Okay, we're gonna kick start this uh city council meeting and uh we'll get started um with uh with a roll call we can do it we can start there too um we'll start with an invitation of the United States here present here's here okay thank you uh we'll start off with uh courtesy of the floor and um if there are courtesy the floor members of the public and we don't if three minutes is not enough uh we ask that you leave your name or email address with our city clerk so that the appropriate department or council person can reach out to you um to finish that conversation so uh do we have any any courtesy floor requests yeah the first one uh like Asha's pronouncing your name and and also to be clear this is courtesy the floor for anything that's not on the agenda this is where someone wants to speak on schools kids and city I'm reading it as uh J Jo.

Okay.

Um welcome I thought this was a meeting for the school board but I guess it wasn't so it was for the city my name is Aisha um I think the city needs to do a lot more for the children and keep them more active with like sports everybody's talking about all these recreational parks and stuff and I think they need more sports to stay active by the city from the city so that way you know they don't get in trouble or anything I also want to just about to make awareness about pedophilia we have a lot of pedophiles living in the city why hasn't nothing been done about the pedophiles living in the city I live in a neighborhood maybe three blocks down from here second street and around our neighborhood there are a lot of pedophiles and I just want to know why hasn't anything been done and why aren't these pedophiles registered we have a school down there we have two schools down that way everything we're in Sheridan and there's a lot of kids that walk home most of the parents don't pick them up because either they're working or they're too busy taking care of another kid so I just want to know if there can be a better way that you guys can like you know some of these pedophiles are homeless you guys heard about the camps and um if we can do a better something better for us to provide the homeless with shelter if the city can do something about it and try to keep the pedophiles away from the children because living there for a couple of years now I've been here since 1997 and it's the same thing over and over and over it hasn't changed and the city needs to do something about that so I have five girls and they're all in ranging between the age of 15 14 13 and 11 and 12 and I worried every day about my kids being around the city walking alone I work two jobs so it's hard for me to pick up my child from school my daughter has been chased by a pedophile a couple of times coming from school dear Ralph um I just think they need to do something better put more enforcement on it if that would be the case okay is there anything else tonight or no no I just want to bring awareness to that okay we appreciate that and uh thank you for your comments you're welcome to miss bell hi and good afternoon it's been a while since I've been here so a little bit nervous but I apologize so my issue that I wanted to bring for the council

Okay, is there anything else tonight?

Or no, no, I just want to bring awareness to that.

Okay.

We appreciate that.

And uh thank you for your comments.

You're welcome.

You miss Bell.

Hi, good afternoon.

It's been a while since I've been here, so a little bit nervous, but I apologize.

So my issue that I wanted to bring forward with the council is rent.

As you know, Allentown is becoming very gentrified, and rent is becoming an increasing problem.

In a recent post that I put on land on Facebook, I said, how do landlords expect a single parent or a guardian to afford rent nowadays, especially in Allentown?

If you look at the median income in Allentown, it's $54,000 after taxes, that's $40,500.

Minus $5,000 on a low ed in rent is $15,500 left over for the parent.

That's $1,200 a month.

That includes you have to pay for health insurance, you have to pay for food, you have to pay for your car payment, car insurance, gas, any tickets that you get because you know you're gonna get tickets parking on the street because there's not enough street parking.

Um with that, I just don't understand how we are supposed to afford anything.

Um I've been in the city for 38 years, and since then I have been doing as much as I can to get back up on track and do what I'm supposed to.

This last July is just lost my sister, and with that, uh, they lost their father as well.

I have seven kids now.

With that, I'm trying my best working a city job to afford rent, and to tell you the truth, I can't.

I live in a slum house, my fleet, my baseboards don't work, my roof is leaking, my kitchen sink is leaking.

But guess what?

The rent's cheap.

So I'm gonna stay there.

What I read you is 54,000 median income.

I work at a city job, I've been for three and a half years, I make 32,500.

That's the normal uh amount that people make.

What I read you was 54,000.

That's 20,000 more.

So if they can't make it off of 1200 a month, how can I make it?

When I go to welfare, you know what they tell me?

You make too much.

You may not.

When I go to HAL for help, you make too much.

I need help with my electricity.

You make too much.

You know what I told the city one time I called in and was like, listen, parking authority is getting crazy.

I can't afford the tickets.

You know what they said?

Move out of Allentown.

I've been here 38 years.

Why should I have to move out of somewhere?

I called home to try to figure out something else to go.

And that's a great idea, move.

But how?

Let's say if I don't pay rent for two months, that's what's on my uh record, an eviction.

I can move down to Potts Town or down to Philly, but with what?

An eviction?

They're gonna laugh in my face.

How am I supposed to go ahead and better myself as a guardian of kids?

