OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Allentown Redevelopment Authority Board Meeting - December 10, 2025

Meeting Portal — Wednesday, December 10, 2025
BodyAllentown, Pennsylvania
SessionMeeting Portal
DateWednesday, December 10, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
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Transcript — Verbatim
0:08

I mean really nice.

0:11

Okay.

0:14

Are we ready to start?

0:24

She's not in the text.

0:29

She was testing it.

0:32

That was what she said.

0:40

But we can start.

0:44

All right, we're good.

0:45

We're good.

0:46

Okay.

0:46

All right, let's call this meeting to order for the December 10th meeting of the redevelopment authority of the city of Allentown.

0:53

Um we will kick the meeting off.

0:56

And uh as we have all of our board members here and our esteemed solicitor and staff.

1:03

Yes, we'll call you esteemed, Josh.

1:06

Um with that, let's jump to an approval of the minutes from November 12th.

1:10

Do we have a motion to approve?

1:12

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

1:16

Second.

1:17

Second.

1:17

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

1:20

Aye.

1:20

Any opposed?

1:22

Motion carries.

1:23

Uh we'll jump to a public comment section.

1:26

I'm assuming we have no one in for public comment.

1:29

All right.

1:29

Do we have our reporters Jason on or that one's on?

1:33

Okay.

1:34

Um all right, we'll jump.

1:35

Um, do we want to jump into executive session now or can that we're going to computer?

1:40

Okay, so we will be calling for executive session uh towards the end of our meeting.

1:44

With that, let's jump to agenda item number 5.0, which are is our staff financial reports.

1:52

Okay, so uh the budget to actual report, which is the first one in there.

1:59

Uh it was about so it's about ten thousand dollars uh more of expenses this month than last month, but added over last month, and a lot of that is about eight thousand dollars of insurance expense, which I have historically just at year end been reclassing from prepaid to insurance expense, but I did one up through November 30th, so we could see where we were as we're looking at the budget for 2026.

2:27

So about 8,000 of that $10,000 month over month is uh insurance expense.

2:33

So you'll see that while insurance expense on the profit and loss went up $8,000, it went the prepaid insurance on the balance sheet went down eight thousand plus the three thousand dollars that is in our bill list this month for the chubb insurance.

2:51

I also recorded the loss on disposal of assets, which was 411 to 413 Ridge Avenue, but the loss was only a dollar.

2:59

Um so didn't make a big impact, but I put that on there.

3:04

We had sold that back in February.

3:09

Uh also important to note is included on your bill list is a hundred thousand dollar invoice for the staff support uh from the city of Allentown, and that is not included in these balances because that invoice is dated December, and this is just showing the financial up through November 30th.

3:29

So that's why there's the 100,000 dollars on your bill list, but you won't see that reflected here in the financials until next month when we'll record that as of year end.

3:39

And I think there was some uh confusion, I think with the invoice for the hundred thousand.

3:44

So the invoice that was attached to your board agenda to your e in your email.

3:49

Um it it's not a big difference, but it there was a different updated invoice that I had prepared.

3:55

Um but we'll we can get to that in a little bit.

4:00

Umside of that, it's the normal the comparison uh balance sheet comparison as November 30th, 2025 to November 30th, 2024.

4:13

Um there is also a comparison from November 30th to December 31st, 2024, which would be the last you know, the end of last year.

4:25

And like I said, I did those insurance entries and the loss on the disposal to update them a little bit so it's a little more apples to apples on these comparisons.

4:37

Um there's the profit and loss, which is the same information that was on your budget to actual.

4:46

Uh so about a $30,000 loss for the year, but as we're discussing with the CDVG contracts, uh some of that I will be submitting an invoice once the 2024 contract is fully executed.

5:03

I can submit an invoice to the city for the $100,000 of staff costs and about $100,000 worth of the operating costs for 2025.

5:13

So some of that should be made up then once we do that.

5:19

And I think the balance sheet comparison might be in here twice.

5:24

I think that's part of the reason there's so many pages.

5:38

Yeah, I think I think there might be more than one copy of that in the in this though, in in this because I it looks like there is the balance sheet comparison through December 31st, 2024, and then it looks like it's in there again after the profit and loss.

5:54

So I think there's just a duplicate, it's not a different report.

6:12

So can I um so we do meet once only a month, right?

6:15

And we're volunteers.

6:16

Sometimes I feel like I might forget what we said or what like if it's 802 walnut, I want to know when you say this, like for myself personally.

