you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. of the whole session. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Ramos Herbert. Present. Council Member Lopez. Council Member Tarotino. Here. Council Member Peters. Council Member Asalaya. Council Member Kay here. Council Member Svon. Here. Thank you. Good time and Councilmember Stern. Good afternoon and welcome to March 11th, Committee of the whole session. Tonight we are kicking off the meeting with the department. It looks like a tech team presentation, Department of Development and or Finance presenting on Green and R. Is it green or how do we say this? Direct pay and green purchasing. Hello everybody. I don't know if you know my deputy out of Ross. He's going to take you through this. Sure. Answer every question. Yeah. Good afternoon. Get my name's out of Ross. Deputy Finance Commissioner. I started my employment here in August. So I'm happy to hear to talk about the Green Purchasing Communities Program. So, just wanted to go into a little bit of a background about how fragile our planet is. The atmosphere, very critical component for all life on earth and to put a perspective kind of how delicate it is to say if you shrunk the earth to the size of an apple the atmosphere would be thinner than the apple skin. In the 20th century man-made CFCs primarily in aerosol cans began punching a hole through the ozone, something that was highly covered back in the 80s. And through community action, the 87 Montreal Protocol phased out CFCs, and the ozone actually started recovered, so it's projected to heal by 2066. We flashed forward to today. We have Executive Order 22, signed by Governor Hoekle, and the title is leaving by example, directing state agencies to adopt a sustained ability and decarbonization program. The man-day is to implement sustainable practices. It's a state-level program. And the website for the OGS, they list approved specifications for products and approved vendors. They created the Green New York Council, which is a comprehensive effort for promoting sustainability and reducing the environmental impact of state government operations. So even though this is a state level operation, they've decided to also implement the green purchasing communities program, which is reaches out to local municipalities, towns, villages, cities like ours. So we would align with the state's broader initiative, leading by example. the Green Purchasing Communities Program provides an easy program to administer for local governments to adopt. Helps accelerate the transition to a green economy by focusing kind of spending power, shaping the markets. Current numbers include various counties, city of white planes, some towns, and a local figure that they gave us was estimated spending of almost 600 million with the concerted effort. So how can we shape the markets with purchasing power? If we look a little bit of history, televisions in the 50s, black and white tubes cost about 200 to $500, which is equivalent to $1,000 today. And now we have large 4K TVs for a few hundred dollars. Air travel, once in a lead experience, you can now book a flight to Buffalo right now for maybe a pair of sneakers, cost of a pair of sneakers. Solar panels, when they first came out, it was almost impossible for widespread adoption due to the high cost, but then due to mass production, internationally we got the price down from $100 per watt, so that's 20 to 50 cents. Digital cameras in the 90s low-resolution high price but now we all carry better ones in our pockets today. And some other items LED light bulbs, PCs and various media. All right so paving the way. It's a two-step process. So what we're proposing is adopting new language into our purchasing policy, which is more or less a pledge to the Green New York Initiative under Executive Order 22. We would apply to the program and upon approval we gain recognition, expected benefits, obviously the long-term environmental impact, improving public health. if we're not using dangerous chemicals. It's better for everyone involved in the locality and shaping a more affordable green economy. So here we have a model language we can insert to amend the policy. It's not a final version. The one thing that New York State recommends is mentioning executive order number 22 in the approval of the full assistant possible to align with their objectives. I'm up to any questions. Let me just add that. We're looking to bring this to you next month to adopt and torporate. So any changes, anything you'd like to see different? Just let us know. All right. So, I'll be looking for a little for questions. Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. When I understand this is a state program that's kind of blown another radar for a bit, but now other municipalities are starting to participate I the Rochester County. And the way it was just right to me is it's in some streamlines purchasing the state does all the research and the work and makes it easy to use and it's constantly updated. And what they do is where there is a green option, they make that identification and then if you adopt this policy then the municipality will go with the greener option to accept that it was practical and cost comparative. So I think it's a great program to see us about this policy. It does allow for a price differential for about 10 to 15 percent above lowest bids and other various products, if we receive quotes. Q. You explain to me in another way? Sure. General Missibolal 104A, there's exceptions to the lowest bids and one of them would be recycle products. So again, New York State on their website, the specification process, it's a two-stage approval process by the Green New York Council. And it's very detailed. They have categories listed, office supplies, janitorial, and you can go in search, filter, and it gives you pages and pages of all specs. You can import to your RFBs, RFBs, so we can let vendors know this is what we're looking for. It's not imperative, but it is something that we look at first. It gives us a little flexibility as far as pricing. When it locks into the lowest price, if they can demonstrate it more green initiative. Council member, time to. Yeah, that's fine. My question is this is, what is the additional cost to the city and the residents for going into these programs? And what happens if you're going after a green product has considerably more expensive than the product that wouldn't go into that category. What would the city do? The city's in a really responsible goal each stay in this program or can they go out and buy the other product? It's also limited to percentage risk. So there is that differential based on the products that's listed on their site. It's not once you're in the program, you're forced to spend on these certain things. It's what's practical, subject to budgetary constraints, as well. So it just gives us the option and the focal point to kind of like, let's look here first, let's see if there's something that can work and then maybe start with that if not then we make a decision from there. Okay so I'm just hypothetically on a year on a one year basis you got your buying product whether it's paper whatever it is and you're going into this problem at the end of the year, what's the additional cost to the city if any at all? I would think depending on what you're purchasing a few percentage points, I mean give or take it's again the price difference it's cat's at what we're looking at. Yeah but you say you're going into a problem without even knowing if it's a question or money. Well we're not obligated to actually purchase any. No, I understand, but who's going to keep track? Who's going to keep track? Who's going to keep track? And again, I'm not a posted program. I just want to make sure that we have, there's an escape door that allows you and have the staff to be able to keep an eye on that to make sure that, you know know, and I'm just throwing a number on, we're not spending an extra $50,000 on products or $100,000 because we're trying to go green, because the way the economy is right now and what's going on in the world right now, we have to repair ourselves for what's coming down the pike over the next year or so. So you know the worst thing that we could possibly do is to go into a program that we'll walk into and we don't have any wiggle room. You know if there's wiggle room it's great. If there isn't then there's a concern. I think theoretically as we... there would be an increase if we could use products prices would be higher, but we're not locked into my house products. So it would be really case by case basis. But nobody's going to be able to answer about it. How much higher? How much more is it going to cost us? It's 10%. It's not. It's 20%. Right. It's providing information. It doesn't lock the city into making any decision. And the policy is defined by a reasonably competitive, which is defined as 10% to 15% difference. So does it imply a product that was just a product? So that's what the difference would be about it. If we cut over and spend 100% of those categories that they offer, but then again, when you weigh in other variables, it wouldn't be technical at that high at the idea. But somebody's going to keep an eye on you. So yes, so there's no order in process. So the state, there's no order in process. Okay, so Ed's the guy we go to and I'm the guy I'm the guy who's going to report back to you as well. Okay, so once we join, the state doesn't ask us for numbers. They have their own green New York on the state level. They report that quarterly. They keep track of their spending. So with us with our software, we do have the field and capability to tag these purchases, GPC, give it a code, and then monthly quarterly, whatever we want to look at, we can export our data quickly, sift through and see the changes. Is there a way, six months from the time the programs, some steps you that we can get an update just to see going on with the program? Absolutely. I can do an update at any time. I'm sorry. OK. Thank you. I saw, I was actually I didn't know if you had your hand up. Yeah. OK. In the comments, we just have to first. I might have additional questions after this. I'm just wrapping my head around the program. But this is not the full gamut of products that you guys would have access to through this program, correct? Because they're doing very interesting technology and hyper localized wind power for buildings and visual buildings. I just wanted to know how extensive the offerings are the opportunities are here. And also Commissioner, does this wrap into our potentially doing more solar panels throughout our city and properties? Could this wrap into those things? I guess it's a two-part question. Sure, so the spec list, I think again, it's about 100 or more now, where they thoroughly vet and approve these things based on certain statistics, characteristics. They also have approved vendors for obviously installation of solar. So you have a state does kind of all the hardware for us. For us, I'm just going to just kind of go through the list. Did you have? And I can tell you when going back to the beginning of my career, the solar, you know, we did a lot of costs analysis, cash flow. It was wanted to pay it back within five years. Solar payback was 99 years then. It's all right. Obviously it's not gonna pay for itself. All of this is drastically changed. As you can see, it was what 20 to to 50 cents. Oh, from the problem, from a hundred. I'm sorry, I didn't like the sound though. Uh, I'm sorry. I know as a consumer, when you try and buy things, you get a lot of marketing, saying things that are ethical, ethically made, or just simply made. And one of the ways that you can be more that it's true because I think unfortunately a lot of it today is marketing. There are certification organizations like you mentioned paper and other organizations that are related to timber actually certified when things are done sustainably. By their any mandates about partnering with certifying organizations that can actually attest and that validate the claims? I can look into that. I would think New York State has covered that. I know with the specs how detailed they get, they can get to the packaging that they use. So that's certainly something I can cover and report back. I think through the state's process, every product is thoroughly vetted by a council expert, and they have to put through this whole process to be able to be eligible for this program. So I think it speaks to that at the point, and it's not just someone marketing the product screen, but actually some experts have actually looked at them. diligence. Can we walk through this just like? So A, I love updates so I think it's important especially when we shift policy and even get impact. Many updates is y'all want to give us three whenever the boss has like I just love it. But if you have a budget, I'm gonna see these very small numbers so that it makes sense to me. I have $20 to buy when he's paper. Paper. You're gonna go on the computer, a little guy, and put paper. And you're gonna have options for green. But if it exceeds my $20 budget, I don't have to buy the green paper. Okay, so if my budget is $20, I can still procure items that fall within my budget, even if they're not green. This does not prohibit me from keeping my budget. Great, thank you. Appreciate it. Any other questions or comments on the, what do we, uh, Councilman Bushley? Um, this is just very general. It isn't just pertain to your team, but just for all of our leadership teams, when we have these presentations, it would be very important to understand the overall cost of not doing better with the environment. I live down by Hudson Park, and we, I think in my lifetime, I mean, I mean, I'm going back as far as I remember and within my semi-adult teenage life, I think we had to reform that part three times from hurricanes. So if we could get it up and I think it's perfect that I'm talking to the finance commissioner. So if we can get an impact on Nurechelle for all of the flooding, flood mitigation that we have to do every time a hurricane hits, every time we have a heat stroke death. If we have a cumulative impact on these, we won't be, I think it would be easier to not be as transactional on, okay are we spending like 1% more on this project for this product at this time? Because I think it's very important important for people especially taxpayers that are funding this $300 million a year city to understand that we have to have the $300 million a year mindset as far as taking care of our city so could we be more comprehensive in general and that's not just for you guys that's for all of us do we can ask our city manager to manage that part? Yes, so thank you for your compliment. That's a great point you know whether that's definitely a long-term goal not just for New Rochelle the state country and the planet but like right away vendors not using harsh chemicals that are cancerous or bad for the