all right do I have the two here all right beautiful all right good evening everybody we're gonna get started tonight I ask that we all rise for the pledge to the [Music]
flag pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy Justice for All Mr Miller please call the role Mr
Callahan present M crcy Smith present M qu present Miss lard present Miss Leon S Miss Wilhelm present and Mr clone present thank you so before we get started with the agenda uh we do have a
few citations for recent City retirees for Carrie Ruff Christopher Vargo Darlene heler Pedro Sullivan Jr and Stephen dudler Jr I apologize if I'm mispronouncing anyone's name we do have
a few of those retirees in attendance tonight so I'll start by reading the citation for Christopher Vargo Mr Vargo you're welcome to come up to the lect turn or come up to receive the citation when I'm done reading it whatever your
wishes are whereas the residents of the city of Bethlehem have been served by a dedicated diligent and talented member of the Bethlehem fire department for 20 years and whereas Christopher Vargo who started with the fire department in 2005
and retired in 2025 has during the course of his employment provided the utmost and reliable and outstanding service to the fire department and the residents of the city of Bethlehem now therefore be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that
Christopher Vargo be extended the Gratitude of the city of Bethlehem which has benefited from his two decades of service and the special contributions he has made to promote Public Safety and to protect the lives and property of Bethlehem residents be it further
resolved now that Christopher is retired he can relax and enjoy all that life has to offer him and be it further resolved that Christopher be extended every good wish for a long and satisfying
[Applause] retirement welcome it's not it's not a prerequisite yeah thank you for coming thank you conat congratulations so then our our next citation tonight as we move
through if I ever get it open is for Darlene heler who I believe is in attendance miss heler the same applies you're welcome to say as much or as little as you choose to whereas the residents of the city of
Bethlehem have been served by a dedicated and diligent member of the Department of community and economic development for more than 20 years and whereas Darlene heler who started with the city in 2000 and retired as director of Planning and Zoning in
20125 has during the course of her employment provided the utmost and reliable service to her Department and the residents of the city of Bethlehem now therefore be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that darling heler we extended the Gratitude of the city of Bethlehem which
has benefited from her more than two decades of service we had further resolved now that Darlene is retired she can relax and enjoy all that life has to offer and be it further resolved that Darlene be extended every good wish for a long and satisfying retirement
[Applause] [Laughter] and our and our last reti in attendant Stephen dudler Jr I don't know where Mr D is so thank
you sir whereas the the residents of the city of Bethlehem have been served by a dedicated and diligent member of the Department of Public Works grounds Bureau for more than 20 years and whereas Steven Duda Jr who started with
the city in 2002 and retired as a maintenance worker 3 in 2025 has during the course of his employment provided the utmost and reliable service to his department and to the residents of the city of Bethlehem now therefore be it resolved by the Council of the city of
Beth that Steven dudle Jr be extended the Gratitude of the city of Bethlehem which has benefited from his more than two decades of service be it further resolved now that Steph is retired he can relax and enjoy all that life has to
offer and be it further resolve that Steph be extended every good wish for a long and satisfying retirement D thank you thank you thank you Mr dud [Applause]
gratulations and then I don't believe Carrie Ruff or Pedro suvan Jr are here in attendance just want to make sure before I continue thank you we'll make sure they get their citations sent to them moving on to the approval of minutes for the
February 18th 2025 council meeting any comment on the minutes from the last city council meeting have a good night guys thanks for coming out everybody well there goes half our public comment I thought we were gonna have tonight no comments on the minutes all
right the minutes for the February 18 2025 council meeting stand approved we're going to move on to our public comment for anyone who's not familiar we have two public comment periods the first is for any subject that's not being voted on this evening and then the second public comment is for anything
that's on the agenda we do have a five minute time limit that I appreciate everyone respecting I'll remind you to if we have to and then for anyone follow along at home who started after 7 PM if you want to watch live you can scroll ahead to
the live portion of the meeting so we only have a couple people signed up for first public comment we'll start with Mr Robert virgilia thank you Council and thank you Mr Mayor Robert filo 38-year resident of
Bethlehem Robert virgilio 308 year resident of Bethlehem um I also own as you know the granola Factory which is on the back side of the 44 East Broad Street along Walnut Street and on the uh
uh front side of the old bakeries on Long Street this past year we uh we have traps bait traps all around our building the bakery to protect from rodents it's part of our monthly inspection routine
as well as other things this past year we noticed there were a number of uh rat droppings and bites in these traps and I then came across a couple of them in the evening and so I was
concerned that in the long and Walnut Street area we had this problem and it seemed like it was growing so first thing in uh trying to address this I looked at the properties around and there seemed to be some trash
problems so I contacted the um city trash and recycling department and told them about it and um they did something about it they contacted the parties that had sort of disregarded their
trash where it was overflowing um and I'm happy to say that after three months this past inspection we didn't have any WAP droppings which is a good sign so we'll keep monitoring it but I wanted to give credit to Bill
Santiago for doing a good job in the trash and recycling enforcement department so if anyone in the city has problems in their neighborhood they should contact them you have to be persistent because I'm sure there's a lot of people that are concerned about trash and getting to specific areas can
be maybe a little uh might require a little more effort but um yeah that the uh trash and recycle enforcement people did their job so I want to give kudos to William thank you thank you Mr vilia
next speaker Mark will Weber hi Mark will Weber uh 66 West Elizabeth Avenue representing the uh the drip our uh Community citizen consumer Watch Dog group about uh sewer and water issues
uh I I meant to bring this up previously when I spoke earlier in the year and I kept running out of time and uh so I didn't get to it till now but um because Mr cologne's so good on the time thing he's like a Eagles linebacker pouncing on a fumble if
you're 10 seconds over it'll toss you out so but anyway I wanted to bring up uh I don't know if anybody saw at the end of uh last year I think it was in December that uh Senator state state senator Lisa basca had a oped article
about U the uh dangers of ever Rising electric costs and the uh the uh the stress on the grid that was going to result in higher uh bills for the citizen consumer and I think I'm pretty
sure that has happened because I keep hearing people going oh my electric bills way up and uh so that kind of thing did happen and she made some very Val points uh on various uh things to to look out for and even floated some
possible solutions to it uh so I read it with with interest and I thought it was uh for the specific topic spot on uh however of course I I was I was conspicuous by its absence there was no mention of big Electric's evil twin
which is ever Rising water costs I wonder if that's a coincidence but at at any rate you know the water costs always going up too at the end of the day for the citizen consumer who's constantly under stress uh to pay their bills we as
we know inflation hasn't really been reeled in and we can expect the that to go higher school taxes seem to always be going up so we're we're always under stress from the utilities uh as well um so I just want to reiterate uh
that one way you could help the the Bethlehem consumer uh citizen with these water costs is to address these uh these Mega bills these uh uh bills like the one that uh we got
hit with way back when now that's Gan mcneel's red flag law that she's trying to get passed she's brought it up again it's going to hopefully work its way through the system and get looked at in Harrisburg uh but if it does not again I would like to see
Council and the mayor uh push to to implement this regardless and they they have the ability to do it uh somebody stopped me after one of the earlier meetings in the year and said what is the red flag loss so I should probably say what it is again basically what jean
mcneel State Rep is trying to do is to uh get sewer and water to alert a consumer after one month their bill is way up instead of waiting the entire quarter so that the person Get Zapped
for uh three months of bills okay and uh that would be easy enough to do um especially with the new uh the new electric meters that are going in the new smart meters we'll see how smart they are if they could do that so that
should be done can be done um Council you want to do something for your constituents support that the mayor should support it too I hav't heard a word on from the mayor on any of this where where does he stand on it uh so we we would really like to see that happen
uh Mr BOS I've often heard him up here say oh you know we love to work with people and you know you can count on us to work with people well as we say at the poker table it's time to put your money where your mouth is uh because he could implement this and it uh they may
not want to because they SC lose maybe 2third of their penalty Revenue so in other words my bill had I been alerted after a month would have been more like 200 bucks instead of 600 bucks but they should do that um if it's
really about not wasting water and conserving water why aren't they going to step in and do that unless of course it's it's more about collecting the penalty Bill than just let it roll like it is right so anyway that's what we'd like to see done uh as elections and
stuff approach we're going to we're going to ask people who are running for Council positions where they stand on it we're going to ask the mayor where he stands on it whether he'll answer it or not I don't know uh but I think you should I've heard him picate for an hour on a garage so let us know will where
you stand on the red flag law for McNeil uh that would be a step in the right direction thank you thank you Mr W weever next person signed up tonight Ry CA hi I'm Ry catola 813 laer Street in
betham Pennsylvania I was going to talk about how I feel that really uh elected officials get paid way too much money all across the board way too much as veterans we put
our life on the line for25 to $30,000 for a year putting our lives and Harm's away but elected officials get paid two three times the amount of military veterans who put their lives In Harm's Way but I'm not going to talk about
that but actually I want to talk about politicians who V themselves raises and then steal our tax dollars by giving it to organizations and laundering it back to themselves now most rich people who run businesses made their money from
their business if they got a tax break and didn't have to pay guess who gave him the tax break the same politicians who are taking the tax money and laundering it back to themselves the big problem is the greedy politicians who give the tax breaks and
take a payout for themselves now that's a crime but I'm not going to talk about that this struck my attention a lot of people here in the city are worried about rats and mice the Ana virus all the things that mice car
carrier do you check it on it the chances of you catching the H virus in Pennsylvania are slim to none maybe 1% chance I had a mice infection not rest
for two years I don't want to kill little guys so I left them run across my bed and bedroom floor not on my bed uh they couldn't go on my bed uh but the thing is they go ahead they rad around then all these drop droppings I would
clean them up without using disinfect I'm as healthy as can be because I have I take all kinds of nutritional supplements to keep myself proper the thing is I didn't want to kill them so I got these rat traps that
that would capture the mice in cages and I would take them up to wooded areas the same wooded are they're field mice they could live happily in the fields so the thing is I would do this but then when got too cold I kept a few for pets and just love them out today but the thing is like I would feed them and everything
feed them grapes feed them sunflower seeds and and granola and everything you know like they were happy in their cages but the thing is I left them free to run free and stuff but here at two years no an the virus I'm not sick I'm as healthy as can be at the age of
76 that's just one thought the other thing is speaking about rats people who sell drugs and wind up the cartels and all that coming in from Mexico that they claim that that's why the Border needs to be there to keep the cartels and get rid of the C well I
Simple Solution we legalize marijuana legalize heroin legalize opium legalize cocaine legalize everything make the government take control and make get the taxes off the stuff and get the proper stuff to the people who are foolish enough to take drugs if they're stupid
enough to not go ahead and find out get some education on why they shouldn't be taking drugs let them take drugs but let them get them from doctors and then this way that eliminates crime you don't have to worry about killing those people and going ahead and they don't have to worry about people having different
territories for selling drugs make it legal eliminate the problem then they're out of business you don't have the rats anymore you don't have the cartels coming in from Mexico you can eliminate the border the people
come in as Freez they want to Mexico and back and forth Mexico don't want to be a state that's okay let them do what they want to do but to eliminate all the make it no more drug drug problems legalize
them but get the education for the people to know that it's not right for them that it's not going to do good for them take the proper supplementation that's going to help you properly I can do just about anything
that a teenager can do and then some playing 10 different instruments being able to sing perform every art of self-defense that there is at the age of 76 being 100% disabled American Veteran with all kinds of physical problems
walking pain-free with no drugs not even aspirin so think about that when you think about the drug situation and getting rid of all those bad criminals and killing them put them out of business make drugs illegal I'm Mar Kera God
bless thank you Mr Kera our last person who has signed up in advance Sebastian I'm gonna say Z because I don't want to mispronounce your last name yeah good evening city council and members of the community uh my name is Sebastian zavara from 341 Spring Street betham
Pennsylvania uh tonight I'm addressing police chief cot and some of the things you had said last city council meeting with respect to the welcoming city ordinance uh first thing first I really appreciate a lot of things that you have done for the community and the advancements that you have taken and the
things you put in place um and it's really appreciative like the direction you're trying to take uh the police force in the community um and I think you put a really tight case in response to like the concerns about passing a welcoming city ordinance in they area uh that I
didn't wasn't really totally clear until I heard you speak in that city council meeting and the two things which I think succinctly encapsulate your point was one is like fear of federal repercussions associated with if you put this out in place um what what other
concerns will you have that the federal government can maybe inflict on our community and trying to be consider of that and the second thing is uh fear of like false hope so um and I just want to address two of those things I think um some of the federal repercussions are
already in place and they seemingly will just become worse uh as they already are and I'm just curious I don't expect you have an answer tonight but I'm am curious what is your final line then you know at what point do we take a step as a community and say in solidarity that
we will stand up for something even though we may suffer a black eye in response to that um and to address the concern about the false hope um we look at Allentown what they passed yeah you you're right um they did not have any
sort of uh legal uh wording that required them to keep things into their law books but my concern is at the same time we look for other cities as an example why don't we also become that city as an example for ourselves and that we put those things in place that
we can be that example for other cities as well I appreciate your concern about that false hope but I think with the right wording and passing legislation as those members of the city council of Allentown wanted it to be passed past it could be um done in a really like uh rewarding and provide New Hope and real
hope for our people and I you know I you have a hard job you really do um and I appreciate the work you've done but you know you have like somebody a citizen of your community who would back you if you look to take this movement in the future so thank you for your
time thank you so that exhausts our list before I open up to the room I will just remind everybody part our Council rules to always please address either myself as chair of council or Council as a as a whole we try not to address individual members of the audience I didn't want to interrupt you Sebastian and you know we
all appreciate your comments but I do remind everybody just of that rule to please address myself or Council as a body that exhausts our list for anyone who wants to comment on anything that's not being voted on tonight so I'll go around the room was there anyone to the left who wanted to make comment on anything that we're not voting on this
evening was there anyone in the wide Center who wanted to make comment I'll I'll move from left to right I'll start with Mr sh bshar 1890 E Avenue uh three items tonight the first I just want to note for the record that
the developers of the Woolworth Building got preferential treatment in their presentation two meetings ago they were allowed to address Council right before Council discussed and voted on the matter whereas the representatives of
the historic architecture review board on the other side of the issue uh made their comments during the Second courtesy of the floor on the oh you want to reset the timer because it's showing me in the red now at 30
seconds thanks for the extra time though no yeah it's it's counting up I I'll give you a one minute warning Mr sh one minute warning okay I'm going to be in red all the way okay um about the sanctuary City thing I just want to mention that uh
there's a bill in the House of Representatives uh that would deny any federal funding to any City that decides that it's a sanctuary City and as I think I've said in the past we have a already made excuse here not to
cooperate with ice they if they come to town and we say gee we'd really like to help you but we're 12 officers short we're stretched thin as it is sorry but you're just going to have to do it yourself and finally uh little tidbit uh
recently I finished a book called The Winter Soldiers by Richard Ketchum spelled with a K and it's about the American Revolution after Boston starting with the British landing on Staten Island and
Long Island the Battle of New York and getting chased across New Jersey and ending up in Pennsylvania then we had Washington's Crossing and the battles of Trenton and Princeton I want to read to you one sentence from this
book if the amphibious movement succeeded there would be bloody work at the end of the March and Washington sent an Express writer to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania to request Dr shippen and his assistant at the hospital there to join him as soon as possible thank you thank you Mr sh who else in the wide Center want to make comment I'll start in the very
front or I'll continue in the very front it's counting up again it is it's five minutes oh did she yeah I'm Sorry Miss Nunan for the uh whatever's going on with the clock but please take your five minutes okay all
right um yes this is Valerie Nunan um I don't have a super long comment today but last meeting I didn't quite get to finish everything I had written down and I believe it's still relevant um which
is regarding welcoming cities um as you can see uh we didn't really call to pack the room this time because we did have some student and Community organizers um able
to you know meet outside of the council room with I believe Chief codam Miss L um and so you know we're continuing to work on that um one of the points that I
didn't manage to get to last time I think is kind of relevant to this fear of federal scrutiny which is that um out of the 24 cities currently certified as welcoming
cities that's not counting Allentown which recently um passed their ordin ordinance um sorry four out of the 24 cities in the entire USA which are currently certified in Pennsylvania and they are
you know big major cities uh and then we are adding allent Town seeking that certification as a fifth so the way I see it the more cities that participate the more protection that is and the more
um we are showing that as not just a city but as a state and then as a nation that we would like to protect our neighbors and I think it's actually really interesting that a state like
Pennsylvania actually has I think the most welcoming cities already certified at this point um and so we have a chance to make Pennsylvania a leader on this issue so I
just thought that was quite interesting um and my other small brief comment is I don't really like to harp on the same
issue without making a new Point um but I have just um I have spoken with the member of council that made comments about my voice and I just
don't think of an apology as forthcoming and I don't think it's useful to speak it speak about it um at this Council anymore so um if you were just wondering about that that's all it is um and I have nothing
more to say on it uh thank you thank you m new was there anyone else in the center who El make comment Mr an Alex [Music] Steven antalik 737 Ridge the comments I'm making were made at the betham
school district meeting last night after having attended over a goodly number of years quite a number of both city council and school board meetings I have noticed a number of similarities and Broad differences all members are chosen by
