He said, "Yeah, of course I'm just --------- part." All right, guys. We're getting started. Good evening, everyone. I will call this meeting of the committee to hold to order. I will ask Mr. Miller call the role. Mr. Callahan, present. Miss Grampson Smith. Miss Guate
present. Miss Leairard, Miss Leon, present. Miss Wilhelm, present. And Mr. Cologne, present. Councilwoman Camy Smith is on vacation. And Councilwoman Leard has another commitment, so she will not be present for the committee meeting. Just a
YouTube reminder, if anyone is starting after 6 PM and you want to watch in real time, you're welcome to scroll ahead to the the current recording of the meeting. Tonight, we have one agenda item that's amending article 112,
campaign finance report. So tonight we will um at the end of the meeting I'll turn to council to see what the will of council is in terms of what actions to be taken tonight uh as it relates I'll go over our different options once once we
review it. I will have public comment at the end of the meeting. So, I will share regardless of what council decides to do during committee, this uh proposed amendments, should they pass, are not on the agenda tonight for city council. So, there will be plenty of opportunity for
public comment prior to any future council meetings. One will vote on this. We're going to have public comment on this at the end of the committee meeting. Um, just to give our members of the public a chance to hear what I have to say, hear whatever comments are to be made. So, I welcome public comments
right before we adjourn. We're going to start with just a a presentation. I I have the computer up. I'm going to hop over to the lecture to use just to kind of I'll give everyone some background as to where this came from, why I proposed it, and then I'll demonstrate what we
what's the current practice at the city level, at the county level, and why I feel this is just a good operational change without really um sacrificing any transparency. and then I'll I'll come back down to the seat and open it up to questions from council for me and of
course our council solicitor Steuart is here who could speak on some of the legal background and such as attorney Stewart helped. So I'm going to hop over here. It's odd to present them over here, but so the um article 112 campaign finance reports,
we're all familiar with it. Everyone on council has had to submit reports as as candidates, as elected officials. our our city clerk reminds everyone of different election cycles, but ultimately in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Attorney Stewart, you
could kind of give me a gesture if I I misspe at any point because I don't want to mislead anybody. Um if I'm mistaken as I speak exempviously up here. Oh, can everyone hear me? Yeah. No. Okay. The so essentially in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania elections are administered at the county level including housing campaign finance reports. Historically the county in North Bethleam of course is housed in two counties Lehi and Northampton. Northampton County elections office houses all of our campaign finance
reports. Everyone whether it's council controller mayor treasurer submits the reports there. They're housed there. When article 112 was passed which predates my time on city council. So, uh, over a decade ago, the county was
not publishing on its website campaign finance reports and now current practice and just modernization, that is now what is done at the county level. So, the count and I'll go on the website for everybody to see. So, it's been it's fallen on our city
clerks to sort of manage what is essentially a function of county government in recent time with sending out these reminders and um even directing people to the county office because ultimately the county elections office is the administrator of the
elections uh submitting uh declaring a campaign committee, terminating a campaign committee, finance reports, all that. all that lives with the county or the county will direct someone to the state. It's the department of state in the commonwealth that administers
elections. So currently what we do is we hand in our campaign finance reports as is prescribed by ordinance and again an ordinance in the city is a law. So this isn't a a optional procedure. This is something that a previous council had
passed. And then council So then on the city's website under city government, city council, candidate disclosure, here are city clerks now take on the responsibility and task and
and additional work in my opinion of collecting these, notifying everyone and then posting them online. So I'll go to uh when was I last up? So yeah, I'll just go to Cologne and then I have mine
are posted on the city website. So anyone in the public currently can access them. So here they are. Certain things are redacted. Uh and then all those zeros are me. So then this is one of my campaign financial reports, but this is of course housed on the city
website. Um it goes back for uh a number of years and it's all here including though statements of financial interest which will come in play in a little bit because the amendment is to maintain statement of financial interest on the
city's website and that's less of a burden on the clerks and that's not published at the county level and I'll demonstrate that in a couple minutes. So, this goes back I mean the amending the ordinance I don't I'm of the opinion it doesn't it doesn't necessitate
changing what's already on the website. It's just a matter of how we move forward. And it it would be simply the the current council president or the next council president could work with the clerk to here on this landing page have something should these amendments move forward under candidates disclosure
to have a blur. Just noting council in, you know, this month of this year amended article 112, please visit Northampton County elections for candidate disclosures. And we can just have a link here that someone could click and go right to the county website and have the same information listed,
but now it it relieves our clerks, which as everyone's aware, we have two full-time clerks. We have a part-time office assistant that's been kind of vacant on and off now for some time. and just trying not to not to be uh duplicative of work that's done at other
layers of government. Again, I I recognize why a previous council would have passed article 112 in in its current form, but just where we are now, the county, the primary uh administrator of elections does things differently. So, this is our our current city website. Again, I'm not proposing
changing anything. the amendments uh call out the clerk's office rather than having to routinely remind everyone of their elections responsibilities in terms of filing. It puts that responsibility on each candidate or elected official. The the clerk's office
would remind everyone when statements of financial interest are due, which is annually. That's not only for elected officials. That's for any city employees who essentially um have authority to deliver, you know, to sign contracts and and really exhaust any city money.
That's part of our ethics training that we have to go to every other year. Those again are posted. They would remain posted. The clerk collects a few dozen of them currently. They would continue to collect them for everyone who has to fill one out. And the clerk would post
for any elected official. So council, the mayor, controller, treasur post those online just like they do now. But that's a once a year thing for everybody and just post those rather than have to be tasked with um reminding everyone and and tracking everyone down and and
really sometimes getting questions that they're just kicking up to the higher level of government in terms of the county. So that's what the city website looks like. The link that I'm talking about, let me go to it. Give me one second. Oh, after I check the baseball scores.
Uh, we're getting again. So, now we are on the county website for Northampton County where the majority of Bethl resides. You go to election voting right on the right on the homepage. Welcome to Northampton County Election Division. And then right here top of
their list, view campaign finance reports. And then we would be able to put a link to this at the top of that previous page from the city's website. And campaign finance reports now are for everyone. They're right here. So then they're listed. Now they are listed in
alphabetical order based on um you know alphabet. So you have, let me go back to 2023 again. So I'm Michael Cologne right here. Michael Cologne. You go down to friends of because a lot of elected folks use
friends of and then it would just be a matter of friends of uh and then Michael Cologne is right here. You open it and it's the exact same thing that was at uh on the city's page. This is my committee page. on the city one, I open my
personal uh candidate one, which is why it looks different, but it's just the same reporting cycle. So, the this exact same information that's housed on our website is housed at the county web. It's housed on the county website, who again is the primary administrator of elections in
the Commonwealth. the uh going back to the city website, I I would again coordinate or the next council president depending on if this passed and when it did could simply put the link right here and say have a little blurb about the amendment and then go on the county
website to find campaign finance reports. there'd be a little bit of of work to find it for the candidate, but if you know who you're looking for, I think it's not impossible to find and nor is it difficult to find in my opinion. It's just the county doesn't
break it down by municipality or race and given the number of folks who have to submit it there, I don't know if that's practical. So, that is some of the background to that. Um, going back, let me just pull up the other amendments. So it would be renaming the
ordinance from campaign finance to statements of financial interest because it would be effectively only addressing statements of financial interest. It would remove the clerk's responsibility of notifying pardon from notifying candidates uh when
they announce. So it would only be current elected officials for the statement of financial interest. The reason for that is we talked about with our previous clerk and the current clerk staff. Sometimes when people announce a candidacy, the clerks don't know how to get a hold of them. If I, Michael Co,
prior to being on council announced in the news I'm running for council, they have to find a way to get in touch with me, which and I'm not even on council yet, but then once I would be on or anyone would be an actual elected official and have to submit their statements of financial interest, then they would be posted on the city
website. No different than they are now. So again, I'm not I'm not saying to stop posting anything that can't be found elsewhere. We would post statements of financial interest. The penalties are taken off because there was a matter of practice and really practicality about
penalties. So some folks and this predates our cler clerks may have paid a penalty. current speaker may have paid a penalty at one point, but it was brought up that well, how do you penalize someone if you don't even know how to get a hold of them to let them know that they have to
do this again at a lower level of government when the county has their own mechanisms for doing that and and administering that. So, that's why we talked about eliminating penalties just easier practice. Everyone, again, the dozens of folks who are responsible for
them file these reports. The clerks will continue to collect them. And I just think it's a a simplification of something that right now is being duplicated. There's some redundancies there. As I've made other amendments to things like our council rules over the
last couple years, if I identify or it's brought to my attention something that could help be more efficient here as as a council, then I try to work with everybody to bring it forward. If it's the will of council, so be it. I'll we'll have the conversation. And um I
think that this maintains our current level of transparency just adding another layer. So I'm going to while I'm up here, we have to open up to members of council now while I'm up here just in case anybody wants me to manipulate the mouse and the website. So I will that
sort of is the background and as simple as that. I just think it's uh a cleaner way of the clerks managing their time doing business and better use of their time from a administrative standpoint. But I will open it up for comments. So
I'll start Callahan. Mike, I really I mean I don't have a problem with it at all. Uh it is duplicated. You know, I get that on the as long as there's the the link on our website, the Northampton County link, that's that's fine. The only other question, if you can go into
yours again. Yeah. Is it are all your reports in there? Like if someone wanted to I'm not I'm not Oh, no. Yeah, I don't mind opening it. the so this is the 2023 pre-election. Uh so that's the second Friday
pre-election and then address not redacted. Say again. Oh, and that and we can talk about you said address not redacted and we'll talk about that councilwoman after uh I address Mr. Callahan's question. No, I just noticed it. Does that take up? So it goes by where
it's at. So this is 2023 second Friday pre-election. All right. And then you would just scroll down to to the previous one. Yeah. To the, you know, 30-day post election, 2023 annual. They're all there based on the same. All right. Yeah. It's just it's just laid out differently
and I acknowledge it's a little bit more work, but I I think it's I just want to make sure that we we all have access to go back in that campaign finance reports from the past. And and I would say while it's not in the ordinance because I don't think it needs to be codified that as an administrative
function as the current council president or the next council president, I'm telling you that we wouldn't I wouldn't say, "Oh, let's remove what's currently on the city website, that work's already been done. We would just put that notation up top noting why we stopped and the link to here." And I
think that's a fair Yeah, I agree. Fair. Thank you. You have a question about not redacted. Well, I I did notice that uh the addresses that your address was not redacted on that. Um and we do redact them here in the city. So, that's just
something to Would you would you redact them in the city? And I'll turn it attorney Stewart, but there's nothing legally that the county or even the city um I believe says we have to as as public record, right? I'll turn to Attorney Stewart if she
wants to add anything to that. Yeah, the um statute statutory section that requires the filing of the reports and um the maintenance of the reports by the county
elections office does not contain a reduction provision. Okay. I you know obviously they've started putting them up there a few years ago now. So um our addresses are there already. So it's versus out of the barn, whatever. Um my
my only um consideration about this is as a Lehigh County resident, it's not intuitive for people to go to Northampton County, um there's a lot to wade through to find your city uh representatives in the Northampton County, you know, and so while I
understand I know you're going to go there and say we're going to put it right here, and that's fine. Um just just that uh just something to to bear in mind when you're thinking about how you're going to phrase it on the city website. Um you know just making sure not to forget about the Lehigh County
folks who uh may never go to the Northampton County website unlike us because we're candidates we have to. But until I became a candidate I almost never went to the Northampton County website. And that's fair and and I would simply say currently we don't redact our
addresses. This is from the city website that I have up. We only redact signatures. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, the these are always posted and and have been practiced as long as I've been around. And as that and as it relates to the unique situation that the city's in
being partially in Lehigh County but more fully in Northampton County, I I agree and I think that's why again we'll just have that link right there so people just rather than told something could just click it and be directed right there. Yeah.
