--------- okay I will call to order this meeting of the betham city council finance committee I am CH crampy Smith chair of the finance committee the other committee members are Hillary quch and Rachel Leon the clerk will please call a row Miss cremy Smith present Miss quch
present and Miss Leon present no other council members are present at this time there are nine agenda items for tonight's meeting the first agenda item is a presentation of the 2023 city audit agenda items to the four are to review proposed budget
transfers agenda items 5 to n or to review proposed budget adjustments YouTube reminder if you are starting streaming this meeting after 6 PM please make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the
meeting I'll now take public comment is there anyone in the room that wants to comment I don't see anyone agenda item one the first agenda item is the 2023 city audit presentation I will call on a representative from the
administration to discuss this request thank you and I'll immediately turn over to our OT who's with us here tonight to make the presentation thank you thank you good evening everyone I'm Jennifer KR Kibby I'm the partner with mardle and the
presentation is very similar to the previous year so the first couple slides are our what we call required Communications these are in a form of a written communication letter and we're required to have these with those charged with governance every year very similar to the communications that were
given as part of the prior year audit and the first thing is our responsibility is to express an opinions on whether the financial statements prepared by management are fairly presented in all material respects in Conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in United States and
the audit of the financial statements themselves do not relieve um management of the responsibilities now similar to previous years because the city expends more than $750,000 of federal expenditures the we under we perform was called a uniform
guidance audit where we determine uh a program to perform additional compliance and control procedures and in addition to that we issue the audit and with the government auditing standards in in planning performing our audit we do consider consider the city's
internal control of our financial reporting in order to determine our audit procedures for the purpose of expressing this an opinion on this report however we do not we do not aine on the effectiveness of the city's internal controls significant accounting policies
there were no new accounting policies that were adopted in 2023 and all the application of exist same policies didn't remained unchanged from the previous year as in accordance with all significant financial statement audits there are accounting estimates
that are included in recording transactions as well as footnote disclosures those are included on the slide and they're the same estimates as the previous year we did not have any issues or performing or procedures over the fair value of Investments the actual assumptions that drive the pension and
other post-employment benefit plan liabilities and the calculations of the Le liabilities and receivables we do not have and we did not identify any sensitive disclosures that we have to bring to your attention we did not have any difficulties in
working with management performing our audit procedures all the requested information that were was received and in accordance with what we needed in a timely fashion we did not have any material journal entries that we had to propose and any uncorrected Mis
misstatements were not aggregate material to the financial statements and also we did not have any disagreements with Management in performing our audit procedures that we have to bring to your attention we did receive a management representation letter in order to issue
the financial statements there was all similar representations that were made in the previous year we're not aware of any consultations with other independent Auditors that would try to arise to a second level of opinion and Al any issues that were discussed prior to
retention as the city's Auditors were in a normal course of a professional relationship now the financial statements themselves include required supplementary information that includes the management discussion analysis which is great document in the beginning of the report that gives you a a high
overview of the financial statements themselves as well as significant changes from prior to current year there's also historical pension and historical other post-employment benefit information that's required that's included in the back page of those report we perform limited procedures
over that information but we do not aine on them there's also supplementary information that includes combining statements as well as the schedule of expenditures of federal Awards and we do H perform procedures over those and we did not have any issues issuing an
opinion in accordance with the financial statements the results of the audit itself the city's financial statement audit received an unmodified opinion and that is the best opinion that the city can receive and in that opinion we stated that the financial statements were materially cracked in accordance
with the accounting standards and I mentioned there's required supplementary information that's included report and the government auditing standards we do issue a report under that there are component units that are included the parking authority Redevelopment
Authority and the library those are those audits are not performed in accordance with the government auditing standards they're not required to because they don't get the grant funding levels at the city does but we just include a sentence talking about that those that information is included in the report but not issued in accordance
with the government auditing standards the next series of slides gives some current year information as well as historical information now the governmental activities this includes the general fund and the special Revenue
funds capital projects all on the full crrel basis so this is included in the first C pages of the financial statements so this includes your long-term assets as well as long-term liabilities so a little different than how the city budgets but the change in
net position that is the net income of all those funds on the full Ural basis the net net income for 20203 was1 million the management discussion analysis is a great document that management included in the report and
provides some significant changes that drove that increase but a couple of them were increase in real estate tax revenue and other taxes more Grant the the amount of grant funding that was received in 2023 as well you see some variability in
the revenues if you compare prior to current year that's that FL majority that's that fluctuation in the grant funding that was spent and on the expenses side there was an increase on the full accural basis I mentioned that Actuarial report for the net pension liability and the other post-employment
benefit um that liability increased to year which was the main reason for that increase in the expenses and all of that information is included the footnotes to the financial statements here is a historical chart still focusing on those governmental
activities on the full accural basis for 2023 and the past two years comparing total revenues to the expenses now the net position of the governmental activities this is broken out into three buckets there's the
unrestricted portion there is restricted and there is net investment in capital assets which takes all the capital assets and offsets of by the the associated liability and those three buckets of your Equity required to be presented in the government
activities and out of the total 23.6 million in net position at the end of the year 20 there was a negative - 24.2 that is unrestricted what's driving that unrestricted is that net pension liability and the other post-employment
benefit plan liabilities we audit several other third class cities and they have a similar situation as well and then 46.7 million is the net investment in capital assets and then 1.1 is restricted that's restricted from third
parties outside sources probably more on the the grant funding side now the focus on the business type activities this includes sewer water Golf and storm water all of those funds
the change in net position so that is the net income in 20123 was 12.8 million and you can see the the variability of the revenues and the expenses as well similar chart but the focus on
business type activities comparing total revenues to expenses and similar breakout the those three buckets of the net position however there is no restricted net position so there's 31% of the total net position that is not investment in
capital assets and the remaining is unrestricted and the total net position of the business type activities at the end of 2023 was 62.7 million now the focus on the general fund so the general fund is the city's
Chief Operating fund and this is included in the governmental fund financial statements on pages five and six of the report so this focus is not on cruel this is more of the the current resources method the change in fund
balance so that net income is 6.6 million in the general fund for 2023 and the revenue and other financing sources there was a decrease from the previous year there was um changes in the intergovernmental R Revenue funds
comparing prior year to current year the drive increase and then the expenses there was an increase in 2023 a lot of that was in the community development um department and some other departments too but once again I always
recommend reviewing that manag discussion analysis that's in the beginning of the financial statements for more analysis on those changes still focus on the general funds so here is the fund balance for 2023 in
the previous two years the three buckets the three categor are unassigned so that is available for use which is about 48.9 million there is assigned so that's internally assigned for future spending of 10.8 million and that's set aside to
for future spending of capital projects and excess medical claims and the remaining is restricted for Community Development similar chart focus on comparing general fund revenues the expenses for 2023 and past two years
and these next two slides are on the total governmental funds so this includes general fund as well as the special Revenue funds Nuki and Debt Service so this shows Revenue mix for 2023 to through
2021 and you can see taxes is the largest source of Revenue and then the second largest is Grants and contributions similar chart for all those same funds general fund and the other government funds on the
expenditure mix and the the public safety is the largest of those categories on the expenditure mix side the other single the other results for the audit I mentioned that separate single audit that's required to be performed so we selected the what we
call arpa program but the Corona virus St and local fiscal recovery funds so that was selected as a major program and the OM federal government puts out a compliance supplement which we use as our audit program every year to develop our compliance and internal control
procedures testing and we did not have any issues over regarding the testing of how those funds were spent so we gave an unmodified opinion under uniform guidance and I mentioned the government auditing standards so the schedule of
expenditures of federal WS the original document that was provided to us there was an error in the calculations of I think was off about 1.2 million just because the dollar value of that we did have to report that as a finding under the government auding standards but once
we we noticed the the the error who brought it to Management's attention they corrected it so we just recommended that that schedule be reviewed before it's provided to us for the audit and lastly the what we call the
management letter so in in addition to our audit procedures we G an understanding of the city's internal controls policies and procedures and if we come across anything that we would consider best practice recommendation we do include that in this management letter so these are not what we they're
