City Council

Thursday, February 5, 2026 7:00 PM Williamsport, PA Council President Eric Beiter brought the Williamsport City Council meeting to order on Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 7:00 PM.at Trade & Transit Center II, 144 W. Third St, Williamsport, PA. This meeting was duly advertised in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. Council members present: Also, Present: Eric Beiter, Council President Derek Slaughter, Mayor, absent Mr. Willia Vincent Pulizzi, Vice President Valerie Fessler absent Liz Miele, Councilwoman Tracey Harer, , Fire Chief, Adam W Jonah Milliken, Councilman, Justin Snyder, Police Chief, absent Adam Yoder, Councilman Solicitor Nicholas Grimes Jon Mackey, Councilman, Janice Frank, City Clerk Bonnie Katz, Councilwoman Jamie Livermore Absent: Scott Livermore, S&P Adam Yoder Kris Black Jon Mackey Adam Welt3rroth, Treasurer absent Bill Scott Members of the public Approval of the Williamsport City Council minutes of 01/08/26 approved upon a motion by Mr. Pulizzi and second from Mr. Milliken. All were in favor with a vote of 5 to 0. Presentation - PMF Gordon Thank you very much. It's good to join you virtually. I am sorry I can't be there with you for this last Mr. Joseph Pawlak presentation. I had family member here in our housebreak both of her wrists falling down the stairs. And it's need made it harder to travel for a couple of weeks but I do miss seeing you. in person and I'm glad we have the opportunity to do Mr. Joe Pawlak this virtually as we include what's been a good first step in putting the city become on a path for financial stability. For Mr. Gary Knarr those who are coming into this new, this will be like the first 60 seconds Mr. TomofCillo a Netflix show where you can skip past the C. Dean Dave intro if you want to. But for those who don't want to skip pass, PMF was required Young, Police Chief last year under the strategic planning Chief He Sol. J. David Smith program it's a management funded program by DCCE I think I haveJanice Jonah there Frank, tonight City Clerk, absentfor the department and he's been instrumental in our work all along. It's program designed to fund Toddwork Heckman,where we, come into municipalities and into Fire Chief communities and provide a financial roadmap to deal with their financial challenges. Last July we talk about those News Media challenges were. In September and October, we talked about some of the option for dealing with them. We worked through a real life set of challenges in your 2026 budget. And now the plan is done. And has been distributed. It's a public document. And I'm -- tonight I'm not going to go through 125 pages. I don't think anybody wants that but I will go through the first five of six of the executive summaries. And give you the highlights. I will -- if you have the plan in front Members of News Media of you, I will kind of read you through on the pages. If I can try and shareMembersmy of thescreen news mediabut I'm not sure that's -- how much use that is. Let me see. All right. Well, if this -- if you are able to follow along the screen, one, you have excellent sight. But two if you have dak load the plan and see the full document for yourself. And dive into whatever areas that are of most interesting to you. This is the financial management plan that's different from a comprehensive plan which is hand use and different from an employment plan, which is how you hire and fill your positions. This is about using your finances and your resources in the best way to advance your community's goals. The financial plan would be alongside a comprehensive plan or we reference it here to a housing plan it's part of an overall strategy. We looked at the city's cash position which is very good and continues to be very good and that's a positive thing, both it provides you a buffer against unexpected events. It gives you reserves when you need them and it's helps yours credit rating and all of which is beneficial. You have good financial reserves which is a little different from cash. This includes things that are not cash but should eventually be converted into them. Maybe money sewed to the city by other governments or from one fund to the other. And this is what financial institutions and credit rating agencies and banks focus on. They focus on your cash in this thing called "fund balance" all that said, we would not be here if everything was perfect. We are here because of the structural deficit. This is city's revenues and real estate tax and income tax and fees occur more slowly than your expenses like personnel, salary, salaries pension, overtime. And it's non-personnel expenses, everything a city government does the daily basis the electricity in your building and the gas in the police cars the legal support you use. All of that is part your operational budget. Your general fundamental budget. Your situation is not unusually just gave a presentation earlier this morning in a highly rated Chester County tiny municipality, very leafy green. Pretty in its own way. And they also have structural financial challenges in their own way. But being together in the same boat is does not prevent you from having to row it in a different direction to the baseline prox you have here that we talk through in detail in July. It's the first plan of this -- first chapter of this plan. So there's 20 pages if you want to dig deep go why this baseline deficit chest exists This is the Prox we did in July of last year. You do not have a $5.1 million testify sit to start this year. We talked through the 2020 budget and we closed that. You are still using some reserves the 2026 rather than to your age jay band keyed or a bridge to something better but we did not magically close the deficit in the span of 60 days. What we were really doing is trying to buy some time and create some space to do some things that will have a long lasting impact and beneficial of Williamsport. That's where I'll spend most of my time tonight. We did talk about the planning review where we met with some departments and talk about the city's operational needs. If it's on the screen it's the shot of the city's police headquarters in a old train station. And we talked about the some of the operation needs. And those are woven throughout the plan. There are two big areas that the plan focuses on. And there are two that we talked about a fair amount over the last I guess it's 9 or 10 months now. The first one is home rule and I know you already started on that and. The plan makes its very clear hopefully it's discussed in almost every single chapter how important going home rule is for the financial stability of the city. There are multiple reasons you could go home rule. Our focus is financial. You simply stated you need the flexibility that home rule provides to change your resident everyone earned income tax so you have not just one lever to close budget gaps the real estate tax but two in terms of the real estate tax and the earned income tax. We talk about the fact that's a long process it's something it's not something you decide to do today and it's done tomorrow. It's not actually something people in the room decide to do at all. It has to start with council. Council I think you already have done the Ordinance that puts the question on the ballot. Then after that, a number of residents have to circulate petitions and run for positions on the government study commission. If you go back to high school civics and remember the continental constitution where a couple states where people to write the constitution. No one is designated that way but same concept it's not City Council or the state or PMF or anyone else that writes or look into the charter. It's a elected body of officials. Assuming two things happen in May. And both have to happen. One the elector rat votes in favor of studying home rule it's not a -- the first vote is not whether to go home rule but whether to study it or not. And assuming there are enough people who get their nominating petitions in and get elected then the government study commission is formed and that happens if the election goes through in May. If we are talking about the primary it happens almost immediately after that a tweak week or two after that That body deliberate on the current form of government. Decides whether or not to pursue home rule. That decision has to get made no later than February of next year, could be faster. Once that decision is made, the government study commission drafts a charter. That would have to happen no later than November, again, could be faster. And then the goal the vote would be probably September -- sorry, the vote would be likely November of next year on whether to go home rule and that would give you flexibility to change your tax structure starting in January. It's a long process we talked about that. It's critical process to your financial stability we talked about that too. And the plan goes in depth into what home rule means. Why it's