City Council

Thursday, June 11, 2026 7:00 PM Williamsport, PA Council Vice President Vincent Pulizzi brought the Williamsport City Council meeting to order on Thursday, June 11, 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, Mr. Willia Vincent Pulizzi, Vice President Valerie Fessler Liz Miele, Councilwoman Tracey Harer,, Fire Chief, Adam W Jonah Milliken, Councilman, Justin Ottaviano,, Police Chief, Adam Yoder, Councilman Solicitor Austin White Jon Mackey, Councilman, Janice Frank, City Clerk David Dussinger Jamie Livermore Scott Livermore, S&P Absent Kris Black Eric Beiter: Adam Welt3rroth, Treasurer absent Bill Scott Members of the public Approval of the Williamsport City Council minutes of 05/2826 approved upon a motion by Mr. Milliken and second from Dr. Yoder. All were in favor with a vote of 5 to 0. Ms. Miele had not yet arrived. Mr. Beiter was absent. Mr. Joseph Pawlak Limited Courtesy of the Floor Bruce Hoffman 1000 Cherry Street in the city. Item 10 I understand . there's going to be some document scanning that's going to happen soon. That's great. I'm particularly concerned about maps, historical maps of the city. I spoke Mr. Joe Pawlak Mr. Gary Knarr with Chris a little bit about this and get the impression this might notMr.happen Tom Cillo with this particular grandpa in the future C. Dean but I suggest that when it does happen, if various maps that I've seen DaveinYoung, the Police basement Chief of City Hall that are not only Chief He valuable just because they show the development of the city but Sol. J. David Smith sometimes they clear you into certain things that Janice Frank, City Clerk, absent people forgot about that may actually affect things right now. I'd justTodd like to suggest Heckman, that Fire Chief , when it comes time to decide whether they are scanned or not, what to do with them, if the city no longer wants to keep them that you consider News Media donating them to the Lycoming County historical Society. There is a committee, scanning committee of counsel, the committee on historic preservation that does include several members who are not with the Council who are with the city administration and those are her board officer, a member of the historical society and member preservation Williamsport. It may be a good time if this isn't even happening now to get that group together and look at some of those things and decide if they're not going to be kept, maybe how they Members of wouldNewsbeMedia split up between those groups or Members of the news media donated to the historical society. I'm sure they would be happy to receive them and care for them for as long as they can. I just want to bring that to your attention and hope you will consider that. Thanks. Mr. Pulizzi: Thank you very much Mr. Hoffman. I don't believe we have any other requests for limited courtesy of the floor. We will move on to agenda item number five. Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Williamsport, Approving the Termination & Filing of Certificate of Termination of the Williamsport Municipal Authority (first reading) The City Clerk read the ordinance., Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and second. Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Mr. Justin Houser for those here who haven't seen me that much I'm just in Houser Assistant city solicitor from Lockhaven filling in for Austin who is usually here who is on vacation this week. Austin filled me in on this -- somewhat here in this ordinance. Generally speaking, it's my understanding that the Williamsport municipal authority has not been active for the last 20 years or so. And in fact it no longer has any appointed members in it, according to the information that we have. They are looking to close the authority out. It has no operations. The Pennsylvania municipality authorities act provides that municipalities can create authorities to do certain things and they can also dissolve them. That's to be done by ordinance which is why we have the first reading of that tonight. If the authority has any assets, they would come back to the city. If the authority has any debts, that would also come back to the city but it's my understanding from what Mr. White provided me it's believed that this authority has neither. It's really a matter of cleaning up the record. That's essentially what item 5 is about. If there's any questions or otherwise, that's a summary. Mr. Pulizzi: Thank you Mr. Houser. Any questions from counsel? Mr. Mackey. Ms. Mackey: I'm just curious what exactly was the authority meant to accomplish. The municipal authority. Mr. Houser : That's a very good question and one I don't have the answer to right here. I would guess, based on just the name of it, it may have dealt with either water or sewer issues at one time because most entities that were just called municipal authority, some of them were formed as far back as the 40s or 50s and a lot of times they dealt with things like that. As more specialized or regional authorities and organizations came into effect, those general purpose ones fell by the wayside. That would be my guess. The ordinance was carried in first reading with 5 yes roll call votes. Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Ms. Miele had not yet arrived and Mr. Beiter was absent.  Resolution # 10080 Resolution Authorizing the Sale of Fire Apparatus to Trout Run Volunteer Fire Company The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and second Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Mackey. Chief . This solution back two years ago we got a new fleet of apparatus and we had tried to sell this piece of apparatus through a third-party company unfriendly mountain with no success. They were a consultant and get the advertising for it. The trunk is set in a reserve firehouse stripped of equipment for the last year. A year ago I had a flooding event and they had a lot of problems with the firehouse. Recently the fire engine broke and we loaned this talk to them to keep them in operation. Since then, the began to enjoy the truck and wanted to buy the truck. Talked to the solicitor. We ended up doing a sealed bid and they ended up being the high bidder at $10,001. Mr. Pulizzi: Thank you very much Steve. It's great to see some of our equipment go to local community that was in the face of tragedy that hopefully they will get great use out of it. Any member of council wish to ask a question? Have a comment? No? Okay. Mrs. Frank on the motion please. >> MS. JANICE FRANK: Doctor Yoder? The resolution was carried with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Resolution #10082 Resolution Awarding Construction Services for the CDBG Bike Lanes Project to Minichi, Inc. And Glick fire motion company. The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and a second. Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Mackey. Chief Harer . Thank you. I'm presenting this tenant on behalf of the fire department because it is a C BDG funded project that we are bringing a book for you again so we've already discussed the purchase of this river raptor boat with you previously which was approved but bringing it back again because we are asking to make a sole-source purchase . We put this out forbidden the Sunday but emailed it to all the known vendors so we did all of our due diligence the fire department provided us a lengthy list of vendors who may be able to provide this. We did not receive any responses so we are procuring it through costars and there was a memo provided to you by (word?) explaining the details of the boat and why it's a specific and what we need to foreign to the conditions of the Susquehanna and all those details so I'm not going to review those unless you would like me to. This is asking for your authorization to make the purchase according to the city's procurement policy which requires your approval. Mr. Pulizzi: Thank you very much. This is one of those pieces of equipment that is really, really cool but you pray you never have to use it. I see that it's all going to be funded through CDBG. Chief All funded through CDBG. Kenny likes to tell the story about how this boat goes 16 miles an hour in 3 inches of water. It's a really nice asset for the city to have. Mr. Pulizzi : Excellent. Any member of council have anything they wish to ask? Councilman Milliken. Mr. Milliken: That reminds me of a conversation I had with Kenny where he detailed a water rescue that was dangerous and impeded because at the time we didn't have the appropriate equipment from my recollection. This is something that can save lives. The resolution was carried with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Resolution #10083 Resolution Authorizing Award of Professional Services Agreement to Data Management for Document Scanning & Digital Conversion Service The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and second Mr. Mackey made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken seconded it. Mr. Black Good morning council. I have a resolution to scan certain number of documents at City Hall to digital format. I put it out to bid on Penn bid hoping to get three or four respondents. I got 19. All of them I had asked for a per page price because I had a limited budget on what I could do. I wanted to make sure I spent all those monies on this project. Everybody was within