Okay, we're gonna kick off um city council meeting um tonight uh March 18th and we're gonna start with our invocation moment of silence thank you all right all agents to the five states under uh individual justice okay uh can we start with a roll call please missa here mr.

Bender present Ms.

Gerlock here Miss Moda here Mr.

Pungo here Miss Santos here and Mr.

Napoli here Mr.

President everyone is here thank you uh we'll start with uh courtesy of the floor portion.

Uh this is for courtesy of the floor uh of items that are not on the agenda this evening and uh when you come up just please state your full name for the record.

I have Betty Collar.

Okay, great Betty Collar Tillman Street.

Um last meeting that wasn't brought up about Mrs.

Binder's appointment was that um her company Ripple Community received a one million dollar grant from the city C D B in November of 2023, and that wasn't brought up, and I think that's a very important thing.

I know you guys have already voted on it, but you have to look at how this looks to the public, how it violates the trust of the public, and it's not that Mrs.

Binder is not qualified, trust me.

She sounds like she's probably the most qualified.

It's the uh the appearance of impropriety that is the problem, and now that the money is involved, it just gives the appearance the conflict is not from her volunteer status, but from her immediate family relationship to a city council official, and her financial interest in the company receiving municipal funds.

In many cases, according to the Pennsylvania State Ethics Code, such a transaction could be deemed void or illegal if not fully declot disclosed and handled correctly.

And if I remember correctly, I don't remember seeing any public displa disclosure of that in the March 4th agenda.

And it also says that to avoid legal issues, the councilman must immediately abstain from voting on any budgetary matters involving that housing board, and proper disclosure must be made in the public records.

Like I said, I don't think I saw that public disclosure.

And I just wanted to bring up again that two years ago this council passed a four to three no confidence vote against Mayor Turk.

And then I don't think anything has changed in those two years.

This is a mayor that retaliates about against anybody who questions his administration.

We've seen that recently, and his snubbing of Becky Kiss for the Parks and Recreation Board, and in his firing of Karen Ocasio and Human Resources Director, Nadim Shassad.

These are clear cases of spiteful retaliation.

And now with Mrs.

Binder's appointment, we're seeing instead the appearance of quid pro quo and preferential treatment.

If the appointment was made with the understanding that the council members vote or influence will be swayed in favor of the mayor, this is a direct violation.

Mayor Turk's actions have already cost the city taxpayers over $550,000 for lawsuits and investigation on charges of discrimination, and yet the public still has no facts and no explanation.

None of those disclosures from either Morris or Curtis have been given to the public, and they should be part of the public record.

Now, if a complaint is filed with the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission about this appointment, additional fines will result, and the taxpayers will be liable for that as well.

And um, I also wanted to say that um other than her being a very good qualified candidate, um her husband's on city council, and he's considered by many to be the swing vote in council in favor of the mayor's agenda, so that's another strike against it.

I know it's probably too late to do anything, but I mean, if a if uh if a complaint is filed, you all got to deal with it.

Governing is not all puppies and rainbows, Mr.

Napoli.

You know, you have no you have to make tough choices some.

Thank you, Miss Collar.

And if you want the public trust, y'all need to start earning it.

Thank you.

Um, sure.

Sure.

Just real quick, just for clarification.

Are you aware of any conflict of interest in this process?

So to my knowledge, when you first shared the information that this was your spouse that was recommended to join.

I did as counsel recommend that even at the subcommittee level that he not put the name forward.

And it was publicly stated during that meeting that there was a relationship between Ms.

Bender and yourself.

What it what's her last name?

It's Bender.

Bender, okay.

Yeah, so that was disclosed, and you accused yourself even from the nomination.

Thank you.

Okay, uh moving along.

We're gonna uh jump into contract approvals.

Oh, I'm sorry, I need to uh we don't we don't have any more cards, but if you okay, I'll make an exception, but in the future, please file a card just so we can track.

But um your full name.

I'm Mary Tomlinson, I live at 373 West Liberty Street, and I'm just wanted to announce the uh flyer in the back about a cleanup at our beloved Union Terrace Park on Saturday from 9 to 12, and it's being put together by a great organization, the Little Lehigh Watershed Stewards, and we're all a part of that watershed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so we're now we're gonna jump into contract approvals, and uh our first one is R 37.

