291  City Council Meeting Minutes-N May 8, 2023  City Council Chambers, City Building, 16 West Scribner Avenue, DuBois, Pennsylvania on Monday, May 8,2 2023 @ 6p p.m.; Council convened at their regular City Council Meeting with Mayor Walshi int the Chair. Other Council Members present were: Diane Bernardo (Phone), James Aughenbaugh, Shane Dietz, and Shannon Gabriel. Also present were: Interim City Manager/City Engineer/Public Works Director, Chris Nasuti; Redevelopment Authority Director/Assistant Public Works Superintendent, Joe Mitchell!; Finance Officer, DeLean Shepherd; Code Enforcement/Zoning Officer, Zacl Lawhead; Corporal Randy) Young; Officer Lance Thompson; Police Chief, Blaine Clark and Administrative Secretary, Bobbie Shaffer. Ther meeting was calledt to order at 6p p.m. and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mayor The motion was made by Gabriel to terminate City Solicitor Toni Cherry's contract; no The motion was made by Gabriel and: seconded by Aughenbaugh that Council name Chris Nasutia as Rightt tol Know Officer for the City of DuBois. Councilwoman Bernardo hada question ont ther motion, she wantedi tol know the title that would be given Nasuti. Gabriel stated Rightt to Know Officer. Roll call vote was as follows: Bernardo, yea; Aughenbaugh,  Walsh. Personnel  second was made. The motion diedi for lack ofas second.  yea; Gabriel, yea; Dietz, yea; Walsh, yea. Motion passed5-0. Work Session Meeting Minutes: - April 20, 2023  Approval of Minutes  Ther motion was made! by Gabriel ands seconded by! Dietz that Council approve the Work Session Meeting Minutes of April 20, 2023, as presented. Roll call vote was as follows: Bernardo,! yea; Aughenbaugh, yea; Gabriel, yea; Dietz, yea; Walsh, yea. Motion passed5 5-0. Ther motion was madel by Dietz ands seconded by Aughenbaugh that Council approve the City Council Meeting Minutes of April 24, 2023, as presented. Roll call vote was as follows: Bernardo, yea; Aughenbaugh, yea; Gabriel, yea; Dietz, yea; Walsh, yea. Motion passed 5-0. Ther motion was made by Aughenbaugh and seconded by Gabriel that Council approve the Work Session Meeting Minutes of May 4,2 2023, as presented. Roll call vote was ast follows: Bernardo, abstain (due to absence); Aughenbaugh, yea; Gabriel, yea; Dietz, yea; Walsh, yea. Ther motion was made by Gabriel and seconded by Dietz that Council approve the Purchase Order Listing by Vendor Name dated May 4, 2023, ini the amount of $566,450.78 and the Check Register by Check ID dated May 4, 2023, int the amount of $17,265.36 as presented! by the Finance Officer. Roll cally vote was asi follows: Bernardo, abstain (due to absence); Aughenbaugh, yea; Gabriel, yea; Dietz, yea; Walsh, yea. Motion passed 4-0. Interim Manager Nasuti wanted to give an update ons some questions we have been  City Council Meeting Minutes - April 24, 2023  Work Session. Meeting Minutes May 4,.2 2023  Motion passed 4-0. Registry of Invoices  Financial Update  receiving since all oft this! has transpired.  The City of DuBois does have bonded personnel (bonds for specific individuals that handle our money) Bonded Personnel. are as follows: DeLean Shepherd, Joe Mitchell, Lisal LaBrascal Becker, Tom Nowak, and Becky Hoover. Nasuti also stated that we have at blanket fidelity bond that covers general crime coverage for all employees. While this was going on we were getting our quotes from our suppliers; we were actually getting policy removal quotes. They pulled their quote back; we assured  Wec dol have thati in place. Professional Liability Insurance    292  City Council Meeting Minutes- May 8, 2023(Cont'd.)  Financial Update (Cont'd.)  them there would! be no claim filed on this against them. They did write a policy for us; however, the deductible for the crime andf fidelity portion of that policy did increase from $500 to $2,500. Bonded personnel liability insurancel is in place. We havei identified all the accounts, including that Community Fund, and every account using the City's EIN number: General Fund, Checking, Savings and the old Community Fund arer now under our control. Alli monies are received into the Finance Office, whichi is controlled by DeLean, she writes the checks, checks are signed by two people either the Treasurer, ort the Deputy Treasurer, the second signaturei is the Controller or me. DeLeani is managing ther money, buts she cannot signa any of the checks. All the checks are signed byt twoi independent people. The oversighti is taken care of, all thes signature cards have! been changed on all the accounts ata all the Just tor make sure everyone knows; we are stilli inat financially good situation here. 1 know circumstances may: say otherwise, but relatively speaking we're in good shape. With our General Fund, Water Fund, Sewer Fund, Liquid Fuels, CDBG, PennVest, and Health Insurance we have a net operating cash of $1,204,769 as of May 1st. We still have our capital fund accounts for Embankment Paving, Heavy Equipment, Dump Trucks, Sweepers, Recycling Truck, K-9, and Water Projects so they are alls still accounted for they are all under that combined group Italked about earlier under DeLean with the only way to withdraw under two signatures. Iflcould, would liket tos slip right intol No. 10 - 2023 Budget. Wel had some unexpected expenditures come through here, byt the end of May we willl havea a new: 2023 budget. Which  Account Oversight  banks.  