Council - Regular Meeting

good evening everybody calling this meeting to order we'll all rise for the pledge to the flag

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

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Amen.

Present.

Mr. Callahan. Present. Mr. Colon. Mrs. Daniels. Present. Mrs. Kwiatek. Present. Mrs. Laird.

Present.

And Mrs. Leon.

I just sent that up. Councilman Colon will join us momentarily. Moving on to the approval of the minutes. Do any council members have comments or concerns about the minutes? The minutes stand approved. Moving on to public comments. Our first public comment is on subjects not being voted on this evening with a five-minute time limit. My first public comment, I have Artie Caratola signed up.

Hi, I'm Marty Kuratola, 813 Lawford Street, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Throughout the years, almost seven now, the Jewish leaders of ArtsQuest blacklisted me from performing at all ArtsQuest venues. and owners and managers of the allentown morning call who happen to be jewish will not write anything favorable about me in their newspaper since bethlehem city council pushed them into writing an article December 22nd 2022 to include me in a statement at a city hall conference meeting on their front page and the Jewish administrators also refused to place my book on all Bethlehem Library shelves, and I believe greatly encouraged the two young Jewish bloodline gentlemen to pull away from helping me record my next album in the Bethlehem Jewish Library.

I feel that there are directed at individual comments happening that are inappropriate.

Yeah, even though you're not calling out specific names, ArtsQuest has no owners, so there are not any Jewish quote-unquote owners.

Well, but it's happened.

You also just assigned that to the library.

We're letting it happen.

If you want to talk about events that happened without making comments about religious affiliation, thank you.

Okay. I have to say that a lot of this has happened because of city council pushing the situation too um whereas i am considered anti-semitic i am considered that i hate the jews that's laugh because like a lot of my friends are jewish but anyway we'll go beyond that i just dislike militant jewish leaders especially leaders of Israel and all Jewish leaders who will blacklist and brand people anti-Semitic who do not agree with pushing their power of hate to control the people of entire cities and countries. It's now being written by other derelicts on social media that I hate the Jews and I'm anti-Semitic. let it be known that i do not hate the jews or anyone i just feel upset and saddened for those individuals who go against traditional jewish law of equality of life halacha and maintain mainstream rabbis who maintain that all life is sacred and created in the image of god rejecting the idea that one ethnic or religious group life holds more intrinsic value than another's. I do not hate the Jews or any people who feel that their race is better than others. I truly feel sorry for them. And it truly saddens me that those radical militant Jewish leaders and those who go along with them will not do everything that they can to help make things right, that they will be eventually separated from most of us and God for all eternity. My personal view is that people interpret the Bible to fit their own prejudice and hate and draw hate and prejudice to all people who they're trying to glorify. I'M SORRY THAT THIS IS DIRECTED HERE BECAUSE OF MY REPUTATION HAS BEEN GREATLY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF THE MAYOR OF BETHLEHEM AND CITY COUNCIL. I THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR HATING ME. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

THANK YOU, MR. CARATOLA. DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT ON SOMETHING NOT BEING VOTED ON THIS EVENING?

MR. SHYRE? Wow. You must be fun, Mr. Colon.

Councilman Colon has joined us this evening.

Bill Schar, 1898 and Avenue. I'm hoping the last time I convinced you that the main culprit on affordable housing is Wall Street. I won't go through that again. There was a clue in this housing bill, bipartisan bill passed 82 to 15 in the Senate. and a similar vote in the House, which limited the number of single-family homes that can be owned by one institution in the United States to 350. That's a clue to what the problem is. So the situation is actually a little bit worse than that. Well, first of all, I think the 350 should be something like 10. That would be enough. But suppose a Wall Street institution decided they were going to specialize in the city of Bethlehem and they kept buying up homes, outbidding other people until they had their 350. They would control the single family home market in the city of Bethlehem and they could charge any rent they wanted to because there would be absolutely no competition remaining. Would Congress act?

I don't know.

And suppose a Wall Street institution set up subsidiaries, each one owning 350 homes somewhere in the United States. This is a serious problem, folks. and it's uh ties into and i'm going to go a little further afield now it ties into the ethos the atmosphere in today's life in the united states making money making money everybody's making money or trying to some people are making a lot of money and it reminds me of the 1920s yesterday i thought Aha, there's a similarity here. The 1920s were a great money-making atmosphere. Now, there is one protection we have today that they didn't have back then, and that is in the 1920s, they were allowed to buy stocks using borrowed money. And when the market started falling, that's when the crash occurred. Still in all, I think we're living in somewhat hazardous financial times. And if there should be a crash and we're faced with a possible depression, I don't mean recession, I mean depression. We can't do today what FDR did. He managed to get us out of the depression somewhat until World War II came and finished the job. by spending government money to get things going, you know, these various works progress administration and civilian conservation corps and so on. That would be harder to do today because the deficit is already over $1 trillion per year. The total national debt right now is $40 trillion, greater than the annual gross domestic product of the entire country, which is taken as a measure of ability to repay. That's the first time that has happened since the end of World War II. Um, I haven't been one of these people saying doomsday is coming financially, but I'm getting concerned and I am an economist, as you know, it's, uh, the interest we now pay annually is greater than any, every other S category of the federal budget, except for social security. We spend more money on interest payments on money that we owe than we do on the Pentagon on, on defense. And there seems to be no signs that this is going to change anytime soon. Well, it can't go on like this much further because there come a point where nobody will be willing to lend to us anymore. And then the country might be faced with a default. So I'll continue that the next time because this gets us into something called income taxes and a wealth tax. So see you next time. Bye-bye.

Thank you, Mr. Shire. Does anyone else in the center want to make public comments on something not being voted on this evening? Miss Mary Jo.

Mary Jo McCool, 449 Grandview Boulevard. While I'm grateful for the repaving of Grandview Boulevard, I have a few things I wish to address. The overnight temperatures have cooled nicely to the point where I could open my windows and no longer use my AC. Friday night was such a night. Windows were open, a nice breeze allowed for a comfortable night's sleep. Only one problem, I was jolted awake at 4 a.m on saturday morning to the pounding of hammers pounding in no parking signs into the ground along grandview boulevard this action was inconsiderate and i believe unnecessarily surely these signs could have been put in place any time during the week and not at 4 a.m on saturday morning I wonder how much overtime this action cost the city and its taxpayers. I happened to mention this to someone from the Department of Public Works who was driving through the area. His response was flippant. It was an unforeseen and inconsequential occurrence. I pointed out the issue of the flooding, which I was told once the paving was complete, it would only get worse. At this point, I question if anyone has truly investigated the situation. There was a section of Grandview Boulevard where water periodically seeped up through the paving and thus created a portion where the street sank, creating a large dip in the middle of the street. To my knowledge, I don't believe this was properly repaired. Temporary fixes are not what I had hoped tax dollars would be used for. Years ago, Bascom and Ridder streets were paved. Instead of grading these streets away from residents' garages, it was paved with a hump, allowing water to run into garages. It created a problem with water getting into my garage, resulting in a crack in the garage floor, and that section is sinking. While I understand the city might not accept responsibility for repairing the garage floor crack, I would at least like the city to remedy the flow of water. My husband and I purchased our home in October of 87, shortly after we repaved. If the city engineers or someone from Public Works could come out and look at this, they would see that the driveway was paved first. i also they picked up their equipment this morning at 10 of 5. i thought there was ordinance as far as noise not starting any kind of work like that prior to 6 37 o'clock in the morning i i don't understand the logic behind this um my concerns my concerns may seem trivial to some across from me i do not i am retired and living on a fixed income and really cannot afford to repair the damage i did not cause I must live within my budget. Any increases gained through Social Security increases most seniors do not see as they are absorbed by higher Medicare costs. While I understand prices do go up, I pray this body truly does its due diligence with next year's budget and cut excess of waste to duplicate services rather than raise taxes. Those of you who live in Lehigh County are looking at a possible 17% increase in county taxes. And I also want to say that I have made phone calls to the city twice yesterday, and I'm still waiting for phone calls back. You want us to call and leave messages, which is fine, but at least there should be some courtesy in returning residents' phone calls and addressing their concerns. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary Jo. Does anyone else in the center want to make public comments on something not being voted on this evening? In the back? You got to come up to the if it's your first time, come up to the microphone. Let us know who you are, your name and your address if you feel comfortable. And just a brief heads up. This isn't a dialogue. So if you ask me questions, I can't answer them. But we can answer them after the meeting. If that you got all that, sir.

