City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-January 22, 2024 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff-President, Kleon Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr. 4 Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young, Tonya Haynes, Max Herman-Junior Council Member, Earianne 5 Evangelista-Junior Council Member, Rebecca Abraham-Junior Council Member. (Justin 6 Gehman-Vice President not present) 7 8 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth; Susan Davidson, Borough Manager; Sean Molchany, Asst 9 Borough Manager; Valerie Wagner, Director of Finance; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 10 11 Visitors: 12 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 13 Tom Murray Jr. 219 S. 11th St Akron 14 Michael Morris, Akron 15 Larry Alexander, Ephrata Review 16 Officer Cruz, West Earl Police Department 17 Zoom- Travis Hoffner 109 S 7th St Akron 18 19 Roll Call 20 Kleon Zimmerman-present 21 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 22 Ryan Cochran-present 23 Bonnie Young-present 24 Nathan Imhoff President-present 25 Justin Gehman Vice President-absent 26 Tonya Haynes-present 27 Mayor John McBeth-present 28 Earianne Evangelista-Junior Council Member-present 29 Rebecca Abraham-Junior Council Member-present 30 Max Herman-Junior Council Member-present 31 32 Meeting opened at 6:35 pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. 33 34 Approval of Minutes 35 Motion to approve January 8, 2024 minutes by Ryan Cochran; second by Kleon Zimmerman 36 Discussion: page for updated committees was not included in minutes; this was sent to council 37 members by staff 38 Motion approved 39 Visitors/Comments from Public 40 41 Zoom: Travis Hoffner-submitted application for a transient license for barbeque truck in Akron. 42 He was wondering if was discussed with Council and asked if council is aware of the application. 43 Mayor McBeth stated he has the application and said he would sign off on the application. Sean 44 Molchany stated that per Borough Code, the zoning needs to be reviewed and to be approved 1  1 prior to Mayor approval. Sean Molchany indicated that Council does not need to approve the 2 application, the Mayor does only when all the requirements and zoning is approved. 3 Michael Morris-apologized to Nathan Imhoff for not replying to e-mail. He also said he would 4 be interested in the vacancy board position. Nathan replied that he would add him to the list of 5 candidates. 6 John Taylor- said he sat through the budget meetings but he has a question; what mil is the 7 Council raising the taxes? The reply is .3 mils is the increase for 2024. Mr. Taylor stated that 8 the Mayor told his neighbor Dave Landis it was a 3.5 mil increase, and that the Mayor should 9 contact Mr. Landis and tell him the correct millage. John Taylor was verifying for a neighbor 10 who had a concern and incorrect information regarding the increase. Mayor McBeth does not 11 recall having a conversation with Dave Landis. 12 Nathan Imhoff did clarify that the millage went from 3 mil to 3.3 mils in 2024 because recently 13 there was an article in a local newspaper that was confusing on what the actual increase and 14 millage is. 15 16 Bills 17 Reports/Announcements 18 Police-Newly hired Officer Alexander Reed being sworn in tonight. 19 Mayor Report- 20 Handed out Historical Society brochure. The Society members would like to give Council 21 a tour of their facility. Susan Davidson mentioned Council had a meeting at the Historical 22 Society a few years ago. 23 Manager’s Report-none 24 Finance-none 25 Community Relations-none 26 Parks & Property 27 Tonya Haynes discussed the new pavilion at Colonial Park and would like to contact 28 Rosenberger to set up time to do a ribbon cutting. Susan Davidson said that she would set up a 29 meeting to plan for a date and will copy Tonya on the e-mail. 30 Nathan Imhoff stated that the pond at Roland Park looks like it was cleared off for ice skating, 31 and wanted to verify if ice skating was still a prohibited activity. Susan Davidson stated that the 32 Roland Park Pond is clearly posted “No Ice Skating” due to liability per our insurance company. 33 Mayor McBeth asked to see an insurance statement regarding the pond liability related to ice 34 skating. He stated that many years ago the pond was used for ice skating in the winter. Nathan 35 Imhoff countered the Mayor by stating that many years ago the Borough used to close off 36 portions of 10th Street for sledding, and that things have changed over the years and what was 37 acceptable then is no longer acceptable now. Susan Davidson mentioned this was brought up at 38 Council a few years ago. Our current insurance company wanted the pond posted “No Ice 39 Skating” because it is a huge safety/liability issue. This has been in effect since the Borough was 40 still with Akron Insurance. 