2025 Budget Hearing Meeting #4 - 12/12/24

e

we are going to officially call to order

our fourth and potentially final budget

hearing tonight uh Mr trell if you could

do the roll

call Miss

Daniels Miss Davis present Miss green

present Mr Jones here Miss Rose

present Mr Rodriguez

okay president miss Bowers

president thank you I will note that

councilman Rodriguez is present um

through Zoom joining us tonight uh we

will have a little change to our agenda

tonight we are going to start with the

Bureau of planning so um if Mr Jeff

Knight could join

us good evening if you could just

introduce yourself give us an overview

of your Department uh go through your

presentation and then we'll open it up

for questions uh yes so uh Jeffrey

Knight I'm the planning director uh and

the flip plan administrator for the city

uh director of the planning Bureau um

don't know if my presentation's up quite

yet but uh basically we handle um a lot

of the Land Development issues here in

the city of Harrisburg whether they

relate to um new

construction uh zoning issues historic

district issues or flood

uh issues um we also are responsible for

utilizing um two basic documents in the

uh uh implementation of our duties uh

the zoning code uh which was adopted by

City Council in 2014 and the city's

comprehensive plan which was adopted by

uh Council in 2020 um and then in

addition to our short and long range of

um responsibilities for both um you know

near-term physical development such as

new construction uh as well as long-term

issues uh such as um figuring out uh how

to improve our flood plane management

for example um we are the staff uh and

manage three different boards here in

the city the Harrisburg Planning

Commission the Harrisburg Architectural

Review Board which handles historic

district reviews and then the uh zoning

hearing board uh here at the city um are

daily

uh um kind of worklog we take walk-ins

uh we take emails we take phone calls uh

that includes both myself and our urban

planner one Kat Kini uh and we also

review permits that come from both the

codes Department uh and that's largely

building permits uh and then also

reviews of permits from the tax

Enforcement office and that includes

bantal permits and sometimes sidewalk

use permits uh in addition to uh those

those core kind of daily uh and monthly

responsibilities we also coordinate with

various departments throughout the city

uh from a number of perspectives um many

of the Departments get uh Our Land

Development plans for example for their

review and comment uh and then we also

coordinate uh with other departments

like the engineers office for example on

new Transportation projects here in the

city um and up there is uh kind of the

most recent um documents that uh big

planning documents that the uh

department has uh developed including

the comprehensive plan which I had

previously noted was passed in 2020 and

then our historic district design

guidelines uh which were passed in

2021 um so since that since that time uh

our work has largely been to implement

um the projects and Concepts in the

comprehensive plan and also apply the

zoning code in the review of uh new

development proposals new use proposals

um and other uh larger

projects uh so with respect to our 2025

proposed budget um and uh compared to

our 2024 budget we actually have a very

minor increase uh I believe the increase

is about $2,500 and that's limited to

the 2% uh in the staff increases um we

don't really have much discretionary

discretionary funding in the department

uh our uh funding largely falls into two

buckets one of those being salaries for

our positions and the other being uh the

costs of managing and operating the

zoning hearing board meetings uh those

include both uh legal ads that are

required for each monthly meeting uh the

stenographer that attends those meetings

and then the zoning hearing board

solicitor who acts as uh the legal

councel for the board members they are a

separate board from the city uh so have

their own legal

council uh our current uh staff

compliment is both myself as I noted uh

and uh Kat Kini she's our urban planner

one um so we have one male one female

both white um I am I guess have some

Spanish speaking abilities and uh a

background and Cat uh is much more

conversent in Spanish so she uh engages

um mostly with uh our members of the

public who are primar Spanish speaking

as a first point of contact and we often

work with um Melissa uh Masones um as

well in uh coordinating with them and

communicating with those members of the

public to ensure that we are getting uh

the information across

correctly uh right now we currently have

two uh vacancies uh the deputy planning

director uh who is also the zoning

officer and our historic preservation

specialist um um the deputy plane

director position's been vacant since

about the beginning of

February uh when our previous um uh

individual who was in that role uh left

the city and the historic preservation

specialist position's been vacant uh for

quite some time for about three years

now uh so we do not receive any uh

grants uh in or disperse any grants uh

through the planning Bureau um we used

to receive uh granting uh uh a grant

from uh Pennsylvania Museum Historical

Museum commission uh to fund some of our

historic uh District activities but we

no longer receive that um so we really

don't do any management of funds and

again the special projects are largely

related to some of the long-term

planning issues like um working with the

city Engineers office on their Vision

zero policy or perhaps

uh working towards improving our

community rating system

level uh we and with regard to the arpa

projects uh we do not receive any um

arpa funds for projects that we manage

or disperse

any and um we do not have any new

positions in the department planned uh

I'll um our Focus right now is just

filling the two vacancies that we

have uh so

with respect to our year- to-day budget

again our um budget is relatively flat

especially when it comes to uh the

zoning hearing board

um uh uh funds uh the legal ads we hit

about two-thirds this year um and our

stenographer we were about 80% and our

zoning hearing board solicor is about

50% although we still haven't received

our uh uh the invoice for December of

this year um now those numbers seem

pretty low but I would say that this

year was uh a bit out of the ordinary we

didn't have any cases for one meeting

one Mon's meeting so that kept uh the

legal ad and solicitor um uh amounts

lower and for three of the other

meetings we either had one case or had a

case that was just continued so there

was minimal uh time spent during those

meetings uh that acred cost for the city

so I think maintaining the level is

always prudent because we're not sure

exactly what types of cases or how big

our agendas are going to be in the

upcoming year we might receive a a lot

and in which case we'd rather have that

money than have to move it around

towards the end of the

year uh none of our salaries are

proposed to exceed the um planned 2%

increase uh so our goals and this was

pulled from uh the I think first

quarterly report I gave at the beginning

of this year um was is uh filling vacant

positions uh which has been an ongoing

um challenge for us um I think we're not

getting a whole lot of um new qualified

candidates for each of these positions

maybe one or two every few months um so

it's something that we're working on uh

both internally and with HR to uh expand

uh the reach of our advertising and

position uh announcements um maybe

reaching out to some of the local

colleges especially those with graduate

programs and trying to find potential

graduates um who might be uh graduating

in May of this year this upcoming year

so we'll be definitely be looking to

Target people ahead of that uh the

comprehensive plan documentation um so

we have been working on that uh both

things that we are able to do kind of

internally and then things that we are

coordinating on with our G administrator

um to get our Maps together and then

compiled into a story map format which

is um you know I think something that

would be more uh digestible by the

general public and to get that up on our

website uh zoning Amendment packages um

I'm putting those together at um right

now uh for a couple different packages

and that would be largely confined to

different topical areas like signage or

um looking at the allowable uh use chart

in um section 7-35 point7 of the zoning

code so I'd like to take those in kind

of their own topical areas one at a time

rather than doing a full uh big kind of

Omnibus package of of those um updates

and I the intention will be to kind of

largely reflect some of

the uh projects and permits that we've

been getting um and to look at what

other industry or what other communities

are doing and maybe try and have our uh

regulations better reflect what we're

seeing kind of uh currently so that

we're not foring um individuals or

businesses to uh come through the

process as much if it's not as necessary

um as noted we're working to improve the

community rating systems level right now

we're level eight Community um and uh

We've gradually over the years been

gaining points here and there um and

we're I think right below the threshold

for a level seven um so we're hoping to

identify some location or some areas

within uh FEMA scoring Matrix to score a

few additional points to get us over

that level seven our uh planner one has

reviewed um all of the uh communities

participating in FEMA's rating system

throughout the country that are level

seven or better and we're looking at

areas where for communities where we

could maybe take some of their

recommendations or their ideas uh and

apply them here in Harrisburg to again

try to find those easy points to get up

um another level for this upcoming year

um and then finally um improving

documentation uh I'm almost done with

updating your documentation to be uh

more comprehensive uh and uh clear

especially with regard to the

instructions on our application sheets

um a lot of our applications are

somewhat older and uh the instructions

might not be as relevant um now as they

used to be so uh we're trying to make

sure we are providing you know

comprehensive but concise instructions

at the frontend and for the public so

that they not only know what to provide

but know how the process is going to go

and know what their responsibilities are

within that process and uh once those

are finished we'll be putting those up

on the

website uh so our goals for the upcoming

year are uh largely to continue um with

our goals from this year uh hopefully if

we're able to fill uh those two

vacancies we have or even one of the

vacancies uh with a qualified candidate

will

really be able to uh step up uh the

progress on some of these other goals

and maybe even uh look to adopt some new

goals for the upcoming year um again

working with our GIS administrator on

the uh story mapping to get that up on

the city's website uh the zoning

Amendment packages that uh we would be

introducing in the spring and those

would go before Planning Commission

before coming to city council here um as

I noted getting our uh CRS rating um to

C Level uh the documentation for our CRS

annual CRS report is due at the end of

um January and the beginning of February

uh so we would know sometime end of

February maybe beginning of March

whether we were able to um increase our

uh level in that regard uh and then

beyond just the updates um that I'm

doing on the

applications uh we're also going to be

working um with Melissa and with cat uh

to get these translated into Spanish um

for our Spanish speaking members of the

public um and if there are other uh

languages that we're able to translate

those into we're happy to look at those

as

well um so as far as performance

performance metrics um a lot of the work

we do is more qualitative uh rather than

quantitative um you know we have a

certain number of cases each month for

har Planning Commission zoning hearing

board what have you um but it's hard to

compare those I between the years to to

say whether you know more applications

means you're doing better or uh whether

less applications means you're doing

better because you're getting more um uh

compliance with our existing regulations

so it's really I think difficult for us

to apply a metrics um that being said uh

you know we do track uh the various

inquiries we get the permits we review

um so that's something we're tracking on

a monthly level to make sure uh that you

know

we're processing these things as best we

can it's a little challenging with our

Uh current vacancies and the capacity

constraints that puts on the department

um but we're always looking to you know

try and find ways to improve our

efficiency so that we're able to uh work

better for not just uh the community but

also for other departments in the

city thank you very much Mr Knight uh

I'm going to open up to my colleagues

for questions I'm going to start to my

right here uh with councilwoman Daniels

any questions no questions thank you

councilwoman Davis thank you vice

president green thank you for being here

this evening um so you mentioned you

were tracking to improve efficiency are

you currently using the munis system so

we have not started using that yet um I

know uh the

a consultant that's managing that is

taking these things on like a department

by Department approach and I think

they're uh working with other

