Harrisburg City Council Work Session - 02/04/2025

the time is 5:30 p.m. I would like to

call our work session to

order Mr Parker could you please call

the

role

yes misss

Daniels misss Davis

present Miss

green present Mr Jones

here M rolls present Mr Rodriguez Pres

Miss

Bowers presid thank you our soulle

committee business this evening lies

with the budget and finance committee um

I will defer to our budget and finance

committee chair vice president green and

I will also note that councilwoman

Daniels is also participating virtually

vice president

green committee uh we resolutions that

we'll be discussing tonight the first is

resolution 4 of 2025 which is a

resolution ratifying the 2024

application for the recycling

development and implementation Grant

under under Section 902 of the municipal

waste planning Recycling and waste

reduction act act 101 for the city of

Harrisburg and authorizing the city of

Harrisburg to execute any or all form

forms required relating to the

subsequent award of200 ,000 for the

purpose of purchasing a new Leaf

truck do we have anyone from the

administration that will be reviewing

over this for usor

oh okay um good evening Adam president

vice pres vice president and counsel can

you move it closer I don't mean to

interrupt you that's okay thanks I'm

Dave West director of public works for

the city of

Harrisburg John Watson operations

manager for public works

department thank you for being here with

us this evening uh would you be able to

go over um just a quick overview it

looks like it's pretty pretty simple

that we'll be

ratifying we will be ratifying um the

application for a new Leaf truck for

$200,000 one moment yes it's one already

we'll be ratifying um the resolution for

a leaf truck for $200,000

um since it's being ratified looks like

it's already been done so if you could

just review over it um and just give us

a little bit of information if we've

already gotten the truck if you just

tell us how it's working or how things

are going we' appreciate

it well once the uh Council

approves and then we will uh allow the

vendor to do the due process to purchase

the leaf truck and we already have two

Leaf trucks currently but we need the

third Leaf truck because the third

option that we use currently is called a

pull behind which takes uh an employee

to drive the truck an employee to

operate the vac and another employee to

rake and keep the line straight enough

for the VAC to work that's what we

currently have as the last process we

used to use nine employees we're down to

five and we want to take it down to

three so we can cover the area because

the Lea act also it it mulches the

leaves it compounds them and gives us

more opportunity to combat the task at

hand also we would like to take those

other two employees to either extend uh

Paving season or Andor the uh blight and

illegal dumping we want to place them in

that area

all right thank you very much for the

explanation uh I'm going to start with

questions for my council members I'll

start so will be my far lefts with

councilman

Jones Thank You vice president green no

questions thank

you thank you councilman Rodriguez thank

you madam chair thank you Mr John thank

you director West for joining us um

pretty straightforward to me no

questions thank thank you very much

Council

Ross thank you very much um and thank

you both for being here tonight I just

have one quick question and sorry if it

was in the resolution I didn't see it as

I was reading it but um what I what I

saw in the resolution was that the leaf

collector would be

$244,000 um

92459 excuse me $244

92459 and that the grant is for for

$200,000 correct so then would the city

be paying the

$44,988 that would be left um for the

the price of the leaf collector Yes

actually we received a call from the

vendor today and he got us another cut

down to uh

$233,000 and the

$33,000 yes would be used out of the

city funding the city funding so and do

we know where that from the city funding

is coming from or is it already in place

I don't know who would answer that just

the city what we're going to use is it's

a um line item and Neighborhood Services

budget called equipment other it has

$70,000 in it currently we're going to

use the $33,000 from that

line thank you very much you're welcome

that was my um only question that's

thank you thank

you thank you president B any questions

thank you I don't have any questions I

just wanted to note uh the frequency of

leaf collection within the city just for

everyone's knowledge again it occurs on

a bi-weekly basis and if you could

please uh remind everyone when Leaf

season officially runs so yes so um

greetings everyone so Leaf season uh is

typically with our Leaf Factor truck is

typically the month of December uh when

we end pay season we usually uh work on

it a little earlier um and then we also

work later so let's say typically we'll

go to the month of December or the first

snow but typically we will have the leaf

vacor trucks out as needed like uh we

went on this year extra we went to the

second week in January really until the

leaves are gone if the leaves are out

there we'll continue going um there's

really you know the set time for I

believe the website is the month of

December

I guess but when the leaves start

dropping we'll send trucks out so you

know we just take care of the residence

of the you know the

city thank you I don't have any other

questions thank you very much

councilwoman Davis thank you vice

president green I think the leaves start

dropping sometime in the fall right so

is that what you were saying so so you

have a a a what you call it uh early

season or late season with the leaves

and the leaves for the past couple of

years have been falling late and so we

are ready with our equipment for an

