Ed Sieger wrote the article pasted below on low voter turnout in the West Ward for the City Council election, entitled "Easton's West Ward election turnout dismal":
Express Times Article by Ed Sieger on Voter Turnout in West Ward
Please read this article and post any ideas or comments you may have with regard to boosting voter turnout. This is a critical issue, and part of the reason that we have had no political power in the past to make things happen our neighborhood. The opinion of local government seems often to be: if you don't have any effect on whether or not I have a job, why should I listen to you? Believe me, if we had people turning out in strong numbers at the polls, and at City Council meetings, our elected officials would not only listen, but they would follow up on the change we want for the West Ward. Code Enforcement, Street Cleaning, Traffic Calming, Housing Incentives--how much do we really care about these things, and do we care enough to make voting and attending meetings a priority in our lives?
None of us will be able to attend every City Council meeting, but even if we did, it would only be a commitment of an hour every two weeks, at City Hall on 3rd Street next to Crayola. Can we make a personal commitment in our lives to attend for one hour each month? Starting today, I will post the agendas for each of the upcoming meetings, which happen every other Wednesday at 6pm.
I am posting the agenda for the next City Council meeting below. Although I don't understand all of it, I am going, because I want to know about two agenda items near the bottom: the one on the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) Plan, and the one on Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. Please come down if you can, even if it's just to check it out and get familiar with what goes on:
CITY COUNCIL
TENTATIVE AGENDA
Stated Session (14)
Wednesday
June 24, 2009
6:00 P.M.
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. INVOCATION
3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
4. ROLL CALL
5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
6. ACTION ON MINUTES – June 10, 2009 Council meeting and Public Hearing minutes.
7. CITIZENS RIGHT TO BE HEARD – Agenda Items Only.
8. REPORTS RECEIVED BY COUNCIL
(a) Monthly Fire Report for May 2009.
9. ACCEPTING REPORTS ON BEHALF OF COUNCIL.
10. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
(a) Finance (Kenneth Brown)
(b) Economic Development (Sandra Vulcano)
(c) Planning (Pamela Panto)
(d) Public Safety (Jeffrey Warren)
(e) Public Works (Elinor Warner)
(f) Strategic Planning (Roger Ruggles)
(g) Report of City Solicitor (Attorney William Murphy)
(h) Report of Mayor (Salvatore J. Panto Jr.)
11. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
1. Bill No. 64, An Ordinance to amend the Code of Easton, Chapter 595, thereof, entitled Zoning.
12. CORRESPONDENCE
1. Terrance Hand, e-mail regarding the Administrations action in response to a bed bug incident at the South Side Fire House.
2. Chief John B. Bast, copy of letter to Terrance Hand, regarding City’s actions in response to a bed bug incident at the South Side Fire House.
13. NEW BUSINESS
-Over-
(a) Introduction of Legislative Bills
2. Bill No. 65, Amending Ordinance 5132, Providing Revenues and Appropriating Specific Sums to be required for the purposes of City Government hereinafter set forth during the Fiscal Year 2009.
3. Bill No. 66, An Ordinance to amend the Code of the City if Easton by adding a new Article VI, to be entitled Funeral Benefits, to Chapter 114 Personnel.
(a) Amending the 2009 Salary and Wage Resolution.(R)
(b) Approving an Agreement with the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, Inc.(R)
(c) Approving an Agreement with the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, Inc.(R)
(d) Approving waiving of requirements of Section 560-51 (Handicapped Parking) of the Code of the City of Easton.
(e) Approving a Certificate of Appropriateness for 32 North Second Street.(R)
(f) Approving a Certificate of Appropriateness for 63 North Sitgreaves Street.(R)
(g) Approving an Agreement for Professional Services with McTish, Kunkel and Associates.(R)
(h) Authorizing the selling of City Property by Auction.(R)
(i) Authorizing the selling of City-owned items by auction.(R)
(j) Approving an Agreement with Mark Bonstein.(R)
(k) Authorizing application for a Pa. Department of Transportation DUI Grant.(R)
(l) Approving a Submission of an amended substantial amendment to the 2008 CDBG Action Plan.(R)
(m) Approving a Property Disposition Services Agreement with PropertyRoom.com Inc.(R)
(n) Authorizing submittal of a letter for amending Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program #ME300-42.
