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1 SCRANTON CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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3
4
5 Held:
6 Thursday, January 25, 2007
7
8
9 Time:
10 6:30 p.m.
11
12
13 Location:
14 Council Chambers
15 Scranton City Hall
16 340 North Washington Avenue
17 Scranton, Pennsylvania
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22
23 Lisa M. Graff, RMR
24 Court Reporter
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1 CITY OF SCRANTON COUNCIL:
2
3 MS. JUDY GATELLI, COUNCIL PRESIDENT
4
5 MR. WILLIAM COURTRIGHT, VICE-PRESIDENT
6
7 MS. JANET EVANS
8
9 MR. ROBERT MCGOFF
10
11 MR. AMIL MINORA, ESQUIRE, SOLICITOR
12
13 MS. KAY GARVEY, CITY CLERK
14
15 MR. NEIL COOLICAN, ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
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25
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1 MS. GATELLI: Okay. Please stand
2 for the Pledge Of Allegiance. Please remain
3 standing for a moment of reflection. Roll
4 call.
5 MR. COOLICAN: Mrs. Evans.
6 MS. EVANS: Here.
7 MR. COOLICAN: Mrs. Fanucci. Mr.
8 McGoff.
9 MR. MCGOFF: Here.
10 MR. COOLICAN: Mr. Courtright.
11 MR. COURTRIGHT: Here.
12 MR. COOLICAN: Mrs. Gatelli.
13 MS. GATELLI: Here. Before we start
14 the meeting, we have two proclamations this
15 evening. One of the persons was unable to
16 be with us, but the other person is here
17 with us, so if Council would please come
18 down with me.
19 MS. GATELLI: Sara, would you come
20 up, please? These are two students that
21 were lifeguards at Novembrino Pool last
22 summer who rescued a girl that had drown.
23 The one person, the boy, Patrick
24 McAliney, make was not able to be with us
25 tonight, but Sara Seymour is with us.
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1 Whereas, the Council of the City of
2 Scranton is desirous of honoring Sara
3 Seymour and Patrick McAliney, the two City
4 of Scranton lifeguards who were responsible
5 for saving the life of Basara Amat, a
6 nine-year-old member of the Boys and Girls
7 Club.
8 The lifeguards on duty at Novembrino
9 Pool on Thursday, July 13, 2006 were all
10 tending to their everyday responsibilities
11 when lifeguard Sara Seymour caught sight of
12 a child at the bottom of the pool.
13 This alarming sight caused Sara to
14 dive into the pool to attempt to rescue the
15 child. Upon successfully retrieving Basara
16 from the bottom of the pool and bringing her
17 to the surface, Sara summoned another
18 lifeguard for assistance to get Basara out
19 of the pool.
20 Patrick McAliney came to Sara's aide
21 and was responsible for lifting Basara from
22 Sara, where assessment of this terrible
23 situation could took place.
24 Sara and Patrick made a quick
25 assessment of the victim and found her to
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1 have a pulse, but not breathing.
2 Patrick's quick thinking, brushing
3 fear and anxiety aside, proceeded to
4 administer rescue breaths to Basara.
5 It was necessary to perform rescue
6 breaths twice before putting Basara in the
7 recovery position waiting for emergency
8 personnel to arrive.
9 With such little time to think in
10 such a desire situation, these lifeguards
11 are to be commended for their bravery,
12 heroics and fortitude in their response to a
13 life-threatening situation.
14 Whereas, Scranton City Council, the
15 administration, their parents and families
16 and all of the citizens of the City of
17 Scranton are very proud of these lifeguards
18 and are very grateful to them for all of
19 their efforts, not only for their actions on
20 this particular day, but on each and every
21 day throughout the summer months.
22 Now, therefore, be it resolved that
23 on Thursday, January 25, 2007, Scranton City
24 Council wishes to honor Sara Seymour and
25 Patrick McAliney for their bravery and
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1 heroic actions during this lifesaving event.
2 Be it further resolved that this
3 proclamation be made a permanent part of the
4 minutes of this Council as lasting tribute
5 to Sara Seymour and Patrick McAliney. Thank
6 you very much. And her parents are her, Mr.
7 And Mrs. Seymour. Just a little add on,
8 Sara is a student at West Scranton High
9 School.
10 Sara, maybe you should think about
11 being a nurse. You did such a wonderful
12 job.
13 MS. EVANS: Or bet yet, a doctor.
14 MS. GATELLI: Yeah, you got that
15 right. Okay. Dispense with the reading of
16 the minutes.
17 MS. GARVEY: Third order. 3-A,
18 CONTROLLER'S REPORT FOR THE MONTH ENDING
19 DECEMBER 31, 2006.
20 MS. GATELLI: Are there any
21 comments? If not, received and filed.
22 MS. GARVEY: 3-B, MEETING OF THE
23 COMPOSITE PENSION BOARD TO BE HELD ON
24 DECEMBER 20, 2006 WAS CANCELLED DUE TO LACK
25 OF QUORUM.
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1 MS. GATELLI: Are there any
2 comments? If not, received and filed.
3 MS. GARVEY: 3-C, MINUTES OF THE
4 SCRANTON/LACKAWANNA HEALTH AND WELFARE
5 AUTHORITY MEETING HELD ON DECEMBER 21, 2006.
6 MS. GATELLI: Are there any
7 comments? If not, received and filed.
8 MS. GARVEY: 3-D, MINUTES OF THE
9 NON-UNIFORM MUNICIPAL PENSION BOARD MEETING
10 HELD ON DECEMBER 20, 2006.
11 MS. GATELLI: Are there any
12 comments? If not, received and filed.
13 MS. GARVEY: 3-E, AGENDA FOR THE
14 NON-UNIFORM MUNICIPAL PENSION BOARD MEETING
15 HELD ON JANUARY 24, 2007.
16 MS. GATELLI: Are there any
17 comments? If not, received and filed.
18 MS. GARVEY: 3-F, MINUTES OF THE
19 FIREMEN'S PENSION COMMISSION MEETING HELD ON
20 DECEMBER 20, 2006.
21 MS. GATELLI: Are there any
22 comments? If not, received and filed.
23 MS. GARVEY: 3-G, MINUTES OF THE
24 SCRANTON POLICE PENSION COMMISSION MEETING
25 HELD ON DECEMBER 29, 2006.
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1 MS. GATELLI: Are there any
2 comments? If not, received and filed.
3 MS. GARVEY: I just have one thing
4 for clerk's notes tonight. 5-C on tonight's
5 agenda, there's a loan for 408 Cedar, LLC.
6 I found out some information on this from
7 Sherry Fanucci and from OECD.
8 Formerly was Noonan's Sacramental
9 Wines. It's still at the same address. Now
10 the business entity is called 408 Cedar
11 Avenue, LLC.
12 The loan is for $250,000 at five
13 percent interest for 25 years for
14 acquisition of the building and business for
15 equipment, inventory and working capital to
16 expand their business.
17 The business has been around for
18 70 years. They distribute sacramental wines
19 to churches and synagogues. They currently
20 have 100 customers in the northeast portion
21 of the state and are now looking to include
22 the southeast portion of the state. They
23 will create at least eight jobs, maybe more,
24 and the owner's name is Tim Lavelle. The
25 business and building will be collateral.
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1 That's all I have.
2 MS. GATELLI: Thank you, Mrs.
3 Garvey. Before we start, I'd just like to
4 give a little update. Last week Ken Smith,
5 the new state representative, and I met with
6 the Meadow Avenue residents concerning the
7 sound barriers.
8 And I spoke with Ken yesterday, and
9 he said he has taken it back to Harrisburg,
10 and he's very confident that hopefully
11 something will be done sooner than the year
12 2012.
13 Nick Trunzo, I noticed in the paper,
14 was named the man of the year for the UNICO.
