County Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call tonight's meeting Tuesday, July 21st, 2026 to order. Would you please stand for the pledge?

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.

Mr. Bale.

Well, this is typically Councilwoman Sherman's department, but she's had some issues with the weather and travel, so I'm going to take it over for tonight. If you always do what you've always done, you will always be where you've always been.

Thank you. Roll call.

Mr. Bale.

Here.

Mr. Copeland. Here. Mr. Drexel. Here. Mrs. Showerman. Mr. Wertz. Here. Mr. Winarski. Here. Chairman Skotella.

Here. Hearing of the public, Ms. Treiber.

Hi there. This weather is a little bit much. Cindy Schreiber from Edinburgh. Want to come up and just talk a little bit about some things that are going on and appeal to maybe some of the relationships that we have with people in our lives. So I just would like to start with I'd like you to imagine that you have a veteran that's a good friend of yours. And probably a desert storm, maybe Iraq, no criminal record, disability rating, pretty good guy, no problems. And he goes out, like many of us do, and has a drink, like we all have done. I have seen you guys do it. I don't drink, so you haven't seen me do it. And then we get in our car, right? Because everybody does this. We all do this. To say nobody does this would be inaccurate. and he gets pulled over. He thinks everything's fine, right? But then he sees the lights in the rearview mirror and he gets pulled over and he gets put in jail and he's there on a $500 bond. Um, he trips while he is by his cot, goes to the infirmary and his life changes forever because he then is taken by Erie County corrections officers, and beaten. And when I mean beaten, I mean beaten. I mean severed carotid artery beaten. I mean closed head wounds beaten. I mean a dislocated orbital bone and eye socket. I mean punctured lungs. I mean broken ribs, right? And then he's put in a cell to sit there. to sit there, not even to be provided care. And he ends up 14 days on life support in the hospital. Never thinking, why would this happen to me? I have no criminal record, I'm a vet, driving home, had a beer, what's the problem, right? I'd like you to think about your mother. You're the mother of a 19-year-old who is in jail, who has been in jail briefly and has a congenital heart defect who has made that very clear to the staff and medical staff and ends up dying because he is not treated. The sister of a woman who is in jail who dies of an infection that she has been talking about for weeks that was ignored. Maybe your 35-year-old brother hangs himself with a towel after medical and prison staff ignored his cries for help, his only crime being late on his child support, probably because of mental health illnesses and his inability to keep a job. or a head injury that your friend got at the hands of the prison staff where the prison is charged with deliberate indifference of serious medical needs, ignoring risks of harm while in custody. Another veteran left brain damaged who actually then has to have surgery and then is left more brain damaged by the surgery and can only say the word do for the rest of his life because he is beaten at the prison. We have an uncle who literally sat suffocating to death from an asthma attack that was ignored and treated under treated. And now we have an inmate sitting in jail who is asking for medical help. He has been denied specialists, an inmate who was a victim to a vehicle impact blows to the head purposely rolled to be tased in the chest. when the officers had easy access to the main body parts that you normally tase, lower groin, lower back, major muscle groups. And it's ironic that your quote was, if you always do what you've always done, you will always be what you always are. I think it's paraphrasing. The system that runs the medical system in the prison, Wexford, we got rid of them in 2023. Do you know who we chose instead? We chose armor. who has 600 federal lawsuits for excessive abuse, medical malpractice, wrongful death, 600 all over the country. They had paid out so much money that they actually had to declare bankruptcy in 2025, rename, restructure, and guess what we did? We kept them. So if we're gonna continue to always do what we've always done, we're always gonna be right here. We're always gonna be marginalizing life. We're always gonna be paying out millions and millions and millions and millions. 1.796 is what we pay for our liability insurance a year. So we can literally cover the people we're hiring to kill people. I mean, it's ridiculous. The humanity is absent, absent.

Thank you. That's . Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I came tonight. My name is Mary Ann Valencia, and I have property in the new city of Florida, and my neighbor next door got this note saying, horrible death to a cancer, and this property does not want to be cared for.

I have the property that would be under Mr. Recha. Mr. Recha just passed out everything to you, and I hope the Lord is on this property.

