City Council - Regular Meeting

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That's why we had We'll call the stated session of city council order. Please rise for the invocation followed by a pledge of flag. Heavenly Father, we thank you for gathering this evening and inviting our people, our residents of the city. We ask that you watch. We thank you for all of the efforts that you gave our firefighters and all the surrounding firefighters at the Hampton Fire Department fire hotel last week. We also

want to thank you for protecting all the residents, the tenants because our Kristen, our crimes advocate officer in the um police station uh did locate all of the people. So, we know that no one perished and we appreciate that. We also want to thank you to watch over our five officers who candidates who will be sworn in tonight. We ask that you thank them and welcome them to the premier fire department uh police department in this Lehi Valley and ask that you watch over them and their families during this their time as in their careers with the with the police department. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, 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, Mr. Pinnabone here, Mrs. Rose here, Mr. Graciano here, Mrs. Hartra Pittinger here, Mayor Panone here. At this time we would like to have um approval of the agenda. Move approved. Second. Moved in second. Any additions or deletions? Roll call. Madam clerk. Mr. Pinter. I. Mrs. Rose. I. Mr. Graciano. I. Mrs. Hart. Biddinger. I. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. I.

At this time, we'll have the state of the city for 2025. I'd like to point out that two institutions that have really helped rebound our city and and create the renaissance. One is the state theater that was celebrated their 100th anniversary on Saturday night. I attended their 100th birthday party and uh they're looking forward to another hundred years. And the second one is the Crayola Experience which started out as a Crayola factory and is now celebrating its 30th year in downtown East and it attracts over 400,000 people a year. and the theater attracts well over that. If you would have told me in 2008 that there would have been a bidding war for the Lynen condominiums that are taking place and the winning bid would be $1.2 million to live in downtown East. I would have said you were crazy and I think everybody in this room would have said the same thing, but the uh auction or the bidding is over and the uh top floor just went for $1.2 million. If city council has not been to the sales center in the Wells Fargo building, I would suggest that you get in there to see the types of finishes that they have on display. We are doing better than most Pennsylvania cities, but the issues used to faces daily are many and they're mostly national. Housing and the cost of housing, um, child care, employment, public safety, good streets, job growth, lead free pipes, and the big one, affordable housing. And we know what we're doing for that. We need sale prices and rental rates affordable so that individuals who grow up in our city can live in our city as adults. To me, my city leadership team, I'm inspired by each and every one of you day in and day out for all that you have done and all that you commit to do for the residents of Easton. All of

our directors are professionals in their field and none are political appointments. The finances of the city are the best they have been in in decades. But we still have problems, but just not as bad as in some cities. Uh when I was here in the 80s, I was mayor from 84 to '92. Let me tell you, the budgets were were really difficult. They're a little easier to do today because of our growth. Real estate tax revenues are up without raising the millage. They're up $868,000 over the last 19 years. That's $868,000 that you don't have to cut services or increase taxes. Our growth is important. And you either I always say this when I talk about local government. Townships are at a point in their career where they still have growth. They have subdivisions they could put in, etc. But sooner or later, they're going to be built out. And once a city is built out or a municipality is built out, there's nothing you could do but raise taxes because there's no place to grow. We in East are very fortunate that we have places we can grow and still grow. Under finance, there are still issues that need to be addressed. Fire overtime increased 50% and based on recent trends like we have, we think we'll get caught up, but we're not sure. administration continues to monitor these on a daily basis, but utilities and gasoline as well as supplies increase every year. There's always, ever since I've been here, and I've been in office 28 years, I could tell you that since 1984, we've always had a million half dollar gap between revenues and expenses. We started a budget. Always. It doesn't matter. That's your inflationary and economics uh play havoc on our budget. price of gasoline right now. We're looking at it every day because we use

we're a major consumer of gasoline about $350,000 a year. If that goes up 20%, we don't know where the $70,000 comes from, but it we got to find it. Our 2025 before audit results reflect general fund revenues again exceeding expenditure. So, we expect to end up this year at 2025 when the audit is done with a with a surplus. Early figures for 2025 also currently point to another solid year in large part due to the following. Continuing positive impacts of the city's debt restructuring. When we redid that debt during COVID, we at 2.9% we save almost $650,000 a year. That's $650,000 roughly. Well, $300,000 a year per per mill. It's two or three mills of taxes a year that we're saving that you don't have to raise taxes. Our earned income tax revenue is through the roof. Last year went up 12%. And that's really good. Casino revenues tell the story. You know, in 2008 when I became mayor, we didn't get a dime from the Sands Casino at the time. Today, now today is Wind Creek. And that wasn't right. We are the county seat of Northampton County. It's located in Northampton County. So, I would started going to all the state meetings that dealt with casino revenue and we got put on there and that's $1.3 million a year. That's a lot of money. That's four mills of taxes. The administration has a judiciary responsibility managing this city. It is critical to be viligent in managing the city finances and ensure that the level of services we provide to our residents. We are a fullervice city. I don't know how long we can be there. I don't I don't know. But right now, we are a full

service city and fortunately we're able to continue that trend. The city of eastern government continues its positive trajectory based post 2020 COVID and continues its positive trajectory in many ways. We came out of COVID better than we went in it. Things like the Winter Village was a result of COVID. Things like East Alfresco that we talked about last night was a result of CO. We needed to give our restaurants, which attracts thousands of people a week into our downtown, not just on Friday and Saturday night and not just Thursday night, but also Tuesday night. We we we could show you the trends. We are the restaurant owners tell tell me that they're attracting people from as far away as 70 miles. People will travel 70 miles to come to our restaurants. That's amazing. The administration individual responsibility of the city throughout 2025. We maintain full employment for our approximately 256 full-time employees. Vacancies were immediately posted and filled. No consideration was given to holding positions vacant as a result of budgetary pressures like we've did many many years. Many times we've had to hold jobs open for 90 120 days because we didn't have any money re human in 2023 re human resources onboarded 37 new employees. Both Eastn Police and Eastn Fire departments maintain no vacancies and have had the addition of new positions augmenting platoon strength to 16 full-time firefighters from the ease of transition to retirements. Retirements right now 30 better than 365% of the fire department is eligible for retirement. The fire department has approximately 34% of its compliment eligible for retirement. A

new crime victims advocate was added to the police department to assist victims of crimes and our unsheltered many of our unsheltered who were in the Hotel Hampton fire have now been accounted for. So I can honestly and officially say we lost no lives which is very fortunate and we saved many lives. I mean when the fire department first got there there were people hanging out the windows. There were no labor contracts due this year and the administration has settled four two out of four grievances in dispute. Speaking of pensions, our pension investment is doing very, very well. As you all know, some of you were on to vote for the non-resident earned income tax, which was coined, nicknamed the commuter tax. It's basically a tax that people who don't live in the city but work in the city pay the same amount of earned income tax as we do. My name was mud up at the county courthouse. I mean, the county just didn't like that. Neither did the school district, by the way, because a person in March Elementary School, Paxosa Elementary School would pay 1% more than somebody who talked, for example, at Shaun. Based on the home rule charter, the 2025 preliminary budget was introduced on time and delivered to the mayor on September 1, not a day earlier, not a day later. I get the budget on September 1st. If one of you is successful in opening up the charter, I would definitely change the October 1 date. It's way too early. We don't get some of our expenses from like our insuranceances till in November. We used to give our presentation on the budget in the 80s um in November the the week the the week the night before Thanksgiving.

