So I want to thank you everybody for attending tonight.

We have we have a very full agenda this evening, so I want to give us plenty of time to go through as council.

So I would like to start uh by asking if we have any questions on the ordinances that are up for final passage this evening so that we can talk about those first and then we'll go into some of the other things that we have on the agenda this evening.

But any of these items that are on for final passage.

One of the things I'll call note to council um with and also the public.

So as we're looking at the layout of the agenda, one of the things that we're trying to do is make it easier for the public to be able to read and see where the money is coming from and where the money is going.

And so it's a little confusing yet, so we're still ironing out the process, but we'll get it.

But when you start to look at these ordinances, you'll see now instead of it being uh just in the memos, we're also now putting under each of these ordinances where what balance it like where the account is and where it's going to.

So that it's just a little bit easier for everyone to follow.

Um so each one of these has an alignment, and we'll start pulling from the memo and and making it a little bit more clear on which account it's coming from or which is going to.

So if there's any questions on any of this, um please let me know.

And if it's if it's still a little bit difficult for anyone to kind of understand a follow, so please let us know.

Any questions on on this?

If not, we can go ahead and move to the ordinances for first reading.

Okay.

Dr.

Tyson.

Yes.

Um, I was wondering do we know like if there's a city street like a block long and it's in average condition and we need to have it repaired, the average cost to repair, like do we have that?

Do we know that at all?

Or what would it be?

I mean, like if you know if you have a city block and it's average or whatever with potato uh do you know, do we uh know I I'm I can't see Mr.

Sayers, but I'm I'm wondering if he knows like per like do you know the average how much it costs, Jason, like per mile or yard or some sort of measurement in terms of paving.

What is the cost?

Yes, I absolutely not for a space.

Yeah, like if there was a city block, those in like an average condition.

What would what would the what's the usual cost for repairing something like that?

Okay.

Could you can I still need to come up to the mic?

Sorry.

No, you're okay.

What I'll do is I'll I'll just cost it out for you both ways.

Um because there's definitely a difference whether we do it with it or an and how streets crew.

Okay.

Oh, it's a contract job.

So it's not uh just a number, but I can I get that for you.

It's uh just a couple quick numbers and I'll have them both to you.

All right, thank you.

Sure.

Oh, she's not a money.

No, you're good.

What we do have, um, and I believe we we also have the the solicitor here, um, not just our solicitor, but the solicitor from the Erie City Water Authority.

We have two um bonds that are being asked of us to be the guaranteers on.

And so I think that as we're looking at, you know, we got the information from PFM.

We're starting to kind of analyze just our own financial status.

Want to make sure that the if we have questions that we fully understand um just the impact um and what's being asked asked of us as the city and ultimately as the residents um when when we have ordinances like this on place.

So just want to call council's attention to here and would also uh love to hear from just this solicitor from the the water authority if there's questions there.

So attorney Walker couldn't be here from the water authority tonight, but attorney Campbell is here.

So if she's willing to come up to the mic here and just give us an overview.

Thanks evening, everyone.

So there are two proposed ordinances, which is that mic on.

I believe so.

Isn't it?

Yep, it's glowing.

I'll talk really close to it.

So there are two proposed ordinances, each of which relate to pen vest opportunities.

The first is a for an eight million dollar uh loan for the repair of pen of Erie Water Authorities or Erie Waterworks 12th Street building.

There's no grant associated with this, and it's a ProFi um loan, meaning that the loan the funds would be drawn as they're needed by the authority, and it's a 30-year uh loan.

The second is for replacement of lead piping that is uh that is currently in use for customer-sized galvanized piping in the city.

That project is a $10 million project.

Uh the loan is for approximately $2.7 million, and the remaining balance would be funded by a grant from Penvest.

Do counselors have questions for the solicitor on on these?

One of the questions that I have is just um, and this is probably for our solicitor as well as well as you is just what is the impact that this will have, just like as on our just on I guess on our credit or our our financial status.

Of course.

So the city is of course being asked to guarantee each of these loan opportunities.

That being said, they'll be excluded from the city's debt limitations as Uri Waterworks has the revenue necessary to um provide for that exemption.

And then uh could you just explain a little bit too of just uh I guess the liability, so let's hopefully this never happens, but should it happen and that the city become responsible?

Yeah, absolutely.

So um in this specific situation with the water authority, um, they're first in line to make these payments, they have adequate revenue to secure these payments.

And um when I spoke to Tim Walker this morning, he advised that the authority has never missed a payment on one of these sorts of loans.

And in the case of a guarantee, then um only if the security from the water authority were to fall through and the payments were to cease, would the city be um exposed to liability for those payments.

Thank you.

I think it's just important um for council to know, but also for the community to know too, that when we're in these positions, especially after the the study session we had last week, that we're not also like putting ourselves, I mean we are and to a degree, um, but that we wouldn't be the first ones paying for this, that we're not asking that in addition of of the residents.

Of course.

Yeah.

Any other follow-up questions from from council?

Okay.

I guess I guess there's no more questions.

All right, thank you all.

Thank you.

So the other go ahead.

That we have tonight is we we've I mean, when I say we've got a very full agenda, we've got a very full full agenda, is we do have um two public hearings uh in addition to the vote on the the waterfront conditional uses.

And so uh I just want to make sure that we have time to to go and review these and that we're feeling okay as we move into those.

Um we haven't gone into the public hearing part, but those are gonna be before us tonight.

Specifically, I would like for us to make sure that we're all feeling comfortable though, on on the vote around the waterfront conditional uses.

And that's gonna be number number two.

Oh I think it's supposed to be number three.

No, no, no, no.

It was number two, and I see where it's under old business number number two.

Um that's what I'm asking if anybody has any questions.

Um, but I would just in the seventh words.

Did any did any other council members have Mr.

Kissel reach out to them in regards to um stated amenities be completed at the end of the construction and before occupancy?

Did anybody else have him reach out to them?

This is about the about the marketplace.

Yeah, no, I I hadn't heard from him personally, and and um it was more with the Scots that I had heard from him on that those ones.

Yeah, I did talk with him this afternoon.

Hand that to Tyler, please.

Uh he called he called me yesterday about it, um specifically that we should put that into the ordinance that way it's not done after.

Um I mean, I'm not specific on anything that he met and referenced.

I didn't know if we got anything like bathroom access or anything of that nature.

But I just wanted to make sure that you knew that he reached out.

I know you guys were well, not you guys, but you and you and him were generally going back and forth on different things for the waterfront conditional use going forward.

So what Mr.

Cassolik, I guess, um had relayed to Councillor Flores is that um that adding a clause, a suggestion to add a clause that that all free public stated amenities be completed at the end of construction but before occupancy to have that codified.

And so I guess my question to the solicitor would then be um is that to be presumed that's already happening within that the access to these, does that need to be an addition to or an amendment to?

I don't know if that's but if you say it's something that's codified, I mean it's referencing that it should be important.

Yeah.

So not that I mean not the like I think that he wants us to the recommendation is for us to look at the conditions to add on to the conditions.

But then my question back would be with that language not would that be presumed within well you guys are so the planning commission is already said.

I guess my question would be the planning commission has already said this meets all the requirements of section 306.

So the flexibility is there for the developers to institute the things that you guys have requested, like the public benches, the public access, the harmonious nature of everything, uh the environmental stuff.

So you probably would want to have them do everything kind of a simultaneous part of the development of the plan, and then that would be incorporated into the plan, the development plan that's submitted as part of the salva ordinance, and then we go from there.

In my quick reading of this too, uh there is a condition within the ordinance in and of itself that says that the public access, like at no time can it be cut off, right?

The public has to retain that that's in section 306.

Yes.

So I so when we I guess this would be a redundancy, is what I'm saying.

I would say without looking at the exact language, probably, but it it's strongly implied in 306 that public access to the waterfront in that area is to be I think it's actually 306.01.

I think it's the first thing listed.

Then it has to so I I guess that we could relate relay back to Mr.

Like that is that is part in there.

Yeah, it's in there.

Yeah.

That would be like I would agree with that.

And then uh Councilor Horton, I'm I feel like I cut you off.

I apologize if I did.

No, you can cut me off.

Any other questions um related to the waterfront conditional use and the conditions that we have that we put on this resolution?

These are very similar to the ones that we placed on the last waterfront um that was before us to vote on.

Um making sure that we've got access to benches, public walkways stay unaffected, that can't be the um and so there's there's a lot going on in that capacity.

That goes to the map.

There is also discussion that we've started engaging in just looking at uh this ordinance altogether.

Um and so that's something that been talking with the administration on is is looking at updating the zoning and specifically this ordinance overall, and so that we're adding in language um that kind of builds in those CBAs or the or the equity right from the beginning.

Well, to that point, Dr.

Titus um to that point.

Um I'm not gonna be able to support this.

Uh not that I don't think it's a great project.

Um certainly not to vilify uh anybody involved in the project.

Um I'm just gotta be true to who I am and to my true self in that is my very first vote at county council was to co-sign a a bond uh with Erie events.

It's kind of like you're gonna do on these two that we're talking about tonight.

So it's gonna make us co-sign around it.

And that's the liability that exposes us to us.

At that time it was like everybody, guy was certainly the least of anybody there, but conscientious enough.

And there were 40 year people there with 40 years of accounting experience, and people there with 35, 40 years of legal experience on both sides, and they were saying stuff like, oh, nothing that never happened, we never missed the payment.

Uh oh, it'll be fine.

And that vote was the very first vote where this region, this area ever heard of the word community benefit agreements.

I know that to be true because they heard it from me.

Uh and that vote passed six to one.

Well, something did happen.

Yeah, caught COVID.

And so of the money that was appropriated to Erie County to come out to the citizens of Erie County, those specifically, those citizens who were most negatively impacted by the COVID uh pandemic.

And in addition to that, those demographics, i.e.

black people who had been discriminated against historically.

So in 2020, we here I don't want to misspeak.

And again, it's not to vilify anybody or anything.

It's just so the first offering was CARES funding in 2020, right?

When the heart of COVID first hit, we we ponied up of the citizens' money $2,97,000 and three cents.

Then we came back in January of 2021, and we had to, because you gotta pay your bills.

We had to pay, we we had to give them two million one hundred thousand dollars.

It's already five million dollars.

And then we came back in August, and we uh and we gave them two million dollars of ARPA money, and so that's like seven million dollars.

And so I stand here still talking about community benefit agreements, and I'm not talking about lighting for the birds or pigeons or whatever, not that that's not important, the migratory birds.

I'm talking about the housing crisis and the stuff that we have here, and nobody wants to put the race element on it, but we could just talk zip code and who lives where and what the average income level is there.

Right outside this door.

We sit in that zip code.

There's the city seat, the county seat, the state seat, all these nice things, cranes going up in the air, but it's also got about 3,500, 4,000 people living in these high rises that are disabled, that are melanated, and probably making $9,000 a year.

And so I'm still talking about community benefit agreements.

I'm still talking about not only I I feel like the state, our state representatives, we have to lobby them or something because it's a millstone around our neck.

Although they've done fantastic work, they've done great things, they're great people.

So I'm not arguing against them, I'm arguing against the policies that don't work for for this city and probably cities like us all over the commonwealth.

Uh that they don't have to pay taxes in the perpetuity.

And so, yeah, we we yeah, we we just it's similar in scope to what we did last week for waterfront conditional use.

And yeah, why wouldn't anyone developer A B C D?

Why wouldn't they want a 10-year layer, which is a whole generation of us waiting for whole for taxes to be real, really realized.

Without city taxes, county taxes.

Here we got 12 million dollar damn hole, excuse me.

And so not only am I against it, not the concept, not the people, but the policy.

And so I just want I don't want I don't want my vote to come as a surprise to any of you, nor should it.

I mean, you know me.

You know what I still stood for.

Uh and I guess the most important point I want to make is I'm not here to vilify anyone.

I'm saying that if you keep doing what you've been doing, you keep yeah, into perpetuity.

Come on.

Yeah, they took this, they got the zoo, and they've already balkanized the dog on the whole bayfront between them and the port authority, and they're parceling it off.

And they're parceling it off.

Now Ganans and won't act like they want to enter into the bayfront business.

And so come on.

And that's my, yeah, don't, yeah.

I'm I'm a strong no.

Any other counselors want to bring up any of the points with the waterfront conditional that part of it.

And I understand that nine million dollars are hanging in the balance.

I know that it will pass, so it's not my intent uh to kill it or to stop it or anything.

Uh and I know they shoot the messenger around here.

And so I'm not anti-business, anti-erie events, anti-any of that.

I'm just practical.

And it's not practical for a community like ours to have such a large draw.

That's a billion dollar, that's a billion dollar non-profit.

They have the eerie events, Warner Theater, Thulio Arena, Sheraton, the Marriott, two parking arenas.

Now they're gonna have a market house.

None of that does anything good for the city.

Ed, I just said they took the they got the zoo and stuff, so it ain't about yeah, it does some good for the city.

Yeah, but it does, it probably does more harm than good if we're just honest about it.

And it brings some things in, it's not a trickle-down effect.

What it does is, since you asked, it does more for the developer, and it does more for the tourists than it does for the city.

It doesn't do a lot for the small for businesses here in the city of Erie, because I've, you know, I worked on that Bayfront Highway too from 26th Street all the way back around Barron.

So we've diverted commerce around our city.

They don't even come in our city, come up that bluff.

They might come up and have a drink or meal, but it's not to the to the degree where it's it's the sustainable.

College students might have, but the residents here who are bearing the brunt of it, they don't see that.

And so, yeah, it's a big benefit for some people, and it's a drain on others.

Here, let me say again a whole generation, not just that project, but any anybody who's entering into alerta or don't pay taxes.

A whole generation under alerta doesn't that's from that's from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Uh don't see the full reality of a 10-year Lerta.

Yeah, you see the graduated range or whatever, uh, but they don't see it, and that's just one nonprofit.

So if you add all of them into the fray, it's yeah, it's mil, yeah.

They don't do, they don't pay their fair share.

Yeah.

Yeah, they might do something for the city, but it's not their fair share.

And I defy anybody uh to show me uh where they generate that money uh where it benefits the citizens that are poorest, the least of our citizens in this city.

It don't do a lot for our homeless population, don't do a lot for our housing situation.

You tell me what it does.

I mean, I'm asking.

What does it do?

Would you listen if I try to tell you?

I'm all ears.

Where would we be without the waterfront right now?

I understand what you're saying.

You're talking about the 10% of the people who look down on everybody else.

You're doing a hell of a job.

We didn't have them, the zoo would be closed.

It would have been closed in January.

And who would be the biggest losers there?

All the poor people who go there free every Sunday or Saturday, whatever day that happens.

A lot of good things happen.

So when you look at future development, including LERTA, if you look at the yeah, it's free for 10 years, basically.

But then after 10 years, you're gonna be paying the full share.

So it's gonna come around.

But you have to see if they stay around.

If they stick around after the 10 years, because we've had people who leave if they stick around after the 10 years, because we've had people who look commercial development there.

Um if there's no, I'm just saying there's the cup is there.

I don't see a lot of people.

It's either half full or half end.

They just acquired the zoo.

I don't see a lot of poor people who access the zoo.

Uh free entry into the zoo does not give you free entry to purchase the things in the zoo.

Uh so I don't know a lot of people personally.

I mean, my we used to be zoo to have family membership and everything.

I don't know a lot of people personally that use that.

Uh it's a great amenity for a city to have.

Uh the mere fact that it was in financial situ uh the crisis that it was speaks volumes all in itself.

The minimum wage jobs, uh they fought for $15 an hour jobs 10 years ago.

And so it's uh this the amenities that come here, they come here, people who live here can't afford them.

So I and it's so and it's on their back, it's on their dime.

Again, I'm not vilifying anybody.

Uh I'm not saying that they don't do good things.

I don't believe that we get the return on our investment uh for the for the money and for the resources that we pour into it.

And they'll say, oh well, we developed, remember it was not and oh, and everyone knows that the waterfront is is is you'd have to live in a cave to not know that the waterfront it should be a resource, an economic boom or whatever, but there's so many things wrong with it.

They used it under blight designation.

There's nothing below Front Street that's blighted.

Uh we use that to designate that stuff LERTA certified.

And so there's a lot wrong with it.

I'm here to debate it.

I'm not here to poo-poo it.

I'm not saying it's not a great ideal.

I'm saying that we don't get the return on our investment.

We've just given them seven million dollars of taxpayer money uh for something that with the next big crisis come up, we're gonna have to pony up again.

Uh and so, yeah, it brings great quality of life things here for some.

I don't want to discourage us from talking about this, but I do want to get to the uh some of the other things that we have on the agenda just to make sure we have opportunity to discuss them and ask questions, and then we can come back to this if that's okay.

Um we do have uh Miss Deb Smith here tonight, and so I want to be mindful of of her time and the presentation that she's put together for us to just kind of go through some of the numbers with the CBDG and the home, so that if we can touch base on on that.

She had given all of us a little layout of the numbers for for us to see.

That is good evening, City Council.

Um, at the last presentation that we did uh for our fiscal year 2026 annual plan, uh these are the same numbers for CDBG Home and ESG, their proposed uh projects and funding amounts.

Uh there was quite there were questions on, I believe, uh two of the two of the projects.

Uh the mayor's literacy program and uh Erie Downtown Development Corporation.

Also, there have been questions on the re-entry program.

And so tonight I have Shannon from the Erie Downtown Development Corporation as well as the re-entry program.

