All right, uh, we're gonna kick off our our next meeting or city council meeting for May 6th, 2026.

Uh we'll start with an invocation and a moment of silence.

Thank you.

And Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, uh Ms.

Ortega, can you please do a roll call?

Miss Alpha.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender?

Present.

Ms.

Gerlock.

Here.

Miss Moda.

Here.

Mr.

Pungo?

Here.

Miss Santos?

Here.

Mr.

Napoli.

Here.

Mr.

President, you're all here.

Okay, great.

We'll I'll kick this off with the uh courtesy of the floor.

Uh this is for um non-agenda items, so anything you'd like to speak about uh that is not on tonight's agenda.

Um just make sure you fill out a card and do we have any cards?

We have no courtesy of the floor.

Okay.

So we'll move along.

Uh there will be courtesy of floor opportunities during the agenda items as we move through the uh our agenda.

Um so we do not have any contracts for final approval, so we will start with minutes of our previous meeting.

Uh so this is for approval of previous of the April 15th, 2026 meeting minutes.

Uh Ms.

Affa.

Uh yes.

Mr.

Bender, yes.

Miss Gerlock?

Yes.

Ms.

Mota?

Yes.

Mr.

Pongo?

Yes.

Miss Santos?

Yes.

And Mr.

Knappley.

Yes.

You have seven years and no nays.

Okay, great.

And uh regarding communications, uh, as usual, visitors to city council meetings are encouraged to park in the government deck next door to city hall, and to see our city clerk for a chaser to pay for your parking.

Um into reports.

Uh City Council uh will continue public meetings with our community partners to strengthen communication, improve coordination, become better informed, and focus on identifying opportunities for Allentown residents, our business community, and visitors.

Our next two meetings.

Um, the first one is the Allentown Housing Authority will be uh City Council Chambers on Wednesday, May 27th at 6 p.m.

And also the Allentown School District uh and City Council will be conducting a workshop on Tuesday, June 23rd at 6 p.m.

Uh budget and finance committee, Chair Pungo.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh the budget and finance committee met this evening.

Uh there are no future meetings scheduled, but we will look to set up a committee of the whole session to review budget priorities.

Great, thank you.

And uh community and economic development, Chair Gerlock.

Uh yes, thank you.

The committee has not met since the last council meeting, and the next meeting is Thursday, May 14th at 6 p.m.

Thank you.

And uh next up, human resources administration and appointments, Chair Bender.

Thank you, President Napoli.

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

Thank you.

Parks and recreation, Chair Santos.

Thank you.

This committee has not met since the last meeting, and our next meeting is scheduled for May 20th at 6 p.m.

Thank you.

And public safety, um, Chair Apha.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The uh committee is not met the last meeting, but the next meeting is scheduled for May 20th at 5 45 p.m.

Thank you.

Uh public works, Vice President Mota.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The committee met this evening.

The next meeting is not yet scheduled.

Um, but the next meeting will be scheduled for May 20th at 5 30 p.m.

Okay, thank you.

And uh rules, chambers, intergovernmental relations and strategy.

Uh this committee has not met since the last council meeting, and there are no meetings scheduled at this time.

Uh for control's report, uh, Mr.

Glazier is absent this evening.

Um mayor's report, uh, you have to hear no submission.

Is there a mayor's report?

No.

Okay.

Um so moving along into uh ordinances for final passage, which we actually have none this evening.

So we're gonna start with the consent agenda.

Um go ahead, Ms.

Ortega.

So the consent agenda includes R 58, the certificate of appropriateness for work in the Historic District, 334 North 9th Street, R59, 1935, South Fifth Street, sewer planning module, R60, South Hall Street Apartments with the sewage planning module, and R61, Bear Steps Management LLC at 728 Union Boulevard Sewage Planning Module.

Uh Mr.

Bender.

Oh, sorry, my bad.

That's all right.

We'll take uh comments or questions from the dais on those four items in the consent agenda.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay, can you please call the vote?

Yeah, Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Ms.

Garlock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda?

Yes.

Mr.

Pongo?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

Ms.

Affa.

Yes.

Mr.

President, you have seven years and no nays.

Thank you.

Um, so moving along, resolutions for final passage.

We'll start with R62.

R62 is a resolution of the City of Allentown to close out DCNR community grant project VRC tag 28280 per DCNR grant requirements.

Okay.

Any comments from the administration on R62?

No.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the DIS?

For the public on R62.

Okay, can you call the vote?

Ms.

Garlock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda?

Yes.

Mr.

Ponko?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

Ms.

Affa?

Yes.

And Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Next up, R63.

R63 approves two transfers.

First one for Parks and Rec Special Events, $31,803 and 85 cents from special events account number 46 into account 68.

It's not for new expenditures, but rather a reallocation of existing budget funds to ensure that payments for materials and supplies for all city run events for the entire year of 2026 are processed from the appropriate and designated account.

And the second transfers for compliance, $13,000 to cover the cost of water sewer rebates to citizens per revenue and audit.

Okay, thank you.

Any um comments from the administration on the R63?