In 2025, earn income tax were at approximately 9% increase over the prior year. But I want to spend a little bit of time on our pensions. Our pensions are doing well. And you will get an actuarial report sometime in the beginning of April, probably our first meeting in April. when we get the actuarial report that basically says our HM our MMO our municipal mandatory mandatory municipal obligations are going to come down because our pensions are doing so well. I think the best thing that we did was switch from our investment advisor to the uh Morgan Stanley and I think that's really helped and he's also local. They're right here. They're they're in business in East and they're in the Larry Holmes five-story building. The city continues to benefit from the 2020 bond restructuring. I don't want to keep harping on that, but it was a six to1 vote and we recommended to city council that they approve it and it won by a large majority six to one. But the fact is we are saving a lot of interest payment over the last I mean these are these are interest rates at seven and a half percent. So, we're saving 5% a year. The city received a credit rating and increased its rating from negative to stable. Now, that alone is very important. Negative to stable. We we still have our a rating, which is really good, especially when I was here when we were basically junk bonds. But the A rating is really important, but not as much as the verbiage that says we are no longer negative. We are stable. That negative continuity is basically all the the growth that you see in downtown east and in the neighborhoods. Let me remind you our our real estate taxes went up without raising the rates,

without raising the millage $868,000. That helped us go from negative to stable. And let me tell you that saves a lot of money and interest as well. City operation continued to see significant improvements in internal external information technology systems. When I came in in 2008, we didn't have an IT department. Today we have an IT department. Hi Madison, how you doing? We have two people in in two full-timers. But technology is really important and to use it properly, we we we solve crimes and we we we basically administer efficiency in each department. The administration continues it effort to increase the city's communication efforts through a third-party contractor, Blabbermouth. Blabbermouth communication now has over 20,000 people on social media. How do we get the move the the the information out? How do we tell people we have a meeting tonight? That's the important part. We don't have p newspapers anymore. They're gone. Thankfully, we still have channel 69. Um but we don't have the express times in the morning call. They don't even come to our meetings and report on what we do. The administration continues its effort to increase the city's communication. We are planning right now to put a digital message board at the top of College Hill, at the top of Southside, and at the 13th Street interchange where Westward, College Hill, and and and Southside will be uh at least up to speed on what we need to do. In addition to the crime rate going down, which I will report on, total calls for police also dis decreased by one and a half%.

Total calls for police went down last year. Now, I know there people, but when you see that we continue to go down, we had 342 um part one crimes last year compared to 960 in 2008. We've gone down 70% in crime rate since 2008. In 2025, the Eastern Department underwent evaluation by the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Committee Commission and we won again. We were we were commissioned and accredited. We now have premier status. When I came in in 2008, we were the laughing stock of the Lehi Valley. We were getting lawsuits. The former mayor, Phil Mman, says to me, he says, "I don't know how you're doing it. How do you pay for?" I said, "We don't have lawsuits." When I came in, we had a lawsuit with a tragedy that had occurred in our police substation. I will never call it a police station, a police substation in the old garage that was suing the city of East for $10 million. We settled it at5 million when I walked out on Mr. Carol. $5 million. That's $500,000 a year that came right out of the budget went towards that rather than city improvements. We are also I don't want to get on the P word too long, but parking is an issue in the city. But as the owner of the quadrant tells me when I go there for breakfast, she remembers when in the 80s when you had all the parking in the world because downtown was not busy and she couldn't pay her bills. But now she pays her bills and she has a downtown and she's putting investing money in her she's going to be opening up her new garage, new kitchen and new um dining

room shortly. So, we named Lewis Campus our parking star and set him out because the Walker study, as you heard last night, basically said we had more private spaces than public spaces. And that's true. We have a lot of churches downtown. Thank God, because they're really community-minded. Yes,

those churches have lots, surface lots that are not used except for one day a year, Sunday mornings. As a matter of fact, when we started charging meters on Sundays, we we didn't charge till after 12:00 because of the churches that are in downtown East. So the social security lot right back here which is city property by the way if you look on the map it's owned by the city of east but previous administration gave gave away the parking rates to the so to the federal government for the social security building because regardless of what you want to think people who come downtown want surface parking right next door to the front door. This building right here, the Fidelity building is going to be torn down to make way for the Lynen condominiums that is going to have u how many spaces? 40 about 35 plus 40. So, we're going to have parking and they want parking and they want it close to where you're going to live. Our administration offered in 2008 a vision of what we wanted Eastern to be, but also we created the vision and the roadmap of how we're going to get there. The first thing objective was to make Eastston clean and safe. Well, I met with Chief Palmer at the time who later retired and became chief of Palmer rather than Chief Palmer. Um he I said to him, I said, "How do we get control of our crime rate?" He says, "I need more officers." So, we hired 11 more officers at a million and a half dollars a year, but it was money well spent. We hired those 11 officers and put them out on the street. And the second thing we did was we started doing monthly raids. Now, you may not know a lot about the

raid that was done last week, but Northampton County is certainly happy because we also got a credit union account that a million half dollars of drug money in it. So, that doesn't go to us. Even though our guys and women did the the raid and put their lives in jeopardy, that goes to the county and the DA will we will make requests. That's how we got our bearcat. But um we started doing raids to get the dealers and the shooters off the street. How do you stop shooters, the shooting that was prevalent in 2008 and 9? You take them off the street and put them in jail. And that's what we did. We went in, we got the dealers off the street. Those our police officers conducted those monthly raids and got the dealers and shooters off the street. We're a safe city. We're very fortunate. When you see the graph that I'm going to put up, we're very fortunate that we went down to 300 part one crimes and they're your most violent crimes. You know, rape, burglary, assault, homicides. We had no homicides last year. For a city our size in our geographic location so close to Allen um Allentown, Betham and um Philadelphia, New York, we're very fortunate. I78 Carter is the worst thing that ever happened to our city because they can get in and out of our city within an hour and be back in New York. The second objective was to make Isa place where developers want to invest their money. Issa was putting their taxes up every single year. So the first thing we had to do was level taxes and we did. For 19 years we have not had a tax increase. Now some people want tax increase but the problem is we have a very poor population. A lot of our people can't afford $100 or $200. That comes right out of their grocery account or their prescription drug account. We need to make our safe streets because

the primary job of a mayor is to make their cities and residents safe. Today East is a much safer city largely because of our police officers and police administration and we're very fortunate. I want to thank Chief Scows who does a great job and we have a very good police. When I came into office in 2008, I think we hired four, we fired terminated the employment of four officers in four months. That wasn't an easy thing to do. They carry a gun. All right. But you do what you needed to do to make your city safe. Today, East is a much safer city thanks largely to the police officers. And we want to thank not only the police and fire, but our public works employees. We are very fortunate. We would and the theme of tonight is to thank the city employees. Our city employees have really done a great job. We've added um festivals. We've and it's it's easy to say I I thank them all. I come down and I thank them for for helping us. It's easy for us to say, "Oh, well, they get paid time and a half." Yeah, but they're still away from their family and they still may have had things to do. And guess what? Our festivals are on Saturdays and Sundays. We have a very good police and fire department and I'll be very proud to um put swear in the five officers tonight. But no one wants to live in an unsafe city and we have a safe city. Families are moving back to East. I want to say this. We also keep statistic crime statistics for the West Ward. The West Ward, which people used to label the Wild West, their crime rate went down 13% just last year. 13%. Most people would be happy with that. I remember in 2007 when I was campaigning, one of my campaign staff members called me up and said, "Mayor, you might want to you want to come out

to Centennial Park because it's really bad out here." I went there. I was appalled. There were about 50 or 60 drug dealers in the park that kept good people out. Our population today went from 2008 was 26,400. Today it's 30,400. We're growing and I know that growth is needs to be managed. I know that no one knows it better than us. When we know there's parking problems, we go out and we try to solve that. We meet. How can we solve that? Well, the Walker study said there's more private public uh spaces than p public. So, that's a real problem. And we we we dealt with it and we we the social security lot as I told you last night right behind city hall has how many spaces? 20 65. Wow. That's pretty big parking lot. Our deal is we split whatever we get per month by app. They They got $8,000. We got $16,000 in in five weeks. They want it. The property owner wants the money. The churches need the money and we're willing to just give us open it up. We've had some that have been fighting us, but the push back and we also made a deal with the county where the county doesn't want any money and they don't want to be paid. they get you could park free. So, we're working with the state theater. I was just at their 100th birthday and the state theater is very happy with the city of Houston right now and that's very important. We need them because they bring a lot of people. Our restaurant popularity is because of the state theater. When the state theater has a show at the state theater and their marquee is lit up, the the restaurants

are full before and after. So we wanted to make East a place where developers could come in, property owners could come in, invest in property without taxes going up and that has helped. We also wanted to get things done. Now I hate to paraphrase Governor Shapiro's motto, but he has get done and I won't say that. One of the thing when he was in East a couple months ago, he was shocked. We're doing well compared to some of the places he's been in in the state. But the thing about getting things done, we had McDonald's in, you remember McDonald's was in Crayola and Crayola wanted them out and they were leaving East if they we couldn't get them out. Well, they weren't leaving. I remember very well having heated arguments with the vice president of real estate for McDonald's Corporation and we got them out. We paid them $300,000, but I then negotiated $100,000 a year so we could stretch over three years. And we agreed to put a sign in the park old parking garage that they could go down the street and get McDonald's. And we wouldn't sell food. We would only sell certain types of food in the Crayola experience. Today, our fire department is really an all hazards emergency response agency. They respond to very few fires. We're knock on wood. We're very fortunate we have. And that's because like I'll talk about grants, other people's money. And grants the I think the best grant we got was $98,000

