Harrisburg City Council - Legislative Session - 7/8/2025

Uh, the time is 6:04 p.m. Before I

officially call our legislative session

to order, I wanted to conduct our

legislative caucus. So, I will call the

meeting to order following our caucus.

Mr. Parker will lead the roll call. The

invocation this evening will be led by

Councilwoman Daniels is unable to join

us. Uh Councilman Jones, do you mind

offering the invocation this evening?

Thank you. Thank you for your your team

work.

I will lead the pledge of allegiance.

For communications this evening, we have

two presentations.

Uh the first presentation will be

delivered by our finance director Bob

Kennick and our budget manager Timothy

Brooks regarding a public engagement

survey. The second presentation will be

delivered by the Harrisburg School

District Superintendent Dr. Benjamin

Henry regarding Harrisburg School

District update. We will then move to

courtesy of the floor followed by the

approval of the minutes for the

legislative session that occurred on

June 24th, 2025

followed by the reports of committees. I

will deliver uh the first report on

behalf of the administration committee

on the work session of July 1st, 2025.

Um, I will attempt to deliver uh the

community and economic development

committee report on behalf of Chair

Daniels on the work session of July 1st,

2025. We do not have any ordinances for

first reading. We have one ordinance for

amendment. That's bill 5 of 2025.

Ordinances for final passage, bill five

of 2025.

We will then move to resolutions.

Resolution 33 of 2025, which we will

vote upon. Resolution 46 of 2025, which

we will vote upon, and resolution 48 of

2025, we will suspend the rules uh for

discussion and then we will vote upon.

Is there any old business for

discussion, council members?

Okay, seeing hearing none, any new

business? Yes, Madam President. Just

wanted to send out a reminder for July's

hotspot Saturdays.

Okay. Any other new business.

Okay. Then we will adjourn.

So the time is 6:05

p.m. I'd like to officially call our

legislative session to order.

Mr. Parker, could you please call the

role?

Miss Daniels

is absent.

Miss Davis

present.

Ms. Green

present.

Mr. Jones

here.

Ms. RWS

present.

Mr. Rodriguez

present.

Miss Hill

present.

Thank you for communications again this

evening. We have two presentations.

The first will be delivered by our

finance director, Mr. Bob Kennik, and

budget manager, Mr. Timothy Brooks,

regarding public engagement survey.

Oh goodness. I'm sorry. I completely

trying to move too fast. The invocation

will be led by Councilman Jones. Thank

you.

Thank you, President Hill.

Uh, I'll just like to say of, you know,

we're getting into another

another summer and let's just just keep

in our um hearts and our minds and some

of the people that are struggling around

the city of Harrisburg and pray that we

have a good summer and we don't have the

wildness that we used to seeing um in

the previous year. So, I just want to

make sure that everyone uh communicates

with each other out there in the

communities and make sure that we can

keep some of the violence down to a

minimum and keep other the people that

are struggling in the city of Harrisburg

in your hearts and minds. That's it.

Thank you very much, Councilman Jones. I

will lead the pledge of allegiance if

everybody could please rise.

To the flag of the United States of

America and to the stands, one nation

under God, indivisible, liberty and

justice for all.

Thank you. Now we will move to

communications. Our first presentation

uh regarding a public engagement survey.

Hi, my name is Bob Kick. I'm the finance

director.

Hello, I'm Timothy Brooks. I'm the

budget manager and

today we're coming to you with something

new for 2026.

The budget and finance department of the

city of Harrisburg is proud to present

the 2026 Harrisburg budget public

engagement survey series. A series of

surveys will be available to the public

to help the budget team gauge the

interest of the residents. This input

will help us prioritize the capital

requests we've received from each

department in which we will use the

survey results to support the items

chosen in the budget decision-making

process. Surveys will be running

throughout the month of July. And this

is their opportunity for all of our

constituents, our stakeholders to have

their say because we do value their

input as we plan for the 2026 fiscal

year.

Please scan a QR code or click the link

to answer our short five question survey

and do your part in helping the city

plan for 2026.

Thank you. And uh where is the link?

Where can everyone find the link or the

survey or the QR code? We have

advertised at this point through social

media uh to our our Facebook sites, our

LinkedIn um all of our show social media

platforms that the city uh participates

in. We have it also on the website uh

where it it can you can click on the

actual the the image and it should go

drive you straight to the laser fee

survey. Um we also have it we're

advertising here. Excuse me.

Yeah. on the website. Yes, the banner is

on the website.

Yes. I'm sorry. I was going to get to it

and I'll say Mr. Kenik's final request

is uh to not forget that we actually had

it at the Fourth of July food truck

festival. We had A-frame um A-frame

poster boards put up uh at different

places throughout the food truck

festival so that citizens can come up

and citizens and stakeholders. I don't

want it to just be limited to simmit

citizens. Uh I think stakeholders have

just as much input and and should have

much just as much value to you know

offer to our budget process. Um but so

that citizens and stakeholders can also

ultimately uh use their phones, click on

the the QR codes and complete the

survey. As to this point, we've had well

over a hundred surveys. Uh within the

first three days, I think social media

has been our our um number one driver.

We we haven't gotten as much as since we

got the uh social media um push, but uh

we plan to do another survey coming up

as well and um we're hoping to get this

just as much input.

Is there a deadline? Are there hard

copies?

Well, there are you ask for hard copies

of the actual survey.

If somebody doesn't have access to um

the internet or social media, if they're

not on social media, maybe they didn't

see it. Is there a hard copy where

somebody could complete it and return it

to your office?

We will be more than willing to

accommodate for anyone that doesn't that

doesn't have computer access and uh

needs a hard copy to fill out the

survey. The deadline ultimately is by

the end of the month. Uh we're we're

we're running these uh this series of

surveys through the end of this month.

So, this first one is going to run

through and then we're going to have

another one that comes up that um

ultimately has a few more items um that

we'll need help to prioritize.

Okay. I'll defer to our budget and

finance committee chair, Vice President

Green, who may have questions or

comments regarding the survey.

Thank you, President Hill. Um I don't

have any questions for you. Um, I know

it's something we talked about a couple

of years ago when the administration

first came in, uh, was really how do we

get the public engaged into the

budgeting process to make for sure that

their priorities are really influencing

the the budget since it is the, you

know, the budget of the residents. So,

um, I thank you for pushing forward with

it, uh, even with everything else going

on, making sure that it didn't get

forgot about and moving forward. So,

thank you for that. I don't have any

questions.

Thank you, council members. Are there

any other questions? Councilman Jones.

Yes. Thank you, President Hill. Yeah.

Um, is 20 channel 20 being utilized with

this? Is there advertising on channel

20?

This is the first ad advertisement on

channel 20 as we're airing live when we

speak here now for channel 20 as well as

our YouTube channel. So, I'm utilizing

this this opportunity right now to

advertise on both YouTube and channel

20.

And there was never a a thought of

having like I don't know like a public

gathering. So, I mean, I think that will

be one of the better ways for them to

access the hard copy versus coming

downtown to get it. Um, just something I

thought that would this is something

that's brand new for this first year.

So, we'll be, you know, bringing on

different reiterations and and and

suggestions. Um, I'm open to all

suggestions to how we can, you know,

better our public engagement within our

budget process.

All right. No further questions. Thank

you,

Councilman Rodriguez. Any questions?

