COUNCIL

1 1 COUNCIL FOR THE CITY OF SCRANTON 2 3 4 HELD: 5 6 7 Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 8 9 10 LOCATION: 11 12 COUNCIL CHAMBERS 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Maria McCool, RPR Official Court Reporter 25  2 1 C O U N C I L M E M B E R S: 2 GERALD SMURL - PRESIDENT 3 MARK MCANDREW, VICE PRESIDENT 4 JESSICA ROTHCHILD 5 THOMAS SCHUSTER 6 WILLIAM KING 7 8 FRANK VOLDENBERG, CITY CLERK 9 KATHY CARRERA, ASSISTANT CITY CLERK 10 THOMAS GILBRIDE, ESQ., COUNCIL SOLICITOR 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25  3 1 (Pledge of Allegiance.) 2 3 MR. SMURL: Please remain standing 4 for a moment of silent reflection for our 5 service men and women throughout the world and 6 for those who have passed in our community, 7 especially Patricia Shea, Frank Swaha, Nancy 8 Rafalko and Paul Scamato{phonetic}. Thank you. 9 Roll call, please. 10 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. King. 11 MR. KING: Present. 12 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Schuster. 13 MR. SCHUSTER: Present. 14 MS. HERBSTER: Dr. Rothchild. 15 DR. ROTHCHILD: Here. 16 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. McAndrew. 17 MR. MCANDREW: Present. 18 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Smurl. 19 MR. SMURL: Here. Dispense with the 20 reading of the minutes. 21 MR. VOLDENBERG: THIRD ORDER. 22 3-A. MINUTES OF THE 23 SCRANTON/LACKAWANNA HEALTH AND WELFARE 24 AUTHORITY MEETING HELD JANUARY 16, 2025. 25 MR. SMURL: Are there any comments  4 1 on any of the Third Order items? If not, 2 received and filed. Do any Council members 3 have any announcements at this time? 4 MR. KING: Just a reminder about the 5 parade this coming Saturday. The festivities 6 kick off with a mass at 10 a.m. at the 7 Cathedral, St. Peter's Cathedral on Wyoming 8 Avenue. Most people know pretty much the 9 entire downtown is going to be locked down 10 probably from about I'd say 9 a.m. until about 11 3:30 in the afternoon. 12 We're hoping for a great day, a lot 13 of families, a lot of people come out and enjoy 14 the rights of spring hopefully and hopefully 15 we'll have a good safe parade. And that's all 16 I have. 17 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Mr. King. 18 Anyone else? 19 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes, I have a 20 couple. First off, I just want to start off by 21 thanking Mr. Justin Behrens for coming in 22 tonight to explain some of the work of Keystone 23 Mission. And I appreciate his return to the 24 organization. 25 And it seems like a hopeful future  5 1 for the programs that he was explaining to us 2 tonight. I did still have a few questions for 3 him that I can contact him about. But I did 4 want to mention some of the things we had 5 discussed a few weeks ago as well when 6 Councilman Smurl and myself were able to meet 7 with him. 8 We did discuss the issues of the 9 Code Blue Shelter from last month and he 10 assured us that they do have the staff now to 11 be able to staff it. 12 I don't know that there's how many 13 more code blue nights there's going to be left 14 in the season. But they are very confident in 15 their ability to fill that now. I did also 16 mention that there were several members of the 17 public that were coming to us that were 18 interested in volunteering with the 19 organization or with the shelters and he had 20 encouraged anyone who is interested to contact 21 him. 22 I'm happy to share his information. 23 And those who I know have reached out before, 24 I'll make sure that they are aware of his 25 contact information to be able inquire about  6 1 volunteer opportunities. And I know there's 2 been some suggestions in past the about the 3 possibility of mentorship programs so maybe 4 talking about that. 5 I know he did mention that their day 6 room is going to be I guess cut or they are 7 going to be utilizing the CIC's day room 8 instead so they are not replicating services, 9 which I understand. I do want to see if there 10 are any other services that are going to be 11 changed or cut too just so that the public is 12 aware. But none others that I know of, just 13 what he explained today. 14 And I think that's -- that was all 15 that I wanted to bring up in relation to that. 16 But also on the topic of homelessness within 17 Scranton, I did just want to put plug for the 18 NEPA Youth Shelter. And their executive 19 director and founder Maureen Gray who has been 20 a friend for a long time, she's going to be 21 retiring at the end of June. 22 And so they are looking for a new 23 executive director. So if you know anyone who 24 may be qualified or are interested in such a 25 position working with youth within Scranton,  7 1 those who might be at risk for homelessness or 2 homeless themselves, then I would encourage 3 them to contact the shelter to be able to apply 4 for the position. 5 The deadline for application is 6 going to be Friday, March 21st at 5 p.m. And 7 then they encourage all qualified candidates to 8 e-mail them at NEPA Youth Shelter Board at 9 gmail dot com. That's all. Thank you. 10 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Anyone else? 11 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes, I have one more. 12 So in regards to the parade on Saturday, we do 13 have the Brian P. Kelly Foot Race. That's a 2 14 mile race. Registrations for that will begin 15 at 8:30. And registration is going to be right 16 across from City Hall. The race begins at 11 17 a.m., and the parade begins at 11:45. 18 MR. SMURL: Thank you. 19 MR. VOLDENBERG: FOURTH ORDER. 20 CITIZENS PARTICIPATION. 21 MR. SMURL: First, Joan Hodowanitz. 22 MS. HODOWANITZ: Joan Hodowanitz, 23 Scranton. Tonight I'm going to give some 24 public service announcements. The first one is 25 the Friends of the Scranton Public Library are  8 1 conducting their quarterly book sale at the 2 Steamtown Marketplace second floor right in 3 front of Crunch Gym. 4 We do this every 90 days. And you 5 could get small paperbacks for a dollar, larger 6 paperbacks and hardcover books for 2 dollars, 7 DVDs, music CDs, all kinds of things, puzzles. 8 They have everything you could want. 9 The nice thing about this is it's a 10 win-win. You could get a lot of books at dirt 11 cheap prices. And if you ever look at the cost 12 of a brand new book, it's outrageous, okay, and 13 the library gets the profits and we use them to 14 support children's programs. 15 And, of course, 6 percent goes to 16 the taxman, but that's neither here nor there. 17 Remember it is tax season, you know, don't 18 forget to make your donation to the taxman or 19 Elon Musk will get you. 20 Next thing is March 6th this 21 Thursday at 10:30, this is at the Government 22 Center, the county's Government Center. PFM is 23 going to give their report on their five year 24 recommendations for financial stability for the 25 county. And we all live in the county.  9 1 And we've all heard about the 33 2 percent tax increase on property taxes. And we 3 all know reassessment is about to come to the 4 end of its long journey of 50, 60 years or 5 whatever it's been. 6 People tend to wait until they get 7 their tax bills to go, oh, my God, what are you 8 doing to me. If you have the opportunity at 9 10:30 on Thursday to be there, you might want 10 to see what the county is contemplating 11 financially which will impact your wallets over 12 the next five years. So that's a good one to 13 go to. 14 March 10th 6 to 8 p.m. at Lackawanna 15 College, there's a public forum, Hands All For 16 Healthcare, a Town Hall on Medicare and 17 Medicaid cuts. Now, I don't know whether they 18 have the inside dope on healthcare cuts or not. 19 But if you live in Scranton and live in 20 Lackawanna County, you better pay attention to 21 the cost of healthcare because the only way 22 it's going, is up. 23 And the only question is, how much 24 and how fast. And this is your chance to hear 25 some of this information and express your  10 1 concerns. Then on March 13th, 4 p.m. at the 2 Hilton Electric City ballroom on the second 3 floor, it is the usual hospital town hall, save 4 Regional Hospital dot org. 5 Remember back on December 16th we 6 were talking about what's going to happen to 7 Regional Hospital and Moses Taylor? And they 8 suggested that we would know something by the 9 end of the year. Well, that never happened. 10 And so now it's time to find out what's going 11 to happen with at least Regional Hospital. 12 They didn't mention Moses Taylor. 13 But we all have to depend on three hospitals in 14 the city for most of our healthcare. God 15 forbid two of the three hospitals actually 16 close. I don't think CMC is going to have fun 17 trying to handle the patient load. 18 Right now you go to the ER at CMC, 19 you may have a several hour wait, people 20 waiting to get seen by a doctor. And if you 21 have to be admitted as a patient, you may have 22 a restful period out on a gurney in the hallway 23 for a while before a room opens up. So these 24 are important things. 25 You don't want to wait until  11 1 somebody tells you, you know, this is what's 2 happening. Now is the time to get yourself 3 informed. Now is the time for you to express 4 your concerns to the people who are making 5 these decisions because some of these things 6 may be bad news. And you don't want to wait. 7 And my only other comment is on Item 8 6-A on Rubicon changing its name to Routeware. 9 I know you didn't have the time to discuss the 10 agenda during the caucus. But I'd still like 11 to know if you are going to go for 60 months on 12 that contract renewal. Thank you. 13 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Joan. Next, 14 Lynn Labrosky. 15 MS. LABROSKY: Good evening, 16 Council, Lynn Labrosky, homeowner, business 17 owner, Scranton resident. So also I wanted 18 to -- what Joan mentioned at the end, the 19 Rubicon contract; I know the last time it was 20 voted 3 to 2 and one of the Council members 21 wanted more information, more numbers, so 22 hopefully that will be taken into consideration 23 tonight because I think it's a terrible idea to 24 extend their contract for five years when I 25 don't see the results being produced since they  12 1 did the contract back in 2022. 2 Also, I've talked to some people 3 that work in DPW. And it was told to me that 4 some of the trucks are going in circles with 5 the GPS. And a lot of people that are in 6 alleys are not getting their garbage picked up. 7 So I've heard that quite a bit. 8 So I don't know if that's been 9 worked out with the new contract or what's 10 going to happen with that. I hate to be a 11 complainer but I also have heard from a lot of 12 people about the garbage in the city. 13 I know last year we did a lot of 14 cleanups on the heritage trail. We filled a 15 couple of 40 yard dumpsters. It's back to 16 pretty much the way it was again. So it feels 17 like all that hard work kind of went down the 18 drain because there is nothing being done to 19 prevent it from continuing to add up to that 20 again. 21 So I don't know if they are working 22 on that with the unsheltered task force. I 23 agree with the man that spoke during caucus 24 that maybe the public should be invited to 25 those meetings because that would give, maybe,  13 1 the leadership in the city some ideas on what 2 they could do to try to resolve some of these 3 issues. 4 But, you know, if we have a seat at 5 the table that would be good. I don't know if 6 there's any ordinances as far as the garbage in 7 the city. I think a lot of the problem is it's 8 really windy in Scranton and in NEPA. So a lot 9 of people don't put their garbage in cans or 10 maybe they don't have lids on them. And that 11 includes recyclables, like, they are just 12 littering the streets. 