City Council - Regular Meeting

We should be fine. So you have a port of this anywhere. Looks like set up as a second display. I don't know if you want to mirror it or how you want to do it.

Oh, I just drag it up to the thing. I think I don't know Max, but if you go into the system settings, uh system preferences like a display. Yeah. So, there might be like a mirror arrangement. mirror.

Okay. So, yeah. So, that should just mirror what you're seeing. Oh yeah.

[clears throat] [clears throat] [clears throat]

I'll double check.

That makes sense. Heat. Heat.

[laughter]

[clears throat]

right now.

How you guys doing? Right. I'll just stay out of the way. City. Heavenly Father, we come to you today asking for your guidance, wisdom, and support as we begin this meeting. Help us engage in meaningful discussion. Allow us to grow closer as a group and nurture the hands, the bonds of community. Fill us with your grace, Lord God, as we make decisions that affect the residents of East and continue to remind us that we all have what we have to do here today. as we and all that we accomplish is for the pursuit of truth and greater glory of you and for the service of humanity. We ask these things in your name. Also on a personal note,

please take my father Sal senior into your loving arms and keep him in rest in heaven with you. Thank you. 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. Roll call. Madam clerk, Mr. Brown here, Missando Dennis. Miss Mr. Pinone here. Mrs. Rose here. Mr. Graciano here. Mrs. Heartra Biddinger here. Mayor Panto here.

I just want to tell for those who are in the audience dealing with the um cameras that we have in the city that is not on the agenda tonight because our meeting last night was was on the agenda was cancelled. So I just want to let you know that you don't have to stay. You can get up and leave. You don't have to be here before that. It's not on the agenda. It'll be on next Wednesday meeting. No. Wednesday. We're not going to discuss it first. No. There's nothing to discuss. It'll be Wednesday the 11th, right? Wednesday the 11th. Yes. Okay. Um, approval of the agenda. Motion. Move to approve. Move to approve is seconded.

All those in favor? Roll call. Madam clerk. Miss Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose I Mr. Graciano I Mrs. Hartraf Binger I mayor Panto I Mr. Brown I action on our minutes of our January 14th meeting mayor I'll make a motion to table number six since we don't have the minutes yet.

Okay and we now have the two gentlemen who've been working very closely with my office on the skate park down on Lehigh Drive to make a presentation. I want to thank you all for having us. Uh my name is Bill McWills. I live on Second Street. Been working with the mayor's office for the past three years. Uh with regard to the East Skate Park,

my name is Jake Baldini. I'm also part of the Eastn Skate Park project advocating to get a skate park on Lehigh Drive. Uh so we first came in front of the council I guess it was 2023. Um so we're going to rehash some things that we had talked about then because we do have new members. Uh, but basically we've been working with the mayor for the past almost three years now in regard to the skatepark. This is kind of tongue and cheek, but it's also pretty true. If your city doesn't have a skatepark, your city is a skatepark. And I'm sure if you guys nicer weather, but even in if it wasn't snow on the ground, you'd probably hear kids skating down the street right now. Um, so there's some truth to this and it really is a public space that's needed in the city that we do not have uh at the moment. Um, it's also a multigenerational activity. Uh, Timothy Weedock, who's here in the crowd, I think is the self-proclaimed oldest skateboarder in the Lehigh Valley.

How How old are you, Tim? I'm 61 going on 62. So, there you have it. God bless you. Um, all the way up to

Uh, it's girls, boys, all different races, adults. Uh, myself started when I was five years old. I'm still doing it now at 38. Uh I'm sure Jake you could say the same similar story. Um so it's all-encompassing. It's a physical activity. It's good for the mentals and it's a broad spec broad spectrum of people that would benefit from this skatepark. So the Eastern skatepark project is basically what we've dubbed the the small council that's been getting together with the city. Uh again, it's been three years of advocating. Um we've worked closely so far with the mayor's office, the public works department, and also the greater eastern development partnership uh in planning this project. Thus far, uh the mayor actually asked us to come up tonight just to uh kind of re reiterate all this. He's been a huge supporter of the skate park and he uh is has vowed to make it a priority in 2026 alongside his Westward Community Center. so far. Uh gonna ask Timmy Dodge to come up and speak on the grassroots funding we've done so far.

How's it going, guys? I'm Timmy Dodge. I live in uh Eastern my whole life. And thanks Jake and Billy for getting me involved in uh everything that we do with the Eastn Skate Park project. Um if I could just speak on fundraising and events. I've gone around to multiple businesses throughout Eastn throughout the city um to help throw in uh events and fundra for um things like um Baconfest and Garlic Fest. Last year we had the Tucker Skate Social which was a huge success. We had over 15 businesses actually sponsor that event. Um, so I guess all that is to say that when we bring up the EN skatepark project to anybody, business or just in the community itself, it's always met with a resounding yes. How can we get involved? How can we support this? So um there we're all looking forward to the transparency and and what's going to push this um this project to the finish line. Um here's an example of some of the uh events that we've done. Um, so it's pretty clear that uh it's a wide spectrum of everybody that's interested in in seeing this get done. Um, and and we have a lot of passion behind it through just the local community and all the businesses that can support it. So, we appreciate this very much.

I think just to even touch on that further, the social at the Tucker Garage, we had 320 people in and out of the door that day. Uh, it's a pretty big space. We had skate ramps in the in the building. We had a DJ. Uh we did an art auction that day in conjunction with Suddenly Samantha, Steven Flowers of Suddenly Samantha. That day alone we raised $5,000 of just grassroots funds. Um obviously you're not going to build a skatepark with $5,000, but just in one day the fact that a community could come together and raise that amount of money speaks volumes to the fact that people want to see this happen. I was at that event and I thought it was really impressive. You guys did a great job with it and I also thought it was a great community event in general and really showed how much support that there is for the skate park at the hearts.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And we're actually we're meeting on this Friday small committee to get that going again. We'll have a date in March and I would really love any council member Crystal would love to see you there again. But this open invitation obviously would love to see council members come out and support. All right. So we've been working with Fifth Pocket Skate Parks. Uh Jesse Clayton, owner of the company, actually just moved to East. So he is based in East now. The business isn't based in East, but he lives in Easton. He's an East resident. Um which I think is huge. He's a, you know, he's built parks all over the country, but this is a guy that is local now to this community. Uh you go to the next slide. So this this is the actual design of the skate park. We had a public design meeting in 2024 uh which the city actually paid for which I maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here a little bit. Maybe go two slides forward.

