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

6 matches · 4 unidentified

23:14

It's totally a different abatement than what Marcus is explaining about every day what we do with grass, what we do with garbage, board and secure. It's because that's a hazard, like he said. This, I get it's a hazard, but it's the people's property that they own, that that's their hazard, not ours.

Unidentified speaker 27:35

how dangerous do you want it? Like, where do you go, right? And so right now, our scope, me being the Codes Commissioner, house is unsecure, there's people getting in it, we have a lot of fires, we can board it. Grass is too high, got a tick problem, we can cut it. Garbage outside, rodents infestations, we can do it. Those are the only 3 cases in which we do it now. If we start doing that, what about a porch that's hanging? Now can we fix the porch, right? Like, you're getting into scope creep.

Unidentified speaker 2:43:35

Hello, my name is Raven Wormwood. As a— oh, yeah, I'm short. Thank you. As a resident of Utica, I do not support the installation of flock cameras anywhere in the city, and I ask that the current flock cameras be removed. Data from these cameras is accessible to outside agencies without explicit explicit local authorization. That alone makes many residents, including myself, feel less safe living in our home city. Furthermore, it diminishes the privacy of Utica citizens. If your goal has ever been to gain the trust of the people, this will only serve to accomplish the opposite. I do not want myself nor my neighbors to live in a place where we are treated like criminals at best and cattle at worst, who need to be under constant surveillance. Doing so would put us in an Orwellian dystopia, and for some of the members on the council. I'm certain that if you could read, you would understand the gravity of that statement. Given that the data leaks are inevitable, that immediately puts everyone in danger, including everyone on this council. If data gets leaked, you have given complete access to videos and pictures of yourselves, your homes, your habits, your children, to anyone who call— who can access it. And it's up to them what they do with that information. There is nothing secure about FLOCK cameras, and it's incredibly easy to hack into their systems, and once hacked, that information can be sold, and it can be exploited by individuals and organizations with malicious intent. I would have used this time to offer an abundance of examples of how this technology is currently being misused and abused all across the country, and end with statistics to appeal to your common sense, but as one of the board members expressed in a recent meeting. You're all very aware of how these cameras are costing people their security and in some cases their lives. And that same Councilmember concluded that they just don't care. So allow me to remind you that this isn't a behind-the-scenes politics issue. It's personal. And it's personal to all of us. You say that this is for the purpose of protecting us, but it just makes it easier for us to be stalked, targeted, and attacked. This is not in our best interest, and it's definitely not in your best interest. Thank you. Interests. Do not forget that you are also a part of this city. You are as vulnerable as you make the rest of us.

Unidentified speaker 2:48:23

That also happened more recently in the last administration with parents who wanted to go to school board meetings and were concerned about their children being masked at school. They were considered threats to be on a watch list. And now I hear that it's also happening with people who are opposed to data centers. So there's various corporate interests that somehow get people to be on different watch lists. So then this type of technology can be used to track and surveil people who are protesting against those sorts of things, even in a legal way. So now think about this, in 2020, the governor created a masking policy.

Unidentified speaker 2:51:51

Uh, so again, this is Lee Arthur. I'm, uh, a hotel manager from the Delta Marriott in Utica, talking about city bed tax, which is a little bit of a topic that maybe many people don't care about, but it has been around for a long time, hotel occupancy taxes. Chris Testito Sr. was probably one of the most respected members of the community over the last 50 years. Everybody has amazing things to say about him. He started Oneida County tourism. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] in 1980, and he was a founding member of Mohawk Valley EDGE, helping to, you know, bring back the business park at Griffiss. One reason everybody was so fond of him is collaboration, discussion, getting people together at the same table. You know, he was the one who kind of started the occupancy tax to collect tourism tax from hotel visitors, which, you know, it's not money from residents. But the purpose of that was to start Oneida County tourism, to bring more visitors, to bring more visibility to Oneida County, to hopefully get more people to come and stay. That was kind of the purpose of it. And I think, you know, he also brought in hotel operators to the discussion, brought them on the board of directors. He brought in Oneida County legislators as well as Utica and Rome. So that, that's— that was a successful way to implement a new Occupancy tax. The City of Utica did not bring in community members to discuss. Sure, they had a public hearing like this one, which is not the easiest to get up and speak about. They did not have an open dialogue with hotel operators. They did not reach out to Oneida County or Oneida County Tourism to have a discussion on how a city tax or occupancy tax should be done. Why was the tax added would be my question. Many people might say, Mr.— you know, Mr. Betrus, you're a respectable man. Mr. Giruzzi, I respect you as well. You know, you may say it's 3%, nobody's going to notice. Have you seen New York City? Have you seen New York City's taxes? They're so much higher than Utica. Yes, they are. I agree. But what does Utica have that some other neighboring mid-sized cities have? What does Utica have that Albany doesn't have, Rochester doesn't have, Saratoga doesn't have. Do we have an amphitheater? Do we have someplace that can house a major concert? Do we have downtown shopping? Do we have department stores? Can you buy a pair of jeans in Utica unless you go up to Walmart? So these are, these are some things that I'm asking. Why do we have a Utica City tax? Is it to build, bring more tourists, or is it, you know, just because we need more money for our budget? Did you know if somebody visits a town for one day, and they're spending— a day tripper, they may spend $70 to $150 for that trip in a mid-sized city like Utica. If they stay overnight, it's 2 to 3 times that. So that's $150 to $300. That's from the National Travel Center data. So, you know, they are spending money in our restaurants and our stores. I, I would ask the council members, why do you not value their visiting so much? Why do you want to just reach in their pocket and take $5 more.

3:29:07

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of John F. Hughes Elementary School, whereas John F. Hughes Elementary School is celebrating its 100th anniversary, marking a century of service to the children and families of the City of Utica, whereas established in 1925, John F. Hughes Elementary School stands as one of the oldest oldest continuously operating public schools in the City of Utica and the second oldest school building currently serving students in the Utica City School District. Whereas for the past century, John F. Hughes Elementary School has served generations of students, families, helping shape an educational cultural community life of Utica and the greater Mohawk Valley. Whereas the school proudly bears the name of John F. Hughes, who immigrated from North Wales to the United States in 1872 and went on to become the respected Utica civic and business leader, Director of the Utica Chamber of Commerce, and Commissioner of the Utica School Board from 1896 to 1903. Whereas, John F. Hughes' contributions to public education and modernization of Utica made his name a fitting and lasting symbol for the school dedicated to learning, service, and community progress. Proclaim the City of Utica Common Council hereby recognizes to celebrate the 100th anniversary of John F. Hughes Elementary School and extends its sincere appreciation to the entire John F. Hughes Elementary School community for its century of service to the City of Utica. Be it further proclaimed that this proclamation will forever be inscribed into the minutes of the City of the Common Council meeting on the 17th day of June, 2026.