Council - Regular Meeting

for the pledge to the flag.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It's like the great and powerful Oz up there.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Raymond. Present. Mr. Callahan. Present. Mr. Colon. Present. Ms. Daniels. Present. Ms. Kwiatek. Present. Ms. Laird. Present. Ms. Leon.

Prior to consideration of the regular agenda items tonight, city council will conduct a public hearing. Public hearing number one, tonight's public hearing will be related to the DCED's 2026 CDBG home funding recommendations. This public hearing is for informational purposes only. There will be no votes taken during the public hearing. In connection with this public hearing, there's one communication. The clerk will read that communication.

July 13th, 2026 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins, director of community and economic development, submitting materials for review by city council during this evening's public hearing for the 2026 community development block grant and home investment partnerships program allocations. For program year 2026, the city will receive $1,370,309 in CDBG funds and $388,308.10 in home money. This public hearing is called to order. I will now recognize a member of the administration to discuss the proposed 2026 CDBG home funding recommendations.

hello thank you for hello thank you for having me tonight my name is robert vedoni i am the housing and community development administrator i work with community development block grant and home investment partnerships funding and other federal funding sources in the community and economic development department so thank you for having me on the agenda tonight So everybody should have a spreadsheet with allocations. That's an 11 by 17 spreadsheet. And you should also have PowerPoint slides just before we start here. So first off, I want to say thank you very much to the Mayor, to Director Collins, to Deputy Director Citullo, and Deputy Director Ziller for all the fantastic support and their dedication to this job and to helping organizations and vulnerable populations in the city. The Community Economic Development Department, a lot of tasks are situated in this department. We have wide-ranging responsibilities, and one of those is managing all sorts of grant funding, including federal grant funds. Is that better? I also want to thank Community Development Bureau staff, our housing rehab staff, and our grant management staff. I also want to thank our nonprofit partners. We are extremely lucky as a city to have absolutely fantastic nonprofit partners that work hand in hand with us to focus resources and help the most vulnerable populations in this city. We could not do this work without those nonprofit partners. They are really they're in the trenches dealing with all the federal funding uncertainty and all sorts of other funding uncertainties, often with, you know, inadequate staff, and they love what they're doing. And we really thank them for all the work they're doing helping vulnerable populations. So before we go through these slides, I'm not going to read every word. I just want to start out by saying CDBG and home funding are two funding sources that are very difficult to use and to administer. They're extremely demanding on city staff and those sources are extremely demanding for our nonprofit partners, whether that's coming up with accounting information, various reporting that we're constantly submitting to HUD and jumping through 30,000 different hoops just to spend this funding. So it's very difficult to administer and very difficult, sometimes difficult to spend. So I'll start out here, our 2026 HUD CDBG and home allocations. So our 2026 CDBG award decreased by about 3% from our 2025 award, and our home award decreased approximately 7% from the prior program year. So our CDBG allocation in program year 2026 was $1,370,309, and our home allocation was $388,308.10. So just as a preliminary matter, when you're looking at the allocation spreadsheet, there's sort of two buckets represented by the two columns to the right. You have the program year 2026 funding, that is put into this annual action plan. And then the other bucket is sort of other sources, which is reprogram prior year funding. So while we are primarily here today to discuss the program year 2026 allocation, the action plan also includes reallocation of previously approved funding and moving money around to efficient sources to these particular activities. So I'll just go through a quick summary here. So the Community Development Block Grant Program, it's an entitlement program that provides annual formula grants to fund projects that meet certain national objectives, including benefiting low and moderate income populations, preventing or eliminating slums or blight, or addressing urgent community needs. Community Development Block Grant funding is extremely flexible. There are a wide variety of potential uses, all with their own individual rules. I think there are over 100 categories of uses. So it's very, it allows jurisdictions to customize the funding to their particular needs and to the needs of their various communities. So CDBG funding supports community development activities directed at revitalizing neighborhoods, economic development, and improving facilities and services. Funds are awarded annually to the city administered by HUD as a formula grant based on a variety of factors, weighted factors such as housing supply, poverty, and other demographic factors I'm not going to go into. Obviously, on an annual basis, the federal funding levels affect what our allocations are. But then HUD also applies a bunch of these weighted factors using these formulas, and then they notify us of our allocations. It's sort of a rather automatic process. So grantees here in the city, we develop our own programs and priorities over a five-year planning cycle and through a five-year consolidated plan. What we're talking about today are proposed activities and allocations that are part of a five-year consolidated plan. this is a one of several hearings where the city collects public input and goes over funding priorities and also goes talks about program performance so the home program the home investment partnerships program was established in 1990 and it is solely focused on housing purposes So just like CDBG, funds are awarded annually as a formula grant based on a variety of weighted factors. This program funds housing activities, including without limitation, direct rental and purchase assistance, and building, acquiring, and or rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or ownership. So home funding can go into both single-family housing projects and rental projects and a variety of other types of activities. But it all is housing-related and all targeted to income-qualified populations, similar to CDBG. so the intent of the home program as discussed it's to target assistance increase the supply of quality affordable housing for lower income households at or below 80 percent area median income to expand non-profit housing provider capacity to strengthen state and local government capacity to provide housing and to also serve to leverage private sector investment in housing As we've heard many times, affordable housing is very expensive because you're often putting in a patchwork of different funding sources that are very complex to structure and plan out in these projects. public money to draw in other capital to allow these housing projects to be built is extremely important. So the City of Bethlehem Home Programs. Bethlehem uses home funds for activities such as home buyer purchase assistance, which provides loans to help with down payment and closing cost assistance under the Bethlehem Home Buyer Assistance Program. and that is in part administered by a nonprofit partner, CILV. We also have home activities related to development and acquisition subsidies for owner occupied and rental affordable housing constructed and or rehabilitated with home funds. So now we will go to, let's see, we're at slide nine, the 2026 funding recommendations. For CDBG, occasionally I'll like read out the acronyms. So Community Development Block Grant, there were 2023 funding requests and we recommended 20 requests for funding. For HOME, there were three requests and we recommended three for funding. CDBG, we accept applications. Usually, we open applications on an annual basis about a month. Home applications, which are generally fewer, that's rolling, and we receive home applications all year. So, unfunded CDBG applicants, any unfunded applicants are encouraged to apply for future funding, subject to future funding availability, and we have a lot of communication with applicants and potential applicants and applicants that were not successful in a particular cycle because we really, there are often situations where an applicant might not have a lot of experience with federal funding. they apply to the city and to other jurisdictions. And maybe over time, you learn more about federal funding, which is particularly onerous. And sometimes they come back and when they have more experience, their application is reviewed again. So there is often a lot of back and forth between potential applicants and unfunded applicants. So let's see here, I'm going to move to, Just some background, so when we talk about a program year in CDBG and Homeworld, HUD World, our program year starts January 1st and ends December 31st. So it's not necessarily the same thing as a fiscal year, whether it be at the federal government or the city. So we are talking about the city's program years. So we generally do not anticipate receiving our 2026 HUD funds until the fall or winter. Obviously that's subject to various federal funding contingencies and uncertainties, but we do anticipate receiving our 2026 allocations sometime in the fall. So just a little background on CDBG funding decision factors. These are just a few. There are many scoring factors when we apply our scoring matrix, and there are many things that HUD will look at when they come and look at these activities. So we look at demonstrated need for project, timely statistics relevant to the beneficiaries, that the projects leverage other funding, that again, they're bringing in other non-federal funding. HUD cares very much about that. They want to see a dollar of CDBG or a dollar of home bring in other funding, ideally. Ideally, that's the case. The ability to spend the grant funds in a reasonable, quickly timeframe or to start a project within a year to 18 months. So we look for quantifiable outcome-based objectives in the application. We also look for ideally coordination with other organizations and attempts by the applicants to go out and seek other funding and build cooperative partnerships with whether they're other government funders or other nonprofits. We also in the city of Bethlehem take into account target areas. We have a north side 2027 neighborhood revitalization strategy area on the north side, and we also have a south Bethlehem target area. These are areas which are selected through various previous public input procedures and we had to apply for HUD for the nurse designation. So geographic target areas, that's another significant factor. So now I will go into very short summaries of the recommended activities. What I'm not going to do is read the detailed summaries. Everybody should have access to more detailed summaries. So if you just in case anybody wants to look, there is a summary document with sort of a narrative descriptions of the projects. And there are red numbers that are assigned to each one of those entries. Those red numbers correspond to the red reference numbers in the allocation spreadsheets. So what I'm going to do is just run down quickly through the recommended activities and the funding. So we'll start with one. This is the City of Bethlehem CDBG program administration and planning costs. This covers personnel costs, professional fees, studies, and other eligible administration costs. Just to actually back up here a little. So there are two significant funding constraints when dealing with CDBG. We have a 20% cap on program admin activities, and we also have a 15% cap on public service activities. Public service activities are our most oversubscribed activities. Sometimes there are multiple requests, several hundred percent of what we actually can give out. So you'll see in the upper right hand corner of this spreadsheet where we have these caps calculated out. So again, for public services, any activities categorized as public services would have to fit under that cap. And those are the blue activities. And we could only give out $205,546. For program admin, any of the activities that have a type A associated with them, all of those activities cannot equal more than the 20% cap, $274,000 and change. So now I will get back to the actual activities. We talked about the cap constraints. So now we'll go into the recommended public service activities. Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem Tenant Advocacy Program. This is focused on tenant education and engagement, landlord tenant mediation, and housing referral services. This is a relatively new program, which we funded last year with CDBG as seed money. And this is a significantly reduced proposed allocation because The applicant went out and they got a lot of other funding sources. They're working cooperatively with other nonprofits, and they are working towards a model where they are bringing in more funding and more diverse funding, which is what we ideally like to see. So that recommended allocation is $15,000. We'll go to three. Bethlehem emergency sheltering. Recommended allocation five or $50,546 and change and that's supporting emergency homeless shelter services which currently run from November through April. pros activity for hogar Korea international Pennsylvania, this is focused on substance abuse and counseling treatment services inpatient treatment for women recommended allocation $20,000. Five, Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living place program, which is housing counseling services for elderly and disabled individuals at risk of homelessness. This is a recommended allocation of $15,000. Six, Share Care Faith in Action, volunteer caregiver and other services for elderly and disabled individuals and their caregivers, $10,000. The next is number seven, Hispanic Center for Lehigh Valley, food pantry service support, culturally appropriate emergency food services for individuals and families. That's a recommended allocation of $20,000. Next is eight, New Bethany, representative payee program related to fiduciary banking and payment services for disabled individuals and other individuals who are not able to manage their own finances or manage their landlord tenant relations. This is, again, designed to prevent homelessness, keep people in their housing. That recommended allocation is $50,000. The next is Community Action Lehigh Valley. And this is providing administration of the city Bethlehem Homebuyer Assistance Program. So CALV is a vital nonprofit partner. They work with the city to help administer our Bethlehem Homebuyer Assistance Program, and that is actually funded with home money. The CDBG money is actually going to the administrative costs. And what the home money does is the home money actually goes to direct subsidies for down payment and closing cost assistance to support single family housing acquisition for affordable housing for first time homebuyers. So again, activity nine, the recommended allocation is $25,000. We will go to 10, North Penn Legal Services. This is the Housing Stability Project, legal services for beneficiaries facing eviction and other housing related needs. Just as a qualifier, these are very, very short descriptions. These descriptions do not necessarily encompass every beneficiary group or every activity that these partner providers you know, actually the services they perform. Again, if you would like to see more detailed descriptions, please look at the summaries and you can always ask questions and we can give you much, much more detailed information. So now we will go to 11, Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem, Exterior Rehabilitation and Weatherization Program. This funds owner-occupied facade improvements. The recommended allocation is $66,000. The next activity is City Housing Rehab Grants and Loans. This actually funds city run housing rehabilitation program, which is run out of the Community Development Bureau. And this is a program which is owner occupied. You have to be an owner of owner occupied housing. You have to be income eligible, like generally all these other programs. And this includes emergency repair. and you know emergency repairs and there are there are partnerships between our housing rehab program and the health bureau in terms of lead in healthy homes and there are a lot of different partnerships which run through the community development housing rehabilitation subunit so the recommended allocation for the city housing rehab grants and loans The PY 2026 is $100,000. The total is $150,000. And you can look at the different columns. I won't do the breakdown. People can read if they like. The next one we will go to is city housing rehabilitation program delivery. And that also supports our city owner occupied housing rehabilitation program. And it supports salary and delivery costs for the housing rehabilitation program. It's a different category of costs. It's just a different sort of HUD activity category, but it supports the same program as the other housing rehabilitation activity. The next activity, number 14, is New Bethany Wyandotte Street apartment renovations and improvements. improvement of a Section 8 rental unit and various site improvements to enhance safety for that particular property. The recommended allocation is $50,000. The next activity is 15, Bloom for Women, Heather House Improvements. This is a women's transitional group home. The funding would support facility expansion, roof replacement, bathroom additions, and related ancillary work. That is a $80,000 recommended allocation. Number 16, Via of the Lehigh Valley Inc. This is a facility upgrade project, and this CDBG would be used to support purchase and installation of a generator, sump pump replacement, and the total allocation would be $299,000. The next activity, 17, is It's basically it's a joint project city BS price church UCC and this is supporting this is soft cost design and engineering costs related to an emergency homeless rehabilitation project. So this money would go to supporting design and engineering soft costs prior to the construction commencing The next activity 18 city future projects and grants this is an amount that would be available to shift as needed potentially into other projects. Just what this whole spreadsheet is it's sort of we are making it's a almost a snapshot in time what happens every year is you know some projects might be ahead of schedule there might be certain projects that are. behind schedule thing, you know, projects change. And so we actually having a small amount of funding that could be, especially with the federal funding uncertainty, it can be extremely helpful to nonprofit partners. So that is that activity. 19 is the, it would be the city department of public works, and this is site cleanup and safety improvements at an encampment site located off center street, south of city hall. And that is a recommended allocation of $50,000. The next activity, CDBJ activity, Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority Blight Prevention and Elimination Program Administration, recommended allocation, $25,000. I will jump now to the Home Investment Partnerships Program. And again, this is federal funding that must go to various housing activities. So activity 21, this is City of Bethlehem Home Investment Partnerships Program administration and planning costs. Similar to CDBG, HUD, absolutely, they prescribe a percentage that they believe is necessary and reasonable to run these onerous and extremely complex projects because it is much more than, you know, there's project design, there's also years and years and years of project administration, particularly with home, where you're tracking projects, submitting reports to HUD, and these projects take a very long time. So again, While the home activity, 21, is subject to a 10% cap. So that's the genesis of that activity. The next activity is a non-discretionary activity, 22. And that is, the recipient would be Community Action Lehigh Valley. And they serve as the city's community housing development organization which is a home term of art it's a type of entity that's eligible for this particular type of funding we actually do not have discretion we must allocate 15 of our annual allocation to chodo funding so that is that activity and number 23 That is the recipient would be a Penrose entity. This is the Gateway on 4th multifamily rental new construction project. This is a 60 units mixed income rental. And the total funding within this action plan, as you can see, is $1,488,173.14. So those are the projects, recommended projects or proposed projects. Now I'm going to jump back into the presentation, and we'll start on slide 19, which actually looks like it's page 10. So I'm not going to go through every slide in detail here. There's some information on the city's neighborhood revitalization strategy area, which that runs in a five-year term, which usually runs concurrent to the city's consolidated plan document. And we successfully applied to HUD to renew this strategy area and to also expand the boundaries. And the benefits of having this area, there are a bunch of regulatory incentives that make this difficult money easier to use in a more flexible fashion so that we can. But there are, to qualify as a NIRSA, these areas and the various demographic factors have to meet very strict HUD criteria. So they looked at the application and they agreed this is an important revitalization focus area. So, the next slide 20, the next actually few slides talk about the city's fantastic housing rehabilitation program. And while we go into a little more detail on the city's housing rehab program, again, we just because there are a lot of other items here at this meeting, we're not going to go into super detail on all the fantastic activities from our nonprofit partners. So as you can see, you can read about some of the stats on program performance related to our housing rehab program. We have longtime dedicated staff who are working every day to help people improve their homes. And it's fantastic for the homeowners. It's also fantastic for the city. It helps property values. It helps communities. It's a great program with very good production. So we'll just talk quickly about next steps here. So what is happening is we have submitted a resolution for the agenda that would approve submission of the city's annual, the city's proposed annual action plan and these proposed activities and allocations to HUD. So HUD will review it. It comes back to us. Sometimes it's an iterative process, but what happens is in the fall and winter, provided we have the approval to submit, we would expect this funding to come in. We could start working with the nonprofits to, first we have to execute agreements, and then we could work with the nonprofits to actually start putting this funding to use. So you can see if anybody has any questions, please feel free to contact us, email us, call us. We are here to help people understand this program. Again, if you know any organizations that you think might want to apply for CDBG or HOME, please direct them to me. It's a standard activity. We frequently talk to organizations and individuals about designing potential applications for the future, even one or two years in the future, because having that kind of interaction really leads to better applications that are less risky for everybody involved. So again, if you know anybody that's interested, please direct them to the contacts that are provided in the last page of the slides. So those are, I guess, my final words. right now.