15 I'd like to send him a congratulatory
16 letter. Nick was the SRA chairman under
17 Mayor Connors and worked with Mike Washo and
18 myself on the Steamtown Mall.
19 Nick was the chairman for a good
20 number of years and was a wonderful,
21 wonderful person and very deserving of that
22 award.
23 The house at 2417-2419 Hermans
24 Avenue was demolished today. They did that
25 ahead of the other ones that were on the
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1 list, because the other ones were not ready
2 with the utilities that were terminated, so
3 that was taken down today.
4 MS. EVANS: And, Mrs. Gatelli, about
5 that particular structure, that was the
6 location where the fire had occurred, so
7 this really was just a burned out shell of a
8 structure and it had been on the list for
9 quite a while, so I'm sure the neighbors are
10 going to be thrilled.
11 MS. GATELLI: Thank you, Mrs. Evans.
12 The DPW report, potholes were filled on 9th
13 Avenue, Brigg Street, 2100-2200 of South
14 Webster, the 800 and 900 of McKenna, the 700
15 of Hitchcock, the 12 and 16 of Washburn.
16 Five trees were cut down at Nay Aug. They
17 started to trip the Christmas trees.
18 Snow operations on Friday,
19 January 19. They repaired inlets at Hill
20 Street and Wayne Avenue and inlets at 1505
21 Luzerne Street.
22 This week we have the Broadway
23 Theater League is presenting the play Aida.
24 That will be tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.
25 And if anyone is interested, tickets can be
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1 obtained by calling the Broadway Theater
2 League or the Scranton Cultural Center.
3 I don't like to talk about
4 birthdays, but Mrs. Evans brought one up
5 last week, so she opened the door for the
6 rest of us.
7 I'd like to wish my son-in-law a
8 happy birthday. His birthday is today, and
9 my light granddaughter, Amelia Rose, is two
10 years old. So, I'd like to wish them a
11 happy birthday.
12 And I'd also before we get on, the
13 last thing I have is to congratulate Mrs.
14 Evans, because she's a new grandmother, and
15 she now has a little granddaughter named
16 Drew.
17 MS. EVANS: Thank you, Mrs. Gatelli.
18 MS. GATELLI: And that's all I have.
19 Does anyone else have anything? Okay. We
20 will proceed to the public speaking on
21 agenda, and the first speaker is Andy
22 Sbaraglia.
23 MR. SBARAGLIA: Andy Sbaraglia,
24 citizen of Scranton. Fellow Scrantonians, I
25 want to speak about 7-B. That's our little
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1 Lackawanna Avenue Bridge and really our
2 little escalation and cost notice.
3 Paragraph eight is amended to revise
4 maximum reimbursement of federal funds so
5 that the total reimbursement for The
6 Commonwealth to the municipality in
7 accordance with paragraph eight be as
8 revised from, this is the important thing,
9 $1,054,500 to $7,025,250. That's almost a
10 seven times increase from the original to
11 now. Could anybody tell me how much land
12 we're going to acquire for this bridge? And
13 is the bridge going to be completely
14 demolished and a new one built? Why is the
15 cost so high? Are we repairing the bridge
16 or replacing the bridge totally?
17 MS. GATELLI: I think that we're
18 repairing the bridge, and it's going to be
19 longer and wider than originally
20 anticipated, and I know that the city is
21 only paying --
22 MR. SBARAGLIA: Five percent. I
23 understand that, five percent of the total
24 cost, but the cost is the taxpayers are
25 still paying the difference, which means all
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1 of us, either in federal taxes or state
2 taxes or whatever.
3 And for costs to jump like that --
4 now, this land acquisition, whose land are
5 we buying?
6 MS. GATELLI: I'm not sure. I'd
7 have to call PennDOT and ask them.
8 MR. SBARAGLIA: Never mind. I
9 wanted the people of the city to know that
10 the costs of this bridge has went up seven
11 times more than the original estimate,
12 because now, whoever they're doing, or
13 whoever is getting a cut or whatever, it's
14 there.
15 Okay. Let's get on to 7-A. Ipanema
16 Restaurant. You know, of course, this
17 restaurant has been in operation for the
18 last few months. This is not a new one,
19 it's one that's has been there for a little
20 while anyway.
21 But the question isn't the loan.
22 The amount of the loan is not quite -- we do
23 $250,000. We don't even worry about that.
24 This is only $40,000. But is it a secondary
25 loan?
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1 MS. GATELLI: Most of the city loans
2 are secondary.
3 MR. SBARAGLIA: Yeah, I realize
4 that. That's the bad part about the loans.
5 The bank is protected, the citizens are not.
6 That's the sad part about these loans.
7 Somewhere along the line somebody
8 would say, what is the first loan? What are
9 we secondary to?
10 So, our chances of getting some of
11 this money back is sort of assured, but not
12 in this city. This city is a giveaway.
13 MS. GATELLI: Mr. Sbaraglia, I did
14 speak to Sara Hailstone recently about the
15 loans, and there's only in the last six or
16 seven years since they've been here, only
17 two people have defaulted.
18 MR. SBARAGLIA: Well, I know
19 Whistles was in the paper, and I also heard
20 somewhere The Giant Market defaulted, so I
21 don't know. I really wouldn't know.
22 But there's a good way to look into
23 it. I guess we should ask for all default
24 loans in writing from Sara Hailstone. I
25 don't like voice. Things seem to get
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1 carried out.
2 MS. GATELLI: I have it all with me.
3 MR. SBARAGLIA: In writing?
4 MS. GATELLI: Yes.
5 MR. SBARAGLIA: Your writing or
6 hers?
7 MS. GATELLI: No, I wrote it down.
8 I wrote it down.
9 MR. SBARAGLIA: No, her writing so
10 that we know it's hers and she has to stand
11 behind what she wrote. She can always say,
12 Well, you didn't hear quite right, which is
13 normal in this city. Okay. I thank you.
14 MS. GATELLI: Thank you.
15 MS. EVANS: Mrs. Gatelli, on that
16 specific topic, that was the information
17 that I had been requesting from OECD since
18 the summer, and I had asked when the mayor
19 joined us at Council, if I could please have
20 that information, and he agreed, but yet I
21 never received it.
22 I wanted an accounting of all of the
23 loans and the delinquencies, and I had a
24 question as to whether if a business is
25 sold, but the business owner does not own
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1 the building, they were rather just leasing,
2 but they had a business located within
3 there, and they are going out of business,
4 who is responsible, for example, for paying
5 down that loan that they received? And, you
6 know, to date, we never got the information.
7 MS. GATELLI: All right. Mrs.
8 Garvey, would you send that letter to Mrs.
9 Hailstone?
10 MS. GARVEY: Yes.
11 MS. GATELLI: Or Miss Hailstone. I
12 did have all of the information. I think I
13 have it. We'll get it in writing from her.
14 MS. GARVEY: Okay.
15 MS. GATELLI: And Attorney Minora, I
16 don't think we had too many default when we
17 were there.
18 MR. MINORA: No. In that case,
19 there's a pretty good guarantee, regardless
20 of your position because you've got the
21 person's personal assets.
22 As a matter of fact, we had a loan a
23 couple of weeks ago that I looked in the
24 backup on that, and there were personal
25 guarantees with it. And I was looking for
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1 that. So, I don't know if that's become a
2 standard, and perhaps sometimes there would
3 be reasons not to have it.
4 But in the last few loans that I've
5 noticed through here, I looked for that and
6 found personal guarantees which are pretty
7 good guarantee of payment.
8 MS. GATELLI: And the last two that
9 we've had were in neighborhoods. They
10 weren't in the downtown. Next, Mr. Quinn.
