we are going to get started I'll ask that we all stand for pledge to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible Li and justice for all thank you I will ask everyone to find a seat as we get ready to get started Mr Miller if you could call the role Please Mr Callahan present M Smith present present m l present M pres and Mr pres thank you Mr Miller mayor Reynolds is running a little bit late this evening he did give me a heads up as they're doing u a handoff for his uh child care this evening he'll be joining us as soon as possible and then moving on to the approval of minutes any comments on the minutes from the April 16 2024 council meeting I don't see any so the minutes will stand approved public comment as is custom we will start with our first comment period This is for any subject not being voted on this evening I will remind everybody just for I see some familiar faces that we have a a five minute time limit I'm going to be firm on the five minutes in respect of everybody's time for anything that anyone wants to address Council about I ask that we all remain courteous of each other as this is whoever's at the Lector in five minutes to address Council and for us to do our best to listen the and just a reminder for tonight's agenda we are voting on the council rules uh change so that will actually be a vote so that would be on the second public comment for anything that we voting on this evening so again our first public comment is for anything that's not being voted on tonight so I'll start with the list of those who had signed up the first is Mr kku and if you don't mind stating your name for the record please Muhammad Kaku good evening ladies and gentlemen and the council members last time I was here my question was if the council members don't speak the truth to the power who will today my question is why are we living in the times of horri horrific contradictions last time you betrayed on your false hope of adopting a resolution and today you want to restrict the freedom of our speech by passing a resolution rules of council and not diving the city's investment from the genocide shame yesterday we commemorated the Holocaust Memorial Day and on May 15th we will be commemorating nakba we should all contemplate and reflect on the horrors of sha nakba or Holocaust it is a contradiction that the victims of the Holocaust can be so cruel to another group of human beings the Palestinians the occupying gines regime has claimed 40,000 lives mammed 100,000 Palestinians destroyed 80% of infrastructure of Gaza now they're going into Rafa my appreciation and respects and my gratitud to all the students especially the Jewish people who are on the front line against the genocide for ceasefire and peace in the holy land yet our government's officials who are the descendants of the Holocaust osola are glorifying the Gaza genocide vetoing United Nations resolution and now threatening judges on International Court Criminal Court Germany the one nation who committed the genocide against the Jews is Jews in the name of German is one of the largest providers of the tools genocide against the Palestinian today us the nation that beats Other Nation like my Nation Kenya head with pronouncing human rights Freedom democracy is the single largest provider of the tools of genocide in Gaza while the Zionist news media that tout the trans supporter of Truth accuracy and objectivity are bias fabricating news against Palestinian fmz did the reporting on the sitting in the Lei University was absolutely biased the term anti-Semitism should be taken to meet hate and bias against Jews but it has become a weaponized to stop any criticism against Zionism if a Zionist is stopped by the police wearing yamaka he will soon claim anti-semitism because there's a new law in the Congress going on we already have the state law of BDS anti-Semitism is so consumed by emotional that it has anti-Semitism has become meaningless October 7 attack Palestinian resistant groups still mourn vilified and fabricated movies last week there was a movie by former Facebook's executive s the sharff finance films scream before scream before the silence documenting all the horrors right by the Hamas Freedom Fighter this movie has heavily be promoted by such figures as Hillary Clinton congressman roana and Israeli government and Anglo-Saxon Imperial Zionist media Ali ubia of electronic intifada and others like M Hassen of Zito have uh broke down this film and no wonder no wonder so Wars begins to question Holocaust statistics and the history no wonder and once finds an economics SPO today today the economics poo says that five one in five Young American think the Holocaust is a myth it's not me talking I'm not an anti-semite there's a wonderful book another one right must tell the truth and shame the devil right a must to read I don't have much time I got 14 seconds but I gave the gifts of naul Baga and this is all the answers where this is where I get from and this was a course study guide done at the Christian Church six years ago and now it is B and this book has been bought out by somebody is buying all this books away so I brought and gave the gift to all you people understood thank you our next speaker tonight miss M mayor Joe mol 449 Grand View Boulevard I was going to address two issues tonight but changed my thoughts to only one the issue I want to address tonight is the housing issue and future development of open land while I agree there is a need for housing I want to caution this body to be careful what you wish for at some point our Bethlehem will be like the one where Jesus was born with no room at the end yesterday morning at about 9:15 I was driving on Pennsylvania Avenue towards kataka Avenue to Head West on Route 22 I was near the Episcopal church and had to break hard it was not traffic I stopped for but five or six deer they were crossing from my right to my left the only Woods and Water Source is not readily close this is not something I or anyone would expect to see in a densely residential area fortunately I was going so slow that even when a young do a yearling darted in front of my car I inadvertently hit it neither it nor my car were suffer suffered any damage it was able to get up and run away you would expect this in a rural area but not in a dense L de developed area I had deer in my front and my backyard a dough and two fawns two houses south of me a buck and several Doe's across the street from my home the former Bennett Toyota lot has numerous deer feeding at night I put my high beams on when I am driving to my garage along Ritter and baskam streets to alert deer I have seen a dead deer on Eerie Insurance company's lawn State Game Commission has methods to control deer population roadkill is not one of them the former benett Toyota dealership I believe currently has a pair of Canadian geese nesting on the property there are numerous redtail Hawks turkey vultures and even bald eagles flying frequently over the area the city's climate action plan must include more open space to allow Wildlife their space further development with some open space May boast less impervious land it will only serve to further displace Wildlife due to decreased habitat the developers of the former State Hospital properly boast about 40 to 41% undeveloped land land that the wetlands Conservancy will manage while this sounds great they fail to tell the public that the land is situated on a total Cliff thereby making it impossible to build upon less development equates to equates to more for the city open green space should always be more beneficial than overdevelopment just look at all the beautiful Parks Allentown has they were fortunate to have a great conf conservationist philanthropist and benefactor in general Trexler I urge you to consider this in any housing or climate action plans going forward thank you thank you miss m our next speaker is Miss chromer is this about is M chromer here is this about the lease that we're voting on uh I'll call on you first end during the next one okay next is Mr virgilia Robert vilo uh homeowner and Resident business owner for 38 years in Bethlehem I I have a question I'm going to direct it to Mayor Reynolds I just would like to know what the city's definition of affordable housing is I don't know if when I yield my time if you can elaborate on that I can't find the uh open doors link either on the website so if there's somebody that could email me the steps to get to it now I want to also mention that in the time that I've been in Bethlehem for 17 years I've V the granola Factory and I have about 20 people working for uh my company at the present time and they're really hard workers and I really appreciate their hard work because that's how I obviously make my money and when you see this you kind of look at your people and you you certainly do care for them that they get ahead and some of them live in the city of Bethlehem one gentleman that works for me who's one of my uh Bakers lives right across the street on North Street from Friendship Park which he told me the other day um that there was a shooting and a stabbing at Friendship Park I don't know any more about it because I really couldn't find it uh after the fact in the newspaper when you look at the the uh the call website they Galley things that are happening in Bethlehem they've got Sugar Ray sheets you name it but they don't have anything about the shooting you can Google it and find it but if you're really not aware of it or looking for it um other than on the you know the Googles you can't really find it on the newspaper website so I also want to point out that as I've been following and I've mentioned before the the state which when you go to our Police website you can link to the states crime map which is also statistics that are updated every month and the City of Bethlehem is for the for the month of March or rather for the month of April did very well there was no increase from what I can tell on any of the serious crimes or even the Lesser crimes uh for the month of April but unfortunately the the month of May is getting off to a bad start I think if the city would if the mayor and the police chief and the city council would give some attention to including a log a galley of the monthly crimes and the the vicinity that they're in it would help the people and when things are good and there is no crime it would help the city so that people know how well you're doing our police that is so I just want to point that out to you I don't understand why it's so diff ult to do I don't really know why the city doesn't want the public to know these facts we're not getting it from our newspaper we have a great City we want to keep it as safe as we can because that's one reason why we live here it's a safe City so I just once again want to bring that up and ask that you consider taking that step thank you very much thank you Mr virgilia and we could email you that information even after this meeting next is Drew S I feel like I always mispronounce your name so I'm not gonna thank you um thank you my name is Drew Swedberg I'm a documentary filmmaker and Professor recently paid taxes in the city of Bethlehem when I taught at Moravian last or two semesters ago now because we just wrapped up our our semester um I have a question for the solicitor and I'm happy to talk about this via email or um in the next meeting but I'm just curious um the last time that I was here we were told that the um we were not allowed to do some some of the work or actually this was several times ago that we were not allowed to do some of the stuff we were doing because of the sunshine act and I just had a question of clarity on the sunshine act and I also promise this in like a gotcha moment I'm just like honestly like interested in what happened um because I also think we can trace some of what happened to why we're here tonight um so what I'm curious about is that you read um section 72.1 as the reason why we were not allowed to suspend the rules or not allowed to vote on a resolution that was not on the agenda that we were told was going to be on the agenda and that wasn't on the agenda um when you did that you read you said an agency may not take official action on a matter of agency business at a meeting if the matter was not included in the notifications required under Section 79 C1 relating to public notice um but you didn't mention or at least both my memory as well as looking through the recording that there are uh exceptions to this um an exception b c d and e and I'm curious about um specifically uh section D which says business arising during a meeting which reads if during the conduct of a meeting a resident or taxpayer brings a matter of agency business that is not listed on the meeting agenda to the attention of the agency the agency may take official action to refer the matter to staff if applicable for the purpose of researching the matter for inclusion on the agenda of a future meeting or if the matter is dominous in in nature and does not involve the expenditure of funds or entering into a contract or agreement the agency may take official action on the matter I'm just curious one why this wasn't read as an exception in terms of us being able to respond and figure out how to best organize and that moment um but two I'm also just curious about um you know whether or not that was an option for us um because you have you know we had come two weeks before I believe that y'all had done the research and decided what to do um you know but I'm I'm just really curious as to again why we weren't presented this as an exception to the sunshine act and I'm also uh really curious and again you don't need to respond to this tonight I'm happy to come to the next meeting um you know why uh why this wouldn't be an option for you know what ended up getting past as the people's resolution that night so I would love to follow up with you happy to exchange emails afterwards um but yeah I'm very curious about that thank you uh and I'll just say and thank you for your understanding if you'd like to email that question to our city clerk who could communicate it and give our Council listen opportunity to fully read the question and respond next speaker Stephanie Mattis well thank you for coming out next is Arty Kera hi I'm Mary CA 813 law for Street Bethlehem Southside um I like to say I'll talk about the magistrate situation and the parking authority situation I went to a parking authority meeting and I go to them all the time well not all the time but as many as I could and just to be looked at like I got three heads they don't take any anything I say seriously as I don't know uh but what are you going to do it is what it is uh and on the south side of betham where I live around laer Street yasco Park area here's a prime example what I talked about last time the parking authority will make it that it's harder to find parking in that area so the residents pay for more tickets that's what's going on now the city should be able to stop that because the city's leaving it that they could utilize our our streets to make money the thing is okay this is what was going on on one side of the street there was construction going on the other side of the street no parking on Fridays in the morning where are the people going to park they're going to park illegally somewhere right then they get tickets if they don't move them in a certain time now that's what's going on in our area boots they have the vehicles booted for a week at a time somebody gets a ticket they don't confront the parking authority because they got a ticket for something they're perpetrators tow the vehicles at their expense don't let us pay for them I suggested that hey you want to go ahead and leave it like that then those perpetrators that have four or five tickets before they get booted and they're on the on the streets for about for about a whole week with booted Vehicles let them pay for our tickets also the situation goes where I present it to them they give two three parking permits to a family if a family needs two parking or three parking permits apparently somebody's got a job either up front or under the table a one or the other they're making money they could afford to pay for a parking SP one per family there's only that many parking spaces one per family I suggested nope they don't go for that they don't make that happen you're can have two three4 and work on your cars on the streets and sell them and take up the parking areas for for other residents and then when I come in from Philadelphia because I'm doing a gig in Philadelphia with with with a band 4:00 in the morning no place at all the park it's hard to find parking around 10 10 11:00 in the air in the at night in my area I find a parking space it turns out that it's with a handicap spot I went to move it the vehicle wouldn't start I waited for somebody to move to go to work nobody nobody moved I go in to use the restroom within 20 minutes I got a ticket all the time I was there for four or five hours I didn't get no nobody told me to move I go to the magistrates court and the magistrate becomes their attorney he totally ignored three times a question that I asked the parking authority I said how long was that how long was that uh handicap spot there because he stated to me the magistrate stated to who I've known for years stated to me Mr catola you lived in that area for so many years you should know where the parking is and where it's not legal that handicap spot was put up within the past few months I'm trying to get the parking authority to answer that question he kept avoiding that question three times he avoided it he became their attorney well he was a good attorney from what I remember but the thing is I don't think that's fair that magistrates should do things like that also if we got to go to court for a magistrate hearing then if we win we should be compensated for our work time that we lost if they want to be compensated for work for us going for the hearings we got to pay $90 to $100 for a magistrate hearing and then pay for the ticket on top of it if we lose okay then they should pay us something if we win that's pretty much all I got to say think about what's being fair and what's not being fair in the parking situations and the magistrate situation in our city of Bethlehem let's be Trend Setters thank you God bless thank you Mr katola next speaker is Kelsey Weber good evening Council um I had a speech prepared tonight but I just want to talk to you BAS to face like we're people here um I just want to let you know that while we've been debating and talking about all these different resolutions and things to solve problems where we don't feel safe and we feel targeted all that other stuff Rafa right now is being invaded and bombed tents of displaced people are being bombed and they're behind this idea that the government is protecting them there's so much to say but it's so hard to convey to you exactly what we're going through and the emotions that we're feeling seeing all this happen in front of us and the difference between the first time we were here and now is incredible I mean the support that we thought we had is gone I mean we don't know if it's there anymore honestly um we're trying to come together on this as a community and really make changes I mean I heard about the stabbing at Friendship Park I literally heard it I was that close so that's terrifying I've lived in North Side Bethlehem my entire life and I've never had to worry about walking late at night now now I feel like I could be a Target I feel like just because I'm speaking and just because I'm speaking my mind that I have to worry about my safety and because of the rhetoric that's being spewed on media and on the news and the wording that's being used it's dangerous especially against these University students that are literally calling for the same thing all around the globe over 150 universities can't be wrong can they these students are literally coming together and realizing that don't need we don't need all of this we can support each other we keep each other safe but when it comes to government and lawmakers we feel like we're fighting you so help us not feel like we're fighting you help us help protect us help us feel safe because now when I walk home at night I don't know if I'm going to be targeted or if somebody's going to see me and think that you know oh she's alone I've never felt that way before not living in North Side Bethlehem definitely not so I just want you guys to take into consideration that when you're not defending people here tonight like when you're not understanding where we're coming from at the very least you're making us targets you're painting a Target on our back where we don't feel safe anymore especially I mean like I said I grew up here my entire life and that's insane to say that so I just want you guys to understand like the the gravity of everything going on here I mean I saw WFMZ do the news report on what Lehi is doing so watered down so watered down it doesn't even touch what's going on so I mean honestly like if we could work together and really use the correct wording like you guys said that you wanted to get the first time we tried to present a resolution for you I really hope that we can really back each other here instead of fight each other so I hope you just keep that in mind thank you thank you that exhausts our list of everyone who signed up so I'll go around the room again this is public comment on anything that we're not voting on this evening so I'll start to the left was there anyone who would to make comment on anything that council is not voting on this evening yes in the front my name is Jossie reri and I work for just born in Bethlehem so I want to point out how this is a local issue we keep hearing that it is not in your purview to call for a ceasefire because this is not a local issue and as you know certain community members have intentionally tried to lead you astray by convincing you that voting for a ceasefire is not a local issue but following the city council meeting where you passed the wful peaceful resolution instead of the ceasefire resolution the Jewish Federation of the Lehi Valley posted an article on their website claiming that the victory for ceasefire was not agreed upon and was passed and I quote from them we have the support of the mayors of all three cities as well as every city council member in Allentown Bethlehem and Easton with one exception being councilwoman tyba salana none of the councils consider a unilateral resolution against Israel and none are expecting to do so in the future sorry I got lost to my notes here so as they blow blatantly gloat about being able to convince all local councils to ignore the genocide that's being committed against the Palestinians and how they have the support of each and every one of you here in this room is this how you want to be remembered for your time here in city council the council that idly Sat by cowering to the pressure of a few individuals instead of listening to the screams for help from the thousands asking you to use your power to speak up for the violence and Gaza while they continuously say this is not a local issue ignore it um and do not call for a ceasefire they have several blogs detailing their trips of individuals from the Lehigh Valley four residents that visited that they sent to Israel in January of this year almost 40,000 Palestinians are murdered at the hands of the IDF and the US bombs and they are sending individuals from the Leigh Valley to Israel to return to our community here one person even talks about how they shared meals convers ation and a bonfire with the IDF units they sang and danced together they talk about how they um send individuals over to Israel to live there and at the age of 16 you know they all um have to report for S they get a letter to inform them that they have to report for service at age 18 because to serve in the Israel Defense Force is a right of passage for Israel they've also prepared lunches for those same soldiers that are killing Palestinians and them returning here to the Lehi Valley they also have a program called Israel to Lehigh Valley pathway where they um proudly bring is Young Israelis to live here and work in the Lehigh Valley and um they also entice individuals in the Lehi Valley to go live in Israel they and that's fine if they weren't killing Palestinians and coming home to our communities and violence doesn't end at the airport they don't just stop being violent individuals when they return to the Lehigh Valley but there's more they even have a Lehigh Valley partnership with the yoa community that is a Zionist movement in palestin that was founded on the Zionist movement in Palestine that the to this day the Jewish verer Federation promotes and encourages residents to move there and parti participate in the continuation of these settlements settlements they even talk about how one of their challenges with these growing settlements there is the renovation and the security of the population which has gained a lot of attention in the wake of the operation in operation in operation protective Edge which is about 40 kilom from Gaza yab community and operation protective Edge is something that happened in 2014 where Israel killed 2,222 Palestinians so hundreds of them were just sitting in their homes 63% of them or 1,391 were not even partaking in fighting they were not Hamas leaders and they killed 526 minors then 2000 that was 10 years 2014 so it did not start in October 7th so they just continuously tell you that this is not a local issue do not care about this this is not in your purview as they sit from their desk and continuously bring residents over from Israel to the Lehi Valley that are partic participating in this AC of genocide and they're also sing sending residents over to Israel and then bringing them back here so I again urge you to remember that this is a local issue violence transcends borders and it comes back to our communities and there are other ways that this is being done as a local issue so again consider ceasefire resolution as Kelsey mentioned Rafa is being invaded and bombed to this day I watched someone pick up body pieces as if it was soup last night there are children that are being obliterated to pieces with half of their faces missing is that something that you stand for is that what you are agreeing to when the they say that all of you are in support of them thank you is there anyone else on the left who wants to make comment on anything not being voted on this evening I turn to the wide Center I'll move left to right starting to the far left here sir with the hat for those who don't I am Harry Faber uh address 321 Georgia