2026-10-28 - City Council Budget Review

00:01All right, well, we're going to get this started. We have a special meeting scheduled for tonight, Wednesday, October 28th.

00:07A special meeting was scheduled for some general business and our budget review, which includes our finance committee and public safety committee.

00:16So we'll start with a roll call.

00:18Ms. Gerlach.

00:20Here.

00:20Ms. Santos.

00:21Here.

00:21Mr. Binder.

00:22Present.

00:23Ms. Moda.

00:24Here.

00:24Mr. Napoli.

00:25Here.

00:25Mr. Pungo.

00:26Here.

00:26And Ms. Zaffa.

00:28Mr. President, you're all here.

00:29Great, thank you.

00:30So this evening, we're going to start with a presentation from our auditors who have reviewed the city's five-year plan.

00:37Their report is available on the agenda on the website.

00:41After that presentation, we have our managing director will give an overview of how the administration got to the proposed budget.

00:48After that, we will review the budgets of the finance department and public safety pursuant to council rules.

00:55Those portions of the meeting will be chaired by the respective chairs, chairperson Pungo for finance and chairperson Afa for public safety.

01:05And afterwards, there will be budget bills introduced and the full schedule of our meetings are available on our website and our social media pages.

01:14So first up is a presentation of our outlook just so everyone knows how we got here.

01:21Back at our July 15 council meeting, we passed our 80, which was a resolution authorizing an independent five-year financial analysis to evaluate the city's current and long-term financial outlook in anticipation of upcoming capital projects and a potential pension modification.

01:41Mar Dusel was contracted and was tasked with reviewing all the city's financial data and providing outlooks, which would help guide my colleagues and me through our upcoming budget process.

01:52We received the results of the study last week and I'm pleased to welcome Jeff Kent from Mar Dusel to provide details of the study and take any questions from my colleagues.

02:03So we can start with Mr. Kent.

02:06Hello. Can everyone hear me?

02:08Yes, we can. Welcome. Welcome, Mr. Kent.

02:11Thank you. Nice to be with you all.

02:14So, yeah, I'm here to kind of give a high level overview of the work that we've been doing.

02:22As was mentioned, we were kind of tasked with you always do a five-year plan just but just with everything going on with some of the contingent items.

02:35We were kind of asked to review that plan, but then also layer on some scenario analysis.

02:41So that is what we'll go through. And there's a PowerPoint that we prepared that kind of guides through the discussion that that kind of supports a more detailed report that that we've also provided.

02:53So I know I see that it's on the screen, so I don't need to share. So so, yeah, the first slide here, what we were asked to do and how we did it.

03:02So, so, yeah, we, we obtained the city's initial five-year plan and kind of rebuilt that plan based on all of the assumptions that were provided and made sure that our results matched the results of the city.

03:19And then we, we, we related that that plan to noble things such as the most recent audit, which was as of twelve thirty one twenty five, we then layered on the known risks, you know, notably the police drop plan.

03:43The storm water fee that is currently in question, the report talks about health insurance claims, and then, and then information on how the plan supports new debt.

04:00Now, your initial plan does include a certain level of new debt issues. So, in terms of kind of the layering on, it's mostly related to that we did is mostly related to the police drop and the storm water fee.

04:15And then the, the city's plan measures the, the result, its results against the fund balance policy, which, which provides for a minimum fund balance of seventeen percent of general fund expenses.

04:33So, we'll talk about that throughout this handout as well. This is just some high level information on the plan that the city put has already put forth twenty seven, twenty two, twenty five.

04:50Twenty seven is a balance, but balanced budget essentially, but then after twenty, twenty seven, you, your plan shows annual, annual deficits in that range of the three point one to three point eight million.

05:09Your, your available year and available balance, which is what you measure that seventeen percent fund balance against changes over that five year period from thirty eight point five million twenty four point seven million.

05:25And then two thousand thirty is based on the way you're measuring that that minimum balance two thousand thirty is when it kind of dips below that that minimum requirement.

05:41This is just kind of some high level information on, you know, I guess why the you're seeing those deficits after twenty twenty seven and it's not a big gap, but you're obviously you're a big city and you're just small percentage differences can create deficits.

06:01But you're starting in twenty eight I mentioned earlier the three point one to three point eight you can see kind of the, the spending gap between the spending versus revenue gap and that really is basically your revenue.

06:20You're showing at about four percent a year increase spending at about four point five percent so that even that five point five percent creates kind of a gap.

06:32That would accumulate quite substantially over time and yeah, I'm just just going through the boxes on the right there the obviously personnel drives the biggest portion of your spending that seventy seventy five percent of your spending.

06:52So that's over the four over over four point five percent a year about four point seven and and kind of already talked about the fact that that gap is just kind of a consistent structural gap.

07:09There's a, I mean, there's a lot of assumptions that went into the, the, the city's five year plan. This slide just kind of highlight some of the more significant ones.

07:19It is no notable that, you know, that first line, the real estate tax, your, your plan does kind of assume some average tax increases of about two percent, but then also about two percent increases on assessment.

07:35So, so some value, a combination of about valuation increases and tax increases and then you can see kind of the, the growth assumptions and revenue you have about a two point five million dollar vacancy adjustment that starts in twenty seven and kind of increases.

07:58According to wages in future years, the health insurance we'll talk about a little bit later is a significant assumption that six percent might be on the low end when you know, when you're talking about risks that you're you're using six percent a year.

08:15Your, you know, the, the trend reporting that you obtain that that six percent is kind of on on the low end of the range your in your, in your base five year plan.

08:30The just assumes kind of a normal increase and then there's layered information. Like I mentioned on the, on the drop that's factored in later and then your, your debt service.

08:46So, your, your base plan assumes about thirty million dollars of new debt in twenty, twenty seven for capital and then another twenty million in new debt in twenty twenty eight for capital.

09:03This is just a summary of the results of of the base plan without the additional storm water or drop impacts.

09:14So basically the bars show that available balance. So when I, when, when, when I say available balance based on the city's major, you're using basically a liquidity major operating cash balances to measure against that seventeen percent policy that you have.

09:35So that the bars represent that, you know, the projection of that cash balance based on where you're starting with the deficits factored in and then the lines, the horizontal lines that kind of step up through over the years that that represents your minimum policy level to seventeen percent level.

10:02So you can see there just illustrates what I said earlier in terms of that, that operating cash balance that you use to measure starts to drop under that line in twenty thirty and then twenty thirty one.

10:25Now we did kind of discuss through the process that your, as I mentioned, your, your, your policy, the seventeen percent policy, you're the major you're using to compare that to is, like I said, operating cash.

10:44The policy does use the term unassigned fund balance, which is not necessarily operating cash. So, um, I think, you know, this, we had to kind of, we discussed the recommendation of just kind of clarifying that policy to, if your intent is to use operating cash and not the unassigned fund balance to maybe, maybe clarify that, but, but, but they are two different things.

11:10And this slide kind of shows the bridge between the two. So on the far left, the forty two million would be that operating cash balance. This is as of the end of twenty twenty five. Your, your general fund unassigned fund balance is text technically sixty six million.

11:28And, and the kind of in between those bars are things that you, you basically don't consider in, in the major that you use for that for that fund balance.

11:41So some of the big things in it, the, you have a separate reserve, which is the stabilization fund. So you're not including that. And that's part of, I think our recommendation is to just clarify the role of the stabilization fund in your fund balance policy for financial reporting.

12:03You have some funds outside of what you would define as your general fund proper. That's the five point one million. Those are funds that you don't consider part of general fund resources and they're listed kind of at the bottom right box there.

12:23The rental unit building code, building code equipment, housing trust and Hamilton. Those are all for financial reporting shown in your general fund.

12:36And then the eleven million is just other cash balances that you don't consider operating cash or short term cash.

12:46And then the six point three million is you're, you're, you know, you're using cash major, your financial statements have accruals in it.

12:57So that has receivables and payables so that that's that six point three million is the effect of those things. So, so I think that it's really just a takeaway from here that you you're the way your, your policy is worded.

13:16You're you could look at it two different ways. Those two different ways do in some cases give different answers.

13:26So we would recommend just clarify that this just illustrates what I just said the yellow line there is your, your seventeen percent the dark blue bar is the measure you're using that operating cash.

13:48So this is similar to the other illustration where kind of in that twenty thirty and twenty thirty one range is where you dip below that.

13:58And then the light blue bar is your unassigned fund balance adjusted for the deficits that you're projecting over the five years.

14:08So just just this is just further illustration of everything I said on the previous slide in terms of that, that difference between your operating cash and your fund balance.

14:22I mentioned that your, your base plan includes fifty million of new debt thirty million and twenty seven and twenty million in twenty eight that kind of goes towards the overall capital plan of in the range of one hundred and thirty four million.

14:47So that's what the plan assumes in the in the first five years is fifty million. This illustrates kind of that the dark blue being the existing debt and the light blue being that that new fifty million.

15:02And it kind of illustrates that the way your debt is structured in this plan, your existing debt starts to go away or decrease substantially in that after twenty thirty six, which creates room for additional capital.

15:25Like I mentioned here, the fifty million is really just part of the overall the overall capital plan. So then the next part of the presentation here gets into the additional items layered on top of that base plan that has been prepared.

15:50The first item here, the police drop, which hasn't been approved yet, but the actuarial study puts that the effect of that in a range of between one point one million and three point nine million.

16:09So in these scenarios, we have that starting in twenty twenty eight since your your MMO is essentially set already for twenty seven. So if that was approved, this assumes that the first year of likely impact would be twenty eight in the case of the storm water fee.

16:34We're we've seen this looked at a couple of different ways. A lot of governments look at it in terms of the impact. If it was considered a tax, the impact being on only tax exempt properties.

16:49I think you've received feedback that in your case, based on how your charter is written, if it was a tax based on current, your current charter, you would not have the ability to levy the stormwater fee.

17:05So these this scenario or this illustration kind of assumes the the drastic case of that whole stormwater fee revenue going away with with really nothing. No other measure to to replace it.

17:21So, in terms of that chart, the dotted line is that seventeen percent minimum fund balance. The blue dotted line is the city plan, which you can see kind of consistent with what we've seen in other illustrations shows it dipping below in twenty thirty and twenty thirty one.

17:46And then obviously the full stormwater fee, if it went away five point four million dollars, that would pretty drastically deplete your, your available cash if that went away each year, starting in twenty eight.

18:07So, so that's the yellow line. This really just shows the impact of that five point four million going away if if it doesn't account for potential refunds.

18:24And on the flip side of that, you do have a fun balance in that fund that that you would that you would be able to carry forward health insurance. So we don't have an illustration on the health insurance in terms of like the if you were outside of that six percent.

18:49But this just kind of illustrates some of the risks related to to the health insurance. So, as I mentioned earlier, your plan assumes a six percent a year increase your most recent study has the range of six percent between six percent eleven percent.

19:09So you're using kind of that low, the low end of that range. You have the middle box there just kind of illustrates that, you know, in twenty twenty six, your, you did have some difficult experience and had to transfer some significant amounts to the risk fund.

19:31Part of the transfer in twenty twenty six also related to twenty twenty five experience where that you also have a minimum fund balance in the risk fund and as of the end of twenty five you dipped below that.

19:46So part of part of, I believe that twenty twenty six transfer was replenishing the risk fund fund balance. And then this kind of, I'll take this step by step, but it, it kind of pulls everything together in terms of the again, the dotted line being the minimum balance that dark blue line at the at the top that ends in twenty four point seven million.

20:19That's your existing plan. The blue range below it that has twelve point two to twenty point three at the at the end of it is the effect of if if only the drop was implemented and there was no storm water fee loss.

20:41It shows kind of that range of of where you'd be over the years. So your balance would be down between twelve point two and twenty point three based on that drop range.

20:54We discussed earlier the light blue dotted line that ends in the three million is similar to the storm water only chart that shows the storm water only and not, you know, and not the effect of the drop.

21:10And then that gold range shows kind of the the worst case scenario with both of them where your range would where you'd essentially by twenty thirty one being me in a deficit position if if nothing else was done.

21:29If you, if you did lose that, that full storm water fee and and implemented the drop starting at twenty eight. So just some summary of things we've talked about obviously that there's that gap between your revenues expenses that starts in twenty twenty eight.

21:51That creates a kind of a consistent deficit each year. We talked about the policy clarity just kind of shoring up your intent on the on the fund balance policy and the large known risks.

22:05I think that when you get into the drop and the storm water fee, these are not small things there, you know, the drop has a big range. The storm water is a pretty large amount each year.

22:22And and so looking at each each of those things that is pretty significant. So these illustrations, like I said, show them kind of in a vacuum as if nothing else was done.

22:40So if you're, it doesn't assume other action, for example, if you did, if you did lose that storm water fee or if that storm water fee was considered a tax contact information here. And then I think after this is an appendix that has some more detailed information that I won't go through.

23:02Just kind of a summary of this, this page is just kind of a summary of your, your existing plan without that layered the layered items for the drop and storm water. And then scenario assumptions, which we mostly covered.

23:21And then I think the last page is just some some definition. So the appendix is mostly informational, but certainly happy to answer any questions that you might have on any of the information we discussed.

23:37I appreciate that the, I know it's a busy time. So appreciate all of the time and information that that being in her team provided us through the process.

23:50Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ken for that presentation. Any questions or comments from my colleagues for Mr. Ken Mardusel.

24:07Go ahead, Mr. Pongo, go ahead.

24:09Thank you. And I just appreciate the effort that went into this, both from the administration and as well as Mardusel. I know this is a quick turnaround we know we asked because, you know, we felt there was a need for more information and, and I think this does shed a lot of light there.

24:24And I think for the folks who are maybe seeing this for the first time, I think the biggest clarification here, I know we see a lot of graphs that point downward.

24:32And I think that's basically saying that unless we take additional action. So I think there were some assumptions noted. So whether it's the, the, the tax increases of 2% as well as some of the assumptions on growth and revenues in some other areas.

24:47You know, this graph shows a negative correlation in that sense. And the only way to kind of stabilize that would be to take some additional action, whether that's creating additional revenue or raising any of these other assumptions.

25:00So whether that's like tax increases or anything like that, correct either Mr. Ken or the administration, I think that's my understanding of the graph and so folks out home and here understand that, you know, the picture this paints is, you know, action will need to be taken to correct.

25:16Any deficits in order to keep our balance budget and our, our 17% minimum balance.

25:23Okay. Thank you. And Mr. Bender, go ahead. Thank you. For slide four, just, I guess the question I'm having is, is that representation, assuming that we are doing a 2% year over a year increase just to even maintain that.

25:42That's correct your 5 year existing 5 year plan in 28 through 31 and being a correct me if I'm wrong in anything I'm saying, but that existing 5 year plan assumes an average 2% tax increase on real estate.

26:05And then not a tax increase, but it assumes some increases that you'll, that you'll get through kind of assessment, you know, construction type assessment increases.

26:19Yes, that is accurate to the assumption is overall as to 4% increase changes in property value assessment value and then small increase of property tax rate change. So it's assumption is 2% increase in property tax and the 2% revenue will be generated from additional assessment value increase in value.

26:47Okay, but that's so basically regardless of the scenarios that were run that graph would be true with with those proposed increases. Okay. And then on slide seven where it outlines the percentages.

27:01So if I'm if I'm reading this correctly, this is not my my area of expertise, but so the, the finance operating cash or the 42.2 million so what this is making that assumption is that some of these funds or these columns are restricted so we're not counting them as part of that initial graph on page seven.

27:23And is that how I'm understanding correctly? Yes, that's accurate. So we have other funds, as Jeff mentioned, the building code fund, the rental union fund, those revenues are specifically designated for those funds.

27:38And so we, that's why they're not, we don't have access to that to run the journal fund.

27:44Could I just piggyback off of that one? Yes. So, I'm just curious so the stabilization fund in particular I think you know there's a recommendation to kind of dictate that I'm curious so our stabilization fund how do we utilize that and, and is there a reason we don't count it.

28:00So that I believe that was created in 2013 and that is like insurance policy for the city there's an ordinance that was created and I will look into that unless Mike has some background on that but I think that it was created when we leased our water and sewer for long term.

28:25And so we don't have access to that cash to run our normal operations. And that's why it's not included as part of the journal fund cash that we can use to run the operations to pay the risk.

28:48Part of that agreement that they would create some of the money for a stabilization fund, rather than spend all the money.

28:57And then on for pitch for that same the same graph, that's assuming the 20 and 30 million capital in in that that chart that we're seeing on slide four that's the one with the two.

29:11Yeah, so the capital borrowing in 2027 that's built into that five year operating plan is that 30 million bond issue in 2027 and 2028.

29:27So in total 50 million capital improvement geo bond issues built into the plan. Okay, and then I think I asked this and I saw the response but just some understanding it, the, the public works that presented that plan with the multi year of impact

29:47study on the various assets that the city has. That's part of that initial 30 or that initial 50 total capital that you had incorporated that does that how I understand that.

29:57Yes, you're correct it that's part of that plan in 2027 and 28, and Mark will cover Mark Shah had covered that more during his meeting but it is included in the capital, the capital improvement plan.

30:11Okay, thank you.

30:14Anyone else. Any questions comments. I do, I do want to mention that there are many different assumptions that can be taken based on how we want to handle things going forward.

30:26So, Mr. Kent and Marty soul did agree to provide us the tools to use that those formulas and future use so, as we decide, or as we, as we come up with options and how we want to go forward we can continue using the tool to help us understand

30:45better the five year projection and how it impacts our budget long term. So, that's something that also came out of this which I thought was really helpful.

