City Council - Regular Meeting

We're off. Hello. I'm shorter. Now we're up here. Wait a minute. I'm shorter than you are.

Now I'm in the game.

Mark, I got to talk to you. You're the only one I know that requests to talk to me. Robbie, did you take care of that today?

It could be.

What's that?

South 6th Street. Across from the fire station? As long as you're not parking in yellow. The state law requires three signs per block. Please rise for the Pledge of... the invocation and pledge of flag. Heavenly Father, 250 years ago on this very day, July 8th, 1776, Robert Levers, a Northampton County magistrate, read the Declaration of Independence on the steps of the Northampton County Courthouse, which at the time was in the center square where the monument resides today. It was a war of ruffians fighting for their freedoms against the strongest empire in the world. 56 members men signed that document. Easton's own was one of them, George Taylor. We should also thank George Washington for winning the war because for sure those 56 men would have been hanged for treason if we lost the war. In 1826, 200 years ago, we named our college after one of the heroes of the Revolution and a good friend of George Washington, who came back to the United States to help lay the foundation for our unique government, the Marquis de Lafayette. At the time, Most of the world was governed by royals, and most people in the world didn't give us, our representative republic, much of a chance at survival. But over the last 250 years, not only did we survive, but we became the strongest nation in the world. We've overcome our ups and downs during those years, including a Civil War which threatened to divide us into two. A country that is open to all people who are welcome in our country. So tonight, give us the wisdom not to think about the past, but give us the courage to make the decision which will guarantee our freedoms for future generations. Give us the courage of George Taylor and the 55 other men who make the decisions and support American values and ideals that this country was founded upon. And Heavenly Father, give us good weather on Saturday as we celebrate Heritage Day and the freedoms that we have here in America. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please.

Mr. Brown?

Here.

Ms. Zondo-Dennis? Here. Mr. Pinnabone?

Here.

Mrs. Rose? Here. Mr. Graziano?

Here.

Mrs. Hartrath-Bittinger? Here. Mayor Panto?

Here. Approval of the agenda? Moved and approved. Second. Second. All those in favor, roll call, please.

Ms. Zondo-Dennis? Aye. Mr. Pinnabone? Aye. Mrs. Rose? Aye. Mr. Graziano?

Aye.

Mrs. Hartrath-Bittinger? Aye. Mayor Panto? Aye. Mr. Brown? Aye.

Sorry, I made a mistake, Mayor. I was supposed to remove an item. I apologize. I was supposed to remove new business number 14D for further discussion at the next meeting on approval of agenda. Okay, you're tabling until the next meeting.

Which item is that?

Letter D on the new business.

Oh, okay.

Action on our minutes of June 24th meeting. So moved. There's no presentation to council. We'll go to a random public comment. Anyone in the public like to address city council on agenda items only? Seeing none, we move on to reports received by council. There are no reports received by council. We'll go to reports to committees. Finance Committee, Council Member Brown. Economic Development Committee, Council Member Pinnabone.

Last night, Mayor, we discussed the trolley for the Saturday market piloting in the neighborhoods to get more people down to the market and to downtown. We also discussed starting the trolley next week to get residents from Southside and West Ward to Eddyside Swimming Pool. The department worked with the finance department and city solicitors to refine The proposed vendor permit ordinance amendment, and that should be on the agenda for the next meeting. Met with Bethlehem DCD representatives to discuss projects and best practice. Completed work on architectural projection implementation with our consult in celebration of the 250th. I got to tell you, that projection on the old Lehigh Bay Live building.

Oh.

It looks amazing.

It looks great.

Yeah, it looks really good.

And the monument?

I didn't see that one.

I didn't look. I was looking straight ahead when I was coming from College Hill. The monument is red, white, and blue. I didn't even pay attention.

They completed the budget forecast for the remainder of the year, participated in the Heritage Day Logistics Event Committee meeting. We were awarded Healing the Planet for the 3rd Street Garage Exit Island Beautification for $4,000. We applied for assistance to firefighters grants to purchase of a new cascade unit for seventy five thousand dollars. Growing greener for St. Joseph Street Park and West Nostra Honing Street BMPs for eight hundred and fourteen thousand eight hundred thirty seven dollars. NPS semi-quincentennial grant for the Hooper House restoration and rehabilitation for two hundred thousand dollars. And A-R-L-E, Washington Street Corridor Improvements for $363,000. Mayor, I just want to announce to council and to the public, hearing from Ms. Andrea Stiles and reaching out to you, you approved and they locked in a date for Disability Pride flag raising for the 25th of this month at 12 noon. Just for the people on Facebook, It has nothing to do with LGBTQ plus pride. It is just celebrating disabilities and giving them a place. So that'll be the 25th at 12. That's all I have, Mayor.