Any other questions or comments from council? Councilwoman Wil. I don't suppose anyone here has this information, but are we able to determine sort of how many visits that page on the website gets typically? I could I wouldn't even know a number ballpark to be honest with you.
Yeah, I guess I don't I didn't expect anyone here knows, but is it possible to find out? Yeah, I I could definitely Mr. Miller wants to make a notation. We can work with our current city administration who has access to the web traffic to get an idea of um we could
break it down maybe monthly or annually. I'd assume the traffic's busier in election season than not election season, but we could get then we could get some numbers for everybody to have. And I'm really just curious. This is an opportunity to ask that question. I think it's a great idea and as clear as
we can be on the landing page and easy to make it click to where they need need to end up. I'm perfectly comfortable with this especially given how busy our clerk's office is and sort of, you know, taking off an a task that is um
duplicative just makes a lot of sense. Again, as long as we're being very clear with everybody uh about where they need to go and making it really easy for them to get there, I'm perfectly comfortable with it. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from our council? Counciloman,
I just had a comment of I checked other cities to see what other cities are neighboring cities have done. Some have campaign finances on them, some don't. Um, and some of the ones that don't don't have that link. So, I think as long as, like everyone else has said, as long as the link is there, it really is a good middle ground because, you know,
this is ran by the county and anything that can lessen the burden on the clerks because the clerks are doing so much work as it stands. Um, and this really is just redundant, repetitive. So, um, I appreciate you you bringing it forward because it's it's not we're not doing
anything crazy here. It's it's been done by multiple municipalities. I'm not a crazy guest. Love that. I'll just I'll just add that I would be happy to to participate in sort of crafting and vetting the language. Um, just to I'm
happy to participate in that process. Thank you. And again, I think that could be done administratively outside of the actual ordinance. And then obviously if there are any disagreements or anything like that, we could always talk about it on the floor of council, but I could easily work with Councilwoman Wilhelm,
anyone else who's interested. Obviously the clerks are be heavily involved, see what that language looks like and coordinate with the administration should this go forward to just edit that page and and go from there. Yeah. And if anything ever changed in the future, which I wouldn't imagine as this is now
the age of technology and elections will stay with the counties, but should the counties change their practices, then council could revisit this. But again, we just live in a different time today than we did when this was originally passed and I would like to take work
away from the clerks if it involves them doing things that are already done at a higher level of government and a primary function of higher level of government. Anybody else have any questions, comments? So, we have a we have a couple options
then. We can either and I'll accept a motion for for any we can either motion to uh postpone any vote and I work with the clerk to set a date on another committee the whole meeting. We could
motion to send this to full counsel. We could motion to shoot this stat to uh call RO send this to full counsel and just vote no if you don't want it to go to full counsel. So the I I'll state my preference as the person who brought this forward tonight is for this to go
to full counsel for a vote. As I mentioned at the top of me at the top of the meeting, it'll be like any other uh ordinance or amendments to an ordinance will require two readings. So, I would anticipate we finish the current election cycle and then put it on, have
the votes, and then change the practice going into the new year just so that it's a clean process that we finish what we're currently doing. um and there's not some gap of well why did you just stop right before the the November
election and then going into 2026 um say effective and we were would work out those dates but that's how so I will if there's no further comment I would accept a motion to move this ordinance to full counsel do you have other
comment Mr. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Could Could we even though we don't uh we're not going to submit the reports to uh Mr. Miller, could we still get the um um you know the sheet that the state sends out on the reporting periods?
Oh yeah. So that's I know what you mean where it says this is primary election day. This is 30-day post election date. We can still get that. So I believe that and I'll I'll confirm with Mr. Miller and Miss Bouva, but that is I believe already shared with them.
So that that's just posted in our current office. And then also the the county may or may not have that on their website, but I mean we'll we'll in short, yes, we can make sure. We don't want anyone to be uh without, but that information is easily accessible to
anybody. The state posted on state department. I often just Google it because it's on the state department for the I always like getting a notification so I don't forget it. I understand. I understand but I I think that's a simple there's a simple solution to that question.
Yeah. I I so I mean if there's no other comments I so move to move it to full counsel. All right. Motion to send it to full counsel. I'll second. Second by council Leone. Any discussion? Further discussion? Mr.
Miller. Call the role. Mr. Callahan, hi Miss Crampy Smith, Miss Quiet, hi Miss Leairard, Miss Leon, I Miss Wilhelm, hi and Mr. Cologne. I passes 5 Z. It's a sentended full council. So as it is amended, we'll go on a future council agenda. There will
be opportunities to make amendments and such or have other discussion, but I appreciate everybody. before we do adjourn and I am going to excuse myself from here and sit back down in my seat but we are as I'd said we will have public comment so just let me sign out
of here and then we'll have public comment before we adjourn the committee the whole meeting I signed you out so that I don't violate any uh computer use policies I'm I'll to start from left my left to the
center. Is there anyone who wanted to make comment on what was proposed this evening? I look to my left. I turn to the wide center. Anyone want to make comment, Mr. Sh?
Excuse me. campaign finance reports uh raised the question of campaign contributions and limits on same I have um just now updated my calculation at the time of the which I
did first at the ill- fated 30page uh ethics ordinance which died in the committee of the black hole. So, so, uh, the federal limit on campaign contributions to a
congressional candidate is now $35,000. There's two adjustments that need to be made. The first adjustment is that congressional campaigns are a lot more expensive and apparently
the uh estimate for us as a whole is $2.1 million in the city of Bethlehem for city council. I think $20,000 may be not a bad number. So that's a ratio of 100 to1.
So on that basis alone you would reduce that three and a half thousand limit to $35. But there is another adjustment that needs to be made and that is there's many more people in a
congressional district that can contribute than there are in the city of Bethlehem. And in particular, it's about 760,000 people in the average congressional district.
And that's 78,000 is the latest estimate I've seen for Bethlehem. So that's a ratio of about 10 to what? So that the $35 then becomes 350 would be a reasonable translation
of the federal limit on campaign contributions for congressional races to city council races in the city of Bethlehem $350. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shine. Any other public comment
before I adjourn? I just want to thank everyone and before I journ, I do want to thank our attorney Stewart and both city clerks Miller and Buba who helped a lot um in terms of crafting these amendments to getting us
prepared for tonight. So, thank you. This meeting is adjourned. We'll have full counsel in half an hour. Part: 2
He never shows up live. >> All right, we are recording everyone, just so you know. >> All right, good evening everyone. I'm going to get tonight's meeting started. I ask that we all rise for the pledge to the flag. >> 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. Mr. Miller, please call the role. >> Mr. Callahan, >> present. >> Miss Crampy Smith.
>> Miss Quiet, >> present. >> Miss Leair, >> Miss Leon, >> presenter. >> Miss Wilhelm, >> present. >> And Mr. Cologne, >> present. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Councilwoman Camy Smith will not be joining us this evening as she hopefully is enjoying her vacation. And then
Councilwoman Lair has just run a few minutes behind. She will be with us in a few minutes. Moving on to the approval of minutes for the September 16, 2025 council meeting. Any comment on the minutes from September 16?
Seeing none, minutes will stand approved. We're going to move on to public comment. As is custom, we will start with any subject not being voted on this evening. Uh for those who are unfamiliar, we have a fivem minute time limit and then I'll start with whoever
signed up in advance and then I will go around the room and invite anyone else who want to make comment to speak. So our first speaker signed up this evening is RD Curuto. And anyone who's speaking if you just don't mind stating your record or excuse me stating your name for the record for
our city clerk. And I welcome Councilwoman Leard also. >> Okay, no problem. Mr. Curtto, you have the floor. >> Hello everybody. I'm Arty Curuto, 813 Lawer Street, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
uh Southside. I don't know about you, but I am pretty well fed up with the situation. I'm sure most of you are with how things are going in our country that people want to speak, they get shot and killed. Hey, the
safety isn't there no more. We don't have respect for human lives as what happened to Charlie Kirk. I feel it was definitely things have to be done. Tighter security
needs to be in place. metal detectors. Even here, every public meeting, every event, every festival, people should be going through metal detectors.
No public meetings or or should I say speeches should be given except inside of a place. So someone won't be hiding up in a roof to go ahead and shoot somebody in the neck or in the head.
We got to put tighter security in our country to make it the metal detectors. We might have to all work for a little bit less to make it happen. Actually, I don't know how many elected officials
are tiding 10% of their to what they feel is godlike. Now, that says it in not only the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well to tithe at least 10%.
If I get elected, which is going to be a miracle if it is for the mayor of the city, I don't want one penny. Not one. I'm not married. I got no kids that I
know of. So, I don't need the money. I will do the job. But the thing is other people well of course you need the money but 10% is what we're supposed to tithe according to
many prophets wrote this not just Jesus many people wrote this in the Bible 10% and that would take care of the situation with a lot of the homeless people and especially
the American Indians who God gave this plan two that we stole it from. 10% could take care of the homeless situation. If everybody that's an elected official would give everybody, not just elected officials, everybody,
no matter what your job is, providing you have a decent job. I mean, if not, then you should be deported. Of course, you know, like uh if you have a decent job, no, it doesn't matter if you're a citizen, you shouldn't be
pushed to be a citizen. If you want to be a citizen, you become a citizen of the United States, and you're going to get benefits. Otherwise, you don't get the benefits. Simple as that. You should be able to work freely. The land, like all the
American Indian chief said, it's for everybody. God put this land for everyone. Then Harrison and Tyler came along and said, "So, you don't own the land?" "No, nobody owns the land. We don't own the land." "Oh, well, you put that in writing, then we'll help you."
And what did they do? They put them on reservations. They made them walk until they dropped and died. We They killed their children so they wouldn't become braves. They killed the women so they wouldn't bear braves. Yes, we own the American natives.