departments at the at the moment we'll

probably be on the back end of the full

implementation of that uh now that being

said we are working with the codes

Bureau uh to make sure that um our

information is accurate uh when it goes

into munice uh from the current uh

system um so that we're not propagating

maybe any issues from the past uh into

the future here so we are working pretty

closely with the codes Bureau uh on

their implementation of the munus system

okay thank

you thank you very much president

Bowers I don't have any questions thank

you councilwoman Ross thank you vice

president green good evening director

Knight I don't have any questions thank

you for your

presentation thank you very much

councilman

Rodriguez thank you madam chair can

everyone hear me yes y

oh my apologies if I break in and out

I'm traveling this evening um but I

thank you for um and I thank you Mr Jeff

mcnight for joining us and I thank you

for uh looking forward to translating

those things into Spanish because it is

a heavily populated culture in the

community so thank you for that and I

have nothing

further thank you very much and

councilman Jones Thank You vice

president green no questions thank you

very much um I just have one question

with um with the two vacancies that have

kind of been vacant most of the year um

how is the work being split up to make

sure it's still being achieved uh so a

lot of the um monthly meeting work uh

that these other department or these

other uh positions would be uh handling

are being managed by me but a lot of the

day-to-day kind of public facing aspects

of these jobs um are being handled by

our urban planner one okay thank you

very much I don't have any further

questions anyone else seeing none thank

you very much Mr Knight we have a great

evening you

do next we will come back to the top of

our agenda and go to the Bureau of

information and

Technology good evening if you wouldn't

mind introducing yourself giving us a

departmental overview and then going

through your presentation then we'll

open it for questions sure uh thank

thank you my name is Steve bortner IT

director for the

city um give you a brief overview of the

department um we're responsible for

basically administration of all of our

systems that includes uh Mainframe

Network and cloud-based

systems um and All City departments

utilize the systems that we have

deployed and we provide technical

support and the maintenance for all

city-owned devices and network equipment

and this includes uh desktop PC laptops

tablets and cell

phones um we also partner with local

state and National organizations to help

extend and expand the technological

capabilities within the city and we also

evaluate emerging Technologies to see if

they would be a good fit for uh the

systems that we do have deployed as well

as modernize some of the systems that we

have uh some of our daily

responsibilities include

monitoring uh resolving the support that

come through the help desk every day uh

we monitor uh server activity throughout

the day and we also monitor any uh virus

activity and cyber threats that may

potentially get into the

city um significant budget changes there

were uh two accounts that have um

increases for 2025 the first one is the

maintenance services contracts um

accounting that increase by 483,000

um 281,000 of that is for

2024 encumbrances which were not spent

in 2024 but will be spent in

2025 um 196,000 is for uh increases to

existing maintenance on purchases that

we made in 2024 as well as in previous

years and then the remaining increase is

$6,000 for miscellaneous items and this

is our biggest account there's basically

36 different different uh items or

vendors that we work with with this

specific account and then the second

account is the equipment data processing

account um that increased by

735,000

391,000 of that is for uh 2024

encumbrances again it weren't spent in

2024 but will be in

2025 um

19,000 is for an additional uh data

redundancy device that we would put in

our second secondary data center which

we established earlier this year and

then uh the remaining 19,000 is for um

anticipated increases in the annual

munus fees um this total is offset by

$19,000 on items that we completed in

2024 or um the encumbrance would be

rolled into 2025 so the completed items

are not included in the 2025 budget

on the departmental divers diversity we

have six males one of which is Asian and

one female and we have one employee that

knows gujarti and Hindi which are both

Indian

languages we have no vacancies in our

2025

budget and we have no grants or special

projects in the

budget we also have no arpa projects in

the

budget there are no new positions in the

2025 uh year-to dat budgets um the 2025

budget does align with our 2024 spending

totals other than the items that were

outlined in the budget changes question

earlier and there are no instances where

our 2024 spending exceeds what we have

in our 202

budget and none of our uh salary

increases exed to 2% for

2025 uh departmental highlights 2024

goals uh we implemented the asset

maintenance phase of the munus migration

project uh earlier this year in the vmc

and as of uh earlier this week uh since

February they've entered over 1,200 work

orders on behic at the

vmc um we've also continued work on the

remaining phases of of that project uh

the those phases are human Capital

Management tax billing and

collections uh licenses permits and

codes enforcement and this kind of

addresses uh the question about uh the

planning Bureau with Jeff Knight his

will be part of that particular phase

and then the last one is utility

building uh we also completed the

implementation of our core switch

replacement in our primary data center

and that was um to eliminate aging

hardware and a single point of failure

on the network um and as I mentioned we

established a secondary data center um

at another city

facility um in case that we do have any

hardware issues or uh infrastructure

outages here in our primary data

center uh we replaced our storage area

network with new storage arrays in both

our primary and secondary data

centers um we increas improve the

overall uh network speed and reliability

for all of the city-owned facilities

that are connected to the data center

here and we uh completed the

implementation of the arcgis Enterprise

uh platform for our GIS applications we

have more work to do there but we have

the basics in

place and we um earlier this year I

guess back in the summer time address

the issues that um related to the uh

crowd strike update that basically made

every city computer inoperable until we

applied a patch so we took care of that

as quickly as we

could uh goals for 2025 is to REM uh

implement the remaining phases of the

migration

project uh we want to install the

uninterruptible power supply uh device

and upgrade our uh electrical cabinet in

the primary data center uh we have

already removed the old PS and we have

started to work on the electrical work

in the data

center um several years ago we converted

the historical police data from the

Mainframe Metro System um we discovered

there was some data that was missing so

we're in the process of working through

a reconversion of that data into the Cod

system uh we also want to implement

multiactor authentication for all city

employees which will help to reduce any

chance of cyber security attacks

and finally we want to complete another

cyber security assessment with the

Pennsylvania National Guard and this

would kind of uh see how we did uh with

the recommendations that they made from

the previous assessment back in

2023 uh performance metrics uh we don't

have anything specific that we use but

we strive to make sure that uh

connectivity to the network and the

internet is available at all times for

all employees and that all of our

systems are functioning correctly for

all of our users uh we also strive to

ensure that any of the support tickets

that are submitted throughout the week

uh they're reviewed evaluated and

resolved in a timely manner to the

satisfaction of our various

users and then the additional questions

the equipment data processing budget um

that was addressed in the budget changes

question

uh 2025 capital projects uh as I

mentioned implement the remaining phases

of mun migration project and install the

ups and upgrade the electrical cabinet

which uh both of those have been

started uh the completed capital

projects were described in the

highlights

question and the Deferred capital

projects are included in the proposed

2025 budget which was addressed in the

significant budget

changes thank you very much I'm going to

open it up for questions to my

colleagues I'm going to start to my far

left with councilman Jones thank you um

nice presentation no questions thank you

very much councilman

Rodriguez thank you Madame vice

president um thank you for the

presentation this evening no questions

from thank you councilwoman Ross good

evening thank you for your presentation

I don't have any questions

thank you president vowers good evening

I just have two questions for you um so

you mentioned the remaining phases of

the migration so can you please provide

a tentative timeline of the migration uh

from the main frame um so the first one

is the human Capital Management um that

one's taken quite a bit longer it's more

involved and um we had anticipated but

at this point I would Envision an early

third quarter implementation of

that um the second one is utility or uh

tax billing um we're working through a

lot of the issues there I would Envision

probably second quarter implementation

on that um the licenses permits and

codes enforcement again probably second

quarter with that one and then Utility

Billing is the one that we got started

um last um we have provided them with

the data that they need to convert into

munus and that would probably be um a

late third quarter early fourth quarter

implementation thank you and then

finally can you please provide for the

benefit of the public and update on the

operation Municipal migration steering

committee so we we do have a steering

committee uh comprised of eight members

um over the late spring early summer

early fall months we did not meet um

primarily because we had two members who

were not there um now that we have a new

VA on board we have resumed those we

have had two meetings since then we have

another one on Monday and we'll uh try

to keep to our every two week meeting

schedule that we have U had in place

prior to

that thank

you thank you very much Council

Davis thank you vice president green

good evening Mr gner thank you for being

here I just have one question are we

currently incorporating the iCloud

Computing or any artificial intelligence

in the

technology um that's an area we have not

done a lot of research into yet um with

everything else going on we haven't

devoted a lot of time but it is

something that is uh definitely out

there something we are going to have to

to evaluate at some point in the near

future and I'm hoping at some point in

2025 we can get that

started otherwise thank you for your

presentation thank you thank you very

much councilwoman Daniels any

questions thank you very much um are

there any other questions or

comments seeing none thank you very much

for your presentation tonight and thank

you for all the work you

do next we will hear from the department

of building and

housing good evening good even Council

I'm Gloria Martin Roberts inarm director

of the Department of Community Economic

Development and building and housing uh

this evening uh we are going to cover a

uh the Department of Community uh

economic developments business and

economic uh Development

Area

um um this is the only area in the

department uh related to the general

fund and um with that uh we our goal is

to create thriving commercial quarters

increase economic Vitality healthy

neighborhoods create thriving commercial

corridors increase economic vitality and

underst served areas and assist promote

and encourage job creation industrial

activity and Entrepreneurship within the

city

the first question here please provide

an explanation with justification for

any line item that has significantly

increased or decreased compared to the

2024 allocation there are no

increases

decreases due to the general fund

percent uh percentage of the two

director positions changing uh during

the year so we saw decrease in that

our department

diversity we have two black females and

two black

males we have no vacancies in that

area provide an update on any grants or

special progress projects progress

within each

department we are currently working on

identifying uh stakeholders that will be

a part of an economic development

committee so that we can um re uh

redefine a um an document I think that

was given to you probably last year or

maybe the beginning of of this year

which was an outline provided by Jason

Graves um uh giving basically outline of

those areas that he felt uh should be

addressed in an economic and business

development plan that is not um this is

not a An approved plan that was given to

you uh this was a uh document that uh

entertained the areas that we should be

addressing in the city and those areas

would be um items that we would be disc

discussing in a committee that would

also involve Council as well as

stakeholders throughout the

city we have no arpa projects in

business resource

development we have no new

positions with

[Music]

