County Council - Regular Meeting

the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. Ms. Lawrence, will you call roll, please?

Mr. Bellis?

Here.

Mr. Kozlet.

Here.

Mr. Haas. Here. Ms. Krishnowsky. Here. Mr. Lombardo. Here. Ms. McDermott. I see you on the Zoom, but you're muted. Ms. Simmons.

Here.

Ms. Smith. Here. Ms. Stevenson. Ms. Williams. Here. Ms. McDermott. Here. Ms. Stevenson, Mr. Sabatino. Here.

Thank you. Is there any public comment on the proposed ordinance amending the 2026 fiscal year budget for the Luzerne County Broad Street Exchange line item? Any on the Zoom? Motion to adjourn? Motion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed, abstentions? We are adjourned. We're going to go right into the second public hearing. We've already had the Pledge of Allegiance and the moment of silence. Ms. Lawrence, if you could call roll, please.

Mr. Bellis?

Here.

Mr. Coslett? Here. Mr. Haas? Here. Ms. Krishnowsky? Here. Mr. Lombardo? Here. Ms. McDermott?

Here.

Ms. Simmons? Here. Ms. Smith? Here. Ms. Stevenson? Here. Ms. Williams? Here. Mr. Sabatino?

Here.

10 of 11.

Is there any public comment on the proposed ordinance amending the 2026 fiscal year budget for Luzerne County Planning and Zoning? None from the audience. Any on the Zoom? Motion to adjourn?

Motion. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed, abstentions? We are adjourned. We will continue right into our voting session. We've already had the Pledge of Allegiance in the moment of silence. Ms. Lawrence, could you call roll, please?

Mr. Ballas?

Here.

Mr. Coslett? Here. Mr. Haas? Here. Ms. Krishnowsky? Here. Mr. Lombardo? Here. Ms. McDermott? Here. Ms. Simmons? Here. Ms. Smith? Here. Ms. Stevenson? Here. Ms. Williams? Here. Mr. Sabatino?

Here.

10 of 11.

I did not bring the recognition for Christopher Becky in here. So we will do that at the next meeting. Mr. Skeen, can you announce the executive session for us? Certainly.

Before this meeting, we held an executive session discussing two different litigation matters.

Thank you. Are there any deletions from tonight's voting session agenda? Seeing none, is there a motion to adopt tonight's voting session? I'll make a motion.

Second. Chairman, I just want to note that the officers are here tonight.

We're going to do it. She's going to print it out, bring it in. We'll do it after public comment then. Okay. Thank you. We've had the motion and the second to adopt tonight's agenda. All in favor? Aye. Opposed, abstentions? tonight's agenda is adopted and we'll say she's on Stevenson.

Yes.

Okay. We're going into public comment. Mr. Griffith, you're my first slip.

Thank you. Good evening, council. I would like to ask council to put an item on the agenda if they could. And my public comment is regarding adding something to the agenda possibly, which would be a recall. I'm hereby requesting a recall motion be made for the immediate recall of Mr. Sabatino and Brittany Stevenson as the chair and vice chair of this council. They violate many sections of our charter as well as bylaws. And I'm asking someone on council to make a motion for their immediate recall and declare a decision vacant and reappoint new chairs and vice chairs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Griffin. Next up, I have a slip from Jerry Kaczynski. Mr. Kaczynski.

Yeah, Jerry Kaczynski from Swartzel. I'd like to know why you had to bring someone in here when we had the Q&A session about the anti-discrimination. Didn't you know enough about it to question and answer? What was the deal bringing someone else from a different county in here? That's all I want to know.

Okay. Are you done with your comment?

Yes, I am.

Thank you. Is there anyone else from the audience who would like to make a public comment tonight on agenda items? Mr. Granteed?

Joe Granteed, Plains Township. Thank you, next. Thank you, next. That's what we get when we stand up here and we ask a question. Thank you, next. It's not right. But I want you guys to keep doing exactly what you're doing. Because our eyes were opened over the last six weeks. And you're doing a heck of a job for this county. And they recognize it. Thank you.

Anyone else from the audience tonight? Go ahead, please state your name and municipality for the record.

My name is Karen jobs. I live in West Pits in Pennsylvania. I would like to thank all of you for passing the anti discrimination ordinance. I know you have gotten a lot of pushback from the community. But for those of us who want to live a more open life with all of our community, all of our cultures, that is appreciated.

Anyone else for comment tonight on the agenda items? Anyone on the Zoom? Ms. Cochem, I believe. Please unmute yourself.

Go ahead, Ms. Cochem.

Ms. Cochran, you're unmuted. You can speak now.

Can you hear me now?

No.

We're having trouble hearing you. There's some reverb.

Is that better?

A little bit better. Could you speak up? Go ahead, no, okay. We'll circle back to you, Ms. Cochran. Anyone else for public comment on agenda items only? All right, number one, motion to adopt the minutes from the July 14th, 2026 voting session.

So moved.

Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposition? Any abstentions? Number two, motion to adopt the minutes of the July 2026 voting session.

Motion.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. Number three, motion to adopt an ordinance amending the 2026 fiscal year budget for Luzerne County for the Broad Street Exchange. So moved. Okay.

Chair, is that an automatic submission on behalf of the, County manager?

No. It's the adoption.

We're adopting it tonight.

Oh, okay.

So the next two are adoptions and then we'll have the auto introduction for probation after the next two. I will do the roll call while Ms. Lawrence is out of the room. Mr. Bellis? Yes. Mr. Coslett? Yes. Mr. Haas? Yes. Ms. Krasnowski? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Ms. McDermott?

Yes.

Ms. Simmons?

Yes.

Ms. Smith?

Yes.

Ms. Stevenson?

Yes.

Ms. Williams?

Yes.

And I am a yes. Passes 11-0 unanimously. And now that Ms. Lawrence is back with the proclamation, we will jump right into that for our friends, the officers who are here tonight. All right. Whereas Officer Christopher Vecchi has been a resident of Luzerne County for the past 20 years, having made this community his home for his family after being born and raised in New Jersey. And whereas Officer Vecchi has dedicated 19 years to local law enforcement in Luzerne County, having served with distinction in the Exeter Borough Police Department, the Wyoming Borough Police Department, and for the past three years, the Luzerne Borough Police Department. And whereas Officer Vecchi is a graduate of Morris County Community College, with an associate degree in political science and further trained at the Police Academy at Lackawanna College, reflecting a lifelong commitment to public service and professional excellence. And whereas Officer Reckie has additionally served for 16 years as a federal police officer at Army installations, including the Picatinny Arsenal standing as both a local and national guardian of public safety. And whereas on Saturday, August 1st, 2026, while on routine patrol at approximately 549 a.m., Officer Becky discovered a structure fire in the 200 block of Bennett Street in Luzerne borough. And whereas Officer Becky immediately notified dispatch and without regard for his own safety, personally alerted the occupants of the burning residence as well as the residents of two adjacent properties, taking swift and decisive action to save lives. And whereas, although the fire tragically claimed the life of a 15-year-old resident and a family pet and left three other family members hospitalized with serious injuries, Officer Vecchi's courage and urgency prevented further loss of life and mitigated additional harm. And whereas Officer Vecchi has sought no recognition for his actions, his quiet selfless conduct in a moment of crisis reflects the very highest ideals of law enforcement profession and whereas officer becky's willingness to instinctively act and decisively in in the earliest most dangerous moments of an emergency exemplifies the training discipline and presence of mind that come only from a career built on sustained dedicated service And whereas Officer Becky's simultaneous commitment to both local policing in Luzerne County and federal service protecting national defense installations speaks to an unusual depth of devotion to public safety carried out faithfully across two roles and two decades. And whereas the character of Officer Vecchi displayed on August 1st, 2026, did not arise in isolation, but reflects a career-long pattern of quiet professionalism, humility, and readiness to serve qualities that have earned him the respect of his colleagues and the trust of the communities he has served throughout Exeter Borough, Wyoming Borough, and Luzerne Borough. And whereas Officer Vecchi in his personal life is a proud parent to his teenage son, Tyler and stands as a devoted example of both service to his family and to the community he protects. Now, therefore, we, the Luzerne County Council, does hereby proclaim recognition of Officer Christopher Vecchi for his heroism, dedication, and unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of the residents of Luzerne County and extend the county's deepest gratitude for his service, along with heartfelt condolences to the family and residents affected by the events of August 1st, 2026. Officer?

Sorry. I just want to thank you guys for this honor. I truly selflessly just saw it as doing my job and I was at the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, you know, my life was taken. That still hits pretty hard. But I'd like to thank my chief for putting me in for recognition and the mayor of Luzerne Borough and my family for being here with me today. I definitely couldn't do the job I do without my family, so thank you.

All right, thank you.

Number four, motion to adopt- Excuse me, Chair, while we're stopped, I'd like to ask about number eight on the agenda. I think we need to revisit adopting the agenda. Is that a motion?

No, we're getting an update before we get two motions. The two motions that follow it.

So that does belong on the agenda. It just seemed out of place. Sorry.

Yeah, it does. Okay. Number four, motion to adopt an ordinance amending the 2026 fiscal year budget for Luzerne County Planning and Zoning.

Motion.

Second. Roll call, please.

Mr. Bellis?

Yes.

Mr. Cosley? Yes. Mr. Haas? Yes. Ms. Krishnowsky? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Ms. McDermott?

Yes. Ms. Simmons?

Yes. Ms. Smith?

Yes.

Ms. Stevenson? Yes. Ms. Williams? Yes. Mr. Sabatino?

Yes.

Unanimous.

Thank you. Number five, this is an auto introduction of the ordinance amending the 2026 fiscal year budget for Luzerne County Probations. County Manager?

Council, I am introducing an ordinance amending the 2026 fiscal year budget for Luzerne County for the Probation Department.

Thank you. Number six, motion to adopt a resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project for Larksville Borough. So moved. Second. Any questions? Roll call, please.

Mr. Coslett?

Yes.

Mr. Haas?

Yes.

Mr. Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Ms. McDermott? Yes. Yes. Ms. Simmons? Yes. Ms. Smith?

Yes. Ms. Stevenson?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. Bellas.

Yes.

Mr. Sabatino. Yes.

Thank you. Number seven, motion to adopt a resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project for Harvey's Lake Borough. So moved.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Mr. Haas.

Yes. Sorry. Ms. Williams.

So this is

This is for a modification for Harvey's Lake Borough. And my question is this, on the paperwork within the packet, it states that the construction start date would be July 6th. I don't see any construction has started and it's August 11th now. So is this going to have a bearing on this being completed by the newly requested movement to, I believe it's November 26th to complete. So do they still anticipate And also, when is it going to start construction, if anybody knows? Because my question is, I know that past Councilman Thornton used to always bring up a concern about this being wrapped up by the end of the year, this $855,000. So just have a question on when's the construction going to start? Is it still going to be completed by the November date that they're asking for the extension of, being that July 6th was when the construction was going to start, and it's still not started.

We have Michelle Sparage and Mike Lombardo here to answer those questions.

I was going to say, Mr. Lombardo is here to answer the questions as he represents Quad 3. He can come up, but we did have a conversation with Booth Management Consulting earlier today, and because the end of the ARPA program is fast approaching, they have changed it now to say substantially complete. So I just wanted to give you that update before he speaks.

The Treasury, we were notified today that the projects have to be, Treasury came out with new new interpretations, and the one is that the projects have to be substantially completed.