Um please note that for the re-entry program, uh the amounts for our fiscal year plan for CDBG, they are not included with these numbers.

Excuse me.

Um they are actually reprogramming numbers that will be presented to city council on July 1.

Where are those dollars currently at then?

What are they currently under?

The re-entry program one?

Um the dollars, they're not in this proposal.

They're reprogramming dollars from prior year projects uh that were not completed, that didn't use all the funding, and so uh there's a 30-day comment period for those.

And so the next meeting for that will be July one when we'll present it to city council on July 1st.

But we do have individuals here from the re-entry program to answer any questions you may have, as well as your downtown development corporation.

Question Ms.

Smith.

So that's grant money that's already appropriated to that program, or is that money coming from the general fund or all of this money is uh HUD money.

So HUD money it is, and so it carries over automatically from year to year, or does it not?

There is actually a new allocation each year.

The city is an entitlement city where we receive funding from HUD.

Okay and it's based on population.

So my point is the re-entry program when you say unused funds.

So those were from prior years.

So contracts for different activities are for one year, and so maybe uh some of those agencies did not expend those dollars.

And so we are tasked with reprogramming those dollars.

Gotcha.

Yeah, I guess um I'm trying to figure out which order to kind of walk them through.

I do have a lot of questions around the re-entry uh program, just how it was decided.

Uh it's my understanding that this was a more so a county decision, right?

And so that position was the program was decided to.

So actually the YMCA did um submit an application, but they decided to withdraw that application.

Okay.

And so then the county still had an interest in uh doing that uh program, and so that's why they are not a part of the fiscal year 2026 plan, and that's why they're part of the reprogramming.

Was there an application submitted by any other entity around re-entry?

No, not for re-entry.

Okay.

Because I think there's been a lot of discussion, and and some of it's been a little bit honestly hard hard for me to kind of follow to see where it initiated and and where who owned the program originally and how it's now maneuvering, and how the city money is following and shifting in that capacity.

So it's actually a county program.

I mean, GCAC used to have the program, and then uh the YMCA took over the program, and then um the county actually owns the program, but as I stated, there are um individuals here um from the re-entry program that can actually answer all of those questions.

But if you have a lot of questions, you probably want to call up the Erie Downtown Development Corporation first.

Right.

So those programs don't necessarily if if those programs are reprogrammed back into this new reiteration of re-entry, uh, I believe we can put the restrict put put a restriction on it uh until it meets any of the answer any of the questions that you may have, Dr.

Titus.

Thank you.

I wouldn't um and who are the individuals from the re-entry.

Is it the the current existing or the new proposed?

The new proposed, okay.

Does anybody have questions for the new proposed program?

And last but not least, yes.

If by some chance, because I don't know what the scope of work is contained under the HUD guidelines for this plot of money, but if by some chance those uh uh questions aren't answered uh to the satisfaction of this body, uh uh the community the committee of a whole uh of a whole of the whole uh is there a way that we can possibly reprogram those dollars into something else here how it qualified in the city.

So right now, as I mentioned, this is reprogramming dollars, and so there is a 30-day comment period, and so if you have comments on that, it will be in the newspaper on uh uh June 29th, I believe.

It'll come to city council on July 1st.

Uh if there are questions um pertaining to that, and if you want to make comments, you can send those comments to me.

We will look at them.

Um I think that just so I've got to be.

Well, I'm gonna comments right here from the dais now.

I'm not making them at the public hearing.

I'm entering them into the docket right now, uh putting them into the public domain.

Uh that if those dollars are if uh if we're not satisfied with good goes on uh or to the satisfaction of this body of the re-entry, uh we decide not to that those programs uh we consider those programs to be reallocated into something else.

And the anything that's uh HUD appropriate, and the reason I say that is we got 12 million dollar hole, and we ain't got time to wait for budget stuff, and we want the wherever those dollars will give us the biggest return on our investment uh should be considered, and not just because it's uh something that's being reconstituted.

Um they should make a compelling case as to uh the who, what we're when, and how of all of that, because quite frankly, I'm getting a lot of uh I'm getting a lot of citizens uh push back uh on that program.

I don't know who's right, who's wrong, don't care.

I know that those young men and women returning back to our community deserve services.

Uh I don't want to get into the philosophical argument of whether it should be punitive under probation.

I personally believe that it should be separate uh from probation, completely voluntary uh and uh and it shouldn't have any implic it shouldn't have any sense of it being uh another form of control.

It should be more of an opportunity.

And so those are the things I'm that interests me around anything on re-entry money in that pile of money or any money that we may allocate in the future.

Dr.

Titus Can I provide some clarification just how this came to us.

I think it's important for for council to have, and Deborah, if you don't mind, you know, standing there and backing me up here if we have some questions.

So just so everyone is clear.

The city of Erie in the past provided CDBG funds to the re-entry program to support, I think a case manager.

So that was in the that had happened in the past.

Originally, I think it happened when it was with GCAC, and then it happened when it was with the Y.

So this year, as you all know, the application period for CDBG opened December-ish.

December 1st, December 1st.

Uh the Y submitted the application as they had to continue that program.

Soon after I took office, January, February, I was asked to attend a meeting with the county executive by some of the folks who had been involved with the re-entry program.

I believe we have folks here tonight from Mercy Earst Civic Institute who typically were at the start.

They were the data collectors for the program.

They asked the county executive and I to a meeting.

They said they had concerns about the way the program was being run, and they said that there was a consideration that the program might be moved from the Y to the county.

And they said to us, you know, this is something that we're talking about.

What are your thoughts?

I expressed the importance, like you, Councillor Horton, the importance of the program.

We need this to be a functional program for our residents in the City of Erie.

And you know, we said I I said to them, I don't know much about the program, but I know it needs to work.

So not long after, I believe the Y pulled their application from CDBG because they had it had been communicated to them that the program was gonna be moved, was going to be removed from them.

So they removed their application from us.

Then the county reached out and said, we're moving this program to the county.

Would the city continue to provide the funding they had provided in the past through CDBG to continue to fund the case manager as you have had in the past.

By that time, this application period was closed.

That's why it's not on this list you have in front of you.

And so, you know, Deborah and I spoke, and Deborah said, well, we can do it from reprogram money.

So that's why it's not on this list.

That's why to Deborah's point, you won't see it until she brings it to you with the full reprogrammed list.

But I just wanted to provide that context of kind of how we got to this moment in time.

I think that's important, and to note to your point, counselor, if this is the time where folks have questions about the program and the reasons for the change, the folks from our search civic institute and maybe others are here who might be able to answer.

I hope that's helpful.

That's very helpful contextually.

Um also add uh that in this uh charged environment around the duties and scope of work of probation and parole uh that was brought upon this community by the killing of Marcello Wood.

I think that we owe it to uh the citizens to do our due diligence and to be vigilant and and really understand what's really going on before you vote on something.

That's my perspective.

I think it'd be helpful if you allow uh Sheila and Robert to come up and maybe answer some of those questions.

Yeah.

Good evening, I'm Robert Huss from Erie County Reentry.

Nice to meet you all.

He is the current program manager, and I'm Sheila Silman, and I'm the former program manager.

I ran it when it first started at GCAC, and I retired in May of 2020.

I am currently helping the new staff get going.

I am doing the training.

So that's why we are here.

Um allow me to start, and then you're more than welcome to ask us anything that's on your heart, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Uh, Councilman Horton, I hear you loud and clear.

And I want to say we have worked with parole county, state, and federal uh all along.

What we don't do is we don't pick up the phone and call a probation officer and say, you need to check your your uh your client, they're using, they're doing this, they're doing that.

Judges do not remand people to our program.

It is has always and will continue to be a voluntary program.

We insist that if a person comes in that if you would like us to work with your your parole officer, we have releases of information.

We continue to have releases of information, and if they're willing, they sign them.

And therefore, as good as long as the individual is in the program.

It's right on the release.

Part of it is if they are working with us, and if they do come up and they are sharing with their case manager that they're struggling with substance use, we do not pick up the phone and call the PO.

That is not our role, even though we are sitting up at the Day Report Center.

That's not the idea.

We are there to help to assist to connect with services.

That's always been the role.

We currently have a memorandum of understanding with parole to connect and to help get people what they need.

The whole role of the program is to assist and help the individual, and this is the heartbeat of the program, to help get that person who is coming out of incarceration, returning back to our community, and get them connected with the service before they leave incarceration.

And we have, and we started this back in 2016, and have tried and want to continue to do that.

To meet with them, whether they're at Erie County Prison, SCI Albion, SCI Muncy, or SCI.

I'm sorry, SCI Cambridge Springs, or maybe even SA Mercer, or over the phone, and we have a speci uh a specialized assessment tool to do a level of service so that we can determine their risk level.

Because what's the goal?

One, to help meet their needs, and two, to help reduce recidivism.

Because at the start of this, when we were meeting as a community from 2013 to 2016, we realized that we had a recidivism rate of about 48 to 50 percent as a whole.

When I was uh close to retiring, we had dropped that recidivism rate through our um a our data uh partner, Mercedes Civic Institute.

We don't report our own numbers, which is the beauty of the program.

We were down to seven percent.

We weren't at that in 2022.

We expected that as time moved on.

I think it was up to about 15 percent.

We haven't been able to record recidivism since then because of data problems as far as recording when you when you change program managers, case managers, uh processes, it's hard to keep track.

This program is not ending.

Whatever was at GCAC at the Y coming under the county is the same program.

We're gonna celebrate 10 years in the fall.

So we're looking to continue and polish it back up.

Bob has the new PM.

We have new case managers, client advocate, the client advocate is here.

We have Craig Heidelberg with lived experience and has done very well, and we have um case managers on board.

People I understand.

I've been watching county council films, and I understand the passion.

Who doesn't expect that people should have second chances?

I have been doing second chance work my entire life and have been working in the system.

I would never say I understand a person being incarcerated and coming back, but I have been listening to people's stories ever since I started doing the work in the early 80s and working with people, and that I can't tell you how hard that is for people.

So we are here because we understand how hard it is for for you after hearing all these volatile and as Councilman Horton said, charged up environment and trying to sort through the passion and the information.

And we we get it, we understand it.

So please go ahead and ask your questions.

We're more than happy to let you know.

And you can ask um Rob Bob what he's been doing and how he's been trying to make sure we're getting right down that same track.

Let's start there.

What you've been doing.

Um, we just hired um our staff, so um we're fully staffed now.

They they begin next week.

We have three case managers that are set and ready to go along with the peer advocate.

Um in the meantime, I've been meeting with community providers, um, some local businesses, speaking to them about their interest in hiring re-entry uh clients as they transition back into the community.

So I'm getting some support with that.

Um also just reaching out to um any community entity that is here to support us.

We have an entire board of people that are ready to help, and our doors are open and we're ready to help anybody as they come into our community.

So we have about like 13 minutes.

Um I think that we're gonna have a lot of questions.

I know I have a lot of questions, so what I would like to request is maybe at the next meeting we have a presentation and that that we can dive more in as council.

We can prepare our questions and be ready.

And that way it also stays in the public forum and so that there can be discussion around around that.

And I don't want to cut you off, but I also know that we have a few more things to get through, and that will give us time to prepare.

I'd be happy to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And if any of you would like to, excuse me, like to contact me privately.

I'm more than happy to leave with any of you my number.

If you want to have more questions one on one, you just let me know.

I'd be happy to do that.

Myself as well.

Could you leave the information with our clerk that she can share with all of the absolutely thank you, folks?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think that will just give us as a council a little bit more time to get our because I kind of want to know what the difference is, like what besides the change of whose funding.

And then and we still have a couple more things from Ms.

Deb Smith if we have any other questions.

Yeah.

No, no, you're fine.

DD DC is here also to answer any questions you may have concerning the 100,000 dollars that we propose to give that organization.

I bet you feel like the price is right.

Ask any questions if you don't want to.

Hold on.

Hello.

Hello.

You got an early start.

Okay.

So yeah, we there was just, I think I I believe I was the one who just kind of asked this just a question of what are we what would that that project entail?

Like what it's just like high level.

Sure.

So flagship, can you hear me okay?

Flagship is essentially going to be a wraparound services project.

So not only the construction piece of it, but then also the small business support.

So allowing that um specifically for historically underserved entrepreneurs, giving that on on-ramp to start their own business, whether that be subsidized technical support or just having subsidized rental space.

Commercial leases are very expensive.

So what we're doing is essentially creating a space that's a shared community that they can work together with other young entrepreneurs that are establishing their business and then create somewhat of an incubator.

Um do you think it would be possible just to kind of get a breakdown of of this program a little bit?

Because we've we've kind of gone through a few other iterations, and so I would just love to see like maybe how this program is different than other programs or just the success metrics that you that you're gonna use, just so we can see as council.

Sure.

So this has actually been ongoing for two years, this specific program.

What we're looking to do is essentially grow it.

So over a hundred businesses served so far.

Uh what we're looking to do is help scale it in a different way.

So kind of what's going on in the flagship uh food hall, allowing people to have that preliminary space to kind of test their product, test the viability before they would commit to a space.

We're going to be doing that now outside of the restaurant business.

So looking at all different small business fields and then allowing them to test that, beta test it also in a central place.

We're looking to create a central hub downtown that helps to drive traffic to additional surrounding businesses and attract additional investment.

I know these are numbers off the top of your head, but um in follow-up, like we I don't need them right now, um, but would love to just kind of get some of those numbers just of the six like the businesses who maybe have launched at the flagship and then who've gone on to sustain and just to kind of show and demonstrate that it's worked, the models were.

Yeah, of course, we can make sure that happens.

I I appreciate that, Dr.

Titus, because uh I I'm you know, not that we can't have more than one person doing something, uh, but I know that we have uh we've had other iterations of that uh where the shared space, uh co-opting space, and offering tech support, that type of thing.

So I'd be interested uh in hearing the success rate from the businesses too.

And I didn't know that you were uh the fact that you've been doing it for two years is interesting.

Uh and I'm nosy and I didn't know anything about it, so you don't need those numbers now, but if we could get that and like follow up um that way we can get this out to council so that they can especially before we vote on it um officially.

So that's the same.

Yes, of course.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

Does anybody else have any questions or information that they would like and follow up?

All right, I think you're out of the hot safe that's a good idea.

Oh my gosh, goodbye.

Thank you.

Um we've got a few minutes left, and I the are there any questions from any of the counselors?

I had a couple that I wanted to just follow up on.

Are there any other questions from anybody?

Do you want an overview from the mayor on the literacy program?

Yeah, I do.

I didn't have to answer any questions either.

So I I think the council had questions about the City of Erie literacy program, and actually um I'm glad to talk about it with you because I could use some some of your guidance as well.

So as you know, um we have launched this literacy work this summer.

We have connected all of our funding through CDBG and parks um for summer programming to a literacy component, which I'm really excited about, and I think it's been well received.

The intent for these funds was to hire a coordinator to oversee this.

Um but given the uh the news we all discussed last week.

I have concerns um and I want to be thoughtful about a new hire.

I'm not exactly sure that this is the moment in time to be bringing on a new hire of the city of Erie.

So I've held this as a placeholder to wait until this news was public about our budget crisis to have this conversation with you.

Um so I mean we have options here.

We you could approve it, we could proceed, we could hire, but we would probably need to do that with the understanding that that would be a year-to-year position and that every single year we would have to reevaluate if we had the funds to continue it because we cannot hire positions and then have them live on beyond grant funds.

We've seen where that gets us in trouble.

Could we consider an intern with this with the site a stipend?

Because uh with all these major institutions that always talk about how good, you know, what they deposit here in our city resource wise.

I think that that you know I've had some I've had some really really sharp uh interns that really work on some stuff, and some of them have gone on to do really great things.

And I really appreciate that's those are the kinds of ideas I'm looking for.

How do we do this without tying us, you know, to future things?

So that's a consideration.

We also discussed maybe just making this a contract, as you've noted.

So just for the summer, just a contract where we would hire someone, you know, essentially consult with them to come in, do this for us for the summer, kind of on their own time, give us a report at the end of the summer.

So I'm leaning toward that.

I wanted to kind of get your feedback.

And if you think that that's the direction we should go, then we'll revisit this number because it won't need to be that high.

Deborah's gonna kill me because I'm gonna mess with our budget again.

Um but I can come back to you with something that feels a little more in line with where we are right now with the budget.

Does that make more sense?

Yeah, I think Deborah will be all be all right with you taking away from money, uh the budget but adding to it not so much.

Fair so would council would that be okay.

So we'll we'll provide you with an updated proposal for something that's time limited, is less money and doesn't.

I mean, I'd love to hire a coordinator, but I just don't know how we can justify that right now.

Deborah, can you remind us when does this all when does council need to vote to approve all of this?

Um actually the plan is being reviewed by HUD.

They have 45 days.

Um we will be bringing the ordinance um for first reading on June 3rd, I believe, and then the second reading on June 17th, as well as a list of the um proposed projects that we have listed for June 17th.

Okay.

Um we look to have our summer rec programs begin uh July 1.

So we'll get you a proposal immediately and I'll ask for your feedback from there.

I appreciate the feedback today.

Well, all joking aside, uh I really um Miss Mrs.

Smith, I really appreciate you.

I've come to value your input uh in this building and outside of this building.

You by far one of the smartest people in this building, and you're very, very good at what you do.

We're lucky and very fortunate to have you.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, Amadan.

All right, thank you.

