Municipal Council - Regular Meeting

It says pretty Hello. How are you?

Good evening everybody. I would like to call to order the council meeting for Tuesday, October 7th. If I could please have a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. 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. Madam Secretary, could I please have a roll call? Justin Queen here. William McCoy here. Madira Robinson here. Natalie Coulson here. Jasmine Griffin here. Pashad Beats here. Rebecca Smith

here. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from our previous meeting? So moved. All in favor? I. We had an executive session this evening related to personnel matters. Vice President Bates, uh, would you lead us in the announcements?

Yes. Excuse me. All right. So, for announcements, we have the citywide sweep that's going to be on multiple corners. I think there might be a flyer back there already for it. That's going to be November 1st. Start at 6:00 a.m. and until the dumpsters are filled. Uh then we also have two events from Councilwoman Coulson. We have the dedication for Rob Hill at Simmons Park at Saturday, October 18th. That's going to be the dedication is at 11:30 a.m. and the basketball game or tournament is at 1:30 p.m. Also, she'll be having her fourth district town hall meeting at the American Legion at 500 East Marshall Street. That's going to be November 12th at 6 p.m. Uh, the Norsttown Fire Department has their open house tomorrow, October 8th, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on 2011 West Freley Street. The rec center has the pumpkin carving contest October 17th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the rec center. Um, that's 340, excuse me, Harden Boulevard. And also, they are looking for uh donations of socks and blankets. You can drop them off Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. uh Monday through Friday and then Saturday 900 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Uh also the Nars Hospitality Center is also looking for men's pants, socks, and underwear. Their drop off location is 503 Chain Street, and that's also Monday through Friday. The drop off time at 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Uh Trunk or Treat 2025 is going to be Friday, October 31st. That's going to be from 400 pm to 7:00 p.m. Setup is at 2:30 p.m. That's by the reuniting families fund uh bond fund. Um and that's also at the recreation center on 340 Harding Boulevard. Also, we have the annual Faith Blue and U active shooter and active threat and senior fraud awareness. That's going to be Friday, October 10th. Uh the time is 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Uh 10:30 a.m. for the breakfast. Location is going to be 23 East Air Street at St. John's Episcopal

Church. And that is all. Thank you, council. Any additional announcements.

Seeing none, um, do we have any public comment this evening? Yes. James Waters, everyone.

It's good to be back. Is this thing on? All right. Cool. Hey, look. Um the veterans are having a um veteran Vietnam veterans of America having a 5K onem health walk run uh over at the uh the foreign park. Um that's Valley Forge's chapter 349 and I promise to mouth off as much as possible. Um Airy Street, West Airy Street. Everything that should have been there to begin with is fixed. The trees are trimmed. the the the do not enter signs are back up and the paint's been refreshed. And uh we got one more thing there that I think will make a difference and that's the blinking stop sign like the one out on Decal Street on the other side opposite where the stop sign exists now so that they'd be able to see it from Marshall Street. You know what I'm saying? All right. Um, Elwood Park, I've had an issue with the damage to it. And what I put in front of you right there is the McGomery County Conservation District is the county department is in charge of approving um development plans and their job is to stop stop sedimentation. Now, the second picture there is the sedimentation from the six municipalities that didn't control their storm water because Montgomery County Conservation District approved their plans. And it says in here, oh, I do have my glasses. what their job is and that's the purpose of the program is to minimize the potential for soil erosion and sediment pollution during land development and to manage post construction storm water. Uh

there's more details in there that's public knowledge, but that that's the what I'm going on. And because we had this integrated water quality report that came out, I found about it in 22. Uh integrated water quality report mandated under federal clean water act. It's the 50th anniversary and this was 2022. So, what I intend to do, and I've already called and got a contact in Federman's office, and I'll be going after McGormick or whatever his name is next. Um, I had a contact send me the Clean Water Act because I want to look over and see exactly how McGomery County ended up with 75% of the streams impaired when you've got a whole department that's supposed to do something. Now the problem is McGomery County Conservation District has no enforcement powers and they go on voluntary compliance and obviously by looking at that siltation in the Skooka River is affecting any points the fact is [Music] I can't call anybody else.

Serena Brown. Serena Brown. They hear me. Serena Brown.

Okay. Melvin F. Madam President, she gave me her her her complaints. Melvin Fa.

