--------- again have again or I will call to order the community development committee meeting I'm Hillary quch chair of the Community Development Committee the other committees uh members present are R kmy Smith and Kira Wilhelm and we are also joined this evening by vice president Leon and city council
solicitor Stephanie Seward the clerk will please call the role Miss KY Smith present Miss Wilhelm present Miss qu present YouTube stream reminder if you start this meeting after 6 p.m. please make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the
meeting there is one item on tonight's agenda uh review for potential Amendment several code enforcement ordinances the ordinances that we'll be looking at tonight include uh article 701 advertising article 721 streets and
sidewalks article 1159 animals article 1161 health nuisances article 1162 solid waste collection and enforce article 1732 abandoned real property article 1733 International property maintenance code article 1738
residential rental units article 1739 regulated rental unit occupancy and article 1741 short-term lodging facilities um on the agenda public comment comes next however I'm uh making uh a chair's prerogative to move it to
the end because my goal tonight is that we all um have the same set of facts when we get to uh public comment and then I will welcome your comments um agenda item number one so I I want to start by saying that the origin of tonight's meeting um was public comment
during our regular City Council meetings which is frequent and welcome obviously and we often hear um along you know with my fellow council members um about concerns about um you know the sort of nuisance quality of life um things that
go on in the city um and so uh you know often we'll ask the administration for further elaboration on the penalties and the enforcement mechanisms and things like that but as we discuss these things it becomes apparent that each of these ordinance kind of operates independently they have different sets of penalties different enforcement methods different
bureaus of of the uh City so several council members asked me to consider schedule a meeting where we could take a look at these ordinance as a whole and learn more from the administration about the enforcement the challenges that they face and how if appropriate we might be more helpful to their efforts through
the legislative process now I anticipate that tonight we will not take any specific action regarding voting on amendments my goal is for us all to absorb this information and then if members of council for have have ideas uh for ways to amend our ordinances to make them more effective we can begin
that process uh but this is a one-hour hearing so we won't begin that tonight rather this is more of a fact-f finding Mission and um again looking for shared understanding among everybody here tonight um so to kick off the meeting I would like to um recognize a member of
the administration to share a presentation Miss Collins hi good evening um uh chairperson quch thanks for inviting us to start tonight's discussion with a brief overview of the work that we do across various departments to uphold the
city's numerous quality of life ordinances so I will admit that in preparing for the meeting we all sort of spoke and and and and laughed but definitely agreed that you know we could probably take an an individual meeting for each of the ordinances if we really wanted to dive all the way in and and
really address all the work um that goes into enforcing those ordinances um but you know we we do want to give um as brief an overview as possible in this time allotted so certainly addressing all 12 of the ordinances in in in depth and you know
10 to 15 minutes wouldn't be possible even with just a cursory overview um but what we did was you know we all talked amongst ourselves and and thought about some what what are some of the key um common practices principles
philosophies that go into everything that we do and the commonalities between these different ordinances um and we give a succinct overview of of those points and then also go into a little bit more depth on some of the um topics that we're hearing about most often in
public comment which you know we identified as housing trash um and then also streets um Street trees and and sidewalks so um you'll hear from actually a couple different people but again we're going to try and keep it brief and and do an overview um I will
note that um you also identified airbnbs as one of the topics and I uh my best guess is that a few of the folks who are here are interested in that topic as well and I think um we'd be really open to hearing um public comment about that topic I have not included it as a main
part of the conversation it's actually you know it's a topic that actually involves more zoning than it does code enforcement and and um I think a full separate meeting on that topic would probably be um the easiest way to go in depth and think about the the zoning the
legal um and and a lot of the you know enforcement of zoning issues that that go along with that as well but again you know happy to hear public comment on the topic so um I think you know most of the folks who are here but you know looking at the ordinances that you identified
there are a number of different departments that are um responsible for implementing and enforcing and ensuring quality of life um in accordance with those ordinances we have Mike alol from Public Works who handles the sidewalks and the street trees with his team um we
have Mike Simonson Sarah culo who can talk a little bit about housing and code enforcement our regulated rentals and um property maintenance code and and all the things that we address um through that ordinance Mike H Forester who um handles trash and recycling out of his
bureau and then um police and fire have also joined us as well there's a few ordinances that um Chief cot would handle you know animals or disorderly conduct and chief Reich as well deals with property issues um in various like emergency
circumstances so a few of the you know key points that we wanted to start with in general we address quality of life issues through both proactive and complaint driven enforcement you'll see proactive enforcement mostly in the area of rental housing inspections we've
talked before about the ordinance that was passed in 2020 the residential rental ordinance and pursuant to that we are proactively in every rental unit at least once every three years and we're in student rentals every year um and that came about as a result of a number
of things including the blight study that we did um back in I believe 2017 and this sort of proactive enforcement is really considered a a best practice and you know Mike and Sarah can talk about you know the dramatic increase units that we are now able to get into
as a result of um that ordinance and the you know positive impacts that that has had overall on our um housing inspection process but the majority of what the city's enforcement looks like across departments is really complaint driven so it's important to note um you know we
don't have roving inspectors um that are you know walking and looking at sidewalks or housing conditions you know or trash certainly if we have folks who are in the field whether they're you know maybe called down the street or are doing some work in a particular area if they identify something at that point
they can you know initiate enforcement in obvious cases but really for the most part like we are looking at um what's coming in by complaint and that's why often in these meetings we recommend you know if somebody sees a quality of life issue in their neighborhood calling the
service center using the my Bethlehem app that is the most common way that you know any of us in all of our departments are identified to um you know the the problem sidewalk or the problem property or some you know trash ISS issues whatever the case may
be um overall uh we have in addition to the folks here really dozens of city hall employees in these different departments who are working on um thousands of nuisance and quality of life issues a year in these areas that you've identified we just thought that was
important because you know we hear at City Council meetings about a few individual cases but the volume of work that we do to enforce these ordinances is really substantial and there are people who are working on this day in and day out it really as part of their
their day-to-day um activity and we have a lot of success um that we don't always hear about in these spaces but you can tell just by the numbers um just how much work is getting done and I'll show you a little bit later like illustratively or my count forcer will you know just how many we resolve early
in the process before they get to um what you might hear here which is an extreme case and a terrible property Etc um but so in our proactive housing inspection program we get into on average nine maybe 9,500 properties a year or sorry I should say 9,500
inspections a year some of those include rechecks so I think the total number of properties is probably more like 6,000 um and then in our complaint driven inspections in the housing space uh last year in 2024 we had 976
uh trash complaints in 2024 we had 715 sidewalks um Public Works dealt with 10 to 20 uh on average and uh Street tree problems that's about 100 to 150 a year and then those maps that you see there are just dot um uh dot pointers
that we we worked with um our uh it folks to really map out where we're getting these different complaints the one on the left I believe is uh those are trash complaints and the ones on the right I believe were just I want to say streets but I
apologize that I can't remember at this point um and so a typical process again there's variation based on department or issue or circumstance but just a typical process in most of these areas we identify the problem through one of the ways I mentioned but usually by
complaints and then we start an initial contact with a property owner so sometimes depending on the issue or depending on uh the circumstance we'll make direct contact either just by phone getting their number off of you know tax records or whatever else that we might have we might visit them in person or
other times our first Contact is just sending a a violation notice but I wanted to point out that at this stage you know this is really where we address a large majority of the problems that come our way and so we're thinking and at this stage like balancing a couple
different interests of course wanting to consider like our interest in quality of life and a neighbor's interest in living next to a house or a house that doesn't have high grass and weeds but we also want to approach Property Owners with respect and consider unique circumstances for property owners as well sometimes we're enforcing
ordinances that people don't know exist or they're in tough life circumstances or they have Financial constraints so you know in ordinance and also in our practice we build in a certain amount of time like a reasonable amount of time for people to self-correct and I think
part of our success in addressing most problems at this stage is the result of the fact that we have that sort of balanced approach and we can work with property owners because really like compliance and uh cooperation from the property owner is the only way that we're going to get
these issues resolved um if problems are not addressed at that stage then we we'll often go to a second violation notice and then the final stage would be um filing a citation with the magistrate and you know that those are typically your um most problematic properties your
least compliant Property Owners um you you know and and those are ones often they have multiple violations it might be trash and high grass and weeds and some other issues and we'll we'll often do what we can to put as much of those as many of those problems sort of
together and go after it you know aggressively if we if we need to in those instances so that's really my overview and I I wanted to dive in a little bit on housing inspections by passing it over to um Mike Simonson and Sarah culo to just talk us through um you know both
the proactive housing inspection and um you know how we follow up on all of those complaints and enforcement hello everyone how are you guys tonight um just a little bit on this uh City I'm Mike Simonson for those who don't know uh just a little bit on
the city housing inspection so as uh Laura had mentioned we have a three-year proactive program currently for residential rental one when I started with the city about seven years ago one of the things I wanted to First do was uh and I and I think we we were successful in that was
build a relationship with the fire department so that we can kind of reduce the overall call volume that they see or the dangers that the residency in their in their units and uh I worked hard with Chief Reich right from the start when I he was only inspection inspector at the
time but now Chief um we worked hard to get things going in that fashion so uh one of the programs I implemented was a three-year inspection program when I first started we were the city housing department was roughly getting in 32 properties a year um and what we found
that uh how the ordinance was originally established was that was at a change of tenant so what what we found out after uh being here for about six months to a year I realized that it was the same landlords calling in every time they had a tenant change and we were missing a
lot of a bulk of the properties that really needed to be uh had eyes on so we changed the program to be a proactive program where we split the city uh based upon Ward uh and and volume size uh and
density so we do about uh we have roughly between 7,000 properties in each of the threee cycles that we inspect so now since that since the program started in 20120 here we are 5 years later and I could comfortably say we've gotten into
about 90 to 95% of the prop properties in the city of Bethlehem that are that are rentals um which was a huge undertaking um it was the it the reaction from the landlords wasn't ex exactly you know exciting at first because we were going to properties
where they may have had tenants for an extended period of time so some of the changes you know we we we gracefully made changes in the in the properties and we we made sure that the people at were living in adequate living conditions but that being said uh that's
just a little bit of history on that inspection program but what do we look for when we go into these properties um so what we inspect off of is like it's called 2018 International property maintenance code that's just the guidelines and the and that kind of our
uh our uh textbook but what we use out of that is the minimum safety standards for Healthy Living so all that is is the minimum standard to be a habitable occupancy so some of the things that it may require and there is a uh properly
working sewer running water electric heat very basic standards you know no holes in the roof kind of very basic standards that we don't really get into uh design aspects or in particulars for uh anything like any color color or
anything like that that's that's out of our purview we just want to make sure things are in place and they work smoke detectors uh furnaces are vented properly water heaters stuff like that basic life living so and and we've we do that and with that we've successfully
you know issued more cosos in the last five years for rental properties than we had in the probably in the previous 10 years so um that that's you know not only uh kudos to the inspectors but to the landlords realizing that uh we are
taking that very serious and we will follow up and we and as lur had explained earlier we do give these hard time frames and ultimately that do lead to the magistrate when they do not comply so we've taken a firm line on that but at the same time um we've seen
compliance uh our compliance rates increase over this last fiveyear periods which I'm I'm very proud of I have a very good inspection group and we've turned some complexes and some properties that haven't had cosos and over 10 years to having cosos now and
are fully compliant on uh on on numerous levels so I'm I'm very proud of that um also just to touch on these four topics that we have up here student housing this is a uh uh article 1739 and it's something we inspect every
year the student housing is uh approximately I don't know the exact number but about 700 properties throughout the city now there is uh several years ago this Council and went through the zoning hearing or through and through zoning went and passed a
student housing overlay So currently only new student housing could happen in the overlay or via a a Zone variance and uh we have not seen an increase in the student housing uh density since we passed the overlay so
it's kind of um and these houses being that they're being rented by students are used a little bit more tougher than your average residential home so that's why we feel the need to have these inspected every year and uh but same standards that we use for the residential rental program it's just
that they they get a little more wear and tear throughout the year um sales and inspections we perform on any house that's up for a sale or a transfer um this is article 1731 um in this article uh any Prime
properties being uh transferred or for sale they have uh 10 days to list 10 days prior to listing the property they have to reach out to us to schedule for an inspection so this is uh our uh way of letting buyers and sellers for that matter but buyers more importantly know
what kind of product they're getting in the city of Bethlehem again we we all of our inspection programs are based off other than the construction programs are based off the same inspection uh textbook and uh and lastly homes identified by complaint so we have a
number of inspectors that are out in the field every day um when we do receive a complaint on a particular address what the inspectors usually do is they they'll walk that entire Street or several houses down in each Direction just to make sure that it just to make
sure we Encompass more it's usually just not one property um so we do do that um also too in the summertime starting uh about the second week of March I reduce the number of field inspectors by one so
um I keep one person uh in the office just to do the complaints because this time of the year spring starting uh to Blossom and flowers and and and grass is growing and everything complaints become a little bit more uh more cumbersome for
us so instead of trying to do them in between inspections we've I've learned over the time to keep one inspector back on a temporary basis just uh to activate to go after the active complaints that kind of speed things up in our response
process um and then when we do respond we give uh this is for uh a rent the first part is for uh rental inspections we give them 30 days to fix the problems and um with that being said we give them 30 days to fix the problems
but if it's an extenuating circumstance and they need additional time we do work with landlords and tenants in those situations um uh for instance if we're doing an inspection in you know late October through maybe January or February obviously exterior work is very
difficult to do during that time so we may grant them until the end of March or so just more of a significant time some some items we you know we have different degrees of importance I guess you would say uh something like a non-working furnace or a broken water heater or
something along those lines are a AO they they rise to the level of an immediate repair there's no time given for some stuff like that um and then 90 days to fix them that's on our sales inspection so once a sale you could sell a property in the city as is uh so with