41 Personnel Report 42 Updating on new employee progress. All year end reviews have been completed. 2024 new 43 items in public works. Succession plan for 2024 in process. 44 Streets Report- 2  1 Paul thanked public works for the recent snowstorm on the street clearing. 2 Public Utilities Report- none 3 Junior Council Members Report 4 Rebecca Abraham received a Keystone Degree for the Future Farmers of America. This was 5 received at the 2024 Harrisburg Farm Show. 6 No additional questions or comments from Junior Council Members 7 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 8 Old Business 9 Mayor McBeth letter dated December 18, 2024 10 Discussion: Mayor’s decision not to sign the ordinance for the tax increase. 11 Mayor McBeth says he deals in facts. 12 Mayor McBeth questioned the necessity for the recent tax increase. Nathan 13 Imhoff said that the budget meeting discussed this extensively and used the mathematical 14 equation to justify any increase. Mayor questions whether or not council understands where 15 salaries are budgeted in the different funds. Council replied that salaries are budgeted by 16 percentages by job description. Mayor is concerned that salaries are the second largest bucket 17 for the budget and was concerned that labor expenses should be itemized to the correct 18 financial funds. He stated that each employee should account for each specific task they do 19 each day so that it can be allocated correctly. Kleon Zimmerman said that if the Mayor wants 20 employees to write down every specific job they do, even if it is just a few minutes, we would 21 need another full-time employee to keep track and manage the itemized tasks. Valerie 22 Wagner, Director of Finance, restated that each employee’s job description is reviewed for the 23 percentage of labor that should be allocated to each fund based on the essential functions of 24 the job: Water, Sewer, Admin, etc. and is billed to each fund accordingly. 25 Mayor was concerned with specifically budgeted projects. Nathan Imhoff replied to the 26 Mayor that projects are itemized by what is entailed and then Council reviews and edits for 27 budgetary reasons. One example brought up by the Mayor was the Borough office building 28 renovation in 2023. He stated his frustration upon visiting the Borough office one day and saw 29 bricklayers working on the building, which he believed was not part of the budgeted job. 30 Mayor’s opinion is that each item should be line itemized. Council replied that there was a line- 31 item review of all projects budgeted for 2023, including the municipal office building renovation 32 which included removing the double doors to the council room, replacing the door with a single 33 and closing in the remainder to match the existing brick exterior. Mayor McBeth requested a 34 copy of the plan. Sean Molchany stated that the item the Mayor is referring to was addressed 35 in the 2023 capital budget meetings and he will forward him a copy first thing tomorrow 36 morning. 37 Ryan Cochran state that all monies spent are reviewed by the Finance Committee who 38 then bring it to the Council for approval. Examples provided by Ryan were the unbudgeted rail 39 trail sign which was brought to Council for approval but was not approved. Also, new chairs for 40 council were removed from the final project. Susan Davidson added that updating the Borough 41 sign to a new digital one was also removed from the budget. 42 Missing checks from register: Nathan Imhoff asked Ryan Cochran as Finance Committee 43 member, to comment regarding the check registers. Ryan stated there are no missing checks. 44 Valerie Wagner commented that the Finance Committee reviews the accounts payables at the 3  1 Finance Committee meeting which occurs once a month. However, there are often times in 2 which bills come in that need to be paid before the next Finance Committee meeting based on 3 the calendar days of the month. Valerie said when this happens, she sends group text messages 4 to check signers to stop by the Borough office to sign the checks that fall outside of a regularly 5 scheduled Finance meeting. Mayor McBeth protested this practice and suggested the bills wait 6 to be paid until the next Finance Committee meeting. Sean Molchany countered and asked the 7 Mayor if it was acceptable to him that the Borough be late in paying its bills, and pay penalties 8 because that is what would happen. 9 Valerie Wagner addressed the Mayor’s claims of missing checks to state that he had attended 10 the November Finance Committee meeting in which all of the items to be paid at that time 11 were presented to Finance Committee for review and signatures. Mayor McBeth kept a copy of 12 the check register from November 13th, 2023 and brought it to the December 11th, 2023 13 Finance Committee meeting in which he noticed there were alleged missing checks since the 14 last register. At that December 11th Finance Committee meeting he expressed his concern 15 about the check numbers and was told that same night that there had been additional checks 16 issued and signed by Council since the November 13th Finance Committee meeting and that 17 they were not missing. 