We are recording everyone, just so you know.

Good evening, everyone.

We're gonna start with tonight's city council meeting.

I ask that we all rise for the pledge to the flag.

Pledge allegiance to the flag for the United States.

And to the republic, which says one nation under God, individual with liberty just working on it.

Mr.

Miller, please call the roll.

Mr.

Callahan, present.

Ms.

Grimsy Smith.

Present.

This Que Attack.

Present.

This Laird.

Present.

Ms.

Leon.

Will helm present and Mr.

Columb.

Present.

Thank you, Mr.

Miller.

Moving on to the approval of the minutes for the November 5th, 2025 City Council meeting.

Any comments on the minutes?

The minutes stand approved.

We're gonna start with public comment.

Our first public comment, as is custom is for anything that's not being voted on this evening.

There is a five-minute time limit.

I ask everyone to be mindful of as we have a dozen individuals signed up to speak tonight.

So I'll go through the list and then I'll open it up to anyone else present who wants to make comment.

So we will start again.

This is for anything that's not being voted on tonight.

The first person we have signed up, David Ruff.

And when you come up, you don't mind giving your name for the record for our city clerk.

Thank you.

My name is David Roof of R U H F.

Apologies.

That's okay.

City resident.

I rise before you tonight to give you a little historical perspective.

Um I'm a 35-year veteran of the Bethlehem Fire Department.

I got on 1976.

We had 116 firefighters at that time.

Um a lot less now.

Um I won't talk about numbers uh all that much.

Uh I do want you to realize the city, I don't think you I have to tell you the city has grown by leaps and bounds.

And I think the JPC said we should be up around 80,000 people uh by the end of this year, which is a far cry from when I got on.

I think we were at 71,000.

Um, what I want to talk about, you'll you'll hear numbers, I'm sure tonight, but what I want to talk about is the things that you don't see that aren't the numbers don't tell you.

And those things are when a firefighter responds to a fire call.

When he responds on that to that fire call, he doesn't know what he's gonna run into.

And uh I can still remember my first fire fatality.

I can remember uh two and a half-year-old child.

Uh Marvine Village.

I've lived with that for well, now it's almost 50 years.

Uh we don't forget that stuff.

It works on us.

Um, we always stop and think, what could I have done differently?

Oh, if I only had a few more guys, if I only did this, if I only did that, you're second guessing all the time.

And over the years, that plays on a firefighter's uh mind.

And I there's no way for me to express that to you unless you lived it.

These gentlemen behind me know exactly what I'm talking about.

We know every fire fatality we had.

I can list them for you, but I don't want to bore you.

Um I was the first officer on a scene at the hotel Bethlehem fire.

We almost lost two firefighters that day because the smoke was so intense and it banked down.

Uh, they ran out of air, and if it wouldn't free for their pass alarms, um, we found them and drug them out.

If not, we would have had two firefighter deaths.

Um Westgate fire.

We were involved in moving an aerial because of the extent of the fire.

Within three minutes after we move that aerial, the whole back wall of them all collapsed.

We would have had three more firefighter deaths.

It's only by the God's grace that we're here that I'm here speaking with you today.

Um I could go on, but uh, I don't want to waste anyone's time.

Uh, I did speak earlier about uh our population, our numbers.

I know this is my third time, I think, speaking before council.

I know this is my third time, I think, speaking before council, and uh if I'm not mistaken, the last one was uh in the late 80s when city council uh got what they called the gray study, and the basic premise of that study was let's see what we can do with the fire department without raising dollars, without it costing dollars, and what did we wound up doing?

We wound up losing losing a hundred foot aerial and two fire stations.

That was the city's answer.

This is wrong, it's gotta stop.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Our next speaker is John Roof.

My name is Jonathan Roof.

Uh following my father, like I have in the in my career.

I got on the job 35 years after he got on the job.

When I first got hired on, we had 116 firefighters.

So in the past 15 years, our numbers have dropped below that.

We've lost another fire station.

We were told that an engine wouldn't be browned out.

The engine seven is basically a reserve engine.

In the years that it went that engine that company seven went away.

You probably count on one hand how many times the engine's actually been in service and was actually able to be manned.

We've always been asked to do more with less.

And now I serve the city, this great city.

By our numbers being where they are, you elected officials have a responsibility to the Commonwealth for their safety, for their protection.

Don't tie our hands from us doing our jobs.

More people means faster reaction.

The more available firefighters we have, the quicker we can stop something.

The faster we get to your mother, to your father, to your grandchildren, to your children.

And yes, you're right.

Every death that we've been a part of weighs on you.

That we didn't know that he was gone, and we did not stop until we found out later that was because dad rolled over top, but we didn't stop all the way to the hospital.

I went to Calypso Elementary School, Hichman Middle School, Libra High School, grad 96.

I wrestled same at West Bethlehem with Mr.

Evans here, Mr.

Callahan.

We've known y'all.

This city is everything to the guys behind you behind me that serve it, and we want to do it to the best that we can.

So we're not asking much.

We're just asking you to step up and protect the city the way that you guys were elected to do.

It's great that we have all these festivals come in, bringing millions of people outside.

It's great that our city is as beautiful as it is.

But during those times, our call volume goes up.

Our manpower stays the same.

We run and run and run.

We're on TV, you know, during the holidays.

We are mainstream America.

We're tasked with protecting the people that come and visit, and the ones that live here.

We don't judge one way or the other.

We have a job and we're there.

So help us help everybody else.

That's all.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker is Lou Jimenez.

Hi, Lu Jimenez.

625 PA Avenue.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm Lou Jimenez.

I'm president of local 735.

I'm a fire lieutenant, a lifelong Bethlehem resident, and someone who spent his entire adult life serving his country and this city.

I stand before you tonight, not out of ego, not out of politics, but out of responsibility, a responsibility to my members sitting back there to this community.

For years, you've heard it before, years, not weeks, not months, but years.

We've been operating in a staffing crisis.

Our department is serving a city that has seen tremendous growth, more development, more housing, more people, and there's more need.

Yet we're doing it with less staffing than we had 30 years ago.

When Bethlehem looked very different from the city we see today.

You heard me say it repeatedly.

This is a public safety crisis, and public safety is not optional.

It is not optional.

Say it again.

It's the backbone of any thriving community.

And the backbone of that safety is this firefighters who respond 24-7 without hesitation, and far too often, wouldn't not without enough support.

We operate with staffing levels that simply do not match the size, the complexity, and the growth of modern Bethlehem.

We're budgeted for 104 firefighters.

Numbers from the Bethem Steel era, not a 2025 city.

The last time our department saw staffing this low, I wasn't even born yet.

I don't believe anyone in this room can honestly say Bethle looks like it did 50 years ago or even 15 years ago.

Our members respond to fires, medical emergencies, hazmat incidents, crashes, technical rescues, overdoses, building collapses, all while trying to uphold adequate staffing.

But we cannot meet those standards without staffing necessary to do the job.

I want to make it very clear.

Staffing is not a luxury, it's a necessity.

Adequate staffing determines how quickly a fire gets under control.

Whether a trap victim gets rescued in time or not.

It determines when a firefighter becomes a survivor or a statistic.

Our residents, your residents, deserve better than that.

We deserve better staffing, not held together by overtime or forced overtime and exhausted firefighters who love this city but continue to do the job.

This isn't new information.

For years, administrations have acknowledged their staffing challenges, but have not acted to fix them.

Every study, every GIS map, every response time analysis paints the same picture.

Our city's grown, but our fire department has shrunk.

Which brings me to the current efficiency study.

The criterion of the study was said that was agreed upon by local 735.

That is not true.

Let me be very honest.

This study's not designed, and I'm talking about the city's proposal for a study.

That study is not designed to enhance staffing.

It's aimed at bringing us, it's it's not aimed at bringing us closer to compliance.

It's focused, it is not focused on improving safety for residents or firefighters.

This study is meant to determine how to do more with less, yet again.

How to stretch a limited FERC workforce even further.

You cannot stretch safety.

And you absolutely cannot stretch a fire response that already arrives thin.

Bringing our staffing back to 113 firefighters, the staffing level Bethle maintained for years is not an extravagant request.

It is the baseline.

The minimum necessary to begin correcting decades of erosion.

And at first and foremost, staffing at Northwest Station out on Catasakwa Road with a company officer.

Not January 1st, but right now.

My children live here, my grandchildren live here, my son's on the job, my roots from Marvine Village to the Southside and my loyalty has only ever been to this community.

I want my community to be loyal to me.

I want the city to be loyal to me and my membership.

Ton's an opportunity.

Choose to invest in safety and bring us back closer to that 113 we deserve and build from there.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker signed up tonight is Rose Jimenez.

Hello, my name is Rosemary Jimenez.

I'm the wife of Lieutenant Lou Jimenez, and who's also the president of Local 735.

I have sat back and watched my husband and the firefighters that are sitting right behind me of the city work tirelessly without the staffing and resources they need to serve and protect this community for too long.

The time for polite warnings has long since passed.

Bethlehem's fire staffing crisis is not a misunderstanding, and it is not a matter of interpretation.

It is a failure of priorities.

And the data compiled by one of the most respected fire service organizations in the world, the International Association of Firefighters proves it.

For years, this city has pushed the narrative of doing more with less.

But let's call that what it really is: doing less with less and asking our firefighters to absorb the consequences.

Bethelham spends only 10% of its city budget on fire protection, the lowest of any comparable Pennsylvania city.

And because of that underfunding, huge sections of the city cannot receive a fire unit within the national recognized four-minute standard.

For many medium-hazard structures such as our schools, the apartments that you see getting built all over this city, and commercial buildings.

This department needs recommended staffing levels at zero percent of the time.

District 9 is operating without a full-time company officer and cannot meet the basic two-win, two out safety rule.

And for the typical house fire, Bethlehem meets national standing benchmarks only 6% of the time.

These numbers are not minor gaps.

They are systematic failures created by staffing decisions, budget decisions, and years of ignoring data that has now become impossible to dismiss.

You are failing this community.

You're failing the firefighters who have sworn to protect the city, and you are failing us, the families.

Buildings are taller, calls are up, populations are denser, yet staffing is stuck at 18 firefighters per shift, down from 22 while the city removes positions and left vacancies open to cover budget shortfalls.

This isn't efficiency.

This isn't fiscal responsibility.

That is risk, manufactured by policy choices and placed directly on the shoulders of our residents and our firefighters.

And when it does, the reasons will be obvious because the warnings are right in front of you right now.

I'd like to close by speaking not as a firefighter, not as a union member, but as the wife of someone who runs into danger when everyone else is running out of it.

Every shift I watch my husband leave our home, not knowing what he'll face or how thin his crew will be stretched.

I see the exhaustion after back-to-back calls, the worry in his eyes when he tells me they had fewer firefighters on scene than they needed, and the quiet moments when he tries with all his might not to let the weight of this job spill over into our family.

And I'm telling you this because behind every firefighter is a family living with that uncertainty.

We do our best to be brave, but the truth is the fear of losing one of our firefighters is real, not just for our spouses or parents or children, but for this entire city.

If Bethelham were to lose a firefighter because we failed to staff adequately, the devastation would be immeasurable.

A hole would tear through our department, through our families, and through our community in a way that could never be prepared or repaired.

These men and women are not just employees.

They are coaches, neighbors, mentors, volunteers.

They are the people who show up at 3 a.m.

without hesitation when one of your families needs help.

And all they ask is that when they need backup, when someone's life depends on seconds, that the city has provided enough firefighters to answer that call safely.

I love my husband.

Our grandchildren love him.

And our family, like so many others, trusts that when he steps into danger, he has the staffing support and resources to make it back home.

This isn't about politics.

This is about real people, your residents, your firefighters, their families, your communities.

We cannot wait for a tragedy to justify what we already know needs to be done.

Please choose safety, choose prevention, choose to protect the people who protect all of us.

That's all we ask.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Jimenez.

Next speaker is Jack Masseo.

Apologies if I mispronounced that.

Good evening.

My name is Jack Meshi.

I am a proud member of the 735 trustee on the Platoon.

Um, I don't know how to follow up with uh the humanity's family is greeting, but I had to prepare a speech.

Um, I want to talk to you about what goes unnoticed, yet absolutely critical in the moments of when our community needs it the most is a fully fat uh staff fire department.

When an emergency happens, like a house fire, medical crisis, a car accident, a chemical spill, seconds make the difference between life and death.

A fire can double in size every minute.

A person in cardiac arrest needs CPR and defibrillization within minutes to survive.

When that call comes in, our firefighters do have do not have the luxury of waiting for reinforcements because we are the reinforcements.

A fully staffed fire department ensures that when the alarm rings, enough trained professional arrive quickly and together.

Not firefighting is not one person job or a two-person job anymore.

Um, it requires a coordinated team who can search buildings, operate hose lined, ventilate smoke, provide medical care, and protect each other while we do it.

Understaffed crews cannot safely perform these tasks, which means slower rescues, greater risk to the public, and a greater danger to firefighters themselves.

But the most important is goes beyond the emergencies.

The fire department is the backbone of community safety.

They conduct inspections, teach fire prevention, respond to medical calls, support disaster responses, and often are the first faces people see when they're in their vulnerable moments.

When staffing is stretched thin, these preventative and community-focused services are the first to suffer, leading to more emergencies in the long run.

Fully fully staffed, our fire department is not an expense.

It is an investment in saving lives.

And I'm gonna read that again.

It is an investment in saving lives in property protection and faster recovery after disasters and in the pay in the peace of mind that comes knowing when the truly the helps is truly when they call.

Fighter fire firefighters stand ready 24 hours a day to protect this community, which we serve.

The least we can do is make sure that they have the staffing and support they need to do the job effectively and safely.

Our community deserves reliable emergency responses.

Our firefighters deserve co-workers, not an empty seat next to them on the truck.

Together, we have the power to make sure that when the next alarm sounds, the team responding is strong, prepared, and complete.

That is my speech.

But I also like to say that I'm a new member to the department.

Uh, and you can clearly see that firefighting is in our blood.

We have senior members who are uh veterans, and then we have all these guys back here who've been on this department for years fighting for it.

And I plan on doing the same thing that they're doing for the next 20 years.

This is where I'm gonna stay.

This is where I'm gonna work, and this is gonna be my home.

And I want to be able to spend that time with my kids and this department and do it safely and effectively.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker signed up is Robert.

I believe it's in Bowden.

Good evening.

My name is Robert and Bodham.

I'm a member of local 735.

I'm uh one of our vice presidents.

I've been a member's department for uh about 15 years.

I just want to throw a couple numbers out here and some information so that we can realize what it is that's actually going on.

Uh we like to make decisions based on fact and data.

Um, look back at the census of the city of Bethel's population runs about 74,000 almost 75.

And if you believe the numbers closer to 2025, they want to say our numbers are around 78, 79,000.

The problem with that is not only do we provide services for those numbers or those people that live here all the time, a large portion of the services that we provide are for the transient populations.

People coming into the city for events to the casinos, to the college students, to the staff members of these uh institutions.

Um that number is astronomically larger than this 78,000 number that we might go by, or as some of our other members stated at about 80,000.

So let's be realistic.

This number isn't realistic.

With that being said, I'm gonna hit the same note as uh one of our other speakers did.

City administration has touted how it has one of the smallest workforces in the history of the city.

Firefighting is a manpower heavy occupation and industry.

Our GIS study that we've given to the safety committee spells that out across the United States and across this commonwealth.

It's unsurmountable evidence that shows that the less firefighters we have, the less abilities we have to do our job.

Part of the reason we're sitting where we are right now is because our previous administrations in this fire department, along with the city, felt that it was okay to not hire for five years, five straight years of retirements or attrition, we didn't hire.

Please tell me where that makes sense and why we let that happen.

As an eboard member, we've been told by the mayor that he goes to his subject matter experts in the respective departments to ask to see what it is that we need to run our departments, i.e., our chief and our deputy chief.

That doesn't feel like it's actually happening here.

If that was the case, we would see things happening differently.