Thank you, Mr. Vittoni. I will now recognize members of council for comment. Council to my left. Mr. Colon.

Thank you, Councilman Laird. I just had one question, Mr. Radone. On slide nine, which is page five of the handout, for CDBG, you note there were 23 funding requests and 20 awards. Do you know of the 23 requests, how many were new, first-time applicants? And then similarly, of the 20 awards, do you know how many of them were first-time recipients?

So we do know that. You just have to bear with me here. Okay, I'll pull out my grant application spreadsheet for CDBG here. So now when we look at applications, it's not just by, we don't just look at the entity, we also, it's the activity that they're applying for the funding. So in terms of new, potentially new projects here, or new applicants, So it looks like out of the applicants here, we had three new CDBG applicants. Out of the home applications, we only have one external home application in the pipeline, which is the Gateway project. And again, that's a rolling application. So we did have, give me one second. I will just give you one more piece of information here. So it does look like we had three new CDBG applications, as in the entity did not apply for the same activity in the last year.

And of those three, how many received funding?

I believe two here.

Okay.

So we actually, so this year we did, I mean, I can say specifically, let me just look at the list here.

You're free to use the desk if you need more space, Mr. No, I do not need more space.

So we had, while we had new activities, we also did have, we had, yes, we had two new applicants, new programs that, um, that were funded.

Thank you, Mr. Videmi. And I just appreciate, and I know historically yourself and your predecessor, the whole department's been great at trying to pair and partner applicants who maybe they weren't ready for this type of funding or whatever the case would be with other funding sources, as is outlined in your presentation today. So thank you for your work with the CDBG home dollars, but also more broadly the work you do. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other members of council? uh i have one question myself um you mentioned that there's a three percent decrease in cdbg award and seven percent in home award and i realize that that's a more complex formula uh in general did all recipients of this funding see decreases across the board like was there less i cannot give you a definite answer i haven't done that that review i believe

all of the applicants for these two funding sources at least received some proportional, like similar percentage reduction based on any federal funding allocation reduction. I can't speak to the application of the weighted factors.

Sure. But there were fewer federal dollars available.

I believe that is the case. There were some small reductions.

Thank you. All right. I will now recognize members of the public for any comment on the information presented. Thank you very much, Mr. Fedocchi.

Thank you.

Okay, so this comment period is just for the CDBG home funding that we're looking at. There will be other public comment periods. Sebastian.

Great, thanks for the clarification. My name is Sebastian from 811 Elm Street, Bethlehem, PA. I just want to, we got a lot of information that was just delivered to us by about the CDBG, a lot of funding that's going to be allocated to a lot of projects throughout the community. Sometimes these are really large numbers and it's not really clear exactly what the projects are being invested in. So I just want to put a word of caution and thoroughness in our looking into these projects. And when we're assessing them to be assessing them for like not to be glitzy projects, right? We want our project to be nice and look good. but also to be very practical and address specifically the needs that are most prevalent in our community. And also, we also want these projects to be repeatable, or myself, I want these projects to be repeatable, right? So as we see with grant funding, it is limited. It's constantly under threat of being reduced. So we want these projects to maybe become more efficient economically viable to move forward. A large part of these initial projects when they get off the ground is that 20% budget allocation for the administrative costs. We talk about designing, proposal, things like that. We want the projects that we're investing in to maybe reduce that cost moving forward too. So every time we get grant funding, maybe let's find a repeatable project that when we get that same grant funding next year, that 20% cost of administrating goes down as well. So we can be putting more money to more units as a part of those projects. And on a final point around rent control too, I don't know how much is maybe dictated by HUD as a part of this, but I have heard from members of council and the Bethlehem City that we're constantly looking for to how to increase our affordable housing or affordable rents as a part of these projects. And I would love to see one day where we're hitting like a 30% threshold on some development projects, if not even higher with the funding that we're seeing here. So again, maybe I'm... not well informed on that fact about how these projects are applied but we've seen throughout the nation how when you get to levels of 30 percent affordable housing as a part of any project it's you know very uh impactful for the community so thank you very much thank you are there any other members of the public uh to my left for a comment anyone else in the center

Hello, everyone. My name is Brian Sweeney, 507 East 4th Street, also Director of Operations, Bethel Emergency Sheltering. so you guys are discussing the upcoming cdbg funding which bes receives a portion of those fundings and i just want to stress the importance of how important those fundings are to bes and the people that we serve last season bes was blessed to be able to serve 223 unique individuals for 11 671 bed nights That's 11,671 times that someone slept in a safe bed instead of out in the streets of Bethlehem. 28% were fleeing domestic violence. 46% had a mental health diagnosis. 34% had a disability. And 21% were 60 or older. 59% of our individuals had a monthly income of $500 or less. 80% had a monthly income of $1,000 or less. In fact, only eight individuals served had a monthly income of $2,000 or more. 80% of all the folks that we served were from North Hampton or Lehigh counties. 96% served were from the state of PA. Five total individuals came from Philadelphia, and eight total individuals came from out of state. I say that all to say that these are our neighbors. These people have been from the Lehigh Valley, grew up here, and are just under some tough times. So please consider that when you're going over your fundings. Also, I signed up to speak, but that's what I was going to say, so you can just cut me off of that.

Thank you so much. Anyone else in the center for public comment on the CDBG funding or home? Anyone to my right? All right. Resolution 10A has been placed on tonight's council agenda. So the public hearing portion of our meeting tonight is adjourned and we'll move on to our regular agenda. Um, do any council members have comments on the minutes from our July 7th, 2026 meeting? Okay, hearing none, the minutes stand approved. We'll now move on to our first public comment period. This public comment period is for any subject that we are not voting on this evening. Speakers are invited to spend a maximum of five minutes at the podium. And again, this is for items that we are not voting on tonight. I'm going to begin with people that signed up in advance. So that would be Chrisanne Drust-Lustig first. You can approach the podium.

Hi. Actually, the pronunciation of the last name is Drust Lustig, but that's okay. Sorry about that, thank you.

That's all right, that's not a problem.

Actually, I expected to see, oh, I thought my voice was loud enough. I actually thought that I would see the city of Bethlehem mayor here this evening, but I would like to thank the city of Bethlehem, the members of council, the police department. I saw that there's a gentleman here from the police department, and I believe from the fire department. It's the white shirt. I want to thank the public safety committee and their employees, if there is anyone here. the family, friends, and concerned citizens. We as citizens, the issue is we have a petition, and I believe that you have a copy of the petition in front of you. I'm going to read it for the people that don't have a copy here. And there's three pages of signatures that have 85 signatures, and I'll just get going with it. So the issue is, in light of the recent stabbing which took place on the Greenway, and seeing the growing number of homeless individuals finding refuge under the pavilion on the 200 block of the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Greenway, it is important that the safety and security of the Greenway on the south side of Bethlehem are addressed immediately. We, the Litzenberger House residents, and that is my resident, it is 225 East 4th Street. We have 101 apartments in that building, and we retained 85 signatures of that establishment. Our calling on Bethlehem Housing Authority to assist in passing along our concerns to the City of Bethlehem Council, to ensure the Greenway remains a safe and welcoming place to be enjoyed by family and the community. Bethlehem Housing Authority has already installed brighter lighting which improve visibility at night in our building and set up security cameras at strategic points. on our outside of our building. Furthermore, we are suggesting for a plan to address the homelessness in the area, providing support and resources to those in need while also maintaining the integrity of the Greenway as a family friendly space. The city of Bethlehem should be kept informed of these issues to facilitate interventions. For that reason, we are asking for the Bethlehem Housing Authority to pass along our petition to the city authorities to emphasize our concerns that will return safety and peace of mind to the Litzenberg House residents specifically who use and cherish the Greenway. The Greenway should be a place of peace and relaxation for the community, a place where families can walk, jog, and enjoy the natural beauty of our city without fear. Sadly, recent events have shown that the Greenway has become a place of danger and concern. The stabbing incident has left the community shaken and Litzenberg House residents worried about their safety when utilizing this public space. This is not the environment our community deserves. We are coming together as a community directly to the Bethlehem Housing Authority to act as our liaison with the City of Bethlehem. We all understand the BHA is not responsible for the safety of the Greenway, and it is the responsibility of the City of Bethlehem. The safety of the Greenway affects us all, and only by working collectively can we ensure a brighter, safer future for our beloved public space. Accompanying this petition are signatures of our residents who are asking to protect our community. please feel free to contact me only as one of the 101 apartments in the building just makes it easier to pass on the information to relay your reply or concerns to the residents we are asking her they were asking me to resent to be a representative only as a contact person Thank you. And we all look forward to working together for safety. And I have brought a few of the residents that came. Of course, we are governed under Bethlehem Housing, which is HUD. And I have lived there for five years myself, personally. And it's quite a building. It's one of safety. And we'd like it to be kept that way.