Um will the uh summer reading program um this be like at the parks or at the centers or so the way it works, Counselor Troop, is all of the summer programs that you see on here that are getting funding from us, they've all been notified that they have to include a literacy component.

We did not um dictate to them what that had to be the joke I've used, and this goes for CDVG and also our parks funding.

The joke I've used is I wasn't gonna tell Melweterspoon that the Spoons kids had to have a book in their hand while they dribbled a basketball because he probably throttled me.

But there's something, right?

So we're giving them some suggestions of what they can do.

And our hope would be this summer to just make it very loose and light, have this person that we're talking about kind of do an evaluation and then give us some kind of tighter things that we can work on for the future.

I mean, think I think if we asked to make sure they're all um registered with library cars at Blasco, that could be a small ass to get it going, you know.

Because I don't think enough people realize it's a free library um pass, you can access the online app port portal so you can have virtual books and access to all the online um newsletters that we don't have access to.

If you can't afford the newspaper, you can get the free portal.

So it's just useful to have, and not enough people wouldn't realize the bookmobile as well.

So we'll come back to you with a proposal that doesn't feel so personnel heavy because I just think that that's not appropriate and go from there.

Thank you.

Did the summer recreation allowance um correspond with last year's is it the same?

Actually, I believe Deborah, so counselor shoff is asking if the summer the summer rec allocations are in line with last year's.

I think they are for the most important thing.

Some of the uh community centers may have received maybe a little increase, but most of them are pretty much the same.

Thank you.

JFK did not submit a summer rec application because they actually have funding from a of a different source.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The one question I I have um have we heard back from the parking authority with the request around or acknowledging um the study session next week.

The only thing I can report is I did go to their board meeting and reminded them publicly of the invitation to attend.

Um I didn't get anything back from them.

I believe Director Friday said he would be in attendance, but I don't know about the board.

I have not received any other follow-up.

I sent a second email the day before the board meeting that the mayor attended.

Okay.

Have we in the clerk's office received any correspondence?

Okay.

But the study session is scheduled, so we will all be for next for next week.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh any uh what's about 628?

Any questions from counselors um before we reset the room and get ready for our public meeting.

Okay.

Roll call of city council meeting of Wednesday, May 20th, 2026.

Members Titus, Rosinski, Flores, Horton, Hull, Shoff, and True.

Okay.

At this time we will stand for a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Uh if we could just have a moment of silence for a few um people that have passed away in the past couple weeks.

Um we have uh Mr.

Alpole that passed away a couple weeks ago.

Uh he's done a lot for this community.

Umberto Rodriguez was a city employee um since 2010.

He started part-time in 2008, and he's been a full-time employee since 2001.

And then um Chief uh Charles Chuck Bowers.

Uh he started with the city as a police officer in 1970 and retired in 2006 as a police chief.

Uh so if we could all have a moment of silence for them.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God and divisible with liberty and justice for our motion to accept the minutes from the May 6th City Council meeting and bills for payment on May 22nd and 29th.

Members Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores, yes.

Horton, yes, cole.

Yes.

Shaw, yes, true, yes.

Titus.

Yes.

So there um there is no presentation this evening, but I do want to remind everybody that we have the public hearing starting at uh uh 7 p.m.

So as we kind of go through this and in whatever time wherever we are in the agenda at 7 p.m.

we're gonna have to stop.

That usually falls directly within public comment and it will feel very abrupt, but we'll stop it.

We'll go for the pup into the public hearing and then we'll resume back into public comment.

Um but first are there is there anybody here for repository sale?

Is there anybody here for repository sale?

Is there anybody here for repository sale?

All right, seeing none.

This will move us into the public comment.

So we uh moved the sign-in sheet up here to the front.

So before you start speaking, if you could please sign in.

We were just seeing that we were missing a lot of people having the sign-in in the back, so we've moved it up to the front so that it that just when you're up here, please sign in uh and make sure that you're writing clearly so that we can get your name in your municipality.

So when you come up to the mic after you write, you'll have five minutes to speak.

And so just please be mindful of that five minutes.

We've got a we've got a very long um agenda tonight, and I just want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to be heard.

So if you would like to speak, please come on up and sign in, and you'll have five minutes.

They just want you to sign in over there.

There's a paper at the podium.

Oh, well, then you can come speak if you already signed in.

Yep.

Saturday night I had to make a call for before you start to say your name.

My name is Aaron Sorwide.

And then your municipality.

Uh Erie.

Your municipality, where do you live?

Uh one four 415 West 2nd Street.

Um, so Saturday night I had to make a call to 911 for an assault that happened at Bayview Park.

The victims were my girlfriend, her brother, and her younger sister.

911 asked if we needed medical attention, and I told them that we did not need a an ambulance.

And they proceeded to guide us to a non-emergency hotline and told us that an officer would be on the way.

It took an hour to finally meet with him, and when I asked why it took so long, he blamed it on a changing of shifts.

When we told him what happened, he told us that there was almost nothing they could do because my girlfriend was not the main victim, and she had only suffered nothing but minor injuries, which he did not take a photo of.

He did not ask any questions regarding the assailants, no description and not how many they were.

When he left, he went the opposite direction of where we said the incident had happened.

And two days later there was a shooting at that same park.

And because of that, we feel completely abandoned by the city, and we're scared to go anywhere now because nobody refused everybody refuses to enforce the curfew.

Thank you.

Um it feels very abrupt to just kind of leave it hanging there, but I do believe that the administration is aware, as is the police chief, and so I just want to make sure that you know that.

I'm already signed in, so I'm Bob Strasser of Erie's Lower East Side, kind of an advocate for Lower East Side and East Side in the city of Hull.

Um I guess I'm gonna I I got up here a little bit early this week, so I'm happy about that.

Um I'm gonna try to start off with a little positive uh thing.

So last week I attended the uh quickly put together a town hall meeting at the Boys and Girls Club regarding the nine ships company project at the former international paper um north side property.

Um so one of the uh main of the three companies, the main one, modular engineering company.

Um the owner um had talked about that he's moving from where they are currently in the city into that property, and I believe he said he currently has between 80 and 100 employees, and he's looking to um initially when they get over into that new property um to add another 80 to 100 jobs.

Um so um I did see uh a couple of uh the mayor's uh um administrative people there, and uh they asked some really good relevant questions as did I um like uh will they prioritize um east side and lower east side individuals for jobs uh that are being created, and uh he answered yes, and uh that he would be looking uh forward to working with the Erie School District to find uh younger people uh through maybe the trades and and uh different things like that um to help him secure the future workforce there.

Um so um overall I I found it uh very positive.

Uh they they seem like uh they're really interested in working with um the city and the different communities here, especially on the east side.

So I guess that's a a positive here.

Hopefully we can uh put more companies in in that site and have uh some revenue coming into the city.

Which is which is important to me, and I'm sure all of you facing everything that we are right now.

The second thing that I wanted to go into was um dealing with the nonprofits about the mayor talking to the past meeting that our hands are pretty much tied for a lot of it.

However, I didn't let that stop me, so I worked with um AI and kind of came up with uh some ideas uh that I had along with it, and lo and behold, uh they agreed with uh councilman um Horton about that there has to be some things that we can do to work with them to uh um get some revenue.

So one of the some of the main things are we should uh establish a uh coordination within uh maybe the department of economic development and um because I know you know hiring and stuff for someone new positions is probably gonna be very difficult to do.

But modify uh or model the uh pilots program on the model that is used in uh Boston, uh which has been highly successful, um, titled the Community Benefits Program.

So some of these things to go along with that or to have an annual updated database on all uh exempt properties nearly, uh, then publish an annual uh community investment report um for each of the uh nonprofits, the major nonprofits in particular, showing what services they consume, like police fire, uh maintenance like snow removal, things like that, uh, versus what what they uh contribute.

Um community benefits, uh charity care, and uh different things going on with the uh pilot program, which um I offhand don't remember if I said that stands for payments in lieu of taxes.

Um these reports create the factual foundations for negotiations and for public accountability.

Um so it also listed a tiered pilot strategy for it with uh three major ones.

The first deals with uh the health um health systems, so that would be like Hammett, St.

Vincent and any other major medical.

The second tier would be the universities, so the colleges, uh, Gannon, Mercyhurst, uh maybe some extent Penn State and LeeCom, and the third tier is large social services and um arts nonprofits.

Um finally uh secure the agreements.

All right, all right.

Thank you though.

Thank you.

My name is Maria Chilevich.

I live in Erie, Pennsylvania on 12th Street.

I am here because of several things.

One, you know, China has 360 some data centers for the country.

There are already a hundred data centers in Pennsylvania.

We don't need any more.

Two, the EPA has now said they will no longer stop forever chemicals in the water, but it's your job to protect the citizens and the lake that we are here.

That cannot happen.

You cannot be putting forever chemicals back into the water.

I had a bag setting at my house that I was gonna bring with me, because I use fresh water for my fish tanks, and the garbage that comes out of the water, just spraying on top of the top of the tank, is disgusting.

I have complained about the water before, and I'm complaining again because I don't see where it's that safe to drink, and you can't get anything done from the water authority down there.

So somebody needs to look into it.

Three, back at the water, and with you approving Nick Scott down there.

I want to know because in the past, when I have discussed this, a lot of his money came from grant money that I was told, and he used very little of the self.

So I want to know how much grant money the city is giving in, the county is giving in, and the state is giving in.

Because all you're doing is making it reckless and unsafe for little kids to go down there to go enjoy the lake.

We should not have to drive all the way into Mill Creek to go to the peninsula when we have access to the lake here that she's continuously trying to block infrastructure money.

Is that what's doing this roundabout?

And now let me get to the street lights in this town.

First of all, I've already been hit by a car once, and I don't want to get hit again.

But the lights on 12th Street are terrible.

If you have a walk sign, and people are still turning, they need to fix that.

People on 12th Street from the side streets have to wait so long that they're not paying attention anymore to those lights.

They're turning anyway, whether into traffic or to the right or to the left.

Now I've already called them once.

And they're not doing anything about it.

You have it set up for the for the uh highway up there, and those people and these trucks that are jake breaking, and I don't know if you know what that means.

Unless you're in the trucking industry and they're jake breaking coming down the street because they're coming too fast.

Something needs to be done.

I have had it.

I have a crappy neighbor who's a club that's infringed on my property and code enforcement, they don't want to do a damn thing about it.

They won't even meet me or hang up on me on the phone, which they have already done when I've asked them to come and talk to me, seeing my property.

Period.

And they don't want to do it.

Why?

Because I'm not a renter and we're a homeowner.

I've had it with the city.

It's your job to protect citizens of Erie.

That is your job.

And from what I can see, it's not happening, especially with the lake front.

Thank you.

Can we make sure, ma'am, before you leave that your address is written down so that we can also follow up to the well, one, there was no pen here, so I gentleman had to lend me his pen so I could write my name.

But as I said, I was hit by a card once before, so I have a hard time seeing.

So if you could direct me where to tell her.

My name's Maria Chilery.

Is it right?

And I've already talked to Mr.

Saylor about this as well.

Thank you.

I bring my own.

Is it 65465?

So you'll probably be the last public comment so that way we don't cut anybody else off.

But then we'll resume back with you.

Because we have a public hearing that starts at seven.

Elizabeth Stanton, Harbor Creek.

Imagine all the people living life in peace.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one.

Imagine no possessions.

I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.

Imagine all the people sharing all the world.

You may say I am a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us and the world will live as one.

John Lennon.

An individual that holds beliefs that fall far outside of societal norms.

I am an idealist with beliefs of what should be rather than the practical hard world realism.

I'm a dreamer, a visionary, focused on the future possibilities.

53% of Erie City residents earn wages of $52,000 or less a year.

The annual salary of the mayor and the top-tier administrators is almost 2.5 times what the average Erie residents are earning.

With the backdrop of Erie City budget deficit in mind, I have a suggestion.

The mayor and the top-tier administrators lead by example by taking voluntary pay cuts.

I know that voluntary pay cuts would be largely symbolic.

Many other complex methods are needed to erase the deficit.

However, voluntary salary reduction would generate goodwill as a genuine gesture of shared sacrifice, demonstrating the mayor and city administrators' willingness to shoulder their share of the economic burden facing everyday Erie residents, building Erie City Community morale by top tier managers willing to cut their pay, maybe less middle managers will lose their jobs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have about three minutes.

If one of the individuals who wanted to speak who sat back down, thinks that they can speak within three minutes, you'd be more than welcome to come up before we start the public hearing.

I'll see if I can talk and write at the same time here.

This shouldn't take more than three minutes, so my name is Michael Milk.

I live in Little Italy.

I think that hands on gardening experience across all the schools in Erie Public Schools is great.

I think it's great.

Kids who are getting their hands into the dirt like that are expressing that they they really enjoy it and it uh you know it's giving them a certain amount of uh real world experience uh uh teaches them about the you know the cycles of the year and all of that, and I and they they really do seem to delight in it.

So I'm really glad that that program is still going.

Uh I I think that the uh the proposed dress code is going to be a problem though, uh, as far as affordability is concerned.

Um I think it's a step in the wrong direction.

I don't think dress codes themselves are a problem.

I think maybe the school district should have a dress code, but it's very strict, and uh it cuts out jeans, uh, collarless shirts, uh, shirts with patterns.

It's going to create a hardship for a lot of people uh across the city.

Um so I'm just verbally protesting that here.

Uh I'm also verbally protesting the uh the gardening ban that the housing authority of the city of Erie has imposed upon its residents, it's poor residents.

It goes against their the housing authorities uh proposed vision and mission statement uh and is coming at a terrible time where we haven't seen it yet, but there are going to be serious problems uh with affordability coming down the pike.

Grocery issues, gas issues, what we see so far isn't really anything compared to what will happen if the uh US Iran issue continues as it is continuing and as it appears to be continuing.

Uh 30 percent of fertilizer through the Strait of Hormoes, 20 percent of oil.

This is nothing new.

Um but that's basically it.

Uh, thank you for your time.

I just wanted to point those things out in the public forum.

I'm gonna sign myself in now.

Thank you.

So this will move us into the public hearing.

We have a public hearing on the designation of two buildings for historic sites.

The former South Erie Ironworks located at 1919 Peach, and the former Erie Label Temple located at 1701 1707 state.

If anyone is going to offer testimony, could you please stand and raise your right hand and the stenographer will read you the oath?

Good evening, council.

Uh my name is Matthew Calcone.

I am the cultural resource manager for the City of Erie.

Uh we are in receipt, or we are under seat of a historic nomination for the South Erie Ironworks Company building, which is featured here on screen.

Uh I'll use this opportunity to go through some of the history and some of the findings of the different commissions that this nomination has been through.

Uh, and then it's my understanding that there are members and members of the public who wish to speak today.

So far, this application was reviewed by the Historic Review Commission.

And this is back in April 6th of this year.

They found that there was reasonable cause for this site to be considered a historic landmark, and they made a positive recommendation to you, a city council that it be declared a city historic landmark.

So too, did the Planning Commission have the opportunity to review this application.

That was also back in April of 21st of this year.

The Planning Commission reviewed this in through the lens of this established city plans.

So our comprehensive plan, the neighborhood plan, and our historic preservation plan.

And they too made a positive recommendation to you that this be declared a city historic landmark.

The building is located at 1919 Peach Street, and that is within the Sisters of St.

Joseph Neighborhood Network.

The building from above is bounded in red.

And to give you some photos, we are exclusively talking about the red brick building that is three stories high with arched windows.

I know this is part of a much larger complex that has been divided over time.

The buildings have sole ownership at this point.

To show you some architectural details of the building itself, rounded arch windows, the iron cornice, all relate back to the building's history.

What I think perhaps goes a bit unnoticed on the street is that if you are passing by on the sidewalk and you are able to see these kind of gray blocks, they are actually part of the original storefront of the building.

What you see here on left is a view that's publicly available from the street, and then on right are the cast iron columns that have been infilled over time.

This building has a very long and very complex history.

It is without question the oldest foundry here within the city.

It had its beginnings in 1858 as the Eagle Foundry, which then was bought out by a different company that renamed itself the South Erie Ironworks.

South Erie at this time was not part of the City of Erie, but was subsequently annexed in, hence the name.

Over the course of its history, although it appears as one building today, it's actually one building and then an addition that was done 20 years later.

So the first building was done in 1871, and then 20 years later in 1891, an architect was hired to present a uniform facade.

The building, unfortunately, did not serve the Erie Ironworks for very long.

I'm sorry, Erie Burial Casket Company, where caskets were manufactured, both uh the boxes themselves as well as uh the linens that lined the caskets.

Um time it was then used as a um by the Watson Motor Company, uh which used it as parking storage and uh and uh a kind of tire replacement.

Um in 1926, the entire complex burned.

Uh it was at the time uh quite the tragedy for the city of Erie because there were um gasoline trucks that were being stored in the building.

We were fortunately the Erie Fire Department was able to extinguish before it exploded and was able to save those city blocks.

In 1929, it was then sold to the uh mattress factory, which operated other building, they produced mattresses, and then through the 1930s uh to 2025, it had a varying number of uses.

Uh it was uh a roofing company, a furniture sales company, um it was uh part home for the uh central labor union and uh was also its latest iteration uh home of a printing company.

It was purchased by its current owners in December of 2025.

And here you'll see some different advertisements.

Because this was not only an industrial site, but it served as commercial storefront.

There were so many different uh industries that were selling goods and used the first floor of this building to sell.