11 MR. QUINN: Robert Ozzie Quinn,
12 President of the Scranton Lackawanna County
13 Taxpayers and Citizens Association,
14 Incorporated. I want to address two things
15 on the agenda tonight, C under motions and
16 7-A.
17 I sent Mrs. Fanucci, since she's the
18 chairperson of the OECD committee, CDBG; am
19 I correct? I sent her an E-mail last year
20 back in April requesting for the HUD and the
21 OECD annual monitoring reports, and she
22 never responded.
23 And what I wanted to know is in
24 relationship to these loans, like tonight,
25 and especially referring to that, is you're
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1 supposed to have so much for the creation of
2 a job, okay?
3 Now, I want to know who's monitoring
4 those jobs, who's going out actually in body
5 from the OECD who's going out and seeing
6 that these jobs are there and are they
7 full-time jobs.
8 There seems to be a way now that
9 businesses are going 35 hours, okay, so the
10 person don't get the 40 hours.
11 And also a lot of these loans were
12 for restaurants, and I want to know if their
13 waitresses or the waiters or the dishwashers
14 or whatever are getting the minimum wage and
15 are they working the 40 hours.
16 Now, there's no way -- there's no
17 reports -- we're giving out this taxpayer
18 money through all these loans and we had the
19 unions here fighting here in the fall about
20 these loans to keep them, and I want to know
21 is there actual jobs created, and is there
22 someone that has a report that John Doe's
23 business actually has employed two persons?
24 And can we do a little better and try to get
25 some industrial jobs?
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1 I mean, we're getting loaded with
2 coffee shops and restaurants and whatnot,
3 and that's not economic development. It's
4 economic development maybe for the owner,
5 but it's not really the amount of money that
6 the person is getting from wages, like the
7 minimum wage, is not really economic
8 development. These people are suffering.
9 There's no doubt about it.
10 And especially, and I can't even
11 talk about taxes, but the fact is that I
12 want to know, as I requested last year and
13 never got a response, okay, and I wrote a
14 letter to Sara Hailstone, the executive
15 director over there and never got a
16 response, that I wanted to know the jobs,
17 who got the loans the jobs, are there any
18 default, and are we getting the 40 hours and
19 the minimum wage?
20 Now, you know some waitresses get
21 three dollars an hour and they have to
22 depend on tips. Hey, somebody's getting a
23 big loan like that, you know, I think they
24 should get the minimum wage. And that's all
25 I wanted to talk about in regards to this
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1 agenda.
2 And I'd appreciate somebody getting
3 back to me, because I got all kinds of
4 letters that nobody ever gets back to me.
5 MS. EVANS: Maybe we could piggyback
6 your request onto the letter that Mrs.
7 Gatelli is requesting from Ms. Hailstone,
8 and -- because I, too, would like to know
9 who is responsible for monitoring the
10 conditions that you enumerated, and I think
11 perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone
12 and get all of the information hopefully at
13 one time.
14 MR. QUINN: Yeah, I hope that the
15 monitoring goes in depth in regards to the
16 income taxes and so on --
17 MR. MINORA: That's past three
18 minutes.
19 MR. QUINN: -- okay, and just don't
20 get a hearsay report by the business owner.
21 When did you start, when I --
22 MS. GATELLI: Ozzie.
23 MR. MINORA: When you opened your
24 mouth.
25 MS. GATELLI: When you started
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1 talking.
2 MR. MINORA: When you said your name
3 was Robert Quinn.
4 MR. QUINN: Well, I just remember
5 last meeting you started -- you said when we
6 come up.
7 MS. GATELLI: No, we're not going to
8 do that again. He's going to do it when
9 people start speaking.
10 MR. QUINN: Okay. Thank you.
11 MS. GATELLI: You're welcome. Joe
12 Talamini.
13 MR. TALAMINI: Good evening,
14 Council. My name is Joe Talamini, and I am
15 a citizen and taxpayer in this city. I see
16 we have financial matters on the agenda, and
17 that's why I'm going to address the Council
18 on the matter of finance.
19 I'm going to make a request, as I
20 turn to the Home Rule Charter regarding
21 numerous occasions when citizens have asked
22 the Council for clarification on financial
23 matters, they have not been adequately
24 addressed, either because the Council was
25 not well enough informed or was unable to
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1 provide such information.
2 There have been occasions when
3 Council itself chose to vote on financial
4 items which were passed by resolution,
5 though Council did not have sufficient or
6 timely information.
7 The matter of auditing due to some
8 apparent discrepancies has also been brought
9 up by Council and by the taxpayers. I,
10 therefore, am requesting that Council act by
11 motion under authority of The Home Rule
12 Charter Sections 312, which gives you
13 subpoena powers and 313, which gives you the
14 power to request an outside independent
15 audit.
16 I respectfully request that Council
17 issue subpoenas for every department under
18 the jurisdiction of the City of Scranton,
19 including but not limited to all
20 authorities, including the Sewer Authority,
21 Scranton Housing Authority, the
22 Redevelopment Authority, the Parking
23 Authority and the controller's office for
24 all financial records dating back to 2000.
25 I make this request on behalf of
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1 myself and all the taxpayers of the City of
2 Scranton. I thank you very much, and I ask
3 that this motion be acted on at this
4 evening's meeting. Thank you very much.
5 MS. GATELLI: Thank you. Ron Elman.
6 MR. ELMAN: First off, I'd like to
7 thank Mr. McGoff on cutting our time in
8 half. I think it's great. It's a stroke of
9 genius.
10 MS. GATELLI: Excuse me. Could you
11 please give your name?
12 MR. ELMAN: Pardon?
13 MS. GATELLI: Just give your name
14 for the record.
15 MR. ELMAN: Oh, Ronny Elman. That's
16 why the mayor appointed you and I'm out here
17 and you're sitting up there evidently.
18 MS. GATELLI: Mr. Elman, please
19 stick to the agenda items.
20 MR. ELMAN: Okay. I'll go to the
21 agenda. I want to know what the agenda is
22 for next week. What can be more on the
23 agenda then telling me what the agenda is?
24 I'd like to make some kind of feeble attempt
25 of saying something intelligent up here, and
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1 I don't know what the agenda is until I get
2 it out there.
3 If I give you a self-addressed
4 envelope, maybe you can mail it to me or
5 something during the week. One of you --
6 MS. GATELLI: The agenda is prepared
7 by Mrs. Garvey on Wednesday.
8 MR. ELMAN: What day?
9 MS. GATELLI: On Wednesday?
10 MS. GARVEY: Wednesday at four
11 o'clock it's posted.
12 MR. ELMAN: Where is it? Where do I
13 find it if I want to come in on Wednesday at
14 four o'clock.
15 MS. GARVEY: In the front of the
16 building. The first entrance that you would
17 come in, there's a board to your left and
18 it's posted right there.
19 MR. ELMAN: Nobody knows what the
20 agenda is until Wednesday at four o'clock.
21 That's very poor planning, if you ask me.
22 I'm just giving you my opinion. I'm just a
23 little lowly taxpayer, you know. I'll be
24 hear at four o'clock and then I guess I can
25 just leave my car and go eat at Able's or
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1 something. Thank you.
2 MS. GATELLI: Lee Morgan.
3 MR. MORGAN: Good evening, Council.
4 I also would like to speak on the agenda,
5 but I have a question.
6 Last week I requested in writing all
7 the information on every issue that's on the
8 agenda this week. Where is that
9 information?
10 MS. GATELLI: What did you request?
11 MR. MORGAN: I requested the
12 information on every single agenda item here
13 tonight. Last week I gave you in writing a
14 request that everything that's going to be
15 on the agenda, all the information that's
16 pertinent to that legislation that this
17 Council is going to consider, that it be
18 available to all the speakers here so that
19 we can be informed and come here
20 intelligently and speak about agenda issues,
21 and it just doesn't seem to be here. And my
22 question is --
23 MS. GATELLI: I believe Mrs. Garvey
24 has it out there with all the backup.