so thank you very much for your time and listening to what our concerns are thank you so much and uh yes the petition was sent to all members of great thank you so much uh david roof is the next person i have signed up good evening uh

Many of you might remember me. I was here for our two marathon meetings we had with fire department staffing. At that time, the last meeting, I was led to believe that there was an $84,000 study or whatever was going to be done. It was going to be presented sometime in June. Well, we're in July, and I was waiting for this study. Now, I don't know if the administration has it. I don't know if council has it. I don't know if it's completed. I don't know if it's being treated like the Epstein files and being redacted because of what is in that file. But... I think personally, as a taxpayer, And although it came from city funds, it's city, citizens, tax dollars that paid for that study. And we should have full access of it in its unabridged presentation. And at that time, if need be, we can sit and discuss pros and cons. But I would like to see that study. I don't know if the fire chief has seen it or is aware of it, but we need to study. We know what the problems are in the city of Bethlehem. I just saw a morning call, median housing in Bethlehem is like $360,000. We're the second in the state as far as population growth. And yet the fire department staffing is below the 1970 levels. Well, I don't need anything to fall on my head to know that there's an issue. There's a problem. And I'm hoping that this study will bring this to light. And I personally would like to have it publicized and let the citizens of Bethlehem see exactly where we're at with the Bethlehem Fire Department staffing, which is atrocious. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roof. The next speaker I have for comment is Janet Berry, I believe that says.

Earlier this month, I stood before the Planning Commission because I'm very concerned by what I'm seeing happen to Bethlehem. I'm here tonight to reiterate my concerns, which impact the quality of life of the people in Bethlehem, especially in the East Hills section. I am upset by the proposal of putting in several homes on Mercator Road, where one home currently stands. And while that is a decent plot of land, it seems to me that developers are going to be shoehorning in homes into that area. I do find that to be foolhardy, but I am not someone who sees every piece of land as a business venture. Now we have the potential for apartments at the intersection or excuse me, yes, we have the potential for apartments at the intersection of East Boulevard and North Street. This is a residential area and apartments are going to be shoved in dwarfing the existing homes. This will be the fifth approval of apartments in what I believe is about a two mile radius. I'm also very distressed at the proposal of a storage unit to be built behind the area of Walgreens. And I really can't visualize where that storage unit is going to be, but I certainly hope that homes will not be leveled to accommodate such a business. I'm sure there are a lot of people who are questioning these decisions, but it seems that City Council is no longer running Bethlehem. Rather, Bethlehem has become a developer's playground with apartment buildings being put on every corner, despite the infrastructure being unable to support the influx of people. While zoning may be written to allow for such development, council does have the power to say no and or work with Harrisburg to make positive changes to zoning laws that have been virtually unchanged for decades. You should be responsive to the city residents who are your employers, but yet you appear more responsive to the developers. Just because things are zoned a certain way does not mean that you have to approve every single thing. Another issue of great importance to me, and one where I believe council is falling short, is the beautification of Bethlehem. Around town, there are signs proclaiming Bethlehem a tree city USA. yet curb trees are constantly being chopped down. Even though those trees are to be replaced, there certainly doesn't seem to be any follow through by the city, which I don't feel is doing its due diligence. Just two weeks ago, the planning commission lamented the loss of trees at the Polk Street project, but seemed satisfied that funds would be added to Bethlehem's tree fund. We just experienced one of the worst heat waves in recent history. In fact, probably one of the worst in my lifetime, or at least I hope it will be the worst in my lifetime. And it is a known fact that trees provide shade, cool areas, and provide a beautiful aesthetic in our neighborhoods. Bethlehem and City Council is doing nothing to live up to its moniker of Tree City USA. City Council, you need to be responsive to the voter, enforce your own rules, and pay attention to what is happening. Stop kowtowing to developers and start working for the people. The Christmas City is quickly becoming a city of renters.

Thank you, Ms. Berry. I now see Wheelmark Mariano.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening. My name is Gilmarc Mariano. I'm actually from the Philippines and a counselor back at home, a young legislator as well. I'm currently doing a summer program at Lehigh University. So I came by myself here looking into understanding how is it like to run your council meeting in comparison to how we do it back home. And for the past one hour listening to how you do things, it's really impressive how you give the opportunity to the people of Bethlehem to speak out, which we don't have back home in our city council. So it's something that I will really bring back when I go back to the Philippines next month. And I hope as well, this is my second time in Bethlehem. I did Global Village program at Lehigh University in 2023. Now I came back as a residential guide for a summer program of the Iacocca Institute. And I hope that it is also an opportunity to uh established partnership between my hometown i am from san isidro isabella which is a small town just like bethlehem in the northern province uh of of the philippines so i hope that after the session uh i could have this opportunity to probably discuss uh the possibility of um sisterhood between my city and Bethlehem, which I truly love and I still do love. This is my second time, but still, it fascinates me how beautiful your city is. At the same time, next year also, we're discussing the possibility of bringing in young legislators. I'm very active with the National Movement of Young Legislators, which is an organization for young legislators 40 years old and below. We hope to bring them and have this experience, just like what I'm experiencing now, next year. So I really hope to establish this strong collaboration between the City of Bethlehem and the Philippines. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. And anyone for public comment, if you'd like to speak to a member of council more in depth or to a member of administration, you are invited to stay until the end of the meeting to do so. So thank you. All right. So that exhausts our list of people who signed up in advance. I will now invite those who did not sign up in advance to speak on topics that we are not voting on this evening. So is there anyone to the left who did not sign up? If you wouldn't mind just stating your name for the record.

Hello, my name is Rooster DeMott. I'm at 2297 Black River Road. I am here as a recently informed and very concerned citizen of Bethlehem. As of May 2024, the City of Bethlehem Police Department partnered with Flock Safety to install three flock cameras on city streets and open for a community partnership using private security cameras. There was no clear public announcement about this, only basic coverage by local news stations such as WFMZ and the Lehigh Daily. I was unaware of this installation until 2026 when I offhand noticed a flock camera installed outside by the AutoZone at Five Points. Chief Michelle Kott says the Bethlehem PD is only using the license plate reader aspect of this AI-based technology. However, camera data is still stored for weeks or months with a company called Gentex Surveillance. Automatic license plate readers, ALPRs, are a dangerous, inaccurate, inefficient, and quite frankly, creepy surveillance tool that has no place in Bethlehem, let alone the Lehigh Valley. They record hundreds of hours of data and store them in a national database for months. These data are not protected under any warrant of any kind. Officers are able to access video footage under any suspicion of a crime or incidents or under no suspicion whatsoever. This wide database of video footage has already fallen victim to multiple data breaches being accessed for nefarious purposes, including falsely accusing people of crimes and alleged pedophilia. Even in its proper use case, reading license plates, ALPRs flounder. Flock cameras in Bethlehem have resulted in only three arrests, and the plates do not use to ID these plates accurately do so only 1% to 5% of the time. Despite this, they are being used across the nation to track people, pin crimes on them, and potentially arrest and charge them. Hundreds of people across the country have already reported being falsely accused of traffic violations due to the inaccuracies of these AI trackers. How long until this happens in Bethlehem? Bethlehem's installment of cameras has been limited compared to our neighbors, and for that, I am thankful. We only currently have three to five sites under surveillance, along with the opportunity for community surveillance through private cameras, although I could not find any public data on how many people exactly have signed up for this program. allentown currently has 67 flock cameras i could not imagine living under such surveillance as your constituent and these are the words of the aclu i urge you to pass legislation that reinforces the use of automatic license plate readers alprs alprs are being used to track our movements spy on our communities and compile detailed databases on our everywhere we use our vehicles and it's far too easy for this data to be misused. You have the power to protect us from this surveillance, and that starts with passing legislation to either ban ALPRs or create strict regulations that include the following guardrails. Limiting data retention to hours or days, not weeks or months. Limiting data by sharing Limiting data sharing by prohibiting local law enforcement from providing access to any other government entity unless they have a warrant for a felony crime that is recognized under local state law. I'm talking about ICE detention here. Limiting usage to felony investigations, missing persons cases, identifying unregistered and uninsured vehicles, and certain limited non-enforcement scenarios like electronic toll collection. Requiring annual usage reporting and placing limits on the availability of ALPR data via open records requests so it cannot be used for troublesome purposes like stalking or embarrassing a person for entertainment value. Each day these cameras remain active. They collect sensitive data that could be used to violate our rights. Please act now. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Is there anyone else to my left who would like to make comment on something not being voted on this evening? Okay. Anyone in the center?