pennies of each other on the per page . A lot of them were all over the place on pickup and delivery charges. Data management international was the only company to come back with a unique solution where they said for the total dollar amount of the bid, we will get all the documents that we observed which were in the basement room, what's left over of community development and there were some in the first floor lobby which I believe was for streets and parks. For the total amount. It doesn't matter if they had to make 130 trips. They will do all of that plus it gives us one year online retrieval capability with them. We can download it all and save it locally which is what I plan on doing. Until the project is done, it sits out there a year and is easily accessible. Mr. Pulizzi: Thank you Mr. Black. Anybody have any Councilman Mackey? Mr. Mackey: To Mr. Hoffman's previous statements. As far as these maps are concerned. Is there a plan to scan these, and whether there is or is not, are they currently stored somewhere where they are not going to be damaged? Mr. Black : That I can't say if they would be damaged or not. They are in the same room they have always been in. In the basement. Mr. Mackey: This company will be going into the basement I'm assuming with -- : We will have everything moved up to the first floor. Mr. Mackey: Who moves the paperwork from the basement to the first floor? You're going to find some help I hope? I guess what I'm saying is could we also make sure those maps get moved somewhere where they are not going to be damaged? Whether we have intentions of scanning them are not. : Where would we move them to? Mr. Mackey: I don't know how big these things are. There's got to be a room somewhere. : The room is approximately 15 x 15. And it's a catacomb. : Of maps? Okay. : By law I think we have to keep the maps but I'm sure they are going to Reichert Island. Mr. Black: We have a plan to make sure these things don't get damaged. Once we decide if we want to keep them or donate them. : ' These we have to keep but we will check if we can donate. Mr. Black: If we are in the process of getting everything out of the basement let's get it out of the basement I guess is the point I'm getting at. Whether we give it to these folks to scan or not. Mr. Black: This would get rid of the vast majority of paper documents that are still in City Hall. Mr. Pulizzi: We adopted the state statute for scanning so we have to follow that. Dr. Yoder: Thanks for the reminder on that. That slipped my mind. I was going to piggyback on that. We should document and codifies some procedure of what we already have. That's great and thank you for the reminder. Mr. Pulizzi Any other questions? : It's going to be beneficial for the city to organize and preserve a lot of our documents. After we do this project, we really need some type of software that can manage accessing this. I know we are going to pull down a server. I'd be interested to understand from the next step a cloud platform, some platform we could access and get better visibility of it long-term. : Yeah. Baby steps. Let's get them all digitized first. Then we'll figure out the fields they are categorized as. Mr. Pulizzi: Are there any other questions for Mr. Black? Ms. Miele: Quick thank you. This money came from the first community foundation and I think it would be appropriate. That's a huge deal. : Melanie Shutt and Valerie Kessler secure that. Ms. Miele: Thank you. Thank you for the foundation Knowledge Inc. that this was something essential that we cannot do on our own. The resolution was carried with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Resolution #10079 Resolution Recognizing Penn College Senior for Partnering with City Rebranding Initiative The City Clerk read the resolution. , Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and second Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Mackey. Mayor Slaughter . This resolution is just recognizing Riley Shipman and actually her classmates too for the work that they did this year probably about a year ago Rob and Joanna Flynn as well vice president academic affairs and Provost Bud Rob approached me a year ago. Rob is very active not just in our community but throughout the whole county and said there's a class at Penn College that does branding and different things and how about we give them a real life project to work on the long side the city? I thought that was a great idea. Rob approached the professors. They thought it was a great idea. And so here we are. Throughout the semester and throughout the year, Riley and her classmates worked on different branding ideas or ideas for the city and we narrowed it down to this one. As you see, I handed out some different things. Some examples that Riley created and all the credit goes to Riley . She did all of this . They ran with it. I think it turned out really, . But again it was a great partnership. We have great partnerships with Penn College and so getting to know Riley do this process and Riley is also a Williamsport resident so that was kind of cool too. Not all of her classmates were from Logansport but she had an vested interest. She's from here so she really took it a little more to heart. She wanted to see her hometown continue to thrive and to be successful. Again, credit to Riley . She was a senior. She did graduate in May so she has since graduated but again just wanted her to highlight this partnership and highlight the work she's done. I don't know Rob or Riley if you want to say words or if they had questions or if you guys have questions. You don't have to. Riley, : I just want to say thank you for recognizing me today. I'm really happy to be standing before you with something that I made to improve the city that I grew up in. So, thank you so much. Dr. Yoderr: One of the things I'm looking forward to out of this is of rationing of the brand of the city and bringing new opportunities for tour is him and in new energy and Riley is bringing it to our community so I want to thank you for your hard work. Mayor,: We also have our website and Mr. Krebs Shaw is a professor at Penn College. It's out of the college so we just have great relationships with Penn College. Just to highlight that and if any questions have to be to answer them. Dr. Yoder: Thank you very much mayor. Congratulations. I'm not gonna speak for everybody else but is someone who makes part of my living on fine graphic design and artwork, this is great. I love to see this project. Fresh ideas here to the city. I think we could certainly use some. Anyone else from council like to speak? Councilman? Mr. Milliken: This design is really cool. I challenge counsel. I think we should all get some form tattoos on the outside. But it's really cool and I really appreciate your effort towards this. And frankly it's exciting so thanks. Mayor: I think the arc is the river and the mountains kind of thing. Right. (Away From Mic) Great. the bridge. The bridge between nature and the city. I'm not artistic at all. I can't imagine. But she is. Mr. Yoder: First as a Penn College alum, really proud of you. Amazing work. This is not uncommon for Penn College. I know my time on council and even as a student and employee, as an institution, we are really embedded in the community so it's good to see and thank you for doing that. I would also say when we think about what partnerships with these institutions look like, this is really good stuff. We should be trying to do more and it's a win-win. We get an amazing product from our institution. We have a student who gets an amazing hands-on experience here. It puts the college in the position to try to give back which is part of the charter. This is a win-win. I hope we can see more of this. This is excellent. An application question. Mayor Slaughter, what are we going to do with this? Mayor: That's what we are looking at right now. Looking at the website, talking to the visitors Bureau and the chamber. What do we think we. : I think why that connect here. I think there's a lot of different applications. She was playing around with the million more connections. Whether it's if we have conferences here, connect here. We are just playing with a lot of different things. Dr.. Yoder: That's great. My point in asking is we should definitely use this. I hope we do. Let's not let it sit on the shelf by any means. John is not gonna say but this is a nice conduit for maybe a standing committee that is not in -- in the nitty-gritty of vetting what we're working on every other week. We think about the revitalization committee. Where it's not something necessarily, we are voting on but it's a formal public conduit where we have cooperations amongst the city but it's open to the public and we can pull them in as well. Something like that would be excellent. I'd be interested in taking part if it comes to that. I'm excited to see us use this. Great stuff. Well done. Good luck to you as you enter your post-graduation. Endeavors. The resolution was tabled with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Resolution #10081 Resolution authorizing the sale of Surplus Personal Property of the City of Williamsport The City Clerk read the resolution. , Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and second Mr. Mackey made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Ms. Livermore . This is a process that you have done in the past. It fell off for a while so each time we purchase something from capital projects, we use (word?) to sell the expired item. Whether measured vehicle or machinery. We did work with Austins office but we need to bring this in front of council each time but we will see this on a regular basis. Austin did write the resolution. You'll see a little bit differently based on if it's above or below $2000. This resolution is for event track mower and event track mower for streets and parks was in capital projects they purchased a new one and this is to be put on municipio approval and the money goes into the parks miscellaneous income in the general l fund. Actually I misspoke it goes under surplus sales we put all of it under surplus sales. Mr. Pulizzi: Thank you very much. Any questions, comments, concerns from counsel? Mrs. Franco Love Boat please . The resolution was carried with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Resolution #10084 Resolution of City Council of the City of Williamsport Authorizing the Use of Budgeted Funds & City Resources for the Williamsport Government Study Commission The City Clerk read the resolution. , Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and second Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Dr. Yoder Ms. Miele : This resolution comes to you on behalf of the government study commission elected May 19 to examine the concept of home rule and draft a home rule charter for the City of Williamsport. It should be followed here shortly by an actual budget for the government study commission. But this is by and large codifying our desire to share certain city resources a.k.a. the city solicitor and our friend over there. The man who makes all the streaming possible for City Council meetings will be doing the same for home rule to reach the widest possible audience. These expenses will be documented separately as home rule expenses so that we can track the final budget since we did allocate $15,000 in this calendar year ESSA match first-aid investment of funds in the home rule effort. I am one of seven commissioners. We do humbly request that the city share these resources with us because we think that will achieve a certain economy of scale in these matters. We look forward to bringing you here I think the next Council meeting you should also have a request to hire a consultant to facilitate the process of studying home rule. That consultant is funded 90% by the state. That's everything. We have had our first meeting on June 2 and will have a brief meeting on June 18 two selective consultants. Then relatively regular meetings on Thursdays following that. July 2, July 16 and July 30. Ms. Fessler is better at keeping things in order so I'm the one to call if you want total chaos. Valerie has been kind enough to organize things for the home rule commission in her role as one of the commissioners and we have five excellent other individuals who will be studying home rule as well. Dr. Yoder I will make a couple comments and observations. From what I vividly remember from the effort nine years ago, I think we are miles ahead and frankly doing this right way. I don't know the home rule commission engaged a consultant for the process, engage legal counsel. It was very much very organic. Organic in terms of I don't know they had as much guidance and professional consultation that our group is going to and that's a good thing. It's a very good thing. I would also maybe -- Liz, if you could pass this to the commission, I think there might be merit in the commission may be engaging their legal counsel at some point. For a couple different reasons. I understand the economy of scale. But I do think independent legal advice for the commission would be valuable outside of the city's purview. I would encourage the commission to consider that and think about that and maybe go down that path. Might be a better product and better service for the commission. The only other observation I would throughout there. Ms. Miele: That's a valid point and I'm happy to take it to the commission. Dr. Yoder: But I'm happy to approve this. I think getting you off the ground in the interim is perfectly fine and I'm very comfortable with that. Mr. Pulizzi : Thank you Doctor Yoder. We discussed this Tuesday and there's benefit to this for the study commission to piggyback off of our streaming services and legal services. There's going to be some benefit there. Does anyone from council have any other questions or comments or concerns? Mrs. Frank on the boat please. The resolution was carried with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. TABLED Resolution Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement for Blighted Properties Enforcement Penn Senior Rebranding an Initiative The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Mackey made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. May Slaughter: Good evening again. What you have before you is an intergovernmental cooperation agreement for blighted properties enforcement Chief Harer did the majority of the work on this. I know my name is next to it on the agenda. But this is redevelopment Authority has money they need to spend by the end of 2026. And so what this is granting the redevelopment Authority the ability to contract with in a certain area of the community and look at expediting really them to spend the money and get some of the blighted properties more quickly to just expand that capacities so they can spend the money knock on wood by the end of the year. That's really what this is. It they can circumvent any processes. It still comes by the blighted property commission. The same promises. They have to follow all the city ordinances and laws and all that type of stuff. : We had a conversation regarding this . I'm never the one to have my mic off. We talked about this on Tuesday. The committee. There was some concerns that were brought up. I will open the floor to anyone who has questions. Mr. Pulizzi: One of the questions I asked, and Tuesday was the funding straight from the rDNA. I was under the impression on Tuesday was not being funded by RBO Monday which is good because ARPA is not eligible to fund this. What's the funding stream that the RDA is funding this from? I see you back there Skip. Just to do our diligence and confirm. Mr. Memmi: Good evening members of council. The redevelopment Authority and land Bank Authority will be using their funds independent of any federal dollars. : You have funding that is not earmarked but it is unrestricted. : Unrestricted. : It is not RBO. : Yes, sir. Dr. Yoder: Can you walk me through how this is going to operationalize? What's the day-to-day of this going to look like? What's the reporting back between the city and the RDA going to look like? Who is doing what? How is this in operation? Mr. Memmi: Redevelopment Authority be will be retaining a certified state certified license codes enforcement company which we already use is as part of our process when we acquire properties to make sure we are following the appropriate codes. The reason we brought this to you is because of the significant investment that we are already in the middle of putting into that area of the city that we outlined in the request or in the intergovernmental agreement. We will be using our consultant which is codes assessment professionals which are state licensed codes enforcement officers . They will go through the whole of that area that designated for your approval and they will do an inventory of all the blighted properties and other properties and then we will begin the process of codes enforcement and following all the rules, regulations of not only the city but of the state. We will issue violation notices . We will then proceed to prosecute if they are remedied and Mr. Lyons of codes assessment professionals is here and can probably answer some of these questions about the process that he follows. I would be glad for that and to yield the microphone to him. I speak way too off and on these things. If you don't mind, I'd have him try to answer some of your question specifically. Representative:: Yeah. He's welcome to come up. The root of my question is really to be frank, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the city seating authority for enforcement to a different authority. I don't think that this would happen between the members that are there. You and Skip and I'm not questioning your consultant by any means. Not at all. But I'm uncomfortable creating a situation where that could happen. Mr. Memmi: We are going to be reporting to the Mayor and chief Hare ron an every two week or as needed basis on any of the issues and if the constituent would come in and tell the codes department we have a property that such and such an address in the area where all they need to do is notified me or Joe and we will have a certified officer out there to do the inspection. If it is in violation, issue the permit . The funds all come back to the city for any of those fines. We are working as an instrument to assist the city to hopefully better enforce blighted properties and codes issues and help resolve the situation we've been finding ourselves in for the last many years where the area we're talking about probably has around 1100 homes +/-. The