worth pursuing. And how you would go through the process. The second major area of focus is that back to that picture we showed earlier. It is the police Bureau headquarters. And we tried to provide a roadmap to answer a couple questions simultaneously. What should should the city do with the hold City Hall which sits vacant. How should the city provide think about a new police headquarters? And how should the city think about paying if a new city police headquarters? As we laid it out, this year would be the year to do two things. One is drawn out specifically in the plan. One's a little more subtle. The first is decide what to do with City Hall, which we do not belief is adequate to be a police station. Again, even if you did have the machines to retrofit it, you don't have the money to retrofit it. It is the risk financially. It's a risk physically if you don't continue to upkeep it. And it's a lost opportunity because it's a beautiful building in a nice part of downtown that right now is only accessible to whoever has to maintain it. So the plan -- the plan is described here. Would be this year to return it to productive use. Whatever that means. I know there's been proposals before. We would emphasize and value any proposal that retains the historical beauty and nature of the building. It is really pretty. It shouldn't be turned into a parking lot. It should be something a use that builds off its unique structure. But this would be the year to put that back into p The less drawn down part of that is you still have records in things in the building that need to come out. That need to be in terms of hard paper records need to be digitized in terms of things that aren't paper records and can't be turn into a electronic file we have to teal with those too but you can't get rid of the building without realizing there's sol leg work to prepare you to do that We did suggest the city apply for a grant under this same program. After tonight is over you will have access to grants to implement things that are in the plan. And one of those that you can get support would be to digitize the records that are in the financial -- that are in City Hall. So once you have a designated use for it, you are closer to being able to turn over the building. So that doesn't solve the police facility question. You could, you know, sell or lease the City Council. And that wouldn't obviously obviously create a new headquarters for the police building. Next year would be the year to plan out what you need both in terms of the facility and in terms of the staffing. We talked about how many offices you need. We talked about whether they are in the right positions. Think of them as lieutenant sergeant, captain. That sort of thing. Next year would be the year to figure that out. The plan explains what more quote unquote figuring that out would be. But next year you would be doing that in tandem, hopefully be with the home rule process. These two think of them as two sides of the same zipper the home rule process. And the city police building. Then in 2028 witnesses you reach the point hopefully where home rule has been passed and you have that taxing flexibility, that would put you in a position to actually go out and borrow money to build a building. I'm not aware of you having a building that you could just rent or purchase from somebody. It does not mean that your building could not be on the same physical plot where the current headquarters is the police officers when we met with them talked about some benefits of that location. The parking lot. It would need to -- it would need work. It was built to be a train museum not a police station and they are not the same thing. And you need the money to do it. You won't come up with this from cash or bake sales or anything else you have to go in the capital market and borrow the money. But if the city is able to get through home rule and put the plan in place and put the city hall into the old city hall into a more productive use that would put you in a on the path to do that. Very easy for me to say this is all the things you should do until or 10 minutes, very challenging to do them. But try and there'll definitely be questions. There'll be issues that you can and should work through. We are not divine oracles there'll be things we haven't thought of that you have to talk through. But trying to to lay out the large parts of the plan to give you a sense of what should happen when to put you in a place where you want to be. Those are the not only not the only two parts of the plan they probably home rule and police building probably take up 15 to 10 to 15 pages of the third section of the plan, which are our recommendations. The executive summary, which is the document that I'm skimming through here gives you the highlights of the other -- the other initiatives that we think are top of mind. But the way I would think about it is on this table right here. So this is our effort to take the recommendations that are in plan that are spelled out and say, okay, what should I be doing when? So that first section the gray section those should look familiar. Those are the options we used to close the 2026 budget. And while the home rule process goes through, they would be necessary for the 2027 budget as well. 2027 no matter what you do on the home rule side you will not be through the process that quickly. So 2027 will have to be to some extent another bridge budget to put you in position to achieve stronger stability. It does not mean that you should spend whatever you want or this year doesn't matter or next year doesn't matter but we want to be realistic in terms of what is possible in achieving a timeline to put you in a better position for financial stability. This year is 2026. These are the things that we believe are the priorities for this year. Some of them higher than others. The ones labeled in blue are things that we believe you can and should apply to, again, this program for a grant to fund some of these things. They are not the only things in the plan that would be grant eligible. They are just our suggestions if where we would start. You can see the see the home rule process the City Hall, digitizing the records. Some of those things I have hit on already. Some of the other things that are probably not as top of mind perhaps but that we would emphasize for this year your planning and economic development program the department the staff the programs but the whole initiative the whole area is your opportunity to play offense. Home rule is not going to save you financially Gordon: It will give you better financial stability. It is hugely important. And I don't want to understate that. But it does not magically fix everything. The best way for you to grow is for your local economy to grow. For your -- for Williamsport to have the right housing for it to have the right jobs for it to be a place where people want to live. And want to work. Because as you become more attractive your Tex revenues will grow quote unquote naturally without you having to change the tax rates and that's where true financial stability comes from and other things are necessary and important but in the long term in the long game that's what you want. When we heard repeatedly when we talked to people of where's the biggest obstacle for City Council? Where do you start in we talked with councils and the may mayor and department head. I talked with a gentleman from the Planning Commission who I believe is a realtor in the area. And the answer always came back to housing. Make sense. The Pennsylvania local tax structure rewards you when people move to town. If a big business moves to town and hires and adds 100 jobs that are well paying, there could be benefits to that for the community. But the benefit to local government is minimal unless the people who fill those 100 jobs happen to live in Williamsport. You would be better off if you had a new housing development in town because those people would move in and pay real estate tax and pay the earn earned income tax. You are not in a place to learn what you should do for housing right now. You have two initiatives that should focus on from a strategic standpoint we recommend completing the housing study, which I believe is underway. This is where you answer the question, where are the gaps in our market? Where to we have demand to meet? What should we be thinking about in and how does housing connect to other things? People don't just buy houses because the building looks cool there's a variety of different reasons they buy them because of proximity to assets and school districts and proximity to jobs. Whatever it is but having an understanding much like this process which starts with understanding your finances and going from there and completing that housing study this jeer priority. The second part of it, which is more mechanical has to do with res deniable rent aligns ins. We talked about code enforcement and we also in all of our