Welcome.

I will call the to order the meeting of the Beth City Council Finance Committee.

I am Grace Cramsey Smith, Chair of the Finance Committee.

The other committee members are Hillary Puyatec and Rachel Leon.

The clerk will please call the role.

Ms.

Cramcy Smith.

Present.

Ms.

Guiatech.

Present.

And Ms.

Leon.

Present.

Other council members present this evening are Councilman Callahan.

Tonight there are three agenda items for the meeting.

The first two items involve proposed budget adjustments.

The third item is a memorandum from business administrator Eric Evans involving a 2026 payroll matter.

YouTube reminder if you started streaming this meeting after 6 p.m., please make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the meeting.

We will now do public comment.

Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on any of the agenda items tonight with a five-minute time limit?

Is there anyone from the audience public that would like to speak?

Okay, we don't have anyone signed up, correct?

Correct.

Okay, we will move on.

The first agenda item is to review proposed adjustment to the general fund budget, support of the World Heritage Coordinator position.

I will call on a representative from the administration to discuss this request.

Okay, thank you, Stephanie Agello.

World Heritage Coordinator.

I'll take this one.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Evening.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Um, if I can first start by recognizing some people who are present in the audience and representation of World Heritage.

Um, first like to recognize Charlene Donchus Mowers, our senior advisor and historian of the Bethlehem World Heritage Council and Commission.

None of this, which would be possible without her work, which began in 2002 and ultimately led to our designation as a World Heritage Site.

Also like to recognize Hank Barnett, who's vice chair of the Bethlehem World Heritage Council and Commission who lended his support and expertise to this entire process.

And also President Grigsby from Moravian University, who's been a wonderful partner to the council.

Um, and as one of the property owners of the World World Heritage Site has pledged to the federal government to promise to preserve our properties.

Um, and as you will learn shortly, Moravyan University has provided a credible amount of additional support.

Um, in addition, we also have President Dr.

Catherine Fall, our new World Heritage Site Manager, approved unanimously by all of our World Heritage stakeholders.

Um little background about her.

She received her doctorate from Princeton University as internationally acclaimed scholar of Moravian studies.

So we'd like to welcome her as she recently took on her new role.

So thank you for your time tonight and allowing me to present a little bit about our site and our request.

Um I wanted to thank the City Council for their continued interest and support of World Heritage.

I'm especially grateful for your presence at the World Heritage Celebration on September 6th.

Um we had six council members present, I believe.

So thank you for your participation in that very meaningful day for our community.

This truly is an exciting time as we embark on what is next for our site.

We've just reached a one-year milestone and have had recently put on a major event for our residents to come learn about our site, what world heritage is all about, and celebrate as we have officially unveiled our World Heritage plaque, a mural, and honored the diversity of those buried in God's Acre with a time of remembrance.

We had over 50 community partners of the city and church come together to showcase where we came from, who we are now, and how we will continue to represent the ideals of the Moravians.

Honestly, we're all still a bit exhausted.

Um, I want to especially thank uh Reverend Janelle Rice from Central Moraven Church and Craig Larimer of Maven University, two people who have helped the most in making that day a huge success, and I could not have done it without them.

I just want to give you a little bit of some background about my request of 150,000 from the downtown initiatives account and unspent bounces in the account from 2021 to 2024.

To honor our inscription and sustain our designation, our World Heritage Council and stakeholders in the site, which include the property owners and lessees of Bethlehem Area Moravians, Central Moravian Church, Moravian University, Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, and the City of Bethel and Northampton County have turned our focus now towards the next step in making our World Heritage State sustainable in the future.

Since achieving World Heritage Designation, our role has taken on a whole new dimension.

Now it's about managing our responsibilities with accountability to the local community as well as an international one, and to our transnational partners of Moravian Church settlements in Denmark, Northern Ireland, and Germany.

There are preservation needs, tourism, visitor management, fundraising, and partnerships to be undertaken.

This new level of responsibility is a privilege, but it demands significant resources and time than ever before.

So I want to first define the two important roles of World Heritage with the two important jobs right now.

UNESCO prescribes some best management practices that typically include a site manager and the site coordinator as good practice.

The site manager develops and oversees a management plan, ensures compliance, secures resources, resources, oversees a long-term vision for the site and priorities, and represents the site with our federal government, UNESCO, World Heritage, and International Partners.

