good evening everyone we're get started tonight thank you for your patience I will ask that we all rise for the pledge to the flag pledge of allegiance to the flag United States of America to the for it stands one na under God indivisible and Al the clerks call the RO Mr Callahan present M grmy Smith pres qu pres present Miss Leon Wilhelm and Mr col pres thank you moving on to the approval of the minutes for the March 19 city council meeting any comments on the minutes Mr Callahan I I just want to thank you guys for go taking the time to go through that and and itemize the uh the verbiage during the meeting thank you yeah so one thing I will and this is the second time minutes have come up but there was a a comment from the audience at an earlier council meeting this year where I made comment uh about kind of the spirit of Council minutes not going to get too longwinded about it right now but minutes historically have been kind of a A Narrative of Council of Council meetings where minutes by Sunshine act and Robert's rules are more intended to be a summary of official actions that were taken so we'll we'll have some internal conversations attorney Stewart and I about kind of how we use the clerk's time as it relates to transcribing minutes and things like that but always open to feedback so no no I agree with that and I think I think that you know 99% of the time uh the the minutes of the meeting um are are are are good the way you guys are doing them right now I mean I know in in the first eight years I was on Council it was almost uh verbatim so I don't know what point we changed it might have been on you know on the two years I wasn't on Council but I think sometimes when there's uh a controversy or there's something said in a meeting it needs to be uh very accurate to the meeting so it's on record and that's all I was trying to do thank you understood and the last comment I'll make is simply for a lot of things as you hear me reference sometimes I think we need a standard right what what is the standard that we're that we're trying to capture and uh that applies to the minutes also sort of what's the intent but and these are conversations that can be had um moving forward so we're going to move on to public comment we're going to start with any subject not being voted on this evening I remind everyone of a 5- minute time limit we have nine speakers signed up so this is for anything that is not on tonight's Amendment or excuse me not on tonight's agenda a YouTube reminder for our YouTube audience that the meeting starts at 7 so if you want to watch live and you're starting the meeting late feel free to scroll to the the live stream of the meeting I I AP there was an approval of the it's correct just for the purposes of attorney Stewart wanted to confirm I I I second it no we don't we don't vote on it I'm attorney Stewart just wanted to make sure we're capturing the minutes stand approved you're welcome so moving on to public comment on anything not being voted on this evening so we'll start again this is anything not on the agenda our first Speaker signed up is Mo [Music] Kaku thank you good evening everybody uh my question is if you are a council member uh you have to restart the time there let's you disturb me I I ask everyone if you want to share name and address share name and address that is not a mandatory you start the Mr CUO please I I will we I'm gonna say I ask everyone to refrain from interjecting from the audience as is custom if you want to state your name and address to start and then please direct your comments towards Council and we'll restart the timer Mr Miller thank you you're welcome my name is Mo Kaku this is my second time here oh my question is council members don't if you don't speak truth to the power who will right my name my this is the second time I'm here I'm responsible to use my voice to uplift the struggles for oppressed Palestinians but also to educate the public and the council members the city of Bethleham was founded in 1741 by Moravian missionaries the city is known as a Christmas city and a peace City what does that mean bath means house lamb means bread we should all recognize the significance of the city of Bethlehem as a House of Bread and I hope the council members are not the house of Hypocrites or who break the promises and lie about the rules of conducting the meeting you people have got all my emails my council members you are asist because by invest our investing our tax dollars in Israeli bonds you should immediately diverse the our tax dollars and that should be the item on the next agenda please thank you the resident of this city conducted conducts every year for 10 Mile peace walk since 1960 from nazat to Bethleham every Christmas time the time of the Walk uh the theme of The Walk is walk the road for the peace last Christ uh for last uh this is the 64th anniversary the last last time why why would the resident of City enact a symbolic Journey from of Mary and Joseph peace be upon them all right the city is known because of the House of Bread and does reflect nonviolent uh life of Jesus Christ I cannot understand you elected officials could not pass a simple resolution of ceasefire you promis at the last two meetings being complicit and Silent you have blood on your hand and you are the part of the genocide and you should all step down the council members of this esteem body this is a big esteem body and you you do not deserve to be on this council members or past 6 months The Childrens of woman and Gaza have been witnessing genocide and council members it is your responsibility to speak the truth to the power as your constituent I'll inform you what is Zionism you see this book this was in 2014 I attended a seminar or the course at the church in Bethlehem on Center Street there's a CD on this thing so you should educate yourself and if the Press is there you should do a commentary on this book Zionism unsettled all right this book will be out of print it's no clergy is going to do this course at all and you know what happened to that clery who did it his son told him dad you're going to crucify yourself this is in 1914 I went for seven six or seven weeks class at the church on Bethlehem on on the it's a First Presbyterian Church on the Main Street I bet no clergy is going to do watering down the resolution and blaming Hamas is not fair I don't have a problem in acknowledging the terror that Hamas has costed caused right however it was a jailbreak for an open prison and ghetto I think you really need to define the violence under 75 years of occupation by a Zionist regime the timeline did not start on October 7th it started in 1984 nakba by the way May 15th united nation has declared a nakba day and May 14th you'll be having the meeting here council meeting so I want to update and educate you what is nakba which is similar to Holocaust right and president or council president on TW December 6 2022 you said that every everyone should be able to move out freely and in search of peace and joy just like we all do the Holocaust was a great tragedy and ceasefire resolution would be similar concern that the council should attend to it and pass the resolution right genocide need to stop we are watching genocide you Mr cuu we're going to move on with the meeting thank you thank our next speaker Mary Joe MC mayel mol 449 Grand View Boulevard at the last meeting I asked Council to do its due diligence regarding bah X's request for a Curative Amendment to the city's dimensional variant within the CL zoning District an informational meeting is set for April 30th it is a complex issue hence my reason for presenting it to the council my offer to walk the neighborhood and talk to the residents to gain their Insight is still open bethlehem's Planning and Zoning office and the planning board both rejected bax's request Lea Valley Planning Commission also denied the request we are hoping city council does the same also at that time I informed this Council of the appeal by the City Planning and Zoning and myself Terry clber and Paul Fel as interveners regarding the zoning board's decision to Grant a usage variance of the same property on April 23rd at 10:30 a.m. in judge Cohen's courthous courtroom in the Lehigh County Courthouse he will render his decision we are hoping to have the zoning board's decision overturned this hearing is open to anyone who wants to attend it might give some insight into attorney Preston's train of thought Norton Norton heric does not own the property outright currently he is trying to get all zoning and planning issues lined up before he completes the sale the city has spent countless hours and money reviewing this proposal not to mention the legal legal costs for the appeal all this adds to the city's budget I hope you remember this during the next budget talks Teresa cler Paul fondel and I have spent many hours and not to mention much of our retirement funds fighting this proposal we are truly hopeful for a solution that satisfies the taxpayers and the neighborhood thank you thank you our next speaker Ruby kou good evening my name is is Ruby kof and I'm a resident of the city of Bethlehem I'm here to ask the council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire we have been living six months of an ongoing genocide the daily atrocities are horrifying to even utter 32,000 people dead 14,000 children 8,000 women 75,000 injured and counting but these are not just statistics these are human beings with lives and families and children mothers fathers cousins grandparents each day we wake up to a new atrocity new massacres images of dead starving M children women men Beyond any description just yesterday these atrocities took place a shifat hospital where thousands of people were taking Refuge was completely destroyed burned and blown to Pieces after being besieged for two weeks 400 people killed in one day some were burned to death some were run over with bulldozers while still alive with their hands zip tied others were tied up buried alive and then run over with bulldozers and then seven International Aid workers from the world Central Kitchen were bombed in their Convoy which was clearly marked doctors journalists ambulance amts un Aid workers have all been massacred day in and day out and this is just one day one day killing doesn't end there Sovereign Nations Lebanon Syria Yemen Iran have all been attacked in Syria alone in the last week 52 people were killed in a bombing in Aleppo an embassy in Syria was bombed in Damascus killing at least seven people we are on the precipice of a World War and we have US representatives who are openly stating that we should drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza like Hiroshima and Nagasaki and others like our very own Susan wild has remained completely silent and day after day the political class ruthlessly declares that this is self-defense and within international law it is not and debates about war versus genocide collateral versus intentional proportional or too much force these are pathetic distractions from the reality calling for a ceasefire is not an opportunity to weaponize religious or political alliances it is a simple human call for world peace and any human being who's witnessing these atrocities and yet remains silent is denying their humanity and denying humanity is becoming complicit the guilt that has haunted Humanity for decades will be the same guilt that's going to haunt all of us who remain silent for many more decades to come when this is over and silently observing or worse yet actively supporting local state or federal governments who are paying for and committing these atrocities violates every innate human quality of decency dignity love and life and I refuse to believe that this is human nature please do not insult our intelligence and Humanity or yours for that matter and do not tell us that this is not a local issue it is very much a local issue it is everyone's issue everyone in this room is touched by what is going on and denying that is again denying Humanity none of this would be possible without the complicity of every local state and federal government silence is support silence is tacit approval it is justification it's consent it's complicity and so we are here again I am here again demanding that you speak up on our behalf as our representatives and and tell the world that we as the city of Bethlehem named after a city in Palestine will not be silent never again is now it is not 6 months from now it is not six years from now 50 years from now 50,000 more people dead or a 100,000 people more dead it is now so ask yourself how you will answer these questions to your children and their children why did the world not stop this why did I not use my voice my power my seat to say something and not remain complicit we're all the same we want the same things in life dignity love peace happiness please do not remain silent do not remain complicit in killing human life and do not tell yourself that this is not my place and not my battle because this is just you justifying to yourself killing children and women who are completely defenseless in a Twisted mind game thank [Music] you our next speaker is Alex Hirsch I'll just remind everyone while Mr HS is up be mindful of our microphones as they are sensitive to the things we do hear at our seats are you guys talking about me up there no not today U my name is Alex hir I live at 738 Center Street and I'm here to to request your assistance with a residential parking permit I'm up to 627 days since I began making this request and I would just ask that you look at slight modification in the ordinance to allow for a property owning uh tax paying just sent it in yesterday um part-time resident of the city to be able to get a residential Park permit to park in the neighborhood where he owns a house don't rent it to anybody please help me thank you thank you Mr hirsh next this evening Harry favor uh my name is Harry Faber uh 321 Georgia Avenue and I want to read something from our favorite Professor far bod's Journal scrolling through genocide by Steve Sala who's a professor in English and comparative literature department at the American University at Cairo Zionist massacres are live streamed to the masses in high definition and still nobody can stop them the theory that bearing witness will curtail Israel's ability to act on extremist extremo nationalist fantasies no longer holds information and knowledge it turns out aren't reliable bullworks against genocide impunity isn't beholden to disapproval what does it tell us that the Zionist entity can conduct this genocide in high definition with no credible deniability and amid condemnation from all corners of the world it tells us that people serious about Palestinian Liberation or right to despise the so-called radicals who laundered Zionism through celebrity activism academic credentialism NGO AstroTurf and the Democratic party it tells us that international governing bodies and legal institutions are at best useless despite some half- Harding hemming and haing the UN has been an accomplice to the Zionist entities genocide the ICC will never see an American Israeli or EU war criminal on its docket the Arab League pretends to care but its performance is entirely unconvincing such institutions have been captured by imperialism since their Inception it tells us that dialogue was always a pathway to submission the idea that Israelis and Palestinians should dialogue as a means to peace was always dubious if only because dialogue can't work in situations of disperate power but now with Israelis overwhelmingly in favor of the genocide it should be clear that the Palestinians never had anyone to dialogue with in the first place it tells us that the Western Academia was completely unprepared for the material demands of decolonization despite its popularity as a professional brand many among the in intellectual class including Scholars of Fanon like Adam shatz and Lewis Gordon either disavow or diminish anticolonial resistance or ignore it altogether a Academy is where resistance goes for processing and beautification after it has been completed it's rarely a place for an for the organizing stage it tells us that the deterrence isn't a game of strategy played by Eggheads on the internet but an onerous project conditional on guns and Rockets academics generally are too scared to say it or in an object lesson on arrogance don't actually believe it but a cash of weapons will always be more important than a conference panel it tells us that electoralism is a shame there is no meaningful ideological variance Among Us politicians at the national level in ice they range from center right to fascist in the upcoming presidential election for example voters will get to decide between two scarcely functional old farts with histories of sexual misconduct and a complete Devotion to Zionist genocide it tells us that racism isn't simply an attitude for its origin is social violence and eventually it will become physically violent in order to perform its Civic mandate in the framework of settler colonialization racism manifests as a yearning for cultural purification through displacement of the Native it tells us that capitalism makes death of valuable commodity the Zionist entity isn't merely an imperialist Beach head it is a major player in the international weapons Trade It tests new Munitions chemicals and surveillance technology on Palestinians it arms reactionary forces throughout the global South it serves as a conduit and an accomplice to us policing because the because of Zionist occupation corporations enjoy the use of human subjects as raw material for development and Innovation it tells us that we wasted a whole lot of time trying to convince the oppressor that we are worthy of life when the oppressor cannot live without our Extinction more than anything it tells us that the bited West there is no democracy no free speech no legislative remedy no human rights no right to even be human these are Illusions people repeat in an effort to survive pervasive depravity or myths they cynically invoke to gather the crumbs of deprivation there is a ruling class and various iterations of the dispossessed and the dispossess exist only to serve the ruling class gluttony that's why countless people can deplore a genocide zoomed into our personal devices without being able to stop it we are not we are simply not ineffectual in the world of policym policy makers are taunting us with the depravity what can we do then it is important to start by recognizing that the entire political class including you guys from presidents to online pundit has no regard for us detests us in fact and is therefore never a reliable source of empathy or relief