2025 the question does the current

budget proposer for 2025 align with the

year-to date spending tools incurred

thus far for 2024 yes the operational

budget is the same as

2024 are there any instances where

current year-to-date spending in 2024

significantly exceeds the proposed

budgeted line items for 2025 no there

are

none there's no no positions receiving

more than a 2%

increase in terms of that area's

highlights uh you're asking that we

explain the 2024 goals and the progress

made um Jason grave completed the

development of a draft Economic

Development strategic outline again that

was the document I think that was given

to you it was before my time here so I'm

not sure when it was circulated to you

I'm sorry uh during the 2024 budget

hearings okay thank you well that's the

document that he completed um the goal

for 2025 is again to convene a committee

of stakeholders to develop a

comprehensive economic development plan

and we want to use that draft that Jason

provided as a stepping zone for the

committee to begin their work

the examples of a performance metric I

hold weekly staff meetings one-on-one

meetings weekly written reports and

quarterly

reports thank you very much and that was

for the Bureau of business and re

resource

development um that was for economic

develop community and economic

development yes all right right and so

we don't have any updates from building

and housing although I do understand the

majority of

the tasks that are completed in there

are funded through a HUD budget that

runs October to October from correct um

I do believe the HUD uh the ARA programs

run out of the building and housing

department which do come out of the

general fund we have um a home arpa

program uh that is the only arpa program

that is in the department uh it houses

two employees

um and it is a home program uh that um

provides home rehab to the citizens in

the city of Harrisburg it's an

application

process um when I came on board they had

just um uh put out a a call for

applications we received 250

applications um we have uh reviewed 45

of those applications five projects are

in place one of the uh challenges is

that we have several home programs but

we don't have enough contractors often

times to meet the needs of the requests

that we get in so it appears to be a

slow process but the process is because

we don't always have we're sharing

contractors between uh three different

home

programs um however um we are staff are

reviewing those applications

um to make sure that people are eligible

to receive Rehab

Services and um that's it for that

program okay um perhaps I'm mistaken as

to which departments they run out of but

I thought there was an affordable

housing uh development program that was

funded through the arpa funds that the

city got um I thought it was like four

or five different programs that R we

going to run out of the department of

building and housing I can't think of

them off the top I know I correct I know

were home repairs Bridge housing and the

senior program but you're it's not

listed here but yes you are correct

there is an affordable housing program

that should be operating out of this

department as well you're talking about

the H uh hrp program that has been in

existence no no I'm talking about um

when the city received arpa funds and we

went through the town halls and we did

the whole thing and I was here for that

that's but in your department there are

several programs that are supposed to

run out of it so I'm not sure if if you

don't know of hous that's those are the

dollars that were given to Christian

churches

United and downtown da Brett they each

receive

$500,000 to open their doors 365 days

for the homeless

population can we backtrack or we open

the questions um I'm going to open up to

questions from my colleagues I'll start

with President Bowers thank you so I

wanted to clarify since we

are now talking about arpa funding but I

I I do have some other questions for you

so first I wanted to clarify are you

serving as the interim director or the

director I am serving as the interum

Director okay well you introduced

yourself um during our leg legislative

session just the other day as the

Director so I wanted to clarify because

you've been employed now for six months

and six days so that exceeds the 120

day um you're laughing but I'm being

serious because I thought that this I'm

not laughing because it's funny I'm

laughing because it seems to be an issue

with this Council how long I'm going to

be here well you said when you first

arrived I don't mean to interrupt but

you did note that this was going to be a

shortterm stay so I think I'm just

trying to gain clarification 6 months

and 6 days is much longer than well let

me say

this I apologize if I said a director it

is inum

okay okay thank you secondly in terms of

my time here is interim the mayor makes

that

decision and for as long as she needs me

to correct all of the things that have

been outstanding in that department and

there were many many HUD

violations that I can provide you proof

if you need it um that have not been

done and some very major things that put

our federal funding at

risk and so for as long as the mayor

needs me there to clean up that

department I will remain there well I'm

sorry to hear that the department was in

shambles before you arrived because I

thought um given the glowing

um commentary from the mayor and other

members of the administration that the

former director was the end all be all

so I'm sorry to hear that it was in

shambles and now it's coming together

since you arrived well I again I wasn't

here so I don't know what the mayor said

in terms of the former director I only

know what I have to deal with and what

I've been dealing with and like I said

I'd be more than happy to update you on

all those things okay uh I'd like to

move to I have I do have building and

housing questions regarding um the

Department's diversity complement and if

any of the current employees are

bilingual um I have one person now I had

two currently but I have one person

now that's

biole okay regarding the lead program

what is the status of the lead program

the lead program has received

notification that we will be getting

another lead

Grant um we have the director will be

leading uh December 31st he's retiring

but he has made an a recommendation to

us on someone that could just get in

take his place because that person has

been involved with the Leb program for

many years that position um requires HUD

approval so even if we you know

interview we find that person acceptable

HUD has to approve the hiring of that

person okay how many families have been

served through this

program uh in terms of lead yes well let

me say that I didn't come prepared to do

data on the lead program because it's

under the general fund I was directed

that these questions would be related to

the general fund I'll be more than happy

to provide that information with uh to

you tomorrow I do understand that

however annually we do ask questions

regarding the lab program and the home

program um outside of the general front

questions because we do know that um as

it's been noted the majority of the

funding is federal funding okay and then

the final question regarding the lead

program was have we met our benchmarks

but I'm assuming we have since we've

been granted another yes the the the Le

program has been very very successful I

know um High Raves from HUD and um we

have been and I'll include that in the

information for you tomorrow but we have

received the highest Grant in the nation

this time well that's excellent and I

know we took on some work with the state

with their Grant as well so that's good

to know um qu I'll just relay the

questions regarding the home program and

wait to receive a response I'm curious

the status of the home program how many

families have been served through this

program have we met our benchmarks were

any local businesses contracted through

this program Harrisburg based

specifically and were any minority owned

or women-owned businesses contracted

through this program okay now which home

program are you asking for that data for

the home program that's been in

existence forever and ever the hrp yes

the home repair

program now Switching gears to the arpa

funding since that was a

discussion um I wanted to note that

we've been trying to have this

conversation um we first invited you on

September 10th to a work session um you

were not present but you did send an

email so the programs that I was

referencing minus the affordable housing

program all are under your purview so

the home repairs that's the specific

arpa one um the bridge housing which

we've already acted upon and the senior

programs and the senior program is the

one that you have had discussion about

hindes funding yes that was initially

resolution 77 but as we noted that

appropriation was removed from that

resolution so we're expecting I I assume

another reallocation a separate

reallocation to come down for further

discussion there

okay um I did find out in my research

that lick the lick building is under

rehabilitation

so it's it has no money living there so

they have no program I call

HHA um that was

shared um during the presentation public

comment the other day um so going back

to affordable housing since it's it is

or isn't under your purview I don't know

but I do know that there are two project

managers that are operating out of your

office that are designated specifically

for these programs um we haven't had an

opportunity to hear from them either uh

so we're just trying to get an idea of

the status of this funding I think that

if affordable housing is truly a

priority for this Administration then

some action should be taken there are

shovel ready projects that are waiting

on this arpa funding to

complete the projects there is an

outstanding home if we go back back to

the home

um funding from

2019 that was never dispersed it's my

understanding you're working on this for

a project that recently had a ribbon

cutting but they're still waiting on the

funding yes are you talking about bethl

no no no TLC yes I'm talking about TLC

and there those that's that's not our

funding that's I know it's not ARA

funding money it's it's home funding

from

2019

um I have not been all I know is I have

the project that's waiting for funding

from the Community Development block R

from from the federal side home and the

issue with it is um there are certain

requirements that HUD has before any of

these projects can break

ground there were three major things

that had to be done before they had

permission to even break ground those

things were not

done HUD cited us on those things I'm in

negotiations with HUD and now to try to

explain that we had you know a person

leave um that these things were not done

and asking basically for reprieve so

that we can provide funding or pay TLC

for their home that's the status of that

thank you I just had one other question

and then I'll defer my question is

related to the economic development

draft plan that you mentioned um now

mayor Williams during her budget address

shared that you found the economic

development plan uh to be in accurate I

did ask why she told me that you're

you're smart so I wanted to ask you

myself why did you find this uh plan to

be inaccurate well yeah let me let me