Planning and Code Committee, Council Member Rose.

Thank you, Mayor. Last week, I attended our monthly planning meeting. One thing I did notice, and I'll bring it up when I meet with our new chief planner, is that the engineers own... they weren't prepared to have a digital presentation. So I noticed the planning commission members had a hard time seeing the charts. You really almost had to walk up to some of the plans to see them. And also, since we're streaming them, and for those who attended, we had quite a few people here, it was really hard to see. And I've reached out to some other municipalities who require For those who are presenting to bring some of those plans in a digital format via flash drive and things like that so it's something I'm going to be I'd like to speak about because I think it just helps everyone make an informed decision and also You know for the public to be able to see all the details. I think that's important. I We also have the zoning meeting coming up on Monday, July 21st at 6 p.m. And I'm also very excited to announce that our chief planner and zoning officer, Samantha McLean, started this week. She has a very impressive resume, experience, and I think her personality will be a great fit with working with everyone, both residents and business owners who come with proposals for the city. That's all I have. Thanks.

Public Safety Committee, Council Member Graziano. I have no report this week, Mayor. Public Works Commissioner Commission Committee, Council Member Zondo-Dennis. I have nothing to report, Mayor. Okay. Administration Committee, Council Members Hartrath, Fitton, and Binninger.

I have nothing to report. Thanks. Okay. Reporter Cicely, Sir Mike. There was an executive session prior to the beginning of today's meeting at which the Council received legal advice regarding matters that may be pending before the board in the next few weeks A report of the mayor Just want to make the public aware that the Heritage Day fireworks which will be held this Saturday at 9 30 p.m will be launched from the Falls and

the normal traditional place that a Heritage Day has always been launched. We did move it to Hackett Park two years ago and was met with a lot of resistance. So we're gonna move it back downtown. And we also, yesterday I attended a press conference for a cemetery grant that they got from the Chesapeake Foundation for trees. So they got $25,000 for the Eastern Heights Cemetery. And it's a cemetery that we'll be taking over shortly. They're running out of money. And the state law says that when a cemetery goes belly up, the municipality has to take over the maintenance. Wow. Also, we did hire two code officers. They started on Monday, and our city planner started. And we had a rescue in the Lehigh River area. and Humor Park over the weekend. And no matter how many videos we do, people are not gonna wear life preservers.

And that's the end of my report. Mr. Campos. A couple things just for council, because I know Mr. Pinnabone had made a comment regarding the department, the economic development department has gone through a budget forecasting Session with myself and Mark we're doing that with all the departments right now just touching base mid-year Before the the budgets do it's kind of tight like our and as you know our system It there you may not know but our system is very difficult for reconciling at the end of the month and It takes a process. It's usually maybe two months out before we can show you numbers from, let's say, whatever month that we're in as soon as we finished. So it takes about two months before we can reconcile completely. But nevertheless, the point of this is that I wanted to make is that just as a preliminary, we are monitoring a few things. Like we have given council an update already on health care. If you recall, we made a... An update regarding a $200,000 billing that's going to occur this year that should have occurred last year, and this was presented to us through our broker regarding billing that occurred between the hospital and the carrier. So our broker informed us, so I just want to bring that back up. Regarding economic development, We've been notified that, at least on the revenue line item, we are going to receive less of a commission of close to maybe $70,000 on RACP funds that should have been used at the confluence. The developer decided not to use it at the confluence, so it's going to be repurposed somewhere in the city. Eventually, the city will get a portion, a commission, if you will, of the RACP funds, but it will not be this year. And we were expected to realize That money this year. That's about a seventy thousand dollar shortfall And we're monitoring closely fire overtime As it stands right now, we're on pace to be about two to three hundred thousand dollars Over budget, but we're monitoring that closely. So I'm just bringing this up to you. This is a more of a mid-year check-in We will have something more formal But I wanted to make sure I brought that to your attention right now We will present something more formal and more comprehensive, but because we made we touched upon it I wanted to just make sure council's aware of it The next thing that I do want to talk about is the parking RFP. I just want to give you a quick update on that the received bids. I'm in the process with my team, which consists right now of the director of public works and also our new chief planner. We sat down today to have a preliminary discussion on it. We're going to be meeting with one of the consultants next week. We'd like to get this started as soon as possible, but I will keep everyone here in the loop The scope is pretty broad, if you all remember looking at the RFP, really broad, which means really expensive. But we're focusing on what the impetus was for doing this study. And we're trying to expand it. And as I mentioned, the budget's a little tight. Not a little tight. It's going to be extremely tight. But this is an important RFP. We do have some money in the budget. So we're going to try to go beyond the scope. But I will be talking a little bit more in detail with council as it progresses. You guys can certainly reach out to me and talk to me about it. And I'll fill you in in more detail. But for public purposes, once we get through this process, then I'll present something in a little bit more detail. That's all I have, Mayor. OK. Thank you, Mr. Campos.