Okay, never mind. Um so this is a flythrough of the park and this was designed based off of public input. Uh Fifth Pocket came out. The city paid for this design work and for him to hold the meeting. It's based off of what people said that they wanted to see in the park. And this is to spec off of 507 Lehigh Drive, which is where the park is proposed to go and this is 8,000 square ft. the the shape of it, the design is meant specifically for that property. Uh it leaves a lot of open area. Uh basically, you could do whatever you want with the rest of that green space. There's been talks about what could possibly also go there. I'm not going to touch on that tonight, but if you can see here from the overhead, it leaves a whole lot of extra space there. This is the actual property along Lehigh Drive, 507 as it currently stands. Okay, so this is kind of a breakdown what the city actually already paid for the public design meeting and all that. And then this is the design and construction quote which is what we're basically looking to move the the project forward towards. Okay, so we're basically looking at next steps now. Again, this has been a three-year uh process that we've been working with the GDP and the city. Uh we've worked also with uh Liv Bamford, Trevor Pino as far as grant writing goes. They're super on board with this as far as doing like DCNR grants, Greenway Trails and Recreation Program,

GRT RP. Uh and what we're really looking for is an official resolution from city council to support the skate park. I I see you guys mentioned you're working with the GDP and I'm full disclosure I'm on the board there and haven't heard a lot about this. Um I know Jared's here tonight too. Maybe he could come up and give an update from the GDP side um how you guys have been collaborating and partnering. I'd love to hear about it. That would be great if he's up for it. Sorry Jared HMI or No. Do you have an HDMI adapter? Okay. So, it should work. Are you guys Is that

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, let's see if this works. And also the land that is proposed for the skate park is owned by the GDP. Correct. That's correct.

Yeah. So, quick introduction. I know a lot of you and I I know the history of this project. Um going back to the mayor and uh council person kind of nudging this along. Um, I don't know the full history of of how GDP came to own on this property, but it was in conjunction with the development of the CRA experience, and it's technically labeled as GDP bus parking. Um, so, you know, at the nudging of of Frank and and the mayor, we we started to think about what could happen in gravel lot. It's not highest and best use. It's it's kind of a forgotten lot. I think we store snow down there this time of year. Um the mayor kicked off the design process by funding Fifth Pocket to design the park itself. Um GDP then followed up with uh a grant through the Pennsylvania Environmental Council to do a master plan for the whole site to kind of take that fifth pocket design and look at what else was possible on that site. Um so I'm going to try and bring up those renderings if I can actually mirror my display. So, if I can't, maybe you can work on this if you want, but um just a couple of updates. I gave an update to the mayor with Dave Hopkins a week or two ago. Um GDP has applied for a statewide LSA grant, which is gambling money from the state to fund the skate park portion of the project, order of magnitude about $500,000. Um GDP was also recently approved as a waterfront development um organization

which allows us to go after corporate contributions at a 75% tax credit to support this project and also the trail head for the trestle. Um so I think there's some exciting developments on that front that you know with the city um we can potentially be moving multiple avenues forward in parallel. The the third piece of that is GDP is also working through its own capital campaign um planning process and the skate park is in our case for support. So we're talking actively with donors about the possibility of funding this through philanthropy which I think philanthropy would probably be the fastest way to get this done. We all know that grant cycles take time. You have to apply. You wait. Um there's contracting. There's bid requirements. And if we were to be able to pursue this via private philanthropy, I think we'd be able to move faster and get both parts of the project done um potentially at once as opposed to separating them. So still don't have it up. Uh I do have a couple printouts if if council's is curious to see the renderings. Um do you guys have the renderings as part of your presentation?

Not as part of the presentation, but Okay.

Sucks. So happy to answer any other questions about GDP's connection to the project. Um I think it's an exciting project. It's I I didn't grow up as a skater but support the vision and our board um supports the vision. Andy Po on our board was part of the design process with these guys. Other community members including small businesses that were supportive of the boat launch. Dave Hopkins was part of the process as well. Um, I got it. Okay, so this is site plan. Kind of hard to read, but you have the skate park on the eastern side of the site. Um, and then parking and then the water access. Easier to kind of visualize with the renderings themselves, which if I can go to full screen [snorts] and kind of flip through them. So, this shows Kayak Lounge, the parking area, kind of the corner of the skate park with a potential pavilion. Um, this is a skate park, which um was is actually, I think, a perfect match of the fifth pocket design, kind of dropped into the space, bike parking for folks that are going to get there by bike. Um there were some questions within the design group and the the stakeholder group of what the water's edge should look like. So more of kind of rustic boulder approach was something that they came up with. Um again view of the kayak launch. That's kind of the site as a whole with the potential uh fishing pier as well. Different components of this could be kind of chunked out um and done at different times with the skate park potentially taking first priority. Um that's the way we're actually approaching at least in terms of grant writing perspective. Um, we would work

with the city on coordinating C2P2 and other DCNR grants. Um, but yeah, I think exciting also relates to the property that I mentioned over here. Um, corner of Lehi and Washington. Um, GDP as of this week just finished its environmental remediation of that site. The report is off to D. So, um, that's also kind of ready for recreational development as well. Sorry to waste a couple minutes. No, that was perfect. No, thank you. I Great.

Yeah, I think the one thing we all hear and we talk about a lot is people want more things to do downtown and not just having the skate park's a great addition, but also some of these other things like safer and ADA accessible boat launch ramps and uh kayak launches on the Lehi side. And it like like you all said, it's really an underdeveloped and underutilized area of the city. So, I think these are all really exciting projects. um really hope to see it all come to fruition and appreciate everyone's partnership

and I would say if you are supportive of this and have any kind of relationship with state officials the statewide LSA grants are going to go into review this year and um this last this past cycle I think was announced in December so you have some time to advocate um GDP is a nonprofit so if there is the potential for philanthropy to step up um happy to have those conversations to the next phase of pre-development is engineering and final design. So, we do have some costs associated with that. That might be how the kind of boots on the ground fundraising supports this project in the near term, but we're also looking at ways to fund that as well.

Jared, on both um parts of that funding aspect you were talking about, what would a timeline look like on that be for both of them?

So, statewide LSA is approved by the CFA, which has meetings but decides not to actually approve because it's like a consensus appro. So sometimes it's approved in May, sometimes June, sometimes it pushes all the way to December, which is what happened this past year. Um then contracting, we actually got an award in December, but we're not under contract yet, another four months for contracting. So you know, we could get positive momentum in 2026 and even notification of award. Um and then we'd have to bid the project out according to state prevailing wage and bid requirements. If private philanthropy stepped in here, it could move very quickly, right? You wouldn't have the bid requirements because we're not the city. Um, we wouldn't have to be waiting for contracts. Um, and so that's my hope. Um, as I said, GDP is going through a capital campaign planning and if this project resonates with funders, it's something that could actually make it happen much more quickly. And how much is currently raised as a as

a total that's new? We're floating right around 14,000. Like I said, we have another $14,000. And then we have another uh it's called Deck the Walls through Steven Flowers uh thing that last year raised 5,000. We're hoping to at least do that. If we ex exceed that, that's great. But that would be another hopefully 5,000 in our coffers that I would be able to use. Uh, and we've already talked to Jared about, you know, taking that and using that to move the project forward in whichever way we're able to do that.

Yeah, the mayor, I think, put up 5 to 10,000 for initial design, then master planning was on the order of 25,000. So, I think all in we're already invested beyond just acquisition or the property. Um, we're in for about 35, but we probably have about 600 to go. And do you know what the purchase price of the property was when the GDP bought it? Or am I catching you off? Sorry. [laughter] I'm just curious. $40,000. Penis. Yeah. I mean, we have the It was I think it was from the Odin Welder Corporation. Odiner.

