City Council - Regular Meeting

something going on. I told you. How you doing? How you been? Looking well. Thank you.

That's it. You saw me.

Order. Please rise for the invocation followed by the pledge of the flag. Heavenly Father, we seek your oversight as we deliberate the issues of this meeting. Grant us the wisdom to make the right decisions for the right reasons for our residents. It's been a tough week in East. We thank you for sparing lives in the tragic fire at the Hotel Hampton. And we pray for the quick recovery of Wilson Fire Bobby Luellis who was injured in that fire and we're glad to know that he is now recovering at home. We turn to you for comfort and support. Help us differentiate between the flames of destruction and the light that shows us your way. We ask that you watch over the victims of this tragic fire and help them find new shelter. And please, dear Lord, watch over and protect our firefighters, our emergency response men and women who help in this tragedy. Lead us to support those who fight the fires, who care for the displaced, who bring healing to those suffering. We want to thank the volunteers of the Red Cross, the United Way, and the State Theater. As a former president of the theater, I know it was a difficult decision. It will take a lot of extra work by this app to reschedule the show that was postponed and reissue tickets. As our emergency personnel rush to meet the next challenge or fire in this imperfect world of ours, watch over them as they work to keep us protect safe. watch over our firefighters and our police officers who keep us safe and make us a safe city. And finally, we may we slow down enough to cherish those who are trly truly valuable to us. And we ask that you encourage our community to come out to the aid of the victims to assist them in giving them the material items they need to rebuild their lives. We thank you for having Mother Nature go easy on us during the recent snowfall. The storm was not as bad as predicted, but as bad enough. And we also as as Black History Month comes to a close, we want to thank

our local civil rights leaders, Brother Thomas Bright, Claren Ber, Francis Ketchin, Bill Houston, and former council members Bill Houston, and Al Jones. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and truly republic of course stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call. Madam clerk,

Mr. Brown Dennis here. Mr. Pinnabone here. Mr. Graciano here. Mrs. Hartra Biddinger here. Mayor Panto here. Mrs. Rose is absent as well. Mayor approval of the agenda. So move. Second. Move the second. Any additions or deletions? Roll call. Miss Ando Dennis. I. Mr. Pinter. I. Mr. Graziano. Hi. Mrs. Hart Biddinger. I. Mayor Panto. Hi.

Thank you. At this time, we'll have um action on minutes from our February 11th meeting. Motion by pin vote. Second. Second. Any additions or corrections? Roll call. Missando Dennis. I. Mr. Pinter. I. Mr. Graciano. Hi. Mrs. Hart Biddinger. I. Mayor Panto.

Hi. At this time, we have Christian Cooper from the community advocate office of the East Police Department give a presentation. City council question.

Hello. I also have with me um Officer Crossen um he works in conjunction with me a lot of things that we're doing with the community advocate program. Sorry, I have Officer Crossen with me. He's working with me on a lot of the activities that we're doing within the community advocate program. Does he play music for you? [laughter] I mean, I think he should,

you know. Um so essentially um the main goal of the program started out um just working with the victims here in the city, crime victims. Um when I first started, we started out working with the victims of the Ferry Street fire and unfortunately there have been several fires to date that we've, you know, worked with folks on. Um so that's that's kind of wrapped up in there. Um we are also working with folks on social services. I'll get more into like each of these in just a couple minutes. Um, and then working with our homeless and unhoused population within the city. So, as far as the victim advocacy stuff goes, um, essentially a lot of people that end up being a victim of a crime, they have no idea what to expect. Um, in the hours, days after they are victimized, um, there are lots of moving pieces. there are lots of words kind of sent their direction that they don't understand and my goal is to bridge that gap for them and explain to them the process and and that comes you know with with many things and that support I mean just to give give you kind of a picture of what that looks like if for instance someone is going to be walking into a courtroom at the county courthouse I'm going to walk them through what they're going to see as they're walking in the courthouse I'm going to explain to them they're going to walk in the courthouse they're going to go through the security with the sheriff's department I let them know that there's a sheriff there named Tony that he's wonderful. Um, just to ease their mind, I walk them through all the steps and then we're going to sit and wait outside the courtroom and then there's going to be a lot of people that are going to approach you and discuss certain things. Um, and then I walk them into the courtroom what it looks like. So that way they're not walking in for the first time the day that they have to go in for court and be expected to testify blindly in a room where they have no idea what to expect or what parties are sitting where. So we give them that picture. Um, also talk to them

about options that they have as far as support. Do they want to reach out to family members? Do they need help describing their situation to someone? Um, is there support needed for getting a protection from abuse order against the party that um was involved in the crime? Um, all the way through um texting with them. I will get a text randomly from a victim from case that we had in July of 23 just to check in, just to let me know that she's doing all right and her case has wrapped up. Um, but she just wants to share that she's doing all right. And I actually I share that with the officer and the officer loves hearing that too. So I I will say that it is twofold being able to provide that support to the victims and then being able to follow up at the end once the case is wrapped up so that the officers see what that looks like at the end that hey this person made it out. They survived. they are doing really well and things are looking up for them. Um, we keep track of I have a system that I use in the office called casebook. It is software that allows me to track all the case management that's being done and keep it separate from the police information systems. Um, that way I can document everything that is pertinent to that individual so I can help support them. um that program gives us the availability to provide data back on the back end. So we are able to say that for instance if you look at recidivism um on calls for service regarding victims that I work with within the first 90 days after the date of that crime we only have about 19% having an additional call for service for the police. um we have 81% that are that do not need to call police again within that first 90 days. So that's a significant amount of people that aren't having follow-up

calls with the police for various things because we've helped get those needs addressed. Um we also get people connected with the local services as far as Turning Point and Crime Victims Council. Um we kind of do what I call a warm handoff. I explained to them that you will meet with these people and this is the time you're going to meet with them at court and it's a warm handoff because they provide further services than I can provide. So I explain to them that there will be this handoff and I trust this person and you can trust them too. As far as the social services, um, it's really broad. Um, and that's pretty much anything and everything that someone may call police for that's not an actual crime. So, is that a mental health concern, some type of family issue where there's a dispute in the house or there's a child welfare need or an aging need, um, substance abuse, disability, medical needs, um, anything that folks might even Maybe they call police or they have police contact over a parking issue, but they let officers know, hey, I'm having this other situation. If it's something that I can try to help them troubleshoot, that's that's where I'll make follow-up contacts with folks with with those needs. Um, I partner with a lot of the local community service organizations, the local hospitals, um, and other similar programs. So there are similar programs in Bethlehem and Allentown and we work in conjunction because a lot of folks that we tend to see um have either previously lived in in other cities or have family and intend to go to other cities. So we try to work together so there's a continuity of care for folks. Um just a snapshot of some of the services provided are are also here. Um we do help with transportation. We screen folks for services. So, we'll have conversations to see what additional supports we can