Capital Fund/ Accounts  wills show! how some oft the unexpected expenditures were covered.  Public Comments Jennifer. Jackson 421 N. Brady ST  I'm! kind of disappointedi that the Solicitor is not here. At previous meetings wel hadt the Solicitor speak on! behalf of United Way. I'm! kind of questioning that she has no jurisdiction over United Way, ands she! has stated thatt there ist no money missing from the United Way. She ordered almost $100,000 in casht tol be removed from the United Way office months ago. Thatr money showed up herej just two weeks ago ands saidi it belongs to the city. So first off, whyi is City cash down at the United Way office? And then, why isi it showing up here, and why does shel have control ofi it? You don'tr need to answer the question, know I'm only allowedt to comment. Buty youj just hadt the chance to vote tor remove Toni Cherry. Shei is irrational, shei is unprofessional, shei is unethical andl lask youa again to terminate her services andt that of Gleason Cherry & Cherry. Thati is a request for thet taxpayers of the City of DuBois. So,t therei is almost $100,0001 in cash that camei into this City that came out of the United' Way office. Ithink that needs some explaining. (Round of Applause)  Mayor Walsh stated we willl be answering her question. Ms. Jackson askedi ift that is tonight, because shei is notl here.  Councilwoman Gabriel said moving forward your questions will be answered. Interim City Manager Nasuti stated that her statement was accurate. Ita actually came last week, not two weeks ago. Idon't know where the money originated. It was brought here. Chief Clark and Itook itt to thel bank, we: securedi it, and opened ar new account; the moneyis secure there. The Attorney General knows we have ther money. So, that's wherei iti is.  Jackson asked, whoi it was that brought in here.    293  City Council Meeting Minutes- May8 8,2023(Contd.)  Public Comments (Cont'd.) Nasuti statedt that Tonit brought it. Darren. Glass - 303 Park Avenue  Reada as statement from! his phone - ther recording is garbled.  OnA April: 23'dC Councilwoman Gabriel put out a statement accusing County Commissioner Dave Glass, my father, of giving away grant money for the City of DuBois; and accused him of appointing his son, "me" to quote unquote a high wage Clearfield County government Mayor Walsh questioned Gabriel on whether that was her statement or Councilwoman Bernardo's statement. Gabriel stated that was Ms. Bernardo's statement. Mr. Glass stated that Gabriel put one out on her Facebook too andi has since takeni it down. Gabriel stated Iwas going to gett to her statement as well. Councilwoman Bernardo echoed this statement ac couple of days later. Thet truth of the matteri is that Commissioner Glass had no involvement with my hiring, he recused himself entirely from the hiring process on my application. Iwas contacted byt the Assistant Director, who Ihavel known for years, at Penn State abouta applying for thej job. Ithen waited six months to make sure no one else had applied, becausel C didn't want to compete with anyone fort thej job. After that lapplied taking a pay cuti int the process. lworked there for around six months andH haver received only positive feedback from all my supervisors. While thesel baseless accusations haver now been deleted from Gabriel's Facebook, it puta a strain on my professional careerf for: no reason. Idon't understand why two members of Council decided to attacka a third-year college student making $11 an! hour while serving the County as there are biggeri issues surrounding the Council. Since their statement, multiple people have reached out tor me bothi int the workplace andi in my career to ask about these comments questioning both mine andi myf father's integrity. First,1 felt guilty event though neither of us had done anything wrong butt thenl Irealized that Iwas! hired on my own. I'ma asking for an apology from! both Councilwoman Gabriel stated she apologies tol him, that is why sher removed the statement afterl Iknew thet facts. Iwas asked to sharei it on my social medial because Ms. Bernardo does not have social media. Isharedi it. Ifound out thet facts andiremovedit. So, publicly  job. Diane Bernardo...  thes statement originated from Diane.  Councilwomeni involvedi int the comment.  apologize toy you.  Mr. Glass thanked her; shes said, your welcome. Mr. Glass asked about Councilwoman Bernardo.  