City Council - Regular Meeting

How we doing? Not bad at all.

[clears throat]

How are you? Did your Can we get home? Okay.

We don't need him. her him or her.

We have cameras in the city. Unless you have one in front car, stop it. Where is that? Stop that car. [laughter] I call it a kit car. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

Call the state of session and city council to order. Please rise for the invocation followed by the pledge of the flag. As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday this week, let us begin our meeting by giving thanks for all the good brought to our city. In the spirit of the peace candle which will be lit on Saturday night, let us also ask for peace throughout the world. We also ask that thank you for the iron workers union workers who put the candle up without injury. During this meeting, we discuss many things and many make many decisions, but we never want to lose sight of our gratefulness to the heavenly father. Thank you for your faithfulness and provision in our lives. Thank you for each person in this meeting and the unique talents and perspectives they bring. We thank you for the opportunity to gather together and work towards a common goal. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Madam clerk,

Mr. Brown here. Mr. Edinger here. Mr. Pinnabone here. Mrs. Rose here. Dr. Rugles here. Miss Sultana here. Mayor Panto present. Uh at this time we have the approval of the agenda. Move to approve. Moved. Second. Seconded. Any discussions, additions, or deletions. Roll call. Madam clerk. Mr. Edinger. I. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. I. Dr. Rugles. Hi. M. Sultana. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. I. At this time we have our action on our minutes of our November 12th meeting with approved. Moved in sec move. Moved. Is there a second? Second. Second.

Roll call. Madam clerk. Mr. Pinnabone. I. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Dr. Ruggles. I. Miss Sultana. I. Mayor Panto. I. Mr. Brown. Hi. And Mr. Edinger. I. At this time, we're going to have a presentation to city council uh by PFM who is going to present on the stamp program. Thank you. There are handouts.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh my name is Gordon Man. I'm from uh public financial management, PFM. Uh not a creative title, but it is a descriptive one. We do exactly what our title says. Uh I'm joined by my colleague here, Lawrence Sakovich. Uh we're very glad to meet Well, some of a lot of you we've met already, but meet you uh in person in a public setting. Uh lots of acronyms here early on. We are here from what's called the strategic management planning program or the stamp plan. Uh you may recall it was probably late last year that the city uh applied for a grant to the commonwealth, another acronym DCD, the department of community and economic development, one of the cabinet uh departments under the governor uh that helps local governments. We were hired to create what's called a five-year plan, a a multi-year plan. You guys are working your way very diligently through the budget process. That's revenues and expenses in support of policy and strategy over a year. The five-year plan is that same principle. It's just over five years instead. Uh and it will have a lot more words than uh than the than the regular budget will. Uh the stamp plan breaks down into three phases and we are here to present on the first phase tonight. So the first phase is financial. It's right in our wheelhouse and you know we've handed out the report. you'll have a chance to go through it at your leisure. We'll hit the highlights for you uh and then we can you know address conversations either in this room or uh you know over the over the coming months. And what this is is this is the evaluation of the city's financial condition. You can think of this as going to the doctor and he puts you on the scale and he tests your blood pressure and he looks at how you're doing right now. Right? So, what we're going to present tonight and and the punch line to get all the way to the end is Eastston is actually doing relative to its peers. Well, we do this around the state. I was in Williamsport not too long ago. Uh we've done this in Allentown, York, Wilsbury, Erie, uh

Pittsburgh, lots of different places, reading, uh over the years. And by comparison, Eastston is in a good place. It doesn't mean there aren't challenges. It doesn't mean there aren't opportunities. It doesn't mean there aren't things to manage. but relative to your peers, including those in the Lehigh Valley, you're doing pretty well. We're going to talk about what that means here tonight in the terms of the financial analysis. The second part of this, and where a lot of you have already met us in some fashion, is the review of departmental operations. This is very numbers heavy. This is the review of your revenues and your expenses, but it only tells us part of your story, right? Your your city government is not an accounting document. It's not a budget. It's what you see out the window. It's people, places, and things, and services. and we've had conversations with folks and we'll continue to do so. Uh then the third part of it, I think the part that folks will probably be most eager to hear is okay, so now what do we do about it? You've told us what our numbers are. You've told us what our services are. We've had conversations with some of you on council about what your opportunities and challenges are. Then we come back to you with a series of ideas, some of which you'll like, hopefully most of which you'll like, some of which you mo you may not. Uh and it'll be a five-year plan that says over the next five years, we think these are the priorities and this is how you ought to pursue them. So again, this tonight is the first side of the the first of three. It's it's kind of a little bit of an awkward hockey analogy here. We're past the first period intermission because we're also almost done with the second phase. So you're sort of getting the the the report at the end of one period closer to the end of [clears throat] the second. Um and then our next one would be when we would come back early next year to talk about recommendations. But let's talk first about how you're doing, which how your financial picture looks uh and what your risks and opportunities are. probably a timely conversation given the amount of time you're spending on your budget right now. And since Lauren Sukovich, my colleague, has done almost all of the work, I'm going to let her do the presentation.

So, um, as as Gordon mentioned, really what we found when we did the financial analysis is that there are a lot of strengths to financial position. There are a couple of risks, um, and I'll highlight those and we'll talk about them later on. Um, but the the first thing that we found for the city is that you're in a relatively strong place financially. What we find in a lot of places, particularly third class cities that are heavily rellyant on the real estate tax is your real estate tax revenue stays pretty flat. But as you know from your own finances, your expenses grow every year due to inflation, due to wage increases, other kinds of inflationary factors that are not necessarily within your control. And so you always have to play catchup and increase your tax rates. The city has increases tax rates in over a decade. And what we found is in the last couple of years, you've had um positive operating balances in in your audits, meaning you ended the year with slightly more revenue or enough revenue that you needed to cover your expenditures. Um the other thing that that we found in the beginning of our analysis is when we looked at your um your S&P report, your credit rating report, is that they they found that you were also in a strong place financially. Um there were a couple of risks that were highlighted both in the in the audit and in that S&P report that we'll dig into. One is concerning um your debt, the levels of debt that the city has. Um the other is concerning the the fund that you use to fund your health insurance, but overall we found that um you're in a strong place financially. This analysis is really going to answer kind of three main questions. The first is are the city's recurring revenues sufficient to cover recurring expenditures? Uh the second is are there projected deficits or surpluses? We'll talk about what's called a baseline financial projection. That's kind of the main tool that we use to evaluate your finances. Um and if we do find that there are deficits, what are kind of the main revenue and expenditure trends that are driving that financial picture. Um if you are following along in the in the chapter, there is a page that kind

of details the uh your revenue and expenditures. Um historically over the past we looked at four years. excluding COVID because there was a couple of funky things as everybody knows from that time. Revenue behaved differently, expenditures behaved differently. So, we sort of exclude that year even though we did analyze it for our purposes. And historically, we find that um the city's revenue grew at an annual rate of around 3.4% and that was really driven by growth in the earned income tax. If you look at the the earned income tax line, um that grew by 8.1% on an average annual basis, which is which is really strong. On the expenditure side, expenditures grew a little bit faster than revenues. And most of that is really driven by personnel costs. You'll see this when we get to the expenditure section, but most of your costs are personnel. And we found that those costs um particularly health insurance costs projecting out are really the the main driver in the baseline. If you flip to to the following page, um you'll see a chart that shows what your baseline financial projection looks like. And I'll just address the little red numbers up front um because that's something that probably stands out. We do see when we project in a baseline scenario, and I'll talk in a second about what that means. We see some uh manageable but existent deficit. So there's a small deficit of of $ 1.5 million in the first year that we do this projection. And then when we go a couple of years out, that grows by a little bit each year. What is the baseline projection and what does this really tell us? Well, the first kind of principle and we'll talk about specifically what's baked into this chart, but the first principle to know is that this is a status quo scenario. So, in Gordon's analogy about going to the doctor, this is what is the city's financial condition today. So, it's taking all of the conditions. We are using the proposed budget from 2026 as a starting point, but it takes everything from today and just projects it out. So current tax rates, current tax base, um

current staffing levels, current collective bargaining agreements, everything that exists today that is within the city's control. We sort of just take that and project it out for the next five years. This kind of leads to the second principle, which is that it's it's not necessarily a prediction of what we think is going to happen because as you know, everything changes from year to year. You have uh new information about your tax base. um things grow faster, slower than you anticipate and you have to adjust during your budget process. So, it's not a a prediction of what's going to happen. It really is that diagnosis of what are the things the the risks or the challenges that we think you may encounter in the next couple of years and how can we sort of proactively address those going forward. Um so again drawing your attention to the the chart that shows the deficits the the deficits are uh relatively small compared to the city's taxation ability. It's reserve levels um and it's um the the fact that you guys have um a manageable amount of revenue that's been growing every year. Um but it is existent. So we will talk about the the risks that that are baked in there on the revenue side. Um the first revenue that we analyzed was real estate tax. It's your second largest revenue source. Um and we looked at what are the kind of the happening with the three component pieces of your real estate tax. And the three pieces of the real estate tax are really your tax rate, your tax base, um and the collection rate. The collection rate meaning the what amount of taxes owed in that year are you collecting? percentage. Um again, when we talked about your tax rate, you haven't raised taxes, meaning the bottom line um tax rate number, that millage number has not gone up in the last more than a decade. Um but what we did find is that the split of where that money goes, where that millage rate goes has changed. Um so the the first kind of finding um from our analysis on the real estate tax is yes, that the pot of money that you have for real estate taxes

coming in the door has gone up a little bit over the past couple of years. the dollar amount and the millage rate that you have to that goes towards your general operating meaning your police, your fire, paving roads, kind of your core services has actually gone down a little bit as you put more money towards debt and towards recreation. Um I'll just say one piece about the collection rate. The collection rate um we are anticipating in our projection that it will remain stable. We're assuming around 95% and that's kind of where your results have been coming in over the last couple of years. Um those of you that are looking at the table on page five. Um you'll see that 2024 preliminary results look a little bit higher. Um that's because they're preliminary. We expect that that will come down a little bit. The last piece that we want to kind of highlight [clears throat] a trend is in the tax base. So the tax base is the the taxable assessed value of property within the city of Houston. Um so what what has the trend been doing? um we have found that there's been a little bit of growth in um the tax base and specifically we've seen growth that's been driven by properties that are under lura. So those properties or um improvements on properties that are have been exempt from taxes over the past 10 years you have the the abatement um those are starting to re-enter or to enter the tax roles and is driving the growth in the taxable assessed value as you'll see on there's a table on page six. So just to kind of highlight our our main findings from from the real estate tax analysis, the base is really driven by those lura properties. Although there is a little bit of growth outside of that, the rate has maintained the same on the bottom line, but the amount that you have that's going towards those core services has gone down. Going forward, we're really kind of, like I said, taking those what we know today and projecting it forward. So beyond kind of that solid um non-LERTA assessed value, we do assume a little bit of additional LERA properties, the

ones we know of today entering the tax roles over the next couple of years. Um so that's where you get that little bit of growth in the in the real estate tax. Um but we anticipate that it's relatively stable, a little bit of growth over the next five years. Uh, flipping to the earned income tax. I'm uh looking at there's a a chart on page seven trying to give some references to folks that are following along. Um, the earned income tax is really the the engine of your revenue growth over the past five years. As you'll see, um, we show that since 2021 that uh, revenue has grown at an an average annual uh, rate of 8.1%. Which is really strong. It's the number one revenue source you have in the city. And again, because you haven't raised taxes, that growth is really coming from growth in the tax base. There's two pieces um of the the tax levy that you currently have. One is it's called Act 511 taxes. Um and it's that 1% that you split with the school district. And then the other piece is the piece that you can levy in addition to that that is um because you're a home rural city. So, it's an additional amount that you that you levy on residents and starting this year, um, you stopped levy that on non-residents that was worth about $2 million. So, like I said, you've had really strong growth in the earned income tax um, driven by the tax base and really where does that come from? So, we looked at some census and some employment data to really kind of dig into what is the what is the driver of that growth and we found two things. One is that you have had a little bit of growth in the number of employed people in the city. This is mostly since 2020. There was a little bit of of a dip um in 2020 at the outset of the pandemic. And then since then there's been a little bit of growth around 1% every year in the number of people employed that live in the city of Houston. But really the driver of that earned income tax growth has been their wages. So if you look at there's a table

