City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I now call to order this August 25th meeting of Lancaster City Council. A few reminders before we get started this meeting and its participants are being live streamed and recorded. So if you have not done so already please silence your cell phones and devices. This is a regular meeting of council this evening. There is a general public comment period on our agenda. First we will hear from residents who have registered with the city clerk and then we will open it up to uh anyone wishing to make uh comments on items that are not on tonight's agenda all speakers must begin with their name and block of residence to keep time we will use this light it will turn green when your time begins with flash yellow when you have one minute remaining and it will flash red when your time has been exhausted thank you in advance to everyone for ensuring equal and opportunity time for all and now for all those willing to please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Harris, will you please call the roll of members? Yes, Mr. President. Ms. Gastineau?

Here.

Ms. Holland-Jones?

Here.

Mr. Hirsch? Here. Ms. Majan?

Here.

Mr. Miller? Here. Mr. Stosswitz? Here. And President Metz? Here.

We will now hear an approval of the meeting minutes. This meeting was held on August 11, 2026.

Motion to approve. Second.

Council, you have been provided the minutes. Are there any comments or questions on the minutes? Hearing none, Mr. Harris.

Ms. Gastineau.

Aye.

Ms. Allen-Jones.

Aye.

Mr. Hirsch. Aye. Ms. Mijon.

Aye.

Mr. Miller. Aye. Mr. Salsvooz. Aye. And President Med. Aye.

We will now have proclamations, awards, and honors of recognition. Mr. Harris, do we have any of those this evening?

We do not, Mr. President.

Thank you. That brings us to reports requested by council. Any reports requested by council this evening?

We have none tonight, Mr. President.

Oh, sorry. I skipped over the public comment. Do we have any preregistered public comment, Mr. Harris? We do not, Mr. President. At this time, any folks who would like to make comment on items that are not on tonight's agenda? Hearing none, we will close the public comment period. We've already heard that we had no reports requested by council. Do we have any interim reports of committees of council, Mr. Harris?

None that I'm aware of, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Harris. That brings us to our legislative agenda, and we will start with the Historic Conservation District, Mr. Harris.

Considering the following application recommendation from the historical commission for improvements to a property in the heritage conservation district We have one immobility commercial LLC owner of 219 Harrisburg Avenue Proposes I'm sorry proposes construction of a metal pergola facing West James Street to cover a community herb and sculpture garden and that application was recommended for approval by the Historical Commission

Motion to approve. Second.

Council, we have a motion and a second. As some of you may recall, this project was associated with the Lombardo's expansion. I'm glad to see that the community herb garden and sculpture garden are coming to fruition. Do we have any council comments on the project? Any from the public?

Hearing none, Mr. Harris. Ms. Gaston, now.

Aye.

Ms. Holland-Jones.

Aye.

Mr. Hirsch. Aye. Ms. Majon.

Aye.

Mr. Miller. Aye. Mr. Stauskas. Aye. And President Mead.

Aye. Next, that brings us to resolutions. First, we will have administrative resolution number 72-2026. Mr. Harris.

A resolution of the Council of the City of Lancaster approving the appointment of Randall Zook as police chief for a term of three years and four months. Motion to approve. Second.

Council, we have a motion and a second. Before we open it up to council comments, Mayor Arroyo would like to make some remarks as this is a appointment from the mayor's office. Mr. Arroyo.

Thank you, Council President. Council members, this evening I'd like to ask for your support and vote to appoint former Captain and Acting Chief Randall Zook as our next Chief of Police. Acting Chief Zook has served Lancaster City and the Bureau of Police for over 23 years. He began his career as a community service aide and worked his way to Captain before assuming the role of Acting Chief on two separate occasions. Over the past few months, I've seen firsthand acting Chief Zook lead the bureau with integrity and intention. From building community trust through community engagement efforts such as coffee with a cop, to leading our detectives and officers through tough investigations. In my eyes, there is no better interview process than demonstrating your leadership through action. Acting Chief Zook cares deeply about our city, its residents, and our police officers. We have had countless conversations about culture shaping, leadership development, and prioritizing the well-being of our officers. We have discussed how to improve public safety in Lancaster City through prevention, education, and empathy. We both agree that the next Chief of Police will have the opportunity to shape public safety for Lancaster City for the next 20 to 30 years. I have no doubt that Randall Zook is the right person for the job. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Mayor Arroyo. And before we open it up to council comments and questions, Captain Zook, if you would please like to read some remarks. Good evening.