Good afternoon, council. Good evening, council. Um, I want to first thank um the uh council members that had came out in the last couple weeks to the uh Norristown Police Community Affairs or community um neighborhoods to the different PSAs. Um it was very interesting. I was able to make a couple of them and you could tell that there are different things going on in different areas. So, uh, I would encourage everybody in here if the next time that the police department has these type of meetings that it could be, uh, much more intended and would like to see more of the council people out there as well. Um, another thing too, uh, town halls. Um, I I think it's would be a great thing if you guys would have town halls so we can know who you guys are, who represents each of our districts so we can know you because you guys are the face of Norristown. So, we should know exactly who our council people are. I think that's a a big thing, too. I want to thank public works Tom. Um, I have that big issue on Airy Street about the traffic and all. So, uh, public works came out, did the trees, as Jim was saying a little bit earlier, paint the box right there at Selma and Ary, and, uh, lines on the other side, parking back 100 ft. Trees are trimmed over there at the apartment. So, um, I think that's making it a little bit better, but still, uh, want to know, and thank you, uh, Councilwoman Natalie for that number to, uh, the PAT, the Pennsylvania uh, uh, for the to see if the roadway Yeah. if the roadway is um for Pensburgh or is it uh PennDOT or if it's Narstown. So, I'm waiting for uh information back from there. But if other council people if you guys would know, that would be a big thing too because again, I think there should be some type of like Jim said, flashing lights, stop sign or

something to try to stop that traffic from going so very fast up there because I don't want to see another person killed up there. So, thank you for your time, Jane Samuel.

Good evening, council. My name is James Samuel. I live at 516 Hamilton Street, Narstown. I am the uh first vice commander of the American Legion here in Narstown as well as the uh house chairman for the Legion as well. Um my problem is parking. That's I have a few things. Uh, I got a ticket in front of the Legion and I parked on the other side and put two wheels on the curb. And when I uh came out, I tried to catch the guy, but he went out. On the way down, I saw seven vehicles, took pictures of them that were completely on the sidewalk with no tickets. I came here and they said I wanted to fight it. You can't fight a ticket here anymore. I don't know why. I I would like to know why. The lady upstairs was rude and told me that she is the authority. She She has the ultimate say in who has to pay the ticket and who doesn't? Um what authority does she have to make that claim when I'm just giving her my money for the ticket? Um she and she was rude. Okay. Um, in at my uh residence, Hamilton Street, uh, parking, we have trucks, took pictures of trucks with trailers, uh, work trucks parked there all the time. And, uh, I was wondering why it or if it's possible for after the street uh, sweepers come by on my street. Sometime they come at 9:00 and it's from 8 to 12 no parking. Why? After that guy comes down at 9:00, you can't park there anymore. That would solve a

lot of these problems is parking. Once that street is cleaned, you can tell it's been clean. They leave a trail. They get a ticket after they park, you know, after they come down. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to let people park there after the street's been clean. That's the sole purpose from not being parked there from 8 to 12 or from 4 uh 12 to 4 that would solve a lot of people's problems. Uh I think so. Um if you can take that in consideration and I know the handicap is on hold right now, but that's another issue. I'll wait to hear what that's going what the outcome of that's going to be. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, Johnson, I can't read the other name. Sorry.

Sharetta. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Sharetta Johnson. I'm concerned about a camera that was put up in a parking lot at the 12,200 block of Lucas and Wood Street. I've been living on this block for all my life. Never seen this camera. I seen a dude putting the camera up. He was like a He just looked like a normal dude. Had a ladder. Didn't see a truck. But this camera is a ball. And when I look out my bedroom window, I know this camera could see in my house. So, I'm concerned about this camera. And I don't know who I'm asking the neighbors. Nobody knows where this camera come from. So, I'm just asking could y'all please look into where this camera come from and who is responsible of who's seen what with this camera. Thank you, Lisa Brown. My glasses good. Good. What time is it? Evening. All right, you can start. All right, I'm back again from Basin Street or I live on West Basin. I had to write this down. I feel like we're being targeted for the parking parking tickets on Basin and Locust. They're houses that have two and three cars. A lot of people work different times. We have nowhere to park. People park commercial vans, take up parking spots. Um, now we're getting tickets for parking too close to the stop sign. Yes, I did look in the book. It is 30 ft from the stop sign, but I don't understand why now you guys are enforcing it when my daughter is 40 and I've been there all this time and now y'all want to enforce

it because the kids are going to school. My kids went to school and nobody enforced it then. Um, we're not allowed to park on the opposite side of the street. Back to the commercial vans. They park, they leave them there. We're We have nowhere to park. They're there at 7:30, 7:40 in the morning giving us tickets early in the morning. I'm I'm a little upset, so I'm trying to calm down. Um, I think it's unfair for the community and the residents that work every day. There's no clear process for this. It can't be fought in court. The number of boots in in Narstown is terrible for the working community. God, it it's like you guys are trying to make money off of the community. Well, well, they are making money. Somebody getting the money. Y'all need to share cuz this it's it's just it's not fair to what's going on um in Narstown as far as um these tickets. I mean, this lady is out here every morning promptly on our block looking looking for cars, giving tickets, and they get mad cuz I I send a group text out to tell everybody to move their car. Um we're we're not a community um just to make money off of. Like nobody's doing anything for us. Nothing is being done for these tickets. I keep hearing, "Oh, we're going to do this. We're going to do that." Nothing is being done. Nothing. I mean, if you guys have a parking garage that y'all, you know, want us to take turns and come park at your house

so we won't get no tickets, you know, I'm with it. Cuz I'm sure y'all not getting tickets. We get tickets every single day. Every day. All day. So, who has $50 to keep coming down here paying for tickets? And as James said, Victoria.

