City Council - Regular Meeting

Microphones are well now it is. Now it is. Hello. Thank you. Testing one too. Now it's on. Got it. Okay. Reports or no consent. Consent agenda. There's no consent agenda. We'll go right into reports received by council. There's no reports received by council. Go reports to the committees. Mr. Brown, finance committee. Thank you, mayor. I have uh unfinished business. We have bill number six, which is the um amusement taxes, and also have a resolution coming forward uh transfer uh for the Microsoft Office 360 licensing.

Okay. Economic development committee, Mr. Pidabone.

Thank you, Mayor. I don't have uh much uh from the committee, just two uh updates. This Monday, the 13th, will be my senior scam event where senior citizens were asking to come to the Boys and Girls Club Monday at 1:00. We're providing transportation for our seniors of the Harland and Walter House. Um, and we have professionals come to talk about some of the scams that are happening, uh, AI and others that are targeting targeting our seniors. So, they'll learn how to identify, protect themselves, report it. So, that's going to be this Monday, the 13th at 1 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club. Yesterday, myself and the mayor um led the tree planting of the Cedar of Lebanon tree up at Hackett Park. I've been working on it for about a year. Uh Bassam from Trees of Joy donated the tree to the city. We had a wonderful turnout as you would expect. Um news publications from throughout the country and ArabAmerican and and uh news publications covered it. Uh, so it was a really a big deal and and the community is very happy. So, mayor, uh, publicly, thank you again for for that. And that's all I have. M. Mrs. Rose, planning and coach committee.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, my resolution regarding the city-owned parking garages um was supposed to be on the agenda today, but was mistakenly removed from tonight's agenda. So, we'll have it back at the next council meeting. Um the resolution will also include a proposal um to ask the city administration to hire a consultant for a parking study. Now that we have a trove of parking garage data, this is good timing for a new study. Um I met with our assist our assistant solicitor last week um to discuss a data center ordinance and um assistant solicitor Vargo just sent me back a draft this week. So, um working on reviewing that draft uh revisions and hope to have something to council um within the next few weeks. Um additionally, I met with the city administrator before this meeting um regarding the certified planner. Um he did report that we received several applications, so hopefully um we'll have the interviews conducted soon. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Public works committee, Miss Zando Dennis. Thank you, Mayor. Today I will be submitting four resolutions and I would just like to announce that um the next city council meeting I will be out of town so we'll be attending my phone. Okay. I just want to announce while you talked about the next meeting the next city council meeting is at the east area community center on 9inth and Washington streets in West Ward. Um administration committee miss Mrs. Hartwiner 23rd Thank you, mayor. I have no report tonight. All right. Report of city solicitor, Mr. Shear, your next to last council meeting.

Actually, I won't be here two weeks from now. So, this is my This is my last in this official position. Oh, wow. But I will be here through May one. Okay. Just

I'm sorry. Mr. Vargo is cheering in the back. I I um uh I I on on uh Monday, this coming Monday morning, I will be representing the city of Eastston in the Commonwealth Court on the uh um appeal filed by the developers who want to put up apartments off of Morrison Avenue and George Street. Um, so I'm just reporting to you that uh that will be that I will be there on behalf of the city as will um the zoning hearing board solicitor who will be presenting the case and uh Ralph Bellato represents the neighbors we have to share 15 minutes. So, uh,

talk that's Monday. And the exciting thing is I'm looking forward to seeing all of our capitalbased press corps that from the eastern area, you know, present to observe the argument, oral argument. We used to actually have that. We used to have Well, the office was right there. Excuse me. The office was right in in in the county. The the uh Well, the u No, but the arguments in Harrisburg. Oh, okay. Yeah. So anyway, uh but I have I have nothing else to report. Okay. Uh you want to give an update on the warehouse?

Well, we it's it's the same uh same schedule uh um that we have a brief due by Monday uh in in support of the preliminary objections. In the meantime, I just received I'm just reading from 35 minutes ago that the attorney for the developer is filing a bunch of motions on Monday to try to preempt preempt uh the schedule that the judge set up. So, we'll deal with it one step at a time. Okay.

Uh report of the mayor. Um number of things going on that I want to update city council on. The DNL marathon will take place and it's a Boston qualifier. It needs to have a a new route will be coming the runners will be coming down Lehigh Drive because the Abbott Street, it's the Abbott Street Block Bridge, right Dave?

Uh Parker Park bridge will be under construction. Um, also want to be um, let everybody know that we're vying for the stamp program to get the $200,000 per year for five years or a million dollars will get us a new enterprise software system. And we had 65 police candidates with with eight no shows. So we had 56 take the test and we'll be conducting that that test was conducted last Saturday and we'll have the interview set up by the civil service board in within the next couple weeks. During Lewis's presentation tonight report, he will report on uh with Mike Globus from Morgan Stanley, our pension investment advisors, on how well our pension plan is doing and and the impacts on next year's budget. The great square is well on its way, as you can see, in center square. It'll give us an opportunity to to keep people in the city rather than out in the township um hotels. And we're going to kick off our season, our summer season on June 20th, the first cruise night with the circle is coming back to the circle. And uh if you don't know about the circle, they were four students from Lafayette College who had redwood rubber ball and turndown day as their big top 40 hits. Uh they were they were known as the Rondell's until John Lennon came to East to see them and he went around the Rotary and he called them the circle. So they're named after our circle. 1960. You weren't born.

I wasn't born either. Shame. I was. So that's on June 20th.

And uh we're preparing for that. Uh we should have the audit done by April 15th. Uh right Mark. And the planner position. We have five applications so far. I don't have an update from Estelle. how many came in today, but we have five so far and one of them looks very good, but we interview several of them. Alfresco dining update. May 6 is the Eastern Night at the Iron Pigs and we did get a $3 million grant from the state for the foundry project at the old eastern iron and metal. Oh, so that'll help uh VM development. It'll the $3 million grant goes right to them. Wow. Great.