They do all of this while reporting to the Bethlehem World Heritage Council.

Those are the members I had just mentioned.

The site coordinator, which is me, is focused on operational support and overall coordination of our partners, our stakeholders, and keeping them aligned and informed.

There is day-to-day implementation, communication and logistics.

I coordinate meetings, agendas, schedules, ensure the smooth communication among partners to the best of my ability, and additionally organize public events and all of those logistics that go along with it.

The World Heritage Operational Guidelines supports a coordinator as part of the local government agency to ensure daily integration of municipal operations, guarantee local account accountability, and strengthen communication between partners.

In addition, this position provides continuity, continuity beyond politics.

So personally, I see it as my personal duty to ensure the site momentum doesn't change during political transitions.

A great example of this is United's in the United States is the World Heritage Site of San Antonio Missions at the Alamo.

They have a World Heritage Office at City Hall that works closely with the mayor's office, in addition to a site manager that works for the National Park system.

And of course, there are many other examples.

Our transnational partners in Great Britain, Denmark or Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Denmark, and Germany have also pledged to have these positions at their site at their site as well, and they are in the process of hiring.

The process of hiring a SANT site manager just for your background knowledge here in Bethlehem began in January of 2025.

On January 7th, I sent a memo calling for a meeting of the council, the World Heritage Council, to discuss long-term planning.

And that meeting took place on January 30th.

Partners were asked to consider some guiding questions, including what is your organization willing to do for our World Heritage Site with your current levels of internal resources.

What is your organization willing to contribute to a new World Heritage Entity?

And what would your organization like to do, but require more financial resources to complete?

At this meeting on January 30th, Moravian University stepped up and offered to fund a site manager position and host that position, which was a very welcomed offer, especially considering all of the other expenses Moravian University had taken and encompassed up to that point.

In addition, it was suggested by Mayor Reynolds that the city might be able to contribute to a site manager if feasible.

At this point, in terms of specific site management, the city is putting forth the money to support me and my job as a World Heritage Coordinator, and I was pretty much the only one doing it with the support of some with marketing communications from Moravian University.

So eight months ago, at this meeting of the entire World Heritage Council, there was unanimous agreement and support of Moravian University taking this role.

The process continued with Moravian University offering to pay for a national and international search.

As the interviewing committee with representatives from each of our partners and stakeholders met multiple times since May to discuss the hiring process and then meet with potential candidates.

It became clear that Dr.

Fall rose above the rest of the candidates.

On August 7th at a World Heritage Council meeting, and then again on August 24st, at a World Heritage Council meeting, each member of the council, World Heritage Council, conformed their support for the hiring of Dr.

Catherine Fall as site manager, with each and every partner providing unanimous praise.

She began her new position on September 1st.

After we went through this process, we made a determination that we felt it would be helpful to contribute to the site manager position to help subsidize that position and get the site off the ground.

Recognizing the value of the site manager position and helping to structure things that I cannot personally do because of all my responsibilities on a day-to-day basis.

I think some of you might be a little familiar with some of the late evening hours and weekend hours that I currently hold in support of this site manager.

So I'm truly grateful for Meraven University offering to help support.

In a memo to council, the model by which I picked the downtown initiatives, the memo that you received, is because of what the city used in the past.

Previously, we had made payments to HPMS in support of Charlene Donchus Maurer's work on the inscription and our nomination process for the World Heritage List.

That was done in 2018 and also in 2020.

After determining we would hire Dr.

Fall, we looked for a way to support the efforts through this fund.

So that's why we are here today.

And I'm open to answering or available to answer any questions and can provide any more information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Steph.

Is there anyone else from the administration that would like to make any comments?

No.

Do the committee members have any questions or comments?

Councilwoman Leong.

I know we talked about this a little bit.

I'm very it's really cool that Moravians taking on this additional responsibility, but Blake, and they're doing plenty.

But it's my understanding that they could also offer like grant writing services and other stuff in support of your position.

Can you talk a little bit more about all the things that Moravian is is gonna be taking on?

Yes, absolutely.

I'd be happy to do that.