No.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the dais?

Any questions or comments from the public on R63?

Okay.

Miss Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Ms.

Santos.

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Ms.

Affa?

Yes.

Mr.

Bender?

Yes.

And Ms.

Skerlock.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have seven years and no nays.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, next up, R64.

R64 is a resolution requiring an audit and review of the mayor's traveling expenses and an independent review by an auditor for compliance with all relevant statutory and ethical provisions.

Okay, thank you.

Um any comments from the administration on I have a statement that's gonna you want me to speak first?

Sure, go ahead.

I uh usually council go first.

Oh, okay.

I've been looking for the administration and everything.

Okay.

Um you like um I mean we can go first, but um okay.

Yeah, I mean I don't think it matters, so which let's do we'll go first.

Um any questions or comments from the dais on this R64?

I have um a comment.

Go ahead.

Good evening.

This resolution is straightforward.

It calls for a complete accounting of the major travel expenses, including receipts, records, and total costs to taxpayers.

While some information may already assist, it is often presented in pieces or without full context.

This resolution ensures a clear and consolidated review.

Residents also have the right to request this information through the right to know process.

We've recognized that travel can be a part of the mayor's official duties.

However, when public funds are used, those expenses must be clearly documented, reasonable, and in full compliance with law.

I want to be clear.

City council has the responsibility to provide oversight.

That responsibility requires us to review how taxpayers' dollars are spent.

This is not about accusations, rather, it is about accountability.

Transparency is not optional in government, it is fundamental.

And if we're not willing to stand for the transparency when we need to seriously reflect on what we're here serving in the first place.

I'm simply asking for the public disclosure of funds.

Thank you.

Okay.

I say this just to be sure.

I put down the ethical provisions in the resolution, but I forgot to take it off the agenda.

So that shouldn't be there.

That's my mistake.

Okay.

Any other questions or comments from the dive?

Go ahead, Mr.

Bender.

If it would be acceptable, I would I would appreciate hearing from the administration just before I ask some questions because it would it would be it would help me get some information, I think.

If that's acceptable.

Yeah.

Any uh anyone else want to go first before my comments and agreed.

Uh anyone else?

Okay, Mr.

Kane, you're up.

Okay.

Go ahead.

It's a couple minutes.

Please bear with me.

I I put together a little statement.

So part of a mayor's job is to promote the city.

The city of Allentown benefits from having a proactive mayor who is quite possibly the city's biggest fan.

He spends all weekend, every weekend on his personal personal social media, crisscrossing the city, interacting with residents, you know, and making himself generally available.

That's how our mayor approaches the outreach portion of his office.

When I first came here, I became aware, I didn't know, and I've never met a mayor who did this that every time somebody buys a house in the city, they got a knock on their door from the mayor.

Last weekend he knocked on the door of a of a young man in his twenties who lived in Allentown, worked hard, saved up, and bought a house.

Um, you know, he knocked on his door over the weekend, and the entire extended family was there.

They were doing a blessing of the house.

You know, they have like the memory that the mayor knocked on their door.

That's the way he approaches he approaches his social media, and that's the way he approaches his job.

And so I like to keep that in mind when we when we look at the mayor's travel and and networking.

So, as I said in the opening, part of every top executive's job is to be the face of the organization.

In the public sector, every governor, every mayor, every county executive is the human face that we put on government.

In order to most efficiently move the organization forward, it's important for someone in the organization to create, maintain, and nurture relationships with potential funding partners in the federal and state government and in the nonprofit sector.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for a reference, maintains 13 overseas trades offices.

They cover more than 40 countries or staffed by contract employees whose total cost is probably a few hundred thousand dollars annually.

It's hard to calculate.

One of my former bosses, Lehigh County Executive Bill Hansel, was the president of the ICMA, the International City County Management Association, one of the professional organizations that we belong to.

He traveled extensively during his time as county executive.

And he was also the first managing director of Allentown under the 1969 charter.

He served here from 1970 to 1973.

My most recent boss, Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong, used to travel all the time, raising the profile of Lehigh County on the national scene.

He ended up in leadership positions that brought money and brought notoriety back to our area, you know, in the White House and in other places.

We belonged to CCAP, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, and we all had to go.

Staff went to all of their committees, and we were at the forefront of lobbying, we're at the forefront of new policies that were developed that benefited counties.

I'm old enough to remember that some of the things that we now considered the crown jewels of the Lehigh Valley came into came into existence through these kind of networking and trade organizations.

The Wind Creek Casino started out as the Sands.

And it's here because someone knew Sheldon Addison in a relationship that started with the PA League of Cities and Municipalities, which is now the U.S.

Conference of Mayors.

Coca-Cola Park is here because among other things, some community leaders met the owners of the Trenton Thunder through networking in Jersey.

I told you that to tell you this.

As the elected representatives of the voters and the taxpayers of the city of Allentown, you have every right to ask questions of this administration, and it's our responsibility to answer them, even if it's uncomfortable, especially if it's uncomfortable.

