City Council - Regular Meeting

I want to go ahead and get us started with our caucus this morning. We've got three items on our agenda for final passage as we're making our way through this. And then we've got four items for our first reading, and then several items under new business and some transfers. And so I wanted to first go on to the items that are for our final passage to see if any counselors have any questions with our items on final passage. And to invite our guests this morning to thank you, Lori, for coming in and to this meeting. I know you had spent part of last week down in Philadelphia. One of the items th

TO NOT TAKE US TOO FAR OFF THE AGENDA THAT WE HAVE TO GO ON, I WOULD REALLY ENCOURAGE US AS A COUNCIL TO NOT ONLY LEAN INTO COMMENTING AROUND SOME OF THESE PROPOSED RULE CHANGES, BUT THEN PERHAPS CONSIDER PUTTING A RESOLUTION SO THAT It's really important for us to understand what I'm guessing then from what you just shared is those who are here on refugee status, those who are here on green card status, meaning those who pay taxes, who are working jobs, who are members of our community, will not be counted correctly. And so we need to make sure that we are advocating for all of those members.

Dr. Titus, before we get to the resolution part, could we get like a list of what those material changes are.

And, and, and I don't know if Jason had a chance to look at it too, because the federal government census is a federal thing and we know what's going on and we, we are a welcoming community. We really need to, not just lean in on it, we really need to understand and be able to articulate that to our citizens. Absolutely.

Yeah, and I imagine that some of the stuff will be the same, but just the material changes are, And if that can be in the form of a fact sheet, that's fine too, or else it could just be bullet pointed like white sheeted, I think.

Thank you for that update. Any other questions then on those final passage items? All right, looking at the ordinances for first reading, do we have any questions under ordinances for the first reading? Thank you.

I do know that I had a message with the solicitor this morning with file ordinance number one and then file ordinance number four. There was just a first line typo that will get fixed before that comes before. It does not change the substance of either ordinance, but it was just left over from just the framework that we were building it from.

If I might just comment on the new business portion of the repositories or the resolutions for the repositories. I've stated time and time again how I feel about city assets, and I still look at those as city assets. And I want to be very up front with everyone. I will be voting no on those. Those bulk sales really, really bother me, worry me. And so I'm like a firm no on those. And I just want to be honest with you all.

And then I see that several of these are occupied to the question that we asked, which is ludicrous for us to even be considering that. And I don't know what they've done in the past. But my theme for going into the new year is status quo is the enemy of progress. And it has to make sense. And that doesn't make sense to me.

Yeah, I always have an issue when out-of-state purchasers come in wanting to buy up a large number of our blighted or vacant lots just for the simple fact of if we went to the neighbors, would the neighbors buy it? And it's like we as a city have to do a little bit more grocery footwork to preserve the land that we have because we've seen where in other cities and states how they've been gerrymandered out and a lot of the local residents don't have access to obtain land so the fact that we have an abundance of land I think we just need to do a little better at letting the neighbors know that h

I don't even want to use that. I don't want to use that verbiage. So that's not exactly what I'm saying, but. And I won't delve into the weeds of it because I think that, and I know that he's going to chime in, but I won't delve into the weeds in it. But I will say that it would be my choice to have those occupied people to be able to help if there's a way to help put them in a position to, especially those who have been there a while, to retain their homes and those who have a commitment. But there's some legality involved.

And I do know that there was interest by the two other taxing bodies that have a say on this to reconvene us as entities to just look at this process in a whole because this has been a concern that's been brought up by county counselors and also city school board directors too. So I think that when we go into the new year, this will be an opportunity for us to get the three taxing bodies together to just revisit this process in general. Any other questions on, well, now that we're into the new business, any questions around new business with also drawing attention that we do have a public hear

There was Donato's there for a while. Yep, I know exactly what you're talking about. I would like to just... There are... There are several transfers that we see going, some change orders that we see going with this. And so if we could get a quick update, I know I didn't prep, but from Jason Sayers, if that's possible, just around some of the work that's being done, as a lot of this is coming in with the Miller Brothers project that's happening. Specifically, we're looking at, for me, contract number two. Has a big asterisk on there. We've seen a change orders now to the tune of around $400,00

So I think for me, and I don't want to speak for all of council, but I would love to, especially as we head into this budget season, to look at just the changes that have been done here at City Hall, the changes that are happening up at Miller Brothers, and how it's going to shift just the flow and, I guess, budget impact as we look to just really who's going to stay here, what's the plan of just – the flow of operations here and the flow of operations of the Miller Brothers, too. It's been a little while since we've had a full update just on how both those projects are going to go. So as we h Yeah, not now, not now, yeah. That was a really big ask, so yeah. All right. No.