I can ask after, can I ask after the meeting?

You can ask after the, after the meeting. Um, can you tell me, is it in relation to like public works? Cause maybe I can have someone from the administration recycling question about recycling question. Does anyone, can anyone from your, yeah. Do you mind having a conversation with him outside? Awesome. Yeah. She'll meet you outside if it's a, if it's, and you can feel free to stick, stick around and we can talk later. No worries at all. Anyone else in the broad center want to make public comment on something that is not being voted on this evening? Anyone to my right? Okay, we're going to move on to public comments on anything being voted on this evening. So does anyone want to make public comment on something that is being voted on this evening? I have no one signed up. Anyone in the center? Mr. Antalex?

I WANT TO INVITE YOUR ATTENTION TO 7B, ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER. I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO VOTE YES. for i have observed this gentleman in operation at the building authority meetings and their exemplary does his homework he knows his facts and his concern and love of the city has really has impressed me So a confirmation of that order is a good step in the right direction. I've been around a long time and I've attended quite a few business authority, city council and school board meetings. And what I have observed is an inversion of the quality of these meetings. At school board meetings in the past, when I made my comments, which I felt were fair, I ended up being called the posterior part of a horse. And my comments on the funny money of the Bethlehem Authority, I was laughed at. But at city council, I was very comfortable because between Mr. Schweder, Mr. Donchus and Del Grosso, I felt very welcome and was involved in dialogue. But now at this present time, there's an inversion here. The Bethlehem Authority personnel are all superior individuals. They don't get paid. The Bethlehem School Board would be pressed to find better people. They're dedicated, and I am impressed by them. But at City Council, all of a sudden, I've been told my remarks are derogatory. And essentially, I've been spoiled. So I, in a sense, don't feel as welcome here as I used to be.

But I'm still the same person.

So there's a message there. which I think just might require some self-reflection and say, what have we done to provoke this kind of thinking? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Antalex. Is there anyone else in the broad center who wants to make public comment on something that is on the agenda and being voted on this evening? Anyone to my right? All right, that concludes public comments. Moving on to old business. Do any council members have old business they need to address? All right, moving on to new business. Are there any council members with new business that they need to address?

Yes, I do.

Councilman Dennis.

Mr. Evans. I have a few questions surrounding the fire department study. Let me get my notes settled here so I don't misspeak here. What was the original anticipated date of completion for the study?

I don't recall. I don't have it with me. We did it in the winter. It was a six-month study. It was the original contract. So somewhere around right into June, July.

Okay. So that's what I thought. And what's the lead time on it currently? What's the ETA now?

Probably contact them before the end of the week for the segments. We're waiting for parts and segments from it. So I will touch base, see what they're able to send us.

Do we know why the study is several months behind schedule to begin with?

Yeah, I think it's what we talked about from the beginning. There was concern about the time it would take given the comprehensive nature from the very beginning when we talked and we talked to each of a number of groups, no matter which group we picked on the RFP process, they said, what you're looking for when you're talking about a comprehensive fire report and the EMS report as well put together, it would be very difficult to do it in that timeframe. We understood that and we knew we had extra time, but we wanted to hold their feet to the fire best we could to make sure it would stay on track that we asked for six months. We were given notice from each group that it'd be very difficult to do that. We knew that if we saw progress, we did not want to rush it or say, or hold them in. I mean, the options are to take a half done report or to hold them in breach of contract, but we felt the progress has been steady. It has been comprehensive. What we're looking for is taking longer. So we're in agreement that we're extending the contract. And I think, and I talked to another council member at the end of the last meeting, We extend dozens of contracts every year, every single year, whether it's a consultant contract, a construction contract. It's very common to extend contract in order to complete a project. And if you feel it's going well, both sides are in agreement. It's customary to extend it, and that's what we're doing.

Okay. So there was no change from the original request that caused the delay?

No change, no.

So everything that they had, they had from day one.

Yes.

OK, and initially six months was thought to be not enough time initially.

From each of the groups we talked about, they said it's going to be tough to do that. It's going to be tough to do that. We said we understand. but we would like you to get as soon as possible. So we have decisions to make based on what comes back from any report, no matter who does it. So we weren't surprised at all when it started. We, you know, we noticed that this is going to be difficult to get it done, but it didn't surprise us to say, you know, oh my gosh, where is it? That's not. And I think even if you go back to the discussions last year, when we talked about going under contract with the council approval, we had those same conversations that this is going to be tough to get done by June.

Okay. So within the contract itself, there was no finalized date. No final due date was listed in the contract.

There's a, there's a, any contract you have has a term to it. And the term was six months, which can be extended by both sides.

Is there a cost for the extension?

No, there's no cost.

And that's included in the contract as well, that there's no cost for the extension.

There's no cost of the extension. And, um, I'm going to say something else along those lines as well that will come back to me, but

The reason why I'm asking these questions is there's quite a few reasons, actually. One, CPSM, this is what they do, right? Yes. They do a lot of them. So this is what they specialize in, 450 studies across 47 states with towns, municipalities ranging from a few hundred to millions.

and we're two to three months behind so it's you know it's a little you got you have to question that right oh um also when we put the june we pushed them because we knew we had time because if it came back in june or july august nothing would change like there's no decision being made right now say if we did in june and we rushed and got a half project they weren't happy with we knew we had buffer time so we pushed for june knowing if it's july august september what's there's nothing other than the presentation of the study is not going to pivot on any change until budget time which is november so that's why when we knew we started it we're pushing to get it done but like we're not pushing a budget with out of study so everything is still according to the timeline, all the decisions will be made in the same timeframe.

Okay. Yeah. And that's a huge part of it because the budget is quickly approaching.

Yes.

Plus the fire department is currently undergoing their contract negotiations. Correct. So not having the study completed, you know, could be an issue at this point is an issue for both contract negotiations and potentially for budget season.

I wouldn't say contract for budget, it could be, but for the contract, there's nothing really that's in the study that's going to impact what would go into labor contract. And we talked to the IFF about that directly. We said, if you feel there's anything in the study that's going to impact the contract, we don't feel there is. If you want to hold up negotiation until then or you want to start, that's fine either way. So we let them know that the study, because we've been seeing them every week, contract negotiations started at the end of June. It went through July. I think we met maybe seven times. So they know it's ongoing. They know that whatever comes out of it is going to maybe have an impact in future budgets. But I would argue it doesn't really have anything to do with a labor contract.

Okay, let me ask you this. Would the administration be open to providing Council with a copy of the contract?

Yeah, the contract was approved by Council.

You did have that. Do we have an actual copy of the contract? Okay. But are you able to provide us with a firm completion date?

No.

And that's because it's still ongoing.

Yeah. Yeah. When you do a study, I mean, right now we have a number of studies going at any one time, as long as they're going on moving and they're progressing, the administration's pleased with progress and pleased with the group and pleased with the responsiveness. We would rather have it done than put an artificial date that we don't know. This is something we did regularly every year. You know, when the budget time comes, we have firm timelines because we know what has happened. This is something that's new to us. Last study we did was 1995 for the fire and EMS. So as we move along and there's a lot of new information being shared until our groups can gather to meet to share what they need. Uh, it takes time because there's, again, we have 10 balls in the air at the same time, other than just a fire contract from our side.

I'm sure it does, Mr. Evans. But like I said, time is kind of the essence, especially with budget season approaching. So another question, um, do you have any idea as to what's remaining? What needs to be completed for the study to be completed?

yeah there's several several segments that we go it's an ongoing conversation about what they're asking for what we're doing so yeah it's a number okay would you be willing to share that with council i i'd rather wait until it's done and give you complete versus parts of what we're doing i'd rather wait and do it so i i think it's not going to be that much more extended until the next meeting we're going to meet the next month or two a couple times here somewhere between there it's going to eventually come to completion we're going to request a public safety committee meeting and have it presented i think the way we do any study

Understandable. This study is very important, as you're well aware, and clearly the community, along with council, is very anxious to see the outcome, whether it's in favor of the fire department, in favor of Well, not in favor of, so to say, but, you know, it's in favor of the community. But I think we need some checkpoints at this at this point in time and being able to see where we're at with the study now and not waiting for the study to be finalized. I think that would hold, you know, a lot of weight with with the constituents, with our constituents, with the city in its entirety. I don't think that's asking a lot. I mean, the taxpayers paid for the study. Oh, yeah. Having an idea of... Oh, it's an extensive study.

And EMS as well.