get them connected with. Um, team meetings. I'll also help with um childline and adult protection referrals as needed to make sure that the vulnerable pop vulnerable populations are appropriately covered with with care um and corresponding with the officers as needed. So um the same thing like looking at recidivism for social services needs. It's it's also a little bit difficult to capture but we capture that by looking at the individual that I intervene with and that person. We look at them and see how many calls for service they've had to police in the 90 days prior to me making contact with them. And then we look at that number 90 days after I have worked with them and we've had some success. Um, and you'll see like just looking at the mental health, the average number of calls for individuals is two calls in 90 days. We have it down to one on average. So, um, we're definitely showing the ability to be able to kind of help people combat some of the needs before they become problems. And then, um, we also myself and officer Cross and Officer Crossen [clears throat] really helps me out with this. Um, we do what we can to help our folks that are unhoused in the city. Um, also using the program I mentioned, casebook, it allows us to do the case management for for folks in there. Um, which gives us the availability to gather information on the amount of contacts that we are able to have with folks to build rapport and relationships with them. Um also the outcomes um once once we close them out in the program, whether they are housed, where they are at. Um it also gives us the the

availability to gather information on folks that go into treatment and folks that unfortunately get arrested for their acts. So just another quick snapshot of what our information that we were able to gather end of the year kind of numbers um and the folks we were able to get into treatment for 2025 um about 40 people. So that's pretty awesome. um and 610 encounters, which means officers ha and myself had 610 encounters with various folks in the city to try and offer them help and get them support. Um it also gives us the availability to track it over time so that way we can collect information on if we see a spike, if something's going on. Um, for instance, with the fire, we expect that there are now we have some people that need we need to help support them um so that they don't end up not having a place to stay. So, um when we're gonna officer cross is just going to touch on some of this stuff and then I can give also an update on the folks that were impacted by the fire too.

Thank you, Christian. I'm sorry. He wants me to go back. Sorry.

I'm Officer Cross. So my job in this whole thing is I'm boots on the ground with it. I'm the one that goes out every day seeking people out because I want to put eyes on everyone, right? Because if you're going over the same thing over and over and over again, the same area, I pretty much cover just this downtown area. And because I'm always in the downtown area, I recognize faces. So I meet people. I go out and I make the relationships with everybody so I can find out why they're here, how they got here, what are their immediate needs. There's so many people that we're finding that you could just see you you end up having complete relationships with till they'll tell us about, oh, the new guy just came in. He's not actually staying here. He's from over in Philipsburg, but he comes over every three days. So, we get a lot of information like that. If you're looking at this graph, what we use is if you see the blue line is our pretty much our steady actually sleeping on the ground somewhere in the city at any point. Now that changes at the end of the month, the end of the month, but that blue line that goes across, if you notice, it's pretty straight, right? And that's our that's we hope to keep is just that number just kind of going. The ne the next one you see is the orange one, which is like transient. So people that aren't necessarily from East, from Phil, from Bethlehem. One big thing I want to point out with that is a lot of people you guys see in the community you guys do sitting in the circle or sitting down in the parks. A lot of people call a homeless guy. He's sleeping in the park. He's sleeping in here. They're not. as you guys saw when when the Hampton emptied out and we have people all over in low-income single room apartments that could appear homeless. They're not right. So, our numbers are actually really, really well for the area. Our transient numbers,

people coming. The big thing is we have three bridges, right? We had a prison, we have social security, we have welfare. So, we're always drawing. We're always going to have more and more coming in. So, the of us being able to work with it is we can identify it pretty quickly and get them what they need. Um the other one, the gray one, is usually like at some point when we discharge it from ours and we know they're no longer sleeping on the street here, we haven't seen them in a while, then we'll put them in that category. Uh that's the biggest thing that I do is I make the relationships with everybody. They all know my name. I know where to find them all. I'm on the railroad tracks or in the woods riding a bike everywhere I can find them to find where they are so that we can identify what their needs are. And sometimes they have needs and sometimes they don't. They're just here.

Just want to real quick, I say this every time he he explains this. So, Officer Cross and I, we do speak um with new officers at with the county CIT trainings that they do, which is the crisis intervention trainings. And every time we kind of discuss this slide and officer Crossen talks about building a relationship with folks, I just want to really just say that the relationships that I see him build with individuals is amazing. Um, we have individuals I I I'll never forget, we were on a call helping a man get into rehab and they asked who his emergency contact was and he said officer crossing.

Um they will outright tell you that like they trust him and he is their friend and that that that level of relationship and support. That's what's needed to help people and help them improve their situation is to really um know them and understand. So it also gives us the ability to know when something's wrong because if you're you're going out and you're talking to people every single day, if I come out and every Every single day I see I ask if you need help or you need to go to treatment or do you need this? They don't they don't want to hear it every day.

But after you build a relationship, you can see when okay, his behavior or her behavior has now changed. Now is when I'm going to start really pushing that with her to see if we can help people out. And they may go in for a week and come right back out. And then we're just going to try to keep doing it. And that's the the hustle is just to try to keep keep pushing it whether we can do it or not. And and I mean to that end um it doesn't stop with with getting them to a treatment facility. Officer Crossen will drive them to wherever their facility is if they're not comfortable taking the Uber that's provided by by the the the service. Um but we will also follow up. We have an individual that calls Officer Crossing multiple times a week to give him updates on his life and he's housed and he lives elsewhere now. Um and that's those are just, you know, examples. Um, but it's definitely about the relationships that that he is able to build in that position. Um, and making those very frequent contacts with folks. Okay. So, as far as the the Hampton the Hampton fire, I do have something that I can share out. Um, I spoke with Chief Hings earlier today. Um, and I understand he was unable to make it. Um, Mary, you beat me to it. The the firefighter is doing well. He was discharged. He is home recovering. Um, and you know, he knows that he is in he is in everyone's thoughts and prayers right now, not just in East, but in the Lehigh Valley. He's got everybody's backing. Um, I've seen a ton of fundraisers and things cropping up for him. So, I definitely would encourage people to support those if we can. Um the update that I can give you is um at this point we have identified 40 of 40 people from the Hampton that are in

need of services and we are working to connect them with those services. Um we've identified about 25 people from buildings surrounding the Hampton that are going to need some support for some time. So we're getting them connected with some services. Um, as of right now, there are 35 people kind of stably staying in the shelter the last couple nights. Um, as we've seen before, sometimes the Red Cross shelter will kind of dip off, but then you'll have people come back in. So, it's just kind of one of those things that we're going to we're going to hold out and and try and get people some support. Um, the Red Cross has been wonderful, the partners have been wonderful, everybody in the community has been wonderful stepping up with all of the support. Um, it's been incredible. Um, but one thing that we are doing, we're partnering with the city and the county and the state to have what's called a multi- agency resource center for the individuals involved. Um, some of you may have seen this flyer. It came out today. Um, we will be having this event at the gallery at the state theater. It's going to be on Friday from 3 to 8 and then also on Saturday from 9 to 2. and we would invite any individual impacted by the fire to come out and we can help you with resources. Um there's a list of the partners that will be there. We should be able to work on getting um documents replaced, whether it's a license, a birth certificate, those types of things, get those replaced and then help get people connected to any services they might need and get some housing services and hopefully get these people on the path to recovery. Um, it's been just shy of a week. So, we really want to see what we can do pulling everybody together in one place to help them as fast as we can. And that that is all I have.