And I give it up to parents because I didn't know this beforehand, and now it smacked me in my face.

But I apologize, you know, for bringing this up, but it's like every meeting I hear of, every minutes I see online, I hear all about park reegorations, roads, everything.

But I don't have nothing against rent control.

And $2,500 for a four-bedroom is crazy, and nobody could say something.

When just 20 years ago, it was what a thousand dollars.

I do apologize.

Thank you for letting me hear.

Thank you.

Um Mason.

Hi, my name is Glenda Mason, and I'm here about regarding a parking authority in Allown.

Because I received a ticket not too long ago after I went around the block until the street cleaners came by, and then after they went by, I parked my car.

I went in-house and I come back out and I have a ticket on my car.

So I'm like, why did I receive get a ticket?

And I go right directly down to the parking authority, and they tell me that I had to obey the sign.

Um the sign says between eight and ten, but the parking authority already went by, so if they go by and you we you see them, you're gonna park there like everybody else does.

That's normal.

So they I made an appeal there because they're like, no, you have to pay $35.

So I appealed it.

But I didn't hear anything from them for like two months, and they sent me a notice in the paper.

And they sent me a notice in the paper, and it was dated November the 19th, and I didn't get it till December the 6th.

Then I get a paper on December Christmas Eve, you might as well say I got a paper saying I was going to court.

They were taking me to court.

So I mean, there's not enough parking in Allentown as it is.

So when the parking authority does come around, and people are waiting to pull right back into their parking spot because there's nowhere to park.

I mean, they want to give people tickets like the young lady just said that was up here.

You know, you're giving out tickets to people, and these tickets aren't cheap.

You know, uh a fire hiders a hundred dollars, uh, street cleaning is thirty-five dollars, and so on.

You know, so come on, like give a person a break.

Like, what do you want them to do?

And you like I got a ticket uh paper now.

Um I'm going to court in February with the parking authority.

Do we have do we uh Michelle?

Do we have her number?

Yep.

Um I'm gonna ask the customer service department from the parking authority to reach out to you.

And you can have a conversation with one um her name's Erin, and uh hopefully she can help you out.

Okay.

Yeah, I think that that'll be helpful to at least get that conversation started.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we'll do that uh tomorrow, we'll get we'll get that going.

Mr.

President, may I suspend the rules and make a statement?

Um because uh she's not the first person I had a couple constituents call me about that precise problem.

After like she said, we don't have enough parking to begin with.

Once the parking authority cleans the area, most residents, and I've done that when I've gone to a restaurant, they'll park.

And um this is what they're getting tickets for.

Now, I did talk to John Haney about it, and the sign does say, say from 10 to 12 or whatever.

But I we have to do something about this problem.

All right, they go by say 20 after 10.

She parks her car at 10 30 because they've already gone by and they get a ticket.

And I think this is um a problem because we don't have enough parking.

So the residents will wait and then they will park there, but the sign says 10 to 12.

So I'm wondering if some way I don't know how you could explain it, or how you could say you can they should be able to park there after the parking authority, but because of the signage, they can give them a ticket.

Miss Kurlock.

I don't think it's a signage, sorry to interrupt, but um it's it's the fact that what I'm what I've learned is in years past the parking authority vehicle was before the street sweeper, so that when the sweeper came, you could put your car there a minute later and you'd be okay.

I think what the difference now is, and we need to learn more about this, because I I want to make sure what I'm saying is accurate, is the sweepers coming first.

The parking authority vehicle might be lagging behind, and residents are putting their cars back thinking, hey, this the street sweeped, but meanwhile, the parking authority vehicle comes three minutes later.

That's a problem that we need to figure out the cadence there because that's something that um did change, and is that something you were doing?

Yeah, I was gonna say 20 years in center city, and we've never we always just did what you do, and then something this is a decision that must have been made at the parking authority to change this, so perhaps the parking authority can get together and undo this change because it's not working, it's it's it's harming people.

Yeah, we we'll learn more.

I'll find we'll we'll make that um part of a excuse me.

It does not make any sense that they would come after the cleaners to to ticket them.

It made sense when they came before, yeah, but not after.

Um I mean, I would suggest not to have a comp it needs to be changed back.

Yeah, like there's no other solution.

Mr.

Glazure, go ahead.

Two things.

Um, number one, it's certainly conceivable for the parking authority to fall behind.

If there are enough cars getting tickets, you're gonna be starting in advance to the cleaner, which I agree with you, certainly seem to be the way it was done.

They're writing that many tickets.

And I don't know what it's a supposition.

The cleaner's gonna pass them and they're gonna have to catch up.

Um number two, and Mr.

Shahari can tell me whether right or wrong.

The um street cleaners have GIS, so you know what their position is.