the vote of the electorate the council meets formally twice a month while half attend monthly meetings based upon their committee appointments the school board meets twice monthly for specific committee agenda items and once monthly formally
for a general meeting all members have undetermined private meetings with citizens for individual matters as due members of city council so it might be safe to say that both groups spend a
comparable amount of time on official business this the mission of both groups is dramatically different conso is concerned with how many stories should be proper for parking
garage should a zoning change from commercial to residential be made should a contract be awarded to a company for Shore repairs s s repairs rather while the primary mission of the school
board is the education of the city's children a rather Noble responsibility the most obvious difference between these two entities is compensation Council receives a
salary while the school board is not compensated to receive compensation for service rendered in an obligation while receiving no compensation for a service rendered implies a calling in the realm of Public
Service a calling is considerably more honorable than an obligation so the city council could learn from the school board the Quorum concern of community and
such I did receive an email from a well-known C citizen of Bethlehem and they were very complimentary on my comments and said I should remind city
council that the school district has a larger budget hires more [Music] people has more buildings and more responsibilities
so so I I was I then complimented the members of the school board because the work comes from the heart not from the purse thank you Mr analex was there
anyone else in the W I will remind everybody we're on first public comment so this is anything not being voted on this evening in the very back I saw your hand up or four hi um my name is scoten and I'm a member of South Bethlehem for over 20 years and
again I'm here today to speak on behalf of the Immigrant community in Bethlehem which includes my mother my siblings and several other community members who may not feel comfortable or safe being able
to speak up under such circumstances in the public eye and I just wanted to really thank um the police chief C and councel members who have been here listening and paying attention um to our
concerns about everything that's going on at a federal level it has caused a lot of fear in the community and um I mean there's been so much hate being to thrown towards the Immigrant Community
as we've even heard here during these meetings um which is alarming um and I just wanted to say I really appreciate your support in potentially trying to bring the welcoming City Bill to um even
just to the council to be voted on because it's a right that we have as constituents um and also just um for your ability to stand up for what's a human right issue because a lot of
people have been talking about different um I guess repercussions of potentially bringing a welcoming City act into um Bethlehem but this really just comes down to a human right issue there are
people who could be suffering from not passing something like this and as we've seen in the news children have committed suicide based on all the hateful rhetoric that has been going around and spread and misinformation around what
immigrants bring to communities I'm an immigrant and I will say it again I'm not a criminal my parents are not criminals our community members are not criminals and it's really hard to tell someone's immigration status just by looking at
them I mean you can't just go around saying immigrants are criminals or all immigrants are undocumented and under the current federal um I guess laws that are allowing ice to just take anyone to
without even um a due process is unconstitutional and our city has the um has to act to support the constituents who might face something like that so um yeah and also
I know a lot of people have just spoken very hateful or not a lot of people but like some people have said some really hateful things and I'm not here to promote that and if anyone has questions about um The Immigrant Community or would like to talk about what it's like
being an immigrant I'm here to talk and like help people understand better what that experience is like um The Immigrant Community is very vulnerable and very hardworking and not here to I don't know
what people have have been told on the news but it's not I for sure can tell you it's not crimes it's not stealing resources we're just here trying to survive and live and um would really appreciate uh your continued support
with the welcoming city um bill or if not propose something else right um rather than gaslighting and maybe not doing anything at all so thank you thank you
was there anyone else in the center Mr favor hello Harry Faber uh 321 Georgia Avenue um last meeting uh someone asked me why I wasn't really talking about Palestine so I figured I would um touch on that for a little bit uh considering
all the insane unhinged things that happened the past few weeks so on February 25th Donald Trump posted an AI video on his own social media account truth social um uh proclaiming Trump Gaza is finally here I don't know if you
guys seen that but it was insane and uh i' really encourage he posted it on his own thing but um and then three days later there was the zalinsky Trump meeting that I'm sure all of us seen or heard about and then two days ago
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu uh officially announced a full black that they would be violating now they're not going to say they're outright violating the ceasefire terms but they are um and they're going to be collectively punishing all of the residents of Gaza the two million um and
uh I think we live in profoundly unequal times um and the brunt of that suffering has always been placed on the powerful or placed on those that the powerful can discriminate against and the more they do the res the more resistance there is to that oppression and so the more
violent their oppression becomes nationalism and all the associated fear of immigrants and minority groups uh this ethnic othering um the labeling of terrorists uh all this has come out as a solution for politicians to justify the
renewed escalation of violence it quarantines those who protested as some part of or as part of some other group that we shouldn't have to think about because they're not us and we need to look out for our own don't fall for it our own has always meant the rich and
Powerful if things start somewhere out there in the colonies it's only a matter of time before the circle of undesirables includes you there's this Theory I've been learning about called Imperial Boomerang and it's how do we
oppress uh our Colonial um po populations and subjects and how do we then keep it especially now the Century where we can see you know we have access you know to view this it's they have
cell phones they're posting it we can see the horror how do you justify it in the Empire and nowadays um it starts out with providing uh entertainment I mean there's the old adage you know give the people circus and bread and you can do
whatever you want and that's kind of what's been going on but people are protesting and people are sticking up for what's right but uh as Ahmed shihab alen said
Israel's greatest weapon isn't the f-16s it's the Silence of the world and I'm going to be talking about why I don't believe certain individuals deserve pay increases later and I'm going to touch more on that but when we when we talk about this Mass
oppression and the abuse of immigrants this again other ring they're illegals they're aliens it justifies the overit the hyper militarization of society it normalizes the increased surveillance and
normalizes the deadly authority of those representing the fascist State over our civilian population when we allow this to happen abroad when we see it on our phones and we see it on on the TV and we say ah you know what I got to go to work and we don't do anything we're waiting
for it to happen to us in the justification ifications that are being given for the oppression you know people talk about October 7th or whatnot Hamas again if we are going to condemn the entirety of this people for the actions
of their their government when are we do the same Justice when when does that apply to us when we are the leading export exporter of terrorism I mean that's what's going on and I understand the idea uh you know being
afraid of repercussion you know for becoming a welcoming City and whatnot we are so incredibly dependent that's where it starts how do we become less dependent on these funds how do we become more self-sufficient as a city as the Lehigh Valley as a county I mean
that's really where it starts we can't normalize this because again it's it's only a matter of time till we're due you know they're we're not all safe you know a lot of
things are being tear off you know we're not the the government it's it's only a matter of time and it's a matter of building up Community recognizing we all need to come together and we can't we can't normalize it thank you Mr favor was there anyone else in
the wide Center who wanted to make comment who hasn't had chance turn to the right was there anyone to the right who would to make comment okay that's going to conclude our first public comment for anything that was not not being Vote or that is not being voted on this evening so now
we'll move on to our second public comment this is for any ordinance or resolution that is on the agenda we have two people signed up the first is Mr fav I'm back um this is what I'm more prepared for
but if only everyone could vote to increase their wages need I remind you you are the very few in this room who have that privilege that is is a right reserved only for the politicians and the business Executives I truly wonder why in such a time of
Crisis you thought it would be appropriate to vote on pay increases now the past two meetings we discussed the likelihood of the loss of federal fund Federal funding and grants we were talking about a decrease in City Revenue yet you want an incre an increase in your pay I expect Callahan to vote no to
this resolution considering his faor again I will ask you during the January 21st meeting the chair or the entire Council I encourage anyone who has missed uh the January 21st meeting to look back uh there was a tantrum about
providing free contraceptives at the 33 minute Mark and then there was a quote anytime as we AB body raise taxes on you it makes the city more unaffordable the link between the two being the wasteful spending of City resources increases the
cost of living I believe increasing council's wages to be the clearest waste of City resources I do not believe the council nor the mayor deserve a pay increase for different reasons I'm not opposed to the controller's increase my reasoning for the mayor is quite simple
I just think 9,500 is more than enough um as for city council I believe the most consistent attribute um of the council over the last year of attendance has been their failure to meet public demand and along with it a complete deflection of responsibility whether
it's the promise to pass a ceasefire resolution last year or the failure to codify a welcoming City legislation or even I mean has anybody even if anybody wants to meet I'm not a lawyer yet but I'm down to start writing we don't have to pass the same thing that was passed
in Allentown but the people are desperate they're in fear we need something so this failure uh to codify welcoming City legislation when the people show up and speak their heart out you guys refuse to act you barely listen I only get a response if I call a
council member older use one of your guys' names speaking of which I believe the council member who announced their mayoral campaign this month actions I believe their actions to be dishonest incompetent and lacking in all the
qualities required of a good council member let alone a mayor allow me to get into specifics I would like to remind everyone how the mayor oral candidate following the March 5th meeting last year attempted to codify legislation giving Council the power to push back public comment to a later date effectively trying to nullify the
people's ability to organize and speak as well as trying to mandate that anyone who is not a resident of the city should not have the right to speak as well on the meeting of April 2nd 2024 if anyone is interested I'm referring to roughly two hours three minutes into that meeting where this council person cried
wolf that they were the victim of personal attacks for trying to push this fascist Bill quote if I could go and settle the horrific atrocities that are happening over in Palestine I would be over there in a heartbeat but I can't unfortunately part of life is that we do
have limits end quote I will briefly repeat what I said in the following meeting that no one had asked anyone on Council to single-handedly end the genocide we asked for a ceasefire resolution which was promised on February 20th and instead we got a resolution led by this count mayoral
candidate trying to silence the voice of the people I have said this before I believe this behavior is unfit for Council and even more unfit for mayor I will admit that some of you really do work hard but work hard for whom for the
city or for yourselves from what I've seen over the past year some just show up vote and go home the amount of times where I knew more about what was being voted on compared to council certain members again not most only a few uh
should be described as concerning at the very least from what I've seen pretty much all the work being done comes from this side of the room until I see a commitment increase an increase in work hours and dedication until Council proves that they are the voice and the bodies of the people of Bethlehem not
just delegates I will not ever approve a wage increase the people are struggling now more than ever and until that is changed you deserve to struggle too you're not above I'm all for a living wage but not until the working people get one
first favor our next speaker signed up was Charles Tomar yes sir good evening your honor um I'm here to uh present a petition of about 150 175
people that have signed asking the council to vote no on the pay raise proposal tonight um I've learned by reading the morning call last Wednesday uh February the
26th front page story that Council was going to consider a pay raise for themselves this evening um and so I developed
this proposal and this petition um asking the council to vote no tonight I'll read the not no to getting the revenue from
the citizens of Pennsylvania who can can't really afford what we're paying now um it's very difficult if you haven't noticed even to buy groceries today and um it's very
hard to afford anything else I developed this I'll read The Proposal um we the UND sign citizens of Pennsylvania and all our citizens because they were asked the question first are you citizens of Pennsyl
before they were even given the opportunity to sign it are deeply concerned over the proposed City pay raises as reported in February 2625 Morning Call front page story
um on the other hand the city has never received one penny from the casino operations the Sands promised the C City Revenue to offset city
taxes and so while I do believe all of our officials deserve a fair wage and certainly they're burden with prices increases too look to the
casino to fund that pay increase also you might remember soon after the casino opened several people committed suicide by hanging themselves from the miny Trail bridge or driving off the parking deck after they realized they
lost their homest to the casino all of those stories were reported in the morning call at the time instead of the pay increase uh city council should consider maybe a decrease for failure to asking
the casino to pay what they promised you may may remember many of you were here at the time the sanss promised a significant portion of their income to
offset city taxes and instead city taxes went from $500 a year at the time to well over $1,000 a year now ostensibly to pay police and firemen
salaries because there we that was required to protect the casino assets and so about 150 I was only able to get maybe about 150 less than 175 I'd say
there are only a few signatures on every page there are about 150 of us 175 so far asking the city to look to a different
source for paying for any City executive and council member increases that's all I have to say God bless you be
well and I hope you consider this proposal good evening thank you if you wanted to give our clerk the petition he could share it with everybody okay you may you sure May whatever your wishes are sir so that exhausts our signup sheet
for the second public comment so again I'll go around the room starting with the left was there anyone to the left who want to make comment on anything that we're voting on tonight I'll turn to the wide Center is there anyone I'll go from left to right start with Mr
shy and then Mr Baron Bill Shire 1890 eat Avenue I hope that you will not vote to change the Zoning for 11 and 15 West Garrison Street from residential to C Central business
district I understand that it will increase the efficiency of the apartment building proposed around the corner on New Street but sacrificing these two buildings is too high a price to pay 15 West Garrison in particular looks to be a solid brick
building I guess it was during the days of urban renewal when the area bounded by main Broad and Center streets to Union Boulevard was rezoned from residential to CBD Central business
district but some city planners evidently had the vision to exempt the unit block of West Garrison Street it is a block of small single and twin houses that go together and are
relatively affordable housing I find it to be rather Charming if it were in Europe some American tourists would very likely find it so later some of this area particularly
along Center Street was down Zone from Central business district to residential Bethlehem is attractive to developers if we are not careful what is attracting people to the city will be
lost there is a lesson in the townships people first moved there for the space peace and quiet but as more and more people moved there there was less and less space peace and quiet
similarly people are not moving here because they love six-story apartment buildings they're moving here for other reasons but as we allow more and more apartment buildings these other reasons will be less and less prominent North Philadelphia is an example of
this if we are not going to significantly change the character of Bethlehem we have to draw the line somewhere even though the resoning is only for two buildings this is a good place to draw the line and preserve the total character of the unit block of
West Garrison Street who knows future historians might note this as the moment when Bethlehem decided to preserve its character thank you thank you Mr Mr sh Mr baring I guess I'm going to be the
contrarian tonight uh I support the uh pay raises that are proposed by the city council council president the controller the mayor I think this is the reason for
this is I've been attending me Council meetings for quite some time most recent one that really appalled me was the 5-Hour meeting that that uh you had to endure that one night uh I think you do Reser you do
deserve some kind of compensation more than what you're getting now for the kind of work that you put in uh it's not just the meetings here that we see at city council it's also the many committee meetings that are held and and
also members of council meet individually with um their constituents and uh residents businesses so it's not a it's not something that just happens
here standing here before us sitting before us um my uh friend um Mr analex had a good point about the uh School Board
members um serving for long hours and getting no pay as I understand it and the attorneys can correct me if I'm wrong the reason for that is state law that there's nothing in the state law that allows
for appointment of pay for school board members I'd suggest that be changed too but that's not something that the city council will be able to do um I'd recommend that the uh if it is indeed state law that that be changed and and
that school board members be allowed to uh have compensation for the many hours that they put in um the uh one of the things I think finally ought to be pointed out is that if there
is a pay raise given um by ordinance um tonight and then passed as an official act uh that's not going to necessarily affect all of the members of the C city council that are sitting here before us
because there are I believe more than uh the uh they're elected the city council members are elected uh either by four council members on one two-year term or two-year period every two years and
three members of council elected in between two years so the people that are serving now may not be serving next time we don't know so this council is not going to be voting to increase its own salary the
people that are going to be getting any increases are those who will be if they're lucky or or the voters see fit they'll be the ones that will be getting the pay so I think that's an important
Point too you're not voting to in CL in uh not voting to uh adopt your own SC salary today uh this is something for the future and I think given the uh amount of time that city council spends there
was a five hour meeting a few weeks ago um that's a bit much uh and the um it's a granted it's a u a responsibility that
you have that you feel you have a um duty to serve the community but you Al should also should be getting something for it um it's uh and so should the school board members
but as I said that there's nothing that can be done about that circumstance I'm afraid so thank you very much thank you Mr Baron was there anyone else in the center who would to make comment I'll continue to go left to right I'll start with Mr an
Alex my left to specify and then Mr hacket I saw your hand you go it I'll call on you next still Stephen and Alex over the past vast number of
years a large number of members of a city council were born in the city of Bethlehem and may have chosen to seek election purely because of a desire to serve their Community as a public servant compensation for this service at
that time had been a mere token at best and council members if ever publicly discussed better compensation they were fulfilling a calling rather than performing a
job current arguments using the long periods between pay raises unconsciously supports this Theory tenure as a local resident of current council
members represents a diverse total number of years do you understand that well the fact is that how many years has each council member lived in the city that's what I mean by that has a calling cease to be a primary
motivation the author of the current proposal and one of their supporters may have the shortest tenure of City residency is that significant at the last Finance meeting
Mr hackit and raised a very critical issue Merit what is Merit Merit is not an absolute term it's confirmed by an evaluation and who makes that evaluation how do you evaluate the
merits of a city council member the general electorate is no position to do that and the a poor method but a method is the best people to determine the merits of City