And so what you'll see here is kind of a smattering of different advertisements for for caskets, for furniture, again for the motor company that was in store.

Um the city conducted a architectural research survey in 2025.

This building was recommended to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Um just yesterday, we found out from the state that it has officially been declared eligible to be listed on the National Register.

As I mentioned before, the uh the Historic Review Committee, or Commission rather, um, recommended that the former South Erie Ironworks Building be listed on the City of Erie's Register of Historic Places as it conveys significance through criterion C and maintains significant uh sufficient historic integrity.

Criterion C relates back to the architectural design of the building, but the story here is much richer.

Uh, and as I said before, relates back to the city's industrial heritage.

Uh the planning commission too uh provides the recommendation to you that the former South Erie Ironworks Company building be listed on the City of Erie's Register of Historic Places as its listing is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan, established neighborhood plan and historic preservation plan.

Uh that's it for me.

I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

And I know that I have one.

I just know you said uh current owner.

Who's the current owner?

The current owner who is here with us today is the uh Sisters of St.

Joseph Neighborhood Network.

Okay.

I believe their intent is to turn this into their headquarters.

Oh, nice.

Okay.

That was my my my my follow-up question because I know you said it was in the SSJ neighborhood network um roadmap, so I wanted to find out if they were the owners, but okay.

That's sounds good to me.

Thank you.

Indeed.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you.

Do we have any individuals from the um the new owners who would like to present or talk on this?

You don't have to, just if you would like to add any supplement.

I would guess we know.

I do.

I'm Heather Casper, Executive Director with Sisters of St.

Joseph Neighborhood Network.

I don't want to take a lot of time.

I know it's a long agenda.

I do want to thank Matthew so much for his work on this and Jackie Sprite too.

Um the purchase of this building was for our mission because it is a building that's been in constant use for so many years.

It's a neighborhood asset.

We did not want to see it vacant.

Also, sustainability for our organization.

We have run out of space, and we have two offices paying for two different places, dividing our staff between two places.

We really need to centrally locate.

It'll save us money.

It'll also bring bring our staff together.

So this building is perfect.

The history of we didn't even know all of this.

It's been so enriching for us to find these details and so gratifying.

And so I'm happy to answer any questions, but we are excited to do the work to move into this building.

Okay.

Do any counselors have any questions around the historic designation for Ms.

Casper?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do any counselors have any questions at all for this part?

Um just is there any public testimony for or against I don't see any hands on that, so then probably what I would do is close out the first public hearing on this property and then on the labor, is it the labor temple?

Um start that public hearing.

Okay.

So that's what we'll do.

We'll go ahead and close out this public hearing and we'll move into the second.

This is the former Erie label temple 1701, 1707 state.

Do we need to call for witnesses to sworn in on this one?

Because it's a separate public hearing.

We need to redo some testimony.

Or the swearing, I'm sorry.

Hello again.

Uh the city was also in receipt of a nomination for the former um Erie Labor Temple.

Uh very much the same as we just went through, but I will continue because this history, although tied to the last building, is very different.

Um this uh nomination has again been before the Historic Review Commission.

Um, and this was earlier uh this year in February, or I'm sorry, March.

Um the Historic Review Commission found that this there is reasonable cause for this building to be declared a historic landmark.

They also made a positive recommendation to you, a city council, that it be declared a city historic landmark.

So too was it before the Planning Commission who reviewed this application through the lens of the comprehensive plan, neighborhood plan and historic preservation plan.

They also made a positive recommendation to you, it be declared a city historic landmark.

This building is located at 1701 through 1707 State Street.

Both were informed of this nomination and were our supportive.

The resource is bounded in red.

I think what may surprise some folks is that it is not only the large three-story red brick building on left, but also the two smaller buildings on right.

They are all interconnected through the second floor.

Here's a visual from State Street and some other pictures of the building itself.

We are very fortunate, although the interior of the building is not something over which the city has jurisdiction.

The owner of the building who brought for this nomination forward was very happy to let us take images of the inside, which has a very high degree of historic integrity.

It looks very similar to when it was constructed.

Also, it's important to note what you see on right is the third floor meeting hall.

That space is currently under restoration.

Even the picture here, which is just a couple months old, is already quite dated.

They're doing quite a bit of work.

And its history is inextricably intertwined with the history of union labor here within the city of Erie.

And it is for that reason the historical overview predates the building because the history of organized labor here within the city is one that is very long.

It starts even before the 1890s, but it is important to note that during the 1890s, the Central Labor Union was formed.

And for those of you who may not be familiar with the union, it is uh it was an umbrella organization by which several individual locals would gather together under the larger umbrella of the union and come together once a month to discuss, advocate, make decisions for organized labor within the city.

Um during the early 20th century, there was a tremendous amount of discourse and uh rioting and strikes that centered around many of these different locals.

Uh unfortunately, it was a very complicated story that at the time did not work out very well for the labor organizations.

However, it did spawn the growth of labor within the city.

And it was this at this time that we see the first uh uh what they called union men elected to city council, and uh increasingly had uh a presence within not only civic discourse but also the governance of the city.

Um it was uh during this period of time that the Central Labor Union and all of those different locals moved around quite a bit.

Uh, you know, there were different labor halls, uh, they were at sometimes operating within uh former industrial buildings and hotels, and it wasn't until the 1920s that this site was acquired and that they were able to build a home of their own.

And part of the reason that it is located in this location is because it was in an area of the city that had easy access to other industries.

State Street was a main thoroughfare, but also was uh uh uh you know just adjacent to several other manufacturers, and so that the folks who were working all day would then be able to go to the union hall in the evenings and on weekends, not only to discuss important matters, but also um it was uh uh homies as a family in a civic place as well.

So, you know, the the deliberations that went on in that room would be once a month or twice a month, depending on the unions, but then they would also have you know parties for Christmas, parties for Easter, in which the entire family was invited in.

Um so it served very much uh central role, not only in labor, but also within our society.

Um the uh Central Labor Union would expand its presence, so they would acquire the buildings that were next to them in the 1950s because of the burgeoning number of uh locals that existed within the city.

If you go in there today, you get a very good sense of just how many different organizations were functioning out of this space.

Some folks have described it as a rabbin war, and because there are so many different offices, but they were all under the same roof and under the same umbrella.

The building was acquired by its current owner in uh 2013, and it has been under the process of restoration since that point, with a tremendous amount of activity going on within the past several months.

As it conveys significance through criteria A and C and maintains significant historic integrity to convey its significance.

But there are so many different stories and voices that we weren't yet able to capture.

And part of our responsibility as a city is to ensure that even though we have the nomination in front of us today, it opens a door to be able to continue to hear and listen and collect those stories to ensure that this site is accurately conveying what is uh an essential part of our social history.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have been just like the flow.

Um if there's anybody who would like to from the public come up speak first, and then council ask questions.

That way we have all of the insight we can ask any other follow-ups.

We'll just need to have you sworn in if you didn't get sworn in.

I do.

Hi everybody.

Uh my name's Dale Peters.

Uh I currently work for Julio.

Uh my last years, I worked construction all my life.

My last years of working, I worked as a laborer out of the labor union hall, right there that building.

Uh I'm a retired electrician.

Uh and I also worked for the United Steel Workers Union.

So I've been a union man all my life.

Uh this building, I've been working on it for God, 13 years.

I I work on a lot of buildings for Julio.

It's it's just a part-time thing for me because I'm retired.

I work three days a week when I want to, and you know, come and go when I want to, do what I want.

But uh that's the kind of job I guess everybody wish they had.

Uh but I've been working on this building, and uh it feels like a part of me.

Really does.

I guess you would have to understand when you work when you work a union man like I have been all my life to see a building like that start to fall apart.

You know, it breaks your heart, really does.

And uh I've been doing a lot of drywall work in that building, you know, fixing drywall and fixing things and keeping things running, and uh right now I'm I'm building a walkway through the ceiling in the hall, upstairs in the third floor.

Well, it's a walkway for Julio because he's short.

For me, it's a crawl space.

Uh but I'm building a walkway through there so you can get to the light.

I tore the ceiling down in the hall.

It was a suspended ceiling that they put up, I think, in the late 60s, early 70s.

And uh when I did, I exposed the ceiling, which is another like almost 10 feet higher than the suspended ceiling.

And in there was the uh the lights were still there from the 1930s, the late 1930s, these lights were made.

And they're still there today.

And uh I started cleaning them, you know, polishing them up and stuff, and uh trying to bring them back to life, you know.

And there's a lot of plaster work to do on the ceiling, which I'll get to.

I mean, I'm only one person, but uh I'm gonna bring this thing back to life, because it means a lot to me.

And I wish that you would put this on a historical, you know, register because uh it's a beautiful building, and I've worked on D's, you know.

D's is connected to the building, and there's a another place connected to D's.

So I've worked on all those buildings.

I've worked on a lot of buildings for Julio.

Uh but this one is special to me.

And uh, if you could see it, I know that place inside and out.

Every nook and cranny, you know.

I've been in the walls, and it really means something.

I wish you would do it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to give um testimony in support of or against?

We'll just need to get you sworn in.

I do.

Well, hi there.

Uh my name is Edward Cronz.

Uh, I am the current tenant of the Erie Labor Temple.

Uh I am a bookbinder by trade.

I do conservation restoration work, and I started a company called Erie Labor Works, because someone already has Erie Labor Temple.

And I can't find them.

But uh we we've heard testimony about uh Julio Reyes' character uh back when we had the manicor.

Uh Mr.

Falcone gave us a really good overview of the building's uh history at a high level, and uh I was really touched by Mr.

Peters' uh poignant testimony.

Um I've been watching this man work over the last couple of months as I've been setting up inside this building, and the passion and the skill that he puts into the building are incredible.

Um what I would like to talk about uh since all that other stuff has been covered, is what does this all mean?

Uh we put this building on the registry, and I'm not trying to talk you out of it.

I absolutely think this building belongs there.

Um I have a background in construction.

I had a company for a better part of 12 years with that company.

I was on both sides of the union at one point or another.

Uh I was an aircraft mechanic at Boeing.

Uh I was part of the AIM, IAM uh machinist union there, so I have a lot of respect for the union.

I also have some other opinions about unions, but they did help shape this country.

Uh, and I think it's very important.

Uh, this building has architectural features that we need to preserve.

Um there are a lot of buildings that don't necessarily deserve to be or can be uh put on the register and saved.

This building has incredible bones, it has incredible history, it has incredible people working with it, within it, uh, on it.

And buildings survive when they're populated, uh, when they're used.

Uh if they're not used, they fall apart, which is where I come in.

Uh I hope to be the next owner of the building in the next three years.

Um, and my goal is to turn it back to a civic uh function where before it was labor uh infrastructure where I'm gonna make uh creative and cultural inner infrastructure within the building.

Um being a tradesman, bookbinder, uh kind of was tickled to find out there was once a bookbinders and lithographers union within that building.

Uh with me today is Sharon Smith of Sharon Smith Metal Arts who has set up her uh Smithing studio uh within the building.

So again, yet another trade uh hand work, um and that's the kind of thing that we want to bring back into the building.

And that's the kind of thing that we want to bring back into the building.

We also have a lot of what we're calling soft socials where people from the community can come in, they can sit, read, uh, they can talk.

Uh we're gonna have low volume vinyl listening night, we're gonna have sketch night.

We're also gonna have things that we're calling a lecture brawl.

Uh you would recognize it as a good old-fashioned debate, which used to happen inside of that great hall uh in the labor union temple.

And we're gonna touch upon things that you guys probably deal with on a regular basis.

Uh who owns Erie?

Is it private or is it public?

It's you know all kinds of fun stuff, right?

Uh so I just wanted to let you know, in addition to everything that you've heard, what is currently going on, because that is what matters.

The history of this building ties into its future very nicely.

So I appreciate you taking the time to hear me out.

Uh please do vote this on to the historic register and thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else for that would like to give testimony?

Any counselors who have questions or would like to ask for any further follow-up.

Okay.

I think we can move to close this public hearing.

So we can move to close this second public hearing and let the uh co-reporter go.

And go back to public comment.

Thank you.

All right, so at this time we will go ahead and reopen public comment.

Um, as a reminder, please sign in up at the front.

We've we've changed the sign-in.

You'll have five minutes, so please pay attention to when that that timer goes off and be mindful so that we can make sure we get to everybody.

So it just needs your name and your municipality.

Thank you.

Sorry, Freddie.

My name's Freda Teffer.

I live in the city of Erie.

I'm also the proud granddaughter of the president of the Hebrew typographers union.

So glad to hear that last thing.

Um as far as the market house, the single thing that I really was the most concerned about was the 50-foot high backlit um signage, unless they've eliminated that, but uh it's like a big advertisement.

It's not something that contributes to the to the site.

I was surprised that they've already started bidding out the building that hasn't even had its waterfront conditional use permit yet.

Um it says the 80 the benches shall be ADA compliant or be adjacent to an ADA path.

I don't understand.

It's the it should be it should be compliant.

It's got nothing to do with being adjacent to an ADA path.

It should be ADA compliant, which means not a picnic bench for one thing.

And also short people should have a bench that their feet touch the ground.

There should not be dividers of those benches.

It's an anti-social thing to do that.

Um there's a lot of non-native plants that are in the landscape plan unless they've changed it.

There are, and I think I provided written documentation already to the zoning hearings board, but there's a lot of um native plants that serve all the same functions as what um they're calling for, and there are salt tolerant native plants that could do very well down there.

Um the ADA parking should also be adjacent to the walking areas.

Um what isn't addressed is there is supposed to be an overpass, it's going to be a later stage according to Pendot.

How is that?

I know it's not part of this project, but it is gonna be part of this project.

How is that overpass going to be managed?

Is it gonna be open?

Is it gonna be enclosed?

Are they going to control the hours and and who can use it?

So really there should have been a master plan with an environmental impact statement for the whole freaking waterfront.

And this is being done piecemeal by piecemeal, and I really think it's it's not being done right.

And one statement I I just found so objectional is that there was a statement, well, we were gonna have a grocery, but the country fair grocery is doing so well, we don't need it.

The country fair grocery is an absolute joke.

It's not a grocery, it's a it's a convenience store.

It's not something that uh a person on a budget could could buy food in.

So I I really I found that offensive.

And I am as as I heard Andre during the the beginning of the meeting say I'm concerned because I know that the county's on the hook for some of the debt that Erie events incurs.

And this is yet another nonprofit that won't pump any tax money back into the city.

Now I have a few other things I'll run through quickly.

11th and SAS, there's a curb cut.

Now, was it always a curb ramp installation?

Or it's on the um southwest corner, or was it started out as yet another one of um national fuels projects?

But there's not proper sidewalk closure that a person with a visual impairment would know what the hell is going on, sorry, excuse me, or that somebody coming from the north who's crossing with a visual impairment would know that there's no sidewalk for them to land on.

Once again, I would like to know there are uh over a dozen, maybe 25 cars from the buildings, the businesses across from Braybender Park, who park there, I believe, for free by a agreement with the prior city um public works director.

Why is that happening?

And there's also months and months of the national fuel contractors, trucks and their garbage piles, and we're headed into the baseball season, so I don't know when are we gonna get our park parking back.

I think that if the businesses on the other side of the street are gonna get the park there for free, they should pay to put in a sidewalk along Braymander Park.

Um, the speaking of parking, so I got notified that somebody was using my parking uh app somehow, somebody used my parking app.

And I was in Atlanta, Georgia at the time, and my car was in my driveway the whole time, and I got very unsatisfactory comments.

But in the course of talking to Christopher Friday, he said that nobody really objects to the status of the parking on State Street, and that's ridiculous.

It's non-egalitarian to have to have a an app in order to park on State Street.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And by the way, you're not asking for the phone address, it's the phone number.

This is not a good system.

Five minutes.

Five minutes.

I guess it's gonna be down and dirty.

I'm only kidding.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council.

I'm Rich Gorski, live at 1042 East 33rd Street, been a resident of my life, resident of Erie 70 years.

Live the good old days.

Uh it was great growing up in his family, growing up in the city and raising a family.

But things have changed.

My youth and long bond hair are gone forever.

Now I'm a grandpa with gray hair.

No, no problems.

Okay, on the serious side, cities financial issues, taxes, surcharges and fees.

I think we've had enough, okay.

Uh we don't need it, we can't afford it in a tax tsunami is coming, okay?

We don't need it.

Millions of dollars in property tax the city gets a million dollars from the RS uh the rescue plan, million dollars from the water sale.

That's a lot of money.

A few million dollars from the storm store fee, which we all know is a backdoor tax, few probably a few million dollars left in a rainy day fund, okay.

City housing money, franchise money, money's from census, which is probably gonna come to end, grant money, city income income tax money.

On top of that, stock market.

The last four years, Shell was mayor.

He's he's a vice president of a financial institution.

Okay, the last four years, the SP was up 55%.

Dow Jones was up 39%.

NASDAQ was up 46%.

The city should have been making money on money, you know.

But the city doesn't really have a revenue problem, they got a spending problem, okay.

Uh and the people can't can't afford it, like the last gentleman spoke.

Times are tough out there.

You know, if our seniors it used to be uh uh uh prescription drugs and heating a house, now now they're throwing price of gasoline and a price of food.

Enough's enough, okay.

Uh and a tax tsunami is coming.

We all know what a tsunami is, it's a tidal wave, okay?

So I'm talking about a tax title wave.

It happens about every 10 years.

We get a reassessment.