So Miss Mason's point, it should be easy enough to determine whether that street was cleaned on that day prior when she parked.

Um how about we do this?

Um, Miss Moda, you chair public works.

Um why don't we make this part of a public works committee and we'll do some fact finding and get some information and um and report back, and this way we can at least have start to get the conversation going, but also collect the facts.

Yeah, I actually went around the block because I seen the street cleaner coming.

And then for you, Miss Mason, uh, we'll have um I'll make sure someone from the customer service department reaches out to you tomorrow.

Okay and uh at least get that going for you.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming tonight.

Thank you.

Not a problem.

We address that in public works.

We can definitely do that.

I just don't want to give her the whole her she's still gonna end up in court.

They can't undo that.

I just don't want Miss Mason to think that she's not gonna end up in court because once it gets to court, they can't undo that.

I that's what I want us to get that conversation going tomorrow.

Um I I'm not 100% on that, but I still don't want her to like their oaks up.

Yeah, but uh okay.

Uh William from Pearl Avenue.

Y'all voted.

Good evening, council members.

I hope you're doing well today.

Thank you.

Uh my name is William Gerecki.

I am a lifelong resident of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

I live on the south side of Allentown, right by uh Salisbury in a mass on Pearl Avenue.

It's right by Lehigh Street.

Uh the reason I'm coming to you is to request uh a crosswalk, possibly being developed at Oxford at Lehigh.

Um since I've lived there and since my parents have lived there, which has been a couple years longer than me.

A lot of young people have been moving into the area, and a lot of the old folks that live there are moving out.

It was a lot of older people um coming in to live in the neighborhoods around Salisbury, but now there's a lot of young families.

Uh across the street is Alton Park, and as of right now, there's no safe way for kids or families to get to Alton Park because Lehigh Street is constantly nuts with people just driving through.

The speed limit is 35, I believe, but people go like 40, 45, 50 constantly.

Um and it's kind of in a weird area where like I feel like Allentown Police Department doesn't want to be there, and Salisbury Police Department is usually somewhere else, so no one's really checking that.

Every once in a while they have an officer uh sitting at Alton, but I've never seen them pull anyone over.

Um but it's less like speeding that I'm concerned with, and more just like it should be more walkable um in general.

It kind of feels like South Side gets the uh short end of the stick in general.

Um I'm probably a little bitter because my avenue gets plowed last.

Um we didn't get plowed until uh 4 p.m.

this past Saturday when it snowed, and uh all the other surrounding neighborhoods got plowed, so it's kind of just like what's going on here.

Um also there's a giant that just got put at the South Mall.

Um, and uh as someone who lives by uh the left side of Lehigh Street, I would appreciate if there was a more attention to that light.

It used to be on a Mayus Av, which meant that people coming from South Allentown Salisbury could go through and get to the giant just fine.

But a lot of people go to that giant to get groceries, and now there's a lot of traffic that's on the side of Lee Street that got super duper backed up.

Um story short, I think there just should be more attention brought over there.

Um I think there's been a lot of effort to make north more walkable, and that's been fantastic, but uh would appreciate some of that brought over to South Side as well.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, and uh your email address.

Can you make sure it's on your card?

Uh yes.

I don't know if I wrote it down.

Can I get back with you on that on the crosswalk?

Okay, I will go write it down right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Welsh.

Yes.

2001, I applied for adult basically.

I learned that adult basic children's health insurance card for me.

Income criteria in Pennsylvania have to be uninsured for 90 days.

And I learned that they have that three-month waiting period there where you pay medical bills yourself.

I know it because it states with term limited state legislatures such as Ohio, Michigan, and South Dakota don't require that a person be uninsured for 90 days to be eligible for that program.

Health insurance industry wants captive customers buying health insurance at open market rates, and they don't want universal health care because there's nothing in it for them.

And I have this paper here.

I I I uh there's a map of which states have term limited state legislatures and which don't, and I'm more of a visual learner than uh than I found that out.

And I were paid for health insurance 2001 and 2002 by $6,000.

I have a documentation here for it that I can show it to you.

And the states with all the states with term limited state legislatures, the legislators actually stand up for their constituents because we're only gonna be there for three terms, not become entrenched like they do here, stay there for 20, 30, 40 years and use incumbency status as a weapon to keep challengers away.

Okay.

Um thank you.

Hello.

Buenas noches.

I'm gonna try to speak to English.

I mean, if something understand, I don't know if somebody translated or bring um the ex uh employer from the city, he speaks Spanish, and we have uh before uh for some issue, he he explained to me Spanish, whatever issue from the city.

So he helped sometime for many years.

So what's the rules and stuff like that?

So that's okay.

I don't know.

So I'm gonna speak this Spanish uh English first fee.