environment that's like an immediate thing we would kind of start with. Right. Yeah, so kind of start small and big, hopefully. Thank you. I have to say, I respect the little intersectionality of our WD Commissioner of Finance talking about green infrastructure and your analogy of the Apple will stay with me for a while. Yeah, you know, when I first read that, I thought that was interesting. I'm about it. I like where your brain is going. I respect it. Thank you. A little bit of science, a little bit of finance, a little bit of politics. I started with something more I got to find. You started with science. I was getting grown up. You got to get your set up. I'm looking nine-year-old. You would be so proud of you. I'm so happy. Thank you. It's like, that's my wish of life. No, I love it. And I just want to add more actually to that point. Earlier Commissioner Ritter, we've had meetings where we've discussed the revenue potential for some of these things. So. And I just want to add more actually to that point. Earlier Commissioner Ritter, we've had meetings where we've discussed the revenue potential for some of these things. So could we also, in this program, and then also in future initiatives, city manager and my commissioners, could we get more of an understanding of where the opportunity here is? We talk about water. Again, water is commodity, we need water every day, but we treat water like it's this hazardous material as opposed to this opportunity. And I think in our link we are making an initiative to actually capture water and God willing for we have the finances to be able to utilize it for vertical farming, some very interesting things. So even with solar, you know, being able to capture that energy, maybe put it back on the grid, make some revenue, it be good to understand what we do these programs, you know, where there's revenue potential as well. For all eyes interested, I don't want to steal anyone's thunder, but I didn't get some of that in the field minutes. There you go. Oh, look at this. Alright, so are we complete with green purchasing? How is that the topic? Alright, so where are we shifting to next? Greener? Is it greener or greener? Oh, please, greener or greener. Greener? Okay. Is it greener or direct pay? Okay. Both? It's one thing. Okay. I also respect that as the identity all started taking away the end times. That's really good. It just started 3.45 and we just rolled. I think that's really good. I remember happy for us. Just giving up projecting 20 minutes an hour is all the same thing. Yeah. I'm happy to have a good time. I just want to know I noticed the details. I noticed the detail. I noticed the diesel. Thank you deputy to be manager. I also heard a copy of the green plan. Director of planning is wearing green for the greener. I respect you. I see the subtle teeth friends. Green presentation. Over these days. Yes. I guess it happens here. Who are your reading questions? Oh, yes. Thank you. My favorite. I love that. Yes. So good evening, council. So, one second. Sorry. Let me strad. Can I have the eye? The city of the city. Thank you. Which one's first? No, we're just going to do the presentation. Okay. The other document is the actual greener report, which will be the subject of an legislative item in the future, the timing of what we're going to be discussed today. And really that document contains the full proposed framework with regard to how we plan to implement our green sort of agenda, our sustainable and green agenda for the city. So just a little bit of a back, well, so I just wanted to start today, I brought with me today some members of my team that are really- Be some space. Yeah, everyone has room with the table here. Come on in, Nick. There you go. So I have Deputy Commissioner Seth Kaye, who is in charge planning and sustainability for the Department of Development. Nick Soufus, who's the Grand Administrator, yet a previous role as a sustainability coordinator for the Department and for the city. And he's really grown into taking on the grants. And he's been a really tremendous asset in the preparation of this report. Kevin Kane, who's the director of sustainability planning and sustainability for the city and for the department. A little bit about Green and R, the agenda for today is to give you an introduction, to go over the thematic strategies, and to really talk, and try to give you some context. You can understand what the purpose of the document is. It's sort of like a very, you know, it really defines what the focus of the city or proposed focus of the city is with regard to pursuing sustainable initiatives and additional grant resources to support it. So I wanted to, you can also take a moment today to thank everyone here. You know to you all, this is Council members. We've been listening to you. We've been hearing about how we can do better as a city. From the last presentation with the Climate Vulnerability Assessment, I think you all will be happy to see that we've added a new goal and a new theme which deals with racial equity. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, these green initiatives and a lot of the improvements that they bring about really will have a direct impact on the most vulnerable segments of our community. And so these are really just a framework of, you know, different tools and strategies that we can avail ourselves up to make a difference. I'd like to take a moment to just thank Virginia Prodomo from the communications office who helped us put this together in the NRAC committee, who we've met with and has given us a lot of comments and has really been really thoroughly engaged throughout the creation of this document. So again, so the document is, New Rochelle is taking bold action to combat climate change and to build a more resilient and equitable city. So we've expanded the vision. In 2011, we adopted the Green NR. There were 10 big goals. In this one, we've added 11th about ensuring that race and economic status are not determinants of environmental risk. We have a new focus on climate equity. We've introduced a seventh theme, which really lays out specific strategies to ensure that race and economic status don't determine environmental risk. We're committing to measurable, measuring the impacts and taking action. The idea here is that Green and Art is a living document that really talks about at a high level is sort of defining the commitments. It's speaking to the strategies but it's not really going that level next level of to design the actual programs and interventions because we really see that as a conversation with you all. This gives us a framework to declare what our objectives are and defines a process for getting there. Again, it really embraces the community input and really paves the way for how we would use community input to drive and to continue to refine these strategies. So the original 2011 Green and Art Plan had six major thematic strategies, which are energy, which are on here. We've added a new one in 2025, which is climate leadership, resiliency, and racial equity. The one, this is this one, which is the initiators are in that mitigating the impacts of climate change, specifically adapting the community to new conditions, but looking at what types of factors are affecting the environment around those areas where these vulnerable populations, specifically, were racially concentrated areas of poverty. We see we have several different pockets pockets which we discussed at the last climate vulnerability assessment where you see this intersection of climate vulnerability with racially concentrated poverty. So really coming up with this document is really looking into the strategies that we can implement to really address that and come up with solutions and try to improve. The link is the link is a great example of the type of project that could result from something like this. And in fact, the link and what we've learned in implementing it so far is really kind of informing a lot of what we're talking about today. The next theme is end up reducing the local energy consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions. And this speaks to what you were talking about, Shane. It's like how can we not only reduce the consumption, but also find strategies and ways to put energy back into the grid through these sustainable ways, like solar power, where possible, or battery storage, and that sort of thing. Another theme is reducing the solid way. So we have a robust, we've taken some big steps with improving and increasing the type of recycling that we do, but reducing overall the amount of solid waste is a commitment of this program. And then also the ecological biodiversity and the health of our ecosystems and the air quality and all of that are really important focuses of the green and our and the strategies that we'll discuss later really are geared towards, you know, making those better. Again, smart growth and economic prosperity is another theme. Obviously kind of goes in hand in hand with the the first theme but again we're looking for sustainable investments that will expand the tax base and it speaks to to your concerns, you know, Council Member Arjun Loay. You know, how do you, you know, by buying into the green purchasing, how do we leverage that? How can we create opportunities, you know, that not only just cost the city money, but creating the type of relationship, the value proposition where the city can save money by reducing energy consumption and possibly even leveraging it and creating the types of things like battery storage facilities or electric vehicle charging facilities that could actually end up being kind of net revenue generators. Transportation and mobility, these are looking at sustainable transportation options, creating opportunities for walking, think complete streets, think how we can create this micro-transit grid where we're starting with the complete streets network, looking at the Lee, the transit center, all of that with an eye towards getting people out of the cars, out of the gas, guzzling cars, and walking and enjoying the environment, we think it's got a multifaceted benefit, not only on the health and quality of life of the community, but on the economic health and prosperity of the area. And again, public participation and awareness, this is heavily engaged with the community. We're looking at strategies to make sure that the community in this city is continually engaged in our various, as we implement these processes and come up with solutions to the climate challenge just that we face. So a little example, just a little graphic to illustrate, I think, not only the pace of the change, but to see the velocity and the capacity for the city to implement, we're building on programs of the past. We started in 2009 with some, you know, the designation from the Climate Smart Community, the Green and R adoption back in 2011, and you can see that as we're going forward, the breadth of the programs that we're involved in are increasing and the complexity of the programs that we're able to, you know, to participate in is increasing as well. As is our ability to get revenue from some of the grant programs that are out there that support this type of direction from the city. Specifically, one of these grant programs is the Climate Smart Community CSE. This is the Climate Smart Community Certification. This is a framework from the state that provides a great deal of funds available to communities that can meet these certifications currently. We have a bronze certification. We're working hard towards getting a silver certification. Later on, you'll see some of those ongoing initiatives that we're involved in that will give us credit towards silver, which makes that much more money available to us. And then ultimately, if we're gonna continue to go for the goal certification. And we think that not only will this provide the resources we need from the state, it'll also make the city more sustainable and resilient going forward in the future. Another example is the Clean Energy Communities, this another nice sort of program program, similar to CSC, it provides grants and technical assistance and recognition, and it really speaks about the energy savings reducing the emissions, improving the energy efficiency. A lot of this is us looking at our city-owned facilities and finding ways to make them more sustainable, consumer-less energy, and generally more resilient and efficient. So it's sort of us taking the responsibility, not only to do it to create facilities for the public, but also to keep our own side of the street clean, if you will, and have the city make those types of improvements to its own city-owned buildings. But again, the ongoing initiatives are that they're listed here, the link project, the transit center. These are all examples to find book from police streets, you know, the street inventory most recently. And the list goes on, you know, with we've been talking about resiliency, hub networks, cooling centers, as part of the heat emergency plan, and all of the things that we've been talking about are just listed here as examples of the types of actions that we can take that will improve our chances and opportunities to get additional funding. You know, another key part of the Green and R process is the governmental process. So what we're really saying here is obviously I'm asking council to review the document and give me the feedback. We can talk about the time frame for that. But we're also committing to involving and abusing our process for determining, for instance, the capital expenditures that the city makes with these values that are defined here. So looking for capital projects that are going to be more sustainable, finding ways to make the capital projects that we need that may not, and of themselves, be sort of more sustainable, finding alternative methodologies and approaches that would make them as sustainable as they could be. So it's just sort of agreeing that we will have an eye towards, you know, being more responsible for the environment in our allocation of capital. Prioritizing those high impact projects, enhancing the accountability, we're committing for the Department of Development, we'll produce an annual report to you all. We'll talk about our last year's accomplishments. We'll talk about this year's plans and sort of next year's the future plans. And we'll this on an annual basis also going to talk to the The department heads and really try to get them the resources they need so that as they're developing their projects they can have You know this in mind as they pursue The scoping and the development of the of their initiatives. It's already kind of taking shape with Nick and very involved with DPW, for instance, in the parks department from the grants perspective, but a lot of those grants come with the mandates for more sustainable practice and things like that. So we're trying to balance the funding that's out there for the net improvement to the