County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the Dauphin County Board of Commissioners meeting for March 4th, 2006. We'll begin with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance.

he stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

We begin with our chief clerk's report, Mr. Haggerty. Good morning, commissioners. An executive session was held on Tuesday, March 3rd, to obtain the advice of legal counsel regarding the purchase or lease of real property, legal services, infrastructure funding and bid processes, county finances, and personnel matters. Today, we will have a presentation about the Reach In, Reach Out initiative by Tinessa Moten from the county's Department of Juvenile Probation. In addition to minutes from the February 18th board of commissioners and salary board meetings, there are 31 agenda items for board consideration today. We have 3 adoption assistance and custodianship agreements. 1 workers compensation agreement, 6 public safety agreements, 3 pest control agreements for various county buildings. 1 parks and recreation consulting agreement 1 fights and costs agreement 3 community and economic development agreements 1 human services agreement 2 courts related legal services agreements. 5 parks and recreation presenter agreements. two repository bids one satisfaction piece one tax forgiveness request and the training packet some of you may have seen news about life which is a private entity that operates out of what was formerly known as the schaffner youth center life had its license to operate a child residential facility revoked by the state last week and just a matter of hours after the sudden notice of the closure our children and youth services team here at the county identified Alternative placements for all dependent youth from Dauphin County who were impacted. This was no small feat given the complex needs of many of the children. And I just wanted to publicly say thank you and job well done to everyone at our Children and Youth Services Department. Kim, Stacey, everyone worked around the clock to help mobilize and ensure the safety and well-being of these kids. So job well done and thank you. That concludes my report. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Mr. Haggerty? Hearing none, we'll move to the solicitor's report. I see Guy Benventano is with us covering for Matthew Owens. Thank you for being here, Guy.

Yes. Good morning, Commissioners. This is the older, much shorter incarnation of Mr. Owens appearing before you today. I have no specific report. All matters before the solicitor's office are ready for official action. If you have any questions, the office will be prepared to respond.

Any questions for Mr. Benventano? Hearing none we'll move to public participation on agenda items only So these are this is a time for public participation three minute max for comments and you'll need to state your name Prior to speaking and it's to address agenda items anyone for public comment

Good morning, commissioners. Robert Williams, lifelong Dauphin County and Harrisburg resident. I'm here to address the $694,000 in public safety renewals, specifically item 17, item 5, and 9 through 12. You're asking for over 13% price height for systems that under your direct oversight are currently being used to facilitate the bad faith destruction of evidence. My exculpatory footage from February 24, 2025 in the DA's lobby assault was disposed of, despite my preservation letter filed within 48 hours, my Act 22 request, my right to know request as well. Most importantly, the destruction occurred while there was an active criminal investigation, a pending internal use of force complaint, and other legal proceedings. Under the Pennsylvania County Records Act, these filings legally froze those records. By approving item 17 without auditing the BMS logs, you are subsidizing the illegal spoliation of evidence. The county's legal position is a fraud. You cannot deny my records request by claiming the footage is part of an active investigation while simultaneously allowing the vendor to delete the same footage per a standard schedule. It is active. It must exist. It is deleted. If it was deleted, your previous denials were made in bad faith. Under Rule 509 in the Records Act, the VMS audit logs are administrative records that prove exactly who authorized this destruction. If you vote to renew item 17 and item 5 without these logs, you are complicit in official oppression under Title 18 CS Consolidated Statutes 5301. Well, that's 5101. Furthermore, I strongly oppose the contract. Oh, that's old. I already spoke on that.

that's it thanks for allowing me to speak thank you mr williams anyone else for public comment on agenda items only all right we'll move to uh review and approval of minutes we have the february 18th 2026 board of commissioners meeting minutes before us do i have a motion so moved moved by commissioner hartwick do i have a second second second by commissioner priest any discussion hearing none all those in favor aye aye opposed motion carries we'll move to directors and guests we have tanessa moten with us today to speak on the reach in reach out initiative give us an update on that looking forward to that good morning

Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. And thank you for this opportunity to come before you all and speak and make you aware, re-aware of our Reach In to Reach Out initiative. The Reach In to Reach Out initiative, it is a four-part initiative. that is ongoing. It began in November. And the purpose of the initiative, well, I'll say it was designed to educate the community on kinship, foster care, and adoption. And with us designing this initiative, we have been collaborating with four local churches, Goodwin Memorial Baptist Church, the Rock Church, Greater Zion Baptist Church, as well as Wesley Union AME Zion Church. With our collaboration, we have held four various types of educational opportunities for the public or for the community, and those took the form of informationals, which provided a very thorough overview of the child welfare system, specifically as it relates to kinship foster care and adoption processes. We've also held a meet and greet, which allowed for the community members to place faces with names in terms of the key participants of the child welfare system. And so the community members were able to put faces with names to individuals who are a part of children and youth services, individuals from various stakeholders, the key stakeholders that the agency partners with. And so they were able to identify who's who as well as have a better understanding for the roles and responsibilities of those individuals. upcoming we have our third event of the initiative which is a panel discussion that will be held on march the 12th from 6 to 8 p.m at greater zion baptist church during that panel discussion we have a great panel of individuals we have Dr. Benjamin Henry, who is the superintendent of the Harrisburg City School District, who will be joining us. We also have Kim Sinclair, who is a member or part of Dauphin County CASA. We also have Pastor Jamison McLachlan from Goodwin Memorial Baptist Church, as well as other individuals that Dauphin County Children and Youth Services works collaboratively with. We're looking forward to this upcoming event because yet again, it is another type of educational opportunity for our community to learn and gain a better understanding, bless you, gain a better understanding for kinship foster care and adoption. Our hope ultimately is not only to educate the community on these processes and for them to gain a better understanding for the agency and what we have to offer, but also to provide resources, also to provide supportive ways in which they will benefit the children of the child welfare system. In addition to that, our hope is that we will help to stir up some of the quieted desires that community members may have with regards to their interests, their heart and their love for kinship, foster care and adoption. So we are just inviting and encouraging community members, anyone and everyone who has an inkling of a desire to support our children in the child welfare system to the remainder of our events for the initiative. Our last initiative event will be in April, April 12th, and that is a resource fair. And so individuals who weren't able to come to any of the other events, they're more than welcome to come to that particular event. I do want to add that we are also working with the Bhutanese community of Central PA to provide them with some type of activity as it relates to this initiative as well. So they too will be collaborating with us on this initiative as we move forward.

thank you thank you so much any questions or comments first of all um thank you i see staff behind you from children the one fact is that the more hands hearts and effort towards our children the more opportunities that they may have for success and in order for us to be able to encourage those kinds of relationships. I think the ability for you and the courts and the agency to be able to be forward facing and both open ourselves to dialogue, but also opportunities. because there's very few people that i know in our community that when asked can you step up for our children aren't willing to do so the concerns and trepidations are usually around negative experiences with systems challenges personal involvement and interaction a lack of being able to connect with the people who are in agencies that may not be folks that I feel comfortable dealing with. So the idea of trying to eliminate those barriers and meet people where they're at in order to give them intrinsically with what they want is to be able to help raise a community of children that are a lot better off. And I'll tell you something, it's a tough world out here. So much negativity. I saw where the governor's talking about eliminating cell phones in schools, which I think is a great idea, by the way. The idea of, and I'm going to talk a little bit later about reading and interaction with parents. But when folks are willing to step up and play those kinds of roles with children, and they do it from the community and heart perspective, that is really when the, not politicians, not, you know, It's the combination of community, elected officials, business, church leaders begin to take ownership. And I think trying to present those opportunities to do that, I don't know if we could make a better investment. So I want to thank the department for being willing and open. I mean, I know some of the conversations are tough to have because there's been, you know, decades and years and a lot of these issues, you know, there's. I said this the other day at the Black History Celebration that there's – people think this is about winning and losing when you've got these debates over children. And oftentimes the only people who get hurt in this are the kids who didn't ask to be put in this situation. And how are we going to ensure that they're not victimized multiple times by being placed in the middle of so much crap? um and quite frankly um i think this opportunity to get kings kinship involved um and the other message here too we have a responsibility for the safety of our kids but we want to support families um the idea of trying to keep kids in a stable environment in a permanent stable environment is much better a much better option when it's a safe safe situation than it is to put them in any kind of placement any research and statistics will tell you that that is the case So I think all of these efforts in regards to making those connections and people want to talk to who they know. Like, do I know the Kim Stacy? Do I know people in charge of adoption? Do I know the folks who are in charge of, you know, the kinship care? And can I pick up the phone and say, we've got somebody within our church that we know that You know, they're really wanting to get engaged and play a role with their children. So to make those links and connections, I think will pay major dividends. And, you know, I want to thank. Staff and others again for being willing to have those tough conversations because. As I said, the losers are a lot of times the kids, but these are emotional situations where people tend to leave and they have a negative view of a system challenge. And if they felt like they've not gotten the control or they felt like they've been stripped of control or whatever the court may decide in some of these cases, it's emotional. We would rather have parents decide than the court.