You don't understand me.

So I want to understand.

We come in many, many sometimes in here, and I'm not here for bother you guys, you know.

I just hear because I don't I don't bother you guys, the city, I don't and nobody to myself or my family or my life.

So I pay my taxes, I pay my my home, and I only own it owner for uh one house, and I live for 30 years already in my home.

And um I have an issue, you know, first for personal stuff.

I have a work hard to get my daughter in the fusion to she in college and Penn State, okay?

And I don't go with me on my home, and I working hard all day.

My home is empty, like uh, you know, we just working and come back and sleep and go back.

You know, I work in firefire in Bethlehem because I I'm an opportunity over there to hurry me to, you know, whatever uh voluntary stuff like that, but I want a learning, you know.

I try to get a get a bed to try to see and are also I running uh a soccer league on on the party.

I don't have any issue with that.

You know, some people know me, so the only thing I have in this town is why I ask him from the constable in here who got this decision to try to see what person on working on the city to do the right way, and they don't do the right way.

So it's something easy to you can educate you or talk to with somebody, say, listen, you can do this, you can do that, you know.

That's our somebody on Istanbul.

So whatever the reason is, I have some problems with some people, and I'm gonna say what's the the company name, and I and I agree with that.

So because something I try to help the city for myself with something not right, so we don't do anything wrong, we don't buy the city.

Whatever they they were, they do crack from the city, that's fine.

I I appreciate I vote, I vote and everything for the mayor too, you know whatever, but I don't bother nobody.

So the reason I have a problem with the sweet ticket, right?

That's the first.

The second one is the parking owner.

And the third one, the third one I have for the for the city, the the house uh city, so the house city, uh like uh uh they call Los de la Ciudad de la Casa.

Right.

So the inspector for the home, I know you have something broke in your home, you have to fix it.

Okay, and in Stemble.

So I go into the city on the third floor.

I remember, okay.

I spoke to somebody, yeah.

They tried to tell me, yeah, they can work with me, they help, they have some help for window block or stuff like that, because in summertime kids broke the window, stuff like that.

So I have to change it.

But something issue.

I remember when I come last two years in here, you know, and I get a ticket and I try to, he's an ex-employer, the city, he know what I have in my property.

I have my car when I got accident, I park my car, I use another car, whatever.

But they come into me, I have a proof paper, they come to my private house and say I have a young car in my car.

I show him a video, you know, for from him, like an ex-inspector, and and he told me that's not reciproble, like uh reasonable.

So what happens is why they call my car in my mother home, one one house, one address and my house, my my place where I work.

So they come and attack like a personal what is going on.

We only come with me and I have picture to show him another place.

If he told me, if he they told me they taken care, you know, something like that.

So I agree with that.

So I don't understand what's what's going on here.

Um what I can do, um what I can do is I'm gonna have someone give you a call and to try and get some more information.

Um I would encourage you to maybe share some of the pictures you have or the videos, and we'll see if we can get some understanding of where we're what we can do to help.

Well, that's a that's a call in before.

Uh I tried to spoke to CC the last time, but I waited for somebody to call me and they never called me.

Well, I I waited for two weeks last time.

We I have a for the sweet ticket, I have a core here.

I mean, I have a uh PASDUI, they put me 300.

I'm fine.

I said, What did you okay?

So I have to go to the coherent, take me to the coordinator.

I explained to the George, that's fine.

But don't go with we let like uh that's not the right way.

They told me junk or or I collect the stuff, you know, Balio and stuff in my in my garage.

That's not a junk, what are they gonna do?

Okay, so um, we'll work on uh do we have his phone number?

No, I don't have if you can leave your phone number with him, and we'll have someone give you a call so we can uh understand the situation better.

But thank you for okay, thank you.

I just want to uh mention that you we have brought this to the table over a year ago.

He didn't leave his contact, I left my contact, nobody has contacted me, nobody has contacted him, and he's just concerned because he's he's a guy that works hard every day, pays his as his daughter's uh uh uh college fee uh college and everything like that.

You know, so he does his part, but what he wants is just to be a little bit more respected, respect it, and and let know of his wrongdoings without attacking.

Okay, we yeah, I heard I heard all that, so it's it's no problem.

So just leave your number.

I don't know what happened a year ago, but I'm just worried about today.

You guys were all here.

So um a year ago.

Yep.

Okay, thank you.

So Bruce, do you hear me?

And that's that's fine, you know.

Thank you.

Yep, thank you.

Was it Mr.

Marino?

Yeah, just my phone.

Okay.

That's Mr.

Marino, correct?

Okay, okay.

So that ends uh curse of the floor portion of the agenda.

So we're gonna just started with uh contract approvals.

So Mr.

Hanlin, we have our first contract that was R1.

