the meeting of the betham city finance committee I am Grace kampy Smith chair of the finance committee the other committee members are Hillary Hillary quch and Rachel Leon the clerk will please call the role Miss gramson Smith present quch present and Miss Leon present no other council members are present this evening there are eight agenda items for tonight's meeting the first agenda item is to review proposed pget budget adjustments to the non-utility capital fund balance budget the second agenda item is to Rie proposed yearand adjustments to the Community Development block grant budget for cdbg funds the third agenda item is to review proposed year and adjustments to the Community Development block grant budget for home funds the fourth agenda item is to review proposed general fund budget adjustments for a world heritage program donation the fifth agenda item is to review proposed general fund budget adjustments associated with the mertile tax the sixth agenda item is to review proposed general fund budget adjustments resulting from a Pennsylvania dced Keystone communities Grant the seventh agenda item is to review proposed general fund budget adjustments for training for fire academy Cadets and the eighth agenda item is to review proposed general fund budget adjustments to add more housing inspectors a YouTube reminder if you started scam streaming streaming this meeting after 6 p.m. please make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the meeting we will now have public comment we have one person signed up Lou Jimenez hi good evening everybody uh lenez I'm president of of if local 735 betham firefighters uh standing before you today to express a strong support for the proposed transfer of funds to facilitate the hiring of nine Personnel for the betham fire department funding is crucial to bring our staffing levels closer to what already has been budgeted for 2024 upon the recruits completing the fire academy this will assist in alleviating the current Reliance on excessive overtime which is been straining both our personnel and Financial Resources our department has faced considerable challenges due to under Staffing this not only impacts the well-being and efficiency of our current firefighters but being passive on the hiring process when many positions are open can also pose a risk to Public Safety by approving the transfer of funds the finance committee will play an instrumental role in enhancing our operational capability and ensuring the safety and protection of the citizens of the city we're confident that this investment will yield significant benefits in terms of improved Service delivery enhan morale among our firefighters and overall cost savings through the reduction of overtime expenses we urge the finance committee to approve this funding transfer to support the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the fire department over the past year local 735 has drastically improved Communications with the administration from the mayor's office on down furthermore since the appointment of Chief Reich as fire chief the local and fire Administration have tirelessly Cor collaborated to ensure that we're doing the best we can for our firefighters and Community for that I give credit to the local 735 executive board and fire Administration the collaborative efforts by all are instrumental in addressing the challenges and we continue to drive our efforts to provide the exceptional service to our citizens thank you for the attention on this matter we look forward to the favorable consideration on this matter thank you very much thank you Mr am menz is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on any of the agenda items tonight with a five minute time limit anyone to the left the middle the right okay we will move on agenda item one the first agenda item is to review proposed budget adjustments to the non-utility capital fund budget before I call um a representative from the administration the common I'd like to thank um Eric and Linny for simplifying this process by adding memos and notes to the agenda items I think that made it a lot simpler for the committee members to understand the specifics thank you thank you agenda item one is from our community development department so Laura Collins will handle questions hi good evening we are this evening amending the budget or proposing to amend the budget to add a $300,000 uh grant that we received from Northampton County it's a livable Landscapes Grant was awarded uh the awards were announced a few weeks ago and that's $300,000 to be added um to the funds that we've already secured to purchase the remaining portion of the greenway that will close the trail Gap from the end of The Greenway to uh the soen valley rail trail so you'll just see it's um adding a revenue and an expense line for that $300,000 you is there anyone else from the administration that would like to comment do the committee members have any comments or questions no okay thank you I will accept a motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place it on the appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk will please call a roll on a motion miss quch I miss leam I miss grmy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda we'll move to agenda item two the second agenda item is to review proposed yearend adjustments to the Community Development block brand for cdbg funds I will call on a representative from Administration to discuss this request and Tiffany Wismer the business manager of the Community Development Department will handle that question hi good evening um these are standard year-end adjustments uh from the time we submitted the budget in October to the year end um for expenditures that happened during that time period as well as the 2024 accounts for the new allocation that we got this year and um the substantial Amendment accounts as well thank you does anyone else for administration have any comments any committee members have any questions or comments thank you Mrs Whisper I will accept the motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second will the clerk please call the rooll the motion miss quch I miss Leon I and Miss grmy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda the third agenda item is to review proposed yearend adjustments to the Community Development block grant budget for home funds I'll call on a representative Mrs winsburg these are the same exact as the cdbg um standard year end adjustments as well as 2024 new accounts and new accounts for the substantial Amendment as well thank you anyone else Administration have any comments do any committee members have questions or comments I'll accept the motion in a second to recommend approval with the administration's request and the place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk will please call the role miss quch I miss Leon I and Miss grmy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda agenda item four the fourth agenda item is to review proposed general fund budget adjustments for world heritage program donation I will call a representative from the administration to discuss the request and Laura Collins handle this you uh so this item is to add $115,000 to the budget that was a donation that was uh generously offered by Lehi Valley partnership and that is meant to go towards world heritage activities that we uh will be carrying out uh in the next few months um we're closing in on the end of the world heritage inscription process um and we have Ali partnership has uh generously donated this money to help us um uh put together some events and other activities related to that um inscription thank you is there anyone else from Administration any comments do any committee members have comments or questions okay my only question which I know maybe you don't know but is there any idea when we will have a decision regarding the world heritage designation we're very close so I would say within the next uh month or so we should expect to uh have a have a decision great thank you okay I'll accept a motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and the place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk will please call the row miss quch I miss Leon I M cramy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda agenda item five we will review proposed general fund budget adjustments associated with the mertile tax I will call on a member of the administration to discuss the request Lind Lazar lazark director of budget and finance we'll take number five um the city of Bethlehem currently has a professional service contract with tri stake um Financial Group this company collects and manages our um City's Merkel and business um privileged tax accounts um their fees are based on their collection so the more they collect the more we pay for the fees um they had uh a couple audits right now we're over budget and um the due date for the meran taxes May 31st and so right now we're over budget due to audits which they conducted so we'll have to increase we're want to increase the revenue line from two 2.7 million to 2.77 million a change of 70,000 and also um we'd like to increase the corresponding professional service line to pay Tri State for their um collection rate um it's 0206 42055 Professional Services we want to increase it from 88,200 to 158,00 thank you just just one confer clarification when L saying over budget that's on the revenue side so over budget in a good way a revenue was last year at 2.9 for this line line item this year at 6:30 we're at 3.1 for this line item and this line item was budgeted at 27 so it's a good thing that we're up and over yes thanks for that clarification anyone else from Administration like to speak do any committee members have any comments or questions uh so the I just a quick question so the audit um resulted in greater um revenues revenues they conduct audits all throughout the year and there's a fee schedule and they get a certain percentage for the current collections they get a certain percentage of the collections for delinquents and then they do Discovery and Audits and then that's another percentage so um at this point they're just doing Discovery and audit since the due date for the current is passed is over so these are audits they have done and so we're we're 400,000 over and we haven't even gotten all of the these these this revenue is like you can't count these are audits so they like one time revenues right um up through May the bulk of that is the current year collection okay so the onetime revenue is what pushed us over um budget in a good way right so I mean and I understand that you know paying them more means that we've we've gotten more in so that's all great um just you know if we need to adjust the revenue projection for the next year's budget I guess is the only so we don't run into this again I guess yeah it's hard to um project or um since they're unknowns right their discoveries um so we would look back in the past couple years and see what the trend is and do averages there were two accounts that were very large hits that don't come along that often it was a good item but it was a one time and now it will be sustainable in the smaller amounts but they audit that uncovered included some back years sometime they might come across a business that said this is someone that wasn't paying they weren't aware whatever the cause case may be there's some back plus interest and penalties involved with it to bring them up to date and not going forward it might be a or not might be it will be a continued Revenue stream for this line item but we will look at it for sure based on what we're seeing thank you thank you Council Leon do you have any questions comments no okay I'll accept the motion in a second to recommend approv approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so second clerk will please call a r Miss quch hi miss leom I miss grmy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda agenda item six the sixth agenda item is to review proposed general fund budget adjustments R resulting from a p pa dced Keystone communities Grant I'll call on a representative from the administration to discuss the request our Collins me again uh so we received a $20,000 Grant from uh P DCd the Keystone communities program and this is for uh a commercial facade activities um in historic Bethlehem so we've had an existing commercial facade um program and this money uh supplements that and is focused specifically on the historic district and on the downtown and we include it as part of our application um you know with the impending hopefully world heritage Des designation and continued um um uh opportunities for improvement on the Main Street we're looking to uh leverage these Grant sources to also encourage Property Owners um to make some um Renovations and upgrades to some of the facades on Main Street and Broad Street thank you does anyone else from the administration have any comments any council members of committee members comments questions yeah I actually have a general question not very hypers specific spefic to this but budget season is on my my brain and I'm wondering if we've been keeping track of how many grants that the new grant writer has gotten so that when we're having to weigh these decisions about this this position um how much money we're looking at the city has received based on their work versus how much they cost to employ yes that sounded cold I apologize yes so in our um budget presentation for Community Economic Development last year we did I believe include a slide that had how many grants were applied for how many we had heard back back from in the dollar amount that had come in and I admit I don't remember off the top of my head but we do keep track of that and we'll report on it during budget season awesome thank you yeah thank you but it's been a great return on investment thus far seems it yeah any other questions NOP comment my only question is I just wonder I think this is um great and I'm wondering about the application process like how is it advertised and um how do people apply and know about it so currently we have uh the commercial sad program on our website but we're uh revising the guid lines to include this additional Grant now and so when that is up we will have that on the website we'll put it out through social media and then we're also going to be working with the DBA the Downtown betham Association to reach business owners that way either through the DBA board or at the merchant meetings to let people know that this option is available for them okay and it's in anywhere within the north side historic district that it would be applicable okay great thank you I'll accept a motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and the place the appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk will please call a rooll miss quch I miss Leon I and Miss kmy Smith I the legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda agenda item seven the seventh agenda item is to review the proposed general fund budget adjustments for training for fire academy Cadets I'll call on a representative from the administration to discuss this request thank you um I'll begin the introduction I'll hand it off to Chief Reich to to handle most of this transaction this is something that's been in the works for some time last year during budget season we placed in the budget book through both through escrow uh revenue and a regular General funds funding to send eight Cadets to the Allentown fire academy we did that uh it went well they enrolled they recently graduated and returned but since that time we've had a number of retirements that as you see I think we put a lot into the memo to give you as much information ahead of time as we could but as we sometime we hire in groups but they also then retire in groups and what we've seen this past year is a number higher uh than the average of the last 10 to 15 years so we looked at a couple opportunities one was uh to investigate would Allentown be able were they capable of um firing up a second Academy which we are very confident with we we work very closely with them when that didn't work the fire Administration worked very hard to investigate all other opportunities and what this memo is and what Chief can talk to you about is the opportunity we would like to propose to council which is to send academ um new Cadets but to a different Academy thank you Michael Reich fire chief so right now we have 12 vacancies in the fire department uh three are held in arbitration so we can fill nine as of today that's why Eric had requested n and the reason we're requesting nine is um in addition it works out we have eight people left on our list and we had one uh individual that was injured during the Allentown Academy he is now recovered and employable so we would like to include him with the eight that are on the list to help fill these nine positions we can't at this time specify the exact number of uh applicants that we could hire because we haven't completed all that process Captain Griffin is a training Captain he uh very tirelessly conducted background checks and worked very hard at getting that done and he just finished with that and tomorrow deputy chief bear and I will be interviewing all the remaining candidates to develop the list uh in conjunction with human resources to determine uh the number of people that we can hire they will then need to go for a physical and a psychological exam at the end of those two tests that'll give us our true number without being able to determine what that number is that's why we are asking for up to nine positions with the understanding that it certainly could be less and then by the second reading if you approve this then we would have that finalized number uh we of course wanted to go to owentown we had numerous people within the administration helping us with this from the mayor Eric Michelle in HR like I said the training Captain Matt Griffin deputy chief bar and I we very much wanted to go to allent toown and at first they were going to run a second Academy but then due to constraints within their own City they were not able to do that um as soon as we found that out the very same day Captain Griffin and I met he contacted every other Academy within reason of the city including Philadelphia reading Bucks County Etc and uh Harrisburg Area Community College which is frequently referred to as hack so out of those the only one that we were able to work with was hack and so they provide a good quality Academy I would say that Allentown is the Premier Academy in the state but Harrisburg are Community College is very close second uh as soon as that was determined myself training Captain Griffin and Eric went out to P I think it was like two days later met with their director of their facility and they ran us through their program and we were impressed with their training ground and the training they were able to provide it's very similar to ENT towns they're going to their normal academy doesn't include some of the certifications that we're used to getting so we asked them to increase the training to include those certifications and they're able to do that with one exception being a water rescue course because of the timing of it they wouldn't be able to do that until the winter and that's not something that they would want to do in the winter months so we would our training Captain would work to find these Personnel the uh additional water rescue training after they complete the academy other than that they'll fulfill all the other requirements that they get at uh entown is there any other questions thank you do any committee members have questions or comments no go ahead I just appreciate you looking outside I'm not knocking Allentown but I appreciate you looking outside of Allentown so we can get these positions filled as soon as possible so I appreciate that sure and if I could just expand on that is if we wait and do nothing then we wouldn't get any of these 12 positions filled until like middle or end of June 25 and I neglected I appreciated all the efforts of the iff president Jimenez who's work closely with me on this as well but that being said the estimated uh