to purchase smoke detectors and have our firefighters go around and offer them to residents and tenants and install them. Those are very important because they save lives. Fire smoke detectors save lives and that's really important. Last year, our fully paid professional fire department responded to 2,31 calls for service. Of that, only 31 were building fires with a total of six civilian injuries and fortunately no fatalities. Emergency medical services calls that to assist the sub the uh emergency squaders 47. Now, I will tell you that it's not in my report at the end for 26 goals, but I really believe that emergency squad referrals and calls are more important than fire calls because more people need it and you need it right away. Right, Lewis? We're glad you're here. The fire prevention program was occurred at Cheston Eastern Arts Academy, March, Prainosa, IU 20, and Head Start schools. The firefighters interacted with 92 classes and 2,000 students and 170 teachers. We also held fire extinguisher courses for any employer who wanted to have it for their employees. In 2025, the fire department also took delivery on the new $1.7 million Pierce tractor drawn aerial ladder truck, trained our personnel, and assigned ladder one to the central fire station. They al also expanded their pre-fire plan program and received a grant to outfit the new truck for $16,322, giving us some of the brand new

equipment we really needed. We also took delivery on the remaining uh P25 portable mobiles and base stations and we hired three new firefighters that completed the academy in June 2025. Our goals for 20 in the fire department goals for 2026 will include the following. They want to hire and train two new firefighters maintaining the increased platoon size at the Allentown Fire Academy. I also want to thank Allentown for supporting the Allentown Fire Academy where our Allentown our guys if they don't can't get in there the next closest one I think is Scranton or Wilsbury and we have to pay them travel time last year. They also we also want them to reduce their overtime which is difficult given the contractual requirements but our overtime and fire is approaching a million dollars. That's a lot of money. East is an incredible city. We may be a small city. We always want to be a small city. We don't want to be a big city, but we have worldclass educational facilities like Lafayette. And I say we have because we started it. Residents of East met right on the square in the norththeast quadrant at Whites Tavern to to start it 200 years ago. We have a thriving downtown and amazing and diverse food and restaurant scene, worldrenowned museums like the Sigle Museum, and great arts and culture like our whimsical fire hydrants. We have wonderfully vibrant neighborhoods that are the lifeblood of this city. And people are coming to East from a radius of 70 miles for our restaurants and our festivals and special events like our concerts and cruise nights. At a time when Washington headlines often so division and uncertainty east easy to lose faith it's easy to

lose faith in government. But here in East our job is to create chaos isn't to create chaos or fear. It's to deliver services. Here we provide rhetoric but we also then go for results. Again I want to thank all of our city employees for helping us deliver a vibrant city. Here we are 19 years later. Let's check in. I was told you in n 2008 that I was tired of hearing East was a city that was close to everything and I told you that Eastston is a city that has everything or we would get it. I also told you I was tired of hearing that we were a city on the cusp of greatness. We're already great and that continues to be true. East is a small city and we want to keep it that way. East smallness is an asset and people in our city enjoy just walking around in the city that William Parsons laid out in 1752. I mean, I see people I'm in downtown on weekends and I see people they come up to me, they they thank me for a job we're doing in the city of turning it around and I say, "It's not me, it's a group. It's a team effort." And they enjoy just walking and that's really nice. We were cited as one of the top 10 places for our people to retire to by the AARP national magazine and our farmers market is always ranked in the top three of outdoor markets farmers markets in the nation. Held every Saturday was moved several years ago to Larry Holmes Drive to allow for its expansion. It it outgrew the historic site in Center City and Center Square. While there, I do meet people from as far away as Philadelphia and Virginia. Our Pennsylvania Bacon Fest grows every year and attracts people from far away. Garlic Fest grows in attendance every year. This year we're going to add a new festival sponsored by Setto Luna and orchestrated by Stephanie Alieri. It's

going to be called Festa Italiano. We're finally going to get an Italian festival. This year's state of the city address highlights the remarkable transformation happening in our city. from revitalized neighborhoods and ambitious cleanup initiatives to investing money in affordable housing and restoring some of our treasured landmarks like the 1761 Hooper House. That's been a 40 years in in the making. Every person in this room tonight and every one of our city employees has a hand in making things great again in East. Thank you all the employees for making East such a wonderful place to call home. East is ready for takeoff. We need to protect our historic building stock and promote the future. The vacancies created in the code enforcement officer in 2025 allowed for internal advancement, but we also allow the the department to promote from within while also onboarding the new code officers we have. development and redevelopment activity continued citywide across four neighborhoods with a decline in buyer notification inspections. Part of the problem of affordable housing is people are not moving. So they grow out of their house and they don't move. So there's no stop. I mean when I look on Zillow, if we have seven homes in the city of East under a for sale at one time, we're very fortunate. and out in the suburbs is the same way. Similarly, the city experienced a slight reduction in construction permit applications. A further reduction in buyer notification inspection requests is anticipated in 2026 and reflected in the proposed budget for 2026 as local real estate market continues to reflect low housing inventory levels. The

department received and processed 1348 construction permits a 1% decrease from 2024. The continued development and redevelopment over the past couple months over years resulted in a total of 3985 construction inspections in 2025. A minor decrease in property transfer resulting in 379 buyer notification inspection requests and a 1.0% decrease from 2024. Other applications in process include 99 certificates of appropriateness, 365 zoning, 62 zoning appeals, zero property maintenance appeals, and one building code appeals. The open government open gov citizens services software has continued to allow the department to better serve the citizens through ease of access to staff, provide complaints and followup. You can now get your permits online. The staff brought 11 new properties to the vacant property review board. Recent success with developers and revitalizing blighted properties and the continued work of I have one that I would 700 block of Washington Street. I won't give you the address, but the 700 block of Washington Street was bloated for years. We finally got that one cleaned up. The East and Public Works Department is the largest department with the largest budget. They are also serve the residents with the most visibility because they deal snow removal, grass cutting, parks, recreation, and all those underground utilities that we rip up the sidewalks in the streets and people get mad because they're inconvenience. We are very proud of the fact that we have probably done more water and shorelines in the city than ever done in the past. We've also in the public works

department also completed uh is in the process of completing the city's waterfront planning effort, completion of the citywide safe streets for all study, completion of the 300 block of ferry street sewer replacement and road rebuild. completion of Bushkill Drive sewer pumping station installation and ongoing environmental work for the eastern iron and metal site 14 acres creation of the citywide recreation strategic plan and the west Lafayette Street traffic common hill street Knox Avenue leading to Sullivan's trail is all stateowned so we're working with PennDOT to try to solve the problem at Catel and Lafayette and around the corner. It's We've had two horrific accidents there. One where they blew up. They hit the gas line, the gas meter on the house and had a tremendous gas leak. They also, the public services department also worked on the um designs for the Abbott Street Bridge, which we will replace this year, and the Abbott Street lock gates, which we will also replace this year down at Humor Park. Completion and dedication of the Vander Park improvements and Centennial Park improvements, both in the west award. The completion of the hotel street Carter safety improvements project phase two and substantial completion of Westward pocket parks including Raspberry Park which has been redone, Jackson Street Park, Seventh Street Park, Bushko Street Park and all in the city of East and all were homes at one time but they were either fire or blighted. They were torn down and they were made into little pocket parks. They also did the installation of Riverside Park and Scott Park at swing benches. If you have not been down there, they're really popular. Completion of the Danny Cohen Dog Park and Scott Park. Completion of the North Sro Street improvements. coordination