All right.

Hello. I'm Victoria Gonzalez and I too live on West Basin. And to piggy back off of what my neighbor said, the parking is horrible. I work 7:00 to 3:30 and if I don't come right home, I'm not going to find a spot. As you can see, I have a cane. I do have arthritis in my spine. I go and get injections yearly, sometimes twice a year. So, it's hard to walk. I'm now considered like a fall risk because I'm trying to walk. And then just recently, I parked halfway up the block and I'm like leaning on cars to get to my house. There is no handicap placer. And I was told by my neighbors that uh the handicap is on hold, but still I need somewhere to park. And I'm like, I got tickets right now that I got to pay. But then again, it's like, where do we park? I have a diabetic husband. I have a kid that is active in sports and, you know, goes to Girl Scouts. I'm like, okay, who's going to take her so I can save my parking spot? As a mother, I should not be worrying about a parking spot when I'm trying to keep my kid out the street and in something active. And as y'all like to say, we're community. Well, I need to see some community going on because right now I feel like I have to choose between paying a ticket so I don't get a boot or buying my daughter what she needs to be an active citizen of the community, which is it's it's it's not right. As a parent, it's is sad. And then we got do not enter signs up our streets. Every morning I'm yelling at some idiot because they're coming up the wrong way. and our kids on a one-way street got to look both ways. Plenty of times they've almost gotten hit because they're treating Basin like it's NASCAR. We got to do something about that. We've talked about stop signs. They said we're not going to get it. We need uh flashing stop signs like a gentleman said. Maybe that might help, but I got a ticket for parking too close to the stop sign. Excuse me. I don't get out the car

after a long day of standing on my feet with arthritis in my spine wearing about am I 30 feet? I don't know what 30 feet is. So maybe put a sign that says no parking beyond this point. Then I know where not to put my car. But so I don't get a ticket. I'm moving back further, which once again has me walking far just to get to my house after a hard days of work. So um we talked about that. Then we have a autistic. I have autistic neighbor. He's on a special van. He's going to get his van and cars are speeding right out of Locust onto Basin. D, excuse me. Darn near hitting his mother and him trying to get on the bus just to get an education. So, we we got to do something about this or we are going to have a loss and I know nobody wants that on their conscience. I don't want to see that. Um, yeah, that that's just all I have. We got to do something about the parking on Basin. I mean, it's really nowhere to park. And I I have two cars. It's me and my husband. We work pretty much the same shift, but like my neighbor Lisa said, you got big vans that are Mark, excuse me, Mark Benjamin. Okay.

Boings. Okay. That's it then. Okay. How y'all doing? How y'all doing, council? Um, I will be real quick. I ain't going to take up most of y'all time. Uh,

oh, I'm very sorry. My name is Luca Burrows. I live on Wood Street, 100 block of Wood Street. Um, I think everyone kind of feels the same way about the parking. Um, I think the vision that council has is good. Um, we do want to make Nortown beautiful. We do want to make Nortown safe for sure. I think where the problem lies is how we're doing it. Um, walking down the street. Listen, first of all, Nortown Police, we appreciate y'all keeping the community safe. Let me just say that first. Um, but walking down the street at 6:00 a.m. in the morning trying to give people tickets, you know, for 30 ft is uh it's a little ridiculous. Just a little bit. I understand we're trying to we have a vision here. We want to make Northtown a better place. I think we all want to see that. Um, but little ideas. I don't want to come with problems. I also want to come with maybe some solutions. Maybe one of them uh if there's a fire hydrant, maybe paint the curb red, something like that. Um as far as the uh signs, that's like another issue cuz sometimes I know there's state laws that say we can't be parked a certain amount of feet from the from the from the corner. You know, there's reasons for that. You know, there's reasons. You know, we don't want to block handicaps. you don't want to uh impede any traffic or police or firefighters or ambulance coming around the corner. I get that. But most of the time it's really not that like no one's really sticking out too far to block a handicap wrap or any emergency vehicles. Um so sometimes those signs when they say no parking from here to there, that could also take up a parking spot. Um, I just don't think we should place some

of the responsibility on Norristown Police Department for the parking only because it's happening at unreasonable times at the end of the night, usually in the wee hours of the morning when people are getting ready for work or they're coming home from work and and parking is a problem. You know, we can't park anywhere. So, we park. You guys get the picture. Um, I think we should just leave it up to the uh parking authority, you know, come around 8 8:30 when they're supposed to. And if if we're out there, it's fair game. Boom boom, you get the ticket, you know, but not when people are trying to get ready for work, get the kids ready for school, things of that nature. That's all. But we do appreciate the vision. And I appreciate y'all letting me come up here and talk. I really do. I didn't even sign in. It's my first time here. So, thanks y'all. I just want to say that. All right. Uh, next up we have building and code compliance ordinance number 257, the motion to approve amending chapter 240 property maintenance quick ticket program.

