Could you pause just one second?

We're good.

Okay.

I'm not gonna go around the room.

We all know each other, but we also have uh Kevin Easterling here with us today, uh, who will probably have some comments for us um under the public comment section there.

Uh so again, thank you all for making it today.

And I know we have two that are excused from today's meeting.

Um with that, we'll jump to agenda item number 2.0 with the approval of the minutes from February 11th.

Um I know Kelly had um had caught uh two little things in there, and um did everyone have a chance to review that though.

I guess when I say everyone, it'll be the two of you.

It was amended already.

You're thanking uh there was two minor changes just with uh names spelled correctly.

Okay, yep, that was it.

I did I did see countries, but I didn't see so it's just this is what's this is correct, yeah.

Um Alan made a motion.

I'll second the motion.

Seconds, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Any opposed motion carries.

All right.

Uh we'll jump to agenda item number 3.0, which is public comment.

Um Kevin, did you want to bring up anything for us now?

Okay.

Thank you all.

And we did we discussed before, you know, like I said, we can't really talk about the RFP or the processes of everything like that, but we're happy to you know hear more about um all the good work that you do, and uh we would always have time for a year of Husky when they come to a microphone.

I have to that's good to know, that's good to know.

Kevin Eastering 1124 Hamilton Street.

Um, I want to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

Um, first for for public comment.

Um, I did want to mention um Chris, thanks for responding to my email.

Alan, thank you.

And thank you, Jessica, for for opening up the uh the inquiry to transparency.

I I do want to say, without going over anything regarding the bid, um the redevelopment authority is a public authority and is required to post board meeting notes and board agendas.

Normally I go to a uh a board's website and fine, but there hasn't been any notes or any meeting uh notices on the Allentown Redevelopment Authority for since 2020 December of 24.

So the meetings are are posted on there every every month they're posted on there with the agendas.

On the same website, is that what you say?

It's on the city's website, it's on Granicus because that's how we're connected.

So you're saying it's through the city's website.

Right.

Okay, so that that's that's the problem.

So normally I would just go to the authorities website and pull it, but on the Allentown redevelopment authority, there is no notice.

So it it directs you to the it directs you to the city's website to go on there.

Okay.

Well, I'm gonna give you what I printed off.

Okay.

That's what's on the redevelopment.

Okay.

And so that's that's part of some of the clarity.

I know many of you are uh familiar with um Sunshine Law, ACL, and that was the only reason I had reached out to a board member to find out what was going on with that bid.

Um as I said, I just wanted to make it known that um our organization actually has a CDBG grant with a city bound town to provide low to moderate income construction workers training.

Uh we did a pen beat training uh last Saturday.

We always do the last Saturday of the month.

Um, and actually Kevin had sent a few people to us who uh were interested in learning um prior to the training that you all had.

We also did prior to the city's um transition from uh public purchase to pen bid.

Um so we sent that out to all of our contractors.

Uh we have been doing this for now for the last five years.

We have contracts with not only um CDBD City of Allentown, but we also provide uh section three and minority um contractor outreach for Lehigh County.

And so this is something that that we've been on, we've been advocates for construction um work probably for the last I'd say 15 years.

Um I wanted to make the redevelopment authority um aware that because we are doing this with the city, and because our organization um was av were advocates for the section three legislation that was passed on October 19th of 22, which the City of Alentown agreed to give priority on bids that come through for any section three certified low-income contractor.

And so when your current bids went out, we were just going to look at to see what projects were available and instructing our contractors to uh put themselves in the bid notice under subcontractors.

Now I reviewed the bid.

There's no section, I don't know how many bids you all have because I haven't seen any notes for the last year or financials, but there is a minority outreach requirement.

What I wanted to propose to the authority is that all of our contractors are city of Allentown LMI contractors as required for us to oversee train and navigate them to work specifically with Allentown projects.

And so that's what we're trying to do.

With that being said, um I'm a product of Allentown.

I grew up in uh Fifth Union with redevelopment, basically redeveloped homes, and I was I was very fortunate.

So I've been I've been uh I received great resources through the redevelopment authority, and I'm asking that you all help do this for low income and workforce investment.

So my proposal to you all is that for any project that you have, if you can set set asides at at least 10% for each project for local Allentown Section 3 certified or MBE DBE certified contractors.

N D E B.

MBE.