30:53So, any, any for controller for now, now this time okay just wanted to offer. Okay, I think we're we go with Mr. Kent. Okay. Thanks again, Jeff, appreciate all your help.

31:08Thank you. And, and we'll be in touch as we continue to move forward with these. This form is this formula in this tool.

31:17Thank you. Yes, thank you. Have a good evening. You too. Okay.

31:24We're gonna move to phase two. We have our managing director Mr. Frank Kane, he's here tonight to give an overview of how the administration got to the proposed budget, and take it away.

31:38All right, we have a, we have a PowerPoint for you that I think should be coming up any moment now, you're going to talk for two minutes.

31:59So, all right well I feel like I can, I don't know who's gonna have to filibuster.

32:08I'll move slowly and maybe we'll catch up with the slides. The city of Allentown's proposed top line budget for 2027 is 257.3 million, which will be up any minute.

32:21That includes every income so okay, that includes every income source, every pastor every fund that sustains itself independently we have a number of what we refer to as enterprise funds I think we just heard about some of those in the last presentation.

32:33Really, they're just programs that sustain themselves and cover their expenses through fees generated to operate those programs, you back those out, we are left with a general fund of 153 million for next year.

32:49And that's the number that really matters. And that's the number that our discussions here will affect.

32:55It's the way we receive revenues mostly through real estate taxes and earned income taxes and the way that we spend that revenue is the discussion that mostly we're going to entertain as you go through your budget process.

33:07So a general fund next year will be $153 million and the combined millage rate that we are proposing is 7.67, slightly adjusted for a small increase. You've all seen the mayor's coffee and donut slides to $1.75 or less per month for most residents of Allentown.

33:28Can you change the slide?

33:31So this is where the money comes from. You've seen the slide before. I'll take a moment to point out that the top two are earned income tax and real estate, real property tax.

33:43Earned income tax is not as stable as real estate taxes. You're more likely to always collect your property taxes. Earned income tax can change if we have a large employer that has a problem. If we have a bad economy or recession that cuts too deeply, that number can move down more quickly than we'd like.

34:03So just be aware of that as we move forward.

34:07So where does the money go? You've seen this slide before too, the next slide, where your dollar goes.

34:13Most of your money goes to public safety, but also public works, codes enforcement, parks, and the other things that you see there.

34:24So when you look at that, we're talking about a budget. We should define what a budget is. A budget is both a spending plan and a statement of priorities.

34:32This administration's priorities are public safety, economic mobility, and community engagement, and this budget that we're proposing allows us to deliver on those promises at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer.

34:43You all ran for office because you have your own sets of priorities and things that you care about as you represent this community, and our hope is that the spending plan that emerges from this process is inclusive of your vision as well.

34:56So I'd like to take a moment now to show you some slides that you haven't seen before. So the next slide is how did we get here? How did we compile this document that you have in front of you?

35:05We're proposing $153 million general fund for next year, $152,997,000 to be exact. That's actually 1% less than last year's revised general fund amount, which was $155 million. Inflation was around 4% this year. Payroll energy costs rose significantly.

35:26We still managed to present a general fund that's a percent less than the revised fund last year.

35:33So if the balance that we're proposing has gone down, why are we proposing that we should adjust the millage rate up?

35:43It's the most obvious question that you could ask. $2.5 million in police and fire grants sunset in 2026. A mill is about $5 million. It's a half mill of our taxes right there. We also have increased costs and inflation and fuel and energy costs are all on the rise, so that's how we arrived at this place.

36:07So the first thing we did was we ended post retirement health care for new hires effective January 1st, 2027. That's a benefit that is a vestige of times long past and no one really expects it anymore.

36:19Our SEIU bargaining unit and our non-collective bargaining employees are leading the way in this endeavor. We've taken a first step as we negotiate the FOP contract that we're very near agreement on, and we'll have to negotiate with the firefighters in the future, but it's just a benefit that people don't get.

36:39We won't see a benefit financially from that this year or next year, but over time it's the right thing to do for the enterprise.

36:46So the next thing we did was we discontinued coverage of GLP-1 medication for weight loss in 2027. You'll be covered if you have a medical condition, but for weight loss we've removed this medication from our plan.

37:04In 2024 to 2025, July to June, we spent $470,000 on these medications, and the next year, 2025 to 2026, over the same period, we spent $1.2 million.

37:18Through the end of the year, we're likely to be over 2 approaching 3 million, and if we didn't do anything, next year could be 4, maybe 5 million, so again, it's the right thing to do for the enterprise.

37:31We plan to right-size capital projects. Initially, we proposed to you a police station that would cost $40 million, and a fire and health building that would have cost $65 million.

37:44Public safety hearings are later this evening. I don't want to steal either Chief Stunder as they discuss, you know, the things that they want to do, but you should know that it's a difficult construction environment.

37:55Contractors would rather do private work that has less restrictions, and they have lots of opportunity to do that. Tariffs aren't helping anybody.

38:02The interest rate climate is much less favorable than it was very recently, so we're going to transition the police station into more of a renovation of existing space and kind of forego much of the expansion.

38:17That's going to allow us to consider doing this project a different way, which is under GISA legislation, which is an energy efficiency provision in the state code that allows us to, for one, it'll be a smaller project.

38:34So we'll borrow less, but then the money that we do borrow, we can pay a portion of it out of our energy cost savings, so it'll present at double savings.

38:44The fire and health building, we've made some changes. We've removed health from that equation, and we've gone to a different location.

38:54We've made some design changes, and we expect that we could save $20 million or more on that from 65 that we initially proposed down to 45.

39:05So what does that mean for next year? In next year's budget, it means we will borrow $30 million instead of the $41 million to $50 million that we had initially they shrank.

39:20You saw the shrinking. I thought I was going to have the clicker. I'm sorry.

39:26So the debt service next year on the $30 million will be just under $8 million rather than $12 million or more.

39:33So that is a substantial savings that both of our--I have to say thank you to both of our chiefs who are--I mean, they were instrumental in making these moves.

39:44We're still going to undertake a number of capital improvements that include things like a parks maintenance building to move 40 city employees from a dilapidated barn into more appropriate conditions.

39:54We're building a new salt storage shed to be able to double our capacity from 3,000 tons to 6,000 tons, which doesn't sound all that exciting, but it lets us buy in bulk up front under contract pricing instead of paying triple when we run out halfway through the winter.

40:08We have a number of safety, pedestrian safety improvements from the highlighted areas on our safe streets for all plan.

40:15So I mean, we have that.

40:19So we'll take a moment to talk about the cuts.

40:22We asked each department head to identify a 10 percent reduction to their non-personnel operating budget.

40:29This--nobody was happy, but our philosophy was it's better for them to identify what they can--what they can cut than for us to come in and cut without knowing their operation.

40:40You all recognize that gentleman, Doge, the Doge guy?

40:44That's the way that we don't want to do it.

40:46We could go in and do what happened under Doge, the Fed--you could get the Department of Revenue so that you can say you did.

40:54And then you get--then you act surprised when the federal government takes in less revenue than--takes in less revenue, and the reductions end up costing more than they potentially saved.

41:04We could fire a bunch of employees, pay them not to work, and then rehire them.

41:08But that's sloppy, and it's not in anyone's interest.

41:11So we had a different approach.

41:12The next slide.

41:13This is the Mayor Turk scalpel.

41:18We took a scalpel to the budget, and we looked at the--we looked at what people proposed to us, and we made cuts that made sense.

41:28But in some cases, we didn't make--we really didn't make any cuts.

41:32So the first example is the Allentown Fire Department.

41:35The Allentown Fire Department operates with 144 firefighters.

41:39In 1975, the city's complement was 156. In 1975, Allentown had 106,000 residents, and our fire department had four--twelve more members than it has now.

41:51We require 29 firefighters to be on shift as a minimum staffing level, and their non-personnel budget is mostly equipment and vehicles that really can't be responsibly cut.

42:01We just had the largest fire in Allentown's history this past year. We really can't make cuts in that area.

42:09Our EMS department is the only operating department that is revenue-neutral and realizes its own revenue and even brings in a bit of a surplus.

42:20So it doesn't make sense to reduce the tools that enable us to do that.

42:24You know, they're a very bare-bones operation. A local events venue approached us to provide services, and we were unable to both serve the community and commit to that contract because of staffing.

42:34That would have been $160 per hour per event, 200 events a year.

42:38If you do the math, that's--we wish we would have been able to take advantage of that contract.

42:44There's no way we responsibly can. We had to decline, but we added two positions into the EMS department rather than cutting anything.

42:52The same is true mostly for police, and any reductions there or more because of the unfortunate reality that it's very difficult to hire police officers.

43:02But the result is there's been no--we in no way compromise public safety. It's our top priority.

43:09But where we were able to make meaningful reductions, it'll withstand the budget pressures of 2027, the post-scalpel slide, please.

43:18Our IT department deserves a big thank you. They were able to cobble together a million dollars in a combination of software licensing,

43:26renting servers rather than buying, and other IT things.

43:31I'm not a tech person, but Jerry will go into more detail with you when you do the IT budget session.

43:38But what's important is we were able to identify a million dollars in savings there.

43:43Parks. I'm going to be honest, this is one of our most difficult--this is one of our most difficult departments.

43:50We cut a lot out of parks. And those cuts are going to be painful.

43:53They're going to affect our ability to provide services in the parks, especially rec programs and special events.

43:59We're going to have to carefully examine our approach to special events going forward.

44:03You may see slower trash removal and restroom cleaning schedules.

44:08But, you know, when you're faced with the difference between parks or public safety or other things,

44:14these are difficult decisions we have to make before we go to the taxpayers to ask them to pay more.

44:20Also, much of parks is funded through the partnership and trexler funds, but we took a large chunk out of operations.

44:28Health. We cut $81,500 from a budget of $823,657. And that's money that's needed.

44:37It's money that would have been used for larger trainings, for supplies, for a health needs assessment.

44:43And it represents a lack of new programming as well.

44:46If we had our choice, we would have moved money into funding our violence prevention program.

44:50Maybe that's a choice we'll make together with city council through the amendment process.

44:56In 1993, the health department had 39 employees.

44:59And in the 35 years since, it has only added nine employees, but it has added 10 new program areas.

45:06And the city has expanded in size.

45:08Our community and economic development department is big.

45:11$2.9 million in operating funds.

45:14We went through a number of recommendations and netted out at a responsible 5% cut, which represents $131,600.

45:22We planned to scan and digitize documents.

45:25We planned to automate some processes.

45:27We planned to give everyone in the department access to some computer programs.

45:32And we planned to do a mobility study.

45:34Those are the things that we removed.

45:36Public Works has a huge $16 million, $0.2 million operating budget.

45:44And we were able to -- you know, most of that -- much of that is vehicles and supplies.

45:49And they're things that you can't really cut.

45:51But we were able to -- we were able to remove training and professional development.

45:55And we removed some outside services.

45:57Now that we're fully staffed, we can do engineering services in-house almost entirely.

46:02So those were cuts.

46:05But, you know, we actually found value in adding two positions to our fleet maintenance staff in order to turn emergency vehicles around

46:12and put them back into service more quickly for fire and police.

46:15But we still netted out at the $900,000 in savings, or about a 5.6% reduction.

46:22Now, along with these cuts, we added some things in priority areas.

46:28As I already mentioned, we have the two EMS paramedics and the two vehicle fleet mechanics.

46:32But we identified a single point of failure in our benefits department.

46:36One person in the entire city handles benefits for an employee complement of $900.

46:41If that employee ever quits or has a really bad week,

46:44somebody is going to have to learn capital blue cross-coding quickly.

46:48So we added a second person there.

46:51We had to cut our operating budget in parks.

46:53But we were able to add one maintenance worker that's funded by the Trexler Grant Fund,

46:58which doesn't have an effect on the operating budget or our personnel budget.

47:03We also added a full-time employee in the controller's office, which was long overdue.

47:08And we have a very competitive golf course that we're very proud of here.

47:12And so we added an employee there to make that a more attractive place for people to work.

47:19So when we ask you to approve this plan, that means an additional $1.75 or less per month for most Alantonians,

47:28we hope that this information that you get through this upcoming budget process

47:34will help you make the case to the community and to your constituents

47:37as you decide and we make this our budget together.

47:40Okay. Thank you, Mr. Kane.

47:48While we have our managing director here, any questions or comments from the dais or the administration?

47:56Okay. Okay. Thanks again.

48:01So next portion of this meeting, we're going to move into our finance department budget.

48:06I'm going to hand things off to Chairperson Pongo, who chairs budget and finance.

48:11And you can work on this portion.

48:14Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.

48:17And I'd like to again thank the administration for presenting that.

48:20I know we've had already some other engaging financial conversations.

48:23So I look forward to passing this over to Director Patel

48:26to just give us a breakdown of specifically the finance department's budget

48:31and some of the information related to that for this year's upcoming budget. Thank you.

48:37Okay. So we thank you for the opportunity for me to walk you through what's in our finance department's budget.

48:50So we are a member of what we had 36 full-time employees and four specialized bureaus.

48:58So we are the financial backbone for the city's operations, as you heard from Jeff Kent also.

49:05So our focus remains on maximizing efficiency and maintaining complete transparency.

49:14We take pride in being transparent.

49:16We also support our staff in their personal and professional growth to better serve downtown.

49:23So half of our staff is front-facing.

49:26We are helping customers when they are coming through here at City Hall,

49:31paying on their bills or answering phone calls.

49:34So we take pride in that, but we also want to make sure that we are taking care of all of our employees who are helping Allentown taxpayers.

49:44Next slide, please.

49:45So our overall budget, we are, as I said, the support department.

49:51We support our departments, other departments within the city and also taxpayers that come through at the windows or on the phone calls.

50:01Our overall budget, we are proposing at $18.2 million.

50:06Please note that the majority of that is the inner fund transfers.

50:11What those are is the transfer to the other funds for citywide obligations.

50:16So obligations like debt fund, obligations for risk, property and casualty, the equipment fund, the fleet management.

50:27So our overall budget is $5 million.

50:30So $5 million runs the Bureau, and it's a staff of 36.

50:36This breaks down, actually gives you the breakdown on how and where the 13.2 million of the inner fund transfers is appropriated.

50:47So that fund, as Jeff from Maradusa discussed in detail that we have appropriated,

50:56and for 2027, $30 million bond issue that's included in that $8.9 million of debt fund transfer, the risk fund for property and casualty expenditures.

51:09The journal fund contributes to the risk fund that $2.8 million.

51:13The equipment fund we are proposing, purchasing new equipment is $1.3 million, and the lease payments existing equipment has lease payments of $33.5 million.

51:27And I would like to point out that the $114,000 match for Trexler fund is actually leverages the proposed $1.9 million of grant from the Trexler Trust that supports our parks.

51:44And the second half of the screen, you're seeing the $18.9 million in minimum municipal obligations. That's where funding for the retirement for our public safety personnel and all other city full-time employees.

52:03Next slide, please.

52:05So now I'll walk you through our individual viewers. Revenue and audit is our primary economic engine.

52:12We have 16 full-time employees in revenue and audit, and they generate about 75% of the journal funds revenue.

52:20That's a significant amount to prevent by 16 employees, I would like to point out.

52:26So we have six tax examiners, and they work very hard to ensure that every business that's registered in Allentown and they are paying their fair share of licenses and business taxes, that they create an even playing field for all Allentown businesses.

52:47So the total cost to run this bureau is $1.85 million.

52:52Next slide, please.

52:56So next I have Budget Administration and Finance Management, that's the Accounting and Treasury Management.

53:05Budget Administration, we handle budgets for all city departments, and we also support, throughout the year, all budget activities, whether it be budget transfers that come to you or guide the departments on if there are any questions or they need support from the budget perspective.

53:25We also, the Budget Administration also manages all pension fund activities and reporting.

53:32So we have our own three pension plans and the state PMRS plans, so Police Fire and O&E and the PMRS.

53:41All of that work is done through the Budget Administration Bureau.

53:46We also monitor in-house cash and investment strategies to maximize the best return on our investments.

53:58The Accounting and Treasury Management, so those folks process payroll for our hardworking staff and their retirees. They process about 1,200 full-time employees' payroll.

54:16And when we have there during the summertime, we hire seasonal and part-time employees that our payroll increases to almost 1,400, and that is performed by only two employees in Accounting and Treasury Bureau.

54:35They also handle weekly vendor payments, so we pay our vendors on Mondays, so they process all of those payments, along with daily cash deposits.

54:47So we are like a remote teller. We make our own deposit here. We have the processor that can handle all of this, so we are not going to a bank on a daily basis.

54:57We process our own deposits, so we have access to our funds much quickly. So all of that work is done in Treasury Management.

55:07And they also work very hard at building our award-winning annual comprehensive financial report, as we receive on an annual basis the recognition from GFOA, and that is an amazing work that is done by our accountants.

55:26Next slide. I have the purchasing. So, the procurement team of five handles the primary purchasing activities.

55:41They ensure that we have the best possible value for our taxpayers, and that we are remaining completely compliant with state and local bidding laws.

55:54They handle everything from RFPs, so that is requests for our proposals, through managing contract resolutions before they are presented to you for approvals.

56:09So all of that work is done through the Purchasing Bureau.

56:13So, for finance, we have the strategic goals I would like to focus on for the coming year, is proactively managing our investments to ensure that taxpayer money is working for us.