It the buzz is already in the courthouse, and they're talking about the reassessment.

It happens every 10 years, it's not mandated by law, but it's coming, okay.

And the problem with that is in the last three or four years, uh let me read this increase in uh uh tariffs, inflation, and COVID.

Price of housing, the price of business is skyrocketing, okay?

And a quote from Nick Scott is the higher the assessment, the higher taxes.

So it's coming, it's only a matter of time, you know.

So what I'm trying to say is you don't need to raise taxes now, because if you raise them, then the county's gonna raise them, and the school district's gonna raise them, then they're gonna throw the reassessment in our face.

And it's just gonna do a double jab to us, you know.

You gotta have a little reprieve, a little consideration.

Because remember, the mayor and you people, you got a fiduciary responsibility to be fiscally responsible for the taxpayers' money, okay?

That's your job.

You represent the people of Erie, you know.

And I know it costs money to run a government, but you know, it's gotta stop somewhere, you know.

Uh once again, like I said, I don't think we got a revenue problem at this point, we got a spending problem at this point, you know.

And then and then you the city can also, but the mayor of Shamber pays 180,000 for a consulting firm, which the new mayor is working into, okay, to find out about the city's budget, okay.

And the biggest problem was it was paying benefits because 90% of the budget is paying benefits for city employees, okay?

And so what's he do?

Hire 47 more people, just put gas on the fire, okay.

So I'm glad when she said she questions hiring one more person.

You know, you gotta look at that.

You gotta look at the big picture, you know.

You can't build a city uh on on raising taxes, surcharge, and fees.

We got a big problem in the city.

That's old people are dying, okay?

And young people are leaving.

What's gonna happen?

How can you build a city?

You know?

So uh like I said, I grew up in a city, seven years.

It was a great city to grow up in or working and raise a family.

But you know, things change, and and I can accept that.

But you know, all I can say in closing is you gotta be a little concerned about about the people who live here, you know, because we pay the freight, we pay the city workers, we pay their benefits, pay the county workers, we pay the benefits, we pay the school teachers, we pay their benefits, you know.

So you know, look at the big picture, you know.

And the saddest thing about living in a city that I've seen in seven years is the youth are leaving.

My grandkids graduate, they probably can be in here, you know.

And that, you know, because when I grew up, it was all about the love of family and friends.

Now it's all about love and money.

You know, it's sad what it is, what it is.

So okay, now any questions to me.

No, we don't use it quick enough.

Yeah, you did great, actually.

So beer three.

We'll see you next month.

Thank you.

Um, hello, Martha Watchu, City of Erie.

Um thank you all for sitting up here and doing what you do.

I often feel bad for you because you are blamed for a whole community's problems.

Someone reframed on the internet the other day that we don't actually have a cost of living crisis, we have a cost of greed crisis.

This city has a lot of money.

Um I want to celebrate Mr.

Cooley's event this past Sunday.

He hosted a intersectional town hall down at 1020 collective, and there were a lot of stories that stood out to me.

But one I'm one that I'm gonna raise up today was raised by Miss Vanna Wilson, who also premiered her um uh debut documentary on the population, the client in Erie.

And one of her central points is she is a young woman who grew up and went to the school district here in Erie, and she participated in the CNA program.

Um, but the wages for CNAs in our community are slave poverty wages.

Who's paying those wages?

It's a lot of the multi-million dollar billion dollar businesses in this community.

The city being broke is partly, yes, we have a lot of large nonprofits in our community that don't pay taxes that you as city council and the executive don't have the power to tax them for, but they're not paying wages that are livable, and they're also not paying their taxes.

So something's gotta give.

Our community needs more, we should demand more.

And on the state level, um, I have actually a little patience for us saying we don't deserve more as a community.

I know we're not the same place, I know we're not the same kind of government, but I just watched what one or two weeks ago.

New York City balanced their budget without cutting public services and even adding free child care services.

What we have is a great problem in this state and in this community.

So when I hear there's fair criticism about uniforms and what's gonna happen to parents affording that.

That's a child of Catholic school.

Um I know it's costly, but what would it look like for again an or UPMC to fund uniforms to fund the school supplies that the teachers are paying for?

I rather see them pay taxes, but there are a lot of things in this community that people are selling out of pocket for that these corporations are not paying their fair share to provide for.

You might publicly think that I'm in opposition to you, but ultimately I'm about securing and stabilizing housing in this community.

Not everyone wants to be a homeowner in his community, so we do need a stable renting base.

There are challenges to landlords in our community.

Something that came up last night was the requirement that is not observed that landlords should provide trash receptacles for their tenants.

One of the landlords I spoke to last night said if they were to invest in that, that would cost them $5,000 that they could be spending on a water furnace or a water heater.

Again, what would it look like for UPMC to be paying your taxes for you to maybe as a city provide those trash receptacles or for them to do a pilot where they pay for things like uh roofing repairs, foundation repairs, pest control.

Um I'm using this platform today to say again, we need to be really aggressive with the state.

Um, they need to be closing the tax loopholes that a lot of these corporations are getting away with.

They need to be taxing the wealthiest in our state off of their capital gains, not necessarily what's coming out of their pocket, but what they're making off the stock market, as to what this gentleman just said.

And lastly, the community wants to be engaged and participate in the decision making of our future.

So between myself at Erie County United, Mr.

Cooley, the Erie Spiritual Coalition, and a wealth of coalition, sorry, and a wealth of other community organizations, we want to put on those events.

We want to engage the community.

We are public actors asking people to engage with us, but it's actually frustrating that we as common citizens are often coming up here, and we're not seeing the folks at Scott Enterprises coming here and sharing their plans or other community corporations sharing their plans.

They should come here to these council meetings just like we do and share what they want for the community and what they need to contribute.

Um they're not paying their taxes as nonprofits.

It's not enough for you to say that yes, we're educating people in our communities, therefore we should maintain our status.

How many students from the Erie School District are going through those programs?

How many students from the school district are going through those problems, programs, getting employed and staying our community?

And then lastly, when it comes to our tax base, um, Miss Elizabeth earlier said to consider taking uh pay cuts to show goodwill.

I would argue that our law enforcement are some of the highest starting wages in our community, and they are not mandated to live here.

They should be mandated to live here, and if anyone needs to take a pay cut for it, it should probably be considering them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, uh Cindy Triver, um born and raised in Erie, now live in Edinburgh.

Um, first of all, Dr.

Titus, I just want to commend you on your integrity for the previous um conversation about having a presentation on re-entry.

I I I just thank you.

Um at the last city council meeting when asked about the funding for this re-entry program that was forcibly and suspiciously taken from an independent nonprofit, Mayor Devlin said that the city has historically paid for a caseworker from for the re-entry program out of CDBG dollars, and that has been done for many, many years, and this this year they were asked to not send the money to the Y, but to send it to the county and to move our funds, which we agreed to, and then fund a position and a half.

Uh council was told that they would be approving and uh aware or made aware of that information in June, and I guess maybe now July.

Um I'm curious as to how many justice-involved persons will be affected by the inadequate or non-existent services by that time.

I would like for the record to inquire as to whom did the asking?

Who asked for the money to be moved?

When was this ask made?

What process was followed in requesting this reallocation?

What research was done to determine the continued financial commitment and community support of a new bureau in probation and parole department affiliated with the gun task force participants that killed Marcello last summer?

I'm confident that those who love him would not want their tax dollars invested in a risk like that.

Where is the paper documenting this ask?

Should we find more right-to-no requests?

Should we seek independent counsel?

Once taxpayer dollars are being paid or being used to operate a public program, counties and cities are expected to follow some type of transparent procurement process before transferring funds or programs or creating programs under other entities.

That's a request for proposal, request for uh applications.

This gives qualified organizations an opportunity to apply, outline how they would run the program, provide budget staffing plans, outcomes.

It's meant to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability with public funds.

If a county funded program was closed and then essentially replaced or transferred to another county agency program using public dollars, we have a right to ask.

Where was the RFP?

Where was the RFA?

Were other qualified providers given an opportunity to bid?

Was city council aware and approving of this transition?

Was there documentation explaining the competitive procurement and why it was bypassed?

Even when our local government technically has some flexibility, there are best practices because it protects taxpayer dollars and prevents favoritism and nepotism.

This is law.

This is outlined in the Pennsylvania Procurement Code, Title 62, the County Code, Title 16, County Procurement Policies and Administrative Codes, Federal Grant Requirements.

What makes this especially concerning is that we talk about that this sum of this money that we are paying for this reentry program, uh, one and a half staffing is actually from CDBG funds.

That's federal money.

CDBG funding comes with federal compliance requirements tied to HUD, which generally emphasize open and fair competition, documentation, conflict of interest protection, and proper procurement procedures.

So if ECRSSA was closed and the programming funding was essentially moved and shifted without a public RFP RFP, without a formal application process, without open bidding, without any justification, we have a much bigger problem and continued issues with transparencies that are not being acknowledged.

There was no bid.

There was no public process.

The money was moved.

We don't know who asked, we don't know when it was moved, how it was moved, it wasn't documented, and it's done with federal money.

Federal money.

This is so bad.

Um Mayor Devlin, you you publicly campaigned on transparency and accountability in government.

Uh, when decisions involving publicly funded programming occur without a clearly visible public process, it raises concerns and questions from the community.

At the very least, our laws and best practices dictate that the council should have been involved with the submission of an ordinance.

The most detailed would have occurred a notice of intent to request to release the funds.

Um, much like you did in October 2025.

Uh, time for public comment, review of objections, really to release of funds.

There would have been an entire process that should have occurred when you move money that is especially federally oriented.

My concern is the relocation of and moving of this money and funding of additional jobs combined with the creation of a new bureau is being done without checks and balances.

Is it even legal?

The people who were here earlier said that they don't even have uh statistics on recidivism or any of the metrics.

You guys all got those.

I emailed those to you.

You have them.

So I just want to ask if uh moving this forward makes you complicit should another person be involved in a beating or a shooting this summer.

Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Deontay Quilly, uh lifelong Erie resident.

And I have a a few things to say.

Um, I was up here two weeks ago, and I was speaking for my concerns for the lack of consideration for the black community, and it wasn't just a SPCP thing or whatever the case may be.

Um what I will say is after I made my statement, I did see the mayor uh meeting with Mr.

Crenshaw, and thank you for that because Mr.

Crenshaw has been being railroaded in this city for for years.

Um he's been offering affordable housing regardless of the opinions of people have about him, but he's been providing housing for people, affordable housing within our area community, specifically on the east side.

So thank you for acknowledging that and recognizing that.

But another point that I wanted to bring up is, and Marty brought it up.

We recently had a town hall, intersectionality.

And it was very strategically planned.

This is not the first and first time that we had.

The first one time we had when I actually invited uh Chuck Nelson to be uh a panelist.

He was a city council person before, and at that time, only one person from city council showed up to, I guess, support their calling or to hear what the community had to say, which concerns me is because when city council people are speaking to the community, why aren't other council people showing up?

Um there's only two new faces up there from the last time, and none of you all showed up.

Um I also asked the mayor, hey, why don't you come walk in some of the neighborhoods?

We've been seeing you all on social media, taking pictures, going to people's organizations and and stuff like that, but when we talked about intersectionality, and we're talking about the people in our our community, there was no presence from our mayor.

There was no presence from the majority of our of our council, and that wasn't just about black people, which makes me makes me wonder like are we being heard or do we have to be some type of organization?

Do we have to actually have title?

Do I have to cut my hair and shave my beard for people to say, hey, I can take you seriously?

You know what I mean?

Because even like right now, when other people were talking, they had your full attention.

As I'm talking, I don't have any attention from you.

But that's okay because it shows the disregard for us as people.

Because there was a point in time when you were running for mayor, the first town hall you showed up.

When you were running for mayor, you were all in our community.

Now that you are the mayor, you and I have had conversation.

I have I have yet to hear from you.

The last message actually sent to you is happy birthday.

Nothing from that.

So it makes me wonder like, were you coming into our community to say these things so that you can get into this position?

And now it's just behind the scenes conversations, because we are not having behind the conversation uh behind the scenes conversations about the advancement of black people.

And I also want to say another thing.

When you all are making phone calls to talk to different people and organizations as far as, well, hey, what can we do?

How do we help black people?

How can we speak up for black people?

Believe it or not, those phone calls come back to me.

So when you're calling organization head leaders and you're talking to people who who are executive directors, my phone rings, and they're saying, hey, Deontay, I got a phone call from this person.

What should we do?

So I'm not exactly sure why is it that, like Marty said, when the community wants to have concerns and speak, why is it that we only have to come here?

When it we we're gonna meet you where you are.

So is it do we have to have a hundred black people come down here and stand at this podium for five minutes and hold you guys in here for eight hours for you all to start taking us into consideration?

Like we're talking about the water, we're talking about EDDC.

Again, what about the east side, the upper parts, the poor areas of Erie, Pennsylvania?

And it seems as though the conversation is speaking on deaf ears, and I'm not coming down here to ask for permission.

I could care less if you show up or not.

It's to the point now to where we're not asking for permission, we're making things happen.

If we have to go outside of this city to get funds, if we have to go outside of the city to get resources, we're gonna do that.

But it gets to a point in time where you see there's a population of people who are tired, who feel as though they are not being represented, who feels though they're not being considered or talking to, and it's like, okay, maybe later, because we gotta talk about Nick Scott, maybe later, we got to talk about EDDC, maybe later we got to talk about early events.

When do we start talking about the East Side and a strategic plan for the East Side outside of Erie Insurance?

Outside of the Hemet Health Foundation, what about the actual people who care?

Because the council is responsible for the infrastructure, but you are responsible for the people.

So when you have a hundred and twenty people, very diverse crowd talking about their concerns and speaking to their concerns, one representative coming from the organization is not enough.

Because anywhere else there's the I don't know her name, there's the camera lady shows up.

You're you're in your own Facebook taking pictures.

You were just at the apartment association, and then you were somewhere else.

I'm not saying that you need to make it your business to come to events that I host, but when black people, poor black people, not the executive directors, not the millionaires, when poor black people are asking for help, you're not showing up, at least for the conversations that I'm having.

And people are reaching out to me and saying, Yo, you was doing all of that pushing for Dara, you're doing we're your girl at now.

And it's crazy that people are coming at me for the lack of concern that it seems as though you have for our community, and it doesn't sit well with me.

So can we get to a point to where we start talking to people who are boots on the ground in the community doing work and stop looking for the aesthetically pleasing people because I'm not shaving my beard, I'm not cutting my hair, and I'm not going anywhere.

I'm gonna be here representing Erie for my entire life, and I'm gonna be speaking up for black people until the day that I die.

So y'all gonna either have to deal with me or get rid of me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, the body language and expressions on some of your faces, including the mayor here, um, who was very that was uh very disturbing to me to see because this is a space um where community voices should be heard and listened to, and that should be felt by everybody in this room, not just by the black community, although I'm sure he did not feel heard in that because I watched as your head shook, your eyes rolled, um you weren't looking at him in his direction, even that's very disappointing to see, especially as somebody that rallied for you and that campaigned for you through Erie County United.

Um, so I would just like to point that out because that that behavior is noticed and noted and will be addressed in the future.

Thank you.

My name is Ed Kilsall, live in the city of Erie.

I'd like to speak on the agenda and maybe a clarification to start with.

Under uh old business on the second page where it starts with the uh market house down on the bay front, there are conditions that are listed, and then at the end of that, there are other recommendations.

Is that just for that's the solicitor?

Is that just for the market house, or is that going to be a change in the complete zoning?

So I know you don't answer questions that way, but it's something I want to speak on, and if that could be answered, I I then have a request.

It's it's not a change of the zoning pardon.

It's not a change of the zoning.

This is the conditions for this.

It's this is the waterfront conditional use?

So these are related to that, not related to the entire zoning.

This will be a complete change.

I didn't understand it.

It's just for the market house.

It's just for the market.

This is just for the market house.

Okay.

Um, then I'll go on.

I would like to um ask then for an amendment to be considered as one of the conditions, and then I would ask council at a future time to consider it for the complete city zoning because it affects it to the to no end.

Um, and that would be you have eight conditions, I believe, for the market house.

My ninth one would be an addition, it would say that all developers that require free public amenities to be completed at the end of their construction and before an occupancy permit is granted.

And the reason for that, it's taken one development back a number of years ago, 20 years to be completed, and that was Liberty Park, which some of you probably were young and maybe not even born back then when that took place.

But I thought uh that it could easily call the market house if they have public amenities that they're going to consider that they be completed before occupancy takes place.

I know we have a hundred and ten percent bond issues that are put on these developments, and that was done in case a development would fail, you at least have 10% more to finish it up in the future years because of inflation.

So some of these should be considered as a whole change in the zoning to for other developers to consider.

So I thank you.

My name is Henry.

I live in the city of Erie.

Now, if my memory serves me correctly, I believe 25 about 25 percent of all people who live in the city of Erie are below the poverty line.

And you know, I I even think now it's like you know, I think the poverty line is like 17,000 dollars for an individual or like 19,000 dollars for an individual.

I'm like I don't even know how people live on double that or even uh 250 percent of that, you know.

And one of the speakers earlier was talking about how we need to be getting the wealthy to be paying their fair share in taxes, and I just recall when there was Erie Day down in Harrisburg.

Was there pressure on state leaders to you know find the will to tax wealthy people in Pennsylvania more?

