City Council - Regular Meeting

Call this Altoona City Council meeting to order. Now have a moment of silent prayer. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Linda, would you take a roll call, please?

Councilman Beatty.

Here.

Councilman Butterball. Here. Councilwoman Klinich. Here. Councilman Ellis is absent. Councilman Ickes.

Here.

Councilman Kelly.

Here.

Mayor Pacifico.

Here. We have a presentation on the agenda tonight. The 2027 minimum municipal obligation. Jim Garrett, finance director.

Thank you, Mayor. First off, I'd like to start off by saying that the Act 205 of 1984 required the city of Altoona to contribute a minimum amount to the retirement plans each year called the Minimum Municipal Obligation, or otherwise known as the MMO. The MMO for the upcoming year is required to be presented to the governing body of the municipality sponsoring the plan by the plan's chief administrative officer in September of each year. The MMO calculations are based on the estimated active member payroll for the preceding year. So that would be this year's payroll. And the cost components from the most recent actuarial valuation, which is the 1-1-2025 report. So tonight we're presenting the amounts for police of $2,944,285. The fire, $3,673,662. And the non-uniform plan of $1,082,846. Does anybody have any questions? Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Jim.

All right, public comment. We will open the floor. If anybody would like to address counsel, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and please keep your comments to three minutes. The floor is now open.

Hi, my name is Caleb Hogan. I live at 2012 Fifth Avenue. First off, I want to say that I'm very happy to hear that Skoll and Campanaro has been fired. I feel like it's a major victory. But while basking in that major victory, I realized perhaps I was too happy about it. I've been so worn down by the actions and indifference of the city that something as basic as a bigot not being able to hold any power over the people of the city felt like a major breakthrough. This act, which I will say is the bare minimum for just about every position in the workforce, felt enormous to me because this city has ignored us about criminalizing homelessness, because our police force uses flock cameras and has yet to declare that they will not cooperate with ICE, even though surrounding cities have said that they will not. because whenever we voice these concerns there's a non-zero chance that our vice mayor may scream at us whenever we point out the fallacies in the ordinances that he's proposing because we need to have 30 days notice to give a demonstration and have approval of the city we We are either silenced or ignored, so I felt vindicated that finally, at last, this city has done the bare minimum. I thought about these conflicting feelings to me, and I came up with an idea. Because to me, there's no way that this can be just something as mundane as stupidity or obtuse logic. This is clear apathy and maliciousness. Such flagrant disregard for human life and rights cannot be mere happenstance. This is a curated greed made to have everyone outside of your immediate orbit suffer. We, the people of the city, have said time and time again how much we do not agree and do not value any of these ordinances passed or these actions. And we've had to learn the hard way time and time again that for you it is only the money that talks. I yield my time.

Hello, Mayor. My name is Franklin Reed. I'm the owner of Down North Landscaping. I'm here regarding my repository bid for the property on North 4th. I own the adjacent property, and I was recently approved to the zoning board for a special exemption to operate my construction landscaping yard there. I have worked hard to make sure I'm doing everything the right way. I went through the sitting zoning process and received approval for my construction and landscaping yard. I am now taking the proper next steps with professional surveying and a merger plan for my current property so everything is completely correctly through the city and the county. I've also been maintaining the property I'm bidding on for months. It was badly overgrown and I've kept it cut and maintained along with my own property. I've invested $200,000 in this business. I serve the Altoona community, have built a strong reputation with great customer reviews, and I'm committed to continue to invest in this area. My neighbors have supported what I'm doing as well. During my zoning process, neighbors signed a petition supporting my business and that neighborhood support became a part of the zoning record, which I have on record here with me. If I'm approved for this property, I'll continue maintaining and improving it as part of a legitimate local business. I've already shown that I'm willing to put my own time and money and work into improving this property and this community. I respectfully ask council to approve my repository bid. Thank you for your time and consideration.

