ITC, you know, and our Ergid Forestry plans, you know, are all in the solution set hazard be vegetative barriers between the highway, air filtration, that can be within homes or I know the library was looking to replace an air filtration and also there in abling policies that can be done. That Newer Shells also do a many of them in terms of making it easier for electric vehicles, making it easier, you know, painting the way for more eye-bling enforcement, these type of things. There are complexities I know, so each and every one of these things involved had the idle, you know, picking up a different school, it's hard to not handle. But so the solution sets range from sort of technologies to community practices, individual practices, to policy and egg link solutions. And yes, and I would say one of the barriers of when you don't on the land, that is certainly a barrier. And it can be hard to identify the owns of even in the first instance. Sometimes it could be the county, sometimes it could be an individual or a business. So yes, that has to be sort of adjusted on. I'll come to understand. I also want to say thank you. I really enjoy going to the Five last summer and just feeling seeing the great work both with kids and the environment and also being in high school and seeing, you know, middle school and high school kids just really demonstrating their knowledge and inspirational to see that you're doing this policy work but also teaching, you know, some board members that you created some of the things that our kids are taking on this unfortunate burden that we are living with, but with solutions. I did actually want to back up, I think we're up to remember with Kay with asking about the solutions. You actually didn't talk a lot about the consequences of having their quality be before. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that. And beyond the 95, why are these concentrated in these civil, disenfranch communities, this has had to be fine? Yeah, no, that's an excellent question. And we don't have our public health experts, but I can certainly speak to it at a high level. I know the students are always intrigued to find out. They're like, I thought asthma was an inherited condition. And it's a complex question. There is some potential in heritability, but a lot of it is environmental. And asthma, increased respiratory distress, heart disease, high blood pressure. These are all increased when you're exposed to these various pollutants. In fact, I remember Terrible Times during the pandemic. They had studied and realized that folks mostly black and brown folks exposed to pollution were much more likely to die of COVID. So there's really a litany of poor health outcomes that are experienced for poor air quality. Now this actually, as I mentioned, Westchester as a whole, we've actually not got great air quality and a lot of it is proximity to these highways but these disparities are very specific. And these states disadvantaged communities criteria really lays that out and and I encourage folks to take a look at it. And like I said, I'm always happy to show up with the deck. And that's something also about our Climate Act. It really does recognize that, frankly, we didn't get here overnight, but there's a history of frankly racism and racist practices from redlining and other practices in terms of what communities got disrupted when they were in the highways that had resulted in segregation and concentration of black and brown folks nearest to these polluting assets. And it's all over the country, it's the same. And so what are some of those other polluting passes? Well, in Westchester, one of our biggest liabilities is the Villebrator Trashons in the Rader of Hudson Peak Scale. So that's actually Westchester's largest industrial air plunder. And a lot of folks are aware that the trash that we create here in Westchester goes to peace in the's why zero waste is an urgent environmental justice issue in Westchester County. But you know the sources about buildings, buildings are a huge source. Diesel fuel gas, fossil fuel buildings are emitters and polluters. There are many, many sources. Let me just leave Council members to join us. Council member Tarantino. Yeah, I have a question about, you talked about the I-95 corridor. And over the last nine years, we have built out tremendously along the I-95 and the railroad corridor in Norma Shell and what we built was residential housing in these areas and I never heard much of this while that was being built. How do we fix that problem now that it's going to exist? Because now you have literally a couple of thousand residential units built right on the I-95 and the New Haven Railroad, which, you know, back in the 50s and 60s was a common practice to use. We talked about redlining. It was almost used as the line to redline with. And here, we're still doing that. How do we fix that? Well, it's a complicated problem that does have complicated answer. Certainly, one way is to be forward looking in terms of being clear-eyed about zoning decisions and others to try and prevent these things or think about mitigation in advance of making those decisions. And I'd really say that in terms of how do we address some of these issues where folks already are, one of the main ways is to engage with the state, you know, engage with, you know, my program or others on what these solutions have. Because my concern is right now is now, you know, seeing what you've presented. Here we have just taken maybe 2,000 people and put them in harm's way by building stuff right in that zone that is not healthy. So, you know, I'm curious to know is there's something we can do to rectify that problem in those buildings. There are new buildings, they're built, the current standards, but, you know, what do we do to protect the people in those bills? I think that's a really important question. The answers, the real answers, I think, end up being quite site-specific in terms of, and that's something I'm very interested in being a part of, because when you be at air filtration, be it education about when somebody may close or open their windows, air monitoring so people can understand, air monitoring helps so people can understand when the threats might be the highest, but you also need to know what to do about that. Because unless you have an air filter that you get to run on, or it actually works to close your window and you're just kind of scaring both. And it is one of the questions that I'll stop. So now we have other potential projects that are being built, would be built on this corridor. Do we now take a different view on them as far as safety of the residents by requiring developers to put in systems that would help rectify this problem so that the federal government and the local government don't have to use resources even on new projects. We can use resources to help people that are in developments that are older because we didn't have this information but we want to make sure that we're just not making the problem worse going forward. So, you know, is there a plan to work with developers in the future to make sure that they build in a way that is protecting their own residents? Actually, there is. And that could be another deck for another day. Like I said, I will show up with a deck anytime, anywhere. So this also has a complex answer. And New York State also passed a law that's called the cumulative impacts law. And that's something about the Department of Environmental Conservation is also rolling out the regulations for SBC. It has, she mode of impacts, but large is the idea that if there's a community because of these historical issues, has an, is overburdened by pollution as a pollution for harms or potential harm. That you have to look at that before you add more pollution, you know, things that could potentially be moving. And so that's the sort of spirit of the cumulative impact law. And it really, really changes some of the perm-dEC permitting law. Some of that's state. And as I'm sure you know, it's state permits, local barbots. So there's a lot of jurisdiction there, but there are new requirements that developers will need to follow regarding key moving impacts. And like I said, could be another deck for another day, but that is just a surprise. That leads to one more question. We built on Garden Street, a couple of buildings there. And I always looked at as history repeating itself. This was a common practice to build, like you said, on a 995 or Railroad corridor and put in affordable housing or low income housing in those regions. And we just did it again. We built a corridor there of affordable housing at lower levels of affordability. And you know, I somehow feel that maybe, you know, we have to be careful what else we build in that corridor so that we don't give the appearance that, you know, we're taking certain quality of housing, put in there, and then the luxury 80% of AMI or more or full market rate is being built away from these customers. And that's what's happening. Not only here, it's happening in Yonkers, White Plains, all the cities and you know, because you mentioned the different cities that are involved in this program even Mount Vernon right now is doing the same thing. So you know while we're talking about this where it's continuing to build the housing the affordable housing on these corridors. You know I understand that you know these things are planned in advance and at the same time you can't un-ring about. Sometimes there are things you can't un-en-see. And I appreciate your leadership and just in elevating that this is something that you hear. I'm talking more about going as we've discussed before. But that's exactly what we do. You know, it seems like that becomes in every community, in the room. Where do you put your affordable housing? And it's somehow in every community that ends up in the same place. I hear exactly what you're saying and I appreciate your leadership in elevating this issue and I would say to everyone absolutely yes when you're thinking about zoning, about where folks are going to be, where projects are going to go. You should be looking at those cumulative impacts. What does adding something new do? Does it add a burden or not? And certainly one can start by following our new New Year state law. Thank you. A lot to be said there. Just to be clear. Good compliment to Peter's line. Just because you have many chances. I'll just talk to you. Yeah, customer computers line. Sorry. Just because you have an chance yet. I'm going to stop you. Yeah, I'll just be the first of all, I want to thank you once again for coming here today and creating a pattern for us to consider how to make and build things safely and keep our environment clean. That's right. It's been, you know, when we start trying to, which we are doing, we begin to try to be correct or reset harm, right? That this particular project has the capacity and ability to take a look at. It sometimes will, it will require us to be able to, as you just mentioned, we can't unwind that though, but we can and should figure out ways how for people to move safe. And the housing that we build needs to, on some level, or many levels, be inclusive of that kind of thinking. Now, when we're thinking about some of the mitigating, did you mention something about how the length begins that process of mitigation maintenance as we're flipping in global happen around the time? Is that fair to say? It's something that we're in. Absolutely. It's an important opportunity because it's, we you know, turning the highway to nowhere into a place that instead has more green space and more walkability. And I know it's, there's a lot of thinking and a lot of planning that have gone into it. And I absolutely could have just to have that lens on the project to see because because it can help inform, you know, other efforts that we do, and we can start to measure, you know, does that, and it did that actually mitigate? So did pollution actually go down? We told no more cars in this area, this is gonna be walkable. Did that actually make a difference? And if so, that's great, that's something that we can scale. And maybe. And then the other question I have to do, that I want to ask you about, has to do with grants. And the relationship to which we as a city can participate and sponsor, if needed, and be inclusive, of the kind of leadership that you're providing in this area. So we mentioned that you're looking to thinking about considering other grants. The sources of these grants are they available in many different ways for that to come into existence? I think the answer is yes, and I hope that there will be more to come. The grant environment is challenging now as I'm shooting to understand with federal level. However, we do still have are almost $4 billion in environmental contact. And because of the CLTPA, 40% of those funds must benefit our frontline communities. And really the entire Southern section of New Brishel and the instance of New Brishel is included in that designation. And that's why also I encourage folks to engage with the state on this process because they're still trying to figure this out too. They're kind of designing these things as well. And so I think the hope is yes, we're going to see more from the state in this regard. We're still receiving some kind of foundation funds. We're seeing a lot of federal funding befalls it. So the pathway for state engagement for us is a local issue, right? And in relationship to that, how does that, if you can, just help us understand a little bit about what it is that we would need to be able to do in order to have those funds in convert to Newark's job people. Because I think that that's something that we could use some support around. Do you understand that? Nope, that is excellent. I really think it's really what Newark's