denisons of this class do not want our feedback they want us to scroll through the debris of their malevolence upon this recognition the Poss possibilities become clearer albe it less convenient but in the spirit of urgency we can keep it simple whether it happens in darkness or in light on screen or off the Zionist entity needs to become an archive we browse as a cautionary tale or else our future on this planet will be history thank you CE fire now our next speaker is Robert virgilia I don't know Robert vilo resident of Bethlehem thank you city council last November I was at the council meeting and I mentioned can't hear you uh last November I was at the council meeting I brought up the subject of crime mapping and the answer I got was that the link on the city site Police Department website steers you to the state's dashboard and they have crime mapping on the state uh site but the crime mapping gets more confusing as you go into the year uh it's layered upon layer of crimes taking place in the city so the dashboard looks something like this and gives you the statistics of the crimes that are happening in Bethlehem other cities and towns in the state of Pennsylvania and uh the city of Bethlehem is doing pretty well well with its crime there are no murders so far this year the one area though that I'm concerned about is the uh aggravated assault category the aggravated assault category seems like it is up a little bit it's 27 offenses so far in January and February last year alone there were only 71 aggravated assaults on February 15 15 about 3:00 a.m. in the morning uh in the neighborhood that I live in and in a area that's behind some of the storefronts and buildings that are on New Street and Broad Street uh there was a seemed like a fight night between two women and a crowd of people the police arrived and I think they arrested one person I'd like to recommend that the City develops a simple part of their website or the police department's website to let the citizens of Bethlehem know what block crime is taking place on we have a safe City and I think if the people of Bethlehem know what's going on in their neighborhood because obviously the paper only prints when somebody's shot where they're lying in a parking lot at Burger King I think it would be a good thing we have a wonderful City and it is a safe City and our police could be helped by the fact that if the neighbors know what is going on near their neighborhood either by listing the block that the crime is taking place and maybe it's the more serious crimes it certainly can't hurt thank you thank you Mr virgilia next speaker Megan lysowski hi my name is Megan lysowski I live at 650 East North Street I'd like to start by applauding the city and city council for the changes that we've made for our bike infrastructure the West Broad Street Bike Lane is coming in we recently got the money for the greenway acquisition I'm here tonight to talk about a new Grant from the federal government that was recently released it's from fhwa the Federal Highway Administration it's called the active Transportation infrastructure investment program AIP for short um this money there's 45 million to be dispersed I would like to urge our city to apply for it for either more Greenway expansion or we could build on the plan that was presented in walk roll lV for a bike lane on fa key and converting Center or New Street to a bike lane we have great east to west bike access with the greenway we're going to have great east west on Broad Street but we need more of a Norths South connection so that way we have a true Network thank you thank you next speaker Arty katola hi I'm Marty kol 813 laer Street in betham Pennsylvania welcome to Spring hope you all had a good Friday and happy Easter how many people recognize all the leaves on the trees and on the ground not one I guess well I I asked this because every time this year when the BPA betham parking authority goes into action on extorting money out of US taxpaying citizens there's no leaves on the ground street cleaning is a proper thing in busy cities but actually littering will be more proper giving them a fine you throw a cigarette butt on the ground Kleenex $300 fine that will make some money in the city off of the people that are littering but to take money from parking no parking street cleaning when even when the leaves fall those people can get those leaves gather them up and put them in their own bins and you know you know give them to the recycling place or whatever you know like street cleaning that's a trap to get money out of the people in Philadelphia or New York City I could see street cleaning and not in betham on Fifth Street or other streets come on definitely littering people put work on their cars and throw their debris on the ground and leave batteries on the ground and you don't find them for this there's there's video cameras all over you know who they are give them arrest them give them a fine my cat died at the age of seven because she was she went over the fence and licked the battery she lost her lips she lost her her mouth she blood going profusely she died within within within 30 days of internal Venus is dead she died in 30 days because of that I'll tell you what you're going to be arrested me if I see somebody leaving their debris on the ground I'm you know mark my words I see them do that you don't do nothing about it I will take my action on them I lost one cat I'm not going to see a child go ahead and have something happen to him anybody leaves debris of of battery acid on the ground they need to be fined they need to be arrested they need to be taken care of cigarette butts that's another thing birds eat the cigarette butts and then they spread viruses cats will grab them people people step on them and they car if somebody has a virus when they're on a cigarette butt goes in their house other people get get it elderly people get it I know elderly people that died from the virus and they weren't all that old some of them are younger than me I mean we need to do something about the littering situation the parking authority I go to their meetings they look at me like I got three heads I tell them about things that need to be done we don't need to have street cleaning we don't need to have people booted for two weeks taking up legal parking spaces so other people other citizens that are taxpayers get tickets because they're they have no place to park and I don't know about you but I paid a lot of a lot of tickets to the betham parking authority I'll tell you 2025 I'm going to be running for the mayor and if the parking authority isn't straightened out if I get elected I probably won't cuz I'm not going with no party unless it's a a party a musical party or artist party or something of that nature I'm I'm not being at no party the thing is I believe people should vote for the person who could do the best job and believe me if the parking already don't get their act straightened out and they're not complying to regulations of the city they will be eliminated they can take their parking authority to another city and terrorize another city I won't tolerate in the city of Bethlehem but if I don't get elected I hope some woman does because I think women are a little more compassionate than guys us guys are always ready to fight but um I'm already catola parking authority parking no parking street cleaning really that's got to be thought of to go littering definitely higher fine God bless you keep on rock thank you our next speaker is Mr Bud hacket thank you my name is Bud hacket uh 2011 East Mada Road in Bethlehem uh we agree the public input or public engagement process in the city at uh betham city council needs some line tuning there are plenty of examples of town halls counties cities towns across the country that could be studied for best practices in this area the situation with folks coming to council to voice their opinion and demands on the Israeli Palestine situation last meeting got way out of hand too many speakers for too long on a topic not relevant to council business but beyond those recent meetings public input at betham city council I think is flawed citizens come to council to make requests provide information and make comments but there there appears to be very little response system is not working items that could be fixed or improved people come to council as their legislative body the place for public input maybe there should be some helpful guidance on the website about who and about how the process should work and what people's expectations could be the big issue for city council is people are given time to speak thank you but there's no indication that council is listening or responding it is not clear to me what the is it the responsibility of city council to the residents to the mayor's office it's it's just not clear by viewing Council meetings what this process is supposed to accomplish and maybe you can address that telling someone to wait around until the end of the meeting um is just not effective good government a few recent examples uh of not listening we had outgoing council members giving their final remarks advising Council to not listen to the loudest voices that to me was out outrageous my voice is not that loud uh but it was unacceptable and clearly political in nature during the recent final vote on the uh wellnut Street Garage the mayor provided uh two and a half hours of testimony between he and his team and there were many people who provided five minute or less comments from local citizens but what we found was there were two council members who read their prepared remarks and we watched they were typewritten prepared remarks three to five pages voting for the mayor's proposal against the Citizens so the question is were they listening if they had their remarks prepared prior to the meeting what kind of collaboration was taking place um listening once again s suggestion work to limit the hours of Council meetings I've worked with organizations where meeting cannot go more than an hour good luck with that uh provide guidance to those who want to speak and maybe on the website a helpful this is how to do it this is what you should and should not say this is how long you have encourage speakers to submit their comments in writing of course that's not going to work for for everybody and you got allow for people to stand up and speak but encourage people to submit their comments and writing give the council president more authority to be assertive and use the gavel in order to maintain decorum and control of the meetings consider ways to limit public comments to three minutes so that these meetings can be concluded at in a reasonable time Council needs to demonstrate list listening and consideration by providing responses to those with genuine and important concerns give them more of response than wait until the end of the meeting and maybe someone can speak to you or having citizens comments fall into the black hole that is the public comment process citizens do not want to see the terrible pattern of politics taking place in our community it is very clear to observers that political goodies are being doled out to council members for their for their votes and for their actions um there is politics and there is government we need to turn the dial down on political activity and turn the dial up on good government in Bethlehem thank you thank you Mr hackin that exalts our list of everyone who signed up in advance so I'll go around the room left to right again this is anything that's not being voted on this evening was there anyone to the left who wanted to make comment on anything we're not voting on I turn to the wide Center was there anyone who would to make comment that is not on the agenda this [Music] evening Mr sh oh thank you I'm pleased to see it still at five minutes Bill sh 1890 E Avenue um a preamble before my written statement I'm all in favor of ceasefire in Gaza with I disagree is on the methods attempting to reach a ceasefire uh Israel needs to be reined in and we have to impose our will on the situation I think it's our responsibility as the leader of the Free World so with that said I'm still thinking about what took place in these Chambers on March 5th I believe that those clamoring for a ceasefire and these made a made a number of mistakes their first mistake was to call for a ceasefire in this they were certainly not alone but such in treaties are falling on deaf ears which are attached to the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on two previous occasions I have argued for unilateral action on the part of the United States we should announce that we will help the Israelis whether they want it or not with the screening of food trucks going into Gaza screening for weapons that could fall into the hands of Hamas we should also unilaterally offer armed food Convoy protection to any Aid provider that requests it in order to prevent command commandeering of food by Hamas or by gangs that resell the food this would mean of course American boots on the ground in many parts of Gaza causing a widespread ceasefire the second mistake made by the protesters was to assume that the Bethlehem city council would have even a slightly measurable impact upon upon the foreign policy of the United States this is not really a mistake however because the same logic would apply to voting in an election the really second mistake was to assume that the council had no right to change its mind and jointly sign a letter instead where's it written that when you say something in public that you're going to do something that you can't change your mind if you feel you have a better idea that's not lying as was repeatedly alleged the third mistake was not to argue that a resolution would have been better and why instead there was only repeated cries of lying the fourth mistake was not to realize that what the council did was Superior to a resolution the council could have announced a unanimous resolution to support a ceasefire but a letter individually signed was better I am reminded of the Declaration of Independence when it was approved by the Continental Congress in a vote of 56 to8 now there could have been a press release on this to this effect but it was so much better than the 58 56 excuse me signed it individually and John Hancock to go a little astray here but John Hancock the president of the Congress was the first signer and wrote in large font so that the king would be able to read his name Hancock knew that if the revolution failed and he was caught he would have been hung the fifth mistake of the protesters would not to get arrested that is if they wanted to engage in Civil Disobedience they were simply ushered out with the steady gaze of the police so all they did on March 5th was to completely shut down the lawful proceedings of a city council that evening this was not completely unlike although obviously on a much smaller scale what happened at the US capital on January the 6 2021 thank you Mr sh is there anyone else in the wide Center who wants to make comment on anything that's not being voted on this evening I'm going turn to the right anyone to the right yes good evening uh my name is Susanna McGee I'm at 1541 Street Bethlehem Township last year I came in to speak about uh a proposal for a building apartment building on the south side and I wasn't really sure since I'm a new resident in the township I wasn't really sure if I had the right to speak um but uh I thought it would would be something that I really needed to speak on and so all of you let me talk um two weeks ago or a week in a half ago I read in the morning call that you're considering um not allowing um ma'am I don't mean to interrupt you but that that would be actually something are voting on this evening okay so I can't speak on that now I would just I'm trying to follow the order that we have signed up here if you want to speak on the resolution we're gonna continue on to that shortly so I should wait if you like to sure yeah is that what I and then come back no you just we're going to go back around the room shortly after I exhaust that but we are going to be just to restate my point we're are going to be voting this evening on the the resolution to amend the council rules was there anyone else to the right who wanted to vote to speak on any anything that is not being voted on this evening I'll go back to the center yes I'm gonna speak later on the resolution but um I wanted to bring it to your attention that a city council staff member has been going into his classrooms and mocking the constituents and making racist comments and I find it it it's at Northampton College and um we've got received emails from students saying that they are disappointed and upset and um just wanted to throw it out there I'm not going to release the name publicly but you all will be receiving emails with that name um and we will have students send in what he's been saying so just a heads up and just so that the public is aware as well understood thank you was there anyone else before I move on to the next public comment is there anyone I missed who want to make comment on anything that we're not voting on this evening all right we're going to move on to the Second courtesy of the floor again observing our fivem minute time limit we have nine speakers signed up our first Being Mary Joe MC Mary Joe mcol 449 View Boulevard I have been attending these meetings for well well over a year I have never witnessed such disrespect for rules as I did at the March 19th meeting presenting a request for a ceasefire issue was out of place for local government while I empathized with the cause disrupting the me the meeting like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum and preventing Council from doing its duties was out of line maybe throwing a temper tantum as a toddler resulting in the desired response when you were young but it is not how responsible adults are supposed to act I've always stated my name and address and have never received any repercussions as for the protesters request for to diverse divest from doing business with Jewish entities my husband worked for two jewish-owned companies and I also worked for one all three treated their employees with dignity and respect the company I worked for provided health insurance to any employee who worked 20 to 40 hours and paid 70% of the premium quite remarkable in my book for most members of council they have full-time jobs that require them to be alert and ready for whatever their day the Day brings disrupting meetings until midnight was disrespectful I am Sy sympathetic to their plight having taught full-time and worked retail part-time during the holiday season since I was unable