City Council - workshop

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

Thank you.

You know, sometimes when it rains, it pours a little bit, and we're just having some tech and getting things printed correctly here. We want to make sure that everybody can see the information and has access to the information. Also wanted to set the stage. So tonight we're going to be going over PAL, but also a little bit into just some of the community policing. More from the standpoint of we are gearing up to go into budget. And so this is a big part of the city budget. And so my goal was for us to have more time where we spend in, this is a study session that several of us have asked for, to make sure that we have the information we need to make the decisions as we start to enter in to September, October, and November, really into that budget season. So I wanted to kind of set the stage for that. And with that, I'll go ahead and I will mic pass over for you all to go ahead and start your presentation.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Titus. Thank you, council, for having us in here today. Before we get started, I'm going to do a brief history lesson of the program before I turn it over to my partner here, Antoine. What I first want to do is just read our overall mission. I'm not going to read it page for page. Everybody here has your copies. But the mission is important. Erie Police Athletic League aims to foster a positive relationship between law enforcement, and youth outside the traditional criminal justice framework. By offering a variety of activities, Erie Powell supports children's development through life skills training, academic assistance, and programs focused on nutrition, arts, and athletics. The holistic approach not only engages kids, but also promotes personal growth and community connections. The reason why I read that, and it's only fitting we're here 10 years or we're going into our 10-year anniversary, so it's only fitting to kind of update council what we've been doing the last decade. But basically, in a nutshell, back in 2015, there was talks of... getting a youth league started in our community. Our former chief, Rainey Bowers, actually Dr. Horton was involved in that process back then. He was one of our original board members. Ronnie DeNicola, they came up with the idea to possibly bring the Police Athletic League back after a 40-year hiatus since 1985. It was the last year that POW was in the community. So Chief Bowers pulled myself, two other officers in within that first year. We came up with an immediate game plan of how we could get this program implemented in our city and attach it to the police department. So there was a lot of thought that went into it. What school? We knew that we were going to attach ourselves to the City of Erie School District. So the question was, what school were we going to start in? So, you know, basically looking at the crime statistics around that pocket in time, we believed at that time the Lower East Side would have been a good place to start, which is why Pifer Burley was chosen that first year. You know, within that first year, you know, we went in, we attached ourselves to the school district's after-school program. It was called GEERS at the time. So they were so kind enough to allow us to come in and, you know, to get this thing piloted, to get it started. So we had about 35 kids that first year, first couple months, just to kind of ease the tension and things like that. Things didn't really get up and roll until three or four months once everybody felt comfortable with the program. Long story short, for the sake of time, it was a very successful year at Piper Burley, which led us into that first summer. We instituted our first summer camp, which I'd like to note that, in distinction, that was the first time at Powell Chapter in the entire country. did a camp at a major university. So that was pretty groundbreaking at that time. We had about 65 kids. Fast forward into year two, the school district was so kind. They liked what they saw in that first year in that one school. So we took on a west side school the following year in Harding and McKinley. At that time, we were already in the Boys and Girls Club as one of our satellite locations to do some activities with the kids off school hours. Fast forward to now, and again, I hate to just fast forward to now, but I'm going to. Long story short, we started year one with one school to three school to four locations. Fast forward to 2026, we're involved in 29 different locations with over 2,000 kids in the program. went from one camp in 2016 to now we incorporate six camps throughout the summer for our kids. And another groundbreaking thing that we did was we got our footprint in Mill Creek. We're in an elementary school out there, Mill Creek Police Department. They're often running, although we're under the same chapter, they're often running out in Mill Creek with creative ways on how they're going to grow it out there. So fast forward to now, we're in every elementary school in the city of Erie. Elementary school, every middle school, all three middle schools are with us. And all the high schools, Collegiate Academy, Erie High, Cathedral Prep, and we do now have a few kids that are in Iroquois and Harbor Creek as well. So why that's important, our first four years, we didn't really have a plan, because it was initially, hey, let's work with elementary school kids, and nobody really had the forethought of what it was going to look like in middle school. What we found after year three or four, a lot of those kids we had the first three years, some of them, if we're being honest, were getting into a little bit of trouble. Some of them academically, they started falling off. So we came up with a plan. Once we started building our resources around the program, it would be a great idea to not end with them in fifth grade, but to maybe tie all three middle schools