American Indians a lot. But one thing, we need to make the city more secure. So, we're an example to other cities to do the same thing. Metal detectors
need to be placed in every gathering. May I don't know, uh pray about the right thing to do. because I'm sure God is with most of us because we are a God-fearing country and
we will do the right thing. I'm sure. God bless. Our next speaker is Harry Faber. Harry Faber. Two years ago today, the most broadcasted and live streamed genocide
the world has ever seen began. For two years, the city on the hill stayed silent during the most broadcasted and live streamed genocide in history. For two years, we watched our tax dollars and finite resources fund the Israeli
regime's attempt at exterminating an entire race. For two years, we saw their strength as the survivors of this genocide refused to give up their homeland. As Dr. Omar Sullyman said, quote, "Two years of torn limbs,
desperate cries, mass slaughter, forced starvation, a genocide preceded by 75 years of apartheid, occupation, and land confiscation paid for by our t tax dollars. The horror didn't begin in
2023. it just became too visible to deny." End quote. For two years, we watched between 100,000 and 200,000 tons of bombs being dropped in an area the size of Philadelphia, killing over 66,000
people that we know of. But experts recently estimated 136,000 violent deaths and 544,000 deaths due to imposed deprivation. To put that in perspective, Bethlehem is
a city of roughly 80,000 people. At bare minimum, 82.5% of our population would have been violently murdered, if not 1.7 times Bethlehem's population. This past week, we watched the most
livereamed and documented attempt at delivering humanitarian aid into Gaza, only for Israel to commit more war crimes, kidnapping and torturing or torturing the activists on the summit flotillaa. This past week, we also witnessed the
imperial boomerang in effect. The same tactics and action used by the IF to abduct Palestinians from their homes were used by ICE in Chicago. This terrorist attack dubbed Operation Midway Blitz. We saw approximately 300 armed
federal agents, some reportedly repelling from a Blackhawk helicopter onto the roof of a 130 unit apartment building where, according to resident accounts, agents broke down doors, used flashbangs, and restrained residents with zip ties, including children.
Residents reported being held for hours, with some claiming agents pointed guns at them. In total, 37 people were kidnapped. However, residents reported that US citizens, including children, and a military veteran, were also detained for hours before being released.
Now, genocide is nothing new for the American Empire, and I cannot attest to your complicity to our crimes of the past. But what I can say in confidence is that for the last two years, you have been silent. Some of you may say, "This is a foreign policy issue. It's not our
place." That is a coward's excuse. It is your place because our tax dollars are involved. It is your place because our community members are grieving and demanding action. It is your place because the principles of justice, human
rights, and dignity you swore to uphold do not stop at our city's limits. You have the power of the pulpit. You have the power to pass a resolution condemning the genocide and calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire. You have the power to divest our city's
funds from any companies or bonds that profit from this oppression. You have the power to stand with the millions of Americans and the vast majority of people on this planet who are screaming for this to stop. And yet you have chosen not to use that power. And in
that choice, you have stained our city's reputation. >> Thank you, Mr. Favor. Our next person signed up. >> Daniel, >> get give us one second. Everyone will address the technical issue.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah, we'll we'll address it and we'll try to get it going. Thanks, Brian. Our next speaker signed up is Jan Beatty. >> Hi. Yes, I'm Jan Batty 321 East Wall Street. >> Uh we just simple word of appreciation
to public works. Uh we're relatively new in the city and had a concern and issue that we called into them and just wanted to commend Angela and I think Greg who's in charge of street electrical or something um for just being very
attentive and professional and getting uh the help that we needed. So we appreciate that. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> And thank you, Mr. Alulture Department. Next is Lynn Rothman. >> Good evening. Lyn Lynn Rothman, 870
Wford Lane, Bethlehem. Uh I'm speaking first on behalf of the Environmental Advisory Council. We've been um recently working with our sustainability manager, Sarah. We've recently been working with our sustainability manager Sarah Deg Grando
to set priorities um to re-engage our committees in order to bring some of the strategies in the climate action plan to fruition. Um I'd like everyone to be aware that on November 20th at 9:00 a.m. there will be an update on the climate action plan at
city hall. It will be livereamed and I'm sure recorded. Um each sector of the climate action plan such as in green space, local food and waste, transportation and mobility, environmental justice, etc. Uh we'll give a report on the progress made in
2025 and the goals for 2026. I'd also like to announce that there's an open position on the EAC. So, city council will be appointing a new member in January. So, if you or anyone that you know of would like to
apply, it just requires a letter of interest and a resume to be uh sent to our email at EAC Bethlehem atgmail.com or you can just go to our website which is bethlehemac.org
and learn more about what we do. Um, you must be a resident of Bethlehem City to serve on the EAC. That's really the only requirement. And while I am will not be renewing my position uh in January to serve on the
EAC, I just wanted to say that it's been my privilege to serve. It's been rewarding and my pleasure to work with the city administration, the city staff and city council and the progress we've made um can and continue to make on the goals of the CAP, especially with Sarah
Degrrenle and her position as sustainability manager are positive. So really recognition to Mayor Reynolds years ago when he was on council for um initiating the climate action plan and then the members of city council for
supporting it and for allocating the funds for a climate action plan. Eastston then followed suit with their own climate action plan. And you may have seen in the news Allentown city just um allocated funds for a climate
action plan. So that's the good news. Um, speaking personally um to to the speaker that um spoke uh before me, uh, October 7th also marks the day that uh Israel was invaded and people were
beheaded and raped and captured and kidnapped and terrorized. Um, and that Hamas itself is really not a Palestinian organization. They really are not helping the Palestinian people. and
Israel and the United States has been supplying food, but it has been um taken by by Hamas who is in control. So there there's so many complexities to this situation. Of course, what is going on
right now to the Palestinian people is abhorrent and and devastating. Um but it is a very complex situation. Uh so thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Rothman. So that exhausts our list of who had signed up. There are a few people who
signed up for second public comment, but a couple of them I think perhaps meant to sign up for first public comment as this is the time to speak on anything not being voted on. So I I'll first recognize Mary Tomlinson if I'm correct that. Okay.
Hello. Good evening. I'm Mary Tomlinson. I live in Allentown. I am here on behalf of our local end mass incarceration group to speak about our concerns regarding Zack Colborgi's arrest.
with members of end mass incarceration power Lehigh Valley denounced the way Lehigh County Commissioner Zack Cole Borgi has been treated regarding criminal allegations recently made by the district attorney's office.
Although no haste appeared at all necessary for this case, nevertheless, Zach was arrested at his workplace immediately. Zach was assessed a high bail immediately and Zach was fired from his
job immediately and numerous stories about him were published in all forms of public media immediately. Whether intentional or not, prosecutors presented the case against Mr. Cole Borgie in an inflammatory manner. While
declining to mention any of the other numerous defendants, the DA's office included only Mr. Cole Borg's name placed alongside extremely serious allegations against various people.
Other sectors of the community have also failed Mr. Kborgi. The city of Bethlehem failed him by firing him in just hours, leaving him and his family in turmoil. The media failed public servant Mr.
Colborgi by neglecting to explain the context of the charge or that there were no details or criminal complaint. Media sources simply regurgitated the sparse allegations disseminated by the DA's office harmfully.
The opposite of the hollowed principle of the presumption of innocence has occurred. A rush to judgment that should chasten and concern us all. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Thank you.
And our next speaker, Sharon Finnegan. Good evening. Um, I wanted to speak tonight about the incident that happened here in August. Um, and by incident, I am talking about the city of Bethlehem's ugly and blatant denial of basic rights
and dignity of a city employee. The charges and un unsubstantiated blame barely made public before Zack Colborgi was fired. Two city council members immediately went on record as calling the situation distressing and disheartening while
insinuating further involvement. The city of Bethlehem had no comment on the matter but stated that he was no longer an employee of the city. That is a profound comment. The handling of this was dirty and sloppy.
Zack Colborgi is also a Lehigh County Commissioner. Leah County Commissioners did not call this disheartening or distressing, did not immediately presume his guilt, gave Mr. Cole Borgi the dignity and the opportunity to make a statement, and he remains on the board
of commissioners. Shockingly, local media had no issue fully prosecuting in the newspaper, and local TV graphics on screens behind them were, while reporting, were blatantly inflammatory. Uh to date there has been
no other name put out publicly. Zack Colborgi is known and respected in the community. He's been a devoted public advocate for years giving voice to people who don't have a voice as well as a dedicated public employee. And despite this, he has been given no due process
and no presumption of innocence. From the outside looking in, this looks shockingly ugly and dirty. It looks racist and politically partisan and all I can say is we have to do better. Thank you.
>> Thank you. That exhaust our list of who had signed up in advance. So I'll go around the room. Again, we're on public comment for anything not being voted on this evening. Was there anyone to the left who want to make comment or anything not being voted on, sir? And again, I ask if you could state your
name for the record for the minutes. get the microphone. >> Hi, my name is Mike Staer. Um, I live in Bethlehem. Um, before I say anything, I just wanted to compliment uh Mike, you on your leadership. Um, very often
you'll say, uh, if you need to talk to anybody, hang around till after the meeting and we'll be glad to talk to you. I have found that to be true and in every case whether I was talking to Brian or I can't remember your name but I've met quite a few of you um always
been this isn't a to set up a criticism by the way but um very very um it's very true um and I appreciate it you always have let me talk you let other people talk very
respectful so thank you that's you run a good show um the The reason I'm here is uh I'll just use an allegory. I remember when my son graduated from high school. A lot of parents probably would go through something like this. You look and you go, "Wow, when did that happen?"
Like, "When did my son grow up?" Like like in the blink of an eye, things just change, right? And you look back, you remember like everything that brought you to that point. And you just scratch your head. You go, "How did time pass so fast? How did we get where we're at?"
And uh I was driving the other day down uh if you if you come off Stefco, everybody knows that you know you go on to Eastston Avenue to William Penn Highway if you're trying to go down to the township or down to Easton, right? And I remember turning and looking way
way way down the road at a lone traffic light and traffic was moving like eight cars at a time and then the light would change and it took like at least 12 to 13 minutes to go probably a quarter mile.