able to work dayshift I worked I worked many nights and the week before Christmas when the store was open till midnight I worked four out of the five of them so I am well aware of council's um dilemma with being up until midnight and then having to do their full-time job it's I had to be alert for anywhere from my second to my fifth grade students not always an easy task to say the least this resolution to restrict public comments to taxpaying Residents I feel is necessary for this Con Council to fill fulfill their duties as city council thank you thank you next signed up I apologize for gazell jab um kind of bit thrown off there because you know smearing all the people that came uh on March 19th and saying that they wouldn't want you to do business with Jewish people when a lot of the protesters were Jewish is completely inaccurate and inappropriate but my name is casselle good evening I'd like to start off by using some quotes from council members uh first by Grace Smith uh you said it feels great to see young people that are so enamored and spirited and are willing to fight the good fight I please ask to continue to fight the good fight I hope you all continue to engage next is Michael cologne I hope to all those who came out especially those who spoke was that you felt at least if nothing else comfortable going to the Lector I speak as president of city council at the that these meetings that the five minutes that everyone gets is your time to use however you choose to address the council Bethlehem Council has been known for that the respect that we try to show each other and that we try and show the public next is Mayor William you said and I really really want to encourage the people here the values your values that have been touched by what's been going on throughout the world in the Middle East there's a place for these values on a day-to-day basis on other issues in the city of Bethlehem that I cannot encourage enough to please please please be a part of and Rachel you said yes it is a foreign policy decision but we see and feel the effects here and it's through Collective action that your voices will be heard I am so so inspired by you tonight approaching your local government and using public comment as a tool at your disposal and you used it passionately respectfully articulately bravely Hillary you said I am incredibly inspired you are our neighbors and our community members and you belong here I'm just proud to have heard of you tonight and I agree with all those comments and I am not in support of the resolution that is going to be voted on tonight I want to say that the connections and networks that were formed by my attend in only two previous City Council meetings before this one were invaluable the greater Le High Valley Community in my opinion has become stronger and more interconnected for it I left every night having made new relationships and discovering long-standing Community initiatives that I can now be a part of it is the holy month of Ramadan and so I insist that the Interfaith bonds have only become strengthened and understanding has been forged am amidst the pain and strife I refuse to allow a genocidal regime to represent an entire faith and group of people and I refuse the notion that has been propagated at Lehi University campus mberg University campus by speakers that were welcomed by Administration that Jewish safety is only Israeli responsibility and that we cannot guarantee Jewish safety within our own communities I would like to spend the rest of my time praying for our brothers and sisters in Gaza and in the world oh Allah we turn to you and ask ask by your mercy and gentleness to look upon us and all your creators all doors are closed except yours all causes ceased except yours there is no might or power except through you lord of the worlds oh Allah we ask for security safety peace and Tranquility for the entire world and all people preserve these blessings upon us our children and our homes Lord of all worlds oh Allah Aid our vulnerable brothers and sisters in R and Philistine in in all places oh most merciful of the merciful take them by their hand protect them be gentle with them and suppress deceit grant them your protection against aggressors and remove harm oppression and all adversity both apparent and hidden be gentle with them in safety and well-being by your mercy oh most merciful oh Allah reward the victims tend the wounded instill Tranquility in their hearts allay their fears turn their sadness to happiness Lord of all worlds oh Allah intervene between them and their adversaries Inspire them with your guidance and open the doors of wisdom safety pardon and forgiveness oh affectionate benefactor creator of the heavens and the universe thank you our next speaker is shadin believe how Raider I apologize if I'm misreading it um so my name is shine and I'm a student at mberg College um I want I just want to share my experiences with using my voice and how it relates to your role in representing our voices often students like me are told that our efforts to speak for Palestinians are insignificant won't lead to anything and I organize protests vales and speak at other schools utilizing my voice as the bare minimum driven by my moral obligation as a human against genocide that my tuition is funding what can a student do for Palestinians I urge you to research the Nationwide actions taken by college students to protest our tuition being used to fund South African aparti wasn't it students who pushed stud who pushed schools to divest now on to your role you are our voice you communicate with state repres Representatives making us louder you have a responsibility to represent the voices of our our con constituents advocating for justice and peace especially in situations of conflict and oppression but beneath your job and titles you are a human first when you witness the atrocities faced by Palestinians CH children driven over by Israeli army tanks shots for simply walking Aid trucks bombed and foreigners slaughtered how do you not act on your moral obligation to use your voice and authority to defend the innocent just like me you are told by the opposition that your condemnations and support for Palestinians mean nothing and are irrelevant to that I ask what makes a college student like me and a council member different then are both of our voices irrelevant why do we deflect our responsibility to speak up for what is right and when people say that a ceasefire resolution means nothing for a council to make I ask why is the bare minimum of our moral obligation as humans to demand an end to Bloodshed not our job young people are taking an interest to local politics and regardless of reasoning it should be looked at as a good thing not an inconvenience how our governments have failed to represent us has brought our communities together even though we do not all live in Bethlehem therefore any attempts to limit speech especially from the youth would only hinder progress and move us in the wrong direction these are two quotes that I will leave you with and I hope that you give it some thought if you've ever wondered what you've done during slavery the Holocaust or Civil Rights Movement you're doing it now and a quote from Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him that I remember whenever I see forms of Oppression I it always clicks with me so I just hope it clicks with you whenever you make any action whenever you see anything being harmful done whoever amongs you whoever among you sees evil let him change it with his hand and if he cannot do so so then with his tongue and if he cannot do so then with his heart which is the weakest level of Faith that's all thank you next is Ruby K good evening again um with respect to the resolution 2 2011 214 proposing to amend the rules of the Council of the city of Bethlehem I'd like to just highlight two points for contemplation by the council and the public and I think some of the issues have already been um uh discussed um so far so first the resolution adopting the amendment as currently written may be deemed unconstitutionally vague and over Brad in violation of the first amendment's free speech Clause because it does not clearly State what constitutes a citizen or a resident or what constitutes a taxpayer Sunshine act 65 paa CSA section 71.1 subsection a provides a relevant part that quote the board or Council of a political subdivision shall provide a reasonable opportunity at each advertised regular meeting and advertised special meeting for residents of the political subdivision or for taxpayers or for both to comment on matters of concern official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board or councel prior to taking official action in short the sunshine act does authorize public comment to be limited to Residents and taxpayers here however the resolution uses the term citizen instead of Resident Additionally the resolution fails to Define in any way the relevant terms of Citizen or taxpayer and this creates the potential for an inconsistent interpretation or Worse discriminatory application of these terms this leaves open the question of how will the council Ensure a fair and transparent application of these terms while maintaining the Public's First Amendment and 14th amendment constitutional rights and importantly will any definition fairly or accurately capture the meaning of these terms within the context of the sunshine act while serving to implement the legislature's stated purpose of the ACT which is stated under Section 702 and that is quote the right of the public to be present at all meetings of agencies and to witness the deliberation policy formulation and decision- making of agencies is vital to the enhancement and proper functioning of the democratic process and that secrecy in public affairs undermines the faith of the public in government and the Public's Effectiveness in fulfilling its role of a Democratic Society so Above All Else the sunshine Act is meant to protect free speech and protecting Free Speech preserves and safeguards the Public's interest second the Pennsylvania case law that inter interprets this relevant provision of the sunshine act uh section 71.1 provides the following so in Marshall VMO which is a an eastern district of Pennsylvania case from 2021 found that a school board's policy requiring public speakers to quote preface their comments by an announcement of their name address and group affiliation if applicable at a school board meeting was unconstitutionally compelled speech Court there acknowledged that while the School Board could limit public comments to students employees and residents within the district requiring a speaker to announce the specific home address is an unreasonable restriction because of the chilling effect of being forced to announce to all present On's actual home address before speaking on a contested issue the Ed the eastern district of Pennsylvania relied on this decision again in Miller vogen um in 2023 so while it may be permissible under the sunshine act for the council to limit speaking opportunities to Residents or taxpayers there shall be no requirement of any public commentator to publicly announce their address uh such requirements would be meant to intimidate the speakers who fear reprisal for expressing controversial views thereby chilling the First Amendment rights and just on a non-legal Point while the council's action maybe based in some legal grounds it nevertheless sends a very Stark and reverberating message which is we want to silence you we don't want to hear you and um respectable Council we will not be silent thank you next speaker is last name Swedberg handwriting that could be I I just don't want to mispronounce anything Drew uh my name is Drew Swedberg my relationship to the city of Bethlehem is a tax relationship I most recently taught as an Adjunct professor at Moravian have taught film the students across your school district and do documentary work that includes folks living and working in Bethlehem I have my 2023 tax forms on my phone if you need to verify this um everything I'm about to say is not on the behalf of my employer something I've been reminded I need to say now that I've established my work relationship to the city try to make this quick so don't want to waste your time um something you've made very clear in this resolution I'm here on behalf of Lehigh Valley artist for a free Palestine I'm thinking about how we got here tonight where a city council person felt it necess necessary to expedite a resolution not for a ceasefire in Gaza but to limit who is allowed to speak here to be honest I don't even know if I would be allowed to speak here as an independent filmmaker and someone in the gig economy who cannot afford a home or an apartment in your city but builds Community here regardless am I allowed to speak under this new resolution is my small tax contribution for the small inconsistent wages I've made enough and to be perfectly honest I would not feel comfortable sharing my address with you here not when folks who are speaking out against the genocide in Gaza are getting doxed harassed or contacted at their workplaces this decision shared by so many other folks who have spoken here the last month that are concerned for their safety and the safety of the people our tax dollars are bombing starving and ultimately murdering is a decision that has ultimately led to the narrative that we are outside agitators something we watched used over and over again in the 2020 uprisings and that is seeped in racism and xenophobia but to this resolution I guess we can look at this a couple of ways is it you doubling down on your refusal to publicly call for a ceasefire is it you emboldening eastn city council to do the same is it you determining that we do not belong in your city and deciding to enshrine that at a moment where fascism has a foot in the door is it so shortsighted that you won't consider the implications of this when the laws and state sanctioned violence comes for everyone else is it you committing this refusal to call for a ceasefire to the public record to historical memory for generations to come or perhaps this is an invitation to organize Bethlehem residence in a way that city council has never seen before an invitation to play by your rules and get even better at it I don't know but what I do know is that our inaction is directly implicit in genocide that each day we refuse moral Clarity or allow ourselves to succumb to intimidation cost lives because we are told you didn't do this because a ceasefire was close and we are still here thousands more dead and no pressure for you not for a ceasefire for urgent aid to be delivered for Hal and divestment military aid from the fundamental right for Palestinians thank thank you our next speaker signed up Rama Abad I believe yeah I oh riah again I [Music] apologize uh my name is Rya and I live at 371 Park Avenue um that's in Bethlehem um so I addressed you today with a grave concern regarding the proposed resolution aimed at restricting public commentary from external res sources this proposal is disheartening for several reasons which I will outline below firstly it represents a breach of trust despite assurances and widespread support for a different resolution that which has yet to materialize this lack of follow-through undermines our faith in the council's commitment to its promises secondly it appears retaliatory our exercise of Freedom Free Speech seems to have been met with punishment and more measures to limit US versus more measures to have us come out and speak this is to me a perceived abuse of authority and also breaks the trust between the council and the community thirdly it disregards the voices of the people instead of heeding our Collective concerns the proposed resolution stifles public discourse and undermines the principles of democracy in conclusion I ask the council to reconsider this resolution and uphold its Duty represent the interest of the community community let us engage in open dialogue ensure that every voice is heard and respected so another thing I actually I was writing down notes as other people were speaking and I just wanted to address a few things um number one we do support Jewish businesses we've never said not to have any ties to Jewish businesses what we actually said was for city council not to invest in businesses that have a working relationship with Israel that's what we said we had we said nothing about Jewish businesses or not working with Jewish folk we work with Jew my my family works very closely with Jewish folk and we love them very dearly they're our brothers and sisters um another thing is to compare us to the January 6 Resurrection is ridiculous we were not violent by any means and we only exercised our rights as citizens who were ve very upset after a promise was broken I'd like to remind you that our own Congress participates in protests on the floor multiple times they've had sens and conducted chants on the floor and they were not punished for what they did they were actually deemed as Heroes and praised for standing up for democracy but we're do it we're being punished for being vocal and seen as Vigilantes over 70 City councils have voted on a ceasefire resolution but yet today I stand Here ask asking you not to vote on a resolution that punishes us instead so instead of doing the thing that we had asked you to do you like this resolution is actually doing the complete opposite so um I ask that um if you guys do vote on this resolution and gets passed uh we clearly see where you stand in in terms of democracy it's it's a very clear stance on how you feel about the constituents of Bethlehem and the surrounding areas thank you our next speaker is Harry Faber I just want to say you guys are all so eloquent so well spoken so nice I wish I could be like that I can't uh this resolution to alter the rules of City Council can only be described as cowardly spineless and fascist and a fascistic reaction to the voice and concern of your constituents when we begged pleaded and cried for you to pass a ceasefire resolution which you promised you instead provided a half-ass disingenuous letter in a clear attempt to brush our cries for Action under the rug which read quote we the members of Bethlehem city council having heard our constituents and feeling a responsibility to amplify their voices let me stop there you heard us you felt the responsibility to amplify our voices yet here you are once again going back on your word trying to limit public comment you show us time and time again you do not care you are not allies you stand only with yourselves it is what you do you are self-interested motivated by what I can only presumed to be