early fall season because the sycamore

trees are the first leaves to fall they

fall early every year and we're there

for that and then anything else that

occurs if the if we have a early winter

that leaves are going to fall we're

ready okay and my other question was

already asked by councilwoman Ross so

thank you again for being here so to

that date to be exact as John was

stating it's December 1st to December

31st he did say the entire month thank

you thank you uh councilwoman Daniels

any

questions no

questions thank you I don't have any

questions myself everything seems pretty

pretty straightforward um glad to see

we're getting some new equipment to make

the job a little easier and and

consuming less Manpower

um I'm going to recommend this move to

our next legislative agenda thank you

again for being here thank you thank you

all thank

you bed green bed

green the next resolution that will be

discussion will be resolution 5 of 2025

a resolution approving the first

proposed 2025 budget reallocation in

order to reclassify certain allocations

to authorized to roll forward of certain

2024 budget year encumbered commitments

and to reaffirm certain

2024 Capal project

Appropriations looks like we have Mr

McCutchen coming up um to go over this

with

us good evening you can just um

introduce yourself and then feel free to

go over the

resolution okay uh yes thank you vice

president green uh good evening everyone

um thank you president Bowers um budget

and finance chair green uh this

schedule is being uh presented for

review this evening related to the

city's role forward of Prior year 2024

mainly purchase order

encumbrances um the the new munist

system now uh distinguishes between POS

purchase orders and contract

incumbrances but they're all

incumbrances representing prior year

commitments and this is not unusual the

the city every year in the majority of

its

funds has commitments that are open at

the end of the year for whatever reason

uh sometimes their their project related

that continueed to cover more than one

year um and the schedule's laid out to

our typical format for a budget for a

proposed budget

reallocation um oh and I my apology uh

my name is Brian McCutchen I'm the

accounting manager here at the city um

the this schedule has the detail line

items descriptions uh applicable funds

and it's it's arranged there's five

funds involved D here of course

including the general

fund uh the state liquid fuels tax fund

the neighborhood services fund which is

the other major fund activity wise of

the city uh the Parks and Recreation

fund and lastly the capital projects

fund The Columns reflect the original

appropriation uh that was adopted by uh

by this body uh earlier this just

recently um and including the

finalization for 2025 it reflects

through the majority of January what has

already been expended and encumbered in

the current year uh the third column has

the remaining balance at that point and

the proposed

amendment budget amendment is what's

being brought uh to you tonight for

review um the total incumbrances

rolling

forward uh for all these funds um total

um to approximately uh 6.5 million and

the majority of that rests inside the

general fund which is approximately 5.5

million um so what the city has done

historically and consistently is to

reflect these as a utilization of of

beginning of of this year or or ending

prior year cash fund balance which makes

sense in in in terms of the uh these

items were uh appropriate ated or rather

were encumbered against the

appropriation in the prior year they

just went unspent come the end of

2024 but what we want to do is to

recognize what is going to impact the

the current Year's budget uh which has

already been booked and which needs to

be adjusted or accounted for in

2025 so for the general fund which is

the first fund uh the 5.5 million uh

budget adjustment and it's being offset

by the utilization of of cash fund

balance how how does that compare in

Prior years this number fluctuates quite

quite a bit um usually it's around it

can range from 2.5 to to $4 million so

what's driving the the additional mounts

this time around the two major

categories um that one

line uh down at the bottom includes 2.1

million

that relates to the Broad Street Market

uh restoration project um that's again

of course that's not something that's

normally occurring year in and year out

right above that is a little more than

$1 million

for uh other uh Capital expenditures

associated with the facilities and

special projects Department of the city

and uh many of these items include um

building security work done for this

particular building City Government

Center uh the public safety building uh

ongoing Renovations in the public safety

building which

includes uh the the HVB the hbac project

which is continuing and uh a

rehabilitation project related to the

electrical structure of that

building

um so those two uh total to um a

significant amount as of

as of as of right now uh the total of

those make up 3.2 million of the 5.5 so

if you back those off a remainder of 2.3

Compares quite reasonably with with

prior year uh uh roll forward request

I'm I'm just giving you that as a some

perspective uh the the next fund down is

the state liquid fuels tax fund uh the

requests here include the normal

permissible expenditures in that fund

uh salt needs asphalt and also there's

streets and Roads there's uh project

related funds committed uh within that

fund uh the ask on that is

$235,000

approximately uh the next fund down is

the neighborhood services

fund and the total on that particular

fund includes um various line items that

total up to approximately $715,000 for a

roll

forward the fourth fund is Parks and

recit it's a relatively small amount for