violations but the new owner subsequently takes responsibility for those violations and has 90 days to fix them um until we could issue their their their certificate of occupancy um and that's where the the next part of this comes in is where we issue certificates
of occupancy and what certificates of occupancy are a lot of our ordinances especially our housing ordinances end with the receival of a certificate of occupancy and what that means is we've inspected the property we've gone through the property and at the time we did our last inspection all of the items
in the house met the housing code standards so it's safe as far as we we don't know what happens a week later or if they do but but at the time we do our inspection it's safe it can be occupied and used as a as a residential dwelling or a commercial
dwelling so um when Mike instituted and by the way I'm Sarah culo uh I'm deputy director of Community Development um and when Mike uh transitioned uh the department over to this more proactive rental inspection approach we also went
to digitizing the inspection process process um and it has been a ongoing process I would say like the first software got us out of like 1998 and papers maybe 2002 um but we were still generating PDF reports and um couldn't really utilize the data that we were
collecting effectively in our decision making um so with the help of the health Bureau and um ezri we built a custom new um inspection survey that are on all of the inspector's iPads and we are able to
track this is um just a snapshot of our dashboard yesterday um all eight of the inspectors have access to this as well as all of our administrative support staff Laura Mike and I so at any time we can go in and you know see how many are
30 days overdue 60 days 90 days overdue just so for ways with the volume of the inspectors could be doing up to like 15 properties in a day maybe even more if they're doing a complex so it's pretty hard to keep on top of like each individual one so this gives them an
easy way to come in filter and see which properties it's time for them to send violation letters back on um and to Circle back so it's really given us a um level of insight into the violations we're seeing um you know streets where
there may be problem properties it's um we're working right now to build a rental uh housing rehabilitation program that we've applied for some grant funding um and we're also working with the health bureaus Le in healthy homes and creating backend automatic referral
systems um so taking those code violations that our inspectors see out in the field and then connecting those Property Owners with um resources and when what we're looking at with uh any rental properties there are affordability Pro uh Provisions tied to
any assistance that a landlord would receive they would be committing um to a certain period of time of affordable uh rent depending on um what program I was going through and what kind of the restrictions on the funding um are so this has just really kind of I would say
allowed us to level up and really connect the work of the housing Inspection Bureau with other bureaus in City Hall um and take a much more data driven approach um to our inspections and one more thing I wanted to mention uh with these with this report set how
we do our reports it also allows our inspectors we've like Sarah said we moved from paper and Pen uh to tablets in the field so what that allows us to do then in senses send those inspection reports out within 20 immediately in some cases but
if we want to go back to the office and look at something or look something up it but it allows us to send the the reports the inspection reports right out to the requestor and with that being said is when we do our inspection reports what we include what I include in our inspection reports is actually the code sections that I'm referring to
so if anyone wanted to ever go back and double check or look a code up it gives them the Code section and the book so that we can talk Apples to Apples I guess after the fact and the reports also include all of the photographs that the inspectors have taken in the field
so if they don't understand you know what the issue is they'll be able to see that oh and one thing I just wanted to note um just the total number of inspections that's not inclusive of all of the inspections because we are still working to build out our complex inspection
form in here um that we're actually piloting right now but so if we go out to a large apartment complex those numbers aren't being reflected in here okay trash and recycling good evening everyone my name
is Mike Cal Foster I'm the director of recycling for the city um the recycling Bureau also handles trash complaints that come in uh we took it over from the health Bureau in late 2022 um and essentially when we we took
it over we wanted to develop an an a strategy to which where Mike indicated that they're a little more uh proactive with their inspections and so forth our department really the complaints that we handle are more so reactive uh people calling in the majority of our
complaints that we receive are coming in from the actual residents within the city uh regarding trash complaints also with recycling complaints um the trash complaints are excessive trash accumulation improper storage of trash
containers legal dumping littering uh probably the biggest uh offense that we do receive on a regular basis is bulky items being dumped illegally whether they're on someone else's property or on City Properties or in the streets so those are the types of things that come
in through our office the majority of the complaints that we get do come through the call center uh and there's a plus and there's a negative with that a lot of the people that do call in want to be anonymous they don't want to be known they don't want to anybody to know who they're calling as long as we're
able to get certain information from them such as an address what their actual complaint is um we're able to go out and quantify we're in good shape there are times where we do actually receive phone calls there's trash there's litter there's a problem we go
out we can't find anything um a lot of times what we find too is a lot of individual residents if we do not get a chance to talk to them um I have one inspector that handles all these complaints if we do not get a chance to talk to the person complaining we really
don't have an opportunity to explain to them what our process is where Mike's process as he indicated earlier could be 30 to 90 days ours is a little more shorter um once we receive the initial complaint we go out we quantify it once
it is Quantified if it came through a service request through the call center we'll actually create a complaint in Code Enforcement we go make sure we have pictures we take of the complaint itself we then uh go out and send a notice of violation we allow the property owner we
do not send this information to the actual property particularly when it's a rental situation we actually send it out to the property owner himself they're the ones that are really responsible for what their tenants are doing so we do send it out to them give them 10 days now that's
not it's calendar days it's not 10 business days it's 10 days um on the 11th day we'll go about and do a reinspection if we go out there and we see that the material has been cleaned up and the and the problem's been resolved we'll then go in we'll close out the complaint if we go out and we
see that the issue has not been resolved we'll take another set of pictures we will then send another enforcement letter out to them with a 7-Day notice on the eighth day after that second letter goes out we will then go out and take pictures again and in the next
slide I'll show you how we're we break everything down but if we go out and we find that the material's been cleaned up again we go in we close out the ticket if it's not been cleaned up we then do a courtesy call we try to obtain information from tax records sometimes people Property Owners will give us
their phone number an email address whatever we always try to reach out to the ual property owner to resolve the issue before we go to the citation stage why a lot of times we're sending letters to Georgia Michigan the property owners
do not live in the area so we want to make sure we at least reach out to them and give them the opportunity to clean up the issue um if we do not hear from that owner or we're unable to get a hold of them we then send out a citation to the magistrate what you see here in front of
you now is actually actually I know Laura had provided you with that estimate we do about 715 complaints the First Column is the number of complaints that we received by month for the last year and a half two years um the second column is the number of unsubstantiated
complaints we receive a call we go out we take a look at it um sometimes we get 10 or 15% that are not substantiated we can't do anything about it the next column is actually the first violation column that means we went out we found the problem we send out the letter to
them give them the 10 days if you see the difference between the first violation column and the second you'll see a some of them have significant drops when most individuals receive that letter that there's a problem with trash or there is an issue most of them will
clean it up within that 10day period now we do get phone calls from individuals that may need extra time need additional work our inspector will work with them our goal is to really to get them to clean up the problem and prevent it from
happening again we're not out there to want to find people and go to the the magistrate what we did when we initially started the program when it came over to our Bureau we talked to some of the magistrates and we said listen you know we don't want to clog up the system by
going after individuals and finding them in citations what would you feel would be a fair time frame for us to be able to notify these people and we we had a recommendation which was the 10day 7day and they uh EG district magistrate eglon
felt that that was actually a good time frame um and we've stuck with that and so far we've been very successful particularly when you look at the second violation column and you go in you jump into the citations issued um it shrinks drastically um so we've been very
successful in being able to uh have individuals follow the rules and the regulations that we provide to them the last case scenario was reaching out to the property owners and sometimes we are successful and we are able to do that fortunately if you take a look at the
whole body of work out of the 575 violation first violations issued right now at the magistrate we have six property there um that's less than 1% I think it is numbers are um to me that's just phenomenal that means the process
we have and what these folks are doing what our inspector is doing is actually working um and the problem proper I would say that we do have Mike had indicated earlier in his presentation they're multiples High Grass High weeds garbage issues things of that nature and
some of these these of these six properties half of them do have multiple other violations throughout the city um our fines are um really $200 a pop and you know as it says up there you know problem properties they have multiple
violations um our goal again is not to find go after somebody for the money we just want to try to rectify it unfortunately we do have a few properties that do not comply and of those six properties five of them we've never been able to reach never been able to get a hold of and four of them are
out of state um a lot of times too what we'll see is when a complaint comes through the first thing the landlord does is call the tenant and then the tenant's calling us and wants to know what's going on we really tried to keep the conversations with the landlord with
a tenant we really don't have lot of negotiation that we can really work with because they could basically just not do it with the property owner if we feel that if we hold their feet to the fire so to speak we're able to get them to have their tenant make sure of getting
the issue actually cleaned up and also one other thing if you look at the number of complaints you always see a peak and a and and a and where it Peaks usually spring when the local colleges and a lot of the student housing over on the South Side particularly moves out we
see aise in complaints students are leaving they throw out their propert their materials they throw out their bulk furniture we get a lot of complaints about that out there as well as when folks move in uh in in the fall so you'll see Peak areas
to to which we actually get the complaints and for the most part you see complaints are actually starting to go down our biggest scenario is when we do have someone that's I guess the best thing to say really wants something done right away really don't have the power
to be able to do that and having the city go out and clean those types of properties up creates legal uh issues trespassing it's not something we really want to get into we feel if we just keep the pressure on the property owner that we're able to to have this program be as
successful as it really has been that's it Mr allow okay um I'm I'm Mike alol the director of public works for the for the city um the area I'm going to talk about is sidewalks uh Street trees and
of course uh and snow and ice compliance um these are I mean the sidewalks and the trees are obviously infrastructure that are in the public right away but L of responsibility with the budding property owner and as that's been said before um tonight we rely on
the property owners to maintain needs and keep them in safe conditions now way U enforcement is typically started is uh either someone sends in a complaint about a deficient sidewalk or a uh tree of concern dying tree or uh what have
you or we do in the course of our work if we observe something obvious in either case uh we do initiate the process as as as well in the case of sidewalk obviously the um complying
typically requires a lot of funding um probably the average the minimum cost of replacing a sidewalk uh regardless property size is at least in the thousands of dollars 5,000 to anywhere 15 $20,000 it could be as much as that
depending on how many linear feet of sidewalk they have in um in front of their property uh the way the process works is uh if we receive a complaint or we observe a deficiency we send our inspectors out to inspect if it's confirmed and either remedial work or
replacement is required we send a letter and we allow uh for the property owner 30 days to rectify or address the deficiency um of course there's um seasonal issues at play and if it's in
the winter we may have to provide more more more time to remedy the situation to come in for a permit and remedy the situation if compliance is not achieved um we would then typically at some point
go out and remedy the situation replace the sidewalk or fix it uh build the property owners if the property owner does not pay with a certain period of time um we lean the property and then we wait for the lean to be um satisfied now there's a long history to sidewalk
issues in the city um going back over 20 years ago uh there were substantial amount of sidewalks that were deficient and really poor shape and quite honestly um the city back at that point
wasn't um really making much Headway in in in in addressing the issue uh principally because it was gotten to a point where it's overwhelming um we did a survey over 20 years ago where the amount of deficient sidewalks if you
were to remedy them or fix them was in the millions of dollars uh and uh when complaints were were were were sent in U they were logged and letters were issued but people weren't complying and nothing was being done
about it so in order to address the situation improve the situation and get some compliance um we started to um not only maintain a d database of those deficiencies but um every year um going
from old the to uh newest uh we would do what I just explained the ordinance says which is go out if there if there's no compliance go out fix the issue Bill lean the property if it doesn't happen and pretty soon word got out that we
were serious about enforcement and that we wanted Improvement um so since then we've had a tremendous amount of compliance far better than we've had historically that's why you see was mentioned before the number of complaints we we get now we're down to
10 to 20 on any given year where before uh 20 more than 20 years ago we were getting 200 to 300 complaints a year and they were piling up and not being rectified now we don't have a backlog and we're getting a lot less not that there aren't deficient sidewalks out
there there there certainly are um but we're much better shape and we do immediately work with because it's such a a heavy um cost we do work with the property owners and besides weather considerations you know time of year um
and with our own constraints because we can only do so much um two three properties would be what we allocate on an annual contract to rectify but we we we we stay after it until it until there's compliance um there's a similar story
with respect to trees uh if there's a dead tree especially a tree posing Hazard um we send our city Forester assesses the situation notify the property owner gives them 30 days to rectify decides whether replacement is required or not
includes that in the in in in that letter um and if there's no compliance it goes into our database and then again annually uh we chip away at that um backlog in order to achieve compliance uh more recently several years ago we
added that the replacement before when we remove a tree and build a property owner and um um collect on that U cost um in the ordinance you may recall maybe three maybe five years ago we revised
the ordinance to all add that we'd be able to also plant the tree and and include that in the remedy and in the bill um and in the lean until it's satisfied uh lastly snow and ice we don't get very many complaint Believe It
or Not uh most people comply unless there's extending any circumstances um and the way that obviously would work they have 24 24 hours from the end of the event to clear the sidewalk um again we handle that by complaints complaint comes into our
office we send an engineer or a inspector and then we um get a hold of property owner we send a letter obviously because of time frame involved uh it's it's important to get a hold of them sooner rather than later so we do try to make contact either by phone or
what have you um and then we check um 24 hours later if there's compliance if there isn't we could site um but like I said just because of the fact that it only snows so many times during the year and most people um typically take care
of their properties we don't get many of those or have to go to the citation route and that's it thank you thank you to everybody for um really walking us through and explaining um there's obviously a tremendous amount of
information and we have um gotten through uh a lot of our time so I want to um first start with um questions from members of the committee um to the administration do you have questions okay Miss carmy Smith will go first thank you for that presentation I just I
guess I need to clarify because I'm I'm concerned we only have 15 minutes and I have a page of questions and I know there's people here that want to get public comments so I'm not sure how we're going to do that I I thought this was a committee meeting so we could address and ask questions about code enforcement and not have a I mean while