greed power and the furthering of your C career if you cared about your constituents about people in general you would have passed the people's resolution and denounce this genocide instead you were trying to silence the distress back to the letter we write to you in recognition of your leadership and the power of your influence with respect to the issues of national and international importance when will you recognize your own leadership and power this is a clear deflection of responsibility and a minimization of your own influence the 2024 Bethlehem City budget is over $13 million it is a13 $266,200 itarian crises around the globe and particularly the October 7th attacks by Hamas and subsequent violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip city council We the People implored you to denounce Israel as it is an illegitimate colonial state committing a genocide on the indigenous population we implored you to educate yourselves because October 7th did not occur in a vacuum it is clear as day that you are avoiding taking an actual stance on the conflict let me be clear silence is violence and inaction is action your conscience is not clear you have done nothing your letter is nothing Susan wild Susan Wild's letter is nothing I have it right here it is less than 140 40 words it is less than 140 words this is their letter Susan wild isn't even half of half as much quote only by taking action can you demonstrate your commitment to the to the notion that all human life all Races ethnicities and religions are valued and to underscore acts of Terror targeting civilians are violations of international humanitarian law and will neither be tolerated nor supported your actions city council have demonstrated that you are not committed to the notion that all human life all Races all ethnicities and all religions are valued and you underscore acts of Terror targeting civilians are not violations of international humanitarian law they will be tolerated and supported as long as it's against an indigenous population so I urge my comrades do not be quiet yell scream scream the screams that we see on our screens we will not be silenced we will be heard one way or another next speaker is Megan lowski is Megan still here gonna continue on to Valerie Nunan at the last council meeting I spoke on Miss kempsey Smith's resolution saying that while it was in accordance with the Sunshine Law I considered it a very bad idea as it turns out the resolution may not even be legal as uh Ruby noted in her point one she said it much better than me um this has not been tested legally as far as I know so realistically if there were a challenge to this could go either way however even if this happened this resolution passes is tested legally um and the right War One to to limit public comment I'm not sure this Council would enjoy the publicity that gives you in the USA there are people that don't particularly care about what's happening in Palestine which is a shame but they still very much care about perceived attempts to curb Free Speech the doubling and tripling down is not doing you any favors I think there's still a chance of salvaging this situation which has been going on since February and that starts with rejecting this resolution so uh my parents are journalists that's not a threat um their newspaper days are long over um but they started their careers as Municipal reporters in Jersey City that's how they met actually they've been to a lot of City Council meetings and they're appalled by the turn things have taken with the proposal of this resolution they've never seen anything like it so like do you want to be worse than the New Jersey political machine I'm just saying I I heard at the last meeting a gentleman say that in over 20 years of attending Council meetings he has never seen someone excluded for not being a resident is this the president that you want to set this will make a lot more people angry than just those who came to call for a ceasefire resolution but speaking of which I can't help but turn to that first meeting in February where everything seemed so hopeful you saw Civic engagement from the youth and expressed the wish that such political participation would continue and the monkey paw curled as soon as we got a little too loud as soon as we flexed our muscles just a little bit you move to crack down and I think that says a lot about you so really thank you for saying one thing and doing another thank you for responding to public outcry by saying it hurts your ears and trying to silence it because that's really a perfect introduction to politics for people who are new to the game you have the choice right now to reinforce every negative stereotype about politicians or you can take a broader View and actually consider the consequences of your actions let me give you an example you may or may not be aware that in Hover Township there is a protracted dispute over a warehouse to be built near Roots 22 and 512 the storm water overflow would funnel directly into the Monocacy Creek and in fact the developer itself is based in Bethlehem I've been involved with this as a member of the monoy Creek Watershed Association over in hi and over Township meetings can you imagine if people from Bethlehem were not allowed to comment on that we have ilix Mill we have the monoy way nature trail the ger B Fox Conservation Area if you pass this resolution that's what it would be like you will run into situations like this constantly with people from neighboring municipalities as the lady who came to speak before um with legitimate complaints and legitimate expertise will be shut out of discussions that directly impact them all because of a short-sighted decision made over the events of a single meeting do you want to help the people you serve or do you want to punish them because right now it's looking as though you want to punish them and you are doing so collectively hurting many others aside from the ones you intend to hurt thank you that exhausts our list so again I'll go around the room I will start to the right as there was someone earlier and then we'll continue to the right and work our way around to the center yes ma'am and again this is still anything that is on the agenda to be voted on this evening um my name is Susanna McGee uh 15 41st Street Bethlehem Township last year um I came to speak before the Council on an issue of a building that was going to be built um on the south side of Bethlehem and when I came up to the podium and asked um I explained that I was from the township not the city and could I speak and everybody was really very nice very warm and very welcoming um and coming from New Jersey I have to say that was a different uh different experience um in uh political engagement so um I hope that nothing changes in that area and that you continue to allow people like me to uh come up and and speak um and that you don't take away that right thank you thank you Miss McGee thanks again for your understanding as I interrupted you earlier is there anyone else to the right who want to speak on anything that we're voting on tonight turn to the wide Center I'll start in the back and work my way to the front row again hello uh my name is Quincy I'm not gonna tell you my last name I'm a resident of Salsbury Township I'm not a resident of Bethlehem however my sewer is provided through a contract with the city of Bethlehem your resolution to forbid me from speaking at your City Council meetings um is of great concern to me my entire household um my parents are busy this week but they have been begging me they knew I would come they've been begging me to tell you not to pass this resolution um just two weeks ago at the last city council meeting we heard people speak on absolutely exorbitant water bills and if something like that were to happen to my household this resolution would forbid us from speaking in your city council meetings and seeking help with the people who are providing our Public Utilities I urge you to vote no on this resolution thank you thank you was there anyone else in the very back row who wanted to yes good evening I am not sure if I have very much uh to add I feel that I'm mostly echoing what many others have said but my name is Samantha I'm a resident of Bethlehem I was born and raised in Pennsylvania moved to the Lehigh Valley after college and I plan to live in Bethlehem for the foreseeable future our Representatives at all levels should truly be representing us while I'm here I want to remind you that I want my taxes to stop helping defund the Israeli violence on Gaza um and contacting Susan wild Bob Casey and John fedman is like talking to a brick wall they won't listen to us beginning to require people to prove their residency in order to speak now of all times is problematic Council has not hidden the fact that this was directly prompted by the peaceful disruption um four weeks AG go on March 5th Bethlehem city council you have been far more approachable and seemed more willing to listen to your community than Allentown or Easton and I commend you for that however I find it greatly disturbing that some members of council and some other members of the Bethlehem Community feel it is okay to change this now I fear for the targeting some may experience if required to disclose our their addresses this wouldn't just change things for for those who are not Bethlehem residents but for those who are as well if everyone is required to disclose their addresses to speak it could put them at risk of harassment additionally people who live in the entire Greater Lehigh Valley area are affected by Bethlehem Easton and Allentown they should all have a say I also want to defend the relevance of discussing Gaza here people have been saying that what happens there doesn't concern us and that statement ignores a por that a portion of our federal tax sellers has been going towards sending weapons to Israel that absolutely makes it our business the US is actively involved even without troops on the ground sending weapons to the Israeli occupation is enabling genocide how is it that people keep ignoring that so please vote no on the resolution this evening thank you thank you is there anyone else in the very back row that want to make comment is there anyone in the center row that wanted to okay hello thank you for the opportunity to speak um I'm a Bethlehem resident I have some mail here but I don't want to disclose my address for safety reasons um I've lived in the Lehigh Valley for 11 years and I'm here to say that limiting public comment to Bethlehem residents and taxpayers alone is anti-democratic many of the individuals who make the city of Bethlehem the beautiful place that it is do not take up residents here or pay taxes um we don't require our Librarians teachers sanitation workers construction workers social workers or volunteers um to live in the city in order to sacrifice their time and energy for us so why would we require them to be residents in order to make comments in city council artists musicians performers and college students are not required to live here or pay taxes to the city in order to create the culture that attracts businesses and their patrons so why would we restrict them from making public comment um I think that this resolution is reactionary and would punish many individuals who had nothing to do with the incident that happened two meetings ago um and before voting I would appreciate it if you consider the implications of this for other groups who might speak on other issues in the future thank you thank you is there anyone else in the center who wants to make comment on anything else we're voting on I'll move to the front Mr sh Bill sh still at 1898 Avenue um let me start off by saying that epithets are not a substitute for discussion and that that attribution of motives to another person is a violation of Robert sprouls of order uh I have mix feelings about the proposed resolution I certainly understand where it's coming from you heard me discuss the events of March 5th but on the other hand um I think that Beth Bethlehem being more open than other municipalities is one of the things that makes Bethlehem a little bit special makes makes me kind of proud in a way and the at at a minimum the resolution needs fair amount of work I people are now saying residents instead of citizens which is a good change because how do you define a citizen of Bethlehem but um there's been all sorts of of exceptions that need to be carved out in emails that I've been seeing um just to name a few somebody who works in Bethlehem but doesn't live here somebody who used to work in Bethlehem but doesn't live here and has something pertinent to say about an issue uh somebody who lives in the water district but not in the city of Bethlehem somebody who lives in the library system but is not a resident of Bethlehem um and the list goes on I haven't tried to compile a list but there's been quite a few suggestions made so as at a minimum the resolution needs to be referred to a committee to work out all the numerous exceptions that would be necessary on the other hand um there's a possible simplifying route and I'm not sure about this uh they could read that uh Speech would be limited to somebody who had a valid connection to Bethlehem whatever that might be the president of council could say what is your valid connection and say okay or not and the president could be overruled by councel which any ruling of the chair can be uh so handled but I think on on the whole I think the best thing to do right now is is put this resolution on the back burner to be in position to be brought to life again if necessary uh the protesting about Kaza has become more civil not completely uh but uh more civil and that's good and so that that would be my recommendation and specifically to table the resolution and when it's on the table and my understanding of Robert SPS and I'm willing to be o overruled by the solicitor but my understanding that when something is tabled it's on the table Forever Until It's taken off so there it would be sitting on the table and if necessary in the future if things get too out of hand again then it could be brought forth so that would be my my suggestion thank you thank you Mr sh is there anyone else in the front row who wanted to make comment on anything that we're voting on this evening who has not yet did did you speak on the resolution already then thank you for honesty as I lose track but you got your uh your turn already was there anyone else in the front row who wanted to make comment on anything we're voting on who's not yet Terry cber 345 gra viiew Boulevard still thank you Bill I agree with what bill says um I don't want to see my five minutes taken away whenever I have something that I want to talk about because heaven knows sometimes I've gone right to that end of the line with whatever I've brought up here um and I agree and I think it should be limited to what's relevant to what's going on to what's happening in the city you know or water problems and all that stuff um if the city's got control over it in some way talk about it but if the city can't do anything or their hands are tied then I don't think that needs to be make your decision to say no that's all thank you anyone else in the front row who has not spoken yet I turn to the left anyone to the left you want to make yes sir you know it's funny I disagree with a lot of the people behind me but I like you guys can't put my finger on it but you guys are good people um so my concern is for the last three or four meetings um I've sat back and just felt like the business of the city has just completely got gotten taken off the table I've heard very little talk about potholes buildings housing uh traffic parking things that City stuff real City everyday stuff um it's just been completely overshadowed and gone um it so I don't think it's feasible to continue this way um it's pushing 8:45 and you guys still haven't even gotten to your own business yet and this this is becoming a regular thing I don't know how you do it I honestly don't um but Mr President seriously you got to get a handle on it something's got to be done you can't keep going till midnight 1:00 in the morning and letting real City stuff be pushed off to the side now having said that I'm a fierce advocate of free speech Fierce Advocate but there's creative ways to do it why does it have to be done at a city council meeting be creative maybe you have a night separate from your business where it's just open floor for citizens of Bethlehem to come talk the Press can come they can W I'm talking right now excuse me the press the Press can come they can take notes they can they can write a story about it right but then you guys can do your business there's a lot of stuff going on that needs your attention Okay um so I want to close by saying I strongly strongly support the resolution I do agree with one of the speakers saying that there's could be a lot of of of waivers and exceptions I think he's got a great point but I think the way to do it is pass the resolution get that in place and as those things come up you can begin to work through it but you got to get control of your meetings you got to get back in control of it you can't keep going till midnight and 1:00 in the morning and having real City issues pushed to the side that's it thank you is there anyone else to the left who want to make comment on anything that is being voted on this evening all right we we went around the room we're going to continue on with our agenda thank you everybody old business any old business for members of Council contining on to new business any new business for members of council I'll start with M will I just wanted to make a quick correction with regard to um uh one of the public comments and I I'm sorry I don't recall who made it but a a quote excuse me was attributed to my colleague Rachel Leon but it was actually me in the list of quotes it was the second to last quote um and I still believe the words that I said that night but I just wanted to clarify that um and second um Mr Hackett has left but I I did want to just uh comment on the comment about prepared comments um I've never been criticized for being prepared before as many of you prepare your public comments um you know from meeting to meeting and the two weeks that happen between meetings we're doing a lot of work and research and having a lot of conversations uh some of which you would agree with some of which you wouldn't um but we come to these meetings with with our thoughts organized for your benefit so that we can speak um clearly to you and help you understand the way that we feel um and I think the the piece this is not the first time I've had this conversation