There's no correspondence. No unfinished business. We'll go right into new business. Madam Clerk.

We have a resolution authorizing Easton DCED to apply for an automated red light enforcement award. Second.

Move to second. All in favor? Roll call, please.

Mr. Pinnabone. Aye. Mrs. Rose. Aye. Mr. Graziano. Aye. Mrs. Hartrath-Bittinger. Mayor Panto. Aye. Mr. Brown. Aye. Ms. Sonder-Dennis. Aye. A resolution authorizing Easton DCED to apply for a sesquicentennial grant. Second.

Move to second and roll call.

Mrs. Rose. Aye. Mr. Graziano. Aye. Mrs. Hartrath-Bittinger. Aye. Mayor Panto. Aye. Mr. Brown. Aye. Ms. Sonder-Dennis. Aye. Mr. Pinnabon. Aye. We have a resolution approving an appointment to authorities, boards, and commissions for the Board of Health.

So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Mr. Graziano.

Aye.

Mrs. Hartroff-Bittinger. Aye. Mayor Panto. Aye. Mr. Brown. Aye. Mizondo-Dennis. Aye. Mr. Pinnabone. Aye. Mrs. Rose. Aye. The last resolution is for authorizing. It's been tabled.

Oh, that's been tabled. Yes, sorry about that.

Okay. That's all the new business.

Okay. Introduction of new bills.

Bill number 19, an ordinance amending 435-15 exterior maintenance introduced by Mrs. Rose.

So introduced.

Mrs. Rose. Oh, so introduced. I mean, sure. Bill number 20, an ordinance amending 456-18. Also introduced by Mrs. Rose. So introduced. And bill number 21, an ordinance amending 435-14, definitions.

So introduced. Thank you. Good job. I'm used to you stealing them usually anyway, so I just thought you'd do it.

At this time, we're probably comment on anything pertaining to the cities in our...

So all of the meetings are live broadcasted and they're archived on the city's YouTube page. Do you have a YouTube app? That's far beyond my level of knowledge.

We could get it to you, Artie. Artie, I'll email you the link to get there, and then you can choose which video you'd like to watch, okay?

So the trolley is going to be sent to me, the trolley schedule. That's only for a limited amount of time for Saturday for the market and for – Another day? It's a four-week pilot. Four-week drive.

It's a four-week pilot to see how it's going, and then they'll assess and maybe extend it.

Yeah. And is there anyone I could talk to about that?

Here's the proposal. It's still subject to change. Yeah. And there's all the... Beautiful.

I can have this? Absolutely. Great.

Julie from Main Street. You could talk to Julie about it.

I'd like to start to hand out literature about that so every store owner can... share it with his clients or her clients, so we can get that program rolling. It's a great program if we can get it rolling. I'm a little afraid it'll go to a speedy halt if no one gets on those trolleys. Do we have a price of the cost of a cemetery upkeep, Mayor? Is it possible?

$100,000 a year.

How much is it? A couple hundred thousand dollars a year. I thought just mowing the lawn would be $100,000.

Hopefully we don't ever have to realize that.

No, he said we would have to.

We're going to have to. They may.

We're going to have to.

If they are unable to take care of it themselves, could you knock on wood, please?

No, I'm not going to knock on wood. It's reality.

That's a heck of a nut we'd have to take.

Well, they just applied for a $250,000 grant to at least do all the roads because they need to be maintained. They're horrible. They are bad, yeah.

Do we have dates on planning commission that you mentioned?

So the planning commission meeting was last week. The zoning meeting is Monday, July 21st at 6 p.m. Monday, 21st at 6.

Got it. And when was the planning commission?

I'm sorry, Monday, the 20th. When was the planning commission? It was last week.

At what date? Tell me about it. I know all about it.

Was it Wednesday?

Sorry. If you tell me when the last one is, I can figure out when the next one is. I'll get it to you after the meeting, the next one. And the Redevelopment Authority, they've missed a couple meetings. I asked them about it last week, or two weeks ago, and they said, oh, we canceled the meeting. Well, there's no public notice of canceling the meeting. I came here on the third, I think it was third Wednesday at 530, and no one was here. Is there any public... I'll have somebody send it to you.

The redevelopment authority is separate from the city.

