Okay.

Um so we're gonna move along.

We're gonna start our city council meeting uh Wednesday, July 15th, and uh we're gonna start uh with an invocation if everyone can stand for a moment's silence.

Thank you, and uh pledge the flag next leading for which is strength uh okay.

Can we start with a roll call, Mr.

Hammond?

Uh Mr.

Fungal here, Ms.

Moda here, Ms.

Binder, presentos here and Miss Gerlock here.

Uh and Miss Aff is present on Teams.

Can you hear us, Candida?

I'm reading that she's there.

Okay.

This present everyone's here.

Okay, great.

So we're gonna move along to uh courtesy of the floor.

Uh this is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on any item that is not on our agenda this evening.

So if there's something farther along in the agenda that you wish to speak on, let's just wait for that portion of the agenda.

But if there's anything else that's city related, um you you have uh three minutes, and do we have any courtesy of the floor speakers?

Uh no.

Okay.

Okay, so then we're gonna move along to contract approvals.

Um we're gonna start with R82.

R82 R82 is a change order, it's an authorization for a contract increase in the amount of ten thousand dollars, an increase from an estimated 40,000 per year to an estimated 50,000 per year for a contract previously bid and awarded to Gilboy Ford, uh Ross Body and Frameworks, and Stengel Brothers to provide vehicle suspension, steering and alignment for city vehicles.

Okay, thank you.

Any uh questions or comments from the dais on R 82?

Uh or from the public.

Okay.

Can you call the vote, please?

Ms.

Affa.

I think she's on mute.

Um Mr.

Bender, yes.

Ms.

Gerlock.

Yes.

Miss Moda.

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Santos?

Yes.

And Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Mr.

President of 60's and no NA's.

Okay, on to R 83.

R83 is an authorization for a cooperative contracts uh to provide the city with various goods and service.

The contracts are with Johnson Controls, fire protection, and Korski engineering.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions or comments from the dais on R 83?

Or from the public okay.

Councilman, quick question.

Just uh real quick on this one, because I know you had the asterisk for the funding sources is grant funded.

Was this completely grant funded on that one?

I'm just curious.

Or if not, I can I can email and ask later.

I just was curious.

I just saw the asterisk and I was wondering.

I believe so.

Sorry, I caught cut you out guard.

I just okay, and I think uh chief had to leave.

Um I believe it's completely ground funded.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Okay, so um any uh questions or comments from the public on R 83?

Okay.

Go ahead.

Um Mr.

Bidner, yes, Ms.

Gurlock?

Yes, Miss Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo?

Yes, Ms.

Santos?

Yes, Mr.

Napoli?

Yes, Miss Appa.

I didn't I couldn't hear it, so I'll just uh pass.

Okay, Mr.

President, we have six years in no days.

Okay, thank you.

Uh next up, R84.

R84.

Uh is an author another change order.

It's an authorization for a contract increase in the amount of 156,008 and sixty-six cents, an increase uh from 2.25 um 8 million for a contract previously bid through a state as a result of a pendat tassa grant and awarded to HP construction to provide rehab work for Bobert's bridge.

All right, thank you.

Any questions or comments from the dais?

Yep, go ahead, Mr.

Binder.

I do have a question, and this is more just uh as as I read these things and getting used to it.

Um when it says the contract appropriate appropriation uh or price increase is included in this year's budget.

So is that meaning that the this change order is part of that, or what is that?

Um that it would have been in the budget to or is this well no?

I mean, this this change it's not already in the budget, right?

We have we have um so for Bogart's Bridge, we had a little bit of a buffer, and we were able to use capital funds that were existing to meet that gap.

So we don't we usually make sure that we leave a little bit of wiggle room for change orders so it's not like new funding, um, and also um pend will give us additional funds depending on what the change order is.

So it was part of the capital budget that we're able to use existing capital funds to meet that gap.

Okay, thank you.

Welcome.

All right, thank you, Ms.

Tolino.

Uh any other questions or comments?

Uh any comments from the public on R 84?

Okay, uh Shannon.

Uh Miss Gerlock.

Yes, Miss Moda?

Yes, Mr.

Fungo?

Yes.

Santos?

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

Miss Affa?

Yes.

And Mr.

Binder.

Yes.

President of 7As and no nays.

Okay.

Uh, next up, R 85.

R85 is another change order, and you've got to approve change orders just because that's part of that your code.

Uh it's an authorization for a contract increase in the amount of 139,682 dollars for a contract with Michael Baker International to provide consulting and engineering design services related to the DNL trail.

Contract sum before the change order was for 270,792.

The addition will bring the contract to a new total of um 410,474 dollars.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions or comments from the diet?

Yeah, why why Ms.

Moda?

Have come me so high is twice as much.

So with this, um, the reason for the increase is that we did not have enough fund grant funds to complete the project initially, and we applied for another grant funding stream, which is TASA, it's transportation set aside funds, and TASA has additional oversight requirements and additional permitting that's required.

So it extended the length of the design and it added additional layers that we need to perform in order to accept that additional grant money, which was a significant amount.

It was like an $800,000 grant, so it was worthwhile, even though it increased the costs of the design.

The construct to in order to complete the construction, it was worthwhile for us to you know move forward with that TASA um grant application or grant award, I should say.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, and um Mr.

Binner, go ahead.

Though this is not specific related to the um the change order, I did want to call out because we didn't get to do this publicly.

Um, I want to thank you for putting together that map of the because this is related MLK of the of the trail process throughout the city, and if anyone hasn't looked at that on the on the city's website, it's really informative to be able to see what the both current future planned um trails are that are in are in and around Allentown.

It's it's it's really really exciting to see.

So thank you.

Yes, thank you for for the nudge, and also thank you to IT who helped and in the GS depart GIS department that helped create that map.

It's pretty simple, but it's very helpful to see when we're talking about these projects.

So thank you as well.

Okay, appreciate that.

Okay, any uh comments from the public on R 85.

Okay.

Call the vote.

Um Ms.

Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo?

Yes, Ms.

Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli, yes.

Ms.

Affa.

Yes.

Mr.

Binder, yes, and Miss Gerlock.

Yes.

Mr.

President has seven years and no nays.

Okay, thank you.

Uh next up, uh minutes of um June 3rd.

Okay, the June 3rd council minutes, Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

Ms.

Affa?

Yes.

Mr.

Binder, yes.

Ms.

Gerlock?

Yes.

And Miss Moda.

Yes.

Ms.

President have seven E's and no names.

Thank you.

Um, as always, we encourage visitors to city council meetings to park in the government deck next door and to see our city clerk for a parking chaser to pay for your parking.

Uh any old business.

Okay.

Um we'll move into reports.

Um, I have a few.

Um council is continuing to meet uh with our partners.

Meeting is scheduled with the Allentown Housing Authority on August 12th.

That time is to be determined.

We also have the downtown Allentown Alliance scheduled for that evening as well.

Time to be determined.

We'll get that out as soon as possible.

We also have a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, August 5th at 6 p.m.

on Bill 52, which amends part two general legislation, chapter 660 zoning, article five uses, table 660-4 use table, and section 660-38 manufacturing and industry group, adding public notice requirements and amending the use category data center use.

The bill will be on the council agenda agenda that follows for action.

Also, we have a special meeting scheduled, uh public meeting on July 22nd at 6 p.m.

to review Bill 54, a citizen initiative, which amends the public health code by adding chapter 421 paid sick leave act to improve the public health by requiring certain businesses to allocate sick time to employees.

And regarding budget and finance, as Chair Pongo, go ahead and thank you, Mr.

President.

The committee met this evening.

Um and the next meeting is tentatively scheduled uh for next week, next Wednesday, July 22nd at 5 45 p.m.

Okay, thank you.

Uh community and economic development, Chair Gerlock.

Uh yes, thank you.

Uh the committee met on June 24th.

The next meeting is scheduled for July 22nd at 5 30 to consider two bills that are on the back of your agenda, bills 53 and 56.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh human resources administration and appointments, Chair Binder.

Thank you, Council President Napoli.

Uh the committee has not met since the last council meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for August 12th.

Uh, the time is to be determined.