Uh, yes. Thank you, Madam President. Um,

I I first want to give you gentlemen

kudos for the attempt and with the QR

code and getting the, you know,

residents more involved in the budget

process. It's something we've been

asking for for quite some time. So,

thank you for that first and foremost,

but I just think we have to be a bit

more aggressive in getting that QR code

out. Um, 50,000 residents with a 100

surveys returned so far. It's just, you

know, a small, you know, rock on the

mountain or boulder that we're trying to

uh succeed over. Um, so maybe maybe

connecting with some of the landlords,

probably even something similar to what

the fire does when they're hiring, get

those QR codes around the city, maybe

through ways of uh yard signs or, you

know, some kind of campaign or perhaps

even working with the superintendent,

seeing how we can get that to families a

bit more aggressively because what I

would hate to see was saying, well, we

put the code out there and that's good

enough and we got 150 returns in on a

budget that's pretty much determines the

everyday life of our residents, right?

So, um, and if there's anything I can do

to assist in getting the word out, um, I

just checked on LinkedIn. It hasn't been

shared for a week. So, you know, that's

a lot of time in between time. On the

Facebook page is out of the spectrum of

a week. So, you know, it's a way where

we could actually automate that where

it's posting every hour on the hour.

Just kind of reminding residents, hey,

it's not too late. You two can take part

in the budget, you know, and what

happens in 2026. Um, I just think we

have to be a bit more aggressive, but I

highly appreciate the attempt and and

where we're going with this. Thank you

guys.

That is definitely the the route that

we're going. This is just the first

attempt and we're trying to, you know,

lay the lay the path. So,

I just want to try to avoid, you know,

from not errors we made in the in the

past, but we've always had this kind of

energy like, well, we put the code out

for people. We can't make them, right?

But we could also put it in their face a

bit more, right? Hey, look, this is what

we got going on. You can buy into it.

Don't wait till it's too late, right? I

don't want to hear nothing in December,

right? Whatever we have to do. But um

just try to get more creative even if

it's getting a magnet for the side of

our uh you know CSA video um you know

workers in their cars magnet at the side

of it as they're patrolling in their

neighborhoods. Scan this code scan this

code take part you know answer these

five questions and that that's very

minimal as far as cost but just thinking

proactively thinking forward.

Thank you so much. You basically

answered the fifth question in the uh in

the survey which is how can we f how can

we reach out in future uh budget public

engagements which it does include city v

vehicles. It does include um it's an

opportunity also there for people to put

in suggestions um like character limit

suggestions.

I took the survey already. Look at that.

There you go.

Don't forget complete it.

Thank you. Um but it there we are

looking for other ways to our melings

through our trash bills and things.

Council Jones had a great idea. Did you

connect with the um communications

director Miss Moyer about just like a

press release generally about it getting

the word out?

We did communicate with the with the

communications director. We didn't do

the press release. We did do the social

media. We figured that would be the most

effective fastest uh route right at the

time.

I'd love to share as much as I can as

well. I just know we have a higher

vantage point as far as the city in

totality and when we work in unison. So,

you know, coming together with our

communications, we could really get it

out there at home.

So, thank you, gentlemen, for what

you're doing.

Thank you.

No further questions, Madam President.

Thank you, Councilwoman Ros. Any

questions?

Thank you. Good evening to you both. Um,

most of my ideas were said or what we're

all kind of thinking, especially with

the trash bills, and that can be a way

to get a hard copy out. um if we don't

want to send an envelope in for them to

mail it back, we can always say bring it

back to um um you know, city hall uh or

however they can bring it get it to us

or mail it and um with our have our

address on there. So, um that was just

one of my thoughts because a lot of

people don't get on the internet, but I

love this idea. Um my first term that I

ran, well, I'm still in my first term,

but the first time I ran for city

council, there was right after I ran,

there was a people's budget and they

were having hearings for that. um a few

community members put that together. So,

you know, thank you for this because

like um President Green said, it is um

excuse me, Vice President Green said, it

is um you know, it's the resident's

budget. It's a people's budget. So, um

this is their input is what should drive

where we put the money and how we spend

our money because it affects them. So,

thank you for this. I look forward um to

seeing what suggestions come out and how

we can reach more people. I think a

press conference would be great um

because this is so important. So I hope

maybe um the mayor you all could talk

with her to see if we can have one

before the the due date um so more um

residents who do watch the news all the

time are like oh okay this is happening

because I guarantee you a lot of them do

not know at this moment. So, I think

that would be a great idea. And then the

only other suggestion I had is any ideas

we take from the surveys and we use it

to create the budget, we should showcase

that, hey, this is the reason why we did

this in the budget. So, when the budget

season does come up and you are

presenting it, I really think that even

if they want to be anonymous, you don't

want to use their name, still say a

resident suggested this and this is how

we decided to use the money in the

budget. I think that would really say,

okay, they are listening. Then you're

going to get more people to do the

surveys when the next run comes. So that

was it from me. Thank you so much. I

look forward to this and I will be

filling it out.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilwoman Davis. Any

questions?

Yes. Thank you, President Hill. Good

evening, gentlemen.

Have you thought about a a bilingual or

I say a Hispanic version as well? Okay.

Yes, this Hispanic version is currently

in the works.

Okay, great. That's important. And I

just wanted to reiterate because we have

about roughly 12% of senior citizens in

our city that may not be able to um read

the QR codes or that are computer

literate. So a hard copy definitely uh I

think would be a good idea to go out to

them. So thank you for your work.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Ross,

one last question. Can the youth fill

this out?

Yes. They're citizens. Ultimately, their

their their input is just as valuable.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you guys for all your suggestions.

I appreciate it.

You're welcome. They need to put them in

writing though. Complete the survey, go

to question five, and add all of your

input.

Thank you. Our next presentation will be

delivered by Dr. Benjamin Henry,

Harrisburg School District

Superintendent, regarding a Harrisburg

School District update.

Good evening. How everyone doing today?

That's kind of weird being on this side

of the table.

I have a clicker who's clicking for me

so I know. All right, you go ahead to

the next slide. So before we start, one

of the thing I wanted to share is just

thank the everyone for allowing me to

come tonight just to share update about

where we are going as a school district.

Um I arrived in Harrisboro on November

1st. That was my first official day on

the job. And since I've been here, I've

been hard at work. And part of this uh

update or part of the presentation I'm

showing tonight is one of the things I

did at the conclusion of my 100th day

and I've been out and about trying to

present this information to everyone who

want to listen. Um I believe that it

going to take the whole community to

come together for us to move our school

district forward. So to be able to

partner with you all and to partner

everyone in our community and I'm

excited about the work ahead of us and

what we um have planned. So part of our

plan is called a road mapap to success

because one of the thing that we are

really want to put in place is system so

we can move our school district forward.

So the QR code you can also scan I kind

of shorten it down because I know they

have uh told me I have about 10 minutes

to present. Um, so you can see the full

presentation if you click on the QR

code. So you go ahead and go to the next

one. So part of my uh entry to

Harrisburg, I had to what I call listen

and learn. So I did a lot of learning

and listening. Go ahead and go to the

next slide.

And so you go one more slide.