with the Northampton or Nescoonian Street, excuse me, Nesoni Street Memorial Park, which was a um burial site for black Americans and is now going to be made into a memorial park, wastewater treatment capital projects, and planted 200 street trees. Given the significant increase in use of the city's outdoor facilities, one primary objective in the department in 2025 was to continue enhancement and expansion of the city's valuable public spaces. In partnership with the city's redevelopment attorney, work has continued on the environmental cleanup of the 14 acre e and metal site which concluded included negotiations for terms of future sale, coordination of environmental work and administration. The gentleman who won the RFP for that site is um VM development which did this Simone Silk. The site of cleanup plan has been approved by Pendot Pennsylvania DP and the city is out for bids for the initial phase to site the cleanup. It's not the cleanup when it was a metal. It's before that med depo disposed of a lot of their B PCBs and everything else down here. It's not a it's it's it's a terrible site. Road work management continues to be a priority focus of the department as we continue to utilize advancements in technology to improve roadway and pedestrian safety. Pedestrian safety is as much a problem for drivers as it is for pedestrians. I would suggest that everybody waits till traffic stops before they cross the street. It's bad out there. People are talking on their phone. They're shaving. They're reading a book. They're doing everything but driving. Our highway department continues to utilize electronic asset management to track maintenance

activities and identify road segments for targeted improvements. The burrow, the Bureau of Public Works mil and resurfaced two miles of roadways. Now, something else we did that most people don't even remember, but in 2008, the city was using tar and chip and they would put down a liquid tar and then put chips on top of it. And people would call my office and complain all the time about tracking tar into their house on their carpet, etc. So, we did away with that. We don't do that anymore. We mill the pavement. We take down about an inch of asphalt and we put new asphalt on it. So, our streets are in better shape than they were in 2008. In addition to paving, the highway bureau completed its annual street sweeping program and collected thousands of cubic yards of leaf and brush debris from residences as well as the municipal recycling drop off center. Significant improvements were are being planned for 26 27 which will require as city council knows the closing of high pool for at least two seasons. Now we don't like closing pools. We like the fact that the city is in a financial position to invest in our pools, but our pools need work. Both Eddie side and um how pool will cost the city about $5 million, but we need to completely redo all the gutters and returns and underground piping at Hy Poolool. And when I reflect on our work during the past 18 or 19 years, I think of the African proverb that says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We've really been together, and we have a good working relationship with our city employees, and I want to thank them for making our parks and recreation program what it is today.

As mayor, I'm very proud of that East is a safe city. Reflecting also reminds me that there's much to be done in the next couple of years. We've made a lot of progress, but we have so much more to do. Vexing and heart-wrenching challenges of homelessness or unsheltered peop residents. Affordability and poverty are really things that we need help on. We can't do it alone. All the improvements that people see in the city are really done with OPM. other people's money. We We are very fortunate. We have a lot a good working relationship with the state and federal government because they're the ones that are really, as I said to Governor Shapiro, I said, "Josh, look around. This is all you. It's not me. It's you." I believe we've shown though that the rising above the is the only way to achieve what might may feel like the impossible. When we continue avoid partisan bickering, steer clear of revenge politics, turn the other cheek, and choose partnership, we will see that's best days are ahead of us. My friends, our work is far from done. We will not slow down. We will not settle. We will continue to build the east we know is possible. Ahead of us stands a vision yet fulfilled. A city where every child is safe, every family is housed, every worker is fairly paid, and every voice is heard. There is an outstanding time to be in East. This is an outstanding time to be in East. I'm proud, damn proud of where we are, what we have been through and together what we've done and accomplish. And we will go ahead for the next two or possibly six years. In closing, dare to be bold. We dare to dream. We will be the change that you want to see in the world. We will be the change that is needs and the change for the better. We are a city on the rise and I I hope that you will join me in this important journey. We are getting things done and as a result the state of RC is getting stronger every day. We are stronger than yesterday and we will be even stronger

tomorrow. We have more to work to do but we have proven that together we are up to the task. We will continue making it's like the hotel fire. The Hampton we displaced between that and the building surrounding it with water damage 67 people. We need to house them and we need to house them in facilities that right now we just don't have. We have some ideas that we've working through with staff of how we can do that, but we don't have 67 rooms that we could just put people in. And we need a better working relationship with our housing authority and hopefully we'll have that in the near future. But we started putting people on the housing authority that care. people like Lewis Campos. I need people on the housing authority that are going to report back to us. When I get the calls that the the the elevators aren't working and I have a handicapped person who lives on the seventh floor of the Arland House, that's not that's not good. And they should be concerned about their residence. When I have a resident who's yelling at me all the time because she can't even she can't get a meeting with the executive director, that's a problem. I mean, they should be able to get a meeting with him. The Department of Codes and Planning experienced significant staffing changes as we mentioned and the health board issued 7454 total licenses throughout the year of which 195 were food establishments. 23 were for new facilities, 24 were for change of operator. Additionally, the bureau processed 36 handicap parking requests at six TAC 2 licenses. Additionally, 467 special event licenses were issued and city council, we are recommending that you approve a fee of $50 per vendor for all of our special events, which will give the city

some money to help defer the cost of overtime. Because right now, when the city has a special events, we are paying, taxpayers are paying whether they come to big events or not, they're paying. So $50 per um vendor will help cover their cost. That's why our parking fee at the garages is $20. It cover it covers their costs. As we push forward, we fight for more investment, more infrastructure, more justice. We worked hard in Harrisburg and Washington so that is not an afterthought, but a beacon of how things can and should be done. Our downtown business district was visited by Governor Shapiro as a model for what Main Street can do in the in the Commonwealth. Let us march forward with a purpose in our step. Let us say to the world east is like the Phoenix rising and it will not be stopped. Transportation fund to support safety enhancements will be done on Larry Holmes Drive. That's the ped and and third and Larry Holmes drive intersection. Thank you for listening. May God bless you all. Let's bear this in mind. There are robust debates still to be had like parking and new buildings top the list. But let's never lose sight of the fact that we're partners in a common effort. Let's remember that we're just passing through, that we serve for a short while and our hope that our efforts might be fruitful for the thousands of Eonians that will live after us. Let us strive always to let cooperation motivate our work. If we can do that as a former history teacher teacher, I have no doubt that 150 years from now, our work will speak well for us. Our love of this city will endure and the people of the East will be feel blessed to call this city their home. I am very proud of the fact that the East Red Rover football team carries out the East flag every game. Now, 2008 that would have happened,

people were not happy with East and they didn't want they didn't East was an afterthought. They didn't want to be known as being from East. They wanted to be known from being from Palmer or Forks or Wilson. They didn't want to be known for being from East. Today, people enjoy being from East. And we're happy about that. Thank you very much. Oh, I just want to show I want to show just just 10 slides. This is the Red River team. It's not on, mayor. Oh, it's not on. How many are here from East High School?

How many students? How many students? Who Who's your teacher? Oh, okay. We're here for an assignment. We'll take care of you when you're done.

This is the the eastern flag coming out. Do you know how many people in East don't know what the eastern flag is? They call me up. They call my office. They say, "What is that flag you fly? Is that a Confederate flag?" I said, "No." I said, "That's that's an Easter flag. It was unfurled at the Civil War. This is the um graph. Mayor, I'd like to suggest that when you do your state of the city next week, you remove the IT department from your speech. Is it still alt control delete?

We don't want to do that.

It's only 10 slides, but I want I think it's important that they see that trying to get into presentation mode. This way. Okay, this is the um graph that shows that our mill just stayed at 24.9, but in 2008 we were at $8.7 million. That generates now with the new growth $9.1 million and that's $868,000. This is the earned income tax. As you can see when it went up, we got rid of our non-resident commuter tax. And the one that you want to look at is the orange one is the uh residential EIT. Um that has gone up every year and and as I said last last year went up 12%. This is our crime rate. As you can see, we had 302 part one

crimes last year and the year before we had 462 and in 2008 we had 986. So to me that just reflects well for our police department. Our police officers are doing a great job and I want to thank them for making our city safe. This is the marquee across the street and this is the reason for a no tax increase in the last 19 years. Now we do things, we make things happen. People told us that Red Bull will never be able to have snowboarding in downtown East. Well, we brought snow in from the Poconos and we had a snowboarding event that attracted thousands of people to downtown on a Saturday. We started Winterfest. Winter Village was started to help restaurants and retailers get out of their COVID mode and into a more productive mode. And it's a really great thing. Now, one of the things I wanted to have every year was I wanted to have a chestnut roster. We had one this year, but I also want to have a merrygoround for kids. I want them the kids to be able to go on a carousel with for free. Any resident of East can get on a carousel for free. We haven't been able to get one yet because we're only open weekends. Larry Holmes continues, obviously he and I grew up in the same public housing project, but Larry Holmes continues to be one of two different things that when I say I'm the mayor of East, they say Crayola and Larry Holmes. And one of the things we're going to try to do in our 2026 is develop a Larry Holmes Hall of Fame.

