City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So I do want to get us moving into caucus here. We've got quite a few things to go over. We've got some contracts that I've received some questions on, and so I just want to give everybody time and opportunity to discuss those. We've got no items for our final passage, but several for the first reading. So I wanted to go ahead and open the floor to counsel if they have any questions on items for our first reading that we see before us today.

I know I had sent everyone a separate email, but I'm pretty sure that my concerns were addressed considering that it was more so just a 24 hour notice for a special meeting. Some of our schedules don't allow for that to just happen, so that was my biggest concern. I do know that I got a response email from Council Member Horton. in regards to how he had felt about the ordinance. And then I did receive the email from you, Jason, as well. And I understand that it's more so just addressing the time for citizens and then a couple other things such as behavior and things of that nature.

Stay.

are we able to go through dr titus those number one just go through yeah those yeah just so everybody's clear uh what those are in the public yeah before you get started i spoke with president titus about my concerns too briefly and there were several um

I'm not going to be supporting this. I don't think anyone's behavior should have to be legislated as an adult and an elected official. There were some good things in there and some things that gave me pause. And I think anything that needs to be done is and has and should be addressed through Robert's Rules. If someone's behavior is such egregious, I'm not gonna throw rocks and hide my hands or anything like that. It doesn't really have no teeth for me and if something, I like local politics. This isn't the state assembly or the state house or they have a little bit more rigid stance on things. I love my colleagues. I like hearing their individual personalities. I don't like their bad behavior any more than they like mine. If someone doesn't know how to conduct themselves, shame on them. I'm not going to sit here with the elephant in the room either because I really don't do that. Wisdom speaks better things. My mother said, if you don't really have something nice to say, then hold it. So I'm going to hold it. But he's well aware how I feel about it. If any of you want to talk about it more in depth about it, I'm willing to do that as well. Thank you.

So the reason, I mean, we can go through all of this. The reason that This was pulled forward was there were some grammatical errors that needed to be corrected in Article 112 and also that there were has been brought up numerous times by several council members around the length of time during public comment. And so that was amended in this version. And then the addition to talk about what Councilor Hortnitz has said, Robert's Rules of Order is addressed in Article 112 and saying that this is what we follow. Um, what this has done is taken and summarized a chat, essentially a book, um, and put it into a paragraph, uh, to, so that it was easier and created more clarity around. These are the steps that Robert rules of order lays out. So it took a large, just the larger and simplified much like what we did with the tenant bill of rights. where we had many things that were overlaying and to make it easier for the public and for other individuals as we condensed it down for a quick reference. So that's really what 112 was doing.

And just to button up what might come from the interest of full disclosure, what I also stated is this is cool and maybe that's one of these perfunctory things that need to be done, but I'm not interested in doing perfunctory things, not when we have a $12 million deficit. I'm not interested in doing perfunctory things when we still haven't had the parking authority issue resolved in a looming budget. I'm not interested in doing any of this crap. Because it's getting ready to get real. And I don't want to talk about past councils or past administrations. But status quo is the enemy of progress and the killer of hope. And if I don't see anything that addresses people who don't live in the city of Erie, who don't reside in the city of Erie. Every week we come drink out of a fire hose. I'll sit here 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 hours as long as it's Erie citizens. I don't want to hear from Waterford or Edinburgh or Corey. I want to talk about the budget. I want to talk about those things. I want to talk about the business, the zoning. And I don't want to be pontificated in it. I don't want a report coming saying, hey, here's what we're voting on. I want to understand what I'm voting on. I want to be comfortable that you all understand what you're voting on. And I'm not. Just me. Nothing personal or anything like that. I'm getting phone calls from citizens now. They ain't calling about this stuff. People who about this stuff, they come down here, spit out the fire hose. I don't want to just give a speech either.

Is there a request to add in with 112 around being city resident?

I beg your pardon?

Would that be like a request to add in, like an amendment to?

Yes. Unless you have substantial business interests in the city of Erie and you're not a city resident, why should I have to? I'm not out in Waterford. I'm not out in Mill Creek or Harbor Creek spewing about what their taxing bodies should be doing. I listen to every resident. I sit here all night long, and I'll pitch a tent. I'm not going to be pontificated to people who have nothing to do but spill hate while I'm being legislated about how my behavior should be or shouldn't be here. I'm not doing that.

Dr. Tice, I think I was delivering some stuff on my day job the other day, and they had the rules up there. They had them, like, posted on the wall there, and I think I did see, like, I just happened to read through them, and it did say, like, an Erie resident or a taxpaying resident.

I don't know if that's what we have in our... We don't have anything that addresses it right now, and so that is, I mean, if that's...

When they sign that book, it should be attesting that they are a citizen or resident of the city of Erie. Now, I don't listen to anything they say, good, bad, indifferent, negative. Hell, they can hurl insults. I don't care. You're a city resident. I signed up for it.

I actually, people actually ask me about that. Like, you know, why do you guys allow people from Michigan or this place to come down and just say whatever? You know, people ask me that all the time, so.

Well, that's the majority of the requests I would have. They're not even from the Commonwealth anymore.

Forget the county. They're not even from the Commonwealth anymore. Coming from Texas. Coming from Carolina. I've got family here in Erie. Okay, and? Your family members should be here to step to the mic and say that that taxpayer resident should be. And I'm not here to censor anybody either. I get that. I'm spewing all of this stuff. It seems like I'm spewing it all out because I've been honest with you all about my weekend schedules, too, and how I look at this and the return on the investment in my time and the many different hats that I wear. So, no, I don't get to get the stuff after it's been met with the office. I don't often get to make the solicitor's meeting to hash it out. I don't think the Sunshine Law applies to everything. I think that if matters that are important, some things that we are doing in this, not the zoning stuff, I think we should all be a part, whether, I don't know, she don't want more study sessions, but I want more information. I don't want to hear, no shot, that my thoughts on this were, or I thought this was my thinking. Because I'm hearing, you know, I was honest.

I'm hearing I's and my's, not we's and us's.

And I just think it works better that way. I think without that, we get caught into a thing where we're just going along. And it usually bites you. And where it usually bites is at the legislator. Because at the bottom line, yeah, okay, executive branch, we work well with her, we want certain... But we're two entirely different entities with two entirely different roles. And we should, you know, if ever the twins should meet, we're able to go all together. But at budget time, it's not us. It's, she's going to present us a budget. And she's going to say, this is what I think, after the PFM. And it's not her budget anymore. It's our budget. When's that coming? Two months? Y'all comfortable with it? Rhetorical. I digress.

So would resolution on this one be with the group trying to get majority here if we were to make an amendment in there in which it says it is city residents or a business owner within the city copying or mirroring the language that we see I think the school district and at the county.

Yeah, I could support that as well. I've always thought we should prioritize city residents over the ones who come from the county.

So just procedurally, will we request an amendment? Would we? Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. Would that... Would Council be okay with that, if it were to go to its name by the second, and then with this amendment for the second reading that we have it, that's including city residents or those business owners within?

It's your guys' law. I'll make any amendments you need me to make. So I always feel about that.

Well, I think that that I saw a lot of head nods, so that would be, I think, the request. If it passes today, then that will be the suggestion, that we have those amendments before the next reading, so we can reflect that discussion here. Any other questions that we have on the first readings today?

We have a... Go ahead. Actually, because right now the change is from five minutes to three minutes. Yes. The suggestion is to make it citizens and say people who have business interests in the city. Are we still doing five minutes to three minutes or are we changing it to the other thing or doing both? Just for clarification for myself.

My understanding is that we're still going from the five minutes to the three minutes and that we're adding in that they need to be a city resident or a business within the city.

So in case anyone else. I'm fine.

Okay. This is just a question. Is there anything that would be able to, I don't know if it's illegal or let's say the topic was the Super Bowl, for example, and we have 300 people here to speak about the Super Bowl. Are you able to limit like the number of people that can speak about the Super Bowl? like, hey, we're only going to take 15 today, let's begin by the Super Bowl, we're not taking all 300.

I think that was an idea about restricting, say, like the number of people on one subject. That was discussed, but I think there was a question of how do you know, like if, you know, if no one raises their hand, because they each have a different maybe aspect of the Super Bowl, like one wants to talk about touchdowns, one wants to talk about field goals, like, they're still talking about the Super Bowl, but they're not really talking about It's a different thing, technically. So I think it was hard to maybe... That didn't go over well at the county. Right.

No, in fact, we had a couple people removed over it, which I thought was really absurd in itself. Because if all you people are here to talk about the library, then... We're not all one group. We're all individual citizens. Like I said, I sit here seven hours. They're Erie citizens. Go ahead. Bring it on.

I think you could, but I think the thought was let's try to maybe keep it as simple. Okay. That was just a question. That makes it easier for the public, and I think it also makes it easier for the council president to say, hold on.

It proved to be more disruptive than just allowing them to. Okay. Very kindly.

There is an item I would like to draw Council's attention to, and that is under the first reading, item number five, I've received calls on this one. This is something that's come up before. This is pertaining to our contract with Spot Shodder Subscription. It was my understanding when we originally got the subscription, we had a grant that covered. That's no longer the case. And so this is something that I had brought up with the administration. I know others have as well, of just understanding What are the benefits? What's the data that supports this subscription? Are we showing that it's reducing crime? And so I did ask the administration, kind of sprung it on them, to talk about it, but I would like for us to get those questions.

Thank you, Dr. Titus. So I will speak to the budget, the money piece of this, and then I'm going to ask Chief Laura to come to the mic and talk about the need. So, yes, you're correct. There was a grant for this in the past. That grant did run out. The company that... that provides this subscription did give us kind of some free time. They gave us some grace period. They were not charging us for a period of time to just try to help us figure out how to pay for it. And then we got to the point where we couldn't pay for it. We turned it off. As you'll recall, and we'll talk about in more depth today, when we announced our budget crisis in April, we talked about asking our business and nonprofit partners for support, mainly with police technology. That budget number being about 1.2 million. That included the potential to renew the ShotSpotter subscription. So the chief and I and others have been out having those conversations with the business community. I'm not prepared today to announce specifics, but I will tell you that we feel confident that we will bring in that 1.2 million by the end of the year. Lisa's added it to the budget. And so with that confidence, we have we are asking for permission to again turn on the ShotSpotter technology. And I'm gonna ask Chief Lohr to just talk about the why and how it's helped in the past and how we use it.

Chief. Sure, so one thing that ShotSpotter does is it gets us to shootings minutes, three to five minutes faster than we would have for 911 calls. It gets us to shooting victims faster. I don't need to mince words here and tell you that young minority men between the ages of 16 and 26 take up about 95% of the shooting victims in the city. We get to them quicker. We start life-saving aid when we get rival on scene. And then we get them to the hospital much quicker than we used to. So that's a benefit. Another thing is It has been basically the sole reason of three homicides being solved in the city. So three families were given closure because of ShotSpotter. I also don't need to mince words in telling you that young black men are homicide victims in this city more than any other race. So that's the benefits of it. I mean, I could go into more detail with that, but it gets us there quicker. We render aid quicker. They get to the hospital quicker. And we use it in a multitude of shooting investigations, homicide investigations. It's just really good technology. Gets us to these scenes quicker. We're able to render aid quicker. So, I mean, it's, you know, a need or a want. I mean, we decide. It's very valuable. We use it. Other things that we've done is like for Glock switches, which turns a Glock into an automatic weapon. It's gotten us to those scenes quicker to where we've been able to seize these and get these off the street. So more gun seizures, shootings are down, and homicides are down. So I say that as a need, but obviously we have budget here as well.

I just want to add on the chief Laura has been very clear from the beginning that, you know, he, he feels this is a good tool, but also fully understands that if this is not something that council can support, we both recognize that, but we are bringing it to you because of, we think this additional revenue that we're able to support, we've made this case to our hospitals, to our business partners, and they seem to be in agreement. So that's why we're coming to you with it. We would not have otherwise, but given that opportunity, we felt it was at least worth it for you to have the information and make the decision.

Does anybody have any questions? Go ahead.