Um it's a foundational component of American democracy that citizens can hold their government accountable.

As the traditional press morphs into the less traditional blogosphere, it's important that we listen to those voices too.

If some segment of the public has concerns about things relating to the travel of the mayor and the staff in that office, it's because we haven't done what's necessary to brief all of you and the public.

People should know how their money is being spent, they should feel good about it.

So let's try to do that now.

First of all, we have a great controller here.

The items that your resolution call for are things that the controller does routinely.

Um, and in the rare case that there's an inconsistently and inconsistency, he brings it to you, but every travel expense is audited by the independently elected controller as a matter of routine.

Um he's not here today, he can't be with us today.

So out of deference to him, I'm gonna I'm gonna give him a chance to look at the numbers that I'd like to present to you before I actually give you the packet of all the information, but you know, that that's something that happens anyway.

I took a preliminary look at all the expenses, and they're minimal.

Um here's an example.

I'm reasonably comfortable reporting that the entire travel and professional development budget spent for the mayor and his staff in 2022 was $5,748 and 22 cents.

$5,748 out of a budget of $240 million.

As managing director, I hope we never make a math error, but that's kind of a rounding error against that size of a budget.

This body just considered four budget transfers this evening earlier in the agenda, and they were all greater than that.

So, what did the residents of Allentown get for their $5,748 in 2022?

In 2022, Mayor Turk met Pete Buddig at the U.S.

Conference of Mayors on a trip to Washington, D.C.

Um, to hear him tell it he grabbed Pete Budej by the lapels and said, Allentown needs help, people are dying, send us money.

And uh, and so they did.

We received $312,000 for safe streets, and then a $384,000 demonstration grant, and then $1.1 million for traffic safety planning at Tillman Street and Union Boulevard, which is a single most dangerous stretch of road in the Lehigh Valley.

All that for an investment of $1,500 for a conference fee and some minor ancillary travel costs.

But the networking relationship building isn't really, it's not a it's not a tit for tat one-time transaction.

It's not I go, I meet donors, and I come back and they fund me.

You go once, you go again, you get to know people, you get to know more people.

It's like any other networking.

So in attending events hosted by the U.S.

Conference of Mayors, it puts our mayor in rooms with policy expert experts and mayors who are working on the challenges that face cities across the nation.

Housing, infrastructure, and economic availability.

Out of that organization, we also received a $50,000 grant from the U.S.

Beverage Manufacturers Association at the end of 2022 that we called Move with the Mayor to promote physical activity among our residents.

But all of this networking broadly created the opportunity for success with our recompete grant.

I don't want to take away from the hard work that lots of people in this community put in to bring that 20 million dollar federal investment to Allentown.

But the U.S.

Conference of Mayors put our mayor in the room with the assistant secretary of the EDA, and it gave him the opportunity to talk through our application with her, and that helped push us over the finish line.

So that's what we pay for.

Let's let's look at what we get for free.

I mentioned during my confirmation that I was surprised at the quality of our department heads.

It turns out many of them were trained by Harvard.

Uh many of our department heads have received trainings from Harvard in the areas of data management, talent attraction and retention, and general workforce management paid for by the Bloomberg-Hardford Partnership.

The mayor has attended three Bloomberg City labs with staff.

They're 100% paid for by that organization, and he meets with mayors from all over the world who are facing similar challenges and comes away with ideas.

We have gotten a hundred you've approved $160,000 in receipts for Love Your Block, which is a resident-led initiative to improve public spaces and resident porches and and and other things.

And the goal of that program is that it'll outlive the money.

That the way that we approach interacting with our residents and the way that we listen to what they want, and then allow them to lead the discussion is something that that'll become part of the way the city does business.

We have the youth climate action grant for $200,000.

We have the Rockefeller Foundation's accelerator for America $250,000 grant to help with ancillary needs around recompete.

And you know, broadly the takeaway here is that our mayor's networking efforts that take him and some staff out of the area occasionally from time to time to time provide tens of millions of dollars in benefit to the taxpayers at a very nominal cost.

If I were the VP for marketing of a Fortune 500 company, if I saw those numbers, I would say, why is this guy ever here?

Like keep him on the road.

There's no better investment of a dollar.

There's no better return than what he brings back when he's doing this kind of networking.

I think you should keep in mind that the social media that you see is his personal social media.

When he went to Madrid, he he it was paid for by Bloomberg, and he at personal cost stayed an extra day to run in the marathon.

Um perhaps we could do a better job of making that clear.

Um and as far as the as far as the audit, we already do this audit.

That is what the controller does.

We have all those receipts.

We have all those things.

I don't know why you would want to pay an independent auditor.

I can't 40,000 to 100,000 to do a forensic audit to to audit what we already audit.

You could choose to, but I don't I don't know that that's the I mean you'd be auditing, you'd be paying the same amount of that we paid in travel expenses in four years to do the audit.

Um so I think it's a credit to Allentown that these organizations choose our mayor.

They don't choose Matt Turk, they choose the city of Allentown.

It's a city of Allentown that's represented.

It's the city of Allentown seat.