on page eight that sort of you can see side by side the comparison of number of people who are employed and their their earnings and um you can see that the median household income and the median earnings are two different ways to measure income that the census uses those have grown at 4.9 and 8% respectively over the last couple of years. So what do we assume in the future? Again, going back to that baseline projection that we're using as our diagnostic tool to sort of check up on the city's finances. Um, we assume some amount of growth going forward. We don't want to continue to assume, you know, double digit year-over-year growth and be, you know, overly presumptuous with our projection. But we also don't want to be overly pessimistic and say, "Oh, you'll probably freeze where you are." So, we continue to to grow the core of your real or your earn income tax base at around 5%. Beyond that, and I think everybody who's driven into the city recently will notice that there's a lot of construction going on on either side of this building. There's huge apartment buildings that are going up or have gone up. So, we do build in a little bit of an additional growth just in 2027 to account for the fact that, like I said, more residents of potentially higher incomes coming into the city and growing that base. Um, moving on to kind of the other major revenues. So, your real estate tax and your earned income tax are really the the main engines of of growth, but we also want to acknowledge you have a couple of other major revenues again that are sort of tied to the economic development that this city and this region has seen. Um, one of those things is um, parking revenue, which the city collects on parking spaces that it both owns and rents across the city. um gaming revenue, which is um the host fee payments that you receive from the nearby casino. Um and then there's also licenses, permits, and fees. And the trend that we have really seen on this revenue is again a lot of growth over the past couple of years. And this is a

place where we're we are conservative with our projection because it is tied to something that is sort of outside relatively outside of the city's control, which is the regional and local economy. um we we wanted to be judicious about the amount of revenue that we're projecting that that this grows. So we don't project a lot of growth over the next couple of years. If you look at the chart on the bottom of page 11, you'll see that it's kind of flat over the next couple of years. And again, this kind of goes back to the the methodology of the baseline. We want to bake in things that we know exist today, but we don't want to assume, oh, the the the casino is going to continue to expand. those things do happen then our our projection you'll outperform the projection basically flipping to the expenditure side um you'll see on page 12 the breakdown of it says general fund but really this is the combination of the general recreation and debt fund all combined um the expenditures that come out of that um those three funds that we're really calling the sort of operating funds of the city and anything that's in That a blue slice is personnel cost. You can see that it's more than half of your expenditures are all tied to personnel. Um and the thing to also highlight about the city's personnel is that most of your employees are um governed by collective bargaining, which means that a lot of these things, cash compensation, pension, health insurance, other personnel costs are mostly tied to collective bargaining agreements, and the collective bargaining cycle. Uh, flipping to page 13, there's another chart that kind of shows the historical and and projected growth of cash compensation. Cash compensation is not just the largest piece of uh of the pie, if you will, on looking at the previous page. It's also one of the largest drivers of growth on a dollar basis over the next five years. It drives around a third [clears throat] of the projected growth in expenditures um across those

three funds in the next five years. The next biggest piece and this is a significant one and one that we think is crucial to the story of the financial risks um is health insurance. So when we looked at the health insurance um and on uh in for the city of EEN what we found is that you're self-insured which means that you pay for the cost of claims instead of a premium and you also use what's called an internal service fund which basically means instead of paying for a premium you put money into a separate fund every year and then the cost of the claims gets paid out of that fund. When we looked at the the audit detail of that fund, um we found that the expenditures that were getting paid out of that fund, meaning that your claims costs were growing really rapidly. The the two years that we looked at or the the four years that we looked at, they uh showed a 13% growth year-over-year um on average of claims cost growth, which is which is really high. Um, we also found, and this was corroborated by uh conversations with city staff, which is that you've changed brokers recently and and the broker that you have now is giving a much better costing of what it actually means to um provide health care at this level to your employees. And so you'll see when you flip to the chart on page 14, what happens is you have contributions into that um health insurance fund that are relatively flat for a couple of years and then once the you have had better information from your broker. You've remedied this in your budgeting practices and you've increased um in 2025 and 2026 in a big way the contribution that you're budgeting to go into that ISF going forward. We also don't want to, you know, repeat the mistakes of the past and say we're going to keep that amount flat. Um so we continue to grow the contributions by 7.9% which is about in line with what we think your your claims cost growth is going to be. although um it's been a little bit

quicker than that uh in the past couple of years. And the next major piece of personnel cost is your pension. This is the contributions that you make into your three pension funds um that you're required to do. It's called the minimum uh municipal obligation over the last couple of years. So looking at the historic period 2020 to 2024, that amount has actually grown a lot. But what we found is in um the 2025 budget based on the information that you received from your actuary that that amount actually dropped pretty significantly. And again in the proposed budget it's it's uh expected to maintain at that lower level. And then finally operating costs um that we basically take all of your operating costs and grow them by some inflationary factor. Again, assuming that even though you are going to buy the same number of pencils in a baseline scenario, have the same number of contracts, that the cost of those pencils and those contracts is going to inflate um by some amount every year. So, we use um CPI in some cases, although you'll find for utilities, we use a specific growth rate that is based on energy costs.

Oh, sure. Sure. Sorry, I talk fast. Um the the next piece that we want to talk about is debt. Um, like we said, this is a big uh piece of the story for our city finances. Um, the table that or the chart that you see on page on page 16 uh is the city's current debt schedule which goes out to 2040. Um, we found that the city is budgeted to spend almost 10% of its operating budget on debt in 2026. And um that relatively high level of debt uh starting in 2026 um is expected to continue basically at that level until 2036. So that's over the next 10 years and then there's a little bit of a drop. Again, just to kind of highlight what this means in a baseline scenario, this doesn't anticipate that you take on anything new. This is just existing debt that you have today.

Sure. Yeah. Um so what does this kind of mean for management? it really gives you a lot less flexibility to to kind of respond to um economic shortfalls uh risk or or other shocks that you don't anticipate from year to year or to take on additional debt if you need to for another project. Um, and then the last piece, excuse me. I'm sorry. Can you repeat the last that whole what you just said? Repeat that again about the about the debt. Yes.

It just it gives you a little bit less flexibility if you need to respond to something in this year because you do have this this debt service which what we show from your debt schedule is expected to kind of maintain at that level. So um the next section is about the utility function which um right now is is sort of intermingled into your general fund although we know that there's some efforts to start segregating those things into separate potentially enterprise funds. Um and really the story with those is that particularly what we found um on your solid waste is when you have increases in costs you also do incremental increases in the fee rates. So recently you had a new uh contract for your trash hauler that um that increased the the cost of that contract pretty significantly. So you spread a fee increase um across a couple of years to pass that on to customers which basically what that means is that you are not dipping into your general operating fund and using money that comes from your earned income tax or other places that that goes to fund like I said police, fire, streets um to pay for to pay for trash collection. you're really using the the money that comes from the the trash fees to pay for trash collection. So, taking this all together, and this is a lot of numbers, a lot of things like I I've been told I talk very quickly. Um the story for East's finances is that you have had really robust uh revenue growth over the last couple years. A lot of that has been driven by economic activity. You haven't had to raise taxes in order to get to this place of financial stability, which is really positive. The reason we want to highlight those risks is that you're at this place of being able to act proactively over the next five or 10 years and put yourself in a place of stability. Anticipate risks like health insurance, like debt. Um things that are a little bit longer term um so that you don't need to eventually one year say, "Oh no, we haven't taxes. We need to do a big increase." You can sort of respond to things um with a lot of time left.

So that's that's the presentation that I have. Um and then we can take questions if there is time which I think there's a couple minutes. [clears throat] I I think you is it correct you'll be here two more times to present. Is that what you said? Okay. Ju just a request if we could have some of this put up on the screen so that people could our residents could see it. Um, and could we get this assessment out on the website?

Okay.

We're trying to prevent um a period of of long-term silence. Um, so we're giving you an update. All right. This is not a completed this is not a complete report. It's not the final report. So once we have the final report, it will be published. Okay. But I still think it would be helpful for any future meetings to have um this up on the screen because some of the tables should be shared with the public. Okay. It just for conversation purposes. So correct me if I'm wrong. You're half you're more than halfway through this. A little more than half. Yeah, that's a fair way to that's a fair way to describe it. Yes,

we're through what we are through is the evaluation part, both the numbers and the managerial evaluation. Um, so that's where we are.

Okay, I I know we gave you a lot. Let me give you six words to think about trying to still this all the way down for the first two are good start. You are in for your peers a really healthy position. And it's not just, you know, of course you're paying TFM. They're going to say tell you what you want. We're actually pretty well known for telling people what they don't like to hear. But a report from the uh credit rating agency who does not care what you think or feel at all. Um describes the city's financial position as healthy with strong reserves in a liquidity position. Right. You've been able to uh to grow. You uh famously have not had a real estate tax increase in 16 years, 19 years. Um, and you know, as someone who grew up in the Lehigh Valley, I can speak to how East has changed. I grew up on Lynen Street in Bethlehem. And when I was a little kid, Eastston was just not a place you came, right? It was that was its reputation for a variety of reasons. And now I have a cousin who's paying probably way more than he can afford to live in one of these apartments because Eastston is exactly where he'd want to be. So there is a turnaround story here that's obvious, right? That's that's the first part of this. The second part of this, those first two words. The second two words are grow fast. You are that's what separates Easton from Lancaster Allentown to a degree Bethlehem Wilsbury Williamsport. It's the two it's the buildings [clears throat] that you see around you. It's those big projects. If you look at your real estate tax base that is not those big buildings. It's doing what everywhere else in the Commonwealth is doing which is not much of anything. Its growth is 0.2% a year which is a different way of saying not growing at all. Right? All of your real estate tax growth is in these large big projects. You get three benefits from those projects. You get the permits when they sign up. You get that burst of initial revenue. You get the earned income tax which has taken your revenues to growth of like 8 to 9%. Raise your hand if you're getting 9%

annual wage increases, right? Probably not. What that is is that's a different it's it's a different population moving in here that has higher income that is pushing your income tax up. Yeah. you have a little bit of natural growth. Yeah, you're getting a little more people who live here and work somewhere, but it's really the introduction of a different type of population. And then the third part, which doesn't happen right away, but does happen over time, is the real estate tax. The way your abatement system works is you get 100% abatement the first year, then 90, then 80, then 70, then 60. And you look at that, you go 10 years, I got to pay my real estate taxes every year. What's up with that? But you actually are far enough into the process now. We are starting to see those things roll onto the tax base. So you are growing fast. Here's the risky part of that. Their last two words, so good position, grow fast, spend fast. And you are. You're spending fast. There are two ways that you can increase your spending. One is by doing lots of new things. We're going to hire 20 new cops and 30 new firefighters and build four new fire stations. And you're not doing that. And that's part of the reason that your position is is stronger than it would be if you were just adding everything that everybody wanted all the time. But what you are doing is investing in what you have. Some of that is your res some of that is employees through health insurance through wage increases. Some of that is your equipment. Some of that is your facilities. You are investing in what you have and that's fine and that's good. You are not here to run up a giant bank balance and just to sit on it like a hedge fund or something. You have this growth. you should be using it to do something. Here's the question that we'll wrestle with in the second half of this. You want to think about it that way. What happens when the growth slows? Because it could slow for a number of reasons that you can't control, right? It could slow because of tariffs. It could slow because people because of migration patterns. It could slow because of whatever. You are taking

advantage of and capitalizing on the opportunity you have. You deserve all the credit for that. But we have to be careful because you don't control the universe and at some point that opportunity could disappear, right? That right now you have this robust real estate market but there's no guarantee it continues forever. Your borders are bound. Eventually you will run out of places to build things, right? And you can only build up so many times. So the question is how do you want to think about that? How do you want to create the flexibility so that when the revenue growth stops, when the last marquee or commodore or whatever it is goes up and there's no more for a while, you don't want to be in a position where your debt so high and your salaries are so high and you're spending on the health insurance that it's like driving a car 85 miles an hour on the on the highway and then slamming on the brakes to stop, right? You are better off decelerating and thinking about getting to where you want to go at a more regular pace than you are going I'm just going to keep going and close my eyes and hope it never ends.