So there's there's there's first um state requirement is that any bid in a state of Pennsylvania, all contractors have all contractors have to reach out to minority MBE, women, WMBE, and DBE, disadvantaged business enterprises.

Those are state certification.

Section three is low income.

It doesn't have anything to do with skin color, ethnicity, or anything.

It says if you are a contractor, and right now the 80% mean is $56,150, you can get certified as a section three contractor.

And so what that does, that sets, and that's what we're doing.

We're training guys on how to bid, how to create left uh uh capacity to actually do some of the administrative side.

I got a lot of guys who are excellent at hammering nails and stuff, but they can't do bids on Penbid.

And I don't know if this is the first time that uh RACA has actually put a bid out on Penbid, but if you're not familiar with the process, you know, you you got to build those muscles.

And so that's that's what we're trying to do.

And so our end result, we're just trying to make sure that local Allentown workforce investment folks get a part of some of the uh the work of a lot of the contract construction that's going on in Allentown.

And it kills two birds with stone.

A lot of federal funding that's under CDBG is required.

Uh the the rule is 25%, 5%.

25% must be Section 3 low-income contractors, 5% should be targeted Section 3 workers.

And so that's that's what we're here to do, and that's that's what I wanted to present to you all.

Okay.

Yeah, if I can add.

Um, Kevin was also under contract with us to help recruit um minority homeowners for our uh whole home repair program.

So we've worked with Kevin and Kevin's organization in the past, and Kevin does great work, and we all kind of go way back in terms of the relationship.

The challenges that we face is that the redevelopment authority is a municipal authority under the city.

It's a city municipal authority.

So we can't deviate from like a pen bid or a um uh public purchase when it comes to how we handle the bidding process.

But what we can do, Kevin, is that with every use of public purchase or use of pen bid, there's a technical assistance or a training component.

So if you really want to get these contractors to be able to get municipal work, not just here in Allentown, but anywhere throughout the state, we could request a technical training session that they learn to use Penbid.

Like once you're registered, you're registered.

And those guys could in effect get work not just in Allentown, but they could get work in any of the municipalities that are using Penbid.

So you get automatic notifications from Penbid that anybody's posting any work.

So if we could conduct a workshop for your gang, get them all well trained in Penbid, they would probably see and be able to interact with anything that goes up on Penbid through any municipality that's using it and be able to grab that work.

As long as your guys are certified, because that's that's the big thing, not certified as a minority contractor, but certified in the work they do.

Like if you're gonna pull a plumbing bid, you've got to be a certified plumber, a licensed plumber.

If you are gonna pull an electrical bid, you gotta be a certified licensed electrical plumber in the jurisdiction where you're pulling the bid.

Yeah.

You know, we're very familiar with that.

We we actually have uh three of our contractors four years ago, because see all the public housing authorities use pen bids.

So we've been using it for a while.

The last training we did, um, it was scheduled to be a pen bid.

There were some people who already knew it and just were getting to know it better.

We have contractors who have successfully gone from getting no bids to securing two to three year contracts with not only the Allentown Um housing authority, but also with the Lehigh County Housing Authority.

So that's one of the parts, and I don't know if I know you've got a lot of those CDBG grants, but if you look in our goals, which I actually have a copy here, we are very familiar with that process.

Our issue is that when you are a section three low-income worker, getting that work, there's a section pen bid where you can put yourself as a subcontractor.

But if the bid, but if the bid requirements don't require the GC to use those section three, they go on, they go unmatched, or they go on looked at.

Yes, in other words, make a requirement that 10% most bid contracts have that.

Um requirement right now it's at the state level.

Um, but because we've been we've pushed the legislation here in Allentown, we're saying this is the Allentown Redevelopment Authority.

So if you guys can make 10%, so whoever the GC is, they go through the bid process and say, hey, you have to reach out to this list of Section 3 contract workers who are certified workers, and we have a set aside of 10%.

That's what we're that's what we're requesting.

Okay.

And just a quick point of clarification.

We keep talking about bids here.

These are not bids.

We're asking for proposals from developers about how they would redevelop a property.

Oh, I thought it was and so like the developer's gonna come in, pitch their idea.

I want to do this, this, and that, and you know, I think it's gonna cost me this, this, and that, and we're gonna look at them and say, Yep, we like that idea.