So there are many instances where Maravan University has stepped up with other services that would be a little expensive and encumbersome for the city to provide some of those services that they have provided our website domain research, um, purchase the website, uh, technical support, event preparation, public relations, media planning and PR website oversight, committee leadership, um documentation and event logistics, um, travel support, um representation and educational outreach at some of our international meeting meetings, um, research and preparation as we look to possibly form a new financial structure, possibly a 501c3 or some form of that in the future, um marketing strategy website development, as I mentioned, PR coordination event support, uh grant writing uh site tours, research going back on the governments of a World Heritage Site and stakeholder engagement.

Their campus police have provided additional security for us at some of our events.

They've provided some um venues for us to use during some of our ceremonies, uh streaming and technical labor for some of our events, and as you know now, the um executive director as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks because I just uh we've talked about this briefly, but um everything costs something.

And I think for the majority, like most of council that I've seen how they voted is very much in support of the the World Heritage site.

Um, so I just think a partnership like this is gonna help us accomplish it while still being prudent with taxpayer dollars.

And it's just great of Moravian to be such a partner in this.

And it's uh it's really cool to be on council to be able to see all this come to fruition because definitely wasn't here for the start of any of it, but it's really cool to see all this coming together.

You do amazing work, Steph.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And and yes, and there's other things that even come along with the site manager that you know, things like um health insurance and and other benefits that the university will be providing um on top of that.

And you know, it's a important to remember this is a process that began in 2002.

Um, and um the nomination um was being put forth in 2022, um, and the commission and council uh begun by prior administration.

This takes us all the way back to um Don Cunningham's uh mayor administration.

So we just hope to you know continue to support the site um and our obligations, not just to our local community, but also to World Heritage and our international partners who have signed on along with that in perpetuity.

Thanks.

Councilman Green.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Jello.

Um, first of all, uh I think I heard that this is going to be spent over two years.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, so it's really 75,000 one year, 75,000 another year or whatever way it's being split up since this year.

Technically, it's only three more months, but um, and and then the other only other question I had was as you mentioned, the site manager is um, you know, going to be responsible for not only that vision and planning, but also taking kind of the reins in terms of fundraising and and working um on that.

And so are we looking at what is kind of like a glide path path plan to sustainability to self-sustainability in terms of the funding of the position.

Yes, absolutely.

That's something we're currently working on.

And Dr.

Fall, who's just a few less than two weeks welcome.

Welcome to Bethlehem, I guess, is working on we're working on that plan together.

So yes, that that is the goal for it to be you know self-sustaining in the future.

So two years of stability with Moravian and our partnership, and hopefully then more of a uh we can take a step back in terms of that.

And I do want to mention that many of our partners are providing in-kind services and support in the ways that they are capable of.

So we're all trying to find our way of you know providing a fair share contribution, like what are we each specifically able to do?

And we're extremely grateful for Northampton County, who um over the series uh over many years has provided almost 500,000 to support the inscription and nomination process, which was a very lengthy process.

And also that many of these expenses are being split three ways between um although there's four countries, Denmark was already a site, and we were added on to that site extension of that site.

So there are three other countries that are currently had been supporting or had been supporting this process.

Thank you.

I I would just say that um I think that the the downtown model, the the partnership with the city makes perfect sense.

Heritage tourism is obviously um not just something that has been you know here but is going to be growing as a result of this, and and that only benefits everyone in the city um overall, and I think we'll we'll um earn this back in in you know many fold um over the years.

So thank you again, and thank you for all of your hard work.

The event was wonderful.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you for attending.

Do any do any council members have any questions or comments?

Thank you.

I just have a couple questions.

Um so this is only a two-year commitment then financially.

Um at this point, it is a two-year, a two-year commitment.

And at which point then we will reevaluate what are we able to do?

Where is the site as a whole, and what are still our current needs, and what are each of our partners able to contribute, and how has the you know financial structure been set up and how is that currently supporting the site?

So this this money that we're in transfer over, this is just for the salary for the for the coordinator.

It's for the salary of the site coordinator, which then in turn allows some money to be freed up for some additional support um that goes along with the site, which includes things like monitoring that we are in charge of and um, you know, those additional types of functions of a site manager.

And and what happens to any um is there any possible potential profits or or our money's revenue coming in?

At this current moment?

No, I mean like you want to repeat your question, please.

Is there any is there a possibility of any um potential revenue coming in?

I mean, that is ultimately the goal.

Um, it's something that does take some time um and some you know specific targeting as to how are we going to attract those um potential visitors and increase revenue?

And I think that's one of the reasons that Dr.