Harry Faber, 321 Georgia Avenue. Wasn't really planning on speaking, but I was a little troubled by one of the comments. I think it might have been the first one I heard. And I'm reading, among a lot of things, I call myself a communist, a socialist. Among other things, I also call myself an abolitionist. I'm currently reading Abolition Geography, Essays Towards Liberation by Ruth Wilson Gilmore. Really recommend it. But when we talk about homelessness and crime, yeah, these are issues that are deeply rooted in economics. And I just want to reiterate that public spaces aren't only for those who have houses, those who have homes. solid incomes, these public spaces like the Greenway. Being homeless doesn't make you a threat and you shouldn't be treated as that. And also the answer to homelessness and the answer to crime isn't mass incarceration. It's not throwing away people and locking up people and throwing away the key. So I just want to make sure that we're not thinking that that's like the right answer or solution to any of the systemic problems we have. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the Broad Center?

I guess this light don't work, huh?

There's a button on the front there, clerk. Don't work.

Hi, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Hi, my name's Artie Kurathola in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, resident, born and raised here. I speak a lot about people in power in our city. And I have no objections with anybody of any race making a living and having a successful business. Most of the people that have businesses that are in power happen to be Jewish. I am not opposed. I do not hate the Jewish people. But we, whether we're Jewish or not Jewish, Gentiles, whatever nationality we are, read the prophet Hosea. in the Old Testament who's Jewish, who Jesus actually quoted on the Mount of Olives, who spread the word of love over hate so that the Jewish people would shine God's love throughout all nations to be the chosen people of God. That is the main focus. I'm not saying all Jewish people are evil. I never said that. As the press has misquoted me many times, called me anti-Semitic, and saying that I hate the Jewish people. Whoa. But for a thousand years or more, The Jewish people can't or won't negotiate with their neighbors in the Middle East. They just want to kill the innocent brothers and sisters that are there, destroy their lands so that they can own the land and control all of the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa, Britain, and they're controlling the minds of the people in the United States. It's time that we put an end to this and put our foot down, especially if you're Jewish. Is there something what?

We've covered this, unfortunately, multiple times.

My meter is still going here.

Aware. That while comments made by certain public commenters might be deeply hurtful or inappropriate in most settings, As I said before, I am not stating that I hate the Jewish people, and I'm not stating it at all.

I'm saying that we need to replace control and power and hate with love, no matter who we are. Now, we seem to have more Jewish leaders in our city of Bethlehem than other cities. I'm not opposed to that at all. I don't know why we're interjecting on this and why you had to interfere with my meter. I would have gave you a tip if you would have been a little nicer. But anyway, the prophet of Hosea in the Old Testament, The terrorists of Israel and the radical Republicans in our country should really go along with that to end the genocide. And we should end the control and the hatred in every city that we live in, especially in Bethlehem, because this is our city. This hatred thing is spreading like a cancer, like a wolf in sheep's clothing throughout our cities, especially really great in Bethlehem and the entirely high valley. I could show you where they misquoted me and you have the records of me speaking i'm going to have to have my jewish attorney eventually get those records if you don't straighten this matter out with the press um anyway It just seems that the radical Jews would rather kill and destroy and ruin a lot of people's lives and consider them anti-Semitic. And that's not really...

Your time is up, Mr. Curatola. Please sit down.

Well, we should spread the love, including the people at City Council here. God bless you.

In case the comment wasn't heard when it was asked, there was a question about what forms of speech can be controlled in our public comment sections. Unfortunately, comments made by individuals that are not attributing to specific individuals, calling out specific individuals, et cetera, are protected free speech, and we are unable, it appears, to stop all of them. There are times when we can and have intervened. I am sorry for any harm that that causes to people who are forced to hear it. I will now invite, yes, go ahead. That's you, Mr. Antalex.

Stephen Antalex, 737 Ridge. Like Mr. Faber, I didn't intend to say anything, but this kind person hit a topic that I've been on ad nauseum, that's developers taking over. And she was right on target. If you drive on 5th Street, Hillside Avenue, Fillmore, Webster, any day this week, you'll feel like you're in a deserted city. Why would you feel that way? Because you could pick any spot on those streets to park your car. Nowhere else in Bethlehem does that happen. Why does the South Side feel like an uninhabited city? If you can answer, write it down and let me see it. Because the simple answer is students are away on vacation. Come September, you can't find a parking spot because in some cases, they're double parking on the street. It's a busy city. who owns the properties. The company puts big signs, rent from us. Because that company owns over 100 properties in that area. They all have yellow doors. No other city in the country is that way. Who made it that way? The woman who's right, city council. City council created that problem. Very, very simply. By the definitions in the zoning code, by proving the definitions, I've ad nauseum asked them to revise it. It's not happened. even went further to call that area student zone. You're not going to see a single family in that because it's a student zone. At one time, that was a pearl of the city of Bethlehem. It's a shame. because what made Bethlehem was that type of neighborhood. As a matter of fact, to amplify how you created that, at some meeting some time ago, I referred to students as transients. And I was accused by a member of council that I was making disparaging remarks while I checked with 9 out of 10 city developers and they all 100% agree that students are transients. When proof drives almost reached tomorrow. So, Council needs to shape up and look at that problem and start revising definitions. And maybe Bethlehem will begin to look more like a residential city rather than a home of transients.

Thank you, Mr. Antelix. Is there anyone else in the Broad Center? Go ahead.

Terry Kloiber, Grandview Boulevard, Bethlehem. And to quote Stephen, the woman was right. Everything she said tonight, I just wish I had come up with some of that stuff. You all know we're going to be fighting the Bennett Slott building. The developer there is planning monstrous, a monstrosity. Several of you have walked the neighborhood. And I think all of planning, all of zoning, all of those groups, you guys included, everyone should be walking these areas to see what the surrounding neighborhoods are before you go and allow five and six story buildings behind two story neighborhoods. It's gonna be pitiful if this goes through when he starts putting his plans together. And it's just a shame that when I went to the Allentown zoning hearing a couple weeks ago for the first part that BAHX wants to build on the Allentown side, and I got up and I said, why can't you guys hold him to what the rules are? Let him color within the lines. And they told me, well, sometimes we just have to allow these variances that they want. Well, you don't. Make them stick to the rules. Don't go through all this. We went through the commercial part last time. We won on that, thankfully. The curative amendment, I don't even know where that is right now for the length. I believe he lost on the length and he has to stay within the length. But he's still going to go five and six stories behind our two-story neighborhood. So I really thank you for all you said, and I hope everyone takes that to heart. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the Broad Center on something we're not voting on?

Sebastian Zavaruca, 811 Elm Street, Bethlehem, PA. To the new members of council, welcome. My name is Sebastian. I've spoken in the past around issues of ICE and concern to our community members. I look to revisit the topic of the welcoming city. about this time a year ago we had a few incidences of kidnappings in our own community we had 17 members of our community kidnapped from a local work site here of which we still don't know all the names of those people who were taken away We also recently had a vigil this past Saturday in memory of the two people who lost their lives in the past couple of weeks. Their name is Johann Sebastian Duran Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. I would just like to take two minutes to think about the lives that are lost. What we did not see at the vigil this past week was the same number of people of our community as had turned out months ago when two white people were killed. We saw hundreds of people there and the numbers did not show up in the same amount for these two people who were killed in the same capacity. Members of Council, we've been through this a number of times, and from my memory, the largest opposition to the idea of a welcoming city ordinance was the fear of some reaction coming down on us. What have we seen in our sister city of Allentown over that same time since they passed their welcoming city ordinance? None of that fear has come to fruition. There has been no federal mandate against Allentown or reaction why i am pushing for the welcoming city ordinance is that while yes our police do not participate that is a voluntary action that is not hard law stipulated and can be codified what we've seen over the past few years is the constant precipitous erosion of our civil liberties when we do not protect them to the best of our abilities and we have that opportunity once again

you thank you anyone else in the broad center for comment on an item not being voted on this evening to my right anyone for comment on an item not being voted on right We will now move on to comment on items being voted on this evening. We had one person signed up, but he has already commented in the hearing portion of the meeting. So is there anyone to my left to comment on an item being voted on tonight?