job is already been doing. had a really great job of doing is creating that in the environment and being proactive about this. And putting that lens, putting that public health lens on top of the other types of climate projects that we're doing so that we can make sure we take advantage of those opportunities. And a lot of that to get a little wonky, not that wonky because I'm not a mad person. Looking at the inputs, we've got, and I'm sure, I know we've got all our great city staff have done a lot of work on this, but we have our greenhouse gas inventory. There has been some climate vulnerability. Looks, there's the disadvantaged communities criteria. Really, each and every one of you, please take a look at that disadvantaged communities criteria. It shows you right on the map exactly what zip codes are implicated. It says what the characteristics are, each of those zip codes, you know, what the vulnerabilities are. Get acquainted with those inputs because they, you know, they can be utilized together to begin to paint this picture so that as we're showing climate leadership and we are, we've got some real data justification for what we're doing because I can't promise of all the headwinds that the grants are going to fall x and y, although I hope and anticipate that they will. But it really is showing real leadership. I promise you, this is New York City is trying to figure this out. And this being in that leadership position, really, I truly believe we'll put the city in the full position to take advantage of these opportunities. Last question, I know I mentioned I had a couple, but the last question has to be with the advances that have been been made relative to these things that have been successful. Right, mission 1. I know you've been to me and we've talked about hungry. New York State is becoming a leader in this area, but are there other examples because I'm giving you a ride, right, of other communities that have been able to meet this challenge and continue moving forward in the case of you looking to. Yes, successful pollution, medication. Yeah, there are some really interesting and exciting examples. This one's a little far from, and it's also in a more tropical atmosphere. But yeah, they have entire cities that they have green. It actually reduced the temperature of five, several degrees, just by encouraging their little culture of planting and gardening. And it looks different. When you look at the pictures, it looks different. You see entire buildings that have greenery on them, that they actually bowored the temperature of five degrees in their communities. So there are, and actually, that I'd love to pull together some best pictures of, you know, what can be done. Because of course there's a youth element, there's a workforce, a very important workforce development element to all of this. And, you know, it feels good, it's fun. It's fun to see greenery, and beautification, being a wind line, you know, climate resilience, soaking up waste water. Thank you. Professionally? Yes, just very quickly. I do want to clarify a couple of things. You know, having the train station, having those buildings that are on the garden street and around the corner on Berlin as well. Well, there were groups at the time that were advocating to the city that those buildings were in a correct position to be because of the impact that the 95 would have on the people that lived there. So I think a few people at the table were members of those groups and I remember Councilwoman Kay. And at the time Councilwoman Ramo Serbert was, they they were the ones that were very responsive But we didn't get that same response from the rest of the council that was there at the time There are a lot of things that are in discussion now because like you said We just need to go forward from here with the best practices that we have Please do coordinate with our city manager in our commissioner of development because we are looking at the train station. And green is a part of every conversation that we have. I want to see Ivy racks on the sides of the buildings and everything like that because I've also seen those pictures of Medine. And what they're doing, councilwoman Martha Locke has and I have been having a ton of discussions about how we can merge together elements of district four and district one so that everything between our spaces is leading into more green space. We are working with limited space in our downtown which we all share. So just having an idea of what urban settings could do. We would I'd love to have that conversation. That would be a conversation with our city manager and our commissioner of buildings as well, because we actually have some examples, some new examples from newer buildings from new more responsive councils of having green rooftops, rooftop gardens, I think. Renaissance. Thank you. The Renaissance with Linda Tarrant, Reed, and the Lincoln Avenue Conservancy. Did I get that right? I think that she has like, Lincoln Park Conservancy. She has several organizations. Absolutely. But just having examples of those success stories that we can codify, so we're seeing more rooftop gardens. So we're seeing more ivy racks, things that are greenifying this phase because, you know, if a building is somewhere, it's going to be very difficult to create green space with that building already existing, whether it's one story or 28. So, you know, anything that we could do to convert some of our existing buildings into a more green standard. Actually, Councilwoman Kayle, of course, Of course, she still leads on this. So we talk about the advancing standards that are even more efficient than lead. So just continuing those conversations into our future implementations would be massive. So please coordinate with our city manager, our buildings department, and our commissioner, Felik. Can you please lead to light a two? So I'm our buildings department and our commissioner of the federal. Oh, I'm sorry last part and our commissioner of DPW because we've been talking about in our flood mitigation efforts even looking at the length which I share with council and theaters just looking at how when we do water capture well what could we utilize that water for? It's not just something to throw away or capture and be afraid of, you know, it's something we can utilize. So if we can utilize that for community garden, if we can utilize that for vertical farming, if we can utilize that for some type of pilot that's in that space, that would be massively valuable to our city. So please. Thank you for your leadership, and we do, thanks for mentioning the first concern. We've got fantastic community assets right here in your shell, Selina. Thank you. I'll just add another thanks to you. I know surprise to anyone, just love how you leave in the students. Love how your students are from the high school, and you do not academy. I love that you have teachers from each of the schools. Yes. And they are just involved, you know, and it's year long. It's this, it's, I mean, council members don't set it, but seeing the students, college students, middle school students, high school students and each kind of generation teaching the other and like making the shoreline a living classroom. Then we being us, the little, the little politicals and the professional staff, like there's a civic engagement element to it as well. So the ripple effect of the work you're doing both in kind of Raising the next stewards of our planet, but like engaging them in civic engagement and advocacy but using art I mean it really is it's really just the beautiful like space when when we see you in action and and the world that you're bringing together It's really just a. So I just want to call that out because it's just always heartwarming to see the work you're doing and knowing our future mayor, city manager, Cal, you know, but isn't this pool because they're learning how to care for something and advocate and make it work. So I really appreciate, I really just appreciate that. It takes a lot of work. And so, and And the only, the last point I wanted to make, I remember we were at a meeting in Mount Vernon, in Visa V, this topic, yes. And at the time, they were announcing grants and it seemed that the goal was they wanted it to be community-led. They really wanted like CEOs to do this, the vegetative barriers of education. And I don't know if would if those grants have been awarded yet or is that on the air pollution page? I'm just curious. Okay. We shall hopefully hear soon. Because it would be great for the city to see what community-based organizations are like running point or have received funding, so we find ways to partner with that angle as well. Absolutely, and I also want to say thank you for what you said. There's obviously certainly my plan to have nothing more important than working with our youth. But we couldn't do our eco-master program without the first department, without the youth Bureau, you know, without the city manager, basically everyone in this room with our summer youth program. So thank you. program without the first department, without the youth bureau, you know, without the city manager, basically everyone in this room with our summer youth programs. So thank you for your collaboration and leadership on that. There's welcome. Literally there's something more important that our next generation. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Ms. Walters. We appreciate you. You're very welcome. All right. I hope this gave you some time back here. This was one of the shorter ones. Yes. 13 minutes is practically a record. So... So I hope this gave some time back to you. This was one of the shorter. Yes. 13 minutes is practically a record. So our city manager is going to tee the next one up. I don't know if we have to switch the deck or give it a couple of minutes. I'll just try to run the clock. It's item number two, the Arbor Prove regarding street inventory community force management plans. So I want to make a couple of apologies because there was so many hands that went into this. So thank you for the mayor, the council, and especially council member Kay, who was really the driving force behind this for the city applying for receiving the New York State DC grant. Trees in Ventory Community Forestman Landment Planning Grant in December $400,000. We also want to acknowledge the city's partners, the New Rochelle Library and the supporters, healthy yards, the wardee, his conservancy, and for the New York State DC themselves. The city issued the RP Food Street Tree Inventory forest management plan in April of 2024. This plan is going to serve as a living document for managing our city's urban forest. And it's already being used by our staff as we speak now that the inventory of the software is actually being used as we speak. Additional thanks to some city community partners, the county and RAC, the city's historian, Barbara Davis, who had put the Green Schools Committee and the Racial School District, Girl Lincoln Park, Hudson Park Children's Greenhouse, and to our staff here. It was really a joint effort, a lot of different department tech. They enhanced a little piece of the pie and the development of this program. The City Manager's Office, Public Works, our Parks Department, Law Department, Development Department, and our Coms Department. All had a piece of this, it was really joint effort. So, I hand it over to Barbara Crowe. Thank you, Jessica. You look at big part of it. Good afternoon, mayors and council members, City Manager and City staff. Thank you all for letting me up as an opportunity to present today. My name is Oscar Crowe Vera. I'm a Certified Arborist with the Public Public Public We were the firm selected by the city to complete the treatmentory and prepare the community for us an active plan which will be calling to the CFMQ for gravity sake. I know we're short on time today, so I am reading from the script, so please apologize for that. I'm trying to keep everything in to a very condensed period, so please bear with me as I do. Let's jump right into it. Okay. What was the vision we started this project? New Rochelle already has many forward-making initiatives and programs which have been talked about today with its long-term plan work for a greener, more climate resilient and more equitable city. We wanted to make sure that the plan we developed for the urban forest was going to align with all of these programs. The plan emphasizes planning native species, strategic use of limited planning spaces, and ongoing integration with their city-wide sustainability and equity initiatives like Reiner and the Climate Monetability Assessment to assert to create an effective program to complement these existing initiatives along with many others. What began as a basic state-compliant maintenance plan is evolving into a vision for a long-term sustainability and equity. Through the dedication of city staff and leadership, we're able to expand on certain portions of the program while staying in budget to better along with these programs with the city's visions and goals. So what have we expanded? We decided a basic planning program was not enough. The city needs a revised approach to our not just forest expansion, but renewal or existing forest. The idea was brought up for a potential city management or street. The cities began and were well into a biobillion report on this potential city and the signs are very positive for this industry. Whoops. In basic species, the basis species in non-nano species was a big topic And we began here because of these conversations. We developed a more robust planning pilot selection system, which will be a review on a regular basis and that data is needed. This one, sure, the city is not only planting the right trees, but also working over time to eliminate the non-natives