Now I'm on? Don't count that against me. My name is Mary Ann McDowell-Colesa, and I'm here tonight to talk about a sheriff's sale that appeared on my next-door neighbor's door. And it's a rural property. It's between Union City and Corey. It's 9400 Route 6 East. And I am attempting, with Mr. Richard Reca's help, to rehabilitate this property. It was owned originally by Clara Drake, and it appears the genealogy... breaks that were related to Titusville oil well discovery, and we also have a number of other things that happened with this property. It never went on the tax roll until 1869, and I can date this property to 1809. So I believe it's one of the final gems that's left in Erie County that we ought to try and save. The only reason I know that is because I got tapped on the shoulder to help when I was an Edinburgh College student years ago. But I was one of the people who looked at all the historical properties in Erie County. We graded them. suggested what should be saved, what should not be. I have been involved with this property for probably a good 50 years, not only through marriage, but because of the historical that I did for Erie County. What my concern is the sheriff's notice that I'm sitting in a lawn chair while folks are mowing the lawn, one's working on the front porch, And I see all this white paper go across the back pasture. And I said to the kid, would you go down and see what that paper is about? So he took a look at it and handed it to me and he said, it's a sheriff's sale. And I thought, oh no, my neighbor's gonna lose the house. And when I looked at the sheriff's sale, what's written in the deed part appears to me to be from the 1950s, early 60s maybe. So we're using DESCRIPTION HERE THAT DOES NOT FIT THE PROPERTY THAT I OWN WITH MR. RECA. IT'S 2.86 ACRES, ACCORDING TO WHAT THE SHERIFF'S DEED SAID. NOW, THIS WAS MY SERVICE. IT WAS GOD-GIVEN AS THE WIND BLEW AND IT CAME ACROSS MY BACK PASTURE. I NEVER GOT ANY SERVICE. THIS PROPERTY IS GOING TO, IN MY OPINION, TAKE AN ACRE AND A HALF THAT I OWN, AND THAT WAS MY SERVICE THROUGH THE WIND. Now, I went to the heirs of the property. I said to them, hey, guys, how's things going? I'm sorry about the death and the families. Is there anything I can do to help? No. We called Vitti and talked to them, who are the people who are doing these descriptions, in my opinion, incorrectly, old news. Not in any way current with what's happening now. There are three other deeds that exist for these property boundaries. So my concern is that we basically were serving somebody that would have been 203 years old with the description that's here. Now that ought to get you upset. It certainly got me on fire. And I'm thinking, what in the world are we doing here? So I called Ms. Aubrey. I want to get this right. Haggerty Haynes talked to her. She said, yes, this is not the first time we've heard this. We have some concerns. We're checking on it. What I want to say to you before I lose my time is that with all the foreclosures, this was a super rough winter. People had to choose between heating and eating and then gas to get I would like to ask you to think about stopping these foreclosures for 90 days until we can at least take another 90 days and look back. And if people are not given their right service, they've lost their rights. You are their main reach to government. These are your constituents. I have worked long and hard for rural people. And this is one of the things that happens. The heirs in this particular deed were told, well, if you go ahead and try and take over this property, you're going to end up paying for the car that was repossessed. You're going to have to take care of all the utilities. And he said, oh, we just threw our hands up. We thought, oh, gosh, we can't afford all that. So there's also misinformation that is coming from Vitti. I called them, excuse me, and as you can see, I don't usually intimidate easily. I've done four PUC suits. I've chained myself to the back of Greyhound buses for the disabled when I had a totally disabled spouse. I called Viddy and I said, I have a little concern about the deed you're using. And then I talked to another person there and they said to me, well, if you don't like it, honey, get an attorney and go get a surveyor. I said, why should I spend that expense when this is your error? And that's where we are at now with loggerheads, and Erie Countians who are in this position need your help. Let me say that Chris Campanelli, in my opinion, has done absolutely nothing wrong except serve what he was given. And what he's being given is old, stale-dated information that is going to cheat your constituents possibly in Erie County. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. The map that I showed is the Richard Rekha property is the one is going to be reduced and I'm going to be missing an acre and a half, but not a surprise that I would meet immediately get a new tax service saying, here's what you owe for the 2.86 acres. Well, sorry, it's now missing one acre. I'll be happy to answer questions you might have.

Thank you.

And thank you, Mr. Warts, for coming to my rescue on the other issue with Harbor Creek and the county executive. Mr.

Chair, would you mind providing, just writing down your phone number so we'll be able to contact you?

Certainly. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anybody else that would like to speak?