Exactly. So having a better idea of where that study is as of today would be a nice have. So is that something that we can get from you?

Like a half a report?

I don't want a half a report. I just want to know what is still outstanding in order for this study to be completed, what an ETA on that would be for the remaining items.

Yeah, I'll prepare a response and send it over.

I'd appreciate that. So, is there any way that you can commit that we'll have to finalize report before budget season i think we can do that yes yes okay because it's needed for budget yeah yeah that's you can't do i think that's still several months away i don't think there's that it's going to be that nearly that long well i mean from the winter time to now we're in october 10 months yeah they visited us i think they visited in april's when they visited but it's

Yeah, it wasn't really winter. I think in February, maybe contract February.

So I think whenever council voted on the contract, if I remember correctly, that might have been January. But then once council votes on the contract, as you probably know, that like enters then into the process by which we have to execute the contract. So like the contract doesn't begin. If council voted on January 21st, the study doesn't begin on January 22nd.

So when did the study begin?

So I think... as Mr. Evans said, I believe that they first came to gather information in April because the contract has to get executed, it goes through legal, it goes back and forth as far as how many hours are gonna be spent like per week, what is necessarily going to be included in the final report and things like that. So from the time the council votes on a contract like that to where it gets executed is several months. And like I said, I don't have the exact date off the top of my head as far as when they first came to start to gather information. but they're also working on other projects. So they don't come and say like, we're here on April 16th and we'll be here for 10 days. Like they're gathering information, they reach out to different partners, they're asking for this, they ask for A, B and C, and then they review it. And then they say, can we see D, E and F? And then we have to ask the fire department to put together that data. Some of the things that have been looked at as far as like what type of calls we have, how do we differentiate the calls? That wasn't information that the fire department necessarily had like just at its fingertips. So it had to put it together and then get it back to them and things like that.

Understandable, understood. And I would think the amount of times that, and I shouldn't say I think, cause I don't really know, but I would, I guess assume, and you know what happens when you say assume, that all of, The delays, whether it be from a time starting period from April to the current, isn't necessarily due to going back and forth with the fire department or getting whatever other information. The bulk of the information, I guess what I'm saying, was given at the onset of the contract.

that something that you're familiar with the question it's a question no it was not and that is not it's not as if there was this information that we could just be like here and go and i would also say after having done this and having gone through all these studies like this has not been an unreasonable amount of time that has taken to do this particular study i forget exactly how long the process was as we did our housing study but i think it was a year Is that a fair number as far as homelessness and our affordable housing opening doors? I mean, this I do not believe from the time that the contract was executed until the time they started gathering information from April until now, which is a little bit over four months. That is by no means outside of the scope of how long these type of contracts take. Our climate action plan one took a year. I agree with Mr. Evans that we will have something done But people are working hard to try to be able to make sure we get it done by the budget so it can be shared and have the meeting, which we will commit to. But I would disagree with any idea that somehow this is taking longer than it should, especially as Mr. Evans said, is because nobody in here has done one of these studies before, and we haven't done one as a city in 30 years. So it's not comparative to like, oh, we're executing this contract or not. It is a study that involves the fire department, the EMS, but also involves some things having to do with the police as far as the interaction between all our emergency services so intellectually it's not a particularly simple thing to put together and putting it together quickly just leads to more questions as far as like what does this mean what does this mean so we're trying to make sure that and by we i mean mr evans and chief griffin and the people that are working on it are trying to get the information together in a way that is comprehensive that gives everybody understanding what the state of the situation is

I UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY, MAYOR REYNOLDS. MY QUESTION WOULD BE THEN WHY WERE WE GIVEN A JUNE, JULY TURNAROUND?

AS FAR AS BEING DONE WITH THE STUDY?

YEAH. THAT WAS THE INITIAL ETA ON IT, RIGHT?

I DIDN'T SAY JUNE OR JULY. I DON'T KNOW. I CAN'T SPEAK TO WHEN.

AM I WRONG IN THAT?

AS I SAID EARLIER, WE PUSHED For June's, we wanted to push them as hard as we could, make it quick. We also knew in our group and in our committee from, I think we interviewed maybe up to seven different groups as leading up to the RPs, as we move forward to make a decision, they all gave the same answer. So it's not just that they couldn't do it. None of the groups felt very comfortable doing it. Six, we hope they did. We felt it gave us leverage by having them agree to it. But at the same time, none of them said, oh, we'll be long done by that. That was not ever part of our, conversation any of us on the whole committee had.

OK, so we have a copy of the contract and you'll supply us with an up to date as to where things are, what's outstanding.

the the area I think we can provide to you what the areas are that are not that are like the whole thing is in draft form. So like I said, I don't think it's like page two or page 36 or page 73. Like the whole thing is often happens with these reports is in draft form. So like, I think we can tell you like roughly when we think that the it will be complete. I would never ask counsel to have to make decisions as far as the budget is concerned without a complete report that has been presented. Um, but as far as like specific areas, I think the contract though, and if you look at the contract and don't have in front of me, but it lays out all the different areas that they were going to take a look at. Like it is safe to say that all of those areas are at a different level of like incomplete, but none of them are at the area of like a hundred percent complete.

Okay. So you have documentation showing that. What's complete? What's not complete?

I think if you look at what the contract asks for, as far as things like alternative shift schedules and different things like that, the report is not at the point where it's been reviewed and people have taken a look at. And I'm just making this part up. But it could be a situation where we asked for five years of data. And in the report, it comes back and there's three years of data. And you have to say, we asked for five years of data. That's what's in the contract agreement and things like that. So then they have to go back and they have to look at it and things like that. We're not their only client.

Oh, I know that. I understand that. All I'm asking for is to know what's outstanding.

Yeah. And like I said, we can send you an update and Mr. Evans can send you an update as far as like literally where this process is. Like we can do that. That is something we can absolutely do. That's all I'm asking. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Amen.

I guess I would just ask, because I'm hearing kind of different perspectives. So I know the original contract, which council approved at the February 3rd meeting, estimated that they would get 120 calendar days to complete the study from the notice to proceed is the language that we use in our contract. And so I guess my question would be, I'm hearing feedback like Mr. Evans and we had a conversation about this, that there's pretty frequently it happens in which extensions happen to these contracts, which again is incredibly normal that after the 120 days, like we need more time to complete this. It's very reasonable. There's a lot of data to the mayor's point, to your point, Mr. Evans, need more time to take care of this like that makes a lot of sense to me but checks out the i'm also hearing a kind of a separate conversation that that clock didn't start until april and so i'm just like which one is it like do we need the extension from like 120 days from april 3rd or it was it or sorry excuse me from the april date whatever that might be or was it from the the February, is it the fourth? I imagine we gave the notice to proceed pretty quickly and then you negotiate, you know, the details, but the notice to proceed.

No, the notice proceed occurs after we have the executed contract. Okay. So like what happens after council votes on the contract is then it enters into this process, which oftentimes can take weeks. Sometimes it's simple. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it comes down to legal Bureau. And remember the legal Bureau is also trying to process contracts for paving and things like that. so the notice proceed does not happen until after there's an executed contract which is one of the things that i think mr alcohol has talked about sports like what happens with contracts coming to city council is that even if you vote on them the delay in getting the work done so the notice proceed does not happen until after there's a beginning of that particular beginning of that particular contract

Sure. Do we have the date by which we executed the contract?

Not off the top of my head. We can certainly look it up and determine it. I just know I'm...

I'm very familiar with contracts, maybe not directly with city work, but in terms of public school districts, it's incredibly common to need extensions. I don't know if we filed an extension for this particular thing or they're working in good faith. And the contract, again, is very clear that it's a term of contract or estimated completion date subject to standard extensions. And whether we filed another thing, I think just to clarify what exactly

that looked like and sometimes that extension comes down to oftentimes these are like they do 20 of the work and then you send them a check for 20 of the work and they do 40 of the work so oftentimes extensions whatever that conversation comes down to when the amount is that you reach that is what council has appropriated for that particular study so like if you need an extension beyond that for more money that's the type of thing that needs to be discussed about and so on and so forth sure

I do appreciate the idea that, you know, making sure that when council does receive whatever report this is, that it is a report that we feel good about, that it's comprehensive, that we've taken the time to engage with the company, Public Safety Management, that's working on it. Like, I do agree with the sentiments that we need to make sure we have a finalized report before we go out and start releasing separate reports. So I really do appreciate that sentiment as well. So thank you.

Mr. Callahan and then Mr. Cuomo.

