City Council

CITY OF MCKEESPORT REGULAR MEETING WEDNESDAY 7:00 P.M. DECEMBER 7, 2016 This Meeting of Council was called to order on the above-stated date at the above-stated time after the Pledge of Allegiance and a Moment of Silence by President of Council Richard Dellapenna, with the following Members of Council present: RC-1 PRESENT: RICHARD DELLAPENNA, JIM BARRY, JAMIE BREWSTER- FILOTEI, TIMOTHY BROWN, FAWN WALKER-MONTGOMERY, KEITH SOLES. ABSENT: LUETHEL NESBIT. Also present were Mayor Michael Cherepko, City Administrator Matthew Gergley, City Solicitor J. Jason Elash and members of the Administration. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MOTION: Mr. Barry moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei, “to approve the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of November 2, 2016.” RC-2 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) COMMUNICATIONS: Received both the Fire and Police Department Reports for the month of November 2016. MAYOR’S REPORT: Mayor Cherepko said thank you Mr. President. I will be brief. I apologize for my attire and I don’t know who was at the meeting last night but I caught a bug last night and I don’t wish it on anyone. I have been pretty much in bed for 20 straight hours now with a stomach virus so stay away from me, stay clear. I did want to try to be here. I haven’t missed a Council meeting in 13 years. I think we said a lot yesterday with regard to the budget and everything and some of the things we had to do so I am not really going to get repetitive with that. I do want [1] to announce one more time that we do have a new web site up and running. We have gotten a lot of positive feedback at this point. It’s professionally done and we are looking to really utilize that as a resource to not only get information to the people of the community to promote a lot of the good things that are going on but also to let them contact us and get in touch with us with different concerns they have throughout the City. I did want to, we just had our Festival of Trees, it was a tremendous success. I do thank the Rec Board and the Recreation Director Jim Brown and all the volunteers to make that event a success. Once again it’s another wonderful thing that kind of kicks off the holiday spirit after our Christmas parade and it’s a way for families to come together, not just from our community, but surrounding communities as well and I just to acknowledge and say thank you to all those who took part in that event as well. You know we talk about positive events and how all too often it seems like the news gathers very quickly around McKeesport when there’s something negative. I do want to acknowledge KDKA. I don’t know what station you guys watch but I can tell you I now watch KDKA. KDKA ran our International Village story throughout the 4 days probably between all the news stations I bet they ran it a dozen times. What was the most recent? Oh, they also came down for the Christmas Parade. Yea, we had a horrible day as far as weather goes but the parade was still a success. We had people who toughed it out and came down and enjoyed it. KDKA was there as well. I am very grateful for that and anybody in this room or anybody sitting on this Board that has pride in McKeesport like I know so many of you do, each of you do, I can tell you, KDKA, not that I watch the news much, but when I do it’s KDKA for me. You may have seen down at the point coming in, the Hospital Foundation is almost done with their parking lot. You talk about another entrance to the City and how much better it looks with the blighted buildings gone and a nice parking lot. They put sod down, trees, landscape, they are going to have a big digital billboard sign up as well that we can utilize as well for advertising and things. But I do commend the Hospital Foundation for their commitment and it’s going to be named Heatherington Point for those that didn’t know after Jim Heatherington. I [2] think most of us know him and the commitment he has had throughout all the years for UPMC. I didn’t formally get a chance to do it but I do want to congratulate the McKeesport Tigers and first year Head Coach Matt Miller on a tremendous season. Those young men did an outstanding job and to see them get where they were and so close to being WPIALL Champs really goes a long way and I think more importantly than anything I think the residents get that you do follow football and you get to see what these Coaches are doing on a football field. But you have a bunch of dedicated individuals who are trying to impact these kids’ lives off the football field as well and I just want to congratulate Coach Miller and his staff and all the Tigers. We will be getting at looks like we are going to get approved for the Grant at the end of Route 48 so the developer can do the magic part of it. We didn’t get formal announcement but early indication says that we are going to be ok with this Grant. Critical in developing the Christy Park Section; making it more safe; helping out the little shopping center across