Like, and then we sell them that property, they go out and secure contractors to go do the work once we've agreed on what the project is gonna be.

So that's where, and maybe it's through our development agreements that we can work some of this minority contracting language in.

This isn't really minority, this is low income.

I'm sorry, low income.

I'm a just clarifying.

No, no, no, I appreciate that.

Um so but I want to be clear like the point of the process that we're like this is not a bid, it is a request for proposal, and we are asking for the developers to say, how would you redevelop this property?

What would you turn it into, and show us that you have the financial wherewithal to do it, the experience to do it, that kind of thing.

Um, so it it's not like we're not obligated to take uh the highest offered amount for the property um or anything like that.

We're not so to me it's almost premature for the construction side of it.

Um, I I didn't realize that, like I said, there were a lot of construction guys there.

You know, what what you speak about, that's exactly what uh Betham Housing Authority has done.

When they put their bids out, all GCs are required to submit their presentation on their experience with section three.

And so it basically says if you're gonna be the developer and you're gonna do this, you need to tell us your experience, how you work with low-income contractors.

Because I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you, um, up until recently, the irony of this is crazy, but the uh Trump administration has just uh submitted the new portal for S3 compliance reporting.

We've been sitting around for four years waiting for public housing authorities and municipalities that have CDBG requirements to submit their reports.

HUD just released it uh I think it was like a month ago.

So we know no low notified all public housing authorities, but it's to that point.

The GC has to under have an understanding of what is required, and he has to pass that down to the to the subs to say, hey, I gotta have so many guys who are under 56150.

Um you can count your current staff, but you also have to make a commitment.

So that that is my recommendation to the redevelopment authority.

Okay.

Um thank you.

I would I would be prepared to offer a motion here and now.

Um what I'm concerned about, Kevin, is that um what if we can't what if we can't find a contractor that's capable of doing the work that and then we have a requirement to use 10 percent.

What I'm afraid of is that we would end up giving contracts to companies out of Philadelphia.

So I I mean I don't know.

Why would you say my Philadelphia's minority community and and low income advocacy communities much you know stronger than we are here?

I mean, there are years ago, but I beg to differ.

We from 20 and 22 Latino contractors in this area that fit the 80 percent mean.

I have a list of over 35 Latino only Latino contractors who are awesome in their skills.

I I agree with what you say might have been the case years ago, but this this place has changed.

There's a lot of folks who have moved here, and there's a lot of folks who have skills and uh take some credit for that, frankly.

But but you know what I what I'm wondering is can we say that those contractors have to be from Lehigh and Northampton Counties?

Yeah, you can't do that.

You that that's that's illegal.

Is that the same?

Yeah, that's legal.

You can't specify, you can't specify where someone would be from.

That's considered keeping food.

Because you won't lose it if you just say 10% of each project.

If you can't come up, trust you, we have enough folks in our system alone, and we haven't you it hasn't been done yet, so you don't really know.

But to worry about something that might not be able to be filled, I don't I don't think that's the goal here.

The goal here is to make the opportunity available.

Yeah, but if you're requiring a 10% go to a certain kind of contractor, and that contractor doesn't exist.

But can we can we really do some thorough Yeah, I think we should do some thorough investigation into this because the other thing that's a little concerning to me is that we don't use CDBG money the way apparently others do.

So we use home dollars.

So I want to make sure that we're putting this clause in the right place.

Yeah, home funds are that if we're using home dollars, then it needs to be something that goes in a home contract versus the CDBG.

Like I I want to make sure that if we do this, we're gonna do this right.

Okay, so can we reach out to the other?

Well, I think we're also gonna need Josh because we want to make sure that we're not doing anything illegal.

So you need to authorize Josh to do that because I can't.

I want to but I want on the public record that we're uh we're in favor of this concept.

What was your going to be your proposed motion?

I don't think we need the motion.

But what were you gonna propose?

I was gonna propose that we do exactly what Kevin's asking us to do.

I mean, like I said, if you look at this the city of Allentown legislation that we push, and all it's saying that you know City of Allentown is committed to its its low-income construction um base here in the city, and we want to provide them the to eat off of these federally funded dollars just like everybody else.

I I think that this is doable.

I just think we do it the right way on our own.

All right, I'm cool with that.

I'm I'm good.

You know, I think we have our marching orders okay for me.

Frankly, I would love to see this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Why we're ahead, Kevin.