6:26

I want to be able to, because again, it always stays in my head when we started and Vicky really educated us, like there's things we should be knowing.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Budget Equity Analysis█████████████████████████25%
Vacant Property Management█████████████████████████25%
Procedural██████████████14%
Affordable Housing██████████10%
Community Engagement██████████10%
Procurement Process██████6%
Technology and Innovation███3%
Public Engagement██2%
Racial Equity██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Allentown Redevelopment Authority Board Meeting - December 10, 2025

The Allentown Redevelopment Authority (RACA) held its monthly meeting on December 10, 2025, attended by all board members, solicitor, and staff. The meeting focused on approving financial reports, adopting the 2026 budget, finalizing the audit engagement, and determining the strategy for releasing Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for two key properties: 725 North 10th Street and 540 Hamilton Street. Following an executive session to discuss real estate acquisition strategies, the board proceeded with several unanimous votes and established a committee to refine a two-step RFP process.

Consent Calendar

  • Approved the minutes from the November 12, 2025, meeting unanimously.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No members of the public presented comments or testimony during this meeting.

Discussion Items

  • Staff Financial Reports (Item 5.0):

    • Staff presented the budget-to-actual report for November 2025, noting a month-over-month expense increase of approximately $10,000, primarily driven by $8,000 in insurance reclassifications and a $1,000 payment of the premium balance.
    • A board member requested detailed breakdowns for specific addresses listed in the "Sale of Property" budget notes (e.g., 332 Front Street, 802 Walnut Street) to clarify if these assets were sold or merely budgeted assumptions from the previous year. Staff clarified that these figures represent budgeted revenue projections for properties expected to be sold, not actual sales, and that the actual column remained empty for these items.
    • The board discussed the $100,000 invoice for City of Allentown staff support, which was dated December but not yet recorded in the November financials. Staff confirmed this would be recorded at year-end upon execution of the CDBG contract.
    • The "loss on disposal of assets" for 413 Ridge Avenue was explained as a bookkeeping entry reflecting an asset book value of $1, which was sold for $1, resulting in a net $1 gain rather than a financial loss.

  • Invoices for Payment (Item 5.2):

    • Staff discussed the 2026 monthly invoicing structure for city staff time, noting that regular monthly billing will commence once the CDBG contract is fully executed with HUD.
    • The board approved the payment of $103,688.18 across five invoices, including the $100,000 staff support invoice.

  • Inventory Update:

    • Staff confirmed all properties are secure. A board member requested the addition of inspection dates to the inventory spreadsheet to document weekly blight inspections for accountability.
    • The status of 515-519 New Street was clarified as a combined parcel purchased in 2020 for a planned low-income apartment project; the plan has not yet gone to fruition, and the property is awaiting a Request for Proposals (RFP).

  • 2026 Budget Adoption (Item 7.2):

    • Staff presented the 2026 budget, projecting $600,000 in CDBG funds (including $100,000 for staff and $100,000 for property maintenance) and revenue from the anticipated sale of five properties totaling $125,000.
    • A discussion ensued regarding the $2,000 budgeted line item for third-party website design. A board member expressed opposition to paying external costs for web maintenance when board volunteers could handle updates, suggesting the funds be saved or allocated to staff. The board approved the budget as presented but noted future flexibility to amend line items.
    • Marketing expenses included $500 for the "Morning Call" newspaper (the only printable outlet available for legal notices) and $2,000 for website services.

  • Audit Engagement (Item 8.1):

    • The board discussed the engagement letter for the 2025 audit from Maher & Doussle. A board member expressed strong satisfaction with the firm's previous service, deeming the proposed fee of $24,700 a good value given the state of the audit.
    • The board voted against an immediate RFP process, preferring to retain current auditors for another year, with plans to issue an RFP in 3-5 years.

  • CDBG Contract (Item 8.2):

    • The board reviewed the fiscal year 2024 CDBG contract with the City of Allentown, which authorizes the reimbursement of $100,000 for staff costs and $100,000 for property maintenance incurred in 2025.
    • The contract was approved unanimously to facilitate immediate reimbursement processing.

  • Meeting Schedule (Item 8.3):

    • The 2026 meeting schedule was adopted, set for the second Wednesday of each month. A minor correction was made to the start time (changing from 2:30 PM back to 2:00 PM). A board member noted the schedule inconvenience for working professionals but accepted the consensus against moving to evenings due to low attendance at previous night meetings.