No, I just, is there, so obviously during budget season last year, I remember the six month time period that we'd have it back by the end of June. And that's what we were told because I know we had.

That was a hope. Yeah. Aspirational.

We had conversations though about trying to at least put money in the budget for staffing for the four extra firemen for the second half of the year. And I, I'll go back and pull the minutes if I have to, but I remember you guys saying that it would be done by June. So if there's delays, I get that. All I'm asking for is this. We're obviously, there was no will at the time to increase staffing for EMS or police at the time. but there was a will by some on council to increase the fire department staffing. So can they, if they're falling behind on this study, Can they focus their concentration right now on the staffing issues of the fire department and put the EMS and police off to the side so we can have the information prior to budget season?

The way that emergency response, the way it happens is it's not as simple as just basically segregating the idea that like the fire department shows up. Like one of the things that is in the study is the idea that when you dial 911, sometimes the police show up alone, sometimes EMS shows up alone, sometimes fire and EMS shows up alone. It's interconnected and it's interlocked as far as what those conversations are. There's a different piece of it. And people talk about how we work with 18 per shift and so on and so forth. We start with 24 per shift. That's what the number is at the beginning. It's like 24 people. Now, a couple of people are on vacation. People say take sick days. So when we have to pay overtime, it's because we have gone under 18. So it's like the 24 that would show up if everybody was showing up to their shift down to 17. those conversations though about shifts and things like that are all connected to each other including about like call response time when are the types of calls that fire goes out with ems and police like all of those things are connected and honestly too it's like this from the beginning and we said this was the idea that like this is looking at everything This is looking at how many ambulances we have, how many fire trucks we have, like what the response times are, what are the alternative like staffing schedules, if there is another one to be able to have more people on there and things like that. So it's not as easy just to like, it's an impossibility from an intellectual point of view to segregate one piece of that and just say, this is how many people we need without having all of the other information, because it's easier to think about it. Like when there's an emergency who responds.

I just think it's very critical that someone from the administration gets a hold of the company that's doing a study and tell them that we are in need of the completion of the study. I mean, I understand the start date was delayed, but six months seems more than enough time for them to get it. I mean, I think it's critical that we all have that information, that study done prior to us going into budget.

And like I said, I agree. We don't want to create a situation where people are like, where's the study? Can we do this in the middle of the budget? So I agree with you, Mr. Kahn. I would just say again, it's like, there's nothing unusual about the timeline from when council voted on this at the beginning of February to when the contract moved through legal to get executed to when they had the notice proceed in April to be able to move forward for this situation and like sometimes we are required as a city to do like updated studies so like you know and the health bureau is one of these examples where they do um some of their health needs assessments like on a certain time period so they have what that timeline looks like and they can speak with conference about this this is a situation like i had said to to the council person before is like There are things that like you don't know you need until you go through this and like, do we have this data from 2018? And then the fire department has to research and put that data together. So because this is the first time, it's hard to say exactly how long it is. But even with that being said, from the time they got the notice proceed in April to where we are now is not unusual. And I would say compared to a lot of our other studies, it's actually like ahead of schedule based on how long how long these things often take to get to the point where we can have comprehensive information that we're able to present then that touches all of these different areas of emergency preparedness and emergency response uh mr miller when what's the first date that we have down for our budget hearings yeah we're not it's not it's not completely ironed out but it's november

I would just appreciate if someone could get a hold of the company and tell them that November 10th is the beginning of our budget hearings.

We want it significantly before that, Mr. Kelly. Please. We don't want it to be. That's all I ask. We want you to be able to have that before we even release our own budget, which is like, I forget what the date is, like a week or so before that is like, we're not trying to release this on like October 31st and then release the budget on November 2nd. Like that would just be the opposite of anything that I ever do. I'd appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cole.

Thank you, President Leon. I think one thing that bears repeating that Mr. Evans or Mr. Reynolds committed to was having a public safety committee meeting once the study is done. That's what I heard today, September 1st, for roughly two months and some change away from the start of budget hearings, the budget announcement. I would uh recommend the and i apologize the committee assignments i don't have them in front of me but the public safety chair mr miller and the public safety other committee members start not to schedule a public safety meeting it's too preliminary for that but we know the calendar fills up quick we know just coordinating schedules and stuff so start looking at leading up to late October. I don't want to put a time frame on there, but just start putting in pencil some dates so that when the study is complete, when the administration receives it, when it's shared with council and a request for a public safety committee is presented, we've already sort of ironed out the when and it's not delayed

you know longer than it has to be at that point so that that would be a suggestion i had and for the public safety and mr clone if you guys wanted to set a meeting for october 15th or october 18th or 21st or whenever at some time in this period like that's that is that is fine with us like i wouldn't tell you don't don't i would say that like we would encourage you to do that because i agree with you because i don't want to get in a situation where we have this ready to go and then there can't be a meeting and people can't make it stuff like that so i think look at dates in october like i don't think it's wise as i said to have it like the last week of october you know because it's too close to where the budget is but i think that is a completely fair time to be able to be like in that kind of like second third week of october to be able to schedule a meeting uh maybe on the week when there's not a council meeting to just and like we have we have no problem with that and your commitment to that is appreciated so that's something that i think while we're while right because here we are and we're waiting we could ask

If you ask 50 questions, it's not going to change where we're at with the delivery date of this, but as we prepare to actually dive into the completed study, review it, see how it impacts the budget that's proposed, see what takeaways individual council members have, I think it would be wise to start coordinating something like that. Thank you, President Leo.

Thank you. We have had some conversations about, give me one second to respond to that. We have had some conversations about the amount of committee meetings that we have coming up in September. So October would be the time that we are looking at and Tad and Jess have been in conversation. So we will continue to proceed with that. So that's for sure.

Just one point, and thank you, President, because I think just for those following along, the study only references fire and EMS service. I think there was a reference to police just for clarity.

It's just fire and EMS. We're not studying staffing of police, but there is a part of the study that just helps to educate on what happens when you call 911. and like how often does the police show up versus how often do paramedics show up versus how often combinations of those show up like that is an important piece of information so it's not like studying do we have enough police officers but it is there is an inclusion there of how many calls we have for different departments and how they intersect with each other on who needs to respond to what type of call thank you mayor turning to vice president larry

Thank you, I echo the concern about just making sure that we have a proper time to digest all the information I would go a little bit further than what Council person cologne said, and if we can get a date actually scheduled. and communicate that if we know that it must be done in time. If we get a committee meeting scheduled, that could be communicated as a drop dead to the consulting firm. If it's going to truly be unreasonable to push it longer than that. So that would be my ask to just get it on the calendar. And if we need to cancel, we need to cancel, but it would put a little bit more

I think that October is a reasonable time looking at the, I appreciate and echo that. I think looking back at the 120 days, assuming that the contract was executed mid April, 120 days ago from right now is May 1st. So we're really only two to three weeks over the 120 day mark if the contract was executed So we're not looking at significant delays here given an April execution date. So I have confidence as has been echoed that we would be able to have an October meeting and I would look to a council person, Eamon and our clerk to get that scheduled along with our committee.

Yes, Mr. Do we have any idea where our overtime is right now on fire? Now I could check that for you. Could you get back to us on that? Sure.

But we can tell you, though, since, and this is important, like a staffing-adjacent conversation, is since we had the guys show up at the beginning of July that we sent in January, and now we are only down three positions, our overtime, at least temporarily, until something changes, as far as behavior is concerned, like it is completely tanked. Because back to my point, it's like we have 24 people on per shift. So the idea that if you have all those empty positions, then you only have like... the potential for 22 people to show up. But now that we have the majority of our positions that are filled, now you just don't have to call people as much to be able to get to 18 from 17. So those are numbers that like I am tracking on a daily basis because it helps to prove our point that we've been saying for a couple of years now is that like how many people we have comes down to how many positions we have filled and how many people are showing up to work versus calling out sick and stuff like that. So what we can tell you is from our first couple, and now that we've said this publicly, it might change depending on whether or not people want that point to continue or not. And not only did they drop dramatically, the numbers that we've seen as far as the two pay periods in July were concerned, we're talking about like 60%, 70%. And that 60%, 70% is with some of the periods where there's the most vacation time. like what we should see moving forward if our same rate of sick days moves forward is that number to continue to be down like 50 60 from where it was like the first the first six um the first six months of the year once we had those guys that got through the academy to show up which was part of our whole rationale about why we wanted to go to the second academy and so on and so forth so we feel really good about that point that we made being 100 true that like once those positions are filled the overtime is going to go down

So we appreciate the updated overtime numbers, sir, whenever you guys can get that together. Thank you so much.