Comes our students. Not not the one in the back. He has been a student a very long time. And we expect settlement by the end of the year on the East Iron and Metal property to the VM Development Company development corporation. And that's the end of my report. Lewis, before you begin, um, will Mr. Glover need a 30 or four timeout? He'll be a full He'll be a full timeout. Lewis.

All right. Um, all right, Mayor and Council. Um, I do have a significant update to provide um to you all regarding the uh the pensions. Two things before I start. Number one is this is a it's a great opportunity to introduce um the broker of our of our pension um Morgan Stanley and Mike Glovis's office um who's to my left here seated um who will also make some comments as um I go through a few quick slides um and they've been uh Mike and uh his team from Morgan Stanley um has been our uh broker uh since um since July of 2019. Um so that's going to be important um as I show you shortly. And I'm going to wrap this up then after showing you a couple slides of the performance in the fund, what this means, what this means for the budget and and where we're at. Um because part of uh my duty as city administrator is to uh provide any updates, significant changes to our budgets up or down um to city council as timely as possible. Um we are coming up shortly uh with uh uh our first year report. So you can see year to date. The first few months really don't produce um a lot of data or concern so to speak. Um, but we're we're coming up to a point in the year where we're going to be talking about if we see any concerns. And this is a data point, but it's a significant data point what I'm about to talk about today. Um, so on my on the first slide, I have uh pension performance um from 2019 to 2025. Just want to highlight as you can see here on the bar graph where we were um and where we're at today. And we start with 2019

because this this is where um Morgan Stanley took over um as the uh broker of record for the uh for the pension fund. So in 2019 uh we had a uh total value of just under $60 million and then today the total value is $102 million. That's a significant jump. All right. the the when we talk about the growth of the pension fund that doesn't mean much per se unless you know what the the funding level is. How much money do we have to pay the pensioners? All right. So that's going to be the next point in the next um the next slide. So let's go let's move on. Mark see on my next slide here the funding the funding ratios. Um, one thing that's important, you know, we're we're a home rule charter. Um, this gives us a lot of power to do different things. Um, one of them is to levy, um, an earned income tax, as we know. Um, another one, um, that that, uh, gives the city some, um, ability to make its obligations, um, is to, uh, tax what's called a commuter tax under Act 205. Um the the city went ahead and levied a commuter tax for those individuals not working not living in the city but worked in the city. Um were taxed an amount that was used to fund the pension and um you can do that when the pension gets to a distress level. So uh and roughly speaking that distress level was under 70%. So we were at a distress level two of under 70% um since about uh 200 I believe it was 910 um when we instituted that commuter

tax and we did that to help bolster the um the pension fund. Um, one thing that I'm, as you all know, um, it was it what what a year ago, uh, we removed that commuter tax because the funding level, uh, the average got above the distress level two and that's 70%. So, I'm happy to report that today that we just received our actuarial reports last week. Um, so this is again a timely presentation. I I received the final numbers last Thursday and Friday. Um today those uh funding levels have gone up significantly. So if you look at the 25 column you see typically we take uh an average but you can see here the individual components police is at 82% fire is at 94% and O and E the balance of it that we have it's a it's a smaller fund is about 85%. Significant change we were again under 70% on an average. So, as you can see here, the police was hovering around when I first came on board, we were at the 52 53% um range and fire was at 69 71% O&E at 55 56. You know, that was a that was a lot of pressure and it was pressure on the budget because the not only did we have a commuter tax, but a a good majority of um the MMO was predicated on that funding level. So the MMO was large. If you have if you're under a distress in a distress level situation under 70%. You got to fund that difference. So we were funding it from the general fund balance. All right. Now, I'm here to talk about what what's going to happen moving forward. As the markets did better, you know, and as we're performing better, as you see, we went from 50 to 100 million. Our

funding levels then increased um accordingly. That MMO is going to decrease. So, we're going to we're going to move on to the next slide. All right. So essentially, if you look at the two uh columns on under 26 and 27, light blue and a um and a yellow, we're going to move from a 6.7 million MMO, which was in our budget, which was approved by council, to an estimated 274.9 million uh MMO. Our MMO is essentially dropping. It's dropping by about $1.8 million. significant um significant drop. Um that's a significant change. So, a lot of the pressure that we've um we've been experiencing in the budget, a good portion of it has been coming from the MMO payment. Um, so I'm happy to report that as a result of several different factors, um, I would say management, um, the, um, amount of money that's being put into the pension fund, um, and then also the performance of the market, um, we're going to see a relief in our budgetary pressure, um, as a result of not as a result of all of the above. Um, let me pause there for a second. Does does that make sense? I'm just trying to keep it at a real high level. Okay, we're going to go to the um to the next slide and I'll summarize it um here then I'll I'll let um Oh, let me let me pause right now. Do you want to make any comments, Mike?

You want to speak into the mic and turn on turn it on?

I think that what Lewis covered there basically gives you the overview of where we took over back in July of uh of 19 and the performance. Like I said, we've been active on the accounts to kind of reallocate when certain conditions arrive going through COVID and other situations, but when they um the main thing, like I said, we tried to get out of that high-risisk category, which they did in 24 and it was October of 24, you took the commuter tax off of the city, which I thought was real nice. So, that was a good feather in your cap. Let me add let me add one thing with the relationship and to give you guys a little bit more perspective um with Morgan Stanley. First of all, um Mark and I get uh updates like if it's not weekly or every other week directly from Mike and his team either emails, phone calls, etc. if the markets are going up and down, if we need to make changes. But uh most importantly, when you're managing an investment fund like this, you have to look at the investment policy. Mike and his team is always all over the investment policy and we make date we make updates as needed certainly on a yearly basis especially as the markets are so dynamic. We have to change um perhaps where we're investing. So if you're investing internationally, domestically, how the portfolio is balanced, etc. You know, there's there's a lot obviously that takes um that you have to take into consideration. Um and then while the pension board meets monthly um and we meet monthly mostly to talk about um retirements, what police or fire officers coming up to retirement, we make uh pension calculations and then we approve them. The the team formally the the the the Globus team under Morgan Stanley comes in um quarterly to talk to us about the performance and the performance of the entire fund including the market outlook. So there's there's a lot going on with with regards to this relationship and I I do appreciate it.

