Harrisburg City Council Work Session 07/02/24

to be mindful of everyone's time so I

would like to call our work session to

order Mr Parker can you please call the

rooll

yes Miss

Daniels

here Miss Davis

present Miss green present Mr Jones here

M

rolls Mr

Rodriguez Miss

Bowers presid please note councilwoman

RW is excused this

[Music]

evening councilman rer you guys may join

us virtually I'm not

sure uh we have two orders of committee

business this evening the administration

committee and then the building and

housing committee we will begin with the

work of the administration committee we

have two resolutions for discussion

resolution 42 of 2024 and resolution 43

of

2024 Mr Parker could you please read

both into the

record resolution 42 of

2024 a resolution appointing Mr Joel

ciders to serve on the Coordinating

Committee and the technical Committee of

the Harrisburg area transportation study

otherwise known as

hats resolution 43 of

2024 a resolution appointing Mr Todd

Webb to serve on the Coordinating

Committee and as alternate member to the

technical Committee of the Harrisburg

area Transportation study otherwise

known as

hats thank you I believe Mr ciders and

Mr Webb are both present this evening if

you wouldn't mind joining us to answer a

few

questions good evening if you wouldn't

mind taking a moment just to please

introduce

El um my name is Joel Slaters uh

recently accepted position for a city

engineer for

Harrisburg um I have about 20 years of

engineering experience ranging from

bridge design and inspection all the way

up to anything Transportation related as

well as uh some building facilities

experience my name is Todd web I'm a

project engineer for the city within uh

traffic and Engineering I've been with

the city since March 25th before that uh

I was Public Works director at sua

township and I was at Middletown burough

for 18 years holding various roles so I

don't look it but I've been around for a

while

so well thank you and

welcome just for a few notes on the work

of the um hair B area transportation

study um this resolution or these

resolutions both um are appointing Mr

Joel ciders and Mr Todd web to serve on

the Coordinating Committee and the

technical Committee of the Harrisburg

area transportation study the Harrisburg

area transportation study was created in

response to the federal aid Highway Act

of

1962 which mandated Regional

Transportation plan in as a condition

for receiving federal funds for

transportation projects the Harrisburg

area transportation study agreement was

entered into on February 11th

1965 by and among the department of

highways of the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania the county of Cumberland