Jump I'm going to jump in real quick and Gordon, thank you. Um guys, thank you for the analysis. I I want to make just a couple comments um on that and then they may have additional questions. I'm sure it's soaking in. You have a way to quiet the room.

Um, so like I want to say just a couple things. Number one, um, is that the the study that's occurring right now really assisted in the formulation of the budget this year because we had an opportunity to have a second group look at the numbers and then at one point we actually looked at the 26 numbers together. We looked at what our assumptions were their and how their analysis came out. Um so that was a a positive aspect of of working with PFM um this year. We we actually you know it it grew the team then more than just Mark and I and a few others um and yourselves looking at the the data. So that was positive this year. Um the second thing is uh that I I do want to mention and remind everyone that um since I've [clears throat] been here and it's also in the charter u we've ran um a forecast budget every year we're going to submit that to council it could be anywhere from I doubt December because we're going to be busy uh finishing up this budget but January at the latest February we'll submit a two-year budget meaning we'll submit a u uh We'll run a we'll run a budget for 27 uh higher level um not as in depth.

So two year forecast.

We'll do our two year our two-year forecast. And in [clears throat] in the last 10 years, um we've always uh held some sort of baseline and not to do a a lot of analysis and not not not provide a a ton of uh uh we'll be a little bit more uh conservative because typically we're looking at numbers from previous years, but we always expect some sort of dip. We also have seen in the last 10 years anywhere between a half a million and a2 million dollar um budget shortfall for the two-year budget. So what I'm trying to emphasize here is that we we see that type of pattern. So this kind of news is not necessarily new and it shouldn't be new to to council because we've providing we've been providing that type of analysis um for at least since I've been here for a decade now. um and it's in the charter to provide that that two-year budget. Prior to me coming here, there there might have been one or two years um that that budget that that forecast wasn't provided, but to my left is our controller, and I know when he was here, he provided that two-year look as well. Um and he can give you his perspective on what he saw too in the two-year period. So, um I thought it was a good analysis. It's not surprising, but the uh in terms of the numbers, um what I what I thought was good was just the you know the comment that we're in a good position from a state p state perspective. That's that's positive and refreshing. We kind of all know that from we know that generally speaking because you know we're here every single day um and you know working um working in in city government. But the last piece that I want to I want to also emphasize um as they talked about you know when they looked at the projections it was they use words like status quo baseline that um assumes per se that we're doing the same thing every single day. And as as

the analogy was given when you go to the doctor's office and you get news hey you're healthy but you better watch yourself because if you don't you're headed in the wrong direction. And I think this is the kind of news that that we have. We're healthy, but if we don't watch ourselves, we could be headed in the wrong direction. Um, and and that's that's the main point is that, you know, the good news is is that we have staff that comes every single day and every single day there's challenges and every single day we adjust. So, you know, it's not that we're coming here and just punching numbers and doing the exact same thing every single day. We're we're adjusting. We're constantly adjusting. And I think that in the second part of their um their update that they're going to provide to council um and and as this and and as the plan uh finalizes, you're going to you're going to hear discussions on what can we do to improve like like what efficiencies can we gain? Like where where can we make up these deficits? We're going to start doing that now immediately and we're we're already starting to focus on it. Um, but these are the kinds of discussions that we're going to have and we have to have them for the long term and we do know what they are generally, but it's good to have this program and PFM come in as a third party and explain it to council and then you all can explain it, you know, to your constituents. So, that's all I want to say, mayor, as a some comments. So, if you will, every audit gets management response. So, that was my response. Thank you, Gordon.

Anyone from city council have any questions Chris? Sure. Um, please. So, I want to look at the I want to ask about the baseline projection and I just want to make sure I'm reading this right. Sure. So, this is the one that extends out for the next five years. I think it is correct. The way I'm reading that is our deficit over those periods is just predicted to be between one and $2 million in the baseline scenario. Correct. So roughly 2 to 4% of expenses. Correct.

I'm also reading that the health care increase actually exceeds that. Correct. So if healthcare wasn't going up at the rate that you're expecting it to go up, we actually would be in the black. That's correct. Yep. There are a couple of different there are a couple of big variables that push things one way or the other. So one way, as you just said, is if health insurance costs grew at 5%, what are we assuming? I'm sorry.

All right. So 8% is what we're assuming. If it were grew at 5% even just one year [clears throat] up front, right? If it was 5888 or if it was 555, yes, that would bring your expenses down and would almost naturally bring you into balance. The other side of that is what's the assumption on the earned income tax growth? Five um in the out years, five in the out years. So if you come down to a more I'll call it a more natural level where most of your Pennsylvania peers are 3% 3 and a half% then that would have the o the opposite effect. Yeah. But that 5% growth rate is probably accurate given it it is it is now. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh and uh is it three years from now? I actually hope it's a little low but maybe I think it could be more. Uh it could be right. Um so what that means is that growth in revenues between EIT and all the other things that you identified is enough to cover the other increase in expenses like wages and things like that. If not, if not, it it is enough in the first couple of years under this analysis and these assumptions and pretty close in the out years.

So, you are in a situation where this isn't like it was when I was in Williamsport two weeks ago when they have a $30 million budget and a $5 million hole, right? This is this is a very different situation where [clears throat] you have this opportunity where you are strong now and the and the future if we're talking two years out doesn't look so bad and you can and you can ask yourself a question that I know we talked about with with Mr. pitone a bunch which is okay when growth decelerates or what do we do what do we do now what how do we think about the outy years how do we manage our risks um because it you know the debt spending here it's high as a percentage and it has a practical impact why it's hard for the city of east to buy fire trucks when it should because they're really expensive and if you had a little more flexibility in your debt you might be able to borrow and stretch that out But when you're effectively paying as much in your debt as you want to and if not more, that becomes harder to do.

But the debt's only 10% of our budget. That's a high percentage, is it? Okay. Yeah. When you combine, you you want your you generally want debt and pension combined and to be like sub 10. Are other third class cities like that? Uh, depends on which ones we're talking about. the healthier ones, some of them. The non-healthier ones, no. Yeah. Um it kind of it's kind of the [clears throat] uh what's the bar you're shooting for sort of thing. Okay. Thank you. But but the bottom line is then over the next five years, the revenue projections that are in place seem sufficient to carry the budget.

They do it. Again, ve if there's like a $1 million deficit, but very close to it. Yes. Yeah. I mean, before I was a controller from 08 to 15. I was the uh finance director beside Mark's position. Okay. And when we did that two-year projection out, we usually had anywhere from a one and a half to three and a half million dollar budget deficit. That's just in the next year, right? So if you're predicting in five years that the budget deficit's only going to be a million and a half dollars, I'll take that. That's pretty dated. If you go even farther back, DFM [clears throat] did this report 20 years ago, whatever it was. Maybe you're even the finance director then. I don't know. I wasn't. But those holes were very big and ugly. So, and those are the holes that we fixed. Yeah. Any questions?

No. But thank you. This was a very good job. Thank you, Laura. Nice job, Gordon. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, we're at the point in our bud in our agenda where we have public comment on agenda items only. Arty You have to come to the party. They can't hear it.

Okay.

[laughter]

We when the casino went into Bethlehem, we I attended meetings to make sure that we were as the county seat were part of that revenue distribution. We don't get as much as Bethlehem. We don't get as much as the Heler town and Freemanburg because they're even though they're smaller, they're they're contiguous. We do get a piece of it. That was 2008. We had no money. administration show.

You're right. We agree.

Hi, Council. Dominic Trabosi live on Fifth Street. Council members, myself and my peers are here once again to advocate for a community of people that remain under attack. And regardless of whether or not the resolution under 14A tonight gets passed, a move, mind you, that would signal solidarity to our vulnerable immigrant population, we will continue to show up with or without this council. Whenever we see injustices in the world, we will fight. In the event that our elected officials fail us, we will fight. So long as we live in an unjust world, we will fight. I wish that I could be standing here on the cusp of a vote for a proper ordinance, but kicking the can down the road has led us to this resolution. Even still, we seek this act of solidarity from council to assure the city of East that this government is on the side of the people, not the side of bending the knee or turning a blind eye to the alarming rise of fascism before us. Symbolic as a resolution may be, a symbol can be a powerful thing, and it's certainly better than silence. This isn't the final step. Certainly not. This is just the start. We have a lot of work to do to slow the damage of this destructive federal administration. But the longer we normalize these governmental acts of violence, and the longer we pretend there isn't anything we can do, the quicker our downfall will be. We ask you tonight to join us because there will always be more of us than there are of them. I'm asking you council to vote yes on a resolution tonight that denounces illegal ICE activity in all its forms, the aversion of due process, the utilization of city services to assist in ICE raids, and the collection or recording of immigration statuses of Estonians. Please do not let us down. Thank you for your time tonight.

Anyone else like to address city council on agenda items only? Hello, council mayor. My name is Luke. I live downtown. [clears throat] Neighbors, council, thank you for hearing me speak once more on the topic of Easton uh formally becoming a welcoming city and adopting the resolution on the agenda tonight. While others can, will, and should share their support for specific lines of this resolution, I will happily advocate for the spirit of this resolution. Last time I stood here, I shared why I believe welcoming city protections are essential for our community. I spoke about my support for immigration, about how nearly all of our families come to this country from somewhere else, and about how no human being is illegal because alien is a word for beings that come from outer space, not for our neighbors. Tonight, I return to repeat these words with even more urgency. The decision to delay this resolution for another month has not been neutral. The month extended the stress, the fear, and the uncertainty that our law-abiding undocumented neighbors are living under every single day. Each day delayed keeps families on edge. Each postponement sends a message, even if unintentionally, that their safety, their dignity, and their peace of mind can wait. For them, it cannot. As I said before, our city runs in part due to the reliability and consistency of immigrant labor. I have lived, learned, and worked alongside immigrants of every background and documentation status. They are part of the fabric of this community and shame be upon us if we cast them aside or allow fear to

govern their lives. To dispel any misunderstandings in the minds of some listening. In almost every case, undocumented immigrants who are working in this country are net contributors to our tax system and pose no burden on public services because they are ineligible to access them. A 2024 [clears throat] analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that undocumented immigrants paid about 96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. And in another piece of misunderstanding, taking a firm, welcoming city stance has never been about shielding criminals from justice. These policies originated because law enforcement recognize that when neighbors live in fear of deportation, they will not come forward as witnesses. They will not report crimes and real criminals go unpunished. Community safety depends on community trust and trust cannot grow in the shadow of deportation. As a smaller but also important mention, we cannot proceed without recognizing the importance of predictability and access in the civic process of Eastn City Hall. Workingclass people, including many immigrants, plan their lives around public schedules. When follow-ups to council matters are unclear or meetings shift without firm timelines, working people lose the chance to show up and to speak and participate. A democracy that wants to hear from its residents must make participation reliably possible. I said this before and I will say it again because it remains true. Letting our immigrant neighbors live in fear is not who we are. It is not what the city stands for. And the longer we postpone action, the more we allow that fear to persist. I ask you respectfully, firmly to move forward, to vote, to choose dignity, safety, and compassion, and to

choose them now. Others have moved more quickly to action on this than we have in the Commonwealth. Let us not be the last to do the right thing. Thank you.