I appreciate the 45 minute overview I'm just concerned that it really cut into a lot of our time was that the purpose of the meeting yes to my mind the purpose of the meeting was to get a full understanding of how things are enforced and the success rate and um I feel like
I got that information um for me I really just have one question but um as I I would welcome us to we can go a little bit long also um we can start public comment and then people who wish
to continue public comment if we really need to get our um our council meeting started um can give public comment during um the first public comment period which is for items not on the agenda so we can flow right over um into that first public comment period as well
I'm happy to to do that if that's the most efficient way to do it um please do go on with your questions okay thank you my obviously my um idea of the purpose of meeting was different than your so I'll go to I just have a couple um I guess I'll try
to prioritize my question um on page uh on article 1162 I know we talked about the the garbage and recycling and I'm just wondering um as far as the time frame that we're looking at after 10 days then we give them
another seven days and then we give them a courtesy call and give them another two days and that's like 19 days I'm just wondering is that because um it's a Manpower issue I'm wondering why we give them such a long time especially because it's garbage I mean I know personally I had issues with garbage in the
neighborhood where it was it got to the point where you know there were wraps and everything and I if we have garbage lying around and nobody's complying within 19 days that's just a concern can you just give me your your input on that on what you're seeing uh what we've seen if if I could have
that if you take if you take a look at the uh initial violations the drop from a first violation to a second violation letter is pretty significant so we do get people that do respond relatively quickly uh the goal is is as I as I I
mentioned earlier um some of our rental properties or folks that own don't live in the city so we have to do everything VIA mail we don't if we don't have a phone number we do if we don't reach out um we usually try to to do it we have to give them an official notice which is why we go by letter in the first place
um that's what the magistrates require particularly if we do wind up getting to the uh citations issued portion of it um the percentage that we get that are are very small that go into that citations issue section um but as I said we we did
talk to the magistr we wanted to be as reasonable as we possibly could um most people do comply within the first 10day letter um and a lot of times some of the complaints that we do get a lot of the times the unsubstantiated complaints or somebody put material out a day or two early they call and complain we go out
and look at it and it's gone so there is a a period there we do want to be as reasonable as we can as far as allowing them to take care of getting the material off the street to give them time to do so in a lot of cases too we have indiv idual that quite honestly are in a financial situation where they
can't afford to just have the material taken away that quickly or the landlord if he's not there doesn't realize his tenant is stockpiling garbage in the back of the property so just so I can clarify understand for the cases of like if garbage is piling up is it very very
rare that it would be piled up for 19 days it's very very rare okay all right because that's just my concern I those situations that we do have those um there's more than just garbage issues there's High weeds there's code enforcement issues and so forth okay those are properties that quite honestly
have multitudes of issues not just on the trash side of it okay thank you certainly and then for um okay number six abandoned real property I'm not sure who would um
answer this but I'm just wondering um because I know of an instance where there is an abandoned property and we're going on four years now in the city and it is with the mortgage company I guess I just can't understand why it's still abandoned and I know people have called the city about violations and you have
been you know good about coming out but what else can be done when we have an abandoned property we have a housing crisis we don't have enough housing and the mortgage company the bank is just not doing anything to get rid of the property well that's tough I I I don't know the answer to that because the
mortgage company is the one looking to receive payment from someone to take the property so it's it's really at their I mean so what the abandoned real property is is uh it's when Banks foreclose on properties you have to we have a system where they have to
register the properties so that we have contact information for uh as a representative of the bank so when we do have complaint about the property um we can go to that representative and we know who from the bank will be responsible to have that but um I've
reached out if it's the property I'm thinking of I reached out to them several different times and they just don't have any takers on the mortgage I I don't know the the asking price they were asking was pretty significant and um I just don't know if that's something that the banks are willing to forgive in
order to assist in a housing crisis so it's really at the bank's purview for some of these and it seems like the violations if they get fined it's not making a difference to them it it's not I mean and it because um as you as you may have not they just add that onto the price tag of the building you know what
I mean so for them to um accumulate uh additional violations is really not significant to them okay thank you with like that particular property like as Mike said it's over 20 I believe $25,000 that they're seeking it's been
up at Sheriff sale for eight months at this point and just keeps getting moved um to the next sale uh that that's not something that's going to attract an investor to clear it it's too high of a lean um we have actually alerted Community Action to it because it is is
the sort of property where a part you know a partnership with a nonprofit like what we did on 723 Broadway which was a hoarding situation with a pretty um high cost it's it's the kind of thing that requires probably partnership and you know creative thinking and we've been
looking into it but I that is not the norm um like we're actually seeing properties move so quickly um when that there's blade that Community Action actually has limited opportunities to take on bladed properties when free previously that was how they were doing
most of their housing okay thank you the other question regarding that is and I know I brought up I'm getting calls from like um State reps and um State rep's office and people who are being they can no longer live in their ranone I'm not sure I feel like it's more like a
process on what we can do because what's happening is the owner has violations and they're not um they're not responding and fixing what they need to fix and then all of a sudden it gets to the point where the is uninhabitable and the renters have to leave and they have
like no notice and I'm just thinking is there any way that we can put into our process somehow that we can give them some awareness that there are violations and it can get to the point where you may have to find another place because I've just had a lot of of calls regarding this where they're just out they have nowhere to go many of them
they may not have to leave right away it might you know it's just the violations but the the landlords making them leave and they don't know their their rights that they don't have to leave so so there's a couple different answers to that question um we never go and post a property unless it's a significant
structural damage immediately so um usually if there is a situation where we may have to you know post a property for instance or or say a property can no longer be inhabited it's it's it's a series of inspections that led up to that event and notifications to the
owner um I think uh unfortunately our obligation is to the owner to to to notify of the violation so if they're not getting them to the tenant you know what I mean uh it's difficult for us we do relay that
and in addition to the um to the uh notices of violations and stuff we do work with our health department they have a community connections and whenever we're ready or in the midst that we think we have a potential property that could escalate to a potential you know closure closure or
condemnation we make them fully aware so that they can prepare and and and assist the uh the um the tenants as much as possible and lastly what we uh we actually the inspect the housing inspectors carry around the north pen legal pamphlets with them so whenever we
come into a situation where a tenant may not understand fully what's going on um we carry them around and we carry them around both English and Spanish just so that's an e for an EAS of the tenants so we do our best to to communicate with them and we're also um now the city's
helping financially support a tenant Advocate at Community Action development Bethlehem um Devon's doing a wonderful job he's actually come out on inspections with our inspectors to learn about the process so that he can better help navigate tenants through that process and what their rights are um and
we uh also have the rental assistance funding that we've given to new Beany which could ass set like help rehousing people in this situation and we're working with Community connections right now on a Grant application just for those condemnation issues to assist tenants um with a new program that the
state that the governor brought through his budget for like uh emergency housing assistance thank you it's great just the calls I've got the people just are they're on the street and then you know those things take time that you know I tell them where to go but you know they have nowhere to go in the interim so I just am trying to figure out a way that we
can Bridge it the Gap that they can get a little heads up like I may need to have to look for another place yeah we we try to give them as much notice as possible okay thank you um I'm just going to try to summarize um
I'm just going to I I can just even put the rest of my questions in an email the one the only other one that's important is um the short-term rentals I'm just wondering what the status is in the city like how many we have that are truly licensed and being inspected and do we have any idea if there are any that are
legal um because you know I wor I think about them like there's certainly need I've used them in the past but as long as it's on a limited basis but I'm also thinking again with our housing crisis we have homes that are being used for short-term rentals some of the may be licensed some of them may be not but
they can be they can be you know long-term homes for people given our housing crisis so that's why I bring this up I don't have that I don't have that number with me I can look into yeah do you have do you have any idea as far as to your knowledge do you think that all the ones that are out there are really
licensed and signed up with the city or do you think there's some that may not be that's unlikely I'm sorry it's unlikely that it's unlikely that there there's illegal ones out there not on the books okay no I think she was saying the opposite ful like they're all liced
it's like it's likely that that's unlikely that there are unlicensed ones okay no the other way around right it's likely that there are unlicensed ones right given the legal challenges okay around the program okay and are we doing
anything to look into it I mean I know a lot of it's going to be by people calling in or whatever but is there a way that we can determine the ones that are not licensed that that aspect of the enforcement section for the short-term lodging has moved into the zoning realm so I'd have
to talk to the zoning officer and see okay we're in between I can I can email him okay thank you yep that's it thank you I I um I'll just email the rest of my questions and I I want to just give a shout out to Joe Daniels our citizen who's come to the meetings and brought up the importance of looking at this and
I think that was a a um you know a precourse to having this committee meeting so thank you okay thank you um Miss wam do you have questions I do but I'm also happy to ask them offline in fact the presentation was extremely helpful to me and you answered some of my questions through
the presentation so I I really do appreciate it um I want to are we going to be able to move into public comment and just kind of right I I did want to after you asked questions um and see if Miss Leon had any um just sort of pull the folks that had come to you know of
those of you who had come to make public comment would would you be willing to do your public comment during public comment one at the beginning of it is right at the beginning of the full council meeting um or do you in you want your five minutes now okay that does mean that our council meeting is going
to start a little late um so just I'm happy I'm hap Everyone is always extremely available so I'm happy to ask any remaining questions via email or I'll set up meetings it's fine with me thank you Miss Leon I I'll ask questions
offline okay um and so then I would just say um my only question to you all and you don't have to answer it tonight is what can we do to help you to make you know to it seems to me that there's a lot of um improvements and you know the the data driven um way that you're doing
things the increase in inspections um it seems like these are all having an impact and and and you know in a good way um but we have obviously 12 ordinances just these 12 ordinances alone that deal with uh nuisances and
have a variety of enforcement mechanisms and so I would just open the conversation with all of you to um to do to let us know that so so we'll move into public comment um we have a few people signed up Kelly uh Ronalds and just reminder everybody has
five minutes and we are on this topic we're not talking about um other topics this is just for what was on the agenda tonight thank you yes ma'am thank you um again my name is Kelly ronaldson I reside at 448 Main Street right here in Bethlehem and I also am the hotel
director at Historic Hotel Bethlehem for the past two and a half to three years I personally have been involved um a party with a lawsuit um that the city actually has supported regarding the illegal um bed and breakfast in the RT District
this one in particular on Church Street the case was was recently reviewed by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania and we won they had the decision was handed down on January the 3D the uh party had 30 days to appeal and they did
not I come to you to ask to that you help us retain the character of our neighborhoods and help the housing crisis by ensuring that these illegal airbnbs and illegal vrbos that are uh illegal rentals that are out in our
neighborhoods are uh the the zoning it gets enforced we have zoned areas for these properties in the CB districts that permit hotels and beded breakfast but it's not zoned in the RT districts I'm respectfully asking that we begin to issue the violations and notices to
impose the fines um and that of those that don't adhere to the zoning ordinance and you know I took a little time and went on VRBO I didn't go on Airbnb I just picked one and um printed the houses and
apartments that I found that are in neighborhood districts um for you to review I have offered these to the city um also in the past these are not all of them they go by certain arrival and departure date I'm sure if I chose other
dates I'd find more properties but I do point out to um the administration that the first house on the top of the list is the one that we've been in court over there are more than a dozen and homes town houses and apartments that I
located just in a quick search and you know it these are our neighborhoods and and nobody buys a home in a neighborhood or rents a home in a neighborhood to have transient uh folks
staying next to them we talk about the shorting the shortage of Housing and I think that we need to be looking at all of the opportunities that we have to um to make some corrections this is simply not an issue in the historic district you'll notice
him in my um information for you that there are houses on the South Side houses in the West End houses on the East End off of bustown Road and houses in the in the uh north um North District it's across the city it's not just a
historic district issue bethlehem's neighborhoods are unique and special and they're special because we have neighbors and not hotels and illegal airbnbs I also did talk to um someone with Northampton County tax
they don't all pay the hotel tax the way that the you know the Hyatt Place and the Comfort Suites and wi Creek and the Hotel Bethlehem and um you know the Wilbur Mansion do and the S um they're not paying the taxes so I ask you to please enforce this issue thank you
thank you very much next on the list is uh Frank Boer yeah thank you I'm Frank berer I live on East Market Street 234 East Market Street um my name is on all of the
lawsuit documents that Kelly was speaking about earlier I've been involved in the fight against 251 East Church Street since it started um the reason being that I on my
street we had two very active airbnbs for several years uh 258 East Market and the property diagonally across from it were both owned
by an LLC called do and sir it was Jay brew and his wife Mar Ellen Williams own those two properties they also own the Big
Green multistory Building sir if you could just keep to the to the topic of the short-term rentals and probably not bring other people's names into it and okay no names thank you there was a property directly across Church Street
from here that was owned by the same people along with the little bitty house up by the old YWCA all being operated as airbnbs and let me tell you living next to one of these places is
kind of like being living next to a fraternity house I mean not all the time but in the summer when your windows are open when the weather's good you got people partying outside carrying on arguing coming back from partying
downtown being loud at 11 12 o'clock at night you know coming back from football games after tailgating for half the afternoon carrying on it it's really kind of disgusting and it's not what you want in your
residential neighborhood um we we worked against this for years I met Mike Simonson probably the week he was hired and and talked about this and he tried
but the complaint driven method that you use to enforce your ordinances does not work for airbnbs these things are active Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon in most
cases and there's nobody working in the city to enforce that ordinance we we were calling and texting and emailing Mike Simonson when it was happening but he doesn't work over the weekend at one point in time we were told call the
non-emergency number of the police station and report it well I called them and the desk officer or whatever you called the guy that's in charge said what are you talking about we don't do that so you need if you want to enforce
your ordinance for short-term rentals you need somebody that's going to work when the rentals are active somebody that we can contact if it's going to still be complaint driven we need somebody to contact that's going to
respond and do something about it you're not going to catch them in the open for business on a Tuesday night probably you're going to or Tuesday afternoon you need to be there Friday afternoon at checkin whatever it is 3
o'clock in the afternoon till Sunday midday when they check out I'll leave it at that thank you for your time thank you sir uh next on the list is Jeffrey zedel moer I have no comments okay thank you
