Home Rule Charter Commission Meeting Agenda

Thanks to Mike Fleck for giving us an agenda for the Home Rule Charter Commission meeting for Saturday June 24, 2006, 10AM in City Council Chambers (5th Floor Alpha Building).

Your Neighbors

Council Meeting Audio 06/14/06

Hey Neighbors,

We are so sorry for the longer waits for postings. Keyboard time is not as plentiful when the weather is pleasant.

The meeting is 3 hours long. The first hour is the public hearing for the anti-discrimination ordnance. The meeting was later dominated by (you guessed it!) police issues. Or to be more specific, the re-chiefing of Larry Palmer. Lots of comments. Mayor Panto and Mike Fleck both exercised their right to publicly comment.

Get it here. (20 Mb)

Your Neighbors

Easton-American Graffiti

History, Heritage, Hypocrite

Our mayor’s string of scofflaw incidents have a lot more in common than the embarrassment they have cast upon him, the city, and his constituents. The all share the disturbing trend of red-handed apologies.

The simple fact that our mayor never initiated the airing of any of these violations of the building or third class city codes to the residents on his own should not be ignored.

And when he used his city owned phone, email, and city employed executive assistant to facilitate the sale of his personal property, he committed a misdemeanor with a pretty stiff penalty.

Paragraph 912 of the Third Class City Code states:

City Property not to be Used by Officers for Gain; Penalty. No portion of the property of the city shall be used for private gain by any officer of the city, councilman, agent or employe of said city, or any department thereof; nor shall the same be willfully used or injured, or be sold or disposed of in any manner by any officer, councilman, agent or employe, without the consent of the council. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or to undergo imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court. Upon such conviction, the party offending shall be forthwith removed from his office or employment, and shall not thereafter be eligible to election or appointment to any place of profit or trust under said city, or any department thereof.

"I made a number of important and dumb mistakes,"1 I trusted and voted for him.

(This commentary ran, somewhat edited, as a Morning Call editorial on Sunday, June 11, 2006)
1 Mayor Mitman offered the quote in response to the indiscretions chronicled in June 7, 2006 Morning Call article.

Council Meeting Audio 05/24/06

Hear it all for yourself. The whole meeting (12Mb).

Sgt Charles McMonagle reading a letter from Carin Sollman.

Paragraph 912 of the Third Class City Code states:

City Property not to be Used by Officers for Gain; Penalty.
No portion of the property of the city shall be used for private gain by any officer of the city, councilman, agent or employe of said city, or any department thereof; nor shall the same be wilfully used or injured, or be sold or disposed of in any manner by any officer, councilman, agent or employe, without the consent of the council. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or to undergo imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court. Upon such conviction, the party offending shall be forthwith removed from his office or employment, and shall not thereafter be eligible to election or appointment to any place of profit or trust under said city, or any department thereof.

For more on section 912 forward the meeting to 1:23:10.

A Joke?

A woman walks in to a City Council meeting...
She gets recognized by the Chair and humbly approaches the podium.
The woman is frustrated but hopeful as she presents her testimony.

It seems that the woman’s block is under siege by disrespectful and dangerous drug dealers. She tells Council of her efforts to stop their activities. She also tells Council how her activities have caused her to be threatened by the criminals, and ostracized by her also fearful neighbors.

She asks her distinguished community leaders for help, because she is helpless and fears for her well-being.

The distinguished President of City Council replies, “Have you considered starting a Block Watch?”

Brilliant

We offer our hands; you slap them. We ask for your hands; you tell us to start a block watch.

Unsatisfactory

Unprecedented Precedent

We refuse to bang our heads against walls; even though our frustration increases constantly. To us, nothing is happening if our problems are not getting resolved. The list of ills sickening our home is not getting any smaller than when we started this eight months ago. We have endured many more embarrassing, frightening, and sad events since EU began.

One by one our problems pile up, and each time the citizens/voters/taxpayers of Easton are treated like children and left in the dark. We know almost nothing of the few issue “resolutions” Council and the Administration claim to have developed. And the ones we do know of sicken us.