the county of dolphin and the City of

Harrisburg U mayor Wanda Rd Williams has

appointed Mr cider

our city engineer and Mr web as a hats

Coordinating Committee and Technical

Committee Member for the city of

Harrisburg I was looking

for a length of time but I believe it

the role on

the committee

is until relieved of their duties is

that correct or is there a term line

limit I will have to look it up again I

don't remember okay that's okay I always

like to clarify so everyone's

aware um just a question for both of you

before I open the floor to my colleagues

um I know you both mentioned a little

bit about your expertise and various uh

capacities that you've worked in I'm

just curious what impact do you believe

you will be able to make on the

Coordinating Committee and the technical

the technical Committee of the

Harrisburg area transportation

study one thing I would like

to um be present on the committee for is

to direct more federal funds through the

city um right now we have vacant seats

which means we have less votes in

the the Committees

and I it was

kind of try

to use my position there to to kind of

better serve

Harrisburg thank

you um along the lines of what Mr cider

said finding better opportunities for

the for the city of Harrisburg for

safety improvements on the roads whether

it be pedestrian um bicycle multimodal

anything like that um and it goes

further other than streets it could be

lighting it could be traffic signals

improvements all things like that that

help um the residence of the city so any

way we can do uh to accomplish that

we're going to we're going to do

that thank you I'm going to open the

floor to my colleagues who may have some

additional questions for you I'll begin

with councilman Jones any questions U

thank you president Bowers um no I

really don't have any questions um you

pretty much ask what the now along the

lines of what I would would have asked

as well um but you guys do have uh

pretty extensive uh resumés so uh I

think we should be in good hands I don't

have any other

questions thank you vice president green

any

questions that got to me fast um no I

don't have any questions for you guys

I'm used to a couple of people in

between there um thank you uh for your

willingness to serve I look forward to

working with you and welcome to the city

thank you thank you councilwoman Davis

any questions thank you president Bowers

no questions for me thank you for being

here this evening thank you and

councilwoman Daniels any

questions um yeah just whether you could

articulate any potential conflicts or

event that might that that make come

up I can't think of

any off the top of my head I don't uh

serve on any other committees or outside

of uh I don't have any other work

outside of Harrisburg so I don't see any

potential conflict of

interest I don't feel that I have any uh

as well but if something were to come up

then we would speak with I'm sure with

Mr Grover our supervisors and um take

care of that so we don't have that

issue and that's it for me thank you

thank you well thank you very much I

moved to add resolution 42 of 2020 4 and

resolution 43 of 2024 to our next

legislative session agenda for a vote

this concludes uh the business of the

administration committee thank you both

for being present this evening thank you

you're welcome we will now move to the

business of the building and housing

committee I will defer to our building

and housing committee

chair councilwoman Davis thank you

president Bowers um resolution 41

2024 which is a resolution approving the

2024 annual action plan for the city of

Harrisburg for the Community Development

block grant home investment partnership

and emergency Solutions grants programs

tonight we have the uh building and

housing committee

under um director Gloria Martin Roberts

Tama Moore and Mr Jason Graves director

of development here

to

continue with uh their

presentation you may begin whenever

you're I'm sorry

um at your uh meeting last meeting we

gave provided you with a packet of uh

information that detailed exactly

um uh what we're going to be doing um

for the um next budget year so um we're

pretty much here at your wish to answer

any questions that you may have um the

reason we provided the detail packet is

because we know that um a lot of

information is contained in this draft

plan so we have attempted to abbreviate

as much as

possible um to help you get through this

process and thank you for the detailed

uh packet of information it is very

friendly and easy to read and understand

so I appreciate that I will ask a couple

of questions and then open it for my

colleagues to ask any questions that

they may have and thank you again for

being here

tonight um when was the stakeholder

Workshop held and how was the meeting