in invasive species trees that you not want with in the community. Lastly, but certainly not least, is the community engagement. I'm sure about that. Lastly, but certainly not least is the community engagement. I'm not sure about that. Lastly, but certainly not least is the community engagement. The City of New York show works very hard on this and prides itself on engaging the public. We have expanded our programs to match that drive the city of possessing. The transition is something you're proud of, and it's only happening because of your leadership, your civil leadership and staff want us to drive it to the next level. So why does this CFNP matter? Does CFNP matter? CFNP matter. Urban trees are more than just aesthetics within our community. They are public infrastructure. And like any piece of infrastructure, the seed does not budge it and plan to maintain this access, it will fall apart. But where are trees different? Well we can knock down a building and rebuild it in a relatively short period of time. If you remove a hundred-year-old tree, you can't just replace it. Well, we can replace them with smaller trees. This is starting over. So we want to ensure we maintain the urban forest we already have along with adding to it. The planet addresses the many benefits of the urban forest that the urban forest brings the city like building climate resilience, enhancing quality of life in the community, improving air quality, along with many other benefits. The plan also gives the city additional potential for revenue through added grant funding opportunities. So what did we collect and where is the city's urban forest today? The foundation of the plan is data. In 2024, our pro-collected inventory of city trees, and we found 15,590 city trees, 2,233 potential planting sites. We also found a diversity of 2,512 different species of trees planted within the city, which is a great number. Trees collected were along the streets of public right of ways, within the community, per the original contrast scope, but thankfully, we're able to get all streets collected and have some leftover budget, which will apply to our parks and complete most of them with the exception of ward acres and carpenter's pond. These two sides will have to outdo the budget constraints. Lastly, we're able to assign a value to urban forest based on their placement cost to your forest and hold on to your seats. It's over $73 million. As an asset. New World Shelf, like many of you is, is facing many threats in the modern era. From climate change, bringing storm and intensification to pests and diseases ravishing our trees, the city must be prepared to face these challenges, which we have addressed in this plan. A big challenge to the city's face unit is the overdominance of maple in the community. These are non-native trees which are becoming quite mature and age-imposed by a biodiversity or risk to the city which can lead to a large swathe urban forest being lost in short periods of time. And definitely, should we have noted, it is a limit of availability of planting sites. While the city has lots of parkways throughout the city, many are very limited in size and gross space both underground and overhead. This makes the idea of having a diverse native tree park in the city a little difficult. We have addressed... the city may need a very limited and size and gross space both underground and over hen. This makes the idea of having a diverse native tree palettes in the city a little difficult. We have addressed these issues with expanded tree pallet currently in the development. Lastly, with all cities, heat elements or areas of too much payment and not enough trees bring areas of intense heat which are ever present which are ever present in shape. By identifying these locations and making them a priority in our future refforestation plan, we hope to reduce the negative effects over time. So what's some highlights? Some key features of the plan include integration with greener, climate vulnerability assessment, as well as many other city initiatives and programs including the planting goals. I want to say we looked at 12 different plants that are part of the city or integrated with the city. The city is very forward thinking and we tried to look at every one of those we could integrated into our process. Over 50% of future plans will be in disadvantaged communities or areas most in need of trees to enhance their neighborhoods and this was already kind of talked about a little bit earlier today was some needs in certain areas to enhance. Clear structured work plans aligned to budget and staffing. Very key portion of this. Addressing priority maintenance first. Public safety is always priority one. Robots community and Gabriel program to match the already expanding efforts of the city. Reporting on canopy health, tree equity and environmental benefits, delivery on a regular basis through built-in reporting functions. This is a comprehensive strategy that positions trees as infrastructure and not just after that. So this slide has a lot to share, but I'm going to reach to this and I'll let you folks look at the colorful picture. Cree's our climate and equity solution. Moving the earned canopy, aligned with New Rochelle's equity and resilience goals across multiple city initiatives. Strategic planting will occur where the need is greatest. And underserved in people in rural areas, helping manage stormwater, reduced temperatures, and support public health. These plantings will help cool communities, reduce horn off, and improve health outcomes overall. And again, this image is something we like to share a lot. It kind of lays out really quickly where, you know, trees can benefit all figure communities, all different areas, many different aspects, great infrastructure to have with your city. So how would this see? So how would this see? Well, man's a forest. We have a, we'll put together a seven year strategy. Year one through two, address safety by leaving dead trees and continuing backlog pruning to ensure safety and get us to a strong starting point for proactive cycle maintenance activities. Year three through seven, transition to proactive cycle based care system to ensure the city's canopy is healthy and vibrant for years to come. The programs include a forest renewal and expansion initiative with emphasis on targeting areas of community improvement as discussed in previous slides. The Young Tree Training Program to address the large number of trees in the city and ensure the matured they mature into a piece of urban infrastructure that is safe and providing the maximum benefits they can while minimizing cost of maintenance through proactive work and annual metrics to be delivered to city to be delivered council and this form of a state of the trees report which will detail the efforts of the year the plan for the following year and our goals is they have all. Community engagement, whatever for sure doesn't just succeed without but every course you doesn't succeed without community bias. With this expanded initiative we hope we hope to improve that engagement when it comes to our urban forest and plan to achieve that goal. There are many recommendations being made in this program for expand or create new programs like a doctor tree, where community members can adopt a tree they love and learn about its benefits in the community while watching it grow. Also, the city plans to expand on existing programs like tree planting events. This picture here was taken at Arbor Day. We're lucky enough to be present for all of your Arbor Day celebrations and birthday celebrations. And it was a great time talking with these kids and the benefits of trees, planets and trees, and had a good time wherever to share a lot of tree-loving stuff. The last of the cities launched a new Urban Forest website this month, which will allow residents to be more, much more interactive with their urban forest and even see the inventory through the community viewer portal This tool allows residents to see the city see the city tree inventory in real time and see the attributes of each tree along with the benefits it provides the community This plan is to build public pride and improve the tree stewardship and our urban forest for generations to come So we've got someone a little bit about the additional initiatives the CMP isn isn't the only effort underway as mentioned the city has expanded the vision. One example, the Tree Giveaway Program for Residents to expand our community, urban forest by planting a tree on their private property they can maintain and care for. This is a special important areas of limited banking space in front of the home where a better solution might be to add can be adjacent private property instead of a small piping site in front of the community. Sorry, in front of the home. Protected tree programs in development to address heritage trees, specimen trees or trees the city wants to protect and monitor for years to come. Tree-owned interventions are underway to help expand on the protection and management of our urban forest. A potential municipal nursery at war acres is also being evaluated in a victim ray positive. So measuring the city's success. At the end these are all just words if we're not able to stay on track. We plan to do so with robust reporting monitoring of our programs to ensure we stay focused on our goals. This includes annual reporting, an active live dashboard to show our current status, and updates annually on progress. Monitoring about plan programs to ensure that I just want to see plants, survives and thrives, but also that we're following the goals of our programs to ensure we have impacts on equity and climate for each of our neighborhoods. Last year the city wants to ensure public transparency with its websites. Dashboards and public-facing reporting data, keeping the public real-time information. So let's go back to the timeline one more time and kind of talk about that again. 2025, we like to see FMP and work plan. We'll continue to develop community and hand-through programs like we talked about. 2026 complete priority maintenance for CFP and and continue advancing our community enhancement initiatives which we have many. 27 through 31 implement routine cycle and implement expansion efforts from these programs. The CES moving forward the urgency and intention what they're urban forest and you guys are going very quickly. I must stay. So I'm closing. Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. I hope for more on Buffett, which I wanted to show with everyone. It is something that I think is a very profound quote. And it's important to us to think about what we do today, greatly affects our future. And that just our future with the future of our communities, our children, those folks within our worlds. Trees take time, but the impact is lasting. The plan is a commitment to future generations, public health and climate resilience. By investing your urban forest, to more investing in health, resilience, and equity within your community. Your leadership today ensures that shade, safety, and be a new or shall for years to come. Thank you again to City Mayor, City Council, City Mayor and staff. And a special thank you to Council Member Kay for your leadership to this process, your ideas and forth that can help you evolve this effort tremendously. Thank you to the staff for their passion and dedication to this effort. It has been above what I'm used to in a breath of fresh air. I'll stop there and I'll say I've conducted quite a few of these folks and the leadership your staff has given in the direction that has been really amazing. It goes beyond what I did within those six. I think you should give them a special hand just for that because they've got an extra long ways. But thank you and I'll take questions. That's not easy. I'm doing the flip-flops. You didn't tell me to say that. No, you didn't like writing. It's really nice. I'm going to just start with Council Member Kate just because I suspect she doesn't want to go to. So thank you very much for all the incredible efforts. I just want to catch as well for leading the initiative. It's really, I know a bit. I'm convinced it's about a work at it. And I think it shows the quality of what's coming out. I wanna start by just sharing the history of how this all started. I think that there's like a really important human element to this, which is that in Halloween 2019, there was a sudden windstorm. And I remember that night very vividly hearing like a loud explosion in my own house shook. And it turns out that the tree had fallen. And because it was Halloween, there were a lot of children out. one child was severely injured. And it was an incredibly frightening and heartbreaking situation and all the parents and the neighborhood came together like what can we do? And there happened to be an arborist among the parents and she was like well, you know a lot of municipalities maintain an inventory and maintenance program for their trees. You can see in your used to have one and it fell by the wayside and if you really want to reduce the risk, this is what you need to do. And so, you know, it's taken some time to get to this point, but I think that the work that's gone into it has really produced a very strong product, a great plan and I think even just today, we are in much safer community because of the work that's already taken place. And I know that we will continue to be, as long as we continue to implement the plan. And so I just want to just keep that front consent and when we talk about proactive treatment, it's just really about saving lives and saving property. And so it's just so important. So then talking specifically about the clinic presented, I'm really glad to see that you were able to integrate our state and local policies, the goals