City Council

CITY OF MCKEESPORT SPECIAL MEETING MONDAY 5:00 P.M. AUGUST 7, 2017 This Meeting of Council was called to order on the above-stated date at the above-stated time after the Pledge of Allegiance and Moment of Silence by President of Council Richard Dellapenna. President Dellapenna announced that this was a Special Meeting and Council would be sticking just to Agenda Items. The following Members of Council were present: RC-1 PRESENT: RICHARD DELLAPENNA, JIM BARRY, JAMIE BREWSTER- FILOTEI, KEITH SOLES, TIM BROWN, LUETHEL NESBIT (not present at roll call / arrived late) ABSENT: FAWN WALKER-MONTGOMERY Also present were Mayor Michael Cherepko, former City Administrator Tom Maglicco, Attorney J. Jason Elash and members of the Administration. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Brown, “to approve the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of July 5, 2017.” RC-2 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN (5) NAYS: NONE (0) COMMUNICATIONS: Received both the Fire and Police Reports for the month of July 2017. MAYOR’S REPORT: Thank you Mr. President. Obviously, it’s a special meeting this month so we are going to stick to the Agenda and keep things short. We did have some other Resolutions that you have before you this evening as well, shouldn’t be anything controversial. We figure just get it done tonight and it would be a little less that we do in September. So, I am not going to do any report except for I thought it would be a great opportunity to acknowledge our [1] recipients for the Message Committee, living the Life of Respect, Dignity, Love and Hope. You may have seen the most recent Community Magazine. In the Community Magazine that came out these are individuals who are doing things for this community, people that believe in the future of the community and of this City, and really buy into what we are talking about when we speak about working together for a better McKeesport. So, I am going to go forth and I see Angelia is here this evening as well, thank her for her time she puts in on this Committee as well and Jennifer is back there and anyone else for the Committee. They put a lot of time into this and once again I will remind the public that you are able to recommend individuals or groups for these awards. With that I am going to get started. The first one is going to be for Respect. WHEREAS, the McKeesport Message Committee uplifts the values of Respect, Dignity, Hope and Love through community programming and other efforts; and WHEREAS, Regis Mellinger who is excited about highlighting positive happenings in the City of McKeesport has started a brand-new McKeesport Initiative to promote events and good deeds through social media; and WHEREAS, Mellinger’s personal vision fits well with the notion of working together for a better McKeesport, understanding that citizen engagement and grass-root efforts improve neighborhoods and build a sense of community; and WHEREAS, Mellinger has led a volunteer effort to clean trash and debris from neighborhoods across the City of McKeesport to show what improvements can be made through hard work and a sense of respect for our neighbors. NOW, THEREFORE, as Mayor of the City of McKeesport, I do hereby honor Regis Mellinger as the Living the Message awardee for Respect. The next awardee is a man that is no stranger to the City of McKeesport and has been around a very long time and has dedicated his time, his wisdom to really trying to provide the youth of today with as many positive life-learning experiences as possible and help encourage them to make decisions on life that they need to make in order to become productive citizens. That award for Hope goes to Keith Murphy. WHEREAS, the McKeesport Message Committee uplifts the values of Respect, Dignity, Hope and Love through community programming and other efforts; and [2]  WHEREAS, native McKeesporter Keith Murphy has worked with inter-City youth in areas of Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and across the Greater Pittsburgh Area, returning to his hometown to build a foundation for a local outreach; and WHEREAS, Murphy opened a health village institute as a safe-haven for youth ages 5 to 21, recruiting participants from McKeesport Area schools, churches, social service agencies, and neighborhood families; and WHEREAS, Murphy is a positive role model for youth in the City of McKeesport, giving children and teens an opportunity to become goal oriented learners who value their own future as well as the future of their community. NOW, THEREFORE, as Mayor of the City of McKeesport, I do hereby honor Keith Murphy as Living the Message awardee for Hope. The next award goes to an individual who has been around quite some time. Someone that I actually look up to. Someone that’s full of knowledge and history behind the City. Someone that is without any question gets very defensive of the City and is not scared to stand up for it and let people know the truth and that award goes to Dee Connor. WHEREAS, Dee Connor is committed to serving the City of McKeesport through