Can I please get my phone unlocked? Why? For my speech. Once again, it is a big issue not being able to take your cell phone into these meetings. You guys might not care because you're on your phones this whole meeting and know that we can write to know any text messages that you send during that. So you might want to be careful what you send. So now that the county executives here, I would like her to please answer why we're not allowed to have our cell phones in this meeting, because I saw her on Facebook saying she would take care of it. And that was about a month ago. So, I mean, we have people literally wasting tax dollars, putting their phones in whatever these are. Like how many, what did we, how many of these does the county have? What did we buy per each one? And how much do we spend having people put them in there? Maybe somebody could get me that. I would really appreciate that. Also, I second what Ms. Treiber said. The Erie County prison is the shadiest thing in Erie County. And trust me, that is saying a lot. I know firsthand. I saw it. And if there's not an immediate, complete overhaul and an investigation in that cesspool, you all should step down immediately, including you, Mr. Scatella. And you need to have a little bit more respect to people that talk to you because I might not be here, but I see how you treat people in the meetings. You're the chair. Act like it. Could I have your name, please? Why is there an obsession with you guys talking to the constituents outside the public eye? We're here. Why couldn't you talk to her right now? When are you gonna talk to her? Another councilman had to have you, like, give your phone number. Why are you even up there, sir? I've been wondering this since last July. And besides Mr. Wertz, all of you are unapproachable.

Your name for the record, please. Anybody else who would like to speak?

Good evening, my name is Deontay Cooley, lifelong Erie resident. I guess I got the same question. Can I get my phone unlocked? No, and then also like my question is, so I noticed that it's only agenda for it to be a first reading and I've been in this room and I've witnessed things get moved to a second reading. We've been coming down here for about three or four months now asking for our phones to be unlocked. I've had conversations with Mr. Campanelli and he actually told me that it's up to you to chair to unlock the phones because the sheriff's lock them at the door, which is an illegal search and seizure. But you have to say so as far as if these phones can be unlocked in these meetings and there is a device within these chambers. even if you have to go to Ms. Chilcott's office to unlock the phones. But again, I'm asking that when we get to item H on the agenda, that it can be moved to a second reading. We can push this immediately because it even states rights consistent with the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act. So I believe that that's an acknowledgement and a recognition that our rights have been violated per the Sunshine Act. And I myself personally, this is my fourth time asking to have my phone unlocked. There are some things on this agenda that I would like to look and research. I don't see an encyclopedia in here. I don't see a dictionary in here. I have some questions about if we've ever had a revolving loan fund or not. I don't have access to research that information to even speak to it today. But again, I have asked you multiple times and we have asked you all. I've had conversations with a lot of different people and The chair of the meeting has a final say-so as to if these phones can be unlocked. And there is a device in this room or in those chambers that can unlock these phones. Our rights are being violated, and it is even identified in this agenda. So hopefully we can do something about that. Thank you.

Thank you. Any more?

Jen Paulson, Mill Creek. I'm here this evening to raise a concern about how much taxpayer money this county has paid out to settle claims of police brutality and excessive force. In one case alone, Erie County agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit after corrections officers at Erie County Prison beat an inmate, punching, pepper spraying, and kicking him, including a kick to the head while he was handcuffed. over a disturbance that started because he had hurt his toe. He ended up on life support for 15 days with strokes, kidney failure, a collapsed lung, and broken ribs. That settlement was paid through the county's insurance carrier, but insurance costs are still costs taxpayers absorb through premiums, and no dollar figure captures the harm done to that man. I wanted to ask Council three questions tonight, but you guys aren't very transparent or open when it comes to those things, so maybe just a couple of things to privately reflect on. First, will the county provide a full account of every settlement and legal cost related to excessive force or misconduct claims at Erie County Prison and the Sheriff's Office over the past five years? Second, what oversight or policy changes have been implemented since this case to prevent this from happening again? Third is the county tracking whether the same officers or the same units are repeat sources of these claims the way that the city of Erie has to do with repeat lawsuits against the same police officers. Every dollar spent settling these claims is a dollar not spent on services this county actually needs. But more than that, these are not just line items. They represent real injuries to real people in your custody. I'm asking this council to commit to the transparency on this issue and to make sure we're not just paying to make problems go away. We're fixing them and making sure they do not continue to happen. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to speak?