typical rule of thumb is about 10% of them are probably severely blighted. We're going to be looking at potentially 100 properties that we might have to issue citations to. And hopefully it gets everybody energized to do the appropriate property maintenance issues so that we don't have to continue with going after bad individuals who leave properties falling into disrepair and leave abandonment issues for the city. We're just acting as a partner for the city . Your ordinances do allow for you to designate someone as a third party agency to do that. We're not trying to take away from codes in any way, shape or form. My board thought it was important that we work in partnership and we put some extra eyes and boots on the street. Dr. Yoder: Let me ask this question. Was there discussion about the city being the agent that would hire and still managing enforcement? If so, what led to the decision and the way this is written for the RDA to be the agent that is managing enforcement doing the hiring? Mr. Memmi: The city could do it. We were trying to help the city by using our money and knowing that there are always financial costs to bring in third parties. It's a limited time period but dense at the end of the year. the agreement is from June 15 to December 31. Then at that point in time, we can change . Our agreement, what you are looking at tonight terminates, and if it's something that is City Council and the RDA board want to do, we can continue with another agreement or the city can go out and do a request for proposals and higher whomever they like. This is just a short-term fix to a major problem. Dr. Yoder: With the RDA be amenable to changing this so those city has oversight and the RDA funds it? : I doubt it. Dr. Yoder: Why? Mr. Memmi: Because my board has watched what has happened with the existing codes officials, and I'm not trying to be disparaging, but it hasn't -- Dr. Yoder: It is imperfect. I understand and respect that. Mr. Memmi: They want to be able to at least have oversight . Working in partnership with the city. We're not looking to do this -- we don't want to be the codes officers for the city . We're just looking to help you first short period of time. Since we are putting in probably a million to 1,500,000 dollars in the area we are talking about using RBO funds. My board looks at these properties we are working on and 25 yards down the street is another property that is in order disrepair. We are saying give us a chance to make sure we manage the area we are investing a lot of money in and the private entities are already. It's a gateway into Penn College. You have the new lumber yards baseball complex and other private investment tours taking investments in that area. This was my boards intention was to be of assistance and try to make the area look and present a better picture for the city. Dr. Yoder: Let me reiterate a few points. I appreciate that. To be candid, I think this is a solid idea in terms of trying a different approach to codes enforcement and getting some support for the Coates office. I'm not pooh-poohing the idea. I don't think that anybody that is within the RDA would purposely or is trying to do any of that. Let me put it this way. If I learned anything in the 6 1/2 years I've been here from the whole fallout from the whole Bill ickels thing, it's that putting too much authority within an entity can lead to bad things. That can even happen to good people with good intentions that don't mean to do bad things. I'm simply hesitant with that structure because of that experience I've had and that history. I just don't think it's right or fair to put you or the board in that position. That's my hesitation. Mr. Memmi: But we still are reporting to your codes office. Dr. Yoder: Reporting is one thing but having authority is different. I make no distinction between the two. Oversight is one thing. But actually having the authority is different and it's a line I'm a bit uncomfortable with myself. That's why I asked the question, is there a different set up that would be amenable to the RDA to try to find a compromise and to frankly champion the idea? The idea is rooted in a lot of good things. I think this is something that would be really worth trying just with a different operational structure. Mr. Memmi: I can't speak for my board. I wouldn't be willing to give you a commitment tonight. Dr. Yoder: I understand. Ms. Miele: I would agree. I think this is a great idea. We appreciate the RDA stepping up and saying they want to give a concept like this a try. In a limited zone in the city. I think that's really powerful. I share Adam's discomfort with this being unilaterally run by the RDA. I think it puts you guys in the unfortunate position of looking a bit like you're doing a judge, jury and executioner on piece of property in a way I'm not sure would play out well in the long run. If the RDA is citing a part pretty or send again to blighted properties and if the RDA is making other enforcement actions in the neighborhood, I'm afraid that could put -- look bad for the RDA in a way I don't want to see city authority get. : All the enforcement is on behalf of the city. We are just overseeing the operation. Ms. Miele : That's why we are proposing that the city and RDA should be jointly responsible for oversight of the enforcement. >> SPEAKER: That's why we are reporting back to the chief. He ultimately can say we don't want this. Ms. Miele: I would feel more comfortable if the chief and you were jointly working on this together. Mayor: We are going to work together on this. As we go forward. We need the authority to start putting together the processes. all the processes are -- the company we now looking to retain does this for municipalities all across the eight or nine counties around this area. They have all the certifications that are necessary to do the property maintenance inspections. We are kind of like the vehicle that primes the engine. We will report back to the city. And if the chief has an issue, we're going to work with him to resolve whatever issue is out there. If it's every two weeks, or if it's every other day, the chief end I can sit down and Mr. Lyons who is here tonight representing codes assessment professionals we will meet with him daily to make sure that what we're doing doesn't create any issues for either the redevelopment Authority or those city in any way, shape or form. We are just looking for the authority for our consultant and are codes office to go out and inspect and enforce. And in the enforcement is through no federal dollars. It's independent. It's the RDA's money. Ms. Miele: Do we have an outline of the costs yet? : Probably something in the $100,000 range? Ms. Miele The authority has that much funding? >> SPEAKER: We do. Ms. Miele: That's good to know. Mayor Slaughter, just from the perspective of your office, what does your office say to someone who calls in and says, why I'm I getting cited by the redevelopment Authority and not by the City of Williamsport? Mayor: It would be ultimately the City of Williamsport but I would ask with the citation what it was for and that we have a partnership with them to beautify the city. It's just expanding capacity. It's not some type of negative. We are trying to address blight, do some blight remediation and remediation. Ms. Miele: I guess what I'm saying is is if someone is calling from that neighborhood saying three blocks over outside that's on there's nobody who's not getting cited for any of this and I've gotten $2000 worth of citations. Mayor : That literally does happen. We get calls all the time. They showed up at my house today but two blocks over how come they didn't say anything? Give may the address. We will send them over. We do that just about every day. Ms. Miele: I think I would also be more comfortable with this if the city and the RDA were jointly part of this contract and the oversight so that we could, when someone called, we would have an immediate database of actions that have been taken and we wouldn't have to refer them to an office that wasn't part of the city. To ask about a code citation they received. Also because it seems to me like partly -- I would presume as I think everyone is presuming in this instance that we will run into absentee landlords in this neighborhood that aren't taking care of properties but we might run into a homeowner who can't afford to maintain their property. We want them to as quickly and easily as possible get connected with other resources within the community to help to improve their property, ideally at less cost to them. If the city is not an immediate partner in this, I think we have the connections to those resources and the RDA doesn't. I'm trying to make sure that's facilitated as well as we can. Mayor: I agree. If that is the case, we get to a property owner or tenant or landlord and they don't have the funds to fix it up, usually -- I've sat in front of the magistrate in these hearings and the magistrate generally says much time do you need? What's realistic? What can you do? What can you afford? Those processes are already in place. We aren't looking to hammer somebody that might have a broken step. We just dealt with something similar not long ago and we said, we know you're going to work through this. We are not gonna cite you every single day. Will give you six