14. CITIZENS RIGHT TO BE HEARD- On any matter.
15. ADJOURNMENT
PORTAL TO THE ALL NEW NEIGHBORS OF EASTON
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7 comments:
Your attendance at Council meetings is good but please don't go there with the attitude that the city does nothing for the west ward. You get it all and we on SS and College Hill get nothing. I am perfectly happy with that because the city in our areas is better than some of the problems you face in your neighborhood. But I am tired of reading on this blog how you keep saying nothing isd being done in the ww. Let's see Elm St., West Ward Neighborhood Partnership, Weed and Seed, the HOME program, police on bikes, Trigger Lock nights with the state police, Summer Nights program, sidewalk replacement program, street trees, etc. etc. etc.
I work in the WW everyday and I see a huge difference. You may not even be here long enough to reall know what it was like. So please don't tell the council they do nothing for the WW. Other than that, all is fair game.
Thank you for supporting the idea of WW residents attending City Council meetings--we'll see you there.
Let's see...South Side, pro-City and with in-depth knowledge as to programming in the WW...do you work for the City perhaps?
Readers of this blog have always been good about giving credit where credit is due, and criticizing where work still needs to be done. It is and always will be our right to speak up and demand the change we need for a safe and healthy quality of life. After all, it is our tax money that pays public officials, and should be paying for basic services like effective street cleaning.
You can only expect residents to be patient for so long. A real street-cleaning program with opposite-side-of-the-street parking during work hours (not midnight - 3am like last time) has been a consistent ask for the past year and a half, as has code enforcement on slumlords. We keep hearing excuses.
Here are the consistent requests of WW residents over the past couple of years that have not come to pass:
-Code enforcement for slumlords
-An effective street cleaning program on all WW streets with opposite-side-of-the-street parking
-Real community policing with officers on foot who walk their beats and know the residents
-De-conversion incentives to reduce rental density
-Housing incentives for police officers to buy homes in the WW so that they have a personal interest in protecting the neighborhood.
These are all crucial elements to attracting good families and residents to our neighborhood and we have been asking for these things for a long time only to be told that we should get together and clean up after a 52% rental population ourselves.
The bike patrols are terrific, and we are excited that tickets are finally being issued for double-parking, noise violations, and public drunkenness, except that the funding is running low now after just finishing training, so the EPD is limited to occasional targeted hits rather than the consistent community policing that WW residents have been requesting for years, the same method that has been bringing down the crime rate in Bethlehem over the past year.
There is a difference between saying, with regard to the City, "nothing is being done" and saying that they haven't done enough, or haven't done it in a well-planned successful way. There is also a difference between the City deciding to do what it wants to do in the WW as opposed to doing what residents have been consistently requesting. As voting residents, we have the right to make our voices heard as often as we care to--elected officials work for us. Elected officials in Easton often seem to suffer from a delusional sense of entitlement that makes them think that once elected, no one should dare criticize them--this is reflected in their tone when they address residents' criticism.
The new funding for rehab of blighted properties is encouraging--it remains to be seen whether it is programmed and implemented in a meaningful way. We have our fingers crossed, but have not yet been asked to attend any meetings with the City for public input in the planning process, a chronic problem in the way things are habitually done in Easton.
This group of neighbors tends to focus on progress, and does not hold grudges when progress occurs. But we are consistent in our pressure to remedy areas where progress is not being made, and if that sticks in the craw of City officials, so be it. It should inspire them to more creative problem solving. It is our right and responsibility not to let up until we see the change we need.
We do not measure progress according to how many grant dollars flow in, or how many organizations, like the ones you named here, are created with that money. We look out our doors to see clean streets, less blight, less crime and respectful behavior--if we don't see it, we are not happy. If we do, we are. It's that simple. When that happens we can all celebrate--residents, City & County officials, non-profits—everyone together.
To Anonymous...
Part One
I never tell people how they should feel about the prospects in their own neighborhoods, what they should be complaining about or how. If asked, I'll certainly give my opinions - I have design background and am all over the city daily because of my real estate business - but I don't live in those neighborhoods. I can't get the same feel one gets being on the ground every day.
Don't assume to know what living in the West Ward is like for us or how we should be reacting to it. If anything, things are no better over all at the finely grained scale of our daily quality of life than they were ten years ago. I face daily assaults to my pride and dignity that I shouldn't have to endore because of the slovenly conditions and clueless attitudes of many in this neighborhood. To put it plainly, we are overun with low-lifes, deadbeats, bums and losers.