graduation if we send these folks to Harrisburg Community College would be the first week of January I think it was as opposed to the middle slend of June so that would an extra six months of vacancies not only for Budget concerns like with overtime but also it just really wears on Manpower covering those vacancies thank you I oh go ahead I'm sorry yeah it's okay I just said she could go um thank you very much I I agree with Rachel for going above and beyond and really hunting down another high quality Academy um and so just so I'm clear it's about an extra 12 ,000 per Cadet to do the hack thing because of the lodging and the those extra and the um that one basically the difference is three because allentown's 8,000 tuition hack is 7,800 so there kind of neutral with regard to tuition the difference in pricing of the two cies is the lodging everything else is going to be there no matter which Academy you send them to right right okay um yeah no from what I saw there was sort of like the the standard expenses here are 7500 and those are remaining stable and then the things that are going up are the the tuition and then of course the addition of the lodging um and so that's and and then the other part of what adds up to the 40,000 per Cadet is the salary salaries yeah whenever we started this if you remember last year at budget season we put enough in the budget to send eight to the academy and we put that in uh we find it partly through esar as a revenue item and we put on the training and it and it was close the same thing startup cost is expensive to either police or fire even EMS when when you look at the equipment it's a $20,000 right off the bat the investment in the education and the equipment but they are also full-time paid employees who are working as city of Beth employees but not yet for the city of Bethlehem if you will out there in Harrisburg working and it is five days a week I think the academy starts at 7:30 till 4:45 every day I we felt the lodging was appropriate it's commut it's almost commutable that you could go back and forth but it's along it's a lot there's a lot of physical days requirement we thought most appropriate to find the lodging the Penn college we also tour had the opportunity to tour the campus and it's a professional Wing where they put candidates from the police academy as well as the fire academy as well as Hershey tourism has some so not mixed with his students and co-eds they have their own area but it's a very nice um offering there that has you know the parking the washer dry everything's there for him so think we think it's a good setup um from what it's you know that's Perry who ran who runs and has run the program for over 25 years put on a nice um a day for us as we went through all the you know all the steps to make sure we could get and chief of course and the ad fire Administration could get comfortable with with hack I really appreciate it I think it's very worthwhile on the front end to to make a little extra investment to get folks trained and going because if we waited another six months we could have more retirements and then we're even further behind and then you're using more overtime and the guys are um the the firefighters are you know getting worn out so um I think this is great thank you the the hope is if Allen Town would be able to ramp up two a year makes just makes more flexible one year makes it difficult for the C Administration to plan because if they come up and you know a lot of retirements are not announced months and months ahead of time you may find out a week or two like other retirements and when you have to wait a year like this it just put us in a so yeah I thank also everyone else in the fire department and the in the iff and putting this plan together I I just want to mention the the other part of this equation is how how we plan to fund it when something like this comes up there's an opportunity we also need from a financial side is how how do we pay for and there's a couple options either we cut something from an existing budget we pull out a reserves or we can look at a line item that is exceeding and we talked earlier about how mertile tax and that might have been one option to do it we chose to use a line of interest and you'll see in this memo investment interest was budgeted at 8 $100,000 last year investment interest exceeded a million dollar and we did not budget it at a million dollar because all the forecast at that time were that we were going to see a series of interest rate Cuts that's what was forecasted by a number of analysts so we um responded and we we we kept it you know right at eight versus doing the one thinking it's going to tail off a little bit that hasn't happened and because of that we're already over a million dollars at 630 so we likely at this time if you we're projecting interest investment income is likely to reach 1.5 1.6 before the year's over so I one thing presents itself something else but so as you know another expenses here we also find something we didn't expect in a good way uh a budget line a revenue item exceeding so we're just matching the revenue item to this expense to handle it and that's our proposal thank you okay I just had a question um do you anticipate any issues with getting nine people to fill the slots having to go through the list and the testing and all at this point U we did the background check portion we have the uh all the interviews scheduled for tomorrow and then we'll meet with human resources to determine who's employable from that list and then um they'll move on to that physical and psychological and and those are all things that I can't project you can't control sure okay well um I'd like to say first of all thank you I know the last couple weeks have been really tough on your department with the a lot of the fires and everything else that you've had to deal with um and I'm sure that's been difficult and I've been um you know always a strong advocate for all our First Responders to be at capacity because I think it's really important for the safety of our city and the safety of our First Responders so I'm really grateful that the administration found the funds to do this and that we're able to get this moving because this is this is really vital for for everybody involved and I know I always had concerns with much overtime not only is it a lot of money that is not used wisely for the city but I worry about you know injuries and burnout for the First Responders so this is definitely a win-win thank you I'll accept the motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk will call the role miss quch I miss Leon I miss kmy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda the eth agenda item is to review propos general fund budget adjustments to add more housing inspectors I'll call on a representative from the administration to discuss the request Sarah satula Deputy controller I'm sorry new job for me deputy director Community Economic Development Mike Simonson our chief code inspector well take these this last one number eight cor hi guys uh thanks for having us here tonight um as you know you saw in the memo we launched our more proactive housing inspection program in 2020 uh in response to finding that we were really kind of getting into the same properties over and over and not getting into all 15,000 rentals um the program is really kind of designed to the gold standard of housing inspection programs in the industry um and we now currently are at six inspectors um and we had added two when we launched the program um but knew that uh this was going to be new territory for us um and obviously with the pandemic that really kind of slowed the roll out uh and we just completed our first full cycle and we're up to full capacity last year and we're really um starting to see that we are now booking three months out for inspections which is really presenting a lot of challenges for folks trying to buy homes um we've made a lot of changes in our staffing right now in terms of trying to switch things around um and if things can continue this way the reason why we're bringing this forward right now in the middle um of the year is that we will be perpetually behind we'll be starting 2025 a full quarter behind so we are respectfully asking uh Council to consider adding two new housing inspectors it would bring us up to eight it is a budget neutral request um this is kind of one of a a unique Department that actually generates revenue for the city and we know that when we have more inspectors we are going to be able to complete more inspections and also make sure that we are getting back into properties and making sure all of the violations that are found are Abad um and our inspectors typically visit most properties at least two times before we get to a point of issuing a certificate of occupancy um so you know we're here answer any questions you might have no one else in administration wants to comment okay um committee members have questions or comments did you have no actually I'm good um more a comment than a question one I appreciate the budget neutral nature of this request that's fun also fun to say but two um I'm happy to see more inspectors I I know that we've talked a lot about housing and wanting to be more proactive with it and just there's not a lot of people to do the work in in your department so I I hope that this passes Council it you guys need the support especially when it comes to the housing inspector so appreciate the request thank you thank you um I second that I've always been in um totally in approval of when we first started this um program to increase the housing inspectors I know firsthand what it's like to be living by rentals that are just you know um really not um doing what they need to do to be responsible citizens and I think is really important for the quality of life and the safety of our community that we have as many um inspectors as we can employ and it's great that it's budget neutral so thank you good thank you I'll accept the motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request Place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second The Click will call the RO miss quch I miss Leon I and Miss kmy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda this meeting is adjourned good news to the May --------- good evening everyone thanks for joining us tonight we're going to get this meeting started I ask that we all rise for the pledge of the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr M Miller please call the RO Mr Callahan present M KY Smith present M Pac present m l present Miss Leon Miss Wilhelm pres and Mr colom present thank you Mr Miller as you can see on the screen above me Council women willhelm and led are joining us remotely this evening we're going to move on to public comment as is custom public comment is everyone's extended 5 minute time limit I will remind everyone before we get into public comment this is your opportunity to address Council if anyone has questions oh excuse me I thank you Mr Miller I skipped the approval of the of the minutes so now we're on to the approval minutes for the July 2nd 2024 meeting any comments on the July 2nd meeting for members of council seeing none the minutes stand approved now back to where I'd gotten ahead of myself so for public comment as this C everyone will get the courtesy of the floor who wishes to use it it's everyone's opportunity to address Council we did move new business up earlier this year so if someone has questions that maybe we need answers for during the meeting I ask that you stick around when we get to new business which is early on in the agenda where we as council members may ask questions of the administration and if I defer anyone to anyone in the administration who has questions that maybe is not within the scope of what council necessarily does hands on just about all of our city department heads are here from the director of Public Works water our police chief so if it's not something if I think you'd be better served talking directly to that department head I may defer you and refer you to that department head who would could talk to you either during the meeting or after the meeting about um whatever it is that he came here for tonight we'll start with any subject that's not being voted on this is for anything that's not on the agenda again I ask everyone to respect our five minute time limit for YouTube audience if you want to watch the meeting live I ask that you scroll ahead to the live portion of the meeting we have five people who had signed up in advance so I'll start with that starting with Lisa Sparrow hello my name is leis Sparrow Sao I grew up in Fountain Hill I currently live on thank you I grew up in Fountain Hill I currently live on senica Street in I am a proud resident of the southide of Bethlehem and it is in an area known as Indian Hill I am grateful to the city council members for this opportunity to share our concerns with the community known as Indian Hill I'm here representing people who are sick and couldn't make it I'm here representing people who are working and um we are witnessing a revitalization ation of the south side of Bethlehem with many new businesses and housing opportunities and there is a growing concern about the influx of people traveling with big and medium-sized businesses like Lehi University Northampton Community College fer Center the Wind Creek Casino steel stacks and Wilbur Mansion s mansion and the St Luke's Hospital bordering us the Southside infrastructure also needs a revitalization as you know the southide of Bethlehem is the most densely populated community in Bethlehem we hear and see many accidents on our streets with people in cars children in buses people riding their bicyclist bicycles animals and pedestrians we believe that a traffic study was recently conducted for a stoplight on the corner of Cherokee and West third streets we are asking that a traffic light study also be conducted conducted for a stoplight at the three-way intersection of senica West Third Street and West Fourth streets we need the help of city council to ensure the safety of our communities we are employing that action be taken at the intersection of Cherokee and thirdd Street and senica and west west third and fourth streets with at best a stoplight crossw crosswalks or a flashing light cross walks and speed bumps in closing I would like to ask your permission to approach the city council members to distribute petitions with signatures from our neighbors that live in the Indian Hill area who are in support of this request there is also someone who initiated this with petitions her name is Angela Mitchell and she could not be here and at a later date she would like to also reach out with the petitions that she got from the Cherokee Street mine are primarily from senica um for the safety and the welfare of our community we look forward to working with you and thank you so much again for your time thank you and you're more than welcome to give me anything you wanted to share with Council okay than thank you distribute pass down our next speaker this evening Miss Mary Joe MC mayor jel mol 449 Grand View Boulevard two comments I want to express tonight I first want to thank Chief Co for the effort put forth regarding the 4th of July firework policy fireworks were still prevalent in my neighborhood police response was much better than in the past I was grateful for the short-lived reain f Friday morning my neighbor and I found spent rock bottle rocket debris in our yard and Street Grand View Boulevard is 70t wide well short of the distance regulated by state law Glendale Avenue is even narrower still fireworks continued Friday night however when police cars proceeded South on Grand View Boulevard neighbors across the street saw the police car drive by and the mother called her son's in and said clearly no said clearand said no fireworks tonight I can provide the address if necessary overall was a much appreciated effort thank you again my second comment refers to the availability of drinking water within the city I totally agree a course of action needs to be addressed my main concern is the budgetary impact on taxpayers when I express my concerns at budget hearings in the fall responses I received from from some council members were it's only $2 a month I received the same response regarding the 8% sewer increase the school district's increase is is 3% all told those increases exceed any increase I received from Social Security twofold we seniors are on fixed incomes some are better off than others my point is if estimates to repair fountains are excessive that potentially puts many seniors and homeowners at risk if the if these F fountains are vandalized and become inoperable restricting hours of operation and or security cameras might be options to explore this again may not be cost-effective I realize these ideas will not sit well with some of the younger idealistic participants here tonight if they are ever able to purchase a home they will see the impact of rampant tax increases have on their household budgets thank you thank you Miss mol one thing I forgot to mention at the start of the meeting mayor Reynolds is coming from another commitment so he may be joining us late this evening our next speaker signed up is Mr Ry CA hi I'm Mary katola 8113 laer Street betham Pennsylvania uh um my thing is parliamentary procedures a little over a year ago I was considered anti-semitic and someone from the city council pushed that the mayor went along with it but the main thesis of why I was considered anti-semitic was because I stated that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem and we call the city the city of Bethlehem named after him we reinforced it by calling at the Christmas city now that's history that is not anti-semetic I stated that we should follow that teaching of Jesus Christ look on your records on what I stated I never said we should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ I said that teaching upon being an example and no matter who we are whether we're Christian whether we're Jewish whether we're American Indian Chinese the other thing I stated was you will never see a Jewish president most likely whoa they took it out of context they didn't follow up what I said because all the presidents were some form of Christian deity and the majority were Irish even Obama has Irish blood I stated that I said you would never see an Italian president because we're all considered connected to the Mob I stated also the mob that was reinforced and changed was with mayor Lansky Bugsy seagull G GRE bus Gus green bomb getting the money from Arnold rotstein all Jewish that was considered anti-semitic That's History that's factual look it up in the books us Italians we should be complaining anti-italianism I stated that too the thing is back when 17 76 was the American Indians couldn't vote the Chinese couldn't vote anyone who was Christ not Christian could not vote hey anti-semitic I hung out catch a rising star with Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler if I said anything anti anti-semitic and Adam Sandler would have punched me out no anti-semitic also Sandra Elaine hilot was one of my best music Associates known as Ezra Mohawk I was one of the 10 people that spoke at her funeral has her pine box was next to next to me speaking I went to my attorney was Jay sherline who I performed at the betham club for his 50th birthday party and I was at the synagogue for his funeral I was permitted to where at I can't do that in Catholic churches or any Christian things got to take the hat off anti-semitic look at the statements that I did that I said everything was histor history facts and it was twisted around I never said we should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ I said the teaching of that we must be an example Jerry dban had the studio in Philadelphia with me also Jewish I have two of the people that were great techn technology people that were working me on my record they backed the way they were Jewish when they read that statement look at the record what did I say that's anti-semitic in those records nothing everything was history facts please take a look at the