13 So I don't know if there is a 14 solution to that. But maybe you guys could to 15 try to talk about it or figure something out. 16 And then as far as the -- I'm going to mention 17 again the traffic pattern down Elm Street, that 18 was not resolved by the end of the week. 19 I don't know if you have a timeframe 20 on that. I know I seen them down there working 21 on it. I was happy to see that we have 22 flaggers now as opposed to our Scranton Police 23 Department directing traffic. But one of my 24 main concerns is now with the detour I noticed 25 another thing that that bridge has concrete  14 1 barriers which I believe if my information is 2 correct they weigh about 750 pounds each. 3 I didn't count them. I could do 4 that, but there's quite a few of them on both 5 sides of that bridge. And with the additional 6 traffic it concerns me that there's a lot of 7 weight and stress on that bridge to begin with 8 the barriers let alone the extra traffic. 9 There's still cars sitting on the 10 railroad tracks and it doesn't seem like it got 11 any better with the congestion down there. So 12 five years of a study and this is being done 13 after the fact. And then as far as the West 14 Side Little League I know it was brought up 15 last week that sometimes businesses donate to 16 the scoreboards. 17 I heard actually today that they are 18 trying to get the Scranton School District to 19 pay for the scoreboard. And the school 20 district might be trying to get ahold of the 21 city to see if there's a grant for the 22 scoreboard. 23 I know one of the people that runs 24 the field said they reached out to over a 25 hundred businesses and nobody seems to be able  15 1 to donate any money for that. I believe they 2 need three scoreboards and the total would come 3 to $25,000. So I'm not sure if it's going to 4 be the school that's paying for that or, I 5 mean, it's a little league field. So I would 6 think that if everybody -- maybe there's clubs, 7 maybe a rotary club or the Elk Club or there 8 could be somebody out there that could think 9 about donating, so something like that. 10 Now, if it was a business that 11 wanted to donate the whole amount, their name 12 could potentially go on that scoreboard. They 13 would just have to stick with the colors for 14 West Side, the blue and the white. 15 And then also it was mentioned I 16 believe it was last week or it might have been 17 about the week before about the doors being 18 locked and it's for safety and that guns could 19 be brought into this building. And I get all 20 that. 21 But how come on Tuesday night when 22 the public is here speaking, the doors 23 downstairs are wide open and there's nobody 24 manning that door. We do have a fine officer 25 every week in the back. But if somebody were  16 1 to come through that door with a weapon and 2 come in through that door, who is stopping 3 them? 4 So it just seems to me like there's 5 certain people in the city that need to be 6 safe, and then there's other people in the city 7 that don't, you know, it doesn't feel like they 8 are cared about or their safety. So, I don't 9 know, that's just something I wanted to bring 10 up. I probably had some more things but I ran 11 out of time so -- 12 MR. SMURL: Thank you. 13 MS. LABROSKY: Yeah, thank you. 14 Have a good night. 15 MR. SMURL: Ron Ellman. 16 MR. ELLMAN: Hello, Council. A few 17 years ago Joe Cross stated Scranton has lost 8 18 million dollars of value. Why, I don't know 19 where it went. But partly because of a 20 miserable administration to advise this know 21 novice mayor at the time and millions of losses 22 of taxable properties to the wealthiest owners 23 that are allowed by you guys, the city, the 24 Mayor, everybody involved. 25 These people are just allowed to  17 1 hide about behind this Pure Charity Act. Janet 2 Evans seems to be the only one that made a big 3 attempt with Lackawanna College who told her to 4 go to hell. 5 I do remember a couple weeks ago you 6 brought this issue up, but it didn't seem to go 7 nowhere. I think outside of downtown Scranton 8 is become a tragic train wreck. You could take 9 to the bank. I hear the last year or so it's 10 just happening in people's lives. 11 All the time I've been up here, no 12 one's ever confronted me about some of my rash 13 statements. So I guess I have been getting 14 away with murder all of these years. What the 15 city needs is another Janet Evans and Laureen 16 Cummings to be on our side. 17 Evidently thousands of properties 18 will soon be facing this tremendous tax 19 increases and insurance increases. The 20 utilities have been given carte blanche. They 21 have tore up how many miles in the 270 miles of 22 streets in the city. I think they are trying 23 to set a record destroying every last one of 24 them. 25 Well, I think the administration  18 1 just wants to use the taxpayers for fodder, 2 money to further their agendas. And next is my 3 feelings about the atrocious moronic thinking 4 zoning board. 5 They have just destroyed our 6 neighborhoods allowing singles to become two 7 and three units all over the city. I have been 8 complaining two, three, four years about the 9 same house on the 2400 block North Main. It is 10 packed to the gill. There's six, eight cars on 11 the sidewalk on weekends sometimes. 12 It's terrible. This is what -- 13 this is what's being allowed by the zoning 14 board. They meet the 12th of next month -- of 15 this month rather. Some people appreciate 16 their properties need to go and put it in. 17 There's eight cases coming up. Six of them 18 want to make two and three units out of 19 singles. 20 One wants to put a solar farm in the 21 city. Have you heard that? It was in the 22 paper. And one guy wants two kitchens for some 23 reason. And lastly, I was flabbergast that 24 Chris Kelly attacked the democratic party of 25 Lackawanna County.  19 1 His article Sunday greatly surprised 2 me. It paralleled my thinking. I said last 3 week about these evil of -- he calls the 4 democratic party and I call it the good ol' 5 boys. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And 6 real quick, why can't -- why can't the city put 7 occupancy permits on some of these houses that 8 are going from single to two and three units? 9 They are destroying our 10 neighborhoods and our city. The people renting 11 them are undesirables that have nothing to 12 lose. 13 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Mr. Ellman. 14 MR. ELLMAN: Well, thank you. 15 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Les 16 Spindler. 17 MR. SPINDLER: Good evening, 18 Council, Les Spindler, city resident, 19 homeowner. I live in Tripp Park. Many times 20 during the day I'll come down Euclid Avenue to 21 go to Main Avenue. At the bottom of the hill 22 there, it's pretty wide and you could fit three 23 lanes of traffic there really. 24 It drives me crazy. There's times I 25 want to make a right turn and people are making  20 1 a left turn but the people making a left turn 2 go all the way over to the right. The people 3 that want to go right can't do it until those 4 people go through two lanes of traffic. So if 5 the city could paint lines there with arrows 6 pointing to go left, right or for people to 7 come in the other way. It's ridiculous. 8 People, like, you want to go right 9 and somebody is going left, it backs up up the 10 hill and cause a traffic jam. So I don't know 11 if that's feasible or not. 12 MR. SMURL: Les, what's the 13 intersection? 14 MR. SPINDLER: Euclid Avenue and 15 North Main Avenue. I don't know if it's 16 feasible to do something like that. But I 17 think it could save a lot of traffic coming 18 out. Next thing, a pet peeve of mine again, 19 the huge hole the water company dug on Dorothy 20 Street, the 1700 block. They still didn't do 21 anything about it. 22 It's very sloppily filled in. 23 There's dips in it and places like -- it's 24 almost like a curb you have to go over to get 25 to the place there. And another one on the  21 1 block I live on, it's 1400 block of Bulwer 2 Street. There was a pave cut there. 3 It's square. It's not like the one 4 on Dorothy. But it's not filled in right to 5 the top. You got to slow down to get over it. 6 Next thing, people come here time and time 7 again criticizing the job Joe Biden did. Well, 8 what the idiot in the White House did last 9 Friday to President Zelenskyy was so 10 disrespectful. 11 It was a disgrace. Joe Biden would 12 have never have done that to a foreign -- a 13 leader of a foreign country. It was the most 14 disrespectful thing I seen. I mean, other 15 countries embraced President Zelenskyy. They 16 are giving him aid. 17 Now today Trump stopped U.S. aid to 18 Ukraine. You could see who he's behind. He's 19 behind the communist from Russian. And that's 20 who is Trump is going to turn into. We're 21 going to have a communist leading this country 22 because he cares more about Putin than he does 23 Zelenskyy and Ukraine. 24 Tonight he's going to talk about the 25 economy. As I spoke last week, there was a  22 1 story on the news that 53 percent of the people 2 in this country disapprove with what he's doing 3 with the economy. And he said on day one he's 4 going to fix the economy. Well, that was one 5 lie. He hasn't done it. 6 And he said on day one he's also 7 going to stop the war in Ukraine. That's 8 another lie. It's still going. And there's 9 no end in sight. 10 Lastly, there's a story about a 11 student in high school in Wilkes-Barre. It was 12 on Channel 16. He was born blind. I'll read 13 this so I don't miss anything. He's in a 14 special program that helps students who have a 15 disability like him. 16 The program is funded by federal 17 funds. He wants to go to college and become 18 an attorney to help people in his situation. 19 Well, with Donald Trump cutting funding if he 20 cuts the funding that he wants to cut, that 21 program is going to go away and that student 22 won't get to live his dream with being an 23 attorney and it will affect all people like he 24 is in the same situation he's in. 25 This man, all he wants to do is hurt  23 1 the little guy. People that want to make 2 something of themselves and he wants to stuff 3 his pockets and Elon Musk's pockets with the 4 million of dollars they are trying to save with 5 laying off all of these millions of people. 6 You know, there's a saying be 7 careful what you wish for. So all these voters 8 wished him into office and a lot of them are 9 sorry they did it already. So they are going 10 to find out he's just -- to criticize Joe 11 Biden, this guy already he's the worst 12 president we ever had. Thank you for your 13 time. 14 MR. SMURL: Thank you. 15 Mr. Spindler. Bob Bolus. 16 MR. SCHUSTER: Mr. Voldenberg, last 17 week I asked the address was 1720 Dorothy 18 Street. I just ask if we can ask the 19 administration if we can get the process of our 20 new pave cut company that the city is using, 21 can we get that process -- 22 MR. BOLUS: Good evening, Council, 23 Bob Bolus. I just want to reiterate what 24 Spindler just said about the Zelenskyy. He had 25 an opportunity. He came to this country. He  24 1 came with an attitude. What he should do is 2 pick up a weapon, put on a uniform and stand 3 side by side by the shoulders on the front line 4 and see what it is -- the people he's getting 5 murdered every single day because of this 6 cockiness. 7 He was dealing with a president who 8 wanted to help him and do something. But his 9 arrogance was a step behind. He thought he was 10 talking to Joe Biden and he could get away with 11 what he was doing. There is nothing better and 12 more positive as we see it in our industry with 13 Trump behind the wheel, him and Elon getting 14 things done. 15 I have here -- Les will probably 16 disagree with me. I don't believe men belong 17 in women's sports, period. That's it. They 18 don't belong there. I don't give a damn who 19 they think they are. Stick with your own 20 gender. 21 I don't want fascination or who you 22 think you are or what you are. A man is a man. 23 A woman is a woman no matter which way you look 24 at it they don't belong in women's sports, 25 period.  25 1 I mean, I'm still dealing with a 2 fire up there that's still undetermined yet to 3 the causation of it. But yet, I'm still trying 4 to help people. As far as Ukraine goes, I have 5 trailer loads of disinfectant wipes. If they 6 are interested, their people could get ahold of 7 me and they could make arrangements to ship 8 them over to Ukraine to the people that are 9 being damaged and injured and don't have a lot 10 because of their leadership over there. 