Why?
Lets review:
Codes...not even worth discussing. The issues are so obvious as to be laughable.
Weed and Seed...spinning its wheels while we send social service and police overtime funds down a black hole with no verifiable data of its long-term value to the neighborhood. Ask those in charge if the job is to eliminate the conditions that led to the program and hence its elimination or are we protecting non-profit jobs in perpetuity while remaining under Harrisburg's thumb.
HOME Program...non-existent. No one is doing any meaningful, large-scale rehab in this neighborhood. ABC started three houses in the vicinity of 7th and Northampton three years ago. They weren't funded to completion by the city and now sit empty and unsaleable. The Easton Redevelopment Authority is totally inept and misallocated the awarding of the measley three projects they sent out as RFPs last year. None of them have even been started.
Bike Patrols...I wrote earlier about my support for these. Apparently they were more publicity stunt than reality. I haven't seen them once. No one I know has seen them. I've been told by reliable people that the funding was not part of a long-term commitment but pieced together from special contingency sources and has already been exhausted. Someone please let me know if this is false. For whatever reason though, they are not out there.
Tree, sidewalk and facade grants...
I tried from the beginning to get it through the heads of certain organizations that we need standards of good design and installation if we are giving money away to the public. Instead there were no standards for the facade grants for years. There may now be some in place but I haven't read them. Certain materials are inappropriate and have caused the physical and aesthetic deterioration of the neighborhood over thirty years. They shouldn't be approved for use. Are we still using them?
Our tree planting program is quantity over quality. Tree selection, tree well preparation and planting standards not up to current practice and we had our Shade Tree Commission officially disbanded by city hall (before a new shade tree ordinance could be installed) and now leave all decisions up to a part-time forestor...akin to sending cops out on the street to make their own laws and decide how they should be enforced.
Ridiculous!
Stay tuned for Part Two...
DRL
Part Two
Is the West Ward a better place than it was ten years ago? I would answer with a qualified yes. This is due mainly to the people who have become new residents and actively participate in making things better. They, joining with the current but small crop of long-time greasy wheels, are the reason we have anything.
If not for them we would never have gotten out of the death spiral we were in, but I equate today's position as nothing better than a holding pattern against a hurricane of forces conspiring to overwhelm us the minute we lose focus.
If the West Ward is arguably better off today than it was ten years ago it is only because of the constant cry of these few outspoken activists. We must swell their ranks, cheer their efforts and give them more information and documentation of what works so they can keep shoving it down city hall's throat.
The last thing we can afford is to think things are getting better and stop fighting for what we deserve...a decent, clean, attractive, dignified life.
We aren't there yet.
Dennis R. lieb
I seldom come to blogs but when I feel it important to make some clarifications I feel I should state them personally.
Part One
Noel, it will be great to see you at a city council meeting. I believe this will be your first since moving to the city. I appreciate your attendance at the neighborhood town meetings I hold several times a year but if you have questions and want to ask them in a public forum then City Council is the place. I believe anyone will tell you that not only do I listen, I also carry on a dialogue and try to address the comment. Unfortunately I will not be there this Wednesday as I will be attending the PA League of Cities Convention in Lancaster.
So allow me to address a few items and clear up a few misunderstandings. Yes you have been patient with a "real" street cleaning program in the city and I expressed several times that this is a goal to be achieved this year. The problem -- simple -- $$$ The program will require an additional street cleaner at $170,000 and signage at $20,000. We had originally though that we could use the CDBG-R money for that but equipment is not allowed, except for fire apparatus. So we must look elsewhere and we are coming up with some options. The fact that the administration has set this as a goal is progress. No other administration or council would do the same.
Code enforcement. I ran to make our city Clean and Safe. Only two areas have received additional employees -- codes and police. We budgeted several new code positions for July hires. We need to make sure that our fiscal stability (another goal) was on target. I am happy to report that those additional employees will be hired including a Solid Waste Enforcement Officer that will assist in the enforcement of the cleanliness codes.