What does substantially mean?

Well, that's a good question. I didn't see the update. Booth will send it, but both you and I are lawyers, and it would mean that if there's a question, we have to put our wordsmithing hat on and and define substantial, depending on what the project is.

Why don't we start some new projects?

Yeah. I'm not with the Treasury, so.

I'm sorry for being out of order, Mr. Chair, but I couldn't help it.

Am I good? Good evening. Thanks, Council, and thank you. Administrator, I appreciate that. I'm Mike Lombardo representing Quad 3 Group of Wilkes-Barre. We are one of two engineers on this project. And over the last few days, I've had pretty in-depth discussions with the municipality and with our engineering firm to answer the question, Ms. Williams specifically, the project wasn't started because they were worried about the ability to get the extension and whether that was going to happen or not. So they have already awarded the contract to a construction company. It's D&M Construction. They were ready to go about three weeks ago, but then concern came up about whether they would get the extension or not, and they were concerned. Speaking to Sam Scarentino, who is the engineer, the architect on the project from Quad, and speaking to the construction company, they're confident that this isn't a complicated project. It doesn't require special materials coming in from anywhere, and they're confident they can get the project complete. I mean, I would ask that you certainly consult with our firm in terms of what the engineering definition of substantially complete would be. And I won't object to Mr. Haas complaining. I'll put another hat on. I won't do that now.

Is there an engineering definition of substantially complete in engineering?

There is an engineering definition of substantially complete. I am not an engineer, but I would get you that answer specifically.

But that would have to be for that particular project. If it's a different project, substantial may be something else. Okay.

It's not just a general engineering term, it's specific.

Yeah, I think like for this project and not to speak out of school, you know, finishes certainly wouldn't be, if they weren't complete, the walls weren't painted, that wouldn't affect the project to being substantially complete. I mean, the structure, the infrastructure, the utilities and a certain percentage of, and I think Romilda is exactly correct. It varies from project to project. There is a base of that. That's where it would be.

Are there any other questions for Mr. Lombardo? Okay. Thank you, sir. Thanks.

It's nice to not have to answer yes to roll call when they call Lombardo.

We could change that.

Any other questions, Ms. Williams? Okay. Roll call, please.

Mr. Haas?

Yes.

Ms. Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Ms. McDermott?

Yes.

Yes. Ms. Simmons? Yes. Ms. Smith.

I have standard of personal relationships.

Ms. Stevenson.

Yes.

Ms. Williams. Yes. Mr. Bellis.

Yes.

Mr. Coslett. Yes. Mr. Sabatino.

Yes.

We have 10 yes and one abstention. Thank you for your consideration.

Thanks for the information. Ms. Barrett, I think number eight is you.

Mr. David Jones with Delta Airport Consulting is online and he is going to give you a brief update on the airport project and then we can talk about the items that are on your schedule to vote.

Thank you. Can everybody hear me okay?

Yep.

Okay, great. So we have three projects ongoing at the airport right now. The big project, which is the T-Hanger and Taxiway project that is progressing on schedule. They have Even despite some soils issues out there, we're on schedule. They've completed most of the stone base at this point. They're currently installing footings, foundations, piers, and the floor for the T-hanger buildings, and we're expecting the erection to start in mid-September. We do still anticipate the project to be complete, or at least substantially complete, by December 15th of this year. The second project is the automated weather observation system project. That project started last week. Most of the site work is completed at this point. They will be proceeding to install the tower very soon in the next week, and then they will install the equipment once that arrives. That project also will be completed by the end of the year. And the last project is the installation of the jet tank for the fuel project. That project started yesterday. Yes, yesterday. They are starting the site work on that and anticipate being completed with the site work in about two weeks. And then they will go on a stop work and come back in mid-November when the tank arrives for the full installation of the tank and pumping system and credit card system. And then they'll wrap up in early to mid-December with the removal of the existing Jet A tank after the new Jet A tank is fully up and operational. That is all I have for the update. Unless there are any questions.

Are there any questions for Mr. Jones tonight? Okay, Miss Williams.

Yes. Um, was my understanding that there, there's a, is there a concern with the soil? Yes, there was a soil issue.

There was a soil issue, which we have worked through. And I think that's the next item on the agenda.

That was the reason for the change order.

Okay, so, so are the so what is the soil issue?

I am not an engineer, but I'm going to let Dave explain. I believe they weren't stable enough.

Yeah, so the soil issue is we had done some geotechnical investigations during the design of the project. The geotechnical investigations identified that there was about one foot of topsoil on the site. When we got out there and started excavating, we encountered between four and five feet of topsoil over the entire site. The soils were very bad. They were very susceptible to any moisture whatsoever. We ended up having, we had some provisions in the contract to address about a foot worth of bad soils based on the geotechnical reports. But when we ran into the extensive clay and silt materials and topsoil that we encountered, we had to look at alternatives that were more cost-effective and weather resistant to complete the project. The measures we had included would have entailed mixing cement with the soils to stabilize those soils to be able to build on. But even doing that, if we had gotten significant amounts of rain, which we have during this summer, those soils would not have been stable and we would not have been able to stay on schedule with the project. We were very fortunate. We worked with our geotech. We worked with the contractor. We came up with a very quick solution to install a geotextile fabric, put down about six inches of stone base, put a biaxial geogrid over top of that, and then the remainder of the fortified foot was filled with a stone base material as well. That allowed us to be fully weatherproof whenever it rained, the contractor could still continue to work. So we have only had three non-productive rain days during the course of the project, even though it has rained many more days than that, because the water was able to infiltrate down through the stone and not stop the construction.

I heard Ms. Williams.

Thank you for the answer. I do have one more question and might be, maybe the County Manager would also like to respond to my question. I've seen online some posts and I've heard from some residents, I've seen this, that there's a concern that this does not benefit, the money is being put into the airport, do not benefit the taxpayers of the county, all of them as a whole, but maybe just benefits those who are hobby pilots And my question would be that with all this money, beyond benefiting the small number of private and recreational pilots who use the airport, If you could just answer to the question of like what economic, public safety, transportation or other benefits does this investment in this airport provide to the county residents as a whole?

The original six million that was awarded was funded under, I don't remember the exact number, but it was funded under an economic development category.

But my question is maybe somebody could explain to the public that this does help.

The tea hangers will generate revenue through rent. And obviously, when the individuals come in, they will purchase fuel. They will visit the local restaurants. They may have overnight hotel stays. That was how the economic development you know, was able to be qualified.

Go to Pittston, to the restaurants in Pittston. We're a very large county. And I look at the county as a whole. And what's good for Hazleton is good for Luzerne County. What's good for Dallas is good for Luzerne County. What's good for Pittston is good for Luzerne County. What's good for that area in Wyoming and Exeter is good for Luzerne County. That airport, has been neglected. And we have made substantial grant applications to the Bureau of Aviation. Unfortunately, because of some staffing challenges, we were behind in maintaining that airport, just like we were behind in maintaining our bridges and our roads. Infrastructure includes all of infrastructure. So we're concentrating on rebuilding our roads. We're concentrating on rebuilding our bridges. We're concentrating on maintaining our roads and maintaining our bridges. We're concentrating on getting freight on our rail system. And the other attraction would be the airport. Because when people fly in, And people who are developers, they fly in, they have their meetings, And then they fly out and we are giving them an opportunity not to have to go up to Volca but to come here to lose their county to our airport. And and do that so for the people who post on Facebook. here's my message I don't make decisions based on posts on Facebook. I make decisions and I make recommendations that are based on data. They're based on looking forward for Luzerne County. And this is just one element because we have to provide a full package to people, to developers who want to come into our area. Our goal, we created a new division. Our goal in that division is not to be passive. I've said this over and over again, and I'm going to keep saying it. We have to get to the point where we can recruit. And if we're recruiting, we have to have something to offer. And if we show developers that we're investing in Luzerne County, that we believe in Luzerne County and we believe in our infrastructure, they're going to believe in us, too.

Also, just a follow up on that. There are medevac medevac use their police, the state police use the airport, and firefighters, emergency personnel use it frequently. And so the my last question is, so there are there are many uses that do benefit Correct. Many people in the county, those emergency uses, especially. 24 new hangers. Who is going to receive the revenue from the rent? Will it be the county or the airport operator?

I'm not an attorney, but Mr. Skeen and I have spoken with Valley Aviation as recently as yesterday afternoon, and we are ironing out the new contract, which once that's done, we will bring it to council.

Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to add to something that Manager Krokomo said, and I was going to add what Ms. Williams said as well, which is that the medevac helicopters do land there as well as the state police, and they do train there a little bit. And also, there is a pilot school there, which is one of the top pilot schools in the entire state, I believe, and there's currently a massive shortage of both pilots and air traffic controllers in the country. having that as something that is part of Luzerne County's infrastructure, I think is a really good idea. And it's something that I was very passionate about as one of the original supporters of this project. It's, you know, a beautiful piece of infrastructure that Luzerne County has. And I certainly was proud to cast the yes vote every single time and I'll continue to do so.

Mr. Host and Ms. Smith.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Williams, thanks for asking those kind of questions. I appreciate it. But I agree with the majority here that that airport's just a gem. And thank you for making a priority, especially in the state where you've got other metropolitan areas. It's really increasingly hard to get around. But air travel is something that we have limitations on. I'm really happy for the fixed base operator that runs that because that's not run for a profit. And I think that's very important to understand this too. Nobody's getting rich off the airport. It's not a really great business, but it is a resource there. But also what Ms. Williams said about just understand where these funds went. I disagreed with quite a few of the ARPA projects because The council, and I don't think anybody was here at the time, we were all relatively new, but we missed the opportunity to give back to the people and meet the spirit of that law by granting a homestead. We should have refunded some of that money back to the property owners all those years ago. Now, when inflation was gonna raise up and lo and behold, we did, we had horrible inflation and the council missed an opportunity. So I just wanna stay here for everybody listening here in public too. We're gonna have a windfall in about four years When we finally pay the debt off, the public needs to get a portion of that. They need to receive some kind of tax decrease or homestead, but that would benefit everybody, all the stakeholders of Luzerne County. But that being said here, I have a couple of questions too from Ms. Sparage, if I could, about the department's recommendation. I'm on page 110, everybody. So there was revenue replacement and lower the Munns road. I see here, we have about $400,000. Right.

It came under. We came in under bid. Correct.

And that finished to Miss Barrett's then this past, like recently.

Yes.

Right. And I think that was about 2.1 miles in lower the Munns there.

Mr. Vo's on the phone, but I think it is approximately to something.

Okay. Because, I mean, that's really something to celebrate. That's a lot of money for two miles of road. You know, we're at about a million dollars or so.

Yeah, we were surprised that it came in, you know, under. That's really fantastic.

Yeah, I didn't know that. We should celebrate that. And the other one is... We should celebrate Michelle and Nick because they stay on top of the project. All the time.

I'm not going to sleep until this money is all gone.

Well, evidently, it only has to be substantially gone.

No, we're still going to get that money off the books.

And that's where that really did run me the wrong way, because we put a lot of work into really nailing down that final rule beforehand and to change the designation. It's just so frustrating coming from a local elected official that everybody's got to play by the rules. And we're just not seeing that. It's frustrating. really upset me. I'm trying to make a joke out of it, but it really upset me. That's not your fault. It's just the federal government.