Cil are people behind me because they observe behavior and comments and to formalize those opinions visitors to Council meetings were given a form to
fill out and it's sad to say from grades from F to a those conso members of Years Gone by where they ran for the honor of the position they all probably would have
been graded in a people like Jean binsky Maggie Zabo Mike Scher all Native born and sadly the citizens on the evaluation form which is
might be a poor method but it's a method and there no there was no other method two members of council were rated FS other words they fail their citizens so be careful
how you use the word merit and I think Mr hackett's explanation of that was very well done in terms of Merit implies performance Mr
hacket hello my name is Bud hacket and I live in bethleem I'm going to take just a few seconds on on my time to wish Darlene heler well how the hell did you let her go uh she has always been the consumate professional um and um very
very smart person so I provided comments to the finance committee on February 24th community members suggested that I change or soften the tone of my comments for the full Council hopefully I can do that
the pay proposal opens the door for public comment on pay and performance the stated assumption that more pay will bring better quality candidates is questionable yes as the proposal States we need better quality The Proposal
States we need better quality people as mayor and counsel but I don't think that money is the motivation that many many political people have um there are a lot of people running for Council right now would better quality candidates be running if
the pay was better political motivation or incentives are usually described as public service many enjoy the value and benefits of political recognition personally I would support
an increase in pay for the mayor and Council if there was some agreement on goals objectives and outcomes that is performance if you achieve aeve your goals you get more money yes Mr clone I did read your 2023
and 2024 summary of accomplishments paying someone more just because the other city does it may not be a valid rationale paying someone based on Merit
of how they perform on the job should be should be a part of the evaluation and consideration here and that of is my major Point wouldn't it be nice if council's performance were judged in ways other
than political or by elction Merit pay is a mindset there is much to be said about Merit performance pay I'm happy to discuss with council members upon their
request my next next Point I've been watching monitoring participating in betham Council meetings for about five years I want city council address many political and government
issues regarding Council pay I suggest more time on city government and less time on political issues example in the past several months Council has clocked more time that is ours addressing National and
international issues than City business just a couple of months ago I counted 12 Bethlehem citizens in the lobby waiting to address Council on city is City issues only to give up and go home because the meeting was dominated
by international issues not a good measure of good government for Council by the way I have personally recommended to council that public comments be limited to 3 minutes uh with written
comments uh from betham citizens in the past um and I would like to encourage that again uh Council should also be more responsive to comments support for higher pay for councils should be forthcoming when such
issues as the following become a regular part of the agenda monthly agenda items what can we do to to save taxes just have it on the agenda and maybe talk about it more analysis and scrutiny on
proposals that come to council from the mayor I can share some great models of best practices upon request and how that's done more Disclosure by council members regarding who they have
talked with about agenda items prior to the meeting as we watch you that's always an interesting point the council clicks uh are not serving the public interest more fairness regarding which
people who speak at Council get a response and followup a uh action more fair and balanced scrutiny of the mayor's proposals and initiatives it is not apparent that that occurs uh leading some to label Council
as two Cooperative I wrote rubber stamp here but I won't say that it seems likely that the era I am going to ask you to start okay drawn into a close please um there are many helpful examples on how to continuously improve the way
public bodies manage their work maybe more time devoted to looking at those options is time well spent and could earn Council people a pay increase thank you was there anyone else in the Center I'll start in the front row and work my
way back hello Valerie Nunan um I have a kind of natural inclination to maybe be more agnostic about something like a pay
increase for Council simply because I don't have a lot of like love for any of our political institutions from the federal to the local um but that being
said no one could pay me to do what council does honestly um I people have asked me to run for city council I said absolutely not um
and I don't know like if people are looking at the amount of money that you guys are paid in a year and saying yeah that that seems like a lot because it's
truly not I I believe someone did the calculation and said well if we assume you put in 20 hours a week it's less than minimum wage right um and as we all know minimum wage is not enough to live
on in this country no I I don't necessarily think that Council should be awarded as like a full-time jobs pay because it's not intended to be like 40 hours a week
but I honestly think that the amount that council is being paid now is a pittance and even the amount that it's proposed to increase to is essentially a pittance so I actually don't have a problem with that um I do think that the
mayor is being paid enough not because I have like it out for the mayor but I just think that the amount of the mayoral salary seems reasonable already and I'm not sure why we need to increase
it that much thank you thank you Mr Kera I what I was going to say about the uh raising the pay m i other thing for now raising the pay for elected
officials Council mayor especially look at it as a CH as you are serving city council you're a soldier behind a
desk figure out what your time that you put put in would be to how a military veteran a military personnel elected offical elected officials should not be paid more
than enlisted men or women it's a slap in the face to US veterans who been in the front lines and served our country put our Lives In Harm's Way and you're getting more pay
and $90,000 and some change for a mayor to get in a city is way too high you elect yourselves to get more pay but you're not the only ones hups
Senators congressmen us taxpayers are paying for their attorneys in Congress to give them raises but let's get back to the facts when you serve as an elected official you are serving the people by
the people and for the people you are serving your nation it's your chance to serve your country whether it's town city or state you serving your
country as for myself I've been coming to City Council meetings for over 35 well way over 305 5 years since I got back from Nashville in 1975 I've been coming constantly I feel anybody that's been Ser that been coming
to these meetings for at least 20 years should be sitting on that side getting same votes that the city council gets they should have honorary membership to be in city council Representatives without pay of course but we should be
able to vote if we've been coming that long and especially for someone who pushed for the surveillance cameras to be in the city of Bethlehem which eliminate a lot of crime car please bring it back to the agenda okay the agenda
is elected officials are getting paid too much money and [Music] um um chance to serve your country now I kind of you sorry Michael
you kind of disrupted my train of thought here I was on a roll but now I'm more like on a hot dog roll and I'm a vegetarian but anyway s simple thing is the other thing
is when I spoke at if this is okay to deviate just a little bit when I spoke not too long ago at the United Nations Gathering and I made the suggestion the United Nations would take
control of Palestine Mr you're getting off the agenda tonight please bring it back to what something we're voting on on tonight's agenda okay well people like myself and many there are
many of us around that are like that we spend our time trying to make the United States better place to live and we don't accept any money for it and if by some miracle I would get elected as your next
mayor being 76 I'd be the oldest mayor that's here in the city that ever been elected in Bethlehem but I would not want more than a military enlisted man or woman gets I
would feel not proper about that I would feel it's my chance to serve my country again as all elected officials should feel so think about it upon your salary being based on the scale of how much time you put in to how much
time the soldiers and the military the elicit men and women put in to to serve your country God bless you hope you've made the right decision on the vote thank you Mr Cara yes in the very
back Sebastian zaruka 341 Spring Street Beth pa uh just to raise three points in uh about this vote for your guys pay I think it's really important that our politicians do have money I think there's also something to be said for
having money so that people who can't afford necessarily to volunteer their time in their life it also creates an opportunity so that they can be representative in this chamber and so you know um having that be protected as to open up the opportunity for those who
don't have resources who can afford 20 additional hours to whatever they have going on their life like that's very important um also in regard to Merit like I think you know the Merit is in the vote you are voted in as Representative members it's not a matter of being merited based off a value of
the dollar um that's something that we as uh active members of our community have a responsibility to hold you accountable through our power of vote and then finally um maybe off topic correct me if I am but um just I think another issue to be in regards this
about where the money comes from to get that vote substantiated pack support I think that's a little bit more of an interesting conversation to have as far as who gets their message out there and how we limit the amount of money um to get people on the ballot and their advertisement so thank you very
much I'll go in the very back and then I'll continue on to my right sir at the very end Brandon on Broad Street so you guys just raised taxes last year and it looks like now we all know why so that you could give yourself raises so that's
that was nice of you to take our money and give it to yourselves um or you giving yourselves raises just because like the roads are in terrible condition like they're in such bad condition you drive over and breaks your suspension you're like that's worth a raise or is it with all the homeless under the
bridge like our City's most vulnerable still suffering you sit up here and go yeah we deserve a raise I mean really gu should be ashamed of yourselves sir at the very end of the row
honorable members of the con Council mayor my name is Jim shopall I live in 36 West Garrison Street I'm a third gener generation bethl might and I gotta say this is brutal this is really brutal I'm addressing the issue of uh
the pares of 11 and 15 West Garrison Street I'm I live at 36 West Garrison Street again I say I'm a third generation bethle I'm Liv in my my grandmother's house I've seen the changes from the 5-cent C penny candy stores and uh the combination hardware
stores and sporting goods stores uh Beth truly was a Charming City I don't know what's happened back in 2019 we voted on a resolution here in this Council chamber to deny a variance for 11 and 15th as
Garrison Street because of the various reasons that we found was unsafe uh traffic people uh Drive their cars down West G Street to avoid the traffic lights on Union Boulevard so you can imagine if they can't get through a traffic light at the top of the hill on New Street they turn and they flying
down West Garrison Street disregarding the the all the uh uh the side streets there's been so many near miss you can't imagine but we've got little kids and all this is brought before the council and during this time the last time that they voted on it and they shot it down because of that very reason there's too
issues that allowing traffic to come back in and join the traffic that's already there coming down West Garrison Street it's not safe they're pulling their little babies off the street so so they don't get mowed down I swear if somebody gets hurt and you guys don't don't do anything about
it it's a shame it's just a terrible shame we have all these issues that they still still deny they exist parking is a challenge oh that's that's that's true too parking is a challenge years years ago it was easy for one one person family to have one
car now we've got uh let's see my house is a duplex and across the street is two duplexes just like mine and they each have three apartments in them and every family has to have two cars to make ends meet so how many cars do that end up being so in the middle of middle of the
day you may find a parking space more often than not you're coming home from at night and you're driving past your house because there's no parking space on that block and going back around looping back around to get a place to park and I've seen brand new families coming in there's not many want to join us they want to they want to try to uh
rezone it and and cause a more of more apartment parking like we're doing right here with the the 70 apartment 70 um Parcels that they want to change in in closing two things I'd like to
say landlords are ripping up the flowers the grass and vegetables to plant cement if you want to I'm talking about drive down West Carrison Street to to 42 this woman had beautiful flower arrangements she died they sold her property ripped all her flowers out they were just
gorgeous in the back in the backyard and they planted cement Joy Mitchell sang in a song in the 1970s says don't it always seem to go that you don't know what You' got to you Till It's Gone pay parking pave paradise and put up a
parking lot our beautiful Beth is starting to look like allenon thank you thank you was there anyone else in the center who to comment who didn't have a chance to yet I'll turn to the right was there anyone to the right I believe I see a hand behind the
lect if you don't mind stating your name for the record hi paig Van Wart 42 West Market thank you for listening to me tonight Council um I'm here well first I would just wanted to correct a matter of fact um the city receives approximately $10
million a year from the casino it goes directly into the general fund um I'm here to support increasing salary for Council controller and mayor I want to emphasize that Council controller and mayor council and controller have not seen an increase in
their salary in 16 years so figuring in cost of living increases they're actually getting paid less every single year mayor has not seen an increase in 12 years I was on Council um for those of you who don't know for six years and it was a
calling um and regardless of how long one has lived here in Bethlehem Mr cologne is that is irrelevant to whether or not you love this city and you can serve well on this city I just had to emphasize that being on Council requires
an enormous amount of work behind the scenes not just within the upfront meetings that you you go to but to speak meaningfully and vote in a completely informed manner meant hours and hours of research communication and collaboration just to understand how a municipality works is
an enormous undertaking indeed I didn't run again for Council when my term was up because I couldn't both grow my practice and be the best council member that I needed to be it was just not enough hours in the day so I chose to to not do a poor job hard work deserves
honest pay while nobody runs for counselor controller or mayor for the money it should never be a barrier for someone running especially when we want to attract candidates from all income levels attract citizens with valuable variety and life
experiences as far as balancing the budget I'll point out that budget season doesn't begin until November and an Administration that respects Council and council's wishes will find a path to fund this initiative as it does with all important initiatives and council's
primary mandate as you all know um along with creating ordinances is actually controlling the purse strings this power is one of the most traditionally underutilized powers on Council as you control the pur strings you determine how money gets spent and I urge you to
exercise that control in this matter and in all matters of the budget this is an incalculably valuable work you do for the city and this proposal will help ensure that we continue to attract the best and the brightest leaders for our city thank you thank
you yes sir in the third [Music] row uh my name is Gabe Moyer I'm here to comment on the rezoning of 11 and 15 West Garrison Street it's a followup to the proposal from two weeks ago that we presented
about this site the city of betham is growing this North New Street blocks evolving for Fist of the site is already commercially zoned on the site there's a significant amount of vacant land and underutilized land
already the city needs more housing for all these reasons that site is a good site for redevelopment in time all of those structures are going to come down it's really just a matter of what we replace them with we've taken steps to not only
incorporate City comment um broader Community feedback we provided clear plans we responded to any and every inquiry that we received we met with many of you here tonight on Council some that are also
here in attendance all of that led to multiple adjustments to those Target plans that we presented rather than come in and charge ahead with a byright 10 story building
of 150 units with no parking we're pursuing a modest building with plenty of parking I along with my partner on the business where residents of
Bethlehem we business owners here as well we care about our reputation we care about the city I hope to eventually live in this building I truly believe that the project we're looking to do is optimal
for everyone the resoning will enable us to build a more efficient building if it's well with the neighborhood it incorporates what we heard which is for more housing a reasonable size a
reasonable height adequate parking the resoning request is sensible I just wanted to come back and follow up where remain available if anyone would like to speak at any time afterwards or reach out to us I just want to thank
Council for and any anyone that has showed interest just for your continued engagement thank you was there anyone else to the right who would to make comment on anything council's voting on this evening I don't see any so that's going
to conclude our second public comment oh Mr vilo my apologies thank you Colleen Robert virgilio 38-year resident of Bethlehem I think it was about a year ago I came to the city council meeting and I
suggested that the uh council members and the mayor consider giving themselves a raise because they do have a demanding job and we want the best to come and uh be part of our city government then I sat through some
budget meetings and I learned something and that the city doesn't have a whole lot of ways to generate Revenue I think Council and the mayor should look at that I think it's a tough decision you're going to have to
make uh there's about four seats that are going to be uh coming up for election on Council two of those seats are going to have returning uh members of council running they might want to think about
that also when I mentioned uh the raises I believe I mentioned our first response responders should be considered um police fire emergency and that's not being done and I don't know how it would be done I
honestly don't know how the city other than raising taxes is going to pay for these increases so it's not that I'm against it it's just like in any business or in your you know your own checkbook you have to figure out how this is done I
agree with the gentleman who said that the casino might be a a way and I think we might you know in in that you're going to be making a t tough decision if you do give yourself the raise that in the coming budget you start looking at
some other tough decisions about all of maybe a few entities in the city that aren't paying their fair share and I'm not going to mention what they are but I think we all know what they are because we see them growing on every block and every building that's purchased and
every building that's going up brand new just look around so I'll leave you with that uh but one other thing think about the morale if our police if our street department if our fire departments
aren't getting a raise I don't know exactly what they got last year maybe was 2% correct me if I'm wrong so you're going to have the morale issue to deal with if you just give yourselves the increase so um think about that and good
luck with your decision thank you Mr virgilia before I continue is there anyone else who wanted to make any comment ma'am good afternoon my name is Cindy too from 18 West Garrison Street um sorry for not raising my hand I wasn't
aware that there was going to be a vote tonight for Garrison Street um I'm here again to uh respectfully request that the resoning of 8 11 um and 15 Garrison Street be reconsidered while I understand that there's a need for housing this project re appears to focus
on luxury apartments rather than addressing the needs for affordable housing in the city of Bethlehem the construction process will significantly impact both myself and my neighbors Garrison Street is a narrow oneway street with limited parking and I am concerned about safety increased gestion
and availability of parking during this construction homeowners and residents will face disruptions to traffic flow parking and overall quality of life due to this project I appreciate your time and consideration and hope that the concerns of the residents will be taken
into account thank you thank you may I'm in the center hi um I'm Tina kentel me and I live on Morland Avenue and while we were sitting here with the apartments and the
resoning I couldn't help but look up Zillow and see how many available apartments there are currently in our town I in the world of retail which I used to write about extensively for um National
magazines there's a you know something called over storing where people will overbuild retail and then they have to cut it back and close it and you know it happens all the time because they want to please um you know their stockholders so anyway um just a quick thing there's
14 units available currently in kataka Road Bethlehem at Valley Park there's nine available units at Lehigh Plaza Westgate Drive there's 16 available units at Riverpoint Livingston Street
Bethlehem PA bright Court uh there's two available units nine available units in Wood mon Muse 12 available units Bethlehem Township okay that's getting to the township um and I there's seven