No, just comments. This is a great tool. I live in the neighborhood with quite a few of those shootings. I know quite a few of those families, both victims and perps. We absolutely, some may see it as a want. In our neighborhood, I see it as a need. And if we're going to spend money on public safety, I'd rather spend it on things that I know are tried and proven, and that is as well. With the proliferation of firearms and the bump stocks and the drums, yeah, it's needed. So I want to thank Chief and his command staff and the mayor. Yeah, it's a serious budgetary consideration, but the bigger businesses and the bigger, larger nonprofits who we service They should be more than willing to be a good team partner to help offset that. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Chief, if you could give me that, I know you gave a stat about a percentage of, can you give me that again? I just want to, you said about young black men, like the percentage.

Yeah, and listen, I can get you probably the precise stat, but it's above 90%. Young black men between the ages of 16 and 26 are obviously the lion's share of the victims of gun violence in the city.

Thank you. They're actually, yeah, and they're families. Because I can tell you personally, the victimhood don't start with the one who drops on the ground or the one who's fired. It hits both families. There are multiple victims. And I would say even more, exponentially more, we need.

Just to clarify too, Sound Thinking has been a great company to work with. They left this on. We stopped paying them. They left it on for almost eight months free of charge to the city while we tried to meet with partners to get. And then when we said, hey, listen, we're having trouble. We don't want it. We can't rush this. They did turn it off. Then we did go back to the full six miles of having this covered. That was the initial cost that we had. We dropped that down to three miles to reduce the cost. And they are giving us the full six miles for the first six months of this year. So we're getting double what we're paying for for the first six months. And obviously their hope is that we're able to find partners that will pay for that. I mean, I understand that they're a for-profit business. But they're giving us that for free for six months. So the first six months when this contract is signed, we'll get the full shot spotter. And if within six months we're not able to find more funds to pay for the more expensive, then it'll drop down to the three-mile radius that we have currently.

And I think another important note for council is, is this is a one year contract. So if we go out to our public partners and we find within that year that they, they weren't able to, to meet that end, we can reassess this again next year. So it doesn't lock us in for an extended period of time. This is that one year. And so if, if those public partners, again, they don't come through, then we can have this conversation again.

Also to be clear, we are, we have applied for a grant to cover this for next year. Unfortunately, that grant won't, I don't think we'll get announced until September. But our hope is that next year we've already got paid for it through a grant. So this would kind of like just bridge that gap until next year. And then our thought is that we'll continue to apply for grants.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Just trying to be mindful of time. We're at 9, but I did want to draw our attention to one other item, too. We talked quite a bit about easements, and the two easements that are going to be before us today, if anyone had looked, they're at 1013 and 1015 state. That's also right outside where the Renaissance is being built. And so to just take note, there's already a big chunk of that sidewalk that's being blocked by construction, and we're going to be eliminating this down quite a bit So I do have a lot of concerns just around safety and what that would look like and how much of the sidewalk we're gonna be blocking at once with those easements that are in front of us. They sent pictures, this is right out in front of that McCoy's, and I'm not sure what the other one is, but there's a lot of congregating that's already happening there, and so this particular easement does make me have pause.

I've always said that the community members who require wheelchairs and walkers and medical equipment to get around have such a obstacle course to get around. Our city is not very walkable. It's not very pedestrian friendly. I see people being rushed when they're trying to cross the street. So the fact that we're continuing to allow developers to develop but not prioritize our pathway for our citizens is very telling on who we prioritize in our community. I think that how New York is able to construct pedestrian pathways in the construction, we should be able to do the same. We have a lot of physically unable people who live downtown and we continuously shut the sidewalk down for them. And as a caregiver, that is very insulting and it makes their day a lot harder. So I agree, I'm not in favor, but sometimes when you're the only person who feels this way, it's hard to advocate. So I'm happy that you also agree that we're taking more and more and there's less for them to get around. And then the vehicles on the street, are not very friendly because they're aggressive.

That construction that's happening down there, it just puts this into a dangerous spot. It really does.

Mr. President, I just want to make sure that Mr. Leone has his letter read by... Yeah, during public comment.

We spoke and she'll read it during public comment.

Thank you.

I share Tyler and Jasmine's concern. Uh, there are two or three daycare centers and walk their Children up and down that pathway. Um, usually two by two. I've seen them have to go in a straight line just to come up State Street, practically right out their door. Um, I don't know if I'd want to be eating and somebody walking this close to me on the rail, either with traffic Hadn't even considered the construction going on on the corner, and that-wise, I have considered the construction on that corner in regard to that parking ramp and our parking money. Yeah, I'm gonna say ours, because I truly believe we're owed. But I do have concerns, too, and I'm not really. The one on State Street, I actually went out and I measured And it was right on, off of North Park Road. When I see these, I don't just really look at them, look at the pictures. If I have time, I usually have a tape measure. I get out and I go up and I look. They come out and see what, you know. But it's kind of tight there. And this is a first read, so I'll give it some more time to consider, but. Y'all go over to actually measure it and see what they're talking about. Do our due diligence. They are business. We have done a couple of easements already on the lower half of State Street. We did an area insurance easement for Yon on 4th and French. We just did an easement for the food hall. So I don't want to treat people differently, although the geography is different. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I think in between now and then.

So this one will be on the new, because it's under new business, it's just the one read. So I will suggest at that point we do a table. I would too.

Yeah. Excuse me. The ordinance for that is for historic.

Okay, because I was looking at two of them, because the one is the historic. That's for the easement. I was talking about the easement.

Yeah, easements is just a resolution, one read, and then... Got it, got it.

I would say table that, and I did see 1013 on the historic.

Well, we are at 9.05, so I do want to move us into our public meeting. So if we want to go ahead and we'll break here for caucus and we'll go ahead and get set up for our public meeting.

so so so so Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.

All this meeting to order.

Full call for the City Council meeting of Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 at 9 a.m. Council Member Titus.

Here.

Brzezinski.

Here.

Flores. Here. Horton.

Here.

Cole. Here. Shaw.

Here. Troop.

Here.

Just to give a quick update, we have the agenda out, but we're going to do a little bit of a switch. We're going to go ahead and do, we have two presentations, but we're going to move Mr. Mel Witherspoon with the Spoons League up before the other one, just so everyone knows where we're going to move that. But at this point, we will go ahead and stand for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

I have a motion to accept the minutes from the Wednesday, July 15th City Council meeting and bills for payment on August 7th and 14th, 2026. Members Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores? Yes. Horton? Yes. Pol? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

Council Member Witherspoon?

All right. So at this point, we're going to go ahead and bring up a very familiar face, Mr. Mel Witherspoon, Coach Spoons to many, to present an award.

President?

Absolutely.

Thank you very much. Mayor, thank you as well. Members of council, members of officials.

Don't think your mic is on, though, Mel.

It's the same one they gave me when I was on council.

It's the one I'm always looking for.

We'd like to, Spoons of the League would like to thank the city of Erie, Erie Police Department for being there every day. And that was very important. And I need to take this opportunity to say that the negative things you've heard in the media, on Facebook, that happened at Spoon's Court didn't happen at Spoon's Court. Spoon's Court is just a name. It's an open court. And it happened in the lot prior to that, after that. But as long as our team is there, we control everything. And in some cases, Once we clean up everything, we're gone. The police usually stay another 15, 20 minutes. They're gone. Then things happen. So somebody say it happened at Spoon's Court. You tell them, come see Spoon. All right, we're here on a good note, on a beautiful note. The league has been in operation for 36 years. And we've had some players out of the city that has moved on to bigger and better things. But this year, our team at Bayview as well as at Spoon's Court decided to select an individual who was outstanding, who showed leadership on their team. and we wanted to honor these two individuals. In one situation, family was out of town, player wasn't there, team, this is the youngest age group, said, we gonna lose. No, you're not gonna lose, because this one person isn't there. Yes, we are. They lost. So I'm glad her parents didn't ask me to sign a contract for pay. But we have two young individuals. I would like to ask my team, would you join me up here if you wish? You don't have to. Now you take a look at these young men and young ladies. You think something's gonna happen while we're there? No way. Okay. Give them your name, please.

Derrence.

Jesse Tate.

Marisol.

Robert Witherspoon.

I know that guy. Howard Bibbs.

Lance Brown.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a small percentage of our crew, and we're there on 19th Street. We're there Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. And Tuesdays and Thursdays, we're at Bayview Park.

We try to cover as much of the city as we can.

These, ladies and gentlemen, make the selection. They watch all the individuals, every age group. Is Avery Klein in the house? Please come forward. Hello, Avery. Did you know this was going to happen?

No.

Merry Christmas. Avery, tell the folks how old you are.

I'm 10.

10 years old. We started out with 162 signed up. We didn't end up with 162, but out of 162 throughout the entire season, she stood out among all the players of all age groups. Are you Coach Stavern? Well, you're going to say something about it.

I don't know.

I'm speechless. Avery came to our team. We had already played one game, and she showed up. I was around Spoons when they had a female division. And Avery and another young lady made it so we had a unisex team. I didn't expect everything to happen after that. I didn't expect everything to happen after that. But since I've met Avery, I understand that she's been training with some really, really good players. I know the Jones family. I'm hearing great things about you. And she totally dominated us. We definitely wouldn't have won undefeated without her. And I really, really appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Avery Erie City Council would like to give you a certificate of recognition where Avery Klein, is being presented for the Heart of a Lion Leadership Award in the Spoons League 2026 in the nine to 11 age group on the East 19th Street Spoons Courts.

Oh, yeah. I would like to, if we can, have a photo with the mayor and the president of the city council.

When you're all done, I'd like to get a picture of the whole group so I can put it on. I started a local sports page that honors. So I want to put that on the page.

Yes, sir.

I just need to say that I was at the championship game, got to give the award to the team when they won. watched Avery play, and as I was sitting there, I thought, this girl is a beast. You are amazing. Watching you with all those boys, particularly, you made us very proud. So congratulations, you deserve this award. I saw it with my own eyes.

Right over here.

Right over here.

Thank you very much. And the Heart of the Lion Award for Bayview Park will go to No other than, I wonder where he's at. Max. His whole name is Maximus, so Mr. Gladiator, you did it again. You are the heart of the lion coming out of the Bayfront area. We enjoyed watching you. We know you hustled to the point that you broke your arm, but you hung in there, and we appreciate you very much. Thank you, sir. Did you know about this today?

Yeah.

Santa Claus. Santa Claus talk. Santa Claus mother has some crown roar. I don't know. But anyway, we appreciate you. This is yours. And Councilwoman, I have something for you.

Erie City Council would like to give you the Certificate of Recognition to Maximus Schweitzer for the Heart of the Lion Leadership Award in the Spoons League 2026. in the 11 through 12 age group at Bayview Park. Congratulations.

You want this? Yeah? You earned it, my friend. Can you handle it? All right.

I'm going to take a picture of the group.

I started a sports page that honors local legends.

It's on Facebook. If the parents are okay, the kids could be in as well, and I'm going to post them on the page.

I'm not being as forceful. You could be in as well. That's okay.

Listen, the way I look at it, people ask me, what do you consider a legend? I say anybody that's ever put a badge on, bounced a ball, Put the time in and you stuck with it, you'll let it run.

Okay, so let's do it. Take a deep breath. That's a terrible face. Yeah, that's what it is. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three.

Shake hands with all the council people.

Does any of my team want to say anything? No, okay. Congratulations.

Come around, man.

Congratulations. I got a jumper.

Congratulations. I got a jumper. That's okay.

That's awesome.

We want to give a hand to the parents too.

Unless you've been a sport parent, you take your kids out of the game.

They won't have that. I'm a fan. I'm a fan.

Before we go into the mayor's presentation, I do want to just take an additional moment to acknowledge how important it is to celebrate moments like this. So often we hear about the negative, and especially when we see on social media and on the news, they want to paint They want to paint our community in a certain light. And to be able to see what is actually going on and that there are so many involved parents and volunteers who are uplifting our youth and making sure that not only are there activities to do, but to know that they're being honored and celebrated is incredibly important. And so I'm grateful that this is an early day during the summer to come down to a city council meeting for us to just be able to celebrate with you all is... I'm very grateful that you all took the time, and I hope that the city is too, and to understand how important moments like this really are for us to move forward. So again, thank you, Mr. Witherspoon, for bringing everybody down and allowing us the opportunity to celebrate with you. And on that, you get the tough act to follow there, Mayor.