Topics are going to be including uh review of the travel report that we received um a couple weeks ago, um, the personnel manual update and uh discussion on the city's website.

Okay, thank you.

Parks and recreation, Chair Santos.

Thank you.

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

Okay, thank you.

Public safety, Chair Afa.

Ms.

Melder, would you read it?

Oh, sure.

Um the committee has not met since the last council meeting.

Uh there are no future meetings scheduled.

Uh public works.

Um public works, Vice President Mota.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The committee met this evening in the next meeting schedule for August 5th at 5 30.

The committee will be looking at the city tree replacement requirement policies.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And rules, chambers, intergovernmental relations and strategy.

The committee has not met since the last council meeting.

There are no future meetings scheduled.

Uh, for controllers report, the controller's office has submitted reports that are located on our council agenda along with on a website in Granicus.

There are attachments showing their reports.

Um we have no submission from the mayor's office, so we're gonna move along to ordinances for final passage.

We're gonna start with bill 33.

Uh bill 30, bill 33, umends the uh chapter 135, abandoned real property, blight in its entirety, it adopts chapter 611, naked uh and at-risk property.

Okay, thank you.

And and to be clear, um, my colleagues received an an updated version of this.

Uh, we got some feedback from the public, and we made some updates to the bill, and uh there were some updates that were um shared earlier today with my colleagues, so everyone should have the newer version.

Um, so we'll get started on this, and um I'm gonna point to the administration first to see if there are any any comments, and then we'll start with the questions and comments from the dais.

Sure, I'll look for the heidi if we have any comments.

Sure.

I don't want to yell this time scary, but just um so this ordinance um has come up as you know we want to have a an actual list of vacant properties within the city of Allentown.

Um we have had in the past required them to do the at-risk registration, um, which doesn't tell us exactly what properties are vacant.

Um, so oftentimes our emergency personnel were going into buildings.

We don't know if they're vacant or they should be vacant.

Um we have squatters and we have uh people breaking into buildings and things like that.

So we're hoping that um you'll consider this ordinance tonight to help us maintain a record of what is um vacant in the city and also allows us to conduct an inspection of those properties that are vacant and allow us to see what is being stored in there, um what is uh going on with the properties and making sure that they're properly secured.

Okay, thank you.

We've had several episodes recently that have led to our concern about this ordinance that I think council needs to hear.

Thank you, Frank.

That um we've had first responders entering properties that have been vacant for an extended period of time and finding uh propane tanks in large numbers on the roof of a building on fire.

Hazardous materials stored in vacant properties that pose additional risks to those uh responders.

We've also had responders spending significant time in vacant properties looking for occupants, only to learn later that there haven't been occupants for years.

So that's one of our concerns.

The second concern is that vacant properties in a neighborhood lower property values for all of our neighbors that live there, and they're often the sign where the um the use of disproportionate city services where we respond to the same vacant property numerous times.

So the registry will hopefully allow us to share that information among our first responders if they are responding to a property, but also to help us get a handle on you know where we do have occupants and we need to respond perhaps in a different way.

Okay, thank you.

And I mean it might be a good idea maybe for us to talk about some of the changes that were made just so that the public is is brought up to speed on some of the updates and we'll continue the conversation, any other comments that come up.

Um but um I know one thing that was a big change was we eliminated at risk and just put it all into one bill, which is the vacant property registry.

So help us out on help.

I want to commend Heidi.

She's written this ordinance six times, and we've taken feedback from anyone and everyone who's offered us that feedback, and we've tried to accommodate that as much as possible.

So I'm gonna let Heidi highlight the changes.

Um, most which came either from council input or from citizen or or community partner input.

Okay, sure.

Um, so some of the changes that um we considered um, as I said, we that we've had a at-risk registration requirement um for years at the city.

I'm not quite sure what year it started, but it was but what we didn't like was it wasn't a true vacant property registry.

We were able to see properties that were in foreclosure, but you know, people pay their mortgage and then they're no longer on the list, it's not really vacant.

Um, we wanted to have a real idea of what was vacant in the city.

So by eliminating that requirement for the at-risk and just truly having a vacant property ordinance, I feel completes what we're trying to accomplish here.

Um, so we are willing to remove that from the requirements of registration, which is um a change from the the original ordinance.

Um we also cleaned up as a recommendation from the Realtors Association.

I thank everyone for putting reviewing it and putting their input in.

We cleared up hopefully what is considered occupied and what is considered vacant.

Um, we want to make sure that we're not like capturing properties like where we have people that are like snowbirds or people that are temporarily out of their home due to like military deployment or hospitalization.

This is not what we're trying to do, is we're we're we're clearing up the language here so that we're not capturing those people that there was no reason for them to actually register since it's technically still owner-occupied.

The the people maybe just temporarily out of the home for some reason.

Um, and also to uh we did put some language in here that would eliminate the requirement for the the fee.

It would still require people to register, but the fee is waived if they've completed a pre-sale inspection.

So for properties that are currently like listed for sale, something like that.

If they've completed the pre-sale inspection and the property is compliant, we were asking them to if it's more than 30 days vacant, like call us up, let us know so we can put it on the registry registry so that we're aware that it's vacant as we're driving through the city.

We know that that's a vacant property.

So if we see people coming in and out the front door, we know that they're not supposed to be there.

Um, those are all important things, right?

Um, but we don't want them to have to register something twice or pay a fee twice.

They've already completed the pre-sale, they're compliant, the property is maintained.

We just want to know if it's going to be vacant for a long period of time.

Um trying to think of some of the other changes.

One of the other changes is that currently the DC D CED director can waive fees in DCED.

It's rare that we do, but there are certain circumstances that require us to consider waiving fees.

Because we don't want this to be an onerous process for people.

Originally, a suggestion was made that this all go to the blighted property review committee.

I would hate to see that happen.

And the reason I would hate to see that happen is that if someone's on active military duty and they call me or they email me and we can verify that that's true.

Why should they have to appear before a committee, submit to a committee, wait for a committee meeting?

We should be able to give an instantaneous response to a person who's temporarily in a rehab facility or somebody who's snowbirding.

Um I do, however, appreciate the fact that we don't want to be the sole entity within a department making a decision.

So we put in a provision that any decision that I make that no one likes could be appealed to the blighted property review committee, and then that would be a more extensive process, or to Lehigh County Court if they truly didn't um approve of what we did.

But that we'd like to be able to make a very easy process for people who are on vacation, snowboarding, um birding, boarding, birding, whatever you want to do with the snow, um, military duty, whatever that temporary leave that uh exonerates your fee, should be able to be a very easy common sense decision and not appearing before board.

And just uh two of the other things.

Um it was a good catch actually on the their end where the public nuisance part of it, we had it listed that all risk um at risk and vacant properties would be immediately declared a public nuisance.

Um, and I'm not quite sure actually why we had that there, because I just refer back to 40 406.2, which is um the public nuisance definition of a vacant abandoned property.

Um so I hope that clears that up.

And the last thing was the there was some comments on 611-11 opposing or obstructing enforcement officer.

Um we were just referring back to the IPMC, which gives us the right of entry requirements.

And I think that was pretty much it.

No, I think that covers most of it.

Okay, thank you.

It's nice just to uh hear like the updates that everyone's on the same page, so I appreciate you calling out the updates.

Um that said, I'll refer to my colleagues.

Any questions or comments?

Um for the uh administrative guidelines.

Um I know we talked about a scoring matrix for or yeah, matrix for that uh last time we were here.

Is that what is the administrative guidelines look like?

Like I know you're referencing it, but what is uh what would what do you what do you feel like that's gonna look like um so you're saying as far as our determination of the vacancy?

Is that what you're referring to?

Yeah, he's referring to the fact that we're going to be developing criteria that says that we have an inspector who's actually viewed the property, that we have uh conditions that indicate vacancy, such as overgrown weeds, abandoned vehicles that have overgrowth on them, uh broken windows, uh hole in a roof, no one answering our calls, no one answering our knocks on the door.

Um, and we'll have that all spelled out in like our administrative training with the staff who's taking on these responsibilities.

