COUNCIL — Scranton, PA
Date: 2026-04-07

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 1 COUNCIL FOR THE CITY OF SCRANTON

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 4 HELD:

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 7 Tuesday, March 31st, 2026

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10 LOCATION:

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12 COUNCIL CHAMBERS

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24 Maria McCool, RPR
 Official Court Reporter
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 1 C O U N C I L M E M B E R S:

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 THOMAS SCHUSTER - PRESIDENT
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 PATRICK FLYNN, VICE PRESIDENT
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 MARK MCANDREW
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 JESSICA ROTHCHILD
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 SEAN MCANDREW
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 FRANK VOLDENBERG, CITY CLERK
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 KATHY CARRERA, ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
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 THOMAS GILBRIDE, ESQ., COUNCIL SOLICITOR
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 1 (Pledge of Allegiance.)

 2

 3 MR. SCHUSTER: Please remain

 4 standing for a moment of silent reflection for

 5 our service men and women throughout the world

 6 and for those who have passed away in our

 7 community, especially Ralph Arcuri, Joseph

 8 Anticoli, Joann McLain, Basil Micek. And my

 9 condolences to our City Clerk, Frank Voldenberg

10 for Matt Shoener. Roll call, please.

11 MS. CARRERA: Dr. Rothchild.

12 DR. ROTHCHILD: Here.

13 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Sean McAndrew.

14 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Present.

15 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Mark McAndrew.

16 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Present.

17 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Flynn.

18 MR. FLYNN: Here.

19 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Schuster.

20 MR. SCHUSTER: Present. Please

21 dispense with the reading of the minutes.

22 MR. VOLDENBERG: THIRD ORDER.

23 3.A. MEMORANDUM FROM THE BUSINESS

24 ADMINISTRATION DATED MARCH 23, 2026 REGARDING

25 PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES (PILOT) FROM MIDTOWN
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 1 APARTMENTS.

 2 3.B. LACKAWANNA COUNTY PLANNING

 3 COMMISSION SUBDIVISION AND LAND DEVELOPMENT

 4 EVALUATION REPORT RECEIVED MARCH 23, 2026.

 5 3.C. CORRESPONDENCE DATED MARCH 27,

 6 2026, FROM CITY BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION,

 7 REGARDING ARPA BUDGET TRANSFER.

 8 3.D. MEMORANDUM FROM THE BUSINESS

 9 ADMINISTRATION DATED MARCH 30, 2026 REGARDING

10 PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES (PILOT) FROM UNITED

11 NEIGHBORHOOD CENTERS OF NEPA AND UNITED

12 NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING.

13 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

14 Are there any comments on any of the Third

15 Order items?

16 My only comment is I would like to

17 thank Midtown Apartments for their pilot

18 payment as well United Neighborhood Center for

19 their payment as well. Mr. Voldenberg, thank

20 you. I did get that pilot document that you

21 had sent.

22 I didn't have a chance to read it

23 yet today. But I'll take a look at that. And

24 have some comments in future. Thank you very

25 much. If not, received and filed. Do any
 5

 1 Council members have any announcements at this

 2 time?

 3 MR. FLYNN: I do, yes, just one. So

 4 DPW will be off on April 6th for Easter Monday.

 5 So garbage and recycling pickup will be a day

 6 behind next week.

 7 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

 8 Any other announcements?

 9 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Yeah, I would

10 like to wish everyone a blessed Easter and a

11 blessed Passover this week and hope that during

12 these observances you are surrounded by family,

13 friends and great food.

14 I also would like to state that my

15 thoughts and prayers goes out to the families

16 of those devastated by the horrific fire last

17 weekend.

18 And I would like recognize and thank

19 the Scranton Fire and police department for

20 their swift response and efforts to bring that

21 horrific fire under control and thank the

22 Dunmore Fire Department for their assist. And

23 that is all I have. Thank you.

24 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much,

25 Mr. McAndrew. Thank you for bringing that up.
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 1 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Yeah, I would

 2 also like to wish a Happy Easter and Passover

 3 to all that celebrate. Enjoy the time with

 4 your family and friends. And then my thoughts

 5 and prayers for those affected by the fire, it

 6 was a terrible, terrible thing that happened

 7 over the weekend.

 8 And thanks to the firemen and the

 9 police and everybody that responded and their

10 efforts.

11 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

12 DR. ROTHCHILD: I also wanted to

13 wish everyone a Happy Easter and a joyous

14 Passover. And I also wanted to make mention of

15 today as well-being transgender day of

16 visibility. So it's a day where we could

17 recognize and celebrate transgender people.

18 And I'm happy to be able to do that

19 and to stand with the transgender community, my

20 friends, my family, my community that I just

21 want to relay my love and respect to them. And

22 I know that there's many people who might not

23 feel like they could be visible or out today

24 with the levels of discrimination and violence

25 that they're facing.
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 1 And, you know, I just encourage

 2 people to treat transgender people as fellow

 3 humans and to treat people as you would want

 4 to be treated. I don't -- I think that's a

 5 lesson we learned from very early on, many from

 6 our parents. So um -- and that's all that I

 7 have. Thank you.

 8 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

 9 MR. VOLDENBERG: FOURTH ORDER.

10 CITIZENS PARTICIPATION.

11 MR. SCHUSTER: Our first speaker

12 tonight is Joan Hodowanitz.

13 MS. HODOWANITZ: Joan Hodowanitz,

14 Scranton. Last several weeks we've been

15 hearing a lot about ICE and data centers. The

16 one thing we haven't heard anything about and

17 that is reassessment and property tax bills.

18 Now, for two years I've watched and

19 listened to people here and at the County

20 Commissioners' meetings come up to the podium

21 and be wailing that they're going to lose their

22 homes, you know, that their taxes were going to

23 go up, oh, so, so high and all kinds of, you

24 know, end of the world scenarios.

25 And I haven't seen one person come
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 1 to this podium or the podium at the County

 2 Commissioners, you know, and bring that issue

 3 up. I assume everybody's gotten their property

 4 tax bill. And hopefully everybody's been able

 5 to compare it to last year's bill.

 6 So maybe reassessment wasn't such a

 7 disaster and, you know, you know, the

 8 antiChrist or whatever they thought it would

 9 be. Personally, I would love to see an

10 automatic reassessment at least every 10 years

11 so we don't do this thing again every 50, 60

12 years.

13 But, I don't know, maybe -- maybe

14 they're hiding downstairs with their torches

15 and their pitchforks and they just haven't made

16 it up the steps. We'll see. I do want to

17 remind everybody that next week you are going

18 to have the caucus on the efforts for the

19 winter storm, correct, DPW is still coming in?

20 Okay.

21 I would encourage all the people

22 that watch this on ECTV or whatever channel you

23 watch it on, maybe YouTube, to make sure you

24 try to catch that caucus. Is it going to start

25 at 5:30 or 5:45?
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 1 MR. SCHUSTER: At this time we've

 2 been starting at 5:45.

 3 MS. HODOWANITZ: Okay. But I would

 4 encourage people to, you know, tune into it.

 5 And I would encourage the people who

 6 participate in the caucus from -- from the city

 7 to stay for the rest of the meeting. And I

 8 would also encourage as many DPW workers as

 9 possible to attend and to give their comments.

10 You know, there are always two sides

11 to every story. And what the city needs and

12 every city needs is not an adversarial

13 relationship between administration and the

14 unions, but a dialogue so that both sides can

15 contribute to solving problems so they don't

16 repeat themselves.

17 But I will be in the audience and I

18 wait -- eagerly await the information. Item

19 5-B, these emergency action plan manuals for

20 flooding in south side, the plot section, Green

21 Ridge and Albright Avenue, that is a great

22 idea.