Perfect. So, one of the thing that I I

was able to do was um I set up a lot of

opportunity to meet many people within

the community. Once I arrived here, the

first thing I did with my board was I

asked them to submit three names of

people in the community that's doing the

work. And I set up a lot of one-on- ones

with a lot of different nonprofit and a

lot of people in the business community

so I could get a better feel for

Harrisburg. And so, every time I did it,

I kind of had the same questions I

asked. tell me what's going well with

Harrisburg. Often I always ask why do

you love Harrisburg? And one of the

thing that came out over and over is the

sense of community. Um that's something

that's so amazing about Harrisburg that

no matter where you at, it's a strong

sense of community. And that's one of

the thing that I'm so excited about this

work moving forward because the

community really supporting our school

district. We just have to provide more

opportunity for them to engage in this

work. Um so you can see some of the

feedback that we had I'm gonna go ahead

and move to the next slide.

So one of the big thing that kind of

came to the top and um this is something

that I'm working on is building trust.

Um as a school district that's one of

the thing we have to reestablish trust

in the community and being very

transparent in a relationship clear

communication and align our expectation.

That was one of the three big pieces

that came out of a lot of the meeting, a

lot of the opportunity where I had a

chance to just speak to everyone in the

community that the relationship and

better trust is something that I have to

establish. So, being able to come here

tonight, that's one of the first uh

steps toward reestablishing a lot of our

relationship in the community. Next,

educational gap. As you all understand,

I've shared this information with a lot

of people. As a school district, we are

underperforming. I'mma own it and I'mma

own that we are have to close our

educational gap. You know, we received

great news early this summer that we

came out of state receiverhip. But one

of the thing that uh PD talked about is

that we are underperforming with our

academics. So we are putting a lot of

emphasis on closing the gap. Um I shared

with many one of the main reason I chose

Harrisburg is because when I saw that

data this district spoke to me and I

said my job was strictly I wanted to

come here because the kids deserve the

best and I wanted to come and provide

every opportunity for them to get the

best education possible. So closing the

education the gap is one of my main

focus. Go ahead go to the next slide.

High quality service it's about also

quality customer service. So develop a

strong relationship, operation

understanding and accessing our data. So

those again are some of the benefits or

some of the issues that I've been able

to hear from a lot of people in the

community that again we do not have

quality service. So we need to look at

how we are working with our community to

make sure that again we are partner in

this work. Next slide.

Part of my 100 day I had to analyze our

critical barrier which is what we call

our ABC which is academic behavior. Um

and then again listening to tour and

align our assessment. Again once we

looked at a lot of our um holes and

barriers in our school district, it's a

lot of uh situation that we going to

have to really start putting better

systems in place so we could get better

outcome for our students. And so we are

working very carefully and you'll see on

the next slide on how we going to move

our school district forward with

creating what we call our pillars of

success. Go ahead.

Keep going.

One more.

So part of our pillars is around these

vision. How do we make sure our student

have access to be college success,

career ready, life preparation? Some of

our student want to access college. Some

of our student want to go in the

workforce. But better yet, every kid

that work through our walk through our

school should be prepared for life and

that's what school should be preparing

for. So that's our vision. So everything

we're doing is built around those three

key component that we are making sure

any kid that in in of our schools when

they graduate that if they want to

access college we provide them the best

education to access college. If they

want to go into a career path we provide

them opportunity in high school to get

career ready but most important how do

we make sure they are prepared for life.

So we developed five pillars of success

and at the bottom you see academic

success, academic education excellence,

continuing improvement, student voice,

staff voice, accountability, datadriven

excellent and partnership. Those are our

pillars and as you see the most

important for us is that we have to

start looking at academic success.

So when we talk about academic success

is for all. So we want to expand

opportunity for dual enrollment,

military pathways, CTE program, work

development and again advanced

coursework. Those are some of the

pillars that we want to start building

on as we move this work forward.

When we talk about continuing

improvement, one of the thing that we

want to understand that we are in a

teacher shortage. We do not have

abundance of people knocking on the door

to teach. So we have to grow our own and

that go through professional

development. So we have to start looking

on how are we going to work to develop

our own teacher, our own principal, our

own um u administrator so we could grow

our own because again we are every

school district across America is in a

teacher shortage and so in order for us

to equip oursel we have to start working

on continue improvement.

Another part of this is we talk about

that global citizen and those are

intervention as we realize uh postcoid

we have a lot of gaps in the education

of a men of our student and so one of

the thing that we talk about is we have

to put better intervention in place to

close the gap in many of our student

learning and so we do that through many

aspect mentoring MTSS which is a

multi-ter approach to meet kids where

they at to close gap PBIS is a behavior

innovation and intervention program and

and our social emotional learning. Those

are pillars that we going to work on

every day to make sure we are meeting

the needs of our students.

Uh accountability, it's about for me

accountability is all uh about the work.

How do we align all the thing we doing

to make sure we hold people accountable

to close the gap? One of the thing that

we talked about this year and we have a

thing our students are waiting. Our kids

are waiting and I've said that over and

over again because our kids are waiting

on every adult in the building to do

what we supposed to do which is provide

them the best education. And so we are

going to hold a lot of our um educator

accountable to make sure they align to

work to close that gap improve student

outcomes

partnership for me this is one of the

biggest piece. One of the thing again

building that trust is there's no way a

school district could do this work by

themsel. It's going to take the whole

community to come together to partner to

do this work. And so my door is open to

bring in people to talk to so we can

make sure we have an alignment with the

community needs and with the education

need of our student so we can make sure

we're providing the best opportunity for

every student in our school district.

Go ahead. Next one.

So one of the thing that we designed was

a three and a fiveyear plan. And so one

of the thing that you're going to see

very soon is a lot of this information

going to be posted on our website

because again we want to be transparent

so our our communities can see where we

at with closing the gap with some with

our students. So one of the first thing

we want to do is that we want to make

sure we are putting better frameworks

for math and literacy. Um we put in a

pilot program this past uh spring once I

got here um to really address closing

the reading gap. Um when you look at

some of our reading scores, it's really

low. It's really low. Um and again,

that's one of the main reason when I um

received that job announcement, when I

saw the reading scores, it spoke to me.

Um I know my background and one of the

things that I want to do is make sure

that we are putting framework that every

kid is successful. So we ran a pilot

program at Ben Franklin and Roland um

around corrected reading. corrected

reading is a reading intervention

program and those uh initial data that

received from those two school show that

is closing a gap. So we are looking to

start implementing that program at some

of our other schools in the fall and in

the spring. Uh our goal is by the end of

the 25 26 school years that we will have

all of our elementary school on board

with corrective reading and then our

following year we'll bring all our high

schools on board with corrected reading.

Uh, one of the reason why we're not

pushing all school at one time, we want

to make sure we can support it. One of

the things that I've spoke to my team

about, we will not rush this. We will

take our time and do it right. And so,

we will be on boarding four of our

elementary school in the fall with

correct reading and then the rest of our

elementary school and middle school in

the spring. Um but again seeing the data

from uh Ben Franklin and Roland we are

seeing that the kids that participate in

correct ring show significant gains at

the end of year with the end of year

assessment

uh student support again we have to

address our multi-tervention

um reduce some of our behavior that we

see in some of our school but also

intervene with social emotional

learning. Next slide.

uh human resource office. One of the

thing that I have um um kind of um asked

them to do is we're going to work on how

do again close the gap and be able to

attract more people to our school

district. So they are really working

with retention excellent. We put some

billboards up um in the spring to try to

attract and we are absolutely going out

to try to attract more people to our

school district because I believe that

we are building something that going to

want make people want to come to

Harrisburg. And so we are really trying

to set the stage so we can start

attracting more people to our uh city.