Huh?

Get out of here while you're ahead.

Before he goes, I think he just said a comment.

No, I just uh one question.

I know we spoke offline, but I didn't ask you a lot because we were really titling on what we should say and what we should not say.

So we had a very brief conversation.

I want to say that in the record.

How many contractors on the top of your head do you have like within your Sophia right now?

Right now we have 32.

From the range of cutting grass to building cutting grass, electricians, carpenters, cleaners, um drywall.

Yeah, but guys who do floor, it runs the gamut.

Um and so that's that's why I say, you know, our our thing was for those of you who don't know.

I used to be the recreation uh the bureau head for the city of Alltown.

And I do know that there were times when I was in such a rush and I needed a project done.

All I needed was three quotes.

I could give out any work of up to 39,000.

And so there are a lot of people in this city eaten off of bureaus and departments that you know aren't really bidding.

You know.

Well, Kevin, those days are over.

Like we have a most progressive vetting.

That's good.

That's that's good to know.

But what I'm what I'm saying is, I mean, we we have the reverse training, and that that item is that number is still on the city's website under that 39,000 dollars.

And so just what I'm saying, there's an opportunity for a lot more people instead of the regular same old folks who are already already always getting the work, I should say.

Yeah, okay.

Oh, before you go.

So um, I don't know how it goes or what to say, but so I've been proposing for quite some time.

Different contractors, different snow people, and I would like to figure out a way to work with Kevin and the 32 contractors that he has as well.

If we can't propose the 10%, at least begin to have them included in whatever it is when we're looking for snowblowers and shovelers and things like that.

You can bid it out.

You can pack it is the request for proposals.

And Kevin is on the distribution list, correct?

No, no, that that was another thing.

I didn't know about it.

When you and I met, I asked you to get on our purchasing department's.

I'm on the purchase department, but the reason I knew about that because of Mark's post and I mean um, yeah, Mark's post and LinkedIn.

That's the only reason I saw it.

So I don't know if it was listed in the newspaper.

There's two separate things.

There's redevelopment authority and there's the city.

So you've gone to the cities.

So you should be getting all of the requests for proposals, all of the bids, all of the go independent bids, everything that the city's purchasing department is putting out, you should be getting.

So this is the first RFP she's putting in the packet since this new board and our new merger.

We have the RPs for 540.

Those but those are different.

I'm talking about professional services.

So you can get on the list for anything we put out for professional services, can go out to you guys as well.

Right, correct.

So used to be public purchase, we begin to notice.

I'm uh I'm I search Penbid every day.

So I usually put in the three cities and then see what bids are available.

Um, because the way Penbit works.

It could it doesn't, it doesn't align you with just city.

You have to actually do the search.

Um we actually did a part of our pen bid trading to our contractors on how to get on the preferred vendor list.

Now there's two different applications they have to fill out.

Right.

A lot of guys have their city or and women have their city license, and but they're not on the preferred list.

So when we went to that first request that on that that tour, there are a lot of folks there, and I was saying to myself, man, how did how did they know about it?

I didn't know if like I said, if it was a public announcement, or you guys have an email list of preferred vendors that you have.

And so I just need to to straighten one thing out.

We don't have preferred vendors, okay?

Our law department will not allow us to have preferred vendors.

We have a vendor list.

No one gets a preference.

No one gets a preference over another.

We send that list out to anybody who registers as a potential vendor, and then they are all their applications are vetted evenly with a cost proposal separated so that we get to see I'm willing to shovel your snow 40 hours a week within 10 minutes of the snowstorm at four inches, and this is what I'm willing to do for you.

After we throw out all the ones who were not willing to come out on a holiday or a weekend or a whatever, and we pick the ones who will provide the service we want.

Only then do we see their cost proposal.

When we see their cost proposal, then we see where is the most economical bang for the buck to get exactly what we want.

And if you want, I can sit down with you and go over the city's whole process of how that works, because I think that's something we need to do with this board as well, so that everyone understands what true municipal procurement regulations were under.

But it's not there's never a preferred list versus a non-preferred list.

What there is a list of people we can no longer do business with because they either walked off the job, unless we're not going to be able to state pass inspection, didn't pay, uh, didn't return funds that were advanced, whatever.

That's the only kind of list we have is that we've had a bad experience, and our our uh purchasing law and controller will not allow us to use that vendor again.

