City Council
Council Chambers
Agenda — 40 items
- 1 Invocation
- 2 Pledge to the Flag
- 3 Roll Call
- 4 Courtesy of the Floor Please observe the Rules of Council when given privilege of the floor. A copy of the Council Rules can be found on the council agenda on the website. If you would like to speak, we are asking that you fill out a card – they are on the back table provide them to the clerk before speaking. Include your name and address. When speakers have the privilege of the floor, personal insults, attacks, name calling or other behavior that is inconsistent with the purpose of conducting official business will not be tolerated. Courtesy of the Floor is meant to provide public comments on items that are not on the agenda. Public comment during consideration of ordinances, resolutions and motions are limited by topic – your comments must be relevant to the subject matter of the proposed legislation. Public comments are taken before council votes on legislation. You are given the privilege of the floor to provide public comment; it is not a question and answer session. State your position clearly and concisely for consideration. If you speak on behalf of yourself, you have three minutes and if you are speaking on behalf of a group that has several members present, you will be given five minutes in place of everyone coming to the podium. Please address the Council President not individual councilpersons or city staff. Refrain from insulting or defaming staff, officials, and the public; refrain from using offensive language, cursing, and making noises while other people are speaking. Please be aware that comments and/or behavior in violation of these rules will result in a forfeiture of all remaining time and you will be asked to return to your seat.
- 5 Contract Approvals
- 6 R4 Authorization for Contract with Bowman Consulting Group LTD. in the amount of $379,369.93 to provide design services to upgrade five outdated traffic signals along the 17th Street Corridor. Improvements will include new controllers, video detection, GPS emergency pre-emption, accessible pedestrian signals, ADA curb ramps, curb extensions where feasible, and high-visibility crosswalks. The system will connect to the Downtown Traffic Signal System via spread spectrum radio. Three (3) proposals were received. Contract shall cease three (3) years thereafter and may be extended for up to an additional two (2) one (1) year terms beyond the contract expiration period.
- 7 R5 Authorization for Contract with Michael Baker International, Inc. in the amount of $215,733.00 to provide professional design and consulting services for its Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Demonstration Projects. Services include designing the Jefferson Street Traffic Calming Project with temporary markings, lane changes, flexible delineators, high-visibility crosswalks, and “No Turn on Red” signs, as well as supporting data collection and evaluation for the School and Park Speed Cushion Project and High Injury Network Daylighting Project through traffic counts, crash analysis, performance metrics, and community feedback. Two (2) proposals were received. Contract shall cease two (2) years thereafter and may be extended for up to an additional three (3) one (1) year terms beyond the contract expiration period.
- 8 R6 Authorization for single source Contract with Microsoft Corporation in the amount of $110,500.00 for provides the ability for City staff to open tickets directly with Microsoft for system support and work directly with an account manager at Microsoft for escalation and resolution. This is considered a single source as the City is fully integrated with Microsoft Office 365.
- 9 R7 Authorization for Contract with Fisher & Son Company, Inc, Genesis Turfgrass, Inc, Grass Roots Turf Products, Inc, Harrell’s, LLC, Nutrien Solutions, and Siteone Landscape Supply, LLC at the unit prices identified on the bid tabulation, for a total estimated yearly sum in the amount of $231,900.00 for agricultural chemicals for the City. Seven (7) Bids were received, one (1) was rejected, contract shall commence upon full execution and cease December 31, 2026, with two (2) additional one (1) year renewals beyond the contract expiration period.
- 10 R8 Authorization of Cooperative Contract(s) in an amount greater than $40,000.00 to provide the City with various goods/services, for GT&E, Shafnisky Electric Inc., and Witmer Public Safety Group Inc.