Yes.

Um operation. So, one of the biggest

part I've been uh speaking about that we

have to create a classroom for our

kindergarten learners because our

learner that's in the kindergarten uh

the classroom need to look a lot

different. It is need to be more

collaboration space. The days of having

rows and aisles in a classroom are over.

We need more space where kids able to

collaborate. And so we are really

looking at how do we design the safety

upgrade of our classroom and modernize

our learning space so our kids can have

more opportunity to collaborate and gave

it more technology to address the 21st

century learner.

And then the next one is uh financial

alignment. One of the thing that we've

been talking about is how do we continue

to do our zero zero pace budgeting uh

implementation but be very transparent

so our community and everyone here and

uh in the city can see how we are moving

toward managing our budget because we

understand one of the reason we got in

receiverhip we had bad budgeting

practice and so we want to be very

transparent to our community on how we

are moving our using our budget and um

and um and using this pillar and our

success us to make sure we aligning our

budget to what we say we're going to ask

you to do.

Federal program again looking at this

one of the great part about this again

we want to align and we're going to

create what we call a funding map so we

can make sure everyone can see where we

are aligning our budget to impact

student outcome. We want to make sure

that everything we do it has a student

first approach. Um, one of the thing

that you if you heard me speak to

anywhere, I tell you what, I work for

kids and that's the best part of my job

that I love working for kids. I don't

work for adults. So, every day I get up,

I'm intentional to work for our

students. And so, we want to make sure

we align all our resources when it come

to budget to making sure we get a return

on investment with our students.

And finally, this is the last slide. Uh,

one of the big part with building trust

is being visible and any ones know that

I've been trying to get out and about

and meet as many people as possible

because I believe is have I have to be

visible in this role to build that

relationship and connecting with our

local uh business um and creating those

true partnership. Um, one of the thing

that I've spoke about anywhere I went is

that we need our business community in

order to give our kids opportunity to

have co-op opportunity. We need more

opportunity in our city for kids to

participate in co-op opportunity. So

building trust is one of the things that

I'm working on that first year. Now we

got through my first year. We are

getting ready to start focusing more on

our academic outcomes. I believe that

should be the last slide.

Perfect. All right. So I wanted to leave

some time for questions for anyone. But

again the whole presentation is if you

click on that QR code you can see the

whole presentation. I did remove some

slide because I knew we had a time limit

for tonight.

Thank you so much. Thank you for being

here this evening. Um I don't have any

questions. I look forward to reviewing

the entire presentation um through the

QR code, but I will open the floor to my

colleagues who may have some questions

for you. I'll begin with our resident

educator, Councilwoman Ross. Any

questions?

Thank you, President Hill. Good evening.

Thank you for being here um tonight to

present that to us. It was a lot of

information, great information. I love

the five pillars and the direction the

district is going in. Um, both my girls

are in the school district. So, I take

it very seriously on how Harrisburg is

moving and I know a lot of people want

to move back into the city, but they're

afraid of the school district right now

and making sure their kids get top tier

education. So, um, from your

presentation and how I have seen you out

in the community, I do think, you know,

we're moving in the right direction. And

I just want to applaud you all for the

after school programs this year. Both my

girls attended them and one cried when I

couldn't let her go. So, she was upset

when she couldn't stay till 6:00, one at

um I think it was Lincoln. It was until

six o'clock. And I was like, "Wow,

that's like" And they gave him dinner

and you know, yeah, she had a really

good time. So, you know, I I applaud you

all for bringing that back. That was um

something the community really wanted.

So, thank you.

Welcome,

Councilman Rodriguez. Any questions?

Um, no questions for me. I appreciate

you being there and speaking at my kids

graduation this year. Um, that was just

a great experience. Uh, but also as your

open open door policy, I'd love to get

the opportunity to come in and, uh,

present some opportunities as well.

We've worked with the district for a

while. Yes, I heard about your work at

Stilton. So, yeah, definitely want to

have a conversation with you.

Absolutely. Before you go, I'll touch

base with you. Okay.

Thank you,

Councilman Jones. Any questions?

Uh, yes. How you doing, Mr. Henry? Dr.

Henry, we get put some respect on your

name. Um,

I definitely want to look at this whole

um, presentation because one of the

things that I didn't see or mention um,

all of these steps I think are great

steps in the right direction to start to

repair our school district and the

education of our children. But for for

that to take place, being a public

safety chair, you have to be safe. And

that's a big thing. I seen the police

wanted to come in that got taken away.

So I love to see um again your first day

here I did the gun violence symposium

well uh assembly with the ninth and 10th

and 11th and 12th um you know that's

that was a second part of what I've done

earlier on in that year uh surrounding

the violence in our community. But um

just an little experience from from me

going to school and and I think anyone

in here can attest to that. um even in a

work space, you want to be safe. Um, so

if if children if we want to attract

people to come back to our school

district or not just the education

piece, but they have to be safe and we

see a lot of things that's happening and

I know this isn't any of your doing, but

I would love to see and work with around

that area or how we can um look for

strategic ways to lower those um

adolescent urges

uh to to to to for the lack of a better

word, I don't want to call them violent,

but there is a culture that we're

dealing with here, not only in the city

of Harrisburg and urban cities across

the country. Um, but that's one of the

things and uh another thing that I

didn't see um that I hope that I do find

in there um something else that is near

and dear to my heart and hopefully I can

assist in this area as well. We need

civics in our schools. They need to

understand we we need to find our next

council people. We need to find our next

mayors, our next solicitors. We need to

find them. So, um, I think that's an

important part of the education process

that's missing across America and I

think it's intentional and, um, right

now I think we have an opportunity to

change that at least for the city of

Harrisburg. Um, other than that, um, I

like the presentation and I definitely

will take a look at it and, um, look to

be speaking and working with you again

moving forward.

Well, to your point, one of the thing

with safety, when you look at what we

doing with PBIS and SEAL, that's how we

addressing safety. Again, since I've

been here, that's the first thing I've

been speaking about is if kid don't feel

safe, we can't teach them. And so, we

have to establish a better environment

for our kids to learn. So, I'm with you,

100% with you on that. Um, and that's

one of the biggest thing that we're

starting first is we have to put systems

in place around school safety. Uh, we

cannot teach, our teacher can't teach if

they feel like they in an unsafe

environment. And also, um, not to drag

it on even more, but I think another

emphasis is on something that's been a

challenge for us as a community, as a

school district, as a county, as a city,

as a people, getting our parents

involved um with our children. We have

to find a way. Uh um you know, I I hate

to see I you know, I'm a Harrisburg

graduate. I graduated from Harrisburg

High and um when I went to school, the

band the football field covered the band

covered the football field. That's not

happening today. Um how how are we

sparking the interest? Again, that's

part of the safety thing. But um I I I

see parents

sell out these arenas, football fields,

basketball games, but schoolboard

meetings, they're not there. Uh teacher

parent, you know, conferences, they

don't show up. So I think um there needs

to be a good emphasis on that as well.