parliamentary procedures they were not done properly back then and destroyed my name at the Jewish community in Bethlehem look into it I thank you very much God bless you thank you Mr Cara our next speaker this evening Mr duvan good evening everyone I um actually was at the July 2nd council meeting some of the council members were not present that night that are here tonight but I just to refresh I was here speaking about Main Street Extension in particular and the safety issues that were realizing on that that street now and as a former High School administrator I used to lot of complaints maybe not so many compliments but I do want to compliment at least two people at City Hall that I've had cont contact with since that meeting the first would be Sergeant gersner who's a u betham areia Police Department member and uh I I believe you could correct me Chief he's in charge of traffic I I'm assuming he's also a great communicator I have to tell you he did a wonderful job we talked he promised me there were three things we were looking for and he promised me he would look into excuse me and incl in Le increased uh police presence on Main Street and it was very simple just by rerounding some of the people that are on ilix Mill Road and and Center Street and using that street as a a ways to mean or means to uh travel rather than the way they were typically going and in doing so one of the officers actually noticed that the uh stop sign at the intersection of Maine and Dewberry was completely obstructed by uh I guess trees and leaves and whatever and he wrote up a a report turned it in a work order and it was removed fairly quickly the the second issue I've been talking uh to another very I thought an outstanding employee uh and this this is basil yandam in the uh public affairs office also a great communicator and I think I don't know if Mr lcal is here I've never met Mr lcal in person sir he's he's really wonderful I mean that you should be proud to have a an employee like that under your jurisdiction he also he went out of his way to meet with me and talk to me and uh I was I've been talking to him about one thing is repainting the main the uh lines and whatnot on the Main Street Extension the directives and he's he's looking into that I think there's a great chance that that happening and there are a couple other things that we're working towards but I'm here primarily just to say that I think if you open up a uh you know a meaningful dialogue and you and you come in and you're not demanding and you just talk to the people that are working here they they generally do a very good job that's what that's what I've been finding I'm pleased to say that I'm I'm glad I can say something positive in the night that might not all be positive at this point but nonetheless thank you for having me and I hope to see you all again thank you thank you Mr duanes our next speaker Mr Harry Faber it was almost time to Harry Faber when talking about our economic system capitalism we can debate whether or not it's furthered or hindered progress whether casts and groups of people it's helped at the expense of other cast and groups but the elephant in the room or the elephant in the system I should say is rarely addressed the fundamental and unequivocal reason for America's e economic Prosperity if you want to call it that is solely due to the exploitation subjugation and brutalization of other human beings our economic system was built on slavery and it continues to enslave humans both here and abroad I know that most of you City officials are smart very smart much smarter than me perhaps therefore you can't play ignorant you're either for the enslavement and subjugation of other human beings for the benefit of yourselves or you're against it I hope you're against it if you are then let's fight it together the fight begins with democracy if we're going to have a Democratic Society it needs to be Democratic why is it that there are a lot of people like me who want to help deliberate and discuss the the well-being of the city but yet you are the only ones that have any power in the decision-making process regarding the allocation of our City's resources this delegation system is not affected effective it's corrupted bought and paid for if you are not self-interested if you have the same desire those who care will show up and we can discuss and speak and communicate like a democracy should be where we all hash it out like grown-ups because if we all want the same thing the betterment of society we have some common ground I just want a better Society one where we value one another one where we are compassionate for one another where we try to understand and see the nuances where we recognize that we each are people why is that so hard it shouldn't be it shouldn't be difficult to support each other but because of greed corruption self-interest ego and lack of facing consequences really we've allowed the elites the real minority to completely dominate The Working people the working class CL the majority it's time we get rid of this hierarchical structure obviously it's going to take time but it starts by making big bigger committees anybody who wants to be a part and give their precious time and work towards the betterment of society should be given the opportunity to do so other than just coming to city council meeting where we can just speak at you this isn't Democratic you saw the amount of people that voted in the last local election it wasn't much the winning uh council members got around 5,700 votes each but once people see that their vote does matter that their participation in democracy matters more and more people will come out it'll be hard but we'll figure it out together we have technology why can't we try why can't we be a little revolutionary I hate that he's not here every time I say it I'm G to keep saying it because that's what we learned at Moravian but it seems that it's so fake it's just a slogan I'm taking it I'm trying I'm trying my damnest and no one can take that away from me I'm not perfect and I know that I will never claim to be perfect and I'm not saying that if you listen to me we'll have a perfect utopian society but it's a matter of actually trying and you're lying to yourself if you think you are thank you Mr faor that exhausts our list of who had signed up in advance so I'll go around the room again this is public comment for anything that we're not voting on this evening was there anyone to the left who wanted to make comment to council I turned to the wide Center was there anyone yes in the middle row um my name is Olympia should I come to please just so the uh microphone could catch it for the record and our vast YouTube audience this is my first city council meeting in Bethlehem I'm from a um from Doylestown area but I live in 507 First Avenue Avenue Bethlehem um I read over do you mind stting your name for the record oh Olympia Ransom thank you um I read over the Strategic plan for the Bethlehem um homelessness plan and I realized that we don't really have a setout plan to address the issue in full I know that there's First Presbyterian Church putting up a affordable housing right across the street from Center Street but I'm worried that the millionaires on Center Street who are against the plan in $20,000 I think it is to not have the affordable housing go up instead of investing in making the area safer area not that the homeless have anything to do with the crime rate really but there's 686 homeless I actually live on the North side right near it I walk every single day to school where I go Lehigh University I'm walking across the DNL trail and I see these people who have been staying there for years and years I'm actually making a short film reaching out to the Presbyterian Church um professors around the area City Council Members hopefully um some journalists the actual homeless themselves and listening to their stories some of them have been there for years some have been on the wait list for years and it seems like we care more about affordable housing rather than actual permanent shelters not just Emergency Shelters the Emergency Shelters are great and they do the work that should be done but really we need a permanent shelter that's not going to be fought against that is not near other res residential areas so people can't complain about the property values and make more green spaces around stop the development processes that happen around Lehigh University I even though I go to Lehigh University I still think that we're kind of buying out the entire town the student housing has kind of gone on a rampage and it's taking over the entire city but we're not caring about housing for the homeless who have been here the longest in some cases um personally just want to know what's going to happen especially in the of the Supreme Court ruling making it up to the states themselves to basically criminalize poverty um allowing them to arrest and fine homeless people which I think is absolutely deplorable and I'm hoping that Bethlehem doesn't follow suit as other states are where they're going to basically criminalize poverty thank you thank you and as I stated at the top the meeting you're welcome to hang out after the meeting if you talk to any members of council our deputy director of Community Development Mr tulo is there in the front row and um happy to try to get information we can for you okay thank you anyone else in the broad Center Mr hacket hello my name is Bud hacket I live in Bethlehem and I want to uh talk about something that which has come up recently in some Community meetings and that is the concern that as you look at recent appointments or appointments in the past couple of years to the city's boards commissions and authorities there seems to be and I won't share with you all the names and and data tonight um but there seems to be a preponderance of political people and government people that get appointed to these entities and with 88,000 people in the city and many many people who I see Express a real concern for the city of betham I think there's more than just close friends of the administration that could have an opportunity to serve in a somewhat non-political way and help advise the city on topics that are very important whether they're boards commissions or authorities so I would ask Council they would consider um in your Watchdog role uh I think you have that as a role um that we look at we look at improved Outreach to people in the community to determine if there is expertise to sit and join some of these activities and also look at how political and unnecessary some of the appointments have become thank you thank you Mr hackin was there anyone else in the broad Center who wants to make comment in the front uh hello Valerie and Nan um mostly youall know me but um I I will keep it short today um I just wanted to reiterate um my commitment to uh urging you to repair the water fountains the last meeting I was here I did had a conversation with a few of the council members that was encouraging to me and gave a few more details about the actual plans to get those repairs completed um so it's really just thank you keep it up I hope that that can be resolved fairly soon um I mean I I believe the the news has been reporting that this could be the hottest day of the year um my phone was telling me it was 97° outside my apartment um and it certainly felt that way went on a 20 minute walk just about and had a killer headache for the rest of the afternoon because it was that hot um I'll say uh I I I am an idealist I'm not really an optimist um and that's part of why I think this is important because I see how many people do not have homes I see how many people are required to spend parts of their lives um Outdoors whether just through working getting from place to place or because they don't have other places to go and I don't really expect to buy a home in my lifetime that would be really nice but anyway um thank you very much thank you was there anyone else in the wide Center who would to make comment on anything not being voted on this evening I'll turn to the right was there anyone to the right who would to make comment well that's going to conclude our first public comment moving on to our second public comment this is for anything that's on the agenda tonight Mr faor is our first person signed up uh so I don't I'm sure you guys have all been like the opening doors meetings and whatnot and one of the things is that we always talk about at the opening doors is not having land to build affordable housing on and I'm not saying don't sell uh the Allen Township property to the family I'm correct me if I'm wrong it's right next to their home right I'm not saying don't sell it to them but my point is I'm sure there's plenty of other properties like that one not being utilized that could be utilized by the city we just have to look in figure it out out and you know what trying isn't the right word because trying gives you an excuse for failure we need to start doing we need to take action we need to do it we need to figure it out thank you thank you Mr favor our next speaker signed up is Miss Anna Smith good evening my name is Anna Smith I live at 631 Ridge Street in South Bethlehem and uh I'm the director of Community Action development Bethlehem uh working on uh housing issues um and neighborhood issues throughout the Southside and a few of our other neighborhoods in the city uh so I wanted to speak this evening about the future of the bessam Housing Authority um I've been working with BHA residents on community projects for the last eight years and throughout this time I have repeatedly encountered challenges with the institution's Antiquated policies and approach to promoting housing Justice which is a fundamental component of the organization's Mission or should be as a housing crisis deepens in the city ensuring that the BHA is equipped with best practices and tools to access funding opportunities to expand and improve on our existing public housing infrastructure is essential and uh the greatest potential for addressing the most significant housing needs of our most vulnerable residents lies directly in the effectiveness of our public housing system uh and my involvement as a partner of the lynfield community center a subgrantee of the choice neighborhoods planning Grant um and you know working day-to-day with residents of the BHA Community has really highlighted for me the importance of acting now to increase the capacity oversight and accountability of the BHA to its mission to its residents and to our broader community's needs so the BHA is governed by a board of five um they oversee all of our public housing infrastructure here in the city of Bethlehem as well as our housing Choice Voucher Program um and that group of five is limited by Hud regulations so it's a very small board with a huge task ahead of them uh boards members for the BHA really require a unique combination of skills to be successful including the capacity to understand and interpret HUD guidelines um which are not a real lot of fun to read and deal with I can assure you um and then also be able to simultaneously uh possess sort of the on the ground knowledge of the impact of these policies on residents of the BHA developments and so the next appointment to this board will be crucial in the way that the BHA evolves over the next several years um and uh you know through my work um I have uh come to believe that you know Rachel Leon who I know is uh nominated this evening is an ideal candidate for this position uh given her experience with board governance um uh deep understanding of our affordable housing landscape and existing connections with residents of the BHA community and the institutions that work alongside them uh the modernization of our public housing system begins at the board level and we need a strong thoughtful and dedicated group of individuals uh to ensure that the thousands of Bethlehem residents served by the BHA are treated with dignity and um I fully support the nomination of Rachel Leon to this position I believe that few others within the Bethlehem community and believe me um you know we've looked as someone who fully supports the idea of diversifying all of our authorities boards and commissions as as much as humanly possible regularly um as someone who's out in the community talking with residents um you know asking folks to please step up and volunteer and serve um this is a very challenging appointment to find someone for um and I believe you know few others are as well positioned as as Rachel to take this on um and uh I think that um uh you know as the BHA assumes a key role in our City's plan to address our affordable housing crisis and um care for the residents that are most vulnerable vulnerable in our community um this is uh one of our most crucial steps is appointment that you make this evening and so just wanted to lend my support here and thank all of you for all the work that you're doing to support housing Justice throughout our Bethlehem Community thanks so much thank you Miss Smith excuse me so that exhausts our list for the second public comment this evening again I'll go around the room for anything that is being voted on tonight was there anyone to the left who wants to make comment on anything on tonight's agenda is there anyone in the center who want to make comment on anything that's being voted on this evening and last I turn to the right sir I see a hand welcome good evening everyone um Lou jenez I'm the president of betham firefighters local 735 they may this may seem repetitive to some you may have heard this earlier um but I'm going to speak on would be line item 9g which is Bill 25 2024 the budget adjustment for fire academy Cadets uh you before you today to express uh the local strong support for the proposed uh bill of to transfer funds to facilitate the hiring of nine Personnel for the betham fire department uh the funding is crucial uh to bring our staffing levels closer to what uh has been budgeted for 2024 upon the recruits completing uh the fire academy this will assist us in alleviating the current Reliance on excessive overtime which has been straining both our personnel and our financial resources our department has faced considerable challenges due to understaffing doesn't only impact the well-being efficiency of our current firefighters but being passive on hiring processes when many positions are open it can also pose a risk to Public Safety by approving this transfer of funds this will play an instrumental role in enhancing our operational capacity and ensuring the safety and protections of the citizens of the city we're confident that this investment will yield significant benefits in terms of improved Service delivery enhanced morale among our firefighters and overall cost savings through the reduction of overtime expenses we urge Council to initially approve this budget adjustment to support the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the betham fire department over the last year local 735 has drastically improved our Communications with the administration from the mayor's office to council all the way down furthermore since the appointment of Chief Reich as fire chief the local and fire Administration have tirelessly collaborated to ensure that we're doing the best we can for our firefighters and for our community for that I give credit to the local 735 executive board and the fire Administration these efforts made by all are instrumental in addressing many challenges and continue to drive our efforts to provide exceptional service to our citizens thank you for your attention to this matter and we look forward to an approval on this uh budget transfer thank you very much thank you Mr Jimenez was there anyone else to the right who wants to comment on anything we're voting on tonight that will conclude our second public comment moving on to Old business any old business for members of [Music] council Council one I just had a question um because some constituents have asked me for administration regarding um The Wellness Street Garage um people have asked why why a certain area is yet to be demolished is there a reason does it have to be demolished in a different