And this is just we accept this. Like people just go, "Well, yeah, that's Bethlehem. That that that's just the way it is. It's crazy there, right?" And and I remember in my mind thinking like like how did we get here? Like I it just seems like the blink of an eye. I remember you used to be able to traverse
around town fairly fluently and I go like like what happened? And anymore it just seems like when you drive around like the pace of development I'm not anti-progress but something's
different in the last few years. It seems like like there's almost an urgent rush like a obsession with with building and developing like every square foot. Uh if you blink an eye, if you don't go
to a certain part of town for 3 weeks, you're liable to come back and see a crane there erecting like a a three-story structure. It's just and it's just it's it's almost overwhelming. It's like overwhelming and it's so much and it's so constant and it's so
relentless that as a citizen um trying to be a respectful citizen trying to be balanced. Brian, by the way, uh you did a great job. The last time I talked, you gave an eloquent talk about the balance, like, yeah, hey, we hear you, but we do
have competing interests, right? And it's hard to find that sweet spot. And I appreciate that and I and I can accept and respect that. Um, so but I would just say as a citizen, man, if there's any flexibility, whatever wiggle room,
whatever power you do possess to maybe somehow just slow it down just a little bit. It the the pace is just it's it's like warp speed, right? Bethlehem, and I said it before, the
town of Bethlehem is we're close. If we're not already there, we're not a town anymore. were the city of Bethlehem heading for metropolis of Bethlehem heading most sadly toward um an enigma just a big overflow of just
city going from Allentown to Bethlehem to Easton. No separation, no clear identity, just a lot of cars, a lot of condos, a lot of apartments, right? And I want to close by saying I know and again I appreciate there's no magic
bullet. So, I'm not standing here criticizing um and then just walking away. I'm saying I get it. I accept that. I respect that. I'm just saying, wow, if there's anything you have in your arsenal to just kind of anywhere you can
to slow things down a little bit, it would really be appreciated by the vast majority of residents in Bethlehem. Again, I know it's cliche, but the very reason that people want to come to Bethlehem and live here is the very
thing that seems to be disappearing and quickly leaving us literally as the days and hours go by. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Was there anyone else still left? I'll turn to the wide center. I'll
start in the very back. Yes, sir. Uh Mark Wber, uh here to talk about water as usual, West Elizabeth Avenue. Uh I apologize for not signing up the list. I recently got brought out of retirement to coach at Lehi. So I'm just getting here from practice. So this is
an Aqua Hawk I have up here. It's the Mountain Hawk. But uh I do want to talk about Alcohawk and uh these uh downloadable apps that would protect the uh citizens from high water bills. And it's uh pertinent again because if I
don't are anybody on council I know you can't talk but maybe raise a hand or you does anybody look at complainers of Bethlehem which is a site on uh it's a much bigger site than the drip. the drip. We're almost 400 people now, but uh complainers I think is
9,000. A lot of people on it. Very recently uh in the last week there was a lot of people on there saying, "Man, my water bill is like double what it was before. Um now that I have a smart meter in uh the one woman in particular had a
$296 bill for the quarter, two people in the residence." Um, and prior to the smart meter, she had she usually was at about 140 for the quarter. So, more than double, uh, significant. Then other people came on. My bill's high, too. My bill's high,
too. And to be fair, there was some people that came on and said that their bill was more or less what it always had been. Now, whether they had gotten their smart meters or not yet, I don't know. But, uh, and then right away people came on and said, "Well, maybe you got a
leak." And, uh, Mr. Boscola's favorite. Maybe your toilet flapper is loose. And my point that I went on and immediately made was that if you had Aqua Hawk or Iron Water or one of these downloadable apps, she wouldn't be finding out at the
end of 3 months that there was a problem. They would have caught the leak within days, if not within hours, because you you can, you know, monitor your water by the hour. And this is just going to keep going on and on until, you
know, this gets implemented. people are going to have these higher water bills, not just the mega bills that that got me and my wife and got the uh uh Solitario woman, but these just double bills, you know, just high bills that could be uh
often headed off at the pass if if we just had this app, which is quite common place at city comparable cities as I've said before, whether it's uh Ann Arbor, Michigan or you know, various places. Okay. uh and uh Mr. Buscola, I think a couple
meetings ago, had said, "Well, I don't get a lot of demands for this." Uh, oh, well, guess what? You don't have anything about that about these apps on your website, so you don't know what you don't know, right? When I got my smart meter over two and a half uh years ago
now, I didn't know about this app. I just found out about it in the months after that because I'm researching this this issue and this problem. Otherwise, I wouldn't know about it. If I had known about it, I would have been jumping up and down and said, you know, where's my Aqua Hawk? Where's my eye on water? You
know, you're making me take this meter. I can't even uh I have no say in the make or the model meter and I have to take it. Uh the very least you could do is give me this uh this app that would protect me against uh high bills and
help me identify leaks early. Now, um yeah. So, I would love to see something about that on there. Right now, if you look, I'm sure you won't see anything. You have a better chance of finding a leprechaun under the Phil fee bridge uh than any info about this this app, which
is is of great benefit to the citizens. Um he also expressed that, you know, how we going to pay for it, that kind of thing. Little hand ring might be 100,000. They're making hundreds of thousands of dollars when they get this uh all these smart meters in. They're going to make hundreds of thousands of
dollars from it. And uh I've come to that conclusion because I've looked at other cities. This guy in Tex Arcana who's basically the Ed Boscola of Tex Arcana, Gary Smith and he's on a TV station a couple months ago down there going that they expect to make over
$500,000 in revenue from their new smart meters once they're in. and they have downloadable apps for their people even though that city has a 20% plus poverty rate, but their citizens are protected. So, take some of that money that you're making and give the citizens the
protection that they deserve. Unless we're we're not as good as uh the people in Apple, Wisconsin, or Ann Arbor, Michigan, and on and on and on. I think we should be, and these guys should have the expertise to do it. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. or whoever. Anyone else in the center? Sir, to my immediate left. Yep. In the center or in the middle row. All right. Hello everyone. My name is Sean Kernan. Um I live in West
Bethlehem, 414 West Market. Uh something I wanted to share tonight. I'm a not fully prepared and it's a fairly complicated story that I'd like to tell. Um, but I'm a Fab Lab instructor, part of an adject instructor at Northampton
Community College on Southside at the Fowler Center. Um, and it was probably the third week of August that I was walking around Southside, probably going to either Starbucks or somewhere around town. Um, and I came across these stickers
um, on the street. So this is sorry these are really stuck well. So these were stickers that were in the right ofway on the sidewalk. This is for an event called Lehi Lounge. Um and this
was uh an event at Country Club Brewing which is just off of the the greenway. Um so this was is part of sort of startup Lehigh Valley or startup event. at some sort of pre
uh entrepreneurship event on Southside at Country Club Brewing. Um and it was Friday, August 8th and Saturday, August 9th during Musicfest. Okay. Um when I was walking around Southside,
probably let's call it August 15th or August 20th. Um trying to you know clear my head. I'm an engineer. I'm a product developer. I'm an instructor at the Fab Lab as well. I like to go for walks and I like to clear clear my head. Um I'm
probably going to run out of time, but as I was walking on the street, I saw these stuck to the ground. Very well stuck to the ground. Okay, so these are pretty big. They're in the right of way name and also in I believe the historic district as well. So, these are in the
right ofway on the ground um on Southside Bethlehem. Um seeing those I thought it was very interesting to see street advertisements like these on the sidewalk for one. Um I
went to school in Ohio. I'm originally from Ohio, but I've lived here in Bethlehem for 10 years. Um where I went to school at Ohio State, um had I grown up in Pennsylvania, I would have gone to Penn State. But things like this on my campus would not have been
tolerated at all because it sets a really poor precedent for advertising on campus for events and other things. So we were instructed to use chalk to to advertise for events and that sort of thing
through a variety of um things. You know, this was also the event finished up on the 8th and 9th of August. I saw these stickers still stuck there, let's call it the 20th of August. Um, and I thought this was interesting and I was actually part of the Southside Arts
District Design Committee for a number of for the last year. I'm no longer part of it because my workload has increased. Um, I presented these stickers to the group and I said, "Hey, there are representatives from Lehi here. There are representatives from Southside Arts
District. There's representatives from Arts Quest that are also on the block. And I said, "Hey, I saw these stickers on the street. What are they doing here? Like, how did they get approved? What's what's the what's the path here?" Um,
nothing happened. Um, and I sort of just let them stay. I wanted to see how long they might last. Um, flash forward to the last week of August. They were still on the street
and um, I walked through I actually tried to find as many as I could. There were six and I actually have a map of all the places on Southside where these were stuck on the street in crosswalks, pictures of these things
in public right away. I um then in and I'm a person that's on Instagram, so I thought perhaps the the Lehigh University or Country Club Brewing or some of these other institutions might want to know that this is happening. So I tagged these
people on Instagram having showing, hey, there are these stickers. The event ended three weeks ago. Why are these stickers still polluting our streets? And nothing happened. um a number of things continued on, but
it wasn't until a month later that having nothing happened and people being made aware of this, I decided to take it upon myself to take these off the street because they set a bad precedent for Southside Bethlehem and the historic district of Bethlehem. I'm running out of time. I'd like to sort of tell this
story at some point when I have more time. There's more to it and people need to be held accountable in my opinion for stuff like this polluting the streets. >> Thank you. You're welcome to stick around after the meeting as I ref was referenced earlier or all of our individual emails including the city
clerk who could forward all of us anything is uh available on the city council website. City website >> parting words permits were not pulled for these um and that's problematic. >> Understood. >> Thanks. Was there anyone else in the wide center who wanted to make comment
this evening? Miss Mcool Mary Mary Joe Mcool 449 Grand View Boulevard. Several items to present. First is the continuing speeding. Salisbury Township re recently began using the NRAD system of controlling
speed. ENRAD stands for electronic non-raar device. A set distance is measured out and laid out. One patrol car uses a stopwatch to time the vehicle from point A to point B. Speed is then calculated.
Speed equals distance divided by time. If a vehicle is speeding, police up ahead are notified and the ticket is issued. It might be beneficial to inquire Salisbury Township Police its effectiveness and to do several ride
alongs. While I admit there is room for error, it might be worthwhile to investigate the system to try to reduce speeding in the city. Second, what is the city doing regarding tax dollars spent to support the Bethleam co-op fiasco? The money could have and should
have been allocated to address the homelessness issue. regarding u let me backtrack. Okay. Um I'll come back to that issue in a second. I recently had a a long row of
arborite taken down as I'm getting older. They're harder to maintain and the estimates that I had to maintain them were ridiculously out of price. So, I had them taken down and I had
estimates for a privacy, a vinyl privacy fence. I selected one company and I inquired as to whether or not I needed a permit. The city said, "Yes, I needed a permit." And I said, "I already have a fence. Why do
I need a permit to install a new fence inside my existing fence?" And they said, 'Well, we need I needed the permit to ensure that the new fence was no higher, no taller than six feet. My complaint is that my arborite, the
chainlink fence that was there was 5T and that was installed over 35 years ago. The arboride were 7 and 1/2 ft tall. I installed a 6' high fence. I paid the permit, but it seems redundant that I already had a fence and I needed
a permit to install another fence inside. I think it's just a money money-making scheme and it's just more regulation that you know is what we need to get rid of in some cases.
Now, going back to the homeless issue regarding the Martin Tower situation, I have watched council meetings and I want to throw in my two cents regarding a lured designation to this project and for that matter the
handover apartment project. Norton Herrick is the majority owner of both properties. Please keep in mind that this man is a billionaire, that's a B, and can readily afford to pay the taxes. If that is a problem for him, because of
numerous zoning issues and legal wrangling, he should have thought about that before making such large land purchases. Years ago, this issue of alerted designation was proposed and Bethlehem school district voted against granting it. Bethlehem School District
felt that it would be detrimental to families struggling to stay in their homes. That issue has only become more prevalent with the current homelessness situation. As a senior on fixed income, I too feel the crunch and I have had to make choices to ma to simplify
maintenance to my property and this simplification has come at a cost which I will have to absorb. I have a copy of a opinion letter that was written by Mr. Antalix and it was in the Sunday paper
on September 17th, 2023 and it's entitled Taxpayers Shouldn't Have to Help a Billionaire Redevelop Martin Tower. And I've got a copy for every Do you want me to just pass them down? >> Thank you, Miss McClo.