The shame that our Administration and Council blanketed the city in is unconscionable. What we have done to Carin Sollman and her two small children is ugly and heartless. Our elected Council only exacerbated the dwindling of public trust by making the decision to only pay $5,000.00 of the $20,000.00 funeral expenses. And they did so with no explanation. But they did not do so without inflicting the vicious insult of an inane caveat. In an effort to avoid establishing a precedent of paying too much for employee funerals a resolution was passed. Council resolved that any one who ceases to live while working for the municipality will receive funeral compensation not to exceed $5,000.00. The vote was 4 to 1 in favor; Councilman Corpora cast the dissenting vote.

The precedent we should be striving not to establish is the precedent of killing people on the job. We see significant savings and moral enhancement in that endeavor.

Our leaders are doing an extremely poor job of problem solving. Nothing is getting better. And to expect us to be grateful for anything while people are being shot and killed, our children have fewer resources, and our neighbors are allowed live like pigs while their landlords ignore their bills and liens is expecting too much.

Council Meeting Audio 05/10/06

During this meeting a good friend of ours displayed some behavior that we do not look upon favorably. Our friend became upset and had an unprofessional outburst. Not acceptable.

The meeting began with a public hearing on the reallocation of $138,904.00 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. The reallocation is in a 30 day public comment period that we assume began May 10, 2006.

A Pool Picnic report was given. And the Mayor chose not to attend or comment on the event.

The volunteers are getting restless. (21 Mb)

The first 30 minutes of the March 22 meeting has finally been recovered and the podcast is updated. Thanks Spike! Audio 03/22/06 (9.4 Mb)

Your Neighbors

Pool Picnic Update

The pool picnic fundraiser at Eddyside Park on May 6, 2006 was an OVERWHELMING SUCCESS! The Friends of the Easton Community Pools owe a great deal of gratitude to everyone that donated and attended the picnic. The band, raffle donors, Chris Miccio, Julie Donovan, and Gary Bertsch made our picnic the most well attended event of an event-laden day.

In only 3 hours we were able to raise $2,510.00 for the city pools. We have also raised over $500.00 in sticker money, and we thank Mr. Peter Koehler for that!

We will post list of all of the raffle donors in the next couple of days. Pictures will be posted soon too.

Merri, Diane, Kristin, Laini, and Terrance also thank Dave Hopkins, Carl Schumacher, and the Easton Public Works crews for their exceptional support.

And we all give thanks for neighbors like Merri Cuadra, because she was the mastermind of this magnificent event. Thank You Merri!

Eddyside Pool Picnic

The pools’ fundraising picnic is at the Eddyside recreation area in the grassy area between the pool and the main parking area. The event is on Saturday, May 6, 2006 from 5pm until 8pm. The cost is $5.00 ($4.00 if you are wearing a Citywide Clean-up bracelet).

There will be a raffle of over 40 items from gift certificates of city establishments to a foursome of golf to a bicycle from Genesis. Raffle tickets are $1.00 & $5.00 and ONLY at the picnic. There will be live music and a clown. There will be volley ball. There will be fun. There will be no rain.

WWW.EASTONPOOLS.ORG

?Questions?
contact :
Terrance Hand thand@eastonpools.org
Merri Cuadra mcuadra@eastonpools.org
Diane Miller dmiller@eastonpools.org
Kristin Mernitz kmernitz@eastonpools.org

Sincerely,
The Friends of the Easton Community Pools

Council Meeting Audio 04/26/06

With this meeting we continue our series of "Councilpeople Behaving Badly". In this episode the mostly eloquent and sometimes overly-sympathetic Councilwoman Heffley loses her cool. We just have one thing to offer-- UNACCEPTABLE. We are adults and professionals; forgetting this is not an option. Here's a suggestion don't apologize; just don't do it. Listen for yourself.

What he said.

Her reaction.

The meeting was dominated by the Officer Sollman funeral expense dispute. In attendance were the Widow Sollman, her two small children, Officers Maracini, McMonagle, Lt Reilly, retired Lt Orchulli, and Attorney John Karoly. Lt Reilly's comments (first comment session) of the meeting were thought provoking; to say the least.

Audio

Canned Worms

Tomorrow evening 6:30pm at the Christ Lutheran Church on 11th & Ferry Streets the Mayor will be holding a Town Meeting.