Chris, there there also will be legal services as well from North Pen Legal Services and a question. [clears throat] First, Kristen and Officer Carlson. I just want to thank you guys for what you've been doing since this position um which the mayor uh and and the city created, [clears throat] but and I know what you guys do. We've talked all the time about people I see and you already know who they are and what their needs are. But I watched you Friday at the fire, both of you, uh inside and the way you interacted with the people, the compassion, the care, they really could feel that it wasn't just your job, that you really cared. Um and watching you guys interact with the people at their most lowest time was just amazing. So, so thank you, you know, for doing that. Um, if we could rewind back to the stat you put on on homelessness, um, you gave us great graphs and it's very easy to understand, but for the people at home and maybe even people here, if you could break it down a little further. So, I was I was a little disappointed on Sunday. I received an email, a Facebook message from a a woman from Makanji or Mayas or someone somewhere who just really was upset with the city because she comes to East and her group feeds 150 Eastn homeless people twice a week and that's the only meal they get and you know we don't do anything for these home 150 homeless people. Now, we saw the numbers, but can you explain why anybody who who who comes to feed and helps out, which we appreciate, why there might be 150 there. Um, uh, and also, could you speak to the different organizations in the city that are I know people that need food, whether they're unhoused or low income, there's somewhere in East like seven days a week to to get a meal. Um, and this year, uh, we added the

church on Burberry Street. So now they have a place to sleep at night at the winter seven days a week. Could you just touch on that for the the people here that might not know as well as online?

Yeah, absolutely. So there is a flyer accessible if you just Google Eastn Food Pantries. It's a flyer. They keep it really up to date and I I forget off the top of my head who organizes that, but that's really accurate. Um Safe Harbor Provides Meals Project of East has the food pantry. Um I I didn't bring the list with me, but there are just so many. Um I can absolutely get it together and send it to you, but there is pretty much every day of the week there is a meal at somewhere at some point in the city. Um I know Saturday nights Cornerstone Church has a church service and a meal. Um Safe Harbor, I'm just trying to think off the top of my head, Project of East, the drop-in center. Um there are a ton of established services within the city that are providing services to to the folks in need. Um as far as the the the number you had referenced um is actually I think it's a more of a greater east as I understand it. That um organization was helping folks in Wilson which was helping folks in the city. Um, but I don't necessarily think that it was all Eastston folks included in that information.

Well, it's also people who may be not homeless, but they're poor. And if they can get a free meal, I mean, we do Project Hope dinner every year at Christmas time. Dr. Walker and his wife Judy. Um, and there's 350 people there twice. There's two sittings at 700 people. We don't have 700 homeless people, but we have 700 poor people.

Right. and and that's that's definitely something to consider. And also, I mean, looking at the situation with the Hampton, we have a lot of folks right now, especially right now, that are displaced that were very incredibly low income to begin with. Um, and they they may barely make it by to pay rent and need support with food. There is a lot of food insecurity right now. And it's not just in the eastern community. It's in the whole Lehigh Valley. It's in the whole country. Unfortunately, it's it it it's a problem bigger sort of than our our city and and it really is. Um, but there are resources, there are groups, and we are happy to get folks connected when we can. Um, we we do the absolute best we can to get everyone connected. Um, but I think that we can very confidently tell you that we are going out and talking to people and we know who's actually sleeping outside and who might just be very low income. Um, someone had brought to my attention, well, they must be homeless because they're carrying all their bags. So, I did want to just make it a point to point that out that some folks do struggle with other issues, maybe mental health issues, and they're not comfortable leaving their bags wherever they're staying for whatever reason, whether they don't feel that their belongings would be safe or they're living in a rooming house and they're afraid they're going to lose something. So you may see folks that are by maybe perception would appear to be homeless that actually are house they're just very low income and you know would benefit from support and that's that's what we're trying to do.

A lot of it too is like all the places we just spoke about they got to get them home somehow. So when we see them and they have 10 bags of stuff in their hands that's stuff they just got right from the pantry or from the shelter bag of clothes all that stuff. They just got to take to where they're staying. So, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're homeless. Just means they have to step. That's true. Good job,

Officer Crossen. I don't want to put you on the spot, but how many of those homeless people are from other areas brought to us by their police department? I saw I personally witnessed the state police from New Jersey dropping people off in our parking garage right behind. the last one I've heard of actually being dropped off. I was notified of that one pretty quickly. Caught. That's the last one we caught. Yeah, that's the last one we caught. I just wondering I know the biggest problem we have is that Warren County has no services.

No, that's a big issue. And they just for the first time I believe this winter they had two nights of a warming shelter which did help us when it was really bad, really cold here. But that's another problem that we have is that there's nothing over there. for warming shelters, for stable shelters like safe harbor, for feeding, for everything. So, it's a small community. Everybody knows we need to do that. They just walk across the bridge and that's an issue we're going to have. I know Warren County's been trying to do something on their side to alleviate our burden as far as that goes. But, officer, I I believe that Warren County does provide some funding to Safe Harbor.

I know I [clears throat] understand that as well. county. Great job. Great job. You guys are doing a good job. And I and I mean that because I see the homeless people who tell me that you're doing a good job. So if it's coming from them, like Mr. Pinbone said, that's really important. Absolutely. We see the police and I congratulate the chief um and the captain. you're running a good ship because we don't just arrest people and shoot people and beat people up anymore. We also take care of them and that's really important. We're much more compassionate. Yes.

Thank you. Okay. Next on the agenda is public comment on agenda items only. If it's on the agenda, you can talk about it. There is a space at the end of the meeting to um talk about any objects concerning the city of e just one second.

Oh my god, I broke it. No, it falls in.