um and then next we have Joe Daniels to those of you who' have come for the city council meeting we're just finishing up our um community community Economic Development um hearing on uh various uh quality of life and uh nuisance ordinances um with our public
comment um each person who's signed up or wants to is going to have five minutes to speak specifically on this topic and then um once we're wrapped up with that we'll start our meeting apologies for the delay Joe Daniels um I want to thank uh
Mike and Laura and sarin the whole group for presenting this uh information to us today gave me more insight into how your processes are ran and what your days look like basically so I appreciate that
um and saying that I still have some concerns um surrounding the inspection surrounding the ordinances um and not being able to have something that's a little bit more proactive than
what's currently being done so what I mean by that Laura and and and all of you um having someone go around to different homes and either leaving them a notice or whatever the case may be it seems as
though that's just something that will never ever happen that's it's an probability impossibility and it's not that I want my neighbors and my community to be fines because I know a lot of people can't afford fines but at the same time
waiting for the community to call or go on the bethleem app to make complaints when a lot of them majority of them probably don't even know they have that ability to do so one um two a lot of them don't want to get involved in other
people's issues whether it's high weeds or whatever the situation may be um and three I I just really feel it's not entirely their responsibility and I say that because clearly that hasn't worked
um especially in the case of the Southside and areas small pockets on the other side of town that may mimic the Southside in appearance so the Southside um the gateways to the souths side uh Broadway which is the street that I live
on and wi dot coming south coming from the south of 378 those two roads are probably the worst roads on the south side and they are the gateways coming into the Southside
so having the city be more proactive and approaching residents and I know Community Action is starting to do some with the facade program which is awesome but having the city approach residents and and educating them on the ordinances
at the very least and letting them know you know we're not trying to tell you how to live but these are the laws which ordinances are these are the laws that the city has put in place and by you not following the laws it's causing a blight
to the community it's causing a blight issue to the neighborhood it's devaluing my community it's devaluing my neighborhood it's devaluing my home when people come to the Southside I've heard it from everyone from Lehi students when I used to Uber to just everyday people
coming into Bethlehem on the South Side they're almost fearful of the Southside and I think in large part it's because of how it looks it's not because of the people yeah we got a couple Bad characters but for the most part people view the southide as an area of problems
because of its appearance and it's not fair to those of us who were were born and raised on the southide such as my own such as myself who take pride in our property such as myself that's how I was raised it's just not fair to us and it's not fair that my property value is
declining because ordinances that are on the books I'm not trying to set precedent with anything ordinances that are already there are not being enforced and I really don't believe every everybody should call the city I mean that would really inundate you guys it
would be a little bit more efficient for you to be able to do it on your own time time frame than have a 100 people call every day and complain about this that and the other so I'm going to end this with I would love to learn more about your processes
seriously um and try and find a happy medium to where you guys won't be blown away by all this additional work and the Southside would benefit by having a more be beautiful aesthetically pleasing and
actually that would turn into less crime um because people aren't going to want to hang around areas that look nice you know you don't have drug dealers on on on church and market and and Center Street because these areas are well taken care of that's what I want for the
Southside that's all I have thank you thank you uh and the last person we have signed up to speak is Ben felzer he stepped out he stepped out okay um was there anybody else who didn't sign up who was here for the community and economic development
meeting yes ma'am in the blue shirt first I'm really excited to hear the presentations I have a deeper understanding of how the city is operating and the efficiency seems to have gone way up in the time since we've been here in '92 so I have a couple of
issues isues not issues sidewalks um I have a son in a wheelchair I'm sorry can um can we just have your name oh I'm sorry Cheryl Dugan D Gan thank you 253 East Church Street so quick on the
sidewalks because I hadn't intended to speak on it but I do have a son in a wheelchair who on several occasions once while he was buckled in the wheelchair hit sidewalk the whole chair tipped over is scraped another time and staff didn't
have the seat belt on and it was a little rise in the sidewalk um and he went flying five stitches so it's they're dangerous um and I was on the sidewalk committee from the bhda for years and nothing really happened so a
couple of things I'm wondering about when those inspections are done when some trans property is transferred I thought I had understood years ago that since the owner of the property is also responsible for the sidewalks that the sidewalks would be part of that transfer
inspection um so that we could at least count on those sidewalks being repaired before a sale is made so I think that's probably the least onerous um way it just like they have to keep up with the rest of their property um also when
these citations are sent out the I don't know if you're allowed to do this but the betham historic district Association has a grant program within the historic district that offers up to $1,000 um for people who you know live
here to help defray the cost of repairing sidewalks uh and last on that issue I think the ordinance and I'm not familiar anymore does not allow um grinding of sidewalks to make them you know and it but as a mom with a child in
wheelchair grinding is fine with me may not bit some standard of Aesthetics but it makes the sidewalk safer so if that's allowed um I'm all for it for those minor ridges but it only takes like a half inch for my son to get thrown out
of the chair um the other issue dear to me of great concern are the uh illegal bnbs and I live at 253 East Church Street the 251 property is right next door I think it's been an illegal BNB since about
2018 taking full advantage of the appeal process and you know we're getting to a point where we're in a resolu and they dropped their its manipulation um so it is now gone through the whole court system and I'm learning a lot about government and city government and I'm
concerned because I I was excited when the city issued I think they ended up with two cease and desist orders that my neighbors appealed and then they they never were implemented so threats are big you can get fine for this but it's
been really frustrating to have what I think is a really excellent ordinance um a lot of the neighborhood was brought in to put opinions in it might be one of the best city ordinances on short-term rentals but I'm surprised at how almost
impossible it's felt to enforce that ordinance and I'm perplexed but it's been really difficult to live next door to the the people and I know they do a lot of do it-yourself you know so
they're not inspected they've repaired like cast iron plumbing and replaced it they poured a patio um that didn't it in according to the ordinances it's supposed to be permitted it wasn't permitted they put a fence up against
our property so about 13 inches and in installing that removing a wall they removed a um retaining wall our basement was flooded up to 50 gall one evening they we bailed with the they've been
just violations on so many counts we finally put in a fence and simply asking because we didn't want to be watch the Airbnb and the the Privacy was an issue and simply ask for our fence contractors to have access so they could put the
fence post in that they would leave their side of the property meticulous I my response from my neighbor was in Black magic marker access denied and if you dare step one inch on our property we
will charge you with trespassing and so it's really an in tenable situation as a neighbor because this neighborhood is the best neighborhood I've ever lived in in all of my 75 years as far as oh we're out of time caring I'm sorry yes wrap it
up but yes please whatever can be done with the bnbs to make sure they're licensed Reg related and not in residential districts thank you and you can speak to Mr alal about sidewalks when you know yeah he's good just
okay um was there anybody else okay and was there anybody else after um this gentleman just so I'm aware okay terrific if you could just share your name I I will um chairperson quch and committee members krampy Smith and
Wilhelm good evening my name is Frank felici and I stand stand before you as vice president of the bhda the Bethlehem historic district Association um and cherel did make reference to it uh as you may know we are a
501c3 not for-profit Community organization and enthusiastically celebrate the assignment of a UNESCO world heritage site designation to the Moravian settlement that is the center of our community as we turn the page to
2025 we decided to revise and update our bylaws with this in mind Central to our mission we support opportunities to honor and preserve our neighborhood history recently some of us learned that
some properties within the Bethlehem City boundaries are not in compliance with article 17413 restrictions on transient rentals types of short-term lodging facilities which has been the topic of this uh
meeting tonight it is my understanding that the property at 251 East Church Street is in this category it is understood that the code was contested in court which was already mentioned and
remains a viable code but is not being adequately enforced by the city of Bethlehem for unknown reasons we the bhda feel strongly that not enforcing this zoning code is likely to to have detrimental short and
long-term effects on our unique neighborhood community please consider Avenues to have this code enforced proactively and I want to say one thing after being in this meeting and hearing
about how thing how code Codes are enforced I would expect the city of Bethlehem to do more than just wait for complaints to ensure the safety of our
communities I think we're better than that thank you okay thank you if there are no other comments on this topic um I will adjourn this meeting this meeting is adjourned oh and we're going to have a five minute intermission before we start
our city council meeting thank you would you number to hit it Part: 2
sys equipped with higher quality cameras and real-time data analytics will help us respond more swiftly and accurately to incidents and also Aid in investigating crimes that happen at or near intersections in conclusion this grant
funding presents an invaluable opportunity for us to not only improve the safety of our roads but also to enhance the quality of life for every person who drives walks or Cycles around our city by investing in these crucial improvements ments to our intersection
camera system we are sending a clear message that the safety of our community is a priority today and into the future I'd be more than happy to answer any of council's questions uh if they have any thank you Chief so I'll start with members of
council is there any questions or comments from any members of council councilwoman quch thank you I just um I appreciate this and as you know I'm a big advocate for Street safety pedestrian safety bicycle safety um how are those cameras used is it
after the fact for information gathering um we don't use them for um uh tickets or anything right correct okay correct most of the time it's historical data that is recorded and if there's an accident at the inter
intersection if there is a crime that occurs nearby we're able to go back and view that historical data and utilize it as evidence thank you and I I mean this isn't totally on topic because obviously we're not using them for enforcement but
has that conversation come up as a means of slowing people down getting them to heed stop signs stop lights things like that as a deterrent yes ma'am we we are hoping that it adding more cameras um throughout the community is going to
hopefully correct some bad driver Behavior but not by issuing tickets right just by the presence of the cameras themselves correct okay correct all right thank you any other questions or comments councilwoman wih I was just curious are the funds going to be used to both
replace and add new cameras so we're looking to add okay this is um yes so how many inter intersections will be impacted do you have a sense so we're hoping two intersections originally we were thinking about Broad Street
um Broad and Center Broad and lynen however there's been a significant increase in uh major crashes over on the stefco boulevard Corridor uh so we're also looking at intersections over there as well such as stefco and Bayard stefco
and Washington Avenue great thank you you're welcome c um do the funds cover just the the hardware or is there associated service with the cameras that needs to be like like a subscription or anything or
server uh storage backups anything like that so that is a budget item the subscription is a budget item that we pay on a yearly basis uh so the funding would just be for the uh the labor as well as the equipment that's going to be
uh G to be posted okay does the associated subscription go up per camera or is it like a blanket or banded or it's banded okay um and do you know um ballpark uh how long the footage the
recording is um stored for like before I assume it wipes out over time yes there's a retention period uh it you can flag certain footage um and if it's flagged it'll be retained forever or for
we have various retention periods for accidents for crimes that occur um I believe it's two weeks but that's something that I can get a exact uh answer from our it Department on and get back to you but I believe it's two weeks
thank you any other questions or comments councilwoman KY Smith thank you um this is great it's a great use of the the um Grant I was just wondering how do you have an idea of how many cameras we have now like at how many intersections have the cameras so I believe we have
28 intersections covered with our camera Network throughout the city okay great thank you any other questions or comments Chief I had one quick question this is a grant we typically receive every year yes this is a grant that
going to knock on wood um that we received from the federal government on a yearly basis and uh it is based the grant amount is based on our crime statistics uh so that's why some other jurisdictions may receive more some may
receive less uh but it's based on our neers numbers and what do we historically use the grant funds for so in the past we've used it to purchase mobile data terminals the laptops that are in the police cars we've been doing
a really good job of working with it to make sure that those getting are are being replaced um on a regular basis uh which allows us this year to use this money towards the cameras so just to we're good with mdts right now yes
understood that was my question just what are if we're putting the money here what are we not spending it on but thank you chief are there any other questions or comments from members of council all right thanks Chief cot thank you before I move on I will recognize if
there's any public comment now this is strictly for the public hearing that's about the Edward burn Memorial Justice Grant so I'll go around the room if there was anyone who wanted to make comment regarding the grant that we just discussed is there anyone to the left who want to make comment I'll turn to
the wide Center Mr sh those are 1898 and Avenue I can't can't read is this the opportunity to have a trifecta tonight um I was struck though by the
comment that these cameras are not used for enforcement but only for data Gathering I guess that's something we should not advertise because and one other comment um
I hope related enough I had an experience last night with a pedestrian I think maybe we should hand out some tickets to pedestrians if I hadn't seen these people starting to dash across the street and if I hadn't stopped when the light turned green I
would have hit them and I blew my horn at him a little bit because it was Reckless and the guy wanted to make an issue out of it and I got a finger to boot and so on and so on but some pedestrians could uh be be well served
with an occasional ticket thank you thank you Mr CH was there anyone else in the wide Center who let make comment on the grant Mr Faber hello Harry Faber I too don't uh want to miss the opportunity to speak
three times tonight um I like to hear the sound of my own voice uh so two intersections for 33577 and I understand what you're saying about the um uh not advertising it I can totally comprehend that I do
want to disagree with again the the nature of fines and how that affects people uh finds we all we all understand disproportionately affect lower income people so I do kind of disagree with the issuing of citations maybe we can give
them a stop that do a citation but I got to think when when we talk about crime and quality of life uh the biggest contributor of crime is poverty and lack of an education so and
I understand the the the points being laid out as to you know the camera equipment but I do think um if we want to get more grant money for this system which is based off of uh lowering crime rate we should invest in programs that address the poverty issues and the um
education and lack of Education um in this city so that's all thank you Mr favor was there anyone else in the wide Center who wanted to make comment I'll turn to the right all right so that's going to
conclude our public comment on the public hearing we will put a resolution on the April 1st 2025 council meeting agenda the public hearing is adjourned moving on to our regular agenda approval of the minutes from the March 4 2025
city council meeting any comments on the minutes all right I see none minutes are going to stand approved moving on to our public comment our first public comment for anyone who's not familiar is for any subject that is not being voted on this
evening and we do have a fem minute time limit and I would ask anyone who chooses to address Council to state your name for the record for our city clerk we only have one person previously signed up that's Arty CA hi I'm Mary Cera 813 laer Street Bethlehem Pennsylvania
Southside um also I am one of the host for an International Peace concert called wake up rise up live for peace now this is your chance city council for you to prove that you are to
voice in the bodies of the people you're willing to speak about peace and World unity and what Bethlehem is doing that other cities aren't doing to make Bethlehem an example of other
cities to be eliminating violence and spreading peace and World Unity that's your chance to speak all over the world it goes on for TW since 2021 one I've been the host of the