Good morning, Council. Mr. Witherspoon and Dr. Titus asked if we could switch, and now I'm regretting that decision because I feel like that was a tough act to follow for sure. So unfortunately, I'll bring the mood down just a little bit. But good morning, Council. I'm honored to stand in front of you this morning and provide the mid-year budget report for our inaugural year together serving the City of Erie. As you well know, these are challenging financial times for our city, and we will have many difficult decisions to face together in the coming weeks and months. My presentation this morning will be brief and high level for two reasons. First, Finance Director Lisa Gummersall will provide much more detail for you and answer your questions during the Finance Committee meeting that follows this meeting. And second, because to be quite honest, we don't yet have the full amount of information that we're waiting for from public financial management, PFM, that will help guide our decision-making through the balance of 26 and through our budget development for 2027. Last week, I think you all received, I forwarded you the first chapter of PFM's report, which provided an in-depth analysis of our current financial situation. This chapter mostly, if any of you had the time to read it, you found that most of it just included the same information that PFM presented to us back in April with their initial findings. And I just want to, again, summarize those findings in five key points to kind of center us for the conversation today. So first, as you saw in the report, the city's cash situation is stable and we are not in current danger of missing bills or payroll. That's good news. And we should all take a moment. And I want to thank our finance department for making sure that that is the reality that we find ourselves. Second, another piece of good news. The city has largely solved the problem of underfunding its pension, which was identified in 2020 as a critical concern. Now we get to the less good news. Third, the 2026 budget included a quote-unquote hidden deficit of $8 million due to the classification of pension revenue and expenditures. Restricted pension funds were shown in the general fund as revenue, and once this was adjusted, the amount of general fund expenses exceeded revenue by $8 million, creating this deficit. The city also faces an additional $4 million deficit in 2027 due to the removal of one-time funds like ARP and Water Authority dollars and the continual structural deficit that we have been assured by PFM plagues most municipalities in the Commonwealth because of the tax structure in our state. And lastly, the city faces a debt cliff in 2033 due to the way that the Water Authority prepayment funds were used to pay off debt over the past five years. This debt cliff means that the city's debt service will double from $5.2 million in 2032 to $10.3 million in 2033 and remain at that level until 2039. While this debt cliff is more than five years away, the city does need to begin to plan for it, particularly in light of our other financial challenges. So I want to pause there and just say that I remain incredibly grateful to Council for your commitment and your support since we first announced these findings in April. I think it's comforting for the public to see that we are facing these challenges together and we are looking forward, not backward, on these and all the issues that our city faces. When we stood here in council chambers together in April, I pledged that the administration would immediately begin addressing the $3 million increase in operating expenses that PFM also identified in the 2026 budget so that we could begin to tackle that big $12 million number. Our plan at that time was threefold. To immediately review all departmental expenditures to make immediate spending cuts, to eliminate some positions where possible, and to seek revenue support from our business and nonprofit partners. I'm pleased to tell you today that those efforts bore fruit. As you'll hear from Finance Director Gummersall later, and as is reflected on page one of the mid-year financial report in front of you, the general fund is right now currently showing a deficit for this year of $5.2 million. While that's not great news, it is $3 million less than PFM originally projected when they said it would be $8 million for 2026. demonstrating that our, and I want to say that again, our, yours with me in support of the administration, our collective efforts since April have been successful in immediately addressing at least one of these concerns. While this is good progress, we recognize that it just represents a fraction of that total deficit, and we have much more work to do to close the full amount. Our next step is to wait for the larger recommendations from PFM, which we do expect within the next two to three weeks. These recommendations will include items that would continue to address this year's deficit, as well as suggestions that will impact the longer term structural problem and debt cliff. I look forward to discussing these in detail with you after I receive them from PFM, and I feel confident that we are on track to review and make decisions in time for our 2027 budget process, which as you all know, is right around the corner. Lastly, and to help guide with your review of the full mid-year report in front of you, I want to point out that pages 2 to 8 show the detail on the general fund, which, as I noted, Lisa will review with you shortly, and pages 9 through 16 provide updates on our four enterprise funds, stormwater, wastewater, refuse and gulf, and all of these are actually operating at a surplus. I want to close this morning by thanking you, my city council colleagues, for the opportunity to address you here formally, but also for your unwavering commitment to the people of Erie and our collective future. As I think we all now understand very clearly, the financial situation in which we find ourselves is not an easy one. Ultimately, it doesn't matter that most of us who must now solve these challenges did not make the decisions that created them in the first place. Our task now is to live up to the responsibility and trust that our residents and our neighbors placed in us when they chose our names on their ballots. We owe it to them to work together, to think creatively, to take bold action, and to keep the future of this city at the forefront of every decision that comes next. We also owe it to them to make these financial decisions while balancing our responsibility to provide critical city services that lead to safe neighborhoods, clean streets, thriving families, affordable housing, beautiful parks, and an Erie where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. This is the task that lies before us and I am honored, truly honored, to do this work with all of you as we lead our city toward financial stability and a better Erie. Thank you.

Thank you.

I will take questions, but I would suggest that we can hold those until the Finance Committee report. But I will stand if any of you wants to ask me any questions for the things that I've discussed this morning.

Any questions from the council?

I'm going to save mine for offline. Fair. Because I've got a ton of them.

Councillor Horton, I will say we all have many questions. I do think our finance director will help us with some of those, and then we'll find the answers to the rest together.

Together is a great word.

Together. Thank you. Thank you, Council.

All right. So that will move us then right along. We will ask if there is anyone here to speak on a repository sale. Is there anyone here to speak on a repository sale? Is there anyone here to speak on a repository sale? All right, seeing none, then we will, at this time, move into public comment. If you are here to speak during the public comment, please state your name clearly, make sure you are signing in at this podium up here, and please recognize that you will have five minutes. So when you hear that buzzer go off, please just end your comments so that we can make sure that we get to everybody who's here to speak. All right, at this time, the mic is open for public comment.

Good morning.

I am here today because too many people in the city have lost confidence that justice is administrative. Here is a city full of hardworking families who want the same thing.

Safe neighborhoods, opportunities, and confidence that the institutions serving the public will treat every resident with dignity and fairness. But for many members of this day, mainly the BIPOC community, that confidence has been shaken.

When people repeatedly witness incidents that raise questions about fairness, accountability, and transparency, they begin to wonder whether equal justice is truly equal for everyone. Whether those perceptions are ultimately confirmed or disproven

They deserve to be taken seriously because public trust is one of the foundations of effective government. This is why many people are paying close attention to the case of Kevin Sparks. According to public reporting information and allegations that have generated significant community concern, Mr. Sparks was struck by a buried police vehicle while riding on the Western Street. Serious questions have also been raised regarding the events that followed the collision. Those questions deserve complete, transparent, and independent review so that the public can have confidence that the facts are fully examined and that accountability exists wherever it is warranted. This is not about one individual. This is about whether every resident of Erie receives equal treatment under the law. This is about whether public confidence is earned through transparency instead of secrecy. This is whether accountability is applied, consistency, regardless of position or authority. Council members, I recognize that you do not oversee every aspect of law enforcement, and I'm not asking you to prejudge any individual case. I'm asking you to use the authority you do have. Use your voice, use your platform. Ask the difficult questions. Encourage transparency, support new policies, that strengthen accountability and public confidence. Help ensure that every resident believes that their concerns will be heard, not dismissed. Because when communities lose trust, everybody loses.

Good officers lose.

Residents lose.

Families lose.

And our city loses. The city of Erie deserves more than promising. They deserve action, meaningful community engagement, They deserve clear communication when serious incidents occur. They deserve policies that reinforce fairness, professionalism, and equal treatment for every person who causes city comms. The community is not asking for special treatment. They're asking for equal treatment. Equal accountability, equal transparency, equal justice. History shows that real progress happens when leaders are willing to confront difficult issues. Today I ask the council to choose courage over comfort. Choose transparency over silence. Choose accountability over complacency. Choose to stand with every resident who believes that justice should never depend on race, neighborhood, or social status. Gary has the opportunity to become a model of fairness and accountability. But that will only happen if our leaders are willing to listen, act, and lead. We will continue to take these meetings. We will continue to organize. We will continue to advocate. We will continue to participate in our democracy. Not because we seek conflict, but because we believe this city is capable of better. The people are watching. The families are watching. And history will remember what each of us chose to do.

Thank you.

Great point, thank you. That was a great speech. Susanna Faulkner, City of Erie, here to speak on contract number one with Sound Thinking, otherwise known as ShotSpotter, for $280,000. For context for everyone, because transparency is really important, ShotSpotter is a technology that the city began a contract with in July of 2023. There was a grant that became available that the city was awarded for $910,000 to cover a six-square-mile radius of the city for ShotSpotter. It's a surveillance technology. It's a mix of microphones, I think maybe cameras. It's attached to telephone poles, to traffic lights, and essentially any time that a potential gunshot would go off, it alerts the police department. I was vehemently against it three years ago and I had heard back in June that that grant money had run out and so that the city would be ending the contract with ShotSpotter. So I was really disappointed and surprised to see that on today's agenda. Looking and digging into any reports on ShotSpotter, you can find that while the tech company touts a 99% effective rate, The ACLU of Massachusetts collected over 20 years of data from Boston using ShotSpotter, and it had a 30% effectiveness rate. So given the fact that we are here to invest $280,000 into a tech company from California to do surveillance, I would really challenge council today to at minimum table this vote. Please separate it. Please discuss it. We are in a budget crisis. $280,000 represents 2.3% of the budget deficit that we have. Now, if we're able to lay off people, if we're able to end other essential parts of City Hall and make cuts all around, then why would we extend $280,000 to a tech company for surveillance? when they have a 30% effectiveness rate in the city of Boston. So I'm asking today, please consider that. Please discuss it. There is no need for this technology. And here are some alternatives you could do with that $280,000. And from my understanding, there isn't a grant to fund it at this point. I know at times private entities can come in, like the Coqua Bridge, and pay for these things. But maybe you could work with those private entities to cover $280,000 of things like violence prevention through environmental design, like better lighting, tree planting, vacant lot cleanup, public art, increasing our crisis car with the police department so those funds would still go to the police department. That is a well evidence-backed model that works where social workers, counselors go out with the police officers to handle all different things, whether it's welfare checks, Substance use situations, mental health crises, family conflicts, homelessness. Please, if you are going to spend those dollars, which again is 2.3% of the deficit that we have, Please invest it locally, not in a surveillance technology company out of the Bay Area. We have wonderful people, whether it's the Bluecoats, whether it's PALS. If you want that money to stay in the police department, there's ways to spend it better than ShotSpotter. This is a tech company that's going to keep rebranding itself, keep selling itself as a scam to municipalities like us. It's not effective. It doesn't work. Please at least table it. A yes vote on that would be a stain on our city and everything that we talk about wanting to prevent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jared Staszewski, Mill Creek Township specifically. I was briefed about discussion before this meeting. I'm not sure what the meeting is called. But I heard that there was discussion that you guys want to limit our speeches to three minutes and possibly not let people talk who aren't from Erie. And I personally see that as rewarding bad behavior because we had 58 people speak and there was no consequence for actions. And some of us will never forget that. I would like to say a good thing about a council member, and that is Ms. Kathy Schaaf. She is literally everywhere. I see her at all events. I don't think she says no to an invitation. And to me, she's the definition of like a grounded, down-to-earth public servant. She'll talk to anyone. She'll hear you out. And she always tries to understand the whole issue before she makes a move. So I just wanted to say that. Ms. Schaaf, thank you. And you do a great job at the Water Authority. Mayor Devlin one thing that you said earlier early in your term was that you wanted Erie to be the third biggest city again and I a thousand percent agree with that I think we are we should be we're the third best city I mean I'm not trying to get Pittsburgh and Philadelphia people too cocky but we're the next thing And an idea that's always been discussed is Mill Creek Township has 55,000 people, and the city of Erie has a dwindling 92,000. I'm in Mill Creek Township, and I have never once said I'm from Mill Creek. Maybe I'll say I live in Mill Creek, but I say I'm from Erie. If you're in California and somebody says where you're from, you say Erie. The airport, that's in Mill Creek. That's considered the Erie airport. Waldemar Park, Mill Creek, but it's really Erie. Same for Presque Isle, and the list goes on and on. So one easy thing we could do is for census purposes only, we could combine some of these separated townships and municipalities, and then all of a sudden Erie overnight is the third biggest city again, and we could have some pride in ourselves. Because Erie County's population is not going down that much, but the city is. And like I said, I'm in Mill Creek Township, but I'm from Erie. Mill Creek has 55,000 people, but their addresses all say Erie. So that could be looked into on any level. I was told years ago all that would need to happen was Mill Creek and Erie would vote yes on that on a ballot, and then boom, Erie, Pennsylvania has 145,000 people. Also, I was glad Mr. Witherspoon was here today. I really liked that presentation, and please do not take our time away. Please do not take Mill Creek residents' ability to speak here because that would be horrible. So thank you. Hope everyone has a good rest of your day.