Okay, sorry. [clears throat] Um hello everyone. Luke downtown. Um, I just wanted to offer a, you know, point of potential suggestion. Uh, when we are, uh, discussing unhoused populations, it could be, uh, dehumanizing to call them homeless. I believe that right now they call Easton their home. Um, so just keeping that in mind going forward, um, as representatives of those of those individuals. Um, and I think my only other comment that I wanted to make um, is loosely related to the agenda, so pardon me if it's not entirely written in. Uh but as a resident of the 400 block of Northampton Street, I was horrified to witness the fire and subsequent destruction of the buildings in my neighborhood uh last week. Um it is solely due to the heroes from the many different local fire departments that we were able to avoid an even worse situation. Um I want to extend a sincere debt of gratitude on behalf of my city uh to all of those first responders, most specifically Bobby Luis uh from Wilson Burough. Uh he displayed zero regard for city borders and fought for the survival of eastern residents as if they were his own neighbors. I also wish to extend [clears throat] a thank you uh to the Red Cross and the United Way as they have been first in line uh to the response of this devastating event and for those impacted. Um I know neighbors, friends, acquaintances, and in the last week I've been crossed paths with strangers who are deeply impacted by this fire. uh and they will need us to stand behind them for a while and I am confident we will. Um specifically um Councilman Frank Rajano and uh Councilwoman uh Xando Dennis um uh have displayed quite a prominent uh position in doing that work and I want to extend a thank you to both of you as well as many other council members have been doing also. Finally, um I am proud to be a member of this community because we stand up for our neighbors. Um,

this is probably the shakiest my voice has ever been, and I don't know if I'm just feeling it or if it's being heard, but um, I saw many businesses and individuals putting out calls to action for donations to ensure that immediate needs were met. Uh, it shows that one or two of us don't need to do it all uh because many hands make light work. I myself am unable to do much financially, but I ran through my house to fill a spare backpack with any supplies I had on hand to donate uh at a local business uh doing drop offs uh which was house planted in the east eastern public market. Um I have felt incredibly powerless in the last week uh to do anything to help my neighbors. Um I have felt the fear living in a historic building myself uh while I am away uh what might happen. Um but I but I will tell you I felt less powerless by doing my incredibly small part. Uh it felt like I was able to be a part of a larger hole uh which could have been um which could have a bigger impact than I ever could alone. Um I view this as the Eastn Way and this is the uh the reason I am proud to call this city my home. Um and uh I hope that going forward we can remember that uh we are now down a a rooming house. Uh and and so therefore as a body we need to look at options for public housing. Um at the very least another rooming house uh some way that the city can influence that. Um but also we need to invest in public housing that will allow these people to have a home to return to um and so that they don't need to cross paths um with the uh you know citizen advocate. Um so thank you for letting me share my comments even though they are loosely attended um or tied to the agenda.

Just to let you know, Luke, we did talk about the need for another SRO in the near future.

Certainly. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We talked about it today at the staff meeting. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll move on in the agenda. Consent agenda. Madam clerk. Um, mayor, we have eight resolutions uh for certificates of appropriateness for the following addresses. 16 Center Square 349-51 Northampton Street 501-03 Northampton Street 219 Ferry Street 26 North 6th Street 37 North 5th Street 441-43 Northampton Street 158-63 Northampton Street we also have a resolution recognizing the city's designation as a soul Smart Silver Community.

I move set agenda with one question to Karen. Karen on letter H. Uh you said 158 to 163. I have 157. 157. I'm sorry. Okay. No problem. I just want to make sure. Consent. Move to consent. Move the consent. Is there a second? There's a second. Roll call. [clears throat] I just like to to tell council that 501503 is our property. That's the hooper house. [clears throat]

I I also would just to like like to add that the souls smart silver designation is from the energy ready and soul smart program supported by the US department of energy international city county management association and interstate renewable energy council. Thank you. Thank you Brandon. I know you you've been very involved in that. No he was here. He left early. Okay. Missando Dennis. I Mr. Pinter. Hi. Mr. Graziano. Hi. Miss Hartra. Mrs. Hart. Biddinger. I. And Mayor Panto. Hi.

On to reports. There. No reports received by council. So, we'll move right into committee reports. Mr. Brown is uh not here tonight. He's at a playoff game, high school basketball game. Economic development. Mr. Pinnabone. Thank you, mayor. I have a couple things to report on today. First, starting with economic development, some uh community activities and events. Um, the department attended the February historic district commission meeting and received approval on the stabilization wooper house, completed planning with the Northampton County and Lehi SBDC for the next taste of food industry event to be held on June 16th from 8:30 to 10:30 at the quadrant here on Third Street. Um, and it's going to teach people how to scale their food business, navigate licensing and regul regulations, profitability and pricing strategies, marketing, branding, and managing supply chains. The department also completed planning in the initial draft of the guidelines for the 2026 outdoor dining program. The department expects to present the program to council on March 10th at a committee meeting. They also began planning with the Lehigh Valley Chamber for our annual commercial real estate and familiarization tour. It will be held on June 11th from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will involve approximately a half dozen available commercial properties in the city. Uh some grants we applied for AARP Community Challenge for Eddyside Park Pavilion renovations for $15,000 and PENDOT MTF 611 South pedestrian improvements for $565,885. Additionally, we closed out um the marquees rack P uh um application and

meetings attended. The department participated in the blueprint community steering and committee meetings, attended the monthly Main Street economic vitality committee meeting. Uh and the department held the first of several strategic planning sessions with the staff. Uh mayor, a few updates I have. Um, while we were freezing and shoveling, you were enjoying warm weather uh this past couple days, but mayor, and I know you heard it from your staff and and Dave Hopkins is here, but our DPW uh crews did an amazing job. Um, they did.

Cars actually were all moved on on uh snow emergency route, so they were able to get all the way to the curb. They just did a a great job. And you know, I I hosted them for lunch yesterday uh just to show our appreciation, but I I I want people to remember when they're out plowing and and they're doing things that a lot of people don't want to do in the weather. and the stories that we heard. And Chief Scows, I know you were aware, we have plow truck drivers that get shovels thrown at them, chairs thrown at them, threaten to shoot them, threaten to kill them because they're plowing down the street. If you come back down the street again, we're going to shoot you, we're going to do this, you're going to do that. Um, they don't deserve that and we're a better community than that. So, if everybody could please be mindful that they're doing the best they can. Uh, and they did a great job this past week. Um, mayor, I also want to uh congratulate and welcome Michelle back. Michelle, you're always at our meetings. You always show up at community events and you had a medical procedure and you were a little emotional talking to him and you made me emotional, so we're not going to do that anymore. Well, we're so glad that you're back and you're healthy and um we look forward to seeing you and you giving us a hard time for for a long time to come. [laughter]

Mayor, that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Pinone. I just want to uh say that um we don't have the final numbers, but Mr. Hopkins did a memo and we spent about $66,000 so far of our budget on the on the previous three three storms. Three storms. Um, and I wasn't in warm area. It was cold in Florida. It was very cold. Matter of fact, I was lucky I took my winter jacket. Um, so we move on to planning and coach committee. She's not here, but I have it. You have the report?