Mayor Walsh askedi if Diane had anything. Councilman Aughenbaugh asked if Diane heard Bernardo said nos she just hearda a lot of rumbling it's toot far away; she wouldr readi iti int the Iseet they are taiking about the. Joint Board Meeting on May 22"d, lam herei tol highly! highly recommend, after talking to several of the chairmen under different committees, that we do not pause Consolidation. There will be no mingling of money, so therei is no reason to pause. There is sor much wer needt to do, and wel have taken al long enough hiatus. Wel have a bigi joba ahead of us. We: are sorry that all this happened in the City but we're heret to consolidate. Makei itab better place to live.I lencourage youa as Council people when yous go tot the 22nd meeting please vote against pausing Consolidation. We needt to move forward.  that. minutes.  Richard' Whitaker - Chairman 91 Person Consolidation Committee    294  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8,2023(Contd.)  Public Comments (Cont'd.)  Kevin Salandra - Noti in Supervisor capacity but as at taxpayer for the City of DuBois Hes stated! he has several comments and questions. Hei is appalled that $270,000 was used ford criminal defense of someone that was accused of stealing fromi the entity that paid the bill. Now againi innocent until proven guilty but lam appalled that money would be used. Ihave alsol heardr rumors about EOGI money that Iread the other day was unaccounted for I'vel heardi ith has been usedf fors some projects outside the water fund. Asaf former auditor, actually oft the City of DuBois, the water fund, ap proprietary fund, typically monies that are spent ina a proprietary fund: need tol be spent on the proprietary fund. Ifthati is correct, frankly ith hurts me personally; Ipay the water bill, my tenants payt the water bill, and reimbursement: for the water bills andi it's goingt toi increase my taxes eventually or potentially increase myt taxes; buti itis still ther right thingt to do ift the water was sold the money should! have been given tot the rate payers not the taxpayers. Mr. Nasuti answered. al lot ofr my questions, Iwas goingt to aski ift there was insurance or bond; he did dot that al littie bit. lam confused as to why there wouldn'tbe a claim ift therei is money missing from any fundt that would be covered! by that insurance, SO can you answer Then therei is some conflictingi information,! Isubmitted a Right to Know request approximately three years ago anda askedi for some expense reports andt the Right to Know request was an expense report of Mr. Suplizio. The Right tol Know request was answered! by the Solicitor ands she said that Mr. Suplizio never turned in an expense report for: 2019 and therefore was never reimbursed for any expenses incurred by him on behalf of the Cityi in 2019. Andt then tot fully answer your question to avoid numerous Right tol Know requests we searched ther records of the City of DuBois fora ap period going! back an additional 15 years before 2019 andf foundr noi instances during the entire 16-year period that Mr. Suplizio ever requested reimbursement from the City for any expenses. Then she said, as your might conclude Mr. Suplizioi isa very generous man who cares deeply about the citizens of DuBois. Most of what he does for them has never beenk known publicly because he never asks to be reimbursed. Yet Ihave seen numerous articles int the media saying that he gets reimbursed Also, lasked tos see his Financial Disclosure Forms and have four years of Financial Disclosure's and ont the Financial Disclosure Forms your mustr report any source of income over $1,300 andf for bank accounts that could be interest, dividends and capital gains 6:16 p.m. Councilwoman Bernardo interrupted and stated she could hardly hear over the phone line and her family was joining her sO she would! be getting off the line. So, the Financial Disclosure Form shows no accounts, yet la also saw int ther media that $100,000 was confiscated. Ifindi it highly unlikely, eveni if there was $100,000 iti is possible but highly unlikely that there was no account producing over $1,300 ini income in one year. I think there ares some inconsistencies, and! don't expect yout to have answers to some of those questions now, buti it would be: nicei fori those tol bea addressedi ini the future. Interim Manager Nasutia askedi if Mr. Salandra could sendl him a letter sol he can get thei items Councilwoman Gabriel stated that as for the claim; in order for us to get insurance, (asked the Manager to correct heri if she was wrong) the only way we could geti insurance is ifv we guaranteed we would: not offer a claim. So, the choice was to either take thel loss andr not filet the claim andi have coverage moving forward ori filet the claim and then not! have coverage going forward. Sot thati is the reasont for not filing the claim.  that?  accordingt to his contract. That is conflicting information.  according tot thei instructions.  exactly.    295  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8, 2023(Cont'd.)  Public Comments (Cont'd.)  