not on the level of findings they're more just best practice recommendations they're not deficiencies the the first one talks about enhancing process procedures over the sewer Administration charges we just recommended that the city review the procedures over how the
admin charges are made to the Sewer f to make sure that they're substantiated and form documented we also had best practice recommendations over um developing a formal Disaster Recovery plan we know that is undergoing and and going through
the the informal process and strengthening it controls also recommended that if there's devices that aren't city-owned but city data is included on that developing a formal policy over the use of such
devices and that is all that I had to cover anybody have any questions do any council members have questions or comments thank you very much that was um very helpful I did um have a question about the um the sewer administrative
charges in the management letter the enhancing the procedures what what are the sewer administrative charges is that what the the they're paying back to the city on an annual basis or yes it might be better if yes yes if
you don't mind I'll take that one okay um s m as we're going through our budget you remember there's a a selection of accounts called general fund charges and there's the water fund sewer fund storm water and golf and uh they're all there
they get a question why would they be there and that area is our attempt City's attempt to really match and reimburse the city for its cost associated with those funds for example the water ures an authority but their employees are housed and supported with a a number of city services as well as
space same with same thing with storm and with golf the way we set it up is the Baseline is the maximum study we have a study done each and every year it's a a vendor that comes in and you s you approve that professional contract and the maximum study is a cost study that collects a lot of information from
a lot of employees to understand how much time is spent on each of the funds for example if you use the simplest the smallest one the golf fund it operates independently we talked about how financially it operates and administratively on site it does however it does receive a lot of support from HR
hiring people it from time to time um from our Administration from purchasing so as each of the employees collected information that along with information with regard to equipment other fringe benefits are placed into a Maximus study and that's what comes
across as the general fund charge so each one is calculated differently uh the Water and Sewer is larger that amount is larger there's also a legacy with that that they've been in place for a long time and some of you know what would come through uh with regard to sore is if if
it's out of balance and and that can be argued either way because when you're putting in the the time and the fringe benefits that tie to it we can we can agree to disagree on what some of those items might be but an example be back in the 1980s and I'm sorry late 1990s what we talk about recently is that landfill
sale and if I think we talked about a little B when we worked our way to the budget that land was sold at the time the city took on debt somehow none of us are here for that whole conversation a lot of late night meetings with Council that debt was placed half in the general fund and half in the sore fund and you
can argue why how does the sore fund end up paying for half of a landfill and without my ability to be the that night I cannot fully explain it myself you know 30 years later but that landfill is still with us that debt for another three years so I like that I might be in place uh what we do believe though is
those charges have not changed in years uh our belief is that there is if there is any um not equilibrium involved that's getting closer and closer every year because without going up the natural inflation rate of every cost charge that is coming across is growing
our charge to those funds um Remains the Same therefore that Gap is being reduced if it exists at all so we we continue to look at it we review we share with the Auditors everything we can with regard to those charges and where they come from and that's kind of where the the background is okay thank you very much
thanks so counc Malo can you rephrase what you meant by developing a technology Disaster Recovery plan and strengthen it controls like I heard you but my brain didn't process it so can you explain that in a different way yes so the the developing a technic technology Disaster Recovery plan is
having a formal document that addresses if unfortunate catastrophic something would happen outlining how employees report how is information stored how is everything documented so having a formally documented plan and in our management letter we give a listing of
specific um items that we recommend to be addressed within that plan and I'm assuming that there's probably something that's like not formal but there's some kind of process is happening internally within the city um we just don't have it like official
letterhead and Stu like that this audit is actually as we see say in 2024 we're reviewing what went on in 2023 so a year back so this finding did appear in the 20 22 it okay in
2023 we found and as we even talked about it we built and worked on this plan pretty extensively in 2024 the Year we're in now so we're hoping next year when we're sitting talking that this can be removed so that it is now and writing and it's been shared with the Auditors to satisfy a lot of what's in the
recovery plan it's ongoing disaster recover is exactly that if there's such a disaster that it is cut off that's obviously a nerve center for any City any operations and all the steps that we need to do and steps we need to take to make sure that we get back online as quick as possible I'm assuming something similar applies for strengthening it
controls I know we've talked a lot about it and internal Communications within the city a lot this year so I'm assuming that that's also the same thing for for that like it's something since it is a repeat that's something that is ongoing like working within the administration and hopefully by next year we'll have
there there's a balance with do you want to no no go ahead there's a balance with controls and this has a lot to do with um use of private if we're I'm at home Eric's at home I'm checking my email on my private device and the more controls
you put in May less flexible some of us are able to do some of the things we required or expected to do outside of the confines of City Hall so we Our IT team will put as many controls in place with regard to there's an operating uh
service there there's a patch required there's virus protection involved with anyone that's going that's going to log on to VPN but there's always a the concern of data escaping much less much like uh would be similar you could print out some documents walk out the front door
the same way and have some of that data also Escape so you there there's always as many controls as we can understanding it's never going to be 100% but we do want to make sure we have our eye on it we continue to make the adjustments necessary and communicate with the controller what steps we are taking to
manage that risk thank you is that it okay I just have a couple questions thank you for the presentation um you had mentioned that I believe it was um grants are under the restricted
category when on page um let me look real quick here oh for the categories in the nut position yes you said grants Etc and I just wanted to know what other um what other areas are also in that category
besides grants if there is any unspent bond money that would be included in there um but it would be anything that's either externally restricted from either a trust agreement or or Grant documentation or maybe the the revenue
was generated but it has to be used for specific s um purpose liquid fuels money for instance so your the fund balance would carry over into the restricted n position okay anything that would have restrictions on it then that makes sense thank you and then on page 12 uh under
expenditures and other financing uses you mentioned that um most of the increased expenditures has been through Department of uh Community Economic Development and you're recommending to review it for more analysis of changes can you expand on that oh I'm
sorry I I recommended um going to the management discussion analysis of the report to to gain more of an understanding of all those increases but I do have it written so there's no recommendations that we gave as a a result result of that increase I did copy and paste everything but I didn't
want to okay and where would we find that is that on our website then or can I get that from you within yes within the document itself right after the Auditor's report I believe yes page I
one Roman num one yes yeah because I know there was equipment purchases that were made yeah we we don't have the whole audit are we going to on the website it's on it's on the website yeah or I can send one email you was it snia email it provide I think
you forward it I forward it to you sometime Mr Miller believing that was gonna be forwarded to okay members of council was last week I believe in preparation of the meeting all right and I'm sorry Lenny were you saying what page it was on do you know there's and if you page through the audit um there's
a table of contents and then there's the independent auditor report and right after that is um management discussion and announce management discussion okay sounds good thank you and it does break it out into different sections so the portion you'll want to look at is the one specifically for general fund but my
notes Here on the Community Development increase of 2 million um recycling expenses include included Personnel cost there was equipment purchased of 1 million so that would have drove that that increase in the expenses and there was also an increase in the RP
expenditures during the year so there's M multiple reasons for that increase thank you um okay and on page 15 you had mentioned that um under our Revenue taxes number one
and then grants um would be the second largest and I'm not sure if this should be addressed to you or or Mr Evans but um we've spoken about that through the budget the concern is I mean t grants are our second largest revenue area and
the concern is if something happens next year with the federal budget and grants are cut then um is there any role as far as the Artic goes we're just going to have to do in-house budget adjustments I'll let take that the the grants that are in the
budget that we reviewed during the hearings uh are or have been awarded we receive the documentation so those it's legally finding that yeah that funding has been approved so if it would if the grants would flow wouldn't really impact
the budget at all it could impact operations meaning some things we'd want to do that we're pursuing but everything that we've talked about that's in the budget has we know that funding is secured to take care of the expenses that we have in the budget yes right moving mov forward them we would just have to regroup if there's for it might
be harder to find some of the things or do some things we've been successful doing these past couple of years okay great and then um and I think this might have been um Council Malo might have addressed this but I just wanted to be clear so on page 17 where you had the results I just wanted to get clear on um
where you talk about not having adequate procedures for um schedule of expenditures for the federal money now is that what you were speaking to before okay so that now at this point there are procedures in place is that what you had stated Mr Evans yes yeah there was an
error that was um during the audit that was uncovered back in Spring this might have been March or April others came across something that we took a look at uh they brought to to our attention we reviewed it we agreed with it uh we investigated you know the cause it it
was a a rather complicated formula that was embedded in a spreadsheet and as it moved forward it was carrying some numbers inadvertently so when we came to that conclusion we did meet with the employee that was involved we made the correction so everyone