Fall was hired because she has that kind of a vision.

So then where where would the revenue go then?

Is it going to Moravian or does it come to the city?

That would be um a model that our World Heritage Council is currently um working on, how that most of it will, I'm sure go back into preservation of the site and continued investment in the site as a whole.

Um but I'll let the councils the World Heritage Council speak to that.

That's something that they are in continued discussions about how this will this financial structure will be set up.

All right, thank you.

And that's one of our goals for the site manager.

We wanted to hire a site manager first before we you know attempt to set up that financial structure and that organizational structure.

Is there any is there any estimate of what uh what we think would be coming in financially as far as revenues?

I I do not have an estimate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you so much, Steph.

Um before I get into my my questions, I just want to say thank you to everybody who's here that um was involved, especially um Charlene Dow um Donchez Malworth for making the World Heritage Site a reality.

I think it's it's awesome, and I've been really supportive of it.

In fact, when we looked at um decreasing the amount and the garage spaces by hundreds, I the biggest thing on my mind was how is that gonna help us if we do become a world heritage designation?

That was a concern, and I've also been advocating for you know, making sure that the downtown is getting what they need so that it looks presentable and the tourists can have a positive experience when they come, especially to the World Heritage Designation.

So I just want to say thank you, and especially you, Steph.

I know it's been a lot of long hours and a lot of work, and I really do appreciate it.

And welcome to Dr.

Dr.

Fall.

Okay.

Um, so I just have a couple of questions.

Well, I guess several.

Um, for for Eric, I believe it would be I just I'm wondering looking at this.

So we're looking at transferring 120,000 from unused funds spent in the downtown initiative.

Is that correct?

That's a balance.

Yes, 100 the accounts start of the year with 50.

Okay.

I mean 120, which would take it to the 170 mark.

So it had it had 50 in it.

At what point did it have 50,000 in it?

Uh January 1st of this year.

Okay.

Started with 50.

Okay.

And when we went to during the budget hearings last year, each year we it has been 50,000 years to start 50,000 to start each year.

Okay.

And where did the 120 come from then?

Does that come from the mercantile tax or not?

What does this fund, where do we get the funds for the downtown initiative?

Well, it's just from general revenue.

There's no single revenue that ties to a direct expense line.

And the revenues are three pages long of general funds.

So it could be a blend of mercantile EIT, it's real estate property tax.

So you look at it as any part of that.

Right.

And so what we were able to have this money because we had the downtown initiative, which I assume is a fund for both the South Side and North Side for any needs that the downtown area would request.

If you recall um 2017 is when it started.

So it wasn't always hasn't always been a line item, but as we know, um, there are line items that are created and also disappear through time.

And this was a uh fund that we set up in the under civic expenses in 0901, labeled downtown initiatives.

And through the years, it's been used in different ways for both, as you said, the north side and the downside.

We have two downtowns.

And I attempted uh, you know, go back and do a little audit trail on how it's been spent.

And it's, you know, I it's I would almost relate it to like when Mike Alcall does streets and we do street overlays, we assign a number there for him to spend, and then he'll go about looking, you know, setting up his priorities or initiatives, which roads or streets need the most, where does he want to apply it?

In this sense, for something called downtown initiatives that's been used in different ways based on the priorities and initiatives on what council is speaking about, what the mayor and and specifically community economic development working with the downtown communities to come up with where the dollars are.

Uh early on, really, uh the impetus was about Christmas, Christmas lights.

There, we had actually a consultant back in 2017, 18.

And there was $30,000 spent that first year on marketing and banners having to do with Christmas.

Uh, we've spent it on planters and marketing on the north side.

South side examples would be there's an arts quest sculpture that was 12,500.

There's money put into the greenway.

There was an economic impact study.

Okay.

That's all that's fine.

That's fine.

Thank you.

So is it also um like the DBA, if they have issues or can requests, would that be something that maybe we would look to that fund to honor the reaction?

And that's where even like some of these Christmas lights came from, those conversations and you know, with our members of our administration working with them to identify what other priorities, and then as you can see, it's been spent by through different administrations now from 17 to 25 in different ways.

And right now, then that this would take care of uh twice.

It's been used as Steph mentioned on trying to you know push forward meet this goal of having this designation.

Um this year we used a little bit on the Hoover Mason Trestle.

So if this request tonight is approved, it would still leave 10,000 left in the account for this year.