- 11 Minutes of Previous Meeting
- 12 December 30, 2025 City Council Special Meeting Minutes
- 13 January 13, 2026 Special Meeting on Bill 1 2026 Budget Adoption
- 14 Communications
- 15 City Council received the attached report from Jennifer Gomez, the Director of Bureau of Planning & Zoning. The PA Municipal Planning Code requires the Planning Commission to maintain a full record of its activities and submit a written annual report to the governing body. Attached is the 2025 Allentown City Planning Commission (ACPC) Annual Report.
- 16 Chasers – If you parked in the city lot next to City Hall, please see the City Clerk for a voucher.
- 17 Old Business: NONE
- 18 REPORTS Public Hearing - President Napoli City Council received a request for the transfer of Liquor License Number R-21060 to The Felix Restaurant LLC, 395 S. Cedar Crest Boulevard. We have scheduled a public hearing on March 4 at 6 PM to take public testimony on the transfer. A resolution will be on the council meeting that follows at 6:30 PM to allow City Council to approve or disapprove the transfer. Budget and Finance: Chair Pungo, Mota, Gerlach The Committee met on January 28 and reviewed the budget process, finance reports and committee priorities. The next meeting is scheduled for February 25 at 5:30 PM - currently the agenda will include a review of the monthly financial reports and a continuation of our review of the budget process. Community and Economic Development: Chair Gerlach, Binder, Napoli The Committee met this evening and discussed the Encampment Enclosure Bill. The next meeting is scheduled for February 18th at 5:30 pm to review Bill 8 and also will talk about some priorities that you need to. Thank you. Human Resources, Administration and Appointments: Chair Binder, Santos, Affa The Committee met on January 28th at 5:30 PM to review committee priorities and review a bill on tonight's agenda; the next meeting is not yet scheduled. Parks and Recreation: Chair Santos, Pungo, Binder The Committee met this evening and followed two items to the full Council; the next meeting is not yet scheduled. Public Safety: Chair Affa, Mota, Santos The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; there are no future meetings scheduled. Public Works: Chair Mota, Pungo, Affa The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; there are no future meetings scheduled at this time. Rules, Chambers, Intergovernmental Relations, and Strategy: Chair Napoli, Mota, Gerlach The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; there is a meeting scheduled for March 5, 2026, at 6:00 PM - it will be a public workshop meeting with Lehigh County. Controller's Report Mr. Jeffrey Glazier thanked Mr. Napoli and stated that he has a Report for you this evening which is Accounts Payable Weekly Check Review from January 3, 2026 to January 30, 2026. This Report was just published today. On the number of checks they reviewed in this period is 353. The dollar amount that they reviewed was a little bit over $6.1 million. There were three wires in that time period for $171,000 and nine manual checks for a little bit under $100,000. When an employee of the city is going to take a trip and you need to fill out a number of forms, one is a TRA asking permission and the second one is a TER detailing your expenses and TERs need to be filed within five working days. A department took a whopping 181 days to and the department was advised and reminded that they needed to follow the city's travel requirement. The dollar amounts on the TER were correct. He stated that they noted two overpayments in the garage. One for $5.38 and one for $109.95. In the one instance, the vendor issued the refund and the second, the check was voided. There were only two instances of checks that have an incorrect expense account and that is probably a record in terms of how low it was. He stated that is good to see. This was not necessarily garden variety questions. There were things that took a lot of thought, but the departments were advised and journey entries were made. There were 21 instances where invoices were not paid within a 60 day window. The city does not have in the AIMS a date or dates the constitutes what late payment it is so they have picked a number of 60 days with. It is really pretty lenient and there are 21 invoices that fell afoul with that. The bureau were advised with these issues and the checks were released and all the departments were responded with a reason why these were paid late and there were two instances of checks where the proper documentation was not attached within Munis. The Bureaus were advised of the issue and the proper documentations were scanned in and the checks were released. He stated that is his Report, Mr. president. Mr. Santo Napoli stated thank you to our Controller. Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated a quick question. She stated she was reading through and she is not going to name the department and stating that you don't. Mr. Jeffrey Glazier stated that he tends not to. Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated that she noticed and will not either. It seems like sometimes it is a reoccurring department. What, does training and asked what could help maybe the staff in that department not continue to make some of these mistakes. It says that there isn't a response from the one department that has the highest number of instances. She asked is there like a way to alleviate this in the future or. Mr. Jeffrey Glazier stated that is a great question stating as you know what the Controller does or can do is really advise. Occasionally, they can publicly shame somebody. They try to avoid that. He really doesn't think that is good policy. He really thinks it really comes down to better communication in terms of expectations between for instance purchasing and the various departments in the city. He stated that he would tell Council and the public that he thinks that Purchasing is really stepped its game in terms of communicating expectations especially with regards to P-Cards and making sure that information is in on a timely manner. They had some success, but not perfect success. He stated that is the best he can tell them. That might be a topic for Mr. Napoli's committee and the administration to take up, but good question. Thank you very much. Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach thanked Mr. Glazier. Mr. Santo Napoli asked does he want to mention you have an event coming up. He stated that he thinks next week. Mr. Jeffrey Glazier stated sure, on the 11th and the Controller's office has invited all the departments to meet here in City Council Chambers to go over what we do, how we do it and why it's important and they are going to go over things like the charts of accounts when they get their own personalized chart account. He stated he knows it is in the big budget book, but this makes it easy. He stated that they have done it in the past and thought about doing it last year or the year before, but with Munis coming in, they didn't want to put too much on plates so they are doing it this year. He stated that you guys are all welcome. It is the 11th at 9:00. He might do depending on Council's interest. A brief presentation workshop one evening at some point in the future. He stated so you guys and the public get a better understanding of some of the things that we do and what they will look for and why it's important for and why it's important for proper and efficiency of the operation. He thanked him for the question. Those operations will continue. He stated that they Mr. Santo Napoli stated ok. Moving along, the mayor has not submitted any report. Mayor's Report Mayor Matt Tuerk stated that it has been previous practice that the mayor needed to submit a Report prior to saying anything at a Council meeting. He stated that he doesn't know if that is going to continue under your leadership, Mr. president. He stated that he is happy to provide a brief update on a couple of items if you are interest in it. He stated an Ad Hoc Report. Mr. Santo Napoli stated that we will do that tonight and will come up with a Plan going forward. Mayor Matt Tuerk stated really quickly, in the past month and the month of January. He stated that he Reports on the happenings of the mayor's office. He stated that he was great to meet with four of seven members of City Council and talk about what goals look like for the year ahead and the four years ahead. He stated that he looks forward to meeting with the City Councilmembers that he was not able to sit down with individually. He stated that he was incredibly happy to see six of our seven City Councilmembers show up for the Allentown State of the City Address what feels like a month ago at this point, but he thinks it was a week ago. He stated it was a good turnout from the community and gave him an opportunity to share his observation on the city of Allentown with the members of Council. Long story short on the State of the City is that the city is in good shape and got a long way to go to be in great shape. The city is in good general condition and a very good financial condition and the future is bright. He stated that he knows that Mark Shahda will be providing a snow update or kind of a post mortem of the city's cleanup response to this most recent storm. He stated that Winter Storm Fern is scheduled for the first meeting in March. He stated that Mr. Shahda is working to prepare a complete analysis of the lead up to the storm. The storm itself and our cleanup operation. He stated that he does want to provide them with a what's going on right now answer. He stated that they are continuing snow removal operations in District 9. He stated that there are 30 trucks working around the clock to remove snow from streets from 4th to 12th and from Union to Chew Streets so that includes a lot of our denser neighborhoods. Removal operations are challenging. He stated as Mr. Jordan mentioned when cars are parked in the streets. It complicates our ability remove snow from that side of the box. He stated getting residents to comply with the no parking regulations on the street cleaning side is important. Those operations will continue. They do not have the equipment or the capacity to remove snow from the entire city when conditions persist like this. He stated that Mark will give them the fuller detail. He stated that the good news is that looking ahead, they have above freezing temperatures at least forecast for next week. Although, unfortunately the forecast calls for a little more snow next week, but Mark will be providing from Public Works will be providing a full update to you. Thank you. Mr. Santo Napoli thanked Mayor Tuerk for the update.