I believe it's very important because people not that it's going to get 400,000 people but it might get 40,000 and that's 40,000 more than we had initially but it's really important that we we highlight um the the person that put us on the map. When I was in office in the 80s, I was interviewed by ABC Wide World of Sports every week or three times a year I should say because Larry was fighting and he always highlighted his hometown and we should remember that. This is the community center that I expect to build before I leave office. I would like to build this in the Westward. Right now we're looking at Tenth and Pine, but we may be looking at somewhere else at 10th in Northampton. We have a lot of We have a couple different places we're looking at. Um, what we don't want to do is make it too small. We want to make sure that it's big. Listen, I played basketball at Sammy Juice Center with a 15 foot ceiling. And if you got to be 12 years old, you didn't play there anymore because you were always hitting the ceiling. So, the West Ward, we need a community center that we can, our residents don't have to go to Palmer Township to rent the Charles Shrin community center. they can rent a room and have a birthday party right in our own city. That is really important. That's going to be about $6 million. Now, we've built up one of the things I didn't highlight in our state of city is that when I took office, we were in a hole. We had we were in a deficit, but today there's $9 million in reserves. Now, I could take six of that $9 million and say I'm gonna build a community center. I won't I would never do that. That that rainy day fund is there when we have to go through COVID again. Hopefully we never have to. But that will have a computer lab that has already been um the uh East and Lions Foundation has has sponsored the computer lab. It'll have a a full-size

gymnasium with uh seating for spectators. It'll have a senior center, which is very important. The city used to have two senior centers, one on center square, one at SH School. The county closed them both. So, we want to make sure that our seniors can get out of the house and see people their own age in a face toface association, socialize, have social and a hot lunch. Sometimes it's the only lunch they the only hot meal they have. But that's that's if we put it on that corner. We're not sure where we're going to put it yet. But if anybody in the audience thinks they want to sponsor something, you can see me afterwards. We'll gladly take your money. But it's really something that's good for the community. Um, kids need a place to get off the street and get into get into inside. The San Ju Center was really good for me when I was a kid because growing up on Southside and in the Delaware Terrace projects, I could have gone the wrong way and I didn't. They kept me on the straight and narrow. So, I thank you all. Oh yeah. I want to thank the Small Business Development, SBA, Small Business Administration, for all the efforts that they're having in here every day this week until the end of March um helping the residents and tenants of uh the Hampton Fire. I see them in here all day long and I appreciate it. Thank you, mayor. Hello, council members, city officials, and community. I will be um brief. My name is DJ Cha and my colleague, a where'd she move to?

Oh, April Atkins. were public affairs specialists with the disaster recovery team of the Small Business Administration, which is fortunately often not known, but when it is, it's because we are here to provide support. And the reason um the mayor was so kind along with Karen to allow us on the agenda this evening for two minutes um was we just got into town. We are here and we have very timely information we wanted to share with you this evening. Um first, I do want to express how far we are that there were injuries and the devastation that occurred as a result of the hotel fire. um as the mayor so well um stated throughout this u meeting so far is what a strong community eastn is but no strong community is immune from potential um disasters once in a while and that's where SBA disaster recovery can assist with the recovery of in this instance lost personal property physical damage and what's called economic injury. Um the reason for the timeliness of being on the agenda tonight is we actually have people here on the ground um April and I will be here longer, but we have what are called co customer service representatives now through March 21st. They've been operating out um right here um in the city council chambers and they are going to be here um through the 21st which that means this coming Saturday and next as well as the remaining weekdays 8:30 to 4:30 10 to 2 on the Saturdays. And why I like to emphasize that in the short time period we're here that one- on-one time with our customer service reps for anyone who feels that they have suffered some kind of loss as a result of this fire. Um April and I were out walking um to see firsthand from street level on the sidewalk and you have an individual who

has a business but also lived in um above precision cuts. So he's not only had economic injury to his business, he's also lost his place of residence. So we with people on the ground here to actually help through the application process for the variety of loans we offer, every situation is different. And when you have in this age of and I fully support of technology that human touch can be so vital at a time like this, you're not only dealing with the emotional stress of what happened but um the intricacies of each individual's um particular situation. So for tonight's purposes um I am relying on good oldfashioned paper. I have left back by the fine gentlemen who are anxious to get up here and get sworn in. Um on the table to the right of the board agendas, the upper one, I've left what's called our fact sheet. It walks through the interest rates, um what um the categories of the loans, as well as some nice double-sided color ones that break down what renters um what small businesses, private nonprofits such as theater, um who had to miss a couple shows the day of the fire, what they can look at. And so it's really an opportunity to just make sure, you know, we're here. we are literally present and beingcoming part of your um community um while we're here and look forward to the opportunity to maybe speak to you again or provide more information. But in the meantime, thank you again for allowing us this brief opportunity to make sure you're aware of our presence.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to swear in the uh five officers. Captain Christian Fully, you want to say a few words?

Mayor, Council, good evening. I'm Salvador Christopher Fully, captain of the city of East Police Department. I am here this evening to introduce to you our five newest officers. They are Avery Hutcherson, Austin Brett, Miles Dut, Bailey Wit, and Kyle Pearl. Also with me this evening is also officer Matthew Stanley. Matthew Officer Stanley has been on for approximately about nine months. However, because of scheduling conflicts, he did not have the opportunity to be sworn in front of council. So, he's here tonight to take the oath. Chief Scowzel usually presents the officers to council. However, he had a prior personal commitment this evening. He sent me and he sends his regrets. However, he did send me with the prepared statement for me to read prior to the swearing it. Tonight, we gather to welcome the newest members of the city of Eastn Police Department as they take their first steps into a life of service. Each of you has chosen a path defined by courage, responsibility, and unwavering commitment. You have earned your place among the ranks of this department, and you should be immensely proud of what you have accomplished just to stand here today. The calling of a police officer is unlike any other. It demands adaptability in a world that changes day by day. And it requires a level of selflessness that often goes unseen. Yet those who answer the call do not do so for recognition. They do so for out of deep desire to protect and serve and to stand as guardians for the citizens of this great city. This profession asks for integrity, honor, and devotion not only for your fellow officers, but to every member of the community who places their trust in you. To the families standing behind these officers, we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude. Your support, your sacrifices

that you have given these officers so much so so much already. You will and you will continue to give them in ways that are not only visible to others, but there is also unseen sacrifices that you will endure in your private lives. Please know that your strength is felt and appreciated by this entire department. To our new officers, we are grateful for the commitment you have placed in this department and to the city of East. As your chief, I promise to provide you with the training, equipment, and support you need to thrive in this demanding profession. My hope for each of you is to have a long, fulfilling, and safe career, one marked by growth, service, and pride in what you do. Congratulations, and welcome to the City of East Police Department. Gentlemen, raise your right hand. Repeat after me.

I state your name. I do solemnly swear doly swear that I will support that I will obey and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth and the Constitution of this Commonwealth that I will enforce the laws of the Commonwealth that I will the laws of the Commonwealth and the ordinance of East and the ordinance of East and that I will discharge the duties I discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. I do further swear I do further swear that I will uphold I will uphold obey obey and enforce the law enforce the law without consideration

without consideration of a person's race a person's race color sex religious creed creed sexual orientation sexual orientation age national origin national origin ancestry ancestry handicap handicap or disability or disability. I do further swear I do further swear that I do not that I do not advocate I do not advocate nor am I knowingly a member knowingly of any organization any organization that advocates the overthrow of the government advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States of America the United States of America or of this commonwealth or this by force or violence by force or violence

to deny other persons deny other persons their rights their rights under the constitution of the United States and this commonwealth of the United States and this commonwealth. I do further swear that I will not so advocate will not advocate nor will I knowingly become a member of such organization such organization that I am during the period period that I am an employee of e that employee of congratulations

congratulations how you been good how are you parents, family, I want to say thank you for allowing them to wear the badge. It's they're joining a really good police department. I mean, really, we are accredited, fully accredited now six, seven years in a row. How long is it? It's been a while. And we now have premier status, which means we're doing a good job. And we haven't had any lawsuits that we've lost. And that's a big one financially. Oh, yeah. Guys, you can come up and sign this. Yes. I'd like to again thank the the family and friends that are here. Uh your

support is very encouraging to these young men and we know that they're going to do a good job. Congratulations guys. Thank you for your service.