way the area that is closest to the Verizon building I don't know if who can address that if anyone I believe there's some equipment there that is going to be relocated place at the adjacent lot next to the at building there and I think until that is relocated they've just had to work around that so so that's the hold up that they have to relocate the equipment right that's critical infrastructure for the surrounding neighborhood and so they early on after much discussion among Verizon and the city and the authority and other stakeholders determined that they could continue with the Demolition work around that area until such time as that's relocated to a new place on the lawn there right at the corner that little bit of a parklike area that's where that equipment is going to be relocated to okay great thank you that that's from weeks ago when I heard about that really not my field but that's I have remember from hearing from the parking authority back at that time they were working out the legalities of that and the ability to move it okay people in the area just have asked reached out because they're just curious as to why sort of stopped then there's one area Still Standing so um the other question and I think this is probably be for U Miss Collins is is there any update on the area of the garage um that is not going to be for parking like the residential area I believe I had sent uh an email a few weeks back but I can just reiterate um the bethleem parking authority did vote at their last I believe it was their last meeting uh to enter into a memorandum of understanding with a firm to complete the um westernmost portion of the garage okay and the other question that has been asked to me is will the um developer or whoever have to go before um the historic harb again regarding the plan yes absolutely so uh there had as I said there a memorandum of understanding and and what'll happen from there is that a selected developer will put together you know actual uh Land Development plans they will need to have approval from both the city and the parking authority before they even then submit those for the formal review process that any other developer would go through which would include Planning Commission review it would also include the historic review by harb and then you would see here at city council um a vote for a certificate of appropriateness as well okay okay thank you Mr calan do you have additional business yeah I just got two two quick questions so um does the um not the delay in that upper eastern side does that delay the opening of the garage in any way my understanding from U Mr frrom the director of the parking authority is that no the project is not um expected to go past the date which was Christmas of 2025 all right and then my last question on it was the uh since you since we decided or the parking authority has decided on one of the four applicants which applicant want it with how many units is going in the white box so it was Ironside is the name of the firm that was identified in the memorandum of understanding and as we had said before what we received and reviewed collectively in response to the RFP were Concepts ideas um I believe that project had a little bit over a hundred units in it as as proposed as a concept um but as I had just said they will still need to go through actually developing a full plan engineered drawings they'll have to go to harb there's many steps along the way where that number could change um you know based on conversations with the parking authority with the city or with Harbin and city council so the The Proposal that they submitted how many numbers were on the proposal it was a little over 100 to be honest I don't remember the exact number at this moment mayor are you aware of that at all I think it was a little over 100 all right because I know there was one it was like 40 another one was 180 it's not the one that was 180 and it's not the one that was 40 all right thank you any other old business for members of council thank you Miss Collins thank you Mr spurk just want to acknowledge mayor Reynolds is with us as we just heard moving on to new business I will accept a motion and then a second from Council to reschedule our next city council meeting which scheduled for Tuesday August 6 from our typical 700 p.m. start time to 5:30 p.m. since this meeting occurs during the week of Music Fest so moved second motion by councilwoman quch second by councilman Callahan any discussion on the motion Mr Miller please call the RO Miss KY Smith hi Miss quch hi m l hi M Leon hi M Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan I and Mr colog I pass is 70 just a a couple just another thing I would to bring up to our new business before I open it up as is customary well one I would thank councilwoman Leon for presiding over the last council meeting as I was uh tied up at my day job all night that night so couldn't be here and then just want to briefly address some of um our unfortunate national news and here in Pennsylvania as it relates to the the incident with former president Trump and and just as a whole reiterate some of the things I've spoke about at city council before here in the past and um you know we heard from one of the speakers tonight someone said they weren't perfect I'll be the first to always admit I'm not perfect either uh we heard some things tonight during public comment kind of rehashing previous comments as it relates to things that I don't think are very constructive as it relates to City business things that relate to the business of city council and we're always trying to balance that that first amendment from everyone up here the people come to speak at the lecturn with our our Council rules and Robert's Rules and things like that and while admit I'm not perfect today nor tomorrow nor ever I I will always try to be an advocate for civility and decorum as it relates to what we can control here in our city council chambers we uh Anyone who reads anything especially social media knows that now like other times in our history things just get so heated so toxic so divisive and and we hear these terms thrown around all the time but then we witness them we we witness and read people we know commenting uh certain ways online people we work with people we do business with people come here to council and and choose to communicate a certain kind of way that I just don't think is constructive to any conversations that we ever have so I will continue to ask everyone uh while we be mindful of what we can control here in the city of Bethlehem here in in town hall as we execute City business to continue to try to be that that model and example for civility and decorum as we continue to disagree whether it be tonight or the next meeting or any future meetings and I'll continue to do my best to lead by example in that regard as a relates to sitting here in the center as city council president so uh any other new business for members of council I have some stuff but councilwoman Leon I'm looking to my right sorry um I had a a question about maybe looking forward with the the pools and all the extreme weather that we've had lately with the heat um maybe going into next year uh if we have the ability to start thinking about Opening Our pools maybe not our main pool but some of the pocket park pools and or maybe a hydrant day um I know that our pools get hyper utilized um but as the weather continues to heat up if that's something that we can look into yeah so we've obviously had that conversation this topic has come up in the past I mean the challenges I think what and you kind of referenced this is the high utilization of our pools now um and I it this conversation also come up as far as like what our pool rates are and I think it's part of the larger conversation that we have going forward about and I'm kind of making these numbers up but if you know the pay structure right now pays for 100,000 out of the $200,000 it costs to run the pools that's what our current rates get us if that's a collective decision from city council and us to say we're going to lower the rates and then just subsidize it with another 30 40 50 I'm just making up but the concept um The Challenge we then this is what's happened in the past too is there's some places like Memorial that are already at capacity with people paying so if you run into that people have passes they have family passes they have dayc carees that have lined up and things like that so I think it's an overall conversation I think about what we want to and even our neighborhood pools and we were looking at the numbers they've had a very very high utilization rate so you start running into just some different concepts there like do you try to extend the pools or open them earlier but then you run into how many hours are your teenagers working when they're only allowed to work so many hours so then you need more lifeguards potentially for so there's just a lot of different moving Parts as far as like the pools are concerned that is an absolute conversation that is City council's decision as well about what we necessarily want to charge as far as what we want to subsidize those pools for with taxpayer dollars and like I said I don't know what that exact percentage is but that's always kind of been The Balancing Act um and then there's some other things that I I think and if you know you we could have Mr basola um you know explain some of the challenges with the fire hydrant you know situation um but it is something that we're absolutely open to a conversation about in the future but I think it it goes along with a lot of the conversation other council members had about like how do we set up our pay structure for our pools and I think that Mr alol or Miss Evans had sent that memo over some of the things that we're doing with the school district and some of the other um groups which is good but I think the whole how do we handle really hot days is really connected on a global scale to how we handle the rates for the whole summer because it's really hard just to be like okay we're going to flip this and make this free or whatever because of some of those issues I think it's a conversation worth having in a you know kind of like an open form with the community so maybe a committee meeting or something with with uh Parks but it's just uh something that I saw other cities do and and I know if they can do it we can do it too um the other question I had was when I want to shout out to the Cherokee in the Sena area for coming um and give a big shout out to the health department that has addressed a lot of the issues that we've SE out in Cherokee and Sena with signage and stuff like that um but there was a question about traffic studies so can you kind of walk me through what triggers a traffic study or if there are streets that we cannot do traffic studies on um or if there's any additional information that we can get that would help make a traffic study possible also do we have a traffic person yet do we have a is that position unfortunately we don't uh we have not replaced the traffic coordinator as a yet we're still working diligently to do that but I mean traffic study can be conducted for various reasons it depends on what the concern is and what um you know what the need is if the concerns is speeding obviously we do speed surveys uh the concern is crashes at intersections we can do traffic counts to see if an intersection meets the warrant for either two or four-way stop or or signalized Okay um that that's basically what would prompt us to to do a a traffic study so when you're talking about um like crashes so if there are crashes that are like kind of like Fender vendors and people don't want to wait for the cops um so that wouldn't be included in the data that we use to trigger a traffic study those would be what we call non-reportable okay and they may they not may not be any records uh that we can refer to or access okay uh now accidents are only I mean they're used to sometimes uh be able to implement measures that wouldn't be normally permitted um most of what is implemented is based on Hardcore like um uh speed speeding uh surveys um that sort of thing is what would dictate what type of traffic controls applicable to any particular Corridor Street or intersections okay all right thank street is challenging it's a it's a it's a collector Street um um I I mean we hear a lot of complaints about speeding we we I I have to touch base with our staff to see if we planning any uh speed survey it's it's it's difficult to understand how people speed on that street because there stops every so often um but uh we are definitely open to looking at it closely and anything that could be implemented by way of traffic calming or Traffic Safety or pedestrian improvements we would certainly pursue hard okay cool thank you and again I want to thank the health department because there was some issues with signage which is probably what helped people spe along that route that they have been able to address but there is a little bit of additional help needed and also a large a big thank you to Basil who has not missed the community meeting and continues to show up and address as many concerns as as the community members have I know he's wearing a lot of hat right now um but his work does not go unnoticed thank you thank you Mike I'm I'm all done I'm sorry I'm going to go to those who are unaware Mr alol is our director of Public Works and know we we typically speak to everyone up here because we know everybody but to the audience Mr R call is our director of Public Works I will I'm just going to work my way down the aisle for new business uh thank you Mr alol no no I just want to make a comment real quick on if you want to make a quick comment Mr Callahan so there there's I think maybe uh um traffic studies going take a long time I think a quick fix could be that uh if you're heading if you're on the western part of the Fountain Hill area and you're heading east um towards windat I think there's a if I remember correctly I think there's a right turn there it's pretty not it's not a right angle turn you're heading on what what street are you on um well right right right as you hit senica uh I think it would be wi dot or no um yeah yeah yeah be Delaware I think there's a right turn right there so I think they come flying around that corner get getting out of there and I think if we could just put a sign there like a slow or you know a pedestrian Crossings you know temporarily because I think a traffic study is g to take a long time here correct it depends but yeah certainly take if that's applicable we we'd look at that and we' certainly pursue put yeah I mean I I mean I drive on that road a lot and I know that cars do come flying out of the especially the visitors that are in the um St Luke's they turn left there and they come flying around that corner you know because a lot of people stay a little bit longer than they're supposed to and they're looking to get back to an appointment or back to work because they're visiting someone at the hospital I think I think it's a right now I think it's more of a speed issue of them flying around that corner and and it's not a good situation I I I agree with you we'll we certainly be happy to look at that the only thing I would caution is signning sometimes especially after time um you you would you would hope that um motorist obey and and comply with signage but sometimes that's not the case which is why sometimes we opt for more um more hardcoree measures like speed humps or or things like that if they're applicable thank you thank you Mr alol is quch yes thank you very much first of all um uh councilwoman Leon uh sort of kicked off the one of the conversations that I wanted to have which was about what we're doing in the brutal heat um and the pools are a piece of that but I think that there are a lot of people and first of all you can't stay at a pool for you know like nine hours or whatever however long they and they do close um so um my concern is perhaps more along the lines of um our unhoused folks and other people who do need to be outside and places just for them to be able to get in and cool off and maybe find some water and so I did I did send an email to several um department heads today and I appreciated the response that I got from Miss Santoro um and uh one of the things uh that she mentioned is there are some nonprofits such as New Bethany that have Community uh centers and things like that um and then the other place she mentioned was the libraries which of course I think um we all know are a refuge for our unhoused folks and in particular this time of year and when it's very cold also um so I did did want to point that out and also um suggest that as we get into budget season and we do start talking about um this I I don't think it's going to get much cooler during our summers um in the near future uh so perhaps thinking ahead to next summer we can uh be more strategic with some opportunities to open some emergency cooling centers of some kind in the city um or uh work closely with the library to make sure that um folks are getting what they need if they come in and they're particularly hot and and things like that um there could be some concern there um I appreciate the health bureau's work to push out precautionary statuses and warnings and um for the city to to be part of that uh effort as well I do appreciate that um and uh of course the the water fountains that that discussion we were discussing in the the park planning process that um hopefully the you know the the grant that was given to do a a b plan for our parks that that could be more of a conversation um I've lost track of what else I wanted to say I think that's it for now but that was that was my main concern this week so thank you thank you Miss quch councilwoman KY Smith thank you um I was just going to reiterate thank you for coming out and bringing everything to our attention and um anything that we could do she've Caught Mr Al call to try to address I know speeding is an issue throughout the whole city it's it's pretty bad but it sounds like it's um definitely bad over in the the Indian Hill area and um I agree also with councilwoman uh quch it seems like you know the heat is becoming um as if not more dangerous in the cold weather at this point and it doesn't look like there's going to be an end in sight as far as our summmer go so I think that um we're going to have to try to put our heads together and figure out what we can do to help our our on house house folks in the summer I I know we did get a memo that the um library is open and in conjunction with the city and that and that's really great that that's available for for our folks so that's that's a plus but I think we're going to have to try to focus on um not only just H the cold weather but the hot weather also may I take a second because I just thought it when you when you thank the folks over here I wanted to give a special shout out to Angela Mitchell because I think she's been so steadfast in coming here and you may not be aware of the fact that she comes she has come to numerous meetings and brought up many of these um concerns and some of the movement and the change that has taken place is really um to her credit in a large degree but and thank you all for coming out any other new business for members of council all right I actually do have a question is councilwoman lared yes the floor is yours thank you um so first of all uh just uh thanks um I haven't been at a council meeting since the big storm came through and and took down uh so many trees and caused so much Havoc throughout the city so uh thank you to everybody who's been involved in uh cleaning that up and replanting and all all all the things that go along with that um my question about that stuff is you know just like hot weather is likely going to be a more frequent occurrence um strong storms are also increasing in their frequency and um driving around town it it seems that there's some uncertainty uh from residents about what to do with limbs or tree debris that comes down uh particularly if it's in the RightWay area along the side of the road uh like the grass strip or in the gutter uh Etc so like I know