Uh the city's finally receiving, I think the recognition that we deserve as the third largest city in Pennsylvania.

And it's not just, you know.

It's I I would say it's not it's it's there are a lot of intangible benefits that come.

You know, you ever see when you know there's a m Western movie and and every every studio does a Western movie because that's what's all in that echo chamber.

Well, the name of Allentown is in that echo chamber now with all of those nonprofit grants we get mentioned.

People talk to us when the New York Times were in, you know, major publications.

And I think that it's I think it's a good, you know, we could do a better job of of explain if I have to give you this explanation, it's because you haven't heard it before.

But we hope to continue to be transparent.

I'm gonna, you know, I have I have four years worth of receipts, but between Eden and Muniz and with the controller not being here, I just want to sit with him before we release them to you.

But you already have them.

It looks to me like you he is under we've underspent the budget, the travel budget three of the four years in the first term, the budget that you all allocated.

So we'll provide that to you as soon as I get to meet with the controller, and you'll have everything you need.

If you want to come in and look at receipts, I would say just look at the receipts.

I don't I don't know why you'd engage another firm and pay them, you know, the money that they'd ask to do that.

But that is our position, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Um thank you, Mr.

Kane.

And um most of my colleagues know, but um just for public record, Mr.

Glazer is recuperating.

Uh he's been out the last uh few days, and um he's unfortunately unable to attend tonight.

Um but he will um be back to report on this issue and to provide his insight um when as soon as possible.

So um back to my colleagues, Ms.

Hafa, go ahead.

Well I appreciate the report on what he does in Allentown.

Um what I why he isn't here or hasn't in the past uh four years that I can remember reporting on anything all the things that you were telling us about.

He should be here telling us that.

And not only just tonight, it should have been after every time he goes out of town.

We would like to have her a report on what he brought back to Allentown from all these expenses.

Now it's a simple ask what we're asking.

We just want and I I believe Mr.

Uh Hanlin major, you're not gonna do the uh audit thing, right?

Uh so it's there was I made a mistake in terms of not taking the reference to have people maybe out there, my understanding.

My understanding was you wanted to report from the controller, and if you are okay with that, you wouldn't do an audit, because the audit to have your auditor do that, you would need a new resolution to authorize that expenditure.

All right.

It's a simple ask.

I think the taxpayers want to know, and I think it's our duty to get the receipts, find out.

That's all we're asking.

We're not making any accusations, but the only thing I have to say here is he does not report.

I don't remember, as long as I've been here with him, one report, which you just gave a very detailed report, not him, you and and I know it's his reports.

My question is, why doesn't he come here?

And I think council should start with this uh ask that every time he goes away, we want to report where there's verbal sitting there or a written report.

A written report would be really great.

And and these these are simple asks.

We're not asking, we're not trying to crucify, we're not doing any of the above, but we have the right to know you gave us an idea of how much he brought to the city.

We want to know how much it costs us for him to go and um get everything he brought.

Is it is it worth it?

Did we make any money?

Do we is it a good idea?

We that's all we're asking.

If we're not asking for much more than a report from our uh city controller, that's it.

We'd be we'd be happy to do that.

I um I don't know why I haven't been here for four years, but we'll do it now.

Uh Ms.

Carlett, go ahead.

And I think residents would love to hear all that.

I think residents would love to know that their mayor is off learning and networking and bringing back valuable resources.

Um I I would be proud to share that.

What's that about that?

Um so um I mean, for me, I signed on to this resolution, not in like a hey, let's gotcha thing.

More so like we we just finished, not just finished, but we went through a budget season in which we had to raise tax.

Well, many folks voted to raise taxes.

We will more than likely be in that same scenario.

And it is an optics thing.

Sometimes it is just communication when you've got people who are struggling between buying bread and their meds, and then they go on social media and they see their mayor in a foreign country running a race.

Yeah, it's optics.

So if in fact it's being paid for by Bloomberg, it let's talk about how wonderful it is that we've got Bloomberg paying for, you know, for him to go network with folks.

Um I think it's great.

I think it's especially now that we have a managing director.

If you look at the dynamics of how cities run, the mayor is supposed to go out and be the figure head and do the networking and the kissing babies and all that kind of stuff.

And then the managing director is supposed to be here running the city.

That like that's how it works.

Uh and now that we have that dynamic, it's great.

Uh so I look forward to learning all of the wonderful places that our mayor goes and all the resources that he brings back to the city.

Um I'm sure the residents also look forward to that.

I think the end goal is that regardless of the language of the resolution, um, I think that's the goal.

We'd all just want to learn.

Um, and then there could be some of these wonderful organizations that would also be opportunities for us as council people to go off and learn and network.

Um, I'm sure there are.

We we used to do that at the county.

I mean, everybody went to CCAP.

Um, you know, many of our commissioners, it seems to me like that makes sense.

Yeah.

And then maybe even sitting, and it'd be great to know which city employees also have had uh these opportunities, these wonderful networking opportunities made available to them, and then the wonderful valuable skills and insights that they also have brought back.