Lehigh Valley stage one hour I get of the 24 hours but they're going to go 48 hours this year I don't know anybody that got 48 Hours except Eddie Murphy but we're doing it with wake up rise up live for
peace about a Unfortunately they only give you three minutes not five minutes to speak on world Unity peace anybody can speak you won't be generally on the Lehigh Valley Stage if everybody in city council speaking and
chief cot and Harry but the thing is you'll be on you might be on the one of the stages in G Africa speaking about betham Pennsylvania and they'll be tuned in to know about betham Pennsylvania or
Paris France or Germany or Italy was all over the world even Mexico go so um if you like you're more than welcome to say
something me being one of the host and Performing Artist on this on the wake up rise up live for peace I'm offering you the chance to do this it has to be email to me the video
landscape mode it could be on your on your cell phone it doesn't M have to be a professional video we'll make it look professional has to be to me by April 14th this thing this wake up rise up
live for peace is linked with the International Day of Peace on the 21st of September with the United Nations which got me to speak not too long ago in New York City at a large United Nations Gathering interviewed by nanu Tong and Sandi Wang Nong is the
lady that puts all the United Nations Gatherings together in all the large cities LA but she's from La uh New York Chicago all over the place but we're linked with the United Nations International Day of Peace it's quite a large event and uh if you
haven't heard of it yet you will be they claim that they get over 10 million viewers each year so uh you know I don't know the United Nations knew about it they invited me to speak and be
interviewed so at any rate it's on the 21st of September but your videos have to be in by April 14th anybody here can speak but I guar but you won't probably be on the Lehigh
Valley Stage on my stage but you might you'll still be out there speaking and they'll know where you're from and you'll be making people know a little bit more about the city of Bethlehem being among the top 20 cities safest
cities in the entire United States because of video cameras that were placed up in 2017 and I was pushing on City Council meetings way back before I knew Miss
zinsky and Eddie sabori and many of the other people that were on on city council pushing for those security cameras and we have an unbelievable unbeatable police force thanks to Chief
cot and uh all the police officers in Bethlehem Pennsylvania you're all doing a great job I hope to hear from at least one of you from city council if not all of you with a video sent to @gmail.com
a r t i e c r a t o l a gmail.com God bless you keep on rocking DOD benedique thank you Mr katola so that exhausts our list of who signed up to speak for first public comment so I'll
go around the room is there anyone to the left who want to make comment on anything that we're not voting on this evening in the front did you want to it's so you don't have to we'll all be here after the meeting if you wanted to speak to council
individually do it okay you're more than welcome whatever you're comfortable with okay um wait can is this okay like can you hear me we can hear you okay um hi I'm sorry I'm like so nervous right now um all right good evening my name is
Katherine and I live in West Bethlehem um this isn't my first time at one of these meetings but this is my first time actually saying something um I believe now considering all of the things that have been happening at the federal level
it is imperative that um you know citizens and residents and whatnot voice their concerns get involved and take action against the current um destruction of democracy if you will um
our city officials County officials and state level officials must know we are struggling and not happy and they shouldn't give into whatever corporations and the wealthy and whatnot
um you know um basically want um in addition our elected officials um should also not be afraid to speak out in in defense of us or against wrongdoing um
you know they're I believe supposed to be here to work for all of us um our silence is compliance um um I think I said enough I'm sorry I'm really nervous that's
fine thank you Catherine was there anyone else that left who want to make comment on anything not being voted on this evening I'll turn to the center anyone in the center who I'll go from left to right Mr sh part two of the trifecta Bill Shire
1898 to the young lady who just spoke it's normal to be apprehensive the first time you speak publicly but the more you do it the easier it becomes it's a hard choice toight to decide whether to talk about Mr
Netanyahu or Mr Trump but since the condition with Mr Trump is I think going to get worse uh that can be postponed to a future date I'll just mention that on
NPR today I heard a uh an interesting comment from the dean of the law school at Berkeley who said was asked about uh are we in a constitutional crisis and he said a constitutional crisis is not a
either or proposition there's no magic dividing line he said it's a Continuum and we're in that Continuum now now with the uh he was perhaps thinking in particular
of Trump's remark that U about impeaching the judge that issued a decision he didn't like and John Roberts responded a few hours later saying that was not an appropriate comment from a president but I'll stick tonight with Mr
Netanyahu because I don't think it can get any worse with him uh it's become clear to me at least that he wants every single Palestinian out of Gaza and why do I arrive at this
conclusion well as best I understand Ed it has to do with uh negotiations after the first phase of the ceasefire to negotiate a permanent end of to the war and this was an something that
happened in the closing days of the Biden Administration the agreement was that the negotiations would begin and the hostages would then be released
uh Netanyahu wants to change that around with the blessing of the Trump Administration the hostages get released before negotiations begin what on Earth is the
difference uh there is some difference yes but um an argument has been made by the uh Administration that this was an agreement in the bid Administration and it's not the Trump Administration is not
bound by any agreements reached during the Biden Administration that's another uh footnote at least to a constitutional crisis the difference seems to be rather
precious and to me it means that Netanyahu did just wanted an excuse to resume the bombing so that that's my take on it uh let me mention one other thing and I I have mentioned in the before a show on
NPR called Left Right and Center I I can't recommend it more highly to everyone here uh council member milhelm is a devote of that show and uh I'm sure she'll agree with me that it's well they
got Sarah isgar from the right and mo from the left and David is the moderator they respect each other they like each other they're very smart and thoughtful and it's just fascinating every time Mo came up with a
comparison which Sarah thought was was was brilliant with be comparing Charlottesville Virginia and Columbia University you might recall at the time of the Shad Charlottesville
there were these people carrying torches en chanting Jews will not replace us that was clearly anti-semitic and uh Trump said afterwards well there's good people on both sides well now at in the case of
Columbia University if in the case of one graduate student who's now in Canada by the way who signed a letter protesting the civilian deaths in Gaza and civilian deaths in
Israel was has been accused by the Trump administration of aligning herself with terrorists so ice came to her door and anyway she's in Canada now thank you thank you Mr sh is there anyone else in
the center who want to make comment Mr fa I I I want to commend you Mr shrier I I'm very impressed with a lot of the stuff you said I have to address a lot of the same issues uh Harry Faber first I would like to address the fact that Israel violated the ceasefire and massacred 400 people last night
Netanyahu said quote this is the only the beginning end quote the Western media is trying to convince the people this is because Hamas has refused to negotiate when in fact it is because Israel has refused to follow the ceasefire deal which it agreed to the second phase as Mr shrier had talked
about was to begin an agreement on permanently ending the war Nan yahu has refused to enter these negotiations to pressure Hamas into new terms and has blocked Aid in aaza in since March 2nd the White House Press Secretary stated quote the Trump Administration was
consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight end quote what does this mean it means our federal government enabled and permitted the terrorist attack against sleeping children and civilians at 4:00 a.m. in the middle of the night also I would like to mention the fact that the United States with direct orders from Trump
launched a series of missile strikes the past few nights on Yemen's capital S uh killing at least 50 people I think I saw 53 as the latest estimate and injuring over a hundred more and again to address the situation in Colombia University mmud Khalil a Palestinian immigrant and
illegal permanent resident was kidnapped from his apartment on March 8th by federal immigration authorities and is right now being held in prison for his political speech there is no evidence he has broken any law and he is not being charged with a crime to quote Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut quote
here's why everyone should care in America your political speech is protected whether or not the president likes what you say but today if you're loyal to Donald Trump your speech is going to be protected but if you are disloyal to Trump or you're organizing
against Trump's political agenda your speech could be criminalized you could find yourself in jail now Trump chose to begin by disappearing a Palestinian immigrant hoping that his place of birth and immigrant status would cause people to look the other way but we cannot
because once it becomes normal for the regime to disappear people simply for protesting against the regime's policies once a citizen or a resident of America can be locked away with no charges against them simply because they protested there is no going back from
for America today it is mmud Khalil tomorrow it's me or you end quote and I believe today it is more likely me than you city council because again we have been waiting for uh ceasefire resolution we have been waiting for condemnation and you have
stayed complacent I believe I mentioned Imperial Boomerang Theory last meeting but allow me to refresh if I was mistaken the Imperial Boomerang is how governments will develop will develop repressive techniques to control Colonial territories and will eventually deploy those same techniques
domestically against their own citizens what we allow our federal government to do the violence that we normalize is US essentially digging digging our own Graves Palestine is and has historically been used by the the West in the US Empire as a laboratory for the
Empire to develop a playbook for violence propaganda and fascism the only way we can survive is through standing in our moral obligation to resist any form of Injustice anywhere just like the brave people of Yemen who from the very beginning took up the call
to oppose an end the genocide in Gaza regardless of what it will cost them for us to do that we not only need to unite as a working class here in the Imperial Corps but also form International solidarity with the workers of the world as it pertains to council I expect our public officials to
do something say something I'm still waiting for a ceasefire resolution the Palestine Coalition is waiting for a ceasefire resolution I'm waiting for a written statement as was provided when we first called for a welcoming City legislation this affects all of us and thus change is dependent on all of us s
silence is compliance thank you thank you Mr favor is there anyone else in the center who wants to make comment Mr analex stepen antolic 737 Ridge I um applaud and totally agree with and
support the last two speakers so I will not say anything because they said it all at the last meeting a number of council members took exception to my comment that longevity of City residents
was an important factor in effective governance a citizen who had served as a council member joined them and while speaking managed to cast a sideward menacing glance in my direction previously at an earlier
meeting I equated that special sense of long City residence equivalent to the feeling when hearing their Alma at a sporting event a feeling that the Marine Corps instills in its ranks called a spree the
core or once a marine always a marine an example of the importance of longevity was exhibited by council at the August 8th 2022 meeting of Council on the COA on the of accepting the HCC
decision concerning preservation of Southside buildings and the Arts Quest expansion proposal two council members with limited residen voted against the building's pre preservation while at at
nauseum praising Arts Quest and solom if ever mentioning historic preservation it sounded as if the future of of oest and not the two buildings was at stake two council members with extended
City residents voted in favor of the COA citing not only the importance of Arts Quest but extensive knowledge of sasai History justifying the building's preservation one of the two who voted for preservation also suggested all
plans of consolidation of Arts Quest by moving it in proximity to Steel Stacks this would save demolition cost and add the revenue by the sale of the buildings thereby offsetting the cost of
any alternate plans now this might be class's tongue and cheek this is these comments from here another term for that special feeling can be introduced here and that is Mom's Apple Pie
P if you if you never tasted Mom's Apple Pie you'll be next to impossible to explain to a non inber and this is exactly the case with council members if you do not have it you simply do not have
it you can be the best of of intention but you just don't have it sorry so what is the what is the message here
simply elect council members who are intelligent and also have the most extended City experience it's simply just that thank you Mr andalex was there anyone else in the center who want make
comment on anything not being voted on this evening anyone to the right that concludes our first public comment moving on to our second public comment this is for anything ordinance or resolution that council is voting on this evening no one had signed up in
advance so again I'll go around the room anyone to the left who wants to make comment on anything that council's going to be voting on tonight I turn to the center Mr sh part three I do enjoy these
trifectas um belshire Eon Avenue uh Woolworth Building um due to a personal Cur fuffle right before the meeting I don't have my written statement Mr we're not voting on oh you're not voting on it tonight no there we're not voting on 555
Main Street tonight oh okay so the what was sent out on Friday has been changed I don't I don't believe it basing my understanding on the email I got on Friday about the agenda for tonight I'm happy to figure that out with you after
the meeting to see where there might be a miscommunication okay I didn't see it on any agenda but just for the record 555 Main Street will not be it's not on the agenda to vote on tonight as Gilda bradner used to say on Saturday Night Live never
mind you still got your third trip in though Mr sh is there anyone else in the center who would to make comment on anything we're voting on tonight Mr favor yeah that's on the agenda tonight Mr favor right um Harry
Faber so at the last meeting we talked about I I listen to what you guys said as to why um you're reasoning for increasing the wages and I think I I totally understand where you're coming from as yeah not making any money is a
hard barrier to be becoming a council member I can totally understand that but I don't think that increasing it by the $3,000 is really going to Aid in anything and I think you guys really missed the the mark meaning that you're not addressing the actual
issue why is it that a council person can't live off of the wage or why can't the the mayor live off I mean the mayor even said that he can live off of his $90,000 and you guys still voted except for cologne obviously I remember you and
um crampy Smith also rejected that but it's not a matter of how much money it's there you guys are being paid what is money money is a reflection of your time and it is also a double meaning it
is what you are able to buy to purchase and you can't survive off of $10,000 a year or $7,000 but the problem itself isn't how much money you have it's that our system despite being so abundant in
resources is not providing for the people it's not that you guys aren't being paid enough it's that we are not providing what the government should be providing we should be taking care of our people the people should be able to afford through working a full-time position should be able to live
comfortably to afford housing to afford food to afford child care to afford education and that's just not the case so by you guys paying yourselves a little bit increase of $3,000 it's not addressing the root cause of the issues the issues is the fact that we live under an imperialist system uh a
capitalist system where we we prioritize the wealth and the abundance the kingly lifestyle the Royal lifestyle of our bgea our ruling class at the expense of the working people and that's the problem right there it's not that you guys need to be paid more money that's not going to really incentivize or get
better quality candidates in on Council that's not going to address anything that's not going to fix it we need to provide for the people increasing your guys' wages isn't going to do anything and also the mayor said he doesn't want a wage increase so I'm still a little baffled that five of you
still decided that hey let's vote for an increase he's gonna reject it it's just silly you're not even listening I mean someone came he's not here today but he brought uh uh a petition with over 150 people saying hey I don't think it's it's right
that we're increasing our wages because you guys are the only people in this room with that privilege so why you're listen you're ignoring the voice of the people the the word of the people the people who spend their finite time their the opportunity cost that it takes for
them to be here they could be doing anything else but they come to speak their mind despite how anxiety inducing and difficult it is to be up here I've been coming here for a year and let me tell you it is still every time I get my heart palpitates I have tremendous anxiety it doesn't get easier but people
come here and they speak because these issues are important and the fact that after how many people I mean there was maybe one two people that came up and said they were in support of it compared to the large majority you guys vote in opposition of the people who come that
that speak that are actually caring that that want to see their will represented by you guys and you guys rejected time and time again people came they wanted a ceasefire resolution people came they wanted a welcome welcoming City resolution people came and they said
$7,000 is enough and yet you guys yet you might not get paid this this time some of you are up for re-election doesn't matter that's not the point you guys aren't providing what government should provide government should provide for the people make the quality of life easier we should be working together in