And one of the things that I thought of

before that I can share with you, but

just brief briefly, we can probably get

into this a little more is actually

inviting some of those parents into

schools into the school during some of

those um transitional periods, switching

of class, lunchroom, and actually pay

them.

I I would I would find a way to to

You must have money.

Hey, well, you know, our taxes are about

to go up, so there'll be some money

there. Um, yeah. I just think that's a

way to um because if my parents in isn't

walking the halls, I'm definitely not

cutting up. So, I think it's a it's an

innovative way to um get some of that

involvement there. Uh, and that's all I

really have, man. But, I really like to

sit down and um again, once I look

through this and um offer some more

suggestions and even to help in any way

I I can and I'm sure my colleagues feel

the same way. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice President Green. Any

questions?

Thank you, President Hill. Um, first,

thank you for being here tonight. Um, I

think it's really important to have

someone from the school district,

especially someone leading the school

district, uh, coming down here just to

have a conversation with us. Um, that's

something that's been missing for a long

time. Uh, and you know, the district and

the city, we don't operate in a silo, so

it's important for us to work together.

So, I appreciate you um, extending the

branch and coming down here just to to

have the conversation. Um, I don't

really have any questions if it's any

way that I can help um throughout the

school year. I'm in in the high school

and the alternative schools and

everywhere. um a couple of times a week.

So, just any way that I can help and

lend my support, I'm always here. So,

thank

Thank you,

Councilwoman Davis. Any questions?

Thank you, President Hill. Uh good

evening, Dr. Harvey, and thank you for

being here this evening and for your

presentation. It was very informative

and I appreciate the work that you're

doing to help our students uh bring

their performance up.

So you you mentioned that students are

waiting students are waiting for

everyone in the building

to help them. And I would like to say

the students are waiting for everyone

everyone in the community to step up and

help them to uh reach their full

potential. And when you mentioned uh

student services uh de development meant

for teachers and and outreaching to the

community

uh for social and emotional learning. My

question is

um how

who not how who can actually help the

children? Um, who would you propose uh

to reach out to? Do does the community

members need to have uh say a degree in

public education or teachers or any you

do they have to be professionals? I

guess that's what I'm trying to ask. Do

they have to be professionals? Because

we have a lot of people in the community

that have various skills. They may not

have gone to college to major in

becoming a teacher but they have various

skills that can help our children. So

that that's my question.

So to your to your question what I first

thing I would say is uh thank you for

your question but one of the thing that

we have to first start doing systems in

place. So when we start talking about

SEAL uh social emotional learning, first

thing we have to do is first start

working with our classroom teachers on

setting up a classroom environment to

address some of the social emotional

learning. So before we start inviting a

lot of people in, we have to first set a

system up and make sure we have systems

set up. So before we start having

guests, I say we got to get our house in

order. And so we are really trying to

work establishing getting our classroom

understanding, making sure everyone have

high expectation what this look like.

Thank you, Dr. Harvey.

Thank you. I have I have one follow-up

question. Okay.

Um around the arts, I was just curious

how Mean Girls did.

Well, if you could speak to that a

little bit.

So, uh we had our first musical in I

want to say 20 years. um in the spring.

Meaning girls Jr. um amazing. If you

didn't get a chance to see it, you

missed a awesome show. Um we are going

to bring back some more plays. Um we are

looking to expand it even to some of our

middle school. So back to your question,

this is how we close the gap with some

of our student. We got to give them

opportunity. If we find opportunity for

them to engage in activity that they

enjoy, it's a good possibility we can

start closing the gap with some of the

activity we see after school hours. When

kids are bored, they find trouble. And

so we have to find ways to create

courses, create opportunity for them to

engage throughout the day after school

hours. And so when we saw Mean Girls,

that was really amazing. And the way

they brought that together really

quickly, amazing. So again, when we have

our next play, I hope everyone get a

chance to come. Um, but the one they did

in the spring, it was really, really

good.

Thank you. Thanks for speaking to that.

I don't have any other questions. I know

that you came because the school board

is on their hiatus right now. We are

entering hours after this meeting, but

perhaps this is the meeting that we can

continue this conversation and share

updates with uh next year.

And that's part of me being here is is

this is an opportunity for us to bridge

a community

to understand that we all together. We

all together. No one can do this live by

themselves. So, I'm hoping again that

having a access to the board um that we

could continue to work together with the

council and the school district.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, President Hill.

Yes.

Um yeah, that's something that I would

like to see if we can work together on

too with our strategically. I don't know

if this was put in place with our

meetings being held on the same day. I

think we should find a way to

collaborate to try to move one of these

days around. Um because seriously, I

mean, these are two important bodies

that our community need to be engaged in

and um you have to pick your poison. I

know before I was elected, I had to pick

mine.

Um you know, I wanted to go see what the

budget was over there. I wanted to see

what's going on over here. But I think

that's something that we should

collaborate on as well. Yes. All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will move forward with our meeting

agenda. We will now open the floor to

courtesy of the floor for anyone who

would like to offer public comment. Just

a few housekeeping notes before we

begin. Please state your name and your

address for the meeting record. If you

don't feel comfortable sharing your

address, please share the vicinity in

which you live within the city. You will

have four minutes to share your

comments. Mr. Parker will serve as our

timekeeper. And I'll begin to my right.

Is there anyone that would like to offer

public comment?

Yes, I would. My name is Stephen Gusto,

2531 Boke Street,

and I would like to first uh make a

comment concerning the

Is this come up?

Yes,

you can take it. You can take the

microphone out.

I thought

I got it.

Anyway, um I wanted to make a comment

before that I go on to my subject.

There we go. And that is as far as uh

the education is concerned. Um,

and it looks good on paper screen, but

if you want to really make an impact

on the lives of children,

if you get them to be a student of the

word, guaranteed

their score levels are going to go up

and there will be less violence in the

schools. Guaranteed.

You say you can't get the Bible in the

school. They're doing it in other cities

and other states. It's curriculum. Go

back years ago. There was the one room

schoolhouse. It was a church on Sunday,

school on Monday. That's a fact. No such

thing as separation of church and state.

Yes, you can do it. To get on to my

point as far as uh my matter is

concerned. Uh just to give a little bit

of background, born in the city

Harrisburg, Harrisburg Hospital,

grew up here, one of eight children,

seven boys, one girl, and

I was raised in a poor family.

Uh in fact, I grew up in Hall Manor.

But as the years went on,

becoming a minister, as God called me to

be an evangelist,

I went back into Hall Manor to minister

to that community,

picking up children for Sunday school.

Who were the homes, Smith Holmes,

one of the very few white people there.

And they used to call, they looked out

the window and they said, "They're the

church mans there." But they loved me.

They knew me. They're now in their 40s.

and I would see them in stores and they

would say, "Mr. Steve," and they see, "I

now got my own children."

So, I've done what I could even as a

Sunday school teacher teaching inner

city children. I knew what was most

important.

Now to get on with what I wanted to talk

about.

In 1983,

my mother, a god-fearing woman, God

bless her from memory, she ran across an

article in the Patriot News where the

mayor had proclaimed a so-called gay

day.

The mayor

graduated, my brother, from Bishop

McDivet High School in 1966.

My mother was filled with righteous

indignation when she saw this.

She started CWC, Citizens Who Care, in

our living room, 1983

in response

to what the mayor did back then.