Avenue and I've been attending city council religiously since my first meeting February 20th 2024 however I've never been able to shake this feeling of uncomfortableness this unsettling feeling every time I attend and that's because we're not truly participating in democracy we're Spectators we're standing by the sidelines watching decisions be made when we don't have when we don't have to be aware or understand we get five minutes to talk on things being voted on 10 overall but it's not dialogue we are speaking at you I've even go as far to say that this is really these meetings are really just political theater we come we speak and nothing changes the machine keeps chugging along look at the agenda the agenda the agenda for today is over 40 items 40 items long and most of which deal with the allocation of City resources now I can't speak for anyone else in the room uh so let me just ask who here had the time to read and digest everything on the agenda raise a hand who had the time I work two jobs I did not Callahan oh I'm going to to get back to you on that anybody else I did not have the time and I won't lie and say I did I remind you please keep your comments to either the sh all counil okay okie doie chokey uh but uh I didn't have the time I worked two jobs I tried I attempted to read and comprehend everything but I'd be lying if I said I did but I know I'm not alone showah hands just showed that all too often I hear the same for members of city council most notably Callahan uh I believe on the meeting of I you know what I just remember Callahan not reading having read the opening doors policy and getting the the little debate a gym teacher I don't know you guys remember that but I remember that that even the council doesn't have time to read all the things being pushed and passed voted on by city council that's my point you got even you guys city council members don't have time to Red digest and understand everything that you guys are working on voting on passing so if even city council members don't have time read and digest City business plans then how can we the public the working class be able to how can we be expected to that question forces us to concede take the null hypothesis that we the working people are purposefully made incapable of participating effectively in local governments we are by Design kept as far away as possible from the decision-making process we are discouraged and disincentivized to come participate and understand what is going on around us every action has an opportunity cost we learned that mayor Reynolds learned that that it's an economic term every every action has an opportunity cost the time I spend reading the agenda digesting information and preparing for these meetings most people can't afford to spend I barely can we are all so overworked underpaid and so exploited the time I choose to dedicate to this endeavor forces me to sacrifice the little leisure time that I have most people can't many have much more responsibilities than I do but now let's ask ourselves is this right is this how things really should be a society where working full-time does not guarant you even the bare basic necessities to live what values do we want to instill on the youth do you really want to teach them to disregard human suffering I don't and I I don't care if this is the way it's always been because it shouldn't be it shouldn't be anymore the system is flawed we don't have time we are all overworked I know I know you guys don't make a large sum of money for being on city council a lot of you have other careers besides that so if you guys don't even have the time like who's running the show who is really running the show it is the the okay here where it comes out I'm a communist but it's the big capitalist the oligarchs who own everything control everything and is that really how the way things should be only if you own everything own all the resources the means of production the land the factories the M raw materials that you now have a say what a what about us none of us have a say we come and we talk and you guys it looks like you're listening it looks like you are but most of the time it doesn't and that hurts and that's gives this cognitive dissonance that even when I come that I'm not doing enough that we're not doing enough we're we really aren't we really aren't this is a genocide and we're setting the precedent that we the city of Bethlehem which is in Palestine don't care about their genocide that's crazy that's crazy at Moravian University I was taught be a a little revolutionary be a little revolutionary and I'm telling you city council be a little revolutionary or we will force to be we're not out here toing arms and coming and being violent we are coming as peacefully as we can we are doing the peaceful while we're walking the peaceful walk it's not always going to be like we're fighting a genocide that's what we're here to end and it starts with you guys our local government so if you aren't doing everything in your power we will be forced to be so I ask if it gets to that look at us look at our eyes when you arrest us or don't thank you continuing on again going from left to right was there anyone else in the wide Center who want to make comment Sor Mr sh and then continue on to the right or my right the audience's left Bill sh 18908 Avenue Here I Go Again I applaud your passion but not your procedures you need to work on your arguments there's one powerful argument that you need to be hammering away on and that is the time has come for the United States of America to suspend military assistance to the state of Israel there is a there is a law that for bades military assistance to a country that does not offer humanitarian assistance now Israel does offer some but not enough and there's been a letter from a group of so-called liberal Senators I should say so-called because that's what the name that was in the paper uh to the president uh stating this that the time has come this is about three weeks old but enough enough on that my remaining four minutes I want to give you a report on what happened at the zoning hearing board uh about 10 days ago it was U the last case of six concerning um alley housing at 16004 West Broad Street and tonight I just want to give you the facts in case you haven't uh been aware of them fully and u next meeting perhaps I'll try to provide some sort of analysis where we stand on that issue right now the facts were that variances were appealed or for uh 1604 West Broad is the half of a twin home double house we used to call them and has a two car garage in back it's a narrow lot and the garage takes up almost all the width of the lot and the proposal which comes from uh community action committee of the Lehigh Valley New Bethany M Ministries and a young Professor at Lehigh whose name I don't remember and his student project to demolish the garage and erect in its place a two-story building uh the ground floor would provide parking for three cars not two and on top a two-bedroom apartment with kitchen bath living room and dining so I think I haven't checked the the dimensions but I think it would extend further into the property than the garage uh it was approved um by the zoning heing board on a two to1 vote uh those are the bare facts uh I tried to argue that the elephant in the room was policy and the um it was maintained that no no no no it's not policy it's just a test case and not a precedent that was another thing I tried to say this is a precedent they if you can explain to me the difference between a test case and a precedent I'd be very appre initiative uh the fact that it was a policy matter being presented to the zoning hearing board was underlined by the fact that the director of Planning and Zoning was there in support of it um I also by the way I'm not against Ali housing I think it's a partial solution to the problem but it's um the city is going about it I think in not the best possible way um there is by the way as you may know on Thursday night at nichan at 6:30 a community gathering on the subject of Al housing I tried to introduce the idea that this was a false dilemma that um it was just sort of Ali housing or no Ali housing what about other Alternatives like vacant land why not getting part of the Northampton Heights back from the the industrial park that Northampton Heights was developed in the 1890s as Workforce housing for betham steel there was a gate between the boundary of Northampton Heights and the steel property it was demolished for the basic oxygen furn furnace which was itself demolished so those those are the bare facts and I'll try to analyze things better at the next meeting thank you thank you Mr sh anybody else in the center who wanted to make comment I the hand behind the lect turn sorry I can't fully see you and then I'll go to the person over here in the back row after hi everyone my name is Ana I won't be disclosing my address please excuse my voice allergy season isn't nice to people so I'm just up here almost repeating basically everything that my other wonderful constituents have said I have a lot of disappointment in city council and it is just for Bethlehem city council it's for E city council it's for Allentown city council and it's for every city city council that has acted like cowards in their lack of wanting to address creating resolutions but instead assuming that a letter demanding peace is enough if we do not acknowledge what is happening headon then you're not acknowledging it at all and you're simply just being complicit we saw wonderful leehi students hold a demonstration that over 250 50 people attended asking for a ceasefire asking to disclose and divest and those students who pay tuition live in Bethlehem for four years they are citizens and residents of Bethlehem and it's disappointing that we have to keep coming here we've been coming here since February and we keep getting the push on about this and then we start hearing about ways that our voices are attempting to be suppressed so I stand up here urging you to be on the right side of History to read your history books about what's happened in the past anytime you see students behind a movement they've always been correct during the Civil Rights movement during the luncheons and the stins they were correct during Vietnam they were correct and now they are correct again maybe take a note out and talk to your elders I'm pretty sure my parents would love to talk to you about how the students are correct seeing they lived through the Civil Rights Movement maybe take the time to do that if you're not willing to listen to us we don't use biased media we do our research and we are here telling facts and telling truth that your local government should be involved ask South Africa how they gained their Victory where they started through local government and understand that when we vote you in we vote you in to be the voices for us and when you decide to arrogantly not listen to us it just reminds us one CE again that we voted you in and we can vote you out if that wasn't clear so please take the time to do your research to listen to us and to not cower behind what other people are trying to tell you to do we don't need letters for peace we need it to be acknowledge head on this is what's going on there is a genocide going on they are invading Rafa over 35,000 people have died over 15,000 children and it will take over DEC to even rebuild Gazza to where it was before this is more than what they're estimating that they had to rebuild for World War II so it's time to take off the blinders to stop being cowardly and to listen thank you thank you my name is Abdul alos and I'm a student at maraven University um you know I don't know what else we got to really say it's been seven months um now as you you've seen Israel has taking the action to invade RAF which has 1.5 million people crammed into the crevice of Gaza and I don't know if you guys know the logistics of Gaza there's already 2.2 million people in Gaza and it's already one of the most crowded places in the world when you go in there and invade people that are sitting there with 1.5 million people in that crevice of Gaza you are risking civilian life children women and innocent men that has already been like mentioned 15,000 kids in seven months the US government prior to this has already said that they quote unquote don't support an invasion of RA and now what do we see they're they're allowing it to happen I ask you guys not to be cowards as Ana said and not to stand with this invasion of Rafa and a message to moravan University and Bethlehem and the Pennsylvan and Pennsylvania they Moravian University put out a statement essentially Thanking us for our silence and for not for not protesting and I say to them don't take our perceived silence as a lack of action our silence is preparation and we will act and we will not stop until we get a ceasefire and until the people of Gaza get what they deserve thank you thank you anyone else in the Oh Mr analex Stephen andalex 77 Ridge following up from last council meeting when I was not allowed to continue I wish to bring your attention to to similarity between the mechanical speedometer of which I feel most of you are quite familiar and the mechanical water meter in relation to the complaint of a citizen over an excessive water bill and the water Department's official response both meters are similar in that they contain Wheels whose rotation is determined by either Road speed or water flow both have a a decimal continuously Road ating wheel which when it reaches. n forces the next wheel to turn from zero to one this secondary wheel when it reaches its maximum number n then forces the next digital wheel to reflect number one also each wheel as it reaches its maximum digit forces this change to the next wheel and so forth what I found extremely problematic in the official response was the use of the word possible implying it never eres the meter thereby implying Perfection a quality which no mechan no mechanical device created by man can ever achieve this statement also flies in the face of the laws of possibility probab and probability water meter failure is possible but also highly improbable unscrew this this the end of your faucet sinks F screw the end of your kitchen's faucet and you'll find a Sie on which you will discover a number of Trapped insoluble particulates these particulates have also pass through the water meter could a tiny particle possibly get hung up momentarily in the high digigit wheel causing it to briefly rotate this is was told by a water department agent to do the ma to do the math he did and just what and just that the numbers he discovered could not account for that massive water loss thereby possibly suggesting the possibility of the meter's momentary failure the citizen deserves restitution on remainder of my time the the city of Bethlehem has two two groups who oversees welfare the appointed by election people who sit there and behind me the people who live in the city both are responsible for the welfare of the city and should work in Harmony and over the last period of time I've seen a disconnect a develop of an antagonistic point of view between the two groups which is very contrary to the consules I've seen of the past at one time I will call a console ideal or perfect because the two interacted closely in a favorable manner concerning the welfare of the city that doesn't that cease to exist so who's at fault the citizens have a way of giving the answer by giving their evaluation of conso because they're in the best position to do that evaluation they see what's going on at Council meetings I've alluded to this in the past but I will now continue to present data to indicate the breakdown of this positive interaction between people behind me and people in front of me and thereby hope to educate the people behind me as to how to vote at the next next general election to assure that the city has that the people behind me have in front of them people who who think at the same level and promote the welfare of the city rather than being as an antagonists thank you Mr analex anyone else in the center as I scan from my left right yes in the very back hello Valerie ninan um first um this is kind of a matter of clarification and I I don't want to hear an answer now but perhaps after I have yielded my time um if it seemed relevant um I there's something that I found kind of puzzling about these meetings which is that in the past I have directly quoted council members in my comments and I have not been interrupted okay and I understand that we are to address the council chair or the council itself that to me makes it seem that you should be able to refer to individual council members in the third person still so I hear Harry you know more than once went to address a council member directly which I understand is not allowed but then he goes on to correct himself and start speaking in third person and he's still being interrupted and that's never happened to me when I spoke about an individual council member in the third person and I really think that's important because um like we know that the council is not one brain there there are some people on the council and we understand that you sometimes have disagreements and we can see that with our eyes and hear that with our ears so I feel that we should be able to speak about that with our lips um but uh going on um some other things I wanted to address are that I I have been participating in the recent demonstrations at Lehigh University I'm not a student um but I really appreciate the community that they' fostered there and these are great student organizers they have a lot to give us um and I just have to say really that the Lehi University students have been very circumspect in certain ways um and that is a legitimate tactic and I really love and appreciate all the work they've done the reporting on this in the media around here has been used in a way that I don't really like which is that these protests are so peaceful here at leehi University in Bethlehem um they are not really any more or less peaceful than any of the protests going on elsewhere they are using less disruptive tactics peaceful is about being nonviolent it doesn't have to do with d disruptive or not disruptive the students here have chosen less disruptive tactics um so I don't really appreciate that it's been used as a cudu against these other demonstrations across the country that we've been seeing um there's an NGO called the armed conflict location and event data project who has said that the student demonstrations over the past few weeks in the USA have been 99% peaceful and that's really in contrast to things that our president has said and to things that the media have been saying um characterizing them as violent where is the violence coming from it's the police guess what it's the police um and very occasionally counter protesters um and really what we're seeing is a Crackdown on First Amendment rights across the entire country um and that's something I hold very dear students as close by as Lafayette have been threatened by their Administration to not be able to graduate over a demonstration smaller by several degrees than the recent ones that we had this was it was not even 50 people it was I don't think it was even 20 people honestly and they were threatened not to graduate over it um I also heard in while I was at the UN University protests a student say she was willing to be arrested but she couldn't risk not graduating because she would be the first college graduate in her family so that's a little bit of context for maybe why the University students here have chosen to demonstrate the way they did it's because their first amendment rights are restricted and under threat thank you before I open up I I will take a moment to to address that because I think it is relevant what what the speaker had brought up as we and we've all been in this room now for for a few meetings and such I I will just reference my attempt up here why I don't mean to single anyone out and I always apologize if anyone feels that way uh I assure you to to anyone uh in attendance I have interrupted people before and that's simply my intention trying to keep these meetings within the boundaries of our counil rules which reference keeping all comments to City officials through the chair of council so we avoid getting outside those boundaries and to try to prevent and our Council rules note that not to extend any personal attacks uh or insults so I try to if I ever interrupt anyone is to try to keep things within those boundaries to address comments to the chair or Council as a whole I'll never say I'm a perfect referee up here but I did wish her these are Council rules and these are where my uh motivations come from is there anyone else in the center as I continue to to scan the room yes in the direct Center uh hello my name is um Abdul suad and I go to Penn State University I didn't actually plan on coming up here but after seeing my my friends and comrades speaking I just wanted they motivated me to speak too and one thing I really want to emphasize about the whole Palestine issue is how the universities are handling it as we can see like the strong and brave students in Columbia and other universities they're being threatened with violence and all these other crazy measures for their peaceful actions and I think it's really important for you guys to especially defend the students and make it sure that they feel at peace we're not asking for anything crazy we're literally just asking to stop a genocide and I think it's really important for you guys especially our local government to push for a ceasefire thank you thank you is there anyone else in the center as I go from my left to my right that wanted to make comment on anything not being voted on I turn to the right yes in the very front good evening everyone my name is Victor Perez I'm from 1956 Michael Street I'm a new resident here I been here like maybe two years and uh you probably seen my jacket and it says clergy Council I do have a clergy Council that I run and I'm the president in Brooklyn uh which consists of maybe 350 members and 150 pastors of all Faith you know I'm faith-based a bishop I love people I love all people and I tell you this because today I don't know why I'm here I told my wife why would I go to city council I'm already running one and I'm doing so much work I'm glad to meet the mayor for the first time but all in all I came here because there was a message in my heart and my heart's message was and I don't mean to be and it's very short I make it short I don't mean to be U religious but I want to say this in 1 Corinthians 13:13 it says that there's only three things that are left There's Hope and then we have faith sure I ask you to address Council please there's hope then we have faith and then we have love and I ask you the greatest one of all three is love so whatever we agree disagree on keep love in your heart there's no reason to get so upset that you want to hate people that might might feel the same way you the same way you feel yes that sometimes they can't express it there's a lot of different external factors that come in way but just keep loving your heart that's all I got to say I'm glad to be here for the first time I wish I really just wanted to listen I didn't want to say nothing but I know that when my wife told me to come here I kept asking myself why and the message was that I want everybody to remember just keep you know loving your heart above all things keep loving your heart when you don't get your ways there's a good way of doing things without violence without cursing at people without saying people are dumb or they they don't care we don't have to use that kind those kind of words please keep loving your heart thank you thank you Mr Perez is there anyone else to the far right who want to make comment yes hi my name is yira I too have been here for all but one city council meeting since February and I think for like the last one I didn't prepare a speech and I didn't very much prepare a speech today because like many people before me said it's like what what more can we tell you what more can we show you what more can we educate you on um I got here late because I have two beautiful babies that I have to take care of both of which I gave birth to in St Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem and as I got here for the first time in my life I think I was happy to not be able to find parking because I knew that it was because my comrades were here and so I gladly circled the block a couple times to look for parking but I don't want to be here we we shouldn't have to be here especially you know the people that have been here week after week talking at you because it's not like we're talking to you there's no dialogue there's no questions being answered you you guys don't address what we're telling you at the end of or any throughout the meeting at all it's not being addressed in meetings in the future on the contrary you're coming up with resolutions to shut us up I can't even put into words how sad how like there's no there's no words to describe the grief that is in my heart especially after seeing how all of the Palestinians were pushed to Rafa only now to get noticed to evacuate and less than five hours later be bombed if somebody told you to leave your house for no other reason then we're going to kill you four hours isn't even enough to get the basic necessities and they're being attacked and murdered and I'm so tired of seeing children's Limbs and body parts and guts and crying and I literally what more can we say conveniently all of these atrocities the the the biggest atrocities that happened happened during the biggest events in America happened during the Super Bowl um last night or whenever it happened during the Met Gala where celebrities flaunted their riches the me Gala ticket cost $75,000 to attend that could free that could save 15 Palestinians for a Palestinian to leave everything in this world is money right it cost them $5,000 to leave they are begging and pleading for their lives for donations for an escape and they have no choice but to endure everything that is happening to them during the Holocaust it was illegal to Harbor and assist Jews during slavery was illegal to Harbor and help free slaves during the Civil Rights Movement people were arrested for practicing their basic American rights just as they are now in Cross in colleges Across America this is I feel like I don't know the world that I'm living in anymore and quite frankly I don't even want to be a part of it if this is what democracy is is this what our justice system is if this is