Are you working with your city part other city partners in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Altoonis, Granton, to try to organize together to maybe have the state of Pennsylvania authorize cities and other municipalities to tax these people more to get around all of these legal loopholes that people have?

You know, someone was speaking.

I mean, I think believe it was Mr.

Cooley who was talking about uh you know photo ops and everything, you know.

I saw the photo ops from Erie Day down in Harrisburg.

Where is the pressure from the city here to demand more from the state partners about getting the funding?

You know, we're talking about how we don't have funding for this.

Who we don't have funding for that.

We have to get rid of some fire admin.

We have to get, you know, consider cutting, you know, other contracts and this of that nature.

You know, you know, we have state partners that are supposed to be helping the city with all of these funding issues.

I mean, it's not the federal government's already abandoned us, so it looks like we have the the state left at this point.

So I mean, we're talking about a cost of living crisis that is out of control.

And we're here, we're the city even is is experiencing a cost of living crisis, it sounds like from a government perspective.

So I mean, are you guys demanding enough from state partners?

Are you guys demanding enough from federal partners?

Because it obviously sounds like there isn't.

And the wealthy, it you know, they basically own Washington.

I mean, they practically own Harrisburg, and you know, I walk up and down State, and I think Erie Insurance owns, I don't know how many square miles at this point, you know, and you know UPMC and the Scots and the white lodging down in the Bayfront.

I mean, it's honestly kind of gross how much space they can occupy while there are homeowners and renters on the lower east side that have to wonder am I gonna be buying, you know, chicken from a can or actual chicken?

Because I have to decide between nutrients and just being able to eat in general.

And it's honestly kind of sick to watch, you know, some people here be dismissive, and some people here not pay attention to those that have real concerns here, and I just really hope that this city, the counselors, the the administration is really using every tool in their disposal because when I look in these meetings, when I look at these hearings, the priorities all seem to be on oh, what are the wealthy gonna bring to this city and to this county as well?

And I mean, do we not forget that the 100,000 people who live in the city are is what is actually producing the value here in this city?

It's not the people who just simply own the land.

It is the people who actually work and live here that are providing the the productivity necessary to facilitate all the nice things about the city of Erie, whether it's the nurses in the hospital, the bartenders down here on State Street.

I mean, it's it's it's all of the working people here.

And I'm just witnessing every time I'm in one of these meetings that they're happy to say yeah, let's just say yes to every single contract with the private uh with private developers and private enterprises.

But you know, I mean, are where is the direct funding that's going to the streets here?

You know, I mean, we're at a construction, we're in construction season right now, and you know, it just sounds like we're letting all these private developers, these private contractors kind of do whatever, and there's no accountability for anything.

You know, I mean, don't give me don't even give me started on periconstruction, but please consider your priorities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Hi, my name is Eric Peterson.

I live in Milk Creek.

Um I was mainly gonna save what I wanted to say for county, but since a lot of other people have brought it up, you know, I really didn't like those that eerie day in Harrisburg.

We saw over and over again as people who say they're fighting for the community who never seem to show up, are pushing for the things that will help them, not actually helping the community.

I mean, I've looked at the infinite gentrification playbook.

It puts out a bunch of different budgets for market rate housing that is totally unaffordable.

I'm in that under 17,000.

I'm on disability, and I worry about how I'm going to be able to live in this area in the future.

And when I saw my county executive talking, you know, working with the community and then naming off all these community development corporations that seems like their only goal is to build infrastructure for the rich just to move in on our dime and then not provide anything.

You know, we I it was just a corporate lobbying event.

I mean, there were photo ops with the head of an insurance company.

Are we actually thinking that this these people have our best interests in heart?

You know, I just want to see people actually coming to the community and talking about the issues.

Um I would love to see more people show up, uh, especially for events Mr.

Cooley's having that have been uh so important for our community, which I sadly wasn't there, but I did watch it online.

So that is all I have to say.

I'll sign this and uh be on my way.

Is there anybody else that would like to speak?

Anyone else that would like to speak?

I'm gonna sign in first.

Uh I'm Cole Shenley, I live in the city of Erie.

I'll try to be sweeter to you than my comrades are have been.

Uh I really know that I know this council and I know the mayor care a lot about the future of the city, and we've heard a lot about the hard choices that maybe need to be made for the financial future of this city.

One thing I want you to consider is that uh we need a higher population for a larger tax base.

We've heard this over and over again.

Uh for as long as I've been coming to city council meetings, uh, which is going on like a decade or so, uh heard the previous mayor and you know, Mayor Devlin talk about we need more people to live here.

We need uh a bigger tax base because unfortunately, the we worry about the shrinking of this the city population and thus uh the burden that gets placed on the average working person.

Uh and I think the kinds of people that we're hoping that will move here, we rely so heavily on our our new American population that comes in and the beauty that they bring uh every time a new immigrant family comes in.

But they're poor people, and so many of our people that live here live below the poverty line.

And I what I worry about is that what the the city is going to do is deep cuts to services and austerity at a time when your average working file needs so much more.

When we're seeing corruption at the highest levels from the federal government, and we're seeing the president of the United States do things like have a 1.7 million dollars billion dollar budget for the people that he likes and his followers and his supporters, and none of that is going to come to the people of Erie.

Uh, I guess unless maybe you're one of his MAGA fans, maybe not even then.

Uh what are we doing for the poorest that live here?

And I really want you to consider that in everything that you do.

Because I can tell you that uh our state senator Dan Laughlin has gone on Facebook and made it very clear that he will be pushing you to make the deepest cuts possible to your budget.

He talks very explicitly about uh breaking the firefighters union uh and making sure that we are firing a bunch of firefighters.

And I that sounded sick to me, but he's made it very clear he wants that.

And I know that he is a state senator, and even though he's a Republican, he will put that pressure on you as an elected official.

I will I hope that you don't heed that, and I hope that you really fight for the poorest people in this city.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Do we have any other resident who would like to speak?

Anyone else who would like to speak?

Anyone else who would like to speak?

We'll go ahead and close public comment then.

It was a little confusing, missing some of the information in past meetings, so we're trying to make the clerks.

No problem, thank you.

Thank you.

Ordinances for final passage.

Council file number 16605, official ordinance 26, 2026, and ordinance appropriating the sum of 500,000 from unappropriated fund balance and the paving and sewer revenue fund for the expenditure thereof.

Funds will be used for the 2026 streets paving streets paving.

Sponsored by Councilmember Truth, seconded by Councilmember Horton.

The council file ordinance 16605, and now known as the Fishi File Ordinance 26, 2026, be finally passed by City Council.

Members Brzezinski.

Yes.

Flores.

Yes.

Horton.

Yes.

Hole.

Yes.

Shaf.

Yes.

Mr.

Troop is left.

And Titus.

Yes.

City Council pass official file ordinance 26 2026.

Finally by Yay 6 NA Zero.

Councilfile number 16606, official ordinance 27, 2026.

An ordinance appropriating a sum of $1 million from unappropriated fund balance in the liquid fuels fund for the expenditure thereof.

These funds will be used for the 2026 streets paving and street lighting traffic signals.

Sponsored by Councilmember Troops, seconded by Councilmember Horton.

The Council file number 16606 and now known as official file ordinance 27 2026 be finally passed by City Council.

Members Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores.

Yes.

Horton.

Yes.

Yes.

Shaw.

Yes.

Titus.

Yes.

City Council pass official file ordinance 27 2026 by Yay 6-NAZE.

Councilfile number 16607, official ordinance 28-2026.

An ordinance appropriating a sum of $746,320.44 cents from unappropriated and anticipated revenue to provide for the expenditure thereof for the construction phase of the 2025 Green Light Go Funding Program West 12th and Pittsburgh Avenue Signal Upgrades Project.

Sponsored by Councilmember Troops, seconded by Councilmember Horton.

The Councilfile Ordinance 16607 and now known as Official File Ordinance 28 2026 be finally passed by City Council.

Members of Brzezinski.

Yes.

Flores.

Yes.

Horton.

Yes.

Pull.

Yes.

Shaw.

Yes.

Titus.

Yes.

City Council pass official file ordinance 28 2026.

Finally by Yay 6NA Zero.

Council file number 16608.

Official ordinance 292026.

An ordinance appropriating a sum of 205,474 from unappropriated and unanticipated revenue for the expenditure thereof.

The funds are granted from the Pennsylvania DCED local share account to purchase a screener machine for the Bureau of Streets.

Sponsored by Councilmember Troop.

Seconded by Councilmember Horton.

The Council File Ordinance Number 16608 and now known as Official File Ordinance 29 2026.

Be finally passed by City Council.

Members of Brzezinski.

Yes.

Flores.

Yes.

Horton.

Yes.

Yes.

Shaw.

Yes.

Titus.

Yes.

City Council pass official file ordinance 29 2026.

Finally by Yay 6 Nay Zero.

Ordinances for first reading.

Councilfile number 16609 and ordinance amending ordinance number 26 1958.

The traffic code of the city of Erie by the installation of stop signs at three intersections.

Number one, McCarter Avenue in Pennsylvania stopping at McCarter.

Number two, Atkins Street and Birch Court, stopping on Birch Court.

And number three, West 39th Street and Fruit Street stopping on Fruit Street.

Sponsored by Councilmember Troops, seconded by Councilmember Horton.

The Councilfile Ordinance 16609 haven't been read is hereby adopted on first reading by City Council.

Members Brzezinski.

Yes.

Flores.

Yes.

Horton.

Yes.

Pull.

Yes.

Shaw.

Yes.

Titus.

Yes.

City Council read and adopt Council File Ordinance 16609 by YAS 6NA on first reading.

Councilfile number 16610.

An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Erie.

The city determining to incur lease rental debt evidenced by the guaranteed revenue bond and the maximum principal amount of $2,784,063 to be authorized and issued by the Erie City Water Authority in connection with the construction alteration and improvements to the public water distribution facilities in and about this city, including but not limited to the customer side, galvanized service line replacement project, phase five, and paying related costs, fees, and expenses, specifying the realistic useful life of the project, authorizing and directing appropriate officers of the city to take certain actions and to execute certain documents, including a guarantee agreement between the city as guarantor and the Erie City Water Authority.

thousand sixty-three dollars to be authorized and issued by the Erie City Water Authority in connection with the construction alteration and improvements to the public water distribution facilities in and about this city including but not limited to the customer side galvanized service line replacement project phase five and paying related costs fees and expenses specifying the realistic useful life of the project authorizing and directing appropriate officers of the city to take certain actions and to execute certain documents including a guarantee agreement between the city as guarantor and the Erie City Water Authority and the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority approving the form maximum guarantee and amounts and sources of payment of the guarantee agreement creating a sinking fund in connection with such guarantee obligations and appointing a sinking fund depository and providing for the repeal of all inconsistent ordinances or parts of ordinances sponsored by councilmember shoff second by council member Brzezinski the council file ordinance 16610 haven't been read as hereby adopted on first reading by city council members Brzezinski Flores yes Horton yes Shaw yes yes City Council read and adopt Council file ordinance 16610 by Yay 6 nay zero on first reading council file number 1661 an ordinance of the city council of the city of Erie that city determining to incur lease rental debt evidenced by the guaranteed revenue bond and the maximum principal amount of eight million dollars to be authorized and issued by Erie City Water Authority in connection with the construction alteration and improvements to the public water distribution facilities in and about the city including but not limited to the West 12th Street maintenance facility renovation and distribution systematic financing profile and paying related costs, fees and expenses specifying the realistic useful life of the project authorizing and directing appropriate officers of the city to take certain actions and to execute certain documents including a guarantee agreement between the city as guarantor and the Erie City Water Authority and the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority approving the form maximum guaranteed amounts and sources of payment of the guarantee agreement creating a sinking fund in connection with such guarantee obligations and appointing a sinking fund depository and providing for the repeal of all inconsistent ordinances or parts of ordinances sponsored by councilmember schaffe seconded by councilmember Brzezinski the council ordinance 1661 haven't been read is hereby adopted on first reading by city council members Brzezinski Flores yes Horton yes Shaw yes Titus yes City Council read and adopt council file ordinance 1661 by Yay 6 nay zero on first reading okay we go forward with old business we've done the public hearing we go on to old business number two a resolution pursuant to Article 7 of the revised zoning ordinance 80 2005 and a public hearing held by Erie City Council on Wednesday May 6th at approximately 930 a.m in council chambers 626 State Street request to designate the former Erie Manicor Club located at 1607 State Street as a historic building and site be hereby approved and authorizing and directing the city solicitor to prepare an ordinance to amend the zoning map to reflect such designation discussion yeah Ms.

President yes could you explain to the folks who everybody knows that this doesn't mean that these buildings are not going to be taxed anymore because they are historic buildings.

Is that the truth or are we taking them off the roof the roster I don't think that they become a nonprofit building they become a historic building that's what I'm trying to make sure folks are confused out there.

And it's uh why are we doing it I guess is what the folks want to know you know they still have to pay taxes they uh can apply for federal money for grants to secure their building for longer purposes to come so if it just sits and they're doing it out of their own pocket it's very costly but um providing um historic not just for repurposing the building and not just trying to get grants but it's it's about our history it's about um knowing the story and moving forward with the story and architectural there's so many components to architecture that we don't get in buildings nowadays um and I would I would just like to um this is why we had the the hearing I think I would like to bring us back to the I think the very thorough presentation done by Mr.

And architectural, there's so many components to architecture that we don't get in buildings nowadays.

And I would I would just like to this is why we had the hearing.

I think I would like to bring us back to the I think the very thorough presentation done by Mr.

Falcone on just the process, why we're doing it and the different designations as to why it went through.

Um, just to kind of re-reiterate with Councillor Schaff had said that this does open up a venue of funding and opportunity, but more importantly, um keeps them on a register, and so it doesn't take them off of a tax base, but it does open up other funding avenues for these buildings.

Most important to taxpayers that it's not coming out of our pockets.

Okay.

I think that needs to be out there for everybody to understand.

Thank you.

Go ahead and call for the vote on that.

Councilmember Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores?

Yes.

Horton.

Yes.

Poll?

Yes.

Shaw.

Yes.

Titus.

Yes.

Resolution passes Yay 6 NA 0.

Okay, we have old business number three.

A resolution of the Council of the City of Erie regarding request for approval of a waterfront conditional use for a new two-story commercial building, commonly known as the Market House, submitted by Piper O'Brien Air Architects Limited on behalf of the Erie County Convention Center Authority and pursuant to Section 306 of zoning ordinance, ordinance number 80, 2005 as amended, is hereby approved with the listed conditions.

Number one, the developers and/or owners of record shall maintain open space, which contains green space that satisfies all of the all of the following criteria.

A shall consist of living landscape material, including grass, ground cover, planting, shrubs, and/or trees consistent with general landscaping criteria set for in section 306.5, and landscaping shall include regionally native planting materials where reasonable and b that impervious services shall not constitute more than 40% of any qualifying open space area, and such impervious surfaces shall be limited to walkways, paths, and bench pads serving towards public use of the space.

And number two, further, the following shall not count towards the open space calculation under these conditions, parking lots enclosed or screened areas from public view, rooftop amenities not accessible from grade vehicular use areas, but excluding emergently emergency vehicles access any areas subject to permanent fee-based access or private reservation and/or mandatory public access consistent with section 306.1.

Number three, further the developers and or owners of record shall make reasonable efforts to incorporate bird and wildlife sensitive measures intended to support the safety of birds and or migratory species.

Number four, further developers and or owners of record shall design, construct, and maintain the site to be welcoming, publicly accessible, and harmonious in character, and shall avoid physical barriers, design features, or site elements that would reasonably discourage public entry, pedestrian activity or engagement by citizens and business invitees.

Number five, further developers and or owners of record shall install exterior lighting along public access ways consistent with Section 306.2D, and that all light fixtures shall be hooded or shielded to direct light downward and shall not constitute unreasonable glare, defined as light perceptible at ground level beyond a reasonable distance and or the surface of the bay.

Number six, further, the developers and or owners of record shall install or maintain not less than eight public benches per acre pursuant to the following conditions.

A the design design standards of the public benches shall be constructed of weather-resistant materials consistent with section 306.2D and 306.5B shall be securely anchored to prevent displacement or removal, shall comply with ADA accessibility or be adjacent to an ADA accessible path, and shall bear no commercial advertising consistent with Section 306.2H, but excluding donor plaques not to exceed a maximum size of six by twelve inches.

And B, the owners of record shall be responsible for all maintenance costs, including reasonable cleanliness, regular repairs, and or replacement of structurally unsound benches within a reasonable amount of time.

Number seven, further the developers and owners of record shall apply for a zoning variance if necessary regarding the proposed signage of the market house pursuant to section 303 of the zoning code.

Number eight, further the developers and or owners of record shall comply with all policies and procedures above to the extent not otherwise inconsistent with federal law, Pennsylvania law, City of Erie ordinances, and or any other law applicable to design construction and maintenance of the market house, including without limitation, ADA compliance.

Discussion.

Could you repeat that?

Discussion from anybody?

I guess I just would like clarification on reasonable distance and reasonable condition.

Like what's the definition of reasonable for the record?

Which section specifically?

Um I see on five it says uh level beyond a reasonable distance, and then there's another reasonable.

Oh, I think the reasonable distance for the lights is that the goal the goal for this provision was kind of in line with the public access and the safety aspect.

So I think if you're down there at night after the sun is gone down, you want the lights spaced so that you can see going forward, but not necessarily having too close together that you can't see.