Where do we even begin with this? It’s been more than a month since I received personal assurance from the Mayor that a State of the City address was to be, but thus far we haven’t heard a word about it. I read somewhere that the Mayor is entertaining questions at tomorrow’s meeting. Now I think to myself, “Self, how is he going to keep this meeting in order?” With all of the unanswered or insufficiently answered questions we have posed to the administration; this meeting could easily last for days.

Let’s just start with the cops…

Why did you try to hide the prospective Chiefmissioner’s backgrounds from your constituents? Why haven’t we paid for the public ceremony for Officer Sollman? Why is a homicide protected as a “personnel issue”? With the lost handgun being taxpayer property why haven’t you offered us resolution? Why did you create a manpower and leadership crisis in the police department through budgeting and contracting? Why did you fire the police chief without a plan? How much did the “Rat List” investigation cost? Is the City being sued by the “Rat” listees? Who were the six “community leaders” involved in the Chimissioner interviews?

Now let’s look at the rest…

When is the Early Intervention Program final report? What parts of the EIP report will you NOT follow? What happened to Chris Anzini, Miriam Huertas, Sue Coffin, Sheldon Smith, and Michael Gibiser? Is you email policy enforceable? What is the status of the uncollected sewer/water bills? Why haven’t you commented on the Bachmann debacle? Are you using “your extensive fundraising skills” to assist with the swimming pools capital campaign? Do you actively participate in city negotiations? Who is Dick McAteer? When is the State of the City? Are we on budget?

I’m sure I missed a few hundred. So, do me a favor; send your questions I will try to get them answered.

Your Neighbor

Council Meeting Audio 04/12/06

This meeting had serious tension in the air. The Mayor and Mrs Heffley ranted and joked about the public finding out the names of the Chiefmissioner candidates. Solicitor Murphy took a minute to defend executive session procedure. The Mechanical Devices tax is being amended and was subject to a bit of comment. The Mayor was somewhat aloof and did what he could to not offer any substantial information to anyone. He also made himself scarce for the public comment segments of the meeting.

Audio

Easton UnPlugged Audio Blog (podcast) #9

Sorry for the month-long wait. We're back and we're swinging for the fence. This podcast is split into two pieces because it was a two and a half hour marathon. We have a very special guest, Mike Fleck. The former Councilman, Mayoral hopeful, and never shy pundit does what he does, talk. This is a good session. Mike really stepped up and spoke out. And that's why we like him.

Fan O' Fleck or not, this is a must hear. This is hopefully the first in a long series of guest sessions.

The first part is our normal podcast format where we go over the current events, and the second part is Q & A.

Part 1 Podcast
Part 2 Q & A

Our friend TDR was the silent special guest working the cue cards.

Your Neighbors

Suspicious Fire ALERT!

DEPARTMENT OF FIRE
Office of the Fire Marshal

PRESS RELEASE ON SUSPICIOUS FIRES

Since the beginning of this year the Easton Fire Department has responded to eight suspicious fires involving rubbish or brush throughout the city. Below is the list of these suspicious fires. The fires have been determined to be arson. Although some of the fires appear to be small, in a few instances they have attributed to significant property damage. We are asking the public to report any suspicious activity in their neighborhoods and be especially vigilant on the night before trash is picked-up.

12:08am 02/21/06 1122 Jackson (rear) Rubbish
6:26pm 02/25/06 River Bank (Canal St) Brush
4:26pm 03/07/06 College Hill Reservoir Brush
7:41pm 03/08/06 326 Lincoln (rear) Rubbish
12:29pm 03/15/06 697 Ferry Dumpster
5:30pm 03/21/06 634 Northampton Rubbish
2:24pm 03/23/06 Railroad/Lehigh Drive Rubbish/Brush
5:18pm 03/23/06 1023 Spruce (rear) Rubbish



Below are the guidelines imposed by the City of Easton for Trash Removal

1) Place trash curbside the night before your pickup day no earlier than 8:00 pm.

2) STORAGE - Trash stored on your property must be held in solid, watertight containers out of view from public streets until it is placed curbside for pickup

3) CURBSIDE – Trash must be placed curbside in a secured manner (bags or containers with tight fitting lids) to prevent litter and clogging of storm drains.