uh the time and date disseminated to the

communities the um the date you're

talking about is we have that

scheduled um

for get my the

23rd of

July and there will be two workshops on

that date and it will be open to any

entities that desire to put in an

application for

funding um we will have our uh

consultant SAS uh who will be conducting

the

workshops uh anyone that's interested in

applying for for dollars must attend one

of these

workshops um one starts at

10:00 and the second one is at 2 o'clock

on the 23rd of July we will be

advertising that on our website we will

also be contacting those entities that

have already received funding that have

applied traditionally for this type of

funding uh in writing so that they know

we're having them okay thank you very

much for that clarification I did see

the application Workshop here on your

timeline when I read uh the packet um

the language was just a little different

so I thank you for that and how much of

the I'm not sure if this is an

appropriate question at this time but

much of the ESG funds remain as of say

today for emergency funding or is that

not I don't have that information before

me um do

you that information is to excuse me can

you please speak into a microphone that

way everybody can hear you there are

people listening thank

you we don't have definite numbers

because we still have um monies from

2022 Grant so um whatever's left over

from 2022 and then all of 2023 and 2024

so we don't have definite numbers as of

right now um we were um on a call today

with our with civas and we're going to

get those calculations together and you

said you were on a call with simitar

citas they're the Consultants to us from

HUD paid for by

thank you you're welcome I'm sorry okay

no that's okay um this is a just a

learning process for me as well as I'm

sure the public um and so when do you

anticipate having those

numbers we will probably have those

numbers probably in the next three weeks

we have a couple entities that have to

that uh we require documentation from um

so um we can't uh issue any money to

them until certain things are met

because there are state and federal

requirements thank you very much I don't

have any other questions I'll open the

floor for my colleagues starting with

vice president

green thank you councilman Davis uh

thank you all for being here tonight I

have a couple of questions um so excuse

me I'm a little stuffy today as far as

the workshops they're only being held on

the 23rd of July yes correct and there

are two sessions yes yes all

right um just kind of in general who all

could apply right if they come to the

workshop is it open to just nonprofits

for profits you know a lot of people

always ask well how can I get money from

the city what grants are available so if

we could just kind of give an overview

of who can apply and what all they need

so it's the nonprofits um in the

Harrisburg city as long as they're

servicing uh 51% of the population and

ESG is for like shelters rapid rehousing

things of that homelessness um and

that's also nonprofits as

well thank you and um when they go to

apply they should already have their

501c3 they should al already be a

nonprofit certain things they should

already have in order right they can't

just show up saying well I want to start

a nonprofit today and apply no they have

to it has to be in order yes all right

and um mad to say that at the time of

their application if they have those

things those things have to be in order

okay yes all right and then lastly are

there any specific programs or um areas

that the city might be targeting as far

as funding like are we targeting more um

providing more homeless shelters or more

assistance to the unhoused or are we

targeting organizations working with the

youth more um gun violence prevention

anything like that is there anything

specific that the city might be focusing

more on with the funding this

year you want to be an

answer you can have a term okay thank

you so with the ESG funds as Pally for

is is determining what they're actually

going to use those funds for so you it

has a guideline and a lot of those uh

what you mentioned actually fall into

those guidelines so as of right now um I

could just Thro this out there now so

have if anybody got a chance to look at

the draft plan so the draft plan is

going to be edited at time being so

there going to probably be some changes

pertaining to certain things that you

may be

mentioning all right thank

you that's all that I

have thank you president Bowers any

questions thank you um I I guess my

question is for Miss Moore it's related

to uh the subrecipients I know at one

time and maybe at the beginning of this

Administration there was uh an

intentional push

to

[Music]