together. And the thought that went into that was Upper East combining with Lower East, Upper West combining with Lower West, and more or less bringing all those kids together in middle school to make that group bigger, which is what happened. And I would say 90% of those kids, once they go beyond high school, they all wound up at either Erie High or Collegiate with a few going to prep. Or we had a couple kids leave the city and go a little further east. You know, fast forward to now, you know, we're a seven-day-a-week, and I say seven-day-a-week program. I mean, you know, during the school year, I passed out, you know, basically our school year calendar for 25-26. As you can see, anything in red, there isn't a day that we don't have to spare during the school year. And with our camps during the summer, you know, we're off and running daily. you know, with doing, I mean, it initially started off to be three, four days a week. Now it's a full-time situation where we have that many kids, that many events that we're doing on our schedule, that we're 365 days a year. And that's not even including the phone calls that all of our officers get, the family visits on non-traditional hours. We're constantly out there with a great team of officers. implementing and keeping this program going. Now, during the school year, and again, I'm jumping all over the place, as far as how the structure is set up, every school that is under our umbrella, every school is assured that they have their pow day in every location. For example, with the school year starting from Monday to Thursday, we're in three to four different locations every day. like so for example Piper Burley from 2 30 to 5 30 and sometimes I'll push it to six we'll have a team of officers at that location we'll have a team of officers at McKinley and we have a team of officers at Grover Cleveland and then you go to Tuesday you have a whole new different set of elementary schools for that pile day. Wednesday, the same thing. Thursday's the day that we bring all of our middle school and our high school together in one giant location. And through the years, we're kind of like the redheaded stepchild that we've pretty much outgrown the Boys and Girls Club just with our numbers. We use Strong Vents in a year or two, and last year we were blessed enough to use Blessed Sacrament for our middle school and our high school kids. So the reason why that's important is it's not a one-and-done type program. I mean, we start with these kids in third grade and we basically, we've seen a lot of, now that we're at the 10 year mark, we've seen hundreds of kids graduate high school and move on to bigger and better things such as trade schools, military, college. One of our rules, obviously, before they graduate high school is they've got to have a plan. you know and we uh as an entity we assist them with that plan whether it's college you know filling out fafsa stuff their junior year to try to get them in some sort of a trade a lot of them obviously this is the number one recruiting tool that any police department could ever have um because prior to this esteemed council here in years past You know, we'd have an every other year recruiting cycle where they would put myself and another African American officer out there every other year and expect the community to believe that we are serious about minority recruiting. So when this initiative came to light, you know, in the long game, we know for a fact that this program is going to be the long term answer as far as making this department. diverse and reflective of the community that serve it. So that was really in part of that plan 10 years ago, that this is not only a great opportunity to improve that police youth, not just the youth too, by the way, we always talk about the youth, but the amount of success that we've had uh from the adults and our citizens in our community through their own children has been remarkable uh in the last uh 10 years and tuan's going to get into a little bit of that but i can't wait till you guys have your first style graduate uh join our department it's coming Yeah, it's common. You know, and basically during the school year and from our last meeting, we were talking about, you know, the officers playing dodgeball and, you know, we got our weapons on when they're playing dodgeball. But the point I'd like to make is I think the general conception or misperception is that, you know, officers are, you know, we're just throwing balls out in the middle of the floor and we're sitting on the outside and we're Babies and kids. It's not what it is. I mean, even our games, it's structured. Our officers will report to the school. They have the hour of homework enrichment time. Then we go into a group team building athletic game. that's created by all the officers. So everybody, all the kids are involved. You don't have to be the most athletic. You don't have to be, it's not those kind of games. And then we brief on those team building activities at the end of those games to kind of, hey, tell me about teamwork. What do you see here? So we go over all this stuff and then we have basically a rec hour. And then before they go home, we break for dinner to where the officers will sit down and then we have a 30 minute group session which is mandatory, that we talk about the issues in our community. Whether it was a video that the kids saw or whether it was something that's going on in current events in our community. We talk about life skills, anger management, conflict resolution, bullying component in our programs, a big piece. Last year was a rough year. Because we did have, you know, quite a few, unfortunately, a lot of youth, several of our youth lost their lives to suicide. So we're always looking for creative ways. We work with other outside entity non-profits. We partnered with Premier Education to come in every day with our groups to kind of implement. You want to say that again?