with somebody uh out from out from behind this day but um the the insinuation that we couldn't alter an opinion based on something that somebody shares in public comment whether we have our comments prepared or not is a little bit insulting um and I I just I'm sorry Mr hacket isn't here I've already invited him to have a meeting um out you know outside of the these Chambers and I will have that meeting but I will continue to prepare my comments uh so that I can do the best I can in sometimes heated and complicated situations to share with you my thoughts whether you agree with them or not um I I will continue to be prepared thank you thank you m wiholm any other new business members of council Mr Callan yeah I have a few things here so um I I too wish Mr Hackett was here uh this is for the solicitors so I had I was watching Easton's uh city council and their council members uh interact with the citizens as they're speaking is there something that prevents us from doing that or it just our own our own bylaws or there's nothing in um State Statute I pull it away so I won't make random noises into it um there's nothing in uh State Statute that would prohibit that so when citizens are up there um making comments during public comment we are allowed to uh interact with them and ask them questions public comment is is designed to be just that [Music] um but there is nothing from a legal standpoint that prevents discourse I'll say that I mean I I just saw it going on all the time at E I just I didn't know why they were allowed to we were and and and that gets uh you know my next topic Mr um Mr hirs uh has been here I don't even know the guy but is he still here about the parking issue he he had I he had talked to me after a meeting and I don't know what the situation I don't even know where he lives you know to be honest with you but he told me he lives in a in a neighborhood that is allowed to have per parking and he owns the house he just lives there parttime but he he's not running it out so I don't know I don't know if Mr Reynolds or someone could pass it along to Mr fernstrom um and find out what this situation is with him I he seems like a nice guy he he owns the property he's not he's not leasing it out not renting it out he just lives here part-time I guess he's back and forth between here in New York and I would just ask that someone try to help him out I don't think it's that big of an ask if he's paying uh 100% taxes in the city U because he owns the house he's paying schoolar taxes County taxes city taxes and I think if uh if other people in his neighborhood are allowed to have uh a parking permit I think he should be allowed to have one also um so I don't know if if you yeah please um so I mean this is a situation that's come up before and I don't want to speak for Mr fernstrom but I think he I think almost every member of city council has reached out because he's he's a very nice guy and he's very sympathetic guy he is a as he has said he changed his uh license and his reg and his residency to Rhode Island and the issue at this point now is I I and Mr fernum would say he's following with the ordinance that is set out but the qu but the neighborhood parking permit program and I would ask you to check with Mr fom just because in case I don't have the details right but just as a summary is that that's designed obviously to be able to allow for property owners and people in the residents in the neighborhoods so whether not we're dealing with college students or people that are out of state plates they're not taking spaces away so the ability to come up with some type of ordinance change or rule change that would not and this is you know my words not his that wouldn't alter and affect the wide system of how the neighborhood parking permit program works is something that Mr fernstrom I believe has shared with most members of city council because as he said M Mr H has been coming for 600 some days but um it comes down to what the parking ordinance is and to take that away so essentially the same thing that stops like Lehi students or ravian students from getting neighborhood parking permits is the same thing that restricts him and because he is a Rhode Island resident there is not a way based on Mr fom and Mr Brock's opinion to be able to interpret that in a way outside of changing the ordinance and once again I'm just summarizing what the conversation has been in the past two years is it the idea that there hasn't been a change that's able to be made that doesn't necessarily throw into doubt like the enforcement of the whole rest of the neighborhood parking program so is that something that parking Authority board has to do or Council has to do I believe and that's why I would ask I would ask Mr fom is that he like it exists based on what is the ordinance that is set by city council I believe but at that with that being said the parking authority has very strong opinions on what that ordinance does because it affects enforcement and because it affects all these other issues so theoretically what has come up before is the idea that if you change that and you can't just make one exception for Mr hirs but if you change that then it also allows for all of the hundreds or thousands of cars that Lehi students currently have to be in the same neighborhoods and throw into affect the NPP but I believe and once again I don't quote me on this but I believe that it is a a city ordinance that you would have to come up with a new systemic way to do it but I will say that Mr Brock and Mr fum and the parking authority have pretty strong feelings because I think you know Mr F's probably talked to Mr H more than anybody else in the past two years about trying to solve this particular issue all right thank you I I I would just try and I'll reach out to Mr Fern and Mr brockel but I would like to find I mean I'm sure there's a way in some type of verbiage that we could put in uh and change uh whether it's a line or a word or a sentence uh to change it so you know it a fulltime not not a full-time res but a full-time owner who's paying taxes who owns the property and is just by Coastal or whether they're uh living here in the in the winter and going to Florida in the summertime that's not a Lehi University student situation which I totally understand Mr Reynolds and and and I get so uh I I will reach out to them and see if there's some type of verbiage that we could change to narrow it down to the people who own properties in the city of Bethlehem so thank you for that information uh Chief cot you got a second Mi Mr virgilio uh was talking about is it possible update uh our website so not I'm not talking like tickets but the most egregious type of um situations in the city are on a are posted so as he mentioned the link on our web page currently will take you to the Pennsylvania State Police UCR uh dashboard where you're able to pull up the general vicinity of where crime occurred we we cannot give uh identifying demographics uh like for example um a robbery occurred at 123 Main Street involving Mr and Mrs Smith um it's just the general vicinity of the area there there is um you know I I was going to speak to Mr virgilia he's no longer here uh there is crime M mapping software out there robust comprehensive systems however they're very very costly um so right now we're we're utilizing the Pennsylvania State Police uh dashboard all right so so then the only way that the only way that it's it's getting out to the public and our residents is when I I guess there's a file like a a filing um process that it gets put into on a desk and if the Press wants to come in they can see it is that how no so it's it's available on our web page so anyone could go on the the internet um the city of Bethlehem website go to the police section of the the website and pull up the crime mapping all thank you you're welcome um just uh two more quick things with with with Summer coming on I would just um music fest does an unbelievable job with um their um uh signage for parking when it's time for Music Fest and I just think that uh I know with the um um St Patrick's Day prayed you know there was a lot of confusion about people where to park and obviously because you know a lot of a lot of people are just finding out people don't pay attention as much as we do about all the issues in the city and a lot of people were just shocked that you know that the garage is coming down and they didn't know where to park and there was a lot of parking issues I just I think with the summer coming on I don't know if it's possible Mr Ry if you could talk to Mr fernstrom I don't I don't know how I don't want to spend a lot of money on it but if it's something that is is relatively cheap I don't know how many signs I mean we talked to Miss um uh helard over at um at the uh Arts quest uh I I know they do an unbelievable job with signage as far as places to park and informing people where parking could be and I think if we could do that the parking authority could do that on a smaller basis or a smaller level than Arts Quest does just to try to let everybody know hey there is a parking garage over here there's a flat lot over here and and and uh I think it would help with you know the summer months coming on and maybe we can try to educate people a little bit more before Music Fest comes and and we have a bigger issue than it is I I don't know if that's a possib and again I don't want to spend a lot of money you know but if it's something we could do you know if there's five or 10 signs we could put up somewhere um especially on weekends um you know I think it would be a big help to the uh V visitors into the city so um so Mr fernstrom works very closely with Arts Quest as far as the you know as far as the parking system is concerned one of the things that happened in St Patrick's Day and we were curious because it was the real first big event and we didn't even know that that many people were going to show up because obviously downtown was mobbed um and yet still at its peak North Street Garage had capacity um which we thought was a positive now admittedly and I think Mr fernstrom has said this I don't know if he said this to the authority board meeting is that like and once again like I think it was a that we may have I I don't want to say underestimated but people didn't know how many people were going to show up and like the idea that we brought back the St Patrick's Day Parade so he thinks that looking at that situation next year especially because the idea is the new Wall Street Garage should open in September of 25 so like for next um St Patrick's Day is to be able to have have that as more of like an event day which like you pay to get in like a fat a flat fee and then when you're driving out like you just have the gate up which is what the biggest kind of complaint or question was was that everybody was leaving at the same time and the gates weren't up and you had to pay on the way out and I think that is was a lesson learned so that was a lesson learned to him as far as like this is an event that is that big that we should be able to do that but that type of what was the good news about St St Patrick's Day is that he was able to move cars into different spots and different lots to be able to cut down on the demand to be able to park in North Street now absolutely it always comes down to being able to explain that to people and educate that to people but also for all of us there are the people that know it as you said and not everybody pays attention is that this is a system situation and we and trying to help to encourage short-term medium-term long-term Parkers um and also helping the parking authority with whatever signage they need to be able to help the city to help the police to be like you know how do you sell permits beforehand how do you how do you sell those in and out and that's always been an issue that's an issue you know after the fireworks over there at um PK Street in the southide so I think it was a situation that in hindsight Mr fom looked at St Patrick's Day and was just like this should have been an event Day Parking um but there are a lot of conversations now about how to make sure and the good news too is that January February March with the exception of St Patrick's state parade like and there's 800 spots in North you garage I don't think there's been a time when there's over like 625 or 650 filled which is the good news that doesn't though if we go back to my presentation where I kind of laid out those busy days Music Fest Saturdays in November and December which I think is part of what the concern is that that you're talking about so those type of days that I call like systemic parking days are days that Mr feram is knows are going to be an issue he's con constantly talking to the DBA but I think any type of signage or things like that and the good news Arts Quest is a good Parker and the good news about Music Fest 2o is as we laid out in the data was that I mean we get as you know and you live down we got 100,000 people there and yet neither one of those parking garages was filled on any of those days and the good news about that is because when you have that many cars downtown people walk they bike they Uber they drop off but all of that signage obviously is going to become that much more important since we're going to go through a music fest without without the W Street Garage so it is something I will pass along to Mr fernstrom but I know it's something the parking authori is already talking about with businesses and life thank you abut and and and and last thing I know Mr rold you'll be shocked but I want to I want to um congratulate you on the uh on the new Lighting on the Christmas trees uh that was done I was a little apprehensive about it I know there was some changes at first it looked like there was like these big question marks on the U on the on the trees on Broad Street but I don't know what happened but I I think the lighting having the lighting on the trunks of the trees is it looked awesome I was a little worried but I thought it you know it's going to look weird it's going to it's not going to look as nice as the the lights up there but I think number two is on a maintenance issue because I live right there those our maintenance guys Mr alal knows this every time they had to go down there and fix the lights they needed a bucket truck so I think that the lights being on the trunk uh it looks it looked awesome which I congratulate you on and whoever came up with that and I also congratulate uh whoever came up with the idea because I think on a maintenance uh basis it's going to a lot less expensive to maintain him the only thing I would ask is that and I don't know what happened I don't know if there was a a reason or whatever but a lot of the a lot of residents and a lot of the businesses on Main Street were asking uh I know probably I think the last two years or three years of mayor dz's uh run we had the lights on year round uh I know Fort Lauderdale does it uh I know Stone Harbor does it Avalon does it I think it just it adds a little spice to the you know the downtown area and I don't know if someone complained about it and just wanted it on during Christmas or whatever but I would ask that that be done again I know there's a lot of people on Main Street that want it done especially with the summertime coming on so I would just say as much as I appreciate the compliment I do not deserve any credit for that as though it's the Christmas City committee which is a combination of some volunteers and business owners that put those thoughts together it's one of those things that I like to admit is just not something that I necessarily see or as far as see see effectively as far as what is good or not um but I will absolutely pass that along to them and they they are a group of volunteers that work hard on that um I learned that some people feel very differently and some of the changes that were made were reflective of not were like that committee was the ones that came up with them that include some business owners some people like it some people don't like it um I will absolutely pass along to be honest with you as far as being on all the time that is something I can also ask them about I think different people have strong feelings on that um you know and I spend a lot of time in a lot of things like those lighting decisions were ones that if there if there's credit to go I don't deserve any of it um and I will certainly pass it along um but I'll I'll also pass along the the at least the question or the request for why they can't be on more when they go on and things like that thank you absolutely thank you Mr Callan any other new business members of council Miss Leo um I did want to say to councilman Callahan's Point earlier um I've had a couple of meetings with uh fernstrom and Alex about the situation and a lot of it is because of how how bad parking is on the Southside I'm pretty confident that we're going to come to a resolution I'd be more than happy to bring up to speed on the the the conversations that I've had with him um because I I'm hopeful that we can figure something out but it really is because of how bad parking is on the southide and everything is really structured for keeping the souths side kind of in check so like we can talk offline about the conversations that I have had if you would like than you thank you Miss Leon any other new business for members of council councilwoman L um yes so uh I I know that Mr hacket is gone but I I do appreciate uh the input from him with really concrete suggestions and some other speakers about our meeting structure um I believe we'll have a chance to discuss the actual resolution uh later on when it it comes up in the agenda so I'll hold those remarks uh but like uh councilwoman wilham said um you know prepared remarks don't mean a a rigid mindset um as I I think most people would understand um you know the Walnut Street Garage for example we we I know I had hours and hours of research and conversations with people that I could not have summarized just on the Fly it's not a skill set I have um so uh having notes prepared and then being able to also like people here did tonight add in um oh hey somebody also said this uh certainly is is not at least on on my end a sign of um a a rigid or closed mindset when sitting uh up here um additionally I also would like to follow up with Mr hirsh um I'm already talking with councilwoman Leon about that and also um uh Miss mul I still have your information to follow up and and definitely would like to walk the neighborhood to see uh what you're you're looking at there thank you any other new business members of council I'll just briefly uh address a couple things that came up