Author R 37 is the authorization for a contract with Bell 4 USA group and the estimated yearly sum of $25,000 to perform standard boarding up services for commercial and residential properties.

One bid was received, contract shall be up for up for three years with two additional one-year renewals beyond the contract expiration period.

Okay, thank you.

And uh normally we have Miss McNeil.

Do we did we change that to the administration at this point?

Cool.

So is there any any uh updates from the administration on this?

No, this is a standard board up contract that we have on file every year or so as they expire.

We go out for bids and we renew with whatever company provides the most economic response.

Okay, thank you.

Um any questions or comments from the dais or the public on R 37?

Okay.

Uh can you please call a vote?

Miss Affa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender, yes, Miss Gerlock.

Yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli.

Yes, Mr.

President, I have seven y's, no nays.

Sounds good.

Moving along, R 37.5.

Is the authorization of cooperative contracts for granicus LLC?

Okay.

And any uh any thing from the administration on uh this contract, would you have something for this?

Yeah, so this is just the change order of the existing contract.

The current contract expired in February of 2026.

This is a contract extension through June 30th of 2026.

Um to put us in line to do an RFP for the entire system within the council chambers here.

So it's simply a contract extension.

Okay through June 30th, correct?

June 30th, correct.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any questions or comments from my colleagues or the public on 37.5.

Okay.

Can you call the vote?

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Ms.

Garlock, yes.

Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli.

Yes, Miss Safa.

Oh yes.

Mr.

President has seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Uh next up, our minutes of our previous meetings will start with March 4th, 2026.

This is the March 4th public hearing intermunicipal liquor license transfer.

Uh Ms.

Gerlock.

Yes.

Miss Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Miss Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

And Miss Safa.

Yes.

All right.

And then the City Council meeting minutes from March 4th, 2026.

Uh Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Miss Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Miss Affa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

And Miss Garlock.

Yes.

Okay.

Thanks.

Next up, uh, regard regarding visitors to all our city council meetings.

We encourage you to park for free in the government deck next door to City Hall.

And to please see our city clerk for a voucher to pay for your parking.

Any old business tonight.

Okay.

We'll move along to reports.

Uh, first up, uh City Council uh will be holding special meeting on March 25th at 6:30 p.m.

to consider the appointment of Frank Kane as managing director.

April 8th at 6 p.m.

will be the parking authority.

And on April 22nd at 6 p.m.

will be uh discussion and a report from a NISTA.

Um next up, budget and finance, Chair Pungo.

Thank you, Council President.

The committee has not met since the last council meeting, and the next meeting is scheduled for March 25th at 5 30.

That's next week.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh community and economic development, Chair Gerlock.

Oh, yes, thank you.

Um, this committee met this evening.

Uh we discussed a number of pass-through grants that we'll be voting on later tonight.

Thank you.

Okay, human resources administration and appointments.

Chair Bender.

Uh thank you, President Napoleon.

The committee has not met since our last council meeting, and there are no future meetings scheduled uh scheduled.

Thank you.

Parks and recreation, Chair Santos.

Thank you.

Uh the committee met this evening.

We had a series of presentations from the EAC and from our sustainability coordinator.

Um, our next committee meeting is scheduled for April 1st at 6 15.

Okay.

And public safety, Chair Apa.

Uh yes, we met this evening, and uh there's no other scheduled meeting.

Thank you.

Public works, Chair Mota.

Thank you, Mr.

Prison.

The committee met March 11th, the next meeting scheduled for April 1st at 6 p.m.

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

The committee met on March 5th, 2026 at 6 p.m.

The next meeting is not yet scheduled.

And next up is our controller's report.

Mr.

Glazer.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I have a P Card review for the month of December 2025.

This came out on March 9th.

Um this review, uh, we reviewed 484 documents for a little bit over 141,000.

Uh the first issue that we came up with is what we believe is a violation of aim 1106, which is operator responsibilities uh when driving a city vehicle.

