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City Council

January 21, 2026 ·6:30 PM Final

Council Chambers

Agenda PDF Minutes PDF 📹 Watch video Official record ↗

Agenda — 38 items

  1. 1 Invocation: ▶ jump to 0:29
  2. 2 Pledge to the Flag ▶ jump to 0:50
  3. 3 Roll Call ▶ jump to 1:06
  4. 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. ▶ jump to 1:20
  5. 5 Contract Approvals ▶ jump to 27:00
  6. 6 R1 Authorization for a change order in the amount of $445,356.00 with Tyler Technologies, Inc. to assist with the ERP conversion for the Financial and HR module. The original contract was for $791,980.00, the addition would bring the contract to a new total of $1,237,336.00. 15-8174 approved Pass ▶ jump to 31:10
  7. 7 R2 Authorization of Cooperative Contract(s) in an amount greater than $40,000 to provide the City with various goods/services, for Lobar Associates, Inc, American Rock Salt Company, Kimball Midwest, Auto Zone Stores LLC, NAPA, General Code, and Dell Marketing LP. 15-8173 approved Pass ▶ jump to 32:00
  8. 8 Minutes of Previous Meeting ▶ jump to 32:15
  9. 9 December 3, 2025 Special Council Meeting Minutes (Information Sharing and Discussion Only) 15-8153 approved Pass ▶ jump to 32:22
  10. 10 December 17, 2025 City Council Budget Amendments Meeting Minutes 15-8156 approved Pass ▶ jump to 32:40
  11. 11 December 17, 2025 City Council Meeting Minutes 15-8155 approved Pass ▶ jump to 33:00
  12. 12 Communications ▶ jump to 33:15
  13. 13 Old Business ▶ jump to 33:15
  14. 14 REPORTS Budget and Finance: Chair Pungo, Mota, Gerlach The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; the next meeting is scheduled for January 28 at 6:15 PM to review the budget process, finance reports and committee priorities. Community and Economic Development: Chair Gerlach, Binder, Napoli The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; tentatively there might be a meeting on February 4 to look at the Recompete Program and priorities. Human Resources, Administration and Appointments: Chair Binder, Santos, Affa The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; the next meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 28th at 5:30 PM to review committee priorities. Parks and Recreation: Chair Santos, Pungo, Binder The Committee met this evening; a committee meeting will be scheduled prior to the next council meeting to review legislation being introduced this evening. Public Safety: Chair Affa, Mota, Santos The Committee met this evening; there are no future meetings scheduled. Public Works: Chair Mota, Pungo, Affa The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; the next meeting is scheduled for February 4th to review committee and administrative priorities. Rules, Chambers, Intergovernmental Relations, and Strategy: Chair Napoli, Mota, Gerlach The Committee has not met since the last council meeting; there are no future meetings scheduled. Controller’s Report The Controller submitted a number of reports listed on the Agenda. Mr. Jeffrey Glazier thanked Mr. Napoli. He stated that they took some time off during budget season and now it is a new year and they will be back to reporting on a regular basis. He stated basically there are three audits and reviews that they do every month. He stated that one is the payables when they look at the checks that the city has written for Accounts Payable. Second, is a P-Card review where they look at the use of the Purchasing Card and third is the Bank Reconciliation Report. He stated that these are the three that are done every month. He stated that they will do other audits beyond this. He stated that their timing is just whatever the review is done and the Report is ready to be released. He stated that they have an upcoming program for the departments and the folks within the departments interact with the Controller's office to explain what they look at when they review these items and to help inform them and hopefully to reduce the error rate even further than it already has been reduced to. He stated that Council is certainly invited to this event. He stated that he doesn't remember the date on top of his head. He stated that Mr. Hanlon has expressed interest as well. It is something that might be of interest to Council for so they may have some discussions with Mr. Hanlon and Mr. Napoli as to how that can be presented to Council at some point in the future. He stated to the business at hand, however, this is a P-Card Review for the month of August 2025. He stated that this was just released on December 31st. He stated that he must say that the Controller's department is making a lot of good effort to Master Munis. For instance, when they review checks under Eden, they could probably bang out a Friday check run in 70 or 80 minutes. He stated under Munis, they started in about two and a half hours and it got down to about 90 minutes. The checks certainly will come down to a learning curve. P-Cards are a different issue. The software is really not very friendly to this review. He stated that it takes them a long, long time to do. Hence, he just finished reviewing August at the end of December. However, it is his expectation with a lot of hard work from Jacqui and himself, they will get December's done. He stated December 2025 P-Card Review done by the cut-off in the middle of February. He stated having said such, they reviewed 708 documents, the total amounts spent on the P-Card transactions for this period was a little bit over $222,000. One of the things they look at is that when an employee makes a charge, the Clerk expenses it to the proper expense account. He stated that in this regard they found 11 instances where an item was expenses to an incorrect expense account. The Bureaus were advised of the issues and they will make corresponding journal entries. Once department decided that they were not going to make the change because they had transferred all their money out of that account to cover their overtime shortage. However, they know since the expense has been occurred and journalized, the account correction requires for that department wouldn't have any financial impact. He stated that this is a fallout for them being so far behind the eight ball because the software is just not efficient for us. The city also limits the amount of convenience fees. That they can pay or will pay when using a credit card. The limit had been zeroed. You were not allowed to incur anything in the city. So