for this year of approximately

$300 related to the city island budget

unit or budget org of that

fund and the last fund is the capital

projects fund and which is prominant if

not entirely streets and Roads project

related and the encumbrances include um

or the projects include uh one of the

major projects there that's ongoing is

the capital Gateway

project so in summation that's the the

row forward request on these uh for

these five funds of the

city I'll pause it right there uh chair

green thank you um I don't have any

question on this um it's pretty

straightforward just to clarify um all

of the RO forward these aren't these

aren't coming out of like the actual

fund balance there it's money left over

from last year that was encumbered and

now is being spent out in this year but

it's not like we're pulling from our our

fund balance in the sense of money we

didn't expect to

spend right the the we we are utilizing

fund balance as as as the resource here

to fund this

um which which is consistent with with

with prior practice and it it it

delineates or it it really defines what

this roll forward means me in other

words had these uh encumbrances been

fully liquidated and spent in the prior

year it would have used the available

cash within each one of these funds but

as I mentioned right but but as I

mentioned at the top the city always has

encumbrances that are open at the end of

any particular year um which which again

is is is a reasonable uh view to take

when it comes to uh our our our

expenditure

right um but just I guess for

clarification um was the money that

we're spending for these prior year

encumbrances they were budgeted for in

the previous year correct and they just

weren't spent in the previous year yes

that that's very

correct all right thank you I don't have

any other questions I'm going to see um

does anyone else have any questions I'll

start to my right with councilman

Daniels uh no questions thank you

Council Davis no questions for me thank

you president Bowers no thank you I

don't have any questions regarding

exhibit

a thank you C tooman

Ross I do have a question but I can wait

for everybody else it's on topic but um

I everyone else can ask theirs first

because it's just a Teensy bit

off all right

oh no go ahead coun Rodriguez

or are you going to ask a question now

or did you want to wait until everyone

asks well the men next to me insist that

I do so I'll ask um my one question was

um I had noticed since that we were

doing CS that had were meant to be spent

but didn't so now we're um in the new

year since they weren't we're going to

spend them but it's with the same money

that we already have which you just said

so my question was um with city council

we had a line item for $10,000 for our

youth commission we did not spend that

money so can we do the same thing and

bring it over um in the same fashion um

as a reallocation since it's kind of

it's pretty much the same we didn't

spend it so it's still there so that

that's a legal question and the answer

is yes you could you could make that

Amendment tonight uh well you don't make

amendments in work sessions but you make

the amendment next week at the time you

bring it up make amendments but yeah but

and we can prepare that as an exhibit um

but that that is um the council can make

that Amendment okay so I would have to

wait till our legislative session to

make that Amendment well I would take it

that's an instruction for our office to

go prepare yes and bring it back

appreciate that thank you that's it for

me see little on little off but there

you go on thank

you councilman Rodriguez any questions

um also a legal question if um regarding

let's say cleak or the EAC if we

intended to go full forg with those

boards would we have to have a

reallocation to fund those boards at

some point or should we get ahead of

that what's your recommendation for that

I I don't have a recommendation there's

no funding and never has been for either

of those well no no if that's something

we plan on enacting yeah you you would

have to make the request we would draft

that as a proposal um it would take the

council and the mayor has as you know

the right to uh

VTO that that would more likely than

have to be a bill not a resolution

because you're creating a funding source

that never existed the dollar amount

will matter and the authority will

matter which is that that makes it a

little more complicated um The Authority

that would go into it we'd have to look

at the ordinances that create them Y and

see whether the ordinance themselves

have to be amended all right thank you

sure no further questions Madam

chair thank you councilman Jones any

questions no questions at this

time thank you very much I believe we're

ready to move on to exhibit B

now and I would preface I made an error

putting exhibit B together I just didn't

recognize a code it was a two-page

document and when we hit print it came

up as a one-page document I I've given a

corrected page page one is actually not

what you're voting on it's just a report

of what happened to the arpa money and

how that was treated page two which

wasn't there is what you're vo for which

is to

reauthorize the major items you approved

previously in other

resolutions yes it's now called State

grant money but it's the it's right but

but through the AR yeah so that was the

first page tells you where the revenue

is placed the second page tells you the

major allocations that are left where

you know what what the Council made what

was spent what wasn't and what wasn't

spent is being the the request is to

reauthorize that just as council did

before so those projects can move

forward

yeah but that's just that's just the

general explanation for what it is the

reason it's there is that typically like