In this is a city vehicle past the school bus, it was captured with the stop sign.

It was captured.

Uh the violation was sent to the city because it is the owner of the vehicle that is responsible for the violation, and the city paid it and paid the convenience fee.

Um, it's the controllers opinion that um operators should be responsible to maintain their vehicles in a safe manner at all times, whether it be something like this, because I think we can all agree that it's not a good look to pass the school bus with a stop sign out, especially when so much of what we do here in the city is public safety related, and to possibly put the life of a of a child to danger is not something that we want to be identified with at any point in time.

Um the department had responded with a very thoughtful response, um, which lists the uh conflicts between what the aim is between what the state law is and between what bargaining unit contracts may be, and generally you're gonna end up contrary to a bargaining unit contract, you're an arbitration.

Uh, another issue that was addressed was that we're supposed to keep logs of vehicle usage.

Now, clearly, with an emergency vehicle on an emergency, you're probably not going to do that, but if somebody's taking a city vehicle and running the Home Depot to get a supply for a facility or something like that, clearly that's not an emergency situation.

There should be adequate time to make sure there's a we know who's driving that vehicle.

And in this instance, uh, they really couldn't determine uh definitively uh who's driving the vehicle.

So I think there's some some things we can work on to have these processes work better uh going forward in the future.

And um unfortunately there's no great resolution to this at the time being, but we're warned as forearmed, and hopefully we can deal with it in a more effective manner in the future.

Um also in a more quotodian.

Uh we identified one overpayment, uh there's an unsupported balance of $58.72.

The department was advised, and they'll be applying for credit.

Uh we had 10 instances where incorrect expense accounts were used, the departments revised, and journal entries were done.

Um we had two instances where sales tax was paid on invoices, one for six dollars and eighty-four cents, one for dollar and seventy-four cents.

While we're always interested in getting the money back, at some point we acknowledge that the effort to get the money back is greater than the dollar amount.

Then what becomes important is that the department is fully advised, and the people using the the P cards are fully advised, and these transgressions, offenses, whatever mistakes are not repeated in the future.

Um we all know from our own personal uh purchases the credit card fees become kind of ubiquitous.

Um the city allows surcharge fees up to ten dollars, and that's a pretty recent change.

It used to be you weren't allowed to pay any of them, but that's really the environment we're in.

Um we noted uh one invoice with a charge of ten dollars and seventy-two cents and one with ten dollars and fifty cents.

The departments revise, and they're good they'll try and get a credit.

Uh, every once in a while we run into something even larger on a larger person purchase, might be 30 or 40 dollars, and we believe that should really be actionable.

Umtimely payment of invoices.

We shoot for 60 days.

Uh we had a number of invoices, six that were paid beyond that.

The departments were revised, and they responded with the reasons why the invoices were paid at 60 days, and also in MUNIS, one of the things that we depend on is adequate documentation, whether it be the receipt or whether it be the invoice.

There were seven instances where adequate documentation was not provided, the departments were revised, and the documentation was uploaded, and that's my report, Mr.

President.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Glacier.

Um for the mayor's report, uh, nothing was submitted.

Um so we're gonna move along to ordinances for final passage.

We'll start with Bill 10.

Bill 10 amends the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase of 346,158 dollars to partially fund the reconstruction on Lehigh and Union Street as part of the Pennsylvania local share account grant the city was awarded.

This grant is fully reimbursable, and once the project has been completed, the city will be reimbursed.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues or the public on Bill 10?

Okay.

I'll vote.

Miss Affa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender, yes, Miss Gerlock, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli.

Yes, Mr.

President, I have seven years, no names.

Okay, next up is Bill 13.

Bill 13 amends the 2026 grant fund to provide for a supplemental appropriation of 250 50,000 dollars from the PADCED local share account grant.

These funds are a pass-through grant that will support the resurrected community development corporation.

Okay, and this was uh Miss Garlax Committee?

Uh yes, 13 through 17 uh were in the committee tonight, and they're all construction related.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions or comments from the diaspora or the public on Bill 13?

Mr.

Bender?

Yes, Miss Gerlock?

Yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos?