R1 is an authorization for a change order in the amount of 445 356 with Tyler technologies to assist in the ERP conversion for the financial and HR module.

Okay, thank you.

And we have uh Miss Sarah McNeil here.

Yes, this contract was previously warded.

However, the original resolution approved in September of 2023 included only the implementation fees and did not account for the reoccurring fees required once the system became operational.

Um so this request adds funding to cover those reoccurring fees, which are an ongoing annual expense for the city.

Tyler is not increasing their contract amount beyond what should have originally been included in that resolution.

Um because this change order exceeds that original um 10% of the original contract amount, it's being presented here to council.

Okay, thank you.

Um questions or comments from my colleagues.

Uh go ahead, Mr.

Pungo.

Silly, and apologies if I can ask that.

I would just ask if Ms.

Patel, is this something that's already figured in the budget for 2026 and moving forward?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Uh any questions or comments from the public?

Um, you you may come up.

So this is regarding um this agenda item R1.

Correct.

Yeah.

So with the agenda R1, what I want to ask is you said it was not found in the original budget, but they were doing it.

It's for ongoing maintenance.

So what happened was the resolution was originally incorrectly written.

So we only had um done the implementation fees.

We didn't actually account for the reoccurring um maintenance.

It's be it basically keeps the system running once it's up and running.

Now, what my question is is when this was pre-perposed, like how many how do I put that how many implantations were done before this came up?

Like, how does this automatically just come out out of nowhere?

If you knew like beforehand, like it's like if we're working with a new system, you would implement a new system, but you have to think about outside the box.

So now we're adding more money onto it because of regular maintenance fees.

My thing is when this was proposed and this was looked at, if it was looked at carefully, why what them fees should have been already noticed beforehand.

So why weren't they like so they were in the original agreement?

It was just overlooked at the time that the resolution was brought to council.

So we have to correct the clerical error that was done when we brought this.

Correct.

So that's what I'm saying.

It was a clerical error, it was overlooked, and it shouldn't have been overlooked.

So now we're asking to add more money on it, even though it's into the 2026 budget.

We're asking more money to be taken away from something else to be put towards this when that's my understanding.

We're asking for more money to be put from some from the budget that's already included that wasn't included last year, correct?

No.

Um I think what Ms.

McNeil is stating is that the budget was already there when we presented the contract cost uh initially in 2023, it stated only the implementation cost.

Once the implementation implementation is completed, then you have the recurring maintenance cost.

So that was already in the budget, but we neglected to add that to the resolution.

So it's not additional cost.

It's been being budgeted, but it was just not part of the resolution.

So we are being transparent and stating that it this was not part of the initial resolution.

It's always has been in the budget.

So budget is not being increased.

We are just correcting the initial um resolution that was brought to council.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Um any other questions or comments from the public?

Okay, we'll call the vote.

Uh Ms.

Affa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender, yes, Ms.

Gurloch.

Yes.

Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Ms.

Santos, yes.

And Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

President of seven years and no nays.

Okay, moving along, R2.

This is an authorization of cooperative contracts and the amount that's greater than 40,000 to a number of entities, including Low Bar Associates, American Rock, uh, Salt Company, Kimball Midwest, AutoZone Stores, LLC, uh Napa, General Code, and Dell Marketing.

Okay.

Um, any questions or comments from my colleagues?

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public regarding R2?

Okay, can you call the vote, please?

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Mr.

Lock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Santos.

Yes.

Napoli.

Yes.

Ms.

Affa.

Yes.

Ms.

President of 70 years and no nays.

Okay.

And moving along, minutes of previous meetings.

Our first one is December 3rd.

Ms.

Girlak.

Yes.

Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Bongo.

Yes.

Ms.

Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Ms.

Affa.

Yes.

And Mr.

Binder.

Yes.

President of seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Our second one is December 17th, which was city council budget amendments.

Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Bongo?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos.

Yes.

Napoli.

Yes.

Ms.

Affa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

And Ms.

Girllock.

Yes.

Okay.

And the last one is December 17th, City Council meeting.

Mr.

Bungo.

Yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Affa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Ms.

Girllock.

Yes.

And Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

70s and no nays.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh old business.

I see none.

Uh and we're gonna move on to uh committee reports.

And we'll start off with uh budget and finance.

Uh Chair Pungo.

The committee has not met since the last uh council meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for January 28th at 6.15 p.m.

to review the budget process, uh financial reports and committee priorities.

Thank you.

Okay, and community and economic development.

Uh Chair Gerlock.

Uh yes, this committee also has not met since the last council meeting.

Uh there will be uh a meeting on February 4th to look at the recompete program along with a number of other items um that are priorities.

Thank you.

Okay, and uh human resources administration appointments, Chair Bender.