of objective seeing our line with greener update, our previous presenter talked a lot about the CLCBA and so I it's really important that the metrics were tied to what's in the climate law. So what they talk about is 40% of investments must benefit disadvantaged communities. And so if you look through that actual report, it talks about making sure our plantings, I think it's 50% of plantings in these priority communities, which I I think is incredible and just shows our commitment to the state's objectives. You are utilizing the data that we have on the climate vulnerability assessment, which is so key. So that's how we understand, you know, again, speaking, the prior presenter is talking about health impacts and who is most vulnerable to air pollution. So we have that data available through the Climate Policy Authority assessment and that's how we're able to target trees in those specific areas. And so the focus on resilience and equity really comes through loud and clear and so I really want to thank you for making sure that was integrated into the program. I also am glad to see that the approach is a living document that there's going to be this framework for a regular reporting. That community engagement is an important component of this and that there's opportunities to regular and public date and change the plan and ensuring that we get transparency and accountability and community engagement throughout this process. I think that that was really important. In the draft that you shared with council, under the various sections, you talk about specific metrics that are gonna be gathered. I think it would be really wonderful to put all that in one place so that it's easy to reference so that we know what to look for. I think that would be really helpful. I also would love for us to be able to share a draft with some of the community stakeholders that is, as the manager had mentioned at the beginning, that have been a part of this process to have an opportunity to provide some feedback before it's finalized. I noticed in the Powerport presentation that the new initiatives and community programs would take effect until 2027. And I'm eager to move now. And so wondering if that could be moved up, like why do we have to wait a year and a half? And also, it would be great to see a summary of some of the grant opportunities that are available. I know there's quite a lot out there. And oftentimes that's something that we'll see as part of a presentation like this. There's not a reference to green jobs, and yet there's so many initiatives that present opportunities where we can create new jobs or trainings and internships, and I just love to see a reference to that sort of opportunities. And one specific question is, so within the plan, there's a goal of planting 1,300 trees in five years. The greater goal is 10,000 trees by 2030. Yes. You see that odds? And so I'm wondering how that can be reconciled. I know we talked a lot in different ways. Yeah, so that I can answer the question for the whole broker. So really we're looking to do a big part of the CFNP was to establish this with God and get grants. A lot of the grants and public funding and you get federally requires you to have a CFNP, requires you to have inventory, requires you to have some kind of a management program before they're going to release funds to you for more trees. So in doing this, it's going to allow us to go and apply for these. Your question about the grants we did for providing. requires you to have some kind of a management program before they're going to release funds to you for more trees. So in doing this, it's going to allow us to go and apply for this. Your question about the grants we did provide, not yet to everybody else, but we do have a draft of the grant proposal at the ready, not proposal, but opportunities in the third that way, that I am sharing. I have shared it already and we are going to show the city. It's not part of what we're originally doing in this CFMP. We have gone a bit of them beyond what our original scope was and that's great because we love the enthusiasm of the city. So we continue like that to improve it. But yeah, most definitely. in this CFMP, we have gone a bit of and beyond what our original scope was and that's great because we love the enthusiasm of the city. So we continue like that to improve it. But yeah, most definitely, sorry to get off your, so your career jobs question, also a really good one. Something that again is kind of outside of the scope of this original CFMP and something that I think is part of a future, you know, initiatives that you might want to add as you move down the road. This was really taking your city from a location where again the planet kind of formed by the wayside and there was just a react. that you might want to add as you move down the road. This was really taking your city from a location where, again, the planet kind of formed by the wayside and there was just a reactive maintenance progress to what we're doing now. And this is really taking you back to a higher level again and giving you a new starting point. So as you move forward from this, you're going to want to develop more initiatives. Some of these might be capable and possible. Some of them might not be. And then a lot of it flies on budget, right? And this is why when you ask about some of the community engagements, if you can integrate them sooner, that's great. But we don't want to force the- might be capable and possible, some of them might not be. And a lot of it relies on budgeting, right? And this is why when you ask about some of the community engagements, if you can integrate them sooner, that's great. But we don't want to force it into the plan if there's no money available for it, right? In the first couple of years, right? This might be something you have to work into over time, to allocate some of these funds, and move some of that in that direction. And also the priority in here too, we're one and your two was the priority maintenance, which you had a bit of. So we wanted to make sure the city was saved. We got all those removals done. We got everything that we deemed a safety issue out. But again, it is a limit in the future, right? We are one and your two was a priority maintenance, which you had to build. So we wanted to make sure the city was saved. We got all those removals done. We got everything that we deemed a safety issue out. But again, it is a limit in the future, right? You can move forward. Also, what's part of this year's plan is planting 300 trees. So we are planting the seeds planting 300 new trees and our proposed identifying those disadvantaged communities help us plant those trees in the disadvantaged communities. And that funding was made possible by our fund. So we are doing that this year. So that's kick starting those two. Yes. And there is in the plan, and again, this is more of the maintenance cycle plan. There is plans to expand upon funding, not just from you folks, but again from other locations, right, other grants and the possibilities. We hope that that is gonna help to get us to that goal of the 10,000. Something else we talk about, that 10,000 goal, we kind of shifted our approach to it. We wanted to plan 10,000 neutrals. And as you folks are going to talk about today, we don't wanna just plan a bunch of new trees in your communities, require a lot of attention and a lot of care. Once they can return they require the most care. They're very much like people. When they're little they require a lot of attention and a lot of care. Once they can mature and grow on their own, they can get their own water sources, they can get their own sources of food, you don't really care so much anymore. But in that first three to seven year period, it's key. That tree is going to be growing into a viable solution for the city to have benefits from and be a low cost solution to the city. You need to take care of it when it's young. So when it's older, you're going to be able to get those benefits, right? And not have a tree that becomes a hazard or something that... and be a low cost solution to the city, you need to take care of it when it's young. So when it's older, you're gonna be able to get those benefits, right? And not have a tree that becomes a hazard or something that, you know, now it's a big tree we gotta remove and spend a bunch of money on because we're taking care of it. So really important, but I'd love the questions. And I kind of answer the question a lot, I hope I did because it's really a long process to get to there, right? And if we can get the funding, right? And that's really what we want to do. And this is step one to getting that funding. We really hit that higher number. It's really a long process to get to there, right? And if we can get the funding, right? And that's really what we want to do. And this is step one to getting that funding. We really hit that higher number. Yep, one more question. That's outside of the scope of this particular plan, but it's very much related. So within the plan, there's a lot of talk of the Brain Infrastructure Report, which is from 2018. And so, you you know as we're moving forward with these objectives and initiatives I think it would be really great if we could see an implementation plan from that green infrastructure report and like where we are implementing the recommendations that are in that report and then if there could be a review of the DOZ and our current requirements and bonus structure. I know that some of it is already in there, as far as like mitigating urban heat islands and free roofs and reflective roofs, but you know how can we make sure that our DOZ is aligned to the objectives with the Forestry Management Plan? I think it would be a great like next future future. Excellent. Other questions comes from River Lopez. So I want to thank you very much for the presentation and to City Council member. Sarah Kay, you have made me a believer. It is very easy to say that you can't very much have an ability and head trees, but it is more important to really go out to the community and to show them benefits and the consequences of not doing the right thing. And so by you having this presentation and the previous presentation, really makes me look at it, not that that I didn't see it before but it just is very changeable. Like we can see it. We can really go out and promote for people to plan the trees. Can I put my name on that list? For sure, trees. I have a name on that list. Because in the past I thought that it was only certain areas, but now we want the truth because they bring so many benefits to all of us. So I want to thank all of you. Thank you. Thank you. It was very kind of words. I appreciate it. You set the tone. Thank you. This is not always start that way. So I appreciate I'm going to go through it in the national language. I'm first, I want to say thank you to Chris Member Kay. I mean, it really is impressive to think about last year and all the climate steps and green in our this, I mean, it's all adding up to, like, how is New York all not, like, in the national news, it's like a leading climate city, and it's really all because of the extent for your leadership on that. I have a bunch of questions actually. Some of that work kind of scope-related so I'll start with those two. One, I totally get not counting every tree in more acres. I thought it's a ton of trees and see why, basically, that's challenging. I am wondering if we can think about the trails that people are walking away because of, you know, I'm in the park multiple times a week and I frequently come upon a tree where I'm like, this feels a little dangerous and it's right next to a trail. And, you know, our parks commissioner can make sure to connect people, but I want to make sure that is considered because that to me feels as important as making sure that next tree, next to roads or houses are being considered. So, let's start with that one. It's been discussed. We did do a tour of board acres and we were walking around there. We didn't notice a lot of those issues and we did a tour back in the fall. So, we noticed a lot of these problems. We're starting slowly. So, we are doing a, we are already conducting a flyover by with drones and we conducted a canopy visual assessment. So we are going to provide this city as part of a different initiative. I counted trees that are based on canopy, so you have a starting point. But really what the city wants to do in time is develop that program for that park specifically. The park I know is being looked at for biomass and possibly other kinds of environmental benefits that park can provide the city. And those kinds of things are going to really differentiate from what the CFNP brings to your urban forest. That forest is almost like a forest within the forest. Not really an urban forest, you want to keep it more of a natural forest, it's kind of the purpose of that. So with that in mind, you're going to be leaving a lot of trees that you wouldn't have left in urban forest environment. Have you called them snags or wildlife trees? the tri-actories stays living standing for a long time with the intent of its a habitat, right? For many animals. A lot of the areas of trails, though we do need to make sure those areas are improved. Also I'd recommend and I did recommend is putting signs around the park and say hey this is a wildlife area you're entering the zone that is you know can be dangerous because this is nature right and nature is you know I'm not gonna say unlawly but then I'll follow of our rules, right? And that's kind of what you want in that part. But again, the city has been in many discussions with it, and I can if you want to speak a little bit on it. We also talked to... I don't want to say unlawy, but then follow our rules. Right. And that's kind