starting with the the note on from a speaker during public comment about uh listening and engaging as I've said before I always remind everyone Council does not only work the two the first and third Tuesday of every month when we're here in these Chambers uh I would say with confidence that not only myself but all my colleagues are spending a fair amount of time outside of these meetings whether it's responding to people who we know or people who find our information through the city website or who reach out to our city clerk Mr Miller or Miss U Miss bua sorry I was GNA say Miss patina who reach out to the office so I I would would say that and as it relates to and we heard it tonight we're going to hear it uh as long as we're having City Council meetings there are times we agree there are times we disagree there are times people have reached out and I've been in their homes there are times people have reached out and I just politely said I disagree and that ended the conversation it varies I will always encourage as I have before for people to reach out our individual emails are on the city website the city clerk's office it communicates to us when people want to speak uh I'm not going to try to make it seem like I'm spending every night in someone's living room talking about things but I try and as I say I won't speak for my colleagues but I say with confidence that everyone uh approaches our our work on city council not that it's not just these meetings and that if people want to have conversations and an opportunity to have a listen don't stop reaching out that's not to say we myself and whomever may agree but as long as I've been on Council this has been a routine course of business and then as it relates just a comment about um Easton and how they interact dur in public comment I'll just say as long as I've been this is my ninth year on Council Mr Callan you've been on Council as long as I have essentially and other members of council too it's always been customary that public comment was exactly that I'm not going to speak to the the legal verbage of what it says in the sunshine act and we're required to do this we're required to do that only that I'll reiterate what I've said before and I've said to some people in this room over the years that it's an opportunity to address council with thoughts and comments when there are things that need to be discussed I do invite people to stay after the meeting I also let people know like I did two minutes ago they could reach out I followed up as recent as earlier today with someone who had reached out for something that they needed so I I just caution and this is my perspective that when you're opening up that that back and forth dialogue you don't know where that conversation's going to go and if we want to talk about keeping kind of uh you know things in order and flowing along engaging in that and that's not to say every conversation is the same every question is the same because it's there's variables to everything but that's my perspective and obviously how I continue to run these meetings that public comment is for that for comment and any further conversation can be had um away from the left turn any other new business for members of council we'll continue on with the agenda Mr Miller please please read resolution 6A March 26 2024 memorandum with a proposed resolution from Edward boscola director of water and sewer resources requesting the destruction of records from his Department Mr boscola has reviewed the municipal records retention Act and the records listed on the exhibit accompanying the memo fall within the categories where destruction is pered mitted a resolution will be placed on the April 16th agenda communication 6B March 26 2024 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins director of community and economic development the memorandum seeks permission to apply for a $1.3 million Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and natural resources requesting funds for Greenway Trail Gap acquisition and resolution 10B is on the agenda tonight communication 6C March 26 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution and Associated use permit agreement from city solicitor johnf spark Jr the Pere is Christmas City Spirits LLC and the event is 2024 Blossom Fest the event and date are noon to 5:00 pm on April 27th 2024 the agreement coverage area is the Nan Place RightWay and a specified West Walnut Street parcel both adjacent to the sun in Courtyard the duration is 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on April 27th and resolution 10 C is on the agenda communication 6D March 26 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from Michael alol director of Public Works Mr alol recommends a contract with tnm Consulting Engineers of Bethlehem to provide improvements to the monoxy way Trail this project was rebid after the previously awarded firm filed for bankruptcy tnm Associates was the lowest of three biders at $888,888 work is to be completed by December 31st 2025 there are no renewals and resolution 10d is on the agenda tonight moving on to report Mr Miller if you could please read the council manic appointment from Miss Anne Felker to the library board Council manic appointment Anne feler to the betham area public library this resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss leair discussion before we vote I just want to thank Miss Felker for her continued volunteerism as it relates to the library and support of the betham public library Mr Miller please call the role Mr Callahan I M gmy Smith hi Miss quch hi M lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr col I pass 70 and the committee of the whole did meet Tuesday March 26 at 6 pm here in town hall it was a meeting for our council member and department head of Ethics training seminar which was conducted by the Pennsylvania state ethics commission the training is required under city ordinance article 104 there were no votes taken it was just for information only that night that concludes everything I have this evening Mr Mayor thank you uh I have it one administrative order I hereby reappoint Lucien debiasi dly 2628 East Third Street bethleem PA 180 15 of the codes board of appeals and this appointment is effective as of April 2nd 2024 administrative order 20245 Luen debiasi dly to the codes board of appeals resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss lard discussion we'll call the role Mr Callahan I M kmy Smith i m quch i m l I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colum I pass 70 thank you uh I have several reports but before I do uh Chief cot uh wanted to give an update on one of the issues that was raised I believe at the last last council meeting um about there was an incident in Bethlehem that we didn't have anything to report publicly at the time but we can report this happy to announce that the individual that an arrest warrant was issued for uh in the attempted homicide of a female that was shot over in the 500 block of Cherokee Street has been taken into custody by the US Marshals uh he was found in New York and is currently at Rikers awaiting extradition thank you Chief cot um I know it had been raised as an issue last time and there wasn't anything we could share publicly at that time uh but it was something that we were able to share now and I just want to uh thank the betham police department for uh their cooperation with the other intergovernmental agencies that we worked with to be able to uh get to that point and that is obviously uh that is obviously great news um moving on uh couple things here one is while we're on the subject of the police department Department um the new body cams did arrive I know we had talked about that a lot during the budget uh process last year that Council supported that as well that technology as we talked about um is uh it's only good for like a couple years um I think we had the previous ones for about five years I think it was um so hopefully that these will last us even longer but those body cams have arrived so as we've talked before oftentimes even the appropriation of the money is only the first step to make sure that it is actually a supply chain and things like that so we are very excited um about that coming in um last Thursday we held our third trans day of visibility out on payro Plaza um you know it was third year of our Administration third year that we uh raised the flag and had that event with many of our Community Partners I want to thank everybody that came out for that um you know we received the usual um you know discriminatory emails and Facebook messages and things like that but it was a day of Celebration and joy in our community and I know it meant a lot to the people that came here and as I said I think many uh city council members were here as well um for a lot of uh the people in Community to come and say that they understand Bethlehem um is always going to be supportive and loud and the word that was used that day was was one of Joy um that this is a joyful event um so I want to thank everybody for the support on that um today this morning we had a announcement over at the banana Factory um that thanks to State Representative Steve Samson state senator Lisa basca we got about $900,000 to do some streetscape improvements between third um between New Street and um Broad head there um uh along those so it's going to be streetscape um some uh enhanced crosswalks things like that I know that's an issue that's come up before um so we're really excited about that I can't thank state representative uh Samuelson state senator basca enough um but that's a million dollars and I also just want to thank all of the people within City Hall that helped to um helped to get that Grant as well like that's a big deal and you know we're putting these together in different parts of the city um to improve the kind of walk AB ility so I wanted to publicly thank everybody for that um our next um opening doors public meeting I think I mentioned this last time is going to be May 15th uh 5:30 is when I think the doors open to 8 o'clock over at Northampton Community College on Third Street uh Mr tulo and others will be giving some progress on some of the things that we have focused on Choice neighborhoods being number n number one but also uh the kind of pilot program for the 1 Adu uh unit that's currently uh working through the working through the the planning stages uh we've talked about that before uh in the work that we've done with Le Lehi University um on that so there's going to be some updates on that um as well um and then the last thing I would probably say is just you know we do have uh we have received notice that we have another big uh Park uh funding announcement coming that we'll be releasing next week uh for one of the parks that we've been looking to uh invest in in Bethlehem and it's going to be it's going to be an exciting one but once again we're going to be thanking our state and federal officials for being able to show support for Bethlehem and uh you know we can't wait for that announcement so just be on the lookout for that thank you thank you Mr Mayor councilwoman cramsey Smith there will be a finance committee meeting on April 16th at 6 PM in town hall and the agenda will include budget adjustments thank you we have no ordinances this evening for final passage or anything new so we're going to move on to resolutions Mr Miller please read resolution 10A you're resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the council has amended rule three subsections BC and D of council rules outlining public comment at Council meetings the resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss lard discussion councilman KY Smith thank you um I have several things to say about this um resolution and it I have to say first of all it took a lot of um thought and consideration it wasn't just something that I um thought of off the cuff to do in reaction to the March 5th meeting um I did consult with our solicitor to as to the legality of this resolution and um attorney Stewart can you speak to the legality of the resolution because I know there were a lot of comments and questions regarding that this evening certainly something I'd like to point out is that um section 710 .1 of the sunshine act sets forth the requirements for public comant meetings that they be that it be open to Residents and taxpayers of the municipality which would en of course Encompass anybody who um so taxpayer is fairly Broad and they are undefined terms um this proposed resolution does not impose a requirement that a person that a speaker identify themselves other than as a resident or a taxpayer there's of course no requirement that you give your address and as was I was all prepared to talk about um Marshall versus amuso but one of our various St public speakers has already mentioned that that any res any rule that would have a chilling effect on the freedom of speech um is is illegal so you there's no mun no municipality may require anyone to give their address it it's kind of an Antiquated practice um this case law is more recent and certainly years and years ago municipalities did require speakers to to give their address and many still do you're not required to do so this would essentially be an honor System whereby a speaker would identify themselves as a resident or a taxpayer they'd be they'd be free to further identify themselves but they would not be required to do so is there anything else you would like to me to speak on with regard to the law um no I think that covers it thank you thank you so um for this is certainly a controversial issue and for all those who have spoken um and have said um you know basically have attacked me for bringing this forward I have to say um unfortunately you don't know me and if I could go and and settle the the horrific um atrocities that are happening over in Palestine I would be there in a heartbeat but I can't unfortunately part of life is that we do have limits and we are elected to address the issues and business relevant to the operation of the city of Bethlehem unfortunately we are limited in addressing international issues of which we have no jurisdiction the Sunshine Law as attorney Stewart said um states that a council of a political subdivision shall provide reasonable opportunities for residents taxpayers um of the subdivision to comment on matters of concern um which are or may be before the council so thus this amendment in in no way is meant to interfere with the First Amendment rights or to punish Free Speech but is really to keep us in concert with the state Sunshine laws and allow us to conduct City operations as necessary certain city businesses certain certain city business is very time sensitive and excessive public comment such as the five hours that we had on March 5th can result in City operations being delayed due to being precluded from attending to the agenda items many many many constituents have reached out to me and they were very very upset by what happened at the March 5th meeting because they were concerned that we did not get to the business of the city in which they are residents and taxpayers and several of them were here to speak on City issues at night but had to leave because they could not wait until midnight to to get their opportunity to speak there are um current or current rules of council for example rule 3C states that um public comment is for problems and issues of relevance to the operation of city government that's the bottom line there are other third class cities with similar rules Allentown they state that basically the citizens of Allentown um are are given the opportunity to participate in a positive and constructive manner by attending and being heard at public meetings so they state that it must be citizens of Allentown that provide public comment as we know East and is are is um also considering it and I did not know that till this morning so I certainly have no idea and have not spoken to anyone from Eastern regarding this um Duane out in eastern Pennsylvania also states that only citizens May address the Council of duain on any issue appearing on the agenda York um the city of York public comment is comment about any concern that is regarding any City business m Gomery County all public comments must be relevant or gerain to County Business only there were several questions about what about people that work within the city and when I did speak to attorney Stewart um I first thought you know there could be a lot of exceptions and I hate to see people that don't live within the city or pay taxes be precluded from public comment but legally as she said it gets very sticky if we're not very clear with this res solution however for people that work within the city they they pay a significant local service tax just like an occupational privilege tax that I pay for working in another city so therefore the fact that they pay this mandatory tax they could be considered taxpayers so they would be allowed to speak they could be allowed to speak I'm sorry go ahead me clarify one thing yes I just I just want to further note that this resolution does not P put put forth any procedures for checking on whether somebody is a resident or taxpayer again it is essentially an honor System so um I I just want to point that out because I I don't there's a lot of concern about how are you going to police this essentially um it's it's not police and you don't want in the arena of free speech um you want to tread lightly absolutely thank you thank you and that's how other municipalities handle it I mean it is it is an honor System um and I would say that um I would I would presume that if we thought there was someone who was um not representing himself honestly then we would have to deal with it at that time but right now um in all my years on Council all the presidents have asked the person that at public comment to give their name and address that stopped I believe at the end of February the March I'm not sure why that stopped but in again in my experience everyone has been asked and if they didn't provide it they were asked again and redirected legally we cannot ask someone to give their their name and address we can just have them state that they are a resident or a taxpayer and as we said um you know this is something that we cannot you know go and look tooth and nail and enforce it um we will try to enforce it but again it's really the honor System and the reason that I um did this resolution is because we can't haveen we cannot have what happened at the March 5th meeting happen again for everyone that was here at the meeting in um February and I did applaud you because I have done many many marches myself I have been an