um reach new nonprofits nonprofits that

traditionally maybe hadn't applied maybe

they were um just getting started I

guess um is that still the case um as we

move forward with funding opportunities

or are you looking for um those

nonprofits that have applied previously

I know Miss Martin Roberts mentioned um

that you'd be reaching out to them for

the uh

Workshop so um we're going to reach out

to the ones that have applied before but

it's open to to any of the nonprofits so

it's not solely like we we're picking

which ones it's open to all of

them so with that if council members

know of entities that are interested in

applying and may never have applied

before we're open to receiving that

information and anyone listening or

viewing uh this tape uh if you know

entities that are interested in applying

um to please you know contact our office

because uh we are looking for as many um

uh Social Service Human Service uh

providers people helping people uh

possible to make our city better and and

the more the merrier because we never

seem to have enough of uh enough

services to take care of the needs that

we have in the

city thank you U my second

question is related to the workshop so

it's just one day and those two sessions

and two time frames are there any

opportunities I know it's mandatory that

you attend at least one but are there

any other opportunities uh for people to

receive the information if those times

don't work for their schedule well we do

we will have it live or recorded um the

last Workshop that we had it was placed

on our website so people can go back and

look at it but that is a requirement

that they have to attend at least one of

those sessions and get a

certificate okay yes it's a HUD

requirement it's not our requirement and

I um I get where you're coming from on

that question there may be an

opportunity going forward for another

session just for the simple fact because

we picked that time frame because it was

easier because it's a Zoom versus them

coming up here as previous times before

because of time constraints so it's it

may be I I asked that question also so

it may be an opportunity for us to have

another session because what we were

going to do previous VI before the days

were staggered so weren't back to back

so you had to space out so that's what I

remember yeah so it's a possibility we

may be able to I'm not going to say

guarantee and say yes but it's just on

the time constraint because of

summertime and they're actually doing a

lot of traveling this year as well too

so it's it's like I said it's a

possibility that we could probably hold

another one since it actually is taped

we maybe have have a hold a session

because it's already live taped so um

that could be also because we has to be

at that certification a certificate

that's actually along with that

certification as far as like with the

workshop so it's a a possibility again a

possibility maybe we can actually hold

another session with the tape session

where people actually have to show up

for that tape session so to receive the

certificate well I'm I hope someone

continues to advocate for that just to

ensure that if 10 to 11:30 or 2 to 3:30

doesn't work for people's schedules on

one day um that there is another

opportunity well president bers I will

be uh meeting with civas and again in

next few days I'll ask the question and

tell them it's our desire if we could

have a third or second uh round and I'll

let you know okay thank you I don't have

any other questions thank you thank you

um councilman

Jones yes um uh let's

see no uh seriously I would just like to

know um far as the ESG U when you're

working with the unhoused um so you can

share share with the public how some of

those services are rendered in some of

the Partnerships like the Shalom House

and uh YMCA how they you know so they

can understand how it works a lot of the

people in the community um have

grievances about um money's not being

shared with of the unhoused and the

homeless population and thinking that

the city is the be the total brunt of

that so can you kind of share with the

with the public how some of that is

working

list here you have a

list okay we are funding several

entities that work with the um I say

homeless because I don't care how cute

the word is whether they use unhoused or

not they're homeless so I'm using

homeless okay but we do support um

several entities in the city that

provide services and Outreach to the

homeless popul ation and as a matter of

fact I was just in a meeting last week

um with the mayor uh and the county and

some several other um entities that

provide uh homeless uh services to the

homeless population and we're looking at

um increasing

funding to them so that they can um

serve more the homeless one of the big

issues that has come out is that a lot

of seniors are losing their homes and

these

were uh people that paid their mortgage

but because of uh the cost of living and

the fact that many of them don't get

much in Social Security uh some of them

they they had a spouse the spouse is

deceased so they don't have the income

and so forth so it's not that they want

to be homeless they just can't afford um

to maintain their homes and so we do

have some um churches and other um

Service uh agencies that are interested

in um Helping Seniors find housing but

also we have seniors whose homes are in

disarray that they you know can't afford

the upkeep of them but also to be able

to provide funding to get their homes

rehab um not only to make it livable and

they can age in place but also keeps

that that property on tax rooll all

right so let me try to specify the

question a little more

um what is the city's role we understand

the through the Partnerships what is the

what is the city role is there other

anything other than the financial

support that the city does or dedicates

to the specific area so the ESG funds um

provide funding for um provide funding

to engage homeless individuals and

families living on the street improve

the number and quality of emergency

shelters for homeless individuals and

families help operate these shelters