and anything that we could facilitate in order to make that happen i think is a step in the right direction and thank you for all the work and the courts and the agencies in this regard yes and thank you all for your support in this initiative as well as judge morris who wasn't able to be here today he was he has been very significant in this initiative as well thank you

tenessa thank you for walking the walk much appreciated the last time you came in here with judge Morrison and updated us on this great program and this is an extremely valuable outreach to our communities and to provide resources of education which is greatly needed thanks for also collaborating with the churches the community and including the Bhutanese community who as we've all seen are becoming much more actively engaged in community action. I think it's appropriate that they be involved and the amount of people that are being touched by this is pretty remarkable. So thank you.

You're welcome.

I just want to say I had I haven't had the opportunity to attend any of these, but I attended the MLK Day, I guess, roundtable or discussion panel. And I know Judge Morris was there and spoke like really passionately about this. And there was a lot of people there that were inspired to. determine what their role to play in this is and how they can get involved. And I thought, you know, this is the type of place where we need to be in rooms where people might be open to responding and getting involved and, you know, considering what their role to play is, whether that's, you know, like you said, kinship, foster care, adoption. And so I think I saw it at work in that on that panel and and the transfer of information but also the inspiration and so very thankful for your leadership for Judge Morris leadership for our entire department's leadership in this and yeah, thanks for bringing us an update and can you just for the public and

go through those dates one more time that are left because i think we have two dates left and i want to make sure that they know where they can go find those dates on the website if they want to if they want to attend or they want to share this where can they find that information sure no problem um march 12th which is next thursday from 6 to 8 p.m that will be at greater zion baptist church and that is for our panel discussion and then on april the 12th which is a sunday from 1 to 3 p.m at wesley union amy zion church

that will be for our resource fair great yes thank you so much you're welcome and thank you all right we'll move to salary board uh we have uh meeting minutes from february 18th 2026 that need to be approved do i have a motion so move second move by controller bateman seconded by commissioner hartwick any discussion hearing none all those in favor aye opposed motion carries human resources uh we have nothing for action is there any questions for human resources in the event that we nope okay we'll move forward to budget and finance we have christopher davis with us

Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. I have no changes to the purchase order packet that was distributed. That's ready for your vote and approval. Again, just please disregard the budget remaining column as we work to get that corrected with our vector.

Do I have a motion for the purchase order packet?

I'll second that motion.

Moved by Commissioner Hartwick, seconded by Commissioner Preece. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Any questions of Chris? Thank you. All right, matters requiring board action. We have 31 items before us today. Is there anything that needs to be pulled for a separate vote?

Yes, item number 20, please. Again, they were a former council of mine. I'd like to have them be removed and abstained from that vote.

Understood. Any other items that need to be pulled and voted on separately? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion for items 1 through 19 and 21 through 31. So moved. Second. Moved by Commissioner Hartwick. Seconded by Commissioner Preece. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And we'll move to item 20. So moved. We have a motion from Commissioner Preece. I will second that motion. And are we going to note an abstention for you, Commissioner Hartwick? Yep. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? And note the abstention for Commissioner Hartwick.