It's something that I don't um want this to be overlooked because as you know I you may or may not know I I do serve on many boards in the Lehigh Valley and also here in Eastn. Um, not all brokers are the same and I and I do believe that um that we're getting good service and we're keeping an eye on um on what's occurring with uh the the pension investment fund. Um I wish I not only with with that board comment I don't get the same kind of response from PMRS um right now but we are addressing it. We're going to be meeting with PMRS, myself and Mark um more formally in the in in the next two weeks and we're going to be addressing um some issues like what we see that's not occurring which is occurring with uh Morgan Stanley and and the Mike Lovas team. So I wanted to say on that I don't know if you want to if you want to comment.

I would like to say a few things. Yeah. Morgan Stanley has done a great job for the city and they're local. They're right here on the diary homes building. Uh so we keep the money locally and it's invested and the we switched because we weren't feeling comfortable with the the former investment advisors.

Well, and when we we put out an RFP and when we did switch um Mike and his team lowered the fees, in fact u we have some provision in there that they are capped. So even though the fund continues to grow, the percentages are capped in terms of uh fees, which I thought was great. But we significantly lowered the fees. it was like a six figure annual difference um which you know helps uh and contributes um to the fund. The other thing is is one of the reasons why we like Morgan Stan Stanley is um because they have some nice forecasting tools that were unique in the market that I don't want to get esoteric but they have a tool it's called the they have a forecasting tool. I don't even want to mention it just in case it's proprietary, but you know, it's they have we have some some great tools that that we utilize. Um, and they're challenging fund managers at an individual level if they're not performing, and they advise us when um if we have uh some uh multiple negative quarters of of performance, we'll pull them right from the fund. So, I I really like that level of detail.

Anything else, Michael? I want to thank the board. The board has done a great job, too, but Morgan Stanley really leads the board. Yeah. We have a like a watch list if something is underperforming that we put the manager on and we continue to monitor it and if they don't pick up their performance over a period of time, we will then take them out and have them replaced. So we it's it's uh very uh detailed oriented on all the different asset classes. So we have to stay on top of it. Mike, you're Mike, you're local, right? You're a local guy from East, right? Born and raised. Yes. Yeah. You're not going to see it fail. That's what I said. I said there's I got to see everybody, right? No pun intended.

The the other investment advisors, we are paying 7 and a half% on two pension bonds that we cannot refinance because they set it up as seven and a half non-callable. Oh, wow.

And that is killing us because we're at 2.9% on everything else. So in summary, what does this mean um for the budget and like where we're at? Um number one is in as you all know in uh during the budget hearings um we had discussed that the healthcare fund had to go up about uh $1 million. Um so in 24 it was over by $1 million. um you won't other than discussing it, the next time you're going to see that is when we have the 25 audit.

So the 25 audit is going to show a decrease in the fund balance um by potentially up to $1 million. Now, we still have to go through the audit, but that's significant. Um and I say potentially because we're it's I'm using just the actual numbers on the expense. There's a lot that goes into the audit when we reconcile um the prior year's uh numbers. Um but high level, it's good to keep it at that perspective. Number two, um going into 25 then um or going into 26, we we uh we adjusted for the budget, so we should be level set. Um, but then in 26, as you know, in the early part of this year, we presented a two-year budget. So in 27, we're we were showing an $800,000 gap. So that's on in addition to the $1 million in 25, right? That's going to hit the books um probably later this year when we see an audit for last year. Um, and then we're forecasting in 27 um some potential uh u issues with with the budget, at least a an $800,000 gap. That has nothing to do with the healthc care fund at that point because we corrected it, so to speak, like as we're looking forward into the future, but that that that will affect our fund balance. So, this um presentation today is positive. is positive because number one, it offsets that $800,000 forecast for 27 obviously because we're we're now uh forecasting a $1.7 million drop in our MMO. Um and then uh potentially we'll have the ability to put some money back into the fund balance. Now, the last thing, and I want to just dovetail this into uh Councilwoman Rose's

presentation. Um, couple things here. Um, number number one, so now that we have that kind of covered, um, what we're doing this year, um, and and and going through the stamp program, as the mayor had mentioned, um, we do have an option, the city has an option to exercise 200 parking spaces over at the marquee. Uh, we're not going to utilize that option right now. And in speaking with Miss Rose and working collaboratively on her resolution, um, we're going to do a couple things. We're going to move the uh up to 200 parkers that we have in this garage over to the um Fourth Street garage, right? Um that's going to that that's going to help bolster our um parking revenue numbers for that garage because we didn't expect to move those 200 parkers over to the uh Fourth Street garage. we expected to move them over to the marquee. Now, mind you, the um and this we can get into uh at at subsequent meetings, but right now we have an average um daily uh occupancy rate of about 32% over at the Fourth Street garage. So, I feel comfortable about moving, you know, these 200 parkers. And they're 200 parkers on paper. Doesn't mean they all park at the same time. Um, I'll give you an example. USA Architects, for example, usually has a run rate of four, but they have about 15 passes. So, that gives you an example. It's the same thing with a lot of our other um commercial style parkers that only park during the day. So, that's positive. And that's that that potentially is a um a a revenue of anywhere between 80,000 and um $150,000 that we're going to realize that we didn't expect to realize. I everybody already has this discussion with the marquee and and city center so they're aware of that until we really need that