So if another initiative or priorities identified this year, there's 10,000 in the 2025 budget remaining.

And it's too early, we do not have a 2026 budget put together yet.

But it'd probably be safe to assume that that line item might appear again in the 2026 budget, be reloaded for the $50,000 number.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Um I guess my my one question is um, and again, I'm I really am supportive of this project, but my concern is where the money's coming from and some discrepancies that I'm noticing also, because um my concern is I know that the downtown business merchants on both sides of the river have for over a year been coming to the city and to council members, stating that they feel that there's um I don't want to say the word neglect, but they feel that there is areas that they really need to, we really need to focus more on in the downtown.

And I've heard from even just residents as as far as the downtown, and like I said, it it ties into we want the downtown area to look good, especially what the World Heritage Sites are, or God forbid tourists will be like, don't come back.

And we don't want that to happen.

Um so I guess that's my main concern is that I know for a fact the merchants have come to me specifically as well as others.

And my concern is why then did we not spend this money in that budget, knowing that there were needs that merchants brought to our attention.

That's really where I'm having a concern, if you understand what I'm saying.

Um, is there any other area that we can get the money from for this position just because if it wasn't for the merchants having so many issues in the last year or two, this would be you know a no-brainer.

Yeah, I'm happy to speak to that question in particular.

You know, for both the north and the south side, there are multiple different funding sources that can support the downtown and that do support the downtown.

So, you know, you'll recall that in the community economic development budget and economic development bureau in particular.

Um, you know, we have funding for, for example, the $80,000 contract that we have with the chamber that supports the chamber and the DBA, supports events like Live in the Garden.

Um, we also have a contract with um Bedco, which supports the Southside Arts District.

Um, that contract supports events like Live on the Greenway.

You know, there's there's lots of um, you know, existing contracts that support um those initiatives.

Uh we also have separate line item in the economic development budget that is um available to support, for example, strategic planning.

Um we've we've offered that on the north side.

We're having renewed conversations with um Neville Gardner from the DBA who recently said they'd like to pursue that to take you know their list of of capital and other needs and really make an actionable plan out of that.

And the reason that I raise that is because you know, in addition to what's in the the budget, we're also constantly um looking for and pursuing grant opportunities.

But sometimes the challenge is that we can't get um necessarily a clear answer from the merchants on on what they want.

So we have a a list from the DBA, for example.

Uh we asked them to prioritize on that list what their their um main um interests were.

The first thing they said was we really want these lampposts replaced so that we can put additional um decorations on these lampposts.

And so we said, okay, and we went and we talked with the parking authority about what uh savings they have and what they can contribute to the downtown.

And the parking authority is is paying, I think 300, 350,000 to replace those lampposts.

And that was uh discussed with the DBA with the merchants.

They um you know took a vote and they decided that was their top priority.

So we addressed that and we addressed that, you know, with a funding source that could cover that need, which the downtown initiatives couldn't.

And this fund was not really meant to cover main large capital funded projects.

It's meant to supplement some of these other, some of these other sources, um, including grants.

So for example, another item that was on that list from the DBA merchants, um, you know, was was entryway signage.

So we talked with the merchants about whether we could put in an application for main street matters.

They couldn't actually decide what they wanted.

Um, you know, and again, we talked about maybe having a strategic plan that would help us be prepared to pursue those grant opportunities because we have like varying, as I'm saying, varying um interests and demands from the merchants.

But sometimes when we have opportunities in front of us that we want to pay for, we don't get clarity from them on exactly what they want.

So again, strategic planning is is a conversation.

Uh we address the lights with the parking authority.

We're pursuing grants for other opportunities on both the north and the south side to address needs.

Um, when we talk about sidewalks, for example, I think you know that we're actively working on a project on the south side in the commercial corridor funded through LSA grants.

Um, on the north side, you know, it remains, you know, on both sides, it remains the property owner's responsibility.

But if we want to look at a, you know, another cost-sharing type of sidewalk um conversation, that would be one we would pursue with public works.

But again, it wouldn't really be this fund that would cover um needs needs like that.

Thank you.

I know we spoke about that at length at the couple other meetings.

Um, but again, my concern is that my concern is that we've had people come to us merchants for up to a year or two.

And I feel like we didn't um, you know, we didn't respond to them as far as meeting their needs, and we had this money here that we could have used.

