BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 1 MALVERN BOROUGH 11 East First Avenue Malvern, PA 19355 PRESIDING: INVOCATION: December 3, 2024 7:30PM Council President Phillips Mayor Uzman PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TOTHE FLAG 1. ROLLCALL PRESENT Council President Phillips Council Vice President Bones Council Member Finkbiner Council Member Frederick (via Zoom) Council Member Niemiec Council Member Warner Mayor Uzman (via zoom) Borough Manager Whitaker 2. ANNOUNCEMENTS ABSENT: Council Member Riccetti Council President Phillips asked in accordance with Resolution No. 840 ifany member oft the audience Council President Phillips asked for anyone participating via Zoom, to please turn their camera on while was recording the meeting. Hugo Schmitt and the Borough recorded the meeting, speaking. Council President Phillips welcomed Nicole S. Whitaker, new Borough Manager. Council President Phillips announced the History Center is open to the public on Saturday, December 21 Council President Phillips announced thel Borough Office is closed on Wednesday, December 25, 2024 in 2024 from 2PM to 4PM. honor of Christmas. 3. APPROVALOF, AGENDA Council President Phillips announced an amendment for the Tuesday, December 3, 2024 agenda. Section 5.bi is amended to advertise both the preliminary operating budget, capital budget and the capital A motion was made by Council Vice President Bones, seconded by Council Member Niemiec, and carried by a vote of 5-0, to approve the agenda for the Tuesday, December 3, 2024 meeting as amended. plan. BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 2 4. MINUTES & REPORTS a. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Amotion was made to approve the minutes oft the regular meeting held on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 as Council Member Warner advised the meeting minutes need to be amended as there was an error on page three ofthe December 3, 2024: minutes. They should reflect that the presentation from Unite for Her should read "cancer survivor and founder," not "cancer survivor and found" for Ms. Weldon. Motion passes with a vote of 5-0, to approve the minutes for the Tuesday, December r3, 2024 meeting, as presented. amended. b. APPROVALOF REPORTS BOROUGH COUNCIL SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS Council Member Finkbiner reported that the Finance and Administration Sub-Committee has not met since the last Borough Council meeting. She noted that the next Finance and Administration Sub- Committee meeting is being rescheduled from December 12, 2024 to December 13, 2024 due toa The Public Safety Sub-Committee has not met since the last Borough Council meeting, Mr. Danny Fruchter asks why the Public Safety meeting was cancelled. Council President Phillips explained that the only thing on the agenda was to discuss the intersection ofKing and Bridge, Channing and King and the elimination of right turns and the topic oftruck traffic. Council President Phillips said that the Borough. Engineer has completed his report on the topic, a meeting will be held. Mr. Danny Fruchter remarked that the Public Safety Sub-Committee did not meet in July, August, September, November and December. He stated that in the October meeting, there was no discussion of conflict and it will be posted. the police, the fire or the fire codes official budget. Mr. Danny Fruchter said there has been no discussion of those line items in the Finance & Administration Sub-Committee because they come from these departments. He would like it to be reflected that he would like the Public Safety Sub-Committee to meet regularly. Council Vice President Bones delivered a report from the Public Works' meeting held on November 19th, 2024. 5. SPECIAL BUSINESS a. Malvern Public Library 2024-2024 Give-A-Thon Presentation given by Dr. Bichefsky Donations will fund the library'so operating expenditures and purchases to expand reading and BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 3 music collections, educational programs, etc. She noted that state and local funding accounts for 33% of the library's funding and donations are needed to cover the rest. Local employers and corporations have matching donations for charitable giving and Dr. Bichefsky inquired if Malvern Borough employees are offered matching donations. The Malvern Public Library funded 416 educational programs in 2023 which are free to the public. Donations can be made via their website. Dr. Bichefsky did not have the total goal amount available as the library director wasi not available to make the presentation. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. 