We'd get better answers than we do.

We have less firefighters now than we did when I got hired in 2011.

Please tell me again how that makes sense.

We have less firefighters now than we did 50 years ago, as brother retired Dave Roof, one of our veterans said at the uh safety committee that we had a couple weeks ago meeting here in the Vertunda.

We've had more mandations in just in this last year alone than I've had in my entire career of almost 15 years.

Let me tell you how that affects the department and our ability to do our job.

That is going to lead to burnout.

And if you don't want to know what that is, please stop by any of our stations and we can sit there and show you on our members' face what that looks like and how that affects us.

On top of that, it also leads to overall poor morale.

Now, we're not going to come here and complain, but I will tell you this.

I'm also a service member and veteran of uh OIF, and I will tell you this.

Any good leader that I ever stepped in front of is going to ask a couple questions when they come into a new position of command, and that is how is the morale?

Okay.

If you want an effective workforce and you want an effective body to do their job, morale is your number one thing.

Not having enough firefighters to do our job is only going to make this idea, this fact go downward.

We continue to have uh smaller and smaller turnouts year after year when it comes to hirings.

I would like city council and some of our other committees to address that and why that is.

Because we don't have these turnouts, we don't have more people to get hired or put in these seats that we need to have happen.

Um again, we're constantly asked to do more and more and more with less and less and less.

I'm not the only one who's gonna say that tonight, so I'm not gonna keep going on on it.

But I will tell you this.

Municipalities around Pennsylvania, since I've been on this job and before, along with other municipalities in the United States that have made appropriate staffing changes, have only happened as a result as firefighters losing their lives in the line of duty.

Is that where you want to be?

Any of you city council members or the city's administrations want to sit here and answer to the public is why you did or didn't do what you were supposed to do.

Don't be part of the problem.

Help be part of the solution.

We are here to work in a common goal as a local with the city with manpower and staffing to go forward to make this better.

We know that changes can't happen overnight, but we don't have that direction.

We need that direction.

We need your help to go in that direction.

Another thing I want to point out is to understand our budgets.

We look at these line items.

I think we or city council and members of these apartments need to really understand what this means.

I'm gonna ask this question.

I want you to think about this.

Understand your budgets better and ask yourself why when you see a line item.

Why is our overtime budget in 2025 $500,000?

And then also the same number in 2026, $500,000.

Our overtime budget from 2025 was spent by April May's time frame of that year.

Please tell me why we haven't even considered the difference in our raises that we get into that overtime budget as far as staffing is concerned.

Thank you, Mr.

Mbode.

I am gonna ask you to wrap it up, please.

In conclusion, we we can do better, we want to do better.

We're asking you to do better.

I don't think that's a lot.

If we don't do better, it's gonna eventually end up losing somebody's, if not a firefighter's life, and then we're gonna have to figure out how we're gonna deal with that.

Please help us move forward.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker is Artie Curtola.

Hi, I'm Artie Curatola, A13 Law for Street Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

In relation to the government shutdown, should us taxpayers be paying for attorneys in Congress to give raises to elected officials when the veterans administration don't have taxes paying for attorneys to give raises and pay to military officials and military personnel.

Two, should full-time elected officials continue to be paid more out of our tax dollars than military personnel, police and firefighters.

Three, should federal grants be given to so-called nonprofit organizations who are making a lot of money, like Arts Quest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Four, should we be giving aid to countries who support or condone by not trying to stop groups like Zionists who kill innocent people, especially women and children, and domestic animals and wildlife.

Not when we have so much problems with parking.

Why don't they go ahead and why don't the why don't you city council people get the parking authority to go ahead and put lines because that if they're if they're past that line about a half a foot or below or half it behind it, they get a ticket.

And people this way to be more parking.

Is it because they can't afford to paint because elected officials are getting paid so much money?

Come on, get this thing together.

We have a problem with parking, make it designate designated spots.

If they're passed over that, then they get tickets.

Hey, the parking authority makes more money, so does the city.

Let's start working right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Curtola.

Next person signed up, Mike Smith.

Good evening.

My name is Mike Smith.

I live at 2045 Montgomery Street, Bethlehem.

Tough act to follow that fella.

Um I started on the fire department in 1984, and I hung around until 2010.

I retired as an assistant chief on my way through the ranks.

I was also president of local 735 proudly.

Back in my day, we went through the same thing.

The city paid tens of thousands of dollars to have uh Mr.

Gay do a study, page for page.

He was also doing the same study in Buffalo, New York.

Page seven.

Here's Buffalo.

Page seven, here's Bethlehem.

Everything was identical.

You threw your money out the door.

The International Association of Firefighters did one of their first GIS studies.

And things got temporarily better.

Let me explain one thing.

And see all the nice fire apparatus you got in the stations.

I don't know if you ever go there and look at it.

It's beautiful.

But you gotta have somebody to run it.

You can't send two guys on a piece of apparatus and hope for the best.

Your 100-foot area ladder, it probably takes three guys to set it up, let alone somebody to operate it and use it.

There's just not the people you have to have properly manned and staffed apparatus and properly staffed platoons working on duty.

You can't depend on somebody else coming from East Jap at two o'clock in the morning.

They may or may not show up.

When I was an assistant chief, and I'm sure Dave could tell this, if you had to go, God forbid, to multiple alarms.

It was like, where the hell did everybody go?

What do you mean you're calling from home?

That's going to be hours.

You have seconds, minutes.

Time is of the essence in this game.

And I want to impress that upon you.

Go sometime when you got nothing to do, go to the firehouses and look at that apparatus.

Count the seats in it.

Like the manufacturer put all those seats, not for everybody to go to a parade to be they're supposed to be used.

Somebody's supposed to be there to do something.

One of the other things I noticed since the last time, 20 years ago that I addressed this.

You guys are paying attention pretty well.

But Mr.

Evans, I don't know you from the man in the moon, and I'm sure you don't know me.

But the whole time I noticed you diddly do and reading.

I hope you're saying writing down how you're gonna hire more guys soon and press staffing.

But you know, that makes me nuts when I see the administration just everybody's oh look at well, have a study.

When I call 911, I don't want you to do a study.

I want somebody there right freaking nail.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

Next speaker, Deborah Sakarakis.

Well, this is on an entirely different subject, but with support for the firefighters.

Um, I'm coming to you tonight to highlight and offer my thanks for the city's composting and recycling facilities and the leaf collection on our city streets.

The facilities offer convenient places for citizens to responsibly get rid of some types of household and yard waste, and offers free compost at the yard waste facility.

The compost and recycling centers are easily accessible and are staffed by friendly people who are willing to help.

I'm hoping someone will pass along my appreciation to facility crews for their kind and courteous service, and also to the crews who pick up the leaves on the city streets.

This joint effort encourages responsible environmental citizenship and models positive collaborative civic relationships.

Inspired by this season's focus on Thanksgiving.

For your respect for the concern of our citizens, and for your leadership, all of which keeps Bethlehem smoothly running and a really good place to live.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you, Miss Hackrakis.

Our next speaker is Ann Smith Razer.

Riser.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Ann Smithriser.

I live in the city of Bethlehem.

And I Ann Smith Riser.

I live in the city of Bethlehem, a few blocks away from here.

And I am here tonight in support of the fire department as well.

My brother-in-law retired this year, long-time firefighter.

And I had heard from years about uh firefighting in the city.

Um, I grew up here, lived a long away from a long time, came back to the city, and really started paying attention to oh, how long does it take to get to me?

How long does it take to get here?

And then asking him a lot of questions.

And then when this study came out um for the IFF or IAF, I was like, wow, that's that's not good.

Um, and it's you know, when you looked at that study and it said that Bethlehem and all the Pennsylvania rankings are so low, it's really not about rankings.

Um, it's about the safety of our firefighters and the safety of everybody in the city, um, and them being able to get where they need to go.

In my professional life, I work in the area of environment, health, and safety.

I work a lot with um people doing safety management systems, fire uh at industry is always part of the analysis.

Um, and when you look at what you're doing, um, the risk management is is off the charts.

You know, you have a very high level of risk, and you need to bring that risk down.

Um, and I did look again at some of the vision statements of the city and what the city is saying.

Um, and when the mayor says that the backbone of the city is um, let's see, what do you say?

Public safety, and we look forward to making even more investments in the coming year.

Well, that's great, but it really needs to start now.

You're down quite a few people, and you really need to start that now.

Um, so I just urge the city council to um amend the budget and uh more so we can start moving towards properly staffing of the fire department.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mark Will Weber.

Mark Weber, uh, 66 West Elizabeth Avenue.

Uh I'm gonna talk about water, of course, but um, I do want to acknowledge the fire guys here.

Um 1984 had a fire at my house.

And uh the irony was I was over in Fountain Hill playing poker with an off-duty fireman, Carlos Sanchez.

I don't know if any of you guys work with him, but he was a beauty.

And he takes off, and five minutes later I get home to find Carlos at my house with a bunch of firefighters putting out the fire.

Uh rescued my wife.

And uh so 30, I think that's like, oh man, how many years?

It's a long time ago.

Yeah, 41 years later.

I'd like to thank what a great job those guys did, because uh my life would certainly be uh dramatically different.

Had uh Bethlon firefighters not really uh hadn't been on the job like they were.

And in fact, I heard later, I don't know if it's true, but uh that they used the fire at my house in training uh segments with young firefighters because it's because they did everything exactly right, and uh so I had some minor damage to my back room and the downstairs and some smoke damage, but uh 10 minutes late, and it would have been a whole nother deal.

All right, let me switch quickly to to water.

Uh if we go back eight days when uh Mr.

Buscola was up here uh pontificating and showing his charts and such.

One one chart that I found conspicuous by its absence was I didn't see a chart on um how much money they're bringing in on the new smart meters already, or maybe anticipated when they get all 37,000 smart meters in because they got to be making some money from that.

But I didn't see a chart or a figure on that.

So council, you certainly should inquire about that, I think down the road.

Um the other thing with the whole thing that was going on with the charts is uh you know, we learned some historical facts, how much water Bethlehem Steel used in 1970, and that's all good.

But going forward, uh he also was greasing the school uh skids for another uh rate hike.

And uh I'm here to say again, without those downloadable apps where the citizen can measure their water by the hour, it would be a big mistake to fire in another rate hike.

It's just gonna uh put the lower income people, especially in this city in danger of getting one of these unpayable bills and ending up on uh their payment plan.

Okay, I don't see a payment plan for uh people that are already precariously close to falling into the abyss of poverty as as a solution.

That's like salt in the wound, is what that is.

So uh these apps would keep people off these payment plans.

I don't care if it's two dozen people or three dozen people or five people.

Uh imagine the humiliation of going on this payment plan uh just to pay your your water bill.

But the apps, these hourly apps would have a lot of those off at the pass.

So you would keep people off that, which I think is a good thing.

Uh that's not a solution to any long-term uh thing with water to put people on these payment plans.

There they're probably just one other disaster away from it, and up on the towpath uh with a tarp.

So uh again, that's something to take into consideration uh for those people at the low end.

Um again, at the end of the day, I just want to see uh the Bethlehem people get treated the way uh they are in these other cities, whether it's Naperville, Illinois or Texarkana, Texas, Yakima, Washington, uh Paducah, Kentucky.

These people all have these downloadable apps.

Um we should have them.

And uh well, I'm not gonna let go of that issue until we get them.

I would like to see council make any future uh rate hikes contingent on them coming through with this app.

Um Hazleton, Pennsylvania, for God's sakes, has it.

And it's not exactly it's uh it's a city.

I can't disparage it.

My wife's from there, but it's a city that's kind of struggling.

But uh, but they have eye on water for their people.

So certainly uh uh Ed Bosco and the boys can uh match their counterparts in these cities, right?

Ed, you would think.

Thanks.

Our next speaker this evening is Anthony Castillo.

Anthony Castillo, C-A-S-T-I-L-L-O.

Um, lifetime uh Bethlehem resident.

And tonight I stand with the Bethlehem fire department.

Um, I remember when I was about 15, 16 years old, uh firehouse closed down, and uh my mom was extremely concerned.

And as a teenager, you're not really thinking about that kind of stuff, you know.

Um, but now as a father to hear these men talk about staff shortages and uh firehouses that aren't properly staffed, is very disappointing.

And um as a father and as a resident, I feel cheated, to be honest.

These guys tell you all these numbers, and I'm sure you guys know about it now because they've been sharing it with the residents everywhere, and I thank you guys for that.

Um so as we hear these numbers, what are you guys doing?

From my perspective, it's just being negligent from my perspective.

You guys are just being negligent because if these guys are coming to you with these numbers, you got men that served 30 plus years ago telling you that the numbers were up here and now they're down here, population's up here.

That's negligent.

Plain and simple.

You guys sit up there in your suits and ties.

If something happened to one of these guys because they're they're operating understaffed, you guys are gonna be the first ones going up to their families, shaking their hands.

Am I right?

First ones, but you guys actually have the power to do something, so don't stand up there talking about uh public safety is an important matter for you.

Right now, that's just lip service.

You guys have the power to actually do something, do it.

That exhausts our list of who had signed up in advance of the meeting or before we started.

So I'll go around the room again.

We're on anything that's not being voted on this evening.

Is there anyone to the left who ought to make comment who hasn't had a chance?

Sir, council members, Mr.

Mayor.

I appreciate your time.

I'm Joe Hart from 220 Cherokee Street in Bethlehem.

I'd like you to think about something.

If I could have your attention, please.

I'd like you to think about something.

When you need help, when I need help as a citizen, I count on these guys.

When they need help, they're all they have.

If these gentlemen get in trouble on a fire scene, and and I've been there, I served my community as a volunteer fireman for 37 years.

I've been trapped in a burning building.

I know what it feels like.

One of the reasons I'm standing here today is because the next engine happened to arrive on scene just as I needed that help.

And that happened within the first three minutes of that call I was on.

If that happens to these guys out in the northwest corner of the city or deep in the south side, that help can be seven or eight minutes away.

We count on them.

They count on each other.

We all have to count on you.

Don't wait until something happens where we have the flags at half mast, and you're sitting there saying maybe we should do something.

The time to do something is before that happens.

Let's let's get it done.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hart.

I turn to the wide center.

I'll start in the front, Mr.

Antalix.

Stephen Antalx, 77 Ridge.

I'm in shock.

I can't believe let her this evening.

Incredible.

This doesn't happen in Bethlehem.

I can't I can't I can't believe what I've heard.

And I believe them.

They're decent, honest people.

They're not being heard.

Why?

The word on the street is majority of council is an extension of City Hall.

And they're not being heard.

So someone should someone should be answering them loud and clear.

It should be you.

Because you're an extension of the administration.

I'm in shock.

I really am.

And four.

These serious speakers were giving data, which was shocking to me.

They're being told they're violating a five-minute rule.

That's insulting.

You need to hear it.

You don't want to hear it, because you don't like bad news.

I've sat here years ago where someone speaking about Marie and history was allowed to go double their time on that stupid clock.

That's hypocrisy.

That's hypocrisy.

You should be outraged from what they have told you, but you're sitting there quietly, just and many of you not even paying attention, looking aside and writing.

Insfaulting.

This is on your conscience as a collective body.

Do your job.

Unfortunately, the mayor's not here.

You should be all over the mayor if these people are correct.

But you can't be all over him because you're an extension of City Hall.

You're not citizens' advocates.

If you were, they wouldn't be here.

They're here because they need you, and you have failed them.

Capital F.

My God, these are decent people.

I really can't.

I mean, I've been a city council meetings going way back.

This would have never happened when back.

When council was an advocate for the citizens.

What are you going to do when you address the mayor based upon what these people have told you?

I would like to hear that.

Thank you, Mr.

Antal.

Mr.

Shire.

Bill Shire, 1890, Eton Avenue.

It would seem that the authorized strength of the fire department should be increased by about ten percent from a hundred and four to around a hundred and fifteen at a minimum.

I feel almost apologetic talking, wanting to talk now about the year 1775.