I'll send that out. Just note on calendar, the council meets on the 6th and the 20th. And the 6th, I believe, is already set for the committee, the whole 6 o'clock. So 13th would be maybe a good Tuesday or the 20th.

Yeah, or an off-council night. Yeah, an off-council night as well. There's a bunch of meetings scheduled over the next couple weeks leading into also budget season. So we will be very mindful of that and get a date together as quickly as possible so that the administration can have a presence there as well. Thank you, council members. Moving on from...

I have one issue of mine. Oh, go ahead. Ms. Council, can you send us an information on those food trucks that we talked about last meeting? and whatever inspections they have to go through or licensing. Thank you.

All right.

And Vice President Laird. Just another question thinking about things that we discussed wanting to hear updates on throughout the year from budget season last year. electronic bill pay and consumer monitoring. You were, I believe, Mr. Buscollo and Mr. Evans looking at some different vendors and looking at how that would integrate with other city business systems, etc. Is there an update on where that project stands? Sorry, team it.

We are under contract with our current vendor until June of 2027, which was mentioned when the conversation came up during last budget hearing. But that has given us time to research and interview and have conversations with a number of possible vendors. We've selected one that will work. The issue is it needs to integrate with the consumption monitoring vendor. as well. So we've had several productive meetings. Mr. Bosco, if you would add, just in the last couple of weeks in order to bring them together to make sure that they're able to work and give us enough time to bring that online before our contract, we have to make a decision on our existing contract by March expires in June. We're under contract till June. We can cancel. We'd have to let them know by March. So we need to have our ducks in a row by March. And we think we're on a good pace for that.

Yeah, it's very much become a data management issue. There's a lot of integration required between billing, metering, automatic bill pay, so forth and so on. Banking, there's a lot of moving parts. So right now it's more of a, I don't want to say just IT function, but data management, I'll just say broadly, is the effort that we're trying to wrap our hands around with the goal of meeting the mid-2027.

So just to confirm, it would be, because I think you were looking at some options that were one vendor that could do consumer monitoring and billing, but then also some that were separate. It sounds like you're looking at a solution that would be two separate vendors and some integration.

Yes. I think there's going to be some level of integration involved between monitor, like

uh consumption monitoring and then bill pay okay yes and would the um utility bill pay would that be just for water or would that extend into other areas where people are paying bills uh to the city

I think it's just the utility portion at this point. Just the utilities, water and sewer. So taxes, I don't think we are going to necessarily touch that right now. But strictly water, sewer, and maybe there's some miscellaneous bills that occur. But taxes is a separate issue.

And is it looking like the database integrations necessary would be done by our own internal IT staff, or would we be needing to hire contractors to handle the integration work?

It's a combination. It's our IT working with a third-party vendor because a lot of it is integration with our billing software. So it's the city's billing software that we own, that we operate, that's going to be integrated with a third-party software. So there's a lot of crosstalk going on.

OK, sounds like good progress. Thank you.

Thank you. Go ahead. I have a question on trash. I don't know for sure. So as I'm sure you're aware, the trash situation in certain areas of the city are pretty bad. I have made numerous complaints myself to the My Bethlehem app, of which I can honestly say 50% of them, nothing happened. And not to say that no one in whatever that department is, isn't responding, but the homeowners, the landlords, whomever are not taking care of the trash properly. So this is an ongoing repetitive thing that I'm doing on a weekly basis, literally with some of these properties. Have you guys thought of any other way of being able to handle the trash outside of your current process, which is notifying them? Hopefully they clear it up. If they don't, they get notified again, they get fined. There's nothing that's happening is working.

I would slightly disagree that nothing that is happening is working. I have looked a lot at the data and talked a lot with Mike Halpforster, who runs the Recycling Bureau, which does handle trash complaints, our trash enforcement officer. And a large majority of the complaints that we receive are resolved, and they're resolved sometimes even before that first letter that you mentioned goes out, just by a call or a notification of the property owner. And truly, I mean, they handle hundreds of complaints a year. And like the data that we've looked at does show that majority of them are resolved. There are problem properties that are tougher cases that do go through that process that you described where there's a first violation and a second violation. citation to the magistrate. Sometimes we go to the magistrate and then, you know, something gets fixed and then they have to go back. And so we do handle some of those more, like small, that smaller number of more challenging cases in a somewhat frustrating process. But what I would say is if you are seeing in your neighborhood certain properties that are repeat offenders or repeat problems, or you're feeling like, hey, I'm making this complaint and I'm still seeing the problem. I mean, you could actually flag those even for me personally or my help forester personally. Sometimes it may be that what the what you're seeing, you know, maybe is actually not a violation, right? Maybe it's the night before their trash goes out and it just happens to look really bad. And but there's they haven't violated just hypothetically, sometimes things like that happen. Or maybe it is a problem property and we just need to have it on our register as a problem property and think about if we need to be more aggressive with that particular property.

Okay. So one, my apologies, I didn't mean to say that you guys were not up on your job. I know you get a ton of complaints, and I'm sure the vast majority of them are taken care of.

Well, and I'm suggesting that the system itself does work a lot of the time.

So for these problem properties, what do you have in place to take care of them, if anything?

I mean, we work through this process that I described where we have multiple citations, and then a lot of it does get put in the hands of the magistrate. We've talked in other cases, you know, there was one main problem property that came up a few months ago and that was a situation where it was so bad that we did go out and clean it ourselves. That is very, very rare, you know, under various ordinances or if we had like a nuisance specific ordinance and had some, a lot of money to do that kind of thing. I mean, maybe that would be another approach, but it's just, it's such a, slippery slope right to go on a private property and handle problems because often you're just kind of like reinforcing problems rather than like getting at at root causes unfortunately but so short of like us going out and like cleaning garbage off of people's properties like there's there's not much to do outside of the like the magistrate citation process

Yeah, because literally there's one house near my house. This man never cuts his grass, his weeds. They're literally six feet tall. And this has been since last year. So they just regrow every year and he refuses to do it. um there's other properties on the south side and kate jackson from lehigh university has been spearheading a task force with the trash it's there's big misses and it's a huge quality of life issue there's areas on the south side where in the middle of the night you will literally see rats the size of cats

because of the trash.

And it's not that the trash is being picked up the next day.

This is trash that will sit out there for two, three weeks.

And then a complaint has to be filed in order for them to take care of it. And then there's still trash on the sidewalk. They're not getting it all in the can. So, I mean, it's various types of situations all over the city. Going through the magistrate is, you know, it takes months to get a hearing, if not literally a year.

um so that doesn't just seem like a good option a good end yeah i mean there are other you know you think other situations right like if you treated um trash violations like the same you treated like a parking violation where it's just like you did it you get a ticket right like a quality of life ticketing which we don't have here but then you know there are trade-offs with that as well like if there's a situation where the property owner is already economically challenged and that's maybe why they don't have frequent enough trash pickup or they've fallen behind on their trash pickup. Then you're just issuing a ticket and you're adding economic injury onto an already tough situation. That's one of the balances as well when you think about some of the different options. And, and to your point about high grass and weeds as well, you know, so high grass and weeds is certainly a situation where, um, first of all, I'm told that it's been like a terrible year for high grass and weeds because the grass is growing really fast because of our weather. But, um, you know, if we have, for example, like a vacant property or a property like that is turned over to a bank or is just property ownership is in question, it's blighted. Those are situations where we might actually try and use like a small bucket of money to go out and address the problem. like ourselves but when somebody's like living in the home it's just it's a different situation in terms of us doing our own like we're not we're not like a grass cutting we don't want to be grass cutters on private property and we really can't and trash is a similar sort of situation all righty thank you thank you very much director collins moving on to communications communication 6a

On August 18th, 2026, memorandum and proposed resolution from Councilwoman Hilary Kwiatek. Ms. Kwiatek recommends a resolution that would establish monthly reporting to city council regarding the city's consent order and agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection involving the wastewater treatment plant.

And resolution 10A is on the agenda. Communication 6B.

On August 26, 2026, memorandum from city solicitor John F. Spark Jr. with an attached use permit agreement and resolution. Permittee is the Wicked Botanist and the sub-permittee is ArtsQuest. The event is the 2026 Lehigh Valley Fall Wicked Plant Festival. Events will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on September 20th. Premises will be First Street from Polk Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders Way between First and Second Streets.