Um, you know, the the price of the Norfolk Southern lot for the trail head was much was it

was 375,000. So obviously cost per acre is quite a bit different here. Um, but yeah, utilizing this just for bus parking and snow melting is not not the best use of this space. So, I'll let these guys answer. Well, we met with David Hopkins and we incorporated this into the waterfront project into the plan and it fits equally as well. So, we're really excited about that. Um, it's just a matter of me now and Jared going out and trying to raise the money and getting grants from the state DCNR. Uh, we have good context in the state and I'll put Trevor on that first thing in the morning. Okay.

That was pretty much all that we had. Uh, thank you all for letting us get up and speak and hope that you support this moving forward. Bill, thank you. Thanks for your work. Thank you. [applause] Bill has been our number one volunteer at all the events that [snorts] we've held where they had the the skate park out, skateboarding ramps and stuff out and rails because I have the number one son that's top skater so I have to be involved. [laughter] Jim's not your son.

No, AJ. Although AJ's been doing it since he's been three years old. Just bought a skateboard at a yard sale and he just sat on it for a while and then that's he started standing up and scaring me. So it took off from there. Uh what I wanted to tell you is I had talked to um from Lisa Boscalo and she referred me to Kurt Durr and said that we're eligible for two to three grants that are pretty large amount of money. So we they said that um once we apply for them, the city would have to actually apply for for us. But um do you think you could find somebody to help us do the grants because we're not okay. Um, and I think he said something about like we have to get a move on because one of them expired, I don't know, in May or whatever, but he said that it takes a while to do all that. But that's what we're just looking at. I mean, we just got this information finally after since I think December. I finally got a hold of them. And uh, it's very exciting just knowing that we're eligible for these grants and we didn't even know that before other than

Well, we knew we knew it. Oh, well, we didn't know. Yeah. So, we knew it because we call it OPM in city hall. Other people's money. Oh, yeah. Okay. And um we've been very good at DCNR. We did the Centennial Park and Vander Park with the money grants from there. Uh we can't do the capital improvements that we do. We everything we do is with other OPM. Yeah. Well, we want to thank you all because this is like a biggest thing that these kids want. They wanting this for a long time. I know AJ's wanted this for a long time. He's seen you when he was younger and you know, getting it done and getting the satisfaction of all these kids being happy and off the street. That's a wonderful thing to do.

Well, we think we found the right location and working with GDP as a good partner with the city. Um, I think it's going to work out well. There's no neighbors down there, so they can't worry about the noise, the swearing, or anything else. So, I think we should be fine. There's no there's no fences to put a hole in to jump out on onto Folk Street. So, yeah, that's good. We just have to worry that they'll head into the water, that's all. They fly out there. But, thank you all very much for taking a consideration of this because they deserve this. That's for sure. They've worked really hard. Thank you. Thanks. [applause]

At this time, we have public comment on agenda items only. Anybody would like to talk about any of our agenda items, um, you're more than happy to come up, give your name and address, and um, no one. Okay, we'll move on to consent agenda. Madam clerk, we have six resolutions um for approval for certificates of appropriateness for the following addresses. 222 Spring Garden Street, 219 North Thirdrd Street, 50 to 54 South 2nd Street, 237 Ferry Street, 13 South Fifth Street, and 125 Spring Garden Street.

Is there a motion? Motion motion second moved and seconded by Pinnabone and Bineer. Um any discussion on the motion? Roll call. Mr. Pinnabone. I Mrs. Rose. Hi. Mr. Graciano. I Mrs. Hartwraf Binger. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. I Miss Zando Dennis.

Hi. There's reports received by council for November and December fire incident reports and reports of the committee. We'll go right to Ken Brown for um finance. Thank you, mayor. I have two things on the uh agenda for this evening. Uh we talked about them at the last meeting session uh and that's amending uh the budget for uh the fun 101 general and also uh the budget uh for the two 52 health benefits. That's all I have for this evening. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Moving on to um economic development committee, Vice Mayor Pinnabone.

Thank you, Mayor. The department has been very busy over the last few weeks. They coordinated and attended a press conference with the Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of DCNR on the C2P2 grant announcement for 2026. Uh we did this last week. Eastern received $500,000 for the Highline Acquisition, which is the Trussell right behind McDonald's. They participated in the monthly Main Street business breakfast, attended the Valley Health Partners pharmacy grand opening, attended Discover Lehigh Valley monthly board meeting, participated in constituent services call and a tour of the Mil Easton with Councilwoman Hart Raf Bittinger. Uh myself and uh M Councilman Graciano went through the tour, completed and submitted DCED annual report in support of the mayor state of the city. met with potential contractor for the Hooper House House redevelopment. Met with Representative Freeman to discuss funding priorities for 2026. Myself and uh Dave Hopkins got on a phone call with the PUC regarding some ongoing uh issues and upgrades with Medus and attraction and retention. Worked with three prospects looking for space in the city. One is a new restaurant. Another one is a commercial business seeking office and storage warehouse space. And the third is a new co-working shared workspace. We applied for a grant uh for the Fidelity Foundation to uh upgrade Haggett Park playground equipment for $6,000. We were awarded the PA DCce MTF uh for Larry Holmes Drive uh to do the upgrades on the intersections for 250,000. and we closed out the DCNR C2P2 tree vitalization grant which was $100,000. Mayor, that's all I have.

Thank you. Planning and code committee ma council member Rose.

Thank you, mayor. Uh the planning commission will meet next Wednesday, February 4th at 6 p.m. The agenda is on the website. Um yesterday I attended the Lehigh Valley Chambers economic outlook uh event. Um, and I saw the mayor there and city administrator Lewis Campos there as well. Um, tomorrow night I am attending the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission's training um for new and emerging industrial land use um guide that they have coming out and which will be in Allentown. I also attended and um helped to host with the Eastern Business Association the Lehigh Valley or the Valley Health Partners new community far pharmacy in Southside. And that's all I have. Thank you,

Public Safety. Councilman Goaniano.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I met with Chief Scowzo last week and we had a very productive conversation. Uh, we covered a range of topics including staffing levels, shifting shift rotations over time, the department annual report, and long-term planning for a future evidence storage building. Uh, following a discussion, chief gave me a tour of the full a full tour of the police station. Um, it's very clear, uh, if anyone's ever taken a tour of the station with the chief, it's very clear that he takes an immense amount of pride in the facility and rightfully so. Um, it's a fantastic building and we're fortunate to have it here in Easton. Uh, chief also recommended I reach out to community advocate Kristen Cooper, which I plan to do in the near future. I'm going to continue these discussions and I'll report back as we move forward. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, Councilman. Uh, administration committee Public. Public works. Oh, you're right. Public works. Sorry, Julie. No worries.