available units that appears to be the void but that is one that's like a no that's 510 Flats on the south side and um three available units in Bethlehem Towers four Northfield apartment Department Center
Street on and on and on um basically I there's no condos no tow houses where people can own I I sort of mentioned this before places like Carver House or Riverport are condos and I
still think somehow somebody should get together with some mortgage lenders and see how people could actually buy homes or condo or town home or there could even be Garden Apartments and it's and more environmental and they have parking and
um people could start to own Equity so that's all I got to say thank you thank you is there anyone else who wants to make comment Who's not had an opportunity to yes sir in the third row
good evening Vincent maruchi to West Broad Street um I am involved with the project so obviously my opinion could be biased so I just wanted to State a few facts um first uh they the owners as they stated are considering condo
ownership for for this building so that is a potential um also it does seem popular to say we don't need any more Apartments but the Planning Commission has cited studies that says there is still a drastic deficit in dwelling
units in the valley so growth is likely to happen um and according to the American Planning Association who has guidance all over their website to help local Z zoning officers look towards smart growth which
staves off urban sprawl so these kind of developments they lead to Farmland outside the city tracks of grassland out on Lynden it if you curtail this kind of development you'll see more roads Acres
paved over for this type of housing so that's all thank you thank you was there anyone else before I continue on with the agenda who would make comment Who's not had an opportunity all right I think we captured everyone's comment we're going
to move on Old business any old business from memb M of council new business any new business for members of council I'll start with councilwoman lard um my only comment on things we're not voting on tonight are um as one
commenter mentioned I am working alongside uh several members of the community and um our Administration as well as uh some conversations with a couple of other council members um to address address issues regarding safety
and privacy for our community members um which would include reviewing existing policies within the administration legislation uh and the roles of our uh and and functioning of our boards and commissions um to highlight areas that
we are doing well um also to identify areas of needed Improvement or gaps that should be addressed um regarding specifically the uh protection and privacy for our community members I will not move to
take an action that is while well intended um could ultimately make our city or what has come before us recently our immigrant Community or other community members a Target um however I will take action that can provide real
practical Solutions within our community even if that is not the form of one specific ordinance as has been discussed um so I do feel that we've had some really productive conversations so far um I think I heard that echoed from a few people who spoke tonight but I I
know that there is more work to be done and I look forward to having uh more conversations with anybody who would like to engage on how we can uh address these issues in our city did you have anything else councilman no okay thank you any other
new business for members Council Mr Callahan Mr Evans what's I know that the number is large but what what's the amount just in last or this year's budget that this uh Wind Creek uh I think there's three sources
of revenue if I'm wrong please correct me there's slot machines then there's the the table games and then there's the taxes so I and I I might be totally off based on this and if I am again correct
me but the last time I uh when when when the Sands was in charge and I don't know if if if the amount of Revenue dropped or whatever but I was told at the time that sand in the last couple years was providing more uh Revenue into the city coffers more than uh betham steel did uh
at its Heyday now I know we have to count it for inflation and such but just in in in this year's budget I'm not counting past Year's budgets just in this year's budget how much revenue came into the City coffers and table games Revenue
slot machine revenue and then [Music] taxes the host fee is listed at 9.9 million that's just about what we got last year and that's what's in the 2025 budget that's yearly then right yearly yes yeah just under 10 million a year
taxes are also significant I don't have them broken out I can get that to you but it's in the millions to safe to say it's large yeah yeah yeah yeah that property taxes an right on top of the 99 yes right that's correct and is part of the 9.9 million
that we get every year from the Sands that's including the table the table Games and Slots yeah okay thank you that's it I just wanted to I just wanted to get the information out there a lot a lot of people um you know aren't aware of the fact of the amount of money that
the that casino generates uh for the city of bethleem and I'll be honest with you at the time that it it was being voted on I don't think a lot of people understood that without that money this city would have been in in in deep harm
taxwise when all the other cities were raising taxes substantially during that time period because there was a recession too uh very close to that we did not have to um if you went to if you came here from Oklahoma or Nebraska or
timbuk 2 and you went on a tour and this is again I'm probably biased because I live in betham uh if you went on a tour valentown and Bethlehem in Easton I I think everybody I think it's fair to say everybody would say betham was probably
the the nicer of the three cities and then you'd probably think to yourself wow they got to have really high taxes though because it's so nice so it's so pretty everyone has to move there we're the lowest an Town's number one in taxes
eastn uh and I'm talking school district county and city taxes and I think we're the third so it's uh it you know I I've had my disagreements with the mayor uh I had my I had disagreements with mayor donz I had disagreements with my brother
who was a mayor but I think that the people that are trying to their best especially during budget season uh we we really H have have uh tried to keep our expenses down as low as possible and our
tax increases down as low as possible so I think in um the nine years I was on Council um I think I voted one time for a tax increase for it was like $25 hour to the average resident and that was because we at that time that we we were hurting financially and we would have
had to lay off uh some fire and police officers and I didn't think it was worth the 20 foot hours so I voted for a tax increase so I just wanted to clarify that and make sure everybody's aware because a lot of people aren't aware of it so thank you thank you Mr Callan I do see a hand raised I will note public
comment has concluded if anyone wants to speak with members of council after the meeting I welcome you to come talk to us individually and we're happy to share any information any other new business for members of council I'll just know a couple things and just piggybacking off what Mr
Callahan had said and Mr Evans had noted I did not I just want to clar it's in I I have our budget book with us as I keep it with me often that the 9.9 million is budgeted and then if anyone wants to talk further further uh after the council meeting or a time to Mr
Callahan's point and Mr Evans say doesn't have it broken out the city had done a special uh tax increment financing that expired a few years ago which opened up a lot more property tax revenue coming into City coffers and the general fund and all that is accounted
for in our budgets over the year and I'm happy to highlight sort of where you would see those upticks over the years just to clarify that there was reference to a certificate of appropriateness and a presentation from an applicant as it relates to a harb related certificate of
appropriateness I'll restate as I did the night of that meeting uh atypical circumstance as our ordinance as it relates to those harb certificate of appropriateness is is very uh explicit in that it says an applicant will have an ability to address Council so that is
why you know if there's a perception of an imbalance harb gives us the recommendation they give us narrative our ordinance specifically States as it relates to harb not the uh HCC that the applicant can address Council and just I
want to offer my my thanks to council Bas president Leon for covering the last council meeting on short notice as my myself and my whole family was impacted by some of the the bugs that were going around so uh you I never look forward to
missing a meeting and I surely did not look forward to being home that last one but I thank you for covering that any other new business for members of council before I continue on thank you everyone so we'll move on to Communications communication 6A
February 21st 2025 memorandum at T resolution from police chief Michelle cot in support of the 2024 Edward burn Memorial Justice assistant Grant an application has being made to receive up to $3 33,5 this grant would be used to expand
and update the city's intersection camera Network I'll accept a motion and a second to schedule a public hearing on the proposed 2024 Edward burn Memorial Justice assistance grant for March 18th
so I heard a motion by councilwoman quch and a second by councilwoman Leon if we could call the rooll on the motion Mr cahan uh yes M grmy Smith I quch I miss
lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colum I am also a yes the motion passes 70 so a public hearing will be set for 7M on March 18th to have the public hearing about the proposal for the
grant 6B the February 24th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Public Works director Mike gal the memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with lb construction enterpris is incorporated of Springhouse Pennsylvania to provide
Engineering Services labor and materials and design and construct 60 Ada curb ramps throughout the city cost is $459,500 and the work is to be completed within 100 days from the notice to proceed there are no renewals five bids
were received lb construction was determined to be the lowest bidder and resolution 10B is on the agenda communication 6C February 20 2 4 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from director of water and res sewer
resources Edward bucola Mr basola seeks authorization to execute an agreement with cha Consulting Incorporated at Bethlehem to provide design bidding and construction Administration services for replacement of the roof at the Water Filtration plant cost is
$127,500 and the work is to be completed by December 31st 2025 there are no renewals resolution 10c is on the agenda communication 6D February 25th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from
Public Works director Mike la call memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with G and B Construction Group of fille to provide Engineering Services labor materials to design and construct Ada curb ramps upgrades and Mill overlay
penbroke uh Road from stepco Boulevard to Woodruff Street and Elizabeth Avenue from Chelsea Street to Lyndon Street the cost is $451,500 is on the agenda communication 6E February 27th 20125 memorandum from
police chief Michelle kot with an attached resolution agreement for the purchase of a dut D Weapon by a retired officer of the betham police department pursuant to the third class city code retired officers May purchase their Duty Firearms at fair market value and resolution 10 is on the agenda
tonight 6f February 25th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Public Works director Michael alol the memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with lb construction Enterprises Incorporated of Springhouse to provide Engineering
Services labor and material to design and construct 50 Ada curb ramps in conjunction with in-house Paving activities throughout the city cost is $367,900 and the work is to be completed within 100 days from the notice to
proceed there are no renewals six bids were received lb construction submitted the lowest one and resolution 10f is on the agenda 6G February 25th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resource
versus Edward boscola the memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with J Owen Bradley Construction Company Incorporated at Bethlehem to provide materials and labor to repair broken water mains at two locations cost is $
46,5 25 and the work has to be completed within 180 days from the notice to proceed there are no renewals two bids were received from J Brad with J Bradley submitting the lowest bid resolution 10g is on the agenda six each February 26
2025 memorandum from solicitor John fburg Jr with an attached use permit agreement resolution permit is the American Association of University women Bethlehem Branch to use the early schaer ice rank to hold its 225 AAW book fair
event dates are April 24th through April 28th of 2025 and the duration of the permit is March 31st through April 28th and resolution 10h is on the agenda tonight 6i February 26 2025 memorandum from solicitor John fburg Jr with an
attached use permit agreement and resolution permit the permit is work to live LLC doing business as Run leh High Valley for use of public property specified as Main Street from River Street to Broad Street and neevan place right away and specified parcel along
West Walnut Street the event is the 2025 Brew to brew run which will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 12th 2025 the permit duration will be from 8:00 a. till 300 p.m. on April 12th and resolution 10i is on the agenda tonight
and our last communication 6j the February 24th 2025 memorandum and attached proposed ordinance from business administrator Eric Evans memorandum proposes amending article 141 to add patias Puerto Rico as a sister city to
Bethlehem and the ordinance will be placed on council's March 18th agenda for first reading moving on to reports nothing to report other than our Council manic appointment Mr Miller Council manic appointment Martin J
biotti Bethlehem Library board resolution sponsored by Miss lar and Miss cron Smith so before we open up to discussion I'll just say that the appointment came from someone had resigned Who currently serves on the library board so it opened up a vacancy
and then as I often do collaborated with the library leadership and we identified someone who I thank them uh for their willingness to volunteer for the library board and that's where the uh appointment comes from any other
discussion councilwoman L just uh note that I had the pleasure of uh working at times with Mr be um in my role volunteering with the food co-op over the years and am glad to see his name come before us as a willing
volunteer thank you any other discussion for members of council councilwoman I just want to thank Mr Hunt for his service um on the board um and you know it it's I'm pleased to be having having joined the board um got to briefly meet him before
he needed to step off so thank you any other discussion on the appointment Mr Miller call the rooll Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi Miss quch hi Miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi
and Mr cologne I the appointment passes 70 Mr Mayor uh thank you a couple things one is just a couple comments of followup on what Mr Callan had said about the casino is that um you know I think that one thing that I've said many times and others have said similar to
what Mr Khan just said is you know it is important to note about what the aggregate amount of money that the casino has paid in the city over the past 16 years I forget if the casino opened in May or June of 2009 but in starting in 2010 we started receive that
$10 million a year in the host fee and at the time our general fund budget was not what it is now it was somewhere in the 40s of the 50s and so it was approximately 20% of all of our Revenue coming in and absent that Revenue we would have had to make decisions that
other cities have had to make Mr Ken referenced them is as I've said many times we're not only the only city in the leag High Valley that has an earned income tax of 1% we're the only city out of the top 10 in population across Pennsylvania that's been able to maintain that 1% and part of that is
because we've had the host fee so the mill rate is higher in Allentown it's higher in Easton but also whether or not you've ever been to the casino or not there would be no steel Stacks there would be no Hoover Mason Trestle there would be um no levit Pavilion there would be none of those things without the Tiff that helped to create the
casino and then when the when the Tiff ran out um and I was asking Mr Evans about this we don't work for the school district but I mean their single property tax payment from uh uh wi Creek is like $4 million um so every year this
goes on we continue to get these funds in a way and and you know I I continue to be amazed that somehow that story no matter how many times people tell it about where that money is gone to pay our police officers to pay our firefighters we could tell you the story
about what the deserved growth is within those two departments over the last 15 years years it's tied to the idea that we have had had a casino um and that it's been the anchor down there so I just wanted to Echo Mr callan's comments and I and I appreciate we always appreciate when when people are willing
to put information out there that fights back against misinformation that's out there because it helps to tell the story so thank you for doing that Mr Ken we appreciate that um just a couple comments I believe Mr hacket left but I do just want to make a couple comments by Miss heler who retired um you know
Miss heler is uh one of the reasons why Bethlehem is the place that people want to be that they want to live in and you know the biggest compliment I give Darlene is 20 years ago when I started paying attention when I got out of college she was often one of the only people in meetings talking about
walkability and bikeability and live work and play and how do we make sure that we balance out development with the idea that we need new we need um to be able to protect some of our history and talking about the experience of walking and all these type of things and she really helped in this place in City Hall
to create a culture by which if she was the only voice when she started working for the city talking about that she is one of she was one one of many voices when she retired and Mr Hackett said something along the lines of how could you let her go trust me when I tell you
I think I have talked her out ofg goinging many times in the past couple of years um and we could not be more grateful for for all of the work that she's done between her work for four different mayors and Mr alcohol's work for four different mayors between Public Works and the planning department a lot
of the projects that people in this room love or have come to Define Bethlehem including places like the greenway are because of the work that they have done um and uh we are going to miss Darlene um but I think fundamentally the culture of the city of Bethlehem and thinking
about how it's not just how do you get from point A to point B in your car as easily as possible but also what about neighborhoods what about walking what do oneway streets do how do we just bring more vibrancy she was Center to that and you know I think one of the things I
learned over the years was that in the last 20 years you know the last you know three plus change that I've been here before that you know she did not always her her her point of view and I wish she was here to hear this like her point of view did not always carry the day with every Administration and when I got here
I basically said to Darlene is like I basically think you're right all the time and I want to support you and we're going to build a department and build development ideas around the fact that you know what you're talking about you have really LED in this way um and I just want to thank her for her
incredible contributions to the city um she lives in the city she is living in the west side um she'll still be around but you know she's been getting many congratulations and I think all of us when we think about what makes us different what makes Bethlehem what it is and also a lot of things that we have
planned going in the future her fingerprints are all over them so I wanted to thank Darlene for that um just a couple of things um one is is I did want to uh just uh make an announcement for chief K some of you may have seen um we I'll just read part of the press
release Here the betham police department is proud to announce its participation in the blue envelope program an initiative designed to improve communication and understanding between law enforcement and drivers with special needs the program aims to enhance road safety and reduce stress
during traffic stops by helping offers Rec officers recognize and appropriately respond to drivers who may have disabilities medical conditions or other special circumstances the blue envelope program provides a simple yet effective way for drivers with special needs to inform Law Enforcement Officers about
their condition upon enrollment in the program drivers receive a blue envelope containing a card that details their specific needs or medical conditions the card can be placed in the vehicle's windshield or glove box allowing officers to be informed before initiating a traffic stop here was a
quote that we use from Chief cot we are excited to partner with LVH and join this important program which will allow us to provide more compassionate and thoughtful responses to drivers with special needs traffic stops can be stressful for everyone involved but for drivers with special circumstances The
Experience can be especially challenging by participating in the blue envelope program we are taking proactive steps to ensure that our officers approach these situations with greater understanding and empathy end quote in addition to improving officer awareness the program offers training to law enforcement
Personnel helping them to better identify and address potential challenges faced by drivers with special needs officers are also educated on the importance of communication patience flexibility during interactions with these drivers ensuring safety and comfort for all involved another quote
from Chief cot the blue envelope program is part of our broader commitment to building stronger more positive relationships with all members of our community by providing officers with value information before a traffic stop takes place we are enhancing both Public Safety and the overall experience for
individuals with special needs and then finally the police department is committed to serving and protecting the community with professionalism integrity and respect we strive to Foster positive relationships with all residents and our involvement in the blue envelope initiative reflects our dedication to inclusivity understanding and effective