Michael , Harbor Creek. Would I be able to get my phone on? Okay. Just making sure. That would be good to have in the future. Recently, I saw the county executive went to a defense summit along with representatives of Infinituri and the mayor. I think that collaboration was a disgrace. For example, the summit was headlined by Dave McCormick, a warmongering neoconservative who recently visited, or excuse me, recently voted to merge Israel's military, who is committing genocide in Palestine, with the U.S. military. The summit's message was nothing but propaganda for the military industrial complex, private capital, AI tech, which is currently being integrated into our DHS and military apparatuses after being tested on Palestinians. And we've all seen the barbarity that Israel is committing during their genocide with the surveillance and AI infrastructure supplied by tech companies like Google. Infinite Erie's collaboration website lists defense in our promotion of the naval shipyard several times. In the meantime, we have big tech-backed university presidents, state reps who attend summits sponsored by Google, excuse me, deny genocide like Ryan Bizarro, normalizing the inevitability of AI surveillance in data centers. Flock cameras were just added to Penn State Behrend. The community does not want these data, aka surveillance centers, nor flock cameras in their backyards. And this is where the white liberalism comes in. The big tent project that ignores genocide but incorporates those who commit it. I'd like the county executive in particular to comment on this matter. This was literally called a summit for defense with all this barbaric messaging attached. Mr. Copeland, Mr. Wertz. The safe institutional politics aren't going to work in 2026. You both stated loving support for Joe Biden while he was committing genocide. I got cartoon mailers in the mail for a losing campaign while children were being blown up on my phone every single day. That Palestinian issue is why the Democrats lost in 2024. You cannot ignore a genocide and expect young people or anyone to be excited or into the Democratic Party. And I hope one day we create a system that we can replace the Democratic Party with an actual human rights based organization. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else that would like to speak?

Hello, my name is Bishop John Crosby, and I'm here. This may not be the right place. I don't know anything about the court system or anything. I've never been involved. I've been a citizen doing what I'm supposed to do all my life. But as you may know, my nephew, Kevin Sparks, was the one that was beaten by the police. And this may not be the place, but I at least wanted to voice it. Are these police still on duty? Would anybody here know that?

Mr. Crosby, I will respond to you that I don't know the answer to that. That would be a question for city council and the mayor's office. They're not within our purview. That's all I wanted to know. Thank you.

Thank you. You can still voice any, I mean.

Yeah, you're still welcome to speak, Mr. Crosby. You're still welcome to speak. That's all I wanted to know. What was going on with the police officer that ran him over? Are they still on duty as if nothing ever happened?

Is there anybody else that would like to speak? Is there anybody else that would like to speak?

Hello, my name is Malcolm Pulliam. I'm a resident of Erie. I really wasn't going to speak, but I guess I need to clarify for Pastor. One of his main concerns is about his nephew being in the Erie County Prison right now. And just, he wants to make sure that he is receiving fair treatment and getting the care that he needs because he's getting a run around when he goes to the Erie County Prison to see him. We are seeing a video of his nephew being hit by the police cruiser. Our main concern is to make sure that he doesn't have concussion symptoms, that he is okay, that he doesn't have any broken ribs, legs, et cetera. They're telling the family one thing, but it's kinda hard, if you're involved in this type of system, it's hard to believe what they're gonna tell you from the Erie County Prison. They're trying to get independent doctors to go in to make sure that he is okay, and i think pastor was just trying to express that to you guys i don't think he understood what county council does and we understand that the erie county prison is part of you guys um so with that being said we're past a year with marcella woodard um my question is we know that the person that killed him was arrested but We've been silent. We're not working on anything as far as change. We need to start working on policies. There's nothing in place right now that if this was to happen again, we would be right back where we was at, outside hollering and screaming. All we know about is body cams right now. But we need to also be working on different things within the community so if this does happen again we are prepared um i'm willing to meet with anybody to create a policy create change because we can't keep going through this same cycle of what we went through that was a tough year this is a year i know y'all know that um Marcello's family have took some deep hits since he passed away last year. He's lost a couple cousins that were very dear to us that was in the Justice for Cello fight with us. So it's my goal to make sure that we continue to flip and understand that change needs to happen. We're not gonna stop coming down here speaking about change until we actually see it.

words and actions have to be taken and we need to get this right thank you thank you is there anybody else that would like to speak is there anybody else that would like to speak is there anybody else that would like to speak thank you MINISTER, THE PREVIOUS MEETING IS STILL TABLED AND IT'S GOING TO REMAIN TABLED. REPORTS OF COUNTY OFFICIALS.