I do. Uh, Councilwoman Rose is actually on vacation and she planned to be on the meeting via the phone, but her flights were delayed, so she's leaving Denver on a plane right now, so she couldn't get on. Her zoning update, a special hearing by the East Zoning Hearing Board will be held this Thursday evening, 2:26 at 6 p.m. right here at city hall for the proposed 70 North Fourth Street mixeduse building. The meeting is open to the public to attend and will also be livereamed on the city's YouTube channel. her planning update. The Eastn Planning Commission will hold its monthly meeting on Wednesday, March the 4th at 6 PM at the third floor uh city hall council chambers right here. The meeting is open to the public to attend and will also be live streamed on the city's YouTube channel. She's also finalizing an ordinance update for data centers and also working with something to address detention centers. She hopes to have an update at our next council meeting. Additionally, she has scheduled a discussion regarding developer garage parking permit agreements at the March 10th committee meeting. Uh she has heard from many concerned residents, which I think we all have, regarding this issue. And she implores everyone who has concerns to attend the meeting. Mayor, that is her report. But there's one other thing I was asked to share in my report and I forgot. I got this from uh Julie Van Ozdul of GDP, Eastern Main Street Initiative. You know, we talk a lot about the residents that were displaced by the fire on uh Friday and you know, a lot of businesses were as well. So, East and Main Street Initiative is hosting a walk up the block party from 12 to 2 uh this Saturday on the 400 block of Northampton Street. And they're looking to bring the energy back to downtown East. The shops will be open, restaurants are popping up, there will be music, balloons, smiles, and most importantly, our wonderful community. Stop by and support your favorites like Second Base,

Vintage, Hometown Pet Shop, Angel's House of Design, Homegrown Cafe, and more. Uh these businesses were the ones that were impacted by the fire uh last week. And let's remind everyone what makes East Downtown East so amazing. We show up for each other. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder. We're resilient. So, I'm going to have this on my page. That's from Julie at East and Main Street. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Pinbone. Uh, public safety, Mr. Councilman Graciano.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, first I'd like to thank and give recognition to the East Fire Department for the response to last Friday's fire. Um, our firefighters put their lives on the line, and I'm grateful East has a professional fire department cap capable of protecting the city the way that they do. Additional thanks goes out to all the surrounding fire departments who assisted with essential essential mutual aid as well as Eastn Police, EMS, Northampton County 911 and emergency management. I would also like to thank the state theater uh for opening their doors to shelter more than 40 displaced residents during the fire. The Red Cross and our community advocate work quickly to identify those affected, provided immediate support, and coordinated shelter the same night. All around this was a phenomenal response from everyone involved and again well done. Uh once the fire was under control the focus quickly shifted to the residents who were displaced. As of the last update uh which was mentioned earlier 35 individuals are still staying at Alumni Hall shelter. Case management is ongoing and housing remains a significant challenge given the limited availability locally. Efforts are underway to find housing solutions and we're continuing to work to ensure all displaced residents are accounted for. And finally, I'd like to thank the community. We had numerous local businesses step up to provide meals and organize donation drives for the displaced residents. We also saw many residents contribute directly through these drives and with monetary donation donations. The willingness of this community to step up during a crisis is something I believe we should all be proud of. And that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Garziano. And thank you to all that you thanked, including the State Theater. The State Theater um I was just invited to be their speaker at the 100th anniversary. The State Theater is 100 years old. No, I wasn't president 100 years ago. I was president 20 years ago. Um, public works, Miss Jul Zando Dennis. I got it right. You did. Thank you so much. Thank you, mayor. [clears throat]

Uh, I want to begin by saying that I'll be forwarding three resolutions uh during the new business section. Um about two weeks ago, less than two weeks, uh I had a tour of the public's works garage with David Hopkins. Thank you, David. Um and thank you also to the public works department for their great job in the snow removal. Um, I also had a lengthy discussion with Dave Hopkins about snow removal procedures really having to do with the first snow where we had very low temperatures afterwards and freezing which made snow removal very difficult. I wanted to ask him some questions that had come up on social media about alternatives um to handle snow removal [clears throat] especially in our crowded uh streets especially the west ward and uh David was very um accommodating and we talked for about two hours about that. I I can tell you um there aren't a lot of easy solutions so more on that uh later. I met uh about a week ago with Lisa Buscola um about the flock about potentially supporting a flock privacy bill or privacy bill that would address uh license plate readers. She was actually very receptive. She didn't know a lot about the issue and she listened. And [clears throat] there is a uh current privacy bill before the state senate having to do with consumer privacy and she's investigating whether or not there could be amendment to that bill. Turning to the fire. Um, first of all, I

want to thank all of you who donated at the clo clothing drives held at Paxinosa Elementary the following day, [clears throat] at Platinum Star Cleaning, and at House Planet. Um, we were able to within the first 24 hours supply, uh, fire victims with their I would call emergency needs, their first 24-hour needs. Some people had uh left their buildings with no shoes or socks. Uh so we were able to no coats and things like that. So we were able to provide some of those essential um clothing. Uh we then sort of turned a little bit to more general soft support. And when I say we, uh it's me, Frank Graziano, and a core group of volunteers. Uh those volunteers will be identified at a later meeting. um they shift a little bit but there are a few people in particular I would like to um uh to shout out and I'll do that at at another meeting. So that that core group um have been going to the shelter on a regular basis a couple times a day uh meeting with the shelter residents trying to ascertain their needs bringing additional clothing as needed and also that the population shifts. Some people find a place to go u with their f family or friends and other people come uh learning about the shelter. um at the shelter, the Red Cross is essentially running it and supervising it. And I just want to let people know there are people from Pittsburgh uh who are volunteering with the Red Cross at the shelter. Uh four members of the Red Cross came from Pittsburgh one evening and they're staying in a hotel. And so it's really a kind of remarkable organization.

Now, I want to really turn to the population, and I want to do this uh for a couple reasons. U one is just to let the general public know a little bit more about the shelter victims um or shelter residents. But also, um on social media, I I did see one post uh in the aftermath of the fire that just said, "Well, you know, so what? They're addicts." And I I do want to address uh uh maybe perhaps some people's general perception of who was living in in those uh residences. First of all, uh a number of people are over 65. So there are uh they're low income uh may have very limited social security and over 50 65. Um, a number of those have some disabilities, walk with a cane or serious illnesses, um, which I I won't describe, but suffice it to say, um, a vulnerable population. There are under 65 people with disabilities. Many uh people under 65 actually have jobs and uh some of them actually were going to and from their jobs while staying at the shelter. Um and some are looking forward to returning to their jobs once they have uh more stability. So there they're under 65 folks and their jobs are low-income jobs. So um they were grateful to have uh a SR type housing situation. uh that they could afford. Um there are some under 65 with uh with disabilities. Um some uh physical and some mental health uh disabilities. There's one woman who