policing blue envelopes are available at Lehigh Valley Physician Group pediatrics family medicine and Internal Medicine offices and from other partnering police departments and interested parties can also request a blue envelope at lvhn.org
BL envelope um and I just really want to thank Chief cot um and the department for entering into this uh into this partnership um it's it's truly a positive uh and then just three quick things just a couple updates uh we had talked about budgets uh once again Mr
hacket I do not believe is here to talk about saving money and listening to how we're doing it um but our pension fund in 2024 ended 88.8% up um if you remember one of our uh big increases in the 25 budget was our pension obligation
that went back to our Pension funds from 2021 and 2022 so as a reminder our pension fund in 2023 ended at 11.3% up in 2024 it ended at 8.8% up our expected rate of return is a conservative 7% so
if you blend those two rates obviously it's 10 um uh it's right around 10% which is very good for the 27 and 28 budgets um it does doesn't necessarily provide any relief for next year because next year's 26 budget will have a similar pension payment to 25 um but it
is very good news going forward obviously if you've been paying any attention to anything with the stock market 2025 is not off to a great start um so we'll see see what happens we'll see what happens with you know the the speech tonight see if that does anything to the markets tomorrow morning um but
it is uh it is good news and I want to thank our pension board which is a combination of the controller and police Representatives and fire representatives and our um city treasurer um and that's really good news for us going forward as far as our financial um kind of stability in that particular area um we
also finished 2024 um in a good place as far as our medical is concerned as you know we are self-insured um so we uh do our best at estimating uh but also sometimes some years there are medical expenses that outrun other years um but
we ended um in 2024 in a good place I think um about 6% roughly estimated based under what we had budgeted which then will be rolled over into our medical account this year um and connected to that I just wanted to briefly in about 45 seconds talk about
how there's a lot of conversation in Washington right now about the potential Medicaid cuts that has a lot of negative Domino effects for Everybody's Health Care bills um I we're was talking with um our benefits uh uh consultant yesterday BSI they were telling me about
50% of all people in America are either now in Medicaid or Medicare um there are a lot of practices my wife's is one of these in Easton which uh has about 50% somewhere in the 40 to 50% Medicaid patients like those Medicaid patients allow them to stay in that neighborhood
we have family practices in many neighborhoods so most people do not have to drive super far to get to one within the leive valy potential Medicaid Cuts would shift a lot of the cost burden for hospitals insurers over to the commercial markets where we exist in and
places like the city of Bethlehem whether or not you're a Democrat Republican whatever however you feel math is still math and places are going to have to make Cuts or they're GNA have to raise costs to be able to pay for these potential cuts that goes outside of all of the human costs obviously on
what these Medicaid cuts are but the domino effect on potential Medicaid cuts on those of us that have um insurance that isn't Medicaid or Medicare is not good at all it affects small businesses affects school districts it affects everybody um so I highly encourage all
of us to be paying attention to to to that issue as it goes forward because we might think we're in a good spot as far as a medical is concerned but a lot of that comes down to what hospitals and doctors never charge us and those numbers are going to change if they're not allowed to change this 50% over here
and they're able to change this 50% especially because we have high quality Healthcare and our employees have the expectation that they're going to continue to have that highquality healthare a lot of it is included our Union cont contracts one of the easiest places for insurers and hospitals pass those costs along to are people like us
so we want to make sure that we're we we are doing everything we can I would say no matter what your political persuasion is to fight against those and and the last thing I will say on this is in Pennsylvania I remember when I was working for representative Samson this was a number of years ago he told me six out of every seven Medicaid dollars in
the state of Pennsylvania go to people over the age of 65 so I don't know if there's fraud waste or abuse somewhere in there but we're talking about our most vulnerable citizens that are on Medicaid and the effect it has in the rest of the medical system and our interactions with the healthare system
are drastic um and the last thing I will just point out is um at the end of April we're going to start our Paving season um if you remember back from the budget in 20 uh 2020 2021 we did a combin 29 Lane miles of roads in 22 and 23 since
we've put some of our arpa capita dollars into it we were able to do 47 miles and then our goal for 24 and 25 is to do 50 miles um which would be the biggest um our our biggest two-year investment that we've ever made in our roads the unfortunate thing is we have
750 miles of roads in the city approximately um so it'll be a long time before we're able to pave every road um but that will be starting at the end of uh that'll be starting at the end of April thank you thank you I'm going to turn to our committee chair starting with councilwoman quch thank you
tonight's scheduled meeting of the Community Development Committee uh which was to discuss proposed amendments to article 534 involving the residential per permit parking program did not take place due to an illness uh but it will be rescheduled for a future date also uh
the Community Development Committee will meet on Tuesday March 18th 2025 at 6m in town hall there is one item on the agenda review for potential Amendment several code enforcement ordinances including regulations involving streets and sidewalks Health nuisances solid
waste collection and several involving rental units Hillary quch chairperson Community Development Committee thank you councilwoman councilwoman cramsey Smith thank you the finance committee met on February 24th at 6 PM in town hall proposed salary increases for
elected officials were discussed the committee voted to advance the full Council ordinances reflecting proposed salary increases for the controller the mayor and councel those ordinances appear on tonight's Council agenda Grace crampy Smith chairwoman of the finance
committee thank you councilwoman so we're move on to section eight ordinances for final passage councilwoman Leon you look like you want to say something I do can I make a motion to group uh the budget items 8 A through 80 together as
one second okay so the the motion and then the second from councilwoman Leon and Mr Callahan are to group the budget amendments 8 A through 80 as one group discussion on the
motion I will note this is second reading and I believe we did this at first reading also after these went through committee then first reading and now this is a procedural second vote any other discussion on that on the motion we're about to vote on all right Mr
Miller call the roll on the motion Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colum I the motion passes 70 so we're going to group 8 A through 80
together Mr Miller if you'll take a sip of water and please read all of the ordinances agenda item 8A an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton conwal of Pennsylvania amending the 2025 capital budget for non utilities item 8 B an
ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of psylvia amending the 2025 capital budget for sewer utilities item 8 C an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
amending the water Capital fund budget for 2025 ad ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the water fund budget for 2025 e an ordinance of the city of
Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2025 8f in ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for
2025 8G ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2025 8h ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
amending the general front budget for 2025 8i an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2025 8j ordinance of the city of Bethlehem
counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2025 8K ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2025
8 L ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2025 8m an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton conwal of Pennsylvania amending the general
fund budget for 2025 8N an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton conw of Pennsylvania amending the golf fund budget for 2025 and 80 an ordinance of the city of betham counties of Lehigh and Northampton conwal of Pennsylvania
amending the Community Development block grant fund budget for 2025 all ordinances are sponsored by Miss kmy Smith and Miss Leon thank you Mr Miller so now any discussion on the group
themselves we'll call the RO on the group Mr Callahan I M gry Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm I and Mr cologne I the group passes 70 moving on to new ordinances Mr
Miller if you will please read 9A ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending ordinance 2701 establishing the salaries of the members of council and the president of council bill number 16 2025 is sponsored
Miss by Miss L and Miss kmy Smith so for discussion I'll start with Council woman Wilhelm as she brought these forward and I will speak broadly on 9A through C and uh I think I'll start by saying that if I could vote to
compensate our hardworking school board I would I think we would all agree on that that decision is not up to us and it's it is difficult not to take at least some measure of offense at the insinuation that because there is a
modest compensation associated with this role that uh that we can't uh that our that it diminishes our dedication to this work um furthermore that if one is not born and raised here in Bethlehem that one cannot uh serve this role with the
utmost of heart uh and commitment um and I I respect very much that you all have your own independent assessments of our work and us as individuals um it is your right to share them and um this proposal
and what I'm about to share now reflects my assessment um I want to begin though by acknowledging the the uncomfortable nature of the unusual position that we're in as council members having the responsibility of not only proposing but of considering and potentially approving
adjustments to council compensation but that is the procedure um none of us determined that council is a paid position and none of us decided that Council will vote on the salary for those who sit in these seats
um and I imagine that uncomfortable and awkward optic is why the council uh salaries have stagnated for 16 years and I get it it's optically sensitive um but a lot of these comments were made by
some of you but I really want to underscore the fact that any salaries the council May approve this evening and yes it is ultimately the will of council not just me again this expresses my perspective on this on the situation um any salary changes that Council May
approve will not take effect until the next election cycle that is to say that no one sitting in this office or any of the offices we're discussing tonight will receive an increase until or unless they are reelected into office there is no guarantee that these increases will
impact a single individual serving in the in these roles today we are not voting on our own salaries uh my goal is not to make any of my colleagues uncomfortable by putting this forward this is simply something I feel strongly
about I encourage my colleagues to remember that we are voting on behalf of future councils future Mayors future controller and that goes for any of you sitting in these seats who might consider serving in this role I believe that if you become elected to this role
you deserve a higher salary um despite attempts to characterize this proposal from one angle or another the salaries that I proposed took many factors into consideration and I do believe that they represent a thoughtful and reasonable solution to address something that
should have been addressed a while ago in fact this conversation stems from years of observations that have been made both from within this body and from members of the public again some sitting here in this room tonight and comments that predate my time on Council and
again I think the the um uncomfortable able situation we're in of voting on the salaries of individuals in this body is has something to do with that uh I submitted a memo and suggest and my suggested amendments on February 13th all members of council have had the
opportunity to absorb the memo review its proposed changes and suggest further amendments I will just mention that no Amendments have been proposed by my colleagues as of this evening's meeting uh at a finance committee meeting on February 24th
following discussion and comments as was was mentioned earlier the increases proposed in my memo were unanimously voted forward for discussion at tonight's uh meeting I did take into consideration some inquiries though that were made at that meeting and I have
prepared one further amendment to propose tonight which um my colleagues see in front of them and I will discuss shortly um of course I'm most intimately aware uh of the role go and demands of being a
council person uh it became clear to me not long after my own election to council that an annual compensation level of $10000 could be a barrier to some qualified candidates it's been mentioned tonight it's not uncommon that we spend
10 to 20 hours on top of our full-time work potentially what if I were a single parent um jug someone juggling multiple jobs would this role be available to me me I asked myself that question many
times over the years and um the subject of raises were brought up by members of the public unexpected members of the public to be honest at I think every budget meeting that I have uh participated in and um the discomfort of
the situation prevents prevented anyone from addressing it until now um again I understand that but the time demands of this this work are significant a dedic ated council member not only attends bonly meetings but spends hours and
hours of prep and research engages with constituents meets with members of the administration attends committee meetings Community meetings uh represents a city at multiple events and and and on and on I could go on uh council salary has
remained the same since 2009 and this is a modest proposed increase that at least helps ensure that service on this body is a somewhat more viable option for a broader range of our constituents I want this privilege to be available to more
residents of Bethlehem City controller as you know is a highly specialized position it's vital to maintaining the Financial Health and transparency of our City's finances we've all been grateful up here many times for the careful eye of our controller and anyone who sits in that
role in the future will hold that same responsibility the mayor's compensation rate has not increased in 12 years a quick scan of the budget book will indicate that all six department heads and dozens of other city employees do make sign significantly more than our mayor who is
responsible for and accountable to all 78,000 residents of Bethlehem at the February 24th finance committee meeting an inquiry was made as to whether these increases which in total equal just over 39,000 can be applied to the budget incrementally
with a smaller increase for each council member for controller and mayor taking effect Over a four-year period I did seek solicitor Stewart's legal opinion on the matter and she clarified that state statute does not allow for incremental increases for Council or
controller but I will mention as was also mentioned earlier that a naturally staggered increase will apply to council that even even without an incremental yearly increase as the next election cycle uh invol just four seats on Council and an increase for the
remaining seat three seats would not take effect until 2028 after the following election cycle uh solicitor Stewart has indicated however that it is permissible to apply annual increases to the mayoral salary and so in response to the finance committee request I have proposed a new
structure that you see before you this evening which breaks the original increase for the mayoral salary into four annual and equal steps of 1,875 per year I'll close by reiterating the unusual position that we're in and the
potentially uncomfortable nature of being in this position specifically mine having presented it um but just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do um I'm here to advocate for a more fair wage I'm happy to hear others
thoughts uh and I look forward to settling on a more fair compensation for those who will inhabit these seats and serve Beth in the years to come thank you thank you councilman Wilhelm so I'm going to open it up to discussion one thing I'll ask though is because we are going to they
are separate uh ordinance amendments so we'll go in order 9A is for Council and council president salaries 9B is for controller and 9 C is for mayor I I will turn to the administration for input at appropriate times given the nature of the budget and the mayor's salary as we
get there but I would like to keep discussion to each individual um yeah as much as possible there's going to be some overlap of course but as we discuss them one by one so we are on discussion right now for Council and council president salaries any discussion from members of council as it
relates to what's proposed from councilwoman Wilhelm I'll start with councilwoman Leon sure let's let's get the ball rolling on this one um so uh I have thoughts so many thoughts um I'm only going to be be able to articulate a
couple and then I'm going to hope that Council chimes in so I can keep things flowing in my head um I'm very grateful to uh councilwoman will Helm and the members of the public that brought up that this is a cost prohibitive job this isn't about this
isn't like money in it's not incentivizing from money but it is cost prohibitive it absolutely is like you have to have a certain level of stability in order to to serve on this Council because you do give up so much of your time and it is I've said this
before it is a privilege and it is an honor but it's also financially unavailable to entire areas of the community community that have input that is extremely important for us to to hear and like I I don't I don't understand
how that's not something that that is settling with with people because not everybody in the community can serve here but everybody in the community exists in the city and most people that exist in the city cannot serve here I know I'm being circular
here but it's it's just we want people who cannot afford child care to sit here and say that they cannot afford child care we want people who are talking about affordable housing because they're worried because they have to live out outside of the city or they have to move they can't afford groceries we want them to sit here and talk about their
experiences and they can't sit here if we can't provide any kind of compensation that would allow for for some kind of buffer whether it's child care whether it's it's shifting hours for whatever reason so it it absolutely is a cost prohibitive job and if we're talking about
increasing accessibility if we're talking about increasing people's voices if we're talking about building a Bethlehem for everybody we need to look at why this job is so cost prohibitive it can't just be people who are financially stable or who are business owners and I get that like I can kind of
hear the class's conversation but oh if you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps maybe you shouldn't be making decisions and I I get that I hear it I hear it I don't get it but like most people in the city are struggling financially and we need to hear from them so I I I guess miss me
with that um I do have some questions uh thank you for looking into the non-incremental or like the incremental increases I get that is there any way that we could just build an ordinance that does this so that it is not Council like a
a like a cost of living adjustment thing maybe not specifically those words but just every few years this is looked at and adjusted because this is continue this is going to continue to be an issue for every Council over and over and over again is that question addressed to yes
sorry I just want to make sure before I before I speak I just want to provide um some legal background for how this works how this process works which has been touched upon but I I want to make sure that we have some clarity and some
understanding under article 3 section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution no ordinance can be passed to increase or decrease the salary of a public officer after their election or appointment that's why we have the deadlines that we
do for passing salary ordinances and that's why we're here tonight um with regard to the mayor the control all elected officials the provisions of the third class city code indicate that ordinances have to be
passed if if salaries are going to be increased or decreased not less than two days before the last day fixed by law for candidates to withdraw their names for nominating petitions so what does that mean essentially what that means is
that before we know who the final pool of candidates are for this election season Council has to have passed ordinances if they're going to change compensation and then how is that
applied in the case of a controller because of the constit Constitutional provision at article 3 section 27 it's it's March you say okay the controller is going to receive a salary
of X as of January 1st 2026 when the new elected controller takes office that salary cannot change for the term of that controllers term um the same thing with
Council so so so you and that goes back to the increments you can't incrementally raise you can't say okay well when they start in 2026 they can get this much in 2027 that much because secluded by the Pennsylvania
Constitution the same thing applies to council members so you set the compensation for the different years however the rate of compensation that you set for for that year is only going
to be received by those council members who are newly elected or reelected because the C the compos ation of a sitting member of council cannot be raised during their term um so you can
say you know in in 2026 it's going to be this and 2027 it's going to be that and 2028 it's going to be that but only is will be received by anyone who is newly elected or reelected as of the beginning of that year if that makes
sense now the mayor's a little different a little different because section 11208 of the third class class city code that deals with the salary of the mayor provides that the compensation to be received by the mayor shall not be increased or diminish after the mayor's
election unless the increase or decrease was included in an ordinance enacted again not less than two days before the last day for candidates to withdraw their nominee petitions so you can as far as the mayor is