Yes, yep.

and dionte cooley and you know and that whole crew up there where you know they come in once a week they talk to the kids about vaping drug and alcohol use anger management and those types of things so every year we're trying to get a little more creative to do the complete wrap around uh for these kids that we're working with every day not just hey we're just trying to improve police and youth relationship. I mean, it's evolved and morphed into things more than that. And I think Antoine, when he speaks here, it was more than we expected, but it was very encouraging and we're very optimistic with the direction of where the youth that we're working with, and I'll say this proudly, of all the kids that we've had in the last 10 years, And that was another reason why, Andre, we decided to do the middle school and follow them up through was we have had very few incidents of these kids being involved in the criminal justice system. So that, with the kids that we're working in, which is very encouraging.

I mean, you can't be serious about mitigation if you're not starting in middle school. But whether it's gangs, or in this case, just distressed and trauma-informed neighborhoods. So yeah, you gotta start there. It won't be an answer to all of it, but it certainly is a necessary component. We threw out some numbers, age gaps upstairs in our other meeting, but you can still be All of the fantastic work that's being done with the children, when they go home at night, their parents are still there. And I know what you're talking about. parents, when you see your kids doing more, doing better, it kind of makes you want to do more, do better. And I've witnessed that firsthand. I've had conversations with some of your power parents. And I've also filled in a lot of concerns from some of the power parents. But you all should be commended for doing this. I'm a straight shooter. So they're getting paid to spend time with our children. Okay. That's fair. I don't have a thing about that. is does the overtime pay or the pay that's being accrued at the house, does it impact our bottom line, our budget? Meaning is it being considered in your pension and all of that stuff? Is it 1099 dollars? Versus, you know, we don't have to get off into it here because I've had some preliminary conversations with Lisa and I kind of got some understanding. When I bring this stuff up here, it's not Andre asking me. There's some of the stuff I'm hearing. And I'm like, yeah, okay, they are, that's true. And so it's like, well, why can't we, why should we pay them? Why won't we pay, we should pay the parents to spend time with their children. Maybe that's a component, I don't know. But I was a proponent, a big believer of it from day one, and I still am.

Yeah, and Chief Janice in all due respect, he's going to get into a lot of that. But there's one last thing I want to add too that I think it's important for council to understand as well. We also track their academics every quarter because this is morphed also into an incentive based type program now. I mean, at first everybody was like, hey, everybody's invited along and not that we're looking for the academic dominance of a kid that gets straight A's. I mean, we just have kids that get straight A's and we have some kids that just struggle.

I was one of those kids.

And, you know, so we reward them and we incentivize them. you know, if we see them going north, even if it's a little bit, that's where our field trips come into play. I mean, we go on a lot of field trips. We go to Niagara Falls, we go to Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philly, Gettysburg, D.C. several times, New York City. So, and part of that is to, you know, get a lot of these kids outside of our own backyard to experience things that they haven't seen yet, you know what I mean? and also educationally, have them get a little piece of our culture, everybody's culture. So I at least want council to understand that it's more than just throwing a ball out there playing with the kids. I mean, if somebody would have told me we'd be full-time counselors as police officers, I would have said, no, that's not the truth. It's not going to happen, but it's a job we welcome. And we have a great team. And without you guys, we couldn't do this. So captain Lennox, thank you so much for that I think two pieces you missed and then I think we want to move on to officer fields talking about the impact just how the program works and

the 501c3, right? So there's a 501c3 nonprofit that oversees, that has a board of directors, that's in your packet here, separate from the city of Erie, because that's going to be important when Chief Janus speaks about the finances. And then just the other fact that there is a full board that oversees those funds, and we can talk about who's on that board and how. But I think those are kind of the mechanics of the program. Would you agree? And then I think we can move on to Officer Fields to talk about the community impact. Go ahead. Great, thank you.

So, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, can you go back to that one, Chris? So just very quickly, how does the program work? We serve as mentors and role models for our youth. That goes without saying. We lead any activities, workshops, sports. Obviously, we're attempting or we have built trust between us and our youth in addition to our adults. Obviously, creating a safer, more cohesive community environment. We emphasize teamwork, leadership, and sportsmanship in everything that we do. I mean, everything's a team. Prioritizes building trust and positive values and young participants and provides opportunities for personal growth and responsibility. And we were gradually shifting the perception of law enforcement in the community. And hopefully we're building long term trust and safety through consistent engagement. And that's the thing. consistency. I mean, not just accepting the fact that it's not eight to four. Um, you know what I mean? You know, non traditionally these kids and their families are going to call you at 10, 11, one in the morning. So, um, you know, and I, and I think that's part of what makes this work. is you know they count on us they depend on us they know we're a call away and we're always at the other end of that call to help them work them through um you know whatever it is they're going through so that's all i got to say about that um just for council's knowledge i don't know how much you know on the national level with most police but like when you look at philadelphia when you look at uh i don't know los angeles pd kansas city they're all like they're all 501c3s most of them you know what i mean to where it's a non-profit entity that they all have that partnership with the major police department within the city that they're serving so you know some people have the misperceptions that powell their department actually has that is part of their entity. Um, and I'm hoping that we eventually morph into that to where this is a permanent community policing. And I believe with the mayor's vision, um, we're definitely working that way where it's, we're going to keep evolving the community policing, um, piece of our department. So Antoine community impact. You want to talk about that a little bit?

My check, my check.

All right. Hello everyone. And thank you for having us again. Um, as captain Lennox has stated before, um, we do serve, um, if we can get up here, we do serve over, uh, 2000 kids in the community in collaboration with 29 different, um, locations, uh, with schools and community centers. Um, our program provide a safe and structured environment where every two have children, have the opportunity to participate in after school activities, athletic mentoring, educational opportunities, which we have teachers on staff as well, thanks to the school district. They allow us to get two teachers per school. So we're thankful to them for the after school portion of officers and teachers helping the youth with after school homework. including our summer events, field trips, and community engagement. We believe in focusing on each child providing not just a number, but genuine care, support, and engagement. Every child receives the chance to do something positive with emphasis on life skills, resilience, academic support, as we embrace a village mentality mindset our officers work together to uplift and build up every child ensuring a foundation of a lifelong success. Can I go to the next one? As far as success stories, we do not measure success as some do. We measure it not by awards won or anything. We look at success as personal growth and transformation in our youth, because that's the most important thing. Many of our participants arrive, they come in the door, some shy, some unsure of themselves, They're pretty much down on themselves just because of circumstances that they don't have any control of. But however, when they leave us, they leave us with more confidence because of the teachings that we bring to them on a daily basis, not just in the classroom, but on phone calls when parents do call us because we get those phone calls almost every day. Through athletics, mentoring, and educational progress, children develop problem-solving skills, learn responsibility, and build self-belief. We have proudly watched these children grow into responsible adults, some college-bound, some already career-ready. They're in careers. and some even serving in our military. Off subject today at 740 something this morning, I got a call from one of our graduates who is now in the Air Force. She called me with some things that was on her chest about what she's going through. And we had a great conversation about things to progress mentally while she's doing those things that she can put into her training as she goes through. And it was a good conversation. But that's just something that I'm telling you guys because the impact doesn't stop when they leave us. It continues as they grow. We're always here for them. It never stops.

I had a question. Yes. Would you say that your students are, because of the after-school help and the additional assistance with college, that you guys are more able to help them graduate? Yes, 100%. Like your graduation rate?

Our graduation percentage is up there. Okay. From the... Because like Captain Lenny said, we do track... That is a major thing in our program is education. We are sticklers on the education part of things. Because, again, as you hear us say multiple times, it's not about... the athletic part of things. It's about the mental growth and those traits that build the good citizen that we are all looking for and the upbringing of our youth. But with that said, our focus has always been, back to this, has always been beyond athletics. We strive to nurture better students, leaders, citizens, and individuals. The true impact of PALS It's seen through stories of transformation where children not only achieve but become the best version of themselves.

Just curious, with some of this, and I think the anecdotal component is very valuable. As somebody who leads a nonprofit and who is also a therapist, there's a lot of things about personal growth and healing. that are really difficult to measure statistically, but I think statistics do play, they're important. So I would be very curious to see some of the data around like this is how many of our PALS students have graduated or who have gone on to college or a trade school or something like that. I think that that would be really wonderful to just kind of back some of that.