Yeah, uh the committee has not met since the last council meeting.

The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 28th at 5 30 p.m.

to review committee priorities.

Okay, and parks and recreation, Chair Santos.

Uh the this committee met this evening, and we have an item to be introduced this evening.

Uh the next council, the next committee is scheduled uh prior to the next council meeting.

Okay, and public safety, Chair Apha.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The committee met this evening.

There are no further meetings scheduled for the few.

Okay, and public works, uh, Chair Mota.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The committee has not met since the last council meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for February the 4th to review committee and administrative priorities.

Thank you.

Okay, and lastly, rules, chambers, intergovernmental relations and strategy.

This committee has not met since the last council council meeting, and there are no future meetings scheduled.

Moving along, our controller's report.

Mr.

Glazer, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

We took some time off during budget season, and now it's a new year, and uh we'll be back to uh reporting on a regular basis.

Basically, there are three three audits or reviews that we do every month.

Uh, one is the payables where we look at the checks that the city has written for accounts payable.

Second is a P card review where we look at the use of the purchasing card, and third is the bank reconciliation report.

These are the three that are done every month.

Uh, we will do other audits above and beyond this.

Um, but you know, their timing is just whenever the review is done and the report is ready to be released.

We have an upcoming program for the departments and the and uh the the folks within those departments interact with the controller's office to explain what we look at when we review these items and to help inform them and hopefully to reduce uh the error rate even further than it's already been reduced to.

Council is certainly invited to this um event.

I'm not I don't remember the date off the top of my head, and Mr.

Hanlan has expressed interest as well uh as something that that it might be of interest to council for.

Um, so uh we may have um some discussions with Mr.

Hanlon and Mr.

Knappley as to how that can be presented to council at some point in the future.

To the business at hand, however, uh this is a P card review for the month of August 2025.

This was just released on December 31st.

Uh, I I must say that um the controllers department is um made a lot of good effort to uh master MUNIS.

Um, for instance, when we review checks under even, we could probably bang out a Friday check run, you know, in 70 or 80 minutes.

Um under MUDIS, I think we started at about two and a half hours, and we've gotten down to about 90 minutes.

So with checks, we've certainly certainly come down the learning curve.

P cards are a different issue.

Um the software is really not very friendly to this review.

It takes us a long, long time to do.

Hence, we just finished reviewing August at the end of December.

Uh, however, it is my expectation that um with a lot of hard work from uh Jackie and myself, um, we will get December done, the December 2025 P card review done by the cutoff in the middle of February.

So, having said such, um, we reviewed 708 documents.

Uh, the total amount spent on the P Card transactions for this period was a little bit over 222,000.

One of the things we look at is that when an employee makes a charge, the clerk expenses it to the proper expense account.

In this regard, we found 11 instances where an item was expensed to an incorrect expense account.

The bureaus were advised of the issues, and we'll make corresponding journal entries.

Uh, one department decided they were not going to make the change because they had transferred all their money uh out of that account to cover their overtime shortage.

Um, however, I we note that since the expense had already been incurred journalized, the account correction required for that department wouldn't have any financial impact.

Um, and this is a fallout for us being so far behind the ink ball because the software is just not efficient for us.

Um the city also limits the amount of convenience fees that will that we can pay or will pay um when using a credit card.

The limit had been zero.

You weren't allowed to incur any convenience.

So it for the month in question, there were two um convenience fees that were incurred.

The departments were advised.

Um we seldom get these refunded, but it's really just a matter of advising the department.

Finance has recently changed their policy and will allow convenience fees up to $30 now.

Um, so this issue should go away.

And I think the departments have been advised if they need to make a larger purchase that would incur a greater convenience fee.

They should do that purchase conventionally by submitting a requisition or a purchase order and doing it that way.

Um we also look at whether sales tax was paid on an invoice by and large the city is exempt from state Pennsylvania state sales tax.

Here we had three invoices that incurred sales taxes from a dollar twenty up to $31.07.

Once again, the department's revised, and um what we really like to see is the tax refunded to us.

Uh that does not always happen.

Um, and sometimes getting the refund stretches over multiple audit periods, uh, but we we will follow up on these.

Um we look at untimely payment of invoices.

Um city and its rules does not specify how quickly invoices have to be paid.

Um we generally go by the rules.

Um in this case, we picked a 60-day window, which we feel is pretty lenient.

Um here there were 20 charges that were outside of that window.

Um the departments were advised that these P card invoices were being paid late, and they responded with um acceptable justifications for for what would cause that.

The last thing we looked at this month was um appropriate documentation in Munis.

We were looking for a receipt, and we're looking for an invoice, both things.

Uh, here we had um seven instances without the proper documentation.