So I think I left the the word reasonable in that point would lead it would leave flexibility for the developer or the architect to make sure that the lights are spaced appropriately to comply with the conditions about making sure there's public access and the safety part of it.

And then regular repairs andor never no, never mind.

I thought I seen reasonable again.

I thought I seen it twice, so my fault so Mr.

Kissel presented to us this evening about um the public access and the things that we wanted to make sure that um the facility doesn't open until they've met the public requirements and not to do it 20 years later, like what happened to a different project.

So um, I mean the public access part, like we we kind of discussed this a little bit in caucus.

So the I it's in section you guys are debating this over Section 306 of the zoning code.

Section 306, I I believe it's the it's 306.01 for for the waterfront conditional use is that public access is supposed to be maintained by any of the developers down there.

So that's paramount number one.

So the way I when I was looking at Mr.

Kissle's note that he that we got, it's in my mind they have to comply with that anyway.

So to add an extra condition is I believe unnecessary.

So I'm not saying that is for or against, but just that's you're 19, 22 in any way.

We're we're killing the horse, and he's dead already.

Let's just vote.

Well, the question dealt with the public access.

That's already included in the zoning code, though.

So I believe that as long as that's that's mapped though.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dr.

Titus?

Yes.

Yeah, well, I'm just gonna jump right to uh I intend to vote no on this uh but it's important uh that uh specify uh that uh this is not to vilify anyone or any institution or agency.

We just have some fundamental differences uh to our approach on things uh uh where the city is concerned.

Uh uh.

Well Miss White and Mr.

Pine are here.

Um I like Gwynn Roger, Gus, and the board in general.

They're very talented, honest and hardworking people that love the city just as much as I do.

Uh I just have a different perspective.

And I don't think the citizens of the City of Erie are receiving the return on their investment.

Uh that we should.

Does it mean they're bad people?

Does it mean I'm angry with them personally?

I just disagree with the corporate welfare.

Uh and that the nonprofits I don't feel are contributing to the wholeness in health of of the city to the degree that they should or could.

Uh trickle down doesn't work.

In those cases, it hasn't worked.

Uh they tell us the city doesn't have money.

County doesn't have money.

The state doesn't have money.

Uh gentlemen spoke about our state legislators.

Gentlemen spoke about our state legislators and the trip to Erie.

I just think that not paying taxes in the perpetuity is not good policy.

When we have the social ills and issues that we have.

They've just recently took over the zoo.

And I know that they often shoot the messenger around here, but I'm very, very consistent, and nobody should be surprised at my vote as my first vote 13, 14 years ago on county council was to uh co-sign the refinancing of the convention centers loan.

And at that time I was brand new.

I was like two days old.

It was my very first vote.

A tough vote, because that labor hall they're talking about historically, I walked up them steps, as did my brothers, as did my father.

And I voted, uh, as the Lord will have me to vote, and I was ostracized for it, but I'm all the better for it.

Uh because as it turned out, everyone said, Oh, nothing would happen.

This is wrong.

I mean, this is okay, we're just co-signing it.

And I felt like if they were going to save 11 billion dollars, that the community should get half of that in the form of a community benefit agreement since the citizens were on the hook for it.

Nothing will happen, nothing will happen, nothing will happen.

Our 40 plus year accountant, different lawyers from both entities, nothing will happen.

Well, something did happen in the way of COVID-19 pandemic.

And so, as a result of us signing, uh, as a result of us signing or co-signing that that bond uh when COVID hit, of course you got to pay your bills.

Uh our bond rating wouldn't look so right.

So in October of 2020, uh Erie County forked over 2,000 9,000 dollars and 33 cents.

Um we came back in 2021 in January and we gave them $2,100.

So we're $5 million.

Money that was intended for taxpayers, so not only are we not getting tax revenue from them, I mean I know they do great services, but now we're paying.

So we came back in August and gave them another two million dollars.

So we gave them like seven million dollars of taxpayer money that was intended for those people, agencies, institutions who were most negatively impacted by COVID-19, and those historically, i.e.

black communities that were historically discriminated against as we celebrate Erie's 200 year or Pennsylvania's 250 year or the nations, whatever.

Uh and they do shoot the messenger around it.

We've spent our whole, it's been over a decade in the making, so I'm not here to up in or try to influence anyone else to up in uh the thing because I know nine million dollars hang in the balance, and so I'm not um I'm not that big of a nut.

I'm a nut sometime, but I ain't I'm not that big a nut yet.

And so our thing is always uh it's great for the developer.

If we build it, they will come, the tourists get in, and so we talked to stuff.

Well, okay, well, the state don't have no money, the county don't have no money, city don't have no money.

We should have a whole increase in the hotel tax or something because it ain't adding up.

The math ain't mathing.

Uh and then we have waterfront use from private developers that come in, and uh and they want that 10-year tax abatement that also recycles a whole generation of our Erie School District children who doesn't even realize for 10 years the weight of the promise of the tax uh that you'll receive.

It promise us low wages, low-paying jobs.

And if the state legislator and the governor and everybody has cost of living raises and everybody else is getting a raise, I think that our our people deserve more too.

And I know a lot of this isn't anything that Erie Convention Center done of their own, and they're just they're not breaking any laws.

They're following what we have before them.

I just feel like that if smaller nonprofits like ECAP and PACA who also are not required to pay taxes, but really exhibit or demonstrate their love for this community because they pay them in hope.

Imagine that.

And so just because I don't think that just because you're not obligated to pay taxes, how could you live in this city and see what's going on and not want to be a better neighbor or to do more?

It really hits home to me because with the low wages, uh, when the tourists do come, uh, and the developers do eat, and they get the tax abatement, and the citizens get low wages and higher taxes.

We get higher taxes because we carry in all these nonprofits on our back.

It's the law.

We should consider the poor people of Erie, and we should also always, yeah.

We should also always consider the black population here.

We should be reminded of what was done here.

It's not that they're lazy white communities so much at more advanced and smart.

It's that something was done here to this community as we celebrate 250 years.

The land covenants, uh destroyed private home ownership, black home enclave on West 11th Street in a program called Erie Redevelopment, kind of like the Erie Refocus right now.

There's still parking lots.

Many of us believe that killed downtown, not Tulio's folly.

You sent them to neighborhoods you knew were failing, and you sent them to places and you gave them mortgages, and you basically made them renters again.

And those parking lots uh uh ironically sit there as a reminder from Liberty Street to Myrtle Street of all our fine planning of our city planners and fathers.

So I'm not really moved uh by the planners, by all the people, the stakeholders who have a stake in this, because nobody has a bigger stake in it than the residents of the city of Erie.

And the people who live in and on that bayfront who won't be able to afford the amenities down there.

Um nepotism and racism and a 200 plus year head start, uh has left this community decimated.

They don't own anything, they don't even get employed in the factories here while the chamber hollers about their 250, 300, 400 member.

All they have to do is go and ask them what their workforce looks like in those shops and factories.

And I think a really startling uh picture will start to emerge.

And so I'm gonna vote against this because I'm true to it and hasn't much changed in that philosophy that I subscribe to uh in my first vote, uh, I think it was January 6th of 2014.

Uh and I still believe that uh nonprofits, uh those who get our caps uh uh should uh should uh should be the first in line, uh first, especially on the bay front, should be the first in line to line up to pay taxes, not run looking for a uh tax abatement, uh considering the state of our economy and the crisis that we the housing crisis that we have.

And as for the convention center or Erie events itself, our state legislator and our governor, he comes here, every conversation I have is hey, this thing is kind of uh like a millstone on us.

Uh can we get a pallet?

Can we get something?

Or just oh no, we ain't gotta pay taxes, and we got this grand ideal.

It's gonna help us all.

And it doesn't help us all.

Uh, but I believe that a pallet and tax dollars would help us offset some of our public safety uh uh usage that goes up.

Uh and so uh the traffic uh that their construction generates that display this moves people or inconveniencing people, I think that's worth something.

And we should have the conversation, and if the state won't do it, uh as we look to re-up our our building code and our property maintenance uh and all of those things, our zoning uh that we should embed.

We should seriously consider embedding community benefit agreements uh into all of those.

And and if they think that's not business friendly, then so be it.

Because right now they're not city friendly.

So thank you for indulging me in my comments.

Uh again, I'm not here to vilify anybody.

I don't want to be vilified by anybody, if so be it.

Uh I'm not gonna fall out or argue with anybody about my perspective.

And it's not just a perspective that's pulled out of the sky.

It's a perspective of somebody who grew up at the foot of Sasson France Street.

It's the perspective of someone who worked on every leg of the Bayfront Highway from 26th Street wrapped around all the way up uh over the gorge up to Barrett College.

Uh that system that's used to divert commerce around the city of Erie and not into the city of Erie.

Uh and so uh it's the perspective of someone who was the labor steward of the convention center, uh, and the and the parking rap and the Sheraton Hotel.

It's the perspective of someone who had great working relationships with the people involved from every uh angle.

It's the perspective of uh someone who was the representative of everything that goes along the bay front from Harbor Creek to Bill Creek for 12 years, and so I think my perspective matters.

Thank you, Dr.

Titus, and thank you to my colleagues, and thank you to all of you for listening to if it sounds like mumble jumbo to you.

Uh you can pick up the phone and call, I'll explain it to you in detail.

Thank you so much.

Can I just add one thing?

Uh I'm just gonna piggyback on to what Mr.

Horton has said.

Um, someone came in um and spoke about um how it's been piecemealed uh along the bayfront, and it has.

Um I remember before the highway was even there, it was just dirt.

Um then little by little um, you know, the boat ramps started going in that the marinas, and then we started with the other side and down below, and um and with not really any regard for the citizens.

Um it's it's sad that um that we're still doing this piecemealing.

Uh and it's not one administration, it's been the past four or five administrations that have started this and are have continued through the years.

And um I I don't agree.

Uh I and like you said, nothing against Erie events.

Um, they've done a lot of good for the city.

Um, but they have no plan that I've heard um for the marketplace.

They want it built, they want whatever, and you know, we have concessions, uh, but I just don't feel good um right now voting for it for those reasons.

Thank you.

And I just wanted to, you know, um thank council member Horton for his continuous fight for the students who get left behind as a young person who went to our school district between 2000 and 2012.

We have a lot of issues because of the alerta and the nonprofit programs that were in our community at that time, and then decided to leave when their alert it was up.

So it's just that we have to be mindful about the deals we make to entice people to do things here, and then later it falls on our taxpayers.

So I've always said that I don't agree with the nonprofit sector making profits, but also not paying their taxes when other smaller nonprofits have showed that they can pay their property tax, and we have 40% of our property taxes nonprofit.

That's why we have the budget issue that we have.

70% of our budget goes to salaries.

That's our fire department, our police department, and our public works along with city employees.

So I mean, if you're spending 70% on the people that you need to run the city, how are you supposed to cut them when it's 40% of our tax base is not paying their fair share?

So as a 33-year-old, I'm not a fan of the tax exempt.

I'm not a fan of the nonprofits unless I can tangibly see the impact that you're making for the community.

And there's some community organizations that are doing phenomenal work.

So yeah.

I agree with Andre Horton on things have to change.

And the only way they're going to change the aggressively making them change because no one's gonna do it willingly, obviously.

So yes.

Thank you.

Councilmember Brzezinski?

Yes.

Flores?

No.

Horton?

No.

Poll?

No.

Shaw?

Yes.

Titus.

No.

Resolution fails to pass two to four.

Okay.

This takes us to new business.

So I would ask for a motion to move the balance.

So move.

Second.

Do we have any separations?

Yes.

Number four.

Number five.

Under conduct.

Okay.

Any other separations?

Um, I would like to separate six just so that we can give um, you know, a moment to speak to the individual who's being nominated.

Or yeah, recommended number six.

I have four, five, and six.

So five is um under contracts, nothing else.

Not new business, just um business.

I would suggest that um Ms.

Watson doesn't have to read the entire four, but I do just want to speak on it.

Speak on it.

Yeah, so we're talking Amgard Inc., that's the one.

And Council Boys, did you still want number six?

No, it's under new business, so it's not under what we need it to be.

I just wanted to speak to the Alan Clerk being nominated.

Okay, yeah.

Six hundred new businesses, well.

Okay.

Mr.

Brzezinski, yes.

Flores Horton's poll.

Yes, Shaw.

Resolution to balance passes.

We have a separation of a number four.

Sponsored by council member show, seconded by council member Titus.

I just wanted to uh say that I um had gotten an email uh about the cutting of the arts in um the state.

Uh that they may cut the um programming or the funding of the arts.

So that it would be decreased, and I um as a former art teacher and teacher and person who um knows the importance of art through art therapy programs and that artists healing, um just wanted to uh get my uh fellow colleagues to uh say that they don't want to cut the funding or decrease it, but just to you know continue it as they did because it is so very important to our community, and even like the nonprofits that uh support neighborhood art programs and things, um they they need that that um they may um those children who go into those programs, um you know that might be uh their only uh source of encouragement and body mind and spirit and

Just wanted to get my uh fellow colleagues to uh say that they don't want to cut the funding or decrease it, but just to you know continue it as they did because it is so very important to our community, and even like the nonprofits that uh support neighborhood art programs and things, um they they need that that um they may um those children who go into those programs, um you know that might be uh their only uh source of encouragement and body, mind, and spirit.

And uh I uh as an art teacher, um kids may not do well in other academics of life, but they may thrive in art, and that um gives them purpose.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Dr.

Titus?

Yes.

I'd like to thank my colleague Shaw uh for putting this forward.

I think Arts and stuff is really really important.

It was important in my development uh as a child.

Um we don't really see a lot of that in some neighborhoods.

Um ever happened to me was the Martin Luther King Center Art House as a kid.

And so when I see the work that uh the Benedictines do at the Erie Art House, I see how important the arts and uh music, all that stuff is uh to the PALS program, to the after-school programs, uh to the ECAP programming.

Uh I see how uh how we don't often not only at the lower level but at the higher cultural level, things for adults.

Uh I I know I keep talking about PACA.

I'm kind of a fan these days, uh, because they pay taxes.

But uh, because they pay taxes.

Uh and they have great programming and they do art, and you're not required to do so.

Uh I know the importance of art and music.

Uh, and so I'm thanking my colleague for bringing forth this resolution, which I'm happy to support.

Yes, thank you, Kathy, for putting this forth council because I'm also a supporter of the arts.

I understand that's a form of expression for our young people, and as someone who grew up on Fifth Street and went to our inner city schools, the Erie Art House was the only outside of once a week that we got any type of art interaction.

So it's a great thing for young people and our children to have.

So thank you.

I also want to thank Dr.

Titus because Dr.

Titus did a great job in helping me as well.

Thank you.

All right, we can go ahead and call for the vote.

Council members Brzezinski.

Yes.

Laura's yes, Corton, yes, poll, yes, Shaw, yes, Titus.

Yes.

Resolution passes J6 na zero.

Okay.

Number six under new business, sponsored by Councilmember Poles, seconded by Councilmember Brzezinski receiving the communication from Mayor Devlin and confirmed by counsel that Alan W.

Clark is hereby recommended to the Honorable Josh Shapiro for appointment as a City of Erie emergency management coordinator by councilmember Pole until such time as a vacancy occurs.

Okay, definitely.

Um I just wanted to um have the mayor um you know give a moment to this individual for um their obvious resume or whatever qualifications you know allowed them to be able to be recommended.

Sure, thank you.

I don't have his resume in front of me, I apologize.

I know he's here in the room.

Um so I think you'll all recall this position was put in the budget last year, emergency management coordinator.

We posted for it sometime in February, I think.

We received a number of um resumes, interviewed our top two.

Um Mr.

Clark was clearly qualified.

He has extensive background in emergency management with multiple municipalities.

He came to his interview prepared with a binder of what he would do on his first day, which was very impressive.

Um, and so you know, we made him the offer and brought him on, and all that you're doing today is we are appointing him because it is required by law that he be appointed, and we notify the governor that he is our emergency management coordinator.

He's hit the ground running, has been doing incredible work.

So I think we're already thrilled that he's here, and we're gonna see the fruits of his work.

Hopefully, let's say it this way hopefully we never see the fruits of his work because hopefully we never have a major disaster.

But if we do, uh, he'll make sure we're ready.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Happy to have you join the team.

Uh yes.

Okay, so my background is emergency management.

Actually, I taught it for the United States Air Force for a number of years in disaster preparedness.

So I'm always interested.

I enjoyed a healthy relationship with John Graf uh while he was over at the uh over at the county.

So I know the importance uh of the position, and with all the trains that come through our city and all of the stuff that they're carrying.

Uh I know the importance of having someone competent and engaged and committed to that work.

So thank you and welcome aboard.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and call for the vote.

Voting on the resolution, Councilmember Brzezinski.

Yes.

Yes.

Horton, yes.

Yes.

Shaw.

Yes.

Titus.

Yes.

Resolution passes Yay 6 and A 0.

Okay, we have a resolution sponsored by Councilmember Brzezinski, seconded by Councilmember Titus.

The proper city officials are hereby authorized and directed to enter into a three-year contract with Amguard Inc.

600 Main Street Pittsburgh.

For City Hall Security Services, they are the lowest of four bidders.

The terms are as follows.

Annual service year one, which is June 1st, 26th through May 31st, 27, 119, 258 dollars and 20 cents.

Service year two, 122,835 ninety-five, and service year three, one hundred and twenty-six thousand five hundred and twenty-one dollars and two cents.