environment and the allocation of those funds. So this is going to take it a step further with additional staff that's going to help to sort of coordinate at a more internal capital as part of the budget process. And finally, engaging with you all, the leadership here, the City Council, aligning hearing what is important to you, trying to work through the prominent development of the new position, which hopefully will start soon, the senior resiliency development manager, to internalize that and have that be incorporated into the criteria that we employ to select the projects you follow. So again, the key funding tools for greener are the EPA, the Environmental Bond Act that exemplified by the Climate Smart Communities and the Clean Energy Communities, which I spoke about. These are just all the sort of the pots of funding that are out there that are going to either currently have, for instance, the DOZ Community Benefit Bonus Program in 2021, we amended the DOZ code, and we created a program where sustainable upgrades are indeed bonusable. So if a building wants to do geothermal, or if they want to see the solar on the roof, or they want to do living soil around the building, in some way to mitigate the heat island effect, that they could get a credit towards their community benefit bonus requirement. So that's been a game changer for us. We're trying to, now we have sort of leverage when we talk to the developers to bring about those types of upgrades. The idea, we will be discussing with the idea board a potential to amend the U-TEP to sort of look at and embrace some of these green initiatives as things that would help kind of be defined as a public benefit in their cross-benefit analysis for a pilot. Again, grants, it's been a real catalyst for us getting grants. I think last year was the most grants the city ever received in a year. Many of those grants were related to our sustainability initiatives. And so this is really just kind of codifying what we've been implementing kind of heuristically throughout in the city. But this is really kind of putting the pen to paper and say this is going to be our policy going forward. And again, and next the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the direct pay credits to program through the federal government that provides not for profit organizations that are currently tax exempt, but actually provides them with a payment, like a direct credit, for upgrades that they make. I think at a very high level it's fair to say these particular upgrades upgrades, and I've really spoke to one of your comments and Council President Laier about returning energy back to the grid. So not only is it about incentivizing, like reducing the energy consumption of buildings, you get even more bonus if you can actually generate net energy from a particular project. So like, things solar power, the battery storage, things like that, they cover from 6% to 70%. We think this is a great program for us to roll out the cooling centers and the resiliency hubs that we talked about in the CPA. So we'll be responsive to the needs of the community, but we'll also be designing those facilities with these kind of features, like the solar and such, to try to create as much net energy production as possible and therefore be eligible for as much grant funding as possible or just direct tax credit. So there are several different direct-pay clean energy tax credits that are relevant to New Rochelle. They're listed here. They go from the Clean Energy Production Tax Credit, all again, there's credits and bonuses specifically for these projects that can occur in these low income areas. So by creating those facilities and having those facilities have the benefit of producing that energy or being reliant on renewable energy, you get a bonus for it. So it's really an opportunity for us to really make strategic investments in all of our communities that will protect them and make them more resilient and I'm looking at Nick, trying to re-space, seeing if I'm missing anything. Too hot. You're good. That's not how it works. We got it. We got it. You can put the towel in for the grids. My mom is like, oh. Oh. trying to re-space, just need to find this and everything. Too hot. You're good. You guys smile, we got it smile, we got it smile. Even with the top, we'll do it for the grants. My mom's like, oh. You're good. So again, the alternative fuel refilling property. Again, these are like, we talked about this. How do we find? You know, we had the EV charging plan. You know, where these EV chargers gonna go? More people have electric vehicles in the North end. There's private property in the North end. How can we bring those credits and those investments and those of... Where do these EV chargers going to go? More people have electric vehicles in the North end. There's private property in the North end. How can we bring those credits and those investments and those improvements where they're needed? And so this is another avenue for us to pursue to make sure those improvements are achievable. And again, a commercial clean energy, clean vehicle credit. And this is, we have on the agenda tonight a Zev Grant, it's a kind of the type of, some others version of a state program where we get a rebate for buying electric vehicles. This is another option for us to pursue expansion of EVQLEE. This is a very detailed, I mean, this, as much as this presentation is meant to kind of give you the gist, some of the stuff here is meant to be resources for you all to peruse at your major, but this kind of gives you a, you know, a greater matrix, if you will, of the various benefits and how they kind of work. And so this is just sort of like a fact sheet for you all to have it your very pleasure. Again, our direct-pay project priorities are the resilience hubs, which includes the cooling centers and that includes a variety of eligible activities like solar panels, battery storage, and EV chargers. All of those things, we kind of went over in one of the previous presentations what a resilience hub is. But to the extent that we can power those hubs with these kind of features, them eligible for reversing. So it encourages us to look for this technology to solve, like, kind of, as many, you know, multiple problems. Job creation. Again, you know, you know, we're committed to green job creation specifically. This program would provide incentives for projects that prioritize hiring up disadvantaged groups and veterans. So with that feature, and they get bonuses for that, you know, we hope to drive a lot of workforce participation in this screen, these screen project rollouts. And the barrier reduction, again, this is like technical assistance and support to sort of minimize the barriers that these entities face for adopting this kind of sustainable infrastructure. So it's like helping them with technical assistance and sort of really providing them with access to the different funding that's available for them. Like they may think they have to do things like the cheapest way and they're actually, if they do a little planning and a little outreach to the city, we can help them do a more environmentally healthy solution to their whatever problem they're trying to solve. There's an example of how the direct pay with the resilience hub would work. So it's like finding a resilience hub. Here's an example in illustration, describing kind of like at a high level what a resilience hub is. And again, I kind of said this earlier in the presentation, but the graphic is cute. So I thought I would share with you all. But it's like finding the EV charging, the battery storage systems, the solar panel, all of these are the types of programs that are reimbursable under the direct pay. So we would encourage those facilities to pursue these interventions so that they can get these paid for for free, essentially, and it makes the ongoing operation operating cost of the facility that much less. Another big project for us, and we won a million dollar, around a million dollar grant last year, is to basically put a solar array on the roof of the ITC. And so, you know, the very first project that came out of the redesign of the master plan of the train station has gotten funding and we're going to pursue this in earnest and it's a million dollars from state, but from the state and I started a program, so we're really excited to implement this. Another one, this is an example we've been talking in previous plans and this is very relevant to a lot of our affordable housing stock in New Rochelle especially like the multiple dwellings that are not quite at the level of you know some of the larger you know mid and high-rise buildings but this is a real a real resource we can make upgrades to the HVAC to the types of systems that generally cost a lot to operate on an annual basis by making these types of retrofits. We can create lower operating costs for them. We think this is a real saleable program to the right property owners around the town. Again, one of the successful steps that we want to work with the state holders to identify the projects, right, apply for the funding. We're working with them to identify not only the projects, but the grants that are out there that they can avail themselves to pay for some of the costs of the implementation. And then we are committing again to monitor and report the implementation and the rollout of this. And so we'll be engaging with you all either through the city manager when you have your one-on-ones with him or with my staff directly or you all kind of going to whatever not for profit partners or eligible partners that you may work with and sending them to us for us to sort of see how we can help them. But we're committing a fair amount of brain power to working with our community partners to ensure that they can avail themselves of this program. Again, we kind of covered that here., it's like talking about leveraging the compatible funding opportunity. So packaging this with grants, state grants, federal grants, finding ways to really be, really to have robust sustainable projects from the not-for-profit sector. That can really not only serve the community as their core mission, but be better for the environment overall. And we think there's a real, not an end-to-or proposition. It's like an end-to-or proposition where you get more value for your buck. So I let this slide, I think this slide's important. It's like how can we direct with this? So again, it's like contact the city manager or mine's my office, the department of development or the planning and sustainability staff, contact us directly. We'll give you initial guidance. We're going to conduct workshops. We're going to have technical assistance. Resources developed. The idea is to make sure that there's enough information for folks to be able to build the most environmentally responsible projects that not only are environmentally responsible but actually resolve the problems, the interventions that they have in their four missions. So we're trying to work to bring sustainability but also keep the focus on, you know, what they're, what they're created to do. And so then on this is just a little more resources. There's some hyperlink here. You can go on and go to the IRS and get guidance on the project. You're at a nice sort of website. There's a low income map. So just really just compiling all the resources for the public and for the council to sort of look and see what we're dealing with and what we have at our disposal and try to implement this program together. With that out, you know, we package these two programs together because we feel that the Green NR is, you know, expressed. It expresses the city's policy direction in this regard, but direct pay, we see a really critical tool that we can roll out not only for our own facilities, but also for the not-for-profit and for those entities that are already helping the community. So we think it's a real option for them to help them help even more people. And that is it. And I did it very quickly. Yeah. We're 31. Well, there was no end time. So we haven't broken any rules. So smart. Just all the way. All right. Opening the floor for questions and comments. Well, I have a sneaky suspicion, John. Remember Kay has a few thoughts. You want to go? Sure. Okay. First, thank you. Thank you to the entire team I know we put a lot of work into this. It's been a long time coming and also to thank you to Enrock who really gave a lot of helpful suggestions and have been champions of this initiative. And I think it does a great job building on the plan from 2011, which was great, but not as changed since 2011. We have the CLCPA, which sets up some new goals and a real project about that one out for me. I'm not good at that. Climate leadership. Climate leadership and community protection act of 2019. Thank you. The New York's climate law. New York's climate law. Yeah, and where direct benefits glow to disadvantaged communities. We're all the increasing awareness of the effects of climate change as we have so much flooding, heat waves, and I think that it's pretty obvious by now councils were new focus on prioritizing the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors and in our mental justice issues. And so I think the doctor does a really good job of reflecting those priorities. And what I really like about it is that it provides framework that can ensure that we're able to make progress on these initiatives. a lot of times these policy documents are really great and really excited and then collect dust on a shelf. And so I think it ensures that it will not collect us by being a living document that's going to constantly evolve because things are always so quickly. We have new technology, that will administration with different priorities. There's new grant opportunities. And so I think that flexibility is really important so that we can be nimble too. And so with that framework, we can constantly reevaluate priorities and add new initiatives that are based on council's feedback on professional staff's guidance and other funding opportunities. So I think you really found the right balance in putting this document together. I have a few very specific comments. I really like the slides that you had about the comments smarts community and the clean energies community programs and things like the graphics that you had of the achievements and goals would be really great to include in the document. I found the greenhouse gas section to like it just kind of goes through the various reports without really saying what's in the reports and And it's just it's hard to read. And so like if you could include that information as like an infographic sort of showing how much greenhouse gas reductions were achieved by various initiatives and then like giving with the equivalency number of cars off the road and trees planted. I always really like visualizing that sort of major accomplishment. I think it makes more of an impact than saying like tons