conferrings heard a pretty clear and unified voice of people being frustrated with some challenges in terms of code enforcement and having a program that ensures that you have safe quality housings that keeps the community clean. And we talked to the codes department and we focused in on the residential rental inspections which I want to be clear is not the only thing your code department does. Your codes departments does zoning. They check the health of the local businesses. And restaurants and those things. But this is a real big important part of the program. And you have a Ordinance that requires inspections of each rental property on a certain schedule, specific enough where it actually lays out which neighborhoods they are supposed to be inspected when. We looked at what the city is doing now and this is covered more in the plan but we could not find evidence the program is effective operationally or financially. In other words it's not covering its costs and I'm not sure it's producing the results you want either. There are reasons for that. When I was there, we talked about the fact that code is the one area in the city where you are spending less now than you were five years ago. And how this is -- if it's priority those two trends don't align with each other. At the same time, you are not in a position to double down to say well let's hire three more code inspectors and see if that works. You don't really even have the information technology in place to measure what's working. So rather than try and rebuild the whole car, we are recommending you go through the process of seeing what's out there in terms of outsourced rental inspection support. This is a service that other communities contract out to other places. It's not going to be perfect. And you might decide after a couple of years of using somebody outside of City Council that you want to bring it back inside City Council. And that's fine. There are advantages to having city employees who know the community. Do this type of work but there's no advantage to having a program that's just not working. After 2026. So all of that in the next (Laughter) 11 months and obviously some of these things can and will slip but we are trying to provide a sense of priority here. For next year, I you can thed about how home rule and the police building process is work together. After you would have the study for housing you need the housing strategy that's something that could be funded in part through this program and in my mind's eye a housing strategy brings together things like how do we think about code enforcement. How do we think about LERTA and relatively small but important types of tax ram programs you have to encourage residential development. How do we think about zoning and parking? Two of the most basic mechanical and important things that will impact where people want to live and to put together a strategy to you could role roll out and act on. The other thing in the planning in the document that was brought to our attention is rethinking where the planning and zoning functions lie. I don't think this is something that needs to happen immediately. But the plan plan discussioned where you discuss areas where you might be able to get more synergy and stronger -- yeah, synergy is probably the right word, better results from having your zoning department which right now is married to code enforcement work closer with planning. Not a matter of changing the person personnel. Binged I think you could have the same perm knell but having them working in a different combination but rethinking how you organize those functions. Again that's covered in the latter part of the recovery plan. There are some other things in here building on the joint fire services last year the council moved forward and approved an arrangement with South Williamspor t. I would use this year to try that out to work out kinks in a year or two work with similar communities if they don't pursue you first. You have the capacity. You have the expertise. You have the personnel and you have the resources to be the hub a strong regional fire system. Doesn't mean you should do it right away. Obviously, there are other things that are priorities but that is how we view the fire department and how we presented them in this plan. There are some other things that are in here that are more bread and butter related to the budget process. There are some that are related to collective bargaining that's the negotiations with the unions. At the time we completed this, maybe they still are they are in a bit of a flux. 3 of the 4 unions were in negotiations. None of them has new contracts yet. We laid out strategies for how you should think about cash compensation. How you should think about health insurance, which is probably the most important lever you have in terms of cost control. And managing some other liabilities, some thoughts on worker compensation and cashing out unused leave. And that's really inside baseball. But we try to give you a comprehensive look at your compensation costs. It's an aggressive plan. It's a ambitious plan. It's hopefully a (Laughter) hopefully a thoughtful and effective plan. But it's designed to give you a place to, again, we talk to build off the bridge. If the 2026 budget is an effective bridge it has to be a bridge to something. This is the start of the answer to what that something is. Mr. Beiter: Gordon, also always very detailed and have been appreciate that. And you went through this you top offed on the major points that were my concern. And you bring up other things that I would like to bounce off in open discussion. You talk about housing being an priority. Williamsport like many other cities has a unique situation here where we are landlocked we can't really go out and buy a farmer's field and put a housing development there with 50 new houses. But the adjacent communities have been able to do that and benefit from it very much so over the past 30 years. And they've seen a lot of growth. For a community like ours what is a situation that we should potentially look at for housing boost? Gordon, That's a good question and a common question across Pennsylvania. I was at the national league of cities conference. And I was talking to somebody from Utah or Colorado. And they were telling me about this annexation and growth stuff and I said that's great in Pennsylvania everyone has the same borders they did 250 years ago. And they look at me like I had three heads because Pennsylvania is unique in that you can't annex and grow in the way you described is challenging to put it mildly. Not being a housing expert but here's how I would think about it from a financial perspective. For starters you need to make sure you have market rate housing. I'm not saying you don't need affordable housing or transition housing or those things but from a financial perspective it's housing that adds to your tax base both in terms of the real estate tax and the earned income tax that helps you financially. A big tower of senior apartments underwritten by a big tax increase where most people that live in it are retired and don't have income you might need that too for non-financial reasons but it won't help you financially. I would think of the code enforcement because you are right you can't do what's called green field development where you take farmer's Joe's field and turn it into houses you have to do gray field development or brown field development, that means something a little different. But where you take the houses you have and make sure they are up to code and provide an environment where the value of those houses rises. Does this mean gentrification? If that's in the back of your mind. I don't know. You have a long way to go before you have to worry about gentrification. That's from the financial perspective what I see. Your planning -- Ms. Miele : Can I break in to ask you to differentiate between -- I mean, from your perspective from the perspective of financial eke economic development in the city does it matter if the housing is owned or rented? Gordon> Uh, you know it's a really good question, Councilwoman. And I fight against years of hearing people say to me that people who own their house are more likely to be invested in their house and less likely to be transitory and more likely to keep their property in shape. Ms. Miele: I feel as the though -- I'm not sure that's always true. (Laughter). I do think -- I guess I really don't know is the honest answer. Ms. Miele: We've been discussing the city has barriers in place in terms of codes to things like condos and conned minimums. And I'm trying figure out whether those are regulations to work onto create more owner occupied spaces even if it's portions of buildings instead of entire buildings because we also have a lot of old housing stock if you were to retain that housing stock would probably be better suit finished a lot of smaller families and couples if it were, say, two condos