My name is Harriet Gaston and I live at 302 2nd Avenue. I'm in agreement with the gentleman that was up here first regarding the final removal of him and it dawned on me as I was listening to him that is there an issue here where someone felt okay to do something publicly and to say those statements. So I am hoping going forward as you do the onboarding of new employees along hopefully with the annual training of these employees that something like that is addressed. and what will happen to you if you decide to violate that ordinance. I'm also up here as a follow-up. I had asked about South 5th Street and where things were. Has anybody gone to check it out? And as of a couple of days ago, saw on Facebook, somebody said that the area that is on 17th Street and Margaret Avenue, Boyer, Candy. that apparently that is a place where children cross from the schools. And there is no cross guard there. And the comments that it continued in the Facebook, it was like, well, let's take it up with Altoona Area School District. And then somebody referred it to the city council. I asked them to come. I don't think they came. So I'm now representing them on what I saw from their comments.

My name's Autumn Temple and I live on North 4th Avenue. I just want to state that I am in support of Frank Reed's bid for the repository. If you guys ever go through that area, you'll see that he's invested a lot of time and effort into clearing that area. I also took the opportunity to talk to some of the neighbors and see what their thoughts were on it. And they were in support of his plans. And then the other thing is, as you know, you guys want to bring small businesses to the city of Altoona. Well, this is an opportunity to support a small business who has invested in a rundown neighborhood and it has made it look very nice. If you haven't been there, you should go and look at the pictures and then go and see what he has done. Then I have a couple other things that I wanted to say is, one, I do want to commend you guys, especially Rebecca, Chris, for the Campanaro situation and how you handled that. You know, I'm always saying be transparent, be transparent. And through that whole process, that's exactly what you guys did. You saw the people in the community wasn't happy. You put a statement out there so that people weren't kind of stirred up, festering and, you know, making up stories. So I think that transparency is really important as we move forward in the city and do activities. And then the other thing is, you know, when we're onboarding people that are getting taxpayer dollars, just really to make sure that they know you're a public servant and your behavior is important both on and off the clock and that you are going to be held accountable for that. So you guys made, I appreciate the statement that you made that we're not going to handle nonsense and that you're going to handle it very quick. And then the other thing that I wanted to address and I'm not really sure The attempted abduction downtown. I know that I have to be at work at 7.30 in the morning and I frequently get there maybe about a quarter after 7, 10 after 7. And there's frequently students walking across that area from the Pan Alto down to the bridge. And there's... probably never see any police vehicles or anything. So I don't know if it's like a trans, I don't know what time their hours are. So they might be coming in and doing their shift thing or debriefing or anything like that. But with our students walking, in these areas and it's now getting dark and we have many more derelicts living in our community, I think that it would be important to somehow find a way, even if it's holding the Altoona Police accountable and telling, not the Altoona Police, but the Altoona School District and the Altoona Police accountable and telling them, get your vehicles out of the parking lot. Go roam the streets. Make sure these kids are safe and have a presence. Like I said, I don't know the times of transfers, so I'm not pointing fingers or anything. I'm just hoping that there could be a suggestion so that we have eyes on our kids that are walking to school, especially when it's getting dark. So thank you.

Good evening. My name is John 4141 Apple Lane. I'm here also to talk about the North 4th Street Avenue repository bid. I own 1318 and would like to join it with 131416 to build a house and my future here in the town. I've been running for a couple of years and looking to get a house and it's looking. I like the area. It's a great place. So I'd like I would like my bid approved. So thank you for your time.

Okay, is there any more public comment? Okay, seeing none, we will close the floor and go into the resolutions, Linda.