23 Then it occurred to me there must be

24 other scenarios that could use an emergency

25 action plan like the recurring stormwater
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 1 flooding on West Mountain and East Mountain and

 2 Keyser Valley.

 3 It's obviously different from the

 4 flooding that's associated with the Lackawanna

 5 River. But there may be, you know, similar

 6 scenarios which would profit from somebody

 7 sitting down and taking lessons learned from

 8 previous scenarios even -- even winter storms,

 9 you know.

10 Maybe, you know, we go through these

11 events and you need to take the lessons learned

12 and apply them for the future. So hopefully

13 somebody will think about that. I saw in the

14 paper that we hired two police officers under

15 the Lateral Transfer Program.

16 My question is, what is the status

17 currently of the police department's staffing?

18 Are they up to par? Are they hurting? And can

19 we see more officers under that program? And

20 finally --

21 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Just to answer

22 your question I met with the Police Chief the

23 other day. I think there's still --

24 MS. HODOWANITZ: Yeah, you could

25 answer it in Fifth Order. And finally, has
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 1 anybody calculated what we're paying DPW in

 2 terms of raises for 2026 that we weren't able

 3 to program into the budget last year? Thank

 4 you.

 5 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

 6 Next is Mike Mancini.

 7 MR. MANCINI: Thank you, Council

 8 President Schuster. Good evening, Council and

 9 residents of Scranton. Tonight as promised,

10 part four, my version, the state of Scranton.

11 The topic, Scranton City Council.

12 Growing up in Scranton many people

13 remember a city that felt safer, cleaner, and

14 more cared for than it does today. A lot of

15 the families -- for a lot of the families

16 everyday childhood -- I'm sorry, for a lot of

17 families, the city parks, pools, street, and

18 neighborhoods were part of an everyday

19 childhood that felt stable and full of

20 possibility.

21 Roads seemed better maintained.

22 Local recreation was stronger. There was a

23 general feeling that crime was less visible and

24 less disruptive than it is now. Those memories

25 matter because it reflects what we loved about
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 1 Scranton.

 2 Parks were places where kids spent

 3 summer days and public pools gave families

 4 affordable recreation close to home.

 5 Neighborhood streets and city services felt

 6 part of the community that took pride in

 7 itself.

 8 For many longtime residents, those

 9 details are tied to the best memories growing

10 up. And at the same time, Scranton today is

11 still a city trying to meet real needs. Like

12 many older cities we face challenges with aging

13 infrastructure, public safety concerns,

14 homelessness and limited resources.

15 Many point to crime as one of the

16 biggest challenges they've noticed over time,

17 how they stressed much of the city still works

18 hard to improve quality of life, public

19 services, challenging roadwork, and carefully

20 budgeted park upgrades that show that the city

21 has not stopped trying to move forward.

22 The discussion around parks and

23 pools captures that tension well. People

24 remember the days when pools had a deep end and

25 offered certain kind of freedom that feels rare
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 1 now.

 2 Today Scranton continues to invest

 3 in recreation but the choices often reflect

 4 budgets, maintenance realities and changing

 5 safety standards. What was once taken for

 6 granted must now be carefully planned and

 7 funded.

 8 Same is true for homelessness and

 9 social services. Seeing limited shelter space

10 including only six beds for single women in

11 need is very disappointing to residents who

12 remember a more secured past. But it also

13 reflects a broader responsibility.

14 The city must balance public safety,

15 compassion and practical support for vulnerable

16 services. In that sense, Scranton is not

17 simply better before or worse now. It is a

18 city with a proud past, real present day

19 struggles, and ongoing efforts to adapt.

20 Growing up in Scranton I feel the

21 contrast and it feels sharp. I care about what

22 Scranton was, what it is today and what I hope

23 it could become again in the future. The word

24 hope lies in every one of you who fill those

25 five chairs.
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 1 In the past few months I've noticed

 2 a sharp change in Council leadership in those

 3 four chair majority. Prior to the new year,

 4 rubber stamp majority passed legislation

 5 removing 17 traffic light intersections

 6 downtown, subbed out pave cut inspections,

 7 substantial pay raises, approved 8 DPW

 8 Directors, questioned brave firefighter

 9 response times and voted to remove deep end

10 pools from several parks just to name some.

11 I understand the frustration of the

12 former minority. Both of you get it. You work

13 with children daily. You know the importance

14 of their future. With the railway system

15 connecting in the near future, this majority

16 will have a lot of work ahead of it fixing

17 critical rubber stamp legislation.

18 I give this Council majority 3 and

19 three quarter stars. Great work with room for

20 improvement. I see much better days ahead for

21 this Council majority. To the minority Council

22 member who rubber stamped everything, now just

23 sit back and watch the damage and chaos that

24 you caused. You are graded differently.

25 You question my character and
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 1 upbringing, take a two syllable word and making

 2 it three. You have yet to apologize, one

 3 quarter star out of four. Next week, part

 4 five. Pay attention next week to find out what

 5 the topic will be.

 6 Prayers to the families impacted by

 7 the recent fires, our brave firefighters and

 8 for first responders. Happy Easter to

 9 everybody. Good evening, Council.

10 MR. SCHUSTER: Next is Les

11 Spindler.

12 MR. SPINDLER: Good evening,

13 Council, Les Spindler, city resident and

14 homeowner. On a good note, last Friday, the

15 DPW crew showed up at my house, three

16 gentlemen. And they fixed the damage done to

17 my curb that was done by that independent

18 contractor that did all of that damage.

19 So I want to publicly thank them. I

20 thanked them that day. But I want to thank

21 them on the air, publically thank them and give

22 them the recognition. They did a good job.

23 And I thank them and hopefully that doesn't

24 happen again.

25 Pave cut inspectors, they said last
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 1 week what a great job they were doing. And I

 2 think all of you agree you said it last week.

 3 I lived in the city my whole life. These roads

 4 have never been as bad as they are now.

 5 They are terrible. I mean, they're

 6 not doing their job. And whoever is supposed

 7 to be overseeing them isn't doing their job

 8 either. Their feet got to be held to the

 9 fire. These roads are just terrible. And last

10 week they started their presentation. And a

11 gentleman said -- he showed a picture that a

12 pothole is round and the pave cut is square or

13 rectangular.

14 Well, that's not the case. The

15 rectangular or square is the finished product.

16 A pave cut is whatever shape they dig the whole

17 in. If there's a water main break, they have a

18 backhoe that digs a hole. That's a pave cut.

19 That's not square or rectangular.

20 And speaking of that, they're all

21 over the city. And nothing's being done.

22 There's one on -- I go by it every day, a real

23 big one. It's been there for months.

24 Nothing's been done -- on the corner of North

25 Main Avenue and Clearview Street where Grippo's
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 1 Garage is.

 2 Some of you might be familiar with

 3 that. It's a big pave cut. It's not round and

 4 it's not square. It's whatever shape they dug

 5 it out as, plus there's potholes right all

 6 around there too. I mean, I think those --

 7 those inspectors -- I think they're in cahoots

 8 with the utilities because when the water

 9 company was here, they said the same thing.

10 They showed the picture. A pothole

11 is round. A pave cut is rectangular. I think

12 they practiced that together, I think. So I

13 think there should be an investigation of

14 what's going on because our roads are just

15 terrible.

16 Okay, it's my weekly update on the

17 Green Ridge Street bridge. It's getting better

18 but they're moving so slow it's unbelievable.

19 I mean, now they're putting like a drainage

20 system in. But it seems they could be going a

21 lot faster.

22 Hopefully it will be done in another

23 month or two because once they put that

24 drainage system in, I don't see much more work

25 that has to be done. It's got to be paved yet,
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 1 but not more than that.