Gotcha, gotcha.

I'm as we understood.

I just do know the forms that we handed out.

Uh there was a comment somewhere on it said get on the city's for list, but I'll go back to that.

And like I said, I don't know if you had an email list that you sent out to folks.

Yeah, we'll make sure you're on the list.

Yeah, okay.

And like I said, I'm trying to teach a lot of these guys to be proactive also.

You know, we encourage them to follow them, get license training and say how many people fill out the form, and like three people did.

Um, so it's it's it's a process.

So I just wanted to present that to you all.

Oh, and please get your 32 contractors to fill out their forms and get their business, like their business privilege tax paid, like their their little fee, their $35 and those kind of things, so that they're not excluded, because that's part of what we also have to look at.

Yeah, yeah, we we we discussed it, and that's that's a part of our grants right city.

Yes, Kelly.

Easier to find work in the area that's like.

Yeah, guys, yeah, Fred did an excellent job with penbid.

Good.

And uh it was really eye-opening for a lot of the contractors.

But like I said, I've been I've been a part of Penbid for like the last probably five, six years.

Um, and we're passing that training on to our contractor.

Jessica, do you have something else?

Thank you for your time.

And you said I can go to the city's websites and see the notes.

You will see the agenda.

Okay.

So yeah, you still have the uh Allentown redevelopment website, and it says the meetings are at Alliance Hall.

No, it that should be changed because it's it has the it has the there's an old one and a new one.

Yeah, the old one is real old, the new one is still old.

Yeah, yeah, I printed it out.

I'll give it to you before the end of this meeting.

But thank you all for your time.

Please consider me.

Thank you, Kevin.

Both old and new, say uh Alliance Hall 245 North Sixth Street.

That's why I had asked where the meeting was because it says alliance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kev.

Thanks, Kevin.

Very good.

All right, very good.

Um, I believe we'll be calling for executive session uh towards the end of our meeting.

Uh we'll jump to agenda item number 5.0, which is the staff financial reports that are in our packets and were emailed to us the other day.

Yeah, so um, I think if you start on page eight in your packet, that is the budget to actual as of February 28th.

And as you can see, the only income we really have coming in right now are the uh rental income for the first and second floor and the garage at 9th Street and the two parking spaces at New Street.

However, we have been drawing on the CDBG funds, however, it's for prior year expenses, so the revenue is showing up in 2025.

Uh not in not on this sheet, but we did receive 76,000 in February.

That was to reimburse for the just compensation for 129 chestnut and for 811.

Uh so that I checked with our auditor that will be showing up as 25 revenue, but we receive that.

We also deposited on March 4th 171,056 16, which is reimbursement for the 2025 salary costs that RACA paid the city, and also for an additional 71,000 of operating expenses, and the final invoice for 28,943 84.

I just submitted to the city this week.

So hopefully that gets processed, and then we'll have spent all of the 200,000 of the CDBG 2024 allocation.

Um the 2025 will be coming up later today.

We'll be discussing that, but we are working to draw down those CDBG funds, even if you don't see it on here.

Uh the expenses then are listed in the notes column.

That lists what makes up all of the numbers in the actual column.

So right there, you should be able to see what we've spent in the first two months of 2026.

Uh next is the balance sheet comparison.

I think really the only thing I would note.

Well, you'll see on the first page the uh CDBG operating 1203 on page nine for 200,000.

So that's the 200,000.

I was just talking about 171,000 has been received and was deposited, and the remaining 29,000 will hopefully be received and deposited within the next week or two.

Um but then on page 11 under uh the property held for development 1500.

You'll see it jumped from last year at this time 711 663 to now 905302.

That's because that now includes the purchase of the 1238 to 1240 North 19th Street property.

So that's been recorded.

And other than that, I don't think there have been really too many changes month over month.

Uh I don't think there's really anything else of note to point out, unless you had any questions.

I hate to do this every month, but when are we getting rid of the uh property man we manage?

We can't get rid of it, Alan.

I can't because it's tied to grant money.

We have another like two years left on that.

I need that.

We can't we can't we can't sell it, we can't do it.

Do anything with it, yeah.

I agree with you, Alan.

On the um budget, actual you have 175 to Keystone property management.

What are they managing?

The 475, that's actually on your bill list for this past month.