of what you want in that part. But again, the city has been in many discussions with it, and I can feel you want to speak a little bit on it. We also talk to the wardigers, Conservancy, and they do have identified certain things that they would like to see and then that's an ongoing discussion with the city departments still. Yeah. I'm not going to allow it to huge underpaint them. Board acres is, again, a forest onto itself. So that's going to be a big undertaking for the city to tackle. And something that should be on the looks of it. And with Mayfoot Park also included, just in the report we mentioned the zone. But it never actually defines what those zones are. What are the three zones? So it started out as the zone as part of the RFP. zone one, two and and three were supposed to be, city was supposed to get a report and did get a report from Arbopro as they were doing each zone of those critical priority one trace. That was because we were being put on notice of those priority one maintenance that need to happen. So it was just the timing, you know, situation with the RFP and the initial tree inventory. It didn't really affect how the CFN people's right. So the zones are not geographic areas in the city? They are. They're literally free zones of the city. It's one of the maintenance zones they wanted to try to tackle in certain orders and going through the process Now they've learned that they're gonna do that as well But they're also hitting priority maintenance so now it went from those zones to more of a citywide to tackle Priority maintenance and the zones are actually being redistricted now with an upper pro to be by my council district So now you're able to see zones by council districts Which I think will be a bigger improvement for you folks It was most inventive to structure the RFP to really guide the work starting this zone so that we can address and prioritize the trees before they provide the deliverable that move to the next zone. So there's more of a work plan. They're like structure priority groupings rather than what was the zone to start the work? Yeah right so do the survey, a list of priorities, and we could follow up on addressing those before moving to the next zone. So it was a way of kind of structuring the RFP and guiding our prop, how to tackle it. You know, they collected that same zone too, so they collected all of zone one first, because they collected seven, eight months of this collecting data and they collected it through those zones. That's where we report back to the city and say, okay, zone one is complete, ready for review. Now we can move into zone two and that helped us reporting process through the collection. But now as we're into the CFNP, we're finding city council districts might be the other option, so we can restructure. We can always restructure it for any zones, you folks want. even some of the kind of vulnerabilities on things like that. We do have a GIS department in-house that can take any of your GIS maps. It can be great and mentor us off. And they've been overlaying the CDBG's. even some of the kind of vulnerabilities on things like that. We do have a GIS department in-house that can take any of your GIS maps. It can be great and it can be forced off. And they've been overlaying the CDBG service on the map as well. So you don't be able to see the CDBG sound overlay, don't talk about that. The upper-profile software that you're using is owned by us, programmed by us. We have an in-house development staff of 15 different programmers, as well as a lot of GIS specialists. So anything that you see in a system can be modernized, changed to what the city's needs are. We pride ourselves on that. We don't go out. staff of 15 different programmers, along with a live GIS specialist. So anything that you see on the system can be modernized, changed to what the city's needs are. We pride ourselves on that. We don't go out to a third party company and get our software. We make it in-house. We made it for 20 years. We started as a computer-based software. Now we're 100% online. We're very proud of what we bring to see. Two more questions. Since this doesn't touch the private property, it did mention tree ordinance as a potential area. Yeah, it's for reviewing tree ordinance. And so that is like, it tended to be part of the final. So, I see FMP was not part of that. That was part of the expansion. So one of the expansions you'll see and this will be in the later version of it and one of the appendix, we're doing an ordinance assessment review. So we've already conducted that. I've shared some of it already in a preliminary state, but we still a lot of work to do. We've also want to bump them beyond in that aspect, again, because the sea's enthusiasm and created a draft revised ordinance, which is very, very intense. It covers, it would be, it's what I call a dream ordinance, okay. You don't want to do this overnight. It will cause a lot of turmoil with the residents. I've been in these situations. What this is is an ordinance for you to of turmoil with your residents. I've been in these situations. What this is is an ordinance for you to start picking out a card. We can do these initiatives now. These initiatives will be five years from now. We'll integrate these other initiatives 10 years from now. And that's really what you want to look at as you start to introduce an ordinance. The ordinance as it stands right now in the city is, I don't want to be mean, but there isn't much of an argument. It's city codes that through the whole code of the city, we don't find tree codes that pertain to the city trees. But there isn't a set tree ordinance or a set section that is only for trees. You have a couple of sections in there that relate to it, but then it spreads through all your codes. So we went through quite a digging mission to find all those. We put all your code through a lot of fact-finding software that will find any word trees related to anywhere in your code, of all those out and put them into this report. You'll be seeing later. all those. We put all your code through a lot of fact-finding software that will find anywhere, trees are related to anywhere in your code of all those out and put them into this report. You'll be seeing later on. Now, report will actually address some of the shortcomings that we find and then we created the revised ordinance because we felt like there's a lot here that's missing. So instead of just telling you what's wrong, we're going to also give you a draft, I don't really call it a draft, I want to say it's a wish list ordinance, right? Sample ordinance, thank you, much better word because it is super involved. And again, if you went from... and also give you a draft, I don't really call it a draft, I wanna say it's a wish list ordinance, right? Sample ordinance, thank you, much better word, because it is super-involved. And again, if you went from using no ordinance or your codes now to using this ordinance, you probably have a lot of pressure because it's going to level 100 immediately, right? And you don't wanna do that. You want folks in the city to understand, Okay, we're releasing the first level of the ordinance. That's gonna be us taking care of on this, right? We're not gonna worry about your public property, private property yet, because I'm sure as many people in the city that are gonna say, well, the tree releasing the first level of the ordinance, that's going to be us taking care of others, right? We're not going to worry about your public property, private property yet, because I'm sure there's many people in the city that are going to say, well, the tree in front of my house is a reentander. So you want to show the residents, hey, look, we're going to take care of ours and release that first ordinance. And don't make it too imposing on that. And this is just for my track record of doing this in other places. So once that's released, over time, we show that the city's taken this initiative. People are very used to now the city being very caring towards their trees and having initiatives and having all these ordinances. Once you get to a level where that understanding is taken into effect, now you can reach a little more into the private property. Okay, so I'm asking people to do permits for things. You have some of those already built in, but you have a very weird ordinance that says if anything's under five acres, it requires no permit. which basically makes every property, I'm sorry, one acre, not five acres, but thank you, makes every property in your community not valid to permits. So that's the first thing you want to tackle, but again, you don't want to just take that away on day one, right? You want to start by having an ordinance that is strong for the city and maintains the city trees and shows that you're very progressive thinking and how you're doing it, and then face to, start to tackle those issues on private property. So people aren't feeling like you're just coming into my property and you're not worried about yours, right? And that's... that you're very progressive thinking and how you're doing it. And then in phase two, start to tackle those issues on private property. So people aren't feeling like you're just coming into my property and you're not worried about yours, right? And that's really the way we've been successful in doing this. And give people to accept it, right? As you release, it's a community engagement tools. The city's gonna start to see the benefits of these trees they're going to want to get part of your ordinance and actually make separate to it versus just going. You're making a lot of orders and I would say I want to benefit. Show them the benefits then you can come out with put more stranger calls. He has time progress. Mike, Mike. Thank you. Then my last question is, I've heard a lot about the tree nursery and both at Wardenker it's just the idea that I'm excited for it, but I'm also like actually wondering, can you explain like what are the benefits of having a tree or a serene treat? Yes, so I'll speak quite candidly. When this everyone was first brought up, I was a little bit hesitant about it myself and that's what we asked for a viability report. I've done this in other cities and it's been not so successful because of your staff and willingness to do this, we did a really deep report and you already have some folks in the ward acres that are willing to really help this program out. And I think that's really going to see some success. Where you have a lot of issues right now in the city is Beat Street, which we've talked about, that all dined your disease. You have- folks in the ward acres that are willing to really help this program out. And I think that's really going to see some success. Where you have a lot of issues right now in the city is beach trees, which we've talked about, they're all dying to your disease. You have a lot of native trees that you can probably start planting there in a very small sapling plant. So you're going to plant a sapling that's going to be in a small container, one gallon or smaller. You're going to grow those to a $5 gallon and then to a $15 gallon, which $15 you want to plant in the city. If you're paying somewhere around anywhere $300 to $700 for those trees right now, if over a five to seven year period you can make a five. and then to a 15 gallon which 15 gallons which you want to plant in the city. If you're paying somewhere around anywhere 300 to 700 dollars for those trees right now, if over a five to seven year period you can make 5,000 of these trees that are all native to your community, you're going to have all those, not for free, but at a much reduced cost. But additionally you're going to be growing trees within your community that are going to be used to your community, that are going to be adapted to your climate. A lot of those trees you want to grow in that area too are going to be, as we talked about, there's a lot of places in the city that have very small plantings. That really limits a native tree. If you have a one by one section in front of your house of dirt, the tree you can put in that one by one that's not going to grow and break the sidewalk or break all the infrastructure or grow up into a power line is very limited. If we try to keep it to just native trees, you're going to have a hard time with that because there's not a lot of native trees that will grow in that. So we did make a car about in our planting palette. line is very limited, right? And if we try to keep it the just native trees, you're going to have a hard time with that because there's not a lot of native trees that are growing that. So we did make a carve out in our plant can palette that allows for some non-native trees of smaller sizes. So we can start fulfilling some of those with maybe non-native trees, but trees are acceptable in communities that we know are not going to cause a lot of problems and we know can be sustained in the community. So we did make that carve out for those reasons to allow for more of those trees to be planted in some of these communities. So I'd answer the question a little better. Sorry I get kind of lost to my answer. I'm very passionate about trees and trees. You guys can see the reason we're going to script today is because I will take that presentation and make it an hour. You and the arrow on your eyes are on the same page. I know she submitted three pages of comments before questions tonight. So you all are rocking on the same way in life and I respect it because somebody has to keep us cool and it's going to be you guys. But I didn't turn your turn, not only. Well with that passion you should consider becoming a certified augerist. Thank you for your work on this. I want to thank Councilwoman Kaye again for her environmental leadership. I want to thank our Council because