Union Boulevard has a ton of Sycamore branches down uh still um and I think those would be the residents responsibility to clean up but I just wanted to verify that and uh figure out what they should do if they don't have the resources to get rid of it [Music] themselves generally face a curb back towards the property is property owners's responsibility anything that would be in the cartway would be the city to to clean up we try not to get you know um go overboard I mean if there's something that's un both we would during the height of this the response we certainly you know pick up everything to be as helpful as possible to the residents but uh the biggest problem we have and I that's some of what you're observing is after we do the cleanup um residents are somewhat confused as to what to do and it's a difficult task I mean we have our hands full and they do as well but they're to arrange for their you know removal of any that are felt on their on on on their on their property they can either call tree outfit or if they have the wherewith all like if it's it's depending on the you know the extent of what's involved it's a small Branch or not uh they could take it to the compost center for example if they can if they have the equipment for that or the you know to transport there or get help with it but that's that's basically what uh is expected okay so at this point from the previous storm if there's uh something that's still down um is it safe to assume that that is uh the the property owner's responsibility to clear at this point that the city's kind of done with the regular cleanup and we're following up with all those Property Owners we we've sent them letters and we're working with them to try to address that and at the end of day if something could be resolved we'll we'll step in as needed awesome thank you I'm glad that there's been communication underway thank you so much thank you councilwoman L any other new business for members of council Mr Callahan my got I got a quick question too so from The Greenway up to Lehi um where we did all that uh additional sidewalk work who's responsible for the the we I mean the weeds are like totally overgrown I mean like they been cut like a month and a month and a half on both sides from the Greenway going up towards fingon Square I mean if it's certainly if it's public space or public property our grounds folks that would be yeah so if you go up the sidewalk and the roads on the right it's it's between the sidewalk and and then the curb you know where you know where those little trees are within the greenway Corridor or no from The Greenway up to like a new stre be it would be it would be the proper owner I'll I'll take a look and will'll follow up with that property H yeah we are like a foot and a half high on both sides yeah we'll have to follow up with the property H all right thank you any other new business members of council thank you again Mr alol we're going to move on with our agenda Communications Mr Miller communication 6A the June 27th 2024 memorandum from Steven repos executive director of the Bethlehem Authority with an attached resolution Mr repos reports that the authority board unanimously approved the sale of 1.04 acres in Allen Township to Michael and Pamela Eisen Reich for $81,000 the authority is seeking city council approval for this sale as required by section 7.06 of the bond trust and denture property was part of the East Allen Township wellwater system which was purchased in 2013 the property no longer serves any purpose to The Authority or the city of Bethlehem water system because the area is now served with water from from the city's main water system and resolution 10A is on the agenda tonight communication 6B July 3rd 2024 memorandum with proposed resolution from Edward boscola director of water and sewer resources requesting the destruction of records from his Department Mr bascol has reviewed the municipal records retention Act and the records listed on the exhibit accompanying the memo fall within the categories where destruction is permitted and a resolution will be placed on the August 6 Council agenda Communications 6C July 7th 2024 memorandum from police chief Michelle cot with an attached resolution an agreement for the purchase of a Duty Weapon by retired officer of the Bethlehem police department pursuant to the third class city code retired officers May purchase their Duty Firearms at fair market value and resolution 10c is on the agenda tonight 6D July 9th 2024 memorandum from Edward boscola director of water and sewer resources Mr boscola recommends a contract with spots Stevens and McCoy of reading to perform a risk and resilience assessment of the city's water system this assessment is required every five years and is due in March the cost is $23,000 contract shall run from the notice to proceed until March 31st 2025 there are no renewals contractor was selected based on price and knowledge of the city's system spot Stevens and McCoy conducted the previous assessment five years ago and resolution 10d is on the agenda communication 6E July 9th 2024 memorandum with a proposed resolution from police chief Michelle cot Chief cot recommends an agreement with via media of Bethlehem to provide advertising services to create and display recruitment advertisements through web-based media for the police department cost us $20,000 for production and delivery contract will run from September through December of 2024 there are no renewals and resolution 10 is on the agenda communication 6f July 9th 2024 memorandum from city solicitor John fpar Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Arts Quest and the event is the 2024 Pizza Fest the event time is noon to 7: p.m on September 29th the duration of the permit is from 8:00 a. to 9:00 p.m. on September 29th the specified premises is First Street from pulk Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders way between first and second streets and resolution 10f is on the agenda communication 6G July 9th 2024 memorandum from city solicitor John fpur Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is the Bradberry Sullivan LGBT community center and the sub permittee is Arts Quest the event is 2024 Lehi Valley Pride the event time is 2: to 7: p.m. on August 18th the duration of the permit is from 9:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. on August 18th specified premesis is First Street from PK Street to Eastern Terminus Founders way between first and second streets and resolution 10g is on the agenda communication 6h July 10th 2024 memorandum from city solicitor John mburg Jr with an attached amended use permit agreement and a resolution permit is Arts Quest the amendment would add an additional date to the 2024 steel Stacks gated summer concert series the additional event time is 6:00 to 10: p.m. on September 8 the rationing is noon to midnight on September 8th specified premises of First Street from PK Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders way between first and second streets resolution 10h is on tonight's agenda communication 6i a July 10th 2024 memorandum from city solicitor John ifb Jr with an attached amended lease agreement and resolution the agreement is between the city and Allan Beth Associates limited partnership and others to renew terms and conditions to lease land behind the stepco shopping center to provide additional parking spaces for the general public resolution 10h is on the agenda 6j the July 19th 2024 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins director of community and economic development memorandum seeks permission to apply for a grant of up to $1 million from the State Department of community and economic development requesting funds for the construction of sidewalks located in North Side alive neighborhood and Southside business district resolution 10i is on the agenda this evening 6K July 10th 2024 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins director of community and economic development memorandum seeks permission to apply for a $1.85 million Grant from the state dced requesting funds for the construction of West Broad Street Renovations resolution 10j is on tonight's agenda last communication 6L July 5th 2024 memorandum with a proposed resolution from police chief Michelle cot requesting the destruction of records from her Department chief kot has reviewed the municipal records retention act and Records listed on the exhibit accompanying the memo fall within the categories where destruction is permitted and a resolution will be on the August 6 city council agenda thank you Mr Miller moving on to reports of one item to report this evening we're going to have our continuation of the Curative Amendment hearing that we had earlier this summer that's going to be continued on at 6 pm on Wednesday July 31st 2024 here in town hall again this hearing is a continuation of the Curative Amendment hearing of April 30th that was requested by a petition submitted by b b ahx LLC the Curative Amendment requested removing any building length limitation from the C L District at this time I will ask our solicitor Stephanie Stewart well that's my misspoke not at this time I will be but at a later time uh we're going to conduct the Cur of amendment hearing we're continue conducting it as we did the last time and attorney Stewart will go over that process on July 31st that was all I had to report this evening Mr Mayor thank you a couple things one is um I was a a bit late today I was over at Arts Quest there was if if you get a chance the love letters to Bethlehem uh little short film it's about 15 20 minutes long featuring many of our small businesses um explaining why they love the city of Bethlehem I really highly encourage it uh we had an event there kind of highlighting some of uh some of those small businesses um also uh Bernie Fritz night if you're interested is next Wednesday at 6 PM over at Bernie Fritz Park usually one of the highlights of the summer um and also last week we had our exciting announcement with uh musicfest and uh the parking authority uh and Lanta about the shuttles during Music Fest um that are going to essentially be free um to be able to get around uh during Music Fest which has been a long time coming it was uh uh supported by the parking authority um they're the ones that have are the ones that paying for the majority of that um so it's really going to be able to move people around Music Fest safer um easier and be able to take more and more cars off the road during that time period one of the things I talked about is you know one of the joys of music fessing people why people uh love it so much is that the people get to own the streets during that time period um so anything we can do to take as many cars off the road as we can during the time period for a lot of reasons is something that we are highly uh um highly encouraging and also that we're very excited about um and then uh I think I was going to uh one just a couple comments to councilwoman quch um one of the other things that we did not mention too um that is a testament to our community connections program is a lot of the individual ual relationships we have with many of our unhoused individuals as do the other nonprofits uh which is often kind of the front line in in in uh understanding what some of the issues that sometimes people are and because we have those kind of open lines of communication because some of the nonprofits like New Bethany do um it's really something that we're proud of that relationship building that goes on um not only helps to get people Services throughout the year but when things like the Heatwave happen it allows for uh trusting relationships that will um allow for that so that's something that we are um that we are proud of as well and Community Connection program is going to keep trying to establish those relationships and help people where they are um to be able to uh address situations like this that come up as far as the heat is concerned uh and then I only have one uh administrative order today I hereby appoint Rachel Leon 946 e East Fifth Street bethl PA 1805 in the betham housing authority and this appointment is effective through March 2029 administrative order for Rachel Leon to be appointed to the betham Housing Authority resolution is sponsored by Miss quch and Mr cologne discussion on the appointment yes Mr cologne quick comment um I'm gonna give the floor to miss Leon first as the uh appointee uh and then I will turn to you Miss wih sure hi it's me um I'm the one on a topping block tonight uh so um I had asked to be appointed to the betham Housing Authority uh it's after a careful consideration and all of the work that we've done over the past 3 years um I'm afforded a very unique opportunity as a disabled veteran to kind of manage my time as as I see fit I'm very limited in what I can do as work so because of because of that I choose to spend a lot of time in the community and as such I've worked with people in the betham Housing Authority a lot I have helped people navigate situations where they were about to get kicked out of their home um so there's just some things that I I feel like I can bring at least a very real Community a community-minded approach onto the Bethlehem Housing Authority I uh I'm not sure exactly what expertise people are looking for when it comes to being on the Housing Authority uh I'm not uh I don't have a degree in housing I flew aircrafts I I helped with aircrafts but what I did in in the military was I was an operation specialist We Gather process of evaluate and disseminate information that's not much different than what you do on any board you gather the information you process the information and you make the best decisions that you can um I'm not sure what other qualifications would be necessary for it but I mean that's that's what my ribbon rack says I know how to follow instructions and I know how to point out when these instructions are not being followed and how that might hurt people that are on the receiving end of these these guidelines that were given um yeah that's that's it that's all I want to say about it I would appreciate the consideration I will be recusing myself from this vote this is a decision that Council has to make thank you councilwoman councilwoman Wilhelm yes for all the reasons you just heard and heard earlier tonight I'm confident that she will be appointed but I just wanted to add to the record my strong support of Miss Leone for this role uh as was ated she is quite uniquely qualified to contribute positively uh to the BHA board uh and to serve equitably and effectively on it I think on such a small board it's crucial um to really make the most of each seat and this appointment does that I'm I'm pleased to cast my vote in support just wanted to add uh add that thanks president clone thank you just any other comment on the resolution I'll go to councilwoman cramsey Smith then miss quch okay all right well um I I have some concerns and I have to say that first of all my concerns are entirely about a potential conflict of interests um as well as bad public policy for having anyone that's a council member being appointed to the betham housing authority and that it has nothing to do to do at all with councilwoman Le own or the individual being considered um we already have council members as Liaisons to all of our authorities including the BHA um historically as far as I can recall Council has never has been Liaisons but have never been appointed members of any ABCs I could be incorrect but to my knowledge I don't recall it um to me it seems counterintuitive to council members appointed to an ABC when the council members are the same ones who have to approve such an appointment my big my first concern is are there any legal issues that could jeopardize our City's Federal funding while it may or may not be relevant the hatch act restricts certain political activities of those who work in connection with federally def fendant programs um the Housing Authority acquires and expands Federal HUD money um I know of one example of a government entity not too far from here in um recent time that lost significant federal funds because a candidate for office remained on an authority and was on the ballot and did not resign and that entity that government entity was never able to recoup those federal funds so um I need to be assured that that's an issue because um again that's a concern looking at the um housing authorities and the current code of federal regulations I I saw Title 24 states that under conflict of interests the public housing agency or the BHA may not enter into any arrangement in connection with um HCB housing Choice voucher program in which any of the following classes of persons has any interest direct or indirect and one of those classes of persons is any public official member of a governing body a state or local legislator there's another also another conflict that council members have to vote on HUD funding for many programs within the city under Community Economic Development as well as pH uh Bethlehem Housing Authority programs and we approve an annual annual budget that include H HUD funding so I'm just really concerned that I don't want us to jeopardize any HUD funding um another potential conflict under the the code of Rags is that under planning zoning and building laws each housing project of a Housing Authority shall be subject to the zoning sanitary and building laws ordinances or regulations Appo to the locality in which the project is situated so could there be a conflict that if Council has to vote on the said zoning laws and regulations and ordinances and then we have a member of council that has to vote on that which is applicable to the Housing Authority so I have a lot of legal concerns I'm not a lawyer but um you know I I when I saw this I did look up some some legal um regulations and guidelines because I just want to make sure that what we're doing is within the um the language of the law and the spirit of the law and even if if this is legal I just believe that it really sets it's p bad presidence and again it has nothing to do with the individual I just don't think it's a good policy no other cities in the Commonwealth that I know over um allow this I've spoken to three other third class cities and they do not allow and they don't they think it's bad policy um I believe someone in Allentown was a council member and was on the Housing Authority but immediately resigned when they realized that there were legal issues regarding it residents are appointed to authorities boards and commissions to have rep so we have representation of diverse community members we always encouraging residents to join ABCs This is an opportunity to have community members partic ipate in Civic activities why do we want to take that away from them by appointing council members to ABCs concurrently council members are elected to serve for a purpose our purpose is to enact leg legislation adopt resolutions approved ongoing budgetary items as well as the annual budget etc etc a separation of power I think Powers is vital toward democracy and the balance of government we've seen how Deo and threatening this lack of separation of powers can be in our country and we don't want to go there at the local level city council P persons have their own unique roles and responsibilities as do our appointed Authority members and I believe it's best practice to continue to keep the two separate for many reasons but especially to avoid a conflict of interest as well as possible loss of federal funds and while I certainly appreciate Council women Leon's experience um I don't think that's the issue I I myself have 40 years experienced and working with people who are homeless and housing issues uh in many many levels for many many years and I myself would never ask to be appointed to the Housing Authority because I think it's a conflict even though I think my experience would be valuable I think it's a real conflict and um for that reason I'm not going to support this thank you councilwoman councilwoman qu um if they'd like if the city would like to the administration would like to address those concerns I'm I'm certainly willing to just hang back