City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Uh, let me call the meeting to order. I don't have the gabble, so I'm just kidding. Um, welcome to our Williamsport City Council reorganization meeting. It's Monday, January 5th. We're in uh, train transit 1, first floor. U,, please rise for the invocation. um followed by roll call and we'll continue through the agenda. Lord, as we gather to reorganize and renew our commitment to serve this community, we ask for wisdom in our decisions and humility in our leadership. Guide us to put the needs of our neighbors first, to listen well, and to work together with integrity and purpose. In the year ahead, grant us patience and deliberation, courage in difficult moments, and always a clear view of those who we are called to serve. May the work we do here honor the trust placed in us and contribute to the flourishing of Williamsport. Amen.

Mrs. Frank, uh, would you call the role, please? Okay. Mr. Pizzy, here. Mr. Milligan, here. Mr. Ber here. Mr. Yoder here. Mrs. Catz here.

All right, we have a quorum of five. Uh, limited courtesy of the four item three. Uh, we don't have any requests tonight. We'll move to item four, swearing in of our, um, council members. Um, so, Vice President Ber and newly elected uh, Jonah Milin, let you pop up with the city clerk and she will swear you in. Hey, you can stand right there. We're going to do this together and we're going to assign the Okay, raise your right hand. I state your full name. I I Eric

do solemnly swear do solemnly solely swear that I will support support obey and defend obey obey and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth the Constitution of this Commonwealth and I will discharge the duties and I discharge the duties of my office with fidelity of my office with fidelity. Congratulations, Mr. Vital. Congratulations. And you sign your book here. You can sign right here. Yeah. Entitle.

Yeah, it's good. Good. Now you can vote. Thanks. Congratulations. Looking forward to it.

Congrats on that very much. Report soon. Congratulations to you both. Um, and Jonah, to you specifically, congrats on a hard-fought campaign. Um, and taking the chair. Um, you're in for a ride. Uh, but uh, and I mean that in the most um, positive way. It's a it's it's a great ride. Um, you're going to learn a lot and you're going to grow a lot and I'm excited to see that for you. I mean that truly. So excited to work with you. I'm excited for the opportunity. Looking forward to working with you guys.

All right. Um let's move to item five, nominations for president of city council and vote. Um I'll open the floor for nominations and I'm going to stick my neck out here and make a nomination. Um I'm going to nominate um Eric Berer for the role of council president. Um and for a couple different reasons. um over his first term and the last two years as vice president. Um I've seen the qualities that I I think we need in council president sitting in this chair for four years. He's got sound judgment. He's got very deep institutional knowledge. He's got unwavering commitment to Williamsport and his best interests. And I don't know many people that have more commitment to the city than Eric does. Um he's uniquely capable of leading this. And so I'm confident he will serve with distinction. Um I hope others will join me in supporting this nomination. Um and I'm very excited about the opportunity he has over the next year and his leadership as council president. Uh are there other nominations for council president?

I would like to second your nomination. Thanks Bonnie. Um we'll go to a vote then. Mrs. Frank on the nomination. Uh I will uh I need a second for that. Right. You need a you need a someone's to move to close and a second to do that and then you need to do a roll call vote on closing the nominations and then you can do the vote. Okay. Is there a motion a second to close the vote? So moved. Second. All right. Mrs. Frank want the motion to close the nomination. Mr. Pizzy. Yes. Mrs. Catz. Yes, Mr. Milikin. Yes, Mr. Ber. Yes,

Mr. Yoder. Yes. Motion to close passes 5. And then we'll take a roll call vote on the um nomination itself. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mrs. Catz, yes. Mr. Milikin, yes. Mr. Ber, yes. Mr. Yoder, yes. Motion passes 5-0. I will turn this now over to Council President Ber to continue the meeting. Floor is yours, sir.

Thank you very much. Greatly appreciated. Um, what I'd first like to say is a thank you to the other members of council for having the confidence in me to lead this group uh over the next year. um to have that from the six of you is uh immensely important to me and I hope that I can continue to grow um as a leader leading the six of you and as um just a better person with your support. So, thank you all for that. You're here. Eric, can I make a statement here? Absolutely. You may, Bonnie.

Adam, I want to thank you for everything that you've done. I mean, you did an incredible job and uh I know I appreciated everything. People don't realize and understand the work that's involved with the president of council and you just did a remarkable job and also going to school at the same time and working and taking care of a baby. It's Superman, guys. What can I say? But anyhow, thank you very much, Adam.

I appreciate that, Bonnie. Uh it's it's a grind. That's absolutely the case. But uh it's been a good grind as I kind of mentioned to you Jonah. Um that's been a unique part of my journey on city council that I'm immensely grateful for. Um and I'll echo a lot of the sentiments that Eric um relayed. I'm extremely grateful for four years of confidence that my colleagues have put in me to lead this group. Um I've grown a lot from it. Hopefully was a good steward of it and did some good things. Um but uh excited for our new president, Mr. Miner. Thank you very much.

Okay, we'll move on to item number six, uh nominations for vice president of city council. I'll I'd like to be the first to open those nominations. And the person that I would like to nominate for that role, uh would be Councilman Vincent Pizzy. Um Councilman Pizzy has been on council now, this is his sixth year. Um specifically in the past year he has stepped up and taken on negotiations with our unions um all three of them uh I will say police fire and asked me uh he's also taken on the task of renegotiating pilots with various nonprofits in the community to be both advantageous for the city of Williamsport but also for the nonprofits. We have to have a strong um relationship with them so our community can be a vibrant one and a healthy one. Um, so I would hope that he would be willing to step into this role uh for this year and continue to do that work and be my right-hand man for this year.

I would like to second it. Thank you, Bonnie. Mrs. Katz, are there any other nominations? Could we have the vote then on the president? you want to take a motion in a second to close and then a roll call on that. So then then uh I have a motion on the uh closing of the nominations. So move second. Mrs. Frank, Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mrs. Catz, yes. Mr. Milikin, yes. Mr. Ber, yes.

Mr. Yoder, yes. and then the vote on the nomination itself. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mrs. Catz, yes. Mr. Milikin, yes. Mr. Ber, yes. Mr. Yoder, yes. Motion passes.

Mr. Pizzy, anything you'd like to say? Um, I would like to say thank you very much for the confidence that u you all have put in me. Um, I I'd like to get most of my speaking and do my work outside of council. I don't really speak a whole lot during council meetings, but when I do, I I do kind of hop up on a soap box every once in a while. Um, and I'm I'm very fortunate to be working with all of you and Bonnie. Um, and uh, you know, I know we can continue the momentum with everything that we've started six years ago. Um, and I'm just really looking forward to it to getting Williamsport into a position of prosperity, sustainability. Um, yeah, there's still a lot of work to be done, but I know that we can all get it done. So, thank you very much. Thank you as well. We'll move to item number seven, except for filing. Doesn't look like we have anything on the agenda for that this evening. So then with item number eight, announcements, the next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held this Thursday, January 8th, 2026 at 7 p.m. at Trade and Transit 2, which is just next door uh at the third on the third floor. Upcoming meetings again, Thursday, January 8th, uh at 7 p.m. City Council other meetings to be announced. Any comments from members of city council? The only comment that I'll make is I'm looking forward to another excellent year with all of you. Thank you very much. There is no one here from the administration I believe that would have a comment. Any comments from members of the public? Then there is also no one here from the news media. So I don't think that they'll have any comments either. Um I'll take a motion for adjournment. So moved.

Second. Second.