Thank you.

Good morning. Uh, thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is during a page Erie County resident. Um, thank you all for allowing me to speak today, but I got a few things I want to discuss or run by you. I already discussed these ideas with the state representative Ryan bizarro because I believe they deserve attention at both local and state levels. Today I am asking for the city to help me lead the way. The first proposal is to create a community digital literacy and cybersecurity program with a special focus on seniors. Everyday people are being targeted, phishing, scams, identity theft, online fraud, financial exploitation. Many residents simply need practical training on how to safely use smartphones, computers, emails, online banking, healthcare portals, and the internet preventing cybercrime starts with the education in the local city. My second proposal is to establish a 90-day community internship for new police officers before they began regularly patrolling. Because as you all know, we have a lot of disruption through Erie with the police, right? So many videos getting posted online about abuse, negligence, disrespect, inappropriateness, discredit, and not knowing how to handle the people. I feel like to properly police the areas we're in, we got to basically go out there and see who these people are. We got random people going into communities that don't know nothing about handling people versus dealing with people and reacting to people. During that time, police officers will spend time in the community centers, senior centers, schools, libraries, youth programs, and neighborhood organizations. They will get to know the people they serve, understand local challenges, and receive training on issues like cyber crime prevention, fraud awareness, available communities, and youth. These two ideas work together. Educated residents are less likely to become victims of cybercrime, and officers who build relationships with the community before they patrol are better prepared to serve with understanding, trust, and effectiveness. I'm asking the council to explore these proposals, work with the police department, community organizations, and our state representatives, and consider creating a pilot program for our city. If necessary, I'd also like to work with the city on a public petition or other appropriate process to demonstrate community support. I just left DC. I just got my first situation on the ballot, Montgomery County. They had me come out there to work with a program where the community of Montgomery County were being increased on their taxes with a 14% increase. So I came out here back home motivated to figure out a way to get things changed. And I found out that through petitions and community activism and engagement, You can make things change. So this is my new narrative versus just talking all the time. I want to put stuff on paper because I see it actually works. Votes counts. People count. Remarks count. Our city has a chance to be proactive instead of reactive to prevent crime, protect seniors. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. And strengthen relationship between law enforcement and people that they serve. I just want to say thank you for your time. Thank you to the mayor. Thank you for giving us this platform. And thank you to Erie County and the state of Pennsylvania. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, Cindy Treiber, born and raised in Erie. I want to just briefly say I really hope that the ordinance about limiting who can speak here is not passed or very much clarified because there's people who work in Erie who pay taxes to Erie and to not allow their voices to speak on Erie seems a little unfair and makes me concerned about where they would go to be employed instead of Erie. Thank you for providing this platform for our community. In November of 2025, Erie felt very optimistic and energized either by those who saw new promise or who were concerned with the new promise and keeping a vigilant watch. A new chapter was being written and one that promised to include representation from all people in Erie. That conversation promised tangible growth and consideration that actually equated to actual measurable change versus words on an ever-changing page in history. Part of this change was reactionary. Other part of this change is being built with a more proactive emphasis. But we are long overdue for the latter, long overdue for the people's voice to be heard and not just the people we feel comfortable sitting in rooms with. We cannot have a good life on a Great Lake unless we have an inclusive approach. My concern as I stand here is now that this change looks much more like a brief foreword in a book, in words only. A plan for what we're going to see, but a plan without substance that marginalized people can feel. A chapter entitled only without the guts that brings citizens closer to the story. This story must include police reform. Over the past 11 years, this city and its insurer has paid out over $1 million in settlements for excessive force and discrimination as a result of bad actors in the police department. As a result of toxic culture that studies show start from the bottom up, not the top down. The city currently is also facing another $3.5 million lawsuit in excessive force. Yes, please know I said bad actors. There are good officers here, just like there are in any force at any level, from federal to military to municipality. I believe that... More so than I can explain, I am married to someone who served 20 years as a military police officer and expeditionary warfare specialist. I know we have officers here who are familiar with the duty to intervene, but who are afraid of repercussions or flowing into the modus operandi of what's been long tolerated. Officers that could have intervened with Kevin Sparks on the 28th of June when he was rammed in a pit maneuver on a bike by a vehicle, beaten about the head, Kneed, kidney blows, purposely rolled from his stomach to his back to be tased in the chest. And I know that there are people in this room and on this council who feel sick watching the videos that we're all seeing of police violence. I would like to propose that we start with the following, all of which have been thoroughly reviewed in accordance with FOP bargaining rights, third class city code, eerie administrative code, best practices. Please do the research yourself. Please do not just say or believe, oh, well, this is what we can and cannot look it up. Please look it up. First, release the body cam footage. Persons have 60 days to release it. It's been 38. In several lawsuits across Pennsylvania, cities, agencies, and departments have lost lawsuits that try to keep the public from seeing the footage they're actually paying for. Governor Wolf, Governor Shapiro, Attorney Dave Sunday have all emphasized the importance of body cams, how they protect the people, how they protect relationships, and how they protect the police. As the county deemed racism a public health crisis in 2020, and we see national statistics showing black men making up 25% of those killed, even though they're 13% of the population, and we have this history of excessive force in Erie, we absolutely need to understand that the public interest disclosure outweighs the interest of law enforcement. or an individual's interest in disclosure. The United States Supreme Court has explained this. The agency must examine the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action, including a rationale connection between the facts that have been found and the choice that has been made. Pennsylvania law also talks about this in Dauphin versus the school district in Hawkins. Disclosure number two, disclosure of the administrative status of the officers involved can be done without jeopardizing their names. This is talked about in FOP bargaining rights. This is talked about in city code. I mean, like we can't just keep saying we can't talk about it because the law says we can. If a civilian had been involved in a motor vehicle accident against a civilian, then subsequently got out of their car, beat the crap out of somebody, there would be a mass manhunt, right? So we're not asking for names. We're asking for protection, a right that is supposed to be provided by the very bad actor police. that are being prioritized and whose employment rights and processes are overseeing or are superseding the people. This is addressed in documents, city, state, national. This is not a thing. We need to have a town hall in closing, and we need to have it soon. And I would like to be part of that, setting that up, and I would like to talk about it further. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Deontay Cooley, lifelong Erie resident. I'm not sure if I missed the conversation or if not, but I hope that there is not a conversation about shortening the time from five minutes to three. I mean, and I'm assuming that it might be something that's being adopted from county council, but as you can see, people run out of time for five minutes, and I understand it may be from one incident. And unfortunately, that one incident occurred because of the behavior of council. So I hope that that is not the case because, again, I've run out of time for five minutes plenty of times before it. And after that, sometimes it feels like things aren't considered. So if that's something that's on the agenda, I hope not. I live in Erie, so I can only speak for people who live in Erie to be able to speak at these meetings. So that's neither here nor there. But that is not why I'm here to speak today, because from the people that are coming up and even from the people who are showing their concerns, there are a lot more people who are speaking about their concerns in Erie. And even from today, there are actionable items and ideas that people are presenting. that are going to help with some of the issues within the city. And I'm here to propose another one, and I know that this is something that Council Hortman has been pushing his entire career, but as far as us educating our people and putting more emphasis on trades, skills, and things like that, because that is something that has went away with us encouraging young people. And I've been having a lot of conversations with people in the union, people who work the union, people in the offices, and With some of the things that are happening within our city and us talking about people being homeless or not having good jobs, like, I'm looking through this agenda and I'm seeing construction companies, HVAC companies getting contracts for millions of dollars. You understand what I'm saying? So this is not, and then even like when we had like Erie Events, they're coming down here and they're getting $9 million from, you know, the governor. There's about to be $100 million coming to our city. They're rebuilding the Renaissance building right now, which is going to be like a $12 million project. as far as like us saying you know there aren't good jobs and stuff like that I would like to see more people put more emphasis on encouraging people to do that you know even within our schools like if you all can figure out a way to hey let's figure out how we can engage with the school district and put more emphasis on Erie High and Erie County Technical School and get some of these young people into the trades because What we can do is teach people how to build, how to learn how to build, and then on top of that, when we need services within our community with some of those houses that some people come and complain about, now we know people from our city who can actually do those jobs. We can create people who know how to buy properties, fix properties, the blight list, and then when things get built around here and we talk about gentrification we talk about people being misplaced we have people who can build up another neighborhood and supply affordable housing because they have the ability to build they have the licenses they have the insurance and then we have people who are starting businesses where they are buying blighted properties and providing affordable housing and I will say like I know you all have been busy I will say because I've been making my rounds and I've been now I've just been running into everybody you know what I mean so conversations are happening and I would like to see every single person sitting across from me anybody watching to encourage more people to understand the importance of trades and building outside of like the hard labor because again when you look at the city is in a 12 million dollar deficit or whatever the numbers are now but there is millions of dollars going out and a lot of it outside of the police and the fire department are going out to contractors to rebuild our city right now they're making a building a street to get down to the water that's millions of dollars then and their stuff is not going to stop the Bayfront Eastside Task Force is talking about building something that's millions of dollars. And as things are getting built, it's not going to stop and it's not going to slow down. You've got EDGRA giving all kinds of money to people for redevelopment. So I think like if we can put a lot more emphasis on education and you all building a relationship with the school board and things like that and figure out how we can have some collaborative efforts and we can put more emphasis on trades and skills and union and things like that and teaching people how to build with their hands as opposed to always talking about non-violence or talking about justice. And I'm not to discredit anybody because I've come down here multiple times to scream those things and I will never stop. But what I'm saying is we need to start thinking about solutions and actionable items that can help have an impact on our community and change our community. And I do believe that I've heard a lot of different people come up here and speak some ideas that should be taken into consideration and maybe you all should take more time to look into and discuss on top of the mayor's report because all of this works together and we need to figure out a way to where we stop being so divisive, stop worrying about who identifies as what or who's Republican or who's Democrat or, you know, we don't want women to lead or we want black people to lead and actually understand that if we do something or not, it's going to happen. People from Pittsburgh will come here and do it. People from Ohio will come here and do it. They're going to be coming in here and making money and taking it out of our community, and we're going to be arguing about how we're supposed to speak at a meeting. We're going to be arguing about police brutality. We're going to be arguing about kids fighting in a park, and we're going to be missing out on the bad. You know what I mean? So as the money's leaving our community, we're going to be ignorant, and we're going to have to rely on people to feed us, to teach us, to show us how to build and to come repair our properties, to take care of our elderly, take care of our kids, to take care of our women, because we aren't encouraging people to understand how important it is to learn how to build these things outside of just learning to trade, it can legitimately have an impact on our community. So hopefully we can do more of a push for that. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else here to speak on public comment? Anyone else for public comment? Anyone else for public comment?