56:31So, managing the investment, which again is done in-house. Also, continuing and maintaining open communication with the city department, city council, and public.

56:45I would like to also, since we are looking at a bond issue, to monitor financial markets to leverage the best possible outcome for the bond issue.

56:57And we are also reviewing our procurement and purchasing bureau to modernize our procurement policies to make sure that the process is easier and faster for departments to buy goods and services that need.

57:13So that would be, these are the four pillars that we will be focusing on in 2027.

57:20So, to conclude, majority of the general fund operating plan was discussed by Jeff Kent from Mar-Dusseau.

57:31I will just summarize that for you, that the five-year plan accounts for the growing, so the revenue is growing at 4%, the compounded annual growth rate is 4%, while expenditures are growing at 4.5%.

57:46And that is due to the economic conditions, and he walked you through my assumptions that are built in, but still there is a gap.

57:57And the gap is due to the economic conditions and rising capital, equipment, and personnel cost.

58:05So there you'll see, and that's why there's a negative impact if you saw that from '28, '29, 2030, and '31, and that's due to the market conditions and the cost of doing the business has increased.

58:21And for the capital plan, so we have deferred the maintenance on our capital for different departments.

58:29So to avoid that, you know, deferred maintenance moving forward for our parks, roads, and public safety infrastructures, we plan, again, a $30 million general obligation bond issue in 2027.

58:45And we have already proactively built in the first payment into the 2027 budget, and that is 1.1 million interest payment that we'll be making once the bonds have been issued into our plan, into the budget.

59:06And so this is to avoid any unexpected shocks to our bottom line, so that's really good. So the last slide reflects what we have borrowed.

59:18So last time we had borrowed was 2020. Since 2020, we have not issued any new bonds.

59:24So it's walking you through what we are making the payments on.

59:29So from 2007 through 2020, each bond issue is listed there in a separate column, and the debt payment due from that.

59:37Then I have listed the proposal for 2027, and the debt payment, again, is for $30 million is proposed, and the payment then we will be making on an annual basis.

59:52When you combine all of those bond issues, you'll see the annual payment.

1:00:00So the anticipated amount is listed there, and existing debt is listed there, and you'll

1:00:06see the annual payments that we'll be making.

1:00:09So that's my presentation for you.

1:00:11I had to take any questions you may have for me.

1:00:16Thank you, Director Patel.

1:00:17I appreciate just, again, going through the details of it, your department specifically.

1:00:22I know we've had conversations in the past about procurement, so I'm very glad to see

1:00:26that on there.

1:00:27I guess just on that last slide, and I know it's not something we'll solve tonight, and

1:00:34I know we've talked about it before, too, but just I'm curious if there's any way we

1:00:38could in the year or two to come kind of strategize how we potentially curb some of

1:00:45the effects of some of the older bond payments that are coming up in the next eight years,

1:00:52and then those impacts.

1:00:53If there's anything we can do now, just start planning for that to help us avoid that impact

1:00:59on the taxpayers in six to eight years.

1:01:03And to be completely clear, that's old debt, not anything new we're taking on now, but

1:01:08yeah.

1:01:09No, absolutely.

1:01:10That is a great idea, and I do on a regular basis and reviewing if existing debt could

1:01:19be refinanced, is that beneficial to the city?

1:01:22Some of the bonds are not callable, that means we cannot refinance.

1:01:27Others we could, but then the cost impact isn't beneficial to the city.

1:01:31But I will continue monitoring that, and that is my goal to be cost efficient on the

1:01:39taxpayers.

1:01:41Thank you.

1:01:42Then there was another kind of component of just the city's finances in general that

1:01:49I was curious about, you allude to the revenue and auditing component of it, and I'm curious

1:01:58to what level do we audit within the financial department, and I'm curious, is there room

1:02:03for growth?

1:02:04Are there things that we wish we were doing?

1:02:06I know, again, we're in a year where budgets are constrained, and so I just want to make

1:02:11sure are we potentially missing out on additional auditing or additional process improvements

1:02:19that were restricted or limited by the number of folks that we have, or just the economic

1:02:25environment, whatever.

1:02:26I'm curious if you have any thoughts for that.

1:02:29Sure, definitely.

1:02:30So we did go through the personnel challenges after COVID, and that's a fast turnover bureau

1:02:40as well, because that's the entry into the finance department.

1:02:45So we face some of the challenges, maybe right after the COVID, and so we do have six examiners

1:02:54that audit businesses.

1:02:56We are currently under training.

1:03:00We have not been able to actually do the audit, but in the previous years, we have

1:03:06selected certain businesses.

1:03:07So we audited all businesses that are related to auto.

1:03:15So auto purchases, so all of them were audited, and to ensure that we were receiving accurate

1:03:22amount of revenue from the business activities.

1:03:26So we selected business, and Mike can maybe add to that.

1:03:32So I just want to maybe rephrase what Bina said about the auditing perspective, because

1:03:38I think she's referring to outside audits where most of that staff is going to do desk

1:03:43audits.

1:03:44And what a desk audit is going to be is request for taxpayer information.

1:03:49Normally it's going to be three years at a time.

1:03:52They'll review that taxpayer information, make sure the taxpayers are paying the correct

1:04:00amount, making sure that they haven't missed anything, and then issuing an assessment if

1:04:08there is any deficiencies.

1:04:10We do maintain a spreadsheet.

1:04:12I think there's approximately close to 600 audits that that staff conducts a year.

1:04:20Is there room for growth?

1:04:22I know they do balance trash collection fees, leaning other things, and having other items.

1:04:30So I think that's something we can monitor, because when you run the numbers, each team

1:04:36member is responsible for collecting multiple million dollars.

1:04:39So it's something we always have to monitor with the personnel costs, and it makes up

1:04:46about 75% to 80% of our budget.

1:04:49But it's definitely something that we strategically try to think of.

1:04:53Thank you for that clarity, I guess.

1:04:56Yeah, I was going to say, I would open up to the rest of council to apologize for monopolizing

1:05:00the time.

1:05:01No, I wanted to ask off of what you had just said.

1:05:02Is that part of the 550 on your narrative, the 525 audits from 2027, is that what we're

1:05:10talking about here in that section?

1:05:14That may be, is it on?

1:05:17It's on page 80 of the narrative, the bottom of 80.

1:05:47Yes, that's the, so the 50050 account is going to be the expense account that that

1:05:56staff will use to file civil complaints against taxpayers who are not in compliance.

1:06:01Okay, so but just so I'm understanding, so you're estimating 525 in 2027 of assessments

1:06:08you're going to do?

1:06:09That we're considering audits in this case?

1:06:11The assessments would be the result of a desk audit.

1:06:15Okay, and then we're carrying over 100 from last year.

1:06:18Do you know roughly how many we did in 2025 and 2024 kind of thing?

1:06:23I don't know if you know that or not, so I should have asked ahead of time.

1:06:26I can definitely get the answer for you.

1:06:28I know the staff keeps a monthly report that they submit to finance.

1:06:32Okay, thanks.

1:06:33No, that's fine.

1:06:39I just, I do want to take the time to say I know this is kind of our first meeting,

1:06:44but I'd love to kind of get it rolling or a little budget tool and have that opportunity

1:06:49for finance to kind of have that communication and we'll distribute some information on how

1:06:54to use that in the near future, maybe tomorrow.

1:06:58But yeah, I honestly feel free if anybody has any questions, now's the time.

1:07:01Yeah, I mean, if you're, if you're going to have that tool, I'll probably just, because

1:07:05a lot of these I can just throw through that rather than the laboring effect.

1:07:08So I'm fine with doing that.

1:07:13Thank you.

1:07:14We'll see if anybody else on the dais have any questions for our finance team at all,

1:07:18based on their presentation.

1:07:23Go ahead.

1:07:24I'm for the P card.

1:07:25You had mentioned in the revenue audits that there's P card reconciliation.

1:07:29I know the late Jeff Glazier commented all the time, he lamented on the amount of time

1:07:36he's spending on P cards.

1:07:39What are the two different roles between managing that?

1:07:42I'm trying to understand if revenue audits managing P card and controllers are managing

1:07:47P cards, what does that look like?

1:07:50So P cards are managed by our procurement team, purchasing bureau and treasury and management.

1:07:59So we, the, all activities are reconciled in treasury bureau for monthly P card activities

1:08:09and all the approvals are done through the purchasing agent.

1:08:16And I think when controller is talking about the P card is auditing the P cards to make

1:08:23sure the transactions that occur does not include a sales tax.

1:08:28Did we pay the bills on time?

1:08:31Is the, are we recording?

1:08:34So sometimes when you use a P card, the money has left us, but it not recognizing our books.

1:08:40So are we recording the transactions on time and are the expenditures incurring from the

1:08:45correct account?

1:08:46So that's a part done by a controller.

1:08:48Okay.

1:08:50Because I guess my question, the reason the root of my question on that one was in your

1:08:53narrative here, you had noted that the, when the garage has moved back in house and you're

1:09:01anticipating utilizing P cards more frequently now for smaller amounts, that workload is

1:09:07just going to further increase for the controller's office.

1:09:10And I'm just wondering, have we captured in the total effort and labor costs to be

1:09:14able to audit all of that?

1:09:17I have tried, but it's just, we address it.

1:09:22And I think it is put on a lot of burden on my staff and purchasing a bureau and auditor

1:09:30and the controller's office.

1:09:33We have, we are adding one more position in the controller's office for 2027 to address

1:09:40that, but it does just add more.

1:09:42Okay.

1:09:44All right.

1:09:45Thank you.

1:09:47Do you want to add something?

1:09:48I apologize.

1:09:49It takes up about 70, 75% of our time, reconciling P cards.

1:09:55As you all know, we sat with you individually and this is something that we're going to

1:09:58present to you also on November 11th.

1:10:01And as far as adding a full-time person, we're really only getting a half a person.

1:10:06Our part-time person is currently doing administrative duties and we need her to continue those

1:10:12duties as well.

1:10:13So we don't exactly have a full-time, full-time person on this.

1:10:17We had a really long conversation about P cards today, actually, because it's funny

1:10:21you mentioned that.

1:10:24And no, our time was not really considered when, as the increase of P cards, and we'll

1:10:29show you a whole timeline of the increase of amount of time it costs us.

1:10:37Thank you.

1:10:43Any other questions from the guys?

1:10:47Any questions from the public?

1:10:49Right.

1:10:50This is the time and place.

1:10:55All right.

1:10:57Well, I guess if there's no more questions, I would, you know, if there's any closing

1:11:02thoughts, any additional info, fine.

1:11:05If there isn't, I'm just opening it back up, because otherwise we'd move on from this

1:11:09section.

1:11:10Okay.

1:11:11Thank you.

1:11:12I don't have any more comments at the moment.

1:11:13All right.

1:11:14Thank you so much.

1:11:15All right.

1:11:16So with that, that will conclude the finance part of this conversation, and I'll throw

1:11:20it back to Council President, or I'll throw it back straight to Council President Afa.

1:11:25Thank you.

1:11:26Thank you.

1:11:27We'll start the budget program for tonight.

1:11:31I'm going to start with the, this is a public safety meeting.

1:11:35So we'll start with the police department, we'll follow by the fire department, and then

1:11:40EMS.

1:11:41And I'll ask my colleagues if it's all right, after they're all done, that we can ask questions

1:11:46as a whole, rather than independently, would you rather have it independently or, you know,

1:11:51when they're all finished, you can ask the questions.

1:11:53Okay.

1:11:55We'll do it that way.

1:11:56All right.

1:11:58Chief Roca.

1:12:00Good evening, Council, and thank you for the opportunity to talk about the police budget

1:12:03with you this evening.

1:12:04I'm appearing before you to discuss this budget, and in the economic landscape that

1:12:09many jurisdictions are facing today, this budget represents fiscal belt tightening and

1:12:14a focus on delivering police services to our community.

1:12:19The core principles of personnel, equipment, and training remain at the foundation of what

1:12:24we do.

1:12:25Before I expand on those items, I want to first thank the members of our department

1:12:29for their continued efforts and dedication in serving our city as Allentown police officers.

1:12:34It is an occupation like no other.

1:12:37Their commitment, dedication, and professionalism are one of the major reasons why violent crime

1:12:43is at an all-time low in the city of Allentown.

1:12:46We are also razor focused in improving our quality of life, despite challenges from

1:12:50individuals or groups who would engage in activities such as nuisance establishments

1:12:55and unruly car or motorcycle meets.

1:12:59Over the past year, our team has been engaged in the work, and I want to highlight what

1:13:03we as a department have accomplished.

1:13:06Number one, compared to last year, violent crime reduction of 2.3 percent occurred.

1:13:13It doesn't seem like a large number, but overall in the trend, we are going down in

1:13:18violent crime, and that is thankful for not only the officers, but for our community at

1:13:22large in helping us out.

1:13:25Number two, we recently obtained premier accreditation status through the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement

1:13:30Accreditation Program, a distinction that highlights our commitment to professional

1:13:35excellence and compliance to best practices.

1:13:38Number three, relocating our patrol station to a much improved location, and I think

1:13:43many council members were through our patrol station that we had at 10th and Hamilton,

1:13:48and you can understand why that move was necessary.

1:13:51Four, the implementation of our community advocate coordinator, and that is for our

1:13:57CIS program.

1:13:58Five, six new police cars were built and outfitted with new radios, MDTs, and latest

1:14:03safety equipment.

1:14:05As you know, the police car is the office for the officer, and they get real-time important

1:14:09information to be able to do their jobs, and also for us to transport individuals

1:14:13in a safe manner.

1:14:15Six, a $23,500 DOJ grant, Department of Justice for overtime, to address quality of life

1:14:23issues.

1:14:24Seven, a federal appropriations grant for radio infrastructure and encryption upgrade

1:14:29in the amount of $1 million.

1:14:32Eight, through our quality of life efforts, we have seized, towed, or recovered 65 dirt

1:14:38bikes this year so far.

1:14:40That's roughly tripling the number from last year, and as you know, we have had and received

1:14:45a lot more complaints about dirt bikes operating illegally within the city.

1:14:50And nine, the promotion of personnel to key positions of responsibility, that is absolutely

1:14:55important because as we grow within our department, succession planning, and making sure that

1:15:01competent individuals step into those roles is hugely important.

1:15:05When we talk about personnel for the past several years, our staffing level averaged

1:15:10around 212 officers, and I have talked to council about that in our prior times.

1:15:17Council had previously authorized our complement to be at 232 officers with five of those

1:15:21positions funded at a dollar.

1:15:24The Allentown Police Department entry requirements are stringent so that we can hire a competent

1:15:28and professional person who has a passion for urban municipal policing.

1:15:33It takes a special person to do urban police work.

1:15:35In 2026, we processed a total of 906 applicants so far.

1:15:42One hundred twenty-seven were administered the physical agility examination, 92 successfully

1:15:47passed the physical agility test and the written examination, and from that number,

1:15:52we hired a grand total of nine for this year so far.

1:15:56So you can see we get a lot of people testing, but because of things in their background

1:16:00or other concerns, we're not able to bring everybody on.

1:16:04We remain committed to retention and recruitment of personnel.

1:16:08The Allentown Police Department is facing the retirement of approximately 15 officers

1:16:13this year.

1:16:14So that's December.

1:16:15It's coming up very soon.

1:16:16Many with years of experience and institutional knowledge.

1:16:21My next statement is not going to be without its caveat and I want to expand on it a little

1:16:24bit further because I'm glad I was here for the prior discussion with the five-year study

1:16:30because I have some thoughts and comments that I want Council to consider.

1:16:34I want to strongly encourage Council to consider implementing a drop program to offset this

1:16:38loss of personnel.

1:16:40Throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, many municipalities provide a drop program

1:16:44for their officers for the purpose of retention.

1:16:47Over the span of many years, a municipality invests in the growth and development of their

1:16:52officers.

1:16:53The drop would serve as a way to keep these veteran officers who contribute greatly to

1:16:57the overall safety of our city.

1:16:59The question I wanted to pose during that presentation was, was it considered the amount

1:17:05of officers that would leave the department and then the subsequent increase in cost

1:17:10for overtime?

1:17:11I believe that it's important to balance that compared to what the MMO obligation

1:17:16would be and I would probably submit to you that the cost for the drop would be less than

1:17:21the amount of overtime that would incur and that is my prediction for that.

1:17:26Our officers remain committed to doing the work that is required but I want to be clear

1:17:30that our city is growing in both population and business development.

1:17:35Our focus and trajectory are not to do more with less but to invest in public safety

1:17:39and retain veteran officers while working to build our department to meet the challenges

1:17:44of today and tomorrow.

1:17:46Our partnerships with law enforcement and other law enforcement agencies remain strong

1:17:50and collaborative.

1:17:51An example of this is our joint traffic enforcement operations with the Pennsylvania State Police

1:17:56and the Salisbury Township Police Department which results in slowing people down, issuing

1:18:01citations and making sure that people are held accountable for breaking the traffic

1:18:05laws.

1:18:08Our commitment to reducing violent crime and addressing quality of life concerns is

1:18:12at the forefront of our enforcement efforts.

1:18:16In the realm of mental health, our community advocate coordinator along with our community

1:18:20and prevention specialist are engaged within our community as well as various agencies

1:18:25and organizations to better serve our residents.

1:18:28The community advocate coordinator will receive a referral from the police officer and it

1:18:33will be assigned to the CIS worker who will leverage their respective connections to connect

1:18:37the individual in need of help.