Ther reimbursement forms: so, thisi is an absolute breakdown inj policy and procedure that needs to! be corrected; goingf forward. So first of all, per Mr. Suplizio's contract,i it was automatically built intol his contract for reimbursement for cell phone and gas. So,youa are not going to seea a reimbursement form for that. But anything else you would. So, whatl was being told, anda al lot of these years proceededr me being on Council, butl know that sincel I'vel been on Council anytime, let's just use an example of going out to eat. Youg go out to eat, at my oid company,! wouid have to eat,l would buy my food, Iwould fill outa reimbursement: form, turn that in with my receipt tot the financial department, they would make suret that what purchased was allowable for reimbursement, matchi it with the receipt andt then cut me a check. That never occurred. There were no reimbursement forms ever turnedi int tor reimburse for anything. So, int the affidaviti it clearly states there was $3,000 allegedly taken andi no reimbursement form. There wasntareimbursement form Salandra said, my Right to Know request was not provided by the City. Based on what you are: saying, the City was paying at bill,i it was notj just ar reimbursement but was onad contract basis. So,l Idon'tk knowi ifr my Right to Know request was handled properly. Counciwoman Ireceived my Community Days letter and donation form int the mail on Friday, May Sthf from the DuBois Volunteer Fire Department. Since the donations aret tol be sentt toi the City Building on Scribner Avenue, lama assumingy you are the entitylshould: address my question to. My question is whoa are the members of the Community Days/ Parade Committee. That information wasi missing from the donation letter, requesting checks be sent towards the funding oft this event. We as citizens are craving accountability andt transparency, find this donation lettert tot fundt the Community Days event lacking some! basici information. Councilwoman Gabriel asked. Joe Mitchell to answer. Ms. Mechling.  because it was part of his contract. Again,  Gabriel said1 would agree with you. Deb Mechling- - 709 Monroe ST  Mechling: askedi if Mitchell was the Chairman. Mitchell confirmed hei ist the Chairman.  He stated as they said at the last meeting, we are providing the Council with the full financial statement and have! hired at third party toi track all donations, receipts, receive W-9s and send out 1099's at the end oft the year. We willl have everything after Community Days to Council. Other than myself ast the Chairman, the people wel have are a volunteer board from the fire department. Different members show up depending on availability. Chief Federiciis one of ther main people in Community Days now, as is Past Chief Farrell, and. Jessie Schindley; those are our main people att this point. The Community can rest assured we are doing everything that we possibly cant tor make sure they feel securei in donating to Community Mechling asked another question. Why wasi it decided to not put names ont thel lettert that was sent out? Michell stated we never have that Iremember. Mechlingr remembers that there! havel been. Michell said Ok. Mechling continued; lactually look because... Mitchell said we usedto doaf fulll letter, int the essence of trying to consolidate the expenses all we do isar mailer now. We're not hiding, just gave yout ther names, don't mind answering questions at all. Iguess it was an oversight or lack of room. Mechling said several people asked! her whot the members were becauses she goes to Council meetings. Ididreference that youa are chairing it, butt they shouldn'thave to come tol her to geti information. She feels ther names should have! been ont the letter. Mitchell said obviously there was al lot of discussion this year about if we were even going to do Community Days. So, the mailers went out! late, obviouslys yous saw those at the end of last week, some people didn'treceive them untilt this weekend. We: still have as strong but small group of volunteers that are trying  Days this year.    296  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8, 2023 (Cont'd.)  Public Comments (Cont'd.)  tol bust their butts to get this Community what they deserve andi that is a celebration of our towni int the way we always have and that is..iti is tought to do right now. There are going to bes some people that don't donate because of questions, but wel hope that everyone feels secure in knowing we: are giving information on our finances even more than wel havei int the Mechling thanked Mitchell for answering her question andi for everything he does for our He wants to talk about the money' Waste Management pays the city and why. The Solicitor recently stated that ther money could be used as the Council sees fit. Sounds likes slush fund to me. wonder what Waste Management receives fori its $60,000 ay year. The reason he questions this is because we are not permitted to use any other refuse servicei int the City of DuBois but Waste Management. Thereby eliminating any competition. St. Mary's has four different contractors forrefuse offered tot their residents. Competition! keeps prices down Another question! have is when thes slushi funds started could that have been when the rule fori thel landlords being responsible