Evening council. Good evening. So, we are requesting a motion to approve amending chapter 240 of the property maintenance quick ticket program. These uh amendments were recommended by our insurance council and essentially the uh change is from having a formal hearing where we require our legal team to be there, senographers. It will be an administrative review that will help uh expedite the process and be less of a burden on everyone involved. Council, any questions? Question. Councilman Queen.

That's correct. Let's say somebody's on vacation and you know a lot of times some people take two weeks vacations. Are they able to is that one of the reason can they get extension on that appeal when they come back or I know you guys are there's nothing formally in the ordinance okay that exempts any 15 days but obviously we clearly work with folks if they have a legitimate excuse council any other questions

um it's my recollection um I know that getting rid of the removing the hearing requirement moving forward with the administrative process uh will lessen the time burden for everybody involved. It's also my understanding from the last time we had the conversation that there are very few hearings that have taken place. Is that correct? Yes. Um right, council. Is there a motion to approve ordinance number 25-07 to approve amending chapter 240 property maintenance quick ticket program? So move. Uh, Madam Secretary, could I please have a roll call? Justin Queen, hi. William McCoy, hi. Adira Robinson, hi. Natalie Coulson, hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi, Rashad Bates. Hi,

Rebecca Smith. I The eyes have it. Ordinance number 257 is approved. Thank you. Next item, uh, request to approve HARB certificates of appropriateness.

Yes. As you know, the review board meets monthly to review requests for additions, alterations, repairs to the exteriors of properties in the historic district. The following COAs have been uh reviewed this month. 129 East Main Street, 501503 West Marshall Street, 514 Aster Street, 610 West Main Street, 935 West Marshall Street, and 536 George Street. We are recommending that council approve all of them except for 536 George Street. We are recommending we table that till November's meeting because that property has not currently received it approved zoning. So we don't want to approve hard repairs until they get their official zoning approved.

Okay. Council, is there any questions? Okay. Um, so is there a motion of council to approve uh to table the approval of 536 George Street and to approve the other five Harb COAs?

Can we do those together? Uh, so why don't So you have a resolution with all of those on that. Why don't you make a a motion? I maybe the easiest way is make a motion to amend the resolution just taking that property off. So do that first and then approve the resolution after that. Um, okay. Everyone understand? Okay, got it. Council, is there a motion to amend the resolution for harb coas to remove 536 George Street? So moved. Second. I have a roll call. Dustin Queen. I. Lee McCoy. Hi. Dear Robinson. Hi. Nie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi.

Rashad Bates. I Smith. I. The eyes have it. Um, is there a motion to approve the HARB COAs as amended? Move. Second. I have a roll call, please. Dustin Queen. Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Adira Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. Echo Smith. I. The eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next up we have finance resolution number 25-85 request of council for approval of the minimum municipal obligation to be budgeted for police, fire, and non-uniform pension p plans for fiscal year 2026.

Good evening, council. Uh the purpose of this resolution is to approve the minimal minimum municipal obligation MMO for the 2026 fiscal year. Uh this is an annual requirement. State law requires the adoption of the MMO. The MMO is calculated by an actuary for the pension plans and is funded by a combination of state grant funds and member contributions and then supplemented by necessary general fund. Uh I have listed here the different um fundings for each of the plans. The police pension plan will require 3,345,141. The paid firefighters pension plan will require $788,156. The labor industrial pension plan will require 113,211. uh the uh burough pension plan does not require because it's fully funded. That's the PMRS. And then the MMA plan, the management plan will require 83,508. Does anybody have any questions? Council, does anybody have any questions? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve resolution number 25-85?

So moved. Second. Madam Secretary, could I please have a roll call? Dustin Queen. Hi William McCoy. Hi Dear Robinson. Hi Natalie Coulson. Hi Jasmine Griffin. Hi Rashad Bates. Hi Rebecca Smith. I the eyes have it. Resolution 25-85 is approved. Miss Planning and Municipal Development presentation of the 2026 CDBG projects and request for authorization to advertise a public hearing on October 27th, 2025.