11 That's how we intend to help them. 12 They deserve the people, not from the 13 leadership they got. The Mayor is driving 14 around Scranton looking for potholes. Tell her 15 take a ride down Lackawanna Avenue. She's got 16 people in the city that are paid to take care 17 of the potholes, drive around and patch them 18 and make it acceptable instead of knocking the 19 front ends out of our cars and everything else. 20 It's the most inept system I've 21 seen. And she's the head of the policy here. 22 She should make sure the roads are taken care 23 of. And nowhere else in America do I know that 24 a stupid city and the leadership we have shuts 25 down four major bridges in the city. Go look  26 1 at the traffic we got to deal with, total 2 incompetence. 3 You know, as far as the hospitals 4 go, I brought it up in the past. We have 5 enough legislators, both state, federal and 6 everyone else. Take Geisinger out of the loop. 7 Buy the medical college. Let the medical 8 college take over the two hospitals, plain and 9 simple. We're not paying millions of dollars 10 to some CEO to sit there and then we get the 11 best of all worlds. 12 We get the doctors that we are 13 training to work in those two hospitals, 14 Geisinger, Lehigh Valley. We have the best. 15 Why do we have to sit here and be stupid to say 16 somebody should buy us out. Are we that 17 incompetent and ridiculous in our management? 18 It's easy to do if you know anything 19 about business to separate Geisinger from the 20 medical college and then have it funded 21 separately to take over the hospitals where 22 they will get the best that they possibly need. 23 You know, I'm sitting here and I'm 24 going to a meeting tomorrow, but Gaughan the 25 Commissioner sat here as the Council President  27 1 was a dictator here. I brought a gentleman in 2 Le Pew -- Pepe Le Pew is a skunk that skunked 3 the City of Scranton. And he's doing the same 4 damn thing in Lackawanna County. 5 You can't dictate and tell the 6 democrat party how they should do business or 7 this is who I want to work with me. He didn't 8 pay attention to anything, there's another 9 commissioner sitting there. He doesn't know 10 how to work with people because he only wants 11 it his way, one way, Gaughan's way and that's 12 it. 13 33 percent tax increase on top of 14 the reassessment we're getting, come on. 15 There's better ways to do things for the people 16 in this community than having a dictator 17 sitting there and demanding how it should be 18 done. 19 You know, there's a lot of things 20 that aren't going on here. But we just got to 21 make a change in the leadership what we're 22 doing both in the county and throughout the 23 city. There's people that are being paid here 24 to do a job. Then do your job. That's what 25 you get paid to do.  28 1 People are protesting Lackawanna -- 2 the Steamtown. I brought the first Steamtown 3 locomotive into the City of Scranton. And I 4 brought all the equipment from Bellows Falls 5 for Steamtown at absolutely no charge to the 6 City of Scranton. These people got a lot of 7 damn nerve saying they want to get paid for 8 doing nothing. 9 And that's my gut feeling on what's 10 going on. And in the next week or so I'll be 11 making an announcement regarding the City of 12 Scranton. Thank you. I don't want to be 13 insulting, but I'm leaving now so I could hear 14 my president give his speech to the American 15 people tonight. Thank you. 16 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Mr. Bolus. 17 Krysten Xanthis. 18 MS. XANTHIS: Good evening, Council, 19 Krysten Xanthis. Two things I'm going to speak 20 about, I'm very appreciative of Mr. Voldenberg; 21 but Dickson Avenue and Green Ridge desperately 22 needs a streetlight. I called the Mayor's 23 office and she -- the gentleman that answered 24 the phone stated that you need the petition I 25 had got from here.  29 1 I cannot walk around my neighborhood 2 right now. I am not capable of walking that 3 far right now. So I asked him. He said they 4 will put it on the list, whatever that means. 5 Secondly, the garbage pickup in the senior 6 building to the right of me, 4 a.m. as Mr. 7 Voldenberg knows is a little absurd, maybe six 8 or seven; but four when you are getting up for 9 6:00. 10 The other thing is, I know, like, 11 lower Green Ridge is, like, the time that is 12 forgotten in the city. But they need police 13 down there desperately. I walk the dog 14 numerous times. And at one point I found a 15 knife. Turned that into the police. They 16 came and they picked it up. 17 I found liquor bottles every day. 18 And the other thing which is very uncomfortable 19 to say, you find unpackaged condoms across the 20 street on my property and everywhere. Now, I 21 don't know about the rest of you, but it's not 22 very safe down there anymore. 23 So the city wants two high rises 24 down there. I think maybe they should get some 25 security on those properties. I know that  30 1 won't happen for the neighborhood, but police 2 down there would be a big thing right now. I 3 had somebody knocking on my door banging the 4 door at 11:30 at night. 5 You know, I'm thinking to myself, 6 you know, I called the police at one point one 7 time a while back when there was a problem. 8 You can't call -- I mean, calling the police 9 every single time, I would be calling them 10 every night at this point. 11 I had somebody last night standing 12 in my yard at close -- really late at night. 13 It was really dark. But, you know, the light 14 kept going on because, you know, and I look out 15 there and this person is standing there 16 smoking. So this morning I go out there, 17 there's cigarettes on the ground. 18 And nobody in my house smokes. So 19 there is no reason why there would be 20 cigarettes out there other than the man that 21 was standing there. You know, I had left at 22 one point for three days to go to Washington 23 about these Medicaid cuts for the healthcare 24 union I belong to. 25 Now, the middle of this month I'm  31 1 leaving again for Harrisburg because I'm, you 2 know, I don't like saying it because it's not 3 city business, but I'm trying to stop the cuts 4 that, you know, Musk is making. But I need 5 police down there. I know, you know, I 6 understand, you know, I'm not -- I'm understand 7 you guys, you know, don't have total control 8 over that. I'm not saying you do. 9 But once something happens down 10 there to me or my mother or her when I'm not 11 here and I'm somewhere else in another city or 12 farther, there's going to be a problem because, 13 you know, maybe somebody should sit down there 14 once it starts getting dark after 8:00 and 15 you'll see what goes on down there. Thank you. 16 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Dave 17 Dobrzyn. 18 MR. DOBRZYN: Good evening, Council 19 Dave Dobrzyn, resident. I was at the last PUC 20 meeting and Mr. King was treated very poorly. 21 My suggestion is that he should be given way 22 more than five minutes. But the judges seen it 23 differently. 24 But if you people would get together 25 and tag team. Most of you were there that  32 1 night anyway and kind of group the time that we 2 could maybe get 20 minutes or a half hour, that 3 would be just great. 4 He wasn't allowed with all the 5 research he did. He did not get a decent 6 opportunity to say anything. And the hospitals 7 up again. And my question is, we're at 40 8 percent tax exempt. Are we going to be 42 or 9 43 percent? That knocks it down about 2 points 10 or something like that when they went for 11 profit. 12 And then obviously it didn't work 13 and maybe the profit and the reason that 14 somebody isn't interested in taking it over is 15 because vital equipment was worn out and not 16 maintained. That's just a suggestion. So what 17 we really need is to get a board not connected 18 to the government, strictly people from 19 Scranton taxpayers and take on this state 20 constitution where you are required to just 21 keep accepting one tax exempt after another. 22 And it's a bipartisan issue. And 23 really at 40 and 42 or 43 percent and growing 24 is unacceptable. It's just impossible. 25 Somebody is going to be paying two or three  33 1 thousand dollars when they should be paying a 2 thousand. 3 And enough has been said tonight but 4 I'm going to say a little more. You know, I 5 brought up before the election the 2025 Project 6 thanks to the Heritage Foundation. And 7 currently the office of management and budget 8 is the author of the 2025 project. 9 And, you know, everybody come up and 10 pooh-poohed it. Well, so far we keep blaming 11 the democrats for everything. Ten months went 12 by and Ukraine was given nothing when they were 13 winning. Now, here's a list of things that are 14 being done right now, showboating with a C130 15 to ship immigrants back. 16 By the way a C130 costs $850,000 for 17 a five hour flight and a normal jet -- 18 passenger jet costs about a 105,000. News, 19 Steamtown and General Dynamics -- it may not be 20 any reason why we expanded General Dynamics to 21 up the production of 155 millimeter shells -- 22 artillery shells to 400 percent because we're 23 not giving Ukraine any more. 24 Steamtown has cut several employees. 25 I talked to somebody yesterday. News Roiters  34 1 and Associated Press were kicked out of the 2 White House but the Russians are there. Tax -- 3 and there's firings at the FBI, CIA and NSA, 4 Pentagon, National Weather Services, Social 5 Security, IRS. And by the way, Ukraine 6 defeated half of the Russian army with 5 7 percent of our military budget. 8 And the actual savings that Elon 9 Musk is actually producing are usually 10 multiplied by 300 to a thousand percent or -- 11 10 percent. So take it from there. I think 12 somebody should resign right now and help us 13 out. Have a good night. 14 MR. SMURL: That exhausts our 15 sign-in sheet. Anyone else wish to address 16 Council? 17 MR. COYNE: Good evening, Tom Coyne, 18 Minooka. Do we have any update on who 19 authorized the payment for the Nay Aug Park 20 Christmas lights without an authorized contract 21 approved by Council as any purchase contract of 22 this size is required by law to be both bid out 23 and approved by Council. 24 Can we get a copy of the contract 25 that was used and the signatures? We have long  35 1 complained about the doors barring the public 2 from the building we own. 3 We really need to address the actual 4 reasons. First it was pushed and installed 5 under Covid restrictions. Then it became 6 public safety when there was no threat. And 7 then right after the night shooting at Weston 8 Field, safety became the primary mantra. The 9 simple reason is limiting people from 10 addressing public grievances to the 11 administration by forcing them -- by forcing 12 the public into a system where the First 13 Amendment rights could be ignored. 14 It grants the ability to hide public 15 observation and oversight. You choose the 16 public that you wish to come in and have a 17 voice. And it's all been suspected that the 18 actual intent was to conceal if the Mayor was, 19 indeed, working in city hall or not. 20 All the excuses I've heard are bull. 21 You lock the doors during the day, a City Hall 22 that is supposed to be open to the public. But 23 you can't lock at night the park gates at 24 Weston Field where someone was beaten, chased 25 and shot and killed in the streets.  36 1 You diminish this building for those 2 who coward behind these hollowed walls. Here's 3 a hint. If you are afraid of the public, don't 4 take a job as a public servant. There is 5 only -- we are one of the few City Halls that 6 has a permanent lockdown from the public. 7 Rules on public safety is Council's 8 job. And the administration has some rights 9 under a limited public forum. The Mayor has 10 transformed this building from a limited public 11 forum into a nonpublic forum. And that is only 12 supposed to apply to a government property that 13 has not been traditionally opened to the 14 public. 