Thank you, mayor. So, I I want to start out by first thanking uh the public works department for their tireless efforts to remove snow in the city. Um I know that they worked uh 24 hours on Sunday night and uh we also had um outside contractors in addition to uh working every day. They are now uh attempting to use um skid loaders which are smaller smaller pieces of equipment to tackle the alleyways and places where their heavy equipment can't get through. So, uh they have been working. I know a lot of constituents are um frustrated. Um I know that my own street just got plowed today uh on Lehigh Street. Um so uh please be patient. Um we have a lot of resources and they're being implemented as well as the private contractors that are that have been retained for this effort. I also wanted to thank um at the at the wastewater treatment plant they have 24hour operation and um supervision of those operations 24 hours a day. That means people have to stay there um overnight and that means uh two two employees stay there each and every night and including uh over the storm. So uh we must thank you for their service essentially being stuck in the building um during that that snow emergency. uh also today have a resolution uh which is to it's a contribution agreement

essentially it's return of a multimodal transportation fund grant in the amount of $83,000 in exchange for PENDOT performing the work. So I'll talk a little bit about that when that comes up. Thank you. Thank you council member. Um Susan Biner, Hartwraf Binger, um administration committee.

Thank you, mayor. I have two resolutions for this evening. The first one is the city of Easton uh entering into an agreement with Altel, which is a phone system. By changing providers, we will be saving uh the city $2,800, $2,800 savings per year. and our lease agreement is up April 5th. So, we'll be taking care of that with no phone disruption. And our second resolution is to come into a lease agreement with Greenlight Networks for Space in a Fourth Street garage. This is an internet provider. They will be providing uh fiber services to the city and they will be leasing space at approximately $1,500 per month. And then in addition though, they will be providing us with internet service here uh at at city hall. Correct, Lois? I'm sorry, at the garage. And that will currently save us uh some additional funds also. So, the first step of this is to have us take a look at this uh to obtain the approval for for the code. So, thank you.

Thank you. Um reporter C solicitor. Uh thank you your honor. Um we uh had a uh executive session uh immediately prior uh to discuss at length certain property issues and we had a very brief discussion concerning uh previous and current litigation. Do you want to update us on the warehouse and what city council's role may or may not be?

Um I I can. It's sort of preliminary at this point because we don't know exactly which way it will go. Um there was a mandamus action that filed initially uh which basically was an allegation that um the or an attempt to have the court direct that the planning commission grant approval of the warehouse application. There's there's complex legal issues involved. We have filed preliminary objections to that type of action. That's the action which Wilson Burrow is a co-plaintiff and part of the preliminary objections questions how in the world they get standing when they're it's not their application and they actually never even intervened in that in in in our proceedings. Um but that so that's aside and we'll be dealing directly with the court on that in in in a normal process. At the same time, the applicant um a few days later, but within the 30-day time period that they had filed both an action uh of an appeal from the planning commission directly to city council, which is something they have a right to do under statute, and there's another section that gives them a right to file an appeal directly to common police court. Uh we we we think that going directly to city council is a more appropriate route, but that's another another complicated issue that we'll be dealing I'm sure eventually with the court for further direction. And and if it does go to city council, uh we'll we are looking into hiring outside counsel to advise uh the city in those proceedings because of the heavy involvement we already have on the merits in the mandamus action. So that's my that's my uh update with the with the uh further statement ahead of time for anybody in the press that there's no

further comment. Thank you, Mr. Shear. Um mayor's report. I just want to echo um Miss Zando um Dennis Dennis Zando Dennis

I know what your name is. [laughter] Um the the city employees did a great job on this snowstorm which no one expected and everybody got. But I have to say one thing. I was out on Sunday morning and I drove all over the area and we were I was seeing madam but then everybody started digging out their cars and where were they throwing the snow? In the street. So now our streets are snowpacked and they we can't work the guys anymore at night. They've already worked too much. Um and I just don't I I know I know it's hard. It's the easiest thing to do is to to throw the snow in the street, but I'm asking all the residents to be mindful of the fact that they're they're it's packing on the streets and now the cars are having a hard time going through even on level ground. So, I just want to say that um I think the guys did a and and ladies in the departments of parks and recreation and streets did a great job. They did a great job. Uh I want to commend the ABSY employees for doing a great job and they always do. As I tell people when they get hired, I don't need you when the sun's shining. I need you when the water rises and the snow falls. And that's true. And they all came out and we really appreciate it. Um, I'd also like to um mention that in the in the coming year this year, uh, we have two big projects that we have to raise money for. And I will be raising money for a community center in West Ward that has a full-size basketball court, unlike the one I played in at St. Anthony Juice Center, which is now East Area Community Center, which has about a 15 foot ceiling. And also the skate park. I am committed to the skate park because I think we

found the the the wonderful location. No one should be on un for un no one should be opposed to the location because the last one was in a neighborhood and if you know anything about skateparks, they make a lot of noise and so do the kids that go there. So, I would just like to say that you'll see us, me and a couple other people try to be fundraisers. And I believe in the NASCAR model. I'll put your name on anything. So, there's a you can you can you can um name the South Panto Westward Community Center. You can name the gym floor, the gym, the senior center because I think what's really important is the county has closed both of our senior centers. And my father used to go to the senior centers where he socialized, meet people his own age, have socialization, get a hot meal, a hot lunch, and they closed both of them. We had one behind the dollar store and one down at um Shaw School, and they were both closed. So we have no senior centers. We have no place for seniors to go. So in this building is not only for young people, but also for old people like me, right, Mr. Pin?

That's right. So, I just want to say thank you if you've already contributed. I did get my first contribution from the East and Lions Foundation of $25,000. So, I'm very happy about that. So, that they're they're naming the the computer lab. Nice. So, um there's no correspondence, so we'll go right on to Oh, Mr. Campos, I'm sorry.

Oh, thank you, Mayor. Just one item because I'm not going to reiterate some of the other comments that were made. Um the uh I submitted to council a um an update on the uh job description for the chief planning and zoning officer. Um in discussion with the solicitor, um it was determined that the job descriptions do not have to be approved formally by council, but I wanted to submit that to council. Council has um the right to review any job description. I just want to make that clear. Um it's certainly appropriate to discuss it as you created this position in the budget um because your controls are uh on with regards to personnel on the financial side um in terms of funding the position. Um the details behind the position it was deemed is a uh inclion. It was deemed to be um an item that's uh that's under the purview of the city administrator the city administrator because it's a personnel item. Um so therefore that was not resubmitted to council for formal approval. Um so I just wanted to make that note publicly but all the job descriptions are available at any given time to um city council. The salary and wage resolution which was adopted by city council years ago was an effort to make every position transparent in terms of their salary but obviously every one of those positions in the salary and wage resolution has a job description. So, I'm just making that uh that point. Uh so, you have uh in case you ever want to see any job description, you just ask me and I'll send it to you. Okay. Um that's all I have. Mayor, are there any questions on that job description? Okay.

Good job. All right. Thank you, Miss Clerk. Madame Clerk, unfinished business. Uh, bill number two, an ordinance amending article 3, traffic control map of chapter 560 vehicle. Oh, motion. Motion. I thought you were going to finish reading. I'm sorry. Oh, no. I just I did that. No, that's fine. Motion. Second. Is there a second? Move and seconded. Uh, discussion. Roll call. Mrs. Rose. I. Mr. Graziano I Mrs. Hartra Binger Hi Mayor Panto I Mr. Brown I Mando Dennis

I Mr. Pinone I you can go right into new business. Sure. A resolution authorizing the execution of a contribution agreement with PENDOT. So moved. So second moved and second discussion. So, just just so the public knows, um we received uh $83,000 to um I'm reading this because it's somewhat technical for the reconfiguration of the intersection of Bushkill Street and Pearl Street. So, that's over by Safe Harbor. So, that's that's that weird if you if you're coming along Bushkill

double stop.