Good evening, council members. Uh we're back to you to present the proposed projects for the 2026 community development block grant funds as is a requirement uh through the process that I basically notified you about uh by memo as well as the last meeting when I uh asked if there were any ideas that council members or department heads or the the community had for projects. uh in order for me to start giving you the budget, I'll just go through uh for the record the process that we are to go through in order to submit this application. Um as I mentioned uh we develop uh recommendations throughout the year with administration. Um in August I sent a memo to council members as well as department heads for project ideas. Um and then uh we had a public hearing for the um advertisement for the in actually in the Times Herald on August 22nd, 2025 and August 29th, 2025. The first public hearing uh to solicit input for projects was held in September 8th, 2025. We had one attendee uh from from the uh planning commission. Uh then we had the annual action plan citizen participation schedule uh that was actually sent a memo sent to council on August 15th, 2025. And the advertisement period for the second public hearing. Um it was actually u presented on um is to be presented tonight October 7th 2025 instead of the October 21st that I had mentioned. We had to pull it up a little to make sure that we meet with all the requirements uh federal requirements. Uh this funding of course is restricted to

projects and activities that meet the HUD CDBG program fundability and eligibility requirements. Uh the advertisement for your fiscal 2026 proposed projects and budget will allow for the development and timely submission of the 2026 CDBG program year annual action plan. If we do not do this in the timely manner and in the citizen participation process as I have presented uh it will not make us eligible for the uh funds. I will go quickly through the budget proposed. We're pretty restricted as you might have heard me say before because of the section 108 loan fund that takes really majority of the uh funds that we have to pay every year and hopefully by 2030 we won't be talking about that anymore. Anyway, for us to have the um proposed budget uh that will be meeting the guidelines and regulations as per the consolidated plan, we're proposing the owner occupied housing rehabilitation program for a budget of $45,978. and for the uh housing rehab technical support that will uh support that housing rehabilitation program for $35,000. Uh we have to have the fair housing council that's also a requirement by the um grant and that's 30,000 that's set aside. Um we of course are going through our goals as we had outlined in the consolidated plan to make sure that the small business administration center is still funded. And so we aside 40,000 towards that and as had mentioned earlier we have to repay back the section 108 loan in the tune of $438,340 and then we've set aside funds that pay the salary and uh benefits of the planning staff that administers this

program and other grant programs and that we've set aside $147,000. The total amount uh of the grant we will be applying for is 736,318. This is just a proposal. We do not know what Congress will actually vote for. So we just have to go with that until there's a vote that has been made on that. And when the vote has been made, if it exceeds let's say 20% uh either below or above, we would have to do a whole citizen participation process. again basically let letting the public know that this is how the uh the money that's been set aside and what we have to adjust um but by I should be coming back again of course after I've advertised and asking council to proceed to another process. Um we are on October 7th. The next 30-day public period begins October 23rd. uh we'll be advertising um the public hearing for October 27th so we can receive comments on the proposed projects that I just mentioned and then uh November 21st the 30-day public period ends December 16th uh I'll bring the uh ordinance uh actually asking council to authorize us to advertise a proposed ordinance in keeping with the budget that we advertised and then January 5th 2026 I will be seeking council's approval so that we can adopt the ordinance. You can adopt the ordinance and then we can be able to send submit the application to HUD. Um besides that I think that's all I have. If so if council would please authorize me to advertise this I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you council. Any questions? Um, seeing none, is there a motion to authorize the advertisement of the fiscal year 2026 CDBG proposed budget at a public hearing scheduled for October 27th, 2025? So moved. Second. Could I have a roll call, please? Justin Queen. Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Adira Robinson. Hi. Emily Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. Rebecca Smith. Hi. The eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you.

May I make a comment real quick before to acknowledge. I should have said this earlier in the comment or in our our section, but just wanted to acknowledge the great work that you and your team are doing. Excited about the public obviously hearing um of the CBT, but all the ways in which you're showing up. I just wanted to publicly thank you for allowing us to come and tour uh the project at 14 West Main Street this week. It was great to see that development happening. I'm very excited for that for when it does open. I encourage us all to take a look at it, take a good look. Smelled good in there. The food wasn't even cooking yet, but just to name that it looked really nice in there and the development seems like it's well underway and it's nice to see restoration back in that building. So, just thank you. Just want to thank you and your team publicly. Thank you very much.

Next up, we have police.

Good evening, council. Um, good. Hello. Hello. Welcome. Um, we have the motion for council to approve the application for and acceptance of the 2526 keep it safe mini grant.

So before you this evening, council, uh, as uh, madam president just announced, this is a targeted grant funding program that's made available through Montgomery County's drug and alcohol community prevention program. And this program is a $2,500 full full amount would be 2500. The actual amount could vary. And the nice thing about this program is it is a targeted program for youth in our community to target drug and alcohol abuse and to look at individuals who most likely could be victims or susceptible to uh risk of exposure to drugs and alcohol. uh there going to be socioeconomic factors they look at and um it's just another piece of funding that will help us uh in our communities um empower Norristown middle schoolers to engage in uh you know understanding of substance abuse has peer discussions and involves workshops and distribution of educational material. Uh this is just another one of the tools that we have to help our youth stay away from drugs and alcohol and lead healthy and happy lives. And I would respectfully request that council approve the motion to approve the grant.