>> You're welcome. >> Is there anyone else in the wide center? Mr. Sh. Billshshire, uh, 1898 Avenue. Incidentally, I think it's good to hear addresses so we know where people live. I mean, not not that we're going to do
anything to them, but just it's informative. Uh, I had a conversation the other day with a police officer and I learned that the and uh I haven't
confirmed it yet, but uh he seemed to know what he was talking about that the strength of the police department is now down to 133 and the authorized strength is 154.
That's a deficit of 21 officers. um budget time is coming up. I asked him why is Bethlehem is Bethlehem having more problems than other jurisdictions
uh in the Lehigh Valley. And the sense that I got is that not to any great extent. It's Eastston used to be well he said the main problem he thinks is the salaries in Bethlehem are too low. He said used Eastston used to be at the
bottom and they've raised their salaries and they're doing better. So, it's budget time and if this is the case and I think the chief can be relied upon to let you know if it is the case, we would need some comparisons with other
jurisdictions in in the valley. And if that's the case, we need to do something about it. I mean, uh officers like to come here, some of them anyway. I know one officer who was working in Anacostia in the District of Columbia and he I he
didn't say so but I'm sure he appreciates that there's a lower lower level of crime here than there is in Anacostia. But that's not enough. We need to pay our officers uh decently and so that they can do some
other things like giving more attention to reckless driving. You've heard me talk about this before. And by the way, I don't do that maneuver anymore where I get on the on-ramp to 378 from Union Boulevard, but
stay on the on-ramp and then go to the off-ramp to get to 8th Avenue. It's a great time saver, but there was just too many things happening. And uh Council Member Quotech said, "Bill, don't do that anymore." And I thought about it and I don't do it anymore. But something
happened to me recently. Um, uh, I have an old car as some of you know, and I think people think they can pick on me. I maybe I'm getting a little paranoid or something, but um, Friday night on Celtic Fest, I'm driving west
on Broad Street between Third and Fourth Avenue, and there's more congestion than usual, but not much. Not Not a whole lot. Uh there's a gap in the parking spaces on my right. I become aware of a smaller
white sedan coming up on the right with a clear intention to cut in front of me. Uh I left a little I was going because of the congestion I think I was going close to the speed limit but a little bit less and there was some space in
front. So, may probably shouldn't mention this, but I made a mistake. And this old car of mine has a 5 L engine, and most people don't realize that. It's a Crown Vic. They were once
police cars. And I decide I'm going to cut this son of a gun out. And so, I speed it up so he would be forced to stop before run ramming into a park car. Well,
I if I ever do that again, I got to do a better job of it. And otherwise, perhaps I should just slow down and let him get in front. Just hope he doesn't kill someone. Uh he he or she did not give up. Then speed it up further. Cut in
front, I swear with a foot to spare. No accident, no contact. But this is an example. I'm not I don't think this is an isolated case. This is an example like uh this gentleman here was talking about
what's going on in this city. Part of the problem is the immigrants from New Jersey and they bring their driving habits with them when they move here. But if we had more police officers, we could do more about this. So it's bud budget time. Let's treat our officers
well. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. SH. Is there anyone else in the wide center who wants to make comment who hasn't had a chance? Oh, ma'am, you've already addressed council. >> I didn't state my name.
>> Thank you, Miss Finnean. >> Mr. Antalics, >> Stephen Stevenics, 77 Ridge. I had the occasion to drive on East Third Street and I was forced to stop and park and
just observe a continuing tragedy, the monstrosity that's going up under the name of Arts Quest. I recall way back
a fish market there and it their sign said if it swims we sell it and theories the reason bananas that's all gone
I thought if a resident moved away for 50 years and came back to Bethlehem and draw on Main Street, that'd be relaxed because Main Street
would look like it looked 50 years ago. But if that person drove on Third Street, as I was be shocked, he will not recognize Bethlehem. Why?
because the market house is gone which could have become like a reading market and its day was the center of the Lehigh Valley and all the shops along Third Street
had historic significance. They're all gone. where was the marketplace is a gas station. Who ever heard of a gas station in the center of the business district?
It happens in Bethlehem on the south side. Another abortion is that the s the south historic district includes West Bethlehem.
Why? Way back, West Bethlehem was a burrow adjacent to guess who? The burrow of Bethlehem. And they were separated by the burrow of
South Bethlehem by a river. But the wise people of Bethlehem decided to make the historic district include West Bethlehem and South Bethlehem rather than keeping West Bethlehem with the burrow of Bethlehem,
which made sense. So [Music] all the ordinances and resolutions concerning the preservation of Southside have become paper tigers. They mean
nothing. They mean nothing because or an example as I mentioned a number of times and a harness many years to destroy this outside ambience
by calling five students a family. And I said they were transients and I was called down by a member of council because I referred to them as transit transients and claiming person claimed that they were residents
which is absurd. So what's the solution? There is none. There is none. It's too late. But as you p me here later,
the disease that destroy the southside is slowly creeping across the river to the north side and definitions are changing that we used to be is now including new
developments. So the line between the two is being blurred. So maybe in 15 20 years broad and rather main and market may look differently because a city has lost integrity to
maintain its history. Sad. It's very sad. >> Thank you, Mr. Antal. Is there anyone else in the wide center who hasn't had a chance to speak who wants to make comment? Anyone to the right? All right, that's going to conclude our
first public comment. Moving on to second public comment. This is for any ordinance or resolution that council's voting on this evening. The fivem minute time limit still applies. We have two people signed up. First being Bruce Haynes. Okay, thank you. Bruce Haynes, uh,
Church Street, Bethl. I just want to set the record straight, Bill. I'm a New Jersey immigrant from years ago. Um, >> watch how you drive. >> Um, I'm here to talk about uh my concern over the the contract for consulting
contract for North Side Alive. Um, North Alive when it was formed in 17 was essentially to be essentially designed to look at the bladed area of the residential area north of the of the central business
district and west of the east of the central business district um including uh Lynen Street commercial buildings etc. And um somehow this year early in the year
it came to my attention that now it also did include I'll have to acknowledge uh the ability for the Boyd Theater to be benefit from whatever economic benefits North Side Alive could have uh to help
the the blight which obviously it was blighted at that time. Earlier this year, I discovered that the boundaries of North Side Alive somehow had creeped down uh to the block from Main Street to
Getter Street, which is the Liberty Liberty Center uh including all the new buildings there on on Broad Street on the north side of Broad Street. So, um, clearly there was no need to include
them into the blighted area to help improve the north side alive residential district. And so effectively what they did is it intruded into the downtown commercial business district and divided
Broad Street into North Side Alive on the north and the historic district and historic downtown on the to the south. I don't understand when that happened, why that happened. It only became to my
attention the beginning of the year when effectively those people on the north side of Broad Street were the ones who voted to do away with the downtown DBA board completely. their vote did away with the the board
and disintegrated the DBA and and um it's basically has divided the downtown between Main Street and North Broad Street. I don't understand why it got included. It again, it's not residential. It's part of the downtown
commercial business district. So, I don't know what this this new study is going to do and is it going to include more? Are they going to creep creep into the historic district? Where where is this and what's it about? Um it's a it's a very it was a very serious situation
from my perspective. It has it has uh as I said it's impacted the entire downtown business district and uh perhaps someone from the administration can explain when that happened. Did the city council vote to exchange the boundaries somewhere
along the way? And when did that happen? [Music] >> Well, there'll be an opportunity for council test questions as we do on the floor. Mr. Hans, >> thank you. >> Our next speaker signed up this evening is Jeffrey Parks.
My name is Jeffrey Parks. 223 East Church Street. I meandered three blocks from my home to say something positive, but I'm I hate to be that unique. Uh I um wanted to first of all thank all of
you for spending your time, the administration people, the mayor, the council, uh to be our public servants, to watch over our community. And uh you could be sitting at home and watching Jeopardy like I usually am every night. uh but instead you're here taking care
of business for the city. I was here to offer my support and encouragement for the continued support of the UNESCO World Heritage site and the request for the $150,000 to support the position generously created and partially
supported by Moravian University. 80 years ago, almost 80 years ago, Bethleam Steel hired a young man named Ralph Schwarz. Ralph Schwarz convinced Bethlehem Steel that to live to be a major industry and have their headquarters in this community, they had to do something to make the community
look better. And rather than choose the part of town that had the mill in it, they made the north side the part of town that was better by creating all of the parklands that we enjoy on the north side of town here and by investing in money in historic preservation.
Uh the the north side downtown completely changed. There was a brief period of time when this complex was created when people decided that we needed something new and flashy to compete with the malls that were growing up in Whiteall Township
and that didn't work. So by 1984 when I was standing in this room pitching a a a dream or a long uh way to try to start the downtown here, get it back in shape, a little festival called Musicfest. Um,
we were relying too on the graciousness of the city which donated police and fire and uh the graciousness of Moravian College which donated rooms and the you may not know this but the first vendor at Fest Plots at Musicfest was the wood
catering service that moved their faces campus uh to sell vener schnitle and stuff for musicfest. But it all came together here we stand 40 years later. I think the most important thing that you will do because you're the generation
now that's running the show and I'm very happy for that. Uh the most important thing you're going to do uh in this era is to support that UNESCO World Heritage site designation uh to do what needs to be done to bring the various groups
together to support that to operate it to maintain those facilities uh which uh part of which are on public land but unlike many world heritage sites. It's diverse with many different owners and many different groups involved. Um, and
this is a good start with this heritage director that's supported by Moravian. >> Um, that's it. Uh, I think 40 years from now, I hope you're able to stand where I am and see a vigorous young city council that is building upon what you did. We
all build on the shoulders of the people who came before us. uh and as a as the person who came before you and is leaving at some point in the not too distant future, I want to thank you for being where you are and express my uh hope that you will continue to support
this world heritage site designation. I think it will have the same level of impact that Musicfest and Arts Quest have had in terms of the social, economic, and cultural development of this community for many years to come. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Parks. So that exhausts
our list for second public comment. Again, this is for anything council is going to be voting on this evening. So I'll go around the room. I'll start to the left. Is there anyone who hasn't had a chance who wants to make comment on anything that we're going to vote on? Again, I turn to the wide center
relative to anything on the agenda. Mr. Shire, 1898 Avenue. I noticed there's a number of dollars uh on the agenda tonight for various services. 40,000 for North Side
Alive, 12,000 to get help setting up the revolving loan fund. That's the lowest. 150,000 for the World Heritage Site Manager,
which I guess involves some marketing. and a budget adjustment of 120,000 for downtown initiatives. And I'd like to focus on that because I'm wondering what this is. There's no explanation. Um
what's who gets the money? Is it to pay city employees? What are they doing? Or if it's going out of house, who's getting it? What kind of initiatives are in the future?
