KINGSTON – City officials said they will be focusing heavily on council processes, improving transparency and addressing the housing crisis in the City of Kingston in 2020.
Tuesday evening, during his annual Majority Leader’s Address, Alderman Reynolds Scott-Childress praised the city for its continued success in grant acquisitions and large-scale infrastructure projects; but, reminded residents that the new council will be working hard toward addressing the problem areas that may not have been shown adequate attention in the past.
Scott-Childress said improving the trust of the public by being more open and thorough with their processes, as it has been a topic of public criticism, is by taking into account where they know issues are occurring and implementing tangible solutions based on that information. “Sometimes, it’s because they haven’t read the documents that we have. They haven’t read the founding documents and so forth. Sometimes, there’s a number of things that happen at once and they get a little confused,” said Scott-Childress. “We just have to make sure every time that we’re putting something forward we’re making clear what step of the process it is, so that we’re not just doing the work, we’re also making it clear what we’re doing and why,” he said.
Already being utilized to address this are two new sub-committees that will provide further oversight by the public on certain issues and a councilmembers handbook, both of which were created by Council President Andrea Shaut in the first month of her tenure.
Shaut praised Scott-Childress for his inclusion of process in his address as a significant area of focus. “Process is going to be really important for this council,” said Shaut. “We plan on deliberating everything and not following any one person, or group. Being a deliberative body- that’s what we’re designed and built for, so I appreciated his comments on that,” she said.
These new additions to process have already been put into effect, with the Special Policing Sub-Committee, which was created solely for a piece of draft legislation proposed by Rise Up Kingston to have the Police Commission undergo a racism workshop, getting a resolution passed Tuesday to have that legislation reviewed by the sub-committee before it is presented to the council.
Some council members have a concern that these sub-committees will add another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy to their processes, but Scott-Childress maintains it is just a forum for council members and the public to deliberate outside of a Common Council meeting on specific topics. These sub-committees have no legislative authority.
Addressing the housing crisis, the city is still awaiting results from a vacancy study that will determine whether the city is considered having a housing emergency, thusly allowing it to be protected under the ETPA (Emergency Tenant Protection Act), which will manage rent increases, or instate rent-control.
Scott-Childress said a draft of the study’s findings was submitted just before Tuesday’s meeting and he believes they will be able to take action very soon after the draft findings have been reviewed.
The city cannot take any action until the final findings are published.