months or whatever to fix and come into compliance or revisit it at that point. We aren't going to hammer some resident that is trying and working with us. Now, if you have something that's completely falling down and you are just avoiding us and you have folks in there and it's dangerous that's different. That we would probably do something about. Ms. Miele: All of us agree -- Mayor: But I think what we're really looking at is the worst of the worst. We aren't going to look at one crack in a window. We are looking at vacant or extremely blighted properties. We have oversight. We all know that there's blighted properties but if we get the vacant ones that have been like that for many, many years and are able to get those back on the tax rolls and owner-occupied, that's really what we are going after first and foremost. If done a few already. The one across from the YMCA. That they raised next of first church that they took down. Those were both vacant were many years. The fire in Newberry. One on Isabella Street right now. Those are the properties. These have been historically vacant for many, many, many years and so that's what we're looking at first. Ms. Miele: Talk to me real quick Justin about what those city role currently is fire this resolution? Are we ceding all authority? Mayor: I look at it briefly here but what I can tell you is basically it's an intergovernmental cooperation agreement between the City of Williamsport and the redevelopment Authority. The proposal is to authorize the redevelopment authority to hire the third-party codes agency mentioned in here that the gentleman is here tonight from to administer blighted property enforcement actions and property maintenance inspections and actions within the aforementioned area and that's bounded by exhibit A which would have high Street, their third because Cemetery Street and Campbell Street and enforce code enforcement and property maintenance in that area. That would be under the International property maintenance code that the city already adopted. It indicates that the redevelopment Authority would be the one that is retaining and paying codes assessment professionals. As was discussed, they are paying codes assessment professionals and codes assessment professionals is their subcontractor. Whatever you want to call it. Or if they go with another agency or more than one agency besides codes assessment professionals, the way it's worded I think it would allow them to do that. What codes assessment professionals is specifically being hired to do under this is performed blighted property enforcement actions and maintenance inspections and actions. Within that area. The city would delegate the authority to perform all that to the redevelopment Authority and the code enforcement entity. There is a delegation of authority within that district, and I don't know whether it's not clear from this whether that delegation is exclusive or concurrent. If that's a concern, it probably would be best to have that spelled out one way or the other. That being said, it looks like the agreement under this resolution and I think this was discussed starts June 15 Monday and ends on December 31. Any power if you adopt this, that's delegated under it is for no more than a little less than six months. It would expire at that point. It provides the redevelopment Authority oversees the third-party agency and then basically provides biweekly status reports to the mayor and city for chief. I read that that the redevelopment Authority has that ceded authority under this CD under the way it's worded now to direct the work of the third-party agency and they provide reports to the Mayor and the Fire Chief but it's not clear to me in this resolution that the Mayor and the Fire Chief can override them in any way. If they enforce something at it and there's a fee or find them they get that money it gets paid into the city so they don't keep any of the fees or fines that might coe out of this thing. It indicates the redevelopment Authority pays all the costs relating to the hiring and engagement. Basically, the way it's worded now in my opinion is that for a period of about six months for that particular area, the city turns over to the redevelopment authority control tires somebody to enforce code enforcement there. Provide regular reports and if it collects any money hand over to the city. That's the gist of what's written in there right now. Ms. Miele: Your impression is the city could not contraindicated any decisions made by the RDA. Mayor: I don't think that it allows for that the way that it is written. may be the intention was something other than what's written and it sounds like that might be the case but what's written indicates that authority is delegated to the redeveloping authority and if that they have the oversight of the code enforcement agency. If that's not what was intended, that's fine but that appears to be what's written. Ms. Miele: Was that what was intended? >> SPEAKER: I think so. I do want to speak on behalf of the redevelopment authority but I think we have a great relationship with RDA. I don't think they are going to go out there and do whatever they want to do and not keep us abreast. Ms. Miele: For us to lose any ability to -- Mayor If they go after a property that's completely ridiculous, I think that the chief and myself would say what are you doing? I don't think they would keep going if we had an extreme concern. Ms. Miele: I would hope not. Mayor : I don't have strong feelings. If we want to add that language, I think would have to go back to -- if you amend it it would have to go back to their board for agreement. I don't personally have any problem with giving up a little bit of authority. I don't think you do either necessarily. I don't have concerns that RDA is going to go crazy. Mr. Memmi: I don't see that we are giving up authority per se because the contracted officer -- he's still following and abiding by the same I PMC codes enforcement that our current codes enforcement officers should be. Enforcing and are still good to be having biweekly meetings with the chief. I guess in one way, it's somewhat of an authority, but I personally don't see how there's any kind of negative impact to the city on this other than the city just not being able to put their thumb on everything which historically are codes enforcement has been pretty negative in the past several years. We have a redevelopment Authority that says we want to step up to partner with the city. We will pay for it all. You're going to take all the money. We are just asking for let us do our thing. We are still going to report to the city. I understand and share your concerns. I do. But I think this is one of those we've been getting a neuronal way for a while with the city with the codes department. Let's get out of our own way and give them a chance to show us what they can do. We will see accelerated codes enforcement hopefully, increased pressure on absentee property owners, hopefully improved neighborhood stabilization as this is going to be focused in a specific area. And additional fine revenue that we would never most likely have received before. As I can understand I respect your concerns but frankly I think this is great. I'd like to see this potentially as a start of something that could develop into something bigger and better. I apologize for jumping in. I know some other members of Council have had hands up for some time. Liz did you have anything else? Ms. Miele: Not particularly. Mr. Mackey : Let's take a few steps back. Mayor, you mentioned money that needs to be spent. Speaking of the RBO money. Can you remind me what that deadline is again? Mayor: December... Mr. Mackey: For whatever reason, our codes department has been hindering the ambition for lack of a better term of the RDA. Skip, if we were to not pass this, what is the likelihood in your opinion that we would have to return all of that ARPA money to the federal government? Because that would be a terrible thing. We gave you that money to help improve the city, and for whatever reason, that plan hasn't come to fruition . I'm not gonna start throwing people under the bus. But back to my original question. If we were to not pass this, what with the likelihood be that a lot of this money would have to be returned? Mayor: It won't happen Councilman. Today, I just gave to our consultants checks to acquire four more properties through eminent domain. We have six of them which we hope to acquire within the next 30 days . On average, a project, we are spending about $200,000 on each one of those projects. If we have six, that's 1.2. If we take our other operational costs, that takes us up to $1.4 million before the end of the year. We have about 1.1 or 1.2 that we haven't spent yet. A little over 1 million. Even if we wouldn't do this, it would not keep us from spending the money . But if we do this, then we can start moving forward and look at how we can help manage blight within the city and make our areas look better. That's the intent of the RDA board isn't just to the wound and be the codes enforcement entity for the city. We just want to partner. But the process is cumbersome. Getting a project through codes and getting it through the blooded property committee and then getting it to us in getting it through the courts which have