instead of a single owner occupied house. So I'm trying to figure out whether that's something we should be looking at to improve our housing opportunities or whether -- it seems though the prevailing mindset nationally is rental versus owned is not as big of a deal as it was considered 20 years. Gordon That's right. And you know, we work -- I know I referenced them throughout this process we wrote at the same time we were writing this plan we wrote one for City of easten which is on the border near Allentown near the Lehigh valley their earned income tax is growing 8% to 10% a year because of condos. If you go to City Hall you have one giant condo on either side and last time I was there they are more excited about condos bast a weasel-y but maybe a intellectually consistent answer to say what does the market tell you what do people want? What is the market doing going? Where is the demand? That's probably part of the answer. It may not be for home inner ship. It maybe for nice rental apartments in your downtown area where you can take advantage of the assets that way. But maybe the highest demand is not the picket fence with the backyard with the dog and two kids. Ms. Miele: Mm-hmm. Got it. Sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to be clear about what we were discussing when discussing housing. Mr. Beiter, Other questions from members of the council about the presentation? Ms. Miele. Ms. Miele : Several, well a couple anyway. I hear that Easton is a in a good financialuation is that a accurate statement? : Okay, (Laughter), I was trying to figure out during your presentation there'll a concept that home rule will at least for a period of time help us stabilize our expenditures versus income imbalance that we currently have in the city and obviously we need to build on that but I was curious how many third class cities in the State of Pennsylvania you would describe as being in a position where we are they are not constantly looking for additional funding. I feel as though -- Gordon Demands are many. So (Laughter). Who is not looking for additional funding? I know that's not what you meant but I would say -- so I would say Easton is a in a good position the ones that I worked with. And I haven't worked with all of them. Easton is in a go ahead financial position. And Lancaster is in a better position now than before home rule. And I spoked with the Mayor before she left office and they moved from a perspective of thinking of City Council own financial city government own financial survival to a outward focus what does growth look like for Lancaster? It looks different there than anywhere else. And. And they have a population where 50% and 60% of the population speaks Spanish it's a larger city it's one of the few in Pennsylvania ed that population growth. I would consider them to be relatively strong, I don't work from Scranton but I hear they are in a relatively strong position All of those communities are home rule. That doesn't mean -- it's not causation but I do think there's strong correlation Ms. Miele Thanks. I feel as though I've been on City Council now for 16 years and there's never been a point where it wasn't basically a scramble to attempt to fund the basic needs of city government. And it gets you into this mindset there's nothing else that's possible. It would be delightful if we achieve home rule and then we aachieve perhaps a measure of ability to breathe and think as much or more about the needs of the community in the long term than just the short term funding situation. Along those lines, the city is now up-to-date on our audits and we had two clean audits behind us, which is good. So we can begin to discuss the concept of actually borrowing more money. And our debt is slightly below where I had expected it to be Frankly, which is also good news. But what is the responsible debt ceiling for a City of our size in current thinking? Gordon It's a good question there's a statutory -- there are statutory functions there. The answer to that would be -- and it's a vague one but I think the right one or a broad one but I think the right one. The amount of debt that you can afford over a multi-year period comfortably. Doesn't mean the amount of debt you can afford today. And that's zero. And even in the leaf-y groan Chester county town I was in earlier today that answer for them would be zero. They don't have a lot of extra capacity to add debt but not worry about it but there is an amount you can take on that's responsible. And there are ratios. I don't work on the debt issue inside of our firms but there are specific ratios when you work with what is called a quote unquote financial advisor, someone who can take you through the debt process where they will tell you that your debt should be whatever it is. 8% or no more than 8% of your operations or your debt plus pension should be no more than 12% of your funding or debt per capita should be x, y, z, there are specific metrics and I don't have them mastered but there are specific metrics that will give you pointers beyond my more generic well what could we really afford answer? Ms. Miele: When you site 8% of operation that's debt service? Gordon Correct Ms. Miele: I was going to say we are way over that, man. (Laughter). Gordon Right. Yeah. If you add in retiring health insurance, whatever, there are metrics that pull those things apart and to help you think those through Ms. Miele : Got it got it. Is what I am hearing from you is perhaps we should be consulting with someone on issuance of new debt before that's something we take on willy-nilly or is it dictated by the things we need to purchase. No the former -- well, both. The first thing that a financial advisor is going to ask you is why do you want to issue debt? What are you trying to buy? What are your goals? If it's a good financial advisor but you should get a financial advisor to guide you through that process. We very strongly recommend that. Ms. Miele: That would be a role that PMF could fill, for instance? Gordon I'm trying hard not to say what's a factual statement but PMF is the largest financial advisor in the country. Even if you choose someone other than PMF, which other places have done, you should get one. You should get help. But yes there's a PMF -- Ms. Miele Implying a ongoing financial advisor or a financial advisor specific on taking new debt? Gordon The latter. I would like to work with you as your financial adviser in the ongoing capacity that we are talking about now or in this meeting but there's a financial advisor role, which you can think of as similar to on under writer or a law or a mortgage broker and those things where they are specific functions -- specific services they provide at a specific time in your life and and then that time is over and you don't use them. Ms. Miele: Got it. Okay. Thanks, Gordon. I think that's actually most of my questions, I just wanted to understand the while I've come to the conclusion we probably will need to take on new debt I wanted to understand some ramifications of that. And how that would look for us moving forward. But I think any resources that you might be able to direct our way, Gordon,. : Services or recommendation of firms that have specialized in this for municipalities. Obviously we have many financial firms here in the city but I think municipal advising is a completely different ball of wax. And then the last question I suppose would be that when we digested this report to what extent are you available? Or is someone available from PMF if we have questions or concerns over the next year or two? Ms. Miele: You can stuck home, right? Gordon I'm physically available as soon as we work through physical therapy and a number of other things but in the short term if you have questions about the plan about home rule, about things you have my email and phone number to have conversations. In a more formal way, coming to council and working through the 2027 budget working with you on home rule if you get the question on the ballot and if you have the government study commission one of the things that people are going to ask is well, all right how does this tax thing work? What should we be thinking about? There are circumstances of which you could increase the earned income tax and role back the real estate tax and rebalance it doesn't have to be one added on top of the other but you have to think that through. We are well positioned to do that because we have the financial model and that's in essence the service we've been providing already. I hope this is the end of a first step but in a continued relationship with the City of Williamsport. Ms. Miele: Thank you, Gordon, we appreciate your insight over the last several months and we look forward to take full advantage of it over the next year or two and we certainly hope to take full advantage of it over the next year or two. Thank you. Mrs. Katz : I do, Eric. This is Bonnie Katz. You talked about having the codes outsourcing