Okay, relationships between office and the youth. So with this one, We are transforming the way police and our youth interact by creating a safe, positive environment for authentic connection. Instead of meeting under stressful circumstances, youth and officers connect during activities, homework, field trips, everyday conversations, allowing genuine relationships to grow. Through these interactions, power breaks down the barriers that a uniform can create. fostering a trust and mutual respect. This approach doesn't reshape how kids view police. It influenced the entire community. Community leaders' parents have turned to us for support when their child is struggling, which is back to that building of a village mindset. Because we want everyone to know that we're always available because we want our children in this community to succeed at all costs. So with the contributions to the public safety, We, and I do say we and hopefully everyone around this table, knows that investing in our youth is the key to building a safer and constructive area. I hope that is, I don't have to say that because I think that's a given. Through preventative measures, mentoring and leadership, We help grow our youth in confidence, community-minded adults who strengthen our neighborhoods. When our youth have trusted mentors, safe spaces, and positive relationships, including with police officers, benefits their families, their businesses around, and neighborhoods alike. Our commitment is long-term. Change means you will see the impact in stronger, more resilient communities for years to come. We're also focused on recruiting young adults from diverse backgrounds and with emphasis on minorities from our own neighborhoods and helping them imagine a future in law enforcement. Selfly, we doing that. Hey, we want our community to look like us, right?

Okay.

We have also done multiple career fairs in our local high schools and colleges, and that's yearly. We do that often, as much as the schools allow us to. And we also conducted our first ever women's career, I mean, police career expo this last April, I believe it was, April.

Officer Fields, I'm going to ask you, because I know we want to get to the numbers for council. Can we have, maybe go through the slides and show the pictures, and then we can just wrap it up maybe with the last thoughts so we can... Well, look at that. Perfect.

Good timing. So with the recognition for our program, we have been recognized not only by the state with Governor Shapiro. We are also the number one drug and alcohol prevention in youth for the county. So with that, some of these pictures are some of the activity we do in the community year-round. So some of these pictures are a little older because I employ everyone to visit our website, which is paleri.org, or go to our Facebook where we keep you up-to-date year-round with what we're doing at all times.

Thank you so much. So Deputy Chief Janice is now going to go through the dollars and cents, and then we'll take questions. Thank you.

Thank you. So the Erie Police Athletic League has three main funding sources. Those three funding sources are basically the 501C3 board, which has, in your package you'll see that we have an executive director, several board members. Those board members consist of law enforcement and civilians, so it's a mix of different people within the board. Grant money that we received through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, our boost grant, it's the PCCD that was directly to PAL. And then the Erie County Office of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, which is an agreement between the county and the city of Erie. So when we look at the 501c3 specifically, it is a separate entity from the city of Erie. Again, it has its own board with members that are law enforcement and civilian. It raises the revenues from grants, donations, and other fundraising activities. So we will do the PAL Ball that many of you have been to. That's one of the bigger fundraisers we do. We get donations from both local organizations and private individuals as well as other grants that we apply for. The 501c3, the main thing that it covers is it covers the cost of educational field trips, transportation, lodging, food, all that stuff. So when the officers go, we've heard they go to Chicago and DC and all these other great places. These educational field trips, they take the kids on coach buses. We have overnight lodging, food, cost of admittance and all this. All that stuff is handled by the 501c3. It's not city dollars. When we have our summer camps, our associated expenses for that, the t-shirts, giveaways, stuff like that. Our after school program, so after school sometimes there's food provided to the students. And then the day to day operating expenses for the 501c3. So all that stuff is paid through the board and the 501c3. The next is the boost grant. That is, it was a state grant that was awarded to Powell. So again, Erie Powell is the recipient of that, not the city of Erie. It's a $250,000 grant. It runs from January 1st, 2025 till the end of January of 2027. Again, it's a two-year grant. And that grant covers a portion of the salaries of three of the officers. And that covers $41,667 per officer per year. So that's how that $250,000 breaks into the officer's salaries.

And those officers are the ones that are solely dedicated to PAL?

Yes, there are three officers that are directly associated with PAL that fall under Captain Tom Lennox.

And then with this grant, we're heading towards that rundown window. Yes. Do we have indication on whether that revenue is going to be replaced or any indication if another grant's coming through?