Yes, Mr.

Napoli?

Yes, and Miss Safa.

Yes, Mr.

President, I have seven yes and no nays.

Thank you.

Uh Bill 14.

Bill 14 amends the 2026 grant fund to provide for a supplemental appropriation of 400,000 from the PADCED local share account grant.

These funds are a pass-through grant that will support the Jewish Community Center of the Lehigh Valley.

Okay, any questions or comments from the DIS or the public on Bill 14?

Miss Gerlock, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, Mr.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Miss Safa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay, moving along.

Bill 15.

Bill 15 amends the 2026 grant fund to provide for a supplemental appropriation of 296, 878 dollars from the PADCED local share account grant.

These funds are a pass-through grant that will support the Museum of Indian Culture.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any questions or comments from my colleagues.

Or the public on Bill 15.

Ms.

Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo?

Yes.

Miss Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Miss Safa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

And Miss Gurlock.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Next up, Bill 16.

Bill 16 amends the 2026 grants fund to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $1 million from the State Office of the Budget Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

These funds are a pass-through grant that will support the Bomb School of Art.

Okay.

Any uh questions or comments from the Dais or the public on Bill 17?

Miss Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Miss Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Miss Safa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Miss Gurlock.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay.

And now we're on to Bill 17.

Bill 17 amends the 2026 grant fund to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $775,000 from the PADCED local share account grant.

These funds are a pass-through grant that will support the Allentown Art Museum.

Okay, thank you.

And any questions or comments on Bill 17 from the DIS?

Or the public.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Miss Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

Miss Safa?

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Miss Gerlock.

Yes.

And Miss Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Next is Bill 18.

Bill 18 amends the 2026 Capital Fund budget to provide for a transfer of $55,000 from a completed capital account for the redesign of traffic signal upgrades at 17th and London Street, 17th and Turner Street, 17th and Chu Street, and 17th and Walnut Street intersections.

This project was mostly funded through a multimodal transportation fund grant.

This will transfer the unused funds from a completed capital project to the correct account for these services.

Okay, great.

And this was in uh Chair Moto's committee.

Yeah.

And he was uh favorably.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the Dais?

Or the public on Bill 18?

Okay.

Miss Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Miss Safa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Miss Gerlock.

Yes.

Miss Moda.

Yes.

And Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Next up, Bill 19.

Bill 19 amends the 2026 Capital Fund Budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $55,295.39 cents.

This was the result of payment in lieu of tree plannings from the Allentown School District, the Waterfront Development Corp.

North Sixth Street Properties, Executive Education Charter School, East Penn Properties, QR 3, 309 East Hamilton Street, LLC.

Funds will be used for the purchase of new street trees.

Okay, great.

And this was in your committee, Miss Mother?

Yes, they was, and he was forward favorably.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any questions or comments from my colleagues.

Ms.

Gerlock.

Yes.

Um, we had a bit of a discussion on this uh during the EAC presentation.

Um just um, I mean I'm I'm gonna vote tonight because it's here, but I I do think that we should amend this in the future based on conversation that maybe what other cities are doing to actually cover the cost of the tree.

I I agree with you.

Yeah.

This is costly.

Okay, okay, Mr.

Pungo, go ahead.

Yeah, no, and I'll also add on.

I think there's some good conversation at the meeting.

Um obviously this is money we're getting into the city, but you know, this specific circumstance, it was decided that the trees could not be planted, so that's why the fee in lieu of was allowed.

I think there's some greater conversations again on our shady tree ordinance and understanding what opportunities there are for people who maybe feel like a similar situation, not just developers but city, you know, residents at large.

So I didn't is there value since since uh Kyle's here to speak to that or just gonna I know he had some suggestions on some possibilities with other cities.

I don't know if there's any, or would you like to just keep going for now?

Yeah, I mean I think uh for public comment.

Yeah, that's okay.

That's right.

Thank you.

Cool.

Okay, so um any other questions or comments?

Okay, so now we'll take public comment on bill 19.

All right, good evening, everybody.

My name is Kyropsky, 528 North Burke Street.

So I'm a member of the Shade Tree Commission.