However, some of us are watching the American Revolution this week, and I just happened to be reading a book with that title by Kevin Phillips.

And at one point he's talking about the various colonies, and he's got two paragraphs on Pennsylvania, which I found to be very interesting.

This was the year before the Declaration of Independence.

Pennsylvania, excuse me, was fast growing and prosperous.

Three decades of heavy emigration from Europe had made it the second most populous province, displacing Massachusetts, which in Virginia was still number one.

It had the biggest city, urgent in Philadelphia, the colony's most central location, and the largest population of several swing ethnic and religious groups.

Scotch Irish, Germans, Quakers, Presbyterians, and Lutherans.

And later on, he does mention Moravians.

Philadelphia was also British North America's center of relative sophistication in matters philosophical, cultural, and scientific.

Also, having been established by Royal Grant only in the 1683, Pennsylvania lagged the independent thinking of the colonies in general generation or two older.

A further reluctance mirrored the city colony's heritage of pacifist minded Quakerism, on top of which local politics during the 1760s were kept parochial by fierce infighting over whether to continue proprietary government under the Penn family or become a royal colony.

These uh distractions squelched rather than encouraged the larger debate developing in New England, Virginia, and South Carolina.

Um, I'll stop there.

I'll have more another time, but a couple of uh other comments the author has made.

The four most radical colonies were the three just mentioned, plus um Connecticut.

Connecticut was something else.

They actually had settlers in northeastern Pennsylvania, and they were calling it New Connecticut, and they didn't get their way.

But the um the I highly recommend the series that is being shown this week.

Uh, at the end of 1775, the Brit the British had no control whatsoever over any colony when they vacated Boston.

Uh, however, as you may know, they returned in 1776 with 30,000 regular troops, including Hessians, landed in Long Island, chased George Washington out of New York, all the way across New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

Things looked pretty bad.

And then he realized he was gonna lose well, maybe half of his army before by December 31st because their enlistments were up.

He needed to do something before then, and that's when, as I've told you before, sending an express rider to Bethlehem to Dr.

Benedict, something like that, to come join the army and bring two assistants because there was going to be work for him to do in Trenton.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Shire.

Anyone else in the wide center who may comment, Sir Hirilla.

Thank you for hearing me.

My name's Frank Costetter, 641 Franklin Street, Bethlehem.

I've only been a resident 12 years, and I'm not a member of the fire department, but these guys are my family.

Okay.

And as I'm a retired Air Force guy, I said wear uniform, but I'm not a fireman.

But I've experienced the death and the things that can happen to the community and what these guys do can't even be measured by your pencils on paper and what's going on.

It's time to take this serious.

I don't know how we can see.

I heard the word hypocrisy.

I've heard words in here that it's it's an embarrassment.

I'm not a lifetime resident of Bethlehem, but I've lived here 12 years.

I want to survive here.

If the fire call goes off, it's three o'clock in the morning.

I want an adequate supplied force of men to show and women to show up and save lives.

That's what this is about.

This isn't about some politics or some banner, some poster or some festival.

This is about human life and dignity in a city.

And if I don't know about y'all, but I don't like being at the bottom of the chart.

Okay.

I hear we're low six percent.

That's not a good place to be.

All right.

Take care of the people of this community.

Thanks for listening to me.

Thank you, Mr.

Hawsettler.

Ms.

Daniels.

Hello, everyone.

Joe Daniels, 829 Broadway.

Uh, most of you know my history with the city of Bethlehem for the new people that don't.

Uh, my father was the fireman for the city for I believe 33 years before he retired in the late 90s.

So this is something that is near and dear to my heart.

It incenses me that we are at this point, to be honest with you.

Now, my understanding is that this started an administration or two ago, but it's persisted throughout this administration.

Bethlehem, this beautiful city that we live in, UNESCO Heritage Ground site, number one Main Street uh hotel, Hotel Bethel, number one historic hotel.

Um, number one Main Street, safest city in Pennsylvania, which we're not, by the way, we're not even in the top 10.

But this is making us even less safe.

We have a crew of great people behind us that do things that you nor I could never.

They run into burning buildings to save life and property.

At no point in time in any budget history should first responders' budgets be cut.

We are in a city that has been growing leaps and bounds for years now, more recent since COVID.

According to my research, upwards of 5,000 new residents since 2020, multiple, multiple new residential buildings, multiple commercial buildings, housing thousands of new people that live in these residential buildings, new people that work in these commercial buildings, healthcare is taken over, so they're popping up new buildings all over the place.

And we don't have the emergency service backing to support it in the event of a series of emergency.

So we had five, 10 flats, that fire.

Seven other stations outside of the city of Bethlehem came to help.

Thank God.

We have that type of camaraderie with our surrounding cities and townships.

Had it been something in the middle of the night, the outcome would have been way different than what it was.

Way different.

So I'm asking you guys.

You have to put yourselves in these people's shoes, and you have to think if I have a fire at my house, what's gonna happen?

What's gonna happen?

I had a fire at mine in my fireplace.

It wasn't a fire fire, but it was in my fireplace.

These guys, because I was scared out of my mind.

There's embers floating out of my rooftop.

I have people coming to my house, my roof is going to catch on fire.

This was in the winter of 2021.

I don't know if any of you were at my house.

Um, I was scared to death.

And these gentlemen not only came in and put the fire out, they set up new fire, new smoke alarms in every doggone room in the house.

Awesome, awesome.

For Bethlehem and for us to sit up here and say all the great things about our city, and there are a lot of great things about our city.

We've come a long way.

This is not one of those great things.

There is no reason why our fire department should be understaffed.

And I would love to know why staffing wasn't increased from year to year.

What exactly prevented that from happening?

What was spent in lieu of these salaries?

What was so important that we couldn't pay to hire more fire people?

So that's a question I have that I would like to get answered at some point.

But in the meantime, guys, seriously, this has got to come to an end.

It's got to stop, and it's gotta stop here.

The budget, as big as that book is, we gotta go through it and see what can be removed to get these staffing levels up to where they need to be.

These guys are working overtime in a job where they shouldn't be working overtime.

So they're working 12 hour shifts and then having to pull another, I don't know, six, eight hours.

A fire call comes in, they're exhausted mentally and physically exhausted, but yet we're expecting them to go out and do their do their job at a hundred percent capabilities, and that's just not possible.

It's not possible.

And then the numbers $500,000 for overtime for last year, same thing for this year, but it's spent three, four months of the year.

Something the math isn't mathing in a number of areas.

So we need to really sit down, take a real hard look at the budget, see what we can finagle, move around, and get these guys the staffing that they need, the tools, the resources.

I'm not just talking for the fire department.

They're here.

They know they will always have my support, along with the police department and EMS.

Safety of our residents should come before development and everything else.

Thank you, Miss Daniels.

I'm gonna ask you to wrap it up.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the wide center, sir in the Flyers Jersey?

Good evening.

Uh Ralph Wigan, 2620 Lafayette Avenue.

I am a retired career firefighter from a different jurisdiction.

And where I came from, we had minimum staffing levels of four in an engine company, four and a truck company.

How these guys are doing what they do with two guys on an engine, three guys on a truck or three on an engine, two on a truck, whatever.

I don't understand it.

I can't comprehend it.

I can't comprehend how these guys aren't getting hurt left and right.

Why aren't more of these guys ending up in a hospital with these staffing levels?

This is unacceptable.

It is completely totally and wholly unacceptable.

I remember the days when I would be working an overnight shift, getting up in the morning, only to be told by one of the chiefs or the captain, hey, uh so and so isn't coming in today.

We need uh we need overtime.

You want to volunteer?

No, I don't want to volunteer.

I want to go home today.

It's my kid's birthday party.

Well, no, sorry, nobody else volunteered, so you're forced.

These guys are getting forced left and right, they're exhausted, they are tired, they need the staffing to augment the force.

They need the proper staffing levels, as others have said, they're working with staffing levels down here from the 1950s when they should be up here.

How these guys do it, I don't know.

My hat is off to them.

On a parting note, um, I really don't want to ever have to put on my dress uniform to come to a funeral here in the city.

Please don't ever make me do that.

Give these guys what they need.

And I will end by saying that while they're upset with the city, there's one thing that they're not going to do.

They are never gonna turn their backs on you.

Ever.

Please don't turn your backs on them.

Give them what they need.

Thank you.

Thank you, brother.

Thank you.

Anyone else in the wide center who hasn't had a chance to speak who wanted to?

Is there anyone to the right?

Ma'am.

My name is Carol Anders, 1126 Maple Street here in the city.

Uh, I have been a resident of the city for almost 76 years.

Uh I wasn't planning on speaking tonight.

Uh, but I just wanted to say I agree with everything that was said back here.

Um I was in uh uh position.

Um my father was a police officer a year before I was born.

Uh my ex-husband was a police officer, and although our marriages didn't work out, he was still the father of my two children.

So I do did worry about him, and now my son is on the fire department, and all the worry that I have had almost my entire life.

Uh seems it could be so easily rectified.

If people I'm looking at right now would please do your job, make sure they get this department gets what they need.

So take a little bit of weight off the family shoulders.

I can't help them, but you can help me and their families.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Was there anyone else to the right who wants to make comment?

Just another quick scan around the room.

I don't want to miss anybody.

All right, thank you, everyone.

That concludes our first public comment.

We're gonna move on to the second public comment.

This would be for anything that we're voting on this evening.

So any resolution or ordinance that's on the agenda.

We didn't have anyone sign up in advance, so I'll go around the room again.

Is there anyone to the left who want to uh make comment on anything on the agenda tonight?

Anyone in the wide center who has may comment on anything on the agenda tonight?

Anyone to the right?

Okay, thank you, everyone.

We're continue on with our agenda, old business, any old business for members of council.

No old business.

We're gonna move on to new business.

I have a couple general announcements before I open it up to the floor of council.

So as we know, we're in budget season.

We had uh we'll have the first reading of the 2026 budget ordinances later tonight in this agenda that'll fall under new ordinances.

Council has had two budget hearings already, one on November 10th and one on November 12th.

And then the remaining budget calendar is as follows, just where everyone's uh knowledge.

So Thursday, uh two nights from now at 6 p.m.

Here we'll have our third budget hearing.

The agenda for the third budget hearing includes community and economic development, community development block grant funds, the police department budget and the fire department budget will be reviewed Thursday at 6 p.m.

here in town hall.

Then we do have our final budget meeting.

This would be if any amendments are proposed, that would be for Thursday, December 4th, again at 6 p.m.

here in town hall.

That meeting will only happen if there are amendments proposed.

Should we have to postpone Thursday's meeting for inclement weather, which I don't believe we're gonna have to, uh, Monday, November 24th is reserved as a backup meeting, just should we have to make up any meetings.

And then the second reading of the budget and the adoption of the 2026 budget will be on Tuesday, December 16th, our second and last or second council meeting of December, the last council meeting of the year, and that's at 7 p.m.

So at the second budget, or excuse me, at the second council meeting of December will be the final vote on the budget.

And then if anyone proposes any amendments to the budget, we'll have a budget meeting strictly to review those amendments for Thursday, December 4th at 6 p.m.

Now I will circulate a memo as is custom.

Uh everything I outlined is our typical procedure.

Uh, but I just want to remind everybody that following Thursday's meeting, Friday morning, Mr.

Miller, our clerk will send out a memo, but I'll just remind everyone as we gather here tonight that we do have a deadline to submit proposed amendments to the budget.

So I'm gonna ask that those are submitted a week from today.

That would be noon on Tuesday, November 25th, uh, to the clerks, and that would be for any amendments to the administration's proposed budget.

So if you have anything already in mind, you can work with Mr.

Miller, you could work with uh Ms.

Stewart here to start getting any of that together.

Um, and then if anything's proposed, we'll have that meeting on December 4th.

Just a reminder as it relates to voting on potential budget amendments.

This is per third class city optional charter law that any additions to the budget.

So if we want to add any expenditures, that requires five votes, but to delete anything from the budget, that requires four votes.

So adding anything to the budget needs the support of five council members, removing anything from the budget requires the support of at least four council members.

And if anyone has any questions about that, you could ask tonight, or of course, follow up with me, Miss Stewart, Mr.

Miller, at any point as we progress along from now till Thursday's meeting and next Tuesday's um deadline to submit any amendments to the budget.

I just want to make sure I went through everything.

Councilwoman, you had a question?

Um, I do have a question about that, but also um, are we starting new business now?

Uh yes, we are.

Thank you.

So I didn't have anything else to announce, but yep, we'll you have the floor.

Uh uh.

And I've already forgotten.

Oh, yes.

So my question regarding what you had just read was um if you introduce an amendment to add money to the budget, is it incumbent on you and expected that you would include in that amendment where the funding would come from, since we do have a balanced budget?

That that would be correct.

If you're gonna add an expenditure, you have to the the budget has to be balanced.

So if you're going to say, you know, I want to increase this line item, then we have to decrease the line item.

When we say we or whoever's introducing the person who's introducing the amendment, right?

Because it wouldn't be assumed that somebody else would go looking for the savings unless people wanted to work together or in some way.

Whoever's proposed, I would say it's incumbent on whoever's proposing the amendment to do the work, use their resources to identify whether it's going to be the general fund, uh a general fund expenditure.

If we're increasing a line item or we decreasing the line item to balance that out.

Thank you.

So um, I'm glad that a lot of you have stayed.

Um, so I'm Hilary.

Oh, I haven't met most of you.

Um, I wanted to first of all tell you that um I know that um there are some people who think that when I'm writing that I'm not listening, I'm actually taking copious notes.

Um, so I have miss the two Mr.

Roofs, lots of your information.

Uh Mr.

Jimenez, Ms.

Jimenez, and her um very moving remarks.

I pay a lot of attention.

It's just so happens that it I happen to write down what I'm listening to.

So I just wanted to make sure everybody understood that I was absolutely listening to you, and I appreciate you coming out tonight.

Mr.

Evans, I have a few questions also.

Um, Chief, you might end up being part of that as well.

So um, so first of all, I just want to make sure we're not cutting our first responders' budgets in any way this year, correct?

No, there are significant increases in police, fire and EMS spending.

Okay, thank you.

2026.

Um, and so in the last four years, can you tell me how we've done it?

I know that we've been down.

Um, how many firefighters have we hired and and taking into account obviously the attrition, the retirements and all of that, but how many have we actually managed to place chief is getting to the microphone.

So I don't have the numbers with me.

We sent to the account, was it 15 and then 2023 and 12 this year?

I'm sorry, it was in the last three years.

Um yeah, just yeah, since we've uh including those who graduated last Thursday, 35 firefighters in the last three years.

Thanks.

And how many have we lost to retirement and nutrition and things?

Uh at least 35, possibly 36, because there's one one spot we haven't been able to fill.

Okay.

So obviously there's a challenge in getting getting up to our full complement.

Yes.

Uh retirements have been taking place at a much faster rate than we were able to hire and fill the positions for a while.

That is correct.

Um, and then we added uh a second academy.

Um, Mr.

Evans, can you share how much we we we did that mid-stream during the budget last year, didn't we?

After the budget had been approved.

So we did it as an extra expenditure.

There was an expenditure we came to council for a transfer mid-last year to be proactive and bring back as many as we could at the time.

The issue with placing fire is the academy that runs in Allentown begins in January.

It's six months in length.

So unlike other uh areas you might be able to hire and onboard them rather quickly.

There's a there's a delay in both application process, which is significant, and then the academy, which is also quite lengthy.

So each and every time we'll lead up to a work work closely with human resources as well as a police chief to make sure we have a full count exactly to the budget amount.

And anyone that leaves, we account for that, and that position is filled and send the next available academy.

The issue of um 20 years ago, there's a spike in hiring.

That leads to 20 years later, that same spike is gonna occur.

Again, based on not everyone that starts leaves at the same time based on their family conditions.

They may have kids, they may like working, they may want to leave working, whatever it is.

So it's staggered.

There's no, like any of us, there's not a requirement to let us know there's a drop program in some people.