2025 Preliminary Budget and Capital Plan Council Member Finkbiner presented the preliminary operating budget. She noted that shel had received questions and comments from the public, a list of which are provided at the end oft the minutes for the regular meeting held December 3, 2024. Council Member Finkbiner responded to these during Council Member Finkbiner clarified that the preliminary and final budget is a state. mandate in terms of how they get scheduled. She stated that the preliminary budget must be voted on during the regular meeting on December 3, 2024. The final budget willl be voted on during the final regular meeting on December 17, 2024. During the regular meeting on November 19, the vote was to advertise the budget for public review in advance oft the regular meeting on. December 3, 2024. Borough Council did not Council Member Finkbiner stated that Borough is meeting all schedule requirements within logistical feasibility. She mentioned that the budget process begins in August and the Finance and Administration Sub-Committee meetings arel held twice ai month during budget season and are open to Council Member Finkbiner reported that there were: no changes in the presentation since the the presentation. vote to adopt the budget on November 19, 2024 the public and reported. November 19, 2024 regular meeting. Council Member Warner mentioned that with the increase of publication to the Borough website and the open meetings, potential Right-to-Know requests would decrease with transparency. Solicitor Yaw said that he doesn't believe. it will significantly reduce the number of Right-to-Know Requests. He noted that six requests have been received since November 1, 2024. Council Member Warner inquired about the Right-to-Know process with regard to simple or more Solicitor Yaw remarked that the most recent Right-to-Know requests have been more straightforward but there can be complicated requests that go beyond the staff pulling the information and setting an Council Vice President Bones said that it'si important to educate people that there is an expense to complicated responses. appointment for the requestor to come in. BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 4 responding tol Right-to-Know requests and it is relative to the scope of thei request. Council Member Frederick responded that a list of] Right-to-Know requests were formerly reported and she hoped it would be reestablished. The practice was suspended during the time oft the Interim Council Member Finkbiner addressed the questions from the public regarding the number of Police officers that we currently have and how many officers work per shift. Do our Police officers work Manager. Borough events. Organizers typically pays for the Officers time. PUBLIC: FORUM- -2 2025 BUDGET 1. Mr. Fred Mannis commented on the $50K for the Paoli Battlefield improvements allocation. 2. Ms. Jennifer Chomko commented on the funding the fire company having ai treasurer and Right-to- Know requests have allowed the public to find out many things happening in the Borough. 3. Mr.J Joe Lorusso commented on the sewer budget and stated that 3 minutes is not enough time. He requested a short meeting with Amy F., which was declined. Council Responses: Council President stated that Council is very transparent, all meetings are open 10 the public, all Amy apologized; for not having time t0 meet individually with members of the communily to discuss the budget when there are monthly. Finance and Administration meetings that are open to the public. 4. Mr. John Buckley commented that Council members should have more respect for the taxpayers because they are the ones that put you in office. Let everyone talk for however long they want to 5. Ms. Ann Bestany commented that the treatment of Joe LaRusso is not fair. He has a background in Finance. They are. here tol help. The finance meetings are. not at at time when most people can attend 6. Ms. Enissa "Pebbles" Borine thanked Council Member Finkbiner for responding to her emailed 7. Mr. Danny Fruchter thanked Council member Finkbiner for addressing all his questions via email. He also commented on Right-to-know and the Public Safety has not been meeting regularly and 8. Dr. Helise Bichefsky commented that the Time Clock is good tol keep track of public comments. Appreciated Amy for the time that she put into the budget. Agrees with the comment on the fire 9. Mr. Joe Rubino commented that he was a Volunteer Fire Fighter, East Whiteland Fire Board. meeting agendas, documents, and zoom recordings are posted to the website. It's not 10%, its $10j fee increase per quarter" which translates to 840 per. year. talk: There needs tol be a change on the Board. unless you don'twork, the meetings need tol be in the evening. questions regarding the budget. they account for 45% oft the budget. company. Shared his experience with the Fire Company budgets. EMAILED ( OUESIONSCOMMIENIS FROMTHE PUBLIC REGARDING THE 2025 PRELIMINARY BUDGET Is EIT projected tol be 3% higher? Is that some type of actuarial formula? How do we determine motor vehicle code violations, etc? Actuarial formula? What isi incorporated into misc income? BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 5 What isi included in general expenses for Parks and Rec, financial admin, public works, etc? Ifwe come in under budget for any given year, where does that go? Also, does the: finance committee see receipts for everything spent? How do we. know it is spent on things needed Its shows the general fund loss of $913,189. Does that mean we overspent by that much? When budgeting for overtime and part-time why is there sO much? Could scheduling be shifted? How many officers are on duty at a time? What are their roles?Id do not want to take any money away from the police people, but might we not need part-time ifwe look at schedules? How many were actually