say that the plan it's not that the plan

is inaccurate okay it's not a plan it

was never intended to be a formalized

plan it's an outline that was provided

by Mr grave as a starting point to begin

to talk about and discuss economic

development in the city giving some

basic guidelines of what cities do to

improve Economic Development the areas

that are like type municipalities as

ours and so forth so that's the

difference it's not a plan it was meant

to be an outline he can speak to

that is that accurate Mr Graves yes that

is accurate okay thank you thank you for

providing that clarification cuz I I I

know that you did spend some time right

putting that together so and I wanted to

clarify the authority you had to deem

that it was inaccurate so thank you for

clarifying that it was not a plan simply

an outline I don't think I have any

other questions I think you provided

Clarity on the things I needed thank you

you're welcome thank you president

Bowers uh I'm going to start the

questioning uh to my far left with

councilman Jones thank you um yeah just

regarding uh the TLC from the

understanding um after looking into some

of this in 2019 as president Bowers uh

stated this money was already supposed

to be awarded to TLC and then um the new

Administration came in um and something

didn't happen with that money so can you

tell me again what you're saying about

that 6 I'm telling you I don't know

anything about that I will have to check

that out um like I said I am fro with a

lot of things that were not done um and

I will check it out and get back with

you that's the best I can do I can I can

tell you this that um I am fighting very

hard to get HUD to approve the

$600,000 is because that's what we're

talking about that goes to uh TLC

because they have done a fine job I did

tell HUD that um they were an

outstanding

developer we want don't want them to

walk away from our city and not want to

continue to help us Revitalize our city

and build our city up and so I'm waiting

to get a response from them I have had

to send to them uh other requests for

workout plans for things that were not

uh taken care of I'm happy to announce

that last week they gave me approval on

those two plans so I'm waiting to hear

from HUD on this and as far as the 20 19

I'll have to get back with you okay so I

I'll just um hold my questions until we

actually get you in your team in front

of us and um some of the questions that

uh president BS presented so uh I have

no further

questions thank you very much uh

councilman

Rodriguez thank you madam vice president

thank you um Miss glor Martin Roberts

for joining us this evening um I just

had a similar question to madam

president um I was just concerned about

the statements with Mr Graves um just

highly alarming when they say uh maybe a

director is inaccurate or the work they

he done wasn't right so that just kind

of threw my antennas up but thank you

Miss laer for being on top of it I just

look forward to seeing how that folds um

no further questions for me thank you

and you're

welcome thank you very much councilwoman

Ross good evening to you both thank you

for being here um most of my questions

um have been asked and answered and I

know you'll be sending us

information the only additional question

that I had was um I know you had

mentioned that uh with the economic plan

that the outline um that there would be

uh some type of committee formed uh uh

so I guess I would have two questions

with that when would the committee be

formed what's the time line for that and

um what exactly will that outline look

like like what are the things that they

will be exactly working on cuz we got

that a while ago um so just to refresh

so um what's going to be actually asked

upon as far as anybody who's being a

part of the committee um basically the

everything that's actually in the

outline so we'll break every down

everything down to to work groups um

perectly with everybody that's Bally

from the council's there going to be

involved with this because you are

different committees and you also do

represent the city of Harrisburg itself

so we will be breaking I will probably

like to meet with individual each one of

you guys and actually figure out who

wants to be a part of what group so we

can actually break things down and

actually start these committees going

forward so I know I've been with uh uh

representative Jones to a couple of uh

Community Council meetings um and also a

couple other committees across RS the

city so it's just trying to figure out

who can actually be involved in the work

group because we don't want to overwhelm

it to the point where we're getting

bombarded with a bunch of different

things just trying to keep it

streamlined to the basis so we can

actually grow on that okay and when do

you think like you would want to say yes

this committee is formed so I would love

to have something

form perfectly around the time probably

within the second month of the first

quarter that' be great if I can actually

I'll send each one of you probably

individual email probably directly to Mr

trale to actually sit down and talk

about a timeline when we can actually

start okay and um would members of the

community be invited to be in this group

of course counsel but okay yes so along

with a couple other like the several

committees I'm involved with we've been

having discussions about this so it's

just picking basically individual people

so we can actually have a group

committee versus just having multiple

people in multiple in different groups

so it's not overwhelming yes correct so

you're saying you would have different

groups yes with multiple people so it's

not and I would like like saying I would

love each of you to be a part of those

groups because since you do represent

each part of committees and

represents the city as well okay yes I'm

very interested in that um whether I'm

in the group or just more updates about

it I

think uh we truly do need some type of

economic plan for Harrisburg um we the

capital and I don't think that um enough

is

happening with us being the capital city

I think there is so much more that we

have to offer um and it is just we're

not moving I feel like we need to move

forward much more than we are we have a

lot of forward thinkers we need to hear

what our community members have to say

um people here at City all have this I

mean there are just so many things I

feel like Harrisburg could um be doing

and um how we could be more Progressive

in moving into the 21st century so I am

very interested in seeing what this

Economic Development

um plan is going to look like what these

focus groups are going to look like and

how we move forward so yeah you are

absolutely correct because again we have

to show more than we are just just the

capital so we do have to the thing is we

have to work together I that's been a

longstanding thing amongst the city of

Harris where you have a lot of different

groups and you have a lot of different

individuals looking for basically self-

serving things so how do we actually

pull everything together to actually

work together as one to make things

happen yeah I completely agree and I

also think that we can be the blueprint

for a lot of stuff we don't have to be

what every other city is um but that we

can Implement our own thing

are for us and people come to us and say

how did you do that um you know so I

think that that is we can be the

innovators as well so thank you um I

look forward to um updates and um

keeping keeping us posted on that and

how we can um all be a part of it so

thank you that's it for me you're

welcome thank you very much councilwoman

Davis thank you vice president green my

questions have been answered and I'll

just wait just I'll we talk and I'll

wait for the updates to come thank you

thank you councilwoman

Daniels thank you

um I don't really have any questions I

will say uh it's more of a statement um

I'm a little disappointed that we

haven't made as much progress as I

thought we would have uh with the

economic development plan uh it it's

been about a year to the day since we

got the original outline um I know that

it was supposed to be a presentation

given to the

a March April time

um I know the

a said that they offered to help us with

the development of economic plan um I

know this is something they've really

been pushing for uh and especially with

the city's past um is a is a

economically distress City it's

important for us to have that blueprint

for us to be able to move forward with

so um I'm just disappointed that we

haven't made as much progress as I

thought we would because that was a a

pretty robust outline um and to say that

we still have that same outline 365 days

later kind of just seems like it went

and sat on a show somewhere and it it it

felt like what it looked like which was

lip service you know so a year later it

feels like it was lip service you gave

us a document to say you had a document

and nothing was done from there um and

we also have to think about the way that

a true economic development plan impacts

the city um because it should impact our

zoning updates right um we are looking

to update our zoning code if we want to

have that mixed income uh that mixed use

type of infrastructure structure that

should be part of our economic

development plan that should be driving

the way um Mr Knight was just here

talking about the comprehensive plan

that was started way before it was

passed in 2020 um and that should be in

like that should be integrated into our

economic development plan but it should

also Drive the updates to our

comprehensive plan um right now

essentially without um updating the

comprehensive plan up without uh a true

economic development plan it kind of

seems like we're letting developers and

whoever decides to come into the city

run the show as to the city's future is

going to look like and that's truly not

acceptable um so I just say that I'm I'm

greatly disappointed and I look forward

to this committee being developed and

true work being done in 2025 because um

you know we're in a year four of this

Administration I know a lot of work has

been being done but um I think this is

one of the most foundational things that

we need to do in order to really Drive

our city in the right direction and say

we have a plan and know where we're

going so that we can actually measure

ourselves because if not we can say all

these great things you know we've got

all these buildings going up we've got

all these new things going on but

without a plan it's just kind of like a

chaotic mess driven from people driven

by people from outside the city and

that's not what we need it's not what

the residents of Harrisburg deserve uh

to make sure that their their future is

secure as well so I look forward to to

seeing that come um and you know let's

let's actually get the work done this

year councilwoman I appreciate those

comments because I have talked to the

members of the ice board also and you

are absolutely correct they're not

pleased

um with the fact that uh they're not

pleased with the uh document that we

have um they don't believe that's a real

document um that like you said it's lip

surface and I couldn't agree with you

more and but we will be moving forward

thank you I look forward to that I would

like to make one comment on there I um I

do understand that where everybody is