again, Councilwoman Kaye for the record is pushing these issues for a number of years, but it's our Council that's finally getting them done and passing them through. So just to be super clear on that, thank you to my fellow Councilpeople in our mayor. Thank you for your work. I love the Warren Buffett quote as a former banker, as a recovering banker. I love your Warren Buffett quote especially because it's regarding the environment. Thank you for considering our residents and upticking this, the adoption curve in this, that's important. Thank you for taking a deep dive into our code. I'm moving through the things that work questions, but then you can answer them into the wonderful things. So I have the vast majority of my district is contained in our downtown and our most urban setting. So I know behind the library right now, which city manager they answer one of the questions in our email, behind our library right now, the root system of the tree that's behind the library is uprooting the back fence of it. So as we plant new trees and as we hopefully even look at that one, which you probably already did, how do you, well, you said you have a car about for non-native sustainable trees, but you just dive into more of how we can plant trees that aren't going to be disrupted to the infrastructure that's right in the spaces. Absolutely. So the true planting palette is now going to give you options where they tell you this tree requires this amount of gross space. So every tree that goes into the ground tends to be under that preface. So we're going to look at the palette. We're going to select from this palette the proper size to go into this space. Right? And that's option number one. Option number two is also understanding what those sizes are. So when we did the inventory, we did an inventory of all the planning spaces as well. So we know what those sites are now. We know what can go there. So without even going to the field, we're able to take your paint from your baking sites and planning sites and take a list of trees that would fit those sites and then integrate the two and start putting that plan forward. And it's basically what you're talking about where trees are already damaging things. We listed all of those trees as infrastructure damage in the inventory. that would fit those sites and then integrate the two and start putting that plan forward. And it's basically what you're talking about where trees are already damaging things. We listed all of those trees and infrastructure damage in the inventory. And that's noted in there for future replacement. Is that going to happen overnight? I would say no, right? You're going to prioritize again on safety and then as time progresses and allows, this is part of the renewal of your existing forest, right? You're going to replace that tree with something that's better for that location, better for the site, and hopefully a native tree. If we can get a native tree in that space. But yeah, that's how we would address it. And again, right? You're going to replace that tree with something that's better for that location, better for the site, and hopefully a native tree. Right? If we can get a native tree in that space. But yeah, I thought we would address it. Again, it wouldn't be overnight on those trees. Priorities first are always going to be safety and then moving into things like this. That's infrastructure damage. But all that is noted in the new days. Just how this is related to other issues that we're dealing with. We have a flooding issue in our city. We have a overheating issue in our more urban settings. We have an air pollution issue as the last presenter made the case for. So just to reaffirm, all of these things are actually solved by trees that consume water, produce oxygen. There's a very high demand downtown from some of our activist groups to make sure that there's green space. That's difficult to do and again a very established urban setting, but if we can you know bring in as many of those solutions as possible. We also have a wind issue where wind challenged downtown. So you know this impacts people's energy bills, cool someone they need when they need to be you know keeps the temperature moderated for heating even. So this plays into a lot of the other things that we're approving. I do have allergies. I took a clear look at it before I got here actually. I'm concerned about mail and email trees, pollinators particularly and they're impact on the environment so So you can just elaborate on how that, we also did talk about respiratory issues. We need our trees, but what are the considerations there? You know, the majority of the trees were picked, and again, these are all trees that we picked to be in urban environments. They're gonna be considered to be low pollen, but not all of them. Okay,. Okay, again if we really limit to you know say what the perfect tree you're gonna have and we did this in the beginning when we started the process we were very specific to saying hey we want native trees we want x, y and z and we came up with a list of 10 trees and that doesn't mean the 10 to 30 goals of what you want to have for diversity within your city. So you have to be okay in living in the environment of it's their environment as much as it is ours, right? So when it comes to pollinating things out in nature, we try to select the best trees that are not gonna produce this, right? We don't plant fruiting trees. We don't plant trees that are gonna become a nuisance to the city, right? And that really reduces a lot of that. But trees do produce pollen regardless, right? Certain times of the year, that's how they reproduce. It's stocking up in the pond. Exactly. So we have to deal with some of it. But we do try to limit it by picking the right trees and making sure there's no fruit trees. There's no trees that are high pollinators. There's a lot of trees that are... That's how they reproduce. It's stocking up in the process. Exactly. So we have to deal with some of it. But we do try to limit it by picking the right trees and making sure there's no fruit trees, there's no trees that are high pollinators. There's a lot of trees that are very beautiful that we don't recommend because of that. Like, Jack or Randa trees is a good example, right? Beautiful trees if we go in with Jack or Randa trees. didn't leave them off or say yes or no on your plan but it's the tree that beautiful one, it's one of the bloomest purple tree but can pollinate like crazy when it comes to springtime to where it just leaves like you can see it all of the ground that bad. That beautiful one, it wanted blumous purple tree, but can pollinate like crazy when it comes to springtime. To where it just leaves like, you can see it all over the ground, that's purple. Yeah, but it's a beautiful tree. So people have the moon in the community. That's all right. Yes, I agree. And I'm also a living to cats, and I love them. So I'm there and going to have some trade-offs to me. Have you? Oh. If you wouldn't, so one of the things you mentioned and one of the things Oscar has been talking about is the community viewer and the new website that is going to be going up in the coming days. What it will enable the public and you all to be able to do is go in and actually see the inventory and see the specific trees but not only the information about the height of the tree and the width of the tree but it it'll be able to tell you the benefits of that tree. And give you the equal benefit of that specific tree. So the stormwater, the air pollution, the carbon dioxide, it will give you a curtrine what those benefits are. And that will be available to the public on the new city website. Sarah might fly out of this. This will be very early in her energy. The whole spirit is like outside on the website. Yeah, he's found me. I have a superficial question and then the men's me questions. So the superficial one, can we get rid of the Bradford paratries? Because it's all the approaches when they draw. And can we get purple and white trees on our main street? I'd love to see that in order. So far absolutely in order. The parents are on the list of do-n-up. Oh, I love that. That's a perfect start. I'm going to ask about purple and white trees in our downtown later on. Okay. Staggot order. So I can kind of answer that if you want. Creep with love are being talked about in the city and creed with us can come in many varieties of colors. So that gives you, and again, not made up tree, but it's one of those trees we're thinking about accepting within the city because it allows you to have a small tree and a location that's low maintenance, but also bring you a lot of vibrant color because they can be purple, they can be pink, they can be white, they can be blue. They've made so many different variations of cremaryals now but it's unbelievable even I don't keep up with it anymore because it made pretty much every color of the rainbow, I think. So later on, I'm gonna ask if they do that genetically because that's interesting. Councilwoman Kay, I hope that's okay. If you could not already. It was not our list of doing we never were able to in the last month we were here but I'll read it to my list again. Yeah, it wasn't a list of complete coordinating with them. That community is very environmentalist conscious. They're having dam work peers right now. So we want to make sure that over the long term, you know, what we're maintaining our retreat inventory in that, you know, they're like a nativeist space as close to that as possible. Oh, there are members of the Glenwood Lake. She's all in the community partners and they have friends. Yeah, make sure I have to make sure. And information was shared with the community partners earlier today too. Thank you. Perfect. I'll just say thank you. You were excellent at high school with the beginning. Thank you. Your ability to speak so intently but at a conversational level just reflects mastery. And I appreciate that because I'm like green 101. Intro pre-green class. I'll echo thanks to Calcimember K, who really just the last few months has just shepherded with your ad. Because say I know, really brought a lot of things to the forefront that we've been able to talk about in town. And I will take no credit, honestly, because I know, I learned from you. And most of the time, I tell you, if you like it, I'm going to love it, because I know how much you care and how smart you are. So grateful that you teach me. And to City Manager, because I know this is a lift for the team, in addition to the everyday things of which there's not enough hours of the day to do, to go through and then you guys really will be in community engagement through NRAC and community partners which takes time. I know that. And to take their revisions and their thoughts and considerations, I don't care. So, my member, Kay takes time. I know that. And to take their revisions and their thoughts and considerations, I know Councilmember Kessler Kessner not shy about thoughts and considerations and recommendations. And to weave all of that in across so many different departments. So that's a testament to your leadership as well for supporting this initiative, even though it went well after hours. And again, the tip of the iceberg, I really think of that analogy often when I think of you and the tremendous role you do for us. You know, we get to tell the credit for it. though it went well after hours. And again, the tip of the iceberg, I really think of that analogy often when I think of you and the tremendous role you do for us. We get to tell the credit for it, but it's you guys working together and supporting it without you, we don't do this. So I just want to make sure you do that from, I know my colleagues feel the same way, but I want to make sure we say it. Just good. Thank you. So just amazing. So just all the hands on deck. Again, it's great to have a vision. It's great to have it thought, but without everybody really putting in the hours, nothing gets across the finish line. And so it's just a lot of really smart people. But again, you let that happen. So thank you very much for that. That was item two. For the agenda. More to come. Purple white and pink trees on mainstream. That's what I'm hearing. Stack up on clarinet. That's what I'm also hearing. Yeah, okay. The third item on our agenda though. It's a proposed amendment to the city charter. It's about tonight's public hearing. So really don't have to do much unless folks have questions or comments. This will be on public hearing this evening. Really. Moving on to item number four, which our Corporation Council earnestly asked if we could vote for this this evening so we could get this to Albany. It's a home rule request regarding proposed extension of local sales and compensating news tax. This is something we do every few years. I forget what the number was. Yeah, we did every two years. Questions about the tax? Mr. Ritter is our expert. Any questions or comments on this item? Okay, it may have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution for home rule. Um, Lopez and Kay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? This resolution is adopted. Senator Albany with Ernest and Hartz and Kisses. Item number five is the proposed free parking for the downtown summer sizzle concert series, starting June 7th through August 30th, 2025. Anything else we need to tee up for this one? Santa, did we do it last year? Okay. Successful. Perfect. Many questions or comments from my colleagues on item number five. Couple members, Ashley, okay, Ashlyn Lee. Free parking of the downtown for the 2025 summer sizzle. Is that what this says? X-Lines Anybody else have anything that I May have a motion in a second to move item number five to our consensus agenda to vote on next week Wait a second, Ashlyn Lee and Stern all in favor say aye