volunteerism. She is a founding member of the Mon River Fleet Lions Club and is active with the McKeesport Healthier Communities Partnership where she leads the crime and safety and religious logic models; and WHEREAS, Dee Connor is the Vice Chair of McKeesport Joint Task Force and Chairwoman of the Hill Task Force which reaches out to neighborhood children through sponsorship of Holiday Events and achievement parties; and WHEREAs, Connor puts the people of McKeesport above all else as she searches for new ways to contribute to the community, including the organization of the City of Our Little Angels Christmas Event and the donation of playground equipment to increase opportunities for local children. NOW, THEREFORE, as Mayor of the City of McKeesport, I do hereby honor Dee Connor as the Living the Message awardee for Love. Mayor Cherepko said the last awardee is not here at this time but I do want to acknowledge it and read it. The award of Dignity goes to Keenan Michel. [3]  WHEREAS, Keenan Michel is making a difference in the lives of men who have been through the Judicial System, serving as a Life Coach and Case Manager with First Step Recovery Homes; and WHEREAS, Michel has had success in his work because he speaks from his heart and from experience, allowing his past to help him relate to his clients and offer them the same moral and social reprogramming that he experienced; and WHEREAS, Michel’s generous heart extends beyond his line of work as he has volunteered with many organizations including the Samaria Project and the LaRosa Boys and Girls Clubs. NOW, THEREFORE, as Mayor of the City of McKeesport, I do hereby honor Kennan Michel as Living the Message awardee for Dignity. As I said Mr. President, this is a Special Meeting so I am not going to have anything else this evening so we can proceed. That concludes my Report. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. NEW BUSINESS: RESOLUTION NO. 2017-035 – BILL #96 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY FOR A COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE & TOURISM FUND GRANT. Mayor Cherepko said this is CITF money that is received through the County, we would be remiss if we didn’t say without the help of Senator Brewster. This one I believe is $100,000 received for paving that we are going to utilize on Bowman Avenue. Bowman Avenue, as quickly as we go up there and improve it and put band-aides on it, within a month later we have the same issue because of large trucks and everything else going up there. So, because of the flow of traffic and the large trucks we are going to put this money toward that project. MOTION: Mr. Barry moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei “to approve Bill #96.” RC-3 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) [4] Mayor Cherepko said if I may Mr. President, I am going to interrupt because I don’t want to forget to do it, we forgot to do it last month. If you look at your little note next to New Business. Why don’t we just do that now so we don’t forget, does it really matter? If you remember I don’t want to get to the end for whatever reason and forget. Solicitor Elash said we just need a Motion to authorize the settlement of Select Specialty Group that we went over last month in the back and vote on it, for that Tax Assessment Appeal. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Barry “to approve the settlement of the Select Specialty Group Tax Assessment Appeal.” RC-4 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2017-036 – BILL #97 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE FIING OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2017 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN FOR FUNDING KNOWN AS B- 17-MC-42-0106 UNDER TITLE 1 OF THE HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1974 (PUBLIC LAW 93-383), AS AMENDED. Mayor Cherepko said if I may Mr. President, this is, you might want to take a Motion and second first and discussion. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mrs. Nesbit “to approve Bill #97.” President Dellapenna asked for any discussion and Mayor Cherepko said this is actually why we had the Special meeting because it was important that we approve this. This is our CDBG Budget. With us today we have Mr. Tedesco, who is obviously our Community Development Director and our consultant as well, Mr. Hagland, so I will turn it over to them. Mr. Tedesco said good evening Council. Don’t blame us, that’s Congress that delayed the CDBG Program so that’s why we had to have the Special meeting. What we are going to do, some of the highlights of our next year’s Budget, is we are looking to improve Fawcett and Duncan Fields. The parks, to make them more accessible, improve the concession stand over at Fawcett and also make [5] some of the field and fencing improvements over there. Also, as you remember we did the Pier in Gergely Park. That is ongoing when we award that bid. We are going to finish the phase of that. We are going to do the amphitheater part now that surrounds the Pier. This is going to be a portion of