coming from the people who do think it's

lip service but I wouldn't say it's not

actually lip service um a lot of plans

that have been going as far as the

buildings and some of the Committees and

stuff that are actually formulating

plans across the city are going to be a

part of this plan either also committees

and part of uh developments that I've

actually been a part of that make them

actually happen again I have to actually

state I'm only one person so that's why

I also want to state that I actually do

want to work with everybody I do and

everybody knows for the most part here

you can probably mention somebody

mention me to somebody within the city

and know who I am are actually spoken

with me or actually needs to contact

with me so I do understand I do app

appreciate the comment and yes I will

try to buckle down a little bit more and

try to streamline a little bit more

things and try to Zone in but I am just

one

person all right and please don't take

it as as like a personal attacker that

we don't appreciate the work you do um I

I do understand you are one person um

and sometimes it just is you know having

that singular focus in this is this is

the most important thing you know my in

my position right now is really focusing

on this um and I'll say at least for me

I think that that that's something we

really need to to make for sure that we

uh we we focus on because I think it'll

really help move everything else a

little easier um and really you know

just create that plan so that you know

you don't have to do it all um you know

step by step each time it's kind of that

plan laid out um and then two uh I'll

say this not just about your position

about what about any position uh we have

to make sure we have these plans in

place to make sure that Legacy continues

because you hit the lottery today no

guarantee you'll be here tomorrow and if

all the knowledge leaves with you then

it doesn't do us any good so

but please don't take it wrong I do

appreciate the work any other questions

or

comments seeing none thank you all for

your presentation tonight uh looks like

that covered the Bureau of building and

housing and the Bureau of business and

resource

development next we will move on to the

Bureau of communications

good

evening hello city council um I'd like

to introduce myself I am Michelle Moyer

I am the new director of communications

I'm seven days old today so go easy on

me um Melissa has has um

graciously is graciously going to give

the report obviously I did not um have

the data but I definitely wanted to

introduce myself and say hello to all of

you good afternoon president B City

Council Members it is an honor for me to

be here and present the communication

buget the department overview the Bure

of communications is responsible for

internal and external Communications and

marketing for government operations of

the city of haris is responsible for

graphic photo video audio and

Information Services like City 311

system and eron have Des the bureau

organized news conference Issues new

releases News letters and media

advisories as well as online and social

media

Communications the buau communic ation

also manage media relations and

multilingual services such as document

translations and in-house

interpretations organized informational

events and campaigns manage the wbg

channel 20 the government access to

cable television channels and stations

and keep the city official website up to

date departmental

diversity raise and ethnicity two white

females one white male one black male

two iic Latino females bilingual two

Spanish speakers multilingual one

intermediate French and no in Chinese

speaking significant budget change there

are no vacancies there are no arpa

projects there are no new prisions there

are no rol with salary increases

exceeding the

2% year to-day budgets question does the

current budget proposal for 2025 align

with the YTD spending to do incur thus

far in

2024 yes our budget is based on trends

that are consistent however our Contra

services and supplies accounts have a

slightly increased for

2025 year to-day budget are there any

instances where current YTD spending in

2024 significantly see the proposed

budgeted line items for 20125 no there

are no current lines or spending for

2024 that significantly exceed the

proposed budget nevertheless we will be

increasing our office equipment line for

2024 approved amount of $6,000 to

$15,000 W hbg Channel 20 needs upgrade

to Studio cameras and Studio lighting to

LED features and we can now assume conas

is going to address this in the new

franch franchise

agreement 2024 depart departmental

highlights our primary cing 202 before

has been the redesign of harp.gov which

will be launching next year we have

continued to work towards a new

franchise AG gr agreement with concast

the law Bureau is leading these efforts

Channel 20 has produced 120 videos and

70 live streaming including planning

meetings City Council meetings press

conference and the holiday parade

Channel 20 has made updates to our

studio space including temporary walls

that they are building collaboration

with a facilities Department which give

a stud a new modern look we led a second

conversational Spanish class in June

with two different schedules morning and

evening the Spanish series was launched

in July to provide easy access to

important permits and business licenses

translated 25 documents into Spanish for

the C Bureau Health office events and

City engineering and provide

interpretations of an average of 100

cases per month through the city

government

this is the One-Stop shop look for our

new

website next

one this is some of the our content that

we have in Channel 20 uh what is the

world harbard is the toll show we had

Studio sessions that's showcasing

performers and we have employee

Spotlight at 10

questions we also had a help in harrisb

a mental health discussion and we had a

har Min that it was on the summer that

is a little um a little tips for diet

and you know to get a summer apps

Harting forat it was a Spanish series

that we had residents to get connected

with permits and easy access

linkes okay so that was a different

slide yes so we have Gary jilan that is

a building brid that was one of our

videos that it was more popular in in

Channel 20 we had a holiday p8 uh we had

a conversation at par flyer and we also

participate this year in the

Multicultural table at the capona

event 2025 goals resume what is the work

har this will be presented by our new

director of communication who is excited

to come out with a new content that

channel 20 is working to increase

audience subscribers and followers on

all social media channels our deputy

director of communications is currently

working on a pilot word side Spanish

class for the Cod departments we also

currently learning to utilize a WhatsApp

business instant messenging to offer to

our Spanish speaking residents who need

qu information access using the 311

system performance

metrics are there any example of

specific metrics benchmarks departments

used to evaluate that ESS of their go in

2025 annual performance review We

generate monthly reports based on

subscribers visitor look and program

content in Channel 20 and YouTube we

have 1,400 subscribers and we can see

the trend that how many views do we have

we had an average of 55,000 views in the

video we had also Facebook um that we

had 251 21,000 subscribers and average

of abuse is

164,000 we had the X X we have 6,120

followers we have Instagram with

3704 followers we have Mach that is our

newsletter 3, 279 subscribers more than

361 ticket resing the 311 he Des Martin

Luther King visit or L 68 people on

average week

question what is the purpose of the

$10,000 allocated for miscellaneous

Contract Services archive social is a

social media cing Cloud that tracks

record requests and compliance it is a

beneficial insurance policy in case the

city ever has his social media subjected

to the right to no loow this service

cost

$7,500 the rest that is 2,500 will be

covering 311 system and Verizon

bills thank you so much

thank you very much for your

presentation I'm going to open up to

questions I'm going to start to my right

with councilwoman Daniels this is budget

related but um for my edification when

does the comp guas franchise agreement

needs when does it need to be

renewed that was that is f in 2020 and

we are right now working with a law

Bureau that maybe that could provide you

a very update yeah it is it's it is

expired but they just continue to make

the payments under the agreement um it's

one of the things that has been back

burner uh just because of volume of

other things because it's an

ongoing the relationship doesn't change

at all like other contracts that end so

they they've had various people assigned

that have come and gone we've had

various people assigned that if come and

gone there's just been a lot of stops

and starts along the way and the last

attorney who worked on it for us uh

departed here several months ago and he

had reopened the negotiations with them

uh with their with their new person uh

he had two different people he

negotiated with and that's really the

last thing that's happened so it just

has to be put back on the table to be

finalized that's it for

me thank you councilwoman Davis thank

you vice president green good evening

and thank you for your presentation I

don't have any

questions thank you president Bowers um

I I have I think two questions um the

first is related to so during the time

when the former communications director

left and seven days ago when you arrived

who was

managing um The

Bureau me you were yes okay and there

was nobody else that you had to report

to I was reporting director to the mayor

okay just want to clarify that thank

you uh and then

my other question is related to press

releases I know that are they all housed

on the website or is there somewhere

else the members of the public and

residents can view press

releases we do publish uh Pro releases

on the website mainly we also s a media

contact that we send email and M email

as well some depends so when for example

it's important meetings that we we are

in the in the city we also posted on

Facebook

and um X well oh okay I didn't know they

were posted on social media I was

looking for one I think that was sent

out either yesterday or today and I

couldn't find it usually meetings we

posted on the social media mediums okay

thank

you thank you councilwoman Ross a good

evening welcome to you both um and

welcome new to the city

uh uh thank you for being here tonight I

don't have any questions just look

forward to I guess you coming in front

of us for communications one time just

to let us know what your vision is what

your plan is for the city and what's

what goals you have in the

Communications Department I I would love

to do that um I did I didn't know if you

would want it or not I did bring my my

resume um and the job description and um

I do also I don't I don't have copies of

it but I do have a 30 60 90day vision

for the communication Department oh yeah

that would be great um I'm sure someone

will contact you about how you can um

like when we could hear that from you or

you would send it to us because I know

tonight is most mainly about budgeting

which I mean your goals does go into

that but I look forward to hearing um