Any opposed? I have number six. I believe our city manager has sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. City for quite a while now. Pretty successful. You've had a pretty good working relationship with them, with our fire department, our police department. It is a professional service. It doesn't require an RP. We told it was an invest interest of the city to renew this contract. We sat down with them. We had chief tell you a little bit about that discussion that we had with Empress but I think it was a really good work with relationship and we were able to secure some really reasonable terms for an extension. Excellent. Questions or comments for our Deputy Manager, Chief? Are you satisfied with them, Chief? Of course satisfied with Ampers? So we need this enough. I have a motion in a second, so I'm going to move item number six to our consent agenda. It's turned in Aston, Loye. I'll favor say aye. All right. Any opposed? Brilliant. I have seven and eight are together. Seven is the introduction of the proposed reallocation of Coleman, eight are key funds. and we are setting up public hearing for this matter on June 10th, 2025. Item 8 is the resolution. eight ARP funds and we are setting up public hearing for this matter on June 10th, 2025. Item 8 is the resolution for the directing the public hearing. I don't commit council member, I'd like to go to you. Commissioner Salgado. How would you think you want to add? No, just to say that we are reallocating some unused admin money and some which stands for Community Housing Development Organization. We're required to set aside around 35,000 a year for that and it can live for five years. If we don't secure a contract with a eligible Choto, then we can reallocate it. We've been soliciting for a Choto and the role of Choto. Tell me what Choto is outside of the's land. Thank you. Choto, an organization that is, you know, under the HUD regulations is an organization that can find and secure and locate opportunities to create new housing in the city. So they do, you know, some of the admin and the recon that's necessary to identify like and to evaluate what would take to construct. Okay. Any questions? I'll have a healthy balance in the Cho-do budget. Questions or comments on 70 are essentially the same topic when it's just designated in public hearing. Any questions or comments on this item? May I have a motion to end this second to move item number eight to the consent agenda? Don't roll the dog back to me. I don't know. I know it's not until six times. And we could go to them if you want them. Do you need it or don't? I don't need it. I just, unless there's something with public hearing that needs to be done to be diverse. Public hearing is doing something. is there a statutory? If we vote for it on the 13th of May, does that come into any statutory obligation? No, it's 10 days. Okay. So motion is... that needs to be done to be in person. Public hearings, June 10th is your statutory. If we vote for it on the 13th of May, does that come into any statutory obligation? No, it's 10 days. Okay. So in motion, it's expected to move item number eight to the convention agenda, designating the public hearing for June 10th. Ashton Lomick and Stern on favor say aye. Any opposed? Okay, moving on to number nine, which is also a pair, a proposed reallocation of community development block grant funds, Commissioner Salgado. This is funding that we are proposing to reallocate to repair the elevator at the Mascara Boys and Girls Club. We're taking some unspent money from Doyle Center. There was a renovation budget that's been there's a balance. There's additional money from Denonfrio Field, also a balance. And we're gonna do that in a later year. I think the construction timeline is pushed out, so we're gonna newer money, the pay for that. And there's that money from a police department entrance work that started and there's a balance. So we're taking that, putting it together and kind of fund the elevator. Excellent. Councillor Beluga's had a boys and girls club was being built and I saw the kids how they can go from one to the other, which is really nice. And I saw that they could go upstairs because the elevator was not working. And to see kids not being able to go and you definitely cannot pick them up and bring them up because then you're going into your legal aspects. I just want to say thank you. It took six years for me to come. Any other questions or comments on item number 10 from my colleagues? The only thing I would add is I recently was at the ribbon cutting. Again, thank you, Councilmember Loupes, for always advocating for mascara. But the executive director was also very complimentary resident manager, new floor, new furniture. It matches the aesthetic of Remington, the teen center center. So when you walk in a revamp, one of the rooms to be a podcast station as well. And so again, it's just another place that our teens can hang out in in a safe way with better furniture. And the elevator Becky mentioned was like the last piece, so that she was very complimentary. Yeah. She said, that our teens can hang out in in a safe way with better furniture and the elevator Becky mentioned was like the last piece, but she was very complimentary. She said the city manager and our professional staff have been tremendous partners with the roof repairs and getting the things filled out. These disabled kids will be able to pull off. Yep, very important. It's a very exciting thing. So this is also scheduled. So nine is the introduction. Ten is the vote on the consensus agenda that I have the public hearing on June 10th. May I have a motion in a second to move this item to the consensus agenda? Loop heads and Peters on the favor say aye. Do I? Any opposed? Brilliant. Moving on to item number 11. Very clarifying. Yep. With number seven and eight, I know we move number eight. but to be also asked to move number seven. Seven is the introduction. You have to have something introduced for certain period of time. Eight is the actual vote for the public hearing which has to be designated 10 days later. Okay. Okay. to be also asked to move number seven. Seven is the introduction. You have to have something introduced for certain period of time. Eight is the actual vote for the public hearing which has to be designated 10 days later. Okay, okay. So that's why it's like eight and 10, not seven and nine. Yeah, right. Okay. 11 is the proposed amendment to the 2025 budget. The City of New York Shell regarding the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, zero emission vehicle, rebate program, and correction of legislation with numbers you can all read. Commissioner Slogad, anything you need to add? Yeah, no, this is a Zeb grant and we released some electrical vehicles. Zero emission vehicle, fierce, okay. Zero emission vehicle, I call it Zeb for short. And so we're processing the reimbursement that we get from the state for the state. Brilliant. Questions or comments on item number 11? Emotion and the second to move item 11 to our consensus on that. Okay, and often, Louis, I'll brilliant. Questions or comments on item number 11? Emotion and the second to move item 11 are consented in the K and Austin, Louis. I'll in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Create. Item number 12 is the proposed application regarding the New York State Department of State, in-line flooding and local waterfront revitalization program implementation projects grants. Commissioner? So, you know, we did this application. It's $874,000. It was the amount of the grant for the work in sub-based and five storm order improvements. And we're requesting, you know, the $874,000 in matching funds. I think the total project costs is like nine and change. So it's $100,000, so it's specified in the memo for City Mac. Great. Questions and comments? I can't really charge. Great. Turn that into an acronym. Yeah. I think the willow will rip it a bit. Right. The mitigation project is each Shester Road, White Oak Street North Avenue. I think Councilmember, is that Stern or K, I can remember. It's yours, right? I mean, we know that very well. but that was a painful one a couple years ago. Any other questions or comments on item number 12, comes from my paternity note. Yeah, I do. So I've learned. That's Stern or K, I can remember it's yours, right? I mean, we know that very well. That's what that was a painful one a couple years ago. Any other questions or comments on item number 12, comes from libertarian Tino. Yeah, I do. I've wondered that better understand it's so here that's committing a required matching funds. We have already allocated those matching funds. No, that this, where would they come from? They would come from city to money. there would be a separate, that we get the grant and grant requires the appropriation. Right. There would be a separate resolution that would authorize the fund. This is just you all authorizing us to apply for the grant. Does it come up? You're just spending the money on the trust. We can just try to understand like, with them, like last year when we did the budget, we had grants that we were applying for. And we had allocated money in the budget so that we already have the money in place. If and when those grants come to you. Not always. It depends on the requirements of the application. So the ones that require that sort of thing. But in this case, what I'm saying is, if we want forwards, how do we commit the required matching funds funds unless we know where they're coming from because we're gonna make sure that we have the money available to cover that. So where would they come from? The job fund, they come from capital improvements. Where is that money coming from? I'm gonna let the city pass. City pass. That's coming from the plan funding of the city's flood mitigation fund. Okay, but we have a place still. I'm just concerned that we don't want to next year's budget. All of a sudden we're doing all this, we get a grant and it's great. We're gonna fix this problem and then we don't have the money. I just want to make sure that we're gonna know that money money's been kind of out of you. That's what the rent is really just kind of reducing the C's burden on that particular item. Okay, so when the match would come in, so when we apply for this, the commitment is made an application so that that money is set aside and not used for anything else Not exactly Okay But no it doesn't require a specific appropriation for the application of the grant all the requires is Approval from council for us to apply for the grant. There's no I'm just reading here. It's committed required matching funds, and I just want to you know all I'm concerned about is that if we apply for these grants, we make sure that we have the money to match the grants so we can do the project. That's right. That's matching. That's the contract. As long as you are comfortable, we will have the money. That's already been allocated. Okay. Thank you, Brad. The committee is the grant organization plan. So we'll offset that. Any other questions or comments on the item? I just love that it's not a direct match. It's matching 10% for a 900% markup to get that $971,000. I love that. 9 to 1 is too small. To your point, that's a good point. So we look at these grants and those matches and strategically apply them to like this one since it's a high, it's a low match. We want to get that to the highest part of the project, which is a construction portion. So this will be towards construction of this project rather than is a dime, which is a much lower It's worth, it's the 10% of the same project. As we consider our own city projects and we consider the different positions and different organizations we work with, maybe we should also consider grant funds that are, you know, not an exact 5050 match. Just think alleviate people create that kind of space that will be benefiting from with this program. Anything else on item number 12? Hearing none may have a motion and a second to move 12 to our consent agenda. Please K and Osshenley on favor say aye. Any opposed? Moving on to item number 13, which is a proposed application for the New York State Resilient Watershead It's grant program. She happened to come here. She mentioned the amount of $50,000 for a project cost of $500,000. Any questions or comments on item number 13? Hearing none, they have a motion in a second to move item number 13 to the Concenture Dentist. Luke has an okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I don't to item number 14 to create day for me to lose my voice. Propose application for near state resilient water. Ah, grit. This is like a Twitter best piece today, right? Okay. Water grant watershed grant program. We have the memo here. It's another 10% match for an estimated project cost of 9 million and our match is 905. Any questions or comments on item number 14? Hearing none may have a motion to end the second to move item 14 to our consensus agenda. Motion law A and Stern, follow the favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Item number 15 is a proposed application for the New York State Department of State Coastal Rehabilitation and Resilience Project grant programs. Similarly, we have the Memo, the project costs is $3,600,000, and a match of $300,000. So another 10% match can be retaken. Questions or comments on item number 15? I just hope we get these. Right. That's the other part. We might not get them. Right? I to watch these. Questions or comments on item number 15? Hearing none may have a motion then the second to move item 15 to our consent agenda. Lopez and Peters, all of the neighbors say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Item number 16 is in proposed application. We're going to team with Bizet for this agenda. Application regarding the Westchester County Stormwater