we're we're going to exercise that option. So it's a 200 space option that we have that we don't need to exercise today. Um so that's positive. And with regards to the parking um itself and this is where I'm I'm going to close unless you want to make any comments and you should talk about um how the actual study is conducted you know because I I glossed over it but there's probably a lot of details I glossed over. um the um with with the parking resolution um what we're going to do is be more deliberate um with city council. So the administration is going to be more deliberate with city council. We're we're in support of the resolution that's going to be put forward in front of you um next in in two weeks. Um but we want to be more deliberate in terms of who we're engaging with and um you know in the amount of spaces that we have. So, um uh moving forward, uh while the resolution is not for um not for approval tonight, um the administration is still going to adhere to the principles under the resolution, meaning um if we have five or more um a request for five or more uh spaces coming from typically like a um like a management firm, we are going to bring it to city council for approval. Um the other thing is is which I think is extremely important is that while we're slowing down and being more methodical on the parking situation um what we want to do um is uh engage with a consultant and do a parking study. The last time we did a parking study with Walker and Associates um amongst other things which which was beneficial for us as uh policy makers for the city. Um there were a couple data points in there that were that were positive, but um you know they took a representative sample of x amount of days. I I don't I don't think it was more than a handful. Maybe maybe no more than 12 days. I I don't think um it definitely could not have been 30 days. But the technology that we were using at

that time was much different than the technology that we're using today. Today we have actual hourly counts. Um Mr. Rose and also Mr. Pinnabon or I believe you get those reports. Um I have them sent to you guys so you can take a look at our hourly counts. But that data is so valuable that what we want to do is have a consultant analyze what we're doing, how we're managing and then um provide that to council in terms of recommendations. either validate what we're doing, make tweaks or s or suggest wholesale changes or even um you know perhaps uh stop like certain actions that we are doing because it could create problems in the future. So, um I wanted to bring that um to your attention, but we're in terms of the budget um we're managing very tightly and closely and I think today this was a positive this was a significant um a significant uh milestone for us in terms of looking at our budgetary numbers. So, Mark, do you have any

before Mark go uh Lewis? Yeah. Um the the money that we put in for the insurance, okay, that money kind of changes from year to year depending on how much the employees use the insurance. Correct. So we may see a difference in uh of money's coming back to us, so to speak, be able to put into the other part of the budget. We um we could and I and and I'm going to be leaning that way when I present a budget to the mayor. Uh but you know it's um it's a little too soon to tell but that is the direction that we're leaning towards.

So while we know that there's going to be a fund balance hit I think it's going to be temporary. Well that's that's that's our plan that it's going to be temporary and that by the time we get our next audit um or the 26 audit we should show a significant increase and if you know if if we do have to meet with the rating agency we we will explain our strategy. Um, I did have these discussions with our controller, Chris Hegel. So, I mean, the point is is that we have a strategy and we know what's coming. Okay. So, that's a positive thing. Thank you. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Lewis, um, the first part of this with the pensions is great job, Mike, and your team. Great job.

The last bullet with switching the parking. Um, you and I spoke about it about three, four weeks ago when you started looking at it. And I just want to thank you. Uh, we're always talking about the budget for the next year. You, Mark, and the mayor. um you know, you guys really pivoted and and found us a way to retain that revenue as opposed to giving it away to the marquees. So, I appreciate you all, the three of you, um always looking at ways to to better manage our finances. So, good job on that. Mark, do you want to make just any quick comments? And I think you should talk about how the actuarial studies like how they're how they're conducted and the timing of it.

Sure. Uh so Lewis mentioned act 205. Act 205 also dictates that municipalities in the state uh are required to provide a pension plan to their employees which is what we've got here the aggregate pension plan which includes police, fire and um and as also part of act 205 uh we are required to to uh obtain an actuarial study. So we have actuaries uh with Conrad Seagull, very wellrespected firm in you know in the state um that does these studies and at a very high level and I think it probably it probably would be good to have a committee meeting and and kind of go over the report uh maybe at the prior to the next meeting but at a high level what they do is they look at let's say two or three big factors. Um what they'll look at is the contracts. So are there changes to the contracts that may change pension uh payouts uh going forward? Are there changes um to life expectancy? So you know being actuaries they'll look at those kind of tables and and try to figure out okay are people living longer which you know fortunately I guess they are uh which puts stress on the on the the payments that the pension plan needs to make continuing going forward. And then the other part is what are the the current salaries and projected salaries for employees because those will then dictate what the payout what the pension is going to be for that particular firefighter or police officer. So at a high level that's what they that's what they get from us. We provide them all that information. They run it through their models and then come up with the the funding level and look at okay well what are our liabilities? what do we think we're going to be paying out based on those factors versus what we've got, you know, in in the account. And that's where the funding level comes from.

And and I think this is done also in a two-year intervals. I didn't mention that.

I didn't Okay. and the just for the new council members, act 205 was the state legislaturator's attempt to restructure uh pensions for the municipalities because the state collectively the municipalities in the state of Pennsylvania have the most unfunded pensions in the nation. And it was their attempt to try to and it was Allentown, the Queen City of the Lehi Valley who put the commuter tax in first and we copied from them. So, uh, and we raised it to 1.95% and which is still remarkably low compared to some of the others that are in bad shape. Um, just talking to Mayor Mumbardo from Pittson and theirs is like over two and a half percent. And um, we don't have to look at that, but um, it it it really hurt the school district and the county because they have people who don't live in the city but work in the city. And the three elementary schools in the city, uh, those teachers made n5% less than the rest of the teachers. That's that's my report. I mean, other than we've did we have notified the parkers here at least in phase one 115 parkers that as of May 1st they have to move over to the Fourth Street garage. So, I just wanted to make sure that was

Well, I just want to thank Mike Glovis again because Morgan Stanley has done a great job for us and we really appreciate that. And um the the previous um IIA investment advisor was picked because of who they were, not what they were. And they made some bad bad advice for the city, especially that 7 and a half% pension bonds. Arthur may increased prices going up a dollars. taxes. We've been looking at it every day.