GOOD EVENING. WELL, I GUESS I WILL START BY SAYING A COUPLE THINGS. ONE IS THAT WE DID HAVE A MEETING YESTERDAY IN THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE'S OFFICE WITH PASTOR CROSBY AND MAYOR DEVLIN AND WARDEN HOLMAN AND SEVERAL PEOPLE IN THE ROOM. So we are we are trying to work through some of the issues that are happening in the community. I appreciate everyone that comes to speak at these meetings. I do think it's important I did see the one gentleman left, so I guess he doesn't want to hear what I have to say about the mesh bags. And then I will start, actually, by saying this was something I was going to talk about anyway. Mayor Dovel and I did attend the Senator McCormick's Defense and Innovation Summit last week in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I don't know how many people are aware of this, but I find more and more people don't know. But we have hundreds of millions of dollars of defense contracts in the Erie County region. Specifically, Erie Forge and Steel has $400 million in defense contracts alone as they build parts of ships that they then ship to other parts of the United States. We were there to work on contracts to build relationships between different organizations that are already doing manufacturing and can benefit from that. For example, Logistics Plus and Green Valley Manufacturing, so Logistics Plus in Erie, Green Valley Manufacturing in Venango County. The three of us were talking at the summit. I introduced them so that they could collaborate more on what they're doing. That was the purpose for going to the summit. Not to beg for dollars for murdering people, as was alluded to at other things, but... As you probably have seen, Scott Kugenhauer, Dr. Scott Kugenhauer, has taken over for Director John DiMatteo for the Department of Human Services. I was going to offer that you guys do a proclamation for John DiMatteo. I'm happy to be here with you, but I thought it would be better coming from you guys. And I can do one as well, or just let you guys do it and just be here. So he is leaving at the beginning of August, so if we can coordinate with him. I'm going to flip through a couple of things here. As you probably saw today, cruise ships are coming to the port in 2028. Thank you, Jim, for coming to the press conference. Victory Cruise Lines are bringing two trips with 190 people each starting in the summer of 2028. In fact, two years from tomorrow. There's no cost to taxpayers for this. They're going to use the facility that was already built. And every expense will be paid for by Victory. So they will pay a port fee, a port of call fee. They will pay for all of the things that are going to happen to get the people here. So that's really exciting. We have been in discussions with the Children's Museum and the Area County Prison to bring inmates from the prison to the museum. to see their children. This is something that is happening in Kansas City. The Children's Museum is seeking a grant to have this program set up. and that is in the process of it. I wanted to take a minute, since it's been about 90 days since the countywide engagement officer was hired, I just thought you would like to know that when this position was filled on April 1st, we had 8,333 followers for the Erie County page. As of today, we have 14,354. That is an increase of 72%. Yeah, thank you. It is very impressive. In fact, the cruise ship post today had over 100,000 views before I came in here. So we are getting the message out of Erie County in a different way, which is always what I had intended. I would ask that you put on your calendar September 10th at 10 a.m. We are going to have a Perry Monument 100-year rededication. There's going to be an Army flyover that was secured by Joe Bonacci and lots of people coming. So that will be... a great thing to have you involved in. The last thing I want to talk about is something that, for the last seven months, I have been following the career link and the workforce board and during that time there have been a lot of concerning things that have happened that i'm happy to discuss and in fact i'm going to reach out to have meetings of three two or three people at a time i have put together a proposal to pull erie county out of the the multiple county workforce development board that will go to the state. I'm going to ask for your support publicly and in private. I have been recruiting support for that. I can go over all the reasons why that is, but just know that that is coming and I'm happy to talk about it in detail and in depth over the next few weeks. That is all I have.

Thank you. Finance Committee, Mr. Drexel.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I bring forward from our meeting this past Thursday, old business A through H and new business A through G, K through L.

Thank you. Personnel Committee. I think Mr.

I've got to thank you, Mr. Chairman. Personnel Committee met on July 16, and brings to the agenda under old business I J and K and new business H I J and M. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other reports? Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bale.

I just thought it would be appropriate at our last finance and personnel meeting, we did get the audit presentation by Mayor Dussel. I don't think that that was brought up, and it's sort of significant. Just to let everyone know we did receive an unmodified opinion, which means that everything looks good. Retained our bond ratings and all that good stuff. And what I wanted to point out is that we also there was a surplus return of over four million dollars to the budget so that's significant and the reports if any of our economic demise under the last administration are apparently significantly exaggerated but I'll be looking forward to seeing what we can do to maybe put another four million dollars back in the budget thank you thank you

Moving on to old business. Oh, I'm sorry.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to move new business A to a second read.

Is there a second? Second.

Mr. Clark.

Mr. Copeland. Yes. Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wirtz.

Yes.