15 Scranton hall has been open to the 16 public since its completion in 1888. And 17 except for normal closed secured offices, the 18 building was open to the public for 132 years. 19 If that is not the definition of traditionally 20 been open to the public, I'm not sure what is. 21 Now, onto business at hand; first 22 off, 5-B the cable contract, it points to FCC 23 Section 611 and requires -- that requires cable 24 operators to set aside channels for public 25 educational and government uses, PEG.  37 1 It requires noncontent based rules 2 for governing the use of these channels. 3 Example, allocating time for completing 4 applicants on a reasonable basis for other 5 content. The cable contract in this Section 6 72, now we have in this ordinance that the city 7 on its government channel shall have complete 8 control over content, scheduling, 9 administration and all other aspects. 10 Section 611 is a noncontent based 11 rules and the ordinance itself is a complete 12 content control. The two do not jive. Last 13 for tonight is addressing the Council Rubes our 14 conned. Contract 6A, presented to Council on 15 February 18th for the first time when 16 negotiations were done long before that. 17 We have a part of the introduced 18 ordinance modification that is listed as a 19 draft copy, not the actual one. The offer was 20 good through 1/1/2025. So the administration 21 was working on this behind Council's back long 22 before that. The original terms for the 23 extension agreed upon with the contract was a 24 year-to-year extension by all parties, not five 25 years.  38 1 We should not change terms to our 2 disadvantage. Have you look at the detail, the 3 costs? Yes, it's listed as $33,850.20 a year 4 for the first year but omits the following year 5 prices on the sheet. That's understandable as 6 it has a 15 percent increase a year for the 5 7 years for a total of 101.14 percent increase 8 or just short of $300,000. 9 We were promised a million saved, 10 provided none, gifted a contract with predatory 11 increases built in. Who is pushing you to 12 consider this foolishness? We lose a little by 13 saying no. The routes -- we lose a little by 14 saying no. The routes are already set or just 15 vote yes, kiss someone's feet and do a 16 disservice to the people you represent. Thank 17 you. 18 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Anyone else? 19 MR. ARGENTA: Virgil Argenta. 20 Scranton's Pocket Park incurred significant 21 costs, took several years to be partially 22 completed. The park covers about 10,000 square 23 feet with dimensions of approximately 50 feet 24 by 200 feet. 25 The park was named after former  39 1 Mayor Christopher Doherty who served as a 3 2 term, 12 year Mayor of Scranton. Why does 3 this park lack basic features like landscaping, 4 benches, tables, and signage recognizing it as 5 Mayor Doherty's park? 6 Once again, Scranton rumors have 7 surfaced. I'm sure no one really cares that 8 Mayor Paige didn't show up for the grand 9 opening. Regardless of the personal opinions, 10 this is a matter of what is right or wrong in 11 honoring the Doherty family. 12 Will the Council agree to 13 investigate the funding of this park and 14 examine the allocation of where the funds for 15 the signage are? 16 MR. SMURL: The signage is Scranton 17 Tomorrow's. It's their project. 18 MR. ARGENTA: That's fine. Do we 19 have a liaison that can find out about that if 20 it's going to be and can you get us an answer? 21 I think the Doherty family deserves better. 22 MR. KING: If we could ask, Mr. 23 Voldenberg, to look in that. I understand 24 there's going to be benches -- 25 MR. ARGENTA: Mr. Smurl -- Mr. Smurl  40 1 and the Mayor were both involved in the gift 2 card situation. We still do not have a valid 3 answer as to how many cards were purchased, how 4 many remain, and what was the cost to the 5 Scranton taxpayer. Can you clarify how 6 taxpayer money was spent and how much? 7 Can we agree that neither you, nor 8 the Mayor will use the summer beautiful 9 neighborhood gift card for political purpose 10 this election? The Pennsylvania State Senate 11 recently passed the Paul Miller Distracted 12 Driver Law. 13 This adds to the concerns of the DPW 14 drivers. Will the Rubicon system be handheld, 15 mounted in the truck? Responsible CDL drivers 16 expect employees -- employers not to ask them 17 to do anything that could jeopardize their CDL 18 licenses. 19 They should be concentrating on the 20 road, not on a handheld or a camera or whatever 21 it is. Tonight you had a speaker. If your 22 speaker was so concerned and looking for help 23 from the city, why don't you have him and his 24 patrons to go down and clean up the riverbanks? 25 The trash around the riverbanks --  41 1 the trash along the riverbanks, the human feces 2 holes, that's a health hazard polluting our 3 waterway. There's people that used to fish in 4 there that can't fish in there. Has anyone 5 taken a walk and looked at those riverbanks? 6 And if you think it's okay to have 7 people coming into your facility and nobody has 8 any identification as grown men, how is that 9 fair to our police officers? How is that fair 10 to the general public? You have somebody in 11 your city that we're coddling, catering to and 12 taken care of, but we don't know who you are. 13 And yet we are supposed to say okay 14 because grown men don't have licenses? Well, 15 tell them where to go get it. The weather is 16 getting nice, right? Now you're telling us we 17 have to take care of them. We have to house 18 them. We have to feed them. 19 How about getting something set up 20 down -- and bring a temporary agency in and 21 tell them how to get job applications. Enough 22 with coddling these people and looking for 23 everything for free. 24 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Anyone else? 25 MR. LITTLE: Hello, Council, Rik  42 1 Little, Scranton. I have a lot of things I 2 wanted to talk about, especially last week with 3 the roller coaster ride on who's running the 4 government or who will run the government. And 5 I've been looking into these things called home 6 charters to find out where everything went 7 wrong in Scranton. 8 Because when I first came here, I'm 9 reading the history the great -- all the great 10 architecture, the great things they made, 11 Scranton Housing Authority and it all seemed to 12 went by the wayside as has a lot of people's 13 Social Security. 14 I'm happy that there's a new 15 President Judge or there will be, Judge 16 Gibbons, because the other judge I could get no 17 contact with the judicial branch of the 18 government. Most people, I don't think they 19 are even taught that there's three branches of 20 government, you know, the executive, the 21 legislative and the judicial. 22 But in this county because of the 23 Home Rule Charters, there's been many of them. 24 But I think it happened around 1977 that 25 everything started going down the drain. The  43 1 power structure changed. 2 And, for instance, the three 3 commissioners like last week that, you know, 4 who gets in, you know, is it a democrat or a 5 party machine and all of this stuff. It 6 changes. And then the lawyer comes in and 7 says, oh, there's a case because actually in 8 the county government, it's the -- they're the 9 executives, the three commissioners are the 10 executives and the legislative branch. 11 But the branch no one wants to talk 12 about is the judicial branch. I tried to talk 13 about it with former President Judge Corbett. 14 And I was instructed by her secretary, well, 15 you have to make a motion, you know. And it 16 just becomes all of these weird, weird rules. 17 And I went to the Scranton Housing 18 Authority building or Board of Commissioners 19 thing last night. It's being filmed by 20 Electric City TV. I suggested that -- and I'm 21 glad you are doing it and I'm talking to them 22 and, you know, if they are doing any other 23 boards. 24 And the reason I say this is because 25 for people to get an idea about the government,  44 1 they are going to get it from reading the 2 Times-Tribune. They are not going to get it. 3 I mean, people are still talking about 4 Zelenskyy. I mean, a guy that -- you know, 5 unaccounted for billions of dollars. He's a 6 dictator. He cut off his elections. It's not 7 democracy there. They play with words, you 8 know, what democracy is. 9 Anyway, it came up about, you know, 10 Scranton Housing Authority gets federal funds. 11 And they have employees. But now I'm finding 12 out that people are dividing what the employees 13 are that -- because a lot of people are being 14 evicted because there's a housing problem in 15 Scranton. 16 And there's a homeless problem in 17 Scranton. And I say it goes right to Scranton 18 Housing Authority. That's the name of it, 19 Scranton Housing Authority. It isn't 20 Lackawanna Housing Authority, you know, and 21 they talk -- every week they talk about their 22 delinquent accounts. 23 These are people they evicted. It 24 was like $346,000 for that budget in December. 25 And then January, $268,000 for that budget in  45 1 December and $329,000 that budget in December. 2 And I know -- I see the faces. I used to live 3 there. 4 There has to be, you know, and they 5 hire a district attorney. But he doesn't work 6 for SHA. He's a contractor. That's the 7 problem going on. I'm almost out of time. But 8 for the people that live at Park Gardens, 9 there's a lot of information that has to get to 10 these people because this is -- this isn't 11 right what is happening with housing and 12 homelessness in Scranton. 13 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Anyone else? 14 MR. SIMRELL: Good evening, Council. 15 My name is Baily Simrell. And I'm a resident 16 of Scranton. I also work professionally as a 17 technology consultant and software developer. 18 And I have been following our city spending for 19 a while. 20 But particularly wanted to speak 21 tonight about the Rubicon routeware situation, 22 especially after I spent about an hour on 23 Saturday speaking with some folks from DPW. 24 And I just want to read through some notes that 25 I have.  46 1 So, yeah, I think we should really 2 pause before renewing or extending this 3 contract. I think, you know, we were told that 4 the route optimization alone could save nearly 5 $395,000 per year. But after three years, no 6 one has shown actual budget line savings or 7 itemized cost reductions. 8 We need data providing -- proving 9 the fewer overweight fines, less overtime or 10 reduced maintenance. Secondly, it seems like 11 there's a bit of a rush on this deal even 12 thought there's some uncertainty. 13 Tonight there's a push to lock us 14 into a multiyear extension before we've seen 15 any real numbers on what this tool has returned 16 for the city and the taxpayers. 17 At the very least, I do think the 18 city should continue to issue a fresh RFP or 19 conduct a more thorough cost benefit analysis 20 to see if cheaper off the shelf or inhouse 21 options exist. I know they do. 22 Also, regarding redundancies and 23 (inaudible) inspections and just weak 24 justifications I've heard from folks in the IT 25 Department who I've spoken with over the  47 1 weekend as well. 2 Pre and post trip inspections are 3 mandatory with or without this software. So 4 Rubicon -- and also, Rubicon does not actually 5 weigh the trucks. DPW drivers still use their 6 own judgment and discretion as to when a truck 7 may be overweight on the intraday. 8 For example, Tripp Park on Monday 9 after a sunny weekend was the example I was 10 given, the truck will get filled on intraday 11 much faster than it might on a typical winter 12 day from the same area. And that discretion is 13 up to the driver, not the software in regards 14 to when to return that load to the landfill. 