There are several options of how we're going to handle this moving forward, and I believe the mayor's going to speak to that briefly here. So I will let her touch on that, but there are plans moving forward with that. The next would be the Erie County Office of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. So this is an agreement between the city of Erie and the county of DNA. It's a one year award. We've gotten it for several years. The award typically runs from July 1st through June 30th the following year. This year the agreement is for just under $225,000. That pays the overtime costs for the officers that are associated with the powell program so what happens is the officers they go to the powell program they submit an overtime slip which is approved by the city then there's paperwork that is accompanied with that and then it gets turned over to the county and they reimburse us for that money The money does come through the city, but it is completely, so all of PAL overtime is reimbursed through the city. So there's no overtime coming out of the police overtime budget that's used for patrol activities or criminal investigations. It's all PAL overtime comes through the Erie County DNA program. And with that, again, it's $82 an hour that's reimbursed. Or what it breaks down to is just over 2,700 hours per year in overtime for all the costs of the officers to participate in the program. Again, we're in eight elementary schools, the middle schools, the high schools. So there are a lot of officers that are there every day in every school. We have summer camps that are 40 hours long. Our Intel camp, our junior police academy, another 40 hour long. The overnight field trips, the boxing, wrestling, we've introduced police explorers, and again these educational field trips. So all that comes from, now again, all the costs for those are run by the 501c. So when they go on those educational field trips, You know, we're paying for the buses, the lodging, all that. It's just the overtime that's being reimbursed from the drug and alcohol grant.

So I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly, though. So the grant that we have, the $250,000, covers $41,000 for the three officers. But there's several officers, so we're still paying the daily officer rate, right? But then once the overtime hits in, this covers it.

So, yeah, so they're the three officers. We have Hayden, Melanie, Antoine. Everybody knows them. They're the three main officers. That $250,000 pays a portion of their salaries. Now, when they are working overtime costs or any other officers associated with PALS working overtime, then transitions and comes from that county DNA. So there's no police overtime that's earmarked for patrol activities or criminal investigation that is going to PAL. It is all coming from the Erie County DNA.

Does that answer your question, Dr. Davis?

The regular salary, though, of the other officers.

That's paid by the city of Erie as police officers. So the only time they're getting paid is when they're doing overtime work for PAL, and that's the funds that are reimbursed from DNA. Yes.

Yeah, there are. Besides the three officers and Captain Lennox, everybody else that's involved in the PAL program are not full-time PAL officers. They are full-time police officers that have a primary duty within the police department, whether it's patrol, criminal investigation, training, wherever they're at. And then when they transition to get into the PAL program, they are on an overtime basis, and that's where the DNA kicks in and reverses.

So I know I keep asking the same question, but I think that that has created a lot of confusion, not just for some of the council members, but also for community members. That's the question I probably get asked the most, is how is this funded, and where does this break down, and are we paying for officers to go out? But I think it's important for everyone to understand that the clear... The clear pathways.

And there is a very, so there's no mismanagement or confusion with the way this works is that the county requires us to do a form. And then the officers do a report and the overtime, so all that stuff is documented. And so that when it goes to the payroll process and all that, it's not getting taken out of the regular city overtime budget for police. It is earmarked specifically for PAL.

So there's no accrual in their pension? based on funding or income received from PAL. That's not carried over into the city's pension plan.

No, so the way police pensions work for the city is that, so I make a certain amount when I retire, whatever my rank is, I will retire and make 50% of that amount. Now some police agencies and some agencies or other employers do have where you'll see the last two or three years, somebody's getting ready to retire and they start just crushing overtime because they know they're padding their pension. That doesn't work for us.

No, respectfully, I know what you're saying. I ran the pension board over at the county for half a dozen years. My question goes to when that goes off of the city salary clock, and now you're picking up 501 funding to pay the officers. Is that totality or that money that's being paid in addition to their salary, is it being considered also when we're accruing their pension?

No. Okay. No. Over time, none of that is taken into pension. Pension is whatever your current base salary is, 50%.

So they're 1099 on that money?

No.

Schedule C? Was it a stipend? Was it reportable then if they're not 10-9?

They're paying taxes. They're paying taxes. It's W-2 wages, but the pension is calculated only on the salary without the overtime.

I got you. And that goes for anybody within the police department that is eligible for overtime. So if you have a detective that's working with us.

I'm talking the overtime. I'm talking different entities. I'm not talking overtime. I get all of that. I'm saying that if they're on a separate entity paycheck, so you've clearly made it plain that they're still employees, maybe not of the city at that time, but of. thinking that they're not being classified for tax purposes as Schedule C of 1099, and then does that have zero impact on our pension fund?

Yeah, there's still city employees, but there's no within the pension. It does not influence their pension at all.