Mayor, it's too soon. Like I said, we would have to reconcile this month's um this month's number um when we present. I would probably say not till the end of May. End of May. Yeah. You'll be able to see what happened uh in April when the um gas prices spiked. And so it's a it's a little too early, but it it was already a point of discussion all last year with regards to not only gas prices, but utilities. Okay. Thank you very much. Mike, would you like to say anything?

Uh, no. I would just like to thank the city for giving us the opportunity to serve them. Uh, it's an honor, uh, being local and we're going to continue to try to do our best to make sure we meet the city's needs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, Mike Lewis donated Mayor Chitsy's desk, roll talk desk and chair and uh Mayor Chitsy was the first mayor of the city of East when it became a city rather than a burrow in 1887. It was not a it was a burrow before that became a city in 1887 and that was his and he and that's a portrait of him. Lovely guy.

Looks like he's mad at the world. 1887 probably about 20th 2000. Yeah, it was in the colonial period was only 80 90. Um, moving right along to um unfinished business. Um, bill number six, an ordinance amending chapter 285 taxation on by revising the tax schedule for mechanical amusements. Moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. Discussion. This is in regards to the amusement tax that was charged to um Game Galaxy Gallery and um he made a complaint and we looked at it and came up with a what we think is something much fairer and uh well we'll roll call. Mrs. Rose I Mrs. Hartra Biddinger I Mayor Panto I Mr. Brown I Miss Dennis I Mr. Pinnabon I new business. Madam clerk, we have a resolution approving an agreement with responsible recycling services. So moved.

Second. So this just for the public, this um is uh a resolution to approve an agreement to host an electronics recycling event in September. Couple. Roll call. Mrs. Hotraf Binger. Yes, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. Brown. Hi, Mando Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinter. Hi, Mrs. Rose. I a resolution authorizing an agreement with Med for the replacement of existing street light luminires. So moved. Second.

And uh Mr. Hopkins, I would like to thank you for making this happen because uh Medad was very against this. The LED lights will use less electricity and we provide as much light, but we've been trying to do it for three years, two or three years at least, and uh we now have it. Mayor, I'd also like to thank our sustainability coordinator, Brandon Sullivan, and the environmental advisory committee, uh, who worked very hard for this initiative. Absolutely. Mr. Uh, I'll wait till after the vote. Okay, another question. Um, Mayor Panto, I Mr. Brown, hi.

Miss Dennis, hi. Mr. Pinter, hi. Mrs. Rose, hi. Uh, Mrs. Hart Binger,

I uh before we move on, mayor, a quick question for Dave, if you don't mind. Dave, could you just state publicly? Um, mayor, as you may know, I've been working with the residents of the Highlands to get a a street light on 611 at the bottom of their hill because it's so dark. Dave got on it right away. We're like 14 months in. Med has they agreed to do it and they still have not done it. I got a lot of calls from the residents. Could you publicly just tell us where we're at with that, please? I know we had the correspondence back and forth today with Med. Well, uh, as as far as I know, they had I think they had to go through a process of, uh, trying to figure out whether the poll itself that they were, uh, specifying the poll for was a med poll or whether they had the legal authority to do it, which I think they uh, vetted and found out they could. That was probably in January of '05. And then we signed an authorization form and, you know, they have a process, which we did. So, we submitted that. Um, didn't hear anything. being followed up throughout 25 probably two or three times and then we we got in touch with them in probably November December time frame followed up again. We submitted a new uh uh a new form for them and as of today's conversation was just the result of another followup and they really didn't have an answer on where they were in their process. Uh it it is it's just long. I I I think too long to be acceptable for what the outcome is, which is a single area light.

It shouldn't it shouldn't take 14 months, but it has. Thank you, Dave. Thank you.

I don't want to get on the topic of med, but they really they disappoint me uh immensely. uh especially with the fire at the Hotel Hampton and the two hours it took to turn off the electricity and put our um firefighters in harm's way. But uh we're going to do something about that. Um, I got a a a phone call from Mark Troutman, who was the head of the East division uh about two years ago, I guess he retired, who left left MedEd, and um he called me and gave me John Hawk Hawkins uh email address. So, we have the president of the company their email address. They made 15 billion with a B, 15 billion dollars profit last year. So, I think they're they could spend a couple dollars to make sure that they get their people here on time to turn off the electricity and they don't have to turn off the whole city. And we met with them, Mr. Pinbone and I met with them about three weeks ago and uh they had all kinds of they wanted to train our firefighters. No, you make a phone call, turn off the electricity at 418 North Street and and that's it. And they used to respond immediately.

Just switching the button. Well, mayor, an addition for your information, um, as you remember, for the last year, Nurture Nature's building an 8,000 foot addition for the planetarium, and when the bill came in for Med, it was approximately a million dollars. When we questioned it with the senator, as you know, um, they dropped it a few dollars right away, which made us ask to give us a breakdown of of the cost outside versus inside, which they said months ago they would. And in our meeting three weeks ago with the vice president, they said they'll get it for us. I sent another email this morning. Um, Councilwoman Rose uh proof read it and toned it down for me a little bit. It might have been a little too aggressive, but we still haven't gotten that breakdown yet.