advocate for the oppressed all of my life personally and professionally I've said that many times and that's the truth and if you don't believe me quite frankly that's your problem because um the March 5th meeting really was disturbing I mean there were people at this table that decided they needed to have police escort out of this building because they were fearful of retaliation by the group that um for all intents and purposes created a mini Riot I mean people took over this town hall and we were precluded from adhering to City business and we just cannot have that continue again we need we are elected by the people of this city the the residents and the taxpayers to adhere and to deal with City business and we need to be able to do that thank you thank you any other comments members of council Miss willhelm uh anyone who's been paying attention to Council meetings has seen that in 2024 we've had more lengthy and contentious meetings than not although tonight promises to change the stats four of seven meetings since January if we include our committee of the whole meeting have been between four and a half and five and a half hours all with heated public comment two of those meetings were focused on the Walnut Street GR and involved public comment periods populated exclusively by Bethlehem residents my point being it doesn't necessarily take non-residents to create a long and contentious meeting it's also not a given as we've seen tonight and at many previous meetings that outof town residents perspectives are irrelevant or that their presentations will be overly lengthy or disruptive or disrespectful generally speaking I believe that uh we benefit from the current model uh when thinking about this resolution in 2023 alone two sets of meetings came up for me um immediately we had two meetings in the summer of 2023 where both residents and non-residents address city council regarding the uh lee8 flow from the Bethlehem landfill which despite its name is located in lower saken um concerns that the lee8 would would be passing through beam's wastewater treatment plant and could be of concern here there were four of 11 total comments over those two meetings were from non-residents and very informative one of those uh residents is now a council person on in lower saon there were four meetings involved 2023 uh fall of 2023 where eight non-resident comments were made in regard in regard to sale of sewage sludge to cgro who converts it to fertilizer and gives it for free to Farmers in Carbon County um citing Environmental concerns about that you may or may not know that Carbon County is the site of bethlehem's water supply so uh that as another example our water supply serves many communities between Carbon County and Bethlehem uh one of our most hot button development projects right now straddles the border between Bethlehem and Allentown as has been mentioned uh Bethlehem based businesses employee many non-residents who are affected by policies here the examples go on and on all that to say um non-residents have brought respectfully many of you have brought respectfully issues before Council that have been informative uh and I believe you should continue to be able to do so it's going to be our loss if we negate that option part of the reason I listened respectfully and continue to do so uh whether that's your opinion or not that is what I strive to do and I believe that many of all of my colleagues on February 20th listened respectfully is because we honor individual's right to use the Democratic tools that are available to you to affect change and be heard public comment is one of those tools and yes uh as we've seen things don't always go smoothly many of you are not happy with the choice we made to write and sign a letter that's your prerogative but to me this resolution which is based on only one scenario and one perspective on that scenario feels reactionary uh and an outsize response that ultimately cuts off our nose despite our face I think we have to acknowledge the unintended consequences of this this resolution um which which are eliminating outright the opportunity to hear from non-residents that on issues that are relevant to Bethlehem and that you care about um also as have been indicated it's largely unenforceable I do support continuing to work uh toward ever more respectful listening and speaking in these meetings both on this side of the day and on yours uh yours out there but ultimately I feel the cons uh outweigh the pros in this action I won't be supporting this resolution tonight thank you m schol Mr Callahan yeah I I just like to add that um you know everybody still has the right to email any comments that you might have if you live outside the city or if you're not if you're not with the what you know if you're not um paying a betham sewer and water bill if you're not working you still have the right to send an email into the uh city clerk we get copied on everything and you still also have the right to go to your own townships and municipalities and voice your opinions and um feelings to your own townships and and municipalities so I don't I don't you know nobody I think everybody in Council and Mr Reynolds will agree with this nobody likes to debate and have a a good honest give and take and back and forth than I do nobody and uh and I think you know I think the older gentleman uh in the front row that you know and all the years of counsel I I always I want transparency I want everything discussed here I don't want to talk about you know in the back rooms and on the phones so I you know I can't uh I told you very passionately that uh I felt your your passion and all your concerns and all of you stated that your goal was this was the first meeting that you know you came to your goal was that no one on a federal level was listening into whether it was um Miss wild or state senators or or the United States senators or the Biden Administration and you came here and I'm telling you you were heard you were you may think like nothing happened but I'm telling you I had a phone call the next day from Congressman wild and uh within a four or five days she had 10 I think it was 160 Congress PE uh members sign out to a letter that they sent to President Biden and I I think President Biden has been very uh um vocal about asking for a ceasefire and I think there I think the there was a uh a deal done and I I think at one point Israel didn't agree to it and I think at one point Hamas didn't agree to it so you know there there's there's issues on both sides but you were heard and your goal of being heard was was coming here to be heard by your federal officials and you are being heard by them now and so uh you still again have the right to send in emails you still have the right to go to your own townships in your own municipalities and voice your opinions there so you're not being um styed in your in in in in talking and in and um affecting your first amendment rights so um the second thing is the um we we often um I don't know I think go back and look at the agenda but one of the reasons why I'm going to be voting yes for this is because we often have items on our agenda that are of a time a timely manner sometimes it's a contract with a subcontractor doing Paving or some type of um uh work on on on our sewer system or the electrical grid there's always something on there that's of a timely nature and the fact that we didn't get to that at 12 I think it was 12:40 in the morning when public comment ended that can't happen on a on a city level it can't I mean I I have no problems I'm retired now I can sleep all day I don't mind staying here till 4 in the morning but the problem is the city business has to be done it has to be and and and again I don't know if there was any items on that list or on that agenda at that time that we didn't get to that were of a timely manner but a lot of times there are SE several things down there that are that need to be passed that day and a lot of times the Administration sending things over at the last minute because it has to be put on this agenda it has to be voted on so I I hope you understand I hope you feel like you were heard I hope you feel you were listened to and I feel that um you um your stated goal the first time you came here happened because the federal officials are listening to you now so I I appreciate again all and all your comments so that's it thank you thank you Mr Cowan any other comments from members counc councilwoman quch thank you um I would say that councilwoman willhelm pretty much covered all the territory I was going to cover tonight um and uh and I'm in alignment with your comments um specifically uh this is um not the first time that folks have come here with concerns um that uh who who are not residents and um the the the the cases that you brought up were exactly the cases I was thinking of the landfill and then the carbon County issue and there have been others as well um in addition uh the public comment that took place um on I guess was that was March 5th um you know we had people here who were supportive of a ceasefire resolution people who were opposed and there were non-residents in both of those groups of people so it's not that um you know this is it the concern was you know from folks outside and inside of Beth Bethlehem on uh both sides I guess you would say of this um I also agree with you that um it's it is unenforceable um and the idea that well we wouldn't ask people uh to verify their residency but we might that does create in my mind a chilling effect um so I think um when we speak here about being a welcoming an inclusive city um I know that not everybody agrees with that we have had commenters in the past tell us you know I've heard a 100,000 people are moving to you know this region and I ask you know well why should we let them that's not who we are as a city and if we're if we want to live that truth then um I continue to want to hear from people both inside and and outside of this city um and folks who uh are non-residents now could be residents in 3 weeks we heard from someone here who said they have lived in the Lehigh Valley for 11 years and now they're a resident of Bethlehem so um I also will be voting no tonight um also just to a couple of points about um the resolution itself there's a wear as that says that the current rules of council are not consistent with the sunshine act and that's just not true because the requirement in the sunshine Act is that we allow public comment from our residents and taxpayers and we do do that um we just also the sunshine act doesn't prohibit us from being more expansive in that so I want to thank councilwoman will H Helm for preparing her remarks tonight because she did a much better job uh than I did uh but I uh and and also want to say that in that comment during new business I agree very much with you that um just because we prepare our comments doesn't mean that our our minds are fixed in that moment um you know I know that we said a lot of things over the last month or so um um I know that there are people who believe that we haven't lived up to um what we had said here from the de um that is sometimes the truth um that was also true the night of the Walnut Street Garage vote I will tell you uh when I said I understand that there are consequences sometimes we have a binary decision to make in these circumstances we can say yes or we can say no um so that's something that we live with and we are elected representatives and that's um where that resides is with the people who elect us ultimately um there was something else I was going to say and now it's slipped my mind um yeah no I think that pretty much uh covers um all of it oh I did want to say also yes we did not we were not able to complete our business on that particular night um we did come back um the very next meeting and get through our agenda there hasn't been a time in the two plus years now that I've been on Council that we haven't been able to continue to conduct our business regardless of how long our um public comment periods have been and they have been lengthy maybe not as lengthy as the last couple um but we certainly have had our share of lengthy com public comment periods um we've had people come and you know talk about things that they felt were relevant to the city that you know again if we had somebody judging whether something was relevant or not um you know where's where does that policing take place um so again um for all of those reasons um opposed to this resolution thank you Tech any other comments Miss Leon um I I guess this one's for uh our solicitor is there a reason why we went public Comon is extended to Citizens and taxpayers instead of extended to Residents and taxpayers no not specific reason so if this if this were to pass would it be okay to have that read residents instead of citizens if you want to pass a resolution that says residents there that would certainly be appropriate um I think uh like that that was it about my legal questions we've talked a lot about outside residents and the the library in the water but there's something else that comes to mind a lot and is how we talk about affordable housing and the shelter we've talked about these as Regional issues and a regional approach um so if we're going to have a regional conversation I think it's responsible to continue to allow multiple people to have their voices heard here whether it be via email or coming to the Le turn um I I think that there's other rules that we can explore a little bit I I had thought that there was the desire to align it with three minutes I would have been very much in favor of that to as a mechanism for control but to allow more people to talk um I I know you keep saying tread lightly on Free Speech but I am a bit of a free speech absolutist I I just don't want to tread on free speech um up chalk it up to me being a veteran what I meant I didn't mean tread on yeah I know it's just it's one of them touch points tread lightly around the area of yeah I don't want to dip a toe in it um uh like it's just that that that veteran in me is is I mean democracy is messy this these are flash points that happen whether they're going to be locally because of s and Valley um whether there'll be something that's happening at first press that borders bath and they want to have their voices um I just I think it's I think we could explore our rules a little bit more with moving public comment to the end so we can get through our agenda if we know that it's going to be a little bit more intensive um so yeah I just I I expect democracy to be messy I feel like this is a a a messy um moment but I I don't think it's a moment to pull away that's all I got to say thank you Miss Leon any other comments from members of council councilwoman Le thanks um so first of all I I want to make clear that I feel it's really important to separate this resolution from the topic of the Palestine Israel conflict specifically um as councilwoman wilham mentioned we've had extremely long meetings even just in the few months that I've been on Council about uh like the Walnut Street Garage which is absolutely a city issue and was full of City residents and that's great um it was tiring but it's great um at the same time we also do have residents who come speak people who are residents or taxpayers who come speak about non- City business pretty regularly um or at least very Loosely related business um however I agree that we have been elected to these seats to conduct City business that's the job that we were elected to do um so you know I've expressed this directly I I do appreciate Miss cremy Smith's efforts to try to protect our duties to do efficient business we do need to do that um I will acknowledge that my experience as a new council member has been quite challenging and in my understanding unique in the history of City Council meetings um however I signed up to represent the community and that didn't have a time limit on my meetings um so you know we do what we need to do um but in at first reading you know I was generally supportive of the the resolution albeit with some questions however since that first reading I've given uh this topic a lot of thought and had a lot of conversations with community members um and I do have concerns about codifying limitations on who can participate in public speech as well as the Practical implementation of such a rule which uh does sound like it's rather unenforceable um I also recognize that limiting by residency or taxpayer status does not ensure that comment remains focused on City business um others have mentioned our water and sewer authorities that serve non- City residents our library um and we have official city council Liaisons to these uh organizations that uh I mean it is our business it is literally our business to serve uh these people that don't live in the city of Bethlehem um or work or whatever um and we also pride ourselves on having multiple college campuses in our city um with a lot of passionate young adults uh who are economic drivers in our city and very possibly uh future residents of our city um and you know hopefully hopefully future residents of our city um our Administration has also recently helped form the three City Coalition uh which further encourages Regional collaboration and invites the input of other government officials in our region um so would one of those Mayors not be allowed to come speak at our meeting um in about something the Coalition would be looking at um and one sorry I'm a little jumbl here um one of the reasons I ran for Council too was to work on Regional issues um looking at specifically environmental justice issues our River our air quality that that doesn't just end at the city limits of Bethlehem or affect the people who pay taxes here um and another priority uh for why I you know what I'd like to work on here on Council is finding solutions to help our unhoused neighbors um and I wonder would these neighbors be invited to have their voice heard about the topic of homelessness which Direct ly impacts their lives and they might desperately want to be official residents and pay taxes here but have no actual legal status to do so at the time um but their voices should be heard as we talk about opening a shelter in our city um so you know I could go on we pride ourselves as a tourist destination Etc um I want people to be able to voice their thoughts on our feel on our uh City in public forum um sometimes I'm frustrated by the fact that we get tons of emails about something that maybe the loudest voices in the actual public room are on one side of an issue and we can't say like oh but look at these 200 emails that we got we can we can say it but like that's not public record right um unless