At this point, we will go ahead and move on.

Oh, we do have a letter to be read. I apologize. We received a letter from someone who wasn't able to be here today to be read during public comment.

We have a letter from a citizen, Fiori Leone, who was unable to be here today. The pictures you're about to see are numbered. Picture number one is from the side of the house. I don't know if you can see those, Mike. two is the front of the house, three is partial front, four is a driveway, five is the back of the house with trash, and picture six is clear and shows the porch area with garbage and trash. The section is where the rats go to feast at night picture number seven is where one of my neighbors front lawn is cared for and is in excellent shape i called everywhere and it seems like it's finger pointing system who did this who did that who doesn't do this who doesn't do that but nobody does much of anything i called code enforcement and one of the employees was extremely nasty while i was trying to talk to me over what i was saying And I said to him, when are you going to listen to what I have to say? He says, we can't do anything there. I talked to another person from the city. He was nicer, but indicated they hadn't budgeted for tearing this house down. I just received my taxes from the school district. I already paid my city and county taxes, but now should I use the same philosophy as the city uses? I can't pay my taxes, so I can't wait almost three years like the city does in order to tear down a house that should have been torn down months after it burned. I forgot I only have two years to pay this off, and then they would sell my house. So I would need a loan to keep my home... something the city can't do. To say the very least, I'm extremely disappointed. I've talked to all the neighbors and they are too. There's always excuses about not being able to do something further. Code enforcement is just another authority to be able to put the blame on in case council or in this administration can't do something. I talked to two council members I've known for quite a period of time. I was going to make this presentation myself, but I'm having some problems, and that's not new for my age. So I'm giving this letter to Council Member Brzezinski to read at the chambers and pass the pictures around so everyone could see what a great city we live in. I know why the city of Erie continues to lose residents in Mill Creek, Harbor Creek, Summit, and many other townships and boroughs, follow the regulations they adopt. The only place I know that doesn't do that is the city of Erie. Enough has been said, and if nothing is done, I'll understand. That is purely politics. I certainly don't understand why the structure is still up. The house I speak of is on 32nd Street. I can't read the exact address, but I believe it is 1354 West 32nd. This is from Citizen Fioreleone at 1364 West 32nd Erie.

Thank you. With that, we will go ahead and conclude the public comment section, and we will head into the rest of the agenda.

Mr. President, we asked the mayor to look into that situation, why the house has not been taken down. I walked around that house. It is terrible. There's rats running around on the back deck. I mean, some reason, some things happen sometimes. Things slip through. But there's no reason for that house to barely be standing where it is right now. The residents are pretty upset.

Yeah, I'll make sure we get this information forward over. And so that way, you can go.

Dr. Titus, I can respond during my report as well.

OK, thank you. All right, go ahead, Lori, sorry.

Okay, there is no ordinances for final passage, but we have a few for first reading. Council File Number 16624, an ordinance amending the Article 112, Rules of Council, under the City of Erie Ordinances, to add, amend, or update the language in various sections of the article, including the following sections, 112.01, Meetings, 112.03, Code of Conduct, 112.04, Consequences, 112.10, Order of Business, and 112.11, President of Council. Specifically, the goal of these changes is to improve the efficiency in the legislative process for City Council and or for citizens. Sponsored by Council Member Titus, seconded by Council Member Schaaf. The Council File Ordinance 16-624, having been read, is hereby adopted on first reading by City Council. Members Brzezinski? No.

No.

Flores? Yes. Horton? No. Poole? No. Excuse me, no. Schaaf?

Yes.

Troop?

No.

Titus?

Yes.

Resolution, or actually ordinance.

City Council read and... Failed to adopt first reading 16-624 by yeas 3, nays 4 on first reading.

Can I ask a quick question? Can this be brought up again with changes?

We could have done that with the amendments, but yes, we can bring it back with, it would restart the process.

So it could be brought back on the next agenda?

It would have to be to go back to the first reading with the changes, yes. Okay.

And also clarification, I believe people were still able to get the five minutes as long as they sent an email, right? Or was that completely taken out?

In the ordinance that was before us that just failed, that was removed.

So it would be three minutes across the board. Okay.

Okay, moving on, Council File Number 16625, an ordinance amending the City of Erie Zoning Ordinance to designate the former Foreman Block property located at 1013-1015 State, Erie, Pennsylvania, as historic structures pursuant to Article 7 of the City of Erie Zoning Ordinance and to amend the zoning map to reflect such designation. Sponsored by Council Member Horton, seconded by Council Member Schaaf, the Council File Ordinance 16625, having been read, is hereby adopted on first reading by City Council. Members Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores? Yes. Horton?

Yes.

Pol? Yes. Schaaf? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

City Council, read and adopt Council File Ordinance 16625 by Ye 7, Nay 0 on first reading. Council File Number 16-626, an ordinance amending the City of Erie zoning ordinance to designate the William and Mary Spencer House property located at 519 West 6th Street, Erie, Pennsylvania as historic structures pursuant to Article 7 of the City of Erie zoning ordinance and to amend the zoning map to reflect such designation. Sponsored by Council Member Horton, seconded by Council Member Schaaf, the Council File Ordinance 16-626, having been read, is hereby adopted on first reading by City Council. Members Brzezinski? Yes. Flores? Yes. Horton? Yes. Poole? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

City Council read and adopt Council File Ordinance 16-626 by Ye 7, Nay 0 on first reading. Council File Number 16627, an ordinance appropriating the sum of $435,000 from unappropriated fund balance in the liquid fuels fund for the expenditure thereof. Funds will be used for the supplies and consumables for the 2026-2027 winter season. Sponsored by Council Member Troop, seconded by Council Member Horton, the Council File Ordinance 16627 have been read as hereby adopted on first reading by City Council. Members Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores? Yes. Horton?

Yes.

Cole? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

City Council read and adopt Council File Ordinance 16-627 by Yays, 7, Nays, 0 on first reading. Council file number 16628, an ordinance appropriating the sum of $280,000 from unappropriated and unanticipated revenue for the expenditure thereof. The contributions from local businesses and used to fund expenditures associated with the City of Erie Police Department shot spotter subscription. The system provides real time alerts to assist officers with a quicker response time. The expenditures are associated with the Erie Police Department. Sponsored by Council Member Horton, seconded by Council Member Flores. The Council File Ordinance 16-628, have it been read, is hereby adopted on first reading by City Council. Members Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores? Yes. Horton? Yes. Pohl? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus? No. City Council rent and adopt. Council file ordinance 16-628 by yeas 6, nays 1 on first reading. Okay, this moves us to old business, which we have no old business on this agenda. So that takes us to new business.

Do we have a motion to move the ballot forward? Second.

Second.

Who did the first? I'm sorry. We'll get you on the first. I'll get you on the first. Councilor Pohl for the motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Councilor Trout. Any separations? I'd like to separate number three.

Number four.

And number five as well.

Three, four, five.

Yes, and then under contracts number one.

Mr. President, I don't want to separate number two, but why do we have a law firm's address For Robert Surrata. Does he have a normal address?

This is the address that he provided.

So he doesn't?

I mean, we can follow up with the clerk's office. This is the address that he gave that he wanted to be listed.

You appointed him. I thought you'd know.

That's the answer. Go ahead, Lori.

Okay, moving the balance of the agenda. Members Brzezinski? Yes. Horton? Yes. Pohl? Yes. Schaaf? Yes. Troup? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

Okay, resolution passes.

Flores is a yes as well, too. Her name just wasn't read aloud.

Oh, sorry. Flores? Yes. Okay. Separation of number three.

Just wanted to speak briefly. This is an appointment that I'm putting forward. Dr. Rhonda Matthews, I think she brings a great deal of experience from various background and positions that she has held. And especially the project and the entities that she's been working on through Black Wall Street, I think will be a great addition, just what she has learned through this process. And this would be replacing Laura Gunchen, who has stepped down to join the port.

Okay, this is sponsored by Council Member Titus, seconded by Council Member Horton, that Rhonda Matthews, Ph.D. of Ashtray, be hereby appointed to the Zoning Hearing Board to replace Laura Gunchen, who has resigned. Dr. Matthews' term will expire 12-31-2029. Members Brzezinski? Yes. Flores? Yes. Horton? Yes. Pohl? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

Resolution passes. Yay, seven, nay, zero. Number four, this is sponsored by Council Member Troop, seconded by Council Member Schaaf. The proper city officials are authorized and directed into an easement agreement with J&M Group, 1013 State Street for outdoor dining easement, index 15-2002-206. The dining area is within the State Street right-of-way in accordance with the drawing submittals. The dining area footprint is five feet wide by 27 and a half feet long. Discussion?

Dr. Titus, I am in favor of dining outside. I love that Parisian atmosphere where you can pretend you're anywhere dining outside. It's a nice community feel. I've eaten outside and talked with people as they walk by and vice versa. However, we did at the caucus talk about all the construction that is going on with the 10th and State Street area. And so having said that I support dining, I also support all the people who are having troubles in that corner with pedestrians, wheelchairs, what have you. That is more important because we have been having quite a bit of accidents in Erie with cars not paying attention perhaps. I stand at the corners and wait for people to pass and I watch people driving, looking down at their phone and not looking ahead at the light or the person on the corner. So we do need to make sure that our community during this construction period stays safe, and I would like this tabled.

Any other discussion or comment?

I'm always in favor of pedestrians in the community having access to get through our city. I've always stated that we prioritize developers over our community members, so I'm happy to see fellow counselors seeing the need with so much congestion down there that the residents shouldn't have to figure it out.

Usually the motion goes first, second, then discussion. So if my colleague is introducing that as a motion, I would love to second that. And then you can continue your discussion. Thank you.

Thank you.

So there's been a motion to table with a second from Councillor Horton.

would be any more discussion. I don't have any. I'm supporting my colleague. I just didn't want a motion to be out there on the table and we start having dialogue about it, which would be kind of improper.

Motion to table. Council Member Brzezinski? Yes. Flores? Yes. Horton? Yes. Poole? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

Okay. Resolution has tabled. Yay, seven. Nay, zero.

All right, so that would bring us to item number five, I believe. To kind of not belabor the point, I would like to motion to have this one tabled as well for all the evidence that was reported. So moved. Thank you.

Do you need a second?

Second.

Okay.

Discussion? Go ahead, Councillor Hoyer. It's probably moved and seconded in any discussion. My comments about this are the same as the last one, and I suspect that we're going to see a lot more of these coming down. And I think tabling this is good until we have a lot more dialogue about what it actually means to the community that actually lives there. A lot of times those businesses come near and they close and go home. back into the county or whatever. Some may live in the city, but we have Tulio Towers, Schmidt Towers, Mid-City Towers, Friendship Towers, Harbor, you know. We have people who live right there. They're usually black, brown, disabled, poor, mentally challenged. And so I just like to give them more consideration. And I'd like to give this more consideration. I'm perfectly all right with table in both of them.

Motion to table. Members Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores? Yes. Horton? Yes. Hull? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

Yes.

Resolutions tabled, yea, seven, nay, zero. Thank you.

I believe this takes us to contracts item number one.

Okay. Sponsored by Council Member Horton, seconded by Council Member Shaw, the proper city officials are hereby authorized and directed to enter into a contract with Sound Thinking, Inc., Cremont, California, for the annual ShotSpotter subscription services for July 2026 through June 2027, in the total amount not to exceed $280,000. Be it further resolved that City Council hereby does ratify and confirm the said transaction, which is to be charged against budget code, police machinery, and equipment. Discussion?

It's my request to pull this one aside. We did pass the ordinance on the first reading. This is an area with the shot spotter that I have not been supportive. I understand that we might have community funds to pay for it. I just find the technology to be questionable, and so this is something I won't go too far into it, but I just needed to articulate my My lack of support for this one, we don't need to discuss it further. There's no other comments.