you know the plans you have for the city

you're

welcome thank you council member

Rodriguez thank you m Madam vice

president um thank you for joining us uh

I look forward to following um you know

work you be doing in Communications I

looked you up a bit and I appreciate the

work you've done in recovery um just

look forward to hearing more plans from

the Department of communications and um

that's all I had as far as my sentiments

no further questions thank

you thank you very much councilman Jones

thank you no questions thank you very

much uh I don't have any questions for

you myself uh thank you for introducing

yourself to us thank you for the work

that you've done stepping into those

shoes as it was vacant so we appreciate

that uh you know going above and beyond

uh and for your presentation tonight

thank

you next we will be speaking to the

Bureau of Licensing Taxation and cental

support

yes very nice

excuse me sir supposed to give

give know the name

good evening whenever you're ready

please feel free to introduce yourself

give us an overview of your department

and then your presentation then we'll

open up for questions uh yes good

evening city council Mike Hughes tax

administrator and with me I have Janelle

Ward the deputy tax administrator

uh we'll start off with a department

overview um briefly describe what your

department does the Bureau of Licensing

Taxation and Central support builds and

collects Mercantile business privilege

parking and amusement taxes as well as

as various license fees for the city and

the Harrisburg School District uh this

unit also administers the dog licensing

program and manages all activities

associated with the city's burglar and

fire alarm program

a civil collection program is in place

to collect all delinquent

taxes uh the bureau also includes the

duplication Center which is responsible

for the hand handling of the Daily Mail

incoming and outgoing uh specialty

mailing such as trash bills and property

taxes processing print jobs for All City

departments and the distribution of

office

supplies um our mission statement the

mission of the tax enforcement office is

to administer the city of harrisburg's

local act 511 tax and Licensing programs

fairly efficiently and accurately while

providing top quality service by helping

taxpayers understand and meet their tax

responsibilities we also strive to

enforce the law by precisely and rapidly

collecting current and delinquent tax

revenue and license fees

uh in addition I just wanted to add uh

we also collect revenue for uh the

police department which is actually dog

license and false alarms along with the

fire false

alarms um we also collect Health license

and Fire Prevention fees for the co

Department uh and Zoning fees for new

city-based

businesses uh the significant budget

changes really we just have one uh we

were decreasing our filing fees by

$30,000 uh the explanation um we had

anticipated more court filings at both

the county and mdj levels and that

didn't occur this past year there's also

was some shifting of our paralal time uh

due to increased landlord related

activity uh along with additional delays

in the

service um from the court both VIA mail

and or sheriff or constable uh there was

also increased turnover at the uh local

mdj office that we use in the Staffing

and that kind of slowed uh down the

whole process for us in addition I don't

have it there I'm sorry but there was

also you know the vacant collections

attorney and the law be that we were

using earlier in the year um she got

promoted so we lost that that person at

that point in time um but overall our

budget is actually down from from last

year

so on to departmental diversity we have

six females and one male uh two black

and brown and five white our age range

is from 28 to 64 we have one bilingual

employee also add I've been uh a city

resident for over 30

years and um also that the range uh of

employment of our employees ranges from

two years to 33

years we do not have any vacancy in our

department uh grants and special

projects isn't applicable uh neither is

the arpa

projects uh or no new positions

okay uh year-to dat budgets uh the

current budget proposal for 25 does

align with the Year date spending totals

incurred thus far in 24 yes uh are there

any instances where current year-to-date

spending uh in 24 significantly exceeds

the proposed budget line items for 25

no uh on to roles exceeding 2% um none

of our management positions exceeded a

2%

increase U we completed the evaluation

process want two departmental

highlights uh our 2024 goals and

progress that was made um first goal was

to continue to increase Revenue over the

prior years through active

Collections and when we get to the end

we will show initial slides of our

Revenue to address this so uh second was

to continue to implement the Tyler mun

system in hopes of providing more

efficient service and additional payment

options for

taxpayers um as Steve from it spoke you

know we're still in the process of

implementing that um he's forecasting

the second quarter of of next year for

our

section um also under there we we had to

continue to direct customers to use the

currently available online value pay

system and we have noticed in the daily

reports that more and more people are

taking advantage of that option for

license renewals uh and we had also

added uh basically advertisement on the

back of our license renewals on how to

use the online payment system so that

seems to be working better so uh

additionally we wanted to Contin

continue to improve customer service uh

to accommodate taxpayers uh with our

office hours uh which are 8 to 4:30

which exceed the building hours uh while

also timely answering phone calls emails

and sending out uh written

correspondents um you know taxpayers

regularly do provide us with feedback U

whether it's in person or email and in

regard to the options that we have

available uh and how timely we are with

our

responses um unfortunately you know we

do get complaints um uh when people show

up in person and it's after 2:30 a

particular day and we can't accept cash

or credit and we can't send them to

treasury um next we wanted to finalize

the ongoing transition of scanning all

of our internal

documents and clean up the old accounts

um we made a large dent in that but that

is still continuing we have quite a

large number of uh old documents that

we're catching up on the scanning

with uh we would also like to see some

of our higher dollar uh civil collection

cases uh move forward uh into the county

court um some progress has been made in

2024 uh however this is still

ongoing um as for our goals in uh

2025 want to continue to promote

voluntary tax compliance plans through

education communication and

Service uh we also want to continue to

transform the customer service

experience and modern modernize the it

systems uh to improve and enhance Tax

Administration and collection two of

those kind of go hand inand together and

both will be linked uh once we get the

new munus system platform uh up and

operating um we also want to continually

improve collection efforts and revenue

for the city

uh for performance

metrics um we'll show you this in our

upcoming Revenue slides our key

performance indicators include tracking

collections Revenue year-over-year along

with meeting and or exceeding the

budgeted Revenue

benchmarks uh while it's harder to

measure our customer service I do stay a

breast of on the positive and any

negative comments customers may have in

regards to our service hours ease of

making payments and any other General

comments that are mentioned when we have

interactions with

customers we did not have any additional

questions and now we'll move on to uh

our Revenue

slide all right uh the first slide um it

shows our our larger Revenue items that

we collect um I'll direct you to the

bottom line of the overall revenue of

these items if you see in

2020 uh we brought in 6.9 million of

these combined items and it's been a

Contin

continual increase all way up through

2023 to

7.8 uh and we're also at 7.8 for 2024

however we still have the month of

December and uh forecasting we should

hit 8 million uh by the end of this

month um but in addition to that we with

our other Revenue that we collect we

annually bring in over $10 million in in

total with all our license items and and

all the other things we collect

on all right so we're going to go into

the specifics of the individual uh taxes

uh the mertile tax you can see here back

in 2020 we started at 2.9 Million uh and

it rose up to

3.2 uh in 2020

2 uh and then it leveled off in 23 and

24 is a little below that number at the

moment

um and I'm going to speak about this at

the end of the presentation on why those

numbers are what they are we were

expecting them to be higher and I'll

talk about why they probably are so but

if we move on to the next slide um this

was our prior year delinquent

taxes um coming out of the pandemic you

know that spiked um because we had all

that extra time to devote to this

without customers coming in um so that

number really spiked and hit you know

half a million dollars uh and then it

went back down and it since leveled out

and and kept consistent that way so U

similar the the penalty also kind of

spiked coming out of the p pandemic on

that collection went back down and now

has started an upward Trend uh since

then uh interest is the same spiking

after the pandemic and then dropping

back down uh and remaining consistent

since

so now as far as Amusement

tax U we hit an all-time low during the

pandemic um because there was no public

events happening um so since the

pandemic it's uh continued to rise

strongly uh and in fact in 2024 we had

an alltime record in the history of the

amusement tax uh we're at

421,000

so as far as the parking

tax you know during the pandemic this

started dipping

down uh and then started to get a slow

recovery uh in 2022 some slow increments

into 23

three and um we're in the position right

now in

2024 um factoring in what I anticipate

through December we should be up to 3.9

Million by year end of 2024 so it will

continue to show that

increase however we still haven't gotten

back to where we were in

2019 uh pre pandemic we were at about

4.2 million back in 2019 you don't see

it on the slide but that's where we were

um you know attribute a lot of this to

the the remote working and the impact

that is had on the on the

parking the next slide shows uh the

revenue this year that we've collected

for the school district uh both in

mertile and amusement taxes and you're

familiar with that we just had the

contract last week

so uh we have additional um

miscellaneous

statistics show our auditing collections

for the current year uh over 800,000

which our our Deputy tax administrator

collected through audits our two pargal

through civil collections they attended

31 hearings at the mdj level and they

collected over

500,000 uh in taxes uh from from those

cases uh year to date we've also issued

456 mertile licenses 141 landlord

licenses and 178

uh vendor

licenses next slide we have some

statistics from our duplication

Center uh there was over 360,000 copies

that were run in the duplication Center

in

2024 uh we had over

35,000 uh pieces of specialty mail that

went out

41,5 72 trash bills that went out year

to date and there was

[Music]