understood what mistake happened it was isolated how it occurred uh from that point we did put controls into into place we did meet with the employee several times to make sure we're all have a comfort level moving forward on this particular event and also made
training available and recommended some specific training to move towards more successful there's procedures to address that issue in place yes okay because I think with the federal money wasn't there quarterly reports that had to be submitted anyway to the feds that's something SE that's not part of this
yeah that's a separate report that we do withy and procedures okay right and then finally my last um questions are the last page and I know we we touched on this just the um the management lever uh letter and it and I know it seems like
the last couple years with the audit the it has been issues and I know that is a monster to deal with I mean there's just never enough people to do the it in any entity um so do we have any idea for exact for example the disaster recovery plan when that will be completed because
I know it was actually mentioned I think in the last two or three audits we do have the plan that we will share with the audit because in in a month the 2024 audit begins in some ways as much like the budget the audit's ongoing it's not a two or three week or even a couple month thing it starts early in the year
when we'll um be under contract to um start the next one and information is transferred back and forth all year long early on we do plan to present which we do now have the disaster recovery plan with the Auditors to register their comfort level
and and again it's a back and forth there a discussion about Are We There is this you know is this what you're looking for is there anything else that you feel needs to be added to it and we would have that ongoing cons that ongoing conversation with our professionals at that time but yeah we we've definitely made big large strides
in it from what it had been okay great all right that's the only questions I have thank you um there's no one in the audience so I'll just state that this presentation was for informational purposes only and Mr Evans if you want to give your inut thank
you first of all as she's packing up and Le out things are definitely in order for Jennifer and her team we appreciate M du has been a a great professional we've experienced a great professional relationship with them for some time and appreciate everything they bring to the
table with regard to their expertise uh the way they handle their business uh the way they communicate and uh we hope that continues moving forward the amount of material that's transferred through those couple months or through the many months is actually quite unbelievable
until you really get involved with it and you see how much they are able to cover and look at for us so um everything that is uncovered that we discuss we have great discussions about about it and we um hope that continues I want to also thank our administrative team and Carol stonebeck and financial
service is really a pivot point in a lot of what gets done and of course to my right Lenny Lazar cha for a long time in the role of director of financial services and now as a director of budget and finance uh has been really uh the front person in in what we go so thank
you Lenny and everything that's been done and and bring this to a success what I believe is quite successful conclusion uh the business managers as well as many other team members across the city are involved it's a big ask um bringing all the data that's that's
required or um recommended from the aors and we want to make sure that we get everything to them in a timely manner I also want to thank the controller's office throughout the year they provide ongoing assistance uh Support Review of our processes in place now so from time to time we'll have discussions whether
it be quarterly or even more frequent about things that we're seeing or doing as well as providing their you know their role uh the typical role of the checks and balances uh secondly I I do want to you just really make the point that an audit is where the rubber hits the road we talk about the budget and what it means and
how we want it to be sustained and balanced but uh at the end of the day uh when you look at a budget there are possibilities that you could inflate or manipulate numbers in a budget and maybe for short time that might work or it might uh pass mustard but uh first of
all I believe that's not the case with us I think we've gone a long way to show how accurate our numbers year in and year out what our past numbers were versus where we're at we've been able to justify that but even if we weren't if our numbers um were not what they are conservative and accurate and that was
not the case that would certainly be flushed out while we just in this last 30 40 minutes because there are people and groups organizations for one reason or another go into area where maybe the budget's not real effective and this this exercise of having an annual independent
outside audit is where it comes together and we find out if if the numbers add up or if they don't and I think what we've just seen in front of you is that the trajectory that we're on has been steady it's it's been um consistent I think uh there about five
things I wrote down as as I started to think about this audit tonight is number one we have a great team in place the people i' I've thanked along the way and of course the team work with Council throughout the year and uh there's always ways we can improve and we've heard a little about that tonight and there are plans we have for that number
two the strategy and policy of sustainable growth that the mayor put in place is is paying off now as we both look at where we're at and we can always look where we were but at the stady incremental Improvement we've made to WRA but also as we look forward you know
we plan we're transparent and we looking toward the future and then you start to begin to see those results and I think as though challenges are ever present in our domain in the world we live in with you know we're dealing with pensions and some revenues that you know may not grow
like they might in the private SE with regard to um you know the incremental growth that because of the plans we have and the strategies that we're in in standing here where we stand today we're in a very good place and I think that's important wrap up on you know my thoughts of what we've heard and seen
tonight so that those are my comments great thank you and beh on behalf of council thank you for everyone within the city and for you Jennifer especially for making the ride here and we really appreciate all you've done safe travels thank you it's a pleasure to serve the city and if you have any other further questions my my information's on this
slide and I think you have the PowerPoint so please feel free to reach out any time great thank you thank you very much okay the second item on the agenda is to review a proposed transfer of funds to cover fire and EMS overtime I
will call on a representative from the administration to discuss the request okay yeah I'd like like turn quickly turn to Mayor Reynolds thank you sorry before before we get into that and and I just want to quickly make a couple comments on the audit um and first of
all I want to thank Council for asking great questions but I make this point every year um is that there was a time period where people would show up to this conversation because they thought that it was panting the city in a negative light and I remember I don't know if Mr Evans was in the city council at the time but that like9 10 11 12
period you'd have a lot of people like the Press didn't even show up today um to necessarily cover this but a lot of the things that we talk about as far as the growth we've made as a city financially over the last 15 years can be seen in this audit and once again good government is often
looks boring it only brings in a couple city employees but like this is why we have the bond rating that we do this is why we have the lowest tax rate of the three cities this is why if you take a look at our ear earned income tax is lower because those rules that we follow that sustainable expenses are going to
follow sustainable revenues um and it is just once it continues to amaze me year after year that the audit conversation there used to be an argument I remember when I first got in Council trying to force the audit to get out as quickly as possible in July or August or September because at the time mayor Callahan was
mayor and people wanted to kind of use it against them for political reasons now Mr Evans schedules it for December and nobody even says like this is going back to the previous year as if this is not something to talk about and once again you do your job we do our job
people in City Hall do their job on a day-to-day basis and you have audits that have important information in it but it reflects the discipline that we have day in and day out to be able to separate those Grant conversations from the sustainable revenues and sustainable expenses and that's a credit to
everybody I mean we are just going through the third budget process that we've had with no amendments offered to our particular budget which is a reflection of the cooperation and collaboration between city council Administration but also the fact that people within City Hall do their jobs honestly and they do their jobs with
discipline to make sure that we can provide the services and it's a shame that it's not you're not able to get more people and as I often say is I've only been mayor for three years I was in Council for 14 years but this is a continuing conversation that we have year after year after year about how all
of us do our job and the city and the private private and the public sector end up in the better place and the audit is another reflection of that as well as our bond rating our earn income tax and all the not raising taxes next year all those different things are great but it allows us to do the things that we want to do that we all ran for city council
to do because we want to build more Parks we want to be able to you know create safer streets and things like that and we are now able to invest in those things because we are doing as they say the blocking and tackling of making sure we provide those high quality city services um and I just wanted to say that I have to run to a meeting after Finance year and then I'll
be back but it is an important just Dynamic that I think we need to mention and three of you are on the finance committee and these people spend all day trying to make sure that we hit those numbers and once in a while if an employee makes a calculation mistake as was brought up here like we investigate and say why did that happen how do we
stop it from happening again and things like that but the overall news here is extremely positive and when you look at other cities having the audit conversations they're having audit conversations about whether or not the numbers in there are real and whether or not they have enough money to be able to pay their expenses we are in a healthy
financial position because of our discipline because of the sophistication and the way that we take a look at this and this is one of those Reflections um and I know this meeting started at 5:30 and people are busy and they have a lot of things going on and so on and so forth but it is telling that something that covers the entire city of Bethlehem
all 78,000 residents that is good news good systemic news can't get people out here to necessarily understand that and yet when there are other issues that are much much much much more micro issues that don't necessarily have to do with all of these important big picture
things they tend to get people more and people can it's America people get fired up at whatever they want to but this is one of the most important things we do and I just wanted to thank the finance commune thank councel but also publicly thank all the city employees that do this work day in and day out because this positive of audit was not the