Today in the conversation with Booth, I said we have been saying to council for years that the projects have to be finished. This is a done deal, and I you know, she's going to plow ahead that way. We are going ahead that it's a done deal because we want Michelle to sleep. But but I think that the Treasury was hearing not not from us because we're on task, but from a lot of municipalities. that there was difficulty in finishing the projects. And it's their way of allowing the projects that should be finished to be finished.

Again, just a reason why the local government should have as much control as possible, because the farther away it goes, the less accountability there is.

And to clarify your question, it was 1.97 miles at lower demands. Yes.

No, thank you for that. And the other question is the same. It's the obligation for the stormwater. Did we receive a grant for that?

Is that what replaced that? That is ARPA funds as well. It was for to purchase some equipment, which we have yet to do. We have our wish list together, but it was for various stormwater improvements throughout the county. And that project started before I went over to operations. So this piece in Crestwood now that was just spit out, that is the last component of the stormwater. So that's how we knew we had the extra money there.

It wasn't a swap whatsoever with the sanitary authority or anything like that?

No, no. If it was, it was before I started and before Mr. Vo started. Like I said, this started a while ago because there was almost $10 million in that project.

No, thanks, Ms. Barrett. We like surpluses around here, so that's fantastic. All right, thank you.

Mayor Lombardo asked to make some comments.

Councilman Haas took the words right out of my mouth and winds out of my sails. That was exactly what I was going to ask. But I also did want to just remark, not only along with everything that Manager Krokomo, Councilwoman Williams and Councilman Lombardo said about why this airport in Wyoming is so important. It also carries the Civil Air Patrol. It also benefits the entire county by far. So there are plenty, many benefits to the entire taxpayer base of Luzerne County and why we should keep this airport in good standing. And I think this project is so important. So thank you so much for your work.

Thank you for your support. Mayor LaMarta?

Sure. And thank you. I appreciate being able to wear another hat. Having served, I'm in my fifth term now, I want to say that I completely support this airport project. It's not in the city of Pittston, but I can tell you the direct benefits are going to be super important. Quite a few years back, I think maybe in term two, there was this great project that was happening in Pittston Township. called Center Point. And people said to me, you know, what do you think about that? The city's not getting anything out of the deal. I can tell you that over the past two and a half decades, you know, for about 16 years in the city, we've been able to flatline taxes. So to your point, Mr. Haas, and I think you're spot on, you know, there's two games we're playing here. There's the short game, It's every day where you try to work on this year's budget, but it's also the long game. It's what's gonna happen to this county five and 10 years down the road. And I can tell you, you talked about the homestead exemption. To my knowledge, we're the only municipality at the municipal level in Luzerne County that has a homestead exemption. We have maxed our homestead exemption out. I'm actually presently discussing with the state getting that cap raised so that we can give more relief to our taxpayers. This year, I actually have taxpayers in the city of Pittston that are paying no city property tax. Furthermore, I would tell you that the Pittston Area School District has flatlined for the last, I think, six years their tax. And it's based on projects like CenterPoint. So we all need to think about the big picture. And I can tell you, this isn't a Democrat or Republican issue. It's an issue of economics. And it just makes sense. So I applaud these decisions on regional things like that. And I would tell you that there are There are executives that come into those parks, and there are executives that will come into other business parts here in northeastern Pennsylvania that won't use the airport and fortunate for them they're in great shape and they have private planes and they may land those planes or helicopters there so there are other benefits that will come, just like the other regional amenities so I just want to tell you that I. I applaud you all for having the courage to do that. And I can stand here and talk to you for three hours about economic development. It's one of the things I love. I think I've talked to every one of you in the room, including you, Harry, about this. So kudos to you on standing up and doing that. And thank you for the time to speak.

Thank you, Mayor. All right. Mr. Consent, then we'll finish up with Ms. Williams.

Yeah, I just want to say, as a member of the 44th Airport Board, the people who were on the board there were tirelessly to get The information on 44th Airport out, this project is probably one of the best things that will happen to the west side. This will bring people in. There are also big companies want to fly in. They don't want to fly into Avoca. They pay heavy landing fees to land a bigger plane in Avoca. And 44th, you don't have to go through gates. You get in your car, you go do what you have to do, you come out. The people on that board take great pride in it. They love the fact that this council supports them and supports this project. Is it a lot of money from ARPA? Yes, it is. It's going to be worth it. It's going to pay for itself. So I applaud everybody. Thank you so much for your support with the board. And we look forward to this project getting finished. I was down there yesterday. They have made phenomenal progress on this. I definitely see this being finished on its completion date. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Williams.

Just one quick question for the Delta Airport consultant. I believe it's Mr. Jones. I was struck by one of the comments you made when you spoke to some of the council members a couple of months, a month or two back. And if you could just share what you said about the amount of traffic that goes into that airport in relation to other airports in the, I think, Northeast or even in Pennsylvania.

Yes, I work at many, many airports across the country and a lot of airports in Pennsylvania. And this is one of the smaller facilities that we work at, but it's one of the facilities that has the most traffic that I've seen in the state of Pennsylvania, especially with the flight school. And it was mentioned earlier, and I'm going to emphasize it. There is a tremendous shortage of pilots and mechanics and air traffic controllers. And getting young people out and teaching them to fly is going to bring new opportunities into the system to fulfill those positions. And the flight school at Wilkes-Barre-Wyoming Valley Airport is a phenomenal asset that should be very much appreciated within the municipality.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Anyone else for Mr. Sparage? Mr. Jones? Okay. Not to beat a dead horse here, but I'm I agree with everything that everybody has said, but I also don't want to give the feds any money back. So let's spend it all in Luzerne County as quickly as possible before the end of the year. So we'll move on to agenda item number nine. It's middle. Okay. We're going to skip nine and go to motion to adopt a resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project. Road and bridge, countywide, roadway, stormwater improvements? So moved. Second. Roll call, please.

Ms. Krishnowsky? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Ms. McDermott?

Yes. Ms. Simmons?

Yes, Miss Smith.

Yes.

Miss Stevenson.

Yes.

Yes. Miss Williams. Yes. Mr. Bell. Yes. Mr. Kozlin. Yes. Mr. Haas. Yes. Mr. Sabatino.

Yes. Okay. Number 11, motion to adopt a resolution approving a modification to American Rescue Plan Act Funds Aborder Project, Luzerne County Road and Bridge, Lower DeMonds Road. Motion.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Smith.

Yes.

Ms. Stevenson? Yes. Yes. Ms. Williams? Yes. Mr. Belis?

Yes.

Mr. Kozlet? Yes. Mr. Haas? Yes. Ms. Krishnowsky? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. None.

Number 13, or no, 12. Motion to adopt the resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project for the Wyoming Valley Airport improvements.

So moved.

Second. Roll call, please.

Mr. Lombardo?

Yes.

Ms. McDermott? Yes. Ms. Simmons? Yes. Ms. Smith? Yes. Ms. Stevenson?

Yes. Sorry, my connection is bad.

Ms. Williams? Yes. Mr. Bellis? Yes.

Yes.

Mr. Croslett? Yes. Mr. Haas? Yes. Ms. Krishnowsky? Yes. Mr. Sabatino?

Yes. Unanimous. Number 13, motion to adopt a resolution approving a modification to American Rescue Plan Act Funds Awarded Project, Wyoming Valley Airport Improvements. Second resolution. So moved. Second. Roll call, please.

Ms. McDermott?

Yes.

Ms. Simmons? Yes. Ms. Smith? Yes. Ms. Stevenson?

Yes.

Yes. Ms. Williams? Yes. Mr. Belich? Yes. Mr. Kozlet? Yes. Mr. Haas? Yes. Ms. Krishnowsky? Yes. Mr. Lombardo?

Yes.

Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Unanimous.

Number 14. Motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the acceptance of the DNCR, DCNR on other parks funds from 44 borough. So moved, Mr. Chairman. Second. Roll call, please.

Ms. Simmons? Yes. Ms. Smith? Yes. Ms. Stevenson?

Yes.

Yes. Ms. Williams? Yes. Mr. Billis?

Yes.

Mr. Kozlet. Yes. Mr. Haas. Yes. Ms. Krishnowsky. Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Ms. McDermott. Yes. Mr. Sabatino.

Yes.

Unanimous.

Number 15, motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the county manager to execute a one-year contract extension with WellPath for Inmate Medical Services. So moved.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Ms. Smith. Yes. Ms. Stevenson. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Number 16, we're going to do an appointment to the Area Agency on Aging Advisory Board. On the question? Go ahead.

I didn't, I thought we had one opening the last meeting and we appointed someone. So I was confused about this. And then when I questioned you, you said that a new agency a new position was being opened on the aging?

So the aging advisory board can have anywhere from 15 to 30 people.

So how is that decided? Did the board itself, do they vote on that to increase by one?

They didn't vote. I was asked by Ms. Roselle to put this on the agenda.

yeah so the advisory board has between 15 and 20 members and we typically had 15 we can open up additional seats if that's what we want to do we've kept it to 15 because that kind of works combination of luzerne county and wyoming county people. The woman, there was someone who was on the board who was a very good board member, helped out with a lot of events, actually underwent some serious health issues and still came to every single meeting, still helped with farmer's market distribution, a whole lot of things. And we did not want to have her removed from the board, you know, because of her dedication and her strong commitment to trying to help older adults. She also was a previous employee of the Area Agency on Aging. So since there is that flexibility between 15 and 20, we asked that we fill another seat.

My question was, does the board itself vote on that? Or can somebody just, can you just say, we're adding another seat?

the aging advisory board votes that you can have between 15 and 20. They're in the bylaws. So there are bylaws that state that. So you guys can vote on whether or not you're willing to appoint her, but as far as the bylaws that exist, there is flexibility.

Okay. But they don't have to like say, okay, we're going to, we have 15. Now we want to add one. They don't, they don't. That was my question. The second question I have is the person you're speaking about was on the board. Now, Her term was up December 2025, but it was 2026 on the website. But then it was realized that was a mistake. But if her term was up on 2025, she still participated in all the meetings this year.

But she can't vote. She can participate in the meetings according to the bylaws, but she is not able to cast a vote for anything. And she did not vote. She just came and helped as much as she could, again, for every event that the agency had. okay because yeah my question was because reappointment would normally be in january so anyone in the public can come i mean anyone who wants to come to the meeting can certainly come to the meeting and certainly if someone wants to volunteer you know we would welcome that all the time especially during farmers market distribution i mean that's a huge project you know we're trying to get the vouchers out to everybody so the only thing that it prevented her from doing was actually voting on anything she came she participated but could not vote I have one last question.

I think by state law, you're required to have 51% be senior members of the advisory board. So when we vote on those who go on the aging advisory board, Do you specify this is a person in education? This has to be a senior member. I mean, have you met the 51%? Do you have that right now?

Yeah, I think it's like 100% of the people that are on the Aging Advisory Board. But we do not have the same sort. If you look at the bylaws for the Aging Advisory Board, we aren't locked into like certain positions other than one elected or past elected official. So that's the only thing we have. But there are boards that exist within human services where the... the members are specifically designated, like you need a doctor, you need a lawyer, you need, we don't have any of that.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you. Okay. So is there a motion to open up nominations for the Missouri and Wyoming County Area and Agency Advisory Board? Motion. Ms. Kruschnowski, Ms. Smith, first and second. Nominations are now open. All in favor? Aye. Opposed, abstentions? Nominations are now open.

I'd like to move to reappoint Ms. Peseri, please.