Item A is approving the minutes of the Altoona City Council meeting held Monday, August 10th. Item B is authorizing a license agreement for a traffic signal placement at Pleasant Valley Boulevard and 27th Street, Logan Township for a placement of a new traffic signal pole as part of the update to the city's project and further authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement and the city clerk to attest to same. Item C is awarding the Juniata Gap pedestrian path lighting improvements to M&B services of Clarion in the amount of $745,858.18 with $584,183 payable from the Multimodal Transportation Fund Grant and $161,675.18 payable from the Grant Match Funds and further authorizing the City Manager to execute all documents and the City Clerk to attest to same. Item D is awarding a demolition bid for 1104 16th Avenue to GNR excavating of Tyrone in the amount of $13,672 payable from the city's altogether Altoona fund, further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and the city clerk to attest to same. Item E is awarding a demolition bid for 2213 Broad Avenue to GNR Excavating of Tyrone in the amount of $102,950 payable from the City of Altoona's Altogether Altoona Fund and further authorizing the City Manager to execute all documents and the City Clerk to attest to the same. Item F is approving a repository bid in the amount of $300 for property located at 1914 11th Street to Renee Beer Price of 1912 11th Street and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Item G is approving a repository bid in the amount of $700 for property located at 2005 to 07 3rd Avenue to Bernard and Michelle Baker of 2011 3rd Avenue and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Item H is approving a repository bid in the amount of $1,000 for property located at 1314 to 16 North 4th Avenue to Franklin Reed Jr. of 113 West 11th Avenue and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Item I is approving a repository bid in the amount of $400 for property located at 1811 8th Avenue to Julian Vaughn of 1010 12th Street and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Item J is approving a repository bid in the amount of $250 for property located at 1314 to 16 North 4th Avenue to John 4 of Altoona and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Item K is approving a repository bid in the amount of $505 for property located at 2409 Walton Avenue to D.O. Ramkisson of Albany, New York, and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Is there anything that needs to be pulled for a separate vote?

I would propose pulling J and K. J and K, okay.

I have a question on an item on the agenda. Item C. That's the Juniata Gap project, Nate. Were bids materially different from when we re-advertised this from when we initially received bids?

Yeah, our first round we had one better was right around 1.1 so we and this is total about a doll to 250 nice 350 actually thanks for their more bids this time than there were last time we're still just a single bit.

Yeah, we had 6 better just better.

OK, I'm going to call for the consent vote first excluding items J and K. Councilman Beatty.

Yes.

Councilman Butterbaugh. Yes. Councilwoman Klinich. Yes. Councilman Ellis is absent. Councilman Ickes.

Yes.

Councilman Kelly. Mayor Pacifico. Yes. And the consent vote passes 7 to 0. And then we have item J, excuse me, 6 to 0. Then we have item J, which is approving a repository bid in the amount of $250 for property located at 1314 to 16 North 4th Avenue by John 4 and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Councilman Beatty.

No.

Councilman Butterbaugh. No. Councilwoman Klinich. No. Vice Mayor Ellis is absent. Councilman Ickes? No. Councilman Kelly?

No.

Mayor Pacifico? No. The vote does not pass. We have item K, which is a reproving of repository bid in the amount of $505 for property located at 2409 Walton Avenue to do Ram kiss in of Albany, New York and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form Councilman Beatty now Councilman butterball now Councilwoman clinch now vice mayor Ellis is absent Councilman it is now. Councilman Kelly. Mayor Pacifico. The vote does not pass.

City Manager updates. Chris. Nothing for the group. Thank you. Council discussion items. Councilman Nickus.

Mayor, I have nothing this evening.

Thank you. Councilman Butterball?

Nothing this evening. Thank you. Councilman Kelly? This is a six.

No, not tonight, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Beatty? No. Councilwoman Quinnip?

No, I have nothing, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Bill?

Welcome back, Bill.

Good to see you, Bill.

Jim, how will the MMO be paid? What are the sources of the funds for paying the MMO?

We receive state aid from the state, and we also collect pension money in the earned income each year from the residents and the non-residents of, I think it's just the residents of the city.

Is that Act 205?

Act 205 money.

What is the percentage?

It's not a percentage. It's a, well, it is a percentage.

It's .4, I believe. .4. Point four, yes. Point four for both residents and non-residents? Yes. Who work in the city? Yes. Okay.

I believe that's our only commuter tax. Okay.

Okay.

And then is it all that, no general fund money for that? Whatever is not made up by that, then general fund money would be utilized. Okay. And I don't know exactly what that number is, Bill. Okay.

Do you know how much state aid you're going to get for this coming year?

No. I won't know until it comes at the end of September. This month? Yeah. Okay.

And do you know what the state aid is based on?

The state aid comes from foreign insurance companies.

That's like fire insurance companies?

Yeah, insurance companies that are out of state have to pay a fee, and that money is used to supplement the pensions. Okay.

And can you say how much each of the plans are funded, like what percentage they're funded?

I don't have that, but I can send that to you.