Um how will they be done? What's the expected impact? I think that uh it's we are at least the public perhaps the council knows exactly what's going on here but this public
citizen does not and perhaps the public is entitled to more information. Thank you very much >> Mr. Sher, can I ask you a favor of you? Can you just cite what agenda item you were referencing for anyone following along? >> Yeah. Isn't there a budget adjustment on
the agenda for $120,000 to downtown initiatives? >> We have two or we'll go through the agenda. I don't know if you had the agenda. >> Communication and I'm assuming it was to be acted on tonight, but maybe I would I am mistaken. Wouldn't be the first time.
>> We'll go through the agenda, Mr. Sh. Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else who want to make comment on anything that we're voting on this evening? >> Okay, we're going to continue on. Thank you everyone. Old business. Any old
business from members of council? >> New business. Any new business from members of council? >> I'll start with Mr. Callahan. >> Mr. Collins, could you um address Mr. Haynes's uh questions >> now?
>> Yeah. Well, I I would I would politely say that's an agenda item this evening, the what Mr. Haynes was was spoke about at the lectern. So, I think that's I'm not disagreeing with having discussion about it, but that'll be a resolution that we're voting on tonight. So, we could have that conversation when we get
to the resolution. >> And and then the other thing is um last meeting we had asked for the uh the list of all the um of uh funds that um the parking authority has given to the city. if you had a chance to get that yet.
>> Um, I do have it. I can read it off or I can also send it via email. Um, if that's helpful. Um, but well, since I'm here, I will read it off. So, uh, the parking authority contributes recurring um, every year to, uh, Bedco for the
Southside Arts District. They make a $95,000 contribution to the Lehigh Valley Chamber or the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. $100,000 contribution to the Southside Ambassadors program. As of this past year, they started making a
$100,000 contribution to that program. And then they've also supported various one-time projects. Uh we talked about Fairview Park where they contributed $20,000 and then the street lights for Main Street. That's a um $37,000
contribution. So, a few of the things that the BPA has described um that are supported, you know, through Bedco or the chamber um things like salaries that support the downtown initiatives either on the north side or the south side. Um it's contributed to Christmas decor and
lighting, uh new live advent door um on the north side. um their contribution supported new Christmas village huts also um helping revamp the website and uh they also contribute annually to the tree lighting ceremony through those some of those dollars.
>> Are all those additional items um included in the numbers you guys correct gives or are there additional >> No, those are those are illustrative of the types of things that their contributions that I just listed support. >> Right. Yeah. If you could just send that to us, I'd appreciate it.
>> That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other new business from council? Councilwoman Lar. >> Oh, Miss Collins, sorry. I think it's a question for you. Um, one of the commenters inquired about um the food
co-op and funding. Um, and I I've heard from other residents lately that they've seen a lot of posts floating around online and they're asking questions about funding and making sure that it's being used appropriately. Um, so I know
the city manages the um the handling of the grant that the co-op received. It funnels through the city. Um, can you just talk about how those funds work in terms of the reimbursement um and what checks and balances are in place to make sure that they're being
spent appropriately, etc. >> Sure. So, the grant that you're referring to, it's a um they're federal dollars. um it's referred to as community project funding or sometimes congressionally directed spending. So back 2021 there was an application uh
for that bucket of funds and it was awarded um at the recommendation of then congresswoman Susan Wild. So it's you know often these projects they need support from their their federal congress people. Um so the city of Bethlehem was the applicant and um the
food co-op is essentially like the subreient. So we serve as a in a pass through role which happens sometimes in federal grants in part because they're so challenging to administer that having an entity like the city that has checks in place and processes by which we can
administer federal funds it it makes a project um more likely to be funded. So um you know as the project has progressed um those funds do flow through the city. They're on a reimbursement basis. So um essentially
what happens is the food co-op will um expend funds on various aspects of their project. They are within categories that are already approved by HUD. HUD is the granting federal agency. Um and you know there are certain categories that they
can spend money in whether it's salaries or equipment or you know other you know types of expenditures. All of that as a plan first had to be approved by HUD. Um and then expenditures that the co-op makes have to fall within those
categories of eligible expenses. Um they submit reimbursement requests that you know their federal grant consultant people put together. Essentially, a package would include um you know um everything from you know just their
narrative about what it was spent on to like the actual you know pay you know um cancel checks, payubs, you know all the sort of backup documentation you might imagine that the federal government would ask for to not only um to show what what the money was spent on and and
to like show that it was actually spent. So all of that will come through us and then go to HUD and HUD looks at each um expenditure and signs off or not before they distribute the funds to us and then we distribute it to the co-op. So it's a long way of saying that yes there are there are very robust checks and
balances on how that bucket of money is is spent. >> Okay. and the money >> I'll also so I'll also add that when the money goes out even though there's it's already approved by HUD before it comes to us it's al also has to be approved by
our controller before it goes out the door as well >> okay um and there was a question about you know could that money have been used for something else um could it have been put towards homelessness projects etc it it could not have been correct >> no so from the time that there's
applications submitted and then the congressionally directed spending process happens. You know, when the when the funds are awarded, they are funded to a spec awarded to a specific applicant for a specific project and they can't be reallocated by us or even the federal government.
>> Okay. Thank you. Sure. >> Any other new business from members of council? Councilwoman Leo. >> Um I have a question for Chief Cot, but thank you. And a shout out to public works as always. You guys paved Fifth Street, which looks amazing. And now
comes the inevitable zoom zooms. But it's it's amazing work and everybody was made aware early enough and parking was sorted. So once again, good work to public works. Chief Cop, how many cops do we have? How like are we down to the
130s? >> So we're authorized for 154. We currently have 14 vacancies. So those are open vacant positions. However, we do have officers that are out on long-term injury. We also have a
number of officers that are away on military leave. So, that would bring us down even more. >> Okay. >> Uh off the top of my head, I'm I'm not quite sure, but we we're either in the 140s or the the high 130s. >> Okay. All right. And uh correct me if
I'm wrong, but I believe uh our police officers pay is set by collective bargaining. >> Correct. And Mr. Evans can correct me, but they're going to be going into uh negotiations next year. >> Yeah. The current contract runs from
2023 through 2026. >> It'll expire 1231 2026. So, we will be entering into negotiations in 2026 for a new contract that would begin in 2027 to be determined. So, next year we're set.
We're good to go. We're under contract and be looking. We do understand Eastston >> um just had a new contract this year. So, you tend to get the >> one above the other. So when when we go into negotiation next year, we're very aware of that contract, what that looks like, and it'll be part of a very large
complicated negotiation that will take probably most of the year to get through. >> Always good luck with that. >> Yes, thank you. >> Um and uh we've done some things recently to kind of help with recruitment. So there have been like bonuses and there's also been um there was when we addressed those standards
where we were trying to use more time and education to to encourage. Have we been seeing positive results from that? >> We have been. It It's an an issue across the board >> throughout the country. Even though there are some departments now that are
getting more and more applicants, it it's something that regionally we're we're seeing, you know, >> difficulty in. >> Uh the applicant pool is no longer a pool. It's it's actually a puddle. Um, so we we're doing the best we can to attract people to come to our police
department, to come to our city to serve and uh we're going to continue to do that to try to get the the best qualified diverse candidates to to serve in our police department. >> I I will say like I think you have to have a specific type of heart for policing to police in Bethlehem because
we police in a very specific way here. Um and uh I think we have done things recently to try and um invest more like the you got more vehicles and stuff. Um but I I do think that there could be more that we could be doing. I think
facilities. I don't want you to answer any these aren't questions. They're just general statements. Um like maybe facilities or anything else that we can do or if you can think of anything that council can help with to encourage um higher recruitment. I'm I'm just thinking, you know, the facilities, um,
additional trainings, uh, the ability to like really create a well-rounded officer that has a community first approach to, uh, policing. Um, we're here, we're all ears. Please let us know. Thank you. Thank you. >> Any other new business from members of
council? I'll go back to Mr. Callahan. >> Chief Chief, I'm I just want to uh piggyback on that. So, do we have any data on uh officer or police officer who have started their career here and possibly left to go for a higher paying police department?
>> I know the FOP is actively looking into that right now. There are at least two officers within the last 5 to 10 years that I know of that have left for uh another department that had only had roughly five to to 10 years on the job
that left to go to a higher paying department. So, so it's not a large number just you know a oneoff here a oneoff there then as far as so >> to my recollection sir yes >> so my my main question is that we're not
um training and in in in hiring people and then uh there's a number of them that are leaving for higher paying it most of our officers the overwhelming percentage of them once they start here they they remain here >> correct >> thank you
Any other new business for members of council? >> Mr. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. On the floor. >> You still have the floor? >> Yeah. >> Is the mayor all right? Is we haven't seen him in a while. Is he ill or is he just not able to come here or >> No, the mayor's out almost every single
night as you know. Um the day of a mayor never ends. The week of a mayor never ends with regard to nights, weekends, and on. So, yeah, if he is here, but he also has a number of other opportunities that he would like to also be um present for across the city. So, >> yeah. Where where is he tonight? I'm
just curious >> where is he tonight though? You you said he's at other opportunities. >> I said that throughout the week, throughout the night, the weekends. I'm not going to talk about where he's at tonight. Where he is or he's not is notation. >> No, I know. I thought you meant that he was at another function and that's why
he can't be here. So he's just missing tonight then. I'm just curious because we haven't seen him in a while and I miss him. So thank you. I appreciate it. >> Sure. >> We we could send him your well wishes, Mr. C. >> Thank you.