till they do that well then I'll I'll turn it over to I'll ask a couple of the questions and as followup to some of the things we heard mayor Reynolds and anyone else who wants to address them we could go kind of one at a time starting with the the conflict and it's your appointment so if you give us some background as to it's probably best if Mr spur just kind of explain some things that probably will answer some questions and then determine whether or not those questions need to be answered and then we can go from there thank you yeah I don't do spirits I don't do spirits of the law but as the law I don't see any legal problem with it we've rese I've researched it I don't see a problem with it can can I ask have you been in communication with the BHA solicitor because the betham Housing Authority board has their own solicitor so was there any I did my own research understood and then so as it relates to some of the potential conflict and some of the other um cases that were cited do do you have any reservation that there's any conflict within that this would be any kind of conflict having a seated member of city council appointed as a a volunteer on the BHA board I don't understood Mr Reynolds yeah and then just a little background too is I mean I think the conversation come up uh couple weeks off last meeting one of the meetings before when we talked about um you know the authorities and the boards and commissions and the level of expertise or time Mr K I think it was an interaction that we had um that on some boards you need people with more expertise or time and things like that I can tell you that there were several people and well first I would say is we need people that are on our Housing Authority that have time to be engaged in this process they need to be engaged in Choice neighborhoods uh they need to be engaged in um a lot of what's going on now with voucher utilization and different things having to do with the Housing Authority so if you start out in that kind of conversation about like can we put somebody on this board it's not just about finding someone that wants to be on the board in this case you're looking for somebody that has the time and the expertise and the interest I mean the choice neighborhoods board members are doing things like knocking on doors getting surveys for Choice neighborhoods and things like that and we talk in this room about how we want to be engaged but and choice neighborhoods and Mr Tulu and Miss Collins are behind me I think I saw Miss Smith here she's been to some of the meetings uh know Miss quch Mr cologne has Miss Leon has as as well it is not something that people are really coming out of the woodwork saying I want to volunteer to be a part of this at the intense level we have we have a very dedicated group of volunteers but I'll give you an example when we went out to that um meeting at Wesley Methodist in June we put out a signin sheet for anybody that wanted to volunteer to be a part of the choice neighborhoods process and not one person signed up to willing to volunteer um and that was a meeting that I thought people were very interested in housing about so is a situation that we are looking for people to necessarily be a part of this process that's engaged Miss Leon's name also came to us and I would disagree a little bit with Miss Leon saying she volunteered is like the reason that you saw the support for Miss Leon to bring the name forward is because of things like the cheers that we just heard and the other people in the community that said this is a person that is willing to be able that is able to represent us to able to represent you know what who we are as people and what we're looking for as far as the Housing Authority so it was not there were multiple people that we had asked and then people within the community had reached out to us to say we think she would be a great fit there in representing our community um and then just to give a little bit of the background and you might know this you might not like the National Housing Act and the in the New Deal 1937 created housing authorities betham housing authori is one of the first ones um that opened in 1939 we actually had this ref referendum about whether or not we were going to accept these funds to build Penbrook Village but the first chairman of the Housing Authority was mayor pel so he's even more of a elected official than a council person was as the mayor was the chairman of the Housing Authority for over a decade while he was mayor um and then afterwards so it is a situation where from the beginning and the housing authorities and we've talked about this before authorities are created and they were created at time especially when we talking about parking authority or Water Authority or housing authority to make sure that the city is voided moving up again against their debt limits um much of which doesn't exist anymore um but it is very important for us obviously to work hand in hand going going forward um but like I said this was we can absolutely answer the questions about this appointment and Mr spur can answer those legal questions about it but this originated because people in the community said this is the person that we think would be a good fit under the housing authority and that's why we decided to bring um Miss Leon's name forward thank you thank you mayor Reynolds Miss quch I'll turn the floor back over to you thank you I just wanted to make sure that was addressed before I spoke um I am the uh Council the A on to the Bethlehem Housing Authority I do attend as many of the monthly meetings as I can I don't have a vote on The Authority however when I was on the uh blighted property uh commission I did have a vote so uh just so people understand it depends on the authority border commission and how their bylaws are written whether or not the liaison from Council has a vote so so um I've been going to Bethlehem Housing Authority meetings now for two and a half years um and I would uh I'm involved in the choice neighborhoods um project as uh the mayor said and I would agree with Miss Smith's assessment that uh there is a need for Progressive thoughtful leadership on the board um I've you know seen there's you know a lot of caring people uh who have served on that board there's no question about that um however I do uh believe that uh some more Progressive Forward Thinking uh Commissioners are necessary on the board I when I first learned about this I certainly did my due diligence and contacted several people in the um in the administration you know with the concerns about conflicts things like that I think that um conflict is really about monetary benefit and there is no situation in which there would be any monetary benefit for Miss Leon or for anybody that she's associated with um I think that that's one of the most important things also from an education standpoint to share with people is that um I think that the the piece of uh law that Miss ksey Smith referenced was specifically about um you know having some kind of uh financial interest in a in a an entity that gets um vouchers or things like that that's the the the reading that I have of that piece of the law um I am sure that uh Miss Collins has no interest in jeopardizing in any way our relationship with HUD U the many great great things that they do for our community so if this was at all a concern um that was you know that was not expressed to me at the time and um I do have tremendous respect for Miss Leon and and uh appreciate her stepping up at this time when unfortunately um the other folks that were potential um weren't able to make that commitment thank you thank you councilwoman any other comments Mr Callan yeah I was I was just looking something up here so anyways I this has nothing to do with councilwoman Leon I think she would do an awesome job but in all the years that I've been involved in you know city government and following things that when my brother was the mayor for 10 years I don't ever I don't I don't know if Mr Reynolds or I could ever recall ever having a city coun person on one of these boards I I mean I can't you I'd have to think about it as Miss quch just pointed out sometimes Le Asians get voting uh rights like in um Allentown one of the council people at least one of them is on the parking authority um so it is something that has gone on um it is uh you know it is not something that uh you know I necessarily uh think happens often but you know as Mr spurk said there's not a conflict I think one of the things too is just because just to add to that when I have the opportunity is there's a legal definition of What conflict of interest is there's a legal definition we went through the ethics training that explained what a conflict of interest is conflict of interest as a term I think often gets thrown around as words that don't necessarily match up with what the legal definition of what that term what that term means we went through that I think it was one of the questions Mr Ken you had asked the lawyer from Harrisburg um is that and the lawyer from Harrisburg went over and over and over again that there has to be a direct Financial benefit to you or an immediate F family member Miss steuart did I get that correct and so it's got to be a direct financial interest now we have seen that term often get thrown around in a way that is just not um uh consistent with what the legal definition is there's a difference between people not liking something and there being a conflict of interest um but I to get back to your original question Mr Callahan um I I couldn't tell you for certain um like I said we've seen it in other cities and the first question that I had when we had the community kind of support for Miss Leon was I asked Mr spurk can you do the research and tell me whether or not this is something something that's able to be done or not Mr spur did you uh so so this was just your own research then right you need to check with the Housing Authority because I no I sort of based on my 46 years as a lawyer I just did my own research yeah so I um I think um Miss crampy Smith was referring to this or I think this is from the um the ethics uh of the public housing authority under conflict of interests for the h public housing authority that ensuring that your public housing agency is ethically run is one of the core responsibilities as a board member any conflicts of interest must be disclosed to the PHA and to HUD who may wave conflicts of interest for good cause and then item number four or bullet four under that states is a public official member of the state or local government body or in the immediate family of a public official or member of the state or local government body who exercise functions or responsibilities regarding the pH so yeah the uh I think it's pretty clear Housing Authority statute I'll be happy to talk to your lawyer or Miss Smith's lawyer I don't I will be happy to talk to them I I don't have a lawyer I'm just saying I the Pennsylvania state law that authorizes housing authorities says that no council member can be on a Housing Authority in a first class City we're not a first class City yeah this doesn't say anything about first class cities though well okay I it says that's not state law it says is a public official member of the state or local government yeah and that's that's right from I'm well I'm finishing if you'd like to read it I mean I'll give you yeah no like I said I'm going on my research and my 46 years I'll look at your phone later I'll talk to your lawyer yeah I'm confident no so so I you know I listen I think she do an awesome job but I think I think it sets a dangerous precedent there are volunteers these are volunteer boards we should appoint members from the public Not Elected U members of council we always lit we always talk about this we always lament a selecting from a very select group uh of names and none is more select than seven of us sitting up here um we have the ability to influence policy and we should not cover that power or covet that power all to ourselves appointing a council member to another board is really just us trying to um attain more power in the city and we should discourage that I just think that um you know the Hatch Act which this was under was changed in 2016 uh it doesn't mean a city has has to allow elected officials to serve on the boards only that they aren't permitted by law but that's the Hatch Act that's not the the public housing authority um I think that um other third I don't think there's any other third class cities that allow it we miss kampy Smith checked with Scranton they do not allow it um so I just you know I I think that if if you look at uh we also passed an Ethics um law or ordinance the city of Bethlehem did and years ago I don't know if Miss Leon was on that or not or if she part of that Vote or not but in it it talks about it's the essentialness of not of avoiding conflicts of interests and even appearances of conflicts of interests so you know I don't know if we should be voting on this until we a look look at our own ordinance number two or B is look at the P public housing author ities um or you have a chance to to look at it because it I mean I read directly from it and it clearly states a public local official cannot be on that board so I I don't know I don't know if or if I I think the ethical thing to do is for Miss Leon to withdraw her name from it until we um you know have have more clarity from the Housing Authority uh solicitor and Mr spurk has the opportunity to review that with the solicitor from the Housing Authority I mean I mean what I read is is is directly off at the website under ethics and I think our own City Council ethics that we passed clearly states that you know even in in appearance of of a of a ethical um conflict as I said I don't do spirits I don't do appearances I I sort of do law th this is this is law I mean I don't know I mean it's not this isn't an appearance it says it right there you said it twice you said appearance well I could read it a third time if you don't understand it you said appearance of impropriety twice I'm just saying I don't do that gentlemen I don't want to spin our Wheels no there if there are any more points to be made or questions to be asked Mr I would like our solicitor to to to review it or have an opinion on it would you like to look at it no our your your citation I'd be happy to this isn't my citation this is that that's the public housing authority is that the same thing in figer print this is a for the for the spirit of what's going on and while she's speaking I just want to finish go ahead Mr I think this sets a really really bad predent I mean is is what's up next appointing a council member to zoning to planning it's it's never been done before and we have 80,000 people in this city there's certainly got to be someone else out there that we can appoint to this position instead of one of us we are we already have the power over the over the votes of it and to have this I mean I I just think the ethical thing to do is for Miss Leon to withdraw her name from it do you have any other comments on I I I I do but I would I'll wait for our solic you know to read it first of all this conflict of interest provision that you are citing to is federal and it does not prohibit serving let me just read it again because I'm reading it in a very rushed fashion H H is a is is a Federal it's Federal correct in particular this citation that's what you're directing me to right here and this part and below it are you saying that this part here is referring to this citation just so everyone can follow along including myself can we just State what we're looking at because I'm not sure what we're looking at please if I can just State I mean I think I've made my points I I think that it's a really slippery slope I think it's bad optic Optics I think that it opens up a Pandora's Box and again it has nothing to do with the person whatsoever no other third class cities that I know of do this um there's people out there in the community I'm sure would be willing to um the person that is um not being reappointed from my understanding is very involved with the I think it's the Parkridge housing she lives right on the border of the parkbridge um works a lot with that housing community and has for many years so she's very involved in in housing I don't see why there is a need to even not reappoint her if we don't get someone else I think the lawyers can look at this but basically it sounds like Administration has made their decision as well as councilwoman alone and we can go to the vote and I just bring this up because I want to make sure we're doing what's best for the city I don't feel what's best for the city I also have concerns about us jeopardizing fedal funding because I know for a fact that this did happen um in another governmental entity not too far from here so I I'd say at this point we can just go for the vote because I don't think it's worth it to wait for a legal opinion um I think we already have one per Mr spurk thank you Council cramsey Smith and and just for the record please that's this what law was handed to our solicitor to review that's the state law this is and this does not law housing authorities from from HUD yes it's actually H HUD exchange it's under that website the HUD exchange thank you and that's just for my own understanding maybe I follow along so we know what it is refence the issue that it does stay is that there there is um there someone that's a public official is um prevented from voting on um Housing Voucher programs and again this like then what you know what's the point if there's going to be an issue of being prevented account a public official is going to be on an author but they can't vote on the most important programs that the authority is going to be looking at but again I've made my point and I motion that we go to a vote thank you and attorney Stewart's going to read part of the highlighted portion of what was uh referenced in the comments yes um it's a section stating and it it has no citation but it states procurement and housing Choice voucher Administration PHA employees or Representatives um may not participate in the selection or administration of a contract supported by federal funds including housing Choice voucher tenant-based programs if that person will be awarded the contract is any member of immediate family of the awarde etc etc is a public official member of the state or local government body or in the immediate family of a public official or member of the state or local government body who exercises functions or responsibilities regarding the PHA um so what what section is that under this is just a web page yeah and it doesn't have a citation it's on your ethics so well that it is on a page that's titled skills I I have it right here if You' like to see it so pass that down here I'm gonna I'm gonna make a couple comments and then open I'm not done yet well Mr Callan please continue on with any other points that you have thank you so so if you'd like to look at that Mr so if you like to look at it it's under skills and ethics and conflicts of interests what what you saw on her piece of paper was cut off it is I know it's cut off but it's not it doesn't showed a subheading so I think at the very least what we need to do is table it until we get a legal opinion on from the Housing Authority from the federal Housing Authority solicitor on whether this is legal or not because this is this Mr you see this here you see at the top there all right so it's it's important to recognize that this is under ethics the the categories ethics and conflicts of interests and again under conflicts of interest is a public official member of the state or local government body that's us or an immediate family of a public official or member of the state or local government body who exercises functions or responsibil responsibilities regarding the PHA that's pretty clear and I'm not a lawyer Mr spurk but I do know how to read and and and I think what we need to do is uh I can't believe out of 80,000 people in the city we can't find someone else that's not on that has a not only what I believe according to this is conflict of interests but without a