I'm not here speaking on behalf of them, but I would just like everybody to know that increasing the the cash in lieu of fee is something that we've been working on for a long time.

Um we've been in conversation with other cities and doing research on this for a good chunk of time.

Uh we recognize the value of trees and the money that you know it's hard to put a dollar value to it.

There are ways to do it, but um, it's difficult.

The current method that we utilize in the Shade Tree ordinance is the valuation of a pen dot value for a red maple tree, which we know from our uh recent um urban forestry master plan tree inventory is the most common tree here in the city, uh, but we are interested in finding a more equitable balance um and how we can make that that cash in lieu of fee uh more equitable to the real value that the treaties bring to the community.

And and again, you know, this is something we constantly have in discussion here.

How do we bring more revenues into the city that are not falling on to the taxpayers' backs, but rather developers that can pay them?

I think increasing the cash and low fees is a definite great way to do that.

So I welcome anybody on the commission.

You know, we welcome questions and and inquiry and research.

We're definitely working on it, and I'm happy to fill anybody in on where we're at in that process.

Thank you.

Yeah, well, I'm not sure that I have a meeting regarding the public works.

Okay, great.

That's happy to hear.

Um thanks for all the feedback.

Any other public comment?

So we will call a vote on bill 19.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes, Miss Safa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender, yes, Miss Gerlock, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, and Miss Santos.

Yes, Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay, next up, Bill 22.

Bill 22 amends the 2026 general fund budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $15,000 from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of the State Fire Commissioner grant to the Allentown Fire and EMS department for the purchase of equipment.

Okay, and this was in Miss uh AFA's committee.

Yes, and it was a forwarded favoring.

Okay, thank you.

Any uh questions or comments from my colleagues or the public on Bill 22?

Okay, Miss Affa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender, yes, Miss Gerlock, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, and Mr.

Napoli.

Yes, Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay, thanks.

And we're gonna move along to our consent agenda.

So we have R 38, which is 231 North 7th Street and 232 North Church Street, apartment renovation sewage planning model module.

R39, which is the appointment of Tom Burke to the new system nuisance abatement board of appeals with the term ending March 19, 2028.

R40 is the appointment of Ramon Nunez Jr.

to the Board of Parks and Recreation.

Um term ending 319, 2031.

R41 is the appointment of Susan Gilbert Zenka to the environmental advisory council with her term ending January 1st, 2029.

R42 is a sewage planning module at one center square, and R 43 is the certificate of appropriateness for work in the historic districts at 1515 Linden Street.

Okay, any questions or comments from the dais on any of these consent agenda items?

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay.

Mr.

Bender, yes, Miss Girlock.

Yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes.

Miss Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli.

Yes, Miss Safa.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no names.

Thank you.

Uh next up is resolutions for final passage.

We'll start with R 44.

R 44 is the appointment of Council President Napoli to the AEDC board.

Okay.

And I'll recuse myself from this vote.

Um, and any questions or comments from my colleagues?

Or the public on R 44.

Okay.

Uh Miss Gerlock.

Yes.

Miss Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Miss Santos.

Yes.

Uh Mr.

Napoli Racuse himself, and Miss Affa.

Yes.

Uh Mr.

President, I have six A's and one abstention.

Okay.

Moving along, R.

Oh, I'm sorry, Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Six years and one abstention.

All right, thank you.

Um R 45.

R 45 approves the submission of the formal application to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for $87,000 from the statewide local share account grant that will support the purchase of new equipment for the Allentown Police Department.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues?

Any questions or comments from the public on R45?

Can he use leave with any equipment?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um, yeah, you know, if you I'm sorry, um, I missed certainly certainly gives us a heads up.

Sure, yeah, thank you.

What this is for this is a no-match grant through DCED that um is under the umbrella of uh emergency services, of course, and the command component of emergency services.

And there's not a lot of funding opportunities out there for vehicles.

So this one's for a command component vehicle.

Uh we call it a command post where um you know intelligence can be gained, interviews can be had, resources can be applied and discussed, and things like that.

Our current one, oh my gosh, we our current one we got back in early 2005, I believe it was.