You want to talk about 108?

Or do you want to talk about what they did or how do you what did they do for that?

They boarded on 19th Street.

They voted at 19th Street for the carbon move for us.

Oh, okay.

And how did we come to use Keystone property management?

That's who the city uses, and so we just we've been using them for our board ops.

And so they are just familiar, so we use that.

Any other questions or all good?

With that, we'll entertain a motion to approve the financials.

Oh moved motion.

Um, I don't I don't agree.

So no, my vote with no.

You don't want to second it.

No, we're gonna have a second thing.

Okay, I don't know.

I don't agree on okay.

Uh well, I guess that'll get pushed to next month, then I'm not I'm not up on my Roberts rules.

Don't think the chair can actually second the motion.

I don't think the chair can either.

I believe it'll have to be tabled until you have other board members.

But I think this is speaking to just are you asking for a board up RFP?

No, I don't I just don't agree.

With the paying them, I don't agree.

So I'm not gonna agree on a budget that I don't agree on.

That's the step in the financial.

Um to make decisions up to a certain amount.

That's okay, but I don't agree.

But it was it's four hundred and seventy-five dollars that we need to do.

And then there's a web design.

That was the only question I asked, but I don't agree with the paying for the web design.

I just don't agree.

And I think as a board member, I just don't agree.

So I don't okay.

Then well, let me be clear.

That's the financial statement is the financial statement.

What we're voting on here.

What we're voting on here that I don't agree on.

Whether they made the decision, who made it, how it got made.

I don't agree.

We're not approving the budget, we're approving the the uh spending budget.

I don't agree.

All right, well, I guess we'll not though you want to which you I'm not real good on my German, but I could try.

I just I don't think that there's a what's you said the the the motion that Alan has made is not to approve paying these specific vendors to recognize to approve the accounting report that's been given, which you don't have to read onto.

Right.

I'm very aware.

And okay, in that case, we can't proceed at this point.

Correct.

You'll approve that second.

I think enabling this motion.

Okay.

Now the only thing I need to make sure you understand is that these bills have already been paid because of the fact that they're below the threshold for staff authorization.

So just so we have that on the record that they've already been paid, and that the approval of the financial report is what's being tabled.

Okay.

You know, I've done this stuff for 40 years.

I've never been in a situation where something like this are currently you you gotta figure this out.

Can we refuse?

I mean that's why we're a board and we vote is for that reason.

I don't know how we force her to approve it.

So um it it's not approving the I understand uh doesn't accounting for it.

Completely understand, and I think she understands as well.

So I all we'll do is kick this can to April.

So do you want to will you entertain a motion to uh table this?

Yeah, I I moved that okay.

I did okay, I didn't know.

All those in favor of tabling our financial report to April.

Aye.

Alan, you're an aye.

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries.

Okay.

Uh let's move to invoices for payment, which is agenda item number five point two.

Which we kind of just went over a little bit.

And I believe these are in our these were emailed to us.

These why are we asking for the vo invoice payment?

So right.

So the invoices um in their package, they were a total of uh there were total 25 invoices, and the total is eight thousand three hundred and seventy-three dollars and forty-seven cents.

I'll move that approval.

There was uh cedar landscaping was in there, Allentown parking authority for them to monitor the new street uh parking areas, PPL, uh legal bills.

Yes, we have a website.

No, I don't think we have an 18 here.

Yeah, we don't print.

No, it's not printed.

This was in our this was in our digital.

Oh, sorry, it's in the same way.

Yeah, it's go through the printed pages go through 17 and then there's a gap and then start again at 81, which is the grass and snow RFP.

Essentially, it's the it was the invoices that were on the in the column.

Hold on, I'll pull it up on the screen if we just give you one second here.

Oh we're waiting for a motion or what?

No, she's pulling up the invoices on the screen.

But they are in essence in that last column of what our expenses were that Ellen gave you on the other report.

So they're your fun your last column.

Right.

Is very outdated and it's very difficult to use.

It's why if you ever come to our city council meetings, it's often not on the same page as the city council meeting.

We're in the process under an RFP through our IT department to replace the system with an ADA compliance system with closed captioning and a number of other things.

So part of why it's so cumbersome and we always have to say wait when you start a meeting is because there's huge delays.

So Kelly is gonna have trouble pulling it up, so she's gonna have to show you on her laptop.