They pretty much do this already.

Um we pretty much have um a constant back and forth banter between the inspectors in the field and um Mr.

Schwab and Heidi, who are the two managing personnel within the department.

Um it's pretty obvious to determine that it's vacant.

They also speak to neighbors, they also ask if anybody's seen anyone coming or going.

Oftentimes the the indicators are right there, the accumulation of mail, the fact that um we may hear barking dogs but knock on the door repetitely and no one answers the door.

We know we have abandoned animals.

Um, so those will be some of the criteria.

Um we aren't interested in tagging properties that are for sale as vacant.

However, if they remain vacant for extended periods of time, we ask that they register, and we ask if they have active um activity that we can see that they're trying to have showings or they're trying to actively market the property on the MLS.

We do have staff who are have access to the MLS that we can check to make sure the property is listed as an active sale, and those will all be in our criteria.

Thank you.

Um is the plan I know like this will be public and obviously in the e-code, but is is there a plan for that those guidelines to actually be public or where would those live?

Like is that something someone uh someone could reference if they're looking for?

Right, we will add it to the the city's website as well with information um pertaining to this as and the e-code, it would be okay.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms.

Garlock, go for it.

Yes, thank you.

Uh so building off of that, um, it doesn't look like there should have to be too much work to develop that because it looks like Fannie Mae.

Uh so building off of that, um, it doesn't look like there should have to be too much work to develop that because it looks like Fannie Mae, I know they've had issues, but Fannie Mae, USDA, there's already matrixes out there that kind of assess uh vacant properties.

Um so that's great.

But then I had some questions.

Um I don't see page numbers, but where it's talking about the commercial properties.

Uh could you explain the rationale of taking out the specific language, like uh it what's been crossed out is that all vacant storefronts shall maintain adequate lighting and then you know, uh not allow graffiti and remove it.

Um homeowner, well, property owners still have to maintain uh that that level.

What was the thinking of not requiring commercial?

Okay, so the you're referring to the the vacant storefront um where we cross out.

So one of the things is we originally weren't we're going to request that the um the windows would be covered and things like that, so it wouldn't uh track people like you know to looking into it.

And actually, what we would be doing as it was brought to our attention is creating more of a problem because people wouldn't be able to see in the window, which could create opportunities for people to break in through the back door, be living in there, and nobody can even look in there and see through the window.

So we kind of like revised that, like depending on so the commercial buildings would still have to maintain, they'd still have to follow the the property maintenance code.

So remember that this this ordinance goes hand in hand with the IPMC.

So everything that's required in the International Property Maintenance Code is gonna be required of all of these buildings, regardless.

You know, so some of these are this this ordinance here is just for the registration, um, but everything that we're inspecting and requiring of that vacant property is gonna fall under the international property maintenance code, if that makes sense.

Yeah, no, yeah, it makes sense.

Um just okay.

Um now, in terms of data sharing, I know there's tends to be a lot of systems and sometimes the systems don't interact.

If a property is labeled as vacant within CED, how does that get to an EMS worker or a police officer when they work with like a different system?

If someone tech, like how does that get to them?

So we would be in we work hand in hand like with the fire marshals and things like that.

So they um live.

Like they're on the way.

How do they find out live?

They're gonna text someone or so if they some of them do have access to our NRGO system, I believe, because I know fire marshal Steed and I like work hand in hand with these properties, like he can look up information.

It could have like that notation that it would be a vacant property, and it also um would have anything that would be listed in there that could be of danger, you know, or you know, if there was something being stored there in the property, if there's like propane tanks, as she said, we had that was there was a property that we had a fire at um on North 10th Street one year, and it was a vacant property, and on the roof of that property was all of these stored propane tanks.

The fire, you know, firemen are running into that building that's on fire now, and they don't know that the top of that building there's propane tanks.

These are things that if we were had eyes on the vacant property, they would know that um this property is vacant, and if we seen something like that, we would be reporting those type of things to the fire marshals as well.

Got you.

So then you're saying as the police, as the EMS, the ambulance, as the uh fire trucks are rushing to the scene, they're gonna go on Entergov and see if how will they?

I guess I'm just uh if we're gonna do this, and if this is for public safety, we have a once a month meeting we of problem properties.

So if we had a property that was vacant and had code violations such as that, those are brought above those meetings so the the their that's brought to their attention before that fire even happens.

So they're already aware of those.

Those are things that are made notations on.

I don't know what system that they use that they they will put information and red flags on that so that that becomes aware, it pops up on their screen while they're driving to the fire if that makes you know.

Also, we have a simultaneous call out system.

So when there's a fire, Heidi is sent the alert that there's a fire as well as our dispat our staff respond to support the fire or the police on their building related calls.

So information can be verbally shared by the on-site building inspector with them, but anything that would strike us as an emergency, as Heidi said during our problem property meetings would be shared or instantaneously.

An inspector comes back and finds that we have, and this has happened, an abandoned laboratory that has chemicals of unknown origin stored in the building.

Immediately the fire marshals are contacted.

They do an immediate inspection, they flag the building on their hasmat maps.

So us getting in and getting our eyes on the buildings will get us to flag them in their systems so that they can add hazardous materials, they can add uh a ton of information that can be shared from our inspections directly into their call out screens.

That's our hope.

Yeah yeah it just will be interesting to see operationally how it works.

We agree this is a pilot.

So we that is one of the things that we're going to discuss.

I mean right now we are still siloed because police information and data has different firewalls and shareability than our data does and our police department is not in energy.

Our fire department has fire marshals in Energov but we do not have police in Energov.

So it's beholden on us to make sure that they have the information that they need and that's why they have these command meetings these public safety meetings and these problem property meetings to share that information ahead of time.

Okay.

And then what's they're also going to know to call us like if they arrive at a at a building and it's one of them that has a building standards flag for hazardous materials it's going to be a trigger to call the on call person which they do now typically in large scale emergencies.

Okay.

And then okay then the uh the next thing is once a property's officially declared a public nuisance then what like some cities they declare it a public nuisance and then that triggers like a receivership and then the city can designate a nonprofit to purchase that property and then now we can so this ordinance is just referencing that public nuisance nuisance or ordinance is already established a public nuisance property um those are are properties where let's say we can't you know get a hold of the owner we've been trying to do enforcement of the front porch is going to collapse at some point if we determine that an immediate public uh safety you know we're going to take that porch down we're then going to lean the property that's that's what like the public nuisance ordinance is for um for us to act when there's something that's danger to the the immediate danger to the public there's two different types of nuisance declarations one is declaring a public nuisance which means we have time we can follow our protocols to contact the property owner work on an abatement program discuss ways that we can remedy the situation then there's an emergent public nuisance and an emergent public nuisance means that we have an immediate life safety issue.

The roof is falling in the wall is collapsing there's a huge raging party going on that has violence associated with it.

If we declare an immediate emergent public nuisance we can have an all disciplinary team response we can actually padlock a building cut utilities if we have to um whether or not the owner is present if it qualifies to meet emergent there's then the uh idea that an emergent or a non-emergent public nuisance fails to cooperate with us we can actually bill all of the response um emergency personnel or not to the property owner and if they do not pay for that response we can then lean the property that can be appealed to the nuisance board of appeals here in City Hall we had one yesterday or that can be appealed to the Lehigh County courts to say that we acted inappropriately.

Okay.

I mean I appreciate the changes I think it makes it less uh less likely not completely impossible but less likely to have an unintended consequence um I mean I know I've went up to doors where kind of looks a bit vacant but turns out they're just depressed and didn't feel like checking the mail and the grasses you know like yeah hoping we find that and we're hoping we can offer some help or we can offer some services to them or try to send a check the welfare for them that's another reason I mean it it's very important that we be able to kind of get a handle on where we have folks who need our help as well as folks that maybe have left the just abandoned the property.

