FULTON – Oswego County visionary and longstanding Fulton community ambassador for the arts Nancy Fox, was presented with a Resolution of Recognition by the Fulton Common Council during their last meeting Tuesday, February 7.
According to the resolution, Fox who is looking ahead to retirement, is stepping down as Executive Director of the CNY Arts Center, Inc., a position she’s held since May of 2011.
Fox brought her professional expertise to Oswego County by spearheading her vision of creating a welcoming space for artists to gather, express and enjoy their originative talents – that becoming the CNY Arts Center in Fulton.
The resolution states; “I, Mayor Deanna Michaels and members of the Common Council do take notice of the accomplishments of Nancy Fox with her work at CNY Arts and her commitment to the City of Fulton.”
Michaels was not present at the meeting due to prior obligations; the Council presenting Fox with the Recognition Honor.
Another item hotly debated during the public session portion of the meeting was Code Enforcement non-compliance.
Several Fulton residents stood to speak, voicing their ongoing frustrations over repeat code violations on numerous residential homes throughout the city; pointing out the gaping disparities in enforcement standards.
Fulton resident Cathy Trowbridge spoke up about conflict found in rental permit applications, alluding to the fact that the compliance question leaves a loop-hole for bad landlords to keep their properties in objectionable conditions, thus leaving renters no options but to keep quiet out of fear of losing their housing.
“I was just shocked to read this rental permit – and it says on the rental permit, “Are you requesting a Code Compliance inspection? Yes, or no?” Property owners now have the option to waive their Rental Permit Code Compliance Inspection,” Trowbridge said. “This isn’t in our law – this was added to a rental permit, and you usurped our Rental Permit law. And now with renters and rental occupancies being so short – you know these people are desperate and they will not report these things.”
Trowbridge is asking for the Committee to revote on this issue during the next legislative meeting – removing the added caveat to keep both landlords and tenants safe, while also keeping properties up to code.
During the end of the public session, Fulton Police Chief Michael Curtis spoke, giving a brief update on the system status of the department, something he plans to do on a consistent basis during the Common Council meetings.
Following are items Curtis covered during the meeting:
- The Police Department is down seven officers from the 27 Patrol Division Officers provided to the Department. This is due to retirements, employment changes/vacancies and a military deployment.
- Curtis gave an overview of the number of complaints, arrests and traffic violations/tickets given in 2022.
- The department is looking to hire four candidates from the presently held list, the office going through thorough background checks at the present time.
- 10 recruiting events are scheduled over the next seven-to-eight-month time frame.
- Curtis also discussed some of the homes in question brought up earlier in the meeting; saying the department is moving through the Code Violation system in order to bring offending residents before the city attorney.
Malcom Wettering from Code Enforcement said a few words at the end of the public session, hoping to answer some of the questions residents had.
“As far as the rental permits – not doing the inspections – the mayor played a very integral part in that; and we just quite frankly cannot do the inspections. We don’t have enough man-power,” Trowbridge said. “We have 800 rentals in the system now. I personally would love to do them. I thought they worked very well [and] I was a very strong advocate for that. But I certainly understand your concern for that.”
Other questions were asked after his comments, with the public session winding down due to limited time. All items on Tuesday night’s agenda were unanimously passed by the Council, the agenda brief with 10 resolutions and one being tabled. To view the agenda, please click here.
All Common Council meetings are held the first and third Tuesday of every month, the next meeting to be held on February 21 at 7:00 p.m.
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