Anyone else like to address city council on agenda items? My name is Ronald Johnson, Washington Street. Mr. Mayor, members of council, fellow citizens, I stand before you this evening with a heart full of gratitude. At our last meeting, Mayor Panto offered a prayer that moved me deeply. He asked that we look out after the men of the iron workers union who will be in Easton tomorrow to erect our peace candle. That was a quote from last meeting. Those words were not merely ceremonial. They recognize something profound that the hands which build our community deserve our protection and our care. I come before you tonight not in the tempest of controversy, but in the calm conviction that Eastston's character will be measured not by the passions of this moment, but by the enduring principles we choose to uphold. The iron workers who raised our peace candle represent something larger than themselves. They represent a union built on a simple creed that every worker who contributes their skill and sweat to building our nation deserves dignity, fair wages, and the protection of law. And among those workers are immigrants, our brothers and sisters who have worn the same hard hats, climbed the same steel, and answered the same call to service. The Iron Workers Union stands firmly for immigrant workers and has said that we

they oppose policies that revoke the legal status of workers who have contributed for decades to our communities. The Iron Workers Union states opposition to programs that undercut wages and safety standards and advocates for the 150,000 skilled construction workers who are DACA and TPS recipients who face deportation despite having completed certified apprentich apprenticehips and served in leadership roles across our industry. This is not merely a union concern. It's an eastern concern. When skilled workers are deported, projects grind to a halt. When labor protections are weakened, wages fall, and safety suffers for everyone. I ask you, what does it mean when we pray for the safety of iron workers one day and remain silent about policies that would tear them from their families the next? Our peace candle cannot shine its light upon selective compassion. The truth is that immigrants make East stronger. They hold important roles in our unions and businesses. They contribute to our tax base. They raise their children in our schools and they're woven into the very fabric of what makes this city great. The Iron Workers Union represents that Eastn City Council. take a reconsideration from what has been said to consider a resolution supporting comprehensive immigration reform that protects working families and recognizes the contributions of immigrant workers. Specifically, we ask that you protect and support protection for deferred action on childhood arrivals and temporary protective status recipients. Oppose programs that undercut wages and strengthen the rights

of all workers regardless of national origin. This council has the power to add East's voice to a growing chorus of communities that refuse to remain silent while working families are torn apart. This resolution will send a signal about who we are and what we stand for. The iron workers who erected the peace candle came from many backgrounds, potentially spoke different languages. Um, and they worked side by side lifting something beautiful toward the sky. a symbol of unity, a divided city. Let us be our answer tonight. Let Eastn be a city that stands with all its workers. Let us be a community where the light of justice burns as bright and steadily as the candle that watches over us all. Thank you for your time and service to the city we love.

Thank you. Anyone else like to address city council on agenda items? Okay, we'll move on consent agenda. Madam clerk, we'll do all of them together. Yep, I will.

Okay, we have uh 10 resolutions approving certificates of appropriateness for the following addresses. 100 to 110 North 3rd Street, 185 South 3rd Street, 450 to 452 Northampton Street, 137 South Fifth Street, 107 North 5th, 107 North 2nd Street, 10 to 12 Center Square, Lens Court at Center Square, 5 North 3rd Street, 15 South Fifth Street, and 158 to 160 South 3rd Street. I move the consent agenda. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? [clears throat] Roll call.

Sure. Mr. Brown. I. Mr. Edinger. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Penabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Dr. Rugles. Hi. Miss Sultana. Hi. [laughter] Okay. Reports received by council. There's no reports received by council. Uh, let's move right into um reports of committees. Finance Committee. Vice Mayor Brown.

Thank you, Mayor. I have one thing on the agenda this evening, and that's for the uh minion of the war 15 fellows uh that we talked about last uh meeting. I also have on this evening discussion on the Nesco Street Park uh renaming. I would like to ask council for the opportunity to rename that park to declaring Ber and Francis Ketchum memorial. Uh two very strong um women in our community some time ago that was uh trailblazers. Uh I don't want to go into too much detail because I'm I'm sure all council members had already read it. Uh that is my recommendation for that park.

Well, Mr. Brown. I think it's an excellent recommendation since I knew both of them and uh I was I would give a Carlton. I don't think will be back to work. He is been I know his his uh house is up for sale. His car was sold already by his brothers to help pay for his um medical expenses. And um Francis was was a she was on a school board when I was when I was a teacher and she was excellent. and so is um Claren Ber. I went to school with all of her children from Marvin to Maria to Teresa to Joey. So I knew all them and and I can't think of a better group of people to name this after and unless it's named after Mr. Houston and Mr. Jones who has a street named after him [laughter] and Larry Holmes who has a drive named after him. So thank you for bringing that up. So anybody want to introduce that? I'll make the motion to do that.

Second. Move the second. Any discussion? Roll call. [clears throat] Um, let's see. Mr. Edinger. I. Mayor Panto. I. Mr. Pinter. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Dr. Ruggles. Hi. Miss Sultana. Hi. Mr. Brown. Hi.

Next item is economic development. Mr. Pinter. I don't have much, mayor. Um the department of community and economic development has spent the last two weeks preparing for village Saturday after the uh sorry put your microphone you speak please um planning and codes committee council member Rose.

Thank you mayor. Um we have two meetings coming up next week. the Eastn Zoning uh hearing board meeting on Monday the 1st at 6 PM and then also on Wednesday the 3d at 6:30 PM the East Planning Commission meeting where we expect a final vote on the proposed Wood Avenue warehouse project. Um yesterday's special zoning hearing for 74 North Fourth Street, that proposal will be rescheduled for Thursday, December 8 18th at 6 PM. Um, at the last meeting I asked for presentation on the proposed conting contingency line item in next year's budget. Uh, Mr. Campos updated me today that it will be presented at the next budget meeting on December 9th. And that's all I have. Thank you,

Dr. I'm sorry. You threw me off with your joke earlier. I forgot we have police chief sc to discuss the We're going to discuss that. We're going to discuss under Mr. Council Rog. I didn't do that. That's fine. I don't care. Um, Council Rogles, the uh public safety committee.

Thank you. Uh before you get up here, Chief, I I just wanted to uh inform council that this week I have spoken to a person in or the department head of civil engineering at Lafayette and uh we we were talking about LAR and and that and he is very interested in working with the city um hopefully the police department in uh implementing LAR and and [clears throat] working with them to uh enhance our abilities uh in LAR. Uh they're going to be doing an indoor uh LAR of one of the buildings on Bushkill Drive uh next semester. And uh I I look forward to and was kind of a kind of a dream of mine, if you will, of having a group of students working with the police department uh in that area and and and uh kind of sharing expertise back and forth. Um and uh so hopefully that will pan out um and that will be a a big benefit for the city chief. I'll turn the meeting over to Mr. Pabone. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Let me turn my mic on. So, under the budget, one of the amendments I made was to hire a full-time police officer. We have listed that we should operate in 64, but with retirements and things, we've never gotten to 64. Um, with the growth uh in the population as well as the festivals, I think now's the time to start adding that back, trying to get us to 64. And again, remember, we don't just hire today and and they're they're here. So,

it's going to take about a year to get a new police officer from January when we pass the budget onto the streets. So, we're thinking more for 27. Uh, police uh Chief Scowzo, the mayor wanted you to come to talk about the need or not the need for a police officer and what your position was. So, if you could um give us your thoughts, opinions, and and what you would do with that if another officer was uh hired.

Sure. Uh first and foremost, I appreciate the uh the robust conversation that you had. I watched last week's meeting um just to hear some of the comments and to kind of um bring myself up to speed as to what everybody was thinking in reference to the department. Um and I I actually because of last week's meeting, the paper got a hold of I guess those comments and wanted some comments from me which I'm sure everybody has read. Um, and I stand by those. As we continue to grow as a city, as uh more and more people live in our downtown area, uh, and they're intermingled with people coming down here for the entertainment aspect of the city, uh, the challenges for the police department, uh, become much greater. Uh, we have huge responsibility in keeping everybody not only who lives here, but also who comes here safe. Um, to that end, we are also extremely appreciative of the mayor and of the administration for what we have as a department. Um, you know, we work very closely with the departments in the surrounding areas and um and we want for nothing that keeps our officers safe. Whether it be training, whether it be a brand new facility that we moved into in 2017, uh whether it be equipment, if we need it, uh we can make our argument for it and most times uh they make sure that we have exactly what we need. And so when it comes to the citizens and taxpayer dollars and things like that, uh we're very appreciative of what we have and we try to be very good stewards of the money that um that we do have to make sure that we are getting all the things that we need. So all that said, um the the I guess the issues that were brought up uh by Councilwoman um Rose and by Council Pidon and things that we see going on downtown, um those are accurate. Um we do definitely have issues where it comes to many many people coming down here spending long hours at the restaurants and bars. Um and those people do pour out onto the streets in the evening hours and um can be very noisy. Um many of those people had drinking and things to that effect and so they do impact residents who live here in the city. Um also with people pouring into our city for um not only people living here but but visiting uh

the parking issues are very real as well. People parking you know close to corners and things like that creating some some level of hazard. So, so it's something that's not new to us as a department. Again, that's what I mentioned to the paper, but it's not something that's new to us. It's something that we're constantly trying to identify and and change to make sure that we are meeting that responsibility, meeting the moment when it comes to whatever we're seeing in the downtown. So, all that said, um I wouldn't be able to stand up here and say another officer for our department wouldn't help tackle those types of things. Uh Dr. Mr. Ruggles had mentioned, you want to know exactly, you know, kind of how that's going to be used. And what we're currently working on for next year is um as we take this whole picture into um into account. Um we're looking at different initiatives um and ways that we're going to be addressing um our downtown area, but also our surrounding areas um to basically not only um put additional manpower towards those specific tasks, but maybe change some of the leadership structure and how um [clears throat] and how they're being supervised to put more hands-on supervision uh to to have a level of accountability for um those things that you spoke about for the homeless um situation that we have. I don't think you'll find a more empathetic department dealing with our homeless population and how we're doing it. Um we have personal relationships with every person who's not necessarily transit here in the city, but the ones who are um more steadfast or who are local to our area. Um our officers have personal relationships with those individuals. Uh we have our um community advocate who has all the resources to to reach out and try to get them for those individuals uh and help them get to a better place in their life. Um, and then the ones who don't want that help, we make sure that we're following the rules so they don't negatively impact the residents. So, this is a pretty long- winded answer to um to as we sit here, if the budget allows, if the if the money can be identified, um, absolutely to get to a 64th officer. Not that we would get there because in my entire time here, I don't know that we've ever been at 63 for I would argue 26 years. Yeah, I think it's been about maybe six

months total time in the 26 years I've been here that we've actually held that number. It's very challenging to do, but the 64th officer would allow us to hire up to it, which would again um increase that number by one. So, if we were only going to have 60 now, maybe we have 61 or 62.

Chief, this quick question for you also. Getting to that number is great, but I think we also need to look at having someone on staff for mental health issues. When the officers go out and they get into a situation like that, they're not trained. the training in a way that they're not uh don't have that equipment like our layers on right now into the community is great but we may need another one on staff too or night shift or something like that middle shift or whatever that case may be. Well, we we actually

and I was just going to come to you and ask you from our conversation I didn't know and I don't think um and with Mr. Brown's question. I don't think any of us knew that we have a psychiatrist or psychologist that we deal with that comes out. Can you explain to that?

Yeah. [clears throat] So, what happened? This goes back many many years. Um, and so the need for somebody who who can deal with mental health crisis when when we have them. Obviously, police will show up first to make sure the scene is safe and and try to identify exactly what we're dealing with. But in those instances where it's a mental health crisis or somebody's in the throws of a mental health crisis, um those instances are are fewer and farther between. So to have somebody sit on staff would be an expensive endeavor obviously to the city and to the taxpayers. So what we did was we have somebody on call who's available to us, right? They make themselves available that we can call them day or night. They will come to the scene. They will work with us if it's just a remote thing, you know, as far as um you know, what we should do, but they're a local psychologist here in the area. Um and um and he's been absolutely phenomenal. And it's Dr. Terrence Brenton. I don't know if you know, he's he's a local psychologist here in the city. And he is phenomenal. He has worked with our department uh for many many years, my entire time as chief. Um and he does a lot of services for the department and for the city. Um and that's just one that he's offered to us that we've had for many years now. And he does a phenomenal job in that capacity.