 2 President Schuster, you mentioned

 3 that property that -- on Euclid and Main Avenue

 4 there. Yeah, I don't know who owns it, but

 5 last week there was two guys. They had a dump

 6 truck and I don't know if you went by there

 7 recently. They cleared that whole thing up.

 8 They trimmed branches off trees,

 9 took tons of leaves out of there. It looks

10 really niece now.

11 MR. SCHUSTER: Yeah, some of that is

12 the railroad and some is the SRA.

13 MR. SPINDLER: Yeah, they did a

14 great job. There was two gentlemen did it.

15 They were there for a couple days. It looks

16 really good now. And lastly, what Joan talked

17 about, I am one person that came here after I

18 got my tax bills and said how terrible it was.

19 I said my property was assessed over

20 three times more than what I paid for it.

21 Outrageous. My house is 116 years old, needs

22 work. My taxes went up $1,100. I went to the

23 Tax Assessor's office last week to appeal it.

24 I have to go back again tomorrow.

25 They said come back April 1st. They said you
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 1 have until the 1st until August to appeal it.

 2 I'll be there tomorrow. It's out of control.

 3 I wish somebody could maybe take that to court

 4 and have that decision reversed or something.

 5 There's no way my taxes should have

 6 gone up $1,100. It's ridiculous. That's all I

 7 have tonight. Thank you for your time.

 8 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Up next

 9 is Lee Morgan.

10 MR. MORGAN: Good evening, Council,

11 Lee Morgan. The first thing I have here today

12 is there is no update on the ECTV -- litigation

13 for ECTV. But when there is I'll make people

14 aware of that.

15 The other thing I have is I think

16 that the city needs to tell people in this

17 Council when you start talking about lieu of

18 taxes, you should tell them what the monetary

19 figure is that they have given the city in lieu

20 of taxes.

21 Les talked about reassessment here.

22 I've got an appeal on that reassessment. So

23 I'm probably going to petition the Court soon

24 for a hearing. But that reassessment was 100

25 percent wrong and the values are 100 percent
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 1 wrong. And mismanagement a city or a county

 2 government shouldn't cause people to financial

 3 harm that we're experiencing.

 4 The other thing is, somebody has to

 5 petition the Court and then the 2.4 percent

 6 wage tax here. You know, we have a lot of

 7 problems in this community. I made requests of

 8 Council a couple weeks ago.

 9 I'm going to do another petition to

10 the Council for responses in writing of the

11 Council and the Mayor for the things I asked

12 the Council and the Mayor to do because I think

13 that's the best way to proceed at this point.

14 But, you know, people have to

15 understand that, you know, we're talking about

16 roads here and the city's infrastructure. It

17 hasn't been maintained in my whole lifetime.

18 It's all worn out. We've got to start coming

19 to these Council meetings and talk like any

20 real change is happening here.

21 I just walked by the building you

22 tore down. The floor joists were 2 by 24s

23 probably. And that building was salvageable,

24 extremely so. It just goes to prove that we

25 elect the wrong people. And they look at
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 1 studies that other people have done and paid

 2 for.

 3 And they're trying to reach a

 4 conclusion with the study they've done. But

 5 nobody's protected the residents and their

 6 interest. We just -- the downtown is just a

 7 vast parking lot that's been turned into a

 8 neighborhood.

 9 And the residents have been sucked

10 out of the neighborhoods to try to support the

11 remnants of the downtown. It's not possible.

12 There's no real development taking place in the

13 city.

14 And no investment in the city itself

15 into the city. And we can come here and talk

16 about any of the silly things that we want to

17 talk about here. But I've come here for 40

18 years. And I've watched one Council after

19 another come up with a plan.

20 And all the plan led to was decline

21 and despair and misinformation. Like, we talk

22 about people making payments in lieu of taxes.

23 Tell everybody what those payments are. And

24 then you know what, while you're doing that,

25 talk about all the tax revenue that the city
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 1 has lost from all the property the University

 2 of Scranton has taken.

 3 Talk about what's really happening

 4 in this city. Talk about property tax going up

 5 on all the people's properties in this city.

 6 And I know myself because I'm having

 7 reassessments by a realtor done on my property.

 8 And I'm going fight it out. And I'm going try

 9 to set the reassessment aside.

10 I'm not doing a class action. I'm

11 not asking anybody to come with me. I'm going

12 to file it myself. I sat down with them and

13 told them. There was no reality to that

14 reassessment. They have nobody on their staff

15 that can do any of that. They did it off a

16 computer.

17 They didn't look at anything or know

18 anything. The county needed money. The city

19 needed money. And it's like just sucking the

20 blood out of somebody's veins. And then we sit

21 here. That's why anymore I'm doing all my

22 requests in writing to the Council. And if I

23 don't like what you do, then I'm going to do

24 what I care to do about it.

25 You have a law department. And
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 1 let's see where we go, just like I did to ECTV.

 2 And they're not even into the beginning of this

 3 thing yet. And Mr. Hinton thinks he's at the

 4 finish line. He hasn't even started yet.

 5 Thank you.

 6 MR. SCHUSTER: Our next speaker is

 7 Ron Ellman.

 8 MR. ELLMAN: Council, again last

 9 week I wasted another hour of my young life

10 listening to an array of passing the buck

11 excuses from a bunch of prima donnas. I should

12 say overpaid prima donnas. In short, it was --

13 I noticed they even had it up there, the buck

14 belongs to our incompetent, ambitious failure

15 downstairs that wasted five years of office.

16 But I didn't come to talk about

17 Paige today. What I really want to say is, all

18 of these supporters that marched up and down

19 the streets of our city and our country, pro

20 illegal, I just can't comprehend, you know,

21 George Soros out to be proud of every last one

22 of you.

23 You're anti American. I talked to a

24 young man last week at Sheetz. And he just got

25 out of the service. He had an arm missing and
 24

 1 he was trying to pump gas and we just started

 2 talking. See, people like that have given

 3 their all.

 4 And I have to sit and watch on

 5 television the garbage getting all the

 6 attention, criminal, just -- the worst kind of

 7 people -- not doctors and lawyers from other

 8 countries, the worst no English speaking

 9 garbage on the face of the earth is being

10 protected.

11 Well, let me tell you something,

12 maybe one person might listen to me right now.

13 My younger brother Leslie Charles, I'm 21 years

14 older than him. Leslie Charles has severe

15 kidney failure. He lived in Mississippi,

16 Memphis. It's part of Memphis but he lived in

17 Mississippi right where the state line is like

18 Taylor and Scranton.

19 Leslie Charles went to the hospital

20 time and time again. He told me spent up to

21 ten hours, was on always untreated or they

22 didn't do a thing to help him. He needed

23 dialysis. And they said it was being taken.

24 And this went on for weeks and weeks.

25 He had phoned me almost every single
 25

 1 night, you know, four, five, six nights a week

 2 and tell me what happened. He said he'd sit

 3 there up to ten hours, some no English speaking

 4 bunch one after another was taken and then

 5 the -- somebody in the emergency room might

 6 talk to him and that was that.

 7 Well, finally Leslie Charles was so

 8 sick his landlady called an ambulance to take

 9 him to the hospital. When he got there, the

10 hospital staff put him in a taxi and sent him

11 home. He died that night all alone because his

12 wife was in the hospital with MS.

13 That's the kind of care he was

14 getting while people marching up and down the

15 street for the illegal filth this county is

16 infested with is getting all the attention. He

17 told me that the staff told him they were under

18 the directions of the administrator of the

19 hospital, nothing they could do.