All right I think that's all I have thank you okay uh any other questions or comments from the dais on this one question I had um it you know we're gonna have situations where folks you know sell properties so if like let's say we have a property on the vacant property registry and that property is sold can you explain what happened um just like if hypothetical dates sure so once the the if the property was on the vacant property list and somebody purchases that property they would have gotten a pre-sale um so that's why that pre-sale um uh waiving is is included in that so that it was a vacant I purchased the property I would have been required to get the pre-sale that pre-sale is good for one year so you wouldn't have to register it now after that year is up like you never occupied the property we would expect that you know you're either going to apply for another free sale or you're going to register the property as vacant.

That pre-sale is good for one year, so you wouldn't have to register it.

Now, after that year is up, like you never occupied the property, we would expect that you know you're either going to apply for another pre-sale or you're going to register the property as vacant.

Okay.

And what could that next hypothetically, what could the next person do?

Like what would trigger staying off of the registry?

Is it starting a rehab, you know, permits being pulled?

Like what triggers a couple different things that's going to require that some of them are going to be required to be registered, you know, because they're vacant for more than 90 days, but there's if there's a reason behind it, for example, like you have pulled you you've submitted plans, you've pulled permits, and you're actively doing construction on.

I don't expect you to register it as a vacant property or pay the fee for the vacant property.

If you are um, you know, like you're just trying to get it get it sold.

You you paid for your pre-sale, you completed the inspection, you corrected all the violations, now the property is just sitting there, but it's just having a hard time selling or for whatever reason, um, we wouldn't expect you to pay a fee to register the property.

There's different um things such as that that would require you, you could we still would want to know that it was vacant, like I said, we don't necessarily need you to pay a fee.

We're not gonna do the inspection if a pre-sale was already just done.

And if you think about it as though, do we expect someone to be in that property?

So if a property is on the market and actively being marketed, we can expect that at any given time somebody could be going through for a showing.

That's fine, that's not a vacant property.

But if a property is on the market for a year or year and a half, they've never had a showing, they haven't adjusted the price, the property's been empty.

We just want to get our eyes on what is in that property, and we want to let folks know that they can enter that property knowing that they shouldn't expect anybody to be there.

So if they are seeing signs that there's drug activity or illegal activity going on in this property, we don't think it should be there at the time.

Contact the property owner, find out if that's supposed to be there.

Don't just walk the other way thinking it's supposed to be an occupied building.

Okay.

And and we're regarding the fees that you mentioned, uh, this is all rental fund, right?

So that's that correct, rent.

So that's enterprise fund.

Rent a rental, yes, okay.

The enterprise fund.

Okay.

And um, and you base the fees.

Um I'm guessing you base the fees on the amount of service provided or the the amount of resources.

Yeah, so correct.

So right now the the money that comes in um to the rental fund is based on the registration uh rental registration fees.

What we don't ever capture is all of the work that goes the code enforcement time, um, paperwork, the the constant driving by the property or calling out the board up company and like the constant enforcement actions that are required for these properties.

We don't ever recapture that um expense.

Um we put a lot sometimes we can have properties that are vacant for multiple years, and we might board that same property up like 30 times in a year because people will just keep breaking in.

Um there's never a there's nothing right now that's currently uh helping us fund that enforcement action.

So we're hoping that this will help offset some of that cost.

Okay.

Um that said, I still think I still think the residential is too high.

I mean when I look at residential versus commercial, I think right now you have it at 200 and 300.

I I could see residential maybe being half.

So I don't think that's something maybe we can talk about, just lowering the residential fee, um, maybe to 150 just to make it half a commercial.

Um, that's something I'd be I'd be in favor of.

But I mean, ultimately, I think when I look at the legislation, I mean, obviously we read it, but like to me, it's about like what's the spirit of it and what are what are you trying to accomplish?

And I think what I'm hearing, and I and I if that what I'm hearing, I think what I think I'm hearing is correct, it's really about just holding vacant property owners accountable and just making sure that again, we're not talking about short-term vacancy, but we're talking about long-term, you know, two years, three years, five years, there are vacancies in the city that 10 years, like just making sure that these vacant properties are not affecting their neighbors.

Um we hear stories at council all the time about a vacant property causing damage to a uh homeowner's property next door, and the homeowners, you know, really frustrated because they just you know the owner's inaccessible, no one knows who to call, and um, and because it's vacant, it's one of the reasons I'm I mean, vacant property insurance is so high, because there's no one there to actually report anything.

So it becomes a you know, a small issue becomes a big issue, and no one knows about it during that time frame.

So um, I think it's really important to get eyes on these properties to understand uh the issues for if you're sharing it with public safety, which I think is important.

If you're having these meetings and you're share you're you're sharing a database of properties that are a concern, that's that's great news.

But it's really about I think protecting homeowners and and other property owners from some of these vacant properties that are causing issues.

And lastly, I'll say we talk about flighted properties a lot, and to me it's an ongoing issue.

I I believe vacant properties ultimately are the next generation of blighted properties, not all vacant properties.

I don't want to I don't want to tag them all together, but there are I believe there are vacant properties that when left vacant for a decade, 15 years, they become the next bloated property in the city.

So can we get eyes on it?

Can we make sure that repairs are made and um and keep it from becoming blighted?

Um it's a lot cheaper when you can do it that way versus trying to rehab a blighted property that's reached a point of no return.

So um so I think that's important.

We really want the properties activated.

And we really can't stress to you enough how the routine work of us getting into systematic inspections gets hindered because our staff gets so tied up in complaint-based work.

And it's not that we don't want the complaints, but we get complaints constantly about the squirrels in the attic of the connecting wall, the roaches that are coming through the vacant property wall into the inhabited row home.

The fact that I'm terrified because there are constantly people breaking into the house next door, and I'm afraid if they set a fire, I'm gonna lose my home.

Those are the things that these inspectors are going out on constantly.

And when they get to the property, they have no idea who belongs there because when they enter the property or knocked to enter the property and someone answers the door, it's a logical expectation that that's the property owner or a legal tenant.

But if we have the property owner telling us that that property is supposed to be vacant, we know that who's opening the door doesn't belong there.

And that's where we make the phone call to the owner to say, hey, did something change and we missed the registry, or you got people you know living in this property.

And a lot of this has to do with landlords that aren't local and that they haven't had eyes.

When we have one of the situations that I'll never forget at one of our large multi-story buildings, that property owner hadn't been in that property in four and a half years.

He had no idea what was in his property.

When he found out that there was a laboratory below a daycare, that there was equipment with gasoline on carpeting outside of the daycare, he was as surprised as we were.

Um that was an occupied building whose whose owner hadn't been there.

Imagine the same type of building whose owner hadn't been there in four years and it was vacant.

Even he doesn't know what he's walking into.

That's what we're trying to address.

No, for sure.

And I think I mentioned this at the uh last CED meeting.

I'll finish up is you know, we we we know all know we have a housing shortage in Allentown.

And and the fact that there are vacant properties, and again, when we talk about vacant, I'm talking about two years, four years, seven years, and ten and higher.

There's no reason for these properties to be vacant in a city where people want to live or people uh have a desire to rent or or to own, and the fact that these remain vacant for so long, it just doesn't, it doesn't help our residents because that shortage of supply only creates higher higher rents and higher higher prices.

So I think you know, trying to encourage some folks to activate these properties, whether the residential for living or commercial for job creation, I think is really important.

Um Mr.

Kungo, go ahead.

Thank you.

I have just two thoughts and maybe points.

The first, I guess, is a question.

Um, how does this apply to folks who have maybe multi-unit, you know, properties where maybe one is occupied and then the other one might have been vacant for a while.

So as long as people are living in the property wouldn't be considered vacant.

Sorry.

Even if there is like a unit that's attached to it in any capacity that's been vacant for a long time.

We would not consider that vacant.

Okay, thank you.

Um, and then I guess um on the on the note of fees, uh uh council president and Napoli mentioned, you know, if there's a way to reduce the residential property registration fee, uh, you know, I think to the spirit of what having vacant properties for a long time could do, I'm wondering is there maybe an opportunity to scale that where you know maybe it is 150 for the first time that you're registering, and as you continue, and if a property's been vacant for more than three years, five years, that fee scales up to a certain maximum.

I'm not sure.

We did take a look at that.

We we're hoping that we can get more information on that.

We're hearing that Chicago has had some success in that in that area.