Thank you for sharing that. That puts me on a little bit more comfort. Yeah, we we certainly don't know how to, you know, there's things that we just can't handle. We don't have the expertise to handle. Um, but again, you know, the the safety aspect of those situations, whether it be a barricaded subject, things like that. We deal with those things to make sure everybody's safe and we try to control the scene and then we then we use those resources when we need them. And again, to have somebody that we're paying full-time to be on staff. There's probably not a need for that, but the way that we we've done it, we've have we've had him available to us. Uh, he's very responsive and like I said, we have a great relationship with him and does a really good job. Thank you, Chief. Uh, if you could do one more. I know Kristen Cooper, the victim advocate, is not a a psychologist or psychiatrist,

right? However, as you mentioned, we pretty much have relationships with all the the unhoused and and and individuals that that stay here. Can you please explain just one more time for the council and for the public how Christristen and Officer Crossen meet these individuals, identify their needs, and try to connect them with services?

Sure. Well, I mean, the the homeless crisis is a departmentwide issue that we all we're all involved in. Um, and then we have Officer Crossson who's specific to the downtown area, and that's because many of our homeless um congregate in this area. But so the way it works is basically between um the patrol division, officer crossson, um they're out, they're interacting, and they're identifying individuals who are in some sort of need of assistance, whether it be mental health, whether it be um and and there's a homelessness component, but whether it be mental health, uh potentially um you know, drug addiction, those types of things. Um it could just be something where it's it's a situation where something has happened in their life and they just lost the ability to to be housed. And so once we identify what the issues are, then we bring Krista Cooper who's our community advocate. She then makes contact and then she acts almost in that social kind of social work framework to bring those resources uh and gather those resources for those individuals um and again try to help them get into a better place in their life. So whatever it is that they need, we get them those resources. Some individuals have family and other places that they just can't get to, we'll work to help get them there. Some people need, you know, whatever kind of treatment, we work to get them there. And so, but there are many who choose the lifestyle and don't want that help. They just they just want to be left alone, which is fine. But then we explain to them what the rules are here in the city to make sure that they coexist with the citizens and and the visitors of the city without creating uh some negative adversarial kind of relationship um that you know that's you know that's not good for anybody. So, and uh and then we work to make sure they're following those rules. We've been pretty successful in it, but to um again to the conversations the last meeting. Um I think there's probably more of a need into the evening hours as as you know we have more events and we have more people down here but not just in the downtown area we have events on the southside and westward as well. So the thought as far as our our our structural attack on on an issue like this would be to not only have um more

resources uh downtown for for what you know officer cross's doing but also to engage in those other things live at the falls or if they have you know the festivals up on by Cotting things like that where we can have some sort of presence to make sure um that we're trying to alleviate the issues that we're seeing down here. And um we you know we're always pivoting. We're always changing as a department. Um and I think that's what makes us so successful. And this is no different. I think that this is happening very quickly. And so um the one thing I can assure everyone sitting here on council and future council people is that we're aware of it. We're working on coming up with a plan to kind of navigate through it. And um and we'll keep you kind of posted as we do that. But as far as the officer goes, it's it's kind of one of those things like I said, we're very we're very u respected. We're very we respect very much the the money the dollar. So, if the budget can afford it, um I would never stand up there and say we certainly couldn't use that extra allocation. Um we always work with the administration as we do our hiring where the budget falls. But, um but to that end, what we're planning to do that 64th officer could could certainly come.

Chief, thank you so first of all, thank you so much for coming out and addressing this. Um honestly, I have not heard anything different today. uh like if everything has been generalized why we need a 64th police officer. Okay, talking about Kristen Cooper, of course, we hired her like two three years ago and I voted on it and I would always support um hiring more community advocates. Um so that's that's not a problem. I wish we have more community advocates. Again talking about uh what councilwoman Crystal Lewis mentioned and counciloman Frank Pabone mentioned the the the incidents in downtown. These are mental health issues. Okay. These are not

Excuse me. Excuse me.

Uh these are mental health issues for me because a woman, a lady in the trash can and you know and and and and a person you know driving down and throwing racial slurs. I understand but sometime we need we need to put all those things not not basically not labeling everything as a crime just because some people are homeless some people are like dealing with mental health these are not the crime they need a different services right not a police officer to deal with if you are planning on hiring uh a community advocate because I know Pa Cooper is doing a wonderful job and I have been working with her and I actually did talk to somebody just today um a lady who's been serving homeless people and I told her you need to reach out to Chris Cooper to find out uh the right path for our our our unsheltered community uh to be at like in shelters or or since she she has been very helpful but anyway the point is I have not heard anything different why do we need 64th police officer because as mayor mentioned and you have mentioned before like crime rates going down.

Yeah. I I guess I mean I can use the example of of a woman uh who had a mental crisis down here. It was our officer who found Our officers are out on patrol. Our officers the one who found her there. Um I was actually on scene on that specific incident as well. It was our officers who actually got her out of that garbage can and helped her to get herself over to a place where we could sit and talk. we then utilized uh Miss Cooper to come and deal with her and we actually did get her the mental health treatment that she needed. Um so I I think you underestimate and and again I know there's this this belief that police um shouldn't be doing non police things, but the the reality whether it be fortunate or unfortunate is law enforcement in in this country um is called upon to do so many more things than most people even can realize. um that woman was found by us. And so whether or not we had social uh if we had mental health workers here in the department or not, she was found by us. And it was us who got her out. It was us who got her to a stable location. It was us who made her feel safe. It was us who ultimately got her the mental health treatment that she needed. Um and we did that and are still working with her as well. So I understand.

I mean I respect that honestly. I understand. Yeah.

So again those those are the issues that we deal with on a regular basis. But when you start to limit to that to say, "Okay, we're not going to get another officer or we're going to do or however you wanted to look at um the mental health dealing with those things, the issues that we're dealing with here in the city are are are much more vast when it comes to things like noise complaints, quality of life issues, parking issues, those types of things." Um, and so this just falls into the to the numerous responsibilities that we have as police. And so I don't I don't discount the need for and believe me, mental health is definitely a very very hot topic with with what we deal with and what we're seeing out there in our community today more than in my entire career. It is a very real thing, but it [clears throat] doesn't change. And again, the thought that a mental health professional is going to show up at a at a residence where there's a mental health crisis, especially if it's violent, is just not a realistic approach because it takes somebody who's trained to not only deal with that mental health crisis in a way that's going to keep everybody safe, but has the tools and has the the way to handle themselves that they can control it if it gets violent. Because I know the big push is for mental health to kind of go and take these calls and that's only going to work until one of them gets really hurt. somebody gets very hurt, very injured or worse, and then all of a sudden it's going to be like, "Okay, back to the police going there first." EMS won't even go into a scene until the police are secure and make sure everybody's safe and calm. So, it's always going to be our responsibility at that first level. So, the question shouldn't be what's happening at the first level. The question should always be where does it fit? [clears throat] And that's really what we focus on. So, we find somebody in that mental health crisis situation. We we get we deal with it and we want to get her to the finish line of where she can get the most help she could possibly get so that she never ends up back there again.

Does a great job and I I just want to bring back that I that was not the only thing that I touched on in our last meeting. I spoke about quality of life issues as well that are you know unfortunately with the staffing an extra officer will be able to help um address some of those issues. Um I don't I I actually have you know, I living downtown, being on foot a lot, I have called things in. I'm also on the block watch, so people have asked me to call in um different situations and I have witnessed the police handling things really well and I I really commend them for their community focused policing. We don't have the problems in the city that you hear about, the the horror stories that you hear about somewhere in other parts of the country. Um, I I think that as the population grows, I don't want to keep going on and on, but as the population grows, both our residents and we also have a growing unhoused population, that we do need more feet on the ground and we need um so yes, maybe we will need another advocate at some point, but especially with retirements pending and things like that, we need to make sure we're hiring enough people to address the needs of our community. So coming back to your point uh chief um quality of life issues.

Yes.

I think it's important to look into quality life issues because we are lacking the resources and I know it's not just Eastern, it's everywhere. We're lacking the resources. Homelessness is increasing, right? Social services have been cut, right? Uh we are in housing crisis. So it's important that if we find money from the budget to utilize that money into right place and for me right place would be putting that money for housing providing mental health services providing I don't know what else we could do but but actually the real quality life issues because again I mentioned this before and I don't want anybody to twist on those ers take proactive action, not reactive. And proactive doesn't mean hiring a police officer a year ahead. Okay? Proactive mean resources. If people are moving into our city and the population is growing, let's provide them better resources instead of providing another police officer, you know, who's standing. And I understand and I'm not underestimating the work that the police department is doing. I'm not just in favor of uh you know increasing a police force just because our population is growing. There are needs in this community. There are we are lacking the resources and I think this is where the money should go. And again I'm I'm not underestimating your work but but there are many other real things to do the real quality of life issues.

And and I don't feel like you're doing that. I I don't I don't disagree that you and council have have very tough decisions to make when it comes to where money gets spent within the city. I'm making an basically the argument for the department to say I think it would be unrealistic and I think um Councilman Pidabon has has stated this pretty eloquently is that it's unrealistic to think that we can keep growing the way we are without increasing some of the public safety um resources that we currently have in place just because again it's it's very different the the nature or the number of calls are different but the expectations of what people are going to find when they come to this city are also very very different um when when you are when you have so many residents that are moving downhill and paying the prices they're paying for the properties that they have down here. The expectation is that they're not going to walk out onto the streets and have just, you know, all kinds of, you know,

I just want to make the point that in 2008 and n we hired 11 additional police officers. We went from 52 to 63 and we budgeted for 64. So, we're not talking about an additional police officer. We're talking about fulfilling the budget. Yeah. I mean I and that's and right well we keep hearing that Mr. Pinbone wants to add a police officer. We've already budgeted for that police officer and that's that's that's my uh the wrong terminology. We have budgeted them budgeted for 64. We've just never gotten there. Well and and even that's a that's just operational. I mean understood. I mean that's the same thing with fire department. I mean,

understood, but but don't we want to try to get to the level that the council before us, I think you were here at the time, Mr. Brown and M. Mayor Panto, you for some reason have the wisdom to get us to 64. So, or to make us want to be at 64. That was in 2008. My my population has control the the the the vicious crimes that we have to deal with our police department has to deal with

will never overshadow the quality of life crimes. So your parking is not going to be any different with 64 or 63. Your parking on the corners is still going to happen in the neighborhoods. And we all know what happens when I sell the police officers to tell you enforce that. It's the neighbors who call me because that's where they park.

The the there's some confusion. So we're we're 63 man department. We upped it to 64 I want to say two years ago on a temporary because we had officers who had they had scheduled retirement. So we were allowed to go to 64 for that period of time to try to hire officers knowing they were going to leave so that we would end up back at 63. So we do have the 64th um in ordinance right now, but that's how that 64. So 63 was back in 08. 64 is where we're at now. only on that basis of allowing to hire to that level because of those

here's here's the thing that always uh reminds me growth is a wonderful thing we all love growth but we got to be ready for it too and here we are the two biggest things in east that we're having is parking and I think we kind of worked that around but just got to get it out further to people uh and quality of life issues you know things are seen Um, we're very fortunate to have the accreditation that we have for a small city with big city problems sometimes.

But I and I agree with Councilman Pinealo when he says that we got to be proactive than reactive with the numbers [clears throat] of residents coming into our city. We're not going to get smaller, right? We're going to get larger. So, we have to look at that. And chief, if if I if I may, I'm sorry,

but [snorts] to Councilwoman Sultana's point, she she she's right. We do have to provide housing and and for everybody, every uh income uh level, and Councilwoman, we're doing that. Um the RDA has a plan for 26 uh in 26 for 22 units. We just sold the one on Cooper. There's going to be a ribbon cutting in the next couple of weeks to uh firsttime low to moderate income homeowner who rent it in the city. Um I'm meeting with Shiloh every week we sit and meet. We were in Harrisburg with PHFA. We're going for one more round of funding. They're building a hundred units in the southside half market um sorry half workforce housing, half low income. They're breaking ground in December on seven town homes that are going to go to low to moderate income first-time home buyers. 52 units due to the help of the mayor in the city um of incomebased housing was built three years ago or four years ago in Southside. We are attacking those needs. We are actively going after those needs and we heard from the chief what Christian Cooper does identifying and getting these people helped. So we're we're attacking that. We're doing that. But we're increasing the population significantly. We're at what 315 now. Um we'll be at 32 when the when the when the confluence comes in and some other other things. Southside, you need to make sure that we are securing and making sure people are safe when they're in our city.