Good to go. All right. Sorry about that. Good evening, and I thank you for this opportunity. I first went to... technology. Okay, here we go. I first want to say that just sitting here before you tonight is an incredible honor and I would like to thank mayor Arroyo for his confidence in nominating me for this position. Being a member of the Lancaster city bureau of police is a privilege and being trusted to keep our community safe is something that I don't take lightly. The bureau is very well respected by local state and federal agencies that often interact and work with our officers and detectives. Our officers continue to proactively prevent and investigate crimes, build relationships with our community, and develop innovative training and work to make and keep Lancaster safe for residents, visitors, and businesses. I recently had a conversation with a retired couple from Wisconsin while I was walking down by the square, and they just expressed how safe they felt walking around the city. And that meant a lot to me because that, I think, reflects on the work that our officers do. I've been blessed with an amazing career with the Bureau. I've had the honor to work in almost every facet of our agency, starting as a civilian community service aide, and I've truly enjoyed every role that I've held. The most meaningful to me was, other than I think leading some of our officers, the most meaningful to me was working in our Special Investigations Unit, where I investigated and arrested those who committed vile acts against the most vulnerable victims. When I started in 2002, I never thought I would end up in a leadership role within the Bureau, but I've worked hard to do the best that I can in every role that I've held, and I will continue to work to improve myself and our agency. As I discussed this role with Mayor Arroyo, Sorry about that. As I discussed this rule with Mayor Arroyo, there was one thing he said that really stuck with me. He said we have a young department with many new officers that are just starting out, and we have many more that will be starting over the next few years. We have an amazing opportunity to positively impact the culture and direction of our department to continue building on our current successes, but to keep striving to take it to the next level and make it even better for the residents of today and tomorrow. And I would lastly and most importantly like to thank my wife, Lori. I'm very pleased that she's here and my daughters as well. My sons couldn't be here. One's in college and one's training for football. But their support has been amazing. Lori has had to bear the burden of dealing with my crazy hours, shift changes, swing shifts, added stress during tumultuous times, and fortunately only one trip to the ER over the past 24 years. She has been invaluable as a partner. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary, and I would not be where I am without her support. So I thank you for your consideration, and it's an honor to serve the city of Lancaster, and it's an honor to have this opportunity.

Thank you, Captain Zook. And first off, thank you for your service over the several decades that you've been with the department. My questions are, you spoke about a commitment to community engagement and building trust in the community. How do you plan as the chief to expand that and your vision towards an engaged community?

OK so I think our office of community engagement has done amazing work and you're familiar with the national night out. We had a thousand people at our police station the barbecue event that we had the other week and the coffee with the cops. So those are things that we do well. I would like to see us try to do a little bit more of getting back out into the businesses meeting the business owners meeting the neighborhood organizations. When I started out I got to be bike trained and worked in the southeast on sector 5 and 6 at the time on bike. And I really enjoyed that. You're out, you're communicating with people, you stop, you go in and talk to the corner store owners and the people that are involved in the block watches and stuff like that. And that's one thing I think that we can work to do a little bit better with is just that normal day-to-day interaction and relationship building.

Thank you. And my final question is, and you touched on this, and I agree with Mayor Roy that we do have an opportunity with a newer staff with many cadets who have just come on to the force. If you could just talk about some of the opportunities we have to not only create a culture within the department, but also have a commitment to modern day policing and accountability within the department.

So yeah, we were making a real drive to do to get everyone CIT trained. We do a lot of like trauma informed training, and working with our social workers, as far as like having that empathy and they're not everything requires enforcement, right? There's other things that we can do. And I see that with our young officers, they're really taking the time to do those things and to build those relationships and to look at alternate venues like that are avenues. I'm sorry.

Thank you. And I'll open it up to council comments and questions. Yes, Councillor Gastineau.

Thank you. Kevin Zook, thank you so much for your service. It was wonderful to meet with you last week and I really appreciated your sincerity and enthusiasm for our city and our community. And so just want to thank you for that. I understand that this appointment would be for a term of three years and four months. And I understand that you are approaching retirement eligibility within more like a year and a half. And so just because we've seen some turnover in the police chief department, I would love to learn a little bit more about your expected tenure as chief and what you sort of see the next few years looking like.

So, you know, I will reach my 25 years in January of 2028. But at this point, I don't have like a set date where I would plan to like, I mean, everything is would be open, but I am definitely open to consider staying past that. That's not like a hard set date for me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Gaston. Any other council comments?

Council President?

Yes, Councilor Miller.

Thank you for stepping up for this role. I know that you've had a long career. It was nice to review your resume and I'm excited to see the perspective you'll bring into this position. My question is around priorities, areas you see as where you'd like to leave your mark in this role and then There's obviously enforcement priorities that any police department has in a jurisdiction, and I'm curious what you see as major areas for improving public safety in Lancaster City.