Okay. Thanks. Would anybody in council care to comment on the statements regarding Scott Campanaro's termination? I mean, there was praise about transparency, and at least one person who questioned, like, how could this happen, you know?

I think Chris and Rebecca did a great job I think the city responded to it made it very distinct and fair considering what our union obligations are what was the first word I didn't hear something unfair I didn't hear the first word ice well I think the city handled it fairly considering what our union obligations are and you know Chris and Rebecca got right on it and did a very fast assessment and then had it settled within a very short period of time. So I think everybody ought to have comfort knowing that it was done very quickly and distinctly.

Anybody else want to say anything?

So Bill, to answer one of the questions, how did this happen? We asked that very same question from the minute that it was brought to our attention. He was hired a number of years ago. We cannot find any documentation that a background check was done at that point in time when he was hired. So that's something that has already been rectified, is there's background checks done on the city employees before they're onboarded.

How long has that been going on?

Christina, we've been doing that now for several years.

A significant period of time, yes.

And then the training. We internally recognized that we needed to do training before this incident even transpired. And Christina had set up that training. So it actually worked out that with this incident reinforced why it was so important to have that ongoing training with all the city employees. I made it abundantly clear that any actions like this will not be tolerated. I have a zero tolerance policy. And if any other city employee did something like that, I think the precedent's been set of what the disciplinary action will look like. And to everybody's point, we are city employees and we're public servants. And public servants need to be held to a higher standard. So I hope that the actions that we took sent that message loud and clear to everyone within an hour of my office being notified. We brought Mr. Campanaro back in off his route. We placed him on administrative leave per the collective bargaining agreement, and then we had conducted the investigation, and then we had a Loudermill hearing, which was all part of his collective bargaining rights. And after the hearing, it was determined that Mr. Campanaro violated what was four city policies, and he was terminated.

Can you say what he responded, how he responded to the initial?

Yeah, I can say that he issued during the Loudermil hearing, before the hearing started, he did issue an apology. And that was read into the record of the hearing. but again it gets back to the point that that i made all along with him and that i made during the hearing we are paid by taxpayer our salaries are paid by the taxpayers we're public servants we need to be held to a higher standard we need to hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard and i will not as long as i'm city manager TOLERATE ANY ACTIONS LIKE THAT BY A CITY EMPLOYEE. AND I THINK THAT THAT MESSAGE HAS BEEN RESOUNDINGLY HEARD THROUGHOUT THE WORKFORCE, THAT THERE'S A ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY.

ANYBODY IN COUNCIL CARE TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THAT? Rebecca, I could talk to you after the meeting or else we could answer now. Could you talk a little bit about the Sunset building and what caused the city to have to pay more than $100,000 to tear it down?

I'm back in July of 2025 the code enforcement officers in the building inspector observed the north side of the building which is the left side if you're looking at the building that side Not the foundation, but right above the foundation, the bricks were bulging and separating. It caused a shift in the building that has continued. At that point, though, we determined that the building was unsafe and we had the building vacated. We hired a structural engineer to assess the condition and the integrity of the building. And a report and analysis was done. But one of the main takeaways was that nobody should occupy that building. Even our emergency personnel were pretty much warned not to go inside. At that point, we had previous repair violations on the building, but due to the structural movement, We had the building vacated. We had the fire department post it with a do not enter placard. Since that time, we have filed citations to have the owner either repair or raise the building. It was entered into our blighted property review program. Our blighted property review committee, because of inactivity on the owner's part, did determine the property to be blighted for demolition. The owner filed an appeal with the Code Appeals Board for that blight determination. The Code Appeals Board came back and said that the owner had five days from that date to obtain a permit and six months to complete the demolition. The building at that time was also to be secured and fenced, secured against unauthorized entry. The owner failed to obtain a permit, so we filed another citation that went to Blair County Court. That was in June. I'm sorry, that went to Magisterial District Court. He was found guilty. He appealed that. It went to Blair County Court to a summary appeals. The judge at Blair County Court gave him, I believe it was one month. No, I'm sorry, it was three months. to obtain the permit six months to have the property down. He failed to do that. Two weeks ago, we had another hearing out at Blair County Court, and it was... Two weeks ago? Yes, correct. And it was determined at that time that he was guilty. That's where we are right now. We've been called. The code enforcement has been called to the building at least three or four times by the Altoona Police Department. They've been responding quite often for reports of squatters in the building. We have gone ourselves, code enforcement, and secured the building because the owner has not secured the building. He did have a fence constructed around the perimeter, but... It's just a constant break-in. It's a constant worry for us. If somebody's in there, they're not permitted to be. Obviously, our emergency personnel and the condition of the building itself, I don't think it's going to make it through the winter, at least that north side. That's where we came to be right now.