25 MS. GARVEY: Right. It's in
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1 Council's office in the back -- the same
2 thing that Council gets in the entire agenda
3 with all backup is in Council's office
4 Thursday mornings. It's usual put together.
5 MR. MORGAN: Well, you know, I'd
6 like it to be moved somewhere where the
7 people can have access before it before they
8 come to this podium, and I just, to be
9 honest with you, feel that no one can come
10 here and speak about any issue at all.
11 I mean, we've gone through this for
12 so many years. Even today you were asked
13 questions by Mr. Sbaraglia, and you didn't
14 have answers, but yet and still it's still
15 on the agenda, it's still going to be voted
16 on.
17 And to be directly honest to
18 Council, it's quite possible that nobody on
19 Council is completely versed on all the
20 information on any of the ordinances. And
21 today there really aren't very many.
22 But, I mean, how are we going to
23 speak on anything intelligently when you
24 say, Well, Look it, the agenda is going to
25 be ready on Wednesday at four o'clock.
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1 Well, today's meeting is at seven
2 o'clock on Thursday.
3 And if more than one person comes to
4 Council to get this information, are we all
5 going to fight over documents? I mean, it's
6 a very troubling thing.
7 MS. GATELLI: It's always been done
8 that way, Mr. Morgan, the agenda is always
9 in there.
10 MR. MORGAN: No, it hasn't always
11 been done that way, because Council changed
12 the rules of Council a few weeks ago to
13 change the way public participation is held
14 here.
15 MS. GATELLI: You still have two
16 more weeks to talk about any agenda items.
17 MR. MORGAN: Absolutely. But the
18 whole deal is that all week that information
19 should be somewhere, whether it's here, The
20 Scranton Public Library, it should be
21 somewhere that every single resident of this
22 city can readily reach out and have access
23 to it, whether it's on the internet and all
24 the documents, not just some documents.
25 Like Mrs. Evans has said, she's
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1 asked for information for a very long time.
2 I just don't see any open government here.
3 We're having votes on things on the agenda
4 without information --
5 MR. MINORA: Three minutes.
6 MR. MORGAN: -- for myself and other
7 residents, and I think that it makes it look
8 as if there's a rubber Council here and
9 we're running anybody's things through
10 Council without the citizens being informed.
11 MS. GATELLI: Okay. Thank you.
12 MR. MORGAN: Thank you.
13 MS. GARVEY: Mrs. Gatelli, if I
14 could just clear something up. I'm not
15 disagreeing with what Lee Morgan is saying,
16 but just so people understand how things
17 come to our office and when they come to our
18 office, it happens on Tuesdays, all the
19 legislation comes from the law department to
20 our office. They are supposed to have it
21 down by ten, sometimes it's runs past that.
22 It might be noon by the time we have it.
23 After that happens, when it is all
24 together, I call the President of Council,
25 inform her of what has come before us, and
.
29
1 then it's discussed and decided what's on
2 the agenda, what's not on the agenda. Then
3 the agenda starts to be put together at that
4 point.
5 So, until Wednesday afternoon, that
6 is when it is finalized and that is when
7 it's posted, that's when it becomes public
8 knowledge to the people.
9 MS. GATELLI: Mrs. Garvey, why don't
10 we send a letter to Rob Farrell and tell him
11 that we would like to start receiving it on
12 Friday?
13 MS. GATELLI: You want legislation?
14 MS. GARVEY: Whatever he wants on
15 the next agenda, if we receive it by Friday,
16 then you can work on it by Monday and
17 possibly have it ready Monday afternoon or
18 Tuesday and then they would have at least a
19 few days.
20 MS. GARVEY: Okay. And then do you
21 still post it only 24 hours prior to our
22 meeting?
23 MS. GATELLI: Well, if it's ready,
24 we can post it sooner.
25 MS. GARVEY: Okay. As long as
.
30
1 everyone is aware that it cannot be changed
2 once it's posted.
3 MS. GATELLI: Write a letter to Rob
4 and the mayor and tell them that we are
5 requesting that anything on the agenda for
6 the following Thursday be submitted by the
7 Friday before. We will just change the day.
8 MS. GARVEY: Okay.
9 MS. GATELLI: And then that should
10 help with some of the problems.
11 MS. EVANS: Mrs. Gatelli, I think
12 that is quite possible, because if I'm not
13 mistaken during my first year on Council, we
14 changed the day from Tuesday to Wednesday.
15 I think it had been a Wednesday that they
16 were submitting information possibly in the
17 morning.
18 MS. GATELLI: Yes, I don't see why
19 it would be a problem.
20 MS. EVANS: But I think it's also
21 beneficial for us as Council members,
22 because whether the audience members are
23 aware or not, we on Council don't receive
24 the full agenda until the Thursday of the
25 meeting.
.
31
1 I'm at work during the day and
2 unable to come over here until after work or
3 shortly before the meeting, so to be
4 perfectly frank, I don't have a firm
5 knowledge of any of the legislation that
6 would be introduced on that very evening.
7 It's afterwards that I'm able to
8 read the backup and inform myself so that I
9 can make an appropriate decision during a
10 sixth and seventh order vote.
11 MS. GATELLI: Anyone else have
12 anything? You're agreeable? Okay. We'll
13 send that letter.
14 MS. GARVEY: Okay.
15 MS. GATELLI: Now, it may take -- it
16 may take one week to kick in, because
17 tomorrow is Friday. So, it might not go for
18 next week, but we'll attempt for the week
19 after, okay?
20 MS. GARVEY: Okay.
21 MS. GATELLI: Okay? Mrs. Garvey.
22 Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Gervasi. I'm sorry. I
23 didn't know you were going to speak.
24 MR. GERVASI: Thank you. Thank you,
25 Mrs. Gatelli. Just to clarify that issue,
.
32
1 there's a few things that everyone should
2 know.
3 I'm not going to sit here. I
4 understand the frustration of a lot of the
5 speakers, but I'm not going to sit here and
6 defend Council 100 percent, because
7 obviously some members of Council don't take
8 the time, even if they had the time, to read
9 a lot of the backup on what they're voting
10 on.
11 But I will defend that staff at City
12 Council, because correct me if I'm wrong,
13 before Mayor Doherty took office or, I'm
14 sorry, since Mayor Doherty took office, I
15 believe there was two staffers positions
16 removed from City Council's office. I
17 believe City Council's solicitor pay was cut
18 in half by Mayor Doherty, and I also know as
19 a fact that the pattern for the last five
20 years has been that any legislation that
21 does come up that may be controversial, the
22 administration always sends it to Council at
23 the 11th hour so no one has time to digest.
24 And how would any Council speaker --
25 and, again, I'm not knocking any -- you're
.
33
1 absolutely right on what you're saying, the
2 way it really should be, but how can a
3 Council staff supply and have the manpower
4 to supply all this information to any
5 citizen who wants to see it, when the
6 finance chairman of Council doesn't even get
7 the information on finance from the
8 administration?
9 So, I think I understand where
10 everyone is coming from. You have to
11 understand that the nuts and bolts operation
12 of this Council staff has been cut
13 drastically.
14 And when Council members themselves
15 cannot get information from this
16 administration so that they can chew it
17 around before they vote on it, how does
18 anyone expect Kay Garvey and two staffers in
19 that office to make all these things
20 available in a timely manner, when they
21 don't even receive it in a timely manner
22 from the administration.
23 So, just a point I wanted to make,
24 and I just want to take a little bit of heat
25 off of the staff in Council, because that's
.
34
1 a fact and that's the way it is, and it's
2 very unfortunate, and it's not their fault,
3 it's the mayor's fault. Thank you.