Mayor, you've always told me since I got here, this is my budget. If you guys want something, find the money. I found the money. Also, you didn't find the money. You found the money by raising. It was where the real estate transfer.

No, I'm sorry. No, not at all. Absolutely not, mayor. The real estate transfer tax is 100% going to open space. It's through the parking, which we also, my recommendation also was to lower the parking garage to 225 an hour. Additionally, my proposal is to hire a full-time parking enforcement officer that would take care of the parking issues, but nobody's nobody had an issue with that, so that's why we're not discussing it. But it's a revenue agent. You just heard PFM tell you that the you can't keep adding people if I would love to have a hundred men and women on the police force. I would like to see them back to be walking and walk to beat, but you can't afford it.

Agreed. And that's why we're not doing 10. And as PFM just said, you guys are doing one or two here, one or two there. That's specifically what he said and that's what I'm doing now. We've cut position, not we. The council has cut positions in the finance department and we're lacking on services and not bringing in revenue or following our basic rules that we have set forth because they don't have enough people cuz we cut them to balance budgets. We have to start bringing these people back. And I'm not talking about high numbers, but we have to provide services that people want that are moving here. And we're not doing that currently. I I'll just close by saying first and foremost we appreciate all that you you [clears throat] have done and the administration has done for our department and regardless of the decisions that are made um we will be working on the issues that were brought up at the last meeting uh and coming up with a solution and uh we'll continue to touch base with you as we kind of implement those things and try to try to figure out a way to make uh to make all of those things better for everybody involved. So

thank you chief I appreciate all your time. Thank you. Thank you. Just for one more clarification not to you chief I'm sorry. Thank you. Just for clarification, the D transfer tax and I sent emails out to everybody. Open space 100% to open space. Nothing for anything else. It's um Are you planning on introducing it? It's already part of the amendment that I made uh a couple weeks ago. So, Lewis, can you explain to the counciloman how you plan on bringing it back? council. Every year when we go through the budget process in the last meeting, um after we go through all the deliberation, uh Mark and I will present to you a report of all the changes, all the changes, all the proposed changes

of the proposed changes proposed changes. So, Mr. Pinabone um has been working with the administration on his numbers and his proposals which will be presented as part of the overall changes. We're not complete yet. There's some other tweaks that you know Mark and I as we listen we make some adjustments and we'll be proposing potentially some some some changes as well but that's not deviating from any other year the way in which we've managed this process.

No, what I'm saying I received an email from Councilman Franklin and I read that the amendment. I just wanted to make sure it's already amended or are you planning on introducing it and then the council will So it will be part of if we vote on it at the end it'll be part of the budget. So [clears throat] the increase se December 22nd so that increase will be part of the budget and then it'll show that that revenue will go to line item 110 whatever line item is for open space. It'll show [clears throat] in the budget that we pass it won't happen until December 22nd. Yeah, just a quick question on that. So, just for clarity for myself. Yes.

The way that works, if I'm wrong, correct me. The way that works is that a first-time home buyer buys a home, we're already paying a percentage they got to come up with. So, are we asking them to come up with another half%? I'm going to defer to Councilman Pinone.

So, at their closing, they pay a deed transfer fee. Currently, it's 2%. 1% goes to the state, 1% gets split with us in the school district. We're proposing a half a percent according to the realators. That half a percent on the average home price for sale in the city of Eastn will be $875 to the buyer, $875 to the seller. Now, what you've heard is that hurts firsttime low to moderate income home buyers. So, I did my research and what's hurting the low to moderate first-time home buyers in the city of East are LLC's. As you saw from my report, from November of 25 to no November of 24 to November of 25, 480 homes were sold in the city. Out of that 480, 33.3% or 150 were sold to LLC's. Out of that 150, 91% were in the southside and westward. The issue is the LLC's are purchasing all the lower income units.

Got you. And raising the prices. So that's where the issue is. I got additionally first it looks if you look at it just by happen and you go through it you don't see the LLC's right so what I what I had to do was go to the courthouse and I and I can bring all 120 pages in and make copies just so every I want everybody to see it but you go to the courthouse you go to the deer of records you pull it I went through 120 pages

and it shows everybody that bought it shows the neighborhood so I have them highlighted differently but one thing in particular that I send that email and and for the public that I think is is huge to note because we're the largest in the in the entire region. 99.14% of all the properties in the city of East are within a quarter mile of a park, a trail or protected space. So this plan to put into open space will protect what we have, enhance what we have, and going forward protect more so we're not faced with a million square foot warehouse coming in. So you say 33% um 33.3 33.3% are are the LLC that buying the homes, right? 33 Yeah.

and 77%. The rest of the percentage is any can be anyone first time home buyers downtown or college. I

if if I may make one observation as far as real estate goes. Um when we talk about this percentage of LLC's buying homes, um let's roll the clock back 30 years. I don't know. We using the word LLC, but 30 years ago it was Mr. A. The question is, are they buying it as investors or flippers or whatever, but that always existed? The LLC is just a new form of ownership, not a new form. It's an old form. If you're seeing a lot, the the observation you should be making is that it looks like there's a lot of investors out there. Are they good or bad? The term LLC is no different than than if I had bought with a partner back in 1985, an investment property. So it

but but I think to your point um and and and we can use it however however you want to use whatever term when we say LLC, you and your partner bought it as an LLC. No, we bought it as general partners. In those days, they didn't have an LLC. Oh, right. As general partners, as a business venture. That's right. Okay. So I think that's how the majority of us view LLC's. It's a business venture. is not a family or an individual moving into the neighborhood.

So surprised. I've seen people who think who think that they could put their own name, their own personal home in an LLC and somehow will protect them. You know, it doesn't take much to form an LLC. It doesn't I'm just saying it's not it's not a key word. I think the conversation is is is better advanced and saying that these are we're identifying that there is a rise of investment properties versus home ownership. uh and and whatever you do with the transfer tax, it's a different thing. But one question I have because I've received inquiries from the board of realtors and I don't know how to answer it. Um if this is not in our if this is not part of the proposed budget now, when will is it is it is it on the website? No. I I the question that I have to answer people, they want to know when they could read it because right now they're not aware that there is a transfer tax proposal formally introduced.

It will it will not it will not be until it's uh we formally introduced the final budget on December 22nd. But Mr. pin a bone is the only council member that has been uh very open about you know the changes that he wants and I think at every council at every council meeting he's been making this announcement but but Joel nothing has changed so so but and Joe just so just to Lewis's point I also took the invitation and I went by myself to the realers association and sat with all of them and had the discussion

I'm not talking about the merits I just what I my biggest concern is so the public understands Is it that the budget will go on the agenda 24 hours ahead of time and whatever anybody's looking at the budget right now do not rely on that this entire budget could change 360 degrees in 24 hours. Yes. Correct. That's what the budget hearings are for.

Well, that budget hearings would normal I mean I would think budget hearings what you'd hear about. So the public should just understand that come December 21st your taxes could go up. uh by a percent. It no one knows anything. If there's ever a meeting to go to, it's going to be that budget meeting because you don't have it's not on the website.

Go. Just just for clarity, um Mr. Solicitor, um this is the process that we have whether it's good or bad. You just brought up a a really good point. And uh in the last 10 years that I've been here um most of the changes have been extremely nominal like very nominal less less less the less than a tenth of a percent. There were tweaks right there are rounding errors. In this particular case there there there is a proposal on the table to um increase a tax. So that you will not see that until council can actually take action and vote and that will will be on the 22nd and it will be posted publicly uh 24 hours at least 24 hours beforehand. We have the practice of putting that up the Friday before the Wednesday meeting. And just so and just so everybody again the public is alert that based on the Supreme Court decision that was issued I think yesterday or the day before it appears that uh after all you can if you get a 43 if you get a majority vote of the quorum you can amend it on the night of the meeting. So, uh, um, it's it's it's just a matter of deciding. you you decide what is good practice and and and that's going to be your decision. The only thing I'm concerned about, and I know this has nothing to do with you, Joel, is the fact that I'm glad we put in this information. These mic um the fact that a first time home owner is already struggling to put that money up front and then we tell them that, hey, wait a minute, you have to pay another $800.

$175. Yeah, that's my concern. That's exactly my concern because we are already in housing crisis. Okay. And I understand 33% are the one LLC is buying all the houses like but they are working people. Why are we putting a burden for working people another $875 and they don't even know what's going on and understand this is a process that we are following. But if public is not aware of ahead of time how can they make their voice heard? how can they come and you know attend the budget meetings until it's not

I mean it's it's it's a biggest concern and I understand again you know this is a process we have been following I think it should be in the public and people should know that we are working on raising the uh raising basically uh deansfer taxes um and are we are putting $875 burden on working people for for home for first- time home home buyers basically who have no idea they're paying it because it doesn't it shows up on her hood one. They don't know what a HUD one is. Well, I I just want to jump in to

explain what they're playing, but just for clarity, I've I've publicly brought it up here at the last three meetings. I met with the real association and I did a live video last night publicly on social media where there was over 4,000 views um discussing the deansfer tax. So, I'm putting it out there. I've never done anything uh uh behind the scenes. I do everything publicly and through committees as we're supposed to. So, we're getting it out there. Um there's a 30,000 of the population in the city of Houston. So is there any way Mr. Campos if you can put it on website or do some kind of like special budget hearing? No,

no, no. However, however, I do want to say this the council um you do have formal budget meetings that were advertised. So what I would do

is pause this conversation and continue to have them during your budget deliberations because that's what's fair. because that's what you've advertised. I've asked I've asked Miss Rose, in all fairness to to um move a discussion until a budget date. That wasn't the primary reason, but that was a reason to move a discussion because that's those are the dates that the public quote unquote is focused on listening to these budget deliberations. So, someone in the public may not be listening tonight because about budget issues because they feel they may think that this is not a budget night to talk about these issues. So that's all that's all I'm going to bring up. That's good. That's good.

I suggest we put the amendment on the agenda on December 9th to talk about it. And anything that Mr. Pinone wants to recommend and try to get passed by this council should be talked about on December 9th. That's what I do. Well, and technically, just so you know, Mr. Pinabone can submit something to the administration on the 22nd and we will present it as part of the budget. But one of the things that he's talked about for three times, but we haven't there's we don't even know if there's a consensus. No, I I understand. I'm neutral, mayor. I'm just getting your information. I know. I'm I'm perfectly I agree to put it on the ninth.

Okay. um public safety we went through. Um there's also a discussion on immigration resolution uh under public safety. So I'll turn it over to Mrs. Sana. No, Mrs. Moros. Um I'm willing to hear any comments from council. I I have one thing that I wanted to add. I'm sorry. My allergies are acting up, so bear with me. Me both. um

getting that clarin in this week. Um so I attended a municipal conference last week and um it got me thinking about our resolution and there are some language I'd like to add in regards to um supporting legal pathways um and eventual citizenship tied to the workforce. Um, the work I do outside of council, I've been hearing from business owners, hospitals, elder care facilities, restaurants, the agricultural industry, and the trades that they're experiencing real workforce gaps. Yes,

I think everybody's car is aware of that. So, as I said, I'd like to add language that supports legal immigration pathways and eventual citizenship that helps reflect those needs and aligns the resolution with what's happening across our region and the country. Um, as we know, and some people stated earlier today too, when people are able to work legally, they contribute through taxes. They help stabilize and support our local economy in positive ways. So, I'm working with the National Immigration Forum in DC. Um, they're a bipartisan national organization um to make sure we have accurate data and clear, well-crafted language to add to the resolution. Um, with the holiday week, I would hope to have that to everyone by next week, which I know would delay the vote. I'm not trying to postpone it, but it's something I really had some thoughtful discussions with elected officials um at different levels last week when I was at the NJ League of Municipalities convention. Um and it's something that I think that there's support for. So, as we hope to take this resolution and encourage our elected officials at higher levels of government to actually do something um about the issues that we're having, um I I think it would be helpful to include that language. So that's that's my request for tonight.