And to the family and friends, we won't be embarrassed or discouraged if you leave. We certainly understand. Thank you. Thank you. No more. I will. Thanks. It's easy to report good news.

Next on our agenda is um public comment on agenda items only. No, it's ours. Anyone want to address the city council on agenda items only?

Good evening everyone. Good evening, mayor, members of council. Um, that was a great state of the city to listen to. I appreciate you giving that, Mr. Mayor. Um, I also appreciate hearing that you grew up in public housing as well. Um, I think it's honestly a vital resource um to any city, state, uh, municipality. Um, I'm here tonight because I care about what happens uh to the Canal Street property. Um, I believe this decision deserves more deliberation than it currently has. First, I want to acknowledge that this council is seemingly on the surface trying to do something right. Uh the instinct to attach conditions to deed transfer um to ensure that the land goes towards housing for working people rather than a luxury development. Um that instinct is correct. Um and I respect it. Um but good intentions attached to the wrong mechanism uh can still produce the wrong outcome. Uh, and that's what I want to talk about tonight. During the last committee meeting, the terms affordable housing and workforce housing were used interchangeably. I understand why. Um, they sound like they mean similar things. Uh, but for those in attendance and at home, um, they don't. Uh, and that distinction matters enormously. Uh, you know, for who this land actually will serve. Um, workforce housing typically target, again for those at home, uh, or in attendance, uh, workforce housing typically targets households earning between 60 and 120% of area median income. Affordable housing under federal definitions targets those earning often much lower than that. Uh, the people who need help the most, the lowest income residents of this city, can easily fall through the gap between those two

definitions. And before this council votes on anything, I'd ask that you formally define which population this land is meant to serve. And that definition should drive every decision that follows. Now, to the proposed mechanisms, uh, a sale to a church with deed restrictions or a transfer to the re redevelopment authority with conditions attached. Um, you know, I I want to be direct. A deed restriction is not public housing. It is a promise attached to private ownership. And private ownership, even with the best intentions, even with legally binding conditions, still means that someone controls the rents, someone controls admissions, and someone profits from the asset. Deed restrictions can also be challenged, renegotiated, or expire. History in cities across this country shows us that affordable uh deed restricted units drift upward over time or get converted the moment conditions lapse. The redevelopment authority, as we discussed, exists to return property to the private market. That is its function. Transferring this land there, even with conditions, is a pipeline to privatization. I don't believe that this that's what this council intends. Uh but it would likely be what it results. There is an alternative that this council has the ability to pursue transferring this property to the housing authority to develop and maintain as genuinely public housing. Uh it was discussed tonight uh and I've had conversations with council members where the you know the housing authority is going through changes. It will be going through restaffing, redirection of its goals and hopefully uh reyncing communication with this body. Public housing is not a relic. It is publicly owned, publicly accountable and permanently removed from the speculative market. It serves the lowest income residents without a profit motive involved. And right now, when land

values are high, when the private market has failed working people, and when the city actually owns a parcel, now is exactly the wrong time to give that away quickly. Land is worth more than the dollar figure on an appraisal. It is worth what it can do for a community permanently. I'd ask this council not to rush towards a partial solution when a full solution is within reach. Finally, I'd ask that before any resolution moves forward, this council forms a citizens committee, as you have done before with the civil and confluence properties to advise on the future of this land. Let the residents who will be most affected by this decision have a voice in shaping it. That is not a delay tactic. That is democracy. I'm asking this council to slow down, define your terms, consider strongly the housing authority, and invite the public into this process, which would be the most important part. This land belongs to this city. Let's make sure it stays that way and serves the people who need it most. Let's make sure that lifelong residents, taxpayers, can afford to retire where they've spent their life so that families can stay where they've always lived, workers, students. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else would like to address city council? Moving on. Consent agenda. There's there's no consent agenda. We'll go to I'll receive the report fire department report for February and we'll go to reports to committee finance committee. Council member Brown. Thank you mayor. Michael. Thank you mayor. I have no report but under my report u our director Mr. Zki will be giving us a two-year budget update.

Okay. Thank you Mr. Brown. Uh I believe probably several weeks ago now uh city council received the two-year proposed or two-year budget that the administration put together as part of the charter. We are required to do that. Uh the two-year budget would be the 26 budget plus projections for 2027. I did send out a memo uh along with that and I'll just kind of go over some of the highlights. In short, there are no no uh I guess dramatic changes uh you know on the 2027 numbers. What we did do is load up what we basically the information that we knew. So historically real estate taxes have gone up by you know anywhere between one two or two percent. So we uh included an increase of 1.5% for taxes, mercantile uh revenue, so business privilege tax, amusement tax, etc. We kept that flat. Earned income tax, we increased at a modest 2 and a half% uh because we believe that as the city has expanded, you know, we'll start to catch up on EIT. The the the double-digit growth that we've seen over the last years is going to is going to slow down. Uh building permits are up. Uh I'll be quite honest with you. I was I was a bit surprised by this, but there is some some room for development that is ongoing. Uh in our discussions with Dwayne Tman, the director of planning and codes, he did mention that Lafayette College is always expanding. We do have the foundry project uh over at the the East and Iron Metal site and and the like that will that will increase uh those revenues. Uh we've also cut uh what we're projecting usage of our fund balance uh by uh 125,000 down to 125,000. It was previously 250 or in the 2026 budget. As far as expenses, uh big increase is going to be on salaries. Uh we do know contractually that fire and police and ASME do have set increases and then we made an

assumption as far as the administration as well and that was in line with ASME. Uh if we want to go through that, police was 3%, fire is five, and admin and asked me would are set at 3%. Healthcare costs, given the the recent or the increases we've seen over the last couple years, we're hoping that that does stabilize and we plan for a 5% increase. Legal costs uh under the solicitors did increase by 75,000. We do know that there is potential for pending litigation, so we did want to budget accordingly. Uh let's see here. Fire OT we did increase by 200,000 uh or 50% and that's based on trends that we've seen so far well late last year and going into this year. We're hoping that that does stabilize but we wanted to make sure that we did plan accordingly for that and uh for the most part everything else uh was relatively flat and that includes the other funds as well. So unless there are any questions I will turn it back over to Mr. Brown.

What's the gap? Oh there thank you. That's kind of an important part. Uh the gap right now is 887,000. So in other words, our revenues are under our expenses by 887,000. Thank you, Mayor. The earned income tax will be up over a million dollars because the confluence is going to be rented this next month. Starting next month, any other questions? I'll turn it back over. Thank you, man. That's all I have this evening. Okay. Economic development, Mr. Mr. Pinone.

Mayor, I have a few things this evening. Thank you. Uh the department applied for a few grants. Uh a grant to Representative McKenzie's community funding for projects that include the Eastn Police Department technology upgrade. Uh PHMC Keystone Construction for the Hooper House Restoration and Rehabilitation for $100,000. and a grant for DNL Trail Town's amenity projects, purchase and installation of swings at Delaware Canal Park for another $50,000. Mayor, I made an error this uh today when you asked for approval of the agenda. I was writing my notes and I missed it. Um I am going to be tableabling or removing at this point. I might be late. New business number 16, letter A, a resolution approving the outdoor dining guidelines for 2026. After last night's um committee meeting, uh the the Department of Community and Economic Development are going back to make some updates based on the recommendations they heard here last night and they're going to bring that forward. An update on the displaced victims from the Hampton Fire on Northampton Street. Uh last week, myself, the mayor, Mr. Campos and John Kingsley were in the mayor's office having a meeting on something unrelated when Lewis got the phone call that uh last Sunday the 8th was the last day that the victims uh were going to be staying at the community college and we had nowhere for them to go. I got on the phone and called uh Christ United Methodist Church, Burwick and Sites and Shiloh. We had some meetings with them over the weekend and Monday and they are opening their church to the victims uh for the next 30 days. Shiloh Church is providing their vans to bring them two blocks down and back daily for showers. Red Cross is providing meals uh three times a day for the 30 days. But we still need some

volunteers at the shelter. Uh, additionally, originally displaced, as the mayor mentioned, was 67. Um, as of today, we're down to 16 displaced. Um, the rest have uh uh housing now and are are in a much better place. So, there's 16 more that we have 30 days to to accommodate. So, I want to thank everybody, council members, the mayor administration, the public, Red Cross, United Way, and and just all of our nonprofits, uh, for stepping up and really helping with that. Yes. Le, do you know if that number includes the 12 that are on the wait list over at the housing authority? It does. Okay. So, it's so once the housing authority takes the 12, we'd be down.