So we're gonna take a look at that.

But we thought we would start and see how this went first and see whether we could work loopholes out, whether we could maintain the registry appropriately, what database we're gonna use, how this is working out, and then if it works out, add complexity to it to be a further deterrent to properties remaining vacant.

Thank you.

Um, one other question.

So on 161-5 for the uh B for the registration of vacant properties.

So we're calling out here saying that the owner of a real property that must uh that remains vacant for more than 90 days uh shall register within 15, and then we're saying that the property reaching 90 days vacancy or the written uh notice for uh determination from the enforcement officer.

So I guess the question is if you're in that condition and you you know you you have a vacant property, but you you know the everyone in the in that's going through a sales cycle or something like that would know that there's that 90-day threshold, but because we have that um or component there, we realistically could just have someone come up and say in 11 days from now when this comes active, hey, the enforcement officer said you're this and you need to register, and they wouldn't know that because they're not there.

So the way that normally we get notified that there's a vacant property is because somebody broke into the house.

But what we're saying is we want that option on there, because if by the time that we're coming in, because doors have been kicked in, the the house clearly has no furniture in it, like it's been vacated for a while.

We want to be able to then say this is the determination we're making based on what we just found.

Um there's no for sale sign out front, there's no you know, lights on, maybe the meters been pulled.

We're that's what we're going.

We're saying that we want to be able to determine that it's vacant based on that information that we find on a call out or something alone.

It's like not us driving around looking like, well, that one looks vacant.

Let me stop and see.

We're talking about ones that become like a nuisance that we're getting called out upon.

We'll get an obscure call to a property.

Um, and when we get there, neighbors see the marked cars coming into the neighborhood, and they come out and they offer all sorts of information.

Uh, we haven't seen anybody in this house for months.

Uh nobody's been here.

We think there's a dog in there, we think they left behind um, you know, whatever.

Uh they have to do a little bit of detective work, but when they arrive at one of these units where there's no detective work that needs to be done, there's vines that totally cover the front door or the back door, there's mail that is stacked up uh you know a foot deep.

There's a car in the backyard that the trees have overgrown.

It's very obvious that no one has been in this property.

We don't want to wait 90 days to tag that property and put it on the list.

We want to be able to say that that is a vacant property from the get-go and start the aggressive work of saying it's now on the vacant property list, we're reaching out to the owner, we're notifying our first responders it's vacant.

We're we're starting that work immediately.

If we have to wait for the two, then that property waits three months for us to be able to put it on the list.

And that's why we want the and not the or.

So I guess then my question is with the 90 days.

Yeah.

Uh with the 90 days, then in in what scenario are you gonna see that someone's gonna actually because like how do we determine the 90-day start point?

I'm just I'm trying to run to I'm kind of curious as then what's the relevance of actually the 90 days because if you're gonna have if you're gonna be in the condition that you're saying that would that would warrant someone to come up and do an immediate thing or that someone's reporting it, you're probably not gonna say, Oh, I need to put this on a list for we're actually asking people to tell us.

Like we're asking people to say, like, I am going, I'm a snowbirder and I'm going away for the next six months and I want to register my property.

Um, we're we're saying that if you're going away for two weeks, don't call us.

If you're going away for a month, don't call us.

If you're going away for 90 days or more, let us know, and we'll put it on the list.

You don't have to pay because you're coming back, but we want you to register your property.

So we we want that level of cooperation that if six months goes by and you're not gonna be in your property, I'm getting deployed and I won't be back for two years.

We're not gonna charge you for that, but we want to know that, and we want to watch your property for you while you're away.

That as our guys are out, they're gonna have this list with them in their in their geographies, and they're gonna take a look at a property and make sure that the windows aren't broken and the doors aren't kicked in and that things look like they're maintained.

And at times I can imagine us calling a snowbirder and saying, Do you know that your lawn care company hasn't shown up for three weeks and the weeds are six feet tall?

Like those are the that's the kind of communication we want to start to try to create in these neighborhoods.

But we don't want everybody calling us to say I'm leaving for a couple weeks, um mark me as vacant.

We we want the 90 day, you're gonna be gone 90 days, that's a significant amount of time to leave a property unattended.

And how do we plan on marketing that to people so they're so right now the the I mean the at-risk registration?

I mean, it's a it's kind of a natural thing.

People notify us that the property is in for usually the banks will notify us the bank is the property is in foreclosure or has and is now vacated, or the property has you know been foreclosed.

They contact us already.

This is like a we get like a probably 250 registrations a year, just at the for the at-risk.

I'm saying how how would we market to the to use your word, the snowbirds or whatever uh that we're gonna say, like how are we I think I think if we let them know that there's a fee attached to kind of not letting us know if we arrive at a problem that now you're gonna have to pay a fee to be on a list, we're hoping that people will cooperate with us.

We're hoping that we can uh do this, notify citizens, put it on the website, ask counsel to share it once we write the blurb on all of your contact lists, make it a point in our DCED meetings to cover it and hope that our media picks up on these stories.

I I don't anticipate this being a perfect registry in the first maybe two years, even it's gonna take a while to build this, but it's a start, and it's at least to start somewhere.

Plus, we already have some indications because of the number of complaints.

We're gonna go pack through the complaints we've already received of properties that we've already put on the list that we know are vacant and add those as our as our jumping off point into this registry.

And and currently the snowbirds, what ends up happening is we get like a county uh maintenance record every month um that we go off of and it shows like all the transactions or it shows like what properties aren't own own owner occupied, sorry.

Um so the it'll be registered like in Florida.

Let's say that that's where their main address is.

Well, then we come to find out that those we we send out the letter now because we assume that you're a rental property because you live in Florida, and then they'll come back and they'll say, No, I live here for three months and I live there.

And so we're like the way that the rental ordinance is currently written, technically they still have to register the property because they're not the main owner.

This is actually giving them the opportunity to go, no, I'm a snowbird, and then it would fall under here and say, Okay, we want we just want to know that it's vacant then six months out of the year, and we're gonna put add you to that registry, you know, but you're not gonna have to pay if that's yeah, so it's kind of freeing them up from having to register themselves as a rental property.

Okay, so I guess what I'm wondering is for for this coming, because the in the last tax year there was the the mayor put a letter in with the bill.

Um but I'm just wondering is could could we incorporate this information maybe into that next 2027?

We certainly ask him to.

We can certainly look into um to doing that because that would absolutely that might help.

We can also put this in with our uh notices for rental registration as they come due in October when we mend when we mail out the the when we mail out anything, we can put in a blurb that says um there's a new vacant property registry.

I'm just thinking because the tax bills, I mean you're gonna if you're if you're if you have the if you have the property, you're gonna see that at least we can make sure that everyone is has as aware of that.

I don't know if there's a way of in this legislation maybe saying like the fees wouldn't kick in until after we were notified, but I know that's a year out, so I don't know if that's if word spreads that we have this registry.

I guarantee citizens are gonna call us and say the house next to me is vacant.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Vice President Mota.

And when you send um papers out, is it possible that it can be done in in different languages?

Absolutely.

We don't send anything out anymore that isn't both Spanish and English.

Okay, thank you.

To be our partner in this to let them let their new buyers understand that if they have no intent to occupy the property, they need to register.

Go ahead.

Uh Ms.

Grolock.

Um, so for the reporting of a vacant property, is they is there a formal process that someone completes?

Is there a form?

Is there like an inventory of or is it just a phone call?

Oh, you mean to like so yeah, I mean, because I I think about this guy on the east side on Sherman, that's a vacant property.

You might even know it.

There's vines and he's and he said so.

I'm not gonna put too much out there, but like the reason why I ask if there's like a formal like a form that say like that property owner could complete, is if he may or may not have had issues with inspectors that have come out that he has a written document to say, hey, look, I filed this complaint on this date, and then the city says we sent an inspector out, and this is why they deemed it not vacant.

Um, and then if there's a process by which he can go through to appeal and say, yeah, no, it's vacant.

Like it's it's great that there's appeal process for the property owner, but like that property is and he he may or may not have had issues, and there may or may not be issues if there are certain you know, property owners that maybe know the inspector.