I do want to comment, Dr. Titus, thank you, about why I am supporting this. The Chief did speak about that. My husband, where he worked, had one on the roof of their business. And it is located in a good area where shots are picked up. And shots happen a lot. I mean, they do happen. And they happen in different parts of the city. And if I was a person who was shot in my own home because sometimes things happen like that where just by accident even people are unfortunately cleaning their gun or something and things happen crazy but it happens. I would want immediate attention from the police and the mayor as well spoke to us about how she has been talking with the nonprofits and private people as well and this to me is a part of safety and knowing that that is even out there and how fast they can get to you. Like Chief Flora mentioned, crimes have been solved, homicides have been solved. Thank you.

Dr. Titus, I'd too like to comment. I've actually seen spot shatter work like in real time. I've actually seen it solve crimes and I won't point to specific crimes, but there was a shot fired incident and we weren't too far away from it. It seemed like the police were there like in two minutes. They were able to ascertain the guy was walking and it came knocked on the door. The neighbor said it wasn't here because they can pinpoint where the shot came from pretty much too. Within seconds, they were able to go into the house where the perpetrator actually fired the gun and went inside the house. I'm acutely aware because it wasn't far from where my son was killed. Many had spot shot when my children were killed. This came on after the fact. But I'd have loved to have had spot shot when my son Calvin was killed in a home invasion on 26th and Pennsylvania Avenue. And we didn't find out, find him, his body wasn't found until the next day. And so I would love to have had that. The statistics are real. That the chief spotted out, he didn't give you specifics, but yeah, 16 and 25, 26-year-old black men are being gunned down or are being perpetrators and victims. They're not the only ones. but where the things are located within the plan that I believe unified Erie. So the places that they've identified, they've yielded great results. I just read down in Corey, the Sheriff's Department took their show on the road to go down to Corey, VFW, Fire Department, and issue out gun permits. When I was at the county, it was always a steady line of people just coming up. coming up, getting gun permits. Most of them didn't look like me. And so, but I know that there's a proliferation of firearms, not only in the city, but in the county. County don't have that. But in the six, three, six blocks between French and, mind, it can happen on the east side, west side, too. They got them over there, too. But just speaking to the Erie, the unified Erie plan, where they've declared, from 2nd to 26th, from French to the Bayfront Highway or over Elm Street, Broad Street, a lot of that stuff going on over there. And we need quick response, if not just for the life-saving, but just to make an arrest and get the guns and get the people who are willing to fire into public places and public spaces safe. I don't care if they're my relatives or whatever. If you fire a gun in public spaces, then you should be held accountable. Because really, you don't care about anyone, whether it goes through, you don't care if it comes through my house, hits my children, hits my dog, hits my cat. You don't care. And anything that would expedite us getting you off the street, I support. So thank you.

President Tyler, Titus, I would like to make a comment. I grew up on 5th and Wallace and I had to have been about 12 or 13 years old and I was home with my grandmother and my uncle and my uncle went to the back door because there was a knock at the door and as he opened the door he was shot and he was able to close the door before they could get in but that happened in the early 2000 maybe around 2008 there was no spot shot So I'm not against this technology. I think it's useful to use in the... hour that that situation is happening, I'm in favor of making sure we have funds for it. So I'm understanding that there's a grant that they're applying for, and with the police, we know that they get whatever they want when they apply for grants, so we know our state's gonna take care of them. So that's coming. So I'm not against that. I am in favor of us going to the nonprofits and making sure that if they want to feel safe, that they contribute to helping us do that. And I know that the only way to do that with businesses and nonprofits is saying public safety. So I'm in favor. I wish we had more technology like this before because there are a lot of families that have unknown questions. That home invader was never found. My uncle walks around with a BB in his lung because it wasn't even a real gun, thank God. But at the end of the day, it's like people have trauma. I have a lot of locked doors. multiple locks because of the trauma that you grew up with. So families who deal with trauma might feel safe in different ways, and I'm not going to go against that. So I am in favor of this technology and making sure that we have avenues to pay for outside of local resident tax dollars.

Um, just to, I guess, cause we can speak on an item twice. Um, I want to just clarify and not make sure my, my, my opposition is, is not mischaracterized. I did all of these very incredibly valid and I'm at the forefront of, of advocating for, um, violence prevention, especially for victims of trauma. My specific concern is around the company itself, the technology itself, not the product it is producing. It is specifically just this company because they've had a lot of lawsuits against them. There's been issues in the past. They've lost in court. It is the company in specifics. Any other comments?

Dr. Titus, I would just make a quick comment. Echo Councilwoman Schaaf, Councilman Horton, and Councilwoman Flores, And I believe Councilman Pohl spoke on this also. So I agree with the shot spotter. I believe shortly after we came on council for our first term, there was a homicide that happened in Erie. And I believe that our police officers were able to, because of the technology, able to set up a perimeter around that person within, like, minutes, and they were able to apprehend this person. If that happens one time in ten years, then the technology's worth it, as opposed to someone getting away who murdered three people, whatever. You know what I mean? I agree with Councilwoman Schaaf that quick response and, you know, I know Mr. Witherspoon was here earlier. He was really big on it. You know, so I feel like it's necessary. So we'll go ahead and call for a vote.

Councilman Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores? Yes. Horton? Yes. Poll? Yes. Shaw? Yes. Troop? Yes. Titus?

No.

Resolution passes, yeas six, nays zero. This takes us to committee reports.

Okay.

We will go ahead and start with, I just completely froze it, a councilor poll.

I attended a meeting with Carlos and his team at Erie County United, and I never really knew what they did or stood for, or it was very enlightening to see what they're trying to do. And I welcome learning more about what they're about and helping their team. The Victory Cruise Line. was at the Port Authority and talked about bringing their ship in, not next year, but the year after. It's really not for local people because you have to get on and off at the same port, which this one goes from Toronto to Chicago. And in the meantime, they go around all the Great Lakes. And it's very exciting to have Erie as one of their ports now. Because it's not only going to bring in more people into the city that will learn about the city, hopefully when they get off the ships and go out into wherever they live, they'll talk about how wonderful Erie is. There's a bus, I was surprised to hear there's a coach bus that follows the ship around to every port that they go to. When they get off the ship, they get on the bus, and they tour around the city. And there's, I think, five or six different things that they'll be able to do during their stay. So hopefully that works out. I think it'll be good for the city. It's a start. They built that, I remember when they built the building down there at least 20 years ago. That's what it was made for. And it's finally, we don't move too quick around here sometimes, but that's what it was built for. And I'm glad to see it will be in use in the future. Yoni had a pension meeting that I attended. Excuse me. And I was at the ribbon cutting, excuse me, at the Nate Levy Park. last week for their new soccer field it's really nice what they did and didn't cost the city any money it's enclosed that's not just for soccer it's a multi-use where you can you know the kids will be able to go and feel safe in that enclosed area where they play soccer or kids won't play pickleball, but anything, even just to kick a ball around or something for them to do. And I hope this is the beginning of opening up the parks more and having kids have something to do instead of just standing around a park.

On their phones?

On their phone, yeah. I mean, they'll do that anyway, but yeah. NOT GETTING INTO THE PARK PLAN THAT THEY'VE BEEN WORKING ON, BUT I'M VERY EXCITED TO GET MOVING ON THAT. SO FOR THAT I'LL PASS.

Thank you, Dr. Titus. I want to start off my committee reports by just recognizing some of the citizens that came down today that have been consistent in their messaging and coming down and offering ideas. challenging us. Keep doing it. I'm not sure where Fred is at today. I haven't seen her. She's on a retreat. She'll be back. She just got back. I know that Michelle came today, Susanna, Jared. I couldn't understand the first name, but I know his last name is Page. I think it's D. Page. Cindy and Deontay for coming down. They had very different comments. Equality, Shotspotter. Jared made some suggestions for Erie. Mr. Page offered some ideas about programs. Cindy talked about the ordinance and police reform and some other things. Deonte talked a little bit about the ordinance and also about the trades, increasing that amongst our children, which I actually really agree with that. I work in the schools, and when I was in school, I actually built, I had woodshelf all four years. And my senior year, although I didn't have a full trade certificate, I did get a lot of the skills that I could have used those after high school. I saw my woodshop teacher maybe five years ago, and he said, hey, kid, do you still have that shelf you built in my class? I built a, this was 30 years ago, 35 years ago, I built a six-foot by three-foot shelf with all the fancy designs on it. It's still in my mother's house today. I would love to see a thousand other kids with those same skills that I got, so I actually agree with that. And we can talk about that, how we can kind of move forward with that kind of stuff. So for my liaison reports, I did reach out. A couple of them did respond. So from EMTA, they just said, just remind people to go to the EMT website and check out the transit development plan analysis and suggested route adjustments. It's important for people to weigh in. These are not plans. They are recommendations from the consultants to improve services based on the current data. So EMTA is looking for community input on their website and look out the transit development plan and give your input of that. Also from the redevelopment authority, they wanted me to talk about a few things. Ribbon cutting for the East Bayfront Greenway Trail at 5 p.m. It says, we completed a feasibility study for the porches of Central City Project and presented it to the Planning Commission for a pre-sketch review on July 21st. We are now moving into the design and engineering phase while continuing to pursue grant funding to subsidize the project. The acquisition of four blighted properties is underway through condemnation. An additional 15 properties are being evaluated based on current conditions. We kind of talked about something like that today. And recommendations from community and municipal partners. And they received proposals and will be awarding phase two environmental work for 1602 Parade Street at the next Redevelopment Authority meeting on August 10th. Also, just to finish up, I want to talk about a couple of events I went to. I believe the Amara Masala Fest held by Lynn Johnson in Perry Square. He also does a parade, brings together a lot of diverse people. That happened on July 18th. I'd like to say I attended the Erie High National Night out last night. It was a great job by all who were there, the volunteers, the first responders, the Erie High staff. Got to see the mayor. on her travels and also attended the, we have to be thankful for the Erie Jazz and Blues Fest, which is a big festival that happens every year in Erie. It was another success this year. Also wanted to say prayers to the victims of the recent fires. I meant to say that during the moment of silence. And I also saw a young man lost his life. Not sure why, but I'd like to say, you know, condolences to his family. And I believe that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Flores?

thank you i wanted to make a comment that i enjoyed the photos of the updated makeover for nate levy park i plan on going there later today to check it out being on council this last four and a half years It's impactful to me when I see the community spaces getting updated. As a young person who grew up here, I would go around to the plaques and I would see the dates in which they were modeled and then think to myself, why haven't we updated anything in 20, 30, 40 years? So the first one that really got me was the MLK Center's park. So that was near and dear to my heart and I'm happy that our kids don't have to play on the conditions. I still have those photos saved in my phone. prior to the update so i'm happy to see the nate levee park i look forward to seeing all the updates that we're slowly pushing forward over the next couple of years i wanted to mention that our houses are old we have a lot of deferred maintenance that occurred in the city and landlords do not upkeep the properties we have had an increase of fires i want people to Educate yourself on fire safety. Don't overload your power cords. Don't leave things on that shouldn't be on. I know a lot of people like to leave crock pox going and air fryers going. And it's like we have to do the work ourselves as well to make sure that our livelihoods are not taken from us by chance. I know it's a hard pill to swallow and we lose everything, but it's happening more and more in our community and we just have to be very vigilant on what we need to look for. I know I work with the intellectually disabled and we're always telling them how important it is to not overload your extension cords, not leave space heaters plugged into extension cords. not leave those candle warmers going for a long period of time. It's just we have to just do our part to make sure that people know the risk. And we have a lot of old houses here. And our electric work is probably old. And they probably have a lot of buddies that did a lot of projects for them in the past that probably isn't even half as safe as they should be. So let's just be honest and real. It's going to continue. We're going into winter months, and that is to be alarming. These houses are too close together. We need to make sure that we are educating everyone on what to look for and what to be aware of because a lot of people just don't know. And that's okay not to know, but at the same time, we need to make people aware. So I also wanted to say summer is winding down. Parents, if you need help with school supplies, there's a bunch of school giveaways going on in the community. Make sure you're getting in touch with the MLK Center, the Booker T Center, JFK Center. I know that a lot of nonprofits do their own little back to schools. And then also, if you haven't had a chance, make sure you make it to a Seawolves game before the season is done because it's the time. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll start this with Councilor Brzezinski.

two things one of them good news and bad news in a sense we lost school bowl as far as the Tigers are concerned but we have hope those of you who don't follow baseball the Dodgers gave us one of their top outfielders and the Tigers sent them sent them right here they'll be playing Friday night maybe before that let me check that closely But the guy is supposed to be a major leaguer pretty soon. So that's the good news. The other thing is, and some for the mayor to look into maybe, we're just setting some of our travels for the fall football season. And when I checked in the hotels in Chicago, they are now putting a destination fee instead of a hotel tax, which we can't do. $20, $25 in the spring. FOR EVERY PERSON THAT CHECKS INTO A HOTEL IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO. THAT'S OUT OF THE CITY MONEY, TOO. PEOPLE LIKE US COMING FROM PENNSYLVANIA OR WHATEVER. MIGHT BE SOMETHING FOR US TO LOOK AT BECAUSE THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT FILLS UP THOSE HOTELS DOWN ON THE BAY FRONT. THAT'S ALL I HAVE. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

COUNCILOR HORTON.