doubt an appearance of a conflict of interests we all we have to live and abide by our own Council uh code of ethics that we passed and one of the parts of that is even an appearance of a conflict this is an definitely if not according I think it's a a definite conflict according to the not to the state but to the federal government HUD it is so until we get a direct ruling from HUD this should not be voted on and and on top of that our own city council uh ethics which we all passed and agreed to I think Miss Leon agrees you know to it too um I think that uh there's definitely not only a conflict of interest but there's definitely an appearance of a conflict of interest so I I would ask to table this this until we get clarification legal clarification Mr spurk said he didn't speak to anybody from the federal Housing Authority or HUD it was his own legal opinion and I think until we hear from them why do we why do we take the chance of jeopardizing the federal funds going into that um that organization so I would ask that we table this at the minimum or Miss Leon do the the thing that I think really needs to be done and and ask to have her name recued because of of Ethics according to the City Council ethics Mr Cen I would say could we continue conversation from all discussion with all members of council before any motions are introduced I just asked that sry I I would like that that's a motion I just made and and I would ask for a second so you're so you're actively making the motion to table correct until we get legal advice from the Housing Authority the federal Housing Authority which is which is I mean if she's on that board she's going to be voting on that stuff and that's exactly what the that's what the conflict says so so the motion on the floor for Mr Callan is to table I'll remind everyone that there is no set date when we motion to table and there's no discussion on the motion if there is a second to table attorney Stewart I'm correct it needs to be listed on the next it need it needs to be listed on the next agenda or else it dies yes and there's no discussion on the motion correct correct so the motion on the floor for Mr Callahan is to table is there a second on his motion to table hearing no second the motion dies I'm going to continue discussion so I I just want to say a couple things then I'll turn to our our online membership that are uh participating so a couple General things one as it relates to the city authorities boards and commissions I personally have served on the human relations commission for longer than been on city council I think I've been reappointed by city council unanimously twice since I've been on the human relations commission over my this is my ninth year on Council I came on as a member of the human relations commission my name was brought forward by uh our previous mayor and our current mayor for reappointment and both times I was reappointed unanimously now the work of the different boards differ I'm not going to pretend they're all they all have their own function they all have their own scope but as it relates to that and I know there's conversations that I wasn't on Council yet but I was in this room when we as was referenced before about when we throw around conflict of interest and and things like that where there was someone appointed to a board and then there was this um discussion of of um conflict because of what their professional background was versus what their commitments would be appointed and then it was simply resolved they would recuse themselves when need be I've had to recuse myself as a member of the human relations commission at times where it was I had to do that as a member of that uh Authority and the human relations commission uses a solicitor a City lawyer as city council as a lawyer as Mr spurk is a lawyer as the Bethlehem Housing Authority has a lawyer that that advises them and I know they're not they're no stranger especially this year to discussions about conflict of interest and things like that where their own solicitor has investigated and weighed in on things as it relates pardon as it relates to the work of the bethlhem Housing Authority in terms of what they actually do a as a board as as I've referenced before uh until I was 13 years old I lived in our marvine Penbrook neighborhood I grew up in our Bethlehem Housing Authority I'm a proud product of our Bethlehem Housing Authority I used to serve as the Council of liaison and have a lot of respect for the work that all those volunteers do and would um invite someone like count wom Le own to continue that work there's a lot going on as we've heard not just tonight previously as it relates to Choice neighborhoods and really what what the future of whether it's Marvin Penbrook whether it's lynfield whether it's Parkridge whether it's uh assessing all the assets that the Housing Authority has and um you know it's I've referenced kind of a a standard and what standard do we want to hold our volunteers to and I think councilwoman Leon you know fits the bill for someone that we're looking for in terms of what their their motivations are what their background is what drives them to want to volunteer their time serving in this capacity uh again as a volunteer on our our Housing Authority board um I don't have it in front of me to read verbatim but as we as U just to restate what was brought up by another member of council we do have a conflict of interest ordinance that we had voted on that relates to uh campaign Finance donations calling for recusal also calling for recusal if someone has a certain interest or family has certain interest in a business that's before Council for business and there's also the wording that talks about um a perception of conflict and that's getting a little more subjective of course and I'm not g to even pretend to try to litigate that uh I am open to hear from all members of council before we talk about any potential motions to um postpone and things like that as we have our own Council uh solicitor who is more than capable but was not we don't have an opinion tonight from our own Council solicitor that's why IED and I understand Mr Callahan so we definitely heard the opinion of Mr spurk and I have full faith and confidence in his opinion also as our city solicitor and former city council solicitor for for many years I will uh turn it over to if there's any other comments from members of council who wanted to weigh in as we continue discussion on the appointment tonight was there I'll start with anyone who has had chance to to have the floor yet is there anyone else who had comment who hasn't spoken yet I would councilwoman lard yes um yeah so uh let me start by saying that uh you know I think that councilwoman Leon would be a absolute benefit uh to have serve in this position um on the Housing Authority board um and I really appreciate that we're having this conversation about conflicts and making sure that we're doing things by the book um I don't think anyone from the administration on Council or on the authority wants to put funding for these programs that are so important at risk or you know have any any potential hiccups in how things go so I think um taking the time now to make sure that everything is uh squared away and recognize if there are any things that we need to look out for is really good um I would like to see an opinion if possible from our own solicitor um and you know maybe even a comment from the Housing Authority solicitor in support of um this uh appointment before we move on with it um you know if it all comes back clear I do support this appointment but um so I don't know if we're at a point of being able to make a motion now I think everyone spoke but um it has everyone had a chance to speak before I do anything uh I mean everyone has that chance but I think there's other comment that members of council are queued up for Miss leair I appreciate your your asking if you wanted to turn the floor back over to the members of council before we discuss any action here uh yeah sure I'll turn it back over thanks thank you Miss Leo so I was on Council when uh when we did the conflict of interest ordinance um actually I was the one who pushed for recusal as opposed to just disclosure and I didn't want any exemptions from any type of donation and I believe I wanted it to be any Financial contributions given because that's how much ethics do mean to me um so in the spirit of that there is a definition of conflict of interest and as governmental leaders I think that it is Our obligation to dispel what is a madeup Thing versus what is our legal law I do not financially benefit from anything Section 8 I do live below the poverty line I apologize for that but I do not I do not I'm not part part of a voucher program I'm not a developer I would not procure a property that would be part of a voucher program so there's there's literally like no way that I would financially benefit from this and I I don't know I wouldn't be part of any procurement process that the law that was referred to would be governing and I wouldn't be part of a procurement process so I just want to as you guys consider what you're going to do when you write your legal opinions um I mean my Financial disclosure is on the website it says via disability that's it that's that's all you got from me but I do have a question for our solicitor if you're going to continue to look um can you look into the library board because I do sit on the library board and I vote on the budget here and over there and the library gets grants from the city so if I can't serve here I can't serve there it should be even across the board I'm going to turn to attorney Stewart for comment while I appreciate the opportunity to give a more thorough response I will return once again to the concept of conflict of interest and I I do think it gets it's it's in good faith I think that people are asking questions people want to make sure we don't make any missteps and and jeopardize any funding um but the key the core concept of conflict of interest is self-dealing and reading now this um Federal citation that that you handed me I have the actual citation and it really ex it really looks to make sure that somebody is not self-dealing so you can in my opinion sit on Council and sit on a board where maybe you're looking at the same thing if you are not personally Ben benefiting from it or a member of your family is not personally benefiting from it because that again is the core concept of conflict of interest so as I said I appreciate the opportunity to give a more fleshed out response but preliminarily that is my view thank you attorney Stewart Mr Callan I I couldn't agree with uh councilwoman lar uh more um I think it listen if if it's totally legal and that uh federal government uh that the Housing Authority comes back and says that yes it is legal I will be happy to vote uh for her to be on uh the board there's a lot of other things we tried be besides uh granting contracts there's the possibility of having Neighbors being preferential treatment I'm not saying that she would but that's there's lots of different possibilities of of of giving prefer preferential treatment as a board member to people who might be her neighbors to uh get a Housing Voucher I mean there's a lot it's just not awarding contracts there's a lot of different things there so I all I'm asking for this is all this is all I'm asking for uh is Mr SPG said he did not check with it was his legal opinion he didn't check with any lawyers or solicitors from uh HUD and I think our solicitor uh is actually just said that this is her pre preliminary uh opinion I I couldn't agree with Miss lared Moore why don't we wait for the what's the harm in waiting another meeting until we get a definitive um judgment and our solicor has a moment to review it and talk to the solicitor of the Housing Authority it's I don't know what the rush is be honest with you any other comments councilwoman KY Smith um yeah I just want to clarify I mean the reason I bring this up is I'm concerned about possible legalities and conflict of interest because conflict of interest being a council member and being on an authority nothing personally I am not alluding that um um any person uh councilwoman Le own or anyone on any Authority would be out for their own self-interest at all the conflict of interest I'm looking at is being a council member and serving on especially an authority that is so important I mean they're all important but the betham Housing Authority deals with multi-millions in federal money and that is um that's that's real and that's important and I don't want to see anything jeopardized as far as our funding goes or any kind of conflict of interest and again I think that it is even if it's totally legal I stand with that I think it's bad policy I don't think it's been done to my knowledge in the past for authorities like this to have voting members who are also council members because I think is it's a gray area we have to vote on things that come from the betham housing authority and as a council member then can you know you'd have to recluse yourself and possibly as a council member you have to recluse yourself in voting on things as an authority member so I just in my mind I just don't think it's worth it I think that it's important that we have citizen residents of this Community Serve on our authorities boards and commissions has has has been the case in um historically in the case and that's I just want to clarify that's where I'm coming from thank you thank you councilwoman so I'll point out to the calendar our Council meetings are the first and third Tuesday of every month this month has five Tuesdays so our next meeting would be three weeks from today attorney Stewart do you think in the next three weeks you would be able to issue an opinion potentially if there was any conflict as it relates to the appointment of councilwoman Le own to the Housing Authority board absolutely understood is there anything new that anyone on Council wants to introduce I will I will make the motion to postpone the uh resolution to appoint councilwoman Le own U Move it to the next council meeting which would be Tuesday July the 6 here in town hall put it on that agenda and it August thank you mayor Reynolds August uh six meeting uh for and then in that time our Council solicor would pen an opinion as to the if we're violating concurring with Mr spurk or any other opinion you have about the if we're violating any statutes as it relates to a council member serving on the betham Housing Authority so I the motion is on the floor to postpone and I think that's a very fair a motion second by Mr Callahan so any discussion on the motion to postpone councilwoman still gonna recuse still about me so understood the any other discussion Mr Miller please call the rooll on the motion to post oh miss L sorry that's okay will um our attorney's research also look at like the the point about that some of us do and have served on other uh boards or commissions so uh can that be part of the research of you know can we continue doing what we've been doing um not just this specific role attorney Stewart is noting it in her notes also give an opinion on that thank you any other discussion on the motion Mr Callan I I don't think the uh the issue is the legality according to the Hatch Act because it is uh legal to be on other boards uh so it's I think the question here is not our uh ethics uh code it's the um code of the uh Federal Housing Authority Attorney Stuart is tasked with giving us her opinion on the the the broad legality that we would not be violating any stat and and I'll touch upon all of those concerns and if if if possible uh if we could get a letter from uh the solicitor uh from the Housing Authority uh stating that is their opinion that it is uh it is ethical and it is legal for her to serve on both boards because I think I think that's the question it's not what we think it's what the uh I don't want to jeopardize any money going to the into the betham Housing Authority I think that's the thing I think she'd do a great job I just I I don't want to lose the money and uh I don't want to if if she got voted in without uh an approval from or uh the go ahead from the federal Housing Authority uh I would then send a letter to them from uh me as a council person to act on it or decide on it because uh I think it's pretty clear according to what I read um that it's unallowed I will reach out as part as part my work thank you you're welcome any other discussion about the postponement Mr Miller please call the role Miss KY Smith I miss quch hi Miss L I miss Leon obain Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I and Mr colog I motion passes 60 with one recusal the resolution to appoint will be on the next city council agenda Mr mer was still on your report yeah just a just a couple things to finish that conversation one is I would highly encourage if possible um you know conversations with solicitors before Council meetings are always helpful um to be able to understand because oftentimes as is the nature of legal research as is the nature of what the job is especially for our own solicitor so in case that something came up that Miss Stewart didn't know and she had a question and Mr spark had to go research himself so whatever we can do to be able to not bring up questions for the first time here just makes it easier for all of us to make decisions um to be able to follow things it's hard to know what somebody is bringing up beforehand it is not a problem for us delaying this by three weeks I think between Miss stward and Mr spark they're able to come back with um you know legal legal opinions Mr spark has obviously already given his Miss Steward you know represents city council here as well um I I think that I mean there are members of the Bethlehem author Housing Authority that live in Bethlehem housing so I mean they're making decisions all the time about what's going on in their own properties um but it is a conversation that if it makes everybody feel better um but I would just say it is it is and I would say it's a little bit silly to think that the people behind us miss Collins Miss culo Mr spurk have not spent a lot of time thinking about whether or not this was going to they're the people that are applying for federal funds for chased neighborhoods and things like that um so those are all things that they have taken um under consideration and they spend every day thinking about um so it's not as if those aren't concerns or it's not as if Mr spurk being the lawyer as he said um for the city or Miss Collins who's also a lawyer or Miss culo who is a better researcher than anybody else I've ever met um haven't looked through these things from our point of view and our level of confidence with that being said allowing Miss Stewart the opportunity to go do her own research here um is I think um I think it's fine by us and if it if it delays it delays it three weeks um that's that's not a that's not an issue if I may thank you very much for that um mayor and I will say that seeing this on the agenda um just for my own edification I did research this matter ahead of time independently and I came to the same conclusion as solicitor spurk however in the context of this of this council meeting certain very specific questions have come up and I do think council is entitled to specific answers to those specific questions and I'll be happy to deliver an opinion on that in a timely manner and I and like I said that's completely understandable and I mean that was the same manner I would take if I was a council person it's just allowing those conversations to go on as much as possible so we all have that information beforehand I think is in it's just the best way to make decisions for all of us agree thank you thank you thank you mayor Reynold that concludes my report thank you moving on to our Mr Mr can can I ask the mayor a question on his comments Mr Callan I'd really like to move forward if you have a very brief question it is uh so miss Collins and Miss satul in your research did you check with the Housing Authority uh legally to see if this was legal because if if it's the answer is yes we could vote on it now