Yeah, and how we have benefited from that.

And if the it's a simple ask, like we're not, this is not, you know, I don't think that is something negative.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being crucified just because I'm asking, you know, and and it's not, I mean, we're elected officials here, and we have to make sure that we we are good steward of um, you know, people's uh taxpayers' money.

And uh again, all I'm asking is just receipts.

That's all I'm asking.

Um and and and again, um I think that I agree with you, Ms.

Ms.

Gerlach, that we'll be good to find out, you know, the places and who you know who's who's willing to, who's more than willing to pay for those trips so that we can all take advantage, you know, of that and elbows with you know wonderful people with a lot of money so that we can bring it here to the city of Allentown.

But it's a simple ask.

It's just a simple ask.

And again, I know that we have a controller that I have respect a lot.

Um, but the reality is every time I ask, we get bits and bits of pieces.

We don't get the whole, you know, uh the whole pie.

And um we just want to know.

Okay.

Um Mr.

Brinder, go ahead.

Thank you.

So a couple, I guess a couple comments on this uh this resolution that came through.

I completely agree with everyone.

I understand the value that comes with with traveling and in and networking with different organizations.

Um I think universally everyone in this body is is probably been faced with similar questions with uh residents saying, where is the mayor today?

What you know, what what's happening with this?

And I think they're fair questions, and I think uh part of that probably the um the root of this resolution is to try and find that information out.

I think you you hit it uh the nail on the head on this.

Um the theme of communication, I think is it is a is a frequent thing that's coming up.

Um again, I'm I'm I'm optimistic that you're working on that.

Um I think uh frequently it's um assumed that just because something's posted on social media that has come it's being communicated, but I believe that you know, in the in in in a public forum like this, that's a much more um it can be articulated differently, and it's it's it's recorded, so it makes it a little bit more factual.

Um so to that said, you know, transparency, accountability, I think we're all on the same page.

My concern with this resolution is that what we're doing, we're not gonna get there with it.

Um this is uh uh an audit perspective or an audit resolution isn't going to get us the information we're actually looking for.

I mean, effectively what we're saying is the controller's office doing their job.

And that I take issue with because I don't think that they're not finding information.

I believe that they're presenting when there's a uh discrepancy.

I believe they're presenting um the details when they give the controllers report.

And if a lot of this information is funded through a Bloomberg or through another entity, we're not gonna see that on an audit report because that that's not a transaction that's coming through the budget line item.

That's a that's that's genes being provided.

So my concern at the end of this is we're gonna get a report that says pretty much exactly what the controller is saying, and that there was an amount of money in a budget, that budget was spent to these things, and here are the receipts for it, and then it's gonna close.

Um I'm concerned in the language of this, we use the word shell for the uh independent audit, which is initiating that we must then send this out to someone at an amount of money that I'm not sure what it what it's going to be, and it concerns me that we are going to spend more money to duplicate the effort of what the controller's doing.

I say all this to say I think we all want the same thing.

I just don't think that this is the language to get us there.

Um it sounds like what we're looking for, at least in hearing everyone, is a a public presentation from a controller's perspective and from the administration's perspective.

I think the frequency of that 15 days seems a little aggressive to provide that information.

I'm open to whatever that looks like.

I think something that's more of a semi-annual thing would give us a lot more, a lot better picture.

Um, I completely agree that prevent presenting this information more frequently would go a long way to both uh meeting the needs of what the public's asking as well as what this uh what the what council is asking for.

But at the end of the day, this body approved a budget.

My understanding based on the controllers, we're within that budget.

So if if the concern is maybe we're not seeing the return on investment for some of these meetings, then it's incumbent upon us to say come budget time next year.

Maybe we don't think maybe this budget isn't worth uh worth uh that's the word I'm looking for fulfilling.

Um but that's something we need to evaluate, and I think that feedback comes from when the when we get a presentation.

I just don't see this getting us there.

And I think my other concern on this is our controller hasn't even had the opportunity to speak to this tonight.

Um and we're basically making an entire document here saying that the controllers I would I would love to see input from the controller to at least say, hey, this is what's happening.

So I I think I may have a motion to put forward on this one, but I would like to, if it's okay, hold on for a second for that just to hear if anyone else has any comments or thoughts um and then go from there.

Go ahead.

Um Mr.

Pungo, go ahead.

Yeah, definitely.

Um I can understand everyone's sentiment here.

Uh I I definitely echo the fact that we all want transparency and accountability.

Um I've said this a couple different times at different either committee meetings or maybe council meetings, but I get away with saying I wasn't here before.

So I I don't know if we ever actually made the ask, and I think it's important for us to make the ask and say, hey, look, if every time the mayor travels, we want to see a report, let's ask for that.

Let's say, hey, let's get in if that's a resolution.

If that's obviously this doesn't achieve that, but if we're want to say every time he travels, he comes, he provides a report out, whether that's 15 days, 30 days, whatever, again, that that's up for discussion.

I I see the validity in that to council person Garlock's point.

I think the city would love to hear about some of the stuff that's going on.