Second.

I'd like to motion to appoint Susan Elksina.

Is there a second? Seeing none, it fails. Is there a motion to close nominations? Motion to close nominations. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed, abstentions? Nominations are now closed. We will do the resolution. Motion to appoint Mildred Preseri to the Area Agency on Aging Advisory Board. So moved.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Ms. Simmons?

Ms. Vasari? Yes. Yes or no? Yes. Yes.

Ms. Smith? Yes. Ms. Stevenson?

Yes.

Ms. Williams?

Yes.

Mr. Bellis? Yes. Mr. Coslett? Yes. Mr. Haas? Yes. Ms. Krishnowsky? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Ms. McDermott? Yes. Mr. Sabatino?

Yes.

Unanimous.

Thank you. We've arrived at the second public comment. This can be on any topic.

Mr. Griffith.

Thank you. I'm disappointed that we didn't get a motion for the recall of the chair and the vice chair as requested. Council should be very upset with the way this council is being run by the council and the vice chair. The chair has constantly worked behind the backs of some members of council here. There was an appointment of a, there was an attorney used outside the council to draft the Human Relations Commission without some council members knowing that it was even going on. They circumvented the Office of Law's provisions for the charter, which says the Office of Law is responsible to represent elected officials in the county. He drafted that entire ordinance without the Office of Law's knowledge. which is a violation of the charter. I certainly understand that the chair can go out and get legal advice anywhere he so chooses, but I think that should be a motion of council to do that. The people of this county elected 11 people to this county to represent us. Not three, not four, not seven, 11. All 11 people of this council have an obligation to the people of this county to know what's going on on this council. Unfortunately, we have a chair who decides what he wants to do gets information from Liz Bradbury from Lehigh County about anti-discrimination ordinance back in April, brings it to council. Council has no idea what's going on. That is not how a council chair should function. Council chair in our charter is only responsible to make up the agenda and run the meetings. Not supposed to work behind the scenes of other people in this council and do things behind your back that you don't know about. That is not the function of council chair. We never had that before in this Home Rule government. Never in the 14 or 15 years that we've been in existence. There was a letter to Liz Bradbury requesting her assistance with creating an anti-discrimination ordinance without the consent of Council. Issuing of electronic files of petitioner signatures to Councilman Bellis and no one else on County Council, specifically to be placed on Facebook to comply with the letter from Liz Bradbury dated June 26th to stop the referendum ASAP. Using and paying an attorney outside the office, a lot of crap, the Human Relations Commission ordinance and direct violation of Home Rule Charter Section 604. And also refusing to reprimand a member of the county council for violating of the council bylaws Rule 1C meeting decorum, where Ms. Smith is constantly on her phone, has been brought to council chair's attention numerous times and nothing was done. This chair needs to be replaced, recalled, and so does the vice chair as well. I'm very disappointed that members of this council are allowing that type of behavior by somebody who runs this council. That's not the way we should have home rule. That's not the way we should have a council. And that's not what the people expect. We did elect 11, not seven. Thank you.

Is there anyone else for public comment from the audience tonight? Mr. Granteed?

Joe Granteed, Plains Township. I just wanted to make it clear when I said you guys were doing a great job, I was being facetious. What I'd seen for the last six weeks collecting signatures were a lot of Democrats coming up to me and saying, I'm done with the Democrats. Where do I sign? You're doing us a big favor by campaigning for the Republicans. with this bad policy. In fact, you've done such a good job exposing who you were and turning people against you that now you need to find a way to find votes. So you're gonna try and get more ballot drop boxes placed. You lose the voters, so you have to secure the votes some other place. I'm not surprised. And I think you're just exposing yourself again. People are not stupid. When they hear about this, they're gonna say the same thing I'm saying. You lost the voters, so now you gotta find a way to get the votes back.

Thank you. Is there anyone else from the audience tonight? Okay, Mr. Herring, please unmute yourself.

Good evening, Ben Herring, Duryea. Go ahead, Mr. Herring. Speaking of exposure, I apologize to everybody in the room that has to unfortunately deal with the nonsense within this county council. Can we speak up, Mr. Herring? Yeah, you can hear me now.

A little bit louder, please.

A little bit louder, please.

Can I zoom up at all? Because how about now?

A lot of the goes.

Okay, go for it, Mr. Herring.

So speaking of accountability and exposure, I apologize to everybody in the room tonight because I know Mayor Lombardo and some other guest speakers really did a great job. It's nice to see the economic impact that we heard about the airport. And I appreciate the Luzerne County manager's words with that. And I do wholeheartedly agree, just as an outside perspective. But, you know, some of those cute little talking points were made again tonight. And I think it draws some focus for me. Councilwoman Bryn Smith made a comment about the interest of the taxpayers. So my comment here, and I'm going to have multiple tonight, but the one here is really predicated on that. So I'm hoping somebody on council, perhaps the chairman can answer this question or at least address it, right? I think a lot of these things we bring forward to your attention, you guys, It's pretty much thank you next, thank you next. But when Councilman Bellis was sued by myself, and I'm happy to talk about this, it made very, very clear in the language of the lawsuit that he was sued in his individual capacity. We made it clear because I know there were some lies spread in the past about me suing the county, which were not true. So in this instance, I wanted to be very clear on what we were doing. So it's number seven on the lawsuit and I'm happy to provide it to anybody that wants to read it. It says in his individual capacity, because I'm not dumb and I didn't see that Luzerne County Council took any official action for the release of our names online for the intent of doxing. So I would like to know, because I'm hearing now that Councilman Bellis is being represented by a lawyer paid for by the taxpayers of Luzerne County. And if that's the case, hopefully somebody sitting there at that table has the courage to respond to that and explain to us, the public, how that behavior is constituting some type of official action. So we have one of two things going on. Either he got permission from the council to do that, which we'll be happy to add you to the lawsuit, or two, he should not be covered because he did that on his own personal time. If somebody on council wrecks their car tomorrow or runs into somebody, are they gonna be covered by the insurance company or is that on their own private time? This is absurd. There's no way this person should be covered by the Luzerne County Taxpayer Insurance. So I would love to hear an answer if somebody has the courage to respond to that and not make us go back through the right to know process and do all the other hoopla stuff.

We will do it. Thank you, Mr. Harry.

Let's see if you answer tonight.

Next up, we have Beth Matei. Miss Matei, can you please unmute yourself?

Hi. Beth Matei, Dallas Township. I just wanted to take a moment to thank the council for their work to move the anti-discrimination ordinance forward and listening to the constituents, the people that do want it. There's a handful of loud, minority people who don't want it. But I think the majority of Luzerne County does. So I appreciate also the offering of the information sessions to those who need to learn more about how this may function and why it's needed. And it really showed the greater community how invested you are in helping them understand the truth. about what this ordinance will actually do instead of the things that people have imagined based on their own irrational fears. So thank you for your work in this area and you could bring a chud to water, but you can't make them drink.

Thank you, Ms. McKay. Anyone else? Motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn, Mr. Chair, but to concurrently open up the work session, can we just skip the break?

Sure. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, abstentions? We are adjourned from the voting session and going right into the work session. Chris Lawrence, we've already had the Pledge of Allegiance in the moment of silence. Would you call the roll, please?

Mr. Bellis?

Here.

Mr. Coslett? Here. Mr. Haas? Here. Mr. Krishnowski? Here. Mr. Lombardo?

Here.

Ms. McDermott? Ms. Simmons? Here. Ms. Smith? Here. Ms. Stevenson?

Here.

Ms. Williams? Here. Ms. McDermott? And Mr. Sabatino?

Here, sorry. And Mr. McDermott is here as well. Are there any additions or deletions to tonight's work session agenda?

Mr. Chairman, I have one deletion.

Okay.

I'd like to make a motion to delete number seven from the work session agenda. We already have three other items that I think are going to warrant some significant discussion. Number one, number two, and certainly number eight. I really don't understand why we would add another, quite frankly, controversial item to the work session where we will now be here for several hours and potentially not want to have much discussion on what I think is the most important item on the agenda, which is number eight.

Second the motion.

Okay.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay.

Nay.

I make a motion for a roll call vote.

No. Yes. Yes, to remove.

No.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

No.

Yes.

Yes.

No.

No. Number 7 is removed. It was six in favor of removing and five opposed. All right, number seven is removed.

Motion to adopt the agenda.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed, abstentions? The agenda is adopted. Number one, 2026, was earned county budget and finance mid-year report. Mr. Roselle, take it away.

Okay, first section 8.04 of the Luzerne County Admin Code. Next slide, sorry. We're required to do this mid-year report. You're gonna hear a lot of the same numbers that you already heard, because I did report on the June numbers, but there's some additional information that you'll see on these slides. So as of June 30th, 2026, the general fund actual expenditures totaled 52% of the budgeted amounts and general fund revenues received totaled 78% of the budgeted amount. Again, that agrees to what I already told you previously in June. Next slide. So the presentation of this is a little bit different than what you're normally given in your budget reports. This budget is by account classification. So you'll see, again, the total amount of the budget, which we've talked about before, 170,414,085. And again, you'll see the 79% and the 52% that I just talked about. Next. This is a graph showing graphically what our revenue looked like last year versus this year. So back in 2025, we were at 132 million. This year, so far at the end of June, we're at 134 million. Next slide. This slide shows you revenue categorized a little bit differently than the way you see it normally on the monthly reports. So this is categorized by different revenue streams excluding taxes. So obviously taxes are our biggest revenue stream. If you take that out, then we look at the next, you know, largest seven revenue streams. The first one is reimbursement. And that's kind of a, it's not outside money necessarily that's coming in. Those are like reimbursements that we're getting between departments. So a lot of that is our health insurance reimbursement that we receive from employees, as well as the money that we receive from funds that are not in the general fund. The next category is our interest. And you'll see that the interest has increased significantly from last year. We know that our ARPA revenue, our ARPA interest is going down because we don't have as much money in the bank, right? We're expending all of that money again by December 31st, right? We wanna make sure that's all. That's all taken care of. But we have maximized the interest that we can receive on Pligot accounts. So one of the big changes that we made this year is Pligot allows us to do two withdrawals a month. So we have to really manage that cash very tightly to make sure that we don't need to take any more money out of that account. But we've started investing in Pligot more than we ever did before just because we can get a much higher interest rate. So we do that and we're just very careful as to when we can actually pull the money out. That accounts for really that increase in interest there. Transfers, the transfers again, you'll see last year was kind of an anomaly and that's because we transferred $3 million out of our interest. If you remember, that's how we balanced the budget in 2025. Not in 2026, but we did do it in 25. So that's why you see that big change there. Grants are kind of really running the same as they were. There's a little bit of timing where we have an EMA grant that we actually are at 100% right now that we received reimbursement for. Normally at this time of the year, we're only at 50%. So we got the money a little bit sooner than we did last year. Rent has declined slightly. That's domestic relations because now we don't get rent from there anymore. You know, they have their own facility in Kingston. The fines, we continue to try to maximize fines to the extent possible. But, you know, that's pretty much kind of seeing where it was. But you'll see that the fees has increased by about $600,000 so far mid-year. And that's mainly driven by some commissions that we get for transfers in Kingston. and real estate property that mainly driven by what occurred in Salem Township. So that's already given us about a $600,000 increase so far this year. So we're happy about that. Next slide. So again, just to talk about the real estate taxes, as I said, obviously our biggest revenue stream. We're right now sitting at 90% of budget and our annual budget is 127 million. But I want to make sure everyone understands it's 90% of a 92% collection rate. So we increased our collection rate when we did our budget this year. Sir.