And 150,000, you said, you know, we don't use it for large projects, but I think 150,000 is a lot of money.

So and I think my response is that we're actively continuing those conversations.

And we did respond to what they identified as their first priority need immediately.

They presented us a list a few months ago.

We asked them their top priority need, they told us their top priority need, and now in November, we're going to be installing $350,000 worth of new lamp posts, which they identified as their top priority need for the year.

Thank you.

Um, the other question I have, I guess, is that I know I I had submitted questions to you, Steph, regarding this.

And um, you had said that Moravian University did um pledge to fund this position in perpetuity, meaning forever.

And then I said, So is this just like why are we funding it?

And then is this a once and done?

But you said that no, it would be we hope to continue to make a fair share contribution every two to three years.

So I guess I I feel like I need clarification in that, if you understand what I'm saying.

Sure, yeah.

I I did, I think previously in Mr.

Cat to Mr.

Callahan's question respond that we would take a look again in two to three years at where we are as a site, what kind of revenue as we have we uh generated, and what do we you know continue to need to do to contribute our you know, fair share?

Okay, and is there a reason again?

It's not like that I'm against giving this money to Moravian, but I just am I have to as a fisco, you know, um watchdog for the city.

I have to be here to represent the people.

If Moravian agreed to fund the position, then I guess I'm under I'm confused as to why we are going to take 150 from our downtown initiative to do it.

So um there are overarching expenses.

They have agreed to host the position and fund the position.

And again, it's we are considering it our kind of fair share contribution um towards that site, um, or I'm sorry, towards that position in order to um be able to free up some funding that will help with possibly support staff that will further the site as well.

So it's just something that at this time um, you know, we would like to be able to do and then to reevaluate going forward.

And um, we said it would be for two years.

So is it two years like from September, or is it two years in December, the end of 2026?

Do you know, Mr.

Evans?

Or answer that question?

The two-year time frame, what would what does that consist of?

I would turn up as far as um the city, the transfer would be made now, the payment would be made now, not over two years.

It'd be one one payment to Moravian to be used over the two years.

And yeah, I believe the you know the expense of this initiative is much more than 150, as Steph mentioned.

This is I know my only question, I don't want to interrupt, but we have other agenda items.

I just mean what is the time frame for the two years?

Is it September 2025 till September 2027, or is it September 2025 till December 2026?

I would say two years from the site of this uh from the start of the from the start from this.

Okay, thank you.

That was my thought.

That was my only further clarification for that.

And then I would assume as far as oversight of this position and other positions, um, it would be who would be have the oversight, HBMS or Moravian University.

Have has that been worked out yet?

Uh Bethlehem World Heritage Council will the council will site manager would ultimately report to in terms of you know any kind of new initiatives.

Um, but obviously the position is housed at Moravian University.

Okay.

And is there so will this make will this result in any changes as far as this position with like your position because you alluded that you were your term with site manager as well as HBMS?

Will there be changes in their role and your role given that we'll have a you know site manager?

No, I will remain on as as site coordinator.

Site coordinator, okay.

You know, descriptions that I I provided.

And um, everybody we are at right now, everybody is continuing to do as they have always done.

Um, and everybody will continue their current roles into an uh operational uh management plan um has been decided on by the entire World Heritage Council, which is represented um by every partner.

Okay, that's all that I have.

Does anyone else have any more questions?

Thank you before we move on.

Council McCallahan.

No, I uh so the the 300 or 350,000 is coming from the parking authority.

Is that is that going to be uh yearly or is that just a one-time gift to the city?

You're talking about the lights on the 350 was a contribution to purchase and have the lights installed on Main Street.

That's that was a one-time contribution to complete that project from the parking authority.

Thanks.

Okay, correct the appropriate.

I will accept a motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's council agenda.

So moved.

Second.

The clerk will please call the roll.

Ms.

Quirtak.

I'm Leon.

Hi.

And Ms.

Crimson Smith.

Hi.

The appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's council agenda.

Thank you.

Agenda item two.

The second agenda item is to review a proposed adjustment to the general fund budget.

Money from two grants received to support women's health services and immunization outreach.

I will call on a representative from the administration to discuss this request.

Good evening.

So two of our grants, one from the women's health services program and immunization outreach.

Both of those grants had leftover funds from the prior fiscal year that ended June 2025.