that and I guess you worked with other cities and communities that have outsourced. We have to a certain extent. But you hear over the period of time that there isn't that much -- they are not doing it up to par when somebody is in house. Have you experienced that? Gordon, > Yeah, that's a good question. So our view on outsourcing it's never a -- it's never a magic solution it's not a philosophical thing. This isn't one of these government, bad, private sector good, private sector can do it better. The way we described it in the plan is to, one, think about what you want from the program. You have one set up through your Ordinances is there anything that you would change to say we want to increase the frequency. We want to change what counts as being quality or not. And then to go out to a number of to see what the market has or to see what providers you have and then issue the RFP. And it's not to go out and borrow Joe's bar and grill rental inspection tomorrow it's to be more deliberate about that pause of exactly what you said. Have I seen communities outsource rental inspections in these types of things? Yeah it's a common force multiplier because there are private entities that do that and the benefit or the attractiveness from a private provider perspective is rental inspections happen with a known cycle. There is a designated revenue stream. People pay for rental permits and they pay for -- they may pay for rental inspections. And it is a relatively known body of population that you are serving. There are communities that don't know where all of their rental properties are and that's understandable. And contrast that with trying to hire somebody to monitor weeds or trash or high weeds. That's not something the private sector is well attuned to taking on. All of that said, I have seen communities bring -- go from in-house to outsourcing and once they are at a place where they feel like they are tack it back inside again, do that again. Bring it back in and say okay now we are on better whatever it is. We have better technology. We have better financial footing. We are in a place where we can invest in our staff. Whatever it is to get you across that threshold where you could say okay now we are ready to bring it back in-house because the most common argument I hear is city employees are more likely to be more familiar with the community they serve than some sort of private mercenary code inspector for hire type of plod. And I'm not sure I believe that. I think it depends on who you hire as your private -- as your private provider. But it is not a -- it is not a good versus evil, outsource versus in-source sort of thing. So you don't want to take forever to do it. And we laid out a process in the plan where you should probably try to complete that by the end of the year. But you are right to have some -- to go into that with eyes wide open about what a private provider can really do. Mrs. Katz: Thank you so much, Gordon. Open my ears and eyes. Thank you. Mr. Beiter If there's nothing else from other members of council, Gordon we appreciate everything you have done for us thus far and we'll be talking with you more in the near future as we embark down this road of the home rule. Gordon Thank you very much. I really, really enjoyed working with you. Williamsport is a really cool town. And I think it has a lot of great assets and a really bright touch. Future. So I hope to work with you towards that. Mr. Beiter : Thank you very much, sir. All right. We will go ahead and move on from that to item number 5. Limited courtesy of the floor. I believe we had no requests this evening. Limited Courtesy of the Floor There were none. Ordinance # 6522 Ordinance Repealing & Reenacting the Section 111.02 (n) of the Codified Ordinances (final reading) The City Clerk read the ordinance. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi. Mr. Beiter : What this is. The committee as a whole we talked about two weeks ago. We are not changing any of the committees we have on the books already. We are simply creating a new committee, which will take over the majority of the functions that those individual communities did. So we could have a little bit more of a streamline process. We can get more people involved in that process of committee meetings and then it makes it easier logistically for the administration as well and members of the council to have one meeting to attend versus slow or four. Do we have any questions from members of council regarding that? Seeing and hearing none, Mrs. Frank. The ordinance was accepted for filing in final reading with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Yoder and Mr. Mackey were absent. . Ordinance #6523 Ordinance – Transfer Ordinance #7 2024 Budget (final reading) The City Clerk read the ordinance. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Milliken made a motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi. Mrs. Livermore is the second reading of the transfer Ordinance for the 2024 budget. We do this each time we complete an audit we adjust each department to make sure everything is leveled out. Does anybody have any questions? Mr. Beiter: Seeing and hearing none, Mrs. Frank. The resolution was accepted for filing with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Yoder and Mr. Mackey were absent. Resolution # 10006 Resolution Governing Bodies The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Pulizzi made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Mr. Beiter: What we have before allowing us to seek more funding under the stamp program. There's been a phase 1, which we've gone through already. Capstone by Gordon and his presentation this evening. And then we have phase 2 of the stamp program. There are going to be some opportunities for us to seek that funding and this is also saying that we are going to be on the hook, so to speak for 10% of that amount that's out there. Do we have any questions regarding the item before us? Liz Miele. Ms. Miele: If I'm correct, Eric, this is basically utilizing the first round of funding from the strategic management planning program, correct? What's left. Should we ask -- Mr. Beiter: Yep, (overlapping speakers) can answer that much better than I can. please. Ms. Miele: The wording is a little oblique so we might as well clarify for the sake of the record. : The city has out of the first round our first round of strategic management planning I believe we had about 191,000 left in funding we could apply through the state. And utilizing applying for the funding at this time to support the home rule initiative we placed on the boll lot in May would allow us to make simultaneous use of the funding if the home rule succeeds in May, correct? Where we would wait we would notable to apply for the round of funding that would be open for us once we complete the current round of strategic management planning until June. Mr. Beiter It's that's a correct way to put it with the stamp the city is up able to get up to 200 than with DCD and with the match that means the project could be $220,000 a year and then we use the plan from phase 1 if the this passes in May. If not u do stamp phase 2 and apply for the 200,000 and do that every five years while in this program. Ms. Miele: So we have $200,000 remaining from the allocation of previous stamp in total? Or $90,000? : Okay, excellent. And then we will notable to apply for stamp phase 2 funding until we close out phase 1. Jonah That's correct. You can't have more than one project going at a time. If home rule completes that process it goes through the first phase if it pass it has ballots and you have another 9 months so you are looking for 18 months before you can come to the next timeline of funding Ms. Miele: So we have a timeline of early 28 before we can apply for the funding. Ms. Miele: That strikes me as probably the widest news. Excellent. Thank you for clarifying. Mr. Beiter: Without this phase being complete, and the home rule study being done with the consultants there's nothing else that would benefit from embarking down this road any further. Any other questions from members of council? Seeing and hearing none, Mrs. Frank. The resolution was accepted for filing with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Yoder and Mr. Mackey were absent. Resolution 10005 Resolution Honoring Gary Knarr The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi Mr. Beiter We have a resolution honoring Gary Knarr for his distinguished service to the City of Williamsport. Where Gary barrier faithfully served the residents of our city with distinction, integrity and dedication throughout his 15 years of service starting in 2011. Where Gary barrier served as zoning mrter for the City of Williamsport through the his 15 years and the last 4 years as zoning and codes administrator where Mr. Knarr displayed a leadership of excellence to his team in the department of code are integrity and earned the respect of the administration and