Hello again. My name has not changed in the last 10 minutes. I am still Rooster DeMott, 2297 Black River Road. There are many resolutions being voted on this evening, which I have my full support behind. Of course, the Bradbury Sullivan Pride, which has been approved the last decade. I don't think you guys are going to vote against that this year. The multiple that I want to focus on specifically are the Emergency Solutions Grant on behalf of Lehigh Valley Homeless Service Providers and the Watered Shed Restoration and Protection Program Grant. The Emergency Solutions Grant, ESG, is of course, as this gentleman said, vital to supporting the unhoused population of Bethlehem. I have done studies on this population with this population. They are well-educated, wonderful people who are suffering through some of the worst weather we've ever experienced with no protection. We cannot currently house all of the unhoused people in the city, the small amount that we have proportional to our neighbors in Allentown. And so I cannot emphasize enough how I would like this money to be expanded to support these people as much as possible. A safer Bethlehem is a Bethlehem where everyone can have housing that is affordable. And I understand that Lehigh's presence in Bethlehem has certainly spiked those expenses. And I wholeheartedly agree that certain landlord companies have a stronghold, which is what's making this difficult. So expanding programs that support the unhoused population can result in a safer Bethlehem for all of us. In terms of the watershed restoration and protection grant, I again would hope that this is approved and expanded. I cannot emphasize enough how much there's a memo here earlier on the data center approvals. I cannot emphasize how much a negative impact data centers have on the water quality of the Poconos specifically, which is where we got our water. I know that Bethlehem, city water has been heavily polluted by the presence of the steel bridge company, and so we are unable to support our own water and that is why we have Pocono water supplies. And so I would hope that the city of Bethlehem would act as a harbinger of protection for these very important water sources for its people. So I would hope that as part of the expansion of the grant for water protection that we would also look into limiting the expansion of data centers which use this clean, safe water and turn it into pollution really warm and really inaccessible for people who actually need it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else to my left speaking on an item that we'll be voting on this evening? Okay, anyone in the broad center for items we'll be voting on? Mr. Faber.

Hello, thank you. Yeah, I also wanted to speak about the data center ordinance. Overall, I'm pretty... Mr. Faber, we're not actually voting on the data center ordinance.

No, that's a communication tonight. It will go to committee. Oh, gotcha. Yep. All good. We will definitely have opportunities to speak on that when it does come up for vote.

Thank you.

Anyone else on topics we're voting on this evening? Okay. And to the right. All right. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this evening. We move on to council business. Does anyone have any old business as a member of council? Any new business from members of council? Um, I bring to the table, uh, I will accept a motion and a second as we've done in the past, uh, due to upcoming music fest and the impact that has on this area, um, to reschedule the time of the city council meeting on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026 to 5 30 PM instead of 7 PM. Uh, so do I have a motion in a second?

Second.

Second.

Any discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kuitak?

Aye.

Mr. Raymond? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. And Ms. Laird?

Aye. Motion passes 6-0. The starting time of the August 4th council meeting has been set for 5.30 p.m. That concludes new business. We now move on to communications. Clerk, please read communication 6A.

A July 15th, 2026 memorandum from DCED Grants Administrator Lori Giglio with an attached resolution. Ms. Giglio seeks authorization to apply for up to $1.5 million of emergency solutions grant funds from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. This action would be on behalf of Lehigh Valley's homelessness service providers. The city would act as a pass-through for the funding if it is awarded.

Resolution 10 C is on the agenda. 6B.

July 15th, 2026 memorandum from DCED grants administrator, Lori Giglio with an attached resolution. Ms. Giglio seeks authorization to apply for the watershed restoration and protection program grant through the Pennsylvania department of community and economic development. If received the grant of up to $300,000 would be used to rehabilitate the Stefco Swale.

Resolution 10 D is on the agenda. Uh, communication six C please.

July 15th, 2026 memorandum from DCD grants administrator, Lori Gillio with an attached resolution. Ms. Gillio seeks authorization to apply for the multimodal transportation fund grant through the Pennsylvania department of transportation department of community and economic development. If received the grant of up to $3 million would be used for construction in alignment with the complete streets plan on Stefco Boulevard.

Resolution 10 E is on the agenda. Communication 60.

July 15th, 2026 memorandum and proposed ordinance from Kathy Fletcher, director of planning and zoning. This Fletcher summarizes the proposed zoning ordinance amendments that would establish regulations for data centers.

This matter will be referred to Community and Economic Development Committee as part of a scheduled meeting to be held on August 11th at 6 p.m. in Town Hall. One point of clarification from the memo is that our current zoning ordinance does allow for data centers. The items being discussed will be to put restrictions and regulations surrounding them in a more tight way. so august 11th 6 p.m in town hall communication 6e please july 15 20 26. sorry it does not in my understanding correct no vote needed for that referral thank you uh communication 60.

July 15th, 2026 memorandum from City Solicitor John F. Spark Jr. with an attached use permit agreement and resolution. Permittee is ArtsQuest and the event is Country Fest. The action is to approve activities occurring from 5 to 11 p.m. on August 21st and 3 to 11 p.m. on August 22nd. This is First Street from Founders Way to the Eastern Terminus.

Resolution 10F is on the agenda. Communication 6F.

A July 15th, 2026 memorandum from City Solicitor John F. Spark Jr. with an attached use permit agreement and a resolution. Permittee is the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center and sub-permittee is ArtsQuest. The event is 2026 Lehigh Valley Pride. The action is to approve activities occurring from 1 to 7 p.m. on August 30th. Premises are First Street from Polk Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders Way between First and Second Streets.

Resolution 10G is on the agenda. We'll now move on to reports. There is nothing for the president's report tonight. Is there anything from the mayor's office to report?

There are two administrative orders. Item 7B1 is administrative order 14, 2026-14. I hereby reappoint Ian Pankow of 1939 Hart Street on 8017. to membership on the Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission. This appointment is effective through July, 2029.

Administrative order appointing Ian Panco to the Fine Arts Commission resolution sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Laird.

Is there any discussion from council? I'd like to make a general comment on both of the administrative orders for tonight regarding the Fine Arts Commission. I recently had a conversation with the head of the Fine Arts Commission just exploring a little bit more of what their work is and wanted to just draw light to that for a moment. We know that there's exhibits in this rotunda that they provide. There's the sculpture garden next to City Hall. One thing I was unaware of is that they actually maintain the city's collection of archived artwork and are doing a lot of work cataloging that. for perpetuity within the city. So just wanted to bring that up because it was a fact I recently learned and I appreciate the volunteer efforts of everyone on that commission. The clerk will now call the roll.

Ms. Kwiatk. Aye. Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. And Ms. Laird.

Aye.

Thank you. Agenda 7B2, administrative order 202613. I hereby appoint Jill Sperandino of 510 High Street, apartment 218018 to membership on the Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission. This appointment is effective through July, 2029.

Administrative order appointing Jill Sperandino to the Fine Arts Commission resolution sponsored by Mr. Raymond and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion from council? The clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kwiatek?

Aye.

Mr. Raymond? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. And Ms. Laird?

Aye.

Thank you.

Anything else from the mayor's office? Okay. For committee reports, I will now recognize Mr. Colon, chair of the finance committee, for his reports.

Thank you, Councilman Laird. So the Finance Committee met this evening at 6 p.m. right here in Town Hall to discuss three agenda items. The first was to review a proposal to restructure existing general fund debt. That was just a presentation. The council will be presented with a parameters ordinance between now and the next meeting for first reading, but that was not reviewed at committee. We just heard the presentation from Councilman pfm and the committee also reviewed a proposed ordinance involving an adjustment to the capital budget for non-utilities along with a related resolution to transfer money within the general fund to cover the city's portion of matching funds in order to receive the grants both of those items were forwarded to council for tonight's agenda thank you

Thank you, Mr. Cologne. Now move on to ordinances for final passage. We have three tonight. I'll start with agenda item eight, a bill 19, 2026.

The ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending Article 1731, titled Inspections, and amending Article 119, titled Registration, Sale, and Transfer of Real Estate, of the City of Bethlehem Codified Ordinances. Bill number 19, 2026, is sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Kwiatk.

Any discussion?

Yes. I don't know who I, who am I speaking to for this? mr simons so last minute i i i'd asked a question about you know when there's a sale and i get it what mr reynolds said about how um if there's a sale of a property this is on a brand new property it's what i'm assuming so i can totally understand that if someone's in the unit and then the property's sold like three months later At the time of the sale, the unit might not be in the same condition it was when it passed the CO originally three months prior. But when the new buyer buys the property, he has to assume the leases that were originally signed with the property. Are you following that? Yeah. So shouldn't the CO... uh also follow the sale of the property i mean i don't understand why i don't i don't understand why the please and i'm not trying to bust any chops here i'm just asking a question here so i don't want to get defensive um yeah mike you know what i'm saying so if now if i if if the if a rental if someone is renting moves out and there's a new renter coming in, I totally understand that that's now got to be re-inspected. But it just seems to me that if the property passed inspection and you had a CO, I'm talking on multi-units, right? Everybody that's staying in those units, the new owner has to buy also and abide by the lease terms of the original owner.

I follow you 100%. So there's different sets of ordinances for rentals versus sales. So we don't do it any longer at the change of a tenant. So we're on that three-year cycle for the rentals. But as far as for... for the transfer inspection that we're talking about here at 1731 and 119. This is at the transfer of ownership of property. We don't get involved from a code enforcement or an economic community development or from a city perspective at all with the leases or anything like this. We're just clearly there to make sure that the property is in the condition that it can be the transfer so that the new owner receives the city documents stating that these are the deficiencies or there are no deficiencies or whatever it may be. Now, granted, you know, like you were saying, if it's if the property kind of turns around quickly and then it just was constructed or new construction, it gets a CEO. We've already run into the situations where the conditions have changed since a new construction was built to the time it was sold. So we would go in there. That's kind of a part of our both our code enforcement and our housing program where we use these property transfers and other things like this as avenues to catch up with work that was done on properties that we may not have been aware of throughout the entire process. So kind of like when people flip houses or anything like that, so they go in, do this work or undocumented work or maybe fib on their permits and don't give us the full amount of work that happens. This is where we catch up and catch some of this stuff. So one of the things with new construction is we may have to go in and see, they may have had, um, and we're not too concerned with the change of tenants themselves. but we're concerned with the building itself so like is the fire system still operating properly are the alarms still working is it still calling out is there's things that we list that we go down in each inspection that we do these so these are things that are fluid at the properties and yes you're right new construction is a little bit different than the other stuff but when it comes to the leases and stuff we really don't get involved in that it's just for the property itself

so i i totally understand making sure that the properties up to code as far as all the safety things fire alarms uh fire suppression systems all that stuff but are we are we making so i'm assuming it's the same way as someone that sells the house the seller has to pay for those things and get those things up to code prior to it being sold

Not necessarily. So if you're if you were selling a property and we did our sales inspection and there was deficiencies found, you could sell that property to the prospective buyer as it is. Right. And then there then they assume that responsibility. And that's what this ordinance change is really about, is state law now gives our mandates that they have 12 months from that inspection to make those corrections, whereas previously the city only gave 90 days. as part of our sales ordinance. So this is increasing the time that they have.

And I'm just going to throw a number out. Let's say there's 100 unit property. It just opened up. It's brand new. So there's 100 units. So we're going in and making sure that the fire suppression, all the safety systems work prior to the transfer to sale, which I get. So let's say three months ago, it just opened up all 100 units past inspection. if it sells three months later are we now charging are we also outside of the safety systems fire suppression smoke and so on are we then going in and re-inspecting all hundred units again yes we are yeah well that's what i don't that's i'm having a problem with it just seems like it it seems like a money grab

It's not, and it's a bit redundant, but at the same time, it's also informative for both the landlord, tenants, and things. We find things that maybe even the landlord's not aware of that the tenants have done to their apartment or their suite or whatever it may be. So it may seem redundant, but it's an extra layer of safety. And then when those properties do sell like that, for instance, that CO then travels with them as part of their rental program. so that we do assume that as if it's sold immediately right away like that we carry that inspection into the rental program so we don't go like if they're let's just say like on a three-year cycle if they sold within three months and then maybe the next eight months later their rental was due because their ward was up like we wouldn't charge them we wouldn't do those inspections we would allow that to to fill in for that inspection to fill in for that inspection

Yeah. I mean, that's where I have a problem. I mean, I totally understand if there's a new renter going in at the time of the sale. Three months ago, there was a renter A in there. But if renter A is staying in there and that lease is being taken over by the new owner, I think that not only should the lease – if the lease is being – granted and honored so should the co for that one year period i don't think we should be out to go in and and and re-hit them again on another inspection another 100 units i understand that but at the same time we're going in each of those units like i said and we're giving the new owner

a document that states what the current condition of the department that he's purchasing that building at that time. So a CO for canoe construction is a snapshot in time. And then three to six months later, whatever it may be, we go in and do another inspection. And that's the most updated version of that building that the new owner is receiving. So there's no real, there's no discrepancy between this in that time period. So that's kind of two snapshots in time, but they get the newer version.

yeah i i just think it's probably uh very few in between where um a new construction three months later actually really needs another whole inspection i i know it's not up to you but that's just what my promise thank you i appreciate it any other discussion Well, I just want to make sense. So my only point in bringing this up is... We all have to understand something. Rental rates keep going up and up and up. And every time an owner gets more fees, not addressing you, I'm just saying to all of us, every time an owner of a property, I don't care if you own one property, two properties, three properties, or 100 properties, I'd love to own 100 properties. I own three. Every time I get a bill, and I'm pretty sure everybody's just like me, I invested money to... try to have an investment for my kids i'm a retired teacher there's retirement firemen there's policemen just normal people who are trying to get one or two properties every time our expenses go up we have to then push that on to the renter there's no other way to recoup the cost we don't get grants and things like that from the state so every penny that i get charged i then i divide it up by 12 and that's how much my rents go up so when my taxes go up the school district taxes go up inspections go up every every bill i get i then have to pass it on to the renter and that's how our rents keep increasing increasing increasing every time that we add another fee or another charge the rents get higher in the city that's all that's just a side comment on my part thank you mike for your

any other discussion yes mr simonson i have a follow-up on i'm sorry before you sit just sit back down for for my own clarification to something you said as it relates to going in and doing the inspection so the so a new building is built Let's say it doesn't sell. I know we're talking about sale. When would the next inspection be? Same owner owns it in perpetuity forever. You get the initial clear CO, start renting it. When do you go in again?

So... that could change that could vary and the reason i say that is so we currently do our rental inspections on a three-year cycle so depending on the year that that building is built and then when its ward subsequently comes up like if it comes if it's built in let's say 2026 and its ward comes up in 2027 we are not going to re-inspect that again it's so i'm sorry it's what in 2020 it was like built in 2026 and then it's ward happens to come up like first quarter 2027 we're not gonna re do the inspections and redo everything again what it's gonna happen is is if if it stays under the same ownership it'll then fall to the next so it would come up in 30 at that point but three years later yeah but now now let's say it it sells yes

You said when the so let's say it sells to Mr. Callahan's example, six months later, you go in, you do the same thing again, you give the new owner their document is these are the deficiencies, you have 12 months to fix them. How does that impact when that 2030 inspection comes up again?

it would then be the same years or it would just f its cycle. So if it was t was to be sold in 27 or e if it was, let's say it w would get that three years do it again in 30, we w Two, I guess it would be, however that would work, if you follow me. So it pushes it out for three years. Yeah, it pushes it out. If it's sold and then it's inspected or if it's built right at the same time frame that it would be due for a normal inspection, it gets bumped out.

Okay.

Thank you.

I HAVE A QUESTION. IF YOU COULD, PLEASE. WHAT IS THE COST FOR A CO INSPECTION VERSUS THE TRI-YEAR RENTAL INSPECTIONS?