Mr. Winarski. Yes. Mr. Bale. Yes. Chairman Skutella.

Yes. All right, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would like to make a motion to move new business C, D, and E to a second read, please.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion?

just for public clarification these 3 ordinances make modifications to the da's department where light items were over expended and we need to move money around to correct that budget and it's just a

Ms. Chilcott.

Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wertz.

Yes.

Mr. Wynarski.

Yes.

Mr. Bale. Yes. Mr. Copeland. Yes. Chairman Skotella.

Yes.

Mr. Chair, I would like to make a motion to move new business item G to a second read, please. Is there a motion?

Or a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

Mr. Chair.

Mr. Copeland.

This ordinance waives a bid requirement under the purchasing code for the budget software that we've used for a long time, decade. It expires before our next meeting and we're trying to get them the approval to renew it.

Thank you. Ms. Chilcott.

Mr. Wertz.

Yes.

Mr. Winarski.

Yes.

Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Chairman Scutella?

Yes.

What? One more J.

No one told me that.

It did. All right, Mr. Chair, I would like to make a motion to move new item J, no, that's old business, right? No, new business. Not a new item. New business item J to a second read.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Chilcot.

Mr. Winarski.

Yes.

Mr. Bale. Yes. Mr. Copeland.

No.

Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wertz.

Yes.

Chairman Skutella.

Yes.

Motion carries 5 to 1.

Mr. Chair, let's start with Old Business A.

Ordinance number 51, 2026, fourth 2026 library fund budget supplemental appropriation of $2,000 for revenue received from UPMC.

So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Crock.

Mr. Bale.

Yes.

Mr. Copeland.

Yes.

Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wertz.

Yes.

Mr. Winarski. Yes. Chairman Skutella.

Yes.

Ordinance number 53, 2026, seventh 2026 general fund budget supplemental appropriation of $4,550 for creation of a new revenue line item in the human resource department for rental revenue from the cafe.

So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Mr. O'Cart?

Mr. Copeland?

Yes.

Mr. Drexel? Yes. Mr. Wertz? Yes. Mr. Winerski?

Yes.

Mr. Bale? Yes. Chairman Skotella?

Yes. See.

Ordinance number 54, 2026, 8th, 2026, general fund budget supplemental appropriation of $15,363 for creation of new lines in the county solicitor department for temporary staff.

So moved. Second. DISCUSSION? MR. CHAIR. MR. CORBETT. I JUST WANT TO TAKE THE POINT TO HIGHLIGHT BIG PROPONENT OF RIGHT TO KNOW LAW. I LIKE THE TRANSPARENCY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF INFORMATION BUT I JUST WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THAT THIS IS MONEY BEING ADDED TO THE SOLICITORS DEPARTMENT TO SUPPORT THE RIGHT TO KNOW EFFORTS AND KEEP IN MIND THAT THAT OCCURS UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION, UNDER OUR OWN OFFICE, UNDER MOST OF THE ELECTED OFFICES. JUST WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT TO THE IT'S A BIG BURDEN. I'M HOPEFUL AT ONE POINT WE CAN GET SOME FUNDING FROM THE STATE TO HELP OFFSET THIS UNFUNDED BAND-AID.

THANK YOU.

MR. DREXEL.

YES.

MR. WURTS. YES. MR. WINORSKI. YES. MR. BALE. YES. MR. COPLIN. YES. CHAIRMAN SCUTELLA.

YES.

Ordinance number 55 2026 9th 2026 general fund budget supplemental appropriation of $67,568 for additional expenses in the county executive department.

So moved. Second. Discussion? Mr. Chair. Mr. Bale.

I'm not going to beat a dead horse. If you'd like to see most of my comments, you can get them from the last finance and personnel meeting. I don't want to drag this out, but just suffice to say I'm not in favor of this. We had an ordinance that came down to council early on for Position that position was a part-time listed as a part-time position An individual didn't accept that part-time and has been working per diem so that is the reason this money has been expended out of this line and You know, I'm just I don't support that. Plus, I've watched as every single position that was cut under the previous administration has been brought back, and not only been brought back, but brought back with significant pay increases. Thank you.

Anybody else? Ms. Chalkut.

Mr. Wertz.

Yes.

Mr. Wynarski.

Yes.

Mr. Bale. No. Mr. Copeland. Yes. Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Chairman Skutella.

Yes.

Motion carries five to one. E. Ordinance number 56, 2026, second 2026 gaming fund budget supplemental appropriation of $1 million for transfer to revolving loan fund.