For decades, she fought

to try to keep

wickedness, corruption

out of the city, to keep people

straight, to lead people in the right

path. Now, you're not going to see her

name

in the Hall of Fame like some others out

here.

But there are some people that should be

in the Hall of Shame.

There's some people here tonight in that

are in authority, but they're not here.

I was hoping really

that they would be here

because what it involves

is the city and state combined.

Now, when I told my mother in 198

199,

excuse me, how long do I have, by the

way?

Yeah. Sorry, sir.

Was that it? Okay.

Yes. I apologize. Thank you for your

time. Your um your time is expired.

All right.

Thank you. It would be nice if they

would I don't know. They should have

some kind of timer so you could you can

see the time.

I'm sorry about that. We do have a

timer, but it's not on this computer.

So, I I apologize.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else to my right that

would like to offer public comment?

Seeing hearing no one. Anyone in the

middle section? Okay, please.

Good evening. How you doing? My name is

Tashan Dowy. I'm an active landlord. I

really don't need much time. I'm active

in the community. I'm honest. I'm

working hard. working on a couple

projects right now. I'm actually working

with city council man Ralph Rodriguez

and I wanted to come here to make myself

available to you guys to explain um a

little bit about the affordable living

solutions that I am providing here. But

I want to do everything like by the

book. I wanted to kind of like not be

perfect, but I'm chasing that. So that's

why I'm like kind of here to make sure

I'm doing everything like within the

rims of uh codes.

Just trying to do things the correct way

for once in my life, right? So that's

why I'm here. I want to meet you guys

and just, you know, extend myself to you

guys in my hand and anything that I can,

you know, do to help, I'm here. That's

it. That's all I want. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the

middle section that would like to offer

public comment?

Seeing and hearing no one, anyone to my

left? Seeing and hearing no one, we will

move forward with the meeting agenda.

Next, we have the approval of the

minutes for the legislative session of

June 24th, 2025.

Council members, are there any revisions

to those meeting minutes?

Okay, seeing hearing none, the minutes

stand approved. We will now move to

reports of committee. I will deliver the

first report on behalf of the

administration committee on the work

session of July 1st, 2025.

On Tuesday, July 1st, 2025, the

administration committee met to discuss

one resolution, resolution 46 of 2025, a

resolution appointing Mr. Basier Vincent

to serve on the Harrisburg Planning

Commission. Mr. Vincent was present and

introduced himself. Mr. Vincent shared

that his professional background is in

mechanical engineering. He holds a

bachelor of science degree in mechanical

engineering from the Pennsylvania State

University. He is currently employed by

Pro Rank Business Solution LLC as a

virtual manager. Council members ask the

following questions. What impact do you

believe you would be able to make as a

member of the planning commission? And

do you have any uh conflicts of

interest? Mr. Mr. Vincent responded that

he is processoriented and has an

interest in serving and he has no known

conflicts of interest. I recommend my

colleague support resolution 46 of 2025.

Mr. Vincent's curiosity and interest

will serve him well as a member of the

planning commission. This concludes the

administration committee report. I will

also deliver the report from the

community and economic development

committee on behalf of chair Daniels in

her absence on the work session of July

1st 2025.

I would like to note for the meeting

record that a public hearing was held on

Tuesday, July 1st, 2025

um through the community and economic

development committee to discuss bill 5

of 2025, which is an ordinance amending

the city of Harrisburg's official zoning

map to change the partial parcel zoning

designations of 2601 North Third Street

from the industrial INS zone to the

commercial neighborhood CN zone pursuant

to chapter 7-303

of the codified ordinances of the city

of Harrisburg.

On Tuesday, July 1st, 2025, the

community and economic development

committee met to discuss one bill, bill

5 of 2025 and one resolution, resolution

33 of 2025.

Um

the applicant was present and so was Mr.

Jeffrey Knight, planning director for

the city of Harrisburg. Um Mr. Knight

shared that this is a mixeduse project

project. Um building one, which is

partially occupied uh is an estimated

134 apartments. Building two is

currently an occupied executive office

suite and building three is unoccupied

which would range between 96 and 100

apartments.

Um there are 620 parking spaces, 452

of those are dedicated spaces. Um there

is a retail to serve the neighborhood, a

town center approach, a grocery store,

restaurant, gym, coffee shop. Um and the

apartments are comparably priced. Uh the

applicant is seeking historic tax

credits. Uh this is a phased project.

Phase one would be building three, phase

two building one, and phase three

building two. Uh the applicant uh

participated in community outreach

efforts going doortodoor first uh within

a oneb block radius. A public meeting uh

the first public meeting was held um

which included a twob block radius of

neighbors and a third a second public

meeting excuse me was held with a threeb

block radius. Um, building three, there

would be approximately 50 full-time jobs

available. In building one,

approximately 90 full-time jobs would be

available. Uh, the apartments are mid

rate. One bedroom uh would be $1,450,

studios would be $11.99,

and two bedrooms would be 1,700. There

is no affordability within this project,

but they are nicely finished apartments.

Um, the applicant mentioned that there

are between 500 and 600 affordable units

on the horizon throughout the city and

the target is young professionals.

So, that was bill five of 2025.

Resolution 33, resolution approving the

preliminary and final subdivision plan

for 2601 North Thirdrd Street to

subdivide the existing property into

four separate parcels to effectuate

redevelopment of the entire site into a

mixeduse development along with

associated site and access improvements.

Uh the applicant noted that this is for

phase two of the project and assist with

financing and phasing of the remainder

of the project.

Uh council members ask questions around

um affordability,

estimated rent. Um they asked questions

related to the retail spaces and ask

clarifying questions related to the

community outreach. what did the um

neighbors and community members in the

two and three block radius um what were

they interested in seeing within the

project?

Um I recommend

uh council members support bill 5 of

2025 and resolution 33 of 2025

um to ensure that the project continues

to move through its phasing. Um,

personally, I do have some concerns

related to um, the estimated

rent for the project. Um, and that the

fact that there is no affordability is a

little concerning to me. Um but council

members, please feel free to vote um as

you see fit regarding both bill five of

2025 and resolution 33 of 2025. So this

concludes

my makeshift report on behalf of the

community and economic development

committee on the work session of July

1st, 2025.

We will now we there are no ordinances

for first reading. Next, we have an

ordinance for amendment. That's bill

five of 2025. Mr. Parker, could you

please read it into the record?

Bill Five of 2025, an ordinance amending

the city of Harrisburg's official zoning

map to change the parcel zoning

designations of 2601

North3rd Street from the institutional

INS zone to the commercial neighborhood

CN zone pursuant to chapter 7-303

of the codified ordinances of the city

of Harrisburg.

Thank you. Next, we have ordinances for

for final passage. Excuse me. That's

bill five of 2025. Mr. Parker, could you

please read it one more time?

Sure. Bill Five of 2025, an ordinance

amending the city of Harrisburg's

official zoning map to change the parcel

zoning designations of 2601

North 3rd Street from the institutional

INS zone to the commercial zone CN zone

pursuant to chapter 7-303

of the codified ordinances of the city

of Harrisburg.

Thank you. Council members, are there

any uh final questions, comments, or

concerns related to Bill 5 of 2025?

Yes, Madam President.