And I think that in and of itself is one portion of it.

Um to council person bender's point, I agree.

I have concerns with the independent audit, just because realistically, if an audit all it does is verify the validity of documents.

And so I I trust in our controller to receive the documents now.

If if he finds inconsistencies, he's supposed to highlight them and bring them up.

And so my concern again, similar to council person bender's if we're doubling efforts and paying thousands of dollars for someone to tell us what we already know.

That being said, that of the resolution, the four bullet points as it's currently written, that's item number four.

So that would be the only thing I'm necessarily against, because otherwise the first initial audit requirement is is the controller basically gathering those funds.

And I think you know, if if we gather these receipts and we can provide like a detailed report, I think that essentially achieves what we're looking to find.

Um, and if for whatever reason we feel like you know there's something missing, we could always ask the administration, but I think the intent is just what can we do to get a full picture of what's going on?

Uh and I think nobody here is opposed to that, you know, getting the full picture of the expenses uh being curred.

Um but yeah, that for me, if we were to vote on this resolution, I would want to drop that fourth point just because I don't truly see the financial benefit to the city of Allentown on spending thousands to prove what we already know.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Um other questions or comments from colleagues.

I do not believe this resolution authorizes the expansion.

Funds.

So you you would have to have to go back.

Understood.

Um there'll be a chance for public comment.

Um Mr.

Kane, I think this this echoes what we heard here, which goes back and I'll say what others have said just to the lack of communication.

And um I can tell you that back in February, I believe it was one of the February council meetings.

I really pushed Mayor Turk to tell us about his last trip.

And if you remember you weren't here, um, but he talked about you know reading that kid's schools, and then he talked about something else, which was all great content, but then he finally got into the what did he do in his last trip.

So it it feels like pulling tea sometimes, and I I I don't understand why because the Mr.

Lac's point, I mean, he's he's doing work out there that's beneficial to the city and our residents.

Um, and for whatever reason, um he's not coming, he's not sharing it, which again is odd because there's so much positive coming out of it.

And um, so I I definitely agree there needs to be more um because we want to understand um you know what he's learning and and the impact that to our residents.

Um we all want we all want to know it because it's just it's positive.

It's it's good stuff.

So um that's something that um we're gonna um count on you, and I'm optimistic that you can help um share this information in a more timely manner in a more consistent manner.

Um yeah, you know, Mr.

President, I can.

I I'll tell you, I have here with me today.

I have the I have the past four years worth of what I'm pretty sure are all the expenses.

I it was my first thing that I did in Munis in our system myself.

I'd like somebody else to see it.

I'd like to show it to the controller.

But any of you are welcome to look at it after the meeting.

You know, I'm not comfortable releasing it officially, but y'all can look at it.

Uh and I gotta tell you, as a guy who worked for Ed Rendell and lots of politicians, Matt Turk is the most boring politician I've ever seen.

I mean, he paid he bought a Heath bar in an airport a couple of years ago, and he had a dinner for six dollars and eighty-six.

That's what's in here, you know, and and air and airfares and hotels and memberships to conference fees.

So you're all welcome to see it.

I'm planning to provide everything you've asked for as soon as I know that it's actually the the entire document.

I want to just make I don't know about other line items and so forth.

I just want to make sure.

Okay.

And you were you were flying through your presentation, but just to be clear, the one year was 5,000.

Was that last year, 2025?

No, I think I think that was 2020, uh I think that was 2022.

Just want to make sure that we all heard the numbers correctly.

Yeah, because I heard that 2025.

Is that what it was?

That's what I think.

5,788 dollars, I think it was.

I think that was 2022.

Yeah, I heard two.

Do you have a total by chance?

I've just because the resolution called for his entire term.

Do you have a total?

Um I'm not comfortable.

I I did this search myself.

First time I've used Munis myself.

I'm comfortable share.

You all can look at it.

I'm not comfortable releasing a public number from the podium until some financial people have told me, well, there's not another account somewhere else.

There's not a fair enough.

So we're gonna wait on uh Mr.

Glazier on that um to get that final.

But they don't total 20 million dollars, so you know we've done better.

Okay.

Um so if there's nothing else from my colleagues we will go to the public.

Uh any members of the public who wish to speak on this agenda item R64.

I'm sorry to microscope.

Hello?

Hello, hello.

You have to click the button, Betty.

Where's the button?

Hey, it's green.

Hello.

Betty Coller, Tillman Street.

Um, this you kind of went over the travel expenses, but there's also in the budget some 72,000 for memberships and fees.

Are you going to be upfront with that, or is he going to be upfront with that?

What the city gets from those memberships and fees.

Yeah, of course, that that's why that's why I said I'm not comfortable releasing, you know, releasing any because I don't I I searched the the line item that's executive management, training and professional development.

When I when I look through with the financial people when the controller comes back, yeah, we're gonna release the title the totality of everything.

Okay.

And you only gave um 2022 as 5,000.

I think it was much more than that in 24 and 25.

It's gone up substantially.