1:18:40Our program is currently being evaluated through the Center for Police Innovation and Community

1:18:44Engagement through Cedar Crest College and I want to acknowledge to take a quick moment

1:18:49to formally recognize Ellie Flores who is our community advocate coordinator and just

1:18:53kind of read what she put forth about a description with our community intervention specialist

1:19:00and it's very telling.

1:19:02The on-town community intervention specialists are an amazing team whose compassion, understanding

1:19:07and dedication to individuals experiencing a crisis and are simply in need of support

1:19:12have made an enormous impact on the residents of the city of Allentown.

1:19:15They have done an incredible job building relationships with the community, providing

1:19:19support and connecting individuals with the services and resources they need to move

1:19:24forward.

1:19:27This is a vital step in our partnership and collaboration along with the work that we're

1:19:31doing with our violence prevention coordinator through the health bureau.

1:19:35When there is a violent incident that happens, it's not just the police coming to address

1:19:40the scene and conduct the investigation, it's the very real impact that our residents

1:19:45get when they see a violent act or hear about it and it impacts them.

1:19:50Through our violence prevention coordinator along with our CIS team, we are conducting

1:19:54trauma informed care follow ups and connecting people with resources.

1:19:58So this is an important step in making it whole again.

1:20:02With regard to training, the budget for 2027 puts forth funding for the necessary training

1:20:07for our police officers to ensure the professional delivery of service.

1:20:12In 2026, department members attended and completed 246 training sessions, 140 were

1:20:19free and 106 had a cost to it.

1:20:24The trainings attended covered a variety of topics from patrol tactics, investigations,

1:20:28CIT training, which is crisis intervention team training, supervisory and management

1:20:34along with officer wellness.

1:20:36Please understand that these training forces are ongoing and range from mandatory in service

1:20:41to specialized.

1:20:42Some of these trainings are held at the Allentown Police Academy.

1:20:48The academy itself provides initial officer training as well as mandatory updates from

1:20:52the municipal police officers education and training commission for our sworn officers.

1:20:57The police academy also hosts additional training opportunities to enhance the skill set of

1:21:02officers throughout the area.

1:21:05Last year we spoke about the new police building project.

1:21:08With the economic reality of today, we have been working with our team to reassess what

1:21:12would be feasible so that we can meet the needs of our officers, but also be mindful

1:21:17of the overall cost and impact on our taxpayers.

1:21:21Investment in infrastructure is a vital necessity for our city.

1:21:25We have to ask ourselves, what are we going to invest in?

1:21:29When are we going to stop kicking the can?

1:21:31And when are we going to take effective action to put money where our mouth is?

1:21:37We cannot continue to keep kicking the can down the road because as you can see from

1:21:41the presentation, it is vital that we start now.

1:21:44And I think with a concerted open and transparent process, we will be able to achieve that.

1:21:51Our proposed budget is one that acknowledges our current economy, but with an eye to continue

1:21:55delivering professional police services to our community.

1:21:59The most important item in this budget is our people.

1:22:02And I don't want to speak for all department directors, but I want to say that is our

1:22:07most important asset.

1:22:09And in order to get good employees, they have to be valued.

1:22:12They have to be trusted with this great responsibility of providing service to our city.

1:22:19When outfitted with appropriate equipment and supported by moderate training, our officers

1:22:23are prepared to protect our community, reduce crime, and serve with fairness and integrity.

1:22:29At this time, I will ask Dennis Weatherholt to provide an update for the police communications

1:22:34section of the budget.

1:22:37Good evening, Council.

1:22:41Good evening, Council.

1:22:42You would think the guy that does communications would know how to turn that on.

1:22:46The technical services bureau is a pretty small part of the police budget.

1:22:51We're at $1.9 million out of the budget.

1:22:55Most of that is employees.

1:22:58However, I just want to bring a couple notes to our budget.

1:23:06Things you may see have increased or decreased.

1:23:09In our telephone budget, which we have 125 MDTs, which are mobile computers and police

1:23:16firing EMS vehicles, out on the street we saw a reduction in cost to Verizon for those

1:23:22modems.

1:23:24So we were able to save the city some money there.

1:23:26However, our maintenance and equipment fund have gone up due to inflation.

1:23:33So you'll see that when you go through the budget, that has increased.

1:23:38Next year, we plan on continuing to add cameras to some of the city parks that currently

1:23:45do not have cameras.

1:23:46I've been in conversation with Parks Director who has given me a couple key parks that

1:23:52they would like to see cameras in.

1:23:54Currently we have 50 cameras across city parks.

1:23:58We're also going to be working on expanding our cameras for the recycling department.

1:24:04They have dumping cameras that are out on the city streets.

1:24:07We went from 14 dumping cameras across the city.

1:24:10We are now at 22 cameras for dumping violations across the city.

1:24:16We are up to 243 street cameras for the police department.

1:24:21We will continue to invest in that next year, adding probably 10 more cameras across some

1:24:29intersections.

1:24:31We're looking at replacing 10 police MDTs next year.

1:24:36Those are going to be MDTs that were purchased in 2013.

1:24:39So they're showing their age and we're looking at replacing five firing EMS MDTs that are

1:24:45again showing their age.

1:24:47That's just a quick breakdown of our plans for next year.

1:24:50Thank you, Dennis.

1:24:54At this time, I will ask counsel if there's any questions for us.

1:24:56Real quick, I'm sure I'd rather hold MBT.

1:25:06What is that?

1:25:07So that's basically a mobile computer.

1:25:09It's your laptop in a police firing EMS vehicle.

1:25:11I just want to make sure, okay.

1:25:14That's essentially where we receive our dispatches from the comm center and the officers can

1:25:18communicate with each other as well as writing our reports.

1:25:22Okay.

1:25:23I just want to know for the CIS staffing, how many is that and is that changing in

1:25:342027?

1:25:35We currently have three.

1:25:37I believe Pine Brook is working to hire another one and we have an additional with our committee

1:25:42advocate coordinator.

1:25:44We technically have four people that are working through the program.

1:25:48One is for the city, through the CAC, and then we have three CIS workers right now.

1:25:52So are we, in 2027, we're not increasing the CIS staffing?

1:25:57We're waiting for one more to probably be hired.

1:25:59We're waiting on that.

1:26:01Okay.

1:26:03I have a number of like, I think if we have that tool, because I have a number of questions

1:26:08that are specific to line item ones and I don't want to belabor the time here with

1:26:12those.

1:26:13So I'll put them into.

1:26:14I was going to say, if there's anything, I would hate to, if we have the opportunity

1:26:18to at least present it so that, you know, police has a chance to look at it and consider

1:26:22it before it reaches them.

1:26:24Okay.

1:26:26For the, the 517 accounts, you had had a hundred K the past two years and this was, I believe

1:26:34for the recruitment, I have to flip down to that one now.

1:26:41What was the account line?

1:26:42517, I guess you guys just call it the 17 line.

1:26:47Okay.

1:26:55I was curious why it dropped, so I was just like, did it not work or was it not?

1:26:58No, that was a grant that we received from PCCD and it was exhausted as of September

1:27:04of this year.

1:27:05Okay.

1:27:06And then on the 72, so this one was page 116 of the narrative, you listed a replacement

1:27:12of LPR cameras, but the total didn't have a value for that.

1:27:16I'm just curious, is there, that was for the in-car ones, I believe.

1:27:21I didn't see one on there.

1:27:26Just an installment on the five year plan.

1:27:29I guess what I'm trying to say is like the, the, the, the sum of the 49,500 is broken

1:27:34out there, but there's no, you have it in the narrative, but there's no value associated

1:27:39with it.

1:27:40All of the other things have, or unless, is that part of that, uh, crime scene equipment?

1:27:44Is that in-car and LPR cameras, crime scene equipment, that's all part of the 5,000 that's

1:27:50there?

1:27:54The crime scene equipment is the 5,000, um, the, I didn't have to look at the narrative,

1:28:05see what it says.

1:28:23Just for the crime scene equipment, um, yeah, you can, the LPR and the in-car camera is

1:28:31in our, um, is in a different account because we are in a five year plan, and we're in

1:28:38year three of five, will be for 2027, so that cost will be under the, um, police operation

1:28:45technology.

1:28:46Okay, so that's just extra verbiage in the 72, okay, all right, um, for 42, um, there's

1:28:56a software and equipment maintenance and production plans is 42,159, um, what is that?

1:29:05Page 114 of the narrative.

1:29:18The mix of all the software, instead of breaking everything down, that is for our simulators,

1:29:26we have use of force driving simulators, we pay maintenance on, um, our FARO 3D scanner,

1:29:33we pay maintenance on that, um, we have a live scan for fingerprinting, it's all the

1:29:39different maintances on that, they just weren't broken down.

1:29:42Okay, all right, um, on page 117, um, the 72 account, I think this is one we were, you

1:29:51were just referencing with the, the plan, so one of the questions I had had on here,

1:29:55there was, um, the one, the one grant that you would have for the body worn cameras,

1:30:00which was 446, uh, K, around there, and then you had the three to five year program for

1:30:04the gunshot detection at 192K, um, is the, is, is that for just the gunshot detection

1:30:14cameras or is that also LPR cameras, and my, my long term question on this is trying to

1:30:19figure out, I know we're currently looking at, um, evaluating what that looks like, there's

1:30:23been public feedback on that one, I want to better understand if we're under contract

1:30:28to spend more money with the same technology and the same company and what that looks

1:30:32like, um, we are currently in a five year contract, so 2027 is year three of the five.

1:30:39So we are, we basically for the income camera LPRs and the body cameras, basically the

1:30:48way the contract works is they forgive us the equipment and we just kind of paid off

1:30:54in five year installments.

1:30:56So we have everything up front, we're just paying it off in five years.

1:31:00So is the 446 K that is for the body camera, in car camera, and LPRs.

1:31:09And then the 193 K that is for the gunshot, gunshot detection.

1:31:14Okay.

1:31:15So in that sum of the 775 K a portion of that is paying year three of both the LPR

1:31:23cameras and the gunshot detection cameras.

1:31:25Okay.

1:31:26Um, is it possible at some point to have some sort of, um, like a better word, report

1:31:33of the effectiveness of the gunshot detection cameras in our detection system?

1:31:42We'll review and we can put a report together.

1:31:45Okay.

1:31:48Um, the rest of the ones I will break out because they're going to be specific software

1:31:58items and I think that's going to get kind of odorous.

1:32:02Ms. Kirla?

1:32:03Did you have?

1:32:04Yes.

1:32:05Uh, just a couple.

1:32:06Um, where was my first one?

1:32:07So, um, I'm always interested in, um, how the number of officers is determined.

1:32:16So like, how was it determined to go from two 32 significantly down to two 10?

1:32:24Was it like based off a staffing model, like the per capita performance based workload,

1:32:31like how was that?

1:32:32Was it like an analysis?

1:32:33Like, so yes, there's always an analysis for manpower because that's an important

1:32:37thing.

1:32:38In this instance, like I mentioned before to counsel, our average number of officers

1:32:42per year typically was two 12 plus or minus a couple.

1:32:46In looking at the reduction, we took a look at what, what can we maintain as a, as a

1:32:53number of officers and what's retiring.

1:32:56So even if we're building, we're going to be losing in December because our retirements

1:33:01would far outpace the ability of people that we hire.

1:33:04So when we determine the two 10 that makes it average around two 12.

1:33:09So that's kind of the decision making process in that realm.

1:33:12Got you.

1:33:14So like we looked at call volume and the discretionary time and all that kind of stuff.

1:33:18Right.

1:33:19Okay.

1:33:20We're going to be able to deliver services at that number and not impact that negative

1:33:23way.

1:33:24I would love to have 230 plus officers and I would hope that residents of city of Allentown,

1:33:30here's my plug.

1:33:31We have an open hiring period right now.

1:33:33So if anybody wants to join, sign up and you led into the next question.

1:33:38So like one of the exciting things that was stated when the, when the expansion of the

1:33:47police station was discussed is that that would be an incredible recruitment tool.

1:33:51Would that no longer potentially happening?

1:33:53What is there like a plan to recruit officers since they won't have a, you know, extra space.

1:33:59We're still a razor focused on recruitment.

1:34:02The adjustment to the building is more on a, how can we economically do it in a feasible

1:34:09manner to still meet the needs.

1:34:11When you look at a project, there's many ways to outfit a building and a lot of it

1:34:17is looking at spaces.

1:34:19For example, you go to Ikea and you try to fit a room in a certain way.

1:34:23They have various pieces of furniture and items that you can make everything fit within

1:34:29the confines of the space.

1:34:31And in looking at the police department, there's a section in there that we could kind of

1:34:35renovate and make additional office space and rooms that will most likely meet our room.

1:34:41But we're going to leverage the expertise by architects and others that are more attuned

1:34:46and making everything fit that we want to provide for officers for team.

1:34:51And in the, in today's economic reality, I think that's the smart thing to do.

1:34:56Got you.

1:34:57And I think you kind of answered the thank you about the CIS.

1:35:01I did see that there's a reduction.

1:35:03I feel like in past years, the contract with Cedar Crest College has been for them, as

1:35:08you mentioned, to do like an evaluation, but it's only 20 K from what I'm seeing.

1:35:14So that must not be for the evaluation, the evaluation was covered by a grant.

1:35:22So this is just an ongoing from the grant that we had.

1:35:27We had a mental health grant through PCCB for two years.

1:35:33So that covered the bulk of Cedar Crest through the grant.

1:35:37This is just a continuation.

1:35:39The 20 K.

1:35:40Yes.

1:35:41Okay.

1:35:42And that covers also like the, but not like the ceremonies and stuff like, like using their

1:35:50facilities to the 20 K. Okay.

1:35:53So that's that.

1:36:02How are we going?

1:36:03How are we, when it comes to working towards, is it Calia certification or accreditation?

1:36:10Like are we there yet?

1:36:11Are we 50% there?

1:36:12What else do we need to do?

1:36:13Do we have the money to do it?

1:36:16Calia would be a long-term investment.

1:36:18We are not currently going through Calia at this time.

1:36:21We're going through the Pennsylvania law enforcement accreditation, which is through

1:36:24the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.

1:36:27Calia is a long-term goal that once we hit certain points, infrastructure wise, recruitment

1:36:34wise, we can point to that direction.

1:36:36So it's would be a long-term goal for APD.

1:36:38Gotcha.

1:36:40So I know we had to pay something at some point.

1:36:41Do we have to even like enter into the process?

1:36:45Do we still have to like pay into something to?

1:36:49Not for Calia.

1:36:50Okay.

1:36:51All right.

1:36:52I think my last question, yes, my last question is, so, or there, I remember a couple of

1:37:02years ago, there was a conversation about like different businesses that will use police

1:37:09officers and are they, are they paid up like, or like, could we recoup some money from

1:37:15some of these folks that maybe haven't paid?

1:37:17So you're talking about an extra job duties.

1:37:19Yeah.

1:37:20Yeah.

1:37:21Yeah.

1:37:22Are they all paid up?

1:37:23And if not, how much could we get if we actually like pursued making them pay?

1:37:27The majority of them are up to date in payments.

1:37:32There was a couple of them who the company no longer exists, whoever, the owner of it.

1:37:39It's dissolved and it wasn't, it was less than $5,000 total that was due to us.

1:37:48We haven't gone after them because we can't figure out where they're, who the person

1:37:52is and where they're located now.

1:37:54So that was one that we were in the process of changing over.

1:37:59We just wrote the fees off because they were over 10 years old.

1:38:04But as of current, all our DJs and all the invoicing, there was a few special events

1:38:10that are behind on making payments, but everything for the most majority of them are paid up

1:38:16to date.

1:38:19Okay.

1:38:20Thank you.

1:38:21I think that's all I have.

1:38:22Thank you.

1:38:24Is there anyone else?

1:38:26Mr. Pongo?

1:38:27Thank you.

1:38:28I guess, you know, hearing it during the budget presentation itself, you know, hearing

1:38:33it recur a couple of times, I'm curious how many grants are we looking at right now

1:38:38that we know like are supporting major systems or major investments that we know are going

1:38:44to sunset in the next, you know, five years?

1:38:48I would estimate three of them.

1:38:50Okay.

1:38:51And then I'm just curious because I know ARPA funding, COVID funding, a lot of that

1:38:56supported a lot of municipal governments.

1:38:57I know we're all kind of reckoning.

1:38:59I think the managing director kind of alluded to that.

1:39:02Our budget this year as a city is lower than last year, but yet we're having to increase

1:39:07our revenues through tax increases.

1:39:10So I guess I just want to make sure what are we doing to kind of offset that if some

1:39:15of those programs are going to continue or are some of these, you know, once the grants

1:39:20done the either the position or the equipment or whatever it is that's being funded being

1:39:25sunset as well.

1:39:26It is my position that if we go after something through a grant and we get that grant, we

1:39:31find a way, some sort of solution to make it sustainable.

1:39:34I think it's a mistake to get a grant just to get something and let it expire.

1:39:39If it's something that we can kind of work with the vendor to set up something that's

1:39:43feasible for the city, we can always communicate and discuss what our goals are.

1:39:49And I think the police department, we've been very forward and collaborative in working

1:39:55with council, working with the managing director, the city administration to be able to know

1:39:59exactly how is this going to impact our taxpayer?

1:40:02You know, we've gotten several millions of dollars through grants over the past several

1:40:06years and these are key things and important, but I think overall the question is in this

1:40:13economic reality, we have to make tough decisions.