for the garbage bill and not their tenants came into Ac closing thought, "integrity is doingt the right thing when no one is watching". Seems as though there are a lot of people watching now, perhaps thei integrity of Councili isin Interim Manager Nasuti stated that they do have af franchise fee and an administrative fee whichi is $15,000 per quarter. Whichi is similar to! Ithink what they have outi in the Township; similar to what we have with other utilities. We have utilities thata are bid out just sO we don't have a whole bunch ofs suppliers in one town. Every quarter $15,000 is goingi into the General Fund, wel haver rectified that problem, Ithink. Tonil had eluded! before that it was goingi into the Community Fund, iti is nowt the General Fund. Mr. Mechling askedi if we would bej just keeping with the one entity, youa are not entertaining: at least two? We may entertain two when the contract is up but right now, we doj just have one. Someone asked when the contract would be up. Code Enforcement/Zoning Officer Lawhead: said: 20281 for the renewal ?Rupert - Sandy Township Resident (Mr. Rupert did not signi in and his name was not legible He statedh he has been attending meetings at both Sandy Township and the City of DuBois because of whati is going on with Consolidation. Tonight, with ther motion to dismiss Solicitor Cherry; in 515 Dits says shes should bei ine every meetingi ini its entirety. Whati is her absence for tonight? Interim Manager Nasutis stated we asked her not to attend tonight. Jennifer. Jackson asked, just tonight. Nasuti confirmed we asked her not to attend tonight. Iwanted tor make a couple of comments, they arej just personal. This Council has been great to deal withi inr my entire career herei int trying tol build developments in DuBois. I'm heartbroken by whati is going on,l I'm! heartbroken: at howi iti is tearing the community apart. His concern is this willi interrupt thef flow of cooperation! betweent the citya and township. He wants the consolidation to got through, iti is what the people voted for andt that's what should be done. Right now, Chris Nasuti, whol have worked withf for ar number of years,! havet found tol be very competent, as City Manager Ithink he can do ane excellent job.I Idon't liket to see things get tabled. Idon't know howl long this whole eventi is goingt tol last, but it  past justt to give everyone al level of comfort iny what we do.  community.  Charles Mechling- - 709 Monroe ST  ands service up. being? question.  of the 10-year contract. ont the recording.)  Mr. Rupert said OK. Dr.Jeffrey Rice    297  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8,2 2023(Cont'd.)  Public Comments (Cont'd.)  willb bei lastingr much longer than all of us want. We needl leadership, we need to go forward, we have al lot of problems to solve. We have opportunities int the city to deal with parking. There are two new restaurants coming tot the City of DuBois, parking willl be needed. You have a golden opportunity. Ihate to see the debate be all negative. We must go forward withy projects. Iti is best for the community. Nowi is the time for a lot oft this to be done. I hate to: see suchi negative comments take over and slowt the possible good. Ther money spent, ther money thatl Isee going out of taxpayers, sad wheni it could be done better. However, legally you must go by what thel law is and apparently the Solicitor was the one Things like thet forensic audit, wonder about the cost for that. Your auditors are well respected auditors int the community. Iseel how they could miss nothing, but the state dida forensic audit of everything. Wouldn't it be cheaper just to getad copy of what they did? Havei itr reviewed. ands seei if there are some errors ands save money. Every dollar saved could be put to another project. So, I'ms sure the: state before they did all thei indictments went through everything. There may be errors, but wouldn'ti it be bettert tol have an auditor sit downy witht them and reviewi ita and answer their questions. It would save al lot of grief anda lot ofr money. lam not ana auditor; am not: an attorney (glad I'mi not: ana attorney) but Iwant the City to go forwardi in cooperation with Sandy Township. Iti is important. don'twant this used as a division among people..(Dr. Rice's3 minutes were up.) Councilwoman Gabriel stated she appreciated Dr. Rice's comments very much but unfortunately: any audit that we havel had done noi ini my opinion is not good enough. There were accounts that were usingt the city tax ID number that Council..'mi not going to speak fora anyone else upl here... that Ididr not know about. Ididi not know that they were using the cityt taxl IDI number. Wel hadr no oversight of them, they did not go through our audit with Mr. Piccirillo. So, noi iti isr not good enough. it's not. Unfortunately, iti is goingt to take 9t to 12 months. Unfortunately, we were puti inap position where wer must do this and that ist the only thing to dot that'sright for the residents int this town, tol know where every dollar of their money went. Now,! don't think that Consolidation needs to pause, therei is still al lot of work that we can dot thati is not going to require spending ofr money right now. We still have untilz 2026, there are stilla al lot of decisions that can be made. Alot of conversations that we can! be! having. We can stillr move forward, butt that forensic audit is essential. Every  thata advises youd on whatr must be done.  single one of those accounts needt tol be lookeda at. Dr. Rice said, the money nevers showed upi in the city.  