I know they still haven't provided what the charges are for. So, another And it's so different with PPL. I I talked to Mayor Turk up in Allentown and it's it's totally different. The marquee paid over a million dollars in hookup fees to med and in Allentown they don't pay anything. City center. So yeah, same company. I hate to compare one city to another, but but same company. It's comparing utility companies. Go ahead. A resolution authorizing director of public works to issue one-year renewal letters for waste hauling landfill disposable disposal and recyclables contracts. So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded discussion. Dave, I have some questions just for the public. This is a to renew an existing contract for waste hauling, landfill disposal, and recyclables processing. Um, you don't really give the percentage of what the increase is from last year. It's CPI based. So, it's it's been two and a half%.

It's running around two and a half, you know, consumer price index. That that's the standard we're using uh in the contract. And and so when we when we started in 24, we had a three-year base agreement. And then we also had three uh mutual options to renew three one-year extensions. So that's what we're trying to do is get that in place before July 1st,

which you know I I'm I'm pretty confident that our contract partners uh will renew. Um but if they didn't, then that would give us time to go out to bid. And it's not that we want to do that and increase our costs next year, but the fact is getting someone to bid a company to bid on rear loading garbage trucks is going to be very difficult. We we've we had a hard time this time and next time is going to be even worse because the workers compensation insurance costs are going so high because they're they want to go to the the like Palmer Town mechanical arm comes out and dumps them and we can't do that in the city. We have to have rear rear loading u waste haulers.

Mr. Brown, I miss Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. I uh Mrs. Hartwrath Fittinger I and Mayor Panto I a resolution authorizing authorizing amendment to parking agreement with the Larry Holmes Drive Associates moved second moved and second any discussion roll call Missando Dennis I Mr. Pinter Mrs. Rose I uh Mrs. Hart Binger Hi. Mayor Panto I Mr. around. All right, that is for the confluence and that is really coming along. They expect to be open May 1st

doing the sidewalk today. Doing the sidewalks and landscaping now and the curbing. A resolution authorizing Eastn DCceeded to apply for a grant from Greenways Trails and Recreation Program. So moved. Second. Moved in second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Mrs. Hart. Binger. Hi, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. Brown. Hi, Missando. Dennis, hi. A resolution authorizing Eastn DCED to apply for a DCNR C2P2 planning grant. So, moved. Second. Move the second. Roll call. Mrs. Rose. I

Mrs. Hart Biddinger. Hi, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. Brown. Hi, Missando Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinone. I a resolution authorizing Easton DCceeded C2P2 development grant. So move. Sorry. Second. Second. Move and second discussion. Roll call. Uh Mrs. Rose. I. Mrs. Hartra Pittinger. I. Mayor Panto. I. Mr. Brown. Hi. Missander Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinnabon. I. A resolution authorizing the transition of Microsoft Office 365 licensing and managed services. Move. Second.

Roll call. Sure. Um, Mr. Brown, I miss Dennis. Hi, Mr. Pinnabone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Mrs. Hartra. Bidding. Hi, Mayor Panto. Hi. And we have one bill to introduce. Bill number seven, an ordinance amending article three, traffic control map, adding a 15inut metered parking space on North Second Street.

Can I just say something about that? Um, all of our meters you could put 15 minutes in. Every one of them. Um, I don't know why we're giving 15 minutes designated 15 minute spaces. Yes, because we're we're live streamed.

Hi, I'm Eileen Newman. I'm the owner of Mia Mattiey's Bakery and the 15minute meter space in question um will greatly improve our uh customer traffic that comes through there as well as help me and my staff load and unload hundreds of pounds of flour, butter, sugar that comes into that small um community area as a small business. It's constantly been something that has uh been a challenge for us. We can't use the parking lots or garages to help load and unload what we have. Um we don't get massive trucks going through there because again we are a small business and we just don't move thousands of pounds of product. So we have to physically load them into our car and unload them. Um the 15minute parking that we're talking about is located directly in front of my bakery. However, behind that was a um

handicap handicap parking space that was uh how should I say permitted. I know firsthand that both residents are now deceased as of March 2026. there is no need for that permitted uh handicap parking space to be there. And if we were to replace that um 15 that meter in front of my bakery with 15 minute pickup drop off loading unloading meter, it will still you'll still have an extra parking space behind anyway because there's no longer a need for that handicap space to be there um without a meter. So you can essentially just add one at the back.

You convinced me So, I also have photos and and the cookies are great. Mayor, cookies are good. Everything is so good at your bakery. Could you And I live right around the corner on Spring Garden. Um, could you remind me what are your hours? Um, because I think that's where sometimes we get a lot of congestion on the residential blocks, but if we could maybe put like a time limit for the 15 minutes so that we did that for Py Tart. I think it was like 8 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon. Yeah, I think that can be a helpful solution in this case as well.

And our hours are very um familyfriendly. I have three kids, so we're open from 8 to 3:00 p.m. school hours. And we're usually in very early and we're not um asking for any special treatment before the hour of 9ine when meters do start anyway. And so it would be from 9 to 3, 5 days a week. We're not open on Wednesdays, so that's not an issue either. And on Saturday, the latest that we're open is at 6 p.m., which will give people plenty of time to still find parking, walk downtown, and do what they need to do, and we won't bother any of the residents. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you. So, introduce.

The only consideration that I would ask is um if we can if we can adjust the um hours to um meet how you adjust the hours, if you put a 15 minute If you put a blue a blue um meter there, 15-minute meter all day.

No. Well, you can do it through the app and post 5:00 pm because I don't I didn't hear that the hours were post 5:00 pm. It's a very valuable space. Um, and I think that the my my only edit to this is to limit it during the working hours and then five o'clock when the city is bustling. We need to have that meter open or else we're going to lose a space because it's only going to be a 15 minute space. So, it's it's it's going to do it's going to hurt us. It does either hurts the business or it hurts the city at large. But if we combined the the the the um the demand the hours there Yeah. the hours.