order to increase the quality of life provide for people so that we are not I mean we still have so many homeless people people are in poverty we have how many universities in Bethlehem and what are we doing you know and they're private institutions obviously and I had a I I had a conversation at one of the
um uh the one of the housing the housing meetings and one of the council members said oh you know this is the system of private property that's the problem that's the problem the people who own everything dictate everything we need a system and we need to work towards a
system where we are here to be self-reliant and take care of one another and that's just it's problem you guys paying yourselves $3,000 more dollars isn't going to get better people in your position and it's not going to do anything so stop acting like it is and again I'm fine with the controller the mayor doesn't need any more money
he's making a living wage and your guys you're public servants this isn't supposed to be easy you guys you guys speak up here you might meet I I've gone out to coffee with a couple of you right that's it and half of you or not half two of you a lot of the time don't even read the stuff that you're supposed to
come prepared for you guys don't need more money thank you you Mr favor is Mr carat yeah uh I'm Ary Cera 813 laer Street in betham Pennsylvania and my door is always unlocked if you're a hood out
there be careful because I know how to show show a shooting star I know how to Mr us something on the agenda please the thing is we're talking about the city council situation our mayor knows and he he feels it's more than enough money
from what he's getting with city council it's not a full-time position most of you have other jobs and you can write books you can do whatever you want you can go ahead and make public appearances and get money on internet on TV you could be on the Drew Barrymore
show whatever uh but the thing is you don't need actually I agree with Mr analex what he stated last last week or last meeting I should say the school board they volunteer they don't get paid nothing they
volunteer we can have just as effective people in city council without being paid a penny people who want to serve their country whether it's city state Town
Federal the thing is and all cities all over city council should be just like the school board don't accept any money give yourself to be here show that you love the people that you're for to
people raise no be an example say we don't want no money we're doing it for the people then you're an example to all cities all over the United States and even in other countries City councils should be like
the school board you're doing it because you want to be helping the people that's pretty much all I got to say God bless you thank you Mr Cara is there anyone else in the center who wants make comment on anything being voted on
tonight turn to the right anyone to the right want to make comment on anything being voted on tonight that concludes tonight's public comment moving on to Old business any old business for members of council any new business for members of
council I'll start with councilwoman cramsey Smith okay um I just had two questions related to I guess codes and Zoning I'm not sure maybe Miss Collins I was wondering what the status is of the street uh the building on Main Street that was
condemned so my understanding is that the property was condemned about two weeks ago um we've made contact with the property owner um multiple times s since then and most recently I believe just yesterday sent out a a violation notice
or or a notice at least um documenting that previous history and setting a timeline by which they have to make the corrections um to the structural issues of the building um to at least allow it to be um you know to remove The Condemned sign okay because I know I
talked to Mr simus and he said he was going to have an engineer going I'm just concerned about naturally the safety of both the area in general the front on the back um concerning immediately upon the um call which came in on a Saturday and and fire responded and then called
um um Mr Simonson out that was the the initial observation was certainly for like the life safety issues and it was at that time and then also I think um shortly thereafter with an initial structural investigation that was like commissioned by us that determined um
they were they did need to condemn it in the immediate term and at that point then the obligation shifts to the property owner to do a full structural analysis and then come up with a plan to stabilize the building and so that's where we are in the process and how long do they have how long does the owner
have to um to respond a call the letter said seven days I yeah I believe it was seven days from yesterday okay great thank you and the other question I think maybe for you is um in the committee meeting PE people spoke of the lawsuit regarding the one short-term rento I
think it was on Church Street yes okay is there is that closed now or what's the status of that that that has been going on for quite some time actually even before I started in the role in January of 2022 and the the speaker was correct that the city has been very active working with um you know those
residents and you know they do have their own Council but also um at various stages in in litigation um I don't recall the full court history but suffice to say that we've been to just about level of Court
have fought it along the way um we have continued to see um some violations and my understanding is that as recently as um last week we were working with the law Bureau on sending out another violation notice so I'll have to check if that's gone out but it's still an
active um situation oh okay because I my understanding was the way they spoke that it they want a lawsuit and that it had to be shut down as a short-term so is that that's not the case that they still are a short-term rental they're not supposed to be that's the problem they're not supposed to be right and so
we're again pursuing pursuing enforcement of of shutting it down yeah okay thank you any other new business from members of council councilwoman L my apologies if this should have been
old business that that slipped by quickly um the uh I just wanted to briefly mention that we are working on putting together a neighborhood conversation for for um the radius uh
surrounding the potential rezoning of 11 and 15 West Garrison um we've had some productive conversations with the developers there um and are working on finding a a site but there will be a neighborhood conversation with the
intended audience of the people who live in the immediate vicinity um it'll be a not a hearing not a a city hall meeting it'll be in the neighborhood uh so that we can make sure that um everybody is is heard all the way around that
conversation so that will happen before our next uh city council meeting thank you any other new business for members of council all right we're going to continue on Communications we only have
two this evening Mr Miller 6A March 11th 2025 memorandum with a proposed resolution from assistant city solicitor Matthew desler attorney desler recommends a contract for Legal Services with stag leza LLC and Florio peruchi
steinhart Capelli and Tipton LLC for legal representation and litigation against manufacturers and Distributors of products containing substances known as forever chemicals their are class action lawsuits pending against chemical manufacturers retaining these law firms
will enable the city to explore participating in recovery pools in these lawsuits contract for services is a contingent fee agreement meaning that the city does not incur legal expenses unless money is recovered and resolution 10A is on the agenda tonight 6B March
12th 2025 memorandum and attached resolution from Lori J jilio grants administrator for the Department of community and economic depart development M jilo seeks support to apply for a three $30,000 Grant through the department of conservation and
natural resources this money would be used for the development construction of Greenway at third and news streets and resolution 10B is on the agenda tonight moving on to report I have two brief things to report to council and everyone first I should have announced at the top
of the meeting agenda item 10d tonight that's the certificate of appropriateness for 306 South New Street um that applicant withdrew their certificate of appropriateness they had emailed into City Hall earlier it was communicated Mr Miller and then myself
so we will not be voting on 10d this evening and then um at a couple meetings ago referencing 555 Main Street uh as someone had brought up during public comment we had referred the matter back to harb I did just want to update
everyone it's not scheduled yet to come back to a council agenda but harb did send a memo over to me just advising that they were pleased to report that there's been productive discussion between the applicant and harb the
applicant further agreed to prepare revised application based on some of the discussions that have been continuing to be had at the March harb meeting and that they may come back as early as April the April hard meeting or it could
be after that but uh those discussions are ongoing for that certificate of appropriateness that we had sent back down for a recommendation from harp and that that update comes from the historic architectural review board so that's all I had this
evening Mr spur or Mr Al call anything on behalf of the mayor tonight no report president CL thank you Mr spurk councilwoman quch thank you the Community Development Committee met earlier this evening at 6 PM in town hall we reviewed uh for possible
Amendment several code enforcement ordinances and had a presentation from the city about about code enforcement and inspection and learned lot about what is being done currently and uh opportunities for improvement and we took no
action Hillary quch chairperson Community Development Committee thank you councilwoman moving on to ordinances for final passage Mr Miller Bill 16 2025 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and
Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending ordinance 2017-01 establishing the the salaries of members of council and president of council bill number 16 2025 is sponsored by Miss lard and Miss crampy
Smith any discussion on 8A the council and council president salary councilman wilham yes um as the council person who who put this these amendments forward this is our third public meeting about it and so I've I've said many of these
things already but I see new people in uh in the audience today so I won't say everything I've said every time um but I do want to clarify a couple of things um first of all very fine point the person who came to the last meeting who brought a petition um approached us after the
meeting and said they had changed their mind because they listened to the comments there were um aspects of this proposal that they didn't understand um I will say I I I do have respect for uh folks who can come in and have their
minds change it's not uh my goal to change anyone's Minds it's it's a vote that we have to make here I also want to acknowledge as I had before it's uncomfortable to have to vote on the salaries of the folks who sit in your
position none of us chose for the process to be uh as such none of us chose for Council to be a paid position none of us chose for Schoolboard not to be paid I'm quite sure that if we had the prerogative to um honor our school
board members with a salary we would because we know that they work very hard these are the processes and this is how it has to work I'll just state for those who are unaware uh that a city council person earns $7,200 in a year that salary has been
the same for 16 years the only way to address evaluate and increase those salaries is this process we have to put forward a memo and we did so or I did so for all elected positions uh controller mayor and and coun for those three
elected positions at once um C I'll I guess I'll talk about mayor can I just say something about the mayor the mayor Sal salary has remained the same for 12 years controller for 16 years these are crucial positions um but the thing I really want to make sure
that new folks here know is that none of us is guaranteed to benefit from this salary increase it doesn't take uh effect unless you are elected newly elected or reelected to your seat so in
fact you know I least of all up here will stand to benefit from it as I'm not my term is up in January and I'm not running for re-election um so I acknowledge that I also acknowledge um you know a $3,000 increase over 16 years
yes it's a small amount um but I think it's important uh I certainly myself have never said that this increase will draw better candidates that's not my perspective that's not what I believe what I believe
is that it's the least we can do to make this position slightly more accessible to more people um we are fortunate if we have a full-time job to accompany this and have the the time to devote it's not uncommon as has been mentioned here that
this role if you're really putting your heart into it is easily 10 to 20 hours on top of whatever other work raising a family full-time work multiple jobs um and so I just feel strongly as uncomfortable as it is that this is the
right thing to do I respect how the vote turns out it's not going to benefit me either way um but I I just because of the strange optic nature of it I just want people to understand that um the insinuation that we are lining our
own pockets is not only antithetical to the intent and spirit of it um it is factually incorrect so I really just wanted to make sure everybody here knows that and and by all means have your own opinion about it but um those are some things I wanted to clarify before we
take the vote thank you thank you councilwoman any other comments from members of council seeing none Mr Miller call the r Miss cramy Smith nay miss quch I miss lard
I miss Leon nay Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan n and Mr colog I passes 43 Bill 17 2025 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
amending ordinance 2017-03 establishing the salary of the controller bill number 17 2025 is sponsored by Miss lard and Miss KY Smith I need discuss from members of council our city controller Mr yaso is here so I am going to give him an opportunity to
address Council but I wanted to see any comments from members of council before I give Mr yaso an opportunity Mr yaso [Music] please thank you good evening um I am here tonight uh as the current city
controller and I am going to be uh asking Council to vote nay on the uh on the increase um for that salary um in the event that the vote does not go that way I have taken the step to uh
talk to the mayor um to ask him if he would consider using his executive veto power the same way he he has considered using it on himself um and him our conversation uh you know he understood
where I was coming coming from uh and and agreed that he would however uh I I am hopeful to kind of avoid that path I think it's important that we have this conversation tonight um and uh and and especially because I I do agree with the
spirit of the uh of the increase although I am I'm gonna kind of fiercely oppose it um I I I I do you know especially with councilwoman uh Wilhelm I know it is not in an n an enviable position to be in she kind
of I think took this on her shoulders um where nobody really wanted to so I I do appreciate her for doing it I I certainly um do not think this is in any way shape or form a money grab by any any in particular person um however uh
that being said I am here tonight to try to convince you guys to reverse the vote uh that you made two weeks ago and I'll start by apologizing for not being here to uh to address you guys two weeks ago as as Michael told you guys uh my wife and I did uh welcome our first child uh
into the world on that Sunday two days before uh it was two days prior to the meeting but it was also uh seven weeks prior to uh her due date so um you know we're still we're still in the NICU today 16 days in um the question everybody always asks right away is
how's Mom and the baby everyone is fine uh mom is wonderful baby is wonderful and of course anyone who's exper experienced uh you know the the the top rate care uh that you know any NICU nurse would would provide but you know for me personally the uh the nicku
nursing staff at St Luke's Anderson Campus has been um just there are no words I have for the incredible uh level of care they provided to myself and my family in the last 16 days um even though uh we are still dealing
with that I I I knew I had to be here tonight um and uh and again I I I I think it's important that we have this conversation I'm hoping to come to an understanding with everybody that that we can all feel good about at the end of the evening and and you know including the interested
parties that uh that you know that that are not actually elected officials um you know so I I did call uh Kiera and Michael from the hospital uh I I I did uh the morning of the meeting to let them know I wouldn't wouldn't be
attending um I kind of gave them both my position in in opposition to it um they gave me theirs uh you know and then I all I could do really was uh I was get back to what I was doing and then uh tune in for the meeting later that night
um you know and I did I I I watched the YouTube stream from the hospital room and uh I obviously the the vote did not go how I uh you know how I wanted it to result um now my wife who was who was watching me watch my phone uh in the
hospital room who you know uh she she works very hard also she's a special education teacher for Northeast Middle School in the betham Mary School District um right at Northeast you know right right down the road uh uh you know so she's she's she's watching me watch
my phone and thinking oh this is awesome we're we're getting raised look at that look at every go you know um Grace what the hell you know but uh but but my wife does not uh she does not the uh the fiduciary the moral or the ethical uh uh
responsibilities that I have as as the elected City controller and an elected official here um you know that that next day I did leave the hospital and I I went to uh to talk to the mayor um and uh that conversation like I said was brief but
um I I I do uh hope by explaining where I'm coming from tonight that we we can get to uh a result and we can uh avoid the The veto and and the you know expiration of a subsequent Council vote to try to uh reverse that
okay um so I am here to explain myself uh I'm going to kind of start uh it was suggested in in one of the previous public comments not tonight um but it was kind of it was talked about again tonight um you know that uh because the
city council accepts money and is paid for their roles that somehow it it it is not to be considered a calling but an obligation and I thought I thought that was a cheap shot uh I I have a pretty good idea of everybody that sits up
there that all all of you that sit up there and and uh and I am fairly fairly confident that nobody up here is is doing this job to enrich themselves or uh or certainly looking to to uh make
money uh with with all the time that you guys spend doing the things that you do um yes there there are many paths to uh uh to making money and sitting up there on C on city council is not one of them and and I know I do know for a fact that
that this uh this proposal brought forth by Miss Wilhelm is not as I said before any type of money grab or meant to uh to uh enrich themselves or anybody up here and I I do believe in the spirit again that's why I'm talking um and and while I thought that was a
cheap shot it did it did make me think and um I thought about you know what I was going to say to to get you guys to reverse action um and it it brought me immediately to recall uh my my personal favorite city council person uh and and