caused us heartache at times. Certain barristers have different opinions on eminent domain . They can either help us manage the properties or slow us down. It is kind of interwoven together. It's the RDA's intention to provide another tool in the toolbox to help the city with codes enforcement. : Passing this would expedite or it would help. : It would help absolutely. Mr. Mackey: I'm gonna have to agree with Councilman Pulizzi. We are talking about six months. Let's see where this goes. I think it's something that maybe needs to be done. : Councilman, did you have your hand up? Mr. Milliken: Hi Skip. I guess I just want to first start by saying I appreciate the redevelopment Authority. You guys are people who care about your city and you've got a mission to do. I recognize that I have a lot to learn, and months ago I met you and you gave me a business card and I need to sit down with you and the redevelopment Authority to learn. >> SPEAKER: Any time, sir. Mr. Milliken: With that being said, I have some concerns I guess. Or I should say I feel a certain level of uncomfortable with the idea about increased enforcement for a specific area. I get this is in some ways how things work. But I guess -- Mayor, you addressed some of these concerns and nobody is looking to just go after people who are on hard times but that's my concern. Where my mind goes is how did we determine that this was the magic area to look at? My mind goes to target. Is the verb I think about using. I don't mean to think that negatively, but I'm just being -- Mr .Memmi: We took an area where we are already investing money, that habitat for humanity is investing money. The private sector is investing money. It was an area that we could define, that we could manage. We know we are looking at about 1100+ residential properties in that area that we're looking at. Typically rule of thumb says 10% of them typically or severely blighted. We are going to inventory that area, look at what properties are vacant, which are severely blighted, and create a list. We're going to review them . First priority is safety issues. We can put down the hall list of issues. We're not going to go after Mr. Jones because he's got grass that's 6 inches too high. That isn't our priority. Our priority is going to be there severely blighted properties. That's what we are going after. We'll work with everybody. If there's someone that has financial issues, we will put them in touch with the city to the appropriate agencies to see how they might be able to help them overcome them. We will give them time to remedy. But a lot of the properties that we are going to be targeting are probably absentee owners . They are probably landlords that don't even live within this area. We're dealing with the Isabela property. The owner is in New York City. Tracking him down was a challenge. We're dealing with all those challenges. We're just offering the city an opportunity to provide expanded enforcement. Mr. Milliken: I appreciate that and frankly we need you as a partner. I don't want to sour that at all. But if Councilman Mackey's question about the timeliness of this. Does this impact our ability to use the ARPA money and it doesn't. I don't think this is rushed but there are some serious concerns voiced on Council tonight. Justin, you brought up some issue. My question to the Council would be is there any risk in us or members of the Council going to the next RDA meeting? To hash this out further and may be refined a little bit or alleviate concerns? I don't know. Instead of voting tonight. Mayor: We are only looking at 5 1/2 months. If we don't get started soon, we might as well not start at all. Mr. Memmi: If the area is a concern, we could open it up. It doesn't matter to me. If we're worried about one area, there's plenty of blight. We get calls all the time. We are literally trying to take $1 million and get it out there is quickly as we can to address blight . If the area -- that doesn't matter. I just would like to address blight. That was the intent . We did way back when was blight remediation. If we want to open it all up, that doesn't matter. If that's a concern. If you think people are going to be concerned that it's just their neighborhood, we could do the holes city. Dr. Yoder: Could you offer is coaching in terms of what's the appropriate path forward here if we're split and we don't have power forward to pass this tonight. :, I don't know what my board will do. Dr. Yoder: What procedurally from your perspective -- if there's consensus, should we table this and have a conversation with the authority board at the next meeting? Should we vote it down? That's what I'm asking for. I'm not opposed to the concept. The structure is my thing. I'm uncomfortable with that. I'd be happy to try to collaborate with the board to see if there's something better. What I don't want to do is vote this down or vote against it even if I'm in the minority and put a bad taste in their mouth because I genuinely appreciate them bringing this forward. That's why I'm asking that. >> SPEAKER: I don't want to speak for them. But my sense of the board is that if this doesn't carry, they may withdraw the offer. Not trying to put undue pressure on the Council. But they've been dealing with this for over two years. They're looking for something to happen. Ms. Miele: Just to clarify on that for one second. What you're saying is if we would vote it down tonight, then you think they would withdraw the offer. If we were to table it for two weeks -- >> SPEAKER: I think either one of those scenarios could possibly lead to them withdrawing the offer. Dr. Yoder: I'd be willing to take a chance to table and have a conversation with them. That's just me. Mr. Memmi: Some of the limited conversation that I've had with the RDA, I would have to agree with Mr. (word?). If it gets stabled, they have to remove the offer entirely or if it gets food down they may withdraw the offer entirely. I understand and respect your concerns about the structure. Councilman Milliken, I understand your concerns as far as the area. I will reinforce I think this is a good idea. I think it's about time that we get out of our own way and allow this to happen. If there was any concern about potentially targeting individuals or whatever in that neighborhood, frankly -- I've got to be careful how I say this -- I'm looking forward to it because the whole purpose of codes enforcement is to target irresponsible property owners. We want to target them. We want to identify them so we can get them to fix their properties and in doing so fix our real estate stock. Give the tenants better quality of life. And start to take our communities back. If it's a concern about the limited geographical boundaries within the city, I like that. At least it gives us an idea that we can more closely watch within a limited area over this time frame . We're going to be an awful lot more effective. I'm assuming they would be more effective. Mr. Lyons, you're here. Can you come up to the dais, sir? Thank you. >> SPEAKER: Mr. Lyons, in your opinion how long would it take you to cover this area? Do your initial sweep of this proposed area. Mr. Lyons: The first sweep would probably with two people and cataloging and everything is going to take approximately two weeks to get everything catalogued down through. It is very meticulous process to get the most abandoned ones first . The longest process of it is trying to find the owners of abandoned properties. The abandoned properties would be looked at first or what looks to be abandoned. Then we go to safety and we break it all the way down to call it junk, excessive debris. We catalogued this all down through. We already start sending out letters to what needs to be done. We pull our research. I have a staff at the office that does research to find where the owners are. Because some of the times, some of the properties are in repository or tax collection. As we go through the process, we know we're going to run into people that are financially incapacitated. One thing I can assure you. With our company and what we do, we are not the ones that go out and look to immediately -- you're getting a fine. That is not us. We work with people. We help them . I worked in many municipalities in Lycoming County. Cayuga, Juniata, Cumberland, I could go on. We refer people who are financially -- they say I can't take care of it. I'm financially incapacitated. We tell them about contacting (word?). We tell them about contacting commissioners. We put them in touch with people in Lycoming County. I have used -- I am set up with the PRC, prerelease center. The prerelease center will go in and help clean up properties through the city or through nonprofits . It has to be done through a nonprofit. There's properties we haven't had cleaned up for somebody. There's other avenues that we could go down through and help people. We give an ample amount of time. If you have a property that is excessively blighted, you have to give a proper amount of time. Not 48 hours. Not even up to five days. Sometimes, you have to give 20 days or 30 days. Within that time, we should hear back from them. That's part of the process. As letters and phone calls go out and people talk to them -- we will knock on doors. We will say hello. We will go through and try to find out what the problem