concerned craft an ordinance that sets a rate and increases that rate during that mayor's term so that's why that looks a little different than the controller and then
the council because it's provided for in the third class city code clear to me but it's probably clear as mud to everyone else no no I'm I think I'm tracking I have a couple of questions I'm gonna have questions about the mayor's salary but not right now um
so basically what I'm hearing is there's no way that I mean obviously there's been brought up that people are seeking re-election there's no way that we could kick this out to November and and vote on this because we then we would be voting even if we were voting gotcha correct it it it needs if an ordinance
is going to be passed to raise salaries or decrease salaries for January 1st 2026 it needs to be passed in March so with salary set by ordinance say we for
conversation say say we we did this if next year we look at the budget and we're like this ain't flying can we pull council salary back then you can pass another ordinance to adjust salaries but again the changes wouldn't apply
until somebody would be newly elected or reelected to office so again it's not going to apply to sitting council members all right gotta think I'm good any other discussion councilwoman
L uh echoing what the other councilwoman have stated already I I do recognize that Ser serving on city council is an honor it's a voluntary responsibility and it is service um also requires all of the time and
sacrifice and all of the things that that were stated before I don't I would hope that that's not news to anyone um volunteering is a privilege that so many can't afford and I am also recognizing that I am very fortunate to be able to
volunteer my time and talents in areas that uh there are no wages or stiens for as well as for city council where there is a a small stien uh wage for each year
um and that small amount of compensation right now um when we look at anything the prices have gone so so so far up since 2009 was it that that they were
last raised um it's a it's a fairly logical argument uh I would think to make um and while this change doesn't affect the current members unless they're reelected um it's long overdue and it sets a
precedent for even basic valuing of the work of future councils I think that um you know I I do have some questions uh one particular one but I I think overall it's a reasonable step to ensure that public service remains accessible and
sustainable able um and I do also think that the school board should be paid but again that's not our purview on Council um my my biggest question uh right now is um I I think that councilwoman Leon
had maybe started to ask it but I didn't catch the answer of can we require in ordinance that uh this um stipended or salary uh is reviewed on some regular cycle so that
every um it's a four-year term that every fourth year it's reviewed so that it's it's just automatically in the cycle and it doesn't go as long as it has without even being discussed I don't know that that would
be precluded by law I in terms of operation I don't know that I would whether or not I would recommend it um I mean review is is a is a pretty broad term right so so there's nothing I think
that would would preclude it uh and it might help keep things um at the four and being looked at on a consistent basis um whether or not action would be taken so I just want to comment on that
councilwoman lar so th this whole action was came about from a memo that I circulated to all members of council that Mr Miller reminded me and um whether I was council president or not four years ago um it was missed so
because of these timelines that attorney Stewart said that you have to it doesn't have to be in March but it has to be by the end of March a particular date do this Mr Miller had reached out to me and said you know there's this template for
a memo that's typically circulated he cited a year which predates um most members of council being on Council I was on Council I didn't even remember it to be honest with you because we probably just ignored it as you know somebody could say if they want to review it or propose
um you know an amendment or anything like that that was many that was probably four eight years ago or something like that so then four years ago it was overlooked and now this now so it's not necessarily um codified in an ordinance
but the clerk's office does have in their just procedural notes some to remind the council president hey Council should circulate this memo to remind everybody if you want to visit these increases to do it so that's that's where inspired that's where this came
from everyone will remember I sent a memo internally to all members of council and then councilman wilh home responded to that saying yes I would like to take a look at this okay so there there is some workflow established um okay um my
other question would be just to have it in our minutes and and whatnot um yes what would looking at the council increase if if it were to pass what
would the impact on next year's budget be in some are are you asking just for Council just for council at the the one that we're looking at right now council president of council the sum increase
for next year's budget 14,200 $14,200 okay and I'll just remind everyone for the sake of following along that's based on there are four Council seats up for vote so there'll be four people either new members sworn in or
some combination of new members and reelected members and I'm termed out at the end of this year as council president so that would uh apply to whoever the next council president is also whether they're um someone reelected or an incumbent who becomes
council president I think we'd have to address that at that time did that answer your question right any other discussion from members of council I'll start with uh Council cramsey Smith and then go to council quch I have um two questions for
solicitor Seward um so just so I'm clear then um for the council part of it if there are people that are elected next year that are new never on Council then if this passes they will start with the increase right and then the people that have maybe been on Council will stay at
the same salary the current people that were not up for reelection right right anybody reelected or anybody newly elected would receive the salary incumbents would not receive the salary increas and has it ever been the case or is it legally possible
to put something like this on a referendum and let the people decide the statutes speak to these matters being addressed by Council okay so is it so
it's not legally possible to do a referendum and it's not never has happened correct there there's no reference to referendums in the relevant statutes okay thank you um well I I appreciate all the comments and
councilwoman um willham for bringing it forward and I understand it is um many years since there's an increase for mayor and Council and the controller um I know at our our committee meeting I asked Mr Evans you know if this came through how how would we pay for and the
answer was we we he didn't know at that point we don't have any we don't have money set aside in the budget we'd have to find the money and that was very concerning to me um I'm cons you know it's it's Unique because most people um do not get to
vote for their own salary increase and we're in a unique position for sure um the one thing I have I have a couple concerns with this is um I think timing again is is just bad timing because um I look at what's going on at the federal
lever level and there's so much economic uncertainty and I'm afraid that it's it's really could end up pretty sign significantly adversely affecting um those in the community and then I just wonder about you know how could we I don't want to adversely affect anyone
economically by giving pay raises at this point in time that that's a real concern for me um and I know that it makes sense like councilwoman Le Leon had some good points about some people aren't able to do this for because they have other expenses um and that's also a
good point to consider but overall um I just feel that right now there's so many unknowns economically and there's a lot of of scary stuff out there for people economically because of what's happening and um I do feel it is an honor and I um
I feel that it is um you know more of a Duty for me I certainly am not doing this for the money as I'm sure no one is in in this room at this point but at this point in time I'll I'll be voting no for all the raises because of my my concerns where we are at this point in time thank you thank you councilwoman
councilwoman qu thank you I um in the interest of um accuracy uh I know that we uh corrected the record on the uh Casino funds but I also wanted to mention that all of our First Responders um have collective
bargaining agreements uh that include I think they're all 3% now one one of them was 4% the first year and now they're all 3% is that correct I believe they're four-year contracts and there was one 4% and three 3% correct Eric yes so I just
didn't want anyone to think that if we vote to um provide a an increase in salary for the uh next term of city council whoever those four people might be uh that we were neglecting our First Responders or anyone in fact our our
administrative staff everyone basically in the in in the city government has gotten increases yes and and just also the 3% doesn't include obviously over time opportunities which exist in in many departments not just our Public Safety departments but other departments
as well so like when we talk about what salaries are as far as city employees there's like the salary that we necessarily see within the budget but they also have overtime opportunities as well and that rate changes as far as collective bargain Agreements are concerned as well I just wanted to put
that thank you for pointing that out I really appreciate it um that was the only thing that I really I think a lot of my questions just in terms of about the um statute and and all of those things um and and Mr Evans
might not have been able to answer the question about where the funds would come from and again pointing out that it's $14,200 um on a how what is the total of our operating budget it's over 100 million yeah it's
$112 million operating budget um the the fact of the matter is that we have a um a budget process every year we're this is not a mid-year raise um again it wouldn't happen until January of 2026
which means that if the $14,200 uh were to be added into the budget uh that would be part of the budget process where we would look at all of our budget lines as we do every year uh and and uh you know find the
resources it is a very scary time I'm not going to disagree with that um you know I'm terrified every day uh so just so everybody knows that um Hillary is not always okay um but at the same time
I I really do appreciate counil uh woman Wilhelm kind of having the um the the guts to say hey it's this is awkward and hard but sometimes we have to do awkward hard things um for the good of the order so I appreciate you
councilwoman will thank you any other discussion from members of council Council I think my my biggest hesitation with this is just the fact that this one is the four instead of the three like you would have to make room for four the four increase as opposed to
the three increase I know we're considering other increases as well that I would like to to see past so I know it's it's only pennies Pennies on the dollar but I wish it was three council members as opposed to the four council members up for re-election that's my that's my biggest
hesitation understood I have another question for the solicitor go ahead if if we're seeking real re-election are we are we within our right to abstain from this [Music] vote my recommendation would be that
that you should vote because again the way the statutes are crafted are to it it's to prevent any self-interest from being involved in the
process um that's said is your decision so I guess is it fair to say what you mean is there's no guarantee anyone voting today is gonna ever see these depending on election outcomes correct thank you
any other discussion from members of council so I'll just make a couple points first I have a question for Mr Evans as it relates to I mean we'll we'll talk about them as a whole the I know we're talking about Council right now but just to save you the time you
revisiting these as we go through if um if Council adopts what's been proposed and potentially an amendment to stagger any kind of mayoral salary that amounts to a little over $23,000 23,000 325
what and you could choose to kind of quantify not qualify however you want would you say that's a significant um I mean of course that's money that currently doesn't exist in the budget that we would be adding for Budget year
2026 not accounting for the three council members who would not be seeing it I look at our budget book and when we talk about um you know the history of having a raised a millage rate and like that it's also evident in our budg in our budget book our act 511 taxes earned
income tax which we alluded to earlier which is 1% our D transfer tax our mertile tax as examples of taxes where we don't raise necessarily the the tax rate but just through um Economic Development organic growth the people's
salaries going up we've seen over since 2021 through this year's budget year $2.7 million in increase just in our act 511 taxes so as we look at this total package amounting to $
23,32 if adopted in any kind of um either in its entirety or or partially uh would you say that creates a significant budgetary challenge as we progress through the year and the budget season for you to try to look into a way
to incorporate that into the 2026 budget you know from ad do it's it is unfortunate uh the the timing that is required that we're 6 months out and you know to speak about what revenues might be in what direction they might be moving six seven months from now when
we're seeting at the budget hearings uh $20,000 is is a real number when you're talking about um numbers are get into tens of thousand dollars and we take a hard look at all our discretionary spending as we can uh We've also as we talked budget hearing experienced
significant growth organically through some of the revenue streams that lead our categories or segments of of total revenue um speaking as a percentage of the budget as as a May mayor had mentioned their general fund budget itself is over hundred million so it's
less than 0.02 of one% of the whole budget we're speaking to so there there are options and Maneuvers that we'll be able to present to put anything when we start to build our budget we start with those fixed numbers we know what our debts going to be next couple years we know
what the MMO or the pension payment will be we'll know that by September we'll have a pretty good sense of where medical our three largest expenses are are plugged in there's not much we can do from that we'll put anything else that's under contract we have a lot of Professional Services or other contractual obligations salaries
included are in there then we move on the revenue side so with all those Mo moving Parts it's not a number that gives me indigestion but you by any means when we're talking about the numbers we do but it's also a number I think you know we would um always want you know pay the respect
that's due because it's a budgetary man uh budgetary item so thank we turn that to your discretion Tru regard to there the decision is thank you Mr Evans and then I mean the history's already been been noted and and kind of the unique
and difficult situation that council's put in as it's been alluded to having to kind of vote for even you we'll say indirectly because you're still voting for a potential increase for yourself obviously elections have results and
some people win re-elections some people don't some people choose to run again some people choose not to run again so it will create some disparity uh depending on the vote outcome in for at least two years well you'll have um four members under a potential new
compensation structure or pay rate and then you'll have three people under the old one and that's just part that's just an accepted part of the process the the way it works just reminding everyone that it it's really going to depend on who comes into office next year with this
um one thing I did want to note too as we discuss whether to support this oright or not it it's unlikely and it's just not practical that this would be Revisited unless it's another four years from now so when we talk about 16 years probably rounding it to even 20 if it's
something that Council revisits um four years from now and then if there is a a longterm kind of stagnation in Council salaries well then that 23, 325 then when you incorporate the additional
three C members of Council in a couple years that even becomes over time a smaller percentage of the overall budget just because you would anticipate as our tax base grows as our Revenue grow it it's just like the the current salary
structure it was incorporated uh 16 years ago 16 years ago it was a a bigger percentage of the overall budget but just the way percentages work as the overall operating budget grows that number stays flat where every other City employee as
they deserve whether by Union contract or just by virtue of um our non-union professional employees see whether it be a step increase or at a minimum a cost of living things like that so that's just something to bear in mind too that should it should we um choose to change
it history tells us it would stay the same for some amount of time obviously future councils it's the will of council what to do and should um we decide to change it then it or excuse me should Council the will of council be leave it as is be looking at another four years
before the clerk and whoever's president Council then would circulate another memo advising to to revisit visit this and um you know that's just kind of some of the Practical working operations around it any other and then another
thing I I'll just point out too motivations are comprehensive it's hard to say and I listen to the comments that everyone's made tonight and previous meetings and things like that and and I never like painting with a broad brush because you don't know some people may run for counil I mean I I would say with
confidence everyone runs out of motivation for service but those are the people who run there might be people who are motivated by service who then look at it and go ah you know what they went till past 10 again that night they went to 11 that night uh so and so told me he
get so many emails so and so told me she gets you know so much um feedback online whatever it would be so we only know the people who end up running we'll never know the people who don't run and we'll never know why those people don't run so
uh a modest slight increase is I would say G to encourage more people to run rather than PE you're not going to see fewer people run because you pay a little bit more relative to you know what it is and and that's my honest opinion on that but again those motivations to say uh people are
motivated by Ser I'd say everyone's motivated by service but people have to make real decisions about how they want to dedicate their time and and value their time and the trade-off between their time and something that helps them cover their bills at home and things
like that so yeah I think this is a a modest proposal after 16 years any other discussion for members of council I do have one last question yes okay so um obviously any year there's uncertainty obviously we have a lot of uncertainty
um there are legal mechanisms for us to change our to change this if we to to not fund it in the budget or to you know if things are in a state where
we're literally thinking about needing to slash things from our budget um in the fall you know I know that the statute says that we can't change it once they've taken office right but if but say something
the most extreme thing happens and we're like we're really in bad shape and we're like you know what we're not going to take these raises can we do that uh again the timing requirements of the statutes dictate that any
change has to be effective by that second you know two days before the last day for the withdrawal of nomination petitions so um it's not that
you can just undo it okay at any time okay all right good to know any other discussion for members of council all right Mr Miller we're going to call the rooll on 9A Mr Callahan nay
Miss gmy Smith nay miss quch I miss lard hi Miss Leon N Miss wilham I and Mr colum I passes 43 we'll read 9B ordinance of the city of Bethlehem
counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending ordinance 201703 establishing salary of the controller bill number 17 2025 is sponsored by Miss L and Miss KY Smith again I'll open with councilman wiel if
there was anything additional you wanted to add uh I don't necessarily have anything additional like as I said I sort of commented broadly on a through C and my initial comments and I appreciate the thoughtful comments of my colleagues um I I feel what I proposed for the controller is uh
reasonable thank you any other discussion from members of council I will note our our current controller uh Mr yaso cannot be here tonight as he and his wife welcomed their new baby but he and I did have an
opportunity to speak and um he is not ADV he is not advocating for this potential raise now the controller's position like like like the members of council like the mayor is up if someone could please silence whatever is ringing
thank you the uh the Controllers Office is up for election this year so again whatever the petitions aren't submitted yet the ballot will look like whatever it's going to depending on who submits petitions but our current controller Myster also um one it made it clear to
me and and I said I would gladly share it tonight that he is not advocating for the the uh increase to the controller salary any other discussion we'll call the rooll up sorry Mr Miller councilwoman
L question uh just to confirm this is a first reading correct correct this is a we will be voting again for final passage of these increases correct so the so just something to make clear also and it's been alluded to but just to in
plain English we are up against certain deadlines as it relates to to um when people can withdraw their names from the ballot and as Attorney Stuart said the any ordinances have to be passed with at least two days for people to decide to
withdraw their names from any ballot that they would um do so after tonight Mr Miller will advertise the ordinances to meet our advertising requirement then the second reading would be at the next uh city council meeting which which is
right up against that time timeline to have the second reading yep just want to make sure that was understood by everyone any other discussion all right M Miller call the rooll Mr Callahan hi Miss grmy Smith nay
miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr col I passes 61 correct correct thank you and then Mr
Miller please read n9c ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of leh high Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending ordinance 2017-02 establishing salary of the Mayor Bill number 18 2025 is sponsored by Miss L and Miss grmy Smith again I'll turn to