Thank you, council. Any questions? Councilwoman Robinson. I had intended to be mostly quiet this meeting because I'm not feeling too well, but I did have a question on this particular one. Uh first of all, Chicha, uh thank you uh for your time and for bringing this forward. I was interested as I was looking at the grant proposal. It seemed like there were a lot of unique ways in which you could explore a workshop in this. Um I was wondering what you I noticed that yours was more led with looked like officer instruction within the workshop with the pairing of professionals. I was wondering if you had an idea of like what that what that looked like to you what like that day might be.

So I I don't know. One of the things that I like about this is it actually has components for peer-led discussions. So these are uh youth that have maybe been at risk or had issues with drugs and alcohol who now have kind of reformed and will be able to work peer-to-peer. So I think a lot of the meat of this grant is that it's not necessarily coming from police officers or from adults. It's focusing on getting peer-to-peer support so folks who are challenged and have issues can um can get that kind of support. So uh I don't with all due respect I um I haven't delved into the exact details of this. I was not here when the grant application was submitted. Uh I can dig into it for you and get you answers to any further details that you may want.

That sounds good. I just be interested to know what a day in the life of that workshop kind of looks like the structured way in which it was. It seemed that it was predominantly like officer with supplemental support, but I just was trying to visualize it a little bit better. But thank you. Yes, ma'am. And and I can get that for you, Miss Robinson. I didn't catch that last part. I I will be able to get that for I'll work on an email to kind of give you a little more uh understanding of what that would look like. Thank you, council. Any other questions? Seeing none, is there a motion for council to approve the application for and acceptance of the 2025 keep it safe mini grant? So move. Second. Uh, could I have a roll call, please? Justin Queen. Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Dear Robinson, hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin.

I. Rashad Bates. Hi. Rebecca Smith. I. The eyes have it. Motion's approved. Resolution 25-82, a request of council to approve the subscription purchase for $50,17922 from Lexiple LLC for three years access to law enforcement policy and supplemental manuals.

Thank you, Madam President. So, before you is a resolution to give you some background. Um, Lexapo is the nation leading firm in policy management, law enforcement, and um, it actually is a program that this municipality had up until, I believe, early 2024 uh, when it went away. And of course, I was not here then, so I don't know what that backstory to that was. However, um, it is something that I think that we need. One of the things we talked about in my hiring process and we've talked about globally within the organization is professionalism, professional development, and also accountability and transparency. And this is the modern platform that's going to allow us to do that in a manner that's responsible and provides the best practice in law enforcement because it's going to centralize all of our policies and procedure in one location. It's going to standardize them so they're in the best practices uh with respect to what's going on not only locally but in the world uh or in the country. It's going to provide for audit trails. So, one of the most important things we need to be doing with our policy and procedures, we write a policy and we write a procedure and sometimes it just goes away and gets shoved in a drawer, right? What we need to be doing is training consistently on policy. And what Lexipole does is they have a training module called daily training bulletins. And what we can do is now train every day our officers microtraining. They're going to get emails to take a little test about policy one, two, three, ABC and and they're going to be tested on it. And then we can track that. So, we know our officers not only are knowing the policy, seeing the policy, but they're understanding it, and they know how to implement it. So, um the total amount for this is a $50,000, $179 purchase. It is a contract for three years. This was negotiated by Lieutenant Dumas and, uh, apparently he's a very good negotiator. From what I understand, they were able to secure a $21,000 discount, uh, from the original proposal that was received by Lexipole. So, or we received from Lexapole. So, I think it is a good financial decision because it's reduced from what it normally would be and it's going to help us grow our police department into a more professional

organization. Thank you, Chief Council. Any questions? Uh, Councilwoman Robinson, I just had one and you may or may not know. What do we currently have as a system for keeping our policies intact? Is it like a binder system or It's basically a PDF right now. Got I see. So, things could be Okay. Yes, ma'am. And um just so I'm clear, so we don't have like a different kind of lex of a different brand of lexical right now. We have no kind of we have no automated policy management system within the Northtown Police Department. It's just paper.

Thank you, council. Any other questions? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve resolution 25-82 um to approve the subscription purchase for $50,17922 cents from Lexiple LLC for three years access to law enforcement policy and supplemental manuals? Move. Second. Uh could I have a roll call, please? Queen. Hi. Wayne McCoy. Hi. Adira Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. Rebecca Smith.

I The eyes have it. Resolution 25-82 is approved. Resolution 25-83, motion to approve and certify the civil service resolution for entry-level police officer candidates and approve the conditional hiring of six entry-level police officers.

