City Council

CITY OF MCKEESPORT REGULAR MEETING WEDNESDAY 7:00 P.M. NOVEMBER 7, 2018 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. Prayer was led by Mrs. Ethel Ballas from St. Stephens. The following Members of Council were present: RC-1 PRESENT: BRIAN EVANS, TIMOTHY BROWN, JAMIE BREWSTER- FILOTEI, RICHARD DELLAPENNA, JIM BARRY, LUETHEL NESBIT, KEITH SOLES APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MOTION: Mrs. Brewster-Filotei, seconded by Mr. Barry, “to approve the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of October 3, 2018.” RC-2 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, NESBIT, SOLES (7) NAYS: NONE (0) COMMUNICATIONS: Received the Fire and Police Reports for the month of October 2018. MAYOR’S REPORT: President Dellapenna asked for the Mayor’s Report. Mayor Cherepko said yes, Mr. President, I will be brief, and I mean that. I did forget to mention a few things, Pitt Make a Difference Day sent out oh man, 50- 60, maybe 75 students that came out to help us with clean up, they do it once a year. This year we had them focus down on the Penn McKee Area, some helped clean out the offices on the first floor and literally filled up a dumpster, some went around, Councilman Soles I think was with a crew and went around the Marina Area and within that entire vicinity, but we are very grateful and thankful [1] for the University of Pittsburgh for them coming out and helping clean up our City. The other thing that I did want to mention is with the increasing cost of health care and as they continue to go up we were faced with a double-digit increase and we were able to really, through very intense negotiations with UPMC Health Plan, I think we are going to be looking at about a 3% increase which could be $45,000, give or take, but under the given circumstances it’s a big win and I am thankful for UPMC for working with us and coming to a compromise that’s a little more affordable for us as we continue to provide health care to our employees. With that as well I think I would be remiss if I didn’t say to remind the people and the public of how far we’ve come with the benefit packages with our employees. Our employees have really looked, worked with us, as far as having deductibles and things that come out that they really didn’t pay before for health care here and that’s pretty much the trend but it’s still something that our Bargaining Units have stepped up and really helped support the City when we did finalize contracts over the last couple years. So, we are grateful for them for understanding the situation as well and working with us. The last thing I have is we don’t have an unlimited amount of these but the City of McKeesport Police Department, Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, Rainbow Temple, and also with an in-kind donation from Walmart, we have vouchers to provide full, uncooked Thanksgiving dinners for families, a few families or someone you have in mind that could use it, I think Ms. Ballas left but we are going to reach out I think Pastor Pete is reaching out to the ministries as well but if there is someone in need we can get them vouchers to pick up the dinners from Wednesday, November 14th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Common Grounds Building which is the old YWCA Building. Once again, I think this speaks volumes for the County Sheriff and our Police Department with what they are trying to do and it’s our job if you have anyone in mind because I know we still have plenty of vouchers left and we are only one week away at this point from them needing to pick them up. It will be entire dinners, from frozen turkeys all the way down to frozen pumpkin pie. So, if there is anyone in need, they can contact my office, reach the Chief’s office in the Police Department, so let’s try to get the word out. Like I said they are not unlimited or we would be posting it everywhere but if there’s people you know that are in need and can use it please let us know. [2] Alright Mr. President that concludes my report. President Dellapenna said thank you Mr. Mayor. CITIZENS IN THE AUDIENCE: None present. NEW BUSINESS: President Dellapenna asked Secretary James for New Business. Mayor Cherepko said oh no. President Dellapenna said go ahead Mayor if you have something else. Mayor Cherepko said yes, as I mentioned to you earlier, I do need I am going to ask for a Motion to Appoint Alfred Tedesco, Sr. to the MIDA Board and I’ll be coming over the next several months to reappoint because we have terms expiring. We really didn’t reappoint much at all this year and I’ll be looking to see if there are any openings as well but the Board Members that are still active and do a good job we usually look to reappoint. This one would be to replace Matt Gergely who resigned because of his new job. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Barry “to appoint Alfred Tedesco, Sr. to the MIDA Board.” RC-3 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, NESBIT, SOLES (7) NAYS: NONE (0) Mayor Cherepko said the only other thing Mr. President was I didn’t really say anything last month because it wasn’t official, well it was official because we had our meeting, but it’s nice to see our new Captain of Detectives for our Police Department in the audience, Chris Halaszynski, in the audience as well. Congratulations Chris! Congratulations Chris said President Dellapenna. President Dellapenna then asked Secretary James to continue. [3] ORDINANCE NO. 18-020 – BILL #80 (Introduced by Mr. Soles) – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AMENDING ORDINANCE #04-19 OF 2004 TO AMEND THE CHARGES FOR VARIOUS FIRE/RESCUE SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE CITY. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei “to approve Bill #80.” RC-4 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, NESBIT, SOLES (7) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2018-062 – BILL #84 (Introduced by Mr. Evans) – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH GARVIN BOWARD BEITKO FOR ENGINEERING SERVICES INVESTIGATING SOLUTIONS TO THE MCINTOSH DRIVE LANDSLIDE IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND ($75,000) DOLLARS. MOTION: Mrs. Nesbit moved, seconded by Mr. Soles, “to approve Bill #84.” President Dellapenna asked for questions or comments and Mayor Cherepko said this just goes into the McIntosh Project we were talking about. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-5 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, NESBIT, SOLES (7) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2018-063 – BILL #85 (Introduced by Mr. Barry) – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH KUCICH CONSTRUCTION, INC. FOR CITY HALL ENCLOSURE PROJECT IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE THOUSAND ($265,000) DOLLARS. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Evans, “to approve Bill #85.” [4] President Dellapenna asked for questions, comments or discussion and Mayor Cherepko said this is just another one of those add it to the list of things I mentioned earlier. Between the roof just being old, expensive and Mother Nature, we incurred some flooding and some issues at City Hall that must be repaired. This did go out to bid and Mr. Kucich was the lowest bid and Brandon has been doing a really good job with some of the other contracts he was awarded here and it’s nice to see someone local. There were a couple bids on there and he was a lot cheaper. He was a lot lower than the next highest bidder on this as well. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-6 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, NESBIT, SOLES (7) NAYS: NONE (0) ADJOURNMENT: President of Council Dellapenna said that concludes the Council meeting Wednesday, November 7, 2018. Thank you all for coming and have a good holiday, Thanksgiving! The meeting then adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Annette James City Clerk and Clerk of Council APPROVED: Richard Dellapenna President of Council das [5]