Yeah. It's Yeah. Um, and let's say you want to you're not coming along Bushkill, you're coming along Pearl, you want to take a left to Safe Harbor. It's if it's a terrible intersection. So, uh, we were we did receive [clears throat] $833,000, but the thing is it's going to cost significantly more. Um and then subsequently PennDOT announced plans for their own transportation improvements along the route uh 248 corridor including that intersection. And so since we didn't get enough money to pay for it, we are agreeing to return the money and have PENDOT pay for it um as part of their improvement plan. And so it just makes sense. And um so that's what that resolution is is to give the money back and it the second part of it which is coming next is authorizing Dave Hopkins to execute this agreement.

Okay, that's all I have. Thank you. Mr. Graziano. Hi. Mrs. Hartuff Pittinger. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. Hi. Missando Dennis. I Mr. Pinnabone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi. Um, a resolution authorizing Dave Hopkins to execute the contribution agreement with PENDOT. Motion second. Second. Move the second in discussion. Roll call. Um, Mrs. Hartra Fittinger. Hi, Mayor Panto. I Mr. Brown. Hi, Miss Zando Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinter. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Mr. Graciano.

Hi, A resolution authorizing the city of Eastston to enter into an agreement with Ultatel. Motion. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Roll call. U. Mayor Panto. I Mr. Brown. I. Missando Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Mr. Graciano. Hi. Mrs. Hartra. Binger. Hi. A resolution authorizing a lease agreement with Green Light Networks for space in the Fourth Street garage. Motion second. Moved and seconded discussion. Roll call. Mr. Brown. I miss Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinnabone.

Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Mr. Graciano. Hi, Mrs. Hartra. Biddinger. Hi, and Mayor Panto. I bills to introduce. Yes, we have two bills. Put them.

Okay. Um, bill number three, an ordinance amending the 2025 budget fund 101 general fund. So, introduced. Move. And Bill number four, an ordinance amending the 2025 budget fund 252 health benefits fund. So move. So introduce introduce. Introduce. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Okay. Public comment. We are now at the meeting where we have public comment. Art on any items concerning the city of East. Comments, questions, concerns? At 1:30, I think it was Sunday night, I got a call from uh a police officer saying that uh Chief Scalzo wanted to warn me and a bunch of other my neighbors to move the car on Second Street. I thought that was a great move because, you know, who wants to pay the $150 towing charge? So, I want to take my hat off to him. I appreciate his notice. I told him about it. I sent them a note about it. And I just want to tell the city how effective that was. I'm sure a lot of people like me appreciated saving the 150 bucks and uh for not having your car towed. Uh I'd like to know how much money number two. I'd like to know how much money the city had to pay out for this emergency snow emergency.

We'll give a report next. We don't have all the payroll in yet. Any rough ideas at all? No. No. Okay. I know that we started with 1,400 tons of salt, rock salt. Yeah. And by the time we were expecting the delivery this past week, last week, we had 300 tons. So, we're using about 300 tons for those small storms. And this storm, we probably used a thousand tons. Yeah. How many people on your workforce are out there removing snow for the last three days? Probably about 80. Well, that's just the workforce. Now, we have subs that are moving the sub subcontractors. Subs, too. Okay, I'd love a figure. Not

well, let me tell you this. I just happened to read a a social media post, which I should not do, but they were complaining about we're hauling gar snow from downtown and not the neighborhoods. That is not true. We are hauling snow from corners of neighborhoods so that you can see anything in the way of the sight distance. We do remove uh snow in the neighborhoods and they were out there uh today again. Okay, last last uh question. I have an idea about the bathrooms downstairs and the bus uh bus office or uh if the city could wall that section off and uh allow entrance from the uh the uh bus station area into those bathrooms. It might be able to uh utilize the bathrooms for the uh people who are taking the bus.

Yeah. Well, we we've been talking to Atlanta about that. Atlanta, they're Atlanta's bathroom, not ours. Oh, I see. They're not. And they I don't know what their problem is, but they they've been been giving us a hard time. Same as the hours. They were supposed to be open until the last bus leaves at night, and they're not. They close at 5:00. I know. Bad bad bad uh people helpers. Okay. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you, Art.

Anyone else? Good evening, council. Uh my name is Angel Korea. I've owned and operated uh the game gallery in downtown for 15 years, about since 2011. Uh I came here today to speak about the amusement tax ordinance. Um the whole time for 15 years I haven't had a full arcade as I've had now around 200 machines. Uh this year I'm getting imposed the amusement tax which would be $100 per machine. And uh at least to my knowledge it's an annual tax that's supposed to be paid yearly. Um, I just think it's a little just a high amount just to pay for an entertainment that I'm providing out of my own pocket. I paid for the machines, I repair them. Uh, the people that come in, you know, most of my income is retail. This was just a labor of love. Just something that I had enough room for decided downtown could use something like that. And I think a lot of people can agree with it that they love coming to Easton just for my arcade alone. Um, out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania, there's only eight that imposed this amusement tax, which was enacted in 1998 and hasn't been revised since 2002. I feel like it's very outdated and I can understand you want to impose that tax on gambling machines or a machine here or two in a pizza parlor, but we're an entire culture kind of like something that was built just like I said out of

labor love. And to just get this tax imposed on us right now, we're literally getting taken to court by the finance department. I I'm not 100% sure on that and I can't really delve into that because it's under litigation, but I plan to attend that as well. I just figured I could ask the help of the council in either getting rid of that ordinance completely or somehow revising it to just current standards where it isn't, you know, hurting a small business owner like myself. Hey, you I'm sorry. You and I have spoken.

Yes. And uh we discussed it at council once before and I spoke to our finance director and our city administrator. I do agree. I I agree with the amusement tax, but I do believe we need to figure out the figures. As I've said to you, um machines that are charging $100 per machine that people are spending a quarter on it. It it it you know, I don't see how we're going to not put you out of business uh that way. So, I know Mr. Laniki and and Lewis were looking it over to bring back the council. Um, I didn't think we could, as I said to you, open and honest, transparent. I don't think we could do much for past do, as I said to you. But going forward, I do think that's something that we're going to discuss and try to be able to help you out on.

Okay. Yeah, that's all I really ask because I mean, the machines themselves don't even bring in what I'd be paying for that tax every year. Angel, I I I would be in favor and I would support an ordinance by this council that says there's a volume discount. Okay. So, that maybe the first 20 or first 10 are $100 and it goes considerably down and then maybe the last 10 are free. But I I think you're getting ripped off.