>> Any new business for members council? >> So ju just a couple brief things I want to touch on. First I want to address Mrs. Rothman who's still with us who had announced as she uh come the new year will be um ending her many many years of dedicated service to the EAC and we'll
have opportunity to thank her for that but I just want to remind everyone the EAC shared with us information if we want to share them with our respective networks and in search of volunteers to volunteer for the EAC. Another thing to bear in mind after the new year and forgive me as I have a cough drop in
that per ordinance for the EAC, the chair of the EAC is appointed by city council. So that will be the role of the new council members and the next council president because I am um by our council rules done as council president after the end of this year. So, just something
to bear in mind for the council members who will be staying on into the new year and our incoming council who follow along with the meetings that not only will council be appointing a replacement, there are two uh potential reappoints who have expressed interest in staying on the AC, but then also
appointing a new chair. And I would anticipate that myself or the next council president and council would work in collaboration with the AC because Mrs. Rothman um not only has been dedicated to the AC as a volunteer, but as the longtime chair of that volunteer
body, has really done a great service. I'll just say to me as council president for these last four years in helping gather interest from the community, vet potential applicants, and again, there will be opportunity to to talk about that, but just something to raise awareness because for even for myself,
if we're it's not something that we look at often how that ordinance reads. So, we'll have to um manage that. I I do just want to again restate what Councilwoman Leon had asked, and I don't need uh unless I misspe, Mr. Evans, you correct me, but our police department
does operate under a collective bargaining agreement. So, is the role of the administration to negotiate that contract? So even if council even if the will of council was to um you know make budget amendments relative to salaries I
would say that's outside the scope of a legislative role as the the chief negotiator for the administration is whoever the administration decides and then the FOP as the union their leadership negotiates that. So it's not as easy as just saying let's budget for
this. there's there's, you know, labor relations aspect to it that just to bear in mind. Um, not that, you know, to to a speaker's point earlier, we wouldn't want to potentially um be make things more enticing, but there is a process to that as it relates to what it is that
our officers agree to through their union. Mr. Evans, I did have one question if you could briefly speak to it. With with what's going on in in Harrisburg with the lack of a budget to date with the federal government being shut down, can
you speak to how, if at all, the city operations are impacted by that? if we've seen any kind any disruption to to this point or any kind of further in the year depending how long it goes that
the city may be impacted >> especially in a noticeable way. I mean, I don't think snow removal is in, you know, uh, depends on state or federal dollars, but I just didn't know if we would expect as council members or the public to see any disruption of city
services depending on how long these, you know, budget issues continue. >> I'm I'm just looking over my shoulder to confirm with each of the department heads. I'm not aware and you know we had staff this morning so not aware of any impacts to the municipal operations by either the federal shutdown or the the
state um budget impass. >> Okay. >> So so far okay that's good news to hear. Thank you Mr. Evans. And that was all I had. So thank you everybody. We're going to move on to communicate. It's okay. Councilwoman Larry, >> more question
um regarding the advertisements on sidewalks and it brings to mind another um company that is known for prolific advertising all over public property and not public property. Um what do people
do about that? What what can like should they be reporting that in the my Bethleam app? Should they uh can the city actually do something if there's something on like a PPL poll that is not our property technically, right? But is maybe a right of way or um I realize
that there's probably a blurry line because then you're getting into like, oh, my neighbor put up a yard sale sign and uh is that in the same category as something that's more permanent or more prolific? But um I I assume that would be Mr. Alcohol.
Yeah, certainly citizens can report these types of issues and we could try to address them specifically with respect to something in the public rightway like was described the sign that was um is essentially taped to the
ground. Um I'd have to consult with our law. I'm not even sure at least from the standpoint of the public rightway issue whether there there's a permit that would be applicable to that because for the most part the permits when they're required is when you occupy the
rightway if you're encroaching if you're if you're uh if you have any potential to interfere with either pedestrian or vehicle traffic in the public rightway. that's why you would need a permit so we can assess that and evaluate that, issue
the permit and oversee the permit. Um, there may be other things in community development that would prohibit something like that. As far as signs on polls, when there are poles, we take them down. Um, when we have time, we go
around and we take them down. Even on PPL, we encourage them to take them down. If they don't take them down, we take them down. especially if if they're signs that don't belong there. Uh but what was described, I'm not sure. I'd have to evaluate that further to see if
the city can actually act on it. Certainly, the abuing property owner couldn't take those things off. So, that's one possibility to address it. Um I in the case of something which doesn't
sound like what it was described uh but comes up I'm sure in other uh situations if there's repeated like you remove a sign and then it gets put back and then gets removed and then it gets put back. Does that become like a littering
trespassing issue? >> Recently issued citations for for for that people putting advertisement on our polls. Mhm. >> Um, we've issued citations and we can and the ordinance allows for that. >> It does. Okay. All right. Um, thank you.
Thank you. >> Anything else before I continue on? Thank you everybody. Thank you everyone in the administration >> communications. M. Miller 6A. a September 25th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins,
director of the Department of Community and Economic Development, and Sarah Satulo, deputy director of community development. The two seek authorization to execute an agreement with WRT LLC of Philadelphia to lead the development update. The North Side Alive plan cost
is $39,960 and completion is expected by September 30th of 2026. There are no renewals. WRT developed the original North Side 2027 plan and was determined to be the best most costefficient option among three
quotes. >> And resolution 10A is on the agenda 6B. A September 26, 2025 memorandum from business administrator Eric Evans advising that a direct deposit for pension state aid in the amount of
5,139,230.78 has been allocated to pension bond payments and police fire Pennsylvania municipal retirement system minimum municipal obligations breakdown is as follows $1,545,56
689 for police, $1,545,56.89 for fire, and $2,49,117 for the PMRS. >> And resolution 10B is on the agenda 6C, >> an October 1st, 2025 memorandum from solicitor John F. Spur Jr. with an attached use permit agreement and
resolution. Permit is the Pennsylvania running company and the subperity is Arts Quest. The event is the 2025 Running Festival. Events will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on October 17th, 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. on October 18th, and 9
to 10:45 a.m. on October 18th. Premises will include specified locations in Monoxy Park, Payroll Plaza, and Westside Park, as well as East First Street from Pulk Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders Way between First and Second Streets. >> And resolution 10C is on the agenda
tonight. 6D, >> an October 1st, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins, director of the Department of Community and Economic Development, and Sarah Satulo, Deputy Director of Community Development, to recommend an agreement with the Center for Public Enterprise of
New York to assist Bethlehem in the design and implementation of a mixed income development program known as the Revolving Loan Fund. Cost is $12,000 and completion is expected by December 31st, 2026. There are no renewals.
>> Resolution 10D is on the agenda 6E. >> An October 1st, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from World Heritage Coordinator Stephanie Agello. Miss Aello recommends an agreement with Moravian University to assist in funding the position of World Heritage site manager.
Cost is $150,000. There are no renewals. >> Resolution 10 is on the agenda 6F. a September 30th, 2025 memorandum from Kathy Fletcher, director of planning and zoning with the attached the 2026 20
through 2030 capital improvement program at September 11th, 2025 meeting. The city planning commission unanimously voted to recommend approval of the plan >> and a committee of the whole meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 here in town hall to
review the capital the capital improvement plan. Thank you. Moving on to reports. I only have to report that the committee of the whole met this evening at 6 PM here in town hall to discuss proposed amendments to article 112 titled campaign finance
reports. The committee voted unanimously to send that those amendments to full council. So that will appear on a future city council meeting agenda. That's all I had. >> Mr. Evans, you have anything? >> Uh no report tonight. Thank you.
>> Understood. Moving on to ordinances 8A, >> an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the general fund budget for 2025. Bill number 42, 2025 is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leon.
>> Any discussion on the second reading for ADA? Councilwoman Cleotech, >> just to um make clear that this is a second reading. Um and uh this was something that uh that a commenter asked about and actually uh this is connected
to the uh world heritage site um manager and moving funds uh from the downtown initiatives into the cash balance so that we can uh support that. So that's what that funding was for Mr. SH is that
it's it's um actually part of the movement of funds to support the uh UNESCO World Heritage site manager. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. >> Any other discussion? Councilwoman Leard. >> Um like last time, I'll need to recuse uh due to a conflict. I work for
Moravian University. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion? >> Mr. Miller, call the role. Miss Larair >> abstain. >> Miss Leon >> I >> Miss Wilhelm >> I >> Mr. Callahan >> I >> miss
>> I >> and Mr. Cologne >> I passes 50 and with one member abstaining. >> Moving on to 8B. >> An ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending
the general fund budget for 2025. Bill number 43 2025 is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leon. >> Discussion. >> We'll call the role. >> Miss Leairard. >> I. >> Miss Leon. >> I. >> Miss Wilhelm. >> Hi. >> Mr. Callahan. >> I. >> Miss Quiet.
>> I. >> And Mr. Colum. >> I. Passes 60. We have no new ordinances this evening. So going right over to resolutions 10A. Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and/or such other city officials as deemed
appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with WRT LLC to lead the development to update the north side plan. The resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Mr. Cologne. >> Discussion.
>> Mr. Callahan, your earlier question would now would be appropriate. Do you want the floor? >> Yeah, please. Uh that block of Broad Street has always been in the North Side Alive jurisdiction. >> The the the uh >> Yes, it has.
>> The the block but not the rest of the the North Side Alive area. I mean, there was like additional areas that was added into that. >> That's not correct. No, the boundary of North Side Alive has always extended down all the way down Broad Street to Main Street.
We I I will remind members of the public please not to interrupt uh council meeting. >> Do you have the plan? >> I will remind members of administration not to engage with members of the public. >> I have the plan which has multiple pages that show the boundaries. This is the
2017 version of the plan. It has always been all the way down Broad Street to me. >> Do you have any follow-up questions, Mr. Callian? >> No, I just uh I I was just wondering if if that could be addressed. So, if if it is, I'll you know, I'll follow up uh
next meeting. Thank you, >> Councilwoman Leard. >> Um just to confirm, I was going to make sure I hadn't missed something about a boundary changing based on that comment. Uh but I did chair the economic vitality
committee uh from 2017 and we had businesses at on the north side of Broad Street at Getter at that intersection who were part of
North Side Alive since that date and very active volunteers uh in the group. So, um, I do recall that, uh, particularly the the Twisted Olive was a really active member in the early days. Um, so, uh, thank you for confirming
that that nothing has changed on that. I'll also just add that, you know, North Side Alive is an organization that or it's an neighborhood-based initiative that has a number of different objectives. Certainly blight and housing is one. Economic vitality is another,
you know, major component. And there are different corridors that have different needs. You know, Lynen Street is a bit different than Broad Street. And even on Broad Street, there are different needs. Um, you know, if you go past Center East versus if you're if you're downtown. Um,
but the objective is always, you know, to involve as many people as possible. North Side Alive, you know, if there are entities that don't don't even exactly fall within the boundaries, you know, they're welcome to participate. You know, I'm thinking of others on Elizabeth Avenue. If you happen to be
right across near Carl's corner, for example, you're not prohibited from coming and participating because ultimately the goal is the same. And it's, you know, improving quality of life in in the neighborhood and that's not competing with the downtown. It's
very much compatible with the downtown. And there's, you know, there's there's really not a I'm not really sure I understand the logic of the connection um in the argument because um the reality is these organizations don't compete with each other. They just, you know, they
address their objectives and um you know, for the benefit of the community. >> Yeah, I would I would say my experience uh serving as a volunteer on that committee does line up with that. We um had different unique goals identified for um our focus. in fact was the Linen
Street corridor and the Broad Street corridor. Um, and there were different goals identified for each of those retail corridors uh and plenty of collaboration with the DBA uh usually with presence at all of our committee
meetings etc. So u and making sure we weren't conflicting with major events and things like that. So um I was a little surprised to hear about any tensions um because the people who have been really
involved in the the group had not seemed um to experience but I will admitted that I I had missed a few meetings so I was like wait something happened so thank you for clarifying. >> Any other discussion from members of council? >> Council I have a quick question if we do
want to find uh the um you have a plan there. Or was there like a previous plan? Cuz was there like a north side 2017? I'm sorry. I'm way more southside oriented with the Southside Tomorrow's Mapping. So is >> No, there's only been one plan. It was developed in 2017. It's called the North Side 2027. >> North Side.