Mr Callahan we've already I'll answer this question Mr just said that she's one of the best researchers ever I'm asking her a question she research it mran I'm asking a question I will turn the floor back over but to imply that somehow we're gonna Backtrack on what we just took action on and put it back on the agenda it that that's misleading I'm asking her she resarch and I'm gonna turn the floor she's a fabulous researcher right Mr Callahan Miss ctio did youch Mr Callahan I'm asking her a question and your question will be answered in two minutes but again I believe it's misleading to say we can vote on it right now when we've our Council unanimously just voted to postpone so I don't I don't want to put the impression out there just asking the question did you research it did any of you reach out to HUD Mr did it's a simple question yes or no Mr ask you can I ask you a question I got the floor I got the floor excuse me excuse me EXC gent all have the Flor all talking over each other the floor right now the question has been asked I asked the question I asked Miss cins and Mr did anybody Reach Out to the Housing Authority yes or no Mr Simple Mr colone did you as as M did you reach out may I ask you a question please as the president Mr it's a very simple question Callahan we've already fact that you won't answer it tells me something's astray point of order is this in order may I please ask for a ruling from our solicitor as to whether or not this is a time for another question we had just completed a vote we were moving down our agenda and I believe we were it was time for for us to move on to our our next piece of business if we're allowed to just continue to interject questions then we're we're not moving in in a we're not in order I don't recall whether you were whether you recognized uh Mi Mr Mr Reynolds had concluded his report Mr Ken had asked if he could ask a quick question Rel relative to Mayor report well to his comments to which I had advised Mr Callan if he had a quick question I would hear his question Mr may I ask you a question yes you may Mr and I'm asking this as the president of city council I mean there is a pattern of Mr Callan asking questions and interrupting the responses or interrupting us when we have the microphone I didn't get the answer Mr uh president I didn't get an excuse me president cologne yes I I have a legitimate question for you going forward and that's what you believe is the best strategy for us to be able to answer questions or give respon resp es where there's not interruptions that lower the decorum of this body in a way that is embarrassing and I'm asking you between now and three weeks from now if you could necessarily do any particular research yourself or consider any options because as we are asked questions as we are given the opportunity to as I think I said one of the previous meetings it's as if our answers can't even stand as our own answers as if the questions and the answers are decided and if we start to give an answer that Mr Callahan disagrees with he interrupts our particular answer in this particular case we stand by everything that we said as far as what this as what this is as the research that was done about whether or not this was going to be something that was going to violate any type of law or if it was something that was going to put anything in danger going into the future with that being said I'm going to conclude my report by saying that we are the same place that we were a few minutes ago and we will wait for the conversation in three weeks thank you Mr clone that concludes my report I'm going to accept that as the mayor's answer as relative to they're researching the legality of uh councilwoman Leon being appointed I am go Mr I'm gonna count that as your question being answered may I already broke our order as was referenced by one member of council M I asked a direct question yes or no did they reach out to anybody understood and I get an answer yet whe whether the answer mayor Reynolds has concluded his report we historically don't open up discussion during the mayor's report so I I did want to give the mayor an opportunity to address that he's addressed it how he's chosen to whether you accept that or not Mr calan I'm not here to litigate I am here to move forward with our agenda tonight I didn't ask Mr Reynolds I asked the two department or I asked the department head if anybody reached out to HUD that's it yes or no and and mayor Reynolds has answered as he's chosen to answer and and that concludes the discussion we're going to move on with our agenda this evening Mr cahan thank you for the no answer Mr RS appreciate it I'll turn to our finance committee chair councilwoman cramsey Smith thank you the finance committee met earlier tonight on Tuesday July 16 2024 at 6 PM in town hall eight budget adjustments are on the agenda the committee reviewed these adjustments and voted for them to be placed on council's agenda this evening those um budgetary adjustments will be um in the next order of business under new ordinances thank you thank you councilwoman cramsey Smith we don't have any ordinances for final passage tonight so we'll move on to new ordinances I'll ask Mr Miller to read bill 19 2024 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for non utilities bill number 19 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith any discussion we'll call the rooll Miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi and Mr colum I passes 60 Bill 20 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the Community Development block grant budget for 2024 bill number 20 24 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss KY Smith any discussion I'll start with thank you just to clarify that um 9B and 9C were already discussed um in detail at a recent public meeting so these are just uh transfers of of funds thank you thank you councilwoman M quch did you also have that's what I was going to say thank you understood any other comments from members of council Mr Miller call the rooll Miss gry Smith hi Miss quch hi Miss L I miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I Mr colum I pass 70 Bill 21 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending Community Development block grant budget for 2024 bill number 21 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith any discussion we'll call the rooll Miss grmy Smith I miss quch hi Miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi and Mr colum I passes 70 Bill 22 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 22 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss crampy Smith discussion I just want to clarify that this is a donation from lehab Valley partnership in the amount of um $115,000 to be used um once it's determined if we are designated as a world heritage site um for a celebration thank you thank you any other discussion we'll call the role Miss gcy Smith I miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan all right Mr cologne I I pass 70 Bill 23 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 20 24 bill number 23 2024 sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion and just to clarify that this is um has to do with mertile tax management there's been an increase in mertile tax revenues resulting in an increase in the collection fees thank you any other discussion we'll call the role Miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard Miss L hi sorry Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr cahan all right and Mr colom I pass a 70 no need to apologize councilwoman L we're not going anywhere Bill 24 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 24 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion Council and I'll just clarify that this is um a gram from Pennsylvania dced it for $20,000 for um facade improvements in the north side thank you any other discussion for members of council we'll call the role Miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I and Mr colum I pass 70 Bill 25 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 25 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmsy Smith discussion counc one and this is um the use of investment income to send nine firefighter Cadets to firefighting uh Academy in Harrisburg because the Allentown Academy is not um occurring anymore more this year and that will help us to get our firefighter Department up to par Personnel wise thank you any other discussion members of council mayor Reynolds can you speak a little bit on yeah how this impacts fire department absolutely and I was not here at the finance committee um but I I really want to just um thank gief Reich I know Captain Griffin is here and Deputy bear is here as well um but I also wanted to thank and she may have been think before missah hockey and HR uh one of the things that have gone on in in the past is you know obviously there's only been one Allentown fire academy which is kind of our chosen one um and the group of individuals I just mentioned um and as I said I know Captain Griffin and Deputy barer here have worked really really hard over the past two months to be able to send these Cadets to be able to get them um at uh the beginning of next year to avoid having to send a larger class um in January where we might have to we might have had to send who knows 13 14 15 um so the ability to get these um Cadets six months earlier is going to have a huge benefit I mean we've talked a lot about you know what our numbers are and you know kind of what our showing up to work number is through a VI through a variety of resignations and retirements and things like that um and that's easier said than done um being able to fill those but I just want to thank and I know Mr Jimenez showed up before as well to show support uh and uh you know the union has just been incredibly helpful in those conversations as well we've met multiple times about this to try to pull this off this is not something that we've necessarily done before send in this middle of the Year Academy but like I said we've been doing a lot of work and I just want to thank all those individuals within the department um starting with Chief Reich but Captain Griffin Deputy bear Mr Jimenez everybody else with the union for um all of their hard work here um and you know we're hopeful in the future talking to Allentown knock on wood that there's the potential that they might be doing two acmis a year in the future um if they're planning for it um so that's a potential in in in the future but we are um we're very excited about this and we really appreciate council's support thank you thank you any other discussion before we open it up for vote Mr Miller call the roll Miss kmy Smith hi Miss quch hi Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi Mr colog hi pass a 70 Bill 26 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 26 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss crampy Smith discussion Council one um and this is another good piece of um news we're going to be hiring two new housing inspectors and the cost is um basically zero because it's balanced with the revenues that we get from the inspections and this is a great thing because we're actually three months behind on inspections at this point which is really slowing the process of of home buying and and as we know with the housing crisis that's really um not good so um we'll have two additional housing inspectors and I think that's a great thing for the city any other discussion for members of council just to add that's budget neutral because these positions actually uh bring in Revenue uh so uh we're adding positions but we're not adding you know we'll be actually adding Revenue not uh cost thank you any other discussion for members of council call the rooll please Miss cramy Smith hi miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi and Mr cologne I pass 70 moving on to resolutions resolution 10A be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the sale of approximately 1 acre of land known as tax parcel ID l455 501e in the township of Allen Northampton County by the bur by the Bethlehem authority to Michael S and Pamela eisenreich is approved and that appropriate officials are hereby authorized to execute any and all necessary documents resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmsy Smith discussion on the resolution thanks um we did have uh one commenter earlier in the uh evening sort of ask you know why we wouldn't uh use this piece of land for affordable housing and so I I don't know if Mr basca or somebody just wants to talk a little bit about the uniquness of this land that first of all it's not even in Bethlehem right it's in Allen Township and um you know it's not necessarily developable for for us it's not even in our municipality exactly yeah so so really it would be not a possibility for us to this is a this is a sensible thing to do you think and and yes I mean Steve repos is here with the Bethlehem Authority they are the owner of record of all the water assets including real estate this is just a piece of real estate there are no water assets here per se um it was purchased when the city took over the East Allen Township municipal Authority that was dissolved the city took it over there were seever several well stations this this is in a Pock I call it a pocket neighborhood residential development um that the then mun Township municipal Authority owned that we then kind of inherited or bought and it's just a vacant lot real estate so again it's outside the city so it really is um of no use to us at present or future so we'll turn it back over to a private developer to build a house it's in a residential neighborhood thank you okay any other discussion for members of council we'll call the RO Miss KY Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon i m Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I Mr colog I pass 70 resolution 10B be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem in accordance with the municipal records manual hereby authorizes the disposal of public records in the Department of Financial Services has set forth in exhibit a resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss crampy Smith any discussion on the resolution we call the rooll Miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi and Mr cologne I pass 70 resolution 10 C be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement to effectuate the transfer of the city issued handgun assigned to Sergeant Bradford Jones a retired City police officer resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith any discussion on the resolution we'll call the role Miss grmy Smith I miss quack I'm sorry are we on tenc yes nay Miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I and Mr colom I resolution passes 61 resolution 10d be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with spots Stevens and McCoy to perform a required risk and resilience assessment of the water system resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss crampy Smith discussion call the rooll Miss grmy Smith I miss quak I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I and Mr cologne I cast 70 resolution 10e be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute agreements and documents as deemed necessary by the city solicitor with via media to provide Police recruitment Internet advertising resolution is sponsored by Miss Leona Miss KY Smith discussion we'll call the RO Miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss L I miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr all right and Mr colog I pass 70 resolution tenth be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Endor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with Arts quest for the 2024 Pizza Fest resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion call the rooll Miss grmy Smith I miss quac I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I and Mr cologne I pass to 70 10g resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and or such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with Bradberry suin LGBT community center for 2024 lehab Valley Pride resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion we'll call the RO Miss grmy Smith hi Miss quch hi Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi Mr cologne I pass 70 resolution 10h be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an amended use perm agreement with Arts quest to add another date to its 2024 steel stack summer concert series resolution is sponsored by Miss Leona Miss crampy Smith discussion we'll call the rooll Miss crampy Smith I miss quac I miss leair I miss I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I and Mr colog I pass 70 10 I it res by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and the controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute amendment number two to lease agreement between the city of Bethlehem and Allan Beth Associates limited partnership and such other agreements and documents as are deemed necessary by the solicitor according to the terms and conditions indicated for the purpose of renewing the lease term and setting forth the rent due to the city during the renewal term resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon Miss crampy Smith discussion we'll call roll Miss crampsey Smith I miss quch I miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hi and Mr colog all right pass 70 resolution 10j be it resolved with a council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller are authorized directed to execute all application forms necessary to apply for State Department community and econom iomic development grant for construction of sidewalks located in the North Side lied neighborhood and the Southside business district and that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute necessary agreements and documents the resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss crampy Smith discussion I had one quick question I know sometimes we have these resolutions after we've already received an award as a pass through could could somebody just clarify this is where we're applying for this money we have not been awarded this money yet can you just give us an idea of what the timeline is of when we could expect uh a decision to come from the state um they are due on July do you mind just going to a microphone to be picked up and answer this question this is for the PCD multimodal Grant um they require the resolution for us to be able to submit as part of our Grant application they are due on July 31st I I really don't know how long it will take them to review them though understood thank you any other questions we'll call the RO thank you Mr Miss CRC Smith hi miss quak I miss lard I miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi and Mr cologne hi pass 70 resolution 10K be it resolved by the Council of the city of bethle that the mayor and controller are authorized and directed to execute all application forms necessary to apply for a State Department of community and economic development grant for West Broad Street Renovations and that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute necessary agreements and documents resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith any discussion I had a quick question Miss quch I'm sorry to um is this something different than the Broad Street activation plan that we received the federal funds for or is this to get some more funding for that there is well yes there's a um it is a match required for the money we had received now some of that match can be City staff time and things like that that obviously there will be a significant amount of it over a year and a half or so probably um but this is just simply another opportunity to be able to have those match dollars um rather than just our staff time or any other Capital dollars or any other any other money that we could put towards that individual match for us great thank you any other questions we'll call the roll grany Smith hi Miss quch hi Miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan I Mr col I resolution passes 70 that concludes tonight's agenda get home safe everyone have a safe Music Fest question