Um the departments were advised, and they all scanned in the proper documentation then.

The next thing I'm going to report on is bank reconciliation review.

This is for the month of uh October.

This report was also released on December 31st.

Um the number of city bank reconciliations that were prepared were 35.

The dollar amount of those reconciliations reviewed for the period was 116 million dollars.

Uh the number of non-city controlled bank reconciliations was three.

The amount of non-city controlled bank reconciliations reviewed for the period was um 1.2 million dollars.

Uh we do note that the city transferred from um Tyler to Munis in March that has caused some problems uh with bank reconciliations some things were might have been overlooked, some of the information did not transfer during the transfer.

Um we have one issue here, and that is unexplained differences on the accounts payable on the ARP.

The ARP is a bank listing of outstanding checks.

Um we have our own listing.

This is the bank's listing.

Ideally, in a perfect world, they are the same.

Sometimes their timing issues.

Uh, here the difference was a little bit less than seventeen hundred dollars.

The administration was advised that they should reach out to the bank for a proper explanation of the differences, and their response is that they will do that.

Um if the difference is still outstanding in the next month's reconciliation, it will be noted.

Mr.

President, that is my report for this evening.

Okay, uh, thank you to our controller, Mr.

Glacier.

Um, we do not have a report from the mayor, so we'll continue to move along to our consent agenda.

You have two items on the consent agenda.

One item is certificates of appropriateness for work in the historic district at 126 to 128 North 15th, and at 521 North 6th Street.

The other one is for a sewage planning module at 128 Hamilton Street.

Okay, thank you.

Um, any questions or comments from my colleagues regarding R3 and R4?

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay, can you please call the vote?

Miss Santos.

Yes, Mr.

Napoli?

Yes, Ms.

Affa, yes, Mr.

Binner, yes, girl, yes, Ms.

Moda, yes, and Mr.

Pongo.

Yes, President of seven years and no nays.

Okay, great.

And uh next up is resolutions for final passage.

Uh R five.

R five uh approves the submission of a formal application for a local share account grant on behalf of the civic theater.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the guys?

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Ms.

Affa?

Yes.

Mr.

Binder?

Yes.

Ms.

Girllock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda?

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos.

Yes.

Spread it up seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Next up, R6.

R7 approves the submission of a formal application for a local share account grant on behalf of the Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Can we go back to R6?

Oops.

Yep.

Approves the submission of a formal application for the local share account grant on behalf of planned parents.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues?

And any questions, comments from the public?

Okay.

Call the vote, please.

Ms.

Appa.

Yes.

Mr.

Binder?

Yes.

Ms.

Gurlock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos.

Yes.

And Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Ms.

President.

And next up is R7.

R7 approves the submission of a formal application for the local share account grant on behalf of Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Okay.

Any questions, comments from the DIES?

And any questions or comments from the public regarding R7?

Okay.

Can you call the vote, please?

Mr.

Binder.

Yes.

Mr.

Oloch?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

And Ms.

Appa.

Yes.

Ms.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay, thank you.

Um next is R8.

R8 is a resolution of the governing body of the city of Allentown empowering and directing the proper officers of the governing board to appoint a liaison between it and Berkheimer, the duly appointed collector of local taxes for the district.

Okay.

Any comments or questions from the dais?

Any questions or comments from the public?

Um I just ask something about the other two.

What is the local share account grant?

Can you come up?

Can you come up, please?

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

I thought I was loud enough.

You always tell me I'm too low.

Um I was just curious what the local share.

I'm sorry.

I wondered what the local share account grant is.

The Moy Lehigh Valley Health Network needs help from the city.

I'm sorry, I didn't get up here.

Sorry, is there someone from the administration that can help answer that?

Or maybe one or maybe our or it's Terry Terry, are you there?

Hi I am hi, this is Terry DeCouganau.

I am the grants manager.

I'll I can answer the question about the local share account.

Um the local share account is a grant provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and the City simply acts pass through for that money.

And I'm sorry, your question was specific to Lehigh Valley Hospital?

Or seven years Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Yes, okay.

So they are looking to purchase um specialized equipment and assistance with the installation of that specialized equipment.

Okay, not sure if that answered the question, but somebody left their cell phone up here.

Okay, um, so yeah, let's leave it there for now.

Okay, okay, so we are still on R8.

Okay, R8 authorizes signing of confidentiality and it looks like uh that was our only comment from the public, so we can call vote.

Ms.

Comment from the public for R8?

Yes, for Bergheimer, yes, yes.

Okay, sorry, no, it's okay.

I was just leaving for her questions.

Now the governing board that's gonna be going on Bergheimer.

Now is that gonna help out with as far as the city um mainstreaming the taxes being sent out?

Only reason I ask that is because I have like I said, my sister's kids, some of them are over 18.