18 The Mayor stated he had not seen proof yet that there are no checks missing. Susan Davidson 19 replied that she will send the complete check register for the month in question to the Mayor. 20 Mayor was concerned about the length of new employee training time for the 21 succession plan, calling it “excessive”. Paul Swangren, Jr explained that these are sensitive jobs 22 especially regarding seasons and the issues for each. This plan has been in process since 2019. 23 Training a person for the entire year is to cover all issues that can be addressed in a year and 24 even then, not every audit or issue will come up in one year. The Council has already moved the 25 training time back from two years to one year. Bonnie Young mentioned that there are audits 26 that take place once per year and some audits are only every two years. 27 Mayor questioned if there was a plan for a backup person for sensitive jobs. Ryan Cochran 28 asked if the Mayor wanted to hire another full time employee and this was a contradiction to 29 the Mayor’s concern of budgeted amount for salaries. The Mayor wants to cross-train, not hire. 30 Mayor had concerns related to the reasons for real estate tax increase-Nathan Imhoff 31 requested clarification on the Earned Income Tax portion of the Mayor’s letter. Susan Davidson 32 shared EIT reports for the actual increase. 2019 was the last time real estate taxes were raised. 33 Budgetary needs must be assessed each year. Bonnie Young stated that 70% of the General 34 Fund budget is for policing, which leaves 30% for everything else. 35 Mayor was concerned about the amount a Bond should be for the treasurer. Currently it 36 is $1,000,000.00. Compared with other local municipalities, Akron Borough’s bond amount is in 37 line with other municipalities. The Borough’s solicitor addressed the amount of the bond and 38 called it sufficient. Nathan Imhoff asked for Ryan Cochran’s opinion. Ryan asked what the bond 39 actually covers and stated that the cost savings for the premium of a lower bond amount isn’t 40 enough to justify changing it. Currently the treasurer does not sign checks or handle monies. 41 The bond protects against fraud. Susan Davidson will send the policy to council members. 42 Mayor wondered if the bond is appropriate. Nathan Imhoff asked him what amount of a bond 43 the Mayor felt was appropriate. 4  1 Mayor was concerned that he only received one budget comparison report. Budget 2 comparison was sent once last year and Mayor was questioning why it was not sent since. 3 Council responded that they had decided early last year that this was a “by request” report 4 rather than a printed report due to excess printing. Staff have offered to send as a PDF to 5 Council to prevent printing upon request. 6 Mayor was wondering if adjusting the capital budget for 2024 was possible until the 7 three administrative salaries are back to two and then re-adjust in 2025. This was addressed 8 already that the budgeted amounts for capital projects have been slimmed down already. 9 The Borough Manager asked who is supposed to be in charge of the crossing guards? 10 Sean Molchany responded that technically the Mayor is in charge of the crossing guards. Paul 11 Swangren, Jr said that the Borough Manager does “other duties as assigned” and that staff have 12 been handling the crossing guards. There was never any written communication that the Mayor 13 would not manage the crossing guards and that the Borough Manager would. Nathan Imhoff 14 asked that the Borough Manager include the Mayor regarding crossing guards. 15 New Business 16 State Senator Ryan Aument breakfast meeting on February 29, 2024 17 Contact Susan Davidson if you are interested in attending. 18 A. Resolutions 19 B. Ordinances 20 C. Motions and Decisions 21 D. Acknowledgments 22 E. Other Business/Deliberations 23 F. Correspondence and Petitions 24 G. Executive Session 25 Additional Comment: 26 Bonnie Young commented to the Junior Council Members that Representative Greiner 27 has PA House of Representatives Scholarship that they might be interested in applying for. 28 Tonya Haynes commends Susan Davidson and Sean Molchany for their diligent work 29 over the years, and that she is looking forward to working with Valerie Wagner as well. 30 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at pm by 7:40 Paul Swangren, Jr. seconded by Kleon 31 Zimmerman; motion carried. 32 33 Meeting Adjourned. 34 35 Respectfully submitted, 36 37 Susan Davidson 38 Borough Manager/Secretary 5