Community Policing will not happen until we get to 64 sworn officers. I have repeated that many times. I took office at 52 officers and within three months we were at 48 due to resignations or retirements. We were at 58 but two officers recently left the force (one retired and one resigned) so we are back to 56 and looking to hire our goal of 62 with two additional officers in next year's budget (if fiscally sound). At 64 (the most officers the city has ever had) we will be able to implement community policing. To have community policing you need more officers that do not have to cover 911 calls. I have also asked for six officers through the COPS program.
Part 2
As for the police officers on bikes as a publicity stunt (DRL) that is simply not true. There is money in several accounts to make sure this continues through the summer months and I saw four out tonight on Ferry Street at 9th. We will use them as much as possible but because of manning levels they are all overtime assignments.
De-conversions are definetly on the plate and we are working out a program that we hope to roll out soon. However, the real issue continues to be the variances issued for new conversions and you need to be at the Zoning Hearing Board meetings to object. ( I go to as many as possible but you and the residents would have greater impact.
Housing incentives for cops to live in the neighborhoods. This was a topic of contract negotiations with the FOP and we were able to get the additional stipend in the contract. We must act within the confines of union negotiations and we couldn'e offer that incentive without FOP approval. They could make the case that certain officers were making more because of where they live. Now that it is in the contract we will be working with them to develop and finalize tyhe language.
The HOME and EDI programs will be bringing almost $1 million to the West Ward. Absolutely we will be setting up resident meetings to discuss. But the program isn't your end all to the blight. These grants have tremendous restrictions on how and when and where the money is spent but the residents will be involved.
Lastly, I personally handle constructive criticism very well. I learn from this type of criticism. I aslo don't surround myself with "yes" staff. As a matter of fact, I am recommending that Dennis Lieb be appointed to the Plannign Commission and I appointed Terrance Hand to the Housing Authority. Both will do a great job. We have several other openings, which one can I appoint you to for the city?
I am a true believer in the fact that the best ideas start at the bottom, not the top. I enjoy all of our neighborhoods and all of our residents. Our only goal is to make the city cleaner and safer with sound fiscal stability. And by the way, as for Code Enforcement -- supoprt us at the magistrate and county hearings where the slumlords get delays after delays (Hub Cap Store).
Mayor Panto, thanks for posting. While I have not been free to attend most City Council meetings until now, largely due to commuting for work in NYC, I did manage to make a couple at the tail end of Mittman's term, and have been to a couple during your term, as well as a couple of County meetings, a LANTA meeting and a Zoning Board meeting. Not nearly enough, but I should be able to be more present going forward.
[Tonight I am going to observe, and invite anyone who would like to go to the City Council meeting to meet me there.]
The FOP housing incentives are very good news--has a plan been developed to pitch these incentives energetically to officers? If having residents meet with police to invite them to the neighborhood personally would help, we'd be glad to. It's important that officers get to know the good residents in the WW to get the complete picture of the neighborhood, rather than making a judgment based solely on interactions with troublemakers, which I'm sure must leave them with a less-than-desirable impression.
Thanks for all the info in your post--I have a question on the CDBG funds and street-cleaning. We already have a street cleaner that comes through occasionally, and the recent CDBG money, as I understand it was defined for "street improvements" that create jobs. The street cleaning program has been postponed as an "equipment purchases" issue, but isn't what we really need--the signs for opposite-side-of-the-street parking and the labor to install them, in line with the definition of "street improvements"? And wouldn't the budget for the street cleaning program be much cheaper without the new street cleaner anyway? I'm not so sure that we need a new sweeper, we just need the current sweeper to be able to clean all the way to the curb for an entire block at a time.
A viable street cleaning program will do wonders for neighborhood pride and morale in the WW.
My question, and the question I have heard from many residents over the last two years about officer coverage is this: How many of the current 56 officers are on the street? When Easton is only 5 miles square, can we really not cover all beats with the 56 officers we have? Is this a union issue?
I applaud you for inviting committed and knowledgeable citizens like Dennis and Terrence to participate in commissions for the city. I appreciate the offer, but feel far too new and inexperienced to be sitting on a commission and have met many much more qualified individuals than myself in the community. I would rather participate at this time as an interested citizen. I am a compulsive learner, and connector of people, and I have been on a pretty sharp learning curve since arriving in town a couple of years ago. I feel I have much much more to learn before taking part in some sort of official capacity, and can better serve the community at this time by connecting residents through this blog.
Thanks again for taking part in the discussion--I know you're busy!
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