  • Release of RFPs for 725 North 10th and 540 Hamilton (Item 10):

    • Divided Opinions: The board debated a "two-step" RFP process versus a traditional one-step process.
      • Position for Two-Step: Several board members advocated for a two-step process (Letter of Intent followed by formal proposal) to encourage "little guys," nonprofits, and creative community developers who might be intimidated by detailed 20-page proposals and financial pro formas. They emphasized community vision over immediate financial return.
      • Position for One-Step/Financial Security: Other board members, including the Solicitor, expressed concern that a two-step process could lead to legal challenges regarding subjective scoring, favoritism, or accusations based on vague criteria. They argued for a rigorous evaluation requiring detailed financial pro formas and proof of capital to avoid projects stalling in bankruptcy.
      • Legal & DEI Concerns: The Solicitor warned against incorporating affirmative action or minority ownership preferences into the scoring criteria due to current conservative legal interpretations of federal funding rules, noting the HUD contract had removed such language.
    • Consensus on Approach: While deadlocked on the exact mechanism, the board agreed that the current proposed RFP language was too technical for non-developers. A committee consisting of Mark, Jessica, Kevin, and Alan was formed to draft a revised RFP strategy. This strategy will likely incorporate a "technical proposal" followed by a "sealed cost proposal" approach, similar to HUD guidelines, while also planning for outreach, press conferences, and technical assistance workshops to support smaller applicants.

Key Outcomes

  • Budget Approval: The 2026 budget was adopted. Total expenses are projected at $724,750 against anticipated revenue of $752,600, resulting in a projected positive balance of $27,850.
  • Audit Contract: Maher & Doussle was retained for the 2025 audit at a fee of $24,700.
  • CDBG Contract: The FY 2024 CDBG contract with the City of Allentown was approved to enable $200,000 in reimbursements.
  • RFP Strategy Committee: Mark, Jessica, Kevin, and Alan were tasked with designing a new, potentially

Meeting Transcript

I mean really nice. Okay. Are we ready to start? She's not in the text. She was testing it. That was what she said. But we can start. All right, we're good. We're good. Okay. All right, let's call this meeting to order for the December 10th meeting of the redevelopment authority of the city of Allentown. Um we will kick the meeting off. And uh as we have all of our board members here and our esteemed solicitor and staff. Yes, we'll call you esteemed, Josh. Um with that, let's jump to an approval of the minutes from November 12th. Do we have a motion to approve? I make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh we'll jump to a public comment section. I'm assuming we have no one in for public comment. All right. Do we have our reporters Jason on or that one's on? Okay. Um all right, we'll jump. Um, do we want to jump into executive session now or can that we're going to computer? Okay, so we will be calling for executive session uh towards the end of our meeting. With that, let's jump to agenda item number 5.0, which are is our staff financial reports. Okay, so uh the budget to actual report, which is the first one in there. Uh it was about so it's about ten thousand dollars uh more of expenses this month than last month, but added over last month, and a lot of that is about eight thousand dollars of insurance expense, which I have historically just at year end been reclassing from prepaid to insurance expense, but I did one up through November 30th, so we could see where we were as we're looking at the budget for 2026. So about 8,000 of that $10,000 month over month is uh insurance expense. So you'll see that while insurance expense on the profit and loss went up $8,000, it went the prepaid insurance on the balance sheet went down eight thousand plus the three thousand dollars that is in our bill list this month for the chubb insurance. I also recorded the loss on disposal of assets, which was 411 to 413 Ridge Avenue, but the loss was only a dollar. Um so didn't make a big impact, but I put that on there. We had sold that back in February. Uh also important to note is included on your bill list is a hundred thousand dollar invoice for the staff support uh from the city of Allentown, and that is not included in these balances because that invoice is dated December, and this is just showing the financial up through November 30th. So that's why there's the 100,000 dollars on your bill list, but you won't see that reflected here in the financials until next month when we'll record that as of year end. And I think there was some uh confusion, I think with the invoice for the hundred thousand. So the invoice that was attached to your board agenda to your e in your email. Um it it's not a big difference, but it there was a different updated invoice that I had prepared. Um but we'll we can get to that in a little bit. Umside of that, it's the normal the comparison uh balance sheet comparison as November 30th, 2025 to November 30th, 2024. Um there is also a comparison from November 30th to December 31st, 2024, which would be the last you know, the end of last year. And like I said, I did those insurance entries and the loss on the disposal to update them a little bit so it's a little more apples to apples on these comparisons. Um there's the profit and loss, which is the same information that was on your budget to actual. Uh so about a $30,000 loss for the year, but as we're discussing with the CDVG contracts, uh some of that I will be submitting an invoice once the 2024 contract is fully executed.

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