Can I keep going?

Keep going? Yeah.

Okay. So we increased our collection rate this year from 91% to 92%. So that 90% is of a higher number that we had budgeted. So that's really good news. We're in good shape at this point for our tax collections. As of June 30th, our online payments are $1.8 million. So we continue to increase those a little bit. And we already talked about how we had no TRAN for 2026. And we're going to continue that as long as we possibly can. Next slide. Our mid-year expense totals, you'll see that it's increased a little bit. A lot of that is just the timing of expenses. We're under budget, as you can see, total for the year. So last year, at this point in time, we were at $59 million. This year, we're at $85 million. Again, still way under budget at this point from an expense standpoint.

Next.

Our American Rescue Plan funds, we all know that we've received $112.9 million during the first half of 26. 4.3 million was expended. In the first half of 25, it was 12 million. So you can see that we're expending less now because we're winding down a lot of these projects. Through June of 26, the total interest that we received is $10 million. And in 2026 so far, 467,000. And of course, that will continue to decline as we keep paying out the remainder of the projects. But we do have, next slide, the opioid settlement funds. The opioid settlement fund interest is never going to replace the ARPA interest, but we are maximizing that interest as much as possible. The settlement payments that we have received so far through June are $15.2 million. The interest that we received so far, $846,000. In 2026 alone, $172,000. And again, we keep investing that in accounts where we can get, of course, the highest amount of interest. Our disbursement so far, $5.6 million, and we've obligated funds of $11.9 million. Does anyone have any questions on where we are mid-year at this point?

Ms. Williams?

Yeah, I just have a question on the mid-year expense total, which is about a $25 million difference. I look back last year, so the debt service seems to be the reason for this difference. So far this year, we've paid about approximately $17 million to the debt service. And at this time last year, in 2025, it was $2.5 million.

We did a refinance to save money overall on the debt service. So that's why we had to make that payment earlier.

So that was all it was. So we were paying it earlier this year?

Because we did the refinance, yes, to save interest overall on the debt service.

And to refresh everybody's memory, it was about $3 million that you saved in interest? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. One more question slash comment. If you can confirm that all the ARPA interest money has to be spent by the end of this year, correct? or substantially spent by the end of this year?

The projects have to be substantially completed. The monies have to be spent, although we didn't specifically ask Booth about the interest money today.

So I think the feds are clarifying some things that are changing a little bit now. I can't confirm that that has to be spent by the end of December. We may have a little more time for that.

I would imagine that they would give us a little bit of leeway to spend money that we accrued in the last week of December.

Right. Well, we do expect a memo from Booth that will be coming out probably next week when we talk to Robin today. But I believe we're going to get a little more time to spend the interest.

Perfect. Thank you. Sure. Do you have a question? Okay. Next up, we have the division reports. Manager Kirkman.

Good evening, council and viewing public. and the public that are here, I'm going to highlight some information from the division report. It's always my privilege to report the work that our staff does throughout the month. So the Bureau of Elections, the staff completed multiple polling location assessments and filed required accessibility certification to the state. I want to make a clear statement about elections. I think years ago people thought you had the elections and then the election bureau was kind of on easy street for a few months before the next election. Those days are long gone. It's a year-round job and requirement and Emily Cook and her staff are fulfilling their duties zealously.

Quick question on that, Ramilda, if I could? Sure. What's the full status on the posting of campaign finance reports online? I see it's the last bullet point there, but how are we looking with that?

uh uh they're uh posting uh as much as they possibly can uh and uh they're you know doing other things uh as well uh they're processing referendums uh there's four right now uh that they're uh working on but i can get you dates uh specifically from emily if you want

I thought, weren't they going to outsource that to have an outside group post the campaign finances? I thought that was in the works. I might be unclear about that.

Yeah, that's not in fruition right now.

I appreciate if you can help us out with that. That's on me. Not the most urgent, but thanks.

The information technology, I want to... Advice Council, if you go to Penn Place, there's an electronic board that actually flashes different events that are going on in the county. It actually kind of also makes the lobby in Penn Place a little bit more colorful, which is always welcome. But if you have a chance, go over and look at it. It really is a very good addition and it announces different events that are going on in the county. Licensing, issued 441 dog licenses, 29 small games of chance, 189 hunting licenses, eight bingo licenses, one fishing license, and one sportsman gun permits. We're also cross-training with the Bureau election staff so that when there are vacancies, and when the election take place, that they'll be ready to assist. Community development, Wyoming Borough for an ADA project received $15,856.43. West Wyoming Borough for an ADA project received $14,468. Our GIS mapping is working more and really with tedious work with the railroad maps and data collection for the RFP for the railroad that was posted. The Visitors Bureau. We have the National Register of Historic Places, the train station unveiling. I want to thank Councilman Haas and Councilwoman Williams for attending that unveiling. It was a really wonderful afternoon. And everybody is welcome to visit the Visitor Center and purchase some Luzer County memorabilia. The Division of Human Services, the Area Agency on Aging, they conducted 435 assessments. They had 878 congregate meals, 164 protective services claims, and they delivered home delivered meals to 583 constituents. We have various pictures of different active adult center. We have Freeland. We have Dallas. We have our sister active adult center in Wyoming County. And we have Councilman Williams delivering the proclamation to George Miller. and some other photographs of the active adult centers. Children and Youth Services, there were 741 referrals to the agency. There were 86 total screened out phone calls, 100 referral calls, 89 screening department calls, there were 80 field screens uh 351 gps assessments 86 total child protective services referrals sadly there was one near fatality and fatality report 277 total ongoing cases we have 250 current placements those numbers are significantly down from when I started in 2023, and that goes to the hard work of Megan Stone and Katrina. 20 children achieved permanency, and there were 46 children, 46% of the children are in kinship care. Drug and alcohol, we're a designated PA overdose prevention partner for Luzerne and Wyoming County. We distribute 425 Narcan opioid overdose reversal kits and 300 fentanyl drug testing strips and 300 xylosing drug testing strips throughout the month, mental health, suicide prevention month is in September, the county will host is organizing a team to participate in the AF SP out of the darkness walk, you'll be receiving more information about that. There are pictures of some wellness trainings that took place. Veterans Affairs. Here are some VetPro statistics. There were 1,095 phone interviews, 863 emails, 744 in-person meetings, 42 faxes, 181 mail for a total of 4,184 interactions. 49 appointments and 44 walk-ins into our Wilkes-Barre office. There were 18 appointments and five walk-ins in our Hazleton office, and there was outreach to inbound veterans, five visits, and King's College PA program made a donation to the Veterans Fund. There were various community events that were sponsored by Veterans Affairs. There's some photographs. There's photographs of our courthouse, and our beautiful landscaping and the flags that are placed. They were placed originally for America 250. There's an overhead photo. And that was our attempt to have the flags in the shape of the United States. I have to say that There's been a lot of filming going on at the courthouse and outside on the South Lawn. And the South Lawn is absolutely stunning. So when I drive past the South Lawn, I'm very proud. I'm proud to be the county manager of Lucerne County. maintaining this courthouse in the beauty that it deserves. There are a lot of events coming up. There's the Back to School Bash 3, August 17th. We have a Sunday Family Fun Day, September 20th, the Rail Riders versus Jack Jumbo Shrimp, sponsored by Luzerne County Children and Youth. Veterans Affairs is sponsoring A free bus trip to Washington on September 23rd, 2026. We have Game Together, Thrive Together, a level up youth program that is every Thursday. There's a bingo program sponsored by Children and Youth Services at Saturday, September 26th, 2026. I want to report on our prothonotary that you don't hear a lot about, but really are doing a great job. They've opened 1,127 new case files, 346 service notices were processed, 166 PFAs, 741 files had Rule 236 notices issued, which means they have to mail them out. An agreement with the courts and I were working to make that smooth it's really. I go to the see CAP conferences and I realized that we're very lucky about the relationship that we have with the courts, there are some courts that don't even talk to their chief executive and. I hope that never happens. 174 municipal liens, 59 transcripts of magistrate judgments, 34 passport applications, and we collected over $100,000. There are a number of positions opened in the Prothonotary's office and the clerk of courts. If you know anybody who might be interested, have them apply online. Our sheriff sheriff's department received for service 143 PFAs. They did 300 total prisoner transports to 262 to the courthouse and 38 to other county, state and federal facilities. 258 warrants were issued. 203 warrants were cleared. 558 gun permits were processed. 265 civil documents were received for service. 323 civil cases were closed. And 30,303 persons through designated security checkpoints. And there was 11 fingerprinting. The Office of Law, that is often forgotten but are unsung heroes, They processed 30 contracts, 48 right to know requests, 24 resolutions, and two ordinances. The Division of Operational Services, we have our road update. Harris Hill Road and bridge replacement is on schedule. PB, Lupita D Montoya, We have hillside road bridge replacement design is ongoing. PB, Lupita D Montoya, Along with the traffic control discussion. Lower demands is complete, we just have to go through the final punch list of items, but that really is quite the achievement. Their operations is probably not getting many phone calls anymore, because we used to get a lot for lower demands. uh the rodent bridge has a schedule uh to to take care of the foliage uh and uh you can see uh it's almost every day that they have uh cutting the brush along our roadways uh but they are going out and they are doing that. Obviously, they can't do it when there's inclement weather, but we do have a schedule. We try to complete that schedule on task, and we have every single county road on that schedule. So if there is any, oh, there's one more item I wanna discuss. There was a training at EMA that I attended along with Megan Stone. It was with the Red Cross and Pima certifications were presented. And we had a wonderful discussion with the Red Cross and EMA. as part of our code blue project i also want to report that the providers have really stepped up to the plate and are working with megan stone and we're going to have a county-wide code blue and we'll be reporting to council particulars soon

Manager Krocmo, on that point, I just want to say how proud we should be that you took the reins on the code blue and how proud I am that Luzerne County and yourself and Megan Stone are really doing that initial work to take it

know it means a lot uh knowing that the program is going to continue and be in capable hands so i appreciate it and thank you and uh megastone is always doing yeoman's work and when we roll out our code blue plan it is going to be megastone will earn every single penny that uh sharon's so we're very fortunate to have to have her and i appreciate that uh manager i just want to say i concur we have an obligation to take care of our fellow uh human beings and uh and we're going to do it thank you manager crocomore anything else tonight

Not tonight, no. Perfect. And thank you, Megan Stone, for all the work that you put in with Manager Krukma on the code blues. We look forward to hearing your update on that. All right, number three, discussion regarding the ordinance amending the 2026 fiscal year budget for Missouri County Probations. Mr. Heimarsch? Is your mic on?

Better? OK. So we appreciate that. Quite honestly, up until late this afternoon, shame on me. I was unaware that this was on the work session as well. So I thought tonight was just an introductory of it. What?

I know it's quite a bit to digest.

as well as some of the information that's contained in that grant package, specifically a lot of the requirements in and around probation, the yeoman's work that they do. And while I have the opportunity in public, I would like to thank our probation department for the work that they do and our management team for putting together what was a very successful grant package. the document that you're looking at right now was prepared by our director, who I'm proud to work alongside with each and every day in an effort to give the council and members of the public kind of an overview of what's contained in the grant.

I have a question for you. Yes. How many cases does the probation office see in a year?