is to try to get it to be remedied. We hear what the problems are. Or we don't hear what the problems are. That's when the second set goes out. The second set is more demanding. In labeling out the ramifications, if there's a third letter. Then we give them (word?). That's a process and we continue to go through that until we get to some type of resolution. Mr. Pulizzi: Thank you very much. He represents some of the other municipalities within the county. Are you able to identify some of those other municipalities that you represent? : Montgomery Borough. (word?). We have municipalities like Montgomery Borough that we do patrols. We do (word?). Eldred, Upper Fairfield . A lot of them escape me at this minute. : I'm putting you on the spot. Mr. Lyons: Cayuga. Liberty, Mifflin, Renova, soul three nova, Chapman Township. Mr. Pulizzi: The company represent has quite a history and is pretty experienced in doing this and codes. I mentioned that you work with departments as far as that have resources. If you were to end up being retained by the RDA, you start doing codes enforcement. You come across a household with somebody on a fixed income or that has some financial burden and is unable to make some necessary changes. So am I correct in assuming you are already experienced unaccustomed with being able to provide them with the city's departmental resources that could show them or assist them in getting funds to fix up the property? Mr. Lyojns: Yes. I used to be a subcontractor first step. Under office of energy. I had a construction business. I'm very familiar with the programs. I was Bradford County's housing specialist for 3 1/2 years until their funds were used for that program. I am also involved in Clinton County's home program, and I am looking at possibly securing the Mifflin County home program as well. So I'm very familiar with CDBG funds, flood rehabs, multitudes of programs that are out there through cCOGS and other intergovernmental or interim municipality funds that may be available. : Thank you. Some members sent concerns as far as the delayed time of an infraction being directed to ACD resources that could help with some funding mechanisms. : Absolutely. In Montgomery just the other day, I had to mention to an elderly person about getting (Indiscernible). Mr. Pulizzi Thank you for asking some of these questions. And hopefully that might alleviate some concerns. If this specific zone is an issue, I could suggest potentially taking that language out. Paragraph one and just saying within the City of Williamsport. That would alleviate maybe some concerns of targeting a specific area of the city. The RDA is clearly focused on this area of the city. We think about the amount of money invested down in that part of town right now. Now that we're getting into the summer months. The increase in visitors that we are going to be getting to that part of town because of the lumber yards. It's in our best interest to try to make sure that this part of the city looks a little nicer. If it would help, I would make a motion I guess to remove the language in paragraph one outlining a specific area of the city and just defining it as the City of Williamsport if that would alleviate other people's concerns. Mr. Houser: Just as a legal matter on that, we will have to make other changes because other sections talk about this area of the city so we'd have to strike that. The only other thing I would suggest is it council decides to do that that the amendment owns so and the word concurrent in there somewhere and I can find a place to put it. What you don't want to do is delegate to them authority over the whole city and not retain any for yourselves. So your own code enforcement -- you don't want them to be the exclusive ones doing it because then your code office someone could challenge and say you have no authority to do anything while this is in effect. I would suggest if that's the way the Council wants to go that we amend it to fix those things and add the word concurrent. : This is why we pay you the big bucks. Mr. Houser: I appreciate you bringing that up. We have Mr. Lyons at the dias. Dr. Yoder: Just a couple points to reimport force. I have zero concerns about you. I'm sure you are well qualified. None of my reservations are about you. None of my reservations are about skip, the board members. My reservations are about creating a system that essentially eliminates a couple of checks and balances and creates a situation that could concentrate power and create a situation where there are issues that arise from that. I'm going to again point back to let's talk about building Nichols. Bill nickels was able to do what he was able to do because he had two or three things underneath him with minimal checks and balances. The people that created that situation more overly good people. I will say that deep down I think Bill nickels was a pretty good dude. He was trying to make the city proper. But the system that he was in created the opportunity for what happened. Maybe this is a great idea. The system this creates makes me uncomfortable and I don't want to be a part of it. That's the root of it for me. It has nothing to do with anybody individually or the people that have propose this. Frankly, I think it's great that they propose this idea. I would be more than happy with a different system. That's what it is for me. Ms. Miele: You don't have anything to put forward in terms of your different system? Dr. YoderI would make amendments that reflect the city maintaining the authority and doing that. That's why as to the questions. I don't know if going through that amendment process is something that would be amenable to the RDA. I am more than happy to be a part of a dialogue with the RDA about trying to find something that would make a little bit more sense structurally. I'm willing to do whatever that makes sense that they don't go away from the table. That's making amendments. A mapy and prepared to do that. If that's tabling this I'm all for it. If it's procedurally voting it down and then it comes back in the future, that's fine too. I'm very open and willing to do that. Mr. Memmi: I think the RDA would be willing, if you changed the language to include all of the city and not specifically highlight a specific area. I think that they would be willing to accept. Or not. We're not looking to be the sole oversight. That's why we report to the Mayor and your fire chief who is your director of codes. He will have all the information. He will have ability to get into the software that will be created to manage the blended properties. We're not looking to be LBL and all . We're just looking to be the entity that helps attack Blake. Dr. Yoder: I'm sure you are. I'm not comfortable putting you in the position to where that focus can go elsewhere. I am not comfortable creating they system or the structure that could put you in a position different from what you just described. That's what it is. It's not you. I fully believe your intentions. We need to be very intentional about the systems that we built for the betterment of the city. We need to learn lessons from the bad things that have happened in the city. That's what it is for me. Ms. Miele: Correct me if I'm wrong, but if we were to amend this agreement in any way it would go back to the RDA board for vote. If they were to accept it as we amended it, then it would at that point become a live agreement. : Yep. 100%. Ms. Miele: Which is to say that it seems to me what you should do is propose any amendments. The counts can vote them up or down. It would not need to come back to us for vote at that point if the RDA agreed with the amendments. Do you see what I'm saying? That seems like the cleanest, easiest way. >> SPEAKER: I understand. I get what you're saying. Mr. Hauser, what would happen if this was a 33 tie? Mr. Houser: The resolution would not be adopted. Mr. Pulizzi: It feels like that's gonna happen. I don't want to vote it down necessarily. I'm worried if we make amendments that the RDA would withdraw. However what I'm going to do in the confidence that the members of the RDA board are logical, rational people and that they would appreciate us tabling this to be able to have a more in- depth and thorough conversation about this to assuage any concerns we might have. I'm sure they would welcome that if the roles were reversed. As much as I would hope this would pass and as I think I realize it's not going to sew with that, I'm going to make a motion that we table this until we can have a more in-depth conversation with the RDA in the hopes that we can work out some of these case this moving forward. Dr. Yoder made a motion to table and it was seconded by Ms. Miele. The resolution was TABLED with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Certificates of Appropriateness – HARB (All items recommended for approval unless otherwise noted) Item 3. Boomtown Rentals LLC 741 West Fourth Street A. Remove deteriorating asphalt siding from rear enclosed porch. Install 5” cedar siding. Retain existing window, trim and door configurations. B. Paint or stain. Color: Cottage Red. Item 4. Preservation Williamsport FDN INC 707 West Fourth Street Rowley House Museum A. Replace unsafe portions of the fire escape railing on the rear (west) of the main building. Use wood, same as existing. Paint same as existing B. Replace rotted decking on east side porch with same as existing material. Paint same as existing. Item 6. Herdicville Properties LLC 840 West Third Street A. Remove four front damaged entry columns. Replace with new columns of wood or of Fiber, Perma Cast Plus material. Replacements must match shape and diameter of existing columns. Remove existing concrete supports. B. Install columns on new concrete bases, similar to original. Sono tube, 16” and 42” in depth. Ms. Miele : Can I make a quick statement that I am unaware of (word?) property ...I am not affiliated to that facility and consequently we can vote on all three of these items and I don't need to abstain. Mr. Pulizzi: For the sake of expediency, any questions, comments, concerns regarding certificates of appropriateness? The certificates of appropriateness were carried with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Accept for filing HARB minutes May 2026 Mr. Pulizzi asked for a motion and second to accept the minutes for filing. Dr. Yoder made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken.  