For example, there's a um a drop retirement that's scheduled for March 1st.

So we have that one filled.

Someone's going to the academy in January.

One person who's on the drop.

One person would be in March 1st, yeah.

So one the seven that we have selected to go to the academy in January, includes that position.

So it's already being filled before the positions actually vacated.

So we look to do that each and every time.

And I would give Chief Griffin lots of credit because at the time he was a training captain, spent a lot of time under um very short time constraints in order to prep that summer academy, because that was something we hadn't done before.

We had to vet Harrisburg Community College itself as a uh an academy of Allentown has always been very good.

It's very reputable to send people out there at a distance at a place we're not familiar.

It took quite a bit of investigation to do that and then to oversee it during that time.

But it was successful we brought a number of cadets back from that.

Uh, we and then we did the two again this year.

This year, Allentown had a summer was not guaranteed Allentown will have one every summer.

Okay.

They did last summer.

We used it.

That's those three, three of the four.

One was injured.

So the one that was injured, three graduated, one will return to the academy pro-rated in the spring and join that class of seven for class of eight and attempt to keep at at the full budgeted force.

Okay.

And um, so I'm sorry, I forget.

Do you remember how much that was in the budget?

How much it's approximately 20,000 per cadet.

For example, this year we have budgeted up to 15 is in the 2026 budget.

Um, and that's the total of it is 300,000.

That's tuition, the equipment that they will need, including when they return in the bunker gear and everything that will go on to make sure that's prepared to enter the force when they when they get started.

So it's a 20,000 dollar investment each one.

So we're expecting to put 15 people through, 15 cadets through, hopefully.

The funding's there for it.

And if you know if the positions are open, we'll yeah, we'll make sure that that's there again.

Again, the eight are there to do it to bring it to the full force.

That's a plan that's in the budget right now.

Uh, if there are more that uh would retire between now and then if there's a summer academy, whether we explore Harrisburg again, if Allentown offers it, that's the decision we make as we move along.

So that brings me to another question, which is about the being the full compliments.

So if we get those eight in, then we're at our full what we what we have at funding level.

Um so just understanding that uh that still sets us according to the IAFF study that sets us below what maybe we should be shooting for um, you know, aspirationally to to be at a at a better um staffing rate.

I think there's always gonna be a lot of opinions about what that number is, and that's the you know the magic question.

That's why we are looking to, and we are have initiated an objective study.

Uh that, and it's something we haven't deviated.

It's a plan we talked about with the IFF multiple times with the mayor uh in his conference room.

I was there, Chief Reich was there until Chief Griffin started.

He attended as well as deputy chief bear was in attendance or director of human resources, Michelle Sahaki, as well as a number of members of the IFF.

And it has been the plan and the discussion that a study, the first time, the one the last one I've seen was 1995.

And the commitment was made to the mayor, and uh uh that was the agreement that we were going to initiate the study at the cost uh of what it may take to do a comprehensive fire and EMS.

If our department's made between the fire bureau and the EMS EMS Bureau, I mean there's synergies between the two with regard to site location and that the study itself is quite comprehensive, that it does include the apparatus, which we feel we are the best equipped.

And we'll talk about a lot of this on Thursday night.

We're getting a little bit ahead of some of the things we're hearing tonight because this is a Thursday night discussion, really.

That's when the what the hearing is for.

But uh, we made a um what was my put my point to I just the your the study that uh the yeah the yeah the study itself is going to include everything from the apparatus to the maintenance of the equipment on the apparatus to the site location uh to scheduling to response times.

Okay, so it it it is um going to be something that will cover all facets and and that's something we've also made consistency.

We're not going to make decisions uh without that.

That was always part of the plan.

We're gonna do a full comprehensive study to make decisions about how many, where they might be.

We can't talk, you know, what the study that we're we heard about a little bit tonight came out on very short notice within 18 hours or so um of the announce of it was available and it was gonna be a public safety meeting.

It was a day before the budget hearing, so we could not even attend that we had no chance to be there for that meeting itself.

So until we have even a chance to look at that as well, as well as a study.

There may be some matches of what we're talking about.

There may be some parts of where we digress, but then they'll meet made to uh decisions among the fire administration as well as the mayor to make decisions on how we're gonna move forward based on the metrics and the data that comes back from that study as well.

So I know that again, I know this is a Thursday night discussion, but as you know, this place is pretty empty during the budget hearings themselves.

Um, I think we can all agree that it's kind of sad to come in here to talk to the administration about the budget and not see everybody show up and and uh and pay attention then.

So I just have one question more, I think that is budget related, but I still want to ask it tonight.

So please um bear with me.

Are we keeping positions open to balance the city's budget?

No.

No, we fill it each and every time.

We've always been clear on that.

And also comments on overtime salaries and overtime work uh inversely.

We we budget that every position is filled.

That's why we put our budget across all departments, what we do.

We're not gonna assume people are quitting or leaving or they might.

So each position is filled, but down to the point of it knows when they're taking steps.

Each of the union contracts have steps.

Our budgeting module will calculate when that step, who gets it?

Some of them are up to the top, they don't get it, but if they're getting one, that's put into there.

So that's salary line, which you can see on Thursday night, appears in 4001.

Overtime is 4003.

Overtime, that's plenty of what's in there if all those positions are full.

If their people do leave, and again, they can retire when they want to.

And if they retire, that salaries line goes down.

And that's why the overtime doesn't need because there's an inverse correlation.

Salaries will go now, and that would cause overtime to go up.

So the funding, and you'll see that um in the budget as well.

But the between the salaries and overtime, I think it's a $300,000 increase from 25 to 26.

It's enough to cover both.

We don't have cost overruns.

We don't hold out positions, we don't have budget shortfalls on that.

I think we're budget appropriately.

And some of the things you see Thursday nights, we continue to make a large investment in all three of our public safety sectors.

Please fire an EMS is quite large.

We're quite proud of it.

And I think we think you should be too for the amount of money that the taxpayers are placing both of capital but way more than capital is the uh personnel and the investment in our staff.

Thank you.

And I would just um my own editorial comment is is my privilege here in this seat, is to say that I've been proud to vote for the budgets and the increases in the salaries through the collective bargaining agreement uh year after year that I've been here.

Um one year that included uh our need to raise revenue and and increase our taxes here in the city.

Um made the decision to vote for that.

That increased our paramedic complement and of course included the three or four percent uh salary increase for our fighter fighters so that they could continue to be compensated fairly in accordance with their collective bargaining agreement.

And uh I think it's important to note that uh that's a commitment that um all but one of the council members that year made.

Um one of them chose not to fund that those positions and not to uh make the hard choice to ensure that we were fully paying our firefighters and our uh police officers and increasing our EMS compliment.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Any other new business from Urban's council?

Councilman Cramsey Smith.

Um first I'll start off that the finance committee will meet on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 at 6 p.m.

in town hall.

The 2024 city audit will be reviewed, a proposed budget transfer to purchase an additional police vehicle will also be discussed.

Grace Cramsy Smith, chairwoman of the chairwoman of the finance committee.

Um, I just have two questions also regarding the firefighters, Mr.

Evans.

Um, for the study that's going to be conducted, what standard is going to be used?

You know, is it gonna be the NFPA or what what is going to be the barometer as far as knowing that we're within that standards that we need to be?

There's multiple standards and we're still working.

I'm not prepared to talk about the study in detail this evening.

So is there a reason that the mayor's not here?

Do you know?

Is there something that is more pertinent than this meeting?

I I don't have an answer.

Okay.

I wouldn't ask, except it just seems like he misses so many meetings.

If it was more the exception, the rule I wouldn't ask, but I feel that it's really important that he would should have been here.

I think the mayor has I think I know the mayor has a a large number of public commitments.

I think we're all aware of how often the mayor needs to be out into the public as well as attending city council.

And he does, I know he does the best to balance his schedule to intend both and be a three places at once.

It's more the rule than the exception that he's not here and for being a mayor, especially when we have uh so many firefighters here on an important issue.

Um the other issue is, and I'm not sure if you would know or um if the fire chief would know.

Can we give an approximate number of how many people would are eligible to retire, like as of today?

I mean, I've heard I've heard like 25 to 30 possibly that are eligible to retire as of today.

Uh I believe the number of 25 would be would be actually that would include a small number of individuals buying back some sick time.

But I believe that puts us about a quarter of the way through the department who would be eligible for either early retirement or full retirement at this point.

Okay.

And I guess is it's difficult probably to um foresee who would be eligible to retire next year.

Do you have any numbers on that?

Well, by the date of hire, we can tell who's eligible for retirement, but that's a personal decision.

We don't have the right to ask those individuals what their intentions are when they they plan to retire.

Um, we and the union have both asked, you know, if people know they're going to leave to please give the city uh adequate time to prepare.

Right.

Uh, but there is no requirement for that.

And and we don't have the right to ask them what their personal intentions on retirement are.

So it's impossible for me to to know that.

Okay.

Thank you.

I know that's just difficult because we already have 25 to retire and they all decide to retire, even if we're putting more in the budget for next year, we're still going to be um have a shortage in staff.

Um correct.

And just because people reach the age where they can retire, it doesn't mean they're necessarily all going to run out of here at the same time.

Uh, you know, their family circumstances, like Mr.

Evan Evans mentioned, or are the variable there.

So we really have no way of knowing that.

Okay, certainly.

And then the other problem is, you know, once we find those somebody's gonna retire, because the academy is only in January, unless there's one at Harrisburg, um, it could be a year or more until we can replace that person till somebody can go through the academy at least six months to a year, I would think, right?

You're correct.

That depends on when they retire uh based on the start of the next available.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, which I think is how we got into this situation in the first place because we have so many retirees and we did not staff the fire department as we needed to in the last I know six years at least.

Well, the the Allentowns, the one I said is a maybe they might do it.

They commit Harrisburg is always in the summer if I'm correct, Chief.

So that is if the numbers there, if it makes sense, if it's one or you know, two, they may need needs to make a mystery of decision.

Are we are we sending that many go out and taking out uh all the administrative um supervisors to be involved?

So that's a little bit different decision.

Some of the some of the math that goes into the Harrisburg versus Allentown's much more convenient, much more efficient.

But if there's a number open, we're we will employ that Harrisburg as a new option because it's worked out well.

Right, right.

And that helps.

It's just that it could end up some time m months and up to a year until we could fill that position, which is really difficult.

Okay.

Thank you.

I don't have any more questions.

Um I just want to state give some comments and I thank everyone for coming and um commenting tonight.

There are a lot of great comments.

Today in the news in Philadelphia, there was a woman and two children, five and six years old that died in a house fire.

Firefighters arrived within four minutes, which is in the national guidelines, yet they couldn't save the children and their mother.

We are not arriving within four minutes due to staffing shortages for more than half of the fires that we have to get to.

I'm really concerned, God forbid this tragedy of lost lives, and I don't want that to be on my conscience.

Currently, we have left fi less firefighters, as we said, than we did in the 70s.

And in those years when Bethlehem still was active, they had your own fire department that covered 25% of the city.

So currently our firefighters are covering 25% more land with significantly greater development in apartments, warehouses, and industries throughout the city land.

I just don't get the logic in this.

Our government's commitment in this city has to be to public safety of residents, businesses, and the many, many visitors that we have.

It has to be our primary responsibility because if we cannot provide public safety, really, what else matters?

The firefighter staffing study provide us with really vital information and data that paints a scary picture relative to first fire response and safety within our city because of staffing shortages and the fact that we did lose one fire station.

The smaller the crew size, naturally, the more tasks that an individual has to complete, which contributes to delays in initiating the fire attack and containing the fire and limiting limiting property damage.

Someone had mentioned about the 510 flats fire, how we had to have seven neighboring departments respond.

And that really raises serious questions about manning levels, which in turn raises questions about the capacity of Bethlehem Fire Department to respond to large fires, and it also weakens those responding companies in their coverage areas.

It was also mentioned that the Bethlehem Fire Department is only 10% of the city budget, the lowest of other sit similar cities in the state.

For example, Erie is 23% of the budget, Scrandon is 21%, Allentown is 21%.

And while we do have additional firefighter positions in the 2026 budget, I will be proposing an amendment to add four more firefighters and additionally promoting four firefighters to the position of lieutenant so that we can have an officer at edge and edge and nine, engine nine, during all the um all the shifts that are necessary.

Like I said before, even though we're putting more uh firefighters in the budget, we still have a significant number of people that are able to retire, more that will be could retire next year.

And I know from talking to the firefighters that the amount of mandatory overtime is really killing them.

And many are wanting to retire because they just can't keep up with the overtime.

They're losing their quality of life and the time that they should be with their families, in addition to the stress and the uh adverse effects it has on their health.

I really hope that my colleagues on council will concur and support my amendment.

And I hope the administration will work with me to find the funds necessary for these positions.

But if not, I'll find the funds within the budget.

I just want to end with a really quick story.

Once there was an eight-year-old girl, and she had to go into a hospital ICU to see her father, who was in an oxygen tent.

And back in those days, oxygen tents covered you from your head down to your stomach.

He was a first responder and had a really severe heart attack on the job that was life threatening.

That eight-year-old girl did not understand why her daddy was in a tent and why she could not hug or kiss him.

She also couldn't understand why her dad and her family's life was forever changed since that day.

That little girl was me, and I now understand.

I understand that first responders can never guarantee that they will arrive arrive home safely or unharmed.

I knew because it happened to my dad.

Our life was changed forever, financially, emotionally, and otherwise, and his life was cut short because of the stress of his job.

First responders risk their health and their lives every day for us, and we must give them the support and staffing we need.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

First of all, I want to thank all of you for coming here tonight.

I heard you.

And I'm sure a few others up here heard you too.

Chief, I respect you and uh I support you and the guys underneath you 100%.

Uh I also understand it, you know, I understand that you're in a difficult position because you're the heady of the fireman, but you're also part of administration and have to sometimes um for lack of better words, tow the the party line, you know.

Um Mr.

Evans, um before I get in that.

So I want to also thank you, because um I had two fires that affected me in the last uh two years.

I had a small, I have a 7,000 square foot uh uh building, three units on Linden Street, very old building, dry.

Um there was a little um oil fire on one of the units uh stoves like that, it went up the wall, very dry place, no sprinkler systems in it.

So you know it's a hundred and twenty-year-old building.

Went up the wall, it was in the wall in the uh in back of the um uh the hood, you know, the uh ventilation hood uh like that.

The tenant ran out, called 911.

I got called over there, went over.

You guys wear like that and got it out.

Otherwise, I have uh three tenants that live upstairs in the upstairs unit.

One's a little girl.

So I I hate to even think of what would happen if there was a delay in you guys getting there because it could have been very serious.

Number two was my son.

My son lives lived on the fifth floor at 510 flats, or literally right underneath the fire.

Um, thank God for the uh um alarm systems and the spritz sprinkler systems, because he he was working from home as an engineer, and um the the alarms went off.

He actually thought it was a uh a fire drill and uh looked outside, didn't see anything.

He called my daughter who who works in 610.

What's going on?

Nothing.

He looked out again and saw people run out of Starbucks.

So he went downstairs.

I got a I was in a uh it wasn't a city council meeting, but I was in a meeting for city council with a um, you know, some people.

I got a phone call that the uh 510 flats was on tire on fire, and I got pictures of it with the you know, the flames shooting up in the air.

I lost my wife 19 years ago to cancer.

If I would have lost one of my kids, I I would have gone insane.

Uh jumped up, called, thank God that my son answered the phone immediately.

So within five seconds of me seeing the pictures, I'm thinking, all right, he's safe.

Is Eric out?

Yep, Cody out, yep, good.

Stay there, I'll be over a little bit.

So I want to thank you for your service and the professionalism that you show the city on a daily basis.

So I I thank you for that.

Mr.

Evans, if we um, and maybe this is more for Chief, if we came up with funding for four more firefighters, new funding above and beyond what's already established.

Is do you think there's the ability?

And I know there's problems with the with the fire academy.