And resolution 10B is on the agenda. Communication 6C.

On August 26th, 2026, memorandum from city solicitor John F. Spark Jr. with an attached use permit agreement and resolution. Permittee is the Humanitarian Social Innovations and the sub-permittee is ArtsQuest. The event will be the Bethlehem-Peteus Annual Celebration. A parade will be held from 1.30 to 2 p.m. on September 26th. Other events will be from 2 to 6 p.m. on September 26th. The parade premises will be First Street from Polk Street to Founders Way. The premises for other events will be First Street from Founders Way to the Eastern Terminus.

Resolution 10C is on the agenda, communication 6D.

On August 26th, 26th memorandum and proposed resolution from Public Works Director Michael Alcol. Mr. Alcol recommends an agreement with Langan of Bethlehem to provide design and engineering services of an urban trail and recreation space between South New Street and East Third Street as phase eight. of the South Bethlehem Greenway. Cost is $98,920. Work is to be completed by July 15, 2027. There are no renewals.

Resolution 10D is on the agenda. Communication 6E.

On August 17th, 2026 memorandum from business administrator Eric Evans regarding the pension minimum municipal obligations as they relate to the 2027 city budget. Act 205, the pension reform law requires the chief administrative officer to submit for 2027 purposes, financial requirements of the plans and the minimum municipal contribution to the plans of the governing body of the city. based on the most recent actuarial valuations and payroll data, the minimum municipal contributions that will be needed to be budgeted for 2027 are as follows. Police, $7,231,227. Fire, $3,164,187. And PMRS, $2,285,887.

This item is for informational purposes only. Moving on to reports, the only reports that I have today actually ties into a bit of the trash conversation that was just had. I just wanted to express my sincere thanks for the big belly trash cans that are along the Greenway and everywhere else throughout the city. I sit on a couple committees outside of here and one of the things that has come up the most is these big bellies and how much they have helped specifically the ambassadors on the south side pick up almost 900 pounds of trash in one single weekend. So it's really good to see progress being made in the way we police public trash. So thank you again for the work on the big belly trash cans. And as always, we would love to work more with trash collection in the city in general. So thank you for that. That's the only report that I had. Turning to the mayor for mayor's report.

I have one administrative order. I hereby reappoint Dennis Domchek 269 Langhorne Avenue to membership on the Bethlehem Authority. This appointment is effective through January 2031.

Administrative order reappointing Dennis Domchek to the Bethlehem Authority. Resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kwiatek? Aye. Ms. Laird? Aye. Mr. Raymond? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Ms. Leon?

Aye. Passes seven, zero.

Thank you. Just two other things. One is I know they sneak through sometimes those communications, but one of the things when you're talking about the budget is we're obviously always thinking about what our pension obligations are. The MMO communication there shows that we are in a pretty good spot as far as what our number is going to be for the 2027 budget. You've heard me talk about that before oftentimes when the evaluation necessarily kicks in. And sometimes if you've got a couple of good years in a row, you don't actually see the benefit in your budget for a couple of years. But those numbers have kind of come back and like balanced out a little bit. So we're in a pretty good spot as far as the pension is concerned that we're not going to see a huge jump there. And just doing a little bit of arithmetic in my head, as I think if you combine all three of our pension funds together, like we're somewhere in like the 90%, like low 90% like funded. which is a historically good number considering we haven't sold anything, we haven't sold our water system, we haven't sold parking garages, we haven't sold off assets to be able to necessarily fund our pension system, which is a big deal. We continually outperform the market as far as what we do with those pension numbers. I know that's a little bit in the weeds, but it's really important for us as far as the long-term financial stability of the city like as far as what your overall bond rating is going to be when you're going to borrow money and things like that um so the fact that that number is as high as it is and you know one of the things that we sometimes talk about when you're talking about property taxes and things like that i've said it before is you know our property tax to earned income tax ratio is like three to one if you look at other cities allentown easton they actually bring in more in earned income tax than they do in property taxes even though their millage rate is higher Part of the reason why is because we've never been allowed to raise our income tax rate above 1% because we haven't got into any of the early Act 47 or anything that allows us to be able to do that. The fact that our 1% of earned income tax brings in, I think, about $11 million, Eric, is it? Yeah, it's almost around $12 million that even raising that from 1%, I see everybody not looking at me, so I understand I should wrap it up. But the $12 million, even turning that into 1.1 or 1.2 would bring in another million dollars or $2 million. But we never even get that opportunity to be able to do that. because of how well our pension is and the financial state of the city. So we actually lose that opportunity cost in a way to be able to avoid property taxes because we're not allowed to be able to raise that earned income tax. And when you compare Bethlehem to other cities, and they're like two, 2.5, Allentown at one point, Easton just had to lower theirs because they improved their city financially. So you might have read those articles about how Easton is behind on earned income tax and they don't know what they're going to do. because they're at the limit of what they're able to raise as far as property taxes. I think it's like 24.75 mills or something like that. The state only allows you to go up to 25. You've heard me say before for the nine people that care is the idea that like we need to do a reassessment because once you do a reassessment, that millage rate goes down and you're able to create taxes that are equitable for homeowners going across. So the bottom line is because we are doing well, we have limited revenue options moving forward. I don't know what that's going to mean for the 2027 budget tax increase, but I know that a lot of work was done by all of the people on our pension board and with Eric and Lenny and stuff like that to be able to get these MMOs to a manageable level that allow us to do the other things that we want to be able to do. So I just want to thank them all publicly. I want to thank the pension board, which has representatives from our police department, our fire department, Mr. Yasso, Ms. Fox, that really do a good job of managing that money that makes the decisions that we make in here and the decisions we make in City Hall on a day-to-day basis easier. and then the last thing i would just say is just as a reminder next saturday i'm just going to put in another plug for our bike broad walk and roll um from nine to ten broad street will be um closed um to be able to allow uh there's going to be uh you know it's going to start at the rose garden and whether or not you want a bike whether or not you want to walk whether or not you want want to roll, however you want to do it. People are going to go down Broad Street, turn around, connected to our Bike Master Plan, connected to Safe Streets, connected to CAT, the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation. We're going to release our Bike Master Plan at that point. There's a couple other exciting announcements. We've had a ton of positive responses. We've been working with the schools, everybody that is associated anywhere close to that area. And it doesn't matter. You don't need to sign up. It doesn't matter if it's a seven-year-old or a 70-year-old, like there's a place for you on that day as we talk about what these investments are that we're making. So it's going to be a great day. You know, we'll pray for good weather. But, you know, if for whatever reason the weather isn't great, we're still going to be in the Rose Garden hanging out, talking about all these great things and just, you know, continuing to build our community. And that concludes my report, President. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Turning to Councilwoman Kwiatek for committee reports.

Thank you. The Community Development Committee will meet on Tuesday, September 15th at 6 p.m. in Town Hall. This meeting is rescheduled from August 11th. The committee will discuss one agenda item, proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance involving yard setbacks. The committee will be hearing a presentation followed by discussion and will offer its recommendation to Council. Hilary G. Kwiatek, Chairperson, Community Development Committee.

Thank you, Chairperson Kwiatek. Councilperson Kwiatek.

Moving on to ordinances for final passage, eight, a.

An ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and North Hampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the community development block grant budget for 2026 bill number 25, 2026 is sponsored by Ms. Queen attack and Ms. Leon discussion.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Kwiatek.

Aye.

Ms. Laird. Aye. Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Ms. Leon.

Aye. Passes 7-0. Moving on to new ordinances, 9A.

An ordinance of the city of Bethlehem, counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, listing cartway and right-of-way widths for certain city streets. Bill number 26, 2026, is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kwiatek?

Aye.

Ms. Laird? Aye. Mr. Raymond? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Ms. Leon?

Aye. Passes 7-0. Moving on to resolutions. Resolution 10-A.

Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Bethlehem that the Director of Water and Sewer Resources shall prepare and submit to Council a monthly COA compliance report meeting specified content requirements. The reporting requirements shall be for oversight purposes and this resolution shall not direct the technical or operational management of the wastewater treatment plant. Replace the mayor's supervision of city departments or limit the authority of the department under the COA, the NPDES permit or applicable law. Resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

And before I open it up to discussion, I'm going to turn to Councilwoman Kwiatek, who is presenting us this evening. So Councilwoman Kwiatek, take it away.