what it is I thank God for the Palestinian people opening my eyes because I am 35 years old and for the first time in my life I registered to vote and I exercise that right and I will continue to exercise that right despite the fact that I see the corruption that is going on and how we the people don't have a voice because at the end of the day you do whatever it is you want and it's the same evil on each side of the coin just this facade of a choice for us but it's the same evil that we have to deal with but little by little we're all waking up little by little I pray that we are all realizing what's happening and more people will educate themselves and more people will vote and more people will come out and more people will vote people like you out of your seats that are doing absolutely nothing because you should be ashamed of yourselves I don't know how you guys sleep at night knowing that you have the power to make a change and yet yet you sit there and choose not to your children will be ashamed your grandchildren will be ashamed of you you will be going down in history as people that could have and turn the Blind Eye not because you didn't know but because you chose to be ignorant thank you thank you was there anyone else to the right who wanted to make comment this evening is there so that I've scanned the r was there anyone who wanted to make comment who has not had a chance to yet we're going to move on to our second public comment so second public comment is for anything that is being voted on this evening I'll start with Ivy chromer good evening Ivy chromer um owner of Country Club brewing a small mic gring uh in South Bethlehem and uh we're just here tonight to ask the council's support in approving the lease to expand our property to allow outside seating for our customers to enjoy the greenway thank you thank you Miss Cromer next speaker is Carol Baylor Carol Baylor 1427 Calypso Avenue much has been said about the March 4th Bethlehem city council meeting as a result the city council has proposed to limit public comment to Residents and ta Andor taxpayers of Bethlehem I ask who do you want to exclude do you want to exclude our neighbors in Allentown and heler toown uh do you want to exclude Lehi or Moravian University students the students are surely temporary residents of Bethlehem plus every time they eat or shop locally they pay a sales tax the Bethlehem city council is apparently most concerned that much of the public comment at the March 4th meeting did not to their mind deal with issues but surely as you can hear this evening too but surely what weighs most heavily on the minds and hearts of our community is absolutely fit for public comment at a city council meeting I'm going to ask everyone to please hold your applause while people are speaking thank you and at present that is the genocide that is taking place in Gaza the students activism is inspiring they really feel that this is the moral issue of their time that there is a genocide going on that they cannot ignore numerous city councils across the country have passed ceasefire resolutions these councils have a more enlightened sense of what Ma of matters that concern the community than our Bethlehem city council now I urge you to vote no on the proposed Council work I believe it's D1 and aside uh that I just added when I was sitting here listening a woman earlier Miss mcul earlier made a passing reference to Jesus's birthplace which is Bethlehem and the occupied West Bank now this is our namesake City how much do we know about life in Bethlehem perhaps we should pursue a sister city relationship between Bethlehem Pennsylvania and Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Valerie Nunan hello I'm back um so this is the fourth time I've Speak I've spoken on some iteration of this resolution so first I'd like to ask please actually vote on the resolution this time I do not want to have to speak on this a fifth and a sixth time but I will I promise you if I have to um so if you didn't recognize it before I'm hoping you can recognize it now given recent events how this resolution curtails speech at the expense of order I need you to recognize that this is part of larger pattern over 2400 arrests at college campuses across the country that kind of unrest doesn't happen overnight nor does that kind of repression we don't live in a vacuum here and I'm not giving up even the slightest shadow of my free speech rights or anyone else's Free Speech rights in a country that is trying to get criticism of a foreign government classified as hate speech and you may wonder how is this a free speech violation I can admit that on technicalities um you have a pretty good argument against that oh technically non-residents can still speak just a few hours or maybe a few days or a week later than everone else separate is inherently unequal the timing aspect is blatantly preferential I've spoken on that at length before you've heard it what may be a bit more subtle is the Judgment the separation invites for different speakers if I have something valuable to say it will be valuable regardless of my address or my tax status likewise if what I have to say is useless it doesn't matter if I live and work in Bethlehem the council has gone decades without feeling the need to distinguish people in different groups like this and I'm not convinced of its utility now except to be discriminatory the ability to end and reschedule public comment at any time has so much potential for abuse and can even cause delays in and of itself resolutions that affect the rules of council don't only affect the currently sitting council members but also any council members in the future there thus they should be fairly warded against potential for abuse a council member theoretically could see a person or persons they dislike or have ideological opposition to and bring up a vote to end public comment for purely that reason in rescheduling they can choose any time up to the beginning of the next meeting to resume public comment and Edge out people who aren't able to make the rescheduled time rescheduled comment periods may also generate less media coverage or more divided media coverage than the initial meeting even just calling for an end to public comment requires the council to suspend all of their business to take a vote and there can be an abusive element in simply calling for a vote at an inopportune time or doing so multiple times in the same meeting there aren't any checks or balances on the powers granted by this resolution this whole thing started I believe with the commenter at the March 5th meeting who claimed he'd been writing down where commenters came from and claiming that most commenters weren't even from Bethlehem this person could not possibly have known that given that most people didn't even State their addresses nonetheless members of this Council have run with the classic trip of the outside agitator the fact is the people present at that meeting organized with one another deliberately finding shared interests with one another across the Lehi Valley interest to stand stronger together and the fact is the disruption that was caused was deliberately Breaking the Rules of Order already in place and this revised resolution still doesn't address what happened any more than the previous version and nor is it any more enforceable the fact is this resolution is reactionary at a time we can afford less than ever to be reactionary and the fact is as long as this resolution is built on this bogus idea of outside agitators it will always work in opposition to free speech uh since I have a little more time here's a little bit from the letter from Birmingham Jail um you may well ask why direct action why sit marches and so forth isn't negotiation a better path you are quite right in calling for neg negotiation indeed this is the very purpose of direct action Miss Nan that's we this is about anything being voted on this evening I I don't mean to interrupt you but now we're we're I will draw a connection here that this was all sparked by the March 5th meeting we chose direct action is that enough for you understood our next speaker Drew Swedberg thank you uh my name is Drew Swedberg I'm a documentary filmmaker Professor uh recently pay taxes uh through my work at Moravian be sharing my opinion tonight which does not represent the views of my employers I'm not comfortable sharing my address in a public recorded Forum but I'll say in a turn of events I'm actually considering renting here in Bethlehem so I look forward to seeing you all a lot more regardless of tonight's vote but this vote is what we are here to discuss tonight the resolution to amend the rules for public comment um that has been proposed tabled and now revised for your vote we want to be clear we do want you to vote tonight uh but our hope is that you vote no for this resolution upon careful inspection we should all read this resolution as irredeemable since it is consciously or unconsciously a political tool that chills free speech and dist stratification of Resident non-resident status and an even more troubling development how the addition of rule 3E allows for xenophobia and racism to potentially inform the decisions to suspend public comment as any of you can now gaze out at the room and decide when a crowd looks like it may disrupt public comment regardless of any of your personal views or biases this should be chilling as that rule carries the full weight of history in this country founded on land theft and violence against indigenous peoples built by enslaved labor and sustained by exploited labor and in the present prop profiting off of genocidal violence and resource exploitation globally all of our decisions are shaped by this regardless of whether we accept this as our reality we see this in how police are brutalizing our students who are visible about their support Palestine how our elected officials are criminalizing dissent that is largely coming from our most vulnerable communities and how our institutions are tripling down and surveillance and criminalization of employees the majority of whom are Muslim or Jewish if this sounds frightening to you then I invite you to project this logic into the future so we stand stare down the fascist possibilities of our country criminalizing any issue we care deeply about depending on where you are we've already arrived at this possibility what happens when it's no longer politically safe or beneficial for you to protect kids or their parents who are being criminalized in multiple States or abortion rights which are being stripped way before our very eyes or immigration rights which right now is disproportionately impacting Haitian and Central American refugees or environmental rights as we see Mutual Aid organizers charged with domestic terrorism and the struggle to stop cop City or if Bethlehem City police decides to brutalize students at Lehi will you gaze out at these crowds organiz in desperation around issues that have immediate implications and deny them the right to speak you may not think you would do that now but what happens if it's no longer safe for you to support us as is evident in the case of Palestine and let's not mistake and make any mistake about it we are here because of Palestine as Israel invades Rafa at this very moment we are here asking you to not silence or punish us for doing everything we can to make this local issue matter to you and for the hundredth time this is local something this resolution also wants to empower you to determine and police it is local because of the rise in hate crimes it is local because of the collective damage that dropping these bombs does to our shared planet is local because residents here have family members that are impacted you made it even more local when you committed to a ceasefire resolution and then reverse course and once again it is local because our labor right here in Bethlehem is generating the federal tax dollars that are directly funding the genocide in Gaza so this all makes me think of a question I overheard after the last meeting where someone asked one of us why we keep saying that there is blood on your hands something perhaps sounds damning or insulting something you might also like to prevent us from saying uh if it falls under the category of personal insult or attacks Mr sber you bring it back to the resolution please There It Is I've been sitting with this question and to that person I'd like to offer a res revision there is blood on all our hands our hands and bodies that generate the tax dollars that fund this genocide the better question is what are we going to do about it again we ask you to vote on this tonight tabling it would only make it more chilling than it already is as you hang this threat over our heads vote on it tonight and I implore you to vote no the stakes are too high and for everyone here tonight we ask you to turn your eyes to Rafa and to organize and dream for a free Palestine thank thank you Harry faor good even speak yet uh yeah so honestly everything everybody before me said was incredible and I can't say it any better so I'm not going to try to we are here today as a reaction we are being reactionary this is reaction to a resolution passed by a certain city council member who I shall not name I shall Point next to cianne that kitty city council ah come on I okay okay I'll concede I'll concede I apologize for making it clear who push forward this resolution but uh it one personally I think it's crazy that we have to address you as a mon you are a group of individuals with individual power each of you has an individual vote and individuals say it is a bit absurd that we have to address you as a monolith throwing that out there but this resolution what is it what is it set forth what precedent does it set it sets that you don't care about your constituents you will limit us our speech our public comment time if it goes against your donors your beliefs whatever you want to call it so with that precedent being said again I ask is that what you want is that what you intend I don't believe so and I I could hammer on about the same statistics and the same facts that the people behind me have said I'm not going you because I actually have faith that this absurd resolution is not going to be passed I know you guys at least I think I do a little bit a little better uh than I did when I first started coming I'm not going to hammer down and call you all a bunch of fascist and stuff not today I've done it a bunch before I'm not going to do it today I believe in my heart of hearts that you guys all know that this is an absurd resolution that by no means you don't even need to if you wanted to if you really wanted within the Sunshine Law you have the right to push forward or push back public comment on anything not being voted on already you already have that power you already can do it if you wanted to push public comment for things not being voted on today to the end of the meeting you could have done that that's within your right that's in the sunshine act city solicitor like you know that you can tell these these City Council Members like they know you know so one this resolution is absurd and second it doesn't do anything the only thing it sets to do is limit uh who can speak which is ridiculous we're an integrated Community are we not we're the Lehi Valley so realistically people who come and spend and participate in this community this society that we've built over Generations should be allowed to come and speak their mind on issues that are being voted on that affect them directly or indirectly like this is like it's I'm I'm not going to use all I planned on wasting the full five minutes I'm not going to do that out of respect because I know you guys know what's right you know that this is absurd I've spoken with a city council member I'm not going to address the name but come on like this is crazy this was a reaction we all know somebody got their feelings hurt because the truth was being told this is a reaction to that don't let it get any further don't table it have some guts put it down thank you favor our next speaker this evening Ben feler hi I'm Ben feler I'm a resident homeowner taxpayer voter of the city of Bethlehem I would like to express my support for this resolution limitting public comment of non City residents or taxpayers to items not on the agenda at the end of the meeting although I would have personally preferred the original resolution because it is not unreasonable to limit comment to City residents at City Council meetings I would also have supported limiting comment to three minutes as also occurs in most other cities as an awful lot can be said in three minutes I was at the meeting that sparked the need for this resolution as a city resident and taxpayer I had to wait 2 and a half hours before I was able to speak as City Council Members you all have day jobs and should not be expected to be present for five hourong meetings let me point out that such a resolution would have limited speakers on both sides of this and other contentious issues and would not limit the right of Lehi University or Moravian students to speak as most of them are residents of the city of Bethlehem the changes proposed here seem an obvious way to help streamline our City Council meetings so you can take care of crucial City business while at the same time allowing City residents the right to speak in a timely fashion thank you thank you Mr feler we will move on to Logan Shire hello everyone my name is Logan Shire and as I've said before I'm a resident of Lee heighten Pennsylvania but I'm excited to announce that soon I will be a resident of Bethlehem Pennsylvania so if you weren't already sick of hearing me you get to hear me more now so before I drove an hour to be here tonight my grandmother looked at me and she said to me she said you doing anything tonight and I saides of course she said what are you doing I saido A Bethlehem she said another city council meeting I saides of course she said they still haven't taken action and I saides of course why would they and she started laughing and unfortunately the whole people of Bethlehem weren't there behind us to also laugh with us because they know that we've been here here the last several meetings and nothing has really came out of it so earlier when Mr Kaku was speaking he brought a quote from a book he said you must speak the truth and condemn the devil now I'm not a religious person but when he said that it reminded me of a speech being spoken at elter just like this at the United Nations in 2006 by the former Venezuelan president the former late Venezuelan president he said this he said the devil is right at home the devil the Devil Himself is right in this house and the devil came here yesterday yesterday the devil came here right here and he gave a cross it smells of sulfur still today yesterday ladies and gentlemen from this rostrom the the president of the United States the gentleman to whom I refer to as the devil came here talking as if he owned the world truly as the owner of the world the speech reminded me that when I come here I feel as though the devil is with me even though I'm not a religious person I come here and I I I ask you elected officials that you act on a conflict which has killed 40,000 people Mr sh please bring this to the resolution my apologies I will I forgot about that but I'm urging you to vote H to vote and to vote no on resolution d10 which would limit the Free Speech rights uh like my rights to speak right now and I'll get to that so as I've said I'm not a resident of betham just yet so the idea that you guys would throw together this uh resolution um try and limit the speech of individuals who come here is concerning to me because I've been here myself and that would limit uh the things I've said and I don't think that me being for five years is five minutes rather is really all that harmful to anyone in this room I know the gentleman who was just speaking said something about you as elected officials have other jobs and you don't need to be here all night but I expect you as elected officials to be here as long as we uh need you to to address the issues of the people so I just come here again and I urge you to actually unlike what you did with the ceasefire resolution that you guys promised I actually want you to vote on this and I want you to vote no on d10 and uh I thank you for having me and I am excited to come be a part of more City Council meetings when I'm in here so thank you thank you our next speaker is Allison mckl hi everyone um a few people who have spoken today have reflected on the fact that they feel a divide between Council and themselves that they feel like they're not part of the community that sits on the deis um I don't share that I have a lot of uh close connections and have had um pretty deep conversations with a lot of you some in our homes um and so I I don't I I've intentionally built relationships with um people who are really committed to building a better Bethlehem and that was intentional when I first arrived I really wanted to be informed and involved in local politics and so I read the news when I first moved here and the big win that local the the city council was celebrating was transparency that that this was a new day for Bethlehem city council and that people were going to be able to feel like trustful of city council because we had new um expectations and guidelines and and policies around transparency and honestly I sort of thought like why would that even be a a win like why no one cares about local politics so like great job that there's a live feed on YouTube but uh I don't I don't really understand why that's a win and now finally people care and now there's this effort to clamp down on people caring I think it is frankly embarrassing to do this after you made a promise to the people you asked to be held accountable to uh to that promise you broke that promise and you got caught and people came with their righteous anger this is democracy as it's supposed to work and that is why City Council celebrated transparency when I arrived I would say that I'm sorry that you had to stay up late stay for some extra hours that you were made uncomfortable but I honestly don't think there's anything to be sorry for instead of taking the time to think about why people showed up and why they were so angry and exactly what you did to elicit that anger sitting with that discomfort as uncomfortable as it might be there is this embarrassing and childish resolution to to just allow you to just flip the sign to close at a council meeting and tell people to come back another time as if that is easy or likely or fair this will have a chilling effect on Free Speech in very specific ways there are workingclass people who rearrange their work schedules to be here there are people who rely on public transportation to be here who don't have cars it's not always easy to get here students I heard earlier that this wouldn't affect students but students travel to see their families or work during breaks in the academic calendar so if tell them to come back in a few weeks it is finals this week that's not happening it will have a chilling effect on non-native English speakers ability to speak it will have a chilling effect on firsttime attendees who are told to come back another time um it is difficult and confusing enough already to make the time to come here and to know how to comment and what to say and what is appropriate at what moment and when you can address individuals and when you cannot and when you can say names and when you cannot and when you have to talk about the resolution and how long it's been when you're no longer talking about the resolution there is a firsttime attendee here tonight also frequent attendees have specific questions about the sunshine Act and the regulations around commenting and the more barriers to commenting there are the less you will hear from the people that you are already least likely to hear from tone policing is nothing new using the idea of Civility as a means of repression and oppression is nothing new we have heard before the idea that we would believe survivors of rape if they just weren't so hysterical that civil rights would be more likely to move forward if it didn't make so many people uncomfortable in their aota shops that those with HIV and AIDS would get a lot further if they weren't blocking the entrance to pharmaceutical company offices that we would believe that police police violence is real if they weren't just kneeling during the national anthem or maybe police violence wouldn't happen at all if they just pulled up their pants or weren't wearing a hoodie those ideas are familiar and are precisely at the heart of resolution 10d which holds commenters hostage the council's ideas of disruption and civility breaking the system because it is working because you saw democracy and you didn't like it is crazy at a time when Washington State Republicans are making it an official part of their party platform that they oppose democracy it is astonishing and unbelievably shameful to see this in Bethlehem a city that Prides itself on diversity and inclusion I ask those of you who are sponsoring this resolution to recognize what a stain on your legacy and on the city of Bethlehem it would be to move this any further forward and I ask all of you to vote against it tonight thank you thank you our next speaker everybody our next Speaker John Irons uh good evening thank you for allowing uh public comment in the way that has been uh allowed in part of the council rules for for so long um I'm here to to uh ask you to vote and vote no on the resolution Chang ing uh the council rules and limiting public comment specifically for uh non-residents and non- taxpayers um everything that's been said prior to this stands and and I uh entirely agree with in terms of its chilling effects it's its place uh uh in this city and in this Council um and I'll also offer some just more procedural things I think that if there's no rule for higher ascertaining addresses or tax payments as without if you're not checking cards at the door or checking tax statements or receipts then there's really no mechanism to decide what makes someone a resident or non-resident um unless you're actively you know policing what people come up here on this the the the podium and say and if they do recite their address um you know there's there's no way to sort of to to make that decision so it's a meaningless rule uh if you can't actually decide and if there's any mechanisms that are put in place to actually determine tax status and Resident status prior to making comment then you're having the unintended fact of making