Currently the department of 107 employees are managing cases in excess of 9,000. That's those on active supervision, those in collections, as well as some other categories. What's that?

That's active and inactive cases.

active, no, all active cases, whether they be in collections, we have a collections department that oversees that as well.

Are there any other questions? Go ahead, Ms. Smith.

Is this related in any way to the recent, not so recent, but the recent reform bill of probation? Act 44, yes.

This is from Act 44, right? Part of it is from Act 44, the manner in which offenders are supervised, as well as pretrial services.

Thank you.

Yes.

Go ahead, Mr. Ballas.

I'm going to ask before Harry does. Right? So I... So it looks like there's the third and fourth piece are one time, and the first and second would be, you know, sort of yearly charges, right?

So we've offered, we opted, I should say, there was an offering over the number of years in which we can take the grant. We opted, as most of the counties, from what I've been told by our probation director and PCCD, to take it over a two-year period.

Okay, yeah. But then after the two-year period, it's $350,000 onto the general budget, right?

Yes. Just wanted to make sure. Yes and no. I mean, it depends on what's going to happen in the next two years as far as attrition and the way in which probation services operates. So to definitively say we're going to bear these costs for the indefinite future, I wouldn't. I'd be lying to you if I said we weren't. Thank you.

Yes. So by way of further explanation of that, I think Act 44 required some changes. Correct. To probation, right? And I think this, it seems like this is going to help us transition into making that.

This is absolutely going to help us transition into.

Yes, if you could speak to that, please.

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to, what I had proposed was to get you guys some additional information because I'm assuming, no one really has a lot of detail on Act 44 or what, in fact, pretrial services does and how it helps the county and how it helps other departments in the county. You know, briefly, for example, pretrial services, if we didn't have clients on pretrial services, they would be at our prison facility at a cost of approximately $190 a day. So right now we've got, I believe, 310 people on pretrial services, 250, 260 are currently not incarcerated. Some folks are incarcerated because of other conditions.

Is the Day Reporting Center under pretrial services?

The Day Reporting Center is not under pretrial services. So it's information like that that I think would, if I can get some additional information out to you in the next week, that would help you understand both Act 44 and pretrial services and, you know, kind of giving you a view from the top and how all this kind of fits together into a bigger plan for our central court and the DA's central booking.

we'll take any information you want to give. And I appreciate your offer earlier today to have any of us be with you or President Judge Salamantis. Yes.

I mean, you know, I'm always free, whether it be for this particular issue or whatever, please feel free to call me. You know, I appreciate working with council as well as the county executive, you know, moving some of these initiatives forward because quite frankly, we're better together. Yeah.

I agree. Ms. Williams and Mr. Kozlet.

I didn't, I don't have any questions.

Mr. Kozlet. I'm sorry, I have one question. In here it says it'll be used to cover raises in 14 positions over 2026 and then moving on, then it'll hit the general fund in two years. Would this be easier to take 14 positions? I mean, granted, the money's fine. They deserve money. But wouldn't it be easier to give them bonuses as opposed to raises to avoid the pension and the tax hit? and just have them a one-time bonus each year to buy this money over.

I mean, the courts have made a decision that it's in the best interest of the courts and probation services to do so. If I may reflect on some things that have been discussed, I believe, with council and the county executive, there's a salary study that the county is going to be doing, undertaking. So You know, what we're proposing in item number one is based on what we've researched over third-class counties and other probation departments. I mean, we're making a significant investment in our probation employees. I love our management team down there.

Yeah, I don't disagree. I'm not saying you do. I'm just looking at avoiding the pension and tax hit. With money that we're going to have to cover three years from now, as opposed to a bonus one-time hit, it doesn't cost us pension tax. And we don't have to worry about general fund three years from now, because in four years from now, we'll be $25 million flush. So that also helps our employees going forward. But like you said, it is open for discussion. We can- Yeah, the point's well taken.

I mean, that's the position that the courts have right now is to how they would like to allocate the money. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Mr. Chair, any other questions?

Go ahead, Mr. Ross. Oh, it wouldn't be complete. It wouldn't be. I know, I know. We're going to get you out of here in 10 seconds. That's okay. For this number four, Mr. Ann, good to see you, Mr. Ann Marshall. It's always good to see you as well. The train cost, the- I mean, stuff that probation already does. Will this be a reimbursement?

This is going, yeah.

This is going to reimburse what we already spent, correct?

These costs will be reimbursed quarterly by PCCD. So the money's going to be coming back in. This will offset to a degree the amount of money that we spend on training. I mean, we've kind of broken it down to, you know, like you see here, first aid control tactics, basic PO training, firearms. Yes. Our officers... most of which are armed when they're in the field. And going along with what Ms. Smith said, some additional training for the evidence-based practices that come along with Act 44.

So it's stuff we already do. It's stuff we already do. That's great. And I hope the same can be held true for the Sheriff's Department as well. I know they've been asking for those reimbursements. I think they're trickling in, but still not at the rate we need them. Thank you, sir, as always. No problem.

I'll get some additional information out to you guys so you have some more details on Act 44 as well as kind of an overview of what pretrial services does and how we interact with some of the departments you guys oversee.

As always, we appreciate you, Mr. Hindmarsh. Okay. Thank you very much.

Hope this helps.

Thank you.

Again, I'm available, you know, if you want to talk about something, feel free to stop in or give me a call. Thank you, everyone. Have a great evening.

Number four, discussion regarding a resolution requesting a statewide local share account grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority for the Huntsville Extension. Ms. Baric?

Good evening. Last year, we requested a grant for Huntsville Extension and we received $222,000, which does nothing to help us complete the project. So we are requesting the balance of $300,000 this year. And I did notice there was a mistake in the original resolution that was included in the agenda packet. It said we were requesting $222,000. So we are going to be requesting $300,000. for this project. I don't know if anybody has any questions.

Are there any questions for Ms. Sparich tonight? Nope. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead.

Oh, I have a question with the LSA grants and forgive my ignorance. Do you need to get like a sponsorship from one of our house or representatives or senators?

I mean, anytime we apply for a grant, you know, we do solicit our local senators and representatives for their support, but we don't have to have a sponsor. We just request letters of support. And you'll do that with this? Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

So last question from Ms. Parish to Mr. Chair. Ms. Parish, so the council approves this. When are we looking at the shovel on the ground date?

Well, we have to make sure we get the money first. Yes, correct. So I would say probably at least two years out. Well, you know, we have to get the award. The CFA is famous for delaying their meetings. They're supposed to meet quarterly. And I do not believe that that happens all the time. And we'd have to have final design and we won't pay for those expenses until we have the money to do the construction.

Okay.

because we are cash strapped so and we don't want to spend the money to do the engineering if we don't have the money for the project uh it's such a horrible stretch of road i know it's really rough i mean i i don't know if nick's still on the phone if how are we doing on the filling of the holes we do we do the you know the potholes uh as we as we have staff to do it i think uh at the operational services uh subcommittee we discussed it like we need four people to do things You know, we have eight people currently at Roden Bridge. They are entitled to take their vacation time. They may be sick. So we are really strapped. So we go out as often as we could as weather permits and do what we can.

Thanks for the update. Thanks for the ask.

Just so people understand, the projects that we're doing now We received funds, the ARPA funds. They were probably passed and went 24.

I know the one, the lower demands was maybe 24.

Yeah. So it takes, it's almost a two-year turnaround once we.

Right, because don't forget, we can't do some of the construction in the wintertime. So because of where we live, we lose a few months every year because of the weather. So that works against us.

I just had a thought. I don't know if this is something that could be considered. I know Penn State, Lehman, Wilkes-Barre campus is out that way. I believe they are closing next year, but that roadway has been used by the students and the teachers and the faculty for a long time and has probably helped contribute towards some of those potholes. Is there any way to do a request for a pilot?

to Penn State to ask them to help to explain that the road is in such bad shape. I don't know if it would be more favorable if they were going to remain open. But there's a Penn State in Hazleton, too.

And so it's in the county. It's within the county. It's just a thought. Just throwing it out there.

I guess the worst anybody could say is no.

Exactly, yeah.

All right, any other questions for Ms. Baric? Thank you, Ms. Baric. Are you, number five as well, discussion regarding a resolution authorizing the county manager to execute a contract with eCollect for the collection of home rule for hotel room taxes and related services?

No, that's me again. Sorry.

Take it away.

So this is a contract that a person came to us to explain this program to us. It's an audit program where they identify hotels that are currently not on the roster paying their taxes. So they look at business privilege tax as well as hotel tax. So these would only be hotels that are currently not being collected by us. So they would identify the hotel and then obviously get them on the rosters and collect the tax for us. And it's at no cost to us, but any money that they do collect, they would get 25% of. We do have Michael Hill online from eCollect to answer any additional questions that any of you may have. Mike, are you there? Mike? Do you see him online? I can probably answer most of your questions, but if you have questions specifically about the company, that would be my call.

I have a question, not about the company, but about the hotel tax itself, because I was under the impression that every hotel in the county is paying that tax per room.

They are supposed to be.

So if we discover a hotel that's not paying it, and then we get them on the roster to pay it, Is there any fine or anything that they pay or is there any way that we can collect the basically the back taxes?

I honestly don't know that. I don't know. Do you see Mike?

I don't see Mike, but I have an additional question.

I just wonder if that has, has that happened in recent years where we've discovered a hotel because it seems like.

We do. I mean, I think in Luzerne County, we do a very good job of collecting our hotel tax. We, you can see, like, if you look at, you know, year over year, we continue to increase the hotel's tax collection. So I don't know that there will be a ton of hotels that they identify. But I know that they did talk about some like bed and breakfast type of hotels that maybe, you know, kind of like fly under the radar and aren't paying the taxes. I would think that there would be some sort of a fine and a way for us to go back, but I don't know. I don't know that because I haven't been involved in the collections.

I know, and I know this is a, I apologize for asking this question. So it might open up a can of worms. But I know that in the past, we've also discussed the idea of like the Airbnbs that are in the county as well, and how they kind of fly under the radar when it comes to this. Does this address any of that at all? Yes.

So they would look at that too. Oh, great. And I think when they came to talk to us, they brought up the Airbnbs. They've identified a lot of those in other municipalities. So I guess they're a little easier to fly under the radar, I guess, as opposed to like a big hotel. Shane, that we would see, obviously, if we see them, we're going to make those calls ourselves and say, like, you got to get on the tax rolls if you're not paying your taxes. But so it's an auditing program. That's really what they do. They go out and they try to find people that are trying to fly under the radar.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Well, that was my question to the airbnbs bed and breakfast that that tend to fly under the radar and not pay that tax. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Are there any other questions for Mr is all on this.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, So we just promise results. So we don't have any knowledge of if hotels are paying or not, in some cases.

Well, we believe that all of the hotels in our area are being, but I mean, we don't know what we don't know, right? So we don't know if there's, you know, an Airbnb that is flying under the radar and not paying the tax. And it would be both taxes. I mean, we care about the hotel tax, obviously, but in most cases, they're saying they identify both business privilege as well as the hotel tax, so. So essentially, this is going after Airbnb is basically because it's going after anyone who isn't, you know, paying their tax. So I mean, they may identify none, or they may identify, you know, a few, we have no idea what what it could really mean. But we really don't have anything to lose. Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

If there are questions for the that you'd like to have the company itself answer, please send them to Miss Roselle show forward them on the mic and then I know Mike was on at least he said he was on so I'm not sure what happened.