4 MS. GATELLI: Thank you.
5 MS. SHUMAKER: Marie Shumaker. I
6 would like to suggest you further amend your
7 letter to the solicitor and ask that the
8 material be supplied electronically, and in
9 that case -- manner it could be posted to
10 the website or just copies made right off
11 the bat.
12 I mean, I'm sure everybody has
13 computers, we've got a rather large IT
14 department, maybe they can help the
15 solicitor, if he needs help, but I think you
16 should require that these things be provided
17 electronically.
18 And I would also like to know with
19 respect to the commercial industrial loans,
20 if you get the entire package that OECD has,
21 because I, for instance, would like to have
22 seen the data on the electric store that you
23 voted in favor of several weeks ago where
24 there were several competing businesses,
25 because I know HUD requires a business
.
35
1 impact statement, and I certainly would like
2 to read that, if that's available as backup.
3 Is that? Do you get the entire OECD package
4 --
5 MS. EVANS: No.
6 MS. SHUMAKER: -- on commercial
7 industrial loans? So, then it begs the
8 question, how do you know what you're voting
9 for? What do you get on a commercial
10 industrial loan?
11 MS. GATELLI: We get how much it is,
12 what it's for, job creation.
13 MS. SHUMAKER: And that's it? I
14 would suggest you look into expanding more
15 data from the application so that --
16 MS. GATELLI: Well, OECD has that
17 information.
18 MS. SHUMAKER: But --
19 MS. GATELLI: And they are audited
20 by HUD. And if you want any of that
21 information, you can always request it from
22 HUD.
23 MS. SHUMAKER: Not from OECD?
24 MS. GATELLI: You can request it
25 there, too, but if you want to go a step
.
36
1 further, you can request it from HUD in
2 Philadelphia.
3 MS. SHUMAKER: Okay. I'll do that.
4 Thank you. Thank you.
5 MS. GATELLI: You're welcome.
6 MS. EVANS: Mrs. Shumaker, if you
7 stay after the meeting, I can show you as an
8 example of the backup provided tonight for a
9 loan that's on the agenda for introduction.
10 And I'm sure what's been provided
11 tonight is quite similar to any information
12 we receive on any of these loans, so I'd be
13 happy to share that with you.
14 MS. SHUMAKER: Thank you.
15 MR. JACKOWITZ: Bill Jackowitz,
16 South Scranton. I just, I don't know, I was
17 standing back there listening and I just
18 came up with an idea.
19 How about we delay everything for
20 one week? You get it on Wednesday, you have
21 a full week to review it, to look at it and
22 you don't put it on the agenda until the
23 following week? That gives you one whole
24 week for the Council members to review it
25 look at what they're voting on and why
.
37
1 they're voting and it also gives the
2 citizens a week to have the information
3 available to them for one week. All it's
4 going to do is delay the votes only one
5 week.
6 MS. GATELLI: That's a possibility.
7 MR. JACKOWITZ: So, I hope --
8 MS. GATELLI: But remember, when
9 it's introduced, that doesn't mean you're
10 going to vote for it.
11 MR. JACKOWITZ: I understand, but it
12 --
13 MS. GATELLI: It's to introduce it
14 into its proper committee, and then that
15 committee person is supposed to study their
16 particular item.
17 MR. JACKOWITZ: The keyword,
18 supposed to.
19 MS. GATELLI: Well, Bill, it's very
20 difficult, because no one up here is a
21 full-time Councilperson.
22 MR. JACKOWITZ: I understand that,
23 but we're also -- you're voting on full-time
24 citizens, and it's costing the full-time
25 citizens money --
.
38
1 MS. GATELLI: I understand that.
2 MR. JACKOWITZ: -- time and
3 everything else, so it needs to be taken
4 seriously.
5 MS. GATELLI: We do have that week
6 from the time it's introduced until it's
7 voted on, you have that week to get yourself
8 up to snuff on a particular topic.
9 We also have a solicitor that we
10 ask, I know I do, I ask his opinion very
11 frequently.
12 MR. JACKOWITZ: I understand --
13 yeah, I know, but, and there's nothing wrong
14 with that. But I'm just saying let's just
15 cool our heels and maybe give ourselves an
16 extra week, and that possibly can satisfy
17 everybody's needs, the Council needs, the
18 citizens' needs and everybody else's. All
19 I'm asking, you know, all I'm asking is for
20 you to think about it.
21 MS. GATELLI: Thank you. Anyone
22 else?
23 MS. KRAKE: Good evening, Council.
24 My name is Nancy Krake. And it's curious
25 that Mrs. Gatelli said no one is a full-time
.
39
1 Councilperson. We have two Councilpeople
2 about to receive a pension as if they were
3 full-time Council or full-time anything with
4 the city, and there were many in the past
5 who received a pension illegally, but
6 they're getting them.
7 I have a question on 5-C. I would
8 like this to be investigated, since it's
9 just up for introduction.
10 This company has any ties with the
11 James A. Doherty Company, since the
12 explanation revealed that they deal with
13 religious articles, I would like to know if
14 there's any connection whatsoever.
15 MR. COURTRIGHT: It doesn't say --
16 MS. GATELLI: I don't have it in my
17 pack.
18 MS. KRAKE: I'm sorry. Well, Kay,
19 just read it, so that's what I'm going by.
20 And --
21 MS. GATELLI: We'll have Attorney
22 Minora investigate that.
23 MS. KRAKE: Also, I was approached
24 by Mr. McGoff in the hall, and I just wanted
25 to add, he said he didn't mind if I
.
40
1 criticized him, and that was very nice, but
2 he did feel that when I made a remark that
3 he remind me of -- or actually his actions
4 reminded me of the actions Hitler would take
5 and he felt that was over the top, and I
6 told him I was defending the 80 people in my
7 union, and that I went further to say all
8 the municipal employees, and I would like to
9 add all of the citizens of Scranton, because
10 I believe you offended us, and that's what
11 drove me to make that remark.
12 And I'm sorry it hurt your feelings,
13 but I believe we are all entitled to speak
14 for five minutes, and that what motions you
15 made, and also you're voting for the mayor's
16 budget, which was a 25 percent tax increase,
17 yourself, Mrs. Gatelli, Mrs. Fanucci, were
18 very insulting to all of us. Thank you.
19 MS. GATELLI: Anyone else? 5-A,
20 motions. Mrs. Garvey.
21 MS. GARVEY: 5-B, FOR INTRODUCTION,
22 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING FILE OF COUNCIL NO.
23 38, 2001 --
24 MS. GATELLI: Mrs. Garvey, I believe
25 we have motions first.
.
41
1 MS. GARVEY: Oh, I'm sorry. You're
2 right. 5-A, Motions. I'm kind of rushing
3 along here.
4 MS. GATELLI: On an agenda item?
5 You'll have to wait. Yeah. No, there's
6 another segment. I have your name here.
7 Mrs. Evans. Sorry.
8 MS. EVANS: That's okay. Good
9 evening, and some good news. I'm very
10 pleased by the formation of a graffiti task
11 force and by the daily strides taken toward
12 eradicating graffiti.
13 I wish to thank Mr. McKeon, city
14 inspector, for his persistence and diligence
15 and vigilance and for bringing this citywide
16 problem to the attention of City Council.
17 The administration should be
18 commended for acting so quickly on my
19 suggestions.
20 In fact, Scranton High School's
21 resource officer, Mike Brenzia, informed me
22 just this afternoon that he had participated
23 in a very lengthy meeting earlier today
24 which focus on graffiti and related issues.
25 Kay, have you been able to schedule
.
42
1 a public caucus with Mr. Shane and the
2 members of the Scranton Redevelopment
3 Authority?
4 MS. GATELLI: I'm calling Mr. Shane
5 to set up the day.