public comment more difficult and chilling free speech um so I think just that doesn't make sense from a from a rule standpoint um I would also offer up excuse me that um if uh residents or non-residents were speaking on uh items that were on the agenda um and public common had been voted to be moved to a different time earlier in the meeting um then you would go forward with business on items that were on that agenda and prevent people from talking about items of that agenda unless the rule was amended to like kind of like cancel the meeting or move those specific items so you're just opening up a can of worms that just doesn't seem to to follow the resolution doesn't really make a lot of sense to me about why you do that um and it's it's clear that the only reason is to is is a reactionary one against uh you know the protest that happened here on March 5th um and you know the the the uh the disruption that happened and I really want to caution Us in this moment to look around I've been continually disappointed that our the the president our Senators our Representatives Mayors leaders all over are choosing to silence Free Speech choosing to put people in handcuffs put them in jail um to uh you know threaten them with their jobs to allow them to be doxed um to to allow all this to happen rather than to address and speak to the moment and and it it's it would be disappointing if it happened at this Council um so I I you know I really urge you to to take stock of what happened at that meeting and understand that that was democracy in action and that was a good thing and you should be happy to see that kind of energy and that kind of liveliness and commitment to principles in the city of Bethlehem and the reaction to that should be what can we do for you not how can we stop you from doing it so vote no on the resolution tonight thank you very much thank you Mr irons our last speaker who signed up Kelsey Weber I mean what else can I say right um so I actually have a speech prepared for this one um I will once again remind you of exactly why we're here and it's because we've been feeling like our free speech is being impeded on how many of us need to tell you this resolution being voted on tonight is wrong and emboldening racism xenophobia as well as islamophobia and anti-Semitism in your own Community the more you try to silence constituents how many of us have to continuously combat what you yourself claim to be neutral on in matters of legislation for you to realize that the people who come here truly care about this city I'm making clear the idea that all of us gathered here agree this resolution is an indirect attack on the freedom of speech and a tool that will be used to silence and discriminate groups of people who oppose the passing of important laws in a city that they wish to one day be able to say that they're proud of being born in or proud of living in how do you determine if the groups that will convene have matters that relate to City matters and important decisions that we deserve to have a say in as taxpayers right if you pass this law and decide to enforce this resolution causing us to be silenced by the last resource we have connections to for the betterment of our community you're sending a clear message the community and people gathered here tonight that you don't care what happens to them after they bravely and confidently speak their mind at this Podium and proceed to walk out the doors to travel back home mostly right here in the city by the way you don't care if they are targeted hated or condemned to a life of scrutiny and discrimination because you failed to protect them and you failed to let them speak you want us to worry about your laws and your issues Two Can Play That Game and trust us we're organized and informed and we are many just look at how we can organize look at how we can show our genuine concern when we come out here and we actually show you guys what we're doing right like we we really tell you we try to give you exactly word for word how we feel about everything the decisions you make right this is a city where we can't even honor the name of its origin and the land in which it hails from we are once again being silent so this comes as little to no surprise yet you wish us to keep fighting the good fight and become the next great leaders your words by the way think about that your decisions tonight will confirm or deny your stance in protecting all the people here who have the best interest in the city and its residents remember who has control of your positions come November I don't want to keep having to remind you this you guys like you know that we have the ability to to vote you out you won't protect us then why should we protect you vote no on the offensive resolution tonight and prove to us where you stand with us or against us because who protects us we protect us thank you thank you so that exhausts our list of everyone who had signed up for anything that we're voting on tonight so is there anyone on the left who want to speak I'll start in the front and again I'll remind everyone this is for anything that we're voting on this evening hi my name is Shala and I choose not to give my address but I am from the Lehigh County uh respected members of council we are here today we as in all of us as a voice for the people the people that reject City council's attempt to regulate public comment which has a chilling effect on Free Speech we the people the people of the surrounding areas make up the success of Bethlehem and are just as important as its residents and business owners our voices matter as we are the customers that come to your businesses we are the students that come to your universities and attend them we are the patrons of your festivities we are your YMCA members and we are the ones who have families in senior living homes we bring life to Bethlehem City just as much as its respected residents and business owners on May 15th Bethlehem will be hosting a public event in the city's opening doors uh uh opening doors community housing update and its initiative uh for affordable housing this is an opportunity uh for we the people of the Lehigh Valley combination to help its success however when we we see that city council members are attempting to regulate public comment this act this acts as a deter deterent away from Bethlehem City this is the chilling effect on free speech that promotes racism xenophobia islamophobia and anti-Semitism council members we should not be the ones to give you the opportunity to decide on what is and what is not relevant based on your own political views and biases council members you took an oath to represent to be the voice to amplify the issues and or ideas of all that make Bethlehem alive and thriving and that is all of us here regardless of our ZIP codes our voices are vital to the future of Bethlehem council members you are deciding this past this path that disrupts our rights and freedoms of speech because you were uncomfortable uh hearing our demands for a ceasefire in Gazza a humanitarian crisis a humanitarian issue you choose to avoid important issues that matter to your constituents and surrounding communities because you feel they are complex when they are not you took an oath to be just fair and unbiased to stand up for equality council members I say to you do not table this notion for revision vote no no to racism no to xenophobia no to islamophobia no to anti-Semitism by voting no you will be representing all the voices that care about Bethlehem and if you won't vote no then respectfully step down was there anyone else to the left who wanted to make comment in the very back row hello my name is Mark Browning resident of Bethlehem for quite a few years I graduated from aravan with my bachelor's and Masters and been involved in many different aspects in this community I'm here to talk about the proposed rule change regarding regarding public comment this rule change just seems like a way for council members to either tune out and fully ignore what their stakeholders have to say they're actually entirely unnecessary I for one I'm quite proud of my community to see the amount of people coming out to speak and be involved in local government and I think you should be as well um and I urge council members to listen to the people who voted you in part of your respon responsibility as an elected official is to listen to the voices of the people not to drown them out and provide opportunities for yourselves to ignore the voices what spurred this rules changed is obviously the council meeting in March and wishing to have options available for the council to avoid that in the future I must stress that in fact you do have options to avoid that which have already been used as noted in this very meeting's agenda section 7.1.1 a of the Sun act provides that if a council determines that there is not sufficient time for public comment at a meeting it may defer the public comment period to the next regular meeting or to a special meeting this is already in place and is an option available for you so there's no need to to to make this again or to change it you know um what is the point if this rules change the time of public comment for non-residents is will be moved to the end of the meeting so council members can easily tune that app or maybe even leave I'm not sure what the rules are on that because there is no official proceedings after this comment what other reason is there for this change the answer seems to be obvious to be able to uh close your ears to what the city stakeholders are saying the sole reason of this resolution is to attempt to mute the voices of the people there are very few if any times in history that decide of curtailing speech are looked back on with a positive light I think you can look in your knowledge of history and you could see that is the case I also ask what is the method for determining residency I've seen many people in this meeting State their addresses I applaud them for that but this invites possible danger to them it's has been quite common over the past few months uh during many of these protests specifically at college campuses for doxing to occur of um protesters that other members of community or just people on the internet uh disagree with their personal identities is are revealed their addresses are revealed online harassment is is bombarded towards them and even threats of violence um if you're if you're asking members of this community to uh reveal their addresses um this invites it just just seems like there's no reason for this to invite this possible type of uh type of actions um if there's no method of determining resy and what is even at the point of this but just to show your stakeholders just how little you care to listen to what they coming to you passionately about once again I urge you to vote no to this resolution I remind you of the founding principles of our country a free speech and the right to the people to peacefully assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances I hope you know where that quote is from thank you thank you was there anyone else to the left who want to make comment in the front row [Laughter] Jee all right my name is Jossie and I asking you to vote no on the resolution to make changes to public comment I'm actually appalled that at a time like this city council is finding ways to reprimand and discourage us from coming out in numbers and speaking out on any issue that we feel are important such as the genocide in Gaza because Council deems it more important to get through their agenda but I ask ask you is it really time for business as usual so forgive me for knowing that a genocide takes precedence over decisions such as fireworks and city permits street fairs and parking Wes forgive me for interrupting business as usual and wanting people to stop being brutally murdered with bombs that our country pays for or perhaps pass this resolution and condemn me for showing up to city council and having a moral compass and not remaining silent when almost 40,000 Palestinians have been shredded to Pieces because the people in power will do nothing more than cower you sit here and try to pass these resolutions to silence us rather than the resolutions that will solve these issues with us and to everyone in favor of limiting and suppressing public comment I say you're too full of privilege if you're not hungry for justice so I ask you to vote no on the proposed changes for city council and limiting public comment and instead I implore you to find ways to empower us and continue us and ask us to continue using this platform to speak on all issues that are important to our community without bias of the council was there anyone else to the left who want to make comment on anything we're voting on this evening yes hi um I'm Sam uh a few years ago I moved to the Lehigh Valley after college and I work in Bethlehem and I see myself staying here for the foreseeable future um one thing that has gotten me to feel this way about Bethlehem is the community that I have found among many of the other people that I've spoken today um so I'll get right into it um the resolution that would change the rules of public comment separating people who aren't residents into separate parts of public comment is convoluted it needlessly complicates the process as others have stated um Bethlehem affects plenty of people who happen to live outside the city limits um for example people who work in Bethlehem but may not live in the city are affected daily by its roads um people in various Burrows outside the city limits maybe on the same seers system um and the other part of this proposed resolution to change uh the rules of public comment um telling uh Council that or excuse me the ability of council to choose to end public comma and push it to a later date is extremely problematic as many others have stated very eloquently before me it could prevent some people from being able to speak to council if it is rescheduled for a time that they have prior obligations um some people have multiple jobs jobs children other responsibilities um and pushing comment off to a later date could prevent them from speaking which is definitely a chilling effect on their right to free speech um it creates a barrier and a huge potential for discrimination hypothetically council could choose to push public comment to a later date whenever they don't like the look of someone who comes up to speak so please vote no on this resolution that would change the rules of public comment um it's also a very worrying um part of the larger Trend um this historical moment when students around the country have been met with violence and many arrested for protesting a genocide carried out with our tax dollars with us weapons any threat to free speech such as this resolution cannot avoid being perceived as part of this larger trend of suppression the illusion of democracy is failing and this makes it more obvious you have you have free speech as long as you don't actually call out the atrocities committed by so-called leaders thank you is anyone else to the left who want to make comment on anything that we're voting on this evening turn to the Senate yes in the very back um hello my name is Quincy I spoke two City Council meetings ago I am not a resident of Bethlehem however I am a resident of Salsbury Township and my household has a water contract with the city of Bethlehem um I am here again under the exhortation of my parents who I live with to speak to you uh my mother is a school teacher and was too busy to be here tonight um vote no on this resolution tonight you will be um not only restricting the free speech of everybody here who um is speaking to you about issues extremely close to our hearts but you are restricting the ability of people like my household who pay you money um yet you waste our time by moving um if we had a similar issue to the people people who are experiencing giant water bills um if we had an issue like that we needed to speak to the Bethlehem city council about it you would waste our time by moving public comment to the very end of the meeting again vote no don't table this vote no tonight anyone else in the wide Center uh in the center right behind the lecturn right in the front row right behind the Le turn and then miss MC all right hello again again my name is Ana I'm going to start by saying something that I think is going to address this very well in case what we have been saying isn't clear we are not the kind of people who come here to say what you like we are going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not ACH said that he said that in the first person but I think all of my wonderful comrades here can say that we are here to tell you the truth I'm extremely disappointed in this cowardly and disgusting and bigot resolution because I distinctly remember in 2020 in 2021 and 2022 when we were discussing black lives matter women's rights and and gun rights and how we needed to have more gun control for schools that everybody was forward and we never saw resolutions coming to the table to say hey let's keep comments down we were hearing a lot of yes we are interested and we want to help out we want to be a part of the community this is absolutely no different just because it's International doesn't mean that we are not supposed to care understand that stifling the voices of the people is absolutely disgusting and goes against everything that we are supposed to believe in you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance you understand a Stars Spangled Banner how we're supposed to talk about democracy and freedom and yet you create a document like this that's absolutely dis disgusting saying hey you really shouldn't be able to speak because it's really just an inconvenience for me like oh my goodness 40,000 people being killed and bombed and millions of people being displaced is such an inconvenience for me to hear about so here's a res resolution saying hey you don't get to talk about it by the way let me make it very known many of us have jobs where we door knock to get people into the seats that you're sitting in and some of us door knock from Easton and from allent toown for all of the cities in the Lehigh Valley so if we door knocked you in we can door knock you out we have the power to do that understand that the seats that you are sitting in is a privilege the resolution the resolution I am discussing the resolution this resolution is to silence and I'm saying if you attempt to silence us we will silence you by removing you from those seats [Applause] I wasn't going to speak on this but I'm fed up with it I support this resolution I have lived in the city of Bethlehem I have been attending these meetings since a year ago February I want the city to respond to the issues that are important to this city that are relevant to this city someone at one of the prior meetings mentioned that 70 municipalities or cities across the country signed a a resolution a ceasefire resolution there are 2500 municipalities in Pennsylvania alone so 70 is a drop in the bucket and has no effect on the federal policies the resolution tries to put the city's Beth the city of bethlehem's agenda items first put the city first not extraneous ideas that are being here and for some of these to say that the pro the college protests were civil and not violent tell that to the janitor that was held hostage on Columbia University um I support the resolution because it will make the city better it will move the city's agendas forward and things can be resolved and if they most of this these people here they say that you're s you'll be stifling Free Speech they're all on their phones they all have internet they can all email you their suggestions and their comments they don't have to be here in person to do that you have emails available they have internet they're probably more Savvy with tech than a lot of us so I support this resolution so that the city of Bethlehem can do its due diligence at the job that you were elected to do which is to do the the workings of the city thank you thank you I will I'm going to ask everyone be respectful of all of our speakers please um Mr analex and then I'll continue from left to right or right to left Stephen antex 737 Ridge when you've wandered the face of the Earth as long as I have one thing you gain is common sense and let's apply common sense to this controversial resolution if a person from Allen Town has a problem with a parking ticket they won't come to Bethlehem to resolve it if a person from Easton has has a problem with the traffic at City Center Circle they won't come to Bethlehem to resolve it so why would a nonresident wish to come to Bethlehem if they have a [Music] problem very simple it involves the city of Bethlehem but if their complaint is legitimate and productive the city will earn something so if that person if this resolution is passed and that person who wishes to help the city of Bethlehem comes here they know they were breaking the rule or the ordinance so they may may not come because they don't want to break the law this goes beyond a no-brainer this is common sense and I've seen quite a few when you're my age and you've been around that long and I've been around a long long time and you've seen council members over the years and you unconsciously evaluate them as to their contribution to the city the council that comes to my mind is the one headed by my Michael Scher which also included Jay Leon who's now a federal judge this resolution would not be remotely remotely enter to their minds because it not only defies common sense but it borders on the laws of absurdity why why absurd how can it be [Music] enforced police at the doors checking ID or forcing people to lie come on thank you Mr analex here in the front row in the center and then in the middle row in the CER okay hi everyone um I'm not a resident of Bethlehem but I have worked in Bethlehem for the past two years my name is Hannah and I was born in Palestine so like the lady with the deer comment earlier um I'm going to vote against the res solution because I don't think that limiting free speech is you know good and it's going to benefit anyone but um it's a major reasons why democracy works and then it allows people to you know hear new ideas Express their own opinions and call attention to issues that concern them I didn't plan on speaking today but I think like Harry when I work two jobs um finding time to come to the city council meetings and not getting 100% of everyone's attention is especially with the Marin not being here it's very interesting so I just want want to say vote no on the resolution um and hopefully if I have off every Tuesday going forward I'll be here for more meetings thank [Applause] you Mr sh you'll be next good evening my name is Father John Stratton I'm the dean of the Cathedral Church in the Nativity right here in Bethlehem and I am uh respectfully asking you to vote no on this resolution um I realize that you don't want to be here all night you want to get back to your families I get that you want to get to the work that is in front of you um I would argue though that the voice of the people is the work of the council um and the voice of the people is also the agenda of the city um I I think it's it's somewhat obvious that this resolution is a reaction to what happened on March the 5th um and what happened on March the 5th was democracy and action it was folks who were exercising their freedom of speech and letting their voices be heard and I believe that the response to that should be finding ways that we can listen more deeply finding ways that we can make it so that everyone has a voice and everyone's voice is heard not limiting speech not trying to control speech and as I'm sitting here I'm reminded also looking around that a lot of the folks maybe even a majority of the folks who spoke on March 5th and and even who spoke against this resolution today are youth it's a voice of the youth youth are practicing democracy they're participating in the Democratic process and I'm reminded of something that Jesus said and I promise it is related to the resolution I remind of something that Jesus said when he was in Jerusalem and the youth were causing just a little bit too much noise or at least a little bit too much noise for the folks who were in power and they wanted to silence the youth and Jesus said if you silence the youth even The Rock will cry out so I ask you tonight that you will please vote no on this resolution please do not silence the voice of the youth thank you thank you [Applause] Mr I don't know where to start Bill Shire um I hope I've made it clear that I'm supportive of the cause of these protesters uh I think their methods needed a little work as I said to uh one of their before the meeting tonight when you make extreme statements people stop listening so please I would like to advise you with four words Martin Luther King Jr he was very effective study him adopt his methods uh council tonight or has has been implied that the council is arrogant cowardly racist corrupt bigoted that I I'm I'm pleading with these folks please stop you're only hurting yourselves as for the resolution I have mixed feelings still one of the better ideas to come out of all this chaos is only been mentioned twice but I think it's a good idea at least for temporary procedures have comments on anything not to be voted on at a special meeting uh maybe the third Tuesday no I'm sorry the second even though it conflicts with another group I belong to um and then anybody could talk about anything and I think that's one of the purposes of courtesy of the floor is a community Forum if you will and I think that's one of the very important purposes of it but it cannot supered the necessary business of the city we've got to have a city government otherwise we have chaos in the city if certain things don't get done so let's separate the two not try to have mingle them in some acceptable combination let's let's try a one evening a month open Forum Bethlehem city council and I think that would help as for the particular resolutions I understand you're going to take the resolution off the table and modify it according to some new amendments um I have two other amendments that I would add to it to broaden it but that would be illegal because it's goes beyond the scope that has been advertised that would violate not only state law but the rules of the council and by the way folks the reason that there are Council rules and every party I I would venture to say that every deliberative body in the world has rules of procedure and the reason is to get stuff done because if you don't get stuff done it doesn't get done thank you thank