Thank you for your question. I believe that we do a lot of things really well already. Like I talked about, Lancaster being safe. As far as enforcement, again, I think... this is an enforcement thing but but i talked about building these relationships i think is so important uh... as we continue to expand and increase our staffing that's kind of been hindrance to us in the past as far as getting out on bike and doing these things i would really like to as we increase staffing go back to focusing on doing being able to do things like that more to be out on bike or you know however that, whatever that looks like, but just to be more visible and be able to interact with people. And as far as specific enforcement, I don't really have anything that I can think of off the, you know, but as, you know, I think we do well with reacting to things that come up. If something, I look to the work that some of our detectives did when we were having some of the shots fired with just the investigative work that they did to be able to identify the suspects in that and roll with it and review surveillance video from stores and to do all of that and to be able to identify them and then to bring prosecution against that. I think we do that very well. So it's just to continue to give our people the tools that they need to be able to be adaptive and innovative, and as things come up, to be able to successfully investigate and prosecute them.

great thank you and i know that a lot of folks are excited to see a more visible police force in that way i'm very excited that you have the bike experience there a lot of things i hear from constituents are concerns around bike safety pedestrian safety e-bikes on sidewalks things like that knowing you have direct experience on a bike in our downtown areas is really important to me and I HOPE THAT YOU WILL HAVE DISCUSSIONS WITH YOUR DEPARTMENT ABOUT HOW YOU CAN ADDRESS SOME OF THOSE SAFETY CONCERNS, BUT I'M EXCITED TO HAVE YOU HERE.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

ANY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS FROM COUNCIL?

YES, I'D LIKE ONE QUESTION. YES, COUNCILOR HOLLAND-JONES. FIRST OF ALL, THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO MEET WITH YOU THE OTHER WEEK. YOU'VE TALKED A LOT ABOUT WHAT YOU WANTED, BUT I'VE NOT HEARD YOU USE THE WORDS COMMUNITY POLICING. WILL YOU BE DOING THAT?

Yeah, I believe that even though I didn't use the words like building the relationships and being out and active in the community, I think is kind of the essence of community policing.

Okay, thank you.

Councilor Stoltzfus.

Thank you, Council President. I don't have any questions for you, but I just wanted to make a comment. I had the privilege of working with you when I was the director at SOE. Your commitment to the city, the respect that you have in the department, the respect that you have in the community, I think are all tremendous assets and ones that you've earned. So I'm really looking forward to working with you in this role.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Councilor Mijon.

I don't have a question, more like a comment. Congratulations on the nomination to be the chief. And second, I can't wait to work with you on community engagement and keep opening that communication door within the community. Thank you and congratulations.

The feeling is mutual. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Mijon. Councilor Hirsch.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Captain Zuck, for being here. You know, I think your resume is obviously very strong. You have a lot of experience. You know, I had the privilege of being a part of the Citizens Police Academy with several of my colleagues up here this past fall, and I learned a lot about the structure of the department. And seeing all the different hats that you've worn within the department over the years, it leads me to believe that you are the right choice for this role. I did have one question and I'm just curious if you have any thoughts on it because it is something that comes up a lot and I think Councilor Miller kind of alluded to it but traffic safety is really top of mind for a lot of people. Is there anything that you see that the department could do differently to better enforce traffic laws and traffic safety within the city compared to I guess current practices?

So I mean, the e-bike thing and some of these, it's kind of evolving so rapidly. And so we've been in communication with other agencies, the struggles that they're having in trying to enforce some of the the regulations a lot of these bikes aren't even properly regulated yet so it's it's we're we're working with the district attorney's office we're working with other agencies to kind of come up with what our best practice is because we have to to weigh you know okay we try to stop one of the bikes and they take off on us then you know then we have to revert back to our pursuit policy and that's not something so we have to take into account the safety of the rider the safety of the others So that's something that we're continuing to discuss continuing to work on So I think that's kind of the the big one for for right now over and it's again a work in progress on that Thank You captain sir Thank You council we will now open it up to any questions or comments from the public Feel free to come to the microphone

Please begin with your name and block of residence. Good evening.