15 Additionally, as others mentioned 16 the system's route logic is not perfect, 17 sometimes even doubling back on blocks, issues 18 with the alleys, etc. Folks in DPW mentioned 19 to me they would be fine if the software 20 vanished tomorrow because they already have 21 some of the initial mapping done. 22 And they've expressed that they 23 would actually love to take the maps that have 24 been optimized from Rubicon and take them and 25 kind of change them and modify them to what DPW  48 1 sees being optimal, which makes a lot of sense. 2 But why are we paying tens of 3 thousands of dollars annually if it's not 4 demonstratively reducing the overtime and 5 bringing any real value? I have concerns about 6 the vendor locking and the data usage. I mean, 7 these people made a lot of promises. I think 8 they fell short on the promises. And this is a 9 publically traded company. 10 So, you know, they're using our DPW 11 data that we're paying these people to go and 12 collect out on the job and they use that data 13 to train their future models, build additional 14 products. And that's something that they use 15 as a pitch to their shareholders in regards to 16 how they could sell and commercialize this data 17 and their products in other municipalities. I 18 think that's kind of interesting. 19 Is it acceptable for taxpayer funded 20 labor to fuel their machine learning models? I 21 don't know. Additionally, I think an 22 interesting rhetorical question I would pose 23 is, does anyone in the city administration have 24 stock in Rubicon? 25 Additionally, if we have no public  49 1 data proving that we've avoided meaningful 2 fines or slash the overtime, aren't we 3 basically just subsidizing this company's 4 research? I really suggest that you guys not 5 rush this vote, talk to people. 6 I think there should be a real 7 itemized report with ROI, especially for 8 signing on multiple years with price increases 9 on an extended period of time than what we 10 originally dealt with. I mean, that's crazy. 11 Software procurement 101 is you need to 12 understand the measuring sticks of the before 13 and after and be able to show the differential. 14 And I was really disappointed and 15 shocked when I was watching the caucus from two 16 weeks ago and the Business Administrator said 17 we weren't collecting the data before so we 18 have no answer. That's crazy. 19 So I know my time is up, but, yeah, 20 there's a lot of interesting things regarding 21 this topic. And I personally feel that key 22 stakeholders within the city and different 23 departments are not necessarily having across 24 the department conversations that they should 25 be having.  50 1 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Can you tell 2 me your name again? 3 MR. SIMRELL: Yeah, Bailey Simrell. 4 MR. SMURL: Thank you. 5 MR. SIMRELL: Thank you. 6 MR. MANCINI: Good evening, Council, 7 Mike Mancini, Scranton. A word to the wise 8 when dealing with a business that has the name 9 con in it, it in should be a red flag. There 10 is no benefit to this. And in my opinion it's 11 just a waste of money. 12 Many properties in South Scranton 13 have been neglected for week after week after 14 week. And DPW has to go out and pick it up. 15 It's counteractive, counterproductive. 16 Mr. Gilbride, congratulations on your 17 involvement with the St. Patrick Day Parade. 18 Your family must be very proud. 19 Last year I mentioned the St. 20 Patrick's Day Parade and Nay Aug Park in the 21 same sentence. Those holiday lights have yet 22 to come down. Last year they were taken down 23 the Wednesday before. Are they going to come 24 down before St. Patrick's Day? 25 MR. SMURL: The front skirt is being  51 1 poured this week. So they could actually go 2 in. The mud got so heavy up there because of 3 the melting and all the rain so they couldn't 4 pour the front skirt. But that's I believe 5 today or tomorrow. 6 MR. MANCINI: Sorry to interrupt, 7 that company that we paid to put the lights up, 8 we also paid for them to take them down. 9 MR. SMURL: Right. 10 MR. MANCINI: They are not going to 11 be taking them down, correct? 12 MR. SMURL: No, that's incorrect. 13 MR. MANCINI: Okay. The Scranton 14 School District gets credits back from used 15 portions of contracts. Can we see what the 16 difference is and try to get the money back 17 from them? That's taxpayer money and that's 18 not funny. All right. 19 Talking about this election, it's 20 one of the most important elections in my 21 lifetime, more than likely the railroad system 22 is going to be coming through, all right. With 23 that being the case, I feel as if our options 24 are very limited. We have a current Mayor who 25 sees her shadow half the time with an expansion  52 1 team that has no clue on what they are doing 2 from one day to the next. 3 You have a parks director that was 4 promoted to DPW with our roads looking the way 5 that they do and 91 miles of cuts in the near 6 future; and yet, no one on this Council has 7 addressed any of the utilities to make them 8 responsible for the pavecuts. 9 Instead, send $500,000 to another 10 county to accompany with no oversight. Why 11 don't you bring them in before caucus, you 12 know, 30-some thousand dollars, $500,000, I 13 think that has a little bit more priority. 14 Today, on Gibson Street and North 15 Main Avenue, there was a homeless man that was 16 found deceased. And its very heart-wrenching. 17 We heard from the Keystone Mission here earlier 18 today about people that are homeless. I feel 19 as the number is actually skewed. There is 20 more than 58 homeless in City of Scranton. 21 We have almost 75,000 people. You 22 know, I also heard a story about the Diocese of 23 Scranton and the generosity of some people 24 where they're bringing people in from other 25 municipalities, other larger cities offering  53 1 them a better chance because of the generosity 2 here in the City of Scranton. 3 To those, if true, at the Diocese of 4 Scranton, let's focus on the children first, 5 you know, a homeless child in the City of 6 Scranton I think takes precedence over anything 7 else. And we're looking at this election. We 8 have somebody else who is running for this 9 elected position and he actually signed off on 10 our most important asset, the Scranton Sewer 11 Authority. 12 You know, we also have the steam 13 company that's been bankrupt and hundreds of 14 manhole covers the city is now responsible for. 15 Is this the best that the city could come up 16 with? Really, it reminds me of two dogs 17 chasing a car. They're not going to catch it. 18 Even if they do, they can't drive it. All 19 right. 20 So in my opinion, the city needs 21 much more, much better than that. And I've 22 been humbled by an experience after my son's 23 passing to an opioid crisis. There was a pill 24 press found in our city, the instrument of 25 death.  54 1 We have a police department without 2 a Drug Task Force. We have officers like 3 Officer Rawlings behind me who goes out to 4 these calls and is very upset in the process 5 because there's no closure in sight. 6 Well, let's close the book. Change 7 is coming for the better. God bless the City 8 of Scranton. Good evening, Council. 9 MR. SMURL: Thank you. Anyone else? 10 MR. VOLDENBERG: FIFTH ORDER. 5-A. 11 MOTIONS. 12 MR. SMURL: Mr. King, do you have 13 any motions or comments? 14 MR. KING: Yeah, mister -- Attorney 15 Gilbride, in terms of Rubicon, I asked a 16 question about -- I know it's a five-year 17 contract. I asked a question about it's 18 renewed on an annual basis. So I asked a 19 question about is there a 30, 60, 90 day out. 20 And I was told that the original -- 21 this is an addendum to the contract. So the 22 original contract apparently has verbiage in 23 there that would allow us that come January, 24 February if we're not happy or satisfied with 25 Rubicon we could get out of it; is that  55 1 correct? 2 ATTY. GILBRIDE: The explanation I 3 received from the administration when I reached 4 out after Council's interest in the specifics 5 with regard to the addendum to the Rubicon 6 contract, everything you said is correct. It 7 is a five-year contract. 8 It is not in one year increments, 9 however, as it was in the previous contract. 10 So it's five years. But the city does have the 11 ability to exit the contract for failure to 12 perform under certain circumstances. 13 MR. KING: Under certain 14 circumstances. So we don't have an annual 15 option to bail out if we are just not happy 16 with the performance. 17 ATTY. GILBRIDE: Well, you don't 18 have -- there's no -- you don't have automatic 19 right to just step out of the contract. You 20 have to be able to show that they did not 21 perform the contract. Who decides that, well, 22 with the exception of the parties agreeing that 23 they did not perform the contract, that could 24 become a legal issue, which then the courts 25 would have to decide whether or not they  56 1 performed their contract to the specifications 2 of the contract. 3 MR. KING: Can we get a copy of that 4 language -- the original language? 5 ATTY. GILBRIDE: You want a copy of 6 the original contract. 7 MR. KING: Right. I don't need the 8 full part of the contract. I want to see the 9 renewable -- the language on the renewable 10 piece. And I'd also like to see if we could 11 get the question answered concerning the 12 weight. 13 Does Rubicon have the ability to 14 determine when the truck is full and when it's 15 time to head up to the dump or is that as was 16 indicated earlier at the driver's discretion? 17 I'd like to see if we could get some of those 18 answers before we move forward here. That's 19 all I have. Thanks. 20 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Mr. King. 21 Mr. Schuster, do you have any motions or 22 comments? 23 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes, I have a few. 24 To piggyback off that with that last question 25 that Mr. King asked, can we just get a total  57 1 number of trucks? I do know the number of 2 total trucks that we do have. But can we get 3 an official total number of trucks and then 4 total number of trucks that have the weights 5 and measures on them to determine how many and 6 what tonnage is in that truck? 7 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll take care of 8 it, sir. 9 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. I had 10 asked some questions and tried to get some 11 followup with the railroad as there are some 12 tents and individuals living off of Olive 13 Street near the Keystone Mission. 14 So I asked if the city and the 15 Lackawanna County railroad were actively 16 focusing on the steps regarding any cleanup in 17 these areas. The answer I got was that on 18 February 28th, the Scranton Police Department, 19 DPW, and Law Department met with agencies 20 including the Lackawanna Heritage Valley 21 Authority. 22 We (inaudible) spring cleanup of 23 those public areas and discussed private 24 properties. We discussed here in caucus 25 tonight with the representative from the  58 1 Keystone Mission and I think what we need to do 2 is we need to have a balance. 3 I understand that we do need to help 4 people. And there are people in need. But how 5 are we going to balance that with the residents 6 that are in the areas of these agencies? I do 7 know that there are residents in those areas 8 that are affected, individuals that spill over 9 from the Mission and I do understand that 10 people do need help. 11 But I think the Keystone Mission if 12 they are looking to partner with the city, they 13 do need to be good neighbors. And they do need 14 to look into how they can be better neighbors 15 in that area. We talked about that 1720 16 Dorothy Street. The city went in a new 17 direction when it came to pavecuts. 18 They worked with the union to remove 19 some of those positions. And they decided to 20 go with a company. With that 1720 Dorothy, if 21 we can use that as an example, please let us 22 know what the timeline of that is going to be 23 and what that company's process is for 24 inspecting these cuts. 25 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will, sir.  59 1 MR. SCHUSTER: Back when our 2 bridges -- when we passed legislation regarding 3 our bridges, timelines were discussed. 