is seven months pregnant and there's a very very young adult uh not a teenager but a very young adult who really shouldn't be shouldn't have been you know at an SRO in the first place and certainly shouldn't be in the aftermath of a fire at a shelter. So um I wanted to say that there is one of all the people that I've met and I can tell you it's been a privilege to to meet and to work with the people at the shelter. Um they're really fine folk. Um and they're doing the best they can. Um of all of those, there's only one person that I'm aware of who has a sub substance abuse problem. Um and he came right up to me and said, "I want to go into rehab." And then when I came back the following day, he asked me if I checked in up on his uh attempt to try to enter a rehab. So he's working hard. um to move away from his uh substance addiction. So, those are the residents. Um they need our help and I I thank all of you who have already helped by donating to our donation drives in the United Way. Um as Kristen said, there'll be a multi- agency resource center event on Friday and Saturday where the folks can come and and get kind of centralized help. Finally, uh there there will be downtown fundraising events both for the businesses that were impacted and also I understand I'm not involved in that. Um but there are also additional fundraisers to try to uh fund raise for money a clothing soft support and um and I'm sure you'll hear about more about that later. So, thank you for your time. Thank you, Julie. Um, administration

committee, Mrs. Hartra Bner Bineer,

I just want to say once again, like everyone here, uh, to thank the community, the fire department, EMS, police in our community, for helping those all affected by this fire. I also like to give a shout out to the Eastern Area School District for allowing the shelter to open up at Paxinosa. We really do appreciate that. along with uh Northampton Community College. They have also uh been involved in in housing of uh these individuals. So I'd like to thank them also. Uh what I have to say uh is not much. We are looking to hire police officers and if anybody's interested, there's about uh four uh officer openings approximately. So the city is taking applications. Uh they are due by March 20th, 2026. And if you have any questions, please uh take a look at our website. Thank you.

Thank you. Um Attorney Shear, solicitor's report. Uh thank you. I have no report tonight. Wow. Report of the mayor. Thank you.

Um I'd like to say follow up on the police applications. We have 12 full applications and 72 quick applications for a total of 84 which is very very good. This you know not many people are becoming police officers and that's a shame because we need their services. Um we are a much safer city because of our police department. Um well the the quick application is just not all the information. It's part of the information and in the HR department. Um, Estelle feels very confident about it because she's gotten back emails that she sent to them and gotten back emails from people. Usually the quick applications we don't get. There's really not a lot of interest, but there's been strong interest in the applications process this year. Um, the Lynen project right next door, 73 condominiums. Uh, I I I was in the sales center today and it's really beautiful in the Wells Fargo building on the corner of Center Square and I know you may not believe this, but the penthouse on the top floor had a bidding war and the bidding war went over for over a million dollars. A million dollars people wanted to live downtown. So, that's pretty interesting. And today I heard she told me that the sales representative told me they have 13 already sold under contract. So that's really good. We're glad to hear that. And we're also glad that it's a condominium project, not an apartment complex. We we apartments are fine, but owner occupied downtown is much better. Um tomorrow night's hearing on the uh the other building is 70 North Fourth Street. Uh that building is the zoning

special zoning hearing board meeting tomorrow night. And um also want to mention that the state of the city will be given I'll give that on March 11th, the same night that we swear in our new firefighters. Our fire I mean our new police officers. Our police officers that went through the academy will be sworn in publicly that day. They were sworn in by me already. Um, and I believe that the five new officers will be they're going through field training right now and they're done. Chief, this week, next week,

23rd of March. So, we're we're looking forward to that. And, um, I just want to make sure that everybody under here knows tonight we are making an agreement with aquatic facility design for feasibility and assessment services at Eastside and Hy. And I just want to remind everybody that Hild Pool will be closed indefinitely until it's restored. And that's the end of my report. Reporter, City Mer, Mr. Campos,

just Mayor and Council, I have a few items that I just want to bring to your attention. Um, I certainly don't want to overlap what everyone else has said um about the uh the fire and um there will be a followup, a more detailed followup in future meetings on certainly acknowledging all the individuals um that assisted um with the the uh with the fire um last Friday. Um but importantly there were also here in city hall um while the administration um uh was still operating um in city hall the power went out actually we had a loss of power to about 3,500 residents. Um and I I do want to acknowledge the city hall employees for keeping city hall open and still working with um with with uh with the public. Uh the other thing is is that um and this is going to come out in a debrief. We did learn a lot um from this fire more than just the the fire since the power outage affected the downtown and that's something to be discussed. I I do want to want to let um council know that internally we're we're reviewing our procedures um in terms of what happens when the power does go out. a mass blackout like we had on Friday. If you weren't aware, um there was about a two-hour blackout in the downtown. Um and that just added to the severity of what was going on on Northampton Street when

And explain why why they Med turned it off. Well, um energized fire truck.

Med turned it off in terms of a safety precaution. it was coming from uh the department um because there was an energized fire truck on top of the manhole in which um the power switch it was located. Um so that being said there there had to be a um a more forceful uh turning off of the power um if you will. Um but once that was resolved within two hours we were able to get um most of the city back up and running with power. um communication was sent out but again we'll discuss this at a later time um sometime after the uh Ferry Street um fire and that was about this the time that um Kristen Cooper had started um so deployment of her services weren't as organized as they were this time around so to speak because she had just started um but after the Ferry Street um fires like with within a year uh we had a uh community um get together of um all of the stakeholders like the different agencies um to talk um about uh the Ferry Street Fire as a case study and what we do with regards to the mark um as well as some other topics. Um it's while I I'm noting that I I I want to say that we're better prepared today to deal with um a larger scale fire than we were in the past um because we're more cognizant of um the issues that can happen um with regards to bringing in multiple agencies. Um, if anything, as the mayor had discussed, this was a good example how uh multiple municipalities can cooperate together um to uh focus on a disaster. Um so I I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention. There'll be more followup um in the

future from the administration. Couple other things. Um the uh the administration signed a memorandum of understanding um or agreement rather with St. John's uh for the parking lot. Um so similar to the social security lot, the um the St. John's parking lot will be open to the public after 5:00 pm um until about 8 a.m. and then on the weekends with limited time on uh Sundays uh because of their worship uh services. Um I I make I'm bringing that to your attention because together with the social security lot that is close to um 125 spots. So that's 125 spots during these peak hours of state theater times when there's a rush of um patrons coming into town and and it swells up the parking in the garages and then certainly in the metered spaces. we'll be able to divert um at least 125 spots from the garage to these parking lots, keeping those spaces open for our monthly parkers. This is on top of the special monthly passes, monthly uh excuse me, the special monthly parking space only um spots that we have put up in the garage and we put up about 30. um this will help us control a little bit better um the situation that we have during state theater night. So, there's more to come with that and I know we're going to talk about it at a at a future committee meeting. So, I just wanted to bring that to your attention. We'll be marketing that uh when they when that gets up and running. Um one item that came to my attention that's important, mayor, that I I talked to you about it today, you signed off on it. um and that is the uh the Bureau of Elections has um asked us to host the next um election um for and specifically a a polling place downtown um here in

city hall. So I wanted to bring that to your attention that we signed off on that um agreement. There's really no choice. uh we had to sign off on it and that's because if if you recall the um other polling location was on Spring Garden Street um and that the church has been uh purchased and as a result of the purchase and the work that they're going to do there that that is no longer um a valid polling place. So uh the Bureau of Elections reached out to city to the city and um as a result we're going to have the uh a polling location here um There is a grievance that is currently um at my desk, mayor, that um I would like to talk to uh council at a future executive in a a future meeting in an executive session. So, and that's as much as I'm going to say to that.