So they have their own board and everything Find out from Mike Brett and get you the information and and and Lorenz I think is the one who's the chair. Yeah. Yeah Okay

Well, actually, Artie, you bring up a good point, which is like you probably came and there was nothing on the door, no notice on the door. And I mentioned this to Karen a few years ago before I was in council. I came to a council meeting. I wasn't on Facebook, I'll admit. That's smart. Yeah, and never had an account, never was on Facebook. And so I came not realizing that it was one of the sessions where it was in the community. It was actually in the West Ward. But there was no notice on the door, which is kind of what I needed to find out the information, because it also, I believe, wasn't on the website. So I mean, it is a pain to ask. Uh, the city to put a notice on the door, but I think it is helpful because not everybody is on social media.

Yeah, that's true.

I'm also wondering based on that as well. Um, just caught me thinking, could we, if we are canceling a meeting, put out an alert on the city's alert system since we get cancellations for street sweeping and things like that, you know, and at least we can continue to encourage people to sign up. But I'm signed up citywide for those updates and they're very helpful.

Whose responsibility would it be, Louis, to notify of the cancellation of an RDA?

The secretary of the RDA. Right.

Who is Mr. Brett, right? Well, it's either them or staff. From over there? Yeah, from over there. From the RDA, right? I mean, the staff are there 100%. It's not the volunteer, for sure.

Yeah, yeah. No, definitely staff.

Okay.

What's an RDA again? RDA. Redevelopment Authority. RDA. Okay.

Yeah, okay, and how about an RFP? Do you get texts? What's an RFP? A request for proposals. Proposal, okay.

Do you get texts? Do you have like a phone where you get texts?

Yeah, sure.

So if you got a text alert from the city? Yeah, that would be great. You would receive that?

Yeah, I think I could handle it.

Let me talk it over with IT just to see if you can sign. It'll be, I think that service could be initiated by the individual if they want to receive a text on, for example, a cancellation of a meeting, whatever that meeting is. So I'll see if we can build that in there.

I think any meeting that's open to the public really would be helpful to have that.

We're right. I'll see what we can build out. Because no one suggested just the blanket. We blanket if there's an emergency. So I want to keep that separate, obviously.

Yeah. OK, my last but not least, is there a way we can recoup some of the overtime and stuff that the firemen had based on the fact that Joey Cassius might have been insured for his buildings? Is that possible, or is there any... Not that I know of.

I mean, the only way to do that would be to file suit against him and then, you know, access then the carrier that way. That's the only way.

What does the solicitor say about that? There is a law in Pennsylvania where volunteer fire companies can bill, but not paint, so...

I understand the fire companies did bill. And I just want to know if the city could do the same thing. What fire companies build? There was a number of fire companies at that fire. Right. I don't know. I don't have a list. No one's provided me with a list.

Only volunteer companies can do that.

We don't have a volunteer.

We don't have a volunteer. I see. Or no one comes in and volunteers.

But he's asking whether the city could recoup the costs. We're not like in privity, so we don't have a contract with Mr. Cassis. And so the only way. could really do it would be to sue him and get to his insurance through that.

It might be an idea the city should consider it. The guy's been getting rents from his tenants in the city for the last 30 or 40 years. And I know he had, prior to the fire, over 100 different, I want to say, apartments as well as rooms that he rented. And I know his income is substantial. It might be an idea for the city to consider a suit.

The amount of money, when we talk about $200,000 to $300,000, is not just that fire. That fire was minimal. The real cost is the contract that the firefighters have, their time off, et cetera, and the minimum number of men that have to report. I see.

Also, Artie, you should note, to pursue a suit and to bring it to resolution, it would probably cost $200,000.

Well, the guy, I would estimate he's put away $50 million in his rental income for the last 30 years. I'm just guessing.

But also, you've got to think about where you draw the line, right? If your house catches on fire, God forbid, and we use overtime, we're not going to sue you, right? So you've got to make it equitable. That's true, too. It's unfortunate.

The guy just had a fire which cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as I think the life or safety of one fireman. It's certainly different than a fire I'd have.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I mean, a firefighter can unexpectedly get hurt fighting a fire at your house or my house. I'm not saying you're wrong. I just don't think there's a way to do it.

You don't think it's a good idea. Okay.

Thank you very much. There's no way to do it. Thank you. Yeah, that's true. There's no way to do it.

Anyone else want to address the city council? Anyone else in the audience? Seeing none, we'll move right along to make a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. You ready?

Are you ready? Move call. Thank you. Mrs. Hartroff-Bittinger. Aye. Mayor Panto. Aye. Mr. Brown. Aye. Ms. Zondoy-Dennis. Aye. Mr. Pinnabone. Aye. Mrs. Rose. Aye. And Mr. Graziano. Aye. Thank you.