It was retired from the city of Bethelham.

It was a bomb truck.

We traded a few spots at our fire academy for the truck, and we with members of the crisis negotiation unit, we equipped it ourselves with some donated items from Stanley Vidmar, and we built the truck ourselves, but unfortunately a lot of the parts are no longer available for it, and it's had a lot of mechanical issues, and then this funding opportunity came along to replace it.

So we spec'd out the vehicle with all the latest technology with all the cameras, the monitors, the equipment that's needed for State of New York Command Center.

And what it does though is there's uh there's best practices and guidelines that are set by accreditation standards and EMA standards that call for this type of equipment and command unit to be had for a city our size.

So again, it's a no-match grant, and we need council approval just to apply.

Okay, thank you for that.

And uh sorry I went out of out of order.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues?

Okay, and any questions or comments from the public on R 45.

Okay, Miss Affa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender, yes, Miss Skerlock, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, and Mr.

Napoli.

Yes, Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay, next R R 46.

R 46 approves the submission of the formal application to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for 295,350 from the statewide local share account grant that will support the purchase of new equipment for the Allentown Police Department.

We just do that one.

Yep.

So uh Chief Grass, go ahead.

Yes, if I may.

This will replace and upgrade um most firearms that the department uses.

Um it will also replace aging ballistic shields that are needed by the department, and again, it'll it's a no-match grant through DCD under this specific umbrella, and um it aligns with best practices and the state accreditation standards as to when this equipment needs to be replaced, and we're at that stage right now where it needs to be replaced.

So this is perfect timing just to apply for this grant.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any questions or comments from my colleagues or the public on R 46?

Okay, Mr.

Bender, yes, Ms.

Skerlock, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli, yes, and Miss Sapha, yes, Mr.

President, I have seven Y's and no nays.

Okay, thanks.

And uh R 47 is next.

R 47 is transfer approvals for public works traffic bureau, 168,000 and parks and rec ten thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine dollars and fifty cents.

Okay, and are there any comments from the administration on either one of these for us?

Um answering your question okay.

Sounds good.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues regarding both these transfers?

Okay, or the public on R 47, two transfers.

Okay.

Miss Gerlock, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli, yes, Miss Affa, yes, and Mr.

Bender, yes, Mr.

President, I have seven years and no needs.

Okay.

Next up, ordinances for introduction.

Uh we'll start with Bill 23.

Bill 23 amends the 2026 Trexler Fund Springwood budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $13, 468.81 cents from the Springwood Trust portion of the Trexler Funds unappropriate 2026 balance per General Trexler's will.

Okay.

Any questions, uh any comments from the public on Bill 23.

Okay, this will be referred to um Ms.

Santos committee.

Thank you.

Okay, next is Bill 24.

Bill 24 amends the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase of 1,087,000 and 390 dollars to fund the upgrade to the intersection of 19th Street and Roth Avenue as part of the Green Light Go grant the city was awarded.

This grant is partially reimbursable and requires match funding.

Thank you.

Any uh comments from the public on bill 24.

Okay, this will be referred to uh Miss Moto's committee.

Thank you.

Okay, and next is Bill 25.

Bill 25 amends the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase of 95,222 and 50 cents to the traffic signal upgrade expenditure account to repair traffic equipment at two intersections due to weather-related damage that knock down two traffic signals.

Capital fund cash will be used to fund this project, and the administration is requesting that this one be acted on immediately.

Okay, thank you.

Um can we uh can we have um director Shada give us some information on this on bill 25 yes, Council President?

Good evening, good evening, council.

Uh so what we're doing this evening is we're asking the city council to uh introduce this ordinance to transfer the funding and suspend the rules and voted on it this evening.

Uh we had two intersections that were damaged through a windstorm uh a few weeks back.

Uh one of the intersections is at six and walnut in the second intersections on Union Boulevard in front of Coca-Cola Park.

Obviously, these are major arteries that we have within the city of Allentown that are heavily traveled, and for safety reasons, uh we're asking city council to suspend the rules and vote on this this evening so we could get the funding into the account and start uh start doing the work to get these intersections back in service.