situation for years and years and years where we had to make those decisions other cities had to make where you were hoping one time revenues came in to pay your pension to pay um all of our basic city services and we are not here yet and my only regret is that we are not better at being able to get more people
to understand just how much progress the city has made financially and how that has led to an increase in services and things like that so those are my only comments and thank you chairman for giving a few minutes I appreciate it thank you thank you does anyone else Administration have
anything else to say no okay no that okay other than that're ready to move into we'll move on to the agenda item okay the second agenda item is to review a propos trans a proposed transfer of funds to cover fire and EMS overtime I'll call on a respective member of the administration to discuss this
okay thank you the items number two through I guess six are item s we've been working on for some time and we have you know attempted to be quite transparent about our fire
Staffing we knew you know we know there's been a shortage we know we've sent and we came and talked to council about sending Cadets to the academy which we did and knock on wood they're coming to the home stretch on that and those seven will join the force soon we're also working very diligently to
add the next group and we're trying to come up that final number now um that we're attempting to qualify which we'll do sometime this week week because that next Academy is getting closer and closer so these agenda 2 through 7 deal all with our First Responders and here
tonight our chief of police is here and our fire chief is also in attendance to answer some of the questions that you may have for us uh we'll start off with item number two firing EMS over time this memo
is uh pretty busy there are several accounts used in order to balance the fire department budget uh there a couple things going on number one um it's good that is all contained within the department we knew overtime was going to
move up there's an inverse relationship with salaries and overtime typically we we program our salaries that every position is filled all year long because sometimes that's the case in some Ros that's the case all year long and get at the end of the year you have zero left in it in your account and your salaries
however in some of our larger buos like police and and like fire when there are openings and positions even in normal year when there's not shortage there's always what we call a vacancy Factor there's you know someone that might be an empty seed for days or weeks or even months and and that's become the case especially for fire this that's been
kind of the story of 2024 is that it's gone down for a number of reasons and um we have plans and we are bringing it back up and in the meantime we have to find a way to pay make sure the shifts are covered we do that with overtime the good news is it's paid for primarily
with vacancy Factor the salaries overtime goes up salaries goes down so the top two line items you're going to see salaries are moving way down fire overtime is moving up we also have a couple Fire Equipment account that came in lower that's tied directly to the
Motorola radios that were planned and purchased at the end of last year we put them into the budget for 2024 when they were all specked out by our first first line Administrative Professionals uh the pricing was lower than was originally anticipated so you'll see the 88,000 on
line item 3 43099 came in $888,000 under budget EMS which is also part of the Fire Department salaries are a little bit lower somebody was transferred earlier in the year into that overtime account and you'll see the overtime account is a
little bit higher uh and over so that's an increase of 48,000 in EMS we do know that there's a combination of temporary help and over time that helps subsidize our regular Staffing we have our full-time paramedics when we are short
staff for any reason whether it be sickness illness vacation or vacancy it's backfilled by someone that is an upand Comer uh someone that is not full-time that's looking to get into a full-time position that's the temp help those are the ones that can be hired to
fill the slots if uh that's not available then you can also turn the other option is also to look for existing full-time employees who are not on shift and that's overtime so usually they will also be a little bit of an inverse relationship so you'll see overtime is up but there's significant Savings in temporary
help very last line item in this particular memo is EMS equipment that's part of the same purchase that was for police fire and EMS it was a Motorola purchase and there's $31,000 in their final savings to complete and execute that that equip equipment
upgrade in 2024 so when it's all said and done the idea of this memo is that to transfer there's no additional funds needed we we're fortunate this year that that funding some years that's not available some years it is in revenues and we had a Goode revenues but uh that will not be required as it is handled
within the department any overages in accounts were um offset or neutralized by savings within that same department so the total at the bottom you'll see is the is the zero okay thank you is there anyone else for administration that wants to make
any comments I think Chief would be if there's any questions or should we do each of them or questions after each one how would you like to do it why don't we do questions after each one that might make it simple okay especially this a little bit different members that have questions no okay okay so that's fine
okay yeah I'll accept the motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration request and place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk will please call the RO quch I miss leam I miss grimy Smith I the appropriate legislation will will be placed on
tonight's Council agenda agenda item number three review of proposed transfer funds to cover the replacement of the three police vehicles I'll call on a representative of administration to discuss okay thank you I'm actually going to talk about number three and five together it's part of the same transaction but it's done in two steps
so agenda time three transfer funds for police vehicles uh we're talking about planning uh in this for this transaction uh in the operating budget we've been trying to improve and upgrade our Fleet both in public works uh not
both but in public works in police and in fire police uh puts a pretty good beating on them they they run to maybe 150,000 miles some of other vehicles have a lot of wear and tear on them and uh in some years when we got a little tighter we weren't able to get the five
there was years you go back in the budget goes three or four and three four and that kind of comes home to roost much like our fire trucks did a couple years ago so in this scenario we did put five we looked at putting more in the budget but couldn't quite get it balanced where we wanted it to be we didn't want to have a tax increase this
year and that was not done so five is what is in your budget that we've been looking at these last couple months uh we want to find a way to bring a couple more online and we're doing that with this request this request is to use savings throughout the year uh in Sellar
and you'll see on agenda item three there's $189,000 of savings in police we've also talked about you know the ability to recruit in our our efforts to recruit and fill those positions but in the meantime there's Savings of $189,000 and on agenda item number three
we're simply moving that from the police budget into 0801 which is just an accounting move it's it's our general and Civic expenses actually our general expenses lines are 0801 and that's going to allow us then to transfer it from our operating budget into our
non-utility or our capital budget where we want to make the purchases out of it next year so this just says we're moving into 081 if you look at number item agenda item number five there's that same $189,000 and and this memo this request
when we get to it unless you want to approve them at the same time is to move 80 189,000 to the police vehicle replacement which is in the capital account so it will be there next year so we get our five in the budget plus these three we'll be able to purchase eight
Vehicles next year instead of just the five and we're doing that with 2024 savings which this is why we waited so long uh as long as we could to make this request because we want to make sure all these savings and accounts were available to make the correct
decision thank you do any committee members have any questions I think I more have a statement um like I it's a bummer to see that amount of over like that amount of money available because recruitment is is so difficult and I I really hope
that with a a newer Fleet and I I definitely appreciate how much effort there has been to to keep public safety's Fleet I remember coming in and seeing the fire Fleet and being like Oh my god what the hell's going on here so it's it's there's been an effort to really update all public safety and I
appreciate that and I hope that that does help with the recruiting numbers because they they see the investment within Public Safety and and know that they're valued and appreciated so thank you for all your hard work yeah certainly a multi-pronged approach to to beef up that the recruiting efforts and
this but this is part of they spend a lot of time in the vehicle so it's something that we're um hoping you would support tonight great and I'm sorry does anybody from Administration also want to comment no okay great
um so that's agenda item number three and four I will accept them I'm sorry three and five I'll accept the motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and Place appropriate legislation from agenda item three and four on tonight's Council agenda I'll make the motion for
agenda items three and five for the yeah second second okay if the clerk will please call the role is quch I miss Leon I miss I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda thank you the fourth agenda item is that
going to be combined or we yes four and six is very the S it's the same transaction want to just to transfer moving across the general fund and then the second one's actually an adjustment or Amendment because it needs to move into a different fund where it we'll be waiting next year this is also for the
police and in this ex um request there were two cars that were taken out of service due to car accidents they were hit we received Insurance funds for that and we're using the insurance
funding and combining that with well let's talk about agenda item four first agenda item four is using $30,000 of savings and police contracts Department
contracts and we're moving into non-utility in agenda item six we're using the 30,000 that we brought over and we're adding 64,000 that's the two checks to Insurance checks to total
94,000 and that 94,000 will be allow us to purchase two vehicles these are um inspector's Vehicles they not they're a little bit different than our Frontline Vehicles there for a different purpose Chief could explain they're replacing
2008 uh detective Vehicles they're specifically purchased not to resemble our Patrol Vehicles so something that the detectives can go to and from take uh Witnesses and and victims to court uh so they would be
replacing the the two 2008 models that we currently have thank you do any committee members have any questions or comments yes I do have a question um like I I understand the um savings because of our vacancies
but what kind of Department cont like what kind of department Contra facts do we not kind of execute to have this kind of savings so for example right off the top of my head um the watch guard inar camera system okay is expired got it and
last budget season we had a a large amount of money um that was invested into our body cameras and incar cameras so that Motorola contract which ran out but we didn't have to pay
it because we were paying into the new Motorola contract uh was a a cost savings thanks um so that that's one of the examples but there are other things that um you know we were able just through being you know fiscally responsible we able to find Savings in