Yeah, I mean, the numbers I have are but I would like to have financial it's my first time trying to use this system.

I like to have clerical people that are familiar with the system search all the relevant line items.

But yeah, I mean I have I have like a 23,000 dollar number.

2024.

I have uh how long did you have this on the agenda?

Um not long.

Um I'm trying to think when we entered when when do we um put this on?

Friday?

Monday.

Yeah, yeah.

It's only been a couple days.

So I think we need to give some time to get uh get this information together, and I'd like to hear from Mr.

Glazier as well.

I know, but you told me that one time when I was talking about the appointment of his wife, that uh it was on the agenda, so I should have known and I should have said something beforehand.

If he knew this was coming, don't you think it should have been better prepared or the mayor could be here and speak for himself, maybe?

I don't know.

This is just me speaking.

I know when uh when I was working at the morning call, if I would go on a business trip, I would have to come back and account for my time.

I would have to either give a PowerPoint presentation, write up a report, uh talk to someone above me, and say what I learned and how it was uh going to be beneficial.

And I think just showing us numbers is not gonna do the trick.

He's gonna have to say to tell us the people he just raised our taxes.

If he's gonna raise our taxes, he needs to be in the city.

He does not need to be running all over the country, especially during the worst snowstorm we had.

He was not here.

So that's just my thing.

Give give an accounting, give a report, give something more than just numbers, because we don't believe he's bringing in all this money.

Thank you.

Okay, any other members of the public wish to speak on R64?

Hello.

Okay.

Um listen, based we have some uh some lingering concerns.

So Mr.

Kane needs uh verify some information, get us some in get us some concrete data.

Um we have obviously again, Mr.

Glazier, our controller, um, is recuperating from um some medical conditions, so he will be back.

Um so at this point, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna send this to our HR committee.

I think that's the most appropriate committee, and that will give um time for both of you and Mr.

Glazier to uh flush out some of this information and we can represent it publicly at the appropriate time.

Wait, when you talk about time, what does that looks like?

Because when you talk about time, it could be three months from now, a year from now, two years from now.

Um let's talk about let's talk about you know, yeah.

I mean, you know, well we I think we expect the controller to be back next week.

I mean, I think a week is reasonable.

Yeah, I mean I'm I'm gonna schedule the HR committee hopefully for next week.

So I mean, I'm not sure where I'm gonna be in the year, but next week I'm planning on doing the HR committee.

I have I have a comment.

You you we know how serious Mr.

Glazers, he may not come back next week.

You may not be here the week after.

And to her point, how long is this gonna say if the controller isn't here?

Does he have um people working for him that can get this information for us and and so on and so forth?

Uh yeah, I echo that.

Even look, this is all important, and like I'm not it's not like we're besties or anything, but like he's a human being, and he's going through some pretty serious medical stuff, and yes, this is important, and also yeah, there's gotta be someone else that can I don't think we should be saying to him, hey, you gotta hurry up, even though you're going through this really uh serious medical issue, hurry up and do this.

All come back.

I want it done, and he's a human being who's like if this was my grandfather, I wouldn't oh I'd be so mad.

Um but there are people in the office.

Yeah, that's what I want to say.

Yeah, there's gotta be somebody.

So here's the thing.

I mean, listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna check in with them tomorrow, and I can give a report back to all of you, probably uh either end of day tomorrow or by Friday, and let and we'll know we'll have a better idea of where Mr.

Glazier stands, what his plans are, and if worst case, what the capacity of the other folks in the office can do.

And I think that's fair.

So I mean to give to come up with an answer this split second, I think is not an option.

But I think you know, let's check in with them and and have something by Friday.

I can email all of you by then and give you an update.

I think that's fair, but I think you know, tonight there's we have a lot of incomplete parts to this, and it's just um not appropriate to move forward.

So again, I'm going to um send this to uh our HR committee.

Uh, that's Chair Bender, and uh this will be in your committee, and we will work with uh our independent controller and Mr.

Frank Hain to uh fill in some of these blanks from this evening.

So um we'll leave it at that on that issue.

Um so moving along, um, we're gonna do we're gonna move into ordinances for introduction.

Our first one, uh Ms.

Ortega's Bill 32.

Bill 32 amends section 425 15 of the charter, alcoholic beverages controlled dangerous substances, solicitation and gambling by prohibiting smoking or vaping any substance within 25 feet of playgrounds, recreational fields, and courts, including but not limited to baseball, basketball, football, handball, soccer, softball, tennis, volleyball, et cetera.

Okay, any questions from the public on Bill 32?

Can I um we normally don't do our it's just the public for this?

Um bill 32 what I'm introducing.

You are, but Mike, this is normally just the public only for this portion.

Yeah, so are we changing?

Okay, we change normally it's just the public, but um sure.

Um go ahead.

I want to take a moment to introduce something that's really important to me, Bill 32, which will create tobacco-free butters uh buffer zone around our playgrounds, recreational fields and court.

Our parts will be placed where kids can play freely, and where we're promoting wellness, not exposing people to second hand smoke or normalizing those habits in spaces meant for recreation.