of carbon, like what does it's called with carbon? I didn't really know. And then you had mentioned the Climate and Votary and Vili assessment. I remember in the webinars about that project, the Climate Grady project, there was a survey and you had pulled out some quotes from the survey and I thought that was really impactful and so I think it would be nice to include quotes from residents and maybe like some statistics from that report. And lastly, the some themes have like a very robust both number of actions and others have fewer. Talking specifically about these three, six, and seven. And so if we could try to flesh those out a little bit more or just even highlighting specific programs that have already been initiated, like each rapper cycling or helps see and doing like a spotlight on those. I think it would just like visually make them look less empty. And one comment about direct pay that you hadn't mentioned, but I think because it's more like in a research phase, that one benefit of doing it this way, where the city is like an intermediary between nonprofits and providing technical assistance is that there's the possibility of like aggregating these projects. So like let's take solar, like aggregating a number of solar projects that once you achieve a certain scale, then it can unlock additional funding opportunities like through the New York screen bank. And so that's I, one thing that the department is looking at and would be really exciting and sort of would allow us to be able to implement these various initiatives on a scale that would be huge. They get a lot of funding. Um, John. Great. Other questions or comments from the colleagues? I'm like beaming because I'm trying to like I'm really enjoying the massive amount of solar panels on top of our intermodal transit center that are in the heart of district four. Thank you for this presentation. Thank you for all your work. I also, you know, this, I want to thank Councilwoman Kay. I want to thank our city manager and our mayor for, I think this was a team effort in the conversation. A lot of our conversation about the impact of environment and the opportunity of environment is very much, in our strategic roadmap and in our plans, I'm very thankful for that. I'm excited for it. Ironically enough, the last thing that I was looking at was an overlay map of the different properties that our city used to have and how much of it has an impact within the range of our city that used to be impacted by redlining. So just to see some of the major projects that we're doing in this initiative moving forward in those spaces is massive for me. So I'm very thankful and I'm excited for the future. I think to add, the only request I would have really, this is for our entire team and I think we need to talk about it in communications. I think that there's a general failure of imagination. Again, most people are busy doing what they do every day. So I'm thinking a lot about our religious organizations and they have a hyper focus on, belief and the execution of it in the public. Community, goodwill, things like that. So we have to kind of do some of the heavy lifting as far as explaining how exactly do you participate in direct pay? From today, what is the project you have in mind? When is it exactly that you file what paperwork when to benefit on it in your taxes by credit or is it per project like whatever it is even if it's not direct pay all of these other grant opportunities that you guys are excellent with uncovering I think that it would be be who've all of us if we just bridge the gap for them a little bit more especially because you're doing such hard work and we're bringing it into fruition in the spaces we can control so we definitely need to expand on that and I was looking at it. I think I have 24 churches that are in our downtown area alone that That doesn't include temples. That doesn't include non-religious organizations that might also be property owners. There's a great opportunity here to really expand the hard work that is being done every day around this. And Councilwoman Kay and I have talked about wrapping this and other initiatives into, you know, conversations at our churches in Senegal. So people will see more of that as we move along. But specifically for this, I think it would just be great to have like a methodical and step process that we could take to our churches. My own church, we were flooded out and we're redoing our basement. I have no idea if the refurbishment that we're doing could even qualify for direct payments to have no idea. And that's a great thing. Yeah. I think the first thing is determine each project. I was able to go. Clear understanding of what's eligible and I think that will open up a lot of ice to some other eligible people out there. And even communicating that is key. Exactly. And even if we took some of the core issues that we have, our churches are getting older so they're going to be electrical issues. Our city deals with flooding so we need to be looking at if they're flooding issues. We have a national housing crisis so where have we been successful with you know building in the past through our religious organizations and where could we do that now? What are the nonprofit organizations that own their own property where we could do some of this refurbishment? Just having a very one-to-one strategy of you know we know what we're doing but we just need to get it out there and I'm excited to support you know however I can us getting these initiatives out there. It's just too good. You guys are doing great with this, and I'm very excited. Thank you again. That's my understanding. Also, thank you. I mean, obviously, there is so much work that went into this and is evident in how comprehensive of the plan this is. I think I have one suggestion request making the case, like through a financial perspective, for the value of the city. I think it's kind of, it's matters throughout, like there are examples of where funding can come from, there's, you know, I think a narrative about the risks to the city, like flooding as a biggest example. But I think particularly when all levels of government now are especially focused on the costs, I think being able to make the case for why this is a good long-term investment is very important and bring it all together in a cohesive argument and section of this report. I mean, you wouldn't even just be helpful for me to be able to be prepared when kind of publicizing and advocating for this plan. And then more granular, I think in public participation game it really seems like a great fit with participatory budgeting and so I think our suggests that we included that as one of the actions that we can take and then my potential buzzkill question Dreme, done through the IRS. Do we know the status of whether that is still being done? And there's a parallel of the IRA, like the, the Johnny Parallel. The inflation reduction, like all of that kind of pre-administration money, what, what, how are we like planning for that? So just, just because that was my question. Well, I mean, listen, there have been a lot of executive orders and there have been a lot of lawsuits filing injunctions, I guess, implementing those, those executive orders. So yes, it's a federally funded program and so it is under scrutiny by the Trump administration. I think there are a variety of other programs that are under similar level of scrutiny from our Section A program to CDBGA to a home program the all of the federal grants that the city gets. Honestly, are kind of all in the same boat, so to speak. So we are working with our lobbyists, lobby firms, and developing a framework of advocacy. Obviously, the congressional delegation and the senatorial and delegation have both been really active and proactive in trying to use the earmark process to cover, you know, as a potential way to cover some of the costs of those programs going away. And I know that these green programs are a focus of our delegation to Washington in New York State, and I know at the state level, I was at a conference this weekend, and there was a lot of really strong language about the state being here to support local municipalities and local groups and trying to cover some of what is being they're trying to toss aside. So I don't want to get political about it but I do feel like there's we have avenues of recourse and we're going to be vigorously kind of looking into defending and maintaining our focus on these programs. Thank you. Sure. Give it up, Lucy. That was a pretty answer. I don't know. Any other comments from colleagues at the table? The only thing I'll add is just a hearty thanks. Definitely not to me. I'll remember, can I know this is a baby of yours? So thank you for your step-bass kind of stick to it. And of course, our city manager reports are leading our very intro people team. And I think even just the way NRAC was deliberately woven into the process, I think the document reflects that. And so that kind of like, and I know it takes more time to like, rope it another group of eight people with a thousand different schedule, I don't know if it's eight, but like whatever the number of the values is. How many? 15. 15. 15, oh, waiting to three. Yeah. Use 18. So 18 different schedules plus your own thousand topics. So it thinks to do plus seven, like elected people who have questions sometimes. And everything else, so I know it's a lot. It's my point. But I think the document, even just down to the graphics and everything else, it reads in a way that's very accessible and I think very interconnected of the community. the community. So I really, I really do appreciate like taking that time to let that happen. And so I will never be as conversant on the green environmental things as my colleague Sarah K is, but I'm really grateful there's other smart people. You know how to get this kind of stuff across the line and give us this kind of governing document. I know it's good. I just can you know that this kind of document makesable. And the last thing I thought was just really neat too, because of the community space, just great that you guys have a contact email. I mean, I know you plan to do more engagement, but if someone were to go back to a nonprofit or their house of worship, they can at least direct it, you know, you guys can start getting inquiries directly to you. And that could help guide how you create the community engagement programs because you'll see the questions people are already emailing so that can give a framework. So that's great. And then my only other question was, you know, the churches and nonprofits just making an explicit call out to the school district and the library who I know we rely on for resources, pooling center and different kinds of community space and charging stations will be gloss power. So making sure that our elected cousins, if you will, that be sure the constituencies with are also equally in the loop as the churches because the library for sure can do money for a date. And so, and we know we need them. So as are the different schools that we've kind of explored potentially having them be hubs for us in times of climate extreme weather crisis. But I know they're also a so busy and so many to school boards, so maybe after me, they can have the capacity to partner with us. Thank you. Oh, tell us where I'm Peter's. Yeah. There still remains within the, within our historical and traditional sense around environmental justice and relationship to access, we talked about this before. I just want to circle back to what just is reminder. We have some communities that may or may not necessarily be able to participate in all of this, particularly when we start thinking about various covenants. And we've talked about this before, around exploring the dynamics of the covenants in order to create an approachable community engagement strategy, or community residents who live within the framework of those kinds of covenant so that communities can have an opportunity to make decisions around how they want to be a little forward with some things that right now they may or may not have access to based upon that so I don't want that to get away from us. We'll be talking about things like that, because usually those kinds of companies existed in areas within our city that make it hard when opportunities become available. And also, it makes it hard when those opportunities become available for people to work collectively together, to figure out a way how to reconcile what it means when we're talking about moving forward with these kinds of assets. People will not be left behind. They will not be left behind by time that occurred historically before that still holds people in place for being able to interact with them. So I don't want to leave that out. I think we've talked about this. Thank you for calling out specifically to this. We will focus our strategy on that community specifically. I think that it's important that we make these resources available and understandable and relatable as possible. We have a duty to do that. Nothing else, thank you. Thank you. I also would like to take a moment to thank Council Member Keg, who really has been really working tirelessly. She's been me. You phone calls on our behalf to connect us with people that have resources to like really go and above and beyond a role here. And I personally want to thank you. I know you're you make yourself available to us to do this and without your guidance and sage counsel this wouldn't have been. Siege. Yes, sir. I'll count that. Mommy got a Siege. That's it. That was that. That's it. Until David. Siege Council, look at you. Item number two. This is Judd's book, you. This is a proposed authorization regarding a lease transfer and parking allocation for two-tell and road, I think formerly known as Patsy's, or DBA as Patsy's, Keteria. Is this CU proposal? Yeah. Oh, good. Sure, sure. See you there, well. Yeah, so we're looking for a resolution to authorize an amendment to the currently agreement, the amendment with Patsy's pizza. The amendment is kind of twofold. Patsy's is for has changed its name now to Kettys on the water. So we would need to amend the lease to reflect that name change and also also given some significant capital that Patsy's has put into that building, they requested that the city designate 23 parking spots in the numerator parking lot. It'll be there for their customer parking. It will be only during business hours. There will be a monthly fee based on the citywide rate, which is currently $100 per space, as that rate changes citywide. It would also change for taxes as well. And we would retain the rights to modify the number of spaces and that cost as we may see that. So for how long will they have the 23 spots? There's no time. There's part of the least of friends. Oh and how many slots are being created? It's 23 and we designated and we had a a show. Now, but there does it maybe just on one side, like near their entrance. All in one. Any questions