20 If it was up to me, people, I'd

21 round up every last illegal I could get my

22 hands on and put them in the middle of the

23 desert in ten cities and leave them there to

24 rot until they wanted to walk home where they

25 came from.
 26

 1 Leslie got a bad roll of the dice.

 2 There's no middle road. You're either pro

 3 illegal or against illegals. There's no middle

 4 of the fence on it. And they have destroyed

 5 our country. And they'll keep on destroying it

 6 until you people realize what -- what -- it

 7 just doesn't make sense to protest wanting to

 8 get rid of illegals. Thank you.

 9 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Would

10 anyone else like to address Council?

11 MR. LITTLE: Hello, Council, Rik

12 Little. It's great we have a movie theater in

13 Scranton. I just saw a great movie called Hail

14 Mary, sort of the movie I've been waiting for,

15 you know.

16 And one of the lines I just wrote

17 down in the middle of the movie is, "Why is the

18 school teacher in space?" And I didn't know

19 why I was writing that down. But, you know, it

20 makes a lot of sense because, I mean, my

21 favorite movie has always been 2001 Space

22 Odyssey. And so I always had an adverse

23 position on computers since '68 when it came

24 out.

25 But everything that -- you know,
 27

 1 with all the data centers and the government

 2 arguments and the voting arguments and, you

 3 know, who's the enemy here? Is it radical

 4 Islam? Is it, you know, Zionist expansion?

 5 Is it war? Is it medicine? You

 6 know, it's gone really crazy now. And I really

 7 wonder how they came up with the number 33 of

 8 all numbers for the amount of the tax increase

 9 around here.

10 And, you know, like somebody said,

11 you know, they didn't even look at stuff

12 because they used to build stuff really good

13 with big thick beams and intelligence, you

14 know, it was built by migrants mainly. I

15 renovated all of these buildings in New York

16 City.

17 It's amazing. You know, it looks

18 like garbage, but there's so much intelligence

19 behind it, airing things so buildings will

20 stand for 100, 150 years rather than 20 years

21 the way they do it now. Anyway, we're coming

22 up on Easter. I think we're in dire times.

23 I honor all the great things that

24 President Trump has done. But I think he's got

25 some very, very bad spiritual advisors and in
 28

 1 Paula White woman. I grew up in, you know,

 2 Wheaton, Illinois, a spiritual town. Billy

 3 Graham knew all the presidents going back

 4 before I was born.

 5 And, you know, it's this Judeo

 6 Christian thing; but the document that our

 7 Constitution was written on, it wasn't Judeo

 8 Christian. It was just Christian. They were

 9 all Christians and one deist who signed the

10 Constitution.

11 We got problems here. And there's

12 no doubt in my mind that the problem stems

13 directly from the home rule charter. People

14 talk about going to the court, to the judges,

15 and that's what it's come down to. All the

16 power in the judiciary on the county level and

17 municipal level even though, you know, they're

18 doing it all the way up, you know, in every

19 county, you know, all the prosecution against

20 Trump and everything in New York City and in

21 Georgia.

22 And, you know, all of this

23 information that's released, it's released.

24 And it's evidence. But when you get -- I

25 mean, I know from just trying to do the Court,
 29

 1 how do you even get your evidence in. You

 2 know, they take your phone away when you go

 3 into the courthouse. The evidence is on my

 4 phone, you know.

 5 You know, and they make a procedure

 6 that goes on and on and on. And we have a

 7 homeless problem. But we also have so many

 8 houses here. We got more than enough of

 9 everything to make everything good in the city.

10 And the problem is benefits. But

11 the powers to be see all of these federal

12 benefits coming into the city. They're

13 skimming off the top for their administration

14 so they could pay their workers really good.

15 They can, you know, buy the best lawyers to

16 make sure they maintain power.

17 And, you know, it can't go on this

18 way. So people got to pray because they take

19 out the salination plant in Israel -- it's

20 gone. And they've already taken them out all

21 in Middle East. We're the nexus. This is

22 Easter to pray right now. Pray for Scranton

23 and all the way up. Thank you.

24 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Would

25 anyone else like to address Council?
 30

 1 MS. O'MALLEY: Good evening. I was

 2 here about a month ago regarding a no parking

 3 sign that was put up at the end of South Irving

 4 Avenue.

 5 MR. SCHUSTER: Before you start,

 6 could you please state your name?

 7 MS. O'MALLEY: Oh, Cathy O'Malley,

 8 sorry.

 9 MR. SCHUSTER: Cathy O'Malley.

10 MS. O'MALLEY: Yes. So within the

11 past 24 to 36 hours, there's been a little bit

12 of a change. Originally the sign was zip tied

13 to the chain-link fence. Now a metal sign on a

14 metal pole has been put in its place.

15 I have been in contact with Mr.

16 Voldenberg. And I had asked for a copy of a

17 traffic study which he graciously sent me a

18 copy. However, I was a little confused when I

19 got it because the material I received was an

20 e-mail from Tom Reilly from Tom Reilly

21 Engineering.

22 And it was cc'd to three city

23 officials. And the e-mail is short. It says,

24 "You can add a no parking sign at then of the

25 street in the middle of the end. That no
 31

 1 parking only applied to the travel way for a

 2 car parked in the middle, not for cars parked

 3 along the curb. We need an ordinance with a

 4 study to have no parking along the curb lines

 5 be approximately 35 feet needed for a K-turn

 6 the end of the street.

 7 In the following aerial photo there

 8 are three cars parked at the end and the one in

 9 the middle is the only one parked illegally.

10 We can follow up with a letter on the parking

11 to be used for an ordinance."

12 So I don't have a traffic study. I

13 have an e-mail stating that those parking

14 spots are legal parking spots. Whoever put up

15 that sign put up the wrong sign because it says

16 no parking with arrows pointing in opposite

17 directions which means you can't park anywhere

18 there.

19 This letter or e-mail, rather,

20 states explicitly that those curbside parks are

21 legal spots. And my point is further made with

22 that because a resident who lives on the street

23 called and reported a car that had been parked

24 in front of 1 South Irving which is the further

25 parking spot closest to the dead end twice.
 32

 1 The first time she made five phone

 2 calls. The police officer came out, did not

 3 give the person a parking ticket. Just this

 4 past weekend because there was nowhere to park,

 5 she again parked in that spot. Again, the

 6 police were called. And again she did not

 7 receive a ticket.

 8 I spoke to another resident of the

 9 street who said they spoke to the police

10 officer and said are you giving her a ticket.

11 And he was on the phone. He's like, I don't

12 know and then ended up not giving her a ticket

13 because it is actually a parking spot.

14 So something needs to be done to

15 address the situation. That sign needs to come

16 down so that we could at least retrieve two of

17 the three parking spots. I could understand

18 the center one having either a sign that says

19 no parking right there or to have the pavement

20 painted in such a way that it's no parking but

21 so that it's obvious to anybody who's on that

22 street that they could see that this and that

23 side, both curbside are viable parking spots.

24 I would like to know the name of the

25 person who okayed the sign, not once but twice
 33

 1 and how that sign was put up without having the

 2 ordinance fulfilled and did not have a traffic

 3 study done as far as I could tell.

 4 This is an e-mail requesting an

 5 ordinance to be done for a traffic study. So

 6 how is that sign in place? I have no idea.

 7 The other thing, it's also a hardship too as I

 8 stated the last time because people are coming

 9 home at different hours of the day.

10 Our cross street is Moosic Street.

11 The exact corner where people have gotten

12 killed and have gotten hurt crossing that

13 street, multiple accidents. So now you're

14 forcing these people to park across the street

15 and getting into confrontations with people who

16 live in the hundred block because now they have

17 to go across the street because there's nowhere

18 to park behind.