And Dr. Titus, I will say this is why I think it's a good idea that you asked for this, because these are the questions that we understand get raised a lot. So this is what we wanted to make sure we got to. And I think there's one more slide, Chris, it might be out of order, that has what the city of Erie pays for. Maybe we can go to that one. I think if you go ahead.

No?

Is it back?

So what the city does, and I don't think it's on here, but what the city does pay for.

When you skip the other way and you go looking ahead, it would go one more maybe? No. Oh, it is in our handout. It is in the handout. Yeah.

Um, so what it, what it does pay for, um, is it pays. So the city of Erie does pay for the salary of captain Lennox. So it pays his full salary, the remaining balance, um, for, uh, sergeants is orc. Corporal Foltz and Officer Field. So it pays the remaining balance of their salaries, healthcare related benefits, stuff like that. And then the city does have two, or PAL has two buses. They're used to transport the kids all locally. The city covers the cost of maintenance and the fuel for that. But again, that stuff's all locally. So when they go to like, you know, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, DC, they do rent the coach buses. Those buses aren't really equipped to handle long distance travel outside of the city. So it would just be for the normal stuff. And the cost, as you can see in your packet, are very minimal for that per year.

How long is the PCCD grant for? And what happens when that grant expires? Do we pick up those salaries, the remaining 46,000 bus? We pick that up?

So I think that's the question that we'll need to talk with you at council and as we build the budget for 2027. So it's possible that we could go after some additional grant funds to keep that going. But in the absence of that, I think our vision that we've talked about is to create a community policing unit within the City of Erie Police Department that would be headed by Captain Lennox as it is. but that would have officers that are doing multiple things, right? They're not just doing PAL, and this kind of goes into our conclusion. We understand that community policing is more than just PAL, and I need to say that and then say it again and then say it six more times. PAL is a tool. It is a wonderful tool. We're very grateful for the work that Captain Lennox and his team does, but we recognize as a community that so much more is needed, right? So you see a couple of other things. We need to launch a citizen police academy. Captain Lennox is very aware of that. We are working to codify this new mayor's council on community safety and trust. And we know that we need to continue to diversify our police force through the strategic recruitment of minorities. So all of that is community policing. And so I think where we're headed, Councilor Horton, and to you too, Dr. Titus, is to suggest that we carve out a portion of the police budget for that work and We will cover those salaries from the city's budget, but to do all of this work together, not just for Powell, because what we'll lose is the half of the salaries of the three officers, but we'll have an opportunity to reorganize, to decide what that unit looks like. Obviously it's going to be led by captain Lennox, but how it looks and who does what all of that can be determined together with council as we do the budget for 2027. So I think that's a conversation that we'll have together. But again, I just want to remind you, it is just those few dedicated officers. Everything else, every other officer who touches this program were being reimbursed for their time through drug and alcohol. And as you know, probably better than anyone, unlikely that money is going to go away. That money is pretty reliable, and we've continued to receive it year over year.

80% of the county's stuff is... pass through dollars from the state, and a lot of times it's, well, we're gonna pay 75% of the salary, which is true, but then the grant ends, and we have a position, and now we're paying. Thank God it's only three positions, and I'm willing to see what happens within the police budget, and you should be able to carve it out of whatever the police existing budget is. It's going to be tough. There might be three positions. I make $6,000 a year. It's a good, I love the PAL program, I love it. PAL was started because Erie School District had 13,000 plus students and 11,500 of them had no organized activity to begin with. That was the, Ron and I were thinking when we started discussing this. The kids should be involved. We valued the cop-kid relationship. No, we didn't get it perfect. And it's kind of like a living document, so to say, just with all the amazing things that you've been able to do in such a short period of time. But we're going to have to make some decisions, some serious decisions. And everyone's, you know, police, fire, pension. It's like the lion's share of it. Thank you for everything you do.