or comments on item number two? May I have a motion and a second to move item number two to our consensus agenda? Council member Tarantino, I can defy Council Member Stern, all in favor say aye. Aye, any opposed? Moving on to item number three, which is a proposed bond deauthorization, resolution repealing, unexpended bonds, authorizations, previously authorized Commissioner Vitter, Deputy City Manager. Hello, yeah. As we talked about before, when we have bonds, I get an authorization and we try not to borrow the money It's we actually need it and then we we evaluate that after time and we found that these three Two of them are from 2019 was from 2020 we have not borrowed the money and at least for now the projects don't seem to be going forward So we would would like to de-authorize these because even though we have in borrowed, it does affect our credit limit and our rating. So give us more room to do other things. Questions or comments on item number three, Councilmember Tarantina? I have a number of questions. First of all, what is our current bond level? And how close are we to a point where it would start to impact our credit rating? Well right now we're at our debt limit. We're at 21.95 or 22%. So we have the balance side would not ever encourage you to go past 25 or 26%. And that's part of what we're doing here. It's making sure we stay within reasonable limits. It's about 176 million is our total debt out there right now. So we try to keep it contained. We try to close our projects when we can and we try to free up money when we can. Right. You know, it's interesting both of these rescuers are my district. When it's Hudson Park, the other is the intersection of Wamen and Maine. One I really want to focus on is the Wamen and Maine because that one was an extremely important concept that we had come up with. That was to alleviate tremendous pressure on the west side of Nerochelle from the home of Pellum and from I-95. Probably one of the most critical intersections in the city on the west side there, maybe Vakasco, Home Depot, the diner, LA Fitness, the DPW's there and now. And what has happened is in that area, and I went there, you know, we were coming in, I spent a little time down there on Saturday watching the traffic flow. And it's not a fun on a Saturday afternoon. I probably saw people in the bus. But anyway, I mean, I was amazed at the amount of traffic that goes through that and the backup. I mean, the traffic was literally backed up, on to Nordosi Place, from Home Depot, from the CVS, and the died all converging on the same. And in that bond, we had planned on taking to piece of property that was at the bottom of King's Highway that connected the Main Street to basically create another one or two lanes of traffic, like moving the traffic flow over to allow people coming down King's Highway to maneuver more easily to go either going to a pellum or going to a home depot or Costco places like that. And then of course COVID hit and it sort of disappeared. Then there was talk about expanding the concept to include property across the street, but you know they were looking at $10, $12 million plus to do that. So that was sort of pushed aside, but we were really focused on that King's Highway bottom, which is only two narrow lanes that go right toward, say Costco, and one lane that goes left onto Main Street with another lane making a left on the Kings Highway which is also very narrow. It's a very narrow mouth of the street. So you know my concern is that eliminating that bond and and cancelling that project at this particular point is is disturbing to me because you know that that project is important. And then I started looking at what you just, you know, think about what you just said about our bond limit, we're almost at our bond limit. And not long ago, we just approved two more bond, two more demolished, I love, let's I'm to keep on two more eminent domains of two properties in your shell. And basically we really don't have the money to do those. And I'm a little concerned because while I like the idea of both the concepts that went on went on North Avenue, the one on Main Street, especially the Carnegie Library. I'm a little concerned about are we biting off more than we can chew because we're looking at projects that each tremendous amount of investment after they're bought. We don't know what the final number will be, but it's certainly going to be more than what this comes out to if we pull these two. So, you know, my question would be, maybe we should, before we do anything here, have a little more of a discussion about what things are most important to us as a community. Is it the traffic flow on West Main Street that filters right into the downtown where you're putting up all these new buildings and right now has become a gridlock. We're looking at developments on Palem Road which filter up to Main Street so they caused even more grid law. You know, where else can we get that money to improve that one little piece and then have money to do the other necessities in that Western location? It's funny, this particular property is on right on the border of Martha and mine district. So it flows through part of her district, then into my district, then if you wanted to take King's Highway, she has one side of King's Highway. She has the quiet side with the cemetery. And I have the other side. So she doesn't get the complaint site. So I'm just concerned that maybe, you know, we need a little more discussion about how we're going forward because like I said, we, I didn't know we were this close to the max for bonding. I had no idea while we went through that process with the other people. It's went out of the max. Max is 100%. No, I would say that. You told the IST was what before the bond rating changes and you said 22%. No, we're at that's we're at now. Yeah, but I wouldn't recommend more than 25%. What I'm saying is that we are at the max to impact our bond rating. That's the most important thing for us is the bond rating. We're approaching. Yeah, but we're very close. But how much will those other two properties cost in what we're finished with? We're probably going to be around $8,9 million, maybe more. Maybe a approval of what's for $10 million. Up to $10 million. So you don't have about $10 million. You're going to pull back $4, 5, 6, $6,500 500,000 approximately. So you're still, so you're pushing yourself up next to that 25%. And then there's no more room. And I'm just concerned. And the reason, I'm not trying to pin it on anybody, but my concern is that what's going on on a federal level right now is really, really concerning me because what I see right now is that we may very well, throughout the country, have our feet pulled out from under us with a lot of programs that were available in the past that might not be available in the future. So, it gives that we have no wiggle room. So, what I personally, I'm not opposed to some of this, like the one on Hudson Park, I spoke already to Ben Peresia, our commissioner, and he assured me that he has enough money available right now that he can do the things that he has to do. So that's very comforting and I don't have a problem with that. My big problem is that West, West and part of Main Street and the impact it's having and it's going to have even more impact as we continue to develop the downtown because it's going to bring even more cars in there. there. And it's a project that needs to be looked at and done relatively quickly. So if we pull that bonding, we might not have enough bonding available for a number of years before we can go back to that. And that's what I'm concerned about. Then I follow up to a question, I was asked a few weeks ago. Next year year we will have two bonds that will be eligible to be called. How much are there? Just sort of eight million but we'll be able to refinance those and refinancing. Councilman Wilson-Loyden asked that last time so I could check. Now I just don't want to lose the opportunity of doing this corner there because it's It's extreme, first of all, as a piece of property that we would have to take every year that we wait, it becomes more expensive. So, you know, I have a problem with that one. So, you know, I don't know if we have more conversation about it or, you know, just- I'm looking'm looking at something from 2019 that has moved, right, and just trying to figure out the right ways. When necessary to increase from the stock market. I mean, with more money in the bonding, you know, you go over it. We'll have to do another traffic study because things change. Yeah, I just want to be assured that at some point, you know, in a very near'll say this is my lifetime, which isn't that a piece, it's going to be long, long time. But I'd like to see that corner be done and done, where we can buy that property, improve the traffic flow over there, because remember, we're putting in a new traffic signalization that's going to get new traffic signalization if we wait on this you know we need a whole different signalization system which would probably cost a million dollars I mean King's Highway one light plus 250,000 dollars when we we read that that so this is a major corner with lights for all different directions and impossibly, you know, in that area, it's already two-way, but it'll need a lot of additional traffic lights for sat left turns, right turns. If you wait to do the street and expand it, the lighting system that you're going to put in now may not work. So, you know, the concern, you know, nobody knows DPW better than you. And then can we make sure then if we're not going to do it, to make sure that the lighting system that put in is expandable, to allow it to be moved, to accommodate that without having to waste the money on that corner. Because, and then, you know know somehow make sure that next year maybe we can come back and discuss this so that we can get this corner done at some point because at some point it's only it's getting progressively worse And like I said it would have been done except that we ran into the problem with COVID hitting and everything just dissipated Yeah, we'll'll talk about that. Council Member Halvas? Yes, not that I am very much into numbers. However, I do remember that the report that you gave us and a couple of months ago where you set up a guideline for every five years. And I know and I trust you 100% that you are physically responsible. So I have no doubt that we can do it with the money because you look at the numbers and numbers don't lie and you set up the percentage so that you could see that if there is a danger versus what is coming in and what is going down and the bonds that are going to be coming up. So I don't feel that worried because I know that you have your hands. And as we add in, that's what we look at things like this. Right, I know. What we forget. Right. Try and keep that up. So I'm going to thank you very much because I know you. It's good. Please come to the table. Other questions or comments on item number two? I do have a question only because item number four appears to be related to item number three. And I noted that in the Excel, the table that we received, there are some, of course, safety is tantamount. And I see that we bonded for the main wave and intersection six years ago. COVID, ironically, today is five years old for New Year's Shell. So I'm just wondering when it says R-O-W, like could like I'm assuming that we've done some like work has been I mean I don't know I'm not in the standing meetings for the districts, but I'm assuming that we the concerns that the council member has addressed city manager You're aware of through your meetings and that while this is being defunded that there's a there's a there's a point There's you know, we have a plan to address them about no to the council Okay. Okay. We'll continue to look at this. Being that a lot of factors have changed. Okay. Because it's been five years, a lot of things. Tremendous amount, right? Yeah, deep and w added to the location. Okay. And we've had increased traffic through just Costco, just in itself. And two-week conversion that's happening a little further. So I think it's time to look at and look at the study, the Supreme Police, and to set it free. And then that'll feed us into 20, 20, six. We haven't, it sounds like maybe just nothing has been done in the last five years on this issue. It's not a deputatistic issue, because of it. Oh, it was COVID and that. COVID, but we hadn't already started the process and then COVID hit it and then we decided to expand it to actually, they're going to try to realign the roads across the street as a bank now, but there's a parking lot next to it. They're going to realign the roads with Quaymen to make it a very simple cutover. The problem was the elevations there are so extreme that it would cost the cost was prohibitive to do it. And that was pushed aside and then we were going with just... And this has taken a couple of years just to get this done. So then we came back with, well, we'll just, we'll do the King's Highway because that would alleviate the pressure coming down from King's Highway and then, oh, this hit, you know, nothing was done. So, you know, what I'm looking for is that while we study this, we keep note of mind to make sure that, you know, in another year or so when the studies are done, we come back and address this corner because I think it's a critical corner for the traffic flow throughout that western part of the city that empties down into downtown. And also, not only does it impact there, it impacts the Weman Avenue corridor, but goes to the Pellum Road corridor. And if anybody travels I-95, they will see that many, many people get off of I-95 and the Bronx, come through the back, come down Pellum Road, and then start cutting up either through Weman, Neptune, and all the streets in that area that use cut troops. So this becomes a very critical corner and you know, City really hasn't addressed many, many, many years. These are the last traffic study was 21 because I was just looking at it. It was one in 18 where it was much more expanded. And then 21 it kind of shrunk down a little bit. But the COVID thing had sort of just stopped it. So you have that study and we can read, you know, take a new look at it. All right. Just caution that we have to be careful going forward because we're getting to that, you know, the thing we don't, we're very proud of our rating. We don't want to, you know, and we do have tremendous faith in our finance department, but you know, sometimes we as a council, sometimes we miss things. And you know, seeing that, I got a little concerned and out close we are. So these are two things that we're really talking about. We're talking about two different things. Right, so because I'm hearing the conversation around the bond, not necessarily being an issue relative to what you've described now around making sure that we keep this corner and our front burner because of the reasons that really lead out. That so that aspect of the conversation makes a lot of sense to me, to connect it to the reason why that should happen, associated with bonds for that for me that we were at recently thinking about now. I think there are two different kinds of conversations, but I appreciate keeping an eye on that particular corner. I'm on that corner every day, I'm walking in the colors. And a lot of the time people talk about the traffic patterns that are going on there. A lot of the time they talk about the construction that's going on at Webster app, and events. That's really adding to a lot of this. So there are a number of complications in the overall design of traffic while building that are playing a role in this as well. So I think that's a part of this. Thank you so much. Yeah, there is a connection between the two bonds because if we don't be sitting these bonds and we go forward with the other bonds, we would then be over that 25%. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. If I think you said that, when I say 25 would be where I would say please don't borrow anymore. No, but what if you left these two, these bonds in place? Okay, you're at 22%. $10 million in bonds for the other property, sprint you to where? About 23%. 23, so you still under it? Mm-hmm. So then why recent the bond for? With other projects. But why, but why then recent, say I can understand the the Hudson Park one but then why we send The bond for Kings highway. Why don't we proceed? Forward as quickly as possible to address that problem. You know, obviously I'll just to Or city manager why you know because it's it's not a big bond. It's a relatively small bond. So why don't we can have Vesta both worlds? Do you think there was a matter of rescinding just authorization? We would rescind the authorization of the ratings. Ultimately, it would shut the project down, at least as it is right now. Yeah, we'd have to come back and talk about it. We'd have to come back and we'd have to. And nobody knows what's going to happen. You know, I just, I'm very passionate about that corner because I see it all like what David said. It's a lot of traffic there. And it impacts a lot of people. I mean, even going to school with their children from Sikomot Park or cutting through the Jefferson School, there's a lot, a lot of traffic there. You're competing with, through a traffic, traffic on a cost of home depot in the morning, the diner, the city yard, it all happens. So my question is, why don't we just then leave, you know, the other one is not an issue. The big one is with Hudson Park because according to Vin, we have quite a bit of money still available for Hudson Park. And, you know, down the road, we can always look for more money if we need it for Hudson Park. But, you know, that I was fine with. But with this particular one, you know, if we don't have to rescind it, and we're only jumping up one percent, you still got two, you got to. I'm looking five years down the road of the glory that's coming. And I'm trying to make sure we keep space as we go. Yeah, but you're saying that next year, you're going to have another $8 dollars coming away. No, we're going to refund it into a better interest rate. Oh, still around. We're just going to pay some. We're going to come up next year. We'll put the tax payers on it. What's coming off next year or anything? No. Yeah, it's a question of sorry. Just to reset a little bit. Because the part that's sticking out to me is the bond was issued six years ago. And it sounds like there are some initial studies in that first 12 months and it sounds like from 2020 to now for five years, it's really been what? Like there's not been any movement on this project. Is that fair? No, because there was. There was a look at expanding the project and making it much bigger. And that took a period of time. I don't know how many years that it was, but it was a couple of years. And then we went through changes in DPW. We've changed commissioners. So we've sort of, how we set, then COVID hit. And when COVID hit, all of those types of things sort of shut down. Right. My only reaction to that is, as I understand the bonding process, based on prior conversations we've had with the finance team, is we don't like to borrow until we have an amount certain that we're ready to move on, because why pay interest on something that's not moving. And so if I'm hearing COVID as an outlier date, and I'm hearing my traffic study in 2021 as a secondary outlier date, and I'm still that it's 2025. Let's be clear. But I'm hearing at least four years of where there just hasn't been any movement and we're paying interest on an amount. And we haven't borrowed this yet. We don't think the bomb is okay. But my pretty good make sure is like we don't like to author, you like to wait until we're ready to move because why why have this like in our portfolio otherwise? And so if we add on the other complicating, mitigating factors of the new bank and all the new sort of traffic that's increased, this amount is, it might be more, it's not like a real amount, it's not an amount that is justified through a project is my point. So this doesn't stop us from reassessing and coming back, like this doesn't preclude the work from happening, right? Like it's just the point. I mean, come through to it. It's already been, an amount has already been authorized. So if you keep it there, you could proceed with the project. Right. Or we could do another take, another look at it, we find it by doing the traffic so many things have tried double-centred LA fitness is there you have all this you have a two way you have so we could redefine it right and as focused on just this intersection because I think what happened was correct me from wrong maybe the projects scope creep a little bit went from just looking at this intersection then to modifying areas of Coruscis Street and it became a much bigger endeavor so what we could do is take another look at this and just focus on this particular property and this particular intersection with the new factors that came in right the increased retail in the area and so forth and take another study, then that'll kind of hone in on the real number. And the factors will have to come back for reauthorization. We could of a number. So that's one way. I see. And we could, you know, when we get that close to our number, we could then do our capital budget process, which has come up in a couple months, then have a much more finite or accurate number. Right. We could have carried that number into our next, and we could exactly what's up to. We could define that now in the budget season this year, and then carry that number for next year, for a more accurate bond of the position. You were going to say something else, remember? No, I just wanted to read the time for the study. How long would it take? Well, we would have to scope out the study. It'll be several months. So scope out the study and that. When are we able to bring this bond back? Should be able to bring, so we could get this study in an NA, if we could zone in, hone in on what the cost would be, you could bring the bond back next year, in 2016. So we can include it in our budgeting council is going to have to decide what you want to do. We can beat this to death. It's too much. It's too much. Is there a way you could leave it there or you could bring it in and get a more accurate number and we could authorize it. We could also, I mean, there are probably booby higher. No, that's not blacking it. This 2.2 might not be in the sounds like it's going to be higher. Right. And within the number on the self chart, there are 750 and the 1.5. There are actually two separate off of patients there. No. One of them could be rescinded. then another could be kept as sad as that was an option as well. It could correct me if I'm wrong, but if you wanted to leave the 750 as an option and take away the 1.5 just to have something there to get started, we can also have that option as well. So just to throw that out there. Well the 750 is for... It's all the same project. It was just two bond authorizations. Oh there's two in that one number? Correct, yes. Okay. But it looks like the best course of action for our books and for our management of moving forward with this would be to you know perform the traffic assessment, look at the area and then come back with a more accurate number. That would be the best management practice and that's what we're finishing right now. That makes them most sense. I mean, for something to sit on our books authorized for six years, COVID did happen for them, so one of the largest infrastructure bills of all time. So we've had time to do things on this and we need to move forward. I think Martha and I, we met a month and a half ago and talked about everything from, you know, the heart of the downtown all the way to the exit that's over there. So, you know, if we want to move things forward, I think it's difficult between this project bonding this and the other ones is that, you know, we have very active hands on the Haga Dorn and on that CBS property trying to move those projects forward. So I think it's important that, you know, for proper management, you know, we clear this off until we're ready to actually move forward and just make sure that we're very assertive with actually getting something done in states is where we're responding for it. It makes the most financial fund, correct? If we're not ready to move on the project right now, yes, it makes the most financial fund. Okay. That's what I'd like to go for. So there's no issue with the 4 million, I think, right? You're okay with the off the right thing, but Hudson Park. It's a... Okay. You could leave it. Okay. It's a sense. You're going to the project basically kind of to end up with kills the project. We could bring it back as another project, or more defined scope to it, or you could leave it there and carry it, pursue the project using that combination. Just so for it to either work. Okay. Better understanding the two are including the one vote. We can split. Can we split? We can split. Well it's three right? It's three actual authorization listed. Yes. But why would we? So for you, so for you. So let's three, right? It's three actual authorizations listed. Yes. But why would we? So, to you? So, to you. So, let's just keep the other. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. I don't know. I would like a roll call on it, definitely. And then, you know, everybody can say their piece. Oh, we need a motion first, because right now, the motion as the item as presented has three authorizations one for Hudson Park and two for the main women's intersection as I read page seven of the packet And so The vote as written be to deauthorize all three to do anything different. We need a motion to amend item number three removing or leaving that's probably the easiest language. We only leaving Hudson Park and removing the 750,000 resolution number 2019 10 in 2019 278. That's how I'm hearing it on the floor. Is there a motion to buy for Kate item number three? Which would be we both in the end of the go take time. Yep. Yep. The page seven of the packet is what I'm looking at page seven packet page seven I think it's before the chart And just to clarify, this is being done, but I'm hearing a commitment to actually do a traffic study so that we can explore the right way to fix this intersection. Is that right? I see your saying, like making sure that the study happens even if we don't even fix food. Proceeding with the project. Yeah. The project is dormant. So the bond authorization needs to stay. And we would restart the project. And we need the bond authorization to restart. Like the traffic studies in the cost money. Right? I mean, nothing's free. Thank you. So please. Suggestion. So a part of the budget adjustment, is the Excel spread. In your packet patient? Package 12. Okay. So the top, the second line down from the top, it's a $110,000. Okay. That's cash. That's money that we have. It's not a bond. We have it in our bank account. What we were doing here was we were if we were defunding the project because it hadn't moved, we were taking that cash and moving it into a quality of life, street lighting, and initiative that we're going to look at. I can go back to the drawing board and find other cash to make that up and leave this cash here. So if you have $10,000 to do the study, and to analyze properly, and then if you vote to do authorize, we can then come back with a more accurate number. So it would be a matter of, we would kind of table this, I guess, for now, and we would revise it for our own. That's... I just want to tell you, my paternity, and you want to, like, how do you feel about that? where the 110 be designated to study, money, and then the balance can be deauthorized. And I mean, they're going to come back with a big rascal. We know that. Yeah, I just want to make sure that we're going to come back with this because it's so important. Yeah, and I think I'm just hearing from the people. I think it's, well, getting mixed. I mean, I just, I just, you know, it's very, very important. It's important to all of our I just, I just, you know, it's very, very important. It's important to all of our districts, all of our districts, so I think that, you know, if we do that, use that for the study, and let's try to expedite the study, because we do more studies than that. We can talk about that another day, yes. I think it's important for us to be impeccable with our wording though. Because we're not defunding something. We are deauthorizing funding that was formally approved through bonding to actually get something done half a decade ago that wasn't done. That's clearly what we're actually doing. I'm a Costco member so I would love to. I love Home Depot so I would love the traffic around there to be in the room. We would be pulling this back. Hold on, sorry, let's just be very precise. We'll be pulling back three or four. Three and four. Both three and four. OK, because you had the Excel chart and that's four. OK. We'll bring back the real work is in the Excel chart. finding a replacement $100,000 for this quality of life, which I believe I already have in my head pay. That's why you're in that we need. Uh, Uncle Chuck. Good to see you. You want to take care of that? I'm going to come back. Three and four will be cold and then see. We'll come back. And then what we do is before we come back, let's make sure we have, you know, we find to a point where it works, but like I said, it's just, you know, my fear is that next year we come back and say we don't have the money to do it, and that's going to be problem. And Councilman, I'm telling you, it's your district, so I'm going to rely on you to be happy with this study, right? It's my district. Like I said, it's my district, at the mouth of Kim Saewa, this side of the mouth of Kim Saewa is more of this. And this is... Yes, fair. like I said it's my district at the mouth of Kim's highway this side of the mouth of Kim's highway is Martha's and this is so we split it down the middle you know I think that we have to also have to take measure make sure that the lanes and each side but you know it's just an important The project is still alive. Yes, it's just categorizing thing. The prosa can still allow. Yes, especially just categorizing the money that we need to be taking. Just to touch on some other stuff. You know, you have, you know, the EPW right there now, when we did the study the last time, wasn't even considered that. So, you know, that also would be interesting with that. That's why it has the study. And who knows, we might have to find more money. Yeah? Did you have any detail about that too? I think so. All right, often see. Right in my world. So, okay, so we are holding items three and four. And you'll come back with more revised transparent. Thank you very much. Thank you. Moving on to item number five. Proposed amendment to the Code of the City of New York shall regarding section 301-12. Trees and shrubs responsibility for trimming. I think, Council Member Tarrick, you had some recommendations last time as well. Yeah, now we find your correct. I got it. Excellent. Commission on Punso La Reina, anything you'd like to add? Thank you, it a little messy. We were going back to the regional language. It was going to be confusing. So, I'm glad we landed at the New York Women's World. No, thank you. It's cleared up. Better understanding, I would say. Any other questions or comments on item 5 comes from every stirrer. What does geometric road conditions mean? So that has to do with the side angles, within the right of way. If it is determined that a certain intersection needs additional trimming because for safety and to see farther what's coming into our pick. Then we do retain the right to require that additional trimming. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on item number five? Hearing none, may I have a motion to move item number five to the consent agenda? I see council members Lopez and Kay, first and second, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? Great. Item number six is still you, commissioner. Propose the amendment to the code of the city of New Yorkshire regarding parking regulations for the handicap seven weeks place. Who do you like to add? Council member Kay, this is your district. I believe that's also some emails. I believe you're aware. Yes, thank you. Good morning. Great. Any questions or comments on item number six? Hearing none, may I have a motion? Then a second to move item six to the consent agenda. Council Member Kay is a first and a second. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Excellent. Item number seven, still you, proposed amendment to the code of the city of New Shell, we're going to eat parking regulation on North Avenue. It was like 207 to 209. Anything we'd like to add in? No again, council amendment peers. I believe you solved the proposal. He's pretty straightforward. I've not asked for any questions. Two new businesses that opened here I think right? The Optometry Shop. I'm not for any questions. And they have. Two new businesses that opened here, I think, right? The Optometree shop. And the platform. I'm not sure which in commerce is going in. The existing front of that big development on the phone is not 55. Excellent. Any questions or comments on item number seven? Hearing none may have a motion and a second. Comes a member, Peters and Ashiloy, all in favor favor say aye. Any opposed? Item seven moves to the consent agenda. Moving on to item number eight, which I think you're half the hook now commissioner. And now commissioner Slogador, you are back in the pit. Item number eight is the proposed reallocation of community development block grant, common lino and SDBG funds regarding various improvements. It's a resolution adopting the reprogramming of various amendments over a set period of time. Anything you'd like to add to item number eight? No, just as a periodically, we sort of evaluate the funds that have been sort of sitting around and CDBG for a long time, sort of for a variety of reasons. We haven't really moved them along. And I think the projects, many cases have found other funding sources. So we're proposing to move those funds into the sidewalk and ADA improvements throughout the city. So there's already 150,000 in the budget, so we're adding another 535 into the sidewalks. And then there's also 101,000 that was a previously identified funding source for the train station redevelopment, but just the transaction was never processed. So we're just just reauthorizing and I'm going to do it today but in general we're adding the money for the sidewalks and for the ADA improvements at Lincoln Park. Excellent. Any questions or comments on item number eight? Thank you for moving this forward. There you go. Terrying then we have a motion and a second for item Oh this is in partnership with a public hearing so we actually moving this Lincoln and then the brief. Just intro, right? And then I with a public hearing. So we're actually moving this licensure agenda, number eight. Just intro, right? Is nine just a public hearing? All right, so we are doing the on eight now. It's just the language. But moving on to item number nine is a proposed public hearing related to what the commissioner just discussed. And the public hearing would happen on April 8th. They have a motion in a second. So wait, for the public hearing. A motion in a second authorizing the public hearing, Ashiloye and Peters on Favourite say aye. I don't really know. Any opposed? Really moving on to item number 10. This is you again, Commissioner. Proposed the acceptance. This is really great. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Climate Smart Communities and Water Quality, what a title. Improvement Project Grants. Anything you'd like to add to item number 10? No, I think it's pretty self-expanded. We got five awards last year. And this is just a procedural step off rising us to continue to submit the applications and identifying the city match. Or I can read them if you'd like to climb an adaptation plan, the fleet inventory, the food waste, recycling, pilot, the organic management plan, and the Glenwood Lake Dam. We received $810,000 for the food and food to the Glenwood Lake Dam. Okay, is Dean in my way? Please go ahead. And I just want to note that we were the municipality that received the most number of awards through this program. Most other municipalities don't want to get one. We have five, so it's a very impressive. And when we talk about costs of green programs, let's keep in mind how much money these programs bring in. Great. Any other questions or comments on item 10 comes with a stern. So if I understand it correctly, the Glenwood Lake Dam repair, we had already allocated money to do that regard. and item 10 comes with a stir. So if I understand it correctly, the Glenwood Lake Dam repair, we had already allocated money to do that regardless this year. And so is this kind of supplanting some of those dollars? Yes. Okay. Great. Yep. We leveraged an existing project that was shovel ready. And that's sort of like the sort of what we've been doing. Just like trying to identify the projects that are ready to go and we're possibly still with the funds. Just as a follow-up on the. Yeah. To our city managers, so there's not me if we acquire additional funding from, let's say, for example, other government entities, we'd be able to use it for the responsible reshaping and redevelopment of that lake. If we were getting more funding. Yes. Yeah, we have more scope to the proclamation. I understand that the neighborhood association and their environmental association are so exhausted with acronyms right now so I can't get into it. But I know that they're very concerned with the up interested in the opportunity to do perform some dredging that's there and to make sure that their trees are managed in the way that's responsible to the environment as we, you know, make these very necessary improvements to the dam that you've elaborated to them. So just to keep it real though, we are in the middle of scoping out in the design of that project. We just scope that we have right now. So anything based on the funding that we have now. So I mean, I'll borrow and can speak more, but we are currently, we have a set scope right now that we're designing to. Okay it's good to get money that can not allow us to reallocate money and additional monies would require addition school okay which would mean additional conversations between your team and other other I just got ready that way just to try after. Okay. Okay. Any other questions or comments on item number 10? Hearing none, may have emotions in a second to move item 10 to our consent agenda, I sister and MK, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Brilliant. Item number 11, proposed acceptance of grant funding regarding New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, zero emission vehicle rebate program NYS. Debt is Zeb Grant. Good Lord. Good Lord. Yeah, we call it the Zeb Grant. Is that okay? I don't know. I don't know if I can. 10 years or so, and it's been a great way when the city has a fleet of electric vehicles. We've been using these onaps. The department, I don't know, it meant pretty much relies on the Nissan Leaps for this bag. And we've got four of them this year, so we got a grant of $30,000, $75,000 for vehicle. And it's the third time we've gotten this set for the state. Questions or comments from my colleagues and I didn't number 11? I just want to comment that you know funding opportunities like this is important. We are all concerned for the immediate future due to things that are happening through the Trump administration level. So I'm very thankful that you guys have done this. We might see an increase in costs of materials and vehicles and inputs and decrease in funding opportunities and labor and things like that. So this is very important for mitigating against the future and the present. Yeah. Any new? No, I may have a motion and a second to move. I don't have a love entire consent agenda. I see K and Stern, all in favor say aye. All right. The opposed. Kiyuki, moving on to 12. This is a proposed support of New York State legislation regarding packaging reduction and recycling infrastructure act to resolution supporting some state legislation. I see post-fonsorship by three of our colleagues, Aachenliya K and Stern, city manager. Yeah, this is just a continuous port of the legislation. I don't think there's any monetary impact to us right now, but it's just our support of this council. Often, questions or comments on item number 12, council member Kaye. So we did this resolution last year around this time and the bill is stalled out. And so now it's back for working its way through committees and so it's just showing our support for this legislation. It would reduce plastic packaging use by 30% over 12 years. And there are some fees for non-compliance and they say that those monies would be distributed to me in the subalities so it could actually bring in some. Thanks. A dicey your hand up, because I wish you a late please. Just two comments. One is thank you for the opportunity to have the adendum for the research into materials, you know, material science and research to, so that we're not sacrificing quality at the same time as we're trying to protect our environment, especially when it's not necessary, sometimes it is. And I would just, you know, just, there's a typo here in alphabetical order and order of importance. I just need to see Sarah K's name before my So if we could just do a quick copy paste and move that forward, I'd be very thankful Do we know it any other comments or questions on item number 12, councilmember Stern? I just want to say this this came about because of a resident suggestion so thank you to a district six resident. There you go. Wow District district fried today resident suggestion, so thank you to District 6 resident. There you go. Wow. District Friday today. Any other, to Council Member Kaye, back to you, Vib. I believe it. I don't know if it's always our process or it says so in the resolution, but like will you share this with the state? Oh right that to send this along once it's adopted to the appropriate estimate. To last state. Once names are reordered as appropriate. Is it? Yes, the last period. All right. Yes, thank you. The City manager authorized to forward copies of the resolution to the governor, the assembly speaker, the Senate majority leader, the local assembly member deemed necessary in proper. Maybe the resident, I mean, just those in there. Right? Okay. Once, uh, the city manager, uh, once you adopt it, you'll manage that. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on item number 12? Hearing none, may I have a motion then a second to move items 12 to the consent agenda? Okay. Asom Louie, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? Great, and item number 13 is something that I asked to be brought to the agenda. You know, Nurechelle with our incredible downtown development, I think there's still concerns from residents about rent protection for those who were late, well, across the city, but in particular those who are some of our older rentals. And so I've been hearing from different of our colleagues just in conversations and certainly with residents. So I just want to work with our city manager and whoever you designate to understand really, like what's the lay of the land as legislation? And what is the data that we actually have? It's easy to focus on the new buildings, but we know that there are older buildings and different ownership. So just trying to understand data, legislation, and what are some of the protections we can offer to some of our renters so that everybody feels a part of the city doesn't feel like we're encouraging anybody to have to leave. So just more dialogue, but just formally naming it so that residents know where we are and we're taking answers. With that said, we have, oh, any other questions or comments on 13, rather? Yes, I'll come to my versionally. I just want to thank you for bringing it forward, Madam Mayor. I've heard a number of horror stories from some of our tenants. Many of them have families with children that are in our school system that are very concerned for their housing, that an eviction or an eviction proceeding can cause trauma that can last you through your housing experience. And this is one of the most fundamental aspects of humanity having a place as well. So thank you for bringing this conversation forward. And I know that all the constituents that have reached out to us, because I know some of them have reached out to you as well and to our peers. You know, this is a massive concern as far as its impact to renters. Over 50% of our city are our rental residents and very concerned about the impact of our development. So we need to make sure that we're looking out for them on a regular basis. Absolutely and the family family is actually that where we refer to me are professionals that are really trying to make ends meet. And it's been very, very difficult. And then aside from that, you know, thinking we're gonna become homeless and what are we gonna do? So through the county, we have an attorney that's working at the attorney hour. Yes, George Asante has been extremely helpful. And so we need to address that. Thank you. Oh, please. I would say generally I'm looking, I'm excited to have some real recommendations for this because, you know, I think people often think that this might hit homeowners against renters when I think it's beneficial to everybody. Especially, even in my district, which is a lot more homeowners, proportionally, a lot of parents want their children to move back and be near them, but their children can't afford to. and they can't afford to stay in New Rochelle. And it's good for intergenerational, kind of worship, and looking for other stuff. So hearing nothing else on item 13, we do have two matters of executive session. One relates to advice of council and one is related to a personnel appointment rather. May I have a motion and a second to enter into executive session please. Councilmember Lopez and the theaters. I'll be able to say aye and the oppose brilliant. So this part of the meeting comes to a close. We will reconvene at 7 p.m. for public hearing. No, citizens to hear. Good evening. Welcome to the public comment portion of tonight's meeting. And before we begin, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Good evening and welcome to the March Public Hearing portion of our meeting. Tonight we actually do not have any public hearings. So we will shift directly to citizens to be heard. When your name is called, please repeat your name. Provide your address. Please note that you were limited to three minutes to speak on any topic of your choosing. There is a handy dandy clock in the corner. And if you'd like to speak this evening, please fill out the white card. Our first registered speaker is Carmen Perez. Good evening, everyone. My name's Carmen Perez. I live at 48 Lea Land Avenue District 2, I believe. We're home owners. We moved to New Rochelle in about 2018. We have one child at Trinity and one at Isaac Young. First timer at a public hearing. I just had a couple thoughts I wanted to share tonight. Some ideas. We love New Rochelle. We go to summer sounds. We use the scooters. We use the Transit Center. You know, we're here to live and grow with our family. One thing is, one idea I had that I wanted to share in this forum is finding new ways for citizens to share feedback on an ongoing basis. I'm a data analyst as part of my career and things like pulse surveys where people can more informally sort of weigh in on issues without having to come and speak or come to a meeting or come to a forum, could really enhance the ways that people can give feedback on really even small things. You know what kind of playgrounds to choose up to larger things as time goes on and everyone feels more comfortable with that. I know that the coffee chats that you're doing shows sort of an openness to other ways for people to engage. So that's one. I also attended my first planning meeting last month, and I had a couple thoughts about possibly amending components of what I now call the DOZ. So that law was passed a long time ago. If any of these catch your ear, maybe a resolution could be sponsored or explored for these things. So one is that all units seem to be the 24-story limit. Maybe lowering that to the 10 to 14, 15-story level for the balance of the units that are available. I learned that there's a silver lead rating, which is lead is really outdated, and silver is like only barely off of the minimum. So I think to be a modern growing city updating the standards for how buildings are insulated, how they're heated and cooled would really consider the long term for the city and all the new buildings that are going up. Pilot funds for schools. We know we've got a school budget crisis. I know that there's separation between the two bodies, but it seems like an opportunity to help schools continue to grow. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Our next registered speaker is James O'Tool. Good evening, James O'Tool, 230 North Avenue of the city. I didn't watch the meeting this afternoon, but that parking situation that you people are even considering in front of 207 North Avenue, moving the bus stop down a few hundred feet and taking away a loading zone is absolutely absurd. Number one, you have the stellar parking coming out. So now you're gonna put the bus stop in front of brand new businesses, the eye shop and the florist. So now the bus is gonna stop the direction from those people coming out of the stellar, which by the way, doesn't have the no left turn that they're supposed to have coming out of the garage and the no right, sorry, the no right, the no left turn coming out and a no left turn from North Avenue, that the planning board approved the signs were never put up. And that entrance, that exit and entrance was supposed to have gates. So the people that are crossing the sidewalk won't get killed, which is going to happen now that you moved the bus stop and took away the only loading zone for all the businesses in that area. Now let's go to the Vanguard district that we're calling it, that dump. Miss Mayer, I will tell you, you wanna have coffee and with the mayor, set up on Anderson Street or set up in library green. Don't bring coffee, bring a lot of drugs and bring condoms because that's all that's going on on library green and on Anderson Plaza. It's an absolute nightmare. Look at the police reports. Look at them and tell me I'm wrong. It's a disaster over there. Library Green and Anderson Plaza is an absolute and I won't use it. Hold. That's what it is. I live right there. You any one of you, I challenge any one of you, stay a weekend in my building, in my apartment. I'll give it to you for nothing. You won't come back there. The noise, the crap that's going on out there every night. The double park cars. Numerous double park cars. Nobody does nothing. The cops go up, beep, beep, beep, beep, write them tickets. The moped's, Anderson pleasure should be moped-led Pazza. That's what it should be called. The mopeds, these deliveries, they don't care. They throw garbage everywhere. It doesn't matter. Come live my life. You people all live there. Come to downtown Nerochelle, 230 North Avenue. Look at it. I've been there 59 years. Mark my words. This is the worst I've ever seen it. And you want to put advertisements up a Vanguard? I sit on the bidboard. I'm ashamed of what's going on down there. Behind that CVS is an absolute nightmare and you do nothing. And the bar won't, people call you, Miss Mayor.er I know they did and wrote letters and everything something has to be done when you're gonna do something. Thank you our next speaker is Nicholas Brown. Hi good even my name is Nicholas Brown'm a resident at 18 west whatever now. Been there for nine years. I have three boys. My oldest is 12 and I have twin boys who are eight. I'm speaking on behalf of the block in regards to repaving. So Anthony Laurie, who can't be here today, got a petition from everyone on the street to put something together. He sent a letter to Councilman Stern to get the street repaved. It was declined. Some of the details given says that they used software to analyze the roads. Some of our concerns were that Pershing and also Robbins Road, which intersect with our blocks, were repaved and ours wasn't Clearly the software is not working We know that software to a certain extent, you know is not a hundred percent If you walk down our block there's multiple potholes. There's gravel all over the place It's a great place for families Kids play constantly the weather's nice and warm outside right now kids are outside outside all the time riding bikes, playing basketball. It's a shame that this one block just has potholes and gravel all over. We'd please ask if you could reconsider repaving the road. On behalf of Anthony Laurie, just want to read maybe one or two sentences of his letter just to make sure that I represent him. This is from him since I resided my current resident 32 Westwood Avenue in excess of 25 years. The road has never been resurfaced. Petition requesting resurfacing was submitted and the request was denied. The unsightly rough patches, different color sizes, too many numerous to count. The ruts and the patches throughout are accompanied by unslighted cracked surfaces. Last year, a portion of Robins Road, perpendicular to westwood, was resurfaced. The adjacent street purging, which was very good condition, was inexplainably resurfaced as well. So with that, please reconsider repaving our road. It's going to help our resell value, the kids to play better, it's going to make us all feel better. Appreciate it. Thank you. If you want to submit the document you read from to our WD clerk, we can just include it as part of the comments. That way you have everything. Thank you so much. Our next registered speaker is Weniki Wangi, and just for folks who came in a little after I gave the instructions if you'd like to speak you can fill out the white card on the table and when you get to the mic Please repeat your name your address give your address and you have three minutes sir. Good evening everyone my name is Juan Ike Mungi I live at 44 Westwood Avenue and I'm here in support of the residents of Westwood Avenue and also my neighbor and friend Nicholas Brown Brown. Yeah, I have two kids. I've been in the neighborhood less time, around five years. I have 11-year-old who's at Albert Leonard and a nine-year-old who's at Webster, and they love playing outside. And I've noticed more recently, especially as the weather's getting nicer, that there's actually cars moving a lot faster on our block, and I think one reason is because Pershing has not just a repaid service but speed bumps as well. So in addition to repaving and resurfacing the road which I think is the first step. I just think that our neighborhood in our block in particular where there's lots of kids, this needs to be re-looked at in terms of ways to make it safer. I'm proud to be a suburban right now from New York City. So I know that things can take a long time in terms of getting things fixed. But now that I am a tax paying member of a community, I just wanna make sure that I'm not just representing my family, but I'm representing our neighborhood and that there's anything that can be done just to kind of relook at the issue. Not just for long standing residents like Mr. Laurie, but also for new families like myself to make it a safer place for kids to play outside. not just because our property values will go up, but really it's for the kids and it's for our family. Thanks so much, I appreciate you. Thank you. Do we have one more card, Ms. Mary Lou? Diana, did you sign in? Okay, because I know who she is, Diana Lovett and who we can get the card. If you plan on registering to speak, you could just fill out the white card. If not not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can see the comments. I'm not sure if you can but you have the three minutes. Okay, so this is from Kwamean Dixon. Good evening to all the council members and this is about the tenant protections that you guys were discussing. The good cause ofiction law is intended to protect those who rent in order to have somewhere to live. This law will ensure that renters will not be evicted for unjust and unprovoked reasons. This law will protect the black and brown renters who live in our community. This will no doubt benefit and protect those who live in districts 2, 3, and 4. This law requires landlords to have good cause to end a tendency, limiting evictions, and recurring lease renewals, especially in market apartments, also with rent caps for certain increases. I hope that the City Council will vote this into law unanimously. Thank you, Kwame Indexman. And I can I just add my own statement to okay, yeah. So I just wanted to kind of echo what Kwame said. I know you guys had talked about it earlier. And I just wanted to thank you all so much, Matt of Mayor and all the City Council people who considered or are considering this topic and nearly half of our residents are renters and our eviction filings are over 1,000 in 2024 alone, which is back up to our pre-pandemic levels. So right now we don't have any protections against arbitrary evictions or unreasonable rent increases. So over 70% of tenant displacement occurs before the formal eviction, so that doesn't even capture all the people who are given non-renewals for absolutely no reason. So I really hope that you guys will consider this to help keep our community together and you guys have been amazing leaders on developing new housing and I hope will protect our community and keep the housing that we do have and ensure affordability for now and into the future. So I also hope if you do consider this, that you'll set the portfolio size to one, that'll cover the maximum number of units, and it'll be consistent with other cities and prevent against the LLC loophole exploitation, and it enables long-term family planning and community stability and aligns with proven implementation models from other cities. So thank you all so much for discussing this important topic and for giving me a moment tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our last registered speaker is Gina Walsh. Again, if you intended on speaking this evening, now's your time to fill out the card. Ms. Walsh. My name is Gina Walsh, and I'm here with my husband, Donald Dwellish and we are lifelong residents here of Neuroshow. I wasn't planning on coming up here and speaking, it's my first time at a council meeting, so thank you for giving me the opportunity to address this. When I saw my other two neighbors from Westwood Avenue come up here, I felt obligated to come and talk to you as well. My husband and I have lived on Westwood Avenue for 26 years, and in that time, our street has not been paved. And it is a walking community as well. People from other communities come because we have a nice area. It's sort of a dead end place, so people feel comfortable walking their dogs there, their children in carriages. My husband and I walk regularly in the neighborhood and it really is a hazard because there are so many potholes and there's a lot of gravel all over the road because they've done some patchwork over the last few years. But that is coming up now. It's disintegrating. So if you could please reconsider, I'd appreciate it. Thank you for your time tonight. Mrs. Walsh. That was our last registered speaker speaking slowly in case someone changes their mind. Seeing no movements or gestures my way, asking me to stop the clock. I'm going to call this meeting to a close, have a good night, and enjoy the extended sunlight.