19 There's alleyways. And you can't

20 park on Moosic Street. So this really -- it

21 needs to be addressed. And also, Mr. Reilly

22 who did the study used pictures dated from

23 2024. I don't know even that he came down

24 Moosic -- or came down South Irving to even

25 assess it himself.
 34

 1 It's dated March -- oh, I'm sorry,

 2 Monday, April 22nd, 2024. And these photos are

 3 from then.

 4 MR. SCHUSTER: Do we have your

 5 contact information?

 6 MS. O'MALLEY: If you don't, I could

 7 give it to you.

 8 MR. SCHUSTER: Frank, do we have her

 9 contact?

10 MR. VOLDENBERG: We have her

11 information.

12 MR. SCHUSTER: Okay. We could get

13 an answer over to you.

14 MS. O'MALLEY: Okay. That would be

15 great. Thank you so much. I appreciate for

16 your time.

17 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Would

18 anyone else like to address Council?

19 MR. VOLDENBERG: FIFTH ORDER. 5-A.

20 MOTIONS.

21 MR. SCHUSTER: Dr. Rothchild, do you

22 have any motions or comments?

23 DR. ROTHCHILD: Um, I wasn't going

24 to, but I just have one thing that I wanna

25 touch on tonight. So if you don't know, there
 35

 1 was a really brilliant scientist, a German

 2 immigrant who came here in 1933 Albert

 3 Einstein.

 4 And he has a quote that I feel like

 5 often rings true for me. And that's if I were

 6 to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.

 7 And I -- I've never been silent about things

 8 that I feel strongly about. And I'm glad that

 9 people aren't being silent about the injustices

10 of ICE and this administration against

11 immigrant people as well as the American

12 people.

13 I stand with immigrants and I

14 denounce the hateful, disgusting comments that

15 were made here tonight and frankly, getting

16 really tired of them being made each week. And

17 I wish that more of my colleagues would also

18 stand up against this vitriol.

19 But, yeah, I still want people to

20 know in Scranton that immigrants are welcome

21 here. And I thank the people who -- who are

22 marching this weekend. Thank you.

23 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

24 Mr. Sean McAndrew, any motions or comments?

25 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Yeah, a few
 36

 1 followup questions to start off from last week.

 2 My first one I did ask because we were

 3 approving a lot of grant applications for the

 4 new crime center that's going to be next door

 5 in the Fidelity building how we're going to pay

 6 for it if we don't get the grants.

 7 It said the Fidelity Bank project is

 8 part of the city's capital budget. So if we do

 9 get the grants, I hope we're planning on what

10 we're going to use that money for, hopefully

11 fixing our roads and making sure we're not

12 having a tax increase next year.

13 Next, regarding the homeless camps

14 cleanups, originally they said they were just

15 doing them by the river and the Heritage Trail.

16 I did ask that there were examples I was told

17 down by Iron Furnaces and are there other

18 locations that the DPW and the police did clean

19 up.

20 They said DPW performs cleanups work

21 in the vicinity of the Iron Furnace and the

22 University of Scranton at the request of SPD.

23 DPW does not engage in homeless camp cleanup.

24 They only -- the only time DPW gets involved in

25 a camp cleanup is at the request of SPD. And
 37

 1 it's a minimum of four hours where they tell

 2 them to clean out the encampment.

 3 So I guess SPD is the ones driving

 4 that. So if there is -- someone has private

 5 property, I guess that's the route to go

 6 through the police.

 7 Next, I did ask Mr. Oleski if we

 8 could sit down and talk about the permit issues

 9 regarding Mulberry Street billboard. Since I

10 have been on Council I've been getting a lot of

11 questions regarding the LIPS Department in

12 general.

13 So I will be sitting down with him,

14 trying to schedule a meeting hopefully sometime

15 next week just to kind of ask those questions

16 but also to review some of other stuff I'm

17 hearing regarding the LIPS Department. So if

18 anybody has any questions for me that you want

19 me ask, please e-mail me and I'll do my best to

20 get you some answers.

21 And I did ask if the city is

22 running -- if they are running any background

23 checks when we hire people, putting people on

24 boards, everything like that. I just want to

25 confirm that that is what's going on. They
 38

 1 said, yes, we run background checks through

 2 Treasury Code Enforcement, Tax Claim as well as

 3 criminal background checks. So they are being

 4 completed.

 5 Next, some of the some other

 6 things -- it was brought to my attention the

 7 zoning meeting minutes aren't being posted.

 8 I'm not even sure if they're conducting meeting

 9 minutes. I know this was brought up a few

10 years ago. They did some retroactive meeting

11 minutes.

12 So can we reach out Bob Gattens and

13 I believe it's Don King to see if they are

14 doing meeting minutes? And if they're not, can

15 we please have an explanation why? To answer

16 Joan's question, when I met with the police

17 chief, staffing did get brought up.

18 They actually had -- he had an

19 interview we had to go to that was waiting

20 after we our completed our meeting. So they

21 are still short. So they're still actively

22 trying to get up to full staff.

23 So, Mr. Gilbride, I have a question.

24 So when we passed -- when we vote on things and

25 pass legislation and everything's voted on,
 39

 1 it's my understanding that the Mayor and the --

 2 the Mayor has 10 days to sign it or veto it,

 3 correct?

 4 ATTY. GILBRIDE: The Mayor can sign

 5 or veto or not sign.

 6 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Okay. In your

 7 experience with the -- I believe you've been

 8 around two years, have you ever seen anything

 9 that's voted on Council either not signed or

10 not vetoed?

11 ATTY. GILBRIDE: In the two years

12 I'm here, I've only seen one document not

13 signed.

14 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: So there was a

15 question that we had a discussion earlier about

16 the last two weeks -- or last week and a half

17 regarding the approval of us going against HARB

18 and tearing down the Mattes building for

19 Fidelity. That document to our understanding

20 was never signed, correct, by the Mayor?

21 ATTY. GILBRIDE: That's correct.

22 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: And when you

23 asked the legal department, what was their

24 answer? They're not going to sign it?

25 ATTY. GILBRIDE: The answer was, the
 40

 1 Mayor is not going to sign it.

 2 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Okay. Can we

 3 ask a pretty simple question and get it in

 4 writing why would the Mayor not sign this one?

 5 What is the reason for that not being signed?

 6 With all the stuff that's going on with this

 7 Fidelity building, with the rush of the

 8 purchase, with questions regarding donations

 9 and ethics, complaints that we get sent to us

10 that we send down to the Ethic's Board that we

11 don't even get answers on because it's

12 anonymous and we didn't fill out a form, with

13 all of that going on and all the news articles,

14 I hope that's not why it wasn't signed.

15 So I would like to know why that

16 decision was not signed on by the Mayor. And I

17 would like to get it in writing as well. And

18 that's all I have. Thank you.

19 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Mr. Mark

20 McAndrew, do you have any motions or comments?

21 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Yeah, I got a

22 couple. So a resident and business owner asked

23 me the process for applying for a two-hour

24 parking sign. I know we approve signs that

25 come through Council like 15 minute loading
 41

 1 zones for business owners in the city.

 2 And this is a resident and business

 3 owner that's asking me to inquire about the

 4 process because -- I don't know what the

 5 process is. So and this road is downtown but

 6 it's not associated with kiosk system.

 7 So it doesn't -- there's, you know,

 8 it wasn't outlined to be a paid parking area or

 9 part of the street that exits the city. So,

10 Mr. Voldenberg, can you please reach out to the

11 city's administration ask them to provide me

12 with the outline process including forms,

13 applications, and related department contracts

14 for this inquiry regarding this process this

15 resident needs to -- some info on, if you could

16 please do that?