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parking tax is on a slow slope

upward I've also witnessed our team take

more initiative in assisting training

and collaborating with other departments

to more comprehensively address issues

that we come across I'm proud of our

team and how they have persevered

through adversity during the past two

years while our overall total revenue

collection has increased we have shown

some dips or stagnant numbers pertaining

to the mertile tax graphs as you

saw the numbers for 23 and 24 have been

very difficult to piece together since

the treasury has not entered and

allocated these payments to the proper

individual tax accounts or to the proper

line items which include current year

tax prior year Delinquent Tax interest

and penalty instead these monies were

segregated to a holding

account as a result we were forced to

create our own tracking mechanism for

tax returns and payments received while

making over 10,000 detailed payment

entries before sending the tax returns

and payments down the treasury for

deposit any tax returns and payments

that were made directly to treasury via

the Dropbox or the mail during this time

were not forward to our office thus the

small percentage of revenue for 23 and

24 is unaccounted for in our

numbers the additional time that our

Deputy had spend coding all this Revenue

significantly impacted the time that we

should have devoted to revenue and

license generating

activities we were notified by the

treasurer at the end of July 2024 that

he has now instructed his staff to start

entering payments properly as they did

prior to

2023 uh in conclusion I'd like to thank

my team which includes candy Lexi

Carrera Tyra Brenda and most importantly

my Deputy Janelle they continue to find

ways to improve customer service

increase Revenue collection streamline

processes train and assist other

departments and work towards the greater

good of city

government it's important to note that

the majority of the tax money that we do

collect is not born by City

residents I'll I'll take any

questions thank you very much um and as

always thank you very much for the

thorough presentation uh and all the

information you provide to us uh I'm

going to open up the questions I'll

start to my right here with a

councilwoman

Daniels councilwoman Davis thank you

vice president green thank you for being

here director of bordner and U Miss

Ward I'm sorry Mr Hughes director Hughes

I wrote director Hughes down and I said

something

else um no I just wanted to thank you

for your presentation and thank you for

continuing to look forward for ways to

improve customer service and um ways

that our citizens can pay their taxes

but otherwise it was a great um

presentation so thank

you thank you president

Bowers um I don't have any questions

again thank you for our uh aesthetically

pleasing

presentation in a folder annually we

look forward to it so thank you for that

and thank you for the information

regarding Treasury and the small

percentage of Revenue that's missing so

thank you for that that caveat there I

don't have any other questions thank you

councilwoman Ross good evening to you

both thank you for being here I don't

have any questions thank you for your

thorough

presentation councilman

Rodriguez no

questions thank you councilman

Jones I guess I'll break the no no

questions

all right um I don't have any questions

either once again thank you for your

presentation uh thank you for your

candid honesty uh about um the different

things going on in the building

especially with the treasury's office uh

I will say the the half the times that

I've interacted with your office uh it's

been nothing but a pleasure uh I hear

that from residents all the time as well

um and so hopefully we can find a way uh

to alleviate some of the things with the

Treasury Office uh to just make things

more convenient for the residents

makeing sure that they're able to make

any and all payments without being

inconvenienced of having to get off

early or figure out a different way to

get in here so thank you very much

you're

wel all right I think that wraps up most

of our bureaus here and will take us

down to the general expenses and

transfers and then the other

funds good job

good evening whenever you're ready you

can begin your presentation okay uh very

good uh good evening city council

members uh thank you president Bowers

and vice president green uh Brian

McCutchen accounting manager and I'm I'm

calling upon Mr trusdale to be my

wingman uh for the

PowerPoint um and this is tough I I have

to follow Mike and Janelle's

presentation you know and might mine is

not exactly up up to their standard but

um uh this is an overview it's it's 133

14 slides uh the the first piece is

General expenses and this is within the

general fund and uh the what this fund

or this budget unit really represents um

it's not it's not

department-based uh it's sort of a

landing uh zone for expenses that are

not really allocated specifically to

individual departments uh our medical

claims are included Ed here workers comp

claims unemployment claims uh Insurance

related items including uh premiums and

deductible amounts that the city has to

pay um and there's also some uh special

uh dispersements that relate to uh uh

close entities to the city um so again

the the Personnel piece or uh the major

object account grouping of a Personnel

includes 13 million in medical and I

know you're familiar with our medical

claims that the city has experienced

this year we're we're anticipating a

better year next year but this is still

a significant increase over uh the 2024

proposed budget also the um uh the the

the MMO for the non-uniform pension plan

as I mentioned earlier that that is

increased and this is captured um within

uh the general fund uh or the general

expenses budget unit um moving down to

services and and these are major items

that represent that particular uh

account grouping uh stoploss coverage

which is an insurance uh items against

occurring medical claims uh 500,000 and

250,000 and these are legal uh liability

related when it comes to handling uh

what the city experiences and claims and

related

expenses and um the the property

insurance I I described that uh

previously about it has gone down but

it's still a significant number and that

particular number actually covers three

policies property crime and and

cyber the last item is the other

category which relates to as as as the

items are described there the support of

funding for uh operations for the

Redevelopment Authority uh the

continuation of the free parking

downtown parking program for next year

and then also the city has continued to

provide local support to uh the

Transportation

Authority uh which is cat or Capital

Area

Transit uh the next slide is transfers

again this is general fund still three

major uh full full transfers here uh The

Debt Service fund uh the city has a

required minimum payment it makes to the

to those particular bonds

you you may have heard them referred to

as the Verizon tower bonds or the

Commonwealth Tower

bonds um next is the Harrisburg Senators

fund which is coming to a completion

early next year uh that's the ongoing uh

Stadium upgrade project and the general

fund has been funding

that and there's also an expected

reimbursement to occur uh later next

year uh through an arap arap Grant

fund uh the 5 100,000 is new uh for 2025

and this is the funding to start up uh a

deposit uh for the uh the fire truck

apparatus that the fire Bureau has in

mind for next

year um so that completes the the last

two significant budget units for the

general fund um moving on to uh next

slide please thank you Jared special

Revenue funds there's two the the state

liquid fuels fund and and this is uh

Public Works has oversight over this

specifically

engineering um the total budget of 2.6

million for next year with a heavier

focus on streets and Roads projects

including uh what's in mind for uh Barry

Hill Street and Sycamore Street uh this

fund is funded through through com the

Commonwealth through pendy there's an

estimated allocation that the the city

receives uh in the fall of every year

for the upcoming new year

uh the next fund I believe we touched

upon this last night uh with with Parks

and Rec uh their input the host fee fund

um and this is it's it's overseen by

that department but there's an increase

in the budget for 2025 which is really

attributed to the the

$500,000 that has been uh proposed for

allocation to the Broad Street Market uh

restoration

project um this fund is uh funded

through uh the quarterly amounts the

city receives of the ACT 101 uh fee and

that that results every quarter from the

resulting uh disposed refu refu

tonnage uh Debt Service fund um this is

a governmental fund and quite simply

it's fed by the general fund funding so

we can so the city can pay its related

uh Debt Service um and that that relates

again down to the the second half of the

slide which is the 1.25 million as I

mentioned the Verizon tower bonds what's

up above is actually funded by the

liquid fuels fund uh it relates to a

infrastructure bank loan which occurred

it was a 10-year loan and the the paving

project was the South Harrisburg Paving

project which which which happened

several years ago uh so we're getting

closer to the maturity on that

particular uh loan debt

uh next slide please uh a capital

projects fund uh another governmental

fund um expenditure of of six million uh

for

2025 majority of which is uh various

streets and Roads projects uh in in the

budget book on page 224 there's a

detailed breakdown that shows uh the

individual streets and Roads projects

there's

about uh 8 or nine of them and also

there's a funding column that shows uh

the related grants that are in play now

for 2025 there's no funding transfer for

the general fund uh because of the the

amount of Grant proceeds that we

anticipate coming in uh should be more

than enough to cover uh the intended

budget their projected budget of six

million for next

year um that includes oh sorry Jared

could you back up just and also not just

streets and Roads there is a a bridge

bundling program through the county uh

there's I believe about three or four

Bridge projects that they're uh they're

trying to um improve the condition of

those bridges okay thanks

jar uh the last

fund proper uh for and this is a

proprietary fund uh the Harrisburg

Senator fund and the numbers are large

but it relates to what uh Remains What

is coming to complete the stadium

project and uh the the reason it's 16

million it's it's it's 10 for the actual

uh construction cost or Improvement cost

uh but there's A6 million doll um

Capital program Grant award the racki

award and as you know the all along this

project has covered uh multiple Years

starting in 2023 the general fund has