It it'll be down. And just so everyone knows, just to add to that, um is that that there may be a 30 to 60 day lag. That's what the housing authority is predicting. They're getting a couple of the units ready. They're fall right in line with that because that's automatic displacement. So the housing authority has to find room for

uh moving on mayor and I'm I'm really happy to report this and I'm really happy that Julie is here uh to hear this as well. So, as all of you probably have know, um the former, uh United States Secretary of Transportation and former mayor of Southbend, Indiana, Pete Pete Buddhajudge, was here last week for an event and I had the opportunity to host him and sit for about 30 minutes and have a one-on-one discussion with him. And him and his staff uh just were so complimentary about our downtown and our main street. And I know we we we have the greatest Main Street around and I and I make fun of Allentown and Betham and Reading often um because of how great we are, but hearing from the secretary who for the last six years have traveled all over the country to municipalities all over for him to just really and his staff talk about how great it was and how uh appreciative of of what we have here. So, I just wanted to bring that to everybody, Julie, to your department, your your team as well and and mayor. Um, so that was that was extremely uh I was really happy to hear that. This evening um I have on the agenda uh the Canal Street property. Um you know unfortunately the city as many know we don't have the funds to to create housing. Um although as the mayor stated in his address tonight we know there is a need for it. um uh Greater Shiloh Church who originally approached us or approached me about getting the property um it sits right in the middle of two of their parcels. Um and they wanted us to give them the property to create lowincome and workforce housing. Their low income is uh income based. Uh so it only goes to a certain level. It's for lower income individuals who can't pay market rate rents and for that forgotten middle class that that are always forgotten as well. Fortunately or unfortunately, as a city, we can't uh uh just give anybody

property. So, the the the the motion tonight is just to give the uh administration the ability to either get an appraisal and go to bid uh or give it to the RDA for them to go to appraisal and go to bid. um our history with Shiloh. They're currently, we missed a ribbon cutting because of the snow, but they're building eight town homes on the southside, threebedroom, two and a half bath. They're being delivered each home at around 325,000. Uh Shiloh is selling them for under 200,000 based on the grants and everything that the city and the state has put together to firsttime uh low to moderate income buyers. They also purchased, mayor, as you know, or they're um under agreement closing in a week or two to purchase the burned out block of Ferry Street where they're going to convert that back into affordable homes for the residents um uh uh in the city of East. So, I was in Harrisburg Tuesday trying to figure out when they're going to announce the rack P uh which it's going to go with the budget. They're going to use it to kick it around and negotiate with the budget, but the Shiloh is in the running for that to build 100 um incomebased and moderate income units on Southside on Canal Street uh on the other side of of this parcel. So, we have a history with our nonprofits where they have really picked up the slack in Easton. Our RDA um which is resident uh uh uh board is all residents and home east which is residents again. They've been really knocking it out of the park for us. Um, I watched a council woman from Betham comment on a Facebook post last week about how Eastston is doing so exceptional with affordable and and and doing more than than most around. So, we're asking the mayor gets approval for that. Finally, I'm asking council to please review and come um and and familiarize yourself with the home rule charter. Uh, the mayor mentioned it

today. on April 17th, Tuesday's committee, I'm going to have a discussion and ask the administration and and and uh our solicitors to talk to us about the process of opening the home rule charter as I tried to do two years ago and and the support wasn't really there, but I think it's it's time to do and I think it's the right thing to do for good government. So, if you can all please just familiarize yourself with the home world charter and uh I'm going to ask the mayor to put it on the April 17th committee meeting. Mayor, that's all I have. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Go to um public works. Well, let's do planning and codes first. Mrs. Rose,

thank you, Mayor. The monthly zoning hearing board meeting will be held next week, March 16th, at 6 PM in this room. There's also a special zoning hearing board meeting regarding the proposal at 74 North 4th Street. It was continued the last meeting and it will be held on March 24th at 6 PM. Um the meetings will be streamed on our YouTube channel and um also everyone is free to come here and offer public comment. Um the the special zoning hearing board meeting for 74 North 4th Street, the proposal there is March 24th at 6 PM and both agendas are on the city's website. The planning commission recently met and submitted a data center uh proposal ordinance proposal that I'm currently reviewing. So I hope to have that ready for the next meeting. The commission also approved a recommendation for council to consider organizing a committee to examine potential compensation for planning commissioners. Um I reached out to several municipalities this week regarding um their compensation if any andor related benefits that they provide their commission members. I'm so still waiting to hear back from them. I have also requested a meeting with Mayor Panto and city administrator Campos to discuss it further. So once the initial information is gathered, I will provide an update to council at a future meeting. Um Joel, will you be covering the warehouse hearing during your update?

Yeah, I I was going to talk about our exact session and I was going to fill everybody in. I'll leave that to you. That's all I have. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Uh public safety, Mr. Garziano. I have no report this month, this week. Public works committee, Miss Zando Dennis. Thank you, mayor. Uh, today I will be introducing a resolution for replacement of traffic signals at the intersection of Northampton and 13th Street. And I will be introducing a bill uh to approve a storm water easement. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's all.

Administration committee. Mrs. Harra Ber Biner. I have no report. Mayor uh Mr. Campos, do you have anything you want to add? Okay, Mr. Shear.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, first of all, I want to mention that we did have a executive session last evening at 5:30. Um, because of the appeals uh by the um uh developer for the warehouse um Wood Avenue prop, I think it's called. Um the uh the decision was made that we needed to schedule a hearing, an opportunity for the developer to present its request for review by city council in accordance with one of the many options that the developer has. Just to repeat uh the history here as far as the litigation goes. Um the planning commission in a decision issued in December. Actually at the conclusion of December meeting they the commission voted against uh the land development plan. Uh a written decision was issued on December 17th. The applicant filed a um first they filed a mandamus action essentially alleging that there was no decision you can make other than to give us permission to use this. So therefore, the court can compel the city to um uh uh provide uh to to to issue the permits and and they also claim quote mandamus damages u which is being um uh object we've filed preliminary objections. We're we're uh aggressively defending the case. my uh uh my council to my left has been doing the taking the lead on the pleadings and uh uh it'll we judge Paula Rosioli has been assigned to uh hear any cases related to the uh to the warehouse project. So that's that's the litigation in common police court. The same time

they filed two land use appeals uh pretty tradition straightforward appeals as opposed to the mandamus action. Um and by the way in the mandamus action Wilson Burrow also is a joint plaintiff. One of the items of the special of the preliminary objections is that uh where where does Wilson Burrow get standing to even become a party to compel us. So you know those are legal issues and they'll be decided by the court. Um the the land development appeal was filed both in in the in the court of common please and in front of city council and that's what we'll get to. But um just so everybody understands our our uh particular ordinance does give you two avenues to review uh an unfavorable uh decision. So that filing both in itself is is appropriate. that the question is uh how how do you accommodate two two matters going on at the same time and we felt that the the better judgment is let's just get this thing scheduled and also because the solicitor's office is actively involved in defending the planning commission in the mandamus action um that city council should be um uh guided legally by an independent outside council so there'd be no uh um appearance of a lack of due process. So, uh the administration retained Victor Scilio, an attorney in Bethlehem, uh to advise city council during those procedural steps and the first thing will be uh that a notice has been uh has been published now today. I mean, it's going into the newspapers, right? uh the the that a hearing, a special hearing of city council, special meeting I should

say, of city council will be on on Monday uh March 30th uh at 6:00 p.m. And uh that will give the applicant the opportunity to present whatever case it wishes to do. And uh so uh people can note their calendars accordingly. Um, it's going to be one of these rare experiences because the only other time in my 23 years uh was when Lafayette College appealed a planning commission denial and in that particular case, city council actually reversed the planning commission. Um, so that's that's the background as to first of all why the reason we had the executive session so that Mr. Scalio could introduce himself, explain simply restricted to explaining the process, answering some questions that the council people had as to the process, did not deal at all with the merits as it would have been inappropriate to do so. Um, I'll also share with council that um I got noticed that on April 13th the Commonwealth Court was nice enough to make sure that within my tenure they scheduled argument on the Morrison Avenue um appeal. That's the uh the housing development off of the corner of Morrison and George that the planning commission recommended against approval of its land development. Oh no, a special exception. Um the uh it went to the zoning hearing board who denied the special exception. The developer appealed to to common police court. The judge in uh Judge Belrami denied the appeal and uh the applicant has taken an appeal to Commonwealth Court. An argument scheduled at 9:30 a.m. in Harrisburg on April 13. One of the you know one of the my favorite places to be early in the morning. Um, so, uh, that's just to give you an update on that. And I have no

other report. Am I five minutes up? Because I could comment. No, I have no other comment. Thank you. Thank you, Joel. Okay. Moving on to um report to city administrator.