Maybe we'll we'll do it on the 10th. Okay. Well, maybe the the 10th or the 11th. Sounds like everyone's going to be here. Um it's your call. Um and then lastly, I as I had said, by the way, the St. John's and St. St. John's social security and social security that's worth $5 million if we had to build a garage for 125.

It's about $30,000 a spot, right? Yep. Um, mayor, the last thing, uh, oh well, two two final things. Number one is the two-year budget. We're not we're not going to discuss it tonight. First of all, I didn't realize that some of our council members couldn't make it. Um, but Mark's not here. He's not feeling well. So, we're just going to have it at at the next possible meeting, probably the next committee meeting. Um, and then the last thing I I do want to give a shout out to uh the Frank um Pinabone and and all the council members. I mean, I know you you all been helping with um as I said, connecting the dots and trying to help out wherever we can with within our abilities. Um but Frank, I want to thank you. You were there on site during the day of the um of the fire. I know I reached out to you. You were giving me critical information as I was trying to troubleshoot here. um at city hall and um I know that you went to bat for the firefighters. You bought I don't know how many pizzas and were giving out water. Um and I know it it was um it was it it was wellreceived um uh so I wanted to say thank you to you for that. Um and also on on behalf of the city, you had went out and visited um firefighter Luellis. Um so thank you for that. I tried to go out there on on Monday but I was unable to go in there. Um but uh nevertheless

I tried to go out today but he was home. He was home, right? Yeah. So I know on behalf of the city address at home on behalf of the city, Frank did represent us and he went out there. Um so I do appreciate that um on behalf of the administration. Um I think the one the other thing is mayor while you're gone um I know that um Frank generally speaking Councilman Pinabone um is designated uh the um vice mayor on council right and and external related items um the charter says that the city administrator is the then you were the deputy the deputy mayor so we both were working together during this time period

um while you were um away and you know this um I signed off on a disaster declaration which is a formal piece. It's administrative in order to get the ball rolling so to speak with the county uh and the other agencies to get uh funds into um uh the uh the victims etc either the businesses with the SBA or um specifically whatever whatever pots of monies there are out there for for assistance. So, I just wanted council to know that while the mayor is not here um administratively, I can sign off um for the mayor and those were one of the actions that I took while the mayor was not here. So, I I have that that power to sign on his behalf. But um I think that's the only action that we took administratively and then Mr. Pinabone took action as chair um for any of the meetings. I don't think there was any meetings.

We didn't have any meetings. Yeah, that's all I have, mayor. Thank you. Thank you,

mayor. If I if I may, I have two things. Mayor, I was going to bring up this first one. I got a couple calls since Monday from some of our firefighters. Uh, and Lewis, you mentioned the med. And mayor, you mentioned it. Um, they know that I was telling them that when the mayor gets back, we're going to call Med in for for a conversation. And Med did shut the power mayor, as you know, um, around 2 p.m. The problem was we called Med between 10:30 a.m. and 11 to kill the power. and they said they we got it and they never did. Um it was very risky for that fire truck and our firefighters. It could have been really bad um for us and thank God uh God was on our side. So Medad came to the fire scene. Uh Henry Hennings, if you thought the fire was hot, you should have saw Henry Hennings, our chief of fire. He was very hot. So he sent them to me and and I just basically said, "We're going to wait till the mayor gets here and we're going to demand that Mayday comes in and explains how they messed this up." Um, so you know, people asked when when it was. The mayor unfortunately got delayed with the weather in his flight, but I spoke to him today and and updated him on everything and he said, "Yeah, bring them in." So, we're going to schedule that uh tomorrow and and get them in here to find out how they made such a a big error. The other thing I want to mention, um, Lewis, the two parking uh, lots, St. John's and Social Security, one thing I wanted you to touch on, um, they're only $2 an hour.

Yes.

So, they're they're they're still cheaper than the garage. So, you know, it's it's there is a savings there. And Lewis, one thing you didn't mention as well and and I wish you would have cuz I know I'm uh uh really appreciative and I know others are as well. I mentioned two years ago about monthly parkers in the garage not having a spot guaranteed to them and I know you guys have been talking about it and the mayor has been talking about it and last week you started a pilot um where you're reserving 30 spots in the fourth street garage for monthly parkers to see how it goes and and see if we can increase it. So, I want to thank you for something that I brought up two years ago and we've discussed you guys stayed on it for two years to try to figure out how it can can can be done. And I know uh I heard from a lot of residents downtown. They're very grateful for that. So, thank you for that. And uh you didn't bring that up, but that was a good thing. So, thank you.

We talked about it at the last meeting. We did bring that up at the last meeting, but let me just on a quick note on that um is that the reason why sometimes it takes long longer to do things is because we don't have the data, right? And since implementing the LPR system, um we have less than a year's worth of data that we're able to tell um the um the the habits of our parkers, like if they're in during the day and at night, so we know the utilization. So um that's a start. This is a start of uh managing the uh parking garages, which are never going to be perfect, but managing the parking garages a little bit better. Once you have that data, it's easier to make decisions. So, we'll be talking about that at the next committee meeting.

Additionally, with the parking in the garages, and you and I have spoke a spoken a lot in the last few days, mayor, I know this isn't a challenge that you're unfamiliar with when we do have a snow emergency, which thankfully isn't often. Um, we offer free parking in the garages for residents on snow emergency routes. The problem we're having is many residents who are on snow emergency routes had nowhere to park in the garage because residents throughout the city, Southside, Westward, College Hill, who aren't not on snow emergency routes are taking the spots in the garages. So, they have to shuffle their car, what have you. And our residents that don't have a place to park because they're on snow emergency routes had nowhere to go. So, I know that's something Mayor you you're aware of for in your tenure here, but I asked Lewis if that's something we can uh find a way to to look into that going forward. Um, We're looking into it. I'm not It's not an It's not an easy solution, but we're looking into it.