17 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will, sir.

18 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Thank you.

19 Okay, so we've been talking about ghost poles,

20 utility poles left by utility companies when

21 they put in a new one, they leave the old one,

22 right?

23 Mr. Schuster's been talking about it

24 for as long as I'm here. I brought it up a few

25 weeks ago a couple weeks in a row. I'm
 42

 1 thrilled that there's a House Bill 825. It was

 2 introduced in March of '25. But there's

 3 efforts right now that, you know, it's going to

 4 be presented to the Senate where there's some

 5 teeth and there's some regulations with regard

 6 to these companies that are leaving these

 7 poles.

 8 They call them ghost poles.

 9 There'll be mandatory timeliness. There will

10 be an annual registry. There'll be cost

11 enforcement. It authorizes the PUC to impose

12 civil penalties on companies that fail to

13 comply with the removal timeliness, right,

14 security bonds.

15 What is a ghost pole? Like I said,

16 it's a pole that remains after a utility

17 company puts a new one in. They leave it

18 there. Guess what, because they don't feel

19 that they have to. And there's nothing in

20 writing for us to say get rid of it. It's your

21 garbage. Take it with you.

22 And what they do claim to say is,

23 well, you know, we will once everything else is

24 detached from it. So like Verizon might have a

25 wire attached to it or some broadband service
 43

 1 or something like that. But I get that, right?

 2 But there's a lot of them out there

 3 that don't have that. So I was sent today a

 4 horrific photo of a ghost pole we'll call it

 5 because that's what they are, totally detached

 6 from the ground, just dangling from existing

 7 wires, a telephone pole. All right, very

 8 dangerous.

 9 I was made aware of this. I talked

10 to someone who reached out to utility

11 companies. A person from Verizon off the

12 record reached out to me and said, listen, our

13 wires are off it. It's PPL's pole. They're

14 aware of it. All right. I actually -- because

15 I was so shocked at the picture I posted it on

16 social media.

17 It's horrific. It's scary. It's

18 dangling from the wires above. And there's a

19 couple cones around it, nice. And, you know,

20 these utility companies come here, like I said,

21 they tell us about their pave cuts. We do a

22 great job.

23 And, you know, then the pave cut

24 inspector goes, well, you know, we're doing our

25 job; but we could use your help with a tighter
 44

 1 ordinance to hold these people -- these

 2 company's feet to the ground. I agree. And

 3 I'm still waiting, you know, we said let's

 4 hurry up on this because it's a short summer,

 5 the folks that were here last week.

 6 And I know I asked our Solicitor if

 7 we could do our own ordinance or put something

 8 on the books to address this. I know I'd like

 9 to wait for -- for this bill that's, you know,

10 that's been moved a little bit. But that's --

11 this is a very dangerous situation.

12 And since posting that, I've

13 received a bunch of messages from people

14 saying, listen, there's three in front of my

15 house. Three? There's three on my street. So

16 these aren't removed in a timely fashion. And

17 I know that, you know, for the most part until

18 we have something in writing that they have to

19 remove them, they're not going remove them.

20 You know, like I said, these utility

21 companies come and give us lip service and say

22 we want to be great neighbors. We want to be

23 community partners with all of you. And then

24 we get lip service and they raise our rates,

25 right?
 45

 1 Now they're not picking up their

 2 garbage. All right. We have ordinances for

 3 couches on -- that are on porches, right, we

 4 have ordinances for garbage that's left. If

 5 you put your garbage out early you could

 6 receive a fine.

 7 We have a bunch of ordinances that

 8 address issues that are nowhere near as bad or

 9 as unsafe as this. These poles are out of

10 hand. It's getting ridiculous. Something has

11 to be done. We need to have -- because, you

12 know, utility companies come, yeah, we

13 communicate once a week with the administration

14 or every two weeks and we talk about paving

15 this street versus the gas company versus the

16 water company.

17 We're all on the same board. We're

18 not going to cut up the street. But, you know,

19 they tell us a lot of information that I'm

20 starting not to believe. And, you know, they

21 want to be great community partners they say.

22 You ]know, they want to be great neighbors they

23 say.

24 But they're leaving their garbage in

25 front of our houses. And now it's become
 46

 1 dangerous. If you saw the picture of this pole

 2 detached, just hanging -- it's a telephone

 3 pole. You know how heavy them things are?

 4 It's like a tree falling down. Someone's going

 5 to get hurt and then what.

 6 It will be the blame game like they

 7 always do. But we have to do better. I know I

 8 asked you, Solicitor Gilbride, what we could

 9 actually do legislatively. Can we take a peek

10 at it maybe and see -- not maybe have to wait

11 for the state legislation?

12 ATTY. GILBRIDE: Yes, sir.

13 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Thank you. All

14 right. Next, let's see. There's an uptick in

15 this week -- we talk about this every year with

16 the ATV vehicles in the city, right? And we --

17 we brought this to the Chief of Police.

18 We tightened up our ordinance a

19 little bit. But, you know, it's going to be

20 warm the next couple days. And guess what,

21 these things are going to be flying around the

22 city again. It was brought to my attention

23 that the Tripp Park development -- that's where

24 our Mayor lives -- that it's really bad up

25 there. It was brought to my attention.
 47

 1 And the only -- we have an

 2 ordinance. And the only thing that it states

 3 is, there's a gas station prohibition where

 4 it's illegal for anybody to drive up and fill

 5 up your AT vehicle with gas, right?

 6 But they have 16, 17, 18-year-old

 7 kids working at these AM/PM mini marts. And

 8 what are they going to say? Are they going to

 9 call the cops and say wait here? And I know

10 the police because of safety reasons will not

11 chase them.

12 And I get that, okay, because an

13 innocent will get hurt because of this idiocy,

14 right? These -- and there's state mandates.

15 These ATV vehicles have to have registration

16 and titling or it's illegal, right, liability

17 insurance, safety equipment, helmets, brakes,

18 mufflers. These are all requirements by law.

19 A child under 16 can't operate an

20 ATV off family property without a valid safety

21 certificate. Children under eight are

22 generally prohibited. That makes sense. But,

23 you know, you could use them on farmlands. You

24 could use them on private property.

25 But -- and I mentioned this evening
 48

 1 during the winter there was these crazy guys

 2 driving around Main Avenue with electric bikes

 3 and in and out of traffic. And I do recall the

 4 Chief saying, you know, we -- there's a way we

 5 could do this.

 6 And you would use a command center

 7 and radio ahead if we see someone where instead

 8 of chasing them, we go through camera to camera

 9 to camera and try to get them. Or, you know,

10 camera to camera to camera, they pull in front

11 of their house, you could arrest them.

12 So now with the another -- we

13 already had a command center. But now we're

14 getting a new one next door. So I don't want

15 to hear that -- and we're going to pump a lot

16 of money into it.

17 I want to see this be addressed more

18 than just the loose language in our ordinance

19 because trust me, folks, over the next couple

20 weeks it's going to be 80 on Saturday.

21 We're going to have people come here

22 and e-mail us that's it a problem again. And

23 once again, we haven't done enough. It's going

24 to be same -- it's going be ground hog day

25 again, oh, well, there's really nothing we can
 49

 1 do.

 2 Well, yeah, if what we're doing is

 3 nothing, then nothing is getting accomplished.

 4 We got to find a better way. Put our heads

 5 together and figure it out because at the end

 6 of the day, we're all here at the pleasure of

 7 the residents. They're the ones that complain

 8 to us.