Good evening. It's Whitney, 240 North Reservoir Street. Congratulations. I am a big advocate for remembering the families and Lancaster City. I love it. I know so many people here, so i'm always in here, you know, make my way around to kind of advocate for myself and my friends and family from the city. Coming in, just to remember the households and families, and people are under a lot of stress. It seems like the last two years, there's been some odd things happening. And I know that a lot of people are struggling right now. Domestic violence, drug and alcohol, the kids with school, parenting. So just remembering that people are going through stuff on a daily basis. but also the efforts towards becoming better residents and better citizens is also a daily contribution and daily effort every day. With the kids on the e-bikes, I know a whole bunch of them. I have kids, young kids that are in middle school and high school and their intentions are well. They really, really love being on these e-bikes. I know they're not the best on them because sometimes my heart is like, did you just do that? I'm like, but we're trying, moms are trying, dads are trying. Everyone's trying to do their best, but working through the stuff and the muck that has happened, our upbringings and not having the best upbringings and struggles that we go through. and then um now we're parents ourselves and we're in like a different transition some of us are going into our like our 40s and 50s so it's a little bit different with the experiences from how we were raised and then now we have our kids on our own and the efforts that we put forth so um i'm always like so worried because i know like as a kid in lancaster there was times where me and my friends were walking and we're in a big group it wasn't the e-bikes or anything back then But we got ran down on by police, beat up, arrested, and that started the beginning of us being streamlined through the judicial system. It's hard because once you're in that system and you get that certain mindset, you have these traumas, you have these fears, you have these things that you've been through. My effort is always trying to figure out what is the balance with the kids. Even as an adult, I still have my struggles and things that I go through. But one thing about me and a bunch of the people that I know from the city is that it's always a constant effort on personal development. Like, you know, if someone with wisdom can sit and talk and have a conversation, that's going to be considered. It might take a month or so or throughout the year to be implemented, but it's always a long-term goal. In Lancaster, the effort is definitely a focus on, like, in the household, parents and the and doing our part in the city as parents and for our kids to come up and not have to have those type of experiences so um you know congratulations and um definitely working on my relationships with you know the city and through my traumas and everything but if you can please consider in your guidance and in your work the younger ones and then also the households and the families and the stress and the traumas and transitions that people are going through because um you know there's people that are marrying and staying together that grew up as single families that lost family members dads walked out moms couldn't and again the drug and addictions and working through those things so yes thank you thank you Whitney I appreciate that

Good evening, Mr. Marshall.

Good evening. Andrew Marshall, 1123 Union. I'm just happy that I got a call that wasn't about coming to protest the city or the school district. It was about honoring a friend of mine and somebody I respect. You made an outstanding choice of this gentleman and the young lady is talking. That young man right there, the first thing that when I see a police officer, I've never called the police in my life, but the first thing I think about in a police officer is integrity. That's a good man right there. And if you start with that, everything else can come into place. But if you don't have a good person with integrity, everything else folds. So you're talking about developing young people who are in the police force, having somebody at the top that starts and leads with integrity is where you start at. So congratulations, my friend, and the city did it right this time.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Marshall. Any final public comment on the appointment? Hearing none, Mr. Harris.

Ms. Gastineau?

Aye.

Ms. Allen-Jones?

Aye.

Mr. Hirsch? Aye. Ms. Mijon? Aye. Mr. Miller? Aye. Mr. Stolzfus? Aye. And President Med? Aye. Congratulations, Chief Zook.

Thank you very much.

That concludes our legislative agenda. We will now hear the report of Mayor Arroyo.

Thank you, Council President. Councilors, I would like to give you a brief update on our search for the next Director of Administrative Services. We recently concluded our first round of interviews and we'll have our second round of interviews next week with our city leadership team. And thank you to our Chair of the Finance Committee, Councilor Hersh, who will also be participating in the interviews. we hope to have a decision made and a final candidate to present to council for appointment by late september in the interim chief of staff vacay has been serving in the acting director capacity and doing an amazing job leading the department per the city's administrative code article 3 section 2 no person shall serve as an acting director or chief for more than 90 days unless confirmed by council As of this meeting, Amanda Baker has served as the acting director of administrative services for over 90 days. While we are currently conducting interviews for a permanent director, we need her to continue to serve in this capacity to meet our business needs. I would ask for council's consent for her to continue to serve. That concludes my report, Council President.

Thank you, Mayor Arroyo. Mr. Vice President, I believe that you would like to make the motion.

Yes, I would. I would like to make a motion to extend Amanda Baquet as the Acting Director of Administrative Services beyond the 90-day period.

Second.

Councilors, we have a motion and a second. First, I would like to thank Chief of Staff for filling in this interim capacity. I know it could be a lot, especially while also doing the duties of Chief of Staff. So I would personally like to thank you for your service. And is there any questions or comments from Council on the extension? Any comments from the public? Hearing none, Mr. Harris?

Ms. Gastineau?

Aye.

Ms. Allen-Jones?

Aye.

Mr. Hirsch? Aye. Ms. Majan?

Aye.

Mr. Miller? Aye. Mr. Stosswes? Aye. And President Matt? Aye.

And Mr. Arroyo, does that conclude the Mayor's report? That concludes my report. Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Mayor Arroyo. That brings us to the report of the President of Council. Just briefly, I would like just to remind members of Council to use the JOT form that was sent to you for comments and feedback on the capital budget plan, and also would like to encourage members of the public to utilize Engage Lancaster to make any comments, which we would certainly appreciate to have. And that concludes my remarks. Are there any council comments this evening?

Council President, do you know the deadline for submitting?

It is the Friday before the hearing. So the hearing is Tuesday, September 8th. So I believe that would make it Friday. September 4th. September 4th.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Stolzfus. Any final council comments? Hearing none, we will hear a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

We are adjourned.