his fellow coworkers and members of City Council. Whereas Mr. Knarr served in active duty in the United States military for 30 years from 1982 to 2011. Serving his country with dignity, courage, in which we as citizens will be forever grateful. Whereas Mr. Knarr's contribution to hour city's progress and his example of public service left a indelible mark on our municipal government. Now, therefore be it resolved the City Council does express its profound gratitude to Gary barrier for his outstanding service in our community for the City of Williamsport and we'll miss his leadership skills. Be it therefore resolved this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the City Council and a certified copy be presented to Gary Knarr as a token of appreciation for his dedicated service to our city and its residents for his military service to the United States of America. Gary Knarr, thank you very much. I am grateful and appreciate that. Mrs. Katz : Eric, can I chime in here, this is Bonnie. Mr. Beiter: Absolutely. Mrs. Katz: Gary you know how much I appreciate everything you have done for our city. And at times I was really upset and angry at our administration because I don't know if they respected everything that you did. People don't realize the heart and soul that you put into this city. And you pulled things out that out of difficult situations at times. And I know we are going to miss you tremendously because you are one person that did have the heart and soul of the city in your hands. And I really just want to tell you it's been an honor to know you, Gary. And hopefully we get to see one another again. Mr. Beiter Thanks for all your hard work, Gary, I appreciate it. And we only got -- I didn't really get to work alongside of you but as a resident of Williamsport I appreciate 15 years of dedication to Williamsport. And thank you for your service in the army. Ms. Miele : I have only just realized I have been with the city longer than Gary. (Laughter). And yet, Gary, I think you accomplished more. (Laughter). Thank you very much. It has been -- I remember your essential sub terrarian office in City Hall and we've been through a lot in the city. And we appreciate you sticking with us this long. And I'm sure your heading to a lovely and rosy retirement but we will miss you here. The resolution was accepted for filing with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Yoder and Mr. Mackey were absent. . Mr. Beiter changed the order of the agenda. Land Development – Allan Emerson – Mulberry St. Mr. Beiter asked for motion and second. Mrs. Katz made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. r. Mr. Knarr . What I present to you a land development request from Allan Emerson company. The appropriate is on the corner of Mulberry Street and Via Bella within the central does District they are proposing to construct a 36 by 50 50* restaurant that have an office and dining area and provide 17 parking stalls even though it's not a require requirement for parking within the central business District they are going to have 17 stalls. The plan was reviewed by Eric Smith of the storm water authority and reviewed by Bill Scott for storm water and also Scott Williams for the community development and our city planner. There were some questions at planning regarding some concerns with regard with the plan itself. The plan you have before you is the updated plan. They addressed several questions brought up at planning and I will briefly go over those real quickly. The first concern was the parking lay out. They had drive-in parking. The concern was because of the restriction of the lot that the turning radius of getting in and out of this parking. So the developer as well as talking with planning decided to do angle parking although they will lose one park stall but it will make it more feasible to having people get in and out without having a concern for that. And the second concern is about refuge. Noily in a situation you are required to have in restaurants and things like that it's not requirement but you place a dumpster. Instead of a dumpster because of the concern of getting in and out as with a dumpster vehicle within that short confinement they have a refuge area but it will be fenced in but not a dumpster it will be cans and something smaller salesman a dumpster to get in there and they are adding landscaping in the plan. And you have copies of all the updated plans and the other question is the grading and utility plan wasn't sufficient. And they didn't have a detailed one. And the reason they had not is because it was, again, it is a parking lot. It's currently owned by the parking authority. So basically there were going to be minor grading so they did add it and it is provided for you at this time. So they did address that. And the other question was a concern as far as the roof drains. Again, the storm water aspect was reviewed by Eric Smith. And with his positive recommendation as well as by the Scott. Normally what is in the permit side of it you'll address that because it's based off the building and meeting code and where it funnels and flow. And when providing council prove this is land development when they come back for the building permit side of it that will be addressed on there as well as the other questions on there so it did not indicate where the corridors were. And again during the phase of the architectural drawings once they are completed that will be submitted to Bureau of codes and our building inspector will look to make sure it meets the building requirements And the other concern is where the water line was going to Mulberry Street. That was addressed with Eric myth and Bill Scott of the planning authority and it met the requirement. And that Is they placed that on the plan. And the other question was the fencing the fencing when it comes to it what they will be required to do is once council approving the land development plan it will come back before planning and council to make sure it meets 1379 which is the city's downtown design standard. So you will see elevation views of the building you will see the fencing where they put this fence and that will be the second phase that you get as far as when it comes to those questions or those concerns. The last question concern obviously was the same thing is lighting and how do you address lighting and again lighting roof drains doors and those things will be brought back before council for the certificate of appropriateness for the building because it is within the downtown and those are generally covered under the building permit side of it. And I have representatives here that can go into more detail. But planning did give it positive recommendation with a 4-2 with one absent so it did pass through planning but again there was a lot of concern brought up by Planning Commission members and they did address them at the planning meeting and the plans before you are updated. The plans that will be recorded provided council approves that is the updated plans that address these concerns that planning brought up. I can answer any questions. Thank you so much for that thorough explanation. Liz Miele. Yes. What happened is you originally got them from Janice last Friday and we sent new ones out this week after planning met and had those questions they did draw them up and submit them In the memorandum at the bottom it should say revised because I submitted when you got the second version you got the memorandum. We got all three. You got the will serve letter. Okay. Again some of this will be addressed when it comes back through for certificate of appropriateness. But at this time not the -- the to havers and owners have not completed the architectural plans which are required to be submitted for to Bureau of codes for compliance. Ms. Miele: Got it. And real quick. Never mind. Sorry, I was not looking at this document. This is the revised one. Why is the county not reviewing the developments anymore? Mr. Knarr Financial restraints and downsizing within their department they can't basically get -- what happens is when you submit a plan there's a required so many days it has to go through the process of being reviewed and getting approved and there's another 90 days which goes through that process of getting them recorded. So at this time they don't have the staffing or have the ability to complete the requirement under act 247 so they are not reviewing them so again what they have done is obviously brought Scott Williams who worked within the plan Lycoming County planning and they'll be reviewed by Glen and someone from the zoning department as well as Bill Scott (overlapping speakers) Ms. Miele Anyway. No, sorry, I wanted to ask that at a l meeting I missed in early January. Because I noted that on there. On the paperwork they sent us. So I was so thank you for providing an explanation to me I guess you probably provided to everybody else. This does look like a much more thorough land development