needed on Saturday for Christmas on King and the tree. lighting versus how Iwant to express my appreciation for Amy's work on the budget. Normally, I would bring much ofthis to the Manager's attention, but as the budget is inj process, Ibelieve some of these things need to be brought to your attention now, and some are to keep in mind for the near future: Most Importantly, you did not publish or print for the MBC meeting onl Nov. 19th the line-by-line breakdown oft the budget. Amy's high-level review was clear and important. But without line-item detail the public is in the dark. As in the past, please publish your up-to-date line-by-line analysis on the website. (and when you do, please update the year-to-date figures from August to the more. recent November summary). Please do not give anyone in public the sense that you are holding back this vital information. Sewer: It's obvious that we need to raise rates. What you: may not be aware ofis that Aqua's acquisition of EW's is in Court on appeal. When. Aqua wins the right to buy EW's system, we are surely going to get hit with a large increase in the' pass-through' costs of oure effluent to Valley Forge (Bashore warned about this years ago). You need to consider this. Also, unfortunately Lorusso is correct, we are still using administrative pay percentages of salaries that are far greater than the administration oft the Sewer Fund Fire: I know we are waiting for the County review on consolidation. In the meantime, no one knew anything about the Fire Dept's budget ("maybe around $1.5m" according to Neil) or the percentage of service given to Malvern Borough (what sounded like 10%). Malvern's contribution is greater than 10% oft the budget for sure. Itmay or may not be warranted. The problem is you don't know, sO we (the public) don't know. You have no eyes and ears on that Board sO you can't really know. Ex: How: many utility vehicles is the Dept's budget paying for which are largely for the private use ofthel Dept. hierarchy? Why isn't EW paying for ALS services? EW won't because they don't charge Malvern FD for their fire backup and because they (like you) don't see any transparency in their budget. For our significant contribution you can insist on a Board member or two; start Police: Ido appreciate Zeyn's efforts to rein in the 2025 budget. But, as I've been warning for years, it's too little too late. Police expenses have been on a trajectory to blow a hole in the budget for years now. As that fact is staring youi in the face because of possible large tax increases (or service cutbacks-Amy mentioned trash payments), Zeyn has kept the budget increase over last year's budget to a minimum. Good start. But for him to insist that his baseline is the 2024 budget is terrible policy and contrary to good Why are engineering and hr expenses SO high? How can we cut down on right to know requests? versus would bei nice tol have bc there is "extra money in the budget?" Do we need more: file cabinets or new file cabinets ? many we had? warrants. with Joe Rubino or Wendy. BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 6 budgeting practice. Ifwe care about saving money in budgeting, wel have to ask just one question of every line item-What do we: need and how much will it cost? As Isaid last night, subtracting salary cost increases of3 1/4%, the remainder oft the budget (about $700K) will increase upwards of 10% over 2024's projected actual costs. The Chief's issue with staffing does not impact this question. Zeyn's computer expense explanation does. But that kind of analysis needs to be extended to every line ofhis budget. Unfortunately, the time for trimming and tinkering around the edges is] past (the Police budget has grown from. 25% in 2013 oftotal operating expenses to 381/2% for 2025). Essential questions need to be asked: Do we really need a part-time pick-up for Gina. Do we really need 6 officers when we: made 4 work when the Borough wasi no bigger than we are: now? Shouldn't wel be studying regionalization in anticipation oft the unpleasant Legal expense: Is saw the Pirma co-pay increase in projected 2024 final expense. Iwasn't sure why the budget is anticipating an equally large increase again for 2025. You should either cut the 2025 budget or explain why an increase is needed (the note "Pirma co-pay" ist too opaque). Also, with your publishing much more information on the website and the acquisition of an RTK Officer who probably knows exactly what shei is doing, there should be no more need for the inflated legal expenses associated with) RTKs. I understood Amy when she said "budget conservatively and spend conservatively" about the Police budget (although I disagree). But that's a very bad approach to Legal Expenses. Setting a lax upper limit simply gives license to an outside contractor (and those internally who want CYA) to meet it and exceed it by 'a little'. Let's get back to the more reasonable legal budgets oft the past. Setting tighter controls will mean that exceeding those numbers will have to come back to Management and then to you for justification and approval during the year rather than only at budget time. That process alone will cause everyone to think throughout the year "Is this a necessary expense?" choices being