provide essential services to shelter

residents rapidly rehouse homeless

individuals and families and prevent

families and individuals from becoming

homeless okay now but that's not Direct

Services right from what your question

seem to me you asking we're providing a

the city's not providing any type of

Direct Services the funding support all

right to those that provide those Direct

Services go ahead yeah we don't because

a l people don't understand I get where

you're coming from we don't as a city of

Harris we don't have social services

that is a higher up entity as far as

like with County or state so there needs

to be a collaboration between all three

entities we at to work um we just like

Miss Gloria Robert said we are actually

working on with the county and also with

the state of actually trying to get some

collaboration going with that because

again it's like you said we are the

brunt of it because we are the lead

because we're in the city but it's a

bigger thing than just the city because

we don't provide those actual Services

ourselves because we don't have social

service provided from the actual City

from a city entity right so the data

that we have through through uh the

packet that were're given um is

collected from those um entities that

correct so if they said they wanted to

impact let me see they had a goal of one

year for uh 500 persons assisted and

homeless and then 15 persons were

assisted um throughout that onee goal

those aren't the city numbers these are

the numbers that are coming in from

those okay now they project of course

when they submit their application um

they all project what level of service

they're going to be able to provide I'm

sorry pres house uh so they project uh

you know how many they'll be able to

serve and then at the end of the

reporting then we really get the real

data on the number of persons or

families that they've been able to serve

okay and um my other question would be

with the cdbg um I know that there's a

lot there are a lot of other um

organizations that are not nonprofits is

there is any funding accessible to llc's

that may be also providing services to

51% of the population

I I don't know um I think it is this

nonprofit um maybe Neil can elaborate a

little bit more on that I can get you

that answer it's tied to a regulation

and and I wouldn't know that regulation

off the top of my head yeah uh because

some of the services like let's say like

transportation for instance like you

know uh there's some um organizations

out there that are looking to provide

Pro uh transportation to to some um Work

Release or uh you know people coming out

of Dolphin County Prison that need

transportation to get around but then

there's there's really no funding to

help them establish main maintaining the

vehicles and things of that nature to

serve these people so yeah I I don't I

because this is federal HUD money as

opposed to some other Federal monies

right I don't know that there's any room

for a profit right right so that's the

problem with an LLC is it's it's a

for-profit entity and to be paid you

have to be paid both the cost of the

service and there's a profit motive I I

can get you a definitive answer but some

other federal agencies like Department

of Defense you know they're built in

profit into into contractors but uh I

just don't know HUD ever does that yeah

and I'm just uh again asking uh for

people that have these questions and I

just want you to be able to have a an

answer for the public so they can

understand um and they're not just being

told no and here's the reason why the

rules and regulations so that's the

that's the line of questioning and and

so and I've seen this some nonprofits

form a for-profit arm some forrit like a

504 yeah or some for-profits form a

nonprofit affiliation so I mean it's

it's not unheard of right but it's just

made it's them figuring out what you

need to get their own legal with by what

the pathway is get it so um but you know

but but but it's certainly models that

are around okay that's it no no further

no I got two no okay that's it that's

it okay thank you and I will refer back

to oh thank you um councilwoman Daniels

any

questions yes so um just to be clear the

July Workshop is ESG and cdbg and

they're both in the same

date yes they are always on the same Sor

I just keep okay um I I think you guys

do need to have more workshops uh that's

really not accessible at all

um especially with the short notice that

that they've had so um I think you guys

need to do your best to get another

Workshop in there um do that the other

thing is where are we in terms of the

distributions of the ESG funds for

2022 as well as the cdbg funds for 2022

well we've just received um the end of

last week the um

contracts um the documentation that we

also needed for those um programs that

uh had a conflict of interest um we had

a meeting today with our uh HUD

consultant to talk about how um what

requirements that they have in terms of

us communicating with um the successful

applicants and also the ones that had a

conflict of interest um that information

will be going out probably in the next

three weeks letters uh to all of them um

for those that

um may be kind of in the middle we're

going to be meeting with them directly

they have not been denied based on a

conflict but they may be deficient in

the information that they submitted we

will be meeting with them personally Al

uh over the next 2 three weeks to uh

make sure we can get clarification so we

can move their contract

forward okay so um so give me the number

again how many of the ESG contracts have

been signed and um funds dispersed and

how many of the cbbg contracts have been

signed and funds

dispersed none from 2022

none okay um and then

do you have a sense right now of how

many of the ones the 2022 money has been

will be

denied there will be five approved

Awards which cannot move forward there

is I cannot remember the total number

was let's see 18 15 were approved six

more 21 21 between the two were approved

I'm just doing the math in my head four

five of them will not be able to move

forward um a group of I can't it's like