6 MS. EVANS: Good, because I --
7 MS. GATELLI: It will be within the
8 next few weeks.
9 MS. EVANS: Yes, I remember first
10 requesting it in December, and then again in
11 early January, and I was aiming for a
12 February date, any available Thursday in
13 February maybe at 5:45, if that were
14 convenient.
15 MS. GATELLI: He was going to come
16 next week, but there was a conflict, so
17 maybe the week after.
18 MS. EVANS: And also, when will the
19 public caucus with Mr. Parker regarding the
20 flooding problems citywide be conducted?
21 MS. GATELLI: I was waiting for
22 that, because on Monday there's a meeting
23 with the county. Did you get that in your
24 --
25 MS. EVANS: Yes, I did.
.
43
1 MS. GATELLI: And I plan on
2 attending that, and I don't know if Mr.
3 Parker is going, but I hope he is, to see if
4 any of the things are addressed there first
5 and then we will have a meeting.
6 MS. EVANS: So, we can expect him in
7 February?
8 MS. GATELLI: Yeah.
9 MS. EVANS: Good.
10 MS. GATELLI: Definitely.
11 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
12 MS. GATELLI: You're welcome. I
13 wish to recognize the residents of lower
14 Green Ridge for their formation of a
15 neighborhood association and to congratulate
16 Mr. Dan Hubbard, their first president.
17 I look forward to working closely
18 with all of you, particularly to obtain a
19 flood siren in your neighborhood.
20 It's also commendable that Mr.
21 Wallace is addressing the longstanding
22 problems at a property owned by North
23 American Manufacturing Company near the
24 farmer's market.
25 In 2005, I believe, Mr. Fiorini
.
44
1 worked on these problems at my request, so I
2 thought the situation had been rectified,
3 but evidently, these problems persist today,
4 and I do hope that Mr. Wallace will insure a
5 permanent solution.
6 This afternoon I decided to take
7 Mr. Doherty's kind offer to work with
8 Council members and I visited his office
9 again, but unfortunately again he was not in
10 his office.
11 The last time I dropped by, I think
12 he was on business in Las Vegas, and today
13 he is attending a conference of mayors in
14 Washington.
15 The purpose of both of my visits was
16 to obtain financial information for you, the
17 taxpayers.
18 In November 2006, I requested this
19 information by letter, and again in
20 December 2006, I posed the people's
21 questions through written correspondence, as
22 well as a personal visit. Two months had
23 past, $10 million in borrowing and a tax
24 increase had past, but we still don't have
25 financial answers.
.
45
1 Therefore, in response to countless
2 citizens requests and on behalf of the
3 taxpayers of Scranton, I move that Scranton
4 City Council subpoena the financial records
5 of all city departments, Scranton
6 authorities and the Office of Economic and
7 Community Development.
8 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
9 MS. GATELLI: On the question? All
10 in favor.
11 MS. EVANS: Aye.
12 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
13 MS. GATELLI: Aye. Opposed?
14 MR. MCGOFF: No.
15 MS. GATELLI: The ayes have it and
16 so moved.
17 MS. EVANS: Thank you. And Attorney
18 Minora, we'll be asking you to prepare those
19 subpoenas as soon as possible.
20 MR. MINORA: Okay.
21 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
22 MS. GATELLI: Before we do that, I
23 would just ask Attorney Minora if you could
24 call and get the information without the
25 subpoenas, because I don't want to have
.
46
1 boxes full of information like they did once
2 before.
3 MS. EVANS: Well, actually -- no, I
4 know what you're saying. When information
5 was subpoenaed over a year ago, much
6 information, extraneous information,
7 unnecessary information was mixed in with
8 the items that were actually requested, and
9 copies were made, I believe, at -- well, it
10 was not done in-house, and so a cost was
11 incurred, but I did learn afterwards that
12 much of the copying that OECD performs is
13 farmed out, so that was not an unusual case.
14 However, I believe that the
15 financial documents -- I think the only
16 amendment we may need to make would be that
17 we are looking for, and maybe I'll make this
18 in the form of a motion, that I would like
19 to amend the subpoena to contain the
20 language all financial information from the
21 previously stated entities from the year
22 2002 to the current date.
23 MS. GATELLI: And would that be --
24 if we requested their audits, would that be
25 sufficient to see, Attorney Minora?
.
47
1 MS. EVANS: No.
2 MS. GATELLI: No?
3 MR. MINORA: I'm -- we're going to
4 have to sit down and talk, because I'm not
5 sure what you're asking me to do.
6 Subpoenaing what particular documents?
7 MS. EVANS: All the financial
8 records from 2002 forward.
9 MR. MINORA: From every department?
10 MS. EVANS: From every department.
11 MS. GATELLI: See, in my opinion,
12 that would be audits, no, because then you'd
13 know -- if you request every single piece of
14 financial information, Oh, Lord, we could
15 fill this building.
16 MS. EVANS: I don't know that the
17 departments are audited. It's the Office of
18 City Council that requests the annual
19 independent audit of the City of Scranton.
20 MS. GATELLI: No, but I mean the
21 Sewer Authority, the Parking Authority, the
22 Housing Authority, they all have audits, I'm
23 sure.
24 MS. EVANS: They do, but there are
25 many questions that remain unanswered. For
.
48
1 example, Mr. Courtright raised an issue to
2 me prior to this evening's regular meeting
3 regarding the Scranton Parking Authority,
4 and I have quite a number of questions
5 myself.
6 I, for example, have questions of
7 the Scranton Redevelopment Authority. We
8 never formally, this is just one example,
9 but we never formally received an answer as
10 to precisely what property was involved in
11 the lease back agreement that was instituted
12 with them in December 2006.
13 MS. GATELLI: How about --
14 MR. MINORA: Excuse me. There's a
15 motion to amend that hasn't been seconded
16 yet.
17 MS. EVANS: Yes. Let's return to
18 that.
19 MR. MINORA: Before we get too far
20 afield, and I don't want this to be too
21 convoluted. I want to do it right, and
22 there's an amendment, and I'd like to --
23 maybe if you could restate the amendment.
24 MS. EVANS: Yes, let's address the
25 amendment.
.
49
1 MR. COURTRIGHT: Could you restate
2 the amendment?
3 MS. EVANS: I move to amend the
4 previous motion to include the language, all
5 financial records from 2002 to the current
6 date.
7 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
8 MS. EVANS: January 2002 to the
9 current date.
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
11 MS. GATELLI: On the question?
12 MR. MCGOFF: I voted no for the
13 prior one simply because, as Mrs. Gatelli is
14 saying, if all you're asking for -- or if
15 you're asking for all financial records, you
16 are liable to get boxes full of boxes full
17 of boxes of records.
18 It's my belief that if we need to
19 subpoena something, if it's information
20 about a particular issue, question, that the
21 subpoena should be more specific to the
22 records that we need, rather than a general
23 subpoena that would inundate everyone with
24 paper.
25 MS. EVANS: Well, it seems, though,
.
50
1 if I could respond to that, because I do
2 agree with what you're saying, it will be
3 inundated with paperwork, but I am willing
4 to pursue this, and I'm sure there are
5 numerous interested parties who will join me
6 in this discovery, but -- oh, my gosh, I
7 think I've lost my train of thought about --
8 could you just repeat what you said briefly?
9 MS. GATELLI: That we get too much
10 information.
11 MS. EVANS: I understand now, yes.
12 But see, one account intersects another.
13 There are constant transfers of money within
14 departments, between departments, and so --
15 MS. GATELLI: But we get all that.
16 MS. EVANS: It's in a constant state
17 of change. And as you compare budgets,
18 there are many, many unanswered questions.
19 And though the budgets, as you know,
20 are, I believe, approximately 59 pages in
21 length and very specific in terms of line
22 items, there are still many questions
23 regarding those line items.