Yeah. And that's that was my feeling. Like I said, I just got this. I've had inspections over the years. 15 years is a long time. Nothing's all of a sudden this year it's become a big issue. And like I said, going to court seems very severe, even for past due amounts. Uh that, like I said, I can't really delve into that until we go to court for that. But I just feel like, like you said, it just seems like a big ripoff, especially when I'm the one who's fronting the bill for these. I'm not getting them from anywhere. I'm putting in the work. I'm rehabilitating all these machines uh out of my own pocket. And then to pay, I pay my quarterlys. I pay my business privilege. Everything's up to code. I don't see why I have to pay the city for something I got myself to provide for people as well. That's the bigger thing.

Understood. But yeah, uh thank you. That's all I really had. Appreciate for the time. Looking at Can can somebody explain to me what this tax is that he's describing? Amusement tax on machines. Okay. It was uh it's article 11 of the amusement tax ordinance and um it's for anything that's

it was put into effect primarily for Crayola um state theater college football Eastern high school football was originally put in for that. That's what I was assuming as well because I'm not an amusement like Crayola State Theater where they're giving out tickets primarily. 90% I want to say 95% comes from retail. This was just like I said something that I thought that the community could use and they do love it. So I I just don't think when it was enacted years ago it was considered yes the the skill games where you're winning money or whatever they're doing here versus a video game where you're paying a quarter or 50 cents to play. I just don't think they they differentiated between the two, but we're we're gonna look into that.

Yeah, there has to be some way we can define that. Absolutely. Okay. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi. Uh my name is Karina Valonus. I live on West Wayne Avenue. Can you spell your name, please? Uh C O R I N A and the last name is V E L O N I S. Thank you. Um yeah, so I have a question. Um last year in September, there was an announcement about a plan for um some kind of bus or shuttle system to connect the neighborhoods. Um that would be very useful to me. Um the articles I read mentioned that there would be a public survey at some point. Um but I haven't been able to find any information on it since. So I'd like to ask um

when is the public survey plan to be conducted and how soon do you think um the plan will be?

Unfortunately, it's it's tabled at the moment. So, we did a press conference July maybe August to to announce that we were doing this. Two weeks later, we were told that the funding for the project was cut um from the state and from uh Atlanta. So, we had to partner with LAN because you need a transportation service to do this grant for the feasibility study. And we've been working on it for two years. And once we did the press conference a week or two later, they announced that they're eliminating the program. They're not doing the funding anymore. So, Atlanta informed us that they they they're backing out. There's no money to do it. So, we're continuing to look for grants and and lobby the state to see if they'll reenact it. Now, that they have a budget. We assumed that it was because the budget wasn't passed. So, we're still working on it. Atlanta's still looking at it. But right now, they killed the funding and and and so we don't there's nothing we can do with it, but we're going to continue looking for funding because that's something that I want to bring back ASAP. We had um we have a trolley that we were going to use and we can't get trolley drivers because they have to have a CDL with passenger and that's been we we increased the hourly rate. What are we paying now? $25.

40. Yeah. 37 35. Yeah. But the hours it's it's it's you know a couple hours a week but to connect to neighborhoods but we haven't been able to get anybody to apply. We used to get school bus drivers, but I guess they're making too much money now because they all need a part-time job. Uh, thank you.

Good evening, council. Dominic Trabosi, Fifth Street. Um, I just want to say I was a little troubled by the comment earlier asking people to leave because there wasn't an item on the agenda. um this this part of the council is an open forum and I think we should be fostering that type of open discussion and environment not pushing people away just because it's not on the agenda. You know, people have to get babysitters and figure out transportation arrangements arrangements to be here. So, um I just hope that we can refrain from pushing that kind of rhetoric and just maintain that this is the time for anything regardless of the agenda. So, thank you. Well, we would love for people to stay, but they didn't.

I I don't if if I may, mayor, I don't want to speak for you. I I don't think the mayor asked anybody to leave, but said they can if they want to, which a few did get up and and leave. You're right. A lot of people have babysitters and things of that nature, and they don't want to sit in a meeting if the topic that they're here for isn't being discussed. So, I think it was more of a courtesy, and everybody is is more than welcome to stay, but a few people got up after that and did leave. So, I think it was a courtesy to the people.

Anyone else? Good evening everyone. Luke Gumbrech downtown. First and foremost, I want to offer my deep and sincere condolences for the loss of a member of the Panto family. Uh you and your family have been in my prayers since I first heard this news. And I'll be quite frank with you that some of my best memories from my childhood are with my father. Um, and I can only imagine the loss uh of this impact is very staying. Thank you, Luke.

Secondly, and closer to what Frank Pinone was just saying um into his microphone. I know I speak for myself and may speak for some in the crowd when I say that we paid babysitters, got time off work approved, and rode buses, bikes, and scooters in this weather to be here tonight for the resumption of discussion regarding flock surveillance in the city of Eastston. [clears throat] So, respectfully, I ask, if not now, when? I stood here at this podium two weeks ago and asked directly, quote, "Could the public expect this surveillance subject to be taken up during the committee meeting on Tuesday the 27th and the council meeting on Wednesday the 28th?" End quote. It is a matter of public record that I said that exact quote. And the exact response I received was quote unquote, "It will be the 28th." So tonight, I ask council to set clear expectations for the agenda items that will be taken up before the committee and council meetings are due to take place. There is always a chance for uncert unforeseen delays. However, the seriousness of this agenda item demands firm and certain dates that the public can attend. This surveillance technology is an infringement on our civil liberty as citizens of these United States. It is a dragnet of data collection that never touches publicly owned and operated servers. It gets stored on corporate servers many miles away and gets sold to the highest bidder. This data is also being abused by federal agency overreach now to target and unlawfully detain and batter United States citizens and our residents. We have a national crisis on our hands. We are all watching it play out on the screens in our living rooms and in our pockets. Here and now is the time to act together. To nip authoritarianism in the bud in our backyard because it once it

creeps in our city, the masked secret police are only just behind it. Can I please get a confirmation on the public record when this subject will be brought up again? It'll be on the agenda February 11th. Yeah. Which means that it will be a Wednesday night meeting. District Attorney presentation for the reason it should be in the city on Tuesday's committee meeting and then voted on on Wednesday. No, it'll only be on the 11th. Wednesday meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good evening.

If I if I may, I I understand the uh comments of the citizen. It's totally appropriate. However, it should be clear that the agenda is ultimately controlled by events that happen and and and things that occur. And there's always that possibility that um the agenda is going to have to be changed. So I I mean just it's not law that you say it's going to be the 11th. That's why you got to look at the agenda and you know within 24 hours before to see what is on the agenda. I just want to make the point that it was your best effort that was going to be coming up this weekend. I don't know why two weeks ago you didn't announce it there was going to be a 12-in snowstorm that was going to us, but you know that would have been helpful too. So I I just for the record, could you please announce when the next snowstorms are coming within the next two weeks? Thank you.