you Mr sh [Music] yes regarding the public comment Harry coer sorry Bethlehem regarding the public comment resolution I don't know which way I stand on that because I like my five minutes when I have something to say but on the other hand it's 9:15 and we still haven't gotten past public comment thank you is there anyone else in the center down [Music] here my name is Muhammad Kaku and uh I want everybody be on the council to v no for the resolution but I want to say you know when I came in the videos were not on it was not recorded but I was trying to give the gifts and the speeches and the papers to the council members and I was restricted for my free speech from one of your member and the solicitor general there or solicitor saw the incident and one of the council members was very rude I hope the video is there and all I was giving is the booklet najul Baga there there are two booklets on your table no wait let me finish this is freedom of my speech and this is so one of the council member has was already restricting me to give him the gift and my papers the Press took it the solicitor took it but one of the council member rejected it because I don't know what maybe my uh blog but you cannot rest and you cannot be biased on this free freedom of speech you you can see and you know uh the and everybody has called here spade for spade and they eloquently said but I see that I don't need an apology all I need him to step her to step down that's all I need because that was not right absolutely and if it was recorded that's really bad image on your page you are restricting freedom of speech Mr kku please bring your comments to the resolution that inent I'll address after the meeting you have to address it I don't need an apology I need her to step down but she was very rude and my witness is there solicited General and I want you to vote please vote no for this resolution thank you very much thank is there anyone else in the center who wants to make comment on anything we're voting on this evening I turn to the right is there anyone to the right who wanted to make comment on anything we're voting on this evening I'll start in the very front row first and then or our way up to the backround hello my name is Rya I live at 371 Park Avenue in Bethlehem um I want you to vote Yes on this resolution if you truly believe in it because as a Bethlehem voter I want to know who is restricting our free speech so I know how to vote moving forward because my my parents have taught me actions speak louder than words and we heard a lot of words the past few weeks a lot of promises the past few months and one thing that I'm grateful for there are multiple things that I'm grateful for in this movement but one of the best things that this movement has done for us is expose those who use their words to influence us to vote for them because now it's a lot harder to hide this resolution restricts freedom of speech it's very clear and it's very obvious this resolution has also um well hang on let me backtrack um I don't need to be I I was born with common sense I don't need to wait until I'm a lot older to get it so there was a a lot of things that we've noticed the past few weeks in terms of this resolution one of those things being is one of the council members kept saying the word citizen I want to make sure that citizens are speaking that to me was highly concerning because what is that imply that said a lot that one sentence I heard it other people heard it we all discussed it we were like that that was really strange this resolution allows for biases and um undercover racists to decide who gets to speak and who doesn't and I don't know about you I'm all about moving forward not moving backward we've been trying to get this country past the point of racism because you know we're these people we're these brown people that are coming up to here to speak and making specific people very uncomfortable um and we're not going anywhere these people are the voters these people are the people that are going to be making sure that there are people in seats that actually care about the people that are actually going to care about the youth that are actually going to put resolutions forward that are going to change the city because we love this city I'm not going anywhere I know none of these people are going anywhere that's it that's all I have to say thank you hello my name is Lauren Gilmore um I'm not going to take too much time because a lot of this I'll be reiterating um but I am in the category of residents and taxpayers of Bethlehem and I'm here to urge you to vote no on the resolution that will amend public comment um this resolution comes as a direct response to community members using this space to urge city council to break its silence on the ongoing us funded humanitarian crisis in Gaza an issue which as others have noted have noted has been taken up by local governments across the country so this resolution really cannot be separated from these efforts and indeed it is being read by engaged and reasonable community members as an act of retaliation against those Pursuits um but beyond this specific context there are another number of other resour so I'd urge you to vote no um I'm going to address Point number one in the um resolution first which is an amendment to rule 3A um I've been in the Lehigh Valley for just over two and a half years now um I plan to be here for years after that um and I think one of the unique strengths of this area is the way that Allentown Bethlehem Easton and other townships and buroughs interact with one another um I consider community members from the Greater Lehigh Valley region to be my neighbors and I'm deeply troubled that this schedule ual would impose an unnecessary hierarchy on the community um pushing non-residents comments on non-agenda items to the very end of the meeting um decreases their likelihood of being heard on important matters um I also don't see how this rule will be enforced without verifying every individual speaker's address something that is both impractical and opens community members up to doxing and harassment um to that end I'm going to jump ahead to point three which is an addition to rule 3E that would allow city council to defer public comment period to the next regular meeting or to a special meeting occurring in advance of the next regular meeting um I believe that the goal of a public forum like this should be to make Civic engagement as accessible as possible um this amendment will instead add unnecessary unnecessary challenge um speakers in this public comment like yourselves wear many hats some work multiple jobs some are caretakers for children or Elders some are balancing school workk with other commitments if a Community member makes the necessary adjustments to their schedule to attend a meeting they should be heard at that meeting they should not be rescheduled to another time um um I'm going to now move to point two which is an amendment to rule 3D um I believe that the current language of rule 3D that quote public comment will not be extended for personal insults or personal attacks on any individual name calling um that sort of thing I believe that is sufficient for ensuring the safety of these meetings and for to prevent harassment of council members adding to this that public comment will not be extended for personal criticism unrelated to City business um nor for disruptive behavior that interferes with Administration and progress of a public meeting um infringes on public commenters First Amendment rights um it's unclear how it will be determined whether criticism is related to City business and how that will be defined um does City business include the deepest moral and ethical convictions of its community members as we have seen broached here at previous meetings I believe that it should and I fear that the new rule will have a chilling effect on Free Speech in this forum as it is unclear how the terms within it will be defined and how its rules will be enforced um for all these reasons I urge you to vote no on this amendment and to continue to uphold your role as a platform for open Community discourse doing so what may well be inconvenient and produce discomfort at times but this is the role of a healthy local government with an Engaged public thank you thank you anyone else in the center or to the far right hi um again my name is yoshira I am a resident of the Lehi Valley I lived in Bethlehem for many years again I'm going to say that I birthed both of my children in Bethlehem St Luke's hospital um the remains of my first stillborn child ashes are scattered in the rose bush that you guys so lovingly um talked about at the last meeting that I was in I frequent many restaurants here in Bethlehem I pay the parking meters I attend the festivals that you guys hold and I work in the city of Bethlehem so would this resolution limit me am I not consider Ed a citizen of the Lehigh Valley someone who is worthy to come up here and speak about the issues in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas this resolution is a farce it is a slap to our faces we ask for a resolution and instead after promising us a specific resolution you decide to try to shut us up by proposing this resolution and then the Amendments that are even more ludicrous than the original resolution it is an it it impedes our freedom of speech it enables not what somebody said covered it enables blatant racism as you can look into the crowd you want to address the crowd for disrespecting me and maybe tell them to shut up or you just do that for specific people you know I'm not tell I want to shut up but I will remind everyone to be respectful thank you I appreciate that you can look out into the crowd and determine who is worthy of standing at this Podium when someone before me said that it is a nerve-wrecking thing to come up here and to speak and to know when to speak and to know how to read what is going to be on the agenda tonight thankfully again to the Palestinian people that have educated us I now have the ability to come up here and speak a lot more boldly than I did the first second third or even the fourth time that I've been up here I implore you to listen to your conscience and vote no and I know that this is like a far-fetched thing to ask you guys because anytime the last couple meetings that I've been here since February every time a resolution or anytime something is being voted on it is like a unanimous yes like you've all discussed this prior to the meeting and you're like we're gonna need to show a united front except when you're attacking each other um so again be United and even the person that presented this ludicrous resolution vote no vote no for your own resolution because it's just common sense thank you is there anyone else to the right who wanted to make comment on anything we're voting on this evening then that adjourns our second public comment we're going to move on with tonight's agenda any old business from members of council seeing none any new business from members of council Mr Callan I just want to want to thank everybody for coming out again um we're listening to you I know you think we're not but we are we have to sit here willingly this is something we chose to do I don't mind sitting here all night long I'm here I'm retired I can sleeping all day tomorrow I'm a little bit more sympathetic to some of the people up here as far as staying here till 12:30 1 o'clock in the morning on a regular basis I get it this is an important issue and I I think if those of you that were here on the first meeting I was the when it suggested the resolution and I didn't want it to go to a second the next meeting because I thought I think my term was my verbiage was would get watered down think that's what I said so what I will do and I hope this we can move forward on this because we do have um you know a long list of items we have three pages of City issues that we we really do have to get get to at some point and having meetings um um taken over at the end I know you don't look at it that way but we had to stop a meeting because um it was out of control we could you know the the the president had hammered down asked for quiet didn't happen so um you know Polie ask us hey stop the meeting that can't happen I totally support anybody's right to protest at any time peacefully anytime um so I support the right to peacefully protest without the vandalizing or destruction of of of property I think we can all agree on that I think Martin Luther King would agree on that I support the right of any country to defend themselves whether it's United States after 911 Israel after October or if any other country was attacked they have the right to defend themselves but I do agree with President Biden's comments probably about a month ago where he said he thought the response was now over the top um I personally support what this does in the world is nothing what this does on the whole conflict will be nothing but I personally support and ask our federal Congressional senatorial and presidential leaders to push for a mutual Mutual immediate ceasefire in Gaza along with the immediate return of all hostages plain and simple whether or not that is is helpful to you I don't know but I'm hoping that we can start moving on to I I have some serious issues five6 serious issues that I want to address with this Administration and I've wanted to since I came on Council in January we I haven't had the time because some of the things I'm going to bring up are going to take some time and I don't feel like keeping here everybody here till 2 o'clock in the morning when we're already here till 12:31 o'clock in the morning so again I had some these things these five or six items that I've been waiting for a short meeting to come along where I can address these with the mayor but I can't and I it doesn't look like we're we're going to it tonight either so I appreciate all of you coming out I said what I had to say I I hope it helps you out and knowing where I stand I think I'm not speaking for anybody else on Council but I think we can all agree that you know what's going on over there is is is uh it's atrocious there's innocent people dying you know on both sides so that's all I got to say and I I I appreciate all of you coming out and being as passionate as you are and um is Harry still here I'd like to you know I I like you dude you got it you got you're you're you're very smart um and you're very passionate and I think i' uh at some time I'd like to sit down and talk to you about some things Mr Callan can you bring it back to not a one-one conversation right now with the m of the audience I'm talk I'm so um so any anyways I I would appreciate someday doing a a President Obama and sitting down and having a beer with you so I don't know if that helps you out or not either but thank youate any other new business for members of council before we move on councilwoman quch thank you um this was mentioned earlier but I do want to um reiterate that uh there will be a community meeting about alley houses and accessory dwelling units um it's tomorrow night at nman library at 6:30 p.m. be a great opportunity for uh residents who are interested in learning more about uh the pil project uh that's happening right now that did get some zoning variances as Mr sh noted in his public comment um there will be people there who can answer questions and uh give you the Straight Dope on that um I just I want to say um that uh not to address you again but hi um I I uh I just want to say that in the uh two and a half years years that I've been on city council um we've had uh numerous uh thick thick thick packets you know and um I make it my business to read thoroughly every single piece of paper that comes in the packet I take notes on them so that I can ask questions of the members of the administration as the members of the administration will um you know uh agree with um and uh and I I see that very much as a huge part of our job and I don't expect the residents to actually come here and know as much as we know I mean it's just not possible when I was not on Council I certainly did not know as much um you know I found out a couple of days before that they were going to defund the pools this was like I don't even know now eight 10 years ago or something and you know immediately I'm on Facebook getting people together like we've got to go save the pools and and honestly I think we kind of did um but uh I didn't know anything about that and I think that might have been the first maybe the second time I spoke in front of council and it was nerve-wracking absolutely um so I just I I want to say um and knowing the people on Council um as I do I know that uh uh you know the ones that I know the best um do the same thing they're asking questions throughout the week of the administration uh asking to talk to learn more about the issues that that are before us uh and things that um that I think it's important for the residents to know um I will bring those up even if I know the answer so that um we can talk about it in this public forum and and get that information out so I just want to um kind of reinforce that um I mean I spoke about this at the first meeting so you know I um I haven't changed my view on um the situation obviously I still feel as strongly about it as I did then um and uh I uh this is going to sound corny and strange I'm sorry but this came to me um earlier today when I was on my pelaton bike I know that sounds very bougie I'm sorry um I was on my pelaton bike and I was uh listening to I was doing a David Bowie cool down and um thinking about tonight's meeting and knowing sort of what we were going to hear and and all of that um and um and the words that that he spoke that I've heard probably thousands of times before I just wanted to share them again tonight and these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations they're quite aware of what they're going through turn and face the strange changes don't tell them to grow up and out of it so I just wanted to share that and um and also uh with regard to housing um you know there's there's so much going back and forth I really do encourage people even if you just Google opening doors Bethlehem City you will find the opening doors report it's so important to get your facts straight on this there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation going around this is a multi- multi-year multi-step process has a lot of moving parts that folks should be aware nothing is happening at the speed of light so I think that's very important um and uh some of the things that I've heard and the emails I've received from residents um around like the Eastern Gateway project was announced a few weeks ago I got an email from a resident sort of saying oh good see then you don't need to build affordable housing anywhere else and um you know to say well we don't need alley houses we can build in Northampton Heights you know well Northampton Heights is private property it's uh got huge needs for zoning variances and all the same things that go along with building pretty much anywhere that isn't just you know where you can do it by right so it is a very complicated issue um there are a lot of people well-intentioned people trying to um address these issues of affordability um in just availability and of course um how it results in people being unsheltered so I just wanted to put in a plug for folks being informed residents about that um and taking a look at least start on like page 70 if you can't read all of there's a lot a lot of data in the beginning that's where the recommendations are and that's what the recommendations are they're in there so please read it thanks any other new business for members of council councilwoman L and then sque excuse me m will home afterwards uh okay so uh one thing that um had come up a few meetings ago when we passed the Parks and Recreation budget uh including the pool rates for this year was um some conversation about making sure that pools remained accessible for those who are most affected by the heat particularly our lower income families and um making sure that they have means of access to this city resource so um I met with several members of the administration and we received uh all of council should have received this I'm just going to highlight bullet points for the the public good um there are several existing relationships that I know I was not aware of um there's Partnerships with the Beth Mary School District uh using brcko middle school for winter basketball and in exchange those students um in the mind and body program are able to access Y yasco pool um that benefited 50 students each time last year Boys and Girls Club um has Presence at yasco Park and uh can swim predominantly um during that time um Southside tomorrow's summer basketball program also has access and then in partnership with basd and St Luke's health network uh as part of Fit for Life which is comprised of students in lower so socioeconomic backgrounds in fourth through sixth grade districtwide they come eight times throughout the summer um there are some new initiatives though and one of them was just announced on the betham mar School District social media that um there are actually pool passes now in the hands of our community school coordinators to give direct access to families uh who they've identified through their programs as being in additional need uh of pool access in the summer so that's a really good way to use some existing um systems to get people access to these City resources um so that's all on the pools the other thing was a question um a couple people have mentioned tonight Friendship Park and the incident there um and that's a neighborhood that you know has a lot of revitalization efforts going on right now Friendship Park itself is being uh redone within the next few months I believe the work will begin and has really become a community center for North Side alive so I didn't know if there was any information that could be shared I understand understand that there may not be if there's investigations and I also was wondering about camera at the I've seen a camera at the park but I wasn't sure what the status of the camera is or things like that yes absolutely so it it was an isolated incident it was not a random act of violence it was domestic in nature um not that that makes it any more uh you know acceptable but um it it was not random and there is cameras in that area um that are aiding us in our investigation okay thank you what was the stabbing and the shooting linked Mr Callahan Miss Miss has the Flor understand but miss L has the floor I'll go back around again though to everybody I just want to ask why she was there sorry my apologies I believe the mayor had something in response to my question now I was just gonna add to the question I know people have had that question one thing um that you know we avoid necessarily talking about a lot is um crime data that if we showed what the numbers are um and you know I told you and Mr vilia is no longer here but I had it around here somewhere um that uh you know we've had 13,293 uh year-to-date reported crimes in the city of bethon which obviously seems like a large number um but last year at this time we had 14384 so it's actually an 8% decrease and part of the reason why we don't talk about those numbers is because it's not necessarily a fair perception because every crime is obviously important um and one thing that I have learned in this job as I get the copies the police reports and things like that is that every day there are uh domestic issues there are issues of addiction that go from our richest neighborhoods to our poorest neighborhoods and I think it's really important when we raise conversations that we do a couple of things and one is understand um that obviously all of the work that our police do but that every situation is obviously important and we are the safest city in Pennsylvania those numbers continue to decrease year after year Mr vigilo mentioned them before but we don't talk about that because that's not something that we think is necessarily the way we want to have the conversation the way we want to have the conversation is when we talk about things like we build Bethlehem and the fact that we're investing in Recreation and mental health and after school programs and things like that to be able to get at the root causes um and I just I think that it's absolutely we can answer any questions about it but I just wanted to say because occasionally this does come up and people will say and Miss lar this obviously is not directed at you at all but sometimes people say like I saw this in the newspaper and what happened and then we say well we arrested the person and people feel better which they should because we have a fantastic police department but I think it's a much more holistic conversation when we talk about any of these issues isues is how they fit into and they tend to um and I know you know we work very closely on North Side alive but I think it's important the context by which we talk about these issues that there are domestic issues There's issues of addiction There's issues with guns um that transcend all of our neighborhoods and I I think it's an important statement to be able to to be able to make that I will make again in the future if these issues come up um and you know I get a bit frustrated as well when they come up and there the questions are asked and then we also I mean our police officers are working day in and day out to try to arrest individuals and bring these things to a head um sometimes things happen when people are driving through bet whatever it might be and just the talk of when these things first happen and either the no perspective or the no investment that the city and School District everybody else are working on to be able to give people the security and things that they need growing up I think becomes a little bit of an unfair perception that that occurs around individual incidents and um I I just thought it I thought it need to be said but absolutely any questions you or Mr C or anybody else has we certainly can answer thank you Miss wihelm and then I will work back over yes quickly I wanted to Circle back to councilwoman qu's comments and not I can't supplement them I can only second them which I do but just one point of clarification for anyone who was taking notes the alley house you said Wednesday the alley house meeting is Thursday May 9th so I didn't want anyone to show up at nman sorry to learn about the alley houses tomorrow night just wanted to make sure everybody knew that so it is worth your time to to learn about that important uh strategy within the opening doors