We will go ahead and call this meeting to order.

Roll call of the city council meeting of Wednesday, January 7th, 2026 at 9 a.m.

Members Brzezinski, Flores, Horton, Pol, Schaaf, Titus, and Troop.

I have a motion to accept the minutes from the 1223-25 City Council special meeting and the January 5th, 26th induction meeting and bills for payment on January 9th, 2026 and January 16th, 2026.

Members Brzezinski, Flores, Horton, Paul, Schoff, Titus, Troop.

Okay, um we're we go a little out of order today because we're um electing our next president and vice president.

And um I can read the ordinance or the resolutions, and number two has been withdrawn.

This is a resolution sponsored by Councilmember Schaff, seconded by Councilmember Flores, nominating Tyler Titus as City Council President for 2026.

Is there a discussion?

I'll say a word or two.

Um it was an honor to be able to co-sponsor uh Tyler being our next president after seeing them in action as vice president.

They're very hands-on and very informative as far as keeping council informed on what they're working on and what we're gonna be moving forward as a body.

So it's gonna be great to work with them as a um council member under their leadership.

So I look forward to it.

Voting on the resolution, members Brzezinski, Flores, Horton, Pole, Schaff, Titus, and Troop.

Resolution passes Yay 7a 0.

The next one is a resolution sponsored by Councilmember Titus, seconded by Councilmember Flores that uh nominating Kathy Schaaf as City Council President for 2026.

Vice President Vice President.

I just got it, Lori.

No.

Members Brzezinski, Flores, Horton, Pole, Schaff, Troop, and Titus.

Resolution passes Yay 7A0.

We'll hold our committee reports um until the end, as we have we have not a lot, but we have enough to get through.

Um so thank you, everybody, and I look forward to this in this next step here.

At this point, we will go ahead and ask if there is anybody here for a repository, Sarah.

Is there anybody here for a repository sale?

Is there anyone here for a repository sale?

Seeing none, we will go ahead and move into public comment.

If you're here to make a public comment, I would ask that you clearly state your name and your municipality for the record, and you will have five minutes.

Hi everyone, and congratulations to uh Dr.

Titus for your win on being next term's council president.

I'm Emerson Bannon Coutree.

I live in Academy, City of Erie.

Um I work in local planning and policy and with a new batch of elected getting into office.

I think we have a lot a lot of opportunity here to deliver on a mandate that can make things more affordable for working people, improve things like our cooperative sector, and bring a lot of housing and try and re-grew the city's population.

Uh I'm here to serve as a resource.

If any of any of you are looking for help with policy, we're looking, we're trying to do more work on research and backing up some of our electeds with good data and trying to make sure that we can deliver.

So any anyone wishes that, feel free to talk to me.

Thank you.

And I look forward to seeing what you can deliver in the coming term.

Thank you.

Do you have a cord or contact number?

I do.

Okay.

Okay.

Good morning, everyone.

Michael Keys, Erie, Pennsylvania.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate those who were elected and re-elected, including our mayor.

So I came here today really to uh backtrack on some old business.

You know, um when I was on council, we talked about renovating one of our local parks.

And we talked about in my last one of the last uh meetings that I was in, we uh did a resolution to put 2.3 million dollars toward the project, but the project never really went anywhere.

Uh we'll presume the money is still there.

And so I know we have a grants department now, and so uh it's my request that we put this back on the forward agenda and that we use our grants department.

I'm asking our mayor to uh have them you know uh put this on high priority that we might get the revenue that we need in order to uh renovate the Roger Young Park.

I think that we have an opportunity not just to do some of the parts that we talked about, but you know, I think we have an opportunity to put a f a full uh recreational center on the south side also, and so I think that you know it's important that the people have something that they can see in that is theirs.

All the other municipalities are actually you know uh doing things, reinvesting in themselves in in their own assets, and I think that that's something that is critically missing piece in how our city's been functioning.

Part B in old business, you know, with the grants for the safe streets.

I think we should open up the dialogue again about the pedestrian bridge in the now pathway of where the McBride Vidock was, because there's still no real safe way to transgress east and west, I mean north and south across that part of our east side.

And those types of improvements are critical if we're gonna we say we want to, you know, welcoming vibrant neighborhoods where people want to live and that are safe, and so I think these are types of things that we should prioritize.

You know, uh there's money, and I think that we should make our investments where they will have the most value for our residents.