that account okay thank you you're welcome thank you I'll accept the motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request to place item number four and six on tonight's Council
agenda so moved second the cler will please call the RO miss I miss leam i m pry Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda we've already done agenda item number five and six so we'll move to
agenda item seven the seventh agenda item is to review proposed amendments adjustments to the general f budget associated with roster Duty I'll call on a representative from Administration to discuss thank you uh roster duty is
when our First Responders uh will cover events any more of the number events or runs or 5Ks that go on um there's discussions about is roster requested is it needed is it required depending on the size and the nature of the event
when that happens uh the organizer will reimburse us so this is really a budget neutral as you memo because uh every time when they go out they're being reimbursed to cover the salaries involved so for this memo
we are going to increase roster Duty charges which is a revenue item for 497 because the amount of activity we need to project and it's a little bit difficult in any given year how many events are going to be we'll track patterns and use as much information as we have to make a an informed decision
but in this case the Rost recharges and our revenues are higher so we moved it from 44 97 up to 617 an increase of $120,000 and we moved each of the three line items for police fire and EMS the roster Duty which is part of the salary
accounts 47 uh incrementally the police had the most activities so there's increased 100,000 to cover firing EMS $10,000 that now allow us to cover the expense accounts associated with the roster Duty charges for all the
events thank you do any committee members have any questions or comments this is this is kind of like you said it's a bit of guesswork in all of this because you don't really know how much um these events are going to wind up needing and things like that so I'm just
um you know in the event that you you sort of overestimate it's no harm no foul like because the the work didn't take place so you didn't pay any officers or anything um and in in Thea and this and in this case where they
actually hired more I assume the billing takes place the money comes in it's not so it's really just accounting for it I mean that's what we're doing yes yeah and and the good news is uh we have great success with um people that we
can't always charge ahead of times you don't know how long you know you can have the event you charge it and then it rains they don't have it or sometimes the shift uh will cause different changes in the coverages so it's always a post event charge but we have never have issues again not come with with collections all are successful events which are often great nonprofits across
the city are very cooperative and great partners and a lot of these events happen year after year or the pay us year after year without without issue good is important that's good to hear yeah yeah that's a important part of it but thank you that's all that's good Council I have a question but it's
formulating in my head it's going to take a minute so I'll just get with you after it's gonna take a minute so we can move well I I have a question for now um oh this is a simple question when we have like roster Duty are there any is there ever an issue where the entity
that we're providing the coverage for like doesn't pay us right away or I mean does that ever exist or is that pretty much not ever the case no no if it is it's it's very rare or if it's like a a a 30-day we send them the bills go out within 30 days yeah every once in a
while you have to nudge and say hey that didn't you our business managers will collect and keep our new software the communal software really does a nice job of being very transparent too where they sign on to the terms conditions are given estimate estimates of what it's going to be because as that software flows the event organizer needs to make
a determination with input of the Chiefs here's how many officers we going to have at your event based on the size and everything else with it and this is what the cost will be they agree to the terms and conditions and they move down to next approval next approval till they get it so they have signed off on it but
um there's still there's no collaterals like a bank note or something there's always that faith that if there's problems colle in it then next time around we're going to look at the event we need to look at the event differently fortunately that's not been the problem though yeah repeat customers yeah no that that
was helpful for my good yeah well you can ask if it comes up okay um with that I'll accept the motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request to place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk
will please call the role Miss s hi Miss Leon hi and Miss Crimson Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda agenda item number eight will this be singular also no yeah last two are single these are grants thank you okay so the E agenda
item is to review proposed adjustments to the general fund budget associated with the organized crime drug enforcement task force I'll ask a representative from the administration to discuss this request so this is in regard to theou that was recently passed by count IL uh this is
reimbursable by the PA Attorney General's office so similar to roster our officers will work together uh with the task force members and be reimbursed for their efforts great thank you do any committee
members have any questions or comments yes there just the comment congratulations to your officers for constantly being singled out as wanting to be part of these task forces you know they're Prof professionalism really is Testament to what a great Department we have thank you and I'll just comment that I think
this is really a great thing because I had been involved in something like this before where there was grants available and preventive kind of measures so that's great thank you I'll accept a motion in a second to recommend approval of the administration's request to place appropriate legislation on tonight's
Council agenda so moved second the clerk will please call the role is qu I is Leon I M Crimson Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council agenda agenda item nine the ninth agenda item is to review proposed adjustments to the general fund budget
associated with the health bu I'll call on a representative from Administration thank you I'll take that one um Kristen wrick indicated that if you have any questions please reach out she's unable to be here tonight she always comes uh to finance one of answer on it unless she's unable to and that's
the case tonight but if you have any follow-up questions she would be happy this one we'll eventually take two votes so it's on council tonight we'll be on the next one as well this is simply a rollover funds are available under an immunization Outreach Grant and she's increasing the city health account in
order to increase the funding involved with immun immunization Outreach programs great do any Comm committee members have any questions or input comments no okay great um I'll accept a motion in a second to recommend approval
the ation request to place appropriate legislation on tonight's Council agenda so moved second the clerk will please call the role M quch I miss Leon I miss gmy Smith I the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's Council
agenda did you remember your question no I'm good okay all right this meeting is that adjourned thank you thank you thank you for being so late with all the council meetings and budget hearings and a finance committee but this was an important meeting for us so thank you Part: 2
all right it is reporting just s by notes good evening everyone I'll ask we all rise for the pledge to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stand one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice Mr Miller please call the roll Mr Callahan presy Smith present Miss quac present Miss lard present Miss Leon Miss Wilhelm and Mr colum president thank you just a couple things councilwoman
Wilhelm will not be participating this evening she's out of the area attending to a family emergency our Council solicitor attorney Stewart will be joining us ment arily and then mayor Reynolds who I believe was at the finance committee meeting had to leave City Hall to attend u a meeting outside
and may be joining us during the course of tonight's meeting moving on to the approval of minutes any comment on the November 19 2024 city council minutes I don't see any so the minutes
stand approved we're going to continue on to public comment our first public comment as as custom is for any subject not being voted on this evening and will remind everyone of the five minute time limit I'll start with those who have signed up in advance starting with Miss Mary Joe
MC and I'll ask everyone if you'll mind stating your name for the record as Mr Miller keeps the minutes Mary J mol 449 Grandview Boulevard I was extremely disappointed and quite frankly discussed it during the meeting about the funding
the Adu study personally attacks have no place at city council meeting these attacks were directed towards several council members from my perspective this is a considerable sum of money being spent only to result in at most 30
dwellings from what was said at the meeting it will not reduce the affordable housing crunch rent for affordable housing I believe is 30% of a person's income will that amount cover additional costs incurred by Property Owners such as increased taxes
homeowners insurance building or construction costs this governing body works for all residents of Bethlehem not the other way around all opinions are and should be listened to and allowed while the discussion was merely to fund
a study in collaboration with Lehi University I certainly hope Lehi and any Co or any college students will not be able to rent these units it is my understanding these are for to be affordable housing for permanent
residents not transient residents I hope that will be made clear to Lehi and Moravian while this was grant money and not city tax dollars grant money comes from somewhere and if this money came from state or federal grants please
remember it is still taxpayer money I hope why I hope while this study is taking place the city does other logistical work with respect to infrastructure concerns regarding ing water sewer police fire Etc in my
neighborhood Water and Sewer access home sewer access homes from Grand View Boulevard will my backyard be dug up to install these services will baskam Street be used for these Services what property protections will be in place
to evict tenants if lease is not adhere to suppose a tenant acquires a much better paying job and can afford a market rate place will he or she be allowed to stay will property taxes increase for homeowners parking issues
will increase just something to consider while the study is taking place Bethlehem is losing its charm and uniqueness with all the additional housing neighborhoods are changing and not for the better I once stated that Bethlehem is becoming like its namesake
soon there will be no more room I wonder if the administration is aware of is aware that the upper level of the old Almar building and most recently at Insurance on Club Avenue is vacant Aa
Insurance Company on West Broad Street is also vacant someone within the administration can research and contact the owners as to plans for these sites if available the city could have put the $65,000 toward purchasing and working
with nonprofits to convert into affordable house units both sites have ample parking these sites would have a slight impact on traffic they both abut residential areas please also consider how additional housing construction will
negatively impact the climate impact on the climate action plan the second issue I would like to address is the expenses incurred by the city regarding recent vandalism by Lehi students regarding the gold poost destruction the report in the