If if this is just to include the language, then I can propose it. You can propose it now and we can vote on it. Well, as I said that I'm working with the forum to pull the accurate data and as well as some language that's been used elsewhere. So I should have that to everyone prior to the next meeting to include in the resolution draft if everyone's willing to um do [clears throat] so. But data isn't necessary because this is just a resolution. This is not an ordinance. Well, that's what I would like to add to it. I think that part of the reason why we sent this to committee was so that we could all participate and add our pieces to it. So, um that that's just my request for tonight and I'm hoping everyone would be willing to um work with me on that.

I would I would request to move on with this resolution, pass this resolution tonight, and we can amend this later if it needs to be done. I'm not interested in amending it. I'd like us to be able to send this out to PE to our higher levels of government and um you know hope that it has more teeth. Yeah, I think the appropriate time for the discussion here will be when the motion's made for the resolution and second and then you could have a request to table but that's uh that's really the point that you take action. Mr. Are we still discussing?

Yes. two things that I that I want to make sure are added. Um I know we we brought it back to to discuss today. Um was the fact that we don't agree with with our residents being taken uh without warrants which is happening uh often or I think pretty much all the time. I haven't heard of any warrantless uh ICE incidents and also the fact that you know I don't think we any of us agree uh with individuals having their due process just being trampled on and and you know uh uh just not being adhered to. So I want to make sure that's in there. I haven't seen an updated one unless we're using the same one from before. Um

no changes. So th those two things have to be on here. And uh it's I I think the due process is in there. That that language is in there. The due process is in there. It's it's in there. It's Yeah. The two things that you and and that was put in. Yeah. And that's been there like since day one like when Dr. Ruggles introduced

Let me just point out um I I and and we can discuss this when we when this moved, but um basically the bare bones of this resolution This council's already passed. I mean, this is nothing new. We passed this back in 2017. Um, and and you know, if you're talking about us being a welcoming city, 2017, we passed this resolution essentially, there's a few tweaks here and there to basically bring it up to the

council said bring it up to some of the issues that we have today. But this resolution was passed back in 2017. It's not that we haven't done anything. We have and I think just this is just just a point. I think if we put it off for a week to make sure that the language in there is correct, I don't have any problem with that. I I want to make sure the I don't want to come back and amend something. I want to put something forward that is the actual resolution that we're passing.

But why didn't we do it? Because we tabled the resolution to fix the language. And why didn't nobody introduce the language or they wanted to switch or change or fix? I mean it it's it came after a month. It was it was tabled for two weeks but it came back after four weeks. and

well because we did not agree on what was the final draft and that's why we're here right now. We put it into committee so that everyone can add to it and I apologize that I didn't have this sooner but it was something that came up in the last two weeks with some of the conversations that I had and I think it's timely right now. So I would just appreciate everyone's openness to it. you know, at the end of the day, we should want to have a final draft that everyone um has contributed to and feels good about.

I have I have just a question for the council. With the exception of Councilwoman Rose's um additions, does anybody have any issues or comments regarding Councilwoman Sultana's version? Let's knock that out today while we're here.

I think we're good. Everybody's okay with that part. I I mean I we should because if we're going to if if Councilman Rose is asking to table it to bring her language then you know we'll hear her language in two weeks but if there's issues other issues with it now then then we should discuss it now instead of waiting and then bringing that back. So I think if if I'm okay with hearing what what what other members said and hearing what um Crystal brings because I think identifying the fact that we need better pathways to citizenship is is very important. Absolutely.

But in the meantime, if there's things with councilwoman's current uh uh uh resolution that are issues or changes, I think it should this should be discussed now or additions. I think we all I'm not I'm going to say that. Um I think most of us have talked throughout this and agreed to the point uh so far wanted to make sure that it was a clean uh resolution going forward. And with this new information coming forth now, um I think it's a good idea that if we're going to do it, let's do it clean. Let's do it right and move forward. We are in an agreement. Would you council woman? We just want to add uh Mr. Rose's uh portion to it.

I I would recommend Mr. uh Councilwoman Rose to uh like introduce the amendment now and we can vote on it. She doesn't have the information. I promise to have it to you by next week. I'm waiting to hear back. It's a holiday week, so I'm sure I won't hear back from them until early next week. I have some language that I sent over, but I'm it's not finalized yet. This is something I just started working on. We're still I mean, we said we were bringing this to committee this week. Discuss.

So that I was a little confused to see it on the docket for voting today because we said we and I understand we're combining two meetings. So understandable, but that's that's what these committee meetings are for is to hash it out and go through drafts and get to a final version that everyone feels comfortable voting on. Hopefully,

I would I would like the administration also to review and u and be part of uh the negotiation process. Um as you all know the charter outlines. So therefore, I do agree um with Miss Rose that in the proper procedure, it should go through committee and we should discuss it. And that doesn't mean that it just starts at committee. It means exactly what she says that she's starting to work on it now. So by the time it goes to committee, oh my god, it is

it's you introduced an ordinance previously. No, the the process is and I and that's and I'm and I am also um cliffnoting if you will my comments. So meaning she's coming to a resolution to a committee meeting prepared meaning she has already uh done the work not only working with third parties but has worked with the administration sat down with myself and any member of the administration this pertains to the solicitor and also has gotten feedback from council members. So by the time it goes to committee, you're really presenting it to the public a almost final draft and and I do I do appreciate that that's the way it it it should operate.

It it should that's proper that is the proper government. That's the way it's it's supposed to be designed. It's outlined in the charter. I agree with you, Mr. Camples. Today it's a committee meeting too today. You know that, right? you're having because I reached out to Karen to discuss the committee resolution the committee meeting and as mayor and also mentioned the committee meeting everything would be tonight mentioned would be tonight so that's why it was listed under Dr. Ruggle's name so we can discuss before we vote on it. It's kind of committee meeting. So we are following that right right procedure.

I would I would say that part of that is correct. The other part is that the administration has not received the draft. So while the topic is being introduced the administration right now a draft I'm sorry a draft of the document that Miss Rose just just proposed. That was on purpose.

It was not on purp This has been at the table for many months and we've been discussing it and as one of the speaker actually said like we are keep postponing it and it's hurting our community. So, so it's not about Mr. about any council member. It's not about me. It's not about you Luis. It's not about anybody else. It's about the vulnerable communities that being heard in our community. And this is the bare minimum. It's not an ordinance. It's nothing. It's a bare minimum we can do. Just pass a resolution. It's a statement telling the community we stand with you in solidarity. Simple as that. It's it's it's nothing else.

Councilwoman, if if Councilman, if it Yeah. it's a res 2017. Yes. We're adding to it. and we're just adding to it to bring it up to date with some of the issues that are here today. And I think what we're talking about here that council person Rose is is mentioning and it was something that was brought to her attention as I understand it relatively recently. We just want to make sure that those issues are actually addressed.

Councilman Pedigone addressed two of them. We we went that way. I think something that has come up. I think it doesn't hurt to wait two weeks to get those in there and make sure that this resolution does address the things that are current today. Councilwoman, if I council amendment, if if I may, I you've brought you brought ordinances. I don't think you've ever gotten a motion to a second to even move forward for a vote resolutions. You've never gotten a second to move forward. And what I'm hearing tonight is you wait a minute, please.

What I'm hearing tonight is there's people are in agreement with what you're what you're doing. Nobody is saying no. Nobody's trying to fight it. But the it should be more. There should be more. And Councilwoman Rose wants to add more. You have two more meetings a part of this council. And she's saying she's going to bring it back for a vote. Like nobody's here is fighting you on it. Like you've been fought on it. Nobody's fighting. Nobody's saying no. It's It's not on me. It's not on me that I get couldn't get the second on the ordinance. It's on all of you. What I'm saying is you never had a second on Okay. All right. So, it's it's it's it's on the council. It's not on me to not getting a second.

Okay. Let me say it again. The council has not gotten a second in the past. Right now, they're pretty much in agreement with you. Like, they're agreeing with you, but they want to add more. Then, let's pass it. if but she wants to add more to it which we what we talked about and Roger Rugles talked about council Rugles about adding the language of if if if this is being sent out to Councilman Rugles. How many places you have it being sent to? How many places do you have this being sent to besides the state congress people or the congress people and the mayor president? Who else? I think there are like 12. Yeah. 12. So so so but if if our point is we don't agree with this and we want the government to

make easier, faster pathways to citizenship and we're sending this out. That should be included in this. Yeah, that should be and that's what I said like we can I propose it now instead of post keep postponing it like and I know it's not going to work because I'm the Oh, you're not you're not you're not Let me just say this slow and we are agreeing with you. This has been passed in 2017. We want to make sure that it's up to date. Councilwoman Rose had found out more information to put towards this to make sure that everything we want in there is there. We are agreeing with you. There's no fight here. We're agreeing

and I agree and I agree but I'm asking not to postpone it and stand in solidarity with the vulnerable community. And Mr. Ken Brown, you actually at the last minute not last meeting wanted to pass the resolution that was already passed in 2017 with no amendments. No, that's not true. Like we was said,

excuse me, let me finish. Let me finish. The resolution is here because all the council members said they will support the resolution but not the ordinance. That's exactly why it was being requested to Dr. struggles to make a little bit amendment and bring it back the resolution and now it's been at the table for for many weeks and it's being it's been keep postponing it and I know I if you all are agree and say yes this resolution is the exactly thing you would vote on it right besides council what councilwoman Rose wanted to add it

okay I'm okay with that okay but But what if you come again next in next two weeks and bring another not hearing like another thing to add or remove it then that would be there would be another two weeks another two weeks that that's my concern if we pass this this evening and councilwoman Rose have more information we would have to amend it why go through that and just put it all in one shot so the resolution that we have already right with with with me amending it right do you guys have any one of you have any problem with the language so you're asking question I just

what Dr. Rogles Dr. struggles has a floor. I I I think one of the things that it is not realized here is that the design of this resolution originally back in 2017 is to spread this throughout the country. Yes. Spread this idea throughout the country. And when this resolution was passed back in 2017, it was mailed out 22 different city councils around the country [clears throat] to invite them to adopt a resolution like this and I was and asking them to send it out to 22 more.

So it just keeps growing and growing and growing. Okay. If we don't have something that is the final what we want as a final product and then we're going to pass that and then send it out and say, "Oh, wait, wait, wait just a minute. We amended that and we're going to we're going to send it out again with this amendment." It it's it doesn't make sense. Okay. It makes sense if we have a document that we send out and that document is our final document. I I would be very much against passing something with the intention of amending it into the future because that is not what we're that's not what this thing is designed for. It's not designed that way.

And so I don't see putting it off for two weeks is going to be a big deal myself just to No, it's not. It's not until un unless we are yes passing it. I I'm [clears throat] just worried because after two weeks I don't want other council members to to say something different and postpone it for another two weeks. That's my problem. That's the concern. Not what council member was going to make a comment. Excuse me, Mrs. Sultana. This I will entertain a motion to table till specific date December 9th and it must be voted on in December 9th. Mayor Mayor, Mayor, until we get to it on the agenda, it really it really isn't time to vote on this,

but we're going to talk in circles. Well, then I suggest you stop this part of the uh of the uh discussion and move on the agenda [laughter] of what? Cuz I can't be here all night before I give my big report. [laughter] You have a big one, too. No report, but a joke. No, it's not your turn yet. Public works. Mr. Councilman Edinger. Thank you, Mayor. I have no report tonight. I do, however, have uh seven resolutions and a bill number 81 that I'll be moving. Okay. Administration Council Sultana.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh Mayor, we had a executive session and I will leave that for Mr. Campbell or uh Mr. Shu to report it. Uh also, there are six resolution on the agenda of contracting with the city of Easton coming from the administration to be approved. Uh the last thing is I attended the annual tree lighting uh put together by Southside Civic Association and Eastern Fire Department. It was well attended uh council member Brown was there. Um so I just want to thank everyone uh for doing this for the community. That's all I have. Mayor,

thank you. Reporter Mr. Shear. Oh uh thank you. Um we had a uh an executive session uh yesterday. No, that was a few hours ago. it seemed like yesterday um dealing with a with a property issue and uh that's the extent of my report. Your hot mess.