Gabriel saidt but there were checks made out to the City of DuBois that weren'ti in.. Nasutit triedt to clarify Dr. Rice's statement. He stated hel believes that is what Councilwoman Gabriel continued; the checks made out tot the City of DuBois were not deposited into the general fund account that Council had oversight of. They were deposited to accounts that Rice questioned whether af forensic audit would show that. Nasuti confirmed it woulds show that. He went ont to sayt that they specifically askedf for that when they called out for RFP's. When wes senti it out, we looked through and found any account that was under the City's control and1 the City's EIN andt the ones that were not under the General Fund those are ail going tol be audited. The General Fund, Water Fund, Sewer Fund, Old Community Fund (that shei is referring to), Community Days, Firel Department are all goingf for forensic analysis. I believe the audit that we do yearlyi is not going tol lookt fort thet fraud, this is going to gor much  Gabriel was tryingt tot tell! him. wel had no oversight of.  deeper.    298  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8, 2023(Cont'd.)  Public Comments (Cont'd.)  Let'st turn more positive, concerning parking, we have a meeting every two weeks with the Downtown Group on parking. They are doing surveys for us, we have plans fort the parking lot across thes street, signage we are working on with PennDOT. So, there are good things, andy youa are right, we should concentrate on some of the good things that are happening in town as well. Hopefully we willl haves something to bring to Council soon. Julie Stewart is Asked about the whitei things on every corner at stop lights. She askedi ifit was datat that was being collected! byt the city, by PennDOT? Isita a thing where it records andt the datais kept somewhere? Isi it justa af flashe every time youg go by. What are they for? Interim Manager Nasutit told her that they are: security cameras at the intersections as you see them on TV ori in ther movies. They are recording what goes through thei intersections. Everything that happens there, pedestrians, vehicles; if we are looking for a vehiclei it does record, we can actually type int ther make with the color, andi itv wills search fori those tol help us tracki individuals going through there. Helps identify when happened at a conflict at one of Chief Clark statedt that they have used them multiple times for accidents, pedestrian accidents, and pulling up: specific vehicles that are involved in crime or anything we can locatei it. They are great tools; they have been great foru us. They are av very good camera Kathleen wants tol know whor maintains the data, whol keeps thei information? The police  doing as goodj job. Kathleen Clement -  thei intersections.  system. station. The City. Nasuti statedt the City.  Kathleen! how longi isi itk kept? Weeks? Months? Days? Mitchell stated, it's kept 30 days. Kathleen said that everyone was asking.  Clark saidh he couldn't stress enough how much of aresource these are.  Kathleen askedi ifag grant put those cameras in.  Nasuti said he wasn't sure; Mitchell: statedi that some ofi it was and: some ofi it was builti into Nasuti stated that they went to Bradford to: see howt they use their system, theyl likedi it and Interim Manager Nasutij just wanted to remind Council of ther meeting and givet thema chance to add anyi items. We willl be sending it out to everyone, hopefully, by the end of this week. Again, withi the update if youv want a topic ont there, please sendr me ac description sol can addi itt tot the agenda. Gabriel statedi it willl be 6p p.m. herei int the City Building, then we Nasuti stated that we have had some calls about the crowded streets down on Locust Street near Forest Avenue and Q-Care, sO we been looking at zoningr maps, we actually did some car counts, checked our Ordinances, andi inspected the area ourselves. Based on what we found from ouri investigation,' Idon'tt think we: are going to be ablei to enact any permits  thel budget.  little by little we expanded it down here. Joint Board Meeting May 22, 2023  will meetf for our regular Council meetingi immediately after.  Locust Street Parking    299  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8,2023 (Cont'd.)  