paper seemed to imply that Lehi campus police waited too long to notify City police this incident occurred prior to the last meeting I wonder why the two council members who were employed by Lehi did not voice any outrage at the incident were they afraid to speak
because of possible repercussions from their employer they and Lehigh University owe the city an apology last week the company Great Western was making Cuts in Grand View Boulevard where UGI and installed G new gas Mains
and laterals if this is in anticipation of installing a better Madam patch with chilly weather weather coming it might be too late to do a proper job but what do I know my voice holds no power here finally I want to give a shout out to
Bruce Haynes and Hotel Bethlehem I was fortunate to have been invited to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner with some friends if you ever had if you never celebrated a holiday at Hotel Bethlehem I highly recommend you do thank you
thank you Miss MC next speaker signed up Harry Faber Harry Faber uh it's easy to hate it's even easier to hate on politicians and bureaucrats we see what needs to be done the problems plaguing our society we see
the hungry we see the homeless we see the addiction we see the declining infrastructure the decline in mental and physical health the pollution of our land water and air but what I struggle to see is what's being done to stop these injustices yes a lot of the problem has to do with the inefficiency
of bureaucracy but we all we all know that that isn't the full picture if these issues affected everyone I'm certain stuff would get done a lot faster now before I get ahead of myself I need to give mayor Reynolds some credit he's not here right now never is but uh yesterday morning as I was
walking up Broad Street walking um past an intersection he shouted out the window greeting me obviously didn't have to do that I didn't I didn't notice him and I certainly haven't been the the nicest towards him I've been very critical regardless he went out of his
way and he showed me respect and that takes a lot of a lot of Courage a lot of guts to reach out to someone who doesn't speak too highly of you so what I've learned from attending these meetings is that most of you care and most of you no one needs to be done when it comes to the livelihood of the people of
Bethlehem on the other hand nothing has been done as it relates to Palestine and it's not because you aren't aware I try to keep you guys updated on the atrocities being committed to Palestinians among others by the Rogue state of Israel and how our government is perpetrating it and financing it with
our tax dollars with our time that's how we really should think about it what our tax dollars are it's our labor it's our most finite resource we have our time so I'm asking you intelligent folks how do we stop it any ideas how do we make sure the city I care so deeply about and you
guys care so deeply about so that we aren't complicit well when we look at the history of fighting apartheid and Injustice abroad we see the success of the BDS movement it was very quite effective in apartheid South Africa it starts with boycotting divesting in
sanctions but how do we divest can we see what companies and and stocks and bonds we are invested in the city of Bethlehem companies which are supplying arms such as Boeing lacked Mar which need to be fully divested from because they are literally manufacturing weapons of mass destruction which are massacring
Ming and vaporizing people like you and I and everyone else in this room when I first started coming here again I objectified you people maybe I maybe I shouldn't say it like that but uh I saw you guys as bureaucrats as politicians as the ruling class as uh
I'm sure a lot of other people see you guys as and I'm sure one could still argue you are but on the other hand the ruling class the working people the working class the proletariat the bisi are all people first and foremost I see the humanity now which I
can definitely say I did not used to see so I'm asking from one human to another who cares and who can't stand to see this horror this genocide any longer and wants to say hey I'm not complicit neither is my community we'll be able to tell future
Generations we did our part we stood up for what's right we stood up against genocide we were little revolutionary you thank you Mr favor that exhausts our list of who had signed up in advance so I'll go around the room as is custom is there anyone to the left
who want to make comment on anything not being voted on tonight I turn to the wide Center was there anyone in the center who want to make comment sir hacket hello uh my name is Bud Hackett and I live in the city of
Bethlehem uh I had I had the opportunity last Thursday was it to um to be here for the budget hearing on community and economic development uh it went long um
and um but it was it was it was interesting it was interesting to listen to how all the money is going to be spent and a budget is really the most important way to express one's priorities and as as I look at the
priorities of the mayor and his administration and the 17 million for Community Economic Development and the I think I have it here somewhere the 10 million for civic a Civic uh Affairs and
uh the public health department it's a lot of money and if you look at how that money is being spent I'm not sure it's being spent to benefit people throughout the city it appears to
be uh weighed very heavily toward um uh the issues that the mayor has said are the most important issues for the city of betham and I personally have probably heard him say at least five
times that uh homelessness and affordable housing are the most important issues for the city and that's where he and his staff are going to spend their time and as we look at the budget that's where he and
his staff are going to spend the money I would imagine that the budget was prepared prior to the election the election that shocked us all um and whether or not it's turns out
in the best interest of our country we have no idea but there certainly is a lot of grandstanding going on right now the world has changed there's a message that came from that election
which is relevant to the city of betham and the community and economic development uh budget and I think we ought to look at that because I know that budget was reflective of how things were
in the previous administration where $34 million gifts were reigned on the city and as um as as Miss Collins said throughout her her budget presentation the most important word of
this budget presentation is Grants grants grants and that just struck me as odd and um sure you want to how do you not take take the money I don't think that money is going to be there in in
2025 and I think that the city needs to re-examine how it's spending the money and whether or not we should be looking at other ways to spend money for community and economic development in the city the city is changing rapidly I
don't know that the numbers are there right now but anyone who drives around and interacts with people in the city know that there's a whole lot of people that are living here now that didn't live here five and 10 years
ago and we don't want to be Allentown I think it is clearer what the numbers look like in Allentown of the number of of folks that have moved to Allentown and have driven out of
Allentown many people that I know who can't put up with some of the changes the crime the lowering of the quality of life the lowering of the quality of the school district uh I don't think that's what we want for for betham and I think
something needs to be done about it nothing in the community and economic development budget said anything about the private sector both the mayor and his administration rled off long lists and I
have them here but I don't have time of nonprofit it was nonprofit nonprofit Partners nonprofit Partners pay attention to the impact of employers of which there are hundreds in the city and
they're not just retail employers but there are people who hire who employ hundreds of individuals and community and economic development is not paying any attention to the role of the private sector and the Employers in this
city lots more to talk about uh I didn't get all my documents together um for a full presentation because it's not easy to look at a city budget as a dumb Citizen and and understand it but I did
my best thank you thank you Mr hacking is there anyone else in the wide Center who want to make comment hasn't had a chance to yet I turn to the right anyone to the right that concludes our first public comment thank you we don't have anyone
signed up to speak on anything that's being voted on tonight so again I'll go around the room this would be for any ordinance or resolution that is up for vote on tonight's agenda anyone to the left again I turn to the wide
Center concluding to the right all right that concludes second public comment thank you everybody moving on to Old business any old business for members of council no old business going to move on to new business any new business for
members of council no new business for members of council all right we're going to continue on Communications Mr Miller communication 6A November 20 20th 2024 memorandum and proposed resolution from Edward boscola director of water and
resources Mr boscola recommends a change order to the contract with CMG of eastn Incorporated for phase three Renovations being done at the wastewater treatment plant main Control building the additional cost will be $133,400 cost of phase three to
1,184 se86 the changes proposed because of unforeseen conditions and additional work items to improve the quality and Aesthetics of the finished product completion is expected by February 19th 2025 there are no renewals and
resolution 10f is on the agenda tonight communication 6B November 22nd 2024 memorandum from city solicitor John fburg Jr with an attached use permit agreement and a resolution permit is Arts quest in the event is 2024
peepsfest with fireworks event times will be noon to 9:00 P pm on both December 30th and 31st fireworks times are estimated to be 5:30 p.m. on both days covered premises will be first street from PK Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders way between first
and second streets for Festival events and Sand Island East for the fireworks and resolution 10g is on the agenda this evening 6C November 20th 2024 memorandum with a proposed resolution and agreement from city solicitor johnb Jr per is
Touchstone theater and the agreement is for the aarum park for all of 2025 for theater and Creative Arts events Productions performances rehearsals student Community lectures workshops and related activities and resolution 10h is
on the agenda tonight moving on to reports I don't have anything to report this evening Mr Evans thank you president Clon there are a couple administrative orders this evening administrative order
number 38 I hereby appoint Ali McDaniel 754 Hamilton Avenue Bethlehem PA 18017 to the Redevelopment Authority this reappointment is effective through December 2029 administrative order 2024 38 Ali McDaniel to the Redevelopment
Authority resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and miss quch any discussion on the appointment we'll call the RO Mr Callahan I rmy Smith I quch I miss lard I miss Leon I and Mr colom I pass
60 thank you administrative order number 39 I hear by reappoint Lee Snider 1325 Clay Street Bethlehem PA 18018 to the code board of appeals this reappointment is effective through October
2027 administrative order 202 2439 Lee Snider to the code board of appeals resolution sponsored by Miss Le miss quch any discussion on the appointment Mr Miller call roll Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I miss quch I
miss lard I miss Leon I and Mr colom I pass 60 thank you thank you Mr Evans I'll turn to our finance chair councilwoman cramsey Smith thank you the fin finance committee met earlier this evening at 5:30 p.m. in town hall there were nine items on the agenda the first
item was a presentation on the 202 three City audits this was for informational purposes only the committee also reviewed five proposed budget adjustments and three budget transfer requests for the fire police and EMS departments these ordinances and resolutions have been placed on