 9 They're the ones we work for. And

10 you know what, every year I revisit this. And

11 we're not doing a good job. We got to do

12 better at this. So if we could please talk to

13 the Chief, see if anything has happened since,

14 you know, the command center, see if any

15 strategy has been rethought or any -- I want --

16 is there any experiences like you said we

17 probably could from camera to camera to camera

18 to the command center or the new one where we

19 can do better with this, all right, if that's

20 on the radar.

21 Someone's going to get killed too on

22 these electric bikes. I almost hit one once a

23 week. All right? Also, there's a pothole on

24 the 12th Street near the softball field over in

25 west side, West Scranton. It's a big one if we
 50

 1 could please alert probably DPW. That would

 2 just be a hot patch or something. I don't know

 3 about you, but, you know, the warmer it gets

 4 and these potholes, I don't know if they

 5 started filling them. I don't know what the

 6 deal is.

 7 But since our caucus, it doesn't

 8 look like much has been done. I'll give the

 9 benefit of the doubt. It's warm now. Let's

10 get them done, all right. Let's see some

11 progress. And that is all I have. Thank you.

12 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

13 Mr. Flynn, do you have any motions or comments?

14 MR. FLYNN: Yeah, just a few

15 quickly. So last week I had a followup

16 question about the homeless encampments and

17 what was happening with the Scranton Police

18 Department and DPW went to take those down if

19 they were offering services to the individuals

20 who are now without what is essentially their

21 home.

22 They said last week that, yes,

23 Scranton Police Department and some of the

24 nonprofits that help them offer services. I

25 asked specifically what they were. The
 51

 1 administration said that Chief Carroll has

 2 offered to meet with me to discuss the SPD's

 3 role and also recommend that I meet with

 4 Lackawanna County Community Intervention's

 5 Eileen Wilson to explain the services

 6 available.

 7 So I will be taking them up on those

 8 offers and doing both of those things and

 9 reporting back on what I learned and what I

10 will believe to be the case once I get done

11 with that. Mr. Voldenberg, can we get any sort

12 of update on the signage we talked about

13 the -- for the autistic individual on the

14 street in South Side and see what we as a

15 Council could do to get that signage up?

16 MR. VOLDENBERG: That's the Prospect

17 Avenue.

18 MR. FLYNN: Correct, yeah.

19 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll get the

20 information.

21 MR. FLYNN: Thank you. And just the

22 last thing I'll say is, you know, I think it is

23 part of the fabric woven through what we are as

24 Americans to have the right to peacefully

25 protest and that's what happened in our city on
 52

 1 Saturday.

 2 It happens consistently on both

 3 sides, peaceful protests happen. I think when

 4 it's met with vitriol and hate, that is

 5 unacceptable to me. And I'm proud of any

 6 individual no matter what the cause is who

 7 chooses to spend their time in a peaceful

 8 protest for something they believe in.

 9 And I'll always stand with

10 individuals that do that. That's all I have.

11 Thank you.

12 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you, Mr. Flynn.

13 I have a few comments for tonight. We do have

14 14 pilots that have paid over the course of

15 2025 from January to December. That document

16 we did receive. Mr. Voldenberg, it might be

17 best if we just put that into Third Order next

18 week if we could.

19 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will.

20 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. We had a

21 speaker come up tonight about South Irving

22 Avenue if we could just get that information to

23 get clarity on that because there does seem to

24 be some confusion around South Irving.

25 MR. VOLDENBERG: That's currently
 53

 1 with the City Engineer again. What they need

 2 is an ordinance to make the other two parking

 3 spots illegal. So it's with the City

 4 Administration and the City Engineer and it

 5 will then go to the Law Department and then to

 6 us for the ordinance.

 7 MR. SCHUSTER: Okay, so we plan to

 8 see that coming down soon.

 9 MR. VOLDENBERG: They're working on

10 it.

11 MR. SCHUSTER: Okay. Thank you very

12 much. Mr. McAndrew brought up some comments

13 about the telephone poles. We did have PA

14 American Water in here. And the city did

15 describe to us that they do communicate with

16 American Water often. Can we just ask if they

17 do communicate with PP & L often as well?

18 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will.

19 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Another

20 thing, we haven't talked about in quite a

21 while, but it was also brought up tonight about

22 the walkability study. Can we get an update on

23 where we are with the walkability study and

24 some of the actions that will take place

25 downtown and if we can get some kind of
 54

 1 timeline on those actions?

 2 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll take care of

 3 it.

 4 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Were we

 5 able to get any follow up from Pennoni

 6 regarding any of the request that we made from

 7 them when they came up to caucus last week?

 8 MR. VOLDENBERG: We did not.

 9 MR. SCHUSTER: Do we have their

10 contact?

11 MR. VOLDENBERG: We do.

12 MR. SCHUSTER: All right. Can we

13 reach out to them just as a followup to some of

14 the things that we were requesting?

15 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll take care of

16 it.

17 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. I have a

18 few more so, sorry. I got some photos over the

19 week of Center City Baseball Field off of Wood

20 Street. DPW did do some Christmas tree

21 collection. And some of those Christmas trees

22 were put in the parking lot of that baseball

23 field.

24 Can we reach out to them and see

25 what the plan is for those trees if they're
 55

 1 going to be removed or where they're going to

 2 go?

 3 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll contact the

 4 director tomorrow.

 5 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Can we

 6 also reach out to -- I would imagine Morgan

 7 Fetsock or Eileen Cipriani. Can we get a copy

 8 of the updated DEP plan for Meadow Brook?

 9 MR. VOLDENBERG: I will.

10 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Can we

11 also reach out to parks and get an update on

12 pools and parks for the summer and where we're

13 going to be going with those and what the

14 timelines are for opening and any work that's

15 going to be done in the parks and pools over

16 the summer?

17 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll get that

18 information from the director --

19 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you. And then

20 lastly, I would like to thank the Scranton Fire

21 Department for the fires that they've had over

22 the weekend in West Scranton and North Scranton

23 and my condolences to those families. That's

24 all I have for tonight. Thank you.

25 MR. VOLDENBERG: 5-B. FOR
 56

 1 INTRODUCTION - A RESOLUTION - ADOPTION OF THE

 2 CITY OF SCRANTON'S EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN

 3 ("EAP") MANUALS FOR SOUTH SIDE FLOOD

 4 PROTECTION, PLOT FLOOD PROTECTION, GREENRIDGE

 5 FLOOD PROTECTION AND THE ALBRIGHT AVENUE FLOOD

 6 PROTECTION PROJECTS.

 7 MR. SCHUSTER: At this time I'll

 8 entertain a motion that Item 5-B be introduced

 9 into its proper committee.

10 MR. FLYNN: So moved.

11 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Second.

12 MR. SCHUSTER: On the question? All

13 those in favor of introduction signify by

14 stating aye.

15 DR. ROTHCHILD: Aye.

16 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Aye.

17 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Aye.

18 MR. FLYNN: Aye.

19 MR. SCHUSTER: Aye. Opposed? The

20 ayes have it and so moved.