- 19 Controller's Report
- 20 ORDINANCES FOR FINAL PASSAGE (To be Voted On):
- 21 Bill 3 Human Resources, Administration and Appointments Amending the 2026 Grant Fund budget to accept Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) in grant funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies through Johns Hopkins University for the Love Your Block Grant.
- 22 Bill 4 Parks and Recreation Committee, Chair Santos Amending the 2026 General Fund Budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of Three Thousand One Hundred Twenty-Four Dollars and Twenty Cents ($3,124.20) from H&P Construction, Inc. for the city providing electrical hookup for the Bogert’s Bridge project.
- 23 Bill 5 Parks and Recreation, Chair Santos Amending the 2026 General Fund Budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of Two Thousand ($2,000.00) Dollars from DLNHC (Delaware Lehigh National Heritage Corridor) as part of their Lehigh Valley Greenways Implementation Block Grant for the Trail Water Fountain Upgrade at Jordan Meadows Park.
- 24 CONSENT AGENDA
- 25 R9 Sewage Planning Module at 1324 S. Howard Street
- 26 R10 Kate E. Hartney, Planning Commission, Term Expiration: 2/5/2030
- 27 R11 Krista V. Brown - Ly, Human Relations Commission, Term Expiration: 2/5/2029
- 28 RESOLUTIONS FOR FINAL PASSAGE (To be Voted On):
- 29 R12 Approves the Allentown Parks Plan 2025.
- 30 R13 Authorizes the submission of a Formal Application for funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Multimodal Transportation Fund Grant (MTF-PennDOT) Grant Services in the amount of approximately Six Hundred Eighty-Two Thousand Two Hundred Eighty-Two Dollars ($682,282) for the trail connection between Cedar Creek Park and Trexler Park.
- 31 ORDINANCES FOR INTRODUCTION (To be referred to Committee with public comment prior to referral)
- 32 There is a request from the Administration to introduce and vote on Bill 6 and 7 this evening - to make some timely payments. You will need 6 of 7 members to vote in the affirmative.
- 33 Bill 6 Amending the 2026 Trexler Fund by authorizing a supplemental appropriation in the amount of Twenty-Two Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Three Dollars and Ten Cents ($22,133.10) to the Parks and Recreation Department to make the 5th and final payment towards the Groundskeeping Equipment Loan. This is part of the 2025-26 Trexler Operating allocation.
- 34 Bill 7 Amending the 2025 Risk Fund by transferring One Million Two Hundred Ten Thousand ($1,210,000) Dollars from the General Fund unappropriated balance to the Risk Fund for the payment of healthcare claims, drug prescription benefits, and other employee medical costs for the remainder of the year. The healthcare claim amounts are significantly higher this year. Specifically, this is to cover final invoices from SEIU and Capital Blue Cross that were not accounted for in the previous Risk Fund Transfer.
- 35 Bill 8 Amending Part II General Legislation, Chapter 400 Noise, Section 400-1 Definitions, revising the definition of Zoning Classifications, and Section 400-6 Sound levels by receiving land use, revising Table 1 Receiving Land Use, to be consistent with the zoning classifications within Chapter 660 Zoning, adopted October 15, 2025, effective January 1, 2026.
- 36 RESOLUTIONS FOR INTRODUCTION (Can be voted on or Referred to Committee): There are none.
- 37 NEW BUSINESS
- 38 GOOD AND WELFARE: NONE
- 39 ADJOURNED: 7:21 PM
- 40 Reference Materials: Council Rules Procurement Code Ethics Code