I'm not saying that happens, but it could um potentially.

So how does that get handled?

Uh so if they were coming to register themselves, they could they could do it obviously online, just like I read a regular registration.

If it's something that um they could there could be forms if they want it, you're saying that the owner themselves filling it in.

No, the neighbor.

So, like someone wants to register.

The neighbor would just call the foot call us, um, call email, um, send us an email, call them file a couple of one complaint, uh web administrator complaint, call the desk in the lobby here, call our members directly, email us.

I mean, we get those complaints all the time.

And is that like is there a database that shows like the accumulation, also maybe to track if there's some type of like racial thing happening to see like, oh, it's always this person calling on that person, and we do may uh, you know, whether it's founded or unfounded, um, I have our staff con register those complaints.

Um, it also tells who the the person that is filing the complaint, um, and then we note whether it's founded or unfounded.

Okay, so there's a and we do take action.

We use our outreach department of our community police department for neighborhood mediation when we recognize that we have unfounded complaints that are continually coming from the same person or persons, and we ask our community outreach to mediate that situation neighbor to neighbor to see if they can come to or resolve.

We've done that on several occasions.

Okay, thank you.

Uh go ahead, Mr.

Bender.

Sorry, one other quick one.

Just it it dawned on me when when uh council president Carlack was saying about this.

Um, the the place where this is actually stored, is this stored in Intergov?

When someone fills the format online.

Yes, yeah.

There's a there'll be an application process just like you're filling out for a permit or anything else.

Okay, I just want to make sure we're we're we are adequately protecting the the data, not that someone just has a list of all vacant properties in Allentown.

Because obviously that would not be good.

So okay, all right, thank you.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Um so that's we're good here from the dice.

Uh we'll take public comment uh regarding this bill.

Um we'll start with um anyone who has a Mr.

Shabon?

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Good evening, counsel.

Uh Asher Shimon, I'm the government affairs director with the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors.

Um, I can tell you I've done a 180 since reading the uh the revised uh ordinance.

I had a chance to review it uh quickly, but um again, really appreciate this council, uh Miss Westerman, Miss Kissler for um for making and and taking some of the feedback because you guys do listen to feedback and I appreciate all the the changes that were made.

And in addition to thanking, I mean, I can tell you right now, um, it was mentioned that you know we can help get the word out.

So similar to what we did with the pre-sale inspection program for commercial properties, we put that in our weekly newsletter.

Um we can send that out to our members um informing them about the vacant property registry, how it applies.

Um also to, I mean, we have a municipal database, which I know the city has uh updated, especially with the pre-sale inspection program for the commercial properties.

So again, we want our members to know what the local laws are, so we are you know happy and we're looking to updating that on the website as well.

Um and to Mr.

Bender's point, I think from what I read quickly, the definition of occupy property captures and sort of narrow is the definition of the properties that are true problem properties.

Um, so I think that that takes care of you know the 90 days and the vacancy and and all of that.

Um so with that again, I just want to thank you all for again taking the information.

Obviously, it's your decision um to to pass legislation and make these important decisions, but uh again, I appreciate uh being receptive to the feedback.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And we appreciate your feedback and partnership.

Um thank you.

Um come on up.

Yeah.

And good evening, and just your name for the record.

Oh, hello.

Yeah, my name's Jason Dan Weber.

Um, I appreciate the tone from the board that it seems like the the questions that they had uh concerned like the property owner, you know, looking at it from their viewpoint.

The one question I have uh we own uh several commercial properties in Allentown.

I would say relatively new, like from 1980s on.

And the only thing I saw in the ordinance with a concern, sorry, this is the first time I even saw it.

I you know, I was looking at it.

Um the concern I had was the 90 days because whenever you have like a transfer, even if you have a tenant in advance, they might want to do some renovations and technically it might be vacant for more than 90 days.

And I'm speaking from a standpoint where we try to take care of our properties, keep them in good shape because we want to attract people to come in.

I mean, we've had a we're fully leased right now.

We've had a span of 10 years at one of our half a city blocks that we we didn't even have one square inch of it, you know, vacant the whole time.

But what I was concerned was if if somebody was leaving at the end of this month, you know, it takes some time to find a new tenant and all the arrangements involved, and then if they would consider that uh vacant, you know, 90 days can go back past really quick.

To me, from a commercial standpoint, it would seem more practical, maybe six months, but um I don't know if the board has any thoughts.

We can speak to it.

And we've had conversations about tenant turnovers.

Um, I'm with you on that.

So you're yeah, no, and and that's good.

So there's a couple of things like so.

If you were selling that that commercial property, you would be required to get a pre-sale inspection anyway.

Um so if there was a pre-sale already completed, you wouldn't have to register.

Um, you wouldn't have to pay a fee now to register the property as vacant.

Uh, the second thing that you if there was tenant turnover, if they're doing any alterations, they would be applying for a permit or a change of use and uh occupancy.

Um so then there would be a permit pulled for it again, would not require you to pay a fee.

So there's there's a lot of different um triggers there that would maybe require the registration.

Like you said, if it when you knew that it was going to be vagant for six months, we would like to know that.

But if you already have permits in place, you conducted your pre-sale, anything like that, we wouldn't require you to make the payment.

Yeah, fortunately, for the use of you know, like the warehousing and our strip shopping center, it's rather attractive use, but we have in other townships office properties, and unfortunately, sometimes it takes 10 months to 12 months to even find a tenant, though we have other tenants right alongside of them, you know.

But we're constantly marketing the properties.

We just were concerned, we just didn't want to get it caught up in that it oh, it's considered vacant and almost into the same stigma as a blight property only because of nine months.

Connected.

Yeah, and it but if it was truly like a full like office building that was completely vacant and it was like 10 months, we would want to know that because we would also want to get into inspect because we don't know what you're storing there.

We don't know what's you know going on.

We want to be able to have a clear picture of what's in the property and what's going on, and that you have it properly secured.

So we would just want to do a quick you know inspection to make sure everything is is cleared up.

Okay.

The main concern I want to say though is to get back to because I'm also an agent at uh NAI Summit, and like I said, in commercial transactions, it would be virtually in every case you would have more than 90 days go by before let's say the last party left, and then a new tenant comes in only because of trying to market and procure a tenant, and uh then if you do, you know, the renovation period, though I'd understand I'd be taking care of the per uh through permits, like if they're doing alterations or whatever.

Would would this be a scenario um where like just like you mentioned the snowbird, like if they contacted the city and said, listen, we are you know actively marketing this and it's gonna take a little bit of time, but we're letting you know it's vacant, there is no fee.

Absolutely, but it's just a more of a heads up so that you know, if there are squatters or something like that, like they would be aware of it and say, hey, these folks don't belong here.

And well, now from that standpoint, I would welcome that because it sounded like you would have people that can go out too and keep an eye on you know things if we if we're not even there, though we pass through it multiple times a week.

The other thing is that we're going to ask you if you have anything dangerous in the property, and we're going to also encourage you not to do things like turn off the fire suppression system until your new tenant arrives.

We've recently had a situation where we've had a much more severe fire experience because of a turned-off vacant fire suppression system.

So, you know, we're gonna say things to you like please leave your smoke alarms on, leave your interconnected smoke alarms on, leave your utilities on if you can, so that you have light, you have water, you you you can risk like your fire suppression system can work, especially if it's an interconnected building.

All right.

Uh that's it for me.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks for the feedback.

Okay, yeah.

Okay, any other comments from the public on bill 33.

Would you like to just like uh Heidi did the amendments?

Would you just like to vote on the amendments?

I'll quickly summarize them.

Um we can do that, and I do want to revisit the residential fee just one more time.

Um I don't know if there are any takers on just lowering the residential fee.

Just to let's make it maybe half of the commercial.

Yeah, you see.

Okay, yeah.

Can we go with that?

Okay.

So um, yes, if you can um we'll go do the amendments if you can add one more about changing residential to 150.

Um please.

Um, please oh sorry, so the amendment would be to summarize you would take out all reference to at-risk uh properties, so you would take that out of the out of the definitions and wherever it's referenced in the uh bill in section one.