tonight's Council agenda these transfers and adjustments were based on savings from staff vacancies insurance reimbursement and savings within the department these funds will be utilized to cover overtime costs new vehicles and Equipment Grace kampy Smith chairwoman of the finance committee thank you thank
you Council woman we have one ordinance tonight for final passage Bill 44224 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to article 908 at SEC of the cified
ordinances of the city of Bethlehem granting a cable television franchise system to Comcast of Southeast Pennsylvania LLC bill number 44 2024 is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss cramy Smith any discussion on the
ordinance we'll call the rooll Mr calan I miss gramson Smith hi M quac hi M lard hi Miss Leon hi and Mr colum I pass 6 zero we have a few ordinances that are new tonight we'll start with Bill 56
2024 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for non- utilities bill number 56 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and miss quch any
discussion we'll call the roll Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith i m quac hi Miss ler I miss Leon I Mr col I pass 60 Bill 57 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and
Northampton Commonwealth in Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for non- utilities bill number 57 2024 sponsored by Miss Leon and miss quch any discussion call the rooll Mr Callahan I
miss crampy Smith hi Miss quch hi M L I miss Leon I and Mr colum I pass 60 Bill 58 2024 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for
2024 bill number 58 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch discussion we'll call the rooll Callahan all right GRC Smith I m quch I miss lard I miss Leon I Mr cologne I pass
60 Bill 59 2024 ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 59 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch
discussion call the rooll Mr Callahan all Miss grmy Smith hi miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I and Mr colum I pass 60 and our last new ordinance Bill 60 2024 an
ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2024 bill number 602 24 sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch
discussion call the rooll Mr Callahan I gry Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I Mr colom I pass 60 moving on to our resolutions resolution 10A be it resolved by the Council of the city of
Bethlehem that $524,000 be transferred from account number 07014 1 fire salaries 88,000 be transferred from account 0701 hyen 43099 Fire Equipment $20,000 be
transferred from account number 0702 hyphen 400001 EMS salaries 55,000 be transferred from account number 0702 hyen
400004 EMS temporary help and 31,000 be transferred from account number 0702 hyen 43099 EMS equipment for a total of $670,000 to be added to account number
0701 400003 fire overtime and 48,000 to account 0702 hyphen 400003 EMS overtime overtime was necessary because fire Bureau had a
large number of retirements and resignations in 2024 while EMS had several vacancies during the Year resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch discussion on the resolution call roll Mr cahan hi M gry
Smith hi M quch I miss L I miss Leon I and Mr colog I pass 60 Resolution 10B be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that $189,000 be transferred from account number 06 0 1-en
400001 police police salaries to account 0801 42083 in the non-utility capital fund transfer will be will fund the purchase of three police vehicles resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch
discussion on the resolution Miss Leon just wanted to take a moment to show appreciation to our department heads who did the most work to try and find the most cost-effective way to get the the mission accomplished without having to increase anything anywhere
else so thank you for all of your hard work thank you councilwoman any other discussion on the resolution we'll call the role Mr Callahan all right Smith I miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I and Mr cologne I
pass 60 Resolution 10 C it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that $30,000 be transferred from account number number 0601 hyphen 42047 Police Department contracts to account 0801 hyen
42083 in the non-utility capital fund the $30,000 will be combined with insurance proceeds from damaged vehicles to purchase new two new police vehicles resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch discussion on
tenc H roll Mr Callahan all ramc Smith I miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I and Mr colog I pass 60 Resolution 10d resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem in accordance with Municipal records manual hereby authorizes the
disposal of public records in the solicitor's office as set forth in exhibit a resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch discussion call Ro Mr Callahan I grmy
Smith i m quch i Miss L I miss Leon I and Mr colog I pass 60 Resolution 10e be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the rules of council be amended to transfer Council committee
responsibilities involving the parking authority from the Public Safety Committee to the community and economic development committee resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and miss quch so I'll just speak because I brought this forward i' mentioned it um at a previous council meeting and I'll
just remind everyone PRI our Council rules we can't vote on any changes to council rules the night they're introduced got to give them some breathing room for everybody to to think about it uh a little background so essentially our our Council rules prescribe the the Committees that
Council has defines the scope of the different commit the different committees the parking authority falls under Public Safety prior to being council president my previous four years I was the chair of the public Safety Committee Public Safety reviewed a
citation increase I want to say it was for the parking authority at that time there was kind of loose discussion about should this fall under the parking authority in my time as council president we've had uh various parking authority issues come up obviously the parking garage which we decided to have
a committee of the whole meeting because it was a very uh broad scope as it related to the conversation uh surrounding the parking authority and the parking G and then in more recently we had um an an amendment to an
ordinance revolving the parking authority brought up by a member of council and then the two chairs the the Public Safety Committee chair and the community and economic development committee chair uh I believe had kind of talked about is that Amendment best served under Public Safety When You
Think Public Safety or if you asked anyone I would think Public Safety is uniformed fire police EMS or a lot of the things we talk about regarding the parking authority have more to do with uh community and economic development impacting our business Community
impacting our neighborhoods citizens ability to park the parking permit structure the parking authority is its own unique animal but um before things went to committee because that ordinance amendment is still floating out there to
be reviewed at committee which I think is appropriate I thought this was an opportune time to actually propose this amendment to our Council rules so should it be the will of council the vote is to move the parking authority from the scope of Public Safety into the scope of uh
Community economic development committee so that's what we're about to vote on and that's the background but I'll open it up for discussion start with councilwoman Leon so I I think we all know that this has like you just said president colog um
about the the conversations we had regarding the parking authority recently um and there's uh something that we had been working on with attorney Stewart and I was thinking about whether this would be most appropriately looked at under Public Safety or community and economic
development um but in order to really have that conversation I would have to reach out to each individual member of the Public Safety Committee and I didn't want to have these conversations I I feel like that's a hop skip and a jump to a sunshine violation so as opposed to
Pres presenting this at Public Safety this rule change which it wouldn't be appropriate to present it there anyway it just seemed best to have the conversation as as a full Council it's not that I don't think that Park parking authority is best served under Public
Safety actually no I don't think it's best served under Public Safety other than fines um most of it seemed best under Economic Development and Community Development specifically the RPP program Public Safety really has very little um to do
with that um but outside of contacting the head of community Economic Development or the that committee and then talking individually with each member of the Public Safety Committee which didn't seem um appropriate uh I just I agree I think it's just best to
have the conversation here about where's the best place for this committee or this the parking authority what committee should it be sitting under and I I just personally I don't believe that it's it's Public Safety thank you any other
discussion counc thank you um as I said before I'm not not I'm not necessarily like for against it I see the value in it being under both committees but um I guess a couple Food For Thoughts here is I'm just wondering what the history was like why it was put under Public Safety
in the first place because I think it's always good to look back at our history before we make changes um the other thing that I'm more concerned about is the scope of the Committees Community Economic Development has nine matters or subject matters under that committee and
then Public Safety only has three if we take out parking so I'm thinking about not just now and the present council members but for future council members I don't want to have them or us presently overloaded with like Community Economic Development Committee going to 10 main
matters under that committee and only having three under Public Safety so that's just something I want to throw out that I think really needs to be thought about and discussed any other discussion for members of council councilwoman lar I think there's good points uh
coming up so far um and I do see you know the scope of the committee um the workload being um a little bit unbalanced moving it although when I think of this is my first year on Council but every single
thing that has come up about the parking authority has been what I would consider more associated with community and economic development um versus safety um
so I think logically it makes sense to move it but also to consider and I I wouldn't think it would need to be part of the same move but to consider the scope of each of our committees revisit make sure that everything is Right sized for our
present work um you know or foreseeable future work um when I look at at community and economic development for example I see housing Rehabilitation when you look at human
resources and environment it includes human and social concerns plus Housing Authority issues well there's probably a lot of overlap between some of the rehabilitation and some of the um issues that the authority looks at um that's
just an example I'm not proposing something specific but I think um overall we should always be looking and making sure that we're doing things um most appropriately and efficiently um I also
wondered of course we can call a committee of the whole meeting if we need to for something that might hit Public Safety and Community Development in the future um are we permitted to move something like one
issue from one committee to another committee if there would be like if we would vote yes let's move the parking authority issues to community and economic development but then something comes up down the road that like clearly
a public safety issue could that one item be moved to the other committee or would we do a committee of the whole or uh I would say in times where that's happened before so so there's different ways to look at it you could could look at it as you know part of me prior to