1:40:17But one thing that we can't slack on is public safety because I think that feeds into everything,

1:40:25business development, the perception of crime, everything that we talk about.

1:40:29And I believe that many of the young officers that are on the department want to do the

1:40:35right thing.

1:40:36And I always say this, like when I, when a new person comes in front of us, a candidate

1:40:40and I asked them, why do you want to be a police officer and why in the city of Allentown

1:40:44is because they love what's happening in our community.

1:40:47They see the diversity of culture.

1:40:50They see the many things happening.

1:40:52But as our city grows, we also have to grow with that.

1:40:56And if there was in the past, for no fault of anybody sitting here today, decisions made

1:41:01to kick that can, we need to put our foot down and say, how can we work together to

1:41:07make it fiscally responsible and for long-term goals?

1:41:11So to answer your question, yes, we take a look at the grants and we kind of come up

1:41:15with solutions.

1:41:16If it's something that we can't afford or is beyond our price range, it's like with

1:41:20anybody at home, if it's something you can't afford, you got to put it to the side and

1:41:24we continue on.

1:41:25But we do the best we can with what we have.

1:41:27Thank you.

1:41:29I just have one question.

1:41:35Regarding the dashboard, that's, that was a pretty big initiative for you.

1:41:40Just going forward, is that something you're still putting a lot of emphasis on?

1:41:43And is there data that you've been collecting to help continue that drive?

1:41:47Yes, I absolutely, through my time as chief here so far, wanted to increase the amount

1:41:53of dashboards that we have.

1:41:55The one that we released publicly was the incident dashboard, where you can see what

1:41:59type of incidents are happening in your community.

1:42:02But one of the things I'm also looking to engage is another program to be able to create

1:42:08dashboards within the Allentown Police Department.

1:42:12We have the skill set to do that.

1:42:14It's just a matter of having the software program to engage in that.

1:42:18Okay, thank you.

1:42:22Of course.

1:42:26I have a question for you.

1:42:27How much of the grants are used for recruiting, for recruiting police officers?

1:42:34So under Governor Shapiro, we were able for, I believe it was a two year timeframe to

1:42:39highlight a $5,000 incentive hiring bonus for people that successfully come on the

1:42:45department.

1:42:46It's something that we very much would like.

1:42:47It's something that we can discuss about putting in the budget, but again, we want

1:42:51to be fiscally responsible and ensure that it's something that is important because

1:42:56it's not just about a hiring bonus, it's about attracting good people.

1:43:00So in our recruitment strategies, we want to be able to show exactly that the police

1:43:06department is supported by council, by the mayor's office, by the community at large.

1:43:11And this is something that through showing the community exactly what we're about and

1:43:16the makeup of the department will attract like-minded individuals that want to work

1:43:21in the city.

1:43:22Not necessarily go out to the townships or the boroughs or through the state, but come

1:43:26in the city of Allentown.

1:43:28And for an individual to choose to become a police officer, especially in a city, it's

1:43:33a calling.

1:43:34It's something that you just don't change within three, four years.

1:43:36It's something that you stay a career for.

1:43:39And I want to recruit and retain people that have that passion, that want to come here,

1:43:43make a difference and, you know, be more than just themselves.

1:43:48So we do offer $5,000 signing bonus?

1:43:51That was concluded.

1:43:52That grant ran out.

1:43:54And that's from the grant?

1:43:55Yes.

1:43:56That's not from the city of Allentown?

1:43:57No.

1:43:59Okay, thank you.

1:44:00I have a question.

1:44:02Chief, how active are you in your department when it comes to recruiting in the other

1:44:10schools?

1:44:12I would say we're very active.

1:44:15We have a team from our community outreach unit that goes to the different schools, talks

1:44:19to colleges.

1:44:21I myself attended a recruitment visit at my alma mater at King's College in Wilkes-Barre.

1:44:27And we actually met with various college students and put forth this position as a career.

1:44:32We were joined by other different organizations, businesses and everything else, all types

1:44:36of careers, but we are very active in recruiting.

1:44:40And that's one of the things now, you look at the real estate market and you kind of

1:44:43think is it a buyer's market or a seller's market?

1:44:46In this instance, the potential employee has the ability to choose where they want

1:44:51to go.

1:44:52And we want to put our best foot forward and show that Allentown is invested in where you

1:44:57can come be supported as a police officer.

1:45:00And through what we highlight, we'll hopefully attract individuals that are there.

1:45:05Well, some of the ways that we kind of cleaned up the process was we used to charge an application

1:45:11fee to become a police officer.

1:45:13It could arrange anywhere from $60 to $20, and that might be a prohibitive factor for

1:45:19individuals that might not have $5, $10.

1:45:22So we took that away.

1:45:23We took that fee off and we made it free.

1:45:29So anybody that's interested can go to joinallentownpd.com, we put that website together with collaboration

1:45:35with human resources, with the blessing of the city administration.

1:45:39It's a way that explains exactly what our entry requirements are, what steps you need

1:45:45to take, and you fill out the application, you get added to the list.

1:45:48And then from there, we work on the testing process.

1:45:51We've even changed the way we test.

1:45:53Like I said, rather than testing one time a year, we're testing four times a year.

1:45:57And that's to ensure that we're giving everybody an opportunity.

1:46:01As you know, it's time for people to be in colleges and schools, military, and they come

1:46:06out and they have life changes at different moments in time, so we want to be able to

1:46:10capture that.

1:46:12And every time we have a new academy class start, I go there personally and I ask the

1:46:17question, who here is hired by our department?

1:46:19You see the officers raising their hand, the cadets, and then there's a few that don't.

1:46:23And I will say, for those that don't, consider joining the Allentown Police Department.

1:46:28And at times we get officers that way, other times other departments pick them up.

1:46:33I don't want to say it's cutthroat or very quick, but as a department, we very much

1:46:38want to be efficient when we're processing potential applicants to come through.

1:46:43That comes back to showing exactly what we offer, what the outcome is.

1:46:50And a big attraction for here in the city is coming on when you're 21 years old and

1:46:55to know that you can retire 20 years later at 41.

1:46:59You're still young enough, but you've earned your retirement and you've done a lot to

1:47:04impact and change the city of Allentown.

1:47:07And I give kudos and credit to anybody that works a full career here in the Allentown

1:47:12Police Department.

1:47:13Thank you.

1:47:15You're welcome.

1:47:19I just wanted to follow up on the incentive grant.

1:47:21I'm curious, of that incentive, so you said it was $5,000 per officer, I'm curious how

1:47:26many officers took advantage of that, that were hired under that?

1:47:3136 officers.

1:47:32All right.

1:47:33I saw that it was budgeted for about $100,000 each year.

1:47:36Obviously, being that it's a grant, you have to use it in order to be reimbursed for that,

1:47:40so that was over the life of the two-year program?

1:47:44Yes, sir.

1:47:45Okay.

1:47:47Okay.

1:47:48That's what we spent total from the grant.

1:47:50You're perfect.

1:47:52Did we see that being an effective tool in recruiting or do we feel like it just kind

1:47:57of happened to be part of the time, they just happened to get hired around the same

1:48:00time as the grant?

1:48:01I would say it was a good solution for it.

1:48:05There's other departments that are offering substantially more, depending upon what they

1:48:09allow for.

1:48:11But the thing that I want to say about recruitment incentives such as that, I think it's helpful,

1:48:17but we're also ensuring that the candidate who takes advantage of that is committed

1:48:22to the city of Allentown.

1:48:23If they choose to leave early, they have to pay back the amount that they have, because

1:48:28it's not just come here and get $5,000 and go somewhere else.

1:48:31So it's important that we have those catches.

1:48:34We explain it to the candidate and they understand that, and we go forward and make sure that

1:48:39we make their experience here positive, all the way from coming into the academy to graduating,

1:48:46to getting on their field training program, to becoming a full officer.

1:48:51Thank you.

1:48:52Appreciate it.

1:48:54All right.

1:48:55Let's touch on that.

1:48:56So you're limited at $5,000?

1:48:58You can't give them more, $7,000, $8,000, $8,000, $9,000, $9,000?

1:49:00No, we could give whatever amount, but we would just have to be authorized by council.

1:49:04We'd have to put it in the budget and ensure that it's not like if we were to think about

1:49:09it, I mean, $5,000 at good cost, if you say $10,000, that might be a little bit more.

1:49:13So it's all in what is received by the individual.

1:49:17And then even more so, and the reason I say five to 10 is because that's what I'm seeing

1:49:22around the country.

1:49:23And in others, you got 25.

1:49:25Some federal law enforcement agencies are advertising 50,000, 60,000, but on its face,

1:49:30it has catches.

1:49:31You have to serve a certain amount of time.

1:49:34You have to be committed to that department and sign off that you're going to stay there

1:49:38for a period of time.

1:49:40My thought also was when you're talking to a 21-year-old and you're telling how great

1:49:45his retirement will be, he's not as much of an incentive as saying, giving him.

1:49:50There are certain other cities have done this also.

1:49:53You may tell a 21-year-old, listen, we'll give you $7,000, plus we'll put $7,000 aside

1:49:59for you to buy a building here in Allentown.

1:50:01Two incentives, get the police to live back in the city of Allentown and contribute in

1:50:06the taxes to the budget.

1:50:09And also for a 21-year-old or 22, somewhere around there, the fact that they're getting

1:50:15possibly a low interest rate, we could work with the banks, there's so many different

1:50:19ways for incentives.

1:50:21And I was just wondering why we limit it to just $5,000, because I believe, I work

1:50:27with 2324 and someone said, listen, $7,000, plus we put $7,000 over here to help you

1:50:33with the mortgage, interest rates, so on and so forth.

1:50:37The thing is, we need more police officers.

1:50:40We do.

1:50:41We need more patrols is what we need.

1:50:44You know that.

1:50:45I know that.

1:50:46And that's what keeps the crime down.

1:50:47Although you're all doing a great job with the amount of people we have and the amount

1:50:52of police officers we have, excuse me, we have, it's amazing that our crime rate is

1:50:57down the way it is.

1:50:58And I thank all the police department for the work they do do.

1:51:01But we need to work harder on getting young recruits, not just from Allentown, from Philly.

1:51:08This could be a very attractive city to somebody from Philadelphia or New York and so on and

1:51:12so forth.

1:51:13But we have to give them a little more incentive than just a great retirement.

1:51:17Just for counsel's information, I am working on a lateral transfer program that I will

1:51:21be introducing shortly, which will hopefully attract exactly what we're talking about,

1:51:26allowing a person to come in at a higher step level to immediately begin their career

1:51:32here in the Allentown Police Department.

1:51:34They would not gain seniority over anybody.

1:51:37They would just come in at a higher step, and we would have to work out the details

1:51:40on that.

1:51:41And that I would ask for repeal of Bill 66, which is the emergent hiring that was put

1:51:47forth into ordinance here in the city of Allentown.

1:51:50So replacing that with a lateral transfer program that I believe would be beneficial

1:51:55long-term for the city of Allentown.

1:51:57That bill, I know Fire Department's looking at me right now thinking, hmm, we could do

1:52:01the same thing, right?

1:52:02And would that bill cover, does that grant and everything cover the Fire Department

1:52:09also?

1:52:10I would have to look at their civil service, and it would have to be at the direction

1:52:15of Chief Augusto from the Fire Department to weigh in on that.

1:52:19There are programs, I think HUD had a program where their homes would be 50% off of Fire

1:52:25Department, EMS, police officers, and teachers.

1:52:29And I checked into that HUD, but we don't have that many HUD buildings around here

1:52:33that I--

1:52:34What you're referring to as the Officer Next Door Program, it's now been renamed to the

1:52:38Good Neighbor Next Door Program.

1:52:39Yeah, the Good Neighbor.

1:52:41Yeah.

1:52:42It's a good program.

1:52:43Okay.

1:52:44I have nothing else.

1:52:45Anybody else?

1:52:46Anybody from the public?

1:52:48Just really briefly, my name is Kyle Rapsky, I live at 538 Berkshire Street.

1:52:53I just would like to say--

1:52:54Yeah, microphone up to you.

1:52:55Thank you.

1:52:56Thank you.

1:52:57All right, better now?

1:52:58I'd like to say that I'm encouraged to hear about the additional cameras going towards

1:53:01our Recycling and Solid Waste Department, hoping that those are utilized as a tool

1:53:05not just for prevention and compliance, but also in the spirit of a budget meeting and

1:53:10after looking at those five-year graphs that this is also a revenue tool, and then we

1:53:14are pursuing violators to the full extent that we can, because I'm pretty sure that

1:53:18the fee for that is pretty large, and we can get some money for that.

1:53:21So thank you.

1:53:22Thank you, Chief.

1:53:27I'm going to call the Fire Department up now.

1:53:29Thank you, Council.

1:53:54All right, any time.

1:53:55You're ready?

1:53:57All right.

1:53:58Good evening, Council.

1:53:59You know me.

1:54:00My name is Efron Augusto.

1:54:01I'm the Fire Chief here in the city.

1:54:02But I want to make sure that I recognize Deputy Chief Matt Aharth and Deputy Chief

1:54:06Densky, who were instrumental in putting this budget together.

1:54:09We also have the EMS Chief Matt Barzev, who takes care of providing the information

1:54:14regarding the EMS budget.

1:54:17A brief overview of the department itself.

1:54:20The on-town Fire Department consists of 143 firefighters assigned to six fire stations

1:54:25with a front-line fleet of seven engines and two ladder trucks.

1:54:29The Fire Academy building houses the Fire Administration Office, the Training Academy,

1:54:34the Emergency Operations Center, and the Public Affairs Office.

1:54:38And at City Hall, we have the Fire Prevention Office.

1:54:40The stations are overseen by a battalion chief who operates at a central fire station

1:54:44in response to all calls when deemed necessary.

1:54:48We also have our Fire Marshal's Division at Central Fire Station that is responsible

1:54:51for investigating fires after the fact and routinely is responsible for inspecting facilities

1:54:56throughout the city.

1:54:58The Fire Prevention Office provides oversight for the Fire Marshal's Division and ensures

1:55:01that all of our facilities are inspected and permitted accordingly based on fire and

1:55:06life safety codes.

1:55:09Our specialized teams includes hazardous materials, bomb squad, underwater recovery, and technical

1:55:15rescue.

1:55:16Every member of this department trains extensively and works diligently to ensure that our citizens

1:55:21have a safe place to live, work, and play.

1:55:25So far in 2026, the department has responded to approximately 12,034 calls for service

1:55:30throughout the city of downtown.

1:55:31At our current pace, we are on track to respond to more than 14,000 calls for service by

1:55:37the end of the year.

1:55:39In addition, the Fire Prevention Office, along with the Fire Marshal's Division, conducted

1:55:44457 fire inspections, 104 fire investigations, and responded to 60 complaints.

1:55:50They also conducted 313 follow-ups along with 155 miscellaneous calls.

1:55:56The Public Affairs Office is also busy engaging the community by participating in multiple

1:56:01events throughout the year, which include school governance meetings, career days, daycare

1:56:06safety programs, community fire prevention, community events such as information and

1:56:11recruitment, special events such as parades and festivals, school fire prevention programs,

1:56:17school interaction, reading and encouragement, Operation Playground, PALS Camp, cooling

1:56:22stations, juvenile fire center interaction, and community meetings with this end discussion.

1:56:26This number is well over 200 events that the Downtown Fire Department engages community

1:56:29through Public Affairs Office.

1:56:31While our staffing levels have improved, we remain below where we stood in 2012 when

1:56:37the department had 145 firefighters.

1:56:39In 2012, the department responded to 5,193 calls for service over that year.

1:56:45In 2003, our staffing complement was even higher when I started.

1:56:49We had 150 firefighters.

1:56:51During that year and several years after that, we were able to maintain approximately

1:56:5635 firefighters on duty at all times.

1:57:01So as long as I service fire chief and managing director Kane spoke to us a little bit, I'll

1:57:07continue to highlight the historical information that I've shared during previous meetings

1:57:11because it provides important perspective on how our city and our department have changed

1:57:17over time.

1:57:19So as we spoke in 1975, when Allentown had a population of approximately 109,000, the

1:57:25fire department operated with seven staff stations, 11 engines, three ladder companies,

1:57:31and a total complement of 156 firefighters.

1:57:35That year, the department was dispatched to 2,156 calls for service.

1:57:41Today with a population exceeding 126,000, with peak daytime hours reaching up to nearly

1:57:47145,000, we have six staff stations, seven engines, two ladder companies, and 143 firefighters.

1:57:54Meanwhile, we're on pace to respond to more than 14,000 calls for service for this year.

1:58:00These numbers tell an important story.

1:58:02Our city has grown and continues to grow.

1:58:05The demands placed on the department have increased significantly, and the volume of

1:58:08calls we answer today is substantially greater than it was decades ago.

1:58:13As we look toward the future, we must continue to evaluate whether our staffing resources

1:58:17and operational capabilities are keeping pace with that growth.

1:58:22So in conclusion, I want to thank the current administration and city council for the continued

1:58:26support of public safety and for recognizing the importance of protecting our residents,

1:58:31our visitors, and the members who serve them.

1:58:34However, as Allentown continues to grow, so must the Allentown Fire Department.

1:58:40My goal is to continue building towards a level of staffing and operational capacity

1:58:43that our history demonstrates we once maintain, while ensuring that our department is prepared

1:58:49to meet the demands of the city we serve today and into the future.