>> It's available on the website. >> Okay. And did have you guys heard any of the That's the one I'm looking. I thought maybe there was a 2017 one. Um, is there have you guys heard about any friction between the Downtown Business Administration and or the organization
and >> only for Mr. Hanks? >> Okay. >> Any other questions or comments? I had one, Miss Collins. So, and forgive me because I'm not super familiar, so I'm going off of the packet and trying to re-educate myself on something I only look at every couple years. So, North
Side Alive is a HUD designated neighborhood revitalization strategy area. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> And then so when that was developed a few years ago and then eventually approved by HUD, what what was council's role in that process? Did we have did we have to pass a resolution of support or
was there any I I don't remember to be honest with you. So, >> great question. I I'm certain because it's HUD that there's like a public hearing component. I don't know if we would have done that at a city council meeting or or or separately. >> I guess what I'm getting at is
>> was there anything that we any action council took that outlined what the boundaries were and then if so is that same action required should there be any changes in the future to the designated because I'm sure the designated area has boundaries to it that HUD approved I
would assume. >> Sure that is true. We do have to submit we did submit a map to HUD at the at the time. >> I guess my question is if there is a role for council um >> like to change the boundaries you need corre to even to submit the plans. I I don't remember if we had to or not. It's
something you could follow up with us about please just so I understand the process and what it would look like or what's required if there is any action of council or if it's purely an administrative function. I I will say that as part of our, you know, five-year consolidated planning process,
like HUD has asked that we seek reauthorization as part of that process. So, when council actually did vote on our consolidated plan, you know, the draft, the full draft of that would have been, you know, posted online and that does include a component that that essentially says, you know, hey, we're
going to be looking to reauthorize our our plan again. And I believe we'll also have to do like um an amendment of sorts that would also come come to you. >> Understood. Thank you, Miss Collins. Councilwoman, >> um more specifically about the
resolution we're looking at tonight, um WRT, uh am I remembering that that was the uh company we worked with for the first plant. >> Correct. >> Correct. Um and would they be going through a similar process? There were I know a number of community meetings and
focus groups and neighborhood walks. That'll all happen again. >> Yes. Yeah, that is that is a large component of what they would be brought in to do is that that community engagement piece. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Any other discussion from members of council? >> We'll call the role. >> Miss Lair.
>> I. >> Miss Leon. >> Hi. >> Miss Wilhelm. >> Hi. >> Mr. Callahan. >> Hi. >> Miss Guate. >> Hi. >> And Mr. Cologne. >> I passes 60 10B. Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and/or such other city officials as deemed
appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to allocate 5,139,230.78 in 2025 general municipal pension system state aid to the line items specified in the resolution. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Mr. Cologne.
>> Discussion. >> Call the role. >> Miss Leairard >> I. Miss Leyon, >> hi. >> Miss Wilhelm, >> hi. >> Mr. Callahan, >> hi. >> Miss Quiet, >> hi. >> And Mr. Cologne, >> I pass 610 C. >> Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and/or such other city
officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with Pennsylvania Running Company for the 2025 Bethlehem Running Festival. Resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Mr. Cologne. >> Discussion. >> Call the role.
>> Miss Lair. I >> Miss Leon. >> Hi, >> Miss Wilhelm. >> Hi, >> Mr. Callahhan. >> Hi, >> Miss Quiet. >> Hi, >> and Mr. Cologne. >> I pass 60D. >> It resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and/or such other city officials is deemed appropriate by the
city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with the center for public enterprise to help in the design and implementation of a mixed income development revolving loan fund program. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and
Mr. Cologne discussion. >> Councilwoman, >> Miss Collins, I'm I'm just really curious about this. Would love to learn a little bit more about um what a revolving loan fund is. Maybe kind of educate the public a little bit about it
in in the runup to to this um contract. >> Sure. So, the creation of a revolving loan fund to support um you know mixed income housing development is one of the strategies that was outlined in opening doors. So, um, you know, it's one that we've talked about before, but you know,
you know, it it takes quite a while to to put something like that together. But the the idea would be that a lot of projects that are in in the works for housing um, you know, face financial challenges. they have gaps and providing
a revolving loan fund uh as a as a gap filler gives us an opportunity to support in creative ways and have involvement in creative ways and projects um to ensure affordability components and it's a model that's used
in other communities um you know gaining traction in other places most famously I would say started in Montgomery County they have a very robust revolving loan fund program that has supported affordable housing development in their community. Um, we also look often to Chattanooga as a as a prime example of a
more like midsized community that has seen success in this program. Um, and the Center for Public Enterprise has worked very closely with Chattanooga and and other communities that are that are um exploring this opportunity as well. >> Is that Montgomery County, Pennsylvania? >> Sorry, Maryland.
>> Okay, that's what I thought. Okay. Um, and so, uh, you you mentioned the affordability component and that's really the key of of what this is all about. How does how does that work >> or is that what part of what they're going to actually kind of explor? >> The short answer is it works differently
in different places based on a number of factors like, you know, market considerations and, you know, municipal capacity and, you know, what kind of entity is running the program and how you want to how you want to structure it, right? Um you know and we can
develop things you know all sorts of criteria you know whether it's it's going to be you must be 30% affordable and other questions like what kind of um like lending role do we take we you know primary or it's mezzanine financing and
then what kind of like ownership and and and long-term um control do you maintain over a project and there's a lot of different ways that that can happen in different places. So, we have some models kind of that we're starting to flesh out, but I think Center for Public Enterprise is going to be, you know,
really helping take those models and and make them implementable here. >> And it's a $12,000 contract. >> It is. Yes. Yeah. Um and and and I would just say uh that um it it gives it gives
the city uh a little bit of juice, a little bit of hand in the game in terms of um having, you know, the ability to make projects, you know, help make projects happen and move and maybe faster and things like that. and I'm really um hopeful that we get some great
answers from them and uh and and you know we have a way to move forward in doing something like this. So thank you. >> Any other discussion from members of council? I'll start with Councilwoman Wilhelm. >> I just you answered some of my questions already. I was curious to know sort of
if there were visions that we had. So it sounds like you've looked at other models and maybe there are um ways that in particular you would like uh center for public enterprise to consider, but that we are really allowing them to kind of look at Bethlehem and see what might work best here. But I guess just overall
to say this feels like a very modest investment for something that has the potential for a great payoff. Um, one of the things that we hear most with regard to building affordable housing is for example, because I know there are many ways this could be used, the cost of
construction. So, um, you know, filling that gap, speeding up timelines, um, potentially empowering smaller local developers to participate. Um, I think the investment is is likely to pay off manyfold. I'm looking forward to
supporting it. >> Yeah. And one of the things the Center for Public Enterprise, they're philanthropically funded and which is why their proposal is so low and and so far you know below what it would cost in like a more traditional market-based um you know proposal for this kind of
service. But this really is the work that they do as part like a missiondriven philanthropically funded organization. >> Councilwoman Leo, >> uh thank you for that last bit because I was wondering why if it was providing this service. So, I'm looking like why was the price tag so low? Um, but I was
also curious. I'm looking at some of the projects that they have put in and when we read through opening doors, we see that there's really not a lot of land um available. So, I'm I'm curious, and I I'm not asking you to like, you know, be a psychic here, but what kind of things
do you even expect that they would propose for a city like ours when we've talked about the fact that our vacancy rate is is so low, our our developable land is very low and mostly in private hands that would need more substantial things like luras, not you know, a
couple dollars from the city. So, like what kind of projects are we thinking that this might help with? Well, so actually one of the things they're going to do is is pull existing developers, private developers who have projects that are maybe stalled or that you know the kind of projects where people are
saying like we can't do this without Alerta or we can't do this without subsidy you know if and we also would be willing to include an affordable component if you can make the numbers work and figuring out how to how to package incentives that will both like
support the private development but also So ensure that there's affordability that we have some control over. So um it is actually looking at some of those more like market rate type projects to start and seeing how you can kind of incentivize affordable into them with a
revolving loan fund subsidy packaged with other things. Okay. Like I think in a lot of communities you do see tax abatements, >> you know, connected with this and or um expedited permitting or other like incentives that lower an overall project
cost. >> Okay. >> Right. I'm just I I feel like this might give us a little bit more control because we do talk about the rate of development and sometimes it feels at a break neck pace as we as the gentleman was saying earlier um because we had so many
projects that were approved at one point and now they're all getting built. But now it does feel like certain of our most developable land is stalled and like if this is going to be a way that can give us more of a say um in what we're seeing then this could be kind of like the cooling effect that we were talking about earlier. So, but in a way
that would incentivize affordability. So, this is pretty exciting and a a very modest price all things considered. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion for members of council? Miss Collins, I had one question and it's um different but
similar years ago and this predates my time on council. It might be 15ish years ago. where was it a would that have been an example where the city had a revolving loan fund but for commercial um development I know the I think the mint was one of the projects that came
online due to something is that it's I don't think it's active anymore whatever that program was but I just I'm remembering a news article from yeah >> 15 years ago and reading that the city had some kind of um similar structure but it was to get commercial
developments going and I >> I don't remember exactly what Mint would have been a part of but there have been various programs like Fred is one that comes to mind I think you know there's property on Pembrook I know that participated in that I think some on Main Street and but those some of those go back you know
>> many years >> 10 15 15 years but but yes it's not it's not a new model to have a revolving loan fund I think the >> but the focus here is on mixed income housing development which is you know sort of a whole a whole different animal
>> good luck Any other discussion? We'll call the RO. >> Miss Leairard. >> Hi. >> Miss Leon. >> Hi. >> Miss Wilhelm. >> Hi. >> Mr. Callahan. >> Hi. >> Miss Quiet. >> I. >> And Mr. Cologne. >> I pass 610E. >> Be resolved by the council of the city
of Bethlehem. The mayor and controller andor such other city officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Moravian University to assist in funding the world heritage site manager position. Resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Mr. Cologne.
>> Discussion. >> Again, recusing from this one. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other discussion? >> Call the role. >> Miss Lair, >> recuse. >> Miss Leon, >> I. >> Miss Wilhelm, >> I. >> Mr. Callahan, >> I. >> Miss Quiet. >> I.
>> And Mr. Cologne. >> I passes 50 with one member abstaining. 10F. Certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem resolution is hereby granted for 306 South New Street to install two new wall
signs on the main facades and various new signage in the storefront windows and doors. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Mr. Cologne. >> Discussion. >> Call the RO. >> Miss Leairard. >> I miss Leon. >> I miss Wilhelm. >> I call. >> Miss Quiet. >> Hi.
>> Mr. Cologne. I pass 6. Last agenda item 10G. >> Certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of the Pennsylvania legislature. Bethlehem resolution is hereby granted for 13 and 15 East 3rd Street to clean and restore the brick facade and terracotta details.
Paint metal panel arch window insert insets trim and fascia barely brown in color and paint window trim wood trim all flashing fascia and accents deep forest green in color. The resolution is
sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss Mr. Cologne. >> Discussion call the role. >> Miss Leard >> I. >> Miss Leon >> I. >> Miss Wilhelm >> Ir Callahan. Hi. >> Miss Quiet. >> Hi. >> And Mr. Cologne. I passes 6. That concludes tonight's agenda. Get home
safe everyone. This meeting is adjourned.