4 Completion dates were discussed. Can we get an 5 update on the timeline for that Elm Street 6 bridge so residents know what the timeline 7 looks like? 8 It was discussed at that time. But 9 I think maybe we need to get that information 10 back out there so residents understand that 11 timeline for completion. 12 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will, sir. 13 MR. SCHUSTER: I do have a couple 14 properties and addresses that are pending, but 15 one in particular that I continue to get calls 16 about and I do have several e-mails is 925-927 17 Oxford. So this -- I'm aware that it's moved 18 from a two unit to a four unit. 19 And with that, it would need to have 20 to go in front of zoning particularly for the 21 parking and also something to consider is 22 refuse pickup. Now that it's a four unit, 23 they're going to need to get a private hauler. 24 Some e-mails were sent but I haven't had an 25 answer back yet.  60 1 Does that address have a private 2 hauler for their refuse and have they gone in 3 front of the zoning board in order to address 4 their parking situation and off-street parking? 5 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll ask both 6 questions. 7 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much. 8 The last one I have is last Thursday there was 9 a fire in Moosic. Mr. Lucas came to our 10 meeting last week to discuss coverage outside 11 of the city. Engine 2 was sent out to Moosic 12 for some time. 13 And if we could just reach out to 14 the administration to discuss what their 15 process was for those callouts, how do we cover 16 the stations and areas of the city that were 17 left uncovered during the time that Engine 2 18 was in Moosic. 19 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll take care of 20 it. 21 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. That's 22 all, Mr. Smurl. 23 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Mr. Schuster. 24 Dr. Rothchild, do you have any motions or 25 comments?  61 1 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes, I do. Thank 2 you. So first off, I wanted to request an 3 update on a study that I had asked for on South 4 Washington Avenue because of some the traffic 5 concerns there. So, Mr. Voldenberg, if you 6 could please reach out to SPD again. I don't 7 believe I had seen any responses on that. 8 MR. VOLDENBERG: We do have a 9 response. I'll share it with you. 10 DR. ROTHCHILD: Okay. Thank you. I 11 appreciate it. And then in addition to that, 12 I'm not sure if this is included in there. But 13 there was a question from another resident 14 about line painting on South Washington Avenue, 15 specifically at the intersection of Broadway 16 and South Washington where there are straight 17 lanes and then right turning lanes and 18 requesting if we could get the city to repaint 19 the right turn only lane and the straight lane 20 and then left turn in the other lane. 21 I -- especially with the Elm Street 22 bridge having been closed, you know, there is 23 more traffic down there and I think it's 24 confusing for motorists with the lack of line 25 painting now.  62 1 MR. VOLDENBERG: That's correct. 2 That will be handled by PennDOT. And we did 3 get an answer. 4 DR. ROTHCHILD: Okay. 5 MR. VOLDENBERG: No deadline but we 6 did get a slight timeframe. 7 DR. ROTHCHILD: Okay. Great. And 8 also along the lines of line painting, I had 9 asked last week about for St. Patrick's Day and 10 if DPW would be painting the green lines again 11 along parade route like they normally do. 12 And so DPW intends to use a water 13 soluble green paint for this year's parade. It 14 will last a fraction of the time and could be 15 removed by a pressure washer if needed. So 16 that satisfies my question. So hopefully that 17 won't stick around for too long following the 18 parade. 19 And on top of the Rubicon, there is 20 some things that I'll touch on once we get to 21 that piece of legislation. But I did have a 22 question last week regarding that. And the 23 data on the number of go backs from DPW since 24 it's been in use and I believe when they were 25 here for the caucus we were also told that they  63 1 had (inaudible) on that on the go backs that 2 DPW was having to do for trash pickups. 3 And the results I received since the 4 optimization was launched on December 9th, 5 we've seen 1,885 not outs logged by the drivers 6 within Routeware. There have been previously 7 estimated cost $63 per go back and the 8 presentation accounts on September 24th. 9 Attached you'll see a sample of how 10 the data is collected in the system and the 11 reference back to the image that the driver has 12 uploaded while there's a substantial increase 13 in the drivers reporting these not outs. 14 There will always be instances where 15 the DPW team will return to help the resident 16 upon request. Frequent not outs are now stored 17 in the system and can be continued to provide 18 accountability as to when the DPW team was 19 there servicing the address. 20 So I'm still going to -- want to ask 21 for some more clarity on the response because 22 I'm not sure if the not outs also qualify as go 23 backs if there -- and they did provide the -- 24 just like a sample of the data. And all it 25 says is not out along with, like, the date if  64 1 it's residential, the address and what section 2 of town. 3 So I would like to know if there is 4 separate tracking of go backs or if the not 5 outs are go backs if we return to the address 6 essentially that the trash was not put out or 7 if it's just on request from the residents or 8 the resident calls in and says I forgot to put 9 my trash out and you already came, could you 10 come back for it, so just want to clarify that 11 some more. 12 And then I was in the belief that 13 there was more of a tracking, you know, say 14 week to week from previous months as to how 15 often we were doing those go backs. And that's 16 what I was looking for. I do understand that 17 the more that it's used that they're going to 18 have better tracking of it. 19 So I don't if that would skew 20 numbers. But I'll have further conversation 21 with them. And I'll send you some more 22 specific questions, Mr. Voldenberg. 23 MR. VOLDENBERG: Thank you, Dr. 24 Rothchild. 25 DR. ROTHCHILD: Thank you. And  65 1 lastly, there's one other thing that I wanted 2 to bring up and I'll try to be brief about it. 3 But I believe it was brought up during citizen 4 participation. And it's something I think 5 right now there are a lot of changes that are 6 being made around the country that are 7 affecting a lot of people just over the past 8 month or so with the new administration and 9 some things that I'm especially fearful of and, 10 you know, the cuts to Medicaid and Medicare but 11 also rollbacks for transgender rights. 12 And that's something that LGBTQ 13 community is something I've been very 14 passionate about since I'm a member of that 15 community. And I just feel, you know, I need 16 to stand up for the people in my community. 17 And so there have been a lot of attacks from 18 the election cycle up until now that are really 19 specific towards transgender people. 20 And I just have a message for people 21 that are in that community especially trans 22 youth. And I just want them to know that you 23 don't need to listen to people who are 24 attacking you and using your life to justify 25 their hate and their biases.  66 1 And I think that you just need to 2 continue to be who you are because that's a 3 thing that's going to bother them most, so just 4 wanted to put that message out there. And 5 that's all I have. Thank you. 6 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Dr. 7 Rothchild. Mr. McAndrew, do you have any 8 motions or comments? 9 MR. MCANDREW: I have a couple. 10 Rubicon, I'll talk a lot more about it in 6th 11 order. Even hearing -- I was never for it from 12 the get-go. And now there's an addendum to the 13 contract where now there's sticking around for 14 five years, not with a yearly open renewal. 15 But the only way we could exit is if 16 there's a failure to perform. They failed 17 miserably to perform the past three years. So 18 how do we get a five-year contract under whose 19 discretion, a judge's? Don't like that piece, 20 but I'll talk more on the question. 21 So a resident came up to me and 22 there's an issue with a property, Mr. 23 Voldenberg. It's 1324 Lafayette. It's a huge 24 garage that someone -- it's a new owner 25 obviously. It's happened since the new owner  67 1 was from out of town, has a huge 80 foot garage 2 that he rents out to people that are operating 3 an illegal business in there. 4 The residents are, you know, they've 5 reached out to everybody in the city. It's in 6 some form of process. I'm not sure where it's 7 at. But, you know, they have been told by the 8 city, you know, since Labor Day that, you know, 9 they are working on it. He's been cited. He's 10 this. He's that. But can we just get an 11 update on the property because supposedly there 12 was a cease but it's happening again. 13 They're still working out of it, 14 compressors late at night, music, all kinds of 15 nonsense going on there. So if you could 16 please get us an update on that property. 17 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll get you an 18 answer tomorrow. 19 MR. MCANDREW: Thank you. I 20 inquired about a couple issues and received 21 some responses. So the first one was about the 22 reciprocal services with the fire department 23 and other municipalities. You know, initially 24 we were told it's an ongoing -- it's a long 25 time understanding or agreement. So I wanted  68 1 to see it in writing if that's the case. 2 So I had these additional inquiries 3 regarding reciprocal services. The answers I 4 got was he asked -- meaning myself -- regarding 5 the long term agreements with outside 6 municipalities if Council may have a copy of 7 any agreements or is it just a verbal 8 agreement. All right. 9 Second question, Mr. McAndrew asked 10 if the city may respond regarding last week's 11 query if the fire department is adequately 12 staffed to take on responsibilities outside of 13 the city. Fair question, you know, if we don't 14 have enough staff to go outside the city, they 15 should remain here and take care of our 16 residents. 17 We want to help. I get that. But 18 we have to do it right. Then further is a back 19 fill or personnel or call out employed during 20 the events. That means calling people in if we 21 have firefighters helping other municipalities 22 when you back fill or call them in, that's 23 overtime. Okay. 24 Overtime will be incurred. Has the 25 city considered compensation for any overtime  69 1 necessary for the shift or additional callouts, 2 meaning we should bill, you know, 3 municipalities we're helping to cover 4 overtime, fiscal responsibility. 5 Then does the Scranton Fire 6 Department have a written policy and procedure 7 on file related to reciprocal services and may 8 Council have a copy of the document. I got one 9 answer for all them extended questions from the 10 week before. 11 And the answer is a meeting would be 12 an appropriate venue for this discussion. So 13 let's have a meeting, Mr. Voldenberg. I would 14 like it in caucus form, not in executive 15 session because these are questions that 16 everybody's concerned about. So they're saying 17 a meeting is warranted, let's schedule one and 18 get the answers. 19 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll take care of 20 it. 21 MR. MCANDREW: Thank you. So I've 22 had multiple issues regarding the 300 block of 23 Meadow Avenue, you know, the hotel itself. 24 There seems to be something going on there. We 25 need another look at that. There was a traffic  70 1 study that I requested over maybe a year and a 2 half, two years ago. 3 And the issues were that gas station 4 that's across from Gerrity's when it was built 5 you weren't supposed to exit left. And there 6 was supposed to be arrows dictating that and 7 signage and it was part of the whole ordinance 8 and everything. 9 So that's still not clear if they 10 rectified that situation but like the no left 11 turn signal needed. But I've had additional 12 complaints with at least -- so they did go up 13 and do the crosswalks based upon the traffic 14 studies. So the traffic study was completed. 