This is something I've been working on for some time.

I'm really grateful for the partnership and guidance of Robert Palmonte, and as a matter of fact, he's his present and the blue song.

I see a few people from their initiative.

This idea aligns so closely with the work that we have been doing, helping us think about how small intentional changes in our environment can lead to a healthier outcome for our community.

And that's really what this is.

It is a simple common sense step that reflects the kind of city we want to be, one that prioritize health, especially for our children.

I also want to thank my colleagues for their support in helping in helping move this forward.

Even a lot to be able to bring something like this to the table and know that there's a shared commitment to improving the quality of life in Island.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Ms.

President Mota.

Any uh questions or comments from the public on Bill 32?

Okay, this will be sent to our parks and recreation committee, Chair Santos.

Thank you.

Uh next up, Bill 33.

Bill 33 repeals chapter 135, abandoned real property blight in its entirety, and adopts chapter 611, vacant and at risk property.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Okay, this will be sent to Miss Gurlach's committee, uh community economic development.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Uh Bill 34.

Bill 34 amends the 2026 general fund budget to amend the fixed cost distribution for two employees within DCED to change the portions of their salary and benefits expense to the grant fund recompete program budget to reflect work performed under the grant.

Okay.

Any questions, comments on bill 34 from the public.

Okay, this will be sent to community economic development.

Ms.

Gurlach.

Thank you.

Welcome, Bill 35.

Bill 35 amends the 2026 general fund budget to accommodate the upgrade of the part-time clerk three in the office of compliance and the upgrade of two part-time MW1 custodial positions and building maintenance within the Department of Public Works.

The part-time clerk three, currently M08, would be upgraded to an administrative assistant at a proposed pay grade of S7 to better align the job duties and responsibilities of this position.

The two part-time NW1 custodial positions will remain in the same pay grade of M6, but be upgraded to full-time positions to better align job duties and allow for consistent staffing and building maintenance.

Okay, thank you.

Um any questions or comments from the public, Bill 35.

Okay, this will be sent to our public works committee, Vice President Mota.

Thank you.

Uh Bill 36.

Bill 36 amends the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase of $1,650,000 to fund the reconstruction on Lehigh and Union Street as part of the congressionally directed spending grant the city was awarded.

This grant is partially reimbursable and requires match funding.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Bill 36.

Okay, this will be referred to our public works committee, Vice President Mota.

Thank you.

Uh Bill 37.

Bill 37 amends the 2026 Capital Fund and General Fund operating budgets to provide for a supplemental appropriation of 100,000 from the Allentown Partnership to support improvements to Ethica Park and Recreational Programming.

This is a reimbursement from the partnership.

Okay.

Um any questions, comments from the public, Bill 37.

And this will be referred to our parks and recreation committee, Chair Santos.

Thank you.

Uh Bill 38, please.

Bill 38 amends the 2026 Capital Fund Budget to provide for a transfer of $50,841.45 cents from accounts associated with the completed Dixon Street Pedestrian Bridge and Parks Master Plan Projects to the Bogritz Bridge Rehabilitation Project.

Okay.

Questions or comments from the public?

Bill 38.

Okay.

This will also be referred to parks and recreation committee, Chair Santos.

Thank you.

Uh Bill 39.

Bill 39 amends the 2026 Capital Fund Budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of 106,329 from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to support construction of the Dixon Street sidewalks.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public?

Bill 39.

This will also be referred to Parks and Recreation Committee, Chair Santos.

Thank you.

And Bill 40.

Bill 40 amends the 2026 Capital Fund Budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $800,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development LSA grant to support construction of the MLK Trail Extension Phase 1.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from the public on Bill 40?

Okay, this will also be referred to Parks and Recreation Chair Santos.

Thank you.

Bill 41?

Bill 41 amends the 2026 Capital Fund budget to provide for an increase of $1,905,000 to fund the approved parks capital projects as part of the 2026 capital bar borrowing.

Okay.

Questions or comments from the public?

Bill 41.

This will be sent to Parks and Recreation Chair Santos.

Thank you.

And last one, Bill 42.

Bill 42 amends the 2026 general fund budget to provide for 136,319 from the general fund unappropriated balance to the fire department operating budget for additional costs to support a second fire academy in 2026.

Okay.

Any questions or comments?

Bill 42.

If it's uh if it's appropriate, we have someone from the fire department that would like to speak to on this.

Okay.

Good evening.

Uh just uh we have a second fire academy that we were trying to plan out because of vacancies that we started this year out with.

Uh and we're looking at um another two possible vacancies.

Um it's pretty straightforward.

We emailed you the cost analysis if you want to see the breakdowns of it.

Uh and if you have any questions, uh does anyone have any questions?

Not at this time.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so this will this will be sent to our public safety committee, Miss AFA.

And if there are any questions at that time, we can address um during the committee.

Um that's it for uh introductions.

Uh we have no resolutions for introduction.

Any new business from anyone good and welfare?

All right, we'll adjourn this meeting.

Thank you.