So moved. Second. Any discussion?

Mr. Chair, if you don't mind. Mr. Cook. To one of the speaker's questions about a revolving loan fund. No, fairly uncommon for Erie County. This is something that the city does a lot and very successfully under Mr. Gruner's leadership over there. Councilman Drexel had talked a lot about how a lot of the EMS challenges and the fire challenges, they'd have... very expensive fire trucks taken out of commission for relatively inexpensive parts, but still pressing for people. And this gives them a tool to be able to borrow money at a reasonable rate. It gets paid back in and we get to loan it to somebody else, but this is going to go a long ways in supporting EMS and fire in Erie County. I'm very much in favor.

Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. Cut.

Mr. Wynarski?

Yes.

Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel? Yes. Mr. Wertz? Yes. Chairman Scutella?

Yes.

F. Ordinance number 57, 2026. First, 2026 revolving loan fund budget supplemental appropriation of $1,442,530 and creation of a revolving loan fund budget. So moved. Second. Discussion?

Mr. Chilcott.

Mr. Bale. Yes. Mr. Copeland. Yes. Mr. Drexel. Yes. Mr. Wertz. Yes. Mr. Winarski. Yes. Chairman Skotella.

Yes.

G. Ordinance number 58, 2026, 10th, 2026, general fund budget supplemental appropriation of $189,218 for additional workers and unemployment compensation expense in all departments.

So moved. Second. Discussion? Ms. Chokra.

Mr. Copeland.

Yes.

Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wertz. Yes. Mr. Wynarski. Yes. Mr. Bale. Yes. Chairman Skutella.

Yes. H.

Ordinance number 59, 2026, approving the refunding project of the Erie County Convention Center Authority, the Authority, the stated maximum aggregated principal amount of the refunding bonds to be issued by the Authority, and the refunding guarantee agreement of the County of Erie to secure payment of the refunding bonds to be issued by the Authority.

So moved. Second, sir. Any discussion? Mr. .

Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Mr. Wertz? Yes. Mr. Wynarski? Yes. Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland? Yes. Chairman Scatella?

Yes. Aye.

Ordinance number 60, 2026. 2026, appointed official salary, part-time assistant public defender.

So moved. Second. Discussion? Mr. Chilcott?

Mr. Wertz?

Yes.

Mr. Wynarski? Yes. Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Chairman Scudella?

Yes. Jay.

Ordinance number 61, 2026. 2026 library fund budget revised expenditures of $1,669 for elimination of one library clerk position and creation of one library assistant position.

So moved. Second. Discussion? Mr. O'Connor?

Mr. Winarski?

Yes.

Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland?

No.

Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Mr. Wertz? Yes. Chairman Scutella?

Yes.

Motion carries 5 to 1.

OK.

Ordinance number 62, 2026. 2026 general fund budget revised revenue and expenditures of $4,434 for change of position in the county executive department from part-time to full-time.

So moved.

Second. Any discussion? Mr. Chair. Mr. Copeland.

I'd like to make a motion to adjust on exhibit A, pay grade to NB13. I had this written down. And the position to, I believe it was deputy assistant? Executive assistant. Executive assistant. Thank you.

So is there? Second.

Thank you. Any discussion on that? Ms. Chilcott?

Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Mr. Wertz? Yes. Mr. Winarski? Yes. Mr. Bale?

No.

Chairman Scutella? Yes. Motion carries five to one.

That's to amend. Now, the motion itself.

Ordinance number 62, as amended.

Thank you.

Mr. Bale?

No.

Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Mr. Wertz? Yes. Mr. Winarski? Yes. Chairman Skutella?

Yes. Yes.

Motion carries five to one.

New business, A.

Ordinance number 642026 first 2026 children and youth services fund budget supplemental appropriation of $240,536 for creation of a new revenue line for crisis rapid response grant reporting.

So moved.

Is there a second?

No, we move that to a second. I'll make the second on that.

Any discussion? Mr. Kirk.

Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wertz? Yes. Mr. Winarski? Yes. Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland?

Yes.

Chairman Scatella?

Yes. Bee.

First reading of ordinance number 65, 2026, 11th, 2026, general fund budget supplemental appropriation of $503,957 for PCCD justice reinvestment initiative grant in adult probation.

Do you want to take these individually or all at once since we amended them all at once?

There has been a motion to vote as a single vote.

Mr.

Chair, I'd like to make a motion to move items C, D, and E forward through a single vote.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Mr. Chair, I'll cry.