Would there be a you think there'd be enough people coming through the fire academy to fill those four new positions?

If if if council, and if if if it would if it was the will of council, I'm not saying that it's there, but if it was, and we came up for funding for uh I don't know uh exactly where Miss Grace Crampsy Smith got the numbers, but I I would be for that.

If we if council supported for adding four more firefighters, do you think that that money could be fulfilled uh by hiring four additional firefighters on top of the current staffing that we already have, and also uh of the vacancies that we already have.

Uh so we we would have very little window to to make this happen before the January 15th start of the fire academy.

Okay.

Uh with that being said, there would have to be background checks that had to be finished, and those individuals would have to go for their psychological and mental health evaluations and uh their physicals before they could receive an offer of employment.

Um we would do everything within our power to to make sure that if we were told to hire additional individuals that we had them ready.

Uh, but we have a very short window, and we would have to get working on something like that immediately.

Uh, we had a civil service meeting earlier tonight where the list was certified for the seven individuals we're going to send to the academy.

Uh, there is one additional person remaining on that list that was certified.

Uh, so we would also have an issue where civil service would would have to certify the remainder of the list to add additional people.

And I don't know that would be a question for uh human resources whether or not that could be could be accomplished in that timeline.

Mr.

Evans, so you you were talking about the correlation between the overtime and and the um salary payroll.

Yes.

So obviously, if if if we hired more people, our payroll would go up.

And in the theory that I think you were trying to explain if payroll goes up because we hire more people, there's a possibility that the overtime then would come down.

The way the budget's presented, it's assumed that there's a each position is filled.

Right.

That's our goal to have every position filled that's budgeted.

If people start leaving and March, someone retires on March, not that drop, but one that we don't know about March 1st leaves.

We're not gonna be able to act on that until when's the is it July when the hack would start.

I would have to check on the start date.

It would either be late June or early July.

So there's four months of salary that we weren't expecting that would be saved, but it is gonna be used to pay for overtime if that position needs to be backfilled if it's a day where overtime is used to fill that position for the person who left in between the sessions.

So between the two, it's kind of a wash, is the way it works.

Those two together add up to cover the personnel cost between 4001 and 4003 during the year.

I'm not I'm not gonna hold you to this number, but I'm just curious.

I'm off the top of your head, best guess.

Yeah.

If we hired, if we wanted to hire four more firefighters, what do you think that would cost with with everything with uh salary and then benefits and medical and um could be close to half a million dollars because there's academy at 20,000 ahead, sending them the academy.

And then there's uh step on there's fringe benefits, we'll have to recalculate from medical so yeah, I'd have to run some calculations to have an understanding of what it would take and go through the the budget lines, make sure I'm not missing something.

So I won't want to quote that tonight.

No, no, I know.

I just I yeah, I I appreciate you trying to do that.

But it could be you know, yeah, 500,000.

So we're we so in 2024, 2025, in both those years, we spent 500,000 each in overtime, correct?

A little more um I don't again, I don't have my information on me now.

I don't remember those budget of 500.

There's over a million, but then so it's 500 over, but salaries ended up 500 less because of the right.

I mean, if we hire, I mean, I'm not saying it's a it's a complete wash, but if we hired four more firefighters to help uh alleviate uh it would help alleviate some of the a lot of the overtime that we're currently already paying for, which is already in the budget.

They would have to be there on day one, ready to go.

Like again, what right now the crunch is realistically, if a council makes until the vote happens, those hires, those cadets would go to their class in July.

We'd see them in November until they come out.

That's part of the problem that makes it more complex.

We can't fire someone up and have them ready by March.

It's academies are long.

I mean, there's almost six months.

But but we would have if we don't do anything now, though, we'd have the same problem a year from tonight if we had the same discussion.

So I understand that there's there's leeway in ramping up uh you know the cadets through the academy, but it's we're gonna have the same problem next year if we don't do something now about it.

So to me, it would make more sense to try to find additional funding now in the general fund for four additional firefighters.

I mean, we it chief, is we don't have a um we don't have a loop uh an officer at engine nine at all.

Uh that's correct.

The the current situation is the officer that works at a company six on Broad Street is uh responsible for district of company six and company nine.

Listen, I we we lucked out on that 510 flats fire because had some of the surrounding communities had an event going on in their in their communities at the same time.

I'm not sure that we would have got the help.

How many other wasn't it like four other communities, you know, or are firefightering units or f from the surrounding you know communities that came here and helped us out?

Was Heller wasn't Heller town here, Allentown?

I believe we had seven seven departments in various capacities that assisted that day, but I I'd have to double check that.

Listen, I know every union uh is always um wanting more uh workers, you know, and more employees because the the there were we're always being asked to do more with less.

But this is at a critical point, I think.

I I mean, we don't need the I mean we're we're talking earlier about doing a study.

Why do we need a study?

There's your study.

The the study showed up tonight and told you what the study's gonna say.

You know, that's all we do.

All we do is is spend money on studies and consultants.

You know, the mayor gave us a list of consultants.

He i if he would have hired some people, and I'm not gonna mention any names, but you know, obviously, uh you know, Mr.

Antalx is you know, I said that um that we're an extension of the administration.

I can assure you, Mr.

Reynolds is not considering me an extension of the administration.

I can guarantee you that.

And nor do I want to be an extension of the administration.

Our job up here is to answer to ask the tough questions and do the things that need to be done for the city, not just for political terms, you know.

So I I don't know.

I I I uh Miss Crampsy Smith, I'd I'd love to sit down with you in the next day or two.

It obviously has to be done very quickly.

If we can find 500,000 somewhere in in the budget, if we don't do it now, we're gonna be in the same spot next year.

And I think everybody on council needs to understand that because next year it'll be is the academy at the same time every year.

So twice every year.

And and it goes back to again the number of eligible retirees.

We have a track record.

I mean, some of the folks here that spoke tonight have been around longer than I've been, but I've been here 16 years in the last three years, it spiked two at least twice what it was to the other based on the ages that are available to do that.

That also comes to an end.

But it was not the if you go back a couple of years ago, it was three, it was three, it was zero left, zero left.

So some years, the reason we send them to the academy because no one left.

That's why if everyone's there and everyone's coming back, are you gonna hire more when everyone's there?

Not in that year, you're fully funded.

The budgets, uh, the money's spent on everyone and everyone's there.

It worked out great.

But when they start leaving and without knowing, some of them well, you know, they're and this is they're right.

Uh, they leave with maybe a weekend notice that I'm wrapping up.

We get the notice that to leave in three days from now.

That's hard to plan to do that.

So the goal, uh, you know, the uh as it's not the goal, but uh the facts of the situation are that the number of eligible to retire is also gonna be reduced.

That this issue is not a forever, hasn't always been like this.

This is something we started experiencing when that group from 20 years ago that were hired started to enter the same realm.

So we're filling them the quickest weekend.

We fill every single one that leaves.

We still we fill one for one, but the issue is is the timing delay.

Is the uh I I know there's a ton of restrictions on them, and I'm not well as well versed in in the laws as you are, but the ARPA money is that money can that money be used for payroll for fire departments or police departments.

What line?

And there's not really that's it's in 0901, it's in affordable housing, it's in homeless, that's where it's at right now.

That's yeah, but um homeless it's in the uh how much money recovery fund?

How how much money in the budget is towards uh affordable housing and uh and the homeless shelter?

A few million dollars.

I think that was two million in for the homeless shelter, but I believe there's plans, which you're gonna hear about Thursday night where that is plans for the uh the that funding, and also the other issue is one of our bedrock principles is that we were looking for something.

If we're gonna add recurring expenses that are gonna be here, you're adding something that's gonna be gone in one year, here it is fixed, and then that money's gone, and we're imbalanced.

Now we have like with those memos I showed you from 15 years ago in 2010, 2011, as we um had issues of doing cash, um, problems with our bond ratings when you start trying to do that and take on an initiative without a true reoccurring funding sourcing.

Here we got through 2026, because I think one of the worst things that C Cities do is oh, let's do it, and then we'll find the funding later, and it always gets harder, you know, that not easier to find funding to cover something unless it's a reoccurrent recurring funding revenue or a reoccurring cut expenses that's not coming back the very following year, and we're we got nowhere.

So I think that's one concern I would have.

Well, I I and I agree and and I understand that.

I just think that uh with the timing as it is right now in finding out this information is so close to after the mayor's budget has already been presented.

I'm just trying to do a quick fix uh now, so we can come up with the funding now for four officers.

And I if for 500,000, there's got to be a somewhere in the general fund that we can come up with four five hundred four or five hundred thousand dollars between the the ARPA money, uh whether we take a hundred thousand dollars from the affordable housing or a hundred that and a hundred thousand dollars from uh the the homeless shelter, and in I think there's what you you said there's two and a half million dollars there total.

Homeless, I believe there's two if I remember correctly.

I don't have my budget book with me tonight, but uh I think that number was two.

Yeah, so that's a third.

We'll see a Thursday night when we're here, you'll see.

We'll go through those lines, you'll see what's available from, but again, I I would caution that we wouldn't support that because it's just gonna put us into a problem a year from now.

You bring these people and now we have cadets, and we isn't this.

One problem now, though.

Isn't this a problem now?

Uh you can move the money now.

The the academy is in July, so we get back to the timing issue.

I don't know what we're solving right now.

If you move the money, July is the next academy.

So there are some realistic hurdles for us to get to where we need to go to truly come out the backside and be have a reasonable, workable long-term solution.

I don't know, we're not gonna solve anything in January and February, other than sending eight cadets to the academy.

Well, I I just you know, between now and uh the budget hearing for fire and police is what uh Thursday, Thursday, yeah, Thursday.

I I I would hope that uh myself and Miss uh Cramsy Smith and anybody else here on council that would like to get together and I and try to find a 200 or 300,000 from the general fund.

I don't think that's uh an impossible thing to do.

And I I loved Miss uh Queer Tech's comments.

It sounds like she she's all for supporting the you know all of you, and and and I hope that would include adding four more firefighters or the funding for it.

Um that's all we can do.

I can't have I can't make wave a wand and have four more people come out of the academy.

But what we can do right now to help your problem is uh provide funding for four more firefighters on top of what you already have budgeted, and that's I think um it's an is it exactly what you need right now?

No, but I think it's a start.

And I if we could do that, and I think it's very possible, if the will's there, if there are true wills there and people aren't just talking, we could find 400, 500,000 like that in the general fund.

There's gonna be other, there's gonna have to be other areas that get hit.

And I don't want to take money from the homeless shelter.

I don't want to take money from uh affordable housing, but if that's where it's got to come from, 200 and 200, I'd be 100% supportive of that.

We we we already have a homeless shelter at the um what church is that on uh the Bethham housing one or the the homeless shelter for the um market trips, yes.

And in and they're already providing those services, right?

I mean, they have been so I I know that's that's a complicated discussion again.

We're going into a different very different way, but I'll just a lot of moving pieces.

Calhan, though, by no mean am I trying to cut you off.

But on Thursday, we're reviewing the police budget, the fire department budget, and I know a lot of the members obviously are here tonight and spoke tonight.

And I I welcome everyone to come out again Thursday night, 6 p.m.

And um, but also the community and economic development budget Thursday.

So we'll all have our buttons.

I don't even have my budget book with me tonight.

So just and I'll remind entire council as we have these conversations and new businesses yours to speak.

Just there's certain things that I don't want to hear it again on Thursday when we don't have the information in front of us.

Yeah, if questions could be asked and answered on Thursday, I welcome them being asked on Thursday and given everyone the opportunity to answer them with those materials in front of us.

I I agree, and I and I appreciate those comments.

And I didn't have I don't have my budget book with me on you know either.

But that's why I was asking Mr.

Evans, you know, I you know, it's off the top of his head.

I have no idea how much four firefighters would cost.

And I I appreciate you giving us a ballpark figure.

I'm not holding you to it.

So um, but I think if it's really truly something that if we believe what was said tonight, and I and I think the date we we don't need a study, the study's right there.

So let's find the money for four more firemen, and to try to get um our services for the fire department up to where they should be.

I mean, not only not only uh are we understaffed compared to compare or two comparable cities of our size, but I don't think there's any city our size that has the events that we have, a casino, two two uh two universities, um music fest, our arts quest.

There's no city our size that can even come close to the amount of people that come in this city on a regular basis.

And we're not just talking about fires, we're talking about car accidents.

Um my daughter had a um a health event about 10 years ago.

The fire department got there before EMS, and thank God she made it.

So I thank you for coming in.

I appreciate the time, Mr.

Evans.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

And hopefully by next Thursday or this Thursday, um, we can sit down and try to find some money for four additional firefighters.

And I would hope then that we could probably get you know uh a lieutenant over at uh engine nine, right?

So thank you very much.

You have until next Tuesday to submit amendments.

So don't set, don't set your don't hold yourself to just Thursday, Mr.

Callahan.

You got a week to work on it to submit something to Mr.

Miller.

Any other new business for members of council as we stay on the fire department?

Councilwoman Laird.

Thank you.

Um anecdotally, I am a little surprised.

I know that there have been staffing issues for years.

I've met with several people over the past couple of years talking about that um on the administration and the the fire uh union side.

Um I recall though last year being um you know encouraged by I think it was at our budget meetings, the union representatives and the administrative representatives uh talking about how well things were going, um, and how there was progress being made in staffing and how things were moving in the right direction and we weren't there yet, and but it was going that way.

So then when there was the um you know public safety meeting, which I work full-time during the day, I couldn't attend uh at that time, but I was like, wait, what?

And then there's another study, and I've just got to say, like I'm I'm sitting here trying to take it all in from all sides, and I'm a little bit just surprised and confused and trying to understand everything as we move forward.

Um moving forward, right?

Like we we can't deny data that exists.

There's apparently more data coming.

I'm not going to um ask questions about specific dollars because we do have our hearing on Thursday.

Um I have a few general questions that while the larger group is here.

Um the two studies.

Why were there two separate studies initiated?

And where did the funding for each of those studies come from?

Uh, and who determined the timing for each of those studies.

I I won't speak for the other study.

We we have not done a study yet that was from understanding conducted by the labor union, the IAFF.

So we'll let Mr.

Him and us talk about well, who funded their study and the motivations behind their study.

Uh what so and yours is this are we doing this?

Yeah, I I just want to give Ms.

Revins are you done answering councilwoman Laird before I well if I segue it may make sense to let Mr.

Him and us talk and then I'll talk about the one that hasn't happened yet.

But if you will speak on the one that the union conducted, Mr.

Menez, please.

Okay, the the study, the GIS staffing study was funded fully by the International Association of Firefighters.

That money comes through our union dues, and it is a service provided to any city within the international.

So there was zero dollars that were paid from the city for that, it was paid out of our union dues.

Uh, regarding the the timing that that the study did come out, the study came out and a meeting was scheduled.

Um that meeting was not done purposely the day before the mayor's uh budget address that wasn't a tactic, that was something that uh just came and we took the opportunity to present the data.

Uh, regarding the relationship with fire administration, the relationship of fire administration is good.

I mean, we don't we don't always see eye to eye, but we always work together, and I just want that to be known.

The disconnect that I see from my side of the aisle is above the fire administration, and that's where we need improvements.

Um, I don't know if the disconnect is communication between the union and administration above the fire administration, because I'll definitely go and talk to whoever needs to hear it, but I think they need to listen to their subject matter experts first, and in this case, I'm thinking they're not.

That's all I got.

Thank you, Mr.

Jimenez.

Okay.

And then in terms of the other study, and yes, thank you for clarifying.

And I am glad to hear that there wasn't a shift that I had missed in in between the the union and the the uh fire administration at least.

But um so okay, so a second study was initiated that is not just looking at fire, correct?

It's fired.

This goes back, it's it's been a number of months and meetings with the IEF with the mayor to talk about the idea the mayor wants to commit to a full comprehensive objective study, not run by the labor union, but this will be an objective study outside source.

It's gonna have a committee to look at it, and that would be completed before we make decisions on who, where, how many with regard to both fire and EMS.