the street as well and future developments even up and down 48 which will encourage traffic to come down 48 when you are coming from White Oak rather than cut up over the hill onto Ripple Road and come down through Versailles. So, I think if we get that, getting that light there and in addition to Ollie’s coming in and I don’t know if you seem where they are putting dirt over there next to Ollies, they are looking to put a little strip mall there going up into the Plaza as well. If you haven’t been up there you have to take a look. They put all new lights on the parking lot; paved everything; and it’s really coming along and we are really anticipating the Grand Opening there in the Spring of 2017. We do have a lot of other things going on and obviously, there are things that I am not at liberty to discuss publicly but I really do believe that 2017 is going to be a good year for the City of McKeesport. I think we are going to have some things really come out there and they are going to be exciting for many people. Not to mention of course just the City in general. I do want to acknowledge the passing of Janet Flegal. Janet Flagel was a Democratic Committeewoman in 10th Ward and served on the Zoning Board as well and she just passed away over the weekend. [3] Our Hockey Association is getting ready to get up and running. The lights are pretty much hooked up. You may see a new building out there. We put a little building out there to serve as an office for the Hockey. That came on a Grant by Senator Jim Brewster. Obviously, it’s no secret, Jimmy has always made sure that he is there to deliver different things for McKeesport and this is just one of the many examples of things. We are excited about the Hockey. Hockey draws kids from all over not just McKeesport. So, when we talk about, like I say all too often, we always look for different things in the City. Anything that is going to draw outsiders to our City to me is a homerun and you know this is just another entity. Renzie Park we know draws so many from all over and this is just an addition to Renzie Park just like the Spray Park did this year, this Summer. I saw people, I’d stop over there every now and then and I’d see people from all over and the Hockey League is going to be pretty much the same thing. Other than that, I guess I will just touch quickly because I am really not going to say much once we get into the Bills. We talked about everything in depth yesterday. I will say it once again, Council has before them this evening a Budget which consists of a 2 Mill Tax increase and I said it yesterday, probably a dozen times and I will say it again, at this point in time with the financial situation in the City it would truly be fiscally irresponsible on our part not to put a little millage increase. It’s been 25 years folks, 25 years, and I think everyone has acknowledged over those 25 years everything has gone up. Everything has gotten expensive except for McKeesport taxes and that’s something we are proud of. But this bump here, if they would have just done small increments they would have been well up past it, this tax increase and we probably wouldn’t be, I hate to say it, but we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in today. The bottom line is its elected officials all too often, people think politically, and I say it all the time, I say it to my kids, I said it when I was a teacher, I say it to kids now at the Boys and Girls Club and anytime you talk about leadership, the right choice may not always be the popular choice and I think that’s what you have before you on Council tonight. But the reality of it is that it is the right thing for the City and you know we are working hard to create revenue and bring businesses in. That’s why I said in 2017 you are going to see some things but as the City has been going downhill for so long you know it’s been a daily struggle. I say time and time again, unfortunately these individuals up here have to hear me say it over and over [4] again but for those that are here today you know the hardest part of our job is trying to provide the same level of services to our residents with less resources, less money, less resources, less manpower, because we will continue to save through attrition and my Department Heads I feel have done a great job. The employees, the Union employees, they are Unions, you can’t come in and they are not just going to lay down. You can’t change everything from one end of the spectrum to the other. I feel like our Unions have done, they have taken concessions, they are trying to help out. We will have negotiations up next year again and I really believe that they will continue to take some concessions because they too, I really believe our employees they believe in the City. They want to see the City succeed as well. Other than that Mr. President, I do just want to wish each and every one of you and all of our residents a safe and happy Holiday and God Bless each and every one of you. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. CITIZENS IN THE AUDIENCE: President Dellapenna called for citizens in the audience and said I don’t believe we have anybody signed up to speak. Ms. James confirmed that no one signed up. Mr. Regis Mellinger stepped forward and said he didn’t know where to sign up. President Dellapenna said he would give him three minutes to speak just because I like what you said yesterday. Please come up, state your name and address. Regis Mellinger, 1612 Packer, McKeesport, PA 15132. The three minutes begins. McKeesport can become prosperous in three years. We can completely turn the City around in 3 years and I plan to share with us how. There are 3 “M’s” to my plan. “M” number one is marketing. Currently most of what people know about the City of McKeesport is what they see on the news and as we know how that goes, it is not that great. But through great marketing we can rebrand our City and how everybody sees it. Yesterday I recommended post card marketing. Post cards are very cheap. We have arrived in social media marketing. The more pictures we see on line the less we ever get to hold in our hands. The less actual hand written notes we get. Who do we send post cards to? Hollywood types. [5] We got plenty of old buildings if you want to make a movie that’s back in time you can do that here in McKeesport and that’s the way to turn the negative we have into positive. We have warehouses, we have rivers, we have everything we need to make a beautiful image for our City. Images that most people don’t even know. Most people might even know we have two rivers, but it’s a chance to do it. We may be in the depths, we may be broke, but we cannot afford to not market. Proper marketing can rain money into our City. It will pay for itself if we just do it right. Now here’s a Segway. Imagine we all find a pile of gold. The first person to find a pile of gold they get the tiger’s share. The second person to see the pile of gold well they get the leftovers and it’s harder to get. The third person to find the pile of gold, they watch everybody else get it and they don’t get nearly as much. “M” number two will be the emerging marijuana industry. It sounds taboo but it’s no longer something that hippies talk about in their living room. It’s happening all over the United States and now it’s happening in Pennsylvania and it will happen in your tenure. To become prosperous in any emerging industry we must become the leader. We have five huge problems facing McKeesport. We have violence, empty properties, bad drugs and overdoses, a huge fiscal deficit and a job problem. This is one way, by becoming a leader in the emerging industry it will actually solve all of our problems. Not only will it do that but we will bring in highly intelligent scientists. It’s a science now. It’s not just something people do for fun. It’s a science through and through, plus, it will generate positive publicity. Positive publicity is the best marketing you can possibly get because it’s the truth. It’s not somebody trying to sell something. It is something you see in the news. It is something believable and we need all the positive publicity we can get. Positive publicity costs nothing. I personally recommend a very low introductory tax, maybe no tax at all, because it will make a ton of money in licensing fees to bring people into the City. We have the warehouses, we have the rivers, and we have plenty of water that we need, we have everything we need to become great. By the signing in 2017, by the signing that we are going to be the leaders, McKeesport can become prosperous in this industry in under three years. “M” number three. We often call ourselves McKeesport. Some people say McKeesport very fast. I recommend something really simple and it won’t cost a single dime. Taking a little more time to say ”McKees Port.” By having a port, [6] port is a water feature. People love water features. Whether it’s the ocean; whether it’s a bay; whether it’s two rivers which we happen to have. If we just take a minute to think, “McKees Port” every time we talk about it, no matter who we talk about it to, that will let people know that we have a great and beautiful water feature for people to bring their boats. People that have boats they have money and what a place to go boating. Pittsburgh is pretty crowded, I don’t like going boating down Pittsburgh. McKees Port is very nice, very reflective of waters and very calm. I think I just said everything I wanted to in three minutes because I know a lot of points I wanted to make but the main point I wanted to drive home is the marketing. We really have everything we need. We have beautiful visions. If you go to the top of Grandview at night and look over you see a big glistening hillside. People love that. Who can we market to? I already mentioned the Hollywood types. We’ve got plenty of opportunity to make a beautiful movie. Especially like we had in the parade the other day when we were able to have a bunch of old cars; all the sudden show up; we look like we are back in time. We can take that and make that a positive and we just send, I