councilwoman Wilhelm for anything she wanted to add um no additional comments I mean I guess I'll restate that the salary has not been um reviewed in 12 years um after several years of incremental raises um we all know the
incredible responsibility that that role bears and again we're not voting on a salary for an individual but for a position um given its position amongst other city employees I I again feel that what I'm proposing is reasonable and
warranted and then we we do have a potential amendment in front of us that I'll return back to you after we have comment from everybody that sound fair coun any discussion from members of council as it relates to the mayor salary Mr Mayor given that this
is the salary for your position any comments You' like to share um just as I've stated multiple times now I'm not in favor of a salary increase um I think that the mayor uh salary is a different situation than the council
conversation um I believe that the mayor's salary at 990,000 uh is I believe the median income in the city of Bethlehem for household is around 62,000 um so it is substantially above that um it is not something that I am in
favor of um and I've been pretty clear about about that from from the beginning so if this is passed if this passes it is something that as far as the mayor's salary is concerned I I will
I will veto it understood and then I'll turn to our solicitor so in my time on Council and anyone that wants to weigh in we've never had as is a right of the mayor for any thing that Council votes on attorney Stewart can you share with
us kind of what that procedurally is does it depend on how many votes something passes by or is just the mayor's um authority to veto any action of council it's mayoral authority to veto any the action of council understood so that being said I'll turn
to open back up to discussion councilwoman Leo I I do have some some questions um so attorney Stewart I've seen other maybe it's more state level stuff where you make the top
dude whatever the highest salary is plus like a dollar are we within our right to do something like that where we are not again opening this up for discussion all the time but we just make the mayor salary whatever his top paid employee is plus like a
dollar you can set it at your discre okay does that answer you mean what can the salary be no I mean like if if whatever the highest salary is yeah like yeah I guess that does answer my question um all right cool can I just
clarify so I think what council Leon saying can we set the mayor's salary based on a you know contingent of a future number that would be unknown at present so if if this position salary is X the mayor's salary would be X
plus a penny or sorry yeah no thanks president come you're welcome thank you for the clarification I wasn't processing it the same way not a problem just want to make sure we're on the same page I mean I guess the the only other statements that I kind of have are you
know as you're on this side of the aisle disabled veteran um I I will say that uh I'm never a fan of when people use service or disability as a political talking point I will say the equivalent
of what a mayor would be would be an 04 roughly which would make like $180,000 enlisted would be a command master chief which is base pay about $95,000 so even if we were using that
the mayor is still underpay by those metrics thank you councilwoman any other discussion from members of council I'll just say a couple things and and we've heard again over the years now just as it relates to the mayor
salary and I completely hear and respect what mayor Reynolds is saying as it relates to the mayor's compensation I also recognize that the mayor as the chief executive of of City Hall and our city government and and he or she who is
elected to to lead and drive policy at City Hall and 12 years is a a relatively long time now also say no one runs for mayor um while it's a full-time job no one runs to do it as a career and that's just based on term limits here in
Bethlehem you you're whether someone wants you or not you can't do it Beyond eight years so it's not necessarily a career position where in most careers you see those whether it's step increases cost of living whatever it would be you typically leave a job eight
years later making more than you did when you got there and and 9,500 is by no measure a small amount so I wouldn't want to classify it as that other than given the the you know position itself and what it means to be
mayor I think that the compensation would be fair to visit raising you after over a decade later and as attorney Stewart said that is one where Council has the right to do an incremental
increase um of breaking it up to an increments of I believe it's $875 every year Over a four-year term also that being said I respect the uh
legislative process the administrative process that a mayor has veto Authority and if uh if it's as is stated and the mayor's made it clear on multiple occasions not just tonight this something we heard before that if the mayor's intend is to use that veto Authority for something
that you know is is very uh obviously legitimate that's uh regardless of my aining of legitimacy or not it's the mayor's Authority then I just don't feel it it's I don't know if it's worth going down that road to hear that we would
just be passing something that would potentially be um just vetoed anyway but attorney Stewart do you look like you want to say something yes if I may I I would just add um that a veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote of
council so just from a procedural standpoint since we were on that issue so that okay so let's just play this out because again this is something that I've never sat through before so if Council votes on it and the mayor uses
his right of veto does it go back to council then so it would be at the next council meeting yes but then so that would be would that be considered second reading at the next council meeting and I asked these tough questions because again we're up against certain timelines
right so there it's just important to know and understand what those timelines would be right I I think in this case um I'm I'm not certain that we would be able I I without researching it I'm not certain we' be able to meet that meet that timeline um but just as a general
matter if a veto is issued it can be overridden by two-thirds vote which would be five members of council okay just but I'll just go back to again do you have an opinion and if not it's fair
that it would still satisfy the timeline we have so the mayor would have 10 days after receiving an ordinance either to approve it or return it to council now in this case this is first reading so it's not yet been
passed by Council um so okay president clone just can I add something here go ahead so even if you pass it today and you pass it on March 18th and I take the full 10 days to be able to veto it which would be an option so I don't even have to take the veto I just let it die um by the time
that passes the deadline it no longer would be an effect so like even if you wouldn't be able to override a veto right because you would need to do it at the next meeting in April which would be beyond the timeline which would beyond the timeline
yeah understood yeah I I just mentioned the over the overriding as a general concept but yes in this case it wouldn't be effective thank you attorney Stewart thank you mayor Reynolds and I'll conclude my comments with this if there was ever a time that I was willing to
accept a mayor vetoing an action of council I think it's very fair to say it would be a situation like this where a mayor would be effectively vetoing a salary increase for a position they currently occupy so uh you know I'll take that add to consideration with
my vote which makes me hesitant to even support it and go through that whole process that I guess it is what it is at the end of the day but I would still say I I am a believer that as the chief executive the mayor this mayor the next
mayor any mayor is compensation it would be fair to look at raising it after the you know decade plus that has remain stagnant and that's the end of my comments any other questions for members of
council I hope I didn't confuse anybody just just to confirm yeah regardless of how Council votes 70 52 it is veto okay it's a timeline issue I I just
was unclear as to whether there was a veto proof majority option here and I just I was under the impression that there was and now I understand that there's not which is helpful to know and I'd also like to go on record as saying I completely respect the mayor's perspective on this and his um
prerogative to to veto this decision of course I do um but thank you for clarifying that for all of us sure any other comments from members of council we'll call the role Mr Miller Mr
Callahan all M gmy Smith nay miss quch I miss lard I Miss Leon i m wilh i Mr cologne nay so it passes 52 moving on 9d ordinance amending part
13 of the codified ordinances of the city of Bethlehem Pennsylvania as amended known as the zoning ordinance of the city of Bethlehem Pennsylvania by amending the city zoning map bill number 19 2025 is sponsored by Miss leair and Miss kmsy Smith
discussion councilwoman L yes so um since this request came before us I've spent uh a lot of time uh on this topic um resoning I think is a really significant decision that impacts
both our community and our trust in the development process um so the applicant in this case stated in in various meetings and in public hearing that um a lot of relationships have been built conversations took place with affected
residents to the point that they believe uh that that's why residents did not come speak out against the proposal at public hearing um on the flip side we've heard some tenants and neighbors share concerns that they didn't feel consulted or engaged in a transparent process so
far so I don't see my job as to take aide in that regard um but I think it is part of my role on Council uh to help ensure that all parties have a clear opportunity to be heard on both sides and understood in the decision
process um in the Planning Commission meeting the applicants attorney stated that he believed the previous resoning attempt didn't pass I believe it was a 4-3 vote um because a previous tenant of the previous owner uh got neighbors
organized and they came out and spoke at public meeting and quote some times like public bodies do they are swayed by public comment at the time so yes uh you know public bodies are indeed influenced as they should be by authentic
viewpoints from constituents but also by a whole lot of other factors there's data there's nuanced legislation to look at there's nuanced development throughout um our communities that we need to consider
um I think that Community engagement transparency and Trust are really critical in a project like this um especially when we're asked uh to consider a conceptual plan that hinges on the decision that we're looking at in terms of this zoning but there's no
guarantee because they are conceptual plans that that's going to be the end result so there's a lot of trust involved in this process um so I think that we need to take the time to ensure that the communication is not only clear and open but also verified and make it before
making a decision I think it's reasonable for us to allow some more time for some sort of facilitated conversations between the developer and the residents in the area the neighborhood um so that everyone has a chance to be heard and we can move
forward with confidence um I've already reached out to North Side alive which is a initiative in the city that I'm involved with to confirm their willingness to help organize such a conversation if the parties would like to um and given that
the applicants have firmly expressed the importance of uh you know even tonight being a positive part of the community and um growing your projects and bu business in the the city um I I really
hope that that could be productive conversation so I would hold any official motion until all Council council members weigh in um but my intent would be to suggest that we postpone the first vote on this matter until we're able to ensure that there's
been uh engagement for everybody to feel hurt thank you any other discussion from members of council Mr Callan yeah so you know I think the number one issue I think that that I hear uh I hear the mayor talk about it
and a lot of other people on Council talk about it is uh is housing affordability and not only uh the affordability of to buy a home but also uh to rent a apartment or home um it's the I this is my opinion um I think the
crisis was born out of um the covid crisis for two three years um every Factory um was basically um slowed down many shut down for a period of time uh other than food food sources um we saw
the the issue with parts and uh on every assembly line on new cars um less cars coming off the assembly line because there was a lot of workers that were quarantined for 10 days at a time and because of this over a period of of two years of covid
um the production of of cars drastically uh slowed down and what happened Ed cars were were astronomically uh out of range I I had a son he had a A threey or four-year-old Jeep he ended up making
more money on it than uh and sold it for more than what he bought it and he had 40,000 miles on it it's unheard of and the same exact thing happened with housing housing starts were down uh every building material that you could imagine uh is supplying Dem man if
there's less wood being uh produced in the factories uh less vinyl uh siding uh insulation uh tubing Electrical uh Works everything was slowed down and there was less of everything on the market supply
and demand prices went up for housing and including rentals astronomically we're not going to see uh the end of this or or or the housing market come down and Rental uh prices decrease until we get more homes on the
market I the number that stuck in my head that Becky Bradley and the Lehigh Valley uh Planning Commission said I think it was like 6,000 6 or 7,000 is that right about Ry missc 7,000 7,000 just for the
valley so one of our one of our major jobs is to help the affordability uh issue we're not going to change that unless we put more units on the market that's the bottom line is supply and demand and I know the argument well well
they're all high-end condos or their high-end rent rental units that's true but there's also uh what I call the elevator effect when people when kids come out of college every year for three years of Co kids are coming out of college they a lot of them don't want to move back with their parents they want
their own independence they move they're not moving into a high-end condo or a high-end rental property they're moving into like I did probably everybody else did you move into something that's you know basically like a frat house uh with you and a few friends and you're sharing
rent is it the nicest place no does it you know some of them don't have air conditions you know but um they're not the nice place but it's a roof over your head and you have and you're an independent individual and after four or five years you you move up you know to a
nicer rental maybe a midlevel uh rental a little bit nicer you know after three four years you're make a little bit more money you either go and you purchase your first home or you move up into something like 510 610 Flats the people that are moving in 510 Flats uh 610
Flats they're not college kids coming out of you know college there $2,000 a unit for rentals they're usually hiring people who have disposable income who want to live and play in thankfully our beautiful city
so my to my end is is to get more rental units out on the market now what's the benefits of of this project the I talked to uh I had a a few residents that they emailed me some called me and I try to explain to them
listen the people who who purchase these Lots I think there's 15 in total um spent a lot of money purchasing these individual properties over a long period of time they want to recoup their costs and make a little bit of profit on it
that's the American way so the bottom line is this with or without us approving uh lot 11 and 15 they're building seven they need 70 units that's the number that they came up with that they need to to build in order to recoup
their cost and and make it profitable 70 units they don't need without us changing the zoning and lot 11 and 15 they're building 70 units so if they don't get the zoning change they have to
go to Six floors versus five floors if we give them the zoning change they can do it with five floors but if they go if if they don't get the zoning change uh Amendment they then now have to go to a sixth floor because they have less space on the ground everybody with
me if they go to a six story that's exactly what we everybody that I spoke to they don't want they want the smallest building possible so if we vote for it it's a fivestory building if we don't vote for it it's a six-story
building if we vote if we if we vote for it there's more parking space for that five-story building if we don't vote for it there's less parking space they have less space on the ground so if we don't vote for it higher building less parking
spots and because they have to go to a six floor a six-story building to get their 70 units that's the number they need and it's getting built 70 units is getting built with or without us we we have no right at this point they by right have the the right to build 70
units or or more they can go up to I think it's 150 fet by law they're zoning right now can they could go to 150 ft that's like 13 stories they're asking to go five if they don't get this they're going to six but if they go to six less
parking if they go to six higher building if they go to six um then they have to go to What's called uh steel and stick you can go five stories with just wood you go over five stories you have to have steel I don't know if any of you
saw the um the co-op on on on Broad Street uh they went steal the first floor and then there was stick above it because they have to go if they go to six stories if we don't provide his variance they have to go to six stories which means they have to spend more money on the steel on the construction
of the six-story building versus a fivestory by going by using that extra money or having to spend that extra money they have less money for the balconies and for the fa outside facade so we get by not voting for it we
get a taller building less parking on their on their site which means more parking out on the street and we get as not a nice of a building because they don't have the extra uh um money to spend on the facade
for the balconies if you looked at the two pictures there there's regardless of the height of the building there's no question you you would go with option A which I call the the five story giving them the variance
so my my whole thought process on this is and everybody that I talk to they want the shortest building possible we have to vote for it if you want that did you know that no I didn't thank you there's less parking was the
number two issue well we have to vote for it in order for them to get more parking space if we don't vote for it there's less parking space underneath which means there's more people parking out on the street you don't want that
right no so when I walk through it with everybody everybody I talked to said I get it and it puts us in a very difficult position to be honest with you because it makes it look like we're going against the will of the People by
uh by building this building when by right the owner can go to 13 stories 150 fet so I I believe them when they went and they talk to uh a lot of the residents did they talk to everybody I I I I don't know I don't think so but from what I am told a few people that I did
talk to they did have discussions with them and they understood why they were going to f why they want to go to five stories versus six so based on that um what are the other positives of it the the the construction of the building alone is going to they're going to pay hundreds
of thousands of dollars more than the current properties are right there now to the city in taxes hundreds of thousands of dollarss more to the scooter in taxes and hundreds of thousand dollars more to the county in taxes what else is the benefit of it
well you're getting a lot of people 70 people um and I'm going to presume these units are not going to be cheap to rent you're getting people downtown walking the streets of Bethlehem with disposable income because anybody can afford $1,800
or $1,600 I I don't want the I don't want the price ranges but I'm going to assume for two-bedroom it's going to be over $2,000 a month people that are moving in those places like 510 Flats 610 flats and all these other places downtown there a a lot of them are doctors that are here on their uh
residency uh they're they're Engineers my son just moved them want them he moved out of my house why I have no idea was living there for free but uh you that's what they want they want to live in nice housing that's their choice that's am it's American thing you know that's their choice to live where they
want to live but everything that I see by granting this is a positive everything that I see by not granting it is more of a negative a higher building more people parking out in the street so I'm going to be
supporting this um because I and the people that I spoke to and I explained to them they understood it so um the the other thing I wanted to say too is that uh with with the increas
increased foot traffic that that gets people uh hustling and bustling living and playing and working in our downtown um historic area that's going to help all those businesses down there let's say you have two people per unit that's
140 people more people down going to Edge going to Apollo going to Brew Works going to you all the um different restaurants and and and knobs and knockers and all these other stores down there it I mean it's a win-win but it's a better win for all of
us I think if we vote for it because we get a one story less building a better looking building and um and more parking on site versus offsite on the streets so um because of that I I will be uh
supporting um the vote for the resoning of it um and the other thing too is if we don't vote for it those two uh houses they're coming down regardless because they they can't leave them there they need they're going to need additional space uh for whatever they're doing like
a little little Recreation Area I don't know I don't know what they're doing with that area but if they get the variant with or without the variance those two properties or buildings on that on on those lots they're coming down so if you look at the whole plan uh
and all the pros and cons it to me it's it it it's not even a choice so I I don't know if that's what everybody in that neighborhood wants to hear but the people that I did speak to they understood it and I'd be willing to listen to anybody uh you know that showed up tonight you know if you like
to talk about it I have all the time in the world I I had three people that called my personal number I'll give you my personal number you can call me anytime you want so thank you for your time and I appreciate everybody coming out tonight thank you thank you Mr Callan councilwoman quch thank you first just for