Councilman Rodriguez,

I'm not sure if it'd be appropriate to

um ask the applicant if there was any

decision made on the parking

accommodation that we spoke about. Um

that would be contingent on a yes vote

for me. I just wanted to make sure those

residents were taken care of as we spoke

about. And we haven't heard back as of

uh just wanted to make sure that was

still that you guys were considering and

if so would there be some kind of

publication that goes out to those

immediate residents so they could take

advantage of that?

You you would need to make a motion to

suspend the rules to have them

I just wanted to make sure it was

appropriate. Um well, Madame President,

I'll make a motion to suspend the rules

for discussion.

Is there a second?

A second. Thank you. If you wouldn't

mind um coming back to the microphone so

that everybody's able to hear your

response. Councilman Rodriguez.

Yes. Thank you. Uh and thank you once

again for joining us. Um great project

and as much as we do need affordable

housing, we do understand the need for

mixed use and kind of medium to upper

range. But um as uh Miss Reyes I believe

came and approached um we did understand

the concern for the lack of parking and

the kind of detriment that the project

may have on immediate residents. So is

the accommodation that we had spoke

about when I kind of were joking was

said everything's a negotiation but was

kind of serious also at the same time

would there be an accommodation made for

those immediate era residents where they

can use that massive parking lot near

the Scottish right across the street

from the Zimbo area just so they can not

be kind of um just inconvenience

throughout the duration of the project.

Yes, there would. We uh we arranged for

Miss Reyes to have a spot the next day

and got her a pass and anyone else that

needs a spot

so we can make an announcement.

If there if there are any residents that

affected immediate and need that

accommodation, how would they go about

reaching you or uh

so we're going to have another so

construction won't happen for a while.

Okay.

Uh but we're going to have another

public meeting once the drawings are a

little further developed. I think I

mentioned that last time.

Okay. So, we're organizing that for

probably the third end of the third week

of July.

Okay.

We can make that announcement as part of

that

and that would be highly appreciated. As

long as you give me a word on that, I'll

be able to, you know, be affirmed with

the project. So, thank you so much.

Yeah, 100%.

No further questions, Madam President.

Thank you. Are there any other questions

for the applicant while we are suspended

from the legislative session? Okay.

Councilwoman Ross.

Uh, hello. Good evening. Sorry I was not

here at the last meeting, but I did

watch it online and uh I didn't have any

questions. Everything was presented

beautifully. I mean, parking was one,

but I could hear everybody asking them,

and you just answered that question. The

only concern I had was that there

weren't going to be any affordable

apartments in the building. I do

understand we need market value as well.

I know as a city, we need a mix of both,

but I really enjoy seeing a mix inside

the building. I I don't want anybody I

always feel like we learn from each

other. So even though um I may need

affordable housing, I should still be

able to live in a building that may have

more um nonaffordable housing. So you

get to learn from one another. Someone

who isn't doesn't need affordable is

watching me learning from me. You learn

compassion. Um, but for myself, maybe I

need affordable right now, but maybe I

can learn from someone who's making more

money than I am to advance myself. So, I

I'm toggling between on what to say for

this project only because I it doesn't

offer that. But I also know that we do

need non-affordable housing too in the

market value. So, it's hard because it's

a very nice project. It's going to

upgrade our neighborhood um which brings

more people in, but then people who

can't afford it can't live there. So,

It's difficult. So, I just um any

developers who come in and if you do any

other projects here, I just really ask

even if it's one apartment,

just something to say, hey, I understand

everyone can't afford this, but I I want

to make sure this is a mixed use. Truly,

it is truly a melting pot. So, um I just

ask of that as I continue to think about

um this decision. But thank you for

coming back and thank you for answering

those questions. And I hope as you go

further, you do think in that realm of

everybody being able to be in in housing

and apartments no matter how much they

make. So

that's it for me.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? I don't

want to miss anyone.

Thank you, President Hill. Good evening,

Mr. Hogquist. I don't know if I said

your name right, but I tried.

Close enough.

Thank you. Um, I'm very much in favor of

this project and I was able to speak

with a couple of the residents in the

area. Um, a a solution for the parking

might also be the permit parking. That

was one of the questions that one of the

residents asked about the permit parking

in front of their homes, especially with

the um the shops that are are coming to.

So, um I just thought I I'd mention that

I wasn't able to um tell them how to go

about doing that, but that can also be a

solution for some of those residents in

terms of um parking so that they can

make sure that they have their their

parking spaces because on Fourth Street

there is only one side of the street

that they can park on. I know how that

is, you know. Um it's very difficult

sometimes, but uh otherwise I'm in favor

of the project and thank you for

your work on this. Thank you.

One one thing to mention. Um so this is

for a remapping vote. Um we we do have

to come back for the land development

plan. So, this is about this the project

the campuswide

zoning.

The next step and we're working on it

already uh with the hope that we get

through tonight is uh putting that land

development plan together for the first

phase. So, we'll be coming back in front

of planning commission and city council

uh to present that. So, that would be an

opportunity to talk about some of those

things that uh have been mentioned

tonight.

Thank you. I just wanted to confirm

Councilwoman Daniels is on the phone.

Okay. She did note that she's been

listening but having some difficulty

communicating on her end. So she is

present by phone right now.

Yes. And she's prepared to vote.

Okay. Uh I will entertain a motion to

resume our legislative session.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. So before us uh for a final

passage, we have bill five of 2025. Mr.

Parker, could you please read it into

the record?

Bill Five of 2025, an ordinance amending

the city of Harrisburg's official zoning

map to change the parcel zoning

designations of 2601 North 3rd Street

from the institutional INS zone to the

commercial CN zone pursuant to chapter

7-303

of the codified ordinances of the city

of Harrisburg.

Thank you, council members. Are there

any final questions, comments, or

concerns related to bill 5 of 2025?

Okay, seeing and hearing none, Mr.

Parker, could you please call the vote?

Miss Daniels,

yes.

Thank you.

Miss Davis,

yes.

Miss Green,

yes.

Mr. Jones,

yay.

Ms. RS.

I'm going to go with a yes.

Mr. Rodriguez,

yes.

Ms. Hill,

yes.

Bill five of 2025 passes unanimously

with a vote of seven yays

to zero nays.

Thank you. We will now move forward with

resolutions. Resolution 33 of 2025. Mr.

Parker, could you please read it into

the record? Resolution

33 of 2025, a resolution approving the

the preliminary slashfinal subdivision

plan for 2601 North Third Street to

subdivide the existing property into

four separate parcels to effectuate

redevelopment of the entire site into a

mixeduse development along with

associated site and access improvements.

Thank you council members. Are there any

questions, comments, or concerns related

to resolution 33 of 2025?

Okay, seeing and hearing none, Mr.

Parker, could you please call the vote?

Miss Daniels.

Miss Davis,

yes.

Miss Green,

yes.

Mr. Jones,

yay.

Ms. RWS,

yes.

Mr. Rodriguez,

yes.

Ms. Hill.

Yes.

Resolution 33 of 2025 passes unanimous

unanimously with a vote of seven yays to

zero nays.

Thank you. Next, we have resolution 46

of 2025. Mr. Parker, could you please

read it into the record?

Resolution 46 of 2025,

a resolution appointing Mr. Basier

Vincent to serve on the Harrisburg

Planning Commission.