24 For example, professional services,
25 no one knows exactly what those professional
.
51
1 services are, the names of the companies,
2 the jobs that they perform, their duties and
3 responsibilities, the amounts of their
4 contract, the length of the contract.
5 We can look at, for example, the
6 jump in interest earned. There's no
7 explanation for that, other than there is a
8 jump.
9 We can look at, oh, Worker's
10 Compensation reimbursement which plummeted
11 from $400,000 to zero dollars, and there's
12 no explanation for that.
13 And, so, in order for me, and I
14 believe in order for the taxpayers of
15 Scranton to be able to get to the truth and
16 fully understand this, you have to have the
17 whole picture. You can't have pieces of the
18 puzzle, because that's not going to solve
19 the puzzle.
20 It's, as I said, it's all
21 intricately intertwined. And if, you know,
22 if we have to involve a CPA in this, we may
23 well have to do that.
24 MR. COURTRIGHT: Mrs. Evans, if I
25 may, Mrs. Gatelli, the last time we did
.
52
1 this, we did get hammered with information
2 that we didn't need probably given to us
3 purposely to annoy us, because we annoyed
4 them by asking for it, so maybe you could
5 direct Mr. Minora later on as to certain
6 items that we wouldn't need.
7 I just know that they put stuff in
8 there to make it cumbersome for us to go
9 through it.
10 MS. EVANS: Absolutely.
11 MS. GATELLI: My suggestion is that
12 Council meet separately from this forum, we
13 can come compile some of our own questions
14 of what we'd like to see and go from there,
15 because I think it's too open.
16 Every financial record, well,
17 there's probably a bill every minute that we
18 wouldn't need to see.
19 So, I think it -- I suggest that we
20 have a meeting and discuss what exactly we'd
21 want Amil to --
22 MS. EVANS: Well, the bills, I
23 think, are handled in payments by the
24 controller's office.
25 So, I'm looking to track where the
.
53
1 money is going within each department and
2 where the money is going in each one of the
3 authorities of the City of Scranton, because
4 we are very significantly intertwined with
5 those authorities, specifically through
6 these lease back agreements.
7 We incurred a lease back with the
8 Sewer Authority and now another with the
9 Redevelopment Authority, and the people are
10 ultimately responsible for the payment of
11 all of these bonds and loans that are taken
12 out to benefit the Scranton Redevelopment
13 Authority, the Scranton Parking Authority,
14 because these agreements state that the city
15 pledges its full faith and credit.
16 Translated that means, the city
17 guarantees its taxing power, you, an
18 increase of taxes, to pay those bond and
19 loan payments should the city default.
20 MS. GATELLI: I agree with that, but
21 no one has ever defaulted, you know, to this
22 point. I just think we don't have enough
23 information to subpoena, you know, you're
24 going to --
25 MS. EVANS: But we've already passed
.
54
1 motion to motion to subpoena. That was a
2 3-1 vote. That had passed, so I just --
3 MS. GATELLI: Yes, I went along with
4 that.
5 MS. EVANS: Right. I'm trying to
6 amend it to attach a timeline to it so that
7 I'm not going into it years of prior
8 administrations. I'm beginning with this
9 administration forward.
10 MS. GATELLI: Okay. Anyone else?
11 MR. MINORA: You need to vote on the
12 amendment. The amendment has been made,
13 seconded and we need a vote on the
14 amendment.
15 MS. GATELLI: And what was the
16 amendment?
17 MS. EVANS: To include language in
18 the original amendment.
19 MS. GATELLI: The original motion.
20 MS. EVANS: Right, the original
21 motion that will provide language stating
22 financial records from 2002 to the current
23 time.
24 MS. GATELLI: All in favor.
25 MS. EVANS: Aye.
.
55
1 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
2 MS. GATELLI: Aye.
3 MR. MCGOFF: No.
4 MS. GATELLI: 3-1. What else now?
5 MS. EVANS: No. We're still on
6 motions. I must say, though, that I was
7 flabbergasted today to hear that the city is
8 moving forward with eminent domain on Buona
9 Pizza, an anchor of our downtown business
10 community.
11 This mayor brings in tax free
12 businesses by the bushel and kicks out the
13 ones who pay the taxes? Mr. Doherty, that's
14 not poor mouthing the city, that's a fact.
15 Now, I have some citizens' requests
16 for the week. A letter to Chief Elliot and
17 Mr. Parker, several citizens have complained
18 again about the Boulevard Avenue section of
19 road from Parker Street to the Throop line.
20 They report that a violent accident
21 occurred in late December 2006 near the
22 recycling center and that speeding, drunk
23 driving and deplorable road conditions
24 persist. They request police patrols or a
25 speed trap in this stretch of road or a
.
56
1 sobriety checkpoint on a weekend.
2 Also, the road near Mike's Scrap
3 Yard is covered by dirt and mud. Can the
4 DPW clean that road area when the weather
5 breaks?
6 A letter to Mr. Parker, please place
7 Rockwell Avenue, Greenbush Street and Reece
8 Street on the 2007 paving list, all of which
9 provide travel routes for the Career
10 Technology Center.
11 A letter to Mr. Brazil and Mr.
12 Parker, citizens have reported numerous
13 disturbing problems at Nay Aug Park.
14 Include the list of complaints and photos
15 for Mr. Brazil and only complaints to Mr.
16 Parker. Please provide a written response
17 when the problems are addressed and/or a
18 timeline for the work.
19 A letter to Mr. Seitzinger, please
20 provide a list of the 30-plus houses that
21 were recently demolished. I understand that
22 these properties were bid out by LIPS.
23 Also, residents complain that
24 demolition does not appear to occur in any
25 particular order, in that, many condemned
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1 houses have remained on a list for multiple
2 years, five to ten years, and recently
3 reported structures move along rapidly in a
4 matter of weeks. Please explain.
5 A letter to Mr. Brazil, Mrs.
6 Rosemary Robertson, an art teacher at
7 McNicholl's Plaza, would like to paint a
8 mural over the graffiti at Connell Park.
9 In the past she had supervised the
10 mural which was painted several years ago on
11 the building near the Connell Park pool.
12 She and her students would design and paint
13 this mural, of course, when the weather is
14 more cooperative.
15 She also intends to make a contest
16 of the design process opened to the students
17 of McNicholl's Plaza. It is a win/win
18 situation for the city and the school
19 district, and certainly our South Side
20 neighbors would prefer a lovely colorful
21 mural to tagging and graffiti.
22 Residents who are concerned about
23 recycling report that occasionally the DPW
24 tosses items, such as bottles and cans, into
25 garbage trucks. Conscientious citizens
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1 worry about our environment and our finances
2 when we fail to proper recycle. We hope
3 that all city residents, in cooperation with
4 the DPW, will make every effort to properly
5 recycle.
6 A letter to Mr. Vitras, was the name
7 Jerome Lasessi added to the plaque honoring
8 deceased employees?
9 And a letter to Mr. Fiorini and Mr.
10 Wallace, the owner of D & P Automotive
11 located at 2726 North Main Avenue made
12 $5,000 in improvements to the property as
13 directed by Mr. Wallace in order to obtain a
14 certificate of use.
15 Once improvements were completed,
16 Mr. Wallace changed his mind apparently and
17 failed to provide any justification.
18 Although he has contacted Mr.
19 Wallace numerous times, Mr. Wallace does not
20 return his calls.
21 Mr. Curry requests a response from
22 Mr. Wallace in it writing stating the
23 reasons and quoting the applicable
24 ordinances or codes as to why he cannot
25 receive a certificate of use. And I would
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1 like a copy of that written response, as
2 well.
3 Finally, I ask you to remember in
4 your prayers, as Mrs. Gatelli did earlier,
5 Mr. James Williams and the family he leaves
6 behind.