Um, one of them is 22.

She just received her taxes for all the back years, so now she owes like 105 dollars each time for years that she didn't even know she was supposed to pay taxes, and didn't even know they were these these city taxes that you had to pay 16 dollars a year, and now they have the administration fees.

Is this governing board going to be advising on that, or is that something totally different?

Um I'll defer to uh Ms.

Patel from our finance department.

Thank you.

Um so Berkheimberg um it does the collection for Lehigh County for earned income tax.

What you are talking about is per capita tax possibly.

So earned income tax is the 1.975% for City of Allingtown.

Uh with Act 32, it went uh countywide, so they collect for entire county for our employees to have access to that information.

We need to bring this to our council and get their approval because it they have confidential information on um uh names, uh social security numbers and things like that.

So we are just asking for that approval that clients employees can access that information.

Okay, so it's not like a governing board on them to help with uh as far as the issues that are the city is facing.

No, no, this is a county selected collector, and that collector is Arkheimer, and Barkheimer has our art income tax information, and for us to receive that, we need to bring this to council.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, um any other questions or comments from the public?

Okay, uh you may call a vote.

Okay, uh Ms.

Gerloch?

Yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Ms.

Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli, yes, Ms.

Affa?

Yes, and Mr.

Binder, yes, Ms.

President have seven years and no days.

Okay, moving along to R9 transfer approvals.

R9 are a few transfers.

Uh that one that I have there is the treasury.

That's a mistake that can be taken off.

So there's transfers for EMS, fire police, accounting and finance management, recycling and solid waste, liquid fuels, and storm water.

Okay.

Um any comments or questions from my colleagues any questions or comments from the public?

Okay.

Okay, on the transfers that take care of the negative balances.

Ms.

Mota.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo, yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

Napoli?

Yes.

Ms.

Affa?

Yes.

Mr.

Binder?

Yes.

And Ms.

Gerloch.

Yes.

Ms.

President have seven e's and no days.

Okay.

Next up is R 10.

R 10 is a resolution that sets up procedures to review the city's budget process and to establish clear and transparent procedures for developing and adopting the budget, and it gives the task to the budget and finance committee.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues regarding R 10?

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay.

Mr.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Santos.

Yes.

Yes.

Ms.

Appa?

Yes.

Mr.

Binder?

Yes.

Mr.

Lock?

Yes.

And Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Ms.

President said you use a no names.

Uh Mr.

Clerk, I'd like to request uh a motion to suspend the rules for uh placing the agenda item to be vote on uh for to correct the previous uh past module that would be for specifically is that R 4 or R 11.

So I have a motion to suspend the rules.

Do we have a second?

Second.

All right, thank you, Ms.

Moda.

Um so we have uh two motions on the floor, and can you okay?

Call a motion to suspend the rules and uh place a resolution 11 on the agenda.

It's a sewage planning module that you had already approved.

There was a minor mistake in it.

So this is like uh a house cleaning measure.

Okay, to suspend the rules and place it on the agenda.

Uh Ms.

Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli?

Yes, Ms.

Appa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender, yes, Rillach?

Yes, Ms.

Moda, yes, and Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

The rules are suspended.

The resolution is a sewage planning module for 424 434 North Eleventh Street.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, any questions, comments regarding R11 from the DIES?

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay.

Can call the vote.

Okay, Miss Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

Ms.

Affa?

Yes.

Mr.

Bender?

Yes.

Ms.

Gurlock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda?

Yes.

And Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Ms.

President have seven years and no days.

Okay, thank you.

Uh moving along, ordinances for introduction.

Uh, we'll start with Bill 1.

Bill One is an amendment to the grant fund budget to accept $50,000 in grant funding from the Bloomberg Philanthropies through the Johns Hopkins University.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay.

This will be referred to Chair Binder's committee, Human Resources Committee.

Thank you, President.

Welcome.

And um next up is Bill 2.

Bill 2 amends the 2026 general fund budgets provide for a supplemental appropriation of $3,124 and 20 cents from HP construction for the city for providing electrical hookup for the Bogurt's Bridge project.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay.

This will be referred to uh Chair Santos Committee Parks and Rec.

Thank you.

And um next last is Bill Three.

Bill three amends the 2026 general fund budgets provide for a supplemental appropriation of $2,000 from the Delaware Lehigh National Heritage Corridor as part of the Lehigh Valley Greenways implementation block grant for the trail uh water fountain upgrade at Jordan Meadows Park.

Okay.

Any questions or comments regarding Bill Three from the public?

Okay, this will also be um sent to Chair Santos Committee Parks and Rec.

Thank you.

Okay.

And we have no resolutions for introduction and any new business?

And good and welfare?

Okay.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.