Can you keep us informed when you guys do get future grants or if you guys are applying to something? That way we know that, like, the thing with the police and PALS is that you guys are going to find funding. Like, that's something that me being on council the last four and a half years, I could say is that you're getting money from somewhere, whether it's coming from the state or the federal government, you just have to have the paperwork in motion. So when you guys are applying, can you just let us know for peace of mind? Because... The police budget does take 40% of our city budget, so that is a big chunk of our yearly budget that we already know that is gone. And when we have these certain programs that we want to see the success of some of these graduates actually coming back and being our future police officers, we have to keep the record. and the paper trail there so that we can just know that the data is there and the evidence is there. So that's why I wanted to know how many graduates have we actually had succeed through your program? If it's 100, it's 100. But just to know that we had 100 graduates that went through PALS and they graduated. Now they're off to secondary schools or in a trade or actually successful in working in some field. it's just peace of mind to know that the funds that we're investing is going to come back because we've been told year after year that we don't invest in the youth enough and maybe this investment is not as important as some of the community center investment but it is important investment so that's where I would like to just know when you guys are applying to more funding.

Yes, and I think that was one of the reasons we wanted to have this, was so that everybody could see dollars and cents, where it's coming from, and that it's not, you know, there's that misconception it's completely funded by the city, and it's not.

No, and I'll commit, too, because I serve on the governor of PCCD board with the governor, Lieutenant Governor Davis, and I'll certainly look and ask and inquire I just want to state, I know this started way back in the 60s, was it?

Originally? Originally. And then it was lost for many years until you brought it back. And it's a wonderful program. I will back it until the end. Because I believe in it. I believe in what you're doing. And getting it out there where you're not... It's not all on the city. And... Even though the officers are making extra money, they're invested in the kids. And that's what we need. Because over the years, I wish my kids had this when they were growing up. As a single parent, they didn't have that. They didn't have that male, yeah, thank you, the male influence that they should have had. And thank God that they didn't fall through the cracks. But there's many kids that would and will if we don't keep this program going. And like I said, I will back you till the end for this program, because it's not like there's not going to be kids. There's always going to be kids, and there's always going to be kids that are lost. So if you can save a dozen kids from not going through what society is throwing at them, That's a win. I just want to say thank you.

So, Dr. Titus, I think we owe you some data. So I'll ask Captain Lennox and Officer Fields to put that together to your point, too, Council Flores, how many, right, success, kind of what those numbers look like, and we can follow up with you on that as well. Anything else that we didn't answer tonight that we can?

I think just as much clarity around... as we head into budget cycle. I know that this is a very important program and I don't doubt that for a second and I know that we're heading into some decision making discussions aren't going to be fun. They're just not going to be fun. And they're going to require, I think, a lot of us to get really creative. And I think that this is one of those areas, too, that we've often seen the funding. And it's important for the community, though, to also understand, like, Where's the money coming, but then what are the benefits and what have we been able to prevent from happening? So the clearer the picture, I think the easier it is for others to understand why and where we can rally the community around. But to kind of come back, and I know we didn't get into this discussion around community policing, but I really look forward to that, and that might be another study session down the road, because this really is just one piece, just one small piece of it. It's a big piece, but it's a small piece in how we, as a community, heal and move forward and come together and change just the narrative on all sides and start to repair some harm, some pretty serious harm that's been caused. So I thank you all for coming. I know that in hindsight, Maybe a study session during celebratory? Probably not the best decision.

And a child should lead them. And I envision those kids who are coming through this program having such an impact on their entire family. You perhaps should have a mother-father night or something with their kid. You get so many avenues that you can do. So many fathers coming home. Maybe a father-daughter dance, mother-son dance.

We do do parent nights at the schools where we bring the parents in so they can see and have fun with the kids as well where they come in and throw dodge balls and jump through.

Maybe something a little bit more formal where they know how to conduct themselves in other environments besides a gym or a ball field or recreation. They used to have cotillions in our neighborhoods.

We used to have all that stuff.

And so you guys are poised to be able to do something that you have. If you have children, you have programming. Because everybody was trying to do programming looking for children. That's why they always run into the school teacher. And you can do so many. Hell, we did etiquette classes. We brought people in and stuff. And so I'm excited about what PALS is doing. And finally, and I'll say it and shut up, the meeting that we just left lends itself to having more adult across some adult involvement. I understand the Act 33, 34 stuff. But there's some opportunities that you can make. The same way that you, it grew so fast, you could have, you potentially could have the same type of leaps and bounds into the neighborhoods in a way that your patrol cars don't.

Appreciate your time, guys.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone. And then to those who are watching, just remembering, again, this is just the beginning. As we're heading into the next part, I know that there's a lot, a lot of questions and a lot of conversations that need to happen. And this is just starting to scratch some of the surface. So thank you for everybody for attending.

I'm excited. Isn't it fun being on City Council?