I talked with Chris a little bit earlier, but maybe you could reiterate. What about the owner's responsibility? I understand and I would think the owner would be responsible for paying for the demolition.

The owner has indicated to us that he does not have the funds to demolish the property or to repair the property. And that's where the Property Maintenance Code, as well as the Neighborhood Blight and Reclamation Act, gives the city the ability to step in and abate the violation based on safety reasons.

I'm sorry I believe there's only one other property that is owned in the city and our plan is Absolutely. Yes Do you know if that property has enough value to cover the cost of that?

I don't know that right now.

There are other tools in Act 90, though, that we could cover costs.

Yeah, I mean, there's permit denial. Act 90 allows you to do a permit denial, which... may or may not help us in this case is it wage garnishment it's it's asset attachments so there's asset attachments um that's one of the one of the um tools in act 90. that's not a that's different from a lien right that's actually a season correct

Well, it's it's assigning those assets for that purpose. Yes. So it would be the it's the city's ability to to attach or assign those assets of the individual or the LLC that owns that property for the city for the lien to be cleared that the city has on the property.

You mean like before it's actually sold by the owner, you could have it sold.

Well, once it's sold, we would have claim claim to proceeds at that point.

I'm unclear about if you have the ability to attach a property, would that mean you could proactively have the building sold, whatever this other building might be, so you could get the money?

Bill, we are going to make every effort to recover as much of the funds as we can. This is a situation that... shouldn't have happened and we're going to look at all avenues to recover as much of that money as we can and one one other thing the we are looking at doing a process where we would pre inspect rental properties before they're sold so that we would identify issues like this prior to it and if we find them bond a new owner to have it repaired. This was neglect that caused this. There was water entering down through the brick and it froze and pushed out. So this was more of a property maintenance issue. That's why the building failed. And Altoona is going to get very involved in looking at rental real estate and how it's maintained in the future.

What would that be done under? Is that like a you're free to do that?

We would pass an ordinance to create that, just like we do a rental inspection. It's something that on a certain percentage of the rental units that we have in the city as far as volume that need to be looked after, substandard properties.

Well, did the problem, did this leak, this roof leak problem that caused the breaking of, the separating of the bricks, was it something that occurred during the current owner's tenure? Or was it something that he was, that happened after he bought it?

It, according to the engineering report, there was an issue with water prior to his ownership. It was minor. When he purchased the building, he had it repaired. The building was, I believe the report said it was constructed in 1865. It was like almost late 1800s, mid to late 1800s. It wasn't so much the roof, it's the first floor stone and brick. It's actually the first level. So it's a four level building and there was nine apartment units in it.

um not that it was really just coming i mean there was a part of the roof that was deteriorating but it was just rain and other coming in the side if you looked at the building in between the windows on a couple of the floors the brick had come out and they had patched it but it hadn't been done correctly that's why it's so important to have a permit and have it inspected after the repairs are done And that was never done. So it was an inferior repair. And then it led to this.

OK.

Let's see. You say something? Is that it? No, I was looking for another question. Nate, how many bids did you get the first time for the project on Juniata Gepro?

We only had one. Oh, OK.

And then finally, I guess, why no? Why did everybody vote no to the repository bid of John Foer, who was a local person?

There were two people bidding for the same property.

Oh, okay. I didn't notice that.

Yeah, when a bid, my understanding is when a bid is, when someone submits a bid, there has to be action taken on it. Taken on it, so we approve one, we would have to formally reject the other. I take it the other one was a higher. Higher dollar amount, yeah.

One was $1,000, one was $250.

Okay, thank you.

Is that all? Yeah.

Are you adjourned?