So I'm just requesting to increase the uh budget line items.

Um the first account is 0302-4214.

That would be um an increase of $7,900.

And then the second account, 0302, 42177 for immunization outreach would be an increase of 34,000.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone from administration that has any more?

Okay.

Do any committee members have any questions or comments?

So Milion.

Um I'm just curious.

Uh with these specific grants, are these grants that we are going to expect to receive going forward with some of the cuts that we're seeing?

Are how is are you impacted by this?

Are these grants that we're gonna expect to so the immunization outreach grant that we will be seeing a decrease?

We're we're still expected to receive funds, but we will be operating in a decrease for the next fiscal year.

The women's health services grant that is currently slated to end June 30th, 2026.

And the state is hopeful that that grant will continue, but we're uncertain at this point.

Okay, and what kind of uh what's under the women's health services immunizations that seems it's for our family planning clinic?

So it pays for nurse practitioner services um to run our family planning planning clinic.

Thank you.

Okay, do any other committee members have any questions?

Do any council members have any questions?

Okay, I just had a question.

So um it's for the immunization, and this doesn't involve COVID vaccines at all because now are you giving them still or will that no?

We decided not to purchase them because the the cost and then what we would get reimbursed for it, it did wasn't this other okay beneficial.

Um is it gonna what do you think the impact's gonna be as far as the decrease in the immunization funding?

I mean, is it gonna be significant?

Or do you have any idea how we're gonna deal with that?

Yeah, so right now we have a grant called the public health infrastructure grant.

Um, it was a five-year grant um that was awarded.

Um, I think it was in 2024.

We have that grant through the end of 2027.

So we're able to utilize that funding.

It's fairly flexible funding.

So we're able to utilize that to cover some of our personnel costs from decreases um in the immunization grant.

Um, but we also are in the process of looking for other funding sources.

We've been actively writing grants to nonprofits to the state, um, as well as the federal government.

We're exploring a partnership with HighMark Whole Care Medicaid, it's a Medicaid managed care organization.

Um, we've been very successful at a partnership with Ameri Health Curitius, which is a Medicare man Medicaid Managed Care organization and in providing funding to support some of our services.

So we're trying to get creative um with our funding, and we're also um billing for our clinic services.

So we've been really um trying to make sure that we're getting all the funds that we're recouping all of the funds that we can through billing private and public insurance.

Great.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will accept the motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's council agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Ms.

QueerTech.

Hi.

Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Ms.

Crampson Smith.

Aye.

The appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's council agenda.

Agenda item three.

The third agenda item is to review a memorandum from business administrator Eric Evans concerning a 27th payroll period in 2026.

I will call on a representative from the administration to discuss this memorandum.

Thank you.

I'll we'll take this agenda item.

This is an informational item.

There's no need for a vote this evening, but we wanted to get out ahead of um prior to when this will appear in the budget, is a unusual timing event that happens once every 11 years.

And I think some of you may have been on council last time.

I came up, and I know for sure.

Lenny Lazarche was here.

And uh we've uh discussed a lot.

We actually had a um compensation study that was done, I think back in 17 right when I was coming into this seat that also was taking a look at the time to make sure um to find out the most and best efficient way to handle it.

I guess one way to uh make a comparison is like when you get paid 26 times a year.

Typically, we get paid twice a month for 10 months, and there are two months a year when you get three paychecks a month and kind of it's a timing thing.

Uh another similarity would be council when we meet first and third Tuesday.

Yeah, and uh there are four typically four Tuesdays in a month, but this month, right now in September of 2025, there are five Tuesdays.

So council won't mate again for three weeks.

Uh in this case, it's Friday.

Uh the city of Beth on pays their workers hourly.

Uh, we are signed by contract to bi-weekly pay.

If you do um the 14 days bi weekly, 14 14 um times a 26 is 364.

So uh it leaves an extra day each year and it adds up and through the 11 years, there's a couple uh in this past case there are three different leap years involved.

So by the time you get the 11th year, um you hit this what they call 27th pay.

The 27th pay is actually since it's every other Friday year round, scheduled to hit on January 1st, 2027.

However, like most companies and organizations, we don't pay on a uh the banks are closed, we don't make payroll on a holiday.

We pay the day before.

So the day before is a the 1231 26th, it's a Friday, and that will be in 2026.