Sorry, I don't mean it just blocks my thing.

So there's cedar landscaping here.

Just do you want to I have my sorry.

So those are the bills.

I saw these on my sound.

So there's city landscaping.

There is um the City of Allentown stormwater fee, which we have to pay.

There is clear field plumbing for um a repair at 9th Street.

Um there's money that was returned.

Uh there's legal fees, and then there's Keystone property management for two of the properties.

Well, uh so I already moved the uh approval of the uh payment, did I?

Kelly, what is the total on that?

It's eight thousand three hundred and seventy-three dollars and forty-seven cents.

All right.

So Alan is moving to approve.

Jess, do you second this?

No.

Oh really?

Okay.

I mean, did you think I was like, didn't agree with the first one?

You thought I was gonna agree with the pay case.

We gotta find a way to solve your your issue.

Because we you know, this will this will cripple the ability of the authority to pay its bills in the future.

So uh I'll move that so for failure of uh for a second, I'll move the tabling of this uh motion as well.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Yes.

I don't have a problem approving some.

I won't approve the whole budget.

You know, I don't mind paying Josh.

I don't mind paying the city of Allentown the fees we do, but the other things that I I do.

But again, this is the right.

So it's either I can approve some or all or but I won't approve all.

You're not stopping the payment of it, you're stopping it's already been approved.

Stopping the stewardship of I mean, you know, somebody would question their our financials, they would they would find financials that are that are flawed.

But if that's how I feel, Alan, and I made it very clear.

But then if I don't stop the stewardship on that aspect, then that's for me, then it's going to continue in the aspect that it is.

That's how I feel.

But you're you are hindering our ability to have clean financial.

And we are hindering the ability to have other people on the list.

That's how I feel.

You know, like we have the same thousands of dollars going to the snow removal company.

And if we can if I continue to say yes, then that means I'm okay with it.

And I I have not felt right since the last invoice that we did that one.

I understand that there's a process and people are busy and there's a lot going on, but I feel if I do not if I continue to vote on the thing that I unsettled in my pit to keep playing, then I'm not okay with that.

It's not, it doesn't say we're me right.

Yes, yeah, I have huge respect for your principles.

So just to be clear, I I totally respect that.

But I don't think this is the way we're gonna get there because I think what you're gonna do is you're gonna hinder the the clean accounting process for the for the but I don't see it so clean.

You're you're exactly saying exactly how I feel.

So if I don't feel comfortable and I don't see it so clean because it's not so clean to me, then I cannot continue to pay somebody.

Like I said, I could pay Josh, I could pay the city of M.

I could pay a lot of the things, but I can't vote to agree.

I know they've already been paid.

I'm very aware.

Um, you know, I I know we're voting on the paperwork of it, but I cannot stop the payment of it because we already have ordinance and we made policies and we did that, but I'm not going to be okay with it.

Next month you'll have the four of you probably and you can agree, but I won't because it doesn't sit right with me.

All right.

Well, so you're not even are you are you willing to move the tabling of the uh motion?

Can you table that can you approve the second the second move to a table to be seconded?

If you're not gonna second it, then we don't have we have nothing.

Right.

We don't even have we have nothing.

And I I think it goes a little beyond that because I don't know that we can continue to pay bills.

I think that if we went back to the city administration and we said to the city administration that we don't have approval for a financial statement at this point, I think the recommendation, and I can't speak for our law department, but I'm pretty sure it would be that we stop using the threshold that was decided and we stop paying any bills because I don't think that we can in good faith move forward with continue paying bills.

Now, I believe that there are two issues.

One is the board up, one is the website.

It's up to the board, I think, to resolve those issues.

We did the RFP.

Kelly worked on the RFP to go out to bid for the snow and the grass.

If there are more RFPs to be done we make a commitment that we will help to do them but I don't know that I can put Ellen in the position of paying bills with an unapproved financial statement.

But so this is uh I mean we need a solicitor's involvement in this because um we cancel the contract with that we can with that website I would like an executive session with the board and our solicitor please if that's okay I would like an executive session with our board and our solicitor if that is possible.

Okay.

Y'all kicking me out we're kicking the staff out everybody stick with us all right it is now two forty seven and we will jump into executive session.

Can the record reflect that the staff's staff is now left yes of course thank you I have to stop the recording you have to give me one second yes thank you