We would like more information on response times.

And again, I we weren't because the timing of it, the way it all worked out, and I'm not you know throwing any aspirations anyway, but fact was it was just impossible for us to be at that meeting from parts right here.

It's some of that that came out of the study where let's the firehouse, Lyndon and Gap, but there's no proper at Linden and Gap.

There's just a lot of answers and questions that come out of that study that we hope our study, the new the one that we're gonna be conducting, have conclusions that will bring it more clear.

Maybe the studies will be complementary in some areas.

I would imagine they would be divergent in other areas.

But there's a study we want to do with the fire administration, the administration itself.

We need to understand uh the cost, not a lot of costs were also um provided during the study.

It was this and this, but what it what does it mean?

It has to mean something to taxpayers and council.

We need to be able to present what does this mean?

What is a cost?

Is it feasible?

Is it reasonable?

Some of those charts that we looked at in the in the first study would be very honestly very, very difficult when you're talking about tax increases that would require some of that to become to fruition.

That's just a reality of it.

So, what are the creative solutions that we can work on in a number of different ways?

And that's what this study is intended to complete.

But it's a full from site to response time to staffing, scheduling to equipment and fire and DMS.

As you know now, um EMS are located within the firehouses.

So it's a different look than it was.

And I know it happened years ago and didn't work that well years ago, and then it went away.

It's back, appears to be working pretty well, but we want to look at that from an outside experts and bring that to us to bring conclusions that we could then make decisions on.

And uh the study would or would not include police.

It's not police.

No, this is this is fine.

This is talks that the mayor and and our group had with the IF specifically, explaining this is what we intended to do.

Seemed to be quite agreeable at that time for most of the months.

Everything was agreeable, understood, and the number of people in the room to witness that um fact on how those conversations went that that was agreeable, that this is where we're going with this, and based on this, we're gonna be making some decisions.

Sure.

Uh okay, and the timeline for launching the study and getting data back.

What is uh the the request was sent out um in September.

The number of proposals were received on October 31st.

Interviews will be conducted in I think the first week of December.

It's right after Thanksgiving.

There's the Thanksgiving's next week.

So the week after that, I think are some of the interviews to to uh bring some groups in and talk to them and see what they can offer, what their presentations look like.

Um probably will because of the timing of that that misses council deadline, so that we're probably coming to council in the form of the uh what the 1201 2105, the um a consultant needs to be approved by the city council.

So the one that's chosen will be brought in January because it's gonna be too late to bring that to you in um December 16th, I think is the last meeting.

So if we bring it the first meeting in January, that proposal, if it's voted on if it's approved, we would then move into the contracting phase.

Uh the we expect this study, uh we asked for it to be it in four to five months, is the goal.

And that's something we'll be talking about as the groups come in.

There's a lot to it.

Some of the groups um we expect that are quite capable and um have significant bandwidth that come in and uh we'll be talking about that because we would like it completed by summer time.

So that's the timeline we've been working on all along, and that's where where we are right now are still on schedule.

So the goal would be to be able to leverage data from the study in next year's budget discussions, but it would not be able to affect any.

Yeah, the goal is we'll right.

The presentation and the information the study would be presented in the summer, and that gives leeway if things do take longer, if there are delays in any for any reason in any area.

We want it to be again comprehensive, so we're not gonna cut corners and rush it, but we believe that time frame fits pretty well.

Okay.

Um all right, thank you.

Um council, Mr.

Jimenez, did you have something you wanted to add to Ms.

Lair's question specifically?

Okay, in regards to the RFP for the city study, um, we did provide suggestions, uh, which we would like to see in the study.

The way the RFP was sent out, didn't have a lot of those suggestions.

One of those suggestions that is missing is a let me get it.

I have it right here.

Benchmarking and peer comparison.

Uh they did have uh staffing GIS staffing in there.

I thank you for that.

But the evaluation of the relief factor.

Uh, how many personnel are needed to maintain the minimum staffing and the accounting for leave training injury and special assignments?

There was also something left out for uh emergency management coordinator.

Our fire chief uh does a job of two, and uh we would need an we would we're looking at we look we would need another member to be downtown to take on things like that.

That hasn't been put in there.

Um Mr.

Jimenez, I I appreciate the insight, but I I thought maybe it was relative to the study that the union had done, not necessarily I just don't want to engage in a rebuttal for you.

I want to want to get Mr.

Evans to get into a however a back and forth here tonight.

When when we were talking about the study early on with then Chief Reich, we had we were under the impression that our suggestions would be taken and put in.

Since then they have not.

And um also I have asked for who bid it on the RFP.

I have yet to find out.

I heard there's six people.

I'd like to hear that.

Thank you.

Councilwoman.

Thanks.

Um okay, moving on from the study discussion.

Thank you both for clarifying your uh perspective backgrounds on that respective background.

Um, this is probably a chief uh question.

Um there was some discussion of um in the firefighting industry uh when firefighters are forced to take an overtime shift.

Um you know, they might say, Oh, I I think somebody gave an anecdote of like, oh, it's my kid's birthday.

I I don't want the overtime, and they might be told, I think it was a hypothetical, but like they might be told you have to come in.

How often does that happen in our crew that somebody is forced a truly forced to come in for overtime?

So within about the last year, uh it has happened on a somewhat routine basis where where individuals have been mandated to stay.

Um the deputy chief and I have worked with the local to come up with a plan to um we signed a memorandum of agreement which took the burden off of the contract, used to be the least senior person on that shift had to stay and be mandated.

Well, we found that that happened to the same individual on a shift almost six weeks in a row.

Um, so we came up with an agreement to to try to lessen that burden to make it based on seniority where it would start at the least senior person and work all the way through the department to try to alleviate that.

Um, unfortunately, we still have people getting mandated on a somewhat regular basis.

That that is factual.

Okay, thank you.

Um I correct an understanding that when we look at the budget on Thursday, we're not going to see there are significant budget increases.

I'm aware of we looked at some of that in the capital plan discussion and everything for um fire EMS, etc.

Uh are there any additional positions presently being asked for?

Like not including the amendment that may be coming.

No, if uh the increase, as I referred to it, was I believe like $300,000 of salaries, and that's existing staff cost of living increases, contractual raises.

That's what's okay.

So people are getting paid more, but it's not more people uh being sought.

Um so what is highest level summary?

Why not?

If we know that is it that you're waiting for the data, is it so you're gonna wait another year?

Okay.

Um chief, are you concerned about the staffing in your department this upcoming year?

I have concerns about the amount of overtime that the individuals are working, uh, with it causing burnout that they have approached me about.

Um, and and I'll be absolutely honest with you.

I mean, there's no fire chief in the United States, it wouldn't tell you they want more staff.

Sure, okay.

I do understand you're and say I wouldn't take more staff, uh, but there's a comprehensive plan that is in place.

I presented what I presented to the administration.

We had our discussions, and and this is the plan that came out of it.

Um I'll have, like I said, some more specific questions on Thursday.

And I know that um Chief Cott for police is not here tonight, and she's out, I think right now in general, but I think is coming on Thursday.

I believe she's expected, not positive.

Yeah, if if if she's able to, but in general, um, you know, we're talking about fire, there's been some discussion of EMS, but we've talked at previous meetings about that.

Police also have some open seats and roles, and so I don't want that to be uh overlooked in our conversations on Thursday.

Um, you know, I I will be asking some similar questions just to see where we're at um across the board for our first responders.

So that's all I have on this topic.

Anyone else?

Councilwoman Wilhelm and then councilwoman Leon.

Thank you all for coming tonight.

Um I understand it could be nerve-wracking.

I've been on that side of the microphone before being on this one.

We appreciate your coming to share your thoughts.

Um unfortunately, I was also unable to attend the public safety committee meeting.

Um, as it's been described, was relatively short notice and in the middle of the day.

So I regret that I was unable to be there.

Thank you for some information about the study, the studies.

Um, I understand better the difference between the two and the timeline.

One thing I think I would like to understand better, and I'm not sure whom to ask this question of, but um how did IFF work with the city on the study?

What was the obviously there's a lot of data needed from an administration?

How was that data procured?

What conversations occurred?

What was the partnership in terms of collecting we were not that I'm aware of invited to any discussions or input into their study?

The data was provided through our GIS and our with the RMS system, so provided by the city, the data needed for the calls in order to send it to I think it's it might be DC, but no, we we weren't um so did not have any input on that study.

So it fair to say not primarily but exclusively pulled from GIS.

Then conversely, and you sort of alluded to this, and perhaps because you haven't selected the the um firm or individuals who will be managing the study.

How does the city anticipate working with union members, department members?

Um to collect data and and input, narratives, anecdotal.

Um I understand if you're not able to predict that, but do you have any sense of what that dynamic might look like?

Yeah, there'll be there'd be a component of expected that the fire administration is going to going to lead it.

That you know, they're the ones that were uh promoted and chosen for the position to make those decisions.

Will there be input from the uh staff?

Yes, there are interviews, most studies of that nature are gonna make trips and visits, they're gonna take a look around, they're gonna talk to people and get their input.

So it's a full well-rounded study, yes.

But uh okay, and I'm just curious.

Um in what conditions will individuals so there will be a human component, I guess, is what you're suggesting in terms of interviews and some narrative anecdotal data.

Yes.

A couple other questions I have are related more to the landscape of fires in Bethlehem because we're talking a lot about national standards, and I think it's really important for us to understand what's happening in Bethlehem.

And we've had an interesting history and um understood things have changed over the years, and we've grown.

I think I would like to understand for a growing city, but in particular for Bethlehem, a city that over the past several decades has grown.

How does that balance with improvements in fire suppression, modernization of materials, um building code improvements?

How does that balance out?

Because growth is obviously one very important factor.

How does that all work together in general?

Or how does it work in Bethlehem?

What have we had an increase in significant structure fires?

How do how does that work out trend wise?

So the exact correlation is is is really hard to pinpoint.

Okay.

Um we we've had massive growth here in the city of Bethlehem.

We've had increased calls based on our population.

Um, I mean, that's that's something that no one's gonna argue.

Um, there've been increases in building materials, but both in a positive and negative way.

You know, building materials and systems have have come a long way in advancement of life safety.

However, a lot of times the contents that's put in those buildings is subpar to what used to be in there many years ago, uh, being that they're made of more flammable and combustible materials.

So in a way, uh, with all the advancements in detection and life-saving equipment, it almost sort of balances out with with the commodities that are being installed and the lightweight construction that's the things are being built with.

Okay, so we have we seen an increase in in significant structure fires.

Um large noticeable increase.

I mean, our our average seems plus or minus a couple fires a year, seems to be fairly consistent for us here in the city of Bethlehem.

Okay, but an increase in calls.

Yes, each each year uh typically there's there's an increase in calls um of varying natures.

We respond to a multitude of different types of calls, not necessarily fires, but but generally speaking, each year we our call volume climbs a little bit each year.

Okay.

Do you and I also understand if you don't have this information at your fingertips, we can talk another time.

But do you have a sense of what the majority of those calls are regarding?

Uh so the majority of the calls we respond to in in the city, um, mainly the number one calls we're we're going on are largely EMS calls, automatic fire alarms, motor vehicle accidents followed by fires.

I mean, those those I would say in that in that particular order, that would that's what the data would back up.

Okay, understood.

Um would you mind um sort of describing with regard to mutual aid calling in other departments?

How does that work?

How is uh how is a non-Bethlehem department notified of the need?

Uh is there a significant delay in how how quickly they get information?

Can you just tell us about that process a little bit?

Uh sure.

Here in the city of Bethlehem, when we request assistance from a mutual aid company, that would go through the Northampton County Communications Center.

If we're requesting a company from Northampton County, they would make that notification.

If we're requesting resources from the city of Allentown, uh they would contact Lehigh Communications, Lehigh County Communications, who would therefore dispatch and contact the City of Allentown Fire Department for their response.

And uh contractually speaking, what occurs here in the city of Bethlehem is we we request resources from other IAFF career municipal departments before we move on to other other resources from other agencies that are not career departments, unless it is for a specific specialty piece of equipment that only that agency can provide.

Understood.

Is it possible for you to say sort of uh a time delay?

Is it you know, before before a needed station is notified?

Is it many minutes?

Is it uh I can't give an exact time?

It's it's several minutes, but I would have to do research on an exact on exact time on how long it takes to get through the two communication centers for them to be dispatched.

That I I yeah I wouldn't even want to guess and be fair.

I appreciate that.

Have we seen an increase in mutual aid?

I don't believe this year has been an increase in in mutual aid requests.

There there seems to be a few requests here and there every year.

Uh sometimes it's for a specific piece of apparatus or equipment that can fill our air cylinders on fire scenes.

Uh, but also we've I don't know offhand how many times we've been to Allentown this year, how many times they've come to us.

I I would have to research that.

Okay.

This is a sort of a granular question.

And again, you may not have specific numbers, but just to understand, you know, is it common on a typical shift to not be called out?

Do you do you anticipate as a firefighter on duty to be called onto the scene 50% of the time?

80% of your shifts, 20%.

Do you again?

I would I would have to run reports.

Okay.

Well, years ago, that was not that uncommon.

You you could get through a day without going somewhere.

Um today by today's standards.

That's almost never happens.

If it if it does happen, it's almost never.

Okay.

I would love to know a little bit more about that.

Um I can try to pull some data.

Thank you.

And then I think my last question for now is just um with regard to the overtime and required overtime, is whether an individual has been out on a call taken into consideration, um, as opposed to you know when when there's someone is required to stay for for more time is is what they've done in the time they've already been working taken into consideration.

So what they've already done in the time they've been on shift is not taken into consideration.

Uh however, we have a 39-hour rule that if the individual has has been in service or been on duty for 39 hours, or if that overtime would put them over their 39 hours that they are excluded from that mandation.

We don't want them being there longer than that 39 hours.

And what that 39 hours is is if you're scheduled to work a night shift, then you're mandated for a day shift.

That's a nine-hour shift, and then your 15-hour night shift, you're there for 39 hours.

Okay.

So we we if an overtime were to occur on what was supposed to be their first day off, they would be excluded and they would be sent home for safety purposes.

Okay.

Thank you for the information reserving any obviously budget related questions for Thursday, but thank you very much.

Well, Councilwoman Leo.

So I do have a couple of questions.

Um first, I want to start with saying I called the public safety meeting.

Um, nobody told me when or where to call the public safety meeting.

I think I was actually advised to give a little bit more time, which hindsight being 2020, I think I would have.

Um my logic and reasoning was we were going into a budget season, and I had known that there was going to be a more comprehensive look at public safety anyway.

So I figured more information never hurt anybody.

Um and I thought that council having this information going into the budget season would be helpful for how we would look at the budget, not just this year, but next year, which I believe I said at the public safety meeting that I thought that this would be helpful to inform council about how we would use this information with further information to look at the next budget season.

So I just want to be clear that hindsight being 2020, I wouldn't call a budget meeting or a public safety meeting with such short dotus.

It just seemed at the time like not that big of a deal.

I feel like it was probably way more of a big deal looking back on it.

Um I want to talk a little bit about numbers.

Uh I'm looking back, I can only go to about 2004, seeing 113, 114, like the ebbs and flows of how many people are within the fire department.

And it seems like the largest cut was under COVID, which was 2021, where we went from 110 to 106 fire fighters or 106 people within your department.

Like thank you.

Um, and looking back, the the idea was we were cutting these things because of COVID.

By we, I don't mean this current council.

We were I was not on that council.

Um, but it was because of reduced table games, um, a million dollar drop in EIT, a lack of entertainment tax.

It was really just a massive hit due to COVID.

Um, and it seems to me that these studies were in order to rectify like these massive hits that we had to take because of like budgetary downfalls within COVID.

Is that the general consensus of the administration as well?

Like, is there can where were there these safety concerns?

We're not necessarily safety concerns, but was there this?

We look back at the budget, we made the adjustments that we needed to make, but now going forward, um, as we stabilize as a city, as the EIT increases, as we have the money to do it, we want to continue to beef up fire department, police, EMS.