with a roll forward you're roll

forwarding an encumbrance when the

project hasn't necessarily started and

it's not in the budget there's there's

no encumbrance to roll forward so it's a

reauthorization of the same project

money for like the the um Hall manner

pool money the affordable housing money

that the council had put in Prior

legislation

thank you um I guess uh are are we going

to get another presentation or was that

just the the summary of

it that that's the law Bureau summary of

it I don't know if the finance has has a

summary of

it um that was really good I I I can't

much improve upon that but again it's

the two-page schedule which is as Neil

described um uh the the revenue

replacement functions of of the arpa

money and then the the initiatives that

show up on on the second page and uh the

act the associated activity with those

particular line items that that

represent each uh

initiative thank you I'm going to open

up to questions from our colleagues I'll

start to my far left this time with

councilman Jones thank you um I think

Neil pretty much answered my question um

that you know this money is just being

moved over here so especially some of

the arpa money that we see that didn't

move um the the delinquent um trash bill

stuff and all of that stuff is just

still just sitting there and I'm

wondering why none of them can answer

that though I was just wondering why

none of that's um being utilized yet so

so I I I can only say it's each being

worked on they're each detail oriented

projects as again we didn't get new

staff people to do it my office is

working with others the mayor has looked

and bring into an outside entity on the

trash bill for example um we have

meetings we've had we have meeting

proposed to do it um it it it is hard to

be fair like you have to come up with a

program they have to have a criteria for

people to meet right and to be fair

about it and so that's you know that

that so that would be the same for

senior programming too correct senior

programming sure sure just want to get

that on record but um the uh

but that that's a more detail oriented

one the trash one is more a more detail

oriented one just to have a criteria and

what would that be the same for the pool

we don't we haven't then any uh um

ground study anything nothing that's

that RFP went out for the geotechnical

study I don't know if it's closed yet I

I don't have track of that I know that

the part that the documents went out for

a geotechnical

study all right yep those those are my

questions thank you uh vice president

green and the only thing I would add is

if you we didn't bring this to you then

the then the the bureaus couldn't

continue to do anything on the projects

so even though it's not an appropriation

could there be nothing there to to to

work

with thank you very much uh councilman

Rodriguez any questions uh thank you

madam chair um actually while we have Mr

John still here uh I just wanted to see

if we had an odd maybe an eyeball number

on how many uh demos of blighted

properties we can execute with the 1.5

um or do you have a number for that

already oh um yeah so with the so with

the it was actually one uh 1 million for

the actually for the actual demos so I

believe that item went out for bid and I

believe that bid has come down to I

believe roughly 10 properties I believe

I'm not mistaken um and uh as far as the

0.5 that was used for the demo equipment

for the in-house demo project so the 1

million was used for the Outsourcing and

that was put out that's the open

encumbrances and then the equipment

would be the expended the five yes okay

got yes the five yes because we already

we already have our the equipment we

purchased an excavator and two high

lifts for that process for the rotating

demo yes is there any plan for the 283

left the 28,000 um that's probably uh

going to going to wait because there are

uh change orders and different things

I'm not sure if make sure that's not a

legal question but that's change orders

that happens in inside of something if

they would tear down property and find

something different monies like that

will be used to utilize uh extra you

know expend awesome I'd like to stay up

uh on top of that with you so as we go

through that please feel free to reach

out will I'll keep you I definitely keep

you thank you Mr John no further

question

thank you very much councilwoman R any

questions no thank you I don't have any

further

question thank you very much president

Bowers any questions no my question

regarding the new exhibit was asked and

answered so I don't have any other

questions thank

you thank you councilwoman Davis any

questions thank you vice president green

no questions for me at this time

thank you and councilwoman Daniels any

questions no questions thank

you thank you uh I don't have any

questions regarding this I'm going to

recommend this we moved to our next

legislative agenda as well thank you

very much okay thank

you thank you uh we will move forward

with our meeting agenda next we have

public comment um just a few

housekeeping notes if you're interested

in offering public comment this evening

and we ask that you please use the

microphone to my right um you'll have

four minutes to share your comments

please introduce yourself stating your

name and your address for the meeting

record if you don't feel comfortable

sharing your address you can share um

the vicinity in which you live within

the city you'll 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 seeing and hearing no one anyone

in the middle section

okay seeing and hearing no one anyone to

my

left seeing and hearing no

one the time is 5:59 p.m. I will

entertain a motion to adjourn no move

okay and there a motion and a quick

second thank you everyone we stand a

journ have a good night