Report of the mayor. I just want to recommend uh just update city council leave collection will continue. Uh street cleaning ends on December 1st. 31 firefighter interviews were held. Uh which was really good. And once those scores are finalized, the civil service board will adopt a um uh list and we'll be able to hire the the vacancies that exist. Uh the candle lighting is this Saturday. On Friday is the first Christmas tree lighting and that will be directed from the circle down to the first Christmas tree down by the Larry Helma statue. Um boy, I can't read my own writing. Don't forget the football game.

Oh, the football game's on Thursday. I won't forget [laughter] that. Um Lewis and I were at a meeting this morning with the Lafayette president and her staff and uh I think it was a good meeting and we got commitment for some dollars uh some matching funds and just so you know the freedom software Mark why don't you update the city council on the freedom software.

Okay. Okay. Uh the Hooper House, uh we're looking to start that fundraising effort uh soon. Uh we're working with the architect to provide a wrap around the house. So you'll see what it looks like. And free parking starts this weekend in downtown East on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. And I'm going to amend that resolution that takes out the three hours. We're just going to have free parking in the garages, two garages. Mayor, just a question. Uh, for the, uh, the village to come in this weekend, right? It officially opens at 12:00 Saturday. 12 o'clock on Saturday. Is there going to be a ribbon cutting or anything? Just going to open up? No, there'll be a opening ceremony. Okay. 12 o'clock. 12 o'clock.

Oh, yeah. Punt pass kick was held last night. It was very good turnout. Both bands were there from Phil and East. Uh, we didn't win. PE won the pass and kick competition between the two cities, but we did have a lot of second place people. So, they practiced this year. They'll win the first place next year, but it was very we had a better band.

We had the better band without a doubt. Okay. [clears throat] Um, correspondence. There's no correspondence. We'll go right into new business. Oh, Mr. Campers. The only report uh the only item on the report that I want to give is that uh uh negotiations with ASME um are ongoing. We met today and we're going to be continuing to meet in earnest again and actually as early as next week. I think we're starting to make some progress. So more progress I would say. We've been we've been making progress but um things are going and I think we're meeting and we're having good discussions. Thank you.

All right, mayor. Quick question. I'm sorry I didn't bring this up earlier. on. Hold on. Starting to get like you. Welcome to the club. You've been like me. I have not been old. You're old. I have a question. Um I I didn't see it and I apologize. I I I looked through the pack. I didn't see it. Mayor, for letter K, who's your appointee to the housing authority board? Mr. Campos. Oh, okay. Mr. Campos, the um housing authority director who did not get along with the city has resigned. Is our opportunity to put somebody on that board? That will he resigned Friday. Oh my goodness. But but but his last day is December 5th. Yeah. But but but his office says he's not back in the office till December 5th.

I don't know. Well, he's taking early leave. But thank you, mayor. I didn't see that. I mean, he wouldn't Lewis wouldn't be my first pick, but we'll take Louis is a is a city resident and uh he'll be a good representative uh to try to get that housing authority back in order because right now they think they are on their own. Very good.

We have to we have to get I asked the mayor I jumped in resident obviously is one of the requirements. But the the second thing is is that we need we need tighter communications with the administration with here in city hall and and what's going on at the housing authority. So that's why I raised my hand in u and volunteer to to get on this board. I thought it was important for the city. I I agree and and per the conversation I had with the mayor last week when we heard about this, I think now is a good time for the city administration to get involved, especially with the hiring and the new person and and have that better communication similar to like what Pittston does with their housing authority and their RDA. All of them do it all pretty much. He's the only one.

Gary Smith was a better but communicator, right? Okay. New business, Madame Clerk. unfinished. Oh, unfin. Well, unfinished business. Uh, bill number 80, an ordinance amending chapter 415, pedaling, soliciting, and special events. Moved second.

Moved and second. Any discussion? This is an ordinance that will help us recoup or make money in our special events. Um, we're charging each vendor $50 and I think that's uh we made money on both the garlic festival and the bacon festival, but this will ensure that on some of the smaller events we we also break even or make money. We're not looking to make money, but if we do, that's our revenue. It increases our revenue. Roll call. Thank you, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. Pabone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Dr. Rugles. Hi, Miss Sultana. Hi, Mr. Brown.

Hi, Mr. Edinger. Hi. New business. Thank you. Um, we have a resolution supporting Oh, no. We tabled that, didn't we? Tabled 9th. We have to move it first and then we have to move it first. December 9th. Uh, resolution supporting and protecting immigrant communities. So, move and second. Second. I move to table that second till date specific December 9th 10th I got we got 10th but don't you want to bring it on the well we'll bring it on the night up for vote on the 10th

vote on the 10th [clears throat] right this is vote on it vote on the family. Okay, Mr. Pinabone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi, Dr. Rugles. Hi, Miss Sultana. Hi, Mr. Brown. Hi, Mr. Edinger. Hi, and Mayor Pan. Hi. A resolution renaming Nescooning Park to the Claren Boyer and Francis Ketchin Memorial. Memorial Park. I was I'm sorry. So, who made the motion? I make I second it. Okay.

Do we ever have to sign it? We'll have a sign. Okay. Excuse me. Okay. Again, letter C. Okay. Mrs. Rose, hi. Dr. Rugles. Hi, Miss Sultana. Hi, Mr. Brown. Hi, Mr. Edinger. Hi, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. PBone. Hi, Um, a resolution approving a memorandum of understanding between DNL and the city of Eastston trade pair a section of the DNL trail. So moved. Second. Is that the one right underneath the uh overpass? The black bridge. Black bridge. [snorts]

Oh, okay. Okay. Go ahead, Madam Cler. Mrs. Rose. Hi, Dr. Ruggles. Hi, M. Saltana. Hi, Mr. Brown. Hi, Mr. Edinger. Hi, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. Pinnabone. I a resolution introduced by Mr. Edinger approving a contract with Holland Company, Inc. for sodium by sulfite chemicals for the wastewater treatment plant. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded discussion. Roll call. Madam clerk. Dr. Ruggles. I. Miss Sultana. I. Mr. Brown. I. Mr. Edinger. Hi, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. PBone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi.

A resolution introduced by Mr. Edinger approving a contract with Premier Magnesia LLC for magnesium hydroxide chemicals for the wastewater treatment plant. So moved. Second. Moved in second discussion. Roll call. Miss Sultana. I. Mr. Brown. I. Mr. Edinger. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Dr. Rugles. I a resolution introduced by Mr. Edinger approving a contract with JC JCI Jones Chemicals for sodium hypo chloride for the wastewater treatment plant.

So moved. Second. Move the second discussion. Roll call. Mr. Brown. Hi. Mr. Edinger. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Pabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Dr. Ruggles. Hi. Mr. Sultana. Hi. A resolution introduced by Mr. Edinger approving a contract with Polyine, Inc. for Palmer Centrifuge Chemicals for the wastewater treatment plant. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Mr. Edinger. I. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Pabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Dr. Rugles. Hi. Miss Sultana. Hi. Mr. Brown. Hi. To get it fixed tomorrow. A resolution introduced by Mr. Edinger

approving a contract with Paladine Inc. for polymer gravity belt thickener chemicals for the wastewater treatment plant. So move second. Move the second discussion. Roll call. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mrs. Rose. Hi. Dr. Rugles. Hi. Miss Sultana. Hi. Mr. Brown. Hi. Mr. Edinger. I. A resolution introduced by Mr. Edinger approving a contract with Univar Solutions USA LLC for feric chloride chemicals for the wastewater treatment plant. So move second. Second move the second discussion. Roll call. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Miss Rose. Hi. Dr. Ruggles. Hi. Miss Sultana. Hi. Mr. Brown.

Hi. Mr. Edinger. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Um, a resolution um introduced by Mayor Panto approving free daily parking in the North Fourth Street and South Third Street garages. Motion. This was originally scheduled to be a three-hour daily parking and we're going to make it free parking like we have in the past. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call. Miss Rose. I. Dr. Rugles. I Miss Sultana. Hi, Mr. Mr. Brown. Hi, Mr. Edinger. Hi, Mayor Panto. Hi, Mr. Pinone. I

a resolution introduced by Mayor Panto approving an appointment to the authorities, boards, and commissions for the housing authority. So moved. Double second. Moved and second discussion. Roll call. Miss Sultana. I. Mr. Brown. I. Mr. Edinger. Hi. Mayor Pano. Hi, Mr. Pinnabone. Hi, Mrs. Rose. Hi,

Public. Go ahead. No, we're I'm finished. Public comment. Uh, public comment on on any items concerning the city of East. No introduction of bills. Bill number 81. We missed that one. I've missed that. Okay. Bill number 81 introduced um an ordinance amending attachment two of chapter 515 streets and sidewalks. So introduced. Is there a second? All right. Anyone would like to address city council.

I I 144 Church Street East. I just want to say I think it's a wonderful idea. Can you speak into the microphone? Arty, can you speak into the microphone, please?

Sure. Uh, sorry. I think it's a great idea to connect the city council to the housing authority in 1961 or 62. We had a tremendous arguments with the redevelopment authority because they were only giving $100 to the people who lived right in this area to move out of the house. They were totally inept in realizing how much it would cost a person to move. And this was 50 years ago, you know. So, I think it's great that you're connecting. really appreciate you're taking that responsibility, Louis joining that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Arty. Thank you, Luke. [snorts] [clears throat]

Thank you again, Council Mayor. I'll try to keep this brief as I know we all probably want to get home. Um, I do think that it is uh incredibly disappointing that we weren't able to move forward on a yes vote for the welcoming city resolution tonight. Um, I think one comment really stood out to me. Um, by Dr. Rugles. I don't see the big deal in waiting two weeks. Um, yes, because I assume you are a documented citizen and so that wouldn't lead to a big deal for you specifically. We're talking about our undocumented neighbors here. Um, to move a little bit forward uh, off that subject uh, though I don't think we should have tonight. Um, there was another quote from Mr. Pinibone on affordable housing. We are doing it already. Yet everyone this evening was willing to admit that unhoused populations are growing. I don't see how those two things can relate. Uh the bud the budget presentation ended on a warning if you were listening close enough to hear it. It ended stating that we earn fast and that we also spend fast. That having good management going forward would be ensuring that we have a sustainable growth plan to ensure that we will survive rainy days. that after the final luxury building goes up, there needs to be a plan to continue and maintain prosperity for this city. That there is a limit to the quote different population, as the gentleman put it. There is a limit on how much they can lift us up, a limit to the land space available for their luxury units. And that all suggests an inevitable end to the growth we've seen lately. But I'll tell you the answer to that uh to that [clears throat] concern is ensuring the working class can afford to stay. Otherwise, this city will only be affordable to transplants from other places and will no longer be for the East and Red Rovers who have always called this place home. Remember that ensuring the working class can afford to live here ensures that small businesses remain busy throughout the week, not

just on the weekends. It is incumbent on city council planning and zoning not to hammer the nails into wood, but to incentivize and encourage affordable housing through policy. I hear about all of this fast growth, but where is the sustainable growth? Where is the support for workingclass Estonians today to avoid pricing them out of the only place they've known as home? We are discussing policing homelessness rather than preventing it. I speak from a place of more experience than I care to admit and I will undoubtedly speak on this subject here in this room again. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you, Luke. Move to

Okay, we move to adjourn. Go ahead. Turn your microphone on. The next budget meeting where we're going to put my addendum amendments in. What date? The 9th and the 10th. But I'm bringing mine on the n the but the budget hearing will be the ninth nth. Okay. And and lastly, can I at the end of this meeting, can I borrow you and Louis for three minutes, please? Thank you. I need one. Maybe three. Hey, Barry. I mean, Warren. Warren. Warren. All right. All right. Made it. Move the second discussion. Roll call. Miss Rose. Hi. Dr. Ruggles. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Mr. Brown. Hi.