Okay, thank you for that uh background.

Any comments from my colleagues, Ms.

Moda?

I think that is important to fix to fix it, but this is what I would like to know.

When was it uh knocked down?

You said a few weeks ago.

That's correct.

Yeah, when a few weeks ago.

It would the the so the wind damage came in.

Um, don't hold me to this exact date, but it came in occurred about three weeks ago.

Um we had to go through our internal process and having our risk department review the claims to see if it's something that could be honored through our risk department, or if we had to find the funding within our capital fund accounts, and that's kind of where it kind of got held up a little bit.

Uh so we found the funding in one of our capital accounts and we're transferring the money this evening so we could proceed with the repairs.

Another question.

If it's $95,000, um, is it will it be cheaper if we go through through a bid, or would this be considered an emergency?

It's it's an emergency repair, uh, council person.

Um, even going through the bidding process, our typical process is gonna be anywhere between six to eight weeks from the time we assemble an RFP, put it out to bids, uh, review the bids and award it.

Um, we're just we I don't feel comfortable waiting and going through that process.

Uh, this is an emergency situation, and obviously traffic signals play a major role in our traffic overall traffic safety.

I agree with you 100%, but also I would like to know um who's gonna be the one facing this and when will it take place if we voted yes for this tonight?

So we received the quote from telco.

Unfortunately, there is a longer longer lead time on some of the infrastructure that's needed, the mast arms and the polls, and that's another reason why we're asking city council to suspend the rules and vote on it this evening rather than going through the bid process.

Uh the overall bid process, like you said, is about six to eight weeks, and there is a long lead time on uh the mast arms and polls due to supply chain issues, and that could be another few months out.

So we're just trying to shorten that that time frame.

Have we worked with them before?

Yes, we have.

They've done a lot of work in the city of Allentown and uh they they do good work.

Okay.

Um before we get to that.

Um go ahead, Ms.

Garlock.

You just want to make sure I understand.

So there uh an emergency situation was created, but because the administration wanted to do their due diligence, they took about three weeks to you know make sure everything the risk the risk management had to go out and make sure everything was um assessed correctly, um, and that there's an internal, it sounds like there's some sort of internal administrative procedure to deal with uh emergency situations like this.

That's correct.

And we we did have a meeting with our risk department where we're streamlining that approach.

So go moving forward, uh that that process is gonna be a lot.

That window is gonna be a smaller window time frame window to make get those repairs done.

Got you.

Okay, no, just great to hear that there's an internal administrative procedure for an emergency like this.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

And and I and it needs to, I mean, we don't want anyone getting into an accident, so of course it needs to be fixed, but I think that it was um important to ask.

It's very fair.

Um if anyone would like to make an uh a motion that would like to make a motion to suspend the rules tonight.

I'll say okay.

Um so we would we have a uh a motion and a second.

Um so for the amendment, which um did you want to read it, Miss Ortega, or should I?

Okay so it's the um Bill 25 amending the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase of 95,222.50 cents to the traffic signal upgrade expenditure account to repair traffic equipment at two intersections due to weather related damage that knocked down two traffic signals, capital fund cash will be used to fund this budget.

So you would add that six to seven, and then section six that pursuant to section two and eight of the homeworld charter, and upon affirmative vote of six of seven council persons, the 14-day period between introduction and final passage is hereby eliminated.

Okay, thank you.

So on this vote, um, if we have at least six yeses, that will take care of this and uh move this for forward and uh eliminate the 14-day waiting period.

So um any other questions or comments from the diet on the amendment.

Okay, any questions or comments from the public on bill 25 along with the amendment?

Okay, we'll call a vote.

Ms.

Affa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender, yes, Ms.

Gerloch, yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Miss Santos, and Mr.

Nathalie.

Yes, those are now suspended.

Okay, so we're good to go on bill 25, and that brings us to resolutions for introduction, which we don't have any this evening.

Any new business from the diet?

Okay, we covered the upcoming meetings.

Any good and welfare?

Okay, I will conclude this this evening.

Uh we'll adjourn the meeting.

Thank you.

Oh, so uh Natalie, I