There is an extension option for one additional year.

Thank you.

Pardon me.

No, I was just gonna say, do we have a second about it?

I seconded it.

Thank you.

So we have a first and a second to go ahead and table.

So we can go ahead and call for the vote on that.

Or do we have this discussion about the table?

Um I just want to table this to discuss further uh being in our financial situation that the city is in right now.

That's a lot of money over a three-year period, uh, even though they were the lowest bidder.

Um we think we should be able to discuss on other options.

Um if there are none, then we can move forward.

Thank you.

Uh Dr.

Titus, yeah, because I kind of like where this is going, but uh I just feel like when a colleague uh has some further questions, if unless it's something of dire emergency in the time, then uh I I personally like to allow them that time uh to study the situation uh and receive any other additional information if some provided.

And I I also tend to learn more uh in those things so I'm uh I'm more apt to uh always do a first and second reading of with the county and not go to a second reading.

So for those very same reasons, uh uh I'm I'm really comfortable seconding the motion for this to be tabled.

Thank you.

So we'll go ahead and call for the motion, the vote on the motion.

Motion to table members Brzezinski, yes, Flores, yes, Horton, yes, poll, yes, Shaw, yes, Titus.

Yes.

Resolutions tabled six, yes, nay zero.

I believe this takes us to our report.

Go into committee reports.

Okay, we'll go ahead and start um with Mr.

Bri Mr.

Brzezinski.

Go ahead and start if you would like to start.

Yeah, I have uh no report.

I'm a little stunned at uh even having special meetings to get things clarified as far as the bay front down there with the marketplace.

That I can understand why Mr.

Horton voted against it, and I applaud him for his beliefs.

But the other people who came in, had a special meetings, found out everything that was right about the project, and then voted no.

This is par for the course, anyway.

Good night, everybody.

Have a nice day tomorrow.

Councilor Horton.

Uh I'll just keep it really brief.

Um I attended the housing authority legislative breakfasts, uh, attended the police memorial service, which is always quite touching to me.

I come from a family of law enforcement uh personally know uh people who have died on in the line of duty.

Um that uniform, so it was very, very meaningful for me.

I actually met with the director of the convention center and one of the board members.

We had some good discussion.

Really uh appreciative and understanding of the situation.

So I'm grateful for that.

Um I made an appointment to the land bank.

Uh they were um I thank the mayor for her support and all my colleagues.

I think they picked up an excellent board member.

Uh he's comes uh work ready.

And so that's my report.

Thank you.

Councilor Shaw.

Thank you, Dr.

Titus.

Um, I want to extend my sympathy to uh former Chief Charles E.

Bowers Jr.

and the family, and uh want to also extend my sympathy to Al Paul's family, and uh I uh attended Al's funeral mass uh that was at St.

Stan's.

I had met him when I was working the front desk and uh develop uh kind of rapport with him and really uh thought he was a great person.

He would come in and introduce me to his grandchildren and um other people that he came in with and was um I could tell he was a genuine um person who loved Erie.

Um I attended the Erie Waterworks Festival at uh the Summerheim water uh plant, and they had an excellent open house, and for anyone who came in, um they told the story and walked us through, and it was very knowledgeable.

I am the Waterworks liaison, and I attend as many meetings as I am possible, and I take my liaison ship seriously, and uh it's not easy.

Um so I attended the Waterworks meeting April 23rd, and I know you know I should have reported this on May 6th, but um this is 89 pages long.

Um they have to follow so many many things and have to go through reports and testing and buy trucks and purchase things and um you know the water line construction um going on in February was a very bad month.

I think they had 33 um, which was a record of that was that cold season and you know the infrastructure, the pipes had to be fixed, and now they're going through the elbow um pipes to to get those fixed.

But um, you know, I bring this in, I attend the meetings, um the public can take a look at this.

Um and I drink tap water and have my whole life when I was a kid and as an adult.

I don't purchase water and I don't buy a filter.

Thank you.

I actually did other things, so in my five minutes, um I went today to uh uh ECAT Liz Reyes had invited counsel uh for uh the Latino um governor's advisor commission on uh Latino Affairs and I got to meet several people I did not meet before.

I attended the uh housing HUD uh legislative breakfast, which was excellent because departments like or the hands and um other people other groups came up and they all did their presentation of what they're doing for housing and um you know they plan on restoring the elder uh sections that need updated, so they're not just letting things go in disrepair and um they're trying uh their best at what they can do.

Ums poll and I talked with Julie Slomsky um last week, and um talked Anna Franz was there, and Emily Thomas who activates the Dobbins Landing area, and that was very interesting because then that brought me back to the waterworks.

They do uh like a science presentation once a month.

Um is it the second Saturday?

I can't remember, down at Dobbins Landing, kids hands-on science.

Um attended Fred Russia celebration hosted by the Eagles Nest to honor Fred Rush during his lifetime.

And um May 6th, um, went to the 1020 collective to see a documentary by Savannah Wilson for the first time that she did with the Jefferson Society as a leadership student.

Um the popul addressing the population decline of Erie.

I attended the Planning Commission and the Land Bank, and um kudos to the FBI and uh who um the Erie police cooperated um and the uh state police to get those drug people.

He said that the amount of drugs that they had, the fennel law um could have killed 500,000 people.

That's a lot, and I'm very very thankful to um get that off the street.

Um I affirm our fire and our police.

Um Chief Trot comes to every meeting and he sits through the entire meeting.

Like you don't have to do that, and you do that because you love your city, and um anyways.

Um so I have my sympathy to the police department because I'm sure um Chuck Bowers did a great job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, Councillor.

Um other than the meeting with um Kathy.

Sorry.

Other than the meeting with Kathy at the Port Authority, I attended their monthly meeting last week.

Um, and they have an ongoing plan for the Erie Coke property, and they will be here uh at Caucus at our next meeting on June 3rd to present that the police press conference was very disheartening to hear the numbers, but it was also good to hear that they have 15 people off the street um that have dealt with that uh a lot of money and a lot of lost lives.

The um ten of the UCAT also today with the um Latino Affairs Commission or the advisory commission uh this evening before I came here.

Uh the Your Cemetery was celebrating their 175th anniversary.

And um we passed an ordinance for this uh a couple months ago after a public hearing um to make them a historic uh landmark also.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilor Flores.

Um, hello, thank you everyone who came and stayed the whole time and all the citizens who came and spoke.

Um we do generally appreciate appreciate a full audience, so sometimes it's lonely in the more in the mornings.

I also attended the governor's advisory commission on Latino Affairs Meet and Greet today and seeing the mayor and a few other colleagues on council.

Um pretty much they were just going over what the budget proposals are, but those aren't going to be passed until the Senate passes the budget, but that doesn't happen right away.

Last year we were waiting eight months.

So let's hope that you know our local senator who wants to cut our fire department is actually doing his job, but neither here nor there.

Um so we had a study session, PFM on May 14th.

I did attend virtually.

Um I love that the city offers these meetings as a playback that you can go on our YouTube channel and then also our Facebook channel to re-watch at a later time because sometimes our schedules are a little busy, and we're not able to make a one o'clock meeting, so that's what I tend to do.

We had a zoning um hearing board meeting on May 12th, and then on May 19th, uh the planning commission had their meeting.

So that was today, earlier.

No, yesterday, earlier.

Yesterday earlier.

They're going to be doing a special zoning hearing meeting on Thursday, May 21st at 1 p.m.

And that'll be here.

And um, you know, you can attend these meetings, but you just listen and know what's going on at the city.

A lot of people are always surprised when certain things are being moved before council, but chances are they have already been in the works for quite some time.

So we go through the process of the business of the agenda and passing everything, but more than likely everything's already been worked on for three to six months before we even get it.

So let's just be mindful that a lot of things are moving pieces, and sometimes when they get to council, they're just the final couple steps.

So that's pretty much all I have to report.

Just be careful out there, watch out for pedestrians who are crossing the roads, be a little bit more mindful for the children who are playing.

Residential neighborhoods, please be mindful of our speed.

We have a lot of heavy metal feet in our community, and I'm guilty of it myself.

I have to remind myself I don't have to be in a hurry.

But let's just make sure that this summer we are not responsible for any families tragedy when it comes to us being impatient with our vehicles, please, and thank you.

Thank you.

Um I'll be brief.

So just I hear the anger and I hear the pain.

Um, and when we get our residents who come in here, I do believe that is it's our our job to shoulder that um and to allow it to help us guide with our decisions.

And can't speak for everyone else.

Um it's it's been said a couple times that we're not at places, but I'll tell you that um my kiddos would tell you that I spend more time with community members and with other families than I than I ever do at home, which I know is what we've we've run to do.

Um I this isn't a role that I'm very honored to serve in.

Uh but we're we are only so many, and we only have so many hours in the day as well, though, too.

Um all of that I mean there's a there's a lot we could speak speak on, but I mean it's starting to get late.

Uh I do hear can and I want to uh echo what uh counselor Flores had just said is um I think that status quo has been not really fully explaining some of the process of how the meetings work, especially with city council.

And I am committed, and I know that uh my my colleagues are as well, is is to making this more transparent um and how that this flows and why the things flow and why does it seem like we're not adding things that people are asking us to add things.

But this is this is the the business part of of so much of this, and so so much of what we're voting on is the ordinances or the budgets, um, and it's so it is things that are passing down through certain directions.

Um they're often heading in through the zoning or they're going in through other places before they ever get here.

And so a lot of that back leg work is happening at those meetings, which are also open to the public.

Uh and I know we're working on the website to get a lot of these things up updated around like when can the public participate and where can the public learn about these things.

Um I know there's a strong commitment from this administration to make things more accessible uh and to make it more tangible for for the average person as well.

Uh myself included, sometimes it's very overwhelming.

There's a lot to navigate, especially if you've ever sat with any of our zoning.

It's it's it's a lot to sift through.

Um do want to invite everybody, remind everybody that we have a study session next Thursday, 528, 533.

6:30 with the parking authority.

We're we've heard loud and clear from the public.

Uh, and so we're gonna pull them in for discussion.

Also have met continuously with the administration on um the the rental uh registration project or the program that was brought in front of us, so that's not that's continuing to move.

We're gonna be looking hopefully within the next couple weeks here to have an ordinance in front of council with all the amendments that have been um requested and suggested.

So I'm I'm excited about that uh as well.

As far as the I got a letter handed up from the clerk to just request that if there's an event or something that you would like members to be at, it is very hard to keep track of everything.

So if you can send that to the clerk uh at cityclerk at eerie.pa.us, that it would be very helpful for us to get the information so then we can also attend and make sure that we're present.

Um and if you can reach out, you know, share your email what the date, the time, and the location is so that the clerk can help distribute that amongst the council.

And with that, I'll conclude my report and pass it over to uh the solicitor and the mayor.

Solicitor has no report.

Uh he never has a report.

Uh I I want to begin.

Um, I do have, and I I will try to be brief.

Um, but two kind of personal notes.

First, uh I do want to apologize to Mr.

Cooley for being distracted during his comments tonight.

That was disrespectful, and I appreciate you know, as public officials, we are not perfect uh when we make mistakes.

Uh, when we make mistakes, I think it's right to admit when we do.

So I want to say that out loud, um, and he was right to call me out on it, and Miss Jacobs was as well.

So I just want to say that out loud to him.

I don't believe he's still here.

Um, but to say in this room, you know, I will do better.

Secondly, I want to extend Councillor Pole, thank you for your comments about Al Rodriguez, a member of the streets department who passed away very unexpectedly on Saturday.

Um, went to the viewing today and saw his family who were extremely distraught.

And I just think it's something for us all to keep in mind.

Um he was an active, he was a current employee.

And so thank you for the moment of silence, and I want to express my condolences.

Also, want to thank my friend Bob Strasser, who is still here, who continues to bring us wonderful ideas and does a lot of hard work on behalf of the city.

Um he sent me about a nine-page report on his thoughts but and AI's thoughts about how we can help save the city money, and so we will take all of those under consideration.

Um, I do want to note we were at the apartment association meeting last night.

It was about a three-hour meeting.

We met with about 80 landlords.

I think we had a really good conversation.

We talked to them about the changes we're proposing to rental registration.

One of the landlords came up to me at the end and said, I don't agree with everything you're saying, but I appreciate that you're here and saying it.

So I think it was a fruitful conversation as we continue to move forward.

I promised them it wouldn't be the last time that we'd come back and continue to see them as partners in this work.

I think it was even noted here that we need them to be partners in this work.

So a couple of clarifying points I want to make.

Um, there was a conversation earlier about the re-entry in CDBG.

So one more time, I I do want to be very clear about this because I do understand the concern about transparency.

So I think one question that was raised is who contacted whom.

Uh, I'll reiterate we were I was personally contacted by Mercy Hearst Civic Institute to come to a meeting with the county executive to discuss the concerns about the program.

That was in January or February, and I will find the date and send it to all of you.

After that, the Y, which had submitted their application for these funds, pulled their application because my understanding was they were notified they were going to lose this program.

We were then asked by the county when I say we, as I recall, it was Chris Grohner, who is the chief of staff for the county executive, reached out and asked if the city would continue our funding as we had in the past, but now directed to the county.

I told Chris, I asked Deborah Smith, Deborah Smith said we have to have an application.

So the county completed an application just like every other applicant for CDBG.

We have that on file.

We're certainly happy to produce it.

That came in late, it came in after the time period for regular CDBG applications.

So when it got its way to Deborah Smith, she said it could be for reprogramming.

You, council, haven't seen it yet because we're not reviewing reprogramming until June.

So I just want to be very clear on our end with our application with our money, we are following our procedures, and you will see that as part of the reprogramming, and that was why we teed it up for you this evening.

So I just want to be very clear about again who asking whom, what is the procedures that that is how that has occurred.

Um again, all we were asked was to divert our funds.

I I don't have opinion over the larger changes.

Clear on that.

Um, one other item I want to clarify there's been a lot of conversation about Erie Day in Harrisburg.

Um again, I apologize because I should have been clear about this in the first place.

So I just want to very quickly go through what what I personally did that day.

I'm not gonna speak for others.

Um I met that day uh with a round table of the governor's um secretaries and cabinets.

One of them was Department of Uman Services Secretary Arcush.

I talked with her about child care needs in the city of Erie, about the status of the the poverty in the city of Erie and its impact on health, and we talked about housing.

We also met with policy secretary Hussain, where we talked about our support for the governor's housing plan and how it would directly impact people living in poverty and living in substandard housing in the city of Erie.

We met with the majority leader of the Senate, Joe Pittman, and the President Pro Tem, Kim Ward, as well as minority leader Jay Costa and appropriations chair Vince Hughes.

Each of those meetings was to encourage them to pass the governor's budget with regard to the housing plan.

We talked about the Waterfront Master Plan, which has been raised here tonight as well, and we talked about general economic development and encouraging businesses to settle in Erie.

Those were the conversations.

That was the advocacy, that was what I was there to do.

Again, I can't speak for the others, but those were my conversations that I had.

In addition to that, I have been actively advocating with the municipal league to raise the local service tax.

There was conversation tonight about why aren't we taxing the wealthy?

The local service tax is the tax that every single person who works in the city of Erie pays, whether you live here or you don't.

It has been capped at $52 by the state for many, many, many years.

The Pennsylvania Municipal League, of which we are a member, is advocating for that cap to be removed so that we could go up to 100 or 150 dollars.

Again, that's for people who work in the city.

It's not, it's not based on income, and it's not based on property.

It's if you work here in the city of Erie and it would stay here in the city of Erie.

So that is something that we're advocating for, and we believe that that would help with some of these issues of folks who live here and don't, I'm sorry, who work here and don't live here.

We're also, when I was in Harrisburg that day, we advocated for the hotel tax, as Councillor Horton has mentioned so many times.

We actually sat in Representative Ryan Bizarro's office and had a roundtable discussion with him and with the county executive about and and the the head of the chamber, Brendan Mendoza, about how to get that hotel hotel tax raised.

So those are the advocacy work that I am doing on behalf of the city of Erie on behalf of our budget.

They don't meet the concerns that we heard tonight, but I don't want anyone to think that we're not taking them seriously or doing anything.

These are slow things, but we they feel urgent, and we will continue to act on them.

And lastly, I just want to report, I want to thank council for your attention and your support at last week's study session at the press conference we had about the budget.

I think that I owe it to you and to the public to constantly be reporting out what are we doing.

So we are currently reviewing budgets as we've discussed.

I have asked for the creation of a financial advisory committee, and I've had a number of our business leaders reach out to me and agree to serve.

I mentioned to all of you that I had meetings last week with our nonprofits and business leaders, and I am now setting up follow-up meetings with each of them to talk specifically about our asks for them.

Our asks of UPMC Hammett will not be the same as our asks of the Port Authority, which will not be the same as our asks of some of our business leaders who pay taxes.

But we are asking each of them for something.

I think that is what that is what we have to do.

That's what Mr.

Strasser is certainly encouraging us to do.

We all know that.

So I will be reporting out to you on those meetings and on our progress over the next few weeks and months, and I hope that together we will be able to show that together as a community we will move forward with this without putting the entire burden on our taxpayers, which we know we can't do.

So lots of other things going on, but those were the high points I wanted to make sure I reported back to council and to the public.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, if there are I think that that concludes, so we'll go ahead and wrap up this meeting.

City Council adjourns at 9 24 p.m.

Councilmember Titus, Brzezinski, Flores Horton, Paul Shaw.