Locust Street Parking (Cont'd.)  downt there. Itis an office district; iti ist not ar residential district. He will reach out to Penn Highlands ands seei ift they can talk tot their employees, in several days of watching we only found five cars that were repeats that would probably be employees we'lltry and tidy that Chief Clarks said: some people havel been asking about the new Drug Vice Unit as well as K-9 that wel have enacted. Whenl interviewed ands started! here two things were my objective. One was community relations between the police andt the community and the second was ther narcotici issue. Part of putting that together is having the K-9 as well as the drug unit. Hei introduced Corporal Young who is heading up ther new Drug Vice Unit and has worked for many years witht the Attorney Generals office on the drugi issue. Clark stated that he useda a few citizens tol help us, Mr. Tryzna pointed: some things out to us; itish heipful when citizens geti involvedt tol help us put things together. Justl like the cameras, we follow things around everything works. Hel has at few numbers to go over then he'll turn it over to Corporal Young Thel K-9 we havel hadi forj just around 3) years, hei is a great dog, believe some of you have seent him work. Zayne himself has logged over 916 hours of training with the dog, he'shad over 117 K-9 deployments. That's not justi int the city, he's! been to. Johnstown witht the dog anda all around the surrounding area, the State Police call him before they call their own dog. Hei ist that good. Its sounds likel I'mb bragging about the dog, but Ireally am, he'sagood dog.I As far as the drug team that we put together, which basically consists of Corporal Young, whichs stillr runsh his regular shift and works with the K-9 and then two other guys. Sincei its inception last. July, these are single arrests, the DVU has made 49 arrests for drug paraphernalia, 181 for possession witht thei intent to deliver, 41 for drug possession, plus 20-30 more cases that are open. They arej just working through that to get to charges inl because when we get drugs, we must sendt them tot the Erie Crime Lab, they must be tested, and they havet to be! brought backt tor meet with our charges. Ift the Erie Crime Labi is backed up Itr may be ana almost threer months wait fort the charges and drugs to get back. Out of that, Corporal itl looks like wel have 28 with! Methamphetamine; 9 Heroin, Fentanyl, 8 Marijuana, 11 LSD, and some othert things that are coming out. Wel have a new drug thati is starting to make its way in) Xylazine. It'sab bad thing, iti is just evolving, thank goodness! have guys that stay ont this and are passionate: about it. They do an excellent job. Can't thank the citizens enough, Mr. Mr. Tryzna said thank yout they were tremendous up inr my neighborhood with everything thatlhad contacted them through emails and phone calls ande everything else they were Corporal Randy Young stated as far ast thef forty some arrests, it doesn't sound like al lot but as of right now thati isi individuals. So, forty some individuals havel been arrested. There is approximately, 30 open cases, meaning that could be 30 more arrests ina addition to the 40. What the Chiefi is sayingi is when we get drugs now, we must send them awayt to the crime lab. Lately, it's been six to seven months before we get the results back ont those drugs. So, we can'ti file charges unless we have results fromi those drugs. Unless we NIC1 test them. Now our guys are not going to NIC test Fentanyl, because Fentanyl is very very, iti is just bad fora al human being. It's awful. As we only started in. July, it took us a couple of months to gets started. Brand new to our department, we didn't know howt to do it, Chief andl Isat down with guys that are on the drugt team andi it took us two or three months tol learn what to do. What to put together; office, vehicles, stuff liket that. But iti is running very well, about one arrest a week. Irealize forty arrests doesn't soundi like al loth but when youl have four guys workingi it, two guys actually anda al K-9 andi myself overseeing itt that's alot. That isr not ther rest oft the department, ther rest of the department may have drug arrests also.  up.  Police Chief Report  tot talk ons some of his and! highlights.  tell theml look ath his handler, he's passionate abouti it.  Tryzna that was a very big deal.  outstanding.    300  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8,2023(Contd.)  Police Chief Report  Chief Clark felt the department had 8- - 101 this year. Clark said he's not supposedt tol be doing Alls seriousness, going! back to the community, Thave to sayt thanks to Council because they, althoughy your made me prove that this is needed andl lappreciate that, had to show my passion andv whyt to do that. To the Council, againi ifi it wasn't for youl having faithi in our department to allow us to movet forward: as well as the community! inas sense, they said we needt this. As many arrests as we are pushing out, we are miles ahead of other departments int this area wheni it comes tot this. Wel have succeeded in moving forward. It will be nice Councilman. Aughenbaugh stated how much he appreciates the Police Department and how Clark statedi iti is only