don’t know, if we send 2,000 post cards and five of them hit, that might bring a million to the City and that would probably cost, I don’t know maybe $200, because it costs less than $.50 to produce, write and mail a postcard. Heck, you already got a bunch of money right there. We can market some millennials. They love biking. They love adventures these days because of all kinds of tv. So, we like to go outside. McKeesport is a great city for biking and you guys have done a fantastic job of making this a biking City. Biking Cities are very positive for small businesses because bikers like to hop off their bike and instead of finding a parking lot, they hop off their bike and lock it up. It’s a proven system to bring in much more small business and we already have plenty of biking available. We can market to international. We have one of the biggest International Festivals whoever and I actually learned a bit of Chinese in High School and College so that’s one way to market internationally you could market to artists. People who like to listen to free music. We already have the free music. We also have plenty of blank canvases. Do we have vacant property or do we have blank canvases? Do we have places for people to put a bunch of murals? Yes, we do. We have almost anything, we have everything we need to be a very successful City depending on how we tell people what we have. We have to get the message out of who [7] McKeesport really is. That’s what we must do for the future. We must start marketing President Dellapenna said I believe on a lot of the points you made the Mayor and the Senator are already working on some of those issues and I think we all agree with you up here. The City is, and does need marketed. Mr. Soles said, if I can interrupt you, we have already had two movies in town this year also. President Dellapenna said yes, two movies, and they are touching on some other things that you mentioned. I believe the Mayor also invited you down to speak with him. Mr. Mellinger said yes, sir, I would love to do that. Mayor Cherepko said we appreciate it and thank you. President Dellapenna said thank you. Mr. Mellinger said thank you all. NEW BUSINESS: Secretary James said we need a Motion to Remove Bill #38 from the table. President Dellapenna asked for a Motion to Remove Bill #38 from the table. MOTION: Ms. Walker-Montgomery moved, seconded by Mr. Soles “to remove Bill #38 from the table.” RC-3 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) President Dellapenna said we need a Motion to Add. Solicitor Elash said to Amend the Agenda to Add a New Bill 38. President Dellapenna asked for a Motion to Add New Bill #38. MOTION: Ms. Walker-Montgomery moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei “to Amend the Agenda to Add a New Bill #38.” [8] RC-4 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 16-011 - BILL #38 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, SETTING FORTH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR OBTAINING OCCUPANCY PERMITS PRIOR TO THE TRANSFER OF PROPERTY, ESTABLISHING INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS AND ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES FOR OBTAINING SAID OCCUPANCY PERMITS. MOTION: Ms. Walker-Montgomery moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei “to Approve Bill #38.” President Dellapenna asked for any discussion and Ms. Walker-Montgomery said I just want to reiterate, I know I had brought up last about the consequences and I see the new bill in here, but it’s still in here about 30 days, and imprisonment or a fine, so I just want to make sure that’s like the last, last, last resort. I did look up other Ordinances under other consequences but I just want to make sure that’s a last, very last resort. Solicitor Elash said that language goes along with a Summary offense and that’s up to the Judge. That would be really on certain circumstances. If they just continued to ignore us on a continual basis. That’s just the normal language that goes with that. RC-5 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 16-016 - BILL #45 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, FIXING THE NUMBER AND COMPENSATION OF CITY OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT; LEVYING TAXES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR, MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR, MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2017. MOTION: Ms. Walker-Montgomery moved, seconded by Mr. Soles “to Approve Bill #45.” [9] RC-6 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 16-017 - BILL #46 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, ESTABLISHING THE RATE OF INTEREST TO BE CHARGED ON DELINQUENT MUNICIPAL SERVICE FEE ACCOUNTS TO BE PAID BY THE DELINQUENT TAXPAYER. MOTION: Mrs. Brewster-Filotei moved, seconded by Ms. Walker-Montgomery “to Approve Bill #46.” Mayor Cherepko said, this is pretty much to clear some things up. To take some gray area out that we talked about. You know when we start collecting, start aggressively pursuing Municipal Service Fees, all this does is it gives us more teeth to pursue them. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. I don’t know about the legality of it but you have this new Web Site, you know you could post names on the Web Site of people who haven’t paid. Mayor Cherepko said yes, that came up here for years and I think the problem is if you are not posting everybody, you have to be very careful, or if you post somebody that’s a mistake, I think you are just really setting yourself up. It’s not crazy, I mean it would, I just don’t trust our system and when I say our system, I mean everybody we put out there, there’s going to be a mistake. I see it now when people come in, for whatever reason. But there’s no question, we don’t have a Daily News anymore but we’ve said that for years. Take out a couple full pages of the Daily News and it would pay itself when people see you are talking about Municipal Service Fees, $300 a year, how people owe thousands is beyond me but Keystone will be pursuing those aggressively as well. Real Estate Taxes, as we said last night, people that owe 2013 and 2014 that did not pay, they now have a lien or they will have a lien, we authorized Keystone to go ahead and lien the properties and it’s fair, regardless of what anyone tells you. I promise you that the one thing is we are fair across the board, I don’t care who you are and whether I know you or whether I don’t, people come in and want to make [10] payments and we work out payments and things. We realize people have it tough so we will work with people regardless of who you are. President Dellapenna said I just want to reiterate what I said last night because that’s going to be key even to the tax increase. I mean if we are not pursuing everyone and everyone’s paying their fair share it’s not going to work. Mayor Cherepko said we did go back and like I told you, in 2011 the City basically collected $1.8 million dollars, in Real Estate alone we are up to $2 million dollars, so our collections have definitely come up since we’ve been in here. As of right now this year we have $2,153,000 collected. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-7 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2016-030 - BILL #47 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO EXERCISE OPTION YEAR TWO WITH BIG’S SANITATION, INC. FOR THE COLLECTION OF GARBAGE, RUBBISH AND RECYCLING FOR A ONE YEAR PERIOD COMMENCING JANUARY 1, 2017, AND EXPIRING DECEMBER 31, 2017. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Ms. Walker-Montgomery to “Approve Bill #47.” Mayor Cherepko said this is just the garbage hauler. Back when he was the winning bid we negotiated with him that, I think it was a four year bid, I think four year bid, to go year by year and all this is another year. RC-8 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) [11] RESOLUTION NO. 2016-031 - BILL #48 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH METER FEEDER, INC. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei to “Approve Bill #48” Mayor Cherepko said this is just another way for people to pay meters. Once we bring this in you will be able to pay on your phone. The City doesn’t lose any income off of it. What they do is if they use your app then they might charge you a couple of cents. Like for $.50 they might bill you $.52, $.53, whatever it is, so the money comes up on top of what we get so it does not hurt us in any way, shape or form. It just gives our people and people that are visiting the downtown area, especially with meters, the opportunity to, in case you don’t have quarters, you don’t have change, you can pay on your phone. RC-9 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2016-032 - BILL #49 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH CAMBRIDGE INVESTMENT ADVISORS, INC., TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL PLANNING TO THE EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mr. Soles to “Approve Bill #49.” Mayor Cherepko said this is just going to be a service for our employees and it’s an opportunity. They will hold seminars and things. The employees will go if they want to and if they don’t, they don’t. But they will kind of send out surveys of what types of things. It’s like personal investments, people that have debt problems, they can help manage you and get out, so it’s a nice service to offer to our employees. It’s basically no cost, it’s very minimal. I mean it was something we talked about with the Unions as well. It was part of the Negotiations. We told them we would try to get this. [12] RC-10 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, BROWN, WALKER- MONTGOMERY, SOLES (6) NAYS: NONE (0) ADJOURNMENT: President of Council Dellapenna said that concludes the Council meeting for this month and I would like to wish everybody a Happy Holiday, safe Holiday. The meeting then adjourned at 7:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Annette James City Clerk and Clerk of Council APPROVED: Richard Dellapenna President of Council das [13]