Ordinance number 6620 2620 26 general fund budget revised expenditure, Mister chairman.

We need a roll call on the motion for a single read for a single vote.

We're doing a single read.

We already do it. You're doing all of these as a second read in one motion.

There's a motion on the floor for them to be moved forward with a single vote to save time. I think we're doing that. So we need a roll call on the single vote.

all three are good we're going to vote once we already amended it now we just need a roll call on that motion okay i have a motion by copeland and a second second by me uh mr words no mr winarski yes mr bale yes mr copeland yes mr drexel yes Chairman Scutella?

Yes.

And the motion carries five to one, so we'll vote on these in one motion. I still should read them out here for you. Correct. Okay. Ordinance number 66, 2026, general fund budget revised expenditures of $119,300 for creation of new expense lines in the district attorney's grant departments. Ordinance number 67, 2026, 12th, 2026, general fund budget supplemental appropriation of $160,000 for creation of bureau and budget line items for fiscal year 2024 through 2027, Operation Stone Garden Grant. And ordinance number 68, 2026, 13th, 2026, general fund budget supplemental appropriation of $170,000 for creation of bureau and budget line items for fiscal years 2025 through 2028, Operation Stone Garden Grant.

So moved. Second.

Any discussion on any of those? Ms. Chilcroft.

Mr. Winarski.

Yes.

Mr. Bale. Yes. Mr. Copeland. Yes. Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wertz? Yes. Chairman Scutella?

Yes.

F. First reading of ordinance number 69, 2026, amending ordinance 76 to 2010, Erie County Land and Subdivision Ordinance, also known as SALDO.

G.

Ordinance number 70, 2026, approval of waiver of bid requirements under the purchasing code and sole three-year vendor contract between Planful Incorporated and Erie County Finance Department.

So moved. Second. Is there a second? Second. Discussion? Mr. Chilcott.

Mr. Bale.

Yes.

Mr. Copeland. Yes. Mr. Drexel.

Yes.

Mr. Wertz. Yes. Mr. Winarski. Yes. Chairman Skotella.

Yes.

H. First reading of ordinance number 71, 2026, approving the temporary unlocking of mobile devices for individuals attending public meetings of Erie County Council in order to facilitate public access and recording rights consistent with the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.

I.

First reading of ordinance number 72, 2026. 2026, general fund budget revised expenditures of $6,512 for change in grade for position 004110-035 in the prison. J. Ordinance number 73, 2026. 2026, appointed official salary, part-time assistant public defender.

So moved.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Chilcott?

Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel? Yes. Mr. Wertz?

Yes.

Mr. Winarski? Yes. Mr. Bale? Yes. Chairman Scutella?

Yes. OK.

Resolution 23, 2026, Erie County General Authority not to exceed $2 million tax exempt time note, Julia Hospice and Palliative Care Project.

So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Chilcott?

Mr. Drexel?

No.

Mr. Wertz?

Yes.

Mr. Winarski?

Yes.

Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland? Yes. Chairman Scutella?

Yes.

Motion carries five to one. RESOLUTION NUMBER 24, 2026, APPROVING THE EXONERATION OF OUTSTANDING TAXES, INTEREST AND PENALTIES ON POPERTY ACQUIRED BY HARBOR CREEK TOWNSHIP, TAX PARCEL NUMBER 27-022-008.1-.001.00. SO MOVED. SORRY, IS THERE A SECOND? SECOND. ANY DISCUSSION? Mr. Wertz?

Yes.

Mr. Winarski? Yes. Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Chairman Skotella?

Yes.

M. Possible appointment of Margaret Lee Baskett to the Erie County Housing Authority, term to expire March 31st, 2027.

So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Chilcott?

Mr. Winarski?

Yes.

Mr. Bale? Yes. Mr. Copeland? Yes. Mr. Drexel?

Yes.

Mr. Wertz? Yes. Chairman Scudella?

Yes. The next Finance and Personnel Committee meeting are Thursday, August 20th, 2026. The next regular meeting of County Council is Tuesday, August 25th. Motion to adjourn.

Mr. Chair, if I could just very briefly. Please. With the passage of Ordinance 73, our Public Defender's Office is fully staffed, and the first time of memory of many people in the county i think it's something we should all be celebrating a fully staffed and engaged public defender's office that i'm very glad for gentlemen we're going to their executive session to finish up Mr. Chair, motion to adjourn.

So moved. Got any other things you got to say on your list? Next finance personnel, next meeting. Okay, good.

All right, we're off.