forced upon us in the near future? b. 2025 Preliminary Sewer Fund and Sewer Capital Reserve Budget Council Member Finkbiner presented 2025 Preliminary Sewer Fund and Sewer Capital Reserve Budget. She noted that the Sewer is restricted funds, and money cannot be used for any purposes other than Sewer related expenses. Council member Finkbiner discussed the varying rates based upon usage. Council members discussed different ways ofapplying the increase in fees based upon usage potentially doing away with flat rates for those that use less than 5000 gallons. It's been $9.00 since 2022. Recommendation is to investigate a bond issue to amortize the capital cost that we. know are coming, Wer need to discuss that in 2025. Raising the sewer: rates $10 per quarter per EDU. $55,000 in 2025 because the new: fee would not start until the 2nd quarter. In 2026, the revenue would be $74K for Council Member Warner shared her appreciation for Amy for the work that she did on the budget and how she broke down the sewer rates and how they are calculated/set. Discussed options for setting incentives for families to conserve water by lowering rates for less usage and eliminating the flat rate fee for those that use less than 5000 EDU, while charging more for those that have higher usages rates. Council Member Finkbiner stated that an analysis was completed in 2021, and their rates are in line with what they should be. The $2 per 1000 gallons would be the same as charging $10 per EDU. the full year. BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 7 BUDGET PUBLIC FORUM - 2025 PRELIMINARY SEWER FUND AND SEWER CAPITAL RESERVE 1. Mr. Danny Fruchter commented that F&A considers the sewer fees based upon usage and Council member" Finkbiner added that the interim Manager hadi recentlyforwarded. the information Council member Niemiec asked the. Borough Manager to contact the other municipalities of VFSA to ask what they are, going to do to1 raise the funds required for the implementation OfVFSA. Council member Fredrick agrees with Zoe W. and. Danny F. as asingle person living in my home, Iuse less water than a family of4 would: use. The projecis are infrastructure. Charge partial on under 5000 Council member Finkbiner reviewed the numbers for 2022 which was also a $2 increase. 3. Mr. Joe Lorusso commented about the disposal fee, administrative costs need to be tracked. 4. Ms. Ann Bestany commented on the Injector station on Monument Avenue and when the project 5. Ms. Cathy Raymond commented on the administrative employees assigned to the sewer fund and progressive fee: not a tax. Malvern only 4.87% oft the VFSA. from VESA to the Borough ofMalvern. and partial on the variable. 2. Mr. John Buckley Thanked. Amy for her hard work on the budget. will be completed. suggested that they budget can be amended later. 7. NEW BUSINESS A motion was made by Council Member Bones, seconded by Council Member Neimiec, and carried by avoteo of6-0 (Council Member Riccetti was away), to approve the 2025 Preliminary Operating Budget. An motion was made by Council Member Bones, seconded by Council Member. Neimiec, and carried bya a vote of 6-0 (Council Member Riccetti was away), to approve advertise the 2025 Preliminary Operating Budget and Capital Budget Program/Plan at the council meeting on December 17,2024. A motion wasi made by Council Member Niemiec, seconded by Council Member) Fredrick, and carried by a vote of 6-0 (Council Member Riccetti was away), to appoint Nicole Whitaker as Borough of Malvern Borough Council and Scott Yaw discussed the position of the Borough Secretary and it being a title that equates to "Keeper of the Records" in response to Mr. Buckley's statement of adding too. much work to A motion was made by Council Member Niemiec, seconded by Council Member Warner, and carried by a vote of 6-0 (Council Member Riccetti was away), to accept the resignation of Dan Kunze from the A1 motion was called by Council President Phillips, to appoint Brian Hamilton to the Zoning and SALDO Secretary. the Manager. Zoning and SALDO Task Force. Task Force. BOROUGH COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Page 8 Council Member Fredrick stated that a person from the Historical Commission should be on the Task Force due to the number of historical locations within the Borough of Malvern. There was discussion amongst the council and the solicitor on the importance of adding a new member. All members were not Motion to Table by Council member Niemiec the appointment of Brian Hamilton to the Zoning and aware that the position was vacant. SALDO Task Force. 8. PUBLIC FORUM Mr. Danny Fruchter commented that stated that he attends every Zoning Ad Hoc and the person appointed Mr. John Buckley commented that there needs to be age requirements and an attendance policy for people Ms. Jennifer Chomko commented about a warning notice that was sent to St. Patrick's Parish regarding a Ms. Cathy Raymond commented that there was: no Manager at the time that the complaint was made. needs tol be familiar with Zoning and Planning. appointed to various committees. complaint about dust coming from the playground onto neighboring properties, Meeting was adjourned at 9:55PM Respectfullys submitted, oRba Nicoles S. Whitaker, MS Borough Managet/Secretary