I would agree. I think that helps. What it could be a congested parking area. So, um I think that would help free things up and also help the business during their open hours. I I would only ask then we table this and then we make the changes um to the ordinance and then we bring it back at the next meeting. Lewis, just a question. This might be for Joel or I'm going to ask Mr. Var uh Vargo because Joel's checked out. Um could could we at a meeting this morning? I just mess with him. He He knows I'll never be checked out whether I'm here or not. I know. I heard he's coming back as a resident, Frank. So, watch out.

Yeah. I already gave security his picture at the gate. Um, could we, Mr. Vargo? Uh, couldn't we introduce it with the caveat that we're doing the times just so we don't have to slow it up even longer? We could do that. So, we're going to do up to 5:00 pm um 9 to5. It's not a substantial change is what you're asking, right? So, if we're just doing that, can we just Is that the hours we're looking at? We'll just make an amendment to it. What would you be introducing tonight? I mean, that's the bill question. The bill's on the agenda to be introduced. It's an ordinance because it doesn't deal with No. Yeah. No, I have it here. It's a

but it doesn't have the time limits on it, Joel. So, we could just add the time limits and introduce it. So, we don't have Well, the the critical part for the public is what the time limits are. So, um I'm scrolling down to the actual There is no time limits now. It's all time 15. You look at the ordinance online. The time limits are on there. Yeah, it it does if if I may. Sorry. It does say Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9 to 3 and Saturday 9 to 6. Oh, that's perfect in the ordinance. That works. Are we doing 9 to6 on Saturday or 9 to5? 9 to6. No, 9 to6.

So then we don't have the table. Lewis. No. Yeah. Yeah. You can introduce it and if there's and then it make changes and come back with change. All right. Well, as long as the changes aren't significant. Again, I think for the public, the time is a critical factor to them as whether they have an interest or not. Absolutely. All right. Well, it's already in the ordinance. So, yeah, that's if it's in there and you're not changing that significantly. So, introduce the only the only item it says. It says the current meter is designated as a handicap space. Is it designated as a handicap space? The space behind the one behind it. Yeah. The one behind it. Yeah. That could be put back into a regular meter. That could be changed tomorrow. Yeah,

I I think Arty actually brought that up. Yeah, previously that spot once or twice maybe. So that would have to be taken would have to be taken out of the ordinance. All right, introduce move on to public com. Oh,

I I just wanted to ask for council's consideration. We we've been approving spots like this for a long time and there's really no rhyme or reason and in fact it's a point of inequity really. Like why would we give one business 15-minute parking and not another? And what if everyone came in and asked for it? We we couldn't accommodate everyone's needs because everyone would love to have a spot in front of their business. Well, hang on. Just let me finish. So, so I I I'm wondering if we should take a holistic view at all of these spaces that we've given various restaurants over the time and not put a time limit on them because even if we put it in front of her bakery, which I love, by the way, um it doesn't guarantee that they can use it. Anyone can park there. And there's an enforcability issue too that everyone may not be aware of. And you know, the parking the parking staff have a very difficult time if if it's impossible for them to enforce a 15minute meter. And so we we end up with a lot of constrnation about someone leaving their car there, who can enforce it, who is it, is it the business, is it so I I think it's worth sort of a holistic view of how we hand these limited parking spaces out to various people. Maybe it makes sense to have a limited loading zone in various areas where we time it 9 to3. anyone can use it and but the the I think the the biggest issue is what if someone does leave a car there you know the only way anyone would know is if a business called and said hey I think someone's been there longer than 15 minutes then a PEO would have to go there chalk the tire stay there make sure they didn't move a it's really a a hindrance in the parking system

David and to your point I spoke to the mayor and mayor you've gotten some emails too of downtown businesses who have been complaining that the 15-minute spots, people are staying there for hours and we just don't have a lot of parking enforcement and we're not ticketing them and the spots aren't turning over.

They they they are problematic. They're not guaranteed for the people who were intending to help. I I I think and we've never really taken the time to look at, you know, are there other models out there? You know, the current term is like curb management. How are you managing your curve to make sure we're serving the the population the way we should serve, you know, which is the daytime businesses and, you know, getting them what they need and then at night turning them over so people go into restaurants and shows and and whatever. And I think it's there's probably a a best practice that we should look at. I'm happy to contribute. you know, I we can meet internally and go over it, but we've been putting these things out for a long time and even when the guys put them out, they're like, you know, we just gave away another parking space and we can't enforce it. So, I just wanted to make everyone aware that it is

bigger issue. I I think to Dave's point that it's you know your prerogative to move this one forward and just like what we're doing with the garages. I would suggest that after this point, let's let's let's after today um let's or any other commitments that you may have out there um let's pause on this um on this uh on this a on these actions um so we can include this as part of our parking study um because it obviously the the the parking study is very robust and and we're we're a small town with big city problems in our downtown.

If I'm going to run into Jos's to get a sandwich, I could put a nickel in the meter and get six minutes. Well, the problem is, mayor, is not you and I. It's the people who abuse the system. No, I I realize that. I'm just saying all the meters are 15inute meters. I understand that. But I I and I like what you said and I like what Dave brought up about the loading unloading for those businesses. Pipa at at Bloomies has a hell of a time. There's three and four cars lined up all the time, double parked. Um, so that might be something we can look at a loading unloading zone somewhere on Second Street for me and Mattiey's as well as Bloomies and and and whatever else. So, um, I I agree if we could do a study.