As I do have some remaining time on my public comment, though it is no longer on the clock, I would respond uh quite openly and directly to the solicitor that this is the second time that it has been delayed by council. The time before that, I requested by interrupting meetings that the meeting proceedings that it would be delayed that night as well. That makes this the third delay. Originally, when it was brought up, it was supposed to be brought up on a voting night for vote. The second time it was brought up, there was going to be a member of the county DA's office to make a presentation about it again on a Wednesday night vote. Then, in conversations over the last three days on a social media page, it was then explained that because it was the committee meeting this week was cancelled, even though it was never set to be on the committee meeting night, that it also needed to be delayed again. So following the timeline here, no one is asking for supernatural weather predictions. We are asking for consistency, transparency, and a way to have certainty for the working-class people in this room. I know there is at least one who has a child at home, and both parents are here because they care enough about this. So, thank you for your response, and that is mine,

Luke, if if I may. Thank you, Luke. The first time it was up for a vote, I asked to table it. Councilwoman uh uh Rose gave a second because we thought it needed more public discussion. Not so it could be pushed through or done behind the scenes, but so the public could weigh in on it and have discussions as well as council. The second time it wasn't on the agenda. And I again asked that we didn't talk about it because we didn't inform the public so the public could be here, right?

So what we're doing is very open, transparent, and making sure that the public is here to take part in it. So, any other I want to put it out there publicly, any other rhetoric or nonsense that the city is doing something nefarious or underhanded to try to push something through is just ridiculous in in in every way, shape, or form because what we're trying to do is make sure the public is included uh uh in all the discussions and make sure we have all the information available. Now, this weekend, things happened in the Panto family weather and other things. It didn't go on the agenda,

but when it's on the agenda, it will be advertised. And the mayor saying at the next meeting, we're doing everything possible to make sure we get all the information the public has uh uh uh all the information.

It also doesn't mean that we will vote on it because if our questions aren't answered, it could get tabled again. So, I mean, we're not going to force a vote on something. We I had several questions in December when it came up that we don't have answers to yet, but council just like the public finds out what's on the agenda and the packet is available on the city's website. That's how we know what's coming up. So, and and we also do besides it being posted on the city's website, many of us put it out on our social media chs and and also inform residents when of of these issues that are coming up that are important to us. So, I I just also want to be clear that council isn't holding anything up, but these things, you know, it it I I'm sure we will discuss it unless there's something happens and I mean, we may discuss it and it gets tabled to the next meeting. It could very well happen, but that's part of the process.

I I hear both council members responses to my concerns. Uh the only things that I would really want to remind council, first to Mr. Pinnabone uh is that this item uh that I have been posting online about which is largely where you are sourcing your uh state statements that I am claiming there's nefarious actions being taken place here. My quotes from my postings are that there are quiet delays that are not being well followed up on especially when specific times are set aside. I already explained to the solicitor what those timelines look like. They're all backed up by the public record and what was said that night. uh to Miss Rose. Uh, the issue that I have is that it's it's almost making it seem like the night that it was on the agenda that I didn't pre-answer the questions you came up with afterwards during deliberations with my initial speech and then followed up at the end of the evening with my non-aggenda item comments about how the concerns you raised that evening which were storage of this data on uh city servers and also the right to know requests that might inundate and take up the bandwidth from the city uh were both completely irrelevant to this issue. Uh they this data is stored on corporate servers. It will never be up for a right to know request. And then following that meeting, I made every attempt to try and meet with you personally to help bring

I'm not meeting with you because you have been very aggressive. And waiting for democracy in a time like this takes aggression and I hope our council will take that aggression as well. I thank you all for your time tonight. Good night. Luke, as many times as you asked the council woman to meet, I've offered to meet with you. I I don't know. I apologize to come back up but I would love to clarify the fact that Mr. Pinabone you have asked me to meet months ago about housing not on this issue. So bringing this up now but but you don't you don't like to meet unless it's on what you want and and you seem to have a lot of work 40 hours a week and if I couldn't make the time to meet you then I apologize. If you would like to schedule something about flock I'm happy to do so this weekend. I can meet anytime you would like. When when are you free this weekend?

I'm free after this meeting tomorrow morning whenever you want. this weekend, please. I will Anytime you want, I will make you a priority, Luke. Anytime you want, wherever you want to meet, we will meet and talk. What works for you on Saturday? You let me know. Send me a message. Anytime. I'll be there. I'd rather part of the public record. What time on Saturday would you Anytime Luke wants. Matter of public record. Anytime. Anytime. Any location. Sir, I need a specific time. 8 a.m. 8 a.m. Sounds great. Where would you like to meet? Anywhere you'd like to meet, preferably. Pick it. Sure. Pick it. Any coffee spot you like. Any all of them. I love all the Eastern business. We can't go to all of them, Mr. Pov. We could. It's a Saturday. I'm not working. AM. You think we'd be done by the end of the day? Yeah, I think so. Where would you like to meet? Anywhere you'd like. Well, I I don't have a preference.

Can we Can we take this off uh you know, offline? I did try to walk away twice. You guys can. So, look at I kind of want to second what Councilman Pendabone said about frankly, you have a kind of paranoia that we're not interested in this subject. Now you and I met. So I've met with Luke and he expressed his concerns about flock and I asked him to forward additional information which he did and which I read in the course of my research and I researched other articles beyond the ones the the one that you forwarded to me. There were two just for the record.

That's okay. But I I I continued my research um and it was fairly indepth and then I ended up taking concerns I had to Bob Freeman and our solicitor and have asked for a meeting with Lisa Bos Boscala right Boscola

Boscola sorry um depends I think on how you say that O but Um so the point I think I'm trying to make is and this is this is true for all the public and it's true for people on Facebook. you know there's this sort of idea that I don't know we're some you know uh some deep state up here and in fact you know we are listening to what people say we are trying our very best to educate ourselves on topics that we don't know a lot about public helps us tremendously in that but you know in the course of that exchange you know please try to be respectful of the fact that we're essentially volunteering our time. You know, we we do get a stipend. It's minimal and we are very very deeply committed to this city and we're really trying to do what's right for this city. And so, please give us the opportunity to do that and please respect the process that it takes to for the council to come to a conclusion on matters that affect the city. I certainly don't want to monopolize this microphone, but I would like to touch on two things that were just entered into the public record. Um, first of which would be any paranoia that I might have. Um, I have never expressed any paranoia on situations that I'm watching play out nationally on our screens ever once.

You said that we were quietly like removing. I didn't say any one person was quietly. I said the agenda item was quietly changed, which means that there was not a public announcement. There was a public announcement when it was going to happen. And I don't imply I speak clearly and and and I I take that you read the research I sent you from the American Civil Liberties Union who wrote a damning piece against flock surveillance. I did. Yes. And the second one that might not have been remembered in this moment was the Financial Times 20page documentary documenting uh the fact journalistic uh piece that documented the fact that these things the ACLU warned about a year and a half ago are happening now.

I've read that. Absolutely. And I appreciate the fact that you are going further up the chain to have conversations about this. And I would absolutely love to continue collaborative discussions with you, Councilwoman, because I find that you are willing to hear out your constituents and then go further with the work that you do. And I'm trying to say that all all of us are. Again, I I've been able to meet with you and one other council member and my attempts to meet with a third have been absolutely objective. Just meeting meeting with you individually doesn't mean that we don't raise our concerns.