Thank you, Madam President. As I noted in my memo, I think it's really important to reinforce public trust in our municipal government. When we learned of the consent order an agreement, which is called COA, not to be confused with certificates of appropriateness. I felt a little bit, and this could be on me as well, a little bit blindsided in terms of not really knowing what the situation had been. And so given that there are reporting requirements in the COA, I wanted to make sure that we as council in our oversight duties received a regular report as well since the data is already being gathered. It should be in my view from an administrative burden standpoint Not terribly complex to take the same data that you are reporting to DEP and Channel it to us directly in the form of a report and as you can see in the in the body of the resolution We do want the report to be in the form of a sworn statement of the director that the transmitted through the mayor That the report is true and correct to the best of the directors knowledge information and belief I have had conversations with some other council members and and I think they've been productive conversations I know that there are some questions about a few details to the resolution So I look forward to hearing some input from other members of council but in in my view this is a fairly straightforward and

count on your support thanks all right and before i open it up to council for general discussion are there any comments or statements that the administration want to make at this point or do you want to just field questions as they come field questions as they come opening it up to council for discussion turning first to vice president larry thank you um i plan to make a motion but we'll wait until i'll

discussion is done to introduce two amendments, one of which would be in the Section 1, the monthly COA compliance report. Just in conversation with Mr. Boscola and President Leone, the reports are due to the DEP not the 28th of the same month, it's the 28th of the following month. So the original language had the report coming to us by the 15th, which is actually before it's due to the DEP. In my understanding, so what I would like to propose is that We amend Section 1 to say, shall prepare and submit to council a monthly written COA compliance report no later than the 30th day of the following month. So for example, the August report to the DEP is due the September 28th. And so we would receive it September 30th. is like two days after it goes to the DEP. So that's one item. The other item was that I'm aware that there may be correspondence that comes from the DEP or other agencies about in response to the reports or about different monitoring levels or about additional fines if something's out of compliance, et cetera. So I wanted to add in a number three that would be copies of correspondence that within five business days of receipt, the city would forward a copy of any written correspondence that would include mail or email. received from any government agency concerning the COA, just for our information. So, just so we're making sure that we're aware of anything further that comes out of this. And I thank you, Solicitor, for your assistance in figuring out the wording here.

You're welcome. And just so everybody's clear, that would be a new paragraph three, making existing paragraph three, paragraph four.

All right, so we are, yeah, we are not making, you have not made the motions yet. So as council discusses, keep those motions in mind and we will discuss those motions as they're made. Does anyone else on council have a comment that they want to make regarding this specific 10 a.

So, so who's going to be making this, um, report? Is it, is it the water authority?

Yeah, Mr. Bosco, if you don't mind coming up, because it would just be you bringing us the information, but it is Mr. Bosco would be giving us the report.

That is stated in paragraph one.

So it would be the director. Any other questions from members of council or?

Thank you, President. I guess this question is for Mr. Boscola as it relates to the consent order and agreement. When do you have to stop reporting stuff to the DEP? I guess my question is, and we'll get these reports, but how long are, I guess the resolution states that as long as you're reporting to the DEP, we'll get these updates. How long are you required to continue this reporting to the state?

I don't have the COA in front of me. But the deadline for the final project to complete be completed, I believe is December of 2030. And then we need to show six months of continuous compliance. So you're looking at, in theory, mid year 2031. So five years. from from now roughly and then i think if if if we kind of stick to the schedule and i believe councilwoman quia tech already said this but this is reporting that's already part of the coa so we'll just be forwarding that information to council essentially correct the the the reporting to the dep is only uh semi-annually twice a year This report is once per month. So this is 12 times per year to the council. The update to the DEP is only two times per year.

But we're still keeping track of it on a monthly basis.

Oh, yes. Yes, the DMR is.

So it's still easy.

Yeah. And because of the trigger for penalty or fine is a monthly violation. define whether or not there is a violation in that given month.

So just to make clear, to point out what the mayor said, the reporting to the state is every six months, but you're tracking it monthly.

Yes.

I guess the point of my question is just we're not adding a new administrative layer. It's just how it's communicated out.

Just the administrative layer of city clerk's email. That's it.

You're welcome, Mr. Miller. And then he's got to forward it. That's all I just wanted to clarify. Thank you, everybody.

Any other questions from members of Council?

Just a correction. I'll turn to you, Mr Tech. I saw the vice president first. Go ahead.

uh just uh i yes i had misspoken when i said due to the dep at the 28th of it i meant the that discharge monitoring report is the 28th of the following month right yes so it's not the semi-annual reporting it's that correct the monthly report is due within four weeks of the previous month so august's dmr is due september 28th and so forth yes okay and uh councilman kuitak

Thank you. So just to follow up on that, on that timing piece first. So if I'm understanding Vice President Laird's change, it would mean that the report to us is due almost simultaneous to the submission of the DMR to the DEP. My goal was actually to give a 15 day grace period thinking that that would give them time. So in other words, our report would be 45 days after the actual month in which the data was collected. So noodle with that for a moment while I also note that the DMR is not the only thing we're looking for on a monthly basis. We do want to know if there are any stipulated penalties that take place within that period as well. And I think that that's important. And I understand that the reporting to DEP is only twice a year. But as I say, I do think that this amount of information is certainly doable on a monthly level. But yeah, in terms of that timing, I'm certainly open to however folks are comfortable and with Ms. Laird's amendment on the matter, but my thinking in the way that Solicitor Stewart and I kind of set this up was to try to give them actually a little bit more time to get us the information. So it wasn't necessarily an additional burden at the time of, of submitting data and things like that.

I think we're, it's a verbiage.

I think it's just tweaking the verbiage.

Tweaking, because I was also sort of aiming for what, it's the whole succeeding month language we need to fine tune, so yeah.

I think Councilwoman Kwiatkiewicz spelled it out, I think, the way she said, yeah, so it would be, essentially 45 days roughly after the month. So for example, August 31st, the DMR is due the end of September, the report to council would be October 15th.

Right.

So the language- For that August reporting period.

So the language in what I could propose could either say, 45 days after, or it could say by the 15th of the second succeeding month, right?

Either one, either one.

That's fine with me. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for that clarification. I appreciate it.

Are there any other, is there any other discussion from members of council before we move on to the amendments that Councilman Callahan?

No, I just want to say I totally support this. And I'm always interested in more transparency in reporting of any issues of the public interest that's necessary for council's oversight of any city affairs. So I will be supporting this. But I'd also... I think it would be appropriate for us at some point, maybe once a year or maybe once, at least once a year, but maybe twice a year every six months to have a representative from the parking authority, the housing authority, and the water authority to come here and just do either an annual or a biannual report to us. And that's something I'd like to look at in the future.

I think give me and Attorney Stewart some time to look into where our oversight is and where we can pull. I just want to make sure we're giving accurate information because I know our authority here is very specific because of the type of authority that the water authority is. And I want to make sure that we have that same authority under the other authorities. Go ahead.

i've had this discussion several times regarding authorities and we do not have the same scope and the reason we have authority here is is because it is not the water authority that is performing this work it is the city so It's distinctive in that regard.

But there's nothing that would prevent us from asking those authorities to come and present an annual or biannual report to the city.

Right. And I'd be happy to talk to you more about that outside the scope of this meeting.

Yeah, because I'm just interested in transparency and information being provided to council.

Yeah, and I was just clarifying the difference between a cordial ask and an ability to compel. Right. So that was all.

Well, I'm sure they would welcome the opportunity to come here.

I would hope so. Yeah. Counselperson, did you...

that's very presumptive from both of you i'm nothing but presumptive the i just want to clarify we don't have a water authority we have the bethlehem authority which is what we reappointed mr domchek to earlier this meeting thank you thank you any other council members want to make comment before we make the amendments the motions for the amendments

No? Okay, so Vice President Laird, if you want to make your amendments.

Yes, so I'd like to move to adjust the language, to amend the language in Section 1, which is Monthly COA Compliance Report after, so Pardon my stumbling and trying to piece these things together. Beginning with the first full calendar month after execution of the COA, the director of water and sewer resources shall prepare and submit to council a monthly written COA compliance report no later than 45 days from the end of the month. okay uh i would continue my amendment to add a new section three therefore making the current section three number four copies of correspondence adding within five business days of receipt the city shall forward to council a copy of any written correspondence received from any government agency concerning the coa

Councilwoman Laird, I would suggest just for purposes, and you can do it any way you want, but just for purposes of discussion and any other, yeah, to do it.