than the one I was looking at. Are we allowed at this point to know the name of the business that will be opening there? Or is that a matter -- It's still under a franchise they have to get everything approved it's under the franchise but they are under obligation at this time and can't address that. They get the approvals first and when they are set to basically start construction and begin that phase that will be brought out at later date. Ms. Miele: Got it. The property obviously was the parking authorities to sell. Have we received any -- We have a contingency saying they are going to purchase it from that providing they get approval. Ms. Miele: Got it. I guess I meant the neighboring properties obviously they didn't reach out to purchase it instead, correct? . Mr. Beiter: Absolutely. Anything else from members of council? Mr. Pulizzi. Mr. Pulizzi One quick question to the members of the Allan Emerson business thank you for your investment into Williamsport. We greatly appreciate it. Gary I'm curious as close of a proximity as this is to a religious establishment, is there any kind of a waiver that the church has to give? I know there's search establishments that have alcohol they have to sign off on the distribution of alcohol if it's within such a proximity. >> No, they are bound by the zoning what the uses are within the central business district that use is a permitted use. And it is permitted. Ms. Miele: Obviously it looks as though landscaping will actually be improved at this intersection. Yeah, and I think knowing the owners I think you are going to see when they do that it will be above and beyond what the requirement is based off the plan Ms. Miele: Okay. And the I guess the one thing that I would say is obviously because the central business district design standards exist in this area. It will come back before us for approval. >> Absolutely. Like I said I said -- (overlapping speakers) Ms. Miele: I would ask the owners consider bring bringing that before us in early design phases so we don't wind up with a situation where there's something that -- Mr. Knarr Actually American in and the architect was provided with our standards already Ms. Miele: I know, I'm saying it would be I think all of council might appreciate the review it before components have been ordered and things like that. It's just -- it's -- we -- yes. I think it is generally better. There are some components of that Ordinance that can be a little -- things like similar to surrounding structures. You could make the case that the overpass was a surrounding structure. But I would prefer we not do that. >> On concrete. I assure you it will not be all concrete and not mainly metal Ms. Miele: Those are my primary concerns. But I think we have been pressured previously on projects. And I would prefer that not to occur here. I would like to start out on the best possible foot. I had reached out to them like I said after almost 15 years and obviously, Liz you were one of the ones that appointed me to this position on council. So over the years I learned to realize some of the things and again they were addressed with them prior to different developers meetings we had with them. The land development was carried with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Yoder were absent. Subdivision – RVT/City of Williamsport Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Pulizzi made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Mr. Knarr What you have is once again we are still working on a clean touch is Ration between the RVT and City of Williamsport. Back in March 13, 2025, I know it says on your memorandum 26 but back in March 2025 you approved a subdivision that separates streets and parks from RVT and it has three right of ways one omitted at that point was the most important right away which would be right away 4 that allows the City of Williamsport access to get into the fuel islands and back part of their building and this is merely to make sure that was in there. Even though it was admitted and you approved it was a revised plan to show to show that and get applied as such The sub division was carried with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Yoder were absent. Demolition – 651 Lyons Ave Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Pulizzi made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken Mr. Knarr This became before council because council renamed buck run alley about 2 or 3 months ago but there was a fire back in September 13, 2025, that damaged it. You have pictures there. The homeowners at this point in time are looking at l inning it. They are not sure what they are doing because if you are familiar it's a small restricted area and at this point in time they are aware that if they choose within the first -- within a year they can put it back on the same footprint and not meeting the sonning standards as far as set backs but they are in the sure at this point in time but because the structure deteriorating and it doesn't look good for the neighborhood they are requesting to demo it. Mr. Beiter: Questions regarding this item? Seeing and hearing none, Mrs. Frank. The demolition was carried with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Yoder were absent Resolution #10007 Resolution Authorizing Execution & Filing of Exhibit B, further Agreement & Stipulation to the Consent Decree to the Consent Decree Made by & between, the Center for Independent Living of North Central PA, Adapt North Central PA Thomas Grieco, Tina Cummings, Jay Harner & Marie Prince(“Plaintiffs”) & the City of Williamsport) The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second Mrs. Katz made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Mr. Austin White. You have in front of you the resolution to authorize the city to file exhibit B, which is a further agreement and stipulation for the concept decree. This is the same consent decree that's been ongoing for I think about five years now. This is a number of stipulations between the plaintiffs and the city. As far as how the consent decree will be gone about closing it out. What's going to be done with in the event there are public services at City Hall. It covers the transition plan for the city for ADA compliance. Some staff training issue, web accessibility. And provides some certainty as to how the consent decree will eventually be closed out. And I'm happy to take any questions if you have them The resolution was carried with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Yoder were absent Resolution #10008 Resolution Authorizing an Addendum to Master Services Agreement with UHY Advisors The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second Mr. Pulizzi made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Ms. Livermore this resolution is an adun dumb to the current UHY addendum they are the consultant for our a pa ARPA fndz they are extending the term to December 31, 2026. We have very little left in the ARPA fund right now we just have RDA and land bank so we utilize UHY to review their reimbursement requests and make sure they are compliant and we use their approval for compliance. So we don't use them often usually it's about once a month. Mr. Beiter : Any questions from members of council regarding this? Liz Miele. Ms. Miele: This might be opening up a whole can of worms do we have land bank on track to spend that money by the end of the year. Ms. Livermore We had a meeting with the RDA and land bank and it did seem like they were on track. I think when Skip was at the last meeting I think he said they purchased three homes which means they would be using the funds to do renovations. As far as I know they are on track. I did give them a breakdown of what they have left. Maybe a month ago so they are aware of what they have left. Ms. Miele: What do they have left? Ms. Livermore I think it's -- combined I think it's a little over a million, maybe 1.3 or something like that The resolution was carried with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Yoder were absent Resolution # 10009 Resolution by Municipality Certifying Provision of Local Match for State Operating Financial Assistance The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second Mrs. Katz made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi. Mr. Wright Good evening this is our annual resolution with from the City of Williamsport contribution towards RTVA annual state operating assistance local match requirement. The state allocation is $6.2 million for fiscal year 26, it's the same as the fiscal year 25. The local share did go up 5% as it tipped does every year. The total amount is $543,957. The city shares 3406 $30 and 36. We do collect from Lycoming County and another municipalities. And it is based on our scheduled revenue miles. Mr. Beiter : This is something that's been before us in the past couple years since RVTA has been understand own entity and my favorite question to ask is where the other