one of my favorite people of all time and that was uh Michael schweer um he served three terms uh starting kind of in the late 90s into the early 2010 in that time frame um and and you know we
lost Mr Scher uh in January of 20121 he passed uh much too young but I I I remember when that comment was made I I remembered an article and I remember when he announced that he was not gonna seek a a fourth term after his third term and uh and the quote he he said was
that it being serving as a city councilman for him was was a calling and not a career and um and I thought about it immediately when I heard that and uh and so I thought about him uh extensively when I thought about what I
would say uh tonight and and Mike's Mr scher's service on city council um I I know came from a place of true pride in the city that he called home and and was so deeply rooted in through through generations um it was never an
obligation to him it absolutely was a calling uh and a desire to do his part to impart his knowledge and experience to better the city of Bethlehem it was never about enriching himself personally but bettering the situation of All City residents um and I can identify with
that and uh you know I again I thought about that when I I I thought about how I wanted to address you guys because most of it really centers around that idea I think that all of you and I certainly consider my service uh as a calling an honor and a privilege and not
a career or an obligation I mentioned earlier uh my moral ethical and fiduciary responsibilities as an elected official and as the elected controller um when this meeting occurred two weeks ago I was actively circulating petitions
and as we meet this evening I've already turned in that complet completed petition packet and secured my position on the 2025 ballot for betham City controller now miss Wilhelm mentioned just earlier that nobody is guaranteed
to personally or individually benefit uh from any of these ordinances past I feel that I am almost certain to benefit from it uh personally and individually as as I have secured that spot I have no intentions of withdrawing my name uh and
I have full intentions of being the city controller for the next four years and because I believe that it it ties this ordinance directly to me um I I feel it is my moral and ethical obligation and my fiduciary responsibility to do
everything in my power to make sure that the vote tonight is nay and that I do not individually benefit because to sit to sit here and say nothing right or to just try my best to give Michael a call
or give Kier a call and say Hey you know I I really don't think it's right is not enough it is not uh up upholding my our ourselves to that to that standard right to to that high level of standard that that that we should right as as elected
officials um and and if I I feel like if I I fail in that tonight then I have not I have not lived up to that um you know if if I if I were to as I believe I will stand in front of you
guys uh later this year right whoever happens to be here some of you most definitely will uh and and go over the controlers budget as I do and you guys have all seen me in the past talk to you guys about our budget right if anything we have scaled down uh and become more
efficient in the years that I've been here you know myself and and Michelle lberto and Michelle an milward we strive to provide h a very very high quality product at a bargain price right for the
for the city and that is by Design and we are very very proud of it we work very very hard to do so um you know Michelle and Michelle make a lot of sacrifices with our with their time uh and and it is very important to us and if
I you know sit sit here and say nothing you know what credibility do I have what credibility do I have with any of you guys when I come in in October or November and say oh yeah here's the here's the uh controller's budget oh this extra 7,000
well yeah that's going into my pocket because of an ordinance that we passed earlier in the year but technically I W I was not 100% guaranteed to benefit but here I am here I am individually benefiting from this what credibility do I have with Council right what credibility do I
have with Michelle Michelle with my own employees who we we we talk about and I talk to them about how working in that office is an honor and it is a privilege not an obligation and that we have to up uphold our standards higher than anybody else
and we we have to strive for that how do how do I how do I how do I reconcile that with them if I show up for the next four years you know with my pockets lined a little bit extra right how does it happen how do I have any credibility with the mayor or any of the other
employees inside City Hall how do I have credibility with someone like Eric Evans when I want to go you know get on his back about the job he's doing right how do I have credibility with all the people that signed my petition for my upcoming campaign how do I have
credibility with the police and the and the fire pension boards that I sit on as a voting member uh and most importantly how would I have any credibility with anybody in the city that that pays taxes right the
the very people that I'm I'm sworn to represent as a fiduciary agent if I sit and say nothing and then only to individually benefit later on and if I let that happen I feel like I have not lived up to those moral ethical
or fiduciary standards um I am going to go one step further tonight and I apologize for the lengthy time it's already been a long time but I I feel it's appropriate uh to also let everyone know that uh this
petition packet that I submitted uh will be the last um at that point if I am if I am lucky enough to secure the honor and privilege of serving as the the betham city controller for another four years uh it will be the final four years at that
point I will have served three full terms uh on top of a partial term that um when Mr Mr djino passed and I was appointed by city council I I served the partial term and then I did serve if I'm I'm lucky enough this will be three full
terms um and at which point I I think it's sufficient time um and so why why would I announce now as I announced that I've secured my my spot uh on the boutot and fully expect to be elected uh and then on the same night announced that uh
I will essentially be a lame duck and I will I will not pursue this job any further past that um and there there are several reasons the first is can you be concise with those reasons Mr yaso can I be concise yeah I can thank um however I
do I do feel it's important I understand um and the first reason is that because of that there will no longer be a conflict of interest for me so even though um Miss Wilhelm would not be here to bring this forward again should it
get voted down if it is brought forward at any time in those four years that I am controller I will not stand in the way I will not have a conflict of interest because as opposed to right now where I almost definitely would benefit personally from from this ordinance at
any time in the next four years if it's passed that the newly elected or next elected can would receive it then I am guaranteed to not individually benefit from it okay that's reason number one why I'm I am announcing it now um number
two is it's not a decision I'm going to wrestle with um I I just as as sure as I am that my work is not done uh yet I am also Resolute in that uh at the end of that time I will have had the sufficient
time and and uh will not pursue uh another term third reason is that I just personally believe in term limits there is not a term limit on the city controller position so I choose to self-impose because I believe in term limits I personally think there should
be term limits across the board um as kind of the the theme of this speech is uh it is not meant this this privilege right and this honor to to to be in these type of autonomous and and and and positions of public Trust I don't think
are meant to be held by any one person over an extended amount of time and uh there there's certainly no Monopoly on on good ideas and there should not be a monopoly on on uh a position such as this just because somebody has the means and the ability to hold on to it as long
as they can I don't think they should uh and the last reason Mr clone and I will wrap it up for you uh is that I don't want to have any regrets uh about about my service uh and and I know I would regret staying too
long I I I think I would um so putting a limit on it I I think eliminates that um you know I I want to I as I said before I'm very proud of the product we provide and I I want that that to continue from start to finish and uh I
don't want it to end for any other reason um you know I've in this closing in on what what will be uh uh you know my third term which would
be almost 15 years 14 years total if I'm lucky enough to do it all um I have not uh accepted or asked for or given out $1 in uh in campaign
contributions um I I understand that it is kind of comes with the territory right everyone needs to kind of raise Mone money you have to have money to be elected um but I have not and it it is true that after I was appointed in the the subsequent uh
elections I was never challenged and sure could anybody at any time including this latest election have come along and may might I have been susceptible to a challenger because I raised no money and asked for no money
maybe right maybe uh I but all I can tell you is that I never felt it necessary or felt the need to accept or give out any money and I don't I don't blame anyone for ever doing it but because I have been able to we've been able to draw a definitive Line in the
Sand that we don't accept any money the the the city of betham controller's office owes nobody anything other than the the the taxpaying citizens that we represent um and that the opportunity that you guys will give me by a noo tonight will
allow me to finish my service um I think without without any regrets and I I I think um avoid a more divisive uh conclusion with a a mayor's veto again because I I know the spirit behind this was was the right one I hope that we can
kind of all come to a decision tonight that we're all comfortable with and and maybe at least most of the interested parties even even not up here but who spoke and who may be interested at home can feel good about as well so one last time and I will wrap it up I will ask for your uh please and thank you for
your n vote tonight for the salary increase for City control thank you Mr yaso and congratulations again to you and your family so with all that said I'll turn back to council for questions or comments I'll start with councilwoman
quch thank you I I appreciate everything that Mr gaso said but I really have to take exception with the the idea that um once again that it's uh voting raises for ourselves um because what we're really looking at and maybe this is just
15 years of working in a human resources office um we're looking at the positions and are they appropriately compensated um every position if you work for a good employer um has been evaluated and has uh based on duties based on you know
time spent all of those kinds of things the the level of executive you know sort of uh abilities that you have to have the decisionmaking all of that and um it is very unusual for any position to sit
for 16 years and if Mr yoso got a no vote on this 20 years without an increase because what happens is that creates compression um so that's what's happened with the with the mayor's salary um in fact because all along all
of the people who work for the city um who either uh belong to a union that has a collective bargaining agreement or uh is a member of the you know administrative staff that um also gets you know set raises um has been getting
3% 4% a year and so with all of that um as well as the ability for some of them to make overtime we have many many people in the city who make far more than the mayor or far more than the controller um and certainly on an hourly
basis far more than um city council members do um if you just think that um even if you take the average between 10 and 20 hours a week it's about 15 hours a week um with the raise I think the hourly wage would be still less than $14
an hour um and that you know is obviously above minimum wage which is great um but I think we all agree that um you know the city should be paying what we would hope would be a living wage um and so I also just want to take
exception with the concept the part-time work isn't Worthy of reasonable pay and appropriate pay because um some people put together multiple part-time jobs as many of you know because some of you do it yourself
to make uh to make up you know enough money to get byy on and uh so a part-time wage isn't you know to be looked on as something that's um well we don't have to increase those not even
after 16 or 20 years um and and just um um finally I would say that um you know Mr yaso mentioned his his amazing wife and I wish you all so much the best and that she's a special education teacher
which is incredible and and that's a calling for her but that doesn't mean that she shouldn't be compensated for it and that's that is uh how we you know compensate people in in our society because Mr Faber we are still in
capitalist society that is what we do um so again I look at this as these are the positions this is what you know these are what the salary banss have been for these positions for 16 years and 12
years for the Mayors um and that's why uh I believe that the controller's position as well as the council people and the and the mayor's position um that those positions salaries do need to get increased thank you thank you councilwoman any other
questions or comments councilwoman Leo should I have a question for the solister um sure I I think that the the question of credibility and I'm not want to tell anybody about their credibility is the fact that it's our vote and not his so he has no direct say but he did
bring up something interesting to me he has no opponent now there is no Republican opponent what about in situations like that when you are guaranteed specifically to get that money because you have no opponent in the Democratic race you have no opponent in the Republican race again not
specific to this because you know he doesn't have a direct vote in this I'm just out of curiosity how does that situation work if I understand your question correctly essentially is council's decision whether or not a position should be given an increase or
in fact a decrease is also permitted under under the law now it's intended to be blind in that you need to cast your vote with regard to a salary change
prior to the last day for withdrawing nominations now I understand we have one candidate unopposed that does not change the landscape okay all right cool um thank you thank you for that clarification um of all of the the
salaries that we're voting on I'm the most passionate about about this one um I think this is the one that if we're going to pick one I think it's this one and it's not because of it's it's honestly because it's it's
the position itself and it's it won't be you and four years but there might not be an appetite on Council to address this again this is a very difficult thing to address it's very rare that we have someone who only serves one term and then on their way out is willing to put this on their shoulders it is and
historically at least I looked back on on Council raises it's why I know the first mayor got like $2,000 um and I think maybe a vote here is more about the next Council historically looking back and saying that there was at least an appetite for
this um all that being said I hear you I I hear what you're saying especially if you're going to invoke veto anyway councilman willhelm I won't restate what was already said but I I concur with with what already been said and Mr yaso knows I have the utmost of
respect for him and his work we've benefited from his close eye and and his Department um again point of clarification that um I put the memo forward before we knew that there would only be one person on the ballot for controller so
this was not just to to underscore that this was about the position that it's been 16 years it's time to look at it it's the will of council it's not up to me benefit certainly not in this case either but I just wanted to clarify and really underscore that it's about the
position and not the person um and with all due respect for everything Mr yaso just said I I will continue to vote I knowing that it that the timing and the veto process means that it won't happen but you know sometimes as was discussed
earlier we we vote knowing we vote uh based on what we firmly believe in based on our research um based on our our perspective our conversations what we believe is right even if we know it won't pass um and that's certainly what
you'll see me doing tonight any other questions or comments councilwoman ksey Smith thanks um I just want to say huge congratulation again and I know that you are a dedicated Stellar um I hate to say employee but
department head as well as your department as I've met with you several times and I'm really impressed um but I really am even more impressed with how Noble you are after how you spoke tonight and I have to say that your little girl is really lucky of a great dad you are more than deserving to have the increase but I will respect your
wishes and vote against it thank you any other questions or comments members of council before we call the role I'll just give quick comment to sort of procedure and our sister could correct me if I'm wrong because it was discussed
about the executive veto and we are up against certain time lines this was brought up on the floor of council two weeks ago with mayor Reynolds when he had um stated his intent of for the mayor salary um using the executive veto
which is his right as the mayor of the city and control raso had referenced it also tonight so what that would look like is again this is never I've never dealt with it in my decade on Council was just for everyone's awareness it would involve so every time we pass
something I sign sign it as the president of council or the president of council whoever that would be would sign it then any ordinance is signed by the mayor to to affect that ordinance the mayor has the right to do an executive veto which then would send it back to
council and Council would have to take another vote on it and then a I believe super majority would be the term attorney Stewart would have to vote in support of it to override The veto where we're at kind of procedurally for for
everyone following along is should the mayor move forward with his plans to use the his veto power that he has as the mayor or every mayor has for the mayor salary and potentially the controller salary that puts us beat that wouldn't
come back to council then until the next council meeting and then the next council meeting is beyond the prescribed deadline for when Council would have to invoke anything so it's not that it wouldn't pass we could still it would just be null and void I guess is how I
would put it is that fair to say it would be out of compliance with the state would be out of compliance with the state statute without your time you'd be outside the timing to to pass pass yeah so so I just want to make sure
everyone's aware of that so the as it relates to the salary increases for the controller for the mayor for Council we just had a vote on Council saw that went for controller I would Echo that what was said by other members of Council in
any kind of operation over you only have to like 16 years or 12 years over one year two year three years four years you're going to see some kind of wage increase for anyone who's being compensated there's no one in and I always advise everyone look at your budget book every city position is