move to former business we have no former business before us any new business no new business we'll move to Commissioner remarks Commissioner Hart yeah just again in the lines of what we've discussed this morning I'm leaving a all-star reading event today at Harrisburg High School or actually Camp Curtin Academy this morning where they talked about the reading gap that exists And I think it's important for me. I know it's sort of been a week where I met with Joe Bedard from uh the capital region literacy council i obviously had the read-in this weekend african-american the 28th annual african-american read-in at steelton elementary school with the alpha kappa alphas which was a phenomenal black history event where we had local authors and individuals that are contributing to the dialogue but also promoting the importance of literacy At that event, and we are really fortunate in this region to have folks that have a mission of. Making literacy accessible and available. To folks, regardless of what school district they're in, what level of income that they have and this idea of being able to pick up a book. in a digital world and society that sort of has us distant from each other and distant from what's going to be required to anybody to be able to actually be proficient in literacy. Let me just give you a couple of statistics that I talk about. 33% of US fourth graders are at or above proficiency with reading. That means two out of three students are not reading proficiently by fourth grade. Fourth grade is considered a critical transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Roughly 21% of U.S. adults have low literacy skills, and many of these adults struggled with reading in childhood. About two-thirds of U.S. students are not proficient readers by third grade. There those individuals who are not proficient in reading are 3 to 4 more times likely to struggle with reading by 3rd grade. Socio and economic factors strongly influence literacy development. A student who reached 20 minutes per day will encounter 1.8Million words a year. A student who reads 1 minute a day, 8,000 words a year. Again, about 70% of our youth and juvenile justice system have reading difficulties and you'd find the same level of challenges in the adult system. And as we're talking about parents and folks that are engaged and involved, I think the message today is. Read your kids, I don't think there could be any some more simple thing that we can attempt to do then attempt to figure out a way to number 1, spend meaningful time. being able to interact and actually listen and engage with your children, which is severely lacking in today's world and society with being busy, trying to have to answer and respond to things at all times, no matter what time of the day it is or night, but to spend some actual time set aside with one-on-one time being able to read. And if you're not a parent and you're engaged with children, the idea of setting time aside to read with our children, it will pay major dividends. I don't believe... I think it's Annie Casey Foundation that talked about there is nothing better for a return on investment than the investments a community can make into reading and literacy. So as we sit around and we ask, you know, what is it we can do to change a community? Number one, if you are interested in trying to acquire books, I think there's I've listed two organizations that I know there's a host of organizations that are here that can provide you with reading materials at home. The idea that that should not be a barrier. If there is, call our offices. We'll figure out a way to ensure that we connect you with these organizations to be able to provide a vote. Number two is figure out a way to give yourself some grace, but also give your child some time. And the idea of doing that will ultimately pay much more dividends than they would be on that video game, on the phone. They'd be able to have a device in front of them. That interaction and the ability to learn and let me tell you a book can take you anywhere in the world for free It can allow you to see any experience that you may want to visualize and what are we? You know how we view ourselves who we hang around and what we believe is the potential for our own future is sort of what we think of ourselves as it relates to the future and what better way no matter where you're at to open your mind up to what is possible for your child to allow them to be all God intended to be and