15 They did some line painting and 16 crosswalks. But the answer I got as to, you 17 know, these arrows and lanes because now, you 18 know, there is going to be Wawa up there and 19 Aldi's. It's only going to, you know, 20 contribute to some more congestion and 21 uncertainty with the road itself. 22 So the answer I got was the 300 23 block of Meadow Avenue was paved and striped as 24 part of the fall 2023, 2024 Scranton paving 25 project. That's great. As further updates are  71 1 made, the city will continue to monitor the 2 traffic and make changes as deemed necessary. 3 New arrows will be included on 4 Moosic Street as part of the Wawa plan 5 submitted to PennDOT. That's fine. That's 6 another project. We need the arrows on Meadow 7 right across from Gerrity's. 8 That was the initial -- that's what 9 the question is about arrows. We get there 10 will be more arrows when Wawa opens up and 11 there should be. So let's clarify that one, 12 please if you wouldn't mind sending that over. 13 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will, sir. 14 MR. MCANDREW: Because this issue 15 was long before Wawa. And that is all I have. 16 Thank you. 17 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Mr. McAndrew. 18 I have a report from PennDOT because all the 19 bridges when they are being replaced they are 20 completely run by PennDOT. The city really has 21 no say when they start them, when they finish 22 them or pretty much anything. 23 That's why you see flaggers down 24 there now instead of the police department 25 because it's a state project, not a city  72 1 project. But they did -- I knew they had 2 ordered some lighting, some new traffic lights. 3 But the following temporary improvements will 4 be made by PennDOT in effect through the 5 duration of the project. 6 So and I know they started because I 7 saw them pulling the wires today. They are 8 adding two signal heads to allow for a 9 dedicated left turn from the intersection of 10 South Washington Avenue and Hickory Street, one 11 to allow a dedicated left turn South 12 Washington to Hickory Street and one right turn 13 to allow continuous right turn from Hickory 14 Street to South Washington Avenue. 15 The upgrade -- upgrade the signal 16 controller to allow adjustments to be made 17 during the rush hour. So and they will also 18 add line painting to add safety and install 19 temporary pedestrian signals activated by push 20 button to enhance pedestrian safety. 21 Also, a video detection to the 22 traffic signals to enhance efficiency and 23 provide additional signage for new dedicated 24 turning lanes. So I believe all of these 25 corrections should finally ease some of that  73 1 traffic down there. 2 I know this was their study. This 3 is all PennDOT's doing. It's not the city. So 4 that's why they are doing this all. Why it 5 wasn't done before they started the bridge I 6 have no idea. But I don't know anybody that 7 could really tell PennDOT what to do. 8 Also, the gift cards, they were 9 donated by Gerrity's. And we had thanked them 10 when they donated them. That is all, Mr. 11 Voldenberg. 12 MR. VOLDENBERG: 5-B. FOR 13 INTRODUCTION - AN ORDINANCE - AUTHORIZING THE 14 MAYOR AND OTHER APPROPRIATE CITY OFFICIALS TO 15 EXECUTE AND ENTER INTO A CABLE FRANCHISE 16 AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF SCRANTON AND RCN 17 TELECOM SERVICES (LEHIGH), LLC D/B/A ASTOUND 18 BROADBAND. 19 MR. SMURL: At this time I'll 20 entertain a motion that Item 5-B be introduced 21 into its proper committee. 22 MR. KING: So moved. 23 DR. ROTHCHILD: Second. 24 MR. SMURL: On the question? All 25 those in favor of introduction signify by  74 1 saying aye. 2 MR. KING: Aye. 3 MR. SCHUSTER: Aye. 4 DR. ROTHCHILD: Aye. 5 MR. MCANDREW: Aye. 6 MR. SMURL: Aye. Opposed? The ayes 7 have it and so moved. 8 MR. VOLDENBERG: 5-C. FOR 9 INTRODUCTION - AN ORDINANCE - RATIFYING THE 10 EXECUTION OF TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION EASEMENT 11 AGREEMENTS FOR PARCELS LOCATED AT 1771 12 MCDONOUGH AVENUE AND 1804 BLOOM AVENUE, 13 SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA. 14 MR. SMURL: At this time I'll 15 entertain a motion that Item 5-C be introduced 16 into its proper committee. 17 MR. MCANDREW: So moved. 18 MR. KING: Second. 19 MR. SMURL: On the question? All 20 those in favor of introduction signify by 21 saying aye. 22 MR. KING: Aye. 23 MR. SCHUSTER: Aye. 24 DR. ROTHCHILD: Aye. 25 MR. MCANDREW: Aye.  75 1 MR. SMURL: Aye. Opposed? The ayes 2 have it and so moved. 3 MR. VOLDENBERG: 5-D. FOR 4 INTRODUCTION - A RESOLUTION - AUTHORIZING THE 5 MAYOR, THE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR AND OTHER 6 APPROPRIATE CITY OFFICIALS FOR THE CITY OF 7 SCRANTON TO EXECUTE AND ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT 8 WITH GREENMAN-PEDERSEN, INC., TO PROVIDE 9 ENGINEERING AND DESIGN SERVICES FOR THE CONNELL 10 PARK REHABILITATION PROJECT. 11 MR. SMURL: At this time I'll 12 entertain a motion that Item 5-D be introduced 13 into its proper committee. 14 MR. KING: So moved. 15 DR. ROTHCHILD: Second. 16 MR. SMURL: On the question? All 17 those in favor of introduction signify by 18 saying aye. 19 MR. KING: Aye. 20 MR. SCHUSTER: Aye. 21 DR. ROTHCHILD: Aye. 22 MR. MCANDREW: Aye. 23 MR. SMURL: Aye. Opposed? The ayes 24 have it and so moved. 25 MR. VOLDENBERG: 5-E. FOR  76 1 INTRODUCTION - A RESOLUTION - RESOLUTION FOR 2 PLAN REVISION FOR NEW LAND DEVELOPMENT LOCATED 3 IN THE 400 BLOCK OF DAVIS ST. 4 MR. SMURL: At this time I'll 5 entertain a motion that Item 5-E be introduced 6 into its proper committee. 7 MR. KING: So moved. 8 DR. ROTHCHILD: Second. 9 MR. SMURL: On the question? All 10 those in favor of introduction signify by 11 saying aye. 12 MR. KING: Aye. 13 MR. SCHUSTER: Aye. 14 DR. ROTHCHILD: Aye. 15 MR. MCANDREW: Aye. 16 MR. SMURL: Aye. Opposed? The ayes 17 have it and so moved. 18 MR. VOLDENBERG: SIXTH ORDER. 19 6-A. READING BY TITLE - FILE OF THE 20 COUNCIL NO. 59, 2025 - AN ORDINANCE - AMENDING 21 FILE OF THE COUNCIL NO. 92 OF 2021 "AUTHORIZING 22 THE MAYOR AND OTHER APPROPRIATE CITY OFFICIALS 23 TO EXECUTE AND ENTER INTO A CONTRACT BETWEEN 24 THE CITY OF SCRANTON AND RUBICON GLOBAL, LLC TO 25 PROVIDE SMART WASTE RECYCLING DATA COLLECTION  77 1 AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR THE 2 DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS' SOLID WASTE AND 3 RECYCLING FLEET" TO AMEND THE NAME TO READ 4 ROUTEWARE, INC., EXTEND THE TERM AN ADDITIONAL 5 60 MONTHS AND UPDATE THE PRICE SCHEDULE. 6 MR. SMURL: You've heard reading by 7 title of Item 6-A. What is your pleasure? 8 MR. KING: Mr. Chairman, I move that 9 Item 6-A pass reading by title. 10 DR. ROTHCHILD: Second. 11 MR. SMURL: On the question? 12 MR. KING: On the question, Mr. 13 Solicitor, since this is an ordinance, this 14 will move up to Seventh Order if passed 15 tonight, correct? 16 ATTY. GILBRIDE: That's correct. 17 MR. KING: So that gives us time to 18 get all questions answered between this week 19 and next week for a possible final passage. 20 ATTY. GILBRIDE: In theory, yes. 21 MR. KING: Okay. Let me ask you 22 this, in Seventh Order do we have the ability 23 to table it in Seventh Order if we don't -- if 24 we're unable to get the answers that we're -- 25 ATTY. GILBRIDE: Yes, you do. You  78 1 always retain the right to table. 2 MR. KING: Very good. Thank you. 3 MR. SCHUSTER: On the question, I'm 4 going to state I was against this from the 5 start. We were proposed something very similar 6 in the Scranton School District and we were 7 guaranteed the same type of savings with less 8 vehicles in the city as the school district has 9 more vehicles than the city does. 10 The savings were stated as upwards 11 of $300,000. At this point in time we're three 12 years into the contract with little to no 13 optimization, no financial savings have ever 14 been stated to Council or I have yet to hear of 15 those savings. 16 And something -- to my 17 understanding, something very similar to the 18 district just happened. This system was 19 implemented. Some of these routes are being 20 used and now it takes more trucks to get the 21 garbage off streets than it did prior to the 22 implementation of the system. 23 It appears that two more trucks are 24 needed during the week. Garbage lays in South 25 Scranton. On top of that, we were told that  79 1 there's a maintenance component. This thing 2 was going to look into the computer system of 3 the truck. It's going to tell us when possibly 4 oil changes are needed, when exhausts need to 5 be monitored, you know, maintenance things such 6 as this. 7 And at our last caucus we were told 8 that DEF regeneration system is having 9 problems due to this device being inserted into 10 the truck. I have lots of issues with this. 11 I'm going to be voting no for this tonight. 12 One question I wanted to know was, this week 13 there was a CDL safety training at DPW. 14 And some of the safety concerns of 15 the system with the new laws being passed in 16 Pennsylvania were discussed at that. I'm being 17 told that the department director is aware of 18 it. Can we get any kind of recommendations 19 that came out of that CDL safety training in 20 regards to the Rubicon system? 21 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will, sir. 22 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. That's 23 all. 24 MR. SMURL: Thank you, Mr. Schuster. 25 Dr. Rothchild, oh, I'm sorry. I know you said  80 1 you had questions. 2 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes, so on the 3 question, I also had my reservations about 4 Rubicon. I stated in the past my 5 disappointment with their performance and our 6 services. During our caucus that we had a few 7 weeks ago with the administration about 8 Rubicon, I had asked about what it would take 9 for us to change software if there was another 10 vendor. 11 And I believe I was provided the 12 answer that not that it would have been 13 impossible, but it would be a lot more costly 14 than the contract that we have in front of us 15 and that it would make it very difficult to be 16 able transfer those routes and have those 17 changes once again occurring just when drivers 18 are finally getting used to it now. 19 So, you know, I do understand the 20 barriers there. I think that there were good 21 questions and points brought up from the 22 citizens tonight and from our Council too. I 23 do want to make sure that we get some more of 24 those questions answered. 25 And I think we need to make sure  81 1 that they're -- that they're responded to. 2 Keeping in mind what Councilman King did say 3 about this being in Sixth Order and still 4 reserving the right to table it next week, I 5 will vote yes to move it forward tonight but 6 still really want an answer to some of those 7 questions that we have yet to receive. Thank 8 you. 9 MR. SMURL: Thank you. 10 MR. MCANDREW: Okay, on the 11 question, I don't have any more questions for 12 Rubicon. I've heard enough, seen enough. And 13 I also experienced the same situation on the 14 school board where they brought a company in 15 just like this. It's ground hog day. All 16 right, promised the world, delivered nothing. 17 And some of you have been through 18 this here the public comment, not just tonight, 19 not just last week, for years asking the 20 question what's up with Rubicon. When are they 21 going to roll it out? Why is the garbage 22 sitting? 23 They rolled it out three times. 24 Each time they did, the garbage sat. Two of 25 the times was the first week of July or last --  82 1 June, July. It stunk. It was horrible. We 2 got to fix it. We're collecting data. Right, 3 promised a million dollars. 4 I could spend all night on this. I 5 really don't want to because I'm just -- well, 6 I'm done with it. But your perspectives were 7 always appreciated by me. And especially 8 tonight we have Mr. Simrell here, another great 9 perspective as an IT person. 