So let me strike the second part of that amendment from my motion. So my motion is the change of language in Section 1 to be that the report would be 45, no later than 45 days from the end of the month.

second all right there is a motion and a second tab if you can call the discussion on the motions discussion discuss right because i do want to i do want to discuss yeah discussion on the motion i'll turn to you first council woman thank you madam president um i would just want to add um perhaps this is a friendly suggestion uh to add the phrase um

being reported upon after the words end of the month so that we're clear the month of which we are speaking. So it would be 45 days from the end of the month being reported upon.

Can I just say so moved to add that?

Yeah.

Okay. So we have a motion and a second on the amendment.

Any discussion on the amendment to the amendment?

Is Mr Bosco is this a time frame that is good for you? The 45 day window, right? OK, then that's all the discussion I need. The clerk will call the roll on the amendment.

Mr Cologne. Hi Miss Daniels. I miss Quittek. I miss Laird. I Mr Raymond. I Callahan. I miss Leon.

I Amendment 1 passes 7-0. If you can move on to your second amendment, Vice President Laird.

Yes. Uh, I'd like to make a motion to add a new section three, uh, therefore moving the current section three to section four, the section three would be copies of correspondence within five business days of receipt. The city shall forward to council a copy of any written correspondence received from any government agency concerning the COA.

Second. All right. We have a motion and a second discussion on Amendment 2 to this resolution. Director Boscola, does the addition of this amendment add an additional burden that council has not considered?

I don't think so. I mean, it's going to be a question of whether I get an email from deep dep about the coa any matter with regarding the coa i guess i'll just be forwarding that or with some exclamation to the council um within five days what i could propose

I don't think it would even need to be a change to what I've proposed in verbiage, but could there simply, since this is such an extended period of time, um, and we're trying to reduce administrative burden, we could create a shared one drive folder that any correspondence could simply be added to that council members would have access to, um, moving forward.

I think we could discuss that if it doesn't actually change the amendment. It doesn't sound like it.

Right, because that would be just a certain method of forwarding.

Yeah, we'll discuss that. The only thing that I would ask is if you see it being a burden or if there's something that happens that we hadn't considered, just please let us know so we can address it as it arises. Thank you. If there's no other discussion, then I'll ask the clerk to call the roll on the second amendment to this.

Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kwiatk? Aye. Ms. Laird?

Aye.

Mr. Heyman? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Ms. Leon?

Aye. Passes 7-0. Moving on to Resolution 10B.

Resolved by the Council of the City.

Sorry. I'm sorry. Did we vote on the resolution itself? to vote we did not apparently i'm a little antsy here okay so we passed the first amendment as amended so can you read resolution 10a does he have to read it as amended give us one second to work on wording wait one let's see Yeah, the clerk will call or read resolution 10A.

It resolved by the Council of the City of Bethlehem that the Director of Water and Sewer Resources shall prepare and submit to Council a monthly COA compliance report meeting specified content requirements. The reporting requirements shall be for oversight purposes, and this resolution shall not direct the technical or operational management of the wastewater treatment plant, replace the mayor's supervision of city departments, or limit the authority of the department under the COA, the NPDES permit, or applicable law. The resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kwiatek?

Aye.

Ms. Laird?

Aye.

Mr. Heyman? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Ms. Leon?

Aye. Passes 7-0 as amended. Moving on to 10B.

Be 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 the Wicked Botanist as permittee and ArtsQuest as sub-permittee for the 2026 Lehigh Valley Fall Wicked Plant Festival. Resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion? Clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Cologne. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Quiatek.

Aye.

Ms. Laird.

Aye.

Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. And Ms. Leon.

Aye. Passes 7-0, 10-C.

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 Humanitarian Social Innovations as permittee and ArtsQuest as sub-permittee for the 2026 Bethlehem-Petias annual celebration. The resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kujatek?

Aye.

Ms. Laird? Aye. Mr. Amen? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Ms. Leon?

Aye. Passes 7-0. Resolution 10-Z.

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. We're hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Langan for design and engineering of the South Bethlehem Greenway phase eight. Resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion? Clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Kwiatek.

Aye.

Ms. Layard.

Aye.

Mr. Raymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Ms. Leon.

Aye. Passes 7-0. I will accept the motion and a second to consider resolution 10-E through 10-I as a group.

So moved.

Second. So we have a motion and a second. Second. Any discussion? The only thing I will point out is that 10i is a denial based on color of the tile. So an i vote is upholding the denial. 10k is the one that is regarding color.

So it'd be motion for to group 10e through 10k.

No, those are. All right.

I believe it's through H is the intention.

E through H is the intention. Thank you. E through H is the intention.

I want to group the heart together. So I will accept the motion.

Yes, I will accept the motion in a second to group 10 E through 10 H together. So moved. Can I have a second? Second. Thank you. The clerk will call the roll on that.

Who was your first in motion? uh justin and then it was okay certificates for appropriateness under the provisions of the act of the pennsylvania legislature bethlehem resolution are hereby granted for 10e we didn't vote on the actual i'm sorry correct

if you can call the roll.

Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kluetek? Aye. Ms. Laird? Aye. Mr. Eamon? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Ms. Leon? aye passes seven zero now if you'll read the certificates for appropriateness under the provisions of the act of the pennsylvania legislature bethlehem resolution are hereby granted for 10e main street and ohio road to install two 24 by 30 inch custom designed freestanding signs for world heritage visitors signs will be set in aluminum frames supported by a center aluminum post and will be mounted at an obtuse angle. Both aluminum frame and aluminum post will be powder-coated black. The panels will be lit by solar-powered LED fixtures mounted at the top of the frames. Design concept recalls a Moravian iron hinge with its decorative scroll-like appearance, 10F. 108 through 110 Wesley Street to replace the existing entry door with a period style exterior door from the existing house. New 12 inch side lights will be added on each side of the door and a transom window will be added above the door. New frames will be fabricated out of wood with painted finish. 10G, 427 North New Street, to replace the slate roof on the southeast corner with GAF slate line asphalt shingles in the antique slate gray color to match existing shingles. And 10H, 518 Main Street, to replace the windows on the second and third floors of the building with aluminum clad double hung windows that are white in color. Resolutions are sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Any discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Cologne. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Kujatek.

Aye.

Ms. Laird.

Aye.

Ms. Draymond. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. And Ms. Leon.

Aye. Passes 7-0. I'll accept the motion in a second to group 10I through 10K.

So moved.

Seconded.

Discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kluetek?

Aye.

Ms. Laird?

Aye.

Mr. Amen? Aye. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Ms. Leon?

Aye. Passes 7-0. That concludes city business for this evening. I know this is the discussion on the grouping. Now, please read the COAs.

Certificates of appropriateness under the provisions of the Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature Bethlehem Resolution are hereby granted with the exception of 10K. or 101, I'm sorry, 115 West 4th Street to rehabilitate the front facade, including removal of boat windows and replacing them with aluminum folding doors. Demolition of the pent roof, installing a man door and replacing the existing front brick facade with white brick or aluminum siding. Applicant also proposes to install gooseneck, light fixtures and a cabinet sign. 10J, 312 East 4th Street, to modify the stone retaining wall along East 4th Street, restore the side entrance to the rectory, repair the wall between the church and rectory, and install an entrance into the rectory basement. 10K, 308 East 3rd Street, to replace existing asphalt shingles with GAF Timberline HDZ asphalt shingles in pewter color. The resolutions are sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Madam president.

Yes. Councilman.

Um, I just had a question about the denial. Um, I don't know if Ms. Collins or, or somebody else could help me understand. Um, it seems like such a simple thing that I guess I wonder, and I guess I didn't have a chance to read the minutes of the meeting. So, um, I will, I will stipulate that, but is it unusual for the maybe the homeowner to not say, okay, I'll do that. And then that they would change it to an approval with the stipulation that it actually be the slate line, you know, gray, anti-gray or whatever the standard is. I'm just curious about this process. It seems like it's such a no brainer to just

change it or stipulate it or yeah i can speak generally i mean that that is often how discussions go i did not look at the minutes actually for this specific case before the meeting so i can't speak to it i will point out this is not a um It's not a single family home. It's a multi-unit mixed use building on third street. Okay.

Thanks. I was just curious. I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Director Collins. Any other discussion? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Cologne. Aye. Aye. Ms. Quiatek.

Aye.

Ms. Laird.

Aye.

Ms. Freeman. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. And Ms. Leon. Aye.

I passes seven zero. Now that concludes city business for the evening. Thank you all. Have a great night. Be safe.