eight of them or nine of them can move

forward the balance are deficient in

terms of information which dbh dbd's

team is trying to gather there are

simply regulatory requirements that the

record information has to be in the file

and there were just gaps so so there's

followup going on so in terms of the

ones that can move forward that's about

$70,000 that will be moving forward into

the 202

whatever money doesn't move forward

rolls into program money for

2023 okay and that's going 7 something

thousand I could not hear

you and and that's going to be about 70

something thousand I I don't know the

math I I do not know the

math okay okay if you could let me know

what that number is um and then um I

suspect it's closer to 110

be great for Council like a little um

training and understanding like the

rules of both cdbg and

ESG um because it's been a while since

we've had like a really

ref so be nice to have one as

well and that's

it thank you uh councilwoman Daniels and

is councilman

Rodriguez on

okay okay so I can refer back to if

anyone else no one else has any

questions to president

Bowers to open the floor I

guess no what is your pleasure with

resolution 41 of

2024 but it can't move because it we're

in an active comment period public

comment period right the council does

need to select a date for its meeting uh

in the end of July or early August after

the 30-day comment period closes which I

think is July the 26th yes and then it's

up to the council when they want to meet

I would

say don't don't make it August 8th

that's probably too late no that's too

late the deadline's August 16th yes we

we've done it on the 8th before I know

and I would prefer not to we'll have a

date next week thank

you thank you for being here tonight and

for answering our questions you're

welcome thank you it's our

pleasure thank

you we will now move forward with our

meeting agenda next we have public

comment just a few housekeeping notes

before we begin please state your name

and your address for the meeting record

if you don't feel comfortable sharing

your address please share the vicinity

with which you live within in the city

you'll have four minutes to share your

comments Mr Parker will serve as our

timekeeper I'll begin to my right is

there anyone that would like to offer

public

comment okay seeing and hearing no one

anyone in the middle

section okay please come to this

microphone

good evening my name is Andrea

Brown I am currently

homeless and so um that's why I'm here

tonight at this meeting I've

come I went to the mayor's office I went

to uh

Human Services today I just really been

putting in the footwork as far as um

just trying to get some

help um because the reason that I am

homeless is I was

recently I was recently kicked out of

the Bethesda women's

Mission and I was taken out of there in

handcuffs because I refused to move

upstairs to the recovery

floor I was in the shelter for 4

months

and I was on the second floor I was in

the shortterm

program now when I went into the shelter

they they made sure to let us know the

the well let me know for no

circumstances under no re for no reason

should I go to the third floor because

that was the their recovery

floor the counselor assigned to

me she had a habit of trying to bully me

into doing things that you know weren't

a part of the program and um so this

particular time which was the third time

she asked me about moving upstairs and I

told her I wasn't comfortable with that

I didn't want to do that because I

didn't want to take a a bed that could

you know possibly go to someone who

really needs that program um being that

I'm not a recovering addict or

alcoholic and she told me to think about

it and let her know in the morning and I

did that I told her my decision was no I

didn't want to go up there and she told

me um they needed to fill beds and that

to me is a problem also I mean because

you need to fill beds why don't you pull

people off the weight

list uh long story short she told me she

don't think I have a choice after I gave

her my choice and after she um told me

to think about it pray about it and get

get back to her and let her

know she tried to pressure me once again

that same day Thursday morning this was

two Fridays ago that this took place um

and so I told him I stood on my my

answer because you know I really didn't

feel comfortable with moving upstairs to

a a Repro recovery program and I'm I

have no need for that program uh so

basically I felt as if she was trying to

cover her tracks or cover up um I think

she put me

down when I came into the shelter as if

I

was in the recovery program and needed

to cover her tracks

so Friday morning she asked

me my decision again and I stood on my

my decision and I told her um I gave you

my decision already and she said well

then when are you leaving the

shelter cuz she told me Thursday after I

gave her my decision that excuse me the

only alternative was that I leave the

shelter long story short I told her I'll

I'll be leaving whenever she calls the

cops honestly I thought she was bluffing

about the whole thing um I didn't think

that she would you know follow through

with calling the cops and she did

and the officer tried to um encourage me

to go upstairs is to the third floor

and I refuse to go to the third floor

cuz I refused to be

bullied so that's why I'm homeless again

um and I just need help and I think I

just think there's a lot of corruption

within the shelters I was hoping that

this group would have been here to

answer questions as far as who would be

monitoring the shelters the programs

that are receiving the funds because

there's a lot of

misappropriation of

funding and it's just the corruption has

to stop and it has to be

exposed that's the bottom

line thank you if you don't mind staying

after the meeting to speak with our

building and housing committee chair

thank you thank

you is there anyone

else the middle section or to my left

that would like to offer public comment

seeing and hearing no one the time is

6:10 p.m. I will entertain a motion to

adjourn so is there a second second

thank you we stand a journ