But we can certainly make sure he's on you know, next time in case someone has a question even you know, during the voting session, but absolutely. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to forward them to Mike.

Number six, discussion regarding a resolution urging.

One second, Mr. Chair, if I, I'm sorry, just regarding that, could we have just, I wish you were on, but could we have some success stories about his firm? Ms. Roselle, maybe that would be a no brainer, I think. We could research that, but I see.

And then find out why it's not on, he was on. I mean, if you want me to.

I'm seeing he's got a client list here where I'm on page 121. Everybody, if you've looked at your packet, but I'd like to see the rate of success. And I mean, I agree with you. There's nothing really to lose here, but it might be him. It might be very, very lucrative. But if we could see some success story. I do see Mike on now. Mr. Hill?

You see him?

I'm here. I can't join in for some very good thing.

Thanks, Mike. I was just going to call you.

Can you hear me?

literally let me let me turn anyway you could get closer to the microphone yes do you hear me now yeah much better better okay thank you i i was scrambling i i was muted somehow i don't i don't know but but thanks for thanks for being here and i was uh i i heard the questions and uh before i go back to the ones that that i missed your most recent question was about our success stories Yes, sir. Yes. In your area, I mean, we have it all throughout the state through McKeesport, Western Pennsylvania, Ben Salem, and Bucks County. In the Wilkes-Barre area, we've done work with Wilkes-Barre Area School District, Plains Township, Wilkes-Barre City, and we've identified gross receipts tax, business privilege tax, which is very similar to the hotel tax because it's on the gross receipts. So I would say we have about a 90% to 95% collection rate when we schedule an audit and when we collect it. So what we do is we'd schedule the audit to it. And we reasonably believe that there'll be a non-filer in this circumstance. We'd schedule the audit and then we would perform the audit and assess taxes that are due. And then there's about a 90% collection rate without having to have litigation. The other, the 10% would be in that range. The difference between 90 and a hundred would be, would be ones that a taxpayer that just won't willingly pay.

But we've had- Go ahead. When the legislation, I'm sorry.

Go ahead, no, I was finished.

I just remember this from the County Commissioner Association a few years ago about what to do about Airbnbs and how they apply for, how they pay the hotel tax. And I don't know if you know offhand the legislation when that was made whole, but it seems it wasn't terribly long ago.

That's my recollection. I'd have to brush up on the Airbnb side of it because that's, it's not relatively new, but it's not, exactly an apple to apple comparison with the brick and mortar hotels. But we would actually take a look at that as well.

I think it's important for the public to know this, that Luzerne County, 90% of our budget comes from property taxes. And this is in an age where there's less brick and mortar out there. This is pretty crucial that we have all the entities that should be paying their taxes paying their taxes. However, do you find that these groups are doing this voluntarily? Are they trying to be evasive or were they unaware of it? I mean, that's a little bit we had a few years ago.

I think it's a good mix. And I think going back to the whole presentation of this is that we just like to act as another set of eyes and another set of, you know, a tool to balance the powers. So that for the tax, for the hotels and the taxpayers that are withholding the taxes, as required by the law, we just like to balance the playing field. And I think that as far as the gross receipts tax goes, it would be a mix of people not being aware and also just an avoidance of tax in some situations. So it depends on the situation, but I would say it's equal across the board.

Yeah. Okay. And I see the last question, Mr. Hill there. I see in the resource packet here, the resolution calls for a three-year contract with one-year renewals, do you find that local governments, do they utilize your service, and then after three years, they say, thank you, but I think we're up to speed now, and people are now paying their taxes?

No, that's very rare. We usually stay on auditing for, you know, perpetuity, because the first year, the first year and a half, we are, obviously, the results are If they haven't had this program before, our results bring in more money. And it does have a little bit of a trickle down in the other years, but it's consistency after that. So year one usually is the biggest amount. But then after that, with the audit program, usually still has money coming in every year.

I think it's important for the public to know that this will not help out our bottom line with the, with the budget because it's just hotel tax. So it's going to go to the tourist agency, but nonetheless, it's, it's money that we use for economic development and attracting business and, and visitors to our County. So.

Well, it will help a little bit.

Thanks for answering those questions. I appreciate that.

There is an admin fee, so it will help a little bit. So whatever tax we get, we do get our admin fee off the top before the split is made of the 80, 20, you know, 80 to the, um, and 20% to the visitors bureau. So there is some money. Mike, one of the questions they asked is if you identify someone, can we go back and collect the taxes? And is there a fine that they pay?

They would have, if it goes to legal, the cost of collections on the taxpayer, there's penalty provisions in the ordinance. So yes, they would be responsible for that amount.

Okay, Mr. Bellis, you have a question?

So as far as your program goes, and I just trying to think here, so you are finding individual businesses that are not paying this tax, and then you are auditing them and assessing the amount that they have not paid in the past. And what is the standard look back as far as that goes? And then also how far into the future do you get the percentage that you collect of their taxes? And yeah, if you could answer those two questions.

Yeah, the normal look back period would be six years. If someone hasn't withheld the tax, there's no statute. We can go back forever. But the normal amount of years would be three to six, with six being the usual maximum. And again, if they haven't withheld it from the visitor, the person with the hotel room, they're obligated. It's almost like a fiduciary tax. It becomes their obligation at that point. And then in the future, we would just put them on the rolls. So if there was a sale of a hotel and for whatever reason they weren't being collected on for some type of... you know, clerical, the new entity, the hotel was sold, they didn't come on board. We wouldn't get anything in the future. We'd only collect, we'd get them on your rolls forever, but we only get a percentage of what we collect at the time.

Okay, so in other words, if there's a hotel that hasn't been paying their tax, you say, hey, the total amount of tax just for the sake of easy math is $100,000. you take your cut of that $100,000, they get put onto the regular rolls. You're not taking a percentage of their taxes going forward. This is more of a finder's fee for just the portion that has not been paid up to date.

That's correct.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Mr. Hill or Ms. Rozelle? Thank you both.

Thank you very much. Have a good night.

You too, Mr. Hill. Number six, discussion regarding a resolution urging the Pennsylvania General Assembly to reauthorize Chapter 53 of Title 35 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes with an increased 911 surcharge to support next generation 911 services across the Commonwealth. This has been a priority of all of the counties. We were just at the County Commissioners Association meeting last week. in Monroe County and the Emergency Services Committee believes that passing this resolution will help us by urging the state legislator to increase our 911 surcharge from a I think it's $1.95 to $2.20. And that'll help us with recruitment and all the costs that we are incurring of the rising pensions and other costs of equipment and things like that. They believe that now that the budget has passed, there might be some movement on the skills of skill games legislation for us to attach this this fee onto the skill games legislation. So it's still just as pertinent now as it was before the budget. And as a member of the EMA Veterans Committee for CCAP, I promised that I would bring this to the council for consideration. Ms. Williams.

Yes. We have a legislative committee, right? for council. And my question is, would it be prudent to send this down to the legislative committee to have the committee members do an outreach to our county representatives to ask them to help advocate for this and support it? And really, because that's what you really need, both the Republican and Democratic representatives to come together to support this. So I would just say, is there more we can do rather than just pass it? Also, I think it should be added at the end that this would be sent to, well, it does say the Luzerne County legislative delegation. But to do more than that, to really outreach to them or contact them, who would do that?

I would say that, first of all, I did run this through Bill Ives, who's our director of 9-1-1, to make sure that it meets what we need in Luzerne County specifically. but I would say that we could get a delegation of people like the CCAP delegation, probably it's a bipartisan delegation to meet with the state legislators, you know, and plus we are going to send this on to CCAP. And so they'll add it to their dossier and their negotiations with their government affairs, Frank Maza, who actually is a Luzerne County resident. So, yeah. there are numerous ways that we're going to attack this. And it's not just the legislative committee, but it's everybody, you know, Mr. Lombardo is an EMA, you know, firefighter and professional, you know, maybe sending Mr. Lombardo with the CCAP delegation to say, hey, this is something we really need. And this is something that's going to protect the county long term. You know, it is a major priority for CCAP. And it's something that I believe in strongly as well. So any other questions I can field?

Well, I think it looks like, Mr. Chair, what CCAP is looking at in emergency services across the state. Currently, it's $1.95. Fee per month on cell phones. Correct. And what, what we're asking is to rate increase that 25 cents to $2 and 20 cents. Okay. I think the public needs to know that, that that's the price you pay again, just like the brick and mortar is how we fund services. This is how we fund nine one one services predominantly in Luzerne County. So as we talked about, I, I mean, whatever way you can get it through. I mean, we need to fund the operations. It's one of the biggest things we do here. And so we're looking at 25 cents a month times 12. So $2.25, $2.50 increase on per cell phone. Just so the people understand what we're signing on here for. And I know when they were putting the budget through, I talked to some legislatures, they said it was an election year, they're deathly afraid of having any type of tax increase, even though I can at least appreciate this is a user tax. It doesn't come on the homeowner, it doesn't come on um people don't necessarily have a stake everybody has a cell phone has to pay into this which is probably one of the more fair ways in my opinion to tax something and i don't know just part of the debate nobody wants to do it but um well i think it's pretty critical yeah right we're at a critical point here where we need to get more funding for 9-1-1 so

Maybe it'll get you in January or February.

Well, I think if they authorize the, if they authorize with a skill game bill, if they authorize it, the change wouldn't take effect until January. Anyway, so go ahead, Mr. Ballas.

I just want to say that this is part of a continuing trend, right? We're looking for an extra quarter or a line for cell phones because we have to support 911. But A lot of times the money that we depend on locally here to run the county or any municipality depends on to run their local municipality. A great portion of that comes from state funding or federal funding. And when the spigot dries up, you know, then where are we to turn except for to raise taxes on the county level or on the municipal level for people that are running the municipalities and things like that. It also works that way on the school board. The school board is supposed to be funded primarily by the state. And yet, if you look at how schools are funded these days, it's about half state and half property tax.

Not even that much.

Or, yeah, it might be even less imbalance. And the county government is supposed to be funded more by the state than it is as well. So this is how governmental units, particularly municipalities, when we're on the very low end as things, quote unquote, trickle down, for years we've have to look at, okay, and the county manager can speak to this, I'm sure, you know, that roof can't get put onto that building. We had a presentation at the last meeting where we had a roof that was 45 years old. And I think that that was just the highest color that they had to fill that square. And so, you know, this is going to be a trend until it's not. This is going to be a trend until people start to sort of shake the sugar tree with the state legislators and federal legislators and say, hey, listen, it's okay to have projects and things like that, but the counties and the individual municipalities were put in place because we know where the money needs to be spent best, typically, small government, right? And what ends up happening is that you get some people that get it in their head that they want to put money into pet projects that have nothing to do with luzerne county and i'm talking about both parties here but when they take the money and they take a big pot of money and they put it into some vanity project and it's not even in the county or the state well that's money that doesn't get back down into luzerne county and we still need 911 and we still need to put roofs on buildings So this is just part of the ongoing conversation.

Some of the state legislation that concerns 911, you could consider it an unfunded mandate if they don't raise this. They're telling us we have to digitize, which we are well ahead of the curve on that. But there's still other costs and concerns. And it's an unfunded mandate if they don't help us out by raising this.

Took a $20 million bond out a few years ago to finance that. So it was a cost.