Uh there's a sentence added at the end.

This chapter is intended to supplement existing nuisance property maintenance and code enforcement remedies by establishing a registration monitoring program designed to identify properties at risk of deterioration before conditions rise to the level of public nuisance or severe blight, and then you're you're deleting that rep at-risk property in the definitions in occupied.

You're adding a sentence at the end, a building or structure shall also be considered occupied if it is lawfully maintained for seasonal or periodic occupancy, and that goes down to the end, the end of chapter.

Um vacant property, you're putting in a period of of more than 90 continuous days.

You're deleting the last sentence there.

Uh you're adding the uh phrase the Bureau of Building Standards and Safety may or shall establish administrative guidelines identifying uh objective indicators of vacancy, including but not limited to utility removal or inactivity, accumulation of mail, lack of furnishing, code violations over burn vegetation, broken windows, uh, or other observable evidence of uh you know non-occupancy, and then in vacant storefront, you're changing that 60 days to uh 90 days again.

You're removing the uh at-risk stuff, you're removing the registration at risk properties, uh you're removing uh D in that section.

Um fee waiver, there's a uh additions to fee waivers as fee waivers for certain uh pre-sale uh compliant properties, notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, a property that has successfully completed all requirements of the city's pre-sale inspection and permitting process, including correction of all cited violations and issuances of any required approvals shall remain subject to the registration requirements of this chapter if otherwise vacant, and then you're deleting that uh or at risk.

Um, and then the changes are running down to three.

Um then you are um adding a section on vacant storefronts, you're deleting one, two, and three under adequate uh lighting.

Uh you are getting rid of the first section under public nuisance and adding any vacant real property that's maintained in violation as defined in section 4062 of the city code is here by declared to be a public uh nuisance.

Uh you're deleting the first section in 611 and adding no person shall oppose, obstruct, hinder, or resist any enforcement officer in the lawful performance of duties under this chapter and ordinance 455 property maintenance code uh continues down to jurisdiction.

Um you're removing again the classification of risk properties and um the appeal process, the um big section there is you're removing the filing fee in C under E.

You're adding the director of community and economic development or their designee.

Um and as uh Mr.

Santo suggested now, the residential vacant property registration will read 150 rather than 200, and then the commercial vacant property would read uh 300, and then you were just adding a section two, three, and four on there about final passage and ordinances being in conflict with the provisions or repeal to the extent of their inconsistency.

That's general summary, I guess.

Yeah, yeah.

Just real quick, too.

So um, I think you skipped over on 161-5 letter H.

Um, it was 10 business instead of calendar.

Yeah, um, and then I think the only thing I just didn't hear you call out, but just for the um for the final decision one that it is going to the it can go to the blighted review committee or the court of common, please.

I I didn't hear if you said that or not, so I just want to make sure that was in correct.

I I didn't hear if you said that or not, so I just want to make sure that was in correct and agree that whole section on fee waiver.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well thanks.

Thanks for reading that into the record.

And um so you want to do a vote on the amendment first?

Yep.

Okay, on the amendments, uh Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

Ms.

Appa.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender?

Yes.

Ms.

Girlak?

Yes.

And Miss Moda.

Yes.

Ms.

President has seven years and no nays on the uh amendment.

Okay.

So now we're back to Bill 33.

Um could uh with the amendments.

We'll take a vote on that.

Uh Mr.

Pungo.

Yes.

Santos?

Yes.

Mr.

Napoli?

Yes.

SAFA.

Yes.

Mr.

Bender?

Yes.

Ms.

Girlach?

Yes.

Ms.

Mona.

Yes.

President of 70 years and no names.

We'd like to thank City Council and the public for your patience through this as the introduction happened.

I believe it was 11 o'clock at night one night, but this isn't typically how DCED would bring you a bill.

So thank you very much for your patience through the process.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna move along.

Uh so next ordinance uh for final passage is Bill 49.

Is that correct, Mr.

Allen?

And Bill 49 amends the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase of $15,000 to fund the purchase of a rectangular rapid flashing beacon crosswalk warning sign to be installed at the mid-block for also up on 14th Street between Allen and Tillman Street, and that's at Gross Towers.

Okay, great.

And this came out of your committee, Miss Ms.

Moda?

Yes, Mr.

President.

And he was more favorably in front of full council.

Great, thank you.

Uh any other questions or comments from the dias on bill 49.

Just a quick comment that I made during the committee meeting again, just reiterating the importance of grant funding for some of these things.

This is yet again something that taxpayers had to spend no money on that we're getting from outside sources that we can invest in our city.

I think we've got a couple things in the books that are grant funded, and and you know, I think when when people hear of us spending money one way or another, they're thinking of priorities, but this is something that we could do without taxpayer money and just fully grant funded.

So again, commending the administration and different departments that work to get these grants to help us do this work.

And and also I would like to add that this is gonna be very beneficial for um for students, you know.

There's a school uh right there, and uh and also the senior citizens, because there's a building there of senior citizens.

So yeah, thank you.

Very very important.

Okay, any comments from the public on bill 49.

Okay, Mr.

Hannon.

Um Ms.

Santos, yes, Mr.

Napoli, yes, Affa.

Yes, Mr.

Bender?

Yes, Ms.

Gerlock?

Yes, Ms.

Moda, yes.

And Mr.

Pungo, yes, President have seven years you know.

Okay, thank you.

Bill 50.

Bill 50 amends the 2026 general fund budget to accommodate uh the upgrade of the opioid prevention manager and the health director and the bureau of health uh within the department of community and economic development.

Okay, and this came out of Miss Gerlach's committee?

Uh yes, it was forwarded favorably.

Okay, thank you.

Any additional comments or questions from the dias.

Um ahead.

Yeah, so oh Vicky Edward left.

Sorry.

Um, I'm sorry, so I'll just I'll just make this real quick.

So the I just what I wanted to understand was between Bill 50 and then 51.

Um so some are going decreased and some are increasing.

Do we know what like the net is between those two?

The net between the increases and the decreases?

Uh it's the decrease, it's grant that's within the grant funding, right?

So uh it's just a reshuffling of the grant funded position.

That's that's the only decrease.

The the increases are in bill fifty are all health department related.

The bill 51 uh that is a reshuffling of the portion that we pay.

So uh of the portion of of the of the grant funded portion of grants officers.

Um so they're they're different things.

I would I thought it was more specifically saying so so in the general fund, some of it is going on and 51 is going to go more towards grant money and less of the general fund if I'm understanding correctly, and then in 50, some of it's increasing.

So do we know what the well 50 will be an increase?

I mean 50 is the the the opioid prevention person, and then it's the director of the department of health.

Uh it's like a ten thousand that's like a ten thousand dollar difference uh in that position.

The opioid position is I'm not I'm not sure exactly.

The rest of the year.

Okay.

Okay.

And then I guess the only thing I just wanted to note in this, just for the the three, because I know you you commented here there's three new areas of programming, and I just wanted to call out because I think they're pretty significant for um that uh public health taken on, which is the violence prevention, the unhoused services coordination, and the public health outreach that I'm um it's it's it's a that's a lot more work.

So um thanks for noticing.

They've all been at the forefront too in the past couple weeks.

I mean, all of these areas have gotten a lot of attention from the from council and from the community.

Yeah, and I also wanted to say I just appreciate that the uh in the documentation here that you're noting some of the salaries um in corresponding areas.

I think that's really helpful to to reference for for um everyone in the community.

So thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Uh any other comments?

Or any comments from the public on bill 50?

Okay.

Okay, Mr.

Napoli.

Yes.

Uh Ms.

Appa.

Yes.

Mr.

Binder?

Yes.

Ms.

Gerlock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda?

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo?

Yes.

And Ms.

Santos.

Yes.

Ms.

President, I have seven years and no names.

Okay, thank you.

Moving along, Bill 51.

Bill 51 amends the 2026 uh general fund budget to accommodate the downgrade and title change of the bacon grants compliance administrator to the assistant grants compliance administrator in the Bureau of C D BG administration.

Okay.

And this also came out of Ms.

Girls Committee?