clarification um we're not the zoning hearing board this is not a variance we will be voting to actually change the zoning map in the city uh that's why we have to do it because it's part of the zoning ordinance uh so what is the
zoning map well it's a series of boundaries um and these two uh spaces 11 and 15 West Garrison happen to be at the very edge of the zoning uh District the RT zoning District there's been some
conversation about over history it was one it was uh Central Business and then it was changed to RT and I I my reading of it is that uh the change to RT was done uh during a more intentional and
focused time in our zoning history um so I actually uh kind of honor and respect that decision which wasn't made all that long ago um to tie those two properties to the RT District that the whole rest of that part of West Garrison Street um
is tied to um so with respect to what's on those uh those two properties right now there are uh Again Naturally more affordable more moderately priced rental units that the um the developers the the
owners they own them um and uh had admitted that they had made improvements to both of them um from the inside and they are quite nice outside also structurally um you know uh one of them the the one at 15 in particular I think
is or I guess it's 11 15 get turned around um but one of them is is is uh particularly uh nice and and whole and complete and it looks pretty sturdy and and as I said they made improvements to the insides of them so
they are certainly rentable in their condition um and so if we don't vote to uh change our zoning map um and take those two properties and and convert them to Central business district uh
there will still be 70 Apartments um and uh that's you know again by right or it could be that they do build 13 stories and 150 because the truth of the matter is we don't know because we were presented with two concepts they both included 70
Apartments uh we weren't you know shown figures that showed us that there would be an economic hardship if they had to build six stories so we don't really know what the exterior is going to look like we were looking at concept drawings um and in you know we we took them in in
good faith at that last meeting um and but the truth of the matter is there's a lot more steps to go through before uh we actually know what's going to get built but by right they could build they could build taller right now on those uh on that those properties so um all of
that is to say that the decision that's really before us is changing the boundary of this particular Zone um and you know if you have been on the ground on West Garrison Street you do know that it is a fairly narrow one uh way street
uh with parking on both sides and uh that it is uh you know you're it's like a lot like the block that I live on Modest homes and town homes a combination of row side by side you know
single homes um combination of rental owner occupied um it is a quintessential RT block so that's where I stand on it I'm I'm open to um M L's uh concept of
of um taking some time to further investigate but um that's where I'm at thank you councilwoman any other discussion for members of council councilwoman Leo um I also agree with a lot of the discussion that's already been had um I like the idea of
of more dial uh to councilman Callahan's point every person that he has discussed this with has understood once it was thoroughly explained to them the difference between um the zoning map versus what we can and cannot do and we cannot decide whether apartments are going there or not that
is not within council's perview um that is if if there is concern about that project that's advocacy during the the Planning Commission process and all that stuff that is not a council thing um but to that point if if he's able to sway people with his conversation then there
are still people in that community that need to be swayed so I am I'm very agreeable to having more conversation um there was a discussion about trust um and whether intentionally or unintentionally there was a bit of
broken trust here regarding whether or not we felt everybody in that Community was reached out to and in an attempt to repair trust let's let's make sure that we're dotting our eyes crossing our teas and do it right Wilhelm just quickly I I also don't want
to repeat what's been said but I I will repeat that I also have had to explain to a number of folks that that we are not voting on apartments or no apartments and and I think um the nuanced conversation around this uh topic um is crucial and I feel I also
support councilwoman L's suggestion that we delay I feel like what we do by delaying is giving the developer an opportunity to set a better example and and do what I I certainly like left last meeting feeling had been done um and so
I would support uh a delay as well any other discussion councilwoman ksey Smith okay thank you um well this is um a really difficult decision and I I met with the landowners and I um it's difficult because as everyone said no
matter how we vote they're able to build the apartments it's just a matter of you know if they if we rezone the two on Garrison or not and I appreciate um the property owners you know their um consideration and and time and discussion but um I I have serious
concerns and I'm certainly open to um delaying for discussion reasons with the community I'm just not sure that I guess is a community and the property owner is willing to you know do that um and I'm I'm just going to be honest as I said before I think I've said this six years
ago when this was up for discussion um even though we don't have much control over the whole development I just real serious concerns about us tearing down unique aesthetically appealing sound buildings and homes in our city and it just seems like it's happening more and
more and it's just not me having the concern because sometimes I'm like is it me and I be am I being paana but I have so many constituents coming up to me and expressing their concern that we're losing that which makes our place special and if we lose that which makes
it special we're going to lose a lot especially economically because I already I know people from out of already seeing the difference and we're going to lose that that level of Tourism that we want to have and increase we're not going to have that special unique character in the city um talking to some
people in the neighborhood and and it's this is a problem everywhere but it's I think it's really a problem going to be a problem here because Garrison is such a narrow Street and I worry about the traffic because the entrance to the garage will be on North and Garrison and it'll be an issue for both North and
Garrison but I think really we can look at real safety issues on Garrison especially because of how narrow it is parking is always an issue it's it's an issue now um I live in a pretty dense area and I know what parking is like for me and many others and um even if there
is one parking spot for every unit um there still not going to be enough parking and that's going to be an issue the other thing I think about is you know we talk about we need more um apartments homes whatever but we have two blocks away the boid and they're not
a Capac I think they're at like 22% occupancy and hopefully that will grow but still there's o there's um there's vacancies there we have the wallness Street Garage that's going to be like two you know three blocks away we have Martin tower that can have up to a
thousand units at this point in time right now the homes are rentals and I would assume that the rentals are a lot more affordable than they will be um once they're demolished and it's new apartments and that makes me think again
how are we addressing the affordable housing issue and crisis if we're going to tear down homes that are rentals owner occupied whatever and it's more affordable for new apartments or whatever that is going to be unaffordable I feel like it's just all
backwards I I know I don't have control but I feel strongly for the community and our city it would be much better idea to take the land that is available in that area and develop that land and not tear down the buildings that exist
now Bethlehem has always felt like to me and many others a city with a small town feel we have unique buildings unique neighborhoods we have you know historic character that is a draw for so many people and again I feel like we're going to lose it if we keep doing these kind
of things and tearing down buildings and putting up highend luxury apartments that just aren't affordable so that's my my thoughts for tonight thank you councilwoman uh I'll just note um and I'll turn it back over everybody for discussion that as it relates to 11 and 15 West Garrison just
like any other individual properties regardless of any vote tonight or how the votes shake out the owner of those properties have certain property rights which would include tearing down those buildings should they wish to I mean we you know there there are we have certain controls over with how we vote but at
the end of the day Property Owners just have certain rights as it relates to um raising buildings and and such I'll turn it back over everybody Mr Callan did you want to add something else I don't have the um the paperwork with me but I don't remember what was in the um what was
going to go on those sites if they had to go to a sixth floor if we didn't if we didn't change the zoning what was going there I I know there was is it your property what was what was going there so I I would say I don't
know if I want to break order here anybody remember what what was going there I don't I know I know that the buildings came down but they had something there what was there I think it did not have something sorry yeah go ahead Council M it was those buildings that this building went around in the
idea and it was conceptual of course that it was built around there was some discussion about that they could come down but in the plan that did not include rezoning which should be in everybody's email I believe um there was the building was
L-shaped around those two buildings and it was drawn in no I know I know that but on the one plan where it was L-shaped there was nothing they had something else designed there I don't know if it was like a garden area or or
what but there was something I think it just showed those homes drawn in there and it's all conceptual right are are you done Mr C I just want to so I'll go councilwoman quch again and then work my way to the right uh I
just wanted to say that um they may have the right to demolish but if the land be continues to be in the RT there will be uh you know there would be if they wanted to build something there they would have to conform to the to the uh
to the zon's um restrictions did that make any sense made perfect sense you know what I'm saying sure councilwoman lard yes so um I don't think I said this when I was initially talking I'm perfectly aware
that um we are not going to stop apartments from happening in some way shape or form on this property that's not what this decision is about the decision is not even about whether we like the idea of having high-end apartments in walking distance of M
Street that's not what this is about at all um it's it the decision is very specific but also asks us and in in my opinion this is really about uh trusting somebody a developer that is
new and that we're anticipating in the conversations I've had uh with the applicant um we're anticipating seeing come before Council or various boards in the future as they look to do further projects um
and yes we saw two concepts and in those two concepts neither of which reflected the full extent of what could be done on that land the proposed concept including the rezoning would be more palatable to
almost anybody who looked at but their Concepts and we're I don't think based on my conver ation with anybody that the applicant would be going for the full what could be done
150 ft or whatever on the full and it's nine Lots not 15 there's 15 units nine Lots seven of the lots are Central Business two are RT right so but if we rezone those
two they could right nine Lots could go 150 ft or seven lots already by right can go 150 ft or whatever the the specific number is I agree at this moment that the proposal
that includes the the shifting of boundary is more palatable to anybody who actually looks at that and is given the choice of you're going to have this on seven Lots or this on nine Lots but we need to be able
to one make sure that every everybody has seen that idea and one of the challenging factors I think that was faced in communicating with the neighborhood here is that um when our zoning hearing letters go
out they do not go to Every residential address in the area they go to Property Owners right so Property Owners some of them showed up but a lot of the properties in that area are rentals and a lot of the people that I spoke to are
renters not necessarily from the applicants properties but like in the radius that gets mailed to um they don't they're not the recipients the people at those addresses are not necessarily the recipient of the notice of a hearing which is a systemic issue I think right
so it's you know does a landlord pass on their the mail that they received about a certain property to the person who lives at that address the landlord certainly has the right to know what's happening but I believe that so do the tenants because we do have a lot of
tenants who live in that area who have been longtime residents of the neighborhood and have a vested interest in what happens next door so I think that like you Mr Callahan the the people
I spoke to right we we're we're dealing with people who are vested in their community and they do understand okay this is what's going to happen on plan a this is what's going to happen on Plan B my purpose in proposing that we shift
this vote would be to give not only the neighborhood residents the chance to be heard but also the applicants a better chance to be heard to talk through the realities on both sides of what this looks like for the neighborhood and in
my perspective I don't think that when we're looking at the potential of making a change that I really don't think especially if it's built on is going to be flipped back again while it's already happened back and forth I think it's fair to say let's take some more time to
hear people out on all sides of this issue I'm one last thought sorry I am not suggesting that we kick this can months and months down the road I'm talking a one or two meeting postponement so that there can still be Action Moving Forward nobody's waiting
you know some undo amount of time um but so that we could hopefully have some some more meaningful conversations so are you making a motion councilwoman everyone has you haven't had the chance to speak I think I've said what I needed
to okay then yes I would move that we postpone this vote for I'm gonna say two Council meetings so so that we have the chance to so that would be the first meeting in April so that
would be April the 8th so the motion is to postpone 9d to the April 7th council meeting for first reading second by councilman Callahan discussion on the motion to
postpone actually I think I have the date wrong April 1 yeah thank you it helps to be able to read a calendar at 10:47 at night the uh so April 1st would be the correct date thank you for the correction so but
discussion counc okay I just wanted to um clarify so do we have like a plan though like is some are there members of North Side alive that are going to coordinate and organize with you know the land the owners and the I just plan uh confirmed with the neighborhood
coordinator today that she would be willing to help I have not gotten to relay that to the applic um so but um you know that would be and I am willing to help um as somebody who do so as a volunteer role I'm the uh
economic Vitality uh committee chair for North Side alive certainly would involve economic Vitality um so I I would be willing to assist in facilitating any conversations whether they're formal or informal
great any other discussion on the motion councilwoman Leo I was I could have said this to council when lay it after but I would just ask that Council be made aware so that if there are Community meetings we could be um at least present for some of them not no sunshine violations here um
so maybe we communicate a little bit but just so that if there are meetings that Council can some council members can be there and hear what they're saying yes if if the the intent of this postponement is to make sure that everybody can say that they've had their
peace and been heard and and communicated with and certainly the meetings are going to be uh communicated communicated communicated so the motion that we're about to vote on is to postpone first reading of 9d to the April 1 city council meeting Mr Miller call the rooll
Callahan hiy Smith hi Miss quch hi Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr colom I motion passes 70 so the zoning map Amendment for 11 and 15 West garison Street will be postponed till the April
1st city council meeting moving on to resolutions resolution 10A be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem in accordance with the municipal records manual at the disposal of public records in the health Bureau has set forth an exhibit a is hereby authorized
resolution is sponsored by Miss leair and Miss gson Smith discussion we'll call the rooll Mr Callahan I miss KY Smith I miss quch I miss l i m Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colum I resolution
10B be it 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 an agreement with lb construction Enterprises Incorporated to provide Ada CER Rams resolution is
sponsored by Miss L and Miss kmy Smith discussion call the RO Mr Callahan I miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colum I pass 70 10 C be it 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 an agreement with ch Consulting Incorporated to provide design bidding and construction administrative services
for placement of the roof at the Water Filtration plant resolution is sponsored by Miss Lar Miss kmy Smith discussion call the rooll Mr Callahan I miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr
colum I pass 70 10 D be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with gmbb Construction Group to provide Ada curb ramps and Mill and
overlay portions of Penbrook Road and Elizabeth Avenue resolution is sponsored by Miss L and Miss grmy Smith discussion call the rooll Mr Callahan hi Miss grmy Smith hi miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr
colog I pass 70 10e be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and the controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement to effectuate the transfer of the city issued handgun assigned to
Lieutenant Eric waldeck a retired City police officer resolution is sponsored by Miss lar and Miss cron Smith discussion Mr call Chief cot um what is a hand a brand new one of those handguns
brand new cost I don't need an exact number I'm just off the top of your head you're looking at about $650 all right and so if we vote for this it goes It goes with the retiree uh who's been using this for his
whole career yes sir and if we don't vote for it it goes out onto the free market and could be on the street so that is one option uh the other option is that we hold on to it uh in case you know God forbid there's a malfunction with another officer's
weapon and it needs to be swapped out we don't do that that is a poal though right I mean if it if it if it doesn't get sold it goes It goes out to like an arms dealer yes yeah okay thank you we have we haven't done that in the last because every single one of these has
been sold to the potential office so so like your question is a legitimate one but that's not the only option right like if this didn't go through it's not a GU it's that's not there's other options that we would follow rather than one potential legal option which would
be to go there but during our Administration in the last three plus years like nobody has not taken this but if that was the option it's not an A or B type situation but if if if we if every handgun got voted no to sell it to
the officer we wouldn't keep stockpiling handguns we we might take a look at how much it cost to destroy them right we we would do everything that we possibly could to avoid the option of letting this gun get to a place place where we would look back and be like we
didn't want this gun to get there so so we would look at exhaust every single possible option that other cities have used on how to get rid of these guns but like we're not dealing with like 20,000 officers right we're dealing with like a few retirees every year so it would not
be a situation where we're like oh we got too many guns in this room we gotta get rid of some of them yeah I I just don't want to have I don't want to vote against it because I don't want the potential of it going out on the market as a cheap hand gun that's and that's why interrupted Chief cot because I wanted to make sure like that's not
that's not going to happen and that would not happen as long as we're here any other discussion from members of council thank you Chief cot and again I'll just remind everybody who was mentioned that these resolutions in the years because this it wasn't always
custom for Council vote on this it it came up with a uh finding that we should be voting on them and Council in the years that we've been doing it has never voted against a retiree purchasing their Duty weapon and I wish Lieutenant
waldeck uh also a safe and joyful retirement we'll call the role Mr Callahan i m KY Smith hi Miss quac nay Miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colum I passes 61 tenf be it
resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with lb construction Enterprises Incorporated to provide Ada curb ramps resolution is sponsored by
Miss lar and Miss cmy Smith discussion call the rooll Mr Callahan I miss cmy Smith I miss quac I miss lard I miss Leon I miss wihelm I and Mr colum I pass 70 ten G be resolved by the Council
of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with j and Bradley Construction Company Incorporated to provide materials and labor to repair broken water mains at two locations
resolution is sponsored by Miss lard and Miss grmy Smith discussion call the rooll Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss willhelm I and Mr colog I pass 70 10 H be resolved by the
Council of the city of Beth mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with the American Association of University women Bethlehem Branch for the 2025 aw book
fair resolution is sponsored by Miss L and Miss KY Smith discussion we'll call the rooll Mr Callahan hi Miss cramy Smith I miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss willhelm I and miss Mr colog I pass 70 and final
resolution 10 I be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with work to live LLC doing business as run Le High Valley for the
2025 Brew to brew run event resolution is sponsored by Miss leair and Miss cramy Smith discussion call roll Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I and Mr colum I
pass 70 that concludes tonight's agenda get home safe everyone have a safe St Patrick's Day and we'll hope for nice weather