um plan Thursday May 9th at nman you're welcome at 6 o'clock um 6:30 at 6:30 6:30 that I that I know thank you councilwoman Leo um I have some some thank yous to give within the administration um last week there was a housing meeting conducted at Cathedral Church in the Nativity so if uh Father John is here thank you for that as well um you guys provided in partnership with Community Action a lot of information regarding all the housing programs that exist um and as such I've been able to have some walkthroughs with community members in that area uh to redress some of their concerns to which I also owe a thanks to Mike alol and the public works department for the laundry list of things that uh is in your inbox and your proactive of uh your proactive work in that so thank you very much for that um uh to Friendship Park I have made connections with certain people in that community that have asked for a public safety uh get together specifically in that community so not a they do not want to do a town hall meeting they want to have like a more Community Center meeting I know we touched Bas on that um so I look forward to that and we'll keep Council informed if they want to be part of any of those conversations as long as we don't break Sunshine um also I have a community well not me personally I'm going to be there but Community Action House of community cleanup this Saturday at lynfield Community Center um if you guys want to hang out with me and pick up some trash that'd be great it's from 10: to 12 at uh lynfield Community Center and I just wanted to say I was uh I wasn't around for a lot of conversations that have led up to this uh specific moment um I apologize for that I have a compromised immune system and got very ill uh and not to pull the conversation back in that direction but it it really is a privilege um and an honor to serve Bethlehem and it is no less a privilege and an honor even when things get dicey and I hope you always feel safe to come into Council and say what you need to say because it's a privilege and an honor to hear you and to see you and to sit in the pain that you feel that's all I have thank you any other new business Mr helan yeah I I have two uh quick quick things um mayor Ry is it possible as Mr vilo said just to um put the the opening doors um um link up front somewhere on the website so people because I went in and looked I I found it in an email and that we got but I went into the website I could not find it either so I I mean we can certainly took a look at take a look at that it's under Community Economic Development housing um as far as like the the link there under the Departments it's also under webuild Bethlehem um but you know it's absolutely something something that we can you know we want as many people reading that as possible so absolutely thank you um chief chief cot I didn't mean to interrupt there but so was the shooting and the stabbing was that it was related it was related yes all right thank you and then um last things um Miss uh quch had said that the timeline for the opening doors wasn't being rushed but I just have a quick question this so under the implementation timeline there's where it says uh strategy one uh update zoning and land use to encourage a variety of housing types and infield development there's uh there's a two-year Square on that has that change or is it still a two-year well as as as we've said I don't know if you've had a chance to read opening doors yet or not um but as we've said everything in there is just a recommendation and the process that was that went through between the 3,500 people that participated in the survey and so on and so forth came forward recommendations one of the things that we've been clear about that we're going to talk about next W Wednesday I guess that is is that what it is Wednesday is that there are some of those recommendations in there that we got started working on right away Choice neighborhoods being one of them the acquisition of the property for Gateway and fourth the Adu I know we call it the pilot program but we have a couple hundred adus already in Bethlehem so it's kind of like the 2011 you eviction prevention so some of those have been ones that we started working on right away as we have said as far as zoning is concerned like that process as I think I said when we brought this up before is like when miss heler and the city had gone through that process in 2008 2009 it took four or five years to to be able to do the research so that implementation period that research like that has not started yet and that's a point that we have made clear to anybody that's asked because there is a lot of questions about what that would look like to me necessarily what is the value of that or not so if people look at that and they say like oh it's implementation is two years like I can tell you that there has been no work that's been done on it because Miss tulo and Miss Collins and Miss heler have been working on other particular strategies what that process would look like and this is something that we have shared with a lot of people and one of the good things that's happened and I think Miss quch had mentioned this as well is you know we've had a lot of sitd downs a lot of conversations with people that originally thought things were one thing and then once we had the conversation with them they're like oh we we understand much better now what that looks like so that would be like a research that somebody within City Hall would do to see about whether or not there's options on that or not if you look at any housing plan Across America one of the first things they're going to do is say like look at land use like how are you using your land that doesn't necessarily mean at the end of the day that that's something that becomes like a good strategy or something that you want to do it doesn't mean that we're going to look at it and say you know we're going to go from allowing this here to allowing this year and once again as you probably know that's nothing that we're even able to do all because it's Council that ends up voting on any type of zoning changes as well so you're talking about internal research then you're talking about Community meetings where you're Gathering feedback where you're having other conversations and then the decision is made about whether or not to even come forward with starting that process about public hearings and things like that I can tell you that that process has not started and I also can tell you that I don't know when that process is going to start but also the opening doors meetings those quarterly ones that we're having is partly about sharing when we are working on different things so what we're going to talk about next Wednesday are those strategies that we have taken a look at all of which have been in the paper extensively the choice neighborhoods to redo marvine Penbrook um the Adu pilot program the 2001st Adu the working on the Gateway and fourth the deal that we were able to strike with lvip and eviction prevention stuff that we were working with with new Bethany those are the strategies out of those 10 kind of main strategies in there that we are look at but what is in there and what is in opening doors is a community collection process as far as recommendations are concerned but I could tell you and something else I've said publicly is like there's not everything in there that I necessarily think is a good idea or things that I think are worth our time because there's limited amount of people to do the work and that's a process though that like we weren't going to go through the process and then say let's take this out let's take this out let's take this out or let's put those years here let's put those years there that wouldn't necessarily be fair to all the people that went and were did the work so those are going to continue to be Community conversations but as far as your question as far as the implementation and things like that nothing has been started yet and I don't know when it would be started but I can tell you that we would be very honest because people are obviously very interested in that um and my personal opinion is without doing the research one of the challenges and we've talked about this and this is why with all due respect Miss C crech I think it's important to read all 100 Pages because one of the things it talks about is one of the challenges we have is a lack of land so with a lack of land some of those strategies don't necessarily make as much sense as if you had a lot of land available um so that's not necessarily something that we are looking to take on in the near future um with these other things that we are working on and are being very open about working on I I I think that you can appreciate that the uh the zoning is is probably the hot button issue I mean that's what I'm here I don't I I know some people have talked to you that have told me they talked to you about it and you said you understood and you know we're looking at I get it have we looked at any land betham City owned land that we currently have we own already that's being either not used or underused uh that's honestly that's not something that we have necessarily that that we've necessarily looked at I mean I I don't you know read Darlene's email or I don't look up her Google searches but I that's not that's not a conversation that we have necessarily had yet other than obviously the Housing Authority land which is owned by the Housing Authority so that's kind of like quasi and and the um the other thing was I I would just highly encourage that the uh your community Economic Development Department that they go out and have uh people in Mana uh edgeboro Rosemont have asked me that they don't want to have I guess they were I don't know who asked them but someone asked the leaders in these groups to come in and have a a meeting so they could talk to them about it they don't want to do that they feel like that they're being intimidated they want to have a community like edgeboro wants to meet over at betham Catholic all the neighbors so I don't know if your Economic Development Department can we have a we sorry I don't know if your Economic Development Department can schedule neighborhood meetings like I know years ago in city council we would go out to East Hills or brockel and have meetings there I think with probably the best thing to you know to do and again it's not my decision it's yours but is have your department people go out into the neighborhoods to the closest schools and advertise hey we're going to have a meeting on on zoning uh single changing zoning on single family housing or whatever if that's part of the opening doors policy have a meeting on it go out where they don't feel intimidated they don't want to come in and have a closed door meeting they want to have a meeting in front of everybody they feel more secure in that so a couple things there one is we have gone out and done it before I mean I know that the Mana meeting that happened a couple of weeks ago um you know Miss too had reached out to see if Miss hel and Miss satula could attend and they could not attend that particular date they had told her if there was another date we will absolutely come there was the decision made to go ahead with that meeting anyway I know several members of city council attended that meeting um and then I know that that meeting didn't necessarily go as was kind of intended which was some of the communications we had gotten back um and there was kind of a desire after the fact that like maybe we should have gotten some more of the information before we kind of jumped to some of the conclusions that we made um and I can guarantee you that it's it is a bit of a chicken or the egg situation here or catch22 is probably better better term is that people want to they want information they send out emails to people that have misinformation we then try to correct it or try to explain to them let them ask all of their questions believing that when someone has a question and then they get correct information that they're going to be responsible and then share that information to minimize fears and things like that that's what those strategies are whether or not Mr tulo calls somebody and says do you want to meet by Zoom or we saw this communication or you want us to come out it's good to kind of like level set with that one thing that I've been surprised about um and I used to teach that maybe I shouldn't be is that I mean people are making determinations and drawing conclusions when they haven't read the book when they haven't read or understood what all of the information that went in there so if people don't want to read and they don't want to necessarily share that accurate information it does become an important thing for Miss heler and Mr tulo and other people and one of the good things is there's and and I can tell you it's just like when we talked about our climate action plan the whole point was to get people talking about sustainability understanding that was a challenge the point of opening doors was to Define it as an issue that affects everybody it affects traffic it affects people on every income level it affects every employer it affects everybody because of what the housing crisis means in America in the Lehigh Valley so I was hopeful that people would necessarily be patient read through this look at the data understand the process Reach Out Tamp down expectations Tamp down fears and not necessarily add to them um and I've been a little bit disappointed that there's been some people that have shared information that wasn't that hasn't been accurate I will say that as we have reached out to people and just been very no pun intended have an open door to like you want to call us you want information but it is not make sense after 17 years of doing public meetings to allow fears to just kind of like fester and then walk into a room and be like let's answer your fear mongering questions like that's not a productive conversation we want to be able to give people a summary of information so they necessarily are able to level set their expectations and know what is accurate and what is inaccurate um but that's going to be an ongoing process I think Miss gch mentioned this as well is nothing in housing moves quickly like there is nothing that allows people to move to to to move quickly as far as policies are concerned so everything every single one of these things is going to take a long time I hope that people are as engaged in trying to solve the CommunityWide problem as some of them are as far as jumping to conclusions are concerned um and that's one of the reasons why as soon as we finished that the first thing that I had suggested last year when we finished opening doors is we are having quarterly open public meetings and this was going to be my first update on the mayor's report um and it's next Wednesday at doors open at 6 PM it is not a city council meeting so there's none of this it is a there's food there's interaction I know several Council people are going to be there City Administration is going to be there oh doors open at 6 a at 6 PM not 6: am then 6:30 the program starts where we kind of give some of those updates and then there's time for people to kind of like hang out afterwards so we are trying to create as many different places as possible to have those conversations but some of those different neighborhood groups we've been going back and forth on dates the challenge is obviously you know trying to find dates that work for everybody trying to find locations um and trying to to work through those but nobody's moving quickly on anything and as the next several months go on we're going to continue to schedule those meetings and go out and have those conversations but I would encourage everybody that can to be able to get to those public opening doors meetings because you meet people from all throughout the city you meet people that are experiencing the housing crisis you meet people that are working for these nonprofits it's really a great opportunity to learn all of the information yeah I I I I would just really appreciate it if some of the meetings can go out to the major n and you know the cwin Avenues maybe one on the west side one over in Mana one over in edgeboro one in Rose it might take five meetings or so you know to get everybody out there but I think if you had the if you had a presentation it may take a three- hour meeting but if I think if you if your Economic Development Department went through the process went through the slideshow and explained to everybody I think a lot of their fears would be yeah taken away I I do know that the in as you do as you do also uh I think the the res people are very protective of their homes and their neighborhoods and they chose to live where they live for a reason you know you know where I live I chose and I I told everybody this I chose purposely moved knowingly I am the closest uh border house I literally I border the 12-story low-income housing unit on Main Street that's where I live I chose that some people did not choose to do that they they want single family homes in in these nice neighborhoods that's okay that that was their choice I made my choice but the zoning issue is what I continually get phone calls on and I keep telling them relax it's going to be a four or five year process and I keep on and that's how I I they sent me well it's not it's it's it's it's read on this chart as a two-year process so I said I'd ask and that's why I'm and it's a great question I appreciate you sharing that accurate information about the process and things like that and like I said we will absolutely go out to those neighborhoods and I I I think you probably appreciate this is like I want to go and be all part of all these meetings that my child care situation with my wife allows me to be I very much want to be able to answer all the questions I think when I get there it it's a it's a benefit to the process um but we will continue to do that I will just say though is that and like I said I understand going out to the neighborhoods and things like that it is a Citywide problem and one of the frustrations I have is we spent months and months and months having public meetings public meetings public meetings public meetings and there was a certain segment of people that that just they didn't think that necessarily affected them and they were like I don't need to pay attention to it and then people took one line from page 73 and there was a whole lot of time and attention spent on like oh my God the world is the world is ending the world is ending the world is ending ignoring every other line on the other 99 pages and the process of like a year and a half which from and and and miss Tula is not here but that's a process that she takes very personally as well because we did so much Outreach so many public meetings and things like that so I would hope that as passionate as people are about their neighborhoods which we all are you live in a neighborhood that's got a lot a lot of housing types I think all of us do I live in a neighborhood that you know when we take Leo for a walk I got a single family home I got eight units this way I got 110 units about 50 yards that way I got 16 condos that way I got half doubles that way I got ranch homes that way I mean that's how like like a lot of neighborhoods are um but I just hope that people are as committed to understanding what the value is to the entire community of the housing prices um and when we talk about affordable housing and Mr vilo is not here the challenge there in the definition is the idea that people are cost burden or or you talk about affordable housing it changes based on how many people you're living with and things like that but you're looking at 30% of your income is if you're spending over that you are cost burden which is the federal definition I'm looking you Mr Callen but you didn't ask this question just asking answering Mr vilus before that number is Skyrocket in the last five years the ability of people like us and we were teachers we could buy a home and so on and so forth like the 2007 version of me could not buy a home in 2024 and Harvard just put out a study that said over 50% of all ranchers now curn when that number like five years ago was like 36 37% the median sales price in the city of betham has gone from10 to $320,000 and the median rent has gone from 1300 to 19900 so people could be working in their same middle class job high class job low class job and they've now become house burden we have the long the the biggest percentage of non-related adults living with each other since the Great Depression in America we have the largest percentage of children in their 20s living in their parents since the Great Depression every single metric is through the roof as far as what the housing crisis means not just for people that we traditionally think of as like lowincome but when we talk of affordable housing we're talking about I mean the median income in the city of bethlem is $62,000 so a starting teacher salary right now in betham is about 51,000 that puts you at 80% like based on what you're able to pay for like a one-bedroom apartment or whatever like 1,500 1600 like that qualifies as like moderate income and like affordable so like as the median income continues to rise without incomes Rising with us it's leading to the housing crisis and I'm not going to do the old teacher thing and say raise your hand if you know anybody dealing with housing crisis because that is just and I appreciate you raising your hands but what that does is though it makes people have to out themselves as far as knowing people or people themselves are dealing with it and people don't want to have to talk about it and that's what a lot of these meetings are is they're putting a face to what the problem is and showing about how deep it is across all income levels and that's why we just try to level set those conversations with everybody with City staff with city council people with people in the community is that like this isn't just like what is going on in my neighborhood this is a collective issue and I'll give you one example and I promise I'll stop talking but I think you kind of we're we're looking for some of this information our housing crisis is contributing to the fact that there's traffic in the city of Beth you've got teachers living in Carbon County that working for the Beth Mar School District because that's an affordable place to live so they're driving farther and further and further and when people talk about why do we have all these cars in 22 why do we have all these cars in our community is because there's not a place for people necessary to live and you know unless you were a coach and everything else is that means they're not coaching the field hockey team they're not coaching the volleyball team it's the they're not becoming involved in the church next to the school all of those different types of things that is that is a that are huge kind of domino effects which is why as a society and not just the city of betham the Lehigh Valley and across America housing is what we we continue to say not from a moral issue but from a moral economic quality of life sustainability it touches every single piece and we're trying to have as many of those conversations as we can but I guess I would end by saying is like nothing is moving quickly and nothing is and because it's not a process that can I I I appreciate the comments but I I I also think that we can both agree that and I I wish I had the money for a Manion you know whether it's on the um you know over off Mada Road or whatever some of those people uh in what I would say uh upper scale neighborhoods also don't want someone coming in and buying a home and turning it into a three or four family unit building and I think I don't know if if that's part of the opening doors rezoning or not and we don't need to get into it now but I think that's their fear that I can tell you it's not gentlemen I'm I'm just going to say it's been 20 minutes now I'd like to move this along I there's another question needs an answer please ask it I I will but it's it's an important question Mr Callan I appreciate it we we really do have stuff to talk about right yeah and Mr Callan I would just finish with like the the like the the rumor or the idea that somehow anybody wants to encourage somebody to knock down their single family home to build all these different things is just completely and I can't say this I think they're thinking of knockdown I think they're thinking turn it into like a four unit yeah so so then those type of things are both what we nobody has determined yet nobody researched yet but I can tell you this the scale form that's in opening doors talks about how you don't want to change the quality of life in the neighborhoods is Central to any any changes and things like that so any idea that anybody's trying to do anything that is like particularly aggressive and changing the nature of the neighborhood is both not true but also a process is due to play out in the next several years which will prove that it's not true I appreciate it thank you thank you thank you councilman KY Smith thank you thank you um I wasn't going to make comments but I think I will I'll say most of my the comments specifically on the resolution um when we get to the vote but um I just want to say that I mean I I know the last couple meetings I've you know have been attacked and I I take that I mean I got into this because I want to I want to represent the people um of the city of Bethlehem and that's why I'm doing it I take my job seriously if I've only missed one meeting in the last five years I've come when my brother died I came days after major surgery um so so you know to say I'm not dedicated I think would be a FAL s um I know people take this for what it's worth but I I have to say you know I I um am heart heartbroken over what's happening in Gaza in Ukraine and On the Border okay and someone had mentioned at a meeting that I'm starving babies well I'll I want you to know that you know I'm donating all the money I can to Jose andrees to feed the babies in Gaza and the Ukraine specifically for that purpose because I see what's happening and I think what he's doing and his people is amazing and it it's necessary someone said how do I sleep at night well quite frankly I don't sleep at night because I do think about Gau I think of UK Ukraine I think of the Border because I have friends working on the border who tell me what is happening there I Al also don't sleep at night because within the last week I think of the students that I I had to hold in my arms while they cry because they were sexually