4) Please remove empty trash receptacles from the curb on the same day that your trash is picked up

5) Each household may place up to five bags or two 30-gallon containers curbside per week. In addition, one bulk item per week may be placed curbside for pickup. Do not dispose of tires, hazardous wastes, batteries, liquid paint, motor oil, auto parts, chemicals, or any other unacceptable refuse.

*NOTE – items containing Freon must be serviced and secured with a maintenance tag and identified as being deactivated free of HFC’s and CFC’s before pickup as per Section 608 of the USEPA Clean Air Act. Also, all refrigerator doors must be removed for safety before being placed curbside.

Please do your part – unsightly and improperly prepared trash results in litter, complaints, and an overall poorer quality of life for everyone. The City may assess up to $300 for violations of trash ordinances.

For more information please call Deputy Chief John Bast at 610-250-6671.

Blight Lights in the Big City

We are examining the effects of "historic" lighting on blighted properties.


Maybe these pigs take different shades of lipstick.

Council Meeting Audio 03/22/06

The first 30 minutes of the audio was so noisy that it was unusable. I will get that from Spike's back-up ASAP. The Sollman presentation and the Mayor's comments on the grand jury findings were lost. Mr Brown's embarrassing tirade, however, was preserved.

Maybe I have too much time on my hands throwing stone... Nah! I beg to difference.

City Council Meeting 03/22/06


http://eastonundressed.org/eufiles/begtodifference.mp3

Fair is Paying Your Share

The contributors of Easton UnDressed are occasionally are accused of being “whiners”. We catch flack for pointing out negatives. And we have been cited for episodes of delusional creativity. But after all is said and done, we evaluate our EU efforts by the actions we influence.

We pride ourselves on the fact that we don’t just talk. EU has an action wing that is building a nice little track record. We have some very real projects working as you read this (swimming pools and Charter Commission), and we have had many social victories (11 member Charter Commission, logo contest, and full pool season). This blog is a real tool, and we have used it as well as we could for the past 5 months. We use this blog to spread information and facts, to solicit audiences and participation, and to develop priorities and strategies.

We go to meetings. We go to meetings as members, as observers, and as guest offering testimony. We go to Council. We do our absolute best not to miss a public meeting sponsored by the City Council, and we are working to spread the EU presence to more of the City’s public meetings each month.

Our mission is clear:

To provide a clean, crime-free, and safe environment with competitive services that allows residents to enjoy a high quality of life, while providing commerce an environment to thrive.

Our focus of effort is also purposefully narrow. We advocate for the residents of the City of Easton. It was the City’s neglect, and failure to maintain services to the residents that created Easton UnDressed. The convoluted and illegal development of our Amusement Tax was the spark that lit off the EUniverse.

The battle to reinstate the City’s Amusement and Mechanical Devices Taxes was a victory and a loss for the people living in the city. The concessions that the Executive Director of the State Theatre for the Arts negotiated with City Council was not only in violation of the tax laws that govern IRS 501(c)(3) sheltered organizations (IRS publication 557 page 45 column 3), they were unfair to residents and other taxable organizations.

We, the people, fought hard to keep the amusement tax fair. But our efforts were lessened by the editorial power of people who do not even live in our city. Our working class concerns were consumed by posh elitist whims. The editors of the Express-Times lobbied against the tax solely because of their sentiments for the Theatre. Sentiments that mean very little to 26,000 people who lend their dwindling resources to support the significant human footprint placed upon us by visiting theatre-goers.

Now the editors of “our” paper have decided to complete their assault on our burden relief by attacking the Mechanical Devices Tax. This time they are championing the starving bar and coin-op laundry owners. They are arguing that our rights to enjoy punch cards, jukeboxes, and a higher profit margin on laundry are being oppressed by making someone pay $25 dollars a year on a machine that makes the money back in a day. (estimate 9 loads at $1.50, 40 minutes/load, open at 7am = $27 for 2 washers by 1pm)

The argument that a coin operated laundry is simply a public service to low and fixed-income residents is a bit of an obfuscated exaggeration. They left out the struggling Lafayette students. Laundry owners should not be “left alone” because they offer service to lower income Eastonians. The laundry owner on 6th Street was billed $1,370 (Express-Times 3/19/21). The tax is costing him a WHOPPING $3.75 a day ($3.74 on a leap year). One load of whites, 2 loads of colors, and Walla! The tax is paid.