Uh yes, it didn't.

It was forwarded favorably.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any additional comments from the diaspora or from the public on bill 51.

Okay.

And the vote, please.

Uh Ms.

Appa.

Yes.

Mr.

Binder?

Yes.

Ms.

Gerlock?

Yes.

Ms.

Moda?

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

And Mr.

Napa.

Yes.

Mr.

President have seven years and no nays.

Okay.

Uh next up, our resolutions for final passage starting with R eighty.

R80 authorizes the expenditure of council funds for an independent five-year financial analysis and providing for the temporary deferral of certain capital projects pending completion of the uh set analysis.

Okay.

And any comments from Mr.

Binner, go ahead.

Yeah.

Um, so I know we discussed this in the previous meeting, but just to recap, since everyone's here, um, I put this together um with with uh support uh for uh mean mainly the main thing is to have an independent review of what we're currently doing, taking into account for potential loss of some fees, um potential pension um changes, and also um just understanding the increase in material cost for several of our capital projects.

Um this is an this is utilize in an existing um auditing firm that we are currently engaged with.

Um but what it will do is uh capture data from the finance department and then put together uh both a capital and um operational expense plan so that we um on council here can actually take that data back and make some um uh important decisions on how we're going to proceed with some of these projects going forward.

Um I did want to call out that as part of this we're noting out uh uh twenty-five thousand dollars for this um this report to come back.

Uh that is coming out of the council city council's budget um for the year.

Uh and that did I have anything else on this one?

I think that's it.

So I I'm I'm grateful that everyone seemed to be supportive of this.

I think this will be helpful for both us and I know the director of finance had mentioned that that um she was feels that this would be helpful for the city as well.

So I think this is gonna be really, really good.

So thank you.

Yep, thank you.

And uh, I'll add um what we appreciate also the cooperation and partnership with the finance department.

They're doing a lot of heavy lifting with getting the information uh and the data to these uh folks to come back with a report.

So we appreciate all the efforts um from your department as well.

Um any other comments from the dais um or from the public on R80?

Okay, uh Ms.

Anlin?

Uh Mr.

Binder, yes, Ms.

Gerlock, yes, Ms.

Moda?

Yes, Mr.

Pungo?

Yes, Santos?

Yes.

Napoli?

Yes.

And Ms.

Appa.

Yes.

Okay, next is R eighty six.

R86 authorizes submission of a formal application for funding from the Pennsylvania multimodal transportation fund grant opportunity and the amount of approximately 750 uh hundred thousand for safety improvements along the 15th Street corridor.

Okay, any feedback from the dias.

Uh Mr.

Binner, go ahead.

Sorry, I'm asking too many questions tonight.

The grant application is for an estimate of uh 750,000 dollars worth that 30% match waived through December 31st.

What does that mean?

Sorry, so if I can understand it better, the waiving through the December.

Does that just mean that they're or could someone elaborate?

I should have asked the question earlier, but the grant that's on sale.

Okay.

Thank you.

Well said uh council persongo.

It's a grant that's on sale, so if we meet that deadline, then that 30% match would be weighed.

Okay, perfect.

Sorry to make you walk up for that.

I just blended to better understand it.

So thank you.

Okay.

Any other comments on R 86 from the public?

Any comments?

Okay.

Miss Gerlock.

Yes.

Ms.

Moda?

Yes.

Mr.

Pungo?

Yes.

Ms.

Santos?

Yes.

Napoli?

Yes.

Yes.

And Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Mr.

President have seven years and no nays.

Okay, thank you.

And last one is R 87.

R 87 approves a number of transfers by placing the authorization into the proper accounting structure.

You have 21,140.

And fire for the renewal of fire department's online reporting system.

117,163 in fire for the cost of repairs for the training tower.

100,000 in the uh risk funds are needed to cover the cost of replacing the gate control box at the streets department, 30,000 in C D to the newly established at-risk property registration, $21,330 in CD to fund a new XRF analyzer, 100,000 in CD transfer to cover a contract for consulting services with urban design ventures, $29,599 in parks due to a change in the plan by the Allentown School District for Midway Manor Playgrounds.

And that's it.

Just places the money in the proper accounts.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any comments?

Mr.

Pungo, go ahead.

I guess I just had one general comment.

If our finance department could maybe answer to this, um just the hundred thousand dollars in the risk transfer.

Are we pursuing any methods to recoup any of that through insurance claims?

If it was, you know, is it one of our own delivery drivers or was it an outside?

We we we explore uh through our um insurance claims and um it's not possible to go through that route.

We do budget um in our risk funds budget for this kinds of um incidences and uh we uh but this year's budget was exhausted, so we're transferring for another account within the risk fund to cover the cost.

Okay, no, just I was curious if we'd proceeded so thank you.

We we did try and no more comments, any comments from the public on R87.

Okay, vote please.

Okay, and R 87.

Uh Ms.

Moda, yes, Mr.

Pungo, yes, Santos, yes, Napoli, yes, Safa Ms.

Affa.

Yes, uh Mr.

Binder, yes, and Ms.

Gerlock, yes, Mr.

President 7 years in the name.

Okay, thank you.

And we're gonna go um to ordinances for introduction starting with Bill 53.

Bill 53.

Bill 53 amends the 2026 general fund budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $50,000 from the community action Lehigh Valley as a repayment of a HUD approved loan issued in 2025.

Okay, thank you.

And any comments from the public on Bill 53.

So we're gonna refer this to uh Chair Gurlach's committee, uh community economic development.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Uh next up, Bill 54.

Bill 54 amends the City of Allentown Public Health Code by adding chapter 421 paid sick leave act to improve the public health by requiring certain businesses to allocate sick time for their employees.

Okay, any comments or questions from the public?

Okay, this will be referred to a special meeting to be held on July 22nd at 6 p.m.

And next up is Bill 55.

Bill 55 amends part one administrative legislation, chapter 75, pensions and retirement, article three, police pension fund by adding a new section, pension service credit for prior service with a police department.

Okay, any comments from the public?

Okay, this will be referred to Chair Pungo's uh budget and finance committee.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And last one, Bill 56.

Bill 56 amends part two general legislation, chapter uh 400 noise, section 406, sound levels by re uh receiving land use um to add regulations for continuously operating uses and section 400-7 regulations to add a compliance verification method.

Okay, and any comments from the public on Bill 56.

Okay.

This will be referred to uh Chair Golak's committee, community and economic development.

Yep, thank you.

All right, uh, we don't have any resolutions for introduction, any new business.

Yes, I would like to um invite everyone.

We're having the Colombian flag racing at 2 p.m.

uh Saturday.

Um and Mr.

Pongo, who's gonna be the start of of that um of that event.

Do you want to say something about that, Mr.

Bango?

You beat me to the catch, but I'm not surprised because it's near and dear to your heart too.

Um I think we have an incredible community out here, diverse with several different backgrounds, and these events are a great opportunity to meet your neighbors, meet people from the area.

Uh so I think it's it's great if anybody's interested, whether here in person or online, uh, just please come out this Saturday, celebrate one of the cultures that are here in Allentown and the people around you in your neighborhood.

And again, thank you to Councilperson Moda for again continuing to push for these types of events and and bringing the community together.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Pongo.

Thank you both and uh appreciate it.

And any good in welfare.

Okay.

Thank you, everyone.

We're gonna adjourn this meeting.

England and Argentina.

I'm sorry, to call for new business.

Did you call for new business?

Are you still what they would say something not?

Yeah, they do.

They uh put like two really good things.

And everyone always just like updating, but uh how do you watch it when it started?

I didn't watch that.

Can you don't give me a play by play?

You should have been telling me.

How's it going?

Oh, yeah, you prefer that.

I'm requesting the city council paper.

Yeah, arguing the adoption advocacy of you enjoy it.

I didn't forget.

Have you been in the parking lot?

Commercial book review.

I came two weeks ago.

You're just going on your time.

So you know that's a lot.

Demessi score any goals.

Oh, you know what?

So that makes me think about that.

No, I think we came on the at the end.

I don't know, no, no.

I don't think you did for the guys that got substituted.