abused because they were beaten because I had to take them to the ER and spend six hours with them until we get a psych bed because they attempted suicide the night before because they are lbgt and they are not supported because they're anxious because they're depressed because they're immigrants and refugees and they cry to me because they're afraid they're going to be deported or they tell me the story of them being sexually assaulted on their way crossing the border to this country so I just want to set the record straight that that's who I am you don't have to believe it quite frankly I don't care the only reason I'm doing this resolution and it's not only because of the March 6 meeting is because we've had mult mulle multiple meetings since February that have gone till midnight and 1:00 and at times where we could not get to the agenda and I feel that our primary purpose here as elected officials of city council bethleem is to make sure that we could get to the agenda and get to the business of the city of Bethlehem and many many of my constituents have said the same thing so that is why I am putting forth this resolution thank you thank you councilwoman any other new business for members of Council Miss Leo sorry soror I swear this is the last thing that I'm I'm going to say I obviously it's regarding housy and and I will encourage you to have meetings um everywhere and anywhere um but I considering the density of South Bethlehem considering the housing explosion that's happened in South Bethlehem the rate of the rate of evictions in South Bethlehem and the Eastern Gateway project I I would counter that South Bethlehem is the major neighborhood that is experienced seeing the housing crisis in bulk and I appreciate that the bulk of the meetings are being had at NCC I'm done I'm sorry no need to apologize any other new business for members of council we're gonna move on to Communications thank you everyone thank you mayor Reynolds for the for the responses Communications Mr Miller 6A and April 18th 2024 memorandum with proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resources Edward boscola Mr boscola recommends a contract with SC Engineers valentown to submit City's renewal for its National pollution discharge elimination system permit for the city's Water Filtration plant cost is $3,000 the contract will run from the notice to proceed through March 31st 2025 there are no renewals The Firm was selected among three biders based on price General experience and past working knowledge of the city's water system and resolution 10c is on the agenda tonight communication 6B and April 18th 2024 memorandum and proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resources Edward boscola Mr boscola recommends a change order to contract with J om Bradley Construction Company Incorporated of Bethlehem on the relocation of a 30-inch water main along Willowbrook Road in Allen Township the added 98520 will be evenly split between the city and North am County the increase is necessary because of unforeseen site conditions change order will increase the original cost of five of $37,800 to $456 373 the added work is to be completed within 180 days notice to proceed there are no renewals resolution 10 is on the agenda communication 6C and April 18th 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from Public Works director Michael Al Mr alol recommends an agreement with Remington and Vernick Engineers of Allentown to improve regrade and stabilize the Swale and outfall on Bridal Path Road reduce erosion and flooding cost is $ 27,7 51 and the work is to be completed within 180 days of the notice to proceed there are no renewals four proposals were received ranging from $25,000 to $42,000 Remington and Vernick Engineers was deemed to have submitted the most qualified responsive and detailed proposal resolution 10f is on the agenda 6D April 24th 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from Edward boscola director of water and sewer resources Mr boscola recommends an agreement with Keystone Consulting Engineers Incorporated of valentown to design upgrades to the apple butter Road sanitary sewer pump Station cost is not to exceed $1,197 60 contract will run through July 1st 2025 there are no renewals 10g is on the agenda 6E April 24th 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from Edward boscola director of water and sewer resources Mr boscola recommends an agreement with Keystone Consulting Engineers Incorporated of Allentown to design upgrades to the eastn road sewer Force Maine which is undersized the cost is not to exceed $39,375 contract will run through July 1st 2025 there are no renewals resolution 10h is on tonight's agenda 6f and April 25th 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from Edward boscola director of water and sewer resources Mr boscola recommends an agreement with almea and Hudak Contractors LLC of Plymouth Meeting to provide labor and materials to relocate the city's 8in water main on Walnut Street Willow Park Road in Bethlehem Township in support of storm water and infrastructure and road construction improvements cost is not to exceed $558,500 contract to run for 180 days from the notice to proceed there are no renewals almea and Hudak was found to be the lowest responsible bidder among seven bids received 10 I is on the agenda 6G May 1st 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from dced business manager Tiffany Wismer this Wismer recommends an agreement with Rayman SE guer of Allentown to review the November 2022 appraisals of 23 Acres of Norfolk Southern land Mr guer will appraise two additional land areas for proposed future purchase by the city of Bethlehem all Parcels involve potential land acquisition for the greenway the cost for the contract is $7,000 contract will run through December 31st 20124 there are no renewals 10 js on the agenda tonight 6 each May 1st 2024 memorandum with attached resolution from dced business manager Tiffany Wismer M Wismer recommends an agreement with tnm Associates of Bethlehem to perform a boundary survey for six properties comprising the proposed acquisition relating to the greenway the cost is $34,000 and the work is to be completed by December 31st 2024 there are no renewals 10K is on the were you done yes thank you sorry 10K is on the agenda 6 I an April 25th 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from Public Works director Michael alol Mr alall recommends an agreement with H&K Group Incorporated of skiak to provide labor and materials to upgrade Ada ramps and Mill and overlay various streets throughout the city cost is not to exceed $783,000 qualified bidder among four bids received 10 L's on the agenda 6j May 1st 2024 memorandum from solicitor John fburg Jr with an attached use permit agreement resolution permit is the greater Lehi Valley Chamber of Commerce for use of Bethlehem Rose Garden for the 2024 Suds and Roses event the event date is June 1st 2024 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. with a rain date of June 2nd from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. the duration of the permit is from 1: to 6:00 p.m. on June 1st with a rain date of 1: to 6:00 p.m. on June 2nd resolution 10m is on the agenda 6K May 1st 2024 memorandum from solicitor John fbk Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution perit is Arts Quest and the event is the 2024 steel Stacks gated summer concert series event dates are May 18th and July 10th from 6:00 to 10 p.m. the duration is May 18th and July July 10th from noon until midnight additional dates may be added by Amendment the specified premises are from First Street from PK Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders way between first and second streets resolution 10n is on the agenda communication 6L May 1st 2024 memorandum from solicitor jnf spurk Jr with attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Arts Quest and the event is the 202 for taco Fest event date is June 2nd 2024 from noon to 7:00 p.m. and the duration is June 2nd from 8 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. specified premises are the first street from PK Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders way between 1 and second streets resolution 10 is on the agenda 6m May 1st 2024 memorandum from solicitor John fburg Jr with attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is the Mount Ary neighborhood association and the sub permittee is Hilltop Haven LLC the event is the 2024 Bethlehem Rose Garden farmers market and rosefest event dates for the farmers market are Saturdays between June 1st and October 12th 2024 from 9 am. until 1M with rosefest on June 22nd from 11:00 a.m. until 1 p.m duration is the same dates from 8:00 a.m. until 2 p.m. specifies premises for the rose Bethlehem Rose Garden Park including the band shelf for rosefest resolution 10p is on the agenda communication 6n May 1st 2024 memorandum from solicitor johnb Jr with attached use permit agreement and resolution perit is bedco by and through its initiative Southside Arts District sub permittees are social still LLC five maidens LLC doing business as five Maiden Cider Company and Country Club Brewing LLC the event is for the 2024 live on the greenway event dates are May 19th and 26th June 2nd and 9th from noon until 3 p.m. the duration is the same dates from 11:00 a.m. until 400 P p.m. specified premises are the greenway between Webster and Taylor streets including the harmony Pavilion resolution 10 Q is on the agenda communication 60 May 1st 2024 memorandum with attached resolution from dced business manager Tiffany Wismer as Wismer recommends an agreement with gross McGinley Lop of Allentown to perform title and closing work for land acquisition for Norfolk Southern associated with The Greenway cost is $18541 work is to be completed by December 31st 20124 and there are no renewals 10 R is on the agenda tonight last communication 6p May 1st 20124 memorandum attached resolution and lease agreement from city solicitor John fur Jr Mr spurk recommends approving the agreement to allow Country Club Brewing to serve food and beverages including alcoholic beverages at the lease property at 323 Pierce Street the term of the lease would be three years from the signing by the city rent shall be 524 correction $ 5,244 for the first year years two and three shall be increased in each suceeding year by the same rate as the Consumer Price Index over the immediately preceding 12-month period this agreement shall automatically be extended by a year unless either party terminates resolution 10s is on the agenda tonight moving on to report city council held a previously announced Curative Amendment hearing on Tuesday April 30th 2024 here in town hall this hearing was requested by the petition submitted by bhx LLC which is the Equitable owner of the property proposed for development at the Handover Apartments the Cur of Amendment request removing any building length limitation from the CL zoning District the hearing lasted for more than 5 hours and it's going to be continued at tentatively the date we're looking at is 6 pm on Tuesday June 11th here in town hall and we should be able to um confirm that at the next council meeting for the Curative Amendment so again that was Tuesday June 11 at 6 pm here in town hall I have nothing else to report this evening Mr Mayor yeah I have uh one administrative of order I hearby reappoint Melle J Wen 2724 Brierwood Place betham PA 18017 of the betham human relations commission this appointment is effective through March 2027 administrative order 2024-25 for vichelle J Wen human relations commission resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion we'll call roll miss quch I miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi M Callahan hi Smith hi and Mr colog I pass 70 thank you I'll get through these quickly uh just once again opening doors is next Wednesday Northampton Community Center Fowler Center um Community uh College Fowler Center doors open at 6m the program starts at 6:30 um we kicked off live in the garden over in the Rose Garden on Saturday of course it rained the first time as it does every year um but that was that was great to see the small business out and the people come out from West Bethlehem we're looking forward to I think it's the next uh seven Saturdays in a row uh we're starting at 5:30 this year rather than 6 that'll help with bedtime um we met today and we've had ongoing meetings um with there's a decent chance that some of the Wildfire situations that we saw last year are going to repeat again this summer um so we've been talking the betham health Bureau is going to be putting out Health Bureau recommendations we're going to be trying to share that information sometime in the next several weeks it's supposed to be kind of like June through September again if you remember last year we had a couple of those very poor air quality days um so we're going to try to get ahead of that this year as far as getting that information out um and I thank councilman lar who is helping out with that as well um we have the north side alive block party um from 4 to 8 pm on Saturday um we should have a huge crowd it's going to be held this year at the YMCA uh down the street um because we had believed the Friendship Park uh Park Renovations were going to be going on by this point but they're going to start in a month or two um but yeah North Side alive block party will be at the YMCA from 4 to 8 free um so it's a it's a it's going to be a great time and then last thing I wanted to say was just um an update on uh the paramedics we had hired last year if you remember one of the things we talked about with justification that our response rate in city of Bethlehem was down to about 91% which meant we had been calling out to other municipalities um you know after four months through April that numberers actually back up to 94% um because we have those four paramedics which means that when you dial 911 more people are getting our paramedics which are full-on paramedics rather than EMTs which often happen from when you call out of municipality um but that's because we were able to add those four paramedics to be able to increase um that so I just want to thank you for that and we'll give more updates as that goes on you may be asking as well like what does it mean as far as like the reimbursement rate that we get as far as how much money was going to help to pay for those salaries that process is about three months behind like you you find you get your bills from like the first three months in the second three months so we don't have any data there as far as how much of those positions are paying for themselves but the good news is the 91% was the lowest rate we had in a long time we had added no paramedics since 2007 and when we added those four we've already gotten back up to 94% which is a huge jump in that industry thank you president CL thank you mayor Reynolds Our Community Development Committee counc quch the Community Development Committee will meet on Tuesday May 21st 20 2024 at 6:00 p.m. in town hall to discuss the fair hearing which is required by article 349 and reviews Economic Development incentive reports submitted by the administration this meeting is for informational purposes and no actions will be taken thank you moving on to ordinances for final passage Mr Miller Bill 9224 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for sewer utilities bill number 09 2024 sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion call the rooll miss quac I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi and Mr I pass 70 eight Bill 10 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for sewer utilities bill number 10 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and miss grmy Smith discussion call the rooll miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I and Mr colum I pass 70 Bill 11 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for water utilities bill number 11 2024 sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss KY Smith discussion we'll call the rooll miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callan I grmy Smith I and Mr colom I pass 70 Bill 12 2024 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for water utilities bill number 12 2024 sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion call the rooll miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith hi and Mr colog I pass 70 Bill 13 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of lehine Northampton Commonwealth and Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 13 2024 sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmsy Smith discussion we'll call the rooll M quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi and Mr colog I pass 70 bill 14 2024 and ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 14 2024 sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion call the roll Miss quch Hi l hi M Leon hi M Wilhelm I Mr Callahan i m Smith I and Mr col I pass 70 Bill 15 2024 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of leehigh Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 liquid fuels fund budget bill number 15 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion we'll call the rooll miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon i m Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hi mmy Smith hi and Mr colum I pass s zero our only new ordinance this evening Mr Miller Bill 16 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for non- utilities bill number 16 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion we'll call the RO quack hi Miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M gry SMI I and Mr colog I pass 70 continuing on to resolutions before we start call votes I'll remind everyone who's patiently been waiting if you decide to exit before the end of the meeting please hold your conversations for out in the hallway as we might still have other uh items to vote on as we progress through the meeting resolution 10A be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem in accordance with Municipal records manual hereby authorizes the disposal of public records in the department of Public Works engineering as set forth in exhibit a resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmsy Smith discussion call roll Miss quch hi Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith I and Mr colum I pass 70 resolution 10B be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem in accordance with Municipal records manual hereby authorizes the disposal of public records in the department of police is set forth in exhibit a resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion call rooll miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I and Mr cologne I pass 70 resolution 10c be it 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 SC Engineers for submitting the npdes renewal application for the city's Water Filtration plant resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion call roll miss quch I miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi and Mr colum I passes 70 resolution 10d be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the rules of council will be further amended as follows number one amendment of rule 3A rule 3A setting forth the order of business at public meetings is amended to provide for the following order of business roll call approval of minutes public comment by residents and taxpayers on ordinances and resolutions to be voted on this evening five minute time limit public comment by residents and taxpayers any subject not being voted on this evening 5 minute time limit public comment by non-resident SL taxpayers on ordinances and resolutions be voted on this evening five minute time limit old business new business tabled items unfinished business Communications reports ordinances for final passage new ordinances resolution public comment by non-residents and taxpayers on any subject not being voted on this evening 5 minute time limit and adjournment number two amendment of rule 3D rule 3D providing the public comment be not extended for personal insults or personal attacks on any individual name calling or other behavior that is inconsistent with the purpose and intent of public comment is hereby amended to provide that public comment will not be extended for personal criticism unrelated to City business nor for disruptive behavior that interferes with the administration progress of public meeting and number three addition of rule 3E Section 3 sh shall State as follows when any council member believes that Council will not be able to address the business before it unless public comment is suspended as provided for in section 7101 of the sunshine act Council May by motion of majority vote defer the public comment period to the next regular meeting or to a special meeting occurring in advance of the next regular meeting resolution is sponsored by Miss Leona and Miss kmy Smith discussion ccom cron Smith thank you um just to give a little background um as I said before we're elected as betham City Council Members to address the issues problems business relevant to the operation of the city of Bethlehem my resolution I believe ensures our ability to get to the C to the council agenda while concurrently preserving the right to free speech in that all members of the public can provide comment it is only only changing the order in which the public can provide comment we changed the order of our agenda a few months ago for greater efficiency and I believe that my change in the order also provides for greater efficiency in attending to agenda items the sunshine law states that the Council of a political subdivision shall provide reasonable opportunities for residents and taxpayers of the subdivision to comment on matters of concern official action or deliberation which may or may not May which are or may be before Council consistent with the Sun sh law my resolution does not define resident or taxpayers nor does it allow a betting mechanism to determine if someone meets this criteria the idea is based on the honor System the only thing that changes is the order of public comment several municipalities felt to state only allow residents to give public comment and they use the same kind of honor System thus this is is no way is meant to interfere with First Amendment rights but to keep us in concert with the sunshine laws and to allow us to conduct operations is necessary as said before certain city business is time sensitive and cannot be delayed due to being precluded from attending to the agenda items one thing I also want to make clear is some people are under the impression that my resolution is going to um decrease the time limit for public comment to three minutes that was never ever proposed by me or anyone the time limit for public comment will remain at five minutes for Amendment 3D basically this was proposed because it's consistent with case law whereby it gives public commenters even more leeway in their comments so basically those that provide public comment um the way I interpret it can actually um be more insulting than they are currently in the um the rules of of council the um addition of rule 3E is already in place whereby if we feel that we're not able to address the business at Hand by a motion a majority vote we can defer the public comment period to the next meeting or to a special meeting I really would rather let everyone be able to give public comment during this set meeting rather than wait till the next meeting or another meeting which is why I feel it's important to do the non-agenda items of non-residents at the end of the meeting I've had input the reason um it would have been easy for me to just drop this but quite frankly I believe that it really is necessary for us to be efficient as city council members and adhering to City business business and also I have had numerous numerous residents who have strongly support this resolution because they are very upset by in the past the fact that we are not able to get to City business so in my mind the question here is are we as council members willing to prioritize city city business and operations via the passes of this resolution thank you thank you councilwoman any discussion from members of council Mr Callahan so I uh as I said earlier I'm 100% uh for free speech uh I think anybody that knows me knows I speak my mind all the time and um a little bit more than what other people would like me to but um I in looking at this um I I agree with u Miss kampy Smith and I think that um we do have to get the the city agenda and and get to the things that are on our agenda and get through it um the the positives here which I did not know at the beginning a week ago but uh everybody still gets to speak everybody nobody's being stifled um everybody still gets their five minutes um so you're still getting your five minutes you can still come here and speak anytime you want um it simply allows Council to get through uh tonight three pages of of agenda items which we have to get through I mean that's the city you know I can't couldn't I don't always agree with Mr Shire but I agree with him we have to get to our city business first but we also have to according to the law uh which I agree is listen to uh the public speak on anything that's being voted on all we're doing is moving to the end of the meeting for nonresidents and again it's going to be on the honor System so what do it what does this do it still allows all of you to speak every night we have a council me you are still getting your five minutes the only thing that is allowing us to do is allow City residents and taxpayers to speak first and then go home at an appropriate time and then we will still be here to listen to anybody that's a non-resident at the end of the meeting and I think that's a um something that we can try if it doesn't work we can uh attempt to change it and we can have a vote but I think it's something that we we should try to see if it does work nobody's being styed or or in in talking or giving your opinion on anything everybody still gets to speak all we're doing is changing the order to help benefit uh the process of city council getting through our agendas and allowing City taxpayers and residents uh to speak first and then get home without having to wait uh I I would have preferred to be honest with you to move uh all of uh public comment on non- voting items to the end but then I started thinking I don't think that's fair to the you know to the residents because a lot of the people want to come here speak their mind and then go home they have families just like we all do but at the same time I think you should still have the