1:58:53Our responsibility is not simply to respond to the needs of Allentown today, but to ensure

1:58:57that we're prepared for the needs of Allentown tomorrow.

1:59:00Thank you.

1:59:02With that, I will pass it over to Deputy Chief A. Hart to speak a little bit over our budget.

1:59:10Good evening.

1:59:11Like he said, Deputy Chief A. Hart, thank you all for the opportunity to speak.

1:59:15I don't have a long speech like the chief did.

1:59:18I would like to thank Bina and Erika for the support that they give us all year round,

1:59:24helping move money around, finding money, and really spreading the pot.

1:59:31Changes that we had when we were asked to cut 10%, we looked at everything.

1:59:3410% of our budget is about $2.6 million, which is everything pretty much outside of

1:59:40just our pay.

1:59:41So it's not a real feasible number for us.

1:59:44We did our best.

1:59:45Contractually, we have permanent wages going up, unfortunately.

1:59:50We also have health insurance rises going up.

1:59:53We were able to, one of our fire trucks was just paid off, our ladder truck from Hibernia.

1:59:59So that did save us a lot.

2:00:00It's about $192,000. We were fortunate enough that we received a lot of grants last year,

2:00:05and we continue to thrive to try to push for the grants. They did get slower. It used to

2:00:11seem like it was a lot easier to get awarded a grant than it is now, but we do pursue it

2:00:15a lot. The cost of equipment for firefighting has gone up exponentially. What used to be

2:00:22a $500 chainsaw is now $6,000. The amount of fires that we've had and everything else,

2:00:28the equipment that we've used, we've out surpassed the amount in our equipment budget. When we

2:00:35talk about our '73 or '72, we're already operating about $40,000 short on equipment

2:00:41this year. It's just that we've lost in fires. We're thriving. We're trying to do our best.

2:00:47We're maintaining. At the end of the day, it costs a lot of money to run this business

2:00:51right now in this economy. That being said, I'm willing to answer any question you have.

2:00:59The biggest cuts we made, if you didn't look over it in detail, was we did try to cut

2:01:03some more off of our premium pay by $100,000. Like I said, we did lose the aerial payment

2:01:09this year. That was $192,000. We cut back our training and professional development

2:01:15about $12,000. We cut back our operating materials by about $14,000, and that is about

2:01:26it that we could cut large amounts off of. I'd be willing to entertain any questions

2:01:32you have. I know pretty much in detail, so willing to take any questions you have.

2:01:39Any questions? Mr. Beto?

2:01:41I'll answer real quick. First off, I just wanted to call out the 16,000 calls for the

2:01:46City of Allentown last year. That's impressive. For the 30 account. I just wanted to better

2:01:52understand this, and this is where all of the leasing is, because I know that that

2:01:55was originally at, I mean, it was $26,000, and then jumped to a million the next year

2:02:00and whatnot. Is the leasing, and excuse my ignorance when it comes to fire equipment,

2:02:05but is the leasing, is that a five year lease? Is that in perpetuity? What does that look

2:02:10like from a lease perspective, or is it just like a payment off of it?

2:02:13Our lease payments that you're seeing, so there's two different things. Are you referring

2:02:17to this document?

2:02:18No, I'm looking at page 135 of the narrative. I didn't look at your document yet.

2:02:23Yeah, so the rental account is all the payments. When we order a truck, next year we have

2:02:30an engine and another aerial coming. We ordered them four and one five years ago. So in that

2:02:35time frame when we get approval from you, approval from the administration, it's determined,

2:02:41are we going to put X amount of money down? Are we going to lease it? And by lease, it's

2:02:45a payment. We're not giving it back at the end of the lease.

2:02:47Okay, I was just trying to understand.

2:02:49It's always skewed me too.

2:02:50Yeah, because I was like, this is going to be forever now.

2:02:53So when you see there, you see the Pumper 2, Pumper 3, that's the two that we just

2:02:57got. And next year we're expecting the aerial to come as well. So that's what that is.

2:03:04Okay.

2:03:05So it used to be under Public Works. Last year they moved it under us to manage ourselves.

2:03:09Okay.

2:03:10That's what you see there.

2:03:11That was my main question. Thank you.

2:03:12It makes it look really bad.

2:03:13I just didn't know it was going to go forever or what that said, right? Thank you.

2:03:22Just quickly, so I wanted to ask about what's in a pipeline because we all know that it

2:03:26takes years and years to get. So you mentioned you have two coming next year. Is there more

2:03:31equipment coming?

2:03:32There's one. So we have two coming next year. At the same time, we ordered three engines.

2:03:38So there's a new one coming for the West End that's scheduled to be delivered in fall

2:03:43of next year of '27. The aerial to replace the one at the Highby's to make the swap,

2:03:49that's going to be in June, July. Those were ordered three, four years ago. And then we

2:03:54just this year signed to replace another rescue pumper. But there again, that's of, I think

2:04:00it was 1600 days lead time. So it just keeps extending out. So we're trying to have a continual,

2:04:08you know, order one every year kind of plan. That's, that's the goal.

2:04:12Okay. So we have two coming in 2027 and one in probably 2028, 2029.

2:04:20One in, it's 2030.

2:04:212030, okay.

2:04:222030 is the next one in 20. If you're looking at lease payment overlap, 2030, 2031 is the

2:04:28highest.

2:04:29Okay. I was just curious about that because that's obviously a major expenses.

2:04:33If we're, if we're deciding to lease it, that's, that's based on that. This is relatively

2:04:38a newer. At time we did, we, we haven't always financed them. We have just budgeted it and

2:04:46just paid for them. The issue is it went from four, $500,000 to now over a million dollars

2:04:51for one of these pieces of equipment. So it's just been hard to throw the whole chunk

2:04:55at once.

2:04:56And this changes, this changes has happened, like, especially during the COVID period

2:04:59and beyond. I mean, that's something that's, that's just changed dramatically. When we

2:05:04ordered, even, even as of a couple of years ago, we ordered two of the engines, it was

2:05:09like a 900,000 or something like that. And now we're talking about 1.6. And this is

2:05:13just within the two, two to three year period. So when we take into consideration, when

2:05:17we have, that's something that we have to start committing early also because of the

2:05:22bill times. That's, that's another thing that that's, that's been difficult to manage

2:05:28on our end is being able to say, or come to, you know, to finance or come to the mayor

2:05:32or come to, to you as counsel and say, Hey, we're going to, we need to purchase an engine

2:05:36like right now, but we're not getting it for five years. So that's, again, that's,

2:05:40that's a, that's a very funny line to be drawn there to try to figure out sometimes.

2:05:47Sometimes we do take into consideration, Deputy Chief A. Hart always brings up to

2:05:50me a lot of times where there are some used vehicles out there that have potential to

2:05:55be used, you know, right now. But the problem is that where do we get to three, 400, $500,000

2:06:03even right now. So that's where, again, this is, this is a decision that just has to be

2:06:08made as we continue to move forward. And I always say to him, just bring, bring it

2:06:12to me and we'll present it and we'll see what we can do. But I don't know where it's

2:06:16going to be approved or when it's not going to be approved. And again, we're taking a

2:06:19chance on a vehicle that it's already used versus a new vehicle. But again, you still

2:06:24run into situations with new vehicles also. We all know that.

2:06:28Okay, thank you.

2:06:30Madias.

2:06:32Thank you.

2:06:34I'm curious about the timeline once the new ones arrive. Are all the trucks being decommissioned

2:06:41as soon as a new one arrives?

2:06:42Not at all. There will be decommissioned before, unfortunately. We have one right

2:06:47now that's 30 years old that we're band-aids after band-aids after band-aids and it's,

2:06:52it's on the brink of it now. So the answer would be no because we want as many spare

2:06:58trucks as we can responsibly repair, I'll say, in the fleet. You know what I mean?

2:07:05My goal has been to try to have that so we can have the downtime to get the newer trucks

2:07:10even serviced. We just had one broken. The dealer said four months until we can see it.

2:07:15So when you have that kind of lead time right now, it's, it doesn't help. But I understand

2:07:20it's all new. For the mayor and for you guys to agree to a truck, you might not even

2:07:25be sitting here and it shows up. Say, look what we did.

2:07:28Yeah, no, and I just said, sometimes there's purchasing agreements that require sending

2:07:32something in as a trade-in. I wasn't sure it would be okay.

2:07:34No, no, no, no.

2:07:35So that's more-

2:07:36There's no value in-

2:07:37Yeah.

2:07:38Yeah, nobody wants a 30 year old truck.

2:07:40Nobody.

2:07:41The good thing about bringing the garage in-house is that we have been allowed to at least

2:07:44maintain a few more reserve vehicles that were allowed by contract when it was contracted

2:07:50before the garage services. So it does help us up to that point. But at the same time,

2:07:55now we're trying to play catch up. And by trying to pay, you know, play catch up, we

2:07:59still run into the situation where even the reserve trucks did not, you know, they did

2:08:04not perform enough deferred maintenance on those. So then we end up running into like

2:08:07trying to do the maintenance on the, on the newer ones right now. We have to get the

2:08:12older ones up and running accordingly and hope that they don't fail on us while we're

2:08:17trying to perform the duties that we need to perform.

2:08:21You're better? Okay. You're done?

2:08:25Yeah, I'm done.

2:08:28Anyone else? I like the question of, on staffing, how are you on staffing? 146 positions? Are

2:08:37these 146 firemen, right, Craig?

2:08:40So it's 143, but that's going to include everybody that's, that, that wears a uniform

2:08:45on the fire end. So that includes us as an administrator, the three individuals would

2:08:48be our office manager, Angela Marino, our administrative assistant Monique Iced, and

2:08:53then we have Haley Arnold, who's our clerk up in the fire prevention now. So those are

2:08:58the additional three that are added to the number from one. So that's why when I say

2:09:03for 143, that's still including us an administrative and also the individuals like, like an administration

2:09:10as our fire prevention, um, assistant chief. We have our captain of public affairs. We

2:09:16have our, uh, assistant chief of training. Those are all included in our numbers when

2:09:21we talk about firemen on the streets, you know, or I'm sorry. And it's, it's firefighters

2:09:27in general. It does include all this. When we, are we okay with the amount that we have?

2:09:32I always say that we, you know, it would be, again, when you look at NFPA standards,

2:09:38it's going to be, that number would jump easily into the two hundreds if we were to

2:09:42follow NFPA standard. Because again, that's requiring, and I believe, I'm not sure how

2:09:47many were here when, when deputy chief Lillian spoke to, um, the, the, the standard as it

2:09:53speaks to the certain types of responses between an aerial truck having five on it,

2:09:58between an engine having four, depending on the response model, that's for that type

2:10:02of call. It's specific and it gets, you know, it gets really kind of, um, a little bit

2:10:08more difficult to kind of manage on our end because it's going to be, again, it's going

2:10:13to be costly. There's no way that we would be able to maintain well over 200 firefighters

2:10:17right now. But yeah, we're right now, as far as being able to respond, we respond accordingly.

2:10:25We have a very aggressive fire department. The guys are very safe in what they do and

2:10:29they understand the parameters that they have to meet when it comes to responding.

2:10:33But it would be better overall when you look at, you know, premium pay, when you look

2:10:39at, um, injuries, when you look at sick, when you look at all these different things,

2:10:43the balances can be found between overtime and staffing, but we're still not quite there

2:10:49to be able to meet that. But when you ask the question, is, is if we're okay with staffing,

2:10:54I can say we're okay, but we still don't meet that standard or we could do better.

2:10:58I mean, take it into consideration that in 1975, you had 156 firefighters for 2000 calls.

2:11:07So, you know, that's where, that's where, you know, for me, it's always difficult to

2:11:10look at that number and try to understand it. What was their determination back then?

2:11:14Like I have that report with me. I carry that official report from 1975 with me everywhere

2:11:19I go, but it's difficult for me to understand how is it that we went from 156 and all of

2:11:24a sudden we drew down when the city was continued to grow more than likely, even back in 1975,

2:11:30moving forward. So how did the city determine that? And even when I got on, we had 150.

2:11:37Again, I don't want to, I never would like to speak poorly of a previous administration,

2:11:43but yes, the previous administration, a previous administration basically, um, you know, through

2:11:48attrition did not allow us to continue to build, except through attrition, he lessened

2:11:55us to the point where I remember seeing numbers at 118. So this is where, this is where we

2:12:01continue to build, you know, with, with the, with the administrations after that one.

2:12:07And this one has been very, very helpful with, and again, with council approving our safer

2:12:11grant, which allowed us to add another 12, you know, positions, but we're still short.

2:12:17It doesn't, you know, again, I don't, I never say that we're replaced or that we're adding.

2:12:21I always say we're restoring because we're trying to restore back to where we were even,

2:12:27let's say from 2003 when I started or even a little bit more in order to be able to meet

2:12:32the demand of a growing city. I mean, we continue to grow. When you look at, you know,

2:12:36the potential with the riverfront project with the East side, you're basically building

2:12:40a city at the Allentown State Hospital site. I mean, all these things are continuing to

2:12:44grow and, uh, and we're just, you know, we're just slowly chipping away and trying to do

2:12:50better. And, but again, it, it takes, it takes the entire, uh, fire administration,

2:12:56city administration and city council to be able to work towards that goal. And hopefully,

2:13:02um, before it's all said and done, we can at least be closer to that goal.

2:13:07Do you have the same problems in recruiting as the police department?

2:13:10We absolutely don't. We, when we put it out, I mean, we, we usually get applications as

2:13:15far as, you know, you know, down South DC, you know, Jersey, and sometimes our list

2:13:20will go up into the 300s, 400s. Now they're, they're in their defense. I mean, they're

2:13:27the way they have to, you know, weed out, like the individuals is a little bit different

2:13:32for them. These individuals are carrying firearms versus what we do. So they have a different

2:13:37method in being able to, to, to make that happen.

2:13:39Do you have grants also for, for recruiting like, like they do?

2:13:43Yeah, we do. I mean, we go to schools. I mean, that's where we have our public information

2:13:46officer. That's what I was speaking to a little bit there. It's, it's always, you

2:13:49know, we always try to set up tables when it comes to the, the playgrounds, we, you

2:13:53know, we, you know, initially like there, that's where you start. I mean, you start

2:13:57impressing upon the children the importance of public safety, the safety in general, fire

2:14:02safety. I mean, we push a lot of that, that messaging. And when you, when you go out

2:14:06there and it's, it's funny because when you do the Halloween, you know, trick-or-treats

2:14:10or the Halloween, the trunk of treats or something like that, so many kids always

2:14:12show up in the police and fire uniforms. You know, you don't see them in other types

2:14:17of uniforms, but you see them a lot in police and fire uniforms. But because that's where

2:14:21they, that's where you start. But as far as recruiting, yeah, we're, we're trying

2:14:24to get ourselves back into the, especially the junior high schools and high schools,

2:14:29where it's a little bit more difficult to kind of engage because they just, it's, it's,

2:14:33it's, you know, the, the information is not there for them. So that's something that

2:14:36we're, we're pushing towards. And that's why the numbers kind of slowly speak for

2:14:41themselves when I speak to the public information office, trying to engage in and get involved

2:14:47more into the schools to provide a little bit more information so that, especially like

2:14:53inner city residents, for them to be able to get, gain a little bit more traction there

2:14:59and interest there because that's where some, that's one thing that I can say for sure

2:15:03is that we lack. It's not being able to get inner city individuals interested in this

2:15:09type of work because it's different. It's not, you know, it's not a typical, you know.

2:15:14I just believe that firemen and policemen, they are, they're born to be that, that not

2:15:21everybody can be a police officer or a fireman. And I just believe public safety gets down

2:15:27to manpower. The more men that we have on the street, the more firemen we have, like

2:15:31that, that terrible fire that we had. I mean, how many responded? There were a lot of,

2:15:37it was well over 200 and that was multiple agencies, you know, as far out as Easton.

2:15:42I have to say that you guys, I mean, guy in the sinkhole, I mean, going back years,

2:15:48there's so many, so many heroic things that the fire department has done in Allentown

2:15:53that I have to commend. And I'm always looking to see with the budget or any way to get

2:16:00more police officers, more firemen, because your life is in danger and an hour of life

2:16:07is in danger if we don't have, we can have all the equipment we can have, all the trucks

2:16:10here, but we need the manpower, we need the training, we need all of that. And that's

2:16:14my biggest concern is to make sure that that manpower is there too. And like you said,

2:16:20what a difference, how many people were in the city from when you became a fireman,

2:16:25it like, you know, it was like 50,000 more people. So I just wanted to touch on that

2:16:32about the manpower and something that I personally would like to work on with incentives to

2:16:37get more firemen, to get more, would you hire me with the police officer, to the same

2:16:41thing with the fire department. And having them live in the city also would be an advantage

2:16:46to us. So thank you for your presentation. Thank you. Oh, you got one more? Just one

2:16:53other, sorry. Out of the 16,000 calls, do you have roughly the breakdown between number

2:16:59of ones that were calls direct for fire versus co-response with EMS? Yeah, we can get that

2:17:05for you. I mean, the majority, a lot of the calls are EMS calls, we assist, like we're

2:17:09like first, first responding along with EMS. Now they dispatch us accordingly, like together.