THANK YOU, DR. TYRUS. On July 21st, I attended the planning commission meeting. Boy, it was loaded. And so I got there. My colleague, Kathy, was attending there also. And the discussion was about benches not being enough of them on Parade Street, not being enough garbage cans. And there were questions about would putting benches there create a problem unhoused sleeping and that type of thing. But it was an interesting conversation. It's something that I hope that they will continue because as I go on other streets, there are benches and there are places to sit. They're really not on Parade Street. We also talked about the subdivision on East Lake Road. National Fuel is seeking to subdivide an SB3 property from the 100 acres that currently exist. I thought I wrote down how many they're going to change, but the development has already been begun. They're talking about having EV charging stations. Five RCAP grants help provide some of the funding. I just put down a note to me. All of this is nice, but we still need housing. I was pleasantly surprised that one of the commissioners, he was almost like reading my mind as the discussion was going on. He pointed out things that had been pointed out 25, 30 years ago and continue to be, which was part of the issue I had with the harbor, whatever that thing is, waterfront conditional use. They're going to build a man bridge, and they're calling that a north-south entry-exit or egress. I happen to know when this plan was developed, the very first thing they talked about was a north-south directional from the bayfront and how important it was. So important, they talked about it. Yeah, they're still talking about it 25, 30 years later. Everyone knows the areas behind it. Other communities, many of those communities, we benchmark from what they're doing. We look at Baltimore and we say, ah, let's go down and look at their harbor, see how nice their things are doing. And we benchmark that stuff, but we're 50 years behind. So while we're putting concrete in, they're tearing concrete out because they've learned from the lessons just as a byproduct. And so residents have talked to me about their concerns about What happens when we put pubs and things to do down there at the Market House and continue to put them on below Front Street? Because the general consensus is that people are going to come and they're going to do what they need to do down there, pubs, bars, whatever. They're going to come out their hotel, take their shower, and go east-west, not north-south. They're going to go up the summit where they have skating rinks and movie theaters and multiple more eating offerings. It's not a parkway. Those parkways are 35 mile an hour. It's a full-fledged highway designed to do just that. Just someone who worked in construction, I'm certainly not an engineer, but I do understand disconnecting neighborhoods and diverting commerce. The Bayfront Highway, All the odd streets on the east side of the Bayfront Highway have been called the South Dog. Not only do they separate neighborhoods and families, but they divert commerce. I remember those were houses over there. How many houses are gone there now? 500, 600? Those were taxpayers. Even if they weren't in the best condition, they were still on our tax roll. But they're not now. I look at Gannon's football field. How many houses were removed for that project? 250 houses? Taxpaying houses to entities that don't pay taxes. And so I was pleasantly pleased to have the one commissioner cite again how flawed the plan is and that it still doesn't address the north-south. I might also add that I was still underwhelmed by Erie Events' presentation even on that. It was even more underwhelming than the presentation we got for the thing in the beginning. I plan to have ongoing conversations with this gentleman. I want you to know that redlining is alive and well. It may front marketplace anything down there. It really does nothing for the Erie residents I know the messenger gets shot the hell up, and that's okay. I'm ready for it. But the fact of the matter is, and I stated before, since 1986, we've spent, we being the state, tax dollars of which we pay taxes to. So when people say, oh, it's not your tax money, it's a lie. We pay state taxes too. And when I look and see that since 1986, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has awarded nine and a half billion dollars to communities like ours all throughout the Commonwealth. And I look and I see where Erie County has received about 350 million of that since 1986. That's some really, really good stuff for some of it. Like we kept the ball field. We kept the team here. It wasn't a small thing. We kept the hockey team here. Cities our size don't normally have double A teams like this. So some good stuff. It's all Erie events, though. They own Warner Theater. They own Jerry Up Park. They own Tulio Arena. They own everything that runs continuous to the Erie Convention Center, including the two hotels, the two number one performing hotels in the country. Because they don't pay taxes.

My question is, because I ain't no hater against all that stuff, Dave, but...

Where's the return on the investment for the city of Erie? Because we get people come from all parts of the county and work in the city of Erie and recreate in the city of Erie and then go home. We get that the city of Erie has the highest taxes of any municipality out of the 32 in Erie County. I mean, we get that, right? And so I'm really proud of that commissioner because he says some other stuff. Our northern border is landlocked. Commerce is diverted from the city to the suburbs. Hotels are nice. We're worried about how many hotel rooms we can get for the people that we anticipate coming. If we build it, they'll come. But what we're not addressing is the lack of housing. I think we need housing more than we need hotel rooms. And, you know, I was married to a Jamaican Aaron and Kennedy's mother was Jamaican. I used to go down there and stuff. And it was hard for me to enjoy the vacation because the people who lived there couldn't afford it. So I can go and eat and I can go and dine and recreate and watch concerts while they lived in abject poverty. Not only that, they were the essential worker. And so when I say stuff like, I see people go to Harrisburg and there's not a black, and I'm going to ask, I know my time, but I just need to get this out. And I say, hey, there's no black people in that picture from Erie. It really means something. And I just feel the need to say a few things about that because people get sensitive when you say that. I say, well, black Erie lives matters. They say all lives matters. We never said black people who come from out of here didn't matter. We say black Erie matters. And it does. After 250 years of redlining and lack of funding and defunding, it matters. It doesn't... I didn't say anything negative about blacks who aren't from Erie. I say blacks from Erie matter. And that outcry from some who aren't Erie natives that... That that narrative that they want to paint that I'm against outsiders is crazy. And I'm going to reject you and call you out on it if I catch you doing it. Because I spoke to a gentleman whom I really, really respect after church. And he says, we got to stop this narrative of people, blacks that aren't born in Erie like they don't belong or deserve. I love this guy and I respect him. And I told him, hey, man. Respectfully, what are you talking about? My mother recruited you here. The center my brother works at is a history of recruiting people here. It's named after Reverend Franklin Smith. He recruited more blacks here from Mississippi and Alabama to come work here. He built Black Erie. Once I might say, after that, Erie Insurance in Gannon brought some blacks here. But in 1970, because we couldn't get it, my mother sued to have the city of Erie hire 10 black cops. She sued to go down south and recruit 10 black teachers or 20 black teachers. So y'all stop that narrative. Quit being so sensitive. Have your panties in a bunch because we need all hands on deck. Erie is changing. It's not 9% black anymore. It's not just black and white. It's like one-third BIPOC. We need all hands on deck. Anybody who says... I remember when Mel left, we recruited Mel with Gannon. Ben Wiley, I can name them all. So y'all stop that, and I'm always going to say that blacks in Erie matter, because we do. We were the ones who had bomb threats in our house. We were the ones that had dogs put on. In this city, we were the ones that had guns put to our head. And so, yeah, come to the city, bring your gifts, bring your talents, but grab your, you know, toughen up some. Erie lives matter. When I say black lives matter, all lives matter. Erie lives matter. And we don't get that right because Erie's not going to be settled down, satisfied just being the essential worker for tourists coming here. And that's what it's setting up to be. So I won't continue my report because I ate up a lot of time, but I did do some stuff. I got a lot of stuff I want to address. I want to address the parking authority. I want to address the CRIZ. I want to talk about CBAs. I want ergos my conversation in caucus. I got a lot of stuff I want to talk about. I don't want to talk about perfunctory stuff. I don't want to talk about it. It's a lot of stuff I want to do. We have to do. Not because I want to, but because we have to do. Thank you for indulging me.

Councillor Shaw.

Thank you. Council colleagues. My report will be a little bit shorter. Thanks to what all of you have said. So, I don't because I was going to address some things and now you definitely covered a lot of areas each and every 1 of you. So, I just want to say. Thank you to Jared, but you didn't have to do that because I'm just at a point in my life where I'm 65 years old this year. I've raised my family. They live out of state. My grandkids are teenagers. and live out of state as well. So I'm like the grandma who likes to show up and be a part of the family and I love the sense of community. I want to affirm Mayor Daria and your administration. I think they're doing a great job. I helped Liz Rays with the cleanup on Friday with East Avenue and the cleanup on Saturday on Parade Street. And Wuji was there, your team was there, they were going door to door. So I'd just like to be a part of that and thank you for that because to me it's all about community. I went to National Night Out, not as many as you did. I stayed a little bit longer and chatted because I'm a chatty Cathy. So I do want to say that Booker T. Washington really touched my heart. Their National Night Out because the matriarchs of that community were all sitting together underneath a tree and To me, I told them it reminded me of my Polish heritage family sitting together at a family picnic while watching the kiddos play, and that really touched me, as well as the one at Erie High with the cheerleaders and Motroops band playing away. So we all have something special to give each of us on council. And as a teacher, the students in front of me, you know, everyone's different. Everyone has special talents and gifts. It was great seeing Deonte Cooley at the judicial event, which was educational, very informative. It's all about community. Michael Woodard, had impromptu prayers over the family on West 4th Street with the fire. And they had a van that they were trying to fill for the family there. And I attended that. It's all about community and the connections that we make that build each other up. So We need to help definitely wherever we can. The Erie Gives is coming up for the lots and lots of nonprofits. And go through each and every one to try to make your decisions if you can on where to give. and how to help our nonprofits. And I thank everyone for speaking. The St. Benedict Academy had an open house, and I had been an alumni there, and it was like a mini-reunion there. Absolutely wonderful that that educational building is still being used by the people of the community that have great programs going on in it. Unfortunately, I drove past it today and didn't like what I saw on the streets because they had a bad litter day. And I saw it beforehand. So somehow a lot of stuff makes sense. I would encourage people not to put your garbage out until garbage day because there are people and animals that do go through the garbage, and right now there is a big mess. And I affirm... Mr. Horton with the benches and the cans. Because East Avenue had cans and Parade Street had no cans that I saw whatsoever. And then I was driving by and I'm like, I wanted to stop and pick this up, but I didn't want to put it in my car. But there wasn't a can that... So we do have to do better, but I affirm all the good out there and all the volunteers who are not named. Thank you.