So in this the budget coming up, 2026, we have to make some um changes and preparations so that extra payroll is in place.

The good news uh if you're reading and you took a look at that memos on the back of the memo since 2015 when we last experienced this and uh had the opportunity to prepare for it.

We found opportunities since 2016 to what funding aside.

The goal was to reach $2 million to put in an account because that's what a payroll for the general fund in the city of Bethlehem uh will be.

So it is in an escrow account, it's labeled 27th pay.

That will be showing up in our budget in our escrow account as an extra revenue line item coming from the savings account that has been prepared since 2016 and we'll be applying that revenue to the 27 pays that will appear in the 2026 budget.

That makes I know it's it took us a while because we knew it was coming in, and all our documents told us to prepare for in 2027, and when we saw what day it was, we had several meetings with our finance department with our IT group, as well as our payroll, because there's a there's a lot that goes into each and every payroll when you have this many people and this different bargaining units that hits the right amount at the right time.

So a lot of implications.

We'd spend some time with the spring and then we visited in the summer.

We want to get ahead of it, not be surprised.

I think in 2015, it was a little bit different of a discussion.

If if you may have been here and recall, there's a lot going on and trying to put together.

But this time we believe we're ahead of it, we're prepared for it, and we just want to make you aware of that and take any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sure.

Do any um committee members have any questions?

Just one quick one.

So um, I know that what you're gonna do is then turn around and start doing this again, right?

Setting aside a little bit every year to prepare for 11 years from now.

Yeah, uh, it's as we can.

If you look at the end of the memo, it's it seems like so far out, but it will come up quick, and who knows who will be here at that time.

But the next time it comes up is 20 2038.

And we don't want to be surprised that anyone, whoever the administration and council are sitting at that time, don't want to be surprised with a hey, we're short two million dollars because it's one time anomaly.

So we will begin it right away.

And certainly with any, you know, as there is transition in the financial department and administration, we want to make sure we keep this on the front burner to find a way to do it.

And uh this one was put together with a couple of unique opportunities because each year some opportunities will present themselves.

And then in the back, this memo explains some of them.

The EIT accounts or even when 911 was shut down.

It used to have its own fund, like the golf has its own fund, the water 911 had a fund because it took a lot of funding from the state.

So when that was shut down and transferred, we sold off the radio to pay off the debt um to the Northampton County who's taking the 911 with some technology they're gonna use, and there's a small balance, and we put that balance and let's start putting towards this 27th pay because it's coming up, and that was in 2019, and here we are in 2025, and it's gonna hit next year.

So that's kind of what we do and hope to do for next time.

At least get it started.

And of course, we're gonna have to save more because 11 years from now, obviously, yeah, it's gonna cost 1.5.

Yes, things do grow.

And so it was 1.5 in 2015, and it's about two million now.

That was yeah, impact.

And what what um because includes also social that's the salaries, right?

Social security tax, any deferred or any um deferred comp match.

Deferred comp match that they were gonna make.

So we try to count any account that it would impact to make sure we collect the amount that we need.

It's very close to what we have.

We knew when we hit the two million mark, we felt that was gonna be close that it wouldn't stretch us out in any other way.

You thought that'd be the mark.

And we've run several simulations.

We have not run a full formal uh personnel module that we do for our budgeting for the 2026 budget, which is happening soon, but everything we've run has come out to about that same number that two million dollars has been the marker.

Last week's pay was 1.7 for the general fund, and then there'll be next year's pay, and also that payroll has I believe a holiday in it.

And um, so that's how you get out close to the one to two million.

Right.

Okay.

And yeah, and so we know there's three percent increases across all of our contracts and all of that.

So yeah.

Thank you.

Do any council members, other council members have any comments?

Thank you.

I think it's uh it's great how you figured out to keep this in escrow because it's this kind of thing could just pop up on us without you know knowing.

So very good planning.

Yeah, I talked to the auditors to see if it was permissible.

And they said yes, you can put it in escrow as long as you have permission to bring when you're actually spending it, you get councils.

So it's okay to do that.

I know as an employee, it's great when you have those three checks a month, you know, but when you're on the other side, it's not so great.

So yeah, great.

Thank you.

Good job.

Thank you.

Um, so this matter was for informational purposes only.

The same communication will be read and discussed at councils at the council meeting later this evening.

Okay, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was the vote on that.

Okay.