2:17:15So it actually is helpful to have both agencies be dispatched at the same time, like exactly

2:17:19the same time. So yeah, it's a lot, the majority of our cars are EMS based, but then the rest

2:17:26of them actually follow along with your line. Okay. Yeah, as far as numbers, we can get

2:17:30you the numbers if you want them specifically, but we can get you everything. It's ballpark

2:17:34four to 5,000. Okay. Four to 5,000. Okay. All right. Thank you. I would add, it'd be

2:17:40me to it, but I would add false alarms too. I'd be curious. Yeah, I would just be curious

2:17:46only be, and not, and I'm not minimizing the response. You have to respond. I get

2:17:50all that, but based on that data, it'd be interesting to talk about how maybe we can

2:17:55try and minimize those calls that are really adding to your call volume. So the interesting

2:18:01thing is that when people say false alarms, the problem that we run into a lot of times

2:18:05is that if it's, if it's smoke that actually sets off a detector, realistically, it's not

2:18:12considered a false alarm. Even though it turns into more so a nuisance alarm, where we end

2:18:17up having a dispatch and have to respond and have to, but the reality is, is that

2:18:22the smoke activates a detector and it actually notifies and it pushes it out there. We don't

2:18:28get as many that it has a lot to do with just like a malfunction. We do. I'm not saying

2:18:33that we don't every so often, but there's a difference between, whether it's a true

2:18:39false alarm or if it's actually one that's being set off by a detector due to smoke.

2:18:45Whether it be smoking, whether it be cooking, whether it be anything like that, if it's

2:18:50setting off that alarm, it's not really considered a false alarm. Those are the ones that typically

2:18:55we end up going to a lot, and that's just the reality of how it goes.

2:18:59I see it downtown. I mean, it's, there's a lot of that and, you know, you're not, it's not a situation

2:19:05where, you know, I mean, it's not like a fire, but I see, you know, your folks going in and

2:19:09out and no one's running. So I just, it's, there's obviously something triggered it.

2:19:15So we know whether it's someone, someone smoking or whatever the case may be, but technically

2:19:21I get your, it's not a false alarm. I get it. So thanks.

2:19:25Anyone else? Anybody from the public? Just cause I'm guilty of this in my previous job.

2:19:36And like you said, there's not too many of the false trick. I mean, I know that businesses

2:19:41can sometimes trick their own alarms. Are you charging like, or to get some money out

2:19:46of it? If you have to go out after so many times of alarms, just being tricked on accident

2:19:51by maybe like the business owner or employee, do we, do we charge them?

2:19:58No, we don't. I mean, there is, there, there are like in the international fire code allows

2:20:03for us to be able to, to actually charge. And I believe they're in our ordinance. It

2:20:09also does have something that speaks to that effect. But again, who makes the determination

2:20:15as to whether that's considered a false alarm or it's actually an alarm, even if it's,

2:20:21even if it's cookie. So let's say, let's say for instance, a gross towers was one

2:20:25of our biggest culprits for this. If I can't go after the agency, if room 120, 220, 300,

2:20:35all different rooms are the ones that are actually causing this. So we can't go after

2:20:40individual renters, but we can try to go after the agency. Now the agency itself, if there

2:20:46was that it was an actual alarm being caused by an issue within the system that they're

2:20:53choosing not to repair and it's continuously sending us out there, then that's a different

2:20:57story. Then we can go after that, then we can charge them on that. And again, it's just

2:21:02a very slippery slope as far as, you know, if, if an alarm actually goes off into somebody

2:21:06actually is either, you know, you know, cooking bacon and it sets off the arm, then it is

2:21:11what it is. It's, it's gotten better, especially with the housing authority, because they've

2:21:16changed their systems. It used to be that the smoke alarms within the apartments were

2:21:22tied into the entire alarm system. So that would be, that would cause that. Now, even

2:21:27on the new construction and new code, the internal ones are individual for the apartments

2:21:33and then the hallway ones are the ones that are tied to the fire alarm system. So first

2:21:38notification would be somebody's being notified right away in their apartment. Hey, you got

2:21:42something going on. If it gets out of hand, it's going to reach the hallway one, which

2:21:46is going to dispatch us. So that would be different there. That's helped us a lot immensely

2:21:53in a lot of the call volumes when we see anyone else. All right. Thank you, chief. All right.

2:22:04We waited a long time. Good evening. Good evening, members of council. I'm a met bars

2:22:26of on the chief of EMS for the city of Allentown. This is our 50th budget. I'm not sure if

2:22:31council's aware, but, uh, Allentown EMS is celebrating our 50th anniversary this year.

2:22:37So we are the youngest of the emergency medical team in Allentown and as well as all of our

2:22:43emergency services in Allentown. But I like to think that we're the most progressive.

2:22:46So I guess I can go about that. I'll just give you a little overview of EMS. Uh, presently

2:22:54we have 44 full time employees of those 35 or dedicated 911 paramedic responders assigned

2:23:01to platoons and signed shifts to run ambulance calls. I have four assistant chiefs of EMS,

2:23:09one per each platoon that act as a shift supervisor. Here's myself the chief of EMS. I have a captain

2:23:15of training and special events whose house at the fire academy and whose primary objective

2:23:21is to oversee our internal and external training components as well as special event planning

2:23:26for the city. I have three members of our billing team who are responsible for billing

2:23:33for EMS services. And as you'll hear later on in my prepared statement are responsible

2:23:39for our greater than 100% revenue neutrality for EMS, which this is the second time in

2:23:47my tenure as chief of EMS where I can say that we have recovered 100% of our operating

2:23:52expenses and that is through the dedicated team of billing professionals. Allentown EMS

2:23:59has five special teams providing the medical aspect to the police emergency response team,

2:24:06the fire department, technical rescue and hazmat team, the fire department, underwater

2:24:10recovery team, the Allentown bomb squad, and we have a certified bicycle team that

2:24:19attends multiple city events yearly. We have a dedicated education cadre. This year we

2:24:27have taught CPR to just about 500 individuals as well as staffed two EMT programs at the

2:24:36Allentown fire academy. Our outreach team has attended greater than 100 special events

2:24:43that perform community relations and school visits to multiple schools in the Allentown

2:24:48school district and we have launched an initiative where we are trying our very best to offer

2:24:55students from Allen and Deere of high school departing graduating seniors a seat in our

2:25:00yearly EMT program to give them a heads up on a medical career. We don't recruit paramedics

2:25:09from lay individuals and that puts us at a slight disadvantage than the fire department

2:25:15and the police department, but it's just not feasible. In order for us to onboard

2:25:19somebody they need to be certified as a paramedic, but to send our special events people out

2:25:26to talk to the youth, get them interested in our field, get them in the direction to

2:25:31becoming firefighters or EMTs and then we hope to see them again when they are paramedics.

2:25:40We have a very successful CPR outreach program where we will do hands-only CPR classes at

2:25:47our special events, we go to the iron pigs, we do lots of things like that and we're

2:25:52starting to reap the rewards of that where we have noted in 2026 that 100% of our cardiac

2:26:00arrest responses have had some form of bystander CPR and this year we had four CPR saves.

2:26:07I realize in a population such as Allentown that doesn't seem like a lot, but that is

2:26:12gigantic. We have seen a sharp decrease in overdose deaths and we have exhausted our

2:26:23leave behind Narcan program and we can attribute access to Narcan, our leave behind Narcan

2:26:29program, the health bureau's Narcan program to reducing the number of overdose deaths.

2:26:36Even one was enough for us to say hey that's our goal, that's what we want to reap, but

2:26:41we're happy to see that is a noted decline in overdose deaths. In 2026 we launched our

2:26:48very successful pre-hospital blood program. We have administered blood 43 times with

2:26:56a less than 5% waste of blood product. Only two times this year has our blood timed out

2:27:05where it has been in our possession for greater than 14 days and not been used. Other than

2:27:10that we've used it 43 times and it's a straight down the line 50/50 mix of medical and trauma

2:27:18patients. Our biggest medical patient receiving blood are during obstetrics and gynecological

2:27:26emergencies and then of course we do administer to trauma patients. Of those trauma patients

2:27:32yes there were shooting and stabbings but we have seen a sharp increase in electric

2:27:39bicycle electric scooter moped motorcycle accidents. That is not a trend that's unique

2:27:47to Allentown, it's Pennsylvania statewide, it's nationwide and we're starting to see

2:27:52some large municipalities especially on the west coast offering buyback programs to get

2:27:58these things off the streets because they're that much of a nuisance. So members of City

2:28:03Council, members of City Administration, thank you for the opportunity for me to speak tonight

2:28:10and I want to thank you for your undying support of EMS and Allentown. Our revised

2:28:15budget for 2026 was $7,019,502. The sum of all funds in our accounts not related to

2:28:24personnel expenses was $389,000 or less than 6% of our total budget. In preparing the

2:28:342020 budget all departments were asked to submit a proposal with a reduction of 10%

2:28:39not including personnel expenses. If EMS eliminated every expense across the board outside of

2:28:48personnel we would not realize a 10% reduction in expenses. However, we did present a well

2:28:56thought bare bones budget for 2027 and a funding stream to reimburse the city for

2:29:04100% of the expenses we have requested including the addition of personnel as well as some

2:29:14other nominal increases in our expense accounts. I call them nominal knowing full well one

2:29:19of them $66,000 but I promise I have a really good reason for that. When we factor in why

2:29:26a given year reductions were requested EMS would present a budget asking for an increase

2:29:32of over 6%. I feel it's important to note that even with the increases across several

2:29:37of our budget accounts this is still bare bones. This is a no frills budget. Increases

2:29:44to premium and temporary pay in 2027 reflect the real number we expect to utilize in the

2:29:50budget year. We've gone over budget and premium pay as far back as I could track. It is not

2:29:57ideal for any manager to present to you a false happy number knowing I'm going to have

2:30:02to come back to you and ask for more money. So while we have attempted incrementally to

2:30:08increase this I've come to you this year with what I expect to spend in 2027 and premium

2:30:13pay and the same for temporary. We have a dedicated cadre of part time and pretty employees

2:30:21who not only work full time jobs elsewhere but work here and work here often because

2:30:28they love our program and they love the results we do or results we obtain and they love

2:30:34working in the city of Allentown. I feel it's important that our number be accurate

2:30:42and realistic. We have to keep ambulances on the road. When somebody calls out sick

2:30:48or somebody's injured or somebody takes vacation which we have a very generous benefits package

2:30:55and I want my staff to use it. I think there's nothing more important than a work home life

2:31:00balance. But when we have these absences we have to fill the shift. We can't simply

2:31:06just say okay I have four people on vacation we're running with two ambulances today and

2:31:12a volume of 20,000 that is not going to work out. So we need premium pay. We need part

2:31:17timers we need temporary wages. We have to have a mandate policy. In addition to personnel

2:31:27the addition to personnel is long overdue. If I'm being honest the addition of two full

2:31:33timers helps us sustain but still fails and falls short of providing adequate staff to

2:31:40meet our current and projected needs and to grow with our city. We must use mandatory

2:31:49overtime to keep us at appropriate staffing levels and this comes at a cost to the health

2:31:54and safety of our staff. The number of mandated shifts in 2026 has more than doubled compared

2:32:01to 2025. The number of six hour blocks of time browned out on an ambulance has doubled

2:32:10in 2026 compared to 2025 because even with mandates we run out of options and we just

2:32:17cannot fully staff when we experience the losses we're currently experiencing. When

2:32:25it comes to continuity of care and preparedness and the overall strain on our staff we still

2:32:34must utilize mandated overtime. Mandated overtime is a morale killer and it is the catalyst

2:32:41for disruptions in home life balance and premature burnout and fatigue. So we want

2:32:46to eliminate that and adding staff like we're doing this year will hopefully ease some

2:32:52of that burden. We are grateful the city is presenting a budget to address our staffing

2:32:58issues in EMS and I hope I can convince you to add more when the funding allows. When

2:33:04we look at how many ambulances should be on the road we need to consider a lot of things.

2:33:09We pull data based on call volume, busiest areas, busiest times of the day, population,

2:33:17the level and type of call for service, and unit hour utilization. Unit hour utilization

2:33:24is the emergency medical services metric for performance used to measure ambulance workload,

2:33:32system productivity, and operational efficiency. We take the number of calls, the time spent

2:33:40on call and I use dispatch to available and divide that information by the total number

2:33:48of hours ambulances are staffed. Urban areas like Allentown target a unit hour utilization

2:33:56between point three and point five. Meeting an ambulance handles roughly one transport

2:34:03every one to two hours leaving enough downtime for station duties, rest, and immediate availability

2:34:11for new emergencies. In Allentown our UAQ is greater than point six. This indicates

2:34:21a very busy high density system. While higher numbers looked cost effective on paper, a

2:34:28UAQ approaching or even exceeding point four five to point six leaves minimal recovery

2:34:34time correlating with higher paramedic fatigue, increased response time, increased employee

2:34:41turnover and a strain on mutual aid. Turnover it's not just faces. It is incredibly time

2:34:51consuming and expensive to onboard staff. When we get somebody here we want to keep

2:34:58them for the life of their career so they can retire not only to get the knowledge base

2:35:07and reliability of a seasoned provider and to eliminate the downside of training onboarding

2:35:15and those costs, but just to have somebody who knows the city, somebody who when they

2:35:21get a call on the road is going to know that half street and that quarter street or that

2:35:26block and know it, have experienced it and just bring that sense of time to a call.

2:35:39Further, looking at the Chicago EMS model where population is correlated with the number

2:35:44of available ambulances, we are understaffed. Okay, we've heard this multiple times tonight.

2:35:48This is no secret. Every single bureau in the city needs people. However, it's not

2:35:56all doom and gloom. As of now we are maintaining while at times difficult to fill the voids

2:36:01and answer all of the 911 calls we do. As of today I'm down four, I'm sorry, five full

2:36:09time members. I have five full time employees out on extended app instances, injury, FMLA,

2:36:18sick, military. These are all legitimate reasons they're out and it's just something we're

2:36:25combating. This is a real issue because we do not have the depth in our staffing to

2:36:30absorb any losses at all, let alone five. We have a bare bones budget, we have a bare

2:36:38bones schedule, which means there is no padding to move people around and fill vacancies much

2:36:45less when we have to do five all at the same time. These two positions will be implemented

2:36:52as soon as we are allowed should you choose to fund them and this will provide much needed

2:36:58relief to my grateful staff. Staffing is important for 911 calls but it's also important

2:37:06for the many special events and venues across Allentown. When there is a big event you

2:37:11will likely see someone from our staff. On many of the public outreach events you're

2:37:16going to see Stephanie who is absolutely the bread and butter of our community outreach

2:37:20team. She's out there teaching CPR and has I believe single handedly improved our CPR

2:37:27recovery rate through her attention to detail and dedication. We need personnel to meet

2:37:36the demand of our vigorous special event schedule. Managing Director King mentioned

2:37:44earlier about how we had to recently tell the Archer Center we couldn't help them out.

2:37:47Over the summer the Archer Center reached out and they said hey, our contractor for

2:37:52EMS isn't working, we would really like to bring Allentown back in. I really wanted

2:37:57to say yes, we'll be there but that would be an undue burden on our captain of special

2:38:03events and the paramedics that are going to be responsible for covering those when the

2:38:08shift lay is empty and it's not fair enough to put more on their plate given what we're

2:38:14already doing and dealing with with our scheduling. That comes out of disservice to the Archer

2:38:19Center. It comes out of disservice to our bureau because that would have been revenue

2:38:23generating to help us meet our needs and providing for the city. Looking at the other

2:38:32accounts getting outside of staffing, any account that you see more money in is most

2:38:40likely to combat inflation. A box of gloves in 2016 has more than tripled in price in

2:38:492026 going into 2027. We answer 20,000 calls a year. We go through a lot of non-replaceable

2:38:58supplies, gloves, bandages, medications, things like that that we have to keep on our ambulances.

2:39:07The largest you'll see is 66,000 dollars and that's for a structure and a load system

2:39:13for our 10th ambulance. In 2021 we lobbied to add a 9th and 10th ambulance to our fleet.

2:39:20Our fleet used to have 8 available ambulances in it. We added that to 10 and in 2027 I'm

2:39:28very excited to say we will finally see all 10 ambulances in service at the same time.

2:39:36Not staffed, not like on shift, but we will have at our disposal 10 ambulances. And you

2:39:42might be thinking well when would we use that? Well there was a fire on Front Street

2:39:49back in the beginning of the summer where I had every piece of equipment we owned including

2:39:55two golf carts staffed and at this fire providing aid to the fire department who brought in

2:40:01over 200 firefighters. So there's plenty of times where a big event could happen and

2:40:07we are finally able to better manage those events and we don't own 10 structures and

2:40:15we don't have 10 load systems. Because we added these ambulances incrementally and because

2:40:19of the cost of adding this equipment we never had a need until now to make sure we had

2:40:2410 structures and 10 load systems. So that's why we're asking for that. The good news

2:40:32for all of you is I can pay for all of this. Our revenue for 2026 as of today before it

2:40:39came to this meeting is 6.5 million. This is money collected for services provided

2:40:45by our billing department. With two months left in the fiscal year we have recovered

2:40:5093% of our total 2026 operating expenses. We expect to finish the year in the area

2:40:56of 7.5 to 7.8 million. Changes to your insurance reimbursement, Medicaid, Medicare, mileage

2:41:05reimbursement and other things by HHS are reasons we have noted in increased revenue

2:41:10over the last four years. Not to mention our call volume which though not as sharp

2:41:16as an increase in the past few years remains at about 20,000. I could go on but I'd rather

2:41:22say that everyone in EMS appreciates the tough financial situation in Allentown. We're

2:41:28not blind to it. We know what it's like to ask a resident to pay more. We realize any

2:41:34budget process is give and take in trying to do the most good with what you have. We

2:41:40appreciate the support of City Administration and for you on Council for the work you do

2:41:45and for any funding that is granted to EMS. At this time I'll entertain any questions

2:41:51you have.