Thank you. So the update that I have from the airport authority, this is a reminder to the public that they're going to have a global entry event at the airport on August 11th through the 13th. This is where regional community members can come in and sign up for a program and receive TSA pre-check free for five years. This is a pretty cool program. So if you are somebody who is traveling, if you go out to the airport the 11th through the 13th, you can get that pre-check signed up for yourself. They also wanted me to relay out that the Federal Aviation Administration has extended the flight restrictions into Chicago O'Hare International Airport until October 2027. So that means that there's going to be a delay with the contract with United Airlines service into Chicago. However, the American Airlines service into Chicago that is up in June is still available. So there is movement out there. There's funds that are coming as they're finishing up some of the... the right away or the the strip passages out there but there are some delays that's important for us to note as well they will also have some vacancies that will be coming up on their authority so to keep mind to the public as we enter into that process Met with Gus Pine last week with Erie events as well. And the focus of my concern were many of the things actually that Council Horton that you brought up. It's just many of the comments that we continue to receive from the public. And making sure that as they are moving forward with some of these processes that we're starting to see things like we are with the One Bayfront initiative where the public is involved. From the beginning, the input is valued and that community voices are centered through all of this. And I'm hopeful that we will continue to see that. I'm hopeful that we will see those projects engaged in such a way. Also got an update on the Erie Zoo. They've got their first set of financials in and things are actually improving. So this merger has definitely benefited in reminding everybody, too, that it's This is a regional asset, so this is not just now on the backs of the city, but that really is the region needs to step up and make sure that this is a success, but those numbers are trending in a way that they are heading in that direction. Met with the administration last week as well, and very timely for the comments I came up with, Mr. Cooley, around... skilled labor. A lot of the conversations that we're having, engaging with some of the contractors here who own programs or who are starting programs, but talking with ECAT, with the school district, the community college, and how do we make sure that we're pulling kids and young people into these programs? This is, if you've ever sat in a room with me for more than 10 minutes, you know that this is one of the things I harp on actually pretty hard, is skilled labor. Growing up in a family who is a union family, but a skilled labor family that I know that the trades are They're not going away and they're more important than they've ever been, especially as we see so much investment from the state level coming in to make sure that we're ready for these projects and that money deserves not only to be invested in Erie but to stay in Erie and to go back into the pockets of the people who live here in Erie. And then to wind down my report here is a couple of things. One, I am a little worried when we hear more of the EV stations being built around. Just kind of like just a little plug-in is because of our power grid. And so that's just like as we're looking at some of these projects that are coming down through, I think that this warrants discussion around the capacity gap. We've not fully embraced solar panels at a larger level yet. And so I worry that we're setting up for these electric cars and electric forms of transportation and our power grid simply just can't handle that. And what that will do to us as residents when we start to experience higher temperatures and more power outages. And then not to be a person of doom and gloom, but I do want to make sure that we are All aware, where I work at my day job, I see individuals in a primary care health setting and they've already received those first rounds that you are losing your health insurance or you are losing your benefits and we will see those benefits be cut off in October. So we are seeing a housing crisis right now, but when October hits, things are going to hit a new level of crisis. that I don't know that we are all fully prepared for. We're seeing the ramifications of some of that now, but it is about to explode to a whole new level. So it's gonna take not just the city, but the county who oversees the human services, but our downtown business partnerships and our nonprofits all coming together to address, because we're going to see things with the healthcare crisis, the housing crisis, but a food crisis, that we've not seen yet in the city. And I can't emphasize this enough, how dangerous this is about to really become for our residents. And so we need to start planning now, in addition to some of the other things that we're working on. And with that, I will go ahead and hopefully you have a much more positive report to give.

Oh, go ahead. Sorry to interrupt you, but I just want to make sure we get this in today, if I may. It'll be like 30 seconds. May I have 30 more seconds? I won't be able to go back to my mother's house if I don't say this. So today, August 5th, In 1947, a man was born. His name was Larry Meredith. So today's his birthday. And Larry, I'm just going to, it says, in 1977, Larry was elected as the first African American to serve on the Erie City Council and was later elected as president. And it also said Larry was a man of service. And I know August 5th was declared Larry Meredith Day when he passed away before. So all day today is Larry Meredith Day. And if you can do anything today, do something to serve somebody. So I just wanted to mention that today. Thank you.

Actually, why don't we head over to the control if you have a report for today. Yeah.

Just a quick report from the controller's office. Things are quieting down in our office. We're seeing what I would consider a drastic reduction in spending across most, if not all, departments in the city. We're very grateful for the mindfulness of our department heads and employees on this important issue. Our weekly and biweekly bills are being processed quickly and timely. We continue to track city expenses and make any recommendations we feel relevant to the city departments. We continue to maintain our open door policy and are happy to help or act as a sounding board for any department head or employee who needs our assistance with expenditures, etc. And as always, thanks to my extremely efficient and conscientious staff, Kate, Kelly, and Meg. They do an excellent job and are very knowledgeable. They keep operations in the controller's office running very smoothly. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and head over to the mayor. I'm going to put a request. If you wouldn't mind addressing just some of the conversations that we've had around community policing. And as a reminder to everybody, we have a study session next week that will center around PAL and not just the program, but also the financial pieces and what that looks like in its totality.

Yes, I want to thank the solicitor for giving me his pen. I didn't bring a pen down, so I've been furiously scribbling. Okay, so I'll start there. Thank you, Dr. Titus, for the reminder. So yes, council, at your request, there will be a study session. You've asked for it on the PAL program, but I think what we want to talk to you about is community policing as a whole. I think most of you remember and know that when I came into office, we created a new captain's position for community policing for Captain Lennox. We've had a lot of conversations with Captain Lennox about the fact that that does include PAL, but it also includes the entire spectrum of community policing. Community policing includes PAL, but it is not just the PAL program. So what we'll be talking with you about is the PAL program and its finances, because I know that's important to all of you, but also about initiatives with our new police council that we're building together, as well as recruitment initiatives, which I think we're all interested in understanding and knowing more about. and the kind of larger work that community policing includes. So all of that will be done at the study session, and I hope it will help you see that we're taking this holistically and not just kind of putting all our eggs in one basket. The other thing that I do want to address was the comment about the property on 32nd Street. Mr. Leone called our office, was extremely upset. We looked into the matter. So just so council understands, From what I have been able to discover, there was a fire in that property. The owner is gone. There was multiple attempts over multiple years to contact that owner. difficult for us to act when we don't have the permission of the owner who still holds title to the home. But multiple attempts were made. There was also an attempt to understand whether there was insurance on the property. Council knows we have to, as the controller has noted, we have to control expenses. So we need to make sure there's not insurance to cover demolition before we go ahead and expend taxpayer dollars. So it's not that nothing was done. This is a process. After discovering all the steps and talking with our property maintenance office, We have basically made the decision that we've done everything we can, and so now we have scheduled for demolition. So my understanding is the bid went out for demolition on that property this morning, and I would expect that demolition will occur within the next few weeks. So I just want to let council know that that matter has been taken care of, and it was being addressed. It's just that these things do take some time. We understand the residents' frustration, and we certainly sympathize with them, but it's being handled. There was a point made about power, Dr. Titus, I just want to address. I think many of our residents, especially during the Fourth of July weekend in the Frontier neighborhood on the Lower West Side were experiencing pretty extreme power outages. I know my office was getting a lot of concerned calls. So we have really been in touch with Penelec on this. As all of you know, Penelec is not under our control, but our residents come to us because they need answers. Talking to Penelec, we do understand there was a significant transformer issue, and they are working now to put in another transformer. So we hope that that will help, at least with the grid in that neighborhood, because that's where a lot of these issues have been occurring. I really also, you know, all of you council talked about the number of fires. Councillor Flores, thank you for talking about prevention. I also just want to say a public thank you to our incredible fire department. We get a lot of questions about how many firemen we need and why do we need such a large department. We've had five, I believe, structural fires in less than a week, three of them occurring within 24 hours, and then another two yesterday. So this is extreme, but it also demonstrates the need. When the need comes, we need these people to be there to answer the call. They have performed incredibly professionally. I want to thank Chief Trott, who's here, our deputy chiefs who take control of these fires. This is really above and beyond what we've seen in the last week. So I really want to call out and say thank you to them. National 9-Out was last night. We had a great night. Yes, Councillor Schaaf, I did make 13 sites in five hours. Pretty proud of that. Thanks to my good staff who moved me along. We moved quickly. I didn't get as much chance to chat as you. Structuring your comments that a lot of what you said was the troop family, because part of that matriarch, I saw Mrs. Troop sitting there, and then of course I saw counselor troop at Erie High, but all of the events were wonderful. One of the most fun things for me was how many small kids, because of the work I've done this summer, getting out, we were at the PAL events, we were at a lot of summer events, so many kids are like, that's the mayor, and they come up and wanna talk, and I love that, because as you know, my love for this city centers around our youth, and so I think that that was a great part of last night for me, but you're right, Counselor Schaaf, so many volunteers, just wonderful. Speaking of volunteers, we had two great cleanups, as you've noted, on East Avenue and on Parade Street. Those were back-to-back. East Avenue Friday, Parade Street on Saturday. Those were followed by neighborhood celebrations. I want to thank Liz Reyes and Wooji Ahmad, who really put those on. Also want to shout out my leadership team at the East Avenue event. They were all asked to attend. They did, and they did knock doors. So they went door-to-door in that neighborhood. Public Works, Chief of Police, and Fire Chiefs. All went out, knocked doors, had conversations. That's something we want to continue. Um, not everything we hear is positive, but that's why we're there. That's what we want to hear. So really want to shout out the leadership team. This is new for them. And I think they've really risen to the occasion and we thank them for that. Um, I know that, um, counselor Horton, uh, is had asked about the parking authority. I want to note that the solicitor has worked on a revised MOU that we will be presenting to the parking authority. It does address the issue of a contribution to the city as well as where that calculation has come from. So we will make sure council gets a copy of that as soon as it goes to the parking authority. We continue with those conversations. I do want to thank Captain Lennox for his work and his team's work on the PAL camp last week. Last week was the big one. They had something like 200 kids graduate on Friday. The chief of police and I and the command staff were at the graduation at the Highmark Center last week. Great week, lots of kids, lots of positives. my comments all i asked was who wants to be a police officer we need good police officers from the city of erie so that was uh great work by then and uh just quickly i also want to add to mr cooley and to your points dr titus 100 agree Um, in my conversation with Mr. Cooley on this issue, I think where we have to get away, we have to get away from the idea that we put up a table at Erie high, let's say, and we tell kids about these jobs and we don't do any followup. This has to be direct connection. It has to be trusted voices in the neighborhood saying to kids, how about this job? How about that job? I went to the web tech family picnic on Saturday. There were 5,000 people there. I talked to the plant manager who told me that web tech starts at $26 an hour. So when I've talked to a couple kids since then, I'm like, why don't you go work at Wabtec? Do you know what they make? Do you know what they do? These are the conversations we have to have with our young people, and it's going to take trusted voices like Mr. Cooley to do that. And that's the magic, and I think that's the future of our city. Lastly, I do want to address the comments that were made about the investigation regarding Mr. Sparks. I want to be very clear that we are very close to a public final announcement on this. I had a press conference two weeks ago when we marked the end of the investigation. We are in the personnel phase of that. We do not want to jeopardize anything in that personnel phase by sharing information or doing anything that could put our final results in jeopardy. But I would like to tell you that by the end of August, we will have this finally closed and we will be out in the community with a transparent report about what we found and what we're doing moving forward. So I do not want this period of silence to be perceived as doing nothing. Things are happening. And I would ask that we have a little more time. I believe by the end of August, we'll have this wrapped up. Um, and I just want to say I've been making the rounds with all of the programs that the city of Erie funds in the summertime, spoons and groundwork and so many others. There is great work happening with our youth in the city. We need to take that to scale and we'll be talking about that as soon as summer ends to start a plan for next year. But I really want to thank everyone who's out there, the community centers, Booker T and JFK and MLK and UECDC and Boys and Girls Club and everybody, Tyjuan Taylor. With Career and Dreams, we're hosting some interns here at City Hall. We're all focused on this youth issue, and I think we're going to make some progress here. So I just want to say thank you to everyone for that, and that concludes my report.

Thank you.

Solicitor, do you have a report that you want to...

The solicitor does not have a report today.

Thank you. All right. So just as a reminder then to council and to public, we have the study session next week. We also, just as a reminder to council, we have a finance meeting after this one. And to note that we have a public hearing coming up on a waterfront conditional use. This is different than other waterfront conditional uses we've seen before us. Please go back, if you can, to watch the design and planning videos so that you know what we have coming in front of us Even though this does apply under the waterfront conditional ordinances that we have, it falls slightly out of some of those definitions, so we'll have to approach it a little bit different. But we'll go ahead and adjourn today's meeting.

City Council adjourns at 11.23 a.m. Members Titus, Brzezinski, Flores, Horton, Poole, Schaaf, and True.