I absolutely believe that you did which is why I wanted to make the comment of the fact that we when seeing the way that you take things further, it gives me peace of mind to know that I met with the right person in that moment. Um I am still waiting for the book that you said you would recommend to me. I don't know if I got that title yet. I don't have it yet. Oh no, I don't need the physical book. Oh, did you? Well, I was just waiting for the title. I'll happily, you know, purchase it as well. for the title. I was I was going to buy you a copy. Listen, if you already got a copy for me, I'm I'm I'll take it. I'm a frugal guy. That's what you said last time.

But yes, I uh I I absolutely recognize and appreciate the time that you set aside to hear me out on this. Uh the only thing I object to is uh the fact that that reporting is anything other than absolute fact and the fact that I am paranoid uh paranoid about something that is playing out on the public stage right now. And we'll, you know, I won't be a dead horse here, but I do want to remind the public and not not necessarily you, Luke, but as a member of the public, yes, you as well, that council, you know, our we're serving our time, you know, and we're we're serving it because we really love the city. And so, you know, please give everybody an opportunity to do their job and um you know, and give us the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.

I will absolutely uh leave on this comment unless anything else worth responding to is brought up. But I would like to say that I absolutely give those who have uh shown effort the benefit of the doubt. I will continue to do so for those who show effort. I have not given every council member the opportunity to show me personally that effort. I look forward to continue to do so. Looks like 8 a.m. on Saturday will be my next opportunity to do that. I have plans to discuss other specific items with the remaining council members who I haven't spoken with yet. But as far as giving credit where it is undue for those who have refused to meet, I will not. I hope everyone here has a lovely rest of your evening. I will no longer have Karen floating her finger over the time button. And I wish you all a good evening. Thank you so much. Thank you, Luke.

One thing I just want to add on onto this. Coming back. I'm here. Go ahead, Frank. Uh, there's three new council members up here. Three new members who have heard nothing from about this whatsoever except pretty much your your opinions on the on this at this point right now. So, that's where we're at right now on that. We've had no we've had no say whatsoever when this was going to be on the agenda or when it was going to be heard in front of the public. That never happened. Um, also I would like to point out that I made the offer to uh be with you on this as well and you declined that. So I just wanted to put those two things out there just so that's not known as well.

Absolutely. I counted three things there and I'll comment on all of them. Um, opinions as far as uh what I've been giving are not uh what I've been offering is journalistic research. I studied journalism at a very uh good institution for that type of study and I am offering not hold I I I understand by journalist I understand I understand that then I object to the word opinion we're going to have a presentation here with people who support it as well so they could be experts on the topic as well and you know say the same thing as you are saying to be an expert we're going to have to make decisions based on different viewpoints that we get. You're not gonna always agree with what we say and we're not always gonna agree with you, but that's how the whole process works here.

Yes, thank you for that. I do understand civics. But what I would say is that I am not pushing an opinion or an expert uh of uh research that I have done. I am pushing the journalistic integrity of those at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Financial Times, which are both very reputable in uh uh locations for news. The next thing I will say uh I have not directly referenced any of the new members of council in regards to this delay. not once, right? So, saying that there are new members who haven't had any process, you know, procedural uh interest in this, I've never once claimed that any of the new members, in fact, the one that I have credited uh has already met with me on this subject. And lastly, I would say your offer to meet was made to me online in a comment section today, and my response to that was that I planned on meeting with you about something that is unrelated to this topic in the next few months. I did not public record.

I would love to meet with you as well. Do you have time to meet on Saturday? Saturday? At what time do you think I'll be done with coffee? Uh, probably 9:00 a.m., maybe 8:30. If Luke doesn't object, we can kill two council members with one Luke and we can both meet at 8:00. Uh, just don't exceed three. Okay. No, no, we can't we can't have a majority. But if Luke doesn't mind, we could I I will treat both of you to coffee or breakfast. For the solicitor's comfortability, I will be meeting with one at a time and I will absolutely take anything that Frank Pinone wants to purchase for me. Thank you. And good night. I I I'm comfortable with three. this comfortable with three. Luke, are you okay with

not to not brooach uh anywhere near uh the boundary that the solicitor has just made for us? I will be meeting with one at a time. I look forward to having a full attention dedicated to each person I meet. And again, I will be getting a full breakfast on Frank Pinone on Saturday and I look forward to it. For the record, he will get a donut and coffee. Likely to be meeting at Quadrant Bookmark and I look forward to their eggs. They are lovely at Quadrant. Everyone, they had better French toast. And thank you again, Mr. Mayor, for hearing me out last time. Oh, absolutely. Belgian mayor, I'm going to need your uh city credit card. [laughter] Thank you all. Good night. What city credit card? You know something about I don't know. It will take I think you'll have to postpone that meeting for another three weeks so you could amend the budget. [laughter]

Anyone else would like to address city council? Hello, my name is Aiden Henghan. I live on Fourth Street. First time coming out. I just want to emphasize how serious this issue is. Uh, mass surveillance puts people in danger. The federal government is attacking people in Minneapolis. This is a serious thing. I know you guys were laughing. This is not a laughing matter. We're not laughing at that. I know. I know. I know. Sir, we're table just to be clear because you weren't here. We're We're tableabling to get more information so we can make an informed decision. I understand. I just want

Which is what we should do for everything even if it you support it or don't. We want to make sure we're hearing everything to make the right decision for the residents. We're not trying to push anything off. We have concerns as well and we want to make sure we're getting all the information to make the right decision. I've made my com. That's it. Have a great day. [applause] Anyone else? I'll entertain a motion for a journal.

Mayor, I have two things quickly. Uh myself, District Attorney Barada, the Bloom organization, and a prosecutor on human trafficking from the state's attorney's office are hosting a uh an event tomorrow on human trafficking awareness, what people can look for. Um Lieutenant um Chrisy will be there for Easton as well, 6 PM at the Boys and Girls Club tomorrow night on Southside. And uh also because we didn't have uh committee last night, I have a resolution for council members to look over. We'll discuss it next meeting to sign on to send to the ST the Senate in Pennsylvania asking them to increase uh minimum wage in the state. It's going to go to the House of Representatives in the Senate. House of Representatives have pl passed a minimum wage increase three times and the Senate has denied it three times. So, we're just going to sign on to this resolution that I'm going to hand out just for you all to look over till the next meeting. Um, and if we all if we vote to pass it, we will all sign it and send it to the House and the Senate and hope they will increase minimum wage this year in the state of Pennsylvania. Mayor, that's all I have and I will make a motion to adjourn.

What is that? What is that? I'm sorry, C. Vice Mayor. Uh, what is that minimum going to be? That $15 or No. Uh, Councilman, I'm not inc asking for a number. I'm just asking them for to increase it and have the discussions. I believe the House passed, was it 15 or $16 an hour? Um, so we're just asking them to uh uh approve what was uh passed in count uh in the House and to increase minimum wage in the state. Okay. In support of Okay. In support of Yes. minimum wage increase in the state. You can't count. May [laughter] I make a motion to adjurnn? Moved.

Is there a second? There's a second. Moved a second. Roll call. Mr. Brown. I miss uh Missando Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinnabone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Mr. Graciano. Hi, Mrs. Hartra. Pittinger. Hi. And Mayor Panto. Hi,