Thank you, Madam President. Yes. Before council tonight is a resolution uh this follows on what I only can assume was an activation of civil service by this board at some point in the few earlier this year. Uh the testing process has been completed. the commission has met uh with the uh to review the list so to speak that was developed after the testing process and they have um certified that for uh conditional hiring and the six officers what we've done and in the interim since being appointed what I've been doing in the background is working to help uh provide some guidance to the municipality on what proper staffing is and um although it's kind of nebulous there are three models that we use one's a populationbased model kind figure the ratio of police officers to population. One is this one thing called the International Association of Chiefs of Police model which looks at kind of workload like how much work are men and women doing every day and and figuring that out. And there's a third one called the core service hour method which is a really deep dive into how much allocated time the officers have during the day and how much time they're free to go out there and patrol the streets and engage in community engagement. I actually took all the data that I needed from the uh municipality was given to me by the acting chief. I crunched the numbers and I came out at 68 officers, 69 officers. Um, we're currently right now on the roles on the books at 62. However, due to different restrictions related to officers who are out on leave, who are sick, who are um different matters, we actually have 53 deployable officers, men and women in the department who can actually deploy to the street, engage in public safety services for the community. So, um, this will be a continuing effort. As you may or may not be aware, in December, strike out in January, we're going to lose two more officers due to retirement. So, the the the issue here was we need to constantly be looking at hiring so we keep our numbers at the right place because once we get the right numbers, then we start to turn to addressing some of the challenges that we have in this

community. Um so my recommendation based on the the very rudimentary staff study that I conducted is um that our staffing needs are supported uh or support the uh hiring of six additional police officers. Uh and I would make uh recommend that you approve this motion to hire them or strike that to offer uh conditional offers of employment to six entry level police officers. Thank you chief council. Any questions? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve resolution 25-83 to approve and certify the civil service resolution for entry-level police officer candidates and approve conditional hiring of six entry-level police officers? So move. Second. I have a roll call, please. Justin Queen.

Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Adira Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. Becca Smith. I The eyes have it. Resolution 25-83 is approved. Thank you for time this evening. Got one more. Oh, we're going to pinch hit. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Evening, council. Good evening. Resolution 25-84, the request of council to approve the purchase agreement with integrated security solutions for five additional security camera locations and expand the wireless infrastructure.

Uh council, this is the phase two of our community camera system. Uh this is for the Marshall Street primarily for the Marshall Street uh corridor. Okay. This is going to be paid for by the primarily through the VIP grant. Uh this was the $950,000 grant that we won uh earlier the year. This will cover cameras at Sweden Marshall, Archer Marshall, Violet and Marshall, Tmont Marshall, and more in Walnut. Uh the budget impact of this is 152 152,100 uh 148,500 is going to be paid for by the VIP grant. The additional $3,600 is for uh IT costs that is not covered by the grant.

Thank you council. Any questions? Just a quick question. Councilman Queenin. So this is paid for a grant like you said. What are the is there any uh what we call it like yearly cost operatingness? Uh there is upkeep for that but that's included in the actual fee. So there's a managerial fee for software update um if there anything goes wrong but there is a warranty that's actually covered in the new camera system that's going in. So this phase two that's going in. Okay. I saw your camera system was amazing. So thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Councilwoman Robinson,

I just had a question about the IT uh costs that were not covered by the grant. Is this something that you had already had um some room for in your budget or what does he imagine that this is something that would I sorry um it costs are covered within the budget? Council, is there a motion to approve resolution 25-84? Approve the purchase agreement with integrated security solutions for five additional security camera locations and expand the wireless infrastructure. So moved. Second. Can I have a roll call, please? Dustin Queen. Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Adira Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. Becca Smith. Hi. The eyes have it. Resolution 25-84 is approved.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Public works. Mr. Odenabo. Resolution 25-78 authorizing the sale of qualifying municipal property via public auction to include seven surplus vehicles andor equipment.

Yeah, good evening council. Um this is a resolution to sell some old vehicles and equipment that we have. Most of them are being replaced just for to know. Most of this equipment have actually um it's becoming a little bit more expensive to maintain them than to keep them. So that's why they are being sold or they are being auctioned and we're going to be auctioning them through the municipal bid.

Thank you council. Any questions? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve resolution 2578 authorizing the sale of qualified municipal property? Includes seven surplus vehicles andor equipment. Move. Second. Could I have a roll call, please? Queen. Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Adira Robinson. Hi. Nie Coulson. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Rashad Beats. Hi. Rebecca Smith.

I The eyes have it. Resolution 25-78 is approved. Resolution 25-86, the purchase of one street sweeper from Grand Turk Equipment Elgen Bloom Brador series CJ mounted of 2024 a new street sweeper the price of 20 $276,129.75.

Yeah, this is purchasing a a new street sweeper and this is on budget. This is approved in the last year's bud or the current the current budget. Uh so this would actually make our street sweeper to be three and the intention is to right now we have we've been having just one street sweeper go out but we're going to have it two. So if we have three we can send two out and still have one as back up. Thank you council. Any questions? So there still just be one street sweeper. We're not doubling up and doing two at a time. You say this will be a backup. Well that other one will be a backup. No, the intention is now to have two zones. Okay.