21 MR. VOLDENBERG: SIXTH ORDER.

22 6.A. READING BY TITLE - FILE OF THE

23 COUNCIL NO. 9, 2026 - AN ORDINANCE - AMENDING

24 FILE OF THE COUNCIL NO. 102, 2025, AN

25 ORDINANCE, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "APPROPRIATING
 57

 1 FUNDS FOR THE EXPENSES OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT

 2 FOR THE PERIOD COMMENCING ON THE FIRST DAY OF

 3 JANUARY, 2026 TO AND INCLUDING DECEMBER 31,

 4 2026 BY THE ADOPTION OF THE GENERAL CITY

 5 OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE YEAR 2026," (2026

 6 OPERATING BUDGET) BY TRANSFERRING THREE HUNDRED

 7 TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED EIGHTY

 8 DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS ($324,880.00) FROM THE

 9 DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION, BUSINESS

10 ADMINISTRATION BUREAU OF OPER TSF-WORKERS'

11 COMPENSATION LINE ITEM ACCOUNT

12 100-44714-140-140-000000 TO THE DEPARTMENT OF

13 PUBLIC WORKS, HIGHWAYS BUREAU PROFESSIONAL

14 SERVICES LINE ITEM ACCOUNT 100-44201-180-183-

15 000000 TO FUND UNFORESEEN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

16 RELATED TO THE WINTER STORM OCCURRING ON OR

17 ABOUT JANUARY 25, 2026, THAT WERE NOT

18 IDENTIFIED DURING THE PREPARATION OF THE 2026

19 OPERATING BUDGET.

20 MR. SCHUSTER: You've heard reading

21 by title of Item 6-A. What is your pleasure?

22 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Mr. Chairman, I

23 move that Item 6-A pass reading by title.

24 MR. FLYNN: Second.

25 MR. SCHUSTER: On the question? On
 58

 1 the question, during those weeks in and around

 2 the storm, I had requested a breakdown of all

 3 of the billing that was submitted under that

 4 emergency order. And at the time I get an

 5 answer that was -- that all of our invoices

 6 weren't received as of that period in time.

 7 Now that we're getting this

 8 transfer, can we please ask for the breakdown

 9 of the billing that occurred during this

10 emergency order?

11 MR. VOLDENBERG: We have it. I'll

12 have that for you tomorrow.

13 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

14 MR. FLYNN: Mr. Voldenberg, on the

15 question, in here it talks about how it's

16 unforeseen professional services. Can we look

17 back and ask the administration for the years

18 prior how often DPW was shoveling up the snow

19 from the sides of the street and taking it

20 other places because from my answers to Council

21 from when the storm happened, I was told that

22 that was all that the third party contractors

23 did was the removal of the snow from the side

24 of the street.

25 So can we -- can we see in prior
 59

 1 years how that was addressed because it says

 2 unforeseen professional services. And I just

 3 want to clarify that.

 4 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll do that, sir.

 5 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

 6 Anyone else on the question? All those in

 7 favor signify by saying aye.

 8 DR. ROTHCHILD: Aye.

 9 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Aye.

10 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Aye.

11 MR. FLYNN: Aye.

12 MR. SCHUSTER: Aye. Opposed? The

13 ayes have it and so moved.

14 MR. VOLDENBERG: SEVENTH ORDER.

15 7-A. FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE

16 COMMITTEE ON RULES - FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION

17 NO. 36, 2026 - REAPPOINTMENT OF MICHAEL PARKER,

18 ESQUIRE, AS A MEMBER OF THE SCRANTON SEWER

19 AUTHORITY FOR A TERM EXPIRING JANUARY 4, 2031.

20 MR. SCHUSTER: As Chairperson of the

21 Committee on Rules, I recommend final passage

22 of Item 7-A.

23 DR. ROTHCHILD: Second.

24 MR. SCHUSTER: On the question? On

25 the question, can we ask or inquire of the
 60

 1 Sewer Authority how many easements are left?

 2 MR. VOLDENBERG: I'll ask them, sir.

 3 MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you very much.

 4 Anyone else on the question? Roll call,

 5 please.

 6 MS. CARRERA: Dr. Rothchild.

 7 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes.

 8 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Sean McAndrew.

 9 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Yes.

10 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Mark McAndrew.

11 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Yes.

12 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Flynn.

13 MR. FLYNN: Yes.

14 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Schuster.

15 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes. I hereby

16 declare Item 7-A legally and lawfully adopted.

17 MR. VOLDENBERG: 7-B. FOR

18 CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC

19 WORKS - FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION NO. 37,

20 2026 - AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF SCRANTON TO

21 ACCEPT A MONETARY DONATION FROM KEYSTONE

22 SANITARY LANDFILL, INC., FOR A 2026

23 FREIGHTLINER GARBAGE TRUCK PER COSTARS CONTRACT

24 #025-E22-391 FROM MID-ATLANTIC TRUCK AND

25 EQUIPMENT.
 61

 1 MR. SCHUSTER: What is the

 2 recommendation of the Chairperson for the

 3 Committee on Public Works?

 4 MR. FLYNN: As Chairperson for the

 5 Committee on Public Works, I recommend final

 6 passage of Item 7-B.

 7 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Second.

 8 MR. SCHUSTER: On the question? On

 9 the question, it's nice to see that we're

10 getting a garbage truck as part of our

11 donation. Every year Keystone Landfill does

12 donate a certain amount contractually.

13 And over the last I believe three

14 years that money wasn't used. It's now being

15 used for this garbage truck. And then I would

16 say two years ago we were leasing the garbage

17 truck on a monthly basis. So it's nice to see

18 that we'll be getting a new garbage truck.

19 Anyone else on the question? Roll call.

20 MS. CARRERA: Dr. Rothchild.

21 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes.

22 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Sean McAndrew.

23 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Yes.

24 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Mark McAndrew.

25 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Yes.
 62

 1 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Flynn.

 2 MR. FLYNN: Yes.

 3 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Schuster.

 4 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes. I hereby

 5 declare Item 7-B legally and lawfully adopted.

 6 MR. VOLDENBERG: 7-C. FOR

 7 CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY

 8 DEVELOPMENT - FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION 38,

 9 2026 - RESOLUTION FOR PLAN REVISION FOR NEW

10 LAND DEVELOPMENT LOCATED AT 530-532 BROADWAY

11 STREET.

12 MR. SCHUSTER: What is the

13 recommendation of the Chairperson on the

14 Committee on Community Development?

15 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: As Chairperson

16 for the Committee on Community Development, I

17 recommend final passage of Item 7-C.

18 DR. ROTHCHILD: Second.

19 MR. SCHUSTER: On the question?

20 Roll call, please.

21 MS. CARRERA: Dr. Rothchild.

22 DR. ROTHCHILD: Yes.

23 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Sean McAndrew.

24 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Yes.

25 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Mark McAndrew.
 63

 1 MR. MARK MCANDREW: Yes.

 2 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Flynn.

 3 MR. FLYNN: Yes.

 4 MS. CARRERA: Mr. Schuster.

 5 MR. SCHUSTER: Yes. I hereby

 6 declare Item 7-C legally and lawfully adopted.

 7 MR. VOLDENBERG: EIGHTH ORDER.

 8 8-A. FILE OF THE COUNCIL NO. 7,

 9 2026.

10 MR. SCHUSTER: This ordinance amends

11 provisions to the zoning ordinance for the City

12 of Scranton related to data centers.

13 MR. VOLDENBERG: 8-B. FILE OF THE

14 COUNCIL NO. 8, 2026.

15 MR. SCHUSTER: This ordinance amends

16 provisions to the zoning ordinance for the City

17 of Scranton related to data centers. These

18 ordinances have been tabled until a public

19 hearing can be held at a later date.

20 And if there's no further business,

21 I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

22 MR. SEAN MCANDREW: Motion to

23 adjourn.

24 MR. SCHUSTER: Happy Easter

25 everyone. This meeting is adjourned.
 64

 1 C E R T I F I C A T E

 2

 3 I hereby certify that the proceedings and

 4 evidence are contained fully and accurately in the

 5 notes taken by me of the above-cause and that this copy

 6 is a correct transcript of the same to the best of my

 7 ability.

 8

 9

10
 Maria McCool, RPR
11 Official Court Reporter

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21 (The foregoing certificate of this transcript does not

22 apply to any reproduction of the same by any means

23 unless under the direct control and/or supervision of

24 the certifying reporter.)

25