I I think the one thing too is, you know, looking at where the maybe looking at all the 15-minute spaces and just ensuring that we have a couple spots throughout the city because that that space could be utilized by Pipa's customers as well, even, you know, it's a short walk away from

both shops. the main and which which I support the study what have you but our main issue is still enforcement because the 15-minute spots we have businesses are complaining that people are staying there for hours just we just don't have enough enforcement. I just want to remind council that yes, you're you're correct and that's why council approved a second PEO um who's going to be uh starting um within between 30 and 60 days. Um I believe it's May 1st, but I have to double check that. But so you're addressing the problem and with that that that doesn't preclude us from hiring more part- timerrs, but we're slowly moving in that direction.

Louis, what did we hire? When I made the amendment, I asked for a full-time and I think we we talked about a part-time. What what did we hire for May first? Full or part-time? Full-time. So, we're going to have two full-time for just downtown or for the city? No, for the city. That's a a significant increase. Did you want to come up? Did you want to come up and speak?

I just wanted to add again that the parking space that was located behind us was occupied previously for over 20 years plus. and you know by two people that were not that are now deceased and I don't think that it would be doing a disservice to that area to add this 15minute parking or loading unloading for the businesses down there. It's extremely difficult to even get our product into um this space for Pipa the flower shop and myself. We've often looked at maybe other areas because we just simply cannot get our products into our businesses as well and you know we have done the best that we could for the last couple years um within that space. We work well with the community. We're in and out and really not causing too much of a hindrance. And I understand from your fiscal point of view, um maybe the 15minute parking window may not work within your budget, but I think it's a small step in encouraging and helping the business members down there, the small businesses that do need help. We do need to bring more customers in. Parking is always an issue downtown East and it's always a we can't we can't even, you know, pull up before we get tickets. I myself have gotten hundreds of dollars in tickets because I pull up to unload my flower. I've had many residents go up to the parking me meter person said she's here for five minutes. We'll help her unload. I've had the community help me unload um my truck. I just don't think that it is a very um uh fair system as it is right now. And I think that putting this space in would relieve some of that.

But wouldn't a load unload without a meter help you more? It will. However, the location of where you would put that load on load on that street hinders a left turn visibility. Okay. So, there's an issue there. You put a car here,

the person that's coming up that alley, I think it's spring or church cannot see. And then so that's another traffic problem that we're causing there. So, that's why I thought this would be the best option. and other city members that have come up to me have, you know, proposed that, hey, maybe you do this. Um, it's not to piggyback on any type of business out there that has this 15minute window, but I do ask that if you go back and revisit, you also take a look at the type of business that you are granting these parking spaces for. A bakery is different than a restaurant. A restaurant is different than a flower shop or a clothing facility. bakeries load and unload hundreds of pounds of flour and sugar daily. So, you have to also pay attention to those uh situations as well.

Good point. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're at the point in our meeting where it's public comment on any agenda, any item at all that you want to talk about that affects the city of East. Anyone want to first row, second row, third row? How about the students? Nothing. No. David said, "No, this

David Brozman, 828 Philadelphia Road. My first question is, I've complained about this before, the DNL trail aisle 64 to 65. Is it ever going to get repaired and improved?" Yes. It's scheduled to be done this year between Hope Road that between the two boatloads uh boat docks. That's on our Well, we own it. Yeah, it's city property and he maintains it. I know because I called Mr. Hopkins on February 4th and he still hasn't returned my phone call because that was one of my questions other than uh

that's that's not true. I had Chris who gave you an explanation. I I did call you back. I didn't call you back, but I call you back almost the same day. But I also had other things on my list to talk to you about. I just got a message that you had a question about myself. Because I also want to complain about why the snow plows go down Philadelphia road and put the snow 15 feet into my yard

or when they come out of Palmer Street on the William Street at the back of my house, they un turn their plow to my side of the road and let and block my driveway. My other question is, uh, on November 2nd, I was told by a person of your highway department that you're going around calling me an and I don't know what I'm talking about. I called you on November 4th, and I'm still waiting for that phone call to for you to call me back. I don't go around calling him. You know what I did for a living for 34 years? I treated people the way that I wanted to be treated. I've never said that. I don't know where you heard it. It was one of your highway department workers.

I don't ever uttered those words to anyone. Okay. I just don't believe you. And the other thing I got is when I called about the incident with the garbage man, I made my complaint, but I never got an answer back. If if anybody would like to see the video of it, I have it. What video? of the garbage man after he collected my garbage going in my driveway and and urinating. No, that one here. Yeah, you did get an answer back. No, I didn't get an answer. I got a phone call and I sent him my video. I I was called by the garbage company. They called you directly.

He called me? Yeah. And asked me what my complaint was. I didn't get an answer back. He told me that the video didn't show anybody. I have my own video. I have five cameras outside my house. Can you send it? I'll show it to you here tonight. Well, if you send it, then I can send it. I did send it to him. But I'll send it to you. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you, David.

I just want to mention that May 6 is at East Night at the Iron Pigs. I I forgot to mention the date, but it's May 6th. Mayor, I forgot to mention during my report, but we'll end the meeting on a on a good note. As we know, the Hampton Fire displaced 67 people. As of yesterday, there were only three left in the shelter. The shelter finished today on Southside at CUMC Church, but those three uh two of them have found housing and the one is on a waiting list uh for wounded a housing for wounded veterans that they're working to get him. So, uh, out of the 67, 66 have a place to stay. Um, and I just want to thank the city, DCED, Kingsley, and and Trevor, uh, Lewis, you were instrumental as well, the county, the CUMC church, Shiloh, um, and Red Cross. Um, it it was just a great partnership. Unfortunately, it happened, but, you know, we got everybody housed so far. So

that's all I have, mayor, and I will make a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Roll call. Mr. Brown. Yes. Missando Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Mrs. Haringer. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Good.

Oh, no.