We used we used to have one zone during the whole city, but we're now going to have two zones and then in addition to these two sweeper that we out daily, we're going to have one as a backup. Okay. Yeah. So, we have three street sweepers. I just want to make sure I'm hearing correct. So, we will have three street sweepers with this addition or we'll have two? We have three street sweepers with this addition. Okay. So, three total and when in the process two will be active and one will be a backup. That's correct. Okay. Thank you.

Council, is there a motion to approve resolution 25-86 to purchase one sweep street sweeper at the price of $276,129.75? So move. Second. I have a roll call, please. Justin Queen. Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Medier Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. Rebecca Smith. I The eyes have it. Resolution 25-86 is approved. Dr. Johnson. Thank you. Those we want pictures of you in there driving. Um, next up we have departmental reports. First up we have police. Evening again, council.

Hello again. So, I'm going to be doing the September 2025 report. We're going to start with the staff report. Uh September, we had 45 sworn officers, uh one acting chief, one captain, uh one lieutenant, four sergeants, 10 corporals, uh 50% reduction in criminal investigations of five. one SRO, uh, one evidence tech, five professional staff, four parking enforcement, 16 crossing guards, five PCOs. Um, personnel, we have one on personal, one on terminal leave, uh, two on extended sick, one on military leave, and three additional officers that are going to be in the academy. Um, so leaves us about a 28% uh downturn in the police department. Uh, for the month of September, we had zero shootings. However, we did have seven robberies. Um, this is 100% decrease in shootings. However, it's a 250% increase in robberies. Um, the only positive thing about the seven robberies that the individual that committed all seven robberies has been arrested. So, he is in custody. uh month of September, uh we did report 41 domestic related incidents. That's a 5% increase from 2024 uh where there was 39. Uh opioid uh intented deliver arrests were down by 17%. Uh we did notice a 133% increase in uh fatal uh overdoses in the month of September. Um non-fatalss were up by 4%. Uh we did host 14 events uh including PSA meetings that uh a lot of you attended. Uh we did notice the the last two water I with the cops event along with the youth leadership program.

Uh we still remain active uh with Facebook. So we're trying to get as much information out to the public as possible. Um we do um utilizing technology uh this year we had 18 shot spotters uh activations in the month of September. U nine of these incidents were founded. Uh only unfortunately we're still at a deficit. Only one of those calls was actually called in by 911. So nine founded reports with one 911 call. Uh we're still partnering with Godzia uh for drug and alcohol outreach program. And that is what I have unless you want to go over stats.

Uh council, any questions? Councilman Robinson. My only question is can we get a copy of the report? I didn't get a chance to see that in my packet, but if you could email me. Thank you. And next up, we have fire. Chief O'Donnell. Good evening, Madam President, members of council. Uh before I begin my monthly report, there is a one bit of good news. We the fire department was awarded an assistance to firefighter grant uh last week for 61,500 and that will address some health and safety issues uh mental health and medical screenings along with cancer screenings for fire department personnel. Congratulations.

Thank you for allowing me to submit it. Uh our operational summary for the year to date, uh the fire department responded to 1,127 incidents. Our average response time is 4 minutes and 13 seconds. Our busiest time of the day is Thursday at noon. The fire department uh has hosted year-to- date uh 1,41 training sessions equating to 5,916 hours. We've had no firefighter injuries for the year. We've only had three civilian injuries for the year and we had no civilian fire deaths. Fire department has completed u I'm sorry conducted 422 fire inspections and commercial properties this year. We've hosted 164 publication public education events. Uh we've hosted two fire drills. This is for last month. Uh this month uh obviously being fire prevention. It'll be way up for next month's report. Uh we visited 494 homes this year to install smoke detectors throughout our community which had resulted in us installing 144 uh smoke alarms in folks homes. Fire safety house uh has had two appearances for the year and our fleet has been out of service for a total of 2,320 hours. That's the only thing I have.

And you have an open house tomorrow night, right? And we have an open house tomorrow night. Happy to see you all there. Fire prevention. Fire prevention month, right? Yes, it is fire prevention week. Yes, ma'am. Uh, council, any questions? I just got a comment. You the fire department, everybody in our house should be proud of this fire department. They do amazing work constantly. Um, one thing I find Thursday at noon, that's is that the norm? It's it we don't get to pick it, unfortunately. We just respond. So, whenever they call 911, we we go. So, 247, we're we're ready to roll. Right. And I appreciate you and you got amazing staff. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. My only uh

Great job, Chief. My only question was I know that there was a large impact kind of fire through the McGomery County area. I was just wondering if any way did our department have to support in any way for today's efforts. For what type efforts? Uh there was a large hazardous fire today that affect 422. No, thank God we stayed home and uh that's the best play for hazardous material since we like staying home for them. I appreciate it. That's what I was hoping to hear. So, thank you. Glad to know that you all got a chance to not. Thank you, Chief. Is there a motion to adjurnn? All in favor? eyes.