in the month in question, there were two convenience fees that were incurred and the departments were advised. He stated that they seldom get them refunded, but it is still just a matter of advising the department. Finance has recently changed their policy and will allow convenience fees up to $3. He stated that this issue should go away and the departments have been advised that they need to make a larger purchase that would incur a greater convenience fee. They should do that purchase conventionally by submitting a Requisition or Purchase Order and do it that way. They also look at whether sales tax is paid out of an invoice. By and large the city is exempt from the state of Pennsylvania Sales Tax. Here they had three invoices that incurred sales taxes from a $1.20 dollar up to $31.07. He stated once again, the departments were advised and what they really like to see is tax refunded to us. He stated that doesn't always happen and sometimes getting the refund stretches over multiple periods, but they will follow up on these. He stated that they will get untimeles payments of invoices. The city and its Rules does not specify how quickly invoices have to be paid. They generally go by the Rules. In this case, they picked a 60 day window which they feel is lenient. He stated here there were 20 charges that was outside of that window. THe departments were advised and the E Card Invoices were being paid late and they responded with acceptable justifications for what will cause that. The last thing they looked at this month was appropriate documentation in Munis. He stated that they are looking for a receipt and they are looking for an invoice stating both things. He stated that here they had seven instances without the proper documentation. The departments were advised and they all scanned in the proper documentation. He stated that the next thing he is going to Report on is bank reconciliation review. This is for the month of October. This Report was also released on December 31. The number of the city's bank reconciliations that were prepared with 35. The dollar amount of those reconciliations reviewed for the period was $116 million. The number of non city controlled bank reconciliations was three. The amount of non city controlled bank reconciliations were reviewed for the period was $1.2 million. He stated that they do note that the city transferred from Tyler to Munis in March that have caused some problems with bank reconciliations. It might have been something that was overlooked. Some of the information not being transferred in the transfer. He stated that they have one issue here, and that is unexplained differences on the accounts payable on the AARP. The AARP is a bank listing of outstanding checks. He stated that they have their own listing. It is the bank's listing and ideally in a perfect world they are the same, sometimes there are timing issues. Here are the difference. It was a little bit less than $1,700. The administration was advised that they should reach out to the bank for proper explanation and the difference is and the responses if they will do that. If the difference is still outstanding in the next month's reconciliation, it will be noted. He stated Mr. president, that is his report for this evening. Mr. Santo Napoli thanked Mr. Glazier and stated that they do not have a Report from the mayor so they will continue to move along to our consent agenda. Mayor No Report The mayor has not submitted anything. ▶ jump to 33:20
  15. 15 Committee Assignments 15-8186
  16. 16 Controllers Reports 15-8189
  17. 17 ORDINANCES FOR FINAL PASSAGE (To be Voted On): There are none.
  18. 18 CONSENT AGENDA approved Pass ▶ jump to 44:28
  19. 19 R3 Certificate of Appropriateness for work in the Historic Districts: 126-128 N 15th Street and 521 N 6th Street 15-8185
  20. 20 R4 Sewage Planning Module at 128 Hamilton Street Apartments 15-8187
  21. 21 RESOLUTIONS FOR FINAL PASSAGE (To be Voted On): ▶ jump to 44:44
  22. 22 R5 Approves the submission of the formal application for the local share account grant on behalf of the Civic Theatre of Allentown to support structural and safety-related renovations. 15-8176 approved Pass ▶ jump to 45:07
  23. 23 R6 Approves the submission of the formal application for the local share account grant on behalf of Planned Parenthood Keystone to support repairs needed at their facility at 29 North 9th Street. 15-8178 approved Pass ▶ jump to 45:52
  24. 24 R7 Approves the submission of the formal application for the local share account grant on behalf of the Lehigh Valley Health Network to support the purchase and installation of specialized equipment. 15-8177 approved Pass ▶ jump to 46:28
  25. 25 R8 A resolution of the Governing Board of Allentown City, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, authorizing, empowering and directing the proper officers of the Governing Board to appoint a liaison between it and Berkheimer, the duly appointed collector of local taxes for the district, for the express purpose of sharing confidential tax information with the district for official purposes. 15-8179 approved Pass ▶ jump to 51:12
  26. 26 R9 Transfer Approval 15-8166 approved Pass ▶ jump to 52:02
  27. 27 R10 Sets up procedures to review the city’s budget process to establish clear and transparent procedures for developing and adopting the city budget 15-8183 approved Pass ▶ jump to 52:55
  28. 28 Request to suspend the rules for placing an item on the agenda to vote on. (The intent is to correct a previous passed module.) Suspend The Rules Pass ▶ jump to 53:18
  29. 29 R11 Sewage Planning Module at 424 – 434 N. 11th Street 15-8190 approved Pass
  30. 30 ORDINANCES FOR INTRODUCTION (To be referred to Committee with public comment prior to referral) ▶ jump to 54:54
  31. 31 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. 15-8182 ▶ jump to 54:57
  32. 32 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. 15-8181 ▶ jump to 55:22
  33. 33 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. 15-8180 ▶ jump to 55:51
  34. 34 RESOLUTIONS FOR INTRODUCTION (Can be voted on or Referred to Committee): There are none. ▶ jump to 56:23
  35. 35 NEW BUSINESS: NONE ▶ jump to 56:26
  36. 36 GOOD AND WELFARE: NONE ▶ jump to 56:29
  37. 37 ADJOURNED: 7:26 PM ▶ jump to 56:31
  38. 38 Request to suspend the rules for placing an item on the agenda to vote on. (The intent is to correct a previous passed module.) approved Pass ▶ jump to 54:18