10 You even made points that I didn't 11 even think of. I mean, I did bring up, you 12 know, why is renewing the contract the only 13 option we have. I did look into getting our 14 own GEO trackers and using an app and it's 15 doable. 16 No one wants to hear it, but it's 17 doable and it's cheaper. It's like $5 a truck. 18 Let's be real. I mean, if Rubicon was the be 19 all, do all, everything, I'd be behind this. 20 If it saved us money, sure I would. But it 21 didn't do anything for us. 22 And now they want the contract -- 23 the last time we met was just it's going to be 24 one year with an open renewal. I'm familiar 25 with that process and then we hear now it's an  83 1 addendum -- there's an addendum to have a 2 five-year contract and the exorbitant increases 3 that is built in and stuff that we probably 4 don't see increases or extra costs. 5 And the only way to separate is for 6 us to somehow prove that their failure to 7 perform? And whose discretion? Obviously the 8 administration is never going to say they have 9 a failure to perform because they supported 10 them for three years. 11 We had problems. Some of the 12 administrators admitted there was problems. 13 The DPW staff says there's big problems. So 14 and at whose discretion can we separate, a 15 judge's that doesn't have a clue what's going 16 on here? 17 So again, I mean, I -- like I said, 18 I don't want to talk anymore on this. This has 19 been a horrible performance. And again, I 20 appreciate you, Mr. Simrell, coming in late in 21 the game, and that shows that you care. You're 22 a resident. You did a little homework and I 23 appreciate it very much. Okay, thank you. All 24 right. 25 So I'll definitely be voting no  84 1 again. And I don't want to see any more 2 questions or I don't have anymore. 3 MR. SMURL: Thank you. So I did 4 some research also because I wasn't here when 5 Rubicon was introduced. But I know each time 6 it was implemented there were a lot of problems 7 with the system. So to find out what the 8 problems were, I met with some of the DPW 9 drivers this Monday. 10 And they explained the problem that 11 they have massive problems with what's called a 12 turn by turn part of the program and that 13 because of that, some of the alleyways and 14 courts were never being picked up with the 15 garbage. 16 So they said if we went off of 17 course off of that truck where it was sending 18 you and you went into the courts to grab the 19 garbage that they knew was there, the truck 20 then would reset because you went off the 21 course. 22 So and it would continually reset 23 until they went back to the original spot where 24 they actually went off course to reset itself. 25 So they had that -- was a big concern. That,  85 1 you know, everybody else -- every time your GPS 2 shuts off and you are waiting for 3 it to reset, that's frustrating. 4 So to have the guys in the back 5 waiting and the driver waiting for that thing 6 to reset -- and I understand why they're 7 frustrated. They also had other concerns with 8 the system. One of the things they brought up 9 with the corrections, the drivers had been 10 making to the system that they went on -- they 11 actually went out on the weekend, drove their 12 course and had -- I don't know how they traced 13 it. 14 But they recorded all of that. 15 These drivers did that and went out to try to 16 get this system straightened out because they 17 didn't believe that it was being corrected by 18 Rubicon or whatever they sent in to Rubicon 19 wasn't really working. So they did spend time 20 doing all of that which we paid overtime for it 21 to have it done. 22 So they do have a lot of time 23 invested in it. And they also naturally they 24 used the program to do other DOT inspections. 25 So and finally talking with them, they said  86 1 they have a ton of time in there. They do have 2 into the software a lot of their corrections. 3 And it's still not 100 percent. 4 But naturally nothing is ever going 5 to be 100 percent. But they do have a lot of 6 time invested in correcting all of these 7 things. If they find a situation that they're 8 not -- doesn't work on their route, they take 9 it back and they did mention the gentleman's 10 name that change it is -- in the system for 11 them. 12 But it is really the discretion of 13 the drivers on the route if this -- if it's 14 really not working and they believe there's a 15 problem. So again, it doesn't make sense to me 16 to bring new software in or try something 17 different if they are -- these drivers have 18 that much time committed into correcting this. 19 Now, I don't know how correct it is 20 or how close it is to being done properly. But 21 I have to tell that you because that's what we 22 spoke about when I met the drivers. And I 23 don't want all of their work going to waste. 24 Now, whether we next pass this or -- 25 and start something new, I don't think starting  87 1 a new program is the answer. I believe 2 software, you just can't go and write yourself 3 and do programs yourself. And it's kind of a 4 difficult thing to do. 5 I spoke with our IT Department and 6 they simply can't do it. It's just -- we 7 don't have the staff to do all of that work. 8 So I was content with what the drivers had told 9 me. And I'm glad they met me. And I thank 10 them for meeting with me. 11 And I know some of the trucks 12 actually have scales in them. Now, I don't 13 know how many of them that record the weight 14 and stuff. I was told that one time they were 15 all going to have them. But that was a while 16 back. 17 The other thing we discussed was 18 Title 75, the act that Governor Shapiro had 19 signed. And that goes into effect on July -- 20 or, I'm sorry, June 5th. And what that has to 21 do with is distracted driving which the DPW 22 drivers were all being trained on, distracted 23 driving. 24 So during that program, someone had 25 brought up a handheld device. And that is one  88 1 of the main issues why this is going into law 2 is because of handheld device -- and it's 3 really a lot to do with handheld device and 4 using it while you're moving. 5 It does also say in that -- we went 6 over this with the DPW because, you know, that 7 was a big concern of theirs having this 8 equipment on the dash that can we actually use 9 this stuff and not get cited because it's a 10 portable device. 11 So our questions went in and were, 12 okay, if the DPW, if they mount these systems 13 that they are using on -- we mount them into 14 the vehicle just like every police vehicle in 15 Pennsylvania, just like all safety vehicles, 16 fire trucks, they all have this equipment 17 mounted in there. So nobody could use it now? 18 So it's not going to be any good after the 5th? 19 I don't believe that was the intent. 20 So we need more clarification on that 21 naturally. But I wanted to let you know what I 22 actually had spoke to these drivers about 23 because they deserve to be heard too. And 24 that's all have for that. 25 All right. All those in favor  89 1 signify by saying aye. 2 MR. KING: Aye. 3 DR. ROTHCHILD: Aye. 4 MR. SMURL: Aye. Opposed? 5 MR. MCANDREW: No. 6 MR. SCHUSTER: No. 7 MR. SMURL: The ayes have it and so 8 moved. 9 MR. VOLDENBERG: SEVENTH ORDER. 10 7-A. FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE 11 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS - FOR ADOPTION - FILE 12 OF THE COUNCIL NO. 58, 2025 - APPROVING AND 13 AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION BY EASEMENT 14 AGREEMENTS, DEED IN LIEU OF CONDEMNATION, OR 15 OTHERWISE OF THE NECESSARY RIGHTS, FRANCHISES, 16 LICENSES, EASEMENTS OR TITLES OF LAND REQUIRED 17 FOR PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY EASEMENTS IN ORDER 18 TO COMPLETE THE KEYSER VALLEY FLOOD PROTECTION 19 PROJECT ("THE PROJECT" (GROUP 1 OF EASEMENTS) 20 AND AUTHORIZING THE FILING OF A DECLARATION OF 21 TAKING PURSUANT TO SECTION 302 OF THE EMINENT 22 DOMAIN CODE, IF REQUIRED. 23 MR. SMURL: What is the 24 recommendation of the Chairperson for the 25 Committee on Public Works?  90 1 MR. SCHUSTER: As Chairperson for 2 the Committee on Public Works, I recommend 3 final passage of Item 7-A. 4 MR. KING: Second. 5 MR. SMURL: On the question? Roll 6 call, please. 7 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. King. 8 MR. KING: Yes. 9 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Schuster. 10 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes. 11 MS. HERBSTER: Dr. Rothchild. 12 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes. 13 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. McAndrew. 14 MR. MCANDREW: Yes. 15 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Smurl. 16 MR. SMURL: Yes. I hereby declare 17 Item 7-A legally and lawfully adopted. 18 MR. VOLDENBERG: 7-B. FOR 19 CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC 20 WORKS - FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION NO. 181, 21 2025 - WAIVING RESPONSIBLE CONTRACTOR ORDINANCE 22 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PROCUREMENT OF FROUDE 23 AVENUE STORMWATER IMPROVEMENTS. 24 MR. SMURL: What is the 25 recommendation of the Chairperson for the  91 1 Committee on Public Works? 2 MR. SCHUSTER: As Chairperson for 3 the Committee on Public Works, I recommend 4 final passage of Item 7-B. 5 MR. KING: Second. 6 MR. SMURL: On the question? Roll 7 call, please. 8 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. King. 9 MR. KING: Yes. 10 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Schuster. 11 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes. 12 MS. HERBSTER: Dr. Rothchild. 13 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes. 14 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. McAndrew. 15 MR. MCANDREW: Yes. 16 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Smurl. 17 MR. SMURL: Yes. I hereby declare 18 Item 7-C legally and lawfully adopted. 19 MR. VOLDENBERG: 7-C. FOR 20 CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY 21 DEVELOPMENT - FOR ADOPTION - 22 MR. KING: Excuse me, just 23 correction. It was 7-B. 24 MR. SMURL: 7-B. 25 MR. KING: For the record.  92 1 MR. VOLDENBERG: 7-C. FOR 2 CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY 3 DEVELOPMENT - FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION NO. 4 182, 2025 - RESOLUTION FOR PLAN REVISION FOR 5 NEW LAND DEVELOPMENT LOCATED IN THE 1000 BLOCK 6 OF WHEELER AVE. 7 MR. SMURL: What is the 8 recommendation of the Chairperson for the 9 Committee on Community Development? 10 DR. ROTHCHILD: As Chairperson for 11 the Committee on Community Development, I 12 recommend final passage of Item 7-C. 13 MR. KING: Second. 14 MR. SMURL: On the question? Roll 15 call, please. 16 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. King. 17 MR. KING: Yes. 18 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Schuster. 19 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes. 20 MS. HERBSTER: Dr. Rothchild. 21 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes. 22 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. McAndrew. 23 MR. MCANDREW: Yes. 24 MS. HERBSTER: Mr. Smurl. 25 MR. SMURL: Yes. I hereby declare  93 1 Item 7-C legally and lawfully adopted. 2 MR. VOLDENBERG: EIGHTH ORDER. 3 8-A. RESOLUTION NO. 183, 2025. 4 MR. SMURL: This resolution is a 5 liquor license transfer. And it will be tabled 6 until a public hearing can be held on Tuesday, 7 March 11th at 5:45 p.m. 8 If there's no further business, I'll 9 entertain a motion to adjourn. 10 MR. MCANDREW: Motion to adjourn. 11 MR. SMURL: Thank you. This meeting 12 is adjourned. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25  94 1 C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 I hereby certify that the proceedings and 4 evidence are contained fully and accurately in the 5 notes taken by me of the above-cause and that this copy 6 is a correct transcript of the same to the best of my 7 ability. 8 9 10 Maria McCool, RPR 11 Official Court Reporter 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 (The foregoing certificate of this transcript does not 22 apply to any reproduction of the same by any means 23 unless under the direct control and/or supervision of 24 the certifying reporter.) 25