outlined in the budget book there is no person who occupies the same position today who's occupied it for years whose compensation hasn't changed if anything maybe turn over in a position a new person comes in at a lower salary things like that but the positions themselves
you know over time are compensated more so that's created this you know dilemma as we talk about as councilwoman Wilhelm brought it Forward where when do you do it because you could always have these um different opinions we heard Mr yassos we've heard other members of councils we
heard the Mayors before and such so uh all that say people could fall on it where they would where they will I I do believe that these positions themselves do deserve the salary increase but as the Pres of council I also am one to
look at what the um process is what the what the procedures are for things and just knowing that it's just setting up something that then's going to put us out of what the what the state ordinance says um I'll be a no vote on it and
that's primarily because of just the timeline of what these votes look like and and I want to be clear on that and and I do hope that whatever happens with um these votes with a a veto on this position the next position we're going to vote on whatever would be um should
it not pass now I would hope the future councils whoever is on there U would consider this because I do think it it is time for that but I I also understand sort of we're up against certain timelines and Pro uh procedural obstacles that even if it's the will of
council um there are the rights with the executive branch of the city that that may not happen and I also Echo what I said last time I think it's good that I've never seen a veto and the one thing we're talking about someone vetoing is their own salary increase I think
there's worse things to argue about as a city than people saying no I don't want to raise so that kind of gives me some comfort too but that's my position on that cwan L um just a a question procedurally
uh I for get how often the initial step of circulating a memo like can that happen again next year yeah so it could be brought brought back up within one year so once the an attorney Steward could correct me if I'm wrong but once
the controller the mayor and members of council take the oath of office then yes we could revisit s um again those people who are sworn in would not be affected by that term the controller doesn't have a term limit you heard Mr alsoo Express his future
intentions and um there's still a mayoral election to happen so I won't speak to the outcome of that but I will remind everybody that there are term limits for any mayor in the city of betham yeah thank you anything else from members of
council Mr Miller we'll call the RO Miss KY Smith nay miss quch I miss lard nay Miss Leon nay Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan nay and Mr colum
nay the controller salary fails five Nays with two in favor Mr Miller Bill 18 2025 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending
2017-02 establishing the salary of the Mayor Bill number 18 2025 is sponsored by Miss L and Miss pson Smith discussion so mayor Reynolds isn't here tonight as we've addressed his intentions were well communicated Mr
spurk I don't know if there's anything you wanted to add on the mayor's behalf tonight he's had no change in his intentions he intends to veto any attempt to raise his salary understood thank you Mr spurk I will reiterate what I said a moment ago as it
as it relates to the mayor of Bethlehem the current salary is set at $90,500 that has been set for a long time as we talk about salary compression and again anyone could visit their budget books I won't get into where the mayor falls on the hierarchy of compensation for city
employees but that margin will only continue that that only grow larger as it relates to Recruitment and how many people run I I'm not going to pretend to be able to say if this then that if not this then that I think it just comes down to what's fair compensation to be
the chief executive for a $ hundred million budget again I recognize procedurally here we are so while I do think the mayor any mayor deserves for the city of Bethlehem to be compensated uh higher you know the
procedurally to me it's I'm not going to get into the going up against the timeline that we would already not meet so and then Council can revisit it to restate the answer to councilwoman L revisit it after whoever sworn in in January for
mayor councel and controller councilwoman wilham just very quickly I think one thing worth mentioning and adding to this some again same same comments as as the prior vote but um this particular topic and and the topic of Council salaries um I believe has
been brought up by me more than one member of the public at all of the last uh budget meetings that we have when we approve the the upcoming year budget that when folks are sort of in in that book and folks who are following along are looking through the book and
realizing that you know dozens of city employees make more than the mayor how has City council's salary stagnated in those moments members of the public themselves have come forward and said this is something worth considering again that's not why but it is just
another Point worth making um that this perspective doesn't only come from behind this desk thank you thank you councilwoman any other comments from members of council councilwoman Leo I just uh want to make a point that since council's
thing is kind of off the table I hope that whatever council is going forward will make it a priority to address the mayor's salary and the controller salary in the next coming years because it does need to be adjusted councilwoman L I will say I I fully intend to bring those two back to
the table uh early in the New Year great anything else before we vote Mr Miller Miss KY Smith nay miss quch I
miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan nay Mr colog nay Bill 18 2025 fails with four four opposed and three in favor new ordinances 9A an ordinance of
the city of Bethlehem counties of Leigh Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending article 141 of the codified ordinances entitled sister city commission by repealing the existing ordinance and replacing it in its entirety bill number 19 2025 is
sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion I'll just briefly turn to member of the ation just go over what it is that we're amending with article 141 briefly thank you [Music]
missor good evening so very briefly um uh article 141 as it's written right now um was written back I believe in 1972 um and it's been changed every once in a while you'll see in the ordinance
you know um you know passed in certain things passed in 1985 1989 you know certain amendments to that ordinance um but um you know when we first came on as an Administration we realized the sister city um the sister city ordinance really
uh only talked about t bayashi um which was peculiar to us because there was at the time um a total of five sister cities uh with our sixth sister city being uh baas Puerto Rico uh which was established last year um that committee is very uh gung-ho I will say
on um Workforce Development uh cultural exchange opportunities um and different things and so uh questions had come to us about um like raising money and things like that and we realized that the current ordinance uh as it's written really didn't have any details about how
to do that um the current ordinance didn't even tell us how how sister cities come into existence how they're formalized so we did research on that and realized sometimes a sister city um was just formalized through a mayor's report sometimes there was a signed agement like Italy um but every sister
city had its own uh way of being formalized um and in addition uh they all have their own way of celebrating their um their relationship so um what we sought to do was just provide some guidance around formalizing a sister
city relationship um we did uh speak to our friends of the t bayashi uh Bethlehem sister city commission just to uh see what they were open to we didn't want to change the ordinance without letting them know or um kind of without uh and like letting them know why we
were seeking to do it we saw it like we were questioning whether we should change uh the ordinance as it was to be an umbrella ordinance which is what you see here or if we if they were attached to that ordinance as it was we didn't want to uh tread on that but we said you know we could do a different ordinance if that's preferable they said they did
not mind um in fact a lot of the current members really weren't even familiar familiar with the current ordinance has it was um and they were favorable to um just kind of creating an umbrella ordinance which kind of encompasses the other sister city relationship so you'll see that they're named here with um the
years of formalization um this commission is not a commission that would meet regularly this is like if they I think in the 90s there was like a sister city Jubilee that was at Music Fest one time so they all got together so this commission
would only meet um with at least two members um or up to two members should say of uh different sister city committees if they wanted to do something together um but really all the sister city relationships would remain the same largly the same nothing would change um and um essentially this just
allows them to um formalize uh in the way that they see fit and you'll see that under duties and procedures um they would have their own mission statement their own elected officers have their own scheduled meetings um and uh the language we put
here was around creating their own IRS approv nonprofit if they wanted to go that route in terms of like fundraising those kinds of things for their own uh Endeavors right so we just wanted to include that language um and under self-sustaining operations just tell
them if there was something that they wanted the city to support uh how they would do that so our only intention was to kind of create some guidance for existing sister cities and in the future uh with next Administration or whoever else that will come after just kind of
um leave some kind of a process um and some guidance for others that might want to create sister city relationships so that's what you see before you hopefully very non-controversial but open to any questions thank you Miss anuro thank thank you for that background before we have any other further discussion or
vote on it any discussion or comments from members of council councilwoman Leo um I just want to say that this is another example of the incredible work that you do behind the scenes that goes absolutely un acknowledged because people might not understand what your job is um I know
your job has been thrown a lot of shade over the past couple years gets me a little hot but this is just another example of real practical things that you're doing to empower people to dictate what they want for their own City so if you don't hear it anywhere else and I'm sure you do from some people but if you don't hear it anywhere
else you're doing an amazing job thank you any other discussion for members of council I'll just say thank you Miss Santoro for all the work really just as you said laying the groundwork and making this a little more formal as
opposed to this sister city was through mayor's report this one's through resolution I know when the the current uh volunteers to engage with our sister city in Puerto Rico went through a lot with that so I just want to thank you and then all the volunteers not only
with our new sister city but even the longer standing ones that I know and we saw when we had some of our our visitors from Germany a few years ago just how and even our our recent uh intern that came over that spent time at City Hall and with the Council Office how engaged
our community is with our sister city so it's nice to see anything else for members of council we'll call the role Miss grmy Smith I miss quitch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr
Callahan I and Mr clone i p 70 thank you thank you moving on to resolutions resolution 10A resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to
execute agreements with stag leua LLC and Florio peruchi steinhardt Capelli and tipon LLC for Legal Services resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion Miss Leon so I have two quick
questions uh one how do we select the lawyers to do with this stuff and two is there any conc ER about like um I don't know if if this is a question for you but with everything regarding Waters and all this this stuff going on um Mr basca had brought up anti slippage laws are we
concerned that the anti-s slippage laws that prevent stuff are going to go away as well so I don't know if that question is for you or if you want to take both the anti-lippage law is certainly not for me um the uh the the Fe agreement before
you um generated from or or arose from stag Le leza and Florio peruchi reaching out to the city uh to explore this relationship um if if you note there's a provision in the agreement about how
we're affirming that we didn't have like positive P fast testing back in 2023 just by by way of some brief background um there was another law from I won't get into because nothing came of that but that had reached out to us before about this but in that few agreement we would have had to make some
representations about pasas in the water which we couldn't make because you know thankfully uh we have had in the past at least when we've tested have had uh undetectable levels of of past in our drinking water um so this agreement doesn't require us to make those
representations there are some class action settlements that are pending and there there are pools of money and we want to explore whether some of that funding might be available for the city thank you that that was really the heart of my question is I know that there's been a couple class action lwuit I was wondering why we got involved in this one so thank you for that and I guess to
to Mr spurk about anti-s slippage I can talk to Mr Bal offline unless you want yeah I would recommend that uh we had a number of of law firms that wanted us to sign up and join class action lawsuits that were already underway about posos but as Mr Desa said because our numbers
were so low we couldn't sign on and represent that we were in some way in that situation however this Law Firm said well that's not what we do we just make it our business to discover every potential class action lawsuit that is
out there and some may be applicable to you even in your lower levels and if they do uh we'll bring them to your attention awesome thank you and um yeah Florio PRI they have a local presence but they're partnering with stagl USA and this is kind of a like one of their Specialties so this they do a lot of this kind of
work I will go to councilwoman L and I'll just recognize at the Lector is Mr desler an assistant solicitor with the city yeah yeah for anyone unfamiliar with Mr no mistake about that um
would entering into any of these uh class action lawsuits at this point when we don't have recording of posos levels at a dangerous level in our water prevent us from acting in any future
lawsuits if new discover like we didn't know that some chemical that we use is dangerous right and now we've learned that but we already were in this class auction lawsuit are we prevented from further litigation if we follow through
with this right to to be clear again this is more a this Fe agreement is designed more uh to enable the city to explore whether there's money available they they've had kind of settlements uh conducted already and uh we didn't get
involved in those because we couldn't affirm say that we had for example pasos and drinking water so um the way been explained to me is that the existing or to be formed pools of money uh may be accessible by municipalities even if
they don't have the positive P past testing per perhaps but we're just kind of looking into this Law Firm will be looking into for us whether we can tap into those settlement pools uh when the time comes so it does not preclude us from if something arises in the future
okay and if we were we would have the opportunity like this legal firm would uh come to us and say oh we found this pool that you might be eligible for and if there were Clauses in there that we said oh actually you know this would preclude us or something we could opt
out yes okay sorry I got caught up with our solicor not out we would just not opt in that's because we're not we're not in anything to opt out of understood thank you thank you councilwoman L any other
questions or comments councilwoman KY Smith okay thank you um I heard what you said but I guess I'm just wondering if we have undetectable levels now or even in the near next year or so how could it how could we possibly be eligible like can you explain that to me for the class
action suit there's there's a deadline for these phase two settlement pools where you have to submit claims by January 1st 2026 I think there are maybe even some earlier deadlines for other matters but I think that the dupon 3M litigation is
uh January 1st 2026 again um if if we don't tap into those pools of money by that time they're they're they're gone forever for us in this in this round so um again this is just to kind of explore with these lawyers who specialize in
this kind of work whether uh those monies are available for the city so they'll they'll they'll look into it and um you know they'll they'll tell us what they can do for us but the purpose of entering into into this relationship is to just make sure that we've preserved
our options before deadlines expire okay and will it be an issue of that maybe we'd have to have some level of detectable Levels by January 1 or can it still be undetectable when we possibly still can be part of the class action suit the the class action suit
has sort of all already occurred what we're talking about now is kind of whacking up the the pie so to speak so um you know the answer to your question is the law firm will will look into that and and let us know what what they can do you know there there may be money
available uh just you know even if we don't have posos levels uh just as a means of protecting us in the future that's not so much a question for me uh but this again this is to sort of preserve our options um in the event that let's say we do have posos detect
detectable levels in the ensuing months um this stuff will be explored looked into and uh that law firm will report back to us what if anything they they can do for us okay and I know you said there are other law firms that have approached us um because I looked and
just to be clear I I research and I know the one is in New Orleans but they look like they're the experts in this and I guess I'm wondering why there needs to be two them why can't we just go with the Stag luia whatever however you say it like UIA why do we have to have the other law firm um from New Jersey
involved well and staga was partnering with Flor oi you know the I guess in one way kind of the more the marrier this does not increase the fees for example to the city um just because we have two law firms involved except that if there is a settlement then we would have to give a percentage to both law firms
correct versus just one no the the percentage would be a a bulk percentage they can split that however they so that would increase it would just be one step percentage correct correct okay all right um because I know when we do contracts we always try to look more local also and again I know I understand
the one in New Orleans is very an