Thank you. We're also looking into more efficient ways and more economical ways of removing the snow from the roof. So, we can use that. This This one has what, 70 spaces? About 70 spaces. We're not going to melt it. I I saw it. I saw it. Okay. Anyone else? Okay, there's no correspondence. There's no unfinished business. We move move into new business. Madame clerk. Thank you, mayor. We have a resolution authorizing destruction of police files. Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Pinnabone.

I. Mr. Graciano. I. Mrs. Hartra Pittinger. I. Mayor Panto. I. And Miss Zonzo Dennis. I. Uh, a resolution authorizing Easton DCED to apply for a Keystone Historic Preservation Construction Grant. Moved in second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Graziano. I. Mrs. Harrauff Binger. Hi. Mayor Panto. I. Miss Sando Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinter. I. A resolution approving an agreement with aquatic facility design for feasibility and assessment services for Eddyside and Highpool facilities. So moved. Moved. Second

and seconded. Any discussion? Roll call. Mrs. Hartra Biddinger. I. Mayor Panto. I. Miss. Sando Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi. Mr. Graciano. I. A resolution authorizing agreement with Xavier Landscaping for installation of new seating walls. So moved. Moved [clears throat] in second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mayor Panto. I. Miss Graziano. Uh, Mrs. I'm sorry, Miss Santo Dennis. Hi. Thank you, Mr. Pinter. Hi, Mr. Graziano. I Mrs. Hartra Biddinger. I

a resolution approving a proposal from Barry Isid and Associates for survey work related to Eastn Iron and Metal Property. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Roll call. Miss Sando Dennis. I. Mr. Pinnabone. Hi, Mr. Graciano. Hi, Mrs. Hartra. Biddinger. Hi, Mayor Pano. Hi. A resolution offering that project is scheduled to be that work is scheduled to be done this year and the construction is scheduled to be done next year. Hopefully, a resolution authorizing an agreement with IPS for merchant processing services for on street parking meter transactions.

So, moved. Second. Move and second discussion. Roll call. Mr. Pinnabone. I. Mr. Graziano. I. Mrs. Hart Biddinger. Hi. Mayor Panto. I. Mrs. Ms. Zando Dennis.

I. Okay. We now at the point of the meeting where there's public comment on anything relating to the city of East. Anyone like to come up? You get five minutes to address the um city council. Your name and address is required. My name is Eric. I'm from uh 29 North 13th Street. Uh I'm call uh coming here to speak to you about the parking up there on 13th Street.

On 13th Street, which is horrendous. Mr. Pidabone, I spoke to you two years ago. Gave you my phone number. you were going to give me a call back. Still waiting for the phone to ring. Um, Mr. Panto, I called your secretary today, told her about the problems. She called me back, said she spoke to you and you were going to speak to the chief and then call me back and I never got nothing. Okay. Um, we had a meeting this afternoon. Okay. Um, I mean, I got a ticket this morning on my car when I went out there this morning. I was parked in front of my driveway and I got ticketed for it. You you you parked in front of your own driveway and got a ticket. Yes. And

and I looked up the code and I was allowed to. Uh Marcus Gilbert, I guess, told me that I can't. He said it's illegal and that's why I spoke to you because I researched it. She gave me all that information. Yes. So, and [clears throat] Yes. I I did the appeal process and he he said, "I I'll give you a warning this time, but don't do it again because it's illegal." So, he lied to me and I was not happy about that. That's why I researched it and I spoke to called to you. So, okay.

Okay. Well, I spoke to the captain already. Yes. So, that um that's what I have to say. Um, okay. Eric, we'll um and as far as like, you know, you're speaking about the parking. I know the parking is terrible in this city. And I try to do what I can. That's why I parked in front of my driveway. My wife was in the driveway. I didn't want to have her have to come out and move her car. And instead of taking up another spot on the street, I parked in front of my driveway, which I knew it was okay. But then I walked out to a ticket, which I was not happy about. So, understand that.

And um now I've worked for Warren County for 30 years for the DPW. If you want to speak about removing the snow off the roof, I have your solution for it. Oh, good. So, you can give me a call and I will talk to you about it. Okay. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else want to address city council?

Hearing none. We'll motion to adjurnn. Mayor, just just two things really quick and then I I'll make the motion. Um Lewis, uh uh when we when we discussed flock at the last meeting, we wanted to take a look at contracts of the 14 cameras. Um so we're just familiar with that and and see what they entail. Could you provide that to us via email?

I'm assuming they're all the same, but I you know, all 14, but if if you can so we can take a look at that. And then um we did learn a lot from this fire. One thing, mayor, I'm working on now, and I'm going to send it over to our solicitor, is creating an ordinance where apartment buildings must have to keep their uh occupancy list either online or with city hall. This is the second fire we had. One was Lafayette, and then this one where our fire chief and our fire department are asking how many people are occupied. They didn't know. They said the occupancy list was in the building. So, one of the biggest issues we had with locating all the residents and we didn't know if we located them all. We didn't know how many people were living there. So, I'd like to see it digitally and and Mr. Shear, I'm going to send it to you. Something digitally in the city or um you know, a document that we have in a closed department so we know. Yeah, it's it's interesting that you bring this up and I'm not I I don't have an answer for you tonight, but you know, under a landlord registration and this is and I guess this is different, but on landlord registration, the landlord is required to provide all occupancy list and to change it every time because that's how we keep up with our per capita tax. So, I don't I unless there's some exception because of the way the Hampton is that that they don't consider themselves to be the same as a landlord tenant, but if that's the case because of an issue like we've come up, I don't know why we wouldn't be able to amend it to be consistent. But I'm very curious as to why the Hampton is run differently than any other landlord tenant as far as uh keeping track of occupants. It may be because they're term.

It may be because they're rooming houses because we ran into we ran into the same issue with the Lafayette. So yeah, at at Hampton, we were still making sure we had everybody the next day. Yeah. Because, you know, the owner told us that he told me that he had 35 or 40.

It it would make 48. Yeah, it would make sense that there' be a little bit little different treatment, but on the other hand, it does make sense that reasonable legislation would be for the purpose that you're just expressing right now. I I don't know if there I don't know if there's any other privacy concerns or anything else that that would make it different, you know, from for reporting purposes, but uh pass it on to me and I am glad to and I am glad to pass it on to my new team. You heard that, Mr. Pensbone, right?

I'm glad to I said I I'll send it over to me and I'll be glad to pass it on to my new team. Thank you, mayor. I will make a motion to I just want to mention I forgot to mention the block watch reorganizational meeting is tomorrow night at the state theater gallery. Um blockwatch is very important to the community and it is the eyes and ears of this city for the police department. So if you're going to complain about a problem in your neighborhood, you might want to join a blockwatch. But their their annual meeting is tomorrow night. Second motion. Second. Roll call. Uh, Missando Dennis. Hi. Mr. Pinter.

I. Mr. Graciano. Hi. Mrs. Hartra Pittinger. Hi. Mayor Panto. Hi. Thank you all. Thank you.