So I just wanted to comment on that because I think it's a disturbing trend in the spigot being closed down from the local governments being able to actually supply you with the goods and services, so to speak, that you actually get to see in this county or in your municipality. The ways that you actually interact with the government where you need it and that funding I pray opens back up at some point.

Well, hopefully they pass the skill games legislation and then in their infinite wisdom, if they're collecting 40% of a skill games, 1% of that 40, like would stay in the county. A little more revenue. A little more, you know, so Ms. Williams.

I just, you know, I'm pulling back to that legislative committee. I remember in the past, the county council had way before I was on council years ago, town halls, and brought in local legislators to participate in the town halls. But I think this conversation is a conversation to be had to invite local reps into the room, have this conversation with them. I don't know if it's something to do that the legislative committee could do and host and present to them these issues and come to the table prepared to say, these are some of the things that we could really use help with. And maybe they're not even aware. But I think the pressure needs to be put on them in an awareness and in advocating for it on behalf of the county council.

Well, we had done that years ago.

We had the roundtables.

Some of the commissioners at CCAP were saying we should get in our EMA vehicles and our 911 vehicles and go down to Harrisburg and just sit in on the day, you know. So there's some talk about a lot of different things going on.

Just a point of information that Megan texted me about right now. We do have a legislative meeting on October 1st. You want to talk a little bit about that, Megan?

Come on down, Ms. Stone.

should have all got the invite for 10-1. We're gonna do it at the operations building. We have some senators already RSVP that they're coming, some state reps. We're just gonna do a round table kind of explaining what human services and what each department does. But it would be nice to also delve into all these topics while we have a captive audience. So, any questions?

Thank you.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Any questions for Ms. Stone on this? Anything else on this topic? All right, number seven, discussion regarding an ordinance establishing a human relations commission. Who wants to start?

I think we could start. We got a memo from operations and from the solicitor. Can they speak to the concerns that they have perhaps? That might be a very good starting point.

Yep, go ahead, Mr. Skeen. I appreciate that memo, by the way.

I didn't bring the memo with me. It was a long memo that went point by point. Well, thank you. So I'm not going to read this. Is there any specific questions you had about it?

I read it, but it's pretty lengthy. But I think some of the major, I would say, attorney scheme, whatever your major concerns are, are probably ones that I share that we voiced, I think, in different language a couple months ago.

Attorney Skeen, if I can, I'd ask specifically about the costs. I know that you outlined the potential for litigation, for outside representation of attorneys, and what the potential cost outside of the $1,500, like that's like the magic number that's been floated around here, that that's all it's going to cost, but Many people have said that it's going to be significantly more than that. Can you go into that concern that was raised in the memo? Sure.

So one of the major concerns was who is going to do the work. So under the charter, we are, you know, so far under the ordinance, it would be the Office of Law and HR. But I don't think, I think that's a conflict with the charter that those two groups would be able to do it. Also, I think we don't know yet how people are going to respond to this. And from what department we are going to pay the money. So given that we're going into budget season, I thought we should discuss what the possible costs are so that we could allocate that in the budgets. So one cost that you brought up would be paying outside counsel. So if we have to pay outside counsel, the office of law would put out an RFP. We'd have firms apply who wants to do that job. We'd get a fee agreement with them. And then they would be available for when they need to be appointed. Because we wouldn't want to just... start appointing people uh just randomly picking people and then appointing them we'd like to that would be coming out of my budget so i'd like to know who we're going to use for that the ace commission has gone through this for a long time they hired attorneys to do an investigation and to move forward uh the case forward and it really hasn't worked out very well So I was thinking that it would be best if they hired a retired law enforcement officer. Many police, after there's an arrest and they have to go to district magistrate court on their first hearing, present the case themselves, depending on the level of the case. So rather than paying what we would pay for an attorney, if we had retired or police officers who would have time to do an investigation when they're off of service, we would be able to have them, at a lower cost, do the investigation and present that to the commission. That again would save money. But what I was bringing up here and why I went section by section was to show where I, because I hadn't seen this until it was posted last time. Normally, if I saw it, I would put on reviewed, reviewed, not recommended, reviewed, recommended. In the present state of it, I would not recommend it because a lot of questions are unanswered. And that's why I went through each section and explained the questions that I have with the various sections. And I think it's something that council has to speak about with how is it going to be paid for? You're probably better off the first year that you do something like this to over budget for it and have the money left over than to under budget for it. And then administration has to keep doing budget amendments, moving money around to try to pay for things. So based upon that, just an outside person looking in who doesn't vote on council, there has been a lot of discussion about this specific ordinance in council. And unlike some other matters that we've had presented here, it's a very close issue. So people for it, people against it. And there's a high potential that as a result of it, they're going to Because it's based on how a person feels, if they feel they're being discriminated against. So there may be a lot of complaints that get filed that we have to deal with. They might go away. I don't know what the investigator is going to do. And I don't know how we're going to go at which option you're going to choose to prosecute the case, investigate the case, and do all that. So there's also... issues about, we have no commissions and we shouldn't have any commissions that have their own budget. That would be an extra nightmare for budget and finance. So if commissions do not have a budget, all of this money has to be put someplace. attorneys generally get paid out of my budget. So I presume that any attorneys that we use are going to come out of my budget. But I don't know, you know, in there, there's a conflict. The county manager is going to make sure this is done. Somebody else is going to make sure the $1,500 is done. But the county manager's budget, uh, I don't I don't think there's a large budget to cover something new that that's coming in. There's talk about you know that it's going to be in that we have to make sure there's a room available for it. I don't know if the plan is a hybrid. virtual and in person. So anytime we have an in person, particularly where it might have a large crowd, we have to have security and we have and then the sheriffs are coming in and then they're getting overtime and they're tired and they're getting mandated for overtime. even if it's just you know a saturday for a wedding we have to bring in security because these days you can't just allow people to walk in the courthouse without security so they have to be screened so if we're doing that it's going to be another meeting that's going to take up more resources so i was just thinking that um and the gist of the memo was how are we going to pay for all this how is it going to be done there are extra costs that we're not looking at and it's also My department is very busy. So the more work I get to do, we're stretching out, you know, people's time. Like for instance, even just this memo takes a while to put together and send out. So that's taking resources to do the memo. I'm happy to do that. That's my job. That's what we do, but we only have so much capacity. And as the county manager explained earlier, we've got a lot of positions that aren't filled in the county. So people are being stressed and stretched in every department to try to get work done. So I just wanted it to be understood and have a plan on how all this is going to be done. Randomly in there at one point, there was a discussion about community development. So I didn't know what role community development is going to play in that. It could be a big role. Maybe that's going to be the department that that coordinates everything that's needed for the commission. But that just came in out of nowhere and I didn't know. So I was just trying to give some ideas on what my thoughts were after reading through it.

I think the community development- Maybe with that, could some of the members who put this forth, could they address those maybe? Go ahead, County Manager. Community development, Lehigh County sends their complaints to the community development.

Oh, okay. I didn't know that.

So yeah, just a few things. We're not, I keep saying this, we're not in uncharted waters here and I'm not sure why we're trying to reinvent the wheel. We have more than 10 years of HRCs across the state with different counties having different commissions. And it's a fool who doesn't learn from their own mistakes, but it's an idiot who doesn't learn from somebody else's, right? So we have some really good examples that we can look to that I think we should be looking to. So I wanted to speak to a couple of the points that Attorney Skeen mentioned instead of hiring outside counsel, for example, hire a retired police officer to investigate. Every other county uses a member of the HRC as their investigator. That's how it works. That's how they avoid those costs. You also mentioned that these complaints are based on how people feel. That's absolutely not true. That's not factual in any way, shape, or form. The very first question that people face when they put a complaint forward to the HRC by the investigator is, what protected class are you in and how are you discriminated against as a part of that class? And most of the time, people are not in a protected class. They just don't like what happened to them. But if they're not in a protected class, it's non-jurisdictional. That complaint would not go forward.

Those words are used in the first legislation that already passed.

So like I was saying, that's the first one. And then the second question is, where's your evidence? and that's presented to the commissioners, whoever is chosen as the investigator. And I mean, we could choose to have more than one, certainly, if we want to say that more than one person can be an investigator. I think that we can talk about the makeup of this. I actually wanted to do that. But I also wanted to just point out that there's, and you kind of said it yourself, Attorney Skeen, there's sheriffs here for literally everything. I mean, when we have a wedding, we have sheriffs here. When we have an ABC committee, we have sheriffs here. When we have any committee meeting, we have sheriffs here. And you yourself just said that none of the ABCs have budgets, and that would be a nightmare for budget and finance, right? So where do those costs come out of? Why can't it come out of the same place? I don't understand why we're making this. We're trying to reinvent the wheel, and it just seems...

The payment for the sheriff's difficulty comes out of the general fund as overtime.

Right. So I'm not sure why that's even being brought up as an issue because the sheriffs are here literally for everything. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being here all the time and for keeping us so safe and doing such a great job. We appreciate you a lot. And I've been in this courthouse more than for many, many, many years and I've seen a lot of things happen here and everybody's done a really great job every time something scary has happened. But those are already things we pay for.

Mr. Skeen. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I very much respect our caveman relatives for the work that they had done all those years ago. the point that i was making is we were not thinking about or didn't seem there could be more expenses that i pointed out that might be there also no other county in this state is luzerne county except for luzerne county and i've been watching people coming in here and arguing and they in the first legislation that was enacted I believe it says, depending on your feelings. But it was certainly said by Miss Liz that was based on their feelings. So that's something that we'll see.

That's either taken out of context or completely incorrect.

We'll see later on. But we're dealing with an issue that is a hot button issue now. And I think that we're going to have, maybe just in the beginning, but I think we're going to have a lot more involvement than we're thinking or a lot more involvement than others did. That's just my view. I don't get a vote. I'm just letting people know how I feel, and that was based on my first review. Well, I reviewed it a couple of times, but my review of that ordinance. So I issued a memo, and you could do what you wish. Mr. Brown?

I understand your concern, but I do not share your concern. I would like to make a proposed amendment, however, to this. So one of the questions that we got at the press conference was how do we make sure that people don't abuse the use of this, which again, I don't think people are going to. I do not share that concern, but let's address it. So I want to make it very clear, although it is already in Pennsylvania statutes that you can be put under oath and subject to penalties of perjury at any administrative hearing, I would like to make an amendment. First of all, in section two, The lettering is off. It says D E F E F F G H we have fixed that. Um, if we want, I think we should add in section three. I would put it after letter E, but we can talk about where we want to add it. Just to be clear, upon commencement of any hearing of the commission, the chair of the commission must inform any testifying witness that their testimony to the commission is subject to the penalty of perjury. I'll maybe do that more slowly. Okay, sorry. Or I can just write it up for you if you want.

Yeah, that's fine. You can email it to us.

That's fine.

I think maybe point of order, Mr. Chair. So perhaps we could codify this in an email, put this on the next work session, address attorney Ski's issues, and then have a better discussion. Because if we just do that, we're going to be here all night. recite things. I think a lot of us would like to see some.

I appreciate Attorney Skeen's memo and I would like to address those concerns with him and work through them. If everybody's okay with codifying this and getting everything written down and presenting it at the next work session. I'm okay with doing that as well.

Because Ms. Barrett talked about insurance issues too. I think that's a component too that should definitely be addressed. And maybe somebody that brought this forward to the council wants to address that as well.

That is addressed. So in order to become... For next meeting. Okay.

For next meeting.