2:41:57Do I have any?

2:41:58Thanks so much for the presentation. I do want to call out when Council President Pungo

2:42:05and I met with you at the beginning in February or March. I think it was very compelling to

2:42:13see the need that you had for staffing and I'm grateful that the administration looked

2:42:18to move that up by two people in this budget. I did want to note in here, you didn't call

2:42:26it up, but I was reading that you're planning to put a place of ventilators into service

2:42:31and pre-hospital ultrasounds in 2027?

2:42:34Yeah, so one of the things that we've really taken a stand on as administration for EMS

2:42:41is providing the most, providing the best blood. That was a gigantic move in EMS where

2:42:5010 years ago no one would have even considered it. Why are you putting blood on an ambulance?

2:42:56But we've really made a lot of progress on a state level, on a national level and of

2:43:00course here in Allentown with providing whole blood. The next logical step for us is ultrasound.

2:43:08When we go to a patient who's bleeding or dying and we can't see it, an ultrasound

2:43:14is going to help us guide what hospital they go to, what services we need at that hospital,

2:43:19what services they need in the ambulance. The same for a ventilator. Right now we have

2:43:25a dedicated rehabilitation facility for people on ventilator. So if we get called to that

2:43:32facility we don't have a ventilator. They're not going to send theirs out so we have to

2:43:39manually control the airways which is not ideal for any patient. So I was able to use

2:43:46a grant last year. We were able to purchase one ventilator. We had some funding left in

2:43:51our training budget. We were able to get our staff through it and we hope by the middle

2:43:56of 2027 to have the ventilator in service. We hope to purchase through a grant that

2:44:03we obtained the ultrasound equipment in early 2027 and have our staff trained by the third,

2:44:10fourth quarter of 2027 to roll ultrasound out. And then as stuff comes out we want to

2:44:15be able to provide the best, most care possible for those who are in need. So it's not just

2:44:24get in, close the doors, hit the gas. We want to truly impact our patients. And the stuff

2:44:29that the staff has been doing is monumental in life safety. And I'm going to take a quote

2:44:35from Mayor Turk. A lot of times the difference between a homicide and an aggravated assault

2:44:44is a good paramedic. Thank you. One other question on this one. You had noted an 8%

2:44:52increase for service calls. It was three to five in your narrative last couple years

2:44:56and an 8% in the last one. I guess this is maybe a naive question, but if you're a revenue

2:45:02neutral department and you're having an increase in calls, what number would you feel would

2:45:09be the number you need? I mean, obviously you're going to have equipment limitations

2:45:15at some point, but what staffing do you feel like you need to be some sort of, nine more

2:45:20in addition to the two? No, that includes the two, seven more on top of the two. And

2:45:25that is five more paramedics, one deputy chief of VMS and one captain of training special

2:45:33events to assist Andy. The workload right now, I don't like to use hyperbole. Like it's

2:45:41backbreaking work, but it's a lot. There are times where our assistant chiefs who need

2:45:48to be going out on high acuity calls are on meetings with vendors or doing the schedule

2:45:54or doing inventories. It's just, we are not at a level of oversight for the amount of

2:46:01volume and the amount of staff we have. The special events training side of the house,

2:46:08it's very hard for one person to dedicate the amount of training that we do. And that's

2:46:16not just paramedic staff, that's fire departments, police department. It's daycare centers when

2:46:20they need first aid classes, it's schools when they need outrank. So it's very busy.

2:46:27So that's a number that I would be very content with. I realize it's a lot and I hope finance

2:46:34behind me is not avoiding the cannon, but that gets us to a place where I add people

2:46:41to platoons. We put surge trucks up and we have depth when people are out. At what point

2:46:51do you think you'd be crossing over, just say hypothetically you had that number where

2:46:54you would no longer be revenue neutral at that point? Like where do you feel like that

2:46:57would, that inflection point would probably get us there. But pointing out again, we've

2:47:08gone really far in terms of money we brought in. In 2016 we were down around 50 percent.

2:47:19So the work from our billing team, the advancements made with the investments afforded by Council

2:47:30have really helped us streamline going paperless, 100 percent digital, not relying on DOS computers

2:47:40and servers. It's come a long way and the funding that our representatives and our

2:47:49government are forcing in HHS have helped us. Up until two years ago we could not bill

2:47:54for mileage because the minimum billing for mileage was 20 miles. So we don't do a whole

2:48:00lot of 20 mile trips, but now it's down to the tenth of a mile. So that opened up a

2:48:06revenue stream. And the state government, I was at a round table calling it that because

2:48:13it was actually a rectangular table. But we had a meeting last week with members of

2:48:17Senate, excuse me, Congress, who came to our station and we were able to say to them

2:48:23like hey this is a problem and if you don't fix the funding there's not going to be ambulances

2:48:28and people are going to be using Lyft to go to the hospital. So they're aware.

2:48:33Thank you very much. And thank you for all you do.

2:48:35Thank you.

2:48:39Thank you for that. And I appreciate Jeremy bringing up the meetings. I actually did

2:48:42pull up my notes just to check to see the number and you reiterated the ten ambulances.

2:48:47I'm curious, I think like you said we were just able to bring the ninth and tenth on

2:48:52back online. Do you foresee in the next five years a need to add additional vehicles to

2:48:58the fleet or any vehicles that have to be decommissioned?

2:49:04We are in a constant state of replacement through finance, the garage, the fleet. I

2:49:13don't want to call them the fleet department, I guess public works. Put us on a good replacement

2:49:18plan for ambulances. I mean, you cut anything you want from a budget, please don't ever

2:49:23cut an ambulance. We got behind before and we were running Shady Shady Bang Bang EMS

2:49:27calls and that's not good for anybody. So our fleet's healthy. When I say we have

2:49:31ten there's only five in service at a time. You usually want two and a half ambulances

2:49:37for every one ambulance that's in service. So yeah, eventually we probably need to increase

2:49:41our number of rolling stock just to have the availability. We have the same issues

2:49:49as fire where if an ambulance goes down mechanical we only have a finite number of spares and

2:49:57once we run out of spares we're putting ambulances out of service because there's not enough

2:50:02working ambulances for the crews I have. So we've had that happen, it happened over

2:50:07the summer. We were able to get the emergency procedure in place, get the mechanics in,

2:50:11get something fixed and back on the road and alleviate that. But I can see us going

2:50:17to 12 if someone said hey, what's your five year plan? It's probably to have a rolling

2:50:21stock of 12 available ambulances. And I think originally you had mentioned and I'm assuming

2:50:28that two is not a random number. I think you mentioned originally any sort of increase

2:50:31to personnel has to be kind of done in like twos just based off of how the shifts are

2:50:37manned or? Yes, yes and no. In the case of what we added now we're adding floats. I

2:50:49asked for the stars, I asked for three, I got two. I'm very happy with that. So in most

2:50:54cases yes we add an ambulance and twos but we're trying to bolster our reserve staff

2:50:59that their primary job is to fill holes in the schedule to cover for a time off and

2:51:06vacations and trainings and things like that and anymore they're being used for long term

2:51:12outages when we have, I just lost a guy a week ago, he's gone for 400 days for the

2:51:17military and it's just like things like that that we don't have the depth in our schedule

2:51:23to plug those holes. Absolutely. I'm curious how you mentioned per diem and kind of shift

2:51:30work for folks who are working elsewhere. How do you usually attribute that? Is that

2:51:36as necessary you just kind of open it up to a pool of individuals who are open to that

2:51:40sort of kind of work? We hire specifically per diem and we hire everybody per diem.

2:51:47So when you hear the term part time for EMS, it's a union member, they're SEIU. That means

2:51:53they met a benchmark of hours worked within their first, not within their first but within

2:51:58any 12 month period. It's 520 hours. So you get hired per diem, you work 520 hours, now

2:52:04you're part time and you're actually in the union. We have people that love that. I have

2:52:09one guy who's been here 20 years. He's part time. He doesn't want to come full time.

2:52:14He likes what he does. We've been very good at getting in some nurses that like nursing

2:52:21but also like the pre hospital element. So they work their nursing jobs and they come

2:52:25here and they work part time as EMS providers. And that's when for us it's a high level

2:52:30of care that we like and it's knowledge sharing among the professions. We're hiring right

2:52:36now. Interviews are in November and I have a good pool of that. So I think we'll do

2:52:44something just fine on this cycle as well. That's great to hear. As far as the services

2:52:49for blood and ultrasound, I'm curious, was there any sort of tracking, I'm assuming as

2:52:54a service render that also means more billable kind of processes for us? Sadly, no. Blood

2:53:01is not an audited billing item. But we do see an increase in revenue because it escalates

2:53:09that call to what we call an ALS two, which is advanced life support level two call.

2:53:15And that's a higher reimbursement from the insurances for that level of care. But we

2:53:21don't specifically see a recuperation in the cost of the blood and the blood supplies,

2:53:27but it all comes out in the wash. No, I was just curious if, and I'm assuming that's

2:53:32only limited to maybe a certain number of units or maybe one unit, like as far as like

2:53:38an ambulance or is that supported on all? No, once we give that, if we give blood or

2:53:44if we give multiple medications on a call, which if we're giving blood, we're giving

2:53:48other meds to go with it anyway, it becomes an ALS two call. But if we call other blood

2:53:57in, so we have a blood consortium, it's a city of Bethlehem, city of Allentown, Lehigh

2:54:02Valley Medivac, and St. Luke's University Health Network. So if there's an incident

2:54:06and they dispatch a blood consortium, all four of us might go there, but they may not

2:54:11use four units of blood. But if there is an incident, and we had one back in the summer

2:54:17where we had multiple injuries at an incident and multiple blood administrations where

2:54:21the entire blood consortium came and all of them administered to the various patients.

2:54:26If one patient received more than one unit, we wouldn't realize any difference in revenue.

2:54:31I appreciate it. Thanks. I think that's my question.

2:54:38You mentioned someone from the public private sector who was interested in your services.

2:54:44Did you explore the opportunity there? If we had the opportunity to serve them, and

2:54:54if we could have a long term commitment from that entity, would it be worth exploring maybe

2:54:59going into an agreement with them and expanding the operation?

2:55:04You mean like a lay person becoming a paramedic?

2:55:07I'm sorry, you said the archer. I didn't want to mention it.

2:55:11Yeah, no, that's fine. I think as our staff increases with two, we're still not going

2:55:18to be where we need to be. I think if we add more staff down the line...

2:55:25So I asked the question poorly, I'm sorry. So if we had a commitment from someone like

2:55:30that, and they said, "Listen, we want your services for the next five years, and we're

2:55:35willing to pay X." Is that something we can explore to say, "Hey, if we did this for

2:55:39five years and we got X, there'd be a profit of 20%?" Is that something that maybe we

2:55:46can explore in that department knowing that you have been a profit center in other areas?

2:55:54I would say it's worth looking into. Anecdotally, you hear big things are coming, other sports

2:56:01possibly. We used to do the iron pigs. We don't really have the bandwidth to adequately

2:56:11cover a 911 base and expand out to things like... And I'll just give you an example.

2:56:16The week of the Allentown Fair, we have a ton of resources committed to the fair, and

2:56:20they're busy. At a big concert there with a high school football game, that happens

2:56:26to be the night of a baseball game, and a concert at the archer if we were covering

2:56:30that. And we have no staff. And that's where we come down to. In our surge times, we just

2:56:37don't have the depth to really adequately cover all that. And even providing support

2:56:45to the school districts for football, which is something we've been doing since 2023

2:56:50again, it gets hard. And I would be very cautious about taking on any more regardless

2:56:57of a funding stream without knowing we can get people to work at.

2:57:04Understood. And I think, I guess my caveat is if we had long-term commitments from those

2:57:08groups, then we could adequately staff knowing we could make the commitment as council, okay,

2:57:13we'll budget for this, knowing that this is going to happen for the next so many years.

2:57:17So, just something to think about. I just thought if those opportunities are out there,

2:57:22I'm all just for exploring them. So, thank you.

2:57:25I want to follow up question. For the premium pay, since you had noted that you're trying

2:57:34to be pretty accurate on that one, do you feel if you had the staffing level you're

2:57:38looking at, that that premium pay would drop significantly? Or do you feel like it kind

2:57:44of stays similar?

2:57:46I think it would level off. I don't want to say it would drop significantly because

2:57:51as we add staff, they have time off to use, and there's always going to be use of premium

2:57:56pay. My goal would be to find a way to stay on budget with this. And this year, it kind

2:58:07of got away from us, but we're dealing with four holes in our schedule for the entire

2:58:10calendar year. And that's all getting plugged with premium pay and miscommunication on

2:58:17my part where I didn't have the correct number in my spreadsheet I used for temporary pay

2:58:23because when they called and said in August, hey, you're running wrong, what number do

2:58:29you have because I thought I had this much. And there's a bit of a record keeping snafu

2:58:35on my part. But it's always going to be there, but I think it would level off. I think it

2:58:43would decrease, but not enough to pop the corks. I think it's just we get it to a point

2:58:51where we stay at a comfortable level and we're not coming back and saying, hey, we're out

2:58:57of money in August.

2:58:58Okay, thanks very much.

2:59:00Anyone else?

2:59:02The streets that were there first, they haven't been working on the street and kept me stabilized

2:59:21until you arrived. So I'm so thankful for your department, all your employees. So do

2:59:24you think that the mix might be a finance question with the $2.5 million vacancy, will

2:59:33some of that open to your department and staff? That's something that would be open

2:59:43to this discussion just because they are such an important department.

3:00:00The budget factor is used for budget purposes. So when Frank said the journal upon budget is $153 million, that subtracted out, so it was $155 million, and we subtracted the vacancy factor to get to the $153 million.

3:00:19So how the vacancy factor works is that, for example, my revenue and audit manager position was open when Mike was promoted to be a deputy finance director.

3:00:31We had a challenge finding the right person to fill that position. It took us six months to get there. So that position was vacant for six months.

3:00:42So based on the labor market, based on our historical knowledge, and we review that this many positions will be projected vacant, as Chief Rocca mentioned, that he has challenges filling the patrolmen positions.

3:01:01So we factor all of those in when we're budgeting, and we budget based on that. So it's not a money that we can use because it's already part of that's built into the budget.

3:01:21The vacancy factor is not an option to help EMS because it's already built into the budget. So that $2.5 million is part of the journal fund's budget. So it's not the money or funding that's available for use.

3:01:43Anyone else? Okay, I want to thank all of you for coming and give us this budget overview. And I want to personally thank every man woman that is interested because this is exactly what's public safety.

3:01:59Every one of you work with life and death issues every day you have to be on your best, best days, you don't have can have a bad day, you save our lives and I thank you all so much fire department please smart, and I have used the ambulance several times

3:02:17this year. So I want to thank all of you for your service. This meeting is adjourned.

3:02:25This meeting is not adjourned. No problem. Thanks. Thanks to everyone we do have some audiences for introduction. So we'll start that portion of the meeting. We'll start with bill 82 bill 82 is an ordinance of the city of Allentown County of Lehigh and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania establishing

3:02:45a general fund administrative order fund risk management fund that service fund equipment fund golf fund and housing fund budgets for 2027. Thank you. Any, any comments from questions from the public. Okay.

3:03:02And Mr. Hanlon these all get referred to which special okay, so this will be forwarded to our budget review meeting in a future time. Next up is bill 83 bill 83 is an ordinance of the city of Allentown County of Lehigh

3:03:19in commonwealth of Pennsylvania establishing and adopting the stormwater fund budget for 2027 and amending article 393.15 stormwater utility fee by maintaining the stormwater utility fee at $20 per 500 square feet of impervious surface.

3:03:36Okay, any questions or comments from the public. Okay, this will also get referred to a budget review meeting at a future time and date. Bill 84 please.

3:03:48Bill 84 is an ordinance of the city of Allentown County of Lehigh and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania establishing and adopting the rental unit licensing fund budget for 2027 and amending article 1759 landlord and rental fee by maintaining the residential rental fees.

3:04:04Thank you. Any questions or comments from the public. This will get referred to a future budget review meeting ability five please bill 85 is an ordinance of the city of Allentown County of Lehigh and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the treks are fund budget for 2027.

3:04:23Any questions or comments from the public. This too will get referred to a future budget review committee bill I'm sorry. Go ahead. Bill 86 is an ordinance of the city of Allentown County of Lehigh and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania establishing and adopting the solid waste enterprise fund budget

3:04:43for 2027 and amending article 1131 municipal waste storage collection and disposal by maintaining the solid waste fee at $740. Okay, any questions or comments from the public.

3:04:58This will also be forwarded to a future meeting for our budget review ability seven please bill 87 is an ordinance of the city of Allentown County of Lehigh and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania establishing and adopting the building code fund budget for 2027 for community and economic development

3:05:15per chapter 270 of city code for building fees. Okay, any questions or comments from the public. And this will be referred to a future budget review meeting ability.

3:05:29Bill 88 is an ordinance of the city of Allentown County of Lehigh and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopting the liquid fuels fund budget for 2027. Any questions or comments from the public. This will also be referred to a future budget review meeting.

3:05:46It's the last one right. Awesome. Okay, sounds good. Well, that's it for tonight. Thank you everyone and we'll turn this meeting.