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Common Council Meeting with Committee of the Whole Meeting June 17th, 2026

16 matches · 10 unidentified

Unidentified speaker 52:08

So, I mean, we've said before that we had some issues with the ordinance that the Council passed, just as it relates to kind of that last portion of the application process. I mean, if you want me to go through the entire memo, I will. But with respect to the actual application process as it exists now. There has not been a new process that's been changed in accordance with the ordinance that the Council just passed. So as you can see, we just recently got several requests for a flag raising. You can see based on the applications that we haven't gotten them 3 or 4 weeks in advance. And there's a number of questions of whether or not proclamations, you know, the process as far as— [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Chicken and the egg, the, you know, all of these things need to come before, and then you're kind of basically having an application process for really just the date and time of the flag raising. Because my read of the ordinance as proposed and as adopted, there's only 3 ways that an ordinance— or excuse me, that a flag can be raised. So having this application process is a little bit redundant. And again, it creates—

54:28

So having an application process as is, which is what we already had before this moment, which is We had the application. It's not an application process, it's confirming, it's just submitting the request.

Unidentified speaker 55:58

And nationality, I believe. So I don't believe there was a request for any third-party flag. So those are the— if you had one of these flags, you filed your application, and we did that. Right now, the application process, again, and you create a chicken and the egg situation because you need, based on this legislation, there's only 3 ways. You need to have a proclamation or resolution, to then request a flag raising. You need to have an official event or a ceremony announced by a proclamation or resolution, and then a flag raising. Or the Mayor can raise a flag for a specific professional sports team. So those are all the things that have to occur before you even do the flag raising. So really, it's not an application. You're basically confirming a date and time to hang the flag. Oneida County Public Works. Once you start allowing for applications, again, the line becomes blurred that is this my application, is it just a yes or no?

Unidentified speaker 1:38:48

I've been following this discussion. And your legislation regarding certain things was sort of up in the air. I don't know that anybody knows very much about the process and what the process is, especially out in the public. But, you know, you're at a Common Council of City the of Utica, you can do whatever you want. You can waive, you waive residence requirements, you waive a lot of things. If there is some good reason for you to raise, to waive a rule that just became an ordinance because you wrote a veto, and You can do whatever you wish, and you don't have to argue about it. So if a Councilman wants a certain group, because Juneteenth is, I think, a national holiday, so it obviously qualifies anyway, and I can't see how an application process would be denied to celebrate any holiday. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] It's like the Fourth of July. So if you think that you would allow something to happen because there wasn't enough prior notice of a process that you just put into law by overriding a veto, you may do so. You make a motion, you second it, vote on it. If it passes, whatever the Councilman from the 5th District wishes to tell his constituents, who are the primary parties in this thing anyway, then he could do so. I'm just offering that as a way of keeping the community of this council in order without having a lot of bad feelings over things that, to me, at some point become much ado about nothing. So I offered that as a suggestion, and I offer that to the Councilman of the 5th District if he'd like to take advantage of that. And I don't— I can't really visualize you as a council not accommodating your 5th District Councilman and his constituency.

1:01:52

Here's where I get hung up on that, because my understanding based on what you'd mentioned is that was the process prior. There was an application process.

1:02:12

Wait, hold on, hold on. So we're not talking about an issue with the application process. We're talking about the substance of what is in the application. 'Cause that's kind of where I'm—

Unidentified speaker 1:34:34

So the city received an application under the old application process for Juneteenth.

Unidentified speaker 3:23:52

I wish to say that Mr. Georgia and I are going to look over the last ordinance that became a subject for the Council to think about that ended up in an override, et cetera. I'd just like to say that the flag— The flag has to be, and any application, has to be something that's recognized as being a legitimate representation of something. The flag was never really meant to be a government function. It was really to recognize certain groups in the community, like the Italian, the German, the Polish, and so on and so forth. So any application process has to be something recognized, and to the Councilman in the 5th District, if there is an event like the one he's talking about, there has to be— and I think there is a flag that the whole country recognizes. That is usually raised wherever it's raised. And then, of course, that's one thing, but to have 15 groups tell you, "I got one," or somebody draws something up in their cellar and wants to put it up at City Hall, it's not gonna happen. So I think practicality is going to be what Mr. Giorgio and I are going to look at with the permission of the council. And, uh, we've been asked to do that. We'll do our job and we'll see what comes of it.