the money that comes out of this Budget. We are also going to move some old money that we have existing to cover those costs. Also, some of the stuff is routine, the community policing, the Chief utilizing that money in overtime at a savings for the City. The excavator program has been running quite well. The Mayor can tell you how many houses we have torn down with our own equipment. The fire truck we paid out. Rodent removal, wild life, Mr. Collura is also on the Agenda tonight. Do you guys have any other questions? President Dellapenna asked if Council had any other questions and then said thank you Mr. Tedesco. RC-5 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2017-037 – BILL #98 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO ENTER INTO THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT FOR RODENT CONTROL SERVICES. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Brown “to approve Bill #98.” President Dellapenna asked for discussion and Mayor Cherepko said we did go out to bid on this. We had two bids that came in, I believe you had in your packet. Collura has been doing it for quite some time for us, he does an excellent job, definitely not a job that I would want, especially when he is dealing with the skunk end of things, but he does do a very good job and he’s doing a lot more now for us than what he has done in the past as well. He’s pretty much, will also send cages out to residents who have a raccoon problem, groundhog as well. Early on, we kind of were just using him, for years I think, more so for the skunks, but he now does all that as well, which also saves money out of our residents pockets for putting a deposit down on a cage and things like that, so he has been providing a great service to the City. [6] RC-6 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2017-038 – BILL #99 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, APPROVING A SUBDIVISION REQUEST FROM PUREPENN, LLC TO SUBDIVDE TWO (2) PARCELS INTO THREE (3) PARCELS IN RICD PARK. THE LOTS TO BE DIVED ARE RESIDUAL BLOCK #4 AND #4-3-A IN THE NATIONAL WORKS PLAN. MOTION: Mr. Barry moved, seconded by Mr. Brown “to approve Bill #99.” President Dellapenna asked for any discussion and Mayor Cherepko said Mr. President this is just another step in helping Purepenn to move along to getting their new facility built. RC-7 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2017-039 – BILL #100 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHANGING THE SIGNERS ON THE HUNTINGTON BANK ACCOUNTS TO REFLECT CURRENT AUTHORIZED SIGNATORIES. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mrs. Nesbit “to approve Bill #100.” President Dellapenna asked for any discussion and Mayor Cherepko said this is just, very clear, obviously our Controller is now sitting in our City Administrator seat and we have a new Controller as well to sign. RC-8 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2017-040 – BILL #101 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICERS TO EXECUTE ALL DOCUMENTS NECESSARY TO ENTER [7] INTO A LEASE AGREEMENT WITH CIT BANK, N.A. FOR THE PURCHASE OF A NEW PHONE SYSTEM FROM AEC GROUP, INC. MOTION: Mrs. Brewster-Filotei moved, seconded by Mr. Soles “to approve Bill #101.” President Dellapenna asked for any discussion and Mayor Cherepko said Mr. President this was a long time coming. We have had all kinds of different concerns and issues with our phone system at City Hall. Some of the ladies are with us this evening as well and this has been in the process for a while. This particular company, it’s great to know they are a local company, they are located in McKeesport. Pretty much across the street right on East Fifth Avenue, across from, I’m drawing a blank, Stillview, at the bottom of Crawford, so they are a local company. They come under a program that is similar to the Costar Program so there is no reason to go out for bid. We get those prices, those are all pre-bid just like the Costar would be, so that’s what we are looking to do. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-9 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2017-041 – BILL #102 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICERS TO EXECUTE ALL DOCUMENTS NECESSARY TO ACCEPT THE PROPOSAL OF AMASTI, INC. FOR THE LEASE OF A NEW POSTAGE MACHINE AND SCALE. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei “to approve Bill #102.” President Dellapenna asked for any questions or discussion and Mayor Cherepko said Mr. President I’m going to let Mr. Maglicco take the lead on this. Mr. Maglicco said yes, Mr. President, Tasha Phillips, the Financial Director, brought it to my attention that Pitney Bows’ Contract was running out. We reached out to a company called AMASTI and they actually provide the same service, the same Pitney Bows machine, so when we were looking at the numbers [8] of Pitney Bows, he took a look at our system and saw that we didn’t need that big of a product so we actually got it at a smaller cost but we also looked at our scale of work that we are doing and as we get smaller through attrition