Anthony Garramone · Utica Common Council Records

Activity over time

January 2, 2026 June 17, 2026

Talks most about

5th district 5 woods valley 5 golf course 5 skating rink 5 ski tow 4 waive 5 money 5 flag 4 national holiday 2 application process 2 ski slope 2 bunny hill 2 valley view 2 certain 3

Meeting appearances

The bar under each meeting marks when they spoke during it.

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

June 17, 2026 5m 33s speaking 3% of speaking time 8 remarks

Common Council Meeting with Committee of the Whole Meeting February 4th, 2026

February 4, 2026 6m 2s speaking 5% of speaking time 16 remarks

Common Council Meeting January 2nd, 2026

January 2, 2026 2s speaking 0% of speaking time 1 remarks

Frequent dialogue partners

Immediate transcript handoffs around Anthony Garramone: who speaks next, and who Anthony Garramone answers.

They reply Anthony Garramone replies

Joseph Betrus, Jr. 14 handoffs · 2 meetings 7 / 7 balanced Jack LoMedico 7 handoffs · 2 meetings 4 / 3 balanced Samantha Colosimo-Testa 4 handoffs · 2 meetings 2 / 2 balanced Katie Aiello 3 handoffs · 2 meetings 2 / 1 balanced Rocco Giruzzi 3 handoffs · 1 meeting 1 / 2 balanced Marques Phillips 2 handoffs · 1 meeting 1 / 1 balanced Joseph Betar 2 handoffs · 2 meetings 1 / 1 balanced Resident 2 handoffs · 1 meeting 1 / 1 balanced

What they said

Anthony Garramone 41:43

Right.

Anthony Garramone 52:01

Zoning.

Anthony Garramone 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.

Anthony Garramone 1:41:28

Especially since you've got a national holiday involved. I offer that. Like everything I say, you don't have to do anything I say or even suggest, but I sit here and I listen to this and it's sort of— it bothers me that— because I like the harmony of this this council. You've done very well so far, and I, I just don't like too much of that disharmony start creeping into your meetings. So someone would like to make a motion to waive the rule because of the time element involved and all that, and whatever the Councilman from the 5th District thinks is appropriate for his group.

Anthony Garramone 1:42:22

You have the power to do that because you are the Common Council of the City of Utica and you have a great deal of power. Thank you very much for listening to me.

Anthony Garramone 2:08:48

You want to speak?

Anthony Garramone 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.

Anthony Garramone 3:34:59

9 yeas, adopted.

Anthony Garramone 50:44

I think you have to keep in mind that first of all, whether you believe it or not, my wife and I were skiers. We used to ski at Woods Valley all the time, and even then it was very expensive. Woods Valley, how they didn't go bankrupt for about 5 summers in a row, or winters. Now last year we had a 1970s winter. This year we have a 1967 winter. 70s winter. I haven't seen this in a long time. And these ski places, they are profit-making. When you set your rates for a municipal opportunity, you don't look to private enterprises who have to make a profit to stay in business. How Woods Valley survived those preceding 5 years, I don't know. So I think you have to keep in mind that your attractiveness of as a city is built upon your facilities. You show me another city that has a ski operation right in the middle of the city. It has swimming pools in the city. It has a golf course in the city that unlike the ski slope, our golf course can stand up with anybody. The ski slope has one hill, really. It used to have what they called the bunny hill for the beginning skier. That was discontinued. A lot of children go there with toboggans and tubes, and they usually go there free. They just come down the hill, that's all. But because it's secure from traffic, it's an attraction. Utica, in fact, just the other day, my wife and I were driving by there and I said, "See, here we are in the middle of January and that ski tow isn't working." And it didn't work last year, as far as I know. What Utica has to offer is so unique, uh, and the people who, uh, go there on that one hill— you got to be a pretty good skier to go down the main hill of Valley View, which is really—

Anthony Garramone 53:16

You've got to be really pretty good. And for the beginners, uh, it's really not the place to go, uh, because we don't really have the Bunny Hill anymore.

Anthony Garramone 53:30

I'm not arguing with you.

Anthony Garramone 53:43

There's the— there's—

Anthony Garramone 53:46

That's what they're doing.

Anthony Garramone 53:56

This is saying to you, the ski tow is a very limited ski tow, and we are not a profit, uh, corporation. Woods Valley, uh, the place in Old Forge, and, uh, that's why you're charging half of what you're charging. Are profit-making, or else they fold and go bankrupt. Right.

Anthony Garramone 54:19

I'm not arguing with you, Joseph.

Anthony Garramone 54:21

I'm stating what you said. What I'm saying to you is that $35 a day is a lot of money for people who want to go ski in the city and have a city facility, just like you You can't make Valley View Yanadasis because that isn't what it is. It's a municipal golf course, and even then they complain. But I think the rate that we pay there is pretty competitive, and it seems to be running all right. It's always well kept every year. It's a great golf course for those of you who play golf or don't. And it's one of the things that I'm very proud about Utica. Now we have a skating rink. We always had a skating rink when I was growing up, and then Mr. Hanna decided to build a basketball court up there instead of a skating rink. Well, thank God we now have a very attractive skating rink. Utica is a heck of a place. A great place to live in. It's got a good police department, it's got a good fire department, it's got a good public works department, and it has facilities that very few cities have. But you can't— but we can't price the poor person out of having access and being able to use use these facilities. Now that's just— it's my opinion. I'm not— I'm not telling you how to legislate. That's why I don't like to go to committee meetings. I'm just telling you that when it comes to the ski tow, the golf course, the skating rink, all that, I have a lot of experience in that area. And I know money— even when we were making pretty good money, I was making pretty good money when I lived out Barnavel, Russia. Woods Valley was expensive for us, and I think it was $18 a day. It was a lot of money back in 1972, '73. So anyway, I'm just saying that when you set the rate, keep in mind Who you would like to see go there who don't go there, and you want to think of it as you've got to be a well-to-do person.

Anthony Garramone 57:06

So anyway, that's all I have to say, and I really don't like to do this.

Anthony Garramone 57:12

Sorry if I overstepped my bounds.

Anthony Garramone 58:44

I think that's a very good idea, Mr. Councilman.

Anthony Garramone 1:12:22

It was—

Anthony Garramone 1:13:48

State that again, please.

Anthony Garramone 1:30:16

No.

Anthony Garramone 2:12:05

2%.

Anthony Garramone 2:54:17

And just thank you.

Anthony Garramone 9:51

okay, they should be separate.