proposing this was kind of deferring I've always I'm just going to give kind of my perspective and then I'll let our solicitor give her input for the solicitor's input right but I'll just give my perspective as uh a nine-year council member and and Council chair
I've always looked at committees as the chair of those committees realm right so when something would come up um even something like this to be transparent there was kind of ation between Public Safety Committee Community Economic Development Committee where like you
Council rules say one thing but sort of Common Sense dictates another thing as it relates to where does that fit um our Council rules though do not do not give um disc room for discretion necessarily as it relates to the Committees they're
they're Define Scopes in there in terms of how you manage something like that you could do a couple things you could have joint committee meetings we've had those before where you could have two different committees come together to discuss a particular topic years ago we
had Public Safety and Community Economic Development get together to talk about the opioid crisis because the health Bureau falls under bless you because the health Bureau falls under Community economic development but obviously police falls under Public Safety so we had this joint meeting many many years
ago I think more recently um probably like two years ago there there was another example of that or when something sort of has a more a broader scope or is a little more comprehensive than just one of those headlines we just have a committee of the whole meeting we did that for the uh the ethics uh
ordinance when it was proposed because it wasn't necessarily defined by any one committee and really that's the conversation that's best served to have as an entire Council and dedicate a meeting to that one agenda item which is the benefit of committee because you could have a night where you're just
coming out to have a more indepth I would say looser conversation about an agenda item so there are there are alternatives I would say such as committee the whole or having a joint committee meeting um to that
but uh yeah that's my input I will turn to our solicitor if she wanted to give any other input as it relates to committee and Council rules specifically just there's a lot of discretion there's no real there are no legal
tenants that you have to follow in terms of how you compose your committees how you refer matters to committees that's very much internal so as president cologne said you have a lot of Avenues
in terms of referring matters discussing matters jointly you know it's it's really discretionary thank you did that answer your question councilwoman any other comments from members of
council councilwoman quch um I was wondering if I could ask Mr Evans a couple of questions um related just to the when we were talking about the scope um um you know how many um employees if
it if Public Safety were uh if the scope of Public Safety were uh police fire and EMS how many employees does that represent in terms of the and and the amount of the budget of the city a little less than half the EMP
employees quick count 266 out of 580 um budget there they are are two largest budget items though you know the police department is number one fire is also
might be the second quote me off the top of my head now CED has some passu grants involved but if you take that out and just go to the standal loans fires can be right there as well yeah Public Safety is large in terms of budgetary and employees right okay because I was
just thinking about the fact that while um sort of the list of things under CED is long the scope of Public Safety in terms of police fire and EMS it's one of the most important kind of responsibilities that we you know have
as a city and and it seems like that um that's a pretty big scope for a committee on its own without parking authority I'm open to obviously you know the vote is the vote and and all of that um I think in terms of for my part and the conversations it really was just
looking at um in the you know three years that I've been on Council um sort of the subject matter that's come up um regarding the parking authority um and the parking authority seems to be um and its operations are integral to um you
know our plans for growth in terms of Economic and Community uh development in the city so that's really why I was open to the to the idea and I mean I'm currently the sitting chair of CED but obviously we change our our chairs and our committees up every every term so um
it's something that we can all you know make a decision on and and knowing that any one of us might end up being the chair um at some point of either of these committees so that's all I had to say thank you I'll turn any follow-up up discussion for members of council I'll
start with councilwoman Leo oh one I appreciate the conversation because this was kind of what I was really hoping for because to councilwoman cramy Smith's point my biggest hesitation with even thinking about moving this is because DCd has so much going on underneath it
um when I thought about some of the parking issues that had come before Council things that we might want to have committee meetings about one was the parking per like the RPP the other one was is the parking ordinance too rigid and one of the third ones was what
does our parking system look like holistically with all of the development that's going on and neither one of those three really fell under so that was really what made me think instead of should we refer just this issue to dced should we refer the whole thing to dced
um like I said I don't think any of us has the right to make that decision in isolate because of things like what does dced look like but also to um councilwoman L's point it it is because our city has changed so much to Mr hackett's Point are our committees
structured in a way that are serving our residents to the best of of their ability and while I'm not saying let's ET a sketch everything I just think this is a really good time to have the conversation because of all of the growth that we're seeing and because things continue to change is Council
structured in a way that is keeping up with that change and and having committees that are best structured to meet the residents in their points of need so I I I hope that we continue to have this conversation thank you
councilwoman Council two other things I'm thinking um if we change it to community Economic Development and it seems like it's too much for that committee we could always vote and change it back correct correct okay and the other thing I'm thinking of in In fairness and I and I don't want to
put anybody on the spot and I'm not sure if this is appropriate but I feel like just being inclusive here that um should we have the input of the police chief and fire chief because it's you know that's related to parking and it's under Public Safety and you know if they feel that they would like to give input or
not um I just don't want them to not have any input in this because I think it's important that if they have any that we hear it but you don't need to thank you councilwoman I mean I will I'll let each Chief speak to thems if they choose to weigh in Chief Reich is nodding in or shaking his head in the
negative Chief cot okay okay thank you s any other discussion for members of council the last thing I will note just as it relates to council rules and rules amendments a little bit I I will remind everyone anyone on council could propose any rules amendments so I had proposed
three earlier this year just uh couple operational things we've we've talked about previously so I'm not going to revisit them after these discussions that happened more recently I've chosen to propose this uh rules Amendment just kind of some of the historical background because it did come up I I
will I will say I do not know why um The Parking Authorities fell under Public Safety I will say as concluding my ninth year on city council and over a decade of being in this room the first and third Tuesday of every month that um I
don't recall public safety meeting for the parking authority really outside of I believe it was twice that there was um citations were being were being changed and that's just there's different U different powers within the mayor
council and the parking authority as it relates to fines meter rates garage rates things like that in terms of the overall scope of the different committees I would say historically and I would say with confidence that while we have six standing committees three have historically been busier and three
historically have been not as busy current Council which has some more junior members and then we have more senior members of council uh and just you could ask Mr Miller pull it up which I have not but I will just say finance committee very busy committee we know
finance committee met um tonight Public Safety historically busy committee Community Economic Development historically busy committee not necessarily for all those that all those matters that fall under the the scope of community and economic development some of them in my uh decade Plus have come
in here never seen the committee meet for those and then our three other committees don't meet as frequently I will say that we always as it was referenced when there's a turnover in Council and we do our reorganization it's not only president vice president
but it's also the committee chairs and committee members and those are done with the input of full Council and even the Committees that are historically busier there's been um uh a want and ask from members of
council to serve on those committees that that are busier if for any reason I ever thought well well I'm fortunate enough to still be on Council that one committee was so lopsided that it was that committee was meeting in a
disproportionate U number of times than the other committees well then if the parking authority TI that scale I would be all years to hear why we should uh revisit moveing the parking authority again but just from what the by by title of the Committees are and what the
parking authority typically is meant to council and Council discussion I just thought as I said now was a good time as any to to move that and that's just following up on some of the things that were brought up is there any other
discussion regarding the rules Amendment before we call the vote thank you one I will ask Mr Miller to call the call the call the vote Mr Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi miss quch I
miss lard I miss Leon I and Mr colum I pass 60 thank you resolution 10f 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 for hereby authorized to execute all
documents and agreements with CMG of East incorpor operated for additional work to be done on phase three of Renovations at the wastewater treatment plant main Control building resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quak discussion we'll call the RO Mr Callahan
M gron Smith hi miss quak I miss lard I miss Leon I and Mr cologne I pass 60 Resolution 10g be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and or such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby
authorized to execute a use permit agreement with Arts quest for the 2024 peepsfest resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss quch discussion we'll call the roll Callahan all gry Smith iack I miss lard I miss
Leon I and Mr col I pass 6 Z and our last resolution 10 it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and or such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor for hereby authorized to execute a use
permit agreement with touchdown theater for Arts events rehearsals lectures workshops and related activities at parm park for 2025 resolution is sponsored by Miss Leona Miss quch discussion on the last resolution we'll call the RO Mr Callahan
hi mson Smith hi m quch i i Leon I Mr cologne I passes 60 concludes our agenda I will announce and I should have earlier it was an oversight on my part there were no proposed budget amendments so we do not have any more scheduled
budget hearings and we will meet again the third Tuesday of December get home safely everyone it's meeting is adjourned