Any? Jason, yes. I actually have three. And they're not necessarily on the agenda, but did you talk at all to the people who talked to us from the frontier area who were having water problems in their basement? Was anything discussed?

Okay. That was number one. Thank you so much Number two, how did the tree situation? Go into place I just don't understand some of it because I just had a tree taken down by a local company and they weren't really a part of Erie, I guess, and they're a reputable company and they have a lot of tools and they did, like they have all the machinery, but it didn't seem in conversation with them that, it looks like we went with New York and Ohio or something.

Okay, thank you. And the next one is, and it's not all the time, but there are definitely certain times of the day and with certain events that... and i know we had voted on this and everything going up state street onto twelve and you're making that left-hand turn and we had made two lanes into one lane and it seems to be a problem with traffic congestion uh... and i'm not the only one seeing this people have come to me about this and so I KNOW WE CAN'T REVERSE RIGHT AWAY OR WHATEVER, BUT COULD WE DO A TRAFFIC STUDY? BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S WORKING.

AND PARADE STREET ACTUALLY BY 28th Street turning there it's For some reason it goes way back at times like from 28th Street all the way down to 21st Street it's just like Bumper to bumper to bumper sometimes that was another pen dot one and you actually had You know he had parade coming into pine and an old French goes off.

Yeah. No, it's not. It's not. I use, you know, those are my arteries.

Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it. I know I often put you on the spot, and I appreciate you just jumping in there.

One thing that I did want to call note to as we are looking at one of the memos that came through was around the blue coats. It was just added, and I wanted to make sure we all saw that. The police are using some of their budget to do a pilot program with the Bluecoats being over in Perry Square from 8 to, or is it noon to 7 p.m.? I think it's 12 to 7. To try to address just some of the issues that we've seen happening over in Perry Square, but then also to work with the business owners to try to improve safety over in Perry Square. I think this is a great, great initiative. I was really excit

Dr. Titus, I think it's a great initiative. I think it's a great initiative also. But as with anything, I'd still be interested in what type of outcome-based measurements or how do we measure success in it because it's kind of what we do.

I've been talking with them and they've been helpful because there was one time I wanted to talk to a person and I was looking for that person and they were able to tell me that for sure he had left the park. So they seem very knowledgeable. They know their people in the park, it seems. So where's the money coming from to pay them?

From overtime, the unused overtime money.

Yeah, because, and still, clearly I think it's a great program. But still, what type of data, since everything around here is thrown around evidence-based, which I don't really, it's not a term I really, Because you put garbage in, garbage out sometimes. But at least we should be able to know a number of contacts, people that you accost, or not accost, but that you interact or intervene with. And I don't think that's an unreasonable request. And if there's some resolution in it, maybe some type of numbers audit or something.

I think it's a great link. And I think it, for lack of a better phrase, puts me in the mind of continuum of service. I think a lot of the, and I'm glad to see the partnership with the police department, with the bureau, because a lot of those responses in the park I happen to know firsthand. They don't always need a policeman. Sometimes they need a referee or a social worker. And then to our police, because being the liaison to the Bureau, I had an opportunity to talk with several of the officers. And I seen this was visited prior to me coming on council, which I'm against. And I shared with t

Agreed. Any other questions on the agenda items? We will have an executive session today. We'll do that after the public comment. So just so everybody knows. And that will be on personnel issues. So we'll step in quickly to get an update there. And it will be on something that we are also voting on. So I wanted to make sure that we have some more information before we come in, but then we'll see more in the budget as we head into those conversations. All right, we have about four minutes before we start a public meeting, so that gives us time for everyone to fill up their coffee cups and we'll

At this time, we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence.

Dr. Titus, if we could have a moment to think about Sister Marie Hardner who passed away, who had a lot of service in our community with being the director of St. Vincent's Hospital.

And also retired firefighter Earl Lago passed away on September 30th. We have a moment of silence for him also. Thank you.