It is our heartfelt opinion that the editors of the Express-Times need to stop trying to affect our usage taxes. These taxes are going to allow more of the public’s burden to be shared. We always seem to miss it when the editors are standing up for the overtaxed homeowners in the city. We know it’s not that they haven’t mentioned our ever-increasing tax burden; it’s more likely that the lack of follow-up articles causes us to overlook their support.

The tax is what it is. It is a way to share the costs of municipal services in this county-seat city with the visitors, transients, College, county government, undisclosed population, and the renters.

New Documents on the Website

Friends & Neighbors,

We have updated the Documents and Media area of Easton UnLeashed (aka “the webpage”). If you aren’t familiar with Easton UnLeashed it is our website proper located at www.eastonundressed.org . The “website” is where we archive the more functional parts of the EUniverse. If we record a meeting or reference a file, then we store it and make it forever accessible on the webpage. The old top ten lists, comics, and Easton UnPlugged (podcasts) are also archived there.

The new additions to the D&M include:

• The Citizen’s Guide to Enforcement of City Ordinances


• Zoning Pamphlet


• Residential Permit Pamphlet


• Commercial Zoning Pamphlet


• The Citizen’s Guide to Enforcement of City Ordinances


• Recreational/Outdoor Fire Regulations


• Swimming pool donation forms

Check

Credit Card

• City Swimming Pool Flier

Remember if we referred to it or recorded it it will be stored on the webpage.

NOTE: If there is any document or media that you would like us make available email us or let us know on the tagboard. If you have the document or recording send it to us. And when you send us stuff; paper, pdf, doc, txt, wmv, mp3, wav, and avi are the preferred formats, but we will take what you have. And ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN FAXES OR COPIES FROM FAXES. But we will work with those too. If you don’t have it we will scour the city to find it.

Your Neighbor

Phone Listings For Easton Police

These listings and advice were sent to us courtesy of SGT Matthew Lohenitz of the Easton Police. These listings are also available for download as a word file. EPD Numbers

PHONE LISTINGS FOR EASTON POLICE

If you have an EMERGENCY CALL 911 immediately
If you wish to make a police report and it is a NON-EMERGENCY: CALL 610-330-2200

Internal Phone Numbers

Command Staff:

Chief/Commissioner: CALL 610-250-6630

Captain of Field Services: CALL 610-250-6631

Captain of Auxiliary Staff: CALL 610-250-6641

Criminal Investigations Division (CID):
Lieutenant: 610-250-6634
Inspector/Sergeant (CID):610-250-6667
Vice Investigations Division (VID):

Lieutenant (VID): 610-250-6658
Vice Detectives: 610-250-6645
610-250-6644
610-250-6780
Records/Traffic Division:

Lieutenant: 610-250-6664
Traffic Officers: 610-250-6657
610-250-6943
Neighborhood Policing/Special Enforcement Unit:

Sergeant: 610-250-6660

Patrol Shift Supervisor:

Lieutenant/Sergeant:610-330-2200 (Easton Dispatch)

Police Department Call Protocol

-If you have an emergency DIAL 911 immediately, DO NOT WAIT.

-If your call does not require an emergency Police Department response, please call the NON-EMERGENCY number.

-If you need to speak with a Crimes Detective or contact someone regarding a case that is being investigated for you and you do not have the phone number of the Detective assigned to the case, call either the Lieutenant or Inspector/Sergeant of Criminal Investigations.

-If you need to speak with a Vice Detective or you have a complaint that involves DRUG ACTIVITY or PROSTITUTION, please contact our Vice Investigative Unit.

-If you need to get a copy of a Police Report or other documentation please contact the Lieutenant of Records.

-If you have a question regarding traffic, parking situations or abandoned cars, please call either of the traffic officers.

-If you would like to advise the Police Department about quality of life issues or need to be fingerprinted for employment or school, please call the Sergeant of Neighborhood Policing and Special Enforcement.

-To speak with the Patrol Shift Supervisor on duty, please call the Northampton County Dispatch Center (610-330-2200) and ask for the Easton Dispatcher.