7 And, again, Mrs. Gatelli
8 congratulated me earlier, but I do want to
9 announce the birth of my first granddaughter
10 last week, Drew Emily Warner, and my
11 daughter Kelly and her husband reside in
12 Carlisle. They've given me two beautiful
13 grandchildren, Sam and Drew, and that was
14 the reason for my absence from last week's
15 Council meeting. That's it.
16 MS. GATELLI: Thank you. Mr.
17 McGoff.
18 MR. MCGOFF: Just a brief follow-up
19 to the motion to subpoena. I voted no
20 simply because I feel that it is too
21 pervasive, and that in asking for all the
22 information, that it's going to obfuscate
23 the existing issues that we have.
24 And I would be more than willing to
25 -- I would have been more than willing to
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1 support specific subpoenas for specific
2 problems. I think that that is within our
3 power and something that we should do.
4 Thank you. That's all.
5 MS. GATELLI: Mr. Courtright.
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes. I got a call
7 from Mary Alice Burke again today, and she's
8 very optimistic, and so am I. DEP got in
9 touch with her, and so did the NRCS, so
10 we've got the state and the federal
11 government being very supportive, and
12 they're going to be coming up here to speak
13 with Mary Alice, and hopefully some
14 officials from the city, and it looks like
15 we're going to get some help.
16 The only issues that are outstanding
17 are the issues that are strictly the city's,
18 which would be some of the pipes that are
19 crushed and blocked, some catch basin
20 problems, so hopefully, as I spoke with Mary
21 Alice, we said that maybe when the people
22 from the state and the federal government
23 come here, at that time maybe we can speak
24 with Mr. Parker and ask him if he can
25 address the city issues.
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1 She's gotten help from Mr. Mellow's
2 office. Mr. Connors was there representing
3 the governor, and the governor's office had
4 contacted her, and I believe help also from
5 Congressman Kanjorski's office. So, we're
6 getting help from the state and the federal
7 government, so we hope we can get a little
8 help from the city here. So, once again, I
9 thank her. She's really been on top of
10 this.
11 Kay, I guess we need to send this to
12 Mr. Parker. I was speaking with Chris
13 Phillips and some other people back in
14 Minooka the other day, and where St. Joe's
15 Church is they have a parking lot across the
16 street, and there's a crosswalk there, but
17 because that section is really been built
18 up, to get across the street to go to church
19 is a difficult task.
20 And it was asked of me, and I've
21 seen it when I've traveled throughout the
22 state in other places, they have a little
23 sign that says yield to pedestrians, and I
24 believe in the state you're supposed to
25 yield to a pedestrian anyway.
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62
1 So, I've seen them in other counties
2 and other cities, so if the people were
3 coming up Davis street, they would have to
4 stop if they see people crossing in this
5 crosswalk.
6 I don't want to go into detail to
7 describe what the little sign looks like on
8 the air, but if Mr. Parker doesn't
9 understand what it, he can call me and I
10 will certainly explain it to him, just to
11 see if it's possible for us to get it in
12 that location.
13 I'm sure if it is possible, other
14 people are going to want it in other
15 locations. But it's gotten a little bit
16 dangerous up there.
17 I'm going to be the traffic police
18 don't. Mulberry, Kay, Mulberry Avenue where
19 it meets with Wyoming Avenue where Bishop
20 Hannon High School is; if you're heading
21 east on Mulberry Avenue and you want to take
22 a left onto Wyoming, which would be heading
23 north maybe towards Burne Honda in that
24 direction, it's almost impossible to take a
25 left-hand turn.
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63
1 Sometimes maybe one car can make a
2 left, if that even. I don't know if it
3 would be the state or the city could get
4 involved. If Mr. Parker could answer that
5 for me, if it's possible to get an arrow so
6 that we can make a left-hand turn moving
7 from Mulberry heading north on Wyoming.
8 And I probably have more letters
9 than Mr. Evans tonight, huh? One other
10 letter, if we can send it to Frank Andrews,
11 State Rep., back when Gaynor was still in
12 the office, we were back in Minooka several
13 times, many of us here, for meetings to try
14 to see what's going to happen back there on
15 Birney Avenue as far as making it one lane.
16 If he could just check into that and
17 see is that still in the works or where we
18 stand. The people from Minooka, I'm sure,
19 would like to know.
20 MS. EVANS: And maybe if you could
21 have a letter sent, as well, or a copy of
22 that letter to PennDOT. You recall we met
23 up at PennDOT with Representative Cawley
24 about that issue, and we were supposed to
25 have met with them yet again prior to the
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64
1 end of his term, and that didn't happen. So
2 --
3 MR. COURTRIGHT: It might be in the
4 office, Kay, who we did meet with. Mr.
5 Saunders was sitting in your seat at the
6 time. I'm sure it's in there somewhere, the
7 PennDOT official that we met with.
8 MS. GARVEY: Okay.
9 MR. COURTRIGHT: All right. I guess
10 this must go hand and hand somewhat to what
11 Mrs. Evans was talking about, getting
12 information.
13 I asked her earlier, because she is
14 the finance chair, I don't recall in the
15 past getting this many -- this amount of
16 money -- transfers of money.
17 And these are only two, but I know
18 we've gotten more recently. And I'm just
19 going to read a portion. It says, This
20 budget transfer within the Department of
21 Business Administration Bureau of
22 Administration and Information Technology
23 was needed for Parking Authority bills.
24 And that's to the tune of $52,800
25 and some dollars. Then I got another one
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65
1 that reads the exact same way, and that's
2 for $50,211. And I don't recall seeing that
3 in the past as often as we're seeing for
4 that dollar amount, and I could be wrong.
5 So, I would say could we ask Mr.
6 Kresefski? Is the Parking Authority broke?
7 It seems like we're transferring an awful
8 lot of money over there.
9 MS. EVANS: There was a huge
10 increase in the 2007 operating budget, I
11 believe, for citation issuers.
12 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yeah, well, that's
13 what it's for. That's to cover, I guess, to
14 cover the employees?
15 MS. EVANS: I honestly can't answer
16 that question, because I don't have the
17 information.
18 MR. COURTRIGHT: It says in here
19 professional services, stationery,
20 materials, professional services again for
21 SPA citation issues. Is it just for their
22 salaries? I don't know.
23 MS. EVANS: That took about, I could
24 be wrong because I do not have the budget in
25 my possession tonight, but I'm going to
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66
1 guess it took about a three or $400,000
2 leap.
3 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yeah. And I can't
4 help but think of Mr. Sbaraglia bringing up
5 on many occasions that the parking authority
6 isn't going to be able to sustain itself.
7 If, in fact, this is common and I
8 just missed it in the last couple of years,
9 I apologize, but if we can just ask Glen if
10 he could give me a little bit better
11 explanation. This is only two of them. I
12 know there was more.
13 And lastly, oh, he's back. I
14 thought you left, Mr. Piccolino, but I'll
15 say what I was going to say anyway.
16 I can't understand for the life of
17 me why this project on Lackawanna Avenue, we
18 can't work something out with Buona Pizza.
19 I mean, they've been there forever, they've
20 been paying taxes forever, they've been
21 through all the bad times with this city.
22 I understand that we're going to
23 make Lackawanna Avenue beautiful. I voted
24 for it. Mrs. Evans is here, she voted for
25 it with the past Council. I'm all for the
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1 project, but he wants to stay there, and I
2 can't understand why we can't let him stay
3 there and accommodate him somehow.
4 Amil I would ask if you can find
5 this answer out for me. I would imagine we
6 have no say in it at this point, City
7 Council; is that true?
8 MR. MINORA: During the eminent
9 domain proceeding?
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yeah.
11 MR. MINORA: At this stage, I'm not
12 sure exactly where it is