municipalities playing ball and playing the money? Mr. Wright Yeah, with telephone Montoursville they are different because they have an agreement with Walmart and they haven't updated it in 20 years so we are trying to help them get more money from Walmart for their share. And the large largest part of the ridership in the borough has gone there Mr. Beiter: Sure, any questions from members of council regarding this item. Seeing and hearing none. The resolution was carried with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Yoder were absent Resolution # 10010 Resolution Authorizing Purchase of (2) Old Barn Equipment Truck Body Up-Fits The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second Ms. Miele made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Mr. Livermore what you have before you is a resolution authorize purchase of up fit equipment for the two trucks I purchased roughly two weeks ago. Normally I have this done while I'm buying the trucks. Tried to keep it local. A little bit cheaper. And purchased their plows for the trucks that I purchased. Plows and other spreader box for the amount of $38,700. This was a surplus money if parks line item at capital projects that I had extra for the trucks at the time what we PUD budgeted for last year. Any questions? Mr. Beiter: Any questions from the members of council. Liz lie. Ms. Miele: Who is the streets and parks department holding up right now and our plows? (Laughter). Everything -- I mean, -- Mr. Livermore, Yeah, so this is going to get me pretty close to wrapping everything up that I have that I've done the last few years. I have one more truck I'm working on a grant to secure. But other than that, everything is pretty much getting updated now. So we have all good equipment now. Ms. Miele: That's positive so no equipment breakdowns. We started switching over to Ford. (Laughter). Ms. Miele : No comment on that, I switched to Ford too and remember when I was broke down who I will driving and talking to you, yeah. (Laughter). All right. Thanks, Scott. Mr. Beiter : Anything else from other members of council? Just that I know your team has been w on overdrive with all this wetter and I appreciate it. That's a lot. So thanks. Mr. Livermore We are doing our best. Ms. Miele : I'm assuming we don't recommend making snow castles in the massive pile of snow you deposited in Brandon Park. The resolution was carried with 5 years roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Yoder were absent Certificate of Appropriateness - HARB 844 St 3rd St, install new canvas cover Mr. Beiter What I'm going to do is read this for all of us to have the knowledge of because when this went to the HARB board it was denied. And I would like to just have this out there for everybody to understand what it was. 844 West Third Street in Williamsport is requested to approve on the east side of the property in the same location as existing metal accessory structure remove the torn cover and install a new canvas cover over-the-top of all four sides of the metal frame. There's no color. It says color and there's no color listed there. The comments a circle preservation act 89-665. Any governing body in determining whether or not to certify the appropriate toofns erection reconstruction, alteration, restoration demolition or rising of a building in whole or part should consider the effect of the proposed change will have upon the general historic and architectural niche district. The governing body shall pass on the appropriateness of exterior architectural features which can be seen from a public street or way. Only and shall consider the general design arrangement texture, material and color of the building or structure. And the relation of such factors to similar features of the building and structures in the District. Codes officers has notified HARB he considers this so set backs and building codes and not permit for the existing structure. Stand number 9 exterior alterations or related new construction slam not destroy historic materials that characterize the property. New work shall be compatible with massing size, scale, and architectural features to protect the historic integrity of the property and its environment. HARB review board, January 24, 2026. And they denied that. So assuming it is not meeting those requirements that were listed below and again I wanted to have them read into st record so people understood what it was that HARB was requiring there were no pictures accompanied with this. It does mention pictures in there Ms. Miele: They are here they were in the in the HARB minutes. Mr. Beiter Wonderful. Thank you. Ms. Miele I can add to the discussion there were some debate slash dispute between the codes department and HARB to who exactly was responsible for legislating this. Given that it walks a line between a permanent structure and a temporary structure. And I believe it's a temporary structure it would police allowed. Clearly it's become a permanent part of the landscape. (Laughter). And but so, you know, doesn't meet the set back requirements there, basically regardless of whether codes was responsible for dealing with it or HARB, it doesn't meet anyone requirements for an addition in the historic District or in addition to any District. Hence it was denied by HARB and in lieu of being denied by codes.  I have seep the structure for sale. Close to 599. Mr. Beiter: Any questions regarding distributed appropriateness then? So this is we have the HARB board reviewed this. Said it didn't fit within historical whatever. Right? And then it comes before us. And we could essentially override their denial or whatever? Right? That's what this vote is? Ms. Miele: Yeah. But we will vote -- actually it's that's good point of clarity. Yes. Correct. Just to go along with HARB we vote yes on the recommendation. You vote to go along with HARB's decision. If I volt yes I'm agreeing with HARB Ms. Miele: I don't believe we have ever -- if it's possibly once in my tenure we have not sided with HARB on a recommendation within the district. There was one on there. Mrs. Katz: I remember one with the windows. That we vote voted down, I'm pretty sure Janice did we vote that down, you know what I'm talking about? Mrs. Frank: Yes, I do. Representative could come to council to discuss his or her reasons why he wanted it approved and council did approve the gentleman's decision. And voted against HARB. But we only ever had two or three denials since I've been here. But this vote is to go along with HARB's decision. Mr. Beiter: If we are all understood then and no further questions? Mrs. Frank. Accept for filing Controller’s Report Dec HARB Minutes 01/24/26 Announcements The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting will be held on Thursday, February 19, 2026 at 7:00 PM, Trade & Transit II 144 West Third St, 3rd floor, Williamsport, PA. Upcoming Meetings: Wednesday Feb 11 3:30 PM O&E Pension Monday, Feb. 16 CITY HALL CLOSED Tuesday, Feb. 17 11:30 AM Redevelopment Authority 6:30 PM HARB Wednesday, Feb. 18 10:00 AM Blighted Property Thursday, Feb. 19 10:30 AM Zoning Hearing 7:00 PM City Council Meeting Other Council committees to be announced later Comments: a. Members of the Public b. Council Comments Mr. Beiter A couple comments from myself. And then other members of council if they have any. We need to have a discussion about getting a town hall meeting on the schedule. So we can get members of the community out and have a conversation with them about home rule. So they understand exactly what it is that we are try trying to do from our end because we need their participation and understanding through this process. The committee of the whole. We passed that tonight. So we will start to have committee meetings for that. We are going to be scheduling them for Tuesdays the week of council meetings at 1:00 p.m. seems to be the time that works for everybody on council and seemed to be the easy time because that's the old Finance Committee time. So that expect that on your next regularly scheduled committee meeting date, which would be the first week of market. And then again I already mentioned it but I will mention it again for a third time because we are not having a City Council meeting on the 19th of February. Any other comments from other members of council? Mr. Pulizzi. Mr. Pulizzi : Just quickly, obviously Mr. Livermore you were here and you had something on the agenda but cheer Herr from the fire department interim Chief, I know either of you two gentleman had anything on the agenda and I still appreciate seeing you here tonight. It's noted. Thank you. Mr. Beiter: Other comments from the administration this evening? Any comment from the news media? Nobody is here anyway. And lastly, I'll take a motion for adjournment. c. Administration d. News Media Adjournment Meeting adjourned upon motion by Mr. Milliken and a seconded by Mrs. Katz Meeting adjourned at 8:29 PM with unanimous ayes. Submitted by: Janice M. Frank City Clerk