advanced funding to get this project

project underway and and to where we are

right now so the uh anticipation would

be to receive the the rack PE Grant uh

later in the year and then the Senator's

fund can reimburse the general fund so

that's the the other $6 million

expenditure to to get the general fund

reimbursed

um vice president green if you want I

the the last seven slides relate to the

special funds do you want me to pause at

this point to have field any questions

on what I just discussed yes we can um

open up for questions I'll start to my

far left with councilman

Jones no questions at the moment

councilman

Rodriguez councilwoman

Ross no I good evening no I don't have

any questions at the moment it's very

detailed thank you president Bowers no

questions thank you councilwoman Davis

no questions thank you for your

presentation thank you councilwoman

Daniels thank you I don't have any

questions either all right um okay the

the last seven slides in in my

PowerPoint relate to the the the seven

special funds uh a little history here

um years and years ago under uh previous

mayor Reed administrations there were

funds or or project funds set up that

were classified as trust and agency uh

which really that that they really

weren't of that category because at the

end of every year they weren't

Standalone the the the the expenses and

revenue would always have to be returned

or reclassed back to the general fund

for our our audited audited financial

statements um so in

2015 and also back then those funds were

not subject to appropriation procedures

so uh coming along in 2015 under the U

the mayor papenfus

Administration um what we did was create

these new funds these and they're called

special funds they're not special

Revenue funds because they don't meet

the classification we still have to

include them in our general fund when it

comes to our audited financial

statements but at least they're on the

surface now and they're subject to uh

your your awareness uh budget wise and

and there's specific line items that

that represent revenue and expense for

each fund um so this first fund is the

blight fund blight remediation uh it's

of a codes nature

uh as far as the uh budget units that

are uh relate to it including uh Salvage

permit penalty and uh the Foreclosure

property registry uh the budget for 20

2025 is

144,000 that includes a $100,000

interfund transfer support to the

general fund and the rationale is it's

to uh be supportive or applied to

expenditures that uh relate to the the

Bureau of codes

Revenue sources are listed there uh

recycling Revenue uh from Demolition

mitigation fees uh building permit fees

and any realized Revenue that may occur

on foreclosure

property uh the next fund is uh more of

a public works uh nature uh a special

events project reimbursement fund and uh

the expense budget for next year is2

,000 there's just one budget unit that

that accommodates that uh this fund has

also interfund support for uh two of the

city's funds including the general fund

and the neighborhood services fund uh

specifically city services which is more

on the the the sanitation side of

neighborhood services so those two

transfers of 100K each make up the

budget for

2025 and uh primarily the revenue

sources which are listed there include

other recycling revenue and any any

Public Works generated

Revenue uh as as an example um for

Public Works in in the general fund this

would there's there's a range of budget

units in the general fund which is which

includes um traffic and Engineering uh

vehicle

maintenance um and also the um uh

special or U I'm sorry the facilities

and special projects budget unit

okay fire protection fund uh this is a

smaller budget uh mainly because it's

we're trying to utilize this as a

savings there's one budget unit within

it uh the sharp team it's a I think

that's for special hazardous assistance

and response uh program uh the fire

Bureau overlooks this uh the revenue

Source Revenue sources include those

particular items um fines and cost occur

U more frequently than than than the

other items um the general fund is

contributing the $500,000 to this fund

to again help build up a uh an

availability to fund the the purchase of

the the new fire truck

vehicle uh there's also the police

protection fund uh the budget is is

$600,000 for next year with uh three

budget units uh the federal forfeiture

which is really where the city when the

city's police work on uh cases in

involving uh Federal

Representatives uh the the results from

that can can achieve uh forfeiture type

Revenue that can benefit the

city

um the oh I'm I'm sorry Jared wasn't

wasn't quite quick enough

uh the $500,000 inter fund transfer is

another one in support of the general

fund and you know the logic being that

this will help support uh the police

bureau's expenditures for next year and

the revenue sources are listed there uh

one of the uh more significant items is

that act 120 uh reimbursement from from

the state police uh that that pertains

to when the city has uh new Cadets on

hand and they go to train their proper

training um at at hack uh there's a

eligible reimbursement to receive uh

that fund to um to be uh deposited

within this fund as as as the related

expense are are also in this

fund so that's police uh the Parks and

Recreation fund um this is separate than

what what's in the general fund which is

Parks Recreation and

enrichment but this is like an add-on

fund again there are three budget units

which relate to benefiting City Island

Reservoir Park and there's and other

events budget

unit this also includes interfund

transfer support to the general fund and

neighborhood services at

$125,000 each um general fund it would

be related to Parks wreck and enrichment

and specifically to the neighborhood

services fund this would be applicable

to the parks maintenance piece of of

Neighborhood

Services and the revenue the various

Revenue sources are listed there

including Park permit fees licenses

permits um and other uh program or or

supporting

contributions um small fund uh this one

the wh uh BG TV fund uh very small but

it's uh we're budgeting a $10,000

for uh the Communications Department

really oversees this and there there

will be some available budget for for

needs that would arise for next year

there's not amount there's really not a

significant amount of income as you can

see that relates to it it's it's

primarily sourced by the uh generated

interest

income uh okay the last slide is the

events fund and over

$516,000 for for next year's uh budget

and the revenue and sources include uh

again licenses and permits those are

vendor fees that when vendors show up to

to to City events that the city host

they have to pay those

fees um also there's sponsor and uh

other contributions that support uh the

various events that take place through

the year uh this year there is grant

funding uh budgeted um from the state uh

to support a capital outlay for the

Riverfront Park

pavilion and that's the last slide

thank you very much I'm going to open it

to my colleagues for questions I will

start to my right this time with

councilwoman Daniels no questions

councilwoman Davis no questions

president Bowers I don't have any

questions thank you councilwoman

Ross thank you I don't have any

questions I'm glad to see a Riverfront

uh Park pavilion I think that's used a

lot for um concerts right the one right

by the hospital in that area are you

mean I'm sorry

oh the one they going to build right oh

that's at the Civic Center that's the

smaller one at the Civic Center and it's

it's not it's not mobile it's to stay

put and and yes no I I totally meant

that it's just like get the two mixed up

I know one I think Harrisburg University

uses a lot but it's not a pavilion they

build a stage oh okay so I but I forgot

yes by the Civic Center to hold more

like entertainment events for weddings

and other things I I appreciate your

comment I I should mention credit should

go to our our events uh manager Court

Nate Cameron she's involved with uh the

budget when it comes to this particular

fund oh yes they did mention that and

talked about it thank you

sure thank you councilman

Rodriguez hope

it's thank you very much he say hope

it's not too loud something something no

questions no questions all right yeah

that would have been a tough question to

answer I don't have any questions

myself no no

problem um I don't have any questions

myself thank you very much for the

presentation of these other funds I

think it's important for the residents

to be able to see all of the budget um

not just the ones that are are have

specific department heads so I

appreciate you giv this presentation uh

and letting people know all the fine

details that are in it as well so thank

you very much okay thank you right vice

president green and thank you city

council

thank all right I believe that covers

the 2025 proposed budget um and all its

grander uh I will open it up for public

comment now um housekeeping rules please

keep the four minutes state your name in

the area in the city which you reside I

will start to my right is there any

public

comment anyone in the center any public

comment any one to the left public

comment I appreciate everyone who has

attended the budget hearings um these

last four days as well as everyone who

has participated online um I appreciate

the residents who've sent in questions

online or spoke to different council

members uh with their questions or

concerns or spoke with our our city

council staff as well I also want to say

thank you to the city council staff for

all the work that they've done to

compile uh the information get us the

presentations and slides reach out to

the the various departments so um your

work doesn't go unnoticed um and it

doesn't go unappreciated thank you to

the solicitor's office for for making

sure that uh everything's in order and

making sure they're constantly sending

us updates um to remind us of things

that will trigger certain uh advertising

requirements or different things

throughout the budget process so uh it's

all appreciated and it doesn't go

unnoticed uh I think I will see if there

is a motion to adjourn

now not on you're not

here

anybody wants to leave I'd like to um

say one thing before we adjourn and i'

just like to thank vice president green

for facilitating the budget hearings she

did a great job keeping everything

moving and I just appreciate your cander

during this so thank you and I make a

motion to a journ

thank you thank you

both we are now officially adjourned um

this is off the Record but still uh

remember we do have a meeting next

Tuesday which will be a legislative

meeting the work is not done to my

council members if you have any

amendments please send them to Jared um

and he'll compile them and and get them

all out to everybody thank you