And also Ms. Lorraine Lee, mother of Thomas Lee, sister-in-law of... Mrs. Mother Mary Beth Kennedy, who was a pioneer of shelter services, a champion for the homeless, I think believes she had the first shelter in the city of Bearden, which is now Community Shelter Services. Mrs. Lee was the first librarian at Piperboro. I have a motion to accept the minutes from the September 16th, 2026 meeting and bills for payment on October 9th and 16th.

We have no presentations this morning. Is there anyone here to speak on repository sale? Is there anyone here to speak on repository sale? Is there anyone here to speak on repository sale? Seeing none, we will move on. At this point, we will open up for public comment. If you are here to speak during public comment, we ask that you state your name, your municipality for the record, and that you will have five minutes. You also need to sign in up here at the front. Is there anyone here for public comment? Anyone to speak for public comment? Anyone to speak for public comment? At this point, sin

And again, to just reiterate that we were in executive session to discuss personnel, and no official action was taken in executive session. Thank you.

Okay. Did you say strike one? Which one?

It refers to the rules of council. Yeah.

At this time, I will call for a motion to move the balance.

Motion by Councillor Poole, second by Councillor Horton. Do we have any separation?

Okay, so that's three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, three through nine.

Is it permissible to do one vote or do we need to have each one read separately?

Thank you. We'll go ahead and start with Councillor Brzezinski.

I attended the housing authority meeting today. things fred rush celebration which was outstanding all productive so thank you thank you councillor flores

I just wanted to report on the last day to register to vote is October 19th in order to participate in the November 3rd general election at the Erie County Courthouse. You have the ability to vote early to get it done. That way you don't have to DEAL WITH LINES OR YOUR WORK SCHEDULE ON ELECTION DAY. IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT FOR US TO STAND TOGETHER AND PARTICIPATE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS, SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE DOING OUR DUE DILIGENCE IN VOTING BECAUSE THERE WAS A LOT OF BLOODSHED FOR PEOPLE TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO VOTE. I ALSO WANTED TO MENTION THAT WITH THE SEASON CHANGING, Please jus

Councillor Poole. The Port Authority meeting. They have a couple things coming up. This Saturday on the 10th, they have a lighthouse meeting. at the foot of Lighthouse Street. They're having a fall fest with music and crafts and things like that. And you can go up the tower. I think it's like 67 steps. I've done it before. It's fun. And it's a beautiful view once you get up there. And then also the weekend of the two weeks, they're having their 30th anniversary of the Bicentennial Tower. And that's going to be a four-day event starting with a drone show. So that'll be quite exciting too. So I

The firefighter pension meeting was yesterday, and they've had a couple deaths in the past month or so, and a couple retiring. Adam Gatti is retiring, I think, next week. He is also the one that has Horace, the dog. So he will also be retiring. Horace, the dog? Yes. Because he's only four, but he's too old to get a different handler. Aw. Which, it's sad for the city because we're in need of that. And they won't be able to get another dog, they said, until maybe the middle or end of next year. So hopefully, I know they'll work on that, and hopefully we'll be up and running with another dog soon

Thank you, Dr. Titus. We all worked at this PFM study session. Friday evening, I went to the SafeNet Candlelight and Art Show, which was very moving, and I thank Chief Laura for being present there and talking, having a great police connection with people in need who are healing through victim crimes and abuse, was very supportive of the chief to be there. I did a lot, and I'm going to mention the things that I did, But sometimes I don't understand when people say there's nothing to do in Erie. When you think of Erie as not just Erie City, but the surrounding areas which can be accessible by b

Thank you. I'll keep my report brief, serving as the liaison for the airport authority near events. Airport authority met on September 23rd. I was not able to attend in person, but I did get an update. They will be presenting their finances at this month's meeting as they weren't able to at the September meeting. They have a new secretary, so Dorothy Smith-Fraser was voted in as a board secretary, so congratulations to her. And then their new board member, Dr. Barry Stum, attended his first meeting as his official board member now. The airport held the tri-annual disaster exercise on September

We'll go over to Solicitor, do you have a report?

AND THEN AS A REMINDER TO COUNCIL, WE DO NOT HAVE A STUDY SESSION NEXT WEEK AS WE WILL BE DOING OUR BUDGET STUDY SESSION AT THE END OF THE MONTH. And to acknowledge that I was supposed to get a group together to start working on just the impact of the insurance, first insurance round cuts that we saw for those who run state insurance. And I have not done that yet, but I will work on that as a gentle reminder to all of us who are serving the community that we have many, many residents who on the first had their benefits cut off, their access to insurance. They had already lost their access to f