Council members, are there any final

questions, comments, or concerns related

to resolution 46 of 2025?

Seeing and hearing none, Mr. Parker,

could you please call the vote?

Miss Daniels,

Miss Davis,

yes.

Miss Green,

yes.

Mr. Jones,

yay. Miss RWS,

yes.

Mr. Rodriguez,

yes.

Miss Hill,

yes.

Resolution 46 of 2025 passes unanimously

with a vote of seven yays to zero nays.

Thank you. Our final resolution for

consideration this evening is resolution

48 of 2025. Mr. Parker, could you please

read it into the record? Resolution 48

of 2025, a resolution approving the

fourth proposed 2025 budget

reallocation.

Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to

suspend the rules for discussion.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you,

Mr. Brooks.

Mr. McCutchen, I will defer to our

budget and finance committee chair, Vice

President Green, to lead discussion.

Thank you very much. Uh when you

gentlemen are ready, if you could just

introduce yourself and give us an

overview, I'd appreciate it.

And uh counciloman, I'm going to take

the lead because this is a resolution of

active litigation. Um this is uh a long

pending legal dispute the city has had.

Um we had asked or for a jury trial, we

got one. Uh they came with a result. Um

as the result of that uh verdict, there

is an obligation owed at the moment that

it has interest running on a daily

basis. So the request um there was no

appropriation at this time other than

$250,000 in the budget. So this is a

true appropriation from but from fund

balances from various fund balances

which the finance team can discuss what

those sources are at the moment. It is

not taking any money away from a

anything that was budgeted for this

year, but I think everyone needs to be

aware it it is taking away money from

potential future uses that we would

have. But it is an obligation of the

city and and uh this is to fund that

obligation to stop the interest from

running. And if the council approves it,

the intention is to is to have the funds

wired to uh the appropriate parties no

later than July 15th.

Thank you very much.

Hello. I'm Timothy Brooks, the budget

manager.

Okay. All right. Uh, yes. Good evening,

city council members, uh, here this

evening. Brian McCutchen, accounting

manager. Thank you, President Hill.

Thank you, Vice President Green for this

presentation.

Um,

overkill, I may have I handed out the

the paper handouts that that Mr. Parker

has, which is reflective of what's up on

the screen. And uh as as solicitor

Grover mentioned, the um resulting

Brener Motor's eminent domain uh jury

verdict has occurred. And so now the uh

the task at hand was to accommodate such

uh within the budget. Namely, this

schedule is the the top half of it is is

all about the neighborhood services

fund. So

uh and it's it there's a lot of lines

but it actually it's it's pretty

straightforward. The first three lines

uh relate the expense accounts which

includes the liability settlement claim

account uh legal and consulting. So

those are the three lines that we're um

focusing on this evening. And the the

budget um request adjustment here for

those three lines is 1,950,000.

And then you couple that with the

250,000 that's already been appropriated

as part of this year's original budget

gets us up to 2.2 million. Um and

currently the the the amount is being uh

finalized calculationwise. And the the

the main calculation part is the the

occurring interest that relates uh from

from the time frame. Um so at 2.2

million

that's a way of uh being reasonable in

sense of covering uh the the total

liability of of of those three lines. So

how do we go about uh funding or

sourcing this budget adjustment? And the

next lines right below that appear which

include uh of course the neighborhood

services fund itself which is the cash

fund balance to utilize that at 1.2

million. And then the the broadening of

this task was to try to determine a

reasonleness as to available fund

balances and other related funds. namely

they're they're they're pretty clear

there including the host fund uh the old

sanitation fund

uh special events project that's a

special public works type uh related

fund that has that uh public works

activity and then the debt service fund

which has available cash fund balance

for for utilization. So those four lines

offset uh the 1,950,000

it's it's matched. In other words, it's

balanced uh with the expense going

against the support supporting revenue.

That's the top half of the schedule. Uh

the bottom half is it's a necessary uh

uh presentation of the uh other funds

that are involved here that I just went

through. And we we have to do this

because as I mentioned 1 million um

200,000 from neighborhood services plus

all those four other funds that means

interfund support interfund transfer. So

that has to be uh reflected as to how to

go into the current budget where you you

you're using fund balance of of of of

these funds cash position but then

you're you're using that to fund the

transfer from each one of the four funds

over to the neighborhood services fund

because ultimately all the related

expenses

again which includes the uh eventual

transfer of the liability uh the the

ongoing uh related legal fees and the

consult folding line reflects uh

expenses that that pertain um to this

particular matter. Um so that's that's

the top and bottom halves of this

schedule. Uh

I can entertain or or listen to any

comments or or questions that you might

have on this.

I don't have any questions regarding

this. Um I'll open up to my colleagues

to see if they have any questions. I

will start with Councilwoman Daniels. Do

you have any questions?

Thank you, Councilwoman Davis. Any

questions?

No questions for me at this time. Thank

you, Vice President Green.

Thank you, President Hail.

No questions. Thank you,

Councilwoman Ross. Good evening. I have

no questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Rodriguez.

No questions for me. Thank you.

And Councilman Jones.

Yeah, no questions.

Thank you very much. Um, I think that

pretty much wraps it up unless you guys

want to add anything else, but I don't

see it necessary.

I'm I'm pretty well tapped out.

Thank you very much. Um, I will pass it

back over to President Hill.

Thank you, Vice President Green. I at

this time I will entertain a motion to

resume our legislative session.

So move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. So before us, we have

resolution 48 of 2025. Mr. Parker, can

you please read it one more time?

Yes. Resolution 48 of 2025, a resolution

approving the fourth proposed 2025

budget reallocation.

Thank you. Council members, are there

any final questions, comments, or

concerns related to resolution 48 of

2025?

Seeing and hearing none, Mr. Parker,

could you please call the vote? Miss

Daniels.

Ms. Davis.

Yes.

Miss Green.

Yes.

Mr. Jones.

Yay.

Ms. RWS.

Yes.

Mr. Rodriguez.

Yes.

Ms. Hill.

Yes.

Resolution 48 passes with a vote of six

yays to one nay.

Thank you. Is there any old business for

discussion? Council members,

I just wanted to note that Harrisburg

City Council hosted an executive session

prior to tonight's legislative session

to discuss legal matters. New business,

Councilman Rodriguez.

Thank you, Madam President. Just wanted

to remind everyone that Hotspot

Saturdays resumes July 26 from 10:00

a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the North Allison

Hill section. will be meeting at 15th

and her about 10:00 a.m. and we'll be

cleaning throughout the duration until

12:00 p.m. For further information, feel

free to reach out at Ralph Rodriguez or

R. Rodriguez at Harrisburg.gov.

And uh hopefully we'll see you there as

we gear towards 200 tons of illegal

waste removed from our city. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there any other new

business for discussion, council

members? Okay, I just have one

scheduling reminder. Uh Harrisburg City

Council will begin our leg or our summer

hiatus following tonight's legislative

session. We will return at the end of

July to host a special legislative

session to discuss the 2025 annual

action plan for the city of Parisburg

for the community development block

grant CDBG home investment partnerships

home and emergency solutions grant ESG

programs. We will officially resume our

meeting schedule on August 26, 2025 by

hosting a legislative session.

The time is 7:24

p.m. I will entertain a motion to

adjurnn. So move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you everyone. We stand adjourn.