Mayor, you're not your report was the state of the city, correct? All right. Um, just couple items. Um, number one is last night uh I provided a um a parking presentation and I I said I told council that I would follow up on that on something a little bit more formal um so we can have these continued discussions. Um number two on tonight's agenda is a uh this is more of a formality um an approval by um by city council on the St. John's. Um it we want you to just to be aware of thatou. Um and then that that should lead then in six months if things work out well because there's a lot of moving parts in u managing that uh parking lot uh with the church um into a longerterm lease agreement. And the reason why we would do longer term is because we would put some improvements in there and we would want um to make sure that we get a return on our investment in that lot. Um, and but I I if that goes to that stage, an ordinance would come in as a full-blown longerterm lease agreement in front of council. And then the other uh item is a is a personnel item. Um, I just want to announce that um our solicitor Joel Shear, his last day will be April 15th. So, I I just want to make sure we put that on Joel.

We we put that on the calendar. I figured it was an easier day to remember. That's all. And by by the way, because I'm so attuned to that, when you said a a be on a workshop for April 17, if you said 17, that's a Friday. So you could have meant the 7th, which is the Tuesday before that meeting. But I was hoping you would you would uh defer anything about the home rule charter till after I'm gone, so I could so I could so I so I could speak out against your ideas. Um um you'll still have time. Sorry for interrupting. And that's that's my report. Okay. Um correspondence. There's no correspondence.

Although excuse me, I heard there's $75,000 more for legals. So maybe maybe I could stay on for another push the rock. There's no unfinished business. We'll move right into new business. Madam clerk, mayor, can we first go back to the action on the minutes? Oh, yeah. Did I miss that? Yes. Yes, I did. Motion to approve. Second. Any additions or deletions or corrections? Roll call. Madam clerk. Uh, Mr. Pinnabone. I. Mrs. Rose. I. Mr. Graciano. I. Mrs. Hartro. Binger. I. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. I. Miss Sun Dennis. I. Thank you.

New business. New business. Uh resolution authorizing Easton DCED to apply for a Lehigh Valley Greenways mini grant. So moved. Second. Second. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Mr. Graciano. Hi. Mrs. Hart. Binger. I. Mayor Pano. I. Mr. Brown. Hi. Miss Zondo Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinter. I. A resolution approving an agreement between the city of East between the city of East and St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church to use their surface lot for parking. So moved. Second. Move and second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Graziano. I. Mrs. Hartraf Pittinger.

I. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. I. Miss. Dennis. I. Mr. Pinnabone. I. Mrs. Rose. I. a resolution authorizing execution of an agreement with Armor and Suns electric for replacement of traffic signals at the intersection of Northampton and 13th Street. So moved. Second. I just wanted to say um that this replacement got of the traffic signal is funded through a grant from the green light program administered through PENDOT. Thank you. And it's to replace the traffic signals at the intersection of Northampton Street and 13th Street.

Roll call. Discussion. Discussion. Roll call. Um, Mrs. Hartraf Biddinger. I. Mayor Panto. I. Mr. Brown. I. Miss. Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. I. Mr. Graciano. I. A resolution approving the sale of property located at 324 to 362 Canal Street. So moved. Second. Discussion. Discussion. Yes. Just a quick question. Uh, Councilman Penal, I just want to make clear clear that I heard you. The RDA and um the redevelopment uh both have public uh board. Correct. So no need to really set what they

the RDA and the redevelopment are the same are the same thing. Okay. I just want to make sure that we have public uh you know Yeah. Um it up like we did with the other things. Yeah. Don't quote me, but I believe Miss Lorenson's the chair of that board. Melissa Lazada from the West Wards on that board. It's all resident. It's all residential. Yeah. Absolutely. This regardless what the administration does at this point because you're you're now given the administration authority to um start the process, if you will. Um the next uh milestone would be in terms of council's action would be for council to approve either the transfer or the sale via ordinance. It'll it'll come back to us laid out. Right.

Yes. Exactly. I just want to make sure everyone's clear on that. Correct. Either either direction. Thank you. Okay. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. Hi. Miss Dennis. Hi Mr. Pinter. Hi Mrs. Rose. Hi Mr. Graciano. Hi, Mrs. Hartra Biddinger. I have Mayor 17 bills for introduction. Yes, we have a bill for bill number six is being intro. Five

five is being introduced. An ordinance approving newly defined stormwater easement with Sarfos Lindon Development LLC for property located at 101 South Third Street. So introduced second. Oh just end up being introduced. Sorry. Got a little enthusiastic there. That's okay. Okay. Public comment on any matter facing the city of East in art.

Please tell me the date the redevelopment authority meets the every every month. Um I don't have it in front of me. Is there any is there any special party? I can I can call you tomorrow and give it to you. I I just don't have the dates in front. Okay. Second thing, uh council aware that the uh lights on Church Street alley don't seem to be working. They don't seem to light up at night. Church Street. Yeah, they're supposed to be, aren't they? The the uh sun, what do you call it? Solar. I'm at a loss for words, but uh they work with the sun, right? Solar. They're not working. All right, we'll check them out. Well, they were working last night when I walked down. They were. Okay, I'm going to check it out.

And I did look up the redevelopment authority meets the third Wednesday of each month at 5:30. Great. Third Wednesday. Yeah. In the third floor conference room um on this floor. Yes. Okay. Thanks. Third Wednesday of every month. 5:30. Arty, the problem with the lights, after Crystal walks by, she turns them off. I got I should have thought of that. Arty, thanks to you and Susan for saving our neighbor Michelle's dog, too, this week. And and Audie, just to make a good neighbor,

just to make life easy for you, um we scheduled the April planning commission meeting, which I now understand I may actually have to cover. Um on the 15th instead of the 1st because the first is the first night of Passover. So you could go right from the redevelopment authority directly to the planning commission. You stay in the same room. here.

Good evening. Amy Bakadoro, 108 Ferry Street. Um, first, uh, what I was originally going to come up and say is I was very supportive of the, uh, the grant that the city will be putting in for the cemetery to help repave those roads. Um, I am an avid user of that. I'm there almost every day with my dog along with countless countless others. Um, and as a park, it's a wonderful space in the West Ward. um somebody who doesn't have children. Uh it's a great place for adults, if you will, but it's really welcoming and I would appreciate if other opportunities exist that the city was also supportive of that and um would also continue to contribute some dollars to that space as well. Um because I do feel like it is a public space in that realm. So, thank you for approving that and um hope there's more in the future as well. Uh the other thing I wanted to um Mr. Pinabone, I overheard you mention the 900 block of Ferry Street. Can I be hopefully optimistic about that space being affordable housing with Shiloh?

That's all Shiloh does. They're nonprofit. That's all they do is low-income affordable units. So, that's now, as you know, they don't they're not dealing with the city on that. They're going through there. But that's exactly what they want to do. I think Lewis, you had a meeting with Pastor Phil Davis and uh he brought it up. They want to do affordable um units there. That's wonderful. I'm very encouraged by that. Um, obviously I'm literally across the street basically. So, thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Amy. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else want to comment on that on any item facing the city of East? All right. Let's go ahead. Make a motion to adjurnn.

We'll have it. I'll second. We'll call Mr. Brown, I'm not ready. No skipping right past you. Mando Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinbone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Mr. Graziano. Hi, Mrs. Hartra. Bidding. Hi, Mayor Pan. Hi,

Madison. What do you want me to do with this microphone? What time is it? It's 7:49. Wow.