SO, WELL, CO INSPECTION, OKAY, SO THERE'S TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF INSPECTIONS. a rental inspection is, is, uh, it's all on a sliding scale. So depending on the size of the property is going to depend on the fee for the, the, for the permit, for the, uh, for the inspection. So what I mean by that is like one to three properties, it's a hundred dollars per property because usually they're single family dwellings and they take us a little bit longer. When we start getting into like the four to nines or the 10 to twenties or the larger, The fee for us goes down for the inspection because we could do more units in a shorter amount of time because usually they're smaller units, one, maybe one and two bedrooms, no exterior in some cases. So our time on property shrinks down. So our fee shrinks down. Yeah. Now that's for the rental side of things. On a sales inspection, it's commercial properties are done by the square footage and then rental units. Like, so if it's a hundred unit property, like we were talking about, the commercial would be done by square footage and then it's $150 per unit for the sales inspection. And that's a standard fee we have for type of residential sale.

Is it fair to say that the sales inspection is more expensive? It is. Okay.

Yeah, it is. Yeah. And yeah. And also with the residential rental inspections, there's also licensing fees as well, but there's that, that does do not carry over to the sales inspection.

And if a sales inspection is done, um, by the seller, let's say by the seller, and it wasn't passed on to the buyer, that buyer wouldn't have to worry about a rental inspection if it was a rental property.

Correct. For three years. If the property gets a certificate of occupancy, a clean... bill like if if there's violations and the new owner is going to subsequently inherit those violations so they will be responsible for that until that's cleaned up and then the the time frame will start to be pushed out because it they'll then be clean okay and if the seller does not that the seller's selling the property as is the buyer has to pick up the expense of that purchase inspection now um which is going to be a lot more That's all part of their transfer agreement. I would assume, you know, whenever they talk at the sales table and everything. So all we know is who the seller is responsible for them. And if the buyer, until they're corrected, if the buyer assumes the property, then they transfer the responsibility to those violations.

But then they don't have to worry about another rental inspection.

Once they clear those violations. Yeah.

So they're paying more initially. Right. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Okay. Um, just to jog my memory from last meeting, this is putting it in line with state.

Yeah, this is state law that it's the 12 months we, we, uh, Bethlehem had shortened the timeframe and we're just expanding to match the state.

Right. Okay. Thank you. Uh, the clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kwiatek?

Aye.

Mr. Amen? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Nay. Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. And Ms. Laird?

Aye. Passes 6-1, 5-1, sorry. Okay, 8B, bill number 2020-26.

An ordinance of the city of Bethlehem, counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the 2026 general fund budget. Bill number 2026 is sponsored by Mr. Raymond and Ms. Any discussion. Okay. The clerk will call the roll. Mr. Raymond. Mr. Callahan. Mr. Cologne. Ms. Daniels. Ms. Laird.

Passes six zero.

eight C bill number 21, 2026 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and North Hampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2026 capital budget for non-utilities bill number 21, 2026 is sponsored by Mr. Raymond and Ms. Any discussion?

Clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Quiatek?

Aye.

Mr. Raymond? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Laird?

Aye. Passes 6-0. Moving on to new ordinances. We have two for this evening. 9A, bill number 22-2026.

The ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and North Hampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending part 13 of the city of Bethlehem codified ordinances titled zoning ordinance bill number 22, 2026 is sponsored by Mr. Raymond and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion? Okay. Uh, clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Laird.

Aye. Passes six zero. Nine B bill number 23, 2026.

The ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and North Hampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2026 capital budget for non-utilities bill number 23, 2026 is sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion? Clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kwiatk.

Aye.

Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Laird.

Aye. Pass the 6-0. On to resolutions 10A.

Be resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem, that the city's program year, 2026 CDBG annual action plan and its home investment partnerships program, annual action planner hereby approved for submission to HUD by the mayor, along with required assurances and certifications resolution is sponsored by Mr. Raymond and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion? So again, word of thanks for all of our nonprofit partners and the people in our administration who work to get these dollars helping people in the community. Clerk will call the roll. Ms. Kwiatk. Aye.

Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels.

Aye.

Ms. Laird.

Aye. Passes 6-0. 10B.

Be resolved by the Council of the City of Bethlehem that $70,672 from account number 0502-40001 salaries engineering and $71,000 from account number 0503-40001 salaries streets totaling $141,672 be transferred to the general fund to account number 0801-42083, transferred to non-utility to provide required matching funds for the Green Light Go program grant. Resolution is sponsored by Mr. Raymond and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion? Ms. Lara.

Yes. Just wanted to point out, this was what we discussed, one of the agenda items at the Finance Committee meeting, and the funds will help replace all of the LED lights in all of our signal, our traffic signals, and also computer pieces in the controlling boxes that are at all of the intersections as well. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Okay, the clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kwiatk. Aye. Mr. Amen. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. And Ms. Laird.

Aye. Passes 6-0. 10-C.

Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem, that the city requests an emergency solutions grant through the state department of community and economic development. Be it further resolved that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute all agreements and documents as deemed to be necessary and or related there too. Resolution is sponsored by Mr. Raymond and Mrs. Laird.

Any discussion? Clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kluetak?

Aye.

Mr. Amen? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. And Ms. Laird?

Aye. Passes 6-0.

10 D it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that city requests a grant from the Pennsylvania department of community and economic development for the rehabilitation of Steph coast whale. Be it further resolved that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute all agreements and documents as are deemed to be necessary and were related there to resolution is sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion? Yes, thank you. Ms. Collins, would it be you or would it be Mr. Alcol? Mr. Alcol, I just had a quick question. Sure. So I'm just wondering if the Stefco Swale, if this kind of works well with the next item, the multimodal and the work on Stefco Boulevard, is the Stefco Swale actually on Stefco Boulevard?

I mean, other than it serves drainage that comes from Central Boulevard.

Okay.

But they're independent projects.

Okay. I just wasn't sure if you know if there was going to be a coordination of effort if the two are funded or there's no need for that or Okay.

All right. Thank you. That was it. Any other discussion? Like we'll call the roll.

Ms. Kwiatk. Aye. Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Laird.

Aye. Passes 6-0. 10E.

Be resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the city requests a grant from the Pennsylvania department of community and economic development to be used for construction in alignment with the complete streets plan on Stefco Boulevard. Be it further resolved that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute all agreements and documents as are deemed to be necessary and or related there too. The resolution is sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion? Clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kuitak? Aye. Mr. Amen? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Laird?

Aye. Passes 6-0.

10 F it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and or such other city officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with arts quest for country fest resolution is sponsored by mr raymond and ms laird any discussion

Okay, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Kwiatk.

Aye. Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels.

Aye.

Ms. Laird.

Aye. Passes 6-0. 10-G. Aye.

It resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and or such other city officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with the Bradbury Sullivan LGBT community center and sub permitting arts quest for 2026. We have LA pride resolution sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion? Yes.

I'm sorry that our commenter, she left before we get to vote on this. Obviously, I'm a yes on it. Unfortunately, not going to be here, but fortunately going to be with my incredible daughter in Seattle. So we'll celebrate our own pride out there this year. That's all.

Any other discussion?

Okay, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Kwiatk. Aye. Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Laird?

Aye. Passes 6-0. I'll accept a motion and a second to consider resolutions 10-H through 10-J, the COAs as a group.

Make the motions. Second.

All right. Is there any discussion on the motion? Clerk will call the roll on the motion. Ms. Kluetek? Aye.

Mr. Amen? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Laird?

Aye. The motion passes 6-0. The clerk will read the resolutions and call the roll.

Certificates of appropriateness under the provisions of the Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, Bethlehem Resolution are hereby granted for 10H, 443 Center Street to replace existing bluestone and slate sidewalk in front of the home that is deteriorating with brushed concrete while maintaining the brick border alongside the sidewalk closest to the fence and installed installing landscape lighting at the rear of the patio 10i for 446 main street to install a new 16 foot wide by six by two foot high aluminum sign for the existing plywood backer for main street real estate group and vinyl film window decals for main street real estate group and the gallery and fine arts store and pretend jay at 55 East Church Street to replace the existing seven foot high vertical cedar wood slat and lattice fence with the six foot high vertical cedar wood slat fence. Resolutions are sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Laird.

Any discussion on the group? Clerk will call the roll.

Ms. Kujatek.

Aye.

Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. And Ms. Laird.

Aye. The resolution's passed 6-0. With that, our meeting is adjourned. Get home safe.