right to even if you're a non-resident to speak to us about your opinion um and and how you feel about certain things and I told you a lot of you don't even live in betham I appreciate you coming out here tonight and speaking and um I made my statement earlier on on what I personally feel as far as a a resolution and getting uh our federal officials to push for a ceasefire Mutual ceasefire in Gaza now what affect Brian Callahan said he councilman in little betham Pennsylvania has on that big issue none but I apprec I'm trying to let you know that I do appreciate you coming out and speaking and I I've heard you I have so I think this is something that we could try and see how it works it doesn't have to be permanent if it's not working we can switch it back but I think what we're doing here is allowing us to get through the city business our agenda items and we're allowing residents in a city and taxpayers who live in a city to speak without having to wait to the end of the the meeting if you don't um live in a city and you aren't a taxpayer you still get to speak here you also get to speak at your own townships and cities on top of here may some of your cities and townships don't allow people from outside the city and Township to speak we are still going to do that which I think is a fair thing so I'll be supporting it tonight thank you any other discussion from members of council Mr Miller call the RO Miss quch nay Miss lard nay Miss Leon nay Miss Wilhelm nay Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I and Mr colog nay the resolution fails 52 everyone I remind you we still have count every everyone I remind you we still have Council business to move on through so again if you're going to exit please hold your conversations to the hallway please as we proceed through our agenda Mr Miller resolution 10e be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and the controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with J Bradley Construction Company Incorporated for a change order associated with Willowbrook Road water main relocation project in Allen Township resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion councilwoman yeah I just have a question um it says that this is a joint um contract with Northampton County and I'm wondering that 453 456,000 is that the city's portion or is that the total portion the is going to be split with the county that's the total contract value to be split 50/50 with the county okay so it'll be H our our part of it will be half correct okay thank you any other questions or comments Mr Miller call the r miss quch I miss L hi Miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith hi and Mr colum I pass 70 resolution 10f alled 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 or hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with Remington and Vernick Engineers to provide outfall and sell improvements this outfall and swell on Bridal path like is it at the creek SW is the roadside yeah is it all along it or okay okay did that answer your question M yeah I think I just didn't know if it was a concentrated area or the whole time understood any other questions or comments from members of council we'll call the role miss quac I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hicy Smith hi and Mr colog I pass 70 resolution 10g be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem the mayor and controller Endor such other City's officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with Keystone Consulting Engineers Incorporated to provide Engineering Services for upgrades to apple butter Road sanitary sewer pump station resolution is sponsored by Miss Leona and Miss grmy Smith discussion we'll call the role Miss quac hi Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi Miss KY Smith I and Mr colog I pass 70 resolution 10h resolved by the Council of the city Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with Keystone Consulting Engineers Incorporated to provide Engineering Services for upgrades to the eastn road sewer Force Maine resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmsy Smith discussion we'll call the RO miss quch I miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M gmy Smith hi Mr colom I pass 70 10 I be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with almea and Hudak contractors loc to provide labor and materials to relocate a water main at Walnut Street and Willow Park Road in Bethlehem Township resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion I just another question um I'm just wondering this seems like this is similar this a water main not in the city and I'm wondering why the county is not fit um splitting this with us well in this case the County's not involved at all this is a city-owned water main in Bethlehem Township okay so is the other one not city-owned the one the the other one on willbrook road that's being relocated because of a county project to reconstruct a brid a county Bridge Okay on willbrook road so we entered into a deal with the county to split the cost on that this is strictly a water water main that we own okay that we serve in the township so for the prior one since we're having to move it because it's a county project can't we get the county to pay the total bill for that one well we negotiated with the county and reached the deal to split at 50/50 okay that's typically what we do also when we get into state level projects as well with pendot when we when we negotiate with pendot when pendot does a road and we have to do a wter it's typically a 50-50 split on the cost of utilities all right thank you any other comments call the rooll miss quch I miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hi M gmy Smith hi and Mr cologne I pass 70 resolution 10j be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with Raymond C Gyer to perform Appraisal Services resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion we'll call rooll miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hion Smith hi and Mr colum hi pass 70 resolution 10K be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and the controller and or such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with tnm Associates to provide surveying Services resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion we call the rooll miss quac I miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi and M Mr colog I pass 70 resolution 10l be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with H&K Group Incorporated to provide Ada ramps and Mill and overlay various streets resolution is sponsored by Miss Leona Miss grmy Smith discussion Mr Al call I got just a couple question quick questions so now that we're getting into kind of Paving season and everything can you just give us a rough breakdown if you don't have the numbers of I know we try to do as much inhouse as possible versus Contracting out can can you give us a rough breakdown of uh in terms of paved miles or blocks or however you choose to quantify it how much is done inous versus how much we contract out for yeah we try to maximize the amount that we do in house we basically load up our in-house Crews with most recently what we've been up to in terms of all the improvements that we made to gain efficiency and be able to PVE as much as we can during the summer and we're still looking at some other options of how we can even in increase that further um we could basically put down um nine or 10,000 tons a season with our in-house crws just giving the number of days that we have to pay and the hours involved and the personnel and equipment that we have uh so we select streets that would be equivalent to that in terms of material that would be put down to pave those streets um once we exhaust that then if there's remaining funds um we then select Street and have them put out for contract but sometimes they also big streets like in this instance we're only doing two streets but they're pretty sizable streets um the two that are before you uh for this contract um so obviously the amount is is pretty hefty uh total pay um U cost for the anticipated for this season is 1.8 million doll um this is 780 something that would be the contract portion and and we're doing a lot more inhouse for almost $400,000 more and this includes all the Ada ramps and etc for both in-house and um contracted work and then when you say 9 to 10 tons what's that is that 9,000 to 10,000 tons yeah well in terms of road like I I figured that much Al without a scale but the uh what's that amount you roughly is obviously that depends on the the road and what have you but uh Lane mileage is somewhere in the neighborhood 25 to to to 30 Lane miles okay thank you just for my my own understanding and then um I hope we have a good Paving season I know it's weather dependent and a lot of things our our suppli in terms of uh supply chain that which was impacted last couple years in all Industries are you seeing any issues getting the materials that are needed it's drastically improved pricing is still a little bit elevated yeah understood Mr CL and then Mr Callan Mike um the I know um Lind I don't know who I think the gas lines are being ripped up on 191 on Lindon Street yes and so is doing utility work there too does UGI pay repave it I mean I thought we repaved that whole Road like like four years ago five years ago Pai did uh you talking about north of Elizabeth yeah yeah so what in UGI isn't there something like if they have so many Cuts within a certain amount of yeah we we we enter into um depending on how much impact they're having on a road uh we we enter into agreement with them either they um give us money and then we pay we do the work or um they they have to re repave the street depending on the extended um impact on that on that street if they give us money that doesn't go in the general fund to be use for other things it goes to P it goes towards the paving problem all right so I'm not trying to beat anybody up our roads are horrendous right now and I know there's I know I appreciate the mayor putting in more money in the budget I think normally it's like a million amount has been but it seems like it's either UGI ripping up a ton of Roads um the water uh some of the water uh utilities all utilities have a lot of impact yeah and I know we have I know from years uh past we discussed about the age of some of the water lines especially in historic I get all that but I I would hope in the next coming I mean we're definitely not going to be able to get to the majority of the roads that are really beat up right now that we have a significant amount of backlog but like we said earlier there's been a sub substantial effort to provide more funding and improve the process in order to um catch up to the backlog that we have and and improve our the overall conditions and of our streets yeah all right C can we get a list of the the main streets that because I drive around all day that's all I do with my driving school and I can't tell you uh if I had a list I'd like to look at the list and see what because there's roads on the on these lists that I don't even know if the city knows about because I mean they're they're they're terrible I I assure you we we have a a management program where we inspect and rate the road all the streets all the all all the miles in the city every other year so we're at ww of all the conditions and like I said we rate them can you forward that to us on Council the list it's pretty huge database file is it with mapping as well as uh Excel spreadsheets that estimate the amount of uh money it would take to pave those roads do you have a list of uh the roads that you're planning on get to this year absolutely and we talked about that before we're gonna put them on the Internet with the caveat you know this is what the list is that's anticipated to be done most likely it'll be done exactly as presented but if things come up during the course of the paving season uh it could be slightly is that is that the list that you m emailed us like last week of all the construction projects or no uh that's a qual report of all the capital projects uh in the city it includes the but it doesn't list the roads uh in that report we will'll put the roads on the on the internet thank you well just for it those too sure thank you mayor rynolds did you want to add something I just wanted to add Mr Kelly and rest sure and I know you know this Mr alcohol is uh there's no shortage of frustration with UGI when they say they're going to do a ular Road and they don't do it or we pave a road and they said they were going to go do this 10 years from now obviously it all goes back to that gas explosion in Allentown about 10 years ago where the Pu told them they had to pick up like their replacement which then allows them the opportunity to basically cut into any of these roads we try to have as much communication as possible because as you know we all know nobody differentiates between a lot of times UGI doing this work and the city doing the work and things like that um so there is a lot of time that has spent on that I will tell a couple ones in particular Broad Street we have those that $10 million so if you that we got from the federal government so that's a project that's hopefully going to be done the majority of it next year working through that Federal grant um but you know it is it is something that obviously we spend a lot of time and one of the frustrating things for us too that Mike spends a lot of time on is like and you know this like Washington Avenue like you know if you drive down Washington Avenue now I mean that's one of the worst roads around and and it's like that was one too where UGI didn't and Mike I believe this is correct they didn't finish all of their work like they were supposed to and they like messed up some of the things they were supposed to do in the fall so like it pushes everything back so now we're doing the engineering and stuff on the ramp on the all the ramps with the hope that that's going to be done weather pending by in the next like six seven eight weeks by the end of June but those type of things like no shortage of frustration when UI doesn't do the thing they don't let us know they have subcontractors this has come up before obviously too we know they leave their subcontractors on the street um so it's something we are we're very aware of um and we try to we try to get get on top of them and and and do it as much as we can yeah and I'm not I'm not blam I know I understand I was just giv education I I you know I've been a long C he's always asking for more money I get it but it just it it recently it's a mess and uh I think I think what people don't understand either is that you know um if you get a flat tire or uh by hitting a pot hole that's 300 Tire it's 300 bucks because you get it's a new tire and then it's a an alignment and if you started thinking I there's no way for us to find out how many people get flat tires from uh you know uh potholes and things like that but just with all the all the other the the rough some of the rough roads especially Washington Street ly Street La there it's a If people really looked at the amount of money they spend on on new alignments and new tires and things like that on a regular basis a yearly base I'm not saying it happens every month but you know I'm sure to is not going to be a popular thing but I'm sure that people would willingly say hey you know what you know let's get our roads done and maybe you know have I know we had the herco tax but maybe we have um you know a $50 a fee for a number of years in and and and and walk it out and explain to people hey we can get a lot more roads done and get our roads fixed I don't know but with the caveat and I know no one would bleed us because they we did keep the the hero tax on that at the end of this period the the the a black top tax whatever you would call it would be uh relieved and and and and removed yeah I will just say quickly UGI is going to be cutting into the roads for years so this is going to be a problem that unfortunately is not going to go away anytime soon as we had said and you did reference I mean we did 47 Lane miles in 22 and 23 which was an increase from 29 the previous two years and we got 50 on the docket for the next two years because we took some of those arpa funds which allowed us to avoid the capital barrings that weed usually borrow so the ability to put that like $6 million um towards the towards the roads over this like four-year period and allow us not to have to borrow should make it easier for us in future budgets to be able to use more general fund dollars to be able to do this which was part of the reason why we structur the oper spending so hopefully in the next like four five six years we're not going to have to do anything other than just be able to kind of utilize the money that we have saved all right thank you any other discussion from members of council we'll call the role Miss qu Tech i m lard I miss Leon i m Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M kmy Smith I and Mr cologne I pass 70 uh can I make a motion before we move on to the next items uh to consider 10m through 10 Q the um use perit agreements as a group okay so the the motion on the floor from councilwoman lir is consider the use permit agreements 10m through 10 Q as a group similar to what we do for the uh certificates of appropriateness is there a second all second for Mr Callahan any discussion on the motion to consider all the resolutions as a group we'll call the role on the motion miss quak I miss lard I miss Leon i m Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M gmy Smith I and Mr colom I pass to 70 Mr Miller please read the use Perman agreements 10m through 10q sponsors for Resolutions 10m through 10q are Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith resolution 10m 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 for hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce for the 2024 Suds and Roses event resolution 10n 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 Arts quest for the 2024 steel stack summer concert series resolution 10 be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Endor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with Arts quest for 2024 Taco Fest resolution 10p be it resolv 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 hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with Mount Ary neighborhood association for the 2024 Rose Garden farmers market and Rose Fest and resolution 10q be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Endor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor or hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with bedco and the Southside Arts District for the 2024 live on the greenway series any discussion on the group of use firman agreements we'll call the rooll miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Callahan Smith hi and Mr cologne I they all pass 70 resolution 10r be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller are authorized and directed to execute all documents in agreement with gross McGinley LLP to provide title and closing work related to Greenway property acquisition resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion we'll call the rooll miss quch I miss L I miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M kmy Smith hi and Mr cologne I pass 70 resolution 10s it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem the mayor and controller or such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a lease agreement with paren Pierce and Country Club Brewing resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith any discussion Miss Leon and then I'll work down one I just wanted to thank the business owners for enduring as ever you have been patient with the city um I know this has been a long road and uh thank you to you guys for being patient but also thank you to the administration I know this really is like a precedent setting thing with how engaged in the greenway and I know that a lot of background work um went into this that we're not necessarily we're not in those meetings those are kind of not our perview um but you know really taking care of the the public spaces and making sure our parks are solid is is really good and I'm really excited to see interaction with the greenway I know that that's something that we're all trying to to work for so thank you guys for staying Miss willm it's worth saying again thank you for your patience with the process and with this evening and uh I as well am looking forward to supporting this project which will further activate our Greenway so thank you yeah Mr Callahan agree I I just want to thank you for investing in our city and doing business in our city and wish you luck councilwoman lard uh yeah I am excited because I remember talking to you like when I was not yet on Council about uh you know let's get this done and let's bring some life to to some parts of the greenway that could use a little extra um so I I'm glad to see this on our agenda tonight glad you could all come to a a agreement I'll just reiterate thanks for staying and thanks for all you're doing and I'm so glad that this did get resolved Council mqu hi thanks um and I feel also very positively towards the whole concept I think you know um being a cyclist myself like cyclists love to you know ride trails and stop for beers and things like that and I think it's kind of an exciting thing I did have a couple of questions sorry um one of them was um regarding um uh item 18 about statements of Damages and cost of repair it refers a lot to um damage or um repairing needing to repair um things on the least premises but as this is right up against the greenway I just want to um Ensure uh that uh if there's damage that happens beyond that actual premises that is the responsibility I just I'm just putting it a word and I obviously not going to edit this for don't need to edit it um but also being mindful of U being good stewards of the the piece of the greenway that's immediately adjacent to uh this uh future deck so that's not really a question um I did have one question which was regarding number 53 the department of conservation and natural resources contingency um in this uh in this um piece it says this agreement's Effectiveness is contingent upon the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and natural resources releasing or agreeing not to enforce any conservation easements or restrictive covenants burdening the least premises um is this something that you actually need is there any um is there are there any easements or uh restrictive covenants that need to be addressed who wants to answer that lawyers both want to answer the question please wrestle for the microphone whatever there is indeed an easement there and this caused us to have to consider long range if this is going to be something that we can do in other places as was discussed as people traveling so we've had the number of conversations with the Department we own some other land city land nearby and so we were able to agree with that that we could remove the easement from this particular area and place it on another piece of they satisfied that sort of a land bank kind of thing as these things come forward but then that made it complicated to try to consider the rental as well because not only will Greenways owned by the city so they'll be renting the portion of land that's ours but also burdening some other land that's ours as well that's not the usual rent situation right so that's why it became more complicated process to look at the correct formula so that the interest of both the renter and the city were taken care of since we're not only having think some of our land not used by us anymore but by the Le but we're also burdening other land that we own with dis easement which we now can't build on or can't do anything on we felt that that was a two-factor in is there and then we tried to look forward to as more and more of these hopefully come online along the greenway have some sort of formula or system in place continue to deal with it this the first one thank you very much for explaining that and just add quickly dcnr had no real experience with doing a lot of this stuff so it took a long long time for M deller and Mr spurk and Miss Collins to work through this with dcnr because this was the first one so part of the reason why it took so long was just that back and forth as Mr spurk referenced between all of them in dcnr understood councilwoman SMI yeah Mr spurk I just just to clarify too so the land is owned by the city but it's on the greenway okay um because I guess I'm wondering um and who was Keeping Up with the land the city or um like country club Brewing who was maintaining that land well this just the deck okay so there that's that's the portion that's least okay because I guess I'm just wondering and I guess I might be going out in the woods with this but there's sometimes where there's land that we the city owns and we really I mean I know it's a Greenway so it's different as a used but that we you know just give it to Citizens and so I'm assuming this is a very different situation then you know that there's been times where we have there's been land that's owned by the city but it is it about you know maybe a citizen's property or whatever do you know what I'm talking about there's no dcnr easan on okay so that's the difference because I guess I just I'm always with no EAS it's in an odd place or something like that I'm always concerned about the equity and the fairness of that that we just give land to some people and then there's you know if there's land that other people may need and we're charging them rent you know what I mean but I understand because this is a Greenway and it's dcnr and there's a difference but that's why I asked the question give it to people but they wouldn't be able to do anything on it because of the DC on our eement anything okay all right thank you any other discussion from members of Council Mr Miller callor roll m quch i m l I miss Leon i m Wilhelm I Mr cahan hi M grmy Smith hi Mr cologne I pass 70 and our last resolution 10t certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem resolution is hereby granted for 313 and 315 East 4th Street to replace existing roof sheath sheathing of both structures using GF slate line asphalt shingles resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith any discussions we'll call the roll M quch hi m l hi Miss Leon hi M Wilhelm hi M Callahan hi M kmy Smith hi and Mr cologne I pass to 70 that wraps up our agenda this evening get home safe everyone back and there's and I I was talking about ear and we sto at this coffee shop