Was is that the point of these studies?

I think it's to give an objective overview from outside the eyes here to give us comparison benchmarks, compares to peers, where do we stand?

Where are firehouses located?

Are there opportunities, are there efficiencies from that level from experts in the field, the people that run these studies mostly come from not mostly they do come from public safety backgrounds and they have decades of experience in doing it.

And so we expect to learn a lot from it, and we want to make decisions based on that versus what someone may think we're a small group, but people think this is objective, it's experts, it is data-driven, and uh that's where we want to move forward.

I I might be remembering wrong, but I believe that we had increased overtime quite substantially because of the fact that we were going to be running um the sorry, I am blanking right now because you were going to be running the academy, so we had significantly increased overtime because of those those gaps that you were talking about where we were gonna be hiring new firefighters, but we couldn't use them.

Wasn't that part of the increase of overtime?

Or am I just remembering wrong?

No, yeah, that wouldn't really have anything to do with academy.

It's yeah, it's always the race to get to the next academy to hire and work on the list, get the list updated.

We have that list now that we work through, we work through a decent amount of it to come up with the seven that would be going to this academy.

There'll be eight total, because again, the one that got injured, eight in the spring.

And then the question would be is there enough, or does the new testing have to we have to start that process again to keep that list strong enough that when we can get through it, because not everyone makes it through, most we do find great success, and people are offered the positions in Bethlehem, take the position and people that work in Bethlehem stay in Bethlehem.

So we're lucky, unless they're retiring, those things are both true, and they're both well, factual.

We can show you numbers for that.

That that um that is the case, but it's always a case when they do open, as I said earlier, of getting it's not that easy to just plug someone else in.

There's a process to go through, even if you have the list to get them back on the line.

And chief, this is a question more for you.

Um, and I know you weren't the chief at the time, but when the four positions were cut, it was like we were gonna cut these positions to attrition, and they weren't supposed to take these massive hits on on like how many people were per vehicle.

If the standard number is four per vehicle, I are we really going down to like two people per apparatus?

How like do we get to that low?

Uh yes, and currently engine nine without an officer has has two personnel.

Um, engines, fire engines in the city have three, and our ladders have two.

Those are our our current manning numbers.

That's all I have, Mike.

Uh President Cologne.

Anything else from members of council?

Mr.

Callahan, and then Ms.

Kramsey Smith.

So the um Mr.

Evans, when when you had said before that the this the spending uh to Miss Quit's uh question was the spending was up for the fire department.

You when you answered that, was that were you saying that was just for it didn't include any additional firefighters, it was just in their in their negotiated salaries.

Yes.

All right, correct.

All right.

So you know, I I appreciate you being here and and answering the questions.

You you should not be the one answering these questions.

The mayor should be here.

And I I don't know what's going on, but he's missing a tremendous amount of meetings.

Um I can't imagine that he didn't know that they were going to be coming here tonight.

And I can't imagine that there's something more important going on in the city.

If if he's at some, I don't know if he's got a Cub Scout thing or uh uh uh uh weeblow thing, I don't know.

You know, but I can't imagine something more important going on in the city than being here and answering our questions and listening to these people come here tonight explaining about how they're drained.

And I think if we look just at what the chief just said, the mandatory overtime.

We know that that's one item.

There's they're being we had to it was getting so bad we had to put in a 39-hour maximum work shift, right?

So individuals are being asked to work 39 hours straight, and if they do, we we got to relieve them so they can go home.

Is that correct?

That is correct, but that is not a new rule that was implemented.

That has been long-standing.

I know, but that's still astronomical, right?

I mean, what I'm sure whoever is being forced to do 39 hours would like to go home some time and spend some time with their kid, also, you know, uh as I'm sure the mayor does, you know.

Um so how much is the study?

How much are we spending on the study?

We do we have a we don't know that amount yet, or or the the RFP hasn't come back yet, or yeah, no, the the most of them I believe in the area of sixty thousand dollars for the study for a five-month study.

The forced overtime on people, the people who are are manning our fire departments telling us or telling the chief, who's I'm sure telling you that they're stressed out and overworked, and the 39-hour cap has been being reached on a regular basis.

Doesn't that tell us already without having to spend $60,000 on it on a study that they're already stressed out and overworked and that we need more manning?

I mean, I don't I don't know why we gotta I don't know why this administration is so uh consultant happy.

I mean, that's all we do is spend money on consultants all the time.

And there's the consultants right there, they showed up tonight and told you what we did did did any uh did anything on the uh did did any of the questions on the um on the um uh on the RFP uh that was written, were any of those questions or suggestions taken into account questions and suggestions from the the union or it was just or was it just done and put and simply put together?

Were there any is it was there any questions or or suggestions from the union that was put in the RFP?

There's yes, yes, the proposal that was put out there, there were there were number of suggestions that were provided and some were inserted, some were not.

That wasn't theirs, it was our studies, so some were some were not.

It's a blend.

Yeah, and also the the RP is different from the if you've been through that decision process when the groups come in that are selected and that even provide the proposals are quite lengthy and detailed, much more than the RP itself.

It is you're looking for an outline, you're looking for them to tell you what they can do based on a number of pre- uh uh requisites.

When it comes back, those proposals are detailed.

Uh the interviews that followed that are lengthy and the decisions are made on that.

Yeah.

Why why was the why was the RFP like presented so late in the year, though?

I mean, did were you guys aware or you were the mayor or the chief aware that the that the overstat or the the understaffing uh and the amount of overtime and the the stress level on it's been ongoing.

We've been talking about this in these chambers as throughout the last two years.

When this spike began, we we talked about that this was an issue.

We're gonna continue to send people to the academy best we can.

It's gonna be a process to work through to get back to where the numbers that they were, they're way above historical numbers if you go back 10-15 years, not retiring at this rate.

So it's incredibly difficult when they retire at that rate to replace them at that rate.

So that's what's causing what we're speaking to.

Yeah.

So what if I was if I was the uh the head of this or trying to figure this out, I would try to ramp my staffing up over a period of a couple of years.

So it in in anticipation of the the extra retirements, because there's a lot of people retiring with we just can't.

I mean, all I'm saying is we can't keep on doing what we're doing.

It's not working.

The staffing keeps getting lower and lower and lower, stress level keeps going up, and overtime keeps going up.

So I mean, these are uh I'm gonna wait until Thursday night and we'll have some more discussion then and hopefully we can all all decide of how we could come up some money from the uh you know the general fund.

But just some uh one last question, and and this is just for my own information.

If we can't find 400 or 500,000 in the general fund for four new firefighters, because if we don't do it now, we're gonna be in the same spot next year.

If we can't find that in general, how much of a millage rate of an increase would would what do we what would we need to increase it for five or four for 400,000?

I don't know, top of my head, I can check that.

Yeah, I'd appreciate that if we if we could have that.

I mean, I just want to, I'm just curious, because if we if we can't all agree on cutting the budget to find this 400,000 hours to find it somewhere in the general fund, then I'd be interested to find out.

Well, if no one wants to do that, how many of us are are are willing to uh increase the millage rate if it's a slight amount?

In 10 years on council, I voted one time for a tax increase.

I think it was our my second year, and you were you were sitting right next to me, and it was only because we were gonna have to cut fire police, because at that time we were in, I don't know if there was a recession, I don't know what was going on, but times were tough, and we needed some additional revenue, and it was either cut fire and police or raise uh our taxes uh in the millage rate a slight amount.

And I think we're if we can't find four to five hundred thousand dollars, which I think is insanity if we can't if we can't find four or five hundred thousand dollars for four four new firefighters to to alleviate this stress and this pressure valve that they have, then we all need to seriously think about increasing the millage rate slightly.

I don't know if it's a a quarter point, I don't know what it is.

But if you could get that to us of how much money would have what's what millage rate would have to be increased in order to uh fund four more firefighters.

Thank you.

Council.

Oh, thank you.

Okay, I just two quite quick questions.

Um, I just want to make a statement.

First of all, for I have the budget book here, and overtime in 2024 was actually 1.2 million, which is really significant.

And then in 2025, it has 500,000, but we don't know that could be higher, I would assume, because we're still in 2025, correct?

I mean, you know, do you have any idea what overtime is at this point?

It's it is on pace to finish under a million or right around a million.

So a couple hundred thousand dollars less than last year's not.

Okay, but it could be close to close to a million.

Probably, yeah.

Okay, all right.

And then we have a projected for 2025, 500,000.

Okay.

Yeah, and also we're looking at the salaries come out of the general fund.

So that's when we need to find the funds for the salaries, correct?

Yes, general fund, correct.

Okay, great.

That's all I have regarding the fire, but I have another um new business.

I don't know if we still I just want to give another once over.

Sure.

Anyone else anything for the fire department?

I just have a couple of quick um asks for Thursday.

I'm not gonna ask you for numbers now, but for Thursday, just things I think will be relevant to the conversation when we review the fire budget, Chief Mr.

Evans.

If you could bring for the last three years, including this year, so 2025, 2024, 2023, the number of calls that the department has responded to for this year to be year to date, along with the top four of each category.

I know they're coded when they're dispatched, whether it be uh an EMS call, a dwelling fire, a fire alarm, whatever it would be.

I think that information is relevant.

We know how many positions are budgeted for.

If you could bring on Thursday, how many as of current at present, how many firefighters we have, how many uh positions we have vacant, how many are we holding open, whether it be someone's on military leave, someone's out on uh you know long-term workers' comp, whatever it would be, um, how many are pending the academy.

I know you referenced a few that you just had your civil service board meeting.

So, how many are pending going to the academy factored into those numbers?

The staffing per platoon, we have four platoons, correct?

That is correct.

If you can educate me and by default, everyone else on Thursday, what the staffing is for each of the four platoons, what we don't.

I know we don't have minimum staffing in our contract, but if you're mandating people, then we have uh a baseline that we operate with, correct you assume?

That's correct.

There's a number we really do our best not to go below for safety reasons.

So if you can share that number on Thursday, what what it is, what's the floor that you try to run a shift with uh on Thursday?

How many firefighters we know for calendar year 2026 will have met their threshold to be retirement eligible?

Like you said, we can't we can't say who's gonna retire as this is the right of everyone, but how many we know are currently either at and have not submitted their paperwork, or in calendar year 2026 are gonna hit their anniversary date that they would be eligible for retirement.

I'd like to know for calendar year 2025 how many people left the department voluntarily, not that terminated, but how many voluntarily resigned prior to hitting their retirement years?

So essentially who left without being eligible for their pension, if any, uh so that I would like to know that for 2025, just that that helps for for me to understand and conceptualize longevity as we talk about filling roster spots, what is a reasonable expectation of how often someone's gonna be in that spot uh as it's relevant to turnover.

So you could even include 2025 and 2024 in terms of anyone who voluntarily resigned prior to having their years in for retirement being pension eligible.

Um, if you could give me an approximation if possible for Thursday of we we'll know and we'll discuss what overtime has been year to date, but if we know how much that has been mandatory over time or involuntary over time, I don't know if you have that data available.

And I'd also want to know for calendar year 2025, year to date, and then for 2024, how many call-outs for manpower we've had.

I'm gonna talk about mutual aid, but am I wrong in if you if there's a certain call, we call out individuals from home, firefighters from home to either staff the stations in case another call comes in or to assist in responding to that call.

Yes, you are correct.

If we go third alarm or above, we call personnel out from home.

So if you could just give me for calendar year 2024 and year to date 2025, how many call-outs for our own manpower from home have come in?

Yeah.

I will do my absolute best to have that data for you in the next 48 hours.

That's all I can ask for.

And if there's certain things you need to follow up with me about, you know, later in the week or next week, I understand that's thank you.

I appreciate it.

I was just writing notes as I was hearing everyone talk.

I think this is information that for me is relevant, and I hope others could find benefit in that information too.

Mr.

President, can I add one item to that?

Maybe.

Um, could we possibly get the current up-to-date over time as of um whenever you do it, whether it's tomorrow or Tuesday for 2025?

The current amount.

Yeah, yeah, we have I believe it's now 24 of the 26 payrolls are complete.

So we're almost there, you know, two two two runs left.

So you can kind of nail down.

Yeah, the way that would be run would be for the most recent close of payroll, right?

So that's I think thank you.

Please, sir, we'll do our best.

That's all I can ask for, Chief.

Thank you.

And again, I know it's a lot, but these are just things that come up as I was hearing everyone's comments tonight.

So I know it's a lot to look up, and I'm not gonna ask for any of that information tonight.

I wouldn't think it'd be fair to even approximate some of that information.

I'm gonna move on.

We're still on new business.

Councilwoman Cramsy Smith.

Okay, thank you.

Um previously, council councilwoman Van Moore and the ground strongly advocated for a conflict of interest ordinance.

So to avoid so to avoid elected officials being influenced by financial contributions.

Um, they were specifically concerned about financial contributions by developers within the city, and to that end, council passed a conflict of interest ordinance in 2022.

The states a public official, including members of council, the mayor, and certain other city officials are required to recruise themselves from votes on matters where they have a financial interest for campaign contributions, a financial interest is defined as a contribution of $500 or more within five years before official action on a subject.

If this occurs, the official must recluse himself, explain why at a public meeting and have it recorded in the meeting minutes.

The Pennsylvania Ethics Acts also prohibits public officials from engaging in conflict of interest or accepting monetary value, including campaign contributions, if it's understood that their actions would be influenced.

Consequently, municipalities should adopt clear conflict of interest policies that outline when an official should recruise themselves from a decision and how to handle potential conflicts.

These policies should be enforced consistently to ensure that all officials hear to the same ethical standards.

While I supported this ordinance, and I believe council at the time did not feel there was a need.

I have since found I have found since that there's a need to further clarify the oversight and enforcement of the said ordinance.

For example, while council members can recruise themselves from voting if a conflict exists, how does this apply to other elected officials, specifically the mayor?

Our current mayor is recently as July of this year took $15,000 in campaign contributions from the owner of prone development, one of the foremost developers in this city.

Additionally, he has received contributions within the past year from other developers as well as consultants.

It's vital that financial improper impropriety or even the appearance of financial impropriety does not exist in government.

After all, we've seen what happened in Allentown, and we currently see the devastating effects of this in Washington.

Consequently, I request I'm requesting a legal opinion as to the oversight and enforcement of the conflict of interest ordinance of 2022.

I concurrently believe that we need to have a committee meeting to further discuss this matter.

As such, I'm making a motion to conduct a committee meeting on the conflict of interest ordinance of 2022 to review the oversight and enforcement of the ordinance and the legal opinion regarding such.

So I just want to restate to make sure I'm understanding clearly.

Certainly.

First, to have attorney steward give a legal opinion as it relates to enforcement of the conflict of interest ordinance.

Oversight and enforcement, correct?

And then to have a committee meeting, which committee councilwoman.

It may have been the committee of the had the the recent article one, the amendments were we voting on tonight.

I took to committee of the whole to give everyone a chance to weigh in.

The so that's the motion on the so again, just to clarify, are you presenting a date or just a request to schedule a meeting for a request to schedule a meeting of the whole?

And to that I would say the I don't know if without it, and I'll let Attorney Stewart clarify so that not resistant to it, but could we?

I don't know if we need a motion to it.

I mean, I'll I'll tell you here as the chair and president of council.

I'd gladly invite attorney steward to issue a legal opinion to full council, and then at the next council meeting when we have, or I don't know how long it's gonna take, attorney steward is my point.

So if attorney steward can have that issued, then at the as soon as that's issued, I can have Mr.

Miller start polling members of council for dates to have a committee of the whole meeting.

I don't want to give any false sense of when that's going to be because I don't know.

I don't know how long this takes to issue an opinion.

I know we're a little crunched for time as it relates to the calendar year.

So I don't want to say we're gonna have it this date or within a certain amount of time.

I I will say again, I am of the opinion that and I'll let Attorney Stewart kind of weigh in or or um if she if she wants to, but that I don't think a motion's necessary other than you have every right to use attorney steward as a resource that she can issue a legal opinion without any action of counsel.