The minutes were accepted for filing with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. The minutes were carried with six yes roll call votes. The vote was 6 to 0. . Dr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mr. Mackey voted yes, Mr. Dussinger voted yes, Ms. Miele voted yes and Mr. Pulizzi voted yes. Mr. Beiter was absent. Announcements The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting will be held on Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 7:00 PM, Trade & Transit II 144 West Third St, 3rd floor, Williamsport, PA. Upcoming Meetings: Tuesday, June 16 6:30 PM HARB Wednesday, June 17 10:00 AM Blighted Property Thursday, June 18 10:30 AM Zoning Hearing Board Friday, June 19 CITY HALL CLOSED JUNETEETH Tuesday, June 23 11:30 AM Redevelopment Authority 1:00 PM Committee of the Whole Thursday, June 25 7:00 PM City Council Meeting Mr. Justin Houser: I would suggest with counsel's indulgence if we could have a brief executive session for no more than 10 minutes after the Council meeting purpose to provide information subject to legal privilege basically since I'm here like a chance to update you on some things I'm working on for the city. Comments: a. Members of the Public My name is Jeremy Draper address 2115 W. third Street . I want to say this is my first council meeting I've attended. It's funny because Skip already addressed something I was going to talk about and that is city codes. My wife and I have been dealing with a lot of problems with city codes . They've been ignoring us. A lot of dangerous situations that affected my wife and I because of our neighbors. It happened even before we bought our own property we also had problems with landlords. That didn't do their job and there is a pattern of property owners in this town not being held accountable . To be honest, property owners not caring about their property and then the defects their neighbors. My wife and I brought this brand-new house last year. Roaches started coming in out of nowhere and we hired someone to take care of it and he said they are not coming from your house but your neighbor's house. Who would leave garbage out in the front yard. Pizza boxes. We called codes, did nothing. Now we are having their shingles fall on our house . Shingles will come off from the wind and come in our backyard and hit our windows. We called codes. We talked to the neighbors. They don't do anything about it. We have noticed when we've also talked to our other neighbors about this issue. They are like yeah, we've been having problems with them before you moved in there. They've called codes and they don't do anything about it. It seems that we are not the only neighbors. I've talked to people at work and they have the same problems. Their neighbors suffer the consequences. This is a wonderful town. This is a beautiful historic town and we don't do anything in this community to hold property owners accountable. at least not that I've seen. All of a sudden Skip comes up saying I'm going to give you guys free money to work on this to actually go and work in the community. I am a homeowner. Living in the city. I don't know where these guys live . I live in the city. I've got to deal with this every day. My wife and I have done what we could. We've gone to goats. We've even gone to the police and the police said the codes doesn't do anything. That's just phenomenal. We are just trying to just keep our community nice. We don't want to suffer the consequences because of someone else's negligence. We also live right across from two abandoned homes which I've seen squatters go in there. I've seen some sketchy which I assumed a drug transaction happened there because no one lives there. It's the perfect spot. Those people who own those homes don't live in Williamsport. I think they live in New Jersey. We have a problem and apparently the RDA is saying we'll fix it. It would be great, the smartest thing you guys could do to approve this. Since the taxpayers of the one suffering for the consequences of negligent neighbors, negligent landlords and property sitting there rotting away which could be used for something. Mr. Pulizzi: I appreciate you coming up. I truly do and voicing your concerns and your opinions. I apologize. I hate to cut you off but we've gone over. I didn't want to cut you off in the middle. We very much share your concerns and I would urge you that before you leave here tonight we have our fire chief who has been very proactive in working with our coats department. We have our Police Chief here and other law enforcement representatives. I would make sure you get in touch with them before you leave. Mr. Pulizzi: You are very welcome, sir. Any other comments from members of the public? Are there any comments from members of the Council? Councilman Mackey please. Mr. Mackey: I would just like to thank Jimmy for staying here tonight to address these issues with us. I couldn't agree with you more. I can't help but ask myself how many times are we gonna hear the same story before we decide to do something about it? The RDA I think came to us tonight with the beginnings of a solution to maybe do something about this problem. I really hope that they engage in some conversation with us and we can get this passed in two weeks. Because checks and balances we are trying Council Comments Administration Ms. Fessler: This is my first time on comments from the administration. I have some exciting news to share that's relevant today. Our department led by Austin Dailey applied for a grant application to fair as a funding source. In the past the city has applied to the county to receive a portion of their fair allocation but Austin identified the opportunity for the city to apply directly to the state to receive our own allocation that does not take away from the County allocation . In addition to the allocation the county receives the city is going to receive an allocation this year of $175,000. There's been a lot of positive comments about Stepan their programs that benefit individuals in the community who are dealing with issues of blight and make it potentially be in the low to moderate income population which 57% of Williamsport ...Who have late remediation that needs to take place and do not have the funds to pay for it. The reason this funding is really awesome is because the compliance and redtape is very minimal compared to the HUD funds that we receive. There's just less of a compliance burden and a wider range of income scales folks that we can help so I think this will give step the opportunity to really tick away at the list of folks whose on their list. When we made the decision to hire Austin there was a retirement in the department and the gentleman who was in the department was highly skilled in construction contracting things like that and he ran a rehab program within our department with these types of funds. We made the strategic decision which was supported by Derek and you will lend the budget that Austin's position would not be boots on the ground get your hands dirty type of position. It would be a housing program manager. He is doing exactly what we hoped he would do which was identify Diverse funding sources we can use to target the populations and needs in the city so really proud of him. Really happy to have him check really appreciative of that position and I thought since we talked about the need in the city that I just wanted to mention this because this press release just came out this afternoon. Questions? Mr. Pulizzi: Congratulations. This is great. Very quickly now that we have been awarded this grant is there potential that we could be awarded it in succeeding years? Ms. Fessler: The hope is we will be on the list to receive it annually, assuming we can spend down the funds quickly. Which we can. Hopefully this will be a continuing thing that we can have one more little tool in the big picture . This is one little piece of the puzzle but we are really excited about it. : For the minute Austin's the man. Thank you Austin. Mr. Pulizzi: Other comments from members of C a. News Media Adjournment Meeting adjourned upon motion by Mr. Mackey and a seconded by Dr. Yoder. Meeting adjourned 8:46 PM with unanimous ayes. Submitted by: Janice M. Frank City Clerk