and continue to do that we had some other short-comings and that was an envelope stuffer that we use to send our bills out. We send them out 3,000 at a time and we looked at his system is also a local guy where we can contact these guys. For example, if the postage machine doesn’t work, he is able to come down and get that mail and take it back to his company and if he can’t fix our machine he will do that free of charge. His job is to keep us running and keep us going. There’s a couple of other things that, it’s the same machine but we can get it at a discounted rate, a serious reduction on printer ink through this particular company and everything is under warranty with this Amasti. Again, just a good way to save some money overall with these two machines. Mayor Cherepko said and I think the one part of it too when it comes to stuffing envelopes, we take it for granted, I mean we are living in the dark ages. We do it by hand. Now fortunately we have an unbelievable staff in clerical that works with us throughout the City and it doesn’t matter who it is, whose job it is, they take it amongst themselves to make it all of their jobs and they always do. So, typically at that time we will have a couple hours during that day where we have everyone working, you know, all hands-on deck to try to get these stuffed, so this will also eliminate that as well. RC-10 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2017-042 – BILL #103 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICERS TO ENTER INTO A CUSTOM REIMBURSEMENT AGREEMENT WITH THE PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FOR BRIDGE INSPECTION. MOTION: Mrs. Nesbit moved, seconded by Mr. Brown “to approve Bill #103.” [9] President Dellapenna asked for any questions and Solicitor Elash said this is just a renewal Agreement that we do every year for Bridge Inspections. We have our Engineers go out. President Dellapenna said thank you Mr. Elash. RC-11 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, BARRY, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, SOLES, BROWN, NESBIT (6) NAYS: NONE (0) Mayor Cherepko said, Mr. President if I may, I apologize, but Keenan Michel is here. So, with that, I will read it again, obviously he is our awardee for Dignity. I think when you heard a little bit, what I read prior to this, you can see the impact that he is trying to make on our youth and the choices they make in their life. We need all hands-on deck, talk about everyone being involved, that’s what we need in this day and age and there are so many different people throughout the community, many of which who may not be as known as Mr. Michel and I think that’s without question we want him to know that we appreciate his efforts. WHEREAS, Keenan Michel is making a difference in the lives of men who have been through the Judicial System, serving as a Life Coach and Case Manager with First Step Recovery Homes; and WHEREAS, Michel has had success in his work because he speaks from his heart and from experience, allowing his past to help him relate to his clients and offer them the same moral and social reprogramming that he experienced; and WHEREAS, Michel’s generous heart extends beyond his line of work as he has volunteered with many organizations including the Samaria Project and the LaRosa Boys and Girls Clubs. NOW, THEREFORE, as Mayor of the City of McKeesport, I do hereby honor Kennan Michel as Living the Message awardee for Dignity. Mayor Cherepko said the only thing I want to say is just to remind everyone of International Village next week. So, get a chance out, let’s pray for the weather to cooperate for three wonderful days. It’s an opportunity to not only for our City and our residents to enjoy but it’s an opportunity for people to come from all over. It’s an opportunity for McKeesport to show other communities as well that we are a great place. We still have great events going on and a lot of good people. When you talk about good people, you talk about these award winners today, you talk about the volunteers we have in this City and I think when you [10] look at the International Village Board and what they do and their efforts and it’s chaired by Councilman Keith Soles as well, and that’s very well involved. I know Council people show up to put their hand in there as well, especially during those three days, but this Board works tirelessly and exhaustingly throughout the year just like so many others do but let’s get out and make this event a success and if anyone wants to volunteer I am sure they can talk to Mr. Soles or Annette, but we are looking forward to that and that will be next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 15th, 16th and 17th. ADJOURNMENT: President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. With that being said I would like to congratulate everyone who received awards and thank you for coming. Good night. The meeting then adjourned at 5:32 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Annette James City Clerk and Clerk of Council APPROVED: Richard Dellapenna President of Council /das [11]