uh then exposing them to uh books and and literacy so that's my word today thank you great thank you thank you commissioner hartwig uh first of all i'd like to give a shout out to our human services director randy yeager uh for working with the following entities here how many folks drive along 322 and other highways and see all that trash and debris and say when is it going to get cleaned up i mean pretty much everybody does that when we're driving along and Randy has worked with PennDOT. Visit Hershey Harrisburg, Dauphin County Recycling, and our human services agencies, along with a local provider named Hap Lifestyle. They're a 501c3 focused on employment of the unhoused in order to move homeless individuals into housing. They're working together for a five-mile litter cleanup project along 322 between Harrisburg and Hershey. And this will take place from April 13th through April 16th of 2026. Hap Lifestyle has up to 15 individuals who will perform litter cleanup for up to five hours each of those days. And tentatively, it'll take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day, weather pending. Thank you for spearheading that and working with those other organizations, state and local. Secondly, I just want to follow up on action taken last week on adding AEDs to our park systems that are owned by the county. All AEDs save lives. Dauphin County's goal is to expand reliable public access to AEDs in all our parks. Both our Director of Public Safety and our Director of Parks and Recreation evaluated multiple systems and recommended the AED units that integrate with 911 dispatch to simultaneously ensure immediate emergency access and response, as well as CPR guidance and unit access. We appreciate all of the organizations working together to improve cardiac emergency preparedness in Dolphin County and our municipal parks. The decision reflected the operational realities of large, open, unstaffed park environments and balances rapid access with protection of the equipment so it remains functional and we can guarantee it is there when needed. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Preece. Last week, I attended Celebration of Black History Month that the PA Legislative Black Caucus and Affordable PA put on with a number of others as well at the Capitol Building, which was a great event. I also attended the governor's meeting that he's been having around Harrisburg revitalization, the downtown specifically. DCED was part of that meeting, multiple stakeholders from the community, and we continue to Have conversations about things that need to be improved in Harrisburg and ultimately working through a survey that we've had thousands of people participate in at this point to to determine ways in which we can address the problems that our community sees. Finally, last week, I delivered a proclamation to Donald Butcher from the Board of Commissioners. He was the 2026 American Association of Nurse Practitioners State Award for Outstanding Contributions in Pennsylvania recipient. And I just want to just give a shout out to Donald Butcher for the work he's doing, obviously, as a nurse practitioner, but to receive this. you know, in honor of all of the Commonwealth right here in Dauphin County. We have somebody providing care in a meaningful way and an accessible way to communities that need it most and for him to be honored throughout all of Pennsylvania and all the nurse practitioners that exist for him to get this award. I think I share with my colleagues and our pride that he's represented here in Dauphin County and is proud to deliver that proclamation. With that, we'll move to correspondence. I see no correspondence. We'll move to general public participation. Just a reminder, it's a three-minute time limit for comments, and you'll need to state your name prior to starting. We'll begin with the only name I have on the list is Robert Williams, and if there's anyone else for public comment, I'll open it to the floor after that.

Good morning again, Commissioners. Good morning, Mr. Williams. Exposed, that's a good word. I like that. Word of the day, exposed.

Excuse me, could you please state your name again for the record?

Robert Williams, Sr., lifelong Dauphin County resident, Harrisburg, PA. Yeah, that's what I'm here to do, expose the corruption in Dauphin County. There's a lot of corruption going on. And Commissioner Douglas, you stated that you're all about transparency and accountability. Where's the transparency at in regards to you meeting with me in close in your office to discuss this video footage and not on the record you told me since may 7th there was an active investigation and then and you did that in writing but behind closed doors you let me know that it wasn't an active investigation why was that why did you do that behind closed doors Right, no transparency, no accountability. Yeah, county, this county's corrupt, and I have it all documented. And I came in here for over almost a year, and you sit silent, haven't investigated, haven't done anything under the law that you're legally obligated to do. You have fiduciary duties, you have duties that you don't do. Like, I asked you, why haven't you reprimanded or investigated jeff henders and you know what your response was you like the job that they're doing you like the job of video footage being unlawfully destroyed that's a felony if it's intent to injure someone you like that job i know you do you sat here for 15 years and like all the corruption that went on for 15 years because you're a part of it You, DA Chardo, Scott Evans, all corrupt. And I have it in writing. And not one of y'all will call me in to get any of this documentation because you're a part of it. And that's fine because DOJ will have a field day, and the candidates running against Douglas will have a field day with this information. President Trump doesn't like Democratic bodies. And with him running for Congress, I'm pretty sure his DOJ will have a field day with all of the information that I have on this corrupt county. I knew the county was corrupt. That's why I made sure I did everything possible for the footage to be preserved two days after the incident happened. I even have Deputy Osweiler signing as the complainant on my report. I made the complaint, but he signed as he's the complainant to cover up. Dombrowski, who was a peer sergeant to the sergeant that attacked me, signed off on the report, which is not proper under the policies. It has to be a superior to sign off. And coincidentally, Dombrowski retired four months after this to escape administrative penalties. And I will keep coming up here and exposing the corruption. Time's up.

Thank you.

I know it's up.

It's up. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you.

And it's discretionary. No, it's not discretionary.

It is discretionary. I'm the chairman, and I said your time's up. Thank you. Appreciate you.

It's official oppression when you're cutting me off.

It's not official oppression. Three minutes. I said it from the start of both public comments. Anyone else for public comment? I'll entertain a motion for adjournment.

So moved.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. We're adjourned.