So I welcome and invite her to do that, and then once she issues that to council, I'll I'm telling you, I'll I'll work with Mr.

Miller to start polling everyone on committee the whole dates.

Again, I just in fairness don't want to.

I mean, even if we were voting on a date, I'm not gonna commit to a date without knowing if you know what my availability is and that of council, but I will say I'm a hundred percent willing to coordinate with Mr.

Miller, a committee of the whole meeting.

Okay, thank you.

Understood.

And I would just say that I know our second meeting in December, there's no meetings prior, so that could be an option if it works.

I'm just stating that.

So I am requesting a legal opinion, which I have the right to do, but now since I have a motion on the floor, do I need a motion to request the committee of the whole, or is it up to you as a president to decide if we have that meeting?

I I'm of the opinion it's up to the chair who happens to meet me at this time, but the uh I'll attorney steward say if she agrees with me or not.

I would concur that you do not need to make a motion either to get a legal opinion on this particular issue, nor to schedule a we're to request the scheduling advocate committee of the whole.

Okay, thank you.

And again, I I feel like it's just important because um I know councilwoman Ban Moore and the drone put a lot of time into this, and I was a hundred percent for it, but unfortunately, we just didn't add on to how what's the oversight and the enforcement of this ordinance.

No, I guess we just didn't think that we needed to, but I think that um it's important that that's a very vital part of the ordinance.

So that's why I'm requesting this.

So that and then my acknowledgement of your request, and again, I'm more than happy to accommodate however we can because I I don't want to just for the sake of saying, yeah, we're gonna have it even before the second meeting in December.

I can't say that without us looking at the calendar and everything.

But are are you willing to rescind your motion given what we just talked about?

Because I I don't know what what we would be voting on because you she's gonna do the legal opinion.

Right, and then I do not need to motion for a committee of the whole meeting, correct?

Right.

So why will we send the motion?

Understood.

Correct.

And I want to just clarify, it's not like I'm looking at oversight and enforcement.

Certainly that's important, but we never put in the ordinance, it's clear how this ordinance affects council people, but it doesn't, it's not clear in the ordinance how it affects administration or other elected officials because they do not vote.

So what you know, how does it work if they take over 500?

Does that mean that they should not do business with the developer they take the money from?

So that's what I'm looking for an answer in that area.

That's fair.

And I'll say I have thoughts, but it would strictly be by memory, and I don't want to without being confident, share what my recollection is.

That's why we have recordings and minutes and such, so we can adequately prepare for a meeting like that.

Um we're still on new business, Mr.

Calham.

Uh it's on the same topic.

Uh Ms.

Is did you have the ordinance in front of you?

In front of me?

No.

Can I pull it up in a moment?

Yes.

No, no, I just I apologize.

I just thought I I'm not putting you on the spot.

I just thought you were pulling it up.

Uh I was I I was under the impression, and I haven't read it, but I was under the impression that when it was passed, that uh if there is a donation over 500 hours, that uh the person that did the donating or the or the the developer or the business that that did the donating was not permitted to do business with the city for two years or something like that.

That's not my recollection, but all attorney steward.

My recollection, and I'll I'll be the first to say I could be remembering incorrectly was when this topic came up when we voted on it, it was brought up by someone that council is ultimately the ones who vote on everything, so that the and that's why the ordinance applied.

I don't want to say exclusively without having the language in front of me, but at least the because one, it's the honor system, right?

There's no enforcement uh mechanisms within the ordinance, and then because counts were the ones who are actually taking the vote on whatever was on the agenda, that it would be uh for council to recuse ourselves from.

But I could be misremembering, so I don't want to that's an accurate statement.

I do have it in front of me.

Okay, and if I can just say how that I did highlight that it says financial interest is defined a contribution of $500 within 60 months or five years before official action on a subject.

And this may be what we need to hammer out is if this occurs, the official must recruit themselves, explain why and have it recorded.

Yeah, so that's I think that's what we need to delineate.

What does that mean?

An official recruises himself in what way if they don't vote fair.

Attorney Stewart will issue her legal opinion.

I understand your question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My my question is is how would um since the mayor doesn't vote, how would we put any teeth into the amendment if we had to change it?

If it was the will of councils to change the amendment or or to amend the the ordinance, what I mean, how would how is it how would it affect him or not just him, but future mayors?

Them members of the administration, yeah.

Yeah, I I would say that's a good question for the committee of the whole meeting, Mr.

Callahan.

That's why we'll we'll let Attorney Stewart issue her legal opinion, as I just shared with councilwoman Kramsey Smith, and I'll remind full counsel.

Attorney Stewart is the solicitor for all of council.

So should anyone want to engage attorney steward prior to any committee of the whole meetings with questions with uh wants and wishes, uh, feel free to do so.

We're gonna vote tonight to amend something that I recognized I thought needed to be amended, and we took a committee of the whole, and now it's on the agenda tonight.

So there's nothing precluding council from following that same process uh for anything in the future.

Thank you.

Any other new business for members of council councilwoman briefly, um Mr.

Boss Schools?

Oh, yeah, okay, you're over there.

Um Mr.

Will Webber has uh recognized tonight's a lengthy one, but again, if he's not here to hear his uh questions be addressed.

Um but uh I'm wondering two things that he raised.

Um do you anticipate or has there already been any increased revenue based on the switch to smart meters?

And the second question while you're coming up is um I know we we learned that you'll be approaching the utilities commission about a potential rate increase, as is the legal process.

Um does council, and maybe this is actually a solicitor question.

Um, does council actually have the ability to put any contingencies on a utility rate increase?

I I know that's a very regulated process.

Um, so I know the first question is for for you.

Okay, so the so the uh okay, smart meters and revenue.

Uh so the answer is no there's no perceptible increase in revenue with the new meters, the meters, a water meter that was installed in 1990 is about as accurate as a meter that's installed in 2025.

So from the standpoint of measuring water consumption, there's no change, and therefore there's no there's no marginal increase in revenue.

Thank you.

If if you're you recall the one graph I showed, we talk about talking about presentations.

We've shown very uh flat consumption over the past 15 plus years.

Right.

Thank you.

Thanks for clarifying.

The other question was about even has the ability to put a contingency like your we will approve your rate increase if you do XYZ other thing.

Um it's a I was under the impression it's a very regulated process to increase utility rates.

Um and if that answer isn't available tonight, that's fine.

It just Yeah, because there's a bi bifurcated rate structure with water, because the PUC Pennsylvania Utility Commission governs the rate structure for customers outside the city of Bethlehem.

That rate case goes is outside of the purview of the city council.

Uh it goes to Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

Rates inside the city obviously are set by ordinance by the council.

And historically, we keep rates the same to in the interest of fairness to all our customers.

So typically typically we get typically we we apply for a PUC because we're not going to know what the rate increase is going to be when you apply or to the PUC.

You're gonna wait, you wait until they make a decision.

That decision is going to be whatever it is, X percent, and then we come to the council and say, okay, here's our proposal to increase rates on the customers inside the city to the same rate that the customers outside the city.

Right.

My question was not so much about um the rate itself, but the does council have the power to say for the one that we do vote on inside the city to say this rate is approved contingent on X additional service being offered to the consumers within the city.

I just thinking out loud, I I think council can do whatever they wish within the confines of passing an ordinance.

If you look at the water uh water rate ordinance, I I you know, without getting it too much into the weeds, I think I think it's basically at the wish of council, whatever they want to do relative to the water fund.

I think I mean attorney steward, correct me if I'm wrong, it would just require a creative ordinance.

Fair to say.

That's fair to say.

Okay, yeah.

And to be clear, I'm not looking to act on that like on a whim, but I just had never even considered that and knew it was a regulated process because PUC is involved in some of it.

So I wasn't sure if it's even on the table as a thought.

Correct the the the pitfall, if you will, is again city of Bethlehem.

If you're going to create a a an ordinance, that ordinance only applies to city residents, not outside city residents.

Correct.

I do understand that.

Thank you.

Thanks.

I'm done.

Any other new business from members of council?

All right, we're gonna move on.

Communication 6A.

A November 10th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Lori Gillio, grants administrator for community and economic development.

Is Gillio seeks authorization to apply for a local share account grant for one million dollars from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development grant money would be for construction on West Broad Street.

Resolution 10A is on the agenda six B.

November 12th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Lori Gillio grants administrator for community and economic development.

Ms.

Julio seeks authorization to apply for a local share grant for 750,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Grant money would be used for capital improvements, the Bethlehem Emergency Shelter.

Is on the agenda tonight, 6C.

A November 11th, 2025 memorandum and proposed ordinance from business administrator Eric Evans.

Mr.

Evans recommends transferring 11,300,000 from revenue account 001A hyphen 308901 into expense account 0801 hyphen 42083 in the non-utility capital fund where it will be allocated into accounts that will fund capital needs in 2026 through 2029.

And ordinance 9L is on the agenda.

I don't have a uh moving on to reports.

I don't have anything to report this evening, Mr.

Evans.

No report, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Evans.

8A and Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending Article 1702 of the City of Bethlehem Codified Ordinance is titled Fees for the Enforcement of the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code Act No.

45 1999 Bill 45 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Wilhelm and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion Call.

Mr.

Callahan.

This is on.

I'm sorry.

I was we are on 8A, Mr.

Callahan.

8A.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quitec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 70.

8B.

An ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending Article 1113 of the City of Bethlehem Codified Ordinance is titled Food Code Regulation.

Bill number 46, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Wilhelm and Ms.

Crampsy Smith.

Discussion.

Call a roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 7-0.

Moving on to new ordinances 9A.

An ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the general fund budget for 2026.

Bill number 47, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queatech and Ms.

Crampsy Smith.

Before we get into the votes, so I will recognize that the next couple are for the budgets for 2026.

As is custom, we have first reading, the second meeting of November.

As I outlined earlier, we will have our last budget hearing on Thursday.

We will accept amendments up until a week from today.

And then we historically have the second reading at the second meeting in December.

This gives adequate time for if there are any amendments in the will of council is to make amendments.

So tonight, even though we there would there will still be time to amend the budget.

Should that be a wish of an individual member of council to introduce an amendment?

And should the will of council be to make an amendment?

This gives adequate time to have the first reading done.

We check that box and then uh Mr.

Miller can move on with the rest of the process as we're required to do.

So I just want to restate that.

And this is uh for my decade on council, how it's historically been handled.

Any discussion on 9A?

Mr.

Callahan.

Um, I I'm gonna be voting no in uh until um we find the funds for the four additional firefighters.

Understood, thank you.

Nay, I'm also gonna vote no because um I'm gonna be doing an amendment for the firefighters, and it needs to come from the general fund.

Understood.

Any other discussion?

Call the roll, Mr.

Callahan, nay, Ms.

Cramsey Smith, nay, Ms.

Quietek, aye, Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Passes 52.

9B.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, adopting the waterfront budget for 2026.

Bill number 48, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queertech and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Councilwoman.

Making a comment, I don't think is necessary, but I'm voting aye on all of these to move through procedurally and am willing to consider amendments.

I may have some to propose myself as well.

Understood.

And you'll have your opportunity as Al.

Yes.

Any other discussion?

Call roll, please.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quitec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Passes 70.

9C.

An ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh, Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the sewer fund budget for 2026.

Bill number 49, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queertech and Ms.

Crampsy Smith.

Discussion.

Call roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Crampsy Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quitec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 709D.

An ordinance of the City of Bethlehem Counties of Lehigh and Northampton.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the golf course enterprise fund budget for 2026.

Bill number 50, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Quiet and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call a roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Crampsy Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quietek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 709E.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh, Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the liquid fuels fund budget for 2026.

Bill number 51, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Quiet and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Yeah.

Call roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Crampsy Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Queertec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 709 F.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the 2026 capital budget for non-utilities.

Bill number 52, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queatech and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 7-0.

9 G.

The ordinance of the City of Bethlehem Counties of Lehigh and Northampton.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the 2026 capital budget for water utilities.

Bill number 53, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queatech and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Crampsy Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quietek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 7-0.

Nine each.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh, Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the 2026 Capital Bund Capital Budget for sewer utilities.

Bill number 54, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Quietek and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 709I.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the community development block grant budget for 2026.

Bill number 55, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queatech and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call the roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quietek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 709 K.

J, I believe.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I lost track.

9J.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, adopting the stormwater fund budget for 2026.

Bill number 56, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queatech and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call rule.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 709K.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Fixing the tax rate for all city purposes for the year 2026.

Bill number 57, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Quietek and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call a roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quiet.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Pass 709L.

An ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh, and Northampton.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2025.

Bill number 58, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Quietch and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Ay.

Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Nay.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Passes 52.

9M.

Ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending Article 112 of the codified ordinance is entitled Campaign Finance Reports.

Bill number 59, 2025 is sponsored by Ms.

Queatech and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

So before we uh begin discussion, I'd circulated a memo of an additional amendment I'd like to propose tonight on the floor to in addition to the other amendments, which we're going to vote on.

I would uh I'll make a motion to add a section four effective date to the current ordinance and section four effective date will then read this ordinance shall take effect as of February 2nd, 2026.

Uh if there's a second, we'll have discussion and I'll explain further.

So that's the motion on the floor.

I'll second second by councilwoman Leone.

Uh we're on discussion.

So the um the effective date, I think just brings us in line with the reporting period.

So the if we depending on when this ordinance would go into effect, campaign finance reports aren't due until the beginning of the following year.

So having the effective date be at the end of the 2025 reporting period is just for consistency and continuity.

So if someone goes at any time in the future to look for a 2025 campaign finance report for any of us, they'll all be there for the calendar year.

So it just essentially concludes our current it our current practice then ends after the last reports are due for 2025.

That that is the the reason behind this amendment.

So any other discussion on the amendment, Mr.

Miller, call the roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye, Ms.

Cramcy Smith.

Aye, Ms.

Quiet, aye, Ms.

Laird, aye, Ms.

Leon.

Aye, Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

The amendment passes seven zero.

So we still have to vote on the whole uh package of amendments.

I'd spoke on it during uh committee of the whole.

Essentially, this comes from the county now.

Posts everything online.

I had one over to the computer, shared that.

Uh, I think it's a little duplicated.

Not I think it is duplicative of what we're having our clerks do.

Statement of financial interest will still be done as is required.

And then I'll work with the clerks as we've previously discussed.

Councilman Welhelm had volunteered to kind of help out with the language.

We'll post just a link to the county website.

So should in calendar year 2026 or any time in the future anyone look for those reports.

We'll just instead of uploading them, we'll have one link where people could find them.

So the information was still accessible.

It just frees up uh our clerk's office with one less task.

Any discussion on that?

Councilwoman.

I just I was going to just reiterate and confirm that we will clearly state on on our website that it where folks can find the information in reiterate my willingness and interest in helping do so.

Just make sure it's seamless and and uh easy to understand for the general public.

It has not been lost upon me.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Any other discussion?

Mr.

Miller, call the roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramcy Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Guiatec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

I pass seven zero.

Resolution 10A.

Resolved by the Council of the City of Bethlehem that the city requests a statewide local share assessment grant to the Commonwealth Financing Authority.

Be it further resolved that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute all agreements and documents as are deemed to be necessary and or related there too.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Quijatec and Ms.

Gramsci Smith.

Discussion.

Call roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Gramsci Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quyatec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

And Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

And Mr.

Cologne.

I pass 7-0.

10 B.

Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the city requests a statewide local share assessment grant through the Commonwealth Financing Authority.

Be it further resolved that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute all agreements and documents as are deemed to be necessary and are related there too.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Quietek and Ms.

Cramsey Smith.

Discussion.

Call a roll.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Ms.

Cramcy Smith.

Aye.

Ms.

Quietek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

Ms.

Leone.

Aye.

Ms.

Wilhelm.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

I pass seven zero.

That concludes tonight's agenda.

Get home safely, everyone.

Hope you have a safe and joyful Thanksgiving.

This meeting is adjourned.