you file a bunch of papers like uh Mr Callahan referenced it um so I I think speaking up is really important doing so in public forum is really important um I think I do say um a lot um you're f um there we go so in an effort to have our meetings flow efficiently I'd like to suggest that we do consider reducing the allotted time maybe to three minutes which I also thought was in there I would like to consider that at least for items not on the agenda um I also support remaining flexible to potentially shift comment on non-agenda items to the end of the meeting if it becomes apparent that uh City business could be impeded uh like we did last week um communicating suggestions and guidelines for public speech uh like Mr hacket suggested during public comment tonight um and if we are going to consider uh this particular resolution I would consider tabling it so that there is more Breathing Room between the very heated conversations that happened in this chamber recently and the actual decisionmaking so that we can be sure that our our topics are separated thank you Miss l so just a couple things before I go back around for for any additional comments the I'll just note from from this perspective for from the seat of of council president and I will recognize the well one I'll address it came up when we stopped asking or I stopped asking for name and address I can't say exactly when I don't I don't remember other than earlier on in this meeting Mr Miller here had reminded me when someone referenced law that our previous solicitor had addressed it to us that there was a a ruling some kind of case law somewhere uh advising that people don't have to give their name and address so I think I don't know if consciously or subconsciously I just got away from it knowing that people weren't required to do it uh I'm not going to say it was one or the other because honestly I don't remember I think I just kind of phased it out once it became um I was informed that there was a case law on it as it relates to sort of the honor System e even giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and acting in good faith I'm going to share with you a real example for someone who's very close to me my brother my brother lives in lower s in Township uh last year I was involved in something where I asked people for support and my brother said when are you dropping off my law and ornament for your for your house my campaign sign and I said Dave you you live in lowak in Township and he said no my address is 123 so and so Bethlehem Pennsylvania and I said' no you don't live in South South Bethlehem you live in lower salken Township just off the top of my head sitting here Bethlehem Township lower Hain Township Fountain hillbo East Allen Township lower nazra Township maybe parts of Freemansburg I'm not sure have Bethlehem mailing addresses and I hear Salsbury Township Also may that being said and and I'm just going to give a little bit of my own historical perspective uh years ago I used to work as a 911 dispatcher many many years ago people would call 911 from a cell phone I'd say where are you they'd say I'm at 12 three so and so Road and I'd say oh are you in uh Palmer Township they'd say no I'm in Easton I'd say well are you in Palmer Township they'd say I don't know I I know I'm in Easton same with Bethlehem same with Allentown there even in even in good faith people may come and just not be sure they may hear of uh read something in the news or see something on the agenda and want to come out and not be sure of that as it relates to a taxpayer we have our mertile tax local service tax people pay property taxes people pay EIT the earned income tax people pay an amusement tax when you buy tickets to go see a show so there there's taxpayers a broad term uh I guess all this just to Simply say from my perspective the terms are rather Broad and I know our solicor spoke about it that that's that's intention like legally right from the um um just interrupt me if I'm incorrect that the it's Broad in the sunshine act correct and and that does not make from an enforcement perspective whether now as as for now I sit here in the center or in the future it an easy uh task to to do and so there's that we will talk about March 5th I I'll bring up March 5th uh I along with others we're we're very unhappy with March 5th uh we obviously adjourned the meeting I've been coming to the council meetings as I reference all the time this is my ninth year I came at Council meetings for about two years consistently before was elected to council I spoke to others who have been on Council before me and were here for many years and a lot of them had um given Insight that that never happened March 5th was an is was an unprecedented event where we were not able to get to City business and that's something that immediately the next morning I woke up thinking well how do we correct that right because I I will say I don't ever and I hope to never sit through a meeting where we have to adjourn a meeting without getting a city business because that is our number one priority for all the different uh ordinances resolutions things that we do fast forward to March 19th I thought well it would benefit us then as we have the right to do as we did on March 19th to play with the agenda we can move things around and and I think that was a rational step from my perspective to make sure that we got to our voting business years ago I don't remember exactly what year we amended our Council rules to move public comment un non-agenda items from they used to be in at the end of the meeting and then we voted to move them up to the beginning and I think that a fair method to make sure that we get to our agenda as soon as possible that we will continue to have the right to do is to move the agenda around like we did at the March 19th meeting and just move public comment for any non City business to the end that's something that I supported and thought of at the time and something that I think is a good measure but for some I don't want to normalize something that is the the rare I don't want to speak as if I anticipate it happening again we we've seen tonight and and I understand people were upset we we we said certain things certain things were said to be done they weren't done I'm not excusing anyone's Behavior but I think we've moved away from that now as we move into April and even tonight as we evidenced with the the length of public comment this evening so and also I'll address the idea of relevance to city government as I think it was alluded to by one of my colleagues earlier relevance to city government has been and will continue to be a very broad term one of our speakers during public comment had asked for me to be given more Authority I think I have enough Authority I'm not going to lobby for more Authority I think I just very loose and soft with the gavel and likely will continue to be and as I interpret relevance to city government for my previous time on Council and my time here in Center I think that is a very broad term because as we have heard from some people that are here tonight and people who come out other times uh people choose to use their five minutes uh different ways I I enjoy getting home before midnight as much as anyone else but I I also think at the same time that as we turn a corner um that we consider sort of some of the other options as it relates to how we control the flow of the meetings and again ensure that we do our most Prim function which is voting on everything that that is my input I again I'll open it back up to comments from members of council before we continue councilwoman Leo uh councilwoman lar had said I I would prefer um a table as opposed to a vote as we Explore More Time um other workarounds or anything that we can do to continue to um that's it I just prefer a table I'm not making a motion because I I saw councilman Smith's hand and I don't want to stop conversation I'm just stating my preference I I will remind everyone as as I continue open up for discussion that a motion to table requires a second but then there is no discussion um it that just goes right to a vote the the motion to table so just everyone keep that in mind as we continue discussion any other discussion for members of council councilwoman kmy Smith thank you I um thank you for the comments I mean I just want to clarify like I said I was thinking of being more broad as far as our previous rules of council have residents speak first and non-residents speak second so that residents were assured of their time for public comment um it did used to be three minutes I never in any of my res in my resolution I never proposed to decrease the um time frame from five to three minutes I think that was uh misconstrued in some way um but I did talk to again our attorney regarding what we can do like I said um also our current rules of council state that public comment is extended for individuals to address problems and issues of relevance to the operations of city government so in some respects we're not following that rule and um as far as you know the March 5th meeting I mean I'll be honest with you it was very concerning because I think that there were many rules that were not followed and for example uh there were people in the audience who were allowed to yell out and disrupt the meeting and nothing happened and I I honestly think that that was a time when the president could have used the gavl um also the current rules of C Council rule 3D is public comment will not be extended for personal insults or personal attacks on any individuals name calling or behavior inconsistent with the purpose and intented public comment um at previous meetings and even tonight we've been you know referred to as killers of babies oppressor we have blood on her hands I take that as a personal insult and again I um I would hope and respectfully request that the president will use the gabble when that continues the March 5th meeting was also I think a fire and safety hazard there were people sitting on the steps blocking entranceways there was an elderly woman that almost fell trying to walk over people I don't think that should happen we have to be concerned about the safety of the people in this town hall during all meetings um when things got out of hand at that meeting I had to um prompt the president to use a gabo I had to make the motion to adjourn the meeting and consequently I I respectfully request that our council president consist abides by Council rules Robert rules and Sunshine Law so we avert another incident like March 5th um and that we can have instead of chaos we can have order and we can get to the business in which we were voted to um and we were elected to get to in these meetings and I would certainly um be open to considering looking at um changes or again the current rule states that we have to allow public comment only to address issues related to the operation of city government perhaps if we enforce that that will um resolve a lot of the issues that we have or also I agree that we need to change the agenda down around and let citizens and taxpayers be priority and giv public comment and non-citizens and taxpayers still be given a chance but at the end of the meeting so that we can get to City business thank you any other comments from members of council Miss qu I I just want to say I you know I appreciate some of the um points that Miss KY Smith brought up about um sort of the conduct of of the March 5th meeting um overall uh however uh would just want to reiterate that the resolution that's before us doesn't address any of those things so um it it's specific to restricting um comment uh only to Residents well it says citizens but there's no such thing really as a citizen of Bethlehem we don't we're citizens of the United States we're residents of a city um so uh some of us who live here aren't citizens of the United States actually which is just fine um so I just want to just reiterate that um while you've made some valid points there about some of the concerns about the conduct of the March 5th meeting um none of that is actually um addressed by this resolution this resolution doesn't solve that problem my last comment I'll make real quick is just in uh always trying to be listen to to criticism is I will acknowledge that I do consult with our Council solicitor here to my immediate left sometimes on the floor of Council meetings as it relates to what people's uh protected speech are it's always a fine say always it's often a fine balance between what are Council rules rules what are Roberts rules what are what's protected speech what is something that talked to our fire chief before about fire safety and things like that so these conversations while I said some things like relevance to city government my personal interpretation may be broad um I will say there has been thought and consideration given to these different topics as it relates to operating our Council meetings that being said is there any other question or comment from members of council Mr Callan go ahead no I was making sure I so uh M KY Smith say that again what what's in the current rules as far as City business um public comment is extended to individuals to address um through the chair City officials on problems and issues are relevance to the operation of city government so that's what section is that that is Rule three um c 3 C and that's our that's I I would I would uh I think um who who wanted to table it I think uh councilwoman Leon was thinking about T I would be uh willing to offer to table it to work on any additional language and uh to see how uh the future meetings are going and I would also encourage the president of council to uh gavel down some if they're not um staying on topic uh on things that concern the city of Bethlehem I think that's probably a better way to handle it understood any other questions or comments from members of council if that was a botion I would I would so there's a motion on the floor from Mr Callahan to table the resolution amending the council rules as it relates to public comment then I would second I hear a second from councilwoman Leon as I referenced ear there is no discussion on a motion to table I will ask Mr Miller to call the RO Mr Callahan I M gry Smith nay Miss quch nay Miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm nay and Mr colum passes 43 the motion to table continuing on with our resolution clerk will read resolution 10B be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and control roller are authorized and directed to execute all application forms necessary to apply for a dcnr grant for the greenway Trail Gap acquisition and that the mayor and controller and authorized to execute such other agreements and documents as are deemed to be necessary and or relevant here to the resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss leair discussion on the resolution Al the clerk to call the RO Mr Callahan hi M Crimson Smith hi m quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss wilh Mr colum I pass 70 I'll ask everyone exiting to please hold your comments till you're out in the hall thank you no I didn't resolution 10c be it 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 a use permit agreement with Christmas City Spirits LLC for the 2024 Blossom Fest resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss L discussion we'll call the role Mr Callahan all M cmy Smith I miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colog I pass 70 resolution 10d resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with tnm asso Associates Consulting Engineers for the monoxy way Phase 2 design resolution sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss L discussion I had a quick question for Mr alal if that's possible it's about the dollar the numbers just for clarification um so uh in identifying the contract funding sources um there were two uh State and W fees uh they have the same number and the same they have the same dollar amount and the same sort of budget line number if I'm reading that correctly um and it and it's a substantial amount of money they're each $441,000 however I just I want to confirm that the the actual estimated price of this project is 88,89 so I'm just is are these this is for the design work uh the what's what's shown in the memor R is the entire budget which includes construction okay so the $441,000 is the is the entire budget for for this uh monoy W phase 282 882 so it's half from the state and half from our W fees okay thank you for that clarification and so then um out of the the bids after having to re put this out for a new bid um you did get a a good low uh bid from uh tnm um design Serv for the Design Services does that uh does is that about the same as what the uh bid was from LVL it was exactly it was exactly the same okay all right thank you very much any other discussion from members of council mayor Reynolds did you want to elaborate on Mr Al Call's answer yeah just to add is we also those 8 that $882,000 I believe Mr Al call we already have those construction dollars um we already have the construction dollars so it's not even often times du do the engineering before we necessarily have the dollars but because of the way this went down the good news is is that we have that 882 th000 that's come through the grant funding that will include that area from like sherille road to Union Boulevard but then also take a look at the intersections between that area all the way down to Sand Island so like if you're ever on Union Boulevard getting on to 378 you know that chaotic situation there like that's like the main kind of intersection that those dollars will look for which potentially is a very very big deal from the walkability and connecting that trail down to Sand Island to the rest of it I'm very glad to hear that because that is real pain Point um on that trail that one that one spot it is it is thank you any other discussion for members of council we'll call the RO Mr Callahan hi Miss cramy Smith hi M quch hi Miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colog I pass 70er and resolution 10e certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem resolution is hereby granted for 307 iph 311 East 3 Street to install two new wall signs comprised of pin mounted and backlit aluminum lettering within the sign band and two facades as well as various new vinyl graphics installed and select storefront windows and entrance doors resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss L any discussion on the COA we'll call R Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi Tech I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colog I passes 70 that concludes tonight's agenda get home safely everyone