getting better, he can now go down alleys, when they first started they were everywhere. Nowl go down an alley and some are stillt there but not everywhere. She referred to her phone, sO she didn't forget anything. She stated, tonight shej just wanted tot take ar moment to apologize to eacha and every one of you. You all deserve an apology. When) llook around this Cityt there have been wonderful accomplishments. Nobody can deny that. Therel have been wonderful accomplishments. However, the trying times that we aree experiencing now, they! have tol be acknowledged. They can't be passed by, can'ts sit quiet upl here. They! have tol be acknowledged. Therel has to be a changei inj policy, procedure, crassness, and protocol. There! has tol be 1,000 % transparency withy you regarding our spending, regarding decisions that we'rer making. Ithink what al lot of people havei forgotten is whetheri iti is your direct tax dollars tot this City or it'sag grant we receive that moneyi is your money. Your moneys goingi into those grants, whetherit be by state taxes, federalt taxes, your local taxes, itisy your money. I'mt tired of hearing we got a grant fori it. Weg got a grant fori it, it's your money. Everys single one ofy youi is working hard, Iwork hard, my husband works hard, my! kids work hard, it's your money. You deserve to know where that money goes. Therei is goingt to bei times that we agree to disagree on what we spendi money on, that'sj just the wayi iti is. But yous still deserve to know. You need to be able to come here andl leavet feelingl likey you werel heard. Imight not agree with your feelings, thati is OK, they are yourt feelings. You havea a right to feel those. Youl have ar right to express them, you have the right to get an answer back respectfully and Ihope thati is what yout felt youg gott tonight. We have to do better. It'sa simply answer, but therei is enough complex complicated stuff going on, 50 simple is OK. Wel havet to do better. You deserve for us to do better. I'mg going to leave ity with one ofr myt favorite quotes by Vince Lombardi "Perfection is not attainable buti ifv we chase perfection, we can have excellence". You haven't even beeng given "close to excellent" at this point. So,1 Ican't evens sayi it's been perfect. You Wel have been changing some things and working through them. We must work on them. We are working on them; think everyone can attest to that. So, we are working on things, Practices and procedures are changing. Ihave reached out to at few of you already, if anyone ever has any questions my door is always open. Iholdr no grudge against anyone,if something needs done, we will address it. Just want tor make sure that everyone knows you are welcome to call me, stopi ina and: see me, anything you want. (There was ar round of  that, buth hei finds himself doingi it.  when the other departments jump on board.  Councils Comments  well they dot theirj job; they are facing thep problem head on.  Councilwoman! Shannon, Gabriel  deserve better than what happenedI here tonight. So, I'ms sorry.  Councilman Jim Aughenbaugh  taking things seriously. We will continue to. Interim City Manager - Chris Nasuti  applause.)    301  City Council Meeting Minutes - May 8,2023 (Cont'd.)  Interim City/Manager- Chris Nasuti(Cont'd.)  To finish on al high note, about the things Dr. Rice was referring tol Ihavet two things to mention: Maple Avenue construction willl be done this week. Paving will move from there to Third Ward you have probably seent the street resurfacer already. Then we are moving up to First Ward to do af few alleys up there byt the old! Litts Club and the Pulaski. Line painting will be donel beginning Wednesday, it was going to start tonight but the rain has pushed us backu until Wednesday. The people up on Coke Hill, good news, restoration is starting this week, they are moving down tot thes sewerl liner next week. Ihada a meeting this morning, they are: still on schedule to finish the Sewer Plant by November 2024. As soon as schoolis finished, the second week of. June, we willl be redoing the traffic light there byt thel High School. One final notet the World Seriesi is here, Penn State - DuBois baseball won the championship fort the conference today, so they will be here again next week, 50 thel Home Run! Derbyi is Sunday and games are Monday through Thursday. Showers Field, Stern Field, Mayor Walshasked Nasuti to talk about the DuBois Classic. DuBois Baseball Classic was at Showers Field on Saturday, Ithink Central won that one 3-2ina close game; the girls played at7p.m. and DuBois won another close game. DuBois broke open and DuBois public won the softball game and Central won the baseball game. Another good event. There beingr noi further business tot transact; ther motion was made by Aughenbaughand secondedl by Gabriel that Council adjourn. Roll cally vote was as follows: Bernardo,yea; Aughenbaugh,y yea; Gabriel, yea; Dietz,) yea; Walsh, yea. Motion passed5-0.  and Softball at Heindl. It willl be: a good week.  Adjourn  ATTESTE  paWh  Cagapmn