Management Program. Okay, the project is 1 million, 943, and we have, it looks like it's a 50-50. Any questions or comments on this application? Come through for a case. So, I'm not staying this as a criticism in any way, but when we had the drainage presentation last month, there was like a long list of grants that we were seeking, and so I'm thinking of a particular sub-devin, dev and shy, congress, or any groups. And so I'm just wondering, does that mean we're not pursuing grants for those projects this year or what you're going to see? Not necessarily. The applications for these grants come up in a rolling basis and when we've been and this kind of speaks to you know the conversation around these are projects that we've already identified and have already kind of committed city funds to do in the first place. We in my office are looking for opportunities for grants to offset the city's investment. So these are like projects that have been identified and funded and as they grant opportunities come available, we will submit an application. So there is another round, another many rounds, they've been doing rolling grant application solicitation. Notice of funding available, those are for nofus. this and as they come up we were ready to go and we apply for what about like some of the grant programs are identified in that chart are on here here so they they well I mean to the extent that the application period has been open for us yet to submit the grant we We haven't turned down on our So it's like there's the Worcester County program. There's probably there might have been kind of remembers actually like three different projects identified for that grant program. Does that mean that This one was selected but the other two are kind of you know, we'd have to confirm would have to confirm. Let's get to that. Yes, maybe. Could you be? I can. I can have answers. Some of those questions. Yet so, as Adam said, these doesn't mean we're, you know, these really supersedes the prior grants of having identified. Particularly on the Wester County Program, the BPL26, that is a hefty match requirement. It's really a 50-50 program. So this strategy is to have that program for construction. And some of these grants that we are seeking authorization to match are to actually fund the match for BPL 26. So it's a more of a long-term strategy to be able to tap the Rochester County program. But yes, we're pursuing those grants when we have sufficient information to apply for them in addition to this I may be like in my I could get an update like where things are in the process Yeah, definitely it's you know, we look at where we could get the better where the grant could Offset our city funding the best, right? So some of these grants that you see just as you pointed out really take a big chunk out of the instruction cost. Some of the initiatives that we have seen, this is again this was all part of that learning process with grants, it may be better off to spend a smaller amount of city funding getting the information that we need in a better spot. So spend the money upfront to say get a better benefit cost analysis, or that could feed into a better grant application that we then finally run. So it is kind of a booming target. And it's really just evaluating where we can get the best out of these grant opportunities that come and change. So I want to add something for example, that's a project, right? Item number 12 would, you know, would require a match of 97,000 from the city that will land us hopefully, you know, 977, 970,000, more or less, right? Of total funding through that grant. That would be the match for BPL 26 pretty construction so If this plays out right Then our outlay would be you know 97,000, but will be only 1.8 million Towards the construction of the so-based five right so, you know, but these programs are finicky, that's part of what we're learning through the process. We're working with the development of the current industry. It's amazing. So, yeah, you're peering up the ones that give the most paperback, right? And it might fall out of a cycle, but it's just the opportunity presents itself. And you want to maximize how much we expend versus the bang for the project. I mean last year you all got 13 million and if you're gonna improve the God bless you do the strategy do the thing Do the thing do the thing that So I mean, last year you all got 13 million, and if you're gonna improve, then God bless you. Do the strategy, do the thing. Do the thing, do the thing that you guys want me to do. Do the thing that you guys want me to do. Do the thing that you guys want me to do. Do the thing that you guys want me to do. Do the thing that you guys want me to do. but I know it's 23. Oh, 23. Oh, 23. Get your math, right? Which is it? Oh, okay. Get your numbers, right, honey. Don't quote me if it's not right. What are you doing? Number 16. Any more questions or comments on 16? Ashton Leigh. Are these... I know it's not right. Um, what are you doing? Number 16. Any more questions or comments on 16? Ashenway. Are these are these I know it's a team effort to apply and to seek them out. But are these Nick Sufis? All Nick and Seth and Nick and Seth the DPW team. They're all okay. I just want to I just want to name you guys because this is an incredible work and it's an incredible literal boon to I just want to name you guys because this is an incredible work and it's an incredible literal boom to I say Yeah, you know, so thank you so much for your hard work Thank you. Yeah, Renee Motion in a second to move item 16 so the consensus and the please K and Stern all in favor say I Any pose I'll take the note. No, maybe don't respond when I'm asking any of you. Oh. For purposes of clarity. Moving on to 17, which is a fun one, I think, because speaking of grants, it looks like we are accepting a grant that we receive from NYSERDA into the tune of $970,000, if my words are reading correctly, anything to add? Yeah, which is the final piece in the application process the NR NR Transit Center solar array? Ah, brilliant. So, it's the final staff in securing those ones. Bravo. Questions or comments on item number 17? Uh, cost understanding. So is this something that independently we can proceed with or do we still wait for the rest of the project? No. About to proceed with this. Yeah. Oh. And do we know how much of the total cost this covers? Of the total cost of the solar array? Yeah. It's supposed to cover all of it, but we have yet to fully design the job that the part where we're going to develop the final design and construction drawings is going to conclude this year. So we'll know better, but it's the intent is for it to cover all of it. And we think there are other programs that we can leverage with this as well, so that we can achieve a full bill. Thank you, California. Okay. I believe I'm correct in pointing out that the reason that the city was able to go after this funding and receive it is because of previous climate actions we dig in through the clean energy communities grants, so it just shims all of our efforts to pay off. Really big ways, like a blue dollars. Yeah. I think that's the same thing. Other questions or comments on item number 17? Got counsel by Michelle Lea. This again also shows how related all of our work is because we brought up the Intimobile Transit Center and because of its proximity to our 95, so just trying to make up for environmental damage that was done in the past. I love this initiative. Thank you for bringing another million dollars. I mean, we're off by about $3,000. So it's a million dollars. I'm going to round up. So thank you for bringing that in. Solar arrays at the top of the inter-mobile transit center can, they provide chain. I think they also help us navigate our warning situation if they're designed correctly. So I just want to that out there and thank you for your hard work for bringing out. What are the potential revenue benefits for putting these on the grid, on the electrical grid? I think we need to evaluate. I don't know off the top of my head but I think the plan is to make the facility a net zero. So I think it would be a saving. There are probably periods of time when it'll return. Energy, but we haven't done that full evaluation. Seeing that the visioner case is yes, it's not in the back. So you need affirmation. No, I just love it because we're also concerned about energy costs. All of the rest of the things are related. So thank you for this. motion in a second to move item number 17s are consented and decay in Austin, Louis on favor say aye. Any opposed? Brilliant. That brings us to the end of our formal agenda. I'm advised that we have four items to discuss an executive session to relate it's appending litigation and to relate it to proposed lease of real property. Were you just trying to speak? Yes. Councilmember Ashinlake. I was advised. I'm recusing myself from the executive session discussion specifically regarding a potentially stewed in my relationship with the proposed lesser organization which raises a potential conflict of interest., will not participate in that portion of the session. Thank you. May I have a motion then a second to enter into executive session? Kay and Stern, I'll finish. I, any opposed? I do not anticipate we'll be coming back into the public until 7 p.m. for Citizens to be here and our public hearing. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the public comment portion of our May Committee for the whole meeting. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. A Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Good evening. Again, we are now convening the public comment portion of tonight's meeting. We do have one matter scheduled for public hearing. I'd ask that if you want to speak on the matter for the public hearing, please fill out the blue card. Once we complete this public hearing, we will enter citizens to be heard. For both, you will have three minutes to speak. I ask that you give us your first name, last name, and your address when you come to the mic. Our first matter for public hearing is a proposed amendment to city charter local law intro number two regarding proposed change of taxable status dates. This public hearing is in accordance with provisions of section 16 of Article 3 of the charter of the city of New Michelle and in accordance with the provisions of the municipal home rule law of the state of New York. In the council chambers city hall 515 North ad today may 6 at 7 p.m. It's a local law intro number two to amend section 105, the board of the assessment review and section 107, the taxable status date of article 10, general city taxes of the New Michelle City Charter. This was published on Wednesday April 16. I do not see I'm looking down to our clerk. So I do not see a blue card. So I'll call this matter to a close. Shifting two citizens to be heard. I don't have a card, but I see Mr. O'Toole. So you want to speak now and fill out the card after? That would be great. OK. OK. We'll make it sway to us. Good evening. My name is James O'Toole. I live at 230 North Avenue of this city. Every one of you that voted to hire a private security company to monitor parking lots and Anderson Plaza should resign immediately. That vote is a slap in the face to every hard working Newer Michelle police officer. In other words, this administration has no confidence in our police department. You hired a new Jersey-based security company. Why, I ask, are you the counsel now admitting that you don't have enough police officers? Is this what this says? A couple of weeks, you go to these meetings and you're saying to us, oh, we're gonna take the new the mini-prison add a new rock and we're gonna put it on library green. I come home the other night because I was in a very tragic car accident, a bad car accident, and I see a car driving around in the parking lot behind CVS with lights flashing and everything. Who's this? What is that? Why would you hire that? Why would you do this? Why not hire no-o-show police officers to patrol that lot? And I know what you're going to say. Oh, it's a lot of money. That's wrong. That's dead wrong. That contract should be canceled immediately. I live right there. I've lived there for 59 years. I call the police department all the time. They respond. But nobody wants to listen to what I've been telling you for years. Put a fence up on that wall behind CVS. You own that wall. They could put, you could put a fence there tomorrow, but nobody wants to listen. You're saying it CVS is walled, it's not. You put that barrier wall up there when you put the stupid meters in, years ago. Not this council, but the old council. And now it's a sitting place. This is where the problem is, it's CVS. You know, you're the owner of Lawton Plaza and everybody came to you. But what is your solution to put some guy in a car with flashing lights? I can do that in five minutes. This is a joke. Put a CSO over there if you're going to put somebody around with flashing lights. Why give it away? Do you not like the No Shell Police Department? What is it? Tell me, answer me, answer my questions, and then you come and tout that you've got to, oh, we got a whole new bike patrol. We got a new bike patrol. Where are they going? Once one guy goes out sick, they replace him. Once the sector car goes out sick, they're putting a bike guy on on that sector. It's all right. You need more cops, get more cops. And the next meeting